It's been a few weeks since my last bike training update and there are a few reasons why. The first is, I've been slacking on tracking my rides and waiting for iPhone app to connect. And second, I haven't been keeping up the distance. I was originally planning on increasing my mileage every week until I hit 100 miles but ever since my 60 mile ride about 4 weeks ago I've only done about 35 miles each outing. And about 5 weeks ago I started riding the Velodrome, so I've been doing another 15 - 25 miles on the track. That shit is awesome! Made of imported Siberian pine, 45° banking, we're talking serious smoothness and speed, an incredible work out. That's me in the green at the front of the pack.
- In other news "The Fifth Ape" EP is mixed and Colin Marston (Behold... The Arctopus, Dysrhythmia, Krallice) will be mastering it next week. It will be out very soon, stay tuned.
- Our other still unnamed band with Sacha from Intronaut has been hard at work writing and recording a full length. I'll be finishing drum tracking this week.
I still had problems with the iPhone app, it got the distance right but some how created it's own start and finish points. In any case I rode 50 miles.
Jan 17. 2010 - 50.6 miles - Time not recorded correctly (I took a one 15 min break and one 30-45 min break)
Food -
one cup of coffee, one apple, one orange, a pocketfull of trailmix with dried Nectarines, 3 Cliff bars. Water refilled 6 times.
Music -
Intronaut - The Challenger EP
Kayo Dot - Choirs Of The Eye
Mouth Of The Architect - The Ties That Bind
Pelican - What We All Come To Need
Do Make Say Think - You, You're A History In Rust
Another beautiful 75° California day. This ride felt longer and harder but it wasn't much more than last week. I had issues with the Every Trail iPhone app so I mapped this one on mapmyride.com when I got home. I still get a good map of my ride but I don't get all the stats, average speed and elevation etc.
Food -
Before the ride I had one cup of coffee and one apple. On the bike I ate a half a package of Trader Joe's flattened bananas, and one black cherry almond Cliff bar. I didn't bonk out but I think I should have eaten more. Maybe that's why the ride felt a lot longer? Or the fact that I took 2 longer than usual rides home from work this week.
Music -
Ulver - Perdition City
This stuff is dark, ambient, trip hop, and so much more. This was great to start my ride with.
Dazzling Killmen - Face of Collapse
A great mid-west math rock band. Members also went on to be in Collosamite and The Mars Volta. These guys go hand in hand with Big'N, Oxes, Don Caballero, and Lustre King.
Intronaut - The Challenger
By now you know that we have a possibly unhealthy love for Intronaut. We have a side project with Sacha, he does guest vocals on our full length and Joe plays bass on our new EP.(pre-orders available at sawherghost.net) The 3 studio recorded songs on this EP are possibly my favorites of their entire catalog.
Keelhaul - II
I've acquired a huge amount of new music in the last couple of months and this is another band I've been hearing about forever but never actually heard until now. These guys kick some serious ass.
Ulcerate - Everything is Fire
Got this suggestion from the Blogronaut's year end list. I don't even know where to start with this one. Lots of people seem to be talking about these guys lately and for a good reason, they fuckin' slay!
After some urging from Derek, I finally decided to post my first blog. Hopefully, I'll get around to posting more often after I get my life in order...
In 1981, at tender age of 6, my older brothers changed my life forever when they sat me down in our living room and made me listen to their favorite records by Rush, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd and The Scorpions. Yes The Scorpions...fuck you hipster, I still love the classic Klaus Meine "Come On, Come On" jibberish yell.
Despite my long lasting affinity/guilty pleasure for The Scorp's classic tunes, the bands that really struck a chord with me were Rush and Pink Floyd. If you listen to NSL carefully, you can't deny the influence. I still consider Pink Floyd my favorite band of all time, especially after watching Pink Floyd at Pompeii a million times and listening to more of their pre-Dark Side recordings. As a guitarist, I've been equally influenced by both Syd Barrett and David Gilmour. Plus, I fell in love with the synthesizer because of my early exposure to Pink Floyd and Rush.
Although I been through a shit load of music fazes throughout my life, something always brought me back to Pink Floyd and early Rush. About 10 years ago, I began seeking out more music from classic prog bands. Since then Brian Eno and Robert Fripp have become as influential to me as Pink Floyd has been throughout my life. My prog obsession has now become full blown disease.
Here are my favorite prog records of all time:
Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Meddle, More, Obscured By Clouds, Atom Heart Mother, Animals, Wish You Were Here
King Crimson - In The Court of the Crimson King, Larks' Tounges In Aspic, Starless and the Bible Black, Red
Rush - 2112, A Farewell to Kings, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures
Brian Eno - Another Green World, Before and After Science, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (with David Byrne), Music for Airports, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks
Hawkwind - Hawkwind, In Search of Space, Doremi Fasol Latido, Hall of the Mountain Grill, Quark Strangeness and Charm
Goblin - Roller, Suspiria, Zombi (Dawn of the Dead)
Prog albums that I love, but need more from the artists...
Yes - The Yes Album, Genesis - Selling England by the Pound, Le Orme - Felona e Sorona, Camel - Rain Dances, Amon Duul II - Yeti, Bo Hannson - self titled, Klaatu - 3:47 EST, Magma - Kohntarkosz, Soft Machine - Third
Finally, these are awesome psychedelic albums by classic rock artists that all happen to start with the word "The." A precursor to prog:
The Who - Sell Out, The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request, The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle, The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds/Smiley Smile, and of course The Beatles recordings from 1966 and later.
For more information on prog bands, check out ProgArchives.com and search for some cool prog rock videos on YouTube. Here is the first part of a BBC documentary:
