Music Bender

“The Best Dam Thing”, a follow up to 2004’s “Under My Skin” will be released in April of 2007. The single of the album will be “Girlfriend”, which is to be released in February.

Regardless of her image, I’ve always enjoyed her music, and find it rather annoying when people won’t listen just because it isn’t cool.

This latest album is described by Avril as “fast, fun, young, bratty, aggressive, confident, cocky in a playful way, all the good stuff.”

Sounds good, but we shall see.

Holy crap. This is the most amazing album ever. Okay, well perhaps not. But it boggles the mind at the sheer amount of energy that the band pours into the album. I get exhausted just air-guitaring and drumming along with the first song.

There is no way that a band with the name Dragon Force should be taken seriously. It sounds like some asian cartoon. However, you can’t help but enjoy the raw power of songs like “Through the Fire and Flames” and ” Revolution Deathsquad”. The anthems just soar with rock melodies that tug at the heart strings and that internal rockstar in all of us.

The lyrics blaze with power, reminiscent of the power ballads of yorn. Yeah, I just said yorn…

The solos are where the true soul of the album comes forth. In almost every song a guitar solo from hell is unleashed upon the virgin ears of the listener, ravaging the psyche and burning the mind.

It is so great.

A surprisingly mellow departure from standard BNL fare, Barenaked Ladies Are Me presents an interesting dilemma for a longtime fan like me. Roll with it, or resist? But wait! A second question arises; where are they going?

This latest album sounds very generic BNL. There are very few surprises among the songs, dissapointing in a BNL album. Now, none of it’s downright bad, I enjoyed the album for the greater part, but the days of ingenuitive pop and lyrics seem faded.

Maybe it’s because I loved “Everything to Everyone” so much. But the sprinkling of lackluster songs on this album make it hard to enjoy it completely without feeling a little let down at the end, a byproduct of songs like “Adrift” and “Home”.

There are a couple of shiny songs in there though. “Everything Had Changed” stands out as an interesting plunky tune, and “Sound of Your Voice” exemplifies some of the best traits of BNL’s sound.

“Wind It Up” finishes out the album with a sound… exactly like “Blue Rodeo”.

Overall, a good BNL album, but an unsure one, stuck in between where they’ve been and where they’re going.

The Pink Spiders’ Teenage Graffiti has put me in the mood to spread some general cheer.

These are 10 songs that are quite nearly guaranteed to have you in a chipper mood by the end of the set.

10. Some Postman - Presidents of the United States

A song about lost love letters to nosy deliverymen.

9. Three Light Years And a Day - PJ Ollson

Happy-go-lucky song cheering on a long distance relationship.

8. Around the World - ATC

Possibly one of the most well known dance songs, great for parties!

7. Crooked Teeth - Death Cab For Cutie

Off of Plans, one of the greatest CDs I’ve ever heard, this song just soars.

6. Big Machine - Goo Goo Dolls

The Goo Goo Dolls are one of my favourite bands of all time, and they get a special nod from this song off their album Gutterflower.

5. Feeling This - Blink-182

I’m definitely feeling this- good that is.

4. Longview - Greenday

Rock on, if no other song can get you nodding your head, this one will.

3. Unwell - Matchbox Twenty

Though the name would have you believe otherwise, it’s a mellow boost to anyone’s happiness. The subtly just gets me.

2. Closing Time - Semisonic

Another quiet song, Closing Time seems inherently hopeful, glancing into an uncertain future.

1. Shopping- Barenaked Ladies

This is quite literally the happiest song I’ve ever heard, and if you aren’t grinning by the end, then you really have no soul.

This CD surprised the hell out of me. With the album art, the band name, and the album name, I had some incredibly wrong preconceptions about Teenage Graffiti. I figured that it would be an offbeat indie sound that I wouldn’t really like that much.

So, I was wrong.

First and foremost, The Pink Spiders are a punk pop group, with heavy alternative influences. Their sound is so diverse, with a song like ‘Modern Swinger’ sounding like a higher energy Bowling for Soup, and yet also a completely unique sound coming from songs like ‘Adalae’ and ‘Hollywood Fix’.

In general, the album is very upbeat, high-tempo, and happy, standing out as a feel-good record against the world of bands who insist upon sad lyrics written into sadder songs. Not to say that Teenage Graffiti doesn’t have it’s serious moments, but the overall feel of the album remains light-hearted for the most part, the notable exceptions to this style being ‘Hey Jane’ and ‘Secret Song’.

Favorite line of lyrics:
‘Secret Song’
“If you’re alone/
And I’m alone/
Let’s be alone together”

Released: 2006
Tracks: 13
Label: N/A (downloadable)

DerDer Paintball Productions has long been known for its intense paintball action DVDs packed with high-energy rock and rap to compliment the action on and off the field. This holiday season they’ve decided to give a little back to the huge community of viewers and make a music compilation downloadable for free.

Available on their website, www.derder.com, the 65mb file contains 13 tracks that epitomize what DerDer is. More than half is rap, which is a little weird, but it all sounds very familiar, and it is very easy to visualize this music being the backdrop for a paintball video. I’m planning on cuttting a paintball vid a little later this year, and I may look into using one of these songs in it.

Ant B drops the most impressive beats in the rap category, as the two songs within the compilation shine far more than The Album Leaf’s and Ceschi’s. Witness’s “Fishnets”, however, give Ant B a run for their money, though they are held back my me wanting so much more.

OneSideRed, a long time DerDer favorite, has two tracks in this compilation, though they don’t sound the greatest simply because of sound quality. Pretty disappointing, but it’s one of the very few complaints about the compilation that I have.

Kiss the Cop and Leading the Heroes round out the compilation with added fast punk rock songs, claiming dominance over OneSiceRed’s annoyingly bad sound quality.

Overall, it is a very good compilation, and a ton of kudos go to DerDer for making this free to download.

Released: 2006
Tracks: 13
Label: Dreamworks

(more…)

That’s right, you get an entirely new perspective on music, a la me!

A lot of what I conver in this blog will be music that I’m listening to, reviews, ideas, rants, etc. However, this covers everything from rock to rap to techno, so hopefully you’ll stay interested!

I’m also gonna try to cover other things like music celebrities in the news, up to date music releases, and the extraneous effects of music on the message that culture inculcates in today’s youth.

Although I might go a little light on that last one.

Anyway, see you around, and enjoy!