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Emo mashups

Posted on March 3rd, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: music.

That’s right, I said emo mashups. Is mashup an official word yet? If not, it should be. I dug the whole Jay-Z and Beatles thing DJ Danger Mouse did, and I was definitely a fan of the collaboration between Jay-Z and Linkin Park. Now, bands like Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, Brand New, My Chemical Romance, Saves The Day, etc., etc. are being mixed together to create some pretty sweet sounds.

It all comes courtesy of a music production/remix team made up of a guy who has done work with a handful of emo/punk bands and the frontman/songwriter of the now defunct Face to Face.

Check out their site, and they’ll give you the heads up on how to get their album for free via P2P: The Legion of Doom.

2 comments.

We’re seven drunken pirates, we’re the seven deadly sins

Posted on February 20th, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: music.

Flogging Molly is playing at Mesa Amphitheatre on March 17. March 17!! That’s St. Patrick’s Day! Yeah - Flogging Molly on St. Patrick’s Day!! How cool is that!?

I have to go - who’s with me!?

Edit: Apparently two weeks before the show is too late to get tickets for a concert like this. I can’t think of how many times I thought about clicking over to Ticketmaster assuming I’d be okay to wait a bit and figure out who else wanted to go and buy tickets for a bunch of us.. but alas, no. Maybe I can win some tickets from The Edge. You laugh, but it happens.

0 comments.

Ooga chaka

Posted on February 2nd, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: youtube, music.

For those of you who’ve been reading my blog for a while now, you’ve already seen the following. But I feel it is worthy of sharing again:

3 comments.

The internet is for porn

Posted on February 2nd, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: youtube, games, music.

Apparently somebody took a song off the Avenue Q soundtrack and made a machinima video for it with World of Warcraft characters:

I’ve heard good things about Avenue Q.. I’ll have to check it out sometime if/when they tour.

Special thanks go out to Puza for sharing this with me.

1 comment.

Transmitters? We don’t need no stinking transmitters!

Posted on January 18th, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: games, music, sports, internet.

To take an idea from Brad, I’d like to share with you some podcasts that I regularly listen to.

But first, some of you might ask - what the hell is a podcast? Well, a podcast is essentially a radio show available for download over the internet. Some are actually broadcast on some sort of radio (typically XM or Sirius), but most are strictly bound to the web. This allows for freedom from the restrictions of federal regulations, and allows for a much wider variety of topics than you’d expect to hear from radio shows otherwise.

I tend to listen to them on the commute to work and while I’m sitting in my cube plugging away at code. They’re a good way to keep up to date on what’s going on, or to get a good laugh in.

All right, so now that the explanation is out of the way, here’s what I listen to:

• this WEEK in TECH - TWiT is a weekly podcast, covering all that is technology - from general hardware to general software to gaming to televisions to whatever else you can dream up. It is hosted by Leo Laporte, and is sort of a roundtable discussion involving Leo and other former hosts of the no longer existing Screensavers show from the also deceased Tech TV. Great way to keep up to date on what’s new in technology, and get the perspective from some of the top voices in the field today.
• Major Nelson Radio - Major Nelson is the Xbox Live gamertag of Xbox Live Director of Programming, Larry Hryb. Each week, he gives an insider’s view of Xbox Live - talking about what’s new on the system, as well as presenting one or two interesting interviews from people he pulls out of the hallways into his office. Once, even - I was listening and recognized the voice of a guy I went to college with, who is now working for Microsoft! Great podcast if you’re an Xbox gamer - I find myself becoming more and more of one since I’ve got nothing better to be spending my time doing..
• Daily Source Code - Delta Sierra Charlie is a daily show, hosted by former MTV VJ, Adam Curry. Some have proclaimed him as the father of podcasting. That point can be up for debate, but he certainly played his role, and continues to do so today. Sometimes I listen to it just because I run out of other podcasts to listen to, but it’s interesting often enough that I stay subscribed to it.
• Gamespot presents The Hotspot - Ah, more video games. Of course. Editors of Gamespot get together to discuss what’s new in the world of video games each week.
• Hi My Name Is Mark - Mark Hoppus, of Blink-182 fame, does (or did) his bi-weekly podcast - playing music from and interviewing bands whom he enjoys and/or is working with. I say “or did” because he hasn’t done a new episode in almost two months now, and I’m afraid it may have just been a short-lived experiment. But it was fun to listen to while it lasted - maybe it will be revived one of these days..
• Diggnation - The guys behind the digg.com bring you this weekly show that goes through the top “dugg” stories of the week - usually stuff involving technology. Usually interesting to listen to.
• 1up.com podcast - Again, not sure what’s up with this podcast lately. It hasn’t been updated in a few weeks, but it gave a similar perspective as The Hotspot, but this one is of course with the editors of competing site 1up.com.
• ESPN Radio podcast - Daily roundup of the highlights from ESPN Radio: interviews, opinions, and more.
• Official Green Bay Packers Podcast - Interviews and press conferences of Packers players and coaches. I just signed up for this one, but I think they also do a weekly preview of games during the season. Go Pack Go! They can only go up from here..
• The Edge 103.9 Morning Ritual, Last Character Standing - I wrote an email a while ago to the good folks over at The Edge, suggesting they do podcasts of segments from their morning show. Well, lo and behold, they did it! They now upload each week’s “Last Character Standing” for our enjoyment. If you’re not in the know, LCS is a weekly competition where they put two character/comedians up against each other and have the listeners vote for a couple hours over the phone and internet to determine who will survive to come back the next week. Since I’ve been listening, it’s been domination by Jerry the Dog’s inner monologue. “Hey, my nuts! And I can reach them.. with my mouth! How cool is that?” Hopefully, they’ll make a podcast feed for their weekly “That Guy” rants.

0 comments.

Top 5 albums of 2005

Posted on December 27th, 2005 by Josh.
Categories: music.

One thing I’ve learned about myself is how much of a music junkie I have become. I thrive on music - if my iPod broke or got lost, I don’t know what I’d do. I have over 30 GB of music - so much, in fact - that I have an entire 60GB hard drive dedicated to my iTunes music folder!

Well, on that note - I’d like to present my top 5 list for albums of the year. By no means will this mirror any other top 5 albums list out there, as it just reflects my personal music taste. But I’d like to think I know what I’m talking about..

1. The All-American Rejects - Move Along
This album took me by surprise. I liked their first CD that came out a few years ago, but it was never one of my favorites. Then I heard they released a new one, so I went over to the iTunes Music Store and downloaded a copy - and it was good! Really good! So good in fact, that if it were possible to wear out mp3’s, I’d have worn them out by now. At first I wasn’t a big fan of their single, “Dirty Little Secret” - it seemed too much like manufactured pop - but it grew on me as I listened to and fell in love with the rest of the tracks. “Night Drive” sucked me in immediately with its hand claps and “Can’t Take It” blew me away - there are no guitars, no drums - just an orchestra and the singer. If you like pop punk, this is the best of 2005.

 
 
 
2. Panic! At The Disco - A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out
I discovered this band via last.fm’s recommendations for me - just one way that smaller music operations are making it big in a world of corporate music. Following in the steps of Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco comes at you with catchy pop hooks clever song titles (”The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage”, “There’s a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven’t Thought Of It Yet”, “Build God, Then We’ll Talk”). The vocalist has a sound very similar to Fall Out Boy’s lead singer - which may be part of the reason they are signed to Pete Wentz’s (of Fall Out Boy) label. They are an experiment in pop punk that has turned out to be a success, and they are certainly a band to keep an eye out for - as long as they can continue on the path they have started on..

 
3. Fall Out Boy - From Under The Cork Tree
Ah, Fall Out Boy. I remember when it was just me, Cho, and Danny listening to this album and praising it. Nobody else really caught on. Until MTV stepped in and FOB “blew up” on TRL. Now, instead of opening for bands like Taking Back Sunday, FOB has their own horde of screaming 14 year old girls scrambling to get tickets for their shows. Don’t be fooled though - they’re not crap. Not yet, anyway. Hopefully they don’t go the road of Good Charlotte and start churning out cookie cutter pop punk that is often painful to listen to. Hopefully..

For now, at least - “Dance Dance” and “Sugar, We’re Going Down” will remain among the top played songs on my iTunes playlists.

 
 
4. Music From The O.C.: Mix 4
The O.C. continues to rock the best soundtrack on TV, and with the “Music From The O.C.” series, they constantly pick out some of the best tracks. Mix 4 certainly proves this. The CD starts loud and fast with The Futureheads, and goes on to include popular indie (is that a contradiction?) acts such as Imogen Heap, Sufjan Stevens, and The Reindeer Section - all of whom whose albums I have gone on to acquire. Go ahead, mock me for watching a show like The O.C. Just don’t rip on the music.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
5. Saves The Day - Ups & Downs: Early Recordings and B-Sides
I first discovered STD a few years ago, when “Stay What You Are” came out - which, by the way, is amazing - if you like STD and haven’t heard that album, just go buy it - you won’t be disappointed. Anyway, I later dug back and found some of their older songs off of “Through Being Cool” - but there was still a lot to be heard. Well, Chris managed to get me an advanced copy of “Ups & Downs” - which is a collection of rare tracks and older stuff that people like me never got to hear. The acoustic “Jessie & My Whetstone” is a great song - catchy and as STD has become known for - intelligent lyrics. From there, though, it goes on to include much more punk-like songs, such as “Cheer” and “Clash City Rockers” - showing their diversity and how they have developed over the years. This is a must have for any STD fan.

Well, there’s my list. Here’s my chance to ask for feedback. What do you think of my choices? For those of you with different tastes in music, what would you include on your top 5 list? And for those of you with similar music tastes - got any recommendations for good CD’s I may have overlooked this past year?

1 comment.

The Chronic(what?)cles of Narnia

Posted on December 24th, 2005 by Josh.
Categories: youtube, music, tv.

Check this out:

Why, you ask? It’s the latest from a comedy group called The Lonely Island. They first showed up on SNL during the Dane Cook episode in a skit about lettuce. They then appeared in another one with Chris Parnell entitled “Lazy Sunday” - which I already gave you links to above. Seriously. Funniest thing on SNL in a long time. I can’t get it out of my head.

After digging around on the web a bit, I found out that these guys have been trying to get on TV (Fox, MTV, and Comedy Central all said no thanks) but haven’t had much success until they finally landed on SNL.

Check out their website for more random clips from the trio featuring cameos by Jack Black, Kal Penn (the guy who plays Kumar), and Sarah Chalke of Scrubs fame - I love her.

0 comments.

Raindrops on roses and girls in white dresses..

Posted on December 15th, 2005 by Josh.
Categories: music.

Listen to Panic! At The Disco.

Seriously.

0 comments.

STD?

Posted on November 30th, 2005 by Josh.
Categories: music.

Chris seems a little bit excited:

AsianBlade22 (12:19:58 PM): STD STD STD STD STD STD STD STD STD STD STD STD STD STD STD STD

What ever could he be talking about?

Seriously, though.. they were terrible last time I saw them. No energy. Nothing. They just stood there and played their music. I’m going to see them tomorrow night, though - because, as you can see - Chris is excited. As Sarah so eloquently said to me last night, “it would suck if they suck” - yeah, that pretty much says it. I hope they are better live this time around, because they have some good music.

To me, the only thing left after a while
Was that night we watched documentaries up through morning
And then you kicked me out
You opened up your screen door and threw me off of the porch
It was summer then and I drove home whistling down the pike
And that was that: our one sweet night together..

And under highway signs I watched out love gone fluttering, dissipating
I counted all the headlights to make sure I was alright…

0 comments.

I <3 music

Posted on November 18th, 2005 by Josh.
Categories: music.

Last week: Death Cab, then The Format
This week: Rufio and MXPX

So much fun. Discovered a new local band at The Format show. They’re called It’s Like Love. They’re on MySpace. Their song “Fifteen Seconds” is so ridiculously catchy. It’s ridiculous. I love it. Danny will agree 60% of the time. Everytime.

On the horizon: Fall Out Boy at Celebrity Theatre, and I’m going to give Saves the Day another chance to not suck live because Kresge is dying to see them.. we’ll see how that goes. I think Early November is playing that show, so that should be a consolation if nothing else.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Keep on truckin’

1 comment.

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