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August 07 Check out the newly re-launched nergon.com!Hey all, just wanted to drop a note here about my newly re-designed site, nergon.com. I haven't had anything there but camp pictures for a very long time, but now it's all about my strip Stranger Things. I'm very excited about how it's turning out.
I've been wanting to set it up like this for a very long time, but the host I wanted to go thru bills annually and I just never seemed to have enough extra money to spring for it. But a couple of weeks ago, I noticed a new banner ad on one of my favorite web sites, myextralife.com, advertising the host that Scott Johnson uses, Mind on the Net. They have a very cool blogging package which includes a very good deal of storage and xfer bandwidth and they have several billing cycle options. So, after singing up and learning how to setup PHPBB and WordPress, nergon.com is at last in a presentable state.
So please, hop on over, take a look at the comics that are posted so far, register for the forum and drop me a note! And just as FYI, I'll be posting comics Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. At least that's the initial plan, so I'd be honored if you checked back now and then to see what's going on in Stranger Things. :)
July 07 Corporate HangoverIt's been a while since I posted anything here....I've got a draft of a review of Roine Stolt's "Wall Street Voodoo" that's not done yet, so I'll be posting that soon.
In the meantime, I thought I'd share something I'm working on.
I do a comic strip called Stranger Things for Full Tilt Features which is included in gogags and the Not Quite Sunday Funnies blog put together by Full Tilt hero, Annie Taylor Lebel. Stranger Things is a fun project for me that I've been working on since 1991, but not very seriously until 2003.
Last fall when word hit the net about the video iPods and the podcasting community began to generate a buzz about VIDEO podcasting, I got excited. The rusty gears in my noggin started to sputter and squeek and turn and I began to think - comic strip + Flash + QuickTime + iTunes = my comic strip on iTunes... I could do a video podcast of my comic strip which would basically just be displaying each frame for a few seconds in sort of a slide show. But people could subscribe in iTunes and not have to try to remember to go to a website and look for the newest comic, they would get it automatically. Sweet! So tax return time comes around and I manage to spring for a video iPod, put together some test runs of strips in QuickTime movie format and wala! Everything came together nicely. The strips look great on the iPod, you can read them easily, it's a win-win.
So now I have to get some material together and start putting these out on libsyn or some kind of podcasting service so that someday soon people can subscribe to my comic on iTunes.
So what comic is it going to be? Is it going to be Stranger Things or is it going to be something else? Well, I've got 2 new strips I've been working on in addition to Stranger Things over the past several months, working toward this video podcasting thing. One of them I'm going to drop and maybe someday when I have free time coming out of my ears, I'll pick it up and run with it. But for now it's my shelved pet project that I'll return to "someday". The other one I'm calling "Corporate Hangover".
My buddies at work have been bugging me for years to do a comic strip based on our confusing life in the tech industry. My dissenting argument has always been Dilbert. Scott Adams is already doing that and he's covering it nicely. However recently, I've become aware that I can cover this tech industry world in my own style and it doesn't resemble Dilbert at all because my sense of humor is so different from Scott Adams'. And so is my drawing style. So just like an artists shouldn't refuse to do a comic strip because Peanuts has already been there/done that, I don't think this is a valid argument even for a comic theme as long as I can put my own unique spin on it. So I've been exploring this and will continue to do so. I've already gravitated toward it several times in Stranger Things anyway whenever I would do a strip about Alan at work. And really Corporate Hangover is just Alan at work minus the alien Nergon stuff. So it has Alan and a cast of at least 3 new characters. In fact, a couple of weeks ago I did a Stranger Things strip with Alan at work and I used 2 of these new characters in it.
So without further ranting and raving, here is my first official Corporate Hangover strip. I won't have any free time for about 2 weeks from now, so at that point I'll start figuring out what kind of schedule I can churn these out on and get them on iTunes in video podcast format. I'll try linking in the flash part of the video podcast form and click the thumbnail below to read the strip.
Link to Fash video podcast version (gets to the iPod by publishing in Quicktime in Flash, then converting the .mov in iTunes to be iPod compatible.)
By the way everything in this strip actually happened. Except I didn't wear a tie and I'm fatter than that.
February 23 Great Minds? PFFFF, Whatever...Another person out there apparently loves Neal Morse's "?" album as much as I do. The New England Art Rock Society news page recently posted this article, an alternative to the grammy awards. It's nice to see Neal getting well deserved attention!
The author also had nice, warm and fuzzy comments for Izz's "My River Flows", Roine Stolt's "Wall Street Voodoo", Porcupine Tree's "Deadwing", Spock's Beard's "Octane", and several others that are unfamiliar to me. The prog world is a big, big world.
I still need to write up some comments about Izz's album, and I just got "Wall Street Voodoo" this week from Amazon, so mucho musico reviewo to come-o.
It's a fun article, I recommend skimming it at least.
BUT - that was 2005.
2006 is already shaping up quite well for proggers (Those guys who love prog rock so much, they risk their lives trying to cross the street, dodging cars, just to get to their favorite record store. (Those of you born after 1982 may have just gotten lost.)) January 31st saw the release of "A Place in the Queue" by The Tangent as well as "Wait of Glory" by Proto-Kaw. I had never heard of either of these bands before last week, but apparently they both have a pretty good fan base and both CDs are getting rave reviews on Amazon.
Roine Stolt used to be involved in The Tangent as well as Kaipa and his main band, The Flower Kings. Recently I read that he wanted to concentrate more on solo recording, so he left both Kaipa and The Tangent. "A Place in the Queue" is the first album done by that band without the input or presence of the famous prog master, and from what I've read, it sounds like they've found their voice and their sound just fine without him. Also, the cover is amazing; I love it!
Most fans of Kansas and Kerry Livgren in particular probably already know about Proto-Kaw. This band is made up of the original Kansas members who recorded between 1971 and 1973, so it's one of those groups that had an immediate fanbase as soon as they formed. Personally, Kansas (not to mention Kerry Livgren) is unexplored territory, so I'll have to see what MusicMatch On-Demand has in the way of their music. It would probably upset a lot of Kansas fans to hear it, but when I think of Kansas, I think of John Elefante. He's the only dood I know of related to them. And since I loved Halo, Mastedon (No, not the current Mastodon), and Petra growing up, I think at least some of Kansas' material will make for some familiar listening.
So we've already had some significant prog hit the streets this year. Coming up are David Gilmour's "On An Island" (March 6th), The Flower Kings' "Paradox Hotel" (March 24th), and O.S.I.'s 2nd album on March 31st. I can't wait to hear the new O.S.I., for me that's the biggest release in 2006 so far. The bad news is that Asia has announced that "Architect of Time", which was slated for a May 5th release, has been "shelved" which I assume means don't count on it coming out anywhere near May.
Well, enough for now. I'll get started on those reviews soon! January 26 Calling It QuitsIt's recently come to my attention that 2 extremely popular Christian groups are unfortunately disbanding very soon.
You know, it's one thing when bands like Petra or Mylon & Broken Heart break up. I mean Petra was obviously past it's prime (although I still stand behind Jekyll & Hyde as an outstanding album) and Mylon LeFever was having health problems, forcing Broken Heart to end their rock and roll days. But man, when Sixpence None the Richer broke up a couple of years ago, it was HARD on me...and still is. I have been a fan since I first heard about them in college, and the last album Divine Discontent is just awesome. I will always hope for a Sixpence reunion someday.
When I saw the new 4 Him CD on the release list this week, I didn't really think much of it, I just figured it was another one of those "best of" albums that labels love to shove down our throats. But after looking it up, it appears it is the last 4 Him CD, and it's not just a "best of", the songs have been re-done and I understand there is one new song (BUT STILL BEWARE, it's on SONY/BMG). Wow. That kind of hit me harder than I expected. I actually gave up on following 4 Him a few years back, but they still have quite a few songs that speak to my heart, especially on the album, The Message, which I felt was full of encouraging lyrics for men specifically. Obvious was a big disappointment to me, so that was where I stopped paying attention. 4 Him to me was always one of these groups that had only about 3 songs per CD that I liked and the rest were pretty boring. But the ones that I liked, I REALLY liked and they hit home to me as a Christian. "Where There Is Faith" is still a Christian radio staple and I still find it every bit as effective as Mercy Me's "I can Only Imagine" even though I've heard them both hundreds of times by now. Plus, with their track for the outstanding CD, Streams, 4 Him did something that I consider to be one of the greatest things to happen to Christian music. They got Jon Anderson of Yes to sing on "The Only Thing I Need", a gorgeous song. So they have certainly left their mark and this is indeed very sad news. Apparently they plan to release solo albums now, but I doubt very much that any of them individually will be nearly as effective as they had been once together. You can get more information here.
And the other break-up that's become big in Christian music news... This one hurts much much more than the 4 Him break-up. Uugh..I hate to even type it. But the sad truth of the matter is that Audio Adrenaline is calling it a career. (Pause for mass weeping.)
Ouch, ouch, ouch. I love Audio Adrenaline. I'm still a loyal fan. In fact the only Audio Adrenaline albums I don't have are the first one (because I wasn't a fan yet) and the live one. I love seeing them in concert, they put on a really really good show. But , alas...it is time for the curtain to close. We will continue to sing "Big House", "Don't Censor Me", "Never Gunna Be As Big As Jesus", "Hands and Feet", "Get Down", and "Ocean Floor" with heart-felt conviction and remember Audio Adrenaline with nothing but fond memories. And I will still listen to "Jesus and the California Kid" and "The Houseplant Song" with a big grin. I heard that the singer is having to quit in order to prevent losing his voice permanently. For the official info, take a gander here.
Be strong everybody. And keep an eye out for those bands that pick up the torch.
January 25 Finally My Top 10 for 2005So after going over my 5 favorite CDs of last year, I figure I may as well just list my top 10 for the year and call it good. So here, you have it, Keefe's favorite CDs of 2005 (that he bought):
10. Bliss - Quiet Letters
9. Jars of Clay - Redemption Songs
8. Dave Matthews Band - Stand Up
7. Porcupine Tree - Deadwing
6. P.O.D. - The Warriors EP, Vol. 2
5. Kate Rusby - The Girl Who Couldn't Fly
4. Brad Paisley - Time Well Wasted
3. Dream Theater - Octavarium
2. Spock's Beard - Octane
1. Neal Morse - ?
Izz was mentioned back in December as a favorite personal discovery in my 2005 retrospective article. Radiant Records was promoting their new album, My River Flows, and I saw that advertised repeatedly, but finally one day it really caught my attention and I looked them up on MusicMatch. The first 3 Izz CDs were available there in the on-demand service, but not the 2005 My River Flows. So I listened to a couple of the older ones and really got excited about Ampersand, Vol. 1. So I ordered the new one recently, expecting it to be another favorite for 2005, but unfortunately, I've been pretty disappointed with it. I'll have to write more about that later because I really still do like Izz.
I picked up Deadwing by Porcupine Tree several months ago as you can't be much of a modern prog fan and not see the name Steven Wilson thrown around a LOT. He has a huge group of loyal fans that tout him as a musical genius just exactly like Neal Morse's fanbase. There are people out there who just love and adore everything Steven Wilson does. Someone on Amazon claimed Deadwing to be the best CD of 2005, so I had to investigate. Obviously, I don't agree, but it is a very excellent disc and Mr. Wilson is indeed an extremely creative and talented individual. He may even have more side-projects than Mike Portnoy. He also has a very distinct style to his music. Office of Strategic Influence (O.S.I.) features Mr. Wilson as a guest and on the song "shutDOWN" his influence is obvious and prominent. It's like watching "2001: A Space Odyssey" and then "The Shining". Stanley Kubrick's directoral signature style is very evident even though the stories in those movies are very different. Steven Wilson is very similar in that way with his musical style. If he's co-written and plays on any given song, you can pretty much always tell he's there. That's not to say that all of his songs sound the same, they definitely don't, but drawing the comparison to Stanley Kubrick is the best way I can explain his musical touch. As far as Deadwing goes, there are some incredibly good songs present, including "Shallow", "Lazarus", "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here", and "Mellotron Scratch". These are very infectious songs. In fact Steven has a knack for creating prog rock that's very accessible to the average pop/rock fan and yet also excites prog fans.
The new Dave Matthews CD is a great disc. It was also my first DualDisc, so that was a fun introduction to a new kind of media that we will continue to see grow in 2006, I'm positive. "American Baby" is an outstanding song and there are plenty of others, too.
I found Quiet Letters while browsing iTunes for an extended period one Sunday afternoon. I don't normally get into electronic music too much, but this release is great. "Kissing" is an awesome song, my favorite on the CD, and the entire thing is just wonderfully relaxing. Good stuff.
So there you have it, care or not. Now it's time to look forward to what 2006 has to offer. Already this week we have P.O.D.'s Testify. I love the logo for the album title on the cover and I will forever kick myself for missing the pre-order deal that included a free T-shirt. :( But even though it's only January, we already have quite a few big releases coming up to count the days for:
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime 2 - 4/4/2006
Rush - (rumored 2006 CD - probably later in the year)
Toto - Falling In Between - 2/10/2006
O.S.I. - (confirmed 2006 CD, release date unknown)
Conspiracy - (rumored 2006 CD, release date unkown)
Conspiracy - Live (DVD) - 3/14/2006
Asia - Architect of Time - (April/May 2006)
White - White (release date unannounced, but album has been finished and mastered since August, 2005)
Adrian Belew - Side 3 (April, 2006)
Hopefully they're all oustanding!! :D Testify and a Word of CautionI meant to post this Monday, but got busy...:D This week is a big release week for new music. And this makes me happy. I wanted to give a heads-up prior to Tuesday about some new stuff coming out, but missed the boat, so this is your post-Tuesday new tunes notification. :D
I made a little list of CDs that were planned to come out on the 24th that I was at least partially interested in:
P.O.D. - Testify
4 Him - Encore: For Future Generations
Avalon - Stand
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Daylight Again
Steve Hackett - Please Don't Touch
Steve Hackett - Voyage of the Acolyote
Jennifer Knapp - Live
Now, as far as I"m concerned, P.O.D.'s Testify is the first big big CD of 2006. Can't wait to hear it. Picked up The Warriors EP, vol. 2 just prior to Christmas and I'm addicted to it. Well, except for the live version of Boom, not a big fan of that track. But the rest of it rocks and I love it. I"m very excited to hear the rest of the new stuff they've come up with! Still trying to decide between regular or Limited Edition...
As far as 4 Him's CD goes, BE FOREWARNED, it's a Sony/BMG release. That means it MIGHT have the SONY DRM wreaker of havoc on it. So, a good alternative might be to get it from iTunes if it's available there and you feel the need to own yet another 4 Him compilation. Rolling Stone had a snippet an issue or two back about this DRM software still being included on new music, so it's not over. I forget what all they listed as having a newer version of the software than say the Neil Diamond 12 Songs that was pulled because of the original software, so keep your peepers open.
The Crosby, Still & Nash stuff as well as the Steve Hackett stuff I imagine must be some kind of remastered re-releases, and I haven't investigated them, so I don't know if there are extra goodies included or what. But if you're into those guys, just a heads-up that those have been set free to the listening public.
I've often wondered what happened to Jennifer Knapp as it's been a good deal of time since her 3rd studio album. I guess she has been all wrapped up in those City on a Hill discs, but still I'd love to see her do another all by herself. She's kind of an anomoly on Gotee Records, too, it seems like she'd fit the Essential Records family much better with Jars of CLay and Third Day rather than Grits and Relient K, but whatever. Toby Mac obviously made a good move by signing her. Guess we'll have to settle for a live album for now... January 20 My Best CDs of 2005, Part 5: Kate Rusby - "The Girl Who Couldn't Fly" The Girl Who Couldn't Fly
1. Game Of All Fours - 3:40 Kate Rusby is a wonderful musician. She's not cutting edge, she's not a virtuoso with any instrument (at least if she is, she doesn't show off on her CDs), and she's not a pop or rock star. She does have a beautiful voice, however, a long family history with British folk music, and a talent for writing music that sounds simple, but yet hooks people. Before this release, I'm fairly certain she was limited to writing music to accompany old lyrics found in traditional song books, but with The Girl Who Couldn't Fly, she tries her hand at writing original lyrics as well. Kate's CDs can be found in the Celtic section of stores, but she's British rather than Irish as you might typically expect an artist of that genre to be. She sings with her spoken accent, one of the things that makes her unique, and the lyrics are from a time long gone, before cars and jets and computers and the internet. Horses, graves, courtship, and lost love dominate her songs with a sound that seems to tell us to slow down, ignore the TV and fast pace of life for 50 minutes and imagine a life simpler in terms of technology, but not in terms of the human soul. The Girl Who Couldn't Fly is my 5th Kate Rusby CD and I bought it with confidence, considering how much I enjoy her others. I had read one review somewhere that complained about this new CD being very flat and uninteresting. I didn't believe a word of it, and after listening to it several times, I was right not to. This one is every bit as charming as all other Kate Rusby albums and is done in exactly the same spirit. I won't go into detail with each song as I have with other entries, because with this CD I would end up repeating myself a lot. Each song pretty much tells a story, features excellent music played by few instruments as well as Kate's beautiful vocals. My personal favorites here are "The Game Of All Fours", "The Lark", "No Names", "You Belong To Me", "Elfin Knight", "Moon Shadow", and my most favorite is "Wandering Soul". The up-beat songs are all wonderful, but the album is definitely dominated by the slower ones, which all show off Kate's rich melodies. The Girl Who Couldn't Fly stacks up well against her other albums as I enjoy it more than 2003's Underneath The Stars, and every bit as much as my previous favorite, Sleepless. Kate Rusby CDs are gems in anyone's music collection and I highly recommend investigating her music! |
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