Mini Mini Reviews

Aight its time to give you a few shortish reviews of new albums I've listened to his week, some really cool stuff has leaked online including new Fleet Foxes and TV On The Radio. Now the reason behind my mini reviews is there's very little I have to say about these albums, sure I might like an album a lot but the pains of describing it and usually adding some lame story (I see that a lot in much bigger reviews) isn't my thang, I'll just do what I keep doing, short, to the point and a rating at the end.

Yuck - Yuck

Now this album is really really cool, the track that is head and shoulders above the rest is definitely the second track titled Wall. This album has old school alternative rock to it, back when the scene was a lot fresher and wasn't dying (it is, I'm tellin ya). There isn't a bad track in the bunch for me, its just a shame they all aren't at the Wall level.
Rating: 8.5/10

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

This album leaked on Sunday in NZ (I think) I didn't listen though, because it only came out in 128kps(the bane), from the people I talked to who listened to it, they gave glowing reviews so I had high expectations to begin with. Once it hit online in the 320(bro) format I was all over this and the album is definitely worth a listen, at this stage for me it slightly edges the self titled release and just flows beautifully. The vocals again are magical and Pecknold takes it to the next level, if you like folk music this could be an early contender for album of the year, if not you'll still dig it cause its still krieg as fuck.
Rating: 9/10

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Belong

Another album that is somewhat alternative in its sound, what I love about this album as its still got the signature TPOBPAH sound but is still different to the first release. What I do notice is a lack of distorted guitar in this one apart from the early tracks on the album. This surprised me but it still works for me, the album is uber sweet and nice, nicer than the first which is kind of scary in a way.
I don't know how you could hate this album.
Rating: 8/10

TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light

Oh Shieet nu TV On The Radio LEAKED YESTERDAY!!!!!! but should I rejoice....? HELL YESSSSSS!!!!. This album had a little pressure to be good in my eyes, as the last album Dear Science is my favourite of the bunch. That added with the fact there really hasn't been a bad TV On The Radio album, meant it wasn't a good time for a stinker. The album is again great, its still what you love about this band so don't worry. I've only given this a listen once so no stand out tracks for me yet.
Rating: 8/10

The Bane That Is The Best Of

Last night I received an email from an online store asking me if I wished to pre order the new 2CD of Iron Maiden's best of, funnily it was only from the time period 1990 - 2010. Why would anyone want to buy a best of from the worst period in their history, just avoid that and get Brave New World its the only decent release during that time. But back to the point of this, best of albums for me never really work they aren't always filled with your favourite tracks and they never usually have the flow that the original album they came from had.

The only good reason I have for best of's is that if you've never heard a band before the best of will give you a quick hit of what the bands all about before you delve into the rest of the discography, that's if you even liked the best of. The worst part about this is the off spurt of people who have merely listened to the best of and now claim themselves to be the bands biggest fans.

I know a guy who used to tell me how much he liked David Bowie, now myself I'm not the biggest fan of his but asked him a simple question as to what his favourite song on the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars was? He replied with he didn't know, so I asked him what albums he had just to find what songs he liked. To my surprise all he had was the best of, it wasn't even like he bought the album either, just downloaded the best of a few years back and talks like he knows Bowie better than most...what a fraud.

Now I obviously don't make the rules as to whether you're a big fan or not of a band but to me shouldn't you at least check out what this band has made over the years? a lot of best of's are filled with singles and a few other tracks that became popular, but favourite tracks are different for everyone.

I Had A Dream

No don't worry I'm not going to review a Martin Luther King Jr speech, but I did have a dream last night, one that still doesn't really make any sense as to why it happened. I was thinking last night about what I would write about today and just before bed I got a decent idea. The idea was of albums that you were excited about and ended up just failing in your eyes completely.

An example of this recently was that of The Strokes - Angles which I did a sort of review for after it leaked. Even though before the release I thought it was going to fail (why? I don't know) when the first couple of singles came out, it gave me hope it was going to be at least a pretty good release. Now I was pretty excited when I found out it leaked and after the first listen, any hope I had for the band was now gone and the excitement I had was obviously lost.

Now to the dream, for some reason it involved myself posting today that the next album by Best Coast is going to be a complete flop, for no reason other than it happened in my dream. So it's official, Best Coast's new album shall fail, all those that liked Crazy For You (myself included) will no be excited when they release another album no idea when by the way, but it shall fail and ruin our lives.

So the question I'll end with, has there ever been an album that you anticipated and ended up completely failing to impress you?

Hey Didn't I See You At...?

On Saturday I was at cricket prize giving, now obviously there's nothing out of the ordinary with this, but during the night I noticed someone I used to play cricket with and was also at a gig I went to last year. This gig was seeing the Pixies in Christchurch, now instead of talking about the season past like everyone else, we went straight onto the topic of the gig. Our favourite songs played, why we like them and his disbelief that someone much younger than himself was also a big fan.

Now this lead me to the topic of drunken musical chats, because by the time we started the Pixies chat the amount of beer consumed was quite large, also at many a parties, music has come into the equation with me. Some of my top drunken music arguments include the subject of Pearl Jam, my friend was going to see them soon and wasn't pleased when I called them my least favourite grunge band. This argument went on for a long time during the night and just like most arguments, neither side was going to budge on what they believed was right. Now it probably didn't help when I started talking shit about the latest album Backspacer, cause after all its a giant turd of an album, with the most lifeless guitars ever (well maybe not ever, but you get the point). He still sees it as a classic PJ album, but that's probably more because he saw the songs live and was in total awe of the band.

When you have a strong opinion on bands that you think are good or bad, you'll always step on someone's toes, it's worst when someone says they really like a band that you dislike. An example which has been used recently is Kings of Leon, after the Sex on Fire and Lose Somebody singles the band took off commercially with such a sudden mainstream success that increased its fan base big time (my dad being a new fan...sigh). Now some called them sell outs not me though, because I just thought they were as shit as the earlier albums even if the band hasn't sounded the same, it's always sucked and telling people their favourite band sucks isn't great for conversation.

So music for me while I love it so, it's something I don't always like to talk about, because to some they obviously care when I tell them their favourite band blows, I on the other hand don't give a shit if they like bands I like or not.

Live Review: MF DOOM San Francisco Bath House Wellington New Zealand

Thank fuck MF DOOM isn't a real super hero as he would've shown up an hour and a half late to the crime or that's what happened in relation to how late he was to his performance on Monday night. When walking in it merely stated that DOOM was to begin at 10pm at night so just before 10 I took the opportunity to stand on the barrier which was essentially being up against the stage. at about 9:30 DJ Spell began his set, it was quite nice hearing a bunch of classic hip hop/rap tunes that while waiting for DOOM to inevitably start and helped stop any possible riots from the unimpressed crowd.

Another thing I noticed was the crowd, which happened to be 95% white people, I'm not sure if that's because MF DOOM is a white man's rapper (well I'm guessing not) or because people of the darker shade don't like him or thought it was a little pricey (which it kind of was).

Now DOOM eventually started his performance at 1130pm and once it started we were shown very very quickly why people hold this guy in such high regard. One thing you notice early on is how great his flow is, the dude can spit with the best of them and the crowd are almost in awe of his ability with the mic. The setlist is mainly full of tracks from Operation Doomsday, Mm...Food and to my delight Madvillainy. The Madvillain tracks seemed to be the biggest hit with the crowd which included tracks Accordian, Meat Grinder and Rainbows. While other album tracks included One Beer, Rhymes Like Dimes and Hey!

The performance was so tight and the crowd (particularly was immense) being crush at the front a few times may not be the greatest of things to happen to someone at a gig, but damn it showed that the crowd are really into it, rapping along. My personal favourite moment would have to be early on in his set (unsure of the song now) while i had my hand out he gangsta hand shook me (is there any other way of describing it?) and held it while rapping in my face, one of my favourite gig moments ever, if not the best.

All of this was fun, MF DOOM put on an incredible show, a shame he took so long to come on  stage but me thinks the advertised time was incorrect as the next night in Auckland he was due to perform at 1130. The show wasn't the longest with it being just over and hour long, but it was an hour of great rapping, something we might never see here again in Wellington.

Overall Rating 8.5

Top 50 Albums 2000 - 2009

Yeah this has been posted before, but not on this blog! so I'll post it here cause I've been busy and don't want to give the fans something that isn't Sorbo quality. Tomorrow will be my MF DOOM review, so be sure to check back again tomorrow.

1. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

2. Kanye West - Late Registration

3. Beastie Boys - To The 5 Boroughs

4. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

5. Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare

6. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven!

7. Wilco - Yankee Foxtrot Hotel

8. Sunn O)) - Black One

9. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

10. Converge - Jane Doe

11. Ricardo Villalobos - Fizheuer Zieheuer

12. Scott Walker - The Drift

13. Mastodon - Crack The Skye

14. Derrhunter - Microcastle

15. J Dilla - Donuts

16. The Horrors - Strange House

17. Isis - Celestial

18. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81

19. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours

20. Tool - Lateralus

21. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Tomorrows Heroes Today

22. Raekwon - Only Built For Cuban Linx...Pt II

23. The Strokes - Is This It

24. Frank Turner - Love Ire and Song

25. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

26. Clutch - Blast Tyrant

27. Isis - In Absence Of Truth

28. Radiohead - Kid A

29. The Kills - Midnight Boom

30. Lily Allen - Alright Still

31. Madvillain - Madvillainy

32. Kylesa - Static Tensions 

33. Joanna Newsom - Y's

34. Mastodon - Remission

35. Boris - Pink

36. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

37. Blotted Science - The Machinations  Of Dementia

38. Elliot Smith - Figure 8

39. Cryptopsy - Once Was Not

40. Boards Of Canada - Geogaddi

41. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Bravery, Repetition and Noise

42. The Decemberists - Crane Wife

43. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - B.R.M.C.

44. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP

45. Sufjan Stevens - Michigan

46. Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf

47. Opeth - Blackwater Park

48. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

49. Electric Wizard - Dopethrone

50. Chris Cornell - SCREAM 

A Movie Soundtrack, An Unreleased Release, A Two Piece And A Train

There's nothing worse than taking public transport without music (believe me I tried it once) the conversation people have (usually ones by school kids) will forever be loss. Today I took the trek home to see the parents via public transport and while its only just under an hour taking a train and bus it did allow me to listen to some albums on the way and once here.

The first was the new release by a favourite band of mine The Kills with their album titled Blood Pressures, while this album wasn't on the level as my favourite Midnight Boom this is still another strong release by The Kills. Alison Mosshart's vocals are as strong and beautiful as ever, Jamie Hince does a great job in backing vocals and  instrumentally keeping the raw garage rock sound which they've had from the start. If your a big fan like myself you'll definitely dig this album, as it keeps with the formula that has made this band successful, it won't blow you away, but it'll definitely still be an album to enjoy.

Overall Rating: 8

Next was the recently publicised leak of the unreleased David Bowie album titled Toy, it isn't jammed packed with new material, with B sides and some stuff that was written as far back as the 60's. Now when listening it was all kind of "meh" I've always been a fairly big Bowie fan, but it's been a while since I had listen a to album by the great and it just didn't go down that well. That's not to say this album sucks by any means it had some decent stuff on it but I see this more as an album I wasn't prepared to listen to and hopefully after recapturing the Bowie sound (through listening to some of his more famous albums) this will grow on me, but for now its all a little bit disappointing.

Overall Rating: 6.5

Last is the very short EP soundtrack for the Movie Submarine, by the Arctic Monkeys singer Alex Turner. At only 20 minutes and just 6 tracks you'll definitely get just a small taste of what Alex Turner can do. It's essentially a BAS album, so something different from everything he's done before this. The sound is much more mature lacking the chav like vocals that made the Arctic Monkeys famous in the past. While it's BAS and different you still get some of the signature guitar tones from Alex and with himself growing up, something mature away from the youthful sounding Arctic Monkeys is very nice as his voice works so well on every song on this EP.

Overall Rating: 8

What The Fuck Is Party Music?

So while I was a a party last Friday (good party by the way!) I got thinking while the music was going about what is "party music" is it that god awful "I've got a feeling" shit everybody likes, because its so literal that people don't need to figure out thaws going on in the song? or maybe its something electronic (or worse some wub wub).

Some would say it's whatever people like, now this might be true, but with that theory I'll go to a party and listen to some King Crimson, I'm sure everyone will love dancing along to that. Thus one genre that should stay away from any party atmosphere is Progressive Rock/Metal. Anything at a party where people are concentrating more on what instruments that are being played and how isn't great, now if this is some sort of listening session then yeah nothing wrong with that because the focus is on the music.

The biggest bane at parties for me is music, its not really their fault that I'm so into I spent such large amounts of time searching and listening to new stuff, but to show up and hear top 40 pop and rap from the past 20 years really messes with me. To make things worse when you attempt to put something on that might be fun, new and different you get weird looks like you've gone against everyone by not playing something everyone knows.

Another bane is the 10 second DJ, to have someone try show off all their "different" music they give you the first 10 seconds before they move onto the next song. Dude I don't care if the songs good or not play it till the end or not at all. Lastly in my list of music related party bane's is Youtube remixes, the first part of the problem is the sound quality on Youtube isn't the best, that combined with people waiting for shit to stream, you have everyone standing round waiting for the music to start again (we don't want to have to start talking or something).

Now back from the bane tangent is party music this:

Or maybe its this:

I hope its not this:

DOOM Decision, Plus Walking With Dodo's

So today is the day MF DOOM plays in Wellington at San Francisco Bath House and last night I made the decision to go. It really was an opportunity too good to give a miss and hopefully everything goes well at the show as we don't need no complete nightmare scenarios.Support act is DJ Spell (no fuckin idea who he is) as requested by DOOM himself, I'll be sure to give you a small run down of what went on in tomorrows blog and perhaps a full review later in the week on another blog.

Now while procrastinating instead of doing my assignment that was due today, I decided to go for a walk, cause that's what people do at 1130pm on Sunday night, this also gave me a chance to check out the new album by The Dodos titled No Color. I've never been a huge fan of there's and wasn't even sure if I'd check this out considering how disappointing the last effort was by these guys. But it seems life is good again in the Dodos camp and the album they produced is a big improve on the last one.

Now before I get carried away this isn't a masterpiece by any means but it is some nice indie/folk pop album, with the acoustic guitar really carrying through well throughout the album. The album does start strongly but I felt a bit let down throughout the middle stages before it brightened up again to make this another solid release. Overall it's just a solid album but definitely worth it if you're an old Dodos fan or even someone interested in checking them out for the first time.

Overall rating 7.5

To DOOM Or Not To DOOM?

Next Monday MF DOOM plays for the first time in Wellington, part of his first ever "tour" (it's actually only 2 shows, hardly a "tour") I haven't bought a ticket, considering I'm a poor student without a job, but the question still remains, should I go anyway? I CAN afford to go, but really shouldn't with my current financial situation.

MF DOOM  has always been one of my favourite rappers with albums I rate quite highly with his 1999 classic Operation Doomsday and Mm...Food helping give him a pretty solid reputation in the rap game. He hit the big time in collaborating with the producer Madlib under the name Madvillain, Madvillain created the album Madvillainy which is a revere album not only in it's genre but up there with albums made between 2000-2009.

While thinking about this possibly being the only chance I'll ever have to see him, this might sway me to this, fuck man its motherfuckin MF DOOM I have to go, but shouldn't, I'll decide by the end of the weekend. If so I'm sure I could write up something about how good it was.

Anyway here's a taster of what MF DOOM can do:

Song From A Band You Hate: There Wasn't An Option Till This Morning

It's weird, day 12 of the 30 Day Song Challenge that has consumed all that is Facebook might seem like an easy day for me, after all I have no problem reminding people of why I think a band or song sucks, but its definitely not as easy as some band I think suck.

Have I ever truly hated a band? not that I know of, hating a band would actually mean they did something to me. Last time I checked no one ever forced me to listen to the last Kings Of Leon album (or any album for that matter, thank god) or Bieber, Black Eyed Peas and Hellyeah.

Nor is it those bands fault people like them, they're only playing what they or the consumers like (or are told to like). I'd kind of understand if the band beat you up out the back of a gig, cause you asked them out on a date (fffag) but otherwise I'm not sure "Why The Hate?".

Well all this changed in the early hours of this morning, it might have been the songs fifth, sixth, seventh consecutive listen that was breaking point but FUCK PENDULUM. It's bad enough the songs aren't really my thing and when your trying to get back to sleep you continue the most boring, repetitive song sure didn't help. Perhaps the shouting over the song helped drown out the song a little, yeah probably did, but that was a short reprieve when death was a pretty good consideration at the time.

Please Pendulum fans who read this (owned on two counts by the way) don't get butt hurt cause I think the band makes shit music, cause it's just music maaan. Why would you care if I or anyone else didn't like them?

In short, without knowing the name of the song, today's 30 Day Song Challenge song will definitely be a Pendulum song.

P.S. I'm not even 100% sure it was Pendulum but it's a pretty smart guess.

What Happened? I don't know but I like it!

Don't you hate it when your favourite drone band decides to do J-pop? yeah same and that's what happened when I decided to give the new album from Boris (called New Album) a listen. Now while on the surface I thought I hated this release during the early stages of the first listen, I moved away from the fact it was Boris release and looked at it on face value alone.

The album is pretty stock standard J-pop (well as stock standard as I've ever listened to, its not what I'd call it a popular genre for me) early on, but it delves into a much more beat driven dance tracks with the appropriately named Party Boy being the first. To me this is the first sight of old Boris being included with the distorted guitar in the background playing a supporting role to the track.

Next up is Black Original which gets rid of the guitar completely, it's simply a durrty electronic track that would be appropriate in any club, some could call this "A Douche bags Delight!" not me though...cause that's lame and all. The album slows down to something resembling Spanish Sahara by Foals but with a nice Boris spin to it, a very peaceful track with minimal electronics included to beef it up a little.

The album sounds like it was about to die a slow death, but up pops more J-pop to revive it back to life, while this is somewhat enjoyable, it doesn't exactly shout exciting to me, maybe its just cause I don't care for J-pop enough.

The album goes from "doof doof" raves to J-pop if you're into that than go ahead and listen to this. Obviously if you prefer the noise/experimental/stoner/psychedelic/drone rock that Boris has done in the past then you probably won't like this, its solid but not spectacular.

Rating you ask? 7

RIP The Strokes 1998 - 2011

So anyone hoping for a revival of The Strokes will be disappointed, cause their new album angles is bizarrely bad, its not The Strokes we all used to listen to, the riffs are boring, the vocals sound slightly weird and it doesn't resemble them at all.

The Positives:

Its only 35 minutes long so the misery is short and sharp like a ginsu knife to the eye (or not)

There's 3 decent songs on the album Under Cover Of Darkness, Taken For A Fool and Life Is Simple In The Moonlight.

Some people actually like it (I don't know how) so they might get another chance down the road to redeem themselves, or worse makes things even worse then this.

Negatives:

Not a lot of the sound by these guys that I used to love

Songs 1,3,4,6,7,8,9 all suck

Its 35 minutes of your life you'll want back.
ITS NOT THE STROKES!!!!

Don't Worry I'll always remember the good times we had, back when you released Is This It and had an album full of awesome songs that I still love.

Today's Listening: It Was Just Noise Maaaan

Well today's music listening has been in a way awkward, it wasn't necessarily bad, just the albums I chose weren't exactly your everyday regular listen stuff. So here's what I thought;

starting off with Colin Stetson's creation many could just call it a bunch of electronic noises, thankfully its more than that. My only problem is after one listen I have little idea if I actually like it, hopefully it grows on me cause right now I feel indifferent about that listening experience.

Next up was Raekwon's new album Shaolin vs. Wu Tang, now Raekwon's last album Only built for Cuban Linx...PtII was great, one of the better albums from 2009 but this won't be going on any top album lists (well atleast I hope it doesn't) its very boring nothing appealing and a listen I was pleased it was over. It definitely wasn't bad but I'm struggling to find any positives about it. This is probably just a filler album for PtIII. Hopefully next time Raekwon brings RZA into the studio with him and errthang should be alright again.

After that sham was Tim Hecker and while not being much of a drone fan, I really did dig this album, really strong atmosphere and the visual ideas explored through the sounds are great. Usually I get bored fast from drone but some how this kept me wanting more.

Last up was Nicolas Jaar, now I gotta say it's the pick of the bunch for me, the beats are amazing and the minimal aspects involved form some great tracks. Obviously you ain't going to hear this at the clubs but it would be pretty hilarious to see what people did if it happened. Big ups Jaar!

Tomorrows Listening

Big day of listening ahead of me tomorrow, after all when you only have one class in the morning what else is there to do? STUDY!?!?!...I'll leave that for later.

The albums I'll be giving a first listen to are a bunch of new releases. 

Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

Raekwon - Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang 

Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise

Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972

Hopefully after this I'll be able to revisit an album from this year that I loved but have only listened to about twice, with that being Kaputt by Destroyer. 

So to make sure this hasn't been a complete waste of time I'll leave you with a cool video:

If only all bands played you a song while you wait in line!

FIRST POST, THATS LIKE A START?

So its my first blog entry and I kind of don't have a grand idea for this, I'll probably comment on new albums to check out and perhaps even talk of what I've been listening to recently. But with this being the first entry I'm going to list some of my favourite album openers (linking shit up, pro shit goin down).

these are in no particular order:

Arctic Monkeys - Brianstorm
For me Favourite Worst Nightmare has always been the best Arctic Monkeys album, this track has them explode out of the gates with speed and energy that totally eclipsed all they had done before and prove at least to me that there will be no slump after the début.

Beastie Boys - Rhymin & Stealin
While it isn't from a classic Beastie Boys album like Paul's Boutique or Check Your Head, Rhymin & Stealin just  shows off the Beastie Boys so well, the 3 white boys showing they're more than just jokers and they were a legit hip hop trio destined for big things.

Bloc Party - Like Eating Glass
This one is real easy, my favourite album from the 2000's Silent alarm doesn't have a bad track in it for me so the opener to me is obviously a great track, Kele's vocals are great on this and the drumming is one of the shining moments.

The Charlatans - Blackened Blue Eyes
Man, Simpatico blows but this track is one of about three tracks that are worth listening to, Blackened Blue Eyes starts off with a nice piano piece before the guitar kicks before Tim Burgess shows off his usual swagger.

Faith No More - From Out Of Nowhere
Something a little heavier and a big favourite of mine due to the constant hearing of it while playing Madden 05 (good game by the way!). Mike Patton as always is great on the track with a slight whine in his vocals, while Mike Bordin owns the kit from start to finish.

The Stooges - Search and Destroy
Classic album, classic song, there's very little that needs to be said so I'll leave it at WIN!

Isis - Hall of the Dead
The final album from Isis was great and this would probably be my favourite track off it, so much going on instrumentally and the vocals of Aaron Turner a stand out for me.

Pixies - Debaser
Doolittle would be close to my favourite album OF ALL TIME and Debaser is such a great start. It got to the point where everyday after work it would the first thing I'd listen to on the ride home, now though I don't have a job, which might be why I'm doing this to pass the time...

Tyler, The Creator - Bastard
From the album of the same name, this is a harsh profile of Tyler's being, the piano piece is so appropriate and makes it even more serious. Dudes going to be big, watch out!

Wilco - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is a superb album and this is one of the best off it, Tweedy's vocals are great and the lyrics equally nice. When I saw them live last year this track was a stand out moment from it.