If all goes well, I'll be driving a brand new Nissan Altima this weekend. My Volkswagen Jetta has served me quite well. 10 years, almost 235,000 miles. It's time for retirement.
Month: December 2005
I need this.
Previously from Joel Trussell
I knew there was a familiarity to the “War Photographer” video. Joel Trussell is responsible for “The Illness” video for Kid 606. I love the way he coincides the music and images.
Now I know you're thinking that's what any director should be doing, but Trussell seems to accomplish this at a microscopic level. If there's a bleep, bloop, glitch, or any other seemingly random non-reoccurring sound. He's likely to pair it up exactly with imagery of the same ilk. His style is perfect for this sort of music.
GTA: Liberty City Stories
I still get lots of traffic due to the amount of GTA: San Andreas on this site. I haven't posted on Liberty City Stories, since, well I just don't have it. I've got a PSP sitting here sealed that I originally bought in order to sell, but The U.S. market was never clamoring for the device. So here it sits, with its lovely shrinkwrapped outer membrane.
But it does not surprise me that edisoncarter is up to his old tricks again, this time handheld style. He's developed “CheatDevice v0.4 for Liberty City Stories”.
Vikings Vindicated on Video
The video must be Joel Trussell's commentary on all the rock bands coming from Scandinavia in recent times. Or is that old history dating back to 2001?
His video for Jason Forrest's track, “War Photographer” is lots of fun. Vikings, guitars, robots, cowbell, what else do you need?
Joel has some development sketches on his blog as well.
Listless
How To Make A Hip End of the Year 'Best Albums' List from My Blog is Poop
And yet I may still post a “Best of” or “Top Ten of” 2005 list. If it was of the readers of this blog,I know the “Top Ten” would not be possible. And no it wouldn't be because there were too many to choose from, just the fact that 3 people, the Google cache, and a few blog aggregators still don't add up to 10.
But a hint for bands out there that want to actually appear on these lists. Be sure to schedule your “breakthrough”, “overnight success”, “buzz” to take place in the second half of the year, if at all possible.
This way the imminent backlash will happen in the following calendar year. Thus, your presence on someone's end of the year list will be secured.
Imperfect Pop
I know there are essays out there about “Another Girl, Another Planet” being the greatest pop song ever. (Although my Google search hasn't come up with any, perhaps that theory's dead, and it's still the first sentence of this post.) People have professed their love for this song (scroll down, kid), regardless of the fact that it barely charted. And I will give them that, it's a great song. Catchier than the common cold in a kindergarten classroom.
When I first heard this song, I had no idea it was by The Only Ones. I had some compilation CD that contained a version by The Mighty Lemondrops. And although the Mighty Lemondrops never really caught my interest previously…well, Damn, if it wasn't the best song on the entire comp.
I've since heard a live cover by the Replacements that sounded like it was disintegrating and patched together with duct tape, but that added to the charm. And I can't find fault with the original.
I actually thought the song was built in such a way that no matter who covered it, it would remain intact and brilliant. A piece of perfect pop.
Enter Blink-182, or Blink182 or Blink 182 (spaces, hyphens, whatever. and is it Kid606 or Kid 606? My iTunes gets confused sometimes.)
Anyway the Blink boys come along and pour too much powdered sugar over the top and just ruin things. I could hear it in one listen. Maybe they should have had the nasally guy sing more. There's kids out there who have never heard the song and this is what they get, the NutraSweet version on a greatest hits compendium. Granted, Blink182 is a watered down Green Day, but I liked “Dammit”. And Travis Whatshisname is a good drummer. They chose a good song to cover. And I'm not one of those crotchety folks that think every cover sucks, and that covering this song or that song is blasphemy. And if someone samples of mashes it with something else, so be it. I think if there was a demo version of this cover closer to the Dude Ranch/Cheshire Cat days, then maybe it would have sounded a bit better.
At least Limp Bizkit didn't cover it on their greatest hits collection.
More Snow for NJ
Snowman yesterday. Snowfort building today. Snowballs thrown both days.
More snow tonight. 3 – 6 inches. We'll see if they're right.
New Jersey's getting more snow each year. It reminds me of when I was a kid, we always got a lot back then, too.
T33n G1rl Squ4dx0rx!!
I've been sleeping on Strong Bad's latest creation at Homestar Runner.
Teen Girl Squad. No description necessary. Watch and laugh.
Thanks, Ted Leo. I've been sleeping on Homestar Runner for awhile. Now I can lose some sleep and catch up.
Shonen Knife
I'm not sure I'm ready to jump into the fray in the world of mp3 blogs, but I heard about the recentdeath of Shonen Knife and DMBQ drummer Mana “China” Nishiura in a car accident, and was surprised to see no mention in any of the mp3 blogs over at The Hype Machine. (If there were any comments, no mp3s were posted.) “China” was currently touring with the band DMBQ. She apparently was a session and touring drummer that played with a number of other bands (Teem, Rashinban, Droop, Slower Traffic 5), in many styles.
I will not pretend to know a lot about her, and if you are interested in learning more about Mana “China” Nishiura, then I suggest visiting some of the links in this post.
The only CD I own by Shonen Knife is Let's Knife, but my favorite track is on the soundtrack to The Powerpuff Girls: Heroes & Villains movie. The Shonen Knife contribution is “Buttercup (I'm a Super Girl)”, and The Ramones influence is way beyond obvious. But that's okay. The song is a lot of fun.