Satan's Luau

I guess I have the itch to write a few more reviews ... I've had the Stones recent one for a while, and haven't really thought through what I thought about it until now

A lot of reviewers really think this is a strong album, and I can appreciate their point of view. I guess I'm of the opinion that this is a solid album rather than strong album, and I will explain what I mean

The Rolling Stones- A Bigger Bang REVIEW: B

I think a lot of reviewers get into this "oh this is the senior tour" mentality concerning certain bands, as if certain bands should be evaluated on the basis of the age of their band members ... in that sense this album is somewhere in the A range, how many other late 50-something/60ish guys are making albums, selling out tours, and making solid straightforward rock albums ... almost as if we all should pay homage to the godfathers of rock, the original bad boys, r-n-r Moses, etc. for pioneering all that is ROCK

Some have gotten tied up in trying to say what album is this one in the ballpark of ... I'm not going to go there, let's just say it's nowhere near everyone's classic ExileOMS, it may not even be near Tattoo, but it is better than everything post-SteelWs (how much more? well, let's just say I think this album has a better focus, as if they actually meant it (... outside of releasing an album to tour on)

The first thing I have to say, and this is not a knock, but in recent albums, maybe since Steel Wheels, the Stones have settled into a particular sounding song ... well produced to the max, slick, catchy, but ultimately a number of songs fall into the same sounding category. Hey, I don't knock AC for having similar sounding songs, so I'm not knocking the Stones on it either. Rough Justice, Let Me Down Slow, and Oh No, Not You Again sound in this style. The darker, slick dirty bluesy sounding recent songs are like "It Won't Take Long"

I guess in recent albums you can kind of ID the styles of song ... the handful of slick driving pop rocks songs in the signature Stones style, the dark bluesy one, the discoey one, the yearny ballad, the one with Keith on vox, the reggaeish one, the stripped down, straightup 60s blues one, the countrified pop one ... I guess if you view it this way, then this Stones album is predictable along the lines of what they have released in the past 20 years

Well, I do have this impression of it and that is that I have not ffwd-ed through any tracks, and that is not something I could say about recent efforts, where there were nuggets of goodness here and there. This album is very solid and listenable all the way around for me

I guess it really is the culmination of the post-Exile era ... or the so-called Stones pop/disco/radio hit era. It's a nice summation of what has been for most of my life. I guess in many ways I am an apologist for the RS because they are one of my favorite bands of all time. ABB is a good enough album, I think that if you liked the direction of the past 25 years, you would think this holds up well enough

And the thing is ... and it is basic to appreciating bands which have such a HUGE legacy. You're not really going to see them play for Rough Justice, are you? That's right, there is that enormous back catalog of 40+ hits that could be played. In that sense, there is nothing here that jumps at you and makes you think, add another one to the canon of immortal Stones hits

I'm not going overboard on this one, and I don't listen to it endlessly ... but I think it is solid enough, and our evaluation is that it is a very solid, respectable B.

Posted by at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I've been turning this album over and over, wondering what to say in terms of impressions of the sophomore effort from breakout artists FF

If I can summarize, I think this one is a bit less obvious to the casual listener ... in other words, I don't think there are a ton of can't miss, catchy songs where you can go ... that's a hit, and that's another one. It seems like that is the key difference between the debut album and this recent effort from FF.

Franz Ferdinand- You Could Have It So Much Better REVIEW: C+/B-

I think that one thing carries over from the first album and that is that this band can sure write a single. From the first album through this one, I don't think that either album is particularly excellent in concept, or in listenability where you would listen to it all the way through

However, tack it in an iMix or play a playlist off your iP, and wow, their songs really stand out as wonderful standalone singles. That's not to say that their debut or this recent one is unlistenable except for select tracks. On the contrary, their sound and style is very listenable to my taste ... but certain tracks really jump out and make you go "wow"

The "wow" factor is clearly in effect with the first single, "Do You Want To". The rest of the album tracks haven't really hooked me in where I go "wow". However there are comfy dancey, stompy, new retro moments generously sprinkled throughout where the band shows it has a particular style and it knows how to deliver music that the masses will enjoy.

If you are a fan of their style, you will find much to like here. There's nothing really that innovative about it, even with the down tempo tracks on the album. The band just knows how to knock out a handful of the most enjoyable singles each album ... and this one appears no different.

If I were to place a grade, I think this one is about a C+/B- ... but mind you, I think that their singles are just fantastic and entertaining. They just haven't put together a "wow' album yet to my taste, but they have wowed me with their singular efforts. I guess it's a catch-22 because their singles draw you in, and their overall album packages are a step lower than the effect of their singles.

Posted by at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

As a preliminary comment, often we say sarcastically that you could spend your time better doing something else ... and I don't think about that when I listen to this album. And at the end of the day, I probably will not remember anything of the show that introduced me to them, either

Well, this is one of those albums that I am thankful for that was made mid-year last year. I just haven't stopped spinning it in the past year, it seems as if I dabble here and dabble there ... and then come back to this wonderful album by RK

Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous REVIEW: A++

From the opener "It's a Hit" which manages to take on the President and the record industry in the same song, it is clear that RK can seriously write a song that is lyrically and musically compelling, ... and big bonus points for this album not having it be some jackoff experimental crap that some indie pop devolves into ... just straightforward good music that is a pleasure to listen to

The second song "Does He Love You?" ... is barring something else that knocks it out of the park, the song of the year for us. I never thought that there could be an epic pop song. I suppose the reason why is that pop is short by nature, and perhaps overly repetitive. This little pop song has so much packed into it all the way through to a big finish that couldn't be bigger sounding than hard rock ... how can pop rock so hard, I shake my head at how excellent this song is

The album really takes off with the third track, "Portions for Foxes"... a modern alt pop rocks masterpiece. When Jenny says she's bad news, hell ... it's believable, funny, and such a great song on so many levels. From its use of acapella, to simple guitar harmonies, dynamics, it's just an elegant example of what modern radio rock should sound like

"Ripchord" is a nice changeup ... as the boys take over on the vocals. This one has one of those old time Farrells flavors to it, like 20s rag style mono stripped down pop ... reminds a little of M.Ward style, and just gotta love the whistling outro

"I Never" sounds like an outtake from Grease ... not included because it is in many ways that naive 50s/60s solo female singer ballad, but with a certain tongue in cheek dark, over the top modern satire quality to it that is often not acknowledged by oldies stations ... very solid song ... and as you can tell, this album is so wonderfully diverse in style yet it is compelling no matter the style

"The Absence of God" is a female folksy pop song ... one that I have waited for the many in the Lisa L. genre to write. One where I go now that's something I can get behind, and fully enjoy without reservation ... one that is accessible and unrestricted by the self-imposed limits of the genre. This one is oh so close to being it, the penultimate ... it falls a little short of it, but still a great track

"Accidental Deth" ... this one has a synth flavor ... almost a nod to RK side project, the postal service, but in a by far more accessible package ... if I had to pick the weakest track, it would be this solid track

"More Adventurous" really reminds me of 70s countrified pop, like those old Linda R. efforts. Jenny just has this fantastic vulnerable voice that tells a great story and is such a great unique emotion carrying voice. Just a compact, loveable country flavored pop piece, it's great

"Love and War (11/11/46)" has a great dirty alt driving riff ... again, this song is an unexpected changeup, as most of the songs have been relatively clean sounding and generally poppy. This is a great listenable radio rocks song that darkens it up a bit to great effect

"A Man/Me/Then Jim" is a wonderful 70s style female folk/country pop ballad song ... I could see Olivia NJ or even Linda R. singing it, but then again it has a dark aspect to go with a compelling verse and chorus. Songwriting here is excellent.

"It Just Is" is an interesting closer because it could not be any more poppier, yet is very real about matters in life ... it's not uplifting, it's not depressing ... (although you could take it either way) ... it just is, another under 3 minute piece of 60s influenced pop ballad goodness.

Barring the unfathomable, this will be the band and album of the year ( ... when I do that next, yes it is time to hold your breath for that).

This one is a modern indie pop classic, to me anyways ... it's just too bad no one mainstream has picked it up -- A++

Posted by at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hoping everyone has a happy thanksgiving

I have much to be thankful for and am very blessed to have a wonderful family, friends, a loving gf, and great place to work everyday

Thanks also to janitor for the update ... which enabled the new cleaner look

Posted by at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Lately I have been reassessing the whole enterprise of being a cultural critic ... needless to say, I am the last person that should be considered one ... really now

I don't understand how it is that lately I've noticed that in general people who do criticism on their blogs are almost universally so entirely negative or positive that it makes you wonder what really is the value of having your opinion published on this vast expanse of anonymity known as the Internet

What is their contribution, if anything ....?

Today I saw this blog entry ... and mind you, I have been following this blogger for somewhat over a year, maybe going on two now. And his blog mainly focuses on providing reviews of this and that, he's a freelance writer by trade, I believe

Well, it seems like for him, nothing is up to snuff ... nothing rates ... everything sucks. At first, I believed that he was a person whose opinions had some degree of integrity ... but now I realize that he is just a critic, and just another naybob naysayer who overestimates his own opinion, his own objectivity, and well quite frankly he has no appreciation of anything

Truly he is a person who doesn't appreciate the value of anything ... that every expression, whether it is art, music, a videogame, a book, a film, a cartoon, what have you ... took someone a long time to do, and probably a lot of training and practice and sweat and effort ... and all he can do is piss on them, over and over

There is something that I have held to myself for a while but now I think it becomes more and more true ... sometimes these freelancers are just hacks that can't do what a limited numbers of others can do so they let out their own personal suck-stration on the work of others who have managed to commercialize their work

It's funny because rather than enjoy something for what it is, or on the other hand dislike something for what it is ... it always is dislike something for what it is not, or find some kind of hallelujah joy over finding FLAWS, glitches, bugs, etc. in something

In the final analysis, I guess there are a lot of angry, frustrated types who talk smack about others' successful creative endeavors and call it constructive criticism or review ... I say to these people look in the mirror, because the reason why you can't enjoy anything is because at some fundamental level you cannot enjoy yourself ... and the more tragic aspect of it is how seriously these people take themselves

And that is a sad place to be

Posted by at 6:50 PM | Permalink

I was thinking today that there are two songs that have been permanently damaged and unlistenable due to overexposure through karaoke ... these are loveshack and eternal flame

I am listening to some virgin uk this morning and here comes LS and ... I'm like damn, I really dislike that song

Have I ever written about the bangles wonderful contribution to k-parties involving local Js ... I mean, what would you, the avg. local J woman possibly sing without LS and EF ... yeah I thought so, so now you know ... bellbivdevoe

I must be getting older because I don't get what the younger set does ... what possibly could you be communicating to the world when you appear on the news just to say ... I waited 11 hours outside W-M in the paradiso pissing humid rain to buy MSlop's latest game console ... yep, just don't get it anymore ... and I'm still one of those developmentally challenged people who plays videogames

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Could I be more TURNED OFF? I continue to get these political emails that ask me to contribute money to this or that. I do realize that money is required for keeping certain aspects of these 527s running ... but I mean getting a handful of emails per day asking me to give money is a bit much. And the supreme irony is that I'm not even remotely persuaded by their emails most of the time

And this is supposed to be spahhm that I like ... tolerate? I think not, it's time to unsub

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Today marked the first day in quite a long time since I've listened to anything Met ... they had a vid of ONE from their performance supporting the Stones last week ... it's quite funny looking at the reax of the primarily Stonesfan crowd, they literally didn't know what to do with it ... much like the classic Infocom title Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It ... it was like, I know it's only rock and roll, but what is this racket

On that note, still waiting for someone's hard rock or metal album to make me go WOW ... it was weird because I was at 24HF maybe about 2 weeks ago when a track from Dio's MOM album came up on the shuff ... it made me think, yes I love the track, but it is very 1984

Actually there are many things that are very mid-80s nowadays ... most of the "relevant" new retro bands are appealing to me, which is bizarre as hell ... so maybe the next thing I should hope for is a hard rock/metal retro renaissance that applies the sensibilities of the mid-80s

And it has to be done by the young to be credible ... I suppose that is the key element of what is missing from the nosty tours of nowadays

Posted by at 10:04 AM | Permalink

The answer to the question of does MLB get it about associating itself with music stars as a method of cross promotion

I suppose this is a knee jerk reaction to how some perceive that the NBA went too far in associating itself with hip hop ... but I mean, what does baseball know about music, and since when is music really and truly associated with baseball

But if there is any among you that are curious, you can see two live tracks from the former lead singer of Alter Bridge ... err, I mean, Creed on MLB.com (and there is also streams for songs from his upcoming solo album ... who knew??? I wasn't paying attention)

What did I think of the music ... I must say, if there is a category for ho hum music, this stuff has it cornered, captured, beat down, and bought up. You listen to it and go, you know, there's quite a bit of dynamism but it just doesn't excite you ... you just go, okayyy

Posted by at 9:56 AM | Permalink

I found out today that order on the Big I and pickup is actually a pretty good thing for some premium items that cost a buttload to ship

I'm a big fan of royalpurple oil for my car ... and usually you have to pay the shipping markup for local retailers here, which makes it like almost $100 a case ... well, using online and pickup with checker, it's only 60 something bucks ... that is a revelation, and the oil is just super in terms of maintaining viscosity and not turning dirty too fast

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Oh and congratulations to the UH hoopsters... they really blasted the crap out of the #4 team in the country today, 84-62

Posted by at 3:30 PM | Permalink

As recent circumstances have me involuntarily burning the candle at both ends, I have felt rather sluggish and fatigued ... or basically in need of an energy boost.

For some reason, we had that new energy elixir at home, the one that is non-caf, non-ephed ... largely vitamin based, and from its claims is good for five hours of energy

It's funny because it says that you can feel the rush almost immediately ... well, it is now three hours later, and no rush ... I think my body clock just needed to wake up, and that's why I feel reasonably up right now ... so on the issue of does it work, no I don't think it does

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In other news, I just noticed today that Amaz now discloses whether cds are content copy protected or not ... more info to the consumer is always good

And just when I was gonna break down and get that ImogenHeap cd, oh well, off to iTs I go

Posted by at 9:54 AM | Permalink

I read a pretty sad editorial about how this person believed that the HI they grew up in no longer exists ... and this person was leaving, moving away to the continguous

It made me wonder about who exactly does this place belong to

I think if you read a lot of the media reports, the statements made by politicos, developers, businesses, etc ... that it is easy to get the impression that this place is for sale

Well, what happens when you say you "are open for business", it really means that things about this place are for sale ... a place in our marketplace, your piece of the lava, your beachfront property in ewabeach LOL, etc.

It makes me think that some things like aff hsg, preserving small biz, etc., all of these things become interestingly problematic when more and more things are "for sale"

A really sobering demographic statistic that I learned about a few years ago makes me wonder about the direction of things here. I think it is easy to say that people like me who write about these things are being too provincial or backwards ... but face up to it, when the breakdown of people who live here is now about 50% people "born and raised here" and 50% people from other places, it does mean something

It means that you cannot expect everyone to see the world the same way, you cannot expect them to share your values ... and honestly, there is no way to resolve this issue, you can't prequalify someone before they come to live here as either appropriate or inappropriate ... we just take their cash and go here's your piece of paradise

And I guess no one is concerned that that means that we are also saying if you can't afford it, then go get your piece of the ninth island, LV. Remember, we are for sale, it is more important to house people from elsewhere who can pay much more than most current residents can

I didn't vote for the current governor, and I don't think that current ideas that we can grow our way out of many of our issues really makes sense ... has anyone really looked at the common sense of our island, like there is limited space, there is limited resources, there is scarcity as far as the eye can see

I always find it interesting that every morning, I walk across the "campus" at my work place ... then look across the quad to the DMV and always see a big line of people waiting for it to open. And 2/3rds or 3/4ths of the people are clearly teenagers trying to get licenses ... seeing how people here cope with extra drivers by ADDING another car, is this a good social policy to encourage people to drive as soon as "responsibly possible"?

So back to the original question ... to whom does this place belong? De facto nowadays it is for sale to the highest bidder. Do we really want to live in a place so driven by economics ... gas, housing, taxes, cheap consumption (costcowalmartcircuitcityitis), low paying jobs, etc.?

It is almost naive nowadays to say oh, I want to live here because I like the alohaspirit ... all of it is overshadowed by the "price of paradise", which is just another way of bringing home the reality that it GD costs a lot to live here, and it means more to raise funds than get along with someone else, your neighbor, or take time out to make a difference in your community ... after all, there is money that needs to be made

And you can buy your way into the society ... there is really no need for a social fabric built on being a good neighbor or showing some a-spirit, why would you? ... hey you can make double off the house you bought compared to your purchase price ... you could move to a better neighborhood ... you could use some of it to pay for private school or college ...

Although it shows how much the rat race is ingrained in us, to either keep up with the Joneses ... or to make our lives better no matter in a competitive way that doesn't take into account what effects that has to others or the environment

I guess maybe all of the complainers, including me, are naive ... maybe why the social experiment worked here previously is that everyone was basically poor, so why would anyone try to differentiate themselves as better than anyone else ... all you would have is the respect of others, and you had to rely on them

When you are "open for business" and make everything for sale to the buyer who can pay the most ... you are saying it is okay to trample on others who have previously enjoyed something ... or more generally, you don't care about the public interest so long as someone pays in cash

I read this other editorial one sunday where an azn who relocated here maybe 25 or so years ago was talking about how he senses things have changed ... and that he felt things were becoming more like the continguous, and even he didn't like it ... and it seemed as if his reasons were similar to mine, the sense of community here is disappearing and there is this class struggle emerging ... and a greater feeling of racism growing

You don't have a community when you let individuals run free ... you don't have good traffic flow when you let people get unlimited numbers of cars ... you don't have a healthy housing market when most of the people who live here can't buy one ... you don't have balance in the environment when you let high value, luxury developers pick and choose nice spots which the public once enjoyed ... and you don't have a healthy economy when no one who could do the "grunt" work can afford to live here ... you aren't curbing growth when people are still popping out 3 kids per family (I am not suggesting let's be China about it, but still ... do you honestly need to add three kids to an already stretched out common family

A crash will come and I guess I feel fortunate that it is unlikely to occur until I am much older ... I just don't understand why the people in power now aren't paying attention to how it will affect not our generation but the next one

It's like when you were a kid and put the baloon over the hose pipe and turned on the water ... eventually you have to turn it off, but sometimes you just get mesmerized by how it is growing and growing and growing ... until yes, you are all wet

Posted by at 10:00 PM | Permalink

Made me think of those While You Were Away office notepads that you are supposed to write people messages on

Musically
It's all about The Magic Numbers for me right now. I have watched their performance on KCRW's MBE page about six or seven times.

Oh, and am I the only person who is stunned that Mariah is a) still touring and b) will probably sell it out here

Cinema
None, didn't even go to HIFF this year ... would have loved to see TRE though, oh well ... maybe on DVD if it never makes it back this way again

Politically
Burned out. There's nothing that I really want to talk about that would need to be said ... in other words, I have nothing to add about the conversation

So to reiterate ... affordable housing, gas prices, lying leaders, airplane molesters, Paris burning, judicial nominees ... and yes kids, don't fkn text while driving

Technologically
Have abandoned the great MSlop wireless experiment at home ... as a system goof required the Command button on a App keyboard, so that I could run utils from the command line

So one new ext HD later from OWC, the electronic music collection and other key stuff is in relative safe keeping ... let's just say that this really is a downside of electronic music -- the potential to vaporize into thin air

DVD
Have been slowly making our way through seasons of The Shield ... much like Sein, this is the cop show about nothing ... I mean, well acted high drama, but most eps have a crime and in a very small way move the overall arc ahead ... don't know why we like it so much

Picked up the Ep III set, came with a SofSW bonus dvd ... and you know, watching the bonus dvd made me think something. If they were able to coherently summarize all five (of six) eps in a way that cuts 15 hours into 1 hour of viewing time ... that's amazing, and they did it

In many ways, in the land where hindsight is 20/20, I for one may have preferred that the prequel trio, were cut back to just one movie ... not saying that ROTS is brilliant, but it is effective as a self-contained entity to get people where they need to be for the back end three

And I gotta get cracking on my mythology set of X-Fs ... has it really been that long since they left the air ...

Sports
Ironically people are more concerned about drinking at Aloha Stad than going to Aloha Stad for games ... I just have this feeling that the JJ era here has run its course and the goodwill that people once had for him is pretty darn near that E line

Other than that, I really haven't been following sports that closely so far this FB season ... or the other sports that are starting up right now

Bookish
I've been kind of in and out of a few books ... really like the one from The Sports Guy ... even though it is a book about Boston sports, his cultural and pop references and humor are relevant to my 30-something ass

Thought I would try on some Chuck K. (the Spin Mag guy), the music and pop culture critic ... I found his book on pop culture to be well, how do I put this nicely ... TIRESOME

I mean, I couldn't even get by his whole thesis on how guys our age are fuct because of the movie Say Anything ... essentially women are looking for Lloyd D. and for love that is like Coldplay music ... and that's in the first ten pages. So pending further review, that one will collect dust until I am of the proper temperament to read it

Maybe I might enjoy his book about 80s metal and glam better ... we'll see

TV (is TV, circular logic)
For some reason, I am unduly hooked into watching ASwim programming and different things on ComedyCent ... and I absolutely cannot stand reality TV at this point, not that I was such a big damn fan to begin with ... I am thinking of removing VH1 and MTV from the channel memory

Posted by at 4:01 PM | Permalink