Sunset Rubdown Live!

Sunset Rubdown Live!

Live At Neumo’s

Score: Good Christ!

It’s been a while. I’ve been working on projects no one cares about, etc. So I thought I’d post a shawty today. It’s Sunset Rubdown, you guys! Fuck. It’s so good. Sunset Rubdown came to town a while ago but I wasn’t old enough to go. That was the day my soul died.

ANYWAY, it’s live so you can expect all the drunken screams. Spencer (who is a God by the way) is surprisingly soft spoken. His wild yelps are no indication of his real voice, which is found odd. But my beautiful falsetto isn’t really indicative of my voice. So maybe it isn’t that weird.

There are some nice new tracks on here. So enjoy it, it will probably be a month or two before Sunset Rubdown’s next album leaks.

I’ll be heading to Sasquatch(!) on Friday, so I probably won’t post anything. But then again, I never post anything anyway. I’m really just padding this post to make myself feel better. I feel good now. Do you?

Sunset Rubdown Live At Neumos

Beirut - Small Time American Bats - Record Review...Sorta.

Beirut

Small Time American Bats.

Score: 7.5

There is almost nothing on the planet earth about this record. From what I can tell, it’s before Zach Condon started to get heavily into Balkan music. But it’s still good! When I heard that Beirut would be abandoning the big brass and moving in different directions I got worried. I loved the brass and the sweeping melodies that came with it. After listening to a lot of Zach’s different stuff, I can sleep easy at night. The Real People, the Pompeii EP, and now Small Time American Bats, show that he is actually a great musician, not just a one trick pony. Even though I love the fucking trick. So let’s get down to Small Time American Bats. I think I read that it was recorded in 2002 or 2003. A couple years before Gulag Orkestar shattered all of us. There are only THREE (3) songs on the record, which means your joy will be short lived.

The first track is called “The Fish Inside of Me,” and while it is good. It is probably the weakest track on the record. Ugh, listen. Fuck this track by track bullshit. I can really appreciate the low production values and simplicity of the record. With Gulag, etc. It was all about being grandiose, but on these tracks he is just a normal kid making music in his basement. There is piano, a guitar and a drum machine. Oh and Condon’s beautiful voice to drive it along. Like I said, there are only three tracks. After the first track, shit starts to heat up with the last two, “We covered the west in phone lines,” and “The electric show.” Both are magnificent. Apologies for the shortness, but you know how Beirut leaves me grasping for words.

Beirut - Small Time American Bats

Ben Gibbard! Live!

Ben Gibbard.

Live At The 9:30 Club In Washington.

Score: Cool!

Ben Gibbard has, and probably always will be, the man who saved my life. The man who wrested my body from the dark grips of “alternative music,” think Linkin Park. Oh! How I suffered! One day I was searching around the internet, thinking about how my musical life had really gone down hill lately. I mean, yes, there was hip-hop (which I still enjoy), but there was also that genre of music that can only be described as the “Nickelback” genre. This genre is so grotesque that I am loath to even speak its name aloud, much like the students of Hogwarts are stricken with fear at the very mention of the Dark Lord Voldemort (fuck, man the movie and book come out soon). ANYWAY, my MP3 device was filled to bursting with His Dark Materials. The Materials being, Nickelback, Theory of a Deadman, and, oh Jesus, Default.

Are you shivering too? The hairs on my neck are standing at attention, like soldiers hearing their call to arms. UGH, ANYWAY, listen. I was searching around on the internet, thinking that I needed some new fucking flavor. I was typing nonsensical things into Yahoo (my search engine of choice at the time) when POW, this website stood out among all others. EPITONIC. I liked to say it, it was catchy and it rolled off of my tongue with such ease! “Click it.” A voice whispered. I did as I was instructed, who was whispering in my ear was not important, that they kept blowing lightly on the nape of my neck, was.

So I clicked Epitonic. *Click* Here has been clicked. I am on their homepage, it is so vast, as vast as the Pacific Ocean. How the FUCK am I supposed to choose which band to listen to? Well, if you are like me (and I very much doubt that you are) you pick the band with the coolest name. I went through tons of bands, some of which I still like to this day, but nothing really gripped me. I couldn’t connect. There was Three Mile Pilot, which I liked, but not enough to don the armor of indie rock until my body could bear it no more. Then I saw them.

Death Cab For Cutie. Exquisite. I downloaded the two or three tracks that were offered on the free. It was like the coming of the Apocalypse. This band, Death Cab For Cutie, had entered my world and brought with it a wave of destruction. Ben Gibbard had raised a war horn to his lips and crooned gently into it, vaporizing my beloved “alternative rockers” one by one with each concussion blast of his eerily angelic voice. The track was “Photobooth,” and I’ll never forget how it made me feel that fateful summer, like four years ago?! Fucking ridiculous. I still remember how fresh it was and how I felt so rejuvenated after hearing it. Like, here is something genuinely delicious to listen to, my ears agree that it is scrumptious. I would be ridiculed for years for listening to Death Cab for Cutie and Bright Eyes or, until it caught on. Which is just happening now! Those were bleak times indeed.

Years later, I still love Death Cab for Cutie, not as intensely as I did all those years ago. But something about their songs still resonate with me. I listen to Death Cab for Cutie when I am in the throes of (what could be loosely defined as) passion.

SO, this live show was recorded at a club, and as is the case with clubs, there are people. Annoying people. You have been warned! Also, the recording is a little spotty in some parts, but all in all an enjoyable listen, I really like his banter. A little nerdy. But at “music is for eating” that is what we are about.

Oh, and look at his fucking glasses. I love this man.

PS. The file is fucking huge.

Ben Gibbard Live.

Spiderman 3 OST- Record Review

Spiderman 3 OST

Various Artists

Score: 6.8

There’s always something a little tawdry about the Spiderman soundtracks. Something so dark and cheap that I am loath to even write about it, they are just so engineered. You don’t believe me? Okay, well, let’s let the tracklists for the last two Spiderman soundtracks speak for themselves, shall we?

Spiderman (2002)

1. Theme From Spider Man

2. Hero - Chad Kroeger (feat. Josey Scott)

3. What We're All About - Sum 41

4. Learn To Crawl - Black Lab

5. Somebody Else – Bleu

6. Bug Bites - Alien Ant Farm

7. Blind – Default

8. Bother - Corey Taylor

9. Shelter - Greenwheel

10. When It Started - The Strokes

11. Hate To Say I Told You So - The Hives

12. Invisible Man - Theory Of A Dead Man

13. Undercover - Pete Yorn

14. My Nutmeg Phantasy - Macy Gray (feat. Angie Stone and Mos Def)(Tom Morello Mix)

15. I - IV - V - Injected

16. She Was My Girl - Jerry Cantrell

17. Main Titles - Danny Elfman

18. Farewell - Danny Elfman

19. Theme from Spiderman – Aerosmith

This blatantly cashes in on the Nickelback craze; in fact, I think that THREE of the bands on this soundtrack are either Nickelback or Nickelback operating under a different guise. Oh and then there’s that song “What we’re all about” by Sum 41 where the chorus was “ROCK! It’s what we’re all about, it’s what we live for, come on and shout it out!” I thought it was always really funny to substitute the “ROCK!” with “COCK!” and the “we’re” with “you’re” I had very few friends. ANYWAY, this cashes in on the musical fad of 2002 which were.

1.) Nickelback.

2.) Bands that sounded like Nickelback.

3.) “The” Bands, The Hives, The Strokes, The Vines, The The’s

4.) Danny Elfman.

Now that I have distilled their dark work, let’s begin on the second Spiderman soundtrack.

Spiderman 2 (2004)

1. Vindicated - Dashboard Confessional

2. Ordinary - Train

3. Did You - Hoobastank

4. Hold On – Jet

5. Gifts And Curses - Yellowcard

6. Woman - Maroon 5

7. This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know) - Taking Back Sunday

8. Give It Up - Midtown

9. Lucky You – lostprophets

10. Who I Am - Smile Empty Soul

11. The Night That The Lights Went Out In NYC - The Ataris

12. We Are - Ana

13. Someone To Die For - Jimmy Gnecco featuring Brian May

14. Spidey Suite - Danny Elfman

15. Doc Ock Suite - Danny Elfman

AHHHH! The game they play is so brazen! This is obviously a vehicle for the 2004 musical fad. One that hasn’t really disintegrated, but hasn’t been thriving as heartily as it was in 2004; in 2004 there was a fucking surfeit of these bands, and they were a dime a fucking dozen. And they sounded like it! Why would they pile shitty bands onto a soundtrack for an almost awesome movie? The logic is so abstruse that I can’t even begin to grapple with it. To try would be akin to going toe to toe with Goliath. That being said, I can honestly say that I did not enjoy this soundtrack at all. With Spiderman that “Hero” song was my fucking theme song that summer. Not only because I loved Spiderman, but there was something so epic about it.

However, with this one, the soundtrack was tuned toward people that were listening to things totally independent of my culture.

I never understood the allure of Dashboard Confessional; I understood why females loved him, he was all torn up about shit. About how girls didn’t like him and always left him, but the thing they failed to realize was that Chris Carraba was fucking rolling in vagina. The very thought of that disgusts me. You fucking knew that when he got off stage he stepped into his dressing room and WHOOSH! He was knee deep in vagina!

ANYWAY, on this one it was the pop/punk/”emo” vibe they tried to cash in on. And I’m sure when they released it, the clouds opened up and cash money poured from the sky and the Sony execs, mouths open, face turned skyward, swallowed it all up in one gulp.

OKAY, so we have ripped apart the first two Spiderman soundtracks, now let’s dig in on the third.

Spiderman 3 (2007)

1. Signal Fire - Snow Patrol

2. Move Away - The Killers

3. Sealings - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

4. Pleased To Meet You - Wolfmother

5. Red River - The Walkmen

6. Stay Free - Black Mountain

7. The Supreme Being Teaches Spider-Man How To Be In Love - The Flaming Lips

8. Scared Of Myself - Simon Dawes

9. The Twist - Chubby Checker

10. Sightlines - Rogue Wave

11. Summer Day - Coconut Records

12. Falling Star - Jet

13. Portrait Of A Summer Thief - Sounds Under Radio

14. A Letter From St. Jude - Wasted Youth

15. Small Parts - The Oohlas

The ploy is once again naked, stripped bare and laid in front of us. There is something different about this record, though. This record has GOOD songs. Unlike the last two, the tracks selected are decent; I can listen to most of them without crying out in anguish. Even bands that usually suck have done good things. They done as good as they could.

For instance, let’s take Snow Patrol’s “Signal Fire.” I used to like Snow Patrol, they had some good songs “Spitting Games”, “Chocolate”, “Run”, etc. But ever since “Chasing Cars” has been on every single fucking TV show on every single fucking network, my tolerance for them hath grown short. But “Signal Fire” is actually a genuinely decent song. Let’s put it this way, I don’t love it, but at the same time, I don’t execrate it.

Fuck man, even The Killers song isn’t horrible! The end is fucking nigh.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs contribute a good song, and I don’t even really like them. I’ll stop here because I’ll probably say the same thing about every track. It is okay.

The theme of this album is obviously “alternative rock” which is a mainstream way of saying “independent” even though some of these guys aren’t. But they have the feel of independent. Whenever I start to get into the music, I remember it is the fucking Spiderman 3 soundtrack and I feel really cheap and dirty. And for that reason, I could never really love it.

Spiderman 3 OST