Worlds Collide

I’ve been finishing a lot of homework lately. This Apocalyptica album had been lying around for months. If I had written the review immediately after receipt it would have been a lot different. The album grew on me after a while. I was very disappointed when I first heard it. The resulting review was something that was somewhere between the two. I couldn’t make up my mind whether I loved it or was bored by it. What was certain was that I did not like it as much as their debut.

When Apocalyptica appeared on the music scene in 1996 with Plays Metallica by Four Cellos, they were busting the lid off a new can. Their unique blend of heavy metal and cellos was something really remarkable and daring. What was hard to fathom was their target audience. Those that liked classical music would have shunned the recording as sacrilege, and fans of Metallica were a little bemused. Their debut highlighted all of the similarities between classical music and the brand of metal made popular by Metallica. The idea was simple, unconventional, and brilliant. Just take four cellos and some classical arrangements of Metallica tunes, record them, and release to the general public.

Read the rest here: Apocalyptica: Worlds Collide < Music | PopMatters

Links:
Official Site
Yahoo Audio Search

If DWM is to be believed (and why not) the season started during Children in Need with “Time Crash” and stretched though Christmas and ending in July with the wonderful “Journey’s End”. Now what a series that would have been if there weren’t those pesky breaks in between the first three episodes. The magazine features in-depth articles on each superb episode (and the one with the Adipose) of arguably the the most successful series of Doctor Who it its 45 year history.

Tom Spilsbury, Editor of DWM is excited, he says:

DWM has been given exclusive access to all the scripts and shooting schedules, to tell you what was shot when and where, what was left on the cutting-room floor and why, and even the truth behind a few of those rumours that hit the tabloids!

Packed with anecdotes and comments from the men and women who make the programme, script extracts, deleted scenes, and a full list of cast, crew, transmission times and ratings, with hundreds of beautiful and previously unseen photographs, this is the ultimate guide to Doctor Who 2008.

The Series Four Companion is available from shops (in the UK natch) on Thursday 14th August. Hey! That’s tomorrow, have you ordered your copy? What else have you go to do until Christmas?

“It’s very butch. Very muscular…” says David Coverdale about the first Whitesnake album in 11 years. Pause for a while and take that in.

The endless 25th anniversary reunion of the masters of hairspray metal is into its sixth year and has spawned Good To Be Bad.

Whitesnake: Good To Be Bad < Music | PopMatters

Links:
Official Site: http://www.whitesnake.com/
Label: http://www.spv.de/whitesnake/default.html (In German)
Amazon.com download
iTunes

WARNING: No actual spoilers are contained in this post.

In today’s information rich society it is nigh impossible to get through the day without finding out new information. Quite often you learn things that you would rather have not found out in the first place or wish that you could un-learn. Obviously I am quite guilty of providing spoiler information as any one of the thousands that visited my site last week can testify. The very fact that my brand new blog was able to attract more visitors than ever before was purely down to the fact that some of us (me included) cannot help taking a peek when the word “spoiler” is mentioned.

I for one trawl various Internet forums hunting spoilers down and ingesting them as if they are my only source of sustenance. In the last week, though, I have been wondering how much more I would have enjoyed the new series of Doctor Who (for example) if I knew absolutely nothing about it. The upcoming return of an old enemy that I reported would have been a delicious surprise for me. The returning companions, the main villain in this year’s Christmas special and other stuff would be wonderful and shocking delights for me had I not already learned about them. So why do I do it? It is like I cannot stop myself, I’m not disciplined enough to prevent myself from logging on to the forums and searching for forthcoming goodies, no matter how much the members of those forums piss me off.

My only recourse would be to cancel my membership to that forum and not create a new one. I’m not sure what I would do on the Internet then. Perhaps I could read some real news or something? I wonder if anyone else has any spoiler avoidance devices that they would like to share. The comments are open if you want to contribute.

(Image pinched from Toasted Pixel)

So this review was a long time coming. I have been so busy of late I let a lot of these PopMatters reviews pile up. I kind of wish that I hadn’t bothered with this one. It was pretty painful to write and even more so to listen to. What can I say, ASIA just don’t float my boat like they used to.

Saying that though there was a time when I would have been delighted to receive this in the post.

It is 25 years since Asia released the follow up to their successful eponymous debut album. Their sophomore effort Alpha didn’t especially set cash registers singing and was largely considered to be a disappointment. Soon after that release, original guitarist Steve Howe (of Yes fame) left and the band went through twenty-something years of line-up changes and lukewarm receptions to increasingly similar sounding (and similar titled) albums.

Asia: Phoenix < Music | PopMatters

And this would be the guys performing a cover of the ELP cover of Copeland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man”

There are no real surprises on this EP other than it features the drummer of my second band on bass on one track. He ironically got a job in record shop that I was fired from not long after I was fired and now works for a man who claims to have fired me once. I have just 2 words to say to that particular man, “I resigned”.

The title of this split EP translates from Latin into “Hardwork Conquers All” and that speaks volumes for this release. It harkens back to a day when independent releases were independent of major record labels. It has a real “do it yourself” work ethic stamped through it like a stick of rock.

[From Eastfield/Destructors 666: Labor Omnia Vincit < Music | PopMatters]

The frontman of Cheyenne, Beau Jennings, has released this crop of tunes as a solo album because they allegedly did not fit with the sound of his main project. In honesty there is little difference between these songs and Cheyenne songs

[From Beau Jennings: Holy Tulsa Thunder < Music | PopMatters]

Lisa Cerbone has a gentle, childlike voice and with We Were All Together she has created an album that is somewhat evocative of Tanya Donelly or Kristin Hersh. Every aspect of this package—from the case with its lyric adorned fine art photo cards to the crystal clear production—is finely crafted and exudes quality. One wonders why this lady is not more well known as this is her fourth release in the last eight years.

[From Lisa Cerbone: We Were All Together - PopMatters Review]

It is a sad day when you have to consider the possibility that you are old and no longer understand young people’s music. To this reviewer Mud’s Yearbook contains 13 songs that, with one exception, all sound identical. The album appears like it was created by the corpses of Real Big Fish with the ska influences ripped forcibly from their cold dead hands fronted by Avril Lavigne. It is Californian punk by checklist; repetitive riff… check, amusing self deprecating lyrics… check, brass section… check. I could go on.

[From Mud: Yearbook | Music | PopMatters]

Planet Gallifrey has posted it too, this time with a script extract and the Fear Factor rating that is posted on the Official BBC Site. Keeping up with the current trend of changing the time slot every $%#@ing week, Doctor Who is on at 6.40pm (UK time).