vinyl forever

It is quite enjoyable to witness the ressurgence of the vinyl format in music these past few years. I have always had a love for it. Since my younger days collecting imported vinyl from overseas by bands such has Iron Maiden . I have always cherished the look and sound of it. In recent years i have acquired some japanese vinyl which to my eyes and ears is a wonderful addition to any collection.....Here's to another great year for the vinyl enthusiast....vinyl forever.

beatles mono box set...japanese style

hey boys and girls.....

a quick update on a great purchase i made on the weekend,.,,,,a beatles mono box set at costco for a great price,,,,,224.99$.....cheaper than amazon ;)......what a nice little gem it is....13 albums in nicely done vinyl replica sleeves.....japanese made,,,,so it is high quality...listened to Rubber Soul today and it sounded fantastic...can't wait to listen to the rest of them......

been awhile.....

its been awhile boys and girls......here's a quick update......bought a near mint copy of Steely Dan's Two against nature on vinyl....a rare find indeed........this item sells for upwards of 200.00$ on ebay...got it for a mere 65.00$.....

great finds

as i was saying in my last posting...i was in montreal last week....and a visit to montreal wouldn't be complete without a stop to my favorite record store on saint denis st.......Beatnick records...
i was looking for a vinyl copy of gordon lightfoot's summertime dream which contains my favorite song of his....The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald....they had one for a great price..

.....4.00$...in excellent condition....i even got it cleaned by a staff member with his secret formula cleaning solution......i also got a great vinyl copy of Paul Mccartney's Tripping the live Fantastic...a triple vinyl collection that is getting hard to find.....also got elton john's honky chateau on vinyl and jethro tull's stormwatch album on vinyl.....

i got to the counter to pay for my "great finds" and i saw they had an original long box edition of pink floyd's 2 cd set "anybody listening?? the wall live"......the price was 50.00$....i inquired if they would take 30.00$...the guy behind the counter counter offered 40.00$..so i replied 35.00$.....it was getting serious ;)....he called up the owner to verify if he could accept my latest price....the owner asked what my purchases were....he must of been impressed...i got the cd for 35.00$.....i'm usually not that great of a bargainer...but i was proud of myself that day :)

montreal jazz fest 2009

Just got back from the great city of Montreal.....where the first week of its world famous jazzfest was held...what a great time we had.....stevie wonder gave us a free concert on the 30th of june...very good show even though i left a bit early.....then it was the piece de resistance on the following night...mr. Jamie Cullum at the salle Wilfred Pelletier.....what an awesome show that was....2 hours of magic....jamie must be one of the best performers i've seen in a long time....he gave us is all.....at one point playing percussion on the piano while singing .....he played some new stuff from is upcoming album " the pursuit"....can't wait for it to come out.....he then explained how he got to work with Clint Eastwood on his film Gran Torino....playing the title song Gran Torino to a sell out crowed who were mesmerized with every note he played....making it a night to remember....thank you jamie ....can't wait for the new album!!

ready for take off ??

well the new iron maiden double live album is finally out....flight 666.....what a treat it is.....fine performances from the boys....i especially like the backing vocals of adrian smith on his self penned classic Wasted Years....nice touch that is ;).....but the ultimate song on this album has got to be the rime of the ancient mariner.....the band make it sound has if it had been written yesterday....nicko mcbrain's drumming on this song is just fantastic ....and the guitar solos are awesome.....and also bruce has never sounded better...what a vocalist he is.....and kudos to mr steve harris for his tight and precise bass playing...keeping the band on time....i would say that this betters live after death by a country mile....the band sound energized like never before...must of been the great crowds they had at these shows that inspired them on....

Can't wait for the new studio album ....coming soon

up the irons

The Longest Day

i would like to honor the memory of all the fallen soldiers who fought so valiantly on D day on the shores of Normandy.....thanks to them we have our Freedom .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL0XHvtcg4k&feature=related....here's a song from the great heavy metal band Iron Maiden called "The Longest Day"...in memory of the fallen and the surviving.

Mr. Don Felder

just finished reading a great book called "heaven and hell" by Don Felder......Don Felder you ask??.......i'll refresh your memory...he used to be in a small unknown band called the Eagles ;)
he was there lead guitar player....before he got kicked out for reasons i'll never understand...let's just say that the "Gods" didn't want him in the band anymore because he was asking too many questions about the way the band was being managed....the "gods" being Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the eagles......the book was really fun to read..it started with Don growing up in Gainesville,Florida....then went on to the 70's were he became a permanent member of the eagles, writing such classics as "Hotel California".....he talks about the excesses of being in the eagles ...drugs ...women....etc....i'm surprised as he is that he's still alive to tell the tale....
Check out the book ...a great read....

in the dark....

as i was going to get a beer between shows being taped for tv land, i caught Zachary Richard in the corner of my eye sitting in the dark in his chair......for those of you who don't know who Zachary is....he is a great singer/sonwriter from Louisiane....i was with my mom and we wanted so badly to go talk to him and maybe get a picture...but then we asked one of the assistants of the show if we could approach him....she answered ...depends on his mood....i glanced back at him and he looked as if he was trying to psyche himself up for is performance...especially the first song he played...from his new album called "last kiss"....the song in question is called " sweet Daniel"...a heartbreaking account of an indian child who died too young because of his addiction to sniffing gas.....so we decided to wait after the taping of the show to try to get a photo opp...

zachary was very amiable to us after the show....we got our pictures taken with him and i will never forget how nice he was with us.....thanx zachary :)

heaven and hell

the name on the album is heaven and hell...you might know them better as Black Sabbath fronted by ronnie james dio....whatever you call them, make no mistake they are back with a vengeance with a new studio album called " the devil you know".....after a few listens you get sucked in by the heavy melodic riffs of Tony Iommi ...the pristine voice of ronnie james dio....the deep bass riffs of geezer butler and the precise drumming of vinnie appice....at the moment my favorite song off the album is the well chosen first single " Bible Black"......mr dio's lyrics are dark ,moody and perfect for this kind of soundtrack....other songs featured on the album are....follow the tears....double the pain and the great opening track "atom and evil".....
I highly recommend this album to anyone who loves a solidly produced heavy metal record.

4 out of 4

in the middle....

so when i left off i was becoming a maiden fanatic.....with this happening i started collecting all things maiden ...i bought my first 12" single "the trooper" at a sam the record man....a german super sound version to boot....it was my first taste of many b side tracks to come..on this disc was the jethro tull track..."cross eyed mary".....a little while later i bought the 2 minutes to midnight 12 " which had two b side tracks....the excellent Rainbow's Gold and the legendary
" Mission from 'arry"....a track recorded by lead singer Bruce Dickinson of an argument between bass player Steve Harris and drummer Nicko Mcbrain......i soon became a vinyl junkie....amassing picture discs and what not of the band....to this day i have over 70 pieces of vinyl of the band including rare items like the US issued picture disc of the album "piece of mind"....i have seen the band play live on the seventh son tour on my birthday which is may 13th ..that was the opening date of the tour in moncton,new brunswick,canada....and i've seen them a couple of times more..on the ED Hunter tour of '99 and the give me 'ed till i'm dead tour in montreal where we gave the band a 20 minute standing ovation that left them speechless...what a special night that was:)....drummer nicko mcbrain said that it was in his top5 best moments of playing live with maiden......


to be continued again...

in the beginning.....

It all started back in the summer of 1983......i was 10 years old....i had gotten my first music cassette for my birthday...motley crue's Shout at the devil.....it was the point of no return.....that same year i bought Iron Maiden's classic album and my personal favorite "piece of mind".....my love affair with music was blossoming......Maiden instantly became my favorite band and still are to this day.....in 1984 iron maiden's Powerslave album came out...another classic....since then maiden has had more highs than lows in a career spanning 4 decades....


.....to be continued

Neil "Young" at heart

from the beginning notes of "when you dance i can really love" and then the opening riffs of " Hey Hey , My My ( into the black)".....we knew we were gonna get a concert of a lifetime in saint john from legend Neil Young and his Band..which consisted of Ben Keith, Chad Cromwell, Rick Rosas, Anthony Crawford and neil's wife Pegi singing backing vocals. Song after song we were treated to superbly performed classics , old gems and some new tracks from his latest album called " fork in the road". I must say the new tracks fitted right in with the older material....
starting the concert with an electric set , neil slowed things down in the middle with an acoustic
break....which included the well known classics....sung by the crowd as well...the needle and the damage done and heart of gold....then it was back to full power for the remaining of the show which was warmly appreciated by the crowd ....but the finale of "Rockin' in the free world" sent the crowd into a frenzy with a great light show to end things in style.....neil proved again that he still had that musical drive in him throughout the show....a first class concert by a legend who can still rock out with the best of them. 4 / 4 stars

A Slice O' Life part 2

if you read my last post ...i talked about bruce cockburn's new live album....well here is a follow up since buying the album myself and actually hearing it with my own two ears.....one word...
"fan"tastic.....an awesome recording of bruce's better known songs with some lesser known gems....highlights include a superb rendition of "If a tree falls"with blistering guitar work....and a new song called "The city is hungry" ..which i hope is a preview of what's to come when a new studio album is recorded supposedly later in the year :).....the album was produced by Colin Linden who has worked with Bruce on earlier albums including...the excellent "You've never seen everything" and the classic " The charity of night"......the cd was recorded on a short US east coast tour in may 2008 with tracks coming from the various gigs...but how they've put together all the tracks to sound like one gig is pure genius. All and all a very satisfying collection of live cuts from an artist who just keeps getting better with age.

A Slice O' Life

Yes ladies and gentlemen a new Bruce Cockburn album coming out on this fine day ...the last of march....called " Slice O' Life"...a double live solo recording...i was listening to Q a radio show on the CBC this morning ...the guest....MR. Bruce Cockburn himself....talking about his illustrious career in music...a career spanning over 40 years....i've seen Bruce 3 times in concert...twice solo..and once with full band....both great experiences.....but i find he shines playing solo....letting the dark timbre of his voice and his guitar playing resonate through the air ....a wonderful artist...supremely talented yet very humble. I leave you with this quote from one of bruce's finest songs....


"I never you knew what you all wanted, so i gave you everything." from Pacing the cage ..a song found on his "The charity of night" album.

smokin' joe

i was checking music producer kevin shirley's website and he was talking about his protege joe bonamassa again....i told myself i should check him out ....see what all the fuss was about....one word comes to mind....WOW...this guy's the real deal.....his guitar playing is fantastic with an awesome voice to boot....check him out herehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaCjPdtDBxo
you be the judge ;)

oasis in the sand

i've always prefered noel gallagher's voice in oasis....even though liam is sounding great on the last album....check out is self penned "I'm outta time".....great song.....but the big news i want to convey to you today is a download that will be available on Itunes on the 17th of march....called Noel Gallagher " live at the manchester appollo".....i haven't heard any of the tracks yet but i can assume that it is great stuff....noel always delivers the goods....check it out :)

bye for now

plus signs

i was checking my posts on twitter last nite and to my great surprise Burton Cummings had replied to an earlier posting i had made about his new album. The album...to plug it ..is called "above the ground".....its a great album....with a varied mix of songs...my favorite is " touch of morning".....but i 'm not done ...i'll plug an album he recorded in 1990.....Plus Signs...a very underrated album .....my fav track on that one is " boring dreams"...That album is long out of print....but if you find a copy somewhere's....grab it.

adventures in yard sales

i was talking to a friend earlier in the week about this story i had of finding a CD that i was looking for on ebay but the price tag was a bit steep....the cd in question was by an artist named Gowan, who is now touring the world with a small band called STYX ;)...the title of the cd is Gowan au Quebec.It was released in 1997 with little fanfare, but was an excellent live recording of an all acoustic one man show he did that year....just him and his piano....anyhow to get to my point i was rummaging thru some cds at a yard sale, which i do every summer with my dad...always on the hunt for interesting finds...vinyl and such...and i came across the cd in question....the price 2.00$....fate was on my side he he ....i bought the cd without telling the seller that it was sometimes listed on ebay for amounts greater than this.....these kinds of finds are truly magical.....i still listen to the cd to this day.

hello fellow music lovers

i always wanted to have a blog of my own where i could talk about music in its many forms,
be it recorded music with all its great formats...vinyl...cds...dvds....or talk about some great concerts i've seen during the years.....i'll probably alienate some of you people with my eclectic tastes.....running from my all time favorite band " iron maiden" to artists like elton john and
bruce cockburn....but i hope you give my blog a chance to make you discover music that perhaps you thought was too commercial....not "indie" enough ;).

i'll leave you with this great quote from the german philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche,
"Without music , life would be an error."