Ep. 35 – So much awesome!!!! – Sept. 27th, 2008

So it’s been quite awhile since I’ve gotten any new music.  There are a few reasons for this.  The first is that i make very little money right now working only 10 hrs a week and going to school full time.  The second reason is that their are not really any good places to get music in this town.  I went home this weekend so i took the chance and stopped in at Record Time, one of my favorite record stores back home.  I found so many good things and am amazed at the haul from this weekend.

“Gold (Re-release)” – Starflyer 59

After picking up “Silver” earlier this summer i decided i wanted more of the early stuff by SF59.  Gold is their second album and it has a similar sound to Silver, really good, heavy-yet-ethereal shoegazer. 🙂  Haven’t absorbed it quite yet but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard thus far.

Track-listing:
1. A House Wife Love Song
2. Duel Overhead Cam
3. When You Feel Miserable
4. You’re Mean
5. Stop Wasting Your Whole Life
6. Messed Up Over You
7. When You Feel The Mess
8. Somewhere When Your Heart Glowed
9. Indiana
10. Do You Ever Feel This Way
11. One Shot Juanita
12. Next Time Around
13. Goodbyes Are Sad
14. When No One Calls
15. The Starflyer 2000 Reprise
16. Le Vainqueur

Price Paid: $8

“Psychology” – Discover America

I got into DA my senior year of high school i believe.  It’s a really cool album.  Everything on the album is done by one guy and he does it well.  It’s kind of an indie-folk sound; mellow but not boring.  He is very ingenuitive and he uses alot of different effects to keep it interesting (including a kazoo 😉 )  I recommend it.  This one was on the hunt0list and i was surprised to find it in the clearance section of record time.  This is one of those albums i never expected to find in a store.  I always thought i’d have to end up ordering of the interenet, but i was pleasantly surprised to find it friday and at such a great price!

Track-listing:

1. Call it in the air
2. 1986
3. From the 100th Floor
4. Stark Honesty
5. Green Eyes
6. Tight Rope Walker
7. Phantom Treasure
8. Shiny Teeth
9. The Halves That Make Us Whole
10. Everything Changes

Price Paid: $3

“Floating World” – Anathallo

This is another album i thought i would never find in the store.  I got into this album my freshman year of college.  I had a couple Anathallo albums on my computer for a very long time before that and i never really got into them but never deleted them for some reason.  Then somehow i heard about this album and i decided to download it.  I can’t remember if i got into it right away or if it took me a little while but now i enjoy the album very much.  I have to be in the right mood for it though, anathallo is a little…. different.  This is a very eclectic indie-rock/pop album…  They sing half the CD in japanese for no readily apparent reason and use everything from trumpets to hand-claps on this album.  Very good, very different listen.  Somewhat mellow but picks up in some spots.  I think there is even a story to the album, but i haven’t read the insert yet.  Found this one at Record Time new so it was a little more pricey but since i hadn’t bought any new music the whole month of september i thought i might as well…

Track-listing:

1. “Ame” – 0:49
2. “Genessaret (Going Out Over 30,000 Fathoms of Water)” – 5:32
3. “Hoodwink” – 5:48
4. “By Number” – 5:08
5. “Dokkoise House (With Face Covered)” – 6:00
6. “Hanasakajijii (Four: A Great Wind, More Ash)” – 4:44
7. “Hanasakajijii (One: The Angry Neighbor)” – 3:10
8. “Inu (Howling)” – 1:20
9. “Hanasakajijii (Two: Floating World)” – 4:57
10. “The Bruised Reed” – 6:04
11. “Yuki! Yuki! Yuki!” – 1:14
12. “Hanasakajijii (Three: The Man Who Made Dead Trees Bloom)” – 4:26
13. “Cuckoo Spitting Blood” – 3:05
14. “Kasa No Hone (The Umbrella’s Bones)” – 2:08

Price Paid: $12.99

“I’m Only a Man” – Emery

Funny Story.  So for the longest time Emery has been a part of my music library.  I had all their previous albums plus some rare tracks and for the longest time i really, really tried to like them.  For some reason, i just didn’t.  Over the summer i heard some tracks from Emery’s newest album, I’m Only a Man, and once again, i tried to like them.  I ruckus’d this album and liked a couple of tracks but not enough to buy the album.  About my second trip to Record Time this summer i saw a copy of this album, used, on sale for $6.  Ever trip to Record Time since i would look at it and pass it up.  Just recently i started watching TVUlive again and Emery’s music video for “The Party Song” came up a few times…  Well it got stuck in my head and the next thing i new i was singing it in the shower.  So i came to like the song.  Well, on friday i saw this album at Record Time, but they had moved it to the clearance rack.  I saw it there and now that the price was lowered i thought “what the heck” and bought it.  I’ve listened to it and couple times since then and i don’t know what happened but i really like this album now… i’ll probably never get into Emery’s old stuff, but i have to admit this album is pretty killer!

Track-listing:

1. “Rock-N-Rule” – 3:38
2. “The Party Song” – 3:31
3. “World Away” – 3:38
4. “After the Devil Beats His Wife” – 4:31
5. “Can’t Stop the Killer” – 3:32
6. “Story About a Man with a Bad Heart” – 3:28
7. “Don’t Bore Us, Get to the Chorus” – 3:33
8. “What Makes a Man a Man” – 4:24
9. “The Movie Song” – 3:09
10. “You Think You’re Nickel Slick (But I Got Your Penny Change)” – 3:45
11. “From Crib to Coffin” – 10:44

Price Paid: $2

“Peirce the Empire With a Sound” – The Out-Circuit

It’s funny i found this one at record time because i just discovered these guys this past month.  I was probably gonna order this album off the internet sometime soon but i found it used for cheaper. 🙂  This is a really cool album, i haven’t absorbed it all yet.  It features ex-members of Frodus and Dustin  Kensrue of Thrice lends his voice to a song.  Solid album from what i’ve gleaned thus far.  It is a hard sound to describe.  I recommend just going to the Lujo Records website and snaging the free track “Across the Light” from there, it sums the album up pretty well and it’s a really good song!

Track-listing:

1 Come out Shooting
2. Passchendaele
3. Across the Light
4. The Contender
5. The Hexagon
6. The Fall of Las Vegas
7. We
8. Lost Pilot
9. New Wine
10, Scarlet

Price Paid: $6

So found all those and went to check out and got to talking with the owner of Record Time.  We started talking about Anberlin’s new album that comes out tomorrow.  I asked him if they had it in yet since sometimes stores like that get the album a few days in advance.  He said they didn’t but then he did something i didn’t expect.  He reached behind the counter and grabbed a limited edition Anberlin 7″ Vinyl that is supposed to come free with the purchase of the album!  He looked at the CD’s i was buying, picked one up and said, “Free, with the purchase of any… Anathallo CD!”  I laughed and thanked the guy.  He pretty much made my day… until i got home.

When i got home there was a package waiting for me.  It had a CD inside:

“Anti-Meridian” – Brave Saint Saturn

The third and final (supposedly) BSS album was waiting for me when i got home.  I preordered it back in June but then the release date was pushed back.  It came out September 15th but i haven’t been home to get it yet.  Well, first off, the album is amazing.  Reese Roper and the guys are geniouses.  I highly recommend the album if you like the other BSS stuff or if you like Five Iron Frenzy.  BSS is different than FIF though as it was Reese’s oulet for darker lyrics and subject matter… i think it’s really, really good stuff and definately worth checking out!  Ok, so you want to know the best part about this weekend?  Well, after checking out the album i pulled the receipt out of the package as well and was flabbergast to see a message written on the recipt in sharpie… it read:

“Jacob, You were the very FIRST person to order Anti-Meridian.  NO ONE is cooler than you.  -Reese”

Freakin’ Reese Roper of Five Iron Frenzy and Brave Saint Saturn wrote me a note!  Sweet!

Track-listing:

1. “Here Is the News”
2. “Mercenary”
3. “Starling”
4. “Underground”
5. “When You Burn Too Fast”
6. “Through Depths of Twilight”
7. “Hero’s Homecoming”
8. “AMMODRAMUS”
9. “Fields of the Fallen”
10. “Always Just Beneath the Dawn”
11. “Fortress of Solitude”
12. “Blessed are the Land Mines”
13. “AEGOLIUS”
14. “Begin Again”
15. “These Frail Hands”
16. “INVICTUS”

Price Paid: $14 (back in June)

It was a really good weekend for music!

Ep. 7 – Remote Control Planes – June 23rd, 2008

I did some work for my grandmother this morning and she gave me some money so i decided to check out “Blast in the Past” again.  Once again upon walking in my ears were assaulted by the inane conversation of the store owner and his ded-head friends.  This time, i almost laughed aloud at their conversation.  They were having an in-depth, heated conversation about how 911 was a conspiracy… oh man!  They complained about all the people that said “I am so glad Al Gore wasn’t president when the planes hit” and they proceeded to explain their own theories on what “really went down.”  According to the owner, George W. Bush is actually responsible for 911, not only that but he was at the controls.  They claimed the planes were remote-controlled?!?!  How ridiculous!  Then they went on to claim that all the people that supposedly died on the plans were actually all targeted by the government and taken out ahead of time.  They brought many other ridiculous “points” that i just can’t seem to remember… i don’t know what kind of stuff these guys used to smoke (or still do) but whatever it was, it messed them up.  It is quite entertaining to listen to them though…  and by the way, they seem like good people, they just have some wacky ideas.

Ok, on to today’s finds:

“[A–>B] Life – Mewithoutyou”

I actually came across this one on my last visit but i passed it up.   When i got home i listened to my burned copy and i realized i had made a terrible mistake!  I actually tried to go pick this one up Sunday before work but only when i got to the door of BitP did i realize they were not open on Sundays.  So today i made sure to grab it.  Mewithoutyou has been one of my favorite bands for awhile now.  I first got into them early in high school…  i found a few of their songs on the Internet and i got really into them.  Then they released their second album, “Catch for Us the Foxes” and my drama team leader from my youth group, Emily, burned me both their albums.  I have loved mewithoutyou ever since.  I remember blaring the song “Gentlemen” in my room at my old house and screaming/yelling along because i could actually do a decent job at imitating Aaron Weiss’s interesting vocal style (at least i though i could, who knows 😉 )  If you have never listened to mewithoutyou then i suggest trying them out, they have a very interesting style…  It’s like hard rock with some ambient-rock thrown in, a little shoegazer, and little yelling, a harp, some metaphors… they are an experiment that at many times is just beyond words.  Give them a try, but if you do, i recommend either their second release, “Catch for Us the Foxes” or their third release “Brother, Sister” first.  Don’t get me wrong, this is a great album, but they have matured since this album and they keep making better and better music!  Price Paid: $9.50 (not particularly cheap, but worth it)

“The Light in Guinevere’s Garden” – East West

I downloaded this album awhile back with a couple of their other releases and of them all i liked this one the most.  They have a really good sound, kind of like a christian version of Korn, but not exactly…  I saw this one ever time I’ve been in BitP but i kept passing it up because it was priced a little high… it was sealed though…  I decided it was worth it today, I’ve been getting a lot of tips at work lately…  Price Paid: $12.50

I actually had a little more cash left over and some extra time before work so i decided to head over to record time since i hadn’t been there in a little while, i thought they might have gotten some new stuff in… they had, and i was lucky to find the best find of today:

“Summer of Darkness” – Demon Hunter

I have been a fan of Demon Hunter since they released their self-titled debut album.  They are a christian heavy metal band, and they are really good!  I didn’t buy one of their albums until they re-released their third album last year with a DVD.  That DVD/Album made me love the band even more, the DVD showed me just how cool the guys in the band are!  They are really outspoken about their Christianity and not at all ashamed of it, and that’s really cool!!!  When they released their forth album this year, it was actually one of the first albums i resisted the urge to download and waited until i could afford to buy it legally.  Ruckus helped.  Now i own three of their four releases, all i have to do is find their self-titled album now!  Price Paid: $4! (makes up for the other expensive ones today)

“Leave Here a Stranger” – Starflyer 59

I haven’t had much exposure to this record, but it is Starflyer 59 so i trust it’s good (it has to be since it’s not “the fashion focus” 😉 )  It is on the hunt-list because i did have a few tracks off it downloaded but never found the whole album.  I’ve actually known this was at Record Time since the first time i went there but have passed it up every time since i hadn’t heard it before.  I gave it a listen today and decided to shell out the cash for one more album today…  Price Paid: $8

All in all a good day of hunting.  See ya next time!

P.S. I pre-ordered Brave Saint Saturn’s new album today, their store is up — you can order it too, right here!

Albums I Am Eagerly Awaiting

Some of my favorite artists are busy doing what they do best, creating amazing music, right now and I am very excited for a number of upcoming releases, they include:

“Antimeridan” – Brave Saint Saturn, the third album, and most likely last album to be released by BSS.  Their website is extremely vague saying the album will be released June 2008… june is almost over and i’m going a little bit nuts!  Read more here: http://www.bravesaintsaturn.com/index.html

The boys at Stavesacre have mentioned some new material in the works but the Stavesacre front has been quiet for awhile, if/when the new material is released it will most likely be the last new material ever made by Stavesacre.  In one sense i am excited to hear more from my favorite band, but in another i will be sad to see them go.  Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavesacre Check out this Video of a recent practice, (if they are practicing that means something right? Like the possiblity of a farewell tour… or atleast some shows… 🙂 )  (there is some dead time at the beginning but trust me it’s worth it!

Mewithoutyou is in the studio recording what i know will be another amazing album: http://www.myspace.com/mewithoutyou

Anberlin is supposed to release an album in september also!  www.anberlin.com

Alot to watch for soon!  I am very excited!

Ep. 5 – Un-freaking-Believable! Blindside, Brave Saint Saturn, and More! – June 19th, 2008

Today was pay-day, and my day off so i went out hunting…  I decided to check out some other record stores in my area this time so today i stopped by “Blast in the Past.”  It was located on gratiot (again), between Utica and Martin (i don’t know why, but there are three record stores within a mile of each other on gratiot, go figure…)   I liked the place, kind of a half was point between Record Time and Hot Hits…  It wasn’t as nice as Record Time but i didn’t get bad vibes from the place like i did from Hot Hits.

Today’s trip was hands down the most productive one yet!  I am still in shock over what i found.

So here goes:  I walked in the store and started browsing the rack and as i am i listen to this owner of the store talk to a couple other old guys.  They are reminiscing about the days when gas was $1 and White Castle Burgers were 12 cents.  Then he launches into a story about how he hitchhiked with these guys once and they where smoking weed in the car and they rolled a joint as “big as a cigar” and he got a contact high… They sat and reminisced more about the days when anyone would give you a ride if you just stuck your thumb out, i was mildly amused.  I could tell that they didn’t get new CDs in very often and that their regulars probably didn’t like the obscure bands i do because i found some real gems, check it:

“Silence” – Blindside

This album is one of my desert island top five for sure.  If you would have asked me a few years ago it would have been my #1!  I got into Blindside right around the time this album was released, right as i began high school.  I had my new best friend Andrew download this album for me, amoung others.  I was in love with this album for years to come, i listened to it so many times and i know the whole album front to back…  This album quickly made Blindside my favorite band and they stayed that way until early in college when another band i had also loved for awhile eeked their way to the top, that band, of course is the great Stavesacre.  Like I said, when i found this album today i was blown away.  And what’s more, it was unopened – never before used!  Price Paid: $5

“Tales of the Knife” – Lucerin Blue

This album is closely related to Silence by Blindside in my life.  My friend downloaded and burned this album for me on the same day as silence but i actually didn’t listen to it until atleast a few weeks later because as soon as i put silence in my CD player it stayed there for that long!  This under-rated album by what anyone in the world of popular music would call a “One-Hit Wonder” band, is one that i have loved for a long time.  You may remember the song “Monday in Vegas” getting some secular radio play back in 2003… i specifically remember one time it was on the radio while i was in the dark room of my high school photography class, i was shocked because i normally didn’t listen to the radio and i had no idea that anyone even knew about Lucerin Blue, let alone they were being played on secular radio stations… This is a good hard rock albums with some nice piano parts here and there, has kind of a rap-rock sound at times, but it is very good.  Found it today, unopened as well!  Price Paid: $5

“Adventures in Tokyo” – Calibretto 13

Not much to say about this band except that I’ve always liked their original sound (horror / surf punk) and the content of their lyrics.  Listened to them a lot last summer, now i finally own one of their albums! Price Paid: $5

“The Light of Things Hoped For” – Brave Saint Saturn

In the wake of the demise of (in my opinion) the best christian ska band ever, Five Iron Frenzy, i was sad… I mean really sad, you must understand how much i loved FIF…  In that post-mortem stage i desperately searched for something to fill that Five Iron shaped hole in my heart.  A few years earlier i had heard about a side project some of the band members had done (most notably Reese Roper) called Brave Saint Saturn.  The “Space-rock” band was an outlet for some of Reese’s sadder lyrics that didn’t quite fit with Five Iron…  I downloaded there albums because i wanted more FIF, i kept them because i love BSS.  I doesn’t really sound anything like Five Iron Frenzy, but their albums are beautiful!  I am proud to now own one of the two they have released (so-far 😉 ).  Also found this one unopened but it was a little more pricey.  Price Paid: $9.50 (it was worth it)

All in all this was they best day of hunting i’ve had since i began this project!  i saw a few other albums from the list there but i am out of spending money at the moment so maybe next week.  To some up my excitement let me just say that on the way back to my car from the record store i couldn’t help myself from periodically exclaiming “No Freakin Way!”