Brian's sunny side up

IN the annals of rock improbability, Brian Wilson making such exciting music at the age of 66 surely rates with an athletic Mick Jagger taking the Stones on tour, apparently permanently.

And what about the irony of those great melodic duelists of the '60s -- McCartney and Wilson -- completing albums that reflect on the remarkable trajectory of their lives?

But while McCartney's Memory Almost Full is a touch mournful, the tragic Beach Boy -- sent mad, literally, by McCartney's effortless genius in 1967 -- records this glorious and uplifting tribute to his sun-splashed city.

He may as well finish as he started. The surfin' safari began in September, 1962, a month before the Beatles dented the charts. They traded blows unevenly thereafter. It was an unfair contest -- Lennon, McCartney and producer George Martin versus the fragile Wilson, eventually consigned to a sandpit in the studio.

Sergeant Pepper's did him in and he mentally imploded working on Smile months later with the equally gifted Van Dyke Parks.

That 37 years later they could so magnificently and victoriously realise Smile meant the dark years were behind Wilson.

And in Going Home he utters surely the most pungently accurate autobiographical assessment in rock: "At 25 I turned out the light, coz I couldn't handle the glare in my tired eyes, but now I'm back drawing shades of kind blue skies."

Wilson's interpretation of Louis Armstrong's 1949 hit That Lucky Old Sun acts merely as the peg on which to hang vignettes of his life and his losses, including his dreams of his brothers on Midnight's Another Day. Nonetheless, the album is a hopeful encounter with his fate and what may lie after, and perhaps his finest moment since 1971's 'Til I Die.

Wilson still sounds wounded, but not doleful and there is a childlike sweetness to many of the sentiments here and even some of the simpler lyrics, as on Oxygen to the Brain.

Growing in confidence, Wilson has relied less on Parks this time around, but I'll eat my hat, and yours, if Parks didn't construct the witty California Role and engineer its scratchy 78 shellac feel.

It describes the undimmed confidence and opportunity that continue to define southern California, where there's a home and hope for everyone -- even a rolled gold nutcase like Brian Wilson.

And thank God for that.

Album title: That Lucky Old Sun
(Capitol/EMI)
Rating: 5/5

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Driving Ability May Be Impaired By Antidepressants, New Research Finds

�People pickings prescription antidepressants appear to drive worse than citizenry who aren't taking such drugs, and depressed people on antidepressants have even more bother concentrating and reacting behindhand the wheel.



These were the conclusions of a report released Sunday at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.



University of North Dakota psychologists Holly Dannewitz. PhD, and Tom Petros, PhD, recruited 60 people to participate in a drive simulation in which participants had to make a series of common driving decisions, such as reacting to bracken lights, halt signs or traffic signals while being distracted by speed limitation signs, pylons, animals, early cars, helicopters or bicyclists. The pretence tested guidance, concentration and scanning. Thirty-one of the participants were taking at least peerless type of antidepressant patch 29 dominance group members were pickings no medications with the exception of oral contraceptives in some cases.



The group taking antidepressants was further divided into those world Health Organization scored higher and lower on a test of depression. The group taking antidepressants world Health Organization reported a high number of symptoms of great Depression performed significantly worse than the control group on several of the driving performance tasks. But participants who were taking antidepressants and scored in the normal reach on a test to measure natural depression performed no differently than the non-medicated individuals.



"Individuals taking antidepressants should be mindful of the possible cognitive effects as [they] crataegus oxycantha affect performance in social, academic and work settings, as comfortably as driving abilities," the researchers wrote. "However, it appears that mood is correlated with cognitive functioning, more so than medicine use."



This research is important in scant of the rapid increase in the number of Americans taking antidepressants. Americans' use of antidepressant drugs such as Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft, nearly tripled in a decade, according to the 2004 Health United States report, issued by the National Center for Health Statistics. Among women, one and only in 10 takes an antidepressant dose, according to the government.





"The Effects of Antidepressants on Cognitive and Driving Performance," Presented by Holly J. Dannewitz, PhD, and Thomas Petros, PhD, University of North Dakota; Poster Session 4110, 10:00 - 11:50 AM, Sunday, Aug. 17, Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Exhibit Halls A and B1.



The American Psychological Association (APA), based in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 148,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychological science and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA whole kit to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.



Source: Kim I. Mills

American Psychological Association



View dose information on Paxil CR; Prozac Weekly; Zoloft.



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Download Mars Lasar mp3

Artist: Mars Lasar: mp3 download    Genre(s):  New Age     Discography:      Panorama 11.04    Year: 2004    Tracks: 11      Final Frontier    Year: 2003    Tracks: 10      When Worlds Collide    Year: 2000    Tracks: 12      Karma    Year: 2000    Tracks: 11      11:02    Year: 1998    Tracks: 15      The New Born    Year: 1996    Tracks: 1      The Music of Olympic National Park    Year: 1996    Tracks: 11      Safe in Sound    Year: 1996    Tracks: 1      Mindscapes, Vol. 2 - Moonlight    Year: 1996    Tracks: 1      Mindscapes vol. III    Year: 1996    Tracks: 1      Mindscapes vol. I    Year: 1996    Tracks: 1      Escape    Year: 1995    Tracks: 13      The Eleventh Hour    Year: 1993    Tracks: 16      Olympus    Year: 1992    Tracks: 13 Australian-born New Age composer and manufacturer Mars Lasar first-class honours degree attracted attention in 1991 for his work on Seal's monster pop strike "Crazy; " his 1992 solo debut, Olympus, reached the Top Ten on the Progressive Adult Contemporary wireless charts thanks in big circumstances to its wide handling during CBS' broadcast of that year's Winter Olympic Games. Its followup, The Eleventh Hour, proven regular more successful; Lasar side by side turned to interactive amusement, composing the music for Sega's remove CD-ROM exact a luck game Tomcat Alley. After 1995's Escape, he issued the three-volume Mindscapes series a year later; subsequent releases included Olympic National Park, 1997's Song of the Manatee and 1998's 11:02. Karma appeared in fountain 2001. In addition, Lasar produced piles of production euphony CDs for companies across the globe.

Cyril Morin

   
Artist: Cyril Morin

   Genre(s): 
New Age
   

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Discography:


   
 The Syrian Bride La Fiancee Syrienne

   Year: 2005   
Tracks: 20


   
 Samsara

   Year: 2002   
Tracks: 23

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Edwyn Collins - Collins Performing His Way Back To Health

Scottish singer EDWYN COLLINS is delighted to be getting back on stage for a series of gigs this summer (08) - as performing is helping him recover from a near fatal brain haemorrhage.

The former Orange Juice frontman, who scored a huge solo hit in 1995 with single A Girl Like You, fell victim to the life-threatening condition in 2005 and has since been trying to put his life back together.

He admits that he often struggles with his memory and he has a long way to go before he is back to full health.

But Collins insists that singing is a vital tonic for him - and he is glad to be making his debut at the legendary British music festival Glastonbury later this month (Jun08).

He says, "Going out and playing has been the therapy I've needed, but I'm not 100 per cent there.

"I struggle sometimes but if someone said to me I would be playing at Glastonbury in 2008, I'd never have believed them."

Collins is set to play the acoustic stage at Glastonbury on 27 June (08).

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Plant, Krauss "in no hurry" to end collaboration

DETROIT (Billboard) - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are hoping to turn their platinum-certified, Grammy Award-winning "Raising Sand" into a going concern.


"I'm in no hurry to go anywhere," Plant told Billboard.com during a teleconference with reporters Thursday (June 12). "I want to stay very close. This is a font of knowledge, and I'm sticking as close to it as I can."


Krauss concurred. "We're all having a wonderful time, and I hope and I think all three of us (Krauss, Plant and producer T Bone Burnett) are hoping to continue this and that it go on and on." But she added that the central duo's association shouldn't bring the curtain down on any of their other projects.


"That doesn't mean we've lost any love for who we've played for and play with," she said. "The guys in Union Station, that's like home. So I hope to continue this and go back home, too."


And while no firm plans are in motion yet for a "Raising Sand" sequel, Burnett, who's also the musical director for the Plant-Krauss concert tour, said in a separate conversation that he hopes to get another shot at the collaboration.


"I feel like we're just starting to know what we can do with it," Burnett said. "The two of them are so incredibly good that I would hate to not continue to work with both of them."


Plant and Krauss are working together through July 19, when the tour wraps in Nashville (they also stop at the Bonnaroo Music Festival on Sunday). And both said that they're enjoying the opportunity to expand and enhance their musical partnership on the road.


"I'm surprised at the varying of the performances show to show," Krauss said. "Because of the personalities within the band, it has changed the show night to night -- not only the show overall, but each tune takes on a different character. Everything has its own identity from night to that. That's very exciting for all of us." 

Heavy metal vision

LONG-TIME British heavy metal act Judas Priest has released the comedy album of the year, regardless of whether they meant to.
Their new double-CD opus Nostradamus (Sony) is based on the life of the famed Middle Ages seer, but it immediately brings to mind the over-the-top, pretentious and silly heavy-metal spoof band, Spinal Tap.
Just as in This is Spinal Tap, it wouldn't surprise to see a miniature Stonehenge lowered on stage as Judas Priest performs Nostradamus.
Two-and-a-half years in the making, the album brings together the original members of the band from 1970, including charismatic leather man and vocalist Rob Halford.


Audio: Listen to Judas Priest's, Vision


Songs on the double album include such cheerful ditties as Death, Prophecy, Pestilence And Plague, Visions, Future Of My Kind and War.
Complete with a choir of "heavenly angels", an orchestra, over-the-top imagery about knights, swords, druids and death and heavy rock riffs, this is laugh-out-loud music.
Surely, they could not have been serious when they recorded it.
Halford, apparently straight-faced, said of Nostradamus: "It contains new frontiers explored and defined. The sense of adventure and the journey we undertook brings the man's life alive with metal and was a real labor of love for us."
Guitarist K.K. Downing described the album as"a musical journey without comparison".
"The mystery and intrigue that surrounds this revered man has expanded my perception of heavy metal to the highest plateau and enabled me to reach the outer limits of my imagination and transport unique feelings and emotions to the instrument," he said.
Affable bass player Ian Hill admitted the band had left itself open to parody.
"I suppose a band like Spinal Tap are pretty close to the bone with us," he said.
"No, we won't be having any miniature Nostradamuses lowered from the roof during our show.
"In fact, our upcoming Australian tour will have a 'best of' set with only a few of the tracks from Nostradamus thrown in."
Judas Priest formed in 1970 and became one of the most acclaimed heavy metal bands, releasing 15 albums with sales of 35 million.
The band made headlines in the US in 1990 when they were accused in a civil action of causing a number of young people to commit suicide with "hidden" messages in their music.
"People were reading things into our music and lyrics which just weren't there," Hill said.
"We always get a lot of 'nutters' at our US concerts. There are certain areas in the Bible belt that are just over the top with religious fanatics."
Judas Priest play Vodafone Arena on September 13.