California Dream

The technically proficient guitar playing of John Petrucci elevated Dream Theater to the upper echelons of contemporary heavy metal. While its lineup has continuously evolved, the Long Island-based quintet has consistently delivered sharp-edged music…

The technically proficient guitar playing of John Petrucci elevated Dream Theater to the upper echelons of contemporary heavy metal. While its lineup has continuously evolved, the Long Island-based quintet has consistently delivered sharp-edged music…

The technically proficient guitar playing of John Petrucci elevated Dream Theater to the upper echelons of contemporary heavy metal. While its lineup has continuously evolved, the Long Island-based quintet has consistently delivered sharp-edged music…

London's and TD's soundscapes are so unique like a score to a movie. The British influence in TD's music within their 40 years' development is bigger and more intensive than most people may have recognised. For those who couldn't join the concert or like to relive it again: here's the full cut of their beat show at the Forum in Kentishtown on Nov. 1st 2008. A kaleidoscope beginning with the new title Trauma and ending with the breathtaking live interpretation of the TD classic Cloudburst Flight.

Under Cover, though regarded a 'just-for-fun' project by Tangerine Dream themselves might become TD's most controversial album of recent years - using vocals once more and being the first album consisting of only cover versions of well-known rock and pop songs. TD have done a handful of cover versions over the years, but most of them instrumental versions mostly played as encores during their concerts, including Jimi Hendrix' Purple Haze or The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby, Back In The U.S.S.R. and Tomorrow Never Knows. The compositions, originally interpreted by international renowned artists like R.E.M., David Bowie, Kraftwerk, The Eagles or Pink Floyd were re-arranged and performed by TD's current live line-up, supported on eight tracks by vocalist Christian Hausl who already had performed with TD on Madcap's Flaming Duty (2007).

Spirit spent four years as a rock quintet, followed by a quarter-century of being a format for showcasing guitarist, singer, and songwriter Randy California. The major labels lost interest by the mid-'80s, but California continued to perform and to make numerous recordings in his own studio until his death by drowning at the start of 1997. Cosmic Smile, released in 2000, was the first posthumous album to be drawn from his archives, and Sea Dream, the second, marks (according to Mick Skidmore, who assembled it) the beginning of a series of further ones. At first glance, the title seems unfortunate to the point of being in bad taste, yet Skidmore writes that "Sea Dream is not meant to portray some dark fascination with the macabre but was used because one of the unreleased projects that Randy had been working on at one point was a 'spiritual' album entitled Sea Dream."

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers live at Pacific Amphitheatre, Costa Mesa, California, 3rd March 1990.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers live at Pacific Amphitheatre, Costa Mesa, California, 3rd March 1990.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers live at Pacific Amphitheatre, Costa Mesa, California, 3rd March 1990.