29th Sep2009

AFI – Crash Love

by nickwan
AFIs Crash Love

AFI's Crash Love

So, there is a big divide between those people who absolutely loved AFI’s hardcore punk stuff, pre-Sing the Sorrow. Then, there are some people who are direly in love with everything Sing the Sorrow and after. There are few who love all of it equally, which is fine. Most like either or. And Crash Love doesn’t change a thing.

To the side of the hardcore punk AFI lovers: shut the fuck up. It’s like those people who say “oh, older Metallica was SOOO much better”. Guess what, it still is good. Just go download the old albums, load it on your iPod, and go on a bike ride. This is no different for AFI. Just because you like hardcore punk so much that anything not hardcore punk is bad, great. Keep your vinyl to yourself. But just because some band tries something new out doesn’t mean all those albums suddenly suck. AFI doesn’t suck. Nor did they “sell out”. They are musicians. Jesse Lacey said something along the lines of, “between our first album and second album, we learned how to play our instruments”. Lacey was probably pretty serious about that statement, but it’s a good quote to think about. There is more than just hardcore punk, and there is definitely more than one thing one band can just play. AFI shows us that with this new album. There is not much there for the hardcore sound, to some dismay, but it is still fun. It’s maybe turning more for the Nightmare of You crowd, that somewhat indie poppy jumpy punky sound. Can’t see many of those ’88 punks two stepping to this shit. But in some weird way, like when you go to a New Found Glory show, I’m sure those guys will find a way to crowd kill the teenie-boppers until their soccer moms take them home in minivans.

To the side of the post-hardcore AFI lovers: what is it about this band? Sing the Sorrow did set some good standards for what AFI was heading towards, and I do think they completed most of that idea with DecemberUnderground, but this new album is no where near a top 10 list for me. Sadly, these Northern California kids kind of feel like they are heading down the “American Idiot” road. I’m not saying they’ll win album of the year for this thing, but I get the feeling that they are stretching their musical arms and realizing they aren’t Mr. Fantastic. This album is decent, but that’s about it. There wasn’t one song that struck me as amazing. “Too Shy to Scream” almost had the best intro of the album until the song turned it into another forgettable track in a year of amazing tracks. Although, I must admit, I’m a sucker for swing dance drum beats.

Some questions:

Where’s the passion in this album? Davey? Hunter? Or is this too artsy for my own good?

Where’s the next step after this? Back to punk? Forward with the indie experiment? I almost feel as if this album is four years late. Each song makes me think “Nightmare of You/Black Kids did this already…”

Will you be the next Green Day? Well?

A little more about the album: loaded with singalongs, shout outs, and some nice pitting parts sprinkled throughout the album. Medicate is the most lame-punk sounding thing off this entire album, and it might also be the weakest song on the entire album. I’m sure it’ll find it’s way on Live 105.3 soon enough. Davey does a lot with his voice on this album, but we know Davey can sing very well, so don’t be surprised when he takes on the roll to track three of his own voices in three different octaves. Overall, the album is much more fun than DecemberUnderground, but it’s also a lot less inspired/inspiring. I don’t want to listen to this album more than once a week from the point of this review. As I write this, with my third listen through coming to an end, I’m not turning this album on again for a good while.

Some glimmers of light on this album: Sacrilege is a nice song but it’s nothing different. At this point in time, I think I’m looking for that “Fugazi” type band that changes the face of the scene or starts a completely new one. There was that indie folk renaissance that happened in the early 2000′s. Brand New almost convinced me that they would be that “Fugazi” band that would rape this scene into something different… but then I listened to the album past track one and realized it was way too weird to be a game changer. I was hoping AFI might introduce something different, but they didn’t. Looks like it’s up to you, Tegan and Sara!

After listening to the album a few times, I’ve decided I’m not a big fan of it… but I’m not saying it’s a bad album. It just wasn’t a great album. It was a great waste of time though. Really. It was. Listen for yourself and after the album is done you’ll say to yourself “shit… well, at least I heard it.” You won’t be that disappointed.

Category : Record Reviews
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29th Sep2009

Paramore – brand new eyes

by nickwan
brand new eyes

brand new eyes

If you have preconceived notions about the pop-punkers Paramore, please throw them out the window. I have always been an advocate for these kids (just ask Felisha) and completely loved Riot!. They had that harder sound about them that carried a little more weight with me than some of these other fake-sounding aggressive bands. Maybe that was mainly because the band’s main influences are close to my own… At the Drive-In, Fugazi, various hardcore bands… This is just what ended coming out of their amps and mouths. And I totally dig it.

Many will disagree with me, but Paramore is one of the few bands who come close to sounding like At the Drive-In with this new album. It’s got this crazy vibe about it that only the Hell Paso crew brought to the table oh so long ago. I mean, it doesn’t seem that Hayley and gang are doing copious amounts of drugs like the ATDI guys were doing, but they are definitely doing something, and that something is called right. They are definitely doing it right.

The first two tracks, “Careful” and “Ignorance”, definitely give me that older aggressive vibe I always liked. The third track is more than likely the second single off the album, but has some nasty lyrics about it that my friend Brandon Lowder probably has uttered before. The next few tracks keep it moving with that progressive punky sound those late 90s bands used to put out. I’m trying really hard not to live in the past, but this album is making it much more difficult.

Dare I say… brand new eyes is actually a better album than Brand New’s Daisy? I think I will say that. However, does it top Owen’s New Leaves? It’s hard to say. Can it top David Bazan’s Curse Your Branches? I mean… how can you top the albums of the year? I guess if you made the album of the year, then you would obviously top the previous contenders… but is Paramore, those teenagers from Franklin, Tennessee, really going to top one of Chicago’s greatest indie musicians, or even one of Seattle’s best singer-songwriters? Well, let’s give it a few more listens, but sources point to no. But this album definitely is a contender for a top spot for albums of the year. At the highest, maybe #3 or #2… but it’ll be pretty hard to compete with Bazan and Kinsella. At least on my list.

(Still waiting on Tegan and Sara)

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28th Sep2009

(more than the regular) Week in Review: 9/18 – 9/27

by nickwan
Owen (aka Mike Kinsella) finally playing LIVE with a BAND!

Owen (aka Mike Kinsella) finally playing LIVE with a BAND!

Hi everyone. Before I begin, I just wanted to say that the website www.snagfilms.com has some amazing FREE documentaries on pretty much anything. From mainstream issues like global warming or political injustice to things like a group of people living “off the grid” and real life role playing games. It’s also not just a bunch of indie douche bags with handycams and iMovie. Some broadcasting companies like ABC and NBC have a few of their jounralists’ reports and documentaries on their too. In short, snagfilms is a great educational time waster I came across… back to the music.

-Mike Kinsella rocked out with a band in Chicago for his CD release party, as he was releasing New Leaves. YouTube provides a nice version of a bunch of songs from the new album as well as some old favorites with said band. The video below is my personal favorite song from the album, “Amnesia & Me”.

-Anti-Flag, known for having half of their set a preaching about how much government sucks, had to cancel their show in Pittsburgh due to it’s locale to the G-20 summit, which they were protesting. In response to this, they will be hitting the free streets of Pitt to protest against corporate America. Good luck, you Americans.

-Hip hop icon Mos Def and Damon Dash of Roc-A-Fella Records are collaborating on a documentary about the Detroit punk band Death. The band, an all-black group formed in the mid 1970s, pioneered the punk scene in Detroit and are cited for being not only inciters of punk in Detroit but punk in America. No wonder why they are one of the headliners at the Fun Fun Fun Fest this year.

-Erik Schau, a local product from Petaluma, Ca, completed his album entitled The Letterwriter. The album should be up on the 402 Files share this week. In other news, for every 30 downloads Schau will owe his producer, me, a six-pack of Augustiner, my favorite beer from Munich. Be on the look out for that.

Category : Music
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22nd Sep2009

Cardboard Box Vectors

by Adam Haynes

boxed_preview

Some vector cardboard boxes i created for your using pleasure.  These are free to use in your commercial and personal projects.  Please link to this blog post if possible.

DOWNLOAD


Category : 402 Freebies
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17th Sep2009

The Week in Review: 09/06 – 09/17

by nickwan
I love you Sara Quin

I love you Sara Quin

Sorry for the delay folks. Luckily, there wasn’t much news last week… and this week there was a fair amount. So here’s an update from the past two weeks… Should be resuming the normal Sunday updates this coming weekend!

-Rivers Cuomo said “Undone (The Sweater Song)”, Weezer’s first single off of The Blue Album, was a complete rip off of Metallica’s “Sanitarium”. Cuomo, an advocate of the 80s metal variety, says he was shooting for a “Velvet Underground-type song”.

-LA locals You, Me & Iowa are calling it quits. The underground indie-pop group, who’ve toured up and down the west coast for the better part of six years, are hanging it up with a final show on October 3rd. This is some what of a shock seeing as they had/have an album coming out… coincidentally, the final show in LA is also the CD release show.

-In the counter-wtf turn of events, Courtney Love and the Cobain Estate, composed of former Nirvana mates David Grohl and Krist Novoselic, are up in arms about Kurt being able to sing other songs aside from the Nirvana songs. They feel as if this was a backhanded deal and a mockery of the grunge legend. In other news, Love is about to make millions of dollars from Activision, the company putting out Guitar Hero, and David Grohl is on tour with members of Queens of the Stone Age and Led Zeppelin.

-Tegan and Sara, the loves of my life, are releasing a book called On, In, At. The book is part photography and part autobiographical/journal accounts of their past touring in support of their last album, The Con, and also their writing jamb they had in New Orleans. None of the songs from their New Orleans sessions will appear on their upcoming album, Sainthood. The book begins presale September 28th!

-The Green Day-inspired, and Green Day-approved, musical American Idiot has been getting good reviews. It has extended it’s run until November 1st. In other news, the Bay Area punkers are putting out a 7″ vinyl box set. The cost? $150.

-Beastie Boys are reissuing Hello Nasty. This album will be released in a similar fashion to Green Day’s box set, with over 40 songs from that era of recording in various formats (vinyl, CD, digital) and will sell for less than $150, surely. Also, “Now, don’t you tell me to STOP!”

-The Get Up Kids have written a bunch of new songs!!!! Matt Pryor has said they’ve written and recorded their new nine songs and are looking forward to putting it out in a “not really traditional way“.

-AFI is slowly releasing their media via 30 second streams from their upcoming release Crash Love. Blahblahblah…

-forgetters, the phoenix-type “rise-from-the-ashes” band fronted by Blake Schwarzenbach (Jets to Brazil, Jawbreaker, Thorns of Life) is going on a mini-tour on the east coast in the next few weeks with dates in Philly, Baahhston, NYC, and…. Providence, RI? Well, alright then.

-NFG and Dashboard Confessional are going out on tour, as announced by Carrabbabababa and Twitter-expert Chad Gilbert via Twitter. This will be the first time DC and NFG will be back together on a tour since DC’s Swiss Army Romance tour. Chris Carrabba also said to watch out for new covers on this tour. In a related DC event, Carrabba also released the demos of “rooftops”. Check em out!

-The Smashing Pumpkins are releasing a 44-song album(s). The hard-copy version of these songs will be released in eleven 4-song EP’s, which Billy Corgan has called a “mini-box set”. To anyone, eleven album cases is definitely not “mini”. In any case, the real winner here is you — the digital copies of these songs will be released completely free with no strings attached over a course of a year or so, says Corgan.

Category : Record Reviews
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16th Sep2009

Owen – New Leaves

by nickwan

Not only has Mike Kinsella brought lists of confusion to those who want to play his songs since he rarely ever plays in standard tuning, but does it in such a way that makes you think “damn… this doesn’t sound like it’s that hard”. When it comes to simple sounding music, Mike Kinsella in his “Owen” persona takes the cake. The layers of instruments, the simple use of distortion, and yes… the weird time signatures that pop in and out of the record, make his new album New Leaves his best album to date, and a contender for album of the year.

Mike Kinsella is no guitarist by design. Originally the drummer for influential Chicago indie band Cap’n Jazz, Mike Kinsella found his way to the guitar in his own studio outfit dubbed American Football. A few years pass, and Owen is created. His first album being completely different from his next albums, this newest album is the most “kick back” to his older upbeat sound. New Leaves takes the intricacies of At Home With… and the indie-pop sound of I do perceive. and fuses the two into this new creation.

The Polyvinyl site (Mike’s label) officially states that this album was recorded over the course of two years, with three producers other than Mike to help him with the noise. Unlike At Home With…, New Leaves doesn’t set out with the intent to be that “at home” feeling album. Although, as usual, Kinsella brings the notion of an “at home” feel not for one entire song but rather in and out of songs — never once does this album encounter just a solo attempt with guitar and vocals as his previous albums have showcased in at least one song.

Something that definitely is a kick back to I do perceive and those songs would be the electric guitars. Although they sparsely appear throughout his discography, I do perceive had the bulk of the electric vibe to it. This album, New Leaves, definitely brings that attitude and feel back. Songs like “Never Been Born” and “The Only Child of Aergia” showcase this brilliantly. As for the more At Home With… flavor, “Ugly on the Inside” is the best earthy-acoustic sound produced on this album, with reminiscence of “Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi” off of At Home With… Although, some people might be surprised to hear that “Good Friends, Bad Habits” is not the original acoustic demo he posted on his MySpace page a few months ago. On the contrary, it doesn’t sound like it at all… however, if you ever get a chance to see Mike live, you will be surprised usually to hear what the acoustic versions of most of his songs sound like.

The pros for this album: Mike Kinsella is not afraid to go back and revisit those old sounds he once created. Many artists today feel like tampering with older stuff is almost on a level of unoriginality. Mike Kinsella uses his predefined sound as more of a base rather than a complete rip off to start his album. I would definitely say it is most different from other albums he has put out. Another pro is that there isn’t any of those “Owen-esque” bridges or outros that last half of the length of the song (e.g. “Bad News” and most of his first album, self-titled). Some people might not think that’s a pro, but I am a firm believer of a studio vs live sound… and the infinite outro is definitely an on-stage-only execution.

The cons for this album… when will you ever actually hear any of these songs? Much less, with a band? I know he played with a band in promotion of this album ONCE in his hometown of CHICAGO… but unfortunately, the last time I flew out to Chicago for a show with Mike Kinsella was when he put together a Fugazi cover band and right after one song downtown Chicago had a black out. Sweet flight over, bro. Mike Kinsella is a father first, also. Touring for him is seldom and usually to the east coast. Plus, he usually never headlines… so his sets are anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes long. Another con, going along with the live sound theme, is the idea that all these songs not only have band components to them but they are practically integral. With the past albums, and most pronounced with At Home With…, Mike Kinsella used a backing band in the studio only to make the (usually acoustic) guitar and vocals more accentuated.  Rather, this newest album has a lot of bass guitar and piano that become the main rhythm or most memorable lead to the songs where they are featured. To be honest, the first time I saw him play “Bad News”  I honestly thought to myself “holy shit, he’s playing the rhythm and lead at the same time…” so, with that in mind, it’s possible he surprises us with his guitar madness yet again.

In the race for album of the year, this album is my personal favorite of the year. The five most memorable albums thus far have been: Owen – New Leaves, David Bazan – Curse Your Branches, fun. – Aim and Ignite, Brand New – Daisy, and Ace Enders & a Million Different People – When I Hit the Ground . The next most exciting album for me to hear will be Tegan and Sara’s new album Sainthood along with AFI’s upcoming album Crash Love. It’s always possible that Glassjaw might throw a new album out there… but who’s to say? Far is expected to have an album out for sale before the year end as well, so there is definitely plenty of music to look forward to still… it’ll just be hard to top this album.

This album doesn’t officially come out until September 22nd, but if you were lucky and got the pre-order then it’s been at your doorstep since yesterday at the earliest.

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06th Sep2009

The Week in Review: 8/30 – 9/05

by nickwan

-Long time solo artist Owen, aka Mike Kinsella, is finally getting a real band backing him for a show (hopefully more?) in his hometown of Chicago on September 18th. Two of the confirmed members of the band version of Owen will be brother Nate Kinsella from Make Believe/Joan of Arc and Bob Nanna of Brain/Hey Mercedes. This is quite possibly my personal favorite news of the year, right behind TGUK’s reunion.

-Thursday is going to be packaging a new deluxe version of their latest release Common Existance featuring three songs, a remix, and a music video. The reissue willl be going to be on merch tables as Thursday embarks on their tour with bands The Fall of Troy, Dear Hunter, and Young Widows, with one off shows with Sacramento’s Far. Not to mention, Jonah Matranga from Far is one of the backing vocals on the album War All The Time… watch out for some epic songs in these sets.

-The “wtf?” moment of the week is the reuniting of Sublime at Cypress Hill’s Smokeout Festival. Seeing how the lead singer/guitarist is dead, leaving the three-piece band with a drummer and bassist and nothing else, this is almost like The Beatles reuniting. I guess the upside to this is that Pepper won’t be playing at this festival. Or The Long Beach Dub All-Stars.

-Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco has completed it’s second year. OLF3 will most likely happen…

-Courtney Love and Dave Grohl have flipped Cobain’s grave by turning him into a character on the upcoming game Guitar Hero 5. Kurt Cobain will have the “teen spirit” look to him… oh yeah, he’ll be playing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Lithium”. I know Kurt would be excited!!

-The Ulalume Festival in Columbia, MD will be headlined by AFI and Paramore this year. If that wasn’t big enough for you, select performances (aka AFI and Paramore) will be aired on MTV. I still love you Hayley.

-Foo Fighters are releasing a “greatest hits” album in November. This always amuses me since greatest hits usually means that the band is no longer creating “great hits”. Could this be because bassist Nate Mendel has reunited with his early 90′s emo pioneers Sunny Day Real Estate? Or possibly because Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, and John Paul Jones have created Them Crooked Vultures for the time being?

-Against Me! has posted a video from the studio. This will be the follow up to the critically acclaimmed New Wave released in 2007. However, after seeing them place a one off show at a local punk venue a year or so ago, they did not impress their fan base. Actually, they were ridiculed after the show in the parking lot about how their new stuff sucks and how they should just play their old stuff. It seems like they took it to heart… but we can only determine that by this hopefully good upcoming album.

-The Fall of Troy has released a new song from their upcoming album In the Unlikely Event. The song is called “Panic Attack“. The Fall of Troy is on tour in the US right now in support of their upcoming album.

-The Used released their new album Artwork. In the recent vein of the musical-rock movement as demonstrated by Forgive Durden, Green Day, and Say Anything, The Used has taken their own stab at creating a more-than-music-less-than-story album.

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Category : Music
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01st Sep2009

David Bazan – Curse Your Branches

by nickwan

After extensively touring throughout the US, Canada, UK, and Australia for the past 3+ years, Bazan has crawled his way back into the studio to put out his first full-length LP, Curse Your Branches. Released today, Bazan’s consistancy for his Seattle-bred sound is only furthered by these 38 minutes of indie love. Never leaving the realm that he pioneered with Pedro the Lion years ago, Bazan only expanded the amount of instruments he could play and has implimented them all into this record, blending his sound he gathered from his Headphones project and the singer/songwriter style he also garnished in 2006 with his EP, Fewer Moving Parts. It’s hard to find much wrong with David Bazan, from his live show to this newest release, and maybe that is what is his biggest enemy… consistancy.

Years ago, coming up in the late 90′s, the term “slow-core” started popping up. This was used to describe bands who weren’t part of the alternative rock scene (composed of bands like The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, etc), nor were they moving along with the indie bands of the time (i.e. Jimmy Eat World, The Get Up Kids, etc). This music was a lot slower and a lot more… sigh… sad and depressing. Some classic pioneers other than Pedro the Lion of this unfortunate labelling of a genre would be, in no particular order, Carrissa’s Wierd (Seattle), early Death Cab for Cutie (Seattle), Elliott Smith (Portland), Rocky Votolato (Seattle), and to a somewhat further extent The Red House Painters (San Francisco). This music, slowcore, is nothing more but glorified slow songs that are pretty easy to get intimate with on an aural level. Usually not the most technically difficult music, the arrangement usually matches the root meaning of the song, as the song itself is mostly in form of a story of some sort. It’s not very common for a slowcore song to have little to no meaning.

Now, there are tons and tons of bands taking influence from these artists. We’ve seen what slowcore-electronica could become (e.g. The Postal Service, Headphones). That electro-style has been popular for the past decade and has yet to stop inflitrating every nook and cranny of the rock world. We’ve heard the gamut of bands the mainstream consider “emo”, from the very well known Dashboard Confessional to the very unrecognized Jeremy Enigk, this music has subtly stretched further than most of these artists have realized.

Coming back to this album, David Bazan has not sacraficed anything of his own style for this album. And this should stand as a testament to this music he has helped build; this album could just be the quintessential slowcore album. Three albums in this genre have really struck me as “impossible” or “too good”, Pedro the Lion’s Achilles’ Heel, Pedro the Lion’s Options, and Death Cab for Cutie’s The Photo Album. Curse Your Branches is close to topping at least one of those albums for me.

The album, song for song, is too consistant in the sound in my own honest opinion. This does two things for the record: 1) it solidifies it’s stance in the scene this music will be promoted towards and 2) fails to bring about any change for Bazan in terms of style or music in general. For someone who isn’t very into this type of music, or is trying to get into this type of music, it would be very easy to mistake the discography of Bazan’s work, from Pedro the Lion to now, as all the same band. Very unfortunately for Bazan, all three entities he has played under are very different. But not different enough. This, again, plays into holding his own style… however, how many times can you sing the same song differently? Minus the Bear suffered from that bug with their past two releases… there is only so many songs about having sex, beaches, and drinking one person can write until each song is the same. How many songs about questioning God, break ups, make ups, and the music industry can Bazan write?

The most dissenting songs from Bazan’s style are “Please, Baby, Please”, “When We Fall”, and “Bearing Witness”. Both songs have this beach-campfire vibe about them. I’d say Bazan has never wrote a song like this before, but for some reason… it doesn’t sound different from what he’s done before. It’s different enough for this album to stick out though. Also, whoever is the new bassist(s) for this album, you’re doing one hell of a job.

Two songs that I would consider “the best” of the album, “Heavy Breath” and “Curse Your Branches”. These songs really tie together every single thing Bazan is about. Synthesizers, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, a full band attitude, and a very vocally driven performance via lyrics in song. It’s hard to believe that any other people were playing instruments on these two songs since everything about these songs SCREAM “Bazanbazanbazan”.

Between my two favorite releases this year, Ace Enders and fun., David Bazan is close to topping the unofficial charts. This album is way lo-fi when it comes to production, probably not hitting on much other than mixing and mastering. The personnel on this record isn’t much more than Bazan, a few familiar friends, and the will to make the most perfect slowcore music right now.

This album is definitely a breath of fresh air in a place where the scene has been swooped on by musical-rock (fun., Forgive Durden, Say Anything), as well as… well, that other indie rock (Ace Enders, The Gaslight Anthem, Black Kids, Brand New etc). The next breath of fresh air could possibly be from one of my all-time favorite artist, Owen New Leaves. But that’s not until the 22nd.

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