The other blog of Miguel Pereira » progressive rock

The final pre-release cover song from Dream Theater – Larks Tongues in Aspic, Pt2

Miguel Pereira — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:38:16 +0000

Dream Theater brings you the final cover track being released to up to the coming of the new album Black Clouds & Silver Linings on 6.23.09, “Larks Tongues In Aspic, Pt. 2 ” by King Crimson.

Get it from iTunes or Amazon.com -I am almost simultaneously hitting the buy button on Amazon.com right now. Note: Mike, hope you guys didn’t screw this one up!!!!

A little background on King Crimson:

King Crimson are an English progressive rock band founded by guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles in 1969. They have typically been categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, although they incorporate diverse influences ranging from jazz, classical and experimental music to psychedelic, New Wave, hard rock, gamelan and folk music.

Larks Tongues in Aspic Pt 2 was on the B side of the same titled album Larks Tongues in Aspic released in 1973.

Larks Tongues In Aspic, Pt. 2 - Dream Theater

Here is the obligatory Portnoy blurb about the track:

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Dream Theater releases cover song #4 – Take Your Fingers From My Hair

Miguel Pereira — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:26:21 +0000

The fourth cover song leading up to the release of Black Clouds & Silver Linings has just been released, and can be obtained from iTunes or Amazon.com. Take Your Fingers From My Hair, originally composed & performed by Zebra, appeared for the first time on the 1984 self-titled album: Zebra.

: Take Your Fingers From My Hair cover by Dream Theater

From Wiki

Zebra is a hard rock band that came together in 1975 in New Orleans, Louisiana. It features Randy Jackson (guitar and vocals), Felix Hanemann (bass, keyboards and vocals) and Guy Gelso (drums and vocals). Their mainstream debut on Atlantic Records was in 1983, highlighted by the singles “Tell Me What You Want” and “Who’s Behind The Door”. Like Twisted Sister, Zebra cut their teeth on the East Coast club circuit, frequently playing at clubs on Long Island, NY.

Zebra started their career by playing covers of Led Zeppelin, Moody Blues and Rush songs: it was their early fans’ reaction to their Led Zeppelin renditions that helped convince the band to bring their act to New York.

This cover release marks the imminent launch of Black Clouds & Silver Linings on 6/23/2009 -only two weeks away now. Also, as with all the previous cover songs released by Dream Theater, there is a small PR stunt by Mike Portnoy talking about the track. Enjoy!

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Odyssey covered by Dream Theater (Dixie Dregs)

Miguel Pereira — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:19:07 +0000

This is cover #3 release by Dream Theater under the Roadrunner Records label in an effort to promote their latest album, Black Clouds & Silver Linings. As usual, you can buy it from iTunes or Amazon.com

Odyssey (Dixie Dregs) covered by Dream Theater

Here is another short promotional video by Mike Portnoy talking (yapping!) about the latest cover song.

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Remaining Dream Theater Complete Cover Songs List

Miguel Pereira — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:34:13 +0000

This is just a quick & dirty, but I found a list of people discussing the BC&SL release -apparently they must’ve gotten their hands on a pre-release or some illegal download- and stumbled upon this list:

Stargazer – RAINBOW (5/19/2009)
Tenement Funster/ Flick Of The Wrist/ Lily Of The Valley – QUEEN (5/26/2009)
Odyssey – DIXIE DREGS (6/2/2009)
Take Your Fingers From My Hair – ZEBRA (6/9/2009)
Larks Tongues In Aspic Pt.2 – KING CRIMSON (6/16/2009)
To Tame A Land – IRON MAIDEN (6/23/2009) – This date also marks the release of BCSL!!!!!

So far, the list seems to be accurate -though dated 5/20/09. I really want to listen to the King Crimson cover though. And if you read that forum thread, nevermind the DT bash-fest.

Black Clouds & Silver Linings

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Dream Theater Cover #2: Tenement Funster / Flick Of The Wrist / Lily Of The Valley (Queen)

Miguel Pereira — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:36:39 +0000

The second cover leading to Dream Theater’s 10th studio album has just been released. The track in question is a medley of Queen’s 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack. The covered songs are Tenement Funster, Flick of the Wrist & Lily of the Valley. The track can be purchased from iTunes or from Amazon.com

Tenement Funster / Flick Of The Wrist / Lily Of The Valley

The next song, cover #3, will be release on June 2nd. Here is a promo video by Mike Portnoy explaing how they laid down the vocals for this track.

Stay tuned for a full review of the original tracks by Queen -one of my favorite bands of all time!

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Pre-order Black Clouds & Silver Linings from Amazon.com

Miguel Pereira — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:21:43 +0000

As it turns out, there are some pretty good deals on Amazon.com to pre-order Black Clouds & Silver Linings -even the box set is a relative good deal IMO.

Here the scoop on each one:

Black Clouds & Silver Linings (3 Disc Special Edition) – U$S 15.49 as of 05/14/2009

Black Clouds & Silver Linings – U$S 14.99 as of 05/14/2009

Black Clouds & Silver Linings (BOX SET IMPORT) – U$S 130.98 as of 05/14/2009

Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Don’t waste any time and go get yourself a copy of it. I’ve already pre-ordered mine (the 3 Disc Special Edition). A buddy of mine keeps complaining why buy ‘em? He argues that he’s more and more disappointed on DT and their latest release as times goes by, and that he might as well listen to it once or twice and then toss the album away. Well, unfortunately for me, I am a Dream Theater fanatic to the bone. You can read my review of A Rite of Passage, and you will notice how it started and how I finally had to give in to the fact that the song grew on me. Anywho, time to do something other than surf the web.

Cheers!

::: Miguel :::

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A Rite Of Passage mini-review and spoiler

Miguel Pereira — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:56:48 +0000

So, I’ve just finished listening to the freshly released track from Dream Theater’s 10th studio album, A Rite Of Passage, for the 5th time in a row. My first reaction was a little knee-jerk dissappointment. Let me explain myself before I get obliterated. This is not the Dream Theater that I knew, and have followed through all their different chameleon-like mutations through out the years. This is not the Systematic Chaos Dream Theater, much less the one from the Awake days.

At first glance, AROP, is too polished from a production point of view, and too rough musically -not sure if that makes as much sense written as when I thought about it. Don’t get me wrong, Portnoy is still throwing off-tempo mayhem, while Petrucci & Rudess impart their respective instruments a new sense of ‘who-their-daddy-is’. And let’s not forget John Myung, still omnipresent…but not so much actually. You really have to pay attention to catch him through the mix: between minute 2:40 & 3:00 of the track you can almost tell him apart. This is not necessrily a bad thing. It’s the cohessiveness of the individuals that makes the whole. In this case the whole is Dream Theater. But I can’t help feeling like this is too much of a vanilla track. Like, somehow they’ve watered down and simplified much of what used to make them stand out from the crowd. Like I said before, put differently, execution is flawless; but there is a mechanical aspect that makes itself apparent throughout the song. The mix is too perfect, there is not one element than jumps out -not even throughout the 8:30+ minutes of passage rites.

“But I can’t help feeling like this is too much of a vanilla track.”

But then, I listened to it about another handful of times. And the same thing that’s happened since 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence took place: I started to dig it. And here is where I know this won’t make much sense to you. The same reason that dissappointed me in the first place, makes this such an easy to listen track, that I can’t fault it. There is nothing wrong with it if you take it as a unit -which is what it is in the first place, a single track.

But then I ask myself, do I really want an easy listening track from Dream Theater? Or shouldn’t I’d be leaving that responsability to, let’s say, Kenny G instead? Listen to it and make up your own mind. I still think its fantastic -it’s just not THAT fantastic anymore. Who knows, maybe I am just growing old.

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PN2009 North America: Meet & Greet Package Information

Miguel Pereira — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:21:51 +0000

Directly from Roadrunner Records & Dream Theater

Dream Theater Meet and Greet Package
Package includes:

* One premium reserved seated ticket located within the
first 5 rows of the stage or general admission ticket
with early entry
* Exclusive Meet and Greet with Dream Theater
* Personal Photograph with the band
* Autographed 8X10 photo
* Official Meet and Greet Laminate
* Exclusive Dream Theater Tour Poster (limited, numbered)
* Official Dream Theater Tour Program
* Exclusive Dream Theater Bandana
* Collectible “Black Clouds & Silver Linings” Patch
* $25 voucher to the official Dream Theater online store

Dream Theater Premium Ticket Package
Package includes:

* One premium reserved seated ticket located within the
first 12 rows of the stage or general admission ticket
with early entry
* Exclusive Dream Theater Tour Poster (limited, numbered)
* Official Dream Theater Tour Program
* Exclusive Dream Theater Bandana
* Collectible “Black Clouds & Silver Linings” Patch
* $25 voucher to the official Dream Theater online store

The packages will be available through Ticketmaster.

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Dream Theater Teaser: Free MP3 Download from Road Runner Records

Miguel Pereira — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:18:18 +0000

"A Rite of Passage" Free MP3 Download

Road Runner records & Dream Theater are finally coming full circle in promoting the July 23rd release of Dream Theater’s latest album: Black Clouds & Silver Linings. In support of the new album and to my relief, we can now listen to an official & hope final production cut of one of the tracks: A Rite of Passage. You can download it from here: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/ariteofpassage

Just fill out the information and you will be redirected to a download link -unfortunately its javascripted, and I have no means to tell where its being hosted at. The plus side of giving away your info is that there is a video release of the same track coming out in a few days. Guess who might be able to view it first?

Hurry up and go get your first true taste of Dream Theater’s 10th studio album!

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Progressive Nation 2009 – NA Tour Dates Announced

Miguel Pereira — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:09:58 +0000

Progressive Nation 2009

The first batch of the North American leg of the awaited Progressive Nation 2009 have been announced. The Dream Theater website has a listing of the current dates and possible additions expected sometime in August. The tour will kick off in Miami, FL on July 24th and so far looks like the last NA concert will be in August 29th a the Greek Theater in Los Angeles (CA).

The Los Angeles gig is alreday listed on Ticketmaster.com.

Date		Location	Venue
Fri	Jul 24, 2009	Miami, FL	Fillmore @ Jackie Gleason Theater
Sat	Jul 25, 2009	Orlando, FL	Rock Hard Live
Tue	Jul 28, 2009	Atlanta, GA	The Tabernacle
Wed	Jul 29, 2009	Ashville, NC	Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
Sat	Aug 01, 2009	Washington DC *	Merriweather Post
Sun	Aug 02, 2009	Boston, MA	Bank Of America Pavillion
Tue	Aug 04, 2009	Albany, NY	The Palace Theater
Tue	Aug 11, 2009	Quebec City, QUE	The Agora
Wed	Aug 12, 2009	Montreal, QUE	Bell Center
Fri	Aug 14, 2009	Toronto, ONT	Molson Amphitheater
Sun	Aug 16, 2009	Winnipeg, MAN	The Burton Cummings Theater
Tue	Aug 18, 2009	Calgary, AB	MacEwan Hall
Wed	Aug 19, 2009	Edmonton, AB	Shaw Conference Center
Fri	Aug 21, 2009	Minneapolis, MN	The Orpheum Theater
Sat	Aug 22, 2009	Milwaukee, WI	Riverside Theater
Sun	Aug 23, 2009	Chicago, IL	Chicago Theater
Tue	Aug 25, 2009	Denver, CO	Temple Hoyne Buell Theater
Sat	Aug 29, 2009	Los Angeles, CA	The Greek Theater

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