All the wars

Meet The Pinnapple Thief. The band as a long past history of many albums in the rock post prog stuff.
The lastest effort of the band is called all the wars.
The short record is apparently in the continuity of the precedent efforts, a gentle post prog rock very much inspired bu th elikes of Muse or Radiohead.
Great short strong stuff with orchestra, lots songs about love and relationship.
Short and sweet, it is a nice introduction to this band who , if they have maybe not that bit of stuff that make Muse and RH who they are, deserve some attention at least for the great effort they put out.
The limited edition makes the record a bit longer with a bunch of acoustic versions.
The highlights of this album for me are of course the ending, the long orchestrated going crescendo Reaching Out and the great and catchy Warm seas that probably echoes a lot for me.

Go treat yourself , listen to the thief that stole some fruit. Definetly worth it and easy to access.

http://www.pineapplethief.com/tpt/

On concert in paris this november and somewhere probably.

The Void

That 's the name of the latest BEARDFISH release. Band from the land of the Swede.
It is hard to describe the music proposed by the band, especially this latest effort.
Of course it's progressive rock, think a bit of Genesis Under the lead of Syd Barrett who discover hard  rock / Metal.
The whole disc is filled  with powerful riffs and lots of keyboards from another age in a mix that is really difficult to apprehend at first but you is much rewarding as the listenings goes on and on.
The concept is also very obscure but fan of genesis with some balls can get a bit of ears unto this record.

http://beardfishband.com/

Flying Colors

Small post to speak about the concert of Flying colors. You may not know the name but you do the people in it.
Mike Portnoy, Neal and Steve Morse (no relation), Dave laRue and Casey McPherson.
Great first self titled album. Mostly pop rockish with great guitars and drumming. Very nice moment with very catchy music. Hopefully they'll try to get a second album and get a more ambitious.

Here was the set list for the (sadly) very expensive and not fully loaded Trianon.

1. Blue Ocean
2. Shoulda Coulda Woulda
3. Love Is What I'm Waiting For
4. Can't Find a Way
   (Endochine cover)
5. The Storm
6. Odyssey
   (Dixie Dregs cover)
7. Forever in a Daze
8. Hallelujah
   (Leonard Cohen cover) (Casey McPherson alone on stage)
9. Better Than Walking Away
10. Kayla
11. Fool In My Heart
    (Mike Portnoy on vocals)
12. Repentance
    (Dream Theater cover) (Mike Portnoy on vocals)
13. June
    (Spock’s Beard cover)
14. All Falls Down
15. Everything Changes
16. Encore:
16. Infinite Fire

Raising the Imperial

Sunday was Flower Kings day ! The 70ies prog revival swedish band played a 2 hours set in Le Divan du Monde. Once again, multiple great lenghty songs about the human and his place in our universe, especially the capitalistic one with their last effort called Bank Of Eden. Even if the songs tend to go on and look like the same, live they take a life of their own. Here was a great set list with the big numbers they have put out in their differents discs. If you're into great 70ies prog rock, you can lend an ear. The songs tends to be lenghty and jazzy but sometimes you can find a pearl worth listening to hours after hours.


Set lists :
 Numbers
 For the Love of Gold
 Stardust We Are
 Last Minute on Earth
 In the Eyes of the World
 The Truth Will Set You Free
 Rising the Imperial

Encore: I Am the Sun

 http://www.flowerkings.se/

Spine

A quick post about some controversy I see going on and on and on in some vaious forums about collected edition (mostly comics but hell it can work on any of them). Spines. Book spines to be exact. Editors tend to change the look of their collection and spines every now and then, making the collector goes mad. The spines and /or dust covers in books tend , when you are doing the series to match and make a nice visual of all the volumes one against the other. But sometimes, the company producing the books, decide to change their logo, trade dress and such. And then the buyers consumers start ranting and complaining , putting fire on the internet. So I hear yes, the content are that matters and you should not judge a book by its cover (or spine for te matter). Yet, one must also reckon that most of the books are not read 24/7. They most likely wait in plain view in a library where they just show the tiny slide of teh spine to our viewing pleasure. Sure there must be some beauty in disharmony but frankly... we look at those spines more than at the contents or even the cover of the book. So why the changes ? Think it will bring more people to buy than people who will likely to stop buying because of changes ? Yes some readers are collectors and are shallow. They tend to bitch for small change in continuity but in the end... What exactly do the marketings guys think they are achieving with that ? Do people really need to know they are buying a Marvel or DC thing ? I mean do they not known when they buy a 49.99 $ Hardcover, what exactly they are buying ? I really want to know what is the meaning behind all this sometimes...

3D

Saw yesterday Titanic now in 3D coming to a theatre near you.
I was doubtful about the leap to 3D since the movie was never shot for it with all the special cameras and such. But I was told Cameron himself was on board.
Yeah, right.
In the end the 3 D version is much like the traditionnal one but a bit darky thanks to the glasses, the 3D effects are barely visible (the best is in the submarine where it is supposed to have the less depth...Pun intended).
And the poor movie has its then state-of-the-art effects looking a bit outdated nowadays. But it was a nice screening anyway but it still makes me wonder why we keep on putting in 3D movies (old one or new ones) keep making the people pay for more( even if now the stuff movie theatres owners are supposed to be paid for nowadays.)
I don't know if it is me or not, but half the time, you get 3D for 5 minutes tops of a movie plus the whole subtitles.
Cameron was proud to make a movie evolution with Avatar but I really feel it was an useless one...

RIP JEAN GIRAUD AKA MOEBIUS

Not much I reckon has to be said about him.
Glad to have be able to spot him at his vernissage at the fondation cartier....

Comme d'habitude

Saw yesterday the CLOCLO movie By Siri. A biography of Famous french singer Claude François (yes the one who sang the original My way)
Nice cast , good movie a bit long in the end but definitly not a full white portrait of the guy.
Regnier does a decent job( though a bit false sometimes..unless cloclo was that false himself, I dare not say) and maybe a tad too fat for the role but it works most of the time.
Some scenes seem out of place or hard to understand sometimes and the mise en scène is okay (nice plan séquence at one time)
The actresses sleeping with him sadly seems to look all alike (especially when they share the same stockings...) and it is a bit hard in the end to know who is who.(that's what you get when you only date blondes)

But besides that a very nice biopic.

HUNGER GAMES

I was given the first volume of the hunger games Trilogy that is coming to a screen near you. As i thought , it is a mix between running man and Battle royale.
The book is well written, entertaining and well paced.
But I must confess it does not bear a lot of great suspens and I was surprised that the actual hunger game did not last that long (Yeah we want blood we want blood).
So nice book but quickly forgotten... Probaly won't event bother to see the movie (though I reckon Hollywood might inject more speed and violence though)

Who's the Boss in the Factory ?

Just finished some listening of the swedish prog band Karmakanic.
Consisting of the last 3 albums, Wheel of Life, Who's the boss in the factory ? and In a perfect world.
All three are great releases from the Flowery-tengento-and who-knows-what-else great Bass player, Jonas Reingold.
We're stricly in the traditionnal Flower Kings kind of stuff, Prog rock 70ies, very Jazzy and experimental.
But Jonas tend to let the creative flow be more tight and controlled rather than his comrade Roine Stolt.
The pieces of music are much more tight, even when they keep being long, proggy or experimental.
There is really gret stuff in those 3 albums but it is generally accepted that the middle one, WTBITF ? is really the best of the three. Just simply because all the songs are great either in the long prog stuff, the lyrics, the will and views on the world.
Really great band and strong releases worth checking out.

The Art of Not Looking Back / Uprising

Friday @ the theatre des Abbesses, saw the two creations by Hofesh Shechter, israelian Creator.

Interesting, very active stuff, with lots of heavy industrial like rythmn or even shrieking dissonantic sounds from the mouth on the 'art of not looking back'.
Very physical danse a lot in the movement for Uprising, more in the harsh and dry type on the second.

Very interesting dancing I must say though I'm far from expert about it.

http://www.theatredelaville-paris.com/spectacle-hofeshshechter-376

Pélléas et Mélisande

Saw Saturday the Générale of the Bob Wilson mise en scène of the Debussy Opéra, Pélléas et Mélisande.
Can't say I enjoyed myself much, being in the middle of screewriting, I tend to see all the scenes as quite boring and useless with laughable dialogues (Yeah, I know... it's the opéra...).
The traditionnal japan-inspired scénographie of Wilson amplifies the emptiness and the void of the narration.
As usual, the costumes and background are beautiful,very sober and quite efficient.

Not the best history to my liking (though I do enjoy a bit Maeterlinck) but a great piece nonetheless.

http://www.operadeparis.fr/Saison_2011_2012/Operas/Pelleas-et-Melisande/detail/

Of salt

Saturday 18 february, @Le divan du Monde, I had the honor to witness the brand new Pain of salvation (considering only Daniel G is left from the start and the newest member has only 2 and an Half album under his belt.)

First as always, a small token of appréciation on the first part of the show who was played by a trio named Cryptex.
No the greatest name around but a great and interesting prog folk band who use many instrument and is doing a pretty good job entertaining the people.
Good luck to you guys, hope to see you again.

http://www.cryptexmusic.com/



Otherwise brand new band, new voices going with the flow of the band flirting more and more with 70ies hard rock.
Daniel still has it, great presence and charisma , energy, a smile and one of the most beautiful voice in the business.
As much as I am taken aback by the new direction, the songs LIVE really shine and that is what counts.
Special bonus KISS reprise

The traditionnal Set list then...

Svordomsvisan
Road Salt Theme
1.Softly She Cries
2.Ashes
3.Linoleum
4.The Deeper Cut
5.1979
6.To the Shoreline
7.Chain Sling
8.Ending Theme
9.The Perfect Element
10.Stress
11.Kingdom of Loss
12.No Way (Extended, with verses … morerepeated multiple times and outro jam)
13.Enter Rain

Encore:
14.Black Diamond Play Video
(KISS cover) (Gustaf on guitar, Daniel "D2" … moreon bass, Ragnar on guitar/vocal, Daniel G on drums)
15.The Physics of Gridlock
16.Sisters


painofsalvation.com