Heads up: Pearl Jam are playing at Hard Rock Calling in London next year! Buy yourself a ticket then let me know that you’re coming so we can meet up!

In my opinion, 2009 was a fantastic year for music. Here’s my top five albums of the year, in no particular order – note that the album may not have been released this year, but perhaps I only discovered it (or at least really listened to it) this year.

As an aside: with most of these albums, I wasn’t particularly impressed with them on the first listen. But usually, that’s a good thing – as long as I don’t completely hate it, I’ll always give it a second go! But, albums that I like on the first listen are often just full of cheap hooks that I grow sick of after three months (can anyone say, “Nickelback”?). With the good ones, it’s only the second or third listen through – when the tunes become a bit familiar, and the lyrics start making sense – that things really start to pick up.

Pearl Jam – Backspacer (Grunge)
This one is a no-brainer – it says “Pearl Jam” on it so it was pretty likely to make the top five, even if I’d never heard it . This is their ninth studio album (!), and it’s unsurprisingly fantastic. It’s only short, but it’s clear that they’ve gone for quality over quantity.

Every song is great, but my personal favourites are Amongst The Waves, Unthought Known, and Force of Nature.

Karnivool – Sound Awake (Progressive Rock)
Hands down, Karnivool have to be one of the most talented bands in Australia. This album is much more progressive than their first, and includes some rather epic tracks, my favourite of which are Deadman (12min 4sec) and Change (10min 47sec).

We were lucky enough to see Karnivool perform in October this year – their songs sound just as good live as they do out of the studio.

Circa Survive – On Letting Go (Indie Rock)
This one falls into the “not released this year” category. It’s definitely not for everyone, and it definitely needs at least three listens; and it’s definitely amazing. There are so many subtleties in the songs that you pick up something new on every play-through.

This album really shines if you listen to it with a pair of decent quality headphones. Kristy got me a set of Denon C751‘s for my Birthday (holy crap, how expensive are they in Oz?!) and they’re perfect.

Rise Against – The Sufferer & The Witness (Post Hardcore)
Again, another album that wasn’t released this year, but I only came across it very recently, thanks to the wonders of Spotify and Amazon’s “Post Hardcore bestsellers list”. No, I’m not making this stuff up.

The closest thing I can compare these guys to is The Empire Strikes First by Bad Religion; fans of Blink 182, Yellowcard, or Finch will find something here to like. Rise Against’s more recent Appeal to Reason album was a very close contender here!

Billy Talent – III (Punk)
Ah, the only Canadian band that never fails to bring a smile to my face. I’ve always loved Billy Talent’s music, and especially their creative, poetic lyrics.

This album has a very similar sound to their previous album (titled II, and yes, their first album is titled I), so it was easy for me to get into. Yes, it’s simple, but it’s very, very good.

Honourable mentions have to go to One Day Remains by Alter Bridge, Golden Rule by Powderfinger, and Brand New Eyes by Paramore. Each of these albums is well worth listening to, but didn’t quite captivate me like the albums above.

How about you – what were your favourite songs/albums from 2009?

I’m all for trying new things, so when I saw an ad for an English National Ballet performance titled Strictly Gershwin I called up my ballet-loving friend Shannon and booked some tickets! I’d never seen a ballet performance before and thought that some Gershwin tunes might help me ease my way into it.

The music rocked. It was big band style and I got my money’s worth from the trumpets alone. But the dancing… Everybody else seemed to enjoy it, but… I was confused.

There were a few beautiful classical ballet performances interspersed with the strangest combination of styles you can imagine. Ballet dancers trying to do salsa, but with smooth, flowing movements instead of sharp sexy ones. Didn’t work. A big song and dance number like a Bjork film clip, with people pushing prams, toy soldiers on rollerblades and a coupla classical dancers in the middle of the mayhem. There was also a guest singer with a brilliant voice who had to be 70 years old. She could take the stage just fine, but seemed to refuse to leave without being escorted off on the arm of a fit young man in tights. Hmmm.

It was a fun night out but more like a variety show than a ballet! Strictly Gershwin? Yes. Strictly Ballet? No. Despite my efforts to widen my cultural awareness I think I can still claim never to have seen ballet. Back to the drawing board!

I never got into the Rockstar INXS show that was airing over here (and in Australia I believe). I don’t know why, maybe because I was never the hugest INXS fan – I mean, I have their Greatest Hits CD, but that’s about as much love as I’m willing to give them.

But last night whilst running at the gym, the new season of the show – Rockstar Supernova – flicked across the screen. As usual, I couldn’t be bothered changing channels, so I continued watching. And I was impressed!

Basic premise of this series – a new band is forming (“Supernova”), and they’re auditioning for a new singer – American Idol style. The band will feature former members of Metallica, Guns ‘n Roses, and even Tommy Lee from Motley Crue! Unfortunately, you don’t get to see the original audition shows (which are usually the only ones I’m willing to watch in the Idol series); but that means you only get the quality contestants.

It’s being dubbed as a “worldwide show”, and the voting is open for 24 hours after it airs in the USA… so I’m guessing that it’s also airing in Australia now; if so, and you like classic rock type of music – then check it out!

I love Wikipedia. Its articles cover practically anything, from major cities to modern bands. It truly is the one-stop-shop for finding information on almost anything, and has even been compared favourably to the Encyclopedia Britannica. And, it’s free!

(Aside: Speaking of bands, the more I learn about Coheed and Cambria, the more I love them. Their music alone is good enough to warrant a huge following; but after learning that their albums are all centric to a series of comic books written by the lead author – well, I was really blown away. And – as you’ve probably guessed – the Wikipedia entries concerning the band are very, very informative!)

Anyway – my boss came in today to show me a site that “competes” with Wikipedia – Uncyclopedia. With less than 20 thousand English articles, compared to Wikipedia’s 1.2+ million, they’ve still got some ways to go before they’re as authoratative; but their articles are certainly a lot more entertaining.

Take, for example, this exceprt from their article covering the history of Google’s motto:

The original Google corporate motto was “Don’t be evil”. Later, faced with the difficult choices that inevitably arise when running an international, multibillion dollar where morality is often the choice between subtle shades of gray, instead of black and white, Google decided to change the corporate motto to “Try not to be evil if you can help it, but sometimes none of your choices are good, so you just have to do the least evil thing in a given situation.”

As Google continued to expand and the money continued to roll in, the motto was again changed, to “Exactly how evil are we talking about here… and how much money is going to be involved?”; soon afterwards the corporate motto became, “Good, evil, it’s all kind of a matter of perspective, I think”, then, “You know, I think evil has kind of gotten a bit of a bad rap”, then “Hey, this evil thing is actually pretty fun,”, next “I (heart) evil”, followed by “MWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!”.

Priceless. Though some of the content isn’t appropriate for the kiddies, older folks should certainly find it entertaining.

Since coming back from Australia, we’ve acquired a bunch of new music. Here’s my take on a few of the albums:

Gomez: How We Operate – If you’ve ever listened to a Gomez song and liked it, then you should get this album. It’s almost like Gomez have created a “Greatest Hits” album, by creating 12 new killer tracks. Highly recommended.

Pete Murray: See the sun – Fans of Pete Murray’s first album should be equally impressed by the second. Not much has changed in terms of his style of lyrics, melodies, or song composition – but when you’ve got a winning formula, why change it?

Hoobastank: Every Man For Himself – Again, a perfect album for fans of their existing work. This one is so similar to their first album (“The Reason”) you’ll think it’s the missing second CD. Hoobastank have a huge sound, and their tracks simply burst with energy. If you’ve never heard of these guys but you’re a fan of Linkin Park, then you should get this album, and play it loud.

Just heard the coolest song and wanted to share. It’s on Bon Jovi’s new album and goes a little like this…

Welcome to wherever you are
This is your life; you made it this far
Welcome, you got to believe
That right here, right now you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be
Welcome to wherever you are.

This week I had the pleasure of seeing the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra perform in the General Assembly Hall of United Nations Headquarters. As the master of ceremonies said (I’ll have to paraphrase here): “Many great speeches have been given in this room. But there is a time for words, and there is a time for something better.”

The concert was part of United Nations Day celebrations, celebrating 60 years since the UN was formed and the centenery of Dag Hammarskjöld’s (the UN’s second Secretary-General) birth.

Dag Hammarskjöld is such a popular guy that several buildings, plazas etc in our neighbourhood are named after him. He was Swedish, so the Stockholm Orchestra was selected to perform this year in his honour. It turns out that he initiated these UN Day music events.

The performance was absolutely breath-taking. The music was incredible and there’s no way that I could do it justice in words here. Absolutely a 10/10 performance. If someone ever taps you on the arm and says, “want to hear the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra perform tonight?”, as happened to me, I recommend that you respond with “you betcha!”

Another highlight for me was hearing the current Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, speak. He has such a commanding presence and this ‘air’ of wisdom that really astounded me. And he spoke with such humility about the difficult decisions he faces at work and how the highest standard a Secretary-General can hold himself to is to think, “what would Dag Hammarskjöld do?”

I just felt so honoured to be there!

After sending Kristy and Lucy off to see The Pants, I found myself walking home alone. I guess that’s bound to happen when 2 people out of a group of 3 leave to see a movie. Anyway, there I was battling the crowds in Times Square, when I took a right around 51st and found myself at Sam Ash.

After recent discussions with David, I have come to appreciate that guitars are heaps cheaper in the USA than what they are in Australia; with this in mind, I headed in to check out their range of acoustics. Eventually, a dude came and did the whole “may I help you routine”; clearly this was a sign, as typically in Manhattan, getting service requires some sort of weapon, threat, or a black AMEX card.

Anyway, I told old mate the guitars that I was interested in, and he grabbed them down for me to play. They were pretty cool, but none of them were really what I was after. Eventually he asked, “Are you looking at Takamine?”, and handed me what he said was his “pick of guitars for that price range” – the EG540C. I certainly knew Takamine as a brand, but hadn’t considered them until that moment.

Straight away it felt really good to hold, and with a cut-away design, in-built tuner, and narrow neck it met all of my criteria. And, it was blue! As soon as I started strumming, I knew that I’d be buying that guitar. The sound is absolutely supurb! I managed to get a decent enough deal, with a case and a few extras thrown in as well.

Finally I made it home after a rather long walk, and I played my new guitar (which is still nameless!) until my fingers were sore. Then I figured I’d give kristy a “gerrod surprise” by hiding it, so I carefully placed it in plain view next to the computer desk (Kristy isn’t the most observant). After she found it (with some hints) I serenaded her for a couple minutes (sore fingers); she too thinks it sounds wicked.

Now, if only I could magically make myself good at it…

I hate treadmills. What could be more boring than running and running and getting nowhere?

I’ve tried a few things to spice things up, like (the obvious choice) imagining I’m somewhere else, reading (but it’s too bumpy) and putting Gerrod on a treadmill in front of me so we can pretend that if we run fast enough we’ll actually reach one another (imagine slow motion movie scene), but nothing worked.

But finally I’ve found the solution! Listening to music! Gerrod was kind enough to load some music onto my ipaq so I now have a driving beat to run to, and something that successfully distracts me.

Now I can run 2.6 miles (4.2 kilometres) in 30 minutes, which is a new record for lil old me. It may not sounds far, but keep in mind… I have short legs!

Recently I got a mail from Al to the tune of:

[I'm] compiling the ultimate get pumped up for the gym,run,ski etc music compilation and would appreciate your top 5-10 rippin run till u puke psyched to the max choices.

I reckon you can tell a lot about a person by the music they listen to, so I figure this wasn’t a challenge to be taken lightly. So what would you have on your list? (Bloggers, lets see your list published!) Here’s what I came up with, in no particular order (written as: Artist – Track [Album]):

1. Linkin Park – Session [Meteora]
   It’s the variations in the electronic drumming between the different segments of this one that really get you firing. Especially cool towards the middle of the song when they go crazy with the stereo effects, and then the last 20 seconds with all the insane samples they have.
2. Pearl Jam – Go [Vs]
   Classic Pearl Jam… a bit of a slow intro, but then it fires right up for the verse. This song goes right off in concert.
3. Regurgitator – Everyday Formula [Unit]
   Hard and heavy right from the start, I’ve always loved this song.
4. Radiohead – There There [Hail to the thief]
   How can you go past that drumming at the start of the song? Sure it’s a bit slower paced than the others, but the beat is just so driving. Like so many other Radiohead songs, this one just “has it all”.
5. Rage Against the Machine – Wake Up [Rage Against the Machine]
   It’s hard to pick only a single R.A.T.M. song but I’d have to say this one is my favourite.
6. Muse – Hysteria [Absolution]
   The guitar, the distortion in his voice, the live experience… there’s nothing about this song you can fault.
7. Pantera – Five Minutes Alone [Far Beyond Driven]
   Definitely not one for the faint hearted. Sure, they yell, they scream, they go a bit nuts – but the guitar and drums are unparalleled. It’s especially good if you actually know what the dude is “singing” .
8. Jimmy Eat World – A Praise Chorus [Bleed American]
   This song has such an awesome pace. Jimmy Eat World have such a great feel about their music – I reckon Bleed American would be the first album I would re-buy if all my CDs got stolen.
9. Blink 182 – Feeling This [Blink 182]
   Blink’s latest album was heaps more mature than their earlier stuff. The earlier albums are kinda fun if you’re a teenager, but this album (and especially this song) is just a bit more lasting. I love the great bass thump on the transition from the verse to the chorus!
10. Sevendust – Licking Cream [Home]
    Like Rage Against the Machine, it’s hard to pick only a single Sevendust song. I had to go with this one because Skin (the ex-singer from Skunk Anansie) is guest vocalist, and man can she whail.