2. TWO different mixes since someone is bored somewhere but then that person doesn't have a MP3 player so I don't know how she's gonna listen to this. The first one is the stuff I've been listening to a lot during the last 2 weeks: a lot more pop than rock but not your standard Britney pop. The second one is instrumental music. Mix 1: the sing along mix Mix 2: Lyrics are overrated
EDIT: The file extensions are .zip. Add that in at the end before you unzip. Thanks Bert for bringing that issue up.
As promised, more pictures. By now you would have realised that I don't like taking pictures of myself using my own camera or using anyone's cameras for that matter. If I ever decide to upload pictures onto my facebook account (I wonder if it's still there as I type this, I heard somewhere that you can't delete whatever you put up there once it's up there) you won't see me in it for sure.
I took a whole bunch of pictures during the trip but they're pretty much pictures of scenery and inanimate objects. Some looked pretty cool actually, once I've learned some photoshop chops I'll upload the results.
I probably won't be updating for a while unless I feel like procrastinating. Until then, enjoy the following tune. The title describes what I feel right now, just remove the "ex" from the last word and substitute "tudying" in.
I'll try to post something in the next 3 weeks. Don't hold your breath though, I won't be responsible for anyone dying because of such act, I barely post regularly when I have internet access 24/7 so no internet access might equate no posting at all.
What's up lately? Nothing much, I've finally finished all the nagging assignments/assessments. I bought a few books (three) with the intention of reading them in the next 3 weeks but ended up reading them last week when I had a mini semester break. I guess I won't be reading anything besides lecture notes in the next 3 weeks then.
That's it I think. Here's some music to make this post look better cosmetically. Someone asked me lately if I listen to any music at all since I don't know any of the artists they were talking to me about. My answer: Of course I listen to music, I just don't listen to the top40 music. The person went on to say something about my taste being obscure. The way that person said "obscure" made you think "obscure" equates "shit". So here's all I'm gonna say to that person: obscure is freaking good. Here're some obscure good shit that have been rocking my world at the moment.
No it's not over yet. In the mean time, here's something to listen to. I've been playing these songs a lot lately. Favourite songs of the month and they're not from Death Cab or Coldplay either.
Talking about Coldplay, I assume everyone's heard their new album already. I don't listen to the radio but I think they'll all playing nothing but Coldplay from now until next year. I had a funny listening relationship with Coldplay. I like their albums but after listening to any of their albums all the way through for about 5 times, I don't like them anymore. I'm actually quite glad that I didn't buy the album when it came out last week. And why didn't I get the album last week? I was stuck at home studying. Wow, the bright side of actually studying.
That's it for today, go download the 2 tracks. Seriously, they're good.
Considering last week was the week that my birthday this year was in, I should have posted something more meaningful than the PG-rated version of "2 girls, 1 cup" video. That video of the chimp (monkey?) is so similar to the "2 girls, 1 cup" thing, except for the X-rated video had 2 girls whereas the PG-rated thing has only 1 chimp of unknown gender to me.
I didn't even comment on the Sorry speech and all that followed, which I will be doing now. I would like to thank Kevin Rudd for turning the usual rather meaningless day before Valentine's day into the "Historic National Sorry Day" from now on. Thanks a lot, all the people that were born on the 13th of February can now respond to the question "When is your birthday?" with "Sorry day" instead of "The Day before Valentine's day".
Seriously though, I think Kevin Rudd saying sorry to the Aborigines was the right thing to do, it was done with what I hope to be good intentions. Let's hope we all learn something and move on. If we haven't, well, the forty something compensation claims probably will. On Brendan Nelson, well I haven't decided what he is, a man who stood by what he believes or an incredible stubborn idiot. Whatever he is, I don't think he's gonna win any election.
Back to the topic, I didn't post anything meaningful last week because I didn't feel like it was a special week/day. I wasn't excited about my birthday at all, if anything I felt a bit nervous, uneasy and sad. Trust me, it's normal, I feel like that every birthday which is why I don't ever celebrate my birthday.
I've just reread that last paragraph and realised that I didn't described what I felt quite correctly. I wasn't exactly sad, I was something else I can't quite find a word to describe. Lucky for me some talented person/people probably felt the same way about their 24th birthday. Give it a listen.
______________________________________________________________ Surprise, surprise they wouldn't wanna watch Another uninnocent, elegant fall into the unmagnificent lives of adults
I feel freaking tired, I only worked for 25 hours last week (most of those at night) but it felt like I worked for 40 hours. How people with full-time jobs manage to blog regularly and articulately I have no idea. Maybe they don't have a life outside of blogging and working.
Off topic: The strangest thing happened to me this week, I can't sleep in anymore. I always get up at 6.30 in the morning even if I went to bed at 1. What's the point of being on holiday when you can't freaking sleep in?
Back on topic, the rest of the time that I don't work I spent online downloading music, listening to the shit load of music I downloaded, deleting the ones I don't like and making lists of albums I should buy when they're released. Oh, and I managed to start reading 5 books while waiting for the downloads. So here's a 10 songs from a few bands that I started to listen to during January in a .rar file (use 7-zip to unrar, it's free). Download and listen. I'm serious, it takes ages for me to upload so you people better download, it's only 26MB. No computer virus had been intentionally included.
Funny thought of the day: what we learn from American History X is that prison anal rape cures racism.
____________________________________________ Sometimes when you're going down you're going down no matter what. So find the deepest well you can and climb on it and wait it out.
I was gonna post something last week. 2 things actually they were quite funny in my head but after typing half of them out they weren't very funny anymore. They were just sad. So no posts, I thought that no one would actually care that there's no update whatsoever on this blog, I thought I should stop blogging altogether. I also thought that I should get a tattoo or a piercing. Apparently I've been thinking a lot lately and it's not always about serious things. That's what you do when you get an abundance of time and very little money. And by "you" I meant "me".
So naturally, with all the "thinking" I've been doing lately, I got bored of pretty much everything. So bored that I read my Pharmacology textbook to have a break from boredom. The "official version" of this action in my diary is "stop insulting my own intelligence by doing dumb things". Which version is better? I personally like the blog version, the diary version is too honest it hurts. Don't look at me like I'm a nerd (which I am), that book just happened to be there when I was bored and the chapter on antibiotics got me hooked. Really interesting stuff.
When I wasn't busy being bored I did other things too which I will tell all of you about since you're here and you're bored and you'd probably read rubbish that I churn out. So here goes
8 THINGS I'VE DONE THIS PAST MONTH
1. I decided to stop watching the news. My newspaper subscription ran out at the beginning of December and I was too cheap to pay for summer subscription and too uninterested to read the newspaper everyday. I watched the news on TV when I happened to be having dinner or breakfast at the same time as the news. I just decided to stop watching it yesterday because I genuinely believe that they should change the program name to the "Bad News" instead. Let me see, day after Boxing day and what have we got on the news? First thing in the morning, breaking news is a whole family in the US got massacre by 2 people. Awesome. What's in the afternoon news? A newly-arrived-in-Australia woman got killed when a car ran into the rubbish bin that she was doing the right thing and throwing rubbish into said bin. The kicker? She was out celebrating her birthday. And there's more, a man died when he was deadlocked in his own house and the house burnt down. All those commercial channels only want viewers and what better way to attract viewers by shocking them with this kind of news on a day right after Christmas right? From now on I'm gonna watch SBS world news, at least they don't put this kind of news as breaking news, plus they're not usually on when I have dinner.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention a teenager got mauled (and later died) by a tiger, a baby got mauled (and later died) by the family's dog and the greatest tragedy of this month, as claimed by tabloids, Britney Spears' sixteen-year-old sister got knocked up. Great journalism is displayed by all these "breaking news" stories.
2. I went to a concert, my first concert ever. Yeah, me the person who hates crowded places. I seriously despise crowded places especially Melbourne Central and Myer on Boxing day, more on that later. I loved that concert probably because of: It was one of my favourite bands if not the favourite at the moment: Tegan and Sara. The audience was very polite. The opening act (Kaki King) was freaking great. She was hailed as a guitar goddess by some magazine so you know that she must be awesome (which I reckon that she is, but this is only the opinion of someone who doesn't play any instruments) or at least good. T&S has quite a large gay following and mostly women so the audience was probably 80% female. It's not that I'm saying men are impolite, I'm just saying that women are generally more considerate and generally less likely to do crazy shit. I said "generally" because some slightly crazy shit did happen but it was fine in the end, no one got hurt. One thing I have to say about this concert besides T&S was awesome is that I have never seen so many lesbians in one place ever. It felt strange but they were polite and I like polite people.
3. I changed my first name. It's not that I don't like my first name (I actually don't now but I used to like it quite a lot before the move to Australia rendered my name too freaking confusing), I just got tired of having this kind of conversation on the phone all the time. Me: Hello. The other end: Hello, I'm looking for "blah blah blah". Me: I'm sorry? The other end(in a slightly raised voice): I'm looking for "blah blah blah" Me: I'm sorry, who are you looking for? The other end(in a very raised voice and extremely slowly): BLAH BLAH BLAH Me: I don't know who you're looking for, can you spell the name? The other end: (spells out "blah blah blah") Me: Oh, that's me. And no, the people on the other ends aren't my friends, at least my friends know how to pronounce my name, they're usually some Indian operators calling about signing me up to some life insurance policy or getting me a home loan. So I changed it to some thing else entirely different and it's kinda weird now that people actually call me by the new name. I went to the bank to change the account name last week (which took a whole hour because I, unfortunately enough, got an operator that's still in training and didn't know what to do, and the supervisors for that trainee were bitches who wouldn't come help out at first and when they did come they had this really annoyed look on their faces and didn't really help with anything at all) and they were talking my account and it took a while for me to register that they were talking about my account. Anyway, if this name doesn't work out, I can always change it to something else. It better works out because changing name is one mofo.
4. I signed up for a Facebook account. I wasn't gonna give into the hype about Facebook just like I haven't given into the whole Myspace thing. But then I got curious and The Alarmist wouldn't stop talking about Facebook and wouldn't stop being on Facebook almost all the time (I think she's addicted to Facebook, very alarming). One of these days my curiosity would be my undoing. The last time I got curious, I watched the 2 Chicks 1 cup thing and it was hilariously disgusting. Like you would never imagine anyone would do that. But they did do it and it was caught all on camera and now it's all over the internet. OK, I'm just trying to spur up your curiosity so that you would go watch the thing. Maybe I should put a link up hey? Anyway, I signed up, had a look around, went to some pages from people that I know, and got terribly bored. Maybe it's because I'm not really into instant messaging and I don't add a lot of friends to my page. I just don't like Facebook. The other day I got a friend request from someone I have never in real life come into contact with let alone speaking. She was in the Alarmist's year 10 class one year and then they just randomly ran into each other one day and randomly the topic of Facebook popped up in their 2 minute conversation and then she added the Alarmist to her friends list and then requested to add me. I think Facebook is kinda well designed, there's an option for this kind of "friends" something like "I don't even know this person". Facebook is the new Myspace now, I'm pretty sure there's this competition for who's got more friends going on. Count me out on Facebook, I've already wasted enough time without getting addicted to Facebook, imagine what I would be if I am.
5. I went to Geelong with a few friends (wow, real friends, they are a lot better than their Facebook pages) on a 30-degree-Celsius day and it was hot. Like extremely hot and all I can say about Geelong is that it was hot and full of flies. I think they have a fly infestation in Geelong. Insect repellent didn't help so if you're planning to go to Geelong don't try to use it.
6. I watched a bunch of movies. Actually I downloaded a bunch of movies and went to see one. I saw Enchanted and it was alright. I think I would have loved it if I saw this when I was 13. Now that I'm my current age the movie just felt like a fairy tale, everything is too perfect. The some of the movies I downloaded were excellent. The rest was slightly better than average. Here's a rundown. Once. For me, the title of this movie says it all. Once is how many times I need to watch this movie. It's not that it's a bad movie. It's just not the type of movie that I enjoy watching. The Alarmist got some high praises for this movie after she saw it earlier this year so I thought I might like it. I didn't. Death Proof. Now this is my type of movie. This is hilarious. The first half of the movie was really boring but the second half makes up for it. Download it, rent it, do whatever you want just as long as you watch it. It's good Planet Terror. This movie is not as good as Death Proof but it's a fun horror movie. Plus you get to see Quentin Tarantino working as an actor. Half Nelson. I like Ryan Gosling in Fracture so I watched this. He's great in the movie. The thing with indie flicks for me is that I usually don't get the movie as a whole. I don't get this movie, I think I need to rewatch it. Point Break. I actually didn't download this movie. Someone lent it to me. Anyway, all I can say about this movie is that Keanu Reeves couldn't act to save his life. I watched a few more movies which I can't remember the titles now. That probably means that they're not good enough to be remembered and not bad enough to burn a hole in my brain which means that I shouldn't try to find out and/or write about them.
7. I read a bunch of books. The best being Choke by Chuck Pahlaniuk. That book has quite a lot to say on modern life in bizarre fashion. If you enjoy Fight Club the novel or the movie, then read it. Hilarious is not the right word but it's the first word that comes to mind.
8. I found a bunch of new artists to listen to. I would have written about them here but this post is probably long enough and you would have been bored of this enough by now so I'm gonna stop. Truthfully, I got bored of writing this so you're gonna have to wait for another post.
1 THING I'M GONNA DO IN THE NEXT WEEK
I'm gonna go to the New Years Eve celebration in the city. I'm pretty sure I will not like it. I don't like crowded places. I despise Boxing Day shopping because everywhere you turn there are people. People who don't necessarily observe the escalator unspoken protocol and stand on the right side of the escalator and block my way. People who do annoying things like physically pushing you aside so that they can get their hands on some marked-down overpriced clothing items that even though are marked down are still freaking overpriced. I did enjoy the very crowded concert because it was a band I like and I was only there for 2-3 hours and then I would be on a deserted train home. New Years' Eve is gonna be packed. Apparently it's gonna be a very warm night. That's just great. Just the right icing on the cake I guess. Here's hoping for an old train without aircon on the night. Just some extra icing. Wouldn't it be nice if there's a storm on the night?
That's it folks, hope that you're a little less bored. I'm still bored but that would be remedied soon, I'm gonna read some interesting stuff on Beta-lactam antibiotics, the information antibiotics that work on the synthesis and action of folate was very informative.
To make this post even longer, here's a playlist of songs that I uploaded a while ago but haven't found a post to put them on and a music video. Happy New Year you all if I don't update before then.
The exam results came out today. I'm not entirely happy with them but hey I pass everything and get to keep my meagre and more-anxiety-that-it's-worth scholarship for another year. I guess some celebration is in order. More happy, summery music.
Finally, we won't see Howard as the Prime Minister anymore and we won't ever see Peter Costello as the PM or even the leader of the opposition either. I don't know why but I'm not in a celebratory mood even though I voted for the ALP. I had fun watching the vote counting commentaries though. That was even better than watching .... Damn, I can't even think of anything I've watched recently on TV. Anyway, I had a great time possibly because I wasn't paying attention to the dire situation the Lib were in or the frequent cheering that was going on in the background (possibly from the Lab). I was paying attention on these:
Election smiley posters from candidates that were splashed on the screen every now and then whenever their electorates came up. I cracked out laughing at those because seriously all those pictures looked so phoney and they would have done much better not smiling in those pictures.
Trying to eat dinner while containing my laughter. This activity demands a lot of concentration.
Listening to the Alarmist's commentaries on which commentators have had their teeth whitened (all of them), had a denture (some of them), or had some work done in regards to teeth. She only stayed for a bit though so her commentaries were short and hilarious, albeit irrelevant to the topic being discussed by the commentators and what I was trying to pay attention to - getting food to go down the right pipe.
So the Lib lost, obviously their scare campaign didn't work. What were these guys thinking? Dragging records of interest rates from the 80s out and naming all those "union bosses" in the ALP ranks. The 80s are ancient history to someone who starts voting this year and I don't think many people want to remember the 80s, nobody looked good in whatever they were dressing up in in the 80s. The scare campaign just did not work.
Here's the reason why I think the Lib have lost touch with the voters, they don't know what people are scared of anymore. People aren't scared of union bosses and possible interest rate rises. I'll tell you some of what people (i.e. me, myself & I) are scared of
Lost of access to the internet (trust me on this one without the internet, civilisation as we know it will crumble because people lost their daily fix of Facebook, Myspace, Youtube or Yourface or Facespace or whatever new ways clever people dream up to keep in touch with nowadays)
Facebook account got suspended (some person got a nervous breakdown after their account was suspended for no reason. Personally, I don't see what's the big deal with Facebook. Does anyone know this because I would love to know)
Bittorrent networks go offline.
M'n'Ms only come in blue.
Vampires, vengeful spirits that walk out of a TV to kill and basically anything horror movie writers cook up these days.
I know it's hard to threaten people that by voting for Labour you will run the risk of getting internet, MyFace or whatever social network, and all the colours of M'n'Ms except blue banned and look credible at the same time so here's my suggestion on how to improve on the Lib's scare campaign: add scary background music.
I know I have been ,sort of, joking around in this post so far but I'm completely serious in this paragraph. Have you ever watched a scary movie without sounds? I have the horror movie turned out to be so funny. Just watch those actors trying to be scared and all those scary characters trying to be menacing without the ominous background music and the sudden loud drums, it's hilarious. I watched the Ring 2 last week without sounds and it was an eye-opening experience on how movies scare people.
So my suggestion to the Liberals is that they take note of the tried-and-true convention of horror movies next time they decide to run a scare campaign.
To a not completely unrelated note, I saw "30 days of night" last week and I was scared and bored by the movie. The scare only lasted for a few seconds and, you guess it, it's not the visuals of people chopping vampires or soon-to-be vampires' heads off, it's the goddamn fracking background music. I was bored the rest of the time I wasn't scared so it's not a good movie. The Alarmist, on the other hand, was scared and horrified. She was scared because of the movie, obviously. She was horrified because the "vampires" had open bites and that will not allow them to rip people's throat out effectively. Not to Vampires movie maker, consult a dentist before you make fake teeth for your vampires or movie goers who are dentists will not take your movie seriously.
So my holiday started on Saturday. I thought I was gonna do a few posts during the weekend but I ended up not doing that. It's kinda funny how when you don't have any time to do anything you wish you have more time to do whatever, and then when you have so much time on your hands you just don't feel like doing anything.
So what have I been doing? I've gotten rid of all the clutters that I've accumulated on my desk. I thought that it would take quite a while but I underestimated the power and efficiency of the "sweep everything into a box in one single move and kick the box under the bed" method of cleaning. I've organised my 50 gig music collection into alphabetical order. And last but not least, I do what I always try to do every holiday, stop drinking coffee and start exercising.
So far it's been boring. I tried to watch "Summer Heights High" since I didn't catch it when it was on TV. I thought I would find it funny but I didn't. The concept might be funny but I just couldn't even chuckle at that show. I can watch it but I just don't find it funny enough to laugh out loud at. I can't even remember the last time I laughed out loud at anything. Oh wait, actually I can. I laughed at that Rudd vs. Howard rap battle and I laughed at these Chinglish signs.
So that's it so far. If you're as bored as me, here's something to cheer you up: perfect summer music. Well, for me at least.
Bowling for soup - London bridge So much better than the Fergie version
Alanis Morissette - My humps Music: good Lyrics: awful Video: so bad it's good.
Interpol - Mammoth What the heck does this mean?
There are seven ancient porn shops along the road And seven aging daddies you may want to know.
Really good tune though
The New Pornographers - Sing me spanish techno (music vid of the week) Best music video I've seen in the last 2-3 months. If you're gonna watch one of these clips then watch this. I just love twists in music videos, give you some incentive to actually watch it.
Against Me! - Thrash Unreal I've been listening to New Wave obsessively this week. I thought it was OK last month when I did the review post but then Ben Lee went and did an acoustic cover of the whole album (which you can download for free from his blog) and I listened to New Wave a few more time and realised that it's good stuff. The covers are good too if you're into acoustic quiet songs.
August has been a rather exciting month. I've bought another iPod since the other one is on the verge of dying. Not dead yet, I need to change the battery for that old one. Anyway, the new iPod means more music listening without running out of battery. That and the fact that I've developed a kind of musical ADHD means that I've got a very long list of music that I listen to this month. So here goes a list/review of albums that I've been listening to this month. I tried in the past (read: last month's post) to provide links to where you can get links to where you can get some free (and thus illegal) mp3's but Hype Machine (hint, hint: where you can get free sample mp3s) is acting like a bitching diva at the moment so no links this time around. There are some links to Youtube videos though, enjoy!
The old fave's new albums: The New Pornographers - Challengers Pop isn't a dirty word, that's what I learned this year. If you want good pop, just go look for The New Pornographers or Tegan & Sara (yeah, I just had to plug my 2nd favourite band in wherever I can). Back to The New Pornographers, this album's just been released this month but the leaked version of it has been lying around the net (and my ipods) for a few months at least. My first thought after the first listen months ago was "wow, that was boring". However this is one of those album that gets better after repeated listens. I like it enough to get myself a physical copy when it came out in Australia so I'd say it's really good. my rights versus yours
Rilo Kiley - Under the blacklight One of those highly anticipated release of the year (if you like Rilo Kiley's previous albums that is) and for a good reason too. This album frustrated me quite a bit. It didn't leak until 2 or 3 days before the release date (a truly great feat if you ask me). All I heard of the album before the leak were the first 2 singles: The Moneymaker and Silver Lining. The Moneymaker didn't do much for me, I thought it was below average. Silver Lining is a different story, that song made me go searching for leaks for the whole day. What can I say? I like the hand claps, the guitar tracks and everything about that song. Sweet album, Silver Lining (video) The Moneymaker (video)
Eisley - Combinations Another CD that just didn't leak! I've known about Eisley for a while now but I don't listen to them much until I heard the first single off of this CD: Invasion. The whole CD wasn't that great, unfortunately. Sounds like Room Noises episode number 2 to me but then again I don't like them that much so it might just be my uninitiated ears. Should be a hit with the die-hard fans. Invasion (video)
The recent discoveries that has been on heavy rotations: Bat for lashes - Fur and Gold I can't believe I like this album. My brain can only comes up with "weird" when I try to describe this album. No make it "really weird". But hell it's good. Horse and I (video)
Helios - Eingya This one is a totally random find. I subscribe to a whole bunch of blogs that give out links to full album downloads on rapidshare and yousendit. I get links for about a dozen of new & old albums everyday in my google reader, that's how I keep track of all the leaked albums. Anyway, I got the link for this one ages ago and thought that the album cover looks interesting, kinda manga-ish. So the link sat there in my Google Reader for a few weeks and one day when I was messing around at uni waiting to continue my life once I get home, I decided to check it out. I was blown away. This stuff is good. Weird but good. Really good background music to study to since it's all instrumental. The Wombats I don't remember how I got into this band but I'm pretty sure the first song I heard was "Kill the Director". They have a bunch of songs out and I like them because they kick-start my brain in the morning. If you see me particularly cheerful at 8.30 AM going into Micro lecture, that's possibly the result of The Wombats' songs. Backfire at the disco (youtube) Moving to New York
Voxtrot - Voxtrot I have a thing against self-title albums. Are the artists so limited in creativity that they can't think of an meaningful title for their album? Or are they just out of steam once they've finished recording? Anyhow, really good, album. Not as good as their EPs but still good. No real standout favourite so far. Just listen to the whole thing. Go to their myspace or their last.fm page for some free stream. Free and legal downloads: The start of something Mothers, sisters, daughters & wives
The good-but-I've-ran-out-of-steam-so -I'll-write-about-this-later: The Klaxons - Myths of the near future Caribou - Andorra LoveLikeFire - An ocean in the air EP Kisschasy - Hymns for the non-believer The dears Wolf parade Midnight Juggernauts - dystopia Plain white T's
The recommended-by-friends: UNKLE - War stories Suggested by Pencil Chewing Boy, checked it out a while ago but wasn't terribly impressed. I was way into The Faint then and no-one can distract me from The Faint. Anyway, UNKLE got mentioned to me by Crazy Lecture Note Doodler the other day so I gave it another listen. Favourite track: Key to the kingdom
Tool - 10,000 days Bert's recommendation, one tough cookie to chew. I would have gotten into this if someone had suggested it back in year 11 when I was into Metallica. Favourite tracks so far:
Jambi
Wings for Marie
And the overhyped MIA - Kala It seemed like every mp3 blogger and every music reviewer loves this album. I wasn't gonna check this stuff out because of one name that got associated with this CD: Timbaland. That guy is some sort of hip hop producer/artist and I have been avoiding hip hop ever since I fell off the hip-hop bandwagon at the end of year 10. I hate the hip hop culture, I hate the blings, I hate the ridiculous dancing I don't hate some of the tunes though, I must admit some are really really catchy. So naturally when I see anything that got stamped with the name Timbaland I avoid it. But all the hype got to me and I caved in. First listen: What the hell is so special about this? Second listen: Definitely some interesting tunes, especially on Jimmy and Hussel but definitely not worth the hype.
New releases wise, this month has been huge so without further here are my favourite releases in alphabetical order with extremely short review from me. Recommended songs are linked to Hype Machine where you can stream the song. My connection isn't very good for uploading and I don't want to mess with copyright law.
Against Me! - New Wave My introduction to the band and I like it. Not as much screaming as their previous albums which I don't like as much. Favourite tracks: Thrash Unreal White people for peace (video) Also, check out From her lips to God's ears from their old album
Bishop Allen - The broken string Again, a brand new band for me. I heard the first track from their album and I love it, and the rest of the album. The whole album has this kinda mellow and cute poppy sound to it. Really, when anyone starts writing songs for/about a piano they literally picked up off the street it's gotta be cute. The album feels very summer to me (which is good in this winter weather) Favourite tracks: The monitor (not album version but still awesome) Corazon (again, not album version, these guy recorded 4 album worth of EPs last year and picked the hits to put on this album so there're a ton of their EP songs floating around) Editors - An end has a start I think I raved a bit about this band last month already. They sound like a cross between Interpol & Coldplay to me. Favourite tracks: An end has a start The racing rats
Garbage - absolute garbage My favourite band back in year 12. What can I say, it's their greatest hits collection so it's great. The only new song sounds OK. If you're already a fan you'll love this album, if you're not the you won't. Hopefully they won't break up. Tell me where it hurts
Gogol Bordello - Super taranta! I posted a video of this band last Sunday already and so far Bert likes it. I don't know why I decided to check these guys out but it wasn't because of the song they did with Madonna for Live Earth. The whole album is pretty much crazy gypsy/punk rock tunes that make you wanna jump up and down crazily on your bed. Wonderlust king supertheory of supereverything
Interpol - Our love to admire One thing you can be sure about Interpol is that they're always the same. It might be a good thing as is in the case of this album, there's enough variations to make me wanna listen to this over and over again. Not enough bass on this CD. Pioneer to the falls No I in threesome Mammoth
Spoon - Ga ga ga ga ga One very strange album. I don't know why it feels that way to me but I like it big time. At first listen it was just a pretty average album to me but then the tunes stuck in my head. And that was after only one listen. After about 10 listens, I was going gaga for this band. The underdog Rhythm & soul You got yr. cherry bomb
Tegan and Sara - The con I'm too biased to give this a fair review. I adore this band and this is positively the best album of the year so far (I told you I'm biased). That's all I'm gonna say. Burn your life down Hop a plane The con
Yeah yeah yeahs - Is is EP Short and sweeet (like this review) Down boy 10x10
Other releases that's worth a mention too The enemy - We'll live and die in these towns A pretty good album. I would have liked it much better had I not been distracted by all of the above albums already. I'll give it a few more listen before I can recommend songs. Sum 41 - Underclass hero This album reminds me of their old albums which I liked a lot back in year 11. They sound exactly the same on this record which is fine by me. Some of the songs sound like they're trying to rip off their old songs. Interpol at least tried to vary their sounds and experimented a bit. Sum41's new album is just too unvaried. I'm better off listening to Chuck I guess. Korn - Untitled Again, another of my Year 11 favourite band. I went through this whole hard rock phase back in year 11. This album is too normal, not what I expected out of Korn. It sounds like they're trying to cash in with the whole environmental awareness thing. I like it but it's just not good enough.
And on a completely unrelated but related note: here's the new single from the Foo Fighters. New album's coming soon I think. By the sound of this single, it's gonna be great plus rumour has it that they'll be trashing Emo bands on one of their song.
No actually, I have to rephrase that. To say "I have a cold" means that I'm using a disease (a cold is not a disease, I know but let's just humour me ok?) to define myself. I should say I am suffering from a cold. If you ask me, I'd say it's just a load of over-thought psychology, but hey if writing "a patient suffering from asthma" instead of "a patient who has asthma" gets me over the fail mark in exam, I'd do it.
So yeah, I still have that cold/sore throat from reading HP in a freezing room. It was alright yesterday but today it got worse, I don't know why, probably has something to do with the woman who sneezed on me yesterday on the train. She covered her mouth but you never know.
Anyhow, let's cheer me up with some muzak. No, I'm still not in the mood for Tool, Bert. Here's what got me smiling today Iron & Wine - Such Great Heights (The Postal Service cover)
Before we get to this week's songs, I have to tell you all about Harry Potter. Nah, I won't ruin it for you people who haven't read it yet. It's a good enough ending I guess. I didn't really enjoy it though. And the reason why I didn't enjoy it has nothing to do with the book. Before I get to the main reason why I didn't enjoy the book there's a fact I need to get out of the way: yesterday was the coldest day in Melbourne since 2000. Or rather it was today's morning that was the coldest morning since 2000. How many people knew that? I didn't but now I know. I didn't think it was cold though. I thought that the whole week had been freezing. I'm glad I'm back in uni now, they are really serious about heating at uni. They turn the heat way up, it was practically tropical in the part of the lecture theatre where I sit.
Anyway, so yesterday and today's morning were freezing, normally I wouldn't mind that. However, I spent the whole night last night up until 2am this morning reading the Harry Potter leak on my computer and the heater in my house just decided yesterday that it would stop working. On the coldest day (so far) of this millennium. Let me tell you, sitting in a room as cold as a freezer (I could see the moisture in my breath in my room last night, it was that cold) to read will impede your enjoyment of anything.
Why did I read the leak you might wonder. Well we bought a copy this morning but then I knew that my sister would want to read it first. Plus, why not finish it before everyone else get their hands on their copy? I think I need to re-read the 6th book, can't remember much about it but Dumbledore dying. And heaps of people died in the last book too. Now that Harry Potter's finished, I'm kinda sad. And what better way to cheer myself up than some music? Ok, first up, the song that never fails in cheering me up: Rilo Kiley - Frug
I hope this will be the first of many to come. A fixed weekly music post.
I talked about Avril Lavigne yesterday already so I guess there's no point in not talking about her some more today right? As it turned out the Rubinoos has just retracted their plagiarism claim. Suspicious anyone? The point of this post today is not entirely to talk about AL yet again. The point is get over AL already, she is,like, sooo seriously childishly teenage! Grow up already!
Ok, I'm getting serious now. I listened to her latest album a few times last week. I thought that it was an OK record as far as pop records go. Some infectious, poppy songs. Nothing else though. The record felt kind of flat to me. I want heartbreaks, I want moody stuff not this "I don't like your girlfriend because I wanna be her" shit. For anyone who wants to get over this flop, I've gotten together this playlist of awesome Canadian acts. Some are indie-pop acts, some are indie-rock but all of them are better than Avril Lavigne. Give it a listen, you might even find your next favourite band from this playlist.
P.S. I know some of the songs only play for 30 seconds. Imeem is being sued so you can only listen to full tracks that you upload. Which is really stupid if you ask me. If I upload the track I would have it on my computer already why on earth would I wanna stream it from their website?
So I guess absolutely everyone who has access to the internet and understands English knows this already: Avril is being sued for plagiarism. This makes me feel good in a way. In Uni if you're caught plagiarising, the worst that can happen to you is being kicked out of Uni. I guess being kicked out of Uni isn't as bad as being sued. Nah, Avril's rich, she can pay for that when she lose the case. If I get kicked out of my course it would be the end of me.
In case you've been in a hole these past months and cannot be bothered with searching up all the blog buzz about this, here's a quick recap. In May, Avril Lavigne (AL) and her co-songwriter (some guy) were sued by an obscure 1970s band (the Rubinoos) for sounding suspiciously like their song "I wanna be your boyfriend" on her song "Girlfriend". You can judge it for yourself by watching the following clip. Naturally, Avril denied the claim. Which is quite understandable, she was probably a follicle back when The Rubinoos were crooning "I wanna be your boyfriend". Besides, the 2 songs don't sound that much alike. However, this led to more claims (only one more actually) of plagiarism. This time another AL's song sounds exactly like a Peaches' song. This time AL can't use the "never-heard-of-[insert name]" approach anymore. She incriminated herself stated in an interview this month that Peaches' "I'm the kinda" was her no. 1 inspiration. A better explanation would be "I got so inspired that I copied the song, you know, if imitation is the best form of flattery or whatever then copying the whole thing is like totally digging it right?".
To fabricate some semblance of "balance" into this completely one-sided report rant on AL, here are some clips of other people "copying" AL for a change. I guess I can only say "what goes around comes around".
Ok, I guess that wasn't a very quick recap was it. Anway, I've made up my mind about this whole affair. I think Avril didn't plagiarise intentionally. I think the explanation is quite simple really: she's not quite bright. My proof? 1. Anyone with half a brain wouldn't wanna look like some sort of Paris Hilton - Jessica Simpson cross like the picture on the left. I rest my case.
2. What is the logic behind "Sk8er boi", Einstein? I know it's txt speech, I can deal with abbreviating 2 letters into 1 number for "sk8er". But what is the deal with "boi"? the number of buttons you have to press is the same. For "boi" you have to press the number 4 button 3 times to get to the "i", for "boy" you have to press the number 9 button exactly 3 times to get to the "y". Unless there is a way enter the "i" on number 4 first, I don' see any short cut in using "i" instead of "y". Even if there is a shortcut, I'll choose "boy" over "boi" any day. I guess I'm not a text savvy person, I'm too anal on correct spellings and other grammatically correct shit (note, not to be applied to my blog posts, I'm a hypocrite that way, sue me, besides, one can't be grammatically correct when one rants). I always spend a few seconds decoding my messages, so there you have it.
3. She rhymes "home" with "home". Enough said.
I wouldn't go as far as calling her Avril Latrine though. There's something too childishly cruel about name calling like that. The furthest I would go is: "Avril, you're not in my top 10 Canadian artists list anymore". She's still in my top 100 Canadian artists though, simply because I don't know more than 100 artists from Canada. Back in 2002 she was number 1, when one is presented with the choice between Avril Lavigne and Celine Dion and one is an impressionable teenager it wouldn't be hard to figure out which one is chosen. When I come to think about it, I would still choose Avril Lavigne over Celine Dion now. Nothing to do with Celine Dion obvious singing talent though (I'm not being sarcastic now). That woman is just crazy.
Well well, I was talking about Fergie just yesterday, or rather I was quoting UrbandDictionary on Fergie yesterday, and now here she is again. I think I'm a bit slow to join this party but hey, better late than never. Besides, I'm one of the opinionated online bloggers who refuse to let an opportunity to make my onion opinion known slide.
Since record sales are declining or at least that's what Fergie is claiming, people who are like you and me (i.e. people who obtain illegal mp3s and only buy music that we really really like) should expect to hear jingles for Listerine cleverly worked into our songs by our beloved artists pretty soon.
If you're going "what the ...?", this article (via Post Chronicle) will clear it up.
Fergie is set to make £2 million by promoting a US clothing firm in her songs.
The 32-year-old Black Eyed Peas singer, who has become the first star to agree to product placement in her songs, will write and perform tracks endorsing fashion company Candie's on her second solo album.
An executive at Fergie's record label Interscope said: "With record sales in decline, you must find novel ways to make money out of the music. The trick is to make the brand part of the song so that it slips down easily rather than chokes the fan.
"Candie's will have no say over exactly what Fergie will sing, or when. Fergie does not sing jingles so it will have to work unobtrusively in the song."
Fergie - real name Stacy Ann Ferguson - has also agreed to appear in Candie' s TV adverts and allow Candie's advisors to style fans at her shows.
Some fans are outraged by Fergie's decision to promote a product in her music, insisting it tarnishes her and the Black Eyed Peas' credibility.
Rickie Durtado, who runs a Los Angeles rap website, fumed: "Since 1988 the Black Eyed Peas have been a socially responsible band who stood against the bling-bling materialism of rap.
"But since Fergie joined the group four years ago they have become more like a boy band.
"Fans are used to advertising banners at festivals, but making them part of the song is not cool. There is no escape."
First off, I'd like to express my obvious displeasure at this. If anyone really need more money from their music it's the struggling indie bands out there, not Fergie. This is just ridiculous, you have to pay to listen to jingle that Fergie get paid to sing (unless you download her songs illegally). What is the logic in this? At the very least we should get the song for free. Do we pay to see ads on TV? Do we pay to hear commercials on the radio? Oh yeah, we pay for the electricity to run the TV or the radio to watch/listen to commercials but I doubt that electricity companies share the money the get with the artist.
Secondly, I don't think any song by Fergie, with or without product placement, has ever or will ever go down my throat smoothly. I distinctly remember the sensation of having to cough water out of my lungs. I usually don't choke on water (which always just flow smoothly pass my larynx and into my oesophagus without any trouble) unless I see or hear something extremely ridiculous and attempt the impossible multi-task of laughing and swallowing water. The last time I heard a Fergie's song was the horrible "London Bridge". It wasn't really the ridiculous music, the retarded lyrics or the awful vocal as much as the humping dance she did to the poor London guard. Who ever came up with that dance is seriously mentally deficient. How is that supposed to turn anyone on? If I see anyone doing that to another person I would think that the dancer is on some sort of sex heat and needs to hump anyone/anything that is humpable.
Thirdly, how can having product placement tarnish Fergie's credibility when she doesn't have any to start with?
------------------------------ Background material: The ridiculous humping dance start at 0:48. Luckily, this time I'm fully prepared and am not drinking any sort of fluid or ingesting any solid. However, the song still refuses to go down my throat.
I picked up a copy of Editors' new album An End Has A Start last Saturday and it's been in the CD player ever since. This is one of the bands I've recently discovered through Last.fm. Don't know why I've never heard of them before, this is one awesome band. You'll like them if you like Interpol and Coldplay. They usually get compared to Interpol because their last album kinda sounded like Interpol. Anyhow, you can make up your mind about them.
Smokers outside hospital doors (first single off "An End Has A Start")
My favourite song off the album so far: The Racing Rats
No comments yet