Creating and maintaining an iPod playlist with my favorite songs has been an interesting experience for me. I call the playlist "The Best" not because I really think these are the best songs ever, but because they are the ones that resonate the most with me. As the playlist has grown (it's now at 46 songs) some items of note have emerged. The first is that two of my all-time favorite bands, Kiss and Rush, are not represented once on the ... Read on, Daddy-O

The late '90s were not kind to Queensrÿche. 1990's Empire was a commercial juggernaut, selling more than 3 million copies in the U.S. The followup, 1994's Promised Land, was a strong artistic statement and sold well in its own right. Enter March 1997 and the release of Hear in the Now Frontier, Queensrÿche's sixth full-length studio album. The album failed to earn Gold status in the U.S. and plummeted off the charts after debuting at #19. To ... Read on, Daddy-O

It’s been nearly 10 years since I’ve seen Queensrÿche in concert. That was for the group’s ill-fated tour in support of Hear in the Now Frontier. That tour was cancelled after the band’s record label (EMI) went into the crapper. A LOT has changed for the group since then, not the least of which was the departure of co-founder and guitarist Chris DeGarmo. For 2006, Queensrÿche went back to the future and released a sequel to their 1988 magnum opus, ... Read on, Daddy-O