Scripted Failures

Okay, so now I’m truly going to destroy all my indie cred, but I can’t help it.  “Famous Last Words” is one of the most emotionally draining songs I’ve ever heard.  I know this record has been out for over a year, but who cares.  Sure, My Chemical Romance is way too over theatrical, but sometimes it works, and on this track it works like a charm.  The intro is sorta quiet, except for Gerard Way’s sneering vocals and those big guitar hits, before that nasty guitar riff comes in.  The verses are all brash and in your face with some nice guitar riffage, nothing too complex but perfect for the song.  The pre-chorus sweetens things up a little bit, and then comes the fucking huge chorus.  It’s huge I tell you.  “I am not afraid to keep on living. I am not afraid to walk this world alone.  Honey if you stay you’ll be forgiven.  Nothing you can say can stop me going home,” it goes.  Then after another round of verse, pre-chorus, and chorus, we get a huge Queen-ish build-up replete with big arena rock guitar solos, before it quiets down again.  Now all this is great in and of itself, but the real treat comes at the end of the song.  When the gut wrenching chords come in, things start building, the synths start to kick in full force, the lyrics build to their climax, and Gerard Way shoots up an octave to sing “I sleep all days, cause I see you lying next to me, with words I thought I’d never speak awake and unafraid”, that’s when the orgasm begins.  It reaches its totally satisfying conclusion when the vocal layers pile on the already huge musical canvas playing the aforementioned lyrics against the chorus lyrics.  The song fades out with these dueling layers in the forefront making you want to hit previous on your mp3 player to do it alllll over again.  I swear my heart breaks everytime i hear this song.  I don’t know why I resonate emotionally so much with this song, but I just do.  I think it’s the romanticism of those last lines.  Eventhough the kid has cancer he feels all right because the one he loves is lying beside him.  A hopeless romantic I admittedly am.

So once again this is old news, but I recently downloaded this album, so sue me.  This will be the first post of two that will probably destroy all of my indie cred, however Pitchfork likes to gush all over Mr. Z, so I might be safe.  When “The Black Album” came out and I finally got around to listening to it, I fell in love with it.  Hell, I’ll admit it, I love Jay-Z.  As everyone knows, after the album came out tons of remix albums came out including the infamous “Grey Album” which was a pairing of “The Black Album” with The Beatles “White Album”.  Somewhere recently, I’m sure it was on Pitchfork I saw some gushing over 9th Wonder’s remix of the album called “Black is Back”.  So I had to hear it.  Unfortunately, the version I downloaded had some annoying mp3 encoding errors, so I need a new copy, but this song was error free.  This is going to sound dumb, but this song came up on random while I playing Hexic, and I was immeadiately hooked.

This remix takes the bit of old school soul production that the original had and amps it up to the nth degree.  The original version was rather joyous, but this song takes that joyous to a whole new level.  This version is like a huge celebration, all in honor of how badass Jay-Z is.  Starting off with a gorgeous soul sample, instead of the Gladiator sample of the original, it just gets better from there.  If there’s one thing that I like about some of the current producers in rap these days, Kayne West and, apparently, 9th Wonder, is that they sample amazing old school soul songs.  It never fails that I end up researching and downloading the sampled song.  I haven’t done my research on this one, but it’s not far behind.  So, the soul sample loops itself throughout the whole song, which may sound repetitive on paper, but the sample is so rad it just doesn’t matter.  The beat is bangin’, and by the way that may be the only time you hear me say that phrase, and just adds to the celebratory feel of the song. The only thing I haven’t mentioned is Jay-Z’s rhymes which are top notch on this track.  He sounds so confident that I can’t help but believe every bit of bragging he spits out.  I just want to DJ a party and play this song, and get down in the crowd and dance with everyone!  That’s one of the main points of rap right, to get people to shake their ass?  Well this one definitely succeeds.

This is sort of “black market” album, considering it’s not an offically sanctioned remix album, so you won’t find it in stores, but if you go here you can you buy it. You might be able to find it cheaper somewhere else, but I’m not sure.  If I find it for cheaper I’ll let you know.  Hell, you might be able to find it on iTunes.  I’ll admit, I need to quit being a pirate and buy it.  It’s on my list, which is growing, yet decreasing at the same time as I finally buy albums I’ve loved for years.  You didn’t hear me say this, but find it and hear it at any cost, but if you must pirate it, at least support 9th Wonder and buy the damn thing if you dig it.  After all, piracy is wack, unless you’re stealing from Metallica, who deserve it for being pussies about Napster.

I’m having a good day today. It’s beautiful outside and I went out to lunch so I got to feel a bit of it.  Alabama is really nice this time of year.

Enough!  Onward!

So.  In Rainbows.  There’s not a lot to say about this record that a few million other bloggers haven’t already said, but I’m gonna go out on a limb here and just say it: not that great.  Now, I don’t mean “eh, not that great,” but more like “not that great.”  The record is good for a Radiohead record.  I hold them to pretty high standards because, well, they’ve proven what they can do (Ok Computer), and I expect no less from each release.  Radiohead has gotta get graded hard.  They’re one the smartest students in the class, and they should never fail to try their hardest.

The acclaim I’ve been hearing about it being as good or better than Ok Computer is absolute rubbish.  In Rainbows is a good record.  It’s enjoyable.  It’s pleasant.

And I like it.  But Ok Computer it is not.  It feels to me like they mixed Hail to the Thief (which I loved) and The Eraser (which I didn’t particularly care for).  There are times where it feels black and white, like a huge white canvas with drums, Thom’s voice and the other instruments just barely covering any of it; those parts feel kind of empty to me.

That said, I like it.  If I’m being mostly negative here it’s because the positive has all been said and done.

1. 15 Step: Probably my favorite song at the moment.  The lead guitar line is pretty. I like the low-tone muted effect a lot.  It could go a lot of places that it doesn’t go, though, which is frustrating.
2. Bodysnatchers: Repetitive, a little bland, but pleasant enough.
3. Nude: Big Ideas.  Parts of it are good, but overall, it’s not stellar. It’s just another “Scatterbrain”-like song with a Rhodes, but much less original.
4. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi: Catchy, poppy, radio-friendly.  The beginning sounds like it could be a Sea and Cake song. Unfortunately, this song also seems kinda repetitive.  It’s almost a minute of buildup before the vocals even come in.  Has Thom been listening to too much Cure lately?
5. All I Need: My least-favorite song right now.  What does this song have to offer, really?  It’s a bit like “National Anthem,” the way it adds layers and gets louder, but it never changes chords at all. It’s just variations of the same 4-bar measure.
6. Faust Arp: This one is pretty good, if a bit of a rehash of “Wolf at the Door.”  Super short, but good, folky fun while it lasts.
7. Reckoner: Another good one.  The lead guitar uses the same effect as “15 Step,” which wouldn’t bother me as much if it didn’t have the same two-note sliding, panned 100% left just like that song did.  The vocals are different, so that makes up for it.  And I really do like that muted effect.  I kinda want to turn the tone all the way done on my guitar just for fun.
8. House of Cards: *snores* [Cue the "Oh no he di-ihn!"]
9. Jigsaw Falling into Place: This is another catchy song.  Guitar still panned left, but a different tone.  And I love the violins.  Should’ve been put closer to the beginning of the album.
10. Videotape: Pretty and haunting.   This will take a while to get into, because by the end of the album I’m getting a bit bored with it, so I’ll have to start out on this track a time or two to fully get into it.

The album is short, but it’s not too short.  If it were any longer, it wouldn’t hold my attention.

That said, I’m moderately happy with it.  It’s well worth your listening time.

You need a warp zone just to make it to our level

Here we go with the first real post.  Thanks to everyone who’s reading this.  The very first album I’m going to review is a local nerdcore group that a friend of mine is involved in.  They call themselves CSHC (Computer-Science Hardcore), and it’s some of the catchiest, funniest, and generally most entertaining stuff out there.  Plus, the album title is so inspirational.  It can kind of apply to anything, and that’s what we hope to accomplish with this blog.

Nerdcore, nerd style, nerd love, nerd life

For those of you unfamiliar with the nerdcore genre, it’s basically nerds rapping about nerdy things.  The first track, “The Definition,” covers most of the bases: “Comic books, D&D, video games / We’re talking coding and hacking and anime.”  What makes Rule #1… really stand out is the quality of lyrics and the inherent catchiness of the backing tracks, some of which sample classic video game themes.  And how can you go wrong with song titles like “E-Cock,” “Lessthanthree,” and “Networking King (Networking)”?

I’ve been to many places and it’s been a long trip / And the Vampire Killer is my legendary whip

One of my personal favorite tracks is the one called “Bloody Tears,” which documents the  adventures of two famous vampire-hunters from the classic Castlevania series.  DJ Inubito composed the backing track, based on the tune of the same title from Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest.  It’s got some epic lines like “Gotta find the manor, gather up the five body parts / Using up my holy water, gotta find some more hearts.”  By the end of it, you’d be lying if you said this song wasn’t stuck in your head.

There’s a fine line between livin’ hard and hardly livin’

Another one of my favorites is “Nerdy Gospel.”  Did you ever spend nights alone with your computer, logging on to BBS’s, playing games, chatting, or writing scripts?  Then this song is for you.  It’s a ballad about growing up, being made fun of at school, discovering the online world, hacking, going to college, circumventing the system… it’s all in there.

“Nerdcore Is Dying” is an anthemic masterpiece I keep going back to.  Classy synth piano loops course through this track like packets through an ethernet cable.  And I can’t forget the fan favorite “Networking (Network King),” the
last track they recorded, and possibly the best-produced.  Conyeezy’s vocals
really shine on this track.

I could say more, but you just gotta hear it for yourself.  All in all, this is the kinda album to throw on the iPod, roll down the windows, and bump all the way to the comic store.

Notes

In case you don’t listen to the production notes track, they recorded
these songs in the order that they appear on the album, so if you
aren’t impressed with the production quality at first, it does get better as you progress along.

Links

CSHC on Conyeezy’s Website: Here you can download the whole album (+ Bonus Tracks and production notes) for free!

CSHC on Myspace: For those of you who enjoy socially networking.