Blog

Yo! So, I almost missed this milestone (!!), and then I would be sooooo disappointed for not writing another generic analysis of my overall top 20! But I missed it only by 44 tracks, ain't bad, and here I go...

Previous "milestones":
40000 tracks played: 2008-04-01
30000 tracks played: 2007-04-28
20000 tracks played: 2006-04-29
10000 tracks played: 2005-11-19

50044 tracks played since January 4th 2005
50044 tracks in 1374 days ~= 36.42 tracks per day
and comparing to the 40000+ tracks played! journal entry of April 1th 2008:
10025 tracks played since April 1st 2008
10025 tracks in 192 days ~= 52.21 tracks per day (as opposed to ~=29.7)

Top 20 Artists:

1. Tool (-) - 2,009 tracks
Well, yeah, Tool are still no 1 on my charts... who would have thought??? :P

2. Ρόδες (-) - 1,221 tracks
Hmm, I was not really expecting this band to be still on the 2nd spot. However with 2 really good albums of greek hip-hop, rock, dub, electronica/trip-hop they can apparently still keep me interested!

3. Dream Theater (+1) - 1,142 tracks
Ok, on the last milestone journal entry DT lost their spot from Pain of Salvation and now they reclaimed it... Probably mostly because their discography is larger.

4. Pain of Salvation (-1) - 1,126 tracks
As above! Let's see what the new album will be like... and let's also see when mr Gildenlow is going to release that live DVD he has promised!

5. Metallica (+3) - 1,090 tracks
Ok... THEY ARE BACK!! FUCK YEAH!!! \m/
They would definitely be higher if my discman or mobile could also scrobble, Death Magnetic is definitely the album I enjoyed the most till now in 2008!

6. Active Member (+3) - 978 tracks
Well, their last releases might not be that good, their first 5 albums are amazing though! Real jewels of greek hip-hop/low bap!

7. Incubus (-2) - 975 tracks
Haven't seen these fuckers live yet... :(

8. Biffy Clyro (-1) - 959 tracks
Well, I am turning into a fanboy! Hell! I even went to a signing session! :D

9. Porcupine Tree (-3) - 884 tracks
I am really curious as to what Steven Wilson will do next... him producing the new Anathema album is quite interesting as well!

10. Coheed and Cambria (-) - 720 tracks
So their next step in the saga is the prequel?

11. Radiohead (-) - 710 tracks
Finally saw them live this summer in Glasgow and they were freakin' awesome!!

12. Θανάσης Παπακωνσταντίνου (+4) - 518 tracks
His collaboration with Διονύσης Σαββόπουλος is not as good as I expected it to be, however his past albums were enough to seal his move up the chart. :)

12. Opeth (+7) - 518 tracks
For some reason they were too low on the top 20... well, Watershed put things in their place, high! It's quite interesting that the band keeps on evolving like that!

14. Raining Pleasure (new) - 484 tracks
Hmm, the first new entry! Raining Pleasure is a good greek alternative band and their 2005 reinterpretation of the classic Reflections (originally by the great greek composer Manos Hadjidakis and the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble in 1969) seems to have given them good inspiration for their last album, Who's gonna tell Juliet? which I repeatedly enjoyed these past 192 days!

15. Oceansize (-3) - 482 tracks
It's quite irritating that 1 year in the UK I did not manage to see them play live, something that sadly I doubt will ever happen in Greece...

16. King Crimson (-1) - 458 tracks
The new lineup features the return of the dual drummer with one of them being Gavin Harrison of Porcupine Tree fame... quite interesting I'd say!

17. dredg (-4) - 448 tracks
Come on! Release the new album! This will also stop you guys from moving down my charts! Now thing about that! :P

18. Editors (-1) - 445 tracks
Poor man's Interpol or not I like them! ;)

19. Muse (-5) - 443 tracks
So, isn't it about time for them to release new stuff?

20. Pearl Jam (-2) - 425 tracks
As a greek might say Steady Value! :)

Random Trivia:
- 7 bands/artists come from the United States, 7 from United Kingdom, 4 from Greece and 2 from Sweden
- Only 3 of the 4 greek artists have lyrics in a language other than english (greek).
- Interestingly I have
seen live 16 out of the 20 bands/artists mentioned! Kewl!! :D

Ok, so it's June of 2008 (and in fact the end of June is close) and I am compiling my list of favourite albums that came out in 2007! Well, yeah, last year it was in April so I guess I am just getting worse... however the actual list was compiled in April of 2008, I'm just bad at writing it. :P

2007 was particularly difficult... many really good albums had to stay out even though at times I might prefer them more than some that made it here... anyhow, here we go:

[disclaimer: Do keep in mind this is a favourite albums list and in no way does it claim to be a best albums list...]

1. Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet: Brilliant! Steven Wilson managed to amaze me (and probably not only me!) once again! In Absentia was a great album, Deadwing was an equally great album in a different way, Fear of a Blank Planet seems to combine the feel of these two albums to create something greater, and then some! 6 songs (including the wonderful 17-minute Anesthetize) with each and every one of them able to make you enter that special atmosphere that every good concept album seems to carry with it and it manages to drag you down in it. A freakin' amazing album if you ask me!
2. Pain of Salvation - Scarsick: Well, many are going to complain: "PoS have gone nu!", "PoS have become too preachy!", etc... Well, NO. Simple as that, no they haven't. It's just another concept by the ingenious mister Daniel Gildenlöw that decided to use the second part of The Perfect Element to criticize the United States. Of course the album is not just that and that is the great thing about it. It still features grand songs, I'll just mention 2, the brilliant disco metal party song Disco Queen and the epic Enter Rain!
3. Ρόδες - Silent Disco: I think I've been all over this again, the way this greek band combines hip-hop with rock, dub, electronica, trip-hop and folk is amazing (I think I've used that adjective way too much haven't I?) and Silent Disco just manages to reaffirm my opinion of them!
4. Biffy Clyro - Puzzle: So that's supposed to be like their mainstream album? The one where they compromise to make themselves appeal to a greater audience? Well, if that's the case I really hope every band had to make such a compromise to get mainstream. I mean the album is just really really really good. Yeah, you could listen Folding Stars from like Snow Patrol (and what's the problem with Snow Patrol again?) but definitely Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies and a bunch of other tracks are pure Biffy Clyro smart and beautiful alternative rock songs.
5. Editors - An End Has a Start: One might say an album full of singles, another might say an album full of really nice songs. Imo they'd both be right. It could be that my watching them live in Glasgow this year has put them higher that expected in this list, it's still a favourite albums list though and An End Has a Start fits exactly that characterization.
-. Interpol - Our Love To Admire: I really couldn't have them higher than Editors cause even though I liked their album, I liked the Editors' one more, however I couldn't have them lower cause really that would just not be fair for Interpol cause they clearly are a "better" band than Editors. Then again I can just be full of shit, all I know is that this album along with the one above really make me enjoy myself.
7. Radiohead - In Rainbows: a. It's Radiohead, b. They are brilliant, c. In Rainbows is a good album, combining ...well, Radiohead with Thom Yorke's The Eraser more electronica-ish stuff. (d. it was free et al :P)
8. Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos: What would one expect from Dream Theater at this point? Another Scenes? Another Six Degrees? Or just another good metal album? Well, that's exactly what I was waiting and that's exactly what I got. Let's face it, DT are probably not going to be as progressive as they have been before, and if they do, well, that's going to be a pleasant surprise, till then however I'll keep on enjoying their not that progressive progressive metal!
9. Coheed and Cambria - No World For Tomorrow: A worthy follow-up to Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness. It might not have a song that amazing like Welcome Home, it might however be a slightly better album overall. Thumbs up!
10. Oceansize - Frames: Not much I can say here. Like I said before these guys in my eyes represent the new progressive rock and having 3 great albums in a row is no small feat. I hope they carry on like that!

PS: A lot of albums I really liked were left outside, but the following 2 were the closer to entering this list: Arcade Fire - Neon Bible and Raining Pleasure - Who's gonna tell Juliet?

The end of a busy period... what better to do than write meaningless journal entries in last.fm? ;)

So, 11 months ago I surpassed 30,000 tracks played, 1 year and another 11 months ago I surpassed 20,000 tracks played, while 2 years and 4 months ago I surpassed 10,000 tracks played. Well, now, 3 years and 2 months since my registration in last.fm I surpassed 40,000 tracks played! Hurray!! A small unscientific analysis follows:

40,019 tracks played since January 4th 2005
40,019 tracks in 1179 days ~=33.94 tracks per day.
and comparing to the 30,000+ tracks played! journal entry of April 28th 2007:
10,007 tracks played since April 28th 2007.
10,000 tracks in 337 days ~=29.7 tracks per day. (as opposed to ~=27)

Top 20 Artists

1. Tool (-) - 1,823 tracks
Not much to say really, Tool.

2. Ρόδες (+2) - 1,116 tracks
This greek hip-hop, rock, dub, electronica/trip-hop (yeah, all that! :P) band managed to reclaim its place as 2nd in tracks played on the overall top. Main reason was their new album, Silent Disco, its release reaffirmed my thoughts that they are one of the most promising and interesting greek alternative (in general) bands.

3. Pain of Salvation (-1) - 991 tracks
This band has released 7 masterpieces and even though 2/5's of the band have left the past 2 years I still feel the best has yet to come. We believe in Daniel!

4. Dream Theater (+1) - 983 tracks
Systematic Chaos is a nice metal album... I mean whenever I listen to it I enjoy it wholeheartedly, however I just wish that at some point they'll stop producing good and nice albums and will go back to releasing a masterpiece...

5. Incubus (+2) - 822 tracks
In the 30,000+ tracks played entry I mentioned their lack of airplay in Greece in general... well, in a pub in Edinburgh I listened to the whole Make Yourself and Morning View back to back. I really wish I'll finally manage to see them at some summer festival...

6. Porcupine Tree (-) - 812 tracks
Fear of a Blank Planet is a fuckin' awesome album, did I say that before? Well, it is!

7. Biffy Clyro (new) - 800 tracks
I guess buying all their albums had an impact on my top. Seeing them play live in Edinburgh Corn Exchange confirmed my suspicion that they are a great band. I am guessing (and hoping) that the best has yet to come from these guys!

8. Metallica (+4) - 695 tracks
I fuckin' saw them live at last, last summer in Rockwave Festival in Greece and well, they are the greatest heavy metal/hard rock band, period. I am trying to arrange to see them again this summer... Let's see what Rick Rubin will do to their sound (hopefully great things!).

9. Active Member (-6) - 679 tracks
Only 40 tracks played by Active Member from the last journal entry... the lack of their songs from my laptop is to blame.

10. Coheed and Cambria (+3) - 640 tracks
At first I thought No World For Tomorrow was no match for Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness, it managed to win me though even though it doesn't have any Welcome Home. Seeing them live was great, even though I'd prefer them not to be part of the Kerrang! Tour...

11. Radiohead (+8) - 523 tracks
Just to get things strait, In Rainbows is a really nice album!

12. Oceansize (+4) - 425 tracks
Another band with a new album out this past year, Frames is another flawless record from a band that I really like.

13. dredg (-4) - 410 tracks
I didn't listen much from these guys, however their new album is apparently ready (check their myspace) so probably this'll change.

14. Muse (+1) - 406 tracks
So, they went to Greece the year I was not in Greece and I haven't had the chance yet to see them in Scotland... fuck it!

15. King Crimson (-7) - 405 tracks
Copying from the 20,000 tracks entry: "The greatest progressive rock band of all times (imo)... I love every single aspect and incarnation of this band, a few more albums and my collection will have them all!"

16. Θανάσης Παπακωνσταντίνου (-5) - 403 tracks
Thanassis Papakonstantinou
(somewhat copying from the 30,000+ & 20,000+ entries) Now this is an artist that needs to be listened by more people, even from people outside Greece. He began as a good songwriter of greek modern/traditional music but has evolved to one of the most important greek experimental artists. 3 of his albums (Βραχνός Προφήτης/Vrachnos Profitis) (1998), Αγρύπνια/Agrypnia (2001) and H βροχή από κάτω/I vrohi apo kato (2006)) are a wonderfull showcase of his talent to fuse traditional greek music with rock, electronica, even jazz (?) and his last album Διάφανος/Diafanos (2006) is an album-return to his less experimental days, a successful return...

17. Editors (new) - 397 tracks
Now that was a true obsession! Reasons for this obsession were both their first album, The Back Room, and the new album, An End Has a Start, and then their amazing show in Glasgow!

18. Pearl Jam (-4) - 395 tracks
Not much to say here, they are one of the best big rock bands out there today and one of my favourite bands.

19. Opeth (new) - 369 tracks
A re-entry for a band last present in the top 20 in the 10,000+ entry, I'm sure the next entry will find them higher since their new album is set to be released this coming June... it's been 3 years since their last studio album... let's see...

20. Queens of the Stone Age (-2) - 354 tracks
2 things:
a. As far as I am concerned their new album sucks.
b. I had bought tickets for their sold out show in Edinburgh, however I found out they were cancelled the last days before the show... probably someone from above decided I didn't deserve to see them after bashing their last album that way... :P

some stupid stuff to point out:
- 8 bands/artists come from the United States, 8 come from United Kingdom, 3 from Greece and 2 from Sweden
- Only the greek artists have lyrics in another language than english (greek).
- I am really happy to find out that I have seen live 13 out of the 20 bands/artists mentioned... cool!

Basically I was driving around Athens and Piraeus for various jobs that needed to be done. On a sidenote the heat in Athens this week is unbearable, reaching and often surpassing 40 degrees Celcium. Anyway I was thankfully in my air condition equipped car and had OSI's Free on the cd player... and man was I impressed! Ok, I have already included this album in the list of my favourite albums of 2006, but damn this listening/driving session was a true revelation, I mean this album is trully amazing. Jim Matheos's guitars, Kevin Moore's vocals and keyboards and even Mike Portnoy's drums, take this album to another level. Fuckin' awesome! I love it! :)

The 10000 tracks frontier was surpassed on November 19th 2005, the 20000 tracks on April 29th 2006, a whole year ago (minus 1 day). My large offline periods are more than obvious. So let's see what we'll see...

Right now my tracks played count 30012!
30012 tracks played since January 4th 2005.
30012 tracks in 844 days ~=35.5 tracks per day.
and comparing to the 20000+ tracks played! journal entry of April 29th 2006:
9950 tracks played since April 29th 2006.
9950 tracks in 364 days ~=27 tracks per day. (as opposed to ~=57)

Top 20 Artists:

1. Tool (-) - 1560 tracks
10,000 Days is the reason almost 1/10th of these 9950 tracks played are from Tool! This album monopolized my playlist almost all summer and during Christmass time because of the band's live show in Athens on December 16th 2006. Definitely my favourite band this past year!

2. Pain of Salvation (+4) - 803 tracks
Scarsick was finally released this January and showed once again what a great band Pain of Salvation is. They manage to use many different music styles, ranging from their signature progressive metal sound to hip-hop without ever having something seem out of place. Seeing them live on April 1st 2007 was definitely not a joke!

3. Active Member (+1) - 649 tracks
This greek hip-hop/low bap band used to be my favourite for a long time, however they seem to have lost their touch with their last releases, I for one feel their last great album was 2001's Στον καιρό του αλλόκοτου φόβου/Ston kairo tou allokotou fovou, their recent release, the 3CD Σκιεράτσα/Skieratsa, was a decent release, not what I was expecting though...

4. Ρόδες (Rodes) (-2) - 648 tracks
This greek hip-hop, rock, dub, electronica/trip-hop band (it's always a fun repeating this! :P ) seems to be in constant decline in my charts, being no1 at the 10000 tracks entry and no2 at the 20000 tracks one, the real reason is that its second album is still in the works and even though Στη γιορτή της φαντασίας/Sti giorti tis fantasias is a great album I need something fresh!

5. Dream Theater (-2) - 641 tracks
Their new album, Systematic Chaos, is on its way and the first free download Constant Motion is highly promising! They'll probably move up in the future!

6. Porcupine Tree (-1) - 618 tracks
Fear of a Blank Planet is a great album!!!!! Deadwing was a great album, In Absentia was a great album... Porcupine Tree is a great band! :)
btw Way Out of Here was the 30000th track!

7. Incubus (+4) - 555 tracks
A highly underrated band, here in Greece that is, however all their singles from Light Grenades seem to get a more than decent airplay lately. And that's the way it should be since Incubus deserve it!

8. King Crimson (-) - 392 tracks
Copying from the 20000 tracks entry: "The greatest progressive rock band of all times (imo)... I love every single aspect and incarnation of this band, a few more albums and my collection will have them all!"

9. dredg (+4) - 350 tracks
Great progressive/alternative rock band, I hear their new album is on the works!

10. System of a Down (-3) - 347 tracks
Strangely I have almost stop listening to them this past year...

11. Θανάσης Παπακωνσταντίνου (+7) - 344 tracks
Thanassis Papakonstantinou
This great greek artist after a 3 album run of rock, electronica and jazz fused with traditional greek music (1998's Βραχνός Προφήτης/Vrachnos Profitis, 2001's Αγρύπνια/Agrypnia and 2006's Η βροχή από κάτω/I vrochi apo kato) released Διάφανος/Diafanos last December, an album-return to his less experimental days, a successful return.

12. Metallica (-3) - 341 tracks
They're coming to Greece this summer! My ticket is ready!!!

13. Coheed and Cambria (+3) - 340 tracks
I always enjoy listening to their nice progressive rock, metal and emo concept albums. I am very curious for their next step.

14. Pearl Jam (new) - 327 tracks
Strangely they were absent from my top 20, I guess their awesome performance in Athens on September 30th 2006 boosted them in my charts.

15. Muse (new) - 314 tracks
Another strange absence from my top 20, Black Holes and Revelations was an album I simply couldn't stop listening!

16. Oceansize (-6) - 301 tracks
Copying from my 20000 tracks entry: "A worthy descendant of the great british progressive rock bands, with selected elements from modern alternative rock."

17. The Mars Volta (-3) - 273 tracks
It's not that Amputechture is a bad album, it's just that I seem to be a bit tired of their sound lately... strange.

18. Queens of the Stone Age (-1) - 270 tracks
Let's see what the new album will be like...

19. Radiohead (-7) - 265 tracks
Tom Yorke's solo effort was a worthy alternative!

20. Queensrÿche (-) - 260 tracks
Ok, Operation: Mindcrime II was not Operation: Mindcrime, it might not even be one of their best albums, Queensrÿche is a nice band nevertheless.

20. Rush (-7) - 260 tracks
I still need time to fully appreciate them.


- Tool's 10,000 Days still dominate my overall top tracks, with Vicarious in particular having been played 216 times!

So basically I just want to express my enthousiasm about the new Porcupine Tree album, Fear of a Blank Planet... it's fuckin' awesome! It just surpassed Deadwing in my PT top albums list. And Anesthetize... what a song!!!!!???!!!!!???!?! Great I tell you GREAT!!

-WTF?!? It's April! We have entered the 4th month of 2007 and this dude is compiling his list of favourite albums that came out in 2006?
-Well... actually... yes!

No time to waste, here we go:
[disclaimer: keep in mind that I chose mostly from the ones I own since I am not able to fully appreciate burned music and mp3's, furthermore my Hard Drive recently crashed and a large part of my mp3 collection was lost :( ]

1. Tool - 10,000 Days: It might not be Lateralus (i.e. absolute masterpiece!), it was nevertheless the first Tool album in 5 years, and, damn, I fuckin' love this band! From the Lateralus-ish Vicarious to the epic Wings (Tool's most touching songs ever), from the Undertow-ish The Pot to Right in Two, 10,000 Days seems to have all the necessary ingredients for a great album. It's definitely my favourite album that came out on 2006... after all my profile exhibits just how much I appreciated it!
2. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations: I sure knew that Muse was an exceptional band, it definitely is one of my favourites, I absolutely adore Origin Of Symmetry, I waited for a worthy replacement for Absolution but, damn, I was never prepared for such a great album! It incorporates all the different elements of Muse's music and then some! Whatever Bellamy and co tried this time was a success!
3. Thom Yorke - The Eraser: I can't say I was prepared for this one either, Yorke managed to produce something more than electronica-ised Radiohead, a nice collection of beautiful melancholic songs.
4. Θανάσης Παπακωνσταντίνου - Διάφανος: Θανάσης Παπακωνσταντίνου (Thanassis Papakonstantinou) left his "avant-garde" experimentations aside for a while (thankfully not totally though) to present a collection of songs he included in his live shows the past few years, nice greek songs presented by artists like Σωκράτης Μάλαμας (Socrates Malamas) and Μάρθα Φριντζήλα (Martha Frintzila), a great alternative of contemporary greek music.
5. Isis - In the Absence of Truth: In my humble opinion Panopticon was their peak, however In the Absence of Truth is far from being a dissapointment, it definitely lives up to their high standards, I like it! (yeah)
6. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere: OMG! What was that? Crazy resulted to be one of the catchiest, most addictive tracks of all times, I never seemed to get bored of it even after it became a must in every dj's playlist of 2006. However, the album as a whole was great, in all of its hip-hop/soul/experimental/whatever glory!
7. Incubus - Light Grenades: Basically Incubus is an old favourite and even though this is another album I feel was inferior from its predecesor (the wonderfull A Crow Left of the Murder...), you cannot ignore tracks like Dig, Love Hurts or Paper Shoes...
8. OSI - Free: Kevin Moore and Jim Matheos are great artists each on his own, however I sometimes feel their collaborations surpass both Fates Warning and Chroma Key, or did I just blasphemed?
9. Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam: I can't seem to make my mind up... do I really like this album so much or am I just positively biased after their performance in Athens past September?
10. Film - Angel B: Now that is a band the world needs to know! One of the few alternative pop-rock bands that come from Greece and have true chances of succeeding abroad.

Sun 1 Apr – Pain of Salvation, Wastefall, Poem

So basically this was the first concert I went to alone, and it was fuckin' great! I mean ok, I had to get there on my own and didn't have anyone to talk to while waiting for the bands to get on stage but the concert experience was the same... well I should have known better all those times I didn't attend a live show because I couldn't find anyone to accompany me.

Anyhow, I reached Gagarin 205 at about 8 o'clock, 30 minutes after the official opening hour and this was proven to be a mistake since I only got to see the last verse from the last song of the opening band, the greek progressive metal/alternative metal band, Poem. Their sound seemed promising, I'll sure try to check them out in the future. Another concequence of my delayed arrival was that I didn't manage to get a nice place to see the show, unfortunately I had to avoid the heads of the ones in front of me throughout the show.

Well, a few minutes after Poem, Wastefall came on stage and proved once again they are a really good band that stands out from the rest of the greek metal scene. Unfortunately the sound was not good enough to help them showcase their true potential, something that probably was the reason why the crowd was not so enthousiastic. In fact I too awaited something more from them but it seems I'll just wait for the next big progressive metal show in Athens (since they seem to be a steady selection as a support at these shows).

And at last at about 9.30 Pain of Salvation hit the stage presenting probably their best performance in Greece (ok one might argue that Kristoffer Gildenlöw's absence was a low point, however imo the overall band performance reached and was slightly better than their first time in Greece again in Gagarin 205 back in 2003). The setlist of course was dominated with songs from Scarsick, it began with Scarsick, America which was followed by a voyage back in 1997 and Entropia with ! (Foreword) and Nightmist to move on with 2 tracks from One Hour by the Concrete Lake (Handful of Nothing and New Year's Eve). Then came a wonderfull performance of Ashes followed by Undertow and a bit of This Heart of Mine which led to Chainsling and a "rock-ed up" version of Diffidentia (the only track from BE) to accompany Flame to the Moth just before the end of their set with the definite highlight of the show, Disco Queen!!! After a short break the band came on for their encore, a beautiful cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah (probably a more Jeff Buckley-ish version), Cribcaged and ending with Used, leaving most of the fans (me included) more than satisfied with this almost 2 hour performance!

btw Daniel's new haircut was cool! :)