wrankmusic

New Deftones album in May. ‘Nuff said. Article on Spin. Read here. Rejoice. Enjoy. Get pumped.

Fear Factory’s new album, “Mechanize,” is set to hit stores on February 9th. Here’s the video to their first single, “Fear Campaign.” Enjoy.

Just a quick reminder, we’re on Twitter and any time we update the site, Twitter is automatically updated as well. Get your Wrank fix automatically. Follow us here.

I’m pretty sure I mentioned this at some point last year, but if you didn’t know for any reason, Deftones‘ bassist, Chi Cheng was in a car accident back in November of 2008 and landed into a coma. He’s currently in a “minimally conscious” state and needs all the help in medical care that he can get. Bands and musicians don’t have health insurance, so they’ve been raising money for quite some time now. The current goal is $100,000 and they’ve reached about $85,000 thus far. I donated a while back and will probably be doing so again in the near future. If you want to find out more or give a few bucks, head over to OneLoveForChi.com.

Speaking of Deftones, I’m hoping to hear more news about their new album that was supposedly coming out this month. I’m assuming since there hasn’t been any news regarding it, the February release date is probably inaccurate. It’d be nice to hear some new ‘tones in this new decade.

I asked Steve yesterday if he had ever listened to Silent Civilian (Spineshank lead singer Jonny Santos’ new band) and low and behold, I didn’t realize that Spineshank was back together as well. So, Jonny will be doing both bands actually, but is currently concentrating on new Spineshank material. A new album was started at the end of 2008 and they have posted up their first video blog of 2009 here:

i want to thank rahul for the last few updates on this thing.
i’ve had it on my mind to throw a thought or two up here, but i’ve honestly just been waiting to hear some new music that really moved me, that really got me amped.

still in the process of waiting, but i’ve been silent for far too long, so i’ll throw out there what i can.

this thursday (the 4th of february) winds of plague will be playing the crazy donkey with the world we knew, stray from the path and more. i’m totally in. i’ll also be at portugal. the man on march 19th at highline. been on a bit of a search for live music and haven’t found any shows worth attending. still looking, still hoping.

a band neighbors has popped up with some ex-members of long island bands from the days of the temple beth’am. please check them out over here and show the love. there are some good preview videos over there to get an idea.

the dudes in all the more recently let loose their ep “so the story goes…” and are playing a few shows in the coming weeks in february. give it a look over here.

recently got turned on to an artist going under the name uh huh her. i’m not sure if they’re huge or unhuge, and the only myspace i could find was over here. definitely check them out, i’ve been digging on them the last couple weeks.

also, i usually do a little mix cd every couple of months to hand out and get people some new tunes they may have missed or that i’ve recently discovered. if you’re into getting a copy of one of those, hit me up at this email address and get involved. i’m down to put in the leg work or mail work. and, yo, if you want to make a mix and send it this way, i’ll be more than obliged to give it a listen.

the book of eli was aaight.

army of two: 40th day is a huge disappointment. as was darksiders.
white knight chronicles comes out this week, and i think it might actually be something that fans of the classic japanese RPG have been waiting for. kind of sucks that FFXIII is coming out so soon afterwards, but it could whet the palette a little bit. and next week (2/9) is the big test to see if the addition of multiplayer to the bioshock universe makes any kind of sense. the first one held it down, but after seeing some screens and video of the new one, i’m getting the feeling that 2k are trying to bank on the franchise tag.

My last post indicated that the recording may have been off on The Empire Shall Fall’s album. Well, that was clearly my mistake and probably something going on with what I listened to it on. I haven’t been able to stop listening to the album on repeat. It’s only 8 songs, but I can’t get enough of it. I’m posting my favorite track from the album on here for y’all to listen to. The album gets better with every listen. Awesome.

Sevendust have announced the title to their upcoming album, entitled “Cold Day Memory.” The band is back to their original lineup and this will be the 8th official studio release by the band. Starting on February 18th, the band will start displaying making of videos along with on tour videos at their official web site – www.sevendust.com. I’m stoked.

In other news, I’ve been listening to the debut album by former Killswitch Engage/Seemless singer, Jesse Leach, “Awaken” by The Empire Shall Fall. It’s the first album that Jesse Leach has actual screaming on since the first Killswitch album. There are strokes of genius and conversely, parts of what seem like mistakes in the recording. It almost sounded like at a couple of points in various songs, one of the guitarists missed a note, or perhaps that’s what they were going for. Even with those possible issues, the album is solid and delivers. There’s guitar ear-candy along with some heavy undertones and some low-tuned chugging as well. It’s awesome to drive to, that’s for sure. Scope it out at their MySpace.

So I was watching random videos on YouTube and I came across this trailer for The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers. It sounds cheezy, but apparently there are no special effects and it’s a movie (?) of phenomenal talent and dancing. Regardless, the trailer speaks far more than I can write in words and I’m quite interested in it. Scope it out.

I know, a little late into January, but regardless, Happy New Year everyone!

Sevendust have finished mixing their newest album with all 5 of the original members of the band, and expect to release it in April of 2010. Their last three albums have been much more of their sound and their true roots ever since they departed from TVT Records after their softest (and worst -- in my opinion) album, Seasons.

Here’s a studio video of John tracking guitar for an upcoming song. It’s definitely right up my alley.

Remember when action movies were just over-the-top and ridiculous? Yeah, it was the best. Then again, there were just some iconic movies from that era too, that didn’t involve Arnold or Sly destroying everything in sight with one big gun. As “corny” as this song is, I love it. So, as a kickback to the 80s, enjoy some Kenny Loggins -- “Danger Zone” and a brilliantly bad music video. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

This past Tuesday, Microsoft finally released the long awaited update to integrate Last.fm’s streaming music service into the Xbox Live dashboard. They also released the Twitter and Facebook integration as well. Compared to the Facebook and Twitter options, for a guy like me, the Last.fm option seems to be the most useful and best implemented.

The interface works well with the Xbox 360 dashboard and ‘NXE’ layout. Logging in was easy, and music starts streaming right away. This is especially useful for people that have their 360s hooked up to home theater systems and just want to blast some music in their living rooms. If you don’t already have a last.fm account, head to last.fm and sign up. It’s free!

Head over to Kotaku for their in-depth hands-on with video.

The only thing missing is background streaming so you could listen while you play games. Maybe they’ll add that later on? Either way, awesome update.

Melody Gardot

something entirely different. i was trying to find a version of the song “beautiful dreamer” sung by a female vocalist, but was finding it extremely difficult. i started straying from the path and getting distracted by random stories of vocalists etc. i was instantly caught up by a story of a girl, this Melody Gardot, who was riding her bike through Philadelphia and was struck by an SUV making an illegal left turn. she was in the hospital for a year in a body cast, and while in the hospital she was told to use music therapy as a way to reconnect her neural pathways. unreal. and we are now left with a completely legitimate jazz-styled female artist with a huge helping of soul. head over to her myspace to get a good listen to what she’s about. and while it’s not the standard fare that we’re used to discussing around these parts, i think this is a very welcome departure from the norm.

Ever since my first Audiovox cell phone on the MCI WorldCom network, I’ve had a dozen or so different phones and plenty of others that I’ve played around with and read about. Enough with the preface, as I’ve had my iPhone 3G since August of last year. Everyone seems to have an iPhone these days, because there really wasn’t any solid competition, until now. I mean, granted, the Palm Pre kind of tried, but it fell short in terms of speed and performance. So, here we are and on November 6th, Verizon released the Motorola DROID running Android version 2.0.

If you don’t feel like reading specifics, the bottom line is that if you’re on Verizon, get the DROID. If you’re on AT&T, get the iPhone. If you’re on neither, get the one that works where you’ll be using it (probably the DROID since AT&T’s service has just gone down drastically). Then again, if you have no use for an internet-mini-super-device, then get whatever your heart desires or whatever you have, keep using that. Props to you.

My initial pros/cons of the DROID (mind you – I love my iPhone):

Pros:
+Beautiful screen and bigger than the iPhone’s
+Verizon Wireless network – more reliable than AT&T’s and at least in New York, it’s faster, regardless of AT&T’s claims
+Physical keyboard for the folks that need that – I personally wouldn’t use it
+5MP camera with dual-LED flash (currently the software sucks to use it, but I’m sure with some software tweaking it’ll be awesome)
+Google Maps with Voice Navigation built-in (no need to get a TomTom or Garmin – as it’s built into the phone without extra costs)
+Android 2.0 OS (Android is really becoming a mainstay OS and is definitely going to provide good competition and a solid alternative. Forget Windows Mobile. They’ve been done for years.)
+16GB MicroSD card, replaceable with other MicroSD cards, up to 32GB. Carry around a dozen different MicroSD cards filled with everything you ever need to listen to.
+Fast – really fast, as in the same processor as the iPhone 3GS
+Replaceable battery – not like many people are going to, but at least the option exists.

Cons:
-Aesthetically, it looks solid and good, but not as polished or as sophisticated as the iPhone. It’s easy for it to blend in with the rest of the smart phones out there.
-Limited App availability at the moment. Apple boasts over 100,000 apps, and the Android Marketplace has approx. 10,000. Not bad, and I’m sure this will be fine overall but just in the sense of a numbers game, something to consider.
-The apps get installed on the built-in 256MB internal memory, vs. the 16GB MicroSD card – this makes no sense, as the iPhone stores its apps, music, video, etc. everything onto the overall storage. I’m sure Google can address this and fix it with a software update, but it was a poor choice in hindsight.
-Not a major issue, but unlike 3G GSM, on Verizon’s network, if you’re on a call, and want to look up something on the internet using data while the call is in place, it has to be on WiFi, as both data and voice cannot work concurrently on the CDMA network.

Overall, it’s pretty clear that the DROID is an awesome device and I recommend it to anyone that doesn’t want an iPhone but a device of its caliber and not on the AT&T network.

the new sherlock holmes movie is directed by guy ritchie. it stars robert downey jr. as holmes and jude law as watson. also, rachel mcadams happens to be the female lead. i know you may have known this. but it all needed to be tucked tightly together in one sentence to really give you that full battering ram feeling of just how powerful it can be. and a dope new trailer can be seen right over here. oh. and rachel mcadams. oh. and rachel mcadams.

i also just came out of seeing the men who stare at goats. i don’t think i will ever get used to ewan mcgregor speaking with an american accent. after making trainspotting part of a regular movie watching routine of mine for SUCH a long time, it’s just never going to sit right. i will never really know how legit it is, because it will always sound wrong. he played the part well, but clooney really had it nailed down. it wasn’t as hilarious as i expected it to be. i went into it thinking it was going to be a completely absurd romp through irony (think burn after reading with psychic powers) but it ended up being a pretty slow, detail oriented film. there were some beautiful desert shots to be found, most notably the complete desolation juxtaposed with some crystal clear skies. well played. while i didn’t get what i came for in this movie, i did get a fairly entertaining look at a supposedly “true” (just not sure how much was exaggerated) piece of the military and their grand entrance into the world of psi-ops. i’d say skip it unless you have the genuine interest in the film itself. the spacey is in it, too. as is the dude.

also, i got a heads up through a ton of facebook updates as well as through a txt from Brian that the clash of the titans teaser is looking brutal. i’m hoping they give it enough mythic qualities while keeping it safely clear of uber-metal-video. the harryhausen version was something that i had on vhs and would watch as a little guy and have a very special place in my head/heart for the movie and some specific scenes i hope they get right. but hold on tight. that movie can’t NOT be enormously epic.

i also saw a trailer for a movie called the crazies. i HATE the title, but it looks like it’ll be a good take on zombie movies. it’s got a little bit of the happening, a little bit 30 days of night, and a little dawn of the dead action going on. trail it up.

lastly, at least as far as movies go, i was told about a movie called let the right one in. did a little looking, and apparently, it’s being touted as a pretty legit vampire movie. could be a good counter to that other thing coming out next week.

i had a pretty decently sized list of things to talk about this time around but i’m going to have to cut it short with movies. i am currently experiencing difficulty with my “a” key, and am only able to use the letter by ctrl+V-ing a copied letter a. ridiculous. yo, check out those trailers, and get back to me on whatchoo thought of them and what else i need to see.

DO IT.

Remember way back when (read: 2 days ago) when I mentioned Celldweller? Well, there’s more info on the 2nd release of the latest EP release, Wish Upon a Blackstar Chapter 2 will be releasing in just under a month’s time. The album’s artwork is currently being worked on and more information regarding the release and the remaining parts of that can be found over at celldweller.com.