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QotD: Strange Little Songs

Jason — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:48:38 +0000

What are the weirdest song titles in your playlist or music collection?
Submitted by Charline.

I listen to a lot of progressive rock type stuff which, by definition, can have some crazy song titles.

Spock’s Beard

The first one that comes to mind is Spock's Beard's epic off of their Feel Euphoria album, A Guy Named Sid. As you might guess, this song is a story about…a guy. Named Sid. Spock's Beard also has, on an early cd Snow two songs named Freak Boy, and Freak Boy: Part 2.

Porcupine Tree is also a good source of odd song names. Baby Dream in Cellophane, for example.

James LaBrie's Millmuzzler project has Beelzebubba which is a really weird song to go along with it's title. Speaking of solo projects, Jordan Rudess' latest solo CD has a couple of gems on it. Bar Hopping With Mr. Picky and Insectsamongus specifically.

And who can forget, the Arrogant Worms' I Am Cow.

I could keep on going…but I don't really feel like looking through my entire music collection this morning.

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Vox Hunt: Song In The Key Of Life

Jason — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:56:50 +0000

Audio: Share a song that fits the moment you’re living right now.
Inspired by cherè.

I don’t have the song on me right now…I might throw it up later if I remember. I do have some lyrics though.

This song’s been floating around in my head for the past month or two pretty regularly. Specifically after the first chorus. Just been going through a rough time, with the changes at work in January.

My iPod seems to have a habit of playing songs on random that happen to apply to whatever I might be feeling at the moment. It’s rather strange. Anyway, it’s not QUITE as bad as the song might make it seem to appear, but it really does apply.

Spock’s Beard – Rearranged

I have never been in this
For all the fortune and fame
All I ever wanted
Was to be in the game

A part of something bigger
Something bigger then me
Inspired from love of the moment
And being what I was born to be

Sometime a dream gets wasted
Sometimes it all just falls and fades away
And you may feel you’ve made it
Then in a flash it all get rearranged

Deaf dumb and stupid
Or am I just plain nice
Live and let live was a mantra I used
More then once or twice

Thought I had it all going on
Thought I was cruising in 5th gear
In a snap it all went out of control

Everything that was so normal now seemed
So confusing and weird
Now the live and let live
That was so safe in my heart
Didn’t feel that sincere
Giving all that I had
Doing right I believed
I’ll just go cry in my beer
I blinked my eyes and I had a new life
This much is clear

Sometime a dream gets wasted
Sometimes it all just falls and fades away
And you may feel you’ve made it
Then in a flash it all get rearranged

QotD: Top 5 In ’06 – Music

Jason — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:13:12 +0000

What are your top 5 CDs/albums of 2006?
Submitted by eliz. s.

Barenaked Ladies Are Me

Barenaked Ladies – Barenaked Ladies Are Me
If we’re not counting live releases, the new Barenaked Ladies CD would have to top my charts for the best release of 2006. They went independent and it shows, when them taking the time they needed in the studio to perfect this group of songs. They take the band in some new directions and mash up a whole bunch of different musical styles into a cohesive package.

My favorite tracks include the very funny “Bank Job”, “Everything Has Changed” and “Maybe You’re Right”.

I was hoping to go see them in concert again this year, but unfortunately, things didn’t work out.
OSI – Free
Coming back from their debut album, this side project of Kevin Moore, Jim Matheos of Fates Warning and Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater deliver a slightly heavier album, mixing electroinca influences with heavy guitar riffage. I ended up liking this effort a lot more than their self titled debut album.
Frost* - Milliontown
This is my pick for the best new discovery of the year. I wrote a blog post about them earlier, so I’ll refer you to that for the full details, but just in short, this is Progressive Metal without a lot of the progressive metal cliches. It’s a really fresh sound, and really original. It’s really too bad they called it quits recently, as I was looking forward to the next album from these guys. Hopefully the breakup is temporary because it was time related.
Spock’s Beard – Spock’s Beard
Here’s one I didn’t think I was going to be listing so soon, but I really can’t stop listening to this album. It’s started to really grow on me. I still don’t enjoy the instrumental track on it, but I’m getting more and more into it.
Muse – Black Holes and Revelations
Muse can be a hard band to get into. Musically, this effort is probably the most interesting thing that I’ve heard from them since I got into them with Absolution. However, I’m getting a little bored with the vocal lines which don’t vary much from song to song. They become almost predictable at times. Still, a good album by a good band.

If we were to include Live albums, Dream Theater – Score would be my number one pick. Dream Theater + Orchestra = goodness.

Runners up also incuded Iron Maiden’s A Matter of Life and Death and The Flower King’s Paradox Hotel.

New Music! Woohooo!

Jason — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 13:06:46 +0000

Spock's Beard - Spock's Beard

I got a nice little surprise in the mail yesterday. The new Spock’s Beard CD arrived yesterday, a day before it was supposed to be released. It’s nice getting stuff like that before the release date.

I haven’t been able to listen to it much, so I’ll do a full review later, but from what I’ve heard, it sounds like they’ve continued their transition that started with Feel Euphoria from their Neal Morse era music to the post-Neal age. They’re slowly moving away from a pure progressive style into more of a hard rock with progressive tendencies. Which isn’t a complaint, because they pull it off, surely.

Nicks vocals also seem to be improving. Either he’s getting more comfortable with lead vocals or the songs fit him better, I’m not sure. My first impression is that it comes in behind Octane and in front of Feel Euphoria in my ranking of AN (After Neil) beard efforts.

In other news, I mentioned my campaign for trying to eat a little healthier and do more exercising last week. So far so good. It’s hard to tell at this poinit if it’s just normal fluctionations or a gravitational anomaly or something, but I’m down about 3 pounds or so since the start. Less snacky stuff, more healthy items and making sure I actually do exercise instead of making excuses about it.

QotD: This Week’s Top 25

Jason — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 12:56:52 +0000

What are your top 25 most played songs?
Submitted by Cooxie.

Man, I wish I hadn’t just switched my iTunes libraries a couple weeks ago. That had playlist information going back 2 years so I could tell you easily. Best I can do now is use my last.fm profile. After looking at this, I realize I listen to a ton of Dream Theater.

Spock’s Beard - The Light
Dream Theater - Peruvian Skies
Dream Theater - Just Let Me Breathe
Dream Theater – Pull Me Under
Dream Theater – The Mirror
Barenaked Ladies – Another Postcard
Dream Theater – Regression
Barenaked Ladies – Testing 1,2,3
Dream Theater – Lie
Barenaked Ladies - If I had $1,000,000
Barenaked Ladies - Be My Yoko Ono
Dream Theater – Strange Deja Vu
Dream Theater – The Spirit Carries On
Dream Theater – Home
Dream Theater – Overture 1928
Barenaked Ladies – Call and Answer
Barenaked Ladies - The Old Apartment
Dream Theater – A Fortune in Lies
Dream Theater - Learning to Live
Dream Theater - Take Away My Pain
Barenaked Ladies - Maybe You’re Right
Dream Theater - Through My Words
Dream Theater – Beyond This Life
Yes – South Side of the Sky
Barenaked Ladies - Everything Has Changed

Man, I need to diversify a bit. I do actually listen to other stuff, contrary to popular opinion. It’s just that I have so much of those two (completely different sounding) bands that it overshadows the other things I listen to. Makes my musical tastes look entirely one sided when viewed from that angle.

QotD: The Audience Goes Wild

Jason — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 11:06:17 +0000

What’s your favorite song to sing karaoke-style? If you don’t have one, why not?

I’ve only done real karaoke a couple times at a friends house, using Karaoke Revolution Party. We had a little competition going for a while since I kept beating her and she tried to pick songs to bring me down. Like Mariah Carey – I Will Always Love You and Aretha Franklin’s Natural Woman. But my favorite song out of all the ones that in the game is probably American Woman, the Lenny Kravitz version. My voice is pretty much in the same range as his, so I’m able to actually make it sound pretty good (I think anyway )

If I were to expand the question to my favorite song to sing along with, it’d have to be Spock’s Beard – The Light. It’s a long song…about 15-20 minutes or so but, for some reasons I find it really hard not to sing along with it. My vocal range is also pretty similar to Neal Morse’s, so I can take on a lot of the Spock’s Beard songs and do a pretty good job with them.

QotD: In Heavy Rotation

Jason — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 11:17:52 +0000

What albums are in heavy rotation for you right now?

First up, we have Frost* – Milliontown. I got turned onto this particular group through the Mike Portnoy Forums when somebody posted over there that people should check them out. It’s made up of a bunch of people from other bands, like Jon Jowitt and Andy Edwards from IQ.

The main creative force behind it is Jem Godfrey, who is primarily a pop songwriter who secretly has a love for Progressive music. Frost* is his take on what progressive rock/metal should be. I’m always horrible at explaining how music sounds, so it might be easier for you to go check it out and listen to some of the samples It’s a very well produced album, and probably my favorite release of the year so far.

Another CD that’s been played a lot recently is from Spock’s Beard. Their second release after the departure of Neal Morse, Octane, really shows their growth as a band. I think they’ve finally found their sound, which is a cross between Prog and more popish songs. They’re really not that great at making long epic songs anymore, but the individual parts of A Flash Before My Eyes can stand on their own. What they excel at are tracks like There Was A Time and As Long as we Ride which are shorter songs with great hooks and wonderful production and playing. I can safely say I enjoy both the Neal Morse era Beard and the new Post-Neal era stuff.

Oh, and ONE WEEK until Dream Theater – Score is released! This is a live DVD and audio CD release from one of the best shows of Dream Theater’s carreer at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The best part is they got a full orchestra to play along with them in the second set and encore. I’ve heard samples of Metropolis Pt. 1 played along with the orchestra and I can’t wait to get the full audio quality of this one. There’s going to be a teaser preview happening this weekend on VH1 Classic if you get that channel. About an hour of the concert is going to be shown, and each showing is preceded by an episode of Metal Mania hosted by Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci