We had a nice introductory dinner tonight with the people that are going to be on our bus tour. They talked about their past travels, past careers, genealogy, children, grandchildren, and the weather. I nodded along, hoping I wouldn't have to find a way to describe to them our journeys of physical endurance, self-discovery, and binge drinking. I don't know how I would even start.
Organized tours - be careful. They all have single children/grandchildren. My parents used to ROUTINELY come back from cruises with email addresses of the children and grandchildren of people they had met, usually their dining companions. They were all "nice single young men." I never emailed any of them. And either my parents weren't giving out my email address, just letting me make the first move, or (more likely) the guys also chose to never email me because I never heard from any of them.
But this is a thing. Be wary.
This afternoon we passed by a town, known for its yearly matchmaking festival (www.matchmakerireland.com). Upon hearing its announcement, my mother looked back to my seat with an expectant look in her eye. In defiant response, I ratcheted the awkward up, and reduced power to the social grace emulation layers.
Man, these guys are just haters. Every song is directed lambasting against some segment of society. While I suppose these 'critiques' are an improvement over the lyrical content of their debut (which was a concept album from the perspective of Jack the Ripper as he murdered his victims... thus the band name), it's still pretty ridiculous (the solution seems to be: kill yourself, unless you're in this band). Musically, there is movement away from typical deathcore, although I can't help but feel like their is bizarre movement towards a Slipknot-esque sound (especially Mono).
3.5/5 - Overall, very good deathcore. Probably leaders of the genre. I like some songs on their last release more, but this is overall a bit more consistent.
There are a few albums that are shining examples of the potential of crowdfunding, and this is one of them (along with Volition). By far the best music this group has produced, the best chiptune out there by a mile.
4.0/5 - Almost the culmination of this genre. If a couple more songs were as brutally catchy as Prom Night, it would be maximized. The pure chiptune songs are absolutely fantastic.
I definitely feel a little guilty about purchasing this album in general, since the guy who created Austrian Death Machine is in prison for hiring a hitman to kill his wife. But I still did. And it is a novelty release, fo sho. Not enough novelty and too much metal, to be exact. Pyrithion (www.pyrithion.com)is much better in every way, since it is another side release from the same guy without all the Ahnold impressions.
2.0/5 - Disappointing. Lame jokes, metal that doesn't fit. A bit too tongue in cheek. HOWEVER, Pumping & Humping is a hilariously great song.
URPDATE: Sentenced to 6 years ;) (lambgoat.com)
Guess that's how long we'll have to wait for quadruple brutal :|
The concept for this album is pretty bizarre. It is an acoustic/orchestral reworking of their previous album, Dead End Kings, to emphasis the vocals and eliminate all of the heaviness... track for track. Half crowd funded and half label funded, no less. And... it works. It turns a great album into a collection of beautiful and haunting dirges so somber it makes you hurt. The vocals and lyrical delivery are breathtaking.
4.0/5 - Great album. Such a dark and depressing listen, but an incredible album if you're into that kind of thing.
For your Friday enjoyment, good for those in love or not yet in love. Statistically accurate love song (www.youtube.com).
Well, I don't really buy THAT many CDs anymore... but I do still buy a significant amount of mp3's and other music related stuff. However, if the CD is EVER cheaper than the mp3 on Amazon, I almost always buy it, because I can then turn in the CD to Title Wave for credit for books or whatever ;)
Systematic and efficient mass music consumption.
Dense combination of tech death and classical musical. AND a concept album about the Labyrinth of Knossos. Needless to say, pretty epic. The combination of brutal vox with a classically trained opera singer is pretty incredible.
3.5/5 - Very good. The production is terribly brickwalled, but the compositions are amazing.
I'm rather torn on this band. On one hand, they incorporate chiptune into their music, which is pretty sweet. On the other hand, they are a bunch of geek posers that constitute a pop rock band. This live album shows a pretty good performance, and the songs are catchy, but I can't help but feel like they're cashing in on nerd culture without actually being a part of nerd culture. And I even kickstarted their last album.
2.5/5 - Pretty average live album, would prefer them in the studio methinks. The cover of Power of Love was pretty sweet though.
It's interesting to listen to this album after Random Access Memories, which is superior in essentially every way (from songwriting to production). That being said, this isn't a bad album... just, ironically, more robotic than human (perhaps that was the point of the title...). The beats are good, but there are less melodic hooks.
3.0/5 - Good electronica album. Apparently many see this as their worst album, and I can certainly see some flaws in this album that aren't present with their followups.
B-sides from The War Within recording session. For the most part, the songs sound like B-sides.
2.0/5 - If a companion album to The War Within (as the lead singer claims), it is disappointing... since The War Within blows it away!
Watched the first episode of Silicon Valley (www.youtube.com). Enjoyed the shit out of it. They did their homework.
What a dense release. It is straight up post-metal in the vein of the Ocean, but with much less melody and a greater emphasis on wall of sound texturing (especially the screaming vox, which generally bleed into the distorted guitars and are painfully unintelligible). While I can appreciate what's going on a bit (a concept album framed around an insane narrator's bizarre and tormented fantasy world), after a bunch of listens it's just not that enjoyable.
2.5/5 - I wanted to like this more, but the Ocean does this style a whole lot better.
This is the instrumental version of the album, which I received when I bought the tab books - it will probably be pretty important when I start trying to learn these songs. That being said, it's not nearly as compelling without the vocals.
2.5/5 - Pretty average instrumetal. Still crazy frenetic though.
This DayZ video (www.youtube.com) is what I use to describe the game to people. I've never played it, but I've watched so much content I feel like I could have.
(nods) Possible. I didn't get the sense of that much time passing, so I didn't really have that much of an attachment to his Russian friend. I was also viewing it in the context of the game, less so the short story about the two survivors. The game is a playground for trolls, sociopaths, and emergent gameplay enthusiasts. Watching your friend get smoked is sorta workaday in the game, from what I've watched.
