Too much money/too much rock

I was in the Apple store last weekend and observed a man purchasing 5 (five) iPhones. The cashier was initially both confused and oddly excited by this transaction (do they work on commission? I would tend to doubt it, but what do I know?). Why do I mention this? I just thought it was sort of a weird thing and I figured I'd mention it.

Turbonegro was awesome on Monday by the way. Every song they have is a crazy sing-a-long, so it's pretty hard to make a bad set. They played all my favorites anyway (barring one, off the new album). They played their asses off, and had hilarious between-song banter involving using the city of Boston and its historical and political figures to create amazingly strained attempts to segue between songs. Crowd turn-out and response was impressive for a Monday night as well. All the low-rise jeans, American-flag chaps, sailor caps, and sweat you could ask for, really.

Brass Knuckles and a Two by Four

OK, so I did not get my Alethes CD that I ordered a week or two ago, because it is out of stock (along with a CD of 60's French girl pop I also ordered). The store believes they will come back though, so lets all cross our fingers REAL HARD.

In other news, I'm going to see Turbonegro this coming Monday night (I actually have to run out of class and jump in a cab to take me to Allston to make the show). I am very excited for this show. Their new album Retox might be the rock record of the year. Derivitive and innovative in all the best ways. Terrorizer gave it a pretty lackluster review, but I think in terms of pure songcraft, it's the best album they've ever done. Most of the songs are a super-catchy hybrid of punk and 70's glam rock (with some Motley Crue/GnR-isms for good measure) with lyrics that were likely judged "too stupid for AC/DC." In the last several months (or since whenever it came out), it is the album I've probably listened to the most. Rocktastic!

Bang Bang

I saw "Shoot 'Em Up" last night. There's a lot I could say, but I'm afraid it would give too much away. Suffice to say, the film is very, uh, creative.

This film makes "Face/Off" look like a documentary. It is fucking awesome!

Sumer is a 'cumen in

...or out in this case, since fall is rolling on it. I watched the Wicker Man last night; the original, not the silly Nicholas Cage remake. It was kind of a weird film, and not particularly scary. I also wasn't sure who I was supposed to be rooting for. I'm not Christian (or anything for that matter), so the idea of some weird, heathen isle is actually pretty appealing, plus the protagonist is kind of an obnoxious dick the whole time - yelling at people for singing songs, shoving Jesus down everyone's throats, etc.

It was hard to tell if the film was just dated, I was coming from the "wrong" perspective, or the fact that I basically knew the plot ahead of time, that made the film less enjoyable. It's a very pretty film, and all the actors are really good, it was just a bit plodding.

On the other hand, it got me worked up to light a candle and listen to the Agalloch record I got the other day and have been too busy to listen to. The Mantle is a great fusion of pagan, nature-worshipping lyrics and sounds (wind, snow, etc.), folky, but extremely grim, melodies and textures, and metal. They are from Washington state and are way more convincing in their heathen-ness than most of the Scandinavian bands that tread similar ground. Like old Emperor or new Enslaved mixed with Death in June/Der Blutharsch - awesome!

Speaking of ultra-grim, folky, heathen music, I just ordered the record from Alethes from Aquarius records which I should hopefully get sometime next week (barring stocking issues), which I am really excited about.

Plug for Me: My project HARSCH has some songs up here which you might enjoy. Two of the songs I just put up a couple weeks ago, so it's some fresh goodness!

Fresh start

Hello friends, family, stalkers, FBI crawlers, etc.
This is my new blog-thing. I was having billing issues with the one at Typepad so I cancelled the account. Unfortunately, this means everything was lost - but we're talking ephemeral garbage anyway so whatever. I'm going to narrow the focus of this outing to mostly music reviews and similar thoughts. This will allow me to make smaller, more frequent updates as I buy CDs (which I do very often) and don't otherwise have time collect my thoughts due to my absurd schedule. I may wander into "real life" territory if something exciting comes up, but otherwise it's just my thoughts on music, art, and *maybe* the law...

hailz,
BCB