Central Village

Your #1 Source for Brand New Touring Information

Brand New is playing Irving Plaza on April 22th. Considering they sold out 2 nights at the larger Webster Hall not too long ago in like an hour, I expect this one to go quick. There is a presale going on right now. Get tickets here. Pretty cheap too, at $19.99. All things considered.

They have a new album out that kind of rules. I'll get into it in a bit, once I get my blog-legs back under me for good.

Top 5 4 Rap songs of 2006 (I rarely go out of my way to listen to Rap)

I told my friend Joey a little while back that I had come to the conclusion, for my money, Rap was good for about 5 great singles a year and that was it. He called me Michael Richards. Now, I made this comment before I had listened to Clipse's new album, which is the only rap album I'm repeatedly listened to and genuinely enjoyed in years. Maybe a decade. The last ones that came close were Murs 3:16 and the first Dizzee Rascall, and we're not counting The Streets' A Grand Don't Come For Free here. Other than/before that, I can't remember the last rap album I really was able to dive into until this Clipse. Every time I give the pointyheaded, critically acclaimed stuff a shot (I'm looking at you, Lupe, Ghostface), it bores the everloving piss out of me. I've more or less stopped trying.

But no matter, there are always the 5 hot rap singles that are awesome and timeless every year. Well, right now I can only think of 4 without adding a second Clipse track, which is sort of cheating. I asked the aforementioned Joey if Promiscuous counted, and he said no.

5.
4. Jim Jones - We Fly High
3. Chamillionaire - Ridin'
2. Clipse - Trill
1. T.I. - What You Know

Any of these songs can come on, in any situation at any time of the day and put a smile on my face. about the best compliment I can give music, really. They make knees buckle and arms go up in the air almost as a reflex. I have no doubt the same will be true 30 years from now, assuming technology doesn't do away with knees and arms by then. They are big and popular and very mainstream, but they are undisputed classics. You certainly didn't need me to tell you that, but I felt like saying it anyway.

Big Winner and Big Loser of the 2006 Pitchfork Top Albums List

Big Winner: #13 - Phoenix, It's Never Been Like That
This, compacted with Fluxblog's followup made me recurious. I had this album already, had listened to it a bit over the summer, thought it was good, but with the neverending rush of new music coming at me at that time didn't leave it with me for long. Seeing it mentioned amongst the elite of 2006 made me remember that I liked it, and probably deserved to give it more of a listen. I put in on this morning while getting ready for work and still really dug it a lot. If there is one thing that I can get out of a year end list these days, it's not new music to check out, but reminders of what is already out there I liked, but knowingly didn't spend enough time with. Thanks, Pitchfork!

Big Loser: #1 - The Knife, Silent Shout
You know, Silent Shout is a great song, but the whole thing quickly slides into mehville by the time you hit WSOMHeath. Like Phoenix, this top spot getting album reearned a spot this morning on my constantly rotating little 1 gig nano. Unfortunately, a quick re-listen did nothing to convince me that I was missing something. I like the concept, I the idea of their sound, but the actual product does not work. Sorry, The Knife!

My three never-agains of 2006

Three things I swore never to do again this year. I'm putting it in writing because that often helps keep these things.

Never take a taxi to work. Not at this job, not in this office. This morning I was running a bit late and my feet kind of hurt cause of these new shoes I got. I went downstairs and there was an empty cab just sitting there, so I got in. 30 minutes later I furiously hand a tenner to the driver 6 blocks away from my office and walk the rest of the way because the traffic was a total stand still. It usually takes me 20 minutes by subway. Not only did I waste $10, I ended up having to walk just as far as I would by taking the subway and it takes 10 minutes longer. Worst part is this happens 4 out of every 5 times I try it, but if I'm running late in the first place, it means I'm extra weary and don't ever think it out all that well. I get in and I just hope I get passed these self set checkpoints without hitting the crippling traffic caused by the upside down garbage truck blocking 3 lanes or whateverthefuck happens up there. Goll-ee this is just the most frustrating thing ever. And it makes me cranky and upset the rest of the day.

Eat a Chicken Fried Steak. It seems like such a great idea. I love steak. I love fried things. But it is always, without a doubt, the worst, most regrettable meal consumable. It never tastes good. it just sits in my stomach for hours and hours, making me full and sleepy. It leaves whatever I'm wearing smelling like fried stuffs. And, of course, I end up getting really sick about 40% of the time. Hopefully this dish is made with Trans-fats and it'll be effectively banned round these parts very soon.

Pay to see a band I like at Roseland. From the GA Floor. I'm not a venue snob. I loooove Webster Hall, and good or bad sound usually doesn't bother me at a show because the music is honestly only one factor in me enjoying myself. But after seeing My Morning Jacket there a few weeks ago, I need to draw the line at this dump. It was unbearable. I actually walked out. And keep in mind, this is a band who I think played one of the greatest sets I had ever seen just a few months earlier. But I think this is part of the problem. That band sounds so good normally, a room like Roseland really ruins them, since it in effect makes them sound bad. If I see some crazy hip-hop act, somebody I like as a novelty, or somebody who actually is bad, I bet it would be fine. But paying ticketmaster fees, traveling up to the West 50s to see somebody I would actually be excited to see? Never again. It's a sure-fire disappointment.

I didn't mean to leave it like that

That last post. I certainly didn't take the comment to heart. I thought it was awesome. But I just realized that I hadn't updated at all this month and was told this weekend that it seemed like that was a cause to quit. Not the case.

I've been really really busy, lately. With my day job. Nothing fun or socially productive I'm afraid. I thought after CMJ things would get easier, but the exact opposite happened. I've actually been listening to a lot of music lately, tho. A lot more than I was during my official blog break. Been getting tipped to a lot of these upcoming album leaks. Trying for a head start on 2007, since the media saturation of the billions of 2006 albums did figure 8's and crisscrosses around my head. But I'm listening more. I'm just having a hard time finding the time or the motivation to write about it. It has always taken me a long time to write even the simplest posts, which makes me a lousy blogger by definition I suppose, but for me to convince myself that what I've written is something that hasn't already been said a hundred times is tough. I find myself second guessing what I start to write fairly often and I've actually written and buried several posts about halfway through over the last few weeks. I also noticed that the labels have found out about hype machine and elbo.ws, so posting leaked tracks is sort of pointless cause they make you take it down pretty quick. I'm thinking about sending those sites an email to take me off the grid, so I've got a little more flexibility. Nothing against them, but I never saw this site as an MP3 resource, and I could care less about the people who come here just for the songs. I'd take 50 readers and 50 comments per post over what there is now.

Tomorrow or the next day I'm gonna post my year end NY music wrapup on Gothamist. I don't think they're very happy with me over there, since I pretty much stopped writing live show reviews. I just couldn't do it any longer. I was never good at the formal review. I don't have the spine to shit on a band who I don't think was very good, and I don't think a can ever remove myself from the post, since all I know about music is how it personally effects me. It's somewhat easier to ramble on here about how I feel about something, but to speak as a 'We' never felt right, even tho I was doing the reviews from a first person singular voice. I just want to tell stories, not implicitly explain to someone what I think. Anyway, this year end post, if I ever finish it, it's gonna turn out to be the longest thing I've written in a while and it's taking me for fucking ever to get anything down.

I'm taking a real vacation between Xmas and NYE. My first non-music vacation in something like 3 years and I can't wait. I keep on picking future deadlines for me to snap out of my blogger funk and nothing's really worked yet, but I'm hoping a week in Prague and a New Year will finally do the trick.