Thanks Bunches!!

Ah, America. We must celebrate our coming into being this week! We do that by stuffing ourselves!! Too cool! All other countries, just ignore the following, and move on the the reviews. But for you Americans, remember to thank yourself for being so cool and welcoming my awesome reviews pretty much every week. I know how much you readers sit in wait for my next post. Oh boy, you say to yourselves, what amazing releases we he hip us to next? Well, you all just need to calm down. I want to THANK YOU for caring, and reading, and occasionally commenting. It rocks! See ya soon!

Jay Farrar and Benjamin Gibbard – One Fast Move Or I’m Gone: Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur – *** – Sorry to all the smarties out there, but I am not too familiar with Jack Kerouac, I mean I know who he is, just haven’t read any of his stuff. But, lucky for me, I don’t care about lyrics that much anyways. And the music on this is solid. Very California sounding, whatever that means.

Kings of Convenience – Declaration of Dependence – ***1/2 – Great to hear these guys again, and glad to see they’ve still got it. This is classic Kings of Convenience, heartfelt songs, the almost whispered vocal delivery, and the unique but compelling melodies. Great!

The Spinto Band – Slim & Slender EP – *** – Almost too short to even call an EP, these 4 songs show that the band has more in store for us. Also includes a great cover of Brazil, which is always a good addition in my book.

Weezer – Raditude – *** – Not sure what to say about this. I think there are some great moments when they are just being themselves. But when they start adding rap elements, Indian music, whatnot, I just feel uncomfortable. And perhaps they have oversimplified, but at the same time, I don’t need complicated elements to enjoy something. I just think the enjoyment won’t last as long as previous albums.

Dashboard Confessional – Alter The Ending – *** – Solid effort from this band. I think they are less focused now on the message of their songs, and are more focused on the musicality of it all. Some songs go on a bit too long, but there are some definite bright moments in this album.

Bears

I was taken hostage by bears. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. I was minding my own business, walking along, when a great big brown bear walked up behind me, and pawed my head to the ground. I had always heard that I should play dead when attacked by bears, which I did. Well, I mean I was knocked unconscious, so that made it easier. The bears then apparently dragged me back to their cave. I didn’t really understand what they wanted from me, and when I woke up they were surrounding me. They all became excitable when my eyes opened. Normally, this would be fine, but since these were bears, their excitement quickly turned to violence. I had no choice but to join the fight. After I took down one bear, the rest of them came after me, and I really had no defense. So as they clobbered me into unconsciousness again, I rested easy knowing my mind was still in tact. That’s when they took my brains out. Now being the simple man I was, I had nothing in my brain that I needed. So, losing it meant nothing to me. They eventually replaced it with a pinecone, smeared in honey to help it stick. That new brain gave me just the right amount of smarts to get out of there. When the bears finally went back to sleep, I ran out of the cave and got to the nearest hospital. With blood and honey dripping from my skull, the hospital staff was disturbed and scared of my current state. As they opened the skull casing to find a pinecone, the horror they expressed was palpable. I assured them I was fine and that they should just pop in a new brain and I would be good to go. It wasn’t so easy. Apparently this hospital doesn’t have a dozen spare brains sitting around. So instead they jammed a few sponges in and sent me to city general, the big city hospital with all the brains. When I showed up, they threw up all over the floor. I tossed them a few sponges out of my head to clean up and went on to surgery. Turns out they weren’t ready, and I had to be put on a waiting list. So with nothing to do while waiting, I decided to head down to the 7-11 and pick up a couple snacks. I loves me a Slurpee™, so I grabbed one of those and took a super long and fast drink and amazingly, I had no brain freeze! Since there’s nothing to freeze! I was pumped, I could drink 10 Slurpees™ now with NO side effects! So awesome. Then I needed some meat, so grabbed one of them microwaveable burritos. As I placed the burrito in the mic, and started it up, I could feel a small pulse in my cranial area. The pulse suddenly turned into an insane amount of pressure, and my head exploded!! Yow! That hurted! I quickly jammed the burrito down the remaining throat pipe and headed back to the hospital. When they saw my body hobbling down the corridor, the palpable horror from earlier seemed like a gentle breeze. Suddenly, Reginald, the brown bear who I took down earlier, was there standing before me. As he ripped me from limb to limb, I realized I never completed the task I was sent out for. I was supposed to destroy bear-kind once and for all, so I guess they were justified. Funny how life goes, huh?

Get Ready…

Get ready folks, it’s about to get real. Ok, not really. Blah blah blah bleep glorp gloop glop. See, I’m still here, no worse for the wear. OK, but let’s get ready for one thing, and that is, more reviews. We are like a month and a half away from finishing this year, and I still have tons of CD’s to share with you. But, it’s all leading up to that great moment, the moment when I reflect on the albums of the year. Oh, you all are just chomping at the bit for that moment! But you’ll just HAVE TO WAIT!! Rock.

Julianna Raye – Dominoes – *** – A bit of bossa nova from Julianna, who always has something interesting to offer. This album sounds great and instantly captures the bossa nova mood, while still having the Julianna Raye stamp in the lyrics and melodies, that kind of a bit of darkness with the light.

Elle Macho – Es Potencial! – **** – A top notch set of songs, which I hope shed light on even more we may be hearing from this band! I think it is a perfect blend of a blast of power, some rock bravado, while still maintaining a interesting and unique sound. It’s awesome.

Dennis Diken with Bell Sound – Late Music – ***1/2 – Good, Beach Boy/Beatlesque blend of power pop, keeping alive that wonderful sound. I think shows that the template can be used if done with skill and thought. Diken does this brilliantly with this album.

They Might Be Giants – Here Comes Science – ***1/2 – Another fantastic addition to the TMBG kids album collection. This time, dealing with science, which I think even us oldsters can learn from. It’s amazing how many scientific facts we don’t really think about much, that are still interesting and good info to know. Oh, and the music is cool and fun too!

Brandi Carlile – Give Up The Ghost – ***1/2 – I know I say this about a lot of people, but you can’t go wrong with Brandi Carlile. Each album brings something different and interesting, while sticking with the formula that makes it work. I think this album explores a bit more with some more upbeat songs and kind of is a bit of a lighter touch, not quite as heavy as the last one.

Why oh why?

Well, here we are, the last two months of the year. It seems like we just got into this year, but so it goes, right? So, now, we are going to really kick start this year, and live it up in 2009!! Oh yeah! Let’s make this year HAPPEN!! OK, whatevs… just read some reviews, OK?

Robbert Bobbert and his Bubble Machine – Robbert Bobbert and his Bubble Machine – ***1/2 – The transition from “adult” music to “kids” music is not a huge stretch for Robert Schneider – his band The Apples in Stereo create simple and fun pop music. Changing the lyrics from grown-up stuff like love and junk, to cool songs about baby animals, super heroes, and just fun, is a welcome change to me! If I had kids, I would force them to listen to this, but since I don’t, I will FORCE YOU TO!

Works Progress Administration – WPA – *** – Good set of songs from this collective, featuring Glen Phillips, Sara and Sean Watkins, etc. For the most part, slow and country-tinged songs, very engaging and beautiful.

Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson – Breakup – ***1/2 – A fantastic CD from these two, better than either of their most recent albums, I think. It has a nice energy, and is not trying to hard. So it comes off as effortless, fun, and cool.

Mika – The Boy Who Knew Too Much – ***1/2 – I think I may even like this one better than the first. There seems to be a more focused production style on this one. So it’s more consistent, yet still has the great moments and sounds from that first record. I think we’ll be hearing a lot more good stuff from Mika!

Maxi Dunn – Welcome To Soonville – *** – A good collection of songs, very thoughtful pop music. I especially like the tracks with the guys from Cokeroque, who add a bit of of their flavor to the songs. Maxi is a good songwriter, and has a nice voice as well.

Yippee!!

Hey everybody! Halloween is just around the corner. This time of year brings to mind one thing and one thing only. PUMPKINS! Nobody cares about pumpkins any other time of the year. I mean, what’s up with that? They are like orange and junk, you can totally cut out awesome faces from them, and cook up the seeds for a flavorless treat! Who can ask for more? So this year, carve out a space for a boom box in your pumpkin, pop in one of these CD’s and you’ll have a singing pumpkin! Won’t that be cool??

Wes Cunningham – Everyone Wins – ***1/2 – Great to hear from Wes Cunningham again. This album continues the great sounds found on his previous two releases. While it doesn’t have the full production value of those, the songs are still great, and interesting, and cool!

Reigning Sound – Love and Curses – ***1/2 – Can’t go wrong with Reigning Sound. A nice collection of songs. Not quite as relentlessly energetic as the last one was, which adds a bit more depth, pulls you in a bit more. Keep it up!

Between The Trees – Spain – *** – A nice set of emo-tinged indie rock tunes. But doesn’t go too far off into that emo direction, revealing just solid, smart, rock that is very interesting.

Collective Soul – Rabbit – ** – Well, they do one thing well, and that is making over-produced driving rock. However, they have been doing that exact same thing over the last 4 or so albums. I just don’t see the growth I like in artists.

Muse – The Resistance – *** – It’s gonna be hard for any band to top Muse’s last album, it was just so great, am I right? So, of course this new album by Muse falls a bit short. But standing alone, and not comparing directly to that album, this is a solid record that has a good sound. It ends with a 20 minute symphony, which is quite good and could be a movie score easily. Muse has always had that cinematic mentality, and this symphony just brings it to the top.

Rock To It!

Hey everybody! I am just cooking with these reviews lately! It’s insane! or is it just inane? I guess we’ll never know for sure! But one fact remains, and that is that if music be the food of love, then play on! Because love is VERY hungry right now, and it needs to gorge on a huge heaping platter of music, deep fried in a harmonic batter, drizzled with melody, double-dipped in a chorus of voices, served hot and fresh. Dig in!

Among The Oak & Ash – Among The Oak & Ash – ***1/2 – An album of folk songs sung by Garrison Starr and Glen Phillips, two of my favorite vocalists. And they add a certain energy to these songs, so it’s not your standard folk sound, but stays very respectful to the originals and makes it very engaging and interesting.

The Duckworth Lewis Method – The Duckworth Lewis Method – ***1/2 – A cool collection of songs from Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy) and Thomas Walsh (Pugwash) all about Cricket. But don’t let that stop you, these are just fun, cool songs. Some are old-timey, some very poppy, all great and melodic, check it out!

David Bazan – Curse Your Branches – *** – David Bazan does a great job of combining his unique vision of music, with his introspective lyrics. And it’s something you don’t get out of a lot of artists. This, his first “solo” release, seems to be even more open than Pedro the Lion stuff, though that’s only a half-step for Bazan, never shy from speaking his mind.

Brendan Benson – My Old, Familiar Friend – **** – I love Brendan Benson. There, I said it. Got a problem? OK, good then. Now that we understand each other, I love this album. After that short detour with the Raconteurs, it’s nice to hear Benson back with all the power-pop bells and whistles still on. Fun, engaging, and delicious!

Cheap Star – Speaking Like An Elephant – ***1/2 – Great power pop ala Big Star, Posies, etc. Great stuff! Stands tall among their influences to make a nice collection of songs. I can only see them getting better.

Wasting Time

Well, if you haven’t been able to tell from my previous blogs, I sure like wasting time. However, I consider all my time well used. I’m not sure what it’s all for, but I always try to do things I want to do whenever I can. I get the most stressed out when I am expected to spend time doing something I don’t really do. I try to subvert it if possible, which of course leads me to listen to music while working, have some process running on my computer, I always have something in the back of my mind that needs doing. Maybe I’m crazy, but that’s just the way it is. And that wraps up the non-specific generalization hour, come back next time for more! Review it!

The Dead Weather – Horehound – *** – I can’t say this album was the most enjoyable thing I’ve heard in a while, but it does have some good moments. It’s dark, but it has pretty good energy and some interesting hooks and lyrics.

Fooling April – Three – ***1/2 – Fantastic piano-pop/rock from this group. They excel the most when they are being confessional and sort of letting their freak-flag fly. But they bury that stuff after some fairly standard (but good) pop/rock anthems.

Chris Richards + The Subtractions – Sad Sounds of The Summer – **** – This is a very strong release for this year. They have a template of some power-pop, similar to Velvet Crush, a dash of alt.country, and some very strong hooks, especially in the first few tracks.

Kevin McAdams – It’s My Time To Lose My Mind – *** – Very good release from this guy, the drummer from Elefant. It blends a nice pop sensibility with a bit of electronic elements thrown in. While the key to this album is the interesting and catchy songs, the electronic soundscape adds a nice dimension beneath it all.

The Friday Night Boys – Off The Deep End – *** – Fairly standard pop-punk sound, which isn’t really a bad thing, it’s fun to listen to and is certainly entertaining and dancable. A tad over-produced, with some auto-tune fairly prevalant, but overall pretty fun record.

Fun Time Go!

Hey pals, what’s going on? So I think we all said some things last time that we regret. I’m sure there are things we’d like to take back. But you know what? It’s over, it happened. There’s no going back. All we can do is keep going and try to get past it. I mean, I guess if there would have to be a “winner” in this situation, I think it’s pretty clear who that is. So I mean, I guess an apology from your side, wouldn’t be disregarded. No, I mean, like, it doesn’t matter, but I mean, right is right, right? So I guess, just do the right thing. I mean, it doesn’t matter, though. Wait… OK, listen, just read these reviews, we’ll talk more next time. Thanks.

Kyle Vincent – Where You Are – *** – If you like powerful, slow-churned power pop, it doesn’t get much better than Kyle Vincent. This new album is no exception. Its spare production, focused on the piano and voice, make it a beautiful record to just take in. And the songs are great!

Young Fresh Fellows – I Think This Is – ***1/2 – It isn’t often that a band that has been working for almost 30 years can still sound so fresh and young. It’s perhaps a curse of the name that they must always stay this way, but I’m not complaining. They can still bring it, they revel in weird off-beat concepts and just fun-filled music. Keep it up fellows!

Discovery – LP – *** – An interesting project. This type of electronic dance music has never really been my cup of tea. But having the guy from Vampire Weekend interested me. While the album doesn’t have the great hooks I always look for, it does differentiate itself from other similar music.

John Brodeur – Get Through – *** – Great to hear from Brodeur again, his albums seem to be few and far between, but when they come out, they are really good. Lots of interesting lyrics, cool melodies, and overall a good time.

Dan Bryk – Pop Psychology – ***1/2 – Dan Bryk is a great, unique artist, who plays great poppy music, with smart, funny lyrics, that talk about his own life, things he’s thinking about, his own hang-ups and such, but in a way that is relatable to all.

End of Summer

Well dang it. Summer’s over now. Now time for me to fall into a crippling depression and hibernate until next spring. Can’t wait, can ya? Ah well, we will keep chugging along so I can at least give you all a taste of the new music that came out like three months ago. But hey, what else are you gonna do? Have a fun and festive fall friends!

Ninja Gun – Restless Rubes – *** – Pretty good, energetic power poppy album. Very well produced, and interesting, though I did not latch on to anything in particular. It’s got a good sound and I will probably revisit it at some point.

Roger Klug – More Help For Your Nerves – **** – One of the top releases so far this year. With an incredible energy and a bucketful of hooks, this album kicks off from the start and doesn’t stop kicking until the end. For the most part, it is great power pop, but he throws in some other musical styles, from showtunes to gypsy music and so on, which is cool. It’s so good!

Phil Keaggy & Randy Stonehill – Mystery Highway – ***1/2 – I have just recently delved deeply into the catalog of Phil Keaggy. It’s a mixed bag of guitar solos, beatle-esque vocals, interesting themes, some more standard christian-rock fare, and overall an interesting artist. This album really does everything I like about Phil Keaggy. It rocks, it has interesting themes, he even pulls out one of his classic Beatle-esque tunes with SUnday’s Child. Randy Stonehill, who I’m not too familiar with, really adds some more classic rock elements. Overall a fun, unique record, that stands tall among Keaggy’s other releases.

Art Brut – Art Brut vs. Satan – ***1/2 – A good, solid album from this band. They do their thing very well. Great, well thought out musical bed where the “singer” can lie comfortably and tell us all about his life and the things that’s he’s thinking. It hasn’t changed much over the course of three or so albums, but at the same time, do we want it to change? Keep it up fellas!

The Minus 5 – Killingsworth – *** – You never know quite what you’re going to get with a Minus 5 record. They have gone from power pop to alt country, and everywhere in between. What you do know, is that it will be an interesting ride. This latest effort is fairly poppy. Good songs, good lyrical content, and overall a good record.

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