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Jambe wrote:

wrt Americana/bluegrass: he's been gone for 3+ years now but this track feels as alive to me now as it ever did: Brown Bird - Fingers to the Bone.

That's really good, thanks for posting it.

Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

Went and saw Arch Enemy and Trivium at The Rave in Milwaukee a few weeks back and came out absolutely in love with their opening act While She Sleeps. I have been listening to their newest album every day since. linky

Breathe in the air

Intronaut - Null (EP, 2006)

Their debut release. A glorious hint of things to come. A bit more dissonant and frenetic than their later material, but all the pieces of their sound are already taking shape.

Buckethead - Far (2017)

Fairly mellow (but still electric and fairly conventional in terms of song structure, unlike his acoustic/ambient experiments). To me, some of it evokes a heavier, instrumental Pink Floyd. Last track goes on far too long and gets rather repetitive; feels a bit like "hey, I need to pad the length of this album... I guess I'll just play some noodly solos over a simple chord progression for 10 minutes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdoHbVz96zw&t=2s

Buckethead - Thoracic Spine Collapser (2017)

Frenetic whacked out funk-metal. The album cover picture of a roller coaster is appropriate. The final track is a quiet ambient piece, in striking contrast to the rest of the material. I really like this album.

(You'll be seeing a few more Buckethead mini-reviews in the near future, I grabbed a random handful of his recent releases as FLAC downloads from Bandamp. Looks like 2017 has been a busy year in Bucketheadland!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgVSdFtokYM

Now Gorrilaz-Clint Eastwood.
Previous Marylin Manson-Sweet Dreams
And just started while typing Martina Topley-Bird-Need One

Buckethead - A3 (2017)

Dark ambient instrumentals, with guitar and synths (no percussion). Just two extended pieces here (around 30 minutes total). Unstructured and meandering, with a really creepy overall vibe... sounds like it could be from the soundtrack to a sci-fi horror movie (think "Alien"). Ambient does not make up a large percentage of my music collection, but this is decent. If we do Halloween decorations on the front of the house next year (we haven't bothered this year or last) maybe I'll blast this out the living room window for atmosphere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYK2HF9zdYc

Buckethead - Coniunctio (2017)

More ambient meanderings from the bucket man. Abstract washes of solo electric guitar with lotsa reverb and volume pedal swells aplenty. Lacks most of the creepy vibe and dynamics of A3 (to its detriment IMO). Instead of a horror movie, it is more like fog slowly drifting and swirling on a lake at sunset. If I was into meditation this might be appropriate background music for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3bOV03WJKU

Buckethead - Guillotine Furnace (2017)

This treads mostly familiar ground, returning yet again to the demented metal/funk fusion plus wacky guitar effects formula he's clearly rather fond of. One of his better releases in that vein, based on first listen.

And thus ends our day trip to Bucketheadland. I'll probably pick up a few more of the recent "Pikes" releases at some point, as he's apparently released a metric assload of stuff over the past year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9an5dk3MB8U

OK, couldn't resist one more Buckethead download.

Buckethead - Ride Operator Q Bozo (2017)

Solidly in the experimental metal vein. A tasty mix of crunchy power chord riffs, dissonant excursions, rhythmic change-ups, general guitar wankery, and weirdness that pretty consistently holds my attention. Closing track brings it home with a more melodic (if somewhat formulaic) finale.

I think this one might be the winner of the bunch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22HGFD0Whm4

Just went back and added YouTube links to all of my posts about Buckethead from this weekend...

The KLF; hail Eris!

Heads up for any other Buckethead fans out there -- Bandcamp is currently running a sale on all of his (many) "Buckethead Pikes" releases, for $2 a pop: http://music.bucketheadpikes.com/

Just grabbed a pile of 'em. Sure, there will be some filler... but for $2 each it'll be well worth it anyway.

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand (2017)

Tasty slabs of prog metal. Veers back and forth between frenetic riff-driven and slower melodic sections. More accesible than their earlier stuff, without being too overtly commercial.

just brew it! wrote:

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand (2017)

Tasty slabs of prog metal. Veers back and forth between frenetic riff-driven and slower melodic sections. More accesible than their earlier stuff, without being too overtly commercial.

JBI, just as a thought experiment, what would be an example of "Commercial Prog Metal"?

As a recovering heretic who actually enjoyed Phil Collins_Genesis I would be interested in such a beast. Assuming it exists. Not that I would enjoy listening to such a thing, of course.

Vhalidictes wrote:

JBI, just as a thought experiment, what would be an example of "Commercial Prog Metal"?

Yeah, it's almost an oxymoron, but not quite. I'd say Dream Theater, Queensryche, and Tool qualify; they're fairly well known, got some radio play, and had videos on MTV back when MTV actually played music videos.

Vhalidictes wrote:

As a recovering heretic who actually enjoyed Phil Collins_Genesis I would be interested in such a beast. Assuming it exists. Not that I would enjoy listening to such a thing, of course.

OK, I'm probably gonna piss off the hardcore Gabriel-era fans here. IMO everything up through Duke is still decent overall (though Hackett is sorely missed after Wind and Wuthering). After Duke the percentage of pop filler gets too high for my tastes. I really enjoy Seconds Out (Collins doing vocals for mostly Gabriel-era material live), and I think Lamb... is overrated.

Sigh. I'm just going to have to embarrass myself here.... Tool? The 90's Grunge Band "Undertow" Tool? Prog Rock? What? Really? When?! I've heard of the other two bands, but never listened to anything by them, I'll check them out today.

Yes, Duke was my favorite Genesis album. Pretty sure I still have my Dad's CD (and Record, for that matter). I should really return it to him already.

On that note, I never thought that "We Can't Dance" was particularly commercial. Poppy? Sure. Popular? Not really.

Vhalidictes wrote:

Sigh. I'm just going to have to embarrass myself here.... Tool? The 90's Grunge Band "Undertow" Tool? Prog Rock? What? Really? When?!

A lot of their music is rhythmically complex, and not your typical grunge rock.

Edit: I suppose they did get more "proggy" post-Undertow. But most of the elements were already there.

Vhalidictes wrote:

On that note, I never thought that "We Can't Dance" was particularly commercial. Poppy? Sure. Popular? Not really.

Oh, c'mon... two singles placing in the top 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts ("Hold on My Heart" even hit #1!), and it "wasn't popular"?

just brew it! wrote:

OK, I'm probably gonna piss off the hardcore Gabriel-era fans here. IMO everything up through Duke is still decent overall (though Hackett is sorely missed after Wind and Wuthering). After Duke the percentage of pop filler gets too high for my tastes. I really enjoy Seconds Out (Collins doing vocals for mostly Gabriel-era material live), and I think Lamb... is overrated.

Well, that's a population of one.

Us Genesis-lovers learn early that ours is a road usually traveled alone.

just brew it! wrote:

Vhalidictes wrote:

On that note, I never thought that "We Can't Dance" was particularly commercial. Poppy? Sure. Popular? Not really.

Oh, c'mon... two singles placing in the top 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts ("Hold on My Heart" even hit #1!), and it "wasn't popular"?

I'm going to be honest here... I've heard that album dozens of times at least, and I don't ever remember "Hold on My Heart". AFAIK everyone else hated that album.

Vhalidictes wrote:

I'm going to be honest here... I've heard that album dozens of times at least, and I don't ever remember "Hold on My Heart".

That's because it was an entirely forgettable song which nonetheless managed to become extremely popular, for reasons which remain a mystery to me.

just brew it! wrote:

Vhalidictes wrote:

I'm going to be honest here... I've heard that album dozens of times at least, and I don't ever remember "Hold on My Heart".

That's because it was an entirely forgettable song which nonetheless managed to become extremely popular, for reasons which remain a mystery to me.

The same reason Sting's solo albums of the same time period became popular: "unfulfilled" suburban housewives.

Captain Ned wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

Vhalidictes wrote:

I'm going to be honest here... I've heard that album dozens of times at least, and I don't ever remember "Hold on My Heart".

That's because it was an entirely forgettable song which nonetheless managed to become extremely popular, for reasons which remain a mystery to me.

The same reason Sting's solo albums of the same time period became popular: "unfulfilled" suburban housewives.

At least Sting was considered physically attractive by many women. (And, I assume, a smaller percentage of men as well.)

"Oooh, Phil Collins is so hot!" --said nobody, ever

Captain Ned wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

OK, I'm probably gonna piss off the hardcore Gabriel-era fans here. IMO everything up through Duke is still decent overall (though Hackett is sorely missed after Wind and Wuthering). After Duke the percentage of pop filler gets too high for my tastes. I really enjoy Seconds Out (Collins doing vocals for mostly Gabriel-era material live), and I think Lamb... is overrated.

Well, that's a population of one.

Referring to which part? My opinion of Lamb...? I don't think it's bad, mind you; I just don't feel it is as consistently good as the albums before or after it. To me it has always felt kind of like an album and a half worth of material stretched out to a full double album. And yes, I know this opinion is not common among Genesis fans. Heresy!

Edit: And when you get down to it, I think that's kinda my issue with TFTO as well.

The "one" was hard-core Gabriel-era fans. And yes, Lamb has slow spots. I've never been enamored of "The Waiting Room" and side 4 needs some tightening.

Captain Ned wrote:

The "one" was hard-core Gabriel-era fans. And yes, Lamb has slow spots. I've never been enamored of "The Waiting Room" and side 4 needs some tightening.

Ahh, OK. I guess we are in approximate agreement then!

just brew it! wrote:

Ahh, OK. I guess we are in approximate agreement then!

My guess is that "The Waiting Room" is the "enossification" credited to Brian Eno in the official credits.

And you know how I feel about TFTO.