The Arcade Fire’s 2004 release, Funeral, was a brilliant album that plucked the Montreal based ensemble from virtual obscurity. Today, the act is internationally regarded as a modern indie gem. Reportedly titled in reference to the deaths of several relatives throughout the recording of the album, Funeral, is an apt title given the temper of this album. The album explores the complete gamut of emotion from sorrow and despair to joy and optimism. Fittingly, this range of emotion is also experienced in the context of a funeral as a loved one is lost, remembered and celebrated. Crown of Love and Une Année Sans Lumière are prime illustrations of this emotional scaling. Beginning with a somewhat depressed cadence, these songs steadily generate power and the mood transforms to become rather uplifting. Transformation is a clear theme of this album – the band plays with tempo and rhythm to continuously convert the album’s mood. Principally known for high energy anthems Wake Up and Rebellions (Lies) which will likely find their way on your workout play list, Funeral also features tunes that provoke reflection (Haiti) and arouse spontaneous dance (Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)). In the Backseet is a precious treasure which demonstrates the impressive vocals of Régine Chassagne – her voice combined with the string section takes the listener to a place beyond the usual. It is a perfect catalyst to end this 10 song success of an album.

All things considered, the album is purely magnificent.  Check out some of Funeral’s hymns (including; Wake Up, Rebellion (Lies) and Une Année Sans Lumière) at CBC Radio 3: http://radio3.cbc.ca/bands/THE-ARCADE-FIRE.

Next Post: Handsome Furs – Face Control (2009)

Over pints of micro-brewed beers at Pony Bar in Hell’s Kitchen, my friend eagerly dished on the many attractive qualities of his potential love interest. His college, current law school curriculum, interests, hobbies. Oh, and the fact that he’s gorgeous.

“Have you met this guy yet?” I asked. “I thought you two were being set up.”

“We are,” he said. “I Facebooked him.”

For me, that sparked an intriguing question: Has Facebook killed the blind date?

While I may be a little more than rusty when it comes to dating, I still feel fairly certain that part of the excitement when it comes to a blind date is the mystery. What is his personality like? What do we have in common? What does he look like? That is why they call it a blind date.

However, social media has allowed us all to put forth as much or as little information about ourselves as we want. From the good:

Me and the Saint Louis University Billiken. Adorable.

TO the bad:

Not exactly the best first impression for a potential date.

To the ugly:

Not me. My profile is immaculate.

Between Facebook, MySpace and the no-longer-taboo (or-is-it?) Internet dating, it is now virtually impossible to go on a true blind date. While I am partial to the old meet-your-significant-other-in-high-school, this isn’t all bad. No longer does one have to worry about awkward silences on a blind date—just think back to their profile!

“So, I heard that you are into The Arcade Fire. I heard they were coming to Madison Square Garden in January. . . blah blah blah.” Simple.

This is not to say that all blind dates will be a homerun (although my friends’ seemed to be!), but we might want to start calling them only-seen-your-profile dates.

Eles são os fundadores do renomado coletivo musical Elephant 6 e formaram o grupo americano de fuzz folk e distorções lo-fi Neutral Milk Hotel. Confesso que no começo não gostei da banda, mas com o tempo, com a insistência comecei a ouvir mais e mais até criar afinidade com o som, que pra mim, é estranho demais. A banda formada atualmente por Jeff Mangum, Jeremy Barnes, Scott Spillane, Julian Koster e Robert Schneider e possui até certa relação com a gravadora Merge [The Arcade Fire]. O grupo já lançou vários cds tão psicodélicos quanto sua própria história até acabar em 1998.

Aqui para download o álbum Invent Yourself a Shortcake      Download

1 – Digestion Machine

  Being the young age I am (under 30) this last decade was really the one where I can intensely focus on new releases, critically analyze and find real magic in modern music.  As much as I wish I was cool enough to say I bought “Slanted and Enchanted” on vinyl the day it came out or smoke a joint and sit around with my friends about to listen to “The Bends follow-up album” with everyone saying “this better not suck!”  But since I never saw Nirvana in a basement and didn’t hear “Loveless” until Billy Corgan recommended it I’ll just stick to this last decade and share what got me through the last ten years.

10. The Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?

     Not a horribly popular top ten of the decade choice but I’m still baffled at why not.  Jump-starting an explosion of lo-fi, boyish child rock in the underground, the year following saw bands like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Boy Least Likely To taking notes from the drug hazed, short attention spanned rock that reminded everyone of easier, much more careless times.  Everything about this album is unexpected at first listen.  The old analogue synths, the fighting within lyrics vocals, the friggin recorder?!  WWCOHWWG spans from life to death in 12 sweet tunes and by the end I remember feeling the same way, subdued and ready to die.

The Unicorns – Les Os

9. Electric President – S/T

     So here’s another selection very unlikely to be absent from lists and I feel sorry for all those lists.  Guiding me through 2006, S/T is the self retrospective view of young Ben Cooper and every other confused young male in the world.  Songs like Insomnia tackle depression with uncompromising lyrics that find every emotion and leave it our to dry.  The album is soothing and instantly relatable, and Ben’s shy vocals and unique percussion roll you through the journey and dump you right off at the end.  By then you might feel as if you’re in the same place but with a simplified clarity.

Electric President – Insomnia

8. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

     Kevin Barnes is the gayest straight man on earth.  And god damn, he should write every album in solitude in Northern Europe.  The genius in this album will never be something Barnes will be able to exemplify again (shown evident in the self absorbed Skeletal Lamping, an album where Barnes basically chews on his ego like bubblegum bugging everyone to watch him blow bubbles.)  The centerpiece here is obviously The Past is a Grotesque Animal, a bi-polar freak out of sorts with all of Barnes A-list lyrics jammed tight in its epic 12 minute sprawl.  Every track is interesting in its own way, and Barnes does a great job of making the album a single statement while never repeating himself.

Of Montreal – We Were Born the Mutants Again with Leafling

7. The Arcade Fire – Funeral

    What can I say that hasn’t been said a million times about this little gem?  This album wasn’t so much about the great songs inside of it but more about its perfect timing.  It was like the momentum of modern rock music was impatiently waiting for this album in order to push forward.  The 7 zillion arcade fire copycat that managed to squeeze their subpar disco beat driven garbage into the remainder of this decade still doesn’t take anything away from the happiest moments of Rebellion (lies) or the saddest moments of Neighborhoods #4.  I look forward to this band continuing to take us to new places in the next decade.

The Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

6. Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight

   If you’ve never experienced real heartbreak, if you’ve never sat alone in your bedroom feeling ultimately hopeless and desperate, then you’ll never relate with this album.  Scott Hutchison perfectly describes heartbreak from start to acceptance in a power, real, and naked way.  No emotion is held inside here, no disturbing thought bottled up.  Songs like The Modern Leper and Keep yourself Warm much of the time hit too close to home for comfort, but their harsh realities keep you revisiting because when it comes down to it, we all wanna feel something.

Frightened Rabbit – Floating in the Forth

5. The National – Boxer

     In 2007 I knew early on that Hissing Fauna was my album of the year.  No one album was gonna change that, especially not some dark, professional looking, baritone led band called The National!?  But like any National album, repeated listens bring on a fierce addition.  Boxer for me was like cocaine for a confused 19 year old girl saying “I’m only gonna do coke on the weekends” and spiraling into an everyday occurrence.  It’s melodies are haunting, led by Matt Berninger’s deep, hypnotizing baritone.  Matt’s lyrics have always been satisfyingly selfish, but here he seems to take to others, and although hard to clearly identify with what he talks about each line paints his own portrait, colored perfectly by the band of brothers that provide a solid blend of melodic ecstasy, topped of by Peter Katis’s dark production.   

The National – Brainy

4. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

   A billion things have been said about this album, from its difficult release to its beautiful drug tinged americana.  But it will never be enough.  Jeff Tweedy struck fucking gold with every track here.  Every song seems to get better, and the idea of mixing folk rock and sonic electronic noise seems insane (and is!) and could never be pulled off like Wilco did early this decade.  Songs like Jesus Etc. quickly find a place in your heart, with simple yet powerful and brilliant lyrics like “Last Cigarettes” and “Our Love is All of God’s Money.”  

3. Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People

    Here is one of those fantastic albums that you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you first heard it.  The amount of styles represented in this album are baffling, and prove of the large amount of brilliant songwriters at hand here.  Sexually charged and full of surprises, each song on here has its own style, flair, and fashion.  The jaw dropping Anthems For a Seventeen Year Girl is hypnotic and the lyrics are the perfect mix of vague and overlaid, mixed in and out of phase causing an almost unexplored emotion surfacing from the listener.  I’ve literally seen rooms full of people go dead quiet while this song was playing.

Broken Social Scene – Anthems For a Seventeen Year-Old Girl

2. Modest Mouse – The Moon and Antartica

   When I graduated high school I was religiously into Modest Mouse.  Obsessed, wished I was Isaac Brock.  TM&A is the pinnacle of Modest Mouse and as terrible as it is too say I truly believe if Isaac Brock would have killed himself directly after the release of this album they would have been hailed in a Nirvana like fashion, known for this and Lonesome Crowded West, there never would have been a Float On, and Johhny Marr could still focus on playing in his flavor of the month bands.  But even if isaac wrote Float On 63 times, it would take nothing away from the sheltered genius he created in this album.  Starting off with 3rd Planet, Isaac basical drafts his theory of the universe, and by track 2 you’re sold on it.  The drugged out drunken poetry never falters, becomes too indulgent or relaxes, climaxing up to the 8 minute Stars Are Projecters, a hallucinogenic sound scape of alternative theories, believes, and philosophies.  Even while isaac is busy re-writing the history of the universe he manages to find time to bring worthy singles like Paper Thin Walls into the mix.

Modest Mouse – What People Are Made Of   

1. RADIOHEAD – KID A

 There is absolutely nothing I can say about this album that hasn’t been said, yet no one has been able to properly describe it’s genius either.   Fuck this, I’m just gonna go listen to this album. 

Radiohead – Optimistic

Hola estimados seguidores, que seguramente son muy pocos, pero en fin los estamos invitando para que nos ayuden a poder hacer la lista de los mejores 100 discos de esta década. Y pues estoy seguro que muchos tienen sus favoritos así que pues por medio de votación iremos sacando los discos. Así que esperamos nos den 10 opciones en los comentarios de esta entrada y pues yo pondré mi lista, ya se que 10 discos es muy poco, pero si pueden poner mas adelante,  traten de pensar en esos discos que creen cambio la manera de hacer música y formaron ó son parte importante en sus vidas.

While coaching football it is very difficult to find time to hang out with Sophia.  With both of us working and coaching at the same time every time I get home I am to exhausted to do anything besides sit on the coach and watch television.  Not the best way to start your first few months of being married.  I am hoping after football that we start doing fun married couple things… we will see.

So the other week I told Sophia we are going on a date.  We decided that we wanted to go see a movie.  When we both saw the preview for Where the Wild Things Are we were so excited as this was a favorite book of ours growing up.  I liked it even more because the theme song during the preview was from one of my favorite bands The Arcade Fire.

So here is my lame attempt of a review.  There are some movies that you go away saying to yourself  I want to see that again and yes I will pay $9 (plus another ticket then add the popcorn you are $25).  Then there are the movie experiences where you are indifferent you are trying to find a reason to love it and then at the same time you are trying to find a reason why you didn’t like it.  You know what type of movies these are when  someone asks you,  ”so how was the movie?”  Your response consists of a shoulder shrug a sigh and something like it was alright.  You try to explain what you didn’t like first and then what you liked second.  The other type of movies are the rare cases of a movie where you walk out thinking to yourself how in the world did that film get financing to be even considered a movie.  The movies I can not stand are the ones where you walk out thinking to yourself that was an amazing movie with a great storyline, acting was wonderful but the ending or there was just one scene that ruined the whole movie.

As you can see I am avoiding the point of my official review of Where the Wild Things Are.  Should you go and see it in the theaters and pay the $25?  As Sophia would say, save the $25 and use that $25 to see Twilight a second or which will be in her case a third time.  I would not recommend going to see Where the Wild Things Are in the theaters it is worth using Netflix.  Here are the pros and cons of the movie.  The costumes I thought were great, I thought colors and scenery where great.  The music in my opinion carried the storyline through out the movie and made it fun to see giant furry costumes jumping on each other.

After the movie Sophia and I were discussing if the movie followed the book exactly as we had not read the book in forever.  So we called Sophia’s mom and had her read the book to us while we drove home.  After a few minutes of listening to the book I realize that it was a big stretch to make this into a full length film.  So here is my criticisms of the movie the plot was missing something.  I do not know what exactly what it was missing but it just missed that excitement or that attachment issue.  The costumes were great, the characters were fun but that was about it.  I just felt like it was a fun movie with big furry giant creatures and a little boy running around with not much depth.

As you can see this is one of those movies where I shrug my shoulders while trying to find a reason to love the movie and also trying to find a reason not to hate it.  I knew going into this that I would not be very concrete in my review.  I can only tell you this the movie is not worth going to see in the theaters save the money and take your wife, girlfriend or sister to Twilight.

Beeem, meus maquiavélicos sonhos de postar tudo do Arcade aos poucos vem se concretizando [A quem quero enganar? Falta taaanto]. Enfim, aqui trago o debut da banda, o álbum Funeral que é extremamente profundo e trás bastante críticas ao modo frenética de vida urbano em faixas como Neighborhood #3 [Power Out] e fala também sobre um pouco da vida privada dos membros, como em Haiti. Muitos familiares dos membros morreram durante o processo de gravação do álbum, o que causou bastante apelo emocional nas faixas e no nome do álbum. Aqui para download o álbum Funeral       Download

1 – Neighborhood #1 [Tunnels]

Pilar del indie actual, no se porque me suena al nuevo Kings of Lion jajajaj, disfruten!!!

Lista de Temas.

1 Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
2 Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
3 Une Annee Sans Lumiere – (French)
4 Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
5 Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)
6 Crown of Love
7 Wake Up
8 Haiti – (French)
9 Rebellion (Lies)
10 In the Backseat

Mp3
160 kbps
Tamaño 67,9 MB

http://www.mediafire.com/?bxtin4zyvhv

it might only be October, but i’ve perfected a good start for my winter playlist. all tracks remind me of the cold months, without being cliche. mostly memories, slow tempo, snowy nights, and sad piano inspired the track selection. enjoy.

1. Black Moth Super Rainbow “Smog in Cities”
2. Band of Horses  ”Snow Song (acoustic)”
3. The Bees “The Sky Holds The Sun”
4. Metric “London Half Life”
5. VHS or Beta “Dynamize”
6. Sage Francis “Broken Wings”
7. Cold War Kids “Hospital Beds”
8. Modest Mouse “Heart Cooks Brain”
9. Jay Z “Dead Presidents”
10. Tapes n’ Tapes “Omaha”
11. The Arcade Fire “Cars and Telephones”
12. The Rosebuds “Make Out Song”
13. Okkervil River “Get Big”
14. The Rosebuds “Silja Line (On Settling For a Normal Life)”
15. Stars “The Big Fight”
16. Why? “Yo Yo Bye Bye”
17. Wolf Parade “Dinner Bells”
18. Yo La Tengo “You Can Have It All”
19. Kanye West “Home”
20. Lil Wayne “Shoot Me Down”

.do they know it’s hallowe’en? performed by the north american hallowe’en prevention initiative.

Acaba a força numa vila mínima coberta pela neve.
Um menino de dezessete se levanta e olha a janela do quarto.
A sombra dos cabos de força lá fora treme.
Mudam pra algo como três macacos pendurados.
Ele pula a janela e vê três crianças se lançando de cabo em cabo.
Outras se juntam e pulam nos carros. Alarmes disparam e só os faróis piscando iluminam a única rua do local.
Cai a neve e o menino caminha rumo à calçada para ver melhor. O pai do menino acaba de abrir a porta de casa e vê seu filho indo rumo àquela Babilônia.
O menino ouve passos e se vira e vê um punho fechado.
O pai gritando na calçada.
As crianças parando e uma a uma indo rumo ao pai.
Os alarmes ainda piscando.
Cada criança traz algo numa das mãos.
O pai vê bonecos de neve na rua.
Vê o menino sendo arrastado.
As crianças se aproximando com duas bolas de neve enormes e alguns gravetos.

Last night, I had the supreme pleasure of watching Where The Wild Things Are with a friend who works at a movie theater. (They have to watch the prints beforehand to make sure that there’s nothing wrong with them – hard life.  And as a side note, living has become a lot cheaper for me since I’ve been around friends who work at movie theatres and at bars.)  It made me so, so happy – the kind of happy where you’re crying sometimes and happy about it.

As with every film that has the indie/literati/intellectual bloodlines that Wild Things does (Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers, Karen O, The Arcade Fire), reviewers are falling into two camps: those who don’t mind the hype and those who do, which correspondingly colors their reviews.  The best description of the film, though, comes from the filmmakers themselves, who – I’m paraphrasing here – said they set out to make a movie not for children or about children but by a child.

Max’s story in the beginning of the film about the walking buildings and the vampires is a reminder of that – a lot of the time, nothing really happens in stories kids tell.  Logic and reality don’t matter, because they’re funkillers; see Judith, who has the most adult voice of all of them and is a total bitch. (For example, things my adult brain thought during the film: “He’d be dying of thirst by now if he was really sailing across the ocean” and “Did Ira make sure those tunnels were structurally sound?”)

One thing’s certain about it: it wasn’t made for children.  It may be appropriate for them, and some of them might even enjoy it, but children weren’t the target audience they had in mind.  The previews before made that painfully obvious – they were the same brightly-colored, fart-joke-filled paycheck movies that Hollywood spits at children, including some movie starring an old-looking Jackie Chan that’s clearly a carbon copy of The Pacifier, God help me. Where the Wild Things Are, on the other hand, is all brown and blues and grays; it’s never frenetic, and the neurosis of the Wild Things seem distinctly adult. (A gallery of movie stills is here.)

A lot of the critical reviewers say that it’s a film made for and by people who are unhappy about growing up – like that’s somehow a bad thing.  I think that’s what makes it so awesome.  I went back and read the Wild Things book after seeing the film, and I discovered that in fact nothing happens.  Here’s a reading of it that’s actually pretty good:

See?  Nothing happens.  And yet clearly a whole generation of kids did just fine filling in the gaps.  The movie is a Neverland of sorts – it’s for all us adults who remember a detailed and rich story that simply never existed and have lost a kid’s ability to extrapolate adventure into infinity.

That’s why I loved it so much – it was beautiful and childlike and wonderful, and I was able to just watch it with an earnest happiness that’s increasingly hard for me to reach.  I’m a child of the internet – snarky, critical, compulsively ironic – and kind of unhappy about it.  College made me a critical thinker, and I’m glad for that, but DAMN I wish I had a switch that could turn it off sometimes.

As a final note, the creation and animation of the wild things is literally perfect.  The real suits give them a reality and weight that animation just can’t manage yet, and the facial animation makes them not just actors in suits.

And I will cry every time I watch the trailer, into infinity.

wah! its been a while. school has been taking up all my time and MONEY. (thank you college.)

anyway…here’s a couple great songs by great people.

1. The Arcade Fire – Wake Up

i’ve been listening to the arcade fire a lot lately. this is one of my favorite songs from them, next to neon bible.

2. Landon Pigg – High Times

this song is just great. it’s fun. and i love landon pigg. i couldn’t believe that he was on late night with jimmy fallon last month! i remember a couple years ago when he was just getting started! so proud of that boy!

in other news, check out what my friends of Judgement Day have in store for you!

read their latest blog HERE!

also, they have an AMAZING opportunity to tour with Dredg in Europe!! they leave like…soon! so for all my friends in europe, check ‘em out! you won’t regret it!

Oct. 16th
@ Razzmatzz
Barcelona, Spain

Oct. 18th
@La Boule Noire
Paris, France

Oct 19th
@ Trix Club
Antwerp, Belgium

Oct 20th
@ Melkweg
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Oct 21st
@ Den Atelier
Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Oct 23rd
@ Klub Stodola
Warsaw, Poland

Oct 24th
@ PPC
Graz, Austria

Oct 25th
@ Rockhouse
Salzburg, Austria

Oct 26th
@ Arena Wien
Wien, Austria

Oct 28th
@ Blackout Club
Roma, Italy

Oct 29th
@ Zoe Club
Milano, Italy

Oct 30th
@ Kaufleuten
Zürich, Switzerland

Nov. 1st
@ Konzerthaus
Dortmund, Germany

Nov. 2nd
@ E-Werk
Köln, Germany

Nov. 3rd
@ Schlachthof
Wiesbaden, Germany

Nov. 4th
@ Theaterfabrik
München, Germany

Nov. 6th
@ Huxley’s
Berlin, Germany

Nov. 7th
@ Grosse Freiheit 36
Hamburg, Germany

Nov. 9th
@ Vega
Copenhagen, Denmark

Nov. 11th
@ Scala
London, United Kingdom

get more information at www.stringmetal.com

hope you all are doing well!

peace&love always.

keep in touch with me:

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youtube

Não, não é a OST [Original SoundTrack] de nenhum jogo de videogame que vou postar agora caso pensem que se trata da franquia da Square – apesar de eu ter adorado zerar o FFVII e o FFVIII e ainda ter os cds de FFIX pra terminar. Cof, cof… Enfim, Final Fantasy é o projeto solo do violinista Owen Pallett, que por muitas vezes está em shows dando apoio ao grupo The Arcade Fire e o nome do projeto foi sim escolhido por se tratar de seu jogo virtual predileto. O experimentalismo se encontra presente em grande parte de sua obra e já foram lançados muitos álbuns e recentemente o EP Plays to Please.

Aqui para download o EP Plays to Please      Download

1 – Horsetail Feathers

I can’t wait to take the kids to see this movie. It comes out friday so I figured it would be fun to do a little tribute to it this monday.

The director of Where the Wild Things Are also gave us this gem a while back.

1. Rebellion (Lies)- The Arcade Fire

Funeral

2. I Love You and Buddha Too- Mason Jennings

In The Ever

4. Best Supporting Actor- One For The Team

Build A Garden

5. Bend to Squares- Death Cab For Cutie

Something About Airplanes

6. Beggin You- The Wars of 1812

Status Quo Ante Bellum

7. Electric Feel- MGMT

Oracular Spectacular

Um pequeno compacto de 7” portando apenas duas músicas da intensa turnê do LCD Soundsystem e The Arcade Fire: Duas músicas inéditas de cada banda! É um material de difícil acesso, tanto para download quanto para comprar que exalta o talento de James Murphy, O Cara da produtora musical DFA Records e front man exclusivo do LCD Soundsystem ao lado dos oito imbatíveis do Arcade Fire. Espero que gostem – e me desculpem por essa exaustante repetição de post do Arcade, rs.

Aqui para download o 7’’ polegadas Tour Split com The Arcade Fire e LCD Soundsystem        Download

1 – Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son [The Arcade Fire]

Aaahhh Arcade… Ainda me sinto uma pessoa mais justa para viver desde hoje de madrugada que assisti o Dvd do Arcade ao vivo em Paris, de 2oo7 eu acho. E meio que nesse clima árcade, resolvi postar um EP deles ao vivo no festival Fashion Rocks, com apenas três músicas, mas é oficial! E geeente, é com o David Bowie! Oooi, eles tocam duas músicas do Sr. Bowie incluindo a consagrada Five Years. Espero que os fãs apreciem!

Aqui para download o EP Live at Fashion Rocks       Download

1 – Life on Mars?

I’ve recently started expanding my music collection. Or rather, I’m listening to some music that I got a while ago that I just never got around to listening to.

First is Wolf Parade. They’re a Canadian indie rock band that formed…. 5 years ago? I don’t remember. I was first introduced to them when their song “Dinner Bells” was used in a gameplay video for “Assassin’s Creed”. I really liked it, even though the vocals took a bit getting used to. My favorite song by them is “I’ll Believe in Anything” on their first album “Apologies to the Queen Mary”.

I still don’t get what the video’s about… but they have dueling cannons. Which I thought was awesome.

I’m also listening to the Arcade Fire. I got their album “Funeral” sometime this summer and I just never got around to listening to them… but WOW. I really like it. One of their songs, “Wake Up”, was used in the trailer for “Where the Wild Things Are”. For some reason, whenever I watch that trailer, I get a little sad. I guess it’s because I know I’ll never get back to that point.

This is a live performance of “Wake Up” at the Glastonbury Music Festival in 2007. What’s amazing is that their live performance is even better than their studio recording. They just have so much energy.

I’ve also recently started reading Calvin and Hobbes again. A couple years ago, my brother borrowed a Calvin and Hobbes book from his school library. I really liked it, so he borrowed the other books when he got a chance. We’d read them together and they were some of the only times we were quiet when we were together. Now that my brother’s moving into the double-digits age-wise and I’m legally an adult… I dunno. It’s the end of something. It’s the end of childhood freedom, I guess. Sometimes I wish I could return to such a carefree time.

On the eve of a big road trip this weekend (and after a much needed break to focus on other areas of our lives), we are back with a new playlist for you!  We decided on the theme of our Favorite Road Trip songs a couple months ago when aspirations of a Labour Day vacation were still fresh on the mind…boy were we off.

We pushed forward anyways and here you go; a couple songs about hitting the open road and a handful of others that help me get to the final destination…no matter how many KM’s away.

Free mp3 – Ryan’ Favorite Road Trip Songs

1.Rock Island Line – Johnny Cash

2.Keep the Car Running – The Arcade Fire

3. Open Road – Slightly Stoopid

4. Built for Speed – Stray Cats

5. Down the Road – Dead Moon

6. Nothing But Green Lights – Tom Vek

7. Groovin’ – The Young Rascals

8.Car – Built to Spill

9. Ramble On – Led Zeppelin

10.Drive – Blind Melon

Since this is officially the last year of “the oughts” or “the oh-oh’s” or whatever you want to call it, that means only one thing: we now need to figure out what we call the next decade (the teens, I guess?). It also means I need to figure out my top 50 or 100 or whatever albums of this decade.

After a few weeks off, I continue this week with 2004.

1. TV on the Radio – Desperate Youths, Bloodthirsty Babes (Touch & Go) – This album was a revelation when I first came across it (used my $13 or so from the class action lawsuit against the music industry to buy it). And from the beginning of “The Wrong Way” with “Staring at the Sun” following, it sounded like nothing I had really heard before. TV on the Radio have continued to evolve since this debut, but this will always be a turning point for me in music.

2. Liars – They Were Wrong, So We Drowned (Mute) – A huge change up from their dance punk debut, where the now-trio branched out into an album of more experimental, almost tribal music that “depicts the struggle between a village of Christians and the women they believe to be a coven of witches, alternating their sides of the story track by track.” Co-produced by TV on the Radio’s David Sitek.

3. Shalabi Effect – The Trial of St. Orange (Alien8) – For a few years, I was all about Alien8 Recordings, a Canadian label specializing in experimental rock and post rock. This might have been my favorite of the albums I bought from them, a wildly eclectic mix of middle eastern-influenced, psychadelic post rock.

4. The Arcade Fire – Funeral (Merge) – A great, confident debut from the art pop band from Montreal. They set the bar quite high on this debut, and have since been unable to match it (though they’ve only released one full length since). Hearing the use of “Wake Up” in the commercials for Where the Wild Things Are has reminded me just how good this album was.

5. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Shake the Sheets (Lookout!) – I first saw Ted Leo in 2001 at an in-store at the now defunct Gate City Noise record store in Greensboro, NC and have been a pretty big fan ever since. For me, this is probably his most consistent album and thus, my favorite. “Me and Mia” and “Little Dawn” are the album highlights.

Honorable Mentions: Franz Ferdinand – s/t (Domino), Cee Lo Green – …is the Soul Machine (Arista), Masta Killa – No Said Date (Nature Sounds)