Entries from January 2009 ↓

These all came out over the past two weeks:

That’s right, two different Frank Sinatra ballad collections, both released on the same day. Keep in mind that’s in addition to 2001’s Love Songs, 2007’s Romance: Songs from the Heart, and 2008’s Beautiful Ballads and Love Songs.  Amazon shows that Dean Martin has four additional love song collections in print and another one coming out in a couple of weeks.

I guess I really don’t have a point with this except that the whole thing stinks of desperation from the recording industry.  Maybe this is the first time I noticed this, but that seems like a lot of romance-themed collections to come out in the span of two weeks.

Here’s another thing, wouldn’t the Air Supply romance collection essentially be the same as their greatest hits?  I’m too lazy to check but my spidey-sense tells me that yes they are.

And for fuck’s sake people, instead of buying that Miles Davis collection just pick up Kind of Blue.

It took every ounce of will power I have to not photoshop “Fail” onto this.

I found this on Tuesday at the Lawrence Hastings while looking for a few used CDs.  Look, I know it sucks that stores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy get these exclusives and that they sell music for less than a lot of stores can buy it wholesale.  I’ve known music stores that get stuff from Best Buy on sale, that’s fine.  I also think it’s kind of funny that you’re selling something that’s supposed to be exclusive to Wal-Mart.  But please please please get those slackers working at your store to do a better job removing the “Wal-Mart Exclusive” sticker from it.  At the very least get rid of the original price.

One of the things I’ve noticed since I stopped listening to regular radio is that I’m finding out about music from a lot of sources I never considered before.  NPR is a strange source since you only hear 20-30 second clips of songs but they avoid the mainstream stuff for the most part.  Guitar World may be guilty of running articles about the same people over and over, but thanks to them I’ve picked up on groups like Children of Bodom and Rodrigo y Gabriela.  I’ve never seen Rodrigo y Gabriela mentioned anywhere else other than a few websites, so I’ll have to give Guitar World credit for covering new stuff even though I see their latest issue is yet another tribute to Led Zeppelin.

Several years back I read an interview with someone (Michael Hedges maybe) who described his music as heavy metal played on an acoustic guitar.  Well it wasn’t, but that seems like a close approximation to what Rodrigo y Gabriela make - close but not exact because there are a variety of other influences coming into it as well.  Their songs are acoustic guitar instrumentals, amazingly intricate without falling into the “wanking” category.

I picked up their self titled album a year or so back, and while it was good it didn’t seem to live up to its potential.  This live album/DVD focuses mainly on their last album and vastly improves on those songs with an energy that wasn’t apparent in their studio recordings.  The music is spot on and hearing a live crowd so into the music really enhances the performance.

In addition to their own material the set contains covers of “Orion”, “One”, “Take Five”, and “Stairway to Heaven”.  Other than “Orion” the covers don’t really do anything for me - maybe because I think the other three songs are overplayed in general but they don’t seem to have the energy that their originals do.

My main complaint is that the DVD only contains a subset of the songs on the CD.  I would have at least like to have seen their solos, both of which contain phenominal guitar playing.

Just as an aside, I picked this up at Target which doesn’t seem like the sort of place that would carry it.

Joey Belladonna:  Are they any [KU] students in the crowd tonight?

<silence>

Joey:  Yeah, that’s what I thought.

- from the January 15, 2006 Anthrax show at the Granada

Here’s the thing:  I’ve had Chinese Democracy for over a month now.  After buying it I popped it into the stereo to listen on the way home.  Two songs into it I got bored and listened to something else.  For the next week or so I kept thinking about listening to it but could work up any interest to do it.  After that I started listening to it quite a bit.  Not because I liked it - more because I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t like it.

Now I was fully aware of the lineup changes, so I wasn’t expecting Appetite for Destruction Part 2 or even Use Your Illusion 3.  What I was expecting was something more interesting, something that took a lot of chances.  When I read that Buckethead was being brought on to play guitar I started to think that it would be really good.  The sad fact is that it’s just incredibly average.

The harder songs sound like cookie cutter versions of what’s being played on rock radio today.  As my friend Brian pointed out, the ballads sound like Axl is trying to write another “November Rain.”  The songs aren’t horrible or anything, but just okay.

The biggest frustration is that there are some great bits in a lot of the songs, but none of the songs really come together except for “If the World”, which is far and away the standout song.  Songs like “Better” and “IRS” have the potential to be great songs, but fall apart for one reason or another - in the case of “Better” the chorus is terrible and the lyrics end up sinking “IRS”.

The other thing is that the last song released by Guns ‘N Roses, “Oh My God” from the End of Days soundtrack, is amazing and what this album should have been.  It wasn’t even included on Chinese Democracy, so I don’t even know what the deal is there.