Yesterday, I was browsing the interweb and came upon a blog post from Wired. Now, even though this magazine is only for super-nerds (right Kevin?) I decided to check it out because it was about everybody’s favorite washed-up metal band, Metallica.
Sidebar – I really love wired, and wish I currently had a subscription.
Back to the subject at hand, the Cro-Magnon rock band (maybe that’s a little harsh) has decided that, “hey, there might actually be some money in this MP3 thing. Perhaps we should hold off on suing any more people and see what we can do with it. Now, should our next song be about a lonely biker or the death of my kitty, Sergeant Stripes, Purveyor of Doom?”
Enough on that…
Today’s song comes from a band called Switches. I originally heard one of their songs on Erin’s XM and promptly forgot who wrote the song or what it sounded like. Then, Erin and I were in Virgin Records in NYC and I noticed that this CD was on sale for $9.99. Since we didn’t have a CD player along on the trip and I knew I could get a better deal with Amazon MP3’s, I passed, only to pick it up last week.
It’s fun, mindless pop-rock, which is always welcome on a Friday afternoon. Get up and dance to Drama Queen.
Wikipedia is one of noeviltwin’s best friends. The Heavy are a funky band out of Noid, England that did not have a wikipedia page. I decided to give them their own wikipedia page. This is where our adventure begins.
I was surprised that a band that played South By Southwest and shared a stage with other bands like The Raveonettes, Sons & Daughters, DeVotchka, Cloud Cult, Dizzee Rascal, The Duke Spirit, She & Him, Tokyo Police Club, and Blitzen Trapper did not have a wikipedia entry. P.S. Check out music and video from that performance here.
When I decided that I should be the creator of a wikipedia page for a band from just out of Bath, England, it came as a surprise that at least one previous attempt had been thwarted by wikipedia administrators, who I will call the wikauthorities. This made me nervous, since there isn’t really a lot of information about this band available.
After about an hour and a half of figuring out the wiki syntax and citing my sources, I had created a wiki entry. Check it out here. Seriously, it could very well be gone before this post hits my web site.
Also, check out Colleen, a song about how much you’re willing to pay for love. Reminds me of the question of how much work are you willing to do to get The Heavy a wikipedia page…
From the halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli,
We fight our country’s battles,
In the air, on land, and sea.
- Marines Hymn
Happy Memorial Day, everybody! Without the above hymn, I highly doubt that would have any idea where in the world Montezuma, Tripoli, or Carmen Sandiago is. For those of you outside the United States, Memorial Day is a federal holiday dedicated to the men and women who perished while in military service to their country. Ha, people from outside of the United States reading my blog… that’s funny.
I read an interesting article in the New York Times magazine online on Friday about one-man bands. Not like the guy playing in city parks with an elaborate setup of strings with a base drum on his back, cymbals between his knees, and a harmonica around his neck. No, I’m talking about bands that sound like they’re made up of many people, but who are really only one person.
Here are a couple of my favorite “one-man bands” and what make them one-man bands, even though they may play with a backup band:
The Go! Team – originally composed and recorded in his parents kitchen, The Go! Team was a solo project created by drummer Ian Parton. However, Parton needed a band so that he could tour with Franz Ferdinand. The group’s second album, Proof Of Youth was more of a group effort.
Destroyer – While Dan Bejar is not technically a solo musician in the sense of the above article, the revolving door of musicians working with him makes it clear that while he may not play all instruments for the band, he has total control of what sounds come from these instruments.
Reggie and the Full Effect – Get Up Kids keyboardist, James Dewees created this band with songs that he didn’t think would fit with the band’s current style. Filled with fun pop punk, the band has been disappearing and reappearing now for years. Guess what? A new album is due in June.
Speaking of albums dropping in June, The Notwist have a new album coming out June 17th called The Devil, You + Me. This is the follow up to their 2003 album, Neon Golden. There is a free track from the album available on their label’s Cityslang. Check it out.
Today’s song comes from a band mentioned in the article – Panda Bear. I’m not a huge fan of this album, but it was pitchfork’s #1 album of 2007. Check out Comfy In Nautica.
…And I feel… fine? I don’t know about that. Want an interesting comparison this Friday? I’ve read in multiple places that Death Cab for Cutie is following the same path to fame and fortune as REM. I’m just not sure that Death Cab is going to get the radio play with an 8-minute song as their single. Maybe they’ll find a niche with people who liked the extended version of Meatloaf’s And I’d Do AnythingFor Love (But I Won’t Do That). Even the title’s long!
There have been some events as of late that lead me to believe that the world might be coming to an end. The first would be Scarlet Johansson covering Tom Waits and calling it an album. The possibility of me purchasing this album has gone beyond my “not going to buy it because I think it’ll be a one-hit wonder” level.
Speaking of my assumed one-hit wonders, The Ting Tings are apparently the band that you are hearing on the new iPod commercial. I really think my one-hit wonder radar is off. I ain’t freakin’, I ain’t fakin’ this. Shut up and let me go.
Finally, it would appear that there is a second Juno album, conveniently titled, Juno B-Sides: Almost Adopted Songs. Really? Are you sure you want to do that? See, I imagine in the future, I’ll be riding in a friend’s car, and she’ll say, “Hey, what do you want to listen to, I’ve either got the Juno sountrack, or the Juno B-sides?” At that point, the cars behind us should watch out, because either these CD’s or I will be flying in their general direction.
Sidebar: Anybody notice that I said “she” in the above paragraph. I just can’t picture a guy pulling doing something like that to me. Just can’t do it.
I was going to make an American Idol crack here, but then I realized that this would require me to think about the show for a longer period of time than I actually watched it this year.
I didn’t have a song to planned for today, so I went out searching, and what I found is pure gold! Well, Santogold, at least. Check out L.E.S. Artistes.
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne.
- Traditional Scottish Folk Song
For some reason, I seem to give Scottish bands a little more credit than they possibly deserve. Last year, I trumpeted The Twilight Sad only to stop listening to their album because it got a little slow. Later in 2007, I came back from The New Pornographers show raving about their opener, Emma Pollock. That one stayed a little longer.
Although both bands cracked my top 40 list (Twilight Sad at #38 and Pollock at #14) I’m worried that I might have bumped them up for their Scottish accents. Well, I have a new Scottish band that I like, but this time I’m going to temper my expectations. They are called Frightened Rabbit.
I wish I could find the review that talked about how they ended up with Interpol/National producer, Peter Katis, because I don’t want to mess up the story. I believe it went something like, their label asked them who they wanted to produce their newest album, The Midnight Organ Fight. They threw out impossible names, only to be surprised when the label brought them Katis. I could very well be making this stuff up since I can’t find the source any more, but that’s why this is a blog and not your local paper. Wait, my local paper makes stuff up all the time…
Anyway, today’s song comes from The Midnight Organ Fight. I believe that the “organ” here might be the musical instrument and not something like a kidney or a liver, although that’s a fun picture in my head, too. Check out The Modern Leper.
You doin’ that thing you do,
Breaking my heart into a million pieces,
Like you always do.
- The Wonders
Ever have an intuition that a song is the best that a band can do? You feel like you don’t have to buy the CD because you know that the rest of it is going to be sub-par. You’ve convinced yourself that you’ve got a one-hit wonder on your hands. I had that feeling with MGMT’s Time To Pretend.
For me, it seems like it takes multiple positive reviews followed by an act of fate for me to even consider picking up a CD that I’ve convinced myself is a one-hit wonder. I’ve probably wanted to get last year’s Band of Horses since Christmas break, but that act of fate just hasn’t hit me quite yet. For MGMT, the act of fate was a five-dollar coupon and a $7.99 CD. Can’t beat that, people.
So what do I think of Oracular Spectacular? Well, this might be my addiction to Crystal Castles speaking, but MGMT doesn’t come up on the ol’ iPod as much as a normal album. Anybody know if there’s a support group for Crystal Castles? Probably not in Rochester.
Oh hey, last week, 16 more bands were added to lollapalooza. The highlights would be Iron & Wine and DeVotchKa for the regular lollapalooza. Also The Terrible Twos have been added to kidsapalooza! I’ve never actually stopped down to kidsapalooza because they refuse to book Raffi, although that might be more Raffi than kidsapalooza. Seriously, who brings their kids to a music festival? I’ll hold that thought and instead play you a song.
Check out MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular. Hopefully there’s somebody out there who hasn’t already heard it.
I know I’ve used this quote before, but I like it. Today I’m attending the wedding of two good friends, so I thought I’d try and find the proper song for it. After that idea passed, I instead decided to shake up wedding season a bit by offering up a new tradition – the groom’s dance.
For those of you who know me, I like to boogie. I like to get down. I must have been a dance commander, giving out the orders for fun. Granted, I probably would not have gone through with the groom’s dance, but it would have at least been an option for me. That’s all I’m looking for – the option to dance.
Now, most of you are wondering where and when this “groom’s dance” would occur. I was thinking that the new order of dances at the wedding would be:
Bride and Groom
Bride and Dad
Groom and Mom
Groom
Everybody else
I think that this order works out well. The bride got two songs in a row, and now the groom does, too. It’s irrelevant that the groom now has three songs instead of the bride. If the bride wants to dance by herself, she’s going to need to come up with her own wedding tradition movement.
Why’d I think of this? Well, I stumbled on a song by The White Tie Affair called Allow Me To Introduce Myself… Mr. Right. The song sounded a lot less boy band on the radio. Also, the refrain lyrics, “She was thinking Mr. Right, I was thinking right now” probably wouldn’t make this a proper wedding song. Maybe I should rethink this groom dance thing…
You’re so cute when you’re slurring your speech,
But they’re closing the bar and they want us to leave.
- Death Cab For Cutie
The above quote was one of the highlights of Death Cab For Cutie’s 2005 release, Plans. As I’ve mentioned before, Transatlanticism is one of my favorite albums of all-time, but Death Cab’s major-label debut sounded a little too safe and boring for my tastes. I wanted the petite grandeur of an album that slowly builds and builds until it subtly exhales. As an added bonus, they added the excellent A Lack of Color as the postlude.
In all the music that I’ve collected since Transatlanticism, I haven’t found an album that comes close to doing it as well as they did on that album. So maybe my expectations for Death Cab are just a little higher than they should be.
I have not yet been able to listen to the album enough to give a critique. I really like I Will Possess Your Heart – both the 4 minute version and the 8 minute version. I think that the 8 minute version fits well within the context of the album, but the radio edit is better if you just want to listen to one song, but I’ll let you be the judge.
Here is the eight minute version:
And here is the four minute, radio edit:
P.S. When the eventual demise of this website occurs, somebody should remind me that the above quote would be perfect for it.
Hello Mudder, Hello Fadder,
Here I am at Camp Granada,
And it’s very entertaining,
And they say we’ll have some fun if it stops raining.
- Allen Sherman
This year feels like all of the major holidays fall on days that don’t start with Mon, Wed, or Fri, so I’m always a day behind. I’m nothing except a stickler for keeping my schedule, so I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
My hard drive crashed on Mother’s Day. You may remember the great computer crash of 2007. Well, when that happened the hard drive was still intact, but the rest of the inner-workings of my PC were not, so I couldn’t access my music. I replaced everything except the hard drive. Now the hard drive is gone.
I’ve got everything backed up. There’s a reason why I’ve got the How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days soundtrack on the ol’ iPod. If that had been lost, I’m pretty sure that Erin would have been angry. That’s why all of our music and pictures are backed up on the little guy.
So yeah, a couple of days of inconvenience for me, but no stoppage here. Like I said, I’m a stickler for my schedule. Today’s song comes from the new album by The Weepies, which has been getting some pretty good reviews. It also has a picture of a happy blue whale on the album cover, which is a plus.
Listen to today’s song, and then go back to Friday’s song. I picked up those two albums at the same time. I apparently like random music. Then again, you could have probably told me that when I played the all-female a ca pella version of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing. Check out Wish I Could Forget.
yelkraB slranG -
nwon ot gnimoc si sucriC
nwolc eht fo spord reat eht era esehT
nwod no emoc enihsnuS
ni no emoc ezeerb looC
I’m sure you’re confused about the above quote. Three weeks ago or so, Gnarls Barkley released their newest album The Odd Couple for free download here. Only catch? It’s all one track and it’s backwards. How very Avey Tare and Kria Brekkan of them (linky). So yeah, if you like your music long and backwards, then do it to it, people.
I also ran into a video on FunnyOrDie starring the one and only John Mayer. You may remember him dressing up in a bear suit and making fun of his fans in the parking lot of his show. In his newest video, he’s showing you how to write a song. My opinion on his music? John Mayer writes music? Oh right, that’s what the second clip implies. No comment.
On Wednesday night, I picked up two albums. The first is a pleasant folk-pop album by The Weepies. I got it for two reasons – good reviews and there’s a funny whale on the album cover. The second album is an addicting 8-bit electronic album by Crystal Castles.
Did somebody say Crystal Castles? That’s where today’s song is coming from. Check out Crimewave.
