Fake news is the best news

disclaimer: I lifted this from DailyKos.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Guantanamo Baywatch - The Final Season

Daily Show Full Episodes
Daily Show Tickets

More Funny Videos
Comedians on Tour

Et tu, Elian?

Tonight: Franz Ferdinand - A Review

Even as I watch the songs download, I know this will either be awesome or awful. So many songs have depressing or off-putting titles. There are two songs with the same name, and one of them is eight minutes long. Ho boy.

The album starts with a fairly slow, vaguely theatrical track, and plunges into a few soulful yet danceable numbers. All the while, I feel like we're going toward something, but what exactly is unclear. A panoply of sounds are employed early in Tonight from folk to ska to old school hip-hop; but where bands like Cake parlayed that into albums that were diverse yet distinctive, Franz Ferdinand is starting to sound like a Timbaland wet dream. Only when the band returns to its classic style does the album start to pick up.
It might take a few listens, but eventually Tonight will shine through. It's certainly Franz's weakest album, but that's not saying a whole lot.

Note: "Can't Stop Feeling" is doing something for me.

Crash Course: Kaiser Chiefs

1. Employment
March 7, 2005

First of all, the name thing. No, not Kaiser Chiefs, I'm talking about Ricky Wilson. That he shares a name with another rock musician continues to bother me.

Anyway, the Chiefs are one thing and one thing only: new wave. Though objectively their first album is good from start to finish, it all seems very forced. Where's the heart?
Wilson and company have their influences, but they don't seem to match. The real influences show up seemingly one at a time in songs like Modern Way (Morrissey), Saturday Night (Franz Ferdinand), and Time Honoured Tradition (Madness).
2. Yours Truly, Angry Mob
February 26, 2007

Whatever heart Employment was missing, Angry Mob makes up for it in spades. The eccentricity involved here is breathtaking, and instead of hearing a 80's new-wave tribute band, we finally get a window into the minds of the artists. This nameless quality especially shows in the songs "Highroyds," "Nothing I Can Do," "Boxing Champ," and "Try Your Best."
This is a far more cohesive album than Employment. Rather than just being a collection of songs, each track leads into the other (stylistically, rather than literally). It is an album you lose yourself in, and as is rare for second albums, it is an improvement from their debut.
3. Off With Their Heads
October 20, 2008

And riding on the success of their first album, the Chiefs went headfirst into what they do best: classic new wave. Ah, but this is more than new wave, it's louder, somehow bigger. At times it can border on hard rock (Spanish Metal) and psychedelia (Tomato in the Rain). It's something you can dance to. But overall, it's more epic. More epic than new wave, more epic than this band has ever done before. The only downside about this album is that it's over before you know it.

Overall, the Kaiser Chiefs are now on a very short list of bands that, having a new album come out, I would buy immediately. Definitely worthwhile for lovers of rock history.
~MP~

Starbucks+366

Things I still hate in 2009

1. I still hate Twilight, though I do not hate Kristen Stewart.
2. I increasingly hate Harry Reid.
3. I still hate Claire and the Hall Monitors, but I'm not going back to Pasadena after college.
4. I still hate the cold. God willing, I always will.
5. I still hate Orange County. Maybe even more than before.*
5. I really still hate Roseville. I don't remember why, but at this point it really doesn't matter.
6. I loathe Starbucks. I don't even know anyone who goes there anymore.

On the other hand...

Things I now like in 2009

1. I like the pin-up look, but it seems kind of forced.
2. I like RJD2.
3. I like trip-hop, but I'm not reviewing it.
4. I love High Fidelity.
5. I'm into the East Bay and the South Bay, but Marin County can kiss my ass.
6. I tolerate/accept Barenaked Ladies.
7. I apologize to Matt Kook. I'm sure he feels the same way. But that Doesn't excuse Tom O'Connor from what he did. They know what I'm talking about.

*the awful place, not the great movie

Crash Course: The Dandy Warhols

1. Dandys Rule, OK?
April 6, 1995

The album opens with the kind of theatrics usually reserved for a more experienced band, then then a bang, then the Portland natives waste no time going into a big, sprawling album that, despite its weak spots, keeps you listening. It ends with a repetetive, surprisingly un-commented-upon 22 minute long screed, yet you still want more. Add that to the inescapable feeling that what I'm listening to is much older than it really is. Altogether, this is one of the strongest debut albums I've ever heard.

2. ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down
July 15, 1997

It only takes four songs to ruin this album for me; take them out and you've still got a fairly strong album, but it isn't nearly as distinct as their debut. When I hear this album, I don't hear the Dandys, I hear The Vines by way of Phil Spector. It would take over three years to get back on the level.
Which brings us to one of the greatest albums of all time:3. Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
August 1, 2000

Thirteen great songs, or one great song in thirteen parts? Upon the first listen, the sprawlingness of OK comes to mind, but there is something more at work here. The Dandys seem to have channeled RJD2, Rush, Bowie, Cake, and Beck, all in a single breath. Bohemian Like You is the most popular song off this album, but this is one album you have to listen to in its entirety.

4, 5, and 6. It's all downhill from there. Though there are a few really good songs, the Dandy's reign ended with the 20th century.