Your Previous Quarter of a Year's Music Blog

2009 hasn't been bad at all so far. I've been browsing the bargain bins, gotten a few secondhand albums using existing store credit and bought some brand new stuff as well.

From the new albums I've bought, the standouts have been Mastodon - Crack The Skye (which is absolutely superb, I can't stop listening to it), Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Old Money (his best solo album to date, although he's so prolific it's almost impossible to keep track of everything) and Marillion - Happiness Is The Road (has become my favourite Hogarth era album).

I'm fortunate enough to have an independent record store locally, where the owner is a really nice guy who can always find something for you that you'll like. I've asked him on several occasions, "What do I want to buy today?" and given him a few parameters to work from and he has never let me down yet. He has given me at least one absolute gem, Todd Rundgren's A Wizard, A True Star, and several other solid albums (Carmen - The Gypsies/Widescreen 2cd edition, The Grateful Dead - Live/Dead and Jeff Beck - Live at Ronnie Scott's) as well.

Canterbury has been a major part of 2009, expanding my Caravan and Gong collections.

Gong - You. Superb.

Caravan - s/t. 

Caravan - Cunning Stunts.

Caravan - ...Plump In The Night.

I love Caravan, and these albums are all excellent. Think Cunning Stunts might be my favourite of the three though, due to the sheer brilliance of For Richard(bonus track). I also picked up Soft Machine - Third and Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom yesterday, haven't really had a chance to properly evaluate them yet.

AC/DC, too, has been an area of focus so far this year as I've added a handful of albums to my collection.

Other purchases in 2009:

Steely Dan - Aja. A whim from the bargain bin. Not sure about this one, but only had one listen.

Asia - Alpha. Bargain bin. Not too great, too pompous and cheesy for my tastes.

Jaco Pastorius - s/t. 2nd-hand store credit. I like the one track with Sam&Dave, but the rest just don't interest me all that much.

Mike Oldfield - Islands. Bargain bin, expanding my existing collection.

Mike Oldfield - Five Miles Out. Bargain bin, expanding my existing collection.

Mike Oldfield - The Songs Of Distant Earth. Bargain bin, expanding my existing collection.

John Coltrane&Miles Davis - Best of 1955-1961. Never really been much of a jazz fan, figured it was time to give it a go. Bargain bin purchase.

Jeff Beck - Guitar Shop. Only had one listen to it, haven't really made up an opinion yet. Bargain bin.

Todd Rundgren - Liars. 2nd-hand store credit. Not bad, but nowhere near Wizard.

Todd Rundgren - Todd. Almost as good as Wizard. Darker and not as accessible.

Booker T&The MG's - Best Of. Green Onions.

Steve Thorne - Emotional Creatures, part 1&2. A decent double concept album, but not groundbreaking in any way.

Pink Floyd - Saucerful of Secrets. Completed my collection at last, I'm ashamed to admit I had been missing this for years...

In addition to all this, within the next month and a half or so I have tickets to see Nils Petter Molvær(Norwegian jazz trumpeter), Bruce Springsteen(not a huge fan, but I'm going with my girlfriend and some of her friends), Jethro Tull(second time for me), Gong&Steve Hillage Band and AC/DC. This is turning out to be a great year 

Edited by ColonelClaypool - April 24 2009 at 08:51

ColonelClaypool has much better bargain bins than I've been able to find in my area.  I'm so jealous. 

Thanks for the reminder that I need to get the new PRR album, Dean.   By the way, that whole jam band label for UM is a bit overblown, although they do do a good jam.


Edited by Slartibartfast - June 15 2009 at 07:44

That's about the same I see in Best Buy over here in the States.

progkidjoel wrote: This has been the most intense music buying period of my life thus far... Marillion - FUGAZI 2CD REMASTER Marillion - Season's End 2CD REMASTER Marillion - Misplaced Childhood Marillion - Script For A Jester's Tear Marillion - Clutching At Straws Marillion - This Strange Engine Marillion - BRAVE Marillion - Afraid Of Sunlight 2CD REMASTER Marillion - La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie) Marillion - Happiness Is The Road Vol 1 and 2 Thats all I can think of from the top of my head...

That's a big chunk of Marillion to chew on.  Sometimes it's kind of nice to get into a band late in the game and get the remasters with bonus tracks on your first pass.

By all means after you've digested all of these report back and let us know what's your favorite(s).  Out of those, they're three I don't have, two of which I've heard.  Don't let me prejudice you but Afraid Of Sunlight is mine out of those.

I don't think I've ever taken on such a big chunk of a band with a big discography to that extent.  Try not to hurt yourself.


Edited by Slartibartfast - June 24 2009 at 12:04

Best stuff I've bought so far this year (in no particular order except the first one; and not all prog - or at least not prog that's listed here ).  

Some of these were technically released in 2008 too, but I'm not one for splitting hairs:

the Decemberists - The Hazards of Love (3 CD copies, 1 LP, 3 concert tickets and 4 t-shirts )

Alina Simone - Everyone is Crying Out to Me, Beware

17 Hippies - El Dorado

Melora Creager - Melora a la Basilica

Kells - Lueurs

Faun Fables - A Table Forgotten

Rupa & the April Fishes - Extraordinary Rendition

Fire on Fire - The Orchard

Sophe Lux - Waking the Mystics

Wovenhand - Ten Stones

Principal Edwards - The Devon Tapes

Gathiens - Nesh

Oh crap - looks like I'm not really a full-fledged proglodyte after all !!

^^^Love Debussy, but haven't explored the other two.

This quarter has really been spare.  I may have to go out and buy something since June is almost over.  I can always update this post if I can't help myself.  Anyway, probably safe to write about it.

Umphrey's McGee leads off the first three if I count the free download Prog Sampler.  I still have difficulties with things I obtain that aren't hard copies.  Maybe one day I'll get over it.  Anchor Drops got a negative review, but I liked it just fine.  I think I enjoyed Safety In Numbers even more.  The Bottom Half was where I kind of hit the wall.  Still, it’s a good album.  I may have just been a little overloaded.  It didn’t stop me from getting their latest live DVD this month.  

After a long hiatus Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin came out with a new one, Green And Blue.  Their proggiest effort yet.  I think they’d be a good fit for prog related, even though they’ve done more than a few non-prog covers.

Ordered the recently released Joachim Kuhn Band’s Sunshower.  Recommended his addition to this site and was surprised to be informed that he was predominantly a jazz player.  I only knew him from this one and Spring Fever.  Oh crap, just ordered it, hey, the price was right.  Both were reissued in 2008.  Great Jazz-Rock/Fusion albums.

Wasn’t following the Residents very closely but a fellow archiver alerted me to Bunny Boy.  I may be having a little Residents fatigue.  I liked it, but I didn’t wear it out like I did with Animal Lover.  They also have some companion videos to this on their web site, but I’ve only checked out one.  

Colonel Bruce Hampton is a local phenomenon that avant fans should check out.  He did his first solo album in a while, Songs Of The Solar Ping.  If I had recommend one to start with, it would be One Ruined Life Of A Bronze Tourist.

Wrapping up the quarter, by which I mean May 20, was Tori Amos Abnormally Attracted To Sin.  Not easily categorized but rejected as prog by the authorities around here.



Edited by Slartibartfast - October 25 2009 at 21:32

Despite the rather disastrous ending of the third quarter, not speaking musically, two titles I had ordered before the flood arrived October 1st to kick off the last quarter of the year.  Black Mountain's debut and In The Future.  Kind of helped to cheer me up a little.  They still seem more psychedelic than crossover to me, but what the heck, good stuff and a worthy addition to the site.

I actually did manage to add about 1/4 of the years new titles to my collection for this quarter.

While I am not one for Christmas music, I will add the occasional unorthodox album.  When I saw Tori Amos had put out such an album called Midwinter Graces, I had to bite.  Its a mixture of some overtly Christmas songs and some just about the winter season.  Well done.  I got the deluxe edition with an interview DVD about the album.  Tori remains one strange person.  I don't think it's an act.

Next up, at the end of November, a couple of live albums: Allan Holdsworth's All Night Wrong and King Crimson's USA (30th Anniversary Edition).  The Holdworth album is a good live one, though not particularly a stand out for me.  I still prefer his work from the '70's and early '80's with his latter works from the '80's to the present. 

The USA album I decided I finally couldn't resist as they had added two bonus tracks: Fracture and Starless.  I was familiar with the album since the late '70's, but never considered it an essential one to have in the collection even though it did have the never released on a studio album track, Asbury Park, likely because of either the band dissolving or the fact that it was more of a improv/jam piece.  Also, I had added The Great Deceiver box set more than a few years ago and so I had multiple live versions of most of the tracks already.  The bonus tracks made it worth the price of admission so to speak.  And upon re-listening to the album for the first time after all these years, the live versions are actually quite good and not the mere replay of the studio versions, which will always diminish an audio live album for me.

Last to come in early December was Pekka Pohjola's Keesojen Lehto (aka Mathematician's Air Display, The Consequences of Indecisions).  It was thanks to this site that I found out that Mike Oldfield's The Consequences of Indecisions wasn't really a Mike Oldfield album at all.  Even better though, I found out I could get the album on CD.  It replaces a home made CD copied off an LP that had been counted as a title in my CD collection.  Had to order as an import (ouch), but was worth getting.

All in all, not a bad quarter.  One new discovery, some new stuff by artists I already knew of, and some stuff I'd been long familiar with.

2009 was a decent year for music for me as much as it was a pretty lousy one on a personal level.  Heavy on new discoveries that I really like: Umphrey's McGee, Discipline, Paul Cusick, Knifeworld, Black Mountain.  A few good new releases from artists I've know for a while, and some blasts from the past.  I still can't help but wonder if I jinxed myself by adding Face Value followed by The Incident a few days before the house flood...


Three Friends was way too short for me.  In A Glass House used to be really hard to get a hold of in the US back the LP age.
v v v v






Edited by Slartibartfast - January 31 2010 at 06:15

January got kicked off in a big big way when I discovered Big Big Train.  I decided to put in for four based on what I had heard on the archives and the fact that it was an overseas order:  English Boy Wonders, Bard,  Gathering Speed,  and The Underfall Yard.  And wouldn’t you know it my Steve Hackett, Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth arrived the same day.  All excellent albums.  

Got the music bug a week later and paid a visit to my local brick and mortar store for a browse.  Came away with John Abercrombie Ralph Towner’s Sargasso Sea, Pat Metheny’s New Chataqua, and Porcupine Tree’s We Lost The Skyline.  By pure coinicidence two guitar duets and one guitar solo album.  As a bonus the first two were in mini LP sleeve format, which is my favorite.  

I was so impressed with Big Big Train that I put in an order for The Difference Machine.  Unfortunately their first one is sold out so I can’t complete the discography though I’d like to.  Though this one lies between two that remind me a lot of Genesis, it reminds me a lot less, so if you have an aversion to bands that sound too much like other bands this would be the one for you to get.  I’d say the same for English Boy Wonders and Bard.  That would be my only acquisition for February.  But with all those good new additions it was good to take a break and enjoy what I had.

Big Big Train?  Why not Miles Davis Big Fun?  One of a mail order pair arrived for me kick off March.  It’s a little weird because my first Davis was The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions and some of the tracks I’ve know for many years from that album.  John Hassell had a new one from last year I decided to try - Last night the moon came dropping its clothes on the street.  Intriguing title and nice ambient/jazz music.  I’ve got five other Hassells and this one is my favorite.  By the way, good move Jazz Rock/Fusion team in adding Jon.  Again by total coincidence two albums by trumpeters.

On the advice of someone on the archives I put in an order (half.com) for Bubu ‘s Anabelas without sampling first and decided to add Joachim Kuhn’s Springfever to the order.  If you order more than one title from the same seller, subsequent titles get a lesser shipping charge.  Bubu is really good reminds me a lot of PFM.  Kuhn’s Springfever and Sunshower should earn him a place in Jazz Rock/Fusion.  I’ve suggested it before and someone said he’s primarily a straight jazz artist.  So, those two are solidly good in Jazz Rock/Fusion.  If any of you guys read this you need to check out those two albums.  I do see Lancaster and Lumley on their list to consider.  Actually the only albums they did, I think, Peter And The Wolf and Marscape are already on this site under Various Artists (Concept Albums).  By the way based on those two albums I think they are a better fit for Crossover.  

Speaking of Crossover, I decided to order one of the new artists I evaluated and gave the thumbs up to - Anja Garbarek’s Smiling And Waving.  It has Steven Wilson and Robert Wyatt on it, though not on the same tracks.  I’ll probably be getting in the first review of that one before too long.

Also speaking of Crossover, for the last order of the quarter I got Flood’s Tales From The Four Seasons, which I had given one of the approving votes to add.  It was a Unicorn Records release, the label of one of my favorite ProgArchives discoveries, Talisma.  Got it with The Gorishankar 2nd Hands under recommendation from a fellow member.  Really impressed with that one.

Though not a new title to my collection, my wife got me Rubber Soul remastered.  It’s in the mini-LP sleeve, so my old copy is going on the market whenever I get my act together to sell off along with a few other titles of stuff replaced with remasters and other duplicates of what I already have.

Edited by Slartibartfast - April 03 2010 at 00:19