Paper Triangle

I’m one of… probably none, who didn’t like the album X&Y.  It was good… definitely above average when stacked against other mainstream artists… but against the other Coldplay albums?  I did not like X&Y.  It was far too layered and deep for its own good.  Tons of instruments didn’t sound like tons of instruments- it all felt like one pad.  While the cd definitely was amazing in its own right… I just about never listen to it anymore.  And I haven’t for awhile.  However, my love of Coldplay has been rightly rekindled with their latest release, “Viva La Vida”.  Coldplay is one of the best mainstream bands out there- and with good reason.

The cd opens up with Life In Technicolour.  It’s probably one of the biggest disappointments in music history because it seriously sounds like it could be the greatest song on the planet… yet it doesn’t push 3 minutes and its potential is never fully met and its pretty much just a short instrumental.  It makes me wanna cry, really.  Then we’re lead into Cemetaries of London.  While musically it’s not very impressive, lyrically we see Chris Martin at the top of his game.  On Lost! we’re now given the great music.  When track 4, “42″ comes in, we see the latest Coldplay music come full circle: amazing lyrics meet amazing music.  From there its a wonderful ride you pretty much never want to end.  My only beef with this latest album is how short it is.  Uhm… at 45 minutes I still find it short.  I want certain instrumental parts to last forever and various vocal melodies to go so much longer.  I suppose it’s cool to see that I’m always craving more… but it also pisses me off!

Another thing I can’t stand about Viva La Vida is how a bunch of the songs have some of the most wonderful beats I’ve ever heard in my whole life… but they never really go anywhere.  The same beat goes on for four minutes and you’re just wishing something new might happen.  Well, no, no you don’t.  You’re completely content with the fact it doesn’t go anywhere… it’s still incredibly beautiful and awe-inspiring… but a part of you knows that this album will never reach perfection because of it.  Viva La Vida is an incredible album… but so far from perfect… and sadly, I have to criticize it so harshly because it really could have been the greatest album ever made…  Shit I’m tired.  This is going nowhere either!

Basically, Viva La Vida could have been the greatest album ever made.  But repetition and a lack of expansion keep it from reaching its highest potential.  Nevertheless, it’s an album you need to own… featuring tunes you need to experience.  I have not a clue what Chris is saying on “Reign of Love” but it’s still one of the most soothing songs I’ve ever heard.  And tunes like, Yes, Lovers In Japan, and Death & All His Friends are jaw-dropping.

8/10.

Gosh. I haven’t listened to this song in a long time: “This Could Be Anywhere in the World” by Alexisonfire.  And I just felt so compelled to tell the world how great AOF is.  Their tone immediately excited me.  The guitars just sound so awesomely heavy.  They’re like… indie metal-ish, though.  Not the music- the TONE.  Let’s get that straight.  They sound like a really heavy indie band and its absolutely great.  And it just occurred to me that Dallas Green is an absolute genius when it comes to melodies.  The way he says “haunted” in this tune (my bad, the way he SINGS) is pure brilliance: he doesn’t pronounce it properly, instead he makes it more of an “ooo” and when you think about it, it’s weird.  But after a hundred listens I’d never thought about it until now… and he doesn’t pronounce haunted right, but he makes it soudn better.

fuck im so tired.

Just know tihs: AOF owns.

Well, boy, haven’t written here in a long time!

Really, I don’t know what’s up with me and my music.  Progression Media is kinda layin low for a while (can’t do much more with it at this point besides recording more people and keeping the name alive), RTA is getting better every day, and Appastar is just reaching, reaching, REACHING for new heights.

This past weekend I sang with my girlfriend at the Benet Muse Coffeehouse.  We did wonderful.  I fucked up a couple unnoticeable times because I was far too sick to really perform (at least musically), but it was still fun.  To me it was just a cool performance with my girlfriend… but for Harriet I know it’ll be something she never forgets.  My hope is that maybe we can do it again sometime.  I also played Menoma with my old bandmate, Mike.  It was straight up sweet.  It’s inspired me to record the drums for it now and finally get this amazing gem done.

Hm.  Gonna have a lot to do musically today…
record acoustic demos to new stuff so I can write drums…
cut drums to menoma?
record vox for songs?

I dunno. Stupid blog.

Expect a review of Narrow Stairs death cab up by the end of the week.  It comes out tomorrow!

Alllllrighty,
I haven’t updated this baby in a long time it seems.  Let’s go over what’s happened with me musically, the changes in this WordPress, and what’s up with Progression Media. 

Oy, that’s a lot to discuss.  And I’m kind of afraid of writing it all down… but I’ll give it a shot.

So Appastar is doing well.  We wrote a new song called New Bang that is, well… amazing.  It just shows that we’re all fantastic musicians prepapred to make some really great music in the near future.  Sure, the Appa tunes we have now are great… but they don’t include the creativity of each band members.  They pretty much only contain the creativity of Allen and Judd (since they wrote most).  chris, tim, and I were just there to add stuff.  On New Bang we all collaborated and wrote it together.  It’s beautiful.

Romancing the Angels is better than ever.  I’ll quote Glenn: “Your electric stuff is fantastic.”  I appreciate his comments almost more than anyone’s.  This new song Tripwire I wrote is just… leaps and boudns ahead of everything else I’ve written.  Only 30 seconds into it and Harriet mentioned how it’s probably the best thing I’ve ever written.  Hah… we hadn’t even gotten to the good parts and she was thinking that.  Hooray.

Progression Media is doing so well.  It’s small… but word is getting out. And Adam Cowsert is pretty much a full-time partner with it.  He’s helping me and I’m listening.  PM will be recording the duo Max and Keegan in the very near future.  Should be great.  From there I’ll get a lot more people listening and finding out about me.  Well… us.  PM is a family.  I got Lauren Baker to contribute photos recently- they’re up on the MySpace!  But I don’t know how to distribute them otherwise… gotta think.  Brainstorm with Adam?

I know what the next piece of equipment I wanna get is too… 003 Rack with Pro Tools.  I’m pretty sure of it.

Anyways, I’m gonna bounce. Peace!

PROGRESSION MEDIA PRESENTATION

progression-records

Gosh, so much is going down with Progression Records that I can’t keep up!
Today I’m going to just write down anything and everything about PR I want to do and what my mission is.
That’ll bring some clarity.
Things like… how am I going to execute all my plans?  What are my plans? 

http://www.myspace.com/progrecordsforyou

So I just recorded two new songs.  Ones I wrote with Melinda.  I recorded drums, bass, guitar, and some vocals… starting at 1:50, I ended around 3:45.  I also wrote drums, bass, and lyrics.  In less than two hours I set up my recording devices, wrote a ton, and recorded a ton… and even mixed things up near perfectly.  Fuck.  I’ve got a gift.  I really do.  The tunes aren’t without their faults… and I still gotta add quite a bit… but I mean, c’mon.  I’ve got enough here to show people and go, “Yeah, this is rad.”  I love having two cymbals.  The new one I got is darker and not nearly as explosive as my old one… which is great.  Because when I was recording the song Rush, at the end there are these huge moments… and those huge moments are amplified because I’m going from a softer ride to a stronger ride and the dynamics are just awesome.  I love it!  I really wish Melinda would call me back so I can just gush all over the phone about these songs.

I’m sure by the end of this week they’ll be up for your listening pleasure on the RTA myspace.

Peace!

I just woke up and turned on Roller Coaster by blink-182.  I turned it in because today feels like a summer day.  I slept in till 8, its nice and sunny, and I feel better than ever.  But… now I feel even better because a) I haven’t listened to blink in a while and b) blink is perfect feel-good music.  Oddly enough I’d forgotten in the past week or so just how liberated blink’s music can make me feel.  When I heard Roller Coaster I thought of so many different wonderful thoughts: their music dvd that I strive to mimic, the summer days I’ve spent being a dumbass; in fact, blink’s music can basically sum up how I’ve felt just in the past few days in general.  As I sit here listening, I feel empowered and it’s awesome.  This is the reason why blink will always be my most favorite band… Sure, the Honorary Title and the Pillows are incredible, nay, the perfect bands!  But they don’t make me feel the way blink does.  And as long as blink has the ability to make me feel lighter than air and they can stimulate my senses like no other… they will reign as my favorite band.

Note to self: You’re not allowed to talk to bands at a concert!

Ugh, I do terrible while talking to bands.  I just can never think of anything to say or find a way into conversation.  I noticed this especially last night with Jarrod Gorbel of The Honorary Title.  The one thing I wanted to do the most was just leave him alone… say “Hey, great job” and walk away.  The dude is tired.  But no.  All the other people on the planet want to talk to him and so I get jealous so I feel the need to say something, but that whole time I’m talking, I’m thinking, “Fuck, this guy doesn’t want to talk to me.  He doesn’t want to talk to anyone.  He wants to go to fucking sleep,” and that throws me off completely. 

So note to self: don’t talk to bands.  I just feel stupid afterwards. 

But hey. The Honorary Title really is one of the best bands ever assembled.  Even Harriet was like, “They are such a solid band.”  she said more… but I can’t remember entirely how she put it, so I won’t put words in her mouth.  Yet again I partially missed them…. missed 4 fuckin songs.  That pissed me off… all because mapquest/the highways are so damn confusing.  Had someone answered their phone before Joan and had we had any clue of which way we were going, we couldda made it on time… but with both of those things going wrong, it made us just slightly late.  Well… not entirely.  I was only 10 minutes later than I was shooting for… but it was still too late.  God gave me a chance to get there earlier and I blew it.  Damn, me!  But I must say, Natalie is awesome to talk to.  She’s totally in the same league as me as far as enjoying all forms of art and appreciates them all exquisitely.  And one of my favorite moments was when we began talking about Harriet’s art-work… it was in that moment you knew that we were just one fucking creative couple, teeming with intrigue and talent. 

I said it once before… and I’ll say it many times again: we’re a power couple.  We radiate good things.

Oh, P.S.- I gotta praise/bitch out Mae for a minute.  GREAT show… as always.  And the new members are sweet (bass player could totally be more animated… but the one before wasn’t, so it’s cool).  But whoa.  Where the fuck were the songs from the new album??  All I remember hearing were Just Let Go and Rocket.  How about Brink of Disaster?  Crazy 8s?  Sic Semper Tyrannis?  Sometimes I can’t Make It Alone?? It’s their SINGLE!  Waiting, Telescopes- gosh.  I would have loved to hear some of theses songs.  They played far too many songs from their first album.  So that really makes me wonder what they’re thinking… I get this feeling the two members leaving affected what they can play live?  Sounds stupid, but it’s possible.  Seriously.  Major buzzkill.  I was practically dying to hear Brink of Disaster and Crazy 8s.  I waited the whole concert for those two songs and I didn’t get them.  Ugh.