The Music Banter Members' Journals Monthly Update Thread

[Trollheart]

Woah Nelly! There is a LOT to get through this week, so let's dispense with the clever, pun-laden intro (what do you mean, there's never a clever, pun-laden intro?) and get right to it. Deep breath, in we go!

Anteater sails back in with more http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ravaganza.html telling us about modern Yacht Rock? Modern? How is that possible, you ask? You do ask, don't you? I'm sure I heard you ask. No, it was definitely you. Well anyway, I don't have the answers, but I know a man who does...

Wonder Woman fighting a dragon? As we http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-oblivion.html, like he says himself, what else do you need to know? He also puts forth a compelling case as to why his TV show is better than yours.

Briks has more haiku reviews down at http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...seur-cave.html, with REM, Leonard Cohen and, um, The Cleaners from Venus?

Carpe is back! And she's taking requests in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ker-sound.html. Britney and Dream Theater coming up! Stay tuned...

Seems Chula Vista has renamed and rebranded his journal. It's now known as http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...rly-years.html. Fair enough. So, who's next up? Who. Yeah, that's what I asked. No, I mean Who. Yeah I know! I'm asking the question! Yes I know. I'm answering it. Who! Who? Yes, Who. Not the pronoun, but a band with the unlikely name of The Who. Next! Now that we've got that out of the way, he also looks into the uber-classic “Dark side of the moon”. (See further down for more)

Goofle heads into 1994 on http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...63-2013-a.html with efforts from Pavement, The Beastie Boys, Oasis and, er, The Auteurs again? On to 1995, with Black Grape, Radiohead, Man is the Bastard and Slowdive.
Also, come and join http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...lbum-club.html, where first album up for discussion is the self-titled by The Gris Gris

Josef K is worried that nobody is reading http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...h-reading.html: a thousand views so far says different! Reviews of albums from Can, The Kinks and Townes van Zandt among others.

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...nal-music.html says Ki, and also Satan, as the Dark One gets his Christmas recommendations underway with Dimmu Borgir, Pentagram and ,um, “Death Metal Christmas --- the album”?

Seems I've started, or at least popularised something of a tradition of people having more than one journal! Hey, the more the merrier, as long as you can keep up with it! (Says he, with now seven journals...) Anyway, Machine has three now, and in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...l-madness.html he's reviewing a Christmas album by Imagene Peise as part of his Christmas Month and...
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-song-day.html is back! With some ch-ch-changes (sorry, can never resist!) and music coming from White Suns, Flaming Lips, Run The Jewels, Tyler the creator, Pink Guy and Stereolab. Meanwhile...
In http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...otistical.html Machine begins another journal, this one to catalogue his own musical exploits. I've reviewed his single in “The Showroom” (see further) and this has welcome information on how that song is to be fleshed out, and also updates on the progress of his album.

Yay! Mondo is back, and in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...istortion.html he's beginning to look at one of Frownland's favourites, the mighty John Zorn

and http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...a-yas-out.html as we welcome him to Journal Town with his first journal, this one to focus on gigs he has been to.

Neapolitan continues his review of Bowie's “Station to station” in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...dern-rock.html, though I have to say: Urban, we've showed you ours, now show us yours! Where's the review man? Bowie Week is over and we've all played our part. Waiting... Meanwhile, Neo goes on with a review of Betty and the Werewolves...

Oriphiel is http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ck-garage.html, but not because he's a car enthusiast (or maybe he is): he's exploring the world of garage rock, beginning with a look at Girls in the Garage: sounds like a car nut's dream! He also looks into the world of The Hideout, an infamous (apparently) club in Detroit where a lot of big names got their first start, and reviews an album highlighting the best of the bands who played live there. Then he moves on to California, where the first “California girls” (sing it with me, Dave!) he looks at are The Pandoras, then Pebbles and back to the Garage Girls. Reminds me of a certain Screen13.... Also music from Sacramento, with the Hairem. (Small note: Orph, you're one of the victims of the “too large picture syndrome” spoken of in my earlier post: maybe resize that mother?)

I mentioned Overcast's new endeavour last week, http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ff-thangs.html, a journal that just made it in under the wire before the cutoff. This week he's looking into the self-titled debut of Giles Corey.

Pet_Sounds is back! Hes got some very personal entries on http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...crap-heap.html, with music from The Beatles. Welcome back man! Hope things get better for you soon.

The theme of http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...listening.html is this week apparently big. Well, he's listening to Big Black Delta and Big Wreck, so there's that...

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ts-sounds.html gets going this week with, um, Raquel Welch? Hey, I'm never opposed to beautiful women in people's journals... also the Fonda dynasty.

It's 1994, and in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ar-1965-a.html there's music from Weezer, Nas, Sunny Day Real Estate and more Nirvana, among others.

Christmas has come to my journals! Well, it's still two weeks off but we're getting into the spirit early as usual. Down at http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-journal.html kind members have been delivering presents for me to stack “Under Trollheart's Tree”, with contributions already from Pet_Sounds, Goofle, Justin and Urban to name but four. There's non-Christmas stuff too though, with another in our Prog top 100 and a new “Variations on a theme”, not to mention a new section, “A Perfect 10”, the first featuring Devin's masterpiece “Epicloud”. Christmas raises its bejewelled head too in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-emporium.html as we revisit some of the best Christmas episodes from shows, with Becker and Bottom, introductions too for upcoming “Father Ted” coverage, more “Plot holes you could drive, you know, a Mack truck through” and the introduction for our “Scrooge Showdown”, facing off all (or as many as I can find of) the various film versions of “A Christmas Carol”, to see which is the best.

There's no such thing as Christmas in Mega-City One, or if there is, Dredd does not want to hear about it. He's busy fighting off crazed robots in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-2000-ad.html as the first epic Dredd story gets underway. Finally, in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...i-reviews.html there's a review of a great album from a band you've never heard of, nor had I up to then... Finally,(really, this time) representing my seventh journal to be opened, the talents of MB members are showcased in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-showroom.html with contributions so far from Plankton, YorkeDaddy, WWWP, Machine and Rexx Shred.

Heading towards the top for 1983 now as http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html features Slayer's debut and Accept's “Restless and wild”. Don't forget to check further down for my total, in-depth, month-by-month review of this journal in the new “Classic Journals I have read” section!

Great to see some old hands returning, and some of our prettiest and most intelligent ladies too!
The incomparable Vanilla returns to add a touch of glamour and fun to these pages with http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ears-song.html

while the equally dazzling WWWP is back for another jaunt of http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-tripping.html (long missed) where she reviews Creepoid's self-titled debut album.

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...e-radness.html has added (ahem) “Punch” this week...

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...s-journal.html Well, he's the one foaming at the mouth about Metallica's self-titled, also called The Black Album, though it seems he would rather it were titled The Brown Album... Having been so upset by that, he's now in a death metal mood, and so is checking out Morbid Angel, Annimal Machine (yeah, it's spelled with two “n”s apparently) and The Melvins.

Interesting point: in the first day of December, TWELVE journals were updated (okay, three were mine but nevertheless) and no less than three new ones started! That, as they say, is what I'm talkin' about!


Time to revive this section! This is where I look at both a new, fresh journal and one that has been going for some time, to see both sides of the story, as it were. Our “Young gun” for this first edition in 2014 is none other than

who has two journals, but I would like to concentrate on http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...crap-heap.html
When he began this journal, Pet_Sounds said it would be a “structureless collection of irregular, off-the-cuff mini-reviews and mega-rants” but I'd like to challenge that by posting his first review (which only came two pages into his journal!) as below:

Originally Posted by Pet_Sounds

Now that Briks has told us all what he was listening to a few years ago, I thought I'd put on my former "favourite album of all time". I played it a month or so ago, but before that hadn't listened in about a year.

2012… What a summer. I was hitting puberty, playing out-of-town baseball for the first time, and meeting the girl I'm still pretty crazy for. This was the soundtrack to it all.



The title track and opener, Your Imagination, has an edge to it unusual for a Brian Wilson record. There's some distorted guitar and pretty cool Hammond organ licks going on in the background. After two verses seemingly about the Beach Boys, the bridge strips down, and finally fades out with some lovely trumpet. Definitely my favourite song on the album.

Up next is She Says that She Needs Me, a track recycled from some old Beach Boys sessions. It's on this track that Brian doing all the vocals becomes evident. It seems to have a slight Latin vibe with the acoustic guitar (another rarity on a Brian Wilson record) and what seem to be maracas in the background.

Jimmy Buffett enters the scene on South American, which is the album's weakest track lyrically. Brian's and Jimmy's voices blend nicely, though, and the piano is nicely played. The best part of almost any Wilson-penned song is the bridge, and this is no exception. Brian sings "I'm not on some trip" near the ending. Hehe.

Where Has Love Been is a very cheesy song, and one that I used to love. The lyrics are still lovely:
"I've been places I can barely talk about
Sunny days that died away in tears
Tumbling like a leaf out on a sea of doubt
I've seen nights that seem to last for years…."

An old Beach Boys classic is next in Keep an Eye on Summer. It has its moments, especially the key change, but I can never listen to it without comparing it to the original, which is far superior.

A fun, catchy song is next in Dream Angel. True to Brian, though, it's backed by some mellow horns. The nice thing about Brian singing all the vocals is evident here - it feels like one voice. Some classic Beach Boys surf guitar in the fadeout.

My least favourite track, Cry, is next. More acoustic guitar here, and overall it feels almost like a strange mix of country and progressive rock. There is some catchy piano playing, but it feels too long. One positive, though, is that we get to hear Brian's falsetto for a short time. He hadn't quite lost his range in 1998.

The beginning of Lay Down Burden feels like Simon and Garfunkel's "El Condor Pasa". The lyrics seem slightly… suicidal. It's too slow, especially coming after "Cry". The chorus is kinda catchy. There might be a trace of trademark bass harmonica in there.

One of my favourite Beach Boys songs, Let Him Run Wild is next. It's not as good as the original, but has more of an edge. Brian's voice sounds a bit weak on this track. It feels overproduced compared to the original.

Sunshine is bluesy and has a SMiLE feel to it. Trademark Mike Love "bow, bow, bow" backing vocals (although sung by Brian) and the sunshine lyrics make this the closest thing to a Beach Boys song on the album. Once again BW gives us a great bridge, despite the repetitive lyrics. It builds up from solo piano and turns into music box… oh wait, that's the ending….

…But it segues into Happy Days, the weirdest song on the album, with its whispering and neat saxophone licks. The lyrics are obviously about Brian's escape from the influence of his corrupt psychiatrist, Eugene Landy. It concludes the album with the statement that Brian is back.

Overall, I certainly wouldn't call this myr favourite album of all time anymore, but it's the album that got me into popular music in general. It's got some catchy songs, though, and is Brian's strongest solo album other than his version of SMiLE.

3/5

If that's a mini-review then I was voted prettiest girl in my school! No, I don't still have the sash! No you can't look! Anyway, Pet_Sounds has been away for a bit, due to some shenanigans with his computer, but he's back now and he's become, in a very short time, a vital member of the forum and is I think universally liked, not an easy thing to achieve by any means. Here's to his continued success.