Untitled from PAT VAMOS on Vimeo.

I recently purchased the latest Get Up Kids album out of respect for their previous records. This is a band that I felt I grew up with each album  release. Each album, itself, showing a distinct sense of maturity. It all ended quite nicely with Guilt Show.

When I picked my first Get Up Kids album I was a little too old to be inspired by the band’s misconstrued emo tag, as I came to it from being a fan of undiluted punk rock. The band’s pop-punk style contained more melody and was a nice change from the other stuff I listen too. However, it still maintained an under-produced, live sound that I think is integral to good music. In fact, by the time I saw the band live – it was their final show and it was a fantastic show.

After 7 years since Guilt Show the band has released an album that takes a new and occasionally misguided direction…the band decided to layer sounds and noises in novel ways throughout each of the album tracks. It is messy particularly through headphones – I had trouble finding a good anchor song on my first playthrough of an album. Often introduction to songs drag out in an unnatural way causing the album to lack a sense of flow.

The simple hooks and melody of the past are there, they are just buried beneath artistic nuances. There are some strong tracks – Regent’s Court is pure vintage Get Up Kids and Tithe is old school goodness once you subtract the intro. The first single in Automatic is bit repetitive but stands as solid track. Pararelevant stands toe-to-toe with any of the songs on Guilt Show. Birmingham while good, sounds surprisingly like their Dog House days but in the best way.

On my first listen through I was disappointed but I still moved the disc to the car…after all, I wholeheartedly believe most people  experience the music the best in the car and not on iDevices. The album snuck its way back into the CD player and suddenly the album started to make more sense and became more enjoyable spread across my car’s speakers.

The album has an ethereal layer and the upbeat tempo and crunchy guitar that typically is contained within a Get Up Kids album is sometimes lost as many songs seem to plod along at their own pace. However, sometimes it works well as “Shatter Your Lungs” has become that anchor song I was searching for on my first play through – it is the type of song that will stay stuck in your head and offers the best mix of their new and old sound.

It is still far from their best effort but after 7 years, I guess they needed to let loose some those  ”novel artistic ideas” that hang around like bats in all creators head.  That said, it is entirely better than the reviews give it credit for…it just takes more than one listen through.

Ultimately, 50% of the songs on the album  have cemented their status as solid tracks – which by ratio, is far better than most albums on the Top 40. It just so happens the best tracks mostly fall at the beginning of record which causes the album to slow down towards the end. However, that said, in terms the characteristic vocals that helped to shape the Get Up Kids sound is a present as ever.

Check out: Automatic, Regent’s Court, Shatter Your Lungs, Tithe, Pararelevant, and Birmingham.

A couple of folks decided to run the high school novel through its paces on the NES. I love the idea to literary classics being turned into retro video games.

How about:

1. Super Lord of the Flies – A beat’em up!

2. Catcher in the Rye Sandbox Action title

3. Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Point and Click Adventures

4. To Kill and Mockingbird RPG

5. Call of the Wild Adventure

Sounds like some good literary gaming!

A fantastic song about a silly little thing!

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One day you go out and buy two shirts. One catches your eye immediately and its one that you could use to cruise on special occasions. The other is maybe a bit a plain but you’ll wear it on your lonesome or during errands. It is literally a beater – you don’t pamper it all – you just use it  and never think twice. You can wear it when you are sick.  The first shirt – well, it holds out for a “special occasion” – you take care of it and treat it well.

Once the “cruising” day comes you don your fancy shirt and skip off into the town. Maybe it doesn’t happen in the first hour or the second but at some point you realize that you’d rather be wearing the other one. In fact, the other one feels more like you than the fancy one ever will.

How come we aren’t supposed share our birthday wishes? All of mine usually involve spending time with someone I consider significant. It seems to me if I never say anything, it would never happen. Than again, I say things all the time and nothing seems to happen.

You wake up one day to find yourself in cycle. It’s not necessarily a bad cycle – in fact it can even be a good one by most standards – but it has a defined pattern.

Almost as if you can feel the curved path of each day like you can feel the ridges on an old vinyl record.

Each day in its arcing path makes the melody of the months seem to go faster the rhythm of each individual day.

I don’t give a shit about the Super Bowl.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8YNgrg9Vus

This is the question I keep asking myself…the more I feel disconnected the more it feels like everything is tricks and spin.

“Where is My Mind”

Oh -- stop

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head will collapse
But there’s nothing in it
And you’ll ask yourself

Where is my mind [3x]

Way out in the water
See it swimmin’

I was swimmin’ in the Caribbean
Animals were hiding behind the rocks
Except the little fish
But they told me, he swears
Tryin’ to talk to me, coy koi.

Where is my mind [3x]

Way out in the water
See it swimmin’ ?

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head will collapse
If there’s nothing in it
And you’ll ask yourself

Where is my mind [3x]

Oh
With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Oh
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Oh
Oh

Hey dOOd, one plus one equals two!

I am all for the democratic right to voice one’s opinion. It should be enforced and protected at all costs.

However,  probably the most disturbing thing about the current G20 footage – aside from reckless and ineffective vandalism  with no political point – I’ve seen more cameras and cellphones in the air than picket signs. 

Funny thing is that the footage being captured are not telling the true stories that should be told – the messages that the world leaders need to hear. The media has fixated on flaming police cars (which are coming out the common person’s taxes by the way) and marching batons…but so many regular people are capping the same useless shock footage that will end up tracking hits on Youtube.

We are so cyclical – we see these images on the news and can’t grow beyond them, in fact, we perpetuate them all for 15 seconds of clipped and repeated frame that will be dropped for the next day “News.”

I imagine the greatest protest to Harper’s 1.1 billion dollars spent would have been a political gathering that did not require an ounce of police effort. It started off that way and somehow disintegrated.

A few bad apples have taken the moment to release pent-up and misguided aggression on authority…which honestly seems like an attempt to recreate lyrics from music made to be sold to angst riddled teens. Not that I would ever give the police a gold star for merit with so many the bad apples on the force.  But it is all so disappointing – especially the hooligans.

Anyway, not that I imagine that many people are reading here, but if you have a political message that you wish was heard…the kind overshadowed by people and media who decided that antics were important than message – drop me a line and I’ll post your message.

]]> http://rakisingh.com/2010/06/thoughts-on-the-toronto-g20-riots/feed/ 2 http://rakisingh.com/2010/06/just-a-waste/ http://rakisingh.com/2010/06/just-a-waste/#comments Sun, 13 Jun 2010 13:48:18 +0000 admin http://rakisingh.com/?p=1364

This is a punk anthem that perfectly captures the questions and feelings I have for those I care for…from start to end every one of the thoughts in the song I’ve had and I still ask from time to time.

I always have this crazy feeling that I need to grasp life and this song knows that nothing is a waste…