… watermelons. Sick-o. I bought some Hawaiian Punch today, and accidentally picked up the “‘mazin melon mix”, and boy was it ‘mazin. Seriously. I have no idea why I just wrote that; it just needed to be said.
And, onto the obligatory music part of the entry. I picked up a few (err.. many) CDs lately, but a couple have really stood out enough for me to attempt to write something about them. Further Seems Forever have a new CD out, called “Hide Nothing”. I suggest that if you’re going to buy it, head to Best Buy and pick it up for $9. Best Buy has an exclusive edition of the CD which contains 3 acoustic versions of songs from the CD, and they are definitely worth the trek to Best Buy to get. This CD marks the second new singer since Chris Carrabba left the band to do his Dashboard Confessional stuff. Jon Bunch from Sense Field does a great job filling in where Jason Gleason left off. Tracks to check out are #1 Light Up Ahead (their first single, I believe), #2 Hide Nothing (my favorite, lyrically), and #9 Bleed (which reminds me of Mad World by Tears For Fears, in a way).
Before I picked up the FSF, I was listening to the new(ish) Underoath album, called “They’re Only Chasing Safety”. If you’re a fan of The Used, Taking Back Sunday, or any of the hundreds of bands who have thier sound, you will like Underoath. I stumbled upon them when I mentioned my obsession with Copeland. The lead singer of Copeland did guest vocals on the 10th track of the Underoath album, so I had to pick it up. The past week or two, I’ve found myself always coming back to this CD, even though I didn’t want to burn myself out on them. They’re just too good to not listen to, non-stop (until the next best thing comes along, I guess).
Check ‘em out. There are more good ones, but I’ll save those for another entry.
Listen-To development has started back up and it’s going well. I am not going to make my September goal, for sure, and I can’t really estimate when it will be done, yet. I can say that it’s further than it was yesterday, so any progress is good progress.
I’ve decided that this site will be less about me, and more about music. I could see more people wanting to read about random awesome band, than random weirdo Brandon. I’ll still leave little personal comments here and there, but for the most part this site will contain links and information about awesome new artists, albums, record labels, and concerts. Not really reviews of, but more like links to reviews and information. So, check back often. I’d suggest grabbing the RSS feed, and tossing it into your RSS reader, if you want to keep up to date.
And now .. the music:
Copeland has finally released their new covers album. They do songs by Carly Simon, Stevie Wonder, Berlin, Billy Joel, and Phil Collins. I’ve been waiting for this since March (when it was supposed to be out) and just hadn’t gotten around to downloading it like everybody else has, evidently. The Copeland guys do a great job making the songs their own. I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to see Copeland in Detroit tomorrow. I went to buy tickets multiple times yesterday and was denied each time. This makes twice that I will be unable to see them, and rumor has it they’re going back into the studio after this leg of the tour. Bah.
The new Say Anything album is more than enjoyable. There’s a pretty good review over at Punknews.org
Furthermore, this entire album was orchestrated by one guy: Max Bemis. He plays everything on this album, save percussion, right down to the synth riffs that randomly pop up. If anything, this is one of the best albums I’ve heard spring out of one mind alone. Sonically, I’m hard pressed to explain what Say Anything sounds like. I want to say Moneen, Bright Eyes, and Green Day thrown together, but that doesn’t really sum them up that well. On songs like “The Writhing South” you can hear hints of folk-punk like Flogging Molly. “Alive With The Glory of Love” calls to mind a Smiths/Strokes hybrid. I can’t help but hear Piebald in “Passing Slowly Through a Vector”. Also, I can’t explain it, but “Chia-like I Shall Grow” reminds me of a punked out Genesis.