Filed under: Reviews
Daisy is Brand New’s hardest album to date, the album has strongly been compared to the band The Jesus Lizard, which is a very fair comparison. I was impressed with Daisy due to the clever lyrics done by Jesse Lacey which is always a constant with every album they put out and the fact that they blended so well with the harder music.
My favorite track on the album is “You Stole”, it starts out soft and moves into a louder faster tempo’d song, which is a classic Brand New attribute. Other standout tracks are “At The Bottom” which was a great choice for a single. Another song that kicks you in the pants is “Gasoline”, with this song they take a page out of David Bowie’s book with the lyric “he used gasoline to put the fire out”, I love when bands pay homeage to their idols in this respect.
I encourage all Brand New fans to pick this up when it comes out at the end of the month, just as “Deja Entendu” was a mature follow up to “Your Favorite Weapon”, “Daisy” is the perfect progression from “The Devil and God”.
Filed under: Reviews
TRACKLIST
Filed under: Reviews
Third Eye Blind “Ursa Major” – WOW, 3EB came back with a vengeance with an album that will easily make my top 10 list for the year. I was hesitant on what to expect from Ursa Major but was pleasantly surprised when I put the CD in and listened, it reminds you that 3EB is still a force to be reckoned with. I will be writing a full review of the album but for right now just express my first thoughts of listening.
The Matches “Album 4, Unreleased, Graphics? Title? Or Not Needed?” - When it was announced that The Matches were breaking up my first reaction was that it might be a good idea seeing that the bands recent material was not impressive whatsoever. When they announced that since they were breaking up they were going to release a digital only rarities, b-sides album I was convinced I would not purchase it. I had a change of heart and decided to purchase the album for the purposes of giving it a chance and also writing about it for My Ears Bleed. I should have gone with my gut, this album is horrible, it had lackluster lyrics and the music was also lacking. If your a fan of The Matches I strongly suggest you skip buying this so that it doesn’t leave a sour taste in your mouth and also its $9.99 you will never be able to recoup.
Filed under: Reviews
Midway through a roaring take on the song “Viva la Vida” on Sunday, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin looked up at the packed amphitheater in Irvine and urged the crowd to give just a little bit more.
“For the last time in California for a few years, so let’s turn it up!” Martin shouted as he invited, or actually demanded, that we all sing along with just as much passion and power as the band itself delivered all night at Verizon Wireless. And of course, the full house did just as he’d asked, belting out the “oh, oh, oh’s” of the chorus as Martin sang and skipped across the stage, guitarist Jonny Buckland and bass player Guy Berryman crisply played their parts, and drummer Will Champion hammered at a large metal bell so violently that he shattered his mallet.
The song, as did the entire night, offered the sound and sight of a band at its peak, road-tested after 134 concerts on a tour that started over a year ago, but still as fresh and enthusiastic as a band just heading out.
BEST ADVICE FOR FOLKS GOING TO LOLLAPALOOZA
Watch Tool. It doesn’t matter what you think about their bombastic hard rock, or their oft-meatheaded fans, or Maynard James Keenan’s anti-frontman tactics, or their strange, semi-Masonic iconography, or their disturbing music videos. Tool’s All Points West set on Saturday was a come-to-Jesus sort of moment, where a band that too many folks pigeonhole as a niche act completely owned their top-billed status. The opening grooves of “Jambi,” off 2006′s 10,000 Days, brought previously unconverted onlookers to their feet, and the familiar throb of “Stinkfist,” from 1996′s Ænima, coaxed many to stomp around in the field’s mushy sludge. It was self-important, passionate rock, complete with stunning lights, engrossing video screens, air-tight execution, and a touch of the bizarre, thanks to Maynard’s decision to strip down to his skivvies later in the set. Compared to bastions of hipster bands, some of whom can barely play their instruments, Tool is a juggernaut, and any fan of rock’n'roll should be required to experience them, if only once.
BEST SIGN THAT THERE’S BALANCE IN THE UNIVERSE
While Tool pretty much dominated the day, there was one speed bump for Tool Nation: My Bloody Valentine, who took the stage immediately before Keenan & Co., performed their shocking 15-minute uppercut of brain-bruising guitar and effects noise known as “the Holocaust section.” It’s the sound you might imagine the universe making before turning itself inside out, or what you might experience if you stuck your head inside a booster rocket that’s propelling the Space Shuttle into orbit. While its arrival elicited unprintable slurs and hundreds of raised middle fingers from those camped out to worship at the altar of Tool, the “section” was welcomed by many more, and was best enjoyed seated on any remaining dry sections of the soggy Liberty State Park terrain, which provided a chance to absorb the sonic vibrations through the ground, eyelids closed, and contemplate life.
MOST HEAVILY QUESTIONED GENRE: HIP HOP
With the Beastie Boys originally set to headline (before cancelling due to Adam Yauch’s cancer-surgery announcement) and Jay-Z stepping in Friday as their replacement, the first afternoon and evening of All Points West 2009 took on a vaguely beats-and-rhymes orientation — from the eagerly flailing hipster rap of the Knux to the reformed Pharcyde’s good-natured ’90s-jukebox to the lyrically elaborate “hypnotical gases” released by a reunited Organized Konfusion to Flying Lotus’ torrent of perpetually tweaked beats to Q Tip’s solo live-band excursions to Peanut Butter Wolf’s always witty lessons on past/present/future, and Jay-Hova’s thunderous Vegas-with-a-full-clip extravaganza that closed the rather grueling, rain-battered, mud-caked day.
But what was strangely notable was how virtually every act (save Flying Lotus and Peanut Butter Wolf) repeatedly asked the predominantly white, presumably rockcentric crowd: “Who loves hip-hop?” “Who loves real hip-hop?” “Is hip-hop in the building?” These sorts of shout-outs are, of course, common at any rap show, but here they had a particularly grasping, intrusive tone. It was as if the genre was an ill, or deeply troubled, friend that only the immediate family could be expected to minister to, so these outsiders had to be implored to remember that they too once might have cared.
It was a tiresome, pointless exercise — almost like a rhetorical passing the hat — which said more about the artists than the fans, about the longing for a mythical new age when hip-hop’s cultural dominance will again be as strong (and aesthetically diverse) as it was from the late-’80s through the ’90s. The paying customers, soaked to the bone and relieved to dance to any song with a serviceable rhythm/hook, etc., played along gamely.
FINEST ACT OF GRACIOUSNESS BY A PROFESSIONAL EGOTIST
After a New Year’s Eve-like, 10-minute countdown via a giant numbered clock on the screen behind the stage, Jay-Z opened his set with a gloriously bludgeoning version of the Beastie Boys’ “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” (amped up by a live band, a horn section, a DJ, and trusted, if lethargic, consigliere Memphis Bleek). It was easily the day’s most galvanizing moment. A photo montage of Brooklyn street signs flickered, and the exhausted, soggy crowd was suddenly, if fleetingly, energized as one. Hov, ever the precise lyrical pro, even rapped Yauch’s eternally corny verse — “Born and bred in Brooklyn, the U.S.A. / They call me Adam Yauch, but I’m M.C.A. / Like a lemon to a lime, a lime to a lemon / I sip the def ale with all the fly women.” It was a funny, touching tribute by a man who usually only pays tribute to his own omnipotence.
Filed under: Reviews
1) The Rapture
2) Bonecrusher
3) Sick or Sane (Fifty For A Twenty)
4) Can’t Be Saved
5) Calling All Cars
6) Shark Attack
7) Still Searching
To All The Crowded Rooms
9) Lost And Found
10) Every Day Is A Struggle
11) All The Best Cowboys
12) Negative Space
13) The Priest And The Matador
Their are very few albums that I will still listen to all the way through after a few years, in fact I can probably name them on one hand. Senses Fail “Still Searching” is one of those albums, it was released in 2006 and is still in heavy rotation every couple months. These guys have been very consistent when releasing great records, I remember when they released their first full length “Let It Enfold You”, it was an album that really brought the screamo scene to the forefront. When “Still Searching” was released it stepped up the lyrical content a lot more than their previous. They also started experimenting with more melody, partly because Heath from Midtown joined the band if I had to guess.
From the masterminds behind Steel Train and The Format comes fun., this band formed in the winter of 2008 and have showed no signs of slowing down since then. They are releasing their debut album Aim and Ignite August 25th. I was bummed when The Format decided to call it quits but I have to say that this album is The Format on steroids and I actually think I enjoy them more. 
The album starts off with “Be Calm” with an accordian playing then goes right into Nates vocals with some great lyrics on the track, and for the most part through the whole album.
Another standout track for me is “Walking The Dog” which has some great drums on the track and innovative guitar work.
As for the singer of Steel Train being involved, this is a huge departure to anything that Steel Train has done, I love Steel Train but I really hope not only he but also Nate put this as a top priority because it deserves that type of attention.
Don’t forget to check out fun. on myspace right here
Filed under: Reviews
Ventura June 28, 2009
I’m hit and miss with the Warped Tour, meaning i’ll go 1 year and wait 2 years before attending again, usually I am this way because I feel like I’m the oldest person there. At 28 years old I also don’t have the tolerance for all of the neon clothing the “kids” are wearing these days, haha. They changed Warped tour up a little bit this year by eliminating as many bands as they have had in the past and giving each band a longer set of 45 minutes I believe, which was a great decision in my opinion. We started the day off arriving about an hour late and missing Less Than Jake which I was really looking forward to.
Filed under: Reviews
After posting the Vinnie Caruana interview yesterday it put me in an old school Movielife mood. I’ve always been a fan of this band and really liked their older stuff such as This Time Next Year and …Has A Gambling Problem. I remember when …Has A Gambling Problem came out it was hated by the hardcore Movielife fans. To be completely honest it took me a few listens to appreciate and it finally hit me that its a great mix of punk rock and pop and has since been a staple in my CD player when i’m in need of my Movielife fix. My favorite track was the single which is Hand Grenade, thats a song that gets stuck in my head for hours.
