Music Diary

Back in 2013 the power trio of Tony Levin, Marco Minnemann, & Jordan Rudess released a self-titled album that was a joyous romp for shred-loving musicians, but went much further and deeper. Now they are back with a new album called “From the Law Offices of LEVIN MINNEMANN RUDESS”, due out on July 15th and available for pre-order! In my review I described their first album as: “a powerhouse onslaught of uncompromising instrumental joy. Throughout the album there are tastes of prog rock from the 70s, 80s, and 90s as well as fusion, metal and pretty much every other hard-driving…

Two years ago guitarist Mary Halvorson stepped back from her ever-expanding group projects and released an album called Thumbscrew with what I called a ‘trio of equals’. Now the group is back and ready to release their next album in a few weeks, called Convallaria. And from the preview track, it sounds great.

It has been more than five years since I wrote a post stepping through the Beatles musical catalog, which I wrote just before their music came to iTunes. Since then the Beatles music has been available for purchase, but not for streaming. Tonight at midnight that ends, as the entire Beatles catalog comes to streaming services!

Last fall I reviewed Marco Minnemann’s excellent solo album Eeps. I called it ‘musician’s music’, “that is technically insane and that you will listen to again and again to absorb the details of what they are playing and how they are putting it together”. Now he is back with Celebration out June 1st, and it sounds awesome so far!