THE CLOCK HAS STOPPED TICKING?

Something remarkable happened this Saturday night. Van Halen was a no show when it came to the late night concert. Granted that the music started very late in the evening and I didn't want to stay up all night, but subconsciously I was delaying putting on the headphones, probably because a) I was not in the mood to listen to Van Halen and b) I was not in the mood to flood my body with another dose of tequila. But I did changed my mind and at around 11 PM went outside into the cold and listened to someone other than Van Halen and flood my body with a moderate amount of tequila. I'm not sure yet whether this means my "Year of Van Halen" is officially over.

Instead of a live concert, I opted for a collection of studio and live recordings, Echo & the Bunnymen's Ocean Rain, the expanded and remastered version that came out in 2003. Ocean Rain was first released on May 8, 1984. The album was marketed as "the greatest album ever made" and McCulloch later said it was because they believed it was. Although he also said it was meant as a joke when he said, "That wasn't my idea! I was on the phone to Rob Dickins (managing director of Warner Bros.) just joshing and I said 'Oh, it's the greatest album ever made.' And he used it on the poster." In a 2005 interview for Record Collector magazine, Sergeant asked, "Why not?" After wondering "what all the fuss was about", he went on to ask, "Doesn't every band think that way when they've got a new record out?"

Music journalist Max Bell said in his 1984 review for The Times newspaper, "This time vocalist Ian McCulloch has tempered his metaphysical songs with a romantic sweetness and the band's melodies are more to the fore. Acoustic guitars, brushes and sparingly used keyboards all add to the album's optimistic warmth and there is a consistency of atmosphere in songs like 'Seven Seas' and 'Silver', the current single, which justifies the departure

In the review of the original release on Allmusic, Ocean Rain was described as Echo & the Bunnymen's "most beautiful and memorable effort" and went on to describe "The Killing Moon" as the band's "unrivalled pinnacle"

Blender described the album as "a portrait of splendid derangement with spectacular orchestrations".

Mojo said the album had "effervescent songs, sympathetically orchestrated".

In his 2005 book Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978–1984, British music journalist Simon Reynolds describes the album as "lush, orchestrated and [...] overtly erotic".

Along with the other four of the band's first five albums, Ocean Rain was remastered and reissued on CD in 2003 – these releases were marketed as 25th anniversary editions. Eight bonus tracks were added to the album. This is the version I listened to this evening.

When reviewing the 2003 remastered edition Allmusic added "the bonus material is nothing less than superb, and makes the band's best album even better".

He closes his eyes

Reality's grip released

Carried far away

Fresh snow coats the ground
Bright stars awash in moon's light
Feels the winters chill

Swept by musics sound
He offers no resistance
Rides emotions wave

Download it here:

http://mccranksjuke.blogspot.com/2008/02/echo-bunnymen-ocean-rain-b-sidesdemos.html

DRIVEWAY ROCK CONCERT

The week went by quickly with its ups and downs. The weekend arrives and its time to relax. Since I was skiing all last weekend and no new snow of any significant amount has fallen since then, the plan is to hang out at the house. There are a number of things I've been negligent getting done, which I now hope to make some progress on.

First up was Echo & The Bunnymen's show in their hometown at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in August of 2001. The track listing almost serves as a 'best of'. Songs from each phase of the band are found on the CD. Early songs such as 'Rescue' and 'All That Jazz' are played with the same vibrant energy as they were in 1980. Will Sergeant unique guitar work shines on cuts such as 'Over The Wall' and 'The Cutter'. Ian McCulloch's raspy voice is in top form, especially on 'The Killing Moon' and 'Nothing Lasts Forever'. The band's performance of 'Ocean Rain' is unbelievable - it seems like it wouldn't be possible to transfer the beauty of the recorded version of this song to a live setting, but they succeed. I enjoyed this commercially available recording immensely!

Sits atop the pole

Owl black against the moon lit sky

Calls into the night

Sounds so compelling

A voice like an angel

Launched into a dream

Lives a life adrift

Searches for what seems secure

Always out of reach

Download it here:

http://www.rapidshare.com/files/155160608/Echo_And_The_Bunnymen_-_2006_-_Live_In_Liverpool.part1.rar%20http://megadownload.net/search/echo%20%26%20bunnymen/all.html

http://megadownload.net/download/rs/155166259/echo_and_the_bunnymen_-_2006_-_live_in_liverpool.part2.rar

Instead of listening to another hour+ long show, I went for something short and sweet. I popped Van Halen's 1991 F.U.C.K studio album into the CD player. This is their third number 1 album and it's loaded with some of the best Sammy era songs.

According to Ian Christe's The Van Halen Saga:

"Despite Eddie's gestures to sobriety after his father's death, the F.U.C.K. sessions were marked by the frequent pffft of beer cans opening - at least half a case a day. "My problem is that I go to the office to drink," Eddie told Guitar World. "It's completely ass-backwards. And the only reason I kept doing it is because it still works, believe it or not. It just breaks down inhibitions. And I'm too inhibited, ordinarily - I get real nervous."

"Ultimately the album became Hagar's favorite with the band, with 5150 a close second. F.U.C.K. was the hardest rock he'd recorded with Van Halen, probably what Roth-era fans would have preferred at the outset in 1986. At times it resembled the best possible Sammy Hagar solo record imaginable. Though sounding more vivid, Van Halen did seem to be entering a holding pattern - but nobody was going to complain about circling at number 1."

Sounds so delicious

Provides juice to his aged joints

Blows his fucking mind

BLUE SKIES AND KILLER SNOW

I woke to the sounds of people preparing breakfast in the hut. Eat, get dressed and then head out into the snow, climbing the 800 feet to the summit of Bald Knob. What a view of the Elk Mountains, with a string of snow covered 14,000 foot peaks jutting up before us. Turn around and do some laps in the foot of untracked powder, weaving in and out of the isolated trees. We next ascend a different part of the mountain, in search of new powder on a densely wooded slope. The pleasure to gliding downhill weaving in and out of trees, riding on a cushion of soft white fluff! Hooting and hollering, punctuated with the sound of snapping branches!

Back at the hut and crack open the bottles of tequila. Dinner, more tequila, a game of charades, more tequila and cap off the night with fireworks that I hauled up the mountain! What a blast of a day in a beautiful location surrounded by such beautiful people!

After everyone called it a night and headed upstairs to the comfort of their bunks, I went outside to begin the nights music. I started off with The Killers performance at the Fenix Festival in Arena Santiago, in Santiago, Chile on November 4, 2007. Great sounding recording of their whole show. This was a week before they released their compilation album called "Sawdust", containing B-sides, rarities, and some new material, on November 12, 2007. They were riding a wave of popularity at the time (and still are), and therefor headlined many festivals in Europe, South America and the US that year. They're hot on this recording and the crowd loves it! They were also rocking the McNamara hut that night.

The planets align

A universe poised to speak

No one takes notice

Climb into the trees

Many painful steps upward

Lured by the powder

Cigar embers burn

Tequila and the music flow

Meant to tranquilize

Download it here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/74303245/The_Killers_-_F_nix_Festival__Santiago__Chile__04.11.07_.rar

Van Halen headlined the show tonight! I pulled out the second half of their May 1992 show in Fresno, CA, sending me into a higher state of ecstasy! There was so much tequila drinking on this trip that my flask held only a couple fingers worth, requiring I break out that bottle of red wine I had hauled up, sitting unopened inside the hut. That kept the party going right up until the end! A fantastic recording, even though it had been edited to remove all of Sammy's chatter between the songs, taking away from the concert experience I had grown to enjoy.

Behind the scenes that year, deep animosity still poured out into the open between the long departed David Lee Roth and Van Halen. According to Ian Christe's The Van Halen Saga:

Roth appeared on Howard Stern's radio show in July 1992, offering his pitch to be reinstated in Van Halen. Perhaps sensing some weakness behind the band's protest of continued happiness, he unleashed his cruelest torrent of anti-Sammy abuse yet. "Sammy is a mindless little bridge troll. Everything that comes out of his mouth is word barf. It's the lowest common denominator. It's music for children. Jimi Hendrix never made music for children. The fourteen-year-olds may have loved it, but the Beatle's never made music for twelve-year-olds." "The reason I left Van Halen was they were completely stoned all the time. How do you make music with someone who is completely stoned or copping a buzz on a regular basis?"

Needless to say, Dave's musical career was sagging, drawing under capacity crowds when taking his show on the road. After hearing the news of Dave bashing the band, Eddie replied: "For anybody to think he's coming back is just ridiculous! It was a divorce - and who wants to relive that?"

In bed some time around 1 am.

Powers through the snow

A beauty in a backpack

Tight at forty three

Eddie takes the stage

Beneath the starry night sky

Sends him to heaven

Download Part 2 if USA 1992 here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4I0SX0ZG

BUNNYS HOPPING IN THE SNOW

Second hut trip of the season. Picked up Kathy Thursday night and we drove west into the mountains. Having company on the drive made the time fly by. I dropped her off in Carbondale while I continued on and parked at a turn off along Castle Creek Road, Aspen a few miles away. No party tonight as I was tired and knew I had to exert myself the following morning.

Friday morning I met others at the Hunter Creek trail head and we began the six mile, 2000 foot skin up to the McNamara Hut. It's always an excruciating experience for me, one foot in front of the other, climbing, climbing, climbing. I eventually reach the hut and can drop my load.

Once everyone arrived at the hut, a few of us head out to climb Bald Knob. I was already tired and this climb exhausted me. But it was worth it because there was a foot of powder on the slopes leading down to the hut and we carved one beautiful turn after the other.

A marvelous dinner, an evening of drinking wine and tequila and after people began checking into bed, it was time for my late night concert outside on the deck of the hut. The outdoor temperature was somewhere hovering above 0 degrees Fahrenheit. No problem, that tequila fired power plant in my belly kept me warm long enough to enjoy the nearly two hours of music.

First up was Echo & The Bunnymen, a show recorded by the BBC during the band's concert at the Liverpool Empire Theater on January 11, 1988 and broadcast on BBC Radio 1's In Concert program on January 16, 1988. Excellent sound, the band playing at their peak. At the end of 1988, Ian McCulloch left the band to pursue a solo career, while the rest decided to continue without the lead singer. Tragedy hit the band in the summer of 1989 when Pete de Freitas, their drummer, was killed in an auto accident. The Bunnymen were silent for the following 8 years.

Distant suns burning

Shine in the cold winter's night

Diamonds in the sky

Ten thousand feet high

Liquor fueled rocket ascends

Reaches for the stars

Download it here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/96220718/_1991__Echo___The_Bunnymen_-_BBC_Radio_1_Live_In_Concert__1988_.rar

EATB warmed up the stage for the main act of the evening, Van Halen who kicked ass at the Selland Arena in Fresno, CA on May 14 & 15, 1992, recorded live during the 1992 "Carnal Knowledge" tour. An excellent soundboard recording that was broadcast in August of 1992 as part of the "Cabo Wabo Rock Radio Festival". It was an invigorating shock to go from EATB's dark swirling fusion of gloomy post-punk and Doors-inspired psychedelia to Van Halen's big rock sound led by Eddie's magic guitar and Sammy's shout-out vocals. I was trippin under the stars, dancing to the music!

The show ended at midnight, having listened to only disc one of a two CD set. I knew I'd be getting up early when others rose to prepare breakfast. Went into the darkened hut and dropped immediately into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Time to go outside

A full flask in his gloved hands

Steps over the edge

Fiery descent

Blue sparks cross the twilight sky

Life's sudden ending

Download it here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L0T2F7IS