tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24581604.post-1152683981826399292006-07-11T22:21:00.000-07:002006-07-11T22:59:41.840-07:00I'm listening to Ray Manzarek's new album on Napster right now. It's the soundtrack to the film "Love Her Madly." You might know Manzarek's name as he was the keyboardist for the Doors. I wanted to mention the record because it is one of the few albums I've heard by '60s artists that maintains a high level of artistic integrity, staying close to the reasons why the artist was good in the first place while adding modern ideas to their palette. Here, Manzarek creates a dark psychedelic landscape, punctuated by organs and electronic elements that never threaten to over-dominate the music and work atmosphericly as opposed to being there just to "update" the music. Not every track worked for me. But, I was wowed by the compositions--almost all instrumental--and at how potent they are. One of the major problems about rock artists past the age of 40 even is that their music becomes increasingly staid, as if all they can talk about is how serene life is. And I'm glad it is for them. But it doesn't often make for good music. Manzarek's new record packs a wallop of a punch and man if it isn't 5 times as good as Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour's recent record, "On an Island," which will get far more press attention. <br /><br />LINKS:<br /><br />Cool story about a town in Indiana that is aiming for powering itself all on <a href="http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=10834">renewable energy</a>. Heartwarming on a day when Tony Blair announces the future of energy in the U.K. is nuclear. <br /><br />Another good environmental story on religious leaders finally taking some initiative on <a href="http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=10825">global warming</a>.<br /><br />This sums up my opinion on rejections of wind farms <a href="http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/7/11/221030/644">precisely</a>. Far from being eye sores, I think wind farms look pretty cool and I'm damn happy seeing them as I know they're helping save us from nasty co2 emissions. So they ruin your view. Tough. All that smog isn't natural either. <br /><br />Floyd's Syd Barrett passed away today. Here's him with Floyd in 1968 in the promo for "Jugband Blues."<br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RTtXVrANEhU"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RTtXVrANEhU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>kidsidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09926619983195892994noreply@blogger.com