March 25, 2019 · 12:44 am

Top 5 – Queensrÿche

I listen to a lot of Podcasts over a wide range of varying topics: music, sports, retro gaming, retro computers, a Wharton statistics podcast, among others.

One of the really great music podcasts I listen to regularly is The Prog Report, a podcast that covers the latest in Progressive Rock as well as goes back and looks at the history of Prog. They have some really great guests and it helps me find music I otherwise likely wouldn’t find or hear.

A recent episode of The Prog Report was the challenge of coming up with the Top 5 songs by Queensryche. So 5 each from the host, Roie Avin, Frontiers Music US Label Manager Nick Tieder and Radio personality and Rock expert Eddie Trunk.

After hearing the podcast and sharing it with a music bud, I thought we should take a crack at it ourselves. Wow, what a tough one! As you’ll hear in my audio portion (warning, not a professional, but I thought it would put some peer pressure on my bud), I did narrow down my view of the band and my Top 5, to the first 5 releases, the self-titled EP and then the first four full-length albums. I know the band continues beyond those 5 releases, but for me, that era was such a formative time for much of my music tastes, it’s where I felt it made sense to focus. I appreciate what they released after Empire and are still releasing today and am glad to see them still out on the road releasing new music.

The new album, The Verdict with Todd La Torre on vocal, is quite good, but the band is down to Eddie Jackson and Michael Wilton from the original lineup, so to me it is a new era of the band entirely.

Click below to hear my Top 5 Queensrÿche tracks and take pity on the “DJ”, he’s very green 😉

My TuningNotes Top 5 Queensrÿche Tracks

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March 24, 2019 · 2:46 pm

My most recent “No shit?” Moment – Black Magic Woman…

A couple weeks ago we were sitting around the house relaxing and I decided to fire up the YouTube app and queue some old live music to play on the big screen.  It’s something I’ve always enjoyed, playing DJ, from both my own collection and what can now be so easily found online through the various streaming sources, YouTube and the like.  Sometimes it just turns into reminiscing and other times introducing a friend to new-to-them music that I think they will like based on other mutual interests. (Or such as sucking in a non-KISS fan using the brilliantly recorded MTV Unplugged live show).

For whatever reason, we had recently been talking about old  TV shows and Don Kirshners Rock Concert came up in the conversation, so I went looking for some archive shows, which thankfully, there are a ton of on YouTube and also available to purchase in collections.   While looking for those shows I also came across archives of Burt Sugarman’s, The Midnight Special.  Just wow, between those two shows, what a collection of amazing live performances from the 70s and early 80s from across just about every genre of music during that decade or so that both shows aired.  I highly recommend checking out the history of both of those shows, some very rare live TV performances.

One of the live performances I found was of “Black Magic Woman” from 1974, by the early Peter Green led Fleetwood Mac.  At the time we watched it, I actually thought it was them covering the Santana classic, honestly just not being that familiar with the Fleetwood Mac era prior to the Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckhingham/Rumours that started the huge popularity of the band.  I was certainly aware of Peter Green the musician and of the earlier generation of the band, but not much of the specifics of his writing and the bands discography.

Bored and can’t find something to listen to?  Fire up YouTube and do a search, it will lead you down a rabbit hole for an hour two of queued up music you might not own or have listened to in a long time.

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April 30, 2013 · 12:34 am

First Play – Meet the Beatles! – 1964

Meet_the_BeatlesA few months ago I was on my way home from work on the usual route through downtown and found myself stopped at a light in front of a record store that I hadn’t been inside in years, Tracks In Wax.  On a whim I figured what the hell and whipped in and parked in front.

Upon entering the store, the first thing I smelled was the smell of paper, old paper and for sure some dusty paper, very similar to a used book store but a little different, though that same hint of nostalgia hits you and you know there are some good memories on these shelves.  The lady working the counter gives me a nod and leaves me to my browsing after asking if I was looking for anything in particular, just my kind of place and one of the few places I will truly “shop”, the other also being a book store.

I enjoy that feel of flipping through the album jackets for the first time in many years and after looking over my usual band sections of Rush, Dream Theater and Iron Maiden, which I own essentially everything you can own of, but you always have to take that look for that one magical item that you have somehow missed over the years right?

After wandering around the various sections of Comedy, Jazz, Blues and just getting my lay of the land I head to the A’s in the Pop/Rock section and not soon after I get into the B’s and I find something that immediately grabs me, an original copy of the Beatles first USA release, “Meet the Beatles!”.  It wasn’t in in perfect condition (which I probably couldn’t have afforded anyway) but it looked in good condition, the young Fab 4 looking right back at you.  The record itself was also in good condition and very clean, certainly would play very smoothly.

My bebe saw the Beatles in concert where she grew up and when she talks about that night, there is something about it that you can just tell was a once in a lifetime magical event in her life and something she will never forget.  When we’ve talked about music and growing up with it as kids she has often mentioned sitting around with her girlfriends and listening to this album and all of them having to pick their favorite Beatle, something that I gathered was once chosen, there is no going back from.

Once I saw it and the price I assumed was something that was negotiable but already reasonable I had to have it.  Thankfully the person I received the nod from coming in the door was actually the owner of the shop and after sharing a bit of the story she agreed to knock down the price a bit and the deal was done.  I was excited all the way home and couldn’t wait to give it a spin on the turntable that I  had been surprised with for my birthday a few months prior.

When I pulled the album cover out of the bag and saw the expression on her face, I knew it had been the one to start off this “trip” with.  Once it started playing I could tell all of those memories had started to come rushing back.  From the first sounds and notes of “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, how could that not be something special?

The vinyl journey and re-discovery had definitely started off as magical as I’d hoped.

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April 29, 2013 · 2:05 am

And so it begins…

Why is this page here?  Good question!  Call it the old “About” page if you will.  If your into music and reminiscing about it, keep reading.

Music has always been a lifelong passion of mine.  Over the years I have so many memories attached to so many songs, albums, album art, lyrics, riffs, etc.

My parents always had a great love of music, so I was always surrounded by a wide range of music from gospel, country/western, big band, jazz, blues to rock n’ roll.  Growing up in the 70s and 80s also led me to discover my own likes and dislikes, but I’ve never had a problem picking up a Boston Pops, Madonna and Metallica CD on the same visit to the local Tower Records or Zia Records, which always led to a good conversation with the clerk behind the counter.

It is amazing how just choosing a piece of music to listen too can change or alter my mood, if only for a short period of time, but enough to get me to work in a better mood or home from work and feeling better about a stressful day.  It can bring about a wonderful memory from my childhood, through early school years, college and into adulthood (gasp!).  And then there is always the road-trip mix with which come the memories of Elvis blaring out of our various family cars’ stereo systems as we headed down I-5 on one of our many road trips to see friends and family.

Recently I started on a journey to begin collecting and listening to vinyl again.  I’m not someone who insists that vinyl sounds better than digital, though I agree it just sounds different, so to each their own on that endless debate.  There is just something special for those of us that did grow up with vinyl on the living room Hi-Fi, or the 45 in our bedrooms, listening to that song or band you know your mom would likely hate and too loudly at that.  Those great memories of that song with that skip or scratch in a track that just became part of the listening experience.  In short, sometimes perfection is simply overrated.

While I think we are slowly losing a lot of the artistry and talent involved in the entire package of creating an album of music in the “singles download” era, the digital era has brought one great thing to me and that is the ability to carry your entire music collection with you, wherever you are.  Being able to listen to something that maybe you haven’t listened to in a long time and have it all at the press of a button on your smartphone has helped me re-discover some of my music that I just hadn’t listened to in a long time.

So over time, this site will tell the story of my memories and good music that are attached to the sights and sounds of reading the liner notes, sliding the sleeve out of the album jacket and the sound of the needle hitting a piece of vinyl for the first time, all over again.

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