Comments which don't warrant a thread.

[Nighthawk 0]

I'm taking the opportunity today to listen to "911 Is a Joke", the best Public Enemy song (besides "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos").

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

"Welcome to the Terrordome"

[Boxer 0]

Anyone give a damn about the "supposed feud" between 50 Cent and Kayne will be settled today?

[Canadian Brandon 0]

I do. And as a huge Kanye fan, I hope he absolutely humiliates 50.

[vivalaultra 0]

So, I'm going to Austin City Limits this weekend. I really, really wanted to see the White Stripes, but they cancelled for 'undisclosed medical reasons'. Four days before the show, they cancelled. Now I'm going to be forced to go watch Arcade Fire packed in with all the fat, sweaty teenagers wearing eyeliner and those stupid train conductor caps. And instead of adding anybody good to replace the White Stripes, they instead just gave Muse a headlining slot opposite Arcade Fire. And Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela dropped out (I really, really wanted to see them, too) and they replaced them with Common. I'm relatively interested in checking out Common as long as he doesn't do all of his 'love raps' from his last couple CDs. And they still have Wilco playing directly opposite My Morning Jacket. I wish I could clone myself and see both.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Why do people ever refer to Kanye as Kayne? It's not hard to spell.

 

Picked up Graduation today. Great production, like it better than the pre-release reviews so far, and the first half is delightfully jubilant. However, I said the same thing about Neon Bible upon its release as far as initial gut reactions go, and haven't listened to that in 4 months. We'll see.

[Gary Floyd 0]

Is the new album from The Go! team any good? I've been looking forward to it, and would like an opinion before purchasing.

[Guest Gym Class Fallout]

Hey, gary, since you're here, and you'd know, if I really liked Architecture & Morality, which I did, would I appreciate the rest of OMD's work? I get the impression that it's sort of non-representative.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I'd be surprised if it weren't, but I'm picking up that and the new Animal Collective tomorrow. I'll pass word along.

 

In the meantime, enjoy this f'ed-up Animal Collective

 

Edit: OMD! I love their singles. I'm gay for John Hughes synthpop.

[Gary Floyd 0]

Hey, gary, since you're here, and you'd know, if I really liked Architecture & Morality, which I did, would I appreciate the rest of OMD's work? I get the impression that it's sort of non-representative.

That's pretty much their best album, though Organisation is great too, and has their best song ("Enola Gay")

[Matt Young 0]

Slug put out a new CD...Sad Clown, Bad Summer. Strange piano beats. Pretty interesting stuff, all in all.

 

I definitely need to check that out. I love Atmosphere, and they're the only rap act I've seen live.

[At Home 0]

An album review I wrote for my school's newspaper for Paramore (Riot!):

 

 

When I saw The Shins play at Pipeline this summer, the opening band was a local “metal” band called Satellite Grey. There was something like seven people in the band, the lead singer was a woman who dressed like a teenage valet driver, and the keyboard player looked like the rock equivalent of Kenny G, but those were all things that I could put up with. Then they started playing. All of the songs had something to do with heartbreak, and the bass player was too sweaty to actually lay down a good riff (he literally wore four sweatbands in an unironic manner). It was as if an ellipsis plagued the entire crowd. Satellite Grey sounds, unfortunately, not unlike Paramore at all.

 

Riot! sounds like the unwanted child between Evanescence and Kelly Clarkson. The album stomps all over well-worn territory, and is just no fresh breath of air. The pedantic, bookish lyrics are mixed with mediocre guitar licks, and layed over faux-hardcore drum banging. I can go about 13 seconds into each song before frantically reaching for skip button. Riot! contains some of the worst lyrics ever pressed into a CD. “Woah… it was never my intention to brag / I’m sorry honey, but I passed up, now look this way! / Well I refuse, I refuse, I refuse!” These guys probably high five each other onstage at the Warped Tour. It’s not even worthy to tap your foot along to.

[ZGangsta 0]

I just wanted to remark on the Billboard sales charts for the last week.

The #2 record on the charts sold 49,000 copies. 49,000 copies. There was ONE CD sold last week that did more than 50,000 copies. That's it.

 

Let me repeat that. ONE CD sold more than 50,000. And it was fucking High School Musical 2 soundtrack selling 165,000.

That is pathetic.

 

It's been like this all year, but this week is just sad.

 

The #49 record sold 12,000 copies. You only need to move 12,000 copies in all of North America to crack the fucking Billboard top 50.

 

 

PS: and before anybody mentions it, no the year-over-year increase in digital and other sales doesn't even come remotely close to making up the losses.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Is the new album from The Go! team any good? I've been looking forward to it, and would like an opinion before purchasing.

Just finished. It's Thunder! Lightning! Strike! all over again, except lacking astronomical high points on par with "Ladyflash" and "Huddle Formation." Still fun, but pretty much the same formula. The only major changes are more live rapping instead of samples, and a completely "WTF is he doing here?" appearance from Chuck D on "Flashlight Fight." I expect my opinion of this to improve the more I listen to it driving around, which is when the first album really clicked for me.

 

Out of all of yesterday's releases, Animal Collective's the best (really, really good), Kanye's probably next, and Go! Team a close third.

[Gary Floyd 0]

Ja Rule: Friend to the Homosexual community.

[King Kamala 0]

Ja Rule: Friend to the Homosexual community.

 

There'd probably be a huge outrage over this if people still cared about Ja Rule.

[King Kamala 0]

Is there a more hilarious spoken word section of a song than the one in "The Rain" by Oran "Juice" Jones?

[Nighthawk 0]

No, but I'll point out that Lupe Fiasco's album closing with like fifteen minutes of shout outs is pretty hilarious. Honestly, does anyone really care? I still listen to the whole thing every time, though. Minimalist beats are my thang. I listen to the instrumental versions of Dr. Octegonecologyst and Deltron 3030 more than the original versions. And I like the vocals.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

I had a near fucking religious experience seeing Ryan Adams & The Cardinals live. They played the most from Cold Roses and Easy Tiger unsurprisingly, but did bust out a few surprises from Heartbreaker (Call Me On Your Way Back Home, My Winding Wheel and Damn, Sam). And they actually knocked out my two favorites, "Magnolia Mountain" and "I Taught Myself How to Grow Old" right off the bat.

 

For the finale, they fucking rocked out on "I See Monsters" for a good 6 minutes. Nothing better.

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

Garth Brooks came out of retirement long enough to set the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart record of highest ranking debut, with "More Than A Memory" sitting at the top spot.

 

Its reign though lasted just one week and it dropped to 8th!

 

Probably due to lack of a tour and actual album (its part of a greatest hits package due out in November) to help promote it.

[snuffbox 0]

Did vivalaultra survive the ACL fire?

[Guest Gym Class Fallout]

His ashes will be scattered at Minute Maid Park following a 21-ellipsis salute.

[Brocklock 0]

No one seems to care about teh metal around here, but the new High On Fire and Down albums are really great.

[Toshiaki Koala 0]

I've just discovered there is a glam metal band I can tolerate—Steelheart—but only because of Mike Matijevic. Dude can sing.

[vivalaultra 0]

Did vivalaultra survive the ACL fire?

 

Yes! I survived (and thrived). I actually got to Zilker Park right as the fire started (about 2:00 PM Friday), right as Pete Yorn was playing. Nobody had any clue what was going on, just that there was a large cloud of black smoke billowing skyward for about 20 minutes. Word is that some unventilated propane tanks exploded and caught two 18-wheelers at the festival on fire. Two ACL volunteers were critically injured, but no fans were hurt. Fifteen random ACL thoughts are below:

 

1. Peter, Bjorn, and John were pretty alrite overall, but I don't think the crowd really got into them and their European sense of humor. Peter's a pretty good whisteler, however. (Although not the best whisteler at ACL, mind you.)

 

2. Crowded House looked old, but sounded really, really good from my vantage point a stage away.

 

3. LCD Soundsystem rocked the Hell out of Austin. James Murphy hit all the right notes-he bitched about the weather, insulted the corporate AT&T sponsorship ('Back in 1983 when I was in a punk rock band, it was always my dream to one day rock out...with five bars of coverage!'), insulted the crowd ('You guys should do like the little kids at Austin Kiddie Limits do when they wanna leave and cry and tell your Mom to take you home.'), and proceeded to rock shit out. I got the impression that he really liked his drummer Pat; he introduced Pat about 15 times.

 

4. Willy Mason made my girlfriend cry because he brought his Mom out on stage to sing a couple songs with him. He also wore un-ironically thick glasses.

 

5. Steve Earle started his set with a Townes Van Zandt cover that I missed cuz the sound was fucked up.

 

6. Andrew Bird is absolutely incredible. I had heard stories about his whistling prowess, but I had no idea what an exceptional whistler he is. Seriously, if I tell people that I saw Andrew Bird at ACL and I describe him as a guy that plays violin and whistle, they'll think it sucked, but it was amazing. He like...played a melody on the violin while whistling a completely different countermelody and then looped it and played two different melodies on top of it. This guy next to me that had never heard of Andrew Bird before said to his friend halfway through the set-"Wow. He can whistle pretty good!". And he's absolutely right. Andrew Bird could kick Peter from Peter, Bjorn, and John's ass in a whistling contest. If you take away one thing from reading this, know that Andrew Bird is the greatest whistler ever known to man. The Arcade Fire went on after Andrew Bird, but nothing could top hearing 'Fake Palindromes' live with a whistling solo, so we left. I heard Arcade Fire's set wasn't very good anyway.

 

7. I skipped Yo La Tengo to go watch Ryan Shaw. He's great. He's soulful like Otis Redding. Greatest voice I've ever heard live. My girlfriend and I argued about whether the best vocal instrumentation at the festival was Ryan Shaw's voice or Andrew Bird's whistle. Ryan Shaw did a cover of 'Let It Be' that moved me to tears. His set left me in a really good mood.

 

8. The National depressed me. Matt Berninger is a very sad man. The sound was fucked up. They played 'Mr. November' last and my girlfriend was happy because she likes that song.

 

9. Robert Earl Keen's sound was messed up, too so we didn't stay long, but I saw him at the rodeo a few times and he's really good.

 

10. My girlfriend wanted to see DevotchKa, but instead we drank iced tea and sat under a tree and waited for Patterson Hood. She's not happy about that because DevotchKa uses accordians. Any band that uses accordians, my girlfriend will probably like.

 

11. I like Patterson Hood. He's the lead singer of Drive-By Truckers. Some people say that Drive-By Truckers is the new Lynyrd Skynyrd, but I wasn't a big fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd and I think Drive-By Truckers are much better lyrically and musically. And they had two guys from Centro-Matic that played with him. I like Centro-Matic, too. Anybody ever heard of Centro-Matic?

 

12. Next was a choice between Regina Spektor and an all-black jazz band from New Orleans. I wanted to see the jazz band, but the tent was full so I went to the AT&T kiosk and checked my gmail.

 

13. My Morning Jacket was awesome. They came out dressed in beachwear and had girls holding pineapples for the whole set. They brought the rock and Jim James played a flying V which upped the rock by about 85%. Also, Andrew Bird came out for a few songs, also dressed in beachwear. He whistled again, but quietly. That's one of the amazing things about Andrew Bird's whistling-he knows when to hold back so as to not take away from the other musicians. Like, he could've totally stolen the show with his harmonious whistling, but he played it cool. I was depressed to miss Wilco, but My Morning Jacket was really, really good.

 

14. We left during the Decemberists because I like them but not enough to stand around with 80,000 people and watch them and because I have to give a test on 'Of Mice and Men' tomorrow and I haven't actually written the test yet.

 

15. On the way home, we stopped at Freebird's Burritos. They have good burritos there-and big!

 

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

No one seems to care about teh metal around here, but the new High On Fire and Down albums are really great.

 

Down made another album? Oh dear.

[Guest Gym Class Fallout]

6. Andrew Bird is absolutely incredible. I had heard stories about his whistling prowess, but I had no idea what an exceptional whistler he is. Seriously, if I tell people that I saw Andrew Bird at ACL and I describe him as a guy that plays violin and whistle, they'll think it sucked, but it was amazing. He like...played a melody on the violin while whistling a completely different countermelody and then looped it and played two different melodies on top of it. This guy next to me that had never heard of Andrew Bird before said to his friend halfway through the set-"Wow. He can whistle pretty good!". And he's absolutely right. Andrew Bird could kick Peter from Peter, Bjorn, and John's ass in a whistling contest. If you take away one thing from reading this, know that Andrew Bird is the greatest whistler ever known to man. The Arcade Fire went on after Andrew Bird, but nothing could top hearing 'Fake Palindromes' live with a whistling solo, so we left. I heard Arcade Fire's set wasn't very good anyway.

I'm starting to get into Andrew Bird. I have The Mysterious Production of Eggs and Armchair Apocrypha so far. "Tables and Chairs" is my favorite song by far (but that's not all..whoa-oh...there will be snacks!), but there's a lot of good stuff. The world-class whistling is really cool. The only problem I have with him is that some songs just kinda go and I don't really remember what I heard. I think it demands repeated listening. All in all, he's like Final Fantasy with mad whistling skills, I guess.

 

[Brocklock 0]

No one seems to care about teh metal around here, but the new High On Fire and Down albums are really great.

 

Down made another album? Oh dear.

 

I thought it was damn good. Nowhere near NOLA levels, but better than Down II (Which I also enjoy).

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Just now listening to Challengers for the first time. I'll give the New Pornographers some credit for trying something different, but this is kind of boring. Maybe it's a grower.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

7. I skipped Yo La Tengo to go watch Ryan Shaw. He's great. He's soulful like Otis Redding. Greatest voice I've ever heard live. My girlfriend and I argued about whether the best vocal instrumentation at the festival was Ryan Shaw's voice or Andrew Bird's whistle. Ryan Shaw did a cover of 'Let It Be' that moved me to tears. His set left me in a really good mood.

Skipping Yo La Tengo for this guy

is a mistake that will haunt you your entire life.

 

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