Archive for the ‘Jack Johnson’ Category
Jack Johnson – Sleep Through The Static Review
I was a big fan of Jack Johnson’s In Between Dreams and Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies and whatever mp3s I’ve downloaded off older records. Sure Jack Johnson may not be anything special but who cares? His songs were all pretty good and some people hate the soft stuff/simplicity but if we had every one breaking barriers, staying simple would technically be breaking barriers (should I have omitted this statement?). I generally require a spectrum of all types of music so I’m prepared to defend my liking of Jack Johnson. However, I won’t defend his latest release “Sleep Through The Static”.
“Sleep Through The Static” when first played, is definitely a different Jack Johnson I’ve heard. Most of the album IS quieter then his previous releases believe it or not. Quieter in the sense that singing wise it feels soft with nothing emphasized, and the guitar sounds seems rather dull without any “interesting” intros. JJ doesn’t really show us his vocal prowess to make songs enjoyable. I’ve listened to it just a few times and I don’t think I can bare anymore…
Lyrically mature songs aside, I have a difficult time adjusting to the structure of the songs that don’t seem to work. I probably would like Sleep Through The Static if it stayed with a simpler pop structure (sure critics would’ve hated it but critics miss the point sometimes too). Songs by Jack Johnson usually are on the relaxing side but STTS definitely makes me want to sleep through the static of this record. Everything just feels like a mess and put together randomly it’s difficult liking one song if any.
Jack Johnson is a great singer but like many popular artists, they become hard to defend against the haters when they release something as this. In the case of Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static really challenges my loyalty and liking of Jack Johnson. I don’t really get how people are calling this record going back to Jack Johnson’s old style as this record features more experimenting but I ended up hating it. I don’t have time to let it “sink in” because I feel like this record doesn’t even me give me a chance to like anything.
Score: 1.0 out of 5.0.
Buy the album: CD Universe/Insound
New Year’s Resolution for Allan’s World Music
This blog has moved a lot faster then I have expected to since I started it as a “side-project” to my main sports blog in August. I’ve been hard at work doing various things to better this site whether it’s trying to better things financially or trying to bring in more readers. Either way it’s been really won and with bands constantly contacting us, there’s never a day where I run out of things to blog, it’s more about finding to fit things in!
Okay here’s are my goals for Allan’s World Music in 2008:
1. Find at least one more writer (definitely from Toronto) who tastes are a little bit different but still indie. I’ve been asking some friends and I will continue to do so but I may find an “outsider”. If you’re interested feel free to contact me .
Another Step Away by A Place To Bury Strangers
2. Build Up Traffic and Readership. I guess you could say I’m pretty satisfied with the traffic levels and subscribed readers. I think my new short term goal for subscribers would be trying to get it up to the 100 mark. Traffic wise I’ve seen 4 straight days (up until today) of great levels where we were close or above the 1000 mark. That has me totally stoked. Granted the traffic was from being lucky (Hype Machine didn’t update leaving some of my posts for prolonged periods on the first page), from lists (like this one) and doing a post on panda bear 
.
More Than This by Division Day
3. Start conducting interviews. Whether by e-mail/in person I think I would say I’m pretty shy about doing interviews. I’ve had a few opportunities to do some but reluctantly passed because I feel like I would make a complete idiot out of myself. I’ve been chatting with some friends about interviewing and having what ideas to talk through.
Questions by Jack Johnson
4. See more concerts. If I at least beat 5 (Arcade Fire, White Stripes, Muse, IllScarlett, The Stills) I would be happy. I did get to turn 19 in July so the amount of concerts I was able to go to opened up. Though admittedly I never saw any concerts before ‘07. I probably could’ve seen a lot more shows provided I had more friends who liked the same things. This year I want to see a lot more smaller bands (easy on the pockets) and just go to more venues that I haven’t been to before. I regret not seeing Rilo Kiley and Vampire Weekend. School fucking sucks since the concerts I always want to see fall on a test date it seems. I also want to volunteer at NXNE. I’d probably recommend all writers do so as I want to really establish a really good Toronto blog despite the title name.
If We Cannot See by The Devics
5. Invest in a good camera. If you’ve seen some of the shots I’ve taken at concerts, it’s a sub par quality due to the camera. With only 300 bucks to invest (on cds + upgrading the server) as long as the site is a drag financially, the camera is being put on the backburner. Granted if money does come in, I will definitely get a good one to get some great pics.
Click Click Click Click by Bishop Allen
6. Upgrade the servers (and Wordpress too). I am going to hate upgrading the server. It will probably come out directly out of my pockets unless we somehow can make some money. Space usage is close to 40% and this month (5 gigs isn’t a lot but w/e) we will probably have 80% of our bandwidth used (250 gb bandwidth!). I hate the Wordpress upgrades, a lot of people haven’t recommended it to me but it’s usually for security purposes. I guess this might be something I do today. But either way I hate doing all the work when these things may be way over my head (I’m still a noob, I just wing it when it comes to coding and all these things).
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft Punk
7. Get into better ad programs. You may not like the ads I’ve thrown onto the site but they are here to stay for obvious financial reasons. I do however don’t like a lot of the ads being displayed as it doesn’t sell on my site. I did try to apply to Indieclick but they probably want a more trafficketed site but who knows. I doubt many care about it as it’s really about the content but money is becoming a concern and I don’t want to sell out this blog like I did to my sports blog ($4000 is quite successful though).
Cash Cow by We Are Scientists
8. Have this blog alive and running so I can do the same list for 2009! Have a good new year everyone!
Staying Alive by The Bee Gees
Playlist Dedicated to Posties + Money Draw!
Recent developments that have altered the way I blog (discontinued my two other blogs) is the non-sense with Google punishing blogs for having paid content. This has affected me personally. Just know that this music blog would not be possible with the money I made from paid blogging. I can host my own songs and I can purchase albums for reviewing whenever I want (a HUGE luxury).
If you’ve come here from the Hype Machine or Elbo.ws, posties is a name that was given for paid bloggers usingPayPerPost which acts as the driving force to making us an incredible amount of money. The community has some really nice people and are really are deserving of having their spirits lifted for the holiday season will all the crappy turmoil recently faced (there have been some unfortunate issues).
Here my playlist dedicated to the Posties with some of my favorite artists:
1. Up Against The Wall – Peter, Bjorn, and John
2. The Moneymaker – Rilo Kiley
3. A Time To Be So Small by Interpol
4. Thief – Our Lady Peace (because Google is one)
5. Nothing Better – The Postal Service
6. Good People by Jack Johnson
7. The Angry Mob – Kaiser Chiefs
8. My Rights Versus Yours – New Pornographers
9. The Comeback – Shout Out Louds
Anyway the contest is going to be a drawing with:
Prizes: 1st place prize of $21.63 by Paypal and a (to offset fees) 2nd Place Prize A Blog Review with a a playlist dedicated to your blog much like this playlist.
Eligibility: Posties ONLY. A lot of outsiders will see this post due to having this post parsed by music aggregators but I just can’t see an outsider winning without me feeling bad. So just enjoy the mp3s .
How to enter: Easy, leaving a comment gets you an entry. Subscribing to my feed (by e-mail) and letting me know will get you another entry. You can blog about this if you want but it’s really not necessary as this feels separate from my normal type content but it will give you another entry. You don’t have to choose the blog now to be reviewed as I will just ask the second place winner.
Contest ends: December 11th. I am going to be busy until then as it’s after two exams but if you have any questions/concerns just drop a line.
