Achtung Baby (1991)Admittedly, this album took a little time to grow on me. It was a shock. Even though there was four years between their last proper album and Achtung Baby, I certainly had no idea that the band had spent that time completely reinventing themselves. Once I got past that though, it quickly became clear that this album was… Read more »
The Unforgettable Fire (1984)This album still has some elements of the Irish period remaining, making it somewhat of a transitional album. Still, the bigger sound courtesy of the Brian Eno/Daniel Lanois production team and the heavily American-focused lyrical themes land this one more firmly in U2’s American period. The well-known “A Sort of Homecoming” and “Pride (in the Name of… Read more »
Boy (1980)Everything was already in place for greatness. A few years before, guitarists everywhere were floored by what Eddie van Halen was doing, but it seems that no one noticed the Edge doing something every bit as innovative. The difference is that the Edge didn’t have to carry his band. His playing was no more nor less than the song… Read more »
Sorry for the unrelated post, but this is an important message. If you have a dog or cat, please take a look at this list of foods that are poisonous for them. My dog Vinny got into a bag of raisins last week. We had no idea that raisins were toxic to dogs. He spent five days in the hospital… Read more »
I heard U2 for the first time almost 25 years ago. A friend of mine was a huge fan. As they became one of the biggest rock bands in the world, I wondered, “How did he know?” Now I wonder, “How did I not know?” In every respect, they are as important to the 80s (and everything after) as the… Read more »
Metal Mark had a post about covers and Jeff had one about tribute albums, so I thought I’d get in on the act and post a list of some of my favorite covers. Slayer – “In-a-gadda-da-vida” – Slayer does an amazing job with this Iron Butterfly classic. They trim it down to a manageable length and turn it from trippy… Read more »
It seems like most people my age have long ago put away their band shirts and grown up. Not me. I wear a t-shirt everyday and 90% of them are music-related. It kinda makes me sad, because I love looking at t-shirts in the same way that I love looking at album art.
May 4, 2007, The Ottobar, Baltimore, Maryland Last night, Ray and I caught the Necromantix show at the Ottobar. Since the Necromantix have a decided retro feel, I kind of expected that there would be some degree of nostalgia to the evening, but it wasn’t all what I expected. As it turned out, with varying success, each band was a… Read more »
On Rush’s new album, Snakes & Arrows, they have a song called “Faithless.” It’s a bit of light fare typical of their output over the last 20 years, not particularly good and not particularly bad. It contains the following lines: I don’t have faith in faithI don’t believe in beliefYou can call me faithlessI still cling to hopeAnd I believe… Read more »
I found Mike Kelly on a Myspace bulletin from none other than Mike Watt. I thought with that kinda recommendation he desrved at least a listen. Let me first offer Mike’s own disclaimer, because it’s a good one and something you should know going in. He writes of his songs, “ALL WERE RECORDED IN FIRST TAKE,IN ORDER TO CAPTURE THE… Read more »