So, as some of you may know, I just finished my first year of college. Overall, it was awesome. 8/10. I had a wonderful year and all was dandy and drunken (and educational, of course. DUH).
But in my second semester, things had kind of gone haywire and the ridiculous small size of my school/it's remote location started to get to my head and I broke down. I got stressed out easily and ended up yelling at a lot of people (read: I was a bitch to most of my friends about half the time). I felt like everything around me was just disappointing and miserable, and to help solace this fact, I started to write a lot of lists. Most specifically, I made lists of things that had disappointed me in the past. This is one such list. It is a list of albums that put me off the second they dropped. I listened, I cried, I broke something, then I wrote a shitty review on some inane music website.
Wolf Parade's At Mount Zoomer
Seriously, what the hell? My brother says he blames Spencer Krug, but I don't think the whole thing can be caused by one person. It was kind of one giant mess and what made it even worse was that their first album was absolutely fucking incredible. To place them next to each other is kind of horrendous. This is all without even touching upon the titles of the songs, the title of the album, the lyrics, and the cover. Oh man.
Beirut's March of the Zapotec
A friend of mine put this in such a good way. He said he was sick of Zach Condon "butchering" different culture's music into "stereotypes." While I did really enjoy his first two albums, and I adored Lon Gisland EP, this semi-retarded third album really pushed the envelope. It is just terrible. Really terrible. It sounds like a mariachi band hired by some crap business for their company picnic that no one wants to attend. I say Zach should have stuck to the gypsy folk tunes.
of Montreal's Skeletal Lamping
Bah. I can't even talk about this. After the incredible Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? I spent months and months waiting in anticipation for the follow up to a god-like album. Well, if Hissing Fauna was a god, Skeletal is some kind of poor mortal praying to be better. I did not enjoy it. In fact, I barely gave it a second listening before deleting it from my itunes (Itunes? iTunes? Whatever, Apple, suck it). You have to be kidding me, of Montreal. Lucky for you, I still bought a ticket to see your wonderful live show in July.
Swan Lake's Enemy Mine
Bad. Bad bad bad. It irks me that an indie super group like Swan Lake can't seem to make one solid album. "Beast Moans" had select tracks here and there that were very good but on a whole just couldn't seem to feel like a coherent set of songs. Not to mention some of the tracks were pretty terrible on their own. "Enemy Mine" is worse than this. Barely any of the songs stand on their own, however they don't work together either! There is no way out of this musical hell hole! You guys should be incredible! Sit down, stop trying to outdo each other in every track, and write a good song! I feel like Swan Lake's problem is that all the different members force feed their musical style and genres onto the other members. We've got some intense Sunset Rubdown references, mushed with New Pornographers barely making it in, finishing with a topping of Frog Eyes meets Destroyer. Not. A. Kosher. Mix.
Weezer's Green Album
Pinkerton to this? Oh god. They redeemed themselves a bit in the future, but...I miss really old school Weezer (and I was barely self aware for that period. Sad.)
Xiu Xiu's Women as Lovers
As someone who is not afraid to admit that Xiu Xiu is one of their absolute favorite bands (I own two shirts and every album), I was really upset when I heard this album. Even for Xiu Xiu it is pretty non-cohesive and nonsensical. This time it just doesn't happen in such a good way. I hope the next one, "Dear God, I Hate Myself", is much better. I already love that title. Jamie Stewart, make me proud.
Voxtrot's Voxtrot
I adored their EP and listened to it pretty regularly for a long time. I even saw them live and went backstage since a friend was dating the lead singer (score!). They were super nice guys and very down to earth. That's why I feel like this is a personal attack. So I will hold off on the insulting metaphors and similes and just say: this could have been much better. Besides "Kid Gloves", nothing hit me from this at all.
Architecture in Helsinki's Like It Or Not
I don't even really want to talk about this that much. Sorry. Just. Yeah. Fuck you AIH for courting me with your live show and then pulling this shit on me.
Bon Iver's Blood Bank
Okay, so, I'm not a huge Bon Iver fan to begin with. Sure, his music is pretty and ethereal, dreamy and haunting, but it's not that original. Nor is it overly gorgeous. I also find him to be kind of boring. But I liked the first album, "For Emma Forever Ago". I listen to it on occasion and if it comes up on shuffle, I won't skip it 8 times out of 10. But this Blood Bank crap? So awful. The songs are boring, without structure or purpose. It sounds like he was shooting for an experimental side but it just fell flat. "Woods" is the worst track. I can't even listen to the whole thing through.
The Beatles' Let It Be
Seriously, WHAT were The Beatles thinking? This badly written, messy, half assed album is an insult to musicians everywhere. When I first heard this after it came out, I was like, "Gimme a break Paul and John. Way to fuck things up at the last minute." I wrote them a strongly worded letter about how much they suck. A month later, they broke up. Sorry Beatles fans. Guess that was my bad.
(But I am kidding of course).
Showing posts with label list. Show all posts
Showing posts with label list. Show all posts
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
thing that really ticks me off #1
Welcome the first of many installments.
I thought that when I don't have anything in particular to rant/joke around/make lists about, I can pull out one of these and they basically provoke the same effect. Plus, I have bucket loads. Obviously.
Let's start off with a simple, yet tragic, one:
The realization that I will never live in another time period
Okay, so this may sound petty and spoiled and all around neurotic but honestly, it really does annoy me. I can't say I am a huge fan of this day and age; there are things I love but there are also things I really strongly dislike. And while other decades and eras had their downfalls as well (as an example, no modern medicine in the Dark Ages was pretty bad) I've always thought it would be amazing to just live for a day in a world like that. Part of me would do absolutely anything to spend one afternoon in Victorian London (yeah, that's right: I'd risk the rib breaking corsets and diseases in the streets for one true period tea time crumpet). I also of course would love to hang out at Woodstock in the 1960s, or fight my way into a Beatles concert, screaming my guts out like all those insane girls you see in old footage.
Top three periods I would travel back to:
1) The 1960s
2) The 1920s
3) Louis XIV France, provided I could be a noble in court
Yes, I will change my gender to make it back there. Can time machines do that? It should be a function or a button you press.
I would totally skip over Napoleon France and Woodraw Wilson America. They were annoying, in office for too long, and racist. And we liberal San Franciscans will not stand for that.
Until later, my friends. What era would you return to?
I thought that when I don't have anything in particular to rant/joke around/make lists about, I can pull out one of these and they basically provoke the same effect. Plus, I have bucket loads. Obviously.
Let's start off with a simple, yet tragic, one:
The realization that I will never live in another time period
Okay, so this may sound petty and spoiled and all around neurotic but honestly, it really does annoy me. I can't say I am a huge fan of this day and age; there are things I love but there are also things I really strongly dislike. And while other decades and eras had their downfalls as well (as an example, no modern medicine in the Dark Ages was pretty bad) I've always thought it would be amazing to just live for a day in a world like that. Part of me would do absolutely anything to spend one afternoon in Victorian London (yeah, that's right: I'd risk the rib breaking corsets and diseases in the streets for one true period tea time crumpet). I also of course would love to hang out at Woodstock in the 1960s, or fight my way into a Beatles concert, screaming my guts out like all those insane girls you see in old footage.
Top three periods I would travel back to:
1) The 1960s
2) The 1920s
3) Louis XIV France, provided I could be a noble in court
Yes, I will change my gender to make it back there. Can time machines do that? It should be a function or a button you press.
I would totally skip over Napoleon France and Woodraw Wilson America. They were annoying, in office for too long, and racist. And we liberal San Franciscans will not stand for that.
Until later, my friends. What era would you return to?
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
My favorite things about being at home and not having to live in a dorm
Home always has it's perks because, well, it's home! And I missed it dearly (especially the part where I'm not stuck in the middle of nowhere). Anyway, I was thinking about home and Vermont and San Francisco and all the little in betweens, and as much as I love college and everything to do with it, I have to say that...college kind of feels like a Motel 6 and home is more of a...Presidential Suite at the Hilton. Ya know? And I know that Bennington has some of the nicest dorms in the country so I would hate to deal with anything else ever.
So I wrote a list! Like always. It's a favorite hobby of mine.
My favorite things about being at home and not having to live in a dorm
1) Walking around nekkid!
Typical home thing; everyone always says "God I can't wait to get home and dance around naked!" (you don't say that? Well everyone else does, so...) It's been liberating not to have to be covered up every second, like I'm some kind of ancient relic being transported from one museum to another, and if I see the light of day, I'll shatter or break. Walking from the bathroom to my room has been way more relaxing since getting home. At school it always some kind of huge event.
2) Bathrooms that don't have peeling ceilings (woo! rhyming!), clogged drains, and unidentifiable hairs (probs pubes?) on the floor
Yeah. This speaks for itself. When you're sharing a bathroom with six other people (some times seven, with one of my hallmates' occasional squatter), it gets pretty gnarly.
3) Singing really loudly and not being afraid of the fantastic singer who lives next door to you judging your ass of
Yep! This fantastic singer actually happens to be one of my best friends, so I doubt he'd really guffaw at me raucously through the walls, but, I still feel quite timid. And I do love to sing. Good thing my nearest neighbor here is about 20 feet away and through a thick brick wall! Alright!
4) A mattress that doesn't feel like two planks of wood against my back with a couple nails here and there, poking out to destroy my life
Seriously, the mattresses=ouch. My mattress pad does a pretty good job at evening out the kinks, but some times, when it's mid year and I've pretty much flattened the pad, things get nasty and I hate it. I had forgotten what a good expensive mattress felt like till I flopped into my bed here at home.
5) I CAN LISTEN TO LUPE FIASCO AND NO ONES LIKE "OMGG DIS IS NOT INDIE!!!!11 WE H8 CHUU"
Bennington is kind of elitist about music. That is all.
6) Farting openly. Thank goodness.
Yeah.
7) Not being deprived of concerts again
In fact I have about 8 lined up for this summer already. Yeees. Last night I saw Patrick Wolf and this Saturday is Bat For Lashes. So wonderful. Bennington gets concerts, but it's like, one a month. In high school, I went to an average of about three to four concerts a month if I could, so I've been going through withdrawal, needless to say.
8) Ethnic food
Like sushi and burritos, instead of just chicken and sandwiches every night for dinner. Sorry but Vermont...it really doesn't get more white. Well maybe it does. In fact, I'm sure it does, but that's besides the point. The point is, I don't quite trust the "China Wok" across from Walmart in Bennington, while I do definitley trust, say, some little mom and pop restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown (the first and largest Chinatown in the US). The comparison is kind of ridiculous.
9) Being able to "SHUT UP ASSHOLES"
...at the people making noise in the house without stimulating a house intervention meeting about courtesy. Okay, so that never happened, but mostly because I never yelled "Shut up!". Maybe once. And people thought I was a huge bitch. So I never did it again.
10) My room
Plain and simple. The old photos, the posters, the loft bed, the stuffed animals...aah childhood, adolescence, and adulthood all wrapped into one.
So I wrote a list! Like always. It's a favorite hobby of mine.
My favorite things about being at home and not having to live in a dorm
1) Walking around nekkid!
Typical home thing; everyone always says "God I can't wait to get home and dance around naked!" (you don't say that? Well everyone else does, so...) It's been liberating not to have to be covered up every second, like I'm some kind of ancient relic being transported from one museum to another, and if I see the light of day, I'll shatter or break. Walking from the bathroom to my room has been way more relaxing since getting home. At school it always some kind of huge event.
2) Bathrooms that don't have peeling ceilings (woo! rhyming!), clogged drains, and unidentifiable hairs (probs pubes?) on the floor
Yeah. This speaks for itself. When you're sharing a bathroom with six other people (some times seven, with one of my hallmates' occasional squatter), it gets pretty gnarly.
3) Singing really loudly and not being afraid of the fantastic singer who lives next door to you judging your ass of
Yep! This fantastic singer actually happens to be one of my best friends, so I doubt he'd really guffaw at me raucously through the walls, but, I still feel quite timid. And I do love to sing. Good thing my nearest neighbor here is about 20 feet away and through a thick brick wall! Alright!
4) A mattress that doesn't feel like two planks of wood against my back with a couple nails here and there, poking out to destroy my life
Seriously, the mattresses=ouch. My mattress pad does a pretty good job at evening out the kinks, but some times, when it's mid year and I've pretty much flattened the pad, things get nasty and I hate it. I had forgotten what a good expensive mattress felt like till I flopped into my bed here at home.
5) I CAN LISTEN TO LUPE FIASCO AND NO ONES LIKE "OMGG DIS IS NOT INDIE!!!!11 WE H8 CHUU"
Bennington is kind of elitist about music. That is all.
6) Farting openly. Thank goodness.
Yeah.
7) Not being deprived of concerts again
In fact I have about 8 lined up for this summer already. Yeees. Last night I saw Patrick Wolf and this Saturday is Bat For Lashes. So wonderful. Bennington gets concerts, but it's like, one a month. In high school, I went to an average of about three to four concerts a month if I could, so I've been going through withdrawal, needless to say.
8) Ethnic food
Like sushi and burritos, instead of just chicken and sandwiches every night for dinner. Sorry but Vermont...it really doesn't get more white. Well maybe it does. In fact, I'm sure it does, but that's besides the point. The point is, I don't quite trust the "China Wok" across from Walmart in Bennington, while I do definitley trust, say, some little mom and pop restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown (the first and largest Chinatown in the US). The comparison is kind of ridiculous.
9) Being able to "SHUT UP ASSHOLES"
...at the people making noise in the house without stimulating a house intervention meeting about courtesy. Okay, so that never happened, but mostly because I never yelled "Shut up!". Maybe once. And people thought I was a huge bitch. So I never did it again.
10) My room
Plain and simple. The old photos, the posters, the loft bed, the stuffed animals...aah childhood, adolescence, and adulthood all wrapped into one.
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