The album of the month for July 2006:
Beirut – Gulag Orkestar
Rock without guitars. Wacky and refreshing.
Product Details (from Amazon.com):
Audio CD (May 9, 2006)
Label: Ba Da Bing
Sales Rank: #1,216 in Music
The album of the month for June 2006:
AFI - Decemberunderground
Should pick something before it’s way too late. Must keep the tradition going.
Product Details (from Amazon.com):
Audio CD (June 6, 2006)
Label: Interscope Records
Sales Rank: #71 in Music
Yesterday: #62 in Music
The album of the month for May 2006:
Tapes ‘n Tapes – The Loon
I am not particularly excited about this one, but I have to pick something despite May being a slow music month for me.
Product Details (from Amazon.com):
Audio CD (April 4, 2006)
Label: (label name not provided)
Sales Rank: #734 in Music
Yesterday: #714 in Music
As previously mentioned, I really need to start doing this feature in a more timely manner.
The album of the month for April 2006:
Wolfmother – Wolfmother
I normally dislike classic rock, avoiding it whenever possible. This reincarnation of 70s rock I am crazy about. Odd.
Product Details (from Amazon.com):
Audio CD (May 2, 2006)
Label: Interscope Records
Sales Rank: #45 in Music
Yesterday: #37 in Music
I really need to start doing this feature in a more timely manner. Maybe have some other posts too. Yeah, that would be nice.
The album of the month for March 2006:
Band of Horses – Everything All the Time
Band of Horses is a Seattle band that seems to have been compared to My Morning Jacket by every reviewer around. The Shins have also been suggested. Then again, people tend to throw names around to make a statement. Another possible explanation is Pitchfork, which happened to rate Everything All the Time at 8.8 while drawing those comparisons. If they like it, it cant be that bad. Oh wait, TI’s King got 8.4.
This is why I don’t do reviews. Worthless pursuit.
Product Details (from Amazon.com):
Audio CD (March 21, 2006)
Label: Sub Pop
Sales Rank: #222 in Music
Yesterday: #152 in Music
To keep this whole album of the month going, the February winner is:
Lorenzo’s Music – Solamente Tres Palabras
According to their own web site (which now also has all of their songs for free):
Lorenzo’s Music is Tom Ray (vocals), Mark Whitcomb (guitar), Scott Beardsley (drums), Bryan Elliott (saxophone), and Chris Boeger (bass). They are not a punk band experimenting with 30’s-style swing, an indie rock band trying their hands at Chicago-style blues, or a hardcore band exploring their love of latin rhythms. They are simply a group of talented guys who obviously see no reason why they can’t just do all of the above.
I am not sure what exactly that means, but they certainly captured my interest. It would be nice to see this group gain some popularity considering their latest album is not listed on Amazon.com and all of their shows are in Madison, Wisconsin.
On a related note January’s album of the month (The Subways – Young for Eternity) really took off.
Amazon.com statistics for February 3, 2006:
Sales Rank: #38,460 in Music
Yesterday: #20,164 in Music
Today’s statistics:
Sales Rank: #410 in Music
Yesterday: #340 in Music
If only it was this easy to track Lorenzo’s Music.
For the new year I decided to publicly keep track of my music tastes. The result is a featured album to be highlighted here at the turn of each month. Since there are plenty of albums reviews online, that is not something to be found here. Plus, I do not believe you can truly understand music through text. Maybe that explains why I don’t listen to lyrics.
The first album of the month for January 2006:
The Subways – Young for Eternity
Product Details (from Amazon.com):
Audio CD (February 14, 2006)
Label: Sire / London/Rhino
Sales Rank: #38,460 in Music
Yesterday: #20,164 in Music
Should be interesting to see the numbers fluctuate as time goes by.
Kanye West finally admitted how he dropped out of college. From MTV:
“It is true you can be successful without [college], but this is a hard world, a real world, and you want every advantage you can have,” West said backstage. “I would suggest to people to do all that you can. When I dropped out of school I had worked in the music industry and had checks cut in my name from record labels and had a record deal on the table, and when I wasn’t successful and Columbia said, ‘We’ll call you,’ I had to go back and work a telemarketing job, go back to the real world, and that’s how life is. Life is hard. Take advantage of your opportunities.”... “I think it’s just dope to help kids with money and school,” the rapper said. “That’s the main problem. When I was a college student I was broke, and I really like clothes. When I was in college it would have been better if I could have afforded more clothes!”
On a related note, John Smallwood had an interesting comment:
I get e-mails all the time questioning my blackness because I work for the Daily News, because I sometimes criticize black athletes, because I don’t always say what some black people want or expect me to say.So is growing up impoverished in the inner city an absolute must to be considered “truly” black?
I grew up in a school district that was only 6 percent black and was called a “nigger.” Would it have been more accurate had they called me “little kind-of-a-black boy lost in suburbia?”
Damn, it sure hurt like I was being called “nigger.”
If I don’t subscribe to the “thug life,” does that mean I don’t subscribe to the black life?
Ever since I first heard “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas, I could not find the right words to describe what I felt about. Slate overcame that obstacle:
As a piece of music, “My Humps” is a stunning assemblage of awful ideas. The song’s playful pogo and coke-thin, ring-tone synth line interpolate Sexual Harassment’s 1982 left-field electro hit, “I Need A Freak”. But where the original trafficked in something icky, sinister, and darkly sexual, the Peas’ call-and-response courtship fails to titillate—in fact, it’s enough to convince one to never, ever ogle again. The “humps” in question belong to Fergie, who brandishes her “lovely lady lumps” for the purpose of procuring various gifts from men who, one would assume, find the prospect of “lumps” very exciting—one lump begetting another lump, if you will.“What you gon’ do with all that ass/ All that ass inside them jeans? … What you gon’ do wit all that breast?/ All that breast inside that shirt?” rapper Will.I.Am teases in response, rendering literal what had heretofore been pretty much literal. It’s a song that tries to evoke a coquettish nudge and wink, but head-butts and bloodies the target instead. It isolates sectors of the female anatomy that obsessive young men have been inventing language for since their skulls fused, and yet it emerges only with “humps” and “lumps”—at least “Milkshake” sounded delicious.
The MTV Video Music Awards aired the other day. I happened to see a decent amount of the show.
The Best New Artist award went to The Killers. Something didn’t feel right. One of their singles was all over the radio more than year ago. Their latest album, Hot Fuss, came out in June 2004, well before the 2004 VMAs. Then I remembered who got Best New Artist back then. It was Maroon 5, whose Songs About Jane came out in June 2002. That is over two years beforehand. The category is clearly meaningless. Its mere existence is just a way for MTV to say they have the authority to declare any artist new at any time.