Live Music Fridays Presents THE FLOYD...

Seriously, I don't know how I can do these guys justice. Pink Floyd is in my opinion on of the greatest bands to ever record music. Additionally, I don't think anyone can argue that any group out there has ever put on a better live experience. Flying pigs. Walls. Lasers. It's all good dog. 

I'm not sure that these guys have any intention of getting out there and playing live again, but someone should intervene and get Roger Waters and David Gilmour to put their differences aside and play one more tour. I'm beggin' ya! C'mon Man! C'mon!

Ok so maybe it's not happening. Well, here's a collection of live performances from The Floyd. If there's a band out there with a better show, I like to know about them.

Time...

Quality isn't the best on this one, but this is definitely worth a listen. This is back when Waters was still playing with them...





This next song kind of scares me, and it's total space rock, but it gives you an idea of what the early days of The Floyd were like. And it has a cool name... Careful With That Axe Eugene






There's so much more good shit out there from these guys. Do yourself a favor and go buy one of their live dvd's. Do it! Do it now!

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Live Music Fridays Presents Old School R.E.M...

Methinks I shall begin a blog series on live music. Basically, I love live music. Pretty much any live music. And since I'm in need of some blog inspiration today, I thought that maybe I should pump some live music vibes into your auditory and visual cortexes... corticies. whatever.

Hmmm, who should I start with. Let's go with a little old school R.E.M. Yes, that should work quite nicely.

This Athens, GA quartet helped me to properly calibrate my musical compass in the mid 80's. If first saw them live at The Fox theater in Atlanta. When they dimmed the lights for the show I was physically shaking with excitement, and standing in a puddle of my own urine. I was thirteen. The show included goodies from Murmur, Reckoning, Fables..., and even a little Chronic Town. P.S. Let's Active opened. Aaah, the days of early alternative music.

Over the years I've managed to see R.E.M. live in support of several of their albums, but as time has passed, they still haven't been able to capture the brilliance of those first few albums. They will always be a personal favorite.

So here's a few clips of R.E.M. performing back in the day when they were still a group of 4, Michael Stipe still had hair, and your music was either delivered to you in vinyl or cassette tape form. Go forth and take in the goodness...

I like how Stipe says "this is a new song." REALLY old...






I could go on and on. Good times. Come back next Friday for more live music.


What music have you seen live that was particularly amazing?

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Murmur Remastered

This album had a major impact on my life. It was the first time that I heard music that was not in heavy rotation on the radio and liked what I heard. Loved what I heard. I played this cassette in the 80's so much that it wore out and I had to get a second copy. Now R.E.M. have remastered and re-issued what I consider to be one of the finest albums ever recorded.

Murmur was arguably the first album to start the college radio music scene. Any band who calls themselves alternative has R.E.M. to thank for blazing that trail through the music landscape.

This album is a mix of Stipe's garbled lyrics, Peter Buck's jangling guitar, and Mike Mills driving Rickenbacker basslines in the backdrop. The songs were like nothing else at the time, and were largely ignored by the public being lost in the storm of vanhalen, heart, and 80's one hit wonders.

Check out this interview with Peter Buck to get his take on the reissue.

Of course nobody could understand Michael Stipe's lyrics back in the day. Maybe the remastering will make it all clear. Hope not.

Here's a few samples of this masterpiece

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