[RockyRaccoon]

Sunday, May 24th

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Child Is Father To The Man by Blood, Sweat & Tears

So we'll start this off with this masterpiece. This is far and away my favorite album from BS&T, and an album that I've strongly considered putting on my overall (and it might still end up there when I eventually revise it). It's just fantastic in every way, Al Kooper really created an incredible album. I've always thought that BS&T had one of the greatest brass sections in rock music, probably only second to Chicago, though the Tower Of Power is up there too. This has all the making of a cool 60s psych rock album, but with a sick brass section, a little more of a jazzy feel to it than your typical psych rock album. And that guitar tone, oh man, it's so fat and warm, as soon as Steve Katz comes in on "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know", it's perfect.

I think it's a almost seamless blending of genres that really takes this over the top for me. There's the bluesy "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" or "I Can't Quit Her", and then kind of a folkier feel with a cover of Tim Buckley's "Morning Glory", and then another cover of Harry Nilsson's "Without Her", and when they're all covering these tunes, they don't sound like copies, but rather they sound like BS&T making these songs their own. This is what happens when you throw someone like Al Kooper into a group with unbelievable musicians like Steve Katz and the Randy Brecker/Dick Halligan/Fred Lipsius/Jerry Weiss combo that make up that killer brass section.



It's gonna be a busy-ish Memorial Day weekend, so we'll see how much listening gets done today and tomorrow. There'll certainly be more during the work week.
_________________
Progressive Rock

Early Psychedelic Rock

Live Albums

[RockyRaccoon]

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Not Of This Earth by Joe Satriani

So I've always been a pretty big Joe Satriani fan. As a guitarist, it's almost required that I like him. Of the famous guitar virtuosos, the Steve Vai's and Satriani's and Yngwie Malmsteen's of the world, I've always tended to lean more towards Vai than Satriani, but still, Satriani is great, and Surfing With The Alien is one of the greatest guitar albums ever. This is the album right before Surfing With The Alien, and you can kind of hear it, especially in Satriani's use of pitch axis theory (more on that in a sec) on the title track which he also uses in "Satch Boogie" on the next album.

This is also one of those albums that makes the music theory nerd in me kind of geek out a little bit. There are two cool things worth noting on this album. First, Satriani's use of pitch axis theory on the first track. Without going into too much detail (and ultimately putting most of you to sleep) about the way modes work and stuff, there's seven different modes, which are different scales that aren't necessarily major or minor. Modes like mixolydian and dorian are used pretty often in modern music (see: "The Number Of The Beast" and "Sweet Child O Mine" for mixolydian examples). Pitch axis theory uses one note (in the case of this song, E) and rotates different modes based on that note. Satriani dances with E Lydian, E Aeolian, then back to E Lydian and then E Mixolydian. What makes this cool is that those modes are technically in different keys (i.e. E Aeolian is actually in the key of G, whereas E Lydian is in the key of B, and E Mixolydian is in the key of A). All these keys are related (they're all sharp keys), but still, bouncing around those modes so smoothly, it's really cool.

The second thing that's awesome is Satriani's use of what's called "the enigmatic scale" on the appropriately titled "The Enigmatic". The enigmatic scale is a weird little scale, it's not a mode, nor is it a major or minor scale. It just kind of exists. The formula for it is this: Tonic - m2 - M3 - #4 - #5 - #6 - M7 - Tonic (octave higher). So what's weird about this scale is that #4, 5, because that makes the interval from the tonic to the 4th a tri-tone (aka augmented 4th/diminished 5th, aka the devil's note that Black Sabbath loves so much). The tri-tone is a really weird interval that also isn't major or minor, and is a little dissonant. Along with a major 3rd in the scale (which is typically minor) and then a #'d 6th, you've got a weird scale, and the fact that Satriani made a whole song that works fairly well together on such a wonky scale is downright impressive.

As an album, it's fine, fun to listen to if you like guitar, but it's not as good as Surfing With The Alien or even Flying In A Blue Dream. Still, cool stuff.

Sorry that was so long. Hope you're still awake.
_________________
Progressive Rock

Early Psychedelic Rock

Live Albums

[RockyRaccoon]

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

A Flame To The Ground Beneath by Lost Horizon

The thing I love about power metal is the same thing I love about hair metal and WWE wrestling. It's so unbelievably over-the-top and insane that it's amazing. Lost Horizon is a prime example of that. I mean, they basically claim to be aliens, come on. Their lead guitarist goes by Transcendental Protagonist, the lead singer is Ethereal Magnanimus, it's a ridiculous, but it's awesome at the same time. This is definitely an album for someone who is into power metal, because this is a pretty prototypical power metal album. The musicianship on this is top-notch, the vocals are downright nuts, I'm pretty sure I heard the dude go into the 5th and maybe even 6th octave, which is just stupid good.

Anyways, kickass power metal album. I'm sure Gowi already knows about it (as he knows virtually every power metal album ever created) and I honestly don't think there are any other people here who are into the genre (Apple maybe?) but this is pretty awesome.
_________________
Progressive Rock

Early Psychedelic Rock

Live Albums

[Precedent]

[RockyRaccoon]

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

California Breed by California Breed

This just kinda is what it is. It's blues-based hard rock, similar to Radio Moscow or Rival Sons or Airborne or any of the number of bands that are attempting to be modern day AC/DC's or Led Zeppelin's. The difference with these guys is their drummer is actually Jason Bonham, so they have a little business going for a Led Zeppelin sound. And unlike some of their counterparts, these guys actually do the whole thing pretty well. The guitar solos are the highlights for me (surprise) as they're all very focused and slick solos that have a feeling of improvisation, but still maintain direction and purpose. Bonham's drumming is great, as I would expect, and the rest of the band is pretty tight too. This isn't anything new or groundbreaking, but it's just fun, all-out hard rock, and that's cool sometimes. If you're into that kind of thing.
_________________
Progressive Rock

Early Psychedelic Rock

Live Albums

[RockyRaccoon]

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Poems, Prayers And Promises by John Denver

This was my son's pick from my vinyl collection for our "quiet record" to listen to while he goes to bed. I've always loved John Denver, and I've always thought that he was under appreciated, and I'm not sure why he is. He's an excellent songwriter, great singer, he can be a little cheesy at times, but this album is the beginning of a fantastic stretch for him. This has two of his biggest hits, "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and "Sunshine On My Shoulders", the latter of which is just an absolutely gorgeous song that I sang to soooooo many girls in high school and it worked pretty well. There's also a really great cover of "Let It Be" that's, dare I say, just about as good as, if not better than, the original. It's good stuff guys, classic folk music.
_________________
Progressive Rock

Early Psychedelic Rock

Live Albums

[RockyRaccoon]

Monday, May 25th

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Archaeology Of The Future by Vadoinmessico


Busy Memorial Day, only had time for one album today and it was this one.

What makes Vadoinmessico different from your average, everyday psych-folk band is how diverse they are, and I don't mean that in the JMan-sense of the word. The band members are English, Austrian, Mexican, and Italian, and they all bring their own cultural influence to this album. It's a nice back and forth between slow ballads and upbeat, peppy, indie pop songs. It's a solid album, nothing incredible, but a good album.
_________________
Progressive Rock

Early Psychedelic Rock

Live Albums

[RockyRaccoon]

Tuesday, May 26th

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Dust To Dust by Heavenly

A really great power metal album with a touch of prog and a well-written (albeit cheesy) overarching story. It deals with a man who is turned into a vampire by a demon and forced to prey on the innocent until he is able to overcome the demon that turned him. It's power metal, what do you expect? Still though, it's well-written and maintains itself pretty well throughout the whole album. Benjamin Sotto's vocals are great and instrumentally this album is absolutely fantastic, especially the piano on "Victory (Creature Of The Night)".

Highly recommend this album to all power metal fans (and definitely Gowi if he hasn't heard it yet)
_________________
Progressive Rock

Early Psychedelic Rock

Live Albums

[RockyRaccoon]

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Multi-Love by Unknown Mortal Orchestra

This album would probably be incredible if I were super high, and I kinda feel like that's the case with a lot of UMB's music. But still, even sober, this is pretty cool. I feel a sense of paranoia throughout the whole album, all these different parts just going in and out, leaving as quickly as they came, a synth part blasting in as a guitar lick ends. I'd say this is just a step better than II was, and it's pretty cool
_________________
Progressive Rock

Early Psychedelic Rock

Live Albums

[RockyRaccoon]

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Hymn To The Immortal Wind by Mono

While this does kind of fall under the post-rock formula of soft then loud then soft again, with pretty beginnings and gigantic climaxes, this is that formula perfected. This is an album that will make you feel things, and it's always amazing to me how simple melody can evoke emotion. It's understandable how lyrics can evoke emotion, words do that, but just melody, just notes that really have no true meaning to us as a form of communication, they create feelings, they evoke an emotional response. Songs like "Burial At Sea" make you pause and think. Mono isn't saying anything to you literally, but they're saying so much to you through their music. They're forcing you to face yourself, to face how you feel, to face the fact that you even have feelings in the first place, they're making you confront that, and it's a really cathartic experience.
_________________
Progressive Rock

Early Psychedelic Rock

Live Albums