Been on a Paramore binge this past month and a half, spending a lot of time listening to them while I'm driving. What started with a chick I dig going to one of their concerts has been spurned on by nostalgia. See, I've been angsting about my path through life over the past 7 years or so and listening to Riot! really takes me back to 2008, before my life went spiraling out of control. I've also got Brand New Eyes and Paramore on my phone, though, so I've been listening to them too, and I must say I'm surprised at what a different experience it is listening to music on the road versus at my computer.

For the longest time I wasn't a huge fan of Paramore (Album) and held firmly that Riot! was their best album by far, followed by Brand New Eyes and then Paramore quite a few steps down. After hearing them on the road, though, I've had to reassess my opinion. I still think that Riot! has individually the best songs, but I've noticed the composition of the album isn't very good. It feels almost like a bunch of singles just thrown onto a disc without any thought of the pacing. While I think, individually, the songs on Paramore aren't as good, on the other hand the composition of the album is far more compelling and leads to a much more enjoyable experience listening to it as a whole than Riot! Brand New Eyes is kind of in the middle ground still. While my opinion of it has gone up, the first quarter or so suffers the same "back to back singles" problem that Riot! suffers, and it ends pretty weakly. I still get surprised when All I Wanted ends and nothing else comes on. A jarring finish to say the least.

The albums are interesting to judge based on their tone and history too, though. Riot! radiates the kind of against the grain, defiant punk that I expect out of teenagers. Six years later, though, Paramore (Album) is far less in your face, and listening to the lyrics its hard not to get the impression that the band, or at least Hayley, has grown out of her teenage angst. It's odd. While I suppose this is a "good" thing in that they've "grown up," I can't help but get the impression that it's less coming to a mature understanding and acceptance of the world and more compromising to the faults of modern existence as inevitable and thus unworthy of anger. A cowards resignation as opposed to a lovers acceptance, if you will. As much as I enjoy their music, it's hard not to be disgusted at the thought, and it really turns me off the band.

The other interesting aspect is the drama surrounding the Farro brothers. Again, it's hard not to feel like much of Paramore (Album) was written either about them or directed at them. When you consider that said drama was happening behind the scenes, it also sheds new light on certain lyrics in Brand New Eyes, and I can't help but imagining the bitter hate that must have been boiling under the surface as the band (then with the Farro brothers) performed those tracks live. Punk is about rebelling against the external, not the internal, and yet that's essentially what parts of Brand New Eyes are, a rebellion against the Farro brothers by Hayley.

All of this combined with her remarks about feeling vindicated post Ain't It Fun's break into the mainstream, arguably the song of summer 2014, and Hayley kind of seems like a bit of a bitch. A ridiculously hot bitch with a great voice.

PS: Ain't It Fun is seriously overrated and Fast in My Car is way better.
PPS: Stay the Night is boring and Zedd's other singles are way better
PPPS: Red Hayley is infinitely better than blue Hayley. She needs to die her hair back ffs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hp9v-2prTY

Been really obsessed with FKA Twigs' LP debut lately.

I saw Queen in concert with Adam Lambert last night, and I'm not gonna lie.

Shit was fuckin hype. I didn't realize up until this point how beast Brian May and Roger Taylor are at their instruments. Adam Lambert was pretty fekkin awesome as well, did his own thing, didn't try to be Freddy.

Although occassionally he would retire, presumably for a costume change, and they would play a video of Mercury singing live to fill in.

Shit was soooo fuckin hype.

My son Nicolas has played in the BBC Proms, Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall, Sydney Opera House, Suntory Hall, etc - but there is still a special feeling about his first solo recital in the Wigmore Hall. I shall be there - Sunday 14 Sept. The program includes a world premier (though that's nothing unusual for him).

Press Announcement
Ultra-cheap for under-30s (scroll to bottom)
Biography
It will be broadcast live on the BBC (Radio 3 schedules aren't published more than a week in advance, so I can't link that yet)

Been listening to Com Truise's album Wave 1, I didn't make much to it at first, but after finally giving the album a go through I started to really dig the sound, ended up listening to Subsonic for hours on end while playing Blazblue and AoEII.

^
Oh my gosh... Com Truise is as awesome as stupid his name is...

[gplus]https://plus.google.com/118152408235270297690/posts/gsmUKRJaMFv[/gplus]

Not much to comment about Led Zeppelin, thought it was pretty rare to find a pretty decent original, I've seen Zeppelin albums go for hundreds of dollars online. I think everything before the mid 70's (when Jimmy Page's smack addiction really got in the way) was pretty good, but the first few albums, 1-4 and maybe Houses, were their best.

It's also amazing how well an album like Rumours aged. A lot of those songs are still really iconic and sound just as good today as they did 20+ years ago. I'm not a huge Fleetwood Mac fan, as the album was an anniversary gift for my wife, but it's got an interesting bit of history as the band members totally hated each other when they made the album, and it's like the second best selling album in history.

The other two recordings are pressed by Roulette and in surprisingly good condition (the vinyl at least). The Jazz Messengers "Backgammon" album, with a line-up of relative unknowns, has several vocal tracks, including a really interesting "Georgia On My Mind", sung by someone with no credit given. But someone did a little research discovered that it was probably Dave Schnitter, the sax player.

The other Roulette album is just a compilation of "Echoes of an Era", which Roulette did throughout the years of compilations of different musicians that quantified a period/style. This one's got 4 old-school pianists known for stride, swing, and be-bop. Art Tatum is pretty much god on piano, and probably one of the greatest improvisers on piano (here's him improvising Dvorak). And Bud Powell is famous for his contributions to bebop (it looks like he's chewing on something, but he does that all the time and he's actually yapping something).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAJ8Xxu2z3c

do these people still exist?

Been stuck in my bubble for the last few months so i havent had a chance to share my good fortune.

Got to see NIN again last month. The were co-headlining with Soundgarden....AWESOME I saw NIN last year and seeing them again just re-enforced why i love them so much. And Soundgarden was amazing. Shook the freakin house. Chris Cornell has the best vocals...straight from heaven

I also saw Linkin Park and 30 Seconds to Mars as well. Another amazing show. I have video of both but I dont want anyone to hear me singing in the background so i'll keep them to myself. Now i know a lot of people aren't Linkin fans but...I'm here to tell you...they put on a great show. I enjoyed 30 Seconds to Mars too, but i wish they'd played some older stuff. I'm not that into their last album. The whole thing sounds the same. But all in all, great show.

SEEKAE's new album is here, and it is

THE WORRY


I really love Seekae. I got to see them again live a couple of weeks ago in Sydney, they were fantastic.
I really like this album, though maybe not as much as +Dome (their previous album). My favourite track so far is "The Worry".

SEEKAE

Ornette wrote:I was wrong. Going through my records I found an original pressing of Abbey Road that was in pretty clean condition (UK release, Apple Records SO-383), so I actually did have an original pressing to compare it with. One of these days I'm going to need to spend a day going through everything and try to put them in alphabetical order or something.

Aside from the older record having the wear and tear pops every now and then, it sounds more or less the same. The mix on some of the songs are noticeably different. Come Together was the only song I listened to as a comparison: re-master has much more attack on the bass guitar, toward the end there's a lot more noticeable very low end, the vocals are more centered whereas the Apple pressing has it more center-left. The slightly over-driven guitar during the verses was much more subtle in the re-master. There was a bit more separation between the organ and guitar in the chorus and especially near the end (when they're more separated between the left (guitar) and right channels (organ)) compared to the Apple pressing. I want to say that after a listen through, the re-master sounds a bit cleaner, but not necessarily because the audio is cleaner, but more-so that the mix separated the individual tracks more. Not necessarily a good or bad thing. Another noticeable thing is how the bass was mixed between the two, though I can't really pin it on any one thing; sometimes, it's really stand-out-ish, sometimes it's a bit muddier, sometimes it's sharper, and sometimes, like in the case with Come Together, the pops and attack are more noticeable. The original Apple pressing seems to have more of the higher end stand out (guitars, highhat and cymbals).

Cool, thanks for the comparison. It must be great having a collection vast enough to find something pop up like that. Being in New Zealand, it s slightly more difficult to find nice copies of older pressings for The Beatles; I guess most people like to hold on to them (I know I would). Plus if one does surface it is usually out of my student-budget price range. Getting the re-releases is probably more economical for me. (also whoops on the late reply!)

Speaking of nice-old copies, the only purchase I have recently was an affordable copy of Pink Floyd's Meddle (a 1978 N.Z Pressing). Side One is fairly quiet, and sounds vastly superior to any digital copy I have heard. Side Two also sounds great, but is a little noisier (the quiet sections of Echoes are telling me that someone played this quite a bit). A plus side is the gatefold sleeve is in great condition.

IN OTHER NEWS: U2's new album Songs of Innocence has been given away for free on iTunes. Not sure what to expect (the last thing I listened to by them was The Joshua Tree, probably about a year ago). But hey, it's free, and it's a band I don't mind, so I guess I'll give an opinion later.[/i]

TomasJC wrote:Speaking of nice-old copies, the only purchase I have recently was an affordable copy of Pink Floyd's Meddle (a 1978 N.Z Pressing). Side One is fairly quiet, and sounds vastly superior to any digital copy I have heard. Side Two also sounds great, but is a little noisier (the quiet sections of Echoes are telling me that someone played this quite a bit). A plus side is the gatefold sleeve is in great condition.

Meddle is a great album to have on vinyl, the copy I have isn't in the greatest condition so I'm envious. My copy of it also has a great side one, but the second side (echoes) definitely got the brunt of the wear and tear. (it looks like Discogs marketplace has it pretty expensive)

I've been trying to ebay a copy of the UK Budgie album "Never Turn Your Back On A Friend", but I guess I either suck at ebay or I'm just not willing to pay more than $60 for a Budgie album.

This is a pretty amazing ABC 20/20 News report about rap music from 1981: http://www.mediaite.com/online/heres-how-abc-news-reported-on-rap-music-in-1981/

Interpol has a new album out "El Pintor". I believe this is thier fifth album. It's also the first album without thier long time bassist, which I think they did just fine without. Not sure if anyone is familiar with Interpol, but their sound is very somber.....but catchy. I stumbled on to this band a few years ago and just became addicted. They're coming to Florida in November and I CANT WAIT to see them live

Here are a few of my favs from the album
Breaker 1
Ancient Ways
Same Town, New Story
All The Rage Back Home
[/url]

Two pages ago in this thread we discussed Interpol a little. I have been listening to Turn on the Bright Lights in the car lately and have rekindled my long lost interest in the band, haven't checked out El Pintor yet.

I listen to them every so often. They're a mood band for me so I usually create a mix with them and other bands. Antics is my favorite album but this one is quickly climbing that latter. I would also suggest to check out their last album as well. It's a bit more gloomy then normal but I enjoyed it.

A.T. Fish wrote:I have been listening to Turn on the Bright Lights in the car lately

Haha, I was doing the same thing this past summer... somehow I kept my TOTBL cd in listenable condition after eleven years.

But yea, I'd say I probably agree with moonwolf on the better tracks from the album. I like Everything is Wrong as well, but I've only given the whole thing about four or five listens so I need more time with it. It definitely feels like an Interpol album though, it's totally in their style. I do really like that most of the songs are only about three or four minutes and mostly have a faster tempo than Our Love to Admire.

Can't believe it's been ten years since Antics came out though, really makes me feel old.

I haven't been able to go down to my post box and pick it up yet (along with the new Whirl LP), so I caved and just torrented El Pintor this morning. Looking forward to listening to it when I get home this evening. From what I've been hearing, it's easily the best since Antics and possibly even eclipses it in some regards.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alright, I fucking love this album, guys. Wouldn't say it's better than Antics just yet (Which only has one dud song, 'Length of Love', when the rest are absolutely stellar. Whereas there are only two I'm undecided on with this one) but it seems it's more of "grower" due to its depth, meaning it's only going to get better with time and repeat listens. So far I love the sensuality of 'My Desire', the bassline in 'Everything is Wrong' makes me weak in the knees (although I think the track overall doesn't quite live up to its full potential), 'Anywhere' is the surprise hit, the both brilliant 'Ancient Ways' and 'All the Rage...' we heard before the record release, and 'Tidal Wave' gives me this really weird sense of deja vu - like I've heard it before on the radio in a dream a very long time ago or something.

Interestingly enough, the B-sides are fantastic and I'm shocked they didn't make the cut for the regular listing, 'The Depths' and 'Malfeasance', respectively.

8/10 would make love with this on in the background.

I totally agree that El Pintor is a great album. I'm probably on my tenth listen now . The only few songs I'm not that jazzed about are Twice as Hard, My Desire, and Depth. Other than that It's very enjoyable.


On the flip side, I've become addicted to SoundCloud. I don't normally steam music but I like this one. I recently discovered this Electronic/Trip Hop group called Velahavle. I believe they're out of Bosnia. Great group. They posted they're latest album What About Now and I love it. The best songs in my opinion are Closer, Apart, and Inside Always Rains. I suggest a listen for anyone that likes trip hop.

Finally nabbed a copy of "Never Turn Your Back On A Friend". Spent months at various places trying to get a decent price (and a reliable copy), but finally had to shell out $40 on ebay, which was still under the ~$90 that this album went for. Not really sure why, since I don't think the songs on it are any better than "In For The Kill" (which still regularly sells for over $100).



As usual with all Budgie albums, it's actually got a budgie on the cover, and also as usual, the cover art has nothing to do with the name of the album (except maybe "Impeccable", well, maybe not). This one was a gatefold and originally released in 1973.



But the one that I bought was the 1974 UK Reissue from MCA. The original UK MCA release had an all black label. I wasn't going to pay over $100 for the 1973 MCA release, so I'm more than happy owning the rainbow reissue.

For most people who was alive in the late 80's, they'll recognize that a band named Metallica did a single release (which was later packaged as part of that Garage Days re-re-release) of one of the songs off of this album called "Breadfan" (Metallica's cover). The original was from 1973. 1973. It was pretty progressive for what would later be called "metal". You had lots of rock bands rolling what was essentially blues and funk and disco (of which Budgie was not blameless, several of their albums had songs that sounded like the Bee Gees, I guess that's the price you pay for trying to make it in the 70's).

This album also had a cover of the standard "Baby Please Don't Go", which everyone and their mother covered and one point. I think it's probably one of the most covered blues songs ever. But here, we have one of the first "proto"-metal bands play a blues cover. Budgie is a trio, so you have only guitar, bass and drums, but it's more of a power trio style, where the bass is responsible for a lot of the rhythm. Though. I think in this recording, there may be overdubs of guitar, but not like some Black Sabbath songs where the overdub was an entire rhythm guitar track; instead, it's used just for effect.