Strict Standards: Declaration of Walker_Page::start_lvl() should be compatible with Walker::start_lvl(&$output) in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/classes.php on line 576

Strict Standards: Declaration of Walker_Page::end_lvl() should be compatible with Walker::end_lvl(&$output) in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/classes.php on line 576

Strict Standards: Declaration of Walker_Page::start_el() should be compatible with Walker::start_el(&$output) in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/classes.php on line 576

Strict Standards: Declaration of Walker_Page::end_el() should be compatible with Walker::end_el(&$output) in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/classes.php on line 576

Strict Standards: Declaration of Walker_PageDropdown::start_el() should be compatible with Walker::start_el(&$output) in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/classes.php on line 593

Strict Standards: Declaration of Walker_Category::start_lvl() should be compatible with Walker::start_lvl(&$output) in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/classes.php on line 687

Strict Standards: Declaration of Walker_Category::end_lvl() should be compatible with Walker::end_lvl(&$output) in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/classes.php on line 687

Strict Standards: Declaration of Walker_Category::start_el() should be compatible with Walker::start_el(&$output) in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/classes.php on line 687

Strict Standards: Declaration of Walker_Category::end_el() should be compatible with Walker::end_el(&$output) in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/classes.php on line 687

Strict Standards: Declaration of Walker_CategoryDropdown::start_el() should be compatible with Walker::start_el(&$output) in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/classes.php on line 710

Strict Standards: Redefining already defined constructor for class wpdb in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 58

Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/cache.php on line 99

Strict Standards: Redefining already defined constructor for class WP_Object_Cache in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/cache.php on line 404

Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/query.php on line 21

Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/iamkevin/www/www/journal/wp-includes/theme.php on line 576
iam(still)kevin. » music.

Archive for the ‘music.’ Category

zune - tiny man hugging a rabbit

Friday, July 21st, 2006

comingzune.com

i kinda like the music (”Us” by Regina Spektor), but have no idea what that animation means.

tool & new music.

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006

i saw tool last night. they’re very good.

tool fans however, are largely a bunch of idiots, but if you ignore them, you can listen to a band with 4 talented musicians who make interesting progressive hard rock in all sorts of neat time signatures.
Also the band isn’t the best at improvisation, they’re very good technically and don’t do a whole lot of unplanned music trickery during their shows. They do play differently than what’s on the album, but don’t do guitar/bass/drum solos (which isn’t really a bad thing). Also Maynard (singer) made the same joke about seattle having some music called “munge” or something like that 4 years ago when i saw them.
But that doesn’t matter.
They’re a great band, and i’m glad i got to see them yesterday (without having to pay $250+ for a ticket), and i’ll lbe looking forward to their return at the end of the summer for their main tour.

I got a bunch of new cds lately -
The Darkness - Permisison to Land: silly 70’s hair rock emulating band.
Wolfmother - Wolfmother: non-silly 70’s rock style band. Pretty good album, havent really listened to it enough to decide if it’ll be something i listen to very often or not, but so far it’s looking good.
Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam: a return to more rocking, less politically charged music. not my favorite album, but good nonetheless.
Pearl Jam - Live in NYC 12/31/92: new years concert from 92, got it as a bonus for preordering. cool show from 13 years ago.
Tool - 10,000 days: crazy album cover with stereoscopic images and two lenses built in to see them. The album is good too - a little more just plain rock and less trippy spiritual than Lateralus, except for Vicarious which sounds like the song they couldn’t fit on the previous album. I like the album, not my favorite, but good.
Rob Zombie - Educated Horses: more rock, less electro-metal. Not the greatest album, but it’s alright. I’ve only listened to it a little bit so far, but it’s alright.
Buckcherry - 15: straight up no-frills rock complete with a pretty ugly yet rock n’ roll-sexy lead singer (a la Steven Tyler) . i like it, even if no one else does. “hey, you’re crazy bitch, but you fuck so good i’m on top of it” How could you not love that? oh right… it’s not wussy indie rock. :)

i’m leaving on friday for LA and E3!

i’ve been busy.

Thursday, October 27th, 2005

oops, forgot to set this to “published”

sorry i’ve been silent as of late. i’m kinda busy what with the xbox 360 going on sale in 26 days.

i was gonna just go to bed, but my ears are ringing to the point where sleeping is a bit difficult, so i thought i’d say hello.
i just went to the Foo Fighters / Weezer concert. First off, when a concert ticket says 7:30, that isn’t when the show should start, that’s when the doors should open. Though i didn’t really care, the guys I went with were annoyed that they missed Hot Hot Heat beacuse we got there at 8:00 since we had seats and didn’t think we had to show up when the doors opened, which we thought was 7:30.
Weezer was good, i liked them more than i thought i would. mark alex and eli were there to see Weezer. I’ve always liked the songs they get on the radio, but the ones I didn’t know were still enjoyable. Even though Weezer is basically geeky pop, the do know how to rock out, which i was pleased with. For the encore, Rivers walked out to the far end of the floor (it was at the Key Arena, basketball) to a small stage set up and played Island in the Sun, which was neat. After that, they picked a guy out of the crowd who played Undone-The Sweater Song with them, which made his day. probably the coolest thing to happen to him all year.

The Foo Fighters were who I went to see, and they were really good. loud guitar heavy rock, the way i like it. despite owning only one foo fighter’s album, the new one i knew most all the songs they played except 2. dave grohl likes to scream really loud too. i think he scared off two of the indie rock loving people i came with, mark and eli left around 10:40. alex headed out at 11:00 cause it was getting late and he had to sleep, which may have been smart on his part since the show didn’t end until 11:45. it was a good time all in all, i’d see either band again. kind of a strange mix of music, geek rock with loud guitar rock, but i had fun.

got a few more concerts coming up - this saturday i’m going to freak night 9 at quest field, a big electronic music thing, paul oakenfold and the crystal method are going to be playing or DJing or whatever. Anna’s dragging me to they might be giants in a few weeks, who i’m pretty sure i won’t love. i’ve got citizen cope next friday which will be really good, he was excellent at Bumbershoot. and liz phair sometime in mid november, i think.

well, the ringing is beginning to subside, i guess i’ll try to sleep through it. i need to get rest anyway, i’ll probably be at work until 11:00 pm tomorrow night. damn you people who want things to “work correctly” and “not crash.”

what do you do when all your enemies are friends?

new directors label series!

Tuesday, September 20th, 2005

awesome! 4 more dvds in the Directors Series are coming out this month.
the first three, covering Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, and Chris Cunningham were pretty awesome, I’ll be picking up the next 4 once they’re out.
vol 4 is Anton Corbijn, vol 5. covers Jonathan Glazer, vol 6. is Mark Romanek, and vol 7. Stephane Senaoui.
Corbijn has directed videos by U2, Metallica, Nirvana, The Killers, and a bunch of others.
Glazer directed radiohead, Jamiroquai, UNKLE, massive attack, plus a bunch of commercials, the movie sexy beast…
Romanek directed RHCP, NIN, Audioslave, Linkin Park, Jay Z, Madonna…
Senaoui has RHCP, Bjork, Garbage, U2, and more under his belt.

it’s gonna be cool.

I love noise and this life that it makes

oh no, the internet is invading.

Sunday, July 24th, 2005

i made a couple posts about system of a down having bad lyrics. now, a mere month later, something seems to have prompted a few people to descend upon my site and post some comments on how i’m an idiot because i have an opinion they don’t like. i doubt you’re interested, but feel free to read along with the fun times.

honestly these people aren’t that bad, they spell at least 80% of the words correctly and only have some basic flaws in their logic. haven’t had any people say “OMG SOAD ROKS U SUX0R!1″ hopefully it’ll remain that way. also i hope these people, wherever they’re from, will respect my site enough to not flood me with stupid posts. i’d rather keep it at a reasonably intelligent level of discussion.

Henry Kloss is cool.

Monday, July 18th, 2005

Tivoli Audio sells some beautiful radios.
They aren’t anything new: I first heard about the Model One, a very well designed single speaker AM/FM radio about 5 years ago when it was created by Henry Kloss, inventor of, among other things, the large screen projection TV. I thought it was a really nice looking radio, but
it was mono, and didn’t have a cd player, so i wasn’t so interested. Plus there were more things on which I could spend $100 as a college student. A little while later they came out with the Model Two, the stereo version, and I knew that eventually I’d have to buy one. Now there’s the Model CD and Model Subwoofer to complete the set.
The Model Three clock radio might be a better idea, since I already have a stereo set-up for the living room, and my alarm clock is the same one i’ve had since i was in high school, and it’s not working so well. I could get the Model Three and the Dual Alarm Speaker, and the CD and Sub for a nice bedroom radio.

So you know, if you were looking around for a housewarming gift for me, you could pick me up one of these. :) They’re all sold separately, and there’s no cost benefit to buying them as a package, except maybe shipping.
I’ll likely wait until I have a bit of money saved up before I buy any of this, what with the whole spending a couple bucks on a new condo.

Not much is new, I did Puzzle Safari on Saturday, ran around and solved puzzles for 6 hours. Our team came in 20th out of 63 which isn’t too bad.

Hank had a housewarming party later that night, he’s got a really nice condo.

I’m gonna go inspect my place on Tuesday, I’ll take some pictures and post them sometime.

i’m gonna ghost town
this motown.

warped tour.

Monday, July 11th, 2005

Saturday i drove out to the gorge with some friends to go to the Warped Tour. I mainly went to see The Offspring, since i didn’t know despite my lack of interest in punk music in general, it was really fun.
I saw a bunch of bands I had never seen before (or heard), among them No Use For A Name, My Chemical Romance, Atreyu, Drop Kick Murphys, the Transplants, All American Rejects, and I don’t remember who else. I also learned that sandals + mosh pit = not fun for the feet. Miraculously i didn’t break any toes, or even toenails, but next time i go to a concert i’m wearing boots. I really dont know what i was thinking, I guess i didn’t think i was going to be down in the pit for every single band we saw. But it was still really fun, maybe i’ll go back next year, and i’m looking forward to bumbershoot, the music festival that takes place over labor day weekend around the space needle and seattle center.

oh also i bought a condo.
(more…)

more on lyrics.

Monday, June 20th, 2005

I decided to just make another post since i was writing a lot in the comments.
This is in response to mike’s comment - he doesn’t listen much to lyrics, doesn’t care much if they’re bad, and what are examples of good lyrics?

The thing that bothers me about System of a Down isn’t that they have bad lyrics. It’s that they believe that their lyrics are profound and important, when really, they might be enough to place a non-rockstar in an insane asylum.

Ronnie James Dio in his various bands uses retarded lyrics that are contradictory and nonsensical, but he isn’t trying to make a statement.
check this beauty out:

Holy diver, you’ve been down too long in the midnight sea, oh what’s becoming of me
Ride the tiger, you can see his stripes but you know he’s clean, oh don’t you see what I mean

No, sorry Dio, I don’t see what you mean. As far as i can tell, that just means crazy, but so what? He’s not trying to sing about the downfall of society.

I think I can forgive some cockiness or ego-inflation about lyrics or other shortcomings as long as they can back it up with talent in other areas. Take Steve Vai. He doesn’t really write good lyrics, but you know what, there are very few people alive who can play guitar better than him so I’ll let it slide if a guy who’s been playing amazing guitar for 25 years wants to write lyrics and sing, even if he’s not the best at it. And he’s not that bad… usually.

As for good lyrics, Coldplay probably does have good songs lyrically, though I don’t really know them. My beef with Coldplay isn’t their lyrics, it’s that they only have one mood in their music; they should ligten up a little.
DMB has good lyrics, G ‘n’ R had good lyrics, and folk singers are all about good lyrics.

But the thing about lyrics is that good and bad mean different things to different people. In my opinion, good doesn’t have to mean deep or important.
I mean, take the Spin Doctors’ “Two Princes”. I think the lyrics are pretty good. They tell a story about one guy competing with another for the heart of a girl. The antagonist of the song is rich, spoiled, comes from an important family, and probably doesn’t love the girl. The protagonist doesn’t have much money, didn’t go to an ivy league school, but he loves her and will be a better guy all around. Simple lyrics, but they get the job done; you know what the song is about, maybe you can even relate. (Plus the music is better than System of a Down, but then again I don’t really like a lot of newer music where half the singing is just screaming hoarsely and the guitar just thrashes indistinct chords that you can’t make out.)

And now to fulfill Mike’s request for Kelly Clarkson lyrics. I doubt she writes her own songs, and i wouldn’t really call them good, but you can at least understand tham. Since U Been Gone (awesome, it has the word “U” in it!) is about a girl falling for a guy and realizing later that he doesn’t care about her and then dumping him. Pretty simple stuff really.
I am not looking up any more Kelly Clarkson songs.

it’s just a rainbow in the dark

system of a down.

Sunday, June 19th, 2005

seeing as i ripped on coldplay last time, i might as well say something bad about system of a down too, while i’m at it.
first off, the singer’s voice is rather odd. their music is very discordant, and their lyrics are really bad. they have a couple new songs on the radio right now which are less annoying than their previous songs, but they still have pretty awful lyrics.
from “radio and video”

hey man look at me rocking out
i’m on the radio
hey man look at me rocking out
i’m on the video

they take me away from
the strangest places
sweet danny and lisa
they take me away from.

the top stanza repeats 5 times, the bottom stanza repeats 3.
the lyrics don’t mean anything, and they can’t even be bothered to write enough lyrics to fit the entire song.

the thing that annoys me most about system of a down is that they act like they’re the next rage against the machine, singing powerful songs against the man and the establishment (supopsedly radio and video is anti-hollywood) but their lyrics are borderline retarded.
in the song “Aerials” there’s this beauty:

Always want to go,
But you never want to stay

if you want to go then you’re not staying. is there really a problem?

Holy crap, i just looked up the lyrics of “Chic ‘n’ Stu”. It means nothing whatsoever. But i bet they say it means Americans buy lots of food and we’re fat.

they’re just a bunch of pompous idiots, but at least they wrote a couple songs that i don’t immediately switch away from the instant i hear them. and they got close to not sounding completely insane with B.Y.O.B. an anti-Bush song.

i think i’d usually rather listen to coldplay than system of a down. although not always, sometimes the moposity level gets too high and i’d rather listen to horribly cheesy crappy music.

everybody’s going to the party have a real good time.

my favorite music review ever.

Sunday, June 5th, 2005

There is a great review of Coldplay’s latest album X&Y, and the band in general, in the NYTimes. In general I feel the same way about coldplay, not to mention a lot of other new bands around right now. Angst is well and good, but too many bands seem to be singing about how depressed and lonely and desolate everything is.
I haven’t heard much of the album, just a couple songs, but nothing about it is really interesting to me. Maybe it’s because i try to see things positively even when they aren’t going well, but i guess i’m not angsty enough to sacrifice interesting melodies in music for looping hooks and whininess. Or i am, but i just try not to be so emo about it.

te estoy buscando