Now Playing Thread

[Steve Jones]

Various Artists - Working Man.  (A Rush tribute)

[Bupie]

Ok, thanks guys 

Although he is some kind of a "Steve Jones antithesis" since he admits that he almost never listens to music, I have the highest respect for Matin Orford considering some of his interviews that I read on varied websites :

"I don't really understand all these labels. We just write songs we like and that's it. We have always written great little pop songs, and sometimes we linked them all together to make a long track like "The Last Human Gateway", and sometimes we would just do them as pop songs. We did a lot of shorter songs on the Nomzamo and Are You Sitting albums as we wanted to try and get a hit single and make lots of money! I can't see anything wrong with trying to be rich and famous, and we tried to make our music appeal to as wide a range of people as possible. There is absolutely no point in the kind of wilful obscurity that some prog bands seem to crave"

"There are far too many people allegedly playing prog rock that see their music as some kind of great art rather than the boring, humourless crap it actually is. Prog rock is part of the entertainment business, for heaven's sake! If you're in a band, your primary concern should be making sure that the people that go to your gigs have a great night out. My advice to any aspiring prog band would be "write great tunes and put on a great show". If you can't do that, don't bother! I am absolutely certain that unless prog rock produces some more great songwriters that know how to work an audience, it will simply die out."

Of course, I admit that my opinion is a bit subjective since I am grateful to Martin for never -as far as I know- disowning the Menell's era of IQ that happens to be my favorite as each Roomie knows 

NP Megadeth - Risk

[Steve Jones]

Although he is some kind of a "Steve Jones antithesis" since he admits that he almost never listens to music

I'm starting to get a panic attack just thinking about it!


Strangers on a Train - The Key Part 2: The Labyrinth

[The Butterfly Man]

NP: Arena - Live & Live

Probably one of the (if not the) best sounding live-albums I own.

Tom

[Steve Jones]

Rush - Vapor Trails

Great album, shame about the sound quality

[Bupie]

NP: Arena - Live & Live

Probably one of the (if not the) best sounding live-albums I own.

Tom

Agreed

Rush - Vapor Trails

Great album, shame about the sound quality

I never succeeded to stand more than two songs of this one in a row but I will try again someday ...

NP still Megadeth - Risk since I had to cut the first listen short because of a friend's phone call ...

[Steve Jones]

Yes - The Ladder

Woof!  What an awesome album this one is!

[Steve Jones]

Pixies - Death to the Pixies

[Teunis]

ACT - Silence

[Steve Jones]

Previously: Marillion - Happiness is the Road Volume 1
Currently: Marillion - Happiness is the Road Volume 2

[The Butterfly Man]

NP: Counting Crows - Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings

Tom

[maddox]

Epica ~ The Classical Conspiracy

[maddox]

Shadow Gallery ~ The Dance Of Fools

[Steve Jones]

Mott the Hoople - Friends and Relatives

[Steve Jones]

Just: Hawkwind - Quark, Strangeness and Charm
Now: Def Leppard - Adrenalize

[Manatee]

NP: Catherine Wheel - Chrome

One of my favorite catharsis albums, which I've happily just acquired on CD.  I used to play a tape of this *extremely* loudly in my car when I was feeling frustrated or angry.  The only drawback is that I don't dare play it loudly enough while wearing earphones for fear of causing serious hearing damage.   

Re: Martin Orford - I hadn't read any of his interviews before, but I generally approve of people who don't themselves too seriously (one of the things I love about Devin T).  He's absolutely right that musicians are in the entertainment business, so it's rather foolish for them to willfully make inaccessible music.  I do think well-crafted music is art, but unless they've already made enough money to live comfortably on, of course the musicians should strive to make music that there's a reasonable market for.  I don't really blame him for not listening to music much -- when what you do for fun becomes your job, it tends to take some of the joy out of it, or at least lead you to have had enough of it while working that you don't need to deal with it some more during off-hours.  As a prog fan, I'll admit to being something of a musical 'elitist' in that I do take some satisfaction that there is a fairly select group of us who appreciate it, my opinion of the general public not being all that high.  Still, I can also enjoy music that happens to be popular if it's good or fun, and unless they're really a**holes, I don't begrudge popular musicians their success.  On the other hand, I'm also grateful that there are people out there that make challenging (but great) music that may not be so popular because, when it clicks for me, this is the music I love best.   

[Manatee]

NP: Martin Orford - The Old Road

[Steve Jones]

Def Leppard - Songs from the Sparkle Lounge

[Manatee]

Matthew Sweet - Altered Beast*

*my usual warning about singer-songwriter content -- approach with caution if that is not your thing.

[Steve Jones]

3 Colours Red - Copper Girl (CD Single #1)

[Steve Jones]

3 Colours Red - Nuclear Holiday (CD Single)

Edit: and now 3 Colours Red - This is my Hollywood (CD Single)

Can you tell what I've been ripping tonight?

[Steve Jones]

Ian Hunter - The Artful Dodger

[Bupie]

Epica ~ The Classical Conspiracy

Is it good ?

NP Pendragon - Pure 

[Steve Jones]

Ian Hunter/Mick Ronson - YUI Orta.

IMHO this is Ian Hunter's finest hour.  Absolute barnstormer of an album

[Bupie]

NP Enchant - A Blue print Of The Word

A very good album albeit a bit linear. The Thirst is a killer of a song. I strongly recommend the double CD edition for its bonuses and (that's for you, Steve  ) detailed inner notes.