Hope Is For Presidents And Dreams Are For People Who Are Sleeping

Sup' folks? I'm starting to round out my best albums of the year and if anybody has any suggestions for some last minute entries, hit me up in the comments. I'm always ready for new music.

after a 13 hour shift at the hospital and being more or less drunk from exhaustion, this video made me laugh ridiculously hard to myself. I can't remember if I ever posted it, but f it, the world needs to see.

Bonus vid.

Yargggh!

It's December, and that means that all the music magazines/websites/blogs/crazy person's rants are having their year end best of lists. I've been very happy with all the music I've picked up thus far this year, however I always thrive off of these lists because I always manage to miss a few gems throughout the year and this always ends up being my last chance to find them. That said, I should have my very own best of list sometime in January... probably.

In other news, I'll be joining Tom's radio show this Wednesday which will mark my glorious return to radio after a three year absence so check it at 10 a.m. on the 7th (just click on the link on the left side of this page to get there.) We haven't decided on a playlist yet, but I'm sure we'll make sweet sweet love to the airwaves.

Two Things

One -

I'm making my annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage to Iowa to see family and I'm really looking forward to this trip (which I'll begin once I finish this post). I last made it down in July and I'm just in the mood for a nice little 8 hour solo road trip and to catch up on some podcasts and a shit load of music. Plus, I'm a sucker for family and pumpkin pie. Good god I love pumpkin pie.

Two -

I totally just found my new background. check it out here. It may be one of the most bad ass paintings I've ever seen in my life. The title is "One Nation Under Cthulhu" and is a parody of the painting "One Nation Under God."

Yeah, It's offensive, but it's so damn bad ass.

(I guess three things)

Three - How much would you be willing to pay for an aesthetically pleasing and comfortable casual watch? I'm thinking it's about time for a new watch as my current one is 5 years old and showing it's age, (plus it randomly loses half an hour every now and then which is really really bad for someone in the healthcare industry)

jesus fucking christ

Faber Castell from eric yeo on Vimeo.

Where To Begin...

Well, I bought a car. I am now the proud new owner of a 2010 Toyota Corolla (blood red of course) and so far I am very happy with my purchase. It's the LE model so it's somewhat basic on features, but it has all the requirements like A/C, auxiliary input, telescopic steering wheel, and all that good stuff. No leather, no auto start, but whatevs. I was lucky enough to be able to trade in my old '96 Grand Am for a total of 300 bucks which was more than I was expecting for a trade in so that's awesome. The only negative is that because it's a 2010, that means it came out 2009 which means it was one of the cars that had that pesky feature of having the accelerator stick from time to time, but I'm sure they fixed that at some point... probably.

In other news, Jules has a new blog with Mick and from what I've read so far it's pretty legit. Posts about The Wire and Walmart are always a great start for a blog and with the title, "Bitch Ima Kill You," I'm hopeful for wonderful things. Check 'em out sometime at http://www.bitchimakillyou.blogspot.com/ .

I'm going to wrap this post up pretty quick because I have to pound some coffee and get ready for work, but I'm super excited about Wednesday because I'll be roadtripping down to Minneapolis to watch Gwar in concert for the second time. I got to see them in 2009 when they were supporting Lamb of God and I did a post about it back then and I'm sure It'll be just as awesome.

Here's a taste

I'm really going to see their opener, Every Time I Die, a band I've been a big fan of for years and I simply cannot wait for some live metal.

I love life so much right now.

It Was Only A Matter Of Time...

The leaves are falling from the trees, I'm seeing my breath when I get off work in the morning, and my car's mileage is getting worse by the day and that means only one thing - Black Metal.

Black metal is a genre that I really only listen to in the fall and winter because it is so damn bleak and monstrous that listening to it in the summer just doesn't really have the same feeling.

With that, I just picked up Wolves in the Throne Room's newest album, "Celestial Lineage", and it is a beast, a glorious glorious beast. The album somehow takes what was best in their three previous albums and melds it all together for a wonderful listen. The shrieks are still there. The droning guitars are still there. And yet it somehow is fresh. I really can't put my finger on what makes me enjoy this album so much.

p.s. Wolves in the Throne Room aren't Satanic or anything like that, they're just Eco-anarchists who sing about the forest and that sort of thing. Not even kidding.

Please watch this. It's pretty damn sweet.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Sand_Dollar_digging_in.ogv

the URL doesn't entirely give it away.

(yes it does)

Open Your Eyes Wide

I've been having a tough time thinking of anything too important to blog about lately, but as of tonight I actually have something pretty bad ass to report.

Mr. Tom Day will be starting his stint as a college radio DJ on KNDS, NDSU's station. He happens to have a shit time slot (10:00 a.m. on Wednesdays), but that doesn't mean you bitches shouldn't listen to him. Apparently his theme is each show is dedicated to a year in alternative and metal so it's somewhat like a poor man's flashback as best I can imagine, but I'll let that slide.

As awesome as that concept is, I have to shamelessly plug one key aspect of this show. The title. He's decided to name his hour long program, The Stiche Hour. How 'effing cool is that.

As a former DJ for Concordia's own KORD all I can say is I'm just proud of the little bastard.

So please, if you have free time Wednesdays at 10 in the morning give it a listen. What's the worst that could happen.

http://kndsradio.com/music/listen-live-KNDSFM.php

Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na Fuck Yeah!

I will be renting this contraption out for my very first homecoming as an alumni.

There are very few ways this venture will not go to hell, but I am so damn excited.

EDIT - Just as I was hitting "Publish Post" I realized this post was missing something. It was missing this.

Mittens

I'm only putting this here because it still remains one of my favorite moments of not only It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but of all of television. I'm not sure why though.

Ni Hao!

I generally start every workday (or night... good God, the nights...) with pounding down 5-6 cups of coffee and listening to some music to get me in the mindset of saving lives on a 12 hour shift. Usually that amounts to sipping on some sort of Colombian or random mountainous region's coffee while listening to a track or two by The O.D.B. or even a track or two from The Queens of the Stone Age or The Strokes. This morning I threw on Radiohead's Kid A and I'm not sure that was the best idea.

I just feel sort of apprehensive now.

Oh well, time to suit up and head to work.

Ghosts n' Stuff

My computer came in yesterday and it's a beast. I almost feel stupid for how awesome it is. My keyboard has a fan built in to keep my hands cool and dry. Take that world hunger.

In other Stiche news I've been watching the shit out of Mad Men now that it's on Netflix instant queue. I knew that it was a good show, but Goddamn that show really is amazing. The only problem is that I've never had a greater urge to get loaded and chain smoke all day, but whatevs... It's all good.

Last update for this post... effing ragweed. I hate it and it apparently loathes me. I always forget that the last half of August through mid-September is absolute hell on my sinuses. Constant runny nose, sneezing, and loss of taste makes for a pretty lame month, but oh well. I'll see just how close I can get to overdosing on Claritan yet again this year.

Alright, alright...

I have started looking into some decent turntables on amazon (thanks for the idea Cam) and I just put my order in for a badass gaming computer...

Now that that's out of the way, tonight will be a night to remember. It's the first night I've been able to hang out with some of the old roommates of the 904 (my college home junior and senior year) and it's already shaping up to be a heck of a time. That said, I'm going to check out downtown St. Cloud for the first time as an adult and I'm ready to see what this place has to offer. Anyways, I would like to offer this for everybody...

http://www.youtube.com/embed/XyY7Yvx2PYA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

I discovered Andrew Jackson Jihad the other night when I was unable to sleep because I have such a terrible sleep schedule these days because of my 12 hour night schedule. Anyways, the best way I can describe this band is imagine Neutral Milk Hotel, but with a hint of Punk and way more cursing.

Well hell... It looks like it'll be a hell of a night regardless. I'm in the tough position where I'm still barely feeling any older than a teenager, but I'm having to sign up for life insurance and retirement benefits. It's just sort of weird I guess.

Effing F Yeah.

The last time an advertising campaign struck such a chord with me was the Bruce Campbell Old Spice commercials in 2007 and it worked so well that I even made a post about it in this blog's infancy.

Well... I guess I've gotta go out and buy some tubes now.

Also, for anybody out there who still reads this, does anybody have any ideas on sweet shit I can blow money on. I already have an IRA set up and a 401(k) set up and I'm currently on path to buying a 2008 car in the near future as well as a computer that will set me back around $ 1300, but other than that I have nothing to spend my money on.

Thoughts?

What?

There are few things I enjoy more than free music and crazy ass music videos, but when they come together it's pure awesome.

Case in point, this.

Porch Drinking

Sorry guys, I've been a little bit busy and a little bit lazy lately and that pretty much just means that this blog gets put to the back burner. I'll do a quick recap.

I took my NCLEX exam and I'm officially a registered nurse and I spent all last week in orientation learning different aspects of paperwork and how to use the computer programs as well as all sorts of policies for different procedures. Tonight I have my first real day of work on the unit (I'm on the resource team which means I float to any one of 10 units based on who calls in sick or has time off) and I'll be spending this first week on the Oncology unit and I'm really excited. What I'm not excited for is that within this first month I'll have to switch between 12 hour night shifts, 12 hour day shifts, 8 hour evening shifts, 8 hour night shifts, 8 hour day shifts... yeah. It'll get better after this month because I'll be on a straight night rotation so I'll be able to get used to that again.

That said, I now have tin foil on my windows, not because I don't want the government to hear my thoughts, but because it's the best way I've found to totally block out light and allow for sleep in the middle of the day. If anybody has any other less white trash solutions to that, I would be all ears.

I've lately been listening the hell out of Bon Iver's new album, Bon Iver, Bon Iver and it's absolutely wonderful. I'm a total sucker for all of his work and I bought this hook line and sinker. He took some chances and I would have to say they paid off. I can't quite put it up on the pedistle and say it's as good as For Emma, Forever Ago, but damn... It's close.

I also finally got around to watching the film Brick after a suggestion from Tom and holy zombie jesus, that movie is awesome. It's been on my Netflix watch instantly queue for months, but I finally watched it and it's amazing. I won't give anything really away, but it's a neo-noir (think hard-boiled detective) that's set in a modern high school and it just works. I don't know how, but it works on every level and I can't wait to get some more free time to watch it again just to pick up on everything I missed.

I think that's the gist of what's up in my life now. Big changes, but not really. I got a job at the place I've been doing clinicals for the past two and a half years and I moved maybe a mile and a half from my old place to my new place (one corner of campus to the other side). I guess the biggest change is that I now have a beeper that was given to me from my work. Yeah, a beeper. I'm not even kidding when I say I'm more excited about this than I thought I had any right to be, but yeah, I now have a work beeper. Hello 1993.

Well Folks...

I'm an RN.

I'll leave everybody with this. For the record, this is Brent Hinds, singer and guitarist for Mastodon.

Thank God for System Restore.

http://www.marriedtothesea.com/index.php?date=052911

This is why I love webcomics. Married to the Sea is awesome.

Alright, break time is over. Time to study again.

Crooked Head

Alright, I needed a break from studying. I'm trying to prepare for my nursing boards (NCLEX) that I'm taking on June 1st and it's a bitch to study for. I know that other professions have more difficult tests that they have to show competency, but trying to review 4 years of nursing classes and disease states and interventions and meds, and treatments and god knows what else really gets boring after studying for 6-8 hours a day everyday of the week. I can't really complain because this is helping me brush up on my skills and that's a great thing because I should be starting my job June 6th.

Anyways, in fun news, I'll be seeing Red Fang on Wednesday. Red Fang is a straight up rock and roll band with a little bit of a sludge/stoner-metal influence going for them which is pretty damn awesome as far as I'm concerned.

Check out their video from their newest album, Murder the Mountains. Even if you're not a fan of hard rock, I suggest you check it out because it's a glorious video concept and it's a pretty damn good song regardless.

Red Fang - "Wires"

Time For a Break

If the rest of the album is in the same vein, I have no worries about how the new Bon Iver album will turn out.

Say What?

Yep, I'm done with college and it feels great.

Anyways, that's enough about that. Tomorrow I'll be going to the KNDS block party with Mr. Day and it's shaping up to be a pretty fun night. Starting off the night S. Carey (tour drummer for Bon Iver (it's pretty much required to mention that when you mention S. Carey)), Dark Dark Dark, and Tiny Moving Parts will be free to the public. I'm really excited to see S. Carey and Dark Dark Dark, but the real treat is the 21+ show afterwords.

The headliner is Har Mar Superstar and it's a dude I've never heard of before last week, but boy have I been missing out. This dude is the shit and if he didn't look the way he does he would be ridiculously famous. Just check out a couple of videos of his...





Yeah, I don't see what could go wrong and it only costs 5 bucks to see him perform. According to his Wiki article he's usually stripped down to a Speedo at some point during the show. This might rival the craziness that I was able to see when I went to a Gwar concert.

House of Balloons

Congratulations, graduate. I know you follow Pitchfork pretty closely, but just in case you haven't discovered this ridiculous nighttime/party album, I'll post it here for you.

Download at their site

Wait, What?

Well folks, I'm graduating today. These last four years at Concordia have been truly amazing and it's hard to put into words what I'm feeling. I guess this is just one more step towards growing up and being a real person.

It's kind of nice.

Fuck

I hate the draft so much...

Hey Brother

I'm really wishing this show didn't end.

Don't Even Try

It's been quite the day.

I finished my art portfolio in my 2-D foundations class (Art 111) and I spent my last day in classes as an undergrad. I still have finals next week and I'm not entirely sure if I'll be hitting up grad school in the future (I'm leaning towards yes, but who knows) and I officially have a job that I'll be starting June 6th.

It was surreal to say the least spending my last moments in class knowing that this would be the last time I would take notes or watch a powerpoint for the immediate future, but I was alright with that. It's time for some change and I'm ready for the next chapter in my life. Sure I'm terrified of being a real person with a job and lives on the line, but I'm as ready as I'll ever be and all I can say is Concordia set me up quite well for this next step.

In other news, I really want to buy Portal 2. It looks amazing and I absolutely loved the first game. Also, the game comes with a new track from The National, "Exile Vilify". Considering it's just a track that's featured in a video game, it's pretty fucking solid.

This song cements in my mind that The National can do no wrong (at least at this point in their career)

One for One

Pending a handful of things I now am the proud new owner of a job.

Hearts Alive

"You fucking idiot, the turkey is in the pig!"

This quote bests sums up the monstrosity that is Epic Meal Time. It's a Youtube cooking series and the badassometer is freaking off the charts. Every meal (or abomination depending on how you feel about it) is made on a massive scale and is always made up mostly of different meats. Take for example, their take on sushi. They make it out of bacon, beef, baconator sections and then they eat the shit out of it. The best part of the show is that they have a ticker at the bottom right hand corner of the screen adding up the calories and grams of fat. In on episode they made it past 100,000 calories. I'm not even kidding a little bit.

It might be the ridiculousness of the whole show or just their delivery, but I now know what I'm looking forward to every Tuesday. It's Epic Meal Time.

Well, I Guess It's Alright.

I've hit a new low. It's not a new low as far as drinking or partying or schoolwork goes, but a new low for nerdiness... I've started watching Battlestar Galactica. Yeah, as in Battlestar Galactica that aired on SciFi back in the mid to late 2000's. I started watching on Netflix's instant queue on a whim and I've been hooked ever since.

It's hard to explain why I like this show so much. I'm already halfway through season 2 and I've only started watching a week and a half ago. It's so much more than the typical Space Opera than it appears. The story is ridiculously interwoven between the human race trying to survive after a brutal attack from robots (it makes sense, trust me) as well as complex political workings between the main characters.

I can't do this show justice, all I can say is if you're even halfway interested in a quality series and have Netflix, just watch the first couple of episodes and you won't be disappointed.

Older Than the Internet

I remember seeing a link to this guy's website a couple of years ago and I didn't think much of it. Don't Even Reply is just a website where a guy responds to wanted ads in email form and completely trolls the fuck out of them. He manages to make such convoluted offers and requests that it's difficult not believe he's some sort of evil genius who just never got around to building doomsday devices and settled on irritating people. For example, if someone were to put an ad out offering a half dozen free kittens, this gentleman would reply that he wants all of them to feed to his pet tiger and from there hilarity ensues.

Alright, that's enough of a setup, just check out his website and I'm sure you'll get a good laugh out of some of his posts.

Suggested reads:
Disguised Weapons
Kittens for my Tiger

Oh boy

I remember now why I don't drink wops. I think I'm going to try to avoid Everclear for a while now.

Far Beyond Excessive

Okay, I know I haven't done a real post in a long long time because the past half dozen posts or so were dedicated to my top 10 albums of the year. So, I decided to make a post about what's up in my life for all the deaf readers of the Stiche Corner who have been left out recently.

Where to begin? Oh yeah, there's a fucking blizzard of ridiculous proportions heading to Moorhead tomorrow. According to the Nat'l Weather service, this place is due to a solid 9 to 17 inches of snow and rain from on Tuesday. Yeah, I know, it's flipping May 21st and we're due for over a foot of snow and/or rain. It's lame. With that said, I don't have class tomorrow really so it's not like I have getting class canceled to look forward to, it's just another few inches of flood waters as far as I'm concerned. Damn.

Let's see, what else... Oh, I've applied to about a dozen positions in the F-M area, Duluth, and Rochester and I still haven't heard anything from anybody. I'm not too worried about it yet. I have pretty good grades, am a dude in a traditionally female profession (glass elevator), and am at least halfway competent so I'm not in panic mode yet.

Sax Man

I'm sorry guys about relying so heavily on YouTube videos lately, but this has to be on here.



I wish I could look half as good as this man does in his outfit and mustache.

Well, I guess this is it

It was never my intention to drag out this top albums of the year, it just kind of happened. I've had this top 10 since December so it's hard to explain that I've been this lazy for four months, but that's exactly what it is...

Without any further adieu, my top albums of 2010...

2.) Arcade Fire, The Suburbs... I forgot to put 3 on my last post... whoops... this would have been it... Anyways, just look at the last post for my thoughts on this album.

And my top album of the year... You can go fuck yourself, it's a tie for first place.

1.) (Tie) The Social Network Soundtrack - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross.
It pains me to put a fucking soundtrack in the top spot for my albums of the year, but for those who know me it might be somewhat obvious. I've always dug NIN and I've always been of fan of Post-Rock which means I can wrap my head around instrumental tracks and songs that kind of hang around. With this album, the tracks that hang around are simply beautiful and I can't find a track that shouldn't belong. With all that said, this is an amazing dark ambient album, but it just so happens to be a soundtrack. It's not only a soundtrack, but it helps make The Social Network what it is, a ridiculously impersonable film that makes the viewer question their friends.





And number one (I guess part two). I really had a hard time differentiating the top album because I had such a terrible time figuring out how much I loved each album (this will make sense once you see what my other top album is). The problem is that each album is so different in so many different ways. Not only that, each album is perfect as far as I'm concerned which makes any further criticism mute as far as I'm concerned.

Anyways, here's my (other) top album of 2010

1.) The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt.

This album is a fucking powerhouse. I consider myself very lucky for discovering this album. Sure, it's a folk album but that's like calling Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of The Moon just a rock album... But hell, I have to make it clear that I'm a fucking raving Bob Dylan fan and The Tallest Man on Earth in all his Scandinavian glory invokes Bob Dylan with his nonchalant, gravely voice but there is somehow something more...

I honestly can't put my finger on what makes The Wild Hunt my album of the year. It such as shit isn't the production. I guess it isn't the mysticism surrounding a Swede sounding like Bob Dylan and making magical music. I guess It's just the fact that this is an amazing album... I hate to say it, but Nuff' Said.

Totally unrelated, (but kind of related) music post

What makes me excited...



And... (Come on, you knew I would make a post about this eventually)

A Girl in a Slayer Jacked

3. Girl Talk - All Day
Okay well this is awkward... This is a band (one many show (god above men)) who I've listened since 2006. That said, good God I love Girl Talk. It is really really close to being drugs on music (which only makes sense after listening to Girl Talk). This album is just as amazing as anything he has created before and that is nothing but awesome. You want some Wu Tang Clan beats on top of Radiohead? You've got it! You want Black Sabbath over anything??? Well there you go, it's there. I really wanted to give this the top album of the year, but I just couldn't... So good, but I just couldn't give a mashup the best of...



2. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Okay, I just want to point out that I made my top ten mid-December so the fact that this album was the album of the year according to the Grammy's should be irrelevant, but I still feel like I need to point this out... Alright... is that cleared up?? okay?? Good. I have no problem in saying that Arcade Fire's 2004 album, Funeral, is at least to me one of the top 10 albums of the past 15 years. With that out of the way, The Suburbs manages to create a cohesive message of the existence of being from a suburb/small ass town/anywhere. I have found it almost impossible to suggest to my friends and classmates, but in that same breath, the album is not universally suggestible. Yeah, I love it and it is indie heaven, and sure lyrically the album can easily be dwelled on for years to come. But that shouldn't matter... The Suburbs has easily the best one-two combo as far as tracks come since I've been listening to music in The Suburbs and the track Ready to Start.
.
That just isn't fair to such an awesome album so I'll put another track on the blog...
Goofy haircut aside, here's another amazing track off of The Suburbs.

If you don't dig Arcade Fire or Indie in the first place, this is a loss of a post... If you are somewhat intrigued, this just might turn into your album of the year, it's that good.

Here it is (part 2)

5. Trampled By Turtles - Palomino

I guess it might be the nostalgia from seeing these guys live and the fact that these bastards are from Minnesota, but it's hard to dislike any track from this album. It is easy to say I dig folk when you're from Minnesota because you always have Bob Dylan on your side with that argument, but how do you argue that you dig an indie folk/bluegrass band like Trampled By Turtles? well ,you just man up and say you dig them and put them at number 5 for a top ten of 2010.

4. The National - High Violet

If I could give an award for biggest impact as far as bands go over 2010, The National would win first place without any sort of argument. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I didn't discover The National until mid summer of 2010, but with that said I'm so glad that I managed to listen to them. It's very hard to put a label on them because they aren't quite pop and they aren't indie and they aren't alternative, but they are some sort of amalgamation of them. High Violet isn't as good as Boxer was, but how the fuck could any album stack against Boxer and come out on top? The answer is that it's almost impossible to pull that off and come out on top. This album is a bit more low key than Boxer and I guess it's all up to personal opinion as far as the rating goes. If you thought Boxer was a bit too intense and was lacking in the metaphor department, High Violet very well might be your album of the year... If not, it's the 3rd best album of the year and that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Here it is

Alright, alright I'm sorry guys about being a bad blogger and promising posts and never delivering. I'm doing this post to make up for that (just a little bit) and I'm going to post my top albums of 2010. I'm sure you're saying, "It's already mid-February, why is Stiche posting a best-of 2010?" Well I'm lazy that's why (and busy, don't forget about busy.)

So Without further adieu, her's my best albums of 2010.

10. Immolation - Majesty and Decay
Alright, I'm not going to lie, this is straight up brutal death metal in it's purest form so if you're not into that, don't click play. With that said, this is one of the most refreshing and straight up bad ass releases I've had the privilege to listen to in quite a while. The riffs are technical to the point of having to question if they actually came from a living, breathing human being and the drumming is out of this world. If you're able to enjoy death metal (and I know it's a hard thing to enjoy and I'm not going to look down on anybody who doesn't like it (because it's that hard to enjoy)), you owe it to yourself to listen to this album.


9. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
I already put this track on the blog a while ago and I still feel that it stand up to the test of time. This album manages to infuse the best of electonica with some solid acid jazz and god knows what the fuck it took to make this music video and somehow Flying Lotus created somewhat of a masterpiece in the genre. The whole album somehow manages to ebb and flow all around the listener, but it's always there and it makes such and impression that one has a hard time imagining what life would be like without such a soundtrack to their daily lives. Yeah, if you even casually watch adult swim you owe it to yourself to get this album because Flying Lotus has been doing the bumps for years.

8. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
Yep, it's full of key changes and complete tempo fuck-ups, but that's what makes this release so damn enjoyable. It's mathcore (sort of), but it's also metalcore (the good kind of metalcore), but it's so technical (in a bad ass way), but it's just...... you get the idea. The entire album is all over the place and technical to a fault (but there isn't a fault!) which makes it a difficult listen. There are passages in the album that are so full of melody that it could make any casual Rise Against fan (I'm one of them) bob their head, but in the same breath, the album is so full of chaos and disorder that it's hard to enjoy in one sitting... My suggestion is to listen to this track (below) a few times and just soak it in... Is it soaked in yet??? No??? Alright, listen to it again until you dig it...

7. Deadmau5 - 4x4=12
What can I say about Deadmau5... It's hard to stick up for them after they've (he's??) broke into the mainstream after being one of the DJ's in DJ Hero 2. Fuck it, I'll do my best. Deadmau5 has always been known for having driving, throbbing, technical beats and were for a while known as the king of progressive house. It was in that capacity that I fell in love with Deadmau5. The tracks were ridiculous, bad ass, and they seemed to go on forever (in a good way... (I love minimal electronica) and Deadmau5 fit the bill. This is a whole new beast. 4x4=12 is full of dubstep and god knows what else, but for everything it has, the one thing it lacks is moments of boredom.

6. Kvelertak - Kvelertak
It belongs to a genre known as "black n' roll" so with that in mind, Kvelertak succeeds. The band is from Scandinavia and sings in black metal shrieks, but somehow has rock and roll sensibilities and flows from one genre to another as seamless as a leather jacket. Sure it might be a bit jarring (suck it up), but once you get past as the first sonic boom of awesomeness, it's time to take the songs in one at a time. One of the great things about this album is that the band chose not to (or was unable) to release the album in English so it's all in Norwegian. It adds to the mystery of the band. Are they singing about being a man in today's day and age and having feelings they can't openly express or are they singing about a dragon reigning down upon a helpless village? Who knows? This is the first album I've chose not to look into as far as lyrics go because I really don't care. The album rocks too hard for me to care. 'Nuff said.



Part 2 later...

My bad

I haven't given up on this bad boy yet, I've just been really really busy with my practicum and haven't had any "Stiche moments" to write about lately. I finish up my practicum on Tuesday so I'm planning on doing a top albums of 2010 list sometime later this week.

In short, the blog isn't dead, I'm just tired/lazy/struggling with ideas lately, but it'll get better.