Beirut LIVE! at The Holocene.

Beirut

Live at The Holocene

Score: infinity.


As the title suggests, this is the wonderfully delicious, Beirut, oh, and they are fucking LIVE. I have said on many occasions that I would trade a significant body part for the utter delight of seeing Beirut live, hearing those tamborine jangles dancing around the room and into my ears, to see Zach Condon blow heavily into his trumpet, just to fucking live it.

The performance takes place in Portland Oregon, at The Holocene sometime in 2006, and it is incredible. I won't review it, but the recording is almost flawless and the acoustics are wondrous. The banter is where it really excels, pieces of the performance are solely dedicated to it. For die hard Beirut fans like myself, there is another treat, there are some new songs, like "Closing Song" and "Transatlantic" there are also some covers (I think, since I heard the same songs in "Borat") the covers are "Ederlezi" "Siki Siki Baba" and "Brazil"

Just enjoy it, love it, penetrate it in ways you have only seen in erotic cinema, etc.

Beirut Live at The Holocene

MC Frontalot - Nerdcore Rising - Record Review

MC Frontalot

Nerdcore Rising.

Score: 9.4

As a raging nerd, I have always called out for a savior, someone that would banish the darkness of sports and “good looks” someone I could idolize. Throughout highschool I could only look to myself for unwavering strength as a nerd that enjoyed videogames, acne, and geeking on the computron. I would quote Star Wars with a stunning regularity and would try and cast spells on my foes, and when that was unsuccessful, I blamed it on my lack of experience points. In grade 11 I stumbled upon two heroes named Gabe and Tycho, they were the masters behind the extremely popular gaming webcomic Penny Arcade. For two years(and to this day), every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I would sit in front of my computer screen and squeal with absolute delight, these two people understood my plight because, they too, had suffered as I was suffering. They were/are a beacon of hope to all of my people. But they introduced me to someone who was at a greater “level” than they were at, this man, nay, demi-god named (aliased) MC Frontalot.

Upon hearing Nerdcore Rising, my heart filled with a white, pure light. Its holy glow penetrating all layers of clothing, it shone for days and days. From that day on, I vowed to convert as many people as I could to the nerd persuasion. Brothers and sisters, heed my call!
Nerdcore Rising opens with “Charity Case” a song about how poor he is, because nerds hate spending money on data. Like a true nerd, he understands this taking jabs at the RIAA and acknowledging that most people got his record off bittorrent (fuck!) not to mention a shout out to GI Joe. After hearing this song, I genuinely wanted to buy MC Frontalot’s CD. This record wields that much power.

On Nerdcore Rising, MC Frontalot rhymes about everything from Goth Girls (in “Goth Girls”) the war in Iraq (in “Special Delivery”) and even Penny Arcade (in “Penny Arcade Theme” original!) I’m not doing a great job of describing the actual music, but that’s the beauty of MC Frontalot, the beat almost become secondary to the words, the lyrics are original, genuine and hilarious at times, if you aren’t a nerd, some of it won’t make sense, but all in all accessible to everyone.

Plus, as a man/boy who enjoys “indie rock” the song “Indier than Thou” is incredibly accurate when “The Front” croons “I’m so indie that my shirt don’t fit.” and “Hipsterism is a religion to which you gotta be devout, you must be seen as in between unpopular and hated or else get excommunicated.” So true, Front, so true.

Some people complain that the CD is just a more polished version of the older songs on his website, and that’s true, but there is nothing wrong with sounding more polished as long as your record isn’t some sort of grey paste. I’ll give it a spin. and when someone fronts as much as the front..fronts, I’ll give it two or three…million! hundred!

Nerdcore Rising.

Spoon - Kill The Moonlight - Record Review

Kill The Moonlight.
Spoon
Score: 9.1


To call Kill The Moonlight a staggering work of genius would be an overstatement, but not too much of one. Released many moons ago (2002 OMG VINTAGE!) Kill The Moonlight only gets better with time, from the catchy piano openings of the popular (see: wildly commercialized) Way We Get By, to the maniacal laughs of Back to The Life. Kill The Moonlight has got to be one of the greatest albums Spoon has ever released, if not one of the best independent rock albums of the 21st Century (so far).

I realize my last statement may have seemed lofty, presumptuous and, well, like I’m just full of shit. But no! Listen to it right now. And come back to me, look me in the eyes and tell me that it wasn’t better than sex (presumably). Why is it so goddamn good? A question I have posed to the framed picture of Brit Daniel--laid upon cherry red velvet, illuminated only by the flickering of prayer candles—I have in my room. He just smiles his crooked smile, and says nothing, eyes as vacant as something that is oft vacant.

Describing exactly what makes Kill the Moonlight an instant classic, is a harrowing task at best. Something that is great about listening to Kill the Moonlight is that you can see how they progressed from here to there, there being Gimme Fiction.

The standout tracks on Kill the Moonlight are…almost all of them, Small Stakes has a great subdued guitar riff that feels like it flows from a holy place. The Way We Get By, is, obviously great, it’s as catchy as herpes (if not moreso) but I also think that The Way We Get By, is what brings the record down. Hear me out, as I said, the song is great, but it’s commercialization overshadows it’s true genius, which does not lie with this song, with the OC, or with Mean Creek (good movie, though). The commercialization of independent music is something that I could touch upon at a later date although, it would take me months to write about such a scourge.

ANYWAY, The Way We Get By, overshadows the rest of the album, while at times it feels like one of the weaker songs on the album (but by no means weak) The breathy intro to Stay Don’t Go is something I recreated for months, at work, at school, at home, EVERYWHERE, it haunted me so!
The moaning introduction of Jonathan Fisk is superb, as is the song,
The way Paper Tiger dances back and forth inside your headphones, as if being willed from right to left. All of these nuances are what makes listening to the album a profound experience.

As with all songs except for those dirty instrumentalists that people pretend to like so seem deeper than they really are. (Hey, did you hear that new explosions in the sky song? Yeah, man, it fucking rocked! YEAH, I know, I especially liked the part with the instruments and no singing, didn’t you enjoy how the music conveyed heartbreak in (insert song here) by using a medley of instruments? Listen, man, I’m not gonna lie, I fell asleep 2 minutes in) It’s not only that instrumental songs are lame (arguably) for me it only takes a couple minutes for the songs to just become ambience. I forget that it’s even on, my brain hath turned against me and my ear holes have actually sealed themselves up, from the inside!

Where was I, ah, as I was saying or trying to say, at any rate, is that songs aren’t just about the melody or the cadence, words make a song (arguably) and the words in Kill The Moonlight show real growth from A Series of Sneaks. And from here you can see a magnificent growth spurt that leads to Gimme Fiction.

While Kill the Moonlight is just a pit stop for Spoon (35 minutes) you can’t help but feel strangely upset when it is over, even though you know they have gone to a better (maybe) place.

linked at a later date.

Silvershit Pickups- Lazy Eye - Track Review

The Silversun Pickups

Lazy Eye

Score: 1.3/5

I hate this song.


I don’t even know if the lead singer is actually saying words in this song, it sounds like gibberish and he sounds a bit like a baby.

However, in defiance of my ears, my mind actually kind of likes it, the arrangement of the song is pretty well done, in that the cadence of the ups and downs is familiar and warm, the vocals are soft as fontanel. Which makes it that much more hilarious when he starts to scream a bit in the middle of the song, and brother, believe me when I tell you that this “gruff” yelling is hilarious, he fails on every level to be xtuffXcorex.

God, how I loathe it, but I still find myself tapping my foot, my head slowly moving to and fro, my soul turning in on itself, my spirit begging to leave its immaculate vessel.

Oh, and I saw these guys on Letterman or Leno or O’Brien, whatever, anyways, their stage presence is dreadful! The lead singer has less charisma and stage presence than the lead singer of Keane! If you can fucking believe it. Apart from Lazy Eye, which is (arguably) their only song kind of semi worth lowering yourself for, I would advise you never torture yourself by listening to another song. Oh, and just in case anyone says “Give them a chance! They could be good or something!”

I do have one positive thing to say, the bassist (maybe) is pretty cute and she might look like Maggie Gyllenhaal (who is cute…well, sometimes, have you ever noticed that?)

I’m not even going to link to it.