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Old 12-28-2014, 03:06 PM   #533 (permalink)
Trollheart
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Default The Music Banter Members Journals Update Thread --- Week Ending December 28 2014

Not that surprisingly, with cases of pudding overdose and many sore heads, not too many of us --- myself included --- have managed to do much work here in Journaltown over the last week. However, a few of you have levered yourselves out of your comfy chairs and dragged yourselves to your PCs or laptops or tablets or pills or whatever-the-hell-you're-using, to throw down a few words, and as this is the last update before the New Year it behooves us to see what it is you've written.

Batty doesn't like Rob Liefeld, but to find out why you'll have to http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-oblivion.html, where you'll also see his Christmas Joker episode, and his first look at Liefled with X-Force. Hey, it's all new to me...

Down at http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...seur-cave.html Santa, sorry Briks, is wrapping his Christmas pressies and listening to rock radio, somehow mistaking Geddy Lee for female! Now who has ever done that before??

More of http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...rly-years.html to check out before year's end. This week he's looking at a classic from BTO.

We don't often (indeed, to this point, ever) hear from the other half of Freebase's musical partnership, but being as it's Christmas an' all (one can only assume) Piotr is here writing some http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...stronauts.html, so definitely worth checking out. Not to be outdone, Freebase is in there today with details of another new song.

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...63-2013-a.html hits 1998 with John Zorn, Black Star, Neutral Milk Hotel and The Tiger Lilies among others.

Justin is still sorting out details for next year's twelve-month-long extravaganza of metal, and in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-endeavor.html he's asking for your top twenties, so, you know, give him some ideas.

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-song-day.html has gone all Christmassy (and it's the best time to do that!) with already as mentioned last week Jesu and this week Machine is keeping the Xmas theme with music from Sufjan Stevens, Run DMC, The Beach Boys and Sir Paul.
Meanwhile, in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...otistical.html he's talking about his new album. Not “Empty House”, for those of us that have been following his journal... and finally
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...l-madness.html is where he's introducing the discography of The Flaming Lips, due to begin in the New Year.

Getting his journal going properly, http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...a-yas-out.html and reviews a benefit concert for Bill Graham, a concert promoter in the Bay Area who died.

There's a commemoration of World War One on http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...crap-heap.html, as Pet_Sounds remembers those who fought and died for world freedom. With music, of course.

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ar-1965-a.html also moves on to 1998 with albums from Boards of Canada, Beck, Silver Jews and Refused among his picks.

Last few updates over at http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-journal.html with some more Weird Christmas songs, the last batch of presents from Under Trollheart's Tree and a review of “Music inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge”. Er, McDuck, that is. Also squeezing in some memories from my childhood. Finishing up on http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-emporium.html we have two more Christmas TV specials, from American Dad and The Simpsons, and the latest round of the Scroogedown.

In a deservedly high place (though not number one,scanadlously!) we find Dio's seminal classic “Holy Diver” occupying the numer 2 spot in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html --- it's also Unknown Soldier's AOTY. Well, DUH! As for number one? Well that's Eddie and the boys, with “Piece of Mind” --- what else?

Always interesting the ideas people get for journals. In this age of the download, I think we can all confess to downloading albums we think are cool at the time and “always mean to check out” but never do. Zero certainly is guilty of this, he says, and has used it as the theme to begin a new journal which he has called http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ollection.html. The first examples come from A Whisper in the Noise, Daniel Land and the Modern Painters, The Azuza Plane and Suun.
He's also writing in his original journal, http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...nal-sound.html where we find him making a mix of some of his favourite songs of 2014. Some good stuff there!



Another journal I missed quite a bit of while away was one which has been up to now one of the hardest-worked-upon in the section, and which situation has pushed its author in the direction of, as I said last week, “Taking a Trollheart”, ie stepping back from everything for a little while, taking a break so that he can return refreshed and ready to go in 2015.

Trying to maintain two journals while still holding down a job may have been partially responsible for this, I have no idea, but as I said to Ki, it is always a good idea to bend before you break. I felt, just prior to my own enforced holiday from here, that I was enjoying my journal less and less, and it felt more like a job than a hobby or something I took pleasure in, and when that happens it's time to slam on the brakes and take a good long look in the mirror. I did it, and now Ki's doing it, very sensibly.

But before he went he left us a lot of really good articles in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...nal-music.html and in August he was looking at ReinXeed's “1912”, an album he later suggested to me for “Metal Month II”, and which I thoroughly enjoyed. Then there was some Robbie Williams and Opeth, taking us into September with a feature on Lamb of God and Rammstein, then November saw him into more post-rock instrumental music with Swarm of the Sun, also looking at Casualties of Cool and Bring me the Horizon, followed by a review of the game “Borderlands 2” and “Fable”, until he decided to do a whole in-depth review on the man Devin. This began with “Ziltoid the Omniscient”, continued with “Ghost” and then the album that gave the author his name, followed by “Unplugged”, “Addicted” and “Deconstruction”, and ending the month with “Synchestra”.

November opened with my favourite (well, the only DT album I've heard, to be fair) “Epicloud” and then I caught up with him in the Update Thread so you're now, like me, up to date. Wish you all the best on your break Ki and we'll be waiting for your return! Have fun and see you next year!



Two very important years in the genesis of hard rock were chronicled in "Pounding Decibels", as we continue sifting through the wealth of information laid down by Unknown Soldier, a man who must surely be akin to a walking encyclopaedia of rock?

1975 started off with another double-header, from Deep Purple at number ten with “Come taste the band” and “Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow” by ... Rainbow? Yeah, stretching the criterion a little (though it's his to stretch after all) Unknown Soldier planted two albums linked by the famous guitarist together. Fair enough I suppose. Montrose were at number 9 with “Warner Bros presents...” and Sabbath came in at eight with “Sabotage”, leaving the number 7 slot free for Thin Lizzy's “Fighting” and then Nazareth at six with “Hair of the dog”. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this looks to have been the first time US featured Lizzy; every other year they seemed to just miss the cut. Budgie were back at 5 with “Bandolier” and UFO were “Forcing it” into the number four slot, while the top three went to “Welcome to my nightmare” by Alice, (this being his AOTY), Aerosmith's “Toys in the attic” and at the very top in the number one slot, yeah, them again! Zep with “Physical graffiti”.

Angel's self-titled debut was an album you should “Also check this out”, while those that fell by the wayside on US's chopping board for 1975 included Bad Company, Kiss, Rush and Scorpions. The Live Album section had BOC's “On your feet or on your knees”, Kiss “Alive” and Grand Funk's “Caught in the act” while “Hard Heavy and a Classic” came from Armageddon, with their self-titled debut and then US decided to try “Hard, Heavy and Worth a Mention", in which section he placed Uriah Heep's “Return to fantasy” as we rolled, smokin' and screechin' into 1976.

This began with Ian Gillan Band's “Child in time” (a title surely stolen from the classic Deep Purple song) at 10, while Piper had their self-titled debut at 9, with another s/t at eight, from Moxy. Judas Priest's “Sad wings of destiny” was at 7, while BOC's “Agents of fortune” took the number 6 spot. A Double-Header at 5 from Kiss, with “Destroyer” and “Rock and roll over”, while Lizzy finally got some decent recognition with another Double-Header at 4, “Jailbreak” and “Johnny the Fox” sharing the spot. An album called “No rest for the wicked” from an outfit called Truth and Janey took the number three slot, while the seminal “Rainbow Rising” did not quite make it to the top, being pipped at the post by Aerosmith again, with “Rocks”.

The Babys' debut s/t was something you should “Also check this out” and albums to miss the cut included Lucifer's Friend, Stray, Scorpions again and Trapeze, while Heart's “Dreamboat Annie” was one he considered “Hard, Heavy and Worth a Mention”. As were Ocean, with “God's clown”. We then had Motorhead and The Runaways sharing a new slot called “Hard, Heavy and a Tad Aggressive”, and Zep returned in the Live Album section with their classic “The song remains the same”.

Just time then for my

which comes from this guy

whom we don't see enough of around this place. As I mentioned, Zero began a new journal this week, and the idea behind it was so original and yet so obvious (everything's obvious after you've been shown how to do it of course) that I thought it definitely deserved to be shared here. Here's how he introduces the journal and the concept.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zer0 View Post
One thing that I'm guilty of in the past, not so much now since I started using Spotify, is downloading albums, listening to them and then forgetting about them. Quite a lot of albums fail to impress me on first listen and are banished to the depths of my external hard-drive rather than just deleting them. Other albums I enjoy briefly for a period, then just fall out of favour and are forgotten about while I move onto newer discoveries.

So now I've decided to root through my entire music collection and give some albums another chance and also to revisit some albums I used to enjoy but neglected in recent years. I will be posting my thoughts here.
And so that's it for another year. 2014 becomes 2015 on Wednesday at midnight, so the next update will be the first of the new year. Hope you're all enjoying your Christmas and for those who I don't see around over the next few days, Happy New Year and we'll see ya back here next Sunday.

Toodles!
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