Crooked River by Kaleo La Belle

So, apparently filmmaker Kaleo La Belle has made a film about Sufjan Stevens's and his Brother, Marzuki Stevens, reunion with their estranged father. The filmmakers hope to have it released some time this year!

Here's the facebook page for it: Crooked River

And you can watch the very awesome trailer for it here:

SUDDENLY YOURS-Allstar Weekend

Suddenly Yours-
Allstar Weekend
Label-Hollywood Records
1st Studio Album
Status-Out as of 2010
Rating-.5 feathers

Based in California, and gaining popularity by way of the Disney Channel, Allstar Weekend has released their debut called “Suddenly Yours”. But don’t let the boy-band looks, the fact that they don’t write their own songs, and the Abercrombie wannabe photo spread fool you: They are a lot worse than they appear!

If you love the idea of Boys Like Girls and Owl City fed into a grinder and extruded through the Disney Channel boy-band machine, then you’ll love Allstar Weekend. I, however, largely despise everything to do with that concept. The songs on “Suddenly Yours” progress from worse to ear-bleedingly horrible. The first few seconds of the album are ok, with passable synthesizers. But all turns to loathsome awful once you hear the singer’s voice and the other instruments. Everything sounds over-processed and synthesized; nothing sounds organic or like they sat down with the instruments and actually made up an arrangement on their own. Coupled with generic melodies, the lyrics are quite possibly the most vapid I have ever read. I cannot help but be inspired by lines like “get on your way/that kinda sucks,/wish you could stay” or the oh-so-motivating “Save my friends so they don’t/get hurt/get the mustard stain off my favorite shirt”. They are all simply vile pop songs with virtually no musicality requiring no apparent musical talent to make. Disney Channel fans will be in their glory.

I hope I never have to listen to “Suddenly Yours” again. They are an appalling excuse for “music”, and in regards to their own words “I’ll rock out/like Nirvana now/Be timeless like Madonna”, Kurt Cobain is rolling in his grave.

Video for Dance Forever

Recommendations: None
http://www.allstarweekendrocks.com/
Well, that was a horrific experience. Just don't listen to them. Really. Don't. The next review I will have out is The Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens. Now that's what I call music.

The People's Key Cover Art and new song!

Bright Eyes has released the cover art for their February 15th album The People's Key!



I think it's pretty ugly, to be honest. Cassadaga was clever, Noise Floor/Letting Off the Happiness were pretty, and I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning was just nice, but this is kinda pretty hideous.

What's not ugly is the fact that Bright Eyes was so kind as to release a song for free download from the album! It's called "Shell Games".


The song is great and I am thoroughly excited to hear it!

Hey, so it's been awhile...

I feel like I am at that point where I can start posting regularly again. I very happy to be back, and I would like to welcome my 8 followers to my blog again!

Any way, I'll have two reviews up in the next two weeks AND by late December or within in the first week of January, I will be posting my choice of best albums and best songs of the year.

Stay tuned and thank you for reading!

Bright Eyes are going on tour AND have a new album coming out!

Bright Eyes, fronted by Conor Oberst, have announced that they are coming out with an album entitled "The People's Key", which is due out on February 15th, which is also Conor's 31st birthday!

The People's Key tracklist:
1. Firewall
2. Shell Games
3. Jejune Stars
4. Approximated Sunlight
5. Haile Selassie
6. A Machine Spiritual (In the People’s Key)
7. Triple Spiral
8. Beginner’s Mind
9. Ladder Song
10. One for You, One for Me


After announcing one New York and one London show, they have just announced a series of more U.S. dates as follows:

3/2 The Fillmore Miami Beach @ The Jackie Gleason Miami, FL
3/3 House of Blues Lake Buena Vista, FL
3/4 Tabernacle Atlanta, GA
3/5 Thomas Wolf Auditorium Asheville, NC
3/6 The National Richmond, VA
3/8 Radio City Music Hall *** New York, NY
3/9 Radio City Music Hall *** (SOLD OUT!) New York, NY
3/10 House Of Blues Boston, MA
3/11 State Theatre Portland, ME
3/13 Sound Academy Toronto, ON
3/14 Royal Oak Royal Oak, MI
3/15 Vic Theatre Chicago, IL
3/17 Ryman Auditorium Nashville, TN

I hope those of you who are as thrilled about this as I am are able to get tickets!

INTERPOL-Interpol

Interpol-
Interpol
Label-Matador
Status-Out as of 2010
4th Studio Album
Rating-3.5 feathers

Interpol was one of the many bands that fell victim to what I like to call 3^rd album syndrome: the first two albums are fantastic, but the third album is just a monotonous wreck. That description fits their 2007 album, Our Love to Admire, like a glove. After three years off, Interpol have returned to redeem themselves with their fourth effort entitled Interpol, announcing that they were going back to basics and returning to a sound more like their mega-hit debut Turn on the Bright Lights. With a statement like that, the expectations are very high.

“Success” starts off the album in the same dramatic way Interpol start off most of their albums: prominent, striking guitar that soon gets underpinned by thick drumming. One thing is for certain: this song is wonderfully epic and they “have succeeded” in leaving you desperately wanting to hear more. These desires die pretty quickly into “Memory Serves”. It starts out a little slow, and it builds nicely for the chorus with perfectly drone-y guitar, but then it occurs to you that the song isn’t really going anywhere and becomes very tedious. The only thing that makes it interesting is Paul Bank’s terrible “Ooooh la la la” backing vocals. “Summer Well” restores the lost desire, starting off with a thumping bass line and piano very reminiscent of Muse’s “New Born”. It quickly kicks up, the vocals intensify, and the guitar comes crashing. It’s not particularly catchy, but that doesn’t take away the fact that it is a great song. “Lights” represents all the pretentiousness and grandeur Interpol have become stereotyped as having, but in the most glorious way possible. It’s the most wonderfully dramatic, affected, raw composition that they have ever conceived. It will move you to cry out, “that is why I hold you here” right along with them. “Barricade” is equally glorious. It possesses the joys of “Slow Hands” and “The Heinrich Maneuver”, but sounds like it could have easily been from their debut. If “Lights” didn’t get you wound up, then you will definitely be shouting “It starts to feel like a barricade to keep us away, it kinda does”. “Always Malaise (The Man I Am)” is a little awkward. It starts out fairly dramatically, and it builds to the point where you think, “Yes! YES!”. But then, it just anticlimaxes and gets weird. The instrumentation is okay, but the extremely creepy double-tracked vocals really destroy the song and obliterate any hope of you liking it. “Safe Without” is just as bad, but in an unoriginal way. The vocals sound very typical to the album, and the guitar riff sounds very generic, but more importantly, very not-Interpol. The added orchestration really just sounds stupid and makes it clear that they were trying a little too hard. “Try It On” sounds nothing like Interpol, which ends up working brilliantly. The main instrument is a piano and there is whistling, both of which are a complete first for them. The drumming is very syncopated, which fits the aura perfectly. The Julian Plenti influence is very prevalent, but I applaud them for finally innovating and expanding their sound. “The Undoing” closes the album with a dark, yet bittersweet sound. The guitar is similar to their usual closers, but the gloomy atmospheric sound along with the use of Spanish during the verses closes this dramatically grandiose album the best way they possibly could.

From start to finish, Interpol was non-stop overt drama. Every song was interesting to listen to, but most were almost too hard to grasp. Unlike their last album, they managed to make every song interesting, but they still failed to diversify their sound. The songs that stood out, like “Lights”, “Barricade”, and “ Try It On”, offered something new to the listener, whereas the others all followed the same tedious formula. As a whole, Interpol was a good attempt at redemption, but it generally failed to meet expectations. Interpol have come a long way, and I know that they will only continue to renew themselves, but that time isn’t now.

"We don't write for that purpose. But there's such a thing as a perfect song, and one day I would like to write one perfect song."-Paul Banks

Video for Barricade

Recommendations: Lights, Summer Well, Barricade
Interpol's Official Website
N ote: YAAAAAAAAAAY! I WROTE A REVIEW I WROTE A REVIEW! How immature. Okay, I hope any and all of you read this and I would love to hear your feedback. I allow anonymous comments, so everyone can respond. I also publish all comments, except for clear spam. So, thank you everyone. I really appreciate it!

So, I haven't really been around lately...

And I felt I needed to explain why:

Blogger has kinda died on me. Many music blogs that I loved and commented on frequently have stopped posting, one by one. Some have been gone 2 years, others only 2 months. Anyway, this has made me very unmotivated to post. I haven't felt the urge to review CD's like I used to or post my opinions of news and such. It saddens me greatly that I let my blog become this barren wasteland.

Anyway, so I'm not making empty promises this time: I will try to come back slowly: posting little snippets of news here and there, maybe a review soon. The much needed break I took from this blog has gone on for a while and I think I'm going to try to give it another go.

For those of you who are actually reading this: Thank you so much! I appreciate it fully and greatly! Thanks for the support.