First of all, of course, Happy New Year to everyone, whether you're a reader or an author, or even have just clicked here accidentally and found yourself in unfamiliar territory. Everyone's welcome here. Except that guy. Can't stand him.
But as 2014 gives way to 2015 it seems everyone has either resolved to write more updates for their journals this year than last, or else they'd just intended to do that anyway. I know I have major things planned for mine, and others do too. So, if everyone's ready and you've all signed the release forms, let's head on in to what is the first update of the new year.
Before I begin, a small note to bear in mind. You all know that I have not the time to read all of your journal entries, and am skimming through them most of the time (though when I see something that catches my attention I may stop and read it through). I do my best to give a good flavour of what is happening in everyone's journal each week, but I'm sure you all understand that it's hard to catch everything, and given all the other work I have to do it's sometimes a little rushed. So while I will try to mention everything you cover in a specific week I may from time to time miss something out. I would therefore appreciate it if you would accept that, and not for instance post things like “Hey, you forgot I also covered band X and you only mentioned band Y!” or “You forgot my feature on the evolution of punk rock!” or most particularly any smaller entries, especially when they're mostly a video with a few lines. I may occasionally miss something, but this is not meant to be a detailed synopsis of your journal. If it was, there would be little need for anyone to actually check it out.
So quickly then, for those who have joined recently and those who are new to this update thread, some basic rules:
1. If you don't update during the week you will not be featured, unless in some other capacity I decide, such as “Classic journals” or “Great journals we miss” etc.
2. Only updates by YOU, as the author, will be noted. Other people commenting in your journal are not reported.
3. Although not a hard and fast rule, generally an entry needs to be at least a few lines of text. If you just say “Here's a video for a song I heard” and post the YouTube, there's a good chance that I will not consider that for the update.
4. As mentioned above, some omissions may occur. Please accept this. If, however, you do update and your entire journal is missed out, let me know: I'm only human, as are all my clones.
5. If you misspell or use bad grammar in an extract I post, this will appear as is. I am not going to spellcheck your entries, that's up to you.
6. Any posts featured will be stripped of YouTubes if they exist, however pictures and other text effects will be left in. Occasionally, an extract might be too long and so I will truncate it if necessary.
7. The update covers all entries posted before 6pm on Sunday, Irish time. If you post after that, your entry will appear in the next update. If, for some reason, it is important to you that you be featured in the current update but have missed the deadline, PM me before 10pm Sunday, as once the post is done I cannot change it even if I want to.
And now, on with the show!
This is a new section I'm trying out, where any major news about journals will first be broken, whether the author has already done so in their journal or it's been announced or hinted at previously. The details will of course then be discussed in the entry on that person's journal/those persons' journals, but here is where you will read it first, in this thread anyway. Unlike the other entries, these will not be alphabetically organised.
The first big news this month is of course the opening of the doors of "The Devil's Dancefloor" (title @ copyright Trollheart Enterprises, MMXIV), Justin's year-long exploration of the wonderful world of Heavy Metal. He's devoting each month to a specific sub-genre, so there should be something there for everyone who's even slightly into metal. This month he kicks off with Traditional Metal, including a complete discography of the band I consider to be one of, if not the best metal bands, Iron Maiden. Briks will also be getting involved apparently, and so will I. At the moment my involvement is writing reviews of the live Maiden albums.
The next news story concerns Ki, who as we all know is one of the workhorses here. Those who didn't catch previous updates, or read his journal, may not know that he is taking a break from both his journals and the forum, but hopes to be back, rested and raring to go, in a while, when hopefully he'll continue his discography of Devin Townsend. We wish him all the best and are counting the days.
Finally, not content with already eight journals, I've pushed it into double figures by opening two new ones, details of which you'll find below. If anyone ever finds my brain, please return it to me. There is no reward I repeat, no reward. Thank you. Oh yeah, there are also three new journals (other than mine) starting this week.
Kicking the year off alphabetically we welcome back
Anteater, who launches the 2015 leg of
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ravaganza.html with a look at Fleetwood Mac
sans Nicks and Buckingham!
The first of those new journals comes from
Blackdragon123, whom dedicated and regular readers will recall did a sterling job last year with his “26 best Black Sabbath songs” journal, but then sadly realised that was completely limited, and had nowhere to go. Well, he's back now with
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ackdragon.html, which is far more broad and allows for a wider scope. He's kicking off with his thoughts on two Black Sabbath album covers, one of which was featured in the main Metal subforum but has been moved to its new home, and is really worth reading.
B then is also for
Briks (no Batty: putting a comic panel in without any wording does not qualify as an entry, at least not in my book! Try harder...) as he joins Justin's metal quest in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...seur-cave.html, looking at Iron Maiden's debut and giving us his thoughts on it.
Also looking at another debut by an even more influential and important band, Sabbath's first outing.
A second new entry comes from
Deadchannel, who looks very much like failing to live up to his name (!) and may in fact end up challenging Oriphiel for that Workhorse award! In his new journal
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...sentation.html he's looking at movies, and already we've had a spaghetti western, a Hitchcock classic, and more! Looks like this one could be very interesting indeed.
And the third newbie in Journaltown is
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ten-music.html where he intends to sift through his music collection and listen to albums he has not heard before, or does not know what they are. Gems or crap? Only he can tell you! There's music from Fosa Común and Shut up. No, I'm not being rude: that's the name of the band!
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...year-year.html is getting going in earnest now as he looks into Bob Dylan's “Bringing it all back home”.
We were speaking of the J-man earlier, well he's opening the doors, as mentioned above, to
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ancefloor.html, with a whole month devoted to “Traditional Metal”, much of which will encompass the discography of Iron Maiden, and he starts this off, as anyone should, with a look at the debut album and then on to “Killers”. Also my own small contribution with a review of “Death on the road”, other live albums to follow. And then he looks at Sabbath's seminal debut album. Looks like it could be a good month!
Machine promised to begin a review of the discography of The Flaming Lips (looks like 2015 will be the year of the discography review!) and here he is, in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...l-madness.html beginning with “Hear it is”. Also back in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-song-day.html with more from Tyler, you know, the Creator guy. Swans and Primus, too.
Neapolitan returns for another perfectly-timed blast across the bows in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...i-journal.html, as he examines The Moody Blues' “Days of future passed”
Oriphiel is already working hard to retain his award, and
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ck-garage.html as he is, he's writing more of his western, looking into rockabilly, post-punk and even trying out some random albums he picked up second hand. Sweet. Oh, and the Singles Mixer, whatever that may be. I can't keep up! Youre gonna have to go down there, man! Just check it out, you'll see I'm right. He's even venturing into the land of Metal now, with a feature on Stray! Followed by Nikki and the Corvettes and then Boys vs Girls with Thee Headcoats vs Thee Headcoatees (?)
Mind you,
Pet_Sounds has been doing some work of his own, in between feeling sick and taking over from Ki on tabulating the votes for the Music Banter Nominations this year. He's going to be checking out Billy Joel's discography as well as telling us about his favourite fifty Beatles songs. It's all happening down at
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...crap-heap.html! “Money” is the first one up by the way.
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...listening.html tells us that our favourite guitar god is checking out some classical guitar music by Giuseppe Torrisi.
Not content with eight journals already, and trying to book my place at Happyvale Rest Home for the Terminally Bewildered, I've started two more, of which news anon. Down at
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-journal.html though, there's another glimpse into my fascinating (yes it is) childhood, a review of Nothing More's latest album called, um, “Nothing more”, a look at a John Denver song which makes me gasp “Say What?” and the return, in the first entry of 2015, of “Nice song --- shame about the album!” with a look at Alan Parsons's “The time machine.” Lots happening on
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-emporium.html with the final Scroogedown of 2014 (though it'll continue into this month at least), opening 2015 with Babylon 5 and a review of “Unforgiven”. Strontium Dog is back in his second adventure in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-2000-ad.html as he and Wulf take on the space pirate Papa Por-ka, with the aid of an unexpected new ally.
Those new journals of which I spoke? Well one was pre-announced in December, and now as January gets going you'll find
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...e-you-die.html, with the first three albums already done, while one I had kept quiet about (mostly because I only thought of it a few days ago) is
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ive-metal.html, which is due to get underway properly next week. How do I manage to keep all these plates spinning? Well, it helps to have an army of clones...
Unknown Soldier begins yet another new section in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html as he looks at albums “Down on the slab”. No, I'm not going to tell you what it's about
: you know the way there by now! The first to feature though is Sabbath's abortion-worthy “Born again”... then he's looking into some NWOBHM compilations ... that one always reminds me of bondage! Two albums that don't make the list for 1983 then are featured, um, before he gets to 1983, and the first comes from Satan, with “Court in the act”. I doubt the second will be posted before the deadline.... no, it wasn't.
Exciter are the theme in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...s-journal.html
and
Zero is talking about The Drums, Hypomanie, Surfer Blood and, er, Amusement Parks on Fire in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ollection.html
I'm bringing this to a close now, as I'm working on The Year in Review, where everyone's journal will get a good dusting off, and I think I've caught up with those of most people anyway.