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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Your Top Albums of 2011

"Okay this is the big one! I'll ask this every day so SPEAK UP! What was your favorite album/top albums list of 2011!!!!!!!?
-Austin Lovelace"
Jacques' Pick(s) 
1. Laura Stevenson and the Cans - Sit Resist



Emelie's Pick(s)
1. Radiohead - The King of Limbs 



Cody's Pick(s)
1. Havok - Time is Up


2.Tech N9ne - All 6's and 7's


3. Iced Earth - Dystopia


Tom's Pick(s)
1. Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys


2. Thursday - No Devolucion



Tuesday, March 6, 2012

What Austin's Listening to 2/18/12 - 2/24/12

"I still owe you guys a post from last month right? Woops brb ;)
-Austin Lovelace"

1. The Dead Weather - Horehound
"The Dead Weather" is yet another Jack White project BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE; Alyson Mossart, from "The Kills" and two members of the "Raconteurs" are also band members. The catch is that this band only holds some of the characteristics that each of their respective projects are famous for. This project/album focuses on blitzing hard rock. Don't get me wrong they do have influences in Blues Rock, Folk, Indy Rock, Classic Rock and I think they might be the only group I would classify as "Soul Rock" but their point is to push the boundaries of hard rock into "The Forbidden Zone". Most "Metal" and hard rock fans will listen to this and decide their not into it and most "Nu Metal" fans will give this one look and say "fuck it" but I'm sure they'll all love it when it goes mainstream. I'm just glad to hear buzzing guitars sound completely new again especially in Jack White's hands.


2.  T.V. On the Radio - Dear Science
No one on this planet sounds like this band and no one has ever described them the way I hear them. I know a lot of people consider them one of those bands that is creative enough to start moving music into a completely different direction, not unlike "Radiohed", and I know that people see them as an ambient, indy, electro rock project. What I don't understand is how no one sees how drastically they infuse Hip-Hop into their music. I'm starting to think that if no one is flowing over it people refuse to call it "Rap". Yes it's not rap but it's the only thing that I've heard outside of "trip-hop" that I would even hesitate to call "Hip-Hop Rock", as stupid as it sounds. Songs like "Golden Age" and "DLZ" just scream like the synthesizers used in most "Hip-Hop" beats. There is a reason they sound so different and maybe you should check it out again so you know why.



3. Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You
I know that RHCP is on a really rocky slope when it comes to critical acclaim but despite all of that I've been able to stick with them seance the early 2000s. Their new material has always been kinda iffy for me ever seance "Californication" which I know is blasphemy considering how legendary that album has become but this is actually the first album I've heard for a while that has had a list of tracks that were all enjoyable experimental and different. The first track, Monarchy of Roses, feels very punk inspired before it heads in to a brutal funk tune with a very impressive guitar solo from their new guitarist, Josh Klinghoffer, about half way through the song. "Brendan's Death Song" is just a rock tune that builds until is explodes into an incredible melody. "Annie Wants a Baby" feels lie it has some island influences. "Police Station" is a funky folk tune and "Even You Brutus" has these yelling rhythmic vocals that actually remind me of Eminem in his hay day. It even has some tracks that just feel like classic "Chili Peppers" like "The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie" and "Ethiopia". I do feel this album is a little top heavy but I still love it!



4. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
I don't need to back up the hype behind Kanye and certainly there's no reason to say why this album is so highly revered by music fans but I can give my opinion on it. There are some moments on this album where it drops off but for almost the whole album all I hear is incredible music so, yes, I do think this album is legendary. The first track starts with, what I assume is, Nicki Minaj reading a story out of a children's book before "a church quire" comes in to support Kanye as he covers every aspect of this album in his verses. By support I mean that it actually sounds like emotional support and by aspects I mean religion, fame, haters, his love life... He even spits one of his funniest lines on the whole album, "you got too many Urkels on your team and that's why you Winslow". The next track, "Gorgeous", covers how his fame has drastically changed his life as he has a conversation with him self over how he rose to fame and how much he should be gloating versus helping the people who brought him up. This track has a looped guitar in the background that sounds like it's coming through an old radio and it adds so much emotion to the song. He spits my favorite line on this track, "So what's a black Beatle anyway? A fuckin roach? Well I guess that's why they got me sittin in fuckin coach". The only real complaint I have with it is that I've never been a fan of Kid Cudi's vocals and his chorus on this track doesn't help. Then "POWER" comes in where he talks about the pressure that's put on him by his fame with this vocal sample and "King Crimson" sample that just gives it an epic feel. He spits "I'll take my inner child and I'm fighting for custody". "All of the Lights" doesn't have anything special about it but the amount of features from "Fergie" to Elton John is defiantly a daring move. "Monster" is the last track that really has this much of a new feeling to it; it has a beat with just percussion but it has all kinds of different sounds that it carry's it self. It just does a lot with very little. After that track, it pretty much drops back into what your used to hearing from Kanye albums like "808s and Heartbreak" - "Collage Drop Out". I don't mind it because, at least lyrically, "Collage Drop Out" is one my favorite Kanye albums. After "Monster" Kanye starts to get really introspective and even when he's singing "lets have a toast for the douche bags, lets have a toast for the ass holes", it still comes across really genuine. I've never heard him spit anything that I groaned at but he wasn't the best lyricist on this album and some of the hooks were a little bland but he is such a brilliant producer that I couldn't care less. I'm still waiting for him to drop a new album.



5. The Black Keys - Attack and Release
Some how I managed to underestimate an album I've already heard. I've been putting this album at the bottom of my list but now that I've heard it again I'm starting to think about it differently. Most people consider this to be the first album that the group really got clean on, but I'm not sure how you can take "Magic Potion" for granted. I know that "The Keys" produced "Potion" but they did it very cleanly. I will say that they lost their unique dynamic with the guitar and drums when they fleshed out the songs on this album with more instrumentation but it's in the ear of the listener to decide weather it's bad or not. I'm a little indifferent on the issue. I still can't get into the folky ballads on this thing, which is a problem I have with the first track, but when a track starts with a banjo or has a bass in the background I don't feel like they take anything away but they don't really add to it either. The only time the extra instrumentation really matters is when "Danger Mouse" pulls in the rains and forces the track to progress. Even though I still like them tracks like "I Got Mine" and "Strange Times", which have huge production on them, feel flat until the new instrumentation comes in. Other tracks like "Remember When" pt.2, that hardly have any production on  them, survive purely on the guitar and everything else in the track just sits there. The track "Psychotic Girl" seem to find a perfect combination of both but it might be the only one on this album that's not wrestling with all of the new ideas. This album makes me relies why I liked El Camino even more which is because they have extra instrumentation and Danger Mouse production on every track which seams to be a magic combination, when done right, even though both of these albums are in the bottom 3.

<<Brothers
<<El Camino 
<< Rubber Factory

6. Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising
Something happened this week when I listened to this album. I've always loved this band but now that I'm getting back into listening to all of their albums I would consider them my all time favorite band. It's not a big deal but that basically means I default to this band when I don't know what to listen to. This might actually be my favorite album from them. The first track starts with just a brutal riff that comes from their punk heritage but you get that melody that makes this band famous for being known as a "Noise Pop" band. If that first track doesn't get  you into this album you probably won't ever get into it but I still encourage you to get to track 2 were their screaming "New Day Rising" turns into lyrics that just don't make seance until the chorus drops in and Grant Hart goes off into something like a death growl. All of the tracks are pretty much just extremely melodic, buzzing, punk tunes that just get slower and slower until they hit the Track "Terms of Psychic Warfare"  which actually starts with a bass line that reminds me of "Flea" from RHCP, before the famous Bob Mould distortion creeps over the guitar that traces the bass melody. The next track "59 times the plan" is close to a ballad but even at their slowest this band is extremely fast. The album starts to return to where it started right after that track when it starts to just get faster and faster, with a short break on the track "How to Skin a Cat" which is a dark disturbing tale told in the funniest way that you'd just need to hear to understand. The tracks just build and get faster until the last track, "Plans I Make",  that is just all three of them shredding to a hardly noticeable melody. Besides that short ballad after "Terms" there is nothing I would change about this album. It's perfect.





Friday, March 2, 2012

Top 50 Creative Bands/Artists in History of Music With Joel Duplessis.

"I'm shutting down my part of the blog till the end of march but if you want to contact me I'll still be on this page, the E-Mail, and don't be afraid to contact me on my personal page 

-Austin Lovelace"

"Reply: I'll be posting more, so stay tuned!


-Joel Duplessis"
50- Ramones

American Punk Rock never sounded this great. Not only that they're very original in their way of playing and is the first Punk Rock band, but they influenced thousands of bands across the universe. The band members changes their names ending with the surname "Ramone", but none were related. They were more of an underground band in the 70's, but they never changed, because they knew that if they'd be different, that they'd be able to influence many other bands and that they would create a movement of some kind. Originality always comes to something, so they are now listed as one of the greatest artists of all times.

"you know that moment when you video call Austin in your bath? yeah, that's victory right there!"

-Joel Duplessis

 49- Godspeed You! Black Emperor

When I think of montreal, I have 5 pictures in my head. Hockey, St-Hubert BBQ, bad driving, Jazz Festival, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. One thing that is truly remarkable about them is their sound. You will not hear anything sound close to GY!BE from any other Post-Rock bands. GY!BE formed in 1994 and stopped touring or releasing anything in 2003, but then toured in 2010 and are still playing now in 2012. If you don't know the band or didn't hear anything from them, I recommend the album "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven" and from there you "should" be amazed by its strong forwarding atmosphere. I also think that the production from this album in particular couldn't be any better.

Over all, Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a very experimental Post-Rock group that always amazes me for its power that almost makes me want to give up everything I have in music. I have to see them live before I die (now thats a treat!).



That must be normal in Canada? -_-

-Austin Lovelace

48. Syd Barrett
What can I say? The guy was too original for Pink Floyd... Or maybe too weird! The way Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd, or most likely, the way Pink Floyd let him go was on a beautiful day jaming with the band. Syd wrote a song called "Have You Got it Yet?", and as he was showing the song to Waters, he kept changing the time signatures over and over again until Roger Waters said "I Got it Now" And walked out of the room. Thats the last time Syd Barrett ever played with Pink Floyd.

Now that's only Roger's point of view. I like to think that Roger Waters couldn't follow the insane time signatures of Syd Barrett... Did you know that Gilmour's solo in "Money" had to be in 4/4 because he thought it would've been too hard doing it in 7/4? And if Gilmour was just as good as Waters, it could've been that Waters just didn't understand the time signatures given out by Syd... After Pink Floyd, Syd started his career as a visual artist and let me tell you that his paintings are as good as his songs. Syd was a true genius in everything he ever did. Possibly the most crazy weird musician ever.

Syd died of pancreatic cancer in 2006 at the age of 60. He will always be remembered as a hero.

R.I.P. Syd Barrett

-Joel Duplessis


Joel's Point of View 2

"HELP US REACH 50!
If we reach 50 likes, I will do a song in any style you want about every single one of you who liked this page! you just need to share this page to your friends, the sooner, the better and funier the song will be. 
-Joel Duplessis"

Getting Ready for Black March:

Today, I am getting ready for Black March. If you have no clue what Black March is, its simply to not buy anything or download anything, not watching a video online, not seeing a single movie at the theaters and such to stop Internet-censoring litigation like SOPA and PIPA, in the month of March... so how do you prepare for it? well I'm actually downloading a bunch of discographys right now to keep me busy for March. Now, if music is not enough for you, downlaod videos on youtube and don't watch it until Black March, I know that I'm going to rewatch Prison Break by borrowing it from a friend, so there is always that option too. If theres a book you really want or an album, or a movie, just wait till april. If we can all work on this together, we will seriously manipulate their profit margins and they will know who they're really dealing with. Lets show them who's the power in all of this.

Thank you for reading and thank you even more if you're participating.

Joel Duplessis.