The mission of this blog is to review, discuss and appreciate various music and musicians. Your contributions on these topics will be both welcome and appreciated. From major label to indie release, all music is fair game.
I love to listen to it. I love to think about it. I love to talk about it. I love to challenge myself with it. I love to look at it. I love to look for it.
Music borders on obsession for me, and in some cases it does more than border obsession. If it involves my favorite groups, I am admittedly obsessed with the music. The Beatles? The Beach Boys? Queen? Pink Floyd? Weezer? You can name dozens of groups and individual artists ... I dig their stuff, and I jump in head first.
Went out today with a good friend of mine. We hit a few stores that we like and went browsing through music. Went through a lot of new and used vinyl and CDs. Sometimes you find gold in the used sections, and I've been known to drop a good amount of money on items that people have gotten rid of. Never develop a mindset that just because something is used, it's no longer good or isn't worth your time. It's just not true.
My biggest purchases today, however, were new items. I picked up the two-disc remastered rerelease of The Rolling Stones' "Some Girls" and R.E.M.'s newest best-of collection. I'll be spinning them tonight. If I get some inspiration to do any blogging on those, I'll be sure to let you folks know what I think.
When it comes to Pink Floyd albums, "Dark Side of the Moon" and "Wish You Were Here" are certainly two of the group's most popular works. And with every classic band deciding to remaster their albums, it only made sense for Pink Floyd to do the same. ... I guess. :) And these two albums were among the ones I was most curious about, for getting new details and revelations.
The longevity of both albums comes from the quality of the material, the quality of the performances and the quality of the audio experiences. Both albums have always sounded so clean, so detailed and so densely layered.
Those great qualities, in effect, work against the 2011 remastered editions of the albums.
So, the Beach Boys released "The SMiLE Sessions" on Tuesday, Nov. 1.
The impact? Major. It's selling BIG on Amazon, and doing enough business elsewhere to make an impact throughout the industry. How do I know this? Because "The SMiLE Sessions" has charted in Billboard in its first week. And not in the lower 100s. It's in the top 30. Yeah!
That's right, No. 27! And it's No. 3 on Billboard's "Tastemaker Albums" chart. Woo woo!
Illness, work and a whole lot of music ... I've been hit by all three lately.
I've got new reviews / discussions in the works. Got something going for the Beach Boys and "The Smile Sessions" (addressing the big box version and the 2 CD version). Also have some stuff in the works for a few of the Pink Floyd remastered reissues (especially "Dark Side of the Moon" and "Wish You Were Here"). I've also started something on Brian Wilson's new Disney covers album ("Brian Wilson in the Key of Disney"). Oh, and there's some Radiohead ("Kid A" vs. "King of Limbs") and Monkees stuff (Rhino reissues, the box sets in general and the upcoming "Instant Replay" deluxe set in particular) in the pipeline, too.
Heck, I'm even working on a Beatles entry (in the past couple months, I've purchased the Capitol albums sets). There's plenty of stuff coming!
Rest assured, I have not lost interest or started ignoring the place. I apologize that new activity has been so scarce. But I have a few items that are several paragraphs long each, and I'll start wrapping them up and sharing them ASAP.
How're you all doing? Please feel free to drop a line. Comments are always welcome!
