Spy Glass Blue - "Shadows"

Spy Glass Blue - Shadows

1997, Organic

1. Thin and Leaner

2. Lodging

3. In Sultry Places

4. Can You Feel

5. Me Mine

6. On and On

7. Stygian

8. Iron Grey

9. Ignorant Side

10. Come Patmos

11. Should Have

12. Tell

Hmmm.... so Spy Glass Blue is a band featuring Allan Aguire from Scaterd Few. Since I loved Sin Disease so much (and still love it to this day) I thought I'd check out Spy Glass Blue. Eh... it's alright. It certainly doesn't have the raw edge to it that Scaterd Few had. It's definitely more melodic and Allan's vocals are a bit more restrained, staying in a lower Bowie-esque mode for most of the disc. I kind of missed the yowling honestly. The basswork is also amazing. I can't remember who played on this album but that awesome spin warping bass that was present on Sin Disease is here too - only a bit more melodic. For some reason I've never really been able to get into this at all. It's not bad but I never really seem to want to go back to it.

Useless Fact: Allan Aguire and his family were on the show Wife Swap. They swapped with an uptight conservative Christian family. It was interesting. Of course the other family thought the Aguires were out of their minds for awhile!

Foxworthy, Jeff - "Big Funny"

Foxworthy, Jeff - Big Funny

2000, Dreamworks Nashville

1. Intro

2. Seeing Things on the Road

3. I'd Heard Every Redneck Thing

4. Telephones in the Bathroom

5. Jeff Gordon Enunciates

6. Speaking of Words

7. The Way I Grew Up

8. My Wife's Family

9. House Full of Girls

10. It's A Different World

11. I Don't Need to Know That

12. You're Being Trained

13. Women Want To Talk

14. Thanks Ya'll - Encore

15. Blue Collar Dollar

A decent amount of material on Big Funny shows up in the Blue Collar movies. So, like Foxworthy's latest, you may have already heard some of the stuff on here. Luckily for me, I think there's more that I haven't heard here. In fact, I think some of Jeff's best lines are on this disc. "It's a weird feeling to be mad and learning at the same time." Good stuff. I suppose it also helps that I haven't seen any of the Blue Collar movies in years. Big Funny ranks right up there with Totally Committed in terms of my favorite Foxworthy albums.

I will say one thing... in "You're Being Trained" Jeff talks about how women really rule the house and how all men are being trained. You know guys... it doesn't have to be like that. In my experience women can only control a man up to the point that he allows himself to be controlled.

Useless Fact: "Blue Collar Dollar" continues the tradition of music/comedy songs. I don't really like these.

Foxworthy, Jeff - "Games Rednecks Play"

Foxworthy, Jeff - Games Rednecks Play
1995, Warner Bros.

1. Introduction
2. Victoria's Secret
3. Games Rednecks Play
4. Southern Accent
5. Nasa & Alabama & Fishing Shows
6. Clampetts Go To Maui
7. I Love Being a Parent
8. Out of the Gene Pool
9. Seek and Destroy
10. Don't Drink and Drive
11. More You Might Be a Redneck if...
12. Party All Night

Jeff Foxworthy's second disc (after You Might Be A Redneck If...) is pretty good. I think it's a step up from the first one with some great stories - particularly taking his family to Hawaii. I've been listening to these at night to unwind lately and I got sick of the ones I had so I bought some of the other ones I didn't have.

Useless Fact: "Party All Night" is another one of those country songs with Foxworthy bits as the verses. It didn't quite make the transition from CD to my Ipod. Can't imagine why...

Star One - "Space Metal"

Star One - Space Metal

2002, Inside Out

1. Lift Off

2. Set Your Controls

3. High Moon (Outlander)

4. Songs of the Ocean (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)

5. Master of Darkness (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back)

6. The Eye of Ra (Stargate)

7. Sandrider (Dune)

8. Perfect Survivor (Alien)

9. Intergalactic Space Crusaders (Blake 7)

10. Starchild (2001: A Space Odyssee and 2010)

Star One is a side project of Arjen Lucassen. After he made his mellow Ambeon album Arjen wanted to make a straight-forward metal album. It's about as straight-forward as Arjen is really capable of. There's still plenty of progressive playing and multipart songs. However, it is heavier than anything Ayreon has done and the songs aren't as long for the most part - except for the 10 minute epic "Starchild". The songs are based off of various sci-fi films (I've provided the titles above). To be honest this sounds like a heavier version of The Universal Migrator II: Flight of the Navigator. Not that that's a bad thing. I'm not sure the hooks are as apparent but it's a really fun listen. It even made me want to rewatch some of these old classic movies. A few of the vocalists have appeared on other Ayreon projects like Damien Wilson and Floor Jansen. Russell Allen is from Symphony X and Ed Warby once again provides the drums. Basically, if you like Ayreon you'll like this too. My only complaint about this disc is that the chorus of "Sandrider" and the chorus of "Intergalactic Space Crusader" sound a little too similar.

Useless Fact: Star One also produced a live album and Arjen is currently working on a new Star One project as I write this.

Velocipede - "...Sane"

Velocipede - ...Sane

1994, REX

1. Blue Skies

2. Don't You Lose It

3. The Lost World

4. I Catch My Breath/I Let it Go

5. This Way

6. Why Not Now

7. One More Time

8. Just Like You

9. Never, Never, Never

10. Sane

Velocipede sort of snuck onto the scene in late, late '94 and disappeared just as quickly. I got it originally because it was on REX and back then I bought almost everything on REX. Some of the reason this wasn't popular was because it isn't quite metal and it's not quite alternative either. It kind of treads the water between both genres. I hated it when I got it on tape all those years ago. In fact... hate is not strong enough a word - I was disgusted with it. However, that was mostly because the production on this disc is abysmal. ABYSMAL. If I didn't know any better I'd say they just recorded vocals over demo material because the vocals are pretty clear. The drums and guitars are all buried and the cymbals are tinny... it's really too bad. The guitars have that cool jet-fuzz distortion that, with proper production, could have lent a shoegazer-esque "wall of sound" characteristic to the album and made it better. Also, listening to this in my old age I actually enjoy what's going on here. I think the songs are pretty good and there's some decent hooks to be had. I love the trippy "This Way" and the vocals are passionate and powerful. Though "One More Time" and "Just Like You" sound like they share the same riff. From what I've read the few people who have heard of this disc hate it but if you're like me and you like stuff off the beaten path you should check it out. As a bonus it's dirt cheap these days.

Useless Fact: The producer is listed as "Skinny." Choir fans know that this was drummer Steve Hindalong's alias before he started calling himself "Indie Hindie." So the question remains, did Steve Hindalong produce this disc? If so why in the world does it sound like it does? It was recorded at Neverland studios so I'm pretty sure they could have done a better job. Maybe the poor mixing was done on purpose but I can't imagine why. Oh... and a "velocipede" is a bicycle. Plain explanation, but cool name for a band... sounds like a bug...

Evans, Darrell - "Freedom"

Evans, Darrell - Freedom

1999, Word

1. Trading My Sorrows

2. So Good To Me

3. Freedom

4. I Am In Love With You

5. I Know

6. You Bless Me

7. When I Pray

8. You Are My Portion

9. Your Love Is Extravagant

10. I Lay Me Down

Freedom is a bit more commercial I think. In fact, I think this was one of the first albums to really start the whole "worship is now a defined style of music" nonsense that I completely despise. I don't think the collection of songs here is nearly as strong as they are on Let the River Flow. "Trading My Sorrows" was the biggest "hit" I guess you could say as it has been played in just about every church's contemporary worship service. This also makes me pretty much hate it by this point. Also Darrell gets a little rowdy...well as rowdy as "worship" is allowed to be with "When I Pray" which is kind of a rocker. Rockier than the rest of the album but with someone who has Mortification, Megadeth, and Devin Townsend in his music collection, "When I Pray" is just turned up a bit louder (like turned up to 6 instead of 5) and Darrell hit the "overdrive" switch on his amp. I do like "Your Love Is Extravagant" though. Actually, at the time I pretty much loved this disc but now I can't listen to it without thinking about how worship doesn't really mean "being consumed with God's presence" anymore as much as it means "light rock music with Jesus romance lyrics."

Just an aside... it wasn't too long after this disc came out that everyone was doing worship albums. Since worship was the cool thing, worship bands started getting record contracts. "Worship," as I've said, has transformed into something you do to a style of music with a very specific sound. What's funny is that all these new songs have permeated the church and have almost become new hymns. Okay, I'll stop ranting now. Seriously, this isn't a bad disc, I just have issues. It's me... not Darrell. Okay everybody? :-)

Useless Fact: I think Darrell stayed on the worship scene for awhile but I don't know if he put out any new albums. I also haven't really cared to look him up and actually see if he's done anything else. Though I did see him on one of those Songs 4 Worship commercials so.... he ain't dead or anything.

Evans, Darrell - "Let the River Flow"

Evans, Darrell - Let the River Flow
2002, Sony

1. New Song Arisin'
2. My God Reigns
3. We Will Embrace Your Move
4. Let the River Flow
5. You Are I Am
6. Refuge
7. The Kingdom Song
8. Favorite Friend
9. I Surrender
10. I Am Yours
11. How Deeply I Need You
12. The Spirit of Revival

I had a period in the late 90's/early 00's where all I listened to was worship music. There was a reason for that and maybe sometime I'll share that story but it's a little too person to put up on a public blog. You can email me or message me if you're really that curious. Anyway, the only thing I was listening to was Darrell Evans and stuff that came from Morning Star Ministries. It's good acoustic worship even though I don't really listen to it much anymore. "You Are I Am" remains one of my favorite songs and "I Am Yours" has a special place in my heart for various reasons. This music holds a lot of memories both awesome and terrible. I've left it on my ipod even though, as I said, I don't really listen to it that much.

Useless Fact: I have actually played about half these songs at meetings at one time or another.