Take Out the Trash Day

The Chris Cornell song doesn't officially drop until this Tuesday, so I'll have a HQ copy of it then. However, adding evidence to my Timbaland is a thief conspiracy, Tim just announced plans for a follow up to Shock Value. Odds "Long Gone w/ Chris Cornell" shows up on it; 10:1.

In the meantime, some other goodies to make up for my weeklong absence.

Micro-Buttered Popcorn will have a new post later tonight, pretty much centered on the Watchmen trailer that debuted in front of Dark Knight. In conjunction with that, the song that is featured in the trailer.

The Smashing Pumpkins - The End is the Beginning is the End

(Trivia Question of the Day: "TEITBITE" was originally on the soundtrack for what other superhero movie?)

Coldplay currently has a track left off Viva La Vida available for download on their website. "Death Will Never Conquer" is pretty much meant as an exit for the album a la the outro from The Killers' Sam's Town.

Coldplay - Death Will Never Conquer

Last.fm updated their site, and now scrobbling/adding to charts and stats takes place in real time, rather than whatever system they used previously that added things as needed. Thus I can say with certainty that (thanks to another goofy glitch shortly before the update), the Gin Blossoms are the newest entrant in my Top 10 Artists.

Gin Blossoms - Soul Deep [iTunes]

This means I'll be doing last.fm related posts more frequently, including one later today/tomorrow if I get lazy.

I'm posting this reluctantly since it's my primary source of music income right now, but JamsBio is hosting a contest where you can win $10 iTunes gift cards and enter to win an iTouch. I'm already up 30 bucks in gift cards and thanks to unlimited entry probably have like 15 entries to win an iTouch. Go check it out.

Back later.

==TJ==

Searching...

[TJ's Note: I know, it's been a minute since anything new has popped up here. Getting a job (or something resembling one) means that suddenly the balance of free time shifts, hence the brief disappearance. I promise to have some new stuff later tonight/tomorrow, but until then I'm gonna post here a piece I just wrote over at JamsBio. I don't remember if I ever linked to them before, but nonetheless, I have now, and below is the true meat of this entry]

This is less about a single song and more about an album, and as the title would suggest, the search for said album. With the advent of iPods and digital music stores where nearly every song and album one would want is available with a few keystrokes, the act of actually going out and looking for music has become sadly antiquated. This story is about the meeting of past and present, and the joy of holding the fruits of a long search for that one special album.

I first heard the song "Hey Jealousy" in January of this year, when a colleague of mine at school gave me several hundred songs, among them some tracks by the Gin Blossoms. It might have been because I was going through a breakup at the time, or perhaps because I was in a period where I was drawn to 90s music, but I latched onto the song almost immediately, playing it several times in a single day, hardly ever daring to unconsciously press the skip button on it. But for some time that was the extent of my relationship with the Gin Blossoms; like so many of their fans now 'I just like that one song...'.

It wasn't till I was reviewing a deluxe edition of another album and briefly referenced the special edition of the Gin Blossoms' New Miserable Experience that I would consider it again. A fellow blogger left me a comment, saying that I had it all wrong, and this special edition of New Miserable Experience was a great recording worthy of every possible listen, and if I were to truly appreciate the band I needed to hear this collection. And so my search began.

So, with a healthy amount of iTunes credit saved for a rainy day, I did the new traditional thing to do and went to buy the two discs digitally. But alas, iTunes didn't have the rights to the whole collection, and thus marked the item as a "Partial Album". Not only would buying the album via iTunes mean I was missing the full collection, but it would also cost significantly more than I had to spare. So if I was going to have this album, I would need to work a bit harder. And of course none of the traditional big-box stores had the album. That would make the story too easy. No I would certainly need to dig deeper than that. Searches of my local used record shop came up empty, save for the old original release of the album. But no, the mission before me was quite clear; I needed to hear the Deluxe Edition.

My next step was to the seedier parts of the world; Amazon's used CD store and the dreaded eBay. Dealers on Amazon wanted a staggering 60 bucks to part with their copies (I didn't know this at the time, but the Deluxe Edition had been out of print for a number of years). I was flabbergasted, but it made clear just how valuable my quarry was. eBay was a bit more forgiving, but the item was more difficult to find. I spent two weeks searching under every binary rock, in every HTML-driven hole, often trying to contact buyers listing the item, only to find a glitch on the site meant I'd be looking at the wrong item. Finally I thought I found my prize, shelled out 15 bucks to bypass the auction, and waited patiently...only to find that I had been inadvertently gipped; again, a glitch meant that I paid 15 bucks for a single disc worth a quarter of that. I shipped the item back and never did get the refund promised (Buyer beware the username AkratzertHe paid me back after all. Sorry!). Several weeks passed and I had all but abandoned my hunt, knowing that it would probably be some time before success would come, and that my efforts were better spent elsewhere.

Until another few weeks passed, nearly two months after the search began, when a casual search yielded a used copy at a non-offensive price (with my bank account balance in freefall, it would have been difficult to find any price reasonable, let alone a bargain). Without hesitation my mouse pointer dove on the purchase button, claiming the mythical disc lest some other collector try to snatch it away or the item magically fade away. Within a week I came home and found a package sitting at my desk. Upon tearing the package opened, I found my two month long hunt at an end. Both discs were there and playable, the only damage some wear and tear on the packaging.

Normally this is the part in the story where I realize that I was not as impressed as I would have hoped, and the moral would be that sometimes the greatest joy is in the hunt. Not so. Everything I had heard and read was right. On the first listen I was drawn into every song, every note and every lyric. The search was just the beginning. Now came the part where the same attachment that came with one song, came with the whole package. If there's a lesson to be taken away, it is that sometimes music is best appreciated when it is not simply laid down at one's feet.

Gin Blossoms - Hey Jealousy [iTunes]

==TJ==

Buying Music As Therapy

So it's been over a week since my last post, and that's just not cool. No excuse really, other than laziness and distraction by that little thing called real life. This'll be a bit of a wandering post, but it'll more or less get you up to speed.

I've spent the last several weeks (since I got home from college, pretty much) job hunting. Given the fact that I'm using present tense here should tell you how said search has gone. Turns out that nobody particularly wants seasonal help from college students while in a recession. Imagine that.

Pearl Jam - Unemployable [iTunes]

There is some good to be found in this though, since nothing gets my mind off the frustrations of reality like buying some new(ish) music. After a particularly unsuccessful day of job hunting I went to my local used CD shop and got 4 CDs for 8 bucks and some crappy trade-ins. Below are short and sweet thoughts on each.

The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over
I have a bit of a take-it-or-leave-it relationship with The Eagles. They can either be really freakin' good, or just boring to listen to. Hell Freezes Over is par for the course. The opening four studio tracks are forgettable, save for "Love Will Keep Us Alive", the only real hit the band had in the 90s. The live tracks are where the meat of this album is, with awesome, energetic performances of most of their big hits ("Tequila Sunrise", "Life in the Fast Lane"), and mediocre renditions of some lesser tracks. All in all I would feel bad trading it back in, but it's not going to have much shelf life in my rotation.
Final Score: 5/10

Fuel - Sunburn (Original 1998 release)
Any Fuel fan I talk to has told me that Sunburn was by far their best album, and the remaining Brett Scallions-era LPs paled in comparison (and don't get them started on the misfire that was Angels & Devils). I never took too much stock in the sentiments, since I thought Something Like Human was serviceable, and also probably their peak as a band. If Jill, Mike Newsham, or any other aforementioned Fuel fans are reading...you were right. Sunburn is a spot-on blend of the radio-friendly post-grunge casual listeners are used to and the heavier, headbanger rock that they never pursued after this album. Their might be more awesome tracks on this album than on the other two albums combined. Most of this album is lined up for immediate addition to the iPod. Even if the other albums I bought were to suck, this keeper would've made the venture worth it.
Final Score: 8/10

Gin Blossoms - Congratulations I'm Sorry
Two things made me pick up this one:
1) The essay of a comment Matt from Addicted to Vinyl left here discussing the first two Gin Blossom albums made me want to hear it for myself.
2) Wanted something to bide my time while I waited for my eBay purchase of the deluxe version of New Miserable Experience.

So there you have it. At $3.99, I had few qualms about paying for a potentially craptastic album. All in all it's not a great album. The seeds are all there for what might have been a really good album (thus dispelling the notion that the late Doug Hopkins was the genius in the band), it just doesn't really follow through. The choruses aren't as energetic and it just makes for a much harder listen. There are good points to be found, but nothing on this disc holds a candle to "Hey Jealousy" (now my most played song on iTunes).
Final Score: 4/10

Chris Cornell - Euphoria Morning
Few people in the music world are above the regard in which I hold Chris Cornell (I think it's Dave Grohl and John Lennon, and that's it). I knew that the general consensus said that Cornell's solo debut flat out sucked. But I bought it anyway. Memo to the general consensus: Euphoria Morning doesn't suck. It takes work to listen to, and sounds more like Radiohead than it does Soundgarden or Audioslave. But that sound worked best for Cornell when he was with Soundgarden and Audioslave. Here Cornell gets to write songs that have some weight and meaning and not have to worried about it getting lost behind the amped-up guitars. Euphoria Morning is a good album, just not what you'd expect in a Chris Cornell album.
Final Score: 7/10

Chris Cornell - Can't Change Me [iTunes]
Gin Blossoms - Follow You Down [iTunes]
Fuel - Bittersweet [iTunes]
The Eagles - Love Will Keep Us Alive

That's it for now. I'll be back in a couple hours with more.

==TJ==

Enough Music To Last Me A Week

In case you were curious, I haven't done a Top 40 rundown for the last two weeks because, frankly, for the last few weeks the Top 40 has been pretty lame. I'll consider another one this week if I see something interesting.

In the meantime, my status as the Arcadia's music geek has been challenged. Yesterday a dude by the name of Mike Newsham and I bonded over music, and ended up sharing bits of our collection. He got my 30 Seconds to Mars CDs, some Beatles, almost all of my Foo Fighters, and a bunch of other stuff. Mike gave me:

-Enough Eric Clapton to last me for awhile. (By Clapton I mean any band Clapton's ever been with; Derek & the Dominos, Cream, Blind Faith, solo stuff...all of it)
-A primer on the works of the Counting Crows
-A healthy boost to my Queen collection (including the soundtrack to We Will Rock You)
-All 3 singles by the Gin Blossoms (one of those '90s bands where you recognize the music when you hear it, but probably never got around to picking up any of the music).
-Some blues stuff from Jools Holland's TV Show (info here)
-Albums by John Mayer and Jimmy Eat World

In all there were 302 songs added to my computer yesterday. I'm still sorting through most of it, but I'll get back to you on what I think of all of it. Here are some MP3s from that set so far (stuff I already heard and approved.

Derek and the Dominos - Layla
Cream - Sunshine of Your Love
Counting Crows - Rain King
Gin Blossoms - Hey Jealousy
Rainbow - I Surrender

Eric Clapton on iTunes
Counting Crows on iTunes
Gin Blossoms on iTunes
Rainbow on iTunes

Rainbow is Ronnie James Dio's band before Black Sabbath. He left by the time I Surrender came out, but it's still pretty cool.

I don't remember if I actually did this yet or not, but ratings for the two albums I bought off Amazon last week.

Rage Against the Machine - The Battle of Los Angeles
The sound is positively epic, Tom Morello's guitar comes out firing on every song, and overall it shows the band at their absolute best. A stunning way to end a band's career (or so we thought back in 2000)
Ruling on the Field: 9.5/10
Highlight Reel: Testify, Sleep Now in the Fire [iTunes]

The White Stripes - Icky Thump
Expect a Second Spin on The White Stripes later this week.
Ruling on the Field: 8/10
Highlight Reel: You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told) [iTunes]

And an update on something I posted about not too long ago; I was a runner-up in The Crash Motive's iMix and Win contest, so I got an autographed CD and T-Shirt. Will post pictures in the near future.

Back next time I can find some spare time.

==TJ==