Opinions of a few songs that popped up on shuffle

This is an exercise in which I'm going to review a few songs that popped up on my ipod's shuffle setting while writing.

Song 1
Cementville by Ghost Mice off of their split with the Andrew Jackson Jihad.
First it's important to mention that this song is a longer ballad style song in which the lead singer tells a story of his childhood and the related shenanigans. Second it's important to note I'm probably misusing the term ballad. It's a neat story and a well done song. The bridges are really shockingly upbeat. The violin work adds some nice accents to the basic folky guitars. The singer isn't brilliant but he very much does the job required.

Song 2
Wraits pinned to the mist and other games by of montreal
So let's be honest, I know this song, you know this song, if you don't know this song you're kind of a moron. It's fun, it's by far one of my favourite of montreal songs and was probably the song that really convinced me to enjoy them. It's just good and catchy and poppy in all the right ways. Sorry if that is gushing a little but I really enjoy this song and how outside my other musical tastes that band usually is.

song 3
My new world by the Epoxies
I'm honestly really disappointed that this was the title track off of what would end up being the Epoxies last release. Roxy Epoxy has a wonderful and unique voice and they put some funny effects on it that I really feel hurts the song. It doesn't sound so much like the epoxies to me, it sounds like they are trying to rock much harder than they should. I do like the zombie references though. Other songs off of that e.p. were much better. That said I still love the epoxies.

The Ergs! Upstairs Downstairs album: I just have a general comment about this, and it sounds like a much lower quality recording that dorkrockcorkrod. I don't get it. I honestly haven't been able to listen to it all because of that. It's weird. That's pretty much it tonight.

It's been a while.

So I haven't updated in a long time, sorry about that. Been busy with moving and all that fun etc. kinda stuff. So with that said here are some things that have been on my mind with music situations lately.

The Gainesville Fest, if you have talked to me recently I am sure you have heard me go on and on about this festival. I need to find a way to go, but I am stalling until ticket packages, prices and room rental details become more clear, this is frustrating however because I will need to get plane tickets soon. I wish No idea had this planned out a little bit more ahead of time. That's what you get with smaller businesses though.

Next, record labels that never release anything. It seems these days that everyone and their uncle, who is in a remotely known band, has their own record label. Most of these labels release one album and then go into a continual dormant state. I was just reading a news article about Ben Weasel and his new(ish) label mendota was mentioned. He released on album on this label two years ago and nothing else has happened with it since. It's a digital only label so distribution can't be that much of an issue and you know Ben Weasel has plenty of people applying to be on it, so what is the issue there? It's tiring to see all these people try to start up indie business without being able to make their business successful at all.

Other than that my laptop broke so I'm living off my desktop and my older reserves of music, time to listen to some mad sin and think back to when I was 16 and really into psychobilly perhaps?

Warped Tour and random album reviews.

So I was at the St. John's county Warped tour and while I was working for the majority of the show I was able to watch some bits and pieces of various sets. I'm going to put some live performance comments before I talk about any of the album's I have listened to recently.

The Street Dogs were very good like always, they opened with a song off of their new album which gave me some mixed feelings but they always perform well live. They did very well for a warped tour set, also they played a cover of rise above and you all know my love of both cover songs and things involving Henry Rollins.

Ore Ska Band is a band I imagine you have not heard but should really look into. It is six early 20 something Japanese girls playing Ska. Do you need more convincing than that? If so you fail at life. They very much had fun on stage and were one of the more enjoyable bands of the day.

MC Chris I only saw a little bit of. He seems like a good performer but it was a little odd to see him just up on stage with just a backing track. He was funny but he didn't really fit in, he seems like he would be much more at home on another tour.

The Dollyrots were interestings, a girl fronted punk band from LA. I'm not sure how good they were, their live set was really kinda bad but they were kinda funny and seemed out of their element enough to give them a shot of buying a cd and a t-shirt. Also their shirts were kinda amusing. I'll listen to their album and give opinions later.

I also saw a bit of angels and airwaves, reel big fish and a bunch of shitty metal bands. I missed the horrorpops but saw kim nekroman and said they were good last time they were in lawrence.


Alright well Album comments

The Steinways: Gorilla Marketing

I love the Steinways, their first album was tremendously fun. This one I have a couple mixed feelings about. It's not quite as fast or nearly as funny. They tried to grow as a band and they succeeded but some of their songs reference their last album too much and I think that really detracted from the albums. It doesn't suck though and I need to listen to it more. To be honest I just have trouble saying

Street Dogs: State Of Grace

Again, this album doesn't suck, the street dogs are better than most any other bands out there, but right now I would rank this as my least favourite of their albums. It's just too mid-tempo. It's missing some of the really speedy energetic songs that really broke up their other albums. It feels slightly monotone. With the slower speed comes some more inventive guitar work which shows they are talented musicians but isn't exactly punk rock. Still they kick ass as a band and this album still is better than most. The last track free really pushes home the feeling I've had for a while that the street dogs could put out a badass acoustic album or e.p. at some point. I'd be all for that.

What goes into a song

So I am not allowed to talk about my work on this it turns out, and I really have realized I don't usually have the time to anyway. I am very busy. I am still going to use this to talk about music if I have the chance and other observations. I do stress how extremely busy I've been though, so that makes this difficult.
So here is something I have been thinking about for the last few days. One of the guys I have been working with has made me think about this. I think that the music you listen to and how that music treats women really reveals a lot about how you behave in this topic. I was driving around with this guy and listening to some of my totally absurd pop-punk like the steinways and the Ergs! (the exclamation point being in the name and not a point of emphasis) and listening to their very many sad love songs about girls they just can't be with or are too afraid to talk to and this guy I am with just doesn't get it. I believe he called the songs pathetic. Now this guy listens to country metal and rap mostly it appears. My observations are that he tries to hook up with most every girl he meets and is at least far less than gentlemanly. I just think it's weird how the music people listen to and can relate to can be an indicator of ideas like that. At least in this case. I doubt it is universal and honestly it is probably a stupid observation. I might be getting brain damage from exhaustion. Anyway have a good night and I will try to make more time to update this with things not actually related to what I am doing.

training was kinda exhausting. it was good though. a lot of great stories from people. some of the most moving stuff i have heard. i feel good that i'm doing this, it's going to be tough though.

Alley Gatorz

That was the name of the bowling alley the meet up was tonight. Your pun per day quote filled up right there.
today was pretty awesome all things considered. The meet up went well and I will get to that in a moment. First however, the things I did today.
The first accomplishment was visiting the Florida Museum of Natural History. It was alright. It has a butterfly house that is tremendous. The best I have ever been to. If you are into butterfly houses I very much recommend going. Hopefully I'll be uploading photos from that in a bit. The actual fossil specimen there were not tremendous, they had a megaladon and giant sloth, both of which are interesting, but nothing spectacular. I still think the ku natural history museum has some more impressive specimens. Still, the butterfly garden is awesome. Photos might come.

Part 2: my first interaction with an obama related person: Creepy as Fuck!
I pull up to the location I was supposed to stay for the weekend, first to set the mood of this motel you need to see No Country for Old Men. You know that motel where they hide the money? The one that is really scummy looking. It looks like that. I get a key from the front desk and am told that a guy is already checked in that I will be sharing the room with. I knock on the room door and this guy answers, he is about 37, a little overweight, slightly balding blondish hair, wearing a wife beater and leaning against the door. Also his teeth all looked like they were half chewed away. Very creepy. I went back to my car and proceeded to get a new place to stay for the weekend.

Now the pun induced meetup. It was good. The people nice. Unlike creepy guy everyone else was cool. The obama people aren't well organized but they are good. I met some neat people and had good conversation. A very cute 23 year old girl told me I have the most beautiful hair. Seriously she said the most beautiful. So that was cool. I met a dude who goes to school at columbia where abbey will be going, that was kinda neat.

Here is my only other thing. The reaction people had when I said I was from kansas were interesting to say the least. A lot of blank stares, a lot of looks that were just "seriously?" It was interesting. It's fun to see how stereotyped the state really is.

Gainesville!

I am here in el florida now. It's kinda rainy although my understanding is the rain is much worse in Kansas. I will be meeting some Obama people tomorrow. That is exciting but also very intimidating. I talked to my host family and they seem like they will be nice. So many of the details of this thing are still up in the air, but it is looking good still. I listened to a new live album by the steinways in the car today. It's from insubordination fest 07, so it's not really new but it is close. It's good, but short. Their music is satisfying but I always feel kinda ripped off paying full price for an album that is under 30 minutes. Still it is good. Hopefully Florida will be fun.