ad hoc.

Sometimes when I like a band and rarely anyone has ever heard of them, I think that they are only a figment of my imagination. Take The Veils.  Alas, they are actually coming to the US on tour. I thought I’d never live to see the day. I need to see this. So far only a few dates are announced. If I am not at one of their shows I may not be able to live.

Also, Muse are on tour with My Chemical Romance. I just realized this today. WWWW TTTTT FFFFF?????

You may have noticed the Vodpod thing on my sidebar (scroll down a bit). THis way I can upload all the videos I am watching. Keep an eye on it.

Previously: #100-6

#5 Stellastarr*, Stellastarr* (2003)
If John Hughes made a movie about hipsters…
Influential Power 5
Staying Power 7
Cred Power 10

#4 Rilo Kiley, The Execution of All Things (2002)
Unbelievable.
Influential Power 7
Staying Power 8
Cred Power 8

#3 Bloc Party, Silent Alarm (2005)
Worth the hype.
Influential Power 6
Staying Power 7
Cred Power 7

#2 Muse, Origin of Symmetry (2001)
I’ve heard this described as operatic indie rock. Proof that Americans have no taste in music.
Influential Power 7
Staying Power 10
Cred Power 8

#1 The Strokes, Is This It? (2001)
The original essential album.
Influential Power 25
Staying Power 10
Cred Power 8

I haven’t heard many good mashups lately, but check out this one, which is a combo of Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy back” and Muse’s “Super Massive Black Hole”. I love it.

I’ve compiled many of my favorite cover songs. My current favorites: Matt Nathanson covers James’ “Laid”. Deadsy’s “Fox on the Run” and Giant Drag’s “God Only Knows”.

Remember, all songs are uploaded here. Check out part one and part two.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, since it is 2 weeks until the year is over, I’ve finalized my year-end list of albums. There is no way in hell I can put them in order individually, so I put them in tiers. I’ve reuploaded the top tier here so you can make sure you listen to them. They are in no particular order.

I’d like to note the particular artists that are absent: Arctic Monkeys, Keane (sorry Andrew), The Knife, TV on the Radio, Mxpx, the Decemberists, Tapes ‘N Tapes, Hot Chip, The Hold Steady.

The Sounds; Dying to Say This to You. [Here]. Eighties new-wave, keyboards and male/female vocals. Some of the best melodies ever. And who would have guessed it from a band from Sweden? This band often gets lumped into the “The” bands category, but is way better. I actually first head this in October 2005, and it by far surpassed anything since then.

Shiny Toy Guns; We Are Pilots. [here] Surprisingly, another throwback to the eighties new-wave electronic pop music. Listen to “Rainy Monday” and tell me you don’t like it, I’ll pay you a million dollars. This album makes me feel like I am a club kid hanging out with James St. James.

The Thermals; The Body, the Blood, the Machine. [here] I somehow always forget momentarily that the Thermals are one of my favorite bands. Actually, Fuckin’ A was also my favorite album of 2004. This album pretty much sounds the same- if it’s not broken, why fix it? Grungy. loud, fast tempo. Perfection.

Muse; Black Holes and Revelations. [here] I have talked about this one enough, I am not sure what else to say. It’s a fucking rock opera staduim album.

The Rapture; Pieces of the People We Love. [link coming soon] Best beats and dance funk, using nothing but guitars and drums.

The Veils; Nux Vomica. [here]They’re from New Zealand. They’re awesome. I don’t know much more. This is like the soundtrack to an amazing suicide note.

Also, check out last year’s list. Silent Alarm would still be high on my list.

Andrew is so much better about describing music than I am, and the same goes for his review of Muse. I tried to express their awesomeness, but he does it better.

NME has its year end list of albums and singles. Shocker, Arctic Monkeys are at number one. I would agree with most of it. They seem to also be loving Hot Chip. I got the album a while back, but didn’t take much notice. Maybe I’ll give it another try. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t understand why Muse is not big here. They are HUGE in Britain. They are playing Wembley Stadium, for pete’s sake. Maybe that’s better, because if I lived in the UK I’d be “mainstream”. But this band blows me away. When they first started, they were compared to Radiohead, but they by far surpass them. Their latest album Black Hole and Revelations [get] I think is their best yet. Seriously, “Starlight” will change your life.

As not to overwhelm you with music, I’ve selected some of their better songs from their past 4 albums. “Feeling Good”, a Nina Simone cover is almost better than the original. “Butterflies and Hurricanes” is like an entire rock opera in one song.

Just an fyi, if you can’t somehow admit that Muse is good, even just a little bit, then please remove yourself from my life.

[Muse; Black Holes and Revelations]

Did anyone else know that Jessica Simpson does a cover of “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” on her new album? Well here it is, and it is terrible. Funny and terrible. I have to balance that out with one of the best covers ever, Muse covering Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good“.

Muse covering Nina Simone = liquid awesomeness

Muse; “Feeling Good”

The Pet Shop Boys covering Willie Nelson = crack in music form

Pet Shop Boys; “Always On My Mind”

Some interesting things I’ve been looking at.

Band Madness!

The Art of the Television Finale

Muse album details

Tina Fey has a new sitcome or something

Where is the voice of protest in today’s music?

The Tony Awards [I am totally clueless this year]

Why does it take Wes Anderson so long to make a movie?

I have three more episodes to watch from Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica. I am kind of putting it off because I want to stretch it out as long as possible. Ok, so I have never really been this much into scfi before (does Roswell count? Prob not) but I don’t know if there are certain hallmarks of what makes good scifi. FOr me, any sort of scifi has to be believable. Well, the whole premise is fantasy, but within the context of the set premise, things need to be reasonable. BSG has kind of annoys me in certain ways and violates this because,

-things always turn out because of some unlikely coincidence at the very last moment. Wait, we figured out that fetal cylon blood cures cancer five minutes before the president dies of cancer! Wait, we realize that we have extra ammo right before a cylon raider shoots us down! Wait, someone arrives with news that they figured out how to program a cylon computer virus seconds before they intercept the network! It gets a little too convenient sometimes.

-Did they somehow forget that they found a map to earth? Isn’t that the fucking premise of the show? Please start trying to find it soon.

-If there is a guest star on the show, there is a 99% chance that they will die at the end of the episode. Usually at the expense of one of the main characters, and they never feel any remorse. Speaking of death, I know it is the military and they must be used to it all the time, but someone’s only true love or best friend will die in one episode and by the next episode they are long forgotton and the person is totally sleeping with someone else or in total good spirits.

-Characters will be shot in the chest and then fully recovered in the next episode.

- I know I may think to much about this, but where the hell did they get their clothes? There was just a FRIGGING NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST. Everything was supposedly wiped out within a matter of minutes. Where does President Roslin get her power suits? Who feathers her hair everyday? Where does Baltar get his pinstripe Versace suits? Where do the women get their hoochie dresses and stilletos that they wear to the bar on Cloud 9? These questions keep me up at night.

So yea, I know it’s a tv show, but sometimes things just seem too convenient. I have been looking for some really bad fanfiction so I can send it to Brandon and pretend I wrote it. No luck yet. I may just have to write some myself. Just kidding…or am I?

Anyway in my searches I found this pretty hot fan-made video. Any action sequence set to awesome indie music is cool. Especially Muse, who may be the most amazing band ever.

Here are two British bands that I adore. If you son’t at least give these a try, you are ridiculous.

Placebo- Once More With Feeling
Greatest-hits packages or career retrospectives usually occur around the ten-year mark for most bands. After ten years together, eight of those spent on the U.K. charts, Placebo exhume their past with Once More With Feeling: Singles 1996-2004. This 19-song collection includes all of their biggest hits, most notably “Nancy Boy” and “Pure Morning.” It’s also a look back on Placebo’s conscious effort to maintain a campy, glam rock-influenced rock sound. Placebo achieved great success in their native U.K. (and at a college radio level in the U.S.) at the height of both grunge in the mid-’90s and the teen pop/emo excursions just as the new millennium got underway. As much as frontman Brian Molko’s sexuality was called into question and the band’s exterior appearance was a topic of conversation among the U.K. music press, Molko’s androgynous appeal was equally intriguing as his gender-bending presence as a singer, so style and substance worked in favor of Placebo’s place in music. Was he the pop generation’s new David Bowie? No, but he yearned to attract fans much like Bowie did during the 1970s. Molko’s pixie-like peculiarity only added to Placebo’s star power, so naturally the timing of Once More With Feeling is a nice fit in the Placebo discography. It’s arrangement is out of order; however, all the singles released from their 1996 self-titled debut to the fierce neo-glam statement that is 2003’s Sleeping With Ghosts sound as great as they ever did. What’s nice is how the select tracks from Black Market Music — “Taste in Men,” “Special K,” “Slave to the Wage” — age better simply because Placebo has aged well. The direction of Sleeping With Ghosts does the same, holding promise for what’s yet to come from Placebo; just check out “The Bitter End.” For a fan who’s already bought every Placebo single, Once More With Feeling is only necessary for collecting purposes. For those who didn’t, this singles collection is a great place to start.

Muse- Absolution
Though some may still consider them Radiohead mimics, obviously Muse continue to strike a nerve with their alternative hard rock audience, here releasing their third album of heavy guitars, haunted harmonics, and paranoid musings in Absolution. Frontman Matt Bellamy and company stick to the same disturbed, and sometimes disturbing, formula that’s worked in the past: the emotional intensity and style of Radiohead, a rock thunder descended from Black Sabbath, and the baroque drama of Queen. Longtime producer John Leckie sits this one out, and in steps indie uber-engineer Rich Costey. With Costey manning the desk, the music feels more polished and slick, but less epic and raw. Longtime fans won’t miss a beat though, because Bellamy delivers the same Thom Yorke vocal impersonation for which he’s known, and continues the same anthemic posturing he’s lifted from Freddie Mercury. With song titles and subject matter fueled by fear of the apocalypse, and worries about infidelities and random murders, the subject matter is as gloriously pretentious and lovably unlovable as ever. Newcomers to the band should expect killer guitars reminiscent of jackhammers and chainsaws, bloodcurdling choruses, and, of course, tender passages of falsetto. A recurring motif of racing samplers suggests nothing less than a rock opera version of the score to Koyaanisqatsi, and then there are the occasional spooky moments where funky rhythms mingle with heavy metal guitars, suggesting a progressive Italian zombie flick soundtrack. There’s little point in selecting highlights, because other than some slow moments that feel tacked on, there’s not much variation in theme or mood. Many listeners will probably prefer to tackle the album in small doses, and only the most headstrong won’t require a breather. Muse continue to make unrelenting hardcore art rock; Absolution is a tad cheesy, a bit too grandiose in its ambitions, bursting at the seams with too many ideas, and thus exactly what any Muse fan craves.