First off, congratulations to long-time friend Donny Ducote and his band, My Sister in 1994, for their successful CD release party at the Modified last night. Great show and i'm proud of you guys. (One side note, why is it always so damn hot in the Modified??? Open a door or something for god's sake. I can't remember being there a single time and not sweating profusely. Not good.)
On with the Shuffle:
1. Bones - The Killers, off of Sam's Town
Last week i made a top 5 list of music so far in 2007. I tried to post it and Blogger decided to take a dump on it and delete it. So it doesn't exist anymore. I'm going to try and redo it sometime this week, we'll see. Anyway, my point in telling you that is that Sam's Town was #4 on my Top 5 list of pleasant surprises. The Killer's were ripe for a Kanye West Award (awarded to boring, ego driven and otherwise god-awful Sophomore albums...) but they did pretty well i think. There are some weird moments but overall i like the album. And i like what they did on this song as well. I like the choir sounding parts. On the right sound system these can actually sound pretty overwhelming and awesome.
2. Chick Magnet - MXPX
Wow, flashback to 11th grade. I saw MXPX in Salt Lake City my junior year on the Invasion Ski/Snowboard trip. It was in this very cool theater and we were moshing it up and dancing around. This song came on and we were all dancing around in the big circle and when the chorus kicked in we all started moshing. Then, I got kicked in the nuts. Hard.
I spent the rest of the evening curled up on the brick floor in the corner trying to recover. I actually seem to remember throwing up because of it. It was one of the all time hardest nut shots ever and that's what i remember every time i hear this song. Awesome. Let's move on.
3. Diamond from Sierra Leone - Kanye West, off of Late Registration
How great is the shuffle that i just talked shit about this album and i get a song from it just one song later. Oh well.
I've already discussed Kanye probably far more than i should in this space so i won't dig too deep into this song. I actually like it. Relative to the CD this one isn't bad. And i'm happy that Kanye actually discussed a subject matter that is difficult and brought some awareness to an otherwise bling-obsessed culture.
There is more than a hint of hypocrisy in this track but that shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone. And Kanye completely loses me on the "Foreva eva?" parts. I appreciate the reference to Outkast but it's just stupid, messes with the flow of the song and actually takes some of the seriousness out of the track. Oh well. The rumor is that a new Kanye CD will be out this year. Here's hoping he redeems himself.
4. Out From Under - Incubus, off of Make Yourself
The first line of this song is, "To resist is to piss in the wind, anyone who does will end up smelling." That's a pretty great friggin metaphor.
And speaking of hypocrisy, how great is it that Incubus writes this song about being individual and not giving in to the masses and not conforming and then they become TRL poster children and absolutely lay a goose egg on every CD since Morning View? Way to go guys.
5. Everything's Not Lost - Coldplay, off of Parachutes
Weird Shuffle today. I mean, i know it's supposed to be random but usually there is a bit more continuity than this.
Anyway, as far as Coldplay goes, this is one of my favorite songs. I really, really like the guitar in the chorus. It just catches me the right way. This entire CD was pretty good (for Coldplay) and i guess that's why this is the album that made them famous. Makes sense right?
That being said, I completely lost respect for them in every way after watching their Storytellers the other night. I mean, the dude talks about how when he wrote Yellow that the chorus was missing something and he couldn't think of what to put there and he looked around the room and saw a YellowPages and said, "They were all yellow." and it fit. So really, there's no meaning in that song at all...he just looks around the room and says words and they turn into multi-platinum albums... I cringe to think that more of my favorite artists write like this and even worse to think that the songs that mean the most to me were just bullshitted by a guy looking around the room and trying to fill holes in the song. I don't know how i'd handle that.
Also, Chris Martin is inspired by porn. Can't wait till Apple grows up and hears that...
Alright, more later this week. Probably.
Showing posts with label Incubus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Incubus. Show all posts
Monday, April 02, 2007
Monday, October 23, 2006
Monday Morning Shuffle
This is coming dangerously close to becoming the Monday Afternoon Shuffle. I've been out of bed for a while, promise. It's just that i've been catching up on all the reading i missed out on during this Danny Bogen-inspired waste of a weekend. I swear, everytime that kid comes in town, my life expectancy loses a year or two. Oh well. Totally worth it.
1. Fleas - NOFX from Punk In Drublic
In the vein of other classic punk songs, this is under 2 minutes and is very uncomplicated. It's just a good, hard, 3-chord rocker that says what it wants and then ends. So punk right now. And a good one to get your blood pumping first thing on a Monday.
2. I Miss You - Incubus from Make Yourself
There was a time when this song was "that" song that made all the ladies swoon and gather around me and look at me with adoring, fawning eyes as i played it on the guitar. But then i quickly moved on to John Mayer's "Your Body is a Wonderland" when Incubus came out with their most recent CD which dropped their band from popularity faster than a lead fart. I'll admit that i used to worship this CD. I thought their lyrics were genius, they had a nice balance of nice melodies and hard rock and i really thought they were cool. I'm pretty sure now that it was just that time in my life when i was going through a lot of the feelings that this CD dealt with. Now that i'm over those feelings, i'm pretty much over the CD too. It also may have been because i wanted desperately to be the lead singer of a band and that Brandon's voice most closely resembled mine, at least for singing-in-the-car purposes.
3. Justice - Fivespeed from Trade In Your Halo
Fivespeed has shown up in this space before so there's not a ton else to say other than they're a great local band and you should really be listening to them.
This song is the last track on their first CD and it just has a really interesting and haunting quality to it.
4. The View - Modest Mouse from Good News for People Who Love Bad News
Those people who knew Modest Mouse before this CD came out will argue that this album really doesn't compare to anything the did previously as if now that everyone knows them, they're no longer any good. Whether that is true or not, i can't debate because i'm just getting on the Modest Mouse bandwago myself. But i like this CD and i really don't think it's as mainstream as the old fans accuse it of being. There are still some very funky beats and some very indie tendencies that will keep this album from really being "mainstream." By that, i mean that the Justin Timberlake crowd won't understand this album.
The View is one of the more poppy songs on the album but by that i mean it sounds like the actually practiced it before recording it. And they write lyrics like lyrics were meant to be be written, full of symbolism, metaphor and hyperbole. It leasves something to decipher and figure out how it applies to you. That's a disappearing artform these days.
5. Kick Out The Jams - Rage Against the Machine from Renegades
This is a cover of an MC5 song that Rage that Rage remade for their Renegades album. Someone once said that making a greatest hits or cover album is basically code for a band saying "We're done, We've got nothing new left." And boy it was never more true than in the case of Rage. This was their last album of course. I thought they did a service to a younger generation with this album though, or at least a service to me. I would have never listened to Afrika Bambatta and the Soul Sonic Force or old Springsteen or EPMD or E-40 if it wasn't for this CD and my curiosity about what the original songs sounded like. And so i'm grateful for this album because it exposed me to some great hip-hop and other types of revolution and protest music. I'm glad i didn't miss out on that. There's a great story behind this song at Wikipedia. Here's the link.
Alright, that's the Monday Morning (afternoon) Shuffle for this week. I'll post something new on Wednesday. Fight the power.
1. Fleas - NOFX from Punk In Drublic
In the vein of other classic punk songs, this is under 2 minutes and is very uncomplicated. It's just a good, hard, 3-chord rocker that says what it wants and then ends. So punk right now. And a good one to get your blood pumping first thing on a Monday.
2. I Miss You - Incubus from Make Yourself
There was a time when this song was "that" song that made all the ladies swoon and gather around me and look at me with adoring, fawning eyes as i played it on the guitar. But then i quickly moved on to John Mayer's "Your Body is a Wonderland" when Incubus came out with their most recent CD which dropped their band from popularity faster than a lead fart. I'll admit that i used to worship this CD. I thought their lyrics were genius, they had a nice balance of nice melodies and hard rock and i really thought they were cool. I'm pretty sure now that it was just that time in my life when i was going through a lot of the feelings that this CD dealt with. Now that i'm over those feelings, i'm pretty much over the CD too. It also may have been because i wanted desperately to be the lead singer of a band and that Brandon's voice most closely resembled mine, at least for singing-in-the-car purposes.
3. Justice - Fivespeed from Trade In Your Halo
Fivespeed has shown up in this space before so there's not a ton else to say other than they're a great local band and you should really be listening to them.
This song is the last track on their first CD and it just has a really interesting and haunting quality to it.
4. The View - Modest Mouse from Good News for People Who Love Bad News
Those people who knew Modest Mouse before this CD came out will argue that this album really doesn't compare to anything the did previously as if now that everyone knows them, they're no longer any good. Whether that is true or not, i can't debate because i'm just getting on the Modest Mouse bandwago myself. But i like this CD and i really don't think it's as mainstream as the old fans accuse it of being. There are still some very funky beats and some very indie tendencies that will keep this album from really being "mainstream." By that, i mean that the Justin Timberlake crowd won't understand this album.
The View is one of the more poppy songs on the album but by that i mean it sounds like the actually practiced it before recording it. And they write lyrics like lyrics were meant to be be written, full of symbolism, metaphor and hyperbole. It leasves something to decipher and figure out how it applies to you. That's a disappearing artform these days.
5. Kick Out The Jams - Rage Against the Machine from Renegades
This is a cover of an MC5 song that Rage that Rage remade for their Renegades album. Someone once said that making a greatest hits or cover album is basically code for a band saying "We're done, We've got nothing new left." And boy it was never more true than in the case of Rage. This was their last album of course. I thought they did a service to a younger generation with this album though, or at least a service to me. I would have never listened to Afrika Bambatta and the Soul Sonic Force or old Springsteen or EPMD or E-40 if it wasn't for this CD and my curiosity about what the original songs sounded like. And so i'm grateful for this album because it exposed me to some great hip-hop and other types of revolution and protest music. I'm glad i didn't miss out on that. There's a great story behind this song at Wikipedia. Here's the link.
Alright, that's the Monday Morning (afternoon) Shuffle for this week. I'll post something new on Wednesday. Fight the power.
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