BIG NEWS, PEOPLEZ

In a (not so) shocking upset, my #1 album of the year 2005 is ....


still The Futureheads.

I'm looking forward to which of this year's albums will be my #1 of 2006. I wouldn't be surprised if the result was very similar to this year.

Just to say

Anyone who's wearing one of those "NYU Diving Team: Disregarding Water Since 2003" shirts today needs to go kill themselves. i mean, wearing one is ridiculously fucking ignorant and asshole-ish enough to begin with, but TODAY?

Statements of Purpose

1. As people have actually vocally wondered to me as to when I'm going to update, I shall do so. Perhaps a little more regularly.

2. It was really good to see so many people this weekend. You don't think this is a Purposeful Statement? Fuck you. (p.s. I'll post pictures from this weekend if I can find anything semi-candid)

3. NYC is better than Boulder. NYC is better than Boulder 9 times. This is a follow-up from statement 2.

4. I will stay up until 3 AM on weekdays, gladly, if necessary. At least.

5. I am determined to make this year as good as this year can possibly get. Even though that's a conditional statement.

6. The Futureheads are still great. I realize I didn't report back from the show, but this should not be confused with dismissal. They also need to put out new material.

7. KATMARI, YOU ARE A TREAT

8.

just for clarification

These - are the Futureheads.


Not this -

or this -

or this -

or, god forbid, this -

and defnitely not this -


They do not sound like this -

or this

or this - although he - did produce some of their tracks.


However, they do sound somewhat like this -

and this -


They've done a cover of these guys -

and a really kick ass version of one of this girl's songs -


So come to their concert on June 6th and you will see - and - and a great band singing vocal harmonies in northern english accents. what more could you want?

Catching Up

Okay, I'm going to repost my last livejournal entry on here, because, let's not be coy, livejournal sucks balls. And it hasn't been that long since I posted it. Updates/revisions in italic.

things i like, with the most important one first and the rest in no particular order:
Soozy -like bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam
Lester -see you next week
The Futureheads -june 6th, webster hall, be there
banging dancefloor anthems
Katamari Damacy -YES!
Yuengling
Max/MSP
Arrested Development, Deadwood, and The Office
MSG
Bun B -go read a book, you illiterate son of a bitch, and step up yo vocab
324 E. 13th St. #7
microKorg -Chad Hugo plays the synth vamp on this in the video for Drop It Like It's Hot and i love him for it. i'm a dork.
second cousins
and last but not least, making you think that i'm actually going to start posting again -i moved, bitches!
AS WELL AS ...
Illegal Pete's
Kevin
The Buzzcocks
Lucky Strikes
Portuguese
Trapped In the Closet -IM me if you want these. you want these.

So it looks like I'm probably going to be taking the next year off and staying in Boulder because I fucked up one too many classes over the course of the past couple years. Hopefully I'll be able to get to see all my friends before I have to go back, and i'm sure this summer will be fun for everyone. after that, however, it's back to a soozy-less hippie town where i'll have to mask my sorrows with some hardcore substance abuse. To everyone who's left for the summer, I'll see you all Fall 2006. Amour et choses

Music my friends probably haven't heard but need to

Disco Inferno - The Five EP's
A burned CD Ned Raggett (AMG, ILX) gave me of the Summer's Last Sound, A Rock To Cling To, The Last Dance, Second Language, and It's A Kid's World EP's. It took me a couple weeks, but these songs have in that time become some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard. "Summer's Last Sound", "Love Stepping Out", "The Last Dance", "The Long Dance", the entirety of Second Language, "It's a Kid's World" = total eargasm. "A Night At the Tiles" = total insanity. I haven't quite gotten into the slow tracks quite yet, but no matter. Everyone should hear these songs. Everyone.

Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep
What do you get when you stick the RZA together with Prince Paul? only some of the catchiest beats of the 1990's. Add to that Poetic and Frukwan trying to beat the RZA in terms of wacky flow: one unbelievably great album. Listen to it, if for nothing else, because the name of the European version of the album is Niggamortis.

Ariel Pink - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti 2: The Doldrums
One man band time! If you like your guitar pop sprinkled with synthesized strings and very very lo-fi, check this out. This dude has some bizarre, extremely hilarious lyrics to check out as well.

The Mae Shi - Terrorbird
AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! crazy spaz noise fckng awesomeness. In the vein of Brainiac and POLYSICS except the songs are generally shorter and faster, with Arab On Radar-style vocals. I need to see these dudes live, no joke.

Prozac+ - Acido Acida
Italian girl-punk I heard on the radio in Boulder. Generally catchy, listenable. "Prato" and "Acido Acida" are great songs. Most of the other songs sound pretty much the exact same, but AMAZING in small doses.

Vitalic - Poney
This EP contains the monstrous techno track of the half-decade, "La Rock 01". I seriously want to fuck shit up to that song. Seriously. I'm not even gonna lie to you. But don't discount the rest of the album! The rest of the tracks, especially "Poney Part 2" are pretty fucking awesome as well. If those tracks don't do it for you ... well then just put "La Rock 01" back on and start breaking things.

Chavez - Ride the Fader
Straight up: I'm having a hard time thinking of an album with a better set of final three songs. The rest of the album is pretty awesome, but "Flight '96", "Ever Overpsyched", and "You Must Be Stopped" knock me fucking dead every single time I listen to them. Goes from extremely effective math-rock to Beatles-esque psychadelic piano to omg the guitars turn the volume up to OMG THE BASS TURN THE VOLUME UP KEEP GOING oh god slit my wrists and let me bleed to sweet death thank you god

Most likely, I've already forced some of this music upon you. Please listen to more. Please?

I've been observing people's reactions to popular music ever since I started listening to it. It would be interesting to predict what certain people would do or how they would act when faced with listening to various genres and bands; as I was in high school, you can imagine that it was pretty easy. Guys listening to Korn would almost always start to nod their heads, and at no time would this not devolve into violent headbanging. Girls listening to Smashing Pumpkins would invariably sit there, eyes closed, feeling the music. High school was nothing if not predictable. However, almost anybody who felt anything towards music would have some sort of emotion that they took from what they listened to. Now I grew up listening to classical music, mostly of the instrumental sort. I started playing piano at six; upon entering high school, my favorite song was Brahms's second piano concerto. I was definitely not oriented towards discussing and/or listening for lyrics.

These days, the prominent genre that the kids who give a shit about their music listen to is emo. Now what exactly defines "emo" is most definitely up for debate, but it seems to me certain that what people who like it like about it are the lyrics. They sing along to the lyrics, memorize them, parallel them to their own personal lives. In fact, one might call emo "emo" because the physical reaction to the lyrics is one of emotion, or at least that's the way it works for the people who listen to it. Me, I don't get it. The last rock album I listened to whose words actually started to mean something for me was the Dismemberment Plan's "Emergency & I", released in 1999. To me, some of the most beautiful rock songs are beautiful not for their words but their music! In specific, there are four bar themes throughout certain songs that just absolutely kill me. The endings to Disco Inferno's "It's a Kid's World", New Order's "The Perfect Kiss", the Shins' "Saint Simon", and the Dismemberment Plan's "The City" actually have caused me to well up in the past. The lyrics to these songs could be horrible; I haven't even bothered to figure most of them out.

Is this something I can learn about myself? Am I that addicted to catchy four bar keyboard riffs? Am I missing something by not listening to lyrics? Has anyone ever heard any of these songs? Does this ever happen to anyone else? I sit there and listen to songs and they're awesome and then BAM one fucking theme does me in. I also get floored by passionate classical music whenever I bother to listen to it; Brahms's first piano concerto is utterly incredible every time I listen to it, which happens to be about once every 8 months.

All I can say is that there should be a genre name for songs with emotional music. Mabye "awesome".