Mp3 Reviews

Feed My iPod - iPod Downloads!

2007-01-15T17:07:00.000-05:00

#1 ranked iPod Downloads site is www.FeedMyiPods.com ... if you need more information about feed my ipods go to the top Feed My iPods Information Page.

no longer johnny damon now johnny demon

2006-05-20T16:15:00.000-04:00

when he wore the face of christ he brought happiness to children.

now he has a face like every other undercover demon out there. clean shaven and pretty. that's right like every other demon. like a penquin or a donkey burrito or anybody else that tries to convey meaning on their existance.

Radiohead - Live @ Amsterdam. May 2006.

2006-05-17T19:55:00.000-04:00

DOWNLOAD THE SHOW. GREAT SOUND QUALITY.

1. Intro
2. Everything In Its Right Place
3. National Anthem
4. 15 Step
5. Lucky
6. 2+2=5
7. Bangers 'n Mash
8. Nude
9. Pyramid Song
10. Open Pick
11. I Might Be Wrong
12. Paranoid Android
13. How to Disappear Completely
14. Karma Police
15. Bodysnatchers
16. Idioteque
17. No Surprises
18. There There

Encore

19. Spooks
20. House of Cards
21. Just
22. You and Whose Army?
23. Street Spirit (Fade Out)

myspace band reviews

2006-05-13T20:45:00.000-04:00

check this site out - tiz pretty funny.

Brian Eno - Needles In The Camel's Eye

2006-05-13T20:42:00.000-04:00

first track off of Here Comes The Warm Jets.

yeah man, this is some good shit, bro. how about you put this in the player, yo. i recommend smokin' some reefer joints first. there's some crazy shit goin' on within the confines of this here crazy song of rockin' pop corns.

Curtis Mayfield - "Pusherman"

2006-05-13T20:34:00.000-04:00

Eminem based a track off this one. Didcha know. So anyhoozanatti. This is a pretty damn sweet track. It's track #2 off of Mayfield's SUPERFLY album. Some fresh funky percussion throughout the track. And a jammin' guitar which echoes the vocal melody throughout. Hot bass. I would say this song rates atleast 7 marijuana leaves.

WANT SOME COKE NEED SOME WEED>

?
!

i'm your pusherman.

Copyright Your Music!

2006-05-09T00:45:00.000-04:00

Neil Young "Living With War"

2006-04-28T14:54:00.000-04:00

Purchase Neil Young's New Album @ Amazon.Com

High As Hell Reviews : The Flaming Lips "At War With The Mystics"

2006-02-22T01:07:00.001-05:00

I've heard this album 7 or 8 times now and so I feel it's time to give it it's chance for a wonderful HIGH AS HELL review here at mp3reviews. that's right. the album of course isn't officially released till April but was leaked last week. My estimation of the album is quite high - while not being quite the "masterpiece" that The Soft Bulletin is - it is a lot of fun. I'm not really sure I can compare it to any other Lips album and that's a good thing - it's got it's own feeling. It's got a lot of energy and a lot of sort of ridiculous songs but it's also got a few really beautiful moments. Anyhoo that's it with the setup. Let's get going here! I need some more of the marijuana though, really, now, don't I?

PREORDER THE ALBUM TODAY FROM AMAZON TODAY !

1. yeah yeah yeah -

i'm not sure what to think of this at the very moment. the verses are almost ridiculously cheesey in a way. i do love the line "with all your power" - the way he sings power is great. the over the top flange actually works here - usually i dont like it when you can so obviously hear what effect is being used. ahh-ahh-ah-ahhh. those crazy frank zappa-ish indian chants do my head in. those are well cool. really a weird song - it sort of thumps along but... i don't know hard to explain really brothers. i dont find it much of a close your eyes and chill type song though - its too upbeat and over the top silly for that. i enjoy the song though, much fun.

2. free radicals -

i love the ahh-ahh-ahh harmonies. reminds me of the beatles. mmm delicious. i also love the way the drums are just slammin' away and it just feels very much like the song takes of then. really cool. theres a ton of weird sounds going on here. and you think you're radical but you're not so radical, in fact you're fanatical.

3. the sound of failure -

this has been one of the real growers of the album for me, at first i didnt like this one at all, i was put off by the overly precise/clean sound of the guitars and overall production during the verses and the sort of AM Gold cheesed out guitars on the chorus and i thought the whole thing just sort of went on forever... but now i sort of just get it and it works for me - really beautiful song - great backing vocals - i hadnt really noticed till just now just how great some of the backing vocals are. those "ooh ooh" on the second verse are just killer. love that. so go tell britney, and go tell gwen... she's not trying to go against all them. i think it's sort of part of this songs charm that it's so radio friendly sounding (especially compared to most of the other stuff on the album) being that it's theme is about this girl not wanting to hear sickly sweet pop music like britney spears when she's dealing with real things in her life. sort of all works. could be a single i think - although it's not as immediate or as catchy as say.. do you realize - it's still a pretty lovely song and i quite like this spaced out ending. great flute sound. i think they actually were using a demo on a plugin because theres a sound in there that happens when you're exporting a demo in this one plugin... and i think they just left it in there on purpose with a wink to see if anyone would notice. good stuff. i could pinpoint the exact sound i'm talking about but... hey it's next song and it's one of my favorites...

#4 - Cosmic ....

This song just tickles my nipples. It's prettier than a wombat. the guitar solo just destroys me. possibly my favorite moment of the whole album this guitar solo. to me it's like a little bit of zaireeka just thrown in this album. the just insane layers of noise that just destroy your mind made all the more perfect by the fact that it comes out of it to this just beautiful second verse. just a great song. sorry i didnt say more but i was listening, man.

#5 - vein of stars

WHO KNOWS?! maybe there isn't a vein of stars calling out my name. man again im not saying anything. i'm really being drawn into these songs now. this is a bit of a highlight on the album i think this little stretch here. its strange the way the album goes from being over the top silly on the first 2 tracks to sort of very pretty but very strangely radio friendly on the 3rd track before getting a bit more serious and beautiful on tracks 4 & 5. atleast that's how i'm seeing the album as of the moment. more just great backing vocals. there's really a lot of great layers of vocals on this album.

#6 - the wizard turns on -

one of the more just totally crazy moments in the labum the way this song starts out. start of pink floyd welcome to the machine-ish with the insane sounds here. i love the way the drums in come in and just crash all over the place. this song reminds me a lot of darkside of the moon actually for more pink floyd references... but a bit more warped somehow. darkside could already get pretty warped but this song just has a really sort of wild funk sound to it. i've never been a real huge fan of yoshimi part 2. and the soft bulletin instrumentals while being nice are definitly not high points of the album - but to me this song just kicks ass - one of my favorite tracks on the album. oh uh.. its an instrumetnal. i was assuming you knew that man.

#7 - it overtakes me...

this is a suite and the second part of it was my favorite part of the album on my initial listening - it just killed me. but anyways i'm jumping ahead of me. the beginning of the song is wayne doing his best gwen stefani hollaback girl. not really one of my favorite parts of the album BUT i do LOVE the "you know that it isnt real" part that comes in. that's awesome. theres some insane munchking voices in this piece. and then its like its floating out of wherever it was... sort of just disingrating in darkness... really nicely done there... if i had to pick just one moment in this album this would probably be it. i just love the way it transitions to this. i dont undersand anything at all. goosebump moment for me. just beautiful . and the acoustic guitar... its like going back in front of the fireplace after an interstellar trip... warming your bones by the fire in a cabin or some shit. in otherwords - goddamn brilliant. another bit in this album that sort of reminds me of pink floyd.

#8 mr ambulance driver -

this is a very subtle song but theres a lot of neat little things going on - i like all the ilttle details in the drums and in the guitars and in the backing vocals. it's really a nice song. the guitar on the chorus is very cool. i love the line "oh we cant trade places, our lives are strangely our own" --- my favorite part of the song may be the outro vocals "waiting for the ambulance to come, ooh ooh"

#9 havent got a clue -

just a totally out there song sonically. pretty ridiculous lyrically and sort of hard to take seriously as a song - but the sounds are pretty outrageous. theres just a ton going on in this song - perhaps OTT! hyperactive and great for the ADD set. i like those sudden shifts into the "ahh ahhh ahhh" sort of choir vocals. possibly a synth or heavily effected vocals

#10 the wand -

another hyperactive track this one. this one has grown on me a ton from when i first heard it. it's got a quite strange structure which i think makes it a bit hard to dig at first but the more you hear it - the more it gets into you i think. i love the phased out QUEEN type vocal bits. just great. i love the drums on this track. at first those cutting back and forth bits that happen i thought were too much - but i get 'em now and they work rock n roll type biz on my brainpatterns. awesome HIGH harmonies. and i love the melody on "why cant they see..." and then the next bit when it goes high. ah, just great. AND WE KNOW WHY WE FIGHT!

#11 pompeii -

one of my favorites from the get go. and another track that reminds me of pink floyd. i just love the sound of it. the vocals coming out of the top of your head. the sounds all flying all around your brains. the great pulsating bass. and then when it really gets going and the flute comes in and the sounds start crashing all around - its just killer. "one of these days" by pink floyd is definitly recalled by this one. i think a lot of people who otherwise cant get into the lips might love this song. just a sort of a different thing from what the lips have done before and they do it just awesome. great song. ALL MY SENSES. the flute mmm! the guitar part that comes in during the last minute is great - really like taking the song and somehow taking it even higher into outer space or something. really great stuff.

#12 goin' on -

this song was one of the last ones to grow on me. but i love it now.. inspite of the "uh huh" on the prechorus which just drove me crazy at first. they also used the "watch beep" sound again from the soft bulletin - probably as a reference to that. maybe an interesting reference being as the name of the song is goin' on... maybe sayin yo this is a biscuit from the past of the dolphin and now we're rockin this biz. this song really starts being great to me starting around 1:50 --- i just love the vocal parts starting there... really pretty. and again like throughout the album just great backing vocals. this is not a hit and definitly i think takes awhile to sink into the head - but its got some really pretty moments and some beautiful backing vocals - at first i didnt like that this came on after pompeii but it works for me now.

anyways - pretty great album - i wasnt really able to get myself fully into high as hell close my eyes and trip out mode. i dont think this is a really great album for that in a way because its so hyperkinectic and is so silly at times that it sort of takes you out of that place - but that being said - its a lot of fun and another great album by the flaming lips. i dont think the songs are as catchy as yoshimi's and it's nowhere near the overall STATEMENT that the soft bulletin was or as experimental and mad crazy as zaireeka or as rockin' as priest driven ambulance. it's not like any of their previous albums really - i think in a lot of ways it may be their most fun & upbeat album although of course with some pretty nice detours into some groovy spacy biz.

High As Hell Reviews : The Flaming Lips "At War With The Mystics"

2006-02-22T01:07:00.000-05:00

Full Album Review Of : The Flaming Lips AT WAR WITH THE MYSTICS

2006-02-17T14:14:00.000-05:00

not yet... but will be coming.

also coming up : a review of the new grandaddy album : just like the fambly cat.

nicotine, caffeine, cocaine, a lord of troubles, ephedra, a lord of troubles. no fish oil to help, no dreams left to be dreamed.

Annie "Chewing Gum"

2006-02-17T14:03:00.000-05:00

This is a pop song. A dance pop song. But it's fun as hell. I don't usually listen to this type of music as you can see from the rest of my reviews but if you are at all interested in hearing some fun upbeat pop music this is some of the best I've heard in the new century. It's just completely infectious (like herpes) and just a very lovely time. The production on this song and really throughout the album is just a ton of fun to listen to.

ANNIE - CHEWING GUM.

ANNIE - ANNIEMAL.

John Vanderslice "If I Live Or If I Die"

2006-02-17T13:47:00.000-05:00

This track is #9 on Vanderslice's 2001 album Time Travel Is Lonely. It's a lovely album and all of the tracks are good but this particular song has really been standing out for me. The words are from a poem by William Blake called "the fly" :

Little Fly,
Thy summer's play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance,
And drink, and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength and breath,
And the want
Of thought is death;

Then am I
A happy fly.
If I live,
Or if I die.
---

The song is based around a very cute piano riff and handclaps. The vocals are smooth and pretty. There's some strange electronic bleeps and bloops that really add to the atmosphere. The attention to detail on this song and really on the whole album is great. If you are the type that really enjoys thoughtful production with lots of interesting things going on - this album is for you. I've also got Pixel Revolt - Vanderslice's latest album but I'd get this one first if I was you. Time Travel Is Lonely.

wayne coyne's track by track for the new flaming lips album.

2006-02-11T23:20:00.000-05:00

Wayne's Track-By-Track of At War With The Mystics

THE YEAH YEAH YEAH SONG (WITH ALL YOUR POWER)

Steven had been recording in a separate vocal booth on his computer and I walked by and heard the crazy grouped vocals doing the "yeah yeah yeah" part and I was immediately hooked. This is one of those songs that points the finger at the pettiness of those in power but also points the finger back at ourselves - what would YOU do? Power in the hands of the inexperienced (which is what we would be) is very dangerous...

FREE RADICALS (A HALLUCINATION OF THE CHRISTMAS SKELETON PLEADING WITH A SUICIDE BOMBER)

I had a dream in which Devendra Banhart (the weird singer/songwriter) is pleading with a suicide bomber (who is about to go blow up something or somebody) to change his mind. And once he changes the deranged zealot's point of view, he (Devendra) immediately sympathizes with the frustration (mostly aimed at George W. Bush) that could make someone long for such exaggerated revenge...(Keep in mind that this is just a funny dream - these suicide bombers are clearly brainwashed religious fanaticals that are insane with their own agenda...they are beyond any pleads of reason and are not worthy of any sympathy.)

THE SOUND OF FAILURE

We have some friends whose father was dying of cancer - I say "was" because it (the cancer and his death) dragged on agonizingly for over a year - and they (our friends) were becoming, understandably, weary of being forced to be upbeat...

And I remember hearing a comment once about how annoying it was, to them, to have to hear this gratingly jubilant fake enthusiasm (usually hokey hyped-up pop groups like Black Eyed Peas, Destiny's Child, Ashlee Simpson, Hillary Duff, etc.) blasting out of the "Muzak" systems virtually everywhere they went. To them this cheerleader-type assault was really only effective if you didn't actually have any real psychic stress...And they felt that it was, surprisingly, helpful to them to try to understand their fears and their sadness - as opposed to pretending that it's "all good." And, you see, this is true insight... finally we know it's okay to have a troubled mind, it's okay to fail...

And so this song (which was written in the car on the way up to New York from Oklahoma while I drove and Steven played battery powered keyboard and computer) is about a young girl whose best friend has died, and everywhere she goes (like the friends I mentioned earlier) she must endure the empty optimism of the inexperienced. She wants to know, since it has arrived, what is despair, what is hope, what is failure...And what is in the darkness??

The line in the song, "so go tell Britney and go tell Gwen" is obviously a reference back to my friends and their Muzak incident...meaning, "Yeah, go tell Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani that their energy and their Prom Queen smiles only go to prove that they don't empathize with my sadness." I believe, in the song, that Britney and Gwen could be thought of as this grieving girl's less mature friends...and that she's not trying to go against them, she just doesn't want to pretend that she understands what she doesn't really understand - what death is...what despair is...what existential fear is... She doesn't know, but she's starting to find out...

IT'S DARK... IS IT ALWAYS THIS DARK?

A strange sort of afterword to the previous song. The voice and the strange blippy trail is actually my voice run through a computer plug-in effect called "Squirrel Parade"...Pretty cool... Anyway, it sounds like I'm saying "It's Dark", but I didn't say "It's Dark". I don't remember what it was exactly - just me talking before a song, but it gives the illusion of a young girl finding her way through a mystery...yes?

MY COSMIC AUTUMN REBELLION (THE INNER LIFE AS BLAZING SHIELD OF DEFIANCE AND OPTIMISM AS CELESTIAL SPEAR OF ACTION)

We had been using the musical elements of this song (it wasn't a song then) as an intro for our live shows, as I rolled around on top of the crowd in the now famous "Space Bubble." The power of the chord structure and arrangement kept inspiring me and I eventually pieced together this manifesto of defiance and optimism. It is my response to the naysaying know-it-alls who see life leading only to death and see nature as a cruel prankster designed to defeat the human spirit. And the truth (which I get to proclaim as if standing on the top of a holy mountain shooting lazer beams out of my hands - thanks to Steven's epic orchestration) is that no circumstance can ever defeat us unless we let it... Resilience in the face of failure is a manifestation of the mind...

VEIN OF STARS

I picked up a guitar that Steven had tuned to an odd open chord (F 6/9) and, without thinking, strummed it a couple of times and immediately sang (off the top of my head) the first line into the tape recorder, "Who knows, maybe there isn't a vein of stars calling out my name." My intention was to sing something cosmic about how humans have (as science reveals more and more about the nature of time and space) been abandoned by the stars...But I believe, once we finished it (the song and its production), it seemed to convey just the opposite...That almost despite science we are connected to the stars...Because we love to look at them, we hope maybe they love to look at us...

THE WIZARD TURNS ON...THE GIANT SILVER FLASHLIGHT AND PUTS ON HIS WEREWOLF MOCCASINS

A kind of space jam where the initial performance had Michael playing the CD player (in it was a CD with a recording of the drums), Steven playing the Rhodes and me playing electric bass. Mr. Fridmann ran the whole thing through a series of space echoes. flangers, filters and distortion boxes... The entire mix lays in the bed of a program called Metaphysical Function...Neat, huh?

IT OVERTAKES ME

I sometimes will do a silly songwriter's trick - I'll act like I'm writing a song for someone else and on this track I was imagining Gwen Stefani... I pictured her singing it and imagined what kind of production would happen. Initially I called the song, when it was intended for Ms. Stefani, "I Like To Masturbate and Think Of Outer Space"...and I still think that if she was doing the song it's a great title....But to think of me, a 45 year old man with a graying beard, umm, masturbating....is... well...(I'm uncomfortable even typing this)...unpleasant...so anyway...The song ends up being more about my occasional bouts of panic when accidentally contemplating the "Cosmic Reality", that is....that we (the Earth) are floating perilously adrift in a vast and endless sea of black infinity (outer space) and it is, when analyzed, a mindfuck...and yes I feel horribly insignificant....So anyway, what we ended up with, I believe, still sounds like a mashing of "Hollaback Girl" and "1969" by The Stooges...take some drugs and turn it up real loud...

THE STARS ARE SO BIG AND I AM SO SMALL...DO I STAND A CHANCE?

This section of the song captures, I think, the vulnerability and awe of this same scenario (the Cosmic Reality) within a cathedralesque womb-cloud of angelic voices... but instead of panic it is solemn and comforting...

MR. AMBULANCE DRIVER

The entire song, its key and chord structure, is built around the ambulance siren sample. When we first did it there was an eerie death coloring (probably due to the siren and the lyric about the girl being dead) that was very satisfying... But we found, with repeated listening, that the siren, somehow, subliminally disappeared and, to our surprise, it revealed a kind of Eddie Rabbitt (70's pop-country singer-songwriter) at the roller rink, easy listening teenager car crash ballad.

HAVEN'T GOT A CLUE

A friend of ours, Greg Kurstin (he played with us on the Beck tour and was nicknamed "Firefingers" by Steven due to his sublime playing of the keyboard) is an accomplished musician and has a great ear for pop sounds and structure...He's written songs with artists ranging from Enrique Iglesias to Karen O and he, upon my insistence, sent this unfinished track for us to build on. It was great fun and again (like the Gwen Stefani trick) it allowed us to create inside a different identity. The song is about a type of person that everybody knows and endures (we won't mention names). They blame everyone but themselves for all of their problems which they seem to have in endless supply. If they suffer, you suffer more... You know what I'm talking about.

THE W.A.N.D. (THE WILL ALWAYS NEGATES DEFEAT)

I was playing electric guitar, Michael was on fuzzwah bass and Steven was on the drumkit and we stumbled upon this druggy prog-rock riff and stuttery, funky beat. It was like Black Sabbath getting mashed up with Sly and the Family Stone or Stevie Wonder, and it sent us off in a wonderful new direction. The idea of a magic wand and magic powers occurred to me while watching a homeless guy in Oklahoma City. He was, I believe, Vietnamese, and had a cool looking wizardly beard and mustache and he carried a long stick, which he used as a kind of cane-weapon. And one day I saw him fighting an "imagined" enemy and the long stick became (as best I could tell) a kind of magic wand that made his invisible foe retreat. I mean... it seemed to give him a confidence that allowed him to defeat his hallucinations...and at first I thought "how sad...he believes this old stick is saving him"... but the more I thought about it, the more I envied him in a way...for the evil manifestations of his mind he invented a sparkling sorcerer's baton to lead his psychic revolution...yes!!...

And so we delved into a kind of radical protest rock mentality...We sing, "We got the power now, motherfuckers, that's where it belongs", but I believe it's cosmically empowering - not actually empowering. In the song, we rail against the greedy, corrupt evil beings who are in control and trying to enslave us... But our rebellion is simply to fight back - we have no solutions.

POMPEII AM GTTERDMMERUNG

A galloping Godhead melody (reminiscent of the German National Anthem) telling a vague story of a young couple planning their suicide. They live in a place where there are volcanoes erupting and they are going to take the train up the mountain and jump into the flowing lava as a symbolic sacrifice of their restricted love.The triumphant quality of the arrangement suggests that, just before they obliterate themselves, they realize that to make such a decision, to destroy yourself, is really just a point of internal motivation leading to outward action. And, if they could do something as extreme as annihilating themselves, why couldn't they just try to change the circumstances that have limited them?....Action is all we have....Worth mentioning is that this is Steven's first lead vocal on a Flaming Lips track...

GOIN' ON

The core of the chorus melody has a melancholy resolution evoking, abstractly, sections of Mahler's 9th Symphony...We are, subconsciously I guess, drawn to "the answer"... maybe that is why people have the urge to pray or sing or create...We long for this thing called "closure", but I believe that "closure" is, maybe, an illusion. This song takes a long stare at coping and the secret healing powers of slipping through time and space...How suffering, somehow, is relieved by simple...acceptance...

Video To Come.

2006-02-09T18:41:00.000-05:00

soon in a move that will delight millions : video of the mp3 reviews. that's right. you heard it here first. it doesn't make any sense. believe it anyways. you will love it. you do love it. you can't wait for it. mmm.

the 10 best of 2005 (that i've heard.)

2005-12-19T18:15:00.000-05:00

Akron/Family - Akron/Family
M. Ward - Transistor Radio
Sigur Ros - Takk
Beck - Guero
The Decemberists - Picaresque
Paul McCartney - Chaos & Creation In The Backyard
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
Andrew Bird - Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production Of Eggs
Oasis - Don't Believe The Truth
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

i've bolded akron/family - akron/family ... if i had to choose just one - i think it'd be the one. i'm planning on a detailed run through of each of these albums.

honorable mention : the white stripes, the magic numbers, boards of canada, stephen malkmus, the chemical brothers, ben folds...

Song Of The Day : Suite Judy Blue Eyes

2005-12-19T01:40:00.000-05:00

"Suite Judy Blue Eyes" by Crosby, Stills, & Nash. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD IT.

just a beautiful tightly woven epic. great track. man i love the way the voices sound. good stuff. delicious even. well just download it there - if you havent heard it before. yeah.

in other news : Andrew Bird's "Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production Of Eggs" will be in consideration for the top 10 list.

recommended chillout/fall to sleep (while a tad stoned) music

2005-12-18T04:22:00.000-05:00

Brian Eno - Ambient 1 "music for airports"

really beautifully simple music. when you want a totally relaxed feeling it works very nicely. manages to be subtley interesting while sort of massaging your mind at the same time. i love how the minimalism of it makes me start to think that the fuzz is being manipulated to go in and out as part of the song... and well ... at the moment i believe it is. but usually i would just hear it as being a white fuzzy noise indicative of some warm analog equipment but not any sort of purposeful manipulation. well if you were to hear something like this on a record made in 2005 it'd probably be purposeful manipulation. actually... the way it just jumped left to right definitly makes me think its being done on purpose. fuck thats sly. anyways i was just going to say that you would only hear fuzz like this on current time recorded record if it was wanted to be there. but back in the day you'd get a bit of fuzz but now thinking about it - this level of fuzz is clearly on purpose too. hey man, i am tired. give me a break. i'll just sit back and listen to the rest of this. pick it up if you want to hear something gentle without being mindless.

assorted high as hell biz.

2005-12-16T03:21:00.000-05:00

Animal Collective - Feels. I'm giving this one another chance. Properly stoned.
I think I'll make this a more free form situation. I am enjoying the first track a bit although I'm finding myself still sort of annoyed by some of the more insane vocal parts. But I'm enjoying the sounds and the music.
some possible time expansion. nah. this song Grass I just find very annoying - the vocal part - it's like it's aim is annoying me? I just dont get anything out of it. the music is nice though. eh... I've made it to track before till I just feel like moving along. I just don't like the songs very much. i feel more like doing some random selected tracks rather than listening to a whole album.

1. broken social scene - "ibi dreams of pavement a better half" --- im getting sort of a classic rock vibe or somethign fof the start. well until that rather insane backwards sucking thing starts happening. that's pretty tripped out. usually i
dont think i hear really whats going on with this. but now to hear that huge reverse reverb effect - its really insane it feels like all of the words are being sucked out of my brain. yeah like this song is so much better than the 3 i just heard by animal collective - sometimes i just don't get why people get so into biz. but that's the way the world works. i must say i havent really loved this BSS album as a whole but i have found myself really enjoying some of the tracks from time to time. overall i'm sort of moving away from this sort of really full crazy sounding production and have been enjoying more things with seperation ... the muddy factor was definitly coming into play - but the style really seems to fit this song, at this at the moment it does. the horn section in the middle is quite cool too. well it starts in the middle and goes to the end. overall a very cool song. 9 marijuana leaves.!

2. cornershop - butter the soul (from when i was born for the 7th time) - i've loved this album for a long time. people mostly remember them for brimful of asha ... but the album isn't really like that track. there's only 4 or 5 actual _songs_ in the 15 tracks - most of the tracks are sort of crazy sound experiment biz. like this one. those are the things i really like - but the more songy tracks are excellent too. for whatever reason i havent ever really been able to get into their other stuff i've heard - but i love this album.... anyways on to the track.. #3 butter the soul. _>>> mostly some crazy record scratching ... then it goes into some serious indian biz rockin the sitar like a bowl of clam chowder.

3. let's listen to track #13 "candy man" . yes. i love the bassline from this track. theres this crazy sound of what sounds like someone just rubbing his hand on a table on the left side. its drivign me a bit mad as i've never heard that before but its so .. perfect. although it sounds almost like something random. but no, its not. stuff like that makes me eat my own taco. now my shadow is getting a bit strange. i have not many lights. yes. but a lamp on over there creates sort of a shadow of my ... me. on the wall. so then let's talk about how this is officially track #3 (note. in retrospect i guess its track #4. or #5.) i should place that now at the beginning. but please know, and try to imagine that for a long time, up until this time right now >>>>>>>> (I just placed it.) there was no "3." at the beginning. but now it's there. I just didn't want to misrepresent the truth man.

4. circulatory system - self titled album - track #12 "A Peek" - i dont know this album that well although i've had it for awhile now. it's the project of olivia tremor control DUDE will hart which is why i got interested to hear these guys.
being a huge otc fan. but this album hasnt won me over like the OTC stuff has. but that being said i'm far from giving up on it - i like what i've heard it's just a lot to take in. but now seems like a good time to hear a track. i dont really remember what this one sounds like - i just picked it by the name. heres we go.strings. cello ... weird. um.. yes. theres now like 4 cellos playing along with some percussion. this is pretty creepy music. yes. oh yeah um.. the vocals fell in over top of this. a bass is playing. pretty just psychotic cello playing along with insistant bass and percussion. woah. this is pretty goddamn creepy. started escaping the headphones at about 2:30 in. ,,, track definitly creeped me out. ok then 9 marijuana leaves.

5. the beta band - hot shots II - track #7 "quiet" --- weird boxed sound so far... hm.. i see.... when the chorus come sin that one sound enters the spectrum as a snake of light... sort of outside of the curently accepted reality. i see that now.
some nice into space stuff there. i've always loved how this song makes it back around to the front. and how it goes into the weird crazy thing again the same way the second time. could be seen as a fault but it works on this song. i've always
loved this guitar thing at the end. i like the subtle change as that thing loops on out - with the percussion - thats really nice.

6. m. ward - transistor radio - i've been loving this album. its still quite new to me - i've had it for about 1 week and listened to it about 5 times so far. i'm going to listen to um... the first 5 tracks of the album. i love the whole album but it's those first 5 that really kill me it seems. and a couple of the later ones have stood out too. "i'll be yr bird" and "radio campaign" ...

A. you still believe in me... cover of the beach boys song. and it sounds just beautiful here. acoustic guitar. it makes it sound like sort of timeless classical song - which is a testament to ol brian wilson. just a beautiful song and this is a
great cover because it unveals another side of a beautiful song you know. this is a cover - actually turning a song around and showing you it's other side. that's beautiful. i don't really get it when people try and do exact replicas of a song.
just listen to the original then? you know, what's the point of that biz? i mean if you're a cover band or whatever sure. i guess that's your deal. but otherwise. oh yes then.

B. one life away --- i love the sound on this song. great old radio sound without sounding bad. this really just captures a timeless feeling. great thing. second time i've used that word timeless - i think thats what i love about this album so
much. it's just music you know. something pure about it and its not trying to be like... listen we recorded this all some other time - theres some little tricks ... some delays and things - theres some lovely production trickies but they are all
done so subtly ... gives them extra warmth.

C. sweethearts on parade --- another classic track. man i love this guys voice. just great. see that little ssssssss sound on the left there. thats one of those little tricks i was talking about. sounds like a little bit of vocal snipped and
played on the beat .. the type of thing you can do easily with protools - and see thats cool you know - thats what i mean by it not trying to be something from another time - there are little bits of modern bizzes but they are used so tastefully so
that it still fits the style of music.

D. Hi Fi --- His voice sounds great on this one again. great clean guitars. theres even a little synth in this track. and there's a little delay on his voice. i guess not surprising that there'd be a few more sorta high techish production tricks in a song called "hi fi" - but it's still done very tastefully. and it's such a nice bright clean space. even when quite a few things are going on everything feels quite nicely seperated ...with plenty of warmth and delicious pancakes. perhaps some sausage links. even some backwards guitars at the end. i had forgotten about that.

E. fuel for fire --- talk about a classic song. this thing just sounds like willie nelson or some biz. just great. the willie nelson thing is a compliment btw. i read it back and it sounded bad for a second. but no, what i mean is. this is
just one of those songs where you feel like you've heard it all your life even though its the first time you ever heard it. and not because it is another song or it sounds like another song - just because it's a song. MAN!. and again his voice sounds great on this. right now this album is seriously being considered for the #1 spot on my best of the year list. definitly a lot more subtle and straightforward than most of my favorite music but... it's just so good. so well done. beautiful music. m. ward is one of the indie flavors of the week that actually deserves the praise imo. although i must say if there's any track on the album i dont like it's #6 .. that one kind of annoys me (so far.) so its no coincidence i decided to go 1 through 5. anyways i want to move on and hear some other things now.

11. the mars volta --- from deloused in the // yeah. big change from m.ward. yeah let's go the other way yo. this is track #7 which i think is the one that really melts my mind but i cant remember for sure. its 12 minutes long though. so lets see
how it works out. "cicatriz"

this song has a total futuristic vibe right from the start. but sort of a weird 80s future . er.. i see these guys with skin tight pants... just rocking out on a guitar wearing crazy outfits. like in some sort of cartoon world. in outerspace. ... yeah... now theres just a helicpoters.. wow..... that was crazy.. i had forgotten about how that happens... the song just blows your brain out right there. man thats some nice saugs. . sausage. ok lets get clear here. i love the vocal on "all"
.. thats such a great little touch. .. woah man.. when this breaks into an instrumental section its just insane its like the guitars create this tunnel of ight... and then things start getting quiet.. yeah im quite sure this is the mind melter of my memory. things aer sort of like a space jazzz club now.. um.. now the guitar is is just the delay ... for a gi. sort of like a gun shooting rubber pellets. if the goat the flying goat was to enter the cornweb. definitly flating in outerspace now with chcunks chucnks chunks not chucks. chunks of just sharp black crystals flaoting some bright ilghts way off... in outer space or in the chair... watching the city from across the lake. that spacy bit is just insane with the way you hear the white noise type sound coming in and around the brain after all of that... when the song busts back in its some sort of like latin thing. doesnt make much sense to me at the moment but i'm trying to make it make some sense. pretty nuts when the vocal part comes back in. you definitly get that feeling of "what the fuck, we're still in this song?" i've always enjoyed that effect.

Top 10 for 2005 on rateyourmusic.com

2005-12-14T20:04:00.000-05:00

rateyourmusic.com is one of my favorite sites. check it out. in buildup to my own top 10 list which will be coming together soon here's the top 10 albums from 2005 on rateyourmusic.com (these are by listener ratings.) i'm removing the re-issues and the live albums from this list because... well i just don't think they should really be counted. ! and that's that.

1. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois: This one will probably be on my top 10 as well. A real nice album, although I feel it's a bit too long. 22 tracks? Personally I think I prefer 2004's Seven Swans because it has a bit more of a concise sort of purposeful feel to it, and that's despite the very overt christian references in the lyrics... usually something that would put me off but Stevens can pull it off. Seven Swans is #9 for 2004 btw on rateyourmusic.com

2. Opeth - Ghost Reveries : I've never heard this album.. or this band. from the descriptions of it as "death metal" i'd be surprised if it's up my alley but maybe I'll give it a spin just to be open minded and all.

3. Animal Collective - Feels : I've talked about Animal Collective a bit in this blog... I've not been able to get into them and as of now this album is definitly not going to be in my top 10. But they are intriguing enough that I'm going to be giving them further listens. Some of my favorite bands I took awhile to get into. I do give them credit for being pretty original, I haven't heard anything quite like them before. I just find them so off putting & annoying at times. So far my favorite track I've heard by them is less than a minute long. "College" off of 2004's Sung Tongs.

4. Sigur Ros - Takk : Sigur Ros doing their thing - good as always. Will be in my top 10. Although I have to really be in the mood to listen to Sigur Ros and it's a mood I'm not in that often. They do what they do though, incredibly well. Brilliant live.

5. Paul McCartney - Chaos & Creation In The Back Yard : will be in my top 10. Really great songs. Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich was a great move too. The album has a lot more weight than most (actually probably all) of Mccartney's other solo albums.

6. Andrew Bird - Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production Of Eggs : I haven't heard this yet. I'll try to get on that. Some of the reviews made it sound like something I'd like.

7. Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor : I've never heard of this band before. Described as "metal" in the reviews - not really a genre I'm too interested in. If I get around to giving Opeth a listen, I'll give this one a listen too, I suppose.

8. Deadwing - Porcupine Tree : Haven't heard it.

9. Kate Bush - Aerial : Haven't heard it. Hm. I suppose I should give some of this a listen before making my top 10 list. But from the descriptions they don't really sound like things I would like.

10. The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute : I gave a bit of a listen to this awhile ago - but I believe it was a pre-release version - I've never heard the final release. I liked their last album although it grew a bit stale for me.

...
let's look back at some of the rate your music top albums from the past.

2004 : Arcade Fire - Funeral. I'm sort of determined to hear what everyone else likes about these guys so much. So i'm listening to them again now - and I am enjoying it more than I have in the past. I do like the music - it's just a matter of not being annoyed by the singer I think.

2003 : Explosions In The Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place. Haven't heard this. hm. Another thing to put on my to listen to list!

2002 : Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - now we're talking. absolutely great album.

2001 : Opeth - Blackwater Park - well here's this Opeth again. I should give them a listen I do suppose.

2000 : Godspeed You Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven : GYBE is good and everything but there's no way this should be ahead of the #2 album which is Kid A by Radiohead.

1999 : Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun : yes, probably my favorite Sigur Ros album. Although I'm a firm believer that the #8 album on this list The Flaming Lip's The Soft Bulletin should be top ranked.

my internet is sucking too bad to go back any farther. fuck you verizon.

keep your eager eyes peeled for the magic goblin's top 10 list for 2005.

Akron/Family

2005-12-14T13:38:00.000-05:00

New band I'm listening to called Akron/Family. I'm listening to their self titled debut album right now. Sort of lo-fi but in that Olivia Tremor Control way where they are trying to do a lot with it as far the sonic space. Lots of interesting little sounds and some quite insane things happen. Very psychedelic and spacy music while still being sort of down home at the same time. Nice mix. Akron/Family seems to sound like what I was _hoping_ Animal Collective would sound like from all of the talk about them before I listened. Animal Collective has been a bit of a dissapointment for me (although I havent given up on getting into them.) they seem to want to push the listener away with their annoyance. Akron/Family wants to take you into their place - a very strange and wonderous place. That I can get into. Unfortunatly I am almost out of marijuana.

this album is looking to gain itself a position in my top 10 of the year and i'm pretty sure it will even though this only my second time listening to it. it's got some really great stuff going on in it and a few really memorable tracks already.

one of these is track #5 - "i'll be on the water" - which is a really sweet little song. it includes some really nice ambient sounds. and it goes into some cool places in a quite tight way. i'm going to make this one downloadable. (this will only be up for 7 days.)

I'm quite sure this won't be my last post about these fellers. Good stuff.

Live Journal

2005-12-13T20:16:00.000-05:00

Live Journal Site for me, The Magic Goblin

why?

last.fm is a great site

2005-12-12T12:55:00.000-05:00

Really try and use the radio player. really amazing. a great way to check out and hear new music.

last.fm

marijuana. album. day.

2005-12-11T04:08:00.000-05:00

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin.

Click here to download the track (#6) "What Is The Light?" from this album. One of my favorites on the album.

really beautiful album. track 6 into 7 is one of my favorite moments on the album. you should really buy the whole album, but if you haven't heard it yet - hopefully you'll download that track and you'll get a taste for the album.

downloadable mp3s

2005-12-08T04:35:00.000-05:00

now why didn't i think of this before? maybe this will get some of you ungrateful bastards here reading my amazing spewings! from now on whenever i talk about a song you'll be able to download it and listen to it yourself if you don't already have it. that should liven things up a bit, eh?

we're going to start off with Jim O'Rourke - I'm Happy.

I'm going to be testing out some different services. This is megaupload - i'm considering using it because I don't think they delete the files as quick. YouSendIt deletes after a week, but it's so much cleaner and easier to use too.

The track is "I'm Happy" by Jim ORourke. It's the first track from his 2001 album "I'm Happy, and I'm Singing, and a 1,2,3,4."

I'm not quite sure how to describe it. Very atmospheric electronic music. Trippy mad scientist type biz. I enjoy it. Download it and tell me what you think of it.

NOTE : when using megaupload you have to wait some amount of time (45 seconds - 1 minute?) before you can actually download the file. When you click on the link you'll see the thing telling you to wait for however long - when that time is up you''ll be able to download the file there.

---
buy rolling papers, nice pipes, bongs, and even SALVIA at this site.

Top 10 List for 2005.

2005-12-07T03:06:00.000-05:00

No this is not my top 10 albums of 2005 list. I know you were so excited to see it! but you'll have to wait. What this is though is my nominations list... these are the albums that so far have gained a nomination from the magic goblin to be considered for the top 10 list! There may be some more added. The years not over and there's still some releases from this year I need to listen to.

The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers
Oasis - Don't Believe The Truth
Sigur Ros - Takk
M. Ward - Transister Radio
The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
The Decemberists - Picaresque
Stephen Malkmus - Face The Truth
Beck - Guero
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
The Chemical Brothers - Push The Button
Boards Of Canada - The Campfire Headphase
John Vanderslice - Pixel Revolt
Paul McCartney - Chaos & Creation In The Backyard
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins

again these albums have only earned the right to be CONSIDERED for the top 10 list.

thank you!

high as hell random album notes & stories #1 (Radiohead - Hail To The Thief)

2005-12-05T03:28:00.000-05:00

you know you're high when you think backdrifts is the best song on the album. well atleast so far. maybe it's just because it's the song playing right now. really beautiful to watch this one move. really great track. personally more the type of place i want the next radiohead album to. well i think. you know fuck what i want. goddammit! i just hope they try to make it something brilliant. if they give that effort i'll probably be pretty intersted to hear what they've done.

i just thought of the funniest thing... i was thinking about some people who i was arguing with earlier. what actually caused me to breakout this album for listening. some people were saying that radiohead weren't their cup of tea (in less kind words.) and i was saying how weird it was for me that people who i otherwise respect, think are intelligent... that people who are like this and have otherwise good taste in music can just not get something as clearly brilliant as radiohead - and how weird this was to me. and it is. and i was thinking about ..

just now i was thinking about how i dont really hate any bands like that... like i dont go around hating on bands really. and then i thought about bands like matchbox 20 and the like that i can hate on a bit. or nickelback.. or creed.. you know just suckass shit like that. sure i hate that stuff. and then i thought. well i just dont hate any actually good bands. sure there may be some that i dont totally get into like i do say the beatles, flaming lips, and radiohead - but i wont be hating on a band just cuz they're not my cup of tea. like i dont really like arcade fire that much so far - a lot of people have been telling me how great they are and stuff and i just havent got much from their album but i recognize it as being pretty good music and i recognize how someone could like it - its like... you know thats cool. i'm not going to hate on something like that. something respectable. so when people dont show the same respect to radiohead - i just find that hard to understand - that type of mindset. and actually i think i've talked myself back into being right. BUT before i got into this brilliant discovery i was talking about how i was saying i didn't hate any actually good bands and ... think about how funny that statement is. i don't hate any "actually good bands" because the bands i consider actually good - are obviously not bands i would hate. hah. so it's sort of a statement EVERYONE could make. unless some people are able to *hate* a band they recognize as good. i dont know that. i may note care for a band i recognize as good ... such as franz ferdinand or bloc party or arcade fire - these are all bands i think are reasonably good and i can understand someone liking them - they dont cause me hate like say linkin park does. or evanescence or limp bizkit or any of that sort of music for the alternative preteen set. that stuff to me is hatable - but i dont consider it "good music" so it's totally reasonable.. to me. er, anyways a brilliant(?!) example of the faulty "logic" used to in ... i forgot the word. just completely blanked the word. but you know what i'm talking about. don't you? it's just one word. it starts with a c i think. i'm pretty sure it's a c but if it's not a c then me thinking its starting with a c will guarantee i am not able to find the answer. but then.. if it does start with c it could help me get the answer? how sure am i about this c business? i'm not.. but really now i'm more concerned of the likelihood of it starting with c than i am with whether or not my head is turning into a pumpkin. i always really liked pumpkin pie growing up with lots of cool whip. that's just delicious to me. so it's sort of like that with food. i mean... i just don't get the stuff some people like. is that like music or completely different, i'm not even sure anymore. about any objective truths. (now playing we suck young blond) - been quite enjoyable. ah nice fast bit. ok... so i was kind of hoping that while i was going off in this other direction that the word would come back to me. its a word meaning like convince yourself of something .. oh.. shit. i remembered it.

RATIONALIZE ... so much for the c.. maybe that was coming from that phrase convince yourself. which i'm not even .. nevermind. so anyways now i can finish that sentence back there.

faulty "logic" used to rationalize things to yourself.!

really nice clean production. now track #8 is on "the gloaming" this is one i took a long time to warm up to... but i like it a lot now. i think i sort of allowed myself into the weird little place it creates ... took awhile to sort of get over my initial sort of being off put by the cheapness of the sound. it's like i could only think of it from an audio architects perspective rather than from that of a listener. now i feel i am really just listening to this thing thats created. its very cool and there's so much more going on than i always thought you know. its amazing what ... can come from a sort of minimalistic situation sometimes - i feel like when there's less there sometimes you listen more intently to what is there. so you will hear more in the fuzz created here than you might from a full orchestra... these last repeating lines i always hear as "please shoot me reagan" and "they could be raelians" any radiohead fans out there want to give me any other perspective on that?

track #9 is a classic in my opinion. really great drums on this track. woah.. i just noticed a weird sound on "broken branches" it really sounds like a piece of sound was broken in half there. i dont mean it sounded like a broken branch but like one of the sound waves created by this song in my head .. like a piece of white light would just crack in half. but i think i heard it again... later on.. it could be one of the drums.. well it almost definitly was but i think maybe they efected that single hit.. oh it just happened again. it almost sounds like a malfunction like a crackle... hm. hard to know whether thats an mp3 encoding issue or whether its actually there. these are 320 mp3s though, not low quality. and yes i do own the album (i can see some of your suspicious eyes on my eyebrows.) - i rip all of my albums onto mp3 almost as soon as i get them usually.

this song gets pretty intense here... oh and that was just the build up. that guitar is huge. such a great riff. greenwood is probably my favorite modern guitarist. save all of your guitar wankery - this guy just makes amazing sounds with his guitar. and i can understand why so many people get upset when radiohead doesnt use more guitars when they have a genius like this using the guitar - but thats just the think - he's a musical genius not just a great guitar player - so let the guy do what he wants. that's what makes his work and them so exciting.

i'm definitly a lover of jonny greenwood yes. i love ol' thom yorke too - but i really think they are a team - they can do good stuff on their own but what they produce together is truly amazing.

"i will" is a very pretty song - i love the clean but still rather warm production. those vocals just sound amazing. nothing but clean electric guitar and an straightforward bass guitar and layers and layers of vocals. what radiohead does and so few bands can say they really do is show an amazing sense of subtley - they dont do something with a song unless they have a reason to do it, you know? so many people would be so tempted with a song like this just to add a bunch of shit that doesnt need to be there you know. they revel in the beauty of such a straightforward arrangement. and they know that the vocals on this song are very beautiful and what you really need to put your ears on. like i was saying earlier - minimalism can cause you to really listen harder to the things that are there.

ok let's get this out in the open, i know you are asking yourself not a single mention of the first 3 songs? well i was listening to this album and getting higher when i came up with this idea - i didn't have it before the album started and i didnt want to start it over again. as you can see too - the idea isnt to necessarily mention every song - it's just about a certain of general journey of the mind while the album is playing - some of it directly related to the music and hopefully all of it atleast somewhat related even if very very very indirectly. the theory being that .. well always.. but especially in such a state the music you are listening to is effecting your mind.. your thoughts are in some way directed by these sounds...

punchup at the wedding is a song i really like because its radiohead really doing something you dont hear them do too often as far as just getting a bit funkalicious (of course in a very radiohead way)

myxamatosis is sounding pretty insane right now. that phat synth is just like.. woah.. and whats that sound off int he distance i hadnt really heard that before. its hard to make out.. lamost like a distant guitar.. almost like... just another synth but really really overly effected. or some sort of rervbereration or delay off the main sound. sorry i closed my eyes there for a bit. this song is really taking me off a bit. its actually freaking me out a bit thought. theres really some amazing things going off in this track with the way the synths are competing against each other. coming in over each other. this is what i'm talking about - this song is just great. how can you not touch yourself when you hear something liket his? fucking beautiful , creepy, otherworldly, just fucking beautiful insane music. what sort of nonsense to you have to have going on in your head that's going to not let you enjoy this?

track #13 is another example of radiohead being restrained. scatterbrained. this is a pretty song that has some really pretty and delicate moments. the song is very delicate. the roof is pulling off by his fingernails. love that line. such subtle little vocal effects there at first... woah.. this song is just fricking beautiful. i think this is the most i've ever enjoyed this song in my life.

final track is now on. wolf at the door. i dont think ive ever liked this one quite as much as some others have. but its cool in that it doesnt sound like any other radiohead song to me. i heard something insane just now but i dont know if it really happened or not. some.. thing. ok so ... this is another song with very sort of clean straightforward instrumentation. i think radiohead may be a band that uses restriction as a focusing agent. ie if you give yourself a set of restrictions it can cause you to be more focused in your creativity and may force yourself out of somethings you let yourself fallback on... by restricting yourself of it. yeah anyways i dont know if i've read this in interviews or not but i can totally imagine radiohead saying "ok we're only going to use uneffected/clean drums bass guitar on this one." just to see what would come of it. and maybe on another "let's use only electronic elements" - you know whatever - push yourself in different ways - i think thats the key. i dont know whether they do these particular things or not atleast in exactly that way - just saying i can imagine that maybe they do from some of the stuff i've heard and that.. fuck it - it sounds like a good idea and i've heard of other artists doing similar things.

well then this is a conclusion of this one! i enjoyed the album quite a bit - i'm not saying i now rate it with kid a and okc or anything but it's a top album with some really nice moments.

some mp3 reviews.

2005-12-04T05:10:00.000-05:00

1. Marilyn Manson - Rock Is Dead.

i'm not a marilyn manson fan really. but sometimes I like to listen to different things. you know. I kinda like the dude, as a dude. sometimes I feel maybe i've been too dismissive of his stuff. It's kinda cool in the same way that NIN is cool (clearly very influenced) - well kind of the same way. There's not as much thought put into this production. and i'm not really saying it's as good as NIN. you know strike that. but i don't actually mind the track - it's kinda fun. some cool sounds. 6 stars. ? this may have been my worst review yet.

ok maybe i've smoked a little grass. but these arent official high as hell reviews - i cant take the whole eyes closed deal and all of that. so these will just be normal reviews but tinged with a little bit of magical fairy dust.

2. Bauhaus - the three shadows (part 1) ...

I'm not a fan of Bauhaus - in fact i don't know if i've ever actively listened to them before - but i've found this mp3 on my computer so it seems like time. I'm actually quite enjoying it. It's very atmospheric and subtle. some of the guitar effects are a bit overdone. and it gets maybe a tad bit repitious ... i mean clearly it's meant to trance one out so some repetition is necessary. i like it, and i like the idea of it - ... hm... nice vocals... sort of like monk chants these. i dig 'em. 7 stars.

3. Glen Frey - The Heat Is On -

now who didnt love Beverly Hills Cop? I don't think I ever realized this was Glen Frey till just now. the dude from the Eagles right. what's that all about. pure cheese man. i loved this song when I was a kid. I'm pretty sure though if it was featured in some dumb new movie I'd probably hate this song now and wish it to be eaten by an alligator. Partly cuz I hate all of this 80s retro bullshit. Anyways this is a fun song to listen to for all the wrong reasons... it really is quite bad though. its really amazing listening to the rhythem section and how it could be a michael jackson song. i'm not even sure what this is trying to accomplish. am I supposed to want to dance? oh man. well the heat is on . it's on the street.
82 onion rings.

4. Curtis Mayfield - This Love Is Sweet -

ah pretty glorious vocals there. such a warm sound on this track. pure warmth. great horns. this is just some enjoyable music to listen to. like laying out in the fields and shizzle like that. 17 sunflowers.

5. Radiohead - Dollars & Cents

always one of my favorite songs from amnesiac. such a strange song as far as the sort of just place it puts you in. a lot of reverb ... just drenched. i love the use of strings on this track. of course the bass part is the big anchor on this song.

6. Ween - Pink Eye On My Leg

from the brilliant the mollusk.
such sort of cheap effects but they sound really cool. it's sort of a candy happyland. little cartoon dog now. he barks like a cartoon dog not like a real dog. very very groovy song. very visual. 8.5 marijuana leave.s

7. Primal Scream - Give Up But Don't Give Out (Portishead remix.)

that bit around 2 minutes in when it all changes is madness. this track has really just been taking me on a trip. 10 hits of acid.

8. The Animal Collective - who could win a rabbit

this is a band i've been working on getting into - i feel like i should like them. but it just hasnt sunk in for me yet, i *love* weird music but for some reason their stuff has just seemed really unlistenable. i'm gettin pretty damn high now so i figure if it's ever going to work for me, now would be the time. let's see how the ride goes.

starts of insaner n hell. well i am understanding a bit.... yes. i am. there is some really neat stuff going on. im still not sure if i dont think the song itself isnt annoying. but there really is some neat stuff going on here. a ton of energy and some just insane production techniques. interesting. i think where their success is coming from is their ability to bring a lot of energy and quirky sort of personality to something that is really very experimental and just sort of like sonic wizard pants. but all that being said ... was the song any good? i'm not sure really. i dont think its particularly catchy and it seems to be sort of... you know like annoying. its sort of just insane in that weenish type of way but it doesnt quite fit that. im still not sure what i think of these guys - but i did enjoy listening to the track this time around. and i'm still intrigued.

high as hell #5 (radiohead overview)

2005-11-30T00:46:00.000-05:00

High As Hell Reviews #5. working on getting high now. the reviews are to come my friends. i am not sure whether i'm going to continue the theme of career overviews or whether i'm just going to listen to various artists as i feel like it. i will have to take a couple of tokes to think this over. !

I think i've decided on a Radiohead career overview. I'll be starting at their early career and go through their most recent stuff. I don't think a lot of people think of Radiohead as a really psychedelic band - they aren't psychedelic in the cliche sort of way - ... but to me they are definitly psychedelic. anything that really stimulates your mind is psychedelic music to me - I had a discussion about this earlier. It explains why beethoven is pychedelic and britney spears is not (of
course when you're actually tripping EVERYTHING is psychedelic... ) ... but that's not to say there cant be trippy little production tricks and whatnot even in otherwise rather unpsychedelic music - it's sort of hard to explain what I mean by that... but to me anything that tickles my ear with a little surprise is psychedelic as well as things that take you on a journey. still, probably makes no sense to you. oh well :) let's move along man.

first things first - we must choose a song from pablo honey. of course I could go with "creep" ... and I probably will, although i dont consider it a very trippy song... it'd be a good reference point to compare to their later material. - (radiohead in my opinion have got more and more psychedelic as they've gone along probably hitting a pinacle at kid a and leveling off a bit in the realms of creating psychedelic music since then.) . but first i must take a piss and a couple more tokes and make a decision at that time. I've decided to update this one song at a time! so those of you who are lucky enough to find this blog at this momentous time will be able to read in real time the magical reviews of the magic goblin!

RADIOHEAD CAREER OVERVIEW

#1 "Creep" - off Radiohead's first (and by far least interesting, so far.) album Pablo Honey

first thing i notice is the song feels faster than i remember it being. pretty quick tempo to start things off. remember people my eyes are closed while i type and watch the song as it approaches me. speaking of angels thom - your voice sounds quite lovely. it does seem like it could be a bit more all over it though. pretty nice release on the chorus - which is of course what the song is famous for. during the chorus i started getting lifted to a bit of a pscyhedelic mindset but i'm not quite flying high yet. it does feel a bit like an explosion as the second chorus hits. lots of light created by that. really its this bridge section that takes the song to the next level. ruuuuuuuuuuuuuun. ol' mr. yorke sure has some pipes. overall a nice song - i did enjoy listening to it - but certainly much more emotional than trippy or psychedelic - besides the guitar grunches and some sort of explosive guitar playing during the chorus - the song is sonically pretty straight ahead and untrippalicious. 3 marijuana leaves.

#2 "The Bends" - from The Bends. second song on their second album. this has always been one of my favorite tracks on the album and I think it's got some interesting bits. when I first saw radiohead live in '98 this was the song that I remember
really blowing my head off. nice the way the guitar just torn into that sort of ambient atmosphere and ripped it all away. theres some nice sort of like little buillds and releases in that intro. sort of subtle in a way. i like the organ(i think) in the background on the verse.. its very buried. but there ti is. on that first verse anyways.. no i hear it underneath the crunch guitar on verse 2. im still not getting a lot of visuals yet. im not sure why. usually im out of my mind with this much pot. i like those sort of little pauses ... thats the kind of subtle thing people only notice subconciously usually. awesome instrumental breakdown. this is what was really amazing live. lots of things just circling all around now. things are getting wild. mr. greenwood is getting a bit insane with his ol' guitar. some nice deep bass in this song as well. overall i quite enjoyed the songs and was headed a bit to some trippy bliss but didnt quite make it. not sure if i blame the song or my mental state at the moment - though probably more the latter - i'm still going to give this song a rather low score - 4 marijuana leaves. it was definitly more psychedelic than Creep though - especially that instrumental breakdown. that was real nice. now again, i dont want to go over this every time kids. but yes i get quite close to tripping when i smoke the weed - its because, i believe, of all of the psychedelic drugs i've done in my life - it makes it quite easier to get into
that certain mindset where i see a dead armadillo on my bookshelf.

#3 "Climbing Up The Walls" - track #9 from OK Computer.

now this is a bit more of a creepy place to be. right off i hear a lot of thought behind the sonic space here. a very wide open sound yet many little details as well. difficult to do this properly - very nice. the synth bass sound is really awesome here. those vocal sound effects are just insane. like laughing faces floating acorss the mindspace. getting a bit scary now. this instrumental bit is insane. its hard to tell if its a fucked up horn, a fucked up synth or maybe even a guitar knowing these ol' crazy kids. it could be anything. pretty nuts. overall a very psychedelic track - i'm really not getting into the right mindset tonite or i think that could have been really nuts. 8 marijuana leaves.

#4 "Palo Alto" - from the Airbag EP released after OK computer.

this song is pretty bloody insane. this is really taking me somewhere now. everything feels like its going THROUGH my head. when that crunch guitar comes in its very weird - its as if things are living in the guitar. i love the way you can hear the slides on the string and everything on this - that sort of just dirty sound - it sounds amazing. greenwood is a fucking god of the guitar that is for sure. its really amazing how just weird and ambient its getting now. the song is just madness. great stuff. this is just very evocative music. i think this is going to be my favorite song so far. just great guitar effects and production in this track. i loved the spaces created... so intense and psychedelic at the same time.

#5 "the national anthem"

nice spacy biz... the echoing voices from somewhere.. its fsort of like the one sound is the antanae and then we are hearing what its picking up with some of the other sounds... things are getting pretty damn circular now... just a tunnel type thing... like inside a thing. um.. crazy band arrives just sort of off time and wild. crazy people. not much sense. sort of out of nowhere a voice appears. the voice seems to be creating sort of stairs somewhere... very strange sound here in the right channel... these horns are just nuts now. its nice how theres this other sort of just alien sound competing against the horns.. its really just creating a furious ball of energy now - just leaping in all different ways... like some sort of flaming asteroid out of control. now some horn is trying to suck the rest of the song in.. the horn player looksl ike the cartoon character fat albert. he's just a jumping around sucking all of these people into his horn. its like an old 20s style cartoon. a silent movie type thing with this as the music. but occasionally something .. that shouldnt be tehre like a bright spaceship will fly in the background. 9 marijuana leaves

#6 "pulk/pull revolving doors" - from amnesiac.

interesting the way the left and the right are seperated. the two sides are slightly off from each other to produce a sort of intersting back and forth sound with the drum taps. mostly many sounds back and forth.. the voice is right there in the middle of the head. now i am seeing sort of a space bug marching. the space bug is giving orders occassionally. but mostly he just marches and throws laser bolts. now he is starting to dance.. he has many stickmen all around him doing dances too. very sort of ... hm... things seem to be sort of melting down into my ears. i've got a bit mesmerized by the track. man.. when things get all quiet there its rpetty insane to just watch the things all sort of cycling waiting to come into your brain and then it gets started and its all flowing right into your brain. sort of like on conveyor belts. theres just sort of a door flapping open and closed at the end. 9 marijuana leaves.

#7 "Fog" - bside from the Amnesiac period

much like the name there does seem to be a fog created by the noise there... nice.. its very much like the song itself is actually in a fog... it looks like a boat floating on the ocean.. or maybe just a lake.. but i think the ocean... no.. a lake... there is fog there... its darka t night... the twinkling sort of keys there... oh those are just lights around the boat... its all so soft and gentle yet spooky and creepy at the same time. the backing vocals are just a beautiful touch there. i'm a big fan of the percussion here.. coming in... its a neat .. thing the way this sort of song seems to be almost encrouching on this weird little world. just a real nice hypnotic feeling created towards the end. nice the way the sort of steady bass comes out of it all towards the end.

#8 "backdrifts" - from 2003's hail to the thief

sort of a very outer space feeling created here. sort of like just being in a very sterile space ship. but when the drum and the voice enter thing sfeel a little different - not sure how though. its nice how these sort of clean sounding synth line is coexisting with this sort of ambient backwards biz and then just these insane sounds all around. my really favorite part of the song has entered - the backwards guitars... there's really a great soundspace created here. the vocal effect sounds sort of like ghosts whispering in the background - pretty goddamn creepy. im really enjoying the drums - some really nice little subtle changes here towards the end. i love that sort of attention to detail and find this sort of place... where its just like... you really zoom in close with your microscope and see this one little bit of whats going on - i find that very interesting. 8.5 marijuana leaves.

high as hell reviews #4

2005-11-20T03:12:00.000-05:00

workin' on it my my main G's. slicer up a bucket of donkeys if you have the chance.

#1 - the flaming lips "slow nerve action" the last track on _transmissions from a satellite heart_ ... (a visual journey) already some curviture of space time. hold on. ok... big monster.. people all around ok i have to stop. i think i may have got too stoned for that. had to turn the lights back on. ok... um... yeah.. interesting walking. a lot of people walking in parallel paths... sort of like a giant line.. like at an amusement park - but i only mean the line. there's no amusement park. oh... but now there is. there's the feerris wheel. i suppose its a message whatever isn't there is there, andything you say.. isnt there is there... well that makes no sense really - but for a minute maybe you thought it did... and maybe it's whatever makes sense to you that happens. actually that's very true. oh ok... i mean subjectively - objectively there is probably some sort of ultimate truth right... right.... RIGHT!?
!fm1!!@!?!!?! or is it just a bunch of random objects fighting for some sort of ... what... if everything is random and ... things are just bumping up against each other in these ways man... really what's the point? no wonder these random bumping things had to invent God. i wonder... if, even if the random bumping things did create it, couldn't it still be real. for example - people created calculators and they are real. are they not? ah.... yes.. now there is a pot on the stove... an amazing liquid blowing out of it and reaching the ceiling. back in some sort of buiding.... trance like um... sort of dances... electric dances.. people dancing in circles.... just sort of going nowhere but very whiny. i think maybe the lyrics repeating "its all waste of time agian" are effecting my brain signals. its now jesus in the middle with an interesting group of people running in a circle around him... just like people of all types but.. maybe they are just children actually. wearing white robes. jesus is sort of made out of some sort of thread.

9 marijuana leaves - that was a pretty awesome song. i think i may listen to more lips.

#2 The Flaming Lips - ok.. I feel sort of like going through a career spanning lips thing. the lips have had many incarnations but i think all were quite interesting... and all psychedelic in their own ways. truly so. alright then... we're gonna go back before go back forward.. back to a track from in a priest driven ambulance (i'm not as big a fan of the 80s lips stuff - bit too standard garage rock/noise rock for me.. but starting at PDA they are amazing.) track #9 "mountain side" from the classic album in a priest driven ambulance.

strange little halt there.. hm. i wonder if that was on purpose. weird. pretty much burning forward here. "dying" in the lyric sounded weird. i think that was on purpose. yes. you dirty wayne you. some wild guitar is coming in now. i like the sound of the guitar coming in on the right every .. sort of just fading in and out backwards sounds.. just like 1 note really. its really a space that is being created. that's so much what i mean when i talk about psychedelic... so much music is just that music. psychedelic music is something that either creates a space / takes you on a journey or both. now there are different ways of doing that.. yes.. and this one starts of with the space and then takes that space on a journey. but yeah... a lot of times people miss this - this space creation. someone may say why is there a guitar just coming in every once in while playing a single note in reverse... ? what does that mean musically? or how is that supposed to make me dance? but what they are missing is the sound. the pure just sound of it... the way that that is now a representation in the brain. a figure in the mind. a character in a picture. a moving picture.... every sound can create it's own area... its own character... the drums seem slightly off here at the end, very interesting... i think this is on purpose ... and by off i mean just weird. awkward. its very interesting though because it engaged your mind in trying to figure out this strange pattern things seem to be going in - and its just subtle enough that you arent sure whether its really happening or not... woah. that song went to a pretty strange place out in a lake somewhere at the end. really great... overall that might have been even better than slow nerve action. 9.5 marijuana leaves

#3 ok now we are going to hit to death in the future head. an awesome album and their next one after PDA. really all of their albums PDA through yoshimi are brilliant and must own imo. track #7 "the magician vs the headache."

sort of sounds in a box a way... a very different sound than the one i was just listening to. oh... weird voices.. ooh very weird voices. whats up with this biz. ?! the lyrics just hit my brain. theres a monkey getting down making love to the hole in my head? weird sound there... i guess that is the fucking monkey. I DIG IT MAN. i mean that about the little instrumental break that just happened. it was beautiful. it taught my mind a million lessons that i'm not willing to share with myself. ohh... nice ending.. that sound is sort of hypnotic actually... im somewhat tempted to actually listen to the 30 minutes of static at the end of this album but i'm not quite that gone .

#4 we're on to clouds taste metallic, arguably the lips best album. of course you can make a good argument for any of their albums PDA on. "placebo headwound" track 3

woah... this is such a different sound than the lips songs i've heard so far... this is more sort of beatles influenced you can hear... really nice seperated sounds... and some strange changes. now we are marching. very much like a march with the hat up and down and all of that. i'm loving the backing vocals. this is really sort of blowing my song. this song is excellent. like beatles excellent. the type of things going on are awesome. so much thought in the details - such a cool song. im really admiring the music right now more than going on a journey... its just really kicking my ass. great song. i reall love the drums especially on this track. just really neat drums. and the guitars are so bright and nicely mixed. it stays exceptionally weird while remaining just an excellent pop song too.

# time for Zaireeka - I have a version with the 4 CD's mixed down which i'll be using... if you don't know about zaireeka go to the Flaming Lips link and find it there and read about it and then buy it. well really you should buy the other lips albums first and save this one for sort of a ridiculous ending surprise. its really meant to be listened as sort of an experience - but the songs are great and it sounds cool mixed down too - so i'll be listening to track #3 ... "thirty five thousand..." ... btw track #4 a machine in india is a real mind melter i actually didnt pick that because of that, i dont wanna be too hard on my mind brain... we'll see how this one does. woah. that is some fucking iNSANEEEEEEEEEEEEEE shit. just madness. totally wild. im in a fucked up place now with just swirling demons all around me. .. this vocal effect is just insane... yeah.. the captain has gone insane. wow. those bits of white noise are just amazing.. oh man.. now its just getting completely devilish. this biz with the synths is like.. um... i'm not sure it's even legal really at this point. oh sit
er shit.. i'm starto
er. i'm starting to enter other realms of reailt with my eys opne. that seriously like put me into a tracn for a bit. bi t i think i am somewhat coming to now.

10 marijuana leaves.

er.. um.

moving on... i think
#b "softbulletin" - this one is probably if i had to choose - my favorite lips album. although after just listening to the tracks i have been... i dont know anymore. jesus man their shit is just ridiculously awesome. im having a bit of a problem choosing a track im going to go with #6 'what is the light' - always one of my favorites.

wow... the drum thing is so subtle... the way the delays are panning around... the drums are marvelous. everything is very distinct. its like i can hear every single thing in total cleanliness. im getting a beach boys vibe in a way.. and a pink floyd vibe as welll. really beauitiful. this song is just incredibly beautiful. triumphant... things slow down now and we think about where have been. that was really cool. some subtle things happened. and like with all of the other albums im tempted to just listen to this whole one.

#7 - yoshimi battles the pink robots - their latest album from 2002 (how long must we way for at war with the mystics?????) --- im picking #2 ... "one more robot" for one i think its sort of a good example of the yoshimi type of song ... and its far different than any other lips song i've heard today - its also always been one of my favorite yoshimi songs.

i sort of forgot about how it starts with this weird sound... nice subtle way that weird sound becomes a part of the song. and there it fades out.. everything is very phat sounding. warm and wet. as much as it seems like is happening its really just drums, bass, and vocals... of course with so many insane effects on the vocals its .. um.. theres some very faintly mixed stuff i dont think ih eard before there with some of teh vocals buried int he backround. oh there was another cool little thing weird sound there.. hm. .. oh man... this transition is just insane... in a beautiful way.. wow. beautiful. overall during the song i missed a bit of that feeling of space and seperation i just heard in what is light - there seemed almost too much goines on as far as delay - or reverb or whatever because sometimes everything got kind of swirled together. still a great song - but lately i've been a stickler for nice seperation ... er.. yes. but that transition was so amazing really thats the main thing i remember at the moment. 9 stars of crackhead marvin's underlegs.

alright. i think that's a good one. abit of a career overview for one of the best bands in the world - the flaming lips. if you smoke weed and you dont listen to the flaming lips you are wasting good marijuana.

It is absolutely necessary that you buy this album if you do not yet own it.

2005-11-14T03:14:00.000-05:00

continued.

2005-11-10T04:12:00.000-05:00

# 5 primal scream "slip inside this house" track 2 from 1991's classic Screamadelica

sorry about the no typing. just enjoying the visual now. this has been very nice and sort of just numbly brain melting now... just cutting slices from my mind in a way that i dont mind. this repeating riff always messes with me, i know its repeating but it seems to be off or in some ... different pattern sometimes but so slightly as to only be noticeable off hand. off hand? .... now the laughing is involved. i just noticed.. holy shit. this is fucked. i have heard this song a million times and just realized the voices in the background are saying "take off your pants" - thats insane. i cant believe i never heard that before. ive listened to this song totally tripping off my balls before. 9 marijuana leaves.

#6 Sufjan Stevens - "conerning the ufo sighting..." - from his latest album illinois. I remember hearing this song recently and thinking there's some really nice subtly psychedelic things in it. we'll see... i certainly have more respect for sufjan's insanity abilities after that track from enjoy your rabbit.

evoactive... 1950s... beautiful flutes. very clean. butterfly ..... interesting vocal turn there... very unexpected. his voice gets really weird for moments. that was very interesting. very pretty tune. short. only 2:08. 7 leaves.

#7 now its time for some olivia tremor control - they probably put me on my most memorable "high as hell" review so far. and i think they are about the trippiest band to ever exist so i think it's time to listen to something off of dusk at cubist castle. i feel like going for it so i'm going to try and listen to the "green typewriters" suite in it's entirity.

i think i forgot how many great little songs are in this thing. i'm mostly just enjoying the tunes at the moment. real nice stuff. sunny days. things justing weird.. now... just a singular electronic mosquito in the air... and now here.. really i just have to go back to the ship i think. hold on.. somehow... all of these voices seem to be going at different speeds but somehow they manage to stay pretty much at the same time. perhaps it... butits not just a pitch change there was speed change as well. maybe it was somehow speeding up and down but the differences in pitch confused that even further. watching those cars peel through my head is very cool. its neat how you can make someone pay attention to such small details if its all that you give them to hear. hearing this synth slowly have another synth added to it has been very strange. things are all changing exremely slow. but somehow there is tension building. when the distored truck ran through my had that was crazy.. and then just the slightest colors floatin in the air on the right.. i know the next part is coming by hearing that "so help me baby" or whatever it is on the radio on that passing car. or atleast i think so...... maybe its relative.. pretty much just drops of waer and birds now... im hearing beat interactions between the birds and the water. woah.. just floatin n the clouds now... or stairing tat the couds as everything circles around me..

its been a while now.. im not sure what to sa.. y. we're not . er were now on #21 ... the last GT song... nice little beatlesy bass bit. beautiful backing voices. love that. quite cool. i think it's time to wrap this up. 9 marijuana leaves!

high as hell reviews #3

2005-11-10T03:30:00.000-05:00

here we go :

1. Paul McCartney - "Mrs Vanderbilt" track 4 from Band On The Run.

Very heavy bass. the acoustic guitars on the left and right give a good answer and response sort of thing back and forth. very quickly. great horn break. some really nice seperation. i believe this is from the remastered new version of BOTR. im not quite as high.. yet.. just i mean as i was previous. but i just took a couple of good hits. things are getting a bit more wobbly now. the horn is back, this song i s alot longer and more epicish than i remember. eyes opening and closing.. to the beat, sort of marching as the song is fading out. it is sort of a march isn't it. those laughs are like a line a of a million books. with dragon heads in the background. fun song 7.5 marijuana leaves.

2. Throbbing Gristle - "tiab guls" track 8 from Greatest Hits.

ok i believe i am now blitzed.

song go. uh oh. i am entering the fuck of a scary place. its like just a dark room with fucking insane faces all around. to be honest i've already opened my eyes cuz this is well too fucked up. there seems to be no purpose here except to fucking scare the fuck out of me. and to possibly scrape away my mind. or put a probe down in my nose. i'm not sure if he's always been talking backwards, or if that's something that's started at some point. there are millions of voices in teh background.. so its hard to make out. i actually think all of thos noise sare voices just slowed down or speeded up. this is pretty much just crazy fucked up vocal talking track swith 1 and sometimes maybe 2 synht meandering. that may not sound very interesting and i'm not sure it always ould be. but it's pretty fucking insane right now. you know it's all in the place ment and the sort of space that you create. this particular space/place is essentially quite close to hell. it's been on a long time too. i'm not sure how long it's been now. oh . i think theres some sort of sort of guitar sound.. um... but just totally distorted... and now it faded out. that was totally a place i went to and then left. i'm not sure if it was a song. i'm going to give it 10 marijuana leaves because it completely succeeded in it's intentions and i had to keep my eyes open most of the track because it was just too freaky.

Scumbo - "Moat Brain" - this is my favorite indie band in new york city right now, they don't have an album released yet but lots of songs available for download.

i am suitably high.

lots of high floating sound here. th pre chorus is forming some circular motions. some sort of ciruclar things.. lots of sounds in the backround.. voices in the second verse. more circles - this time with the piano circuling the head. spinning into space a bit during this section. the end section is very pretty. sort of sunny now , out in the fields sort of deal. with trees. down the highway. very quickly over the highway... somehow i've seen this image before in my mind... like in a dream many years ago or something... that's a bit disturbing... not sure what that's about. lovely track. 8 marijuana leaves.

4. Sufjan Stevens - "year of the snake" track 7 from ENJOY YOUR RABBIT. I just got this album and havent actually listened to this song before. I have most of his other stuff but was curious to hear this - i've heard the first few tracks so far and they were quite weird. apparently the whole album is instrumental, mostly electronic.

very much like having ones head examined by many strange instruments. everything feels like its happening either to or in my brain. im now seeing random commercials in my head... like target... many swirals... milliono of kids walking down the hallway with swirls ni their hands ... now ni a circle and on top of each other and in million sof shapes. . just wlaking around like dlittle demons. ok this just got really insane for a second... like the whole thing just exploded out of the cieling. and went plooop. its like parts of another reality breakin for a few moments.. and just do their thing.... but otherwise its all this just very strange place where just a few weird objects are floating in the air. seems to be fading out now though.. er... im not totally convicned actually... things just got very weird again. unexpeced weird little balls of light. now its like we're on oz or something. very weird shit going on. this a pretty .. fucked up song. weird as hell. its probably helping it that i've never heard it before so everythings a total surprise. its like going on a magic ride. and you have no idea what crazy things tyou will see next. now everything is slowing down in space.. like slow motion.. like things are breaking apart... and slowing down in a very sort of like time melting way. oh shit man.. the way that thing was sucking me up .. into what i guess is the next track was totally insane.. at first i thought it was the beat of drums coming in but i think it ended up being something much more dangerous. now i'm contemplating a few things .. listening to another sufjan stevens song but maybe one of his straightforward ones to compare. or something from primal scream. 0h yeah 10 leaves.

Important : Read This Article.

2005-11-09T14:54:00.000-05:00

As part of a disturbing new trend by the major record labels to fight piracy all of the following CDs put software (more like a virus) into your computer :

Trey Anastasio, Shine (Columbia)
Celine Dion, On ne Change Pas (Epic)
Neil Diamond, 12 Songs (Columbia)
Our Lady Peace, Healthy in Paranoid Times (Columbia)
Chris Botti, To Love Again (Columbia)
Van Zant, Get Right with the Man (Columbia)
Switchfoot, Nothing is Sound (Columbia)
The Coral, The Invisible Invasion (Columbia)
Acceptance, Phantoms (Columbia)
Susie Suh, Susie Suh (Epic)
Amerie, Touch (Columbia)
Life of Agony, Broken Valley (Epic)
Horace Silver Quintet, Silver's Blue (Epic Legacy)
Gerry Mulligan, Jeru (Columbia Legacy)
Dexter Gordon, Manhattan Symphonie (Columbia Legacy)
The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity (Columbia)
The Dead 60s, The Dead 60s (Epic)
Dion, The Essential Dion (Columbia Legacy)
Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten (Epic)
Ricky Martin, Life (Columbia) (labeled as XCP, but, oddly, our disc had no protection)

read more HERE.

MP3 Player

2005-11-07T00:53:00.000-05:00

I plan on buying this little buddy online. Very cute and reliable. I know 1 GB isn't that much, but hey I can change 'em out whenever I want. I'll be mostly using it for at the gym anyways. Will be great to listen to an album while I'm working out instead of the crap they play on the radio there.

Magic Goblin is back

2005-11-03T04:02:00.000-05:00

alright, i'm back. calmed down a bit. i used to do a lot of serious psychedelics and it seems because of this sometimes marijuana can really put me back in that place... where i feel like i'm on lsd. the difference it's easier to shake myself out of it on just the marijuana, luckily really. er... or you know. anyways i'm now looking for another song... for the record "i want you" scores 10 marijuana leaves. it's the fucking beatles.

#3 Super Furry Animals "Lazer Beam"

I actually havent got into this album yet (Love Kraft, this is track #6) so I figure... if its going to get me, now would be the time eh? I'm a huge fan of Rings and the stuff before Rings but Phantom and so far Love Kraft have sort of just not really clicked with me. So anyhoo. this is the first high as hell song i've listened to that i'm not sure I like. heh, we'll see how it goes. i don't really remember this album by individual tracks that well yet (have only listened to it 4 or 5 times... and maybe a bad sign that i dont really know one song yet?) --- anyways i think i remember liking this song... so that's why i picked it. how much pre-story are we going to get here? maybe i'm still a little freaked out from the vacuum cleaner?)

... pretty nice intro there. there's a lot going on here. i am getting a lot of visuals but it feels almost like so much i'm seeing that i can't really report... as in its like my head is cut up into 5 parts all seeing their own thing. It's not really taking me to any particular place though - it feels like i'm seeing a performance by a ton of little dwarves or something. and i'm sitting in the audience watching it. it seems sort of.. overblown a bit? although I am liking this section more as it's slowing down and spacing out a bit. I'm finding this a bit too overly joyous (?) and repetitive at the moment. At about 3 minutes things get a lot more interesting. i'm actually a bit dissapointed when the song drops back in. This song at the moment is reminding me a bit of Golden Retriever from Phantom Power which is not a good thing. While this song does have a lot going on and is certainly a psychedelic song... I'm not feeling much depth to it - it just feels like candy and it's not allowing me to enjoy it. Maybe I'm just not in the right mood for it? maybe I didn't give it a real shot. but I'm just not feeling this one at the moment. 3 Marijuana Leaves.

#4 Another one I'm not sure how much I like yet.. although I've had definite better first impressions off of this album. No idea yet about the individual songs I believe I've only heard the album twice so I'll be picking a track at random. I guess track 7. oh yeah this is Broken Social Scene's self titled album, which like Love Kraft, from this year, 2005. the Song is "windsurfing nation"

I liked that trick. A lot of nice little glitches and twitches going on here. I really like the way the track is taking my brain into interesting different places. Great drums. a roller coaster... woah... that was unexpected. the way that came in was pretty awesome. I don't think I like the actual song part quite as much as the crazy instrumental intro but it's got some cool moments too but there seems to maybe be a little bit too much going on which is adding more confusion than anything else. i'm really digging the breakdwon. the rapping is pretty damn surprsing. i dont remember hearing that before. wild stuff. i'm seeing some sort of hiphop guys with basecaps dancing around and whatnot. very strange ending. that was quite interesting, definitly makes me want to listen to this album again. 7 marijuana leaves.

#5 Brian Eno - "GOLDEN HOURS" - track 10 on Another Green World. this is one of my favorite Eno tracks, never heard it stoned before, looking forward to it!

warmer and more minimalistic than the last 2 tracks (although the last one was reasonably warm, all things considered) very soft... i like the sort of just wacky piano playing underneath. looks like a weather aloon .. now many.. er.. hot air balloons with curious cgeorge.. all floating in the air... the guitar solo is really nice. i am really enjoying this second vocal part. the lyrics are freaking me out a little bit. overall a very nice and soft journey although with some menace underlying it all. 7.5 marijuana leaves.

#6 i had a lot of ideas for songs... while i was finishing that one up. which is sort of what i'm afraid of - I seem to have lost my ability to focus a little bit here. I've got a lot of different ideas in my head.. one is to play something very famously trippy like something from pink floyd.. the other is to play something very pop or otherwise not considered trippy. sort of totally opposite ideas here.

actually i've got this ray charles album and i'm going to play a song called "let's go get stoned" which i don't really know or remember.

thres something nice about the old timey sounding production on this. everything is very seperated.. the drums are to the right. female vocals sounding like church singers are singing "lets go get stoned" ray's voice is coming through... i'm not having this song so far as a journey ... just like i'm watching them perform. i can see ray charles singing this song and when the female backing singers come in it's like i can see them pop up above my ear where they are singing from. this song has a a real nice swing to it. his voice sounds great on this. he sounds a little older.. but i'm not sure. i might listen to "hit the road jack" next as i know that was one of his very early songs. i just want to compare his voice.

5 marijuana leaves - very pleasant to listen to but not in a mindbendingly trippy way .. more of a just laid back groovy way. very nice. his vocals sounding great. just depends on your mood... and my current mood wants me to listen to "hit the road jack" which will be song

#7 Ray Charles - "hit the road jack" .. oh and what i have ultimate hits collection cd #2 ... well and 1962.. he was 32 at the time. Let's Go Get Stoned was first recorded in 1963... er. so um.

this song (like the last one) starts off with the female vocalists and the drums. very seperated... this time the ladies are in the right. the drums are in the middle and left. simple repetitive bass on the left. This may be a bit too simple for me to get into right now. moods change fast sometimes! 2 marijuana leaves.

#8 I feel it's time to get weird again. Pink Floyd "SHEEP" from track 4 from Animals. Animals is actually not one of my favorite Floyd albums I've never really got into it as much as most of their other stuff. But I don't think I've ever heard it high. I think I remember this being my favorite track on the album - but I haven't heard it in probably a year or more.

pretty wicked way the drums came in... nice reverse reverb effect. i've always liked the way the vocal turns in to the synth on this track. i had to delte something for the well being of captain goblin. i mean magic music. or . so then... insistant bass. heavy chorus... now we are getting somewhere strange... worms... big plastic worms.. maybe actually tubes... a light coming intot he tubes... that was a retty wild synth the way it just came in. like it just landed on my planet from some far away planet ... its now stepping all over the place. sort of feelling filling the fl loor ... and now there is tdancing. grey elephant. marching like an elephant does and being only the thing an elephant could be. an an imal an elephant, i magine for a moment you are an elephant with much deisre to be a horse. what can you do. ? neat . this just got put and then taken and placed. precisely where it wanted to do. do. to. wtf. i think i actually somehow forgot about this. fucking demon com puter talking at me now. saying some shit thats jut splain wrong. im not even totalloy sure at the moment he's in the song. and that's concerning me. i'd rather not even take off the headphones for the concern that he's not in the song. i think he is though. i'll have to confirm later. or if anyone here could confirm the demon computer, please do. how did i not remember that? wtf? i've opened my eyes and i see i am 7:30 in now... so demon computer must have happened at about 6:30.. i think. lasers everywhere. this is a strange song it feels like there's a cowboy. i mean all of the vocals are just some fucking cowboy - riding around on some ridiculous horse. he is now celebrating and doing his lasso all over the place. it's sort of like midnite bowling right now. just a bit of a ridiculous celebration. i'm not sure what i'm celebrating though. perhaps escape from the demon computer? it all fades away. only a dream... laying on the lawn.. out in a field.. i'm not sure. but its a pretty day. 8 marijuana leaves.

#9 i think I'm only going to do one more song and i've decided to go all the way with it. the track that probably scared me more than any other track ever while i've been under the influence of psychedelics - track 7 from Pink Floyd's first album (with syd barrett) "interstellar overdrive" - that first album is a must own if you love psychedelic music imo - PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN.

alright... here we go:

as soon as i hear that riff i think "oh shit", actually i think i said it out loud. wide seperation... crazy guitar on th eleft... drums in the right. bass also in the right, there doesnt seem to be anything in the middle. its like both sides of my ears are fighting against each other. ok... somehow we have made our way out into outerspace.. really hard to tell how we got here though. now i see a peacock. the peaccock has dturned into a spiral... we are floating in space... im not sure who we are.. um... but there light bubbles of light.. everything i s spinning... im now in the ocean down on earth... again with the spirals.. everything is turning in on itself.. im getting a little scared so i popped a peak with my eyes, and im amazed to find its only 2 minutes into the song... ... i close again, i know i hae much longer to go... theres now some sort of metal chicken pecking at my ear. if you have heard thi sosng you know this metal chicken well. feet... and brooms... something near my feet. bugs.. oh man. bugs. bad. no bugs thanks.. hmm.. NO BUGS> shit. bugs. bugs everywhre. fucking bugs ok i had to open up my eyes. i saw something on the right when i opened.. ok just hit 4 minutes.. closing again. seem to be back of earth now... floating in vast .. ness. but with lights... of various color.. no white.. white white. white lights.. sort of like space ooddysy 2001 now... with the lights on both side.... i can seem y own eyeballs.. ok.. i had to open up again when that happened. sorry but this one takes me to dangerous bits of me ol' weird head. i just remembered a scene from a movie i saw 12 years ago. i think this shit is actually tearing into my brain and digging into my very memory ... somehow actually wedging itself in my brain. im not sure really what to do about it. i thikit actually makes those decisions for me now. armadilo. balack and red... dice.. everything is black and red... interweaving... back and forth... nothing but black and red objects.. geometric shapes interlocking... ... we some of our old friends aproaching.. adn then floating back away... we're not sure if they are coming or going.. whether we are coming to going ... woah... just was in a the .. the country.. like.. out in the country when suddenly everything just froze in place and then fell away from me. sort of like everything is going in reverse now and everything is being sucked away. i feel the return of the big riff now... its building up... this panning freakout at the end is almost like its trying to erase our minds so we dont go back and tell anyone else about what we saw. but there's little bits still there... that leak through to our every day normal ... or.. whatever it is... lives.

10 marijuana leaves.

the next round of HIGH AS BISCUITS MP3 REVIEWS!

2005-11-03T03:26:00.000-05:00

High as Biscuits review session #2. And the first with my new christend alter-alter identity Magic Goblit. er GOBLIN.

My first song is going to be something off of Jonny Greenwood's solo album "BodySong" --- I know I have mentioned this album earlier as I'm a big fan of it. Mad Scientest Music of the highest order. Unique... Sounds like the future and charmingly classic at the same time. Now which track to play, I'm not sure - it's really an album to hear as a whole. I'm currently listening to track #10 which is very beautiful - but it just ended and was not a selection. Plus I need to take another hit first I think, although I'm definitly heading towards jupiter.

Yeah, I'm now blitzed. Good. On to the music then.

(oh also beautiful voting Denver, CO! keep the dream alive!)

#1 "clockwork tin soldiers" -

gingerbread metalic dog with very shiny boots, a tail somewhat phalice like.... everything is gone. a spiral. tiolet paper. just roll after roll of toilet paper. You may know this part as the part where everything is sort of wobbling up and down... woah, this part is very strange sort of like driplets .. er metab cant talk now no, now because tehres a very dangerous metallic beast walking at me.. with bright yellow sharp points of interface. ahhhh space echo. for a moment i realize i am n new york. oops. i have said too much. the magic goblin ? is a weird individual . no, i b but you have to understandin. oh... there's a baby with flourccent wings.. human baby .. with a dog watching.. and the baby is cralwing up teh tree and he doesnt want to see anything horrible. its a beautl day sort of but.. everying is bright white now with th eorange sun. the baby is crawling into the sun now. , i think its clear , er. well this song really goes many different places - it felt more like a journey wwith 3 or 4 different distinct stop off points. extremely trippy almost to the point of where i was actually scared .. either of the metallic beasts or of losing my sanity - not sure which. 9 marijauna leaves. you should get high and listen to this, and see if the beasts come for you.

(now to talk a little bit about my listening area, I use headphones for this... for one because its late and i want to lisen loudly, for another i find it to be the most intense all surrounding way to listen to music. really helps put me into another world. i am typing most of this with my eyes closed - really getting visuals from the music and reporting back what kind of things the music lets me see and where it takes me.) i do sometimes open my eyes during the song and this i am typing with my eyes open as i try and think about which song will be next.)

#2 The Beatles "I Want You (she's so heavy)" - I'm not quite sure why I picked this song, maybe it picked me. Track #6 on Abbey Road, which I'm hoping you already own! If not you should be clicking on The Beatles and ordering all of their music. Now.

mmm delicious bass. mmcarrtney is a motherfucker on the bass. i am loving the sound on this track. so warm and fat. subtle panning on the drums.... i dont know if i've ever noticed that before. she's so heavy indeed. the she's so heavy part has a lot of colors involved. oh wow. i knew this jazzy bit would come... but it's still amazing me. it's like some sort of spacy ballrom dance. just fancy as hell motherfuckers dancing around the dance floor .. and a huge thing.. there in th emiddle dancing..oh nice organ, when that comes in its like something from somewhere else just coming in and poking the song. the organ is killer on this. It's really beautiful on these Beatles songs the way you can pick out any art of the song and be amazed by that alone. and then when it comes to them all working together.. they are the tits man. yes. the basss. FUCK. i mean sjesus, have you heard this song? this is incredible. oh wow... the way he goes.. "she'so..." and instead of the song exploding like you thing it goes into some sort of fucking warped ass tunnel... JESUS , my arms are tingling right now. like it feels like my skin is catchign on fire and my bones are rattling. ok i am getting myself together a little bit... i'm still hearing the echoes of "heavy heavy" in my head even though the song is being ascended upon by many grey clouds. you can really feel the song getting sucked up into this machine. its like a giant vacuum cleaner trying to suck the song up into it. and ossibly me too? ... er. shit. um. yeah so uh. .. i have to open my eyes now because i was worried it was going to suck me alive.. and now i might have to take off my headphones cuz i am freaking out and it hink its trying to suck my face off. like maybe suck my brain out of my head oh shit... ooo. ok, i might have gotten a little too high. i'm very paranoid right now. i'm going to settle down for a second and see if i can add more to this in a bit. this isn't over - just on on

Could It Be Time For Something Extra Exciting?

2005-11-03T01:46:00.000-05:00

Check Back Soon For A Possible Extra Biscuit Machine. That's Right - We May Be Doing Story Time With The High Magician!

also, please use this search box (or the one on the top left) to search for music on amazon ! support your most luvable music reviewer! MagicGoblin/ Captain Music.!

oh yeah, I'm now calling myself Magic Goblin. Well that's my alter identity. my younger identity which is the true truth is Captain Music. he lives over THERE! (i'll tell you more about him when it's time.)

Another New FEATURE! (MST3000 for songs)

2005-10-30T06:16:00.000-05:00

I've had another wonderful idea for a new feature. I'm trying to spice things up here at mp3 reviews.

This new idea is going to be spoken song reviews which will be playable from this site! and ... the commentary will be running - length of the song. In otherwords if you had the software you could play my commentary track along with the song and you'd be hearing the commentaries about those parts at that time. I would like to actually do it where the song was on in the backround sort of so you could hear what I am commenting about - I've thought about doing this but decided against it just as not to draw any attention to myself from the RIAA. BUT I am going to take submissions by indie bands/artists who are willing to have their song commented on with the original song in the mp3. Now of course you would retain all rights for the original song - all you'd be doing is giving me the right to place it on the site with me commenting overtop. But if it gets a bad review you can't ask me to take it down. Ya dig what I'm saying? By submitting your song for review you are agreeing with these conditions.

Submit to this thread or send an email to CaptainOfMusic@GMail.com

New Feaure : High As Hell Reviews.

2005-10-29T04:09:00.000-04:00

This New Feature Of MP3 Reviews Is Where I Get High As Hell By Smoking Marijuana And Then Make A Review Of An MP3 While I Listen - In Sort Of Stream Of Consciousness Style - Perhaps Even Becoming Sort Of Like A Story At Times. But I Guess We'll See. Not Too Many Rules On This One, Alright Buddies?

#1 Aphex Twin - "Meltphace 6" which is on track #5 on CD 2 of the two disc album DRUKQS from 2001. It is 6 minutes and 24 seconds long. I have not listened to this album in awhile so this'll be a pretty fresh hearing of this track.

first of all. i just closed my eyes and i have to say i'm prety damn high. getting actual visuals closed eye now. like light AMT (ALF) even. very nice. There is a lot going on in this track. Or atleast there seems to be. All the sounds are very clean and everything is spaced in a way in that I can hear each sound seperately. This song really surprises me around 2:20... as it gets very quiet and spaced out sounding... I for one couldnt believe only that much time had passed. it seemed like a lot more had happened. Things to get going again though pretty quickly. At around 3:30 I'm starting to hear some voices... some of the drums seem to be turning into voices and there's also some delayed vocals on top... Highly visual music its really beautiful when I close my eyes - but it sort of takes me out of it, this whole typing thing. But man, it's for science. And no, I actually haven't been high for any of the earlier reviews. I don't get high that often. Although maybe that should change. Marijauna and some nice stuff isn't it? Actually that leads me to something, which got me completely offtracked from listening to the song but this site has some interesting stuff at it (obviously just for TABACCO USE. I would never recommend illegal drug use to anyone.) /end paranoid legal stuff (man you can really tell how high i am, baby!) no but no kidding. NONE OF THESE ITEMS ARE INTENDED FOR ILLEGAL USE, EVER. EVER!!! check it out. um... yeah so the song was quite cool actually - but I did become distracted there at the end. but it was very visually evocative. It receives an 8 out of 10 for high value. If you are high right now maybe you would enjoy listening to :

#2 Radiohead - "where i end and you begin" - track 6 from 2003's HAIL TO THE THIEF.

oh the song has formed a tunnel in my mind about halfway through... gold bits floating in ciruclar motions. here comes the big guitar riff. grennwood's solo here before it goes nuts.. yeah i know... and there X marks the place.. there is now some white bright light at the top of a mountain with a ridiculously orange sun... eye ballss in the sky now. eye balls circling in the sky. there are a lot of circles in this song. i know my typing is getting a litttle slppy now. i am typing with my eyes closed really trying to report from the inside of the spaceship. its much more of a journey with my eyes closed. oh and yes i am listening on headphones. This seems to be mostly a n aerial view of some beautiful mojuntains... in reality its a pretty sort of scary song but this time its takin gme on a mostly sort of beautiful trip... maybe theres just something inherenitnly beuaitful in the song. ok now the song is over... and i'm wondering - should i correct all of those errors to make it more ... readable? but i figure no for 2 reasons, for one it would sort of be like a bit too 1984 you know. changing the facts and whatnot. ok now that may be stretching things a bit far. a ludicrous comarison if i've ever heard one. but er.. also for #2 i'm too ... just not in the right head to go about correcting a bunch of shit I just wrote... and basically fuck it. yeah i know that shit is all a bit off. ok who am i defending myself to? the bastards who come here and leave comment spam? how about I get some real comments on this motherfucker? i'm spreading the gospel of beautiful tunes.

7 pot leafs for this one. if you are high you may want to check out radiohead's 6th album hail to the thief.

#3 The Olivia Tremor Control - "The Sylvan Screen" track 18 from 1999's BLACK FOLIAGE. This song is just over 6:07 long. awhat the hell is going on... i think its been over a minute now... its like.. just weird things craawling through my head.. maybe a toy train sort of thing... ok now a guitar starts... theres a dwarf off iin the distance. maybe a grey flannel dwarf. just a smile now. holy shit. thats all i have to say. ok um. maybe i should say more. you probably odont dunderstand at this point. ok but now imam driving very quickly down the high way .. so much so everything i sa blur... just m illions of trees going by my head now. every color you've ever seen. maybe into the ocean now. oh but we are flying out of the water now like a giant monster splashing the water was we run towards the shore. a greyish squirrel monkey ais at my feet. sort of like a pig but taller and with a brown tail. no one here is a sugar coated pepper corn freak tomato. now you are just being ridiculous. i Remembered I am listening to a song now. there are some ailens attacking. alieans attackin a 4 string quartert.. but um.. now i think things have gone wrong. holy shit how does that go back into the song. BALLS. what the hell is going on in here. things aare kind of happy again. oh... thats a strange effect.. its like the sky is filling my head. my head is now expanding.. getting blown up like a blaoon. there are now very scary people inside of my head, HOLY FUCK FUCKING FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK YOU!!!!!!! SHIT. its still the song. oh my lord. fuck. um... yeah that was fucked up.

10 motherfucking pot leafs.

if you are high - you should be listening to this album right now.

#4 Syd Barrett - "Octopus" 7th track from his THE MADCAP LAUGHS album from 1970. Syd of course was the originator of the Pink Floyd and the force behind their first album. Barrett's the only thing I could think of to follow that OTC track.

things ar estrangely off balance currently. now sort of a siral beiing formed but it juust got torn apat and is now coming back the other way. some purple geometric shapes. trip to heave and ho. to and frow. close our eyes to the octopus ride. woah. ok. the lyrics seem to be keeping me in the world of the song a bit - which is cool it's groovy song. with some rather strange lyrics is groovy potatoes. that english it was not. i kind of dig how the song sort of loses time there a couple of times on the way out. very sloppy. good fun.

I enjoyed this song but it didnt blow my head off like the last one. but you know, its not like these things are in a vacuum - it probably has more to do with my mood at the moment and how high i am how much i get into the song as much as the song itself. that being said while syd is a very trippy dude and this is aa great song. the song is a bit basic in instrumentation and while it has a few little weird sections it doesnt just blow your mind with arrangement. its more of a song song than a sonic brainblower which the last few especially the aphex twin and OTC have had in their benefit. at the moment... if i was high i might listen to this - it depends on the mood and what you are going for - sometimes you dont want to trip like a madman - sometimes you just wanna sit back and listen to some music. or maybe you wanna hear some wild lyrics and go on a story that way rather than on the sonic edge. what? what i'm saying is i give this song only 6.5 marijuana leaves but thats still a lovely score and its a great song!

#5. The Pink Floyd - "The Scarecrow" track #10 from 1967's Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (featuring of course Barrett on vocals and guitars and writing the songs.) ... Now those of you who've only heard later Pink Floyd - this will be a totally different sound to you. Different lead singer, different guitar player ... much of the later Pink Floyd sound is based on Syd and... many of their lyrics are written about him. Google Syd Barrett if you don't know the story. Syd is a fascinating person and he was an amazing songwriter. Anyways on to the song... This one is only 2 minutes 10 seconds long... where we go. im not sure that was on urpose but that was some weird shit. some of the stranger percussion you'll hear on a any song. rather strange instrumentation in general. i quite like the ending. just a really unique neat little track. sort of like opening up a door to another world and just getting a glimpse of it. 8 marijuana leafs. and it should be noted that there's another track on this album #7 Interstellar Overdrive that I am not going to listen to now because I'm too scared to. This album is a must check out if you plan on getting high in the future my good friends.

ok that's it for now. i may decide to add more later. depending on how i'm feeling.

doubtful though, actually. enjoy what you've got! not every day someone does a service like this for his fellow man.

Quick Tuesday Night Reviews #1

2005-10-25T21:14:00.000-04:00

A new feature here at MP3-Reviews.blogspot.com --- Quick Tuesday Night Reviews. These will be short (usually 1 or 2 sentence reviews) of a rather completely random selection of songs.

#1 The Minus 5 - "Dear My Inspiration" --- From 2004's IN ROCK. This song clocks in at barely over 2 minutes and has a feeling very much like an updated & amped up 60s pop rock single. To me that's a pretty cool thing. The song has a pretty smart little outro which includes some interesting organ lines. The vocals actually remind me a slight bit of Green Day, although I'm not entirely sure why. Worth checking out if you like poppy retro rock. The Minus 5 is known for their work with Wilco.

#2 The Beach Boys - "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" - From 1966's classic PET SOUNDS. Pet Sounds is really an album that should be listened to in order and in it's entirity. But this is random tuesday and this is how things have worked out. Just the sort of thing that happens here at Quick Tuesday Night Reviews. Of particular note on this hearing of this classic track is the bass of course played by Brian Wilson. Like pretty much all of the songs on Pet Sounds the song has a very intricate arrangement - all compressed into 3 minutes. Brian Wilson showing how you can make an epic song in 3 minutes as per usual. Really if you haven't heard Pet Sounds you need to remedy this as soon as possible - it's a classic for a reason, just some of the most stunningly beautiful music I've ever heard.

#3 Dungen - "Panda" - From 2004's TA DET LUGNT. This is one of my favorite tracks from an awesome album. Sounds straight out of 1971 but not in a try-hard way. It's all very natural. The lyrics are all in swedish as the band is from Sweden. The song is both rocking (in some major ass kicking ways) and spacy psychedelicia alternatingly and somehow sometimes at the same time. Killer riffs, pounding drums. Just great classic rock being made in the 21st century in Sweden. Wild Times.

#4 The Smashing Pumpkins "Galapogos" - From 1995's MELLON COLLIE... disc 1. While I find the album as a whole quite a bit too much to take in the last few times I've tried to listen to it. I am quite enjoying this track at the moment. Very sweet & gentle - like floating down the river. Hard to believe this album is 10 years old now. In fact it was released October 24th, 1995, so it's almost 10 years to the day. The Smashing Pumpkins have been a band that have become a bit cool to dismiss (amongst the indie crowd) but they did some beautiful stuff and this is quite a nice track.

#5 The Beatles "Obladi Oblada" - This version was taken from ANTHOLOGY 3. Anthology 3 was my favorite of the 3 and still is. While Anthology 2 may have covered The Beatles most prolificly creative period Anthology 3 was the most interesting to me because of the fact that there are more tracks that were not released by the Beatles officially like "What's The New Mary Jane?", "Not Guilty", and "All Things Must Pass" and that many of the versions well known songs (like this one) were significantly different (not just very mildly different as many of the Anthology 2 tracks were) ... while the tracks that really do it for me on this set are the very very different "Helter Skelter" (thick and plodding and rather nothing much like the white album version) and the acoustic versions of "Something" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"... If you are a huge Beatles fan but have yet to hear any of the Anthologies - Anthology 3 would be my recommendation on where to start. Then #2 and then lastly if you are a completist and enjoy the early Beatles period get #1. These are in chronological order. If for some reason you are not a huge Beatles fan, what's wrong with you? But don't start with the Anthologies - Get the original albums first.

Bob Dylan - "Mississippi"

2005-10-18T23:55:00.000-04:00

This is the second track off of Dylan's 2001 album love & theft and it's one of my favorite tracks on an excellent album. His older strained voice seems to fit the mood of the song perfectly. It's a wistful and thoughtful rather than desperate and sad. The music glides along reminding me a slight bit of the Travelling Wilbury's. It's Dylan's voice and lyrics that really sell the song though. I love the line "the only thing i've done wrong is stay in mississippi way too long." Just sounds beautiful the way he sings that line.

9/10

Check out the album if you are a Dylan fan and haven't heard it yet. If you don't know Dylan's work yet use the Amazon search box on the left to search for Bob Dylan and buy some albums like "highway 61 revisited", "blonde on blonde", and "blood on the tracks" today.

I particularly recommend

The Olivia Tremor Control

2005-10-16T02:05:00.000-04:00

This is not a single review but a general review of this band. I just looked on last.fm's audioscrobbler and found that The Olivia Tremor Control had only been played by just over 8,000 people. Compared to (for example) Coldplay's 163,000 and it just goes to show how incredibly underrated they are. They made some of the absolute best music of the 90s in my opinion and anyone who is into psychedelic original indie rock music should check them out. Heavily influenced by the beach boys and the beatles but with a very original and unique feel to them, Olivia Tremor Control's albums are among the most interesting & catchy I've ever heard. Start with DUSK AT CUBIST CASTLE. then get BLACK FOLIAGE. then finish off with a nice helping of SINGLES & BEYOND which is not an album but a collection of singles and rarities and has some excellent material.

Animal Collective - "College"

2005-10-16T01:33:00.000-04:00

From Animal Collective's 2004 album Sung Tongs

This is Track #8 and is only 53 seconds long. A strange choice to choose to review - but I found it a startling track when I was listening to it last night and so today I thought it'd be a good one to choose. It's like some sort of combination of The Beach Boys with ? There is no instrumentation on the track other than many layered voices... there is a very evocative (of what though?) sound ... and when I say sound that's the best way I can describe it really. I think it really depends on where your mind is at the time what you think it is... it sounds possibly like some sort of horrible monster slurping something up.

The lyrics : "you don't have to go to college."

8/10 - Possibly deserves a 10/10 just for being so interesting. Definitly worth a listen as is the album.

I'm back

2005-10-16T01:26:00.000-04:00

I know I've been gone for quite some time but I hope to get back into the song reviewing game now. It must have been that last song by Scumbo that destroyed my mind. but I have got it back together now. Be on the lookout for more reviews soon.

Scumbo - Mercury Son

2005-06-04T12:13:00.000-04:00

"Mercury Son" by Scumbo is an excellent psychedelic pop song. There are some exceedingly strange sounds and twists and turns. Very spacy verses with flourishes of backwards guitar and what sounds like a radio being tuned in & out. This breaks for a very catchy pop chorus. The Vocals are great throughout. There's a cool little break about 3:30 into the song which leads back into the final chorus - My favorite part of the track. One of coolest songs I've heard recently. Very catchy and also very unique sounding. If you haven't heard Scumbo before then you should check them out.

10/10

10 Great Psychedelic Albums.

2005-04-15T01:57:00.000-04:00

So I here some of the kids like the psychedelic music. Let's talk a bit about that today, why don't we?

Here are 10 psychedelic albums that I have enjoyed in that manner. Please enjoy.

*special note - "psychedelic" means different things to different people. Some music some people call psychedelic I just think is mostly boring - and a lot of the music I call psychedelic people will be like "oh that's just rock music that can't be psychedelic" or some such thing. But they probably haven't done enough good drugs. And for all of the crazy different things I've heard - I still kind of think The Beatles are the most psychedelic band I've ever heard - it's important to be good - whether you're eating drugs or not. Ya dig? Anyways my loose definition of psychedelic is music that stimulates your brains a bit and maybe makes you think "hmm... wait a minute? maybe i'm not a chipmunk at all! maybe i'm actually susie jones, mistress of the endearing king of the marble people Laudner M. Dellbottoms"

***no particular order - just 10 very groovalicious psychedelic albums***

and Yes I realize I've just completely changed all of my initial formats and whatnot. I'll get back to that. what are you a cop? This is what's happening now. deal with it. I know it's going to be hard. There's therapy. Drugs. for this t y p e of thing. Also - in case you didn't know. where is that guy?

also its like when 94.9 turned country except without as much suck I hope.

1. Primal Scream - Screamadelica 1991. glorious mix of dance & rock music. "Higher Than The Sun" and "Step Inside This House" being two immediate favorites but in some ways the album really hits it's peak with the more tripped out stuff like "I'm Coming Down" and "Higher Than The Sun (Dub Symphony In Two Parts)"

2. Jonny Greenwood - Bodysong 2004. Radiohead's lead guitarist's first solo album. This album is very very very far out there. Like no other album I've heard. mad scientist music to the 9th degree HUH? This album combines strange atmospheric strings & pianos with even stranger electronics and studio manipulations. This album is so psychedelic that I can listen to it while completely sober and begin to hallucinate. It's like a journey way far off or way deep inside. Stunningly intense music once you are able to wrap your head around it (which may take a very long time.) I'm just now starting to get the beauty of the album at first just blown away by the insanity of it.

3. Frank Zappa - Uncle Meat 1969. This double album may be my favorite Frank Zappa album. The first disc I especially like, although disc 2 is great too - I've always liked Zappa's songs more than the jamming - (although if anyone can get me into jam type stuff it'd be Zappa, he was one sick bastard of a guitar player.) Favorites include track 9 from Disc 1 - "Sleeping in a Jar" , track 12 "Electric Aunt Jemima", and track 22 "Cruisin' For Burgers." Disc 2 is a song called "King Kong" broke into 7 parts. If you really want to blast off into interstellar biz this may be the disc for you. Actually listening to the album now I may have to reconsider what I said before. Disc 2 may just be more sick than disc 1.

4. Ludwig Van Beethoven - Symphonies 1 through 9 1800(#1)-1824(#9). yo, check out those phat beats. Seriously listening to Beethoven (and other great classical music) can be some of the most psychedelic biz in the world. The complex beauty of the music is so completely engrossing if you are able to let yourself go into that world you may see many diagrams and glimpses of the future. One beautiful thought is to think of how you are listening to the imagination of a man from another time... I like to think about how his mind lives on now... 200 years later through the timeless beauty of his music.

5. The Beatles - Sgt Pepper 1967. Sure an obvious choice but sometimes choices are obvious for a reason, this is one of those times. I do not want to hear about how this album is overrated. You are a dick. Listen to the music. Suggested mp3s to check out if for some reason you don't already own this album "A Day In The Life", "Fixing A Hole", "Getting Better", and for something completely different "Within You Without You"

6. Pink Floyd - Piper At The Gates Of Dawn 1967. Syd Barrett is the man. Listen to "Interstellar Overdrive", "Flaming", and "Bike." then buy the album by clicking on that underlined blue Piper At The Gates Of Dawn above, thank you. This album, maybe more than any other in the history of man, captures madcap psychedelic to perfection.

7. Spiritualized - Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space 1997. Holy God do I love this album? Yes. This one is timeless to me. I've been listening to it since it came out and it's still just as amazing. Sounds that pulsate. Noise thate inspires. Beauty that transcends. Eat this album daily till your head expands 10 times it's normal size. Suggested songs to check out you are not yet convinced to buy this album - "I think I'm In Love", "All of my thoughts", and the title track.

8. Olivia Tremor Control - Dusk At Cubist Castle 1996. I just recently discovered Olivia Tremor Control. They make me want to get back into eating loads of drugs. Damn these guys are good. The amount of sonic treasures packed into their songs is unbelievable. And they manage to mix in pure sonic insanity with some beautiful Beatlesesque melodies. 27 Tracks in all, 10 of them named "Green Tyepwriters." Some suggested tracks are "No Growing" & "Holiday Surprise."

9. Radiohead - Kid A 2000. I was trippin' balls when I first heard this album. It's been almost 5 years since then, but my brain is still recovering. Check out "The National Anthem", "How To Dissapear Completely" and "Idioteque."

10. The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka 1997. Zaireeka is the Flaming Lips very experimental album which includes four different CDs which are all to be played simultaneously. You can find versions of the songs mixed together on the 'net but to get the full experience you have to track down 4 CD players or find (or make your own like I did) a DVD 5.1 version of it. Listening to a "Machine In India" when it goes into the noisy section spaced out from 4 different sound sources made my floor melt right away. No use for the floor when something like that is happening.

Speaking of Zaireeka and 5.1 mixing (The Flaming Lips have released Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots in 5.1) this is one of the more exciting (and very psychedelic) recent advances in the world of hi-fi music listening. More and more bands are releasing albums in 5.1 --- if you are interested in getting a system for playing back 5.1 audio DVDs (also great for playing movies for that home theater effect of course.) Check This Out -> Sony 5.1 System.

Oh and if you don't get what 5.1 is - it means that the music has been mixed so that it's coming out of 5 different speakers - right front & left front, center, right back & left back - along with a subwoofer (the .1) - true surround sound music. I think it's especially great for very densely mixed or atmospheric music (both things which i associate closely to the term psychedelic) - if an album has an enormous amount of parts where it feels difficult to hear them all at once - 5.1 versions really allow the sound to open up.

Things have changed

2005-04-15T01:42:00.000-04:00

Today is the new day. Tax Day in America. Let's talk about that for a bit. Let's talk about the end of the biscuit the begging macdonald. Some may write words because they know how they are spelled, others may write words that they can read, if we were to do neither we could create a way of understanding without communication.

Let's have some song recommendations.

1. Grandaddy - "Final Push To The Sum" - Sumday -------- the last track on Sumday. Beautiful, understated song with some cool surprising instrumental flourishes. what have i become?

2. Neutral Milk Hotel - "Oh Comely" - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea ------ this is the track that made me further inspect this album which I had heard a couple of times before it started to sink in (it's often like that with the great ones isn't it?) --- This album is now one of my favorite albums of all time.

3. The Beatles - "Paperback Writer" - There's a few CDs to get this off, it was a single so not included on any album. But this be a collection of biz, yo. -------- frere jacques.

The Mars Volta - "Pisacis"

2005-04-15T01:25:00.000-04:00

The Mars Volta is like no other band around today. Their progressive psychedelic heavy rock sound takes one on a trip to another world. I'm still getting my head around their new album - Frances The Mute but this song "Pisacis" is one that jumps out at me early on. An instrumental with absolutely otherworldly mood, Pisacis is like being dropped in the middle of space. Beautiful guitars which sometimes turn absolutely spooky and possibly scary at times.

what the fuck. this song isn't even on the album. what is happening. stop reading and go back to what you were doing. you have entered another dimension.

Stevie Wonder - "What's The Fuss"

2005-04-15T01:15:00.000-04:00

I heard this the other day on the R&B station at work. I thought maybe it was a track from the 70s I hadn't heard before. Then I learned it was a new song. I was very impressed by that because of the energy and how great Stevie's voice sounded. I had to get the song at home to hear it some more - on repeated listens it's a great song (don't get the stupid rap versions, make sure you get the original one)

The synth line is deep squelchy and funky. Real funky. How come this nearly 60 year old man is more funky than any one in R&B today? Shame on them.

WHAT THE FUUUUU... SS.

9/10

The album that this new song is off of "A Time To Love" is to be released on May 3 but you can preorder the album Here.

Beck - "Earthquake Weather"

2005-04-15T01:03:00.000-04:00

Off of Beck's excellent new album Guero

"Earthquake Weather" has been my favorite track off the new album so far. The chorus is quite beautiful, the soundscape is wild, the beats be hot. And there's some fantastic breakdowns. Screw PitchForkMedia and such other dispensers of "hip" points. For lovers of music - this should do the trick.

"i push, i pull, the days go slow, into a void..."

the song has a slightly eastern feel, yet is very funky as well. the amount of things going on sonically is almost overwhelming. the song works both as a funky dancefloor # and as a headphones headtrip.

great track. classic beck. get the album if you haven't yet.
9/10

also available in surround sound DVD.

Pumpkin Buzzard - "Caring Gun"

2005-04-14T23:26:00.000-04:00

This is one song from an album that was apparently recorded in a day. Obviously this is going to cause some sparseness to the recording - while this can be a positive thing with straight ahead rock or acoustic type tracks I'm not sure it's a positive with something like this (more electronic in nature) This song features the bass as lead instrument in front of some somewhat awkward sounding drum machine work. At 1:15ish things change a bit when guitar comes in. Then some sort of rapping type vocals come in. It's pretty funky during this time. I like the bass and the heavy piano chords.

Reminds me of early Ween.

Overall the song has some cool elements but it seems to be a bit lacking in fleshing out and I don't think I'm saying this just because I know of the rush job on the recording. It just feels like there could be more to it and that it could be a bit tighter.

Decent. 5/10

You can download this song and hear for yourself HERE

Blur - "Caravan"

2005-04-02T18:01:00.000-05:00

Track #7 from Blur's excellent 2003 album Think Tank. My favorite Blur album to date. Don't mind that 2 star AllMusic.Com review.

As with the rest of the songs on this album "Caravan" excels in atmosphere and mood. Heavy bass and interesting electronic drums power the song along with a dirty distorted guitar riff. The song feels deep and moody as it moves along. Damon Albarn's voice sounds excellent. "And it when it comes, you'll feel the weight of it, the weight of it."

Enchanting when the "la la la la la" comes in with deep otherwordly keys.

There are some strangely distorted vocal parts in the background. There's a lot of different parts moving underneath the surface on this song - but each is quite clear in the mix.

7/10

Unsigned Band Song Reviews?

2005-04-02T10:20:00.000-05:00

Still looking for any submissions from some unsigned bands looking for some reviews?

No guarnatees of a review and definitly no guarantee of a positive review. still worth a shot, right kids?

also taking requests.

Ween - "Back To Basom"

2005-04-02T10:05:00.000-05:00

A lot of people have the wrong idea about Ween. They think they are just a "joke" band or some such nonsense. Ween is one of the best, most original, and most inventive rock bands in the world. And while they can put out a "joke" song from time to time most of their stuff is just plain brilliant and what in some of their songs people may see as a joke - I see as absurdity.

This particular song "Back To Basom" is one of the many great tracks from 2000's White Pepper (a bit of a nod to The Beatles The White Album & Sgt Pepper)

Back To Basom is a bit of an outerspace pop song something like David Bowie's Space Oddity. It has some really wild synth breakdowns and shifting moods. Like most Ween songs there are some really absurd twisted lyrics and a really awesome and at time swirling soundscape which keeps the song indefinitly interesting to listen to and a real trip as the kids may say.

I'm not really sure what this song is about - but I think it's about some sort of space traveller who wants to return to Basom. Whatever that is. Anyways - that doesn't really matter. Just get a bit loaded and listen to this album. Highly recommended.

8.5/10

Wilco - "Ashes Of American Flags"

2005-04-02T09:48:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite tracks on one of my favorite albums of this century - Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

"All my lies were only wishes, I know I would die if I could come back new."

The song subtly shifts textures - at times nothing but some strange warbling sounds and the vocals - at other times sturdy acoustic guitar strumming. Always the mood feels just right for the words & melody it is supporting.

Some electric guitar riffs that sound like they are coming from across the sea. Some radios going in out of tune across the street. Beautiful sonic textures surrounding a beautiful song.

The song eventually melts into complete chaos before going into the next track.

If you haven't heard Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - then get to it. My favorite Wilco album and I believe to be one of the essential albums of this decade so far.

9/10

More Mitch Hedberg

2005-04-02T09:45:00.000-05:00

Here are a few of his comedy albums

Strategic Gill Locations

Mitch All Together (this one comes with a DVD as well)

really great stuff. seriously the funniest guy since Bill Hicks.

I'm still a bit shocked by his death as I was just going to see him a couple of weeks ago here in NYC. I mean with all of this hub bub about a brain dead woman dying after 15 years in a vegetable state and about an 85 year old Pope dying... well it just seems so much sadder to me that this 37 year old man on the top of his game got snuffed out too soon.

back to your regularly scheduled mp3 reviews.

RIP Mitch Hedberg

2005-04-02T09:24:00.000-05:00

This message is for Mitch Hedberg who was one of my favorite comics. He died at age 37 on March 30th of this year. The details of why he died at such a young age are a bit fuzzy as of now. So I don't want to speculate on that... It's enough to say that it's very sad.

If you've never heard his comedy before - do a search for him on the mp3 file sharing networks (like as advertised on this page) because he was truly hilarious.

Link to Comedy Central's Mitch Hedberg Page.

Primal Scream - "Keep Your Dreams"

2005-04-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

I wanted to review a song from Primal Scream's 2000 masterpiece XTRMNTR but with almost every track being a stand out it's hard to choose just one. I decided to with this one, track #7, "Keep Your Dreams" as it does stand out from the others as being the only laid back really pretty song on the album. While I love this song my favorites on the album are probably the insane jazz tinged tracks like #6 "Blood Money."

The mood is set with tinkling keys and somewhat underwater sounding noises and understated electronic drums. Over a minute in the vocals arrive lighter than air. "I believe that syphillis can burn your soul away" ... later "time will turn your bones to dust" ... all with an inssistant fast bassline underpinning the track. Not your average ballad - something much more interesting. Otherworldly and psychedelic while still sweet & pretty.

At just past 2 minutes in the first instrumental breakdown with some very nice sampled strings and some strange sounds (very Primal Scream) helping to create a feeling something like floating, maybe like falling.

"keep your dreams, don't sell your soul." I see this song as sort of being the heart of a very abrassive in your face album. The other songs will rip your face off - this one is there to show you sort of what it's all bout.

The song ends with the refrain "I'm going down to the underground" with some nice harmonies on "As Deep As I Can Go" --- I think this is about keeping your own dreams (as the song is titled "Keep Your Dreams" and not 'selling out' to fit in with others. For Primal Scream it seems their dreams are indeed in the underground.

Great song on an excellent album. This band is so incredibly underrated it's hard for me to understand why more people just don't get it.

8/10

The Killers "Smile Like You Mean It"

2005-04-02T08:53:00.000-05:00

From The Killers album Hot Fuss.

A part of the very unfortunate 80s revival. It seems most of the people buying into this aren't old enough to remember how shit the 80s were the first time around. Is there really need for a revival of the 80s?

Synths used in a very new wave 80s sort of way. The drum sound is quite crap. I have to say I think this song is complete garbage.

1/10

Brian Wilson - "Surfs Up"

2005-04-02T08:34:00.000-05:00

From the long lost album Smile released in 2004 after originally being set for release in 1967 as a a Beach Boys album. Smile became the most famous unreleased album in history so Brian Wilson's re-recording of it (all new recordings) with a new band as a much older man was highly anticipated. Most reviewers agree (as do I) that it was very succesffully done.

"Surfs Up" may be my favorite track (#10) from the album. This is an album where it's best listened to in order and where each song flows into the next, so a review of a single song may not quite be fitting for a song from this album. But maybe it's all the more reason to do so - sometimes the greatness of individual tracks can be overlooked when an album is taken as a concept.

As with most of the songs on this album the song features absolutely stunningly beautiful harmonies. Among my favorite moments is the "are you sleeping brother john?" part. After which the song changes moods. With about one minute left the a bit from another song "Child Is The Father Of The Man" is entered (as with most of the songs on the album, there are interplays from other songs) - this to me is the real highlight of this song. Just layers upon layers of beautiful vocal parts. When laying down - one could almost float off the ground - while listening to this music.

Truly beautiful music. A feeling of timelessness is conveyed. I must recommend Brian Wilson's Smile to any real music lovers out there to hear "Surfs Up" and the other 16 great tracks. Maybe the album of the year for 2004.

9.5/10

Oasis - "Lyla"

2005-03-31T01:01:00.000-05:00

This is Oasis' upcoming single off of their upcoming album "Don't Believe The Truth"

It's not going to be officially on the radio till next week but the track was played on some radio somewhere and it was recorded by somebody and then somehow I heard it. The sound quality isn't perfect due to the way it was recorded - but not too bad.

The song the starts off with an insistant beat and rhythem and a bit of melody taken from The Rolling Stones "Street Fighting Man" ...

The Chorus comes in with "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeey LY-LA" this bit is very catchy and has been stuck in my head since I first heard the song.

The song sonically is a bit of a change for Oasis the song almost has a slight country rock feel to the chorus - reminds me of The Who as well. The drums are louder in the mix than usual. Very insistant. I believe the drums are by Ringo Starr's son Zac Starkey as Oasis' previous drummer Alan White is no longer with the band. The overall production is quite good and seems to be a bit of a change from the wall of sound. More individual parts are heard in this production. A welcome change.

The song has an extended outro of hand claps and piano bitties along with some guitar riffs reminiscent of an Oasis B-Side from the Be Here Now days called "My Sister Lover"

While the "street fighting man" thing may be a bit off putting at first - it feels just right after a few times listening to the song. And the chorus is absolutely killer and will probably be staying with you for awhile after you hear the song. A happy up beat song but without being cheesey or cloying. Most importantly this song feels fresh. Like something new for Oasis and definitly like some fresh air as far as modern rock goes which could use a bit of a pick me up.

Makes me curious to see what else is on the new album.

8.5/10

Oasis - "Songbird"

2005-03-29T11:27:00.000-05:00

"Songbird" written and sang by Liam Gallagher is track #5 on 2002's Heathen Chemistry.

One of three tracks on the album written by Liam in a change from Oasis' previous efforts which were all written by Liam's brother Noel Gallagher except for Liam's "Little James" which was included on 2000's Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants.

"Songbird" is perhaps my favorite track on an otherwise underwhelming album. In my opinion definitly Oasis' worst album. But "Songbird" has a beautiful mood and simplicity which cuts through the muck (and perhaps even the mire.)

Featuring handclaps and bright keys and acoustic guitars. The song is warm in a way that I find to be rather rare, especially in modern music.

This song clocks in at a length of 2:07. It doesn't go off anywhere too much although it has a couple of very nice instrumental sections featuring sweet piano riffs.

The lyrics are as follows:

Talking to the songbird yesterday
Flew me to a past not far away
She’s a little pirate in my mind
Singing songs of love to pass the time

Gonna write a song so she can see
Give her all the love she gives to me
Talk of better days that have yet to come
Never felt this love from anyone

She’s not anyone

A man can never dream these kinds of things
Especially when she came and spread her wings
Whispered in my ear the things I’d like
Then she flew away into the night

Gonna write a song so she can see
Give her all the love she gives to me
Talk of better days that have yet to come
Never felt this love from anyone

I definitly recommend downloading & checking this song out, even if you are not a fan of Oasis otherwise. It's a very pretty song & shall warm even the coldest of hearts.

8/10

IPOD?

2005-03-28T06:22:00.000-05:00

Everybody is getting one of these little sucker s - certainly it is lovely to be able to carry around so many mp3s at once and listen to whatever you want. I'd stay away from that new shuffle deal though. What's that all about? You can't choose what songs you want to hear? I don't know. I don't get it. Sure it's cheap - but it looks cheap too. And it's got limited space. Although it is so small it may be good for using for going to the gym or somethin' like that.

Of course the IPOD isn't the only the only mp3 player around - although people seem to think it is sometimes. There are many others. I've actually not got an ipod yet myself. Might with my next purchase though because my last two mp3 players of other brands have died early deaths.

Alright back to the mp3 reviews for the next blog entry. I'm still waiting on some suggestions? No indie bands want their songs reviewed? Scared you'll somehow rank even lower than 50 Cent? Understandable.

Also check out another project of mine - The Beatles Songs.

50 Cent - "Candy Shop"

2005-03-26T23:20:00.000-05:00

This is currently billboard's #1 single. 50 Cent is an "artist" (and I use that term loosely, as it seems it's always used now-a-days) who has gained more fame from having been shot multiple times than from his music. If you venture to his website you'll see a lovely graphic of a gun and another of Mr. Cent pointing a gun at you. All about the music isn't it? This is clearly 90% about image, but that's nothing new in hip-pop or pop music in general.

Let's listen to the song, if we must, eh?

It starts off with something that sounds strangely like Beck's "New Pollution"

When the song drops in proper the first thing that I notice is the very deep bass and the very clear & clean sound of the production. The production is somewhat impressive for what it is, yet I'm afraid it may be the only real thing worthy of comment in this track.

The back & forth vocals between 50 Cent and the female vocalist (Olivea)... are well... just like all of the other rap songs with the rapper and then the female vocals... which are perhaps the most played out thing in hip-pop (and that's against some mighty fierce competition in a genre that seems to be almost completely out of any fresh ideas.)

The song is incredibly repetitive and really offers very little of interest. It's painfully simple. "Candy Shop" is not a memorable track and will be long forgotten after the hype of 50 Cent fades.

1.5/10

Jonny Greenwood - Bode Radio/Glass Light/Broken Hearts

2005-03-26T08:47:00.000-05:00

Track 10 from Greenwood's 2003 solo album Bodysong, a score for the British documentary of the same name. He is most known as lead guitarist for Radiohead, this being his first solo effort.

The album is very unique, I would best describe it as "mad scientist music" but it's not all bleeps and bloops. There's excrucitatingly sad strings and warped horns as well.

This track has three names because it ventures off into very different types of territory. It begins with some sort of random sounding drum sounds and whatnot and at first I feel a bit like I'm listening to some sort of nonsense thrown together but then a high pitched sound comes in and soon thats all there is - very hallucinatory the way that happens... and then with the plucks on the strings... It's very much a feeling of entering somewhere. Where is up to the listener I believe.

Nearing 2 minutes some pretty strings enter and things clear up a bit.

This section may be the most straight ahead "classical" as far as arrangement and sound on the album - there's not a lot of manipulation of the sound like elsewhere and I think that adds an extra bit of weight to it. It's still twisted a bit with some strange undercurrents, but it's all a bit more subtle.

It's sort of like floating at sea somewhere but I'm not sure this particular sea is of water.

The song comes to a crescendo towards the end with a really beautiful bit of strings.

I highly recommend this track and the album for anyone who would like to experience something out of the norm. true head music.

8/10

Britney Spears - I Cant Get No Satisfaction

2005-03-26T08:30:00.000-05:00

Well then, I guess this is progress? Interesting that nearly 40 years after a song is a groundbreaking hit that a cover of it by a current pop star has about 0.01% of balls (I guess you could say Britney can't help it?) as the original. Why does this song exist? Musically - it's nothing but drum machines and some well out of place synths in the background. Then you got Britney doing her best to try and "emote" and sound sexy. And it's well longer than the original. Why? I guess because Brit' just has so much to say.

This is bloody awful.

Oh yeah it comes from Spears' 2000 album Ooop I did It Again.

2/10

Milli Vanilli - Girl You Know It's True

2005-03-26T08:09:00.000-05:00

Milli Vanilli was a pop sensation of the late 80s and early 90s. They won best new grammy of 1990. Soon though they were found to be lip syncers who did not actually sing or have anything to do with the music. Milli Vanilli was the brainchild of German producer Frank Farian. And it's his composition and production I'll be reviewing today.

I believe "Girl You Know It's True" to be an absolutely great pop song. Sure it's cheesey but it's supposed to be. And beneath that cheese it has an interesting contrast. I'll get to that in more detail in a second.

This song has beautiful melodies - The "Girl you know it's true" ... "my looove" ... "is for you" ... i mean - yeah - that's good good very good stuff. This song has excellent production tricks. Sure a lot of them are cheesey - but they work within the context of the song.

The most ridiculously cheesey thing in the song is the spoken word intro. With the womans voice on the left and the man's on the right. What the fuck is that all about? I'm not exactly sure.

Anyway back to this contrast I was talking about earlier. "Girl you know it's true" has this thing where he's saying "i'm in love with two girls" and then he's saying "girl you know it's true, i love you" --- I've always felt that was a very cool bit and the way it builds up to a crescendo as the song goes along I find to be somewhat genius. Yeah I guess you could say I'm a fan of Frank Farian.

OK - the rap sections are pretty stupid.

But at 3:24 or so... things get a bit more exciting... yes... "i'm in love .. i'm in love i'm in love with two... " and then GIRL YOU KNOW ITS TRUE.... yeah do you see what I'm talking about there? and how about that "g-g-girl" at 3:47 and again 10 seconds later? (yes you need your mp3 at home to play along. get mp3downloadhq to download mp3's like this)

You may like to think I'm being ironic in singing the praises of "girl you know it's true" (and when it comes on certainly I cannot resist singing along) but you are shit out of luck. It's a fantastic pop song and Frank Farian deserves credit as some sort of insane genius.

Love the song. But the "rapping" sections and the silly intro and the general sillyness of the mood can only let me rank it so high.

7/10

Mp3 Reviews for Unsigned Bands

2005-03-26T07:56:00.000-05:00

I will do reviews for unsigned bands... but please keep in mind the taste I present with my reviews. If you sound like Britney Spears or Korn or whatever kind of crap the kids are listening to at the moment, I may not be so kind. All the better, really.

Just email me or leave a comment with your request.

Frank Zappa - Sofa #2

2005-03-26T07:47:00.000-05:00

Frank Zappa's "Sofa #2" closes out his 1975 album "One Size Fits All"

Like much of Zappa's work this track is an interesting combination of musical beauty mixed with a healthy dose of absurdity. Which may be even more beautiful.

The lyrics go back and forth between english and what I believe to be German.

here are the lyrics in full in english :

I am the heaven
I am the water
I am the dirt beneath your rollers
I am your secret smut & lost metal money
Down your cracks

I am your cracks & crannies

I am the clouds
I am embroidered
A am the author of all tucks & damask piping
I am the chrome dinette
I am the chrome dinette
I am the eggs of all persuasion
I am all days & nights
I am all days & nights
I am all days & nights
I am all days & nights
I am here
And you are my sofa
I am here
And you are my sofa
I am here

This song has a very deep synthesized sounding bass which really
kicks my pants in.  The keys are gorgeous.  Really this is one
of the most beautiful songs I've heard.  For anyone who thinks
of Zappa as a novelty act and unfortunatly I think that is well
too many people. Listen to this track or perhaps better as an
introduction "Sofa #1" which is the instrumental version of
this song and also on the album.

If you enjoy beautiful music with a bit a nice twist of
absurdity thrown in I definitly recommend Frank Zappa's
"Sofa #2"

8/10

The Flaming Lips - "The Sun"

2005-03-26T07:22:00.000-05:00

Well here goes. My first review will be of a song by The Flaming Lips who I believe to be one of the best bands in the world right now (and for quite some time now.) Their most recent album has been Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots which probably saw their greatest commercial success yet. But many Lips fans would argue that any one of their albums was their peak. As with most really great bands there's not just one album, song, or style that defines them. And some fans prefer one style or another.

The mp3 for today is "The Sun" the 3rd track from 1992's Hit To Death In The Future Head, their first album on a major label (Warner Brothers.)

Heavily influenced by 1960s psychedelia The Sun enters with assorted strange sounds (what sounds like strings being tuned or detuned) and drum track which pans from side to side. The vocals enter with the lyrics "And The Sun Goes Over Me." which is repeated drenched in harmonies until the 1:35 mark. Throughout there are little riffs played on horns and strings sounding very Sgt Pepper era Beatles.

At the 1:35 mark what could be called a verse enters. This section sounds a lot like Carol King's "So Far Away" (Rod Stewart had a popular version of this.)

The lyrics are "you'd be kind to see your face at my door, it wouldn't have to last very long, you'd be so kind to see your face in my door, i wouldn't have to ask anymore."

These two sections then begin to play overtop of each other.

While this song doesn't really "go anywhere" - I feel it captures the mood of dreamy spaced out psychedelia quite well. Probably not one of the greatest songs in The Flaming Lips catalogue but one that's always attracted me.

i'll give it a juicy 7.5/10.

and I definitly recommend the album. Hit To Death In The Future Head.

MP3 Reviews. A new twist on music reviews.

2005-03-26T06:59:00.000-05:00

Being a huge music lover myself I've often enjoyed reading reviews of albums whether I've agreed with them or not. I find it interesting to hear another's perspective on music.

I hope for this site to be somewhat unique amongst the community of blogs. Most of my blog entries will be reviews of a single song. Rather than review a full album, not that I have anything against the format of full albums, in fact I almost always listen to music that way, but because I like the idea of going very indepth on a single song and to call them mp3 reviews is to focus on the way so many of us today our getting our music. Through mp3 downloading services like suprnova & mp3downloadhq

I will be taking requests to review songs, from unsigned bands or if you just want to hear what I have to say about your favorite new pop song.

I am toying with the idea of having a 1 to 10 rating system for each song - but whatever I do, I'll probably change my mind later.