So, what am I listening to, anyway?

So, over the past couple of weeks I've been either buying at used record stores or downloading from the Internet a whole raft of various metal and prog music, to get a grip on what I want to listen to, and I've dismissed a lot of music as mediocre and amateurish, and I suppose I should finally get off my high horse and tell you what's really on the Jukebox in heavy rotation.

The number one band on the top of my list right now is Porcupine Tree, especially live. If you love Yes, Rush, and Pink Floyd, and want to hear what they'd be doing if those bands were in their mid-20's right now, Porcupine Tree is the answer. On the album I've been listening to most, Live at Nearfest, there are two all-instrumental pieces which just blow me away. The first is called "Voyage 34", and features mind-bogglingly good trance/rock guitar work while audio clips from a bad 1970's LSD documentary plays in the background. The other, "Last Chance to Leave The Earth Before It Is Recycled," is equally good, but this time the audio clips are taken from the last will and testament of the Heaven's Gate cult. I've got six of their albums and a couple of live bootlegs, and I just can't stop listening to the live ones.

The early Pink Floyd trance and psychedelica is obvious in almost everything they do-- as is Roger Water's depressive influence. One of the albums opens with the lyrics, "A body washed up on the Norfolk Beach / Another friend that I could not reach..." and goes downhill from there. Just beware. The music is incredible, and the lyrics are thoughtful, but cynical and dark.

Second: Dream Theater, also essential live. It's hard to believe this band is twenty years old. Albums like Live at the Marquee and Live Scenes from New York simply blow me away with their narrative stories, very hard rock sensibility, and technical excellence. Songs like "Home" which just jerks you around with sweet thoughts and high-powered guitars run side-by-side with "Overture 1928," a story in a song about a young man's encounter with a ghost.

Dream Theater is most famous for playing concerts for two hours, then leaving the stage, then coming back and playing an entire other band's album as a cover: they've done Iron Maiden's Powerslave and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and in the latter case, since they had time left, played pieces from Animals, Echoes, and The Wall while they were at it, convincingly. Sometimes they just play one song after another in a huge medly. One of their great medlies includes Elton John, Genesis, Rush, Metallica, Kansas, Queen...

It's really hard for me to believe that both of these bands have existed for years without my knowing about them. About the only excuse I can find is that somehow, I got stuck in such a rut about music that I didn't really feel my way around anymore. Both of these bands represent the evolution of the kind of rock music I've loved into the 21st century, and it's nice to know that someone's writing and performing it.

My brain asplodes!

I've been trying to figure out The Monty Hall Paradox. So far, the Bayes Theorem explanation holds the most weight and makes the most sense, but moving out of the purely mathematical aspects of Bayesian math to the real world makes my brain asplode.

There's a lovely simulator with tallies on-line as well.