Confession Sunday

I'm in love:







The age difference is only like a month... so the potential is there.
Right??
Right???

Plug/Short Review

Very solid latest release by Brand New. While it may not go down as their best yet (it's going to be very hard to beat Devil and God), they yet again throw in a bit of a new flair, this time in the form of a harder sound. Should appeal to those who maybe thought they were a little too emo (a la Deja). The tradeoff is slightly worse lyrics, but I won't feel like a big pansy rocking to this one in the car.

Not that it ever stopped me from rocking to Deja really... just saying...

CD is out today, go grab it.

Top 5

Let the debate begin:

Today's theme, hip-hop.

Top 5 to blow up in '09
If you have read my facebook/hung out with me at all, this one you prob know already, because I don't shut up about this....

5.) Eminem - Cop out? Yes. After a nearly four year hiatus, rap's #1 white boy is back on the map. The end of Relapse proves that his best may still be ahead. The key to the success of Relapse to is minimizing the "Slim Shady" persona and just being Marshall Mathers. Either way, when he is at his best no one else in the game (and possibly ever) can rhyme so effortlessly. He is one of the best ever.

4.) Saigon - Playing yourself as a regular on a show as big as Entourage for a season really helps getting your name out. Now that the woes with his label are long in the past, it is only up from here.

3.) Tyga - This is the biggest gamble, since he has been here and there since '07. He is just too good to be a career opening act in my mind.

2.) Kid Cudi - With backing from the likes of Kanye West and Common, it's hard not to blow up. Oh, he can hold his own too, which helps.

1.) Drake - It's already happening with Best I Ever Had. Successful is my favorite, Lust for Life really shows off his R&B versatility, which - combined with him getting a big paycheck soon - is the main reason he is my no brainer #1 to blow in '09.

Let the Beat Build

Nyle "Let The Beat Build" from Nyle on Vimeo.

One continuous shot, live audio. Mad respek. Bo ya shaka.

Beautiful Music my ass

It's been a project a few months in the making and (combined with being in front of a computer about 8 hours a day at work already) a large reason of my dropoff in blog content, but I can finally say I have made some progress on the vinyl to digital conversion.

I can officially put Barry Manilow Live in the done pile and move on to something I actually enjoy. After two straight days of hearing him, I feel like I deserve it.

I remember casually talking to a certain chemistry teacher in high school about the possibility of doing something like this. Knowing that I dabbled in audio engineering at school, he asked me about how complicated it would be to transfer albums to CD. I believe at the time I said I couldn't imagine it being much harder than plugging the "out" of the record player into a line in and using something like Audacity (a wonderful free program, by the way) to record it digitally.

Well, I was half right. Turns out 99% of record players need to have a separate pre-amp to get any kind of clean sound out of them. After a quick google search I came across this bad boy and as of yet have absolutely no complaints. It works exactly as it should. /shameless plug

Moving onward. Once I was getting sound into the computer I dabbled within my slightly more complicated sound editing program to get a layout that would be best suited for this venture, as opposed to, you know, recording a band. After getting all my EQs and other plugins tuned, then it was a simple hit record type of process that I initially thought it would be.

So overall, more complicated than I first thought, but still not too terrible. And yes, I know that there are USB record players out there now that basically take away the need for all this fancy shmancy doo-hickie-ing and whatnot, but going about it the one-stop-shopping way has never really quite been my thing. And, once I get done with all the vinyl, this whole setup is just a switch of plugs away from working for cassette to digital. Talk about flexibility...

If anyone has (or still is) considering this - or wants to offer some monetary compensation in exchange for my best effort at a "digitally remastered" copy of your favs - leave a comment. That is if anyone even reads this anymore...


Helloooo out there.....

I'm On a Roll Tonight

Can you tell it's the first weekend with just me and the 'rents? Not that there's anything wrong with that....

If you follow the blog you know that I have a way out of character fondness for Brand New. I say out of character because usually I don't harp on a single band this much (Exhibit A: they have their own tag, with multiple entries). I was going through their website checking for when they planned on putting out some new music ('09 looks good) and looking at some of the old news posts they had.

This entry caught my eye. While every band harps on the "it isn't for the money" line, I think this may be one of the most poignant forms of saying that I have seen yet:

We would like to express our gratitude to anyone of you who has ever spent a nickel on this band, whether it was getting into a show, or buying a sticker, or a t shirt, or a record. It takes money to tour, and feed a band and its crew, or to record an album (after the label has spent all of yours). You all make these things possible, and in turn keep Brand New a band. But the bottom line is that we would rather this band didn't become something we felt like we were constantly selling to you guys. The only thing we as a band will ever claim authenticity on is our music. Just because all that other stuff comes from us, just because you bought a shirt on our website, or at a show, or got a lyric book in the mail, it doesn't mean it's any more unique or authentic then something you could do yourself. In fact it is less. It's just merchandise. The only "official" part of the band is what you hear on our records or at a show, the sounds we make. Write BRAND NEW on your knuckles or on a wall and it's just a good as some sticker that has an "interscope" logo on it. If you're feeling up to it, save the twenty bucks you were gonna spend on our merch site and write "The Devil and God are Raging Inside me" in marker on your dad's old t shirt. It will scare your parents, cost you nothing, and be about the most limited edition thing anyone will ever own... unless you make two.


What we are trying to say is that the important thing is that you are listening, and not so much buying. Spread it around. Share us with your friends. We thank you for supporting our band, and appreciate that you continue to do so, especially by playing our albums and coming to shows to watch us play. We hope everyone has a good holiday and a joyful new year. We're brushing up on our German and Gaelic.

This is why I don't mind waiting two years for them to release a new album. They do it for the right reasons, and if it doesn't sound right, throw it away and do it again. The candor - or honesty, or whatever you want to call it - is nice.

Em's Back

Given that I kind of consider myself a bit of a student of rap, I can't let this go un-commented on. Before you make the snarky "student of rap comment," I've heard it before. Har har.

Sometime last night Eminem announced on his radio station (didn't realize he had his own station, it probably sucks) that he is releasing his sixth studio album, R3lapse. There has been talk for about a year now that he has been in the studio working on an album known as "King Mathers," I'm assuming that is what this is. With it he released his first bit of music from the album, appropriately called, "I'm Having a Relapse," embedded below. Take two minutes and listen.




I admit, sometimes I'm a little too quick to anoint an album. When Carter III came out I was convinced Lil Wayne was the best rapper alive. Then Nas came out with The Ni-ahem, Untitled and I was floored. Surely that would be the best rap album of the year. To prove me wrong again, Game came out with LAX. Most recently, T.I.'s Paper Trail is on my list of "album of the year" with seriously four or five Top 10 singles. I'm a bit of a lemming, I understand.

For the record, my revisionist rankings go somewhat like this:
1. Untitled - Nas
2. Paper Trail - T.I.
3(t). Carter III - Lil Wayne, LAX - Game


With that being said, I really really really truly honestly think this could be the return of the real Eminem. In this two minute freestyle he touched on prescription pain killer abuse, anal sex with inanimate objects, self-abuse, and finding the body parts of a cheerleader. Gruesome? Absolutely. Offensive? Without a doubt. Catchy as hell? Yes, again.

It looks like, from this extremely small but promising sample, that Eminem has found his way out of the fake-gangsta G-Unit mentality and back into rapping about HIS life as a white trash kid from the Detroit trailer park with his signature over-the-top-ness and black comedy.

Call me a bit of an optimist, but for now I'm considering (hoping) the "3" in the album title being Em's own recognition that this will be the third time that Marshall Mathers comes out to play (previously in the Slim Shady EP and self-titled LP), not Hollywood-Em (Eminem Show, which was good but clearly different, and Encore, meh) or G-Unot (post Encore, hurl city).

Please please please please don't screw this up...

Death Magnetic

Metallica is about to release a new CD. Out of spite (fuck you, Lars) I have acquired it already.

They are good again.

I'm not saying they are my favorite, but Rick Rubin has definitely turned around the club. St. Anger is a thing of the past, finally.

Maybe they did nearly carbon-copy the formulas from some of their more popular songs (That Was Just Your Life : Master of Puppets :: The Day That Never Comes : One), but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Allegory, Alliteration, Symbolism, Imagery, Irony, Meter, Rhyme.

common elements of poetry; See:



Parental Advisory be damned (see: using the 1st Amendment to the fullest), Tha Carter III is talent. "Lollipop" (that song that you hear about 4 times/hour on the radio) could arguably be the worst song on the album.

I challenge anyone to argue that hip-hop is not in many ways a sub-genre of poetry.

The conversation went something like this

In fye (holy crap so expensive), Stinky and I, talking about music.

Me - "Eliminate one of these three" Holding out Stevie Ray Vaughan's Greatest Hits, Garth Brook's Greatest Hits (his new 2 CD/DVD one), and Tool's Schism DVD

Stinky - "I dunno... they all kinda suck."

"Ok. I guess I'll put Stevie Ray Vaughan back" It was the most expensive one, I was trying to stay under my gift card limit "You at least respect him as a musican though, right?"

"Eh, can't say I like him."

"Yea, sure, but I mean, you respect him, right? He is like one of the greatest guitarists of all time..."

"Eh, not really."

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

At this point I stomp back, grab the SRV album, throw Garth in some random area. I think I may have made a small scene.


"Never say you know anything about music again."


Moral of the story, never tell your girlfriend that she should never speak of a topic again. If you do, don't expect her to hold your hand. Corrollary: I probably should have just put the Schism DVD back. Yea... that was dumb...

Until then though, suck on this:

SeeqPod - Playable Search

Disclaimer: Stinky really does have a good music taste and stuff for the most part. Hopefully either a) She stopped reading this months ago or b) She will take this well :)

Dunzo.

Yep, done. The most stressful thought of the next three months will be waking up in time to walk down to work, which consists of making sure kiddos don't drown in < knee-deep water.

I think I'll survive.

The agony is just steaming off my well-tanned body

In other news, I don't even like Nine Inch Nails, but I'm kinda a fan now. I guess they just decided "screw it, they're gonna pirate it anyways," so they are giving away their new album completely free. Over their own websit. In a variety of file formats. It's like a nerds wet dream. Actually, no. The wet dream would be this setting some kind of precident for future artists whose work I actually like anyways...

A big grassy ass goes out to Trent Reznor and friends.

Lil Jon says "YEAAA!!!" to culture

Check out this little nugget:

Listen to this, specifically the strings part.



Now listen to the background melody in this once the beat hits. NSFW, duh.

Yes, Lil Jon sampled Lux Aeterna for his gangsta reppin song.


Nice.

Do it. Right now.

Go to youtube.

Search "Garth Brooks".

Pick a song. No, not the Ron White skit, you jokers.

Listen.

It's humanly not possible, and damn near un-american to not enjoy it at least a little.

A not-so-original idea

I want someone to make a website for me. The problem is, that this is a lot more than a website... let me explain.

I love criticker. The premise isn't too hard to grasp. Basically, you go in, they list a bunch of movies, and you rate them all on (at most) a 1-100 scale. I say at most because the algorithm they use is pretty ingenius. Basically, it then takes all your ratings and weights them based on their percentile in your entire collection of rated movies. So, if you felt like being a big doushebag, you could rate them all 1-10, the system would adjust accordingly over time (At least i think so...). But I digress.

Criticker then takes all of your comparisions, and puts it up against the rest of the user database. Through some intense comparision stuff (which I'm thinking is roughly the math equvilant to shining two scantrons up against a light to check for differences) you are then matched with both other users who have the same taste as you and movies that said users like, the theory being that you would in turn dig them.

It's also a fun to see how much your tastes differ with your girlfriend's taste. Seriously, I'm terrible to go to Blockbuster with. But again I digress.



I want a music site that does this same thing. Before you all start linking Pandora, I'm not talking the same thing. Pandora is great if I want to sit down and listen to music that eventually, with a lot of thumb up/down action, I may like.

I want a website that will:
1.) Not require me (but certainly have the capability) to listen to new bands. I'm thinking more text based.
2.) Show me artists, not songs, that match my taste (Pandora falls short here, darn copyright laws).
3.) Allow me to compare my artist ratings with other users. Enter the "my girlfriend has a terrible taste in music" argument :)
4.) Do these three things really well, like criticker.



I'm thinking this equation would be something like

[Allmusic.com + criticker.com + (.5*Pandora.com)]/3



It really isn't that hard. The grunt work has already been laid out, someone just needs to put it all together.

And let me know. :)

I take what I'm given...

Heck, I could always be a CD cover designer. The rules I used to create this particular design are here. It was the perfect time-waster for my hour before my two hour calculus bonanza (w00t).

Bigger version inside

Apparently this Robichaud guy was a member of Canadian Parliament in the 50s and early 60s. So I guess that makes said "band" a more contemporary Franz Ferdinand of sorts. The particular album title though leads me to believe they would be uber-emo, with a slightly bluegrass twang (as indicated by the rolling landscape. This would probably add up to a solid 3-star allmusic rating.

I'm pretty so-so about how the dice fell on this one... maybe better luck next time. I'm sure I'll be doing this again.

If [Easy + fun]/[t] > 42, I'm always down.

Sorry, I suck

Something about having all the time in the world and nothing to do has caused me to play a lot of Battlefield 1942, and cease to exist on the interwebs. Don't worry, it's not you, it's me. I haven't even dugg anything lately. Here is a little of what I have done.

I saw Charlie Wilson's War a few weeks ago. Yes, this has been an unprecedented movie-going binge for me. I can FINALLY say that I have found a movie that I like that doesn't necessarily end happily. I went to go see it with Stinky (my version of "the girl" because she is white like casper and well, the name fits) so she was able to help me out on who was playing what part. I knew Tom Hanks was Charlie but other than that I was oblivious. Let me just say that Philip Seymour Hoffman is in my opinion a vastly under-rated actor. He has an astonishing range of characters, from Truman Capote to his (very well played) role as the straight-shooting CIA agent Gust Avrakotos here. Overall this was a very enjoyable movie. Tom Hanks, as always, impresses.
Oh, and apparently Julia Roberts was in it too. I didn't notice. Stinky helped me out on that one. Woops.

---

I also bought a CD that I already had acquired through other means. Three of them actually. With Ruckus there is very little motivation for me to buy a CD for the next three or so years. And, admittedly, through other perfectly innocent means that will not be talked about on the interwebz I haven't really bought a CD in years. I want to change that. This is half-guilt and half-having-extra-fundage probably (thanks Santa) but something can be said for having a permanent hard copy of my favorite artists, and (in a more cynical manner) speaking with the dollar. I figure, the more Jay-Z (American Gangster) and Nas (Greatest Hits) CDs I buy (I got both of these), the greater the sale of quality rap, hopefully keeping Soulja Boi away from my local house party. Hurl. I may be a minnow in the Atlantic, but if this minnow hears one more get rich quick single he will go postal. OK, not really, but it's annoying.
If you're curious, the other CD I got was Brand New's latest "The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me." I've loved this one since the leaks before release (im SOOO undergroundz lollz!!!) and was finally funded enough to buy a copy, open it once to rip it to the comp, then put it in a safe place for if I ever need it again. If nothing else, Brand New is a band that has repeatedly reinvented themselves. Every time (in my opinion), they have gotten better and better. Very excited for the future there.

---

I've also delved even deeper into my sick, sad obession of college football. Recruiting year is heavily upon us, with the major high school all american games being played this coming Sunday (on NBC and ABC). Overall there are 14 Notre Dame verbal commits playing in either the Army All American Bowl (on NBC, and the older of the two) or Under-Armor Bowl (ABC, sponsored by ESPN). It's amazing that with as shitty of a year 2007 was for the Irish, they can still have arguably the #1 recruiting class in college football. If this holds to February, with top-10 classes the past two years, maybe not next year but at the very least 2009 is something to look forward to. Recruiting rankings are far from a sure-fire promise for success, but having depth of talent sure does help. Ask Southern Cal.

---

Oh, and how bout them Flyers? Big win vs. Pitt the other night and it looks like they could be a legit team for the tourny. All that is left is a run of the A-10 with possibly a loss to Xavier and one other team and it would be impossible to keep them out. Very cool.

Brian Roberts: Dickie V's "Best Player You've Never Heard Of"

Sorry for the long delay. This is like that awkward call to the parents for money after three weeks of silence or something. Hopefully it won't happen again.

Good day for a ten random

What can I say? It's cold, kinda rainy, and I have a research paper due. Can ya tell?
I'm going with a fun theme for the ten random. It's going to come from my auto-playlist entitled "wtf is this?" For you playlist weirdos out there (I am thinking of one person in particular, but hey who knows everyone has their secrets...), it is limited to unrated songs (because I try to rate all the songs I at all care about, for better or worse) that have not been played in the past month (I tried 6 months, but the play dates got all screwed up when I moved all the music over to the portable hard drive for college) with a total play count of no more than 2.
In other words, I'm thinking "wtf is this?" about every other song.
So here goes:

So High So Low - Ben Harper; What a perfect song to start off with. The only thing that makes this sound at all like a Ben Harper song is his vocal part. Other than that it is about as rock-sounding as the latest Kid Rock single or something. Overall I would call it a horrible misuse of Harper's talents. 2/5

Silhouette - Thrice; I used to hate Thrice. Loathe entirely. I still hate to admit it (like how most people hate to admit that they <3 Linkin Park). 3/5

Stays in Mexico - Toby Keith; This one came when I legally aquired (actually, thats not even a stretch of the truth this time!) the entire Toby Keith Greatest Hits CD a while back. I never have been a major fan of the song, probably owing to the fact that I have no interest in (n)either visiting Mexico (n)or drinking tequila. If the resident english guru could help me out on that last sentence (AND THE LAST SENTENCE ALONE, PICKY) that'd be grrrreat. Also, I don't care if you are singing about such a tropical locale as Mexico, trumpets have no place in my country music. 2/10

Blue-Sky Research/What's Left - Taproot; This bad boy must have squeeked into the playlist under the "not played in the past 6 months" criteria. Not sure if Taproot is one of those bands you're not supposed to like or something (I've never really paid attention to that whole scene) but I have no idea why these guys never got huge. They had their moment in the sun, no doubt, but almost every one of their songs make you want to rip the head off of a puppy. In the screamo (heavy on the -emo) catagory that is like, triple mega diamond titanium usually. 4/5

Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper with Sarah McLachlan; Cyndi Lauper scares me. The Sarah McLachlan effect does wonders though. 4/5

Peace, Love, and Understanding - A Perfect Circle; I throw around a lot of hyperbole, its kinda my thing. I mean this one though!!: Emotive rocks. APC could take the Sesame Street song and make it sound like an apocolyptic funeral dirge. And I like it. 5/5

Open Eyes - Saliva; I can confidently say I do not remember ever hearing this song. First impression: Saliva could compete with Nickelback (greatest Canadian rock band of all time ever for eternity and beyond) in terms of songs sounding like identical twins. Sometimes thats a great thing (like Nickelback - the GCRBOATEFEAB). For Saliva that translates into a wealth of mediocrity. 3/5

Broken Heart - Dashboard Confessional; I don't listen to dashboard a whole heckuva lot, but if one of their CDs is <$10 at Target or something I'll grab it. It can get overwhelming in heavy doses. And I hate going to concerts only to listen to a crowd singing along to songs written by a band. 3/5




Still Running - Chevelle; see: Taproot. The critics will say Chevelle has gotten worse since their major debut album Wonder What's Next. I couldn't disagree more. This Type of Thinking (the home-album to this song) was a workout-staple-album for a solid year.
4/5


The Ides of March- Silverstein; I'm sure some people probably love Silverstein. These same people probably hate Nickeback and LP. I like all three, but I would put Silverstein in a distant third. Just a little too much teen-angst sounding.
3/5


Now argue, prove me wrong, etc.

Before I hit the road...

I wanted to do this for a while and now is the perfect time. A little parting gift. The "first 10 songs on shuffle" game. However, instead of an iPod, just my Windows Media Player (5,638 songs ( all legally aquired, of course!!))

1.) Never Enough - Eminem; Eh, filler song on his "Encore" album. This album probably is a case study for those who argue that Em only got big "beacuse of Dre's beats." Can't argue with that here...

(3 stars out of 5)

2.) Me and My Shadow - Frank Sinatra; Ahh thats more like it. Frankie S. in a duet with Sammie Davis Jr. Vintage recording and all, very quality stuff from the Crooner era

(4 out of 5).

3.) Mistakes We Knew We Were Making - Mae; Talk about a band you have to be in the right mood to listen to. Good "happy music," for like, homework, or folding clothes, or something. Not soft enough to really fall asleep too but not loud enough to really wake up with. Also, one of many songs I generically file under "indie".

(3 out of 5)

4.) Cool Kids - Screeching Weasel; A little guilty pleasure punk rock. Cute song too.

(4 out of 5)

5.) The Sounds of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel; One of the songs I aquired legally for Stinky (aka the "pale chick"). Great song to go along with one of my more favorite old movies. Art Garfunkel will always have a special place in my heart, too, as we both tried to bring the white-boy fro to popular acceptance. We both failed, too.

(4 out of 5)

6.) Really the Blues - Artie Shaw; I was wondering when some jazz was going to come up. I have a solid 15 hours worth and all, so it was only a matter of time (no pun intended). Artie Shaw is one of the good ones, right up there with Louis Armstrong and (dare I say) Wynton Marsalis. Yes, Marsalis is that good.

(4 out of 5)

7.) I'll Back You Up (Live) - Dave Matthews; Heh, I just checked out of curiosity, and I have the same amount of music from one artists as I do from an entire genre (Dave Mattews : Jazz, both 15hrs.) Yeesh, I didn't know it was that bad. This song leans heavily toward the instrumental aspect of Dave, similar to the recently released Radio City Concert (which is OUTSTANDING by the way... yea... like my opinion on Dave holds a lot of weight now...)

(4 out of 5)

8.) I'd Wait a Million Years - The Grass Roots; HOLY CRAP THAT KEYBOARD HURTS THE EARRSSS!!! File this song under "songs I aquired legally many a moon ago and forgot about until it just came on." Not terrible, but far from good. And it's never a good sign when the sound of an instrument causes physical pain. Probably an EQ issue on my end, but hooolllleeee crap.

(2 out of 5)

9.) Amazed - Lonestar; Nothing like a little good ole' generic 90s country. It pulls at the heartstrings

(3 out of 5)

10.) Let it Out - Pillar; Huh? I think this one was sort of a package deal with the whole CD, because I seriously do not recognize this. The band is definitely one of the top three Christian rock bands out there (third smartest kid with downs syndrome!) . (2 out of 5)

Overall, quite the lucky shuffle. I aim for a gaussian curve in relation to my ratings (lots of threes, 2 and 4 are within the 1st-ish standard deviation, 1 and 5 are the "rest), so pretty good on the whole here. And yes, seriously, I am that big of a nerd. I'm in engineering, what did you expect?!

Because James Taylor is good.

Yes, I said it. I like James Taylor. Suck it.

The good news is, that I now have a place to listen to all the live Jimmy-boy I want (within the bounds of availability) FO FREE!

Wolfgang’s Vault is the place. Basically it’s the vintage “new rock isn’t rock” homeboy’s heaven. The main site has vintage posters, t-shirts and whatnot for sale. Honestly though, that’s not really my thing so I’ve never clicked any button on the front page other than the green Concert Vault one. In there you will all the live (pardon the classification) “Classic Rock” concerts you can think of. New this week is some Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac, Weather Report, John Hammond, Hall & Oates, Hot Tuna, Big Country, Blondie….well, you get the point.

It has admittedly been a while so I'm not sure but you may have to register (for free), but it’s no big deal. I know they send me an email just updating me on the new concerts about every other week, but I’m sure there is a way to get off the list. Also, granted, these are vintage live recordings, so some may not be up to par on your rockin’ Bose system. Deal.

Its free.