It's kinda sad in a way (as Summer as been so short this year), but standing outside tonight makes me feel like Fall is coming in fast. No leaves on the ground yet, but it sure is in the air.
Some of the best times I remember is sharing this season with my close friends (Ghis, Alex and Alex, you are targeted there :P...). I don't know why, but it always has been our season. This year, it sure is a season of change for all of us, and I wish us the best of luck with our endeavours. Cheers to that guys!
Now, I'd just like to remember about some of the music that we heard during these few historic Fall evenings, years ago... Memorable music for memorable times.
- Billy Idol's White Wedding: There is something wicked about hearing that song on repeat for a few hours that still gets me in a transe-like mode these days ...
- Pink Floyd: Whatever we heard of the Wall or outside in St-Lambert... So good, so true.
- My input with Metallica's Garage Inc.
- Anything Led Zeppelin.
We were old school, but I think it made us in the end better, honest people...
Again, good luck guys, and may the music you hear make you remember of the fun we had together during these times!
Hope to see you all soon !
PS: Oh... and yeah... I still did not forget about my upcoming post concerning the Eddie Vedder concert I witnessed with my little brother. I hope I'll find the time to write about that pretty soon...
Friday, August 29, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Scott Weiland's 12 Bar Blues Review
I finally received my Weiland solo album CD. No error this time! So, while I'm studying and looking back at a few things for yet another round of job interviews, here is a short review of the album...
First song that hit me, Barbarella, summarizes pretty much the talent of Weiland. No wonder this became one of the lead single of this album. A deep, melodic tune, with hooks reminiscent of some Purple songs. Good production (Lanois, of course) on there, with sparse acoustic guitars and a "wall of sound" hitting hard during the chorus, with several layers of guitar.
The third song, About Nothing, couldn't be more experimental. Loops everywhere. Weird after a first listen, but good chorus with plenty of guitars again.
Where's The Man is an excellent ballad, with a chorus full of layers like in the first few songs.
Fifth song, Divider, has a jazzy/bossa feel. Excellent piano, throughout the song, from Brad Mehldau. But damn... that layed-back track is followed by hard, distorted guitars! Great, as I like albums with dynamics. Quite original, trashy but also spacey at times. Next is The Date with a slow groove and a good amount of delay on vocals. Simple yet efficient, with an ending reminiscent of Nirvana.
I could go on and on about each and every song, but just half-way through, it is easy to figure out that it is a great album. You can hear, at times, some influences of Beck, of the Beatles and of Tom Waits (Lady, Your Roof Brings Me own, with Sheryl Crow on accordion), which are great comparisons.
The liner notes indicate that Daniel Lanois mixed 5 songs on the album, and I'd say that it shows, as these songs all sound heavy and full.
So, the verdict... just don't expect an album that sounds like STP. However, I would say that it definitely ranks up there with the first 3 STP albums. It is quite successful at departing from STP's "signature" sound while retaining originality and quality. Good mix of guitars and loops and nice vocal melodies. All in all, a great album, that I hope you will enjoy as much as I do after just one hearing!
First song that hit me, Barbarella, summarizes pretty much the talent of Weiland. No wonder this became one of the lead single of this album. A deep, melodic tune, with hooks reminiscent of some Purple songs. Good production (Lanois, of course) on there, with sparse acoustic guitars and a "wall of sound" hitting hard during the chorus, with several layers of guitar.
The third song, About Nothing, couldn't be more experimental. Loops everywhere. Weird after a first listen, but good chorus with plenty of guitars again.
Where's The Man is an excellent ballad, with a chorus full of layers like in the first few songs.
Fifth song, Divider, has a jazzy/bossa feel. Excellent piano, throughout the song, from Brad Mehldau. But damn... that layed-back track is followed by hard, distorted guitars! Great, as I like albums with dynamics. Quite original, trashy but also spacey at times. Next is The Date with a slow groove and a good amount of delay on vocals. Simple yet efficient, with an ending reminiscent of Nirvana.
I could go on and on about each and every song, but just half-way through, it is easy to figure out that it is a great album. You can hear, at times, some influences of Beck, of the Beatles and of Tom Waits (Lady, Your Roof Brings Me own, with Sheryl Crow on accordion), which are great comparisons.
The liner notes indicate that Daniel Lanois mixed 5 songs on the album, and I'd say that it shows, as these songs all sound heavy and full.
So, the verdict... just don't expect an album that sounds like STP. However, I would say that it definitely ranks up there with the first 3 STP albums. It is quite successful at departing from STP's "signature" sound while retaining originality and quality. Good mix of guitars and loops and nice vocal melodies. All in all, a great album, that I hope you will enjoy as much as I do after just one hearing!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Day That Never Comes
Just listened to the new Metallica single (www.metallica.com), and here are my early comments.
Sounds like a cross between Load and ...And Justice For All. Seems like a 2008-version of "One", but with overtones of Load (I hear some "Outlaw Torn" or something in there... which might be one of their best song since 1991).
I don't know yet if this sounds forced or what. I will need to hear the rest of the album for that. Overall, it seems promising.
Random Comments:
Sounds like a cross between Load and ...And Justice For All. Seems like a 2008-version of "One", but with overtones of Load (I hear some "Outlaw Torn" or something in there... which might be one of their best song since 1991).
I don't know yet if this sounds forced or what. I will need to hear the rest of the album for that. Overall, it seems promising.
Random Comments:
- Almost 8 minutes single. Nice!
- 4:10 riff is pure Load-era Metallica at its best. Sounds real good to me.
- Shitty streaming quality, but production looks slick. Seems to have a nice, fat sound.
- Nice intro, melodic, classic Metallica (Sanitarium, One...).
- Dual-guitars.
- Guitar solo without wah.
- Progressive ending, but is it inspired?
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Update On A Crazy Summer
Sorry, not much updates recently, as it has been a crazy summer with so many things going on...
Amongst these things, I've been looking for a job lately, which has taken a lot of my time. I've had the chance to be in touch with the folks at Digidesign, the makers of Pro Tools (for those that don't know, this is the industry-leading software for digital music production - any decent studio has its copy). These guys actually flew me in for a day of interviews at their office in San Francisco. I wish I could have got the job, as their environment is amazing. It sucks, but this was my first job interview ever, and I am proud to have got this far. Hopefully, this is just going to be for another time.
By the way, I just updated my "Recently Listening To" list, as I've been listening to numerous new CDs in the past few weeks.
Talking about buying CDs, listen to that one: I've ordered recently, through an Amazon.com commercial seller, Scott Weiland's solo album, produced by Daniel Lanois. Got it in the mail yesterday, and couldn't wait to put it in my CD player. But you know what? There was an error, and I ended up receiving a 2-CD "Best of Foreigner" - Arrgghh!! I couldn't stop laughing though.
Thanks to the seller's customer support, there won't be any hassle for me, as they will send me my Weiland CD without me having to send the Foreigner CD back. I just wish it that the error could actually have been a CD that I could have listened to - now I need to find out what to do with it ('cause it is clear that I will not pollute my CD player with this crap). Any ideas? :)
Well, this is all the time I have for today. I can't wait to have time for the next post, for a recap of Eddie Vedder's solo concert I've been lucky to attend in Montreal this past Sunday.
Amongst these things, I've been looking for a job lately, which has taken a lot of my time. I've had the chance to be in touch with the folks at Digidesign, the makers of Pro Tools (for those that don't know, this is the industry-leading software for digital music production - any decent studio has its copy). These guys actually flew me in for a day of interviews at their office in San Francisco. I wish I could have got the job, as their environment is amazing. It sucks, but this was my first job interview ever, and I am proud to have got this far. Hopefully, this is just going to be for another time.
By the way, I just updated my "Recently Listening To" list, as I've been listening to numerous new CDs in the past few weeks.
Talking about buying CDs, listen to that one: I've ordered recently, through an Amazon.com commercial seller, Scott Weiland's solo album, produced by Daniel Lanois. Got it in the mail yesterday, and couldn't wait to put it in my CD player. But you know what? There was an error, and I ended up receiving a 2-CD "Best of Foreigner" - Arrgghh!! I couldn't stop laughing though.
Thanks to the seller's customer support, there won't be any hassle for me, as they will send me my Weiland CD without me having to send the Foreigner CD back. I just wish it that the error could actually have been a CD that I could have listened to - now I need to find out what to do with it ('cause it is clear that I will not pollute my CD player with this crap). Any ideas? :)
Well, this is all the time I have for today. I can't wait to have time for the next post, for a recap of Eddie Vedder's solo concert I've been lucky to attend in Montreal this past Sunday.
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