31st Mar2009

Girl Talk – Night Ripper

by nickwan

Maybe the best way to describe Girl Talk is if you took every single song you have liked or heard and have had stuck in your head and made a glass sculpture out of it… then took a giant sledgehammer to it, picked up the fragmented pieces, and tried to recreate the masterpiece you just saw shattered, that’s what this album sounds like. Musically, it sounds almost exactly like this… and to most, just like modern art, they will hate this. But once you get past that first layer of “wtf?” you might get to a state of mind that’s closer to your modern ADD thoughts than you thought you had. 

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23rd Mar2009

Ace Enders & A Million Different People – When I Hit The Ground

by nickwan

Bands that come to mind when I think of New Jersey: Thursday, Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start, and Skies on Fire.

People that come to mind when I think of New Jersey: Gregory House, The Boss, Eddie Cuddy and Carla Fernandez.

Nowhere in this equation is Arthur “Ace” Enders and his many facades. In this new case, Ace Enders & A Million Different People. A person and a band that actually has a reason to exist in the heartless world of today’s music.

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18th Mar2009

Poster Palette Color Inspiration

by Adam Haynes

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I often find that one of the hardest parts of design can be developing an appropriate color palette.  With likes of  colourlovers and Adobe’s kuler there is an almost endless supply of inspiration to get you going.  I’ve taken the time to pick out a diverse group of movie posters to help show that beautiful palettes can be found anywhere.

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15th Mar2009

An Horse – Rearrange Beds

by nickwan


After Sara Quin, of Tegan and Sara, proclaimed her undying affection for An Horse, stating touring with them was just like being able to see her favorite band play every night, it made me stray away from my own undying affection for skq (Sara’s initials) and following up on her recommendation. Usually, and unfortunately, I’m very not impressed with band’s recommendations of music. When Dragonland cited Rhapsody as being their favorite band I decided to follow up on their recommendation and was not only unimpressed but almost appalled. It really made me never want to take recommendations from my favorite artists ever again.

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13th Mar2009

Manchester Orchestra

by Adam Haynes

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Album :
I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child (2007)

Manchester Orchestra is relatively young indie/punk/rock band from Atlanta Georgia. They have sound reminiscent of the recent years of Brand New. MO’s vocalist Andy Hull has become recent phenomena in the indie scene. His unique voice and dynamic style has found him in constant demand as a guest vocalist. The lyrics and melodys found on “I’m Like a virgin [...]” show that despite his short years of experience he has a firm grasp on the finer points of songwriting.

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12th Mar2009

The Get Up Kids – A few years later

by nickwan

I’d like to begin this with a quote from TGUK themselves:

If we had known what we know now…
One year later, we’d still be around.

Of course, many people draw the idea that TGUK is doing this because of money. They are re-releasing, arguably, their best record Something to Write Home About, and doing a reunion tour in support of it. Their first set of shows they played StWHA in it’s entirety, playing songs some haven’t heard live since their inaugural StWHA tour. Everyone hasn’t heard songs like Holiday and Ten Minutes live since 2005. And with the idea that every single member is living in the shadow of TGUK, except for Reggie-himself James Dewees (a member of MRC’s Black Parade), a reunion would reignite the money machine for everyone and their shortcomings. I don’t think this is the case at all personally.

I actually believe the only person who wasn’t that well off in their post-TGUK experiences was Jim Suptic (my favorite “Kid”). But even Suptic had his reasons and ways to work around it. He had a fucking kid, who wants to be touring the US like the Popes in Koufax, or Dewees with Reggie and MCR?? Suptic also had his project, Blackpool Lights, and a somewhat underground following with their CD This Town’s Disaster.  Now, even though Matt Pryor, in all his glory, was also bestowed with a child (two of them now), Suptic also didn’t have a somewhat structured project like Pryor, who had The New Amsterdams to fall on. Suptic, other than having a record label and a studio (Black Lodge Recordings in Eudora, KS is for sale for $300,000 for anyone who is interested), has a somewhat disbanded project and now a kid. Unfortunately, this isn’t the best position when trying to raise a family. Especially when you’re band has sold out every single show you’ve played since your annoucement of breaking up in 2005.

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