{"video":"http://blip.tv/episode/6143515","width":"400","height":"300"}

...this was done with a script, an idea in my head and... Windows Movie Maker, because my laptop died in the middle of the editing process. Hope you enjoy something out of it. 

So... yeah, after a short hiatus, I decided to make... a religious post. I really don’t know why. I’m thinking of doing a music review shortly, but unfortunately, I’m short of inspiration and good albums to review, even if so bad it’s good to bash them to shreds. So, a little short story:

My name is José Eduardo, I’m Brazilian, I’m majoring in Geology, I’m a rocker since I remember it and… I’m also an atheist since I remember it. I don’t think I ever believed in god, looking back, and to be quite honest, that’s something I count as a bad thing, since I never was able to see things from other eyes, and won’t ever be able. I come from a catholic family, even though my parents are more of hippies than actually anything religion related, so I wasn’t baptized. I grew up making lots of questions to my parents, but since the only examples my parents can give back are questions about minor stuff (like “how Michael Jackson walks backwards” and “was there any wizards”), I guess I kept all the really deep questions to myself… maybe even not ever questioning them, since I already had an answer.

I think everything boils down to the lack of lying from my parents: I never believed the tale of the baby carrying stork and Christmas was always about “giving is better than receiving” (even though admittedly, I believed in Santa and the Easter Bunny). I still like Christmas very much, I just don’t attach any Jesus feeling into it. So, even though I really don’t remember when I became Atheist, I can’t give you a precise date. It just… kind of came naturally. And as the years come to me, I was presented with more situations that being what I am was genuinely better than believing that I wasn’t right, so I had to adjust. And more and more, I see some issues that really bug me through and through in most Judeo-Christian-Muslim religions.

A little disclaimer: I don’t get this cult on Richard Dawkins. I never read God Delusion, but quite frankly, it sounds to me like some sort of fallacy. The Atheist Belief is a double edged knife: we are pretty convinced that there is no higher power, but… if it happens to be, I won’t be on the cynic side. I know of some people that, even if the clouds opened and a face came through and said: “I’m God. Really. See this tree growing from this brick. And I nourished all of the people in Africa and cured them of diseases. Also, I brought Hendrix back from the dead, so that he may have an opportunity to repent his ways and be the guitar god he is down there, only up here”, wouldn’t believe in god. Trust me: if that shit happened, I would think “So why didn’t you do that before?” and move on with my life, but now, believing in god. It’s just that maybe god exists. Maybe there is a god. Who knows? I don’t.

Feedback is appreciated and suggestions are more than welcome. This won’t be the format I’ll do the other videos, this is more of a beta test, checking accent and voice, unless you like it more than the usual “guy sitting looking at the camera”. As always, recommendations are enjoyed.

Album in Depth: Aqualung by Jethro Tull

I’m so fucking sick and tired of reviewing albums I don’t really care. I actually prefer reviewing albums that are complete garbage, because that actually amuses me. I really enjoyed reviewing DragonForce, Justin Bieber, Helloween… because I get to know excellent tracks from these guys. So, I could review an album I really despise…

Or I could do complete opposite. Fuck that, I want to do something I enjoy. And this is my 40^th review! And to celebrate, I’m going to review Aqualung by Jethro Tull. Who are Jethro Tull? A little background is required:

The year is 1971. Fiddler on the Roof is the highest grossing movie, but doesn’t get the academy awards, and Snoopy Dogg is born. Eat the Document, Bob Dylan’s documentary, sees the light of day, Queen is formed and Nirvana disbands… not Kurt Cobain’s Nirvana, but an UK Nirvana of the time… next review, Nirvana, the UK group. Kamen Rider started out (okay, I like Kamen Rider), and unfortunately, the Ed Sullivan Show comes to an end.

As a kid, I was a huge fan of Disney. Well… as most kids were, so nothing new there. But even though I had as a semi-baby (you know, three, four years) a morbid fixation with The Little Mermaid (quoting my parents: “After watching it, you would rewind it and see it again”), I was a huge fan of Aladdin and some of the more discrete of their movies. Three come to mind: Nightmare Before Christmas, The Great Mouse Detective and The Fox and the Hound.

Nightmare Before Christmas to this day is my all-time favorite movie. It is the main reason why I really enjoy musicals, stop motion animation and handcraft in film… I honestly prefer a guy in a suit than complete computer animation… maybe something like the Predator (that I bet was probably a mix of a suit and some computer effects) would be my favorite. Also, it is the main reason why I always give credit to Tim Burton, even though he screws things over and over with some of the worst movies I’ve seen in a while (from the top of my head, Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd). The Great Mouse Detective why I always tend to a more mystery type of read: be it manga, be it book, and be it comics, I always have preferred the ones with a detective (a real one… not Batman). My favorite is Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, which is probably the best detective out there, and the best novel is Murder on the Orient Express, mostly because you will never guess who the killer is. Both movies I’ve seen repeatedly in my life, but not The Fox and the Hound. And I have a pretty good explanation for that:

Have you read the novel? I did. It’s horrible. It’s a great novel, but it’s horrible. First off, Copper is an old dog (he is what in the movie was said to be the Chied) and Chief is the young new dog, showing himself as a good hunter. Tod the fox was adopted for a year but as he reaches sexual maturity, he goes into the wild. As the Master (the hunter) goes hunting for fox, Chief is killed by a train. Chief that is originally the younger dog. So, in a mix of anger and revenge, they try to kill only him. They kill his mate, his offspring, his second mate, his second offspring. And Tod, by this point, was being hunted down every year during the winter. As the time passed, the forest gave way to buildings, and the fox companionship was getting scarcer by the second, so guess what? Even though Tod’s entire family was killed… twice, he still looked forward to the hunting. After some complications (if you can call kid eating poison and dying a complication), Copper follows Tod during a freaking day, to the point where Tod dies from exhaustion, and Copper faints from exhaustion on top of him. And then, afterwards, the dog is treated as a hero, as the hunter also is… but after some time, they lose popularity, so the hunter goes into a retiring home, that doesn’t allow dogs. So, he shoots the fucking dog. As the dog licks the hunter’s hand. And the book overall is not so bad if you don’t have in your brains the image of the cutest dog and the cutest fox ever to be put on film.

Well, since reviewing albums is showing me more down sides than good sides, I’m decided to broad up a bit and start a whole new series called “I Just Now”. It’s pretty basic: I can talk about everything as I just do stuff. It’s basically an excuse for reviewing anything I damn want at the time, or just talk a bit about what I’ve been up to. So, since I just now started a RPG campaign, I’m going to talk a little about it.

The system used is the 4e D&D. It’s a pretty basic system that allows a lot of adventuring… in a medieval setting. Don’t get me wrong: I’m all up for variety regardless of system used, I know that “a skillful DM can use any setting for anything”, but I’m not a skillful DM and I liked the system overall. I remember playing with the AD&D system and getting pissed off by the simplest things, like the calculation for hitting, if I recall correctly, was overcomplicated, and the overall rules really forced the group to play the setting that it proposed… or at least that’s what it looks like from my perspective when I was thirteen. A bit older I was in contact with the third edition (also known as the D20 system) and the combat was also complicated, but then again, I always had some issues with combats in general… and I can see how that’s pretty strange, since most adventures focus on battles. The 4e facilitates in a lot of things, giving specific roles to each class and more simplistic battle, and as the game suggests using a battle grid, a lot more visual.

The setting was a creation of my own. I wanted to play a bit with the Norse mythology, since I once saw a monster sheet for the Yggdrasil, elder timber dragon, and I wanted to make players battle that. Or at least have a dialog with that, since it’s so overpowered that it’s almost funny. The world map is sort of realistic in a way: it’s all of Europe, Greenland and the Russian part of Asia, surrounded by sea. It accentuates the whole icy feel that the Nordics were used to live with, but at the same time expands the ground and simplify a lot of shit I didn’t want to get into. Like… I don’t have the slightest clue of what was going on in India during the Nordics age of conquering other people, so why include it?

I also made some changes in the system. The part that brought some arguments between the players is that I didn’t want to have any Arcane magic. So, since day one, Wizard and Warlock were not optional, and from PH2 and PH3, just Barbarian and Monk were possible, since most of the others brought something miraculous to the table (and I hate the psionic set of abilities since the first time I read that word; Monk didn’t abuse it all that much). Divine was still on the table (heck, I even heavily suggested that there were a cleric and a paladin on the group, since they could be clerics of Thor and Paladins of Odin!)… And speaking of which, down with those (lame) gods of the original setting, up with the Norse ones. It was troublesome to come up with some substitutions to the original gods in the book, but after a day’s work, it finished up nicely. Also, no monsters. All enemies are homebrewed and they are mostly deviant humans (thieves, cultists… you know the drill).

The group, with me as the DM, is composed by Hilda and Virna, both archer styled rangers, Thorvald, a Thor cleric, and… Sigismundo, the Lofn Paladin. As I started, I asked for a little background from each one. Hilda and Virna are cousins and wanted to start adventuring for mostly the same reason: know more about the world. Thorvald is a Thor cleric, that since born was chose to be that way. He wanted to start adventure to right all the wrongs in the world and fulfill a prophecy that his family had. You see, three very simple backgrounds. However, the player behind Sigismundo is one of those guys. Recently, I read on the DM’s Guide that “Some Abilities can heal only when attacking an opponent, so a player can get no benefit from wandering around with a bag of rats”. Sigismundo is one of those guys… but in a good way. He is a whole lot of fun while destroying everything I hold dear in my heart.

So, it’s arriving. Me myself never really cared for the Grammys, because I’m really not the target audience, but: I figured out “why not?”. I have in my possession all the albums running for best Rock album, be it digital or borrowed. This list of picks is exactly that: I can’t really guess what the Grammy Award judges think, as most of the time, they are completely wrong (not that there has been that many chances for them to be wrong, since most of the Grammy Rock Awards are recent) like when Foo Fighter’s One by One won Audioslave’s debut and Ac/Dc’s Black Ice lost to Green Day’s 21^st Century Breakdown, just as minor examples. I will give links of all the nominees, except, of course, the albums, since just one of them is 20 tracks long (I will add my favorite song of that album). The reason why I say that I’m picking my favs instead of what I think will win is dead simple: I was astonished by the nominations. Most of the songs and albums are from groups that honestly, I have some feelings toward them… bad feelings. But I’ll try to judge what’s in observation: if it’s the best song, I don’t care if the band gave me gold, I will tell you which song, out of the five, is my favorite and why.

There’s also something I don’t quite get: there is an award for best Rock Performance and an award for best Rock Song. I guess the intention is to also award the people that write the songs, but in the case of this year grammy, all of the nominations on best Rock Performance are also on for the best Rock Song. If that’s the case, why even do it? Just give for the best rock song in these cases, I guess… if there weren’t any cover, why even bother separating? But I digress.

First off, the Best Rock Performance Award. I’m going with the order that Grammy.com gives, so it’s not in any particular order whatsoever.

Coldplay – Every Teardrop is a Waterfall

Album in Depth Reviewaday Marathon Polka Your Eyes Out: Poison by Bell Biv Devoe

It’s always the third one. We had Billy Idol, that sucked, B-52′s, that rocks, and then fucking Pump Up The Jam! Then, we have R.E.M, which is kind of good, EMF, which was average, and now we have Hip-Hop and R&B, which granted, is not exactly my area of knowledge. So, who are we talking about today? Bell Biv DeVoe. Who are they? Well, for me, they will always be part of New Edition.

New Edition was a seventies Boston R&B, comprising of mostly five members, Bobby Brown, Ralph Tresvant, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie Devoe (the three latter are, obviously enough, Bell Biv DeVoe) that pretty much was the first concrete group that resembled what we would call a Boy Band… you know, that group of people that sing and dance but don’t actively play any instruments in their songs and are more appreciated for their good looks than anything else and no wonder I didn’t pay that much attention. So, I already start the review with some bias, as, I’m not kidding, New Edition was to symbolize that they were a new edition of the Jackson 5. Who would ever want aspire to be in a group that has one talent and four other innocuous people?.. aside from N’Sync…

So, three of the five guys in the group started another group? Why? That actually has an answer, but warning, I’m turning on the SENSELESS STUPIDITY ALERT. One of the guys from New Edition, Bobby Brown, was voted out because of his behavior, and while the group tried success as a quartet with barely any success (they even hired someone to fill his space, by the name of Johnny Gill), he managed to get a multi-platinum album. So, the group thought “Fuck It” and went on to pursue side projects. Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie Devoe said “fuck it” to the “fuck it” and started a trio, which was awarded with a three platinum album, this one. And the rest of the group, I’m talking about Ralph Tresvant and Johnny Gill, only in the group for 2 years tops, released self-titled albums… and got multi-platinum… both! So, what you’re telling me is that these 6 guys can’t work together for shit, but “alone” they are able to get platinums? What sense does that make? Have you ever heard of a group that broke up and EVERY SINGLE member on it had incredible success, going even further than what the band could do together? It doesn’t make any sense! After this, they realized that they made more success solo than together, but because of contractual… stuff, they had to reunite… and they had a monster success! So, what is the deal? True, they broke up soon after that, because they had rivalries and such, but come on!

Album in Depth Reviewaday Marathon Polka Your Eyes Out: Schubert Dip by EMF

So far, we had 4 reviews of 4 bands that, although I’ve already heard about, I didn’t go after. This case is completely different. I never heard of EMF. So, forgive for the lack of information, as I will report only of stuff I find in the interwebz.

EMF means Epsom Mad Funkers. Bad sign. They are an UK Indie Dance Rock group… Indie Dance? Does that even exist? Holy crap, it’s the same subgenre of New Order. Fuck! Okay… the band almost didn’t get any recognition, releasing three albums: this one got a 3^rd place on the UK charts… but the other two were flops. They try to get back over and over again, but it’s never noticeable… want to see? They got together in 2007 and disbanded in 2009… did you hear about it? Me neither.

I really don’t know if I like the cover. It’s a black and white graffiti and it really sticks outside of the crowd but… it can be also signs of a completely lazy train of thought. “We are underground, graffiti” already has been done… and better, by the way. And believe me: it’s their best cover, believe me. It’s the kind of cover that depends on who’s the judge. The longest song is the intro, “Children”, with 5:15, and the shortest is “When You’re Mine” with 3:22, totaling 44:25 at the end of the album. At least I won’t be willing to blow my brains out, as I was after Pump up the Jam.

Album in Depth Reviewaday Marathon Polka Your Eyes Out: Out of Time by R.E.M.

This post is late, I know… but try listening to Pump up the Jam the Album thirteen times without a loss of spirits and then, teach me how you did it.

I don’t know why I haven’t heard a lot of R.E.M… I mean, I’ve heard only three songs: It’s the End of the World, which I really enjoy, Bad Day, I like to call it It’s The End of the World v2 but I also like it, and Losing My Religion, that I also enjoy a lot… then… why haven’t I heard more of them? I have many reasons for that, I think…

First of all… the music video for losing my religion is bad… emo bad… And when I saw the music video for a song I was hooked on for a long, long time… I was disappointed. And they are pretentious… I think. They are always involved in causes… I think. I really don’t like that… it’s that type of band that people involved in political causes always cling on too, because they are also involved, and I really am not for that idea: it’s like what happened to U2 in the last ten years. They were always involved in shit, but they had solid music… now, they don’t have solid music, so their fanbase is constituted of people that like baby critters and “Bono is so committed to baby critters” and you know the gist.

Album in Depth Reviewaday Marathon Polka Your Eyes Out: Pump Up the Jam The Album by Technotronic

...or maybe...

As you may notice… I’m playing well out of my ball park here, ladies and gentleman. This gem of the nineties is my first album to have two album covers. And to be honest, my copy is the latter, but maybe you know it for the first cover… because… well… this is the song:

Album in Depth Reviewaday Marathon Polka Your Eyes Out: Cosmic Thing by the B-52's

There is a B-52′s song on the medley… but it’s the third song of the bunch. The second song is a remix of Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega. The remix wasn’t released on any albums, and I dislike reviewing singles, but, hell, let’s check them both out, quickly. The original song is slow, has a certain charm to it, downer lyrics and kind of a day in the life atmosphere… I didn’t like it. I am, strangely enough, familiar with the works of Suzanne Vega (I don’t know why, I don’t know Billy Idol but I’ve heard Suzanne Vega. Although the song deserves a check, it’s not exactly great. DNA only added a beat to it and strings… summing up, both songs are really bad. Really, they are. It’s a boring song and a boring song with a beat. Next.

B-52′s is another band that I don’t know a lot… first off, I just know discovered they were an early eighties band. From there style, I could’ve bet all my money on a more Beach Boys period of time and be dead wrong. Second, I only know it because Peter Griffin played Rock Lobster to Cleveland one episode to cheer him up, with mixed success (it didn’t change anything). Afterwards, I heard something of them more recent, and to be frank, nothing made me run after them, but nothing made me run away. I can identify them, and when people ask me about them, I can say something about them (the silly wigs, the silly duets, the silly songs work entirely with their proposal) but really, nothing further. They are not an obvious suggestion on my part. And I thought Surfing Birds were theirs, and I thought Rocko’s Modern Life was by someone else.

The cover of the album is trippy and really campy. It really mixes with the whole B-52 suggestion of going with the fashions and a bit of the style (not musical style, mind you) of the fifties, with some minor influences of the early sixties, with the bubbly hippie colors. The entire album runs for 47 minutes, with the longest song out of the album being our very own Love Shack, with 5:21 and the shortest one being the intro title song, Cosmic Thing, with 3:50. It’s not usual for the title track to be the shortest: on the contrary, it’s almost always the longest one.

Wow, huge title. Okay… hi, I’m JotaKa, and this will probably my last bet before retiring from music blogs. So, I’m blaming my lack of consistency on the blogs for the lack of feedback I’m getting. I decided reviewing the albums that contain the songs of any Weird Al polka, as I rolled a die (9 medleys, d10, I’m glad to be a nerd)… but here is the catch, it will be one review a day. So, what used to be a week long work, will be resumed to a day of work, since college resumes only on March. The die rolled a four, which means Polka Your Eyes Out was the chosen one. I really enjoy his medleys, because they really sum up a decade. He chooses almost always those songs with no staying power and, with his own version, does it better than the original, making his carefree version that more powerful.

The first time I heard him was a music video of his on MTV (would you believe that channel one day showed music videos? Thank god for VH1… even if it’s transforming itself into a probable MTV) called “The Saga Begins”. With one of my favorite songs of all time, American Pie told the story of Phantom Menace. And I can say with truth in my eyes: he makes the movie sound better than the movie really is. That movie sucked. A little curiosity: the song was released before the commercial release of the movie, as he wrote it based on internet spoilers. After he saw it in an advanced screening, he only did some alterations (one having to do with the chorus but unspecified). McLean loves the song so much that he sometimes on shows screws up and sings a bit of Weird Al’s version. Weird Al has the power.

So, Weird Al made Polka Your Eyes Out for the album Off The Deep End in the distant year of 1992. It contains only songs from 1989 to 1991, and to be honest, was in my opinion one of his more tame medleys, with not exactly a good selection (you can see him doing well on Polka Power, Angry White Boy Polka, Polkarama and Polka Face, but then again, maybe it’s because I am familiar with those tunes and wasn’t exactly musically aware till the year 1998), but it’s still a good medley. If you want to see exactly what songs there are in this medley, you will have to search for it. But here’s the vid:

Album in Depth: Good & Evil by Tally Hall

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. One year ago, I found this little band (while playing in the sand) called Tally Hall. At first, I didn’t pay much attention, but as I listened to it, it became my second favorite album, even getting an album in depth. I became maniac about this band, waiting for any release. The way they mixed whimsical with creepy, things that could’ve come out of an insane mind take place, with your mix of ballads, memorable songs and even cutesy songs, including one to an unborn baby and you can’t get any cuter than that.

But that was back in 2005 (and later re-released on 2008). So many years later, they decided to release Good & Evil this year. Since they aren’t that well known, most of the steps that were taken aren’t well documented: there is a mist of mystery on top of things, like why this album was released by their independent label instead of the label they just made a contract with. But we’re not talking politics, we are talking music on this one. The formation stood the taste of time, remaining the same five ties of before: Yellow Tie Rob Cantor keeps the vocals and guitar, Blue Tie Zubin Sedghi keeps some vocals and the bass, Grey Tie Ross Federman drums, Joe Hawley sings some and leads the guitar and, finally, Andrew Horowitz sings and plays the keyboards.

The cover art is almost as good as their previous album (seriously, I loved that cover) even though it’s simple, with white and black triangles intercalating the words Tally and Hall, which the duality of white with black, light and dark being almost a theme on the album. The longest song on the album the last one, Fate of the Stars, with 6:50, and the shortest tune is A Lady, with 1:05, and the entire album runs 48:50.

Album in Depth: Meteora by Linkin Park

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Ahh… Linkin Park. It’s one of those moments when I can say stuff about the band with little to no research at all, since, afterall, there are recent to my standards and I can say that I remember them, when they started with Hybrid Theory (the name of the band before the album Hybrid Theory), when they released the album in question, when they threw shit on the fan with that fucked up think with Jay-Z (whom I love, by the way, he just suits my style of music perfectly) and some minor stuff beyond, really. So… what the hell means Linkin Park? Beats me. A little background is required:

The year is 2003. The Wachowski brothers continued and destroyed what could’ve been one of the best sci-fi stories ever and the last one of the Lord of the Ring movies goes and wins the Academy Award. Slow year for music in general, with few headlines that matter: 50 cent releases “Get Rich or Die Trying” to very good critics and Barry White falls victim to his obesity, more specifically a total renal failure. N-Gage is released (much to gamers laughter), as well as Clamp’s manga XXXHolic, one of my favorites.

With the mix between Nu Metal and Hip Hop, mostly rapping, already proven right with the release of Hybrid Theory and its consequent ovation and critical acclaim, it was left to them to keep the bar up. After a turbulent start with lots of changes in the personnel, the guys that formed Linkin Park were Chester Bennington on the vocals, Mike Shinoda on the keyboard and vocals, Rob Bourdon on the drums, Brad Delson on the lead guitars, Phoenix on the bass and Mr. Hahn on… he’s the DJ of the group, for whatever reason you need one. After spending one year releasing single after single of this album, the album comes with generally great critics and is considered a staple of Nu Metal. So, right now, the problem is clear.

Album in Depth: Vivid by Living Colour

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Well, as the theme month is over and the whole 30^th Album in Depth long gone, I think I’ll already start the next review, Vivid. This was one of the few bands I got to know from Guitar Hero (along with DragonForce, holy crap that was like more than one year ago), and to be honest, was one of the few that I got happy only knowing of Cult of Personality, which will have my opinion on it later on the track by track analysis. So, why is it Living Colour and not Living Color and why the cover is clearly something related to LSD? A little background is required:

The year is 1988. Helloween releases Keeper of the Seven Keys Part. 2 and I Heard It Through the Grapevine is recorded by… the California Raisins, that manages to get a pretty decent position in the charts. Die Hard hit the big screens and Beetlejuice, which probably was the last Tim Burton movie before going Johnny Depp and never coming back. Alan Moore’s Killing Joke is published (one of my most cherished comics, by the way) and Sega releases Phantasy Star 1 for the Master System (one of the few RPG series that probably are great, but the sprites kill me).

Album in Depth 30: Machine Head by Deep Purple (with Shukin)

JK: Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen.

SK: And I'm Shukin, that other guy that complains about discs he doesn't like.

Album in Depth: Ex-Beatle Debut Month: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Since I didn’t have time to complete it within the month of November, I decided to continue it anyways, sorry for the delay. Continuing the Ex-Beatle Debut Month!

#1 - Sentimental Journey by Ringo Starr

Album in Depth: Ex-Beatle Debut Month: All Things Must Pass by George Harrison

Hi, I'm JotaKa. I'm a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Theme month continues, as it is the Ex-Beatle Debut Month!

#1 - Sentimental Journey by Ringo Starr

#2 – McCartney by Paul McCartney

Top 9 Disney's Best Side Songs

First of all, happy anniversary MovieFan12 (or should I say Tim) for the one year of excelent blogs about Disney. Since I was always a Disney fan at heart, I really could relate to most of your articles, although only attending to EuroDisney in France.

Second, I was going to do an Album in Depth on Disneymania, a cover album made by Disney talents (or lack thereof), but it is scratched beyond recognition. What can I say, most people that had this album were kids and most of kids are careless, and so was I. Needless to say, I got pretty sad, but that’s not the point, I’ll just shift the focus a little bit.

I’m an avid fan of musicals. And my favorite song in any musical is the song that doesn’t really matter. You know, that song that mostly is filler with some minor character singing something that adds little or nothing at all. And I know, by the description, it sounds really bad, but to be honest, that’s the part where I get most chuckles out off, because you can see that the cast of voice actors is really getting their time to shine. I decided to nickname them the “Side Songs”. So, here are my Top 9 Disney Side Songs! By the way, the list, although with all that being said, will not count down the Big Lipped Alligator moments, as these picks make sense in context, but are fan and the story could be told without them.

Number #9 – Cruella de Ville from 101 Dalmatians

Album in Depth: Ex-Beatles Debut Month: McCartney by Paul McCartney

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Let’s get this on with, this is Ex-Beatle Debut Month!

#1 – Sentimental Journey by Ringo Starr

#2 – McCartney by Paul McCartney

Top 13 Underrated Queen Songs

Keep Yourself Alive, Killer Queen, You’re My Best Friend, Love of My Life, Bohemian Rhapsody, Somebody to Love, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, We Are The Champions, Spread Your Wings, Fat Bottomed Girls, Bicycle Race, Don’t Stop Me Now, Play The Game, Another One Bites the Dust, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Innuendo… man, it’s impossible to think that a single band released so many memorable tracks and completely revolutionized music as a whole…

And would you believe that they have songs that are absolutely awesome and weren’t even famous? I mean: there were singles that don’t even compare to some of their most hidden material. To hear their discography is to go in a very pleasant trip of songs that aren’t even remembered by people of that time… and are as great. Some are even better.

Album in Depth: Ex-Beatle Debut Month: Sentimental Journey by Ringo Starr

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Guess what month it is? It’s October, so obviously enough, this will be the first theme month (or at least season) of the Album in Depth series, this is the Ex-Beatle Debut Month!

So, I’ll take the four solo albums that were released by each of the Beatles right after the break up and review them one by one. The four albums are as follow:

#1 – Sentimental Journey by Ringo Starr

Top 9 Best Covers

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. I know what you thinking. Did I fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth… I don’t have a gun. So… I’m ripping of Bennett. Kind of. You see, when I saw the art for that video, I kind of got bummed out because I thought it was because of art covers, and I was planning on doing a top best album cover, but when I saw the video, I got better… and then decided to make something similar. Strange, right?

Well… I decided on doing this because, well, it’s been a long time since I haven’t released a top #, and I have too much spare time, and on top of that, I want to increase the number of musical blogs with quality and at least from my side I can guarantee that (not to be taken as an accusation of anything, just… small talk). So, for me, what makes a cover a good cover?

It’s actually pretty simple. It has to be better than the original…

Album in Depth: Colour by Numbers by Culture Club

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. So… Culture Club… I only know about one song of the band, Karma Chameleon, and it is in this album. That’s one of the reasons I want to do this one: it’s Karma Chameleon’s album, which is its band most influential album. The other reason would be that I never did a new wave eighties album. So… why Color by Numbers and who are the Culture Club? A little background is required.

The year is 1983. Rowan Atkinson makes his debut in movies starring the unofficial Bond movie “Never Say Never Again” and my favorite Star Wars episode, the sixth one, goes to the silver screen. Jason Todd appears as the second Robin and the great video game depression shows its claws, enduring for three years. Thriller is released and Madonna debuts.

After being fired from the Bow Wow Wow, Boy George (the “guy” from the album cover) started his own band. Joining with him, Mikey Craig on the bass, Roy Hay on the guitar and Jon Moss on the drums, Culture Club was formed and was heading to success (if you call New Wave that). After an album that had some success on the charts, but strange success on the tabloids (after all, nobody knew if the singer was a guy or a girl, it was popular in the eighties), the band released this album. There isn’t really many more to add to it than this.

Greetings, TGWTG readers. This is JotaKa speaking, resurrecting the series in its number six installment:

LANDMARK ALBUM REVIEWS

The show where I colaborate with another music reviewer to look at an album that was a cornerstone of its time, defining a group and inspiring the music world.

This time around the album will be a little heavier than usual: Ac/Dc’s Back in Black!

Album in Depth: Motorcade of Generosity

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Again, I’m going into progressive music too deep and complaining about minor things. Rereading my last two blogs, I can see I was almost only bitching about how some of the best prog rock ever wasn’t exactly perfect and it had minor flaws: after all, I believe it’s the genre I know the best. So, this time I’ll try to venture a little bit outside of the prog… well, at least outside of the big ass solos, but not so much afar from the creativity and creepy moments.

This week will be Motorcade of Generosity by Cake. I got to know Cake because, once again, a girl I was into liked it a lot. And when I found out she was a lesbian, and is now in England married to another one (if you are reading this, Julia, congratulations, so happy for you), the only thing that remained was this album on my shelf. So, what is Cake beside a delicious dessert and how grammatically wrong is the word “Motorcade”? A little background is required.

The year is 1994. The Lion King sees the silver screen and Forrest Gump gets the Oscar for best picture. Green Day releases Dookie and Kurt Cobain dies at the mythical age of 27. Knuckles shows himself in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Darkstalkers, one of the best fighting games ever, sees the arcades. The confusing, even though somewhat interesting, Clone Saga starts in the Spider-Man comics and the comic characters mourn the passing of the great Jack Kirby.

Album in Depth: Leftoverture by Kansas

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. After a filler week, let’s get on with it. The next album was, as Agents of Fortune, an album that got through my radar in other medias (I believe it was some movie) and, after some look around, I got it. Kansas for me was always one of those bands that have only two good music: Carry On Wayward Son and Dust in the Wind. And looking back at my other reviews, it seems like 1976 was the year of those bands: we also had Blue Öyster Cult “Don’t Fear The Reaper” and Eagles’ “Hotel California”. But I’m getting a little over myself, and have to ask: Who is Kansas and why the band is named that way? A little background is required.

The year is 1976. The Song Remains the Same, the Led Zeppelin movie, is released, and sadly, Dame Agatha Christie dies from natural causes. Betamax is released in the US and VHS is introduced to Japan. SNL promises 3 grand to the Beatles for an immediate reconciliation, but they dismiss it because of tiredness and Deep Purple announces I believe the first of a lot of break ups.

Kansas was having a stroke of bad luck. After some tours, it had some fans, but it wasn’t a large group of ‘em. And after three failed albums with not one managing to make a hit single, the manager was pressuring them. And really, I can’t blame him: the three first albums aren’t exactly master pieces. And to make matters worse: the major song writer, Steve Walsh the singer, was experiencing Writers block. So, what could the band do? The path to oblivion was almost completely traced before them. So, they give the job of major song writer to Kerry Livgren, the guitarist, to do something about it. And boy, he did. He wrote the eight songs, although the last one was written by everybody in the band. Walsh co-wrote only four songs, and to be completely honest, that shows. I like to think that the problem before was the density of the albums, which were too much prog to go to a major audience: heck, even to prog for me, and I like some pretty prog stuff.

Well, this is embarrassing. I… kind of forgot to bring the album to college to take a look at it. So… since I should write something even with that… why not talk a little about myself? Yeah, I know it’s sort of narcissistic, and, well, most people wouldn’t care less, but after almost a year (actually, I’m not even sure when I started doing these), I deserve something like that. Kansas will have to wait something.

Well, my name is José Eduardo; I’m from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, born December the 8^th (yeah… exactly that day) of 1989, making me 21 years old. When I was only one, my father got a PhD Scholarship in England and I grew there, that’s why I have an above average knowledge on the English language (when I say above average, I mean above most people that live where I do), because my mother language is Portuguese, even though most people think people in Brazil speak Spanish. It is a language island, because it’s the only country in all America that speaks Portuguese (even though most schools in Uruguay teach Spanish, English and Portuguese, it is considered a Spanish speaking country). When I came back, I already knew both languages because my parents didn’t hid the fact that I was Brazilian, so I had as my first introduction to music British music and Brazilian Music like Elis Regina (Brazilian Popular Music singer), Tim Maia (also), Legião Urbana (Urban Legion, Brazilian Rock Group) and well… if I feel like doing a review on Brazilian music someday, I will, I have background enough to do so.

Most people nowadays get surprised when I say so, but… I was never exactly a music geek. Strange, right? I am (or at least was) a Gamer. I kind of remember when I was two years old (my memory is awesome) and got my Mega Drive (remember: England, Europe, so… no Genesis) with Sonic, Golden Axe 2, Quackshot… and when I was four, I got, as a birthday/Christmas present (people who were born on December know how this feels) the Blue Album as I like to call it (that Beatles compilation with their latest releases). And as my collection of Mega grew, my collection of albums also grew, almost without my knowledge. It was slower than the game collection, but it was something existent. Just to have as a dad a huge Whitesnake fan made my collection grow by having a lot of albums in vinyl album from the days that my father was in a DJ crew (and I say a real DJ, not these guys from today, giving more merit to the guys from today: he just played records at parties).

As I grew, I started to venture inside my dad’s collection of vinyl. I was a Beatles fanboy, so I only gave some attention to those that I would enjoy (and I did), like the White Album, Sargent Pepper’s, Rubber Soul, Abbey Road, Let it Be… never giving any chance to the other albums that he had. Even probably the most influential of the albums in my life was only glanced at the time. Then, one time, I was really older than that (I had like twenty Beatles CDs, between studio albums, compilations and anthologies, Gorillaz’s debut, some Brazilian stuff, an N64 that I have to this date, my favorite game Ocarina of Time, Majora Mask, Banjo Kazooie, Mario Party, etcetera) when I went on a trip with said father to get my mother from my aunt’s house, and he chose the cd setting. He said he would show me a band that I only glossed before, and, well, he did. He called it “the Pink Floyd trip”.

He had the more famous Floyd albums in vinyl format, but in cd format, only two: The Wall and The Delicate Sound of the Thunder. You have to understand that that was the day I changed as a human being. Sometimes I think I evolved like rock and roll: I experienced 30 years in two hours. I was stuck in rock and roll in its primordial state, and then, suddenly, I was presented with deep slow guitar solos and strange psychedelic themes. Suddenly, I was like completely taken by the movement. When I went back, I really started digging deep on the vinyl collection, and getting some pretty interesting results out of it. And as the years passed by, I went beyond the vinyl collection and started pursuing my own, adding to his and growing more and more. Ac/Dc, Queen, Quiet Riot, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin… and my CD collection, although modest if compared with the vinyl one, is not to be neglected. Tally Hall, Gorillaz, Offspring, Gnarls Barkley, Green Day, Justin Bieber (Yeah, why not mention the little guy?). But still, I was more of a gamer… with a twist, let’s say. I was a gamer with a collection of CDs.

Album in Depth: Agents of Fortune by Blue Öyster Cult

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. When I decided on my schedule, I realized I was mostly doing albums that I enjoyed, so I jammed a lot of albums that I didn’t fancy: Sublime, Justin Bieber’s and St. Elsewhere. But, of course, I mixed some other albums that I somewhat enjoy. This is one of them.

Blue Öyster Cult is not famous here where I live, so, I grew up with classic like Floyd, Zeppelin, The Who, Queen, The Beatles, Jethro Tull… but Blue Öyster Cult was one of the large array of what I had to pursue by my own. Of course, as most people did, I got acknowledge of the band because of that segment on SNL: the famous “More Cowbell” sketch. I would later discover that the sketch lies to us with the whole “THE Bruce Dickinson” twice: one because it isn’t THE Bruce Dickinson (the singer) and the producer of the track isn’t even THE Bruce Dickinson (Producer). Oh, and Gene Frenkle, the cowbell player, doesn’t exist at all. But I’m really getting myself ahead. So… what is Blue Öyster Cult (BÖC for short)? A little background is required:

The year is 1976. Eagles would release there most famous album, Hotel California, later on, and AC/DC gets its International Debut with High Voltage. Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man is published (though I can’t really say it would be a fair fight: come on, Spider-man is awesome, but a flick of Superman’s finger would kill him) and Bullseye fights the Daredevil for the first time. The Twelve Tasks of Asterix is released in movie theatres being the first movie of the Asterix franchise to be completely original and Taxi Driver hits the big screen.

Album in Depth: St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. And it’s the first time I’m venturing in the magical wonderful world of hip-hop. So, this album fell in my hands some months ago, with promises of being one of the best albums ever recorded. I kind of doubted that back then: I still doubt that right now. This album is St. Elsewhere by the duo known as Gnarls Barkley. Who the hell they are, you may ask? A little background is required:

The year is 2006. With a key made of pure shit, Pirates of the Caribbean closes its trilogy while being the highest grossing movie of the year and The Departed won the Academy Award (although I believe The Queen was a superior film, but at least it won another award). Jason Blunt released the single “You’re Beautiful” and the music video for “Here It Goes Again” by Ok Go becomes a YouTube sensation. Nintendo releases the Wii and Sony releases the PlayStation 3.

Gnarls Barkley, a duo, released their first album, this one. But to be honest, talking about the duo is not that much explanatory, because it would be like a trio composed of Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and Chris Cornell, that only released one album.

Album in Depth: My World 2.0 by Justin Bieber

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. This is a prank. My girlfriend hacked my schedule and prompted this one on there. I had no intention of doing this to me now, but here it is. Now I’m being blackmailed to do this one, so, I have to do it. I bought this one I believe in April to make a theme month, but as I wasn’t able to deliver everything on schedule, I wasn’t on the mood to say that a May blog was on an April theme. Enough with that, let’s get a little background, just to pretend that this one is a normal review.

The year is 2010. The H1N1 influenza scare ended with its usual contamination level returning to normal. Iron Maiden releases their last album to date and Dio was victim of a stomach cancer. Sony and Microsoft try to get in the motion control business by releasing PS Move and Kinect, with mixed opinions, and the original Perfect Dark (you know, the good one) goes to XBLA. I paid way too much money to see a crappy movie like Alice in Wonderland when I could’ve seen Toy Story 3 and gotten a really emotional reunion with Woody and Buzz Lightyear.

Justin Bieber, a Canadian kid singer, two years prior, was nothing. I mean that in the most sincere of ways, he just showed up. I’m not saying that you must need experience and time to be good, it’s just that for me, this guy appeared from nowhere. At one time, I was like “Bieber Who?”, now he become kind of like a personality that you either love or despise, and to be quite honest, I’m on the despise side. But let’s focus on his background.

Album in Depth: God Shuffled His Feet by the Crash Test Dummies

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. So, I’m not one to banner my religion (or lack thereof) out loud because, well, it brought me more problems than solutions and when it comes the time to say “I’m an atheist”, I heard more shit than I would if I just said “I’m whatever the hell you want me to be.” And, well, one of the profits that came to my lap was the acknowledgment of some bands that name themselves (or the fans label them this way) “folk” or “atheist”. Crash Test Dummies was one of these that were appointed to me, though looking back, even though they made some jokes over religion as whole, it’s not exactly atheist. Anyways, this album, although a hit back in 1994, has become more and more of an obscure hit, mostly because of criticism on their major hit and, even though they release new material to this day, they left mainstream fame back then. But who are Crash Test Dummies and why a name so strange is a folk band? A little background is required.

The year is 1994. NAFTA is established. Two movies that moved my childhood (Lion King and The Mask) are released and are among the 10 top grossing films. Wario Woods, the last licensed Nintendo game to be released, goes to the stores and you could bash mummies and zombies with the release of Darkstalkers on the arcade. Kurt Cobain’s body is found and Dookie is released making punk profitable again (maybe the two facts are connected, I don’t know).

Crash Test Dummies, a folk/alternative rock band from Canada, did release an album three years after (The Ghost That Haunts Me), and gained some popularity, but it wasn’t an international fame or anything like that. With a hit “Superman’s Song”, a song really about Superman, Brad Roberts became a mark of the band with his baritone voice and clever lyrics, alongside his brother Dan Roberts on the bass, Ellen Reid on back-vocals and keyboard and Benjamin Darvell on the mandolin and harmonica. The only personnel change from one album to another was Michael Dorge replacing Steve Berlin on the percussion. With the release of the album “God Shuffled His Feet”, their major single hit “Mmm mmm mmm mmm” (not joshing, that’s the exact name of the song) hit the shelves, even though some people claiming it to be uninspired and boring. Together with some other singles, the ’94 album made the band more recognizable and achieved somewhat of a worldwide fame.

Album in Depth: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Ah, finally, summer break. I was getting tired of working and studying my ass off: now I can just sit back and relax. And maybe increase my numbers: compared to what I reviewed last year, this year I’m a little more absent. I was in the mood of reviewing this album since I did a review on some classic albums that are more pop oriented: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, by Elton John. Elton John, for me, was always a good thing to listen, even though looking back, that guy was this day’s Lady Gaga in awkwardness material. So, even though I don’t believe it’s actually necessary, a little background is required.

The year is 1973. The United Kingdom becomes part of the EU, which at that time was known as European Economic Community. The Exorcist is released and is the highest grossing movie of the year and Bruce Lee deceases before the release of Enter the Dragon, victim of a misadventure. Ac/Dc is formed and the Doors disband officially. Konami is born, even though rudimentarily, and Atari releases Gotcha, the first arcade maze game.

Reginald Kenneth Dwight (also known as Elton John) was enjoying his newly won worldwide success with his previous album “Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player”, which was his sixth album. He and Bernie Taupin, his companion to this day, had already a huge following, so they decided to produce a new album, this time around having as a main theme (but not too much to make this a concept album) the feeling of nostalgia and the loss of innocence as one grows up. After the release of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, considered being his best album by many, he achieve super stardom and released his last album in 2005, also his twenty-ninth album. He also advocates for the LGBT cause and has a non-profitable foundation to help people that have Aids.

Album in Depth: Sublime by Sublime

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. So, this time around, I’m reviewing a suggestion of a college friend of a band I never heard before, Sublime. This time around, I’m entering this magical and mystery tour completely ignorant as I write this review, even though most of the time I only need some mild search and some checking on facts. So, who are Sublime and why the hell I never heard of them before? A little background is as always required, even so for me.

The year is 1996. The English Patient snatches the best picture academy award and Independency Day has its première and even though most people nowadays don’t like the picture, I enjoy it. Real Love, the Lennon song that wasn’t even in the know of the rest of the band, is released with the help of the other Beatles and the Ramones make their last show. Duke Nukem kicks ass in the third dimension as Mario on the n64 on the same year, and Pokémon Green and Red are released (strong year for gaming).

Sublime, a Californian ska band, was only getting fame out of California and the West side of the U.S.A. Even though now and then they got a little more of an attention from the media, their first album released in a major label was their self-titled album, which is their third album (I hate when bands name albums that aren’t their debut with the same name as the band, it only confuses people). Before Sublime, all two albums were released under the Skunk Records label, which was owned by Bradley Nowell, singer and guitarist of the band. Beside him, Bud Gaugh on the drums and Eric Wilson closed the… power trio? I guess so.

One more of Gorillaz on my list. Maybe one day I'll finish all Gorillaz albums!

Ever wonder what lies beyong the Rick Roll?

A little rant, sorry for that

Album in Depth of the debut album of the cover punk rock band, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes!

Band I never heard about released album with a complicated name. What too expect? Awesomeness, none the less!

Halloween article reviewing Helloween!

Ever wanted to know what's beyond the track Hotel California? Check the album... in depth! *snickers*

Tea for the Tillerman? What the hell is a Tillerman?

Album in Depth: The Final Frontier by Iron Maiden

Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. In the midst of the year, I had an idea of a site that would host many album reviews by me and a group of people that not only would try to cover the most albums possible but review the same albums, and thus creating multiple opinions under the same subject so that the reader could identify with an specific author with an similar preference and heed to find his interest. Or, let’s see, if someone else comes along, someone that loved the Mothers of Invention “Freak Out!” that I hated, and wants to make the album justice in his way, he could by posting a review of his opinion. My main idea was to base this site on conflicting opinions over the same subject. So, for that need, I need help from people that have different opinion than me. And for that, my friend Battousai will be helping me around.

The thing is he liked the idea and went right away into making the review of this album: The Final Frontier, by Iron Maiden. He is a huge fan of the Maiden, and I… well… I‘m not. I really liked the album “Killers” of 1981 and since that, Iron Maiden got much more heavy metal and chanced vocals from the not so good Paul Di’Anno to the believed to be star of the Iron Maiden best formation, Bruce Dickinson. I don’t like Bruce Dickinson singing in any projects and I loathed Tyranny of Souls.

Hello, TGWTG fans. JotaKa here speaking, actually continuing the series:

LANDMARK ALBUM REVIEWS

The show where one of us can collaborate with another music reviewer to look at an album that defined a group, a type of music or an era and helped inspire the music world.

Today’s Landmark Album is no other than A Night at the Opera by Queen.

Joining me today is Paul Shaffer without the sunglasses and twenty years older, NOTYETUSEDNAME!

Album in Depth of the cover of Nightmare Before Christmas' by various performers, including original vs. cover comparisions.

What the hell is Elf? Album in Depth will tel you! Time to hit a not so classic.

After some commentary on my last review, I move on.

Whoo, virtual band with cool artwork! Demon Days in depth.

"What exactly is a concept album?" is a question that always comes to me.

In depth review of Inhuman Rampage, by DragonForce, including a track by track review.

Analyzing in great detail the Frank Zappa debut, "Freak Out!".

I always thought The Wizard had something not original, but now, I know exactly what it is!