Happy Birthday To Me

Today I turned 36 years old. Birthday's don't mean much to me. I enjoy life, and have a great time on this ride, so I don't really concentrate the number of years that have passed. As a friend of mine has been known to say..."You can't change what is.".

My family had a birthday party for me the other weekend. The only thing I ever really ask for is more music, and that was what I got this year. I did pretty good this year, getting a couple of DVD's, one of Dio and one of Judas Priest, plus I got some CD's which included Triple Threat and Mental. Of course this blog entry is about the vinyl that I got.

• Doomriders "Black Thunder" - Holy shit, the riff from the title track is amazing. Worth it for that song alone.
• The Raconteurs "Broken Boy Soldier" - First off, I love The White Stripes. Jack White has got that classic guitar sound down. Rob surprised me months ago, dropping off a burned copy of the Raconteurs CD. "Jack White plays in this band", he tells me. I had never heard anything about this, and I'm excited to check it out. The band is more polished than The White Stripes, and it took me a few listens to really appreciate it. Good stuff, but pales in comparison to The White Stripes.
• Queensryche "Operation Mindcrime II" - I loved the first Mindcrime CD from Queensryche and saw them on tour with Metallica, who were on the Justice For All tour. Queensryche was the first band that I slamdanced to. I lost all interest in the band by the time they released their next album, and I had low expectations when they released Mindcrime II this year. I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this record.
• Black Flag "Loose Nut" - I don't know why it took me so long to buy this record. Other than Damaged, this is probably one of my favorite Black Flag records. Great songs like Modern Man, Annihilate This Week, and Best One Yet.
• Black Sabbath "Never Say Die" - This is a re-issue on Earmark Records, pressed on 180 gram vinyl. While this record is often overlooked by casual Sabbath fans, there is still some great songs on this album.