At youtube, I've got a message from Maneli Jamal (maneli at youtube) to vote for his song at Guitar Idol 2009 if I like it. So I listened to his song (see below) and then I checked out the other top ranked entries.
They are all shredders. Some good shredders, okay, but shredders. In my humble opinion Maneli plays much better music.
Maybe you think so, too - voting is very easy and just requires email adress registration.
Dream Theater (7 times / 1997 - Toronto / 1998 - Montreal / 2000 - Germany & France / 2004 - London & Ottawa / 2006 - Montreal) Gary Cherone (6 times / 1995, 2001, 2004 & 2008 - Toronto, Boston 3x, Worcester & New York) Population 1 / DramaGods (5 times / 2004 - New York
& New England) Derek Sherinian (5 times / 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002 x2 - Toronto, Montreal x3, Porto Alegre) Mourning Widows (4 times / 2000 & 2001 - Boston & New England) Def Leppard (4 times / 1996 & 2000 - Montreal / 2003 & 2004 - London) Rush (3 times / 1989 & 2004 & 2008 - Montreal) Extreme (3 times / 1995 - Toronto / 2008 - Boston & New York) Mike Mangini (3 times / 1995, 1999, 2004 - Toronto, Montreal 2x) Primus (2 times / 1999 & 2004 - Montreal) Planet X (2 times / 2000 & 2002 - Montreal) Don Ross (2 times / 2004 & 2008 - Montreal/FJM) King's X (2 times / 2008 w/ Extreme - Boston & New York) Ian Thornley (2 times / 1997, 2004 - Toronto, Montreal)
Like many others, I got into Opeth through the masterpiece Damnation. I was really not a fan of growling (and I still dislike most bands who use it), but Mikael Åkerfeldt's songwriting on Damnation was so amazing and influenced my own songs so much that I just sort of had to take the risk and buy this new "regular" Opeth release.
I'm very glad I did.
Strangely enough, the heaviest song on the record, Heir Apparent, was - besides Coil of course ;) - the first track I really got into and it's still one of my favourite Opeth songs (I also bought Deliverance and Blackwater Park in the meantime). Hessian Peel is really the standout track for me on Watershed. The way it builds up, the divine "verse" part and the heavy climax make this song one of the best I've heard in my entire life. It just captures everything I love about Opeth.
What I love most about this album is the way it sounds in it's entirety. Especially the 5.1 mix of the Special Edition sounds perfect for me.
Their concert in Munich was amazing. The outro of Deliverance left me speechless ;)
I can't put into words how much I love these two works.
Through Heima, I finally got a closer insight on the band and especially the beautiful country Iceland. The performances, the choice of songs and all of the background information are picked and put together just perfectly.
Im so happy I was able to catch them this summer in Dresden and see the masterpiece Untitled 8, one of my all-time favourites, live together with Gobbledigook and all of it's climax confetti.
Goosebumps everywhere :)
The emotions they convey with their music are nothing but amazing.
I finally got the Deluxe Edition a few days ago - needless to say it's a perfect and beautiful package in every respect!
The record that finally got me into post-rock. Perfect record from the beginning to the end, with everything I love so much about this genre.
Their concert in Munich was special, too. I never heard such a perfect performance by any other band yet (well maybe Tool ;) and the sound was perfect, too.
The climax of I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead was one of the most beautiful things I've seen and especially felt live this year.
I think you have to hear it - it's nearly impossible to describe it through words.
This album just blew me away. I agree with the general consensus that you either love or hate this record. Im glad it grew on me that well, I listened to it almost 20 times now and I still discover new things in this "wall of sound".
It's just so over the top but still composed in an amazing way.
Playing these songs (especially Aberinkula and Wax Simulacra) on guitar is so much fun! The way Omar Rodriguez-Lopez plays with strange time signatures and transitions is mind-expanding for me.
Their concert in Munich, which was almost 3 hours long, had a major influence on me, too - the most energetic performance I've seen so far!
I was very excited when I first heard about Trent's new work, Ghosts I-IV, and especially the idea behind it. I would have loved to buy a special edition of it, but the "regular" digipack was ok, too ;)
I have to say I love every single song, from the quiet start (9 Ghosts I) to the heavy, disturbing final tracks (31 Ghosts IV). I hope Trent continues working on this series in the future!
The Slip just right after Ghosts was perfect, too. Head Down, Echoplex and The Four of Us Are Dying (which always reminds me of Tool's Reflection, and i love that) stand out most for me.
Too bad they only toured in America with the Lights In The Sky Tour...I hope they come to Germany at least next year!
A friend of mine recommended them to me. I decided to go to his concert in Munich this summer, although I only knew like three songs. I believe this was the main reason why this concert blew me away that much. I thought it only would be John Butler who would be the standout person, but Shannon Birchall and Michael Barker are great musicians, as well.
Soon after the concert, I bought this record. I love all the lap steel guitar riffs with their funky sound to it. Very happy sounding music, too.
Standout tracks for me are Gov Did Nothin', Groovin' Slowly and of course, Funky Tonight ;)
I never expected to find a band like Panzerballett. Mixing jazz and metal the way they do is completely unique. But confining them to only these two genres would be wrong. The also throw in funk, swing and whatever you can think of.
Songs like Friede, Freude, Fußball, which is based on the world-famous soccer rythm, or their version of Birdland made me laugh like a little child when I first heard them.
On the other hand, Jan Zehrfeld, the "head" of the band, is truely a genius composer: Zehrfunk and Reload are just two examples.
If you are able to see them live one time, go there! Their shows are completely hilarious! They tend to play jazz-versions of songs like Mein Teil or Ein bisschen Frieden or a 10 minute Zappa-Medley.
You don't know what to expect, and that's what I love so much about them.
I picked this album out of all the amazing Fingerstyle records I discovered this year:
I have to mention Kaki King - Dreaming of Revenge, Andy McKee - The Gates of Gnomeria, Matthew Santos - Matters of the Bittersweet and of course, Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries.
Antoine Dufour brought his songwriting to a new level with this record. He now seems to focus even more on the feeling he wants to convey with his songs rather than throwing too many techniques into his songs (of course, his songs still are damn hard to play ;). For me, that was the best thing he could possibly do. Existence just contains everything I love about fingerstyle and acoustic guitar.
I really had mixed feelings when I first heard of this new project by my favourite singer, Maynard James Keenan. People were saying it's a joke and even the hilarious sellout-discussion began once more. I bought it non the less. Once again, I'm glad I did!
I liked it more and more with every listen and I still listen to it very often. I really like it's unique sound, I did not expect it to be something completely different than Maynard's other projects.
This record and especially Rev. 22:20 (dry martini mix) got me into the whole lounge/chillout/downtempo direction, I started listening to Bonobo, Zero 7 and Thievery Corporation.
The Cat Empire is a really special band for me: they have such a unique sound (I have yet to find a band with a similar or even near style), they are amazing musicians (their 20min+ jam in Munich last year contained everything from Ollie McGill's perfect jazz solo to an unbelievable vocal solo by Harry James Angus), they just make music that makes me happy everytime I hear it and the best point: they develop as a band and change their sound constantly.
These two albums are the first full ones I was able to buy (what is the point of taking half of Cat Empire and half of Two Shoes and mix it together?!).
So Many Nights then fulfilled all my dreams, although it's less experimental than Cities. Who would have expected songs like The Darkness or Voodoo Cowboy?
A few months later I bought Cities, and I couldn't believe me ears when I first heard it. I love the experimental stuff of The Cat Empire, and them doing Funk (Boogaloo & Side To Side) and songs like Down At The 303 (genius lyrics by the way) were the most amazing things I could imagine regarding this band.
Alright, as we near the end of this first Y2K decade, it's time to take a look back at all the incredible Albums that have been released up to now.
I'll start off this extensive research with 2000, up until 2009. I'll then go back to 1980, all the way up to 1999, to then wrap things up with the 70s and before.
Seeing the amount of albums I listen(ed) to, I'll be choosing my Top 25 Albums for each year. An ordered Top 10, and ~15 others worth mentioning. I'm also considering the live albums and EPs (~5), but they have their own section since songs on these have usually already been released before.
These are general rankings of how I see them today, and based on my Last.FM songs playcounts (2005-now) put through the formula:
Total Sum of each Album's Song's (running time X playcount)
DIVIDED BY
Album's Total Running Time
Thanks to MediaMonkey and its amazing scripting abilities, that formula gives an Album's REAL playcount, taking into consideration every song's lenght & playcount in relation to the overall album's lenght and # of songs on it.
You'll see the result (# of times I've really listened to an album since 2005) besides each, along with my 5* Rating. (x/x)
Besides each Year, you get the Total of all Albums' Playcounts and the average of all Albums' Ratings. (x / %)
Note that I haven't necessarily discovered and enjoyed all these albums on their released years, some I discovered years later. So these are also based on how important (to me) some of these albums were at the time.
(**) are the complete albums I was into at that time;
(*) are albums that contained only a few song(s) I was into or listened to at that time;
and those without (*) are albums I discovered years later.
27. What is your favourite lyric by 3?: Frank Zappa
hell yes, there are so many good lyrics by him, but Dinah-Moe Humm and Bobby Brown are my favourites
Coldplay (3.5)
David Bowie - Cybernauts (3.5)
Def Leppard (5)
Deep Purple (4)
Depeche Mode (4)
ELP (4)
Eric Clapton (4)
Iron Maiden (4)
Genesis (4)
Gentle Giant (4.5)
King Crimson (4)
Led Zeppelin (4.5)
Marillion (4)
Massive Attack (3.5)
Muse (4)
Ozric Tentacles (4.5)
Pink Floyd (4.5)
Porcupine Tree (4.5)
Portishead (3.5)
Queen (4.5)
Radiohead (4)
The Beatles (4)
The Who (3.5)
Yes (4)
Finland
Apocalyptica (5)
Nightwish (3.5)
France
Air (4)
Claude Debussy (4.5)
Deep Forest (4)
Francis Cabrel (3.5)
Frédéric Chopin (4.5)
Pipo & Elo (4.5)
The Gipsy Kings (4.5)
Germany
Enigma - Michael Cretu (5)
George Frideric Handel (4.5)
Guano Apes (4)
Johann Sebastian Bach (4.5)
Johannes Brahms (4.5)
Kingdom Come (4.5)
Ludwig van Beethoven (5)
Richard Strauss (4.5)
Richard Wagner (4.5)
ABBA (3.5)
Europe (4)
Freak Kitchen (4.5)
Mattias IA Eklundh (5)
Opeth (4)
Pain of Salvation (4)
USA
A Perfect Circle (4)
Aerosmith (4)
Alice in Chains (4)
Andy McKee (5)
Alter Bridge - Creed (3.5)
Attention Deficit (4)
Audioslave (4)
Big Wreck (4.5)
Blues Saraceno (5)
Bon Jovi (4.5)
Bozzio Levin Stevens (4)
Breaking Benjamin (4.5)
CAB (4)
Chevelle (4)
Chroma Key (4)
Coheed & Cambria (3.5)
Dave Matthews Band (4)
Deftones (3.5)
Derek Sherinian (5)
Disturbed (4)
Dixie Dregs (4)
DramaGods (5)
Dream Theater (5)
dredg (4.5)
Eagles (3.5)
Evanescence (4)
Extreme (5)
Faith no More (4)
Fates Warning (3.5)
Firehouse (4)
Flesh (4)
Foo Fighters (4)
Frank & Dweezil Zappa (4)
Godsmack (4)
Green Day (4)
Guns n Roses (4)
Incubus (3.5)
Infectious Grooves (4)
Jim Matheos (4.5)
Jimi Hendrix (4)
Joe Satriani (4)
John Petrucci (5)
John Williams (5)
Jonny Lang (3.5)
Jordan Rudess (4)
Justin King (4.5)
Kaki King (4.5)
Karma to Burn (4.5)
Kenny Wayne Shepheard (4)
King's X (4)
KISS (4)
Korn (3.5)
Laundry (4)
Lenny Kravitz (3.5)
Les Claypool (4)
Liquid Tension Experiment (5)
Live (4)
Living Colour (4)
Mahavishnu Orchestra (4.5)
Megadeth (3.5)
Metallica (5)
Michael Hedges (5)
Michael Jackson (4)
Moby (3.5)
Mourning Widows (5)
Mr Big (3.5)
Mr Bungle (4)
Mudvayne (3.5)
Niacin (4)
NIN (4)
Nirvana (4)
O.S.I. (5)
Ozzy Osbourne (3.5)
Pearl Jam (4)
Planet X (5)
Platypus (4.5)
Poison (3.5)
Primus (5)
QOTSA - Kyuss (4)
Rage Against The Machine (4)
Red Hot Chili Peppers (4)
Saigon Kick - Super Transatlantic (4.5)
Satellite Party (4.5)
Spock's Beard (4)
Steve Vai (5)
Steve Morse (4.5)
Stevie Ray Vaughan (5)
Stone Temple Pilots (4)
System of a Down (4.5)
The Beach Boys (4)
The Offspring (4)
The Strokes (3.5)
Tool (4.5)
Tribe of Judah (4.5)
Velvet Revolver (4)
Victor Wooten - VTT (4)
Zakk Wylde - Pride & Glory - BLS (4)
ZZ Top (3.5)
Another cool thing I've seen today is a videoclip by Metal Church - Date with Poverty. My friend, TooOld_TooCold told me about it - thanks, Bro! :) Here it is:
OK, hope you had a good time watching these!
Antoine Dufour
