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CD Reviews: The Loved Ones, Horrorpops, and Tim Armstrong

By on Mar 5, 2008 in Music

Some thoughts on recently purchased CDs: The Loved Ones – Build & Burn After listening to The Loved Ones new cd, Build & Burn, I missed the intense drive of Keep Your Heart which begins with pounding drums and an energy-filled yell. I think it’s safe to say that The Loved Ones grew up … at least a little. On some level this is disappointing since I credit The Loved Ones and their song “Jane” to re-awakening my love of cheesy pop-punk and, in many ways, re-awakening myself. Nonetheless, after a few listens, I have come to really enjoy Build & Burn – and get its songs stuck in my head. Despite the decrease in intensity, Build & Burn offers all the catchy-ness of Keep Your Heart. “Louisiana”, a song about rebuilding New Orleans, is the first song that stuck in my head. It’s gospel-esque repetition seems fitting for the...

Who hearts Pink? I heart Pink!

By on Feb 6, 2008 in Music

I believe Pink has been listening to a lot of Freddie Mercury lately. There are certain moments in her new album, I’m Not Dead, that caused me to furrow my brow and rewind in case I’d heard wrong. First, it was the chorus to the title track, I’m Not Dead: “I’m not dead just floating.” The punctuated, tentative high pitch of the delivery screamed Freddie Mercury to me but then I thought maybe I was just crazy. On comes “‘Cuz I Can” with high pitched faux-Classical style backing vocals that include “Ice Cream Ice Cream We All Want Ice Cream” and “Ruff Ruff Ruff” (which was preceded by the line “I’m trying to school you dog.” Now I know I’m not crazy … and I know I freakin’ ♥heart♥ Pink. My love of Pink is not new it’s true but I really thought I had gotten over it....

more pitchfork + bad religion

By on Sep 18, 2007 in Music

i admit it. i was spurred to search pitchfork for bad religion reviews after hearing that a friend’s hipsterific brother stopped liking bad religion after pitchfork called their lyrics ‘politics for seventh graders.’ (let’s not even get into the fact that this person blindly follows pitchfork …) the previous post on their review of los angeles is burning was just my first foray. next in google’s “more from pitchforkmedia.com” is: the process of belief: well i respect them for not dissing too hard on br; on refusing to give their readers what they want: “You want to see your friendly neighborhood elitist thoroughly skewering a band long past its prime.” (what does that say about their readers? only 28 year olds in girls jeans one size too small plastered on by the modern marvel of spandex can make good music?) at least, they...

once upon a time pitchfork media reviewed los angeles is burning ….

By on Sep 18, 2007 in Music

Read the article here. “The irony of it all is that the band’s call-and-response vocal arrangements are straight out of a Baptist church house, as are the rich harmonies and the reliance on one man– in this case, Graffin– to testify to (and for) the congregation. Bad Religion’s magic doesn’t stem as much from their political lyrics as from the airtight arrangements and thick, sweet harmonies that bring the lyrics to you, and interestingly, are also the antithesis of the social rebellion the band advocates. A case could be made (and sometimes I make it) that the band resorts to the very things it deplores in order to get across a message, and that in the process, they demand a kind of allegiance that a cynic might call unhealthy. But if Graffin and Gurewitz are willing to return to the well to help the innocent climb out, the end certainly justifies...