Eric Sink (of sourcegear) was kind enough to put out an offer for a free t-shirt a while back. The only stipulation was that you had to promise to provide a link and picture in exchange for your shirt. I got mine in the mail earlier this week. Without further ado, I present…
Evil Mastermind Brian! Mwah, ha, ha…
I hope everyone is well. I’m working on updating my site template. You won’t notice if you come through the reader but I already updated the site with a template that flows and takes advantage of wider monitors. I’m working on my own template that will allow me to have some additional content but it is slow going. I had problems getting my test environment up and running (more on that later). It’s now up though and I hopefully will have time to play soon.
I have been meaning to throw out a music post. There’s a lot of really great stuff coming out and some good shows as well. I’ll even try and rate a few of the albums on the Brian scale. 1 means it hurts me to mention it, 3 is a good album that is probably not going to be on my top list in a year and 5 means that I would probably steal your copy if you don’t hold onto it tightly. So without further ado, here’s a bit of what I’ve been seeing and listening to:
Albums
- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Howl (3/5) - Great rock album that floats between obvious gospel influences on one track and indie rock on another. It may sound weird but it works.
- Brandi Carlile, The Story (4/5) - Not much new material here if you’ve been listening to Brandi live for the last few years but it does put a few of her classics on a real disc. It’s a great collection of songs and based on what I’ve heard from people actually knowing who she is, as well as indications on the album of a more mainstream sound (less folk, more folk-rock), it may be the one that breaks her out. For a sample, I’d recommend “Turpentine”.
- Bright Eyes, Cassadega (4/5) - a lot of people don’t like Connor Oberst because he sounds whiny or overly opinionated. I’m not one of those people. I think this album flows really well and has some great tracks on it. My favorite is “Classic Cars”.
- Gym Class Heroes, The Papercut Chronicles (3/5) - Decent pop, hip-hop album. Not bad for a sunny day.
- Joe Purdy - Pretty much anything by Joe Purdy is great. This guy has been a staple in my car and in my head since I saw him live a few months back. For a sample, check out “Brand New Set of Wings” or “Meteor City”.
- Kings of Leon, Because of the Times (?/5)- I haven’t gotten far into this album but I like what I hear.
- Linkin Park, What I’ve Done (Single) (3/5) - I like the new single. It sounds darker and a bit more mature. That also means less radio friendly so we’ll see how it plays out.
- Manchester Orchestra, Like a Virgin Losing a Child (3/5) - A band out of Atlanta. These guys are indie rock but with a much more epic feel. Imagine if Modest Mouse and Dashboard Confessional joined up to put out a post-rock album. I actually like it quite a bit. For a sample, check out “Where Have You Been?”.
- Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby (3/5) - I’m not a huge bluegrass fan but I love about 3 songs on this album and recognize the talent on the rest of them. If you like bluegrass, this is huge for you.
- Nine Inch Nails, Year Zero (?/5) - Honestly, I’m excited about this album and I like what I’ve heard but I haven’t been in the mood to give it a full listen. I’m just not angry enough right now. I’ll let you know what I think when I do.
- The Smashing Pumpkins, Earphoria (3/5) - Not new but definitely good. This is a collection of rarities. I found it when I was trying to track down a metal version of “disarm” that the Pumpkins played at the ‘94 Video Music Awards (You remember when MTV played music don’t you?)
- Son Volt, The Story (3/5) - Son Volt is the closest thing that Alt-Country has to roots since the genre is so varied and Uncle Tupelo broke up. Jay from Son Volt is half of Uncle Tupelo. Jeff Tweedy from Wilco is the other half but they actively avoided the Alt-Country moniker and style. This album is a great release. For a sample, check out “Methamphetamine”
- Sufjan Stevens, Illinois and The Avalanche (3/5) - I put these together since they are about the same. Both of them are very complex compositions and I consistely recognize Sufjan Stevens ability. I also know these won best album in every hipsters review of the last years albums. However, I just can’t listen to them very long. They are just too low-key and melodic. They put me to sleep.
- Zac Brown, Live from the Rock Bus (3/5) - Zac Brown is good on his album. He’s WAY better live. The band is just freaking great. This album doesn’t capture all of the live show but it’s a good start.
- Brand New, The Devil and God are Raging Inside of Me (2/5) - Imagine Blink 182 trying to be epic. Not good. Not bad either but just really blah.
- Chester Travis, Seven (3/5) - Inde artist I picked up off of Amie Street. Very mellow but great with a piano. I’m just a sucker for a piano.
- The Clarks, Between Now and Then (2/5) - Great songs but very inconsistent album. Not good for something that is supposed to be a best of.
- Mika, Life in Cartoon Motion (4/5) - Think modern George Michael. Very poppy with a few ballads that are phenomenal. I can’t help but like it a lot. Check out “Happy Ending” and “Lollipop”.
- Lucinda Williams, West (3/5) - Great country album. Kind of rough like a new Johnny Cash release. Not high on my list for some reason but I like it.
- Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (3/5) - Some stand-out songs. Most haven’t caught my attention. I wonder if they’re making a mistake by going more mainstream. Their stuff still isn’t out there enough to grab an MTV audience but it’s mainstream enough to lose the old guard of hipsters. Hmmm…
- The Arcade Fire, Neon Bible (2/5) - I don’t care what their rank is on last.fm or how many people love them. I keep trying but I can’t stand The Arcade Fire. Everything they do just seems like a screamo album gone completely pretentious.
- Bloc Party, A Weekend In the City (2/5) - See The Arcade Fire (above). repeat.
- The Shins, Wincing Through the Night (?/5) - I couldn’t get very far into this one either. I’m just very sick of the indie rock goes mainstream movement at this point. Whether it’s Bloc Party, the Decemberists, Sufjan, Arcade Fire or the Shins, it just loses me. Oh well.
- Regina Spekter - Begin To Hope (4/5) - Great album. More mainstream then her previous stuff but once again, I’m a sucker for a good piano. She’s even got a single this time around. Check out “Fidelity” (radio single) or “On the Radio” (my favorite).
- Tom Waits - Orphans (5/5) - Instant classic. Better than a new album. This collection of rarities takes one of three attitudes on each disc. Each song is either loud and raucus (Brawler), soft and intense (Bawler) or just plain uncategorizable (Bastard). Most people like the Bawler disc the best, followed by the Brawler disc. Check out “Lie to Me” or “Bend Down the Branches”.
- Patrick Park, Mondays in Spaceland (3/5) - Folk guy I picked up from Amie street. Fairly generic but not bad.
- Patty Griffin, Children Running Through (3/5) - Good album from a folk/country legend. The only problem is that I’ve heard all of the good songs on this album in previous live tracks I found laying around. Oh well.
- Korn, Unplugged (1/5) - Yes. It is just as bad as you imagine it could be. I think this album caused me to bleed from the ears.
- Joanna Newsom, Ys (4/5) - I can’t describe how strange Joanna Newsom’s voice is. However, like Tom Waits, her voice gives the music texture and life. The music itself is beautiful and sweeping. This album is a definite winner. This album is best taken as a whole and I recommend just starting at the beginning with “Emily”.
Shows
- Snow Patrol, Atlanta - Gone mainstream, good songs, concert full of 12 year old girls with cell phones. Doh.
- Zac Brown, Workplay, Birmingham, AL - Awesome playing and sound including a rendition of “Wish You Were” here mixed with “Comfortably Numb”, right after the lightning fast “Devil Went Down to Georgia” and some other originals that would make bluegrass and rock players proud alike.
- Flogging Molly (with openers including Street Dogs), The Roxy, Atlanta, GA - No explanation needed. Better than the last concert (which was in my top 3 ever). Just so much energy. I dare you to see Flogging Molly and not do your best impression of an Irish jig the entire time.
- Citizen Cope, Workplay, Birmingham, AL - Once again, he obviously hit radio. The crowd was full of college students that had way too much to drink and kept screaming. Citizen Cope balanced it all out by coming out an hour late and standing at the microphone in an obviously seriously altered state of mind. The show was uninspiring and generally bad.
- Brandi Carlile (with opener Ari Hest), Workplay, Birmingham, AL - Better than the last I saw of hers (which is saying a lot.) The band was in great shape, the crowd was enthusiastic and Brandi was in great form. The new songs hold up live and she showed her roots by finishing the night off with a ridiculously good rendition of “Folsom Prison Blues.”
- Vienna Teng - Relatively empty show but she played well and put up a solid show. Not as good as when I saw her open for Angie Aparo but she did have a full band this time rather than just the grand piano.
- Bright Eyes - Upcoming in Atlanta in May
- George Clinton and P-Funk - Upcoming in Mobile in May
- Tool - Upcoming in Birmingham in May
Random Upcoming Stuff
- Guns ‘N Roses - Chinese Democracy (Someday) - They seriously say the album is done, mixing and all and should be out soon. Cross your fingers.
- Counting Crows - Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings (2007)
- Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight (May 15, 2007)
- Velvet Revolver - Libertad (Spring, 2007)
- When November Falls (Former members of COLD, Fall, 2007)
- Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger (June 26, 2007)
- Tori Amos - American Doll Posse (May 1, 2007)
- Wilco - Sky Blue Sky (May 15, 2007)
Whew. So that’s what I got. Let me know if you find something you really dig on the list. I’m always interested to see others opinions about the stuff I listen to.
Kurt Vonnegut died on Wednesday night. From the New York Times:
Mr. Vonnegut wrote plays, essays and short fiction. But it was his novels that became classics of the American counterculture, making him a literary idol, particularly to students in the 1960s and ’70s. Dog-eared paperback copies of his books could be found in the back pockets of blue jeans and in dorm rooms on campuses throughout the United States.
Like Mark Twain, Mr. Vonnegut used humor to tackle the basic questions of human existence: Why are we in this world? Is there a presiding figure to make sense of all this, a god who in the end, despite making people suffer, wishes them well?
He also shared with Twain a profound pessimism. “Mark Twain,†Mr. Vonnegut wrote in his 1991 book, “Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage,†“finally stopped laughing at his own agony and that of those around him. He denounced life on this planet as a crock. He died.â€
Not all Mr. Vonnegut’s themes were metaphysical. With a blend of vernacular writing, science fiction, jokes and philosophy, he also wrote about the banalities of consumer culture, for example, or the destruction of the environment.
I first read Vonnegut when I picked up Slaughterhouse Five. As a book, it’s confusing, strange, sad and ultimately enlightening. Overall, my favorite of his books was Cat’s Cradle. Even in his later years, Kurt Vonnegut railed against the establishment and constantly asked the hard questions. In losing Kurt Vonnegut, we have lost one of the truly great American writers.
My brother recently put up a post on string theory here. If you don’t know what string theory is, check it out…unless you don’t like physics or thinking, in which case you should stay far away from that link and this post.
Continuing, I found the article I was talking about. A guy last year wasn’t really proving it wrong, he was just complaining (as physicists are wan to do.) The article is here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article672464.ece
A quote:
He grants that an explanation for gravity is usefully embedded in string theory, but he challenges its authenticity as proper science. In his view, string theory offers no foreseeable prospect of making predictions, a crucial criterion for any theory worthy of the name. Matching the theory with the way we see the world, he argues, depends on believing in sixseveral tiny unobserved spatial dimensions wrapped around each other. Hence there is an infinite number of possible choices as to how one would make predictions, and nobody knows how to determine which choice is correct. The objection invokes the late Karl Popper’s widely accepted definition of science. An explanation is scientific, according to Popper, only if it can be used to make predictions of a kind that can be falsified: in other words, can be checked to be right or wrong.
Woit’s biggest claims are actually not that string theory is wrong, but rather that the inability to test it means that it will never be proven right or wrong, however it continues to dominate theoretical physics and stifle innovative thinking. Interesting stuff. I don’t know if any of it is right or wrong. I just liked the idea that vibrating strings made up the basis of all matter. Since they also make sound (just look at any guitar), the theory in effect says that all of the universe is made of music.
How poetic.
This video is quite possibly one of the funniest things I’ve seen lately. Go check out the trailer for the PG version of Frank Miller’s highly stylized and extremely violent version of the Battle of Thermopylae. It’s at YouTube (of course) here.
I was going through some sites today and started thinking about all the places that I live online. By that I mean, all of the places that I have accounts, pages and profiles that I use regularly (or not.) For my own benefit and possibly your amusement, here is a list that I’ve started:
As you can see, I use last.fm religiously, as well as del.icio.us sometimes. I’m on linkedin and myspace because it’s what you do I guess. I haven’t used google reader shared links or digg really. I’m about to start using Flickr regularly again. There seems to be a lot of me out there. I will add more if I can think of them. Good times.
UPDATE: I’m going to try using the Google Reader shared feeds. It appears to be much more user friendly than any of the delicious plugins I have. No stupid tagging.
UPDATE: Added Reddit and Twitter. Might as well aim for a full house.
Brandi Carlile has a new album coming out. I first heard of her from a friend about 2 years ago and I still think she’s one of the most talented singer/songwriters I’ve seen in the last few years. Amazon has two live videos on the page for the new album
here
Go check them out if you like folk. She’s got a voice that can go from soft to gravelly in a split-second. Very Janis Joplin. I also saw her at WorkPlay a while back and it was a great show. She’s also playing WorkPlay again on April 16th.
