New Music Released March 31st, 2009

Hey, its Tuesday! New music, bitches.

The Answer Everyday Demons - I haven't had a chance to listen to this album (I think it's been out in the UK for a bit), but they toured with AC-DC so I can imagine what they sound like. Hopefully it's as good as Airbourne, and not as bad as Jet (whom I dislike as much as Nickelback - maybe more).

Sarazin Blake The Air Your Lungs Forced Out - I have so little clue about what this is, that I'm not even entirely sure that the band name isn't "Sarazin Blake The Air Your Lungs Forced", and album isn't "Out". I think I got it right.

Bow Wow New Jack City II - I think THIS is all I need to say.

Burn Halo Burn Halo - A metal band, or an instructional CD about how to pirate X-Box games? You decide.

Leonard Cohen Live In London - I get why Cohen's awesome, I just don't listen to much of his stuff. It's not my favourite style, but I bet this will sell really well, and make a LOT of people happy - I could probably name a few people by name.

Billy Ray Cyrus Back To Tennessee - I am entirely shocked it took Billie Ray this long to milk the success of Miley into his own personal fame. I guess he got tired of playing second fiddle in Metro Station videos.

Gavin DeGraw Free - No clue who this is, but I bet my girlfriend and all her friends enjoy his songs when they come on their TV shows.

Steve Forbert The Place And The Time - Its at this point of the entry that I regret pasting every album down, and not being more selective. Steve Forbert is probably a nice guy, but I could not care less about who he is at this point in time.

Gomez A New Tide - Dear Gomez, see my Steve Forbert entry.

Diana Krall Quiet Nights - I just found out that Ms Krall is married to Elvis Costello, which is interesting. Im picturing her with a beard and it makes me happy on the inside. Im sure a bunch of people will buy this album, and will enjoy it a lot when doing dishes and cooking dinner at 430 in the afternoon.

Chrisette Michele Epiphany - Ack. Sounds French.

Ministry Adios... [Live] - Im cool with industrial and thus, do not mind Ministry. This is their retirement live CD and DVD, I bet they put on a cool show.

Marie Osmond Seasons - Thank you dancing with the stars... She was on that show right?

Pansy Division That's So Gay - I hate album titles and song titles like UR So Gay (Katy Perry), it just seems cheesy and almost offensive. Ive loathed people who use gay as a synonym for stupid since Grade 10, so good work Pansy Division, I already hate your music without listening to it. Sidenote: Joy Division is good. New Order is great.

Peter Bjorn & John Living Thing - If not for the YYY's album, this would be my pick of the week. They do more then whistle, trust me.

Prince LOtUSFLOW3R/MPLSoUND [Target exclusive] - Target gets all the best albums! Is Prince even relevant anymore - I admit to never being a fan, but he seems like a novelty act this point. Tell me when he plays Casino Niagara.

Flo Rida R.O.O.T.S. (Routes Of Overcoming the Struggle) - As much as I love his current single, it's almost offensive that he named his album ROOTS, when few artists have done so little to further the image of black men then Flo Rida. Like sure, catchy songs, but every negative stereotype that exists in the minds of mainstream civilization about male rap stars is on display in full force in Flo Rida. Hopefully he has more then just songs about oral sex on this disc.

Queensryche American Soldier - No opinions other then the fact that most metal bands have awful names.

thenewno2 You Are Here - No, I'm not. Get a new name.

UGK UGK 4 Life - I believe the one UGK gentleman (Pimp C I want to say) died last year, which probably sucks for Strip Club DJs in Atlanta.

Keith Urban Defying Gravity - I cannot keep country singers straight, is Urban the one that's ridiculously pro-America, or the one that is married to a Tom Cruise castoff? Or neither?

WAND [James Jackson Toth project] Born Bad [Vinyl-only release] - Am I supposed to know who James Jackson Toth is? MetaCritic sure thinks so. Also, screw you digital files.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz! - Pick of the week, if you don't know, it's awesome, one of the best CDs this year.

Jesse

I lack originality...

Below is the link to the first trailer for Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are", based on the children's book (which I loved as a child, obviously).

What's really impressive is how powerful the song is - The Arcade Fire's "Wake Up". It's the song that really pushed them into the spotlight, and rightfully so, since it's amazing powerful and brilliant.

I'm hung over and don't have much to say, I'm just sharing it - since it's awesome.

Want some new hip-hop?

And by new, I mean new-ish. Basically some stuff from some artists that are getting some acclaim, yet haven't gotten on the radio or broken through to the mainstream.

THIS BLOG has some nice links to a bunch of really great hip-hop tracks.

Cappuccino by the Knux is one of the best song's I've heard in awhile. It's great party-rap, with a superb beat and lyrics about typical gangsta stuff, mixed in with a love for Starbucks. One badass song.
"I need a fresh cappuccino with a mocha twist..."

Day n Night by Kid Cudi is more subdued (its stoner rap for lack of a better term) that's more hypnotic and slow then Cappuccino, but just as catchy and fun.

There's also great tracks from the Cool Kids and Wale (who wrote a mix tape about Seinfeld - how great is that?) and a few others.

Keeping it quick, hope you enjoy the tunes.

Big ups to AudioMuffin!

Jesse.

Things I Am Looking Forward To

Heroes was really excellent tonight, and as a result, I am all excited and cannot sleep. Thus, we have a list of albums coming out in the next few months that I am really excited for - enjoy!

Silverstein - A Shipwreck in the Sand - At one point Silverstein were one of my favourite bands, but then their last album (Arrivals and Departures) seemed like a reaction to becoming popular off their softest song ("Discovering the Waterfront"). Since they got popular off a mellow tune (that wasn't reflective of their sound), I felt A&D was overly hard and lacked a lot of the melody their previous stuff had. The best thing about Silverstein (like Thrice) is the ability to merge quiet and soft moments with brutal moments of hard music.

This new disc is a concept album, meaning it will either be really goofy or really good. I'm optimistic, as other then A&D (which truthfully never got the second chance it deserved by me) I've always really liked everything they've ever record. (Out March 31st)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Its Blitz - Considering Blogger took down my post about "Heads Will Roll", I'm not sure if anyone saw how much I gushed how great that song is. I'm optimistic the album will live up to how great that song and the first single ("Zero) are. (Out March 31st)

Doves - Kingdom of Rust - I fell in love with Doves a few years back, and their second album (The Last Broadcast) is one of my favourite albums. I'm a sucker for long songs that build from seemingly nothing into epic and uplifting songs. It's been a while since they've had a new album out, but the first single ("Jetstream") was excellent and seemed like it could have been taken off of The Last Broadcast, so this should be great. (Out April 7th)

Metric - Fantasies - Another band that's been quiet for a few years, but both of their previous albums have been interesting and fun listens. Old World Underground is another great album, but the last disc was kind of boring and lost a lot of the fun. The first single, "Help I'm Alive" seems to capture some of their fun energy again, so again, I'm optimistic. (Out April 14th)

The Enemy - Music for the People - I love epic songs. The Enemy's first album (We'll Live and Die in These Towns) made even the most mundane aspect of life seem epic. I'm excited to hear any sort of follow-up. Hopefully they can make a dent in North America, but they sound super British, which can be a real hindrance at times. (Out April 27th)

CKY - Carver City - I love CKY. I love the movies, I love the music. It can be over the top, but both CKY Volume 1 and Infiltrate - Destroy - Rebuild are two really great and really complete albums. From start to finish I can listen and love those discs, the third disc (An Answer Can Be Found) was boring to me, and lacked something. No clue if I just grew out of their sound, of it they took a studio dump on album number three. We'll find out soon. (Out May 15th)

Taking Back Sunday - New Again - One of my favourite bands, Taking Back Sunday have put out three phenomenal albums, despite going through guitar/singers on those three albums. Now with backup vocalist number three (and Straylight Run and The Colour Fred spawned out of TBS), I'm hoping that album number four can be just as good. A lot of these releases have me "hoping" they can be as good as the music from the band that I've loved so much previously, and this is no exception to that rule. (Out June 2nd)

Billy Talent - Billy Talent 3 - BT 1 is one of my favourite albums ever - it's just a great rock and roll album from start to finish. BT2 was easily the most disapointing album of 2006 - it was awful then, and I still hate most of the songs on it. They're batting .500, hopefully they can come in and change that to .666 with BT3. (Out June 9th)

Jesus, there's a lot of hope in there.

Note: All of these release dates could change, only the first couple discs are slotted in for sure. Anything after Metric is based on information from Wikipedia, and who knows with that place, right?

Jesse.

MUSIC:
- I'm too lazy to list MySpaces for all of these bands but just take
http://www.myspace.com/
And add in the band's name after the slash.

8Tracks Mix Tape
This is a sampling of some of the bands listed above. It's all streaming, and not as good as Fav Tape, which is currently down.

Listen to Doves - Jetstream

New Music Released March 17th, 2009

I can't sleep, so let's look at what's coming out today in the form of compact discs.

From Metacritic:

BOA by BOA - No clue what this is, but apparently she's a Japanese pop singer. Somehow I don't think I'll be buying this.

Bonnie "Prince" Billie - Beware - This dude puts out too much music for me to ever get into him, but I do know that he was on the EXCELLENT "Horseapples" episode of Wonder Showzen that was amazing. So props to him.

Les Claypool - Of Fungi and Foe - The Primus dude! Props on the South Park theme song. This kind of stuff isn't my favourite, but cool if you're into it.

Ace Enders - When I Hit the Ground - See two posts below.

Marianne Faithful - Easy Come, Easy Go - I know she's famous/legenday?, but I think her name makes her sound like the worst pornstar ever.

MSTRKFT - Fist of God - Fun album - I really like some of the songs, and it's almost original for house/techno music, but every time I hear MSTRKRFT, all I can think about is how much better Death From Above 1979 was.

The Script - The Script - I know this was big in Europe last year. I never got around to hearing it, but I believe it's of the Coldplay/Snow Patrol variety. They're really scaping the bottom of the barrel for "The" band names in England.

Static X - Cult of Static - Awesome! I still enjoy listening to Machine, and apparently they're still allright, based on reviews I've read - I'll check this out, if only out of respect for Wayne Static's hair.

Theres also albums from The Chairs (again, bottom of the barrel), Cobalt, Gabriella Cimi, Glynn David, Gorilla Zoe, An Horse (an awful name), Kinetic Stereokids (an awesome name), Kylesa (I think I've heard of them?), Kelly Joe Phelps, The Strange Boys (with a name like that, their music better be pretty frigging weird - live up to the name!), Superdrag, and Wavves (does the double v become a single w at any point?).

All and all, it's a pretty weak offering for the middle of March. I hardly expect any of them to put huge dents into the Billboard chart standings, so U2 doesn't have to worry about losing number 1 (unless Taylor Swift fans can rise up against Bono!).

That being said, Fist of God is really fun, and When I Hit the Ground is awesome, so there's some solid music. I'm also pretty sure theres segments of people who are going nuts for new albums from Les Claypool, Static X, and Bonnie Prince Billie.

Jesse.

Ace Enders (And a Million Different People)

Ace Enders is the former lead singer/guitarist/songwriter for The Early November, a band that I always liked a lot.

Back in 2002/2003 I was just getting into music that wasn't on mainstream radio and was really getting into the emo/screamo genre, with bands like Finch, Taking Back Sunday, and Brand New being my favourite. The Early November always stood out for me, as they seemed destined for something bigger then the insular genre of emo. To me, they always stood out, and had the potential to grow into something great. Unlike bands like Finch or The Movielife (who seemed very in that 2003 moment to me), their sound was more timeless/adult. They put out a couple of great albums ("For All of This EP", "The Room's Too Cold") that I really enjoyed. Both were really good, but neither was the masterpiece I thought they were capable of.

Then in 2006 they released their masterpiece. "The Mother, the Mechanic, and the Way" is a triple disc epic, that tells the elaborate and lengthy story of a boy's growth into a man, and his complex/poor relationships with both his parents. Each disc had a unique feel, with the Mother being mostly softer/acoustic songs, the Mechanic being more straight up rock songs, and the Way is part song/part spoken word acts (in the form of therapist sessions) that tell the album's story. All three are great albums alone, but when listened to in succession, it's a truly brilliant and unique musical undertaking. It's easily the most challenging and unique album I've heard in the last few years, but all while being relentlessly catchy, and full of great songs. It's utterly brilliant, and I cannot do it justice with my words.

While still in TEN, he released a self-titled album under the moniker I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody's Business, which is a wonderful collection of alt-country/acoustic/soft songs that's equally as good, albeit less rocking. The Early November broke up in 2007, and since then Ace has been diligently working on solo stuff, releasing "The Secret Wars" last summer for free, as a teaser for his debut full length as a solo artist.

That debut, "When I Hit the Ground" is released today, Tuesday March 17th. It's been streaming on his MySpace for a couple days now, and it's absolutely brilliant. Continuing where TEN left off, "When I Hit the Ground" is a superb album (maybe the best of 2009 so far), full of great rock songs. Each song features a lush sound, combining guitars with strings, piano, and lots more. It has 14 songs, and there isn't a bad song on the album - every song counts, and every song is wonderful. From rockers like "Take the Money and Run" to softer songs "S.O.S." and "New Guitar" to uplifting pop rock tracks like "Reaction" and "Over This", each song is a joy to listen to.

I'm extremely glad Ace is still making music, as he's threatened/hinted at retiring from the music business (due to financial pressures), as I've loved every single piece of music he's ever produced. I was saddened at the lose of the Early November, but his new album picks up the pieces and improves on the sound, maturing it further into timeless rock and roll.

I hate comparing bands, but if you're looking for a point of reference for Ace Enders, the following bands remind me of Ace Enders and a Million Different People:
Snow Patrol
Jack's Mannequin (more guitars then piano)
The Color Fred (another lead singer turned solo artist)
Saves the Day
Brand New (way less moody)
Coldplay (not as piano heavy)
Jimmy Eat World
Anberlin

I highly suggest clicking on any of the links below, as each contains streams of a bunch of great Ace Enders penned tunes. At 26 he's amassed a superb collection of songs, and a couple of great albums, including one of my favourite albums all time. 2009's music just got a lot better with the release of "When I Hit the Ground".

Jesse.

Music:
Ace Enders FavTape
(Collection of 6 songs related to Ace Enders - put together by me)

The Secret Wars
(Free online exclusive album released last summer)

Links:
Ace Enders and a Million Different People MySpace
The Early November MySpace
I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody's Business MySpace
Ace Enders Website

Too Late//Too Long

I was really excited to update this and tell the non-listening world about what music I love. Then whenever I did try to write something, I ended up writing half a manifesto-length post about stuff, and would give up half way through. My previous style of blog posting (yeah I've got a style... or two apparently) was/is to be very long with a lot of words. It's also usually well thought out and basically an essay. But whenever I went to write about music that way, it often just became half-assed and unnecessary. No one wants to read 2500 words about the use of synth in the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album (It's Blitz), so whenever I started doing that I'd give up half way through and just forget about this thing.

But, I really do want to write about music, and I want to do it semi-frequently, so I will now push to use this. I'm just going to try and do things loose and quick, just get something up, and mention some music and my thoughts about it. Hopefully that can lead me to putting up something more meaningful with more thought.

Worst comes to worst it'll just be a whole bunch of reasons why I hate Nickelback. Which, really, would be awesome.

Jesse.

PS: The synth is magnificent in It's Blitz - great album.

PPS: Suck it Nickelback.