Aural Sects

Medicate my New Perspective ;)

Okay, NOW I’m broke :D

The video for Panic! at the Disco’s New Perspective is available on iTunes today! I quite like it. Spencer and Brendon look kind of Blues-Brother-ish. And, of course, I fucking love the song. Actually worked pretty well as an advert for Jennifer’s Body too, so kudos to the director/etc.

AFI has also been busy:

Medicate by AFI

You can get it on:
AmazonMP3 for 99 cents

Or:
iTunes for $1.29

Unsurprisingly, iTunes only got my money for the Panic! video (because Amazon doesn’t carry videos for some fuckwitted reason). It’s not that I don’t value the AFI song, because I do, but I refuse this one area of price gouging. Because I have that option. :D

Anyway, enjoying them both. Can’t wait for the full albums.

My Epic 2008 Music Review

Well, this was going to be short. And then I started writing. And writing. And kept writing. So yeah, 4000+ words later, done!

At the start of the year nearly all of my focus was on the upcoming Panic At The Disco album. I had slowly grown to enjoy A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, and then they played Nine In The Afternoon at the 2007 VMAs and I was hooked pretty hard. It caused an intense whiplash of interest for me as I began obsessively watching/rifling through the internet for any bit of Panic that I could get my hands on. When Nine In The Afternoon was released I was very, very pleased. I had worried slightly that I wouldn’t care for the studio version of the song. Happily they kept it feeling ‘live’ enough to do the song justice.

To say I love Pretty. Odd. would be an understatement. I don’t know if I’d call it the Best Album Ever, but I love the growth it shows in the band as well as the sound itself. The lyrics are still weird as fuck, and darkly smart, but they’re more traditionally arranged with the music. Nine In The Afternoon remains my top played song since I began using iTunes. I just don’t get tired of it, ever. I love how it so perfectly expresses the band members’ joy at what they’re doing and who they’re doing it with. It’s a wonderful celebration of friendship.

But it’s far from the only good song on that album. Stand-outs for me include (in track listing order):
Do You Know What I’m Seeing? - This one appeals to my little tree-hugger heart. It’s sweet and fairly straightforward
That Green Gentleman - The lyrics in this, aside from the delightful music, just really please me: Things are shaping up to be pretty odd / Little deaths in musical beds / So it seems I’m someone I’ve never met - I’m a little embarrassed at how long it took me to really notice the “little deaths” line. And then I giggled pretty hard. But there’s more too: I never said I’d leave the city / I never said I’d leave this town / A falling out we won’t tiptoe about - That could be interpreted autobiographically and is quite a strong and direct statement.
Northern Downpour - the melody here just takes my breath away, and the lyrics have a haunting quality to them that matches the music perfectly
When The Day Met The Night - When I first ‘met’ this song it was still called In The Middle of Summer and, honestly, I preferred the earlier version. The album version got slowed down and overwhelmed by extra instrumentation that ultimately adds nothing to the song. Which is tragic, because the song is beautiful. It’s a genuinely sweet and gentle fairytale/love story. Happily, during the Rock Band Live Tour, Panic performed this live and it was everything the studio version should’ve been. It was electric.
Pas De Cheval - Oh, the horsey song, how I love you. The music is just so alive and vibrant and fun and these two lines just crack my shit up: Imagine knowing me / It’s the greatest thing you’d ever imagine
The Piano Knows Something I Don’t Know - On the one hand, this is Spencer Smith’s facial hair manifesto and the Alternate Version on the Live in Chicago cd illustrates that to a hilarious and yet lovely extreme. But the rest of the lyrics have a sweet dreamy quality to them that just makes me feel floaty and wistful
Behind The Sea - Ryan Ross’ lead singing debut and it’s actually quite lovely. I greatly prefer the acoustic version because his voice is so soft that it really works better without brass and so forth. But either way, I like it. My only ‘complaint’ was that this line: The men all played along to marching drums - really would’ve made more sense as “The minnow played along to marching drums” which is totally what I thought it said at first.
Folkin’ Around - For all that the first line declares “Allow me to exaggerate a memory or two” there is something so painfully sincere and honest about this song. It feels like heartbreak. It’s exquisite.
From A Mountain In The Middle Of The Cabins - The imagery in this one belies the sweet music. The words themselves describe a sort of scary, out of control situation. That juxtaposition of lyrics and music pleases me.
Mad As Rabbits - Lyrically a bit strange, which is not a criticism, but musically just a great deal of fun.

Panic wasn’t the only band I was into, of course. My love for all things My Chemical Romance lead me to rhythm guitarist Frank Iero’s previous band, Pencey Prep. It’s really adorable music that I can say I unironically enjoy. Not great music, but it fills a need/desire. In that same vein, I went back to earlier bands of other current bands I enjoyed. So I hunted down Arma Angelus and 5o4 Plan material. Arma’s stuff is well, harsher, than I listen to on a regular basis. But I do actually enjoy it. The 5o4 Plan music is just very sweet. It’s fun to see where various artists have come from. I still haven’t managed to get around to Midtown albums, but I will!

Then there are the new bands, or side bands, also connected to my current faves: empires and Leathermouth. I tripped over empires entirely accidentally late in ‘07 and I’m very glad I did. Tom Conrad’s new band makes some very nice music. I especially love their song Hold On, which wasn’t on their cd/album but was handed out on sampler cds at their shows. Frank Iero’s side project, Leathermouth, is more along the screamo lines, but there is still a part of me that really needs that catharsis. Which is, from what he said, what it is for him as well.

In April I had the extreme pleasure to fly out to California to hang out with my best friend. We were going to go see the Honda Civic Tour together. But right before I got the plane tickets my Google Alerts notified me that My Chemical Romance would be performing at The Bamboozle Left. Which, by happy coincidence, fell almost exactly one week before the HCT date that we were going to. This turned out to be an awesome thing on a few levels.

Earlier in the year I’d come across an advertisement/quasi-interview with the band The Bravery. It was online, so they played one of their songs in the background. I was intrigued, and amused by the snarky responses the band kept making. So I was happy to see them listed as performing at The Bamboozle Left. In between The Bravery (who were utterly awesome live) and My Chemical Romance (who closed the festival) we got to hear a new (to us) group called Blaqk Audio. We came right home and bought their album and discovered that the two members of Blaqk Audio were also part of a band called AFI (A Fire Inside). Well, that was good news! We ended up, by the end of the year, with most of their albums. We bought two of them that night.

Later, at the Honda Civic Tour, I got introduced to Phantom Planet (discography). It is so fucking tragic that they’ve gone on hiatus. They’re a really good band. Their crowd interaction was fucking superb. They really made the crowd come alive. The Hush Sound (discography) also played and wow, if I thought I loved them on cd, I just adored them live. While Motion City Soundtrack also played, they just didn’t really hook me in. They weren’t bad, though.

Somewhere in around April I finally stopped being an elitist bitch long enough to actually listen to 30 Seconds To Mars. And damn if I didn’t really, really enjoy it. Both albums. Quite a lot. I still firmly believe that actors and musicians should rarely try to do the other thing, but sometimes it works out really well.

May was a fucking busy month. I seriously wrote three paragraphs and was about to add two more but I figure that many “also, also in May”s would be stupid.

First up, via a banner ad on Last.fm, I came across a young man in California that was making music under the name Polaris At Noon. He has a lovely voice, good solid lyrics, and good music. I haven’t bought all of his first album (or Season 1 as he calls it, it’s really a cool idea), but that’s because my obsessions sort of overwhelmed everything else for awhile.

Then my younger sister insisted I listen to two new (to me) artists: Katy Perry and Willis. I admit it, I Kissed A Girl hooked me at first. It was a catchy tune, and most of the lyrics weren’t horrific. But closer listens really, really disappointed me. (Honestly, the only good thing about that song is the Cobra Starship redux I Kissed A Boy from the CFOB Mixtape - Gabe Saporta rocks my fucking world). Willis, on the other hand, is really good. I only have the one of her songs so far, a cover (sort of) of Word Up. It’s been slightly tweaked, and her voice is really impressive.

My BFF Bella hooked me on the Vitamin String Quartet tributes to My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco. It’s kind of hilarious, really. But they’re good when I’m feeling like my nerves are all frayed but I can’t abide either quiet or regular ‘classical’ music.

I went searching for female fronted/all women bands because I really, really want that in my life. Anyway, I found The Swear. I bought their Every Trick’s A Good One EP straight off. I haven’t purchased their new album (Hotel Rooms and Heart Attacks) yet, but I will! I really like the hard rock sound they have going on.

Next up, Howl. Empires posted their album for download in May. It’s a terrific album. A little uneven in places, but overall quite good. It was pretty special seeing the process of them going from not having played any shows, to playing shows, to getting sampler cds and other merch out, to actually releasing a full length album. I think they’re going places.

And finally, the last new music for me in May was Charlotte Sometimes - Waves And The Both Of Us. I’d seen her mentioned in a few places, but Pete Wentz made a comment in his blog about her album and it was sort of the tipping point for me as far as “should I check her out?”. So I did, and I fell in fucking love. Terrific, smart lyrics and an amazing voice. The music was addictive as well. I can’t tell you how fucking thrilled I was when I saw that they were going to be at Warped.

In June the only new stuff I came across was the Ting Tings, which I’ve since discovered are sort of hit and miss for me. iTunes offered their song Shut Up And Let Me Go as one of their weekly free downloads. I really like that feature. The song is terrific and I just adored the video that they made for it.

Speaking of free singles, I ended up finding Kerli that way. They offered up Walking On Air and I was impressed enough to get the rest of the album. She’s Estonian and kind of kooky. But in a good way. The lyrics on her songs are actually a little disturbing, also in a good way. Her voice is very attractive and the music is atmospheric. I have no idea how much, if anything, she contributes to her songs, but I do like her album a lot.

In July I went to Nevada for the month, but right before I did that I went to Warped. In preparation for that I went through the entire list of bands scheduled to play my location and hunted them across the net to pre-screen them. I totally made a spreadsheet with all the bands and sorted them based on my level of interest in seeing them. I had the foolish, foolish misapprehension that I would be able to see tons of bands at Warped. And sure, maybe if I was 10 years younger and in significantly better health I could have. But it was fucking hot and I kept getting dehydrated every five minutes. The Texas sun is brutal, y’all.

I did have a great time at Warped though. I got to see Cobra Starship (holy shit does that band have charisma), The Academy Is… (who are like an entirely different, even better, band live) and Charlotte Sometimes (who gave a great show despite some transportation difficulties).

And I also got to see two new-to-me artists. One of them, Flash Bathory (who has since passed on), was accidental. I basically collapsed on the grassy area in front of the stage she played on and got to hear her music while I recovered from walking across the venue. I was suitably impressed though, and bought her cd titled Scars and Bruises.

The other artist/band that I got to see was Panima. I had, when pre-screening the Warped band list, determined that I quite liked their sound and I made a special effort to see them. It helped tremendously that they played on the same stage as Charlotte Sometimes, right before she played. They put on a very energetic performance and I bought their Panima EP and their new Take Cover EP.

I basically took a break from finding new stuff in July, because that month I spent with my other BFF in Nevada gorging on movies/tv. And I do mean gorging: The Dark Knight (honestly, too dark), Journey To The Center of The Earth 3D (gave me eye-strain), Iron Man (fucking wonderful film), Hellboy 2 (I fell asleep during the climactic fight scene), The Mummy 3 (god it was stupid) and so many, many more via Netflix. Good times.

So, August rolls in and I’m back home. It has now been a year since I rediscovered my love for music. It was on August 13th 2007 that I bought my first Fall Out Boy mp3s (Thnks fr th Mmrs and This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race). In that year I’ve gone from a musical wasteland (one that I thought was permanent) to a virtual paradise overflowing with awesome. And August ‘08 continued that trend.

Thanks to Pete Wentz’s show F’NMTV I got to see Santogold perform. Seriously awesome artist, that woman. I really love her sound and lyrics. I got her album (called Santogold) right away. Very impressive. Others have compared her to Tegan & Sara, and I have to agree. I consider that a very good thing. I also was re-introduced to P!nk. Her new album is just fucking amazing. So powerful and moving and well done. She’s an amazing artist.

Near the end of August I somehow found this new group Spinnerette. I have no idea how I found them, but they’re fucking awesome. Their Ghetto Love EP was released in December, but back in August they had their song Valium Knights up for free download. I love the lead singer’s vocals. The lyrics are really good too. Another female fronted band that I can put in my “Oh thank fuck a quality female artist!” category.

Also there was The Academy Is… release of their new album Fast Times At Barrington High. While I genuinely enjoy this album, and my love for Rumored Nights and After The Last Midtown Show is very high, overall I preferred their previous album Santi. The weird thing about TAI is that while their albums are lovely, they don’t seem to have anything that really stands out. The songs sort of blend together. But live? Live TAI is one of the most vivid, electric, engaging and exhilarating bands I’ve ever had the pleasure to see. And I just don’t get it. Because it’s the same band. But in the studio that spark of life and passion just seems to not be there.

On August 25th Fall Out Boy released their Citizen’s For Our Betterment Mixtape (more info here). I loved the concept and many of the tracks really made me happy. Cobra Starship’s I Kissed A Boy is one of the best satirical commentary songs in like the history of ever. Plus it was just a terrific song. Also there was the mysteriously titled Nearly Witches which was listed as being by The Paul Revere Jumpsuit Apparatus. The main vocals were very, very obviously Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco. And the lyrics were just creepy awesome in a style that instantly made me (and many others) think that Ryan Ross had written them. Several people speculated that it was a snippet of one of the songs they’d created while they were tucked away in a mountain cabin (former resort actually) in 2007. I won’t lie, if that was an example of that, I sincerely hope they revisit those songs sometime very soon. It was fucking awesome.

September brought the first single from Fall Out Boy’s new album and damn if it didn’t rock my socks. I Don’t Care continued the fine tradition FOB has of creating songs where the music and the lyrics are at odds with each other in a way that enhances both. Because of just how much Fall Out Boy had to do with my rediscovery of music I had some really, really high expectations on their new material. Happily, they totally met and blew those expectations away. And it started with I Don’t Care. A song that has this up-tempo driving beat, a chorus that is deceptively rebellious and an overall lyrical feeling of desolation. The drums and guitar work are fucking awesome as well.

October had P!nk’s album (Funhouse) release, which made me happy. And two more singles off of FOB’s new album: Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet and What A Catch, Donnie. Headfirst Slide I instantly loved, but it took me longer to warm up to What a Catch. The tone of What A Catch was significantly more somber and I was really not in the right place emotionally for it. I’ve since come to love it muchly.

Also in October I went back out to California to see two more concerts. This time around it was the Rock Band Live Tour and Bill & Trav’s Bogus Journey. Rock Band Live was up first and that was: The Cab (adorable and much better live - their album is Whisper War), Plain White T’s (not horrible, good crowd interaction), Dashboard Confessional (really not for me, also I may have nodded off a little) and Panic At The Disco. Yes, again.

I truly feel that of all the bands/artists I’ve ever seen live (and I’ll grant you it isn’t an astronomical number but it’s more than a few and has included David Bowie), Panic at the Disco is the best live act out there. The energy they (well, okay Brendon and Spencer) have is just breathtaking. You can see that they fucking love what they’re doing. It shines out of them like a supernova. And it was at this concert that they redeemed When The Day Met The Night for me. Not only was it much better sounding live vs the heavily instrumented/slowed down version on the cd, but we also got to see Brendon pull off one of the most impressive performances just ever. He sang, of course, played the piano and then, at the end, a second set of drums! That was brilliant. I am always exhausted after a Panic concert in the best ways. Exhausted and amped up.

The Bill & Trav’s concert was at the much smaller, and IMO much better sound-wise, House of Blues. Hey Monday was the opening band, and they had lots of energy and were adorable. Their album is Hold On Tight, it’s young and sweet and has potential. Carolina Liar came after HM and they were sort of bland and forgettable, except for how fucking creepy they were. We The Kings came next and holy fuck they were fun. I had heard of them, and heard them on the Alternative Music Choice Channel, but had never really checked them out. They were just wonderful live. I ended up buying their album (We The Kings) when I got home. Terrific kids. Finally it was time for The Academy Is… and god they were worth the wait. I had gotten a taste of them at Warped, but a full show, inside and properly hydrated, was just ever so much better. If they could figure out how to get the power, excitement and energy of their live shows onto cd I think they could finally make it big like they deserve.

In November, desperately yearning for more FOB, I sought out related artists. Ended up getting a free track off of Butch Walker’s new album, Sycamore Meadows. It reminded me of the soundtrack from the movie Velvet Goldmine. Something that made me very happy. I ended up getting his first album (Left Of Self - Centered) and I’m about to get the rest of his new album. That Deftones song, Change (In the House of Flies), finally got played enough that I just had to have it. It makes me uncomfortable because it sort of wallows in negative thinking, but I just can’t not listen to it.

December finally freaking arrived. So much new stuff! I bought TAI’s new song, Winter Passing, just as soon as it was available. William’s voice is so beautiful. I got the Panic at the Disco: Live In Chicago A Picture With Books Deluxe Limited-Edition. That was just really special for me. It was filmed at the Chicago HCT shows and so it captured the essence of my first Panic show. And seriously, even at the remove of watching them play live on my monitor, they are just so fucking amazing. The Deluxe Limited Edition sold out impressively fast, but you can still get the non-deluxe version which has all the same media content, just the packaging isn’t as nifty.

Fall Out Boy released one more single (America’s Suitehearts) from Folie à Deux. I caved and bought Vampire by People in Planes; and later caved further and got the whole album. Bands should seriously look into getting exposure on the Music Choice channels. I got the new Radiohead and R.E.M. albums, and some of Radiohead’s older stuff. I fell madly in love with Amanda Palmer via her Leeds United video; I ended up getting the whole album (Who Killed Amanda Palmer). Got gifted Muse’s Black Holes And Revelations. Found their website. I’ll be getting Absolution as well (at the very least) real soon. Got more, older, AFI. Got turned onto Senses Fail by their singer/lyricist being on Fuse’s The Weekly Rift. Was gifted with Senses Fail’s Life Is Not A Waiting Room, Reggie & The Full Effect’s Last Stop: Crappy Town, and Ludo’s You’re Awful, I Love You. All of which I love SO much. Spinnerette’s Ghetto Love EP came out, so I got that.

Finally, finally Fall Out Boy’s Folie à Deux came out. I streamed that fucker off of Myspace about 15 times. I crashed my browser about twice that much because Myspace just is not very compatible with my system. I didn’t care. I was in love. Like I said before, I had some super high expectations. The way they were met and exceeded just was so wonderful. I couldn’t, still can’t, get the words and music out of my head. It drove me nuts that I couldn’t take the songs to my iPod to bed with me at night. I have three copies of Folie à Deux: the pre-order Deux package from Go Merch, the Best Buy Deluxe Edition cd (I needed those bonus songs dammit), and the iTunes Exclusive Edition (I used that Complete My Album thing). I don’t think it’s excessive really. I might as well complete my album, and I wound up with a different version of the I Don’t Care video (the one without the cat, since I’d purchased the cat one). The Deux pre-order package had much more than just a cd. And obviously with the Best Buy stuff I got bonus tracks. I fucking love Pavlove and the America’s Suitehearts (South Rakkas Remix) so it was totally worth it.

But that wasn’t all, oh no. Because just Monday (Dec 22) I got the first song off of Taking Back Sunday’s upcoming album (New Again). The song is Carpathia (youtube stream) and it fucking rocks! I wasn’t sure I’d like their music. All I knew was that Matt Rubano, their bassist, had been on Fuse several times (hosting SURS while Steven was on honeymoon, hanging out on The Weekly Riff, reporting from the Voodoo festival, hosting some of the No. 1 Countdowns) and was a really awesome little dude. TBS creates xmas/holiday cards each year and donates the proceeds to cancer research, so that was the ‘cost’ of the song. Really neat.

It’s been one hell of an awesome year!