i was the only one who got burned

We already memorialized The Format once on this blog, I'm not looking to do it again. Rather, I just want to share "She Doesn't Get It," the band's lead single off 2006's Dog Problems. After recently revisiting this song, I realized that it will eternally describe my life: "I fall in love far too quickly/I never want her to forget me." The jolly instrumentation juxtaposed against the heartbreaking lyrics mimics the standard (and transparent) post-love-letdown brave face. This year, I'm thankful for songs that describe the feels that I can't. This is one of those songs.

The Format - "She Doesn't Get It"

"Fire" = Potential Wedding Song?

The audio/video gets a bit off track half way through. Either way,a beautiful song.

happy thanksgiving!

For Hot Cizzle:


And now...let's watch/listen to the best Thanksgiving song ever.

Music Revisited

Now that I'm back home for a few days I am not only adding all my Christmas music to my iTunes (I'll blog about that later), but I am checking out some stuff I haven't listened to in a while. I completely forgot how good Daniel Bedingfield is. He is the brother of fellow British pop singer Natasha Bedingfield, and he had multiple hits including "Gotta Get Thru This" and "If You're Not the One." I really like those, but the rest of the album is what really gets me, and that's why I still connect with these catchy vibes today. Do yourself a favor and give the album "Gotta Get Thru This" a second listen and hear how far ahead of the pack Bedingfield was musically in 2002.

Thanksgiving Thoughts...

Just something to think about over the family weekend. Enjoy the break and hopefully this documentary will be out soon!

Recipe for success when listening to 808s and Heartbreaks...

1. Do not expect this album to be like the others. (This is a given...)

2. Appreciate the fact that songs like Heartless and Robocop have increased in quality since they were leaked, and are actually catchy tunes. 

3. If you purchase it off iTunes, do yourself a favor and do not listen to the bonus freestyle track. 

4. Forget you have ever heard of auto-tune, it becomes less apparent over time.

5. Play "Paranoid" over and over and over.

6. Don't feel too sorry for 'Ye, you will feel yourself starting to get pulled into the pity, then just play "Paranoid" again. 

7. Remember that artists like to mix things up from time to time, sometimes they are successful, sometimes they are not. But it's just something they need to do for themselves, so take it as it is. 

a little bit of country...

didn't know he had it in him...trace adkins i can't outrun you...(newest sleepmix addition)

Trace Adkins
 
More CMT Music
 
More CMT Music Videos

beyonce's "single ladies" AMA performance

The dance is even more fierce live!!

margot on conan.

Margot and the Nuclear So and So's played "As Tall as Cliffs" on Conan last night. Check it out.

Love this Voice

an assortment of Of Montreal news, remixes, and videos

Of Montreal has commissioned Jon Brion to remix some of their songs off their latest album, Skeletal Lamping. Here's the first, "Gallery Piece." Brion has successfully turned this sexy song into a synthy, Super Mario Bros esque masterpiece. According to Stereogum, Jon Brion will release Jon Brion Remixes January 6th digitally and January 27th CD/LP, and it will include two versions of "An Eluardian Instance," this version of "Gallery Piece," and an instrumental version too.

Also, here is a video from the mind-blowing Of Montreal show in Kansas City this past weekend that some of SCOPE happened to attend. Sorry for the shortness (my memory card filled up way to quickly) but it shows Kevin Barnes' ridiculously fantastic dance moves towards the end of "Gallery Piece" and into the intro of "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games."



More of "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games"


And here is their cover of Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" (again, sorry for its incompleteness)

"we're warmed up like biscuits"

Justin Timberlake & Beyonce - Parodie "Single Ladies" SNL
by Rock_You_Justin

gotta love those ipod commercials...

the latest ipod commercial features two great songs that you all may wanna take a look at::

around the bend - the asteroids galaxy tour

&

bruises - chairlift

check out the commercial for yourself...
enjoy!

In the Bathroom Is Where I Want You

Nightmare Of You is one of the best bands from my high-school years. Was. Whatever.

The point is they were awesome in 2005 when they released their self titled debut album. They were poised to blow up and it was even posted on Ap.net that they had been picked up by sire records (A unit of Warner Music). The deal never worked out and they were left independent.

Not so surprisingly, it is hard for a completely independent band to make music. They had to work on touring, putting out their record, and creating their merchandise(The list goes on). The point of all this, is that they just announced they are re-releasing their first (and only) record on limited edition 200 ct. multicolored splattered marble and signed vinyl! I know, the record nerd in me almost cried when I heard the news. Additionally they are poised to make a comeback, having a reported 13 songs ready for the next record. Here's to hoping they top their first record (and a taste of their first).




I'm a gentleman in training!

bon iver to release new EP in january

Bon Iver will release Blood Bank EP in the UK and Ireland on January 19 and in the US on January 20. The four songs will be released on CD and 12" with an mp3 coupon. Word on the street is that the vinyl will be available at the merch table during his December tour dates.

Blood Bank tracks are:
1. Blood Bank
2. Beach Baby
3. Babys
4. Woods


Who's down for the December 18th Chicago show at the Vic Theatre?!

Zach Braff helps a friend...

I really wanted to post the video of Joshua Radin playing tonight on Conan O'Brien but my trusty youtube just wasn't helping me much.I decided to post this video instead which gives a little more info on the two friends. Josh and close friend Zach Braff met while attending Northwestern University just a few years back. They became good friends in acting class and after Zach's television career took off, (scrubs) Josh finally got the courage to ask Zach to listen to his first real song, Winter. Braff instantly fell in love with it and convinced the director to play it on the Scrubs episode "my screw up". Radin's popularity grew and the next thing he knew he was playing, upon request, the wedding of Ellen Degeneres. His songs are soft and beautiful and I highly recommend getting his albums. His latest album, simple times, was recorded on Mom and Pop Records after he bought himself out of Sony. They wanted him to create more Top40 hits that could be played via radio. Radin lost interest quickly and decided to part ways. Enjoy this behind the scenes look at the making of his video, directed by Mr. Zach Braff.

Arrested Development movie is happening for sure!

Jeffrey Tambor/George Bluth/Pop pop was recently asked if he is sick of people asking him if the movie is going to happen and he replied:

“Well no, because we’re doing it. We are going. It’s a go. I just actually this week talked to Mitch Hurwitz, so we’re doing it.”

YAYYYYYYY! My day just got A LOT better.



beads? BEES?!

And my Jack White infatuation continues...

Here is a new RACONTEURS video for "Old Enough" off of Consolers of the Lonely. It was directed by rock photographer Autumn de Wilde, who has done album covers for Elliott Smith, the White Stripes, Built to Spill, and Beck.
The Raconteurs "Old Enough"


And while on the topic of the Raconteurs, check out this video for "Tape Song" by the Kills. All of the footage is from their US tour with the Raconteurs. I find it to be especially dece because it includes footage of Jack White dancing and playing patty cake. Cute.

F*ck, This is Good

The title says it all. 90's crooner and husband of the foxy Heidi Klum, Seal has come back with a vengeance with this album full of soulful covers. Check out this great track, I've Been Lovin You Too Long. It is so good.

Cold War Kids Share Entire "Making Of" Documentary

CWK are letting us lucky folks in internet land watch their entire movie (documenting the making of CWK's recent release Loyalty to Loyalty) for free on the youtubes.

I'm trying to procrastinate harder than Katie is...

Katie was procrastinating by looking this up. I'm procrastinating by writing about this for her...



The Beatle's infamous first chord to the song Hard Day's Night has been decoded by Jason Brown. It's only taken 40 years!! (And it was decoded using math)

It consists of: George Harrison playing the following notes on his 12 string guitar: a2, a3, d3, d4, g3, g4, c4, and another c4; Paul McCartney playing a d3 on his bass; producer George Martin playing d3, f3, d5, g5, and e6 on the piano, while Lennon played a loud c5 on his six-string guitar.

Crazzzzyyy. Listen to it on your computer because it's not like you don't already have it on your iTunes or anything...

i love free and legal ryan adams downloads.

check out this ryan adams acoustic cover of foo fighter's 'times like these.' recorded at bbc studios on saturday.

My Favorite Baldie

I saw Tyrone Wells in early October with another great performer, Jason Reeves, and ended up "Falling" for this guy's incredible vocals. Do yourself a favor and check out this live performance (yes, he's just as good live as his recordings) of his song "Falling."

Broken Hearts Tesselate

Here's a reminder not to forget about Tokyo Police Club and their latest release, Elephant Shell.



Sidenote: This video reminds me of myself, and all the bullies I used to beat up.

Alive with the glory of love

say anything WILL be putting out a new album next year. we'll be recording it in l.a this winter and the record will be called "Say Anything." yes, self titled. the nature of the record has changed since we intended on calling it "this is forever", also these two dj guys put out a record called that and would probably sue us.

if any person has followed our band, they understand our albums tell the story of a simple dude (me) and his evolution in life. this is the part where, having gone through his "idealistic--yet-furious-virgin" phase (baseball), young "drunk-angry-pukey-sex" phase (is a real boy), his "reaping - the - benefits - of - years - of - self - abuse - by - being - stuck - in - a - terrible -relationship" phase (in defense of the genre), he is finally confronted with the question of what the point of all of it was. what is the moral of the story? why be in a band? why try to "get" the girl? you spend years bitching or hurting yourself and others until you realize there is really something to fight for and something to fight against and being a man means drawing the line. that, my friends, is where the real adventure begins.

this album is self titled for a reason; it will take all the musical and lyrical themes of every say anything song, and attempt to resolve them and infuse them with something pure and direct. i am not going to " brandon flowers it" and say this is going to be the record that saves rock n' roll, or makes pitchfork.com finally admit we had it all along. those things are not only pre-packaged indie rock nay nay but are also pointless and fleeting. i don't know how far our album will get us commercially or even if all of you amazing ap.net friends will show up the day it comes out, say it blows, and change your " fatty max bemis with a cigarette" icon to a "hot picture of first-button-undone anthony green" icon. however, if my opinion matters to you, i promise that i love these songs to death. I REALLY hope you do too and that's all i can pray for. For those who thought in defense, while cool, was too long and serious; i see this next outing as more darkly humorous and concise. for those of you who dug is a real boy but appreciate our later maturity, such as the addition of real singing to the drunken sailor routine; this record looks like it will be even more of a step forward, without giving away too much.

We are so thankful for your love. I am constantly humbled before your appreciation and I never thought we'd get this far, so we NEED to pay you back with a cool album or we'll be doing carnival-cruise-line-emo-nostaglia tours with jefree starr by the time you guys are forty. We will work it to the bone to not let you down. Recording begins ths winter in Los Angeles, California.

Thank you.

Max

new dcfc video "no sunlight"

No Sunlight



about people who don't like the sun. imagine that.

Taylor to perform on Letterman tomorrow!

T Swift will be performing tomorrow night on Letterman to promote her new album, fearless. I'm assuming she will play her single, Love Story, which Kelly knows every word to. Her album comes out this Tuesday (11/11, 11:11...love...you get the point). Check her out at the CMA awards this Wednesday night on ABC as well.

I should be writing my paper right now...

thanks to my good buddy Dan, two of my favs finally collide...

blitzen trapper.

somehow country-ish music isn't bothering me so much lately...so i decided to finally check out this experimental folk band from portland, oregon, only to fall in love with them and then realize that they played at the picador last friday. NICE. (they are currently on tour with stephen malkmus and the jicks.) their song "wild mountain nation" was #98 on rolling stone's top 100 songs of 2007 and they were recently featured in rolling stone magazine. they recently released furr on subpop. pitchfork liked it and you will too. check out their myspace.

also, some key tracks from furr to check out are :
-black river killer
-sleepytime in the western world
-furr (here's a free legal download!)
-saturday nite

We Could All Use Somebody

Check out the new video for "Use Somebody" from Scope fav Kings of Leon. It's a great song and really it really shows the softer side of the band.

Kings of Leon - Use Somebody

Put those disco shoes away Sniper

Michael Jackson just released a statement that he will not take part in the Jackson 5 reunion.

Read about it here:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i664e8c35e1bbbcc07544e57c74d0cbaa

Of Montreal Cover It's Always Sunny

Of Montreal just went up about a billion points in my book. Video of Of Montreal covering the Charlie Kelly/Dennis Reynolds original "Day Man."


And the original work of artistic genius.

Kanye's Newest - Robocop

Same old, same old. A little bit of a faster beat, "Love Lockdown" drums, a lot of sirens, and of course autotune.

Kany... John Legend's Newest Album

As jonny-tsunami mentioned a few weeks ago, John Legend's newest album, Evolver was released this week in the United States. The first thing I noticed while looking at the back of the album were the titles "Good Morning Into" "Everybody Knows" and "Good Morning" and then, in smaller type, "Produced by Kanye West". As much as I love Kanye.... did he really have to produce an album that had 3 songs that had the same title as some of his songs?? 

The Kanye association is not just seen, it can be heard on the track "It's Over" which really showcases Legend's vocals. Then Kanye comes on and.... just guess... uses Autotune to sing, not rap. John Legend sings faster than Kanye in this track. Again, I don't have a problem with Autotune I just feel like Kanye is running out of tricks, and I'm getting a little sad about it. 

Besides my annoyance with Kanye, I like this album. I like that John Legend seems to be able to do the things his producer is struggling with; using a new sound while still keeping some of his old style. The song "Quickly" featuring Brandy is the one song the album could lose. Brandy seems to have lost her touch, and the chorus of the song is whiney and too repetitive. High points include "It's Over" "Green Light" with Andre 3000, and a more typical Legend sounding song, "Cross the Line".

Punchline for anyone willing to listen

Today it can be hard to be heard. The mass amount of information, music, news, art,and ______ (fill in the blank)found on the internet has a tendency to crowd out what is actually worth finding. That being said I think it's an interesting thing getting your voice heard.

If you listen to pop-punk and have some spare time I would ask you read the following and consider listening to and reviewing Punchline's new album, Just Say Yes.

To anyone that is willing to listen...

For those of you that do not know me my name is Steve Soboslai (pronounced Sub-Oz-Lee). I play guitar and sing in the band Punchline, which I have done so for the last 11 years since the 10th grade. I learned to play guitar with this band and have a more complete understanding of what music is alongside my band mates.

Maybe we musically jumped the gun on getting national attention? I think we scared some people away with what I feel was premature pop-punk... Some people say that this was our best music - I disagree. How could it have been, especially with having so little experience and seeing so little out there in the world. There is finally a story to tell.

We've been lost in the streets of Japan. We've stayed at the governor's house. We've lost band members to extreme serious issues that I'd rather not get into. Seen awful bands rise through the ranks by just saying what people want to hear. We've even written over 100 songs as a band. There is no doubt that it has taken 10 years for us to make our best album.

Just Say Yes was self released last month on our own label called Modern Short Stories. It was written and recorded from the heart. No record label was telling us when and where to record it or what to shoot for. The album is real and without a doubt the most genuine album we've ever made. I see right through so much of the music that comes out of this scene! Maybe when they turn 28 they will understand.

Getting to the point...

Outside of reviews from the critics (which have been quite amazing), we have had less feedback from fans and listeners of music than I had anticipated. The feedback from those who HAVE given it a chance and listened have had excellent things to say about it, but it seems as if most people just aren't hearing our music.

Money is tight. Music is easy to find for free for those who want it badly enough. Thus, I have decided to give out 100 copies of our downloadable CD for free today ALONG WITH a few extra songs - some songs you have definitely never heard, some that people have been wondering why they didn't make the cut, and some that people have been asking us to put into circulation just so they can have them on their ipods.

Please give this album an honest listen. Play it for your friends when you find the song that moves you. Please let us know what you think of the album by emailing me personally at steve@modernshortstories.net.

Thanks for your time,

Steve Soboslai

::PUNCHLINE::

Here you go - http://www.sendspace.com/file/yw8rfk enjoy.

p.s. If you have read to the bottom of this post I also ask you enjoy the irony of a blog without readers trying to give attention to a band struggling to be heard.