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This week has been full of awesome stuff in the music world…awesome for me at least, and it’s my blog so I say what is and isn’t awesome.

Green Day Reissues Entire Catalog on Vinyl

From Spin:

Attention LP aficionados and Green Day die-hards: While the world awaits their eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, due out in May, Billie Joe Armstrong and the boys have announced a campaign to reissue their entire catalog on vinyl over the remainder of 2009!
Green Day Catalog Vinyl Release Schedule:
March 24: 39/Smooth (1990), Kerplunk (1992)
April 18: Dookie (1994)
May 12: Insomniac (1995)
June 16: Nimrod (1997)
July 14: Warning (2000)
August 11: International Superhits! (2001)
September 15: Shenanigans (2002)
October 13: American Idiot (2004)
November 10: Bullet in a Bible (2005)

Mark Hoppus Loves Metric

Mark has been tweeting away about this band Metric. So I checked them out and LOVE them. What I find even more awesome is that this band got the best publicity: word of mouth. AND that mouth was Mark Hoppus, so that’s HUUUUUGE for them. I checked out Metric’s website and they have a new album coming out. Even better than being a really cool band, they are smart. They have a bazillion options for one choose from when purchasing their new album Fantasies. Best deal being the “Fantasies Limited Deluxe Edition”:

# Limited to 500 sales
# Personally signed autographs from all band members
# Set of 6 (4×6″) high-quality postcards featuring “Hollywood in Cambodia” imagery and personal messages from band members (comes as one 12×12″ print that can be poster-ized or cut as individual postcards)
# High quality 12×12″ collage print of band photos taken throughout the creation of Fantasies (from inspiration to live shows)
# Bonus, new studio track, “Waves”, not available in any other package
# 7 inch “Help I’m Alive” vinyl, including the exclusive “Help I’m A B-Side” B-side, and a Metric logo sticker
# Metric VIP Fan Pass – a limited edition laminate that brings you early and sometimes exclusive access to unique offers from the band
# Deluxe, hardcover digipack CD, exclusively available at ilovemetric.com and live performances
# 180g, 12 inch, gatefold album vinyl and 12×12″ print featuring “Hollywood in Cambodia” artwork
# Full-color album artwork booklet and liner notes
# Immediate download of “Waves”, a brand new studio track not available in any other package, “Help I’m Alive” (album version), and 2 other exclusive pre-order tracks.

This band will last forever (or as long as they wish).

Jack White of White Stripes, The Raconteurs. and now The Dead Weather

From Rolling Stone:

White Stripes and Raconteurs frontman Jack White unveiled his two latest projects Wednesday night in his hometown of Nashville: A new downtown office for Third Man Records, the imprint that’s offered his White Stripes and Raconteurs releases, and a new band called the Dead Weather. The new White-designed space for the vinyl-focused Third Man, just down the way from Nashville’s strip of trademark honky-tonks, will house the label office, a vinyl record store, a photo studio/dark room and a rehearsal/performance space. The new band takes White from the front of the stage back behind the drum kit, while the Kills’ Alison Mosshart mostly handles singing duties. The two are joined by White’s fellow Raconteur Jack Lawrence on bass and former touring Raconteur/Queen of the Stone Age Dean Fertita on guitar.

So THIS is fucking fantastic news! I love Jack White, and who SHOULDN’T love this man. Not only is this awesome, but he is on the drums this time. So we get to hear a fresh side to Jack White. I saw a comment somewhere that said “Jack White is carrying Rock n’ Roll on his back”. Couldn’t have said it better. I went to their website and listened to a couple of their songs. I suggest you go and listen…now.

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There ya go. I don’t usually want to report the news on this blog, but this is not JUST news. There is no excuse now for this summer NOT to rock.

Gene Simmons has managed to annoy me again, and I don’t even pay attention to the guy. Bob Lefsetz wrote a great article about Simmons’ speech at CMW(Canadian Music Week). You can read that full article here.

Then Simmons proceeded to respond, and sounded like a 12 year old who comments on websites in all capitals and never make any point. Other than calling you lots of stupid names and insulting you because they aren’t smart enough to have a valid response. You can read Simmons’ full response here.

The way Simmons proceeded to respond was by quoting Bob and then writing his own response. Here are some excerpts. (And in case you can’t tell, Simmons is the one typing in all caps because I guess it makes him look really really loud…or something.)

“Gene showed a five minute promotional film that was such an assault, the guy in front of me put his hands over his ears.”

I THINK YOU MISUNDERSTOOD. THAT WAS YOUR GIRLFRIEND. AND YOU WERE TALKING TOO LOUD. SHE WANTED TO SEE AND HEAR GENE SIMMONS. NOT YOU.

He does comedy now.

Here’s another nugget of genius from this man:

“Although Gene paid lip service to the Internet, it was like he wanted to jet back to the seventies, when the label was king, when record companies were flush with cash that they’d blow on a bunch of new acts.”

THAT’S TRUE. I WANT RECORD COMPANIES TO BECOME POWERFUL AND FLUSH WITH MONEY AGAIN. I WANT BANDS TO REALIZE THAT ANY ENTITY THAT GIVES THEM MONEY (ADVANCES) AND NEVER FORCES THEM TO PAY THE RECORD COMPANY BACK, WHEN AND IF THEIR RECORD BOMBS (AND THEY ALMOST ALWAYS DO), IS THEIR BEST FRIEND. I KNOW OF NO OTHER BUSINESS THAT GIVES YOU MONEY AND NEVER ASKS FOR IT BACK. EVEN YOUR MOM WILL WANT YOU TO PAY BACK HER LOAN.

Now I don’t know any better. In fact I know much less than Simmons about this business, but I do have interest in making it in this business. What I won’t do is keep wishing for record companies to rip people off again so I can spend all their money and not give something in return, or at the very least pay it back. It doesn’t seem too…ethical.

“I only went because the last couple of times Gene’s spoken he has said some truly heinous things, blasting the audience, that he told us today to respect, for stealing his music. I figured he’d come out with a few clunkers that would crack you up.

But all I got was a damn advertisement.”

THAT’S CORRECT.
I AM ADVERTISING SIMMONS RECORDS. THAT’S WHY I’M UP HERE TALKING ABOUT IT. THIS GUY IS A GENIUS.
AND I STILL CONSIDER FREE DOWNLOADS AND FILE SHARING STEALING. AND I WANT YOU TO PAY FOR MUSIC…AND FOR ANYTHING. IF A BAND WANTS TO GIVE AWAY THEIR STUFF FOR FREE…I HAVE NO PROBLEM. MY ONLY QUESTION IS, HOW DOES THE RECORD COMPANY, WHICH PAID GOOD MONEY UP FRONT, GET ITS MONEY BACK, IF THE MUSIC IS FREE”?

Fuck the Record Company? If they were smart, then they wouldn’t be hiring people they think are the “new Britney” or “new Jonas Brothers”. If they were smart, then they wouldn’t throw truckloads of cash into a bunch of nobodies, and say “Well boys, we’ve got ourselves the next hit sensation.” They would hire a band which has proven themselves to a point where they have a steady fan base and can hold their own. Then, the label throws in some money, the band throws in some money, and they both have equal investments in the new album.

There’s nobody at the record company saying “Well SHEEE-IT, we fucked that one up right? Well let’s get Hannah Montana back in here to pump out another record so we can recover. Oh how’s that proposal for the music industry bail-out coming?”

Instead you have the label and the band working together. Both will fail, or succeed, together.

“It’s like going to a training session for Kirby vacuum salesmen. It’s always interesting to hear how another person made it, but if you want to be successful in the future, you’re better off ignoring everything Gene Simmons has to say.”

THIS STATEMENT MADE BY A GUY WHO’S STILL LIVING IN HIS MOTHER’S BASEMENT.

“Unless, of course, you love money more than music.”

ACTUALLY, I LOVE BOTH MONEY AND MUSIC.

“But since you’re reading this, I doubt that…”

GOOD LUCK TO THIS GUY.
WE LOVE HEARING THE GOOD AND THE BAD.

AND WE HOPE YOU GET OUT OF MOM’S BASEMENT SOON.

Well I guess it was getting really late for Gene, seems he couldn’t quite think of anything else to say.

Quite frankly, I don’t have anything else to say.

Words cannot do Watchmen justice. Watchmen is an epic brutal (near) masterpiece. At a running time of 2hrs 40mins, I could have gone for more, and from the sound of things the DVD release will be about 3 hours. As the film opens on the event that sets the story into motion: The death of the Comedian, one word was going through my mind as it unfolded: Brutal. The fights were incredibly performed and incredibly filmed. The Comedian is physically huge and that required watching from a sort of distance, and it was incredible. Instead of using the “let’s shake the camera a lot to look intense” method, they perfected the fights and let us watch every move. A fantastic start.

One word that people were using to describe why this movie couldn’t work is “complicated”. But I followed the story very well, and I haven’t read the book yet (I’ll explain why in a minute). There was one exception to this however, when a major event was discovered by one of the characters. I had no idea what he was looking at and had to wait to figure out what he found, even thought they tried to show it initially. That was only one of a few drop points in the movie that took me out a bit.

I didn’t read the book beforehand because I wanted to be surprised while watching the movie. If the story was as good as they say it is, I wanted to see it on the screen first, then read the book. Doing it that way can only mean it will be better. I caught the midnight showing which was awesome. Even the 3am ride home. I will be picking up the book and reading it entirely, and then go see Watchmen in the IMAX. The theater I saw it in was decent, but the sound wasn’t that great. Some people say they don’t see the point in IMAX unless it was shot for the IMAX (i.e. certain Dark Knight scenes, and Transformers 2), but the sound in the IMAX is also way better than any theater.

The film was obvioulsy very dark in nature, and in that way I felt closer to it than any other superhero movie. Life is fucked up, and life in Watchmen was REALLY fucked up. So somehow that had a very emotional appeal. I loved Dr. Manhattan. He was forced into being the way he was through an accident, and over time lost his humanity, and started to not care about people at all. If you feel like you are really awesome and everyone around you sucks, to the point it depresses you, then Dr. Manhattan is the role model for you.

Rorschach was really awesome. You could say he was the “Batman” of the film because of the similarities in the voice, but this guy makes Batman look like the nice guy. Oh yeah, and Rorschach kills the bad guys. He’s not fuckin around. Rorschach has had it up to HERE with the scum of the city, not just the murderers and rapists, but people who…have sex and stuff (I REALLY have to read that book).

The opening credits, with “The Times They Are  A-Changin’” playing, was a major major major highlight for me. The way it was put together was just fantastic. I love segments like that, they are like another movie in a movie. I was MOST impressed with the incredibly accurate re-enactment of the assassination of JFK.

There was a couple parts in the last third of the film that totally pulled me out of the movie. The dialogue all of a sudden started to suck, and the story went very formulaic, but it quickly changed and I was right back in it. So it is very negligible at this point. Another thing that I questioned briefly was the music choices, but I understood why they did that and it didn’t distract me a whole lot. It was mostly popular music from the eras the were showing. There was some disco music for the 1970’s, and then some music from that Dustin Hoffman movie for the funeral. My favorite use of music was the rendition of Hallelujah during the fuck scene (the term “sex” is too light for what we saw), and then the organ tunes during the telling of the tragedy of Dr. Manhattan.

I am still amazed at how long this film was, and how much the length didn’t bother me. It could have been a five hour film, and as long as it was good, I would have watched it all. Their was a TON of awesome lines, most thanks to the graphic novel obviously, and the fight scenes were the best I’ve seen in a long time. Fucking brutal violence. It makes things very real when you go that far, and it pulls you in THAT much more. All the actors ranged from decent to brilliant, and you can’t ask for more from a cast of unknowns. The fact they are, for the most part, unknowns makes the movie that much better. They ARE those characters to you.

Zack Snyder is officially the coolest director in my world right now. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

I suggest you see this movie more than once. At least twice: The first time, stare at Dr. Manhattan’s penis every time it is on screen. That floppy blue penis will be calling your attention the whole time and if you try to avoid it, you will lose concentration on the slightly more important aspects of the film. By the time you see it again, you will have hopefully gotten rid of the urge to watch that thing flop around when he walks, and pay attention. Fuck it, go see it a third time JUST for all the nudity: Silk Spectre’s boobs, Night Owl’s ass cheeks, and the immortal floppy blue penis of Dr. Manhattan.

I KNEW I forgot some more albums I was looking forward to.

Spinnerette

Their album will be out sometime in 2009. I believe they are releasing it themselves. I bought their Ghetto Love EP off their website and it is pretty sick. It came with a few songs and a great music video made by Liam Lynch.

St. Vincent- Actor

May 5, 2009

If you look down a post, you will see that this artist has quite recently piqued my interest. And lucky for me, she has a new album coming out in a couple months.

I love when this happens.I was wandering around the interwebs last night at 1am, and I was utterly lost and spent on life for that day. I wandered over to Vimeo.com and checked out the Staff Picks, and I found this charm:

I ran to iTunes after watching this whole thing and took a listen to her album. I was put off at first because it wasn’t acoustic like this performance, but a little longer of listening showed me how awesome the album really is. I officially bought it over iTunes. I usually NEVER buy over iTunes, but CD’s suck and she is possibly not on a selfish label. She deserves the money, and THAT is how you make it in today’s music “industry”. You deserve it.

Her album “Marry Me” has been on repeat on my iPod all day. I tried to listen to something else, but I couldn’t get away from it when I tried.

Buy it at iTunes

The countdown had hit “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” and I foresaw a mediocre year ahead. January brought no hope either. Then as February moved forward, 2009 became a giant anticipation beast full of many treats ahead. A plethora of entertainment and knowledge. A multiple orgasm experience.

Blink-182

I can’t talk about 2009 without mentioning the continuation of Blink-182. Up until the announcement at the Grammy’s my hope for such a thing was at rock-bottom, or even forgotten. I became a teenage girl again and blasted Blink-182 songs for a week straight.

I spent my days from ages 14-18 listening to Blink, and when I got out of high school and hit real life I expanded, grew. I realized that I should not keep my musical tastes so narrowly focused. Bands that I had shunned for no other reason than they weren’t Blink were suddenly on my radar, and I loved them. I stopped deciding on music for political reasons, and started listening to music because it was GOOD music.

When Blink-182 came back, I faced a dilemma. This dilemma lasted about 30 seconds: Do I ignore this? Just act like I think it’s cool, but I’m so past this? or; Do I go apeshit and jump and scream like a little girl, and fully embrace my true Blink obsessed roots? I chose the latter, and immediately ordered a Blink-182 six-arrow logo shirt and sweatshirt.

2009 Albums

Little did I know the many albums that I would be looking forward to.

Green Day- “21st Century Breakdown”

Another epic masterpiece rock opera to follow up the epic masterpiece rock opera called American Idiot.

New Found Glory- “Not Without A Fight”

I have been listening to New Found Glory for many years now, since their second album. They kind of had a down slope with their past two efforts, but seem to be going back upwards.

Stephen Lynch- “3 Balloons”

One of my favorite comedians. I know there are some singing comedian haters out there, but the guy is fucking hilarious. The first song I heard from this guy was “Special Olympics” and I was in the 6th grade. I got to see him perform 10 minutes from my house this past summer. I’m nervous about this album because they decided to record in studio as opposed to the usual live set-up. There seems to be a lot of extra bells and whistles that I fear will be distractingly dumb for something like this.

The Avett Brothers

I just found this band a month ago and absolutely love them. They are unlike anything I usually listen to, sporting all acoustic songs usually involving banjo. They are finishing up their new record to be released this year.

Blink-182

They are in the studio right now, and will be touring in the summer. The album will probably be released in the fall. I was reading an interview that AP did with Mark Hoppus and he was talking about how they haven’t even played as a band yet. The way the record is they all have song ideas and they put them together BEFORE actually playing them. I think it is a cool method of making songs, and hope it is their best album yet.

Dane Cook- Isolated Incident
Dane Cook’s new comedy album should be an interesting one. He performs for 20-30 people at the laugh factory, and might possibly be funnier than his last mediocre effort. I think it is now a good time to go back to his other albums that I have laid to rest for a year or so, maybe.

The White Stripes

They are planning a 2009 summer release. Fuck yes, anyone?

So that’s the music portion of my 2009 anticipation. I haven’t even gotten started on the films yet.

Last night I am sitting idly at my computer. My phone rings, “Josie” by Blink-182 is the ringtone, and my friend Ian says “RYAN BLINK-182 IS BACK TOGETHER!! TURN ON THE GRAMMY’S”. Now at this moment here’s what went through my head:

1. Ian loves to play pranks.

2. The Grammy’s are on?

3. I am an internet nut and find everything out before everyone else, HOW could i miss this?

So I flip out and turn on my TV to the Grammy’s (thank god the analog signal is still up, I’d have been screwed) and ON my FUCKING TELEVISION is MARK, TOM and FUCKING TRAVIS!

I never got the chance to see Blink-182 on tour, during their prime era of the self-titled album. And now I get to see them on a fucking reunion tour with a new album. HOLY FUCKING SHIT! Sorry, the outbursts will happen. First thoughts are that this new album is going to kick fucking ass, because these guys KNOW there is no way they can afford to screw this up. And they also know that they can afford a LOT now, this will be the most money they have made in their entire career.

I can’t even describe the fucking joy I have right now. I grew up with these guys, and then I moved on and grew up a little. But I’m saying fuck growing up, Blink-182 is back!

I have obviously gone and bought two brand new Blink-182 peices of merch:

I have found a place. It is a secret place ubeknownst(YES I did just use that word!) to many people I know. I would really love to tell you about it and where to find it. But I won’t. Those who already know about it will know what I am talking about.

What is so amazing about this place is that I don’t ever want to leave. I don’t ever stop talking to the people there. And I don’t ever stop contributing to it. It gives me so much inspiration, and it is an awesome circle.

Someone inspires me->I make something->I contribute it->someone else gets inspired-> they create something->They contribute it->They inspire me->.

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My How-To project is coming along quite well. Just a recap on what it is: For my corporate media class I have to make a How-To video. I am doing one on How-To-Order-Pizza. It stars my two awesome friends and is a fast paced action adventure.

It’s about 50% complete. I can’t wait to unleash it on to your faces.

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I just added every Orson Welles film I could find on Netflix to my Queue. I never have seen any of his work, and I think in my field of interest it is essential that I do this immediately. I was also very happy to find out one day that Brain from “Pinky and the Brain”, a cartoon I watched as a child, was based exactly on Orson Welles. Except for the whole mouse thing obviously.

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I hate this domain name….I’m packing this site and moving it elsewhere as soon as I get the chance.

“The Wrestler”

The Wrestler is an incredible film. This man lives for his place on the wrestling mats, and every other aspect of his life sucks. But he knows that if he can just hold on until the end of the week, he’ll be able to truly live. This is his life, his passion, he gets torn to bits all week, every week, to jump back in front of his people and live.

His life looks like shit to anyone else. But to him everyone else’s life looks like shit if they aren’t as happy as he is when he is standing on that post. The doctor says wrestling will kill him, wrestling doesn’t pay, wrestling abandoned his daughter, wrestling kept love away, wrestling keeps him alive.

Sometimes dying is the only way to live, I guess.

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Thought of the day:

“That is freaking hott.”

I am quite ashamed of this thought that I had today. I was walking to work and a stunning woman walked by, and that was the first thing that popped in my head. How could I just objectify a woman like that? I immediately corrected myself, and then I continued to think about that.