Wulfy's Wonder Year 2010: Music.

In much the same way as I did for 2009, I thought I'd look back on the last year.  This time, though, I shall write a series of smaller blogs on different subjects, rather than just the large music one for 2009.  First in the series will be my soundtrack to 2010.

I didn't really listen to a lot of new music this year.  I did go through a habit of listening to Radio 1 at weekends when driving around the Hampshire and Sussex countryside, so did get more of a pop music intake than I usually like!  And of course there's the continuous barrage of pop and RnB on television too...

Ke$ha:  Rather hot too!

Some artists from the non-rock world have got my attention though, mostly due to my other half.  Although I haven't actually heard the full albums, I have been enjoying the singles released by Lady Gaga, Ke$ha and Tinie Tempah.
Ke$ha's single with Taio Cruz, Dirty Picture (links to YouTube video), was excellent (although the radio edit kinda loses some of it's "charm").  Lady Gaga released the reimagined album, The Fame Monster, at the tail end of 2009 and the singles from it have been very catchy, particularly Telephone and Bad Romance - which have been on rotation in the car's multi-changer.

Obviously, despite the fact I think it's a great big fix, I have been watching the X-Factor again.  The two artists I was following didn't really have a chance of winning though.  Paije Richardson I thought was a very soulful singer, but never really looked the part for the judges.  Aiden Grimshaw (the love of Phee's life), who's versions of Thriller and Mad World were amazingly spooky, was just too weird for most tastes.  Just not generically pop enough!

Anathema's Album of the Year.

Now then, back to the real music!  I did get a few new albums this year... some new releases, some very old. I got Anathema's new album, We're Here Because We're Here, which is good.  I still prefer Judgement though!  I also got one of Porcupine Tree's older albums, Stars Die.  Going old skool, I also got The Very Best of Thunder!  It has all their hits, all my favourites, and a load more!  The other album I bought this year was the debut album by Canadian band Domenica, The Luxury.  Domenica are a female fronted rock band, verging on gothic, quite similar to Evanescence.

Video of the year, although released at the end of 2009, was definitely Pussy by Rammstein.  I shall leave it to you to google it (careful as you go!), but it is definitely NSFW!

Well, that actually is longer than I'd planned!  Still, Wulfy's Music Awards for 2010 are:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:  We're Here Because We're Here - Anathema
NON-ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR:  The Fame Monster - Lady Gaga
SONG OF THE YEAR:  Pussy - Rammstein
NON-ROCK SONG OF THE YEAR:  Dirty Picture - Taio Cruz & Ke$ha

MOST LISTENED TO ALBUM:  Appetite for Destruction - Guns 'n' Roses
MOST LISTENED TO SONG:  All Along the Watchtower - Bear McCreary

DJ OF THE YEAR:  Kitty Jay

A Tough Few Months in My World of Music!

It started the moment I got back from my late spring holiday to Orlando, Florida in May.  I found out that Ronnie James Dio, Rainbow's real lead singer, died while I was on holiday.

Rainbow have always been right up there with my other favourite bands, Guns 'n' Roses, Tool and Dream Theater (more on them later).  I grew up listening to both Dio-era Rainbow and the later stuff with Graham Bonnet and liked both.  But Rising was always my favourite album and Stargazer has always been my favourite song ever.  With Dio involved, the lyrics were often set in Lord of the Rings-esque fantasy and had a progressive edge to it.  I was saddened by Cozy Powell's death, many years ago, but for me Dio WAS Rainbow (well, him and Blackmore!).

Since his passing, I have been listening to a lot more of Dio's solo stuff.  I had heard Holy Diver before, as I'd come across Killswitch Engage's awesome cover of it on some satellite music channel... probably Scuzz!  I got hold of Heaven and Hell's album and am hoping to get some of the Dio-era Black Sabbath stuff.

Rock music has lost one of the greatest singers of all time.  And the inventor of the iconic horns hand signal seen at every rock/metal gig in the world.  Ever!


In August, Guns 'n' Roses came to England.  Yay!

But noooo, Axl Rose has taken a right bashing.  Now then, I don't condone the way he clearly takes the piss getting his arse on stage.  But people are forgetting he's always been like that... there have been riots in the past because of it.  And it seems these detractors have one sole reason for directing it at him...
"New GNR" are not as good as the original line-up.

Personally, I can tell the difference between the older stuff and Chinese Democracy, as most can, but I like both!  Indeed, Phee had never heard much of the older stuff, bar the obvious songs, and became a proper fan off the back of their latest offering.  Obviously they'll never been the same without Slash, Duff and the guys, but Axl owns the name, the music does sound pretty GnR-ish so he can do what he wants.  And having seen them live before, they are all talented musicians in their own right.  Do people slag Slash off for playing GnR songs at Velvet Revolver or Slash's Snakepit gigs with Axl?  No.

And the insults aimed at him for the way he looks?  Fuck me, that's low.  The guy's almost hitting 50, of course he's gonna be a little rough around the edges!

He needs to be more professional in this day and age though.  He might have ruled the world in the 90's with the Use Your Illusion world tour, but now he has to prove himself all over again, without the old band mates.  Time will tell whether he manages it... but I will be gutted to wait another fifteen years for a GnR album!

All this said, I did see them live last week.  Phee and I went to the O2 Arena in London for their Wednesday night gig.  We sat around the Blueroom for a while, listening to their albums, before catching the end of the support act - I believe it was Sebastian Bach.  Judging by the timings of the support band and how long the turnovers can be at any gig, I was expecting Axl and the boys on stage at about 9:30pm.  They were a mere ten minutes later than that.  Impressive for him!

Once again, people still come out saying he was an hour late.  An hour?!  The door didn't open til half six.  With the support band, safety checks regarding the pyrotechnics and the sound set-up there was no way they were gonna be on stage at 8:30!  No way in hell.

The gig itself was good.  Took a few songs for Axl to warm up it seemed, but when he did I loved it.  We had to leave at midnight, missing all but the first song of the encore.  Bloody trains!

I loved it.  Phee loved it.  Critics can go to hell.

However, I would have preferred going the following night.  Not only were the Murderdolls supporting, but Duff McKagan joined in!  I'd seen Izzy Stadlin' play with them at Download in 2006 and was gutted I didn't get to see Duff up there with Axl.  I almost wet myself with excitement when I found out!  And Duff quite liked it too...


Finally, comes the news last month that Mike Portnoy has left Dream Theater.  This is devastating news, although not surprising when you read his statement.  He has long been one of the best drummers in the world of any genre, but particularly of progressive music.

It was time for him to take a break from the band and I wish he'd been able to work out a compromise with the rest of them.  Tool take years between albums, so most DT fans would have waited for the next album and tour til he'd recovered from the burn-out.  But no compromise was forthcoming.

And now he plays for Avenged Sevenfold.  I'm fine with that.  After the Rev died, they needed a decent drummer and they got the best, in my opinion.  They'll be better for it.  I like them too.  The criticism levelled at Portnoy and at A7X is ridiculous!

You have to follow your heart in this life.  If it's not in what you're doing, move on...

2009, Wulfy's Year in Music.

Music never dies... it's always everywhere.  It's always on the radio... when there aren't adverts or Chris Moyles talking away it is!  It's on our TVs... live music, music quizzes, X-Factor!  And everyone has an opinion on it!  But this is what music I've been listening to this year, either voluntarily or not!

X Factor

Now, I'm not the biggest fan of The X Factor.  2009's show has been more about making money for Simon Cowell than talent or music.  Point in case is "Jedward", who have no singing ability what-so-ever, remaining in the competition when the rather more talented, and infinitely hotter, Lucie Jones (looking mighty fine, to the right) was sent home.  The show turned into a farce, albeit a farce that raked in the viewers!

It was good to see a singer on there with a more "rock" sound, in Jamie "Afro" Archer.  But he was never destined to win the show.  And I didn't care for the final two either.  Olly Murs definitely is like Robbie Williams... not the best singer, but does like to put on a show.  Not my cup of tea.  And the winner, Joe McElderry, has quite a bland singing style.  He'd be pretty good in musical theatre, maybe, but as a pop artist he doesn't cut it.  So much so that Rage Against the Machine's infinitely better "Killing in the Name of" pipped him to the Christmas number 1.  Awesome.

My Musical Taste has Progressed
Lovely play on words, that.
This past year, I have been listening to some new bands and (obviously, perfectly legally) downloading a discography or too.  Mostly, this has been in the progressive metal genre.

As a fan of progressive metal kings Dream Theater, who's "Black Clouds and Silver Linings" triple CD set I got this year, I decided to try some other bands of the genre.  The first band I got into was Porcupine Tree.  They are a four-piece from the UK and have only recently been leaning towards progressive metal, having originally been more psychedelic.  The first album I got was "Deadwing", which is a masterpiece concept album, like DT's "Scenes from a Memory".  The album tells a ghost story, which has been planned as a film for ages!  The two stand out tracks, "Arriving Somewhere but Not Here" and "The Start of Something Beautiful", have been in my car ever since!

The next album, "Fear of a Blank Planet", is just as good.  It's heavier than the previous album and deals a lot with mental illness (which I've been dealing with myself, recently).  And the new album, out this year, is the two-CD "The Incident".  I've not really got into this as much yet, but I'm sure it won't take long.  Check out the band's videos at their website, including "Something Beautiful"'s Tool-esque stop-go animation video!

I have been listening to some other progressive bands.  Amongst these are The Mars Volta, Stream of Passion and the classic prog band from Canada, Rush.  I've known about Rush for many years, having heard "Spirit of Radio" in my Mum's car when I was young!  But I've obtained their back catalogue and I can hear the influence they had on Dream Theater!

The final band I have mostly been getting into this year is Anathema.  I had one of their songs on a magazine compilation, so I bought the album it came from: Judgement.  Much like Porcupine Tree, the album (or most of it) has been a permanent fixture of my car's CD multi-changer.  Click here from the haunting "Parisienne Moonlight" on YouTube.

It's a very atmospheric album with tracks that blend into each other.  Some say it's a tad depressing, but then again that's often what I listen to. It's not surprising from a band that started as doom metal!  The older music is okay, but not entirely up my street, but their more recent (more progressive, slightly gothic) albums are equally as good as this first CD I have of theirs.

I am looking forward to their next offering, currently titled "Horizons" and slated for a release this year.

Final mention for the music I've listened to this year is for one of my old favourites, Guns 'n' Roses.  Although it was technically released in 2008, I didn't get "Chinese Democracy" until last year.  It differs a lot from their previous stuff with Slash et al.  There's a greater range of sounds and some new twists, all of which I have to say I like.  Very catchy and right up there with my favourite albums of the last year (or so).

Dance the Night Away
I have also been listening to non-guitar orientated music this year.  As well as new music from The Prodigy and Pendulum, I have been listening to two DJs in particular.

The first has been around for some time and played some of the biggest clubs in the UK.  Deadmau5, who usually wears a huge mouse head when playing live, had hit singles featuring vocals from Kaskade and Pendulum's Rob Swire.  I haven't quite gotten around to buying his albums yet... really should do that!

The other DJ is an up and coming turntable master from Exeter.  Okay, he's my evil twin (Gofer) in DJ form.  RichieB has been playing his dirty funky electro-house since late 2008.  His debut gig (I think) was at our joint 30th birthday party last January (less said about that night, the better).  Since then he has played many of Exeter's biggest dance event of 2009, with Pams House/PHunky and Digital Passion with a residency at EX4 and regular slots on the Terrace at the Phoenix Club.  Hopefully, 2010 will be an equally big year for him!


And so on to my favourites list, a kind of Wulfy's Music Awards if you like:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:  Black Clouds and Silver Linings - Dream Theater
NON-ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR:  Lungs - Florence and the Machine
SINGLE/EP OF THE YEAR:  Live, Consume, Drive - Sanguine
SONG OF THE YEAR:  Stargazer - Dream Theater
NON-ROCK SONG OF THE YEAR:  I Remember - Deadmau5

MOST LISTENED TO ALBUM:  Judgement - Anathema
MOST LISTENED TO TRACK:  Arriving Somewhere but Not Here - Porcupine Tree

CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE YEAR:  Permanent Waves - Rush

DJ OF THE YEAR:  RichieB and Deadmau5 (tied!)


2010
There are a few albums I'm looking forward to this year; I've already mentioned Anathema's new album.  Avenged Sevenfold were to have a new album out too, although it remains to be seen if it does get released soon due to the untimely death of The Rev.  I'm also interested in hearing (possible) new albums from My Chemical Romance, Stone Sour, Rage Against the Machine and Deftones.

Feel free to add comments regarding your own favourite music of 2009!