Flying Burrito Brothers: Gilded Palace Of Sin

First of all, after everything I've read about this record, which is not that much either, I was disappointed. It might be that it opened certain directions in country-rock scene by showing the Eagles how things could be done. Anyhow I was not impressed, not too big fan of The Eagles, either.
The opening song, Christine's Tune, is quite ok, also quite well played, with the acid-filled guitar licks. But the rest of the album from my point of view does not fill the expectations I had for it. Sad to say, but I actually would've liked to like this.

The songs are handling way too much about love and being lovesick to fit in my cathegory. More or less I like outlaw-country better. Even though, now on the second listening, the album does not sound harsh or bad either. But still I would and will not spend my money on this one. The songs might have been revolutionary in the year 1969 and especially in the country scene. But considering that Tim Buckley had jointed together folk, country and jazz few years before and Hendrix did his stuff for the last whole year of his life, I can't get the value for this. And today, even less. Can't give more than three little j:s for this one.

jjj

(57th) my lunatic cow

my lunatic cow


moo!
said the spaceman
and rode the ship
there i was
in the meteormist
searching for needle
from eternal hay
i turned again
and saw you lay
and there you slept
slept like a baby


the tides of flares wash me now
when time and place are lost somehow
enormous space touches
and i wave gently
as i turn
my lunatic cow


i can see you babe
and almost touch
the carnival smile
among the lust
i can hear you babe
i can feel your joy
this big fat kettle
is turning too slow
and there you sleep
sleep like a baby


the tides of flares wash me now
when time and place are lost somehow
enormous space touches
and i wave gently
as i turn
my lunatic cow


the darkness sneaks in
when i float above the moon
if i slip and fall
the soft cell of darkness
will take care of me
just arrange myself
just arrange myself
arrange myself and
sleep like a baby


the tides of flares wash me now
when time and place are lost somehow
enormous space touches
and i wave gently
as i turn
my lunatic cow


if i ever reach
the other side again
if i could touch you
and ease your pain
if i could ever be
awake like you
i'd bring the stars
to greet you too
and then i'd sleep
sleep like my baby


the tides of flares wash me now
when time and place are lost somehow
enormous space touches
and i wave gently
as i turn
my lunatic cow

(56th) Metallica - Master of Puppets (1986)

Obviously, this is a classic of early trash-metal combinated with
more symphonic song structures. Despite the fact that it was a
milestone back then in the 80's, I somehow managed to skip
it. Not totally, but it did not hit me that hard at all.
Welcome Home (Sanitarium) was of course the song I learned to play, but anyhow, back in those days it was more or less Kill 'em All and
Ride The Lighnting, which made my days to go. I did not like the sound of
the album, it was a bit too soft for me. And it still is. Compared to the previous ones.
Because of that it lacked the raw energy, while it seems, nowadays, be built upon the more complex way of playing and arranging. Still, I have to admit, that this keeps on being a classic and a definite milestone in metal music.

The title song, and the riff especially is something way too obvious to be left out of every guitar player's musical vocabulary. Like ususally, I've enjoyed the song more than playing it. This comes from the fact that back then, when I had the enthousiasm to learn it, I was lacking the skills (the teacher and the notes/tabs too!) and now when I suppose I've got the skills I lack the enthusiasm totally. The song itself is complex and partly progressive in a familiar way. Like most of the Metallica songs, it evolves more or less naturally from part to another.

Overall the album is like most of the songs, a dark description of our time. I even find myself liking the chorus/phaser/flanger -effect on the clean guitars. James Hetfield could not sing back then, at least compared to the latest album releases, but the voice is brilliantly fit to match the songs themselves. The soundscape is strange mix between soft and dirty, I myself would've liked the guitars to be in more dominating role. And the Bass. And the drums. The sound  is a bit too 80.s in my ears, still. It was back then, and it still is. And the instruments,  especially mr Burton's bass is mixed somewhere there in between the other mushmush. So actually, it's not the songs, it's the mixdown that does NOT kick my ass :D

Overall, I could give this statement, that this is a good album, but not THAT good, so it will
receive a 'nice' rating, 4 capital J:s plus 1 small one. Despite the fact that the sound and the
song quality is only kind of ok in my books, the album itself has been fighting against the time
really well, unlike any of the Anthrax -ablum from the same era. It still is not a complete cup of tea for me :D.


JJJJj

PS. Wikipedia has a good description about the album

(46th) Re-grouping personalities.

I noticed this morning while on my way to work that I seem to have quite too many sidepersons here in the web. Even here in the blogger. For example 1001 Impressions of Albums, which contains my album reviews. And the albums have been selected by the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Which is something a bit weird, since I like to do things my way, even on the highway ;) (Why don't we do it on the road!?)

Ok, back to something. I'm going to put the album review -articles in here and contuinue maintaining only this blog. And the reviews might be titled as 1001 Albums I must've been listening before I got killed. Or something like that. :D

(44th)put your money where my mouth is

you've got a nerve
to seach your happiness
though i pay you for
doing something else
you've got a nerve
to seach your happiness

you don't need to
do a thing
i'll give you this
this is for free
you don't have to
do a thing

swallow this
among your pride
it's soft, mellow,
it's easy, try
now swallow this,
swallow your pride

put your money
where my mouth is, suckers!
do like you're told,
cut the nonsense (quit thinking!)
put your money
where my mouth is, suckers!

(38th) Incredible Jens LIVE at Drottninggatan

Finally, there's been some live-music. I've been training some rock standards together with Kimmo for the past half a year or so. Once a week or then maybe twice. Or none, depending on the schedules of two somewhat wanna-be-busy-look-a-like dudes. Folsom Prixon -blues, Honky Tonk Women etc. type of rock standards. The playing has been fun, some sort of free breathing besides the actual musical process. Basically Kimmos has done the job, holding the songs together and handling the vocal parts. I've been mainly trying to find myself in and out of the songs more or less blasting off with the total improvisation -stuff. It has been and it still is challenging to have three chords and in every single song the solo and the other parts should have something that's not inside the other songs with similar chord -structure ;)

Anyhow, since I've been way too lazy with everyday activities here in Stockholm, we couldn't get inside the rehearsal space on saturday morning, so we decided to practice outdoors, since the weather was extremely good. We played around 10 minutes in the nearby park and then decided to go and find out the truth by playing for the gracefully passing by audience in Drottninggatan. And that was great! Even though, after two hours playing, my fingers were aching and my back was hurting. We managed even to collect some coins on the way, thanks for the pass-byers :D. Needless to say we spent them on water and coffee. So where's the rock n' roll cliche in that one, then? No whiskey, big cadillacs or women ;).

Anyhow, we're planning to do it again at some point the following weeks. On wednesday evening this week at least, so if you pass by, leave a coin or don't - I don't care - and ENJOY the music, if you can ;)

twentyfifth

The world wide web has once again lifted up something really good. What I mean here is the hippie/punk/whatever -alternative DIY-attitude. The web gives you the opportunity to be your own record label, publisher and what evere you want to be. And that is definitely worth using, then. I myself find it way more interesting to create music, lyrics, literature (on the way, I hope ;) or whatever I want to and put it on the web. Not to mention the fact that nobody will ever listen or read them anyway, besides the friends of course ;).
I've ran into few problems, still. Since I am not a professional, I might be doing things in a way that prevent them to be found. Which, in the other hand, might be a blessing to the humankind. And the other is related to this. How to publish anything in the web without letting the published item to be rambled down by the zillions of other publications. And more, what makes my publication so important that anybody should see it. Once again, nothing. And that is a good thing, I hope.
Anyhow, this whole DIY-stuff (Opensource & Creative Commons) have been leading me towards a decision that I made a couple of weeks ago. Finally. I've been doing it without an official announcement for some time, still. Further on, I will record and deliver my music, lyrics or whatever I produce with open source -tools. From head to toe. Since now, the latest record was mixed down with commercial and not so official audio software.
About the publications. The final and ultimate essence of music or any art is freedom. The music I create should be free, since it is that for me, who am I to deny anybody for getting (hopefully) the same feeling of freedom to themselves. And that is the baseline for my publications. The gigs, if I some day get a band together, are a different story, and have to be dealed later on, when time comes. But the music itself should be free.


Free your mind. :D

kaksikymmentäkolmas - twentythird

Pienoinen päivitys. Levyä prosessoidaan edelleen. Voisihan toki ranskanmaalle vinkata, että sen enkoodauksen voi toteuttaa myös tietokoneella, luulisin.

Levy on ladattavissa Jamendosta. Jos ei nyt, niin hyvinkin pikapuoliin. Ainakin se nyt on sinne uploadattu ja paraikaa prosessoitavana. Kannesta saamme kiittää Josefiina Råttaa. Muilta osin kiitokset ansaitsevat yksilöt mainitaan sekä kotisivuilla, että Jamendossa. Joka ikinen, joka tätä on ollut työstämässä, auttamassa, henkisenä tukena ja kriittisenä korvaparina sekä potentiaalisena kohdeyleisön jäsenenä ansaitsee myös sen kunniamaininnan.

tämänpäiväisen blogauksen otsikosta on kiittäminen 1980-luvun suomalaista urheiluselostajistoa.

Record is now uploaded and soon able to be downloaded from: http://www.jamendo.com/artist/Incredible_Jens.
Someone might say to the French (Jamendo is originally from France) that the encoding could be done also with computer ;). The album has been under processing until last night or so...

eighteenth

after careful listening, there's now TWO Songs available for download in the homepages.

Incredible Jens

Please download, listen and comment here!!!

fourteenth

I want to sell my records. Meaning the ones I've created. And to be honest, meaning the only real one I've almost got done ;). But I'm not prepared to sell it at any cost. That's for sure. I mean that I want to give it away as free. Music by it's best forms is representing freedom, and it should remain so as it's essence, too.

Nowadays the music sold by the big companies is more or less boring. The small labels are following them or doing the opposite, which is kind of following, too :D. The artists are more or less hit-factory products. Idols, celebrity wannabees etc. For me at least. Of course there's always few brilliant exceptions, which at least keeps me interested. But the whole situation is boring. And while watching the latest record -sales figures it seems that I'm not alone here. While big major label artist sales are going down, the small labels and independent music shops (and industry, I certainly hope so!!) is going more or less the same way it has been. Nowadays I can download all the major label artist discographies with the videos and lyrics from the web. So why should I bother paying for that then? The independent stuff is harder to find as 'free', so it means that I should go to the shops to by it, borrow it from the friends or go to the library, like I used to do earlier on.
Now, the big label record companies are trying to fight against the situation, which from my point of view is stupid, completely. They're pushing the already freely available stuff online with a price tag. Even though the price tag is tiny, 1 EUR, 99 cents etc. It's more than the one you'll have to pay when downloading the torrent from e.g. Piratebay.
At the same time, the record labels are cutting down the costs and signing only the artists that have a good product potentiality. At least that's how I see it.
From my point of view, the record companies are falling back, taking blind Goliath-steps slowly towards random directions while the little Davids are surviving and becoming the kings. For how long, you'll never know.
My point here is, that the record companies should drop the records and start to sell services. To the artists themselves. And then again, to the customers also. If I was a big record company, I'd buy or made a contract with an open Creative Commons -internet community, leave it be and try to sell the services I could to the best and most popular acts on the community. Meanwhile, on other, old-fashioned venues, I would continue producing celebrity-whores for everyday soap-opera purposes. There's always a crowd for brainless nonsence. I know, I watch the AFV. And I would stop cutting the costs and concentrate on the issue that the money I make has to be enough to pay the costs. If it was something more, good. But then again, I'm not a business man, nor I'm a record label multicultural business machine. I've seen few, though :D

thirteenth

Do I consider myself as a bad person if I download music from the internet? No I don't, surprise!?
I grew up in finland, in a middle-class suburb, went to average middle-class schools and did (in 70's standards) average middle-class boy stuff with my friends. One of the things was to buy C-cassettes, go to my friend's home, since he had a record player (and Stereo/HiFi-VCR & Videogame & C64 - I did not :D). I used to get the albums recorded to my cassettes (TDK is still up and running). The albums my friend or his family had or the ones I borrowed from the local public library. The libraries, btw, are one of the most important things available. Hopefully they stay free of charge everywhere! Back then I used to have quite broad taste of music, at least thinking about t now, from Dire Straits to Hanoi Rocks plus everything else in the middle and both sides ;). Since nobody told me what was cool to listen and what was not. And, thanks to my friends, it was a serious fun to sit in a darkened living room and fall in to the musical world of Love Over Gold. Or to the finnish broadcast company (YLE) version of Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy. Doesn't happen too often nowadays. The actual musical experience is lost between zillions of distractions. And the music is the background noice everywhere. For me it's kind of sad to loose the actual meaning of the music that way. Does it make Live-music more valuable, I think it does. And me, myself, I fill my working days background with music, definitely.
But the whole point in here was the thing that I haven't been paying for my music before, mainly. Other than that, the fact that if you can get something for free from the web, why shouldn't you take it? So it is ok.
Or at least partly. Of course I would be more attached to the music, if I would have to do at least something for it, like walk to the library, borrow a CD and then rip it at home after I've been listening weither it's ok or not. Nowadays the music is so easy to get that you just do it, constantly, without paying too much attentition to it at all. So getting the music has fallen in to the same slot of background noice than the music itself. Sort of greedy mix between laziness and hoarding...
And no, I'm not concidering myself being a better man while doing this. Not at all. The whole society is so easy nowadays, that you can just slip downstream with everybody else without paying attention to anything. And there's the value for myself being tested. Do I have enough will power to create some countermovement actions to my personal life to fight against the boring life inside this world? (London's Burning with boredom now). To activate myself to actally DO something for the things I'm keen to and not just wait for them to swim in my Net-For-The-Torrents :D.

And after all, I'm still not the right guy to judge am I good or bad...

Sixth

http://nowscape.com/star_city/index.html.
Star City, Russia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_City,_Russia

One of the things that tweaked my mind yesterday was the name of the training facility. It ended up in a bunch of quick notes on my notebook, there's a SONG coming :)

fifth

The album is currently heading towards readiness, some progress on friday. Still, two songs are still missing. The other, mobiilielämä (mobile life) is otherwise somewhat ready, but there's no vocals recorded there yet. And the second one, Rauniosusi (Carcass Wolf) is missing even more, the rhythm base needs to be re-looped, there's few tricky parts in there, which lead to clear mistakes when trying to play it.
So the album will be ready. when it is done. Not before. :D