YEAR OF THE DISAPPOINTMENT

the new The Faint cd is absolute garbage. i ended up listening to two tracks from it & then deleting it, it was that bad. at least the Islands cd had a couple good songs on it & i managed to get nearly all the way through before deleting it from my computer. the faint's new cd is just fucking unbearable. what the fuck happened? seriously? wet from birth was like one of my favorite indietronica records for the longest time, i didnt think they could go down in flames like they did. oh well, if you like shitty music then you'll LOVE the new faint cd. it's so bad i dont even remember what it's called. seriously, it's garbage. it'd be more entertaining if it were used as a frisbee or firewood.

in other news, i peeped The Sounds of Science by the Beastie Boys & it brought back quite a few fun memories of when i was a youth. truth be told, this was probably one of the first albums i ever bought. i still remember walking into strawberrys [later turned into an FYE], seeing it, buying it & immediately jamming the fuck out. i remember when i was a 'kid' there were a few songs i really didnt like at all, but going back to the album now i cant really find any of those songs, i like just about everything on this record. the beasties were/are still some of the best rappers alive. it's not like they're unbelievably fast or anything, but god damn they're clever. it's funny to think they started out as a hardcore band way back when, especially considering they're possibly the ONLY rap pioneers who are still recording/touring/alive.

some of my 'new' favorite songs on this album are songs i used to skip over just about every time they came on, funny to think about stuff like that. how musical taste progresses & changes with age. the beasties are some of the only musicians who've held up to my test of time. there's never been a time when i didnt like them & honestly, theres only a couple artists that i can say that for, most of which i've only known about for two or three years now, i've been listening to the beasties since i was like 12. it kinda makes me think about what the original beasties fans think, you know? like the people who were there from the beginning when they were a punk band & played short, fast & loud music, rather than their brand of punk-rap. either way, if you havent yet, get your hands on the sounds of science as i am convinced it will turn anyone who isnt a fan/hasnt heard them before into a fan.

on the other side of the globe we've got those wacky anarchists Chumbawamba with the Boy Bands have Won. first we'll talk about the title of this record. the full title is: The Boy Bands Have Won, And All The Copyists And The Tribute Bands And The TV Talent Show Producers Have Won, If We Allow Our Culture To Be Shaped By Mimicry, Whether From Lack Of Ideas Or From Exaggerated Respect. You Should Never Try To Freeze Culture. Take Your Older Brother's Hand-Me-Down Jacket And Re-Style It, Re-Fashion It To The Point Where It Becomes Your Own. But Don't Just Regurgitate Creative History, Or Hold Art And Music And Literature As Fixed, Untouchable And Kept Under Glass. The People Who Try To 'Guard' Any Particular Form Of Music Are, Like The Copyists And Manufactured Bands, Doing It The Worst Disservice, Because The Only Thing That You Can Do To Music That Will Damage It Is Not To Change It, Not Make It Your Own. Because Then It Dies, Then It's Over, Then It's Done, And The Boy Bands Have Won.

yes, that's the full title of the new chumbawamba record. kinda makes you think a little now doesnt it? really now, when you hear chumbawamba mentioned most anyone will instantly think "I GET KNOCKED DOWN..etcetc ad nauseum" & be turned off to the idea of even trying to listen to anything else they've ever done. when i first heard tubthumper i remember thinking "wow, everything other than tubthumping has serious meaning behind it, these people are legit musicians" the truth is, that even tubthumping had meaning behind it, but due to certain laws or something the liner notes of the record were severely censored so to speak & so most of that meaning i was talking about ended up getting lost in translation & chumbawamba was written off as a one hit wonder, never to be heard from again.

i mean, i dont really blame america for not really believing in chumbawamba & i most certainly dont blame chumbawamba for giving up on america. after touring here & seeing what it's like chumbawamba released another record called WYSIWYG [or, what you see is what you get], it was an accurate portrayal of life in america. the first track "i'm with stupid" really hit the nail on the head as to why chumbawamba hates america & is never coming back. it's quite unfortunate when i think about this, because i would really love to see these guys play. but either, you know about chumbawamba & the way they are OR you know they get knocked down but get up again & again & again.

anyway, that's got fuck all to do with the new cd. i'm only half way through or so, but they've been hating on everything. the second track "Add Me" is an anti-myspace song, the chorus singing "i dont like people but i like to pretend, would you like to add me as a friend?" just proves that while they may not be the dead set anarchists they were when they released "pictures of starving children sell records" after Live Aid, when they were still a punk band, they're still thinking about it. they still believe in everything they believed in & the new songs are just more elaboration on that.

the instrumentation on the record is also quite amazing, reaching back into their catalog to revisit styles from un & WYSIWYG all the while still making it sound new & fresh. so far there hasnt been one song on this record that i dont like. but then again, i've got a thing for guitars, accordians, & horns, as well as the sweet female vocals that appear on nearly every track. oh yeah, i forgot to mention this: the new faint cd is 10 songs long, the new chumbawamba joint? 25 tracks. yeah, suck on that, the faint. so yeah, basically track this shit down because it's really good if youre into that sort of thing & if not, then i dont know, go download the new faint cd because you probably like sucking dick & that record does a whole lot of that.*




*& that right there folks is why i'm never going to be writing for any music magazines.