agreed

parallel lines never meet. if they did, they would not be parallel. stupid title

Hmmm...and Evening Out With Your Girlfriend by Fall Out Boy is an example of a good, intelligent title?

I asked MRI about the album title in my interview and both Daren and Alan gave lengthy explanations that sounded more like a meta-physical discussion, even philosophical, as Daren started talking about Sartre's "Being And Nothingness". Daren was a schoolteacher ( like Sting ) before MRI/Noir, and is a self-admitted math freak.

If you really choose not to listen to this album simply because of the title, then that might be a good idea since you wont understand any of the allegorical themes in the lyrics nor any of the symbolism in the poetry. You still may be able to dance to some songs though if you concentrate.

So don't waste your time. MRI is much more an art rock band in the spirit and tradition of King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Jane's Addiction, Radiohead etc...if you don't like that type of music & art then you wont get it.

I am going to see if I can get the back cover to the CD and post here; it may help with your grappling to understand the concept(s).

Here is the back of the CD for your edification. Hope this helps. :-)

Great review! I thought it was really good .. :)

Normally, I wouldn't write constructive feedback, but since you're a writer, there is some info I'm missing. First off, is the band called MRI or is it an acronym? And also, is this the band's debut album?

In addition to a song for song review, I like it when there are just a few thoughts or impressions from the album as a whole ..

I hope you don't take take my feedback the wrong way. It's not intended as that at all. I consider some of the reviews on MB to be real treasures and yours is a really good contribution and an enjoyable read. :)

Grats on your first review!

Thank you for letting me know this. I am difident by nature...so I need to feel passionately about something in order to write about it and show to others.

Also, I was rather shocked this morning reading the posts about folks not wanting to listen to the album becasue of the title; and it almost made me never want to write a review here again ( I would like to review a Floyd album and Another Morning Stoner too ) feeling that it is a waste of time for me and for the readers.

To answer your questions: I have a copy of Where Parallel Lines Meet that I bought at a show last year...but I think there have been a few incarnations of the tracklistings since. I know that they have been working with Eric Greedy ( who porduced HURT Vol 1 and Vol 2 ) after being scouted in Germany and Eric has been working on Parallel as MRI's debut official release. MRI has its own label from what I understand and are releasing an EP too this year called "Now And Xyen" with mostly reggae, ska, and dance-techno songs.

As far as being an acronym, I am not sure. I asked Daren about the band name in relation to the band's website ( MediumRangeIntelligence.com ) and Daren said "Oh I never realized the coincidence" but added "we are MRI", and left it at that. I asked them about the fact that on some OMDs they are being indexed with a German microhous duo from the late 90's of the same name and Alan said "we never heard of them until we saw the cross-indexing on last FM, and we don't really care either since this is not a popularity contest. We simply are who we are. Let the world decide what MRI means."

You asked me for my overall impression of Where Parallel Lines Meet. I wish I had a place to post the lyrics of the songs in my review...as I get the same feeling about MRI that I do about Radiohead albums in that often, I have no idea what Daren is saying/singing until I have the lyrics in front of me. Then, some songs take on an entirely new meaning when you finally find out what you have been humming along all the time. For instance, I thought that "Helicopter Head" made no sense at all until you read the lyrics, and then you see it is about spiritual enlightenment and being "all-seeing and all-knowing" at all times...Turn your head around...can you see...361 degrees...

I go see and review bands for a living. Rarely am I ever impressed, especially these past few years...pickings are slim for bands to get excited about. MRI is probably my favorite new artists and I am excited about them the same was I was excited about Nirvana in the 90s.

You inspired me to go looking for more info on the www.

I was on a bunch of search engines querying "MRI band, Helicopter Head" and I found a lot of useful stuff and great reading up on the band. Here is a UK? reviewer in another music forum that seems to also be a net radio station judging by the amount of DJs responding in the thread:

Mixposure - View topic - MRI

Hmm, well - I'm definetly curious and judging from the link you posted, a lot of other people are praising them too. I will definetly check them out!

And thanks for answering my questions!

Don't worry about the replies. A lot of really good album reviews here seldom generate a lot of replies, which is a bit of a pity. The more well written an album review is, the less there is to ask about and comment on, I guess.

Looking forward to your next. :)

Thank you very much! I look forward to writing another one now. Think it may have to be about Another Morning Stoner or Vampire Weekend, we'll see.

BTW I did some more exploring on that MRI link too. I was correct, it is also a web radio station, maybe in the UK or Holland?, I am not sure..but there is a recent live radio broadcast/ interview with Daren and/or rest of the band I have not heard this but I am going to listen now. Here is what is up on the home page of Mixposure.com | The Future of Independent Music - Mixposure is an Online Music Distributor Bringing Musicians and Music Lovers Together today. I will let you know what I think once I listen to the rebroadcast:

Mix Radio Rebroadcasts Feb 5, 6, 7 and 8. 2009

We just had a great weekend full of super shows with Independent Artists here on Mix Radio, Mixposure.com !!! David C Deal was the announced Center Stage Presentation for "Saturday Night Rocks. What an awesome experience David & his fellow musicians gave us!!!

But, we didn't stop there. No, we also had LIVE interview with Daren from MRI on the air! How exciting was SNR??? Well, very exciting for all the people in chat, the folks listening via iTunes and Cygnus Radio!

Here are the rebroadcast links for this past week and weekend, including an impromtu show, sparked by and attended by Kephas and The Polar Bear (KED):
Feb 7 '09 Saturday Night Rocks with David C Deal and MRI

Thank you to the moderators for your great PM help and in posting this interview segment. Today, I found a radio (re)broadcast with the DJ doing a live interview of Daren in between each MRI song and I posted the link in my album review here as well. I needed to fast forward about two hours to get to the MRI part of the show; it's interesting to hear Daren himself describe the music:

MRI Album Review

Mix Radio Rebroadcasts Feb 5, 6, 7 and 8. 2009

We just had a great weekend full of super shows with Independent Artists here on Mix Radio, Mixposure.com !!! David C Deal was the announced Center Stage Presentation for "Saturday Night Rocks. What an awesome experience David & his fellow musicians gave us!!!

But, we didn't stop there. No, we also had LIVE interview with Daren from MRI on the air! How exciting was SNR??? Well, very exciting for all the people in chat, the folks listening via iTunes and Cygnus Radio!

Here are the rebroadcast links for this past week and weekend, including an impromtu show, sparked by and attended by Kephas and The Polar Bear (KED):
Feb 7 '09 Saturday Night Rocks with David C Deal and MRI


-NINA

I agree 100% WifeyB!! I put up some more band photos at my lastFM to help listeners distinguish between the German microhaus duo, and Daren, Alan and Dan of MRI(USA)

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/...3/MRI++USA.jpg