Does this make Radiohead and NIN the Tom Glavine and Mariano Rivera of Music?

Thanks to anyone who listened on Tuesday. It was sort of a disorganized show, seeings how I was training people in the midst of doing a show. A few mixups and glitches (sorry to anyone listening during the nasty feedback), and of course the ongoing technical issues were a pain, but hopefully by next week a large majority of that will be settled.

I also ended up sitting in on the Alex, Helen, and Amanda show after they had some trouble, and let's just say, if you aren't listening to their show...you should be. Even if you aren't a fan of Top 40 stuff, just listen in for the ridiculous antics. Alex, Helen, and Amanda are on Tuesdays from 7-9 at radio.arcadia.edu. I'm admittedly not a fan of all of their stuff, but just being in the studio with them is a trip in and of itself. MP3s of some stuff they play is below.

So after much publicity and blogging, Radiohead's In Rainbows made its way onto the hard drives of fans all over the world today. I'm listening through it as I type this, and it's more or less what I expected. Weird, borderline trippy music with schizophrenic (and sometimes nonexistent) melodies that ultimately makes for OK ambient noise. A final rating to come later, but even though I'm not thrilled with it after one listen, I know I'm gonna end up playing through it a few more times. Most of what I've read about it so far seems pretty split; longtime fans seem to love the album, casual fans and others are rather indifferent. I'll let you know where I stand later.

In other stick-it-to-the-man news, Nine Inch Nails posted a message on their website in which Trent Reznor joyfully declares himself a free agent in the music world:

"Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the
following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally
free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have
been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the
business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very
different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a
direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.
Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.
Exciting times, indeed."

Before we all get ornery and get ready to mark the time of death of the record label as we know it, let's remember that Radiohead and NIN have never been known for being the darlings of the recording industry. Anyone else remember the conniption that the RIAA had prior to the release of Year Zero? When bands like Fall Out Boy or Kelly Clarkson go free agent, then I'll call it.

One more thing; Dashboard Confessional frontman Chris Carrabba has been passing the time on his solo tour by blogging about his experiences on the road. Blog topics range from stories of fans he meets (good to know I'm not the only over-18 male who loves Dashboard) to lists of things he loves and hates at the moment (apparently Chris is a fan of Heroes and Battlestar Galactica). The blog is on his myspace page, and will probably go for the length of his solo tour. On another note, I ruckused The Shade of Poison Trees and made it through The Wire Tapes, the covers album I mentioned earlier. I didn't know too many of the originals, but Dashboard redoes tracks like "El Scorcho" and Regina Spektor's "Better" incredibly well. More in-depth reviews later, and definitely expect this stuff to be on the radio show next week.

That's all for now. Enjoy the MP3s, and I'll be back soon.

Timbaland - The Way I Are (As heard on Alex, Helen, and Amanda)
Fall Out Boy - The Take Over, The Break's Over (As heard on Alex, Helen, and Amanda)
Kanye West- Stronger (As heard on Alex, Helen, and Amanda)
Nine Inch Nails - Capital G
Dashboard Confessional - Better (Regina Spektor cover)

Buying music may be good karma, but Thom Yorke and Trent Reznor don't care so much...the choice is yours.

==TJ==

The Juggling Act Continues...

Sorry for the week-long absence. Between school and work and everything else, updating hasn't been happening as much as it should. Some quick random stuff that I've been sitting on for a little while.

-First things first, an announcement regarding the much-delayed Viva La Mainstream radio show. A series of technical glitches have kept us off the air until recently. As of right now, the projected launchdate is next Tuesday from 4-6. Tune in to radio.arcadia.edu at that time for VLM's first radio broadcast.

-For the past week at the bottom of the page there's been an eCard promoting Dashboard Confessional's new album The Shade of Poison Trees, which hit stores today. The album has also been streaming on their MySpace page. I played a few tracks from it, and its definitely a throwback to the earlier, The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most-era stuff. Holding off on hearing the whole thing until I buy the full album. In addition, earlier today I came across a collection of tracks called Wiretapes, Vol. 1. It's an 11-track covers album that Chris Carrabba is apparently making available while on his solo tour; the source from whence I got it suggested it might be the first in a series of covers albums. Haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but looking forward to hearing Chris Carrabba do Weezer's emo classic "El Scorcho".

-Last week My Chemical Romance announced that they would release two more singles from The Black Parade. For added fun the videos for both albums would be directed by frontman Gerard Way. No word on which tracks are to be released, but my votes are for "This is How I Disappear" and "Disenchanted". Way also announced that bassist/brother Mikey Way would be rejoining the band on its next tour this fall.

-Linkin Park recently shot a video for "Shadow of the Day", the third single from Minutes to Midnight. As usual, Joe Hahn is directing. You may remember "Shadow of the Day" as the track that at first listen was the spitting image of U2's "With or Without You". Why has no one put together this mashup yet?

-In the interest of balance, I ruckused 50 Cent's Curtis, just to see if maybe it had something to offer itself. With the exception of leadoff "My Gun Go Off" the Justin Timberlake-assisted "Ayo Technology", I didn't find anything terribly exciting about it. If it wasn't clear yet, Advantage: Kanye.
Ruling on the Field: 4/10

-I'm currently listening to Still Feels Good, the new album from country-pop outfit Rascal Flatts. I wouldn't call myself a huge country fan, but as country goes, this isn't nearly as offensive to my intelligence as some artists (looking at you, Jack Ingram). Still not getting the same amount of play that other stuff is seeing though.
Ruling on the Field: 5/10

-That's all for now. More tomorrow.

==TJ==

First Peek at New Jimmy Eat World

Because my brother is a huge Jimmy Eat World fan, and I alluded to this sometime last week, I present the following: a video of an acoustic performance of "Chase The Light", the title track from Jimmy Eat World's forthcoming album, due out October 16th.

Jimmy Eat World - Chase The Light (Live Acoustic) [Quicktime]

No mp3 of it because I'm holding out for an official single release.

Artists releasing albums in October:
Matchbox 20
Bruce Springsteen
Dashboard Confessional
Jimmy Eat World
James Blunt

You may get excited...now.

==TJ==

You Have Stolen My Heart...And My Sanity

So I'm on MySpace earlier tonight and I see a bulletin from Dashboard Confessional (or some underling at Vagrant assigned to run Chris Carabba's MySpace page) entitled "Hey Everyone!". Upon opening I find only the following image:





The same image is now the backdrop for Dashboard's official website, their MySpace page, and Vagrant Records' welcome page. Dashboard is prepping for its first solo tour in 5 years and a European tour with Maroon 5 later this year, and is (in theory) still riding the success of 2006's Dusk and Summer. The band has offered no insight as to the meaning of the image, leading fans to suggest three possibilities:

1) New logo for new solo tour (possible; bands do this from time to time to create excuses for more merchandise)
2) New album in the works (unlikely; news of recording new material would have surfaced before now)
3) Chris made some random drawing and is doing the 21st century equivalent of putting it on the fridge to show off to people. (also likely)

Whatever the meaning is, Dashboard had better unveil it quick. I'm spending all my time hunting for clues about Cloverfield, I don't have time to try to unlock what this pic is supposed to get me excited for.

Dashboard Confessional - So Long, So Long

Buying music leads to good karma.

Dashboard on MySpace
Dashboard Confessional Official Website
Vagrant Records
Dashboard on iTunes

==TJ==

EDIT 08.16: Dashboard's official website confirms that on October 2nd Dashboard's new album, The Shade of Poison Trees will be released. In keeping with the upcoming solo tour, most of the album will be just frontman Chris Carabba on acoustic guitar. A low-quality live video of likely first single "Thick As Thieves" is on the MySpace page. AbsolutePunk has the official press release here.

October 2nd is also the release date for Bruce Springsteen's Magic, his most recent effort with the E Street Band, and Exile on Mainstream, the new album from the reformed Matchbox 20. It's official; October will be a glorious month.

No, I'm Not Dead

Yeah, I know it's been nearly a month since I updated. So sue me.

Some quick things and I promise a real update in the next week or so.

-In lieu of a real review, I will tell you that Bright Eyes's album Cassadaga is pretty cool, but kinda lags in the middle. *** 1/2 out of *****
-Ronnie Day's The Album is incredible. Think Teddy Geiger meets Dashboard Confessional. ****
-All the Stars and Boulevards by Augustana needs a couple listens to sink in, but is a really fun, well-written album. ****
-Me. Seeing Dashboard 3 rows from the stage. And getting Ronnie Day's autograph. And other cool stuff. LiveJournal has that one (second entry from the top)

Now that school's out I'm gonna go back to getting serious about this. My next update will come early next week and it's gonna be a review of Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight, which leaked earlier today. So stick around for that.

==TJ==

Face the Day Like You Did Before

I generally try to keep my personal life out of this blog, because it just hasn't seemed appropriate whatwith the LJ and Facebook. But this past week has been one of those weeks where everything gets affected, especially the music. In light of all that's gone (wr)on(g), I offer you a sampling of what I've been listening to these past few days. Downloads to come later for some tracks.

Oasis - Live Forever
Oasis - Stop Crying Your Heart Out
Daniel Powter - Bad Day
Secondhand Serenade - Vulnerable
Snow Patrol - Make This Go On Forever
The Fray - How To Save A Life
Jack's Mannequin - Into The Airwaves
Hinder - Better Than Me
Dashboard Confessional - Standard Lines
Daughtry - Used To
Something Corporate - Forget December
Ronnie Day - Coming Home Soon

There's probably some more, but that covers the bulk of it. One more thing; music brings out a lot of emotions in me, but very few pieces of music can bring me to tears (the ones that can...we don't talk about). Ronnie Day's debut album, aptly titled The Album, came damned close to being one of those. If you can get your hands on The Album, buy it. Till then, check out his myspace, it gives you just as good a glimpse. He's playing Penn's Landing on the 29th with Dashboard and a bunch of others as part of MTVU's concert series...looking into trying to go to this one...

That's all.

==TJ==

Snow Patrol gets the Spider-Man single

The soundtracks to the Spider-Man film franchise have been awesome so far, and they've each yielded a single or two. The first one had "Hero" by Chad Kroeger (Nickelback) and Josey Scott (Saliva), as well as "What We're All About" by Sum 41. The 2004 sequel saw the emergence of Dashboard Confessional with "Vindicated". AOL Music just announced that Snow Patrol will get the leadoff slot for Spider-Man 3, due out May 4th, with its new song "Signal Fire". The soundtrack is due out May 1st, according to amazon. No word yet on a video for "Signal Fire", but its a safe bet one's in the pipeline. Meantime here's the track and album artwork. Personally I think the song is alright, but it doesn't hold a candle to either "Vindicated" or "Hero"




Snow Patrol - Signal Fire

==TJ==