But the badass weekend started a few days prior to last nights announcement, at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Where he not only burned most of his potential 2012 republican opponents, but also celebrated the release of his long form birth certificate with a video featuring the song “I’m a real American” and the document. Check out the full 18 minute speech (or at least the intro song), he’s legitimately funny.

You have to wonder if he was thinking about this bin laden the whole time.

Sunday night when the news hit, I was at work, so we pulled it up on one of the unused screens:

The speech was very well put together. I thought it was very good that he made it clear that this has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with bringing justice to a bad dude. but I was very conflicted. It was uncomfortable for me to see a sitting democrat president, with a Nobel peace prize, talking about actionable intelligence and giving the capture or kill order. (Of course he’s been all about firing tomahawk missiles lately.) The part of me from real America was ready to chant with everybody else, and picturing some crazy black ops dude saying something super cowboy and then popping bin laden in the head. Like I said conflicted. I just hope the folks who lost loved ones on 9/11 finally got closure, and maybe the next bin laden won’t be as effective.

I really enjoyed how the internet just exploded after the announcement. 4 chan is still blasting america fuck yeah. It was announced at wrestle-mania, (check out the guy at 1:03 in this video). Twitter and facebook went Ka-Boom. George Bush even congratulated Obama. Still, this is my favorite piece:

And given that it was 8 years to the day from Bush’s ludicrously mistimed jet ride onto a air craft carrier, I think its time to get Obama a huge Mission Accomplished Banner. I wonder what the navy guys did with the old banner? Maybe they wrapped the body in it before dumping it in the ocean.  Hopefully this few days of badassness, will help regular Americans come back around to the Obama camp, or god help us all in 2012.

I found these guys thanks to NPR’s world cafe. They’re Irish but that have more in common with LCD Soundsystem, Phoenix and !!! than any Irish band I’ve ever heard.  They’ve been in my 6-changer  non-stop for the last few weeks and the first recommendation to all of my friends.  Check out two free tracks over at NPR!

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The Strokes – Angles

If you have yet to checked out Julian Casablanca’s 2009 solo effort, Phrazes of Youth, I recommend you get on that before listening to angles.  Here’s the video for 11th dimension, from that album.:

This new Strokes album is fun.   A couple of the tracks hearken back to the sound of their classic 2001 Is This It, while the rest of the album is  a remix of the strokes we knew, and the new face of Julian Casablancas (as seen on his solo project and other random pop-songs). Here’s the first single from the album, I dig it.

LCD Soundsystem’s Last concert

Pitchfork was covering this like crazy a couple weeks back – they went so far as to even put the entire 4 hour concert (with arcade fire) on youtube.   It’s gone now, sadly.  Luckily i managed to rip it before it went into internet dust.  If you need just a little more LCD before you say goodbye , check out the photos here, and their most recent album (a  sort of a re-imagined best of)  The London Sessions.

WildCat

If you live in Houston, this is the new up and coming local band to check out.

I got a hold of their 5 track demo a few weeks back and cannot stop listening to it.

The sound is just raw enough, to really show that these guys are here for the music.  The tracks run the gamut from party rock (Ghetto Barbie), to Uncle Tupelo-esque roots rock (Most of All) ,wrapping up with a haunting rock ballad (Ghost Town). You can check them out on the internet here, and next weekend (May 1) in austin at the Red Eye Fly.

]]> http://supermackin.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/music-april/feed/ 0 supermackin WildcatHeadshot http://supermackin.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/music-round-up-week-1-feb/ http://supermackin.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/music-round-up-week-1-feb/#comments Tue, 08 Feb 2011 23:51:33 +0000 supermackin http://supermackin.wordpress.com/?p=435 ]]> The Band you have to check out:

Fitz and the Tantrums – Pickin’ Up The Pieces.

Their first single money grabber is a great soul infused throw back, mixed male and female vocals and a hip feel.  Lately they’re  getting airtime on WPGU (champaign-Urbana) and KHJK 103.7 in Houson.  The album packaging, physical cd, and the music video for money grabber all feature blue and red lighting effects on black.  Check out the video, one or two listens and you’ll be hooked:

Free Streaming Album

Adele – 21 NPR has a free first listen Here.  At 22 the girl has some amazing pipes, and wisdom beyond her years.

Best New Album in 2011

The Decemberists – The King is Dead. I always wondered what a band could do artistically after creating a fully realized concept album/Indie Rock Opera.  I figured nothing the decemberist did would ever live up to that.  Thankfully instead of an ill advised attempt to top it, they went back down to basics – shorter songs, Americana instrumentation, self contained stories, and Colin Meloy’s voice.  I was afraid they’d “gone country” with the first single, Down By the Water, but it was much deeper than the topical addition of twang.  They’re now on the front lines of the folk/Americana/indie/rock wave, with bands like Mumford and Sons, Avett Brothers, and the Monsters of Folk.  Can’t wait to see them live again!

Cool Music Video of the moment

Minus the Bear – My Time

I came across this on youtube as they’re on the same label as Fitz and Tantrums (dangerbirdrecords.com), I’ve never been a huge fan of minus the bear, but their use of color and super fast flashy cuts was a perfect fit to this song.  I love the simulated green-yellow-red of the mixer board on people arranged by height, the shoe passing is pretty sweet too.

The EP to find (if you don’t have it already)

Tokyo Police Club – A Lesson in Crime (2006)

I saw these guys at the warehouse Thursday night (The night of the “icepocalypse” in Houston)  I was actually more excited to see their opener Some One Still Loves You Boris Yeltson, who I’d never seen live before.  I really only intended to stay for about 30 minutes of TPC, because there was a free, Free Energy show across town at fitzgeralds. I was holding out for anything from Lesson in Crime, because the entire EP is amazing – driving bass, lyrics about post-apocalytal-robot-society, super high energy, I’d argue its still their best work.  Second song out of the gate was from the EP and I was like OMG I have to stay in case they play more.  Two more came when I was about to leave, and maybe it was just the super excited dudes near me, but I felt like the entire place erupted.  My friend Neph interviewed the band for The Houston Free Press, check it out here. I love that these guys aren’t to cool to mix their old stuff with their new album Champ.

Good Time Rock’n’Roll

I did make it to that FREE ENERGY show, and if you follow this blog, you know that I ran into them last summer at cactus records, and they were super chill dudes.  I still hadn’t been able to see them live, but I had a pretty clear mental picture of catchy pop hooks, and good time rock’n’roll.  Well they came through on that in spades – they all had long hair, half were mustached, everyone was having a great time, and honestly I wasn’t sure what decade we were in.  The crowd pretty thin on the well founded fears of a city without salt having freezing rain, but that just meant it was real fans and they were there to dance.  It was the most fun I’ve had at a straight ahead rock show in ages.  They even did a spot on cover of a tom petty song.  Last time I saw them we talked about tornadoes and hurricanes, this time while I was buying a bright yellow tshirt from the drummer, the subject was ice and living in the st.louis, party on dudes.  If these guys don’t explode this year, there is something wrong with America. Their Album. The Rocks Off Review.

Late to the Party

I finally listened to Kanye’s new album at SPIN’s Behest, and it is awesome, I apologize for doubting that.  Finally while writing this I have been listening to LCD Soundsystem’s This is Happening which is also freaking amazing, so there ya go a couple more to put on the pile from 2010.

Arcade fire set the bar (again) for a great indie rock album.  I haven’t been able to find the proper words to describe this album, i’ve been scratching my head for weeks.  I know I really like it, I saw them play half of it live (which was awesome), but I’m not sure how to explain that to you.  So as a huge cop out, I’m going to let it speak for itself:

Dr. Dog – Shame, Shame

In 2008 I was in love with hard working Philidelphia rock band, Dr. Dog and their album Fate –  the sound, the lyrics, the way the guys just got on stage and play their hearts out, with nothing to prove, and very little to say – perfect.  I didn’t think I could ever like another Dr. Dog album more than that one, but when they Riff into “THEY FOUND A BOD-Y IN THE RIVER-ER-ER” in the middle of Mirror, Mirror, Track 9 of Shame, Shame,  I was in love.  Once again Dr. Dog matches up alternating lead singers, three part harmonies and complex (reminiscent of the Beatles and ELO among others) musical structures with great lyrics.  Mirror, Mirror features a character without a reflection, “so tired that I can’t sleep/the secrets that my secrets keep…I don’t want to see my name in stone…I’ve got  devil after me”  which seems pretty bizarre until the second half of the song, when the tempo picks up and style gets more intense, and we realize that he’s the ghost of that body found in the river.  The singer asks “Did someone give you bad directions, were you in the wrong place at the wrong time?”  In the end the victim of the song accepts his fate and says “leave my worries to the water, and leave my body to the land”

Black Keys – Brothers

The main thing that differentiates it from previous black keys albums, is that this one has SOUL.  I was a relative new comer to this band, I’d heard strange days and thought it was a fun blues-rock song, but I don’t think I ever realized the band had the potential that they came through on.  My first introduction to this album was the not-a-music-video videos that featured tighten up and a few other tracks with a dancing puppet (frank the dinosaur) and humourous scrolling text , When I finally got a hold of the album, not only were the songs catchy, but there was not a bad track on the entire thing.

The tracks, Let Me Be Your Everlasting Light, My Next Girl, Howlin for You, She’s Long Gone, The Only One, Too Afraid to Love You, and I’m Not the One set the frame work, nearly through titles alone, for this twisting romantic/anti-romantic epic.  The rest of the album is filled out with instrumental – Black Mud, and a handful of story based, and really catchy tracks – Ten Cent Pistol, Sinister Kid, and The Go Getter – featuring payback from a jealous girl, the boy with a broken halo, and a depressed womanizer in L.A..  The album is rounded out with the titular track, Unknown brother, a bittersweet ode to “My baby’s mothers pain” an older brother lost before the singer was born.  The album wraps up with the most soulful track a cover of Jerry butler’s 1968 Never Give you up (not to be mixed up with anything by rick astley thanks google)  and These days, a song  about a broken down, Introspective man with“ blood red eyes , Wasted times and broken dreams”

On previous new pornographers albums, I’ve enjoyed a track or two (notably Sing Me Spanish Techno on Twin Cinema and My rights versus yours on Challengers) but  never appreciated the entire album.  This changed with Together, which started strong with Moves, Kicked it up a notch with, my favorite track, Crash Years, and kept it there with Your  Hands (Together) and then relaxed into the rest of the album.  Later in the album, I really liked, Up in the Dark, (whats love, whats love, but what turns up in the dark?) This album spent a lot of time in my 6-changer and i was always happy to hear the first few notes of moves.

Free energy – Stuck on Nothing.

So I admit that I’m pretty biased on this band, back in the summer, I was spending a Saturday afternoon at cactus records in Houston.  There was super-poppy rock playing in the background and I had just missed some random band doing an in-store show.  The band was hanging out by the used records talking to the record store dude about tornadoes and hurricanes.  Super chill friendly guys, turned out they were from philly on tour, about to open for mates of state.  I asked them if they knew dr.dog and they were like yeah philly, and the guy from cactus records talked about dr.dog’s instore show the night before hurricane ike hit back in ‘08. 

So that poppy rock, and the guys hanging out by the records, were Free energy.  I picked up their album, and its pretty straight ahead rock, with catchy lyrics, a solid beat, fun guitar lines, random bongos, occasional strings, back-up vocals, an upbeat feel and pretty high production value.  The absolute poppiest track (3) is high energy Bang Pop, which is  very lyrically percussive.  The lyrics that randomly float into my head the most often: last ditch effort to communicate/if you hear my voice then it might not be too late/if you feel my heart, then we’re tied by fate… from Bad Stuff (track 5)  which is their most epic and emotional of  tracks The album slows down with this track setting up the second half  for some fun synth infused, classic rock structured tracks.  The remind me a lot of the now defunct Probably Vampires, and a mixture of early Ok Go with classic/prog rock and a dash of dr.dog.

Broken Bells – Broken Bells

Or as I call it Shins 2.0 featuring the voice of Shins front man James Mercer with the production values of DJ Danger Mouse.  And, if you build a Pandora station with any of their tracks, it basically plays my music library.  Although the tracks share a number of sonic qualities, the ‘8-bit’ effects really make the first track (and single) High Road stand out on first listen.  The acoustic moments with mercer are easily confused with those of previous shins albums, but the influence of Danger Mouse becomes very apparent in the more musically dense sections, when you can count as many as 8 independent layers (I’m sure there’s more with drum tracks and hand claps).  Occasionally hints of the sounds from Danger Mouse’s work on Gnarles Barkley and the gorillaz sneak in as well.  There’s also a fun moment towards the end of Mongrel Heart (track 9) featuring a trumpet right out of a Sergio leone movie.  As a confluence of music I like, it’s a great album, but I am more then a little concerned that we either won’t ever see another shins album from mercer, or even worse shins fans will expect Danger Mouse level of production on future albums, and be disappointed.  This was an important album on 2010, the single even made it onto FM radio in Houston, but it was not my number 1.

Mumford and sons – sigh no more.

They arrived and they were folk, but not American.  Little Lion Man lit up the indie charts, and kept its f-bombs right where they should be.    The argument can be made that american folk has a distant british ancestor, but this most recent evolution (with bands like the avett brothers and magnetic zeroes) is very american. Mumfords sound wasn’t original (Appalachia had it down 80 years ago), but they like the 60s british rockers before them, they took something  american and polished it.  This was an album that I lived with for a couple months, I love the thick harmonies, and various instruments.  They do a great job with dynamics, its not always one level of volume, and the tone varies just enough.   What really knocks this album out of the park is the heartfelt lyrics about god, and life, and love.

Next post: my top 3 albums for 2010 (finally).

Ida Maria – Fortress around my heart

poppy Norweigen chick rock

Metric – fantsy

80′s synth driven indie rock

Julian Casablancas – Phrazes for the Young

Strokes singer rocks on solo

Passion pit – Manners

2009′s most fun electronic rock

Andrew Bird – Noble beast

whistle fueled baroque rock

Decemberists – Hazards of love

The indie rock opera

Monsters of folk – self-titled

folk supergroup, formerly emo’ed

Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

french indie-electro-pop finally accepted in USA

Friendly fires – self titled

energetic anglo-dance punk

If you haven’t heard these albums, go find them right now.  They’re definitely worth your time.

This was just a quick interlude in the series; next time on the blog – Full reviews of the runners up to best album of 2010!

Expected dissapointment:

Weezer – Hurley. It has been cool to be down on weezer for at least a decade now.  Depending on how cool you were you stopped being a fan early when the band lost matt sharp (post pinkerton) or later after the dismal maladroit (even a muppets music video couldn’t save that album).  I hung on long enough to find a few good tracks on make believe (neither of the singles, mind you), but red was terrible, rattitude wasn’t even on my radar, and the only remotely cool piece of this new album was hurley from lost on the cover.  WHY WON’T THIS BAND DIE?

This would have been a better idea.

Slight disappointments:

Of Montreal – False Priest. I really wanted to like this album, just like I really wanted to like the previous album, skeletal Lamping, but none of them have a leg to stand on compared to 2007’s hissing Fauna Are You the Destroyer, which I now have on vinyl. (thanks Megan)  I wasn’t expecting the new album to blow me away, I think Kevin Barnes and I are on different wavelengths in the years since hissing fauna, still their live shows are amazing, and I’m really sad I missed them when they came to numbers back in November (SIlly space station).

Jakob Dylan – woman and country. I really enjoyed Walflowers bringing down the horse and had heard good things about the other albums, and his first solo album, but I haven’t heard any of them.  There really was nothing remarkable about this album, none of the songs were catchy, and the sonic qualities were absolutely undiverse.

Ok Go – Of the blue colour of the sky. I initially had this on huge disappointments, because it was too ambient, and boring compared to their last two high energy, catchy albums. but the videos they released were so awesome that I can’t kick them too much.

HUGE disappointments:

Gorillaz – Plastic beach, nothing stuck out on this album, absolutely nothing.  I think I listened to it twice and completely lost interest.  I thought the gorillaz were on a pretty good trajectory before this album, a couple hits on their first album, a killer sophomoric effort with Demon Days, and some great live performances, but alas for me at least this was a nose-dive and a waste of 12 bucks.

MGMT – Congratulations: I wasn’t intending on giving a worst album of year award for 2010 (I never have in previous years)  This album forced my hand.  During this cd’s tenure in my 6 changer, I consistently listened to about a minute of the first track and then swaped cds, at one point I wasn’t paying attention and I found myself a few tracks in, which upset me so much, that I ejected the cd and threw it across my car.  MGMT attempted a new vaguely surfer rock direction on this album, which not only bears nothing in common with their very successful previous album, but brings nothing exciting or fun or enjoyable to replace it.  The entire album is a drag, not one redeeming aspect.  Incidentally MGMT was the worst band I saw live this year.  The singer absolutely does not have the voice we all heard on oracular spectacular, he doesn’t have the range or the tonality, that was all manufactured in post production.  EPIC disappointment all around.

Sorry for all the negativity, this should help make up for it: First Listen: The Decemberists, ‘The King Is Dead’

Stay tuned for thorough reviews of my favorite (and potentially the best) albums of 2010.  The sooner I can get them posted, the sooner I can actually read SPIN’s best of 2010 which is currently under a necessary quarantine in my living room.

Spoon’s Transference was initially challenging for me. Their previous album, 2007’s Ga Ga Ga Ga got a lot of airtime at regular Carl N house parties in my last year of college and became one of my favorite albums (so many glorious dance parties).  But, Transference grew on me, especially with tracks like Mystery zone, written in reverse (somebody better call a hearse!), trouble come running, and Nobody gets me but you (especially the bass part).  For the most part, the lyrics didn’t stick with me, but they still have a pretty cool sound, more like their previous album than any of the others. I finally got to see spoon this year, and the tracks from this album and Ga Ga Ga Ga were great in the sun at lollapalooza.

This time around Vampire weekend found an entire new set of sounds to play with, coming together in their sophomoric effort, Contra.  The released the single cousins in ’09, which was high energy with fast rhythm guitar and auxiliary percussion.  On the album they use space very well, the tracks aren’t that dense, but variable enough that it keeps your interest; they even use autot-une effectively on one track.  Tracks that I really liked were Horchata, Holiday (even now that its being ruined by Honda), California English, Giving Up the Gun (great music video) and the enigmatic track bouncing around my head most often – Diplomat’s Son.  (To offer it to you would be cruel/when all I want to do is use, use you/He was a diplomat’s son/it was eighty-one) The album wraps up with the titular track, Are you a contra?  Although its not as sonically cohesive a their first album, the cool thing this time around is  that even though every track sounds very different, you always can tell its vampire weekend, and its still plenty of fun.

10 months later, they’re not quite as fresh in my mind, but if my best of 2010 was written in march ,these albums would have been at the top of the list.

This post was a just teaser for the rest of the series: Tune in next time for Part 2, Lowered expectations – albums from bands I liked that were awful in 2010.

He argues that the top 1% of americans are making 23% of the income in this country, which is more than the entire bottom 50% of income earners combined.  This has been steadily rising since the 1970s when it was only 8%.  This disproportionate division of wealth is crushing the middle class and the federal government is faced with huge deficits (mostly from the wars that coincided with the bush tax cuts – how do you fight a war and decrease taxes simultaneously?)  So why would we ever as a people choose to give the top 1% (the millionaires who can pay taxes) a free pass on billions in potential revenue?

Sanders facts were checked here.

Call your senator, Call your congressman.  Tell them that they answer to you, their constituent and not the millionaires and/or corporations who bankrolled their regular and/or smear campaigns.  If they actually want to do something about the deficit, this is the place to start.

The second less exciting path is what actually happened – the shuttle launch slipped 4 days and I got stuck working an overnight shift by myself and helping with the mound of replanning that happens when the timeline shifts 24 minutes for every day that the shuttle stays on the ground. It was actually an ok spot to be in, either way I had to sleep shift. The downside is if the shuttle doesn’t get off before Saturday afternoon, I am stuck working 13 hour overnight shifts (one of which is actually 14 hours because of daylight savings time) and I won’t be able to be at a good friends going away BBQ (leaving Houston forever) and another friends performance, which she has been prepping for for months. But I knew what I signed up for when I came down here.

Now its Friday morning and the shuttle is being fueled up. There are still worries about gusty winds today, but I’m crossing my fingers for a safe launch at 3:04 eastern. My weekend depends on it, but that’s really nothing compared to the safety of the 6 crew members on the shuttle. I learned some scary stuff this week about the risk they’re taking – if any of the main engines go offline in the first 3 minutes (before the solid rocket boosters separate) there’s really nothing that can be done to rescue the vehicle, the crew may be able to bail out in the Atlantic, but their survival is in question. The good news is there’s a lot of redundancy built into that system, and we’ve had 132 missions and we’ve never lost a main engine that early. One of the reasons for delay this week was an anomaly in the backup computer for one of those engines, so they took the time they needed to sort it out. After that initial black out zone, there are a number of abort options, they can turn around and head back to florida, go up the eastern sea board, or if they have enough energy, go transatlantic and land in spain (take that Charles Linbergh)

I’m going to get some rest now, hopefully I’ll wake up at 2pm to a live feed of the shuttle launch, If you want to see it too, just pull up www.spacefightnow.com , the website that knows things about Nasa before I do (and I work here).

Addendum: after i wrote this the shuttle launch was scrubbed until Nov 30!