The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

I swear that each year I have less and less time to spend listening to new music.  It seems like a losing battle anymore to keep up with all the new albums coming out, but I have to keep trying.  So rather than pontificate on the albums of the past year – as I’ve been known to do – I’m going for brevity in an attempt to get more done.  And I’m adding one new feature to this year’s year-end music wrapup (and future releases as well), by introducing a grading system.  Here’s the rundown:

• Dig It – You can safely part with your hard-earned money for this and not feel like a sucker.
• Download It – Still worth a listen, but you’ll probably want to just download it and cherry-pick the best tracks.
• Ditch It – If you can find something of lasting value, you’re a better person than I.

Got it?  Good!  Let’s begin…

…keep digging 2009 – The year in recorded musical performances

Before I unleash my awe-inspiring year-end album wrapup, I thought I’d share with you a mixtape featuring ten of my favorite songs from 2009.  The only restriction I’m placing on myself here is that I won’t be double-dipping from any artists, although some could have easily taken up half this list.  And away we go!

…keep digging Gray Flannel Mixtape: The Best of ’09

Here’s a Veteran’s Day special – the latest video from Queensrÿche’s excellent American Soldier album.  It’s “Home Again”, featuring Geoff Tate’s daughter Emily on vocals.

Is there even a point anymore to comparing new Queensrÿche releases to older ones such as Rage for Order or even Empire?  It seems that to do so is unfair to the band, who clearly don’t care to repeat the past.  And yet that’s what has been happening for more than a decade, and in the process some bitter or resentful fans have missed out on some really good music.  Case in point, the band’s latest offering – American Soldier.

A look at the front and back covers of American Soldier (showing a pair of combat boots and an American flag, respectively) might give pause to some fans – has the same band who railed against war and the American government in the past turned into Toby Keith for the progressive metal set?  Not quite.  As the name implies, this is a theme album about American soldiers – their experiences, their sacrifices, and their hopes.  There’s no real soapbox moments here.

But what about the music?  Queensrÿche usually turns in at least good lyrics most of the time but has been a bit, shall we say, uneven since 1994′s Promised Land.  Well on that account, it’s a pretty strong statement by the boys.  I don’t think there are any instant classics here, but I’ve found myself humming or playing air guitar to some of the new material on more than a few occasions over the last few weeks.

…keep digging Album review: Queensrÿche – American Soldier

Since time immemorial, mankind has approached the future with a mixture of wonder and fear.  From primitive days to Biblical times, and even in our modern, sophisticated age we have imagined ourselves either ascending to the pinnacle of enlightenment and peace or descending into a living hell on earth.

Somewhere in between those two extremes lie the visions of the future shown in music videos.  These glimpses into our possible futures show us what most likely lies in store for us – a world that is bleak and hopeless, but still has a pretty kickass soundtrack.

Kiss – “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose”

The scenario: This is pretty much your stock “post-apocalyptic rock world” video as you’ll soon see.  Dirty streets, lots of fire, and desperate women in tattered clothes are all in abundance here.  Kiss (freshly unmasked at this point in their careers) looks a bit out of place in this setting, what with their spandex and frilled leather jackets, but they somehow land a gig as the bar band in a place that appears to have neither a bar nor very much liquor.  Actually it looks more like an abandoned warehouse.

…keep digging The apocalypse will be televised: 6 visions of the future in music videos

From Idolator via the AV Club comes a pretty cool music meme – compile a list of your favorite albums, with one for each year you’ve been alive. Sounds easy enough, but some years are positively stacked with music I love.  Forcing me to choose among my musical children is just so…cruel.

For me the most bountiful years were 1975-1978, 1980, 1982-1984, 1990, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2006, and 2007.

1975 – Kiss, Alive!
1976 – Led Zeppelin, Presence
1977 – Rush, A Farewell to Kings
1978 – Ace Frehley/Kiss, Ace Frehley
1979 – Pink Floyd, The Wall
1980 – Genesis, Duke
1981 – Rush, Moving Pictures
1982 – Rush, Signals
1983 – Iron Maiden, Piece of Mind
1984 – Iron Maiden, Powerslave
1985 – Kiss, Asylum
1986 – Queensrÿche, Rage for Order
1987 – Anthrax, Among the Living
1988 – Queensrÿche, Operation: Mindcrime
1989 – King’s X, Gretchen Goes to Nebraska
1990 – Queensrÿche, Empire
1991 – Queen, Innuendo
1992 – King’s X, King’s X
1993 – Robert Plant, Fate of Nations
1994 – Queensrÿche, Promised Land
1995 – Faith No More, King for a Day… Fool for a Lifetime
1996 – King’s X, Ear Candy
1997 – Hank Jones, Favors
1998 – Pearl Jam, Yield
1999 – Ben Folds Five, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
2000 – Doves, Lost Souls
2001 – Spoon, Girls Can Tell
2002 – Koop, Waltz for Koop
2003 – Muse, Absolution
2004 – Mastodon, Leviathan
2005 – The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity?
2006 – Muse, Black Holes and Revelations
2007 – Field Music, Tones of Town
2008 (so far) – School of Language, Sea from Shore

As I would’ve predicted, there’s some pretty clear trends at play here.  Most of the bands I grew up loving (Kiss, Iron Maiden, Rush, etc.) were at the peak of their powers during my youth, thus their early list dominance.  That also explains why hard rock and metal are heavily represented on this list until the mid 1990s, when they either dropped off my radar entirely or were just not releasing stuff I was all that interested in.  In fact, metal pretty much disappears for good until 2004, when the awesome Leviathan was released.

The other item of note is that I was listening to most of the albums at the front of the list when they came out.  Starting around the mid-’90s, my musical horizons began to expand and I started going back and filling in holes. Were this list to go back a few decades there’d be a ton of Beatles and jazz on it.

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 list. The second is that although I’m a pretty upbeat guy most of the time, I seem to respond the most to songs that are more subdued or melancholy. The third is that if a song has strong vocal harmonies it automatically wins points with me.

So with that, here is the current list of The Best, with some commentary. As a side note, at least a few of these can also be found on my last GFS mixtape:

• “North Meadow” by Giles, Giles & Fripp
• “Had to Cry Today” by Blind Faith – Killer Clapton fretwork, but what does it for me is the dissonance in the chorus.
• “Out of the Silent Planet” by King’s X – One of the prototypical songs of King’s X’s heyday.
• “Everything in Its Right Place” by Radiohead – I never really warmed up to Kid A or Amnesiac but I have always loved the skittering, unsettling vibe created here. I also love the electric piano chords.
• “Highway Star” by Deep Purple – I’m not really a fan of DP but this song kicks ass from start to finish. Brilliant drumming, brilliant guitar work, just…brilliant!
• “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison – Plagiarized or not, I love it.
• “Crossing Over” by Van Halen – A song unlike any other in the VH catalog. Dark and brooding.
• “Witchy Woman” by the Eagles – Yes, Witch-AY Woman. Gorgeous harmonies on this one.
• “Haunted Heart” by the Bill Evans Trio
• “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice” by the Lovin’ Spoonful
• “Hearts and Bones” by Paul Simon
• “Another Day” by Dream Theater – DT manages to reel in the wanking for at least one song, and the effect is powerful.
• “The Caves of Altamira” by Steely Dan
• “Nobody Does It Better” by Carly Simon – There are a lot of great James Bond themes but this is probably my favorite. It’s got that fantastic 1970s melancholy sensibility to it.
• “Love on a Farmboy’s Wages” by XTC
• “Fools” by Van Halen – VH does what it does best here. The outro riff is simple but killer.
• “Rock Lobster” by the B-52s
• “The Warmth of the Sun” by the Beach Boys – Nobody does haunting vocal melodies like Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. Nobody.
• “Castles in the Sand” by Seals & Crofts – I have always enjoyed the harmonies created by Messrs. Seals and Crofts. This is probably the best example.
• “All the Things You Are” by Dizzy Gillespie
• “The Voice Inside” by Queensrÿche – The absolute highlight from the otherwise disappointing Hear in the Now Frontier. The slide guitar solo by Chris DeGarmo is gorgeous.
• “Tin Pan Valley” by Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation – Plant’s well-worn voice seems to barely hold on, but kicks into high gear when the song does at about the 2-minute mark. Excellent juxtaposition of sedate and fierce moods.

…keep digging The best (at least in terms of my iPod)