The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet

Finally, we are no longer kept in the dark. Goodbye unconfirmed rumors: The Mars Volta's new album has an official release date, official art and an official tracklisting. Check it out on their official website. I don't know about you, but I'm REALLY diggin' that cover art. Now we just have to wait. Or listen to their more recent bootlegs.

Short STRAIGHT hair?! WTF, Cedric?

A Confession (and a Genesis Classic)

My very favourite music, as you might have guessed, is prog. And as we all know, prog's flagship groups are the almighty King Crimson, Yes and Genesis. Now, since I officially declared my undying love for said music around the age of 14, I'm very embarrassed to admit that I've just heard Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway in its entirety, for maybe the third or fourth time in my life, and that this is the first time I actually "get it". I know, I know, I'm a disgusting poseur, and deserve to be buried alive in a coffin made of "popular music" CDs...
In case some other sad posers happen to come across this post, they can get The Lamb in two parts here.

What can I say about this particular album that hasn't already be said? Probably nothing, but I feel obliged to share a few of my thoughts on it: for one thing, the songs on this one are odd in the typical Genesis way, but certainly odder than most of their other work. Perhaps this is why it took me so long to actually listen to it and even longer to get into. (At least for now) I find the first half of the album better, although the second part does contain its own share of timeless songs (Lilywhite Lilith, Anyway, The Lamia) along with a few freaky psychedelic interludes, it also has more of the "odder" pieces, which kept me away from it for a long time. I like the fact that The Lamb is a classic Genesis album, although it has nothing of their typical pastoral sound found on other records, which I assume is due to the almost total absence of acoustic/classical guitars. I also really dig the weird keyboard/synth sounds that Tony Banks used on it: they come off as futuristic (for 1974, that is) and vintage-y at the same time. These two factors are actually quite important for the band, and because of them this record manages to stand out among their works. It may not be their absolute masterpiece, but it is most certainly one of their most unique albums. And no songs represent this uniqueness as much as The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging, and Back In N.Y.C., a couple of pieces that are swiftly becoming my favourite songs from this album, even though I found them both "too odd to like" at first. A few other gems would have to be Fly On a Windshield/Broadway Melody of 1974, Hairless Heart, Lilywhite Lilith and the title-track. But really, this is a concept album, so I shouldn't even be recommending single songs! Oh god, I really am a poser...

I just heard "Invisible Touch"... I LOVE Genesis!

LEGO CASTLES: A GALLERY

You didn't know this before, but I grew up playing with Legos, and absolutely love everything about them. I'd still play with them now if I had the time... Wait a minute, I actually DO have the time! The real problem is that I'm lazy and waste it all by sleeping too much. But I digress. I just googled "lego castle" wanting to see if there are any new (and totally rad) sets coming out this year, but my attention was almost instantly diverted to the many images of custom castles made by some truly brilliant freaks. Behold and beamazed!

 Wow. Now, while they're all amazing, those last two are just unbelievable. Mindblowing. The people who made them must be architects or engineers or something. And did I mention that these are just the first pictures which caught my eye? Imagine what wonders lie in the murky depths of Google Images!

Terry Pratchett - The Colour of Magic

Terry Pratchett - the very name reeks of legend. If you've only recently arrived on Earth and haven't heard of this guy, let me fill you in: I like to think of Pratchett as the Douglas Adams of fantasy. He's most famous for having written the Discworld series, starting with 1983's "The Colour of Magic". 38 books and 29 years later, his readers have an absolutely delightful "literary sandbox", from which each novel can be read as a standalone book, although there are a number of recurring themes and characters.

The Colour of Magic is, to quote Wikipedia quoting Pratchett, "an attempt to do for the classical fantasy universe what Blazing Saddles did for Westerns." I've never seen the movie, but this quote certainly intrigues me! Now, rather than write about the plot, I shall direct any n00bs to the book's Wikipedia article warning them about the spoilers that are obviously contained therein. But I'm not going to stop there, for I shall in fact provide you with a link whence you can download this and several other of his novels! Hell, even I haven't read most of the other books from the related files! It's almost a pity I can't stand reading this sort of stuff from a computer screen. That's all, so goodbye my faithful, adoring readers. Goodbye FOR NOW.

Hallelujah

Hallelujah, it's raining men!

This is one artist I really love. Now, as I was skimming through his various works in Google Images I noticed something outrageously awesome. Observe this:

And now this:

Apparently, Magritte has had over the years a subtle relationship with popular music from decades after his quote-unquote death. How could he have achieved this? Was he in fact a time traveler? That is the only logical explanation.

Needless to say, I'm blown away. My very view of life, the Universe and Everything can never be the same.

SRSLY

The intensity, the energy, the fury... It's awe-inspiring. But what really moves me most is Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's dance during the intro. Outrageous.

NEWS

I'm not sure what my many legions of adoring readers think of this band called "The Mars Volta", but I happen to think know that they're the best thing that happened to music since Adrian Belew joined forces with Robert Fripp. Anyway, we've all been eagerly awaiting their sixth album for too much fucking time. Octahedron was released way back in 2009... What's up with that, Omar? And though there's still no absolutely certain release date, at least now we have a title:

All I can say for certain is, it'll sound like the complete opposite of whatever any of us expect. But it's not up to us to question Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, for He works in mysterious ways.

On a related note, am I the only one who was totally NOT expecting an At the Drive-In reunion?

Gentle Giant

     Above: my own masterfully executed tribute to Gentle Giant

This is one band which really BLEW MY FUCKING MIND. I truly admire them beyond words. Each individual band member can play every instrument ever invented, and play it well.
Just look at this:

Far out man...
You can get their debut album here. Can you believe this stuff was released way back in 19-fucking-70? Way ahead of anything else from that year. If you want a few specific high points, I'd have to say that they are "Giant", "Funny Ways", "Alucard", "Isn't it Quiet and Cold?", "Nothing at All", "Why Not?" and "The Queen". Download the thing.

Magma - Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh (1973)

Interesting title, eh? It is in fact in Kobaïan - a language spoken on the planet Kobaïa (duh!). This planet is the birthplace of drummer and musical mastermind Christian Vander and the setting of most (if not all) of this French band's albums.
You know how Pink Floyd were famous for their grandiose concept albums? Well, Vander took that idea to the next level, and through the years has built up a concept discography with Magma. Over ten studio albums, they tell the (surprisingly long and confusing) story of a group of people fleeing a doomed Earth to settle on the planet Kobaïa, With conflict(s) arising when the Kobaïans — descendants of the original colonists — encounter other Earth refugees. All of this is explained in Kobaïan of course, making the albums' liner notes (or alternatively, the internets) the only way to figure out what the hell they're singing about. And they don't even tell the story in chronological order!

Apart from that, what makes this band revolutionary? For one thing, their sound: imagine a Carl Orff-meets-jazz-and-plays-hypnotically-repetitive-militaristic-compositions, sung by a choir with some ridiculously exaggerated falsetto vocals. And dare I say that there's a hint of Philip Glass style minimalism? That's pretty much what Magma sound like on this album. It is a sound which transcends all musical genres, to the point where the label zeuhl had to be applied to their music (and subsequently that of other French bands that would follow in their footsteps). Zeuhl is a Kobaïan word meaning "celestial". How cool is that? Playing music for which no human word exists? Pretty rad in my opinion!

                                        
                                           DAT DRUMMER - Impresses me every time

 

                                                                  Powerful stuff...

Anyway, here you go: Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Well

Before I get the hang of the visual aspect of this blog (which I shall certainly take care of in the near future, making it beautiful), I thought I'd take a moment to write about PROGRESSIVE ROCK.

I was actually thinking of naming it Bruno's ProgBlog, to express my love for this wonderfully pompous, self-indulgent style of music. I only changed my mind because I realized I would be writing about other music and entirely different subjects.
Anyway, what is it that makes prog so blatantly superior to most (if not all) music ever written before and after? It's not such trifles as outstanding musicianship and heartbreakingly pure emotion both of which can easily be found in many of the lesser forms of music. What's that? "Emotion is for girly faggots" you say? "I'd rather have my badass macho music" you say? Of course, prog also has it's fair share of manly kickassery (although it is often somewhat "diluted" in the longer songs and therefore less obvious)  but again, that's not what it's all about. Could it all be about the complexity of the compositions, perhaps? That's certainly one of the style's major virtues, but then again: bebop opened up a whole new world of theoretical complexity before prog came to be, and for ages before that we had a fuckton of classical composers writing not-exactly-very-simple-music. What makes this music so very special is the mentality. It is the mentality of those holy pioneers that made them willing to play something more than just plain ol' rock 'n' roll, to take the best of each genre out there and competently combine it into something new, beautiful and scary. In fact I don't think that prog "rock", as they call it is a genre at all. Firstly, what the hell does this have to do with rock 'n' roll music? Then think about this: what are the similarities in sound between, say, The Mars Volta and Genesis? None at all. Yet they all share a forward thinking (some might even say progressive) mentality. And there you have it folks, the truth about prog rock.

(I realize that I may have posted way too many links, but they were all completely necessary for this discussion. Think of them as those 10-20-30 sec. samples you find on some sites, rather than going through each of them individually.)

IT BEGINS

 The blog's title is pretty much self-explanatory. I should be studying right now but I simply can't be bothered to. So instead I decided to waste my time in a different way and made this blog with which I shall blow your minds, mainly by posting outrageous music links but also by writing about anything else, according to my whims. Peace out.