A Union of Awesomeness

I'll be the first to admit that I bought The Boxer Rebellion's new CD, Union, on Itunes mostly because it was $5.99, but it did help that all the reviews were really positive about the album. Prior to buying, I listened to the first single released, Evacuate, and this helped to secure my decision to buy the album.

So what do I think of it, well let me modify a quote from the movie Bolt by saying, Union is awesome….Union is soooo awesome…Union is beyond awesome….Union is B-Awesome!!! (By the way, you know you are a 28 year old parent when you are quoting from kids movies.) Yes friends, this is one of the best albums I have purchased over the past couple of years…hands down. For $5.99 I wasn't expecting much (click here to see why the album is sold at $5.99), but what I got was a masterpiece. Yes there are definitely some flaws in certain tracks and certain tracks that are not anything to jump for joy over, but overall this is a GREAT album.

As for specific tracks, the album starts off with not just 3 or 4 great tracks; the first 6 tracks are really solid. With track 4, "Soviets," being the big standout in my mind, the other 5 tracks (including the first single, track 3 "Evacuate") are not that far behind. "Soviets" is one of those tracks that I could set Itunes on repeat for 100 listens and still not be tired of it…it's that good. Out of the 11 tracks there are just 2 that miss the mark, track 7 "The Gospel of Goro Adachi" (a little too Radioheady for me) and Track 9 "Forces" (something just not right about this), these two just don't seem to flow as well as the other tracks. They aren't bad songs; they just don't have the feel of this album. Many of the tracks including "Soviets," "Splitting Fire," "Semi Automatic" and "Silent Move" build up into climatic masterpieces, which adds to the greatness of the album.

Being that this is a band that not many people have heard of, I guess I feel obliged to compare them to a popular band. I think I would say they are a cross between U2 (the Joshua Tree Days) and Radiohead (the good, not so weird Radiohead). What else can I say, the album is not perfect, but it is definitely the best in the past 2 or so years…4.5 out of 5 gerkens pickles.

As a note aside from the CD (some history here), the Boxer Rebellion was a violent anti-foreign, anti-religious movement in China by the "Righteous Harmonious Fists" between 1898 and 1901. They were responding to the growing influence of capitalism, imperialistic influences and missionaries in China and how they felt that these influences were not good for China. Anyway, the rebellion ended, but not after many deaths in China. Not sure if the Band named themselves after this, but I would imagine it definitely had some influences.

At first I was Frightened....

…Frightened that I had made a big mistake in buying the Frightened Rabbit album that was released in 2008. When I did my first listen of this album, I really didn't think there were more then 1 or 2 good tracks. Well, after giving myself a couple more listens, I discovered some hidden gems in this album. The album, The Midnight Organ Fight, is the band's second studio album, I can't compare it to their previous because I have never heard anything from it. The music on the album can be best described as being raw…raw lyrics, raw vocals and raw sounds. As I said, a first listen might leave you wanting more from the album, but after a couple of listens you start to see what the band is trying to do. The lyrics are nothing to write home to mom about; lyrics such as, "you're s**t and I'm knee deep in it" from the track Backwards Walk or "Jesus is just a Spanish boys name" or even "I think I'll save suicide for another day," give a clear indication that the band members probably haven't had the most inspirational life, but there is still a lot of emotional truths being belted through the different tracks. The tracks that I can't stop listening to include the first 3 tracks of the album, The Modern Leper, I Feel Better, and Good Arms vs Bad Arms, but there are other tracks that continue to grow on me that include Fast Blood, Poke and Floating In the Forth. Overall the album is a good listen once you get used to the bands style. If you are looking for some good, but different music, this is a good album to purchase. Overall I give it 3 out of 5 gerken pickles.

Gotta get some Intimacy

I am not sure why music reviewers like to say this, but a big plus for the critics is if your sound as a band is "maturing" which translates to being different then your previous album(s). I never understood this concept of desiring bands to "mature," there are certain bands that make great albums and they never "mature".

Bloc Party was one of those bands whose sound didn't vary significantly from their first to second album and I must say that those two albums were amazing. So then comes the 3rd album, which reviewers were saying is a more "mature" sound for Bloc Party…that was a warning signal for me. Usually when I love listening to a band and their sound "matures" I tend to start hating that band…I guess maybe that is a sign that I never mature.

To be honest one of my favorite bands is Bloc Party, yet, somehow I totally missed the release of their 3rd studio album back in October 2008. Being over here in China, I have been pretty far out of it and I usually just check in on the bands that I like every 2 years or so to see how the progress of their new album is coming along since I am not able to see them live. So that is basically my excuse for missing the release, hopefully that is good enough for you.

Bloc Party's 3rd studio album is titled "Intimacy," and definitely has some different elements to it then the first 2 albums…both of which, I can listen to in their entirety and never get old of the whole albums. This album is different because there are definitely some bumps in the road, meaning there are some tracks I flat out can't listen to. It starts out with a bang…in the case of "Ares," not a great bang. Not sure what they were thinking when they put this track together, but it is definitely a little off. Halo comes in on the 3rd track and it is conceptually a great Bloc Party song, but it misses on many levels. The album is redeemed with great tracks such as Biko, Signs, Zephyrus, Talons, Ion Square and Flux, but the couple of misses brings down the grade of the album. Overall I would say if you liked their first 2 albums, go get this one…otherwise this is not one of the best albums of 2008, it gets a 3 out of 5 gerken pickles.

Viva La Vida means "Just Okay"

It actually means Live the Life (or long live life) and it refers to Coldplay's newest CD. Am I a music critic, no, but I thought I would add my two cents about their newest album just because that is what a blog is for. So after 1 week of listening, I think I am finally ready to talk about it. I am a huge Coldplay fan (yes me and the millions of 17 year old girls all around the world), actually Chris Martin's enthusiasm while on stage is actually something that I really enjoy watching (note that this is hard to do while listening to a CD).

Anyway, onto what I thought about the CD. As I said in the title, it was just okay. There are people that really slammed this album as being terrible, note that it is slightly different from their previous CD's, but it is not terrible. The music is actually pretty good, but the one thing that knocks it down are some of the weak lyrics weaved throughout the songs. It appeared that on almost every song, the band was trying to experiment, so, besides the theme of life and death, there is really not too much fluency that connects the songs together. It seems like a mish mosh of different songs thrown together to make an album. I was really worried about the album when I heard the first two singles (Violet Hill and Viva La Vida - by the way is anyone else as confused as to why this is a hit song?). But the rest of the album is better then those two singles, although I am not sure many of the songs will translate into radio hits like tracks from previous albums. I would like to see Coldplay build on some of the things they present in this album for future albums, but I hope they can see some of the faults in this one to move forward.

Overall I give the album 2.5 out of 5 gerken pickles. (note that Coldplay's 2nd album "A Rush of Blood to the Head" would have received 4.5 out of 5, Parachutes would have received 4 out of 5, and X&Y would have received 3.5 out of 5).

The spiciest chip in the....wait

One souvenir that I was given from Japan was the chips that were in the bag pictured above. Even though I don't read any Japanese, a fairly universal way of saying that something is really spicy is to not just put a hot pepper on your bag, rather put a hot pepper that looks angry and has taken a couple of punches in his day. The Japanese are not really well known for their spciy foods (unless you like to take large bites of wasabi), so I wasn't expecting anything too spicy. The chip was a corn chip shaped in O's, a consistency very similar to that of a Frito. The flavor, while not overwhemingly spicy, had a nice kick to it. The chip was actually a very very good chip with some nice flavor to it. All in all, it was one of the best chips I have ever had...not as spicy as it appears to have been advertised, but who cares that was a darn good chip. For the makers of this chip I do give one piece of advice: I would try to sell the product with more a friendly looking hot pepper...one that says, yes I have a little spice to me, but in the end I will leave you smiling...this pepper just looks like he wants you to suffer at both ends of the eating spectrum.

The Review

On those weeks when happenings are really slow over here, I am committed to at least giving you all a week in review, so here goes:

For the first time....
Other people find my wife, Renee, really humorous, me on the other hand, well for some reason I just don't. Not sure if this is a husband thing across the board or if this is just a me thing, but she will say things that other people laugh hysterically at and I will sit there thinking, "well that's not funny at all." But it happened, for the first time I chuckled out loud at a comment that my wife made (okay so it probably wasn't the first time ever, but it is such a rare occasion that I had to note it). To be honest I don't remember exactly what was said, but she used a play on what I said in order to get me up and help her. So I give my wife props on her quipiness.

You're not my wife...
We had a house guest this week, a woman, from the US. She is a candidate for the youth ministry position here in China. She is pretty much a straight shooter when it comes to telling people stuff, so I had to watch what I said or otherwise I was going to have a wisecrack made at me, I always thought that was reserved for a guys friends and wives, but I guess not.

3 Days in 1 Week!!
Get your minds out of the gutter, I'm talking about the NFL draft. This is kind of old news, but ESPN is working with the NFL to see if they can extend the draft to a third day. This reason I bring this up is I just included the idea in an email. I already believe that there is a God (and that he is awesome for that matter), but this would be like God's manna to me, a third day of the draft, a primetime Friday edition sounds good to me. In fact they could call it "The Really Good Friday," (okay, maybe not).

Mothers Day
Big ups to Renee, the mother of my children, she is an awesome wife and mother. Also to my mom and grandmoms for helping mold me into the Pulitzer prize blogger that I am.

Thank You for Smoking
This is one of those movies that kind of fell through the cracks, that not too many people saw, and they missed out. Man what a great movie this was, if you haven't seen it go out and see it, I can't believe it, in the past year I got to see Little Miss Sunshine and Thank You for Smoking, literally the last good comedy movie before these puppies was The Royal Tenanbaums, now I can sound like I actually watch movies.

The Wager
I officially have a wager with one Desmond Huntington over who will be better this year, the O's or the Pirates. Despite these last couple of days with the O's, I still stand strong with my prediction that they will end up around .500, I really don't think the Pirates can hang with .500 (they play Milwaukee a bunch, and they play the White Sox and Angels in inter-league). We'll see, some DSD's and MTO's are on the line, so let's go O's.