Well, Bloc Party certainly doesn't disappoint. The new song (to be released sometime in the near future) is called "Flux". It features some pretty heavy, oh so delicious synth-action. It's a departure, of sorts, but you'll still recognize the slick production and heartfelt, waning lyrics that you're used to. The version I have here is a radio rip, but the song is just so damn infectious I figured I'd post it regardless. Enjoy, it's a toe tapper, for sure.
You know, when Muse came to the US to play Madison Square Garden, I remember saying to my friend Geoff, "hey, let's go see them". This amassed into a whirlwind of excitement followed by scouring the web for tickets inbetween running to the fridge to get more beer. Tragically, I was drunk when I said this, therefore when it actually came around to getting tickets and having to take off work etc, etc. I bowed out, not nearly as gracefully as someone of my stature would have liked. Granted I was late in jumping on the Muse fanwagon, having cited my initial run in with them years ago as "eh, I don't really like the guy's voice, what's with all the breaths he takes in between lines? Can't they like, edit that out?" How foolish was I? I know I know, i disregarded them without giving them much of a chance, but I stand here bfore you today as someone who loves Muse, as I think that they are one of the most original, awe-inspiring bands out there. Really there is no point to this post other than to share with you some mp3s, so if you're not familiar with Muse, or if you jumped the gun and quickly wrote them off (like I did), give them another shot. I promise you you won't be disappointed. As for me, I'm regretting not going to the show, but I suppose there is always next year.
So according to Peter Hook, bassist for the iconic band, New Order, the band has officially split. According to Sumner and Morris however, the band is still alive and well. I'm not really sure who to believe here, as New Order took a sebaticle after their 1993 album, Republic, and didn't return for almost a decade. If they have gone their seperate ways I can't say that I'm happy about it. Granted New Order hasn't really released anything in about three years, but being a fan of Joy Division and New Order (yeah, I'll admit it, even though some might classify them as a "guilty pleasure"), I am certainly going to miss their expertly crafted songs. There is, however, that new movie, Control, about Joy Division and Ian Curtis, the former frontman of Joy Division (reminaing members forming New Order after his death for those of you who didn't know) and his suicide at age 23. it's been getting rave reviews and personally I'm quite excited about it. In fact I've already told my girlfriend that I am making her see it with me even though she is neither a Joy Division or New Order fan (although she does claim that she enjoyed Orgy's version of Blue Monday, I'll admit that it makes me cringe, but I'll keep my mouth shut). the movie however has no release date here in the States, so it might be awhile before I actually get to see it, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. Anyway, if the rumors are true, I'll be one of the many grieving fans across the world lamenting their break-up, but I do have some mp3s for you, their live recordings of some New Order tunes, but they are quality, so enjoy.
So I am almost completely done with school. It only took me five years but I will finally be graduating and obtaining that ever elusive bachelors degree. Then its a good solid two months before starting graduate school in August. Since the Spoon concert a few weeks back I have acquired some new albums, which I will mention a little later, and I also received my highly anticipated and very expensive ($1800!) Macbook (pictured above, actually, thats not mine, thats from some website, but its the same one). its everything I hoped it would be and more, but my wireless network is being difficult and not allowing me to connect to the internet. Kozma just got back from Japan, so even though hes all jet lagged and what not hopefully he'll pop in to give us a summary of his experience as well as post a few pictures (lucky bastard...). I'm also going to see 28 Weeks Later tomorrow, it's supposed to be pretty good, at least the reviews I've read were pretty positive. I went to the package store today and bought this beer called Moonshot, apparently its brewed in Utica, New York, I had never heard of it, but they gave me three cases (thats 72 bottles of beer for all you math majors out there) for $18 (again, thats $6 per case). I haven't had any yet (it is currently chilling in the fridge waiting for the appropriate temperature), but even if it tastes like rabid monkey piss mixed with my brothers vomit from last night (he was found passed out on the toilet), I would still consider it a great deal. With that being said, I got some new music recently, so here a little sampling for you.
What can I possibly say that you don't already know? Spoon was, in a word, incredible. The show lasted a little over two hours and every minute of it was jammed packed with Spoony goodness. Koz and I actually had a brush with Britt in the mens bathroom, as we all felt the need to urinate at approximately the same time. Apparently it was the first time they had ever played in New Haven, and I can assure you that they left a pretty good impression on us humble Nutmeggers(?). All of their songs transferred nicely into the live set, and the sheer energy that Daniel and the boys exhibited was impressive. From the get go they had the audience tapping their feet and bouncing around in a pop-fueled bliss that rivaled whatever drug it was that kid with the goggles on had taken earlier that evening. They played a few new songs which are slated to appear on their upcoming album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (out July 10th), but mainly stuck to crowd pleasing favorites off of Gimme Fiction ("The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine", "They Never Got You" "Beast and Dragon, Adored", to name a few)as well as some of their older material (including "The Way We Get By", and the set closing "Fitted Shirt"). I would highly recommend seeing Spoon if ever presented with the chance to do so, it was a phenomenal show. The only downside to the evening was the fact that cans, thats right cans, of beer were going for four bucks. Needless to say, I didn't splurge on the bottles, god knows how much those were going for. And on a completely unrelated note, we saw one of those R2D2 mailboxes near the Yale bookstore as we were walking to the show, completely unnecessary, but we still took pictures with it. Frankly, I was surprised some Star Wars fanatic hadn't tried to steal it. Anyway, sorry about the qaulity of the pictures from the show, I had my brothers digi with me and unfortunately it just didn't cut it. Oh well. Here are some Spoon mp3s (even though most of you probably have them already, if not, enjoy).
Well, since its been a while since I last posted I figured it was about time for a new one. That and I was getting bored waiting for my buddy Koz to get here so we could start this night off on the right foot. Anyway, with my final semester as an undergraduate rapidly approaching, and my still pending application to graduate school floating in space somewhere, and the deadlines for final research papers and my thesis coming up, I am finally going to divulge senesitive information to someone I should've told a long time ago but never did, oh and I have to attending a funeral tomorrow at 7:30am, you can imagine that I have a lot on my plate right now and I don't really have the motivation to do any of them. it's friday and all I want to do is relax. this funeral is really screwing me up to because Kelleher, my best friend since as far back as I can remember, well its his birthday today, and I'm not going to be able to get shitfaced with him so this whole Friday night is well on its way to becoming a downer. the whole funeral thing sucks too because its just this rmeinder that someone just died. I don't know what I'm rambling about other than the fact that I have a lot of work to do and I'm extremely stressed out. with all of this being said, I'm going to try and post a few songs, hopefully paralleling the wide variety of moods I seem to be experiencing at this moment in time. Enjoy.
It is Friday. Normally, I would go to the package store, buy a 30 pack of inexpensive beer and head to one of my friends houses to set the evening off in the right direction. Not tonight my friends. While I would much rather drink until I blacked out, I have way too much work in front of me to afford yet another Saturday of doing nothing because I got hammered the night before. So tonight I'm going to take it easy. have a few like minded people over, maybe have a few beers and if I get the right amount of work done maybe we'll head out somewhere for a short while. Fear not though, I am not becoming "soft" or a "lightweight" by any means. hopefully by getting this work done I will be free tomorrow night to get absolutely fall on the floor drunk (which I plan on doing regardless). Anyway, I figured since tonight will be full of reading literary criticism's of Herman Melville's Benito Cereno and (hopefully) finishing whats left of my graduate school application, I will treat all of you readers to some of the music that I tend to listen to while I'm studying or writing a paper or whatever, so enjoy.
While searching the internet I came across the above picture and immediately I thought to myself, "I have to see this movie". Not only is the cover so incredibly random, as a lone, confused Rob Schnieder-esque looking dude is at the mercy of an orgy of freshly shaven legs, hands, and what seems to be a blown up condom, but the tagline is classic, "A chemical reaction got him some action!", just absolute gold. If that doesn't sell you on this flick then you must be a Mormon or something. I mean the plot summary on IMDB.com just sums up how totally awesome this movie must be, "Pondo Sinatra is a college boy with a problem: women will have nothing to do with him. It's not that he was raised on a chicken farm and, literally, came to school on the back of a turnip truck. It's not that he is a virgin and jinxed, and every move he makes around a woman backfires. The problem is that god and heaven have set themselves against Pondo loosing his virginity. That is until Pondo discovers the secret formula to the most powerful aphrodisiac in the world and becomes....... "The Party Animal"!" The main characters name is PONDO SINATRA. This movie must be absolutely abysmally awful. But you have to admit that it sounds so bad, that it would be hysterical. Anyway, the movie got me thinking, and I said to myself, how would I score this movie, had all the music that is available today, been around in 1985. Then I said to myself, just throw a bunch of mp3s up that sort of evoke that inner "party animal" in all of us. Enjoy.
So, after about six hours of driving, Kozma and I have returned from Montreal. It was a really fun trip and I would definitely recommend visiting, however I would only stay for 3-4 days due to the fact that you can pretty much see everything the city has to offer in that time frame. The people are very nice and pretty much everyone speaks English (however I'm pretty sure that some crack little jokes about "Americans" in French) Needless to say we got really drunk, and we met some interesting folks (hello female Torontonians, drunk girls from Maine, French girl I was attempting to have a conversation with, the sad looking strippers from Chez Paree, waiter at Les Brasseurs, relatively helpful girl at the front desk of the hotel, Ziggy, Absinthe drinking Party Boy from New York who was dancing on the roof of the hotel, and the various other animated characters we came across during our stay). Oh and on our way back we were stopped by the border patrol and searched, drug sniffing dog and all. I think Koz and I were stereotyped as stoner college kids trying to smuggle drugs into the U.S., excuse me but does it look like I swallowed any balloons today? After all that I can't say that I'm enthusiastic about returning to reality, in fact I'm depressed just thinking about it. Anyway, here are some of the tunes that were played constantly while we were up there, including songs that were played in bars, stores, and the top 20 countdown on MusiquePlus!, I have to admit that the music played was relatively good, most of it ranging from mid to late 90s pop rock to the indie hipster stuff I listen to today. of course there was your Nelly Furtados and Celine Dions (Canada has a Nelly Furtado day, for Christ sake), but for the most part the auditory experience of Montreal was a plus, so enjoy.
You must be wondering to yourself just why, exactly, Barry Gibb and Barbara Streisand are staring at you with their icy, vapid, soulless eyes. Don't worry, I'm not subjecting you to anything objectionable, but rather presenting you with a collection of "guilty pleasures" (note the title of the above album and make the connection!) I've been searching for an excuse to post for the past few days and while nothing incredibly amazing jumped out at me, I did have this idea for a post revolving around those songs that you secretly like, and you're too embarassed to admit it. This all stems from a girl who shall remain nameless, who repeatedly claims that she doesn't like "emo-shit", yet still loves hellogoodbye, which is a band that I would file under "emo-synth pop". Either way, here's to all the songs that you tap your foot along with in the privacy of your own home, but denounce it quicker than a white supremacist rally in public.
What's in a name? Apparently not much, considering the fact that a lot of the bands that are emerging today have absolutely ridiculous names. Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah!, anyone? How about Panic at the Disco (which I will admit would be a cool name for an album or a song)? Either way it seems as though bands are exerting themselves to exhaustion trying to come up with a name that oozes coolness, the kind of coolness that will make the indie-hipster kids salivate. The Wombats, are one of those bands you can't really put your finger on, were they trying to come up with a name totally abstract and nonsensical, or do they just not care? Whatever the case may be, this three-piece from Liverpool, England will most definitely have the indie-hipster kids clamoring for more. Their brand of catchy, bliss-induced pop is certainly difficult to not like, and I can almost guarantee that your toes will be tapping in no time. Don't believe me? Well, let your ears feast on the following mp3 nuggets of poppy joy.
So here it is, the Valen-I mean, Singles Awareness Day Mixtape. Now I know what you're thinking, that there are tons of songs written about love, the loss of love, the pain caused by being in love, etcetera. How could I possibly narrow it down to a single mix? Well, for one, I'm not confining myself to a certain number of songs in order to fit it on a CD, if it happens to run over the allotted 80 minutes, so be it, it will be a double disc mix and you loyal readers can divvy the tracks as you see fit. And while this disc certainly has a theme, I'm just going to pick songs that hopefully aren't the painfully obvious, but rather ones that I enjoy. Deviating a bit, I'd like to point out the above picture that I have chosen to represent this mix, I thoroughly enjoy the image, but what struck me as relating specifically to this mix was the fact that in the foreground there are two (presumably) happy couples, yet in the background one can clearly see two lonely souls, including one that is nothing but a silhouette, shourded in the shadows. Interesting, huh? The pain of a holiday that is excludes the inept persons who are unable to find someone to send it with is equally depressing, take my friend Matt for example, who, just last night expressed this when recalling a recent romantic folly: (Keith Urban song begins to play in the bar) Matt: "Keith Urban! (the rest of us look at him quizzically) The last time I heard this song it was four in the morning and I was trying to kill myself!" YEA, THANKS FOR THE GOOD TIMES, LADIES.
So I just got the new Bloc Party disc and I have to say that it is really good, I may be biased a bit just because the opening track is based upon Less Than Zero, which just happens to be penned by my favorite author Bret Easton Ellis. But before you condemn me, let me just say that this is a worthy successor to Silent Alarm. Now granted they have moved a bit away from the sound of Silent Alarm, but this album is by no means a "sophomore slump". They have added guitars beyond your wildest dreams, let me tell you that this album rocks on every track, granted it will take you a bit to get to used to the new sound sound, but it is well worth it in the end. Bloc Party is probably one of the greatest bands to emerge in this decade, and you would be a fool to pass them up.
The above photo doesn't really have anything to do with anything, but I like posting pictures and I kind of like the little guy, what with his buggy eyes and bizarre black and white pigmentation. Anyway, I'm going to keep this post relatively short, seeing as how I am barely home anymore, what with the Spring semester starting last week and my mind-numbing sales job draining the life out of me. For the past few days I've been trying to think of a mixtape or something even borderline creative, but I'm completely fried, so I figured I'd just take the easy way out and offer up some mp3s of the albums that have been placed on heavy rotation in the last month or so. Given the fact that my Ipod is my saving grace at school, you know that these tracks are quality, so enjoy.
So Koz and I went to go see Children of Men this past weekend which, we both concluded, was a hands down fantastic film. We also saw Pan's Labrinyth, which, unfortunately was kind of a let down. We both had high hopes for Pan's Labrinyth, but we both felt that while it was a very good film, it just left us wanting more, and it unfortunately didn't live up to all the hype it had been receiving. But Children of Men was awesome! Seriously, you should go see this film as soon as humanly possible. Beautifully shot, engaging story, all in all, just a really, really good flick. While John Tavener's score certainly set the mood for the film, the "oldies" strewn throughout the movie were equally intrical to the overall feel of the film, given to the fact that they've stuck to mostly classic British rock in terms of both what we today would consider classic rock (i.e. The Rolling Stones) and music that would be considered "classic" in the year 2027 (i.e. The Libertines, Radiohead). Below are some of the songs from the movie, enjoy, and go see Children of Men. Seriously, I promise you you will not be disappointed (oh and for all of those modern sci-fi fans who were forever turned off by the nonsensical Matrix series, this is far from Keanu Reeves / Jesus Christ yelling "Whoa!" while dodging bullets in slow motion, this movie is a breathtaking realistic look at a dystopian future, with a pretty kick-ass soundtrack).
Okay, so I admit that I'm a bit late jumping on The Klaxons bandwagon, but you know what they say, better late than never you know? Anyway, I have to say that these guys are really really cool. Their brand of catchy riffs quipped with great hooks never ceases to amaze me. Let me say this, if you're not listening to them already, you should be. They hail from London, England, and have amassed a large underground following (you probably won't be able to use the term "underground" for long though). HMV describes The Klaxons sound as "acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk", and on their Myspace page they proudly proclaim themselves as "Screamo / Happy Hardcore / Pop". Along with Shitdisco, The Klaxons have been branded as part of the "New Rave" movement, what that means, exactly, I'm not entirely sure, so interpretation is up to you. Their unique brand of art-rock spliced with post-modernism rave music will undoubtedly titilate your earsdrums. I promise you that you will be shimmying in your seat in no time. Trust me when i say download all of these tracks, they all come to you with the seal of awesomeness approval.
