Moving Pictures - Rush (1981)

If there is one album you should be required to listen to before you die. Even if you don't care for progressive rock in any way shape or form, you have to appreciate the sheer amount of technical skill that went into the album. Rush quickly developed a reputation for technically challenging music with deeply poetic lyrics. Moving Pictures somehow takes the best of the technical playing, and the high concept lyrics, and puts them together in a very accessible, and very listenable package.

In many ways, Rush spent the first thirteen years of their career experimenting with different sounds and concepts. Moving Pictures, however, represents the band really coming into their own. In it's time, it was their breakthrough album- catapulting them from having a dedicated cult following, to a huge following in general. The album quickly became their most popular, and now, thirty years later, still feels fresh and relevant. It has even been made the centerpiece of Rush's current "Time Machine Tour" where it is being performed in it's entirety, to the elation of their legions of fans.

Videos that honor/parody the Beatles (Nirvana, The Doors, OutKast, Foo Fighters)

The February 9th 1964 appearance by the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show was one of the defining moments in the history of the modern music industry. It is the event that triggered the so-called "Beatlemania" where the band transformed from just a band into a legend that changed the entire music industry- and it happened almost overnight.

The Beatles also went on to be one of the pioneers that laid the groundwork for the music video craze that started in the 1980s. They recorded early music videos to help promote their albums - a practice that would become an industry unto itself a few decades later. It should be no surprise that this landmark event would later become both an honored, and parodied, subject in music videos and films.

Black Sabbath, The Cartoon (parody)

Does anyone remember TV Funhouse? This clip is probably the funniest thing to come out of that show - it was created by Tommy Blacha - who would go on to become the co-creator of the popular animated series "Metalocalypse," and the fictional band "Dethklok." This video is obviously not meant to be taken serious, so sit back, and enjoy a laugh or two. The video clip features a version of the song "Hand of Doom" from Sabbath's second album, "Paranoid."

Judas Priest makes a guest appearance on the American Idol finale

So, aside from Zakk Wylde's guest spot earlier this season, there has never been a true metal band on American Idol. Until tonight. Fourth place contestant James Durbin got to live out his heavy metal dreams with a little help from Rob Halford and company, performing "Living After Midnight" and "Breaking the Law" - I'll let the video clip do the rest of the talking.

Dedicated to Chaos - Queensrÿche (2011) - early sneak peek available

Progressive rockers Queensrÿche has not enjoyed the same levels of success they had in the 1990s back before guitarist Chris DeGarmo left the band, but they have still been producing music and touring.

June of 2011 will mark the release of their 12th studio album, entitled "Dedicated to Chaos," and the band's 30th anniversary. Frontman Geoff Tate likens the album to their very successful 1990 release, "Empire"



On the official Queensrÿche website, Geoff Tate has stated that the album is a "clash and slash of musical experimentation anchored by the pulse of digital code." On the Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles website, Tate has also divulged "It's kind of a modern approach to song arrangement - utilizing different sound effects and sounds sources; playing the instruments in a different way than what we have before; really experimenting a lot with the structure of rhythm and bringing it into what's modern." 

The album will be available in late June, but the album is available for pre-order, and audio samples are up on amazon here for anyone who wants to get a sneak peek.

10 Songs to Commemorate JFK's "Man on the Moon" Speech

May 25th, 1961 - fifty years ago (was it really fifty years!) President John F. Kennedy made his famous "Man on the Moon" speech- where he threw down the gauntlet and said that the U.S. will send a man to the moon by the end of the decade. Whatever you think of his politics, or personal life, you have to respect someone who can so decisively set a major goal and make sure it gets done with no excuses.

That said, the so-called "race for space" became a time of epic importance and achievement for both the United States, and all humankind, we still reap the benefits of the technologies developed to meet JFK's challenge, and, not surprisingly, the theme of manned spaceflight has inspired many songs in popular music across many different genres. Read on, and see a few of them...

Wasting Light - Foo Fighters (2011)

So in a post I made a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I'd probably buy this album eventually. Well, it so happens that I found an old gift card hidden in my laptop bag that had just enough money to cover the cost of a CD plus shipping. I haven't bought a physical CD in a very long time, and the way technology has progressed, it may very well be the last time I buy a physical CD. So I bought the CD rather than the download and patiently waited a few days for it to arrive.

When my CD arrived, I got a pleasant surprise. With most music in digital download format these days, it's easy to forget the simple charm of holding the package, and looking over the artwork and photos, checking out the lyrics sheet, or looking for funny messages in the "thank you" section of the credits while listening to your new music. Wasting Light didn't have a lyrics sheet- but the packaging for the CD had a few nice surprises that brought back some of that old nostalgia and had me feeling good before I ever got the CD in a player (laptop actually).