Shawn

The usual suspects. Kind Of Blue, Blue Train, Time Out, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery and Mobley's Soul Station.

3/4 of Black Sabbath reunite in Birmingham would be the accurate headline.

R.I.P. Not a big disco fan, but Donna showed that it could be classy when the right attention was paid.

All joking aside, I think an actual physical format with increasing sales is a good sign. The main reason i started going back to LPs was to avoid the horrible compression used on many modern CD masterings, even new recordings are often much less compressed on LP than their CD counterparts. At this moment in time I either buy blu-rays, hi-rez downloads (HDtracks) or LPs.

Cool story.

Aggie, here's the longer setlist they performed on their first headlining swing through the States on the Heritage tour. Pro shot concert, the full performance is here... http://www.moshcam.com/opeth/enmore-theatre-1007.aspx What really stood out to me about Opeth's set was what an amazing singer/songwriter Mikael is. All those different moods and textures, from the quiet to the brutal and all memorable. This band is a truly unique talent, quite impressive in this day and age. The main problem I had with Mastodon's set was they focused on the new album and it's really not that good. There are about 6 really good songs and the rest have no staying power. Their previous 2 albums were MUCH better, if they had done a few more of their earlier songs there could have been alot more variety to the set. Ghost is an interesting little "project" band, their sound is actually closer to early 80s Euro metal bands like Mercyful Fate. They have an intriguing pop sensibility to the songs that you usually don't hear from this kind of music. The first words that come to mind are "fun" and "catchy" when describing them. They also have the good sense to keep the sound very stripped down which just makes it punchier.

That's so many kinds of weird, I don't even know where to start. You're certainly right about the sound being unique. And the video. Wow. It reminded me at times of a movie soundtrack. At others, I expected that an appearance by Salad Fingers was imminent. To say this is interesting would be something of an understatement. The album benefits from being listened to all the way through. Each song has a very distinctive character yet they fit so nicely together as an actual "album" that it works like an extended 47 minute piece of music. I've been playing this album obsessively this week and it just keeps getting better with each successive listen.

Thanks for the Silversun Pickups recommendation, I'll be checking that out tonight after I get off work. I posted this elsewhere, but I think many fans of prog might enjoy this new collaboration between Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) and Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth). It surely doesn't sound like anything else currently out there. Storm Corrosion

...and? How was it?? Sorry it took me so long to post the review. I had unfortunately missed the prior shows by Opeth and Ghost since I arrived in L.A., so I jumped at this show when it was first announced. Opeth, Mastodon and Ghost is actually kind of an odd combination, but an intriguing one. GHOST opened the show on a humorous note when the singer did his best Bela Lugosi imitation and said "Good EVE-EN-ING Tinsel TOWN!" The L.A. crowd was really into their set, they are a really fun band and have good energy live. They did the majority of Opus Eponymous, they stick fairly close to the studio versions though "Satan Prayer" has been rearranged and extended for the live setting. They don't move around much, so don't expect acrobatics. The backing vocals are handled via samples and are played by the keyboardist, it works fine. Overall a tight band with a good presence. My friend who accompnied me to the show thought Ghost sounded punchier and heavier live, I agree with him. The bass player was really impressive, incredibly HUGE tone, he really stood out in the mix. Next up was Mastodon (the two headliners trade off closing the show, though they play identical length 70 minute sets regardless) I've been curious to see MASTODON for awhile, I'm a casual fan, really liking some of their material (Crack The Skye in particular) while still not being completely won over. The optimum word to describe their set was pummeling. Since the word "Hunter" is featured in the name of the tour I figured it would be heavily steered toward that album, I was correct as they performed the majority of The Hunter. In addition they also played 2 songs from Crack The Skye, 1 song from Blood Mountain and 2 songs from Leviathan. On the positive side they were very tight, the vocals have improved considerably and they had great energy. The problem I had with their set was that all their songs have such "busy" arrangements (there's not a second of breathing space anywhere) that after awhile it all started to blur together. It also didn't help that they don't take any breaks between songs or talk to the crowd. The same songs I liked on The Hunter were the ones that stood out in concert, I was especially impressed with "Octopus Has No Friends" and the title track, Opeth's keyboardist sat in on a couple songs that require keys. The biggest crowd reaction was for the Leviathan songs "Aqua Dementia" and "Blood & Thunder". They also had an impressive light show. Overall I would say my opinion of them is unchanged after seeing them live, I'll probably remain a casual fan. OPETH's varied set ended up being kind of a relief after being steamrolled by Mastodon for 70 minutes. They opened with the "The Devil's Orchard" and "I Feel The Dark" from Heritage, both songs getting punchier after being played live for several months, the band was airtight. Mikael's voice was very strong, he continues to grow as a singer. He has a fluid approach to these Heritage songs, changing phrasing and improvising. Prior to performing the "Dio tribute" song "Slither" he informed the crowd "it's kind of like an old Rainbow song but shittier." There were alot of people singing along with all the lyrics, I hadn't really expected that, added a cool dimension to the set. Windowpane was next, a really fine version of the Damnation track. They've added an extended guitar solo duel to the end of "Burden", adding some extra power to that power ballad. They return to Heritage for a muscular reading of "Lines In My Hand" and follow that up with the centerpiece song of the set, "Folklore". That track is much heavier live and also features an extended jam section during the coda, killer song. They close out the show with a return to their death metal roots, performing crushing versions of "Demon Of The Fall" from My Arms, Your Hearse and "The Grand Conjuration" from Ghost Reveries...that last tune totally blew away the studio version. KILLER. I still regret missing their full 100 minute headlining set they performed late last year but 70 minutes of Opeth is just fine with me. The funny thing is that in 70 minutes Mastodon was able to fit in 17 songs, Opeth was able to play 9 in the same length of time. :lol!:

I have no complaints with the film and I plan on going to see it again in the theater. I don't come to these movies from a comic background (I've never even seen an Avengers comic), so I judge comic books movies on how well they operate as films. The Avengers is one of those rare movies that can appeal to fanboys and the general public in equal measure...something that's very hard to achieve, thus I feel the movie deserves all the praise it's getting. Whedon's sense of humor fits my own perfectly, something about the way he writes resonates with me and makes me wish I had his talent. The Avengers shows what can happen when just as much attention is paid to the characters and the script as the special effects sequences. That's what sets it apart from mind-sucking abominations like the Transformers movies. It's a quality measuring stick that future CGI-laden blockbusters can be compared against. Whedon's next film is a modern re-telling of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing", I'm really looking forward to seeing how he handles that!

Joss Whedon's "The Avengers" is breaking box office records left and right. $641 million dollars worldwide and the weekend isn't over yet. Amazing numbers. story here: http://movies.yahoo.com/news/box-office-shocker-avengers-opens-record-shattering-200-155614945.html (Cobie Smulders & Clark Gregg are great scene-stealers) Thankfully for once the film more than lives up to the hype, an excellent movie and about as perfect as "popcorn movies" ever get. The decision to let Whedon write & direct this film paid off in many ways, his background in "multiple-character" TV shows (Buffy, Firefly, Angel, Dollhouse) and his love for comic books made him the most intelligent choice to bring "The Avengers" to life. I'm a Whedon fanboy, but even I was blown away by this one. I'm planning on making another trip to the theater for a second viewing.

Wasn't the "Norah bashing" what caused them to shut down the BNBB in the first place? Which in turn inspired the creation of this board for us "homeless folk"?

Sorry, but an asshole getting their comeuppance is enjoyable no matter how old the asshole is. I guess if you're part of the crowd with no memory who thinks kids are always little angels, it would seem odd.

or this one...

The kid punched the cat, he got what he deserved.

Well, it should be fairly obvious to many that my primary focus over the past several years has been non-jazz for the most part. It's been fun discovering new bands and also revisiting genres that I had neglected for too long. Taking a break from jazz hasn't decreased my appreciation, in fact i think time away has helped, because there's a freshness to even the most familiar albums when I do listen to them now. My love for Progressive Rock is what brought me to jazz in the first place and i've been having a blast digging deeper into groups I was unfamiliar with previously. Some artists I've either discovered or gained a deeper appreciation of... Camel, Gentle Giant, Nektar, Focus, Rare Bird, Wishbone Ash, Atomic Rooster, Ash Ra Tempel, Gong, Magma, Soft Machine and others. The big "discoveries" over the past several years has been Opeth, Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson's many projects. I had really forgotten how exciting it was to become "A FAN" again, it was a pleasant experience too long dormant.

Now, what's that all about? 24bit/96khz instead of 16bit/44.1khz

Yeah, that's sad but not unexpected. They need to release all the same reissues in lossless format via HDTracks, then I would say "okay". I'm sure they won't, but a kid can dream can't he? I will never pay money for lossy audio files, so I'll continue to "not purchase" until labels start to offer them.

I know where you're coming from, I think..it took me a while to hear those too. The thing that clicked for me on those was that in a lot of ways, those songs are lyrically just updated/throwbacks to doo-wop and vaious other "sweet" forms of soul music, not the uber-hip urbanisms of the up-tempoer stuff. War (who I know you were checking out recently) was into a bit of the same thing, a real foot in the doo-wop-ish type sweetness. Once you figure it out (and it took me a while to do so, to not just hear it but feel it, the whole "sweet innocence of love" thing translated to adulthood is something I didn't intuitively grasp, ya' know...kinda had to have it learnt upon me...), it makes for a nice balancing of flavors. I discovered War as a teenager (via Cheech & Chong actually), though I appreciate them more now than I did at the time...hearing it on another level I suppose. The TOP ballads might hit me at some point, only time will tell. The sequencing kind of reminds me of the late period Grant Green albums where there would be several funky tunes with a few "politely sweet" ballads to round out the album.

I listened to the self-titled TOP record a few days ago. I really liked the harder funk numbers, wasn't that enamored with the ballads. I plan on investigating their stuff further.

Catching up with the latest episodes of.... Fringe (excellent) Castle Grimm The Vampire Diaries

I'm really happy about the Fringe news. Even though I thought this season started out slowly, it really caught fire and I like it just as much as the previous seasons now.

Opeth - Folklore - at the concert last night in Los Angeles.

Looking forward to this one, I've liked all his recent albums.

Cool pictures!