What a year it's been, right? Starting it all off earlier this Spring with moving to Rock Hill, SC, to be closer to our families. Couple that with a job that I can finally, FINALLY say, I'm truly happy at, it makes for some good times. Celebrating my first year of marriage only made things that much sweeter.
I've said many times, that at Harris Teeter, I have never once felt that I waste my time. Not once have I felt after a shift at work, that all the hard work I do on a nightly basis was for nothing. At Publix, that's all it was. At my first Publix store, I'll have to admit, I don't think that I was all that great of a worker. After transferring, however, I learned what a true work ethic really was, and I went from being a shitty worker, to a damn fine one, to being the hardest working guy in the entire building. Sad to say, all of my hard work went unnoticed. No promotions, no advancement, no growth as a worker whatsoever. I was regularly outshining every full timer on my crew and it just didn't matter. I never once felt that any of my hard work was appreciated, and that was the reason why I left. And that's the reason I will never work for that company again. At Harris Teeter, I know I still have a ways to go, but I know that my hard work is appreciated, and I am working towards a purpose. Honestly, that's all I need. And that's all I will ever need.
Over the past year I have been extremely vocal about a lot of things I feel strongly towards. I feel that family should always be first and foremost, and nothing should stand in the way of that. I've been vocal on my stance against bullying, how unforgiving I am towards it, and my personal experiences with it. I've also been adamant about my support for all branches of our military. Even though there are a lot of things they do that I don't agree with, I do fully support them. I speak as a Navy veteran that I say that our active duty and veterans deserve better than what they have, and I feel that upon entering civilian life, that they deserve the best life that the rest of us as a country can give them. One of the biggest things I've been outspoken about, however, is my complete contempt and hatred for the police. Look no further than incidents such as Eric Garner, Waldo Florida, and an incident in Orlando where a military MP was unjustly beaten by local police while being called a "stupid motherf**ker." Yes I know that this is not how all police officers are, but it seems to me that in this day and age that seeing a "good" police officer is slowly becoming the exception, and not the rule. This upsets me, it angers me, and it further feeds into my distrust. With all these things, I feel that I am 100% right in the things I've touched on. I may have come off as brazen and insensitive, but I know that I'm not wrong. I stand by everything I've said this year, and I'll continue to speak on these things until I'm blue in the face.
Now on to one of my favorite subjects, music. Here's some random thoughts about this year...
- I used to be a big fan of Paramore. Their first two albums, I'm a huge fan of. Never got the chance to hear their third one, but their self-titled album from this year has been some of the worst stuff I've heard in years. I feel that the band as a whole have sold out, and I hope that they one day go back to rocking as much as they used to. Speaking of selling out....
- Taylor Swift. Holy shit. Her country music was terrible, as all she would sing about, and I mean ALL...SHE...WOULD...SING...ABOUT...is some douchebag celebrity ex-boyfriend who broke her heart. She really was, for all intents and purposes, a country music cliche wrapped up in a brain stuck eternally in high school. Now with her new album, 1989, she goes pop. Everyone knows how I feel about pop music to begin with, but that's what stupid little teenagers listen to these days, an that's where the money's at. So guess what? We have a sellout on our hands. Oh goody.
- Meghan Traynor, ah,, what can I say? Her (s)hit song, "All About That Bass" basically says in the lyrics that thin girls are shit. I think a youtuber I listen to on occasion called it "skinny shaming." Doesn't help the fact that she's pulling that doo wop sounding bullshit accompanying a dance beat that makes my ears bleed. Hey, I hated it when Amy Winehouse was kinda doing the same thing, and I hate it now. Sorry, but that kind of music went out of style over 50 years ago. Only with Meghan's song, all it talks about is how great fat chicks are. Not much substance there, sorry.
- Imagine Dragons is not a rock band. I don't care what anyone says. Nuff said.
- I legitimately want to punch Jason Mraz in the face. Nuff said there too.
- Honestly, I feel that being a talented musician trying to make it big is looked down upon in the music industry as a whole. Now, I think that it really is all about looks, or what the mouthbreathing masses will fall for. I feel that these days, if you wanna find a talented musicians, then genres such as hard rock, prog, and heavy metal are the places to look. Not Nickelback though. They've always sucked, and they're always going to. I'm talking bands like Rush, Iron Maiden, Nightwish, Yes, and Queensryche. Not pop, not country, sure as HELL not rap, and definitely not dance music or dubstep. Yes I know that there are exceptions to the rule, but I'm sorry, I'd rather listen to recording artists who actually CAN play a musical instrument and actually CAN sing. Just about any others can kiss my ass.
That's pretty much all I got this year. To all of yas, stay safe this New Year's Eve. Don't drive drunk, keep your loved ones safe, and above all else, just have fun. Thanks to whoever reads my blogs, I hope to have more fans in the future. Comments, as always, are welcome.
Truth be told, I've always liked Aerosmith. Catch me at the Retro Room singing "Dream On" at Karaoke Night, it's a blast. The band from Boston had been on a major roll since their comeback album, Permanent Vacation back in 1987. Ten years after that comes this, one of the best albums to come out of the 90s. In my opinion, I always saw Nine Lives as a comeback album of sorts. After 1993's Get a Grip, I was actually starting to get tired of Aerosmith. That is, until I heard "Falling in Love (is Hard on the Knees)" on the radio for the first time that year. It took me roughly three years before I got the opportunity to hear the rest of the album, in full. First question that popped in my head upon hearing the 63 minute classic album was "What the Hell took me so long?" Even worse, the copy I had, I ended up losing between moving several times in the ensuing 14 years. However, after rediscovering it just a couple of weeks ago thanks to Spotify, I fell in love with the album all over again. It begins straightforward immediately with it's first, and title, track, and doesn't let go until the album's closer, the 8 minute epic "Fallen Angels."
What can I really say about this album? Well, I'm going to give it a shot here. Three years ago, The Unforgiving hit shelves all over the world which was universally praised for its ambition, its bombasity, and diverseness. Never before had this symphonic metal band from the Netherlands tried to put forth a concept album, but for me it just clicked. I know that there are a lot of WT fans that didn't particularly care for The Unforgiving, but I absolutely adored it, and to this day I think that was their masterpiece. But now the question arose...how does this band follow up such a masterpiece? Simple...they strip back from the concept album formula, and proceed with a straightforward rock album for the ages. And straightforward did they head, indeed. The opening track Let Us Burn signals the return of Within Temptation in a big way. As an aside, almost half the album features a guest vocalist to accompany lead singer Sharon den Adel. Some of said diverseness is retained here, as you'll hear singers such as Dave Pirner (from Soul Asylum), Howard Jones (no NOT that guy in the 80s, I mean the one formally of Killswitch Engage), Tarja (formerly of Nightwish), and Xzibit. Yes, THAT Xzibit. His song, "And We Run" was kind of a headscratcher for me, as I initially didn't care for the track. It has since grown on me a bit, however, and I can honestly say the parts of this song where Xzibit raps are the highlight of the track itself. You'll hear Jones on "Dangerous" and the song just works. Not one of the band's best, but it will still kick your head off. Hearing Tarja share vocal duties on "Paradise" was a breath of fresh air, in my opinion. Tarja's operatic styling pairs up with Sharon's angelic voice any day of the week, and this song shows. There IS a second disc to this album, mostly of covers from other bands, and Within Temptation proceed to make each cover tune hundreds of times better. Case in point, they remake Lana Del Ray's "Summertime Sadness," and I hate Lana and the song. But with WT reworking it into their own, I love the song now. As long as the band performs it. The only track I thought sucked was Enrique Iglesias' "Dirty Dancer." Yes...they even do one of his songs. And I'm sorry, the spirit of Freddie Mercury himself could have come down from Heaven to sing this song, it's still gonna suck. But I won't let that one little blemish ruin it for me. You know what I'm gonna say about this, as far as a recommendation goes right? Is it any doubt.
A couple weeks ago I was able to pick up a DVD copy of Roger Waters' "The Wall: Live in Berlin 1990" concert. I had seen the show for the first time about ten years ago, and I forgot how much that show gets to me. It took place at the former site of the Berlin Wall, almost a year after it came down, and is a performance, from beginning to end, of the classic Pink Floyd album "The Wall." I've reviewed that album before, and when you get down to the meaning of the 1979 album, you know how close it hits me. This performance featured guest performance by several of the most popular bands and artists from the time period, such as Cyndi Lauper, Scorpions, Joni Mitchell, Bryan Adams, and Sinead O'Connor. In front of the crowd of over 350,000 Germans, The Wall was made from a simple concept album to a full-on rock opera. It's only appropriate that German natives the Scorpions opened the show with the album's opening track "In the Flesh?" With every subsequent song played on the album, a wall is being constructed little by little, representing the metaphorical "wall" being built around him by the main character of the original album representing the several tragedies in his life. The entire performance is accompanied by the Rundfunk Orchestra & Choir, The Band, and the Scorpions themselves. The emotion induced by many of these performances are sometimes staggering. Most notably, during Sinead O'Connor's rendition of "Mother." No matter how many times I hear it, no matter how many times I see it, once the guitar solo kicks in, the tears are flowing. Same goes for the concert's closing song, "The Tide is Turning," sung in part by every previous performer on the show. Some of my favorite performances shown here are "Another Brick in the Wall, part 3" sung by Roger Waters, "Young Lust," by Bryan Adams, "Hey You" by Paul Carrack from Mike + the Mechanics, and "Waiting for the Worms," by Scorpions and Waters, where Waters is dressed up like a dictator at a rock show. He was showing how the main character of The Wall was so deluded at that point that he thought he was a fascist dictator and not a rock star. And I cannot forget "The Trial," performed by Tim Curry, Marianne Faithful, Ute Lemper, Thomas Dolby, and Albert Finney. The whole production ends with, appropriately, the "wall" on the stage tumbling down. An interesting note on Bryan Adams though. On the subject of "Young Lust," Roger Waters originally wanted Rod Stewart to sing on it, but finally settled with Adams, admitting that he felt Adams did a better job on the song than Stewart would have. This concert, hell, the original Pink Floyd album itself, is essential for any true music fan. I can't stress that enough. See? I'm not ALL about metal, you know? In any event, next blog I'll go back to reviewing a favorite album.
This album was originally released in 2002, and was basically the big comeback for the Canadian rock trio, although, looking back at the original, I don't think that it was the comeback that Rush was looking for. That would come five years later, with the album Snakes and Arrows. With Vapor Trails, the original mix sounded clunky, crowded, and distorted in most songs, if not all. This is a remixed version of the album, released earlier this year, and needless to say, it sounds a lot smoother, a lot cleaner, and seems a lot more put together. But other than that...since I'm a lazy son of a bitch, I'm gonna cut and paste a review of the original album onto this review...
The comeback of the legendary British metal juggernaut was in full swing. With the success of 2000's return-to-form album Brave New World, the (now) six piece band looked to continue the momentum with 2003's Dance of Death. I say now a six piece because back in the 1990s, longtime guitarist Adrian Smith had left the band, and was replaced with Janick Gers. With the return of lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson, Smith had also looked to return to the band as well. But he didn't replace Gers, for they liked him so much that they decided to keep him in the band, making the dual guitar lineup a three guitar, along with co-band founder Dave Murray. And to Janick Gers's credit, he wasn't just a guitarist for hire, as he had a hand in writing a couple songs on this album, such as "Gates of Tomorrow," as well as the album's title track and centerpiece, "Dance of Death." The latter is a huge favorite of mine, and I often list it as one of those songs I wish I had written. Listen for yourself....
Queensryche had always been one of my favorite bands since I was about ten years old. Their albums Empire (1990), Operation: Mindcrime (1988), & Promised Land (1994) rank right up there as some of my all time favorite albums. Hell their 1984 debut, The Warning is my all time favorite Queensryche album. Sure, the quality of their music had pretty much dipped downhill since the departure of long-time guitarist and primary songwriter Chris DeGarmo, in 1997. It sure as hell didn't help matters much when the voice of lead singer Geoff Tate slowly started going to shit over the years as well. Fast forward to a couple years ago when Tate was fired from the band because the rest of the group was sick and tired of his egotistical crap. After starting a fight with various members of the band, Geoff Tate was given the axe after almost 30 years with the band. I caught wind that he had later on put together his own group of musicians and had the gall to call them Queensryche. They released an album earlier this year and called it Frequency Unknown. That...was probably one of the absolute worst rock albums I have ever heard in my life. The whole CD sounded rushed, half-assed, and it was VERY clear that Geoff Tate just didn't have it in him anymore. This review...is NOT that CD. This review is the album released a couple months later by the REAL band known as Queensryche. Last year, it was announced that the band had enlisted in the services of former Crimson Glory vocalist Todd La Torre, in what can only be described as a much-needed shot in the arm, not only for the band, but for its fans as well. Todd La Torre, in my personal opinion, sounds like Geoff Tate singing in 1984. He's THAT good. When I first heard the album's first single, "Redemption," I was practically drooling, waiting for June 25 to come so I can run to the first place that had the album in stock. Of course, I opted for the Deluxe Edition of the album, as not only did it have a couple bonus tracks at the end of the CD, but a set of buttons, a patch, a band sticker of the album cover, and a guitar pick. Picking out favorite songs of the album, I'd have to go with "In This Light," "Spore," and "Redemption." Although I can easily listen to the entire album from start to finish without a single skip. There aren't many CDs that I can do that with. This is the REAL Queensryche, and as far as I'm concerned, this blows Geoff Tate's version of the band clear out of the water. Needless to say I am satisfied after hearing this, and I look forward to hearing what else the band has lined up for us.
This should really be no surprise that I'm picking something like this as the best album of the year. I've been a huge Rush fan for a number of years. A lot of people I know aren't fans of them though, and to them I've always asked them, "What's wrong? Too highbrow for ya?" Asking that usually illicits some anger to a degree. But I digress. Clockwork Angels has essentially been about five years in the making, as the power trio from Canada had been working on this little gem since touring for their 2007's Snakes and Arrows album, another favorite of mine. The first little bit of this album was actually heard two years before the album's release, in the form of it's first single, "Caravan." I heard the song the day it came out and I was excited almost immediately. When the B-Side to "Caravan" was leaked onto the Internet, "BU2B" my degree of excitement only grew that much more. Clockwork Angels was originally supposed to hit shelves in the summer of 2011, but had kept pushing it back since they weren't finished with making it. I'm glad they did, too, because Clockwork Angels would become a modern day masterpiece. This was probably the best album that Rush had released since drummer Neil Peart reformed the band after a soul-searching, four year long motorcycle road trip. Clockwork Angels is a concept album (and we all know I'm a sucker for concept albums) about a person living in a utopian future who becomes unsatisfied with his life, and he leaves his life behind to find answers to his questions on his own. With Peart writing the lyrics for the entire album, and members Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee taking care of the music aspect of it, there was nothing stopping this album. If you're looking for the best songs that AREN'T the singles, I highly suggest "Headlong Flight," "Seven Cities of Gold," (complete with a kickass Geddy Lee bassline intro), and the album's ending song, "The Garden."