Monday Live (Spooky Edition)

Monday Live

I scrapped my original post in honor of the show I will be absent from tomorrow night. The city of Austin is not unlike that good-looking popular kid from high school, and every neighboring city are the nerdy lackies of said city. He gets all the attention and the attractive girls, leaving his friends, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, etc., on their own. Every touring band I've ever wanted to see this year skips my town entirely in favor of the forever cooler music mecca of the great state of Texas. So, just like in high school, I'll just stay home and listen to angst ridden love songs all night.

Kevin Arnold sells Real Estate

It wasn't that long ago one of my favorite childhood pastimes was re-uploaded into memory (and yes it was a television show), The Wonder Years complete series was available on Netflix. Then, imagine my surprise, the same week New Jersey indie rock posterband Real Estate releases their newest LP, Days. And one such song entitled "Wonder Years," only hightened my excitement of this new release. Of course upon hearing...meh, not so much. I actually heard that last line muttered in my head by Daniel Stern midway through the track.

The latest album is not without it's familiar low-fi surfy charm, albiet very polished and studio friendly. I had to give it a few listens to let it grow on me, but, grow it never really did. There are a few key tracks, one of course being "Out of Tune", which wasn't really that amazing when I heard it a few months back, but now it's kind of the best song on the album. However, I will say, after viewing some of their live takes on the album, I can see behind the veil of clean, uninteresting pop, to the real backbones of these songs....they are meant to be enjoyed live. Really. But that's where the buck stops with me. I know I am being a bit hard on the guys, but when you release a debut album of such high caliber, you can only hope to do just as good at best. They set the standard too high for themselves perhaps. I don't know. It won't stop me from seeing their set in November though...see for yourself.

Anika 2

Even though this album dropped months back, the fresh uncomfortableness of Anika's dark and beautifully imagined pop tunes still make my head go bob. I like the new video of my first favorite track from her debut album.

Monday Day Live

Italo Disco Thursdays

Disappointment, Frustration, and Ice Cream

This has nothing to do with music, but just my frustration venting out...

Really, after listening to a rather discerning interview with Dallas Mavericks' Tyson Chandler today I am getting rather impatient and sad about the cancelled first two weeks of the NBA season. But at least it's at a time when the Mavericks are NBA champions, so I guess I'm just an impatient fan awaiting their follow up to an amazing season.

Monday Morning Live

Just to liven up my Monday mornings, I've decided to start this weekly forum of my favorite live performances past and present.

I suppose I'll start with the most obvious and work from there. My least favorite Beatles song followed immediately by one of my most favorites.

Cowpoke Sunday

So I think I'm finally over the newest Javelin EP, Canyon Candy. True, I've kept this in steady rotation for the past month or so, but it's high time to retire it..at least for the time being.

I don't know why I like this duo so much. They're strange blend of hip hop, classic R&B, and electronica is just fun really. That's the best I could do in adjectives, fun. Like a Tarantino film, they blend modern pop with strange nostalgic rarities from the past. Their music is fresh, albiet a bit familiar. And their latest EP, a concept album, doesn't lack in any of these. I don't normally enjoy concept albums, but this is different. Classic westerns and modern pop electronica? Count me in...well, yea, not exactly. On paper it looks rather meh, but it's fun. What else can I say?

Italo Disco Thursdays

I am really going to try to make an effort to bring back my weekly dance-a-thon that is Italo Disco Thursdays. It faded over the summer, and I think now that fall is upon us, it's time to bring this dusty old forum out of storage...

What better to reinstate Italo Disco Thursdays than the classic, and perhaps my most personal favorite jam of all time, Charlie's "Spacer Woman". This song can quite possibly be the audio definition of what classic Italo-Disco is to me. Granted, Charlie never really released anything else worth noting, but this song was certainly more than enough contribution to the genre for me.

Sealed Fresh

I have so much to blog about, but as busy schedules demand, this will have to tide me over until time permits me...

I don't normally like this brand of indie-beach-surf-pop stuff, but this song has a quality I can't quite put my finger on as to why it makes me express enough interest in to share with you. Kinda like candy corn...