3 new anticipated albums

Tool - 10,000 Days

Their new album is definitely just like every other tool album, which apart from meaning that it's an ass-kicking tour de force, means that:

- its got a KILLER opening song

- its got the usual experimental schtick snuck in there, but this time it's at the end of the album where I can safely click the stop button.

- their continued obsession with bongos

- its just good music

Best Song - Vicarious

8.5/10

Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops

A band from Texas that actually makes music that isn't for gay cowboys and drunk rednecks?! Their sophomore album takes a big change in musical direction, going from the spacial sonic stoner music of their debut album into the much more melodic and poppy sound on their new album. Thankfully, these youngsters know how to craft a good song, and not the usual pop drivel that oozes out of my car stereo these days. Good stuff.

Best Song - Lightning Blue Eyes

8/10

Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam

I thought these fuckers just released a greatest hits album a while back?! Well apparently since they've moved to a new record label, they've been set free and have called this new album "the best work they've done in a long time". Too bad the same can't be said for that hideous album cover. Did they hire a multi-million design firm to put a papaya on a blue screen? The music though is OK at best, not bad but not anything spectacular either, which can probably be said for every other Pearl Jam album since "Vs.". But Eddie Vedder is still one of the best vocalists out there.

Best Song - Couldn't tell, nothing stood out

6.5/10

God Bless the Flaming Lips

Only one thing has gotten me through the drudgery of studying for my finals this term, and that is The Flaming Lips.

Why?

Because the band members of the Flaming Lips are HAPPY people who make HAPPY music. I'm so sick and tired of all the fucking emo bands out there now and this whole emo obsession that's taken over. It is utterly retarded. Take your groveling self-pity elsewhere. That goes for emo bands like Coldplay, Fall Out Boy, and whatever bullshit band who employs some high-pitched singer who whines about how all the problems he's facing.

The Flaming Lips make HAPPY music and it's so incredibly refreshing that I've almost forgotten what it feels like to be happy.

Now my favorite music critic will exemplify exactly why happiness starved people love the Flaming Lips. Take it away Brad....

"And that leaves my favorite track.  Not about a guy who saves the world, or travelling to outer space, or anything empirically uplifting, “Christmas at the Zoo” is probably the best example in the Lips catalog of why I love Wayne Coyne, and why you should too.  The plot: Wayne and his friends break into the zoo on Christmas eve, hoping to free the animals.  They get in and open up all the cages, but the animals, for some reason, refuse to leave the zoo.  And somehow he can make this utterly captivating and nearly fucking life-affirming.  “All of the animals agree they’re not happy at the zoo!  But they prefer to save themselves, they seem to think they could!  The elephants, orangutans, all the birds and kangaroos all say ‘thanks, but no thanks man, to be concerned is good!’”  And then there are like Santa’s sleigh Christmas bells at the end, right at the “It started to snow on Christmas eve!” line!  And how Wayne whistles the final verse is just the happiest thing ever recorded by anyone.  Ever."

*Goes back to listening with a SMILE on my face*

Top 10 Funniest Bushisms of All Time

The Top Ten Funniest (and Saddest) Mistakes, Misstatements, Bloopers and Blunders By President George W. Bush (so far...)

Pixies

“This band is FUCKING INSANELY GOOD.” – Chris

“I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies.” – Kurt Cobain

“Puneta!” – Black Francis

Formed in Boston in the latter half of the eighties, the Pixies have, arguably, a bigger stamp on the last fifteen years of rock music than any other band.  Their soft-loud dynamics, simple, effective basslines, screaming guitars, and melodic know-how influenced countless bands in the early nineties, some worthy, some not.  Kurt Cobain claimed, at every possibly opportunity, that Nirvana were nothing more than a Pixies rip-off.  The Toadies were a Pixies ripoff, right down to the fucked-up lyrical matter and unattractive female bass player.  Listen to any of their albums today, and you’re bound to hear between 5 and 10 chord sequences that have since been beaten into the ground by the band’s clueless, self-loathing followers.  The first ten seconds of “Debaser” alone have probably launched the careers of too many bands to reasonably count.  And yet, despite all this, the Pixies to this day remain totally unique in the history of popular music.

            See, the Pixies were one of the biggest contributing authors to the book of alternative rock, but they had also had a ton of other aspects which have yet to be imitated.  Sometimes these “other” aspects were downright annoying, yes, but they help the Pixies stand out both from their contemporaries and their followers.  Black Francis spent part of his college years in Puerto Rico, so he loved surf-rock and weird Spanish music.  Bassist Kim Deal’s ethereal backing vocals provided an excellent contrast to Black’s often incomprehensible (yet better than Geddy Lee!) screeching about “slicing up eyeballs” (Black was, vocally, the singular influence on Jack White, by the way).  They could alternately play fast and loose like punks, yelp like possessed iguanas, and write melody lines the envy of most other bands to ever grace this planet, and sometimes did all three in the same song.  Black Francis has a ridiculous sense of humor that, when it goes overboard, annoys the living crap out of me, but when used in moderation proves goofy and fun.  Its absence from the band’s last two records might be what makes most Pixies fans rate them lower than the band’s first two, but, in my humble opinion, that is a total crock of shit.  I like both pairs just as much!  I even think Doolittle is obviously flawed in places!  Ha!  But putting all this aside, they were one of the greatest indie-rock bands of all time, and all of their records, bar possibly Bossanova, are absolutely essential for the like three fans of the genre who don’t already have them.  If you hate smarmy college kids and get off on Bob Seger records, though, you should probably stay away.

            Lineup!  The baby-faced, chubby man turned to the side in front is lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and possessor of a very boring name Charles Thompson, who rechristened himself “Black Francis” before taking lead of the Pixies, and re-rechristened himself “Frank Black” before going solo.  He’s basically the tyrant of the group, and his Billy Corgan-esque creative control helped contribute to the band’s early breakup, since bassist Kim Deal (far right), a decent songwriter in her own right, was only able to convince Mr. Francis to allow two of her compositions on Pixies records (one of which blows!).  The remaining two members are, on the left, drummer David Lovering (oh my god is that Trevor Linden?!) and, next to him, lead guitarist Joey Santiago.  I don’t really refer to either one of them much in the reviews, because drumming isn’t why you buy Pixies albums and I never have any idea who of Joey and Black is playing what guitar part in a given song, but they’re probably really nice guys, too.

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Midterms are...... OVER BABY! I OWNED those bitches. Well not really, I've only gotten the marks back for one of them which I'm proud to say was above the class average. Suckas! And I even studied a chapter I didn't need to for that midterm (of course I didn't know that, I'm no study freak).