Periphery II: This Time It's Personal

Great album, great band. This is some of the most innovative and stimulating music that I have encountered recently. It's a great progression from their last full length. Check it out!

Machine Head - 1/22/12 in Chicago, IL

I've never been a huge fan of Machine Head, but I decided to check them out on their recent headline tour at the House of Blues in Chicago. I was in the mood for some live music and I was definitely impressed. I'm not very familiar with the Machine Head catalog, but I enjoy the highlights from The Blackening and some of their classic tunes. I bought Unto the Locust the day of the show and was only able to skim through it before heading out to the venue. The energy of the new album is perfectly balanced and this transferred very well to the live setting.


They played the majority of Unto the Locust and I left with a desire to spend some more time with the new album. The entire situation was great because I had the feeling of getting more into a band after seeing them live, which is exactly what should happen when you check out a show. This is an extremely honest and true metal band with a refreshingly raw live show.

The State of the Knot

I recently revisited "All Hope Is Gone" and was reminded of how unique and powerful Slipknot can be. Currently, the rock media is having an absolute ball over the comments made by Joey Jordison and Corey Taylor. They have both pursued serious side projects and appear to be way too busy to be accurately communicating the interests of their precious band. Who knows how well they actually communicate, or whether they just enjoy stirring the pot, but I found Jordison's comment about Slipknot continuing without Taylor to be absolutely hilarious.

Sevendust - 4/27 in Rockford, IL

I recently attended the Welcome To The Family Tour featuring Avenged Sevenfold, Three Days Grace, and Sevendust. A7X brought out the bag of tricks and 3DG didn't have to sing a single word of any of their songs (they get quite a bit of airplay and the audience was rather familiar with their lyrical content) and then there was 7Dust. They were absolutely incredible. Cold Day Memory is an outstanding album and the 8 albums and 10 plus years of experience definitely showed in their performance. They have had a successful career but they have a timeless aspect to their sound and identity that puts them well above many bands that have had more "success." 3DG definitely should have opened, out of respect for a band that is stronger live, and still relevant. 7Dust was as entertaining and epic as A7X without the pyro, elaborate staging, and arena rock cliches.

AG

"Your Heart" by Steve Vai

I could tell you to 'play from the heart' but what the hell does that mean? It's easy to say, but it's a hard thing to understand. When you say 'play from the heart' you mean 'play from your OWN heart,' but what is in your own heart? To know your heart you have to know yourself; and to know yourself, you have to be yourself; and to be yourself you have to like yourself. This goes into all these realms of psychology, but this is what I think is important to a person's playing and the way he expresses himself.

"The Future" by Anthony Jackson

It's always fascinating to force the future to show itself. You can imagine anything you want, think hard about it, and convince yourself that it's an accurate prediction. So: My turn.

Within 20 years only a handful of large recording studios will remain, catering to orchestras and other large ensembles. Midsize rooms will disappear with the proliferation of moderately priced, super-high fidelity, solid-state recorders that can be used in the home; the present dominance of hard disk will end, barely a decade after it destroyed magnetic tape. Session work will continue to be done, but remote Internet recording, already increasing, will dominate music production, and iTunes and illegal live recording will make it almost impossible for musicians to prosper from their work. Nightclubs catering to live music will largely cease to exist. Musicians will find themselves relegated to local and state sponsored "performance organizations" and university funded groups. An era of threadbare culture, already descending, will worsen. Case in point: the appallingly corrupt American Idol and Making the Band (where there is no "band" and the "singers" - few if any of whom can sing without the intervention of Autotune - are clearly unconcerned about music, only with thrusting asses and spastic dance steps) point to a future that will worsen before it improves.

None will escape this scenario - including us. Only the strongest, in any field of art, will prosper. Live music will never end, but the tradition of musicians, musicians everywhere - in small clubs, large clubs, halls, outdoor venues, summer jazz festivals, live tv - will not return to abundance until our popular culture begins to evolve again. Twenty years? Maybe, but I think it may be longer. Still, I sincerely believe good times for artists will return. Hypothetical advice to all of us players: Play well, to give our instrument its best chance to survive this era, where a "musician" is too often anyone who can press a PLAY button.