Of Bally Table Kings and Billy Goats

Last week I bought a couple of new high resolution titles for my collection: The Who's SACD of Tommy and The Beach Boys' (!) DVD-A of Pet Sounds.

I generally knew what to expect from Tommy since I already own it on vinyl, but felt the need to update my crackly record. The surround mix really is a joy because for whatever reason, opening up the sound makes the band seem less processed. Keith Moon's drumming really comes alive on epics like "Underture", and the venerable two-note riff from the ever popular "Pinball Wizard" ferociously spits forth like fire from the mouth of Vermithrax.

We're also introduced to quite a few demos and outtakes. My personal favorites are the tracks near the end, which showcase Townsend playing a number of key tracks with just a guitar. It's amazing how good these tunes are that they are able to hold up so well without the other instruments present.

Purchasing Pet Sounds, admittedly, was a risky endeavor for me. After all, we're talking about The Beach Boys here, who, no matter how you slice it, are a bit frilly (and the videos on the DVD-A don't exactly disprove me here). But Pet Sounds is considered to be one of the best albums of all time (evar), so the H-Man, in an attempt to become a better musician, picked it up.

I've only given it a few listens, but I can start to see where people are coming from. The arrangements on the album are pretty remarkable considering it came out in 1966. This is all due to taskmaster Brian Wilson pushing his own personal agenda. He was able to carefully layer all sorts of instruments and sounds (bells, dog barks, and even a theramin) into a rhythmic whole, then complement the entire package with the trademark vocal harmonies the group was known for.

What results is a project that at first seems like the simplicity of "Surfin' Safari", but underneath lies some of the weirdness and complexity that Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett would embrace full on for Piper At The Gates of Dawn. Additionally, the DVD-A's liner notes, documentaries, and studio outtakes (especially hearing the harmonies with no music) go a long way towards helping one appreciate the amount of work that went into creating something unique for its time.

Wizard Me This, Batman

The new Demons & Wizards album, Touched By the Crimson King, hits stores today. Again, like the Eric Johnson disc, good luck finding it the first day of release. I've ordered mine on-line (edit: I actually found it in store, so I cancelled my on-line order).

Apparently it will first be released in limited edition packaging (seen here). This release has a slipcase that slides over a standard jewel case and booklet which depicts what was originally displayed on the Internet (thanks AJB). Plus there are a few extra songs to peruse.

A most peculiar inclusion is a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song". That should be interesting.

The Dead Will Walk the Earth

Land of the Dead, the long-awaited fourth movie in George A. Romero's zombie trilogy, finally makes its way to theaters tomorrow. George is the pioneer of this genre, so this is the one to catch. The zombies may be slow, but man do they know how to feast on the living!

What is the ratio of humans to zombies now? Has anyone figured out a way to cure (or perhaps train) them yet? Is there more scientific evidence that zombies retain knowledge of their past lives? Will Bub make a guest appearance? Stay tuned, true believers!

I hope it clobbers at the box office, but needless to say, I've yet to understand how modern audiences decide which horror films are good and which are bad.

Smashing Pumpkins - Unleashed!

According to this article, Billy Corgan wants to reform Smashing Pumpkins. Who knows what this means. Does he want the old members in it? If he does, do they want to be in it?

I thought their final album, Machina: The Machines of God, was a pretty good listen (tons better than Adore), even though it was a bit long. I also felt that his Zwan project was way better than it had any right to be, and was rather disappointed when it folded. Haven't heard his solo album yet.

Guess we'll wait and see how this all pans out.

In Bloom

Eric Johnson's new album, Bloom, hits stores today. That is, if you can find it. I wasn't willing to hunt for it, so I simply ordered it on-line.

If the new single, "My Back Pages", is any indication of the entire record's quality, it should be a good one. Now if Eric would only release it in high resolution, then we'd be getting somewhere.

Home Theater Mania

Finally got my Vandersteen VCC-1 center channel yesterday. It's in excellent shape. Hooked that bad-boy up and gave it a spin.

At first you don't really notice it. This is a good thing - one wants the transition between it and the two main speakers to be seamless. It does have a response compensation switch on it (to minimize the sonic effects of it being near a wall or other objects), but for now I'm leaving it off.

Gave most of my hi-rez audio discs a whirl and they all sound good. Yay, I can finally hear Dance of Death's and With Teeth's center information. Dark Side of the Moon doesn't use it too much, but when it does (the sax solo in "Us and Them"), it's pretty special.

Movies sound cool too. I think everything's a bit more open and spacious now that less is going on in the main speakers. Blasted lots of bits in Attack of the Clones (incluing the asteroid chase), the intro to Fellowship of the Ring, and the highway chase in Matrix: Reloaded.

Having it sit on top of the television is less than optimal, but maybe I'll attack that problem whenever the hell I buy a new TV.

Pink Floyd to Reunite for Live 8 show

Saw this this article yesterday regarding how Pink Floyd is going to reunite for Bob Geldolf's resurrection of Live Aid. Stunning news. I always thought it was possible for Led Zeppelin to reunite, but I figured Floyd was out of the question. I'm on the floor.

I still say the odds of it happening are slim-ish. It would be a miracle if they could agree on the songs to played, never mind actually getting together to practice.

Judas Rising

An account of my evening out to see the Priest:

We left early to get to the Mohegan Sun Arena, which is located in the Mohegan Sun gambling resort. After grabbing some ribs at the rib joint in there (which were decent, but had nothing on ribs from Memphis), we waited on line for the show. It was just before 7:30, when Queensryche was scheduled to start, and there was an announcement that they were going on. Bastards.

We managed to find our seats before Queensryche got too far in their set. Unfortunately for them, almost no one was watching. This definitely affected their performance - while it was technically good and Geoff Tate sounded great (man, he really can sing), they didn't move around too much. As people started shuffling in, they got more animated, and the show really got going. Not being the biggest fan, I only recognized three songs: "Queen of the Reich", "The Needle Lies", and "Empire". They were splendid, even though people were constantly moving in front of me to get more beer, and the fool behind me kept drunkenly screaming for them to play more Mindcrime (apparently he didn't read the news tidbits about how they were going to concentrate on old material). It was also hard to see at times, because the drapes covering Priest's set obscured my view. They played for a good hour, and had the crowd going for the last 15 minutes (a decent feat, considering the generally lackluster audience, and big gaping hole between row one and the stage).

At the intermission I got the opportunity to look around and examine the audience. To say I was disappointed in the crowd is an understatement. Were there mullets ahoy? Bitchin' tight Maiden t-shirts with tour dates on the back from the 80s? Skin tight black jeans and leather? Hell no. What I saw were a bunch of fiercely overweight washed-up jocks. The only person who had a shirt cooler than my Slayer one was a dude with an Iced Earth shirt (which I later determined they sell at Hot Topic stores). No wonder the crowd was more interested in keeping their beer cups full than the show itself. I glanced at the merchandise table (ugly shirts for $35 and $40 - whee!) then headed to my seat.

Got back and the Priest came on shortly thereafter. They opened with the standard recording of "The Hellion" then pounced in with "Electric Eye". I have to say this didn't come off as well as when I saw them on Ozzfest - the drummer seemed to be lagging behind at a leisurely pace, and Rob did his usual slow pacing around the stage. "Metal Gods" fared better, as Halford did his "Mr. Roboto" walk to front and center, and Glenn Tipton expertly focused a beam of light off his pickguard into the audience (so very cool). By this time the drunk dude behind me had all but passed out, and was led away by his girlfriend (yay for me!).

Things cooked a little more during "Touch of Evil" (man I love this song) and "Judas Rising" (where Halford was raised from the depths of hell to the top of the stage via a "Rob-e-vator"). "Judas Rising" was especially cool, because Tipton was playing a constant muted riff, which sure as hell isn't noticeable in the studio version. The Priest were digging this song, for some reason, and I was feeling the groove.

People were getting up for beer all the time, but the frequency increased during "Diamonds and Rust", which is too bad, because that song was very well done (even though, again, the drummer was beyond bored). After this is where, just like when I saw them at Ozzfest, the show really started to slide. "Deal With the Devil" should've kicked all kinds of ass, but because the crowd didn't know about it (who buys new albums?), it didn't have the punch I expected. Then they pulled a very risky move by playing "Turbo Lover". Yikes! I rethought things, and said, "Maybe they'll make this song cool," but alas, better guitars and drums couldn't save it. It plodded on and never took wing. Then even though "Exciter" was elite, we got a few more slow ones which really put the audience to sleep, and "Painkiller" didn't smoke as much as it should've (a major disappointment). Again, I blame the drummer.

Fortunately they pulled it out at the end with "Hell Bent For Leather" (complete with the staple of Halford wheeling his bike on stage), which got the crowd going. Rob continued to engage them with his spinning in place and "call and answer" antics, which got everyone going enough so they stayed to watch "Living After Midnight" and "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" without leaving for more alcohol.

The crowd then spilled out into the casino, where they continued to yell their brains out (I guess everyone was really drunk by this point), thus scaring the old people who'd come to gamble. This amused me to no end. We ambled over to Krispy Kreme (although, shockingly, I wasn't in the mood for one), then vacated the premises.

The experience proves a point I've known for some time - the quality of a live rock show is directly proportional to how close the audience is allowed to get to the stage.

Set list:

The Hellion / Electric Eye
Metal Gods
Riding On The Wind
The Ripper
A Touch Of Evil
Judas Rising
Revolution
Hot Rockin'
Breaking The Law
I'm A Rocker
Diamonds And Rust
Deal With The Devil
Beyond The Realms Of Death
Turbo Lover
Exciter
Victim Of Changes
The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Prong Crown)
Painkiller
Hell Bent For Leather

Encore:
Living After Midnight
You've Got Another Thing Comin'

Drivel of the Month - Good Charlotte

I can't stress enough how much I detest this band. But let me give it ye olde college try.

Just take a look at them. The combination of "punk" and pretty-boy kills me. They are the epitome of pop-punk, a music genre that should be wiped off the map. Their music is insipid (listen to 7 Seconds to get an idea of what hardcore with pop flavor should sound like), and the singing is emo-craptastic.

I can't stress how far these guys are from punk. If they fit that bill, then Green Day is the Sex Pistols (I feel the need to remind the uneducated that John Lydon was so punk that he quit the Pistols at the peak of their popularity).

But I guess some brilliant talent scout found GC in a hole somewhere and said, "Hey, you look the part, but the Pistols are scary. So can you do that, but not?" And GC apparently said, "Sure, we can do the exact polar opposite of that, yet claim we're not, and we'll sell billions to the teenage wankers who truly know nothing about what punk is!"

But it doesn't stop there. GC's "guitarist" (it pains me to call him that, so I use the term very loosely), Billy Martin, pulled this snow job on the musical instrument business as well, convincing a great guitar company to make a really lousy guitar. Oh well, anyone who gets fooled into buying one of these, thinking they're getting a real PRS, deserves the consequences. I guess it's apt, since shitty music is best played on shitty equipment.

Trent - Ixnay on the MTV-ay

Trent Reznor has decided not to perform at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. Apparently he had intended to have a backdrop of President Bush on stage, but when MTV axed that idea, Trent said, "Fuck you" (ok, I can't prove that, but I'll bet he said it), and pulled out.

I honestly wish Trent could have figured out a better solution to the problem. I'm becoming more and more frustrated with just how tempermental he is. He seems to have childish reactions to situations when things don't go his way. The example that bothers me most is when he decided to reveal the ending to Million Dollar Baby on his web page, as a reaction to those people who illegally downloaded With Teeth before its release.

Thanks for spoiling the movie for me Trent. For your information, the people who visit your web site are the ones who are most likely to actually buy your album, so whom are you hurting with that stunt? I hope that deep down he really does care more about his fanbase than his actions lead me to believe.

Slayer Remasters - the Metal Blade Years

While looking at copies of Slayer's Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits on Monday, I noticed that there are currently two different versions of the remasters for sale. One can buy discs with a copyright of 1993, or discs with a date of 2004. Hrm, what to do?

I contacted Metal Blade and they told me the 2004 ones were the same remasters as the 1993 ones; only the artwork has changed. Thank The Maker for that.

My assessment is that these remasters are decent. Since they were done over 10 years ago, they're not plagued nearly as much by the loudness problems that I've heard on more recent discs. Considering how meh the production is on these records (hello reverb!), these remasters undoubtedly perform their intended function, namely, they improve upon the sound quality of the original CDs. So this is one of those rare cases where I'd most definitely spring for the remasters over the originals.

Get Your Floyd On

I've been a Pink Floyd fan ever since high school. I must admit, however, that I've generally not been willing to go further back in their catalog than Meddle - an album that's considerably weirder than the ones most people are familiar with (Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, The Wall), but has enough "modern" Floyd elements that it kept me interested. I figured from what I'd heard of their early work, going any farther back might just be too nutty for me to deal with. Hell, I watched their Live at Pompeii performance at college and got freaked out as they got on the floor and banged on their instruments. It's out there.

Although Animals will probably always be my personal favorite, I've since come to really dig Meddle, so I decided to dig a bit further in Floyd's back catalog for some new adventures. I do have a vinyl copy of Ummagumma, but unfortuntely, it's not the best sounding record I have. So I set my eyes on their sans Gilmour debut, The Piper At the Gates of Dawn, an album that's revered by the fans, and has interested me ever since I played "Bike" on my college radio show back in 1990.

Picked it up on Monday (thank you Memorial Day sales). And yep, it's loopy. Syd Barrett was insane and it shows. Pure genius though, since this album is the birth of space/acid/stoner rock. Its combination of psychedelia, 60s rock (dig the groovy synths), bizarre noises (bells, clanking), and extend-o instrument jamming, all encased in a swirly/atmospheric wrapper, has to be heard to be believed. Its 10 minute magnum opus, "Interstellar Overdrive", with its long unstructured passages coupled with far-out guitar and keyboard noodling, hints of the Floyd everyone would come to know.

Yes, the overriding classic 60s flavor sounds really dated now, but the way the band meshed that familiar sound with random craziness is what makes this record a cool listen. Piper was far beyond its time, and for that it's worth hearing.