http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CvKap2rY2k

Nu-metal is not dead, clearly.

a new track went up today from the ice choir's new record shown above. the track is called 'teletrips' and has a similar, but cleaner vibe to kurt feldman's previous project, the depreciation guild. i feel the previous act had more of a deliberate 80s band feel, where this one has seemed to take a turn more towards the pop aspect of the similar decade rejuvenation. head over here to check out the new track. if you dig it, preorder their record over here. it drops july 31st. there's also a 'two rings' single you can pick up from iTunes with two tracks on it (the title track, and oddly, a track that shares the name with the group).

also, not sure why i hadn't mentioned it the other day. probably because i was busy covering my hands and face with the paint huffings of my new back-alley-bad addiction to the new silversun pickups record. BUT. the new daytrader record dropped tuesday as well. and it is a very, very strong showing from the band. i'd loved their EP last days of rome and their live performances had me subscribed. i was checked in, for sure. and now this release on rise records shows that they've got their feet planted and don't plan to depart anytime soon. below is the song 'letter to a former lover' which seems to be the song that has stuck with me the most, though the entire record recalls the vibe when pop-punk was starting to shape up a little bit, and before it took a really weird pac-sun, ball necklace, dyed blond messy hair turn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i88OH4pKSOg

this is the best record to be released this year, thus far. i'm blown away by it. i've not yet put a description or a reason to words yet. i'm still experiencing this album as an extremely biased fan. i think these are the best songs they've written as a band, though. whoa.

I was sent this record, one of the first actually sent to me with the intent to be reviewed in years. I at first was looking at it almost with a level of excitement, something about cracking back into something I’d grown accustomed to, an aesthetic that I sort of attempted to hone down to a stroke by stroke science. which then got me to the next phase of emotion about it: The Labor. there’s often a strange divide that occurs between what I enjoy with a casual ear and what I enjoy with my critical ear. and that weight can often feel unbearable, despite my knowledge that that divide exists. I ate the feeling, found some free time and threw this record on. I listened while my day was organically unfolding.

one thing that I can say about the first track, “Hand in Hand” is that I was singing the hook along with the track before it ended. I can stamp complete and utter quality on a song instantly if it can get this kind of grip on me. and it has the strange quality of getting me completely invested in the band’s intention and song writing ability if I see that they understand the value of a hook and how to craft a song around the power of just that. but there’s also something to be said for a song like “It’s Hard Sometimes” which consists of a very classic structure, and a very strong driving sound reminiscent of (I almost hesitate to say it) the beatles.

The Whiskey Violets have a very smart sound. they don’t overstep their allowance and exist almost exclusively in a contemporary and pop sound, but they flourish enough to let you see into their musical ability strengthened by their indie and 90s emo sound. there are some masked guitar bends and chord work reminiscent of the kinsellas to be found, most prevalently on the interlude of track six which doesn’t warrant itself a title in the track listing, but stands out as a banner to their capabilities.

this is a tough record not to enjoy. it takes no massive chances, but that isn’t to say it doesn’t pull from a very diverse and incredible spread of talent. what stands out most is jon nistal’s consistent, smooth vocals which do a lot more to serve the song than his ability has done in his previous projects (long islanders may remember chance of a lifetime or dakota grace). and with the growth of his range and application, it’s clear that this new project is one that’s got the most space and room for its wings to spread and take off into a more widespread audience. this record is pure quality.

here's a video from ISIS to give you a vibe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWjhxnVcmgg

I'll see you there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3GXcbiSIDo

go check out the trailer.

We're Alive

I came across something pretty cool and I thought I would share.

First off, a smidgen of background.  Back in the 1920's, 30's and 40's, radio was it.  No television, no internet, no mp3's, no Playstation Vita.  Want to be entertained for an hour or 3, and you tired out your collection of novels, read the day's New York Times?  Radio was it - whether it be the music of the time, or something called radio drama.  Reaching it's height in popularity in the 1940's right before the advent of the television, radio drama was THE SHIT for the general population.  Basically soap operas, or Jersey Shore, for the American public.  I remember my grandma telling me about radio shows a long time ago when I was a kid, even playing a couple for me.  These were scripted and acted shows, just like a normal television show would be, except over the radio, obviously, it was for ears only; just like a silent movie was for 'eyes only'.  They incorporated anything and everything they could utilize to make everything sound real, effects, dramatic soundtracks, all of it.  I was definitely intrigued.  Even today, most people still know the legendary story about the 1938 radio drama broadcast of HG Wells' "War Of The Worlds" and much of the American public actually thinking there was a Martian invasion happening, and they were hearing it on the radio.  That's some crazy stuff; and just like with any good entertainment medium, if the performances and material are treated the right way, it'll seem genuine and you'll 'buy' it.

Apparently with the increasing popularity of the 'podcast' medium (and a bit from satellite radio as well) there's been a quiet resurgence of the radio drama.  I, for one, had no idea.  Although I'm not going to be interested in old-timey versions of The Shadow or War Of The Worlds, this little show called We're Alive caught my attention and I curiously jumped in to test the waters.  So far I really like it.

Basically We're Alive is a story of survival set in a post-apocalyptic zombie world, much like The Walking Dead, Dawn Of The Dead, and so forth.  It's a horror radio drama; 100% audio, nothing more.  It's written, directed, designed, and run by one man, KC Wayland; but features an impressive number of voice actors as well as sound engineers, designers, etc.  For a show that is entirely free on iTunes and relies on advertising to keep it going, that's amazing.  Now normally I'd be skeptical.  "Um, it's 2012.  Why the fuck would I download this when I can just watch a damn Walking Dead episode.  Come on man, I have Mass Effect 3 to play.  Are you serious?  a radio drama?!"  Let me tell you why this is worth your time.  #1, because this Wayland guy can write a scene.  There's some damn cool material in this so far, and I'm only up to Episode 6 (the chapters are 3 episodes each, each 'episode' is anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes long).  #2, and perhaps most importantly, I learned a long time ago that your imagination is way more powerful than anything that a show or a movie can come up with.  Your imagination will scare the hell out of you, and the pictures that your mind paints are many times, way more effective.  It's the reason why many times during well-made horror movies, they don't show the 'monster' until the very last scenes.  They want you to freak yourself out by imagining WHAT it is.

Now, We're Alive takes this concept and runs with it.  Yes, it's 2012 and zombies are cool.  Even cooler than Twilight made vampires.  The Walking Dead is the most-watched show since fucking Oprah, games like Dead Alive and Resident Evil sell insane amounts of units.  They are definitely jumping on the bandwagon a bit with the concept.  But if you can look past a slight amount of cheese (the zombie noises are 'ehh', some of the acting, while not terrible, also might not be Academy Awards material) it's definitely worth checking it out.  I listened to the first 6 episodes in one night and kept myself up until 2am.

So if you're looking for a new experience, I highly recommend it.  In an age of sensory overload, it's nice to sit back with an updated version of some old school entertainment.  Sit back for an hour, the audio track will let your imagination run wild.  Check out their website at www.zombiepodcast.com and download it free on iTunes (where else? years from now you'll be downloading your dinner from iTunes).

as a heads up, you can stream the full new shins record, port of morrow via itunes right now until it comes out next tuesday. i am feeling pretty good about it. it hasn't completely overwhelmed me just yet, though listening to the record made me feel a bit better than what the single told me i had in store. i've always somewhat related this band to very stripped down, threadbare indie tracks with a very smart almost 50s pop sensibility to them. wincing the night away dropped in 2006 and ended up being my favorite record of that year, and i reapproached it later last year and it still held itself up in an incredible place for me. this record fleshes itself up a bit more, adding more layers and harmonies and body all-in-all but still maintains a signature tone to it. there is no doubt that this is the shins, though maybe with a bit more gusto. i'm not sure that i can link you to the itunes stream, but open your program up and go to the store. it should be somewhere on the front page.

One of my more recent finds is a group called Broken Note which manages to appeal to my industrial inner-workings. They have an extremely heavy sound, with drum-and-bass-style rhythms that break up the usual formula of dubstep (step 1: build it, step 2: drop it). Their video has some great, hypnotic imagery:

On the other end of the production spectrum, there's a guy called ThePeteBox who is doing some quality stuff in the world of beat-boxing/looping. He has an album coming out April 11th called Future Loops which I might be checking out. Here's him doing a mind-blowing, one-man cover of "Where is My Mind?" by The Pixies, the song you might know from the final frames of the Fight Club film.

machinarium.

So.

On some site somewhere within the internet superhighway, I saw an article that made mention of a unique, critically-acclaimed game called Machinarium. Saw that it was available on Steam, downloaded the demo. Loved it. Just paid ten bucks for the complete game, which is a steal if you ask me. Available for Windows and Mac, I believe for the iPad2 as well. You get the soundtrack with the game.

Extremely simple gameplay, point-and-click adventure. Puzzle-solving. Incredible visuals, also pretty cute at times.
check it out at machinarium.net or just log into Steam and rock the demo.

i'm not really sure how to prepare you for the kind of early viral advertising this movie is doing for itself, but i am insanely intrigued by the entire concept. the film is called sound of my voice and it kind of interacts with/educates you while you're watching it. i'm fairly sure the process will continue to roll out the closer we get to the release date of april 27th.

jump over to the film's website and watch the first twelve minutes. they're slow, but get you immersed pretty quickly. you'll know if you're down from the first minute or two. overall, the plot seems to center around a cult who is looking to heal you of the burden of your existence. and also, i believe they're from the future. or they believe they're from the future.

check it out.
i'm in.

Garth Ennis. picture credit- comicvine.com

In the same thread as my post about the brilliant author Warren Ellis a few months ago, I thought I might delve into another graphic novelist a bit; a crazy Irishman named Garth Ennis who writes some of the most shocking, complex and entertaining stories I've ever had the pleasure of reading.  His ability to switch from ultra-violence to humor is staggering, sometimes within the same page, and if any other writer tried it I doubt it would come off as genuine or as smooth.

The worlds and the characters that Ennis comes up with are second-to-none.  Although he's had some critically-acclaimed runs of Marvel's Punisher, DC's Hellblazer (which might sound more familiar to you if it was called "Constantine" and Keanu Reeves was the star) as well as Judge Dredd, the two main series he's most well known for are his own; the ground-breaking series called Preacher (from Vertigo/DC) and his follow-up, The Boys (from Dynamite).

I'll warn you right now, Ennis's style isn't for everyone.  While writers like Warren Ellis, Ed Brubaker and Mark Millar are known for pushing the envelope and creating brilliant storylines and characters, Ennis goes for the shock value as well.  He doesn't shy away from graphic sex scenes, even more graphic scenes of violence, or gore.  To say his books are "adults only" would be an understatement.  However, the subtle political and sociological messages that comprise the undertones of his stories are often so intriguing that even if you are shocked or put off at some of the material, you'll come back for more.  This is perhaps why many of these guys are getting their stuff turned into movies, and Ennis's material hasn't yet been turned into a major motion picture.  This will change however; The Boys and Preacher have both been optioned by Columbia with supposedly Adam McKay directing the former, and Sam Mendes directing the latter.  Good news for a fan boy like me.

How twisted can Ennis get with his books?  Picture this, and I swear I'm not making this up as I go along; Preacher is about a down-on-his-luck preacher named Jesse Custer from Texas who retains the powers of an entity called Genesis, which is the by-product (baby) created from an angel and a demon having sex.  Jesse goes on a crusade to find and kill God - with the help of his hitman ex-girlfriend and his alcoholic best friend, who just happens to be a vampire.  Along the way a secret organization called The Grail, headed up by an extremely morbidly obese man with a penchant for prostitutes, tries to stop him; as well as the Saint Of Killers, a Clint Eastwood-esque quick-drawing madman who just happens to also be invincible.  Crazy enough for you yet?  Imagine a Western if you love Tarantino and hate Christianity (Ennis is a devout Atheist).

The Boys.

The Boys is a little bit more straight-forward, although still filled with shock value.  Imagine a world with superheroes.  Check?  Alright.  Now imagine what that world would actually be like, especially if they were all 'owned' by one corporation and not regulated by any government agency.  These super-humans would act just like celebrities (especially with people treating them as such), becoming reckless and compromising the safety of society and the world.  If they take down a high-rise while trying to capture a super-villian, murdering thousands of innocents accidentally in the process, who would condemn their actions or reprimand them?  If a few of these superheroes also had a secret fetish or considered rape a hobby, who could stop them?  In comes a CIA-backed organization of super-powered individuals known informally as "The Boys" who are charged with overseeing the superhero community... and who are made up of people who have been scarred for life by these reckless heroes and the corporation who brought them into existence.  Butcher - and English badass who has a personal grudge against this world's equivalent of Superman (imagine that your job is to intimidate and threaten Superman so he ceases being an asshole - that's Butcher).  Mother's Milk - a big black American with an attitude and a unique reason why he's as strong as a hundred men (you'll see).  The Frenchman - a poetic psycho "whirling dervish" who loves the finer things in life, as well as beating the shit out of people in costumes.  The Female - a little asian girl who might look unassuming but who literally rips faces off of people and carries out hits for the mob in her spare time.  and the character who we mainly follow, Wee Hughie - an Irishman (the influence and likeness for Hughie is none other than Simon Pegg from "Shaun Of The Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" fame) who is sucked up into all of this when a visit to the fair with his girlfriend goes awry, and she gets killed by a hero named A-Train accidentally (he threw a villian into her at a few thousand miles an hour).  "Oops."

To be honest, I have yet to read any of Ennis's material other than The Boys or Preacher - both of which are long runs.  Preached ended at 9 "trades" or graphic novels, and The Boys is currently at 9 trades with at least 2 more on the way, I'm assuming.  Although a significant investment, both series are totally worth reading.  If you're curious enough that you at least want to read the first book or two, to get your feet wet, get at me and I'll loan them to you.  Next up for Ennis?  Dynamite is coming out with a new series based on the established character The Shadow, and he will be writing it.  Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?  Garth Ennis does for sure, and I'm betting his take on The Shadow will be something way better than Alec Baldwin.

whoa.
so. i mean, i just got invited to join this social networking/sharing service called pinterest. i jump on, see the chaos which is the site on its own, start to get into the second level of it, start sharing, pinning, adding, following, you know. and i think it's alright. a day passes, and... it's everywhere. has it always been everywhere, and i've just been ignoring it? am i now just aware of it, so now it seems like hyperawareness?

here's the deal. you find images you like on websites, you pin them, arrange them in your own 'board' (folder), and it posts them in this amalgam of a front page along with the ones who you follow. you can repin (like an RT), and like (like a like) and it kind of just creates its own pulse. that's it. personally, i thought it was pretty cool. but now i'm hearing that it's getting some pretty large hype in the biz game (here) and also that people's mothers, sisters, cousins, brides (here) are getting exceptionally [liketotallyfucking] obsessed over it.

once i heard that stuff, i almost instantly ran away, alt+f4/ctrl+f4 on overdrive. but i stopped, looked it over, and decided that i really do like the site, and it is just like any of these other social sites that you get involved in. twitter, facebook, flickr, livejournal, xanga, deadjournal, tumblr, blogger, you name it. it's all about the circles you choose to follow and the way that you choose to share within it. follow who you want to follow, don't keep following someone/something if you don't like what they're sharing. no one will say it better than keith buckley (here). if they get offended or aggravated at that action, they need to reprioritize their social matrix, or you do. so, yes, make your twitter feed yours. and more to the point, if you see someone sharing pins that you feel are cluttering your page, unfollow them, leave them out. and if you don't like the site altogether, skate. don't use it.

my opinion, it's cool for a quick flip through. check your e-mail, RSS feeds, your twitter, your facebook, stumbleupon, pinterest, get out. this is mostly all here to entertain you, not sustain you. customize your experience.