Geek vs Life

In honor of The Donnas’ 15th year anniversary (May 9th), here’s a review of Spend the Night, my favorite Donnas album, released in 2007.

It was The Donnas 5th album and featured “Take It Off,” the major hit on this lovely sex hungry romp. Often compared to the Ramones, The Donnas pull it off with a sassy feminine grace. They come on strong and don’t back down with “Dirty Denim” and “Who Invited You”.

These might just be the girls your mother warned you about.

Why? These boy hungry girls party hard. Just listen to “Pass it Around”. They also play hard and loud, not just for girls but better than anyone on the scene today.

But don’t just take my word for it. Go spend the night with The Donnas.

The Donna’s official website.

The following is the official press release announcing Sakura-Con’s musical guests.

Seattle, WA1-23-2008 Sakura-Con hosts US debut of Ali Project and welcomes musical guests SCANDAL

Sakura-Con 2008, March 28-30th at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center will host the Japanese band Ali Project for their first ever US appearance. Also confirmed for Sakura-Con 2008 is the Japanese, all girl band SCANDAL. Both are presented with special thanks to NEU BAUHAUS.

Ali Project is a highly accomplished Japanese band with 19 albums to their credit and songs on over 14 anime soundtracks-including series beloved in the US- such as: .hack//Roots, Clamp School, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Noir, Rozen Maiden (TV, Ouvertüre, Träumend), Wish.

Rilo Kiley- Under The Blacklight

Los Angeles band Rilo Kiley is back with their new album Under The Blacklight. Their sound is fresh, funky and sure to please old and new fans alike. The killer 70’s style bass lines in many of the songs will get you shaking your ass like nobody’s business. There’s a million ways to keep love alive and just as many reasons to love Rilo Kiley, their frank yet poetic style is one of them.

“Dejalo” is simple song about something we all know and love: sex and hooking up. It’s very tongue in cheek and matter of fact. While “Breakin’ Up” is about surviving and moving on when said hook up is over. Sure to be heavy on your playlist even if you’re not in the middle of a break up. “The Moneymaker” is the grooviest song on the album. Listen it while you strut, you’ll look cooler than the Xbox 360. The title track, “Under The Blacklight” is a heartfelt ballad that, if you listen closely, will make you smile and cry at the same time.

I know not enough music gets reviewed for this site. The problem is so many music is dropped every week. (The same is true for books, but with books even more.) And for what ever reason we have been trained as consumers to buy the new thing right when it comes out. (I am a little dishonest there. I know the reason. The reason is just a long rant of a post…another time perhaps. Books thankfully are immune to this. Unless you really love the author/series.) Theoretically the reviewers of whatever media do this early critical reason to steer those reading the review to steer clear of the coals, and find the diamonds.

Zeitgeist: /the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era/

Some things will never be the same. Especially when talking about music. Deep down, everyone knows this to be the truth. Yet somehow, when it comes to our favorite bands, people somehow tend to forget that. Then when a band changes their sound, the fans accuse them of selling out and then they move on.

This has never been truer than with The Smashing Pumpkins. Upon hearing that the band was reforming, a looming question came up: will there be an album?

The answer is yes, a new album would surface. There was doubts and mixed feelings about that. What would this album sound like? You the people like it? If you don’t go into it expecting another Siamese Dream or even Adore you’ll be amazed.

In this third and final list for a summer party, comes the intimate party. This may involve cocktails, or sitting around talking in large groups. You will want to choose something mellow background music, but melodic, and interesting with the lapses of conversations occur. The silence is quite normal. Don’t be afraid of it. This is what the music is for. Try to choose something pretty, but not overplayed. Also a particular song might become linked to a memory. Someone could fall in love while some random song is playing. Try not to be something embarrassing or a novelty song that will be played out in week or so. For my own preferences I put on many songs from 2007. You don’t have to do that, when you create you own play list, but a theme may help whittle it down. Also if the party started as an intimate party it will most likely end in the same manner. Check the mood of the party at two hours, but don’t be surprised if the party is nearly over, or just extending your play list. These songs can be put on random or in order. Remember making great memories starves off death.

Hopefully some of you have heeded my words of wisdom and made a great BBQ play list over the past weekend. Now let’s move on to steamier night and adventures, I give you you the dance-athon play list. again you can find most of this music legally, using sites such as Emusic or iTunes.

Dance-athons are the easiest play list to make. The only hard rule is to attempt to flow each song into next song. You can easily make themes, for example eighties night is very popular with the ladies and people of a certain age.

Next Monday, look for part two in making mix tapes, especially dealing with Dancethons. For your amusement, what follows is what people are going to be dancing to for the rest of the year. Meet this year’s darling music to make a beat to and a statement. Joining in the throngs of LCD Soundsytem, The Rapture, and others. Enjoy! And don’t forget to move your feet.

It is the song entitled “Thou Shalt Always Kill” by Dan Le Sac vs Scoobius Pip.

See the clip below.

Summer is at its pinnacle; there are BBQ’s, booty shakin’ grind fests, and quiet parties wrestling with the dawn. What do they all have in common? They need music! Well this is a play list for these activities. You can find most of this music in legal avenues, like Emusic or iTunes.

The first thing in creating a play list is to know what kind of party it is. BBQ’s need louder music, with lots of different genres, and accessibility. It also needs to be fun. Rump shakin’ parties are easy. They just need a good beat. The quiet conversational party with occasional make outs in the background, need melodious music, which doesn’t overtake the party, but isn’t forgettable during the conversational lulls. (This should be every seven minutes or so.)

Hey hipsters and geeks (in the Seattle area) check out the Capitol Hill Block Party! It is this Friday the 27th, and Saturday the 28th. It has food, booze, and most importantly music. Each day has over 20 musical acts, including the headliners of Spoon, and Silversun Pickups. The cost is 15 dollars per day. You can pick up tickets at Neumos or Urban Outfitters without service charges. For those that don’t want to leave the house until the party, go to www.ticketswest.com, but remember service charges do apply. Get your tickets as soon as possible. If it is any indication previous Parties have sold out in advance.

The Block Party will be located on Pike between 10th and 11th Ave. The doors open on Friday at 3:00 pm, and on Saturday they will open at 1:00 pm. Of course that means none of the bands start until 4:00 pm on Friday, and 2:00 pm on Saturday. At midnight, there will be a spinning party at Neumos, including the current master of slicing, dicing and mish-mashing champion, Girl Talk, on Friday night.

Best music is often found while in the bathtub and
Eden Star is no exception. The group, best described
as early punk with David Bowie vocals, is Intense in
every regard. There’s a hard edge that is enlivened
by the earnest lyrics and energy put forth by the
band. The whole album plays like a jolt of electricity
flowing through the veins. “ Come Tomorrow” Is a
beautiful loud start to a truly hard rocking album.
This band draws their roots from Glam Rock and you can
hear it, it’s not false advertising.
Another local (read: New Jersey based) band, Eden Star
harvests the best of the 70s rock movement with a
modern edge. The lyrics are classic with backup in all
the right spaces blending with the instrumental
seamlessly. You won’t find any screaming or screaching
feedback on this album.

The White Stripes will be releasing their sixth album, Icky Thump on June 18, but we were lucky enough to get our hands on it early. The album is a return to their sources sounding a lot more like De Stijl than Get Behind Me Satan.

Stand out track include the title track Icky Thump with its hard beats and catchy guitar riffs. Catch Hell Blues starts off like with an almost eternal bluesy refrain only to morph into so much more. The 70’s are alive in this combination of tried and true classic White Stripes and experimental sounds in which Jack White just seems to be having fun. Little Cream Soda bring flashbacks of Metallica before they turned into the anti-Napster corporate bitches they are now, circa 1986’s Master of the Puppets. The whole album to me just seems to a mix of one style with another from one song to the next for example 70’s rock with Mexican Mariachi music on Conquest. But the key thing is that the White Stripes make it work. The album is red hot. My vote for the next released track is I’m slowly turning into you, the song took hold and stuck with me for hours.

A good friend of mine whom I pretty much live with introduced me to this band and to be honest at first I didn’t give them a fair chance. I could not understand why he was so obsessed with them and why he’d always play them on my Zune on the drive home. That is until now.

Last night I downloaded albums The Mechanical Hand and R. Borlax. I cannot stop listening to them.

Horse the Band is part of a genre known as Nintendocore. They’re a hardcore metal band that uses a Korg MS -2000 synthesizer to create an 8-bit video game sound. Pretty much all of their songs deal with popular NES games. For instance the song Birdo is well about Birdo, one of the bosses from Super Mario Bros. 2 and another song The Cutsman is about Cutman from Mega Man.

Blissfully Dead is the first album by Glass Doll. Out
of New York City, Glass Doll has had some trouble
forming and has been in several stages of development
since 2005. The current line-up of lead singer Lillie
Charlotte, drummer J-Lo, and violinist Zed bring a
refreshing sound that blends the aesthetics of British
glam rock with the simplicity of early American punk.
This blend leaves a feel of arthouse rock mixed with
intense, dark lyrics and chocolate sprinkles.

Less is indeed more as this trio bring their music
that feels at home today as it would in the 80’s
alongside Julian Cope and Ian McCulloch with a
carnival feel. When asked for a comment, lead singer
Lillie Charlotte said, “It sounds that way because we
use a lot of 3/4 time.”