Monday: Puscifer - Grand Canyon

     Time for some New Music Monday, and it comes with some classic sitcom-style good news and bad news. The good news is that I'm pointing you in the direction of some new music from one Mr. Maynard James Keenan, and that is always a welcome thing to be able to say. The bad news is that this new music doesn't come from either Tool or A Perfect Circle.

     By the process of elimination, that means that we're talking about some new Puscifer stuff, in the form of a new album Money Shot due out in the fall, and a new song "Grand Canyon" that's out right now! And yes, it's not Tool or A Perfect Circle, but it's got that little bit of weirdness and that lotta bit of vocal layering and suchlike that is Puscifer's stock in trade. It might not be the MJK you've been wishing for, but maybe call it a consolation prize? Either way I call it fun.

Monday Threeway Super Fun Time

     Why hello there. Fancy meeting you here. I took a couple of days off over the weekend for my girlfriend's birthday yesterday, but I'm back at it today with a trio of tunes for your earholes to get us back on track. Have at 'er!

     First up is Dutch instrumental fusion band Exivious. I've written about them before, but now that I've spent some serious time with their album Liminal I feel better qualified to recommend another tasty track. By now you should know I like proggy, jazzy stuff and instrumental stuff, so if you like this kind of stuff too, check out Liminal's closing track "Immanent". It's epic, but not overbearingly so, and it's a great showcase of Exivious's melding of heavy and melodically proggy.

     So that's Saturday out of the way, now for Sunday. My girlfriend is a big Headstones fan, so my big birthday present to my girlfriend this year was tickets to see Headstones right here in Kingston at the end of the month (stayed tuned for a pit report, probably in the new year). Headstones were a solid rock band back in the day, and their new record Love + Fury proves they've still got it. So if their "it" is something you're into, check out "Far Away From Here".

     And that's Sunday. What about today, Monday? Well, we're going to commemorate the new A Perfect Circle best-of disc Three Sixty and go with "Weak and Powerless" as today's song. Originally from 2003's Thirteenth Step, "Weak and Powerless" is a perfect example of what A Perfect Circle can do when they're not at "Judith" levels of aggression. Mer de Noms is still my favourite, but "Weak and Powerless" is just one of several great tracks to be had on Thirteenth Step.

     And that's me caught up. Your turn.

Song of the Sunday: A Perfect Circle - Magdalena

     Just as old Protest might possibly keep us all going until the release of new stuff, perhaps some A Perfect Circle can help sufferers of Tool withdrawal make it to the next fix... whenever that might be coming.

Song of the Day: A Perfect Circle - The Hollow

     The only thing Maynard James Keenan has put out recently besides wine is a bizarre video to accompany his 'meh' cover of Queen's epic "Bohemian Rhapsody", so perhaps it's time we take a moment to remember some of the many cooler things MJK has been involved with.

Song of the Day: Deftones - Passenger

     Spring is actually starting to really get springing here, which means it's finally getting warm enough to drive around town cranking metal with the windows down. In fact, the window next to me as I type this (not in a car, smartass) is open and where even a few days ago it would have registered at "chilly" it's now only "brisk". Summer is just around the corner, so it's driving tune time!

Song of the Day: Puscifer - REV 22:20

     I've decided to complete the Maynard James Keenan trifecta today, even if the third part of this trinity is the least metal of the three. Unlike Tool and A Perfect Circle, Puscifer is Keenan's solo project, in which he can explore whatever musical experimentation strikes his fancy. Such musical experimentation is considerably more electronic and more pop-y than either of his other gigs, but still worth checking out as yet another showcase for his powerful voice.

Song of the Day: Tool - 46 & 2

     I had a deeply unsettling thought after posting yesterday's Song of the Day. As I said, I pretty much assume that you all know who I was talking about yesterday - A Perfect Circle aren't exactly new or underground. But then I pictured the one metal fan out there in the world who (hypothetically) read yesterday's post and reacted with a hearty "who the fuck is Maynard James Keenan?"  Today's song is for that one poor bastard.

Song of the Day: A Perfect Circle - Judith

     I bet you've heard of today's band, but if perhaps you've been living under a rock or on a different planet for the last ten to fifteen years, you might not know that Maynard James Keenan has more gigs than just Tool. Sure, Tool's awesome and easily Keenan's best stuff, but that doesn't mean that everything he touches isn't rock solid, because it is. Even Puscifer. But the Maynard James Keenan side-project* I like best is definitely A Perfect Circle.