The Chesterfield King

A Spoonful of Local Flavor Pt. 2 :Tremarche

2011-02-27T14:27:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to a brand new segment of The Chesterfield King that I'm calling "A Spoonful of Local Flavor." It will join the wildly popular "Songs to Blow Your Mind" as well as the decidedly less popular "Keegan Rants About the Bruins at Great Length" as a (hopefully) recurring post where I discuss bands that are from around the Worcester area or have people I know in them. Really sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that I have begun tagging appropriate posts with the 'Local Flavor' tag which included last month's review of Goddard's Ep. I'm counting that review as the first installment hence today's post being labeled Pt. 2. And what of today's post you ask? Today we're talking about a little Worcester band called Tremarche.

Back when Britney's Spear was alive and kicking, we played a couple of shows with Tremarche and they were pretty good guys. They gave me a pin and a copy of their record once which totally made up for the fact that I've never felt fully comfortable with how I pronounce their name (You'd have to ask them, but I tend to pronounce it like Tree-Marsh, but I'm naturalistically inclined that way).

Musically, their Ep contains six songs of tight, hardcore punk. Good screamy vocals and instrumentation that's more interesting and off-beat than I was expecting. The bass especially departs from the usual eight-note on the root to emerge as force with interesting lines and runs up and down the neck. Some standout tracks on the Ep are "Spraynard Kruger" and "Job Performance Self Evaluation" whose breakdown features an almost Clash-like ease of transition into funk licks and alternative rhythms. It might be the straight ahead hardcore of "Snap King" that is my favorite though. If you'd like to make your own call, you can download the whole Ep here.

Tremarche - Spraynard Kruger

Review: Cheap Girls/Lemuria Split 7"

2011-02-22T15:43:00.001-08:00

Once upon a time I got an email from No Idea Records. It imparted in me the knowledge that Lemuria and Cheap Girls had released a split 7" and that I could BUY IT NOW!!!!! This email was no different from the tens of emails I get every day from No Idea and other labels and I am really good at ignoring all of them. Just ask the single Gaslight Anthem put out for Record Store Day last year. Do I own said record? No, I do not, because I am immune to marketing. But there was something about this email about this record perhaps coupled with the fact that No Idea 7"s are notoriously on the inexpensive side. What I'm trying to tell you guys is that I actually bought this record. Hard copy. Vinyl. And let me tell you: sumbitch is gorgeous. Half pink, half translucent red. And what of the music, you ask? Well I'll tell you (this review is rife with sentence fragments, don't think I don't notice. I like to believe it's my 'voice' and that it's what keeps the people coming back for more).

Musically this record was pretty much what I expected it to be. The Cheap Girls track was fine but it didn't floor me, and the Lemuria numbers split between one I loved and one I really really liked. There. You can go home now (some of you have gone home already. Adam, did you make it this far into a review with the name 'Lemuria' at the top????). Let's start with the offering from Cheap Girls; 'Pure Hate.' It's the same sort of bouncing/driving indie rock that was a hallmark of the better songs on their last album that I reviewed here. For something called 'Pure Hate' it's fairly understated. In fact my big complaint about the song was that when he said the title in the chorus, he kind of swallows it and moves on to the next line. It doesn't sound like pure hate when he sings it, it sounds more like diluted grumpiness. I know it seems like a nit-picky complaint, but it bothered me a little bit every time I listened to the song. Other than that, its fun to listen to, he's got a sweet, plaintive voice that complements well his confessional, personal lyrics, blah blah blah stuff I said in the last review.

Now, I make no apologies about my feelings for Lemuria, and their side of this record doesn't ask me to. I'm going back and forth between drummer Alex Kerns and guitarist Sheena Ozzella in terms of my preferred songwriter. On the last seven I was a much bigger fan of Ozzella's offering but on this record, it's Kerns' hands down. Which isn't to say Sheena's song, Lemons, isn't good. It's great and everything I like in a Lemuria song: swooping female vocals, uptempo musically in direct contrast with stark lyricism. I particularly like the stilted way she gets out the last syllables of the last line "You don't realize how much that hurts me" reproaching a lover who tries to maintain stoicism to the detriment of her feelings. The poignant lyrics that have always been the calling card of this songwriting duo almost seem to still be improving here in their (fourth? fifth?) release.

I've been building to my favorite song, 'Single Mother'. Lyrically it's simple, direct and honest. Maybe five lines to the whole song. It's the kind of song that made Jawbreaker great, deeply personal and without a hint of irony. The repeated line "I'm so terrified, so fucking terrified" grabbed a hold of me the very first time I listened to this record and still hasn't let go. The vibraphone/marimba shook me a bit the first time I heard but it seems to be a sign of the phenomenon I discussed in my Mixtapes review of pop-punk mixing with indie pop. Vocally, 'Single Mother' sees a return to the Ozzella/Kerns harmonies that first caught my attention on Get Better especially on the song 'Pants'.

My wrap-up shouldn't surprise anyone who is a regular reader of this blog. This split is another great offering from Lemuria with a decent Cheap Girls track thrown in as a bonus. I seldom regret a purchase less. You should go out and buy it for yourself. Seriously guys, they're such a great band.

Financial Support Goes Here

Cheap Girls / Lemuria

Review: Mixtapes - Castle Songs 7"

2011-02-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

Mixtapes is a band that only recently showed up on my radar when they were interviewed on a podcast I listen to, called Rocket Fuel. The host said that it was the funniest interview he'd ever done. Normally I would assume that was the kind of sycophantic bullshit interviewers are always saying (Mike Shea that one was for you buddy. Write about my bands???) but Jeff from Rocket Fuel is a cool dude (we email occasionally, no big deal) whose interviews are better than most so he got the benefit of the doubt. To be honest, I don't remember how funny Mixtapes may or may not have been in their interview, they did make me want to hear everything they'd ever done musically. I'm going to talk about the Lp they put out last year later but I wanted to sneak in now and talk about their brand new 7".

Mixtapes play the kind of pop-punk I'm starting to see more and more of lately with bands like Little Lungs and Candy Hearts what takes the bubblegum of pop-punk so far that it begins to butt up against indie-pop or even -gasp! the horror- twee. It's taking everything I've got not to christen this new movement 'twunk.' How great that does that sound?

But anyway, let's talk about this record. First off, it's short. Really short. By the time you've read to this point, the whole thing has played once, maybe twice if you're a slow reader. The two songs combined don't hit a minute and forty-five seconds so even if you don't like, giving it a listen isn't a huge time commitment. You will like it though. This record is a blast, equal parts snotty punk and adorable. The first song 'Cause I'm a Genius' is a little more on the punk side of things and bounces along to it's chorus(?) before you can really figure out what's going on. It's almost too bad because I would enjoy another 30 seconds of this song (which would double it in length). The second track, 'Hey Baby', is the standout of the two and a pitch perfect break-up song. The singer gets out a little bitterness takes a few shots at his ex's favorite movies (Tim Burton) and music (Strung Out) with lines like "I know, I know, Teenage Wasteland was good, but everyone says that and that record sucks so grow up" before reaching the final line "Hey baby if film school doesn't work out, well it probably won't cause you're not creative." How great is that? There's something about the conversational, lack of pretension in the lyrics that reminds me of some of Black Schwarzenbachs' for Jawbreaker when he channels Frank O'Hara ('Bad Scene, Everybodys Fault' 'Chesterfield Kings') and I can offer no higher praise than that.

I'm not going to post any songs off the album because it's a 7" and I don't do that, but also because you can download it at Death To False Hope Records for a donation. It's worth doing, they're a fun band and if you need a little pick-up for your day, this is the record for you.

Death To False Hope

Happy Truck Day!

2011-02-08T11:51:00.000-08:00

Ahh Truck Day. The day that tells us that soon we will be once again basking in the glory of Red Sox baseball. Pitchers and catchers will be reporting on Sunday, the Bruins play the Canadiens tomorrow. This is like the calm before the awesome storm. Speaking of proverbial calms before proverbial storms; I'm hoping to bang out a few more reviews this week for a couple brand new 7"s and another local band and then I will throw myself into the music of 2010 (here in the second month of 2011). To help you make it until then, here's a video of a very young Jawbreaker playing 'Want' live:

Review: Goddard - S/T Ep

2011-01-29T09:48:00.001-08:00

It's fairly rare for me to get into a band after seeing them live. I'm not really taken in by a crazy-wacky stage show and it's rare to have the sound quality at a venue good enough that you can really get a good impression of a band from how they sound live. I'm more likely to find a record I love and then go see the band live rather than the other way around. I tell you all this so that you know how big a deal it is when I say that I saw Goddard play once and I was hooked. It's even more impressive since two thirds of them were incredibly sick when I saw them.

Goddard is a Worcester- based band that's a little hard to nail down genre-wise. So why try you ask? Because categorizing people is something we do here. I'd like to call them emo because they sound like they would fit right into the revolution summer with bands like Embrace, Rites of Spring and Fugazi. But no one really uses 'emo' like that anymore so I guess we can settle with indie. It's intelligent sounding, they aren't afraid to throw plenty of effects on the guitar or even the vocals (lotta reverb up in this one) and nobody's parts seem to be taking the easy ways out. There's an nice back and forth between aggression and atmospherics which puts me in mind of bands like Sunny Day Real Estate that you could just as easily mosh and head-bang to as play while you doze off.

A lot of this seems to be thanks to the guitar which veers wildly back and forth between heavily distorted crunch and single note explorations past the twelfth fret mixed with effects-laden washes of sound. The bass on the other-hand is a little harder to nail down description wise. It reminds me a lot of Chris Bauermeister's playing on the Jawbreaker records that aren't produced all to hell (cough, cough, Dear You cough). She isn't just playing 8th notes on the root, but the bass is omnipresent and driving like a root note line. And it has this nice crunchy but not to crunchy sound that you hear on a lot of melodic punk albums but without the metallic edge they sometimes get. The drums follow suit in eschewing stock beats and really pulling their weight in what is a really full sounding trio.

Have you noticed that I seem to gush even worse than usual about local bands? There was that time I said Britney's Spear was the future of punk rock (which looks biased in hindsight but wasn't I swear) and now Goddard. But the point is that these guys deserve all the success they can get and their Ep is only three songs so there's really no excuse for the five people out there who read this to not give it a listen, or if you happen to be in Easthampton tonight, head over to Flywheel and catch them live with Motel Mattress as well as another Worcester band, Tremarche (who I might be talking about as soon as tomorrow!). I'll leave you with a video from the show I first saw them at as well as a link to their bandcamp page and maybe even an mp3 here for those of you who are too lazy to click on through.

Goddard - Feedback 11/6/10 @The Firehouse Worcester from Shiner555 on Vimeo.

Goddard - N/S

Financial Support Goes Here (yeah it's free but I'm loathe to break formatting)

Goddard

A Slightly Video Heavy Entry

2011-01-23T17:31:00.000-08:00

It's A/V time kids!!!!

But seriously, lotta video content, comin' atcha! (Why I am the way that I am?)

First off, the youngest of the bands that I'm in, the amusingly named Go Home, played our first show ever on Friday in a Battle of the Bands sponsored by my alma mater. Go Home has Sean and I from Kid Omega, Adam Linder from Sister City/(Person) (Noun) and Tristan Shippen from.....ITS (yup that's happening). The good news is: we won!!! The better news is: we got it all on video!!! In the interest of brevity I'm not going to post every song but I would encourage you to go watch them all here. Since I'm incredibly self-centered though, I'm going to post the one I sing on. Some of you may recognize it, it's a Kid Omega song (we haven't written enough Go Home songs, so we did one Kid O and three from Adam's projects). To be honest I'm posting it because it amuses me the most. Be sure to notice the number of times I drop lyrics or forget I'm supposed to be singing and Adam has to save me.

There, wasn't that fun? I thought so too. In other news, I've finished all the music for the new Kid O record, now I'm just finishing up some lyrics and we'll be in business. Maybe I'll even throw some demos up here and it'll be like the old days.

If you'll allow me to get a little serious now dear readers, life isn't all rock and roll dreams of winning battles and making money so let's end things on a serious note. Here's the video for the last song Warren Zevon ever wrote as well as his last appearance on David Letterman. I could be wrong but I think Dave stops several times to collect himself.

Review: Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect

2010-12-27T15:46:00.001-08:00

Here it is folks, my last (for the most part) review of an album to come out in the year 2009. Just in time to be done with 2010. Ah well, maybe someday I'll be all caught up. I wouldn't hold my breath though. This is going to be a short review today too mostly because I don't have the chops or the patience to really parse out enough from songs this long (three break double digits for minutes and a fourth is nine and a quarter).

Between the Buried and Me have always distanced themselves from the rest of their progressive/metalcore peers through their extreme technical proficiency and their willingness to flaunt their disparate influences (they're named for a Counting Crows lyric for god's sake). The Great Misdirect is characterized by switches back and forth between brutal metalcore and examples of the other, mellower and diverse genres the band is capable of playing. Sometimes these diversions are entire songs, like the mellow quiet first track, 'Mirrors' or 'Desert of Song' which has an Americana sound (complete with wind/highway noises in the background) that wouldn't be out of place on a Murder by Death record. Other times songs contain both aspects such as 'Obfuscation' which cycles between ambient music and all out hardcore or "Disease, Injury, Madness' which punctuates its frantic riffage with breaks featuring Weather Report-esque bass solos. The best example of this though, is the, um, differently titled 'Fossil Genera - A Feed From Cloud Mountain.' This track starts with a carnival, almost calliope sounding, bar room piano riff and maintains that feel throughout the track. Then at regular intervals, the band comes in for lots of screaming riffy goodness. Even when the main focus becomes the hardcore maelstrom, you can still hear the waltz beat going on underneath.

In other news, I got in a car accident three days ago so I'm going to wrap this review up early, because my ears are still ringing and the last thing I want to do is go back and re-listen to a metalcore album to see if I missed anything. I've said it before and I'll say it now, if you like hardcore music you'll find this to be a challenging (in a mentally stimulating kind of way) listen. If you don't like hardcore music, this probably won't be your gateway band. Though now that I think of it, if you're really into music and technical proficiency, interesting time signatures etc, BTBAM kind of have the goods to make you see beyond the screamy bits (which are a bit hard to deny, dude can growl, scream and bree with the best of them) and to recognize this for the impressive and adventurous album that it is.

I was also going to write in this post about how I just saw the two Scorpion King movies. Let me just say, don't make my mistake. The first one is technically a prequel to the movie The Mummy but was made before the most recent Mummy movie (you know, the one set in china that they couldn't get anyone except Brendan Fraser to come back for? I'm sorry, once Rachel Weisz was gone my interest dissipated rapidly). I tell you this because it was also subtitled The Mummy 3, which was presumably a bit of a snafu when they decided to actually make a third Mummy movie, but I digress. The first SK is not totally mind numbingly bad. Anyone who has heard me talk about Van Helsing, The Brothers Grimm or the Transporter franchise knows that I am a big fan of the bad but entertaining action movie. They have huge budgets, lots of special effects, and everyone knows they aren't taking home an Oscar at the end of the day. If you go in not expect much, it can be a great use of a couple hours. Obviously, the first SK is toward the bottom of that category, presumably hanging out with XXX. It's kind of fun watching The Rock run around pretending he can carry a real movie all by himself since he has two whole years before Walking Tall proves unequivocally that no, no he can't. In the end spoiler alert bad guys get jacked up, the good guy ends up with what could charitably be called the 'hot chick' and the fair citizens of whatever backwater Greek? Egyptian? Macedonian? city get a new and more just ruler who some how is going to turn out to be the asshole in the second installment of The Mummy. Sumbitch doesn't pass the Bechdel test (though weirdly enough the second one kind of does) but it won't make you cut your eyes out.

Which brings me to the second one, which apparently and unsurprisingly went straight to DVD. First of all it's prequel to the first SK which makes it a prequel to a prequel to an only moderately watchable trio of big budget summer action movies which, and I can't stress this enough, STARRED BRENDAN F***ING FRASER, heir the Nick Cage-school-of-Drama- Valedictorian robe. Where was I? Ah yes, Scorpion King II. This is an abomination. I think it should suffice to say that probably the best acting in the movie is done by former UFC fighter Randy Couture. That's right, a man who used to get beaten around the head for a living, is the most convincing actor in this movie. And don't get me wrong, he's awful. But everyone else is so much worse. Our main character looks like the most ethnic of the Jonas brothers but then has this freakishly huge chest and keeps hitting poses like he's going to be on the cover of a romance novel, which to be fair is probably right up his alley. His supposed love interest is so caught up in trying to be the convincing wannabe- warrior tomboy while at the same time avoiding anachronism (HA!) that she never really does anything. Sample dialog:
Girl: I could easily beat you. I could be a warrior, you know I can fight.
Boy: Yes, but you can't ever be a warrior because you are a girl.
Girl: This is true.
She's so busy not being empowered she even forgets to establish any sort attraction to our dummkopf hero until right toward the end of the movie. Even then she never says she loves him, she instead yells to the goddess of death that our hero would never choose said-goddess because he is in love with her. This is literally the first we've heard about it, since other than simply being differently gendered, presumably heterosexual people of similar ages there is little to no chemistry between them. As for the aforementioned goddess of death she shifts back and forth between trying to be frightening and trying to be seductive and fails wildly at both. I'm afraid this makes me sound like a shallow person but I find it hard to believe we couldn't have found attractive people for these roles, since talent clearly wasn't a requirement.

Ok I've run out of steam on what might be my longest post ever, So I guess I'll just put up the video from BTBAM and call it a night. Sorry no mp3 on this one since there were only 6 tracks on the album and I don't like giving away that high a percentage even if it is for sampling purposes only -wink- (that's going to get me in trouble). Anyhoo... here's hoping everyone had a good new years, has a better next year and that the ringing in my ears goes away soon.

Financial Support Goes Here

Between the Buried and Me

Review: Converge - Axe to Fall

2010-12-09T15:51:00.001-08:00

First of all, let's get through the obvious: Sorry I abandoned the blogosphere (sp?) for almost an entire month. But I'm back now with a vengeance. Literally. And what better way to return than with a band that for my money (little as that may be) sets the curve for all contemporary metalcore: Converge. Almost every band talks about trying to push themselves from album to album but I don't think any band accomplishes it like Converge. Every album they put out is the most brutal and out there album I've ever heard, until their next album. Axe to Fall fits right into this pattern, a little harder and different than 2006's No Heroes.

Which isn't to say that there isn't plenty for the old-school Converge fan to love. The title track especially should take anyone back to the halcyon days of Jane Doe and You Fail Me. 'Dead Beat' is another throwback especially vocally. Other tracks vary widely from the more straight-ahead metal of 'Reap What You Sow' to the driving thrashy riffs in 'Cutter.' A more sludge-y side of the band reveals itself on 'Damages' as well as the delightfully named 'Worms will Feed/ Rats will Feast.' The album opens with furious guitar riffs that, to me, sound like nothing so much as Horse the Band synths.

Speaking of other hardcore bands, this album saw a great deal of collaboration between Converge and various other bands and artists especially Cave In. Two of the songs on the album, 'Effigy' and 'Cruel Bloom' were adapted from a shared project Converge had done with Cave In. While 'Effigy' fits fairly seamlessly into the album, 'Bloom' is going to out to most listeners with its piano intro and sung vocals (courtesy of Steve von Till of Neurosis). It's a good warm up for the closing cut 'Wretched World' though, with its long plodding build and heavily layered instruments and vocals. It's overall effect could best be termed unnerving.

Converge - Dark Horse

Financial Support Goes Here

Converge

Review: Cheap Girls - My Roaring 20s

2010-11-08T17:42:00.001-08:00

My Roaring 20s, the sophomore release from Lansing, MI's Cheap Girls was at first a little hard for me to pin down. It was Punknews that first brought them to my attention but they certainly aren't a punk band. They also don't really fit in the current (twee-ish) indie rock scene. Instead they're kind of throw-back indie rockers combining plaintively voiced songs of liquid excess and despair with musical grit and bombast borrowed from heavier genres. To me this echoes indie stalwarts the Weakerthans or even more impressive godfathers of the genre like Superchunk or The Replacements.

These guys could be on the brink some well deserved success with this album. They have that universal appeal to a broader audience that you can see (certainly in a much larger degree) in the currently skyrocketing Gaslight Anthem. Every song on the album is head-nod and toe-tap inducing in the extreme. More than that they sound as if they'd be just as at home playing to a few bar-flies at a corner dive as headlining at an SXSW or a Bamboozle. I'm just saying that if these guys get a toe hold, don't be surprised to see them climb and climb quickly.

Every song on this album is catchy and you'll have the choruses to most down by the second listen. The themes are pretty easy to get into as well. These are tales of languishing in your small town, ('Modern Faces') with big dreams ('Ft. Lauderdale') watching your friends leave you behind ('All My Clean Friends') while you sit around and drink heavily (pretty much all of them). Even the last song on the album, 'One & Four,' is insanely catchy and could probably be a hit on commercial radio RIGHT NOW. 'Ft. Lauderdale' however, is the one I think they'll ride out of here. They think so too I'm assuming which is why they made it the single. Now often I think the single is literally the worst song on a given album (Senses Fail I'm looking at you. 'Buried a Lie' was terrible. Just terrible, but I digress) , but on this one they got it just right. This song is one tenacious sumbitch. Hear it once and you should probably just go buy the album because you're not going to stop singing it to yourself until you do. And on that note, the video:

Cheap Girls - "Ft. Lauderdale" from TCSG on Vimeo.

Cheap Girls - Ft. Lauderdale

Cheap Girls - All My Clean Friends

Financial Support Goes Here

Cheap Girls

Review: Owen - New Leaves

2010-10-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

Musically, Mike Kinsella doesn't have to prove anything to anyone. His roster of former bands reads like a Pitchfork list of the best experimental emo bands: Joan of Arc, Cap'n Jazz and American Football. His solo project, Owen sounds like he knows that. There's no reinventing the wheel here, just a guy and his guitar, with some light orchestration, playing guy-with-a-guitar songs. And doing it well I might add.

This is a soothing album. Kinsella's voice and his finger picked guitar are like a blanket that surrounds you with warmth that smells vaguely of whiskey. The drums are sparse and low strings make up a good portion of the instrumentation. Lyrically the songs range from paeans to poetic intoxication to odes to his current love like the strangely beautiful 'Amnesia.' It seems to me though that the theme tying the ironically named New Leaves together is one of looking back. Missing your old friends, or who you were when you were younger or the place you used to live. Unless you've stayed in exactly the same your whole life, I defy you to listen to 'Good Friends, Bad Habits' without missing at least one person or place that you've left behind. Lest you think this album is a total sap-fest, I would like to direct your attention to the penultimate track "Ugly on the Inside." An acid bitter recrimination of someone we can only assume to be a former lover. If you like a little snarl to your haunting beauty then this is the song for you.

In all though, this is a lushly beautiful sounding album with lyrics that will help it stand up to plenty of repeat listens. Put it on in the background to set the mood on date night but when things go south, it's time to dig into the lyrics. Plus, if you've ever had a friend, the video for the single will make you want to spend more time with them.

Owen - Good Friend, Bad Habits

Owen - Ugly on the Inside

Financial Support Goes Here

Owen

Currently Listening To......

2010-10-24T16:14:00.000-07:00

I won't write a review because it's a bit of a conflict of interest, but I wanted to make a post about Tom Hamill's new solo album Cosmic Consciousness. In addition to doing half the guitar work for Britney's Spear, Tom has quite an extensive catalogue of solo work (I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in a show review) . This album seems a lot different from his previous work to me. So far there's less emphasis on layered guitar work. In fact it seems the guitar has given away completely to synth, samples and atmospherics. What hasn't changed is the calming combination of ambient and instrumental music that would appeal to fans of bands like The Books. The album can be downloaded for free at Tom's website.

ed. note: Ok I jumped the gun a little bit, I just hit the first track with guitar. Feel a little foolish. This is another reason I didn't do a proper review. Haven't listened to the whole thing yet.

Review: Teenage Bottlerocket - They Came From The Shadows

2010-10-14T10:14:00.001-07:00

If I had written a Top Ten Albums list for last year, this album would have battled Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts for the top space. Of the 14 songs on this album 12 are absolute home runs. Out-of-the-park, onto Landsdowne Street, home runs. I know that certain people think that Teenage Bottlerocket are too poppy and I won't deny that these guys certainly put the pop in pop punk. But it's that awesome kind of pop punk that takes it cues from the Ramones and lives in the great tradition of The Queers, Mr T Experience, and Cletus. Actually if you like the Ramones, there is no excuse for you not to own at least 3 albums by Teenage Bottlerocket and They Came From the Shadows is probably as great a place to start that collection as any.

I talked before about the song 'Skate or Die' and great I thought it was. Remember that? Well it's just the opener on this album. Some of them are more offbeat and goofy
like 'Bigger than Kiss' while other seem to tackle real issues like lead singer's body image problems in the amusingly named 'Fatso Goes Nutzoid.' That song also has the greatest departure from the pop-punk song of the record with the band lapsing into 80's hardcore style riffs on every chorus. Another thing TBR shares with bands like The Ramones and The Misfits is their obsession with horror and B movies. Both the title track and 'Forbidden Planet' typify this with their descriptions of extraterrestrial invasion. Seriously though, they're all fun and tongue in cheek as opposed to creepy (Jerry Only I'm looking at you).

But the real surprise on this album, and it is a pleasant, is how capable they are of poignancy. There are songs from both sides of a break up and a love song that are as good as anything a more serious band would write. I should say that when I say serious band, I mean in terms of lyrical content, not dedication to craft. Don't be offended guys from TBR, I feel like we would be awesome hang out buddies if we met. Anyway, if you just got dumped and you want to be angry about it, 'Not OK' is the song for you. If on the other hand, you want to wallow and be sad, then go with 'Without You' or the absolutely perfect 'Don't Want To Go.' For all the break-up angst though, the album wraps itself up with the closing track 'Todayo.' If the last song I recommended for all the punk rock couples out there didn't float you, then this one will. It also ends the album on a fun note with a false ending that then builds into a sing along outro.

When I first posted about these guys (for my smash hit STBYM series) I called them pitch perfect pop punk (I think, I'm too lazy to go back and check). I stand by that description as well as the stellar alliteration it contains. This is exactly what pop punk should be. Every song, every riff, every subject. So if you like your punk a bit pop-y then you need this album. If you don't (i.e. you aren't a fan of sunshine, happiness or fun) then you should still give this a shot and see if it can't brighten your day at least a little. And by brighten I mean make exponentially more awesome.

Teenage Bottlerocket - Don't Want To Go****removed by 'request'

Teenage Bottlerocket - Todayo ****
Financial Support Goes Here

Teenage Bottlerocket

Quick Poll (s)

2010-10-13T16:56:00.000-07:00

I'm probably going to do a review later tonight, but I wanted to make this its own item. I need some feed back on a couple of changes I'm thinking of implementing.

The first is pretty minor, I was thinking of making the album art at the beginning of every review another link to where you can buy the album. Putting the buying links at the end makes them kind of possible to miss.

Another thought I'd had is that I want to get more adventurous in my culinary exploits, and I was thinking of documenting some of that progress here. Would all four of my readers be fine with finding food descriptions clogging up their mp3s and music rantings or should I thinking about expanding my brand into another blog which would be just about food? The lead singer of The Riot Before has a blog where he muses about life, and then a completely separate one where he mostly talks about food so I feel like I would be in good company in this venture. Please let me know in the comments your thoughts on these changes.

Thanks
Keegan

Review: Banner Pilot - Collapser

2010-10-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

I feel like, without my noticing, Fat Wreck Chords has really upped their game. Back when their big rising-star-workhorse was a traction-gaining Against Me! it felt like a majority of their label-mates were kind of cookie cutter pop-punk bands. The Soviettes, Smoke or Fire (who have since elevated their game) etc were great for comps and you could definitely enjoy a song or two but you looked a little askance at people who seemed to be actual fans of these bands. But suddenly my cup runneth over with solid punk bands that can stand out from their peers like American Steel and Banner Pilot, and wouldn't you know it? They're all on Fat Wreck. Well played Fat Mike, but I still don't get Cokie the Clown.

That was my long-winded introduction to Collapser, Banner Pilot's Fat Wreck debut. My other planned intro was to talk about how I went to a certain frozen-rock ice cream parlor for the first time ever last night. I was not a big fan. I don't like having to say cutesy shit in order to get food. They had a flavor that was cake batter ice cream with cookie dough and heath bar. This hits most of my happy places so you might assume it was what I got yes? NO. Because the name of the flavor was "More lovin, less oven" or something similarly nauseating and I refused to say it (I also didn't tip cause I didn't want to hear them sing). So I got coffee ice cream instead. Adam has pointed out that this is similar to a certain southwestern grill's policy of naming dishes after Seinfeld references. He is 100% right. If you're out there mexican food place: you know who you are, now knock it off. A fajita is a fajita which is to say one of the greatest food stuff in the history of ever. At this point some of you are probably turning away from your computers saying "If I wanted to hear a random rant about food, there's a Jim Gaffigan special on tv that would be a better, funnier use of my time" and to you I say that this whole thing was actually on point because in my mind Collapser is like cookie dough ice cream.

By this I mean that the whole album is solid. Especially the bass sound, which is that awesome clanking metallic Latterman sound. God I love that. But yeah the vocals are gruff enough to suit you org-core punkers but still clear enough that you aren't missing out on the lyrics and the vocal melodies which are solid as hell. On top of that the album strikes a nice balance with all the songs hanging together nicely but at no point did I think 'these all kinda sound alike.'

So that's the ice cream. Ice cream in general is good and this album in general is good. The cookie dough is that sprinkled liberally throughout the album are really great songs that in addition to being great songs, elevate the rest of the album (like how raw cookie dough makes something transcendent out of what was previously basic vanilla). These include the opening track 'Central Standard' and suprisingly the closing track 'Write It Down.' There are some massively catchy choruses lurking in 'Starting at the Ending' and 'Farewell to Iron Bastards' both of which are also surprisingly sweet when you get into the lyrics. But if you and your punk rock girl (or boy) need a new song to be 'your song' then look no further than 'Skeleton Key.' Sitting almost dead center on the track list this was the first song on the record to grab a seat in my head and refuse to leave. There also something touchingly poignant about the line "It ends so soon, the night and the fading moon. / I put my hand inside yours. The city looks strange and significant." every time it makes me wish I had written it.

Bottom line, this is a good punk rock album with some great songs on it. In my head I've termed it 'hang-out punk.' It doesn't want you to go out and stir up revolution, it doesn't need to air out some grievances with an ex (not that there's anything wrong with either of those) it's just a record for being, like hanging out with a really old friend, nobody needs to try too hard, nobody needs to change just put this record on and enjoy it.

Banner Pilot - Skeleton Key

Banner Pilot - Write it Down

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Banner Pilot

Review: American Steel - Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts

2010-09-29T14:24:00.001-07:00

I've kind of been avoiding writing about Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts, last year's offering from Oakland's American Steel for two reasons. First, I'm a little embarassed to be so behind the ball on these guys and this album. American Steel has existed in some form or another for 15 years. I've had since 1995 to find this band and I'm only doing now. Also Dear Friends was one of last year's sort of break-out hits and I'm only reviewing it now. The other reason I was hesitant to write about this album is that I'm a little nervous about whether or not I can do it justice, it's that good. Really.

This album is the kind of good, that it should make you despair of ever making music that's comparable while at the same time inspiring you to try. It's like nothing you've heard before while at the same time it's that comforting punk record to which you can always rock out. The hooks are razor sharp and fishing-worthy, the bass thumps along, the drums drive hard non-stop and the guitar veers from clanging punk guitar to lightly jangling delayed leads that would sound right at home on a Cure record. Lyrically this is a superb effort with poignant verses tackling a range of topics to shout along choruses that you have memorized by the end of the song.

The album opens perfectly with two undeniably danceable numbers 'Emergency House Party' where singer Rory Henderson assures us that "We only need a song to dance to, We only need a chorus to sing a long to" and 'Tear the Place Apart' which sees him exhorting us to "Get your ass up on your feet now baby, and tear the place apart." The album goes five songs without letting up once with could-be-hits like 'Safe and Sound' 'Your Ass Ain't Laughing Now' and 'The Blood Get's Everywhere.' That last is a strange little horror movie ditty which might put listeners in mind of old Alkaline Trio which was nice for me, because I can't help hearing a little of Matt Skiba in Henderson's voice.

'From Here to Hell' takes the foot off the pedal just long enough to get through the first verse and then puts it right back down for the next four songs. The final two songs however are departures each in their own way. 'Finally Alone' is a massively epic sounding song complete with a chorused vocal that will remind some people of the end of 'Welcome Home' by Coheed and Cambria. The last track is an odd little, down tempo number that might seem like a throwaway on a lesser album but on Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts it seems like a necessary cool-down period, you can't quit something this good cold-turkey.

You know I mean business when I say the appeal of American Steel is easily on par with that of Lemuria and almost on a Gaslight level (insert gasps and 'oooh's here). The only one keeping Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts from being one of your favorite albums is you. And that's a problem I seriously suggest you remedy.

American Steel - Tear the Place Apart

American Steel - Your Ass Ain't Laughing Now

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American Steel

Quick Video Interlude - or - Classic Clips Vol.2

2010-09-27T19:39:00.001-07:00

Recently while reading an article on Gibson's website (and no, I'm not linking to it) I stumbled upon this great video of The Who doing "Won't Get Fooled Again." Now I have to admit, on my list of best Who songs, this one probably doesn't crack my top ten but this is a great performance. It's early enough that everyone is still alive and kicking on all cylinders and late enough that you avoid the weird fringed-buckskin and mod outfits of the early days and the Woodstock-Monterrey pop era. Daltrey is crushing it, Entwistle is showing off what a virtuoso he actually is (take a good look at his hands when the camera cuts to them, they're flying and he's being pretty nonchalant about it with lots of slides and little trills) and Townshend looks like he's having the time of his life. Watch him repeatedly go back to his amps to see if he can keep turning them up. My only complaint is that Keith Moon seems a little subdued by his standards, which is to say he slightly more active than almost any other drummer going. Anyway, do enjoy......The Who!!!

Review: GroupThought - [EP]

2010-09-18T16:57:00.000-07:00

Many, many years ago when I was a lad in high school I was in a band called Modern Theory. It was a sort of Prog-Rock and while it was good fun, eventually we parted ways cause I wasn't really all that into Prog nor was I proficient enough at bass to really hold my own in a Prog band (to this day I'm not a huge fan of playing with out a pick). We should be clear, it's my memory that it was a mutual parting of ways, but it's also entirely possible that I was well and truly sacked.

Either way, the drummer for that band was a kid named Ben Smith who was more than slightly decent at what he did. He would end up going to school in Potsdam and starting a band called GroupThought. See why that gratuitously long anecdote was necessary? So now I'm going to reveiw GroupThought's Ep, a good year and half after it was first brought to my attention. Ben if you're out there....sorry about that.

The five song ep is a little bit prog-y and a little jammy. There are some serious grooves on here that even got my head bouncing around and at the same time a lot of shredding goes on. The album's opener "Sleep Machine" is a nice little microcosm of this as it switches between more wandering jammed out parts with elaborate instrumental work and solid grooves that see the band lock in together nicely. The next two songs show off the band's diversity with "Silent Scene," essentially a piano ballad, and the tersely-titled "III" which is a sort of ambient interlude.

"I Wish I Were Green" is a return to the formula of the opener of bipolar instrumentation going back and forth between a delay-laden guitar part intro and a grooving Flanger-ed and distorted riff. I have to say though I would like this song a lot better if it had been left as an instrumental. That's all I'm going to say about that, you'll just have to listen to it and see what I mean. Finally the record closes with the strangely named "ESPhunky" (I would love to know what the hell that means), an effects heavy meandering tune which, like 'Green; shows that each of these guys has some serious talent which they put to good use. These songs are dynamic and well executed and if you like your jam music a little technical or you like your prog-rock to groove a little then this might just be your favorite new upstart band.

I'm going to post a song here, but it's worth noting that all the songs can be acquired for free at the band's myspace here.

GroupThought - Silent Machine

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GroupThought

Bruins Preview 2010

2010-09-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

So it's about that time of year where I talk about my predictions for the new Boston Bruins' season. This is due to the Bruin's training camp starting to warm up, and the Red Sox slow decline toward the end of their season (actually it's more like a tail-spin). This could be an exciting year for the Bruins. We've traded an aging defense-man (Dennis Wideman) to Florida for an exciting young forward in Nathan Horton. And thanks to taking a couple first round picks off of the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Phil Kessel, we've now transformed the farm system into a fairly formidable collection of prospects headed by our second-overall pick Tyler Seguin.

So I'd love to go really in depth about Bruin's prospects and maybe break down the team's strengths and weaknesses by position. I think that would be fun. But I'm not going to do it and there's two reasons why: There's Jimmy and Cathy and sweet Lorelei. Just kidding. If you don't get that then you should watch the Robert Altman movie Nashville. But seriously I'm not writing a big long thing because at least half my reader's really don't care and also, the New England Sports Network already did it better than I ever could so it's easier to just link to them.

Top Ten Prospects
10. Andrew Bodnarchuk
9. Max Suave
8. Zach Hamill
7. Ryan Spooner
6. Ryan Button
5. Jared Knight
4. Yuri Alexandrov
3. Jordan Caron
2. Joe Colborne
1. Tyler Seguin

Breakdown By Position

Goalie
Defense
Right Wing
Center
Left Wing *** (article went away)

Review: The Dead Weather - Horehound

2010-09-07T17:24:00.001-07:00

Long time readers of this blog will remember Alison Mosshart from her ill-fated head-to-head battle with Jenny Lewis (if not I certainly have your attention now). Now she's back with the super group (sort of) she formed with Jack White of The White Stripes. Jack has made the exciting switch to drums relinquishing guitar duties over to a guy from Queens of the Stone Age. The weird looking bass player from the Raconteurs rounds out the line-up. Yes, a better journalist would have told you their names but we do things a little differently here at the King. Musically, the Dead Weather's first album, Horehound has its daddies' lying eyes, neatly combining almost unsettlingly offbeat sounds of Mosshart's post-Discount project The Kills with the fuzzed-out bluesy bombast that Jack White made his money with in the White Stripes. To be fair White is bringing more bombast than blues fuzz owing to his switch to drums but this still smells more like his project that anyone else's.

I'd like to take a minute here to talk about Jack White. First of all, why did it never occur to him when he began putting together a super group that it would have been way funnier if he had gotten Jack Black in on it. Get it?? Jack White and Jack Black?? It'd be hilarious. All kidding aside, I have to confess that musically Jack White has never really blown my skirt up. I could really only tolerate the occasional chorus of that one single the White Stripes had and I ignored the Raconteurs for the most part. That said, I find I actually have a lot of respect for Jack White. With every move he's made in his career, it's seemed clear to me that it was something he genuinely really wanted to do and he did it with no concern for whether or not it would meet with financial success. I think he makes the music he wants to make and listen to and he's not really concerned with how many other people will want to listen to it and that's always commendable. Also my dad says he was great in that movie he did with Jimmy Page and the Edge.

But back to the music. Horehound is filled with the kind of bluesy weirdness you'd expect and also like you'd expect with the caliber of talent assembled, it hits the target a decent number of times. First of all, '3 Birds' is one of the more listenable instrumental tracks I've heard in a while. It's not 'Green Onions' good, but it's interesting, kind of sounds like the soundtrack to a spy or a heist movie. The third track, the bizarrely named 'I Cut Like A Buffalo' is another standout. Contrary to what the title might lead you to believe this is the song where the weird gives way to some serious hooks that make the song stick with you long after you've returned to your old Discount LPs. Actually a good rule of thumb with this album is to go with titles that include similes since the other track I really loved (and oddly enough the other single) is "Treat Me Like Your Mother" which, again, has some seriously tenacious little hooks. My favorite moment is when newly converted drummer White starts playing with the rhythm and the band breaks only to come back grooving harder and faster than they went out for what is easily the best and most dynamic moment on the album.

So if you liked Jack White's other projects, this one probably won't disappoint you. If you liked Alison Mosshart's old projects on the other hand, you're looking at a bit more of a crap shoot. It's definitely worth a spin or a listen though and I'll be reveiwing their more recently released album the minute it comes up in my queue I promise.

I would also recommend looking up the video for 'Treat Me Like Your Mother' It wouldn't let me embed it, but it's worth seeing.

The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother****

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The Dead Weather

I Think Joseph Conrad Said It Best

2010-09-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

The horror, the horror:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GncK6IuY8OA&ob=av2e

I'm almost glad that it wouldn't let me embed it on the page. There's enough ugliness in the world. But seriously click through and feel a little bit of yourself die.

Review: Castevet - Summer Fences

2010-08-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

First of all, can we just talk about how truly awesome this album cover is?? It's a disgruntled deer! Or maybe an imperious elk. It's not really an elk, I just wanted to maintain the alliteration thing I had going on. On a more pertinent note Summer Fences last year's release by Chicago's Castevet (not to be confused with a black metal band from New York of the same name) is like being taken to school on 90's emo (the good kind). The guitars are all chime-y and layered and do that 'quiet loudness' that envelops you and reminds me of bands like Appleseed Cast, Sunny Day Real Estate, or maybe American Football. They aren't all atmosphere either the parts are interesting and varied and there's clearly talent here in spades. Vocally, the record is a little sparse, several of the songs have less than 10 lines of lyrics and the words themselves are hardly intelligible since they are delivered with a rough yell reminiscent of early Hot Water Music or maybe a less punk rock Latterman. But a quick google of the actual lyrics reveals that while we aren't missing Byron or Keats here, they are far from the sort of banal crap that usually finds itself much higher in the mix. What I'm saying is, if you could understand the words, they wouldn't drag you down.

Castevet appear to be an excellent product of their heritage with the vocals of the more rough voiced punk rock we're currently seeing and the excellent instrumentation of a legion of their midwest-dwelling peers most of whom ended up on Deep Elm at some point or another. In fact I'm surprised that Deep Elm hasn't grabbed these guys yet since they seem like they'd be right in the ol' wheel-house. Also, I feel like I need to mention Braid at some point in here since they are Midwestern, technical, and indie/emo-y goodness. Other than that I apologize for one of those reviews where I just list other bands I promise to improve and I encourage everyone to pick up Summer Fences by following the link at the bottom.

Castevet - Plays One On TV

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Castevet

A Few Tidbits

2010-08-02T19:26:00.000-07:00

So I just got back from visiting my friend Matt in Milwaukee (which is apparently in Wisconsin) and I'm happy to report that it is a seriously cool city. I wasn't expecting a whole bunch so I was really pleasantly surprised. In other news, a quick search through the past couple of entries will reveal that I have had to remove the music links for one of my reviews. I got a couple of those threatening emails. Let me take this opportunity to reiterate people: If you don't like me promoting your music by posting some of it, just tell me. I'll be more than happy to take them down and honestly, I think we'll all be the better for the communication. You can be my friend and I'll be yours. The legal-talky emails on the other hand are like a wall which allows for no communication or friend-making whatsoever. The end result is the same for both but the last one leaves me feeling bummed out.

On now, to happier topics. I'm leaving on my proper vacation (Milwaukee was the warm up) at the end of this week and I figured I should post something before I left to try to keep everyone's (anyone's?)interest as long as possible in my absence. So I thought I'd share a couple of cool things that have come to my attention in the last couple of days. The first of these is Flick Chart. If you're like me and by that I mean you have just an obscene amount of time on your hands and a strange desire to know what your favorite movies are then this site is for you. But Keegan - I hear you saying - I'm pretty sure I can tell what my favorite movies are for myself thank you very much. And you might think that, but sometimes our pretensions get in the way. As much as you might want to think that Il Postino is your favorite movie of all time (and it is a good one) the truth is that with a couple of hours to kill you're far more likely to reach for say, Anchorman. Flickchart is a good way to figure out the naked truth about your taste in movies through a mindlessly simple binary process. It's actually simpler than the sentence I just used to describe its simplicity. So go check it out, have a ball, lose six or eight hours off your life that you'll never get back.

My other new and exciting discovery comes from the woman sitting next to me on the airplane to Milwaukee. She was doing this puzzle kind of like a crossword, but without clues. Being the kind of obnoxious nosy person that talks to you on an airplane, I asked what it was and she explained that it's called a Code Cracker and it's a popular puzzle in New Zealand. You can find a daily one here. Get on this one early folks because honestly I think it's going to blow up and you'll be happy to say you were there at the beginning. This will be the next Soduko or Kenken. And trust me, I love Kenken possibly more than life and these are better. If you like Soduko but miss letters and Crosswords are just a little to knowledge based for you then Code Crackers are for you.

This is usually the place where I would post a couple songs related to puzzles and movies. But I'm still a little jumpy so no music today. See nameless/faceless lawyer-talk man? You've spoiled the fun for everybody. You and maybe Google a little bit.

Review: Dear Landlord - Dream Homes

2010-07-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

Dream Homes by Illinois own Dear Landlord was one of last years breakout punk rock albums if such a thing is possible. Since it's now more than a year old, it seemed like as good a time as any for me to talk about it and I can tell you, it's worth the hype. This is pitch-perfect punk rock. And by that I mean not super 'pitch-perfect.' Songs are short (fifteen songs in under thirty minutes) and fast, vocals are gruff and there's choruses aplenty. These guys deserve to have their names included with the No Idea army of big name, rough voiced pop-punk bands.

Lyrically however, I think Dear Landlord is a little different from their sub-genre-ed brethren. There's a lot more personal politics on this album than you would expect. By personal I mean, there's no song calling for an end to the Iraq war, there are songs about being poor, looked down on and generally living in less than ideal conditions (hence the title). Track 2, 'Rosa' is about a drug addict, 'Park Bench' is about being homeless, and the penultimate track 'Begging for Tips' reminds us that in some ways we are all living on the generosity of the wealthy. 'Door Mat' is an ode to an abused woman that would go nicely alongside 'Lean on Sheena' on a mix of catchy songs about domestic violence. It would be a mistake though, to think that this album is a downer or preachy. Content aside, this album is catchy as hell. More than half the songs have the kind of chorus that you can sing along to the second time it comes around in the song. The opener 'I Live in Hell' is a perfect example of this, as are 'Lake Ontario' and 'Landlocked' whose singalong chorus saves it from kind of a wordy verse.

Musically, there isn't a whole lot of diversity on the album. It's not bad like the Marked Men album I reviewed, you can tell which songs are which, but you aren't going to hear any arrangements, there aren't acoustic breaks. The tempos range from fast (any of them) to blisteringly fast ('Three to the Beach') and the vocals go from throaty singing to gruff yelling. With most of the songs coming in at under 2:30 there isn't a lot of room for jamming. The sole exception to this is the last track, 'A World We Never Made,' that eats the last 4+ minutes of the album and ends with a long instrumental stretch that finds the band working its way back to the riff from 'Landlocked.' It's almost the perfecting ending for the album and might hint at more that they have to offer in future. Final thought: I bet this band is amazing live.

Dear Landlord - I Live In Hell

Dear Landlord - Lake Ontario

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Dear Landlord

Review: iwrestledabearonce - It's All Happening

2010-07-21T10:48:00.001-07:00

When I was in high school and I first heard the band The Distillers, I was very fond to getting people to listen to 'The Hunger' and asking what gender they thought the lead singer was. People would invariably answer "A dude?" and I would laugh that they had been taken in by Brody Dalle's guttural vocals. I tell you this because iwrestledabearonce's singer Krysta Cameron makes Dalle sound a touch castrati. This girl is brutal. Those of you who attended Clark University's Noise Day event last year will be put in mind of Providence's Tinsel Teeth.

Let me be frank; if you don't like hardcore music, iwrestledabearonce's first full length It's All Happening is not going to be the album that opens that particular horizon for you. This album is gnarly. In places it's more grindcore than anything else and by that I mean many people will find it un-listenable. That said, there's some interesting stuff to be had here. The band is clearly drawing from some seriously diverse influences. Witness the country break in "You Ain't No Family" complete with fiddle and slide guitar, the dance beats in "See You In Shell" or the techno beats sprinkled liberally throughout the album. As throaty and terrifying as Cameron's screaming is, her voice is surprisingly nice when not being shredded and she does her fair share of clean vocals on a majority of songs. Other than that, this album is decently standard hardcore fare. There's some guitar pyrotechnics, there's a crushing breakdown or two. The songs all have clever offbeat names that are quirky pop culture references ("Tastes Like Kevin Bacon") and there are little moments of ambient music here and there as is currently the style in some areas of hardcore. If I had to pick a single band to share fans with this I would probably say Horse the Band. Or Band of Horses because they're basically the same thing (but seriously, only that first one).

Mp3's removed upon request.

iwrestledabearonce - Tastes Like Kevin Bacon ****

iwrestledabearonce - You Ain't No Family***

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iwrestledabearonce

Review: Austin Lucas - Sombody Loves You

2010-07-16T11:57:00.001-07:00

So this is what might best be described as a bluegrass album and I don't know a whole lot about bluegrass, and while my ignorance has never deterred me before, I'm probably going to keep this relatively short. Somebody Loves You is the newest album from Austin Lucas who skyrocketed to the attention of the world (sort of) with his participation on the Revival Tour alongside such greats as Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Tim Barry (Avail), Ben Nichols (Lucero) and Tom Gabel (some other band).

As for the music on the album, as I said before, I'm not the biggest fan of bluegrass-y type music, but even I think it's pretty great. Austin can play guitar pretty well, he's got a strong voice that he can really work and he writes a decent song musically and lyrically. That's pretty much all you need isn't it? It doesn't hurt that his daddy used to work with Alison Krauss and helped him with making the album. Some of these songs are kinda slow and don't stand out to me as much but about half of them are real barn-burners. I've never really understood quite what a barn-burner was besides a rural arsonist. I imagine it's the sort of song that makes you spill your mason jar of moonshine over the lantern flame causing a conflagration. If that is the case than I think you'll find my usage was correct. Anyway, there's not much more I can say about this album that Austin himself, and his big ernest face can't tell you better. Here he is in the video for what I think is far and away the best song on the album, if not in his catalogue:

Austin Lucas - Somebody Loves You

Austin Lucas - Go West

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Austin Lucas

Review: Cursive - Mama, I'm Swollen

2010-07-14T11:35:00.001-07:00

I was not looking forward to when this album came up in my list of things to review. Not reviewing it was not an option: Cursive is one of my favorite bands of all time. Actually, that's what made it so hard. I keep holding out hope that I just don't understand this album, that one day I'll play it and just realize the genius that I just know Tim Kasher packed it full of. Unfortunately, that day hasn't come yet and so with a heavy heart I have to admit, I think this is probably the weakest Cursive offering to date.

That said, this isn't a terrible album. Almost any of the songs on it would be fine down-tempo numbers on a different Cursive album surround by bigger, screamier, more dynamic songs. They wouldn't be our favorites and when we talked about the album and someone mentioned them we'd be like "oh yeah, that song's on there too," but they wouldn't be bad. The problem with Mama, I'm Swollen (I hadn't actually gotten around to saying that yet had I?), is that it's a whole album of what I would hesitate to call 'filler tracks' but that's really the only word for them. When I talk to other people about Cursive we usually agree that as Tim Kasher cleaned his life up, the songs took a hit. Where the hard drinking, self-loathing Tim cranked out the truly awesome Domestica and The Ugly Organ, it was a much better situated Tim that gave us Happy Hollow and I would hazard a downright stable guy who wrote Mama. He can't even get it up to rage about religion anymore. Sure the album takes a few swings here and there ('We're Going to Hell' and 'Mama, I'm Satan') but they lack the teeth and claws of even an interlude from back in the old days.

The album opens with a rocker (it's only rocker, really) "In The Now" and then promptly hits its high points in "From the Hips" and "I Couldn't Love You." The latter is probably the closest this album gets to form with Kasher screwing up his face to scream "I couldn't love you anymooooooooore" (if you don't believe me just watch the video). After these three, the album just kind of coasts for seven tracks. Again, these are all fine songs. They're Cursive songs, they just aren't the best we've seen. And you know what? That's fine. Tim, if you're out there, you been through some stuff and it seems like you're coming out of it now and if that means you have to take your foot off the gas pedal a little bit then go for it, you've earned it. You don't have to prove anything anymore. This album is fine, I'll just mix in 'The Great Decay' 'The Recluse' and 'Tall tales' when I need a jolt. But for those of you who have never listened to Cursive, please don't make this the first album you listen to.

And now, the videos for the album (there were three. anyone else think that's a little excessive?)

Cursive - In The Now
Cursive - I Couldn't Love You

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Cursive

A couple cool items to combat the weather

2010-07-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

It has been toasty here in Worcester, and I mean hot like you read about. You what else is hot though? Some of the sweet news items I have to share, all of which are courtesy of the fine, fine, unknowing individuals over at punk news. The first and most awesome of these is the news that Desaparecidos, the greatest thing that Conor Oberst has ever done with his life, will be re-uniting. They are playing a benefit show to raise funds to combat a Nebraska cities new policy which is similar to AZ new (and now under litigation!) immigration law. We can only hope that the boys will remember how great it feels to play together and maybe think about a whole tour or even -gasp- a follow-up record to Read Music/Speak Spanish. This would be awesome, since with Hot Water Music alive and kicking my short list of bands I'd like to see re-form gets down to Jawbreaker, Refused and the boys from Omaha.

Speaking of Refused, here's a fun video of Dennis Lyxzen from Refused performing a Minor Threat cover with Rise Against (Brian Baker from Bad Religion is there too, but I'm less excited for him). Doesn't Dennis look like he's having fun? Running around getting to be hardcore again after the colossal snore-fest that is International Noise Conspiracy?

I had a third thing, but now I don't remember what it is. Hot Water Music is recording a 7" with Bouncing Souls, but I got less excited about that when I heard that they were just going to be covering each other.

Desaparecidos - Happiest Place On Earth

Minor Threat - Minor Threat

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Desaparecidos
Minor Threat

Review: Marked Men - Ghosts

2010-07-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

The first time I ever heard of the Denton Texas punk band Marked Men, was when Mitch Clem (internet comic artist extraordinaire) put their album "Fix My Brain" at number one on his list of best albums of 2006. Now, three years later, the boys are back with 2009's Ghosts, which weighs in at 15 tracks and not a single one touching 3 minutes in length. I know I harp on short songs a lot in reviews, but I think Shakespeare said it best when he wrote in Hamlet "As brevity is the soul of punk rock, keep thy hardcore and pop-punk songs under 3 and a half minutes." I might be remembering that wrong put the point is that gettin' it done in a timely fashion is for the most part a virtue I look for in bands like this and Marked Men deliver in spades. Listen to this baby end to end and you barely sacrifice a half-hour of your day.

As for actual substance, it's pretty standard, better-than-average pop-punk (lotta hyphens there). The guitars are angular, distorted and played with down-strokes; the drummer's mostly doing high-hat and snare; the vocals are a little rough both in recording quality and delivery and everything is moving along at a pretty good clip. The band apparently has a policy of not publishing lyrics which as a lyrics-oriented kind of guy, I found a little annoying, especially when I turned to write about the album (grrrrr). Combine this with the vocal quality and you could go a decent amount of listens and never have a clue what you were hearing. Besides the lack of published lyrics, my only complaint would be that the guitar sound doesn't change much song-to-song which means that a lot of the songs kind of seem indistinguishable from each other. It's all good, but at times a song will end and the next will start and you think "didn't I just hear this?"

The title track and Red Light Rumors seem to me to be the two songs that really stand out as different from the others but even that is only a slight shift. While all the songs are pretty good, the best two (as opposed to the two that stand out) are Ditch and Stay Away. Strangely enough, those two are the ones I'm going to post.

Marked Men - Ditch

Marked Men - Stay Away

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Marked Men

Review: Franz Nicolay - Major General

2010-06-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

I regard Franz Nicolay's musical career with mixed feelings. He rose to prominence as a member of World/Inferno Friendship Society, a band I'm hard pressed to find any redeeming value to (and yes, I have witnessed their vaunted live show. They were assholes.) before going on to be the keyboardist and and back up singer in The Hold Steady. I like the Hold Steady and I really liked what he brought to them (it's his rough voiced- back up on "Stuck Between Stations") . Now he has announced that he's going out on tour with Against Me! as their keyboardist. The very fact that they need a keyboardist is proof that they are no longer a band to be excited about joining (he says, like he wouldn't take that call). The reason I outline my feelings on Franz's career path is that I have similar mixed feelings about his first solo effort 2009's Major General. There are some great songs on this album, and some friggin' terrible ones.

The album kicks off with what is easily the best song on the whole thing: "Jeff Penalty" and song about a man who was briefly the lead singer of the Dead Kennedys. This is a great song, it rocks, has dynamics, a great little group part and it builds like a sonofabitch. It also has a pretty nifty video:

Sadly, after "Penalty," this little wagon starts rolling down hill and never really climbs that high again. The second song, "Hey Dad" isn't bad but doesn't really hit enough anywhere for my taste. He transitions to piano for the next two, the unfortunate "World/Inferno Vs. The End Of The Evening" (suprise, suprise) and the piano-tango of "Dead Sailors." Despite its slow start, 'Sailors' has some gas in its tank and pulls it out at the last minute with a huge chorus. The promise of a simliar payoff is a lie which keeps you going to the dragging, insomnia-banishing, guitar and clarinet jazz of "Do We Not Live In Dreams?" Seriously, it's not good, but like a typical season for J D Drew, after you wade through the waist high mediocrity, there's a couple of hot streaks in there someplace. This particular streak opens with the crashing drums of "Confessions Of An Ineffective Casanova" and follows that up with a pretty solid chorus (this is where a better reviewer would quote lyrics but I'm too lazy). Nicolay doesn't take his foot off the gas and charges straight into the pretty great "Quiet Where I Lie" before nose diving into the godawful "Note on a Subway Wall". This swing and miss is the first in a trio of songs that leave me thinking maybe this should have been an Ep.

The last three songs are a microcosm of the entire album. Uptempo rocker "This World Is An Open Door" is just great. The next is an acceptable down-tempo number (possibly the best slow song on the album) and then the last song is a convincing argument for the album being just one song shorter. Don't get me wrong, this album has some really good songs on it, but it also has some serious fat that needs trimming. You could honestly lose about half this album and you'd be left with a really great product. It's fine as it is now, but you have to do some digging before you hit the gold.

Franz Nicolay - Jeff Penalty

Franz Nicolay - Confessions Of An Ineffective Casanova

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Franz Nicolay

Review: Shorebirds - It's Gonna Get Ugly

2010-05-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

In the last couple of years, PME's (that's Punk Music Enthusiasts, for those of you not in the know) have been blessed with a myriad of bands features members of two truly great and now-defunct punk bands: Jawbreaker and Latterman. As regulars of this blog know by now, Jawbreaker's lead singer, Blake Schwarzenbach was briefly in band called Thorns of Life, before starting his current band forgetters (for whom we are very excited), while the Latterman guys have cropped up in a huge number of bands including (but not limited to) Iron Chic, RVIVR, and the (I'm sorry for this) sadly underwhelming Bridge and Tunnel (somebody has to say it). Now at this point some of you may be saying "Keegan, I thought this review was of some band called Shorebirds, why are you going on at great length about Jawbreaker and Latterman?" And I'll tell you, dear but impatient reader, Shorebirds represents the overlap in the Venn diagram of ex-Latterman and ex-Jawbreaker bands as it features Chris Bauermeister of Jawbreaker on bass, and Matt Canino of Latterman on guitar and yelling.

Fans hoping for a follow-up to Dear You should probably look elsewhere, but people looking for a record to fill the Latterman void, could do a lot worse (they could do Bridge and Tunnel for example). It's Gonna Get Ugly has everything you loved in a Latterman record, just a little less of it. Shouted/sung vocals? They're there but the only time they really get cranked up and raw is on the driving "Circles" which sees Canino spitting out his lyrics as fast as he can over a drum beat that Black Flag is probably still looking for. The political lyrics from Latterman are still there, but they're subtler and less insistent. What I miss most is the anthemic tracks and the fist in the air "everyone-goes-'yeah'-on-this-beat" moments which seem to be lacking on this album. Weirdly enough I have a similar complaint about the new album from The National, but more about that in a couple months.

If you're only going to listen to three tracks off this album (I don't know why anyone would have this rule) they should be:

Track 3: "Upside Down" - Possibly the most anthemic song on the album, also the most feel-good, pump up song. Though in reading the lyrics, I have a sneaking suspicion its about suicide, so what do I know?

Track 4: "Sleeping In" - It has a fun false beginning, it has the same basic idea as the Post Service song of the same name (the world sucks so why wake up) and the F-word gets used about 100 times over the course of just over two minutes.

Track 10: "The Ballad of Marvin Heemeyer" - It's the story of a man who drove an armor-plated bulldozer through several buildings in his town in response to God and a zoning dispute. I think the boys are taking an anti-government message from this one, which works if you don't look too closely.

In all its 12 tracks, weighing in at about 26 and a half minutes with only one song over 3. Solid west coast, rough vocals, pop-punk (the good kind). Shorebirds has an impeccable pedigree, but they don't really need to rely on it, the album stands as a great punk record all on its own.

Shorebirds - Sleeping In
Shorebirds - The Ballad of Marvin Heemeyer

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Shorebirds

Entry Number 100

2010-05-15T10:11:00.000-07:00

Today is a special day because it marks the hundredth (is that a word?) post I've made here on the blog. Very exciting. The title gave it away a little didn't it? Anyway, I thought it would be nice to just for one post, go back to what this blog originally was, back when it was called 'Recording a Day' and it was just crappy recordings of my mostly doing bad covers with the occasional original thrown in when I thought I was getting a little too close to being tolerable. So in that spirit, today's post is pretty simple just one song for you listening pleasure, but it's a Kid Omega song so you can see how it hearkens back. This recording is off of a Clark University bands comp called Cougar Tracks which was put together by Adam among others. This song will also appear on KO's upcoming full length, though with a bit more production and better vocals. Oh yeah, and it won't be named for a god damn republican. Enjoy!

Kid Omega - Sununu (not the real title)

I'm Done!

2010-05-12T08:59:00.000-07:00

So as of yesterday, I have handed in what is hopefully the last papers of my college career. I'm very excited about this. In addition to lots of other things, it means that I will now have tons of time to start cranking out those reviews I've been threatening you all with the last couple of months. However, I haven't started 'cranking them out' just yet. To help you pass the time, here's a really awesome video by a band I would have loved to review but I kind of missed the boat on. Despite this, the video is too cool not to post.

Living Saints

Polar Bear Club | MySpace Music Videos

Bruins Postseason Discussion (4 games late)

2010-04-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

So yes, I admit perhaps I should have written my thoughts about the Bruins post-season run before it actually started because it will be a lot easier for me to be optimistic here on the day we will have a chance to win the series (knock on wood) and the word on Savard is that he'll be up to wrestling mountain lions tomorrow. But I didn't write anything before now and now I am so that's the end of it.
First of all, I'm thrilled with the way the B's have played so far in this series. You can tell Claude Julien has his inspire on these days because it seems like the boys come out of the locker room every period, more jacked up than the last time. They've made every possible hit bone-crushingly hard and have rained shot after shot in on Ryan Miller. Speaking of Ryan Miller, good lord can that man stop a puck. Even that though, is a credit to the Bruins because for every play where they burst through the defense, gone one on one with him and watched Miller pull off an incredible save to rob them, the Black and Gold haven't gotten discouraged, they've simply regained the puck and tried again and again until it goes in. If they win this series, the professional analysis for why should simply read "Bruins wanted it more." They've played like it, 60 minutes (or more) of effort every night. It also doesn't hurt that we took Thomas Vanek out with a slash in the second game, just sayin' that was well worth the two minute penalty.
So anyway, I'm very pleased with the way the B's have been playing and if they keep up this intensity level there's no telling how far they could go. I'm not sure you can get the big silver bowl with intensity alone, but if Savard does come back all healthy and with his wits about him, who knows we'll suddenly have a team with a lot of fire-power to go with that survivor mentality.
Now if you'll recall, at the beginning of the regular season, I named some young players that I thought could be serious difference makers for the Bruins this season (you recall that don't you? I swear it happened). I thought it might be fun for all of us (but mostly me) to go back and look at how I did with some of those predictions, starting with where I was wrong, then covering my good calls and finally looking at some guys I missed.
Swings and Misses
Let's get this out of the way: I said Byron Bitz was going to be huge and we drop-kicked his ass at the trade deadline. This bummed me out like whoa. Not just because I was wrong, but because I genuinely really liked Bitz. Turns out he just wasn't getting it done numbers wise and now he's a Florida Panther. That's what happens, half a season of just not getting it done and WHAM you're playing an winter sport in the 95 degree 100% humidity of where American goes to die.
I'm also going to put Matt Hunwick in the miss category if only to reflect his less than stellar +/- this season. He lost a bit of time to Dennis Seidenberg when he showed up and a little more to Johnny Boychuk (but more on him later). I will say however, that Hunwick has really stepped up his game this post-season, flashing his offensive talents as a defenseman who can give his opposing counterparts a bit of trouble.
Hits
First of all, Tuukka Rask. How far did I crush this one out of the park? To be fair, I didn't foresee him wresting the starter's job from Thomas, but I did say he was going to come up big. I have to say though, the kid need to learn to control a god damn rebound. But he's young, he's Finnish, and he's only going to get better.
I'm also going to go ahead and count Blake Wheeler as a good pick for me. He stepped up to help fill the hole left by Phil Kessel and then by Savard and ended up with the fifth most points on the team (to be fair, for the 09-10 B's that's not super impressive).
Guys I Missed Entirely (I guess if I'm continuing my metaphor, these would be called strikes)
We'll start small with Johnny Boychuk. Boychuk, in addition to having an awesome last name, did a lot to stabilize the B's defensive situation this season. While he hasn't been crazy good at anything in particular he has seriously helped with the big and bad sides of the Bruins this season (that injury to Vanek? you have Boychuk to thank for it) and of course this hit on Matt Ellis:

You know what those are Mr Ellis? Those are the lights of the Boston Garden that you are suddenly looking at.
Next a couple guys who I didn't really notice in the regular season but have really shown up to the playoffs. Daniel Paille actually racked up a cool 20 pts in the regular season but didn't catch my eye until now. Boy can he stick handle. I don't think there's a player on the Buffalo Sabres that hasn't had Paille make him look stupid. The kid skates fast and can move a puck wherever he wants it to go (except past Miller). Vladimir Sobotka on the other hand, at the tender age of 23 is proving that sometimes a Czech is money (see what I did there?). Catch a glimpse of his team photo and you could be forgiven for thinking that this pretty wouldn't have much to bring to a physical team like the B's and you'd be painfully wrong. To borrow from one of the fine NESN commentators, Sobotka has been a one man wrecking crew this series; throwing his body around to gain position, pick up the rebound or put the hurt on a Sabre. He plays with a wild abandon that recalls the early days of of Milan Lucic, is fantastic to watch and I'm guessing, hell to play against. The part that this kid has played in maintaining the physical tone of the Bruins play this round cannot be ignored or downplayed. His is one of those jerseys you want to buy now so you can say later you've had it for years.
That's all for now. Here's hoping that B's keep rolling and that it takes less than 90 minutes tonight. In a final note the Bruins will be getting Toronto's second overall pick in the draft this year so look for the parade of young stars to keep right on coming.

Dropkick Murphys - Time To Go

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Dropkick Murphys

Serbian Celts for the win

2010-04-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

Do you ever get into one of those youtube-fueled, productivity death spirals? You go to watch one, just one god damn video and then something in the related videos queue catches your eye and you watch that, and then another and another and suddenly it's Tuesday. I've been told it's kind of the same way with meth. Anyway, I was watching videos of the Pogues playing Fairytale of New York (like you do) and one thing led to another and I found a treasure hidden amongst the rubble that is youtube. That treasure was Orthodox Celts, one of the most popular Irish and Celtic music groups from.....wait for iiiiiiiit.... BELGRADE, SERBIA. How awesome is that? What makes it even more awesome is that they're actually pretty good. The music is straightforward and well played, and if they left it at that, they'd be kind of unremarkable, but the lead singer has his awesome little eastern European accent that just keeps reminding you of what's what. Please enjoy, also click through to youtube because there are more videos by the band, this one was just the best.

I'd post music here, but both my versions of Star of the County Down are a wee bit suspect. So I dunno, look it up on groove shark or something or even take a flier on a serbian celtic band:

Orthodox Celts

Review: The Riot Before - Fists Buried In Pockets

2010-04-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

I have a huge number of albums sitting on my computer, just waiting to be reviewed here for my beloved readers. A huge number. And I'm going to try to do all of them, in some semblance of chronological order. Most of them will be from last year and eventually we'll get to this year and we'll be all up to date and awesome. Today's offering will be the only album from all the way back in 2008.

I've talked about Richmond, Va's The Riot Before on the blog before, back in march. At the time I referred to them as "straight ahead, no-frills, punk rock." I've listened to a lot more since then and good lord was I wrong and my god did I undersell this band. TRB if you're out there, I'm so sorry I doubted you.
There's a huge amount going on in this album. To abuse a cliche, this isn't your daddy's punk rock band. The lyrics are subtle and articulate and the subject matters vary from the staunchly political 5 To 9 to the practically acapella, shouted love song that is I have My Books. Words Written Over Coffee even has harmonica and as tempting as is it to make a 'Gaslight Anthem watch your back' joke, I don't think there's a reason to sully this.
For those of you reading this and thinking "But Keegan, I'm a punk, I don't like acapella or Harmonica, is there something on this album for me?" Don't get your studded belt in a knot, the answer is a resounding yes. The bizarrely named They Rode On In The Friscalating Dusklight should provide your daily value of whoas while the "single" off the album We Are Wild Stallions is all the fist-in-the-air singalong anthem you could ever hope for, especially in its big final build. Rest assured that they'll get away with this.
In a final strange note this is the second album that I've really fallen in love with that has the intros to certain songs on the ends of the songs before them (the first was Lemuria's last full length, reviewed here). TRB does it best on Fists with the end of 5 To 9 which transitions into You Can't Sexy Dance To Punk Rock. Listened to back to back the first song ends, and then a kickin' drum intro starts, they throw in a little guitar feedback, and finally there's an equally kickin' pick slide (aren't they all?) and then the second song begins right at the verse. However, if you listen to Sexy Dance by itself, it just comes in at the verse and sounds all kinds of bad ass and awesome. Don't be surprised though, this is a bad ass and awesome album by a bad ass and awesome band. A band that maybe could play a show in the Worcester/Boston area soon??? Huh?

I'm going to post the video from the old post again, because you can never watch it too many times. Also I'm posting You Can't Sexy Dance To Punk Rock so you can all hear how awesome it sounds by itself. To hear how great it sounds with the intro, you're just gonna have to buy the album. Which you should probably do anyway.

The Riot Before - "We Are Wild Stallions!" from Dave O'Dell on Vimeo.

The Riot Before - You Can't Sexy Dance To Punk Rock

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The Riot Before

Review: The Lawrence Arms - Buttsweat and Tears Ep

2010-03-13T14:21:00.000-08:00

A big challenge for most bands when recording the follow-up to a successful album is what direction to go. Follow the formula to carefully and they'll be accused of simply rewriting the same album, divert too drastically and they risk alienating their fans. Chicago, Il's The Lawrence Arms had a tough act to follow after 2006's Oh Calcutta!, widely agreed to be the strongest to date in a catalog of strong releases (it kicks ass). Now, after several years and a couple of great side projects, the ramblin' boys of pleasure are back with the Buttsweat and Tears Ep and my biggest criticism is that they've stood pat. The five songs on this disc could easily have been five that didn't make it onto Calcutta. That said, they are pretty great songs, everything I look for from a Larry Arms song: ragged vocals, quirky lyrics, and awesome grimey broke-ass punk rock. I had kind of hoped that guitarist Chris McCaughan would bring back a little bit of his solo acoustic effort Sundowner to influence this release, but the only track that can be called mellow is the last "The Redness in the West" which is typical of the slower songs on LA's releases. For me the stand out tracks are "The Slowest Drink in the Saddest Bar on the Snowiest Day in the Greatest City" (or something like that, christ is it a mouthful) which sounds a bit like "Are You There Margaret? It's Me God" which is about as high as praise gets, and the song "Demons" which wikipedia informs me did not make the cut for the physical 7". So umm. that sucks, but hey, wouldn't you know it, that was the song I was going to post anyway. So everyone wins. Except me. You know if I get sued. Please don't sue me Lawrence Arms. I bought Oh Calcutta on vinyl. That has to count for something. So I guess the moral here is, it's ok not to go too far out of the box, as long as the box was already pretty sweet.

The Lawrence Arms - Demons

Financial Support Goes Here (and honestly, this is worth it)

Lawrence Arms

Spring Break Video Goodness

2010-03-08T12:06:00.000-08:00

Saw Britney's Spear last night on their Topless Spring Break Tour. They acquitted themselves quite well in front of a face breaking crowd. It's always fun to see Alan get naked in front of people who aren't prepared for it. It was a weird bill, all the other bands were seriously hardcore. The best of the rest was probably the two bands from New York. Crown of Lions from Plattsburgh, who I thought were going to be really bro-y sort of hardcore guys but then I talked to a couple of them and they were super nice, played seriously brutal music. And then from the city of New York itself was Turn It Up who seemed like they had a lot more going on melodically then the P.A. gave them credit for. They are apparently recording right now so I look forward to hearing what they sound like on record. They were also really nice guys and one of them had an awesome Lemuria shirt (that's right, it's always a good time to bring Lemuria up).

In addition to that show-recap (I don't think it was long enough to be a review) I have some video goodness I have found in my travels of the web (it was mostly punknews). First off is the Dropkick Murphys playing Shipping Up To Boston live, joined on stage by Dickie Barret and the rest of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones who fit into the song pretty well.

Next up is a great video combining two bands I really love, The Who and The Gaslight Anthem. The only thing that would top that would be Cursive covering Shield Your Eyes (Tim if you're out there, think about it maybe????). Here it is, Gaslight covering Baba O'Riley:

Finally, I couldn't find a way to embed it but here is a link to video of Jacoby Ellsbury doing his thing, i.e. being crazy athletic. Have a fantastic day.

Dropkick Murphys - I'm Shipping Up To Boston

Gaslight Anthem - The Backseat (Acoustic)

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Dropkick Murphys
Gaslight Anthem

Altruism Irish Punk Style

2010-02-27T11:22:00.000-08:00

Shane McGowan formerly of the Pogues has done a charity single to benefit Haitian relief. Suffice it to say this isn't "We Are The World." The official copy runs thus:

Released on March 8th 2010
Please pre-order the single by clicking here - http://bit.ly/bj2ieH. Or text SPELL (all in capitals) to 78789 (the text costs £1.50).

So moved by the plight of the people of Haiti, Shane and his long term girlfriend, writer Victoria Clarke made calls to friends and associates from which began the process of recording a track from which ALL proceeds go to Concern, a charity who have provided assistance to some of the poorest countries in the world including Haiti, even before the earthquake struck. Some of the stars on the record include - Nick Cave / Bobby Gillespie / Glen Matlock / Johnny Depp / Chrissie Hynde / Paloma Faith / Eliza Doolittle.

I Put A Spell On You - Screamin Jay Hawkins

I Put A Spell On You - Bette Midler

I Put A Spell On You - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Financial Support Goes Here (though maybe don't download those, just give a listen and move on. Seriously I don't want to get sued.)

Screamin Jay Hawkins
Bette Midler
CCR

P.S. If you are reading this and for some reason have the rights to any of this music I have three things to say to you:
1-Welcome to my blog
2-Let's all remember that this is for a good cause
3- If you really object to this being here, there's no reason to get all litigious, just let me know and we'll have those songs pulled down in a jiffy. No on needs to know you'd rather the people Haiti starve to death than someone get their filthy paws on one of your songs with out paying. Not that I advocate that of course.

Review: Lemuria - Ozzy 7"

2010-02-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

Let's get this out of the way right from the outset, I love Lemuria. I thought Get Better was one of the best complete albums I'd heard in a while. All this means that new Lemuria music = excited Keegan. That said, the Ozzy 7" had some big shoes to fill which I thought it took an admirable stab at. The record has two songs; Ozzy by the guitarist Sheena Ozzella and Expert Herder by the drummer Alex Kearns. Kearns wrote a majority of the songs on Get Better and he was certainly responsible for my favorites, but on the Ozzy single, it is Ozzella's title track that shines lyrically. Musically a little slow, lyrically it is a single repeated verse of the sort of poignant, understated vignettes I loved on Get Better. There's an element of the Weakerthans in this song, though I would guess that Ozzella is a dog-person to Samson's cats. Kern's contribution, though the more up-tempo and interesting musically, loses me somewhat lyrically. What exactly is an expert herder? Perhaps if I knew, I would find that this song is just as meaningful and awesome as I expected it to be. Alex Kearns: if you're out there, please feel free to drop me a line and elaborate on the meaning of this song. Or even just shoot the breeze, that'd be cool too. Ahem. Where was I? Oh yes, the Ozzy 7" is a perfect way to maintain that Get Better high you've had going and to keep you from going into withdrawal while you wait for another full length. Oh P.S. I'm not going to post a song from the single because that would be half the record, so instead I'm posting my favorite track from The First Collection, an older Lemuria record.

Lemuria - In A World of Ghosts....

Financial Support Goes Here aka BUY EVERYTHING THEY'VE EVER DONE!

Lemuria

TRUCK DAY

2010-02-11T13:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Truck Day everyone. For those of you who don't know, today marks the beginning of the beginning of another glorious heart-wrenching Red Sox season. Will fortune take us soaring into a triumphant post season, like Jacoby Ellsbury scoring from second on a passed ball, or will it kick us in the proverbial pills where we, like Adrian Beltre, do not wear protection? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure: in the words of Dustin Pedroia

"That used to be a putting green, but we took that sh*t out cause I don't play golf."

A Little Random To Get Things Started

2010-02-11T12:56:00.000-08:00

UPDATE II: The problem mentioned below should now be fixed thanks to Greg.
UPDATE: Before you do anything, scroll down and pause the stupid video at the bottom. I don't know how to fix the fact that it starts automatically and it annoys the hell out of me.
I have a serious back log of albums which I'm listening to right now and I'm hoping to write reviews of the more recent releases, so I thought I'd do a little opening salvo to get myself into the swing of things.

First of all, I feel like I can tentatively say that my Bruins have turned a bit of corner. After going into an absolute tailspin of a 10-game losing streak they've put up two consecutive Ws with a decisive shut out of the hated Canadiens which they followed with a shoot-out win against Buffalo. If the B's can reel off a thrid win tonight against the upwardly mobile Tampa Bay Lightning, it will both legitimize this turn for the better, and put them back into playoff contention. Weirdly enough the rising star through all this has been the young goaltender Tukka Rask. Rask, if you'll recall, was one of my four young Bruins to watch back at the start of the season. This does raise some questions about how wise the contract extension given to Tim Thomas last year was, and perhaps this has fueled the "Tim Thomas' ass is grass" trade rumors that have leaked out lately. I like Thomas, and I wouldn't want to see him traded because as bad as it is for a player to have an off year right after the big contract, I would really miss moments like this:

For those of you who have been biding your time until I stop talking hockey, I'm done now. I have a couple of musical items to round out the program, the first of which is the band The Demonstration who have posted a pretty bizarre Lady Gaga cover on their myspace. You'll probably find it amusing if you like Lady Gaga and also if you really don't. Also, they're from North Carolina so that's pretty cool. Not like metalcore bands from the south are anything new, but I'd hate to miss a chance to rep NC.

And finally, a video from a band that will always have a soft spot in my heart going back to the truly awesome first Rock Against Bush comp: Strike Anywhere. Look beyond the hair on the singer and the weird spots of dead air in the video and this is SA doing what they do best, play vaguely political and inspiring hardcore punk and accompany it with vaguely political and inspiring videos. Enjoy and stay tuned for some serious reveiwage. Also made-up words.

Random Stuff III

2010-01-26T14:32:00.000-08:00

With his hair and beard all Jesus-ed up, John Nolan (formerly of Straylight Run and even more formerly of Taking Back Sunday) kinda looks like Tim Kasher (of Cursive fame, but you knew that):

compare to:

In other fun news, there's this story. I don't even have a clever remark to go there, it's just wonderful. Also you'd be suprised how few songs in my library are large predator related. Fun fact.

Straylight Run - The Tension and the Terror

Cursive - Tall Tales, Telltales

The Mountain Goats - Lions Teeth

Financial Support Goes Here

Straylight Run
Cursive (if you don't own this you should actually probably buy it. In my opinion, their best record, ever.
The Mountain Goats

Shame

2010-01-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

Citizens of Massachusetts: shame on you! You have failed all of us and it is a dark dark day. But to brighten to day for the rest of us, here's this little dude, thanks to Amanda Ferri:

SCIENCE FOR THE WIN

2010-01-12T19:14:00.001-08:00

This just in: Science kicks ass. That's right people Science with a capital 'S.' Science as an institution has long been towards the top of my list of "vague things of which I approve" (oh yeah that's a real list. also on it are 'Birds-and Beasts' as well as 'Organized Youth Sports') mostly for Science's work pissing off religious zealots and occasionally uncovering the wonders of the world in which we live. But now we can love Science for its impeccable taste in music. An article here which I was sent to from punknews.org, describes a newly discovered bird from the Cretaceous era (I'll take words I never thought I'd have to spell for a hundred Alex) which they describe as a sort of 'Screaming Roadrunner.' Just when you thought it couldn't get any cooler, they've named the bird after Lucero. As in, the band Lucero. But if you read the article, there's no explanation. None. Not even a "well the scientists were jamming out super hard to the band's most recent album as they were working on the dig" nothing. Everyone seems to think that this is completely reasonable which I think says good things about archiologists and again, Science in general.

Lucero - The Mountain

Financial Support Goes Here

Lucero

Songs to Blow Your Mind Pt. 8

2010-01-08T10:13:00.000-08:00

I'm back, and I figured to kick off a new year of blog-alation I should go with an old stand-by, the STBYM franchise, now in its seventh edition. Today's song is one I'd heard a while back, but it recently came up on shuffle, instantly got stuck in my head and I've been listening to it ever since. It's "Skate or Die" by a band named Teenage Bottle Rocket and it's exactly what pop-punk should be. I don't mean pop punk like Paramore or Green Day (not that there's too much wrong with that), I mean music that draws its influence from bands like MTX, The Queers and, if you peel away enough layers, eventually The Ramones. This song is short, fast, catchy-as-hell and just anti-establishment enough without being overbearing.

Teenage Bottlerocket - Skate or Die

In other news, I have a new found respect (just a little) for Keith Urban, who in his acceptance speech at the People's Choice Awards said he didn't care if people downloaded his album for free or gave it to their friends. To be fair he didn't have the chutzpah to add "because I'm married to Nicole Kidman so I could care less aboutthe pennies I make from music" but still, for those of you keeping score at home: Keith Urban - 1 Metallica - 0.

If you're wondering if that whole story was just so I could take a shot at Metallica, it's a distinct possibility.

Financial Support Goes Here

Teenage Bottlerocket

Paper Writing Break

2009-12-13T12:48:00.000-08:00

I'm currently in the midst of writing THE LONGEST PAPER OF MY CAREER. Oh wait. EXCEPT ONE!! Anyway, I'm taking a break from writing this paper, to post a couple cool links, sadly no music (though maybe I'll come back and fix that)

Tiny little houses, tiny little carbon feetprints

Like an Infinity Pool, but for fish

The Fenway Park Webcam - They are currently building the rink for the Winter Classic, where the Boston Bruins will play the Philadelphia Flyers outdoors at Fenway Park. The webcam allows you to watch the progress sort of live.

Random Stuff From the Web II

2009-11-22T18:43:00.000-08:00

Forgetters - A while back I was very excited about a new project from Jawbreaker's Blake Schwarzenbach. That band broke up without releasing an album. But now he's in another band with the original drummer from Against Me! and we are excited about this. They have a blog which I follow and if you like this you could as well. Also apparently Blake's not too solid on how this song begins.

Sea Shepherd gets the most badass boat in the history of ever - the blog Green Is The New Red had this article about a boat that the Sea Shepherd just got. It's essentially an aquatic batmobil. That's all I can say without quoting the article which is worth reading in its not-too-long entirety.

Jawbreaker - Shield Your Eyes ( the Bivouac version)

The Sidekicks - Go! Go! Go! Green! Green! Green! (Turns out finding songs to do with that second story was a lot harder than I predicted)

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Jawbreaker
The Sidekicks

Random Stuff From the Web (with only mildly related mp3's)

2009-11-12T20:18:00.000-08:00

The Electronic Book Burning - an essay on how the increased digitalization of books, whether it be via google books or the electronic reading device which I shall not name here, is having a negative effect on bookstores and the culture of books.

Perils of Positive Thinking - taken from here, it is an interview with author Barbara Ehrenreich where she talks about her book "Bright-Sided"

Stand By Me - many people may remember the video that made the rounds a couple months ago of numerous people across the globe playing together in a cover of this song. This isn't it. This is Lemmy Kilmister, lead singer and bassist of MOTORHEAD along with the drummer from Slayer. If someone feels like making an mp3 out of this let me know because I'd love it, but I'm to lazy to do the necessary work.

NOTE: If you enjoy seeing blog entries that are links to cool things someone has found on the internet, Sean Bonner does it pretty frequently and better than I (though with less mp3 goodness).

Turn the TV Off And Read A Book Please - Deny Everything (Electronic Book Burning)
American Errorist (I hate hate haters) - NOFX (Perils of Positive Thinking)
Train in Vain (Stand By Me) - The Clash (This one's pretty obvious isn't it?)

Financial Support Goes Here

Deny Everything
NOFX
The Clash

Race Day!!!!! Recap a.k.a. Keegan's Gloatfest

2009-11-07T22:37:00.000-08:00

Just to follow up on the last posting, this Breeder's Cup may have been my most successful day of watching horse racing ever. Of the 14 races this weekend, I picked 4 winners. They were: Man of Iron, in the Marathon; Midday, in the Filly and Mare Turf; Life is Sweet, in the Ladies Classic; and finally Conduit, in the Turf. Those of you with sharp memories will wonder what happened to my original pick for the Ladies Classic, Rainbow Veiw. And to those of you I will say that I decided not to back a horse on the outside with the first turn where it was in the course, but I did manage to change my pick on the NTRA website in time so they credited me with the win. For those of you with a mind toward numbers and economics, I did the math. If I had placed a 2 dollar bet on each of my choices, I would have finished the weekend with a profit of $66.80. Should I have gone hog wild and bet 5 dollars per race, this prize would have sky rocketed to $167. So we can add 'Professional Gambler" to teh list of possibilities on the old five year plan.

Race Day!!!!!

2009-11-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

Today is the first day of the Breeder's Cup Championship of Horse Racing. As I was explaining to someone last night this is one of my big holidays of the year. Here are my picks:

Marathon: Man of Iron
Juvenile Fillies Turf: Lillie Langtry
Juvenile Fillies: Devil May Care
Filly and Mare Turf: Midday
Filly and Mare Sprint: Sara Louise
Ladies' Classic: Rainbow Veiw
Juvenile Turf: Codoy
Turf Sprint: El Gato Malo
Sprint: Gayego
Juvenile: Alfred Nobel
Mile: Goldikova
Dirt Mile: Mastercraftsman
Turf: Conduit
Classic: Rip Van Winkle

I haven't been following racing very closely, so especially in the early races, I mostly went by odds and jockeys. And in the latter half of the races I appeared to let nation of origin rule my choices since my last five picks are all Irish. This is of course in part based on my sole theory of betting which is 'never bet American in the turf classic.' Enjoy race day (weekend).

A Tribute To Our Nation's Aquatic Armed Forces

2009-10-28T17:22:00.001-07:00

Courtesy of Craig Ferguson the greatest of all late night talk show hosts. Also, maybe get on this one early kids because I can't imagine CBS just leaving this up for very long.

Montreal Expos Rule!

2009-10-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

Before there was an awful baseball team called the Washington Nationals, there was a slightly less awful team called the Montreal Expos. They were pretty near and dear to my heart because they're minor league team played in Burlington, Vt. This is however not a really a post about sports. It's really just an introduction to this video by the Montreal metalcore band Desposed Icon. And the only reason I'm posting the video is because both lead singers are wearing flat-brimmed Montreal Expos hats. And that's awesome. Also, since when do guys in metalcore bands dress like they're in a rap video?

DESPISED ICON - Day Of Mourning (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

Despised Icon - Furtive Monologue (I know it's not the song from the video but it's the only song by them i even come close to liking. Because it has whistling)

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Despised Icon

Boston Sports Changeover

2009-10-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

With the Red Sox limping into the post-season with a playing style that is anything but promising, I'm very excited about the first game of the Boston Bruins season being tonight. While the guys didn't really play to their potential in the post-season last year (they really seemed to have what it took to go all the way before getting handled by the hurricanes), this year looks like it should be exciting in that we might have a chance to see some young stars in Boston start coming into their own just as Milan Lucic did last year. First of all, we have lost a player I held in fairly high regard; Phil Kessel. I considered Kessel's speed to be an excellent weapon in the Bruin's offensive arsenal. My uncle, who knows more about Hockey than I do, says that the NHL is moving away from speed and more towards size and aggression (think Lucic or Alex Ovechkin). We can all remember two years ago when Kessel was benched for a few games in the post-season series with the Montreal Canadiens for lack of aggressive play, so perhaps this is not as big a loss as I think. It should also be noted that Boston received two first round and a second round draft picks from Toronto in exchange for Kessel, so hopefully this move will enable us to strengthen our system for years to come.

And speaking of the future, here are the four young Bruins players that I think have the potential to establish themselves as rising stars this season, from oldest to youngest:
Byron Bitz - The 25-year old Right-Winger from Saskatoon was the Bruins 4th round draft pick in 2003. He's got the size to not get pushed around on the ice and he aquitted himself fairly well in the postseason last year, picking up a goal and an assist in the only game he played. Paired with the right Center he could do some impressive things this year, either finishing drives at the net or feeding a shooter.
Matt Hunwick - The 24-year old Michigan Defenseman was drafted in the 7th round by the Bruins in 2004 and has played in parts of the last two seasons. He saw increased action last year with injuries to several Boston defenders. With Aaron Ward's departure to the Carolina Hurricanes (another player I will sorely miss) Hunwick will probably see a great deal more ice time and will have a chance to show that previous successes were not a fluke and can be reproduced.
Blake Wheeler - At 6'5", 205 lbs this Minnesota-born right winger is a big guy and I believe has the biggest chance to make it big this year. He was first-round draft pick for the Coyotes in 2004 and he played like it last year, putting together a decent run at rookie of the year. He is a competent skater and is too big to be run off a puck he goes where he wants to and he can make others go where he wants them to. He essentially started for the Bruins last year and given his performance, I can't see anything changing this year.
Tuukka Rask - 22-year old Fin, Tuukka Rask is my youngest pick, the only non-North American and the only goalie. He was Toronto's first-round draft pick in '05 and he's been doing quite well in Providence. Now that the Bruins have cut-away the anchor that was Manny Fernandes and his salary, Rask looks to have a garuanteed spot backing the pride of UVM, Tim Thomas. With Thomas slated to play for the US Olympic Team, Rask should get plenty of starts for the Bruins. A final note on Rask, headcase-wise he should make an excellent back up to the occasionally pugilistic Thomas, if his performance last march is anything to go by.

So there you go and here's hoping the B's have another great season.

Born To Play - Dustin Pedroia

2009-09-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

At some point this summer I read Dustin Pedroia's book Born To Play, My Life In The Game and I thought "I should review this for the old blog. Now I'm not going to write too much because to be honest it wasn't that great a book. It was exactly what you would expect it to be: ghost-written, mostly stuff you already knew if you have an above average interest in the Boston Red Sox, with the occasional interesting tidbit thrown in here and there. The stuff about him growing up, mostly his time in high school and college was pretty good, and occasionally he had some insight to offer on some of the other beloved Sox players (the scene where Jon Lester finds out that he has cancer is especially poignant). If you really like the Red Sox, then you'll probably enjoy reading this book. If you don't like the Red Sox, then I can almost guarantee that you won't at all.

Now Greg over at Confounded Fret Buzz already posted the now infamous MLB The Show commercial, so I thought I'd post another of my favorite Pedroia commercials:

The Dropkick Murphys - Tessie

LaGrecia - You Like Baseball I Like Ghosts

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The Dropkick Murphys
LaGrecia

Much thanks to College Humor

2009-08-22T19:37:00.000-07:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

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Daft Punk

File Under: Stuff I Happen Upon While Surfing the Net

2009-07-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

Whenever 'artists' like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, or bands like Dream Theater come up in conversation (and you be surprised how often that is) I always say that my problem with such "virtuosos" is that as impressive as it is that they can play however many notes a second and in 65/19 time its boring. Its not music, its just a dexterity exhibition. Now fast-forward to today when I'm reading an article about the beginnings of Mtv. As everyone knows the first video played on Mtv was the Buggles 'Video Killed the Radio Star' but did you know that the first video played on Mtv in Europe was Dire Straits' 'Money For Nothing.' First I went and watched that video, but then I began watching more and that led me to this little gem. I believe that this is simply Mark Knopfler with backing band and not actually Dire Straits. Note how, while Knopfler plays incredibly intricate guitar parts, they are all as tasteful as you could possibly want. No lead riff distracts from the rest of the song, no solo goes on a second too long, and even the classical instrumental section at the end of the video fits perfectly and doesn't overstay its welcome. It's an incredibly dynamic little jam section.

Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing

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Dire Straits

Jenny Lewis vs. Everybody - Round II

2009-07-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

A while ago I made a post in which I mentioned Neko Case (here). This led to a discussion in the comments, fueled by my fellow blogger Greg, about Neko Case's beauty and in particular how it compared to Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley. It was eventually decided that Jenny Lewis won. Now there is a new challenger to the throne; Alison Mosshart of the bands Discount, The Kills, and most recently, the Dead Weather. The format of will be as follows: live photos, staged photos, video, and finally music from each. As reigning indie-queen, Jenny Lewis will lead off in each category.

Rilo Kiley - A Better Son/Daughter

Rilo Kiley - Does He Love You?

Discount - On The Counter

The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful

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Rilo Kiley
Discount
The Kills

Songs to Blow Your Mind Pt. 7

2009-07-21T17:26:00.000-07:00

I'm really on a tear with these songs with female vocals. This song gets stuck in my head every time I listen to it.

Tegan and Sara- The Con

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Tegan and Sara

This movie is going to be awesome.

2009-07-17T21:20:00.000-07:00

Between being about roller derby's and starring Ellen Page (From X-men not Juno) and it appears Alia Shawkat (from the best television show ever made) this movie looks awesome. Course I've been wrong before. It just doesn't happen much. Like, ever.

Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl

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Bikini Kill

When it's time to party....

2009-07-16T23:26:00.000-07:00

Its been quite a little while since we took a look at Keegan's blog reader, and today seems as good a day as any to remedy that. Today's blog is one I discovered while attempting to find out more about this video:

mostly because it looked like the coolest place ever. Further looking took me to the blog of the girl who had posted the video. About once a week, she posts a link to something I find fairly amusing such as the Sexy People Blog. And recently she posted this:

Andrew W.K. - She is Beautiful

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Andrew W.K.

A Dark Day

2009-07-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

Hey Keegan, why do you get really grumpy when bands you like move to Major labels? Oh I don't know, everyone ever, maybe because major labels do stuff like this:

Punknews has informed me that EMI Group has begun informing small independent record stores that they will no longer be sending them new product. Because clearly the way to save the music industry is to only sell your cds in places frequented by music fans, like, you know, Walmart. I'm not going to say too much more about this lest I slip and spew bile and hatred across my keyboard but in closing, here is the list of bands you should no longer feel any compunction about downloading illegally (chalk that up to things I can say because no one really reads this).

Broken Social Scene - Major Label Debut

The Yarbles - Labels

Rise Against - Sometimes Selling Out is Giving Up (bit of irony there)

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Broken Social Scene
The Yarbles Old band from my youth in Vermont, this was the best I could do
Rise Against

Review: Lemuria - Get Better

2009-07-10T11:51:00.000-07:00

A while ago I got my hands on the most recent album by the Buffalo, NY indie/punk (Wikipedia's words not mine) outfit Lemuria. If you'll recall, it was at around this time that I began seriously rethinking my ban on female fronted bands and this album had a huge amount to do with it. This was one of those albums where at first I really just liked the opening track, the soaring love song, Pants. But as I gave the rest of the album more of my attention I realized that I liked almost every song on the album.

It's tempting to call it straight ahead boy-girl vocals pop punk (the good kind), but with a little something extra whether that's the male harmony vocal on Buzz, the gender-bending lyricism on Lipstick or the poignant narrative of Wardrobe (can you tell I really like this album?). I would recommend this album for fans of The Smoking Popes, The Unlovables, and maybe the Mr. T Experience (but without quite so much whimsy). And yeah I threw The Unlovables in there partly because they have a female lead singer, but at least I didn't do one of those FFO lists like "Rilo Kiley, Rainer Maria, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Metric." Because I hate those.

Lemuria - Pants
Lemuria - Lipstick
Lemuria - Buzz

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Lemuria

Songs to Blow Your Mind Pt. 5

2009-07-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying that I am not a huge fan of Bob Marley and the Wailers (for one thing this is a Peter Tosh number). Nor am I that huge a fan of reggae in general. But good is good and I have had this song stuck in my head for days now. To me, this song has a lot of 60's Soul sound to it rather than straight ahead irie dub vibes.

Bob Marley and the Wailers - Stop That Train

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Bob Marley and the Wailers

Clash Tuesday

2009-06-30T10:12:00.001-07:00

Look at this and then listen to these:

The Clash - London Calling

The Clash - Train in Vain (Stand By Me)

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The Clash

THE MAN WALL

2009-06-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

This is horrifically unnecessary.

Bo Diddley - I'm A Man

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Bo Diddley

SSP (Short Second Post)

2009-06-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

Two post day today. Paste Magazine has apparently created a children's alphabet book with indie rock bands and while a few of the band choices I don't really agree with (cough cough Pearl Jams sucks and was never good cough) I felt like it would be fun to link to and then provide a few mp3s for. Lotta music today. Also, not the pretty good shots they take at Weezer and Vampire.

Belle and Sebastian - Me and the Major

The Hold Steady - Ask Her For Adderall

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

Tom Waits - Tom Traubert's Blues

Weezer - The Good Life

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Belle and Sebastian
The Hold Steady
Joy Division
Tom Waits
Weezer

My Apartment Burned Down (a mix)

2009-06-03T10:39:00.000-07:00

So the apartment that I was going to move into with Sean, Greg and Adam got set on fire and burned. It now appears that we have another apartment to move into and everything is going to be alright, so I thought now would be a good time to post a few fire related songs. Also, Adam has written a concept album about the fire that I haven't been able to listen to yet, but I'm told it is quite good.

Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire (kind had to didn't I?)

Braid - Fire Makes the House Grow

Jawbreaker - Fireman

Smoke or Fire - California's Burning

The Weakerthans - This is a Fire Door Never Leave Open

Talking Heads - Burning Down the House

The Blood Brothers - Burn, Piano Island, Burn

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Billy Joel
Braid
Jawbreaker
Smoke or Fire
The Weakerthans
Talking Heads
The Blood Brothers

Show Reveiw: Britney's Spear at Radio Bean

2009-05-25T11:49:00.001-07:00

Last night, I headed to Burlington to see a band from Clark oddly enough. I've been meaning to write about Britney's Spear and their EP for some time now and now I can write about their show. The show started with one of the band's guitarists, Tom Hamill playing his brand of atmospheric, layered solo guitar work. I've seen Tom play a couple of times before, and it seemed to me that he's stepped up his solo performances. He rocked out a lot more and seemed to enjoy what he was playing. If you were to ask me out of hand whether or not I liked that genre of music I would probably say no, but I really enjoy what Tom does. It is alternately soothing and agressive. Sometimes it seems to swirl around you as he builds layer upon layer of effect-laden melodies and other times he loops an aggressive riff and adds intricate lead work over the top of it. He played five or six songs and at the conclusion, those in attendance clapped appreciatively for the calm before the storm as Alan Grunberg and Zach Schnitzer joined him on stage to complete the line-up.

Watching Britney's Spear live, is like watching punk get born again. Sonically it is absolute chaos. I've been describing it to people as Black Flag covering the Stooges, but it's so much more than that. For every minute that is 8-cylinder, loud fast rules hardcore, there's two minutes that nod more towards Hamill's more complex solo work. These guys are deeper than your daddy's punk band and they just keep getting better live. They were a little louder than the crowd at Radio Bean was prepared for and the bartender was handing out ear plugs. By the end of the set, my friend Matt and I were the only ones still in the building but a crowd had gathered on the sidewalk outside watching through the windows. Even with the crowd thin, Britney's Spear would not be denied. They crushed their way through a set which included the songs from their self-titled EP as well as a few new songs. The new songs show more potential than a AAA hitter with 50 home runs, especially their recently written set closer "Face Fuck the Police" which ended with Alan screaming sex talk into a mic, before sticking it into his mouth and writhing around while his guitar screamed feedback.

Its scary to think that Britney's Spear is less than a year old and has already reached this level. The songs are face-melting, the swagger is for real, and self-conscious posturing is non-existent. Never has punk-as-fuck seemed so effortless.

Tom Hamill - If You Were Real

Britney's Spear - Into The Neighborhood

Britney's Spear - Old Wolves Tale

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I honestly don't know how you can buy the albums other than contacting them through their myspaces here and here.

Blake Schwarzenbach-y Goodness - scratch that - AWESOMENESS GET EXCITED PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!

2009-05-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

Sean Bonner has some pretty awesome rumors about Thorns of Life's upcoming album over at his (pretty cool) blog. He also shot that video apparently.

Jawbreaker - Chesterfield King

Jets to Brazil - Mid-day Anonymous

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Jawbreaker
Jets to Brazil

Sheep. That is all.

2009-05-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

The Tiger Lillies - Sheep

Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy

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The Tiger Lillies
Okkervil River

Books into movies news

2009-05-12T09:42:00.000-07:00

The San Fransisco Chronicle today has an article discussing the 2011 release of the movie based on the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis. It will be directed by Steven Soderbergh and will star Brad Pitt as Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Bean. It was a great book, but I'm not a hundred percent sure I see how it will translate well into a movie. On a final awesome note, apparently former Boston Red Sox backstop Scott Hatteberg has been brought in to portrtay himself which for my money is all the movie needed to make it worth seeing.

In a second, suprisingly related news item, punknews.org has informed me that deals are being struck to make a movie out of Frank Portman's book King Dork. Now King Dork was actually a pretty good book on its own, but what makes this even more exciting (and what got it on punknews) is that Frank Portman is Dr. Frank from San Fransisco punk band The Mr. T Experience. This also means that both these stories were in some way San Fransisco connected which gives me more ideas for songs to post with them.

The Mr. T Experience - King Dork (To be honest not one of my favorite songs by them but I felt like I had to)

The Magnetic Fields - Come Back From San Fransisco

Jawbreaker - Condition Oakland (So effing excited to get to post JAWBREAKER aka GREATEST BAND EVER)

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The Mr. T Experience
The Magnetic Fields
Jawbreaker

I Fear For My Bruins

2009-05-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

With a little more than 10 minutes left in the game its beginning to look as though the Boston Bruins will fall to 1-3 in the series with the Carolina Hurricanes. I realize I should be keeping up the faith, but when I can't watch them on TV I only assume the worst. I was a bit perturbed to see that Steve Montador had taken a penalty just when we needed to swing the momentum our way. Well done Steve, you clown doctor. In other news, at last check the Celtics were getting stomped, but at least the Red Sox are currently winning. Jason Bay is a clutch, three run homer hitting machine, I don't care what Around The Majors says (below average fielder my ass).

Dropkick Murphys - Time To Go

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Dropkick Murphys

Songs to Blow Your Mind Pt. 4

2009-04-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

Today's 'Song to Blow Your Mind' is more of an 'Artist to Blow Your Mind' but this is no time to split hairs. Today's artist Austin Lucas rose to my attention mostly through his being on the Revival Tour with such punk rockers turned troubadours as Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Ben Nichols (Lucero) and Tim Barry (Avail). This kid can do it all. He's got a great voice, he's a solid guitar player and he writes fantastic lyrics. The first song of his that really caught my attention was "There's Always Someone Tougher and Meaner" off of his album Putting The Hammer Down, but then I saw the video for "Go West" and I'd have to say it has won out to be the official Song to Blow Your Mind.

Austin Lucas - There's Always Someone Tougher and Meaner
Austin Lucas - Go West

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Austin Lucas

Attention Pizza Sellers of Worcester!!!!

2009-04-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

Use of this product definitely sway me towards using a pizza place. Just sayin'.

File Under 'Rumors We Hope to God Come to Fruition'

2009-04-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

PunkNews.org reports that Seattle music blog Ear Candy reports that there are rumblings about an original lineup reunion of Sunny Day Real Estate. The rumor is that they are rehearsing and planning on touring. This is of course simply a rumor but it's totally enough to warrant some Sunny Day songs.

Sunny Day Real Estate - Seven
Sunny Day Real Estate - In Circles

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Sunny Day Real Estate

Non-Hetero-Centric Post

2009-04-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, I bought two records by the band Latterman. One of my favorite parts about the accompanying lyrical materials was a short note by the band apologizing for the fact that one of the songs was less than relevant for non-heterosexual listeners. That's my weak ass intro for today's post which will feature items of a homosexual theme. First off I'm a little late in declaring this, but I'm proud of my state being the first to legalize gay marriage via legislation, especially since we got to tell our governor Jim Douglas where he could stick his veto.

But for the most part I wrote this post because Newsweek did an article about Pansy Division who is apparently putting out a new album. Newsweek apparently saw a perfect opportunity to do a little gay rights, Prop 8 tie-in with this story while I see it mostly as an excuse to post an Pansy Division song.

Final note: I think it's hilarious when mainstream media talks about punk bands because they lose all authority. Punk is a scary foreign concept that they've certainly heard of, but they were pretty sure it died in the late 70's before being resurrected by such punk stalwarts as Green Day and Good Charlotte with the distaff being brought by Avril Lavigne and Gwen Stefani.

Pansy Division - Cowboys are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other

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Pansy Division

HEAVY WEIGHTS

2009-04-05T16:51:00.000-07:00

Suicidal Tendencies may be pound for pound the largest band ever, narrowly beating out Bowling for Soup.

I would encourage everybody to head over to youtube and watch the video for 1985 by Bowling for Soup if you didn't understand why I think they got second.

AK Press Blog is making me a better human being / Songs to Blow Your Mind 3

2009-04-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

I don't remember how it happened but a while ago I happened upon the website for AK Press, a publisher and distributor specializing in radical and anarchist materials. While browsing their website I discovered that they have a blog called Revolution By The Book. For the most part I really like this blog because I gives me ideas for books I might like to read and every once in a while it has a pretty good interview worth reading. However, what inspired me to feature in a blog post was the recent article posted on the blog called Dancing with The Devil about the concept of an anarchist business and the problems that come with the contradiction of an anarchist business. Though a tad long, the article is well thought out and extremely articulate and I think the points made in it can be enlarged to deal with the problems of trying to compromise anarchist ideals with everyday living.

Now I want you to know that I thought about just posting a couple of Anarchy themed songs and calling it a day on that. I even had a few cued up and ready to go but instead I thought this would be a good chance to post a song I've been pretty taken with for a while and make this another installment of Songs to Blow Your Mind. So without further fanfare, Avail's Black and Red.

Avail - Black and Red

Financial Support Goes Here (I'm aware of the irony)

Avail

A Classic

2009-04-03T13:53:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm not going to say anything clever (which some might say doesn't change anything) we're all just going to sit back and enjoy a great live performance.

Otis Redding - I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)

Financial Support Goes Here

Otis Redding

I HATE APRIL FOOLS DAY!!!!!!

2009-04-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

I hate April fools day. For one thing, I don't really know how to punctuate it. Does 'fools' have an apostrophe? Does the day belong to the fool who is the official fool of the month of April, the fool laureate if you will? Or do I leave out the apostrophe making this the day named for the many fools of April, the fools being many but not necessarily in possession of the day itself.

Besides grammar/punctuation worries, I dislike the day because you can't trust anything that seems too good to be true. So many news sources you'd like to be able to trust 365 goddamn days out of the year think it's a laugh riot to print the first pack of lies that comes into their heads (Boston Dirt Dogs I'm looking at you, I was so happy for Bill Lee there for a second).

All this means that I have no way of knowing whether or not to believe reports that as the result of a lost bet, Rise Against will be releasing an original 7" with their old label Fat Wreck Chords. Honestly I'm mostly excited about this because it's nice to see the Tim and co. breaking away from the increasingly rigid role of major label roster membership. I'm not going to bore you with my thoughts on "selling out" (the fact that I put it in quotes should be enough to show you I'm at least conflicted) but suffice it to say this news made me happy. If only I could be sure it was true.

Man-Sports Talk

2009-03-29T18:15:00.000-07:00

Tim Thomas is to goal tending and ass kicking what William Shakespeare was to writing plays and making new words: Kinda Good.

In other news, if you are a hockey fan in Philly I have terrible news for you: just because you'd like something to be called a penalty, doesn't mean that it actually was a penalty. The more you scream the less you matter. Seriously, that's basic calculus. Or whatever.

Songs to Blow Your Mind Pt. 2

2009-03-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

For the second installment of STBYM I'm going to backtrack a bit and feature a song I was quite taken with about a month ago. I don't listen to it as much now but I play it by myself a great deal because it's pretty simple to play. The song is 'Our Life Is Not A Movie or Maybe' by the band Okkervil River. Lead singer and lyricist Will Sheff is a phenomenal storyteller and this song is an excellent example of his skills on display.

Okkervil River - Our Life Is Not A Movie or Maybe

Financial Support Goes Here

Okkervil River

A Bit of Video

2009-03-27T18:50:00.000-07:00

I am frequently provided with material for this blog by Punknews.org. I have a feed of all their updates in my blog reader and mostly I look for interesting videos and covers and the occasional news that a band I like has broken up. Sometimes I get Thorns of Life news (one of the few current bands who's happenings I care to actually follow). Because it's just a news site, I don't have that much else to say about it, so I figured that instead I would post a few videos I recently found while traversing the site.

The first video is for a song called We Are Wild Stallions by the band The Riot Before. I was kinda suprised to find that I actually had a couple of songs by this band (including this one). I think I got them off a comp for The Fest. I hadn't given them a lot of thought until I watched this video, but wow. This is a good video for a really solid song. No frills, straight-ahead, Richmond VA, punk rock.

The Riot Before - "We Are Wild Stallions!" from Dave O'Dell on Vimeo.

The second video is for the British hardcore band Gallows. I've always kinda liked these guys from the screaming in a British accent to the diminutive, heavily tattooed lead singer. I guess this song is off their new album, it's called The Vulture (Part II) and I should warn you, the video is a tad graphic in terms of violence and gore. But if you can stand it, I think it's a great song. Compared to their first album, it strikes me as a little bit heavier or at least it hints at more of a Converge-esque edge (especially the intro part) and the breakdown kicks somethin' fierce. (NOTE even more than the gore I apologize for the stupid ad I'm sure Mtv will put at the beginning of this video. I looked everywhere for another version but to no Avail. (Get it? Avail? The Riot Before's from VA? ah nevermind)).

Gallows - Vulture (Dirty Version)

The Riot Before - We Are Wild Stallions

Gallows - In the Belly of a Shark (I don't have a copy of the new album and this is one of the songs off the first album I liked)

Financial Support Goes Here

The Riot Before
Gallows

A Little (Recent) History

2009-03-26T16:40:00.001-07:00

This week marks the 4 year anniversary of The Decemberists' decision to bypass the Mtv/Vh1 apparatus and release the video for their single '16 Military Wives' via BitTorrent. The video is downloaded almost 2,000 times in the first week. I should note that it was Musician's Friend's newsletter that brought this factoid to my attention.

The Decemberists - 16 Military Wives

Financial Support Goes Here

KillRockStars

A Taste of My Blog Reader

2009-03-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

I've already told you about one of the podcasts I listen to so in the interest of equal time, it is now time for me to promote/recommend/discuss one of the sites I subscribe to via my blog reader. I must confess however, I'm going to cheat a little on this one because I'm not really going to be talking about a blog. Instead I figured the first link I should take from my blog reader should be for Questionable Content. This 'indie web comic' by Jeph Jacques (who I swear to god I saw at a Weakerthans show once) is the only web comic that has held my interest enough for me to keep up with it fairly religiously. NN2S doesn't count because Mitch never updates it (Mitch if you're reading this that was in no way a shot at you, you just keep being awesome at your own pace dude, I understand). But yeah, QC is one of those comics about 20-somethings that makes me think maybe having my life suck as a 20-something won't suck that much, dead end jobs and weekend bands here I come!!!

Anyhoo, try as I might I could find nothing in my music library that could be linked to QC in anyway (searches for "web" and "comic/cartoon" got me weirdness and nothing respectively). Instead I am going to function under the assumption that I did in fact see our illustrious cartoonist at a Weakerthans show and post a Weakerthans song that I've been listening to a lot lately. You should know, dear reader, that I gave a lot of thought to posting 'Anchorless' but to be honest I like the Propagandhi version better (-gasp- I know!!!!).

The Weakerthans - One Great City!

Financial Support Goes Here

The Weakerthans

Some movies and the end of an era

2009-03-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

Greg over at Confounded Fret Buzz has a penchant for writing the occasional Boston Red Sox post, so I thought I'd sneak one in before him about this. Curt Schilling, blogger, conservative wind-bag and post-season pitcher extraordinaire has decided to hang up the old cleats once and for all. Though, given his admiration for Roger Clemens, it could be argued that we have another 3 or 4 partial seasons of Schil to look forward to. I don't actually think that will happen because Curt a. loves his own reputation too much to tarnish it, and b. won't do the steroids and human growth hormone required to make such a comeback. We Boston fans will always have the bloody sock to remember him by and Phillies and D-Backs fans will always have memories of him when he was young and good. Orioles fans will always be able to say "We had Curt Schilling? When was this?" Well actually if the Orioles had fans, then that's what they would say. But they don't so they stay quiet (Yeah I said it, come get some).

Anyhoo... I had a marathon weekend of watching movies. I watched Run, Fat Boy, Run with Simon Pegg; Room Service with The Marx Brothers and all but the last 12 minutes of The Great Escape starring none other but Steve McQueen. Let me tell you, The Great Escape is one long-ass movie, weighing in at a whopping 172 minutes (that's 8 minutes short of 3 hours for those of you dodgy on the whole math thing). Then, with less than 15 minutes to go in the movie, everything over but the crying, the dvd freezes and refuses to play any more. I try everything I can but to no avail. So now I have to wait like 3 days to see the last 12 minutes of this stupid movie. Other than that it was really good movie. Steve is kind of the typical American surrounded by Brits. He's a baseball loving cowboy type who doesn't want to plan ahead, he's just working on a wing an a prayer. Charles Bronson plays an RAF officer who's thick Polish accent was never fully explained to me (a quick wikipedia scan tells me he defected).

The other two movies were pretty much exactly what I would have expected, great comedic actors being brought down a little bit by their circumstances. In Run,Fat Boy, Run Simon Pegg and Dylan Moran are held back a bit by the more bankable romantic comedy genre and, I like to think, by having that ass-clown David Schwimmer directing. Room Service is kinda on the low end in terms of Marx Brother's movies, probably because it wasn't written for them. Also I thought that they didn't really get a whole lot of use out of Lucille Ball. Her character could have easily been played by anyone else and I also missed Margaret Dumont the usual female lead in Marx Brothers films.

I leave you now with a song for each news item:

Curt - Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline
Great Escape - Underoath - Some Will Seek Forgiveness, Others Escape
Run, Fat Boy, Run - The Falcon - When I Give the Signal, Run!
Room Service - Death Cab For Cutie - Brothers on a Hotel Bed

Financial Support Goes Here
Neil Diamond
Underoath
The Falcon
Death Cab For Cutie

A little tidbit

2009-03-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

Musician's Friend's 'Week in Review' article reports that this week in 2007
"Elsrock, an outdoor heavy-metal rock festival, is given conditional approval to put on its show outside the town of Rijssen, located in the Netherlands’ Bible Belt … the proviso is that there can be no cursing or blasphemy … the 2006 version of the festival had outraged residents … in explaining why the permit was granted, Mayor Bort Koelewijn cites 'the stated readiness of the organizers to make sure that no blasphemous words are used, and that the honor of God's name is not besmirched.'"
First of all, the Netherlands has a 'Bible Belt?' When did this happen and how do they have room? Second, I'm very impressed that the organizers of this event were able to agree to this with a straight face. "Yeah sure, no one playing our Metal Festival will use foul language and blaspheme" that's going to happen. And yes, this post was just an excuse to post some metal.

Slayer - South of Heaven

Pantera - Fucking Hostile

Gwar - Sexicutioner

Blades Jackalfiend - Jerk Friends

Amon Amarth - Vahalla Awaits Me

Financial Support Goes Here
Slayer
Pantera
Gwar
Blades Jackalfiend
Amon Amarth

Songs to Blow Your Mind Pt. 1

2009-03-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm posting mp3s here at The Chesterfield King, I think I'm going to start a little feature which I will call "Songs to Blow Your Mind" (You'd figured that out already hadn't you?). Every so often I will get really into a song for a while and I listen to it a bunch, look up the lyrics, try to play it, whole deal. Now, in addition to all that nonsense, I will post the song of my fancy here, often along with a video. I'm not going to justify it though. So suck it.

The inaugural song to blow your mind is I'll Make You Mine by Rainer Maria (possibly the coolest band to be named after a German poet-philosopher narrowly edging out The Schlegels).

Rainer Maria - I'll Make You Mine

Financial support goes here.

Hair = Short

2009-03-16T18:04:00.001-07:00

If this were a decent mp3 blog, I would post that Pavement song about cutting my hair. But it's not, so I won't. As you've probably guessed by now, I cut all my hair off as part of a crazy weekend of traveling about the Commonwealth. I also grew a pretty bitchin' mustache in case I decide to begin a career in Highway Patrolling (Cue Bruce Springsteen mp3 link). I should probably clarify that I didn't grow the mustache this weekend, I just shaved off the rest of my facial hair leaving said mustache. I should also note that this mustaching was originally the idea of my guitar playing counterpart Greg (blog link go here). I mention him because I feel bad for busting his balls about it earlier and I wish to make recompense for this.

You may be thinking one of two things at this point. Either you are thinking "Recompense, huh? That's an impressively large word. This Keegan must be a man of masterful vocabulary" or you are thinking "Recompense, huh? I don't think he used that word correctly. This Keegan must be a pompous ass and a foul-mouthed one at that." Well, you could be right on both counts (he said, being both coy and self deprecating) but it leads me perfectly to the other two things I have to blog about (Told you I was going to work on my transitions).

First of these two, a little less than a month ago I said in a post that I was going to start talking about the podcasts I listen to and the blogs I read. Today feels like as good a time as any to start. The first podcast I'm going to discuss is a fairly simple one. It's the Miriam-Webster's Word of the Day podcast (now you see why 'recompense' was a lead in). You can find it here. It's pretty self explanatory. Every day, even weekends, they send me a word along with its pronunciation and definition as well as its etymology and an example of how to use it in a sentence. As an added bonus, the guy who does the podcast has a truly calming voice. If for some reason you have been horribly traumatized and need to be calmed, this is the podcast for you.

The final thing I wanted to talk about in conjunction to this podcast, is that I want to start posting new words I've learned on this blog. This may be opening myself up to some indie-snob-styled ridicule (You don't know that word? How do you not know that word?) but I feel like it could also be delightfully informative for all of us. That's all for now, but be on the look out for more blog/podcast recommendations as well some serious vocabulary boosting in the days and weeks to come!!

*Edit* I have, with a great deal of help and coaching from Greg, taken the big step toward being an actual mp3 blog. Which means that I will now be posting the two songs I said I would post earlier. Happy Happy.

Pavement - Cut Your Hair

Bruce Springsteen - Highway Patrolman

These songs can be bought and the artists who recorded them properly compensated financially here and here respectively

The Andes Mountains run from the Bolivian border to Tierra del Fuego

2009-03-09T10:33:00.001-07:00

spread the word

Slow News Day

2009-03-08T22:08:00.000-07:00

The World Baseball Classic can really eat up your day. In other news, I finally have a car here in Worcester, so I can start looking for a job like it's, well, my job. I feel like "In other news" is my most used phrase on this blog (note to self: work on transitions). Also, my miniature golf game is currently the best it has ever been. I say this with no official criteria for deciding that it's true. You'll just have to take my word for it. Both of you.

My girlfriend just told me "I love you" in Klingon

2009-03-03T18:50:00.000-08:00

First off, in reference to the Neko Case debate from yesterday, I have just been informed by my remarkably hip and indie-informed parents that she is moving to Vermont, so I will be awarding her extra points for accessibility. Jenny Lewis however remains in the lead owing primarily to Michelle Nolan's dropping off my radar in a big way.

In other news, IGN (dunno what that stands for) have released a list of "10 Must Hear Hardcore Bands." I quite liked their list of top 10 punk drummers but I was less impressed by this one. I would have appreciated a little more warning that it was in fact a list of up-and-coming hardcore bands, because when I think 'must hear' I think, well, 'must hear' not 'could someday be 'must hear.'' But other than that I enjoyed it (enough even to repost it here!!!). Good to see some smaller hardcore bands getting solid exposure.

Finally, in more cringe-worthy news: A cd of anime actresses singing punk classics is being released and PunkNews hooked its readers up with a link to a preveiw of it and it is just as awful as you would assume. Somehow it's like Alvin and the Chipmunks after being force fed gallon after gallon of high fructose corn syrup (WHICH IS NOT FINE IN MODERATION GOD DAMNIT I HATE THOSE ADS). So for those of you who haven't ground a millimeter or so off your teeth today here's the preveiw:

Final note: I am without a positive or negative opinion regarding the statement which constitutes the title of this post.

A Quick One (While He's Away)

2009-03-02T08:56:00.000-08:00

I can't tell if Neko Case is pretty or not and since she has a new album coming out that everyone and their brother is plugging, this is a quandary that comes up relatively frequently for me.

Also, how is it that the Adicts are playing two shows each in Sao Paulo and Bielefeld - Germany, but only three shows total in the U.S. and all of those are in California? I am irked. Cali punks getting all the old schoolie goodness.

And finally for everyone that the recession has a little down, the boys over at Gizmo Groove have the perfect pick-me-up for you.

Oh yes, that is gold and those are diamonds. Especially the 6.6 carat sucker in the middle. I can't wait for someone to leave this in a taxi.

A More Positive Entry

2009-02-23T13:57:00.000-08:00

I feel kinda bad that the post I left my blog with for so long was the one in which I ripped into a band for their video. Regardless of my opinion they are at least talented enough to be in the position of getting to make videos for their song and this is a position I envy. In retrospect I feel a bit like an ass for my negativity (which is not to say that I take any of it back, cause I mean, come on!).
On a more positive note, Dana and I got Chinese food last night and watched the collegehumor show's third episode last night. It was pretty close to a return to form from the first episode, which I thought was great. I liked the second episode less mostly because I kept feeling really sorry for Sarah Schneider.
I think I'm going to start doing posts on other blogs and podcasts that I like. If you know me, you know that I have a ton of podcasts and that I check my blog reader several times a day. Now you readers of my blog (both of you) can have a peek into some of the blogs and podcasts that make update to my blog reader and my non-brand-affiliated music/media player. Look for that to begin soon.

This is awful

2009-01-21T20:05:00.000-08:00

For someone who believes in the importance of community in music as much as I do, I sure do a lot of shit-talking. That said, when Punknews.com brought the existence of this video to my attention I realized that I really wanted to do a post on it.

I don't know exactly what about this bothers me so much. I think I could start by pointing out how blatant a rip-off of New Found Glory this is. Starting with the lead singer, who's voice seems to be calculated to mesh perfectly with that of a 14 year old girl, it progresses through the bros-before-hos lyrical content reminiscent of "My Friends Over You" and layers it all over the sort of bubblegum hardcore riffs and drums that NFG and later Fallout Boy would build their careers upon. Even the promising (to me) gang vocal lead-in to the (albeit cookie-cutter) break down got ruined by the falsetto garbage that carried on straight through.

On the video side of things, the viewer is allowed to pick their poison. Will you find the 'Mean Girls'-esque background action grating to the nerves or will it be the ubiquitous food fight that concludes the video? Will you be more annoyed by the range of stereotypically scenester outfits the band is clad in or concentrating on the obnoxious posturing of the lead singer? The finger-pointing and elbow waving alone are enough to do it for me.

On the positive side, I have to admit that for the godawful bubblegum pop that this is, it is at least done well. The hooks are hooky, the chorus memorable (sort of) and the breakdown is a clearly a breakdown without you needing to worry about getting roundhouse kicked by a guy named 'Somerville Pete.' If I were a teenage girl looking to diversify an mp3 player already overfull with Rufio and Cartel I would snap this up.

Post Show Recap -or- Name-Drop-Link-Fest '09

2009-01-18T10:10:00.000-08:00

On Friday night, Kid Omega played in the Fighting Freuds Battle of the Bands here at Clark University. It was fantastic. Playing live with this band has never felt so good. We had fun and it seemed like the crowd did too. We played a short set of Swagger, Overwrought pt. 1, Rainn Wilson, Elysion, and Song for Geoff. We have video of the last three for everyone who wasn't there. You can find the video of Rainn Wilson Stopped the Drought over at Greg's Blog. The video of Elysion is posted over at our band's blog. That was easily my favorite because at the end the crowd clapped and sang along when we asked them to. This leaves me with the video of A Song for Geoff to Sing to post on my blog so hear it is:

We had a great time playing the show and to cap it all off, the battle itself was eventually won by Sister City aka Adam. To be honest I'd never really listened to his stuff but I sat in on some of his practices with Sean, who he borrowed to do the show, and I was really impressed. He writes songs like a pro. You can hear more of his music at their myspace or you can read his blog here.

Final Note: If bouncing from blog to blog in search of videos isn't your thing you can find all three videos from the show on youtube and also on Kid Omega's myspace. Also thanks to James for being our videographer (he's the one you can hear whooping after every song), keep your eyes out for his band Tiger Trap.

A Little Rock History

2009-01-12T16:27:00.000-08:00

I'm back from break and now that I'm spending more time in front of my computer hopefully I will be blogging more, but for now I thought I would share a fun fact about this week in the not too recent past. This comes straight from the newsletter of Musician's Friend. The week of January 8th marks the 4 year anniversary of Kid Rock being kicked off the roster of acts to play as part of George W. Bush's inauguration festivities. How awesome is that? He got iced because tons of concerned Christians wrote in an complained about how he promotes a negative lifestyle of sex, drugs and partying. It must have been a bitch to find acts trashy enough to be willing to play at Bush's victory party and yet not so trashy that they offended the delicate sensibilities of the trashy people that elected him.

Metal Break or FIVE MINUTES OF METAL!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-12-13T13:42:00.000-08:00

Metal Introduction to the Metal Post
So as you may have noticed if you read the last set of reviews, I've been listening to a lot (for me) of metal and metalcore. There is more to come (both reviews and metal). In this spirit I thought I would take a chance to do a little break here for all things metal. Not all things actually. Really just a few things. So here is a paltry few things metal.

Metal Name Generators.
Metal Names
Metal Band Names
I got these in a newsletter from Guitar Player magazine. They make me chuckle.

Metal News
Metal's favorite, anti-downloading sons, Metallica, have a new album. That's old news. What is news to me is that these ass clowns have garnered themselves 4 (count them, 4) Grammy nominations. Are you kidding me? I have to assume that a. this is part of the Grammys' ongoing campaign to relieve themselves of relevance and b. James Hetfield is still a douchebag.

Metal Video Clip
As much as I meant what I said above, this video is pretty ballin'. Dana doesn't like it, but she has a thing about zombies.

Thanks to my friend Chrissy for bringing this video to my attention.

More Mini Reviews, and a Shameless Plug

2008-12-11T21:25:00.001-08:00

Since I kind of enjoyed writing up my thoughts on that Fake Problems EP, I thought I'd try doing small quickfire reveiws for all the albums I'd listened to since. If I enjoy this I may continue to do it. If I don't I won't. It's fun being me!! So here they are from the album that came after Oh No! to the most recent:

Between The Buried and Me- Colors
I hadn't ever really listened to much BTBAM, but I figured I should check them out. I've actually seen them live once, but the sound was terrible and by the time they got it figured out, the headliner (who shall be named later) wanted them off the stage so they could tear it up. I was pretty impressed by this offering from the boys from North Carolina. They can certainly bring the brutal when they want, but they really aren't afraid to lapse into more eclectically influenced territory.
The Descendants- 'Merican EP
This EP has two of my favorite Descendants songs on it; Nothing With You and the title track so to be honest the other two could have been two minutes each of white noise and I would have liked the EP as a whole.
Norma Jean- Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child
Ah Christian Metalcore you are my weakness. There's something about the when the lambs of god starting getting wrathful that makes for some awesome metalcore. Stand out track for me is Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste, but that could be becase I've heard the Legion of Doom mashup with it and Ebolarama by ETID (B to the rutal).
Latterman- No Matter Where We Go..!
I can proudly say that I own all three of the Latterman albums and I've payed the boys for all of them. For the longest time however I haven't had the two albums on this list on my computer because I bought them on vinyl (thats right, records). So now I had the chance to complete my cyber collection. Best two tracks for me are Fear and Loathing on Long Island and Video Games and Fantasy Novels, but you really can't go wrong with anything on this album. Punk the way it was meant to be.
Shai Hulud- A Profound Hatred of Man
Shai Hulud has a thing about not liking people. This is a concept that I, personally, can embrace. This album has some great brutality from the transition between hardcore punk and its more technical brother, metalcore. I liked it but I have trouble getting past the fact that the guitarist now plays in New Found Glory. About that....
Dragonforce- Sonic Firestorm
Dragonforce was the aforementioned headliner and they do put on one heck of an epic-fest. What impressess me most about them is how in the midst of all the pyrotechnics there are definitely some dynamics and some hooks which make the songs listenable. While Sonic Firestorm doesn't have anything destined to be one of my all time faves, it's a pretty decent dose of epic.
HORSE the Band- Natural Death
This band and this album are perfect examples of what I like to think of as 'weirdcore.' I don't really mean that as a bad thing. I thought this album had less of the 8-bit sounding synths that I tend to think of when I think of HORSE the Band and at 16 tracks ran a little long for my taste.
Mineral- Power of Failing
Words cannot describe. Mineral never fails to amaze me. They are violent and peaceful at the same time, frantic and calm. Chris Simpson can write lyrics like a champ and is currently one of the bigger influences on my song writing in that he gives me permission to lay off the irony and glibness that I get from an adolescence spent listening to Brand New and Taking Back Sunday.
Latterman- We Are Still Alive
Latterman again. This album lacks the standout tracks of "No Matter Where We Go..!' and by this I mean when I looked at the track list I didn't recognize anything immediately. That said when I began listening I found I knew a lot of the words. So freaking anthemic. This band makes it to at least the top 10 of bands that need to reform (Jawbreaker I'm looking at you, I know you've played together in the past two years). I'm sorry Bridge and Tunnel's just not doing it for me.

As for the promised shameless plug, the boys and I have pretty much finished hammering out all the parts of the last song I wrote this summer (took our time didn't we?) and the other day at practice we played with Greg's pocket recorder going. The cymbals in particular are pretty dominant and besides a few shouted words you can't even tell there's singing going on, but it'll give you a very rough taste of what will be taken in the next batch into the studio. Listening can be done here.

Sadly Underwhelmed

2008-12-09T16:33:00.000-08:00

So recently Adam gave me a ton of music and I'm slowly methodically loading into my computer's music player (yeah I'm not saying a brand name! why? because I'm punk-as-hell that's why). I say slowly because I'm listening to every song on every album at least halfway through to see if it is destined to become a favorite or not. I've been listening to everything from Katy Perry (yeah yeah shut up) to Converge (not laughing now are you?). Lotta Converge actually, I'd forgotten how happy they made me. I also finally got my hands on Every Time I Die's song Ebolarama which has long been a favorite of mine. But just a few precious minutes ago Greg and I were sitting around listening to Fake Problems' EP 'Oh No!' Now Fake Problems come fairly highly recommended. Their most recent album had critics and bloggers falling over themselves to compare them to folk punk icons (ugh ugly word) like Against Me! and This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb. This EP, I should note, is not that most recent album. In fact, it predates their first album by about a year. That said, I was completely underwhelmed. None of the songs really seem to go anywhere and maybe two of the six tracks even hint at the folk punk enthusiasm the band has since shown they were capable of. Most of the songs however are simply limp, meandering acoustic songs that would be better suited to some lead singer's discarded solo project. I'm so glad these guys turned the corner they did.

On a brighter note, this song by New England's own Smoke or Fire is fantastic. I burned my fingers out playing the riff over and over again and I still don't get tired of it. So without further ado, The Patty Hearst Syndrome.