Current mood:	relaxed
Current music:	'Thumbs Off' by The Clean
Entry tags:	delays, dire straits, dream theater, joy division, muse, music, porcupine tree, queen, the living end, u2

For your further listening pleasure ...
Yesterday, I provided free music from Kiwi bands, and as promised, today, here's an assortment of music from the rest of the world for you to wrap your ears around. Unlike yesterday, there are no M4A files, just MP3s, so there shouldn't be any playability issues for anyone.

Worldwide music!

DELAYS
A member of Interference sent me a couple of songs by these guys and I must confess to being completely hooked. They're from Southampton, England, and have only released one album thus far. This is the opening track, and don't be fooled: the lead singer is indeed male.

Wanderlust

DIRE STRAITS
Dire Straits were a very famous British band active from the late seventies until the early nineties. Put simply, Mark Knopfler (vocals/guitar) is a guitar god and I could listen to his playing for hours.

Money For Nothing (live) --> Brothers In Arms (live)
Sultans Of Swing

DREAM THEATER
Dream Theater are one of today's leading progressive rock bands, and the musical genius of the band members will become readily apparent very quickly to any listener. Love or hate them, you have to concede these guys have enormous talent and ability. I've chosen to upload my very favourite Dream Theater song, Metropolis Part I, even though some of you less familiar with bands who make long songs may initially raise an eyebrow at its length of 9:32. Give it a whirl; I think this is simply one of the best songs ever made. I've also uploaded a couple of other favourites that are a bit on the shorter side of life - note the juxtaposition of cheerful music with less than happy lyrics in Solitary Shell.

A Mind Beside Itself III: The Silent Man
Metropolis Part I: The Miracle And The Sleeper (If you're going to ask for Metropolis Part II, don't. It's the entire Scenes From A Memory album.)
Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence VI: Solitary Shell

JOY DIVISION
Not for those who like happy music! Joy Division only existed for a few short years, in the late seventies and 1980, and released two albums: the latter, Closer, is considered by some to be singer Ian Curtis's suicide note to the world. The possessor of a great baritone voice, Curtis suffered from epileptic fits on stage (the subject matter of Atrocity Exhibition), and committed suicide for reasons that remain unclear in May 1980 at the age of 23.

Atrocity Exhibition
Love Will Tear Us Apart
Twenty Four Hours

THE LIVING END
The Living End are an Australian act who I'm mainly familiar with via radio singles - the reason I haven't explored much deeper (besides laziness) is that I've found the singles to be a bit up and down. The highest point for me is All Torn Down, a song I've always been very biased towards.

All Torn Down

MUSE
Not only are Muse one of the most fantastic bands to recently come out of the UK, but one has to admire Matt Bellamy for his multi-tasking as Muse's singer, guitarist, and keyboardist. His vocals - especially on Micro Cuts - are also quite incredible!

Hysteria
Micro Cuts
Time Is Running Out

PORCUPINE TREE
Porcupine Tree are an exceptional progressive rock band from Britain, and their albums In Absentia and Deadwing are two of my absolute favourite albums from this decade. Steve Wilson is not only fantastic on guitar but provides beautiful vocals too. It is my opinion that Lazarus and The Sound Of Muzak are two of the best songs ever made, the latter being one of the best attacks on shallow modern music that I have ever heard. Speaking of attacks, enjoy the satirical attack on extremist religion in Halo's lyrics.

Blackest Eyes
Halo
Lazarus
The Sound Of Muzak

QUEEN
Let's face it, Queen were simply one of the most exceptional bands of all time. Freddie Mercury had one of the best voices in rock music and the world suffered a tragic loss when he died. Headlong may seem like a bit of a random choice to upload out of all the classic Queen tracks out there, but I must confess to being hooked on it at the moment. Woop-ditty-ditty, woop-ditty-doo!

Don't Stop Me Now
Headlong
One Vision (Hint: listen closely at the end, especially if you like fried chicken.)
Save Me

U2
Are you tragically unfamiliar with the single greatest band in the history of the entire universe? Where have you been for the last twenty-five years? These guys have only been consistently one of the best selling artists from 1987's The Joshua Tree to today, and over the same period of time, have been the top concert draw in the world. They just completed the highest grossing tour in European history, in the process cementing their reputation as one of, if not the greatest live act in the world. And here's some of their live glory for you: the two live songs that converted me (though of course, I was watching the video footage), along with the studio song instrumental (no pun intended) in my conversion, Gone. As an added bonus, I have included One Tree Hill from 26 December 1989, which I consider to be the greatest live performance of any song by any band ever, along with the studio version for comparison. Finally, I have included another studio track, Treasure (Whatever Happened To Pete The Chop?), which was the b-side on 1983's New Year's Day single.

11 O'clock Tick Tock / Drowning Man (U2 snippet) [5 June 1983, Red Rocks, Colorado, USA] (Sourced from 'The Concert' audio bootleg of the show that appears on the officially released video Under A Blood Red Sky)
Bad / Ruby Tuesday (Rolling Stones snippet) / Sympathy For The Devil (Rolling Stones snippet) [8 November 1987, Denver, Colorado, USA] (Sourced from the Rattle And Hum video)
Gone (Best Of 1990-2000 New Mix)
One Tree Hill (studio) / One Tree Hill (26 December 1989, Dublin, Ireland) (Yes, the guitar solo and following verse are completely improvised on the spot)
Treasure (Whatever Happened To Pete The Chop?)


Interesting to note that there's only one American band there, Dream Theater. Let me say hooray for Commonwealth bands with male lead vocalists!

As with yesterday, download, listen, enjoy, and tell me what you think!