Otter Limits

1. Roger – Dag Nasty (from 1992s Four on the Floor)
2. Stick – All (1993s Breaking Things)
3. Shine on You Crazy Diamond – Pink Floyd (1975s Wish You Were Here)
4. Romantic Junkie – All (1998s Mass Nerder)
5. No Other Me – Weezer (1996s Pinkerton)
6. Love Rescue Me – U2 (1988s Rattle and Hum)
7. Carry the Wounded – Tourniquet (1995s Carry the Wounded)
8. Up Against – Taking Back Sunday (2006s Louder Now)
9. Haunting – Haste the Day (2008s Dreamer)
10. Reclusion – Anberlin (2007s Cities)
11. So Long Self – MercyMe (2006s Coming Up To Breathe)
12. Prison – All (1990s Allroy Saves)

I was talking to a friend about this band’s new album earlier and that prompted me do a DOTM on them.

Metallica was a good band for a while. Their first few albums were pretty good but they hit a point where the music was just kind of, well, lame. In fact, their last few albums have been down right disappointing. And then that whole fight with Napster kind of made me lose respect for them too.

Kill Em All
Released in July 1983 by Megaforce Records.
Produced by Paul Curcio and Johny Zazula.
Band lineup:
James Hetfield – guitar, vocals; Lars Ulrich – drums; Cliff Burton – bass, background vocals; Kirk Hammett – guitar.
Tracks: 10
Highlights:
“Anesthesia Pulling Teeth” and “Am I Evil?”

Ride the Lightning
Released in July 1984 by Megaforce.
Produced by Metallica and Flemming Rasmussen.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 10
Highlights:
“Ride the Lightning” “For Whom the Bell Tolls” “Fade to Black” and “Creeping Death”

Master of Puppets
Released in March 1986 by Elektra.
Produced by Metallica and Flemming Rasmussen.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 8
Highlights:
“Battery” “Master of Puppets” “The Thing That Should Not Be” “Welcome Home Sanitarium” “Leper Messiah” and “Orion”

The $5.98 EP Garage Days Re-Revisited
Released in August 1987 by Elektra.
Produced by Metallica.
Lineup changes:
Jason Newsted took over for Cliff Burton on bass.
Tracks: 5
Highlights:
“The Wait”

And Justice For All
Released in August 1988 by Elektra.
Produced by Metallica and Flemming Rasmussen.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 9
Highlights:
“Blackened” “One” and “The Shortest Straw”

Metallica
Released in August 1991 by Elektra.
Produced by Bob Rock, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 12
Highlights:
“Enter Sandman” “The Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters”

Load
Released in June 1996 by Elektra.
Produced by Bob Rock, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 14
No highlights. I was not a big fan of this album.

ReLoad
Released in November 1997 by Elektra.
Produced by Bob Rock, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 13
Highlights:
“The Unforgiven II”

St Anger
Released in June 2003 by Elektra.
Produced by Bob Rock and Metallia.
Lineup changes:
Jason Newsted left the band and produced Bob Rock played bass in the studio on this album.
Tracks: 11
No highlights. Not a big fan of this album either.

Death Magnetic
Released in September 2008 by Warner Brothers.
Produced by Rick Rubin.
Lineup changes:
After the recording of St Anger the band hired Robert Trujillo to play bass.
Tracks: 10
No highlights at this time. Have not had a chance to actually hear the album yet.

Haven’t done one of these in a while.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

East
Boston
NY Yankees
Toronto
Tampa Bay
Baltimore

Central
Detroit
Minnesota
Chicago White Sox
Kansas City
Cleveland

West
Texas
Los Angeles Angels
Seattle 2 games out of 1st
Oakland

NATIONAL LEAGUE

East
Philadelphia
NY Mets
Florida
Atlanta
Washington

Central
St Louis
Milwaukee
Cincinnati
Chicago Cubs
Houston
Pittsburgh

West
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Francisco
Colorado
San Diego
Arizona

LEAGUE LEADERS

Batting Avg
Ichiro Suzuki (Seattle) – .369
D. Wright (Mets) – .356
B. Hawpe (Colorado) – .338

Home Runs
Albert Pujols (St Louis ) – 26
A. Gonzalez (San Diego) – 24
R. Ibanez (Philadelphia) – 22

RBIs
Albert Pujols (St Louis) – 70
J. Bay (Red Sox) – 69
P. Fielder (Milwaukee) – 68

Wins
Roy Halladay (Blue Jays) – 10
K. Slowey (Twins) – 10
T. Wakefield (Boston) – 9

ERA
Zack Greinke (Royals) – 1.90
D. Haren (Arizona) – 2.25
M. Cain (San Francisco) – 2.28

Strikeouts
Tim Lincecum (Giants) – 124
J. Verlander (Tigers) – 118
J. Vazquez (Atlanta) – 117

ESPN Power Rankings (1st 10)
Dodgers
Red Sox
Cardinals
Yankees
Tigers
Rangers
Angels
Rays
Phillies
Brewers

The Mariners are still in the 19th position in the ESPN Power Rankings.

TITLE: The History of the Republican Party
AUTHOR: Norma Jean Lutz
YEAR PUBLISHED: 2000
PUBLISHER: Chelsea House Publishers

I was skimming through the political section at the library last night and I spotted this one out of the corner of my eye.
I have only read the first chapter up to this point. It deals primarily with why the party formed in the first place.
Even so, it seems pretty interesting so far.

I just wanted to ask a question in order to get some sort of discussion started on this matter.

The question is: Should musicians keep politics out of their music? Or vice versa, should musicians keep their music out of politics?

It seems like a real clear cut issue in that it is a First Amendment issue so I guess what I am really asking is more along the lines of do you listen to music strictly for entertainment purposes or do you support specific artists based solely on their political and/or worldviews?

Or do you support specific candidates or support specific political issues because a particular artist does?

In my case, I do not support bands based solely on political/worldviews. There are even a few bands whose music I really like but I don’t listen to them often because I do disagree with their particular worldview. And also, in my case, I do not support specific candidates or political issues based on the fact that a particular artist or band that I do like supports those causes or candidates.

This is a list of the Top 4 bands whose name comes from a geographical location (country, city, etc…)

1. Boston
2. Asia
3. Green River (early grunge band named after a river in the Seattle area)
4. Otisburg (ok, so it’s a fictional city that never existed but I have to plug the band again somehow. LOL!)

And it is with that statement that I would like to post a DOTM (for newcomers that is Discography Of The Moment) for Pink Floyd.

I actually did one back in February 2007 on this very blog but after looking at it again it is kind of a sad DOTM so I figured I would do another better one.

So here it is:

Piper At the Gates of Dawn
Released in August 1967 by Columbia/EMI.
Produced by Norman Smith.
Band lineup:
Syd Barrett – guitar, vocals; Nick Mason – drums; Roger Waters – bass, vocals; Richard Wright – keyboards, vocals.
Tracks: 11 (the U.S. released only had 9 tracks)
Singles:
“See Emily Play” and “Flaming”

A Saucerful of Secrets
Released in June 1968 by Columbia/EMI.
Produced by Norman Smith.
Lineup changes:
David Gilmour joined as lead guitarist and other vocals.
Tracks: 7
Singles:
“Let There Be More Light” and “Jugband Blues”

More
Soundtrack album released in July 1969 by Columbia/EMI.
Produced by Pink Floyd.
Lineup changes:
Syd Barrett was no longer in the permanent lineup at this point.
Tracks: 13
Singles:
“The Nile Song”

Ummagumma
Released in October 1969 by Harvest/EMI
Produced by Pink Floyd and Norman Smith.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 9
No singles.

Atom Heart Mother
Released in October 1970 by Harvest/EMI.
Produced by Pink Floyd and Norman Smith.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 5 (technically 12 because track #1 is broken into 6 parts while track #5 is broken down into 3 parts)

Meddle
Released in October 1971 by Harvest/EMI.
Produced by Pink Floyd.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 6
This album reached #3 on the UK Albums Chart and #70 on the Billboard Pop Albums Chart.

Obscured by Clouds
Released in June 1972 by Harvest/EMI.
Produced by Pink Floyd.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 10
Singles:
“Free Four” and “Burning Bridges”
This album reached #6 on the UK Albums Chart and #46 on the Billboard Pop Chart.

Dark Side of the Moon
Released in March 1973 by Harvest/Capitol/EMI.
Produced by Pink Floyd.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 10
Singles:
“Money” and “Us and Them”
This album reached #2 on the UK Album Chart, #1 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and the song “Money” reached #`3 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart.
To date this album has sold over 15 million copies in the United States alone (over 3.8 million in the UK, over 2 million in Canda…)

Wish You Were Here
Released in September 1975 by Harvest/EMI/Capitol.
Produced by Pink Floyd.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 5 (unless you count track #1 as 5 songs because it is broken up into 5 parts and track # 5 as 4 songs because it is broken up into 4 parts, which would make it have 11 tracks)
Singles:
“Have A Cigar” and “Welcome to the Machine”
Other hightlights:
“Wish You Were Here” (my all-time favorite Floyd song)
Charts:
#1 on the UK album chart.
#1 on the Billboard Pop albums chart.

Animals
Released in January 1977 by Harvest/EMI/Capitol.
Produced by Pink Floyd.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 7
No singles.
Charts:
#2 on the UK album chart.
#3 on the Billboard Pop albums chart.

The Wall
Released in November 1979 by Harvest/EMI/Capitol.
Produced by Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, James Guthrie and Roger Waters.
No lineup changes.
Tracks: 26
Singles:
“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2″ “Comfortably Numb” and “Run Like Hell”
Other highlights:
“Mother” “Hey You” “In the Flesh” “Young Lust” “Is There Anybody Out There”
Charts:
#3 UK album chart.
#1 Billboard 200
#1 UK Top 40 “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2″
#1 US Billboard Pop Singles “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2″

The Final Cut: A Requiem for the Post-War Dream
Released in March 1983 by Harvest/EMI.
Produced by Roger Waters, James Guthrie, and Michael Kamen.
Lineup changes:
Richard Wright left the band and Roger Waters took over the keyboard duties in addition to his lead vocals and bass.
Tracks: 12
Singles:
“Not Now John”
Charts:
#1 UK album chart.
#6 Billboard Pop Albums
This album is sometimes thought of to be a Roger Waters solo album. Guitarist David Gilmour only sings on one track (strangely, the only single from the album).
This also was the last album that Roger Waters appears on, having quit the band after this album.

A Momentary Lapse of Reason
Released in September 1987 by EMI/Columbia/Capitol.
Produced by Bob Ezrin and David Gilmour.
Lineup changes:
At this point the lineup was only David Gilmour – vocals, guitars, keyboards and Nick Mason – drums, percussion.
Tracks: 10
Singles:
“On the Turning Away” “Learning to Fly” “One Slip”
Charts:
#3 UK album chart
#3 Billboard 200
#70 Billboard Hot 100 “Learning to Fly”
#55 UK Singles chart “Learning to Fly”
This album has gone Quadruple Platinum in the United States (not surprising, this is a great album!)

The Division Bell
Released in March 1994 by EMI.
Produced by Bob Ezrin and David Gilmour.
Lineup changes:
Richard Wright returned to the band.
Tracks: 11
Singles:
“Take It Back” and “High Hopes:
Charts:
#1 UK albums chart
#1 US Billboard 200
#23 UK Singles chart “Take It Back”
#1 US Mainstream Rock Tracks “Keep Talking”
#26 UK Singles chart “High Hopes”
#7 US Mainstream Rock Tracks “High Hopes”

As you might have noticed. I did not include any live albums or compilation albums. There are plenty of those to choose from however.

No videos on this one, sorry. Maybe in another post perhaps.

I found an article with that exact title on some random website.

here is a quote from the article:

“…they are perhaps the most overrated band of all time. That is to say, they are very talented, but people rate them way past what they deserve. They have 2, maybe 3, standout songs…..a lot of their stuff is, quite frankly, throwaway.”

And here is an excerpt from a comment I read on that article:

“i couldn’t agree more, i’m glad to see someone has the balls to finally take a stand and prove that led zeppelin are not ‘the gods of rock.’ that so many people have claimed them to be…”

And an excerpt from another comment:

“the music really attracts the ‘poser’ crowd….I received Led Zeppelin II..for Christmas thinking i was going to have a total badass experience…..[other than Heartbreaker] i hated every other song on this CD and i was so disappointed from what i heard…..i just couldn’t stand Robert Plant’s orgasmic outbreaks in the middle of songs……”

Whew! At least I know I’m not the only one that hates Led Zeppelin.

And I leave you with a Screeching Weasel video…..but before we move on to the video……guys, try not to take this post so seriously…..

I got the idea for doing a few Anthrax videos from Dave’s post Top 12 of 1992 where he surprisingly (to me anyway) put an Anthrax album on the list.

Here is the video for the song “Only” from Sound of White Noise, their first album with vocalist John Bush. I considered this their best album.

And here is a video for the song “Always Room For One More” also from Sound of White Noise:

For any Anthrax fans out there, here is a link to my DOTM for Anthrax.