11/26/12 Cyber Monday

11/26/12  Today's Albums:  Cyber Monday

Intro:  Not a holiday that I typically celebrate, though it seems like a good enough name for today's entry.  Let's see, I get an album by a friend of mine, the Chef Aid Soundtrack, Electronica, prog metal . . . it should be an eclectic day to say the least.

Update:  Sorry, I don't think I can listen to The South Park Soundtrack today at work.  I'm fairly certain that half of the songs would get me fired.  I'll just drop that into the 'moodies' category.  Added "Christ 0" by Vanden Plas to make up for the lost time, giving the day an added Prog Metal feel.

The Albums:

• Cascade - Peter Murphy
• Catch Without Arms - Dredg
• Catching Up With Depeche Mode - Depeche Mode
• Celestial Entrance - Pagan's Mind
• A Change of Season - Dream Theater
• Chapter V - Stained
• Chef Aid:  The South Park Album - Various
• Children - Robert Miles
• Chris Kleiner
• Christ 0 - Vanden Plas

The Wrap Up:  

I'll try to give a better write up later today, sadly, I'm pressed for time at the moment.

So there were a lot of short albums today not to mention the skipped album.

Back in 1993, I was in a band called ESP, we were 'avant garde' we were 'the next big thing' . . . you name it.  Regardless, we were pretty good, all four of us were really good musicians and able to jump genres at the drop of a hat, we could go from jazz to country to rock to blues with out dropping a beat . . . and we often did.  During the time that I played with ESP, my buddy Chris Kleiner played bass.  Anyways, as with most bands, it didn't last long enough and we all went our separate ways.  Chris recorded an album during his stint in the Air Force while stationed in Japan.  It's a great record, I'd classify it as a folksy / popish album with a lot of focus on the songs themselves.  Poignant at times, funny at other times, but always a good listen.

Celestial Entrance and Chapter V both had moments that made me go 'huh, I hadn't heard that before'.  I was kind of surprised at the Staind CD as I had pretty much written them off as 'something that my wife likes'.  No offense to my wife, she generally enjoys stuff that is harder than I prefer.  I'l be giving Stained another listen.

Chef Aid has a lot of funny songs, as I mentioned, not really anything I can listen to at work.  "Chocolate Salty Balls" doesn't cut it, no matter how you roll it.

The winner of the day was Christ 0 by Vanden Plas.  This is your basic "German Prog Metal Epic About a Murderer and the Cop That Searches for Him as Adapted From the Count of Monte Christo'".  I know, I know, it's easy to say 'if you've heard one of them, you've heard them all. . . . but this one's different.  Look up January Sun on Spotify or what ever and you get seven minutes of everything that German Prog Metal should be.  The epic vocal choirs, blistering keyboard solos intertwined with ripping guitar solos, a singer that  would be just as comfortable fronting Warrant as anything else.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is a masterpiece.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• Christ 0 - Vanden Plas
• Growers
• Celestial Entrance - Pagan's Mind
• Chapter V - Stained
• Keepers
• Cascade - Peter Murphy
• Catch Without Arms - Dredg
• A Change of Season - Dream Theater
• Children - Robert Miles
• Chris Kleiner
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Catching Up With Depeche Mode - Depeche Mode
• Chef Aid:  The South Park Album - Various
• Bleh