Author Topic: Devin Townsend v. Offer Your Posts  (Read 226505 times)

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Offline Kwyjibo

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #910 on: July 21, 2016, 03:51:51 AM »
1. Ocean Machine: Biomech

End of List

ok, the rest isn’t shabby either:

2. Accelerated Evolution
3. Ziltoid The Omniscient
4. Synchestra
5. Terria
6. Addicted
7. Ki
8. Infinity
9. Deconstruction
10. Physicist
11. Casualties Of Cool
12. Ghost

So far I gave Epicloud and Sky Blue/Dark Matter only casual listens, so I really can't rank them.
Epicloud could end up somewhere in the middle, as could Sky Blue, and Dark Matter more at the bottom. But this could (and probably will) change once I give those discs some more spins.
Must've been Kwyji sending all the wrong songs.   ;D

Offline cramx3

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #911 on: July 21, 2016, 07:13:49 AM »
Save Our Now is the best pop song I've ever heard.

Save Our Now is great, but I prefer Sky Blue out of the two very poppy songs on the last two records.

Both great songs if you ask me

Offline NunoTenniscourt

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #912 on: July 21, 2016, 07:57:31 AM »
Thanks for the advice, peeps. I will see what I can do about ordering the right one that works. :lol


I'm very late to the party with Devin Townsend. I remember his brief stint with Steve Vai, but never checked out anything he did after that.

I finally checked out some of his work earlier this year, and I'm a big fan now. He has some downright silly stuff I don't care for, but a lot of it is simply amazing and unique. I also
like the fact that a lot of his live performances of songs are even better than the studio versions. The studio version of "Deadhead", for example, is great, but the live version on the Royal Albert Hall DVD....holy shit.

 :tup :tup

New fans are always a good thing!

What CDs are you liking the most?  Songs?

Epicloud, Ocean Machine, and Accelerated Evolution so far.

As for songs..

Deadhead, Where We Belong, Supercrush, Grace, Bastard, Kingdom, The Death of Music (another case of where the Royal Albert Hall version is even better than the studio version) I also became infatuated with two of the female singers he's worked with. Anneke van Giersbergen and Che' Aimee. Both are fantastic singers and pretty damn easy on the eyes.

Devin will be here in town on September 11th. I am pissing my pants in anticipation.


Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #914 on: July 21, 2016, 06:26:06 PM »


What CDs are you liking the most?  Songs?

Epicloud, Ocean Machine, and Accelerated Evolution so far.

As for songs..

Deadhead, Where We Belong, Supercrush, Grace, Bastard, Kingdom, The Death of Music (another case of where the Royal Albert Hall version is even better than the studio version) I also became infatuated with two of the female singers he's worked with. Anneke van Giersbergen and Che' Aimee. Both are fantastic singers and pretty damn easy on the eyes.

Devin will be here in town on September 11th. I am pissing my pants in anticipation.

Good choices, almost all of them.  Do you have all of the studio albums yet?

Offline XB0BX

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #915 on: July 21, 2016, 06:32:47 PM »
Physicist is such a painfully underrated album, I honestly don't understand why everyone dislikes it so much. It was one of the first Dev albums I listened to (which might explain some of my fondness), and I instantly loved it, it played in my car for a solid month straight.

The first 2 Dev songs I ever heard were Namaste live from Royal Albert Hall and Kingdom from EMGtv, both off of Youtube. I was absolutely amazed by the catchy choruses of both songs. Both were perfect introductions to Devy.  I vastly prefer the Physicist version of Kingdom over the Epicloud version. Material was the next song from this album that I fell in love with, I don't know why more people don't discuss this song, it has one of his catchiest choruses ever. "All life, it never goes away," "now I've seen the way it's headed" and "ah, these are the days" inspire chills every time I hear those sections. Namaste, Kingdom and Material are a classic trifecta I'd take against any 3 songs out of Devin's discography. Catchy choruses out the wazoo. I don't see how an album with these 3 songs is so disliked.

Complex is probably my 4th favorite song from the album, it's catchy right from the first second. Love the melody in Dev's voice in the verse. Love it. Verses are great, choruses are great. Amazing song. Other than that, Victim isn't a "classic" but is a very enjoyable song. Very excited for the potential remake on Transcendence. Devoid is only 2 minutes, which is a shame because I love the few melodic ideas it presents. Irish Maiden and Jupiter are very, very catchy as well. Planet Rain is Planet Rain. People talk about how bad Physicist is, the only bad song is Death.

Maybe the presence of SYL-esque metal turns people off of it? I think it's an amazing album. It's almost as good as Systematic Chaos.

Offline jakepriest

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #916 on: July 21, 2016, 06:40:03 PM »
I can't listen to it because the production is shit. No nicer word to describe it.

Offline XB0BX

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #917 on: July 21, 2016, 06:41:32 PM »
I can't listen to it because the production is shit. No nicer word to describe it.

Well, that's valid.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #918 on: July 21, 2016, 06:45:25 PM »
Yep, that's a major hangup for me as well. It's like listening to music on an old transistor radio.

Offline Metro

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #919 on: July 21, 2016, 07:54:43 PM »
The version of Namaste from the Royal Albert Hall DVD is killer. That whole album could benefit from a re-record with some nicer production. It'll never happen of course, but I'd rather see that album redone than a new version of Truth.

I wish he'd play Planet Rain live. Such an underrated song.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #920 on: July 21, 2016, 08:55:52 PM »
I don't think most of the songs are strong enough to be worthy of a re-recording, but it would be nice to at least get a newer live version of Planet Rain, which is a good song, although one I still rarely revisit, again, because of how awful the sound of that record is.

Offline Onno

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #921 on: July 22, 2016, 12:45:48 AM »
I like Physicist a lot. Yes, the production is really shit, but the songs are good.

Offline TioJorge

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #922 on: July 22, 2016, 01:14:09 AM »
I would love Physicist if not for the production but it's one of the few albums not just by Townsend but by any artist or band that I listen to that I hate how it actually sounds so much that I rarely listen to it despite liking the music itself. But Planet Rain is beautiful enough to warrant a listen now and again. But yeah, if it was ever remastered...I'd jump on that shit REAL quick.

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Offline seasonsinthesky

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #923 on: July 22, 2016, 01:17:07 PM »
Physicist is a great EP, even with the crappy mix.
01. "Kingdom"
02. "Death"
03. "Devoid"
04. "Namaste"
05. "Planet Rain"

After listening to it for the past 14(!) years trying to find what to enjoy, what annoys me most these days is the fact that "Jupiter" has a great ending in the same key as "Planet Rain" and it DOESN'T SEGUE DIRECTLY INTO IT. I could strangle Dev-circa-2000 just for that decision alone!

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #924 on: July 22, 2016, 05:28:41 PM »
Seeing the RHA performance of Universal Flame has reignited my love for that song.  :metal

I need to get that live DVD, too (despite the first hour being Dark Matters).

Offline cramx3

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #925 on: July 22, 2016, 05:30:51 PM »
Seeing the RHA performance of Universal Flame has reignited my love for that song.  :metal

I need to get that live DVD, too (despite the first hour being Dark Matters).

I was holding back waiting for a blu-ray, but I may be waiting for no reason.  Been thinking about just getting the DVD.  I watched the by request setlist on youtube and love it, held off watching the Z2 set since I'm not too familiar with that album, but might as well just get the DVD and dive into that album even if it's not that popular.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #926 on: July 22, 2016, 05:40:22 PM »
The good news is, the set list from Night till the end is ridiculously awesome.

Those performances of Deadhead and The Death of Music are beyond absurd. :metal

Offline NunoTenniscourt

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #927 on: July 22, 2016, 07:03:07 PM »

Ok, so out of curiosity, I went and listened to "Physicist" on Youtube (not the best way to form an opinion with audio, but you can still get a general idea) and I have to agree with those who complained about the production. That was excruciating to listen to.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #928 on: July 22, 2016, 09:48:21 PM »

A recent listen of Sky Blue gave me a new perspective about it. I still like it a lot, and every song is good, with many being quite good, but nothing on it is amazing or anything.  My favorites from it like Universal Flame, the title track and Rain City would have a tough time making my Devin top 50.


Despite saying the above just two days ago, I found myself listening to Sky Blue in the car today and enjoyed the hell out of it. :lol

Let's face it, the voices of Devin and Anneke together are just a perfect blend.  He could include her on every album he does till the day he retires, and I'd just fine with it.

Offline Mosh

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #929 on: July 22, 2016, 11:48:37 PM »
Sky Blue was good for what it was. I liked the more melancholy moments on it the most but more uplifting things like Universal Flame were also enjoyable. I'd rather Devin not continue to keep doing these types of albums, but he does them well so it's hard to complain that much. And yes Anneke/Devin is one of the best blends.

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Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #930 on: July 23, 2016, 06:50:01 AM »
These type of albums tend to stick with me more over time than ones like, say, Deconstruction, which I listened to a lot when it first came out (except for Pandemic and Poltergeist, both of which I have always skipped), but nowadays I almost never listen to it, and the only songs from it that I ever go back to regularly are The Mighty Masturbator and Juular.  Sumeria I will bust out once in a while still.  I still like Stand and Planet of the Apes, but neither are appealing enough for me to revisit them much at all anymore.  The title track is still good, but that's one of those songs now that has some killer parts and some parts I can do without (not even counting the silly fart noises, which are a good example of something silly he did that aged very poorly).

Offline seasonsinthesky

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #931 on: July 23, 2016, 07:55:01 AM »
I'm actually the opposite about Decon – I like it more over time, as I do Ghost. However, I rarely listen to any of the quadrology except Ki and the Contain Us rarities because I overlistened to the rest when they came out. I know them by heart. Not as great listening unless they're in a new rearrangement or something (e.g. I'm sure in the future I'll be much more interested to listen to the promo mixes of Z2 and Sky Blue).

For the purposes of discussion, here's my Z2 smushing:
01. "Z2"
02. "March of the Poozers"
03. "Rejoice"
04. "Fallout"
05. "Midnight Sun"
06. "War Princess" (no opening dialog)
07. "Universal Flame"
08. "From Sleep Awake"
09. "Sky Blue"
10. "Rain City" (extended ending from promo)

Some of them segue REALLY well with some editing, particularly Z2/Poozers and Universal/From Sleep.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #932 on: July 23, 2016, 11:35:29 AM »
The only two songs from Dark Matters that stuck with me at all were War Princess and March of the Poozers, and even those are like lower-tier Devin songs at best.  I could probably name close to 100 songs by him I like more.

Offline NunoTenniscourt

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #933 on: July 23, 2016, 11:36:07 AM »

A recent listen of Sky Blue gave me a new perspective about it. I still like it a lot, and every song is good, with many being quite good, but nothing on it is amazing or anything.  My favorites from it like Universal Flame, the title track and Rain City would have a tough time making my Devin top 50.


Despite saying the above just two days ago, I found myself listening to Sky Blue in the car today and enjoyed the hell out of it. :lol

Let's face it, the voices of Devin and Anneke together are just a perfect blend.  He could include her on every album he does till the day he retires, and I'd just fine with it.

There would be no complaints from me, either. They both have such distinct voices in a world filled with singers emulating someone else.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #934 on: July 23, 2016, 02:05:42 PM »
Hell yeah. :coolio

BTW, Retinal Circus update: ordered it from CM Distro on Wednesday, and it arrived in the mail a bit ago.  Popped it in and it works just fine. Woohoo!! :metal :metal

Offline XB0BX

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #935 on: July 24, 2016, 08:28:01 AM »
Hell yeah. :coolio

BTW, Retinal Circus update: ordered it from CM Distro on Wednesday, and it arrived in the mail a bit ago.  Popped it in and it works just fine. Woohoo!! :metal :metal

Haha, I did the exact same thing, ordered it off Amazon, popped it in today and was relieved to find it works perfectly in my Blu-ray player. Amazon's geography warnings are often wrong. Same thing happened with a Steven Wilson Blu-Ray I picked up.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #936 on: July 24, 2016, 09:32:03 AM »
That's pretty goofy. I'm just the glad the copy I got works fine. I will be watching the whole thing from start to finish this week (flipped through a little of it already).

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #937 on: July 24, 2016, 07:37:09 PM »
So, when I did my Devin top 50 back in 2012, just prior to the release of Epicloud, my top 20 was this:

20. Traestorz
19. Gaia
18. Disruptr
17. Supercrush
16. Blackberry
15. Nobody's Here
14. Pixillate
13. Awake
12. Bastard
11. Deep Peace
10. The Death of Music
9. Stagnant
8. Addicted
7. The Fluke
6. The Mighty Masturbator
5. Ghost
4. Earth Day
3. Truth
2. Bend It Like Bender
1. Tiny Tears

If I did it again now:

-Top 4 would remain the same (probably in the same order); Addicted and Deep Peace would probably be 5 and 6
-Songs that wouldn't be in the top 20 now: The Mighty Masturbator, Traestorz, Disruptr, Gaia and Blackberry
-Songs that would be in the top 20 now that weren't before: Deadhead, War, Grace, Bones and Take My Ego or Universal Flame
-Deep Peace and Supercrush would both move up quite a few spots
-Ghost and The Fluke would both drop a few spots

I still love The Fluke to death, but I think I overrated it a tad because of the "writing and eating..." section, which is one of my favorite Devin moments ever.

Offline cramx3

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #938 on: July 25, 2016, 08:13:44 AM »
Seeing the RHA performance of Universal Flame has reignited my love for that song.  :metal

I need to get that live DVD, too (despite the first hour being Dark Matters).

I was holding back waiting for a blu-ray, but I may be waiting for no reason.  Been thinking about just getting the DVD.  I watched the by request setlist on youtube and love it, held off watching the Z2 set since I'm not too familiar with that album, but might as well just get the DVD and dive into that album even if it's not that popular.

Hell yeah. :coolio

BTW, Retinal Circus update: ordered it from CM Distro on Wednesday, and it arrived in the mail a bit ago.  Popped it in and it works just fine. Woohoo!! :metal :metal

Haha, I did the exact same thing, ordered it off Amazon, popped it in today and was relieved to find it works perfectly in my Blu-ray player. Amazon's geography warnings are often wrong. Same thing happened with a Steven Wilson Blu-Ray I picked up.

 :rollin

So was just going to go ahead and buy the DVD but amazon says they do have a blu-ray, didnt realize it was ever released! And yet...

https://www.amazon.com/Devin-Townsend-Presents-Ziltoid-Blu-ray/dp/B015S12VUM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469455568&sr=8-1&keywords=devin+townsend+royal

Quote
Playback Region B/2 :This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications here

and from the first review:

Quote
Note: This Blu-Ray is Region 0, which means it can play anywhere in the world. Ignore Amazon's note below that states it is region b/2.

Purchased.  :metal

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #939 on: July 26, 2016, 07:53:07 PM »
Nice.  I ordered the Royal Albert Hall CD from the same place last night, so here's hoping for the same good luck!

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #940 on: July 30, 2016, 07:45:36 AM »
RAH DVD arrived yesterday and works just fine, too!! :metal :metal

I will get a lot of mileage out of the 2nd set, while getting probably none out of the 1st. :lol :lol

Offline cramx3

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #941 on: July 30, 2016, 11:04:53 AM »
RAH DVD arrived yesterday and works just fine, too!! :metal :metal

I will get a lot of mileage out of the 2nd set, while getting probably none out of the 1st. :lol :lol

My RAH blu ray just arrived, a few days earlier than Amazon expected!  On the contrary though, I'm excited to watch set 1 since it's mostly all new to me.  Set 2 is however amazing though from watching it on youtube and I'm looking forward to that as well.

Offline Ben_Jamin

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #942 on: July 30, 2016, 08:44:32 PM »
I find it funny how much people were over-expecting of the Z2 album.
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Offline KevShmev

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #943 on: July 30, 2016, 09:11:38 PM »
I sure wasn't.  Then again, I didn't genuflect to the original Ziltoid like many do, so I wasn't too excited when I heard a sequel was coming. Fortunately, we got the Sky Blue disc along with it.

Offline cramx3

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Re: Devin Townsend v. Coffee Loving Sock Puppet 2
« Reply #944 on: July 30, 2016, 09:47:30 PM »
I find it funny how much people were over-expecting of the Z2 album.

Definitely was not overexpecting since I read this forum  :lol and regardless, I watched the entire first set and honestly though maybe half of it was good and ever awesome at some parts, but the other half was not very good IMO.  The performance and presentation were amazing regardless though.