10/30/12 Today's Albums, Baby Don't Get It

10/30/12  Today's Albums:

Baby Don't Get It - ESP
Back in the World of Adventures - The Flower Kings
Bad - Michael Jackson
Bad Hair Day - Weird Al Yankovich
Band of Joy - Robert Plant
Banks of Eden - The Flower Kings (woowoo, double FK day)
Basne - Collage
Batman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Danny Elfman
Bahaus:PeterMurphy:LoveAndRockets . . . - Various



Summary:

Well that was certainly a day of music wasn't it.  There were quite a few musical highlights here, a day with two albums from one of my favorite bands of all time (The Flower Kings), Bad and Basne.  We've also hit a milestone here, we are through the albums beginning with the letter A.

We kicked things off with "Coffee and a Doughnut" by ESP which is about as appropriate as you can get for the morning, lot's of good, original music on there.  Baby was put out before I joined the band, though during my time with them, I played just about everything on the tape at one point or another.  This is where you can here "The Cat in the Hat" to the tune of "Man in the Box", "Enter Sandman" has become "The Hokey Pokey Man" and the first mash up that I had heard of (they weren't called Mash-Up's back then, we called them airplanes, and they had wings, and you could use them to get from one city to another) . . . (but I digress), you haven't quite lived until you've heard "U Can't Touch This" rapped over "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

The Flower Kings are The Flower Kings, most people either love them, hate them or have no clue who they are.  Actually, most people don't know who they are.  . . . but those of us that do, either love them or hate them.  Back to the World of Adventures is early FK and not my favorite by them but it clicked a little more than usual, not the end of the world because we had Banks of Eden a few discs later which is, in fact, one of my favorites.

Bad was bad.  Smooth Criminal is great.  Seriously, that's the reason the CD is on my computer.  If I wasn't an annoying completionist, I'd delete the rest of the CD and save myself the horror of "Man in the Mirror" ever playing again.

Basne was difficult to listen to, there's only so much Polish prog (actually sung in Polish) that one man can take.  It was probably good, but I had had enough.  The Batman Soundtrack was a nice classical diversion and while I did enjoy the new version of "Coming Down Hard" from the Bauhaus and family CD, the whole thing was so so.  I'm adding "Bang of Joy to tomorrow's playlist as I missed it completely on Tuesday.

• Winner
• Banks of Eden - The Flower Kings (woowoo, double FK day)
• Growers
• Baby Don't Get It - ESP
• Back in the World of Adventures - The Flower Kings
• Keepers
• Bad Hair Day - Weird Al Yankovich
• Batman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Danny Elfman
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Bahaus:PeterMurphy:LoveAndRockets . . . - Various
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh
• Bad - Michael Jackson
• Basne - Collage

10/29/12  Today's Albums:

Auntie Aubery's Excursions Beyond the Call of Duty - The Orb
The Autobiography of Supertramp - Supertramp
Awake - Dream Theater
Awakening - The Reasoning
Babalu - Desi Arnaz and his Orchestra


Summary:

Well, an hour into it, we're off to a crappy start.  Auntie Aubery's extra curricular activities were really unnecessary, I skipped the last few songs in an effort to spare myself the agony.  It was ok, in kind of a mind numbing painful, repetitive crappy electronica kind of way . . . Sorry, wasn't feeling it, moved on to Supertramp.  You know, I never quite thought about the band name, Supertramp, I've decided that I want to meet the woman that inspired the name.  just out of curiosity.

Sadly, when I came back from lunch, I lost a bit of time as I got just so carried away working diligently that I missed an hour or two.  My list for the day was a bit abbreviated.  Awake is a favorite.  If you're looking for something new to check out (John Ciganik) this is a great way to start exploring progressive metal.  This is a favorite CD of mine, probably top ten all time, definitely top twenty and today's winner.  Awakening is a good CD as well, a bit mellower than DT, but good none the less, they have a great balance of male and female leads.

From there, we went to an old favorite, Babalu by Desi Arnaz . . . Yes, you heard right, Desi and his orchestra were rockin' the cube farm today.  I even got a 'you're an odd bird' out of the young lady in the next cube.  Did you know that Desi was rapping back in the fifties?

• Winner
• Awake - Dream Theater (really, this wasn't fair to the other albums)
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• Awakening - The Reasoning
• Babalu - Desi Arnaz and his Orchestra
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• The Autobiography of Supertramp - Supertramp
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh
• Auntie Aubery's Excursions Beyond the Call of Duty - The Orb

10/26/12  Today's Albums:

As the World - Echolyn
Asia - Asia
Astronaut - Duran Duren
At the Edge of Time - Blind Guardian
Atom Heart Mother - Pink Floyd
Audio - Blue Man Group
August and Everything After - The Counting Crows


Summary:

All in all it was somewhat of an uninspired musical day.  Echolyn started the day off decently, but then we got into Asia which was mostly background music.  Astronaut kicked things up a bit and Blind Guardian started off with a roar.  Sadly, after a few tracks, Blind Guardian made me feel kind of numb, it hurt me.  Atom Heart Mother had decent moments, but they only increased the numbness from before.  By Audio, which was rather uninspired, I had pretty much lost all muscle control and barely managed to contain myself from wallowing in a pool of my own drool.  August and Everything After was a noted improvement though not quite food enough to salvage the day.

• Winner
• Astronaut - Duran Duran
• Growers
• As the Workd - Echolyn
• Atom Heart Mother - Pink Floyd
• Keepers
• August and Everything After - The Counting Crows
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• At the Edge of Time - Blind Guardian
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Asia - Asia
• Bleh
• Audio - Blue Man Group

10/24/12  Today's Albums:


Antics - Interpol
Apostrophe / Over-nite Sensation - Frank Zappa
Archive 1976-1992 - Genesis (discs 1 & 3)
Are They Still Pissing Anywhere - ESP
Are You Nervous - Rock Kills Kid
Arrows and Anchors - Fair to Midland
The Art of Navigating by the Stars - Siege's Even
Artificial Paradise - Sylvan

Summary:

Ok, my first thought, the first song off of the Interpol CD sucks. . . second thought, the second song on the Interpol CD sucks also.  Honestly, I don't know If I'm going to get through this one.  It may be the first CD that actually gets booted from the hard drive as the result of this exercise.  Ok, the third song has some redeeming qualities.  At the end of the CD, one or two tolerable songs barely saved this album from the creation of a new category 'Albums that were immediately deleted from my hard drive in the hopes of never having to listen to them again in my lifetime . . . ever'.  Luckily we followed this up with a few great ones, Apostrophe started out with the classic "Don't You Eat that Yellow Snow" and the chaos went from there.

ESP was a band I played for back in the early nineties.  After we split up, they went on with a new line up and did some great stuff, 'Are They Still Pissing Anywhere' is a compilation of two of their albums and features "Thirsty King Leprechaun" which actually made me laugh out loud.  I'll share the lyrics as best as I can remember them:

Thirsty King Leprechaun was riding on his dragon fly . . . frou de forrest
He wasn't felling good at all til he poked a monkey in the eye . . . then he ran away
I don't deserve to be in charge of all these Leprechauns, with their houses and kitchens and rooms
I always ask them for water and juice cause I'm thirsty . . . 

Pure silliness.

We ended the day with some solid favorites, Sieve's Even is fantastic German Prog Metal, Fair to Midland is one of my favorite new bands and Sylvan's "Artificial Paradise" has been in my regular listening rotation for more than a year now.

• Winner
• Are They Still Pissing Anywhere - ESP
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• Apostrophe / Over-nite Sensation - Frank Zappa
• Are You Nervous - Rock Kills Kid
• Arrows and Anchors - Fair to Midland
• The Art of Navigating by the Stars - Siege's Even
• Artificial Paradise - Sylvan
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Archive 1976-1992 - Genesis (discs 1 & 3)
• Bleh
• Antics - Interpol

10/23/12  Today's Albums:


Animals - Pink Floyd (encore performance)
Anno Domini High Definition
Ankoraphobia - Marillion
Anthology - The Beatles (excerpts)


Summary:

A kind of a bleh day for music, I didn't get to really listen to much of it, nothing to write home about.  The Riverside CD was fantastic as always, Animals was a good repeat listen.  If you haven't heard Riverside, they are highly recommended.

• Winner
• Anno Domini High Definition - Riverside
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Ankoraphobia - Marillion
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Anthology - The Beatles
• Bleh
• 
  

10/18/12  Kick Ass playlist:



Summary:

Ampersand - IZZ (Make up from Yesterday)
Altered Beast - Matthew Sweet (Makeup from the 16th)
And the Glass Handed Kites - Mew
. . . And Then There Were Three - Genesis
Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe
Angel Dust - Faith No More
Animal Notes - Crack the Sky
Animals - Pink Floyd
Anno Domini High Definition - Riverside  (held until tomorrow)

Great day, high points throughout.  The Matthew Sweet one did almost nothing for me, Ampersand was a definite win.  Animals is a great CD and it's the clear cut winner since I listened to it again in the car that night and I'm doing an encore of it today (10/23)

• Winner
• Animals - Pink Floyd
• Growers
• Ampersand - IZZ
• Keepers
• And the Glass Handed Kites - Mew
• . . . And Then There Were Three - Genesis
• Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe
• Angel Dust - Faith No More
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Animal Notes - Crack the Sky
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh
• Altered Beast - Matthew Sweet

10/17/12  Short day

Ampersand - IZZ
The Analogue Theatre - CJ Bolland
. . . and Justice for All - Metallica

Summary:

I didn't have a lot of music time today, sadly only got through three albums and I don't remember the IZZ album so I'm queuing it up tomorrow also.  Honestly it was a crappy day as well.  This may hurt some to the core, but I really don't get into Metallica.  They're mostly on the computer for my wife's sake (and when I say 'mostly' I really mean 'entirely'.  It's kind of like Marianne's version of 'The Little Mermaid'.  One of those albums that I'd never listen to on my own, but there are times when we have to share the music with those that we love . . . The Analogue Theatre has a few good songs but it's too mechanical to pull it off over an entire album.

• Winner
• 
  
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Ampersand - IZZ (I didn't get a god listen to it, will try again.
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh
• . . . and Justice for All - Metallica
• The Analogue Theatre - CJ Bolland

10/16/12  Today's Albums:

• Alive in America - Steely Dan
• All the Best - Paul McCartney
• All this Time - Sting
• Altered Beast - Matthew Sweet
• Alterno-Daze - 80's Survival of the Fittest
• Alterno-Daze - 90's Natural Selection
• The Altogether - Orbital
• American Man - Trace Adkins
• Amonia Avenue - The Alan Parson's Project
• Amor Vincit Omnia - Pire Reason Revolution

Summary:  I'm in a hurry today so I'll put the random notes in the list below.

• Winner
• Alive in America - Steely Dan (Good listen, I've been on a Steely Dan Kick lately)
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• All This Time - Sting
• The Altogether Disc 1 - Orbital  (Disc 1 was pretty good)
• Amonia Avenue - The Alan Parson's Project
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Altered Beast - Matthew Sweet  (Will have to listen to this again, I think I was on lunch when it played.
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• All the Best - Paul McCartney
• Alterno-Daze (both of them)
• American Man - Trace Adkins (I was in a country band last year and we played a lot of Trace.  I'm not claiming that I like country, I just don't hate it anymore)
• Bleh
• The Altogether, Disc 2 - Orbital  (Bleh!, mostly crappy remakes from The Middlw of No Where)

10/15/12

10/15/12  Today's Albums:

• Afraid of Sunlight - Marillion
• Afterwords - Collective Soul
• Against Reason - Credo
• Airdrawndagger - Sasha
• Alice in Chains - Alice in Chains
• 
  

Summary:

• Winner
• 
  
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh

10/12/12  Today's Albums:

Adam and Eve - The Flower Kings
Addicted - Devin Townsend
Aenima - Tool
Afraid of Sunlight - Marillion
Afterwords - Collective Soul


Summary:

• Winner
• 
  
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh

10/11/12:  Albums listened to

Across the Line - Ghost Circus
Act I:  The Lake South, The River North - The Dear Hunter
Act II:  The Meaning of, And All Things Regarding to Ms. Leading - The Dear Hunter
Act III:  Life and Death - The Dear Hunter
Active Lancer Soundtrack - Digital Droo
Actual Miles - Don Henley


It was a relatively short day.  I have a few meetings and didn't spend quite as much desk time as usual.  I absolutely love Across the Line which was the clear cut winner for the day.  The Deer Hunter trilogy was a bit much to listen to in a row.  I really enjoyed the first one but by the time I got to the third one, I was getting  really tired of them.  Digital Droo was a fun listen back from my electronica days.  Actual Miles was uninspiring but hey, there are times when you need to be able to pull up "The Boys of Summer" on a moment's notice.


Summary:

• Winner
• Across the Line - Ghost Circus
• Growers
• Act I - The Dear Hunter
• Keepers
• Active Lancer Soundtrack - Digital Droo
• Wibblers (No opinion one way or another)
• Act II, Act III - The Deer Hunter
• Actual Miles - Don Henley
• Moodies (Albums that require a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh
• 
  

10/09/12

Ok, so welcome to the music blog, this will be a year long project to listen through all of the albums on my computer.  I've sorted everything in order by album title enjoy and have fun.  Take a look at the albums, vote for your favorite, discuss, enjoy:

10/09/12 Today's albums:
Abacab - Genesis
Abba Gold: Greatest Hits - Abba

Abbey Road - The Beatles
Abraxas - Abraxas
Absolutely Free - Frank Zappa
Accelerated Evolution - Devin Townsend
Accelerator - The Future Sound of London
Achtung Baby - U2
Acquiring the Taste - Gentle Giant
X - Across the Line - Ghost Circus  - Didn't finish this one, will queue it up tomorrow.

It was a decent day musically, Abbey Road is certainly a classic, though I never quite appreciated The Beatles as much as I should have.  Absolutely Free and Abraxas didn't quite connect with me and Accelerated Evolution isn't my favorite Devin album.  Accelerator was a nice surprise, I really enjoyed that and will put it on my list of albums to circle back to.  My favorite album of the day however was Abacab by Genesis.  While it's probably my least favorite Genesis album (ok, it is my least favorite) it was still the winner of the day, beating out Accelerator.  To Abacab's favor.  I must have stepped out during 'Whodunnit' which is my absolute least favorite Genesis tune.  I don't remember hearing it at all so extra points for timing.

Summary:

• Winner
• Abacab - Genesis
• Growers
• Accelerator - The Future Sound of London
• Keepers
• Abbey Road - The Beatles
• Accelerated Evolution - Devin Townsend
• Achtung Baby - U2
• Wibblers (No opinion one way or another)
• Acquiring the Taste - Gentle Giant
• Moodies (Albums that require a certain mood)
• Abba Gold - Abba
• Bleh
• Abraxas
• Absolutely Free - Frank Zappa