Download the Whole Catalog: TPC

Tokyo Police Club. Good music. KUTE. Canadian. Win-Win-Win situation. I remember I was going to see them sometime last year (maybe it was the beginning of this year) and I was like, "oh, I know them, Their English is Good" because I had downloaded the single when it came out in 2007. Ended up seeing them at Rogers Picnic anyway.

Since I have acquired the rest of their catalog, which includes 2 short EPs - A Lesson in Crime and Smith. Get both of these and BLAST them when you are alone. The band took some heat for the length, but I like short songs/albums/EPs.

Their first LP Elephant Shell is really good. Super cohesive. Like the most cohesive album I've ever heard. That I can remember. And I'm a sucker for cohesiveness. . . I'm not being sarcastic , the album is a 28 minute song. The album has a central theme of youth/growing up/aging/dying - circle of life kinda deal.

If you download singles, don't bother with Tessellate. For some reason the general consensus is negative, even though it's not a bad song per say. Personally I don't think it's a good representation of the band/album.

Tracks of Note:
1. Centennial. The album opener, good arrangement, cute meaning.
2. Juno
3. Sixties Remake
4. Nursery, Academy. This is a well crafted song. There is the best 1 second cold open I've ever heard that doubles as an innitial hook, making it very a likable song.
5. The Baskervilles. Album closer, I just like this one for some reason.

TPC Myspace

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Don't Leave 2008 Without...

Italics are albums. Feel free to add Dear Science. TVOTR made everyone's #1.

Lisa- Albert Hammond Jr
Piecing it Together-Born Ruffians
Red, Yellow & Blue- Born Ruffians
White Winter Hymnal- Fleet Foxes
Sex on Fire- Kings of Leon
Little Joy-Little Joy
The Postelles EP-The Postelles
Lolita-Throw Me the Statue
Elephant Shell-Tokyo Police Club
Vampire Weekend-Vampire Weekend
A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation-The Wombats

Last Night: Vampire Weekend !

Vampire Weekend at Terminal 5 last night was honestly the best gig I've been to in awhile. It was so fun. They played all of the songs off of the first album along with Ottoman, since they had a string section for a few songs to back them and three new songs they promised to record early next year. (NME also had a piece stating this a few weeks ago)

The encore was a cover of my favorite Fleetwood Mac song, Everywhere (not kidding/you can download it here) and Walcott.

They did help me realized that I am afraid of crowd surfers though. Thankfully and un-thankfully I was surrounded in by a bunch of tall skinny guys who a) pushed the the crowd surfers down to the floor and b) obstructed my view even though I was only about 3 rows of people back on the right.




Call and Response: blake's got a new face !

vent / am i a stalker?

I'm so mad.
I'm so mad.
I'm so f'cking mad,
and I can't decide if I should be.

I feel like a Born Ruffians stalker. Seriously. I haven't even listened to any of their stuff recently. They were in my dream a few nights ago...and then I was catching up on Nirvana the Band the Show, these ridiculously funny Canadian webisodes about these two guys trying to get gigs in Toronto. I've been watching them since the summer. And The Born Ruffians happened to be on the two episodes I didn't see. Seriously though...it's the weirdest coincidence ever.

Oh, oh. So today I get an e-mail from Bowery Presents with all the new gigs for the major linked New York venues. And Tokyo Police Club's playing a set in February with. Born. Ruffians. The gig's not even posted on their own myspace. It's 18+ and TPC sells out places pretty damn quick. I will be going to the Mercury Lounge box office shortly.

But maybe I shouldn't be so quick to deem myself a stalker. The culminating events of the past few days were nothing short of mutually exclusive. Meaning I had no control of the occurrences. Right? Right?! Console me...I wanna be a fan, not a fanatic.

p.s. Kurt Vonnegut (youtube below) came up in discussion in English today. The author, of course.
WHAT IS GOING ON?! This is all too weird.

Cultural Offering; November 28, 2008

Three posts in one day. But I found a website that whoever reads this (which is possible nobody) might find some kind of artistic/aesthetic/nostalgic value in. And I'm probably going to forget it sooner than later myself.

Being the culture and photography fan that I am, (I use 35mm, various Lomography cameras, digital and instant) Square America . com was really cool to find.

Basically it's a collection of mostly square color and b/w photographs taken in the mid 20th century. I've gone through a lot of the database, and this is one of my favorites:

Working Backwards

The Strokes are beginning to come back into the music world/my life. And I'm starting to think about them again. I've had but 3.5 music obsessions in my whole life. These being The Backstreet Boys, John Mayer, The Strokes (including side projects) and Born Ruffians (.5 - summerstage until now) Obviously there have been others but the aforementioned are ones that I've really loved, can name each member, ect. So I guess I'm working backwards with my favorites.

I found this NME special issue. The article about them was very good. And Vampire Weekend was featured too- they're going back into the studio early next year, just like The Strokes are.



Fab and Nikolai talk about 10 iconic Strokes tracks below..apparently Is This It was conjured from drunken recording sessions. I can't believe it!!

All Hail Social !

I don't understand the tag cloud. Things that are big shouldn't be.
Anyway...


I found a new band. They are called Hail Social. I think they are MGMT's slightly less fashionable cousins. I like the lead singer (first from left) because he looks like Casey Affleck. I love him! Met him twice/at movie premiers/but that's beside the point/nobody actually cares/but I do/he's still my favorite actor.

Their music is...fun. Psh I gotta stop blogging until I can get some, you know, mp3 dollars.

Post Options©2008 Manuel Dominguez Jr.

Here's Heaven. I kinda lol'd when I saw MGMT was a related video.

C-C-Can't REst Until I

i need itunes money
i refuse to steal music
:(
i am better than a fucking pirate! arr!

Ooh well. Doesn't matter so soon to come into an obscene amount of iTunes money since I can't stop listening to Little Joy. It's almost been a week since the concert. Nothing but LJ. (and Pool Party Fun).


It's 2:20 am .. do you know where you sleep is? not here.


the digitized list:

• (round out) stadium arcadium- RHCP
• ocular spectacular- MGMT (slow on this one..not so much an electro fan though. And no, mgmt, I don't care that you call yourself 'easy listening' on your myspace)
  
• b-sides-born ruffians
  
• how we are EP- bombay bicycle club
  

Can't remember the rest...I had a list. No, two lists. But I lost them.

i keep thinkin' gawd, 'how gr8 it is 2 play a gee-taur'

(how to hang a warhol- [who but] Little Joy)

One Thing Leads to Another

You might remember the set list from the Born Ruffians' Brooklyn gig last month. I was hoping to find the solo work that Luke Lalonde played. And it was linked to me by non other than Luke himself:

http://www.myspace.com/skeletonme

I remember 'Pool Party Fun' well from the show...probably because I like the lyrics and the arrangement is very pretty.

So many people out there
So how did I get stuck here with you?
Where's my sword to slay?
Where are my rules to obey?
Show me.

Her hair was styled with fear
Her teeth were like [premier?].
And she really has no reason,
no reason at all
to be lonely.

I don't any want to play anymore,
Thank you.
Not here, not now,
maybe never again.

And it's hard when it hurts and you have to say it doesn't.
You don't have to say it doesn't.
And it sucks when you find someone but they don't find you.
Yeah, it sucks when you find someone, but they don't find you.
Why won't this feeling go away?

Hey...

You can probably get a sense of the musical connotation from the lyrics.
I played this song quite a bit yesterday with the full Little Joy album..both definitely worth a listen.

///

Last Night: Little Joy

"Look! It's Fab from The STROOOOKES!"

This was pretty cool. My friend and I ended up waiting around for awhile waiting for them to show up but it was well worth it. They sound great live. The band played the typical in-store set of 7 or so songs. The album is actually very good, it's one of those you can listen to over and over without getting bored.

Get. This. Album. It's short and just quiet enough. Not much of a review, but I highly endorse it.
myspace.com/littlejoymusic

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