OFF: Catching Up Fast

[BREVARD, Adrian R.]

My oh my a few days away and stuff pours out.  One at a time on a few
things...

Theo>sounds kinda like two-thirds of a certain band from Canada...
>
> Triumph?
>
> Ghost in the Ruins

Theo>Wise-ass!

I try big guy I really try.

Crow - Please check with Mr T on the snail-mail addie.  Its changed.  What
izzit BTW?

Mr. T - Daily posting?  Whats pulled you out of lurkerdom?

Obscure movies, Conan and martial arts flicks.  Don't no where to start but
would only insert that US of A appears to be turned on to Mr. Hard Boiled
himself...Chow Yun Fat...in addition to Jackie Chan and John Woo.

this is strange dept...

>King's X - Ear Candy (1996)
Summary description: Screaming Trees meets It Bites

This is pretty standard material.  The proggish pop-rock writing style of It
Bites' Frank Dunnery but with that enormous dude from Screaming Trees on
rhythm guitar pretty much explains everything you need to know about King's
X (is it pronounced 'ex' or 'cross'...I always wondered).  The vocals are
indeed unusual, again very reminiscent of Frank Dunnery (alone), but also
like Echolyn (a 'truer' prog band) when doing the harmonizing thing.  I
found it only marginally interesting.  And they get quite soulful (or even
'gospel-ish') once in a while. But the main problem is the drummer.  This
guy is clumsy and plodding (see Chronicle of the Black Sword), which is
unfortunately emphasized by the fact that the sound of his drums on this
album is also pretty much dead.  This is a major label recording, so can't
imagine what the engineer was doing to make the drum track so lifeless.  (I
had to put on KW's III afterwards, just to hear Sami do some real drumming.)
I do like some of It Bites' songs (hell, I have all their albums), but the
ones I don't like (the cheesier, poppy tunes - esp. Dunnery's solo material)
are the ones that are the most similar to King's X.  Which means I have to
say...
Thumbs Down

Ok before I start please do not take this as flaming or harsh criticism...to
each their own.

There is a professional drummer that works here in my building and I
recently shared some King's X music with him.  I also shared your post and
it made him scratch his head.  I'm no muscian so it was bit hard to follow
what he said.  Nevertheless he was in total disagreement with your thoughts
about Jerry Gaskills drumming.  Jerry is very unconventional (guy even
showed my some stuff to explain what that means but again I couldn't follow)
but he is hardly clumsy.  He finds Jerry's work to be top notch.

Now who the hell is It Bites?  KX have been compared to some people mostly
Rush or Queen but I've never heard anybody compare them to that band.  Again
you can be dissapointed with something its your right, just found these
observations about Ear Candy to be pretty strange.

Oh yah Paul...no luck pulling the new Mule here, tried to snag a copy on my
way to the airport but Best Buy was sent one copy of the cd and sold it same
day.  No idea what moron buys BB's music on the corporate level but they
should be fired.  I didn't see it anywhere in Canada.  Rec'd a $10 coupon
from CDNow and used it to order (Also picked up a comp of Brand X) so I
should have my copy in a couple days.  Cannot wait as the reviews are
starting to pour in.  I did pick up Y&T Live on The Friday Rock Show,
remastered 2112 for 10 bucks CDN, brand new, and Alice Coopers From The
Inside, first I ever saw it on CD.  Not a bad haul.


L8er

Ghost in the Ruins