AWmusic

“Best song to play on a road trip”
#91 Constructive Summer by Hold Steady (myspace)
Me and my friends are like “constructive summer”?
#92 Ghosts by Ladytron (myspace/video)
Schizophrenia?
#93 House Music by Cadence Weapon (myspace)
Best song on Afterparty Babies.
#94 Creeper by Islands (myspace/video)
Video is odd.
#95 The Old Days by Dr. Dog (myspace)
“Let go of the old ones, we’ve got new ones.”
#96 Jodi by The Dodos (myspace)
Jodi my dear, this is a song you must hear.
#97 Battle Royale by Does It Offend You Yeah? (myspace/video)
A catchy instrumental for one of my favorite movies.
#98 I Wasn’t Made For Fighting by Woodhands (myspace/video)
They were actually made for dancing.
#99 Heaven (Narctrax Remix) by Health (myspace)
Health’s Disco has amazing remixes.
#100 Dawn Of The Dead by Does It Offend You Yeah? (video)
Critics hated on the wrong album.

I saw the film today with a few friends…more along the lines of doing something as I am admittedly never much of an Iron Man fan in my childhood. With the good reviews, I obviously did not protest seeing the movie at all. The movie itself was good but not great in my opinion. There are some funny moments and it the best part of the movie is the creation of Iron Man itself it follows the difficulties of Jason Stark to actually make a superhero. The graphic and special fxs are really cool and seeing the Iron Man itself is probably one of the cooler super hero moments. Robert Downey Jr. is a believable superhero unlike other superhero’s who are always looking to “serve and protect” and are stuck up bitches…Iron Man has much more personality. The problem that lies in this movie from making this “great” is that the plot is quite non-existant…nothing really happens in the movie. I can sum it all in a few sentences and there are certain points that take away from the movie like the sex with the reporter. An addition problem which my friends pointed out was that there wasn’t really a villian to make Iron Man that “super hero”. I secretly love villians and heels (in wrestling). The problem is that he had an enemy and was more against the destruction caused by war. By villian I mean someone you can feel for and can understand why he/she is evil…that duality is a key aspect I look for.

This movie seems to be more prepared for a sequel and like I said, it’s a good movie but not great. It’ll produce a few laughs and some cool action scenes but if you’re expecting “the great fucking thing ever” you’ll be disappointed.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

I was not that keen on the soundtrack so like last week, I’ll make my own. (You can find the actual soundtrack here)

1. Iron Man by Black Sabbath (I have to put this up)
2. MX Missiles by Andrew Bird
3. Start A War by The National
4. Killing Armies by Wolf Parade
5. Put Us Back Together Right by Headlights
6. The Great Escape by We Are Scientists
7. Fire It Up by Modest Mouse
8. You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine by Death Above 1979
9. Know You’re Enemy by Rage Against The Machine
10. One Man Army by Our Lady Peace
11. Air War by Crystal Castles

So what did I think about the rest of “Some Racing, Some Stopping”? First off I really enjoyed the title, I interpreted as a literal expression such as The Still’s Lola Stars and Stripes. Secondly, I had really had high expectations Cherry Tulips was just so awesome, the rest of the album would be a disappointment if it didn’t match the quality.

I think it might be bad to admit this but when it comes to pop music there’s generally a formula on the vocal side that seems to hypnotize me time and time again. Generally female vocals with their melodic/choiry voices do the trick. My second most favorite track “On April 2″ use exactly that. I swear I can throw up my hands and say I love Erin Fein. I definitely prefer her on vocals as she seems to command your attention. I enjoy soft vocals occasionally but Fein is just too good of a vocalist to not be singing.

The rest of the album was very mellow and at times I found a difficult time getting through it all and I ended up picking favorites with certain tracks and ultimately leaving the others out of the rotation. I think the points where they are rather soft vocally and instrumentally are their weakest points. Going from two extremes made it difficult because it really wanted me to make me hate the softer songs even more because of the drastic shift.

Another criticism I have is the length of the album with only 10 tracks on the album, it lacks quantity when there is quality present. So when I’m hating on a track such as the title track, it has a much bigger effect on my feeling on the album.

I like the album, I’m not ecstatic about and definitely has some tracks I absolutely love but it’s losing playing time for other pop albums I’ve divulged myself in Some tracks seem to sound the same but they were well placed and I just noticed this going through it now.

Rating: 3.8 out of 5.
Buy it at:CD Universe/Amazon/Insound

On April 2 by Headlights

Cherry Tulips by Headlights

(more…)

Anyway, I think hyping upcoming releases is a great way to put out singles you really like. I don’t expect to do this often but maybe once a month to keep up on what’s hot with the music blogosphere. I actually planned this post to be on Hello, Blue Roses only but I figured I had more artists/albums to hype and I would never get done nor would I have much content left when I actually do reviews. I’ll do this about once a month I guess. I also will check out upcoming releases by the Magnetic Fields, Cat Power, Chris Walla and Jack Jonson. The ones I’m posting about are ones I am excited about.

Headlights – Some Racing, Some Stopping
Release date: February 19, 2008.
This is a pop band from Champaign, Illinois and while they had a previous release Kill Them W/ Kindness, I haven’t heard before them before receiving a promo-email. I was offered Cherry Tulips as the mp3, skipping it I went directly to their myspace and really dug their stuff. I finally decided to download Cherry Tulips and wow…what an amazing song. I’ve seen big blogs already discuss Headlights and including this track and you can’t blame them. This song is absolutely beautiful and dream pop at it’s very finest. It is literally about dreaming the best dream of your life and I can relate to it perfectly with sleeping in the middle of the night with the light on. This is one of my current songs of the year if 2008 ended just in 11 days. You can bet I’ll be listening this until February 19th and will be impatient for the album.
Cherry Tulips by Headlights

Pre-order @ CD Universe $11.18
Pre-order @ Amazon.ca for $13.99

Hello, Blue Roses – The Portrait Is Finished And I Have Failed To Capture Your Beauty
Release Date: January 22, 2008
Hello Blue Roses is comprised of Dan Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers, Swan Lake) and his wife, Sydney Vermont. This group has been making some noise with the blogs and I can’t blame them. I told myself I would to listen to their album before but I got impatient. Presented with Shadow Falls, you can fall in love with Sydney Vermont’s heavenly choir type voice. Just listen to Shadow Falls and the mix of beautiful vocals between this husband and wife. I’ve listened to 4 or so tracks and they are all great.
Shadow Falls by Hello, Blue Roses

Pre-order @ CD Universe $11.74
Pre-order it @ Insound for
Pre-order @ Amazon.ca for $17.99… (you never know someone might prefer it)

Hot Chip – Made in The Dark
Release date: February 4/5, 2008
If you came from Elbo.ws or Hype you probably don’t need an introduction to Hot Chip, this electropop band out of the UK. Some really catchy stuff and they’re HUGE with the blogs. Ready For The Floor has really dominated my computer though I’ll be honest about not liking the other stuff so much. Usually liking just one song is just enough to get me into something.
Ready For The Floor by Hot Chip

Pre-order at CD Universe for $14.55
Pre-order the Deluxe version @ Insound for $17.99
Pre-order @ Amazon.ca for $17.99

Why? – Alopecia
Release Date: March 11, 2008
When reading up on Why? and their genre of including rap, new wave and a slew of other genres, this band definitely stands out from other bands. They have a nice mix of rap and rock that makes it cool when that genre was killed and exploited by the mainstream with bands like Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit, Why? isn’t metal at all so the rap is definitely more subtle and left to more of an artistic nature both instrumentally and lyrically.
The Hollows by Why?

Pre-order at CD Universe for $14.55
Pre-order @ Amazon.ca for $17.99