I typically play what I’m posting, but today I’m posting what I’ve been playing: Led Zeppelin’s Presence (1976). I had a hankering to hear “Nobody’s Fault but Mine,” but once this record started spinning I rediscovered some other gems like “Hots on for Nowhere” and “Royal Orleans.” There are only seven songs, but I was still surprised to read this album was recorded and mixed in only 17 days. I believe I bought Presence in the mid ’80s when I worked at a chain record store. I was late to the Zeppelin party due to acute punkrockitis.

More about Presence and the cover artwork at Wikipedia.

I can’t believe I just found this. This is a last minute post, but go see Kings of Prussia at Gourmet Perks (Asheville, NC) tonight. I’m sure I’ll be posting more about them soon. For now I’ll just say if a combo of Durutti Column, Voivod and Death Angel sounds good to you, then you’ll love this. Check out the video of my new favorite band.

And congrats to whoever made that show flyer. Fantastic.

Kings of Prussia at MySpace

If your band lists “Sonics, Thin Lizzy, Royal Trux, Led Zeppelin, ABBA” as influences it’s a sure bet I’m going to check out your music. And when I read about your drummer’s penchant for crowd-surfing, with his drums, I gotta see what that’s all about.

Ladies and gentlemen… all the way from Tel Aviv… Monotonix!

Body Language EP comes today, April 22.

I was talking to the singer/guitarist of Einstein’s Dream, Jared Hooker, last week when he described his band as “prog lite.” That made me laugh, but now that I’ve listened to the six songs they have at their MySpace page, at least a dozen times, I’m convinced the Dream is fo’ real. Jared’s vocals and the band’s musicianship remind me vaguely of Muse, but these guys are definitely doing their own thing. My favorite song of this collection, “Smoke and Mirrors,” is also the heaviest. No surprise there, but I also dig the pretty stuff. Songcraft is everything.

Jared says they’re adding a keyboardist and gearing up for some live shows. I’m looking to forward to it!

Einstein’s Dream at MySpace

• Artist: Muse
• Title: Black Holes and Revelations
• Year: 2006
• Format: CD
• Rating (1-10): 10
• Owner: Mary/Tracy
• Acquired: 2006 – No place special, Target maybe.

This is post number 200 in the “record” collection category. I’m celebrating with something special, something new for you kids and grups out there — “Black Holes and Revelations” by Muse.

This band is so musically ambitious and perfectly weird I can think of few, if any, meaningful comparisons. Despite that, or possibly because of it, their last two records have been big commercial successes, even in the US. Their music is metallic, operatic, funky, melodic, pop and everything else you can think of, and somehow it never sounds diluted. Again, this stuff is ambitious, not the output of a few dudes getting together and just jamming out some verses and choruses. And their timing is impeccable. Just before things get too weird for too long they pull out some colossal riff, drop the hammer, and perform another hard rock burnout.

The last song, “Knights of Cydonia”, is probably my favorite. This piece has everything in it from an Ennio Morricone-sounding spaghetti western guitar, to space alien electronica, to anthemic choruses. Just after the four minute mark something extra special happens that on first hearing was so unexpected, and every time thereafter so anticipated, that I break out in goosebumps. More about Muse.