Monday, September 21, 2009

albums that changed my life: volume one

for the sake that i do like writing about music i think i'm gonna list albums that changed my life. this is no list nothing like that. just albums that shaped my musical taste to where i am now. lets begin shall we?

'youre a woman, i'm a machine' death from above 1979-the first time i heard this album i had no idea what to expect. i heard the name thrown a lot in early 2005 and finally got a hold of the album. right off the bat i was blown away over how just loud it was, but it was somewhat melodic and had a groove to it. i didn't even realize till after one listen that it was a two piece. i listened again and sure enough all bass, not one guitar. i was blown away, i was obsessed, i still am. still to this day this album still has this quality and sound no other album has.

'in/casino/out' at the drive-in- i knew 'one armed scissor' and i knew 'relationship of command' pretty well. i knew what they were all about. after hearing a few songs here and there off this album i finally found it (way before the re-isusses kids) and was blown away by how raw and honest this album is. plus learning it was a live studio album made a lot more sense with the one of a kind sound it has (see a trend here). i think this album paved the way for me getting early emo because it made me not so intimidated to listen to it because of the e word.

'forget what you know' midtown- midtown is/was/always will be one of my favorite bands regardless of what the bassist is doing now. this album lyrically changed me, it summed up my 17 year old angst at the time but did it in a clever way that me in my early 20's now can still appreciate and not thing is cheesy. the sound was too ahead of its time. it a shame this album never commercially blew up because its flawless from the musicianship to lyrics to just everything. 'waiting for the news' and 'until it kills' will always take me back to the summer of 2004.

'pinkerton' weezer- where do i begin? everyone knows this album is gushing with emotion lyrically but does anyone think the production on it is just incredible? the drums sound so big in it you feel like you are hearing it live. plus it has the 3 best middle songs in a row in my opinion: 'el scorcho', 'across the sea', 'the good life'. the words though have had a profound impact though on me. i feel like anyone and everyone can step or has stepped into river's shoes on this one.

'contact kiss' girlsareshort- this album is like summer in a bottle. just so lively, so happy. so catchy. even with all the pop gloss that screams at you and sunny beats there is some pretty good synth lines and some good guitar work as well in there. plus the lyrics are so well done (well some are a little strange but you get it). again it was ahead of its time before the whole electro explosion which is a shame.

so that's it for now. this is going to be fun to do more of! fun note al-p produced two of these albums...

Sunday, September 20, 2009

this past week

flew by, why you ask?

tuesday i saw autolux who was everything i expected. noisy, atmospheric, and playing new songs which sounded excellent. transit transit can't come out soon enough!

thursday i saw the weakerthans who sounded ridiculously good. they played 2 encores and even if they didn't play 'sun in a empty room' it was still one good set!

saturday (last night) i saw the decemberists. when i got to the show i kinda wasn't into it at all but that changed fast. they were hands down one of the best live bands i've ever seen. plus the idea of the lottery show where the picked 3 songs at random to play made the show fun and just very enjoyable, and watching from a balcony made it pretty awesome too.

needless to say it was a awesome week and pretty much reminds me why i'm here. next weekend i'm headed home for my long weekend so that's going to be nice to relax. maybe seeing grizzly bear friday? the following week i got i am the avalanche, polar bear club, and blink-182. i'm a busy boy. still it rules so much.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

9-9-09

how do you know you are getting old? you remember 9-9-99.

anyways been in nyc for about a week and a half. part of it feels like it went by fast, another feels like its been an entirety.

entirety because i'm away from the most important person in my life. facing the grim realties till spring scares me. my life is like a huge puzzle, in 2005 they all got shook up. it took me 3 years of self discovery, losing friends, finding old ones, going to manhattan to put me where i am now. the puzzle is now together, minus one piece in the middle. heres the thing though, the piece is in my hand. i know where it is. i know it means everything, it solves the puzzle the picture that is the puzzle is now complete.

unfortunately for me that one piece i can't put down for some reason. i don't know if in 2 years or however many years go by i'll see have it or anything. the point i'm trying to make is 4 years. it's been over 4 years since i've had this piece. thats over 1,460 days. think about it, you've gotten up and gone to bed that many times. the sun has gone up and gone down that many times.

what its boiling down to is i got over the past. the problem is i want the future too much now.