Yesterday marked the third anniversary of the death of Dimebag Darrell, the unique and incomparable guitarist from Pantera. Darrell Lance Abbott had such a distinctive sound and inspiring style of playing, and although Pantera had long split by the time of his death, and in my opinion, his other efforts afterwards (Damageplan, Rebel Meets Rebel) never quite lived up to the standard he set during his Pantera years, it's a real shame for him not to still be around, cranking out awesome riffs and mindblowing guitar solo's. A life cut too short. R.I.P Dimebag.

Labels: Music

I got a new toy last weekend, which I only really got around to playing with yesterday. Adding to my collection of neglected instruments, I now am the proud owner of a drumkit, on loan from Skogg for a while. I set it up yesterday in the end room and had a bit of a play, which was a bunch of fun. Aurora was quite enamoured by it as well, insisting on sitting on my knee while I had a play. I'm a fair way off being the next Mike Portnoy, but still, it's a fun little distraction :)

Labels: Music

Lately, I've been thinking how much impact some albums have had on my life (maybe in response to my Glut posting). I listen to these albums and memories flood back - the album in question is usually intrinsically tied to a significant portion of my life. It influenced things I did at the time, and it's musical pattern is truly engrained in my mind (so that I know every lyric, riff, lead, drum fill and even the gap between the tracks). Albums like these may or may not fall now in my "Top 20" favourite albums, they may have served a purpose at the time, or triggered something else in my life at that point. But these are the big ones - the one that helped form Andy over the years. So here they are, and this is the really cropped down, bare bones, list out of the 2,500+ CDs I own. I've listed them in chronological order as well (as I couldn't work out another appropriate way to list them);

• Pink Floyd; Animals (1977)
• Guns N' Roses; Appetite for Destruction (1987)
• Queensryche; Operation: Mindcrime (1988)
• Metallica; ...And Justice for All (1988)
• Megadeth; Rust In Peace (1990)
• Mr Bungle; Mr Bungle (1991)
• Dr. Dre; The Chronic (1992)
• Alice In Chains; Dirt (1992)
• Cypress Hill; Black Sunday (1993)
• Pearl Jam; Vs. (1993)
• Pantera; Far Beyond Driven (1994)
• Nine Inch Nails; The Downward Spiral (1994)
• Stone Temple Pilots; Purple (1994)
• Kyuss; Welcome to Sky Valley (1994)
• You Am I; Hourly Daily (1995)
• Something for Kate; Elsewhere for 8 minutes (1997)
• Liquid Tension Experiment; Liquid Tension Experiment (1998)
• Dream Theater; Metropolis 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999)
• Ocean Machine; Ocean Machine (2000)
• Opeth; Blackwater Park (2001)
• Coheed and Cambria; Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV (2005)

Arguably I could've listed every GNR record, or most Dream Theater ones, but this is a much cleaner, concise list, which I think tells a pretty good story about my musical background. I urge you to hunt down each of these albums and listen to each one, with serious intent, 3 or 4 times at least. They've definitely enriched my life.

And congratulations me - this is my 400th post! :)

Labels: Music

Yes, glut. More and more these days I'm thinking about the glut (and no, it's not the love of my gut (Gut love => Glut), I'm certainly not in love with that at the moment). It's the glut of media I see before me. Of produce. Of consumerism. And I'm definitely (unfortunately) a part of it. It first started to creep into my mind a few years back when I thought "Jeez, there is a LOT of crap music out there". And it hasn't gotten any better. I look at the top 40 these days and see a whole bunch of bands and songs I've never heard of, and likely never will. We have much greater choice now, and demand for variety, but it's not like many bands really stand out as classics these days. I mean, think about the stature of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Bob Dylan. And I recently read that US movie ticket sales were highest back in the 1930's (I read it, thus it must be true). I myself helped fuel this trend (and have found massive benefits from it as well) in the past through my CD collection. I have purchased a stupid amount of CDs in the past, and found great pleasure in exploring stuff I haven't heard before, finding obscure gems of albums or artists or buying an album based purely on it's cover art, or something else decidely different. But these days I think we're overwhelmed for choice. I think there is so much that even the great albums struggle to stand out. Can you imagine what it was like back in the 70's awaiting that next album from Pink Floyd... or Led Zeppelin. These days, there are no huge album launches that stand out... with the exception of one I suppose (and if that album ever sees the light of day I think China will become a democratic populace). And although I don't watch the Top 40 charts much, I'd be surprised if someone holds the #1 spot for longer than a month? I have no doubt that the perfect album was released this year, but I'll never find it amongst all the other shit. And this is such a stupid argument, as we (I) WANT diversity, we WANT (I) choice, but I sometimes think, at what cost? Music is losing it's impact perhaps... It's just becoming a unit shifter and a business (not that it ever wasn't obviously). But with manufactured idols and the ever marketed, ever changing whim of the youth, I think we're in danger. Back in the 70's, bands were allowed to have crap albums, make mistakes. These days, it seems that there is so much pressure to make money that if you don't, you're gone. And it forces so many one-album wonders. And I don't think it relates just to music either - look at all those movies. I bet people really took in the majesty of a new film in the mid twentieth century. Now, we line up to see Spiderman 3, because we feel we have to, to discuss it at work on Monday (although I did hear it was a good movie - haven't seen it). And books! Holy crap! I walk into a bookstore these days and only recognise 3 author's names. But maybe it's always been this way... maybe I'm changing my perspective through age. And I want both my cake and I want to eat it too. I want the variety, but I don't want the glut (of course, as subjectively determined by me as to what is glut). But I think the glut is just unavoidable. And finally, who's to say that the music I've produced in the past isn't just glut as well? Rant over, back to normal transmission.

Labels: Music

I just watched VH1's "Behind the Music" special on Pantera. I've seen one or two of these before (the Megadeth one is particularly good) and have always been impressed. The Pantera one is no exception - a riveting watch. It reminded me though of how incredible a band they were, and what a significant impact they had on metal music and my life in the '90s (and now). I remember first hearing "Vulgar Display" and thinking what an insanely heavy album it was. And then "Far Beyond Driven" came out - and it was a million times heavier. I always thought it was the heaviest thing that could ever be recorded. Then "The Great Southern Trend Kill" came out... oh my GOD. The title track from that album still stands with me as one of the heaviest songs I've ever heard (really only rivalled by some of Opeth's work). I love the way it starts - it's just blistering, bludgeoning and a sonic assault. Pantera certainly were a force to be reckoned with, and with really only their last album being somewhat substandard. Everything else they did was magnificent, and it's a shame that it ended as it did. At least we got some great stuff while they shone brightly. RIP Dimebag.

Labels: Music

Well, last weekend (the long weekend) saw the culmination of a few months worth of work after hours for me - in the form of music. Sunday night I played guitar with Greg and his students for the Monstar Music "Dining with the Stars" event. It was a really great experience - I loved playing live (it had been a very long time for me), and all the students did really well with their songs. I was personally worried about playing a couple of songs, but all went reasonably without a hitch (there were a few that I played a tad too fast, but wasn't too bad). So, what did I end up playing? Here's the set of songs (with original artists next to them);

• When There Was Me And You (High School Musical)
• Jessie (Joshua Kadison)
• Hey (Bic Runga)
• Light My Fire (The Doors)
• Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley)
• Because of You (Kelly Clarkson)
• One Crowded Hour (Augie March)
• Hurt (Nine Inch Nails)
• With You (Jessica Simpson)
• Touch of Paradise (John Farnham)
• Hyperballad (Bjork)

So, as you can see, a reasonably diverse mix. All went really well though, and truth be told I'd very much like to do it again (but the preparation time for doing it has been a bit of a killer). I've really enjoyed playing guitar more and more (and have to try and keep up the habit now).

Labels: Guitar, Monstar, Music

Now online here. Suffice to say, was a great night.

Labels: Concerts, Music

Steph, Skogg, Timmy and I saw The Pixies at the Sidney Myer Music bowl on Wednesday night. In short, it was pretty freakin' amazing. The sound was superb (far better than I imagined it would be) - it was near perfect. The weather was great - certainly not too cold for a March night in Melbourne. Our vantage point was insanely good - 2 people back from the barrier that separated seating and standing, and not crushed up against people; plenty of room to move. And finally, the band was incredible. I'd rank it as one of the best gigs I've seen. They were on fire; relentless in their sonic assault, and the setlist reads like a dream. I've nicked this off Skogg's site (saving myself some work - thanks Skogg);

1. Bone Machine - a totally perfect starting song.
2. Caribou Monkey Gone to Heaven
3. Wave of Mutilation

and they stopped mid-song in monkey with Frank Black demanding that a stupid big beach ball was removed. i think most in the crowd agreed with this. there was an amusing few minutes of discussion of where to re-start the song again.

4. U-Mass
5. Head On
6. Caribou
7. No.13 Baby
8. Tame
9. Hey
10. Gouge Away
11. Mr Greives
12. Broken Face
13. I Bleed
14. Here Comes Your Man
15. Planet of Sound
16. Debaser
17. Crackity Jones
18. Something Against You
19. Isla de Encanta
20. Nimrod's Son
21. Vamos
22. Where Is My Mind?

and joey's theatrics were great in Vamos, with the feedback and playing guitar with a drumstick.

encore:
23. La La Love You
24. Gigantic

All in all, it was a gorgeous night, and one that's left me singing Pixies songs for the past few days. Also saw Jarvis Cocker who was quite (unexpectedly) impressive - he's a funny man. The night belonged to the Pixies though.

Labels: Concerts, Music

I've been listening to a lot of "The Get Up Kids" lately. I'm a huge fan of their side projects ("The New Amsterdams", and "Reggie and The Full Effect"), but have never really given "the original band" a whole bunch of time and effort. So, good tunes and great lyrics. Here's some from a song called "Holy Roman";

Road map is a bitter pill
Scene stinks of a double deal
A good front like the devil will
Your eyes on the prize
Come clean like you said you would
Make peace like i know you could
Hero's don't do any good
With tears in their eyes

Fight the good fight
Maintain the trend
Just look me in the eyes and say
The world's not gonna end

Take stock in a master plan
Place bets on an empty hand
Empire has a leg to stand
Holy roman style
A poison from a holy grail
Blind faith doesn't make a sale
Landmines on a righteous trail
March rank and file

Unpatriotic
Friend stabbing friend
You'll look me in the eyes
And say the worlds not gonna end
Just look me in the eyes
And say the worlds not gonna end

Will you save us?
Will you save us?

Labels: Music