As promised, I am here to let you know that The Afters new album, Never Going Back to OK is fantastic. Chalk full of poppy goodness, The Afters sophomore effort does not fail to disappoint. But rather than just tell you about it, why not just enjoy a bit your send. So here is the video for Myspace Girl.

Sorry it’s been so long. Work has been crazy. From here:

On the 4th October 2007 Porcupine Tree arrived for an in-store performance and signing session at Park Avenue CDs in Orlando, Florida, with 200 fans also in attendance. Although it was originally planned that the full band would play, lack of space dictated that it was only the 2 guitarists / singers Steven Wilson and John Wesley who delivered an impromptu performance, including many songs rarely (if ever) played by the band, making for a very special and intimate show. Fortunately this one-off performance was captured by a remote recording facility and the complete 8 song, 33 minute show is now being released in a mail order only CD, with a digipack sleeve created by photographer Lasse Hoile and designer Carl Glover. The CD will be available to pre-order soon from the PT Store, and is expected to ship in the week commencing 11th Feb.

Full track listing for the album is:

1. the sky moves sideways (4.02)
2. even less (3.27)
3. stars die (4.33)
4. waiting (3.52)
5. normal (4.52)
6. drown with me (4.09)
7. lazarus (4.29)
8. trains (4.04)

I can’t wait!!

My friend Karch recently reminded me of my love for a cappella music over on his site. Well, here’s a weird one… a cappella heavy metal group Van Canto has five vocalists and one drummer (who plays real drums, not a beatboxer). Peep this:

From their official site:

MANOWAR recorded both German and English versions of “Stille Nacht” - known to English speaking fans as the classic Christmas carol “Silent Night”- as a holiday gift to all of their loyal fans, the greatest fans in the world. The song was recorded in “Hell” and mixed by Ronald Prent of Galaxy Studios, Belgium.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of the true metal warriors from MANOWAR!

Go to their site to download. It’s surprisingly well done and faithful to the spirit of the song for at least the first two minutes. The last minute is where they kick in the Manowar power chords and power vocals. But even then, it’s nothing more dramatic or over-the-top than you’d hear from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. All in all, it’s worth a download and listen and it may even make it into your Christmas rotation. Check it out.

From here:

Kirk Hammet and Lars Ulrich were interviewed by San Francisco Examiner where they said We don’t want pretty good, we want excellent and Rick Rubin is getting us to try and achieve that. He’s very good at getting the essence of an artist out and bringing that back to the top again. It’s the ‘Master of Puppets’ mentality again. You need to prove the world that you’re good, you need to be hungry again.

….

As of Thanksgiving, the only hurdles left are overdubs and James Hetfield’s vocals. “That’s it,” says Ulrich. “We’re very alive and well.”

In case you missed them the first time around, The Afters will be back next month with their sophomore album (Never Going Back to OK). If you love Fountains of Wayne or Switchfoot, you would have enjoyed their first album (I Wish We All Could Win). The title track for the new album is already on their Myspace, and so far I like it and am looking forward to the release of the full album Feb. 26.

This really does not qualify as news since the observation that I am about to make comes straight out of material that is 12 years old, however the other day I was listening to some Faith No More. Not the usual suspects like Angel Dust or The Real Thing, rather I was listening through King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime (great title). Just four tracks in, I came across The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (again great title). A minute into the song, I had to start it over. I had to know if I caught that right. You see the thought that occurred to me as I made my commute out to the IE was that this song, it could be argued, might well be the source material for the sound of System of a Down. The way in which they change tempo, moving from in your face metal to melodic subtleties and back without much warning as to when those switches are coming. Now again, I stress that this is not news, just a late observation I made while trying to distract myself from the boredom of my morning commute.

Led Zeppelin played last night. They rocked, apparently. And they did “In My Time of Dying” which means those tickets that went for something like $100,000 were totally worth it.

Full report here.

Hey, cool! Bob Mould (Husker Du, Sugar) will be releasing his seventh solo album early next year. And thanks to spinner.com, you can get a free MP3 of the lead off single “The Silence Between Us”.

So, like most fans of real music, I completely ignored yesterday’s announcement of the Nominees for next year’s Grammy awards. But then, this morning I’m scanning the news about my current favorite band and I could not believe my eyes.

Porcupine Tree has been nominated for a Grammy.

Seriously. Read that again. It’s true. My amazement isn’t because Porcupine Tree is undeserving. They should’ve been winning Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year in every year that they’ve released an album. I’m just absolutely amazed that someone in the Recording Academy has finally heard of Porcupine Tree.

Unfortunately, they are nominated for “Fear of a Blank Planet” in the Surround Sound category. This is category 95 out of 110 (and the list is roughly ordered in the order of categories that people most care about). And the usual stupidity of the rest of the nominations still applies this year as it has in so many other years.

But it’s a start.