Japanese Cartoon is Weird, But I Like It.

I don't write a lot about hip hop on this blog. I'm generally not a huge fan of hip-hop or rap. In fact, I'm big enough of a non-fan that I couldn't even tell you the differences between rap and hip-hop, despite being assured that there are differences. However, I still know talent when I hear it. I like listening to Eminem spout things that I can't even believe he was able to make rhyme. I like Jurassic 5 and their independent sound and mindset. I like Wu-Tang and their diversity of influences.

But a couple years ago, at Coachella, I got the opportunity to see Lupe Fiasco play live and I was pretty much floored by how much I genuinely enjoyed the whole thing. He played with a live band which, as you can read in the Phoenix New Times' review of his show here last night, rocked pretttty fucking hard.

First, I'd like to point out Lupe Fiasco's braver, more effective, and much more direct approach to protesting the Arizona SB1070 law that has been blocked by the courts. Chris Piel reports Fiasco saying last night, "Mexican immigrants are allowed at my show, too" (read more).
Fiasco is set apart from the rest of the hip-hop world, in my eyes, sort of like Kanye West has done. Kanye is his own brand, and he grew it that way by shunning the stereotypical "rules" of what hip-hop had become. Not that Kanye shies away from being flashy, but Kanye shined a positive light into the dark world of rap and hip-hop. However, most people realize that he is a narcissistic, possibly sociopathic, douchebag. Lupe Fiasco has that same swagger of independence from expectations. Growing up in a rough neighborhood in Chicago, Lupe separated himself early on by choosing to read National Geographic magazines or listen to a Benny Goodman record (one of his biggest influences). He isn't your typical rap star. He keeps the subject matter above a certain standard, it seems - instead of objectifying women or bragging about riches he tries to bring attention to important world matters like war, poverty, and social structure.

While folks like Gym Class Heroes have been trying to successfully fuse indie rock and hip-hop styles, Lupe Fiasco just took a leap right over the blending line and straight-up started a rock band. With Lupe on vocals, Japanese Cartoon released an album last year, titled In the Jaws of the Lords of Death. While there are moments of heavy-ish industrial rock, there are some pretty genuine indie/garage rock efforts in there. He shows that he draws influence from all over the spectrum of music, and has genuine interest in artistic integrity and creating new, original things.

Review: Crystal Stilts' In Love with Oblivion

Crystal Stilts have been around officially since 2003, but are just getting around to releasing their sophomore studio album. Known for their subdued, spooky, yet noisy demeanor, the Brooklyn-based group put out their second full-length effort earlier this week. The pressure has been on, given the magnitude of positive reviews their previous album, Alight of Night, received. They haven't been stealing major spotlights, but a good amount of buzz and touring has kept them in the loop of relevancy over the past couple of years, maintaining autonomy amidst fellow rising stars with similar names (see Crystal Castles and Crystal Antlers). This emergence of so many crystal items is becoming damn confusing. Anyways, I was looking forward to hearing what new things the Stilts could offer us with In Love with Oblivion.

Let me begin by saying, I've always been hot and cold on shoegaze-y music. I love Camera Obscura. Sometimes I enjoy My Bloody Valentine and Explosions in the Sky. But with the more recent wave of shoegaze psychedelic nonsense that is hitting the scene (I'm looking at you, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Wavves!), everything is just melting into a big, generic, not-quite-as-cool version of the Sex Bob-ombs from Scott Pilgrim. The thing that I liked most about this album was that it didn't sound like any of that.

The album opens up gradually with building tones before it rolls into the foot-tapping "Sycamore Tree", which pretty much belongs on a Doors album. The song features the organ, which is complemented nicely by a subdued tremolo guitar riff throughout. Once you get into the album, the Stilts give you moments of lively pop rock mixed with fits of way-too-reverbed, low-register moaning. Despite Brad Hargett's Jim Morrison-esque baritone quality ringing with familiarity, the production effects on the vocals are simply over the top. And it's confusing because I don't know whether to dig the irony of "Hey, let's screw up the vocals on purpose," or to take a stand against this Wavves brand of hipsterism. It's like American Eagle jeans that come pre-worn/torn at the knees. Gah, I know it looks cool but.. it's screwed up on purpose?

*Dismissive wank*

that's right, they're in a boat.

To be fair, the extreme echo works more often than it distracts, but not by a huge amount. There are songs like "Half a Moon" which are well-written, but with vocal melodies conducive to, I don't know, about 80% less reverb. But there are also songs that lean towards the weird, where the echo contributes to the psychedelic nature of the album. At one point during "Alien Rivers", I clicked over to my iTunes because I thought it had gone to shuffle and started playing a Frank Zappa song. I found myself liking this weird, psychedelic garage rock side of them more than the shoegaze pop side. As long as they're going to make Hargett sound like Jacob Marley's ghost, they might as well take it all the way to crazy town and sign a lease there.

My personal favorite part of the album is the two closing songs. With the first, "Death Is What We Live For", this tune is fittingly morbid. "You know this story all too well / My heart is broken and I'm going to hell," is sung before the instruments go into a frantic series of dark crescendos. But the best part is once the gravity of that song comes to a rest, the finale picks right up into a low, driving swing beat, around which the whole finale centers. Guitarist JB Townsend is then released from his cage as he scratches, plucks and scrapes out various solos as you realize that the song is going nowhere spectacular, then dies. You're kind of left with a what-just-happened feeling, but it's strangely satisfying.

Letter grade: C+

Here is one of the mid-album highlights, "Silver Sun":

Buy In Love With Oblivion here

Review: Maritime's Human Hearts

Maritime is always very excited

I've had a history with you, Davey von Bohlen. I like our history, mostly. But I don't love our history. For years, I kept getting hooked back into the Promise Ring by peer pressure. There's nothing wrong with any of those albums - they helped develop a genre plagued by low budgets and crappy recordings grow into healthy (still low budget), better-sounding music. 30 Degrees Everywhere still brings back great memories with my friends in junior high and high school - I was just never a huge fan myself. I liked them enough, but would have never listed them as a favorite. Piebald syndrome. Despite my personal lack of enthusiasm about them, they retained a sort of old-school-legend status. Davey made a vocal cameo on Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American, which was actually one of the high points of that album.

In 2003, the Promise Ring was no more, and Davey began singing and playing in Maritime. They refined PR's upbeat, soft pop rock sound to a degree, and Davey kept singing his clever alliterative lyrics. I'll be honest in admitting that I haven't followed them very closely, and so I couldn't tell you much about their development process that you can't read in their bio..

But I can tell you about Human Hearts. Released earlier this week, Maritime lays down something pretty different from what you'd have heard from them in the past. While the album opens up with sprawling chords and melody, it is scribbled over by a rapid and scratchy rhythm guitar. But the two mix well together to make a decent pop rock song. From the beginning, the album seems to channel more contemporary influences, the first coming to mind is Minus the Bear without all the tapping.

As the album carries on through the tracks, you recognize the old Davey/Promise Ring skip-in-the-step here and there, but they are connected by a slightly more atmospheric tone. All the vocals are run through a spacey delay , which adds a new angle to the band's sound. The downside is that it smacks almost too sharply of Alkaline Trio's 2005 Crimson. While listening to the song "Air Arizona," I was almost totally convinced that Matt Skiba was guest-singing on the track. However, the song is undeniably well-crafted and catchy, and doesn't come off as a rip-off of anything, due to its earnest execution. And plus, it's nice to have my state included in the list of geographical locations referenced in Von Bohlen songs (Everywhere In Denver, B is for Bethlehem, Jersey Shore, E. Texas Ave).

The best part of this album is that it is different, and that the band is evolving. The highlight of this album is the twangy, harmonic anthem, "Apple of My Irony" - gotta love Davey and his puns. With Maritime, it's never been an originality contest, but it doesn't mean they ever get lazy. The lesson I've learned over the course of my incidental relationship with Davey von Bohlen's musical endeavors has been that he'll never produce anything bad, and it's always good to listen to on a road trip.

Letter grade: B-

Human Hearts is available through Cd Universe or Amazon.com

New Music: Mock Orange's "End of the World"

A couple months ago, I wrote a piece about Mock Orange and their upcoming release of a new album, Disguised As Ghosts, in just a couple weeks from now (article HERE). Good news, I've got a song from the album to share with you..

Mock Orange-End Of The World by wednesdayrecords

The band is offering you a pre-order deal, involving an LP and a t-shirt. Go check it out HERE, and keep listening to this song because, you know, it is awesome.

LINK: http://www.wednesdayrecords.com/mopreorder.html

Listen and Read Friday: You Told Me Anger Was a Gift

LISTEN: "Rock & Roll Mountain Troll" by Miniature Tigers (from 2010's FORTRESS)


READ: You Told Me Anger Was a Gift

One of the first rock albums I purchased as a youngster was Rage Against the Machine's 1992 self-titled debut. Now, leaving my mid-20s, I'm writing blog posts and Reddit diatribes condemning singer Zach De La Rocha's desperate grasps at fighting for a meaningful cause. De La Rocha has always needed a cause. He'd be nobody without his angry attitude and especially without the help of one of the most innovative guitar players alive in Tom Morello. Who knows what's to blame for the timing of it all, but the State of Arizona has been assigned the arbitrary role of Zach's new-found rage.

If you asked Zach, he'd say something along the lines of what his organization's website already says:

The Sound Strike is a coalition of Artists that have committed to supporting the International Boycott of Arizona in the wake of the passage of SB 1070. These artists have made a commitment to work together to be part of a larger artist community to raise awareness and opposition to the predatory and punitive treatment of immigrants in Arizona.

In response to the increased attention the organization was getting, Charlie Levy, a Phoenix promoter who booked many Sound Strike artists (pre-strike) in Arizona, penned an open letter to the organizers of the Sound Strike last year, which you can read here. I won't repeat the points he and dozens of others have been making over the passed year, because it all has apparently fallen on closed ears. Except, when Conor Oberst decided to pipe up and respond to the letter in January, essentially saying, I know it sucks but I can't back down now.

Well, it turns out that hypocrisy is rampant everywhere - even in political activism. The boycott is meant to hurt the lawmakers "where it hurts them the most - their pocketbooks." Well, where was Zach De La Rocha or Conor Oberst to lead the boycott against California when Prop 8 was passed? What's that you say? There never was one? Human rights are less important when there is more at stake? Well, what about when Texas passes a similar law? I can tell you, they won't be boycotting the state that has the hottest indie music industry showcase in the country (SXSW). And they sure as hell won't be boycotting California, ever. Because monetary sacrifices should only be made within reason, apparently. Because you should only protest in the easiest and most self-serving way possible, apparently. And because some things are just too valuable to sacrifice, like the ability to tour through California or Texas, so we must shit on the lowest common denominator, to keep up the image of political activism. Also, we must ignore the fact that courts have blocked Arizona's controversial law, so nobody is actually actively being oppressed by it. Most likely, it will be permanently shot down by the courts.

photos with wall writing are more important

It's okay, Zach and Conor. We understand that you've put a lot of money and publicity into this cause. We also understand that SB1070 sucks. I personally agree with your statements of condemnation of the law. I even still listen to Rage songs every now and then. But I disagree strongly with your method of protest, which isolates influential artists from the most important group of people in this fight: their Arizona fans who oppose SB1070. The less artists that tour and play events here, the less support we have in our opposition to the law. Which means peace and quiet for the politicians who are responsible for it. If you don't want to contribute taxes to the state, then play for free, or do a rally here. But the Sound Strike has heard our arguments. They know our points. Yet, they carry on like we are a state full of Nazi activists. Sure, we've got a couple of those. But listen, we're trying to deal with them. Russell Pearce's position in office rests on the success or failure of multiple recall efforts currently working against him.

Recently, Charlie Levy and other Phoenix independent music industry figures, like Psyko Steve Chilton, tripped on over to Austin, TX to appear at the Sound Strike panel being held at South by Southwest. Upon our asking them for a more comprehensive help effort that didn't involve cutting off support to the most important people in this fight, the SS simply Tweeted, "Haters got schooled."

Gee, thanks.

Here we are, a fight has broken out on the playground. You're in a toe-to-toe fistfight with the big racist bully at school, and you look around for your friends to back you up. Your friend Zach has decided that the best way to help you in your fight is to say he won't be friends with the racist kid until after you win the fight yourself.

I guess this means we just roll up our sleeves, give Zach the finger, and start punching the racist.

Oh Please Let This Happen

Okay, okay, I don't want to hear it. I took like a month off, okay? Sue me!

Don Cheadle reportedly said last month that "President Bush broke the world," and that's why making the Miles Davis biopic has been postponed for so long. While I'm no Bush-lover, that seems like a pretty lame excuse. Ah, the hardships of movie stars.

Anyways, on a musical note - Miles Davis rules all. And, although I have recently discovered the coolness of Soundcloud embedding (a little late? psh, whatev), I'm giving you some Miles through Grooveshark still, well, because the people at Grooveshark are exceptional beings. So this is a 1961 recording of Miles Davis playing his version of Disney's classic "Someday My Prince Will Come," from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.



Anyways, I'm going to be back on and posting more regularly this coming month. I got really into Reddit for a while, did some contributing/editing for uncyclopedia.org, and it was also a busy month for the band. But enough excuses, I'm here, right? As sad, attention-hungry teenagers' shirts often wittily say, "I'm awake and dressed, what more do you want from me?"

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Has Been Drinking

That horn's not going to make the voices in your head any louder

It was announced fairly recently that Tom Waits will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The induction will be presented by Neil Young, fittingly. Also, just last week, it was announced via Facebook that Waits is entering the studio for a new album. This officially makes Tom Waits's new album my most anticipated album until it comes out. Sorry, Man Man, you've not yet withstood the test of time that Tom has.

If you're unfamiliar with Mr. Waits, listen to this piece just put out by NPR: www.npr.org/2011/03/01/134143230/tom-waits-skid-rows-boozy-balladeer

I love Tom Waits. He's like the Charles Bukowski of rock and roll. Dirty, alcoholic, slum-dwelling, eccentric.

In addition to having a huge impact on the world of rock 'n roll, Waits has appeared in his share of films and, quite frankly, kicks ass at acting. My favorite role of his was Kneller, a camp leader in a dreary afterlife community of outcasts in 2006's Wristcutters: A Love Story. It's not as emo as it sounds.

Also, this is one of the best songs, ever.

Man Man to Arizona, It's Happening

Just a short bit of great news - I'm showing that Man Man has mapped out their tour that takes them around the US of A and winds them up at Bonnaroo.

The tour was announced via Pitchfork Media this morning. Read the release and the full list of tour dates HERE.

These days, when a great band decides to come play in Arizona amidst the various boycotts against our state that are being practiced in today's music world, we tend to get more excited than we normally would. If SB1070 has had any positive effect on our state whatsoever, it's that we sure as shit appreciate our rock shows more. So, join me at the Man Man show at the Clubhouse in Tempe, AZ on MAY 10th.

Oh, hey there.

Thank you, Man Man, for standing up and coming into Arizona despite others who think they're making a good decision by abandoning their fans down here in the old southwest. You've chosen wisely.

For more on Man Man, see our past posts in which they've been featured!

The Psychic Paramount and Why Radiohead Can Suck It

Alright, I know it has effectively been about a week since my last post and for that I apologize. I'd hate to blame it on 9/11, but it just changed so many things.

A lot of big music things happened this last week. The big Grammy's upset, the new Radiohead album, some other stuff.. First of all, I ain't talking about the Grammy's. If you haven't already seen this scrum-diddly-umptious Tumblr feed about the Arcade Fire winning the Grammy for Best Album of the Year, I suggest you prepare to get depressed about humanity and click your way on over there.

i have created a diatribe: Radiohead - The King of Limbs

The album opens with an ambient-noise-heavy looped percussion bit with Thom Yorke singing long, drawn-out howls over the top. Shocking! Not coincidentally, this has been Radiohead's formula for songwriting for most of their work for the last 10 years. Their song "Little by Little" isn't half bad, and their single "Lotus Flower" sounds the most like a real song, even though it is still depressingly electronics-dependent. Thom Yorke, what do you have against real drums? Now, I'm not a musical purist who thinks that a band who has early success should be held to trying the same tricks over and over again, and I am not begrudging them because their sound has changed since their "classic Radiohead" days - I'm begrudging them because I suspect them of being hipster-feeding cop-outs. They once held the practice of writing and performing solid, complex, artistic songs that held feeling and passion within them. But I have listened to King of Limbs three times through now and I get more bored every time.

My Facebook friends are surely sick of me starting Radiohead fights on the internets, but it is a noble cause in which I believe strongly. You see, Radiohead's laziness breeds more laziness. If you release a halfway-boring song with syncopated piano chords in altered time signatures ("Pyramids" from 2001's Amnesiac) and then, ten years later, release a song that is essentially the same thing, except MORE boring ("Codex" from King of Limbs) - then, given your indie poster-band status, you are encouraging boring music from other bands. Have you ever tried to listen to a whole Sigur Ros album all the way through? Make as many awesome music video short films as you want, it doesn't mean the soundtracks to them should be released as albums.

I have one rule with my music: if it sounds like it could conceivably have been recorded in a day by a dude on a Macbook Pro, it's crap. For instance, right now I'm listening to "Give Up the Ghost," King of Limbs's second-to-last track, and it's making me want to do what the song's title says. This is a style I've been seeing more of, even in bands I enjoy such as Animal Collective. Mars Volta will insert a good 8 minutes of ambient sounds and effects loops, but they always, always balance it out with some good, solid, booty-shakin' rock.

Honestly, I really don't have strong feelings of hatred for Radiohead. You know, maybe I'm just simply not a fan of electronic ambient music. But I heard enough hipsters this week justifying the importance of this new album that it infuriated me just enough to write about it. Actually, I like Radiohead. This is actually meant to be less of a criticism of them and more a criticism of people who still think Radiohead shits rainbows and unicorns. The album is not terrible. It's decent. But it is so egregiously undeserving of the "genius" praise it has been receiving that I felt the topic deserved some attention. If they're playing what they want to play, more power to them. But it doesn't mean you've gotta keep worshiping them. Karma Police was a long time ago, and it's okay to let go.
_________________________________________________
You want to talk about solid ambient music? Check out Psychic Paramount's album that has been released TODAY, simply titled II. Below is a sample. Yeah, yeah, the song is 8+ minutes long - I figured if you're into ambient music you've got that kind of time anyways. They definitely stray from the typical boundaries of ambient music and, at some points, turn into a Tera Melos-esque instrumental gangbang.

Bonnaroo Releases Line-Up, Courtesy of CoCo

Bonnaroo shows up Coachella IMO with a solid line-up and only 1 rap artist I don't want to see (as opposed to Coachella's baker's dozen).

Here is a line-up announcement video with Conan O'Brien..



Too lazy to watch video:
Eminem • Arcade Fire • Widespread Panic • The Black Keys • Buffalo Springfield feat Richie Furay, Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Rick Rosas, Joe Vitale • My Morning Jacket • Lil Wayne • String Cheese Incident • Robert Plant & Band of Joy • Mumford & Sons • The Strokes • The Decemberists • Ray Lamontagne • Bassnectar • Iron & Wine • Girl Talk • Primus • Dr. John and The Original Meters performing Desitively Bonnaroo • Alison Krauss & Union Station • Pretty Lights • Florence + the Machine • SuperJam featuring Dan Auerbach and Dr. John • Explosions in the Sky • STS9 • Gogol Bordello • Beirut • Big Boi • Scissor Sisters • Gregg Allman • Ratatat • Robyn • Warren Haynes Band • Deerhunter • Opeth

"Ramona, I'm in Lesbians With You"

This was one of those tagged-in-a-note things, but it was by a dear fellow named Tyson, who periodically tags me in his music-related lists and I actually look forward to participating every time because we have comparable tastes. Instead of keeping this to Facebook, I figured I'd make a blog post out of it.

So, in honor of Valentine's Day, I've made a list of my 20 all-time favorite love songs. There will be a playlist available after the jump..

(holy shit this will be hard to put in order)

20. "Hot Venom" by The Miniature Tigers
19. "I Want To Know Your Plans" by Say Anything
18. "This Will Be Our Year" by The Zombies
17. "Good Day, Sunshine" by The Beatles
16. "I Want To Break Free" by Queen
15. "Falling For You" by Weezer
14. "My Best Girl" by Lucero -Okay, so it's a love song about a guitar. But, dude!
13. "If Work Permits" by The Format
12. "Blood" by The Middle East
11. "I'd Dance For You" by What Laura Says
10. "Trouble" by Ray LaMontagne
9. "She" by Elvis Costello
8. "Up On Cripple Creek" by The Band
7. "I'll Catch You" by The Get Up Kids
6. "Only In Dreams" by Weezer
5. "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds
4. "Dance Me to the End of Love" by Leonard Cohen
3. "Care of Cell 44" by The Zombies
2. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by The Beach Boys
1. "Something" by The Beatles

NOTE: Beatles songs were replaced by cover versions on the player, and the What Laura Says song is mis-named on it.

Labors of Love

So, I've heard Frankie Munoz's band sucks. And I've seen Russell Crowe's band, and it's awful. Gwyneth Paltrow recently made an appearance on Glee (verdict: "meh"), as well as releasing an incredibly important film about the struggles of an aging country star coping with the trauma of becoming less famous(oh, my!). There is a lot of crossover from the movies to music - Rick Moranis, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Meatloaf, the list goes on - which is fine by me. People should be able to play music if they want. Does it sicken me how many albums Paris Hilton can sell while she can't sing her way out of a flaming paper bag of dog crap? Sure. But what I'm interested in is the music that is made among the stars who are truly interested in playing music. The people who don't use their prior notoriety to turn their musical ventures into cash cows. These are labors of love. Artists who are not starving, who don't have to be doing what they're doing, but do it anyways.

Ryan Gosling was always a little bit kitschy to me, but he's turning out to be one of those John Mayer-esque "cool-or-douche?" mysteries. While his group Dead Man's Bones is a great listening experience (as well as having an awesome website), I'm not quite certain I need them in my life as long as Murder By Death is around. At any rate, this is a pretty cool song, and Gosling's proves to everyone he's not the teeny-bopper weiner The Notebook made him out to be.

I was just re-watching Three Amigos the other night (again) and I was reminiscing about how much showmanship used to be involved in being a comedian. Comedy and music have always been closely linked (music often being a vehicle for comedy), but now that Steve Martin has long-since made a name for himself in comedy, in recent years he's been getting into the core of his artistic self by writing novels (Shopgirl, adapted to film in 2005), scripts, and, apparently, banjo albums.

Okay, the case of Chuck Ragan is a little different. This man is no celebrity, and he surely is no millionaire. Chuck is a working class man who has made his living playing in an underground punk/emo/hardcore group since the early 90s, called Hot Water Music. The band took a break in 2006 while Chuck spent time with his family and friends, writing and recording a solo album called Feast or Famine. I was always a fan of HWM so I had grown accustomed to Chuck's gritty, raspy growl. But in his solo material, it was a whole new world for me to hear the grit in contrast with clean, strong acoustic guitar work. While he probably isn't monetarily set for life, Chuck is a good example of giving up the sure thing to pursue the important thing. And you can hear his restlessness and desperation for expression come through in his music. **tightens scarf and rides away on mo-ped**


I chose to go with Scarlett Johansson over Zooey Deschanel. As good as She & Him is, they don't have any songs quite as good as this one. While Scarlett's got a pleasant voice, it's nothing spectacular (which could be said for Zooey as well). But it fits the role of the song and I admire Scarlett for this, as it seems more daring for her in the context of her own image and career. While I do prefer M. Ward over Pete Yorn as counterparts, Zooey's already been getting plenty of attention with comparatively underwhelming material.

Breaking Up the White Stripes

The White Stripes do not belong to Meg and Jack anymore. The White Stripes belong to you now and you can do with it whatever you want. The beauty of art and music is that it can last forever if people want it to. Thank you for sharing this experience. Your involvement will never be lost on us and we are truly grateful.

The White Stripes are probably the most prolific and resilient band in the decade of 2000-2010. Jack White is what rock stars should be today. The below statement was released this morning by the Stripes:

via pitchfork media

How could you possibly be upset? Today, while artists in a wide range of mediums are shamelessly milking the last pennies out of their dwindling publicity values leftover from an initial surge of success, Jack White is able to respect his audience and his art enough not to subject them to the miserable Favre/Jagger type of display of needlessly prolonging the glory days. In fact, many would argue that the White Stripes were nowhere near the point of wearing out their audience's welcome. However, White understands that great things aren't meant to be dragged on and on, but they are better suited to be encapsulated in the time in which they belonged, and looked back upon with fondness instead of regret. It's "I'm-glad-we-did-that", versus "We-should-totally-keep-doing-this". White realizes he has many great things ahead of him and that instead of dragging out his glory days he can simply create separate, new glory days.

Mock Orange, New Album in April

"Duuude, you guys sound like Mock Orange," said Steve LeFevre to me when I was 17. My band, The Manhattan Project, had just played a house party for a group of people much older and more experienced in the ways of the world than we were. This was the first time I had even heard of Mock Orange, and my life would never be the same (technically, that's true about every moment of one's life I guess - but, still). We naïvely smiled and nodded and immediately went to the record store to find out more about them.

picture from pennlive.com

What we found (listen to this old material here and here) was another take on the kind of indie math-y rock we'd grown to love through Braid and Jawbox. In fact, the guy's voice almost sounds like Bob Nanna's (of Braid and Hey Mercedes). Back in these days, music like that was still pretty hard to come across. Joan of Arc was doing their thing, but it was a little bit too avant-garde for me, especially back then.

We found they'd released two albums by that time (2000-2001?) - Nines and Sixes and The Record Play, the latter being produced by indie legend, Mark Trombino. The drumming and time signature changes are so complicated and precise, it's almost mesmerizing if you let it be. My love for the band grew more and more with time, until 4 years passed without a new record from them. It was 2004 and I was afraid Mock Orange had gone the way of The Jealous Sound and other great bands who weren't surviving the shift of indie rock to main-er-stream pop culture.

Well, when they finally dropped an album in 2004, titled Mind Is Not Brain, the reason for the wait was apparent - they had completely changed. They had drastically abandoned the heavy distortion and the aggressive rhythmic drive, and, most notably, adopted a radically different vocal style. The good news is that every change showed to be an improvement. Once familiarized with the albums, you can see things that do connect them. And it provides an interesting timeline of sound, showing not just Ryan Grisham's songwriting development, but adjustments in his fundamental musical execution as well. Observe:

If Mind Is Not Brain was the turning point of the band's sound, 2008's album Captain Love was surely the group hitting their new stride. The guitars got shakier, the drums got bangier, and the sound got weird-ier. Grisham's lyrics improved immensely, pulling more purpose into the songs - it was no longer a music theory show-off exhibition. As a result, the sound is more organic and more universally listenable. Here are five of my favorite tracks from Captain Love:

With that said, it is with great pleasure that I pass along the news of a new Mock Orange album, set to be released on April 12, 2011, in just a couple months! The album is called Disguised As Ghosts. This news, along with news of a new Man Man album is quickly making 2011 a really exciting year for rock music.

Listen and Read Friday!

This is a new weekly series post that I'll be calling "Listen and Read Friday" - where I will take the liberty of posting any song I would like (as if that's not already the case) and writing about any subject I would like. The idea is to make your Friday nice with a hand-picked song and a good story. You like?

Listen: "Weekend" by Dr. Dog (from 2007's We All Belong)


Read: OMG You Guys, Shocking Reports Straight From Science

An unbelievable study has returned the most amazing, unexpected results. ABC News, what would I have done if I had not read this article?

No, don't read it yourself. This news is so big and shocking that you might want to hear it from me, your pal, instead of a faceless news institution.

Word on the street is that "the most comprehensive annual survey of full-time college students at four-year colleges" has stumbled upon the disturbing fact (by the pure grace of God, I'm sure) that there is a trend of declining emotional health among college freshmen. The study shows that this decline is mostly financially-centered. I'm really grateful for this study, because I didn't know that money was becoming such a problem for college students. Now, I've got $16,000 of student loans to pay off, but you know what? Reading my DirectLoans statement is always a source of peace for me. I had no idea student loans could bring out stress or depression in students. When my student loan statement comes in the mail each month, I like to draw a hot bubble bath, light some candles, and soak in the dim light and soapy water while I read about how much money I owe. This is the part of the month I look most forward to, and it's just hard to imagine somebody not enjoying finding out the depth of their debts!

So, you can see how I might be surprised and a little bit thrown off by these reports. People are getting really sad about how expensive college is. I don't know why. I know that in my college experience, I felt like I wasn't paying enough money for the things I was getting in return: the understanding professors*, the safe facilities**, the amicable classmates***, and the easily-accessible****, cheap***** parking.

I know Arizona State is an extremely prestigious school, so maybe I've been spoiled. I feel like I relate more to the mothers of these depressed/stressed college freshmen, one of which said, "All I can remember worrying about in college was my class work and when it was due, nothing more. I don't think anyone really worried about getting a job after they graduated." Preach on, sister!

So, to you college freshmen who are getting sad about silly things like having absolutely no money left to pursue your dreams -

"Weekend is coming soon, it's time to get yourself up off the floor
Well, let's grab a case of lager and some old beat up shoes,
Head down to the river and strap on a canoe."

*except for most of them
**please overlook the assaults and shootings, it's only fair
***and lots of assholes
****a mile away
*****extra $300 per semester

Get Your Tie, Geek! You've Got a Mini-Interview With the Minibosses

Here's a band local to Phoenix - though originally from the Northeast. Essentially, if you grew up in the 80s, hold on to your effing hat. Minibosses only play NES cover songs, if you haven't heard. And if you haven't, then really what are you doing with your life (don't answer that)?

Let this glorious glory wash over you. Robin Vining, who I would venture to say is the best rock musician in Phoenix, most recently joined the group, replacing the previous second guitarist. Vining has headed up some other really solid bands in this town, such as Colorstore and Sweetbleeders. He's just one of those dudes that will rock your socks off in any capacity.

Want more Minibosses? Perfect, I've selected my favorites. Here you are:
Mega Man 2(masterpiece!)
Mike Tyson's Punch Out
Castlevania
Metroid (especially impressive guitar work on this)
Contra (my most favorite, probably)

Get Back Up, Kids

Last night, The Get Up Kids played at the Clubhouse music venue in Tempe, Arizona. Although unable to attend myself, Up On the Sun wrote up a review of the show and got me feeling all nostalgic. Sounds like the reviewer, Jason Woodbury, and I share some common residual sentimentality for the group from the late 90s. And it got me thinking...

The first Get Up Kids song heard by my sweet, naïve ears: a cover of the Pixies' "Alec Eiffel". I had never heard such magical noise. I was at a loss. I had no explanation to offer myself for the song's strange phrasing, the atonal guitar solo, or the cosmic refrain that sent me off into a new musical space I had never explored. I immediately latched onto the rest of their music once I pursued finding it. Mind you, this was 1998ish and we were getting those free AOL CDs in the mail - my finding-music-on-the-internet skills were limited to wandering into free AOL chat rooms and then very cautiously download a song here and there from Napster (ha!). Anyways, their album Four Minute Mile was a treasure to me. It had a lot of punk rock angst (I always thought Matt Pryor's vocals had a NOFX quality), which I was really into at the time, while still retaining a soft, smart side. I'd grown weary of the Fat Wreck Chords' rebellious snark, yet I couldn't quite stomach a full-time audio diet of Sunny Day Real Estate's timid sadness. The Get Up Kids were my perfect balance.

My memories of music in the late 90s are slightly marred by one flaw: DIY recording technology SUCKED royally. And all the bands in which I was most interested were fighting uphill battles against an increasingly strong current of terrible mainstream rock music, which means they were getting very little financial support from, well, anybody. But that was part of what made those albums special. We were hearing things that guys were writing and recording out of their bedrooms, purely out of desire to express themselves.

I mean, in the last couple years have you tried going back and listening to Mineral's Power of Failing, S.D.R.E.'s Diary, Hot Water Music's No Division or Jimmy Eat World's Static Prevails? There are moments on each of those records that border on being un-listenable nowadays. But we were accustomed to it - which, I think, is why the Get Up Kids' 1999 release Something To Write Home About became an obsession for so many of us kids who were watching this genre (in typical 90s-era fashion, I'll avoid saying the "e" word) bloom before getting pissed on. Because, finally, one of our bands recorded a solid-sounding album. We got to hear our music in high quality for the first time, really.

Until now, I'd always viewed the Get Up Kids' demise as having a sad, ugly ending. They tried to ride the big wave that they created with Vagrant Records in Something..., but ended up disbanding in 2004 after a tour during which they opened for Dashboard Confessional, a band who would arguably be nothing without the Kids' influence. They had released two albums in a row that were met with sharp criticism from fans, so they felt they had run their course and that they couldn't please anybody.

Fortunately, the recent recycling of ideas from last decade has yielded something great. Sure, sure, Jimmy Eat World did a Clarity tour. Yes, Weezer re-released Pinkerton. But, avoiding the cop-out route, the Get Up Kids are going the extra mile and straight-up reuniting. They wrote a whole grip of new songs and put together a new full-length album called There Are Rules on their own label, Quality Hills Records. The New Times reviewer says that their new sound has evolved into something "more aggressive, tauter and stranger than anything the band has done before." It is relieving to see a band coming back and, instead of regurgitating shit they've had under their belts for years for a quick buck, create something new with no intention of relying on old material to justify making a comeback.

Here's one of the new tracks:

They Get Paid to Find This Stuff Out and I Copy Them for Free

There are two things happening right now that I thought combined to form enough important content to warrant its own "news" post. I never intended this to be a music news blog, but then again, I never intended to talk about movies or do anything besides the "weekly featured artist" formula. As you can see, original intent has little-to-no bearing on this blog.

• Coachella Tix On Sale Today -- The festival sent out a message to its vast mailing list that tickets are available as of 10am EST. This is cool news because it allows the too-cool-for-school kids to continue not buying them. In fact, I want to encourage as many people as possible NOT to go, because it was effing crowded last year.
• Arizona's Zia Records Accepting Entries for Local Band Compilation -- Phoenix New Times reports that Zia Records is producing Volume 5 of their annual You Heard Us Back When local music compilation for the Phoenix area. Last year's compilation brought us great music by Dust Jacket, Kirkwood Dellinger, What Laura Says, Dry River Yacht Club and Kinch, plus some other bright spots in Phoenix's highly concentrated rock scene. Hopefully we can hear some great new things emerge from our fine city. Making music is like cooking a meal, and I'd say we've got the Phoenix heat on our side. Good luck cooking without fire, suckers*!
  

*Portland, Austin, Silverlake, Seattle

Jelly, Sadness, and Other Things

One of my personal favorite Flaming Lips songs, for your weekend! It's reminiscent of that sloppy/awesome, nonchalant, quirky garage rock perpetuated through the 80s and 90s by groups like The Pixies and Built to Spill (well, and the Flaming Lips, I guess).

In other news, I thought I would let you know that I attended the cinema last night and saw THE most depressing movie in the world. Before I expound, I have to point out that my previous self-declared "Most Depressing Movie in the World" (and I actually did have one) was St. Elmo's Fire. Now that I think about it, that movie really is a flaming bag of sad, smelly, depressing dog crap.

However, despite not having Rob Lowe kick ass on a saxophone, Blue Valentine is now taking home the oppressively heavy trophy for Most Depressing Movie. Ryan Gosling should probably bring a dolly for this one. Because seriously, this movie will make you want to paint all your walls black and drink yourself to death. My tears were singing old Conor Oberst songs on their way to the ground.

Now, I guess the big difference between Blue Valentine and St. Elmo's Fire is that the former is actually a really great movie that resulted in Golden Globe nominations for both the film's lead actors, and, well, St. Elmo's Fire sucked in the 80s and continues to suck to this very day.

Anyways, the whole reason I'm justifying writing about this is because Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear wrote the score for the whole movie, which was definitely one of its strong points.

Having a bit of a sporadic morning.. now that I'm previewing today's post I see a Flaming Lips song, a picture of Rob Lowe, and links to old emo songs. I know it's all over the place - my 7th grade English teacher always loved to point that out. "You've got to stick to some kind of structure, Trevor." I know, Ms. Metz! I KNOWWWWWW

[UPDATE: Holy lord, I want that tank top]

Coachella Line-Up Released and It Sucks Much Less Than Last Year

Notable additions: Jimmy Eat World, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Brandon Flowers (meh), Cee Lo Green, and The Strokes added as a headliner. If you want, you can read Martin Cizmar's New Times post about how much he hates Kings of Leon. I'm more indifferent to them, but it's pretty entertaining to read.

What do you like or not like about this?

Arcade Fire, Kanye West and Kings of Leon Headline Coachella 2011

The lineups have not been announced, but this list is circulating as a list of bands who are confirmed to be playing at Coachella this year. I'd say, probably a step up from last year.

!!!
Animal Collective
Arcade Fire
Atlas Sound
Beastie Boys
Best Coast
Big Audio Dymamite
Black Dub
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears
Blonde Redhead
Bomba Estéreo
Boys Noize
Bright Eyes
Brodinski
Broken Social Scene
Cage the Elephant
Caifanes
Chromeo
Clare Maguire
Cold War Kids
Crystal Castles
CSS
Cults
Cut Copy
Daedelus
Daft Punk
Delorean
DJ Shadow
Duran Duran
Eliza Doolittle
Empire of the Sun
Erick Morillo and Friends
Fanfarlo
Fat Freddy’s Drop
Fleet Foxes
Foals
Foster The People
Four Tet
Free Energy
GAYNGS
Glassjaw
Godspeed You Black Emperor
Gogol Bordello
Green Velvet
Groove Armada
Health
Henry Clay People
High Contrast
How to Dress Well
Interpol
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Jack Beats
Kanye West
Kings of Leon
Klaxons
Lightning Bolt
Magnetic Man
Mariachi El Bronx
Marina and the Diamonds
Mary Anne Hobbs
MEN
Menomena
Mew
Monarchy
Mumford & Sons
Neil Young
Neon Indian
Nosaj Thing
One Day As a Lion
Phantogram
Phosphorescent
PJ Harvey
Plan B
Queens of the Stone Age
Robyn
Rural Alberta Advantage
Rusko
Sasha
Sleigh Bells
Suede
Sven Väth
Tame Impala
The Black Keys
The Bloody Beetroots
The Chemical Brothers
The Delta Spirit
The Drums
The Morning Benders
The National
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
The Strokes
The Twelves
The Tallest Man on Earth
Titus Andronicus
Tom Tom Club
Trentemøller
Twin Shadow
Warpaint
Wire
Wiz Khalifa
Yacht
Zola Jesus

The Heart Is a Drum Machine

Over the weekend, the Phoenix New Times published an interview via their music blog, Up on the Sun, between NT writer Mike Escoto and Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips. Drozd was being interviewed about the soundtrack he wrote and recorded for a 2009 documentary. The film, The Heart Is a Drum Machine, is a look at the purpose, or the fundamental functions, of music in the lives of human beings. Resonate with my vibrations, New Times:

Arizona filmmakers Christopher Pomerenke and Ryan Page, the duo behind the Maynard James Keenan wine making documentary Blood Into Wine, interviewed everyone from musicians, actors and scientists to find out what music is.

[Drozd:]"No one really answers the question, I mean who could answer the question, you know. But I do feel like there is some deep...there must be some evolutionary primordial connection between vibration and rhythm and human beings. There's got to be.

Everything has rhythms to it, the rotation of the earth, the days, the hours of the day, everything. Life and death all have rhythm and stuff, so I think it's just something that has evolved over millions of years. I guess the complicated thing is how it affects people differently, like a melody could mean nothing to one person and make another person cry. I don't know, to say what is music, you can't really answer it in a quick sentence, I wish I knew a good answer."

Now, there is a man after my own heart - bringing astronomy, physics and science into the exploration of music's significance. Also featured in the film are musicians such as fellow Flaming Lip Wayne Coyne, Arizona's own Jim Adkins, George Clinton, Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, Tool's Maynard James Keenan, and Jason Schwartzman. I haven't yet seen the movie but, as soon as I do, expect to see a review posted. Have any of you seen this? Read the full interview for more about the film's soundtrack, and about the Flaming Lips' desire to release one new song every month this year.

And, for an extra treat, I've included a killer live version of Cake covering Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," featuring Steven Drozd.

I Do What I Want, Yeah.

So, I'm going to go ahead and tell y'all about some movie news that I just got excited about, real quick*. I'm posting it here because I believe it keeps with the theme of art and creativity this blog purports to carry -- just, in a different medium. But mostly, I just like doing whatever I want to. And I'm sorry if that upsets you.

But dudes**, it was reported last month (a month ago, you say? timely, I know) that Oscar-winner screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (won for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and off-the-wall director Spike Jonze (Where the Wild Things Are, Jackass 3D) may be reuniting for an upcoming film. This is cool because the pair first got noticed in Hollywood by collaborating on the insane, what-the-hell-am-i-watching, cult hit Being John Malkovich. However, cult hits don't typically get multiple Oscar nominations. Both Kaufman and Jonze were nominated for screenwriting and directing, respectively -- and I personally awarded Cameron Diaz best hair in any movie.

A couple years later, the duo collaborated again on Adaptation, which brought Kaufman another screenwriting nomination and included acting nominations for Meryl Streep, Nic Cage (aha!), and Chris Cooper won best supporting actor for taking out his front teeth and getting naked. It could easily be considered my favorite movie.

So, you can maybe see why I'm looking forward to another film out of these two. However, nobody seems to know much about it. Ah, entertainment news is fantastic, isn't it? Nothing has actually happened, but you can't stop us from writing and writing and writing about it anyways. What lovely gems of bullsh--t do you have for me, LA Times?

The pair are pitching a new movie. While the plot is being kept under tight wraps -- it's a pitch, so a script has yet to be written, and Kaufman movies are famously hard to describe in a few sentences anyway -- two people familiar with the project said it has been making the rounds to independent financiers in recent weeks.

Kaufman has been writing a script that he has called "Frank or Francis," according to several people familiar with it. The film, perceived as commercially tricky but also beloved, is a Hollywood satire in the form of a musical (!) and has an art-imitating-life conceit somewhat in the vein of "Adaptation." (The basic premise: a director embraced for broadly commercial hits resents his success and wants to be considered an auteur and artiste; one imagines it as a bizarre-o world version of Kaufman himself, who hasn't made any broadly commercial movies and has in fact been embraced as an auteur and artiste.)

Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman, two dapper gentlemen

*turns out, not so quick
**as in, the universal "dude"

Zaireeka: An Antithesis

Again, if you're into literature, join this week's guest blogger, Myke, on his Steinbeck adventure blog over at Earthbound But Aspiring. I give you Myke:
~~~
I see Wayne Coyne -- front man and driving force behind the wonderfully bizarre Flaming Lips -- as a sort of musical prophet, or at the very least, a visionary. In support of this thesis I give you Exhibit A:

Zaireeka by the Flaming Lips
If you're a casual Flaming Lips listener you've probably heard of this record but you likely haven't heard it. Which isn't a stretch to assume because it's a hard album to listen to. Musically, it isn't challenging or inaccessible. But listening to the album itself is difficult on a logistic level. It's an album comprised of four CDs, which may not seem that odd -- but here's the catch: you listen to all four CDs at the same time.

I love this album because it goes against so many of today's popular musical conventions.

It's only available in a physical format. I dare you to try to buy it on iTunes; you won't find it. Call me old fashioned, but there's something about being able to 'handle' the music you listen to. Whether the format is CD, vinyl, or lowly cassette, there is just something about being able to heft the physical media in your hand as you load the piece into its appropriate music player.

While we're at it, let's talk liner notes. Sure, some mp3 retailers offer a digital booklet with lyrics, photos, etc., but let's get real, who looks at that more than once? Zaireeka has some great liner notes -- several pages detailing the album's origin and a couple paragraphs explaining each song along with lyrics. (Isn't there's something satisfying about sitting down with lyrics in hand as you listen to a song?)


Not long after the Flaming Lips completed Zaireeka, rather than launching a traditional tour, the band conducted the "Boom Box Experiments." In the spirit of Zaireeka, the band traveled to different venues and conducted an "orchestra" consisting of 40 boom boxes and just as many cassette tapes.

"All humans are urged to attend." Listening to Zaireeka is a social experience. Do you personally own four CD players? Have you tried synchronizing four CD players by yourself? Friends or similarly minded acquaintances are required.

I took this science class back a few years in college. At the end of the course, we were each assigned to a small group. Each group was required to formulate a hypothesis and then come up with a way of testing it. One group in my class tested an interesting hypothesis: they proposed that students who listened to music with headphones while walking to class were less likely to stop and help another student if he or she were to trip and drop their books. The group set themselves up in a high-traffic area on campus and went to work. They would purposefully trip and drop their books in front of a student with headphones and then do the same in front of a student without. The results were interesting but predictable: in almost every case, the student with headphones would step around the fallen student, while the student without would almost always stop to help. Sure, an experiment by inexperienced college students doesn't prove anything scientifically; but it nevertheless begs the question: what do we miss out when we keep music to ourselves?

The songs themselves are pretty unconventional. The Flaming Lips have always embraced strange subject matter and even stranger song titles. The band has in their catalog multiple songs about robots, outer space, time travel, and yes, even a couple about a plastic Jesus doll.

But Zaireeka even defies Flaming Lips convention. Song times vary greatly in length -- the shortest is 2:23, the longest is 10:23. One song is nothing more than Wayne Coyne reciting an amusing anecdote about the family dogs, which appropriately ends in a glorious crescending cacophony of barking dogs. Referring to the song "How Will We Know (Futuristic Crescendos)", the album cover boasts this warning: "This recording also contains frequencies not normally heard on commercial recordings and on rare occasion has caused the listener to become disoriented."

Zaireeka just might be the Flaming Lips at their weirdest.

I like to think that somewhere back in 1997, Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips somehow peered into 2011 and saw what music as it is today. And then, just because, they made a record that was the exact opposite.

Tag Team Time: Introducing Guest Blogger for the Week

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you my friend Myke

Myke and I have been friends since high school. He was part of the aforementioned San Francisco Weezer/Get Up Kids road trip. We go way back, playing in rock bands together (The Manhattan Project and XYZebra) since we were teenagers. Currently, he writes over at a blog called Earthbound but Aspiring, a literary blog he's keeping while reading through the complete works of John Steinbeck, chronologically.

I now welcome him to I Have Created a Monster for the week to do some posts on one of his own favorite "monster" artists - well, I won't ruin the surprise.

Kinch Wants You to Reside With Them

I'm pulling out a local spotlight here, paired up with some good old shameless self-promotion. Kinch is a band here in Phoenix that has this awesome guerilla style of self-management, promotion and touring that has been working like an effing charm for them. The Phoenix New Times awarded them with Best Local Album a couple years back and featured their touring efforts last year in this article.

So, consistent with their reputation, Kinch has come up with a fresh(ish) idea to continue their growth as a force-de-touring (I know, I know). The idea is for Kinch to play weekly residency shows in 3 different cities during the month of January. I say the idea is fresh-ish because a band with a residency is not a new thing, obviously, even in multiple cities. But Kinch is using the residency dates as a promoting tool, using it as a chance to play with a variety of local bands, instead of perpetuating the same-show-every-month pattern that often develops in local music scenes.

The first week of residency shows concluded this last weekend with a completely packed Saturday night at the Rogue Bar in Scottsdale. They also hit up their first dates of the month in LA and San Diego, which cities they will continue to visit weekly throughout the month of January. The next residency show happening in town is again this Saturday night (and this is where my bit of shameless self-promotion comes in) with my own band, Sun Ghost, and an even better band, Ticky Tacky (thank you, Amanda). The Kinch residency shows are brought to you by Psyko Steve (www.psykosteve.com) and details on all the shows can be found there, or on Kinch's website.

I Left My [unconditional love for Weezer] In San Francisco

In 2001, I was a junior in high school (wow, the last 10 years just flashed before my eyes as I wrote that). A group of friends and I discovered that our collective favorite band at the time, Weezer, was doing a tour with our other collective favorite band at the time, The Get Up Kids. Remember, this was ten years ago (ah, it happened again), and Weezer hadn't become the enormous, lame disappointment that they are now considered to be. Back then, they were still gods to us.
If my memory serves me correctly, there was no Arizona date scheduled for this tour, so we hatched a plan that involved half-a-dozen teenagers road-tripping in two cars and an airplane over 4 days, from Phoenix to San Francisco - by way of Las Vegas. It was the first time I had traveled out of state without my parents and, boy, was it one for the books.

• Bloody sheets. There was this horrifying phenomena that followed us from our first night in Las Vegas to our final night in a sketchy middle-of-nowhere motel in Wesley, California - there were blood spatters on the sheets in every room in which we stayed. Eventually we realized that I had a cut on my elbow which had had a difficult time healing, apparently, and that the blood was in fact leaking from my own body - not sure whether that's less gross or more gross.
• Sidewalk singalong. My friends and I arrived in San Francisco the morning of the concert and did some sightseeing (which isn't really sightseeing when it's left up to a bunch of 17-year-old boys). We grew bored of it pretty early and decided our time would be most well-spent sitting in line for the show for six hours with an acoustic guitar as we triumphantly led the people who weren't too cool for us in a Weezer-themed singalong. We very possibly may have covered the whole discography.
• My first love. Due to singing all the best Weezer songs with all the best Weezer fans on the streets of San Francisco my inhibitions were not only thrown to the wind, they might as well have been locked up in Alcatraz across the way. This allowed me to both meet and continue talking to a girl. She had come from Seattle with her friends for the show, and they came and joined our singalong. I'm pretty sure she stuck around because we had a sweet place in line, but sparks flew, emotions ran high, she touched my leg, and the rest is history. I became a lovestruck high school junior (quite a worthless thing to be, turns out) and we became pen pals and it was like really cute and stuff.
• Dopplegangers. Do you ever see dopplegangers of your friends, but with different thematic variations? Like seriously, have you ever seen a Native American Joe Pesci?* Well, we had a few of these on this trip, most notably: Gay Bearded Ed Linton and Fat Myke With Biker Shorts.
• Use of the word "word". On road trips, it's pretty standard practice for kids to form inside jokes or memes. And, let's face it, they're usually induced by driving delirium. We, as a group, inexplicably began to use the word "word" to agree with things said by others. Now, this is only really noteworthy because of the fact that I still perpetuate the use of "word" as a substitution for "yes" to this very day. Embarrassing? Maybe. Immature? Definitely. But come on, "Word to your mother" sounds so much cooler than, "Tell your mother I say hello."
• Distributing porn to children This isn't what you think. You've been to Las Vegas, right? If not, I dare you - nay, I defy you - to try getting through a Sin City visit without at least accidentally seeing the image of a naked woman. There is really no avoiding it. Unless you go to Vegas without walking down the strip, which doesn't officially count as going to Vegas anyways. Well, I was handed all kinds of porn-laden fliers and brochures all night long, and I suppose I was just too nice to say no? Towards the end of the night, my breast pocket was overflowing with nudity - and not the good kind. So, in an attempt to rid myself of all this filth (as well as all the guilt I felt for having it), I ditched my stack-o-porn in an elevator. It wasn't until I got out of the elevator and began walking around that I realized - it was the elevator inside FAO Schwartz, the world-famous toy store. When the elevator came back up, I looked in and the porn was gone. I may or may not have converted a future sex offender. Only time will tell.
  

What brought my mind to this trip - other than it being the 10-year anniversary of said trip - was an article I came across, thanks to another old high school chum of mine, Psyko Steve. The article comes from a music news site, Exclaim: Five Stupidest Things Weezer Did in 2010. Now, I've never been one to proclaim myself a Weezer-hater - no, I can never bring myself to go that far - but let's face it: they had it all, then they lost it. And I'm talking musically, because commercially they are currently seeing the some of their greatest success yet. But I like the approach of this article, and I think it pretty well sums up the general consensus on the Weeze. Rivers, you were charming. Your nerdery was endearing. Pat Wilson, your drumming/attitude was once the key to the band's simplistic genius of their early albums. Brian Bell, whatever, I don't know much about you. The three of you have spent the last decade either trying to recapture the magic of Blue and Pinkerton or trying to come up with something different that would still be epic enough to finally get fans to give up their nostalgic obsessions with the first two albums. Keep trying for as long as you want, but I have formulated an equation that proves your efforts to be forever futile. I present to you the Weezer Redemption theorem:

W = M + 3b(90)

The problem with the theorem is that is presents an unsolvable paradox. Where W is Weezer, M is Matt Sharp (whose presence is necessary to achieve greatness) and 3b represents the other band members, multiplied by the effects of the 90s. Since time has moved permanently beyond the 90s, I am afraid that Weezer returning to their former awesomeness is simply a mathematic impossibility.

*bonus points for naming the movie reference