Category: Music

What else can I say but “wow!”?

Found in the special and limited editions. Well worth the extra cost, especially for this one line:

“Dear Penis, give my butt a sign”

– Simone Simons

Clever girl…

Just pulled an all night, and then in the morning I threw on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s, and somehow additional dimensions in the music which I have never noticed before just leapt out of the speakers and blasted right through my consciousness.

Its an album I listen to a lot, and so I thought I knew it, but apparently I don’t know it at all. Perhaps I should try some Jimi next time.

Trent Reznor has done it: a double album of new instrumental music available as a high quality, DRM-free download, very reasonably priced 2 CD set (US$10) or either one of a pair of luxurious deluxe packages. I’ll be grabbing the 2 CD set myself (yes I’m cheap).

In the mean time you can check out Ghost I, which is available for free (TPB torrent link, as the NIN server seem to be having problems dealing with the digg hordes).

A stunning take on Hendrix’s classic If 6 Was 9 by Garage A Trois, featuring drummer Stanton Moore, saxophonist Skerik and guitarist Charlie Hunter playing his 8-string Novax guitar. Skerik’s solo is smokin’.

1. Devin Townsend – Ziltoid the Omniscient
2. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – Raising Sand
3. N.I.N. – Year Zero
4. Neil Young – Chrome Dreams II
5. The Bad Plus – Prog
6. Alex Skolnick Trio – Last Day In Paradise
7. Steve Vai – Sound Theories
8. Rush – Snakes & Arrows
9. Porcupine Tree – Fear of a Blank Planet
10. Explosions in the Sky – All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
11. Eddie Vedder – Into The Wild

In that order, I think.

Honourable Mentions

• Metheny/Mehldau Quartet
• Tomahawk – Anonymous
• Dominici – O3 A Trilogy Part 2
• Symphony X – Paradise Lost
• Paradise Lost – In Requiem
• Black Snake Moan OST
• Radiohead – In Rainbows
• Ministry – The Last Sucker
• Kanno Yoko – Smooth in the Shell
• Megadeth – United Abominations

Good, not great.

Disappointments of the Year

• Dream Theater – Systematic Chaos
• Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
• Type O Negative – Dead Again
• Velvet Revolver – Libertad

These albums are not bad. They just fall short of my admittedly high expectations.

Dishonourable Mention

• Smashing Pumpkins – Zeitgeist

Not even “so bad, its good”, just mediocre.

I’m a huge Devin Townsend fan and the song that made me an instant convert was Touching Tongues, from Vai’s Sex & Religion. Here’s a wonderful live performance from 1993.