GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.121

  All those who are following or checking from time to time my blog, know that on every Saturday  I'm posting my weekly Top-5 songlist. Despite my very busy schedule this week, I found enough time to listen to music. And because there is no Prog & Roll radio show tomorrow, I had nothing to prepare. So, as you'll see from my list, this week I chose to listen to different styles of music than usual, which means no Prog at all!
And without further ado, these are my best songs for this week:
QUEEN: Innuendo (Innuendo - 1991)
BOB DYLAN: Isis (Desire - 1976)
TED NUGENT: Stranglehold (Ted Nugent - 1976)
BAUHAUS: Silent Hedges (The Sky's Gone Out - 1982)
JOAN BAEZ: Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands (Any Day Now - 1968)
I will conclude this post by adding a couple of videos with songs from my list in order to listen to.
So, here's the beautiful 'Sad-Eyes Lady of the Lowlands' by Joan Baez, and 'Innuendo' by Queen.
Enjoy the music, and have a great weekend!
Thank you for reading. :-)

Prog & Roll radio show on 29/3/2015 is cancelled.

 I'm writing this post in order to inform you that tomorrow's Prog & Roll radio show is cancelled, because both me & my wife will go the the mini festival 'A Journey to Prog' which I mention in the post below.
 Prog & Roll will be back on next Sunday the 5th of April for the 100th show! We are planning many things and surprises for that show, so try not to miss it!
Thank you. :-)

A JOURNEY TO PROG Vol.3

For a 3rd year in a row all those who are living in Athens will have the opportunity to enjoy a night filled with beautiful sounds and melodies.
'A Journey to Prog' is a one day festival on which are participating 3 of the most good and promising Greek bands right now. I'm talking about 'Poem', 'Mother Turtle', and 'Verbal Delirium'.
 The event will take place at 'Kyttaro Live' which is in the center of Athens, and the entrance fee is only 10 Euro (including a beer or a wine). The doors will open at 20.00, and the event will start at 20.30 sharp!
 In my opinion it's going to be a very good event, and to be honest I can't wait to go. I stronlgy recommend this mini festival to all those who are fond of Rock & Prog -Rock (but not only). All 3 bands are very good ones, and I'm sure that everybody will have some great time. At the end of the post I will add 3 videos with songs from these bands, so you can check them out in case you don't know their music and style.
 For those who are Greeks (or know Greek) here is the official Press Announcement:

H Eλληνική μουσική σκηνή έχει να επιδείξει υψηλής αισθητικής μουσικούς δημιουργούς

και συγκροτήματα με έμπνευση, άρτια τεχνική και προπάντων νέα πρόταση.

Το 3ο κατά σειρά “A Journey To Prog”, στις 29 Μαρτίου στο KYTTΑΡΟ φιλοδοξεί να γίνει θεσμός!

Φέτος θα μας ταξιδέψει με τους Mother Turtle, τους Poem και τους Verbal Delirium.

Πρόκειται για τρία συγκροτήματα που έχουν ήδη κάνει εντύπωση πέρα από τα Ελληνικά σύνορα με θαυμαστές που τους ακολουθούν πιστά τα τελευταία χρόνια και με επιρροές από Genesis και Van Der Graaf Generator, Camel, Frank Zappa έως Ozzy Osbourne και Porcupine Tree, Pain of Salvation, Marillion και πολλά άλλα ...

Τα τρία συγκροτήματα θα παρουσιάσουν τη δική τους δουλειά και θα μας χαρίσουν ένα απολαυστικό Κυριακάτικο βράδυ γεμάτο προοδευτική μουσική, δυνατές ερμηνείες, χιούμορ και ενέργεια στο ΚΥΤΤARO Live Club ­ ένα χώρο με παράδοση στις άρτιες διοργανώσεις και τον άψογο ήχο!

Να είστε όλοι εκεί!

Οι πόρτες ανοίγουν : 20:00

'Εναρξη (αυστηρά) : 20:30

Είσοδος : 10€ (με μπύρα ή κρασί)

OPETH Live in Athens (20/3/2015). The Setlist.

Opeth visited Athens once more almost a week ago in order to perform a live gig.
The concert was sold out and the place was jammed. I didn't go to be honest, because I'm not a fan of Opeth. But I spoke with some people who went to the concert, and all of them agreed that it was maybe the best performance they ever gave in Greece.
 Becasue I can imagine that there are many people out there who are planning to go and see them live in the near future, here's the full playlist from that concert for you:

Eternal Rains Will Come

Cusp Of Eternity
The Drapery Falls
The Moor
Bleak (Part of it)
Advent
Elysian Woes
Windowpane
The Devil's Orchard
April Ethereal
The Lotus Eater
The Grand Conjuration

ENCORE:
Deliverance

TV Series: House of Cards (Season 3)

I just finished watching the 3rd season of the political drama 'House of Cards', and I would like to write a few things about it. Don't expect a review, because I am not a critic. Just some of my thoughts.
                                        WARNING: Spoilers ahead!
 First of all I want to say that 'House of Cards' is a pleasure to watch, if not for anything else, then for the really great performance by Kevin Spacey in the role of Frank Underwood. Not that the other actors are not good, it's quite the opposite actually! But Kevin Spacey's acting is of course by far the most superior one.
(If you wish, before you continue reading, you can take a look at the posts I wrote about the first 2 seasons of House of Cards in the following links):
Season 1: http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2014/01/tv-series-house-of-cards-2013-season-1.html
Season 2: http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2014/12/tv-series-house-of-cards-2014-season-2.html
  In the post I uploaded about Seaon 2 I'm write at a point: "When I was watching the series, I thought of them (Frank & Claire) as the "evil couple" more than a few times, which is actually very close to the truth. They are a couple that will stop at nothing until they get what they want". And what they wanted was Frank to become the President.
 Season 2 ends with Frank Underwood becoming finally the President of the Unites States of America, after all the efforts they put into it. At his side his wife Claire (Robin Wright), is standing firmly by her husband as The First Lady, but in season 3 we see that she would like to become something more than that.
 Frank's presidency starts the hard way, and what we see in every episode is that everything goes wrong. In the meantime, he can't find the money in order to support his main project 'AmWorks', and he tries to take these money from other sourses. He is also facing big problems with his own political party (because obviously they don't like him), and above all there is a big crisis with the Russians going on. What a great way to start eh?
  Frank on the other hand does his best in order to lose even the few friends he has got left. With his really bad attitude and his super-ego, he's slowly slowly adandoned by his workers and friends.
  But if I want to be completely honest, I should say that this 3rd season was the less interesting of all. (so far at least). Because the show became famous, they are adding more and more irelevant (or not) stories in order to expand its length. And some of these stories are boring...
  I'm not regreting watching this season, and I will definetely watch the 4rth one as well, but I'm losing interest slowly slowly. 
 Concluding this, I should say that if I had to give a rate for the 3rd season, I would give something around 7.0 (out of 10.0)
In the following video you can watch a trailer for the 3rd season.
Thank you for reading. :-)

 
 

Prog & Roll radio show (22/3/2015) The full playlist...

Hello everybody!
Last night one more Prog & Roll radio show was online as usual. This one was the 99th show, and on the next one we will celebrate our 100 broadcasts. 
 I believe it was a good show in general, and I hope our listeners did enjoy it. This time we didn't have people from so many counttries listening (that I know of at least), but we had a listener from Mexico for second time in a row! That was really wonderful for us, that's why I want to thank Mex for joining our show and listening.
 On next Sunday we will not have a show, therefore our 100th one will take place on Sunday the 5th of April. We are preparing many interesting and fun things for that show, in order to celebrate it altogether.
 Here you can check last night's playlist:

FLEETWOOD MAC: Go your own way / T.REX: Get it on / DAVID BOWIE: The prettiest star / ROXY MUSIC: If there is something (live) / DRIFTING SUN: Trip the life fantastic / ADVENTURE: Fast train / BLACK BONZO: Lady of light / MOTHER TURTLE: Mother Turtle & the evil mushroom / SIENA ROOT: Between the lines / FUSION ORCHESTRA 2: Rapunzel /  VERBAL DELIRIUM: Erased / KAIPA: Unique when we fall / STEVEN WILSON: Hand cannot erase / PROCOL HARUM: Grand hotel / RENAISSANCE: Island / ANNIE HASLAM: Glitter & dust / THE MOODY BLUES: Dawn (is a feeling).

"Epic" song: COCKNEY REBEL: Death trip.

 Thank you all for listening and/or participating once more.

We will "see" you again after 2 weeks for an unforgetable (I hope) radio show.

Take care!

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.120

Hello all!
 All those who are following this blog are aware that almost on every Saturday I'm posting here this "Juke Box" post, which is my weekly Top-5 songlist.
So, for this week my best 5 songs are the following:
PROCOL HARUM: Grand Hotel (Grand Hotel - 1973)
BLACK SABBATH: Lonely is the World (Heaven & Hell - 1980)
ROXY MUSIC: If there is something (live) (Viva Roxy! - 1976)
COCKNEY REBEL: Death Trip (The Human Menagerie - 1976)
VERBAL DELIRIUM: Sudden Winter (From the Small Hours of Weakness - 2013)
I will add here 2 videos with songs from my list to have a listen if you want to.
Have a nice weekend everybody, and thanks for reading. :-)

Spotlights on: MOTHER TURTLE

 Mother Turtle is a Heavy / Progressive Rock band from Greece.
 The band consists of 4 members and has the typical line up including Guitar, Bass, Drums and Keyboards.
They were formed up in Thessaloniki in 2011, and in the beginning they were playing only cover versions in their live appearances. During the studio rehearals they started creating their own songs, and the result was the release of their first studio album (Mother Turtle) in 2013.
  The band's music style is influenced from the Heavy and Progressive Rock  music scene of '70's, and they sound like a 'Prog' version of Siena Root. 
 Their first eponymous album consists of 7 songs and has a total running time of almost an hour.
 (Lately the band is playing live gigs in order to promote their work, and  in a few days they will participate in a Greek 'Prog' one-day mini festival together with 2 other bands. I will go to that concert, and I will write a
review about it on this blog.
  I strongly recommend this band to all those who are fans of Classic / Heavy and Progressive Rock, and can appreciate a well structured album filled with very interesting compositions.
You can find their album in order to download it here: http://motherturtleband.bandcamp.com/album/mother-turtle
 (The average rating of the album in Prog-Archives is 3.70 out of 5.00)
I tried to upload a couple of videos from YT, but I can't as it seems. So if you want check the songs 'The Elf' and 'Mother Turtle & the Magic Mushroom' .
Thank you for reading. :-)

Prog & Roll radio show (15/3/2015). A small review & full playlist.

 Hello everybody!
On last night's Prog & Roll radio show we did a small persentation on the concept album 'The Fragility of Innocence' by Salander. Which means we said a few things about the story on which the album is based, and we played 6 (out of 9) songs from it.
 We had both members of Salander (Dave Curnow and Dave Smith) on the chatbox, together with many other people, including the musicians Benjamin Bell and Mike Kershaw.
 During the first part we played mostly classic Rock, and right after that the presentation of the album started. As for the 4th and last part, we had prepared some good old Hard Rock, because we wanted to close the show in a powerful way.
 I have to say I'm very pleased with the audience's participation, because once more we had people from many countries (even from Mexico!) listening to our show.
As for the whole playlist, you can see it here:

SPOOKY TOOTH: Better by You Better than Me  - THE ROLLING STONES: Sway  - MOUNTAIN: For Yasgur’s Farm - JEFFERSON AIRPLANE: Law man - FREE: Fire and Water - SALANDER: Aldri Sakleysi Er Farinn / Cold Icelandic Winter / Tomorrow is a New Day - STEVEN WILSON: 3 Years Older - SALANDER: Leroy’s Tale / And so to Sleep / Evil Doctor - ARENA: The Butterfly Man - RAINBOW: A Light in the Black - BLACK SABBATH: Heaven & Hell - LED ZEPPELIN: The Rover.

"Epic" song: URIAH HEEP: The Magician’s Birthday.

 Once more I would like to thank all of you who joined our show, and I hope you had some good time. I would like to thank Dave & Dave of Salander for being our faithful listeners and supporters during the last 6-7 months, and gave us the chance to become a "part" of this beautiful album. Many thanks to Benjamin Bell and Mike Kershaw for logging in the show on every given occasion. 

Thank you all! :-)

  

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.119

Hello all!
As I usually do on Saturday mornings, here I am once more in order to write down my best 5 songs for this week.
Despite my busy schedule, I found enough time to listen to music, and once more I had some problems picking only 5 songs for my list.
But after a few listenings, I decided that my weekly Top-5 is this:
PORCUPINE TREE: Anesthetise (Fear of a blank planet - 2007)
RAINBOW: Stargazer (Rising - 1976)
BLACK SABBATH: Heaven & Hell (Heaven & Hell - 1980)
STEVEN WILSON: Ancestral (Hand.Cannot.Erase - 2015)
SIMON & GARFUNKEL: The only living boy in New York (Bridge over troubled water - 1970)
I will conclude this post by adding 2 videos with songs from my list for you.
Enjoy the music, and have a wonderful weekend!
Thank you. :-)