Category: Uncategorized

we are scientists – with love and squalor – 3 stars

this is a strange one to review because i’m so aware of the reasons for my own enjoyment of it. if i’d reviewed this the week i got it, and been completely subjective, the album would score somewhere around a 4.5 out of 5 right away. but as i played it once, twice, three times i realized i liked it because it was a new rock band that couldn’t be lumped in with any of the other recent new rock bands being praised for their ‘newness’. they’re not trying to do the strokes-jangly-guitar thing, or the interpol-droning-voice thing, or the arcade-fire-tapestry-of-instruments-thing, or heaven forbid the futureheads/maximo park/bloc party-new-wave-of-britpop thing. they kind of defied easy classification by not being as novel as the other big albums of the past couple years, and i LOVED that. finally, a straightforward rock album i can just enjoy! a whole album about drinking, trying to get girls, and the consequences of getting them for better or worse, which doesn’t feel the need to pretend to be anything more than that.***

so i listened to it like crazy in an intense burst and relished it for what it was: a simple 3-piece power-pop rock band with standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus songs that almost always have a great riff right when you need it to keep you wanting to listen. one of their songs i consistently skip because it sounds too much like hot hot heat and sticks out like a sore thumb (track 11, ironically titled ‘worth the wait’), but the rocking choruses alone make half the other tracks — ‘lousy reputation’, ‘it’s a hit’, and this week’s pay day song, “this scene is dead” especially — definitely crank-the-volume-worthy.

if you think about it, and this wouldn’t surprise me after seeing some of their sarcastic interviews and the humor content of their site, the whole band’s output could be thought of as a parody of the “rock song” formula, and a sly joke on all of us. could be their band name is the hint that they’re really just throwing ingredients in, following a recipe for the a nice standard chocolate cake everyone wants, and they’re totally aware of and okay with that as a method. on an objective level then, no, it’s not an especially moving or landmark album. and you know what? coke isn’t that great either; but sometimes you know what you want, and it’s something simple and satisfying, and when you get it it’s kinda perfect in its own way.

***footnote: this realization i was so proud of, along with a good deal of my review, was all mirrored almost exactly in the review up on pitchfork. i swear though, i had all these thoughts myself on a number of successive drives home from work playing this album on repeat, days before i thought to go look up an actual review. however, i’m not sure if i should feel validated or afraid now that i’ve seen how much they align…[shudder].

valentines day is practically a weeklong affair this year with all the good things going on, and i like it that way. all those bitter single people can say what they will, but i’ve really enjoyed the 14th for years. honestly, unless you’re truly lonely with no hope in sight, what’s so wrong with a day that celebrates love? you get to revel in it if you have it (we did), and if not maybe it kicks you in the ass to remind you how you should keep looking (been there too, and i think it works).

lucky for me i’m dating the coolest girl ever, who indulged me in getting extra-fancy for a deliciously expensive dinner saturday night instead of tuesday. my idea being to beat the rush and be able to stay up all night without concern for the dreaded workday morning after. this plan worked out tremendously, because we came home and popped a bottle of champagne into new sparkling flutes (a gift for her) with handmade paper flowers in them (another gift; do i know how to make them swoon or what?), followed by freshly baked muffins and mimosas in the morning. we looked great and ate well and had a marvelous time.

not to be outdone of course, she had to go and make a delicious dinner herself on tuesday to show me up, followed by hand dipped chocoloate-covered strawberries for dessert, and THEN include the gift of massage oils, which we had to try out. sorry if that’s too much info, but it was such a nice gesture i had to give credit; all i did was buy a fancy dinner and do origami.

of course, there’s a heap of fancy cheese left over, so there’s tonight with another bottle of wine. then a valentines party saturday we’re supposed to get formally sexy for again… and all of this, you’re right, might have been painful without a special someone. very lucky for me then that i’ve got someone i’m crazy about to go through four nights of celebration with and still feel like i haven’t had enough (i.e., argentina in just over two weeks!). yes, i think this week proves it, cements it in my mind, confirms it, whatever you like: i’ve found my best girlfriend yet and it just keeps getting better.

airborne particulates be damned! i’ve got a cold or allergy something-or-other bothering me on valentines day! fucking poor timing, guys. you couldn’t have steered clear of these passageways for another 36 hours or so out of politeness? there aren’t some lonely single people around here you could have bothered with this business? i mean, they’re going to be at home crying and sniffling tonight anyway; they’ve got the tissue stockpiled to deal with you tonight. i’m scheduled to be spending the night with a pretty girl and you’ve got me all blocked up. super uncool.

take the person who told me this morning, ‘i hate valentines, it’s such a hallmark holiday’. not that i’m into wishing sickness upon others, but if ‘this day isn’t any more special than any other day, you should be romantic all the time’, then why can’t she have a cold today and i be sniffle-free?

somehow we’ll manage and i’ll share my own valentines thoughts afterward. happy [snif] valentines [cough] day everybody!

i have to pay monthly now to listen to a non-crappy-sounding stream of WOXY now? that’s a tough one, because i love WOXY and have been playing it a lot on itunes at work lately, but i also love free and would rather spend that money on cookies or something. all i know is this 24kbps stuff sounds like AM radio.

and speaking of that, they just played the new yeah yeah yeahs song, and its badness can in no way be blamed on quality of internet radio stream; that song is just weak. i’m sorry, but i’m pretty sure that band does not and will not ever have another ‘maps’ in them, and they’re practically headlining coachella? bitch please. (if you haven’t heard ‘gold lion’ yet, you can stream it from the their site.)

you know what’s way better than a crappy girl band? a good cop show. to that effect, the shield has been on the money this season. forrest whitaker is creepy as hell and causing major tension. also, my roommate’s lady friend getting him season one of the wire on dvd was the best indirect gift i’ve ever picked up. between the two i want to put bad guys away so bad… or at least just speak gruffly to people to show them i mean business.

i broke my cardinal rule in vegas this weekend and paid the price. you do NOT gamble while sober and during daylight hours. you go in the evening and stay up all night gambling — which we did, not getting back to madilyne’s place until around 7:30am — and if i had stuck by my own better judgment i would have left up fifty instead of down fifty. blast!

definitely worth it though because it’d been over 6 months since my last night in vegas, we gave madilyne a fun birthday night out, i experienced vegas with a girlfriend for the first time (totally works if your girl is as fun as mine) and a bunch of other fun kids i normally wouldn’t go on a gambling bender with, and i saw my first sleepless vegas sunrise. also, having a nice car stereo made the ipod-heavy car ride much nicer.

the super bowl party on sunday, well… i must have had more beers and distractions than i thought, because i feel like i only watched ten actual plays of football tops, and missed several of the commercials people were talking about the next day. i also lost the whopping 22 dollar pool because the seahawks didn’t try for a field goal at the end (idiots). i guess all that grilling and hosting and having fun gets in the way of serious tv watching sometimes, but i’m mostly okay with that.

tonight i get to go see joe’s balls movie though so at least i won’t miss everything people are talking about.

so that i might not ever forget this evening (though i know joe will not), the funniest night out to a bar in a long while went down last friday. not because we were generally in high spirits, or because it was diane’s birthday. pretty much entirely because our (straight) friend joe has the lead acting role in a small feature film in which he plays a role as a gay male, featuring full frontal nudity no less. then made the mistake of inviting us all to the premiere this weekend. things quickly descended after i suggested that at the moment of truth, i would yell out ‘BALLS!’ in surprise as loud as i could; soon after the film came to be referred to as ‘joe’s balls movie’ (apostrophe placement in question: joe’s balls’ movie? as if they’re the centerpiece?). i swear i have never heard a group that was half female make so many genital jokes in a span of half an hour.

a few other funny things i have been considering:

are there going to be a glut of black metal bands (and possibly horror films) all vying for release on 06/06/06, hoping the dark lord will bless them with spectacular numbers, or at least a throne in the underworld, for showing their dedication?

this one is only funny for those who have seen the film, but after watching it over christmas break i thought that if i had wicked flash animation skills i would totally make a spoof short entitled CSI: Rashomon and find out what the fuck really happened instead of watching a bunch of people cry about it.

on a more cheerful non-gambling note: there’s a new flaming lips song!

it’s weirder and heavier and more distortiony than anything on the whole last album — and that, fair listeners, excites me a whole heaping lot as someone who still prefers clouds taste metallic over their recent few releases. however outstanding soft bulletin, and to a lesser extent yoshimi, may have been, it’s good to see some thick fuzzy noise coming out of these lips again!

[the single’s already available digitally on itunes et. al., and the album comes out april 4th, for those like me who plan to spend the dough and not just enjoy this pay day song.]

well, looks like it’s more or less official, and i officially blew it. dammit, just barely in the upper half! but hey, now i know that next year i’ll just have to run off with the money before the lineup gets posted and i get embarrassed again.

the coachella pool winners

feel free to discuss the lineup here, unless you’re joe, in which case SHUT UP AND TAKE YOUR MONEY.

preliminary announcements from the actual source on the coachella lineup are promising as far as a solid two days of concertgoing; unfortunately i am more concerned with the fact that i fared barely better than half on our coachella pool below. no decemberists OR new pornographers? what the hell kind of promoters do you have working for you, goldenvoice!? although there’s still not an official flier released so i maintain hope that i will be vindicated against my evil, lucky, playing-it-safe friends. this is my form of faith.

it’s been quite a birthday week, i must say. the party last friday was out of control (pictures of the fun forthcoming), we had half a keg leftover with which to play some beer pong on sunday (pictures of my shameful losing streak thankfully nonexistent), then it was back to the work week. of course monday there were after-work beers for a meeting. tuesday on my birthday we went out for burgers (and a few pints), then i went out to a nice dinner with jess (and a few pints). wednesday was the day between mine and a coworker’s birthday, so we joined forces and hit the good old cozy inn for several beers and a few shots just for the hell of it. my shuffleboard game did not suffer. thursday, another meeting with some after-work beers. suddenly it’s friday again, it’s someone else’s birthday, and so of course we have to go out to a bar to celebrate….[pant, pant]…

i described to a coworker that no, of course there’s no problem with this pattern. it’s just your normal ‘mid-20’s alcoholism’ where it’s not a dependence, simply the way things work when young professionals socialize. don’t worry, little liver, some not-too-distant day people will start having families and dropping out of the scene and it’ll be just you and me again sitting around reading more books.

and some comics. screw getting old.