31 December, 2005

DCide Records

You guys need to check out this Indie Record Label: DCide Records . Everything I've listened to from them I've liked (which of course means it's amazing...sarcasm people, sarcasm.)

Also MORE BANDS!!!! I have bands coming out of my ass...

Caspian: Fun, instrumental, brooding.

Breakestra: Funky & Afrobeat, where can you go wrong.

Paramore: Pretty straight forward emo, but with a power-pop punch.

29 December, 2005

Everything isn't meant to be okay...

I've got a few more music suggestions for whoever reads this blog (I mean, I know who I gave the URL to but there are probably other people lurking. HELLO LURKERS!!!!)

Distinguished Members: Good band. Kind of prog rock. The band they come closest to is probably Dredg, but everyone knows Dredg is completely unclassifiable except to say that they are "sort of prog rock-ish" and that really doesn't clarify.

Those Who Wait: When I read that they are electronic I wasn't expecting what I heard (which is a good thing btw.) Just go check them out, they're good.

The Hold Steady: So weird, in an amazing way. Craig Finn (he's what would be called the vocalist, but he doesn't really sing) has this voice that reminds me of Jello Biafra. The only way I can think to describe the music is steady spoken word stories over fairly interesting and well-played music of an unclassifiable sort. It's not really that the music is unclassifiable, it's more like there's so much going on with the vocals that the music is somewhat secondary. If you like Hold Steady check out Lifter Puller, they sound very similar (understandably. Craig Finn was also the vocalist for Lifter Puller.)

Hey, does this seem like a music blog to you guys? Because it really seems like all I ever write about is music. ; )

27 December, 2005

Right on!!!

WE SAY RIGHT ON!!! (anti-flag doesn't stand for anti the american flag does it?)


I'm phsyched outta mind for the New Year!!!

22 December, 2005

I LOVE LAMP!

The Pink Spiders are hottttttt....

They're like the Cars mixed with a Buddy Holly who went a little emo (there's some Weezer in there somewhere too.)

20 December, 2005

Stuff to Check Out!





Also: Bleeding Through

Let Go is kind of like Jimmy Eat World, but sometimes a little harder.

Bleeding Through is hardcore/metal. They sound a bit like Killswitch Engage, but they have angrier lyrics.

CHECK THEM OUT!!!!

10 December, 2005

Stagnation: Musical Segregation in 2005

I’m frustrated with the musical state of things lately. Bands are profuse and accessibility is at a high, with the Myspace/iTunes generation (mine) using every piece of technology that is literally at their fingertips. So why, do you ask, am I frustrated? Despite this accessibility, I’m finding it harder and harder to find a band that truly moves me. A band that’s saying something real, a band that is genre-defying, a band that will change the course of music history.

Part of our problem is that with this new technology era everything has to have labels. Myspace bands are forced to use certain preset labels to describe themselves. iTunes places every band into a limited genre category. By naming something you force it into a box, you place it in a group. Band segregation is a major problem. Without a broad base of musical knowledge, and a creative leaning their is no musical innovation.

One of music’s great innovators, Bob Dylan grew up in a small town where different music was not extremely accessible. He pushed himself by listening not only to the popular music, but also artists like Woody Guthrie. He later joined a musically diverse community in New York City, became famous by writing and playing amazing folk music and then left a core audience behind by going electric. He’s considered one of the most distinguished and popular musicians of our time. Lately it seems too many bands are happy with mediocrity, too many artists are comfortable with stagnation.

Music is an exploration. A process of self-discovery. Almost every person I come across these days has thrown themselves into one of these music segregation groups. People don’t tend to travel outside of their preset genre, unless pushed by musically conscious friends. I am by no means saying that people should force themselves to listen to music that they hate, but before you decide to hate something take a listen, don’t just look at the genre.

03 December, 2005

Semi-Precious-Weapons

Hey!

Check these freaks out...A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! They rock!

Semi-Precious-Weapons

15 November, 2005

This is...

"It's a fine line between stupid and clever..."

-This Is...Spinal Tap

30 October, 2005

Save Arctic National Wildlife Refuge & the Gwich'in people that live there!!!

Please sign the petition. I cannot stress how important this is for human rights as well as the environment!!!

SAVE ANWR!!

11 October, 2005

Cold Duck Complex: Figureheads

Cold Duck Complex: Figureheads
Produced by Cold Duck Complex and Doug Hewitt
Recorded at Watercourse Studios in Amherst, MA
except for: Wake Up (Zing Studios) and Backburner (Face the Music)
www.coldduckcomplex.com


Four ordinary-looking guys were wading through the crowded room toward the stage. In their wake the crowd quickly pulled together, a mixture of eager teens and self-confident college students as well as a couple of parents looking extremely out of their element. All in the crowded room were waiting to see Apollo Sunshine, and the men onstage were definitely not Apollo Sunshine.

After a sound-check and an extremely brief introduction (“Hi. We’re Cold Duck Complex.”) the four men began to play their strange blend of thoughtful hip-hop over jazzy rock. The crowd edged closer to the stage as the band became more comfortable, settling into their music and becoming increasingly more playful with their instruments. By the third song I was hooked, and had decided to buy their latest record, a much more worthwhile purpose for the $10 burning a hole in my pocket than my previous plan for an Apollo t-shirt. Note: Apollo Sunshine is amazing, but I have limited funds.

Figureheads is an excellent album, the kind of album that grows and reveals itself to you as you listen, the kind of album that cannot be appreciated in one listen or even two for that matter. The lyrics are written intelligently and the rhymes make sense, providing certain songs with a clever humor and irony that is never reduced to hip-hop clichés. Politics (Backburner), religion (God’s Grill), and love (Upstream) are some of the subjects addressed with maturity and humor in Cold Duck’s clever poetry. Platypus Complex is Cold Duck’s rapper, he does his job well bringing the essential emotion to his rhymes. He sometimes seems to be channeling Zack de la Rocha, especially on Wake Up, an intensely political song that sounds quite a lot like Rage Against the Machine. Staying the course and mastering the groove is very talented bassist, Joe Cardoza, who’s bass (a gorgeous fretless Ibanez) I fell in love with on first listen. An excellent player and soloist live, his bass skills are not as prominent on Figureheads as I had hoped. He certainly does a fine job of keeping the beat, but his genius solos were mostly left out. Not to fear though because Jeff D’Antona and Makaya McCraven save the day as the remaining members of Cold Duck Complex, playing keyboards and drums, respectively, with enough energy to make up for Cardoza’s missing solos.
Altogether a very pleasing album, with thoughtful lyrics and music that could certainly stand on it’s own at any jazz club.

29 September, 2005

The Genius of Robert Zimmerman

Subterranean Homesick Blues

Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he's got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It's somethin' you did
God knows when
But you're doin' it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin' for a new friend
The man in the coon-skin cap
In the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten

Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin' that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phone's tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the D. A.
Look out kid
Don't matter what you did
Walk on your tip toes
Don't try "No Doz"
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows

Get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write braille
Get jailed, jump bail
Join the army, if you fail
Look out kid
You're gonna get hit
But users, cheaters
Six-time losers
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin' for a new fool
Don't follow leaders
Watch the parkin' meters

Ah get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don't steal, don't lift
Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don't wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don't wanna be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles

23 September, 2005

Everything is Illuminated

I just finished reading the most amazing book by Jonathan Safran Foer called Everything Is Illuminated. After reading the final few pages on Wednesday I was in shock. This book is a mess, like life, but a gorgeous, enlightening, symphony of a mess. It's like an enormous puzzle, thousands of pieces, with the directions written in Ukrainian.

Question: Why isn't this book required reading?
Answer: It's too human, too real. The characters are too flawed. The story is pain coupled with humor, which is really the only way to deal with pain, by laughing through it, at it, and all around it. It is too grey in a world people want you to believe is black and white. The characters have done both good and bad things in their lives, and continue to make these mistakes. It is revealed that what makes you a good person is not always doing good, but understanding the evil that you do as well as the good. In the end, the connection between the characters, between the human race, is the pain, guilt, love, and humor that we share, our humanity, which is both tears and laughter.

Everything is Illuminated

13 September, 2005

ZOX!

Zox was amazing last night! Spencer, Eli, Dan, and John are so much fun. The place where they had the show was pretty small, and before they played they just hung out and talked to people and ate food. It was really intimate and fun.

The Brakes from Philly played first, and they were really good. Their show made me want to buy their EP's, because they really rock live.

Gina (I don't know her last name) played after The Brakes. She had a really good voice, but her music was kind of bland.

ZOX ROCKED THE HOUSE! They were so cool. They played Fallen, from their new album, as well as a ton of other songs from their new album (Thirsty, Carolyn, A Little More Time, Anything But Fine, Better if It's Worse, Can't Look Down, Spades, I Am Only Waiting) and a few from their old album (The Squid, Delicious, Starry Night, Homebody.) It seemed like it went by so fast, and then they were done, but they came back for an encore where they did a cover of the Pixies Where Is My Mind? and their original song Ode To the Mountain Pirates. Spencer Swain also did his own little song, switching from violin to guitar. They're all amazing!!!

Thanks Zox for putting on a wicked awesome show!

12 September, 2005

Zox & Update

I haven't really blogged for a bit, because I've been too busy with work, music, school, etc.

I've been writing a lot of songs (Well more poetry than songs just yet.) It's really hard to write a song with only a bass guitar. In the next several years I'm going to try to learn more instruments, namely: guitar, violin, piano, percussion & drums, and maybe even some brass or wood-wind instruments.

Tonight I'm going to see ZOX! I'm pretty excited because they're not only my favorite local band, but they're also known for putting on insane live shows. Spencer Swain (violin) has been compared to Eddie Van Halen.

Their new album is excellent. They've really grown as musicians, and it shows on The Wait. It's a very clean album compared to Take Me Home. Take Me Home was amazing, kind of ska with soaring violin solos and fast up-beat songs, great to listen to during the summer. The Wait is more quiet with the violin infused in the music. Sometimes it even sounds Celtic like Irish fiddle music, an album for the quieter months of the year. I can't decide which one I like better musically, because they're both excellent and very different, but lyrically the band has grown on The Wait.

04 September, 2005

GREEN DAY!!!

Green Day at Gillette Stadium was amazing! The fireworks, fire, waterguns, Billy Joe's ass (twice), drunk rabbit, "let's make a band!", SHOUT!, Stand by Me, We Are the Champions, American Idiot, the wizard puppet, little kids onstage, etc. Everything was awesome! Their music rings true to me in so many ways, but I feel like they are overlooked or completely dismissed as being "too pop" or not "politically correct" by critics and music snobs alike. They deserve more credit! What does it matter if they're insanely popular right now? They make some damn fine music in my opinion.

Jimmy Eat World was an awesome opener. I totally love their newest album Futures, and their last album is amazing. They put on an excellent show too.

Against Me! was good, but they were either unsure of how to work the crowd or just didn't care. I also think they were having trouble with their equipment in the stadium. Sometimes, during their performance their songs sounded very distorted. I really like their music though. Cliche Guevara is classic!

01 September, 2005

"...Things fall apart
the center cannot hold
mere anarchy is loosed upon the world..."

- W.B. Yeats

29 August, 2005

Neruda and Sin City

Pablo Neruda is amazing. I've been reading a book of his translated poetry, and it's gorgeous. My favorite poems are Ode With A Lament, The Great Ocean, and Love Sonnet XVII. Yet again I wish I could speak and read Spanish fluently.

"...Unfortunately, I've nothing to give you but fingernails,
or eyelashes, or melted pianos,
or dreams that bubble up from my heart,
dusty dreams that gallop like black riders,
dreams full of hurry and disfortune..."

- Pablo Neruda

Amid the many things I did yesterday (fleamarket, driving, etc.) I watched Sin City, a movie based on the comic books (graphic novels?) of Frank Miller. It was disturbingly violent, and creepy, including pedophiles and cannibals, but despite this, I enjoyed it. I don't believe I will ever feel the same way about Elijah Wood again though.

21 August, 2005

The Katie Todd Band

I love this band!!!

Listen to them here: Katie Todd Band

17 August, 2005

Other people feel this way?

“During most of that time I was absolutely at sea so far as any moral purpose was concerned, clinging only to the desire to live in a really living world and refusing to be content with a shadowy intellectual or aesthetic reflection of it.”

-Jane Addams "Twenty Years at Hull-House"

16 August, 2005

The Click Five

Why do the Click Five annoy me so much? I can usually deal with boy bands. When I was little I was a Backstreet Boys fan. N'Sync wasn't talentless. 98 Degrees was fine. Now the Backstreet Boys can be annoying, but I understand the interest.

Maybe my dislike comes from a Boston Globe article I read last Sunday. It was all about the Click Five. The main idea was that the Click Five (I believe four went to Berklee) are a manufactured band, who are in the music business for the money. I already guessed that before reading the article. How many pop bands come together of their own accord for the betterment of the musical community? Not many. Most of those bands are manufactured. Very few started in their garage. No, this "revelation" didn't throw me. My problem comes from a comment made by their manager that the Click Five could be the next Beatles. What the fuck? Do I need to get my ears checked?

The Beatles are classic. They took chances with pop music that had never been taken. They did insane stuff musically, and they wrote politically challenging lyrics. I apologize if I sound like a cynic, but I highly doubt the Click Five will ever be on the same page with the Beatles.

15 August, 2005

Waltham

I've got another new band for you guys. Last night on New England Product I heard this cool, local, new (ish) band called Waltham. I really like their music, which you can stream off of their website: Waltham Band

You can also check out their Myspace here: Waltham Myspace

14 August, 2005

Lost In Translation

I'm reading a translation of My Invented Country by Isabel Allende. It's about Chile and the Chilean people. The story is interesting, especially the descriptions of Chile. It sounds like a gorgeous country! The mountains, the sea, the vegetation. It makes me want to live there.

Yet, I cannot help feeling that I'm missing something in the book. A certain level of poignancy that cannot be expressed in English. It's times like these I wish I could speak and read Spanish well.

11 August, 2005

Jello Biafra


Jello Biafra is hosting a protest and concert in D.C. September 24th. I totally want to go!!! I MEAN JELLO BIAFRA PEOPLE!!! Le Tigre is also playing. Now I just have to convince my parents to let me go to a rally and anti-war march...therein lies the problem. Find out more here: United For Peace Rally

Wake Me Up When September Ends

I'm not sure whether I like the video for this song or not. I love the song, but the video kind of deviates from the meaning of the song. Billy Joe Armstrong has always said that the song is about his father dying (my understanding is that his father was diagnosed with cancer the September Billy was 10.) The video is a story of two lovers separated by war. I think maybe Green Day had to make the video political so that it fit with the American Idiot storyline, but I'm not sure whether it will go over well with their longtime fans who pay close attention to the meaning of their music. If you haven't seen the video you can watch it here: AOL Music

07 August, 2005

"I am an antichrist, I am an anarchist..."

You scored as Anarchism. <'Imunimaginative's Deviantart Page'>

Anarchism

100%

Democrat

92%

Green

75%

Socialist

67%

Communism

58%

Republican

8%

Nazi

0%

Fascism

0%

What Political Party Do Your Beliefs Put You In?
created with QuizFarm.com

06 August, 2005

ZOX and Dredg

Okay if you haven't heard of Dredg and ZOX before you should go to their websites, and then buy their music. Believe me they rock!!!!

ZOX: ZOX

Dredg: Dredg

Both of these bands are amazing and unclassifiable!!!