When you leave a boy alone in his apartment all night with an apocalyptic blizzard raging and nothing to do, he downloads massive amounts of music. And the results are in:
That’s eight albums and counting…
You know damn well that we all have them: those bands that we just can’t help loving, no matter how much we shouldn’t. Regardless of how big a music snob you are, you have that one album in your collection that is a favourite, even though you’d be loathe to admit it. What are mine, you ask? (You didn’t ask? Tough.)
What are yours? Put ’em in the comments. We’ll get through this together…*sniffle*
Okay, for starters, I hate self-titled albums. They are really, really pointless. I mean, at least artists in other media call their works “Untitled” when they can’t come up with a name that conveys the emotion of a given work. Self-titling is like leaving something set to default that could easily be changed.
That being said, I adore this album from start to finish. It’s become one of the ‘stickiest’ albums in my possession in that I seem to get completely glued to it and listen over and over again. The only comparable music in my collection has to be the works of Chris Corner as expressed by I Am X and the Sneakerpimps. And, as an interesting study of my musical-psychology, they are actually very similarly styled. I don’t know what it is about artists that make synthesizers sound so erotic but they are really all it takes to get me hooked. You may have seen the video for “Tear You Apart,” directed for the band by Joaquin Phoenix. The whole damn album sounds like that video looks: dark, gritty, covered in smeared mascara and incomprehensibly sinister. It’s fantastic!
Tired of digging around on the web to find your album art? This service seems to do a better job than Amazon and is a little less clunky…
Seriously, guys…why do you have to be such arrogant assholes when interviewed? I really don’t listen to your music all that often. I mean, there was a time a few years ago when I liked you well enough. “Aerials” had a cool video and was a decent song and “Boom!” fit the political climate perfectly. Then I just kinda moved on. No hard feelings. Tonight, I was watching Fuse while I painted at the coffee table and you were the featured artist on some show or other. I watched the videos I remembered, saw a few decent newer ones and thought “Hey! Maybe I’ll listen to System of a Down again.” Then, I saw Julia, host of Uranium (a stupid metal show) and thought “I have always had a crush on her…let’s just see what this is about.” She was interviewing you in some non-descript hotel room. And that’s when it began…
Why did you have to treat her so badly? Honestly, does it make you feel more important as artists to dodge questions, answer by only saying ‘felatio’ and then to condescend someone who is just trying to help promote you? I mean, if your goal is to alienate people who might possibly listen to your music and try to understand your art, then you’ve done a bang up job.
Just sayin’ that I won’t be listening to you any time in the future, that’s all.
What exactly USO shows, U-Boats, World War II or the beach at Normandy have to do with My Chemical Romance is beyond me. However, director Marc Webb apparently has much more insight into (il)logical connections than a mere mortal like myself. Thus, we are treated to a complete and utter trainwreck of faux sepia-tone patriotism – mixed with dance numbers!
Apparently lead singer Gerard Way also had a hand in this mess. Webb describes it as such:
“Gerard had this idea for awhile. The main thrust is that it takes place in World War II, and there’s a USO dance and these combat sequences too,” Webb said. “The USO dance happens during the verses of the song, and the combat sequences happen during the chorus, because there’s a big dichotomy between those two parts of the song.” (via MTV.com)
My retinas just liquified from the brilliance.
In short, I’m watching MTV Hits. (Tagline: “We play anything but what our name implies!”)
P.S. Does anyone, anywhere, actually like U2?
I finally decided to have some discipline with myself and apply this new forced focus to the task of actually reading this month’s issue of Wired. I don’t know why reading my favourite magazine has become such a difficult task for me, because I’m always pleasantly rewarded at least once everytime I pick up a copy. However, this is neither here nor there: my point is that I found Coldcut’s Sound Mirrors in Wired this month.
Wired calls Coldcut’s members remix legends. I don’t know if it’s true, being as this is the first and only time I’ve heard of the duo. However, if all of their work is as good as Stereo Mirrors, they’ve more than earned their title. The album is like a scalpel made of ice with its chilling edge. I picked up an import copy which included a second bonus disc worth of materials that I would recommend finding on your neighbourhood pork-based tracker.
To break it on down:
A week of album reviews, musical nostalgia, artist gossip and whatever else we can pull out of our collective ass.
The new Apple ad that touts the birth of the Intel Mac – and makes Angela and I weep with joyous visions of life in a robotic clean room – is directed by the same wonderful people who brought us “Such Great Heights.” Thank you, Josh Melnick and Xander Charity.
And thank you, Cult of Mac Blog, for the wonderful trivia!
If you dare, follow this link to watch six minutes of holiday time memories. (QuickTime 7, 32 MB, streaming)