WordPress have just released an iPhone application which will allow many a blogger the opportunity to blog while on the go.
Carrying the standard feature set you would expect and need the app also allows you to manage multiple blogs and post images either from your gallery or iPhone camera!
In fact I’m posting this from my iPhone and I promise I will try not blog while drunk…
Today I was originally going to try write a review for the new alkaline Trio album, but instead I got distracted after listening to the latest effort from Me First And The Gimme Gimmes titled Have Another Ball.
Unfortunately it caught my attention in a bad way as this album is actually pretty substandard. Even though every Gimme Gimme release has had its fair share of hits & misses, their 7th studio album is by far their worst to date (technically it could be classified as their 1st album since it was originally going to be released as a b-side to their 1997 release Have A Ball).
Things don’t start off too bad with Rich Girl by Hall & Oates. (If you’re going to cover an artist from the 70′s surely you could do better than chose this unknown pair). While it’s got the speed & catchy chorus that Gimme gimme covers are renounced it’s rough quality is still slightly grating to the ears. The same could be said for the majority of the remaining songs which mostly contain lackluster riffs & an annoying electric guitars drone, which had finally taken it’s toll by the 12th song and just left me feeling irritated.
The cover of Country Roads is definitely the best cover version on the album & even though this was released on a compilation (Survival Of The Fattest), 10 years ago its cheesy sing along chorus and rapid fire drumming still stands up rather well today. Only The Good Die Young & Coming To America are also passable attempts, but just don’t have enough uniqueness to make them worth repeat listens. A slightly more interesting addition is the short 30 second track, Sodomy. This is originally from Hair the musical and I assume that Fat Mike was the one who picked this cover, as it’s both short & dirty “Masturbation,can be fun, join the holy orgy, kama sutra, everyone”.
The “la la la” sing along section in The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel) & the gang vocals on You’ve Got A Friend also bring a bit of fun to proceedings but overall the rest of the tracks all suffer from boring guitar hooks and some shocking vocals. While other Gimme Gimme material (Nothing compares to you, Isn’t She Lovely) has featured some reasonable vocal work,on this release Spike Slawson just sounds coarse & terribly out of tune. I can only assume that his vocals have always undergone a lot of work in the studio as when I saw him live this year he sounded the same (the fact that he was really drunk probably had a lot to do with it).
Final Verdict: Along with Punk Goes Crunk & Scarlett Johansson’s, Anywhere I Lay My Head (covering Tom Waits songs), Have Another Ball will probably go down as the worst cover album of the year. Why Me First & The Gimme Gimmes decided to release some B-sides (and crap ones at that) 10 years on from their first album is slightly baffling. If you’re a fan of the original versions of these songs, then you’ll only be pissed off with these butchered covers. If you’re not familiar these 60′s & 70′s tunes then I would suggest giving these repetitive lackluster renditions a wide berth (there’s a reason why they were originally left on the cutting room floor).
40 / 100 Pennies
Highlight Tracks
Country Roads
You’ve Got A Friend
Yes it’s that time of the year again, where Melbourne is host to it’s very own International Film Festival (MIFF). This 17 day event will be kicking off next Friday (25th July) and up run until July the 17th.
Since I’ve got a short attention span it took me a while to sort through the usual tedious arthouse listings, but the following is a list of the movies that I’ll be hoping to check out at the Festival. For a detailed list of film times & locations scroll to the bottom of the post.
First up on opening night is the Australian documentary Not Quite Hollywood, which follows the rise & fall of the Ozploitation movies that were released in America during the 70′s & 80′s. Best described by it’s director, Mark Hartley as containing “lashings of gratuitous sex, violence & fuel injected muscle car mayhem” it features interviews with Quentin Tarantino and sounds like an informative yet entertaining piece on a relatively unknown part of Australian cinema history.
If this doco whets your appetite then you’ll definitely want to head over to the ACMI which will be featuring a focus of six Ozploitation films. The 1971 horror Razorback, directed by Russel Malcahy (of Highlander fame), is a ‘nature gone wild’ film with a story that sells itself ‘a giant boar goes on a killing spree in the outback claiming an animal rights activist in the process’. Nuff said.
If this cult movies is too lowbrow for you then there’s the UK/Belgium produced In Bruges. This movie has been labeled by the Hollwood Reporter as “an audacious combination of old world grace & modern ultra violence”. Starring Colin Farrell & Ralph Fiennes this flick looks like it will deviate from the usual brooding hitman formula by combining both action and comedy (ala Shoot Em Up). Judging from the preview, this movie could be a lot of quirky fun (It features a midget punching someone in the balls. Funniest home videos eat your heart out).
There’s also the 70′s influenced The Bank Job, starring ever reliable Jason Stratham (just don’t mention the Transporter) which is described by Eye Weekly as “Chockablock with Cockney hardcases, bent coppers, kinky politicians, shadowy M15 fixers, black radicals. a Soho sleaze merchant and a bevy of topless birds”. Following in the vein of Guy Ritchie movies Snatch & Lock Stock, it’s story will probably contain more twists & turns than a set of plumbing pipes and should keep you puzzled long after the credits have rolled.
However the feature that’s got me most excited this year is the inclusion of the George A. Romero Retrospective. If you haven’t heard of this legendary horror director before (shame on you), then you should check out Dead On: The Life and cinema of George A. Romero. Featuring interviews with Stephen King, John Carpenter, Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo Del Toro & many more, this documentary should bring you up to speed with Romero’s previous body of work.
Horror fans are in for a real treat as the festival will be screening nine of his movies dating from the 1968 Black & White Night Of The Living Dead through to the 2007 film Diary Of The Dead which was fuilly filmed with HD cameras. Beneath the blood & guts storyline of the ‘Dead’ series Romero has managed to depict subversive themes capturing the American Zeitgeist. This includes the civil rights movement of the 60′s (Night Of The Living Dead), the capitalistic consumerism of the 70′s (Dawn Of The Dead), the big brother military paranoia of the 80′s (Day Of the Dead), the anti capitalism stance of the 21st century (Land Of The Dead) through to the media propaganda of today (Diary Of The Dead).
It’s therefore no wonder that this series has had such an impact on the horror genre and has also influenced a wide range of media including pop culture references in TV (Buffy, Simpsons), movies (28 days later & Shaun Of The Dead), video games (Resident Evil, Dead Rising) and even music (The Gorillaz have featured sample clips in their material).
The Crazies also looks like a lot of fun (yes I’ve got a weird sense of fun) and involves a toxic spill in the water supply which leads to an outbreak of aggression & death. To rectify this situation Washington sends in the clean up crew which results in an all out war between an infected community and the military (this apocalyptic storyline is really an allagory for the ’73 Nixon ethos).This film also seems to have influenced the latest M. Night Shyamalan flick The Happening as it includes some familiar scenes of chaos in the face of environmental disaster (like an old lady stabbing a rescuer with a knitting needle & a priest who sets himself on fire).
If you’re into cult movies you’ll definitely want to check out at least one of these classic films on the big screen during the running of the festival. Tickets can be purchased here or from the Forum theatre box office (crn Russel & Flinders Street).
If your planning on hitting the movies right after work and looking for a bite to eat, check out the 20% off Chinatown offers available here. To receive this great discount spend $30 or more at a number of restaurants in the CBD area.
Not Quite Hollywood
25th July (Fri) 7.30pm @ Hamer Hall
28th July (Mon) 9.15pm @ Hamer Hall
The Bank Job
26th July (Sat) 7.15pm @ Greater Union
Diary Of The Dead
26th July (Sat) 9.15pm @ Capitol
7th August (Thu) 9.15pm @ Greater Union
Day Of The Dead
26th July (Sat) 11.45pm @ Greater Union
Dawn Of The Dead
27th July (Sun) 9.15pm @ Greater Union
4th August (Mon) 9.15pm @ ACMI
Dead On:The Life and cinema of George A. Romero
28th July (Mon) 7.00pm @ ACMI
10th August (Sun) 5.15pm @ Capitol
The Crazies
28th July (Mon) 9.30 @ ACMI
10th August (Sun) 3.15 @ Capitol
Night Of The Living Dead
29th July (Tue) 7.00pm @ ACMI
In Bruges
29th July (Tue) 7.00pm @ The Forum
8th August (Fri) 5.00pm @ Kino
Razorback
6th August (Wed) 9.30pm @ ACMI
The boys work their way through even more iPhone, video games and movies.
iPhone
- Gav and Stu camp out to get their iPhones, while everyone else is sick of iPhone (Photos)
- Gav and Stu pick their favorite iPhone Apps from the App Store: Remote, Shazam, midomi, Twittelator
- Moshi iPouch (link)
Video Games
Movies
- Stu reviews Hancock
- Quantum of Solace trailer is out
- Tropic Thunder AND Rain of Madness
- Pineapple Express
- …and more
Don’t miss out and get episodes as soon as they come out by subscribing in iTunes
Despite the general opinion that Weezer haven’t released a great album since their early days I still stuck by the band up to their last effort, Make Believe. After traded in their catchy rock riffs for cheesy synthesiser laden ballad’s this release was pretty forgettable & left me wanting more old school Weezer tunes. When I heard the fun upbeat single Pork & Beans (more on that later) from their latest release I was actually pretty excited about the rest of the songs as it sounded like it would be a return to form for the band.
Their 6th studio album starts with the promising Troublemaker. While this tracks full of cringe worth lyrics “Who needs stupid books? They are for petty crooks”, it’s still got enough geeky charm, pop rock hooks and thumping bass to be enjoyable.
The follow up track with a title as ambitious as it sounds is The Greatest man who ever lived (Variations on a shaker hymn). Coming in at just under 6 min this ambitious song covers a lot of bases with heavy metal riffs, bitter sweat melodies, vocal hymns, spoken word segments & some channeling of Queen. Overall this ostentatious mishmash of styles is fairly enjoyable but it’s strange & disjointed nature slightly hold it back from achieving it’s epic intentions. It’s slightly baffling why this experimental song was included as the second track as it’s sits out of place with their follow up & would be better suited as an end piece to the album.
The next song Pork & Beans is best described via it’s lyrics “Everyone likes to dance to a happy song with a catchy chorus and beat so they can sing along”. This upbeat song was apparently written in response to the record label’s request to include more commercially viable ‘hits’ on the album. There’s even a snide reference to this fact with the lines” Timbaland knows the way to reach the top of the charts maybe if I work with him I can perfect the art”.
This one really takes the best parts of their earlier hits like the addictive sing along chorus of Buddy Holly and the crunching guitar hooks of Hash Pipe & puts them into one tightly knit pop rock package. If you haven’t seen the videoclip to Pork & Beans I would highly recommend looking it up as it’s almost as fun as the song itself (try and pick all the cameo’s from cult losers celebrities who scored their 2 min of fame on Youtube).Because of its popularity I can see radio killing this song with overexposure but until then it’s by far my favorite one from the album & should appeal to all old school Weezer fans.
The follow up acoustic track Heart Songs is another poorly placed song with a slow pace & depressing sound that doesn’t go down well after the happiness of the last track. Everyone get dangerous picks up the vibe with its rapping style & rock hooks. Despite a dodgy chorus “everybody get dangerous, boo yah!” & daggy lyrics ” I used to go and tip cows for fun, actually I didn’t do that, ‘Cos I didn’t want the cow to be sad”, this silly song is actually one of the better songs on the album. Dreamin’ goes back to pop basics with bouncing riffs & a carefree sound. However, after 2min the slow pace kicks in and things start to get overly sappy this song slightly overstays it’s welcome at the 5 min mark.
After the previous filler track things unfortunately go downhill for the rest of the album. This is mainly attribute to the fact that the remaining songs (Thought I knew, Cold Dark World, Automatic) see River’s Cuomo swapping singer/writing roles with the other band members for the first time. While Brian Bell (guitarist) & Patrick Wilson (drums) have both formed sidebands in the past, their contribution is still largely underwhelming. While the lyrics & vocals are fairly good these guys still lack the knack of writing a catchy fun song. (maybe it’s because they literally don’t have River’s formula book on how to write a successful pop rock song). Overall these personal songs are all too depressive & monotonous to be of any real interest & stand in stark contrast to the earlier tracks.
The album is then concluded with the incredibly dull and slow The Angel & The One, with a 6 min running time that’s a real struggle to sit through. Unfortunately things aren’t redeemed with the delux version of the album which contains four of the most awful bonus tracks that I’ve heard in a long time. If anything these songs just end up leaving the listener on an even worse note (I’m still confused how a delux version can be worse than the original one).
Final Verdict: While the Red album starts off rather promising the inclusion of too many dreary songs and a confusing track order all get in the way of enjoying what little there is to get from the album. While geeky Weezer fanatics are going to lap this one up, I would still have to rate this as their worst album to date. Unless you enjoy meandering slow songs I would just suggest steering clear of the latter half of the album & just stick to the first six songs.
50 / 100 Pennies
Album Highlights:
Pork & Beans
Troublemaker
Some really great music tours have been recently announced for Melbourne so I thought I would write a post to keep track of them all (the calender on this site seems to have disappeared).
Coming up this Friday is the Strung Out & No Use For A Name show at Billboards. Tickets are still on sale ($39) from Oztix and considering they’re over here for a whole month & playing plenty of shows there’s no excuse not to check out this sweet double header act. Check my previous post for further details
The Matches will be hitting our shores again and will be playing at The Corner Hotel on Saturday 13th September. Even though these guys are always ridiculously busy (playing an average of 200 shows p.a!), it’s good to see them come back to Australia twice in the same year.
Despite a slightly underwhelming release on their last album, after seeing their performance at the Soundwave Festival firsthand, this is one show that you don’t want to miss out on. Tickets are only $30 and can be brought from the Corner book office.
Californian punk pioneers Unwritten Law will be heading to Melbourne on Thursday 21st August & will be playing at The Palace (formerly know as The Metro, now known as the stupid place that confused everyone by changing its name).
While these guys have been relatively quite of late (a best of album doesn’t really count) they’ll soon be releasing a live DVD of their 2008 performance at The Key Club in Hollywood. Over its career this bands had more line up changes than a football club so it will be interesting to see whether they’re still going strong 17 years later. Tickets cost $55 + b.f and can be picked up from moshtix.
The Living End have recently announced a tour to support their upcoming album White Noise which will be released on July 21st. After hearing most of their new material live, this albums sure to be a ripper, so make sure you get along to their one & only Melbourne show at Queensbridge on 2nd October. Tickets go on sale 9th July from ticketek (presale) or the 10th from oztix for $39 + bf.
Because I only saw 1/2 of Gyroscopes last set at the Hi-fi bar (due to my dodgy brother), I didn’t get a chance to hear much of their new material from their #1 album Breed Obsession. Fortunately they’ve announced a 2nd tour to coincide with the release of their new single Australia. I’ll be checking them out at Ferntree Gully hotel on Friday 12th September & this time I’ll definitely make sure to get the full Gyro experience. CountKnuckles has been kind enough to post all the info for their other shows here.
Hopefully my previous Thrice posts have got you in the mood for their upcoming tour, but just a quick reminder that they’ll be playing the corner hotel on Saturday the 30th & Sunday the 31st of August. Further details can be found here.
I’ve been meaning to write a review for the new Donot’s album for quite a while (it was released way back in March), but since there’s no local distributer for their records in Australia I took me awhile to obtain my copy.
Despite the fact that they’ve been kicking around since 1993 and have released 5 fantastic albums these five German punk/rockers have yet to crack the the mainstream market outside of Europe. If you haven’t heard of them before then I would suggest listening to their massive 31 track Best Of / b-side / Live album The Story So Far: Ibbtown Chronicles. It was always going to be hard to top this record but the Donots have really outdone themselves with their latest effort titled Coma Chameleon.
The album starts with the deceptive spoken word intro The Tunnel At The End Of The Light, which leads onto the next track Break My Stride which showcases the pulsing guitars, throbbing baseline & staccato drumming which become a signature sounds for the rest of the album.
This energetic dynamic is mixed with some aggressive beats & screaming vocals which match the darker style of the songs (just look at the song titles). This time the Donots step back from their previous pop rock roots and instead cover themes of pessimism with Anything (“nothings ever good enough for me I’m always complaining, a set of lungs, a pair of fists, a pointed finger”) and bitterness with The Right Kind Of Wrong (“I can’t be the life of the party, spare me your smile, your kindness kills me”).
Despite this tone there’s still plenty of upbeat riffs & memorable lyrics to cut through the sarcasm and lighten things up. The great piano punches of Hope For The Dead, the warbling bass and epic chorus of The Right Kind Of Wrong and the country style sounds of Somewhere Someday are all interesting additions to the track list & help break up the intensity of the faster, heavier rock numbers (Pick Up The Pieces, This Is Not A Drill and the bonus track The City Lights). The electrical sound of the lead guitars has really been pumped up on all these fantastic tracks and gives them an infectious energy that’ll make you want to get off your arse & jump around.
The first highlight track Headphones is full of a striking bass line which reminds me of the Hives or some White Stripes material. While the lyrics initially seem obtuse anyone who travels on public transport can surely relate to the message of shutting out the world with music (“Radio is killing me and tv’s a bore, all I want today is something I can ignore”). A breakdown and a spoken word segment with a strange British accent is followed by hand claps which blend perfectly into the main riffs. This song has a real cool vibe which makes it perfect to crank up while going for a walk.
My other favorite track is the rousing Stop The Clocks. While the donots have tackled rock ballads before (Good-bye Routine or Room With A View) , this single is their most successful one yet and combines a stable back beat, and a compelling melody with plenty of sing along support vocals (“now my angels need angels, to help me get out of this hell”).
While the rest of the album is also solid the only real downside is the lack of depth from the lead vocals. If you’re not used to their punk/rock style, Ingo Knollman’s coarse voice may become slightly grating after listening to the album multiple times (like I did). The slow intro to New Hope For The Dead highlights this deficiency but thankfully for most tracks the rough vocals become less of an issue after the guitars kick in & the vocal support appears.
Final Verdict: While the Donots already have a number of great releases under their belt, they’ve really kicked things up a notch with their latest Coma Chameleon. Not since listening to the punk rap sounds of Zebrahead have I heard so many energetic songs were I wanted to impulsively start head banging and tapping my toes like a crazyman. It’s addictive quality means that this is one of those rare albums were you can just put in your headphones and be assured of a solid listen from start to finish. If you’re looking for a 37 min power pick me up, then this is the album for you.
87 / 100 Pennies
Highlight tracks (In Order Of Ranking):
Stop The Clocks
Pick Up The Pieces
Headphones
City Lights (bonus track)
This Is Not A Drill
Optus today went out and announced the plans and cost of an iPhone. So how much will this hot new tech gadget cost?
Pre-Paid:
$729 for the 8GB model.
$849 for the 16GB model.
This is about how much everyone was thinking the iPhone would cost a long time back before the clever lads at Apple announced that it would be available at $199 world wide.
As we now all know the $199 cost was with the phone on a 24 month contract. The only way to get the phone uncontracted is pre-paid. If you do get the pre-paid version it can be unlocked from the Optus network for $80 allowing you to use it with another provider.
Post-Paid:
The contracted plans look very good with large amounts of data available with the plans. With the basic $19 plan you get 100mb of data included and will need to pay $21 a month for the handset over 24 months. This means that on the day the phone goes on sale you won’t need to hand any cash over as they will take this from you every month on your mobile bill. If you don’t want to pay anything for your iPhone the $79 plan is a good one as this comes with 700mb of included data and you get the phone for $0 over 24 months or for $2 a month you can get the 16GB phone on the same plan.
Overall the plans look ok and the best part is how much data you get included in the plans. Take the current plans as an example you get 5MB of data capped for $9.95 on top of the cost of your plan. These iPhone plans might even be good for people who already have a 2G iPhone due to the amount of data that is provided.
Now we will wait and see what the other providers come out with as Telstra have given the basics of their plans but not the full details and Voderphone have still not come out with any pricing.
All I can say is bring on July 11.
After Offspring released their atrocious 2003 Splinter album I had pretty much given up on the band and thought they had gone the way of the dinosaur.
I was therefore surprised (and dare I say excited) after I saw them headline this year’s Soundwave Festival where they played a number of nostalgic tracks from their Smash & Ixnay albums and a couple of new songs. After hearing them live I was even a bit hopeful (secretly withheld of course) that their upcoming release would regain the credibility they’d lost with earlier craptacular singles Pretty Fly and Original Prankster.
When I heard the promising title of Offspring’s latest album Rise & Fall, Rage & Grace, I was expecting that they’d follow in the footsteps of Greenday and would try reinvent themselves with a really epic & ambitious release. So have they succeeded at breaking everyones low expectations? Well yes (they’ve managed to regain some of their creed) & no (this isn’t American Idiot).
While the first track Half Truism, doesn’t particularly blow you away with originality it’s still a great opener that brings to mind sounds from their Conspiracy Of One release and is full of soaring guitar riffs & a pop rock chorus. After a number of listens this one has actually become one of my favorites from the album.
Trust In You is a reasonable follow up track with an old school drumstick count-in & melody that brings back fond memories of Ixnay while the use of a synthesized backdrop brings to mind something from the abysmal Splinter album. Fortunately Offspring restrains from overusing this digital aspect on the rest of the album and thankfully there’s no real stinkers to be found throughout its 44 min running time (who wants to hear Feelings?).
You’ve gonna Go Far, Kid is my favorite song off the album and has a strong pop sound with rolling drums & an addictive (if slightly empty) chorus about the hollow nature of the music industry ‘Dance, fucker dance, hit them right between the eyes’. I’m surprised that this track wasn’t chosen as their first single since it’s more catchy & upbeat than the one they finally settled for which is called Hammerhead. While this is the hardest hitting & darkest song on the album it’s repetitious rhyme makes it drag on a bit (4 minutes) & doesn’t really add anything new to the subject manner of school shootings.
A Lot Like Me is a slower and more likable number that is also likely to become a future single. While the vocals sound great, I’m slightly suspicious that they’d undergone a lot of mixing during post production as they sound too squeaky clean and have taken the edge off Dexter’s voice (a bit like James Hetfield’s vocals on St.Anger which comes as no surprise since both these album were produced by Bob Rock).
Kristy Are You Doing OK? is the first ballad track on the album & while Dexter’s tackled this style before (Gone Away), it’s hard not to draw comparisons to Greenday since the bridge sounds like it was ripped directly from Boulevard Of Broken Dreams. If you can forgive this little plagiarism, then this heartfelt track about a childhood friend who was raped may stick in your mind. Fix You also fits under the rock ballad bannar & ticks all the box’s for a commercial success (slow chorus, subtle build up, ‘woo,woo’s’. While I actually don’t mind this song I think it’s a ballsy move to include another slow paced number on the album, since it’s sugar coated sound could further alienate whatever fans they have left.
Elsewhere on the album there are a few too many weak tracks including, Takes Me Nowhere, Nothingtown, Stuff Is Messed Up and Rise & Fall which suffer from a lack of uniqueness & sound like bland leftovers from Americana or Conspiracy B-sides . While they’re not overly terrible their generic rock riffs place them in the filler category & make them pretty forgettable after a 3rd listen.
While the album finishes with the pop punks sounds of Rise & Fall (another Greenday knockoff song) a more appropriate closer would have been Let’s Hear It For Rock Bottom. With it’s ska like riff, upbeat rhythm & power pop chorus this song is the final memorable song on the album.
Final Verdict: With Rise, Fall, Rage & Grace, Dexter, Noodles & Co have slightly redeemed their previous failures and it’s actually the first album since Ixnay to not contain any dodgy tracks (finally an Offspring record I can admit that I liked without feeling dirty afterwards). While old school fans probably given up on Offspring a long time ago, I would still recommend they give their latest album a listen. While there’s a few too many generic tracks to make it a great album, quality wise it fits somewhere in between Americana & Conspiracy Of One. Also unless I’m mistaken & they pull an American Idiot of their arses I’m predicting that this will be Offspring’s last swan song, Considering I thought they were finished after Splinter they’ve at least chosen a better finale to go out on.
70 / 100 Pennies
Highlight Tracks (In order of ranking):
Your Going To Go Far Kid
Half-Truism
Let’s Hear It For Rock Bottom
A Lot Like Me
Kristy Are You Ok?
Fix You
Since I’ve been so Thrice crazy on hundredpennies lately I thought I would tackle some other recently released albums. There’s plenty to get through including new stuff from Weezer, Less Than Jake, Alkaline Trio, The Donots, Trial Kennedy and Offspring’s latest which I’ll be covering today. Keep checking back in the coming weeks if you want the lowdown on any of these albums and if you want me to cover any particular one first leave a comment & let me know.
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