Music Videos!

I'll have a holiday post up pretty soon with my favorite albums of 2009 (and maybe the whole decade!), but for now, I'm still alive and kicking and here's too crazy music videos to keep you busy.

End of Summer?!

And so it begins. That is the slow descent into fall that starts right around the beginning of August. Yeah yeah, I know summer doesn't end for another month and a half, but everyone knows the second half goes quicker than the first. Although, we're finally starting to get some actual summer weather (80's and 90's) so maybe the summer has just begun? Either way, it's time to get at least one or two summer albums posted before the beach transforms into the frozen tundra (which is probably better for all seeing as one need only touch the sand to become infected with horrible gastrointestinal diseases).

Discovery is a side project formed by the keyboardist from Vampire Weekend and a singer/guitarist from Ra Ra Riot. I don't encourage indie inbreeding, but this project seems to have avoided any serious incest problems. Both Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot have a danceable song or four, but the entire Discovery LP is based on exploring those sugary summer dance hall beats. And for the most part, this record succeeds in making the body move. I suppose it's fitting then, that with the fall fast approaching and the requisite fall dance parties sure to start up once the semester begins again, that this record will have been out long enough to blossom into a full on fall party record. K, back to work!




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Black Francis

So I have a long post written in my journal, but I'm going to throw in a quick filler before I transcribe the long one.

Tonight is Black Francis at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Hts. Black Francis/Frank Black of Pixies fame. I've never seen the Pixies, but I was lucky enough to see Black Francis while I was in Belgium. He played in a botanical gardens that for some reason had a stage and club as part of the main structure. I'm not complaining because it was probably one of the more amazing venues to see a show. Those crazy Europeans. Anyway, I wasn't very familiar with Black Francis' solo stuff, so I was pleasantly surprised to really enjoy the show even having not listened to many of his albums. A large amount of the setlist consisted of songs off his new album, Bluefinger, but he threw in a few old ones as well. And from what I've heard, Cleveland is supposed to get a mix of new and old with the possibility of a few Pixies songs. So check it out! Or check out Bluefinger.

(and I think you already have this album Yue Hou, I'll post something new soon)



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June!

New posts soon, I promise.

Started a job so I've been kind of busy.

Stay tuned for:

1. The Hold Steady vs. He's Just Not that Into You
2. Little Boots Big Kicks
3. Dan Deacon 'Rave Up Max Dance Music' (and chocolate covered bacon)

That's all for now. But I have some time to write over the vacation so write I shall (if anyone even still reads this...)

The Thermals!

So this post is quite long overdue (feel free to nod in agreement). While in Texas we saw some new bands, but also some bands we'd seen before (or at least some of us). I've seen The Thermals twice in Cleveland and both time they put on a pretty good show. One was definitely more memorable than the other but that had more to do with the hardcore fans that came with silly string and sprayed the band down. Texas was the same as the two times: A band that clearly not only loves to write songs, but loves to share them also. I'm pretty sure Hutch Harris and Kathy Foster had smiles on their faces most of the show.

Which is kind of weird, because as poppy fun punk indie rock as the music is, the lyrics are kind of depressing. All doom and gloom, talking about mortality, and death, and the loss of loved ones. It's like they get us all excited about this nicely packaged song only to bring us down to see if we're really listening. But, honestly, it's really not that depressing. The Thermals could be a ska band, such is their skill at packaging sugar sweet melodies with not the most sugary of sentiments. But I digress. The last album, 'The Body, The Blood, The Machine' saw a maturing of The Thermals four to the floor pop punk sound. It became a little bit more polished, but in a good way. The new album 'Now We Can See' doesn't change up the formula a whole lot, but it doesn't really need to. If you like the Thermals past efforts, then you'll like this one. And if you've never been introduced to the Thermals, well, this is as good as an introduction as ever.



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An Update!

A few things:

1.) I went to SXSW in Austin and saw a lot of bands. I'm going to try to find time between now and July to post about (some) of them.
2.) I graduate in 5 weeks. Scary. And I need to finish my honor's project.
3.) I took some pictures of Chicago, but not really any of Austin. The problem is the one's of Chicago are on film, so I might have to scan them so I can put them up here.
4.) We made a video for a 48 hour short festival. I'm going to embed the Youtube video. It will blow your mind. (The kind of mind blowing that involves simultaneous puking and laughing. Probably not good to watch if you're elderly, pregnant, or a small child (bad backs are fine though).
5.) I missed March! Damnit, there goes my one post a month streak!
6.) I'm 23.
7.) I wrote a song but I haven't recorded it yet.
8.) I'm about 1/10 of the way through Infinite Jest. The goal is to be done by the end of the summer.
9.) I'm tired of numbers.

Enjoy!

Nothing To Worry About

Is it just me, or does the the Peter, Bjorn, and John song 'Nothing to Worry About' seem to rip off the vocal line of Justice's 'D.A.N.C.E.'. While there's nothing wrong with stealing melodies and riffs for a new creation, it's still a bit disconcerting when 'D.A.N.C.E.' is still fairly recent (at least rap samples tend to wait for a song's normal pop shelf life expire). Not to say the new PB&J track isn't good, because it is, but it's almost as if they're looking for another hit on the size of 'Young Folks'. And where 'Young Folks' was altogether original (or at least not so blatantly ripping off another tune) this new one seems to not share the purity of the predecessor. Also, it's a bit of a departure for PB&J. Where 'Young Folks' was the most instantly danceable and memorable song in an otherwise subdued album (not to say the other songs aren't memorable, they are, just that they're not so forthright about it). Either way it'll be interesting to see how the rest of the album plays out. Maybe they'll all steal Justice hooks. Which might not be half bad...

Here's the song: Nothing to Worry About

New Years To Do List

Things to do in 2009 (in order of importance):

1. Start a band (implicit in this is playing a show)
2. Shoot a short
3. Finish college
4. Find a job
5. Start/Finish Infinite Jest before we have to give up the house in July.
6. Think some more about starting Against the Day. Possibly read the first page by the end of the year.
7. Perhaps post at least once a month (notice how this is on the bottom).


I think that's it. As everyone knows, To-Do lists rarely get accomplished, so I'm going to consider 3 of the 7 a success with at least one coming from the Top 3. It's good to have goals...