Do you have a question about stage 4 brain cancer? Ask if you do!
When you think you’re going to have a quiet weekend & you get a late Saturday morning phone call from your mother saying your brother is in the hospital, about to have surgery for appendicitis. All went well!
He’ll be fine but will stay there overnight and be released today. I’d much prefer it to be me, then I wouldn’t worry as much.
HONORABLE MENTIONS (Really nothing bad about these albums)
Dead Sara – Temporary Things Taking up Space EP
If these songs were a part of a full album, it would easily be number 1 on my list
Dead Sara – Anybody “Acoustic” Single
Easily my favourite song of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tesseract – Sonder
Alter Bridge – Live at The Royal Albert Hall
The stereo audio is not very good, you can barely hear the orchestra. The surround mix on the blu-ray is MUCH better.
Pretty Vicious – Move single
Pentatonix – Top Pop, Vol. 1
Tremonti – A Dying Machine
Chromeo – Head over Heels
Live EP – Local 717 EP
Nothing but Thieves – What did you think when you made me this way? EP
Fall Out Boy – MANIA
Opeth – Live at Red Rocks Amphitheater
Smashing Pumpkins – SHINY & OH SO BRIGHT PT.1/NO PAST. NO FUTURE. NO SUN.
Our Lady Peace – Somethingness
DISAPPOINTMENTS
Greta Van Fleet – Anthem of the Peaceful Army
Corrosion of Conformity – No Cross No Crown
CONCERTS I SAW THIS YEAR
Big Wreck (Regina)
I Mother Earth & Finger 11 (Regina)
Queens of the Stone Age w/ Royal Blood opening (Calgary)
Comedian Jim Jeffries (Regina)
Foo Fighters (Calgary)
Comedian Craig Ferguson (Regina)
Boney M (Regina)
Usually I head up to Saskatoon to see Trivium on tour. They skipped Saskatchewan completely this time. Typical Canadian during a North American tour is, Montreal, Toronto, & maybe Vancouver now. The fact that I got to see all of this stuff live is pretty cool. Only had to go to Calgary to see Queens of the Stone Age with Royal Blood & Foo Fighters.
If I had to pick my favourite concerts of the year, Queens of the Stone Age & Boney M. would both take the win. Could be that it was my first time seeing both bands live. Boney M’s rhythm section was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!
Here’s what to expect in 2019. Big Wreck, Alter Bridge, Anthrax, Devin Townsend, Dream Theater (already preordered for release Feb. 22), Megadeth, Tool, Lamb of God, Mark Morton (Lamb of God guitarist) preorder January 11, full release March 1st, Rob Zombie, Slipknot, Chevelle, & In Flames (preordered available January 11). Likely more, that’s just off of the top of my head.
I’m really excited for the ‘In Flames’ album, full release March 1st.
This is a more thorough list of loud wire’s most anticipated rock & metal albums of 2019.
The last Tool album was released in 2006, the last System of a Down album was released in 2005. There will be a new Tool album before a System of a Down album.
Megadeth might release a song for preorder this week?
A baseball player is offered more than what he asked for from his previous team as a free agent, $300,000,000 over 10 years. More than that was offered & he turned it down. He must really not like where he was, I doubt any other team will offer him $10,000,000 a year to play a game for a living? Once he hits the age of 30 or shortly thereafter you see almost all players start to decline athletically. The back end (the last 3-5 years) of $300,000,000 will be terrible if he gets that deal.
The more you share this, the more readers I get. No, I’m not profiting from this in any way. I can’t tell who’s reading this but thank you!
Why did this become a music blog? “Because music is a BIG @#!$%^*&( DEAL”-Dave Grohl
“I feel good about the good things, & bad about the bad things”-Dave Grohl
“Learn from your mistakes & don’t repeat them”-Chris
Do you have a question about stage 4 brain cancer? Ask if you do!
When you think you’re going to have a quiet weekend & you get a late Saturday morning phone call from your mother saying your brother is in the hospital, about to have surgery for appendicitis. All went well! Great way to start the new year bro!
He’ll be fine but will stay there overnight and be released today. I’d much prefer it to be me, then I wouldn’t worry as much.
HONORABLE MENTIONS (Really nothing bad about these albums)
Dead Sara – Temporary Things Taking up Space EP
If these songs were a part of a full album, it would easily be number 1 on my list
Dead Sara – Anybody “Acoustic” Single
Easily my favourite song of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tesseract – Sonder
Alter Bridge – Live at The Royal Albert Hall
The stereo audio is not very good, you can barely hear the orchestra. The surround mix on the blu-ray is MUCH better.
Pretty Vicious – Move single
Pentatonix – Top Pop, Vol. 1
Tremonti – A Dying Machine
Chromeo – Head over Heels
Live EP – Local 717 EP
Nothing but Thieves – What did you think when you made me this way? EP
Fall Out Boy – MANIA
Opeth – Live at Red Rocks Amphitheater
Smashing Pumpkins – SHINY & OH SO BRIGHT PT.1/NO PAST. NO FUTURE. NO SUN.
Our Lady Peace – Somethingness
DISAPPOINTMENTS
Greta Van Fleet – Anthem of the Peaceful Army
Corrosion of Conformity – No Cross No Crown
CONCERTS I SAW THIS YEAR
Big Wreck (Regina)
I Mother Earth & Finger 11 (Regina)
Queens of the Stone Age w/ Royal Blood opening (Calgary)
Comedian Jim Jeffries (Regina)
Foo Fighters (Calgary)
Comedian Craig Ferguson (Regina)
Boney M (Regina)
Usually I head up to Saskatoon to see Trivium on tour. They skipped Saskatchewan completely this time. Typical Canadian during a North American tour is, Montreal, Toronto, & maybe Vancouver now. The fact that I got to see all of this stuff live is pretty cool. Only had to go to Calgary to see Queens of the Stone Age with Royal Blood & Foo Fighters.
If I had to pick my favourite concerts of the year, Queens of the Stone Age & Boney M. would both take the win. Could be that it was my first time seeing both bands live. Boney M’s rhythm section was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!
Here’s what to expect in 2019. Big Wreck, Alter Bridge, Anthrax, Devin Townsend, Dream Theater (already preordered for release Feb. 22), Megadeth, Tool, Lamb of God, Mark Morton (Lamb of God guitarist) preorder January 11, full release March 1st, Rob Zombie, Slipknot, Chevelle, & In Flames (preordered available January 11). Likely more, that’s just off of the top of my head.
I’m really excited for the ‘In Flames’ album, full release March 1st.
This is a more thorough list of loud wire’s most anticipated rock & metal albums of 2019.
The last Tool album was released in 2006, the last System of a Down album was released in 2005. There will be a new Tool album before a System of a Down album.
Megadeth might release a song for preorder this week?
A baseball player is offered more than what he asked for from his previous team as a free agent, $300,000,000 over 10 years. More than that was offered & he turned it down. He must really not like where he was, I doubt any other team will offer him $10,000,000 a year to play a game for a living? Once he hits the age of 30 or shortly thereafter you see almost all players start to decline athletically. The back end (the last 3-5 years) of $300,000,000 will be terrible if he gets that deal.
The more you share this, the more readers I get. No, I’m not profiting from this in any way. I can’t tell who’s reading this but thank you!
Why did this become a music blog? “Because music is a BIG @#!$%^*&( DEAL”-Dave Grohl
“I feel good about the good things, & bad about the bad things”-Dave Grohl
“Learn from your mistakes & don’t repeat them”-Chris
I fell asleep to “Coheed & Cambria” the album “No World for Tomorrow”
I exercised to “Muse” the album “Simulation Theory”
I love the fact that everyone’s entitled to a bad day……………..unless you’re me. “Don’t let anyone else affect your mood”. Why do I have to be held to this GIGANTIC pain in the butt standard, & nobody else has too? That’s a TON of messed up pressure, especially when I actually care about others. I guess I go about it the wrong way.
“I will be albatross…” for as long as you need. I’ve earned it! Might as well let me be your human punching bag!
I have the same New Year resolution as I do every year. Do more exercise, get closer to walking on my own, be more independent, & just get better at everything. Realistically this year, I need to do a TON more of practicing walking.
Goodbye 2018, you sucked. Hello 2019, can you be better please?
Well, “Here I go again”
In no way do I want to belittle what people did for me on December 31st. Ice cream cake & a banner saying “Congratulations on 10 years cancer free”. That was great after one of my worst days (mentally) of the year. Thank you to Mom, Dad, Mitch, Rachel, Danielle, Megan, Kim, Karen, & Ray. I hope you had fun! I wanted to hibernate for the next 3 years. Sorry for the negative attitude, I just wanted to keep it really low key & drink my problems away! I didn’t, I was far too sober. Remember that 10 years ago on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 I was diagnosed with brain cancer.
For me 2018 was a lot like high school, “When does this stop? Is there any way I can get out of here sooner?” I felt awkward & out of place for most of it. 2019 & nothing has really changed. I’m in a wheelchair & still have an iPatch. Thanks for the celebration. I really didn’t want it to be about me at all. It was a New Year for everyone.
WOW, one day of exercise, when you last did exercise on December 20th, really makes you tired & sweaty.
Here’s what my cancer clinic doctor wrote about me. The report is actually 7 pages long but this is a small paragraph to sum up what it says.
“A 28-year-old man presented to the emergency room with a severe headache of one day’s duration. A computerized tomography scan showed a hemorrhagic tumor measuring 3.9 x 4.4 cm in the left cerebellar hemisphere. The resection specimen revealed medulloblastoma. He had two episodes of rebleeding and multiple postoperative issues preventing the use of prone craniospinal radiotherapy. We designed a supine technique for this tall man, which was not complicated to set up. The rapid safe implementation of this technique allowed us to avoid further rebleeding and successfully treat the residual tumor. This technique is the described technique in this case report and is compared to other techniques. At 7.5 years after surgery, he is alive without cancer and with only a mild residual deficit. This case is unusual since the majority of patients with the diagnosis of hemorrhagic medulloblastoma died.”
I woke up too early on New Year’s Eve day. Like 5:07 or 6:07 am. After flopping around in bed until 8-8:30 am, I admitted defeat. Had breakfast & hit the couch. I went to bed around 10:00 pm. On occasion I sleep for a minimal amount of time. Usually I flop around in bed for roughly 2 hours before I fall asleep. I was tired & fell asleep too fast.
I just saw this which makes me feel less worried about this streaming music non-sense, to a point. Worse comes to worse, google play, here I come. Don’t screw this up Apple or you’ll fit in the category of Trump supporters. They’ve all but taken away my faith in humanity.
2nd release from them “Anthem of the Peaceful Army” after the 8 song release (two 4 song EPs sold as one 8 song album) “From the Fires”. Still all I hear from other music blogs is “THEY SOUND TOO MUCH LIKE LED ZEPPELIN!!!!!!” Is that really the only thing anyone takes away after listening to their album? If so, thank you, I know what you think. Please stop whining about them & stop listening to them if you hate it so much!
I will say this 2nd release from them pales in comparison to their earlier release. It does have some cool stuff on it though. One song at the bottom to compare the 2 albums.
Anthem of the Peaceful Army
2017 FROM THE FIRES
It may be that I just prefer up tempo songs? The first album had zero slow songs. This second album has a small handful of them.
Look at them just releasing a steady diet of music. Quick turn-a-round!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ll give you this post & a Thursday exercise post. I’m taking Friday off so that I get a 4 day weekend, Monday is Canada day!
No such thing as a stupid question! Feel free to ask me on Facebook or the website!
Pick what you want to know about & feel free to skip the other stuff. The www.youtube.com links are there for a point of reference if you don’t know what I’m talking about.
Do you have a question about stage 4 brain cancer? Ask if you do!
Music throughout the weekend. “Dead Sara”, “Nickelback”, “The Beatles”, “Nirvana”, “Big Wreck”, & “Devin Townsend Project”
LANGUAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, Nickelback’s album “The State” I enjoy once in a while. I don’t need anymore. I had 3 CDs & gave 2 of them to my aunt in Alberta. Hate them if you want but they’ve put in the work to get to where they are. I wouldn’t call myself a BIG fan, but Nickelback has their place in the current music scene!
Friday ended with me doing dishes, running the dishwasher, & vacuuming. Kim picked up some steaks to BBQ, then we watched the last 4 episodes of “The Ranch” on Netflix. I started watching the baseball game right after. Kim pipes up “Hey, let’s watch the rest of The Ranch”, I reply “We did, it’s done. We finished the 5th season.”
She’ll leave her phone on the arm of the couch to do some stuff in the kitchen. Someone will text, email or Facebook something, I’ll tell her or move it away. It vibrates the entire couch, drives me nucking futz. If I wanted a vibrating couch we’d likely have one, not a cell phone.
Saturday we were boring. Laundry, cleaning & some sitting around watching www.youtube.com clips, like this almost 24 minute video. Followed by supper & a baseball game.
Went out this afternoon to hang out with Chris, Laurie & their 2 kids. Grabbed a few groceries for supper. Then I’ll watch the Jays game well Kim finish’ her weekly spring cleaning.
20 years ago today, June 24, 1998 I had my high school graduation. In the yearbook there’s a photo of me at the after grad party with the biggest cheesy grin you have ever seen!
Foo Fighters on James Corden, which I forgot to record?
HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!! “Damage Plan/former Pantera & HELLYEAH” drummer Vinnie Paul has died. I guess now he can be with his brother who was shot on stage as a member of “HELLYEAH” in 2004. He was also the guitarist in Pantera.
More on Vinnie Paul, his brother Dimebag Darrel & Pantera.
I used to just demolish Metallica whenever I heard a song or mention of their name, but no more, other than the album “St. Anger” which has 0 production of any kind.
This album was released in 2016. I was 36 at the time. Their first album “Kill em All” was released in 1983. “Hardwired” was the first album I enjoyed of theirs. Only took Metallica 33 years to release something I liked. I had about 3 of their CDs & iTunes downloads. The album with the symphony was decent, I didn’t listen to it much though. I had “The Black Album/Self-Titled” album & “Master of Puppets”. The first band I played in, everyone else was a fan of Metallica. That’s why I had those 2 CDs. I found “Hardwired” to be a ‘gateway’ album into the rest of their catalogue. I now have all of their studio albums, & the live album with the San Francisco Symphony. I do enjoy the albums I’ve heard so far. I just need to listen to “…And Justice for All” & of course “St. Anger” sounds terrible due to the severe lack of production.
“Hardwired” was the album that grabbed me & made me finally pay attention. I still think they’re over rated, but very talented. Name another metal band that gets FM radio play as much as Metallica?
I’d say in the last 15-20 years my musical taste has changed drastically, listening to more heavy stuff. I just find it easier to accept & listen to. I can either ‘unplug’ & enjoy it or really think about what each musician is doing.
I always thought “Anthrax” was the perfect mix of metal & punk music, & they’re great. This “Metallica” album does it really well. It sounds nothing like “Anthrax”, just a different take on those influences. Here’s one “Anthrax” tune followed by a few tracks from Metallica’s “Hardwired”
The more you share this, the more readers I get. No, I’m not profiting from this in any way.
Why did this become a music blog? “Because music is a BIG @#! $ %^*&( DEAL”-Dave Grohl
“I feel good about the good things, & bad about the bad things”-Dave Grohl
“Learn from your mistakes & don’t repeat them”-Chris
Don’t feel as though you have to click on every link.
I played baseball from 1984-1997. When I watch baseball I understand what is going on in each players head. Every player is considering what the pitch will be, the defense is thinking about what they’ll do when the ball is hit & where they need to be. So I get that it’s boring for many people. I admit I wasn’t the smartest player on the team but I tried to keep track of everything that was going on. It’s a thinking game, then a quick reaction to what’s happening with every pitch.
I played on 2 teams in 1997 High School team & a city league team, mostly at 3B. I couldn’t hit water if I fell out of a boat. It’s reassuring to know what the coaches were thinking on my way to the ball park. “Chris playing 3B batting 9th”. Very good to know where I’d be for 98% of the time for 2 years. I did throw my arm out the last year (1997). When I saw that my boss at the Delta Hotel, & later on a paper supplier were looking for players on the company softball team. I jumped at the chance to join. I miss it, so I watch almost every Blue Jays game on TV. If I don’t see the game because we’re out, I record it & if it’s done I’ll watch Blue Jays in :30. If we’re going to my parents cabin for a few days or elsewhere I’ll record all of the Blue Jays in: 30 while we’re gone.
I miss being in a rock band also. I’ve been in 2 or 3. I was always the singer & rhythm guitar player. I only sang because I was “The Best of what’s Around”. I certainly don’t miss gathering my gear, every bass & guitar (3-7 of them), & taking them home at 2:00 am though. Now I just listen to a TON of music. Eventually I’ll be playing my guitar it just won’t be on a stage at a bar.
I’ll probably will never play catch again with any type of ball, let alone a baseball. I’ll never play live music again either. I can sit around here at some point though & play my guitar though! Things changed immediately when I came out of a coma. Maybe as much as everyone changes or maybe more? Change isn’t necessarily a bad thing! I highly suggest not changing anything because of cancer, cause WOW, that came out of nowhere for me…………………….BAZINGA!
Those were changes for me & it took me a while to get over the fact that I wouldn’t be able to do them. I was in the Rehabilitation Center at the time so it took me maybe 2 or 3 years to get over it, but I did. Along with figuring out how to do other things a different way. The world doesn’t always change to fit your needs, you have to figure out how you’ll adapt to the world & keep up with everyone else.
The real story behind Stone Temple Pilots debut album “Core”, which will turn 25 this year, from guitarist Dean DeLeo
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I fell asleep to first “Into Eternity” the album “The Incurable Tragedy” followed by “In Flames” the new album “Battles”
I’m just stretching still so this is what’s been playing in the house today “Lamb of God” the album “Strum Und Drang”, “Diemonds” the album “Never Wanna Die”, & “Big Wreck” the album “In Loving Memory of…”
Don’t feel as though you have to click on every link.
I proposed to Kim in the best way possible, a surefire way of making her say the magic word “Yes”. I caught her in an after work nap. When I arrived with flowers & a ring & dropped to one knee, she said “Yes”. She called her sister & told her “I don’t know what he said? He had flowers, said all of this romantic stuff, and then proposed. He told me too change from my sweats & T-Shirt to go out for a fancy supper”. That’s how I proposed to Brewster’s mother! Catch your future spouse asleep, your odds will be greatly increased, I believe.
I really miss exercising. I never thought I’d utter those words? When I start again, hopefully soon, I’ll have to build up to my regular numbers & likely reduce my crunches to 1200 or 1300 a day. 1500 is a little redundant I think, we’ll see? This pinched nerve non sense is driving me crazy! Sitting around & doing nothing productive other than stretching doesn’t fill my desire to be productive. Sorry if I sound like a whiny broken record. I guess I could plunk around on my guitar, as frustrating as it is. My brain knows what to do but my fingers disagree! “In the end, I’m not satisfied” with the status quo.
Well done by The Pretty Reckless, Highly Suspect, & Chevelle!
From this list, I’d have to go with the members of Tool, with Iron Maiden in 2nd.
“The Philosopher Kings” show Kim & I wanted to go to has been canceled, they’re in the studio recording a new album. Why would you schedule a tour & then cancel it for studio time? Seems odd to me?
Banger TV on www.youtube.com best metal albums of 2016. LANGUAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve heard a lot about Gojira, I’ve listened to the album on apple music, just seems too much miss & hit for me. I think for 2016, Anthrax & Third Ion released my favourite metal albums of the year, oh & Opeth wasn’t really a metal album it’s quite soft & calming, while being really good!
Don’t feel as though you have to click on every link.
My sciatic nerve is driving me nuts. I get up at 8:00 or 9:00am sit around in pain, watch TV, movies, Blu-rays, DVDs, listen to music, & read a bit. When Kim comes home I’m bored. I want to exercise & do something productive or just be a regular person for one day with a 9:00-5:00 job or 8:00-4:00 as it was. Great I survived cancer aka I’m alive that’s the upside, I got really lucky & I don’t take that for granted. A month & a half wasted because of a pinched nerve???????????????? Ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The year sort of ended the same way it started in that more celebrities passed away? Didn’t we start the year off with a steady week & a half with a celebrity passing away every day & a smattering of more throughout the year? Prince, Lemmy, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, George Michael, Carrie Fisher, her mother Debbie Reynolds, etc.?
How rockers reacted to Carrie Fisher’s death, on twitter.
Other than being in almost constant pain for roughly a month & a half, my break over the holidays was nothing to complain about! I got to see lots of family from out of town, Tim Wong, a lifetime friend Edmonton as well, Oh & Elka came from Edmonton too. 4 Christmas’s rolled into 9 days. My family, Kim’s family, a visit with Tim, & a visit with Elka.
Oh I’m a big fan of his album “Chasing Yesterday” by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. This should be great too!
I don’t know what it is about “Animals as Leaders” or “Gojira” but something just isn’t right for me? Both groups are right on the edge for me?
Alter Bridge behind the song “You Will Be Remembered”. With Mark Tremonti doing his solo project, & Myles Kennedy singing on Slash’s solo albums & now that Myles Kennedy has finished his solo album. They make plans 3 years in advance once a recording or tour is done.
Best trash metal albums of the 1990s. I wasn’t even into “grunge” at the time, so metal had no chance. This should be news for me too.
Remember JonBenet Ramsey? Who was found dead & her brother didn’t seem to care at the time? He seems to care about $750,000,000 now that the CBS documentary pointed that out.
10 legendary bands without a platinum album. I know why! They’re all punk & metal groups aka all in very small niche markets, a TON of people don’t like this type of music. I get it, I was exactly the same until the age of 18 or so.
Misplays of the year Jose Bautista vs. Roughned Odor. This was in May, 2nd Month of the season.
This was in October, in the playoffs. BEST SIGN EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I did it. I watched my first full game of NHL hockey on December 29th. Since the most recent strike or lockout, I’ve not watched an entire period of one NHL game. Probably portions of 7 periods of 7 games in 3 or 4 years. I watched L.A. Kings vs. my second favourite team the Edmonton Oilers who won 3-1. Hockey’s not the same as it used to be. It’s still tough for me to sit through an entire NHL game. I find the larger ice surface over sea in the Olympics or World Juniors to be a faster, wide open game.
I was never a diehard fan of Canada’s rock legends “The Tragically Hip”. For me they were there, very good at what they do, I have 4 of their monstrous catalogue of albums & I listen to them on occasion. The way they’ve had to end their career is terrible. The lead singer, Gord Downie, has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Raw deal, bad news.
