Hiatus

My external hard-drive is broken, so I have no access to music.

Which means I can't listen to it.

Which means I can't write about it (not that I've done much writing, lately).

Epic. Fail.

The Academy Is... / The Academy EP

1. The Proverbial Unrest
2. The Author
3. Judas Kiss
4. In Our Defense
5. Dear Interceptor
6. Absolution

Still lazy :)

The Academy Is... / From The Carpet EP

1. Pour Yourself a Drink (Basement Demo)
   
2. The Fever
   
3. The Phrase that Pays (Nashville Version)
   
4. Working Class Hero
   
5. Down and Out [Piano Rendition]
   
6. Black Mamba (Three In The Morning Party Mix)
   

No write-up. Lazy.

Soundtrack / Sin City

Soundtrack. Again. Lol.

Soundtrack / The Phantom of the Opera

Again with the soundtrack.

Saw the stage play, then listened to the film soundtrack. Film sucks in comparison to the real thing. srsly.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't watch it anyway.

Soundtrack / Hairspray

I'm not going to write about soundtracks that require you to have seen the film/played the game, because most of the music is dependant on that happening.

So, I watched Hairspray. Listened to the soundtrack. And now posting telling you about it.

This is all you're gonna get, folks.

Okay, maybe not.

Hairspray is an awesome movie, really colourful and stuff. The songs are fun and the lyrics amusing at times, at times full of off-beat humour.

Pretty much go see the film.

(and love it.)

The Shins / Oh, Inverted World

1. Caring Is Creepy
   
2. One by One All Day
   
3. Weird Divide
   
4. Know Your Onion!
   
5. Girl Inform Me
   
6. New Slang
   
7. The Celibate Life
   
8. Girl on the Wing
   
9. Your Algebra
   
10. Pressed in a Book
    
11. The Past and Pending
    

Another band I should have listened to earlier before. Another reason why I'm doing this album a day thing.

Caring Is Creepy sounds alright. Not awesome though. Just nice.

Weird Divide is another 'just nice' one.

Know Your Onion!, again, nice.

New Slang is probably one of the better tracks (along with Caring Is Creepy). Not too surprising though, considering both have got around.

Pressed in a Book could maybe be one of the better tracks. It's hard to tell, they're all just kind of meh. Bleh.

As if you didn't see this coming, the album's nice. There's really nothing too special. I think they need to be listened, they just may not be your thing. But for the people who like them, it's nothing to be ashamed of.

I'm actually surprised. I was expecting to be surprised, but because I was expecting The Shins to be like Sufjan - never listen to them, and for them to turn out to be kind of good. Instead I'm surprised that they're really... not.

I went for those album over their others because I knew Caring Is Creepy and New Slang and thought they were alright. I'm hoping that their other stuff will be more exciting.

Based on this album, they're good, just not awesome - and that makes me sad.

Favourite track is probably Caring Is Creepy (and that's probably a bit too predictable).

lose yourself in lines dissecting love.

Sufjan Stevens / Illinois

1. Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
   
2. The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!'
   
3. Come On! Feel the Illinoise!
   
   1. The World's Columbian Exposition
   2. Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream
4. John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
   
5. Jacksonville
   
6. A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, but for Very Good Reasons
   
7. Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Step Mother!
   
8. One Last 'Whoo-Hoo!' for the Pullman
   
9. Chicago
   
10. Casimir Pulaski Day
    
11. To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region, I Have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament
    
12. The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
    
13. Prairie Fire That Wanders About
    
14. A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze
    
15. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
    
16. They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!
    
17. Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don't Think They Heard It All the Way Out in Bushnell
    
18. In This Temple as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth
    
19. The Seer's Tower
    
20. The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders
    
    1. The Great Frontier"
    2. Come to Me Only with Playthings Now
21. Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, and the King of Swing, to Name a Few
    
22. Out of Egypt, into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt from My Sandals as I Run

My god, the song titles! Are they not epic?

Okay, so a lot of people I respect really like this Sufjan guy, and I've never really listened to him properly... so now I am.

So, I'll just be saying "Track 1", "Track 2", etc., mmkay? Because fuck you if you think I'm writing the whole title out.

Track 1 is definitely a nice start.

Track 3 has some funky piano for the whole five seconds before it sounds like it's being played by a mariachi band or something. The singing is cool though, the beat of it.

Track 4 is surprisingly morbid... and if it weren't for the lyrics, it might even be a nice song.

Mmm. Like the tune of Track 9.

Track 12 is pretty funky. And a tad bit boppy, too.

... Track 13 makes me think of merry-go-round music. It's kinda cool.

Ooh, I like Track 16. The strings and (again) choir-y sound (I'm a sucker for many people singing one thing) plus the stilted way in which the words are sung in that section.

Track 20's another cool one, with the beat. And choir-ness. And clapping. (I also heart clapping in a major way) I looked at the length of this one, and thought "oh god, over seven minutes", but it's actually been a very fun seven minutes.

Eh, Track 22 kind of seems like an unfulling end, for me. I wanted to go out with a bang.

Overall this is a pretty cruise-y album. I'm surprised by how good it is (and how much I like it). That said, I probably wouldn't listen to it over and over, 'cause it's a bit too cruise-y. It has its fun moments, and those are the tracks that I'm likely to listen to again, but as a whole, it's not really good. Just good.

Chicago is cool, the tune and choir... same with Zombies and Tallest Man, but favourite track would have to be John Wayne Gacy, Jr., for the sheer "wtf" factor. (It's still a decent song if you ignore the lines about corpses beneath the floorboards.)

instrumental

The Academy Is... / Santi

1. Same Blood
   
2. LAX to O'Hare
3. We've Got a Big Mess on Our Hands
4. Sleeping With Giants (Lifetime)
5. Everything We Had
   
6. Bulls in Brooklyn
   
7. Neighbors
   
8. Seed
   
9. Chop Chop
   
10. You Might Have Noticed
    
11. Unexpected Places
    

So I've been just a little bit in love with Everything We Had for the past couple of days, and then today I got LAX stuck in my head, so here we are.

I think this is a better album than Almost Here, but I don't think I like it much.

Same Blood's good, but there are better tracks.

Like LAX, which I think is about them losing all the lyrics to the songs for this album a week or something before they were meant to record, on a plane ride. Epic phail.

Ah, the 'aaah's in Big Mess are so cool. And wavery. And just kinda fun. Same goes for the 'ooohs'. Lol.

The chorus of Sleeping With Giants is ... also cool. I need more adjectives. Anyway, it's just... really good.

Everything We Had is a very good song. Like, very good. It builds so well, and is a different sound to most of the other tracks.

Bulls in Brooklyn is another song with a cool chorus. S'got a good a beat.

I think Neighbours is just a good song. Full stop. I totally just made it my profile song on MySpace. Again, lol.

Guitar in Seed is funky. Simple, but effective.

Chop Chop sounds cool, but the end is disappointing.

Start of You Might Have Noticed sounds way too much like a song by Killing Heidi. Just doesn't really seem to suit the band, even though I suppose its a decent song otherwise.

Unexpected places is a bit bland too (what a way to end the album!)

Favourite track: Definitely Everything We Had; even though there are a lot of other tracks that are close, it just... has to be here.

is this the way to carry on...?

hellogoodbye / hellogoodbye

1. Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn (Take It Back To Square One)
2. Call N' Return (Say That You're Into Me)
   
3. Bonnie Taylor Shakedown 2K1
   
4. Jesse Buy Nothing... Go to Prom Anyways
   
5. Dear Jamie... Sincerely Me
   
6. Bonnie Taylor Shakedown 2K4

Short one today, because I'm tired as fuck. Yay for EPs.

(btw, fear my lazy typing)

So other than the whole laziness thing, the intro Shimmy Shimmy is stuck in my head.

This album is pretty much the same as their LP, in terms of sound and lyrics and whatever else is in songs. Maybe a bit more electronic?

So the tune to Shimmy Shimmy is awesome. Same with Call N' Return.

I think the better tracks on this album are better than those on the LP. ... but they're stuck on the EP so they kinda fail.

... Bonnie Taylor Shakedown is kinda awesome too. Oh god.

Think 2K1 is better than 2K4, though. 2K4 sounds too shiny (in the non-Firefly-synonym-for-'cool' way).

Jesse Buy Nothings fails. It makes me sad. Srsly, wtf?

Dear Jamie is sweet I guess, but ultimately kinda meh.

Eh, can't think. I'll go with track one for being good and stuff.

... sleepz.

i wonder why she can't lie close to me...

Justice / †

1. Genesis
   
2. Let There Be Light
3. D.A.N.C.E.
   
4. Newjack
5. Phantom
6. Phantom Pt. II
7. Valentine
8. Tthhee Ppaarrttyy
9. DVNO
   
10. Stress
11. Waters of Nazareth
    
12. One Minute to Midnight

I really only have this album because of D.A.N.C.E..

It's not a bad sounding album, I just think it's more appropriate for a club (hence it being dance music) than the background music for a blog entry.

D.A.N.C.E. is amazing. The video clip, too. Check it out. Stop reading, and do it right now.

Welcome back. Wasn't that fun?

Okay, so maybe it's not super special awesome, but it's definitely cool. And it's about Michael Jackson. Much lol.

Don't mind Newjack. It's kind of funky.

Phantom Pt. II isn't bad either (even though I didn't really take to Phantom).

Tthhee Ppaarrttyy is kinda neat too. And while the title is cool, it's a bitch to type.

DVNO is fun to listen to, also.

Favourite track: D.A.N.C.E.. All the way.

The Academy Is... / Almost Here

1. Attention
2. Season
3. Slow Down
4. The Phrase that Pays
5. Black Mamba
6. Skeptics and True Believers
7. Classifieds
8. Checkmarks
9. Down and Out
10. Almost Here

So the main reason I got this was because The Academy Is... is signed to Decaydance (Panic!'s label). Fortunately, most of the bands on Decaydance are actually good, so I haven't made a mistake getting their stuff purely based on my obsession with Panic!.

William Beckett is the lead singer, and his voice is kinda unusual, it waves, at times, I suppose you could say. I wouldn't say it's a traditional "rock" voice, but neither is say, Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump(h)'s.

I don't think this is a great album, the songs just aren't that fantastic, but they're catchy and not offensive to the ear, and I'm kind of a victim to getting a lot of the lines from the album stuck in my head. I was obsessed with it for quite a while.

I don't think there are really any stand out tracks either, and that kinda supports the idea that it's an average album, but that's not the impression I want to give. It's a very good album, just not very... impressive. If that makes sense. It's definitely worth a listen, in any case.

The video clip for The Phrase that Pays stars Brittany Snow.

This seems like a kind of lacklustre entry for a whole album, but I think I summarised most of it in everything written above.

Favourite track: The Phrase that Pays drew me in, and I've liked almost every track at one point in time since then. After much deliberation, I'd probably say that my favourite track is... maybe Down and Out? It's a tough call, I honestly like most of the album. Just, listen to the whole darn thing.

our time is almost here...

Various Artists / Music from the OC: Mix 6

1. Float On - Goldspot
2. I Turn My Camera - Rock Kills Kid
3. Pretty Vacant - Lady Sovereign
4. California - Mates of State
5. Wasted - Pinback
6. Can't Get It out of My Head - John Paul White
7. Debaser - Rogue Wave
   
8. Hello Sunshine - Syd Matters
9. Smile Like You Mean It - Tally Hall
10. Come Into Our Room - The M's
11. The End's Not Near - Band of Horses
12. Into Dust - Ashtar Command

OK, yeah, maybe The OC isn't (or rather, wasn't) for everyone, but the music seems intended for a different audience to the show. This album is proof of that.

The subtitle of the album is "Covering Our Tracks", because all the songs are covered by indie artists (at times indier than those who sang the song originally). Yay puns!

I feel like such a teenager, sitting in my room listening to this album. Obviously I am a teenager, but it's got a very "I hate my life" vibe to it.

The sticker on the front of the case has a quote by the creator Josh Schwartz stating that "these a the happiest versions of some of angstiest songs ever written". He's talking bullshit. There are some happy songs (that sounds like such an awkward adjective to be using), but some are quite laid-back.

Pretty Vacant would be one of the happier songs, just 'cause it's kinda fun. Lady Sovereign's accent is quite cool, with the whole dropping letters thing (eg. 'pre'y').

The next track, California (the show's title song for those of you who may not know), is one of the calmer songs, especially when compared to the original.

Hello Sunshine has significance just because it was played the first time Seth saw Summer's breasts. ... and the second time. (the song's not bad either - again, chilled out)

Not to give too much away, but Smile Like You Mean It is very good. I don't think there's as much emotion in this song as The Killers' version, but its harmonies are well done. It has moments where it's sounds more pop-y, at other times it has a grander sound (like when the chimes kick in).

The Ends Not Here is, I can only assume, where the series finale took its name from. Interestingly enough, it's not the last track (instead it's Into Dust, which, from memory, is the final song played in the series). And again, we have another song to chill out to.

Favourite track? While sometimes I get a hankering to listen to Pretty Vacant or The End's Not Near, I'd say the best song of the album is Smile Like You Mean It. I would think it's the most well-known song, and Tally Hall do something quite different with it - and it works.

into dust...

The Dresden Dolls / Yes, Virginia

1. Sex Changes
   
2. Backstabber
3. Modern Moonlight
4. My Alcoholic Friends
5. Delilah
   
6. Dirty Business
   
7. First Orgasm
8. Mrs. O.
9. Shores of California
   
10. Necessary Evil
    
11. Mandy Goes to Med School
    
12. Me & the Minibar
    
13. Sing

In following with the whole bands/artists-I've-seen-live theme, I give you The Dresden Dolls. Yes, I only saw Amanda Palmer, so no Brian, but she sang some of their songs, so it totally counts.

This is a fun album, the music anyway, the lyrics are a tad bit darker - still quite enjoyable at times, though. Until recently it was my obsession (ie. playing it over and over again), but I'm kind of sick of it... as happens with most albums I play over and over.

Backstabber has an awesome video clip, and I implore you to watch it.

I love how Amanda's voice kind breaks when she sings "Oh God, Delilah, why?" in Delilah. It's very emotive. I pretty much love the whole song for that reason (that it's emotive, not that one line).

Me & the Minibar doesn't do much for me, even though it's really not that bad a song.

Sing is textbook inspirational.

Let me take you through a little journey of favourite songs. Backstabber to Sing to Shores of California to Dirty Business to Mrs. O. to Delilah. That's as far as I've got so far. So pretty much
this album has a lot of good tracks.

you motherfuckers, you sing something

hellogoodbye / Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!

1. All Of Your Love
2. Here (In Your Arms)
3. All Time Lows
4. Stuck to You
5. Homewrecker
6. Oh, It Is Love
7. Baby, It's Fact
8. Figures A and B (Means You and Me)
9. I Saw It on Your Keyboard
10. Touchdown Turnaround (Don't Give Up on Me)
11. Two Weeks in Hawaii

Okay, so continuing the theme of bands I've seen in concert, here's hellogoodbye. I got their album based on the title alone. Thankfully the music's decent too.

The album's kind of electro-rock? I dunno, genres kind of fail. Anyway, it's a cool sound, and the lyrics to the songs are pretty much all romantic. The videos have a great sense of humour, the band as a whole, really. But the shining star is the singer/lyricist, Forrest Kline. He impressed me at the concert, but his MySpace bulletins are what makes him so hilarious.

I dunno, there's really not much more I can say about the album. It's just kinda sweet. And at times, heatbreaking (more on that later?).

Oh, their DVD also has a somewhat wacky title: OMG HGB DVD ROTFL.

So pretty much Forrest is ridiculously geeky. I mean, he has thick-rimmed glasses. And wears... sweater vests? Seems like the most appropriate name for them. I'm not exactly up with the lingo. And the dancing, oh the dancing. It's ... seizure-rific. Is that not PC?

The chorus of Homewrecker reminds me of a tampon ad.

Oh, It Is Love has a ukulele.

I like to hum to this album.

Two Weeks in Hawaii breaks me heart (finally got back to it). I dunno, I don't think it's sad persé, maybe it's just me. Yes, I think that's it.

Favourite track's probably Two Weeks in Hawaii. It's the only one that I really sing along to.

and my heart stops every time...

Panic at the Disco / A Fever You Can't Sweat Out

1. Introduction
   
2. The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage
3. London Beckoned Songs About Money Written by Machines
4. Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks
5. Camisado
6. Time to Dance
7. Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off
8. Intermission
9. But It's Better If You Do
   
10. I Write Sins Not Tragedies
    
11. I Constantly Thank God for Esteban
    
12. There's a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought of It Yet
    
13. Build God, Then We'll Talk
    

When asked the question of favourite album, this would be my answer.

I haven't listened to it in ages, just because I guess I got bored of it, hearing it over and over again. Listening to it now, it's nice.

The tunes are catchy, though the lyrics are, at times, hard to understand (and at other times repetitive).

I like how the album is in two halves. It is here where I use the term "retro-electro". First half is dance, second half is... I don't even know what. Something with accordions. The intermision pretty much sums up the album, beginning with techno beats before switching to "piano instrument".

The titles are, though maybe unnecessarily, long, and part of the fun of Panic!. Especially when they become acronyms. For example, TAGRTTANHYJHTOIY.

Also, Chuck Palahniuk is referenced in a big way. See: Time to Dance, Invisible Monsters put to music.

Their video clips are really cool too (eg. Build God Then We'll Talk's pornomime). Unfortunately there's no semi-official YouTube account, so no videos I'm comfortable posting here. They're not hard to find at all, if you're willing to look.

To be honest ("and really, at this point, why not?"), I Constantly Thank God For Esteban doesn't do much for me.

The tour that followed this album was also quite shiny, "Nothing Rhymes With Circus", and another reason I love Panic!: the theatrics. Also evident in their collector's box (nominated for a Grammy, don't you know?).

As for favourite track, I'm tied between Intermission for its fusion of genres, Time to Dance for is Chuck-ness, and TAGRTTANHYJHTOIY (lol) for its title (though the song is fun too). And Build God for pornomime. Okay, so pretty much the whole album fucking rocks and it's hard to pick favourites.

and a few more of your least favourite things...