Revisited: Michael Jackson - Dangerous

If you asked my mom, one of my first serious musical loves was the music of Michael Jackson, and while I can certainly admit how steadily his music devolved over the years, nothing can change how much of an impact his earlier stuff had on me and how much I still love it to this day. Hell, you may even recall that I bought and thoroughly enjoyed 1987's Bad only last year... That said, 1991's Dangerous was my first Michael Jackson album, and though it certainly has its weaker moments (especially the really sappy songs like "Heal The World" and the Free Willy song "Will You Be There", it's still pretty strong. According to Wikipedia, Dangerous was able to convert a whopping nine of its fourteen tracks into radio singles, a fact so unbelievable that I had to do a fact check (it's true, though I don't remember them all being on MTV or the radio). As such, Dangerous is also supposedly the most successful New Jack Swing (think Boyz II Men's "Motownphilly") album of all time, which I was less surprised about.

So, while I'm only in love with about half of the songs on the album and the other half is a little tedious, this album has too strong a legacy in my childhood for me to bump it down to a 3/5, so let's just consider it a four and leave it at that. It's certainly no Bad, it's predecessor and the last of the Quincy-Jones-produced MJ albums, but I can't help keeping a place for it in my heart.

Familiarity: High
Highlights: "Why You Wanna Trip On Me"/"In The Closet"/"Dangerous"
Rating: 4/5

Back from Nashville...and Sick

Suzi and I got in from Nashville Saturday night, but getting back into the swing of things has been slowed down quite a bit with a cold that developed rapidly between the tail end of our time out of town and while I was sleeping that first night back, so I might be kinda out of it for the next few days. I kinda had a little sore throat on the first day of our trip, but it faded by early evening, so I figured it was just a sleep thing. I was fine all the next day, but right before we started heading home, it came back and eventually morphed into a fever and congestion. That said, I still managed to make it to work yesterday for a long day's worth of teaching, and though it was hard at first, I pulled it together with some meds, health supplements, and chicken noodle soup, and I'm recovering quite nicely right now.

It's kinda funny though, 'cause it was this time last year (off by one week) that I caught the cold that ended up morphing into a nasty sinus infection, lasting a total of six weeks, all told...so let's hope that doesn't happen this time around. Unlike last year, I'm making sure to take Mucinex D daily to keep me from building up any mucous in my sinuses that could develop into an infection, and I plan on getting as much good sleep as I can, though I had a hard time going back to bed this morning when I woke up a little earlier than I had hoped. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that this holiday season turns out to be as illness free as possible!

Deep Blue Sea

Growing up, I loved shark movies (well, those in the Jaws franchise), so it wasn't a surprise that I made sure to watch 1999's big entry into the genre, Deep Blue Sea, telling the story of a underwater research experiment gone wrong when a few cerebrally-enhanced mako sharks end up turning on their captors and wreaking havok underwater. Yes, looking back, this seems like an absolutely horrible premise for a shark movie, but I watched it back then, and even though I realized how inferior it was to even the worst of the Jaws films, I still wanted to return to it when I saw it was available on Netflix.

If you don't already know, the film's only real stars are Samuel L. Jackson (ending with an infamously premature death seen) and rapper LL Cool J, who plays a wise-cracking ex-priest chef with a pet parrot. All the other characters are ultimately insignificant, regardless of whether or not they survive the ordeal, and though the film's decent special effects and general visual presentation do a lot to give it some credibility, the writing and plot are ultimately its undoing, adding up to little more than a blockbuster B-level horror flick. That said, I didn't hate rewatching Deep Blue Sea, but it was certainly done as an unnecessary and somewhat-nostalgic indulgence.

Off To Nashville

Once again, blogging might be a little slow for the next couple of days, as Suzi and I are about to leave for a short one-night/two-day trip to Nashville. Considering Thanksgiving is one of the only larger breaks Suzi gets off work in the course of the year, we wanted to take advantage of it at least a little, though we didn't want to miss family Thanksgiving this time around. So, we're making the four-hour drive up through Chattanooga to the home of country music, will be spending the better part of today there, hitting the town at night, checking out of the hotel tomorrow morning, spending most of tomorrow doing some more sight-seeing, and then driving back Saturday night so I'll be back for work Sunday. Short trip, but it should be enough time to get a decent visit in. Hopefully I'll get a blog or two off on the trip, but if not, expect to hear from me again Sunday at the latest.

Kyle Andrews - Robot Learn Love

One of the biggest shifts in my taste in music over the past year has been the aforementioned newly-acquired affinity for folkier styles and a counterbalancing growing distaste for cheesy pop rock stuff. While the first part of this shift is more to do with the changing tides of indie rock and my getting older, the anti-pop shift is probably more on account of Suzi's distaste for the genre, which has filtered down to me by relationship osmosis, if you will. This said, I do occasionally manage to accidentally buy and commit to listening to a cheesy pop album, and Kyle Andrews' recent Robert Learn Love fits this description perfectly. I say "accidentally" because sometimes the increased-length 90-second iTunes clips still fail to reveal exactly how you'll respond to a given album, so when listening to Robot Learn Love online, I really thought it had a chance of being something decent...

Well I was wrong. The album's ten tracks pass by quickly enough, but at best, they leave you with very little to return to (or even remember), if not getting on your nerves quite a bit. The lyrics are basically just dressed-up bubblegum pop, the musical style (despite its almost Passion Pit-like electronic vibe at times) sounds dated, and Kyle Andrews' voice is easily the worst part of it all, walking a fine line between emo whining and singer-songwriter close-mic'ed breathiness without anything good to balance it out. Anyway, I definitely don't recommend this album, but at least it was short and easy enough to get through without having to ignore it entirely...

Highlights: "Make Me Feel Human"/"I'm Coming Get 2 Get U"/"Turn The Radio Up"
Rating: 1/5

Buried

As the first of what amounted to a smattering of horror films watched in preparation for Halloween, Suzi and I decided to check out the 2010 Spanish-directed film Buried, starring Ryan Reynolds in a near one-man show where he's trapped in a coffin underground with pretty much only a cell phone and a lighter. When I first saw the trailer for this film back in the theatres, I was mildly intrigued, but then I never really heard anything about it again until I saw it on Netflix, so I went into the experience expecting it to be a bit underwhelming. So although this could be partly to blame for the fact that I actually ended up liking it a whole lot, that's not to say it didn't have its own merits apart from my lowered expectations.

I really don't think I should say much more about the film, as it's clearly got a minimal approach (with Reynolds in the coffin literally being the only thing we see the ENTIRE TIME), and as such, I would be ruining it for you to tell you how the film manages to keep your interest for its 94 minutes. Suffice it to say that it does, and by the end you're definitely not bored. I think this feat definitely warrants some praise for director Rodrigo Cortés, the voice-acting of various people Reynolds talks to on the phone, and of course, Reynold's starring role. In the end, while Buried wasn't one of my absolute favorites this year, it was definitely worth checking out if the premise intrigues you.

Two Year Video Game Cycle

I've been thinking a lot about it, and I've started to notice a strong trend in my gaming habits, one that seems to be on a two-year cycle (by calendar year, not starting when I got an Xbox back in Summer of '08). For whatever reason, I tend to pick up games in similar genres/franchises either on odd- or even-numbered years, and though acknowledging this could make one skeptical that I might be creating a self-fulfilling prophecy for years to come, I do think the trend would have continued anyway, based largely on which AAA titles will be coming out next year or those that I've happened to put off thus far put will probably pick up soon. So, here we go:

2008, 2010, and presumably 2012:
Let's start at the beginning. My first game I played on Xbox was BioShock, and though I nearly missed playing its sequel in the 2010 calendar year, I did manage to squeeze it in. Plus, BioShock Infinite, the big third entry, is scheduled for release next year, and seeing as it's the rare type of game I'm extremely excited about, I'll probably pick it up right away at full price. As it turns out, the exact same trend happened with the Mass Effect series, as Mass Effect 3 will be coming out in March, so that's another example. Other examples would include playing Call of Duty 2 in 2008, Modern Warfare in 2010, and quite possibly one of its many sequels next year, though that's less certain than either of the other two franchises listed above. Though I didn't play a Batman game in 2008 (since none existed then), I did play Arkham Asylum in 2010, and I plan on playing Arkham City next year (though it was released recently). Finally, a similar situation exists for the Dead Space franchise, having played the original back in 2008, skipping the sequel this year, but then most likely picking it up in 2012 since I didn't get around to it this year.

2009, 2011, and possibly 2013?:
While those were the strong years, somehow the odd-numbered years have both turned out a little lacking, and 2011's got very little time to erase that reputation... The strongest example would be Bethesda's two biggest releases up until the recent Elder Scrolls installment: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (which I played in 2009) and Fallout 3, which you're probably aware was one of my favorite games this (or any) year, so technically, we can't exactly say I totally struck out in odd-numbered years. The next obvious correlation is having played the original Portal back in 2009 and then having just finished its sequel this week, and then there's the music games... While I've played at least one new music game every year thus far, the even-numbered year games (Guitar Hero III and the two DJ Hero games) were amazing, and the odd-numbered year ones (Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 3 were letdowns. Finally, there's Prince of Persia (the cell-shaded 2008 release, which I played in 2009) and Enslaved, which though quite different, almost felt like its spiritual successor.

Now, while it's easy enough to predict that 2012 will be a good year for gaming with its bevy of great releases and the long list of great games I have yet to play that serve as potential candidates, 2013 really is too far off to offer any certainty. It really would be silly of me to try to unnaturally perpetuate this trend, but part of me kinda likes the whole cyclical nature of it all, so on some level, I really wouldn't mind it continuing...

mc chris @ The Drunken Unicorn 2011

So, I'm finally ready to talk about the recent mc chris show at The Drunken Unicorn that took place right after Suzi's reunion, where I also gave the little mc a copy of my three current mash-ups right after the show in his reception line at the merch booth. We arrived just in time to see the tail end of opener MC Lars' set, which was pretty solid from what I could tell...though I'm still not at all familiar with his work, I had a feeling that his material was a step up from the guy who went on right before mc chris last time, fellow nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot. It's also worth mentioning that sometime before we got to meet mc chris, Suzi got to say hi to MC Lars, tell him that she likes his stuff, and receive a thank-you hug, which was nice. =)

Anyway, onto the mc chris show itself... It all began with a trio of Stormtroopers and another trio of Ghostbusters coming onstage during a somewhat awkward Carmina Burana playthrough, and then mc chris came out onstage and eventually dismissed them. Sure, it made for an interesting beginning, but it was kinda random. Overall, mc chris' set was pretty solid, featuring lots of songs I knew and a few from the new album Race Wars, but it was much shorter than his show last time, a fact which Suzi and I have attributed to chris being down about his Dad having some sort of terminal illness (which he mentioned while on stage towards the end of the show). Honestly, I'm not even sure if the set was much more than 45 minutes, which is rather short for a headliner who had at least two openers before him, but whatever...at least I actually knew his stuff this time around, as I hadn't listened to any of his albums this time last year. Oh, and the Halloween costume contest (which was going on all tour, not just on Halloween itself) was fun: Atlanta's winner was a guy dressed as Billy Witch Doctor.com from Aqua Teen, though I didn't know anything about him until now....

Anyway, after the show, Suzi and I were the second group in line to meet up with chris, since we had moved back to the merch table towards the end of the show. Having just cut the set short, chris looked a little exhausted, and though we told him a short version of how Suzi met him once through one of her exes (and about my mixes, of course), trying to put some weight on them by saying that I had majored in composition, he quickly gave the CD to one of his merch people in a very casual manner, and I still to this day have not heard from him nor seen any indication on his Twitter that he has actually listened to the material, so I'm kinda discouraged at this point. I know the work I did was really solid, especially if you know both chris' work and that of the artists I used for mashing, but it really would be encouraging to hear as much from chris himself, especially considering how shitty some of the other mash-ups out there are. We'll see...I'll be sure to update you when I hear something. Regardless, the show was still really fun (though short), and effectively put a nice ending on an otherwise already really special day. Glad Suzi agreed to let me drag her away from her reunion!

New Movie Tags

You're probably not that much of a fan of this blog to have noticed, but I recently overhauled my tagging system for movies, so I thought I would take a minute to break it down. All of this stemmed from a growing frustration with how many posts that were lumped under the umbrella category "Movies" relative to the quantity of posts filed under virtually any other subject, so I felt it was time to divide them all up into more specific (and therefore smaller) categories. Here's what I came up with:

- Action
- Animated
- Comedy
- Comics
- Documentary
- Drama
- Fantasy
- Horror
- Sci-Fi
- Suspense
- True Story

In addition to these eleven genres, I have two more categories, "General" and "Revisited", to cover (respectively) posts about movies in general (including trailers for upcoming films), and posts discussing movies I've re-watched recently for the first time in awhile, which means (conversely), that all the films listed in the categories above were seen for my first time.

Anyway, the genres above are all pretty self-explanatory, though you might find it strange that I separated "Comics" from either "Action", "Fantasy", or "Sci-Fi" and "True Story" from "Documentary"... Regarding comic-themed movies, I watch enough of them to justify their own category, especially since it's not always clear which of the other categories any given comic film would belong to. As for the "True Story"/"Documentary" split, I did this because the former includes biopics and the like, which are usually acted out dramatically and aren't as instructive in nature, generally being intended more for entertainment's sake.

All-in-all, I'm pretty happy with these distinctions, and perhaps if I view enough films in any particular genre in a given year, they might just earn their own Top 5 category for year-end nominations (I'm looking at you "Documentary").

Suzi's Reunion

The night of the big mc chris show was an eventful night indeed, as the main planned event for the evening (at least as far as Suzi was aware) was a high school reunion she was a bit uncertain about, but near the last minute decided she wanted to attend. Suzi went to a small private school and, like a lot of us, was a totally different person back then, so she wasn't sure what she was in store for and how her old classmates would remember her, but having me and one of her best friends/classmates Carter with her was a nice buffer going in, having at least us by her side. In the end though, I don't think she even needed us there (though she would probably deny it!), as everyone there was really nice to us and she seemed to be on particularly friendly terms with a healthy chunk of them. So no worries needed! ;)

The party was held at this seriously luxurious mansion in town owned by one of Suzi's classmates' parents and that has supposedly been used in a number of films, so that was a treat. Carter is a real estate agent and grew up visiting that house, so he was giving regular informal (though professional!) tours of the house, which was definitely one of the highlights. Oh, and beforehand, Carter, Suzi, and I had a really nice dinner at the newly-opened Verde Taqueria near Suzi, which itself was preceded by me giving Suzi the new mc chris track, so it was definitely a big night!

In the end, while I'm not sure how many of Suzi's classmates she'll end up keeping up with and by extension, that we'll end up hanging out, I enjoyed meeting everyone and had a good time, Suzi's fears were allayed as everyone was happy to see her, and things were only set to get better with the surprise mc chris show afterwards!

Revisited: Hot Chip - Made In The Dark

Though I currently own three Hot Chip albums, I've always found myself not quite able to fully commit to the British indie electronic quintet's style, yet I've always sensed there was something there underneath the surface that I wasn't quite yet getting. The album featured here, 2008's Made In The Dark is their third, but it was my first foray into the band's work, and though I picked it up relatively-recently compared with my other "revisited" albums, this happened just before I started with my weekly listening regimen and concurrent rating system, so I figured I would reacquaint myself with the album, especially since I'm about to commit to in-depth listening of their second album (but my third), The Warning, in a week or two.

When I bought Made In The Dark back in 2008, I was in a very different place regarding my goals in finding new music...namely, I was looking for great tracks with which to DJ, and therefore, though this album DOES have a danceable track or two, I was generally disappointed, as it really functions as Hot Chip's most indie rock album that I've thus far heard. Fortunately, over the past few years I've returned to a love of band-oriented music instead of strictly dance-dance music, and as such, Made In The Dark has grown on me nicely. That said, there are enough so-so moments on the disc to keep me from falling head-over-heels for it, but I think this album is probably the most up-my-alley of any I've owned to date (though I do have high hopes for The Warning). Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Made In The Dark this time around, so I'm looking forward to spending some more time with it and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a unique take on indie electronic rock.

Familiarity: Moderate
Highlights: "Shake A Fist"/"Ready For The Floor"/"Wrestlers"
Rating: 4/5

mc chris Mash-Up 3

The last time I updated you about my work on Suzi's mc chris mash-ups, I had made a sort of hopeful resolution that I wouldn't take as long in preparing the next (i.e. third) track as I had between the first two, which was four months... Well unfortunately, I ended up taking 50% longer than even that, weighing in at almost six full months before I gave Suzi the current version of the third track, which itself is technically due for an extended-version amendment since I wasn't able to figure out how to work in the last chunk of verse lyrics before my deadline arrived. And what was the deadline? Surprising Suzi with tickets to go see mc chris live again at The Drunken Unicorn and giving the rapper himself a copy of my three finished tracks! Exciting stuff(!), but I'm going to save those details for later, instead focusing here on the actual mix (or at least, as much as I'm willing to describe before I officially release the mash-ups online).

If you remember, the first track was done relatively quickly (in roughly 2-3 weeks), as expectations were much more casual at the time and my deadline of Christmas was looming; and though the second track did take quite awhile, this was partly justified due to its increased complexity, length, and overall expectations, so it made sense to think this third one would have gone by more quickly, as it was to be a lot more lighthearted in nature. Unfortunately, a couple things ended up holding me back way more than anticipated... First, I like to begin each of my tracks with an outside spoken-word sample of sorts that gives a sort of context for the track (as well as a title), but for whatever reason, finding such a sample eluded me VERY hard this time around, and it wasn't until I turned to the inconsistently-time-consuming process of capturing YouTube clips as mp3s that I came up with a solution. Second, the form of the original mc chris track wasn't very conducive to typical verse-chorus structures, and I struggled with this until the end, leaving me with the somewhat incomplete (lyrically, not musically) version I now have.

In the end though, I'm very happy with the track, and I'm glad I worked on it as far into the process as I did, as a few of my favorite ideas didn't occur to me until the last ten days or so (or in one case, the day before I finished it!). That said, neither this nor the original track can hold a candle to the second, more-complex mash-up, and though this could be a stifling benchmark to try to match every time around, doing this third track has helped me let go a little bit and just let the process happen naturally, fueled a bit more organically by the original song itself... Anyway, considering mc chris now has my mixes, I'm planning on releasing all of the tracks thus far within the next month, so keep an eye out for that post...definitely excited to finally be sharing them with you guys!

I Think We're Alone Now

Do you remember the pop star Tiffany from the 80's? Well, turns out she's supposedly still around, and what's more surprising is that some people supposedly still love her, despite not being relevant for, oh I don't know, twenty years? The 2008 documentary I Think We're Alone Now is about two such individuals, albeit in the most extreme form. See, 50 year-old Jeff Turner has Asperger's syndrome and has been stalking Tiffany since she made it big, along the way receiving at least one restraining order, and 38 year-old Kelly McCormick is an "intersexed" (i.e. hermaphroditic) woman who, though not as legally crazy about Tiffany, is sincerely hoping to hit it off with her so that they can be in love forever. As such, the film follows the two around, letting us get to know each intimately on an individual basis before they embark on a trip to see Tiffany perform in Las Vegas, effectively functioning as the climax for the film.

If this doesn't sound like an amazing documentary to you, then maybe Suzi's done something weird to my head, because it was quite beautiful and certainly one of the best movies I've seen all year! Everything about this film is so odd, from the two main characters and their strange quirks all the way to the fact that, of all the people in the world to be obsessed with, they chose TIFFANY. Despite the lo-fi production values and odd subject matter, the film manages to stay fresh, intriguing, and well-paced throughout, so definitely check out I Think We're Alone Now if quirky indie documentaries are AT ALL up your alley.

Why? - Eskimo Snow

I first discovered the Berkeley, California indie/hip-hop hybrid group Why? while listening to recent releases in iTunes, and though my first exposure to their stuff was to their more-typical hip-hop-influenced stuff not too distant from last year's personally well-received Common Grackle album, their album I ended up buying was their soft indie rock, death-themed album, Eskimo Snow. Though the rapping proper here is all but totally vacant, it has been replaced by much monotone singing in addition to lead singer Yoni Wolf's more melodic (yet untrained) material. Instrumentally, the album has a strong folk element to it, with the inclusion of a number of plucky acoustic guitar parts, lo-fi yet intimate tom drums, and somber piano accompaniments.

While I DO very much love this album, my biggest complaint is that it's all a little too one-note throughout. Sure, the over-arching theme is death, but though the instrumentation and mood do a good job of representing this musically and the album is a mere 35 minutes in length, that doesn't keep it from getting a little old by the end. Fortunately, some of the stronger tracks are towards the back, so this tiring effect is well-mitigated. In conclusion, if you're into quirky folky indie concept albums, I would definitely recommend Eskimo Snow, but otherwise, I might recommend checking out some of Why?'s rappier stuff first.

Highlights: "Against Me"/"Berkeley By Hearseback"/"This Blackest Purse"
Rating: 3/5

Mass Effect 1+2 Playthrough

In preparation for the upcoming release of Mass Effect 3 (in early March), I played through both the original game and the second installment back-to-back earlier this year, so I thought I'd talk about that for a few minutes. As I'm sure I've probably acknowledged before, the Mass Effect series is special in that each game literally builds upon your in-game choices from the previous games, so while this is pretty awesome in-and-of itself, it's also a little daunting if you're a completionist like myself who wants to see a few different character types played all the way through all three games, so seeing as I had yet to play a female character on the hardest difficulty setting, this is what I set out to do with these two playthroughs.

Unfortunately, the hardest difficulty setting ended up proving too hard for me in both games, so though I started out doing fine, both times I eventually hit a wall where I just couldn't beat my enemies at the time, despite replaying the engagement over, and over, and over, and over. So, though backing off the difficulty level really isn't that big a deal to me in-and-of itself, it does mean that I'll never end up getting all of the Xbox Achievements for the games, but that's okay. Fortunately, playing with a female Shepard was fun, as it opened up a whole new set of dialogue recordings to hear, and playing the character back-to-back for two games really got me engrossed in that particular character. As such, though I was initially planning on playing Mass Effect 3 with my original set of characters in chronological order, I think I'm now going to start with my female Shepard so as to experience going straight through with one character, which probably won't happen again. Sure, there'll be a gap of something like eight months, but whatever.

So apart from all this and the previously-mentioned new DLC (most notably Pinnacle Station and Lair Of The Shadow Broker), my playthroughs of the two games didn't rock the boat too much from my initial playthroughs. As expected, the games are both still amazing and highly recommended, and I'm now even more excited about the final installment in the trilogy. That said, I probably won't need to play through the original Mass Effect ever again, especially considering it'll probably look even more dated after ME3 comes out, but that's not to say anything bad about the game At ALL.

The Revolution: A Manifesto

Back when I was watching some of the recent Republican debates and getting myself back into political awareness, I was reminded of how much I've always generally liked what Ron Paul has to say, and in taking a look at our current economic situation here in the States, combined with my increasing lack of faith in Obama as the great president we all thought he could be, I wanted to delve deeper into the Ron Paul way of thinking by checking out one of his recent books. While I had intended to buy his new book Liberty Defined at my local Barnes & Noble, they didn't have a copy available, so I picked up 2008's The Revolution: A Manifesto, which was re-released in 2009 with additional material covering the recent economic crisis. The book was relatively short, but in its mere 181 pages, it managed to spark a fire in me, both politically and simply to start reading more, and as such, I've started a book list on Amazon with books by numerous authors, mostly pertaining to politics and religion, but all in the interest of educating myself. Anyway, The Revolution is basically a quick but relatively thorough breakdown of all of Ron Paul's chief points as a contender for the presidency...everything from his take on our civil liberties, the Founding Fathers, and the Constitution to his anti-corporatism, the Federal Reserve, and economic bubbles.

All in all, I feel very enlightened about a number of issues that have contributed to our country being in the state it's in now, and the more I look into things, the more on-board I am with Ron Paul's campaign. Sure, he probably won't win due to the near-monopolistic grip the current two corporatist parties have on the election process, but I'm starting to get to the point where I'm gonna vote for Ron Paul anyway, even if just as a statement that a third, more-reasonable party should be out there. I know similar votes for Ralph Nader supposedly ruined the Democratic nominees' chances in a couple elections, but at this point, I'm not even 100% sure a Republican, especially like Herman Cain or Mitt Romney, might not be better for our country's economic standing than Obama, even though I don't agree with a number of their social policies.

Anyway, Ron Paul's book was great, and I'm currently looking into a number of the other Austrian School of Economics books he's recommended, as well as Ron Paul's book I was initially planning on buying. Glad to be back into politics and (possibly) reading.

Revisited: Phil Collins - ...But Seriously

As easily one of the oldest albums in my collection (both in terms of when it was actually released, and more-importantly, when I actually listened to it), Phil Collins' fourth album as a solo artist, 1989's ...But Seriously was one of my first albums growing up (originally owning it on tape), but naturally, that's no guarantee that I would still love it to this day. While Collin's solo career style is quite poppy and frequently dips into the overly sappy (albeit in a full-blown horns-plus rock band with classy instrumentation), this album catches him in his more-respectable, pre-Tarzan period, and the overall product is quite nice, managing to somehow stay clear of guilty-pleasure status, despite its easy-listening sheen.

Ultimately, Collins' production values, often-heavy lyrical content, and solid command of tension and release dynamics leads to an album I just can't help but embrace. In fact, revisiting this album has made me want to seriously look into doing so with some of his other earlier albums, at least a couple of which I did own back when I was in elementary school, though I'm not entirely sure which. Anyway, definitely give Phil Collins' earlier solo project stuff another look if you like great soulful (if a little cheesy) 80's anthem rock.

Familiarity: High
Highlights: "Hang In Long Enough"/"Something Happened On The Way To Heaven"/"Another Day In Paradise"
Rating: 4/5

The Haunting In Connecticut

Seeing as this film was about to be taken off streaming Netflix and that I was in the mood for something shortish and not too deep, I ended up checking out 2009's The Haunting In Connecticut, hoping for something along the lines of a Poltergeist or The Exorcist (which I hadn't yet seen in full at the time). The film tells the supposedly true story of a family who becomes victim to a haunted house they just moved into, with their older son eventually becoming possessed himself.

While the trailer above did creep me out a little, it was easily scarier than the film itself, as the film fails to maintain a sense of impending dread throughout, especially as the true nature of the haunting becomes increasingly clear. In fact, the ending was rather unconvincing and unsatisfying, ultimately reinforcing my growing sense that the film wasn't all I had imagined it to be from having seen the trailer online back when it was in theatres, with the whole possessed anti-gravity barf scene being particularly ineffectual.

In the end, while The Haunting In Connecticut certainly wasn't the worst movie of the year, it really left me wanting more, so unless you're a horror film junkie, I would recommend skipping this one.

Young Composer Compeition

Back when I was in high school, I entered a state- and/or nation-wide composition competition for young composers (which I'm going to leave unnamed on the blog) two years in a row, earning some sort of recognition for each, though I went much further with one than the other. Anyway, to my surprise, about a month ago I was asked to aid a budding composition student in the exact same competition, but things were much different this time around...

See, for whatever reason, I was under the impression that the student was in 8th grade and that we'd have some time for me to impart some music theory knowledge and really hone her piece into what she wanted it to be, but when I arrived at the house, I was shocked to find out that she was merely 8 years old (not even close to 8th grade) and that we really only had about a week to write her piece, which she hadn't even begun working on! Considering she had little awareness of music theory and that her piano knowledge was still mostly centered in the easy keys, I knew I would have to approach the whole project from a totally different angle.

The final product could have been either an instrumental or a song, but considering the overarching topic for all entries was too literal to be done without a text, we decided that she would write the lyrics to a song (with the help of her parents) and that I would help put together the music. This said, though she wasn't expected to be able to notate the whole thing herself (or even at all), I didn't want to write the material for her, so we had a lesson where we recorded us jamming on a MIDI keyboard into GarageBand, me on harmony with her improvising a melody, and then I took those few takes home and derived potential melodies from the material she played, eventually applying them to her lyrics while trying to keep the accompaniment parts I played as close to the improv version as possible, having let her pick which version she most preferred and suggest some instrumentation for the final product (with me singing)

In the end, it was a nice-enough (though rushed) experience, and my student DID get to make a number of important musical decisions, but I also felt a little bit guilty that maybe the final product misrepresented her actual compositional skill. I'm not sure though, as the rules for the competition weren't very clear, especially for her age group. I did suggest to the family that if they wanted me to be involved next year, it would be great if we could meet earlier on in the process, perhaps allowing me some time devoted entirely to music theory and improvisation so that their daughter could have an even greater contribution to the final product.

Off to Green/Ashe-ville

Suzi and I are heading up to the Carolinas for the weekend, first to Greenville to attend her friend Angela's baby shower-slash-11/11/11 party, and then to Asheville on Saturday night and the better part of Sunday for a sort of daytrip, effectively acting as our 2011 analogue to last year's Chattanooga getaway. As you probably remember, we've already been to Greenville once this year, staying with Jaclyn & Ryan, so we're pretty much exclusively going for Angela's party, as it's a small town and there probably isn't too much more to do there short of hanging out with friends. That said, while Suzi and Angela's lady friends will be doing a girls' outing Saturday morning, I'll get a chance to catch up with Jaclyn & Ryan, which will definitely be nice.

Anyway, as always, expect thinner blogging this weekend, but I'll try to keep it going if possible, depending on hotel internet access (or rather, free internet access) and time. I'll be sure to have pics up on Facebook sometime next week, but of course, I'm still about a month behind on blogging, so you probably won't see them here for at least that long...sorry. =)

Skullcandy Headphones

If you've ever lived with me, you might be aware that I go through headphones FAST, possibly as often as a little more than a pair a year. That said, I'm a little bit picky about which kind of headphones I buy...I prefer the studio type headphones that cover your ears completely, not the kind that sit on or in your ears, and I need them to have only one cord running from the actual headphones themselves, not two that join into one. Apart from this, I generally buy the cheapest ones I can find, because I fear that even if I had really expensive ones (headphones can easily go for $150 and up), I'd break them just as fast, a fact that far outweighs whatever small increase in fidelity and bass response I'd be gaining for the money.

Well, I've recently had to buy a new pair of headphones because my previous pair (which I had only used for something like nine months or so) crapped out on me, not in one or two, but in three different ways. The headphones in question were my first in the Skullcandy line, this strange brand that tries to walk the line between headphone technology and skaterboy fashion, amounting to what seemed to me a bunch of bullshit. But, considering I was having a hard time finding the kind of headphones I like at the time, I bit the bullet and tried some Skullcandy headphones out, and boy was I disappointed:

First off, the headphones themselves fell somewhere between surrounding my ears and sitting on them, so they were often a bit uncomfortable. Second, the EQ settings for the headphones (i.e. the natural frequency response of the speakers) were inaccurately bass heavy and probably a little off in other areas. While this might be good for a kid just trying to jam to his favorite music, it was bad for mixing, as it gave me an inaccurate picture of what the final product would be, even more so than typical headphones. Third and fourth, I ended up breaking BOTH of the adjustable-length arms to the headphones within a few months, necessitating the punky masking tape fix-up you see above. The fifth and final straw was when the output for one of the speakers simply stopped, forcing me to buy new headphones once again or deal with being in half-stereo (which is different than mono).

It's not that I'm particularly rough with my headphones...I just use them a lot, and in the process, they often end up getting a little beat up. I find there's never really an awesome place to put them down to rest, especially with their typically problematic cords connecting them to your computer, but maybe one of these days I'll get into a good routine. My new headphones are made by Audio-Technica, and although they were a tad more pricey than usual, they have a shockingly low volume output, which mainly sucks for listening to non-pro level mixes (like my mc chris stuff) that haven't yet been mastered. Oh well...let's see how long these manage to last!

Revisited: Live - Secret Samadhi

A lot of times when you revisit an old album, even one that you used to love, you're admittedly aware that if you were to appraise its value for the first time at THIS point in your life, it would have a lot less impact than it once did, partially due to the changing musical climate and partially to your changing tastes. So, it was strange listening back to Secret Samadhi, Live's 1997 follow-up to their critically-acclaimed Throwing Copper, and realizing that it's one of those rare albums that, were I to listen to it for the first time today, I would probably like it even more than before. While the two biggest singles, "Lakini's Juice" and "Turn My Head", are standout tracks, the rest of the album manages to walk this strange line between 90's alternative rock and the indie folk-fusion fad that's oh-so-popular right now, and the lyrics are all extremely potent, despite how much of a nearly-detestable hippie I've always thought lead singer Ed Kowalczyk was (especially with that horrible dolphin song from the following album).

Anyway, definitely check out Secret Samadhi if you missed it back in the late 90's. I'm honestly a bit shocked at how much I liked it this time around, and I definitely think it deserves some more delving into.

Familiarity: Casual
Highlights: "Lakini's Juice"/"Turn My Head"/"Heropsychodreamer"
Rating: 4/5

An Unreasonable Man

2011 has been a great year for documentaries for me, and high up on my list is 2006's Ralph Nader feature entitled An Unreasonable Man, essentially following the somewhat strange but ultimately likely political activist from his early days lobbying against corporations for the sake of the consumer up through his two most-controversial runs for the presidency (in 2000 and 2004) where he supposedly spoiled the Democratic nominees' chances for victory. If I'm being honest, I'd have to admit that I knew very little about Nader going into the movie, largely because I wasn't really following politics until the Obama run, and Nader wasn't really all that involved in 2008 (at least, not that I was aware of), so this film was an educational experience for me, not just one bolstering my already comprehensive knowledge of the man, as you might have expected given my Liberal leanings.

Not only did the film manage to show me how much I sympathize with and admire Nader, but it also gave me a history lesson that was somehow very enjoyable throughout, and as such, its two hour length flew by much faster than it usually does for other documentaries. It wasn't that the film had anything all that flashy about it on the surface that I could really point to...my guess is that it was just made really well, flowing smoothly from one part to another, and without feeling like a lecture. Anyway, I highly recommend An Unreasonable Man, and I'm now looking forward to possibly checking out a book by Nader if I can find one that really interests me.

2011 Post No. 366

You might think this a bit insignificant, but this post happens to be my 366th post on this blog for the year 2011, and though it might not seem so on the surface, this marks a big milestone in my blogging regimen. You've probably already assumed this has something to do with writing a number of posts exceeding the number of days in a typical calendar year, and you would be right, but this is only part of the story.

When I started this blog back on January 1st, 2008, I set out to write one post for every day of the year, and for that year at least, I was in fact successful. But sure enough, the following year I had a deficit in my blogging of 29 posts, nothing too insurmountable to make up, but still a failure to live up to my previous goal. Though 2010 started strong with above-average posting in January to remedy this problem, from February through August I failed to live up to even a month's worth of posting for each, and though September broke even, the rest of the year fell behind too, leaving me at a total loss for 2010 of 116 posts. Adding in 2009's 29 posts, this put me at a total deficit of 145 to-date, a loss from which I was starting to think I would never recover and should therefore just accept and plan on breaking even from that point forward...

Enter 2011: though I haven't been perfect, I've thus far managed to over-post (by sometimes as much as twice my required amount!) in half of the ten months we've thus far completed, and November and December are showing no signs of stopping... Which leads me to the significance of this post and all those that follow it in 2011: for the first time ever in my blogging history, I now know for a fact that I will have a deficit-reducing surplus of posts for a whole calendar year, possibly as much as 75 or more if I'm diligent over the next 50 days or so. I know this is all kinda silly in a way, but it gives me something to keep motivated about with regards to blogging, and by implication, keeping a journal of my life and experiences, so I'm gonna keep plowing towards that goal of one day having a post per day for every day that's passed since the beginning of 2008. Wish me luck!

Cole's Visit

About a month ago, I had a bit of Facebook miscommunication that somehow ended up morphing into a visit from an old American exchange student buddy at the Haagse Hogeschool from my time in The Netherlands, and I ALMOST ended up going to (GASP!) a pro football game... It all started when Cole tagged me in one of his own wall posts, saying something to the effect of: "Go Packers! Next stop Atlanta!", tagging me in the post simply because I live here and he knows me. For whatever crazy reason though, Facebook has now changed the way they acknowledge that someone has been tagged in a post or photo by simply saying "With ______", so one of my other Haagse Hogeschool friends thought (rightfully so?) when Cole said "Next stop Atlanta...with Ryan" that that meant that a.) he was actually planning on coming to ATL (which he wasn't), and b.) that we were planning on meeting up. So, I sensed the oncoming confusion and wrote something to acknowledge that it was news to me and that Cole should let me know if this post actually meant he was planning on coming to town, instead of merely stating where the Packers' next game was...

Well, before I knew it, Cole started planning an actual trip down to Atlanta (from Green Bay!), being Columbus Day weekend or something, and he asked me if I wanted to shell out $65 for a ticket he already bought (probably assuming I would go!) to the Falcons-Packers game, to which I had close to zero interest in attending regardless of whom it was with, not to mention the fact that I had a decent out anyway having to work until right up to the game's start. So, I politely declined and suggested we just try to meet up at some point over the weekend, which we finally ended up doing Saturday night after having little lead time to put something together. Suzi and I ended up meeting up with Cole, one of his roadtrip buddies (who was really cool), another friend of his who now lives in Atlanta, and one of her friends, at a new preppy bar in Buckhead called The Ivy, which turned out to be a really fun experience, and then we all headed over to East Andrews (another similar bar) for a brief moment before Suzi and I took off (since I had to work earlyish the next day).

Anyway, the bars were fun, the spontaneity of it all was refreshing, and even though Cole and I weren't particularly close in The Netherlands, it was good to see him after all this time. Hell, I'm flattered that he wanted to meet up with me in the first place! I just can't believe all of this ended up arising out of some weird way Facebook likes to phrase things, and I wonder if anything like this happens all that often to other people...

50/50

Much like Knocked Up and The 40 Year-Old Virgin before it, the new Seth Rogen "comedy" 50/50 manages to take a not-so-funny subject (this time cancer) and inject a little humor to lighten the mood, but while the other two films ended up being pretty funny all-in-all, cancer's a pretty freaking heavy subject, so this film ends up leaning much harder towards drama than comedy, but that's by no means a bad thing. Loosely following the true life story of writer Will Reiser, rising-star Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a nearly-30-year-old NPR journalist who one day, despite leading a particularly healthy lifestyle, is told that he has developed a rare form of spinal cancer, leaving him with the titular 50/50 chance of survival. The rest of the film follows the emotional impact this has on JGL's character and his closest relationships (including that with his new young psychological counselor, played by Anna Kendrick).

In the end, 50/50 was generally really fulfilling, doing the heavy subject matter justice without beating you over the head with it, a fact which is certainly aided by the unlikelihood the protagonist contracting the disease given his age. The different roles are all played well, the script is very solid, and the plot, though a tad predictable, still manages to feel fresh enough. Definitely check out 50/50 if you get a chance...though it probably won't make it to my Top 5 this year, it's still really solid.

Shiny Toy Guns - Season Of Poison

Having really enjoyed their first album, We Are Pilots, back in 2008 and then going on to nominate their show at The Loft as one of my Top 5 for that year, I was hoping Shiny Toy Guns' newest release, Season Of Poison, would have a similar effect on me, despite the fact that I had repeatedly put off the purchase of the album for fear that the iTunes clips I had thus far heard were indicative of a letdown. And they were, though not entirely... What I liked most about Shiny Toy Guns on their first album was lead singer Chad Petree's unique and soaring high vocals atop a bed of electronics and guitars, often accompanied by the complimentary voice of then-vocalist Sisely Treasure, who has since been replaced by original female vocalist Carah Faye Charnow, and though the new album isn't entirely devoid of the stylistic charms of the first, a lot of the inspiration from before seems to have gone missing this time around...

On top of this, the album simultaneously attempts to go both softer and harder than last time around, and neither works all that well. And then there's this kinda ridiculous (though not entirely unappreciated) pipe organ solo in a very 20th-century art music style that's squeezed between two of the middle tracks, and I'm still not entirely sure what to think of it. In the end, Season Of Poison was definitely a letdown, but it could have been worse. Here's hoping upcoming album three will be a lot better...

Highlights: "When Did This Storm Begin?"/"Money For That"/"Blown Away"
Rating: 2/5

Tune-Yards/Pat Jordache @ The Graveyard

I've already told you all about the odd indie/Afro-beat group Tune-Yards in my recent album review for their new LP Whokill, so I'll just skip to the chase here and talk about the live show they headlined at the relatively new basement venue The Graveyard has opened up, with the Montreal-based (I think) band Pat Jordache opening, bringing along my buddy/bandmate Erich for a night out. First off, the venue is pretty cool, but though it could be really big, a large portion of the ideal stage-viewing real estate is taken up by a long bar, a design choice I think was made either out of necessity or in a state of poor reasoning. Either way, Erich and I got a great view of the stage, especially considering how packed the place was...in fact, had I not bought tickets ahead of time, I'm not sure we would have been able to get in, which is crazy considering I had NO IDEA there was so much buzz going on about the group.

Anyway, the Pat Jordache set was kinda mixed for me. On one hand, the group's music itself seemed pretty solid, though it was more-or-less just your standard hipster fare, but the singing was another thing entirely. Basically, the lead singer sounded just as you would expect The Silence Of The Lambs' Buffalo Bill character to sound as a lead singer (i.e. with a bassy, muffled, and nearly incomprehensible garble of words), and though this was cool for a track or two, it started to get old over time, so I was glad when the band was done. The funny thing was that the singer didn't sound like that when he talked, so it was definitely affected, which makes it less cool. If you're going to sing with a bassy voice live, you REALLY have to have a special instrument, because it's already hard enough to cut through a mix when you've got a normal tone/range...

As expected, the Tune-Yards were fantastic to see live, and they played most of the songs from the LP. Seeing the actual process of creating the loops for each song live was really neat, especially considering most of them involved random percussion instruments (including hitting mic stands and beer bottles). Merrill Garbus' voice was as impressive live as on the recordings and YouTube videos, and it was definitely a treat seeing her belt it all out like she does. Overall, the Tune-Yards part was definitely a great addition to my list of professionally-touring shows I've caught this year, though it probably wasn't quite up there enough to be the front-runner. Anyway, definitely check out the Tune-Yards live if they're coming through your town, as seeing them live is most-certainly the definitive way to best appreciate what they have to offer.

Rock Band 3 (Songlist)

Having already written about Rock Band 3 in general and at length, I figured I would dedicate this post to the songs available in the game (i.e. non-DLC), of which there were 83 to choose from. That said, only 63 of these had keys parts at all, and a number of the songs that did have keys parts were either extremely simple or only had one section where the keys played, which essentially amounts to a disappointingly low song count for those of us who bought the game exclusively to try the new keys. Still, amongst the remaining tracks there were still some great keys parts to play, so I'd like to highlight the Top 10 here, linking to YouTube clips of any songs I wasn't familiar with before the game:

- Amy Winehouse: "Rehab"
- Bob Marley And The Wailers: "Get Up, Stand Up"
- Chicago: "25 Or 6 To 4"
- The Doors: "Break On Through (To The Other Side)"
- Foreigner: "Cold As Ice"
- James Brown: "I Got You (I Feel Good)"
- John Lennon: "Imagine"
- Pretty Girls Make Graves: "Something Bigger, Something Brighter"
- Tears For Fears: "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"
- Queen: "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Looking over this list, you might be surprised at my selection, especially with entries like Bob Marley, The Doors, and James Brown, but honestly, these were some of the best songs TO PLAY, though they're not necessarily my favorite musically. That's actually one of the problems with these music games: though the soundtrack might be full of songs you LOVE to listen to, they might either be too instrumentally simplistic and/or they were poorly realized in terms of button presses for the game, and therefore, you end up feeling kinda "meh" about songs you thought you'd be excited about. So instead, the tracks that ended up winning out for me were those that managed that fine balance between being good songs AND playing well.

And just in case you assume that ALL piano-heavy music will automatically be well-handled in the game, all you have to do is look at Elton John's nightmarish "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting", with its unrealistically constant chord attacks (on only five buttons), to see that not all in-game realizations of songs are really accurate to the actual music. In this particular case, the problem arises from expecting you to play one-handed a part that was CLEARLY intended for two hands spread over three or four octaves, but what can you do?

Overall, the songlist was alright in this game...certainly nothing compared to either DJ Hero list or that from Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock, but it did expose me to a number of songs I probably never would have found on my own, and considering these were mostly added to the game due to the new keyboard instrument, this game does manage to stand out from the pack. Honestly though, the best keyboard material was released as DLC, some of which I've already tackled pretty heavily, but others I'm still waiting to try out, so I'll address these songs in another post after I've done so.

Revisited: The All-American Rejects - The All-American Rejects

Having first discovered The All-American Rejects' brand of whiny-voiced-yet-positive pop rock back when I was at UGA, I fell in love with their debut album, and in revisiting it now, I assumed I might give it a five (or at least a four) in looking back at those good memories. But honestly, it all kinda just ran together, and though I remember singing along to this album in the car for at least a couple months, I'm now having a hard time even picking out the best songs of the group. Yes, I still appreciate The All-American Rejects' evident knowledge of some basic music theory and the fact that they incorporate some slightly more interesting harmonic and instrumental elements into their music, but I had forgotten how relatively one-note this whole album was, even when compared with its follow-up Move Along, which I also have and liked quite a bit (and which I'm now looking forward to revisiting as well).

So, while I wouldn't exactly recommend this debut LP, it isn't awful at all...I'm just kinda surprised by how much my opinion of this album has faded in the past ten or so years, leaving me curious about how many of my other prized albums I'll end up devaluing in the coming months...

Familiarity: High
Highlights: "My Paper Heart"/"Swing, Swing"/"Happy Endings"
Rating: 3/5

Amores Perros

Finally, here's the fourth and last film I needed to watch of the handful my friend Pam lent to me something like two years ago (yeah, I kept them for WAY too long!), this time the critically-acclaimed Mexican film from 2000, Amores Perros. Translated as "Love's a Bitch", the film is broken into three segments, each focusing on a specific person from a totally different background, but each who has their life messed up (or at least impacted) by dogs, though this is more of a connecting element than the point. Rather, each character is caught up in some tough situation regarding their personal decisions (and/or a tragic accident) and their entangled dysfunctional relationships with loved ones.

The film definitely postures itself as some deep art film, though I have to admit that it didn't impact me as much as I think it was intended, or even as much as my friends who love the film would probably assume, so I guess I was a bit let down. I mean, the cinematography and acting were fine, but two out of the three stories didn't really do much for me, and the one that did (about the old hermit trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter) wasn't enough to win me over completely. Still, I'm glad I saw it, but I'm going to have to give the best-of award of Pam's four films to another Gael García Bernal film in the group, The Motorcycle Diaries. Thanks to Pam for letting me borrow these movies for so long!

Vipers & Adders @ 529

Onto my most recent local show, that of my coworker/friend Chad's newish band Vipers & Adders at 529 for their recent CD release party. Suzi and I got there in time to catch the last few songs of this awesome somewhat nerdcore-ish local rapper, Ridiculous Jacket, which we both enjoyed quite a bit. It was around this time that we said hello to Chad (whom Suzi met for the first time at the Atlanta Rollergirls bout a few months ago), and we made a point to hang out with him on and off throughout the evening. Up next was another local band who was a bit hard to write anything positive about, so I'm gonna leave their name out of the post.

Eventually, we got to check out Chad's new project, which is quite different from his work with the proggy Sorry No Ferrari, which you may remember me liking quite a lot in an earlier post. The new group is a good bit poppier, but still with a somewhat progressive edge to an otherwise kinda alt-rock and occasionally shoegazery style. As a side note, the lead vocals occasionally slipped into a delivery quite akin to those of The Matches, though I doubt this was conscious, because that band isn't all that well-known themselves...

In the end, it was really good hanging out with Chad again and seeing what he's been up to lately on the gigging front. I still need to check out his newer proggy band and the surf group he's doing, so I'll be sure to post about those shows as well.

De-Lovely

The story behind my desire to see this movie is important, because I'm not usually prone to watching Broadway-to-Film movies, especially in my adulthood, but the Cole Porter biopic De-Lovely is a special exception. Right before I signed a lease on an apartment in Bloomington for grad school at Indiana, I was told that I had been awarded a composition department scholarship, which just happened to be endowed by the Cole Porter estate, as he was from Indiana. Well, upon hearing this news, I was informed that De-Lovely just happened to be in theatres then, so my family planned on going to see it to learn more about the man behind my scholarship. Well, though I did eventually pick up the film's soundtrack, it took THIS LONG to finally get around to watching the film, some seven years later! So it just goes to show how disinclined I am towards watching these types of movies, even when I have a sort of stake in them.

Though I went in knowing all of the movie versions of numerous Cole Porter songs via the soundtrack, I really wasn't expecting much of De-Lovely, but seeing as it was about to be pulled from instant Netflix, I decided to finally go with it. To my surprise, the movie was fantastic and might be the best adaptation of Broadway-type music (as the songs are more of a "best-of" compilation than from any one particular show) that I've seen in a long time. The movie essentially tells the story of Cole Porter (played by Kevin Kline) and his relationship with wife Linda Lee Thomas (played by Ashley Judd) throughout the history of his rise to fame and then death, all the while featuring songs from his catalog as they fit in contextually (both lyrically and chronologically). One thing that makes this film so special is that many of the tunes are sung by famous singers like Robbie Williams, Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, and Natalie Cole, all of whom appear in the movie, but only as singers on a stage in a club or other venue. It's a nice touch and helped make the music feel a little bit more relevant in today's musical setting.

But what really sealed the deal for me on this movie was the emotional impact of Cole's relationship with Linda, especially at the bittersweet end. It was pretty moving stuff, and I may or may not have teared up a bit. ;) Anyway, it was a fantastic film, and I'm really glad that I finally got around to watching it after all these years.

Revisited: Fear Factory - Obsolete

Onto another old album, this time metal group Fear Factory's epic futuristic police-state-themed concept album Obsolete (1998), which I originally picked up in highschool. Though some of the tracks do start to run together by the end, Fear Factory's signature sound is so unique to them that this album never really lasts long enough to get stale, especially once singer Burton C. Bell starts singing-singing on the last two tracks. In fact, Obsolete sets the bar quite high for concept albums in general, especially in the metal world, and I've repeatedly come back to it over the past 12 or so years loving it every time. Hell, I even used a small sample in one of my mc chris mash-ups! I definitely recommend this album to anyone that likes thoughtful metal albums. Good stuff.

One last thing: Oddly enough, though I didn't realize it until this time through, the final track's spoken-word sample wasn't originally part of the album at all...rather, it was the exact same Mario Savio clip used in my recently-reviewed Linkin Park album A Thousand Suns, but since it was a bit more obscured on Obsolete, I didn't end up catching it until returning to the Fear Factory. Small world, I guess...

Familiarity: High
Highlights: "Shock"/"Edgecrusher"/"Timelessness"
Rating: 5/5

New Albums (Q3 2011)

Alright, only a month or so behind. Time to wrap up the twelve albums that constituted my official listening regimen for Q3 this year:

01. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (4/5)
02. Skull Tape - The Invisible Hand And The Descent Of Man (2/5)
03. Owen Pallett - Heartland (1/5)
04. Taking Back Sunday - Taking Back Sunday (4/5)
05. My Morning Jacket - Circuital (5/5)
06. 311 - Universal Pulse (3/5)
07. Kele - The Boxer (1/5)
08. Yelle - Safari Disco Club (3/5)
09. YACHT - Shangri-La (4/5)
10. Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You (2/5)
11. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (5/5)
12. Tune-Yards - Whokill (4/5)

Thus far, this is the only quarter of the year to have had an overall above-average range of albums, so I guess maybe I'm doing something right in trying to turn this year's trend for middling albums around a bit? Still, there were a couple real stinkers in here, namely Bloc Party's lead singer Kele's horrible electronic side project and Owen Pallett's strange display of orchestrational skill set to bland musical material. At the moment, there's only one five in the group (Arcade Fire), but YACHT was awfully close, so I have a feeling that in retrospect I might end up bumping it up, especially if Q4 fails to produce enough fives (which is kinda starting to look like the case...). Overall, pretty happy with Q3. Here's hoping Q4 ends equally strong!

Pulp Fiction

Now here's a movie I had been needing to see for YEARS but somehow never got around to it: Quentin Tarantino's 1994 classic, Pulp Fiction. Naturally, I don't need to tell you guys anything about the film's plot, as you've probably already seen it a million times and can recite whole scenes word-for-word, so let's just leave it at this: despite all the hype going into this thing, I actually ended up enjoying it about as much as possible given the circumstances, and now clearly understand why everyone likes it so much. That said, Pulp Fiction isn't going to make it to my Top 5 list this year (at least, not the main one, as I'm planning on dividing the list into a few different categories this time around...), because I have a hard time getting excited about a party to which I'm arriving over 15 years late... Maybe this is unfair, but I just can't get AS excited about this film as I'm sure I would have back in the day, but of course, I was a very different person back then as well...

Anyway, I still loved Pulp Fiction, especially any part with Samuel L. Jackson in it, and I would totally watch it again someday, hopefully with someone else who knows all the film's ins-and-outs. Guess I need to go back and check out Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown as well, to round out my Tarantino collection?

Revisited: Basement Jaxx - Rooty

Seeing as I've been more-or-less forced to reacquaint myself with the bulk of my CD collection over the past few years due to my hard drive crashing and me having to import a bunch of CDs back into iTunes, I've developed an urge to blog about some past albums, some of which I spent tons of time with, some of which I didn't, some of which I absolutely loved, and some of which I barely remember. That said, though I'll be approaching these reviews in a similar fashion to those for my weekly listening regimen of one new CD a week, I want to differentiate the two types of posts so as to make it clear that I only listened to the albums at hand here once at home, being a CD I previously owned and was (presumably) already familiar with, and therefore, I'm taking the reviews here less seriously. We'll see if this trend sticks, but let's get started anyway!

Though I absolutely loved my first entry into the world of Britain's electronic duo Basement Jaxx, 2006's Crazy Itch Radio, when I later picked up their breakout hit album Rooty (2001), I ended up finding it pretty lackluster in comparison, and perhaps just the tiniest bit grating. The guys have definitely toned down the amount of high-pitch vocals and electro-funk in the years since, and I think that's a good thing. I know Rooty's a modern-day classic, and hell, "Where's Your Head At" was the single the opened me up to the duo, but I'm just not digging this album at all...

Familiarity: Casual
Highlights: "Jus 1 Kiss"/"I Want U"/"Where's Your Head At"
Rating: 1/5

Skins: Season 2

Unlike the second season of Skins' second cast (therefore, Season 4), that of the first was quite good, easily rivaling anything that happened in Season 1 itself, possibly even surpassing it. Once again, we more-or-less get one episode per character, and as such, most characters get roughly the same amount of attention, though Tony, Sid, and Cassie tend to receive more of the spotlight, while Anwar, Effy, and Maxxie tend to get less. That said, this season did a nice job of bringing Maxxie more to the fore, at least for one episode, but on some level, it almost seems like they did this just to bring in the unnecessary additional character Sketch, his straight (though Maxxie's gay) female stalker who somehow ends up with Anwar anyway. Oh yeah, while I'm on the subject, there are going to be spoilers here, so if you don't want to see them, scroll down to the last paragraph.

Otherwise, the season revolves around a few major changes to the group dynamic. First, Tony's alive, but he's heavily brain-damaged though slowly recovering throughout, which actually makes him a bit more likable than in the previous season, though his weird dreamlike episode interviewing at a university to get his mojo back is kinda weird. Second, Sid and Cassie spend the whole season trying to cross paths now that it's established that they like each other, but this pretty much never ends up panning out, leaving us with a strange and problematic twist at the end. Lastly, Chris and Jal end up dating, Chris gets Jal pregnant, and then Chris dies. Yeah, he just fucking croaks. I guess that's this show's M.O., having someone key die in the last episode or two... And oh yeah, and we end up meeting Panda for the first time, though she's nowhere near as annoying in this formative stage, so that spared the season from being much, much worse...

So overall, Season 2 was pretty jam-packed with drama and new developments, and honestly, I think I might have liked it better than its predecessor, though I still enjoyed the first season of the second cast the most. So this completes my four season viewing of the currently-available-on-DVD (to my knowledge, at least) Skins series, and I have to say that it was thoroughly enjoyable and therefore comes highly recommended. Check it all out sometime if you get a chance!

The Winter Sounds/Baby Baby/That 1 Guy @ The Masquerade

Ever since I first fell in love with The Winter Sounds' last album, Church Of The Haunted South, I've been dying to see them again in concert, but for whatever reason, they hadn't really been touring much (at least not in Atlanta) up until recently, so I jumped at the first big chance I got, which happened to be a show at The Masquerade with Baby Baby, but with both bands opening for the CD release of another band that's not really my thing, All Get Out. Strangely enough, the show wasn't in either the Heaven or Hell portions of the venue, but the more-or-less small bar and TINY stage (which I didn't even know was there) that constitute Purgatory, and as such, it wasn't exactly the ideal setting for such a long-awaited show.

Still, Baby Baby kicked ass as always, especially when they had a fake audience participation moment where Fontez let a "random" audience member (who was actually one of the new female members of The Winter Sounds) come take his guitar and play for him for a whole long song. Even though it turned out to be fake, I really didn't know for sure while it was happening, so it was still pretty exciting when she started killing it up there. And then the Winter Sounds' set was really solid, though the mix really wasn't as tight as it needed to be in that awkward little corner the Masquerade evidently likes to call a stage, so I couldn't really hear all the details. Also, they played a lot of their newer material, none of which I knew, but I'm looking forward to checking it all out when their new disc comes out.

Easily the weirdest quirk of the whole night was accidentally coming across this strange performance artist in the next room (Hell) named That 1 Guy who is basically a one-man musical variety show (he frequently plays Vegas) centered around his homemade percussion/bass instrument (called The Magic Pipe) and his singing, all atop a bunch of loops and/or backing tracks in a somewhat Trent Reznor meets They Might Be Giants kind of style. Check out the video above for an introduction.

Anyway, it was an interesting night, though I would be lying if I didn't say I was a little disappointed I couldn't have seen The Winter Sounds at a venue with a better sound system. I'm still glad I got to catch them live again though, so here's to their new album and hopefully seeing them again sooner than later!

Jack Goes Boating

Considering Suzi and I both love Philip Seymour Hoffman's work, it made sense that we would want to see him act and direct (for his first time) in last year's Jack Goes Boating, a tale about a socially-awkward, reggae-listening cab driver (Hoffman) who is set up on a blind date by his only two friends (a couple who is having relationship issues of their own), which leads to the helpless cabbie needing lessons on how to swim and cook. While this premise MIGHT have sounded like it had potential, we didn't know what we were getting into when we committed to watching it, and we ended up with a so-so experience: on one hand, the acting was solid and the cinematography was nice at times, but on the other, we were left a bit cold with a relatively unmemorable and somewhat unbelievable plot.

So, while I wouldn't recommend Jack Goes Boating, you probably could do worse as far as indie dramas are concerned.