fledgehog

QUOTE (RUSHHEAD666 @ Jul 18 2011, 01:25 AM) I graduated college in 1995 and as a gift my parents took me to see Beethoven's 9th in San Francisco. Michael Tilson Thomas was the conductor. fantastic orchestra and conductor! It's also worth checking out the same collaborators' recent recording of Mahler's 8th Symphony, another orchestral/choral behemoth on an even grander scale than Beethoven's.

k

how the hell can anyone not like signing their name? it's an excuse to make a giant violent scribble AND to execute legal power. shit's pretty badass.

QUOTE (Earthshine @ Jul 16 2011, 08:47 AM) QUOTE (FallTempest @ Jul 15 2011, 01:15 PM) QUOTE (Earthshine @ Jul 15 2011, 06:03 AM) Overrated and immature band. *IMO you mean. Immature? Help us out here. I have a hunch that maybe you haven't got your facts straight. And overrated where?? Not on TRF thats for sure. I think they get as much or perhaps not enough recognition IMO. Well, they just sound like they try to make their music as complicated as possible. The whole drama with Portnoy showed immaturity also. Kids really. They can't play much more than what they play. That, and covering other bands. I doubt any of them can play classical or jazz with the exception of Rudess. I doubt Portnoy could play Rite Of Spring on timpani or Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra on snare drum or timpani for example. Or read a Basie or Ellington chart arrangement. I don't think Myung could play Cherokee or Four. I doubt Patrucci could play McLaughlin's Guitar Concerto for Orchestra or solo over rhythm changes modulating into different keys using chord scales. They really need to go back to school or go and take lessons. I don't see how the "drama with Portnoy" makes any of them immature aside from Mike himself. The rest of them handled it pretty well, he's just the one who had to be a big baby about it. As for comparing kit drumming with classical percussion parts -- way off bro, they're two completely different styles. How many of NYPO's percussionists could play 6:00 or The Great Debate if you sat them down behind a drumset? And you really don't think Myung or Petrucci could play jazz? really? they went to berklee for f**k's sake, not to mention that Petrucci alters and improvises solo's live all the time. Why not try re-thinking your assumptions from the point of view of somebody who isn't trying to prove a point so hard

QUOTE (Janie @ Jul 15 2011, 11:09 PM) One time the, "Tire Pressure Monitor" light came on detecting low air pressure in one of my tires. I checked all four tires, which looked fully inflated, drove to the gas station, did the tire pressure check on my tires, looked in the manual for how much air should be in the tires (there was supposedly a perfect amount of air in each tire), looked on the tires themselves to see what the actual tire recommended... decided to put some extra air in each tire anyway, the TPM light was still on. I let some air out, re-checked everything, the light was still on. Called the dealership and they said to check the spare. Which was totally flat. Had not thought about that. The tire pressure monitor in my mom's Audi has been on for a couple months...I should tell her to check the spare. On the whole those things are pretty pointless...if your tires are low you should be able to feel/see it, and the kinds of cars that even have TPM's to begin with are generally prone to computer problems

QUOTE (Kenneth @ Jul 15 2011, 07:25 PM) If people buy band gear rather than the albums, then the music industry is effected and sales are being focused elsewhere. which is a good thing, because then the bands themselves make all the money from concert tickets and merchandise, while the record labels die the slow horrible death they deserve.

QUOTE (Kenneth @ Jul 15 2011, 03:10 PM) QUOTE (ioc @ Jul 15 2011, 10:17 AM) QUOTE (ghostworks @ Jul 15 2011, 11:27 AM)I'm finding some pretty ignorant attitudes in this thread I bet none of you who illegally download music would like to be laid off without pay for a month just because your boss found an intern who'd do what you do for free Aaaaaaaah, That's so adorable. You kill me sometimes. So are you saying that business isn't effected by internet piracy? no, it's not. the only thing record companies lose is POTENTIAL sales, and most people probably wouldn't have bought the stuff they download anyways. Not to mention, the increase in exposure also leads to a greater number of potential sales. The theft analogy that so many defenders of the record industry use is fundamentally flawed in that when music is downloaded nothing is taken from anyone else. To steal a physical copy of a CD from a record shop is theft of music, but to download a digital copy isn't.

QUOTE (priest_of_syrinx @ Jul 15 2011, 05:32 PM) Gotta skip The Great Debate! And maybe Misunderstood if you have to. ????????????? I can take or leave the whole political themed lyrics thing, but musically The Great Debate is probably the best part of Disc 1. it has some of Mike's most inspired drumming, and everything about the instrumental parts just fits. As for Misunderstood, it's great musically AND lyrically. Very dark, but really good nonetheless. I'd choose it if i HAD to pick a song to drop, but ideally I'd keep everything on both discs for that album.

not my story, a friend's story. his wife's Mercedes M-series truck (aka piece of crap) had the oil light come on when it was only a few months old. they took it to the mercedes dealer, and the dealer said "oh yeah, it does that sometimes. don't worry about it." Well, shortly after that, while out at the movies, they came out to the car to find a pool of something (probably oil) underneath it. they called up mercedes, and the repair crew showed up in their own M-series truck. now here comes the kicker... the oil light was on in the repair crew's truck as well. good ol' german engineering

youtube sampling is every bit as illegal as downloading

Cheap Trick Live at Budokan The Complete Concert Holy. f**k.

Awake is an incredibly dark album -- I feel like you almost have to be twisted yourself in order to "get it" and appreciate it. But even if it's not your kind of atmosphere, you can't deny that the writing and performing on it is Dream Theater at their peak (especially James' voice...he completely blows me away every time i hear Voices or Innocence Faded). I myself love it...I get a chill up my spine just thinking about how emotionally heavy everything on the album is. While some may be more of an I&W or SFAM type, I'm an Awake type, and it's a perfect album to me.

QUOTE (GrandDesigner @ Jul 13 2011, 09:04 PM) I download a ton of music. Most of it is out of curiosity (aka bands I wouldn't buy cds from otherwise) and occasionally I'll stumble onto a winner and discover a band I really love. Then I'll buy their music. I really only buy music from bands who have 'won me over' so to speak. same here, except i won't buy music from an RIAA-label band, no matter how much I love the band themselves. I buy tons and tons of used CDs when I have money, however. and legal downloading is completely pointless. If i'm dishing out money for my music it better be in f*ckin lossless, and you can find just about anything that can be downloaded on Amazon marketplace or somewhere similar for less than $10, incl. shipping.

not legally, no, but morally it is completely okay, even if you are opposed to downloading in-print CDs.

OSI was lame? also, Six Degrees is easily the best JR-era album, but Images and Awake both kick it (as well as SFAM and the lackluster 8VM) to the moon and back EDIT: not to say that it's entirely Rudess' fault, it's really the band's quality as a whole that took a nose-dive during the Rudess era.

James LaBrie's vocals truly shine in his first band Winter Rose's material (moreso than they ever did in Dream Theater, even in the early days):

OSI and Chroma Key's albums are better than anything Dream Theater has put out in the last 8 years. Plus, his cold personality doesn't make him any less of a musician.

Rudess is a more technically proficient player than Kev, but he's a bit of a show-off...not to mention that his synth lead patches generally sound horrible, he spends too much time with stupid "modern-sounding" bebot crap and not enough time playing good old-fashioned piano and organ sounds, and he's responsible for pretty much every "circus" moment in DT or LTE music. Kevin, on the other hand, knew how to scale back and play tastefully, plus he was a fantastic lyricist. really, though, they're two completely different musicians with completely different styles, who shouldn't be compared to each other.

i find it pretty hilarious that people say that Lennon wasn't a big deal. Some of his later solo material isn't quite my thing, and within The Beatles, while I personally even prefer George and Paul to him, there's no doubt that he was the band's absolute frontman, when you think of The Beatles, it's his voice that you hear...he shaped the band and they wouldn't have been the same without him, nor would music in general.

warning to OP -- around here, appreciation threads are quickly overrun by haters who don't realize that it's not the proper place to badmouth whatever is being appreciated.

why aren't acoustic and upright options on this poll?

we have both the extremes, why not fill in the blanks?

With Mike Portnoy gone, I'm expecting the new album to be much better than the last few. Myung is writing lyrics again, Rudess is playing real piano again, LaBrie and Rudess are contributing to musical writing, and Portnoy isn't there trying to make the band sound like whatever bands he's been listening to for the last 5 minutes. the problem with Train of Thought and Dream Theater's other "metal" attempts, is that metal ISN'T WHAT THEY'RE GOOD AT. They could pull it off on Awake because James LaBrie could still sing with attitude, they were all a little younger, and they had some really nice prog moments to balance it out (Innocence Faded, Erotomania, etc), but when it's a middle-aged, supposed family-man Mike Portnoy attempting to relive his teenage years it gets stale really fast.

most of the obvious ones (and some really stupid ones) have already been pointed out. surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, but maiden sans dickinson

QUOTE (Show Don't Tell @ Jul 10 2011, 09:21 PM) QUOTE (fledgehog @ Jul 10 2011, 07:28 PM) .. Train of Thought is far and away the worst album ... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/DT_WDADU.jpg the only problems with that album are Dominici and the production. Musically and lyrically it's one of their best (listen to any '92 or '93 live versions of WDADU songs with LaBrie, amazing stuff). What makes Train of Thought such a horrible album is the LACK of any musical inspiration, the same problem that several tracks off the following three albums suffer from as well