Until two weeks ago I knew/heard nothing by Mastodon.  I read an article in Rolling Stone, spoke with a friend of mine and found this album at Target for under $10.  On a whim, I picked it up and spent one whole Saturday listening to it.  I may listen to plenty of jazz and alt-rock, but I am a metal-head at heart, and this album awakened the sleeping beast.

With only seven tracks, two stretching over 10 minutes, I was completely impressed by this record.  It was reminiscent of Tool and early Metallica and found that it played very well on my car’s stereo.  Lead track, “Oblivion”, pulls the audience right in while follow up tracks, “Divinations” and “Quintessence”, offer up brutal metal assaults.  “The Czar” is a story played in four distinct parts, “Ghosts of Karelia” and “Crack the Skye” are more melodic and ranging.  Closer, “The Last Baron”, will have you swirling your head for 13 solid minutes of metal pleasure.  Produced by Brendan O’Brien, who has worked with Springsteen, Dylan, Pearl Jam, and Rage Against the Machine, this was a big step for Mastodon to take, and many felt it would compromise their sound in the process.  If anything, it may have helped it.

Like any good music journalist I went out and purchased earlier albums Leviathan and Blood Mountain to see how this new album stacked.  Each of those albums proved to be satisfying listens, and I can say that Crack the Skye isn’t nearly as brutal as Leviathan, but it makes up for it with soaring vocals and striking guitar parts.  This sounds like a step forward for Mastodon and should be embraced by all fans of music, even if metal isn’t your cup of tea. The musicianship alone is impressive on several levels.

I’m usually not a fan of remastered or reissued albums. Give me the bumps, hiss and feedback. However, after hearing about Pearl Jam’s reissuing of Ten, their 1991 debut, I may have to reconsider:

The standard edition sounds like you get a copy of the album that has been remastered, then a copy that has been mixed a little differently by producer Brendan O’Brien. However, it sounds like the deluxe version may be worth the money as you get the two disc set, a DVD of Pearl Jam’s rare MTV Unplugged performance from 1992, four vinyls (one of Ten, one remixed copy and a two LP set of a 1992 concert called ‘Drop In the Park” recorded in Seattle), a replica cassette of Pearl Jam’s demos “Alive”, “Once” and “Footsteps”, an “Eddie Vedder-style composition notebook filled with replica personal notes, images and mementos from the collections of Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament”, a vellum envelope with era-specific ephemera from Pearl Jam’s early work and finally a two-sided print commemorating the ‘Drop In the Park’ show.

Breathe for a second, this sounds like a reissue that would be worth every penny. No word on price, late March is the drop date. This is what a reissue should be: tons of unreleased material. A lot of the time bands use a reissue to get rid of B-sides and covers, and if you are a diehard fan you probably have all the singles and compilations with those tracks, so who needs that? What the fans really want is rare material. Stuff you know you can’t get anywhere else, except for some cruddy bootleg. We want the hard-to-find, out-of-print stuff. Dig out the Doc Martens, flannel shirts, and don’t get all ‘plastic’. With any luck this won’t cost an arm and a leg.

If it was a lesser artist who accused Coldplay of plagiarism, no one would mind. But no less than Joe Satriani is suing the band for allegedly copying some of the melody of his 2004 instrumental “If I Could Fly” for their Grammy nominated hit song “Viva La Vida”. Most of Coldplay’s fans probably do not know who Joe Satriani is, but to professional musicians Satriani is rock guitar’s living legend. Joe Satriani could not be dismissed as just another Creaky Boards.

A few months ago a video came out online, pointing out the similarities in a good portion of the melody of “If I Could Fly” and the chorus of “Viva La Vida”.  The video presents Satriani’s case in a very convincing manner. First, it lets you hear the chorus of “Viva La Vida” then the portion of “If I Could Fly” where Viva’s chorus allegedly was lifted. Anyone with a good ear will find very strong similarities between the two. But the video does not end there. After hearing the two songs separately, you will hear them played together in an overlap. It is a perfect fit, the chorus of “Viva La Vida” and a good part of “If I Could Fly” are identical, from the chord progression and the melody down to the tempo.

I am not saying that Coldplay is indeed guilty of plagiarism.  Probably Chris Martin, and whoever wrote the song with him, unconsciously copied Satriani’s melody. Every tune a person hears is tucked in his memory like any other experience he has. Those tunes are not forgotten, they remain in the subconscious and influence the artist’s creative process. It happened to some great artists before. Look at George Harrison and his song “My Sweet Lord”. It was an unconscious rip off of one of the songs of The Chiffons.

A rip off or not, I think “Viva La Vida” is one of Coldplay’s best songs. As to Joe Satriani, I have nothing more to say except that he is one of the best guitarists the world has produced and Coldplay’s guitarist,  Jonny Buckland is nothing compared to him.

After a tough morning at the Phantom Gourmet Phest, I decided to follow that up with Nine Inch Nails in Manchester. How could I miss their only NH appearance? This would be my first time seeing Trent and Co. Touring behind their latest releases The Slip and Ghosts I-IV, there was plenty of new material to crush through and some classics to share.

This incarnation of Nine Inch Nails included: Robin Finck on guitar, Alessandro Cortini on keyboards, Josh Freese on drums and Justin Meldal-Johnsen on bass. I’ve seen Justin play bass for Beck in 2005.

Hitting the stage at 8:45, the band came on as “999,999” ended and picked up with “1,000,000”, “Letting You”, and “Discipline”, the opening tracks off The Slip. Moving to “March of the Pigs” from The Downward Spiral, this was followed by tracks from Year Zero and The Fragile. Of course, we heard “Closer” in there, too.

When I wasn’t being thrown around, the light show was one of the most incredible spectacles I’d ever witnessed. I really can’t explain it, but I’ll try: there were three half-oval shaped light walls that were either above, in front or behind the band. Often the lights corresponded with beats even when Freese used them to create a giant drum machine.

After a four song interlude from instrumental album Ghosts I-IV and a sweet version of “Piggy” we heard “Survivalism”, “Pinion”, “Only”, “Terrible Lie” and plenty of others. “Head Like a Hole” closed the set. When they came back for an encore Trent thanked the crowd. “Echoplex”, “God Given”, “Hurt” and “In This Twilight” capped the whole show, an incredible night of music and lights.

Opener Health from Los Angeles was living proof that I wouldn’t need real musical ability to be famous and go on tour.

Only Axl Rose could create this much hype. Get ready, America, for two shots of turkey next month: Thanksgiving and Chinese Democracy, the long awaited (by whom?) new album from the latest incarnation of Guns N’ Roses.

I will admit whenever I hear “My Michelle” on the radio, I feel the need to roll down my windows and speed. However, when I hear “Patience” I want to puke. Guns N’ Roses was probably one of the most pivotal bands to exemplify the true excess of city life. You know you’d rather dance with Mr. Brownstone than Dr. Feelgood. They were the nail in the coffin of 80’s excess that made grunge a breath of fresh air.

Since 1994, Axl has been trying to helm Chinese Democracy. In the decade plus since: Guns N’ Roses broke up, reformed with new members, broke up, reformed with new members, Axl tried dreadlocks, reformed with new members, and now wants to drop the culmination of their work.

Sebastian Bach is quoted as saying the new album: “will be [expletive] amazing!” Hey, if Sebastian says so, then it must be so. Next I hope he tells me Milli Vanilli could sing.

This could be a huge publicity stunt, or the real thing. Either way, be prepared to invade Best Buy on November 23rd to purchase your copy. That’s right, Best Buy got exclusive rights to distribute the album, and so did the Internet via leaks.

The best part: Dr. Pepper made a deal that if Chinese Democracy is released before the year is out, everyone in America will get a free can of Dr. Pepper. Wow, two things I dislike on the same day, I might have to stay in bed to keep out of the cold November rain. Oh come on! I couldn’t resist.

The true test of an album is: the Car Test. If your album can’t keep me interested while I drive, then I’ll be hugging a tree. I refer to my Ford Focus as the ‘Movable Office’. I listen better at the office.

For my latest ride, Kings of Leon have stepped to the challenge. Their fourth album, Only By the Night, finds the Southern royalty a little more matured and shedding that dusty swagger which made them famous all over England.

“Closer” opens the record spinning a story of being lost in a ghost town and running to find the truth about yourself. “Crawl” is the last of the swagger, with a fuzzy bass intro and a few cheap shots at the ‘crucified USA’. Lead single “Sex on Fire” might be one of the saddest songs I’ve heard in some time. Trying to connect with someone physically and hoping it will last longer than your morning coffee.

The rest of the album bunches together. Whereas, Because of the Times, was filled with catchy riffs, Only By the Night, is far more mellow. Stand out tracks include: ‘Use Somebody’, an ode to being lonely, ‘Revelry’, which struck me as a song about a sailor on leave, ‘17’, a tale of teenage excess, ‘Manhattan’, a bit of nostalgia for times gone by and, ‘Cold Desert’, which brings the boys back to songs about call girls and moving on.

Over all I was disappointed that there weren’t louder songs on this effort. From what it sounds like, the boys are moving to a more arena-ready sound rather than dusty Southern grit. I will say that I do dig the sound they’re moving toward, just bring back the riffs guys! Another night and I managed to avoid another oak, thank goodness.

My husband is an avid player of Rock Band for the Xbox 360, and as he was navigating the song list, I noticed a song by Aerosmith called “Train Keep a Rollin.” Now while I was alive in the 70′s, I don’t remember the 70′s at all, so I told my husband to play that song so I could hear it — I’m an Aerosmith fan. At least I thought I was until I heard that song. It was awful and, I found out later, a cover of an original Yardbirds song. Why would anyone want to cover it?

I decided that I must be a fan of 80′s to present day Aerosmith then because if that was a sample of their 70′s music I was definitely not a fan. So, I did some research on Aerosmith to find out when I had started liking them. I had no idea that “Sweet Emotion”, and “Walk this Way” (I like the version with Run DMC best) were from their mainstream breakthrough album, Toys in the Attic which was released in 1975 — before I was born. I found out I liked ‘70′s Aerosmith too.

Reading about the band was interesting. I didn’t know Joe Perry ever had left the band. And they didn’t do that well when he left in ’79 followed by Brad Whitford in ’81 due to alcohol and drug abuse, but in 1984 Aerosmith sobered up and they returned releasing Permanent Vacation in 1987, which is when they surfaced on my radar. Their comeback is described as one of the most remarkable and spectacular in rock ‘n’ roll history.

With a little more delving into Aerosmith and their past I was horrified to find that one of my favorite songs, “Dream On,” was on the same album that featured the worst song they’ve ever done, bar none (yes, “Train Keep a Rollin”).

Ignoring hair — Jon Bon Jovi has always had great hair and Chris Daughtry goes with a chrome-dome do — there are a lot of similarities between these bands. Both bands have a charismatic lead singer with a great voice. In the case of Daughtry, his voice is stronger and richer than Bon Jovi’s, but then again, he’s also at least twenty years younger.

Both bands are named for their charismatic singers. In the case of Bon Jovi, there is more to the band than just Jon. But in 1983, when Bon Jovi hit the charts, it might not have seemed like it. Daughtry has a full band, loaded with musicians who are both talented and attractive. That we don’t know their names yet might be the result of them only having the one album out so far. It took a few years — and Heather Locklear — for Richie Sambora to be as well-known as Jon Bon Jovi.

More importantly, both bands make music that connects with a broad spectrum of listeners. These bands just finished touring together, with Daughtry as the opening act. The fact they sold out huge arenas everywhere they went could probably be attributed to Bon Jovi alone. But most of those audiences were in place to catch Daughtry, in higher percentages than for many other “first album tour” bands.

The Bon Jovi audience is made of up all ages. Daughtry, by benefit of American Idol, also has a much wider audience than most beginning rock bands. And Daughtry just played to all of Bon Jovi’s fans. In addition, in a clear case of the older, experienced guy handing off to his younger protege, Daughtry dueted with Bon Jovi on “Blaze of Glory”. It was a great live performance, and Daughtry held his own and, in some ways, was better than Jon.

Will Daughtry steal Bon Jovi’s fans? Never. Will Daughtry gain those fans as his own? Chances are better than good. Barring the sophomore album stinking, this is a band that’s going to stick around … just like Bon Jovi.