(50) Sundays of Music: #6

#6: Pierce the Veil - A Flair for the Dramatic

"Like a rush shot through you..."

Those are the opening words to this release from the San Diego band who are slowly working their way up the ladder of their respective screamo/post-core/whatever identifier you want to call it scene. And years later after its release, I still get a rush when listening to it.

Here is my disclaimer: I realize as we get to the top of this countdown that more people will recognize the ones selected. However, I don't expect many to know this band (even I stumbled upon them by chance). Unless you listen to the Warped Tour scene deeply you may not have heard of them and I personally feel in due time they will be mentioned at the top. But with that said, my goal is to give you a few minutes of entertainment with a story. So here we go.

I was visiting my family one summer in California when my brothers said they wanted to go to a show headlined by a band out of Sacramento called Dance Gavin Dance. I was getting into DGD because they had slid me some music and while I usually do not gravitate toward the screaming/singing type, I did like it.

As we packed into the small club in Stockton, some of the opening acts took the stage. One contained a band with a ton of energy, featuring this skinny lead singer who looked like he would flinch at a fly but when the music started he turned into a beast. His high-pitched (at times whiny) voice was the type where you either loved or hated it, there was no in between. And I was immediately hooked. That opening band was Pierce the Veil.

I got their cd a few days later at the local Hot Topic and listened to it that entire summer. When I got back to Bama, I saw PTV was opening for Emery in Atlanta. I dragged a friend and once again, they stole the show. They did exactly what an opening band was supposed to do - impress you enough where you ask questions and take a chance on the cd.

What I remember about that show was wanting to take a picture with them and they couldn't have been any nicer about it. They were behind their merch table and I was standing in front of it and they said "hey, come around here" and they posed with me. The moment that grainy cell phone pic was snapped, they instantly were thrust into one of my favorite bands.

I would see them two more times at two different Warped Tour stops. Both times they did autograph signings and both times I got to chat with them for a second.

So as much as that may be a nice story about the band, what about the cd landed it at #6 beside memories of shows? Well, that was one reason. The tracks bring me back to those memorable live experiences (such as sliding in covers of pop songs - see below for an example). But the other is that it's a damn good cd.

The tracks are labeled "Act 1" and so forth before the song title. As previously stated, I love when bands put effort into their music like that. A Flair for the Dramatic is one of the few cds where I have pressed play and read the lyrics while the music played for the entire album.

If I ever can figure out how to go about it, the song "Currents Convulsive" contains a line that I would like to get tattooed at some point: "So I'll toast every beat of my heart like a miracle."

The music may not be for everybody, but I wish there were more bands like this. Bands that put effort into the overall package of the music and genuinely care about their fans.

And here is that pic:

Cover of NeYo's Closer before going into one of their songs:

Movie Thursday: #6

The Double Feature

Not counting Grindhouse, I've only pulled watching two movies in theaters in one day one time. I was visiting my friends in Tuscaloosa and they waited to see Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift and I wanted to see Nacho Libre. We couldn't agree so we just saw both. Ironically, I ended up liking Tokyo Drift and not really caring for Nacho.

That was nearly five years ago. Two weekends ago, I pulled my second double feature. I wanted to see both Megamind and Due Date and I've made a friend around here that has same sense of cinematic adventure so I proposed the challenge and she accepted.

I have to say, it was a success.

We were scheduled to watch the non 3-d Megamind at 4:20 but didn't get there till like 4:50 so we ended up watching the 3-d version at 5. The feature wasn't necessary, but the movie was great. I have heard some people saying it was terrible so maybe you shouldn't trust me, but I absolutely loved it. You could say it's because I like animated movies (Finding Nemo and Up are straight up classics) and I am a huge Will Ferrell fan (I did a happy dance when I saw Anchorman was released on blu-ray). The two combined to bring me a animated movie with a PG version of Ferrell's humor. So for me it was win-win and I enjoyed myself.

Then we left to meet a friend of hers who just got off work. Chilled with him for a minute before headed back to where the theater was and enjoying some Arby's. I admitted halfway through my curly fries that I was a wee-bit tired. But a challenge was a challenge and we decided to finish this thing.

Like I said, the double feature was a success, but part of it's triumph was that both movies were great. Due Date had me laughing and made me forget I was tired. Being from the south, it was actually funny to watch them eat at a Waffle House (that's a whole nother blog post though). And without spoiling anything, it was cool to see them take near the exact same route we did when we did an Alabama to California trip.

I do have one gripe about Due Date. I love Robert Downey Jr and Zach Galifianakis (and before I saw this, I did like the movie) but I felt like they played the same exact characters they always play. Downey with the hard shell you have to remove before seeing he's not so bad and Zach pretty much playing his Hangover well. Like I said, it's not a complaint because it worked, especially Downey. But as funny as Zach was, I couldn't help notice it was the EXACT same character from the Hangover. But I guess that's what you get when you have a director who had success with one movie and wants more success. I can't stress this enough: It's not a complaint, more of an observation.

Both movies were fun and the double feature was a success. If you haven't done one, you should try it.

Newness

It seems like in life, new things always come along that grab your attention. When The Office invaded my life, I lost interest in Scrubs. When Community came into my life, I lost interest in the The Office and so on and so on.

After a plethora of my friends told me I would enjoy Dexter, I gave it a shot on Friday night. It is Tuesday night and I just finished episode 8. I want to keep going but I need some sleep.

I love this show.

I am also enjoying a new song posted by Taking Back Sunday. Definitely came out of nowhere and made me pretty happy.

And I am pretty pumped that both Kanye West AND My Chemical Romance have new cds coming out next week. I've previewed them both and I feel like I won't be disappointed.

sidenote: A friend asked me what I was doing over Thanksgiving break. As this is my first year in the "real world," I told her I no longer had a break :(

And to end this random post, it's hard to call myself a reader when all I read are autobiographies. But is it bad that I am really interested in Jay Z's book and will probably get it for my South Dakota flight in December?

(50) Sundays of Music: #7

#7: Death Cab for Cutie - Plans

If I could go back in time, I would have gotten into Death Cab for Cutie much sooner. Instead, they were a band I had always heard of, but never heard. It wasn't until my freshman year of college, when I was living with one of the people I had heard of them from, that Ben Gibbard's voice started coming through the speakers in my house. (Which you can read more about at the end of this post).

Then, all of a sudden "Soul Meets Body" got on the alternative radio I listen to. I remember the roommate and I were at FYE in our college-town mall and I saw this cd, thought "what the hell" and picked it up.

I want to say that I went home and was mesmerized, that it completely took hold of me. But I can't, because it didn't. I read a piece on the website for Alternative Press recently where he was talking about not appreciating a Radiohead album till years after he obtained it. He said he had to be ready to hear it, and that's how I felt about Plans.

As depressing as this might sound, I got into a lot of music in the time during a very bad breakup that I went through. Though, when you look back at Plans, I wouldn't necessarily call it "emo." I don't know if this is a classification, but I would call it "well thought out" music.

What Plans did for me was introduced an appreciation for the piano. The opening track "Marching Bands of Manhattan" and "Summer Skin" are two good examples, but without a doubt the songs that I keep coming back to are the back-to-back masterpieces of "What Sarah Said" and "Brothers on A Hotel Bed."

While my major was journalism, I also graduated with a minor in psychology. One of the classes I took was called "Psychology of Aging" and we given an assignment to analyze a song or movie - anything that tells a story of growing older or the struggles elderly people face. I actually submitted a piece on "Brothers on a Hotel Bed" and received an A.

But it's not just the piano-background, there is also some cool tracks like the already mentioned "Soul Meets Body" and the classic "I Will Follow You Into The Dark." However, if I were to list my favorite tracks from this cd, in the top three would have to be "Crooked Teeth." I just love how it gives a sort-of bouncy vibe to an otherwise deep cd.

I love this album so much. I could put it on to fall asleep to, to relax to and when I'm tired of jamming on road trips, to channel reflection mode.

BONUS

The good thing about music is that even if you miss out, it will always be there. I mean, how many Beatles fans do we have today? It's because their music is timeless. Because of this aspect, I was able to go back to the time I missed out on and I have to also include Transatlantacism to my favorite cds as well. As mentioned before, I went through a pretty rough breakup and there were certain songs that spoke to me. "Tiny Vessels" was one of those tracks.

Movie Thursday: #5

Mr O vs. Jeanette vs. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

This week marked the DVD/Blu-Ray release (yes, I'm a hi-def junkie) of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I'm pretty excited as this was one of the few movies in history that I saw more than once in theaters. And as soon as I get some money aside, it will be viewed in my household more than once as well so I can fall in lesbian with it all over again.

So in celebration, this week's Movie Thursday is all about the epicness of Scott Pilgrim vs The World. To help me out, I enlisted the help of my good friend jeanette. We never publicized it, but we were once going to start a movie blog but, well, our lives got in the way. So consider this post a preview of what may have been.

(editor's note: Before we get started, there is a sidenote of cool Toronto/Canada stuff from the movie that we vaguely touched on. For more in depth details, check out Allison's Scott Pilgrim post.)

Mr O:

so jeanette. I, like many people, had not heard of the graphic novels (is that the official term?) before I saw the trailer for Scott Pilgrim. But you were, correct?

jeanette:
Oh for sure... I've never been a huge comic book nerd before. Nerd, yes, but comic book nerd, no. But a few years back I stumbled upon the graphic novels and then waited patiently for the last few to come out. HOWEVER, reading them has only made me mildly more interested in other graphic novels. I think with Scott Pilgrim it's more the story than the format.

Mr O:
Interesting. Because as someone who only became aware the entire concept only when the movie was announced, I was impressed with the format, in reference to the movie. The story was good, don't get me wrong. But it was all the effects and what not that left an impact on me. Do you think the movie lived up to the comic?

jeanette:

Yes and no. No because it strayed A LOT from the movies. Up to ex number two I was like this is AWESOME it was just like the book but then they kind of went crazy taking liberties and that ending was really different. That being said, the movie was still AMAZING so I was really happy that they kept with the "spirit" of the novel and that it hopefully created a few more fans who can now go back and read the novels (nudge nudge)

Mr O:
Nudge noted. With the comic talk out of the way, let's focus on the movie. What did you think of the cast? I actually could see this as Micheal Cera showing he doesn't have to be a total shy geek to carry the movie (he was actually trying to get with the girl instead of the "aw shucks" we usually see). Thoughts?

jeanette:

Yeah, I'm a huge Michael Cera fan, ever since Arrested Development so I'm oblivious to him playing the same character. To me, if a person plays the same role every time it's probably because they're good at it (i.e. Zack Galifinakis playing the semi-crazy guy in every movie). That being said, having read the comics I was a little worried about the cast after it was announced. The one that threw me off the most was Kieran Culkin being cast as Wallace Wells. This was a shocker because if you have read the comics Wallace appears to be asian (as asian as a crudely drawn comic can look) but I was pleasantly surprised by his role. I also wasn't 100% sold on Mary Elizabeth Winstead having only seen her for a few minutes in the last Die Hard movie, but again I think she did an extraordinary job. The whole cast was amazing to me, espeically Cera, Ellen Wong as Knives Chau, and Alison Pill as Kim Pine. I think a lot of this had to do with Edgar Wright's concept of comic timing being amazing

Mr O:
Yea, for an unknown actress (to me), I actually kinda dug Winstead's Ramona Flowers. I usually like Cera in that role as well, but it was nice to see him get his mean-face on. But speaking of Arrested Development, I geeked out at having him share screen time with the former Ann Veal from that show (a nice thanks to you for getting me into AD). I actually never really cared for Jason Schwartzman but I liked his "villian" here. I also enjoyed seeing someone who was once Superman play the role of a Vegan (who loses his powers)

jeanette:
Yeah Winstead definitely earned my respect. haha YES! Good 'ol Egg... I mean Ann (and you're welcome). SO GLAD that someone else never really cared for Schwartzman, I never got that fascination some others did, but I was only mildly impressed with him in this movie (again, I think this stems from having read the comics). Yeah, Brandon Roth was awesome. I also forgot to mention that Brie Larson kicked ass as Envy Adams, there's this interview that Bryan Lee O'Malley (the author) posted of her doing the whole interview as Envy Adams and it cracked me up.

Mr O:
thank you for the perfect segway... before we wrap this up, we HAVE to talk about the music. For as much as it was a video game/comic book movie, it was also a music movie as well, with the battle of the bands and such (and even a battle with a band versus DJ's that was pretty basstacular). I had heard "Black Sheep" on the alternative station I listen to and rocked out when I heard it on screen. And then thought it was really cool that though Metric did it, they had Envy singing it like it was hers. Plus, that song is just pretty kick-ass itself.

Click here to check out the "Black Sheep" - Scott Pilgrim video

jeanette:
Yeah the music was definitely INSANE in the movie. I was really glad that with the movie (and novel) being set in Canada they opted to get the word out on a bunch of awesome canadian bands (except my favs, Tegan and Sara). Between Broken Social Scene writing the songs for Crash and the Boys and Metric being the influence for Clash at Demonhead it was an all out Canada-fest. I also think it's awesome that the clothes Envy Adams wore were designed by Emily Haines of Metric. But the music definitely kicked up the movie a notch or two. I just felt so pumped the entire time, the soundtrack is one of the better soundtracks to come out in a while

Mr O:

There were some tidbits in what you said that I was not aware of. I had heard of the Canada stuff, but not the fashion things and what not. That's the great thing about these convos.

So let us recap: pretty good cast, awesome visuals, cool "little things" and a kick-ass soundtrack. Is there anything that needs to be said?

jeanette:
It was definitely the funniest movie I've seen in a really long time, and I think the video game theme of the comics translated really well to the movie. Which I think might have been the downfall of the movie in the long run... people not of our generation really didn't "Get it" which sucks because more movies of that caliber need to be made. I'm really hoping it becomes a cult classic.

Also I kind of want to rollerblade everywhere and work for Amazon in Canada

Mr O:
Definitely an "our generation" movie. I would also like to defeat my enemies and have them turn into coins. That would be cool.

jeanette:

haha unless you only got two coins for beating them, that'd be a bummer.

Mr O:
True bummer. It wouldn't even be enough for the bus ride home.

jeanette:

And walking in Canada can be cold... I don't think you'd be able to handle it being from the south ;)

Under My Covers, Vol. 7

Oh yea, dusting off a classic.

It's been OVER A YEAR since I've done an "Under My Covers" post but it's something I want to get back into. Especially when inspiration strikes like it did today.

I was driving home from work when the DJ on the alternative station I listen to starts talking about Jay Z. It made me curious because usually she will bring somebody up before going into a song of theirs and an alternative station doesn't really play hip hop (though they did play Kanye West's "Homecoming" - but that's because it featured Chris Martin).

So I realize it's because she is introducing a cover. It's by an artist named Hugo and he took a shot at covering "99 Problems." I have no idea if this is old or new, but it's the first time I had heard it.

It was one of those moments where I just laughed and smiled. I absolutely loved it and I hope you take a minute to at least try it out.

Original Version by Jay Z

Cover Version by Hugo *edit: the video is kinda weird, but nevermind that. Unless you like that sort of thing, then enjoy it even more :)

(50) Sundays of Music: #8

#8: Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now

I remember specifically sitting in the living room of my first apartment during my freshman year of college and reading about the latest music news and becoming excited that 2006 would not only bring a new Red Hot Chili Peppers album but a new one from Taking Back Sunday as well. Both bands were (and are still) in my top 5 favorites so anything new from them creates excitement for me.

The lead-off single that got passed around many MySpace players was "MakeDamnSure" - probably the biggest hit in the career of TBS at least in terms of radio play (at least rock radio - not sure if it ever made it to the pop and mix stations). It's still a crowd pleaser, one that people wait for at shows.

And of course you know where the story goes from here. As soon as more people started knowing the name Taking Back Sunday, the more some fans shunned them. I, for one, was happy with the change.

Louder Now was more rock to the previous albums that had been labeled emo. I'm sure there is some kind of sub-genre of emo that TBS fall under, I just don't know what it is. But I was getting older. And honestly, I was happy to just rock out with a good rock band. And in my mind, that's what Taking Back Sunday had become with Louder Now.

While "MakeDamnSure" is still a classic, this album contains a couple of not only my favorite TBS songs but some of my favorite songs period. "Spin" and "Error: Operator" are two songs that I listen to when I need to get pumped up, or when I need a pick-me-up during long road trips. And then the melody of "Divine Intervention" shows that TBS can take it down a notch and still produce hits.

Lyrically, this is one of the best albums I have ever heard and solidified their place as my #1 favorite band (until Coldplay came along and began a constant struggle for that top spot). I love analyzing the song writing, which I will give credit to Fred Mascherino who helped with that aspect. This album marked Fred's last with the band as the two parted ways shortly after and took with him the dual vocals that made the slow-brooding then punch you in the face "Liar (It Takes One to Know One)" so amazing. As an example, check out the lyrics to "Twenty Twenty Surgery."

To end this, I want to address those familiar with the band. They have their big anthems such as "Cute Without The E" and "Decade Under the Influence" but I really think when it's all said and done, there is one song that is GROSSLY underrated. And that would be Louder Now's closer in "I'll Let You Live." It was one of those rare songs that I had heard a ton of times but at one point in my life it really spoke to me ("Tell me just how dangerous is second best / You've settled for less and I'm sure you'll settle again"). And that's why I love this band - and this album.