AlSymerz

Farscape - Purged and Forgotten

C.O.F.F.I. N - Australia Stops

Alice Copper - Road

Can't listen to anything. The PC speakers aren't loud enough to compete with the rain on the roof at the moment.

I just listened to KK's Priest for the second time in as many days to see if things changed with subsequent listens. I still think this is probably one of Ripper's better moments, although there are few brief moments where I think he's pushing too high for himself. The twanging is good and about what I expect from KK after the debut album. Is it any better or worse than his younger days? Well it's not worse, he's still got good guitar chops, but I don't know that's it's better either. Although the track listing is short, only 9 songs, the album still comes in over 40 minutes, but to me it drags on a bit with the last two or three songs. For me it's an album of two halves, the fist half being better than the second.

Nervosa is worth giving a listen probably not going to be anyone's AOTY but maybe in someone's top 10.

I'm not a fan of Ripper but for the most part he doesn't sound too bad on the new album. I don't think the album itself is anything ground breaking but it is entirely what I expected from KK. There is some good riffs on it and but like the first album I can't hear anything that propels it to excellent.

KK's Priest - The Sinner Rides Again

Write Evian on the bottle and it will triple in value to the right people.

Nervosa - Jailbreak

Especially when it comes in a bottle with a fancy name written on it.

I'm going to watch Barbie.

Oh, so no one important, gotcha

I haven't been paying attention. Who the fuck is Carlos and why does he matter?

Chemical Breath - Fatal Exposure

Raw Power - Too Tough To Burn

Raw Power - You Are The Victim

Manowar - Gods Of War

Billie Holliday's version of Gloomy Sunday is a shivers up the spine song. The original lyrics written in Hungarian in the early 30's were about the atrocities of war but they were changed a few years later to be about committing suicide after a relationship. It became known as the Hungarian Suicide Song and although not the first English translation Billie popularised in the 40's. There are unconfirmed rumours that over 130 people have topped themselves because of the song. The composer also killed himself several decades after releasing it and Billie's version of the song was banned by the BBC until 2002 By today's standards the lyrics aren't that bad but Billie's version, the lyrics and the story, fake or not make it interesting at the very least.

Manowar - Fighting The World

Less metal more hard rock but the song Needle by Aussie band The Screaming Jets gets me especially the lines "Held an old friend as he died. Oh what a wasted life." It's too close to real life. There's also another song a mate of mine wrote about a fatal air crash that took out half the football team which sends shivers down my spine because of the personal connection. Kiske hanging on to the end of the chorus twice toward the end of I Want Out. Ron hanging on the end of the chorus at the end of Leave Scars. However as an entire performance The Angles Doc Neeson Live at Narara where Doc comes out for the first song in a tux as mild mannered, almost business man like person, then slowly transforms song after song as the devil behind his eyes slowly takes over and creates the madman.

Sucks getting old and not being bullet proof any more.

Raw Power - After Your Brain

I'm pretty sure there used to be a few places in NSW that had motor oil on tap. Tooheys, (NSW's piss water) made a stout that I seem to remember being on tap in a few Leagues clubs in the burbs when I was living there. These days we have micro breweries set up in city blocks for the hipsters to go to, while the seasoned barflies hang out at the same dingy shit holes where your feet stick to the carpet and the place doesn't look like it's been cleaned in a decade. Those old barflies aren't changing pubs for anyone, they'll even get used to a new beer if the bar changes contract but keeps the same owner.

Until recently Aussie pubs were controlled by contracts and to a large extent they still are. Pubs signed a contract with one or the other leading brewer which got them decent prices on keg beer which they pushed hard because the more they sold the more incentives they got from the brewery. For a quite a few years we didn't even have cross border beer on tap (i.e NSW brewed was not available in other states. Vic brewed not available in other states etc). It could be bought by the bottle or by the can over the bar but it was dearer and most people just ordered by the glass. The main reason things opened up was because many breweries got bought out by other breweries. By the time the Japanese and Taiwanese companies started buying all our local breweries things opened up a bit more. But it was still in a bar's best interest to push their tap beer and the tap beer was chosen by the biggest incentive. There was often only three different beers on tap and those were the ones that were heavily marketed on tv and in newspapers etc. These days things have changed a little bit with more bars offering IPA's and even cider on tap but it's only in the last decade or so that it's happened.