Posts Tagged ‘green day’

A Plethora of Musical Goodness

March 13, 2009

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.

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2009: It Might Get Awesome

February 20, 2009

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.

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My Goal is for Music to Make Me Hallucinate

April 14, 2008

I recently watched Coheed and Cambria’s live concert DVD “The Last Supper”. I wasn’t always a huge fan of them, but I hadn’t really listened to them in a long time. They are one of those bands whose albums are meant to be listened to all the way through, which is an almost lost activity.

Being in the age of the iPod, people will just hit shuffle and listen to two thousand+ songs at complete random. I’ve decided that I’m going to bring this activity back into my life. Since Coheed and Cambria sparked this idea in my head, I got their first album “The Second Stage Turbine Blade”. I put it on my iPod and before going to sleep, I shut off the lights and layed down in bed with my headphones on and listened to the album all the way through. The album, sounding as it is, can inspire some crazy images in my head in normal life, but shutting off the lights and closing my eyes left my mind completely open to the music.

The beginning of the album was like the “calm before the storm”. I was picturing myself walking around my town and just seeing things at random. Seeing people I know and strangers, and then I kind of took control a bit and started to form my own comic book-like movie to go along with the rest of the music.

I don’t think all the albums that come out these days have to be heard in their entirety. I also think some artists know this about their own style of music. I can think of bands that I used to listen to a lot like Blink-182 and Green Day whose music can just be thrown into a shuffle and it doesn’t matter which way you listen to their songs. However, they both have put out one album each that are great for listening all the way through: Blink-182’s self titled album and Green Day’s “American Idiot”. Green Day’s “American Idiot” was most likely written for the purpose of hearing all the way through. Blink-182’s self titled album was an awesome turn for them in their career. It was their best album, musically, to date and you could tell that something was changing. With the break-up of Blink and the creation of Angels and Airwaves it was clear it was Tom Delonge (Blink-182 guitarist) who was changing. He has put out two albums, “We Don’t Need to Whisper” and “I-Empire”, through that band that have really inspired some awesome ideas and feelings in me when listened all the way through.

My two good friends, Alex and Ian, and I are working on a rock opera that Ian pretty much wrote. If we get this recorded, it will DEFINITELY be one to listen to all the way through. I am utterly amazed at how all this music is coming out in the practices. The songs go through such different feelings and emotions, the whole album and story is full of emotion and huge feelings. It is turning out to be some of the best stuff I’ve been a part of.

Here’s what I think everyone should do: Find a great album, one that you think is just amazing all the way through. If you haven’t already, wait until it’s later at night and dark out. Lie in bed or sit in the dark and put on a good pair of headphones and close your eyes and let the music take you. The shuffle function on your iPod is great for short drives or walks as background to your life, but it is good to give the music the driver seat once in a while (please don’t take that too literally). If you are a morning jogging type of person, that sounds to me like another good time to let the music take you. Just as the sun is rising, or maybe the sun has been out for a half hour or so but hasn’t quite shed its light on everything yet.

Let the music take you away from everything.

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