I briefly mentioned "prog" bands yesterday.  So, here is a track from Dream Theater, probably the most well-known example of an American "prog" band.  For years, I could have sworn Dream Theater was Canadian.  Don't ask me why.

This band (and song) came up because I've been Netflixing the Mike Portnoy 3-disc In Constant Motion DVD set.  He is Dream Theater's skin-basher.  He is also a freaking machine.  I've watched over five hours of this thing (so far), and a large portion of it has featured Mike in a studio, performing and deconstructing drum parts to a whole slew of songs from Dream Theater as well as his various side projects.  One segment was for the DT song "The Great Debate", from 2002's Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence.  The song deals with the whole stem cell research issue, hard-panning opposing arguments in the differing channels of the stereo spread.  Yeah, it's kinda gimmicky.  Really cool track, though.

It clocks in at over 13 minutes, so you've been warned.  Duh, they're a prog band, hello??

Hear "The Great Debate" on YouTube.

Wiki linky

I've talked about RAQ before.  They are a jam band from Vermont.  Yeah, "jam band", I think that's the buzzword that seems to fit them best.  I guess the bands that improvise a lot are called jam bands, and the bands that meticulously construct long, complicated songs (and improvise little) are the "prog" bands.  Hey, I know I'm not big on buzzwords, but I at least want to get them right.

I've wanted to post this awe-inspiring track from 2006's Ton These for quite a while now, but the studio cut just doesn't seem to exist anywhere.  Not even on the seedy MP3 link mining sites.  Live versions are all over the place, but mostly bootleg-quality stuff.  However, today I happened upon a live rendition that actually sounds good.  So here it is.  I'd still prefer the studio cut, but hey, life, lemons, lemonade, yadda yadda.

Hear a live performance of "Bootch Magoo" on Last.fm.  Unfortunately, this doesn't have the extended piano solo break that the studio version has.  I get chills during that piano break.  RAQ's ivory tickler is incredible.  His name is Todd Stoops, I believe.  (looks it up)  Yeah, that's him.  Just an amazing player.

We're having those takeout burgers for lunch again.  Woohoo!  To mark this grand occasion (well, I guess my circulatory system won't find it so grand), here is Zappa's "Cruisin' for Burgers."

Several recorded versions of this song exist, but the one from Make a Jazz Noise Here has always been my fave.  Well, at least of the ones I've actually heard.  I'd wanted to also include the studio version from Uncle Meat, but I wasn't able to find a link that didn't make me feel all icky.  Zappa songs are about as hard to come by as stuff from WMG.

Hey, the food's here.  GIMME!!

Hear the Make a Jazz Noise Here version of "Cruisin' for Burgers" on GrooveShark.  All hail GrooveShark.  That site is really becoming quite the savior.

Here at the house on a furlough day (I have every Tuesday off now, hooray for economic strife!), so this entry will be pretty brief and a bit late.  It's another cover tune I was gonna use for another covers theme.  Tina Turner did it originally, but quite a few artists have done their own versions, including the Australian punkers The Saints.

I swear, the Saints were about as raw sounding as you can get.  If you're one of those punk fans who hates bands like Green Day for sounding too sterile, then the Saints should be right up your alley.

Hear "River Deep Mountain High" on YouTube.

Considered posting this one in conjunction with another covers week.  Eh.  That idea seems played enough already.  I don't feel like I need an excuse to post a good cover.

Remember the Blues Brothers?  I mean the original Blues Brothers?  Of course you do.  A couple of Saturday Night Live actors start an offshoot blues band and perform on the show.  It leads to some live theater performances, a movie and a couple of albums.  Then one of the actors ODs and it's never the same again.

But what a band it was.  Belushi turned out to be a pretty good frontman.  Aykroyd was actually a decent harp player.  And the guys that backed them were some of the best in the blues business.  So here is "Green Onions", a redo of the Booker T. and the M.G.'s hit from the early 60s.  Which makes sense, seeing as how couple of the original M.G.'s were also in the Blues Brothers band.

This is another one I picked up from my brother, he had the vinyl record.  Just when I think I have exhausted all examples of tunes handed down from siblings, I happen to remember another one.  God, I was quite the little sponge.

Hear "Green Onions" on Grooveshark.

I slotted the Counterparts CD earlier this morning.  The disc changer was probably wondering where the hell I had been, I haven't really been playing CDs as much since I got the iPod.  Of course, it's not like I'm gonna put everything I own on Apple's little Tricorder, seeing as how a) I'm too lazy and b) it wouldn't fit anyway.  So the CD players will still have some use for a good long while.

You may remember me waxing sort-of-poetic about this album before.  Some previous Rush releases had left me wanting, and the band essentially kept me as a fan with Counterparts.  So here is the slow-starting but ultimately rawking "Double Agent."

I often wonder when iPods will start to go through the same kind of slow but steady obsolescence.  "Yeah, I know I can just upload the songs to my auricular implants, but those will only hold about 20 terabytes.  What am I gonna do with the rest of my 400 exabyte iPod Magnum??"

Hear "Double Agent" on YouTube.

I put up songs from Avenue Q all the time.  It's one of my tried and true standard fallback options.

So, as all of us in Giants fandom celebrate another unceremonious Dodgers exit from the Major League Baseball postseason, here is a fitting selection.

Hear "Schadenfreude" on YouTube.

I am picking this song for no other reason than it's been going through my head all morning.

Having this song stuck in your head is like being doped up on caffeine.  Having this song stuck in your head while you are actually doped up on caffeine, oy...

Hear "A Skeleton in the Closet" on YouTube.