themusicaddict's Greatest CDs Of All-Time: R.E.M. "Green"

Hello,

R.E.M. is one of my favorite bands, yet I've never written a Greatest CDs of All-Time blog about any of their CDs. Preparing for this blog, I listened to a lot of R.E.M.'s music. I my opinion they have 3 classic or near classic CD's, those 3 CDs being "Green", "Monster" and "Document". Sadly no one has made a Youtube video for the entirety of any of those 3 CDs.

"Green" was released on voting day November 8th, 1988. It wasn't a coincidence the CD was released on that day, R.E.M. weren't fans of George H.W. Bush. Too bad for the Democrats the best candidate they could offer was Michael Dukakis. (I still remember the unintentionally hilarious Snoopy picture).

At the time the band was made up of Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry. Berry later left the band, in 2011 the remaining members of the band announced that they were breaking up. Thus ended the career of one of the most influential bands of my generation.

To contrast and compare, this is Stereogum's Top 5 "R.E.M." CDs: (If you would like to see how they rank all 16 R.E.M. CDs, go to their page at stereogum.com.)

12) "Monster"
9) "Green"
5) "Life's Rich Pageant"
4) "Murmur"
3) "Automatic For The People"
2) "Reckoning"
1) "Document"

1) "Pop Song 89":



2) "Get Up":



"Get Up" (Live):



3) "You Are The Everything":



4) "Stand":



"Stand" (Live):



5) "World Leader Pretend": (A sign of a classic CD is when the lesser known songs are also very good.)



"World Leader Pretend" (Live):



6) "The Wrong Child":



7) "Orange Crush": (My favorite song on the CD and one of my favorite R.E.M. songs.)



"Orange Crush" (Live):



8) "Turn You Inside-Out": (Another great, lesser known song from this CD.):



"Turn You Inside-Out" (Live):



9) "Hairshirt":



10) "I Remember California":



"I Remember California" (Live):



11) Untitled:



themusicaddict

The 12th Seeded Lady Cougars Cruise To The Sweet Sixteen

Hello,

Although I'm a big time BYU fan, I rarely follow their women's sports teams. However I can't help but get excited about the Lady Cougars reaching the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2002. BYU, at 28-6, has reached the Sweet Sixteen after beating 5th seeded North Carolina State and then beating 4th seeded Nebraska.

That was very exciting, until I looked at who BYU plays in the next round. Unfortunately the Cougars run into the buzzsaw known as UConn. This is the same team who is aiming for their 9th national championship and are undefeated this season. While BYU was fighting to get past Nebraska 80-76, the Huskies crushed St. Joes 91-52.

Honestly I literally give the Cougars no chance of beating UConn, in fact if the Cougars can keep the final score within 25 points I would consider that a moral victory. After UConn crushes BYU they'll play the winner of 7th seeded DePaul and 3rd seeded Texas A&M. DePaul reaches the Sweet Sixteen after knocking off the second rated Duke Blue Devils. It cracks me up that both highly seeded Duke Blue Devils teams were upset early in the NCAA Tournament.

Now if a miracle happens and BYU somehow gets by UConn, then they'll have beaten the best team they'll play all season. Relatively their path would be easier moving forward. BYU-UConn tips off 4:30 EST Saturday afternoon in Nebraska. If nothing else this game is a great thing to build on for future Cougars teams, perhaps some day they really will challenge for a national title.

BYU, who is run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, doesn't play athletic contests on Sundays. The first day of the Women's Final Four will be on a Sunday. So although it's not going to happen it would be interesting to see what the NCAA would do if BYU did advance to the Final Four. You can bet the NCAA is cheering against the Cougars as they don't want to deal with that thorny situation.

Thanks Lady Cougars for representing BYU and all of its fans so well. Thanks for making it to the Sweet Sixteen and playing so well. A tip of my BYU hat to Jeff Judkins for building such a great program. Anything beyond this would be gravy.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CDs of All-Time: Ozzy Osbourne's "The Ultimate Sin"

Hello,

This blog is yet for another one of those 80s classic CDs. I'm pretty sure I would say "The Ultimate Sin" is my favorite Ozzy CD. Every song is amazing, it also features the great Ozzy and a very good band. "The Ultimate Sin" was released February 22nd, 1986. I'm fairly certain the first time I heard this album it was on cassette tape. If you don't know what that is, consider yourself lucky. It was a very inferior form of technology. Even with the cassette's tape inferior sound this still came out sounding great. Thank goodness for good speakers.

I remember before this CD came out, I wasn't a big Ozzy Osbourne fan. I was a bit of a snob about his music, although I loved the heavy metal boom going on at the time. I still remember the first time I was exposed to this album, from the first few notes I loved it. That started me on the path to being an Ozzy fan. I loved a lot of his music since then, although I still haven't seen him in concert. I don't recall him coming to Salt Lake very often. On that note here's an Ozzy concert from Salt Lake City in 1984:



This was a CD I was exposed to in my one year away at school. Since it's a very conservative college it's not the kind of CD you'd think to hear there. But hear it I did and I'm glad I did as I'm not sure the next time I would have been exposed to it. This CD was released in a very fertile time for music. Other great music coming out in the mid 80s included Prince, Whitney Houston, Madonna, the Hooters, Mr. Mister and many others.

Here's the Youtube video for the entire CD, thanks to Reese Speilberg for making this video:



1) "The Ultimate Sin":



2) "Secret Loser": This song is on the soundtrack for the movie "The Wraith". Although I grew up in the 80s and loved movies, I have never heard of this movie. That's strange because I watched a ton of movies in the 80s and this seems like it would have been up my alley. The movie does sound a bit like a "Christine" ripoff. However if you have "The Wraith" soundtrack on CD, it's going for about $100 each on amazon.com.

This is "Secret Loser", featuring scenes from "The Wraith".



"Secret Loser" which someone made a video for the album track:



"Secret Loser" (live with a Randy Castillo drum solo- at least I think this is Randy)



3) "Never Know Why":



"Never Know Why" (Live):



4) "Thank God for the Bomb":



5) "Never":



"Never" (live):



6) "Lightning Strikes": (A great song, but this outfit makes me question Ozzy's fashion sense.)



7) "Killer of Giants":



8) "Fool Like You":



9) "Shot In The Dark":



"Shot In The Dark" (live):



This is a concert Ozzy did about the time that "The Ultimate Sin" was released. The "Shot In the Dark" video is first and then the concert starts about the 5:30 minute mark.



themusicaddict

Review of Christopher J. Yates "Black Chalk": When Does A Game Become More Than A Game?

Hello,

My review of Christopher J. Yates "Black Chalk". The book was released September 19, 2013 and obviously didn't make much of an impact. Had you ever heard of it before stumbling across my blog? I probably wouldn't have heard of it unless I saw it at NetGalley.com. I'd like to thank NetGalley.com and the publisher Vintage Digital for a free copy to read.

The running question is what mysterious incident happened during the playing of the game. A narrator is telling us about this incident, but for about the first 20% of the book we don't even know who the narrator is. This narrator is haunted by this mysterious incident, at first he doesn't give us details about it. Did someone die? If not, what happened in that incident that has such a finality to it? Why does the narrator have so much regret about the incident? What exactly happened and who is at fault? This incident literally haunts the entire book.

This book is the story of a game amongst friends that goes horribly wrong. But it's just not a game, is it?No it's a game with a large of money at stake and a game that becomes personal. It turns from a "game" to a GAME relatively quickly. What makes the game turn from a friendly competition into something much more serious? The novel is broken into two parts. First the action is set at Oxford University in 1990, where "six best friends" play a game in their first year at Oxford. The "game" is picked up 14 years later in New York City for the "final round". This brutal game is monitored over by a mysterious group of people, they call themselves the Game Soc. We know very little about them, other than they aren't to be trifled with.

The six friends are an intriguing mix of both genders, different nationalities and different economic status. Although the six truly do seem to be good friends, there are  things mixed in that gives the game an added edge. Four college age men and two attractive women makes for a toxic mix. Also the money involved doesn't help

The first of the six friends is Jolyon. He's an Englishman and a self-described "product of divorced Sussex schoolteachers". Badly damaged by the first part of the game, he spent 3 years as a hermit in his New York apartment waiting for the resumption of the game. His being a hermit started 11 years after the first part of the game ended. Jolyon eventually becomes a naturalized USA citizen and marries an American, although that union doesn't last. He knows the game will be resumed and he spends about 5 weeks getting ready for the sec on part. He trains by taking tentative steps into going out in public again. Jolyon needs reminders to execute even basic functions. His life had almost stopped after the first round of the game, which is when he originally stopped writing in his diary. We find out eventually that Jolyon is the narrator of the book and the diary he resumes writing in is the book.

Chad Mason, an American, befriended Jolyon. Although he and his fellow Americans arrived on campus a week before the British freshmen, he hadn't made friends with any of them. Jolyon liked Chad as soon as they met. Chad had initiated their friendship but Jolyon had to do the final approval of it. At 13 was the first kid to get a pimple. He earned the nickname Pizza Face for that, because of the nickname he didn't eat pizza until reaching Oxford. Farm boy on a scholarship and financial aid. He came under the influence of Jolyon, sometimes for good and sometimes for bad.

At the beginning of their first week of friendship they began talking about and developing the game that would so mark their lives.

The final four participants of the game is Emilia, who initially is sleeping with Jolyon during the first part of this game. She's the conscience of the group. Next is Jack Thomson, who is Thomson without a p. He's studying history at Oxford and likes to entertain others with his self mockery. The next person is Dee, she's an attractive women who has her very own sense of fashion. She's very much her own woman and also a poet. Her poetry plays a central role in the book. Then perhaps the most tragic figure of the group is Mark, the ultimate loser in the game.

During the Fresher's (freshmen) Fair Jolyon, Chad and Jack considered many different societies to see which they might want to join. Jack spent much of his time mocking these various societies. It was Chad who noticed the Game Soc first. The three main members didn't necessarily go out of their way to welcome people to their group. Jolyon nicknamed them Tallest, Middle and Shortest. Upon meeting Chad was the first to suggest the game to Game Soc as Jolyon helped to explain. They hadn't finalized the game when they introduced it to the Game Society. As the introduction was being made Jack added  ideas to the game, although he hadn't heard of it until Chad brought it up with the Game Soc.

That's just the barest telling of the many details of the novel. Jolyon serves as a very effective narrator, although we aren't sure if all of the words are his. The book follows how what started out as a simple game ends up ruining so many of these six people's lives. Very thoroughly it answers the question what becomes of a game, when it turns into a GAME?

I would definitely suggest that all read this book. This book is for those who like mind games, don't like the easy answer and have to work to understand the book. The book is set up as the ending could be very lame, I was pleasantly surprised by how good the end was. It was a very satisfying conclusion and helped for the whole book to be extremely readable. I give "Black Chalk" a solid B grade.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CDs of All-Time: Green Day's "American Idiot" (Part 2)

Hello,

This is part 2 of this blog, I broke this blog into two because of all the songs between the CD, the Broadway CD and live versions. Forgive me if the order isn't exactly perfect. Again be warned both the original CD and the Broadway Cast Album use the f bomb liberally.

The track listing of Green Day's "American Idiot":

1. American Idiot

2. Jesus Of Suburbia

3. Holiday/Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

4. Are We The Waiting/St. Jimmy

5. Give Me Novacaine/She's A Rebel

6. Extraordinary Girl/Letterbomb

7. Wake Me Up When September Ends

8. Homecoming

9. Are We The Waiting

10. Letterbomb

11. Wake Me Up When September Ends

12. Homecoming: The Death Of St. Jimmy/East 12th St./Nobody Likes You/Rock And Roll Girlfriend/We're Coming Home Again

13. Whatsername

On the Broadway Cast Album "Last of the American Girls" (originally on "21st Century Breakdown") is paired with "She's A Rebel":

"She's A Rebel":



On the Broadway Cast album, following "She's A Rebel" are a couple of bonus songs not on "American Idiot". However "Last Night On Earth" is originally on "21st Century Breakdown":



Next bonus song is "Too Much Too Soon" (This is a non-album bonus track from "American Idiot", I'm not sure if it was on the Broadway Cast Version first.):



The next bonus song is "Before The Lobotomy" (Originally on "21st Century Breakdown":



"Before The Lobotomy" (Live):



6) "Extraordinary Girl/ Letterbomb"

"Extraordinary Girl":



"Extraordinary Girl" (Live):



On the Broadway Cast Album there's a reprise of "Before The Lobotomy", followed by 3 more bonus songs before "Letterbomb". Those three songs are "When It's Time" (from the "American Idiot" Broadway Cast Album) :



"Know Your Enemy"(from "21st Century Breakdown") :



The amazing "21 Guns" is the final bonus song from the Broadway play for this part. This song also originally comes from "21st Century Breakdown":



"21 Guns" (Broadway Version):



"21 Guns" (Live):



10) "Letterbomb":



"Letterbomb" (Live):



11) "Wake Me Up When September Comes":



12) "Homecoming: The Death of St. Jimmy/ East 12th St./ Nobody Likes You/ Rock and Roll Girlfriend/ We're Coming Home Again"



13) "Whatsername": (An extremely bittersweet song. I love this song although it hits way too close to home.)



"Whatsername" (Broadway Cast Version):



"Whatsername" (Live At Storytellers 2005):



The original "American Idiot" ends with "Whatsername", but the Broadway play finishes with "When It's Time":



themusicaddict

Quick Review of the Television Show "Crisis": Dumb Show But Great Music

Hello,

I watched the series premiere for "Crisis" tonight. This is a brand new show starring Gillian Anderson and Dermot Mulroney. On a field trip someone kidnaps the high school children of the rich and powerful. Sadly the premiere episode was a dud that dead on arrival. I have almost no expectations that this show will last very long. It's just dumb, predictable and is similar to many other shows.

However I will say that the person behind the music did find a couple of gems. Thanks to the IMBD message boards for information about these two songs. First up is Serena Ryder's "Stompa":



I also have much love for Scala and Kolacny Brothers cover of the classic Metallica song "Nothing Else Matters":



And a quick review of "Resurrection", it's certainly better than "Crisis". Overall I'm disappointed by it. Like "The Walking Dead", it lets the camera focus on one scene for several seconds a few times each episode. I know the producers would say they are building suspense, but in my opinion its that they don't have any good ideas. Thus they stretch out their less than good ideas as long as possible. However "Resurrection" does have much better dialogue than "The Walking Dead". For a show that's so popular I have no idea why they have such bad dialogue.

I've watched the first two episodes of "Resurrection" and I'll watch at least one more episode. I'm hoping that it finds it's legs, I have no such hopes for "Crisis". In fact I wouldn't be surprised by its quick cancellation. But thanks for featuring those two great songs.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CDs of All-Time: Green Day's "American Idiot" (Part 1)

Hello,

Driving to work today I listened "American Idiot" on my car stereo, it holds up quite well after 10 years after it's release. It definitely is a classic CD!

The classic Green Day CD "American Idiot" opens with the line "Don't want to be an American idiot" over angry guitars and drums. Remember when this CD came out, many thought this band's time had come and gone. But that was far from the truth and it has turned into a classic. I ignored it for the first few months it was out until I heard "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" at work. It felt like a song that had been written about my life. And I was in a job that I hated, so it seemed perfect for my life at that point.

After hearing "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" that first time I sought out the entire CD. I was pleasantly surprised by how good "American Idiot" was. Although the CD was aimed at teenagers, Billie Joe and the boys were about my age. So although it was aimed at teenagers, the songs could also apply to other age ranges. It seems perfect for an era where the stupidity of corporate America reigns in most of our lives. We have lost much of our humanity and have become a number in eyes of Big Business and Big Government. Just coming today, to a job that I like for the most part, I felt a bit like a drone. Many times my life feels like SSDD.

Thus it's no wonder that "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" appealed to me so much.



Green Day peeked with this CD, but it isn't their only great CD. Both "Dookie" and "21st Century Breakdown" are also excellent CDs. "Uno!", "Dos!" and "Tre!" are perfectly good CDs. Although I do wonder if combining those 3 CDs into 2 would have made for 2 classic CDs? Of course Green Day also went through a garage rock phase when they performed under the name "Foxboro Hot Tubs".

Finally the theatrical feel of "American Idiot" inspired it's own Broadway show, I can't think of another CD that inspired it's own Broadway show. Several musicians' music have been the foundation to create Broadway plays- most notably to me Billy Joel and The Four Seasons. I love the "Idiot" Broadway Cast Recording version of  "American Idiot". I enjoy the way they change some of the songs without harming them. The Broadway edition has a couple of bonus songs. Although the Broadway version of  "American Idiot" is different than the original, both are classics.

Warning this CD and live performances use the f bomb liberally.

Here's the full "American Idiot" CD, thanks to whoever made this video:



And here's the Original Broadway Cast Recording of "American Idiot":



Here's "American Idiot" track by track:

1) "American Idiot":



"American Idiot" (Live)":



2) "Jesus of Suburbia":



"Jesus of Suburbia" (Live) :



3) "Holiday/ Boulevard of Broken Dreams":

"Holiday":



"Holiday" (Broadway Cast Version Live On Letterman):



"Boulevard of Broken Dreams":



On the Broadway Cast album of "American Idiot" here's one of the additional songs. Its located here in the Broadway production and is titled "Favorite Son":



4) "Are We the Waiting/ St. Jimmy"

"Are We the Waiting":



"Are We the Waiting" (Live):



"St. Jimmy":



5) "Give Me Novacaine/ She's A Rebel"

"Give Me Novacaine":



"She's A Rebel":



This blog is full, so I'm going to break it into two blogs.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CDs of All-Time: Fountains Of Wayne's "Welcome Interstate Managers" (Partial blog)

Hello,

"Welcome Interstate Managers" was released on June 10th, 2003. This is the third CD by Fountains of Wayne, and far and away their best CD. According to wikipedia.org the name of the CD was taken from a hotel marquee sign.

Obviously the CD received notice because of the song and video for "Stacy's Mom". The incredibly catching song featuring Rachel Hunter as Stacy's Mom- "she's got it going on". But one song doesn't make a classic CD. A classic CD has to have several great songs and this indeed has that. Other great songs include "Bright Future In Sales", "Hackensack", "Peace and Love", "Mexican Wine" and "All Kinds of Time". 

The good news about Fountains of Wayne is that they didn't peak with their first CD. The bad news about Fountain of Wayne is that they peaked with their third CD. They seem to be another band who saved their best songs for one CD only.

Sadly no one has made a Youtube video for the entire CD.

1. "Mexican Wine":

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2. "Bright Future In Sales":

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3. "Stacy's Mom":

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4. "Hackensack": (One of my favorite lines from any songs ever: "I saw you talkin' to Christopher Walken on my TV screen.")

Katy Perry singing "Hackensack" on "MTV Unplugged":

)

5. "No Better Place":

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6. "Valley Winter Song":

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7. "All Kinds Of Time":

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8. "Little Red Light":

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"Little Red Light" (Live):

)

9. "Hey Julie":

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10. "Halley's Waitress":

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11. "Hung Up On You":

)

12. "Fire Island":

)

13. "Peace And Love":

)

14. "Bought For A Song":

)

15. "Supercollider":

)

16. "Yours And Mine":

)

A cover of "Yours and Mine":

)

themusicaddict

Stretching Myself: Is The Clash's "London Calling" One of the Greatest CDs of All-Time?

Hello,

I was thinking about writing another one of my greatest CDs of all-time blogs. I pulled out my notepad where I've written a list of all the CDs I want to write about. However none of the CDs on my list excited me enough to write about today. I decided to try something different and Googled 100 Greatest CDs of All-Time. A few different Top 100 lists popped up. Since I have more of a pop sensibility I went with the EW.com list over a couple of other lists. The first thing I thought is they have Nine Inch Nails "Downward Spiral" listed, but they don't have "Pretty Hate Machine"? What? The next thing I thought was the Beatles "Revolver" is the #1 greatest CD of all-time? What? I'm sorry but the Beatles have never done much for me.

I was glad to see that I've written already about many of the CDs on EW.com's list. And I would have certainly written about their #2 CD of all-time, "Purple Rain", but Prince doesn't allow his videos on youtube. You just can't write a blog about a great CD without at least some videos for the songs.

Anyway looking at that list I saw at #5 The Clash's "London Calling". Looking at the track list I recognized a couple of songs right off, but not many of the titles sound familiar to me. I decided to stretch myself today and listen to the CD and see if I agree that it's indeed a classic CD.

After listening to this CD 1 1/2 times I would have to disagree with it being a classic. Although it does have a couple of classic songs on it. Sometimes it has taken me several years to think a CD deserves the status of a classic, maybe that will happen with this CD.

Here's the full CD:

)

Here's my 3 favorite songs plus one from "London Calling". First up the title track:

)

"Train In Vain (Stand By Me)":

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"Train In Vain (Stand By Me)" (Live):

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"Rudie Can't Fail":

)

And because I worked in grocery stores for 20 years, although I was never "Lost In The Supermarket":

)

themusicaddict

Spotify and ConcertVault.com: Music Perfect For Nearly Every Mood

Hello,

I've been a member of concertvault.com for a couple of weeks and it's reawakened my love of live music. Yes, it's a pay site for $3.99 a month, but it's well worth it. Honestly their selection of live concerts is hit and miss, and sometimes you have to dig a bit, but I've discovered a bunch of gems. When a band plays live is when you see what they are really made of. For instance I was disappointed by Boston, very wimpy vocals. But my appreciation of Bob Seger increased ten fold.

One of my favorite concerts is the Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band concert on June 15th, 1980 in Detroit. The man doesn't mess around, he just plays great song after great song. It's also funny to hear him refer to the "new record" and then play the new song "Against The Wind". It's great to hear many of these songs at their infancy.

I also like Chicago's June 13, 1992 concert from Detroit at Pine Knob. Their musicianship is great, including an electrifying "25 or 6 to 4", but the vocals are less than stellar. Just a note about more recent Chicago concerts, which aren't available on concertvault.com, I've noticed those later concerts they act as if their whole 80's output didn't happen. Sure that's extremely pop music, but there's no reason to be ashamed of it. Many happy couples have danced and have conceived babies to those romantic songs.

Other concertvault.com concerts I quite like are by Dio, who I never saw in concert, also the Hooters and AC/DC with Bon Scott on vocals. There are also good concerts by U2 & Eddie Money. As I previously referred to with the Bob Seger and AC/DC each concert is a time capsule. Many times a band can be good for several years, but then start releasing some lesser CDs. If you don't like their most recent CDs you can go back to a time before those CDs were released. Bob Seger is one artist that has multiple concerts over the years, you can listen to concerts from 1980 through 2007.  There's something available for every Bob Seger fan.

The other great thing about a membership is the ability to download free concerts. Now I'm not going to kid you, not every free concert is worth clogging up your hard drive. However I've downloaded good concerts by the great Stevie Wonder, Ella Fitzgerald and Rhett Miller. Miller's set takes place at SXSW on March 16th, 2012. Now I didn't know anything about Miller, didn't even know he sang for the Old 97's. Of course I didn't know anything about the Old 97's either. His SXSW set is short but also is a great and energetic set. I wouldn't have known anything about Rhett Miller without the help of concertvault.com. I also bought a Byrds & The Flying Burritos Brothers concert from Whisky A Go-Go, it was only $2.00.

Already today I've lived to concerts by the great Blues Master Muddy Waters and the very creative and fun 80s band, the Thompson Twins.

Many, but not all concerts are available to purchase. Whether you purchase or not you still have unlimited listening to any concert they have available. If they have a concert available for sale, you'll never pay more than $5.00. Now concertvault.com is great, but as I mentioned above the concerts they have available are relatively few. Also there are many artists that they don't have any concerts for.

One of the downsides of concertvault.com is their hit and miss selection in concerts. But that's okay as Spotify, still free thank goodness, mostly fills that space. Someone was talking yesterday about Neil Diamond and I really wanted to listen to him play live. He has very little on concertvault.com, but he has a lot of live stuff on Spotify. So I'm now enjoying Diamond's "Live In America".

Spotify is great! Don't get me wrong, especially since it's free. You usually get what you pay for is the old expression, but that's not true with Spotify. A few commercials here and there is the only thing you have to "pay". Half of the time I don't hear the commercials. That being said I've been disappointed that some recent CDs haven't been available to listen to. For instance I really wish I could listen to the new Eric Church CD. I also would really love to listen to the Thompson Twins' "Queer". It's suppose to there most danceable CD, but I haven't been able to listen to it any where. Perhaps those CDs will be available to listen to later, but this is only a small quibble.

From all the artists I mentioned in this blog, you can see that I love all sorts of music. A lot of that love of different genres of music comes from the environment I grew up in. Growing up I heard everything from John Denver to Public Enemy- which is why I have both on iTunes.

Between the two music sites and my own iTunes library I love that I can practically listen to any music I want any time I want. It's extremely rare that I'm not to listen to whatever I want, according to whatever whim I have. Just a few years ago I wouldn't have imagined such a thing as being possible.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CDs of All-Time: The Aquabats "The Fury of the Aquabats"

Hello,

This is a CD that shows it can be a classic CD without making a big impact on the charts. "The Fury of the Aquabats" is their second CD, it was released on October 28th, 1997. This CD only peaked at #172 on the Billboard 200, but that wasn't because it was a bad CD. I'm not sure why this doesn't appeal to more people. FYI: Yes, every title has a exclamation mark.

Has this happened to anyone else: I don't know if I would call myself an Aquabats fans, because I only like one of their CDs, but that CD is amazing! In preparing to write this blog I listened to some of their other music on Spotify yesterday and I'm just lukewarm on that music. However every song on "The Fury of the Aquabats" is great. It's quite a talent to make a CD that has 16 songs and each one of those songs maintains a high level.

1) "Super Rad!":

2) "Red Sweater!":

"Red Sweater!" (Live):

3) "Magic Chicken!":

4) "Fight Song!":

5) "Cat With 2 Heads!":

6) "The Story of Nothing!":

7) "Captain Hampton and the Midget Pirates!":



"Captain Hampton and the Midget Pirates!" (Live):

8) "Martian Girl!" (My favorite song on the CD. It's both sweet and incredibly goofy at the same time.)

"Martian Girl!" (Live):

9) "Attacked by Snakes!":

10) "Idiot Box!":

11) "Powdered Milk Man!":

12) "My Skateboard!":

13) "Phantasma del Mar!":

14) "Lobster Bucket!":

15) "Theme Song!":



"Theme Song" (Live):

16) "Playdough!":

This is the bonus track on the CD, hidden bonus tracks was a big trend for a few years. Thus there's 2:32 between the end of previous song and before "Playdough!" begins.

For those of you who want the full effect of the 2:32 of silence, here it is:

Here's the full video for "The Return of the Aquabats": This CD features many of the same songs as on "The Fury of the Aquabats".



The Aquabats live:



themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CD's Of All-Time: Neil Young's "Sleeps With Angels"

Hello,

Neil Young has written some of the greatest songs of all-time, some of which he's well known for and some he's not known for at all.

In my opinion "Sleeps With Angels" is Young's best CD by far. I know that might be sacrilege to some, but I don't mean it to be. It's just an amazing CD, mostly full of mellow, mid-tempo songs. However near the end of the disc "Piece of Crap" comes along to kick butt. A scathing takedown of our overwhelmingly commercial world. Other great songs on this CD include "Driveby", the title track, "Western Hero" and of course "Piece of Crap".

For only $6.99 for the MP3 at Amazon this is a CD you should add to your collection asap.

"Sleeps With Angels" is a CD that Neil Young released mid career, it was released August 16th, 1994. I can't remember if I was a Neil Young fan before then. If I wasn't this made me a fan or strenghtened my fandom. In just a few months this CD will be celebrating it's 20th anniversary. Sadly the full CD doesn't have a Youtube video made for it yet.

1) "My Heart": This is perhaps the most beautiful song on the CD.



2) "Prime of Life":



"Prime of Life" (Live At The Bridge School Concert):



3) "Driveby":



4) "Sleeps With Angels": One of my favorite songs on this CD.



5) "Western Hero":



6) "Change Your Mind":



7) "Blue Eden":



8) "Safeway Cart":



9) "Train of Love":



10) "Trans Am":



11) "Piece of Crap":



"Piece of Crap" (Live)":



12) "A Dream That Can Last":



themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CD's Of All-Time: Arcade Fire's "Funeral"

Hello,

This is another one in my series on the greatest CDs of all-time. This blog is for Arcade Fire's amazing CD "Funeral". Honestly I don't remember how I discovered this CD, I'm just glad I did.

"Funeral" was released on September 14th, 2004, which means it's heading to it's 10th anniversary of being released. The CD was named as many of the band members recently had deaths in their families. Add Arcade Fire to the group of musicians whose best CD is also their first CD. Although Arcade Fire hasn't fallen off as badly as many other musicians. (Thanks to Wikipedia and Amazon for information for this blog.)

Arcade Fire's second best CD is probably "The Suburbs"- a very solid CD. "Neon Bible" is decent and their most recent CD "Reflektor" is growing on me.

My favorite song from "The Suburbs". "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)":

As always here's the link to listen to the full CD, I'll eventually add a video for each individual song:

1) "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)":

2) "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)":



3) "Une Annee Sans Lumiere":



4) "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)":



"Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" (Live):



Here's the first 3 "Neighborhood" songs back to back to back:



5) "Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)":



6) "Crown of Love": This is probably my favorite song on the whole CD- at least for today.



"Crown of Love" (Live):



7) "Wake Up":



8) "Haiti":



"Haiti" (Live at Austin City Limits):



9) "Rebellion (Lies)": (A sign of a great CD is even the 9th and 10th song into it every song is still great. This song would be the best song on most CDs released now, on this CD it almost seems like a throw away due to it's location on the CD.)



10) "In The Backseat":



"In The Backseat" (Live");



themusicaddict