Britney Spears - 'Blackout' What can I say? Despite the fact that her life is a mess and her "Gimme More" video is a complete embarrassment for someone with a budget as large as hers, this is one of the best CDs of the year! Not a bad song in the bunch. In fact, there are only 3 (out of 12 tracks) that I'm not completely enamored with. The rest are straight from God - bliss!!
Plus the iTunes bonus tracks "Get Back" and "Everybody" are completely album-worthy. Britney has definitely hit a home-run.
The only thing that worries me is longevity... I heard "Oops I Did It Again" in a club recently and it sounded so good, even 7 years later. I attribute it to the songwriting... No one knows pure, true pop better than Max Martin. While the production and mixing on this album completely trumps anything Britney has released in the past, I'm a little worried how it will hold up once this "sound" is over... because the songwriting itself is a bit lacking. Oh well, it's fun for now!
Dannii Minogue - 'Unleashed' Now that Dannii is a judge on the UK's highly-rated and Idol-spinoff X Factor, she is hotter than ever. A perfect time to release long-forgotten unreleased remixes and b-sides to cash-in!! In addition to 'Unleashed' there are no fewer than 3 other Dannii "rarities" or re-release albums out this month as well as a greatest hits DVD.
Unfortunately, most of this should have never seen the light of day, but there are a few gems on this release. "Blame It On the Music" is one of her best tracks ever, easy. "No Romeo" isn't bad either. But it's very easy to see why the other "new" songs were shelved.
This release also marks the first time we've heard the original version of "Come and Get It" in full CD-quality... a truly exciting moment for a Dannii fan like myself!
Dannii Minogue - 'Club Disco' This is a digital-only release from Dannii's most recent record label, All Around the World. While this label has killed any potential $ucce$$ Dannii may have had post-Neon Nights, their Dannii cash-in is clearly superior than the one from London Records ('Unleashed', see above). The "new" songs on this release all sound album-ready. My biggest complaint with this release is that it's "new" songs weren't used on Dannii's last project... "Feel Like I Do," "I'm Sorry," "Do You Believe Me Now," "I've Been Waiting for You," and "I Will Come To You" are FAR superior to the tracks that made the final cut of her last release!
Dannii Minogue - 'Neon Nights (Remastered & Expanded)' I am very, VERY excited about this one... The original 'Neon Nights' album (Dannii's finest moment) coupled with loads of mixes and all the b-sides from the era. It's gay 80's-influenced electro-pop sonic heaven. It's a perfect tribute to the best era of Dannii's career.
If you're new to Dannii, be sure not to miss "Nervous" (previously released as a b-side to "I Begin to Wonder"). It's Dannii's finest musical moment of her career. One of my favorite songs of all time! "I live to taste addiction like this."
Dannii Minogue vs. Jason Nevins - "Touch Me Like That" [single] In addition to all the excitement of the cash-ins by her old record companies, Dannii herself is cashing in on her newfound X Factor fame with the new single "Touch Me Like That." Sampling Sylvester's "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" it's one the best singles of her career. Plus, you can't go wrong with Jason Nevins doing the mixing.
Dannii OWNS fall 2007!!
Here's the video... it's not as good as the song itself. Especially considering it's a totally piss-poor rip-off of multiple Kylie videos. But, who cares, it's new Dannii!
Kylie Minogue - '2 Hearts' Amongst all this Dannii excitement, there is also Kylie's comeback. Her new single "2 Hearts" is out now (on US iTunes, even).
It totally sucks. It's an even bigger mistake than "Red Blooded Woman." I am so disappointed! I mean, it's not an embarrassment, it's just a terribly boring waste of the comeback of her career. I love the cover art, though!
I'm just hoping the album delivers... From what I've read, this song is not indicative of the rest of the CD... thank God!
I had a great time at Halloween this year... turns out, this town does know how the party and the Halloween pub crawl was loads of fun. People were everywhere downtown. They even closed off the main street where most of the bars are. It was great!!
I went as a construction worker from the Village People... People kept screaming "Y.M.C.A.!!!!!!" at me, all night long, LOL. I loved this costume. I felt so ridiculous, it was great.
With my friends Gil and Shawn. And yes, I was freezing.
Now that I'm living alone again, I've started listening to music while I'm getting ready in the morning. As a result, I've been listening to a lot more chillout/trip-hop/downtempo house music. Because, while I may be a dance music junkie with a penchant for deep bass, most mornings I would rather die than hear that much noise blaring from my stereo. Instead, I've been listening to lots of selected tracks from Kaskade, Poe, Bjork, Ani DiFranco, Tori Amos, Imogen Heap/Frou Frou, Mylo, etc... I've also discovered two CDs that have quickly become instant classics in my collection.
Kathy Diamond - Miss Diamond to You This CD completely took my by surprise. I downloaded a couple songs on the recommendation of iTunes... I had them for months without paying them any mind. But suddenly they hooked me and I downloaded the whole album. This CD is like nothing else I've heard this decade. It's 100% classic disco. But not the cheese that we've been trained to remember disco as being. It sounds like the real disco that you find when digging through the playlists of late 70's disco dj's. It's definitely a "chillout" album... It's nothing upbeat. In fact, it's very dark. And very funky. Kathy Diamond's vocals are a perfect companion to the music, but they are exactly that - a companion. She herself definitely takes a back seat to the music. While this CD is not at all radio-friendly, or even appropriate for playing in today's night clubs, it's a great dance album with a nice lounge-y vibe. I recommend it 100%!
PJ Harvey - White Chalk I am completely, completely floored by how much I love this CD. It's totally a-typical from what I usually listen to. It's very folky with an old, old, old English vibe. It sounds like it was lifted straight out of another century, really. The melodies are decidedly PJ - haunting, dark and perfectly constructed. The instrumentation really shines through on this CD, too. It's so good, I don't even mind that there's not a single keyboard or electric guitar on any track. One of the best CDs of the year, hands down. They might as well go ahead and dump a truckload of Grammy's at PJ's doorstep. It's that good.
Honestly, I just re-read my review of it and it does this CD absolutely no justice. You just have to hear it.
Due to my recent move, I am without Internet until next week. Yes, I miss the internet itself, but mostly I miss being able to download music. In fact, I'm typing this from the Mudhouse in dowtown Springfield where I've logged onto their free WiFi just to download, download, download. I feel like a fugitive, seeing as how they probably frown on downloading hundreds of megabytes in a single sitting. But this is no normal week. Since I've lost net access, the new Kylie single and video have debuted, 15 demos from Britney's new album have leaked and countless other tracks are popping up as part of the annual fall flooding of the music market. Without the net, I feel like I'm missing a testicle.
On a more positive note, I am absolutely loving the new duplex. It's perfect!
Today was a gorgeous day in southwest Missouri. The weather was absolutely perfect for driving around with the windows down. Bored of being indoors, I took a drive through the country around my house. I ended up near Wilson's Creek Battlefield. I decided to at least drive by and see what it's all about since I hadn't been since grade school and barely remember it. After all, I've lived right on top of it in Battlefield for over a year and never even bothered to check it out. Upon entering, I was disappointed to see that it cost money and I was not THAT interested. But, the ranger at the desk dropped that one little word that I love... "You picked the right day to drop in - in recognition of National Public Lands Day, which is today, admission is FREE."
So, I spent my afternoon at Wilson's Creek Battlefield National Park. The best part? It's a driving tour, so I got to continue with my windows-down joyride. Plus they had a really nice Visitor's Center with educational videos, 3-D maps and a museum. All in all it was a nice way to break up the monotony of another Saturday in Springfield. Plus, it was free.
This is... the battlefield.
The Acura is still kickin'!
Wilson's Creek
This is the 3-D map! It was bad ass!! It had lights embedded in it that you couldn't see until they lit up but they would "move" and show how the battle was fought (red was Confederates, blue was Union). It made the driving tour much more effect because you actually had some context for where you were. I loved the map! I want one installed in my new duplex.
So, my new friend Daniel and I have very similar music taste - we share affinities for a group of artists as diverse as Bjork, Ani DiFranco, Tori Amos, Kylie Minogue, Madonna and Peaches. I've heard his iPod on random and I don't think I've met anyone in Missouri whose music-taste equation so closely matches mine. So when he told me to check out Rilo Kiley I knew I should give it a shot. But I was skeptical.
Honestly, going into it I expected to hate it. Most of the time, over-hyped L.A. scenesters in D.I.Y-indie acts gone major label make me cringe. But this time, I couldn't have been more wrong! This is easily one of the year's best albums. Jenny Lewis has the voice of a rough-around-the-edges angel. But the best part of the album is the songwriting. The hooks and melodies stick in your head for days. Not to mention the production and mixing are nearly flawless, without sounding over-produced.
They are completely their own thing, but comparisons can definitely be drawn to a variety of influences. On first listen, they sound like a modern-day Fleetwood Mac (as Daniel put it). But subsequent listens have reminded me of Jewel (Jenny's vocals on "Breakin' Up" particularly), Modest Mouse, Deep Dish's George Is On album, 1995 chick-rock-alternative and dashes of alt-country and soul weaved in throughout.
The whole album is great from beginning to end, but I of course have some favorites: "Under the Blacklight," "Silver Lining," "Close Call," "15" and "Dreamworld." The title track, "Under the Blacklight" has me particularly captivated. Jenny's vocals shine the most on this track and I think it has the best melodies of the album. That track has completely won my heart -lately, I've been singing it quietly to myself all day long!
It takes a powerful album to pull my attention away from electronic dance music... but this one does it!
Big news - the lease signing isn't final until Monday, but I've put a deposit down on renting a duplex on the north end of Springfield!
Ok, so the La Quinta Inn is my backyard, BUT I will be a mere 5 minutes from work (right now I'm 25 minutes) and I'll live right beside I-44, making my drive back home to Lebanon 30 minutes shorter. I'm thrilled!
Not to mention, the place is bad ass. The duplex is brand new - but it's priced right! It was the perfect find. I move in next week!
It's 1100 sq. ft., 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. The pics only show the living room and kitchen.
For the last two nights, I've had very bizarre dreams related to pop music. They were both quite enjoyable. Perhaps these nocturnal brushes with pop celebrities is my subconscious' way of telling me I was destined to be the next Justin T or George Michael? LOL... I'll let you be the judge.
Two nights ago I dreamed that I was back in college and Madonna was one of my professors. Not only was she my professor, she was also in semi-retirement. But, she was gearing up to make her big comeback with a top-secret performance at the VMAs - and she held the rehearsal on the stage in our classroom, exclusively as a treat for our class (apparently I had her for theater?). Anyway, we were all very excited and I grabbed my camera and started filming the whole thing. This didn't set well with Madge and she stormed off-stage half-way through the performance and vowed that that comeback was off (because I filmed her) and her dancers would have to just do the performance without her. I tried to talk her back into it, but my best friend Brandon got extremely pissed at me when I called her "Madge" to her face - he said that'd only piss her off worse because "Madge" is a derogatory nickname which is short for "vag." Who knew?!
Last night, I dreamed that U2's Bono was my half-brother. That before my mom and dad met, my mom had him. I remember in the dream, actually doing that math to realize that my mom would have had to have been around 2 years old when she had him, but I just thought "maybe Bono is younger than he looks?" Anyway, no one ever told me he was my half-brother, it just accidentally slipped out one night when we were all in the same lounge/bar together. Once I found out, I was extremely excited (of course) and tried to get Bono to get me a job in the music industry. He was not amused, though, wanted me to just leave him the hell alone. I think he was also pissed because the media found out. It was all very exciting!
Despite a faulty internet connection, I managed to catch the BB8 finale online while here in Maui (we were out at dinner during the broadcast). All in all, it was a pretty boring finale, considering I didn't really care who won between Dick and Daniele. But, that doesn't mean that Jen and Jameka didn't deliver two of the most classic quotes of the whole season! --- Jameka: "Daniele is the pimp and ED is the ho.... She tells him how to go out there and make that money." --- Jen (parodying Daniele before casting her vote): "Honestly..." [audience roars with laughter]
Yesterday morning I went for a photo-taking adventure amongst the Marriott and Hyatt resorts on Kaanapali Beach. The music that provided my soundtrack? The critically-acclaimed album by Justice. I'd been avoiding this album because of all the allegations that they're nothing more than a Daft Punk rip-off. But, when I saw two twenty-something straight boys rocking this out of their iPod-fueled boombox (1992-style) while strolling down Kaanapali Beach, I knew I'd better find out what all the fuss is about. The Daft Punk comparisons are definitely right, but that doesn't mean the album isn't enjoyable. In addition to their penchant for filtered guitar riffs and french house beats (Daft Punk), they've also got a taste for mid-90's inspired industrial electronica (think NIN, Aphex Twin) and the occasional 80's beat (one track sounds like they took the beat straight from MJ's "Billie Jean"). All in all, it was a great soundtrack for my picture-taking jaunt. I've since listened to the album 2 other times - at the gym and at the pool. It's not interesting enough to make good pool music. But the beats and melodic sound effects are perfect for the gym.
Here are some of the shots I got yesterday... click the pics for larger versions.
Last night we had a perfect dining experience at Mama's Fish House on the Maui North Shore. The restaurant sits right on a cozy private section of beachfront. They serve fresh fish caught on Maui that very day. I had mahi mahi stuffed with lobster and crab and baked in a macadamia nut crust with a light drizzling of sauce on top. Not only was the food perfect, so was the ambiance. Totally perfect!
This was our appetizer... The official name of it was in Hawaiian, so I can't remember it. But it was tender pork, sweet potato, onion and tomato drizzled in coconut milk and cooked inside the tea leaves (which were tied together and cut open fresh at our table).
We got there early just to get this table - on the corner, right on the beach. It was worth it!
I wouldn't blame my travel companions if they are tired of me making them take cheesed out posed photos of all of us. But hey, isn't that the duty of any good blogger/MySpace junkie?
The whole gang, out for dinner at Leilani's on Kaanapali Beach.
Outside one of the 9,238 ABC Stores on Maui.
Amy and I outside the condo... Also, a great opportunity to show that I actually have a tan which is quite an accomplishment for a pasty white Missouri boy with Scottish/Swiss/Irish/German genes.
The Whaler's Village shopping center, right down the beach from where we're staying.
Amy outside our condo.
The "Maui Marathon" happened while we were here and the awards ceremony took place right next to our condo. We crashed it.
We're on day 2 of the vacation and we couldn't be happier to be here. Amy and I spent the whole afternoon laying on the beach. The thought of the day was "Sure beats being stuck in an ice storm." We are in heaven!
We had a full day of traveling yesterday. Despite the seemingly never-ending haul to get here (Springfield to Cincinnati to LA to Maui) we seemed to enjoy ourselves along the way. It didn't hurt that I sat next to some very friendly lesbians on the plane to Maui and we had a nice chat about Britney;s VMA performance (I was carrying the Entertainment Weekly with her on the cover) . It's always great to run into family when you aren't expecting it!
Amy (my roommate) and I pose for a cheesy timer photo in the Cincinnati airport around 10:00am. If we look tired and haggard already it's because we were - the day began at 4:00am. We didn't make it to Maui until midnight Missouri time.
Sexy escalators in Cincinnati.
We were barely in the LA airport... However we were there long enough to grab a Cinnabon, a smoothie, and a tourist photo.
A creepy long corridor in LAX.
My first morning in Maui - at the Whaler's Village on Kaanapali Beach.
Mom and I after breakfast. This is our favorite breakfast spot. Not only does it overlook Kaanapali Beach, the food is excellent. I had fresh mahi mahi, rice, scrambled eggs and toast. Yes, I'm so excited to get real fresh fish, I'm having it for breakfast.
What can I say? Despite the fact that her life is a mess and her "Gimme More" video is a complete embarrassment for someone with a budget as large as hers, this is one of the best CDs of the year! Not a bad song in the bunch. In fact, there are only 3 (out of 12 tracks) that I'm not completely enamored with. The rest are straight from God - bliss!!
Now that Dannii is a judge on the UK's highly-rated and Idol-spinoff X Factor, she is hotter than ever. A perfect time to release long-forgotten unreleased remixes and b-sides to cash-in!! In addition to 'Unleashed' there are no fewer than 3 other Dannii "rarities" or re-release albums out this month as well as a greatest hits DVD.
This is a digital-only release from Dannii's most recent record label, All Around the World. While this label has killed any potential $ucce$$ Dannii may have had post-Neon Nights, their Dannii cash-in is clearly superior than the one from London Records ('Unleashed', see above). The "new" songs on this release all sound album-ready. My biggest complaint with this release is that it's "new" songs weren't used on Dannii's last project... "Feel Like I Do," "I'm Sorry," "Do You Believe Me Now," "I've Been Waiting for You," and "I Will Come To You" are FAR superior to the tracks that made the final cut of her last release!
I am very, VERY excited about this one... The original 'Neon Nights' album (Dannii's finest moment) coupled with loads of mixes and all the b-sides from the era. It's gay 80's-influenced electro-pop sonic heaven. It's a perfect tribute to the best era of Dannii's career.
In addition to all the excitement of the cash-ins by her old record companies, Dannii herself is cashing in on her newfound X Factor fame with the new single "Touch Me Like That." Sampling Sylvester's "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" it's one the best singles of her career. Plus, you can't go wrong with Jason Nevins doing the mixing.
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Despite a faulty internet connection, I managed to catch the BB8 finale online while here in Maui (we were out at dinner during the broadcast). All in all, it was a pretty boring finale, considering I didn't really care who won between Dick and Daniele. But, that doesn't mean that Jen and Jameka didn't deliver two of the most classic quotes of the whole season!
Yesterday morning I went for a photo-taking adventure amongst the Marriott and Hyatt resorts on Kaanapali Beach. The music that provided my soundtrack? The critically-acclaimed album by Justice. I'd been avoiding this album because of all the allegations that they're nothing more than a Daft Punk rip-off. But, when I saw two twenty-something straight boys rocking this out of their iPod-fueled boombox (1992-style) while strolling down Kaanapali Beach, I knew I'd better find out what all the fuss is about. The Daft Punk comparisons are definitely right, but that doesn't mean the album isn't enjoyable. In addition to their penchant for filtered guitar riffs and french house beats (Daft Punk), they've also got a taste for mid-90's inspired industrial electronica (think NIN, Aphex Twin) and the occasional 80's beat (one track sounds like they took the beat straight from MJ's "Billie Jean"). All in all, it was a great soundtrack for my picture-taking jaunt. I've since listened to the album 2 other times - at the gym and at the pool. It's not interesting enough to make good pool music. But the beats and melodic sound effects are perfect for the gym.
