HAUL'D
This is part one for this week's purchases because I'm still expecting one more package from the UK that will hopefully come in tomorrow...
Weezer Make Believe CD/LP
Alright so I had already downloaded this one late last month so the excitement of getting the real thing had dwindled. Regardless, this album is pretty good. Not stunning, not great, and certainly NOT Pinkerton. I honestly don't know why dumb Weezer fans (most of them stupid kids) hate The Green Album and Maladroit so much. As stand alone albums, they are that bad. They have their own key tracks. As does this album. Beverly Hills, however, is a shit song. Maybe it will grow on my like El Scorcho did, we'll see. My favorite songs at the moment are Perfect Situation and Hold Me. The good thing about this album is that Rivers is writing decent lyrics. Perhaps being away at college helped inspire him. (He was away at college when he wrote Pinkerton.) There is still more of this album to explore. Naturally, i bought the vinyl version as well. I had the other 4 albums on vinyl so it needed to be part of the collection. I haven't actually listened to the vinyl yet but it sure is thin. I can't imagine that the sound quality could be too great. Oh well. It's there for looks.
Bloc Party Silent Alarm Picture Disc LP
Yeah, yeah, I know. This one again. This is the 4th copy of this album that I own (alongside the UK CD/DVD combo, the US 3-LP vinyl, and the Japanese pressing). But come on, this one had to be owned. It's a picture disc! AND it was super limited to 500 copies worldwide! COME ON! (Yeah, I didn't think you'd agree...)
Bloc Party So Here We Are DVD Single
Bloc Party Banquet Gold Vinyl 7" Single and DVD Single
Okay, so these set the precedence on how my Bloc Party collection will be. Vinyl and DVD singles. (Unless there are otherwise unavailable b-sides on the CD singles...) The DVD single for So Here We Are had the videos for the title track as well as Tulips. The DVD single for Banquet had videos for the title track and, my favorite Bloc Party song, Little Thoughts. That video alone is worth it for seeing Matt Tong (drummer) wearing a Dolly Parton t-shirt. The 7" single for Banquet was on gold coloured vinyl and that was the reason I had win these auctions. (Yeah, I know. Lame excuse.)
Metallica St. Anger CD/DVD
Ever since I saw the airing of Some Kind of Monster on VH1 a few weeks back, I had wanted to get this album. I haven't been a big Metallica fan for some time now. They lost me when Load was released. (Although I did buy S&M and Garage Inc.) However, after watching their inter-band struggles as well as each member's personal struggles, I was intrigued at how the album and it's lyrics came to be. I had only heard St. Anger (the song) a few times on the radio but I never really listened to the lyrics. Looking at the lyrics, these are probably James' most personal lyrics. Musically, it's not quite as fast as the older stuff but it's definitely more dirty sounding than Load and Reload.
Metallica's rep has already been tarnished by the whole Napster blah blah and loads of people called them self-centered and pretentious for even releasing Some Kind of Monster. However, I do think it was a good movie for what it was: a documentary about a 20 year old band and their struggle to keep going despite their personal problems. I don't know any other band who would have the balls to even offer something like that for public consumption.
The only drawback about this album is, since I bought it used, I had no idea that it was the "clean" version. I was listening to Frantic and realized that all the curse words had been edited out. Oh well, it was $8 for CD and DVD. Not a bad price.
Editors Munich 7" Single
One of the up and coming bands from the UK. I had downloaded their first single, Bullet a few weeks back. It reminds of early Interpol (ha!). Not as Joy Division-esque musically but still has the monotone vocals. Must remember to download some of their other songs.
Engineers Forgiveness 7" Single
So the whole shoegazer thing is making a comeback. Actually, in the US, the comeback had already begun a few years back. There have been a new crop of US shoegazer bands lately. In the UK, I think the revival is only beginning. The NME, in all their ridiculous "cleverness" have coined the term nu-gazer to describe said revival. Engineers are one of the bands getting press so I decided to buy something from them. Needless to say, I like them...a lot. It's not noisy shoegazer like MBV. It's more the slow psychedelic shoegazer a la Ride and Slowdive. Very epic sounding a la The Verve. The vocals remind me a lot of Ride when Andy and Mark would sing harmonies. Very Byrds-y. And yes, I ordered the full length from the UK shortly after buying this.