GrandDesigner

They should have left Tai Shan and Second Nature off the album. I think HYF as a whole would be much stronger without these two.

More than 5, but I literally listen to all these every day.

 

The Smashing Pumpkins (Oceania)

Silversun Pickups (entire catalog)

Rush (Clockwork Angels)

The Flower Kings (Banks of Eden)

Ne Obliviscaris (Portal of I)

Ringo Deathstarr (Colour Trip)

Birds Of Tokyo (entire catalog)

Beach House (Bloom)

 

 

Hemispheres is quite easy drumming-wise. The music is complicated at times but nothing he does is insanely difficult on there. I'd say the toughest part of the whole album is the jazz hi-hat part in LVS and nailing the subsequent snare rolls.

 

As far as overall technicality, it's Power Windows hands down. He utilized a lot more sounds and his playing was much busier than on any previous album. The same could be said for HYF.

I am happy for Mangini. I genuinely enjoy this guy being in the band, and it seems like a lot of the drama and bad musical decisions have ceased with MP's departure. Mainly the horrendous background vocals and obsession with being a nu-metal band.

 

MP was my biggest drumming influence for many years in the early 2000's, but somewhere along the way he just got too caught up with "being fawkin' metal" and that's when his presence in DT started negatively affecting the band. I feel like this happened sometime around 2002.

 

Overall, at this point in time, I say Mangini.

I want that setlist!!!!!!!!

 

I hope we get AS1, HITR, and OC in Philly.

I still wish he'd utilize his whispery voice more like on their earlier albums, but the music side of Oceania sounds to be a great improvement over TBK and Zeitgeist.

 

I streamed a bit but I want to wait for the full thing before I burn out on it before buying it!

I'll be at the Philly show this Friday. I'm curious to see what they pull out for their 2nd night in NYC!

I don't see them playing The Enemy Within and The Weapon without Witch Hunt. I'm dying to see those two songs live so I'd be more than happy to sit through WH again if it means I get Enemy and Weapon.

QUOTE (ColdFireYYZ @ May 29 2012, 03:08 PM)

QUOTE (GrandDesigner @ May 29 2012, 04:06 PM) Just got Fly From Here from a $5 Amazon deal. I am actually pleasantly surprised by how much I like it. I actually want to KEEP listening to it, sometimes 3 times in row. The title track is disjointed as hell and clunky, but I really like it a lot. My biggest gripe is actually with Benoit. I wish he would've let loose a bit more vocally, his voice kind of stays in one range throughout. But the band sounds great and all the songs are pretty good. I was actually really surprised with it. I was expecting it to completely suck but I liked it. Same. I need to take that approach with Clockwork Angels. It seems that when I expect to dislike an album, it winds up being one I really enjoy and when I am positive an album is going to blow me away, it always falls short.   Expectations are a blessing and curse when it comes to music.

QUOTE (rushgoober @ May 24 2012, 05:24 PM)

10. Absolute perfection all the way through - a masterpiece. 9. Excellent, not one weak track and nearly perfect. 8. Great album, a must-own. 7. Very good album - well worth owning. 6. Not thier best, but still pretty darn good. 5. I don't listen that often, but it's a good album. 4. It's not bad, some weaker material. 3 - It's alright, I'll listen and enjoy it occasionally, but will often skip some tracks. 2 - There are a couple of good or great tracks, but generally fairly weak. 1 - Barely listenable, for completists only, only one or two even halfway-decent tracks. 0 - Just really bad, no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Just got Fly From Here from a $5 Amazon deal.

 

I am actually pleasantly surprised by how much I like it. I actually want to KEEP listening to it, sometimes 3 times in row. The title track is disjointed as hell and clunky, but I really like it a lot.

 

My biggest gripe is actually with Benoit. I wish he would've let loose a bit more vocally, his voice kind of stays in one range throughout. But the band sounds great and all the songs are pretty good.

Hemispheres (Prelude)

Grand Designs

In The End

 

I'd shit bricks.

V is their masterpiece with Neal. Though, The Light is fantastic as well and is a fairly accurate representation of NM-era SB, so if you didn't like it, SB probably isn't your thing. Snow is definitely my least favorite as well.

 

My favorite epic if theirs is the massively underrated Healing Colors Of Sound. The solo in the My Shoes section blows me away.

As far as the jazz thing goes, the member who is farthest away from being a jazz player is SW himself. He's an excellent songwriter and his craft suits his purpose perfectly, but his guitar playing is nowhere near the level as Gavin's, Richard's or Colin's level of skill on their own instruments. I think SW knows that, and is working through his jazz phase (with much more skilled guitarists) so he doesn't have to try to fake it with his main band when PT tours.

 

I think people are reading too much into this whole thing. I think if SW wanted to end PT, he would say PT is over. I seriously think he is so excited about his solo stuff that the thought of putting an end to it and going back into PT mode would be disastrous to his creative spark.

First of all, there is absolutely nothing on this album that even remotely resembles a Marilyn Manson song. Nothing.

 

I think it's a great album. I listened to it heavily for the few weeks after it came out, and I still play it every now and then. Casey is the best decision they made.

John Dies At The End by David Wong. What a strange book. Reminds me of a Neil Gaiman-type scenario.

I do think it's definitely a song that would be well-received and well-executed by the band at this stage of their career, but I still don't think it will happen simply because they just did a rare, unplayed song from Presto on the last tour and probably will ignore the album this time around.

Just discovered this band. They have a great sound, highly reminiscent of early 90's alternative/shoegazy type stuff. I can't overlook their tendency to "borrow" a lot of motifs from The Smashing Pumpkins, but since TSP are probably my favorite band, I can't get too upset.

 

 

 

 

 

QUOTE (Nate2112 @ May 6 2012, 01:16 PM)

So right now Im listening to the whole of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas To Heaven...fans of post rock what should I expect from it...

PUMPKINS!!

 

Possibly one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, bands of all time. From The Marked demos, all the way to Machina 2 it was solid gold. And they've done some pretty cool things since, though it pales in comparison to their 1988-2000 output.

 

I love JA as well, but no band can touch the Pumpkins for me.

-I think Rush's epics are all relatively weak as far as prog band epics go. They sound like 5 or 6 hard rock songs bunched together to form a continuous piece of music.

 

-I wish Xanadu and The Camera Eye did more in their 11 minutes than just repeat themselves.

 

-By-Tor and the Snowdog is their most overrated longer song by far.

 

-I find the 5 album stretch from 2112-MP to be overrated for their masterful musicianship and technicality. They were much more technically proficient and interesting during their 80's output IMO.

 

-Neil is a vastly overrated drummer. I still don't get how people see him as a god among rock drummers when most of his parts are relatively simplistic, especially the 70's material. And his absolute high point of creativity and technique was on Power Windows, an album that never gets mentioned when touting his drumming ability. This annoys the shit out of me.

 

-In keeping with one of the first posts here, I never understood the hate for Hand Over Fist either. I think it's a definite high point of Presto.

Chuck Schuldiner

Dimebag Darrell

Cliff Burton

John Lennon

George Harrison

QUOTE (TheAccountant @ Apr 29 2012, 06:38 PM)

Try The Better Angeles of our Nature: Why Violence has Declined by Steven Pinker. The book is most likely the best book I have read in my 46 years of life. Its a detailed argument that we actually do NOT live in violent times, at least when compared to the past. To make that argument the author has to look at current violence and compare it to historical violence. To do this he discusses sooo many things including (and I will just give a small sample of what gets tossed around in the book): Rates of violent death in current tribal societies Historical murder rates in Europe and the US How the US was settled and why Blue States tend to have lower crime rates then Red states (even though Red states utilize the death penalty more often). Historical rates of violent death in tribal societies that are no longer with us The Bible & The Qur'an Witch burnings The use of torture John Locke, Kant, Montesque (sorry about the bad spelling), Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Adam Smith, Lincoln Historical treatment of religious minorities / outcasts The Mongol invasions of Russia and the Middle East Dueling Foot binding as practiced in China The practice of burning widows in India Violence against animals and humans as part of lab experiments Historical violence against women (and current) Child labor laws The invention of the printing press What passed for entertainment in the past (e.g. feeding Christians to the lions, gladiators, the execution of criminals) Crime rates The number of major wars fought during given periods, the # of people killed in wars and the number of wars between major powers during given periods & the % of people who lived within states that went to war who were killed during wars fought during a given period. Martin Luther King Quakers The Reformation, The Counter Reformation & The Enlightenment Hitler, Stalin, Mao Raceisim, Sexism The 30 Years War And this only hits on a little bit of what is in the book!!!! Read it!! It will convince you that, compared to the past, we do not live in violent times and that things could keep getting better. It will also help to explain why some part of the world are more violent and other less. Best book I have ever read. The description does not do it justice.

QUOTE (JohnnyBlaze @ May 2 2012, 02:59 AM)

Seems to me that there's more to your stomach issue than it just being "Far Eastern Asian spicy" food. What about food from Korea for example? Or Malaysia? They're drastically different from Vietnamese dishes with (obviously) different ingredients. And spicy Japanese dishes just aren't hot at all (by western standards).