Update 4/7/11

Apologies for the lack of content around here the past few weeks. Sometimes other things get in the way, but now it's back to business. Kinks To Reunite? As we all know, Ray Davies has made a bit of a comeback over the past few years with two strong albums, "Other People's Lives" and the stellar "Working Man's Cafe". The inevitable Kinks reunion question continues to surface and Ray has always been open to the idea. He has suggested several times that it was close to happening. But to do it properly, he'd need his brother Dave on board. When told last year about Ray's stating that a reunion of the Kinks was close to happening his reply was simply "Ray's an asshole." Undeterred, Ray then stated that he'd just do it without Dave. Well, this must have lit a fire because Dave seems to have lightened up a little towards the prospect. Hopefully some news coming our way soon. Meanwhile, Ray Davies has just released a duets style album entitled, appropriately enough, "See My Friends". Expect a review here shortly. More Iron Maiden in 2011 My all time favorite heavy metal band, Iron Maiden, has announced yet another best of package. Titled "From Fear To Eternity" it focuses solely on the records from 1990 on. Since the band has focused on longer songs in the past 10 years they have decided to make this a 2 disc release. Does the world need another Maiden compilation? No. The band claims the reasoning behind the release is to educate newer fans about the past catalogue, which is the same excuse behind the "Somewhere Back In Time collection a few years back. Doesn't ring true though, if anything this CD should be a primer to the new stuff for older fans who may have drifted away. Seems irrelevant anyway as Maiden's fans are incredibly loyal and probably have all the music anyway. And therein lies the bigger problem for yours truly. I've got every album the band has put out but the completionist in me won't let me not buy this...which is sad. What is not sad, however, is that Iron Maiden will release a new live collection at the end of the year. It will feature a show from the last leg of the "Final Frontier" tour. The only disappointment here is that this is the version of the show that the U.S. didn't get (with a few exceptions coming up this year). The set list is much more well rounded than the one we got last summer (don't get me wrong, the shows were great but as a long time fan I missed some of the older songs), Production wise, it seems that the show got bigger and better...and has a brand new "giant Eddie" which we all love so much. (I hate to say it, but it almost seems as though the U.S. shows were purposely lacking. No proof of that mind you, just thinking out loud.) Anyway, something to look forward to later this year. Okay, that wraps it up for now. Keep checking in, there's more to come.