Unimportant Reviews of New Stuff
Watched "My Name Is Earl" last night (taped from the night before) and really enjoyed it. I love Jason Lee, even dramatically, and wasn't disappointed. Also watched "The Office" and loved it, but it sure is painful to watch sometimes. I really should try to get the original on DVD and watch it sometime. When "The Amazing Race" starts I'll be bummed to miss Earl and Office. Hopefully we'll have a DVR by then, but we may not be able to justify the expense after our baby hospital bills come in (yikes!).
As for the new music I got around my birthday, here's the skinny:
New Releases - Idlewild, Weezer, Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Michael Penn.
Old Stuff for iPod - The Police ("Outlandos" through "Ghost"), R.E.M. ("Reckoning"), Phish ("Rift", "Billy Breathes" and "The Story of the Ghost").
Best New Release - tie: Idlewild "Warnings/Promises" and Queens of the Stone Age "Lullabyes to Paralyze"
Worst New Release - Weezer "Make Believe"
Best overall purchase - Phish "Rift" people say they're best live and the albums aren't very good, but "Rift" really is great.
The Foo Fighters is actually pretty boring. It's not until the second half of Disc 2, the acoustic one, that things get interesting. Michael Penn's new one is good, but pretty standard. You know how I feel about Weezer, and my opinion's not softening so far. Queens just write the best flat-out rock I've heard in a long time, with just the right additions of menace and 60's psychedelia. Idlewild's new one is mostly tamer than past albums, but still damn good. I'm really excited to have the old Police catalog again! It's been a long time since I've heard these songs. "Reckoning" is such a classic, a dear old friend. And it's great to hear what Phish used to be before Trey turned their music into quasi-pop-song banalities. "Billy Breathes" is the threshold of that stage of their career, but has some good stuff on it. "Story of the Ghost" is a fun departure from that evolution, with a lot of funk on it.
Now that I told my wife who won Rock Star: INXS I can talk about it here. I'm so relieved that J.D. won. I called him as the only good candidate a long time ago, and he really nailed it on the finale. I enjoyed that show a lot more than American Idol, but its ratings weren't nearly as good. Doing it in the summer is part of the problem. I think they're going to do another one. We'll see how that one turns out.
Okay, that's it for now. I'm going to try to put up the Pennsylvania Real Beautiful Women edition soon. Stay tuned.
iPod: "Drivin' On" by The Breeders, "Masoko Tanga" by The Police, "Be My Yoko Ono" by Barenaked Ladies, "Bridge Over Troubled Water (live)" by Simon and Garfunkel, "Flat Top" by Goo Goo Dolls, and "Do It Again" by Queens of the Stone Age.
As for the new music I got around my birthday, here's the skinny:
New Releases - Idlewild, Weezer, Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Michael Penn.
Old Stuff for iPod - The Police ("Outlandos" through "Ghost"), R.E.M. ("Reckoning"), Phish ("Rift", "Billy Breathes" and "The Story of the Ghost").
Best New Release - tie: Idlewild "Warnings/Promises" and Queens of the Stone Age "Lullabyes to Paralyze"
Worst New Release - Weezer "Make Believe"
Best overall purchase - Phish "Rift" people say they're best live and the albums aren't very good, but "Rift" really is great.
The Foo Fighters is actually pretty boring. It's not until the second half of Disc 2, the acoustic one, that things get interesting. Michael Penn's new one is good, but pretty standard. You know how I feel about Weezer, and my opinion's not softening so far. Queens just write the best flat-out rock I've heard in a long time, with just the right additions of menace and 60's psychedelia. Idlewild's new one is mostly tamer than past albums, but still damn good. I'm really excited to have the old Police catalog again! It's been a long time since I've heard these songs. "Reckoning" is such a classic, a dear old friend. And it's great to hear what Phish used to be before Trey turned their music into quasi-pop-song banalities. "Billy Breathes" is the threshold of that stage of their career, but has some good stuff on it. "Story of the Ghost" is a fun departure from that evolution, with a lot of funk on it.
Now that I told my wife who won Rock Star: INXS I can talk about it here. I'm so relieved that J.D. won. I called him as the only good candidate a long time ago, and he really nailed it on the finale. I enjoyed that show a lot more than American Idol, but its ratings weren't nearly as good. Doing it in the summer is part of the problem. I think they're going to do another one. We'll see how that one turns out.
Okay, that's it for now. I'm going to try to put up the Pennsylvania Real Beautiful Women edition soon. Stay tuned.
iPod: "Drivin' On" by The Breeders, "Masoko Tanga" by The Police, "Be My Yoko Ono" by Barenaked Ladies, "Bridge Over Troubled Water (live)" by Simon and Garfunkel, "Flat Top" by Goo Goo Dolls, and "Do It Again" by Queens of the Stone Age.
posted by CBK at
9:53 AM
