@LinerNotes

And so in just a few hours, the Year That Goes to 11 shall come to a close. This is the perfect time to look back and listen on the past year and share some thoughts on music which stood out in numerous ways. If you aren't following me on Twitter, here is the recap of my picks for the Best of '11.

Meet Jason Yang. Jason is a violinist with an exceptional sound and list of performance credits to his name. Jason has also just uploaded a performance of music from the video game Skyrim that stands out amongst the ever-growing number of similar videos.

If you love guitar and you love dogs, you will positively fall over after watching this video of a dog's reactions while listening to a guitar being played. It certainly underscores balladeer Edie Brickell's lyric: "Religion, is the smile on a dog". Tweet Follow @LinerNotes    

Photo credit, sonicgloo Twas the week before Christmas and all through the stores, all the classics were playing, they were all such bores. The subject of Christmas music is becoming noticeably more divisive every year. You either love or loathe the music associated with the holiday. I for one fall into the former category. However, I also enjoy unique covers of the classics, especially when rock, metal and punk artists put their own spin on them. So, if you are looking to liven up your family gathering, add these rawking Christmas covers (and a pair of originals) to your playlist. Playing them at full volume is required. Just don't blame me if mom/grandma/significant other puts coal in your stocking for it.

If there are two things I very much enjoy but never thought I'd enjoy together, they would be Christmas music and Dark Wave. So it is rather surprising and nice to hear a trio of Christmas songs from goth/synthpop outfit, The Crüxshadows. There is something about the combination of bells, holiday themes and The Crüxshadows beautifully dark melodies that clicks so very well.

Fire at the Montreux Casino, December 4, 1971 - Source: Darker Than Blue It was 40 years ago that one of the most famous disasters in the annals of live music occurred. December 4th, 1971 was the day of the now-legendary fire at the Montreux Casino, on the Lake Geneva shoreline. Fortunately, the only thing that died that day was the historic building where the fire occurred. But out of the ashes, or out of the smoke as it were, was born one of the most legendary riff-based songs in rock history.

If you are among the millions who are adventuring through the world of Skyrim (myself included) then you already have an intimate knowledge of the music crafted by Jeremy Soule for the game. If you aren't playing it, stick with me here, because great music, no matter the source, transcends barriers, whether they be language or non-knowledge of a video game. The lady pictured above goes by the name Malukah, and she has posted an utterly haunting guitar-and-vocal cover of a key in-game bard song from Skyrim.

Well this is an excellent way to start the day and to close out Yesvember. Award-winning classical pianist Vika Yermolyeva and her solo piano take on Deep Purple's classic rhythm and blues rocker, "Lazy" in extremely admirable fashion. After you watch Vika's performance, come inside to check out the original, especially if it's never penetrated your ears before and to learn about Vika's other unique performances.

The Japanese Popstars are neither Japanese nor pop stars, if you are using Pop in the literal sense. They are in fact a trio of gentlemen from Ireland who's sophomore album is an exciting blend of House and Electronica which should definitely earn them star status in the electronic music world. Having just live-tweeted my first listen to the album, here are some deeper thoughts on the sounds found inside.

It was 20 years ago today, that U2 went from being one of the biggest bands in the world to THE biggest band in the world. November 19th, 1991 was when the legendary Achtung Baby first released. It was a departure in sound and style, a revolution even, yet was still U2, in a re-imagined sense. It wasn't just a revolution in the recorded sound of the band but in how they presented themselves on stage. The massive, multimedia spectacle of The Zoo TV Tour became the benchmark by which all large-scale tours and concert performances (including their own future tours ) would be compared to. And while hindsight may be 20/20, it was not the passage of 20 years that made Achtung Baby one of the single most important album releases of all time.

Well this definitely qualifies as a Yesvember post. This young bloke from England named Scott has taken Jeremy Soule's "Sons of Skyrim", the theme to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim video game, and run it through ye olde metalizer. The result can be summed up in one word: YES! Scott has numerous other video game and nerd culture music themes which he has done metal remixes of on his YouTube page , quite well I might add. So, if casting a heavy metal spell over the music of Harry Potter or the recently uploaded "The White Hand of Saruman" (from The Lord of the Metal Rings , natch) is your cup of mead, then crank it up and throw the horns for sbeast64's geek-tastic metal themes! Tweet Follow @LinerNotes    

As if 11/11/11 couldn't get any more metal, the original line up of Black Sabbath today officially dispelled long-running rumors and announced their reunion. This will be no mere "let's get back together and play the hits" tour either.

Today is an historic day. It is a first-ever celebration of its kind. This is a limited edition holiday that we can only celebrate once! Unless we get pills that keep us forever young. This isn't one of your run-of-the-mill card holidays. This is actually very serious! Turn it up to 11 and turn to the closest person to you and wish them a "Happy Nigel Tufnel Day!"

One of the most notoriously awesome rock instrumentals of the 1970's was a lengthy ditty by Dutch rockers, Focus. Powered by a full tilt Jan Akkerman guitar riff and featuring the maniacal yodeling of Thijs Van Leer, this is a song that you may well be familiar with or not at all. But one thing is certain. You've probably never heard it played as if it were the backing music for a level in a Mario Bros. game.

Sometimes, a bit of music is just so incredibly cool/fun/unique that the simplest way to describe it is, YES! So, in the spirit of Yesvember (Hey, cut me some slack. I never once used the term Rocktober last month!) a great big YES! goes to this video of a gentleman covering Iron Maiden's galloping rhythm classic "The Trooper" on a traditional Japanese instrument.

Hey! It's been one year since I carved out this little corner of the Internet to blog about all-things music and I thought it might be fun to share a few bits of trivia with you about what you've been reading here! And if that doesn't entice you enough to come in, how about a legitimate, free download of a track from an as-yet-to-be-released disc of bluesy roots rock?

There are two branches of the great tree of music which, while sharing common roots, don't intersect nearly enough. But when they do, the result is often, in the vernacular of the era, totally rad. Get your lighters out for this one.

If you've been putting off building your library of Rush albums, now's your chance. The legendary band has just announced a box set series entitled Sectors , which will cover all 15 of their classic Mercury Records releases. The question is, beyond the albums themselves, what new companions unobtrusive are included in each set?

Search long enough through the veritable eons-worth of videos uploaded to YouTube and you might just stumble across a real gem. Such is the case with guitarist Juliette Valduriez. To say this young lady from France has guitar skills would be an understatement. Thoughts on her guitar playing and more video inside.

As a part of Pink Floyd's new remasters campaign, EMI has released the first of three Immersion Edition box sets, celebrating the Floyd's biggest albums. Spending 741 consecutive weeks on Billboard's Album Charts and being the listen of choice for audiophiles to show off their sound systems, the word legendary is hardly sufficient to describe The Dark Side of the Moon in the annals of music history. So how do make a set of music as celebrated as DSotM desirable in box set form? Fill it with not only six discs (CD, DVD and Blu-Ray) of remastered, live and rare recordings, but with the best put together set of album-related memorabilia assembled to date. Want to see one being opened? Come inside!

It's ok. Just shake it off if you got mild whiplash from this article's title. Sometimes the most unlikely music pairings, results in a spectacular cover of a song. Which is exactly what happens when alt-country singer Ryan Adams decomposes Iron Maiden's "Wasted Years" down to its most basic elemental level.

And thank you for creating the perfect device to let music geeks around the world carry countless hours of the sounds they love with them, where ever they go.

It's hard to believe that 25 years have come and gone since the fateful day we lost one of the most talented bass players in popular music. Cliff Burton played a major part in forging Metallica's sound with his signature bass playing style, which sounded like no bassist before him. Or since.

When first hearing today's news about R.E.M. disbanding after 31 years together, I initially felt the way one feels after the sudden passing of a favorite performer. But truly, we as fans should not be epitaphing today as "R.E.M. 1980 to 2011", because nothing could be further from the truth.

Yes, you read that right. Anime Metal. Animetal-USA. Metal versions of anime music. Just take that in for a moment and bask in the awesome simplicity of the idea. Much music from the anime world is rooted in metal riffage, so it makes utter, perfect sense. But this is no mere group of kids in a garage, thrashing out bad metal covers. The four members of Animetal-USA combined share a pedigree of history and talent which will likely blow your mind as much as it did mine.

If there is one thing which doesn't happen nearly enough in this world, it's discovering a new song which you fall madly in love with after the first listen. So hard in fact that you play it over and over immediately. Today a friend shared a song with me by The Jim Jones Revue and I went utterly, utterly mad for it. A full tilt, foot through the floor piece of literal Rock 'n' Roll. Come listen, but turn your speakers up to 11 first.

31 days. 31 never-heard-before albums/EP's. Album August was all about discovering new or unheard music and sharing thoughts about each release with you. We heard music dating back to the 60's all the way up to a brand new release on August 30th. Indulge me and come in for some fun facts about these 31 listens and my pick for the best from the list.

The #AlbumAugust listening project is coming to a close. 31 days and 31 never-before-heard sets of music. Since August is four and a half weeks long, this is an extended play Week 4 Recap, with the past ten days of albums and reviews featured here and there were some real gems to listen to for Week 4!

It was so enjoyable sharing Album August with you this week, especially from the reactions of people who, like me, had never heard music from The New Mastersounds before this week. Along with this British funk outfit, this week's listening adventures also included a pair of artists from Finland, a classic of 80's New Wave/AOR, a landlocked surfer band and The Muppets.

Two and-a-half minutes and a sweetly adorable melody is all it takes to capture the zeitgeist of a fandom. If you've ever rolled a natural 20, you will instantly relate to the story behind the lyrics of "Tonight" by Cossbysweater.

Week 2 of the #AlbumAugust listening, reviewing and sharing project was a very interesting one. Starting with a trio of releases which were able to be listened to for free, the week also included artists which were recommended to me by you, the reader. And for that I thank you. Please come inside for a listen and look back at the featured albums of the week.

If you follow me on Twitter, then you may have noticed I am doing something I call "Album August", where I listen to an album which I've never heard before and then tweet review it. The albums can be new releases or, and often more interestingly, older material I just never had a chance to hear before. I did something similar in August of 09 and it was quite fun, so I figured I would try it again, only this time, I plan on doing these weekly recaps where I expand a bit on each album with the added value of being able to include actual music with the reviews! Here's a look at the first seven listens of Album August.

- It's been just over two years since supergroup Chickenfoot unleashed their killer debut album on the world. This morning, the first single from the Foot's long awaited follow up album was released and it is three-plus minutes of rockin'! Come on in for a listen!

Daft Punk, DeadMau5 and an Italian walk into a club... San Diego Comic-Con has come and gone for 2011. It feels like it was aeons ago even though its been less than a week! Despite the focus of Comic-Con being about comics, movies and games, there is always a little bit of the music scene bubbling under the ink and free swag.

Stop me if you've heard this one before. Two robots and a mau5 walk into a bar... Seriously though, major props to these guys cosplaying as Daft Punk and DeadMau5 at San Diego Comic-Con 2011!

Admittedly, this may be lost on some who are not in Los Angeles, but let's have a bit of music-related fun with it anyway. Carmageddon could happen this weekend in Southern California. What is Carmageddon? Besides a pretty cool video game from 1997, it is the nom de guerre given to the weekend-long closing of a 10 mile stretch of the 405 freeway that connects the West Side of Los Angeles to "The Valley". Now, what would someone listen to in celebration (or frustration) of Carmageddon?

Now here's a bit of fun... Back in 1986, a band called Sigue Sigue Sputnik appeared out of nowhere. Actually, they appeared like they had just escaped from the set of a Mad Max film or from the pages of a William Gibson novel. Their sound was unique: a blend of electronic new wave and guitars, mashed up with sound bites from movies. They billed themselves as "the fifth generation of rock 'n' roll" and their look was, to put it bluntly, outrageous. But what does this have to do with the date of July 13th, 2011?

Ever-willing to play with the latest social media data mining thingy, and after seeing one from fellow Twittering music fiend Justin , I let the boffins of visual.ly look at my tweet s and come up with this Twitter data-generated infographic of what my Twitterized self looks like. Not bad, actually...

Last night saw the return of the legendary Deep Purple to Southern California for the first time in nearly four years. This performance was unique, as the band's current tour sees them performing with an orchestra, something which they have never done for American audiences. Pictures and sounds from the show along with a riff by riff rundown of the set list await you inside!

On Friday night, just over a year after they were forced to reschedule their return to Southern California, U2 played the first of two shows which will likely go down as among the greatest concerts to ever take over the playing field of Anaheim Stadium. And even though I was perched high above the stage in the View Level, I've never felt so close to a band as they played live before.

As the well-worn chestnut goes: Time flies (too fast). Time from a devolutionary perspective, doubly so. Incredible as it may be, an entire year of devolution has occurred since the release of DEVO's first new album of the past two decades, Something for Everybody . The run up to its release on June 15, 2010 was an exercise in crowdsourcing, memes and viral marketing of the most ingenious sort. DEVO didn't stage a comeback album as much as they let those of us fans who were clever enough to "get it", back into their world.

This is another tale of "I might never have known about this artist were it not for Twitter". It is also the tale of my first time supporting a musician's project via Kickstarter. Having never heard (or heard of) Shaun Hague prior to kicking in a few dollars to his fundraising campaign, you could also consider this an example of taking a Euterpean leap of faith. What convinced me to do so was the company he kept.

Having spent the better part of this Memorial Day weekend finishing reading not only The Hunger Games , but getting immediately caught up in, and reading all the way through its sequel, Catching Fire , one thing keeps throbbing at the back of my mind: What will the soundtrack to the forthcoming film version of The Hunger Games sound like?

  "That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane

Have you ever had a new song get so deeply engrained in your mind that you actually long to hear it, over and over? Its more than a subconscious earworme. Its a driving need to hear it. Chikita Violenta's song "Roni" is having that effect on me now.

I'm a fire. Burning higher. Trying to burn the sun. - Elf, 1974 If you are a heavy metal fan, then you very likely remember where you were one year ago today. It was the day we learned we had lost a true legend of the genre, when Ronnie James Dio passed away. Despite knowing he was battling cancer, it still hit many fans and members of the metal community extremely hard. But rather than lament his passing further, it makes much more sense to celebrate some of the incredible music he had a hand in creating.

As the unofficial holiday of all things Star Wars, May the Fourth (be with you) is the perfect time to celebrate one of the best known bands to play the silver screen. Even if you've seen Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope a thousand times, you may not have known that the colloquially known "Cantina Band" has a real name, or that their signature song has a title, or even the existence of diverse and eclectic cover versions which have been done of this swinging song.

Greetings, Programs! If you have traveled this part of the Grid before, then you know how I thoroughly enjoyed Daft Punk's original soundtrack for Tron Legacy . Today saw the release of what looked to be a fun bit of additional content for Tron  fans with Tron Legacy: R3C0NF1GUR3D , a set of remixes of Daft Punk's now legendary soundtrack. How did these considerably dancier spins on the Daft Punk sound turn out? Grab a glass of glowing energy and come take a listen.

Peek-a-boo! Despite having been a fan of DEVO for over three decades, visiting Mutato Muzika to interview Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, and later, interviewing Mark again with Dr. Robert Moog at a convention for enthusiasts of the synths that bear his name, I had never seen DEVO play live. Preposterous but plausible. That changed on March 19th, when I finally caught the Spudboys live at Club Nokia. And as the saying goes, you never forget your first.

One of the most striking things about Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch is its brilliant use of music to help tell the story. The movie is not a musical by any stretch, (despite a veiled reference during the credits) but what it does extremely well is utilize music to propel the film's exposition and over the top action sequences. It also features some daring covers of classic songs from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Even if the film doesn't show up on your radar, open your eyes (and ears) to its soundtrack. You will be unprepared for what you hear.

Something I've learned about attending a chiptunes performance is they are usually held in a non-traditional space. At least the one's I've been to have. Last night was no exception, as I caught a set from several chiptunes artists at the SC3 arcade party, held at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, CA.

History was made in the gaming world last week, when a piece of music originally composed for a video game won a Grammy award. This was the first time music created for a game has received this honor. But this was just a beginning. A beginning that couldn’t have happened if not for a push for recognition for game music that began over a decade ago, back when the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation battled for game console supremacy and the Dreamcast was just being launched. The award bestowed upon Christopher Tin was a stepping off point from which other artists who bring game audio to life deserve to be honored.

Last night I discovered my new favorite radio program. A two hour block of exciting, fun and unique music called The Video Game Music Show, hosted by DJ Sysop. And while I’m admittedly rather late to the party, since it’s been on the air at KSPC 88.7 FM since 2007, I was beyond excited to find it.

When was the last time you had fun listening to a band? Real fun. I don't mean sort of fun. I mean the kind of fun that makes you want to stand up (even if you are driving) and play an unabashed air guitar solo or pump your fist at an air audience while singing into your air microphone like you were part of the band. Magnum Love , the debut album from Thunderdikk delivers that kind of fun in an extra large package.