I was asked by a friend on the PMS newsgroup last night to provide him with some suggestions from the Pat Metheny discography. So, I thought about it and they are as follows:

�"Bright Size Life" (1975) - Metheny's first studio album, featuring �ber-bassist Jaco Pastorius (R.I.P., 1951-1987)
�"New Chautauqua" (1977, I think)
�"Pat Metheny Group"* (1978) - one of my three favorite albums of his, ever...
�"American Garage"* (1980)
�"As Falls Witchita... So Falls Wichita Falls" (1980) - another fave... in a word, awesome...
�"80/81" (1980) - an incredible double live disc with drummer Jack DeJohnette, Dewey Redmon, Charlie Haden, and Michael Brecker
�"Offramp"* (1981)
�"First Circle"* (1984) - the third of my all-timers and the first one I personally owned on vinyl...
�"Song X" (1987) - with Jazz pioneer/saxophonist Ornette Coleman
(at this point in time, Metheny kind of "weirded out" into this "Cuban/Mediterranean thing" for a few albums that I, honestly, could not get into, whatsoever... not that there's anything wrong with that style of music, at all, but from him, i just wasn't buying it...)
�"I Can See Your House From Here" (1993) - With guitarist John Scofield
�"Imaginary Day"* (1997)
�"Jim Hall & Pat Metheny" (1999) - Jim Hall is a Cleveland guitarist and is equally as phenomenal.
�"Trio 99/00" (2000)
�"Trio Live" (2000)
�"Speaking of Now"* (2002)
***Oddly, most online CD sites fail to discern between "Pat Metheny" albums and "Pat Metheny Group" albums, choosing to lump them all together as "Pat Metheny" recordings (which I guess they ARE, but...). All "PMG" albums are so labelled on their respective covers (and I have marked the "PMG" albums in my list with an asterik).

Listening to: Jeff Buckley - "The Peyote Radio Theater" (1994) (from "The Grace EPs" collection (2002))

No, Avril Lavigne is Not Punk... Who Cares?
Yeah, I like to dig into certain musicians/entertainers on here from time to time. I'm allowed to... you're allowed not to care what I think, too (or you can post a comment at the bottom of these posts calling me whatever name you like)... no biggie, right? Good. With that in mind, I was rummaging around on Google as I usually do every day, looking desperately for something to read that won't depress me beyond all belief... so I type in (completely on a whim) -Avril Lavigne buttcrack-... I keep hearing about how she has some thing about her ass hanging out, but in the few times I've seen her, have never actually caught sight of it... so I figured I would see if she even really has a buttcrack... No surprise that there are, like, four pages of references to it... Down the page a little is a link entitled Go to Hell Avril Lavigne!. Well, I had to click it... the whole curiosity thing in me, I suppose... All I could think as I read it was, "Wow, whoever this is has really invested a lot of time and effort slaggin' her." (even funnier was the fact that at the bottom of the page are links to other haters that have invested equal amounts of wasted time and space hating and trying to "debunk" her, or something). Okay, no shit that she's not "punk" (but in all fairness, trying to compare anything "punk" today to the real punk of the pioneers like the Pistols, DK, the Clash, etc. is like trying to compare the Monkees to the Beatles) and judging by some of the things she's said in some interviews I've read, she's probably not making all kinds of new friends in the business, either. And I certainly found it hard to stomach that she got hooked up with FIVE Grammy nominations (although, honestly, the Grammys are total horseshit, anyway, so maybe I'm not that surprised). But at the end of the day, where is she? That's right... way better off than a whole lot of the clowns that sit around wasting time (and judging by a couple of the more elaborate hater-sites, a lot of time, at that) ragging on her. I mean, why not waste time ragging on people that deserve it (like Fred, Christina, or Shania)? I'm certainly not an Avril Lavigne "fan" or anything like that, but I couldn't care less if she can skate or what she wears, and if people wanna rag on her for not being able to play the guitar (although it appears she can actually fart around on one with some success), fine... pick one up yourself and learn to play it with any degree of success, then go out and score 5 Grammy nods (get one, even - hell... release an album, for that matter) then... and when your little plan for stardom and trying to make Ms. Lavigne out as any less great than yourself backfires, shut the fuck up and get on with the rest of your life. When I saw her on Saturday Night Live, recently (hosted by what turned out to be a fucking hilarious Jeff Gordon), I thought she sounded pretty damn good for an 18 year-old... hell, she sound pretty damn good, period... When I was 18, I was playing county fairs and swim dances and Battle of the Bands bullshit for gas money...

Listening to: Filter - "The Amalgamut" (2002)

I got a chance to see the rebroadcast of Austin City Limits, tonight, featuring the Pat Metheny Group. I saw it Saturday night and it was great, but it was even better the second time around. Can't really say why it was any better, really... I think maybe I just knew what was coming and was anticipating... anyhow, it was great... I thought the Beck w/Flaming Lips one and the Alison Krauss & Union Station ones were going to be the best episodes of the season, but the PMG episode beat 'em both, hands down... Don't get me wrong, the other episodes were still good, but the PMG one was awesome...
I hear there is a fourth Eric Johnson Austin City Limits that was filmed in October or November... Haven't seen it this season, though... I really hope I didn't miss it... That would suck donkeys.

Listening to: Lacuna Coil - "Coma Lies" (2002)

Super Bowl Halftime, pt. II
Okay... I read an interesting little article earlier that says that the Shania Twain camp is claiming that she did NOT lip-synch at the Super Bowl... bull... shit... total, complete bullshit... she was hopping all over the place and her voice didn't waver the slightest little bit... I don't know any singer that can pull that off... I mean, she's got nice legs and stuff, but they're not Monroe shock absorbers... The ABC producers promised that there would be no lip synching, but there SO was... oh, well... it's not like we can "get our money back" or anything...

Listening to: nonpoint - "Development" (2002)

Okay. I saw where Paz Lenchantin (of A Perfect Circle) is playing with Billy Corgan in his new little thing, Zwan. Fair enough... but here's where my boxers bunch up on me... I also just read that as of January 20, A Perfect Circle has started working on their new album in the studio... The Zwan tour is set to kick off on February 12... so, is Paz in the studio with the rest of APC, or is she getting ready to go out on tour with Zwan? Surely to goodness she hasn't left APC... has she?

Listening to: Ornette Coleman - "The Shape of Jazz to Come" (1959)

Kelly Osbourne Needs a Good Spanking
I know that a lot of my music-related posts are actually "television music-related" posts... so sue me. I actually sat through about fifteen minutes of "The Osbournes" the other day (only the third time I have ever had it on my tv)... This is really a show??? The coolest thing about it was definitely the Sinatra-ized version of "Crazy Train" in the opening credits... In that fifteen minutes I managed to stomach, I got to see no-talent Kelly throw a complete hissy about how she "needed a break" and proceeded to act like a four-year old (I hear she's really only six, anyway) and call her father every conceivable name in the book (and make up a few new ones in the process)... and this was all taped before she even recorded that "Papa Don't Preach" crap that led to her album... My only thought was if she didn't want the workload that comes along with trying to break through in music, she shouldn't have signed the contract (that was basically thrown at her feet because she's Ozzy's daughter)... what a whiny little bitch. If I would have acted like that to my father when I was a kid (or I imagine to this day with my mother), I would expect "the mother of all beatings" to commence on my ass immediately thereafter.
Then we have Jack, acting all cool, recording this band of complete stoner burnouts and sitting back like Mutt Lange with his fingers at his chin, listening to this pretty weak bit of rock like he's debating on making them rockstars, or something (all just because he's Ozzy's boy, not because he is actually talented in any capacity).
I have absolutely nothing bad to say about Sharon Osbourne, other than she puts up with WAY too much shit from everyone else.
Then finally, we have the madman, himself... Ozzy's music was an influence on me growing up ("Tribute" will always rank among the best live albums ever, to me), going back to the Sabbath days and all that... and to see him kind of hobbling around his house, mumbling whatever the hell he is, in fact, mumbling... I felt pretty sad for him... and I'm pretty sure he is in the early stages of Parkinson's Disease as well, judging by the uncontrollable tremors that are more than a bit beyond obvious...
I have stated before in other media, but hats off to oldest daughter, Aimee, for refusing to be a part of the show, and the humility that has come with it. Not that the little Osbourne fuck kids (save Aimee) will think they are anything but cool, or anything, but I feel humiliated for them, I guess... anything for a buck, eh, Mtv?

(Since I'm always listening to music when I'm online pretty much, I thought I would attempt to be like everyone else and post what I'm listening to when I post here from now on...)

Listening to: The Who - "My Generation:Deluxe Edition" (Disc One) (1965/2002)

Super Bowl Halftime
Was it me, or did Shania Twain look like something leftover from the Queensryche "Rage for Order" days? :) And of course, she lip-synched (when she actually did sing that newer song on Leno last week, she sounded horrible... struggling to keep it together... figured she wouldn't want to embarass herself like that in front of an even bigger audience...)... and her backup band, complete with FOUR guitars AND a keytar (again, straight out of about 1986) TOTALLY faking their way through the embarassment... nastiness. To think how much they all got paid for that? Damn... Kinda funny to see the super-tackiness of the '80s glam-rock scene has been commandeered full-on by country music, nowadays.
Props to Sting and No Doubt for actually singing the songs... :)
The Osbournes Pepsi Twist commercial was great, too.
Ozzy: "You're a bunch of bloody magicians..." Even if I hate "The Osbournes," I still love the Ozzman...

Wow... Another Leno reference... Just got done watching it... Saw a new band... Thirty Seconds to Mars... pretty cool. singer had a pretty killer voice, but a really bad look (fingerless gloves playing the guitar is, in fact, still not cool)... the drummer was pretty intense, too... really smacks the snot out of the cymbals... (hmm.. cymbal snot?)

They're cool... you wish you were, too...