Best of 2025

00:00:00There's a podcast that's sure all that rocks hard is gold. And they're climbing the stairway to 11. When they get to there they know the record stores are all closed. But online they can get what they came for.

00:00:38y son.

00:01:00and music is enormous. As a director, actor, and storyteller, he helped shape generations of audiences with an extraordinary body of work. From Stand By Me and one of my all-time favorites, The Princess Bride, to When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men. For this show especially, This Is Spinal Tap holds a special place. It didn't just parody rock bands. It understood them. The volume, the ego, the ridiculousness, and the passion.

00:01:29These Go to Eleven became part of the language because the movie rang true. It captured something real about musicians and music culture that still resonates decades later. Spinal Tap inspired countless artists, fans, and yes, podcasts. In many ways, it's woven directly into the DNA of Stairway to Eleven, right down to our name. So tonight, we don't just mourn the loss of Rob Reiner.

00:01:59Influence and the laughter and insight his work brought into the world. His films endure, his ideas endure, and his contribution to music culture will always be turned up to 11. Why don't you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top number and make that a little louder. These go to 11. What a shocking bit of news this past week. Yeah, so tragic and so needless and it's so unfortunate because

00:02:29After this is Spinal Tap 2, it just seemed like he was so vital. In all the different interviews and various things that were going on with the movie, it just seemed like there's no end in sight for this guy. Even though he's 78 or whatever it is, he did not seem like he was slowing down.

00:02:59That's what makes it so hard to take. You know that there was so much more that this guy was going to give to the industry and to fans and movie lovers and music lovers and everything else. That's what makes it even that much more difficult. There was clearly more left in the tank and the guy was still very active, very energetic.

00:03:29and, you know, for 78, like, still kicking ass and, you know, doing great. So, um, so it's very unfortunate. And yeah, I was, I was very saddened by the, by that news. Yeah. It gave me occasion to finally get around to watching the new movie yesterday. And, uh, I approve. Yeah, it seemed like, um, it was a, it was, it was a very good movie. Not perfect. Not, you know,

00:03:59better than the first movie by any means, but it definitely respected all the characters and respected the story and everything else. And so for me, it like, I felt like, yeah, this is good. Like it, it didn't, I mean, there were definitely funny moments and there were a lot of quotable moments in this film, the new film. But in terms of like, you know, it was satisfying. It was like, okay, this is good. You know, I felt like, yeah, this puts a bow on it.

00:04:28And I was good with it. So if I give you a half a wheel of cheese, you'll give me that guitar. That's right. People come in, they trade guitars for cheese. Yes. I don't want to, I don't want to spoiler it for anybody, but I did. I enjoyed the Paul McCartney stuff, but the Elton John was the best. I thought they were going to find some kind of redemption there in the end and then it just went south. Yeah.

00:04:58But it was quite fitting, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I actually thought it might turn out worse than it did. You know. Well, there was a lot of opportunity there. Like, you know, it was like a twist of fate, like on the drummer thing. Well, and not only that, but just like there were a lot of opportunities for this to be like kind of cringeworthy. And thankfully, it didn't didn't end up there. And it was, you know, I felt like it was a good idea.

00:05:28It was. Thoughts, John? Oh, you guys pretty much said everything, so there's not much to say. We used all the words. There were none left. There's nothing left to say because everyone said everything in the time that was allotted. There's nothing really to add. I didn't, hearing this story, I didn't think of him as who he was.

00:05:58I thought of him as just a person who had a tragic ending and a family issue that went to the place that you would hope it would never go to. And when I see this on the news, I see everyone talking about, oh, he was such a great this and great that. And all I can think of is, well, you know, he was just a person too. So, and I think that gets lost in it sometimes. And that's just, that's even more sad because unfortunately this happened so much. You just don't expect it to happen.

00:06:28the way it did and who it happened to, but

00:06:32there's nothing you really can say because

00:06:35it is a shock to hear that.

00:06:36To hear it from anybody that it happens to.

00:06:38It just so happens to be somebody that

00:06:41has touched us on the entertainment side.

00:06:46So to me, the more devastating story is to hear that his daughter found him.

00:06:50Yeah, I just saw that today.

00:06:52I was like, oof.

00:06:53Yeah.

00:06:56And they're going to scrutinize this and analyze it and try to figure it out. And in the end, is it going to make much difference? It's not going to change anything, unfortunately. You know? No. So it's sad from that aspect that this shit happens, unfortunately. And it happens in his case, unfortunately, in a very big way. Yeah. So, yeah, it's sad. It's too bad. All right. You hate to hear that. Yeah.

00:07:26All right, well, what brings us together today is the end of the year. And sort of like another podcast you may have heard of, we've made a list. It's not quite as long. We all made lists. Exactly. This one does not go to 11. It only goes to 10. However, with honorable mentions,

00:07:56and such, it should probably exceed that. This is the Stairway to 11, the best of 2025. TR, would you like to start us off with your number 10? All right, this is number 10, and it is Tuesday the Sky, Indoor Enthusiast, released October 24, 2025. Former Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos released his third album under the instrumental post-rock Tuesday,

00:08:26the sky moniker it's a mostly mellow affair but does employ volume dynamics like most other bands of the genre i

00:08:34definitely like this album better than the last which was so mellow and moody it kind of lost me songs like the last lonely lamppost are reminiscent of tangerine dream while others and parts of others like the nearest exit may be behind you and parts of does it need to be so loud and set fire to the stars sound like they could have been on matthews's other side project os

00:08:56Sigh. Very solid release, and I like this Tuesday the Sky Indoor Enthusiast as my number 10. Excellent. Yeah, I was a little surprised that that came out because there wasn't much of an announcement about it. It's good. I have a hard time listening to this stuff, though, because when he does go down the OSI route, I'm like, would it kill you to release another OSI album?

00:09:25Well, I think everybody would like that, but yeah, I don't know. I just don't see it happening, right? Yeah, it's like you can't. I mean, it's just so sad because it would be so cool for that to happen because that was just such a cool side project that, you know, was it kind of it's like nothing else he does. And it was just such a cool thing that they did that I really wish that their

00:09:53It could have been more of that, but I totally agree, John. Yeah. Yeah. But the Tuesday of the Sky, it's good. I like it better than the last one, too. The last one just fell flat. It just wasn't... Yeah, it was just kind of... It just kind of meandered a little bit. Yeah, no energy to it, and it just, yeah, I don't know. It didn't really do much for me. Yeah. Have you listened to this, George? I have not. Okay. You might like it if you...

00:10:23It could be a background album, and it would work quite well. And that's not demeaning to the album. It just kind of fits in a lot of different categories, I guess, for listing. Cool. Yeah, Mateos, I'm sure. I'd get into it in one way or another. Yeah. But more keyboard electronic driven. That works for me, too. Not as many heavy guitars. Cool. All right.

00:10:53So my number 10 is something I mentioned, I believe, last episode. And the artist is Soft Fog. That's Fog with two Fs, F-F-O-G. The album is called Focus. It's on the label Is It Jazz Records? This is basically a kind of hodgepodge of progressive rock, fusion, jazz rock, and it's all instrumental. And it has a tie back to the band.

00:11:23because they shared a couple musicians. One, unfortunately, has passed on, which is the drummer. Axel Skalsted, I think is how you say his name. I'm sure I butchered that. So if we actually have any listeners from Norway, sorry. Who died at 32, unfortunately. But it's a really good, excellent instrumental kind of prog rock album that merges in some jazz fusion. It's kind of like a... I don't want to call it a

00:11:53a hippie jam fest, but it's got a hippie jam fest quality to it when you listen. It could be blazing. They can kind of go off into different areas. But if you like the merger between prog rock and jazz, jazz fusion, jazz rock more, then you should dig this. I guess the best way to describe it is just to use the quote they use on Bandcamp. It's highly influenced by 70s underground heroes like Camel and Focus.

00:12:23That old jazz dust, this new record, which they're referring to that one, should satisfy all you 70 nostalgics with a jazz tickle out there. So I think that kind of sums up. I like when I get my jazz tickle. Yeah. And I want to thank Zach, our good friend from the band Utkiaru. He turned me on to this band, said, dude, you should check this out. You might like it. And then, you know, he says,

00:12:53I believe he said they shared members with Wizard. I turned him on to the band Wizard. So it's kind of a back and forth. It's kind of cool. Norway's got quite the little prog jazz scene going on right now. More to come on that. Yeah, I think that might be on my list too. So there might be more Norway jazz prog instrumental stuff on my list. Me too. Not. Yeah, not.

00:13:25Nope. Negative. Not gonna happen. But I will say, this is not slow saxophone kind of meandering in the background. These guys blaze. They crank it out. So they jam. Cool. Let me just queue up the crickets real quick. Okay, here we go. My number 10 is the second album by a British rock band by the name of

00:13:53Wet Leg. Oh, yeah. And the album is called Moisturizer. This is like a post-punk, new wave, power pop band. I don't know where I heard this, but I might have just been like looking at, you know, new releases and checking things out because I just do that. I'll just be like, hey, what came out? Oh, that sounds interesting. Wet Leg. That's funny. Ha ha. Let's listen to that.

00:14:24Is that the one with one of the girls kind of squatting on the cover? Yes. Okay, yeah. I've seen that. She's weird, man. She's kind of weird, but it's really cool. That seemed like it was very popular. I saw that everywhere for a little while, not only on Bandcamp, but other places, and then also, I guess they were touring, so I was seeing that come up in my

00:14:55emails from the venues saying, oh, you know, these are the acts that are coming around. And I keep seeing wet leg, wet leg, everywhere is wet leg. Interesting. I always, you know, I thought that, you know, they should go on tour with that band called Pissed Jeans. Yeah. Yeah. Too similar. Yeah. I would guess that anybody that's like much younger than us might be going, well, duh, wet leg. Except they wouldn't be talking like they were from the 80s.

00:15:23Right. But yeah, no, I mean, I don't know anybody. I don't know anybody, you know, except you guys. And so I wouldn't know if this is a thing or not, but it is a thing. It seems like it is. Yeah, I think it is. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I couldn't tell you anything about it. I mean, I'm glad you listened to it because I never took the time, even though I kept seeing it everywhere. To me, what grabbed me was,

00:15:53It is very simplistic music. It's like a lot of drum with like a really tight bass guitar line. And new wave-ish in a way, which, you know, like new wave for a new generation kind of thing. And I mean, does it have keyboards and stuff? I don't know. I probably, yeah. But I don't recall because I spent a lot of time listening to that bass line.

00:16:23And it was just very tight and groovy. And the vocals are interesting and often sarcastic and cranky. But it was fun. And I was just like, oh, I'm going to listen to this more. And I did. And I was like, all right, it's at least number 10 good. So, yeah. Cool. Never heard of them. Not surprising.

00:16:51And that has not a judgment on you? No. Because we don't know anybody either. We don't. We're just old, okay? We're not supposed to know younger people music. That's right. And we like it. Yeah. All right. So, is it time for number nine? It is time for number nine. All right, number nine. It's Dream Theater, Parasomnia, released February 7th, 2025.

00:17:21to the band that he really needed to be back in. Despite the passage of 16 years since the last album with Mike Portnoy, this album sounds and feels like exactly what you would expect. As a longtime fan of the band, I was very excited when it was announced that Mike was coming back into the band. It was obvious, really, prior to that, after seeing him play drums for John Petrucci on his solo album live tour. The chemistry between those two is undeniable, and there were grown men weeping while we went, well, John and I,

00:17:51I watched that show. And so Parasomnia is a good dream theater album, but it sticks with their formula in recent years. I'm not opposed to longer songs, but it's hard to regularly invest the hour and 12 minutes to take all of this in and have it be memorable. So that's kind of why it's at number nine for me. Number nine. I actually like this album quite a bit compared to all their previous

00:18:21releases, although I think the last three have been pretty good, then there was a stretch where they weren't so great, or I wasn't interested in them. And I think this is one of the better ones in a long time. Definitely. So, but yeah, every album's like 70 minutes long and it's at some point you're like, oh boy. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. I kind of wish that like they'd kind of like, I don't know, just tighten it up a little and, and.

00:18:51I don't know I just feel like it might be a little more memorable and more like it might stick to your ribs a little more if you just kind of if it was just a little shorter just like they left off some more stuff or whatever I don't know it just seems like it's hard to take it all in. I mean awake and metropolis two are 70 plus minutes long and they're extremely memorable. Well that's true. I guess it just depends I mean they didn't break any new ground they kind of went back to the early

00:19:212000s in their sound a little bit. I'm fine with that. I know some people got upset. I'm like, what do you want? They're 40 years into their career. Give me a break. You don't have to like it. That's fine. I don't know why you're expecting the next images and words 40 years in. Literally, I know one artist that's done that in their career. Bowie's the only one I know. 40 plus years into their career,

00:19:54He's got a few stinkers. I can say that as a Bowie fan. Right. Anyway. No, that's good. Okay. All right. So I forgot that there's a disclaimer with my list. So George and I will be this weekend doing the Metal Heads podcast top 25. I can say between the two lists, not one album is repeated on either list. Wow.

00:20:21Yeah. So you take from that what you want. What you don't hear here, you'll probably hear there. And what you don't hear there, you'll probably hear here. Hear here. So. Hear here. Done. So my number nine. Would have been on the mid-year, but I was on the understanding that we weren't going to go past June, even though some of us did. Otherwise, this would have been included. However, I'm glad it wasn't because then I had an album to

00:20:51to bring up new.

00:20:53Tell me you're not going there.

00:20:54For this episode.

00:20:56Sorry?

00:20:56Tell me you're not going where I think you might be going.

00:21:00Only because what you said about it not being on the other episode.

00:21:04So go ahead.

00:21:05Oh, no.

00:21:06This wouldn't have made the other episode at all.

00:21:08Okay.

00:21:08So this album is from the band Phantom Spell.

00:21:12Oh, okay.

00:21:12The album is Heather and Herth.

00:21:14It's from Wizard Tower Records.

00:21:17Yeah, it's wizard-themed.

00:21:19Hard rock.

00:21:2270s, prog, proto-metal, whatever you want to call it. They hail from Spain, which it's really just one guy, Kyle McNeil, who is also in the band Seven Sisters. I believe it's Seven Sisters, which is a kind of a power metal band from England. And not power metal, and you know, with all the gang singing, they kind of have that 90s power metal sound that's a little closer.

00:21:50to the speed metal of the late 80s and that kind of US power metal sound. Although they're not very fast, but they mourn that vein. Kind of pandemic? A little bit. I mean, it's just don't expect guys all on the stage on their monitors with their feet up and their guitars moving in sync. And don't expect any gang singing and hand clapping.

00:22:20Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, and hopping up and down, don't expect that kind of power metal. Okay, well, that's good. Yeah, I think so. But back back to Phantom Spell, it's just excellent 70s-influenced hard rock with progressive rock, so think more like Uriah Heep in Kansas. It's more in that vein. I would never... Kansas is a prog band, and they were on their early stuff, but they had some real just straight-on rocker bangers also in that. They weren't all just about keyboard.

00:22:51and floating off with fairies and shit like that in the mountains while reading nonsensical John Anderson lyrics. It wasn't like that at all. They had some oomph to them, just like Uriah Heep, same thing. So if you kind of dig that, dig the crunchy guitars and kind of swirling keyboards and synths and some kind of catchy melodies and everything, then you might dig this. So there's five tracks on the album, two really long ones over 10 minutes, and then kind of three shorter ones.

00:23:20And the two long ones, you know, they have their great instrumental sections and passages and they jam and everything. And then the short ones are succinct and to the point. And it's nice. It's 36 minutes, the album. You're in and out. And a lot happens in that 36 minutes. So it's a solid album. What's the album called again, John? Hold on a second. I lost my screen. Uh-oh. Yeah. There we go. Okay. It is called Heather and Hearth. Okay.

00:23:50Cool. Yeah. Actually, I'm familiar with this band. I didn't realize it. They did a split with... Witch Hazel. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, actually, I saw this, George, on your Bandcamp wish list, and I checked it out. And I knew about the first album because the first album has, I think, a wizard stabbing himself. Why are you stabbing yourself? Why are you stabbing yourself? Or it looks like he is. I can't remember. And I was like, oh, I got to check this out. That's kind of cool. It says prog rock. I was like, it's not much prog here.

00:24:20And of course I was in one of those moods. And then when I listened to this album after seeing it, I was like, oh, that kind of prog. So it's hard rock jammy type stuff. It's cool. Yeah. I liked. Yeah. Like the single, you know, the split that they did. Yeah. I got to check that out. That's, that sounds good. Yeah. Cool. Kind of 70s influenced artwork too, which is nice. Okay. My number nine is.

00:24:54That's right. It's a band you guys have never heard of. In fact, it's a band that didn't exist before this album. And I didn't even know about it until recently because it was not given a lot of fanfare, at least not fanfare that I was privy to. This is the band Ashes and Diamonds. And the debut album Are Forever. So Ashes and Diamonds Are Forever. This is Daniel Ashe from Bauhaus.

00:25:20and later of Love and Rockets. This is his new project. It's like neon lit post-punk with sharp melodic guitars, prowling bass lines, and a dark pop pulse. It's less Bauhaus, more Love and Rockets, but a little more noir than Love and Rockets, I would say.

00:25:54And I liked it. I was skeptical. I was like, yeah, whatever. It's kind of a dumb name. I mean, Daniel Ash, Ash, whatever. But I was pleasantly surprised. Enough so that I said, that's at least number nine good. Okay. Gave me a little vibe on the Diamonds and Rust a little bit with the title.

00:26:20Yeah. Ashes and diamonds, diamonds and rust, what have you. They're all forever. Yeah. Yeah. That way you can circle back around. It's like, oh, I'm like Bauhaus. I'm loving rockets. Oh, I'm Joan Baez. I'm Judas Priest. Oh, I'm back again. Yeah, they all, they all. I'm sure Nigel Tufnell could explain it perfectly. Yeah, exactly. I think so, because right now I'm having a hard time putting it all together. How did I end up with the six

00:26:5060-pound leather jacket.

00:26:53Yeah.

00:26:54I can barely hold it up on the stage.

00:26:58All right.

00:26:59Well, it's time for number eight.

00:27:00And John hinted at this earlier.

00:27:02And I feel like I'm stealing it from him.

00:27:05So I'm sorry, John.

00:27:07But my number eight is Agro Pelter, The Book of Hours, released July 25, 2025.

00:27:16Instrumental prog album from Norway.

00:27:19flutes, melatrons, mini-mogues, Taurus bass pedals, strings, woodwinds, a four-part suite over 30 minutes, 33 minutes in length. But as we all know, it takes more than vintage instruments and Roman numerals to make a great prog album. Luckily, the Book of Hours has some fine progressive rock songwriting and playing. This is its own thing, but you can definitely hear the influence of Genesis, Alan Parsons, Jethro Tull,

00:27:49and other 70s prog bands. And it's instrumental, so there aren't any awful lyrics to reduce the epicness of these compositions. You didn't steal anything, man. If it's on your list, it's on your list. It's on my list. Yeah, that album's awesome. It is an awesome album. I was blown away, actually. Like, I did not expect it to be as good as it was. Yeah. That might come up again later. Yeah.

00:28:19That's a really good album. And if you like any of that classic sound, prog sound, we'll stop there and we'll continue in a little bit. Okay. All right. So this is probably the album George was saying, don't go there, but I'm going there. You're going to leave me hanging on the other one, are you? Do it. What is this? Jeez. What are you, Ben Stiller?

00:28:49from Start Skin Hutch. Do it. Do it. Do it. So my number eight is a band that we interviewed on this podcast. Okay, good. Jesse Stiletto with the album, Jesse Stiletto. Are you going to leave me hanging on that one? I'm dying on that hill. It's a great album, but this was a good year. But I really like this album a lot. And it's kind of sister album with the Phantom Space

00:29:19a little bit because it has that hard rock, proto-metal, but more on the stoner side from the 70s vibe to it.

00:29:26Or the desert side.

00:29:28Yeah.

00:29:28You know, it's cool.

00:29:29It's riff, crunchy, heavy, you know, groove driven.

00:29:34Good hard rock from these mysterious dark ether, from the mysterious dark ethers of the universe.

00:29:40You know, I don't know who these guys are.

00:29:42No clue.

00:29:43Not a clue.

00:29:43They had these weird names, you know, and everything.

00:29:46They kind of, I don't know, spoke a little. Not funny, but just. I think they're like dirty space hippies, but you know. It might be, yeah. Yeah. But this is a really cool album. Great artwork, you know, and it's fitting in my mold here for what I like when it comes to this type of music, which is an album under 40 minutes. Get in, do what you got to do, get out. Don't worry, you're welcome. And it's kind of nice. I like that because it makes me enjoy the songs that are on the albums.

00:30:16to begin with, even more, because I'm not getting bogged down in anything. Don't get me wrong. I love my long songs too, but sometimes when it comes to just hard rock you want, you want to just get in and rev up the engines. And they do. They do a great job. It's, again, if you like that proto-metal meets that stoner desert rock, a little bit of psychedelic vibe, this is right in your wheelhouse. They do a great cover with Boyzor Colts' Stairway to the Stars.

00:30:46What's not to like? They go to 11 and beyond to the stars. Yeah. So now we're looking for Jesse's Stiletto squared, you know, for the second one. So, yes. But in the meantime, we got this one. So check it out. Yeah. Do that. Do what he said. All right. My number eight. Via Australia. This is Shepperton Airplane.

00:31:16and what I believe is their fourth album called Forecast. I found this on Bandcamp. I was just going through stuff. I was like, oh, that's a funny name, Shepperton Airplane. I was like, Jefferson Airplane, but not. It's a little punky. It has like clean guitar textures, relaxed tempos, and songs built around atmosphere, depending on where you read. It says hooks rather than aggression, but I felt it was, like I said, it had a little bit of a punk rock snarl to it.

00:31:46times. A little bit of attitude. I mean, it wasn't like heavy punk. It was more like an alt rock that had attitude. And it just hit the spot for me. And I was like, click, bye. You know. Those are the best albums. Exactly. I didn't realize until I was putting this list together that this was their fourth album. I need to go back and check out those first three.

00:32:17I don't know this band but I'm interested based on the name alone but their name reminds me of another band that we know from Finland where it just makes me feel like the name is not the name they intended but that's what they ended up with. Perihelion Airplane. Well no I mean if you remember the whole story behind how they came up with the name Perihelion Ship and it was supposed to be Shift I believe wasn't it? Yeah. I think it was. I don't know.

00:32:47I thought of that immediately. I was like, I wonder if that's what happened here. And if so, that's really a cool name to come up with. Yeah. What are you listening to? Yeah. That's the most famous of them all. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, but yeah, I mean, it's probably not for you guys, but of the first three that I've done, this is probably closest to

00:33:15And you might be like,

00:33:16all right.

00:33:17Yeah.

00:33:17Okay.

00:33:18Let me ask you this.

00:33:19Would it fit on the,

00:33:20uh,

00:33:21Sirius XM,

00:33:22uh,

00:33:22garage rock channel.

00:33:23Do you ever listen to that?

00:33:24I think it would.

00:33:26Okay.

00:33:26I like that channel.

00:33:27I mean,

00:33:27that plays everything across the board is,

00:33:30is if it fits in the garage,

00:33:32doesn't matter if it's punk or if it's rock or whatever.

00:33:35Yeah.

00:33:36I mean,

00:33:36it's not like Ramones punk and it's not like 82 punk.

00:33:40It's just kind of punky.

00:33:43Oh God.

00:33:43I wouldn't want anything to be blink.

00:33:45182 punk for me personally. No. Not my style. Decent musicians, though. I'm not going to knock the musicianship from them. Oh, no. I mean, I liked Blink, but even. But you liked the early stuff, though, didn't you? Yeah. That's what I thought. Yeah. Like when they were actually pretending to be punk, 90s punk or whatever you want to call it. And then after the third or fourth album or whatever, then they just were like, oh, we're like, what's that other band? Green Day. No, no. Green Day is fine.

00:34:15I mean they had some bad albums but

00:34:18no the fallout boy

00:34:20or those bands

00:34:22that were like we used to be kind of punk rock now we're

00:34:25like

00:34:26dance pop or something

00:34:28I don't know like nothing remotely like they used

00:34:30to be right

00:34:32well they all go suborbital you know

00:34:34they kind of

00:34:36blow up so fast those bands

00:34:39that they

00:34:40Panic at the Disco is another one

00:34:42I'm like what it's not even like

00:34:44rock music anymore

00:34:46I don't know what it is what are they doing in the studio what are they doing what are they doing in there call back to last episode uh yes all right well good george it's uh thank you you're giving us stuff that we don't even know so well the next one you'll have heard of all right you won't like it you'll have heard of it plenty for listeners to check out

00:35:15That's right.

00:35:18All right.

00:35:18So my number seven.

00:35:21It's a band we just talked about recently.

00:35:23And one I talked about in episode 24 when we talked about albums that were released this year.

00:35:31It's Witch Hazel and their album Five, Lamentations, released July 4th, 2025.

00:35:39It's the fifth album from this British hard rock band.

00:35:43Catchy, earnest songs with galloping 70s guitar tones and vibes. Check out the tracks titled I Lament or Woven and you'll get a sense of what these guys do. I kind of talked a little bit about them before, but bottom line is, you know, they don't explicitly call themselves a Christian rock band, but it's clear that they are based on their lyrical themes. And whether you're a Christian or not, the music is catchy and has a retro 70s sound and feel.

00:36:13Lots of tasty twin guitar harmonies. And not a lot new here, you know, when you listen to their other albums. But I like this album a lot, and it's my number seven. Coolio. I think I got some other earlier stuff. That seems to be a subgenre that has quite a following. It's not big, but there seems to be enough bands that,

00:36:43you like that kind of rock

00:36:46that there's plenty to pull from.

00:36:49It just seems like there's a fair number of those bands.

00:36:51I feel like Jay from the other podcast

00:36:53likes some of those bands.

00:36:55Some of that stuff.

00:36:56Yeah.

00:36:56Like Witchcraft and stuff.

00:36:58Yeah.

00:36:59Yeah.

00:36:59Right.

00:37:00They all kind of just fit.

00:37:02Go ahead.

00:37:02I'm sorry.

00:37:03No, I didn't say up until that new one.

00:37:05Yeah.

00:37:06I mean, Phantom Spell, I guess,

00:37:07would kind of fall in there, obviously, too.

00:37:08Yeah.

00:37:09I would agree.

00:37:09Same kind of vibe.

00:37:10Yeah.

00:37:10So, yeah.

00:37:12Cool.

00:37:13Awesome.

00:37:15All right, my number seven. I don't know if I've talked, I think I've talked about them on here before. But my number seven is the band Awkrist, and the album is Waving at the Sky from Inside Out Music, Progressive Rock. Okay, some people call them progressive metal. I don't really hear any metal in their sound. I think they're just kind of a progressive rock slash alt rock band. You know, not too alty, but maybe they get a little more streamlined.

00:37:43on their rock side sometimes. Kind of like a post-porcupine tree type vibe to them from Porcupine Tree's latter era. You know, they have a little bit of that. They have a little bit of opeth in their sound, but I would never say they were a prog metal band. They're a progressive rock band that have kind of a unique style to their song structures and their choruses.

00:38:12I dig them I like them a lot I got on board with the first album and I've been as a matter of fact I think George I sent you a message when the first album came out and I said this could be my favorite album of the year based on the one song that's been released so far and I think it was it ended up being my favorite album for all music you know so but these albums rule them all yeah exactly gotta have one every year so but it's just really good stuff I like it I think some people like the first

00:38:42them better. I like them both. They're both different, even though they still fit in the same wheelhouse. And it's not a long one. It's only about 45 minutes. It's cool. It's nice to hear newer bands, younger bands in this style of music because there's not many of them that have kind of followed the kind of melding of Porcupine Tree and Opeth. There's just a little bit of harsh vocals on this, but it's

00:39:12It's not much, but it's good. I like it. But it's not good enough to be in my top six because the ones coming up are... Six times better. Well, each one is one time better than the previous one. Yes. All right. My number seven is shipping out from Boston. Not up to. This is the 13th album from the Dropkick Murphys.

00:39:42the people. Oh, man. I love these guys.

00:39:48You know, it's Celt punk. It's

00:39:51it's sing-along choruses with political and working class themes.

00:39:57Ken Casey, the singer, was on The Daily Show recently, and I was watching that with Barb, and

00:40:06I explained to her, I was like, I mansplained to her.

00:40:08I try not to do that no but I

00:40:12what I explained not the music but

00:40:15that I've been writing a lot of

00:40:17song lyrics this year

00:40:20therapeutically and I said

00:40:21you know there's one band that I could

00:40:23get to record all these songs it

00:40:25would be Ken Casey and the Dropkick

00:40:27Murphys because they would just

00:40:29kill it

00:40:32so and she was

00:40:33like oh yeah okay whatever I don't care

00:40:35but you know

00:40:37at least you heard it

00:40:38Change a channel

00:40:40Yeah

00:40:40Yeah

00:40:44So it's an interesting theme so far

00:40:48You have

00:40:50All your albums so far have been kind of punky

00:40:53And all of yours have been kind of

00:40:55Punky tinged

00:40:55Punky vibes

00:40:56Yeah

00:40:57Isn't that funny how that works out?

00:41:00And it's not changing on my side

00:41:01Trust me

00:41:02Yeah we'll change here either

00:41:04It changes a little on my side

00:41:06A little bit

00:41:07A little

00:41:07Not much

00:41:08We'll see. Actually, I'd be, yeah. Well, let's see. There's maybe one more punky album. Everything else is different than that. Sort of. I got some, I got some interesting things coming up. Alrighty. Well, it's time for number six. And John mentioned it. And it's my number six, Jesse Stiletto. Woohoo! Nice. And their self-titled album released March 14th, 2025. This debut mixes 70s hard rock, stoner, and desert rock into a delicious stew, even

00:41:38and tastier than the devil's lunch. Check out our interview with the band in Stairway to 11 episode 22. I'm looking forward to what these guys do next. Not me. I think they're so done. I'm over it. I'm over it. Yeah. I'm just throwing you off the set. Yeah, right. I can't wait, actually. I, you know, that's a pretty solid debut release. I can't imagine what the next

00:42:09I'm really excited to see what these guys do because it's just

00:42:13an outstanding release and you just feel like

00:42:17wow what will these guys do next so

00:42:20I'm looking forward to that. Yeah I wouldn't kick him out of bed for eating the devil's lunch.

00:42:26That's right. In fact I would put him on a pedestal

00:42:28for that. Yeah.

00:42:31Depends what the lunch is. True. If it's crackers you're out of here.

00:42:36Peanut Butter and Jelly. If it's like a stew or something, then just don't get it on the sheets. That's right. Alrighty. All right. My number six. I made a comment earlier that none of the albums on this list are on the other list. This was one of the albums that was on the other list. It's now on this list. It opened the door for one over there, and it opened the door to fill in a spot here. So my number six is the band A through Z.

00:43:06with their album A2Z Squared are also known as the Alligator Zipper based on the album cover from Metal Blade Records. Now, this album is the closest thing I have to a metal album on this list because it is. It's progressive metal. It's hard rock. It's AOR. It's a U.S. band featuring Mark Zonder from Warlord X, Fate's Warning, Ray Alder, Fate's Warning singer, Philip Benone. Is that his name?

00:43:36Also with Warlord and Steve Vai, Nick Van Dyke from Redemption. One guitarist from DMG and another musician from Alcatraz and Warlord. Jimmy Waldo, I think is his name, and I can't pronounce. It's Simeone. Simone Mulirani. Yeah, thank you. So great mix of progressive metal, hard rock. It's catchy. There's melodic choruses. It's more rock than anything else.

00:44:06but it does have a tinge of prog to it not much just good solid hard rock metal the musicians are tight the songs are focused there's good song structures it's actually better than the debut album that came out a few years ago if you're a fan of fate's warning and you'll appreciate mark zonder's drumming is still outstanding even in the rock sphere and ray alder's vocals are just

00:44:35He sounds better now that he's sounded in the last 20 years, which is saying something. He's found his right register and his right delivery and his right amount of power that he puts into his voice is just perfect. And it fits this style of music. So A through Z. Well, you covered the alphabet. Yeah, you got it all there. Well, I mean, they did actually. Yeah.

00:45:05It wasn't me, but thank you. Sorry, I totally got the impression that you named the band. That totally throws off my whole, okay, I have to rethink this. Jeez. Yeah, man. Yeah, sorry. It wasn't me. All right. My number six, over on Metalhead's podcast, this was Matt's album of the month in August. I said, it's not metal enough for that. Let's have it over here. And that is Basque and The Tourney.

00:45:36They're a heavy rock band rooted in doom and stoner metal. It consists of long, slow-building songs with thick riffs, extended instrumental sections, and a dark, heavy tone. I thought it was just a little pretty, too. A little pretty. Kind of like Matt. A little pretty. Yeah. I never got a chance to listen to this one yet. It's good.

00:46:03So it fits more in the rock world is what you're saying. I thought so. And I don't think I have it on my other list. I have something that's similar to it, but I can't tell you now. Fair enough. It's BASK what? The Turning. B-A-S-K. BASK.

00:46:33Okay. As in, I am basking in how awesome this is. Yeah. Okay, cool. Interesting. With my niblets out. I have to check that out. Yeah, yeah, I think you'd like it. Yeah, okay. All right. Are we up to number five? I think we are. Oh, man, here we are. So, number five. My number five is Pelican Flickering Resonance, released May 16, 2021.

00:47:04It's the seventh album from this instrumental post-rock band from Chicago. Reunited with original guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebecq, the band sounds reinvigorated. I really like this addition to their discography. I've talked a little bit about this album in past episodes, so I'm not going to belabor it here, but I saw them live not too long ago, a few months, a couple months, I guess, and they were tremendous. And so, yeah,

00:47:33Really like this and that's my number five. Pelican flickering resonance. Nice. It's it's good album. I as I said before too I still think I like the previous album better. I think the last two albums they sound like a much better band than they did in the previous few albums. And there's a big gap in between albums or they weren't putting out as much but I like where they've gone with the last two. Yeah. Much like this album.

00:48:03I have no words.

00:48:06Yes.

00:48:07Go figure.

00:48:08It's another instrumental album.

00:48:10Yeah.

00:48:12Yeah.

00:48:12TR has a vendetta against speech.

00:48:17And the funny thing is, is I'm actually a singer.

00:48:22It's only good if you do it.

00:48:25No, I don't know.

00:48:26I don't really.

00:48:28I would like to hear you sing.

00:48:30You would.

00:48:31I would.

00:48:32I have some demo tapes.

00:48:33Yeah, send it on over, man. Maybe you can get on the podcast. No, I mean, it would just blow my mind, I think. I'd be like, huh, what do you know? Have you heard it, John? Have you heard him sing? Yeah, he's... You've seen my band. I've seen him play one time, years ago, though. It was a long time ago. Long time ago. I think you came to 2011. I think so. You came to my... I had like a party that I put on.

00:49:03I graduated from my master's program. I think you came up for that. Long time ago in a county far, far away. Yeah, that's right. Well then, yes, I'd like to hear that. All right. So, Tiard does not have the corner market on instrumental bands. What? He's not the only one who listens to them. All right. You know, he likes to think he is, but he doesn't. Okay. There's two of them. Yeah. So, here's my

00:49:33My second instrumental album. And I just got this last week. Oh. And it came as a recommendation from our good friend Ben from the Metal, Endless Metal podcast. He sent this to me. And lo and behold, wouldn't you know it, it's got a tie back to the band Soft Fog and the band Wizard. Wow. So that would only tell you that it's Norwegian. Mm-hmm. And it would tell you that there's prog and jazz in it.

00:50:03And that it's instrumental. So this is the artist Andre Drage. And the album is called Wolves on Drage Records. I'm assuming it's Drage and not Drage, the way the name is said. How's it spelled? D-R-A-G-E. Okay. And this is a fusion record. And the best way to describe this, I will quote them from their Bandcamp page. And I would say that this is spot on.

00:50:31A Fusion record inspired by Mahavishnu Orchestra, Soft Machine, and King Crimson, as well as newer heavy metal music and jazz rock bands from all around the world. This is basically controlled Mahavishnu Orchestra. Any of you ever listened to Mahavishnu Orchestra, they're incredible musicians and their albums are absolutely revered. But at times I find myself like, oh man, they're just going nuts again on this song. Because they do. They just go absolutely

00:51:01crazy on all their songs.

00:51:03And this is kind of like a controlled version,

00:51:07like a reined-in version of Mahavishnu.

00:51:10It's just great stuff.

00:51:13And when I go back and forth sometimes with Ben about music,

00:51:18and he mentioned this,

00:51:20and I think after the first song I bought it,

00:51:22I was like, there's no way I'm passing this up.

00:51:24This is awesome stuff.

00:51:26So, and I do have, I'm not,

00:51:28I would never consider myself a jazz fan.

00:51:30I would never consider myself a big fusion fan. And what I mean by that is I would never sit there and talk like I know everything about this genre. I don't. I hardly know. I barely touch in, barely dip my toes in it, but I know what I like. And I have a few bands that I like. And I'm more kind of the metal fusion side of things. I know a lot about that. So I dip my toes a little bit into just straight fusion. And this is a new band.

00:52:00from that weird hodgepodge music scene in Norway right now that's really kind of blown up. But this is excellent fusion from a young band. And it just, it's on fire, this album. It's really good stuff. And it would have been higher, but I literally just cut it the other day. Cool. Yeah, I can't wait to check that out. Yeah. I mean, are you a fan of Mahavishnu Orchestra? Yeah. I mean, I like, you know,

00:52:33Are you more of a McLaughlin fan? I saw McLaughlin a few years ago. And of course, some of the adjacent Alde Miola type stuff and Chick Corea and those guys. Return to Forever and everything. Yeah, exactly. So that's probably what I'm more familiar with. But certainly, I'm sure that this definitely

00:53:00I probably like this. Yeah. George, did you ever get into Mahavishnu Orchestra? No, I've tried. I'm in that boat too. I have like four or five albums. I keep trying. I'm like, I know I should like this more than I do. I'm just not smart enough. It's a little too phonetic at times. That's part of the issue. And it's too bad because musicians in that first album are like gods. They're all so good. I mean, all the musicians, all the albums are great.

00:53:30But those first two albums are just insane. Indeed. Are we on me then? George, number five. All righty. Cue those crickets again. I don't know, maybe you've heard of this guy. I guess he's pretty famous. His name is Jason Isbell. And the album is Foxes in the Snow. He used to sing for a band called the Drive-By Trix.

00:54:01Oh, okay.

00:54:02Yeah.

00:54:03I know him.

00:54:04And, oh yeah, how's he doing?

00:54:07No.

00:54:07He's all right.

00:54:08Yeah, it's not bad.

00:54:09Not bad.

00:54:11When he went solo, he had his backing band, the 400 unit that played with him.

00:54:17This is just Jason.

00:54:21It's pretty much Jason and a guitar singing songs of a personal nature.

00:54:30He's gone through some stuff. He knows some stuff. Okay. And this is sort of him dealing with that. And while I was familiar with him before this, particularly drive-by truckers, and I knew who he was, and I'd heard of the 400 unit, I was listening to this in the car last weekend while I was out and about with Barb. And she was like, you know, this is really pretty.

00:55:00And I was like, yeah, it's really soothing and relaxing. And I like ran through the album twice. By the time I got done, I was just like, yeah, it's like I got a massage in my ears. I was pretty relaxed. Wow. So I was like, yeah. So this is this was the like storm to the list kind of album and popped up to number five. So there you go. Oh. Cool. Your heart.

00:55:29It was soothed. Yes. Our list shall never meet. I've got kind of a relaxing choice here as well for number four. And it's All India Radio, The Unified Field. Released October 31st, 2025. Like fellow Australians ACDC, you know what you're going to get when you get one of their albums.

00:55:59and musically. But in terms of consistency, they are very similar.

00:56:04And this new album definitely brings the chill and twangy, echoey guitars that make you feel like you're traveling through space on a sofa.

00:56:13A very solid album in the All India Radio catalog.

00:56:18And I've mentioned these guys before, but I love them.

00:56:23It's mostly Martin Kennedy, who's the main songwriter for All India Radio.

00:56:28They've been around for, what, almost 25 years now? Or sometime in the mid to late 90s when they first put out their first album. So still going strong. They kind of put it down. He put it down for a little while, and then he just picked it up again and released this album, The Unified Field. And I'm glad they did because it's terrific. They're great. That's right.

00:56:58They have cool artwork too. Yes, they do. It's very kind of 70s sci-fi looking. Yeah. And he likes that whole aesthetic, you know, that whole Isaac Asimov style, you know, artwork and stuff from those types of books. Yeah, I love that stuff. Yeah. You could sit there and stare at that one picture for hours.

00:57:28as you're reading the book and you're like, when am I going to get to this part in the book? Yeah. Yeah. You're like, I want to, I want to see what this is. I want to know what this is about. This never happens. I want to know what love is. I want you to show me. Sorry. Ready? Yeah. All right. Cool. All right. My number four is a

00:57:58It's an album that brought me back in the fold with this artist. Cause I had kind of taken a break from some of the stuff that's being released. And I miss some albums that I kind of wish now I was part of, but there's still two that I'm not getting in bed with. Anyway, my number four is Stephen Wilson, The Overview, Fiction Records. It's his kind of sort of return to prog rock, space rock, art rock that he did with Porcupine Tree.

00:58:28Albeit still sounding like Stephen Wilson's solo project, or not project, solo career. Still moves forward, but it does hearken back to some of those days that I miss so much from Porcupine Tree that I wish more of the newer fans, newer fans meaning those who came with In absentia on, appreciate it more. I feel like some of them don't, but that's okay. We all like what we like. This is a great return to Semi Forum.

00:58:57It's a two-song album, although the digital version of the album does break it out, each song into pieces, but they're two long tracks. Objects Outlive Us, which is 23 minutes, and then the title track, The Overview, which is 18 minutes. And it's just great. I wouldn't say either song is a free-flowing song, because they're all different parts in the songs. You can actually like pieces of the songs a lot,

00:59:26and not maybe be as down with some other parts. But I liked the whole thing a lot. It was great to see him live. And it made me realize there was a few albums I probably should have paid attention to more when they came out. He still has a couple of his pop synth-y albums that I'm not so big on, but that's all right. This will suffice in helping me out and skipping those other ones. But no, it's good stuff. And parts of the overview are,

00:59:56some of the best stuff I've heard all year from any artist I like a lot. So it's great. I hope he continues to do more stuff like this. He doesn't have to do this again, but I would like to see him delve into this a little more in the future. But who knows? He's a guy who doesn't necessarily repeat himself. He kind of ventures. He stays in the same lane, but he kind of veers off a little bit and it comes back into it. So. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. I'm with you there,

01:00:26obviously and you may hear about this album later on yeah it was hard to to four i was like really but these my next three i i absolutely love number four what you call yourself a steven wilson fan every album's number one before it comes on man jeez get with the program you see hair on my feet do i look like a hobbit

01:00:56Well, I wasn't going to sign anything, but... Wow. Could use a trim. All right, George. All right, my number four. Apologies to Daniel Ashe, but his Bauhaus, former Bauhaus co-conspirator Peter Murphy takes number four with his album Silver Shade. He continues his atmospheric rock style with Moody Vocals layered production in

01:01:26dark themes. I just can't get out of the line of fire of this thing, man. It's just so good. It's good. I like it. Yeah. Yeah. See, I'm bringing you back into the fold now. I hadn't listened to Peter Murphy in a while and he sent that to me and I was like, oh, this is pretty cool. I kind of dig it. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's about all I got to say about that one, really.

01:01:56I've talked about it on here a bunch of other times. So if you didn't listen to it then, you're probably going to listen to it now. So I don't know about that because there's bands that I haven't listened to ever. And then I'm now like 25 years later, I'm like, oh man, what have I been doing with myself? I'm really into this band now. So I really mean it's time you should listen to it. This time I really like them. All right. I think it's getting real now.

01:02:26It is getting real

01:02:27because we're

01:02:27yeah this is number

01:02:28three

01:02:30all right number

01:02:30three

01:02:31you may have

01:02:32heard this recently

01:02:34it's Stephen

01:02:34Wilson the

01:02:35overview

01:02:36released March

01:02:3714th 2025

01:02:38sooner than I

01:02:39thought

01:02:40well I consider

01:02:41myself a big

01:02:42porcupine tree fan

01:02:43I can't say I've

01:02:44loved everything that

01:02:45Stephen Wilson has

01:02:45released in a solo

01:02:46capacity

01:02:47but at least one more

01:02:48than John

01:02:49yes but the

01:02:50but the overview is

01:02:51some of his best work

01:02:52and has echoes of

01:02:53songwriting that

01:02:54sounds like it could

01:02:55be at home

01:02:56on a porcupine tree album. As John said, two songs over 18 minutes in length, each are progressive yet very modern tracks that blend a number of styles that are still firmly in the rock genre. Wilson played them both live on his last tour with a video made for each of the songs projected behind the band. It was a very cool multimedia performance that I enjoyed, and I think John did too, even though we didn't see him in the same location. And I agree, John, there were a couple of songs that were

01:03:26A couple of songs like from Harmony Codex and there was another album of his where I was kind of surprised at how good it sounded because I just did not even give it a chance and you know the problem is his output has been so varied and he kind of channels different genres in these different albums and you don't know what you're going to get you don't know what's

01:03:56You don't know what it is until it comes out. And I just haven't taken the chance on his stuff for the most part. I mean, when I heard this album was coming out, it was clear like, oh, yeah, it's a progressive thing and it's two songs. And, you know, it's like, OK, I think I know what this is going to be about. But his other albums, when they come out, you just don't know. And, you know, sometimes he tries to be like a pop thing and then he tries to do this other thing.

01:04:26stuff and it doesn't land well for me all the time and so i just kind of didn't listen to some of those albums and i kind of regret it because when he played songs off harmony codex and there was one more album i can't remember the name of it canada race uh yes right there was there were some good tracks off of that that i thought wow yeah that's pretty good um so yeah i do kind of regret not checking those out so i definitely will kind of go back

01:04:56and see what they're about. Nice. Yes. I felt the same way. I think maybe I had to see them live to appreciate them more just because I got a little dismayed by some of the other stuff. Oh my. I like most of his solo career minus those two albums. I don't even know what they're called. You've erased them from your memory. Well, yeah, Future Bites is one of them. Yeah, that's one of them. Yeah, I don't like that one.

01:05:26Not a fan. I mean, that's fine. I mean, you can't like everything from an artist. And I would never tell an artist not to go the direction they want to go. Right. Exactly. They got to go do that. And sometimes they have to do that to get to the place where you really want them to be, you know? Yeah. And, you know, they have to experiment. So it's like, okay, I don't need to go along for the whole ride. Right. Call me when you get there. Exactly. Or when you come back. Yeah, that's right.

01:05:56All right. So my number three. And these three I love a lot. I mean, more than, you know, number four. So my number three is from another longtime artist that I like their main band a lot. And I've seen them a fair number of times. But I also like his solo output too. And there's sort of a parallel porcupine tree.

01:06:26They don't sound like them, but they kind of been lumped with them unduly, I think, because they have a whole different sound. But this artist is Lunatic Soul, and the album is The World Under Unsun, which is Marius Duda's side project. He is the bassist and composer and singer, main composer from the band Riverside, which I'm a huge Riverside fan. I know TR likes Riverside too.

01:06:55I've seen them a number of times. They're an incredible band to see live. Really good stuff. But this is his side project. And this is his kind of prog rock, more art rock, more kind of folky, progressive folk, I guess you can call it. It's electronic. I wouldn't call it avant-garde because it doesn't get weird, but he goes places he would never go with the band Riverside, which is a prog rock kind of prog metal band. There's no electric guitars.

01:07:25on any of his albums. Albeit one song on this album. He does have some electric guitar. But generally, there's no electric guitar in any of the albums. And it just is his way of kind of channeling out other aspects of his musical journey that he likes to go through. And he's really big on tying his albums together. Like all the Riverside albums are tied together somehow, or they're in groups of three. This is his eighth album with Lunatic Soul. And it marks the final

01:07:55chapter and a cohesive story across eight albums entitled The Circle of Life and Death. So yes, it's a lot. But this is a great album. It's got a lot of atmosphere. There's some prog rock on it, but there's plenty of art rock. So I would think kind of like this is more like Peter Gabriel's arc when he was away as he's been away from Genesis. If you think about it, he could get a little proggy, but he's more art rock in his sound.

01:08:24And he'll go places that he never would have gone to in Genesis. I'm not saying that Lunatic Soul sounds anything like Peter Gabriel, not even remotely close. But it's the same kind of arc or the same kind of veering off from the original path. Just great stuff. It's a double album, so it's long. It's an hour and a half. And I listen to each album as each disc as separate. So I'll listen to the first one and I'll take a break and I'll go back and then listen to the second one. Because it is long.

01:08:54A Lot of Music, but it's so good. And he just has a unique style of vocals, and he has a unique way of hitting those emotional notes that kind of, if you are affected by emotional music, then you might like some of this. So it's one of my favorites from his catalog. So my number three, Lunatic Soul, The World Under Unsun. It's kind of a strange story. Okay, cool. Yeah, I need to check that out, because honestly,

01:09:27I have not I don't think I've listened to a lot of lunatic soul at all really and I kind of feel like I should because I like Riverside I like him so yeah thanks for the push because I mean for that to be your number three and it's got to be pretty good yeah I mean his that this music's way more introspective and Riverside

01:09:54pretty damn introspective. Right. And this is even more so. I think so. Cool. Yep. My number three is nothing new. It was on my last list. Paralyzed, Rumble and Roar. Paralyzed is a hard rock band focused on straightforward, high energy rock and row. I cannot go high. Rumble and Roar emphasizes loud guitars, driving rhythms,

01:10:24and a raw production style.

01:10:28It's just rock and roll, baby.

01:10:31I still have to get back to this, because I remember when you bought all that music.

01:10:36Yeah, I just...

01:10:37I like to just buy an entire catalog.

01:10:43Yeah.

01:10:43What, they have like five albums, four albums?

01:10:45Four, I think, yeah.

01:10:46Four?

01:10:47I have to check it out.

01:10:48I like the name.

01:10:49I mean, it's kind of a cool rock name.

01:10:50Yeah.

01:10:51Yeah.

01:10:52And the album title says it all.

01:10:54Rumble and Roar. Yeah. So. Cool. Nice. Okay. This is it. It's getting close. This is number two. And John mentioned it already. A to Z. A to Z squared or A to Z2. Released June 6, 2025. This is my favorite band of Fates Warning alumni. And I didn't think I could say that about a band that doesn't have Jim Matheus in it.

01:11:24second album and they upped the ante on the guitars on this one by replacing original guitarist jupe walters with two redemption alumni nick van dyke and simone mularoni nothing against walters he did an excellent job on the first album which rocked initially i thought this album rocked harder but after listening to the first album again i realized that it was more just a matter of tone the guitars are a little more forward in the mix and the tones have a little more edge

01:11:54on this one.

01:11:55Raised vocals sound,

01:11:57as John said,

01:11:57sound inspired.

01:11:59And of course,

01:11:59Mark Zonder's drumming is killer.

01:12:03Of course.

01:12:05Yes.

01:12:05We'd expect nothing less.

01:12:07Yeah.

01:12:07Yeah.

01:12:08As if it would suck.

01:12:09Yeah,

01:12:10exactly.

01:12:11As if.

01:12:12Honestly,

01:12:13I,

01:12:13I'm kind of surprised.

01:12:15Like I said,

01:12:15that,

01:12:16you know,

01:12:17that this,

01:12:19like,

01:12:19I don't know.

01:12:21I've been disappointed with what Jim Matheus has done since

01:12:24Fates warning other than the Tuesday the Sky stuff. I mean, like his rock stuff just hasn't hit the mark for me. And I'm surprised. Like I fully expected that there would be something that he would put out that I would really be excited about. And I mean, from a in a rock kind of, you know, Tuesday the Sky is kind of is more mellow. But I mean, like from a rock perspective. And it just it hasn't been there. And I'm I don't know. I just feel like

01:12:54I don't know if he's saving it up or what's going on, but I feel like I can't believe that well is dry. I mean, there's got to be stuff that's going to come out of him that's going to rock. I just don't, I just, I don't know. I'm waiting for it. Or he just doesn't want to play it, really. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. But I was not big on, oh, is it Kings of Mercia? Yeah. I was kind of disappointed by that. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah.

01:13:24That didn't do much

01:13:28And the first A to Z album

01:13:30I thought was okay

01:13:31I thought it was decent

01:13:31I like this one much better

01:13:33To be honest with you

01:13:34Well, you know, it's funny

01:13:35Because I actually

01:13:36I went back and listened

01:13:37To that first one

01:13:38And I was like

01:13:39Man, this is actually really good

01:13:40Like, I just

01:13:41I don't know

01:13:42I think I kind of

01:13:44I don't know

01:13:44When I first listened to it

01:13:45I just kind of dismissed it

01:13:47Or whatever

01:13:47But like

01:13:48After listening to it again

01:13:50I thought

01:13:50This is a pretty rockin' album

01:13:52Like, that first album

01:13:54They rock pretty good.

01:13:55But I think when you listen to this one, it just, I don't know, they just seem locked in a lot more.

01:14:01And there's a lot more, there seems to be a lot more kind of edgy guitar sounds and more like soloing because you've got two guys that are really competent guitarists.

01:14:16Like the other guy was super competent as well.

01:14:19But like, I don't know,

01:14:21it just seems like there's another level to this album

01:14:24in terms of the guitar work

01:14:28that wasn't present on the first album.

01:14:31Definitely a good rocking first album,

01:14:34but like this one kind of did kind of up it a little bit.

01:14:38Yeah, I agree.

01:14:42All right.

01:14:43All right.

01:14:44So my number two,

01:14:46also an instrumental album,

01:14:48And it has been mentioned. And that is Agrippelter, The Book of Hours from Laser's Edge. Like T.R. mentioned, a progressive rock, symphonic rock album that pays homage to the 70s sound, but it's a modern sounding version of that. It's a project from a guy named K. Olson. And yes, it lends itself to that genesis. I have Camel, King Crimson, all those classic composers are in there.

01:15:19And it's a little bit of work because it's not just a straightforward kind of jam fest. There's a lot of atmosphere and kind of slow ethereal moments that build into some great stuff. And the album features a great cast, specifically like Jonas Reingold, bass player for Steve Hackett, The Flower Kings, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, gazillion other bands in Sweden.

01:15:48Matthias Olsen from Engelgard and White Willow, which are huge prog bands that kind of were part of the renaissance of prog in the 90s. You know, and then there's even, I believe it's the drummer from the band Umfeld, which is also a Norwegian kind of prog metal band that I don't think they're doing anything anymore. There's only two albums out from them, and it's been a while since they released them, like six or seven years.

01:16:17So just really good stuff. If you love keyboards, and I'm using keyboards as the umbrella term for all the different types that he plays, with some nice bass and guitar work, then you'll dig this. It's good. Coolio. All right, my number two is not something you're going to like.

01:16:47The Fourth Album from Viagra Boys. It's called Viagra A Boys. And they're a Swedish post-punk band. And with confrontational and satirical approach. Features aggressive bass lines, spoken style vocals, and songs that critique modern culture. Apparently, I get all my music from The Daily Show because that's where I came across.

01:17:17these guys.

01:17:19Uh.

01:17:20On rare occasion they have bands on.

01:17:23And uh.

01:17:24This happened to be one of those occasions.

01:17:26And I was like Viagra Boys.

01:17:28That's a really stupid name.

01:17:30And.

01:17:31Does it take an hour for the music to take effect?

01:17:34Exactly.

01:17:36It's like.

01:17:37It doesn't hit me until I get home.

01:17:38And I'm like.

01:17:39Oh.

01:17:39Oh wow.

01:17:41Oh now it's really kicking in here.

01:17:43I'm pretty excited after listening.

01:17:49Yeah, I saw them on there, and I was like, that's interesting. I haven't seen too many bands on here. And they played the song Pyramid of Health, which is, I guess, like the single from the album or whatever. And it's freaking bizarre music. It's post-punk, but it's definitely got like a punk attitude.

01:18:14The singer is like all tattooed up and he's American. The band is Swedish. I think Swedish or Norwegian. Let me look. I think they're Swedish. Yeah, Swedish. But he lives in Stockholm with the band. I don't know if he went out there to live with the band or I don't think so. I think it just worked out that way. But anyway, Tim, he reminds me of Pete Davidson. Okay. Like if Pete Davidson like did a punk band.

01:18:44and was just like spewing random crap that you're just like, what is he smoking? That is Viagra Boys. And it's just so bizarre that I love it. I spoke about this on Metal Heads to annoy people. And now I'm here to annoy more people. Mission accomplished. Yes. Nobody should listen to this. You won't like it. Well, at least not for the first hour.

01:19:14Yeah. I like it. Nobody else does. Once it kicks in, though. Oh, boy. Yeah. Yep. Oh, my. I mean, number two. Come on. Yeah. All right. In an hour, they might be number one. They might be. Look out. I don't know what to do here. All right. Is it time for number one? It is time. All right. My number one. And you've heard me talk about these guys before.

01:19:44It's Howling Giant! Crucible and Ruin. Released October 31st, 2025. Howling Giant continues their upward trajectory with their newest album. Adding guitarist Adrian Zambrano to their band was a great move. He's super talented and adds so much texture and riffage. But each of the guys in this band brings their own massive talents to the table, crafting catchy, heavy, rocking songs.

01:20:13and they play them with such ebullience, it's hard not to like them. See these guys live when you get the chance. They bring a powerful, energetic performance with smiles on their faces. I love these guys. Howling Giant, Crucible and Rune, my number one. Yeah, it's a pretty good album. I still haven't listened to it yet. What? I haven't had time. But I know it. It's sitting there. It's ready to be listened to.

01:20:43They figured this would be on your list somewhere. Yep. I love them. I can't cross-pollinate. Okay. Did you turn into a bee suddenly? Yeah. Wait a minute. I don't see your wings in your yellow and black jackets. He's doing a little wiggle dance over there. Sorry, I'm a Viagra boy. That's not a stinger.

01:21:13Those aren't pillows.

01:21:18Playing streets and automobiles. It's that time of year.

01:21:21That's right.

01:21:23I like who I am.

01:21:25Oh, gosh.

01:21:27There's a John Candy documentary. Have you seen it?

01:21:29It's awesome.

01:21:30I haven't seen it yet.

01:21:31I have not.

01:21:32No, it's good.

01:21:33Yeah.

01:21:34And I believe some of the footage early on, like not much, like 45 seconds or something

01:21:41was taken from some footage that a person in Maryland had in their basement for years. We saw the story on the news locally here. And some home, I don't know how they got it. There's somehow the brother of the guy who now has it had some connection to John Candy and some of those comedians at that time. So it's kind of cool to see that that footage was included.

01:22:10Awesome. No, I really want to see it. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. So, all right. So my number one, and this is not Prague at all. What? Exactly. But. Johnny, you feel it okay? You turned off your guidance system. It's okay. He's using the force. You're all clear, kid. Now tell us this album. Let's get out of here. All right. So my number one, and this might be my favorite album.

01:22:39for all genres for the year. And that is The Outernet. You've never heard of them, but it's The Outernet, The Light and the Fury. It's a self-released album of fusion, jazz fusion from Australia. It's a debut release. This is some killer stuff. If you like jazz fusion, then this is, but this is upbeat. It's rocking. It's not, again, like this slow, like, you know,

01:23:11So the main composer, Phil, it's either Tursio or Tursio, whatever. Piano player, keyboardist. He's a composer, producer from Melbourne, Australia. He's composed music for TV. He did, I guess, some work for the 2000 Summer Olympics. He's got quite the background of people he's played with, but he's played with somebody that I have been a fan of since

01:23:38the late 90s.

01:23:41If there wasn't Neil Peart, there'd be this guy who's my favorite drummer.

01:23:44He's worked with Virgil Donati.

01:23:47And he is part of the On The Verge album, Serious Young Insects, that came out in 1999, which is one of the early albums that really got me into Metal Fusion.

01:23:56Which there's never been anything called Metal Fusion.

01:24:00It actually was named by Derek Sherinian, former keyboardist from Dream Theater, who plays this type of music too,

01:24:06who has ties to Virgil Donati. Well, this guy, Phil Tersio, if I ever say his name, played on that album back in 1999. So if you're familiar with On the Verge, Serious Young Insects, then this would be right in your wheelhouse if you like that. It's upbeat. It's just the musicianship is off the charts good. And again, I would never claim to be a big fusion fan, but this is the kind of fusion that I like.

01:24:36a lot. And this album just, I'm going to bring the word back. I sometimes bring it back once in a while to describe an album. This album smokes. Yeah. Smoking. And one thing that's nice about the album too, is there's a song off of the Sirius Young Insects album in 1999 called Running From the Aliens. He reprises that into three parts on this album some 26 years later. So it's kind of cool. Oh, wow. So, yeah. Interesting.

01:25:06I guess I'll have to check that out too

01:25:10yeah if you like that kind of music

01:25:12you know if that's not your style then you might not dig it

01:25:13but I think it's

01:25:15I'll listen to that if you listen to Viagra Boys

01:25:20what is wrong with you

01:25:22I'm really excited

01:25:26you don't understand

01:25:28oh my god

01:25:31I gotta go put on some pop music to calm down

01:25:36All right, my number one coming out of completely out of right field. You've never heard of this band ever in the last 20 minutes or so. And that's Jesse Stiletto. Oh, yeah. What? That's weird. Number one. That's weird. Yeah. With a bullet, baby. Yes. Yeah. Nice. Good representation.

01:26:03on the podcast.

01:26:05Yeah.

01:26:06We had this weird band on.

01:26:08Oh, yeah.

01:26:09That's strange names.

01:26:11Yeah.

01:26:11They were cool.

01:26:13Something about the Danube.

01:26:18Nice.

01:26:21Wow.

01:26:21So that ended up being on all of our lists.

01:26:24Yeah.

01:26:24That's the only thing that transcended.

01:26:28Yeah.

01:26:30Made it on everything.

01:26:32Yep.

01:26:32Yeah.

01:26:33Yeah.

01:26:35Wow. Cool. This took a lot less time than I thought it would. Well, we still have a plenty to go. I've got, you know, a bunch of stuff here. True, true. So do I. Yeah. But, uh, yeah. We're just going to run through our list each. Yeah. However you want to do it. You know, it's not like we're running out of time or anything. So do whatever you want to do. All right. Well, so I had a separate section here.

01:27:03I have two more sections to go. And one of them's called live albums and soundtracks. And the other is called honorable mentions. It's weird. I have the same thing. What? Not in that order, but yeah. Okay. So, so in my live albums and soundtracks category, I captured a few live albums and soundtracks that came out this year. And one of them is Riverside.

01:27:33Live ID, released January 24, 2025. Polish Prog Rockers released this two-disc live recording from their 2024 show in Warsaw. It's an excellent performance and recording. Highly recommend it. We've talked about it before. The next one is King Buffalo, Live at Freak Valley, Volume 2, released March 21, 2025. It's an August 2023 recording, released on vinyl,

01:28:04King Buffalo have a cool groove drenched in fuzz and stoner vibes and this is a good representation of what you get at one of their live shows I just saw them recently when they played with all them witches on December 12th in Philadelphia and they're outstanding if you get the chance to see King Buffalo live if you like the band at all you got to go see them because they're terrific the next one is Sergeant Thunderhoof

01:28:33Avon Calling and released March 20, 2025, this August 2024 recording of this excellent British band. They've been classified as everything from doom to stoner to psychedelic to metal to hard rock. They're all of that. It's a great raw live performance. Dan Flitcroft's vocals sound every bit as good as the studio releases. So Sergeant Thunderhoof, Avon Calling. Next one is David Gilmore.

01:29:03Live at the Circus Maximus released October 17, 2025. I saw this concert film in IMAX and the performance and recording were outstanding. Gilmore still knows how to put on an incredible show with great musicians backing him up, including his daughter Romani, who sings beautifully. So if you haven't checked out David Gilmore Live at the Circus Maximus, you need to. We talked about this earlier, Spinal Tap 2, The End Continues, the soundtrack.

01:29:33Released September 11, 2025. I enjoyed the new Spinal Tap movie and felt like they honored the band and the characters for the most part. But the soundtrack is not nearly as solid as the soundtrack from the original film by any means. I'm glad they put something out. I guess it's, I guess, and it's cool that they have Paul McCartney and Elton John doing tracks with them, but the other songs are only good for a chuckle. And then my final one on this list is Nine Inch Nails, Tron,

01:30:03Ares soundtrack. Yeah. Released September 19th, 2025. I liked what Daft Punk did for the Tron Legacy soundtrack. They set the bar pretty high, so I was hopeful that Nine Inch Nails would deliver the goods on this one. Thankfully, they did. The music really complements the film and brings the right vibe with nods to both of the previous Tron soundtracks. While many of the songs have a background feel and gain strength with the film as a visual, tracks like In It,

01:30:33As Alive As You Need Me To Be, Infiltrator, What Have You Done, and Who Wants To Live Forever, Stand Well On Their Own. How can you call a song who wants to live forever and it not be queen? Ask Nine Inch Nails. I was like very disappointed when I was like, what? You can't name a song that and it's not queen. They did. John Dreisner can do whatever he wants, I guess. That's right.

01:31:03So those are my live albums and soundtracks for 2025. Right on. Yeah. So in my honorable mention section, my first honorable mention is Lux Terminus by Cinder. And this was released April 18th, 2025. Mostly instrumental, proggy, jazzy rock outing from this band led by keyboardist Vikram Shankar. I saw them at Prog Power with John.

01:31:33this year and liked their performance and picked up this album while I was there.

01:31:37There's a fresh air quality to this album, a kind of brightness and uplifting energy.

01:31:42But there's heaviness too in songs like The Devil's Eyes.

01:31:46All the performers are talented and deliver a solid album.

01:31:51So I like that one.

01:31:52The next one on my honorable mentions list is Amorphous Borderland, released September 24, 2025.

01:32:01Amorphosis' output is fairly consistent, for good or bad. Some would say that they've become formulaic now for quite a few albums. But if you like the formula, then you'll probably be okay with that. There isn't anything new on this album, but I still like it. And I'll always go to see them live. The next one is Elder, a Liminality Dream State Return EP, released September 2, 2025.

01:32:31band Elder put out this two-song EP consisting of music that they developed from ideas that didn't get onto their two previous records. It's really good stuff, but I didn't include it on my main list since it's just a two-track EP. Next one is Michael Schenker Group Don't Sell Your Soul, released October 3rd, 2025. As a Michael Schenker fan, it pains me to say that this did not make the cut for me. I was excited to hear Swedish singer and former

01:33:01Skid Row vocalist Eric Gronewall on this, but the songs kind of sounded generic to me, and there wasn't anything that really grabbed me from this album other than maybe the track called The Chosen. Don't get me wrong, this album rocks, and Shanker's playing is on point, and Gronewall sounds good, but I think I was expecting more. Robin McCauley did a couple of guest vocals on the album, and I actually like the songs he sang more. As usual on Shanker's albums, the lyrics are not great, so the

01:33:31songs sometimes get diminished by them. Despite all this, I will always go see, go get whatever Shanker puts out. I can't help myself. And I'll always go see him live, which I did a couple of months ago on his My Years in UFO tour, which was outstanding. And my final honorable mention, Steve Morse Band, Triangulation, released November 14, 2025.

01:34:01I haven't had enough time with this album since it just came out recently, but it's definitely high-quality output from this instrumental guitarist and his band. I've been a Steve Morse fan for many years through his various output with the Dixie Dregs, soloist Steve Morse, and with the Steve Morse Band. Admittedly, I didn't pursue the Kansas, Deep Purple, or Flying Colors albums he was involved with. I probably need to give those a more careful listen. But this album, with longtime bass player Dave LaRue,

01:34:31and drummer Van Romijn is a nice collection of instrumental songs that run the gamut of rock, funk, jazz, and prog, some driving, some laid back. He has guest guitarist Eric Johnson and John Petrucci sit in for one song each, adding their own flavors. If you like Steve Morse, you'll like this album. So that's my wrap-up of everything else. Right on. Nice.

01:35:01All right. So I also have honorable mentions and honorable mention live albums, but I'm going to do the opposite order. I'm going to do honorable mentions first, then I'll do my live albums. Oh. So not too many on the honorable mention side, but my first one is a band called Evron. The album's called Shells. They're a German prog rock, neo-prog band. First album from them since 2007.

01:35:29And I've always been a fan of this band. It's very emotional, very to-the-heart kind of music. It's very well done. It's classy. And it was nice to hear them playing again. I just didn't give this one enough spins to get it under my top 10. And I can pretty much assure you if I listened to it more, something would get knocked out. It just didn't get the time. But it's a really good album. And it's really nice to see them back again after so long.

01:35:59The Second One Was On My Top 10 List That Got Knocked Off The Other Day Got Knocked Off By The Andre Drage Album This One Is IQ Dominion They're Progressive Rock Neoprog Band From The UK It's A Band That I've Always Known About And I Had One Live Album From For Years And I Just Never Got Into Them And Then Finally Would Dance That Said I'm Gonna Listen To This Album And I Was Like Where Have I Been Damn It

01:36:28You know, and I'm a big fan of them. So it's a good album. I don't dislike any of their albums. I have everything but two albums. They have their two clunkers in their collection, too, from the late 80s, and I'm a fan of what I heard. But everything is always solid. You know what you're getting when you get from them. I hear some fans think this is great, and some fans think it's more of the same. And I think there's a little bit of truth to both of those statements. It's a good album.

01:36:58It's not a great album. I like it a lot. It was on my list. Just kind of got bumped at the end. Next one, TR mentioned Lux Terminus and the album Cinder. Like he said, instrumental, prog rock. There's not much metal, but it does get heavy. It's jazzy. It's bright. It's clean. It's uplifting music. Their keyboardist, the main guy, is quite the musician. He's playing with everybody right now, all around the world, it seems like.

01:37:28And I imagine his name will be more and more involved with a lot of different... I believe he's with Redemption now. And he's also a permanent member of Within Temptation. And he's from Cleveland. So very cool. Next one is another band I just got into for the first time in 20 years because I heard the new album. And I was like, wow, I guess I'll pick everything up. And I don't do that too often because I get catalog fatigue real fast.

01:37:58I'm like, that's a lot of work. And I'll walk sometimes. This one I didn't because it was only six albums. The band is called Magic Pie and the album is called Maestro. They're prog rock, symphonic prog band from Norway. They've got a lot of hard rock leanings. They can even dip into the deep purple waters a little bit, which is kind of nice if you like that stuff. Good stuff. It's quality stuff. I would say they're closest to the Flower Kings.

01:38:27But unlike the Flower Kings, their albums are not two 80-minute CDs that come out. This album, new ones, it's long, but it's just a single CD. And so I'd have to spend all day listening to it. And my last one, Tierra also mentioned in his top 10 list, that's Tuesday the Sky Indoor Enthusiast Jim Otheo Side Project. I like it, just not enough to put it on my top 10 list.

01:38:57All right, so I have two honorable mention live albums. T.R. already mentioned Riverside Live ID from the Identity Tour. It's the show from Poland. Got to see them on this tour, and they were great. I've been a fan since day one when I was at Prague Power in 2003, and I said to Ken Golden at Laser's Edge, hey, what's good that's new that came out? Because I've been buying from Ken since the late 90s. He said, you should check this band out.

01:39:26Of course, I didn't realize he was releasing that, and it was Riverside. And I had been a fan since that day when I first heard him. And this is a great live. All their live albums are good, but this is another great live album from that tour. And my last one is kind of like a tribute band, although two of the members in the band were actually part of the band that they're paying tribute to. And that is the band Beat, B-E-A-T.

01:39:56The Album Neon Heat Disease Live in Los Angeles. Beat is basically the newest version of King Crimson without it being King Crimson. Two of the members, Adrian Ballou and Tony Levin, were both members of King Crimson for years. And they paid homage to the 80s output of King Crimson from the album's Discipline Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair. And they recruited two musicians to replace Robert Fripp.

01:40:25And Bill Bruford, they, two little guys. Nobody's heard of him before. Sort of big, you know, might be good at their instruments. Steve Vai on guitar. And a guy called Danny Carey on drums. He's in Tool. So, and it is just, it's so good, this live album. The live show was amazing.

01:40:55seen in years. And I saw the show with TR and his good buddy. And we sat basically in row what four? Yeah. Right in front 11, man. Right in front of 10 11. It couldn't have been any better. I mean, that what a show that was. Oh my gosh. Both of like all of us were just going bananas because it was just such a cool show. And to be that close, you scored awesome tickets. That was so good. Yeah. You know, and I was a huge fan of this period of King Crimson.

01:41:24and was for the longest time. And I've

01:41:27since, and I was

01:41:28a fan back in the mid-80s

01:41:30when I got into this part of King Crimson,

01:41:33but I never ventured to the other stuff.

01:41:35And over the years, I've slowly

01:41:36gotten into the whole catalog.

01:41:38And now, I mean, I love everything now.

01:41:40But there's a special place,

01:41:42especially for the album Discipline,

01:41:44which I think is one of the best

01:41:46prog rock albums ever.

01:41:48Albeit new wave-ish,

01:41:50it'd sound, but very cool.

01:41:53Well, that's what I got.

01:41:54Clearly there was a lot of hunger for that period too because I don't think other than a couple of songs, King Crimson typically didn't play a lot of that material live. So to get a full dose of a lot of that. They toured those albums. They toured them. Oh, they did. But what I'm saying is in more recent times, they haven't played a lot of those songs other than like, you know, Thala Hung Genji and some of these Elephant Walkers.

01:42:24and some of that stuff.

01:42:26They played frame by frame a lot.

01:42:30They have.

01:42:31They played Indiscipline, I believe, a lot.

01:42:33It just, their catalog is so big and they improvised so much,

01:42:37or they did so much live,

01:42:39that it was all over the place when they wanted to play stuff.

01:42:42So, yeah.

01:42:44Well, the tour did well.

01:42:46Sold out most shows.

01:42:48Right.

01:42:48Yeah.

01:42:49I think they're now taking it overseas, if I'm not mistaken.

01:42:53So.

01:42:55All right, then. All right, George. I've got a few. First off, a few that fell off the back of my mid-year list. Taj Mahal and Keb Moe, Room on the Porch. A couple of blues legends. Yeah. Knocking it out of the park. Garbage, Let Them. Let All That We Imagine Be the Light. Lady Gaga, Mayhem.

01:43:23Jeff Tweedy's Twilight Override. I cannot speak. Twilight Override. Triple album. The Wilco guy. And I think I mentioned it on here previously that I wanted to listen to it. And yeah, yeah, it's good. Franz Ferdinand, The Human Fear. That's out of right field. Creeper, Sanguivore 2, Mistress of Death.

01:43:52Sounds like it ought to be on Metalheads, but it's goth. Okay. Goth rock. Sounds scary. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. If the singer were better, this could have been really high on my list. This was another like, oh, I like that song. I'm going to go buy their whole catalog. And then I was like, oh, wow. The music's really good. The backup singers on this album are amazing.

01:44:21The lead vocalist is kind of lame though. And thus my love for instrumental music. Yeah. And lastly, an artist that I came to know about in 1997 and have not listened to since, though he has apparently put out fairly not steady albums, but not

01:44:53And so after 28 years, I finally listened to another album. Eagle Eye Cherry. His Desireless album from 1997, which was a pretty big deal, Save Tonight and stuff like that. I really loved that album, kind of just like a singer-songwriter, folky, acoustic thing. Maybe not folky, but acoustic. And I really dug that when it came out 28 years ago.

01:45:22And I don't know why, but I just happened to see that this came out. And I was like, oh, that guy's still around. What's he been doing? And the album's called Become a Light. And it's not even on Wikipedia as yet. But it's not bad. It's not bad. So you should probably go and see what he's been doing in between those two albums. There might be some more good stuff in there, George. There might be. So we'll have to find out. Nice.

01:45:51That is what I've got. Wow. Well, that's quite a year in, boys. Yeah. Yeah. It does tell me one thing about rock music. What's that? There's not a lot of it anymore. Well. Like there used to be. Not like it was when I was a young lad. That's right. Because we are more kind of pigeonholed into the things that we like, but there's not

01:46:21I mean,

01:46:22I mean,

01:46:23it's just the fact in the eighties,

01:46:25there was just rock bands everywhere and they were huge.

01:46:29They were big.

01:46:30Right.

01:46:30You know,

01:46:31you like most of them,

01:46:32but you didn't like everything.

01:46:33But now I feel like there's not,

01:46:35there's not a lot of good,

01:46:37popular,

01:46:38good rock bands like that,

01:46:40that,

01:46:40that like,

01:46:42and I've been thinking about this a lot because it's,

01:46:47when you think back to like the seventies and all the bands that were

01:46:51kind of popular back then. There was a pretty broad variety, and the genres weren't so binned like they are now, where you could have a festival with bands that we can't even imagine going together today. But when you look at some of the bands that they put together, like for Texas Jam,

01:47:21of these other things that were going on back then where you had a pretty broad variety of rock music coming together and everybody just kind of accepted it. It wasn't like, oh, well, we can't listen to that or this is like, what are you talking about? Well, how can this band be with these guys on the bill? And I don't know. It just seems like everything's more kind of

01:47:51pop oriented today and or, you know, there's elements of rap and pop that are much more popular than any kind of rock music would be. And inconceivable. Well, I mean, I get it to some degree, you know, pretty much after the 80s, like once rap stepped in, there was no going back. And, and, you know, it really kind of changed the landscape.

01:48:21And now you've got a lot more in terms of pop that is really exploding where you see artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter and all these people that, you know, while I'm sure they're very good, like I just don't have any, I don't know, predilection to listen to that.

01:48:45And so, yeah, I mean, it's just a different time. And while, like, in the 70s, like, really good rock bands were just very popular and everybody knew who they were and everybody, like, went to see them and they were on the radio and everybody was aware of them. And now, like, rock bands that we, that, you know, when I think about us in this,

01:49:17the bands that we like are kind of obscure bands or bands that like not a lot of people know. And so we're kind of on the fringe now. Like we're just kind of like, you know, whenever people ask me, oh, who'd you see this year? What kind of bands did you go to? Like they don't know. I start listing the people that I went to see or talking about it. They're like, I've never heard of that. I don't know who that is.

01:50:13Das ist.

01:50:15are just kind of unknown or by and large kind of like niche or kind of, I don't know, completely obscured by other acts. It's, I don't know, it's just really kind of disappointing to me a little bit. Like a complete unknown. Yeah. Well, we're not going to waste any time going into the reasons why that is because,

01:50:46It's just the way things are now when it comes to consuming music and how you do it and how it's presented and who makes all the money. That's a whole other bag of diatribes to go through. Oh, yeah. That could be a whole episode of us just ranting like old men. It's passionate fans, I think, more than old men. Yes, I agree. You're right. And no,

01:51:15People who are Taylor Swift fans are not passionate fans because they're passionate for the now, in the now, but where will they be 30 years from now? Will they be that same person? I don't know. I kind of think that they'll be there. I believe that this, even though we don't see what the big pull or the draw is, it resonates with these people and these young kids or the people that grew up with it, I think it's going to stick with them.

01:51:44I think it's the stuff that like just like in our youth these bands that you know our parents looked at like what are these guys you know who are the these people yeah but the consumption was different though for us I agree we don't have it handed to us on a plate it's not consumed by singles you know and it's not big backed by big money and insurance companies on these tours that charge well rushes

01:52:14right now, but, you know, just that doesn't exist anymore. And I just don't see that type of consumption continuing when people want it. Everyone wants it on their phone immediately. They don't want to work to have to get it. That's not old man screaming at the sky. That's just a fact. That's just the way it is. So. Well, that's true. And, and yeah, that's, and there's a certain aspect of that, that, you know, you can't, it's hard to describe that.

01:52:44to someone who didn't live through it. You know what I mean? Like, if, if, when you think about like what we, how we grew up and the albums and getting like being excited to get the album and then having like an actual record album and pulling out the sleeve and looking at the lyrics and like getting absorbed in that and just, you know, sitting and looking at the album cover, like you talked about it earlier, that looking at that album cover and just absorbing it and listening and,

01:53:14just completely trying to commune with what was being presented by that artist. I don't know that that's happening as much. Not. I don't know. It's not. Yeah. Not now with AI, it's even worse. So. Damn kids. Yeah. Well, I just feel bad for them because I feel like they're not getting. Well, it's not even kids though, George. I think it's actually adults to consume that way now.

01:53:44because it's easy. Oh, wow. Spotify's great. No, it sucks. It's not good for musicians. And say what we want. Is it Gene Simmons who's actually railing against Spotify right now? I can't remember. I think so, yeah. I mean, you could say what you want about him, but it's going to take a lot more people like him to come out to say that this model doesn't work. It's not fair. Exactly, right. What? Anyway.

01:54:15If Taylor Swift couldn't take out Spotify, nobody can. Yeah. No, but if more people say, yeah, you know what? Not, well, no, because she makes so much money still on Spotify because she's getting millions of listens for every song. Sure. You know, but, you know, she's got 12 writers for a single song, 10 writers, you know, and then a band that's, you know, one dude's writing all the music for the band and they're not getting screwed.

01:54:44because they don't have 4 million listens this past month for their song to get their 10 bucks.

01:54:55Next time on Rants from the Porch.

01:54:58Yeah.

01:55:00I'm just playing.

01:55:01Just playing.

01:55:02That's a fact.

01:55:03I mean, the book industry is going through it too.

01:55:06Yeah.

01:55:07It's, yeah, I know.

01:55:09I mean, it's easy to fall into this category, but like, I just, you know,

01:55:14It's hard not to. When you grew up with what we did, it's really hard to feel like what's happening now in popular music is just disappointing. Thankfully, we just talked about 10 albums each from what we've listened to that we really liked and that we got stoked about. So the music is out there and there are bands that we like.

01:55:44And there's stuff that's happening. But I would almost guarantee you 90% of what we just talked about is relatively unknown to the major populace. Sure. I've been dealing with that for decades. I'm used to it. Oh, yeah. I mean, I am too. Yeah. I mean, the only big rock music that's big is probably indie rock right now. That's been big for a while, but it's just not something I

01:56:16because some of it's decent, but then other parts of it are just, they kind of, they're toothless for me personally, you know? But anyway, you know? Maybe, maybe we'll be surprised coming up. I mean, there was one, what was that Led Zeppelin clone that everyone was all excited about? Yeah. Well, that's been a few years now, but. Yeah. I forget what they were called. Yeah.

01:56:44They're like, dude, it's this. Van Fleet or whatever. Yeah, yeah, right. Greta Van Fleet. Yeah. I mean, they pretty much sounded like Led Zeppelin. Well, that's exactly right. And so, you know, it's like you're hoping that something comes along that just upends the industry, kind of like Nirvana did, where it's like, wow, look at this talent and these guys that, you know, don't sound like anybody before them or

01:57:14I've completely changed the landscape of music. And I just, I'm not sure I see that happening at all. And I'm hopeful that it will. But, you know, when you think about the last time that that happened, which was Nirvana, I mean, can you guys name anybody since Nirvana that changed the musical landscape to such a degree that it just completely upended everything?

01:57:47That's been 30, how many years? 30 years? 33? 4? 5 years? I think they get a lot of credit, but the credit should be spread more because there were a number of bands coming out of that scene at the same time. Oh yeah, I agree. They got the MTV push, but... Sure, yeah. No, but I mean, you know, like that... But the point I'm making is there's no scenes like that anymore. Yeah. That was probably the last scene that... I mean, and I'm not referring... I'm not including hip-hop,

01:58:14that's mainstream. And there's plenty of hip hop scenes. There's the East Coast versus West Coast. There's Atlanta. I know all that stuff. Mumble rap. But that's already big. That's corporate music now. Because there's a lot of money back in that. There's no lower level scenes anymore for music. There just isn't. For any style. Unless you're from Norway and you like Prague and jazz. That's about it.

01:58:44And you've arrived at the right place if you're listening to us. We got you covered. Yeah, we got it covered right here. Anyway, no more. I don't need to go anymore into that. Yeah. Well, look, let me, I just do, speaking of our listeners, I want to give a shout out to Derek in Ireland, who was very kind when I recently went over there to give me some pointers and places to go and things to see and make sure that, you know, I enjoyed my trip.

01:59:14I made contact with him while I was over there and it was great to talk with him. And so I'm very pleased that we have listeners all over the world and especially thankful for Derek and the input that he gave me for my trip. So thanks, Derek, and appreciate you listening to this podcast. And contrary to what seems to be his belief, he does have an open invitation to come on with us.

01:59:44I've told him that many times and he never takes me up on it. So whenever you're ready, bud. Get your butt on here. Yeah. Well, we'll have to figure out a good time that works because he's, what, five hours ahead of us? Well, yeah, the time difference can be challenging. But we can work with that. We've done it before. I know we have. Metalheads has anyway. It's not that bad unless he goes to bed early. Yeah, split the difference. We start early. He stays up late.

02:00:14You know, it'll work. Yeah, we can do that. I could start early. Well, we'll have to do it on the weekend then. Yeah, true. Well, I don't know. Yeah, it's not like you guys have jobs or anything. Well, if you're home during the day, George, you could do it. We could do that. We'll figure it out. Yeah, we'll make it happen. Just give us a ring ding. As long as it doesn't cut into my premiership time, you know, at three o'clock in the afternoon, I'm good. Yeah. Or my Champions League.

02:00:47All right. Well, let's put this year to bed. Yeah. And you olden parts, too. I'm ready to put this year to bed real fast. Yeah. Yeah. I'm done with this year. Yeah. But I'm grateful for you guys, and I'm really glad that, you know, we've been at this now quite a while, and this is our 28th episode, which is pretty amazing to me.

02:01:16And I'm glad to have two buddies that I really enjoy talking about rock music about. So thanks, you guys. I appreciate, like, this is kind of our, you know, last episode of the year. So I just want to say thanks. Love you guys. And thanks to our listeners who, you know, are there. We have some very avid listeners out there that, at least certainly my friends,

02:01:44that listen always have comments about our choices and our witty banter. So I'm grateful for them too. So thanks everybody. Thank you. Thank you guys. I'm going to thank you, but I'm only going to give you thank you unless you participate. You need to participate on our posts. Give us your list. Yeah, we need to give out some participation trophies. Yeah, seriously.

02:02:15And if we don't Facebook, well, you'll get that little message. Hey, you're like a avid person on top fan, top fan. Seriously. If you do like the podcast and you have comments, whether they be positive or negative, probably a lot of negative ones directed. So, uh, poster, even if it's just one album, let us know what your favorite albums were from this year. Doesn't even matter what genre it's for or subgenre it's from. Who cares? Yeah.

02:02:44Definitely, I'd be interested to see what people are listening to. I love lists, whether I agree with them or not. Plus, I'm not going to lie to you. This is so stupid. It helps the algorithm, man. Not that we care about that stuff because we don't. But it would be nice for other people to see it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Cool. Let's put this thing to bed. All right. Happy holidays, guys. Stay safe.

02:03:15Rock on. Peace. See ya.