One sentence album reviews (#9)

Due to the floods this went on the backburner, but I'm slowly bringing it back on my Twitter.

Bad Books - ST (2010): Manchester Orchestra and Kevin Devine crossover for sweet indie-folk. 4/5

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today (2010): experimental lo-fi pop music doesn't really sound that good to me 2/5

1905 - Voice (2002): Female lead noise rock/screamo. It's currently one my favourite genres and I love this album. 4.5/5

Make Do and Mend - End Measured Mile (2010): This album can probably be the new yardstick for the orgcore genre 4/5

Gorillaz - The Fall (2010): Not bad for free and recorded on an iPad, especially love the almost cinematic instrumentals at the end 3.5/5

A Day to Remember - What Separates Me From You (2010): The idea of a pop-punk/metalcore crossover scares me, but I'll admit this album isn't horrible. 3/5

Anchors - Bad JuJu (2010): good, fast, melodic hardcore punk from Melbourne. Sound better on album than their last live show I caught 3/5

Athletics - Why Aren't I Home? (2010): Ambient post-rock that sounds more like midwest emo. 3.5/5.

Bad Sports - ST (2009): Garage rock that sounds like it's from the prime days of the early 70s! 4/5

Church of Misery - Houses of the Unholy (2009): Japanese/southern-rock/stoner/

sludge/metal, which sounds amazing. 4.5/5

Cloud Nothings - Turning On (2009): happy, jangly guitar-pop; refreshing as it sounds nothing like that current surf rock craze 3.5/5

Colors - Palindromes (2010): this is as cliche as screamo gets. It's neither good, nor bad. It just is. 2.5/5

Burning Love - Songs for Burning Lovers (2010): The former Cursed singer goes into hardcore punk, result is like the Bronx covers Cursed. 4/5

James Blake - James Blake (2011): I always thought dubstep was supposed to be more dancy, not this awesome laid back sound 4/5

Gorillaz Christmas Present

Gorillaz, to celebrate the end of their (maybe last) tour and Christmas have released a new album today. For free! Get it here: http://gorillaz.com/xmas

It was mainly recorded on Damon's iPad, but hey, it's free!

Gorillaz Advent Calendar

With the wonderful animated Gorillaz passing through Brisbane next weekend, I thought I'd share with you their gift to us fans: an advent calendar.

http://gorillaz.com/xmas

Every day this Christmas season, they will post a new gift on this website, culminating on Christmas day with a brand new song that we can get for free! So make sure that after you gorge yourself on food, drink yourself into a coma and play with all of your new toys, that you go check out the new Gorillaz track!

Gorillaz support/Little Dragon sideshows

Oh Sweden, how come you make such good music? It's criminal how much good music of all genres comes from your cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold country. The latest is this very mellow electronic band, Little Dragon.

Mmmm, dreamy. And wouldn't you know it, they are coming out to play with the Gorillaz! I believe their role is to be the band behind the band. But at the same time they will be part of the opening band. And by part of the opening band, I mean they are doing the music for De La Soul who will be rapping as the openers, before joining back in with the main Gorillaz show.

They'll also be playing a set at Woodland (it's a new indie bar upstairs from the Mustang, enter via the alleyway behind the Family) on December 18th.

Little Dragon MySpace

Of course, I'm seeing the Descendents at the No Sleep Til festival, so I will probably head to Woodland to catch Little Dragon.

Del the Funky Homosapien

It's a hip-hop family affair this week, with Ice Cube's cousin releasing a new album. Del the Funky Homosapien, aka Del tha Funkee Homosapien, aka Deltron, aka Deltron 3030, aka Del the Ghost Rapper. He's probably best known for the song Mistadobalina and the rapping on the first two Gorillaz albums, which is a pity, as he is one of the better hip-hop artists of the last decade.


Del's new album is entitled It Ain't Illegal yet, and you can get it legally right here: http://delthefunkyhomosapien.bandcamp.com/album/it-aint-illegal-yet-pick-your-price. Like a lot of other artists these days, Del is making it almost free ($US3 is the cheapest you can get), on a sliding scale of what you want to pay. For a lazy few grand he will even make an EP with you as the creative input.

And for you cheap bastards, the first song is free.

concert updates

I had a bit of a predicament with the Gorillaz and Descendents shows being on the same day. But after looking up the prices for the Gorillaz (at $100 for the worst seats) I think it's easy enough to say that I will be putting on my nerd specs, slicking my hair over and going to see the Descendents!

Also, word has it that the Bouncing Souls/Hot Water Music tour in December is going to sell out soon. The Melbourne one already has. So hurry up and get tickets! Well, save one for me, I haven't bought one yet....

Gorillaz tour

A few months back, with the death of Dennis Hopper, I was watching a bunch of videos of him, including him performing "Fire Out of the Monkey's Head" with the Gorillaz live. And after that I watched all of the Gorillaz live videos I could. They just seem to put on an amazing theatrical experience (not just a show) and never did I think I'd ever get to see it.

But now I can.

Not just the Gorillaz, but they'll be bringing out a bunch of guests to help them perform their songs. Which means we get to see this:

Their tour party will include De La Soul (in the video above), Mick Jones, Bobby Womack, Gruff Rhys, Shaun Ryder and Little Dragon. Look at that list for a second. I'd give a leg to see Mick Jones (the Clash), De La Soul, or the Gorillaz. And now we get them all together.

19th December at the Entertainment Centre. It may be the first time I will ever enjoy a show there.

If you want, check out the Gorillaz live in Harlem, featuring every guest star you could possibly imagine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--QTzeFCwtg