TLA

the used - vulnerable

2012-03-28T13:59:00.001-04:00

The Used have a new album out - it's called Vulnerable. I sent this news on to my bros, with whom I absolutely wore out the first two Used albums in college. The biggest fan of us all was my best friend Dan. Dan's response to my email was so good I'm just going to publish it, because I couldn't possibly say this any better. Take it away, Dan.

Dan, The College Years

The Used has been the band that I would have called my "favorite band" since high school.

Their first and self titled album, The Used, was the first time I heard a band do screamo well - and the right way; super intense, puke inspiring screams (where you can understand the words) and then ridiculously good modern rock vocals all in the same songs = post-hardcore.

Unfortunately I like that album so much, it could never be matched. To this day when I listen to "Box Full of Sharp Objects" or "Taste of Ink" it makes me feel like I'm a 17 year old bad-ass, driving around Midlothian in my hatchback - and lets face it - there's no better feeling than that.

In Love and Death had a much more produced sound but I still liked 100% of the songs when it came out, and still do. I think The Used lost some of their rawness as they gained popularity, but if you you listen to the story their albums tell you can see why. They went from writing about becoming "alive" as they broke away from the Mormon culture in Utah, to love (of drugs), to drug addiction, to being clean, and then about real love (of humans).

As we all do, they got boring as they got more mature. Sadly, Lies for the Liars was an awful album and I really lost hope for them after that. I always wished I was a big enough fan of them that I could appreciate the development and change of the band and be a consistent fan --- not the case. Luckily, their first few albums will always exist and I can always be a fan of the albums, no matter what the band puts out there.

17, downtown Richmond punk rock show, Subaru hatchback, smoking cigarettes, 2am = The Used, self titled album

27, Winchester Target, SUV, investing in my 401K, in bed by 10:30pm = Lady Antebellum

-Dan

what I'm listening to february 2012

2012-02-16T16:39:00.000-05:00

Here is what I have been into musically recently:

Kimbra - compositionally interesting modern soul from a sexy Kiwi. Definitely the best music on this whole page:

Best songwriting / composition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBxmidwDy2Y
Sexiest (live) video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaTEySLiLmc

Now that’s some real female vocal talent.

In the dude-bro category, we have Anthony Green’s new solo stuff. You may know him as the singer from Saosin with absurd high register. He is also the vocalist of Circa Survive, one of my favorite bands of all time. And he has a solo album now that is ridiculously good.

Best representative of the album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjFVVDGL-oQ

Fuckin’ songwriting. Fuckin’ arrangement. Love this stuff.

If you have to do the indie / emo thing, at least make it good. Welsh band Los Campesinos! brings the poppy hook like none other. Also has a legit early emo feel, which I love, as a big Get Up Kids fan.

Best song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ku_ZMPJ5M0
If you have to rock, like for real rock, go for Bad City. They sound like Queen and AC/DC and KISS, but young. I am not overstating when I say they ROCK AYASS! Prepare to tear your shirt off and play air guitar. Every fucking song on this album is good. Also, they look like they’re on drugs, which I find to be a huge plus for any band.

Rockinest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d5nasG72lo
Baseball and Apple Pie-est: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQcc3FXzu5k
Power Balled we need to learn acoustic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMYAhspDy9c (It’s called “Fire In The Pouring Rain”, LOL)

Next up is, of course, French electronic music made by a high schooler. Musically, he just fucking has it. He is uncannily good at having a sense for badassitude in rhythm. Hello Madeon:

Best introduction to his style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxPbgnO81sQ (awesome video, too)
Best song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuC2MUmQaG4

And in the guilty pleasure / I’m obviously on drugs category, we have Honey Claws. No explanation here, I can’t defend it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxSMsuXGJI4

Love,
Hunter

coloured animal - coloured animal

2012-02-13T16:47:00.002-05:00

The album opener sounds like music from the beginning of a movie where a Bruce Willis-type in sunglasses is driving in a convertible towards a big city.

Right away, you can tell that this album is decidedly not playing to a decade. You know how some songs you hear, and you can tell "yeah, this was definitely made between 1987 and 1988, LOL" --- this album is doing something I like, which is just playing what their sound is - not trying to appeal to a demographic or fad. Music like this is generally music that "holds up."

The first thing that jumped out to me about the sound of this album, oddly, was the drumming. It reminded me of that late 90s / early 00s sound of hard alt rock that fell between the nu-metal fad and the radio rock fairway. I'm talking about stuff like Guano Apes. The drumming carries attitude, like I can see the drummer's face bulldoggin'.

Next up is the vocalist - he is an acquired taste. Kind of school-yardy, kind of whiny - but I always give a fair shake to vocalists because they have no instrument to hide behind - they're giving a lot of themselves. If you aren't with me on this, bust out your cell phone and record yourself singing your favorite song. Now play it back and listen. Would you want to share that with your friends, family, and a paying audience? I sang in an a cappella group in college, and I was never very good at solo singing --- I had one or two solos, though, and neither of them were very good, because I know how annoying my voice sounds, so I was holding back, trying to hedge how much I gave on stage - put less on the table so there was less to lose. This just makes a weak singer sound worse. Anyways, someone with a voice that doesn't sound like Chris Cornell or Michael Buble who is letting it rip always gets patience in judging from me.

Also, I have been known to love singers whose voices are off the beaten path - exhibit A is Anthony Green, who sings higher than your girlfriend, Justin Vernon who always sings in falsetto, and Dryden Mitchell, who sounds the most like our singer here. Anyways, the vocal will definitely pop out at you, and whether or not you like it is as personal as Chevy vs. Ford. I'm in my probationary phase with it, where, as mentioned above, I appreciate that he's giving us his voice, not an imitation of Eddie Vedder's. But I haven't fallen in love with it the way I have with some of the aforementioned.

The bass player, I love. My first instinct comparison was Robert DeLeo - serving the role in the band first, but then pushing out enough character that there were lots of places in this album where I said "look out, there's some bass playing going on here." Not "slap you in the face" Flea type stuff, but something anyone who's ever played in a band can appreciate. I give high marks here, as I contend that the bass player is the most important member of every band. They don't have the highest VORP, but they are like the transmission of the car - everyone focuses on the engine, because it's the sexy and exciting part - but try getting somewhere with nothing between the engine and the wheels. This bass player is tying things together with a subtlety and competence that I rarely, rarely hear on rock albums - but when I do get it, it feels like somebody just bought me a beer. Coulda lived without it, but god damn it feels nice.

Next up, comes the guitar playing. I always suppress the urge to judge guitars first, because I'm a guitar player, and it would be too easy to be like "I'ma guitar guy and I like guitar so let's listen to some guitar and see how the guitar sounds and guitaaaaaaaaaaaar!"

First things first, I can tell skill and experience when I hear it. I pretty much have a line with guitar playing, of which 100% of guitar music falls on one side of or the other: better than me or worse than me. I used to be a pretty tight rhythm guitar player and even had a few semi-awesome bands, but in the last, oh, say 10 years, I've mostly been playing for myself in my basement.

Anyways, dear reader, this is here for ~~narcissism~~ reference: I'm better than you at guitar, but not as good as most guys who play in bands every weekend.

Both of the guitarists in this band are playing so tight and together that they're way, way, on the "better than me" side, which is great, because I only listen to bands that play guitar better than me. The two guitarists feel like one guitarist to me - like there's only one guy and he must be recording (overdubbing) both guitar parts in the studio, because nobody could know their other guitar well enough to lock like these two guitar parts on the album. Well, it turns out it is two guitarists. So they must be twin brothers or something (spoiler: they're not) because they lock like...like the violin section of an orchestra --- you know, where 20 players play their part, and it doesn't sound like 20 players, it just sounds like "the violin." The guitar on this album is a lot like that - just a super tight wave of guitar cominatcha. I really respect that about this album (and this band).

The lead guitarist has a lot of memorable riffs, that sound like his own style - not just borrowed from standards and greats. Like I mentioned with the singer, I really like when a band gives you them, not their take on what's selling this year, or their take on what Aerosmith did - you know?

The guitar playing on this album sounds like the perfect fill / accent stuff you hear on a pop song - in how perfectly metered and played it is - not a single millimeter of slop on this entire record. It's amazing, actually. I can point you to at least one good clam on just about every album I have, but not this one. Beauty in execution. Tres magnifique.

Ed. note: I keep trying to write about the rhythm guitar and lead guitar separately, but I can't seem to split this hair. It really does sound like "the guitar section" as opposed to two guys, it's pretty weird, but that's how I hear it.

As far as songwriting goes, this one is all over the map. "604" sounds "post 80s," "The Prestige" sounds like REM wearing sunglasses, "Lost and Found" is "Free Bird" and "Wish You Were Here" rolled into a burrito, and "Protest The Sky" is like Alien Ant Farm sitting in with Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. I'm trying too hard here - this is a band that really sounds like Coloured Animal.

If you want some highly original rock music that doesn't really sound like something you're already listening to, and is primarily characterized by artistic honesty and perfect execution, click here.

-Hunter

my recent picks, november 2011

2011-12-01T10:18:00.000-05:00

Hip-Hop: Childish Gambino. It would take me 5 years to write lyrics this referentially dense.

Rock: The Raconteurs. I am astounded that music this good exists in modern tymes.

Pop Punk: Four Year Strong. New album out is not as mean as their previous releases, but strong nonetheless. More melodic. The production is bombastic and awesome as always. I would buy these albums for the outrageous production value, even if I hated the music.

Soul: Mayer Hawthorne. You can't f*ck with Mayer Hawthorne. He's cooler than cool, and he's bringing it back. And yes, that first video is as badass as it looks. Hot chick gunfight.

You know you like my style

mixtape 2011

2011-11-29T15:22:00.001-05:00

I made a mixtape with my favorite songs of 2011.

It's 40 songs, about 3 hours.

It is available here.

Unzip the folder, then use the AAA.m3u playlist file included in the folder to load the songs into your music player. The playlist file is important because it will put the songs in order, and as you know, song order is important on a mixtape.

-Hunter

Not all songs are from 2011 - they are just the songs of my 2011.

thile / daves "man in the middle"

2011-08-17T16:44:00.002-04:00

video platform video management video solutions video player

brad paisley - this is country music

2011-05-23T08:34:00.000-04:00

dispatch ep

2011-05-17T11:54:00.000-04:00

old fashion ladies

2011-04-28T11:05:00.000-04:00

This is a band that I found out about through a guitar-nerd forum (shout out to the SDUGF). They are a French rock band caught me way off guard with how awesome they are.

Sounds like Foo Fighters, Rage Against The Machine, Guns & Roses, Muse, Porcupine Tree, Radiohead, Our Lady Peace.

Kind of puzzling to nail down a style, because each song seems like it's by a different band. My guess is that the players in this band are all highly musical in their own right.

Example? Here's their guitar player doing a particularly badass Britney Spears "Toxic" cover.

Anyways, their EP came out on Tuesday, and it kicks ass. you can stream it in full here.

-Hunter

new beastie boys coming 3 may 2011

2011-04-19T11:10:00.000-04:00

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-Hunter

foo fighters - wasting light

2011-04-12T11:38:00.000-04:00

This album is BAD-ASSED. With a D.

Recorded entirely on analog tape in Dave Grohl's garage or something, this album sounds like what made me like the Foo Fighters so much when I was in the 5th grade. Not that I had great taste in music back then, but hey, maybe I did.

When I was 10, I was not influenced by the ridiculousness of genre and what the bloggers are blogging about and who is on what label.

I didn't do any thinking about music - I just heard stuff and thought either "THAT WAS BAD-ASSED!" or "NOT GNARLY." Those were the only two types of music.

Well the Foo Fighters have really BRUNG THE THUNDAH with this one. In so many ways.

How about less words and more rocking? Listen to this.

-Hunter

what I've been listening to recently

2011-04-11T12:57:00.000-04:00

Here are some of my recent music purchases. I am putting them out there this way (ugly formatting, no tactful descriptions) because I don't have much time to write like I used to. I still like sharing music, though, even if I can't pack my descriptions and reviews with metaphors and lulz. I didn't take the time to embed the YouTube videos(I barely took the time to write this disclaimer), but don't be a lazy ass - just scroll-wheel-click them. Especially Bernhoft.

Jarle Bernhoft's "1: Man, 2:Band" 2 disc set (one solo, one with a band)

He is a Norwegian soul singer, who has an amazing voice. Actually amazing. He is a badass acoustic guitar player and loop artist as well - he does the whole one-man-band thing really well, without the gimmicky feel of some other loop-heavy solo acts.

Watch this video first: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjEsAEsYCw4
Watch this video second: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAnC7RTAMok

Sam & Dave's "The Best of Sam & Dave"

Timeless classic stuff. Makes me feel good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeL8EPBZN6M

Peter Frampton's "Frampton Comes Alive"

Turns out that his stuff is awesome, beyond the talkbox lesson that is "Do You Feel Like I Do." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKmVFB3bcZM

Fitz & The Tantrums's "Pickin Up The Pieces"

New soul --- motown vibe, with more modern subject matter. Cool New York swagger. I hate that word, but I'm trying to take its power away by using it properly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb6cBKE3WzQ

Further Seems Forever's "Hope This Finds You Well"

Remember the time that Dashboard Confessional frontman Chris Carabba had a badass alt-rock band with one of the best drummers ever? Then he left and the new singer was even better than he was? This band is long defunct, but for some reason, I wanted to listen to them recently so I grabbed their greatest hits, which, thankfully, exists. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOHi4x1po0s

Warren Zevon's "The Best of Warren Zevon"
Jimmy Buffett thought Warren Zevon was a badass. Jimmy Buffett's always right. Zevon wrote "Werewolves of London" but has a lot of other great songs. Cynicism and macabre all the way, but dressed up in breezy, plucky summer strummers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opXCOUgjOOY

Foo Fighters's "Foo Fighters"
The original debut album - recorded entirely by Dave Grohl in his garage almost 20 years ago. So pumped for their new album - it sounds like this old album. This is very 5th grade nostalgic for me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfXIR9lOlXQ

Bright Eyes's "People's Key"

This band just keeps getting better and better. That never happens. You either love or hate 'em. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLAMg6o5w2s

Woo, that felt good to get out. Sorry I don't write (very frequently) any more.

-Hunter

circa survive - dyed in the wool

2011-04-06T21:24:00.002-04:00

after leaving facebook, now I know what it's good for

2011-04-06T13:51:00.003-04:00

In the earley tymes, friends would catch up on a boat, over a beer and some fishing

After not using facebook for about 3 months, I now understand what things it is good for.

Business / blog / music promotion - get your friends to become a fan, then they get updated every time you post a new blog post or release a new product or post a new song. I tried to promote my blogs and guitar building venture with RSS (subscribe to my blog and stay updated!) and Twitter, but it is overwhelmingly apparent that only nerds use RSS (approx. 3 of my friends, all of whom are much smarter than all of my other friends) and many less people use Twitter than facebook (approx. 5 of my friends vs. ALL OF THEM). Facebook is clearly the best way to fly as far as commercial or non-commercial promotion.

Picture sharing - again, I use Picasa, lots of people use Flickr, some newbs use Photobucket, but none of these services are as good at photo sharing as facebook. Why? For one, everyone's on facebook, so whoever you're friends with on facebook is your pool and/or audience. For another, the "Follow Hunter's Picasa" or "Subscribe to Hunter's PhotoStream" (paraphrased) functions of the other big photo sites are all half baked compared to facebook's super integrated approach. I miss out on seeing my friends' cool pictures because I am not on facebook.

This last one kind of goes without saying, but staying up to date with what's going on with your friends / keeping your friends up to date with what's going on with you. I realized this when I moved recently. I moved from Northern VA to Central VA (where I was born and raised) and so I have a lot of friends in the area. I have slowly, little by little, been running into friends at the grocery store and such, and when they see me, they all look as though they've seen a ghost. Why? Because they had no idea I was back in Central VA. My thought, when leaving facebook was "If you don't know where I live or where I went to school, then hey, that's fine, because everyone who's actually really my friend knows where I live and where I went to school and other trivia. Well, I was wrong about that. My real friends don't know where I live.

I guess in the olden tymes, you would notify all your friends that you were moving, by letter or phone call or through the physical social network (parties, softball games, church). But these days, my friends aren't going to parties and church to find out what's going on with whom --- they go to facebook for that kind of info. The very human, social "see and be seen" compulsion is dying because you don't have to "be there" to catch all the juicy gossip and stay up on your friends anymore. It was shocking to me that one of my best friends of all time had no idea I was living 2 miles away from him. But it's my fault - I didn't call him or send him a letter. Any way you slice it, facebook has become the way the world stays in touch. I don't particularly like it, because I still like ye olde ways of going to church and going fishing with your buddies and going out to bars you know your friends will be at to stay in touch with each other. But nobody else is doing it that way, so I find myself fishing alone, sitting with just my family at church, and never running into anyone I know at the bar. That church/party/bar way of staying in touch only works if everyone is doing it. Well, they aren’t and so I’m not in touch with anyone.

I will not wax philosophical / ol' prospector with the standard "when I was your age, men kept in touch by shaking hands at the hunt club," because I believe that, in general, change over time is good. But I also believe in understanding the difference between change and progress. I don't think that facebook is progress, societally. Really, all I can do to fly that flag is to simply be me - go fishing with the guys, invite my buddies over to play music, send Christmas cards, go to church. I know that my idea of socialization is not consistent with the modern model, and I do not resent the change in the model. It's like when Jeep got rid of the Cherokee in favor of the Liberty. Whether or not the Cherokee was a better truck is subjective, but what is a fact, is that I like the Cherokee better, so that's what I'll stick with.

-Hunter

Fitz & The Tantrums

2011-03-10T14:53:00.002-05:00

Just bought an album that I only found out about because of AmazonMP3's Twitter feed - it was their daily $3.99 daily deal, and I liked the title, so I checked it out.

Fitz & The Tantrums - Pickin' Up The Pieces

Holy shit, man - blue eyed soul / throwback / Motown city.

To preview it is to buy it, if you are the kind of person who loves GOOD TIMES music. I am super excited to A) find out about a band I hadn't heard of before, and B) listen to a blue eyed soul album with perfect drum tone and a badass horn section.

Perfect stuff for the spring time, grilling, driving in the rain, partying, cooking.

Wooooooooooooooo,
Hunter

Patrick Stump (who?)

2011-02-18T11:18:00.000-05:00

http://www.spin.com/articles/exclusive-song-solo-jam-patrick-stump

This song (hit the link) sounds just like what MJ would release if he were still making music.

It also has a hyper modern edge, which contrasts much less with the throwback MJ vibe than I could have ever expected.

It also has a dose of that wall of sound / earworm Fall Out Boy composition that made him famous. Or maybe not famous, because nobody seems to know who I'm talking about when I mention Patrick Stump.

After the first listen, I didn't know if I liked it or not, but I knew I wanted to listen to it again. After the second listen, I still didn't know if I liked it, and I wanted to listen to it again.

After I had listened to it three times, I realized that I had just listened to it three times.

Stump's EP Truant Wave is out on Tuesday February 22, and his full length debut Soul Punk is coming this summer.

-Hunter

Bright Eyes - The People's Key

2011-02-16T14:52:00.001-05:00

New Bright Eyes out yesterday --- it's good. And it's only $3.99 at Amazon right now. Image is a link.

FOO

2011-02-15T10:38:00.001-05:00

SPRING 2011

SWANSON PYRAMID OF GREATNESS

2011-01-21T12:48:00.003-05:00

circa survive - appendage ep

2010-12-07T12:30:00.000-05:00

Circa Survive has a new EP out as of November 30, 2010. I have previewed one track, and am saving the others for when I get the CD, so I can have that feeling you get when you hear an album for the first time.

It's only 5 songs, but hell, Keith Urban's latest was 8 songs, and that was supposedly a full album release. It's an EP, deal with it.

Here is a preview of what you're in for:

Also, for all ye loyal readers: I have fallen off a lot with TLA, I know. I had a son on October, and I started building guitars at home, so I am pretty busy. I will post this month about all the music I bought between the last time I posted --- it's a shitload, and I'm sure you'll find something in there that you love.

Love,
Hunter

GIRL TALK: ALL DAY

2010-11-16T14:47:00.002-05:00

IT'S OUT TODAY!

my life according to john mayer

2010-10-19T17:13:00.002-04:00

My Life According To John Mayer:

Are you a male or female: Who Did You Think I Was?

Describe yourself: Bigger Than My Body

How do you feel: Waiting on the World To Change

Describe where you currently live: Comfortable

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Back to You

Your favourite form of transportation: Wheel

Your best friend is: No Such Thing

Your favourite colour is: Another Kind of Green

What's the weather like: Covered In Rain

Favourite time of day: Wait Until Tomorrow

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called: Home Life

What is life to you: Bold As Love

Your current relationship: I Got A Woman

Breaking up: I'm Gonna Find Another You

Looking for: Not Myself

Wouldn’t mind: Brown Sugar

Your fear: My Stupid Mouth

What is the best advice you have to give: This Will All Make Perfect Sense Someday

If you could change your name, you would change it to: Lenny

Thought for the Day: Everything Is Not Broken

How I would like to die: Slow Dancing In A Burning Room

My motto: YOUR BODY IS A WONDERLAND!!!

Yeah, I am thirteen.

punchline's "delightfully pleased"

2010-09-28T12:18:00.001-04:00

If you have a sense of humor, and love poppy, punky rock, this is your new jam. To preview it is to buy it.

This album is self-aware, carries NO PRETENSE at all, and is hilarious. They start the album off strong with "Seventy," a song that tells you up front "you won't find songs of hopelessness on this record / you won't find songs that leave you feeling LOST / just press play and let your problems melt away..." and gets remarkably up-front about never making it big, but being 101% content to serve their diehard fans with the line:

"...a platinum dream and a touring saga / we shot for the moon and missed / so we discovered our own planet"

And their own planet is the planet where their appreciation for their fans is always at the forefront - hell, the first track on this album is basically a letter of appreciation written to you and me. I could quote the rest of the lyrics to support the point, but you'll hear the full song soon enough.

Punchline's 2004 "Action" album was the soundtrack of my college years, and all of my friends will agree and remember, we spun that album like it was making us rich. Hearing it now is like hopping into a time machine that takes us back to sophomore year, where Milwaukee's Best and Ramen reigned supreme, and every night was a party night. Come to think of it, we listened to Punchline every night when we were partying, and the "Action" album never got old either. Those songs are truly the anthem of our college years. That album LIVED in the CD player of my awesome Jeep. Well, 2 albums and 6 years later, "Delightfully Pleased" has claimed the same spot - it's my go-to jam.

They mention LOST in the album opener, subtly nodding to the amazing track "Roller Coaster Smoke" - a tribute to the show "LOST," and a must hear for fans of the show. I have never seen LOST, and it's still my favorite song on the album, because it's awesome. Great arrangement, buildup, and groove. Defies genre. I DARE you not to bob your head when you're listening to this. RPT 1 PLZ.

"Roller Coaster Smoke" by Punchline, a tribute to LOST! from modernshortstories on Vimeo.

The musicianship and songwriting here have stayed memorable and strong - you will absolutely have these hooks stuck in your head for a week. Pure delicious earworm goodness with incredible shelf-life. The harmonies and guitar tones are out-the-control good on this album. I have not grown tired of this album yet, and I have played it start to finish probably 20 times in the past 2 weeks.

They also have a song "Keystoned" that is all about how great Pennsylvania is, which I love, because I am a geographer. My favorite lyric in the song comes at the end of a long run of fun facts, where the singer lays out a triumphant "...and Pittsburgh has more bridges than any other cityyyyyyyy," while the rest of the band, in an over-the top 3 or 4 part harmony, a-la Bohemian Rhapsody, belts out a disclaimer "not counting Venice!"

Their "Greatest. Party. Ever." reminds me of myself - while describing the "Greatest. Party. Ever.," they tell you "I've been cleanin' and dustin' and cookin' all day / I got a fridge full of Zima and a vegetable tray" and resolve the stanza with "the WiFi network is slammin / Forrest Gump's on TV" - it's all so fun good-natured that you just want to give them a high five after every song.

Why should you buy this album: when I first discovered Punchline in 2004, I liked them so much I ordered a t-shirt from their shitty website. Well, a week later when the shirt arrived, I found with it a baseball card and a handwritten letter from the band, that said something to the effect of, and again, no pretense, just appreciation for their fans, "Dear Hunter, thanks for buying a t-shirt! We appreciate it and we're so glad you enjoy the album. Please accept this Will Clark baseball card as a token of our appreciation. Love, Punchline."

It just doesn't get any better than that. Reward these guys for kicking ass.

Love,
Hunter

support from my followers

2010-08-26T09:03:00.002-04:00

Posted up on one of my 4WD forums that TLA had some new jams:

cynic - traced in air

2010-08-24T14:08:00.000-04:00

Cynic - Traced In Air

I found out about this 2008 album from my friend David, who, in a stroke of irony, started a blog of his own.

But Hunter, what's ironic about that?!

When we were in high school, back when AOL Instant Messenger was not only the primary method for teenagers to talk to each other, but the AIM Profile served the same kind of function that facebook does today --- kids had their favorite quote, some information about themselves, a link to their favorite band, snarky comments, etc. Exactly like facebook. Don't fight me on this.

Anyhow, back then, the word "blog" didn't exist yet, but guess what word did? "JOURNAL." Yeah baby, you know you remember it. "Journals," which were, predictably, online journals, were the awkward precursor to blogging as we know it, but back in the day, you have to remember that Google didn't exist yet. That meant that journals were not ever meant for mass audiences - they were always meant for your 3 friends that had AOL to read. This exclusivity meant that most early journals were full of embarrassingly ~~retarded~~ pseudo-emotional drivel. This also meant that finding out that someone at your school had a journal was cause for celebration, because that meant you could find it, read it, and make fun of them.

Anyways, one day I checked David's AIM profile, and saw that he had added a link: "my journal." Now, I thought this was weird, because David just wasn't the type. Well; naturally I was excited at potentially having some dirt on David with which to make fun of him. I also thought, hey, there might be a side of David that I've never considered before - maybe he has a more introspective side beneath the hard persona. Maybe he has sensitive ideas about things that he couldn't say out loud because the high school social structure would never let him live it down. Maybe he really loves cats. Maybe he's into gardening. All told, I was pretty curious to see what this journal was going to be about.

So I click the link, and I am just tickled pink thinking that I am minutes away (this is 1997, yo) from laughing at one of my friends writing about how elephant poaching makes him cry, or how he still watches Winnie the Pooh. Well, the site finally loads, and my jaw dropped.

I been zapped!

On the page was a picture of David, mean-muggin' like you never seen before, middle finger up, with big, bold block letters "JOURNALS ARE FOR FUCKING DORKS"

Anyways, the Cynic album is badass, buy it.

-Hunter

Just kidding, I'll actually tell you a little bit about it.

The first thing that stood out to me was the composition --- Paul Masvidal's composition and arrangement style uses a lot of dynamic range --- not only volume, from quiet to loud, but also smooth, clear guitar tones to harsh, heavy guitar tones, from legato, jazzy drum passages up through thrashy metal sequences. you will immediately either 1) respect the composition, or 2) think "OK, I don't get this."

Chances are though, if you read this blog, you'll listen to "King of Those Who Know" at least once, for the sake of science and artistic exploration. When I first heard it, I was like, "ehhh, this ain't my thing," but after I listened to it in full once, I felt a strong compulsion to hear it again, and all these little things jumped out at me. 9 listens later, I had to buy the album.

There is a very present jazz influence. Also, for the guitar nerds out there, you will hear some beautiful Stratocaster style tones. You could honestly mistake the outro to "King of Those Who Know" for John Mayer if you didn't know it came right after a thrash-metal verse.

You'll also notice an incredibly addictive groove to all of these songs once they get going. The post-intro drop on "The Space For This" slays me.

The thing that impresses me the most is how the soft and hard parts work so well together. I remember my sister once told me, with a preface / disclaimer of "I know this is totally lame to say," that she finally "got" Radiohead, while she was at a Radiohead concert that her husband dragged her to - and couldn't describe it any better than this; "it was just beautiful."

Getting Cynic is a lot like that --- the total picture just has a beauty to it. If you zoom in too far and focus on what you're hearing right now, as opposed to what you're hearing, you might miss what's so great about it.

Blues Brothers from Oz is Over the Rainbow on Vimeo.

Think of it like your favorite movie. Mine's "The Blues Brothers." All in all, the movie is hilarious, and the overarching theme of reserved, subtle humor is what I love about it. One if the best scenes / lines in the movie is when they're under the bridge, about to make their run for the Palace Hotel Ballroom in their Dodge cop car, and Elwood turns to Jake and says, " It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses" and Jake, without a second's hesitation, says "Hit it."

If you didn't know the characters, the characteristic of their dialogue, and their dynamic, you would not be able to extract any humor or enjoyment out of that --- but in the context of the film, it's the turning point of the whole story, and one of the most revered movie scenes of all time.

Check out Cynic's "Traced In Air."

-Hunter