Ketchup

Ahh, fine song from a great band. Seems we share taste in music, Jethro Tull being the tip of a very big iceberg lol
 

Adam, you're clearly a genius! Growing up, my favorite band was the Beatles, but as I matured and my tastes grew more complex, Tull took over. I think I own thirty-one Jethro Tull albums? That's an impressive run.

"Benefit," "Heavy Horses" and the retroactively released "Nightcap" are my favorites, I believe.
 

Aqualung will always have a place reserved in my heart, Locomotive Breath is just amazing.

You ever listen to The Horslips - a band that is very similar to Jethro Tull. Just listen to Trouble With A Capotiol T, the similarities are glaring!

I've recently been going back to the older semi-progressive rock, such as Atomic Rooster, which are just great!

Long live great music!
 

I'll have to go grab a Horslips' CD. Yes, I still buy CDs! What a caveman!!! But one of the things that I've always loved most about Tull, Floyd, Airplane, the Beatles, etc., is that they made entire *albums*. Most musicians these days have two or maybe three hot tracks on an entire album. There's no point in listening to their CDs, whereas the old school masters were entirely *listenable.* Every track was great, good, or nearly so. I miss that.

Thanks for the hot tip!
 

Agreed, although I'm not a huge fan of The Beatles and some of Airplane's later stuff wasn't all that.

Floyd, ahh, Animals is my favourite album, but they're all pretty great - first and second line-up only - Gilmour Floyd is a little lacking.

It's hard to find bands that are consistent on one album. If you like Bar-Blues, a band whose album is great all the way through is Jam Samich - you can find them on myspace.

Some other, newer bands who are sort of carrying the torch on from Floyd/Tull are:

Porcupine Tree - Signify/In Absentia
Muse (a little more pop, but still great) - Origin of Symmetry/Hullaballoo

My personal favourite genre of music is Instrumental Rock, bands that play fantastic music crossing many genre boundaries - a few bands that are top on my list:

Djam Karet - fantastic, any album.
Ozric Tentacles - ditto.
Buckethead - Colma/Population Override/Electric Tears

Wow, that's a long comment! But I do love my music, almost as much as I love my books!

About to start in on Plague War, having read Plague Year a month or so back! Very enjoyable stuff, yo keep writing - I'll keep reading.

Its weird, but you're another very enjoyable writer living near me in the bay area. Christopher Moore, Tad Williams, Barry Eisler, Scott Sigler - all live around here too! As an amateur writer myself, I'm hoping for inspiration by close proximity ;)
 

Don't forget Michael Chabon!

And, hey, please, rave on about the music, man. I like to see some passion. I used to be hugely into music myself, and still own several hundred albums, but we have kids now and in those rare moments when I have some downtime, I cherish SILENCE. Ha. Although the other day I was alone in the car and feeling peppy, so I threw in some Tull.

Floyd is an interesting mix. Their very early stuff, like a Saucer Full Of Secrets, is nearly unlistenable. I'm sure they were tripping out of their minds. It's just noise. But from The Final Cut and The Wall through Wish You Were Here, wow. And heretic that I am, I do like The Division Bell, too.

;)

What kind of stuff are you writing, dude?
 

The two latter Gilmour albums are fine albums, but to me they don't really sound entirely Floyd-y - if that makes any sense! Gilmour's trademark guitar is there, but eh rest is slightly toned-down. Granted Waters isn't much of a bassist, his lyrics did have some sting to them! There are some great tracks on early floyd albums, but as a whole they're a little too far out there for me too.

Wow, the bay area is the place to be for genre fiction! I love it as its almost guaranteed that the authors will do some signings around here and I can get all my books signed. By the way, you mentioned in another post you've signed stock at Barnes & Nobles around here, which ones? I've read your first from my library and have the second out - but would like to buy both and signed ones are always better to me! :D

As for my writing, its been a bit lax recently, but, I'd say my style was similar to fellow English authors Robert Rankin & Douglas Adams - with a touch of Christopher Moore :D But I love to write about anything and everything - Thrillers, Horror and Science Fiction being huge influences on me. Basically right now I'm starting out, been writing for a few years on and off, trying to find my style and a story I can run with.

With my website I link to reviews from around the world and one review was of your latest and that is how I found your books and I'm glad I did - one of mine and my wife's favourite sub-genres is post-apocalyptic novels - one book that we both cite as a big favourite of ours is Swan Song by Robert McCammon - whom I think is one of the greatest living writers.

I'm rambling again :D

My new thing with music is live DVDs, I really can't get enough of them. Blues and Progressive Rock - as your a fan of Floyd, you must see (if you haven't already) Live at Pompeii - brilliant stuff. Then there is Roger Waters' Live at the Berlin Wall or David Gilmour's recent solo dvd, Live in Gnatsk (probably spelled wrong lol)
 

So you're living in the British section of the Bay Area? Did I read that right? ;>

I've only hit the major chain stores up and down the 680 corridor; Dublin B&N; San Ramon Borders; Walnut Creek B&N; and the Pleasant Hill Borders and B&N. Oh, and the Roseville B&N, plus Borderlands Books in San Francisco. My guess (my hope!) is that most of these have sold out by now, and, in fact, I know that some of them have, which is great. If none of these stores are near Britishtown, ha ha, I'm happy to mail you copies directly at cost, my good sir. Naturally I'm all in favor of stocking up people's collections!

Email me at jeff@jverse.com, okay?