25 September 2010

The State of the Blog 25 September 2010

It’s Saturday.

And we all know what that means.

So sit back, relax, pop a cold one of your choice (me, it's Pepsi today) and get ready for this week’s State of the Blog address.

I have to admit that week after week saying ‘wow, it’s been a busy week’ might seem to get a little old, but it’s true.  It’s been a busy week.  We had a major new live album release on Tuesday and three of the heaviest traffic days on the blog to date.  And if you’re a fan of live progressive music, the past 8 days have been almost like the promised land…Magma last Saturday in Washington DC (with the Muffins), and then again Monday in NYC…Porcupine Tree doing a 3 hour set at Radio City last night, Univers Zero and Miriodor in Washington DC tonight, Ray Weston of echolyn in Boston tonight, and Magma/Sleepytime Gorilla Museum/Aranis in Germany today as well.  Of course, I missed everything but the new major live album, but those are the breaks, I suppose : )

This week’s been a busy one on the writing front as I’ve been trying to catch up on CDs that have been patiently awaiting reviews.  I’ve also been working on setting up a few new interviews, and hopefully the fruits of those labours will become evident soon.  I have some feelers out for what would be a pretty major one for me and the site, so keep your fingers crossed that it comes through.

Oddly, despite all this busy-ness, I don’t have as much to update you on.  Most of this is just stuff you’ll be seeing in the coming days and weeks.  It’s standard stuff.  Yet it feels like so much more at times.  SO instead of trying to dredge up exciting bon mots to share with you, I’ll offer up a quick top ten for the most accessed pages this week on the blog, my usual what am I listening to this week list,and get back to picking some retro reviews for this week.

First off, this week’s top ten:

1. OPETH: In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall due in September (254 hits this week!!!)
2. More Than 10 Questions With Ray Weston
3. Keith Emerson Health News Japan Shows Cancelled
4. Transatlantic New Live CD/DVD Info
5. Greg Lake Updates On Keith Emerson’s Health
6. CD/DVD REVIEW: Opeth - In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall (2010, Roadrunner Records)
7. CD REVIEW: Frogg Café - Bateless Edge (2010, 10T Records)
8. More Than 10 Questions With Guy Manning
9. Arjen Lucassen's Star One: Victims Of The Modern Age
10. James Labrie: new album cover art, track listing, more

Secondly, this week’s listening:

Shadow Circus: Whispers and Screams
Soft Machine: Drop
Electric Sorcery: II
TM+MR: Descending
SimakDialog: Demi-Masa
Jack Jeffrey: Passage to Agadir
Caravan: In the Land of Grey and Pink
Caravan: The Battle of Hastings
Caravan: The Unauthorised Breakfast Item
Camel: The Snow Goose
Camel: Moonmadness
Gong: Angel’s Egg
Gong: You

Time to get back to work work…and then back to the apartment for a nice in depth listen or five to a certain Magma album from 1992 for Monday…

See you soon!

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