The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds Saturday, Feb 14 2009

Alllllrighty then, here we go. Before I start may I mention that I’m sorry if I offend anyone with any reviews, because as you know, these are purely my opinions and should be taken with a grain of salt. Hopefully you can enjoy my ramblings nonetheless.

And this is for Slappy.

Artist: The Beach Boys
Album: Pet Sounds
Year: 1966

Track Listing

1. Wouldn’t it be Nice (2:22)
2. You Still Believe in Me (2:30)
3. That’s Not Me (2:27)
4. Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder) (2:51)
5. I’m Waiting for the Day (3:03)
6. Let’s Go Away for Awhile (2:18)
7. Sloop John B (2:56)
8. God Only Knows (2:49)
9. I Know There’s an Answer (3:08)
10. Here Today (2:52)
11. I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times (3:11)
12. Pet Sounds (2:20)
13. Caroline, No (2:52)

Let me begin by saying that my opinion on any music produced before the late nineties is generally tarnished by the production quality of the record, so unless I find the music to be absolutely top notch, I probably won’t like it.

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Wow. Thursday, Feb 5 2009

Sorry about the absence, guys, but when a brother has no internet in his place and no will to do anything other than jobsearch and get pissed at night, he finds it rather hard to get around to blogging. But I’m back. I’m back. I’m back.

Moved into a new place just today with a mate of mine who works down at the pub I frequent and am additionally employed by, and the lovely neighbour across the road has an exquisite open wireless connection that he so grandly hasn’t yet objected to me using! Maybe once he realises I plan to catch up on seventeen episodes of the various shows I’ve missed over my last month of living without an internet connection he’ll have something to say about it, but I say bring it on!

So yes, reviews will most definitely be coming, and thanks to those guys who commented on my Fromuz review just to tell me how much they disagree with it. I’m sorry that I’m not a reputable prog site, but people seem to like opinions sometimes, and I seem to like giving mine, so there it is. And I think my whole foundation was that I didn’t consider it complex at all, so other thinly-veiled critiques of my critiquing, could you please stand up?

See you all soon!

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Happy Music Saturday, Jan 17 2009

I love happy music. I don’t know exactly why, even though I consider myself a relatively exact person, but generally I will derive the most enjoyment from any sort of music if it’s ostensibly happy. And I don’t necessarily mean in a major key. Lots of people write music in a major key. Kings of Leon do, for instance. But there’s something about it that just isn’t happy, to me. If I went through my entire music collection, I daresay the majority of the music that I think is happy lies in the prog category. Vocal harmonies, lush keyboards, guitar tones sweeter than a pound of shortbread, and a tightness on the drums one would expect from a session player. I think there’s something about this that just makes me love to be alive.

Often the idea of playing this music is what makes me happiest. Not that I’m uninterested in creating my own music, not at all, as anyone who knows me has been hearing about my Genesis project, just that in times in the past, sitting on a train with my headphones at 90% loudess, or driving up my favourite mountain in my car with the stereo blasting out the dulcet vibes of whatever particular prog I’m into at the moment, I have been moved to tears, or very close to, by say Moon Safari or Neal Morse, or even back in the day Dream Theater. Yes I’m a fucking wuss, however much I’d like to deny it, but I honestly find it easier to cry thinking about playing Sweet Elation to a crowd of elated motherfuckers than thinking about my dog dying.

So I think what I’m trying to say is that although sometimes I am in the mood for something not happy, such as Silhouettes, a phenomenal album, if I’m ever down and troubled, and need a helping hand, I will pull out some Lightning Strikes by Yes, a song I have been laughed at for due to its unabashed tackiness, and something about that will stir up something in me that the most well composed technical death metal could never hit. I suppose this little discussion has been pointless, but I’d like to hear anyone else’s thoughts on it. Thanks for your time, society.

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Developments! Friday, Jan 16 2009

Fighting the Rising Tide of Locusts Part One is now entitled Fighting the Rising Tide of Locusts, and Part Two is now entitled Score One Megadeth Collection. Also, Score One Megadeth Collection is to be swapped in the track listing with Overture.

In Search of Arcana is coming along very nicely, development on Trial the Threeth continues, and the ballad is being worked on too. Also I’ve had a review request for Silhouettes by Textures, just to tell you all how awesome it is. And I should be getting on all those reviews some time soon, when I’ve got nothing to do. Jobsearching continues at the moment; hopefully I can pull off a call centre job before my funds run too low!

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This absence probably lends itself to fewer readers Thursday, Jan 15 2009

And I do apologise for not being all post-a-day like I would hope, but a sincere lack of internet connections in my hizzome prevents one from accessing those parts of the digital worlds that one may connect with so bangin’ly.

I’m still looking for a job, and hopefully am going to go into some sort of menial call centre work that pays multi tens of dollars an hour plus a bit of commission on the side, if I’m as personable as I think I could be. The work is shit, or so I hear, but a man is strongly influenced by money, especially when he thinks it’ll cost more’n a few thousand dollars in a year’s time to get this whole recording of a two hour epic concept album with ten fucking vocalists on. And it would be nice to have something from which to retire at the end of the day, since all this time out at coffee shops and drinking beers feels like an escape from nothing.

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So I live in Melbourne now Saturday, Jan 10 2009

Many things happen when one moves state. I drove the whole way. Found my car goes to about 177 (kmph) before the stereo starts skipping too much to make driving long distances bearable. And if you hit anything you’re pretty much dead. Especially a kangaroo, who tend to dart out out the nowhere regions of mid-Southern New South Wales for no reason other than they just like terrorising poor unsuspecting drivers merely wishing to do insanely high speeds unchallenged.

So I feel like Bill Bryson, making a post about a trip I’ve just done, but there will be observations about my new place and my situation that should enthrall you all, and send your middle and inverted legs a’quiverin’.

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I’m Moving! Sunday, Jan 4 2009

To the lovely city of Melbourne. I leave for my drive in approximately twenty-nine hours. So I won’t be blogging for the next few days. I hope all my twenty readers don’t mind. Send me review requests, or topics for me to argue with you about!

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Yes – Union Friday, Jan 2 2009

Another requested review, again by Tanner Rogalsky of Canada. The request was “I’d like to see a review for your least favourite Yes album.”, seeing as Yes is my favourite band. So Union it is. And I’d really like some more review requests, if they’re out there in anyone’s heads at all.

Artist: Yes
Album: Union
Year: 1991

Track Listing

1. I Would Have Waited Forever (6:32)
2. Shock to the System (5:09)
3. Masquerade (2:18)
4. Lift Me Up (6:30)
5. Without Hope You Cannot Start the Day (5:18)
6. Saving My Heart (4:42)
7. Miracle of Life (7:30)
8. Silent Talking (4:01)
9. The More We Live – Let Go (4:34)
10. Angkor Wat (5:24)
11. Dangerous (Look in the Light of What You’re Searching For) (3:39)
12. Holding On (5:24)
13. Evensong (0:52)
14. Take the Water to the Mountain (3:10)

Alright, because this is an especially terrible example of the greatness that is the Yes legacy, I will point out that one positive aspect to the album is the number of tracks. Yes, a progressive rock album with fourteen tracks. You don’t often hear it. But you don’t often call this kind of music progressive rock. It’s ostensibly pop-rock, of some form. I will say that there’s enough of the old Yes still there to keep it proggy in some sense.

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Top Ten Albums of 2008 Wednesday, Dec 31 2008

Here it is, my yearly list, and possibly my favourite of all lists to make, my top ten albums of 2008! I’ll keep it pretty short because I’ll probably do a review of a couple of these albums when there’s nothing more important to write about.

And I am naturally sorry to note that they are all prog or proggy in some way. In descending order:

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Genesis: BSW Post One Wednesday, Dec 31 2008

I suppose this is a bit of a cheat post, since it’s really just telling you more about myself. But it’ll be quite indepth, and it’s a concept that will come across and be blogged about in the future. In fact, you’ll probably hear about it here first.

Anyway, I, Alex, affectionately known as Chowski, and professionally known as Hare, due to my abundance of hair, am writing an overtly epic progressive rock (mostly) fictional story-based concept album with my creative partner Tom Kidd, affectionately known as Major Tom, and professionally known as Wolf, due to the fact that he’s more of a wolf than any of those anti-racistly-casted Native Americans in the horridly popular Twilight series. Click this link for a representation of The Hare and the Wolf from late 2007. We have changed since, most noticably that my hair is all of a visible two inches longer (five stretched) and that we both have more facial hair, but you get the picture.

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