…My ninth grade English teacher?

Hey. It’s been a while, but here it is… Neal Morse is a progressive rock artist who’s been involved in cover groups like Yellow Matter Custard, played in bands Spock’s Beard and Transatlantic, and been featured in countless other projects like Ayreon.

The last few of Neal’s albums have all a few things in common… Most of them are long winded ones (often spanning 2 CDs!) with sprawling 20 minute epics, but they all share a common theme. Neal Morse has singlehandedly created an evangelistic genre dubbed C-Prog. A huge portion of the lyrical content is pretty blatantly Christian, but if you’re not alienated by that, his music is very accessible and enjoyable.

On to what’s important. When I think of Neal Morse, I think of what the Beatles would be if they had come out in the 90s. It’s absolutely impossible for me to get across how versatile and creative the man is. For example, the album “One” features everything from the short and sweet “Day After Day” (which is downloadable at the bottom of this post) to the sprawling 18 minute “The Creation”. Cut out Morse’s distinctive vocals, and I can honestly say that I would never guess them written by the same man.

The video I’m giving is one from a DVD of the Beatles cover band Yellow Matter Custard which features Morse on lead vocals and keys. (For anyone that cares, Mike Portnoy is on drums, Paul Gilbert on electric guitar and Matt Bissonette is on bass.) I would have one of Neal solo… but I couldn’t find one I really liked. The two mp3s below are off of “One”.

Tracks
Neal Morse/One/Nothing to Believe
Neal Morse/One/Day After Day

If you had a pile of cardboard boxes, what would you do with them? Really big boxes too, the kind you might find a refrigerator inside of (if you’re lucky). You even have an unlimited supply of plastic wrap. Also screwdrivers.

Today, January the twenty-fourth two thousand seven, you’ve got a ‘trance rock’ band from Victoria, BC, Canada. Trance rock is something akin to psychedelic rock I suppose, if you were wondering. Jets Overhead, is the band if you might’ve been wondering that too. Though I seem to recall at one point they were refered to as simply “The Special Guests“; and had signed to Attic Records — releasing an LP shortly before the label declared bankruptcy. Bummer.
The band has been said to sound somewhat similar to bands like Pink Floyd, The Stills, and The Dandy Warhols — myself, I’d just say that sound like Jets Overhead. Well, you can decide for yourself what they really sound like if you feel like it.
They formed Jets Overhead around 2003 and have released a few EPs as well as their debut LP: Bridges. More recently their song ‘Get It Right’ has appeared on the War Child benefit compilation ‘Help: A Day In The Life’, an executive producer of which was mister Bob Rock. Speaking of that, the compilation also included a new song from The Payolas entitled ‘At The Angels Feet‘. You didn’t hear that here though because I’m actually writing about Jets Overhead. Yep.

If you’re interested in listening to more of their tracks, they’re all available for download on the band’s website. You can donate some money too if you feel up to it.

Jets Overhead - Killing Time

Links:
Jets Overhead Official Site
Jets Overhead on MySpace

Tracks:
Jets Overhead/Help: A Day In The Life/Get It Right
Jets Overhead/Jets Overhead/Sun Sun Sun
Jets Overhead/Bridges/Blue is Red
Jets Overhead/Bridges/Life’s a Song

So, I know I don’t post much… Hell, this is my first entry. But I was browsing around a few sites and such looking for music and I found this band called Sneaky Sound System. I thought I would share it with whoever hasn’t heard of them. They’re a band from Australia, and are kind of a electronic rock type band that are really quite good.

I’ve got two songs for you (down at the bottom) that are their main hits. The first is a song called “I Love It” and the second is “Pictures”. I also threw in one of my personal favorites called “UFO”.

Links:
Official Site
Myspace

Tracks:
Sneaky Sound System/Sneaky Sound System/I Love It
Sneaky Sound System/Sneaky Sound System/Pictures
Sneaky Sound System/Sneaky Sound System/UFO

I’ve been lazy. well, I guess not really, I’ve just kinda been busy, but then again it only takes like 2 minutes to write these. I’ve been busy with school and working on websites and stuff. This isn’t a personal blog so I’ll just move on. So I was checking my usual mp3 blogs the other day and found these guys. I’m not usually into this sort of music, but this is pretty swell in general.

Emo? More like… uhm…

The name of the band is Winterkids which is a pretty good name for an indie band considering some of the other stuff I’ve heard. Yeah, they’re indie. I’m posting indie music on this blog. SHRUG. There’s good valid reason behind it though, because Winterkids rock pretty hard if I say so myself. They’re a bit synthy, but it only really adds to the flow of the music and doesn’t give it any sort of cheesy feel. Well, maybe a little bit actually. The lead singer has some sweet british accent, and the lyrics are meaningfulless, but are upbeat and clever all the same.

Oh, and their music video is clever and witty as well, albeit just a little bit emo, but that’s ok sometimes isn’t it?

This is a video for the song “Tape It” which you can grab below.

Links:
Official Site
Myspace

Tracks:
Winterkids/Memoirs/Tape It
Winterkids/Memoirs/I’m Not Used To You

Sneaky little otters. That’s what you are. I know you’re reading this right now as you sit there reading it… Grab me some cookies. It’s fairly late, so I’ll just throw together something short before I go to sleep and hope it doesn’t turn out as bad as I’m guessing it will.

Look, it’s a fish!

Red Snapper is what’s on the menu tonight. Or maybe that’s just what I want you to believe? Yes, I’ve decided to put a code in this post, if you’re the first to crack it you win a free fish. Red snappers inhabit waters from 30 to 200 ft, and came together in London in 1993. Most of their songs are funky instrumental/electronic stuff with elements from a number of different styles, and various vocalists joined them on a few albums. The band, having a very liquid and organic sound, was really a bit of an oddity to be on Warp Record’s primarily IDM 90s crew.
Red Snapper released a number of records over the years, but eventually decided to split up in 2002. Most of my personal favourite songs are on the 2003 remix compilation ‘Redone‘ as well as their 1995 album ‘Reeled And Skinned‘, but I did find most of their other work to be rather enjoyable as well.
Hey look, this time I found a YouTube video. Not the greatest Snapper track, but it will have to do.

Red Snapper - ‘Some Kind Of Kink’

Links:
Matador Records - Red Snapper Page

Tracks:
Red Snapper/Redone/Odd Man Out
Red Snapper/Our Aim Is To Satisfy/They’re Hanging Me Tonight
Red Snapper/Reeled And Skinned/Wesley Don’t Surf

PS: There is no code.