**** Ice Cycles by Platypus – Relaxed and Smooth Prog Rockin’

I could understand someone if they were unable to even recognize this as progressive rock. You almost need to be a musician to figure out these fairly tricky rhythms. However, if you are uneducated, this music would likely slip by under your radar of music that is for dorky musicians like myself. It also might slip by if you are uneducated that these musicians are some of the best that progressive rock has to offer, especially because they aren’t wailing on their instruments. Perhaps, that is what is most ground breaking about Ice Cycles, it is good music that doesn’t wail. I have heard enough music to know that music that doesn’t wail, especially modern music is very rare. There is just a much larger audience for those that wish to listen to progressive metal that wails for the entire album or the entire show, such that when a band gets through a song and hasn’t injected a slammin’ attitude into their sound that this comes as somewhat of a surprise. Sure it may have a few pretty picked arpeggios. However, they don’t make for the meat of the song. In that way, this album is almost clandestine, and will probably remain as such. John Myung has always struck me as an introvert, and thus it is such that perhaps this style fits his modus operandi more than any other. Anyway, this effort is very much appreciated. I really like this cd though I would not go so far as to give it the 5th star and say that it is a classic.

**** Frizzle Fry by Primus – Few Rock Groups Have Been So Exploratory As Primus

First of all, from start to finish this is a great album. It’s also an old album, but if you listen to it, you should find it unique and interesting. Few bands of the 1990’s have achieved the level of originality as Primus. One other band that I think of as in this same category is the Red Hot Chili Peppers, especially earlier in their career. Though some may disagree, or even wish that it weren’t there is no denying that Primus is a Prog Rock band. Quite frankly, when I use the word Progressive, I simply mean talented or that they have broken free from the norm. With his band Primus, Les Claypool created a very unique style of a bass fronted band, and to do so it meant that the guitar did something different as well. Thus, it is such that the guitar is also key to the bass fronted sounded. This album goes back to the time of cassette tapes, and that was actually the first time I heard this album. My friend let me borrow his cassette tape. As a kid, I instantaneously knew that there was something special, unique, and creative about this cassette. However, I do recognize that cassettes are generally a terrible format because the tape itself can stretch, resulting in the band sounding out of tune, such that I don’t recommend Frizzle Fry on cassette. Get the cd. You will probably be able to find it for a reasonable price, used. I personally, prefer the cd version though I fully understand folks who like to download their music, so ultimately, my recommendation is to purchase the most budget minded version of this work of art, where Primus is describable as unlike anything that had come before it.

WTF??? Does AT&T Think That I Want To Pay More for Data Sometimes?

I just looked at my AT&T Go Phone message that just informed me that I have no money left. That is because I didn’t buy a bigger data package. However, it would have been nice if they had warned me to buy a data package, rather than run up the dough on my phone, as if I wanted to pay more money by not having a data package.

So hi! Let me introduce myself. I was a happy AT&T customer because Verizon screwed me for data to a much greater extent than AT&T did though nonetheless both companies have screwed me before.

I am a somewhat happy user of a Go Phone now, so that getting screwed to the extent of $1,000 over data with Verizon will never happen again because when my card runs out of money, that’s it. If I was with Verizon under contract, it could have been worse. Last I knew, you could spend yourself into oblivion with Verizon data without even a warning.

At least a warning would have helped me with AT&T. Now, I am without my phone because I was watching a long video on it that ate up all my data. AT&T courteously stopped me when I had spent my last cent, but they didn’t courteously tell me that my data plan had run out. I would have liked the option to buy a new plan when the last one ran out, such that I don’t have to wait until my next check to have a phone to use.

Like Verizon, AT&T is doing bad business. When I worked at McDonald’s if you ordered everything that comes with a value meal, it was automatic for us to make it at the value meal price. Why? It is good business to help the customer get deals. That makes your business at least seem friendly. In the same way, when your data package ends, it should automatically deny you use of data unless you purchase a data package, even if it is an emergency package that costs say, $1 for 1MB, because seriously AT&T who actually wants to spend more money on data by not buying a data package, especially without being asked!!!???

***** Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin – The Best Led Zeppelin Album

Everybody, or perhaps almost everybody has their favorite Zeppelin album.  This one is mine.  And, this isn’t some sort of new thing for me.  This has been my favorite Zeppelin album since even before I got the 10 disc box set of all their albums back in high school.  I remember reading a Zeppelin biography by an insider in the Led Zeppelin outfit and this is the album I played all the while I was so fascinated when I read it.  In my opinion, this album is the last good one before Robert Plant needed help to make his voice sound thicker by electronics.  Since I learned Plant was a smoker, it became very easy for me to identify that his career’s glory would be shortened because physically one can’t expect to be a good singer if he or she is a smoker.  It just can’t be done.

My favorite song on this one is, “The Song Remains the Same.”  I appreciate it for its complexity, especially when I was a kid and was not familiar with more music.  If you have been a reader of mine, despite how unpopular cerebral music tends to be these days, I can tell you this is a good one.  Certainly, not the most of all time or something like that, but it sounds like a lot of work was put into it.  The Song Remains The Same is a work I would hope that anybody would be able to enjoy.

John Bonham is most certainly one of the best drummers ever in my opinion.  Too many drummers today trigger their material, such that every time a drum is hit, it sounds exactly the same way.  If you ask me, that’s cheating.  He might very well be my favorite drummer of all time because sometimes Dennis Chambers plays too many notes, and sometime Virgil Donati lacks taste in favor of playing something that can be done.

However, if you just listened to The Song Remains the Same, it would be a shame.  This record is awesome from start to finish.  Even its weakest song The Crunge is worth listening to.

*** Black Clouds & Silver Linings by Dream Theater – The Least Essential DT Album to My Collection

I won’t say that this is a bad album.  However, I will say that Dream Theater seems to have something both similar and better than everything on this album that they have done prior to BC&SL.  Prior to this, I won’t say that Dream Theater had done no wrong.  I did think 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence was a weak and repetitive effort.  However, that much was all cleaned up when I heard 4 Degrees of Radio Edits, which is I think is totally awesome.  I’ll also say that I can’t tell if A Nightmare to Remember is supposed to be comedy or is serious, which probably means that the band was serious. Lol!

I guess what I find most disappointing about this album is that physically it offers nothing more than a typical hair band album, like say Poison, or Warrant.  Yes, I admit to liking Poison, but I don’t have any delusions about their technical grandeur, and when it comes to technical grandeur that is what I expect from them, and I feel that their offering of technical albums fills a very important role in many people’s lives, in the same way that folks where angry when Pantera broke up because Pantera filled a very important niche in peoples’ lives.

Wither is nothing but an mediocre ballad.  You know the standard ballad Dream Theater puts on an album that is just trash to attract new fans to the other stuff that they do that is better.  Except, what is different on this album is that the cheese ballad is one of the better songs on BC&SL.  Enough said!!!  .  As for this album, it doesn’t have any redeeming greatness, just mediocrity that might help them get popular, so I suggest moving on to something that will challenge you more intellectually, and not stuff that would have made it on the radio in the 1980s.

My best advice is not to buy this one and to buy a real Dream Theater album like Awake or A Dramatic Turn of Events.

***** The Ritual by Testament – Probably An Excellent Attempt At Selling Out While Saving Face

When Testament started out, they had too much grind for many to take notice of them.  If they followed that path, then they would have wound up like virtually unknown bands like Napalm Death.  Okay stop right there.  Some people love Napalm Death, and if you are one of them, that is cool by me because I typically don’t judge bands by the amount of fans they have.

What I like most about The Ritual is that it sounds close to being a sellout album, such as something my wife can listen to, while still sounding dark enough to be classified as metal.

I don’t know if the drums were triggered, but it doesn’t sound like they were.  That is always a plus.  Also, the distortion is not overdone.  I can generally tell what is being played when the distortion knob is cranked up to 10, but when every heavy band does that and also adds compression, it is like there is no dynamics to the sound.

The Ritual in a way sounds almost like Testament had admitted a failure on their earlier albums, and was going to head in the direction of Megadeth and Metallica during the better days of their career.  If that was their mission, they accomplished it well, and the ritual is on par with Metallica’s Kill Em’ All, and Megadeth’s Peace Sells, But Who’s Buying.

Likewise, though Anthrax has usually gotten more attention, especially in the early days, than Testament, Testament was much more flexible, and in my opinion proved to be the better band.  Thus, it should come as no surprise that when the killing days of metal, meaning the days where it became nearly extinct, Testament was able to pull through, and eventually flourish.

So, why 5 stars?

This album deserves 5 stars because anyone should be able to listen to it, appreciate it, and have something positive to say about it, no matter who they are or what walk of life they come from.

***** The Dream Sequencer by Ayreon - Demonic Space Age Music Unlike Anything I Have Ever Heard Previously

When I first listened to this album it was so scary I wanted to hide under a pillow when I was listening to it.  I was scared to death, but I also liked it in the way a jalapeno pepper's, or in this case a habanero spice is thrilling.  This is the same way I am able to listen to jazz and appreciate it for what it is, even if it is softer, but sometimes death metal is just what the doctor ordered.  My wife actually was the one who called the sound of this album, "Demonic," and I would have to agree with her.  To me that just means that I'll listen to it when she is not around.  However, what I want you, the reader to know most is that this album delivers the goods when it comes to progressive rock.  It really is good music and not fluff pop music.  Sure it might be scary.  However, in my opinion that is just as if this album is as an artist might want to paint with one color more than another to the point of actually making a point with that color.

*** Beyond Outrage by Robert B. Reich – Of Reich’s Works That I Have Read It’s Comparatively Subpar

The first point I would like to make takes up a third of this book.  It is on what Reich has called Radcons in another book.  I think Reich has said enough about Radical Conservatives by now.  The Radcons are no longer a threat.  However, I agree that regression is a threat.

My generation has rejected the Radcon way of life in favor of having a more liberal lifestyle.  It is not radical conservatives Reich is afraid of, but those who wish to be fiscally responsible, and these folks may be either Democrat or Republican.

I, myself, have already stated that I believe Reich is wrong about what to do.  Reich wants to continue running trillion plus dollar deficits until the economy gets better.  However, to me that seems stupid.  We may get a good run at having a good economy, but not enough to sustain an economy recovery.  That is, 8 years is not enough time to put us in the positive, and chances are that partly because of term limits, we won’t be able to sustain enough of a recovery.  Perhaps, getting rid of term limits is something we should consider, but I think that we would just go for another 4 years of Obama mediocrity.

Some presidential leaders to look for come 2016 are Hillary Clinton, Deval Patrich, and even Reich himself.  It has baffled me why Reich hasn’t run for office.

The first part of this book, “The Rigged Game,” I think most folks already know enough about.  Most folks are angry at Wall Street and the rich, and want government to work for them doing things such as closing loopholes.  The word is out.  And, folks are right, the game is rigged.

One area I flat out disagree with Reich is that I don’t think giving more money to the poor is a good answer.  In my opinion, folks need to find out how to make their money, the money they already don’t have because they are broke because they have already spent it, work for them, such that the poor can be empowered.  Thus, the answer is for folks to be more careful when spending, rather than to toss out more handouts.  These actions are going to take a concerted effort, and America is going to need to find some fiscally conservative cheerleader that can see to it that folks are able to make their money go as far as it can possible go.

One suggestion I might make is that I often shop at Amazon.com, if a local store doesn’t have what I need, or if the local is charging an unreasonable price.  There are lots of good bargains on Amazon.com, especially if you are willing to put up with having used goods.  Also, there are other stores like BJ’s where if you are careful with your money, it will stretch further.

The major problem of this book is that it assumes that if you put more money in the hands of average Americans, then good things will happen, but that isn’t true.  The fact is that most Americans are clueless when it comes to math, such that if you gave them more money, they wouldn’t have a clue how to spend the money wisely.  Therefore, the problem is not that the poor and middle class don’t earn enough, but the problem is that CEO pay is ludicrously high.  The reason middle and lower class pay is good is because if we raise it, it would simply cause more inflation, and folks would have a much more difficult time determining whether or not they should purchase something based upon its price.

I do agree with the author that there are certain things we should be outraged at, such as the buying of political offices.  I agree that CEO pay is out of control.  I agree that we need to close tax loopholes, such taxing what is now considered to be capital gains.  Reich does make a lot of good points, but I felt that his books Supercapitalism, and Aftershock were much better. 

Lastly, the last third of the book seems both naïve and correct.  In order to have a movement that will make change, we have to get off of our couches.  However, the USA suffers for this as we Americans are couch potatoes.  Our ancestors would have bound together to fight against our problems, but for us, we are not a very cohesive nation.  That is, too often we relate to each other via the internet.  That is another subject that Reich might do well to include if he writes another book.

**** Killing Is My Business and Business Is Good by Megadeth – Awesome and Totally Old School

The reason I subtracted a star and gave this album 4 stars is that I don’t want anyone to be disappointed with the quality of the sound of this album.  This album was made on a shoestring budget, and as in the way that there isn’t so much need to buy old jazz albums because the newer ones are higher quality, so it is that way with Killing Is My Business.  As for me, I like the old school production.

As for the music on this album.  It is some of the best thrash/speed metal out there.  It really is a good album.  This is the type of album that when someone says to me, “I think metal blows,” and I say to them, “Well if you think it’s so bad, then why don’t you try playing it?”  I have never heard anyone complain to me about an album like this one when I said something like, “I will listen to your criticism, if and only if, you can play it,” because truly this album is a work of art, and it is not easily repeatable, as it is with all great works of art.