Bros

Got some old friends coming to visit this weekend


via The Selvedge Yard

Summer Jam

This album comes out today, this one is about as summery as it gets

Good Night Sweet Prince

Mike's Record Review: The Monitor by Titus Andronicus

Since I now have a job that consists of sitting in complete silence for 9 hours, I figured I should start listening to some tunes while I do. And then I thought, fuck it. Why don't I review records. So, here it is.

Holy fucking shit.

This fucking album is probably the most amazing thing that's happened in a long time. Like, so fucking awesome. How is this not the most important music right now? For example, at about 1:30 into the album the dude screams, "'Cause tramps like us, BABY WE BORN TO DIE!" ...Whoa. If the entire album was just that, literally 1 minute and 30 seconds, I'd still think it was fucking awesome. While The Boss is singing Gaslight Anthem's praises for essentially pretending to be him but shitty, these dudes are taking Jersey rock n roll and like exploding it into a million pieces.

Wanna know how rad this album is? SPOILER ALERT: I really didn't like "The Airing of Grievances". I thought "Titus Andronicus" was a rad song that made me want to shoot myself every time I heard it, but I thought the rest of the album was kind of lame. This album takes that one song, turns it into a bunch of songs, multiplies how good it is by 100, adds violins and bagpipes, and then USES THE CIVIL WAR AS A METAPHOR FOR MODERN DISILLUSIONMENT!!! Are you fucking kidding me?!? So, intense.

I'll say this though. This album might not be for the young, male in his 20s. It's pretty much designed 100% to make you want to hang yourself in your closet. There's just too many emotions on this album to connect to.

When the gang vocals come in at the end of "No Future Part III," chanting, "You'll always be a loser," turn it in, buddy. You better be doing something super rad with your life or else, because it feels like they are singing that line directly to you about every little thing in your life that you're unhappy about. The album is completely like that. Just too much young man emotions flying around. Since the basis of these reviews is that I do them while I'm working, I must say ... not the place to listen to this album. Sitting at my little desk, toiling away so someone else can get paid, this album is the perfect soundtrack to slamming your fist through your computer monitor in a fit of impotent rage. By the time that last chorus of "To Old Friends And New" comes around, I've gone through so many emotions, it's like a rain washing down on me. I'm like Andy Dufrense after he gets out of that sewer pipe in Shawshank Redemption. "Let the rain come down on me! Let it wash away the pain of this modern world!" I seriously didn't listen to the last song for a while because I was always so fucking emotionally exhausted by the time it came around. There was no way I could listen to a 14 minute song about how much dude-bros suck, which is EXACTLY THE SAME WAY I FEEL.

Seriously though, every song is fucking unbelievable and makes me so depressed in the best way possible. And I'm super embarrassed that a dude that's younger than me is also way more successful, smart and emotionally mature than me. It's fucking genius. I didn't like that Craig Finn is on it though. I'm so over that dude. I see you eating brunch every Sunday dude, you're not so cool.

Swords for 48,000

This gets increasingly more awesome.

Further Proof that Diddy is unbelievable.

Diddy is probably the best person in the world. While most people are concerned with nonsense like volcanoes and South Park doing something dumb again, Diddy is starting his own vodka war. Diddy owns half of Ciroc Vodka (the official sponsor of New Years ... how is that possible?!?) and said (to a huge party in a fancy nightclub), that if you are not drinking the delicious Ciroc vodka, you are in fact, "drinking pee pee."

whoooaaaa!

This caused all sorts of vodka tycoons to get upset. If you move in circles, where you even have the chance to upset vodka tycoons. You're amazing. The guy that owns Georgi (the official sponsor of date rape and jungle juice) sent Diddy a toilet full of Ciroc. Of course, Diddy didn't respond to this, because his toilet probably IS full of expensive vodka. He's rich.

Anyway, Diddy made a wonderful little video of himself, sitting in a bubble bath, drinking a martini to apologize for saying georgi tastes like pee pee (it does).

JK! He's not sorry!

Be Inside an Imploding Stadium

GET IN THE MIX!

I've always known it.

Dude ran that dope pair of black Nike Cortez too.

RAD TIMES!

That's nice right there.

I lived in O-town about 5 years too early.

The world is circuliclicalar.

Parody of a joke of a video of a promo video of a sub-sub-culture. SNL is really alienating it's base of people that want to see Sarah Palin be a bafoon, and Barack Obama as the Hulk/Rock.

Pitch Perfect

Who arted?

If you happen to live in the greater Hudson Valley area, and want to come check out some pieces of ours (yooooooo), we will be showing at Gadaletos in New Paltz. All portraits, all dudes, full emotional capacity of a 15 year old.

Fast Life

Mike's Record Review: Fang Island by Fang Island

Since I now have a job that consists of sitting in complete silence for 9 hours, I figured I should start listening to some tunes while I do. And then I thought, fuck it. Why don't I review records. So, here it is.

Fang Island by Fang Island

Do you remember when you first heard Torche's first album? And then you went and talked to your metal friend about about and were like, "Hey, so that song Rock It! How fucking about it?" And they kind of went, "Heh. Yeah, it's something. Pretty silly." And all embarassed you went, "HAHAHAHAHA! I know, right! That song is so stupid! Totally not amazing at all! Anyways..." But in your head, you thought, "That is the best song I've ever heard in my entire life. I wish every song sounded like that." Well, I don't know if Fang Island feels the same way, but they made an album that sounds fucking like that. UNSTOPPABLE!

You know how people are like, "The is the best album of the year..." or whatever. Nope. Fang Island is the best album ever. It sounds like you're fucking punching a hole in the moon. K-POW! And like, if someone HAS to no matter what, describe your music as "triumphant," pack it in. Everyone else is done with making music. This shit is the truth. Like, I can't say enough. The album is 80% guitar solos and drum fills and pretty much the only time there's singing, it's in the form of beautiful, soaring four part harmonies. It's just soundtrack music to doing fucking kick ass at life. Every song sounds like it was written to congratulate everyone for the previous song.

And the whole album's awesome! You don't skip anything! Like, I know it's corny to describe it as victory music, but that's what it is! All sorts of victories. Getting a new job victories. Kissing that hot girl victories. Beating up a total douche victories. Cathartic, coming of age victories. All of them are here.

If I had to say a song you should listen to first in order to get hooked, I'd say it's "Daisy." Song's a ripper, gives the goods pretty much immediately and doesn't really stop. Beautiful singing and hand claps. Pretty solid. But the thing is, all the songs are super awesome. Even my least favorite song, "Treeton" is a fucking ripper. When it starts, you're like, "Alright. Kind of sounds like Animal Collective. Pretty good. Kind of whatevs." and by the end of it, you're getting destroyed by shredding, southern rock bendy guitar solos and keyboard freak-outs. Just amazing.

So, yeah, in conclusion. Pretty fucking awesome. It might not be for everyone, but it's definitely for me.

There's always money in the BANANAS Stand.

Homies

I'm sayin.

Truth bombs on the reg