Here is a sneak peak at some clips from the recording session in Dallas.  Enjoy!

So we finished the A’s, and now here we are at the B’s.  I know that this is only my second letter, but I like the luck that I am having so far with the first album of a letter being really really good (the A’s started with The Beatles Abbey Road).  In good spirits, I kick off the B’s with Back in Black by AC/DC.  

I could be way over generalizing, but I at least FEEL like everybody has heard this album.  For one, it is a great album.  Two, it has had a number of songs come off it that got airplay and still do on the classic rock stations.  It seems that every time a song comes on the radio off this album, people know it.  

Anyways, I have listened to this album a lot in the past, and am sort of struggling to find something to say.  The recording and everything is good quality, and it is an enjoyable album.  I think the reason that struggle to find something to say is because it seems like everyone has already drawn their own conclusions about the album and the band.  So let’s hear them?

Kyle

Here they are, the 12 A’s that were on my iPod ranked.  The top 3/4 were really difficult.  

 1.  Accelerate by R.E.M.
 2.  Abbey Road by The Beatles
 3.  Attack and Release by The Black Keys
 4.  Amorica by The Black Crowes
 5.  Astronaut by Duran Duran (even though I was a little mixed on it, it gets put high because of a couple really great tracks.)
6.   Arena by Duran Duran (A lot of live stuff will probably land around here for me)
 7.  Audio Visions by Kansas
 8.  Arrival by Journey
 9.  Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits by Aerosmith
 10.  Axis: Bold as Love by Jimmy Hendrix (Contemplated only saving a few tracks, but it   is all still there as of now)
 11.  American Soldier by Queensrÿche (Deleted, primarily for space reasons)
 12.  Abraxis by Santana (Deleted)

I welcome opinions and criticism. 

Kyle

I did not like this.

I have heard very little Hendrix, but what I had heard prior to this point, I had really enjoyed.  However when I started listening to the album Axis: Bold as Love, I found myself just getting extremely annoyed.  

The first thing that hit me off the bat was that the panning on this album is just WAY over done.  The conversation during “EXP” keeps bouncing back and forth between the left and right, making it really hard to understand for a half deaf kid listening on headphones.  Other parts of the album will pan, and at points one side will be totally dead.  This irritated the crap out of me.  

“Up from Skies” would be a good track but the music mix is off with the music way too low to enjoy.  “Spanish Castle Magic” is a little better, but not by a lot.  Other panning, volume, and bad mixing issues ensue including one track, “Little Wing” that has a fade out that is way too drastically fast.  Then, at the end of the album when the guitar work really begins to impress me and get my attention on “Bold as Love”, the song fades.  

As for the good stuff, “Castle Made of Sand” is probably the best, “She’s So Fine” has a heavy Beatles feel, and “Ain’t No Telling” has a nice ending.  

As a whole though, this listen was pretty disappointing, although it is hard to totally pin down the exact culprit.  I guess the thing is that the whole album feel disjointed.  Oh Well.  This one is off the iPod, and I will find another Hendrix album to try, just in case.

Well, that is it for the A’s!  Tomorrow I will do something, perhaps rank them or at least let you know what has come off the iPod.  Peace until then.

Kyle 

Kansas is sort of like that couple in high school who keep breaking up and getting back together again and again and again.  When they are together, all they do is fight and yell at each other, but when they are apart all they can think about is how much they really love and miss the other person, all the while everyone around them is just wanting both of them to go away and shut up about it all because they are tired of hearing it.  I love Kansas.  

So for those of you that do not know, I grew up listening to A LOT of Kansas.  I have seen them live several times and they were actually the first concert that I ever saw.  I really enjoy their music and the musicianship is stellar.  

One thing that I have noticed looking over their career is that they always seemed to struggle with keeping the original band together.  The members who came and went always seemed to change, but prior to releasing their album Audio Visions, which was their return album after one of their many break ups, the member whose ego had gotten the best of him causing him to decide he was irreplaceable and quite was their keyboardist, songwriter, and vocalist, Steve Walsh.  Funnily enough, he was replaced by someone who sounded just like him.  Hello Journey!  Note to self, never let anyone into any band whose name is “Steve”.

All things considered, Audio Visions is a very good album.  It maintains the usual Kansas feel of progressive something....and still rants on the same human and nature relationship subject that Steve Walsh wrote about constantly it seems.  

If you like Kansas, there are quite a few good tracks “Relentless”, “Hold On” and “No One Together”.  If you don’t like Kansas, there probably won’t be much here for you.  

A lot of of the tracks that try to have that epic thing that I guess all arena rock bands like, don’t really work out too well.   And the last track just has some weird stuff gong on in it.  

BUT, it was a nice listen and the technical aspect of the music does help inspire some creativity. 

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The Black Keys album Attack and Release (which I think refers to audio terms associated with compressors) is an album I picked up at....are you ready for it....the library.  Thats right, I am not ashamed to admit that I go through their CD collection every week when I go in there.  I had heard some nice things about The Black Keys and when I saw this album, I just had to have it ;)

The best description I can give this album is.... indie/alternative/blues/rock.  How is that for a complex?  Haha.  It is a pretty complex sort of sound and I really enjoy what they did.  The album gave me a pretty vivid idea of what it might sound like live: it would be one of those concerts that is exceptionally loud and intense.  You would be able to see the vocalist singing, but because of the volume not be able to make out a single word of it.  But because you would be a fan, this wouldn’t bother you, but instead you would love every second of it.  Just listen to the second track “Got Mine” and you should be able to hear what I am talking about.  Maybe.  Perhaps I am odd.  

The drum parts were incredibly creative and very enjoyable to listen to.  I liked a lot of the guitar stuff.  What really caught my attention however was the lyrics and vocals.  It really feels like this was an album that was really trying to convey something, which always seems to transcend an album to the next level.  

I didn’t think that there was a bad track on the album and the band did an exceptional job of mixing things up.  I think my favorite track though, was “So He Won’t Break”, very creative and just jammy, also has a great direction on it.  I would say beyond a shadow of a doubt that you should check this album out (literally, it is at The Mid continental Library in Grandview) and let me know what you think.  I need some more Black Keys.

So...I am off the wagon again, lol!  I have still been listening to a lot of music, but with getting ready for the upcoming battle at club wars, and everything else going on in the musical world of The Poets Down Here, finding time to sit down and write has been sort of challenging.  

I sat down to write the review of Duran Duran's Astronaut, and was unable to find the notes that I took on it, so here it goes.  

As always, it seems, Duran Duran has a very tight and polished element to their recordings.  This comes from obviously talented musicianship, a good engineer/studio, and a good vision for what an artist is trying to to accomplish on an album.

It seems that on  this album, Duran Duran seemed to follow a sort of weird pattern:  They would do something that I REALLY liked, then have a few tracks that were nice, and then put in something that i really didn’t like at all.  

The example of this would be the first track “Sunrise” was stellar, and I really enjoyed it.  It was followed by some stuff that, like I said, was nice but didn’t totally stand out for me, and then they put in “Bedroom Toys” that just wasn’t my thing.  I think a lot of this is really just preference and personal taste, and not so much a reflection on the artist/album, but that is my take.  

Other than that, I loved the structure of the album, the way it felt like it ebbed and flowed.  “Sunrise” and “Finest Hour” are definitely two favorites of the album.  On the whole, though, I tend to prefer Duran Duran’s earlier stuff.  I also feel bad for one of the producers of the album, whose name is “Austin Dallas” - His parents hated him.

Journey....Oh where to begin.  So I know that I have fallen a little behind on the review portion of this challenge, but the listening is still going strong.  I am sitting down at Westport Coffeehouse tonight trying to come up with something to say about Arrival which is kind of how I think Journey felt when they were sitting down to write it.  

Again, this album isn’t terrible, and Journey is certainly not one of my favorite artists, especially given that the “arena” rock this isn’t really my scene anymore, although I did use to really like it.  I actually would have to say that I liked a lot of the stuff on Arrival more than other Journey stuff I have listened to, but as a whole, the album just missed the mark for me.  

I was reading a book titled “Chuck Klosterman IV” a while back, and the author asked people why they liked Journey so much, even today amongst all these other alternatives.  Almost all the people asked said that there was something very special about the musicianship and the composition of the music on Journey’s songs.  I will concede that they have a point.  Compared to a lot of new bands, ,the guitar work and ability of the musicians in Journey far surpasses a lot of what you hear today.  For example “Higher Place” is a really nice track with some guitar work that is quite impressive.  

My biggest problem with the stuff off this record is that a lot of the guitar starts to sound the same.  It is done on the same clean-like setting and it all punches in in the same way when it comes time to solo.  It is all good on its own, but hearing it on so much of the album really diminished its effectiveness.  

“Loved by You” just seemed to make me really want to go to sleep.  Or take a few sleeping pills, not sure which.  

“Living to Do” tries to be very epic but fails miserably.  

I would say my favorite tracks were either “I Got A Reason” which is very sing-a-long-ish, or “World Gone Wild” which is different and teeters on a 30 Seconds to Mars feel, but one of the better tracks.  

This isn’t a great album, nor a bad one.  I think it is a very good effort considering a lot of older bands who try to release new stuff fail even more miserably.

O.K. - So I have fallen just a tad behind, but figured I would blog anyway to let all of you know what is going on. 

Yesterday I was supposed to be at a Bruce Springsteen concert.  Got down there early in the afternoon and got the G.A. tickets, and got wristbands to participate in the lottery drawing for a shot to be in the pit.  We got extremely lucky and were going to be the 10th, 11th, and 12th people let into the arena.  WOW!!! But, to make a long story short - the show was canceled due to the unexpected death of Bruce's assistant road manager and cousin.  I am guessing the show will be rescheduled, but it just made for a major downer of a night. 

I will try and get the blogs/reviews going again in a day or so - I went out and purchased 4 albums last night, sort of for therapy, and picked up the new Wolfmother album Cosmic Egg today.  I like it quite a lot and will try to get a review of it up soon.  Also, I am working on a review of a local bands album that is really good tah

It looks like there will be a day break or so in the reviews.  I am going to see Bruce Springsteen tomorrow and won’t be able to post or anything.  I might put a show review up on Tuesday, just for something a bit different.  

In the meantime, however, I did just finish listening to Arena a live album from Duran Duran.  It was pretty good I would have to say.  Again, I am not a HUGE fan of live albums, especially when I don’t know the songs as well as I think I should, like with Duran Duran.  However, I did really enjoy this live set.

The sound was very nice and full and had enough of a live feel to differentiate from the studio, but maintained that tight studio quality, which I like.  I really enjoyed “Union of the Snake”, but there was a fade out thing that happened at the end of “Wild Boys” which seemed oddly un-live to me.  

The only complain I had was that although the ended with a great version of “Rio”, it just never felt like there was a definite end to the album/show, after “Rio” ended, I kept waiting for an encore.  But, that is very minor, and other than that I really enjoyed it.

Looking forward to getting into more actual Albums by Duran Duran, as I am fortunate to have as of Garrett.

Kyle