In a Different Light

Okay, so in what seems like a strictly opportunistic, cash-grabbing sort of a situation... Everclear, my #2 band, has released a sort-of/kind-of Greatest Hits disc. Or, well, that's how some people are viewing their latest release, In a Different Light, as. I haven't yet pushed Play, but in my heart, I know Art Alexakis (and whoever he has backing him up these days) puts a lot more thought into this, his life and his love. He's basically called this disc, which houses nine EC favorites, which are re-recorded/re-interpreted, and two preciously semi-unreleased tracks, a fond look back and re-imagining of some classic EC tunes.

And, you know what? I'm all for it. This is a fantastic way, I think (on a marketable side), to get the band back out there before the supposed all-new release in March. Plus, I'm an EC fan, and I'm all for re-interpretations. Y'all know me, I'm the chick who scours youtube for covers of EC (and others') tunes! I loooooove re-dos!

Besides.. If I DID see a problem with this, if I DID think this was a cheap money-grab... How could I whine about it, when GGD has re-packaged things, using re-recordings of some songs as hooks? See? Pot calling kettle black....

So, without further adieu... Let's sway in and out of shadows with Alexakis and EC....


Album: In a Different Light
Artist: Everclear
Released: 2009
Label: 429 Records

Track One: Everything to Everyone
Okay, this used to be my favorite EC song, always tied with Heroin Girl, but in recent years, HG has knocked E2E1 down to a permanent second place, so... We'll just see how this goes!
Oooh, distortion.... Oh, wow! Much more guitars..... God, and there's his voice!!! Oh, that slightly whiny, pained.... Oh, that Alexakis [brand] voice! There's so much more energy this time around! Oh, this works!!!! it just sounds like they're having a frickin' blast... I like the slightly less-polished vibe to it... Like, the guitars... sound... almost more metallic... tin-y, and it's sooooo working!!!! The only mild complaint is the semi-annoying tongue-rolling yelp. It's a little too much.
4/5

Track Two: Wonderful
Okay, the first Wonderful was pretty amazing. It was a pretty big hit for them, too... In fact, it may have been their last major hit, so, once again, there's some stiff competition here...
....Guitars.... Oh, wow..... Piano...... It's stripped down, but, still.... Ooooh.... The voice-echo effect is great, too; not too overdone... Omg, the piano.... wow... Geeze... Almost a decade later, and this is still such a powerful song... and it all just builds and builds... and then... a die-down, for a breath of air... Oh, wow........ Better. than. the. first.
5/5

Track Three: At the End of the Day
EC.... I don't like gospel-esque backing in my songs.... Grrr.... Hmmm, okay, I haven't heard this... Beyond this... It works.... It's a love song... It's hopeful; it's Alexakis in love and in hope... Oh, it makes me smile.... It isn't their best ballad, but it's good... Oh, no, here's the turn... Lyrics have shifted, here's the reality check you'll almost NEVER get in a GGD ballad.... I like the breakdown for the bridge when Alexakis' voice is highlighted... This is a good non-regrets song... I like it... Rock on.
4/5

Track Four: Santa Monica
God, his voice is still so haunting singing these lyrics... The drums sound more like marching drums... like this is some pained dirge into the ocean.... Hmmm, more of those tin-y guitars... This is good... But, it doesn't have quite the same punch that the original had... Until about half way through!!!! OH YEAH!!!! And, for the record, whoever's got backing duties sounds GREAT with Alexakis...
5/5

Track Five: Summerland
Ooooh, something a little older... And, I love... Love this... Oh, wow.... Oh, he hasn't even started singing, and omg..... OH!!! WOW.... This... This.... This. is. amazing. God, the music.....
5/5, i'd give it a six, if i could

Track Six: Here Comes the Darkness
Oh, I've heard this, and I know I love it... God, I do.... It's just a great song... This should've been on Welcome to the Drama Club or Slow Motion Daydream... Yeah, Slow Motion Daydream... If it had been written then...
5/5, i'd give a six, if i could

Track Seven: Father of Mine
Okay, what 90's kid, whose parentals got divorced, DIDN'T use this song to get past it?! Ex-act-ly!! ...Ooooh, nice intro.... Less bass, it still works.... Oooh, there's clapping! I like clapping songs... This one seems the most similar to the original so far... It's darn good, but the original's a little bit better.
4/5

Track Eight: Fire Maple Song
Now we're going way back.... So, if any Goobers are reading this... It's almost the same as when GGD re-recorded 2DiF for EOAC... And, if I dare say.... This is better than the original, or, at least I like it more... It really rocks, and almost has a alt. country bent to it, which works for EC...
4/5

Track Nine: Rock Star
Okay, this is a rock song, and I'm curious to see it in a different.... To see what they do with it. ;-)
Okay, this still rocks without the OMG!polish to it... And, there's those EC [brand] keyboards... It sounds like, once again, they're just having a blast.
3/5

Track Ten: Learning How to Smile
Okay.... I loved this of SfaAM:V1.... Hmmmm.... It's good, but it's almost TOO much like the original.... It's good, don't get me wrong, but I think I was waiting for a little more... Still an amazing song, though.
3/5

Track Eleven: I Will Buy You a New Life
Oh, wow, neat opening..... Ooooh. This.... Is all taken down... It works... Oh, wow.... I approve, greatly, though the repetitious end is a little much.
4/5


And, well, there we have it.... It was a nice, jaunty trip down memory lane.... I loved it. Thank you, Art.... Come back to Houston... I need to see y'all.
i just want my life to be the same, just like it used to be

*Oh, and, okay, fine.... Songs I wish would've been on this: Heroin Girl, Here We Go Again, Overwhelming, and Pale Green Stars*

There's New Music Amoung Us

Okay, so school's back in session, but there really ain't much to say, you know? I won't start being in the classroom at H-Ville HS (Go Hornets!) until the 26th, thanks to Martin Luther King Jr. day. I haven't had my Texas Crossroads course with Young yet, that's Thursday night. Art's going to be the first fourth of my Honors Seminar, and my books were frickin' cheap compared to last semester, and that's really about all there is for that topic.

So, here's the real point.

Actually, wait, before I dive into the meat of this post... Everclear has a new single! It's on my sidebar, Jesus Was a Democrat. And, it's typical hard pop/angry pop, with all the EC trappings I've come to endear over the years. (How many years? A LOT OF YEARS... As in 14 years, which, consequently, brings about the point that they were, in fact, my Number One first, before a certain trio from B_Lo...) You can download it for free over at their website. Hopefully this means that 2009 will bring new music from BOTH them and the Dolls.

Moving on... Not like it's any real news or anything, but each third of 2/3 of the Dolls has a side-project. Malinin has 40 Marshas, this really interesting, eclectic experimental take on spoken word and musical expression. On the other hand, Takac has amungus, this electronica/techno pop-ish take on clubby music. Neither musical act could be further from the Dolls. (Which makes me wonder, but that's another rant for another day...)

So, being the Goober that I am... I purchased amungus' ep, the truth is..., with some Christmas money. (Yeah, I'm late to the dance party, I know...) And, see, here's the thing... I highly doubt I'd enjoy 40 Marshas' work. Nothing against Malinin, of course, but... I just have a feeling it's a SERIOUS acquired taste, you know? But, the thing is, even though I enjoy techno/dance/trance music, and I'd already heard three of amungus' pieces, I was still concerned about them, too. I mean, what if it sucked? I'd just have to sigh and be, like, "Awww, Robby, hunny... You and Brian tried! Now, go back and play bass s'more," I guess, right? But, if it was awesome... Would I end up being all, "Robby! This is kickass. You and Brian need to make more now!!!! Screw that Dolls album that's in the works; just let John finish it!" (All right, you got me... I'd never be like *that*.)

In the end, I decided to just clear my head of my preconceptions, and go into the album with a clear head and as little expectations as possible, thinking, for a second there, that I probably would have liked the last Dolls album a LOT more if I'd done the same... And, you know what? It totally paid off.

amungus is an interesting and alluring marriage of thought and creative expression between Takac and web design company SlenderFungus' founder, Brian Schulmeister. SF seems to have been handling the visual aspect of the Dolls' web-presence since, I'd say, the GF days, so perhaps that's how Takac and Schulmeister met. I don't know, and it doesn't matter. All that matters is the SOLID, KICKASS MUSIC they've made. Seriously. The music they've written is overall hooky, pop beats; infectuous and energizing. The lyrics, which they have writing credits for (at LEAST they do on all songs, with one or more others helping) are straightforward, but still pack emotion in their simplicity.

Of course, the emotion in question is Love. It's either long-distance love, empty sexualized love, love that's evolving, or, just the plain 'ol catch-all of Love fluorishing or in trouble. Simply? It's an album about love that doesn't suck. (Yeah. I went there.)

Bad Kitty - Prrrrr! Rawwwr! Hissss!!! [and more kitty-cat noises here]. And, man, what a way this is to start out an album. It's sexy. It's hip. It's awesome.

Green Tea - My favorite, right here. The beat of it is just... Man, I wanna strip down and shake my ass. For serious (but I won't, b/c no one wants to see that).

Search Your Soul - I HAVE MY THEORIES ABOUT THIS. But, I won't bore anyone with 'em. This is another favorite, right here. It's pop. It's catchy. The message is great. IT'S A DUET! And we all know how much I love those... It just rocks. I could really hear this one on the radio.

Man Up - Nikki Hicks has a hell of a voice. This proves it; this, being a song about a man who needs to get off the fence and MARRY his (assumed) long-term girlfriend.

Serious Chemistry - You ever been trollin' through MySpace of Facebook, see that one pic of that one hot dude? Started talking to him, and found out that, hey, y'all actually click? Well, apparently so has the heroine of this song, more or less. It's still a song about love.

Broken Love - I also have my theories about this one, too, but that's for another day... My third favorite, right here. It's just refreshing to hear the word 'concubines' in a song. Plus, the idea of love being, well, fixable is endearing. If two people are really meant to be together, then they will be, blahblahblah.

Untouchable - Just a cool groove. And, no, this is not Cuz You're Gone II.

And the DC Mix of Man Up is cool, but... Well, it's not the highlight of this ep.

love lasts forever, like, infinite

Year End Wrap-Ups: Music

Okay, so Christmas is over. It was great. I had a blast with my family, and I got what I wanted. I hope everyone else had a happy, loving time. And, news flash, I'm not going to Odessa. My mom finally made her decision, listened to me, and said we'd go next year after I graduate. So, this time next year, I'll be hanging out in the big O-D.

So, tonight we watched The Dark Knight. We rented it from Blockbuster, because I'm stubborn and I refuse to buy it now, and miss out when some awesome Collector's Edition of the Trilogy comes out in three-four years from now. I missed out on LOTR, PotC, X-Files, and Millennium because I was impatient. Not this time, dammit. I will stick by my guns! (Although, damn... Tonight, I believe, was my 8th viewing of TDK and it's STILL a great movie, and Dudley loved it. It was his first time to see it. He liked it so much, in fact, that he said he's see it in theatres if the rumor that they're re-releasing it is true.)

Speaking of TDK, the Golden Globe nominees for this year have been released, and Ledger is up for Best Supporting Actor in a Dramatic Film. I think it's fantastic he got a nomination, and I hope he wins. Though, if he does, I hope it's for the right reason.

Back to Christmas for a second. I got a digital camera, and I love it so much. So much. So, if anyone wants any, there'll be pictur- Oh, wait, no one wants any? All right, rock on.

Since I'm not going to Odessa, tomorrow mom and Dudley and I are going to see The Day the Earth Stood Still. And, before I leave, Mom and I are gonna see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. And, when I go see Dad next week (Tuesday night), we're going to see Valkyrie, which, sadly, seems to be getting mediocre reviews so far. Oh, well.

And, while we're on the subject of reviews... I guess it's time for me to start weighing-in on 2008. Not from a personal standpoint, mind you, but from an entertainment stance. I mean, NOW is the time most people start making those 10 Best lists...

So, I'll finish this post with a truncated rant about music: Simply, I really didn't listen to all that much this year. Being in H-Ville, I'm cut-off from radio, which is my main source of music. MTV has sucked for years, and half the time that I'm up late enough to watch music videos on VH1, I'm finishing an assignment, or they're playing some lame singer-songwriter bullshit. On-line? I listen to Pandora, which I've sadly tailored to the point where I hear the same bands over and over.

So, what does all this boil down to? It means that I've been happily stuck in my musical corner this year, like I was last year. Like I'll be until I move back to H-Town permanently. In my corner, I just paid attention to what I'm used to, my normal bands. So... Here's what I loved and didn't quite love so much about this year in my music:

• First off, of course, is Goo Goo Dolls. Their Greatest Hits: Volume Two came out this Summer, and it was fantastic. My only slight beef was that it didn't have quite the video content that the band wanted on there, but that was probably due to legal issues, so it's not their fault, and not really a fault of the album. This issue of legality and copyright, somehow, is probably the reason why my favorite cover, Nothing Can Change You, wasn't included, either. Regardless, the collection is worth it for *any* fan, die-hard or casual.
• Keane had a new album, called Perfect Symmetry, and it was their Viva la Vida. It was the representation of a new musical direction for the band. Sadly, though, unlike Coldplay's VlV, I don't think it was well-received in the U.S. It may have been better-received in their native country, the U.K., and I hope it was, but I don't know. I liked it a lot. I'm not sure where'd I rank it in comparison to the rest of their catalogue, but I know I liked it. In fact, I'm still using it in my car.
• Since I've already used it in an analogy... Coldplay came out with Viva la Vida, or Death and All His Friends this year. As already alluded to, it was Coldplay's most adventurous and experimental album to date. I loved it. In fact, I think there's only one and half songs off of it that I didn't like, and that's good for me and them. I won't be surprised if they sweep the Grammys.
• Augustana had Can't Love, Can't Hurt this year. Overall, I'd say it's a solid sophomore effort. Probably, thought I'd have to listen to both to be sure, but... I think I'd say it's a better album than their first. Sweet and Low is a great song, and it should have done better, I think, as a single. (In personal news... I've had, like, three chances in the last two years to see them, and I've missed it each time... Grrrr.)
• Even though I've only heard the one single, Dancer, I'm sure The Killers' new album is amazing. They're always reliable for good music.
• Sarah McLachlan also released a Greatest Hits compilation this year. I got it, since I've lost all my albums of hers. I'm happy with the compilation. It's all her hits, so how could I not be? Well, I do wish she had made an excecutive decision and put Fear on it... Oh, and I can honestly say that, unless you're a die-hard McLachlan fan, the deluxe version isn't worth it. Sorry, Sarah.
• Even though it came out in 2007, I just got Emerson Hart's solo album, Cigarettes and Gasoline. He was the lead singer of Tonic, but they split up, and now he's doing his own thing. It's good, if a little on the country-side in places, but I would have to say that, overall, I think I prefer Tonic's work over his solo effort. Green Hills Race for California, however, is a damn good song.
• Supposed to have come out in 2007, but released this year was Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings by Counting Crows. To be Gooey for a second... This was the Crows' LLI. No, it wasn't filled to the brim with saccharine-sweet ballads, but it was under-whleming. However, compared to a lot of what comes out lately that falls into the same generalized category of pop-rock, BOTH ALBUMS are good. BUT!! Compared separately to the rest of their respective bands' catalogues... Meh, not anything amazing, on either account. However, two songs on SNaSM really stand out to me: 1492 and Cowboys. Give those a chance, and the rest of the dichotic album might grow on you, slowly.
• One last compilation, and this one's from my #2 band, Everclear. They released, back in April, their collection of covers, called The Vegas Years. The only one I didn't enjoy was their cover of Neil Young's Pocahontas. I just don't think it was a good song for them to cover. However, the Speed Racer theme and Tom Petty's American Girl were both fantastic. Plus, from a Gooey standpoint, it was interesting to hear another band, my #2 no less, cover American Girl. Apparently, and I wouldn't know this of course, EC's been using it to close their live-shows since, like, 2004. Anyways, it's a must-have for any die-hard EC fan. God knows I had mine when it came out.
• Last is my rave for Panic at the Disco's sophomore album, Pretty. Odd. It's absolutely amazing compared to their debut, and I loved their debut. This is just better, because it proves, in my opinion, that they're more than a flash-in-the-pan, that they have staying-power, and that's hard to come by in this day and age. Even if you didn't like their first album, I recommend this one, at least to listen to 30-second previews before you make your decision.

Looking ahead to 2009: Silversun Pickups is supposed to drop their sophomore effort, Wikipedia already has info up about a supposed April-release for Lifehouse, which I'm really not all that excited about (unless Bryce really is going to sing on this one...), rumor has it that Aerosmith will drop something, which means they'll tour; maybe EC will have an album of NEW material, since 2006 was their last release of original work; it's been confirmed that Starsailor's dropping their fourth album in March, and, last but certainly not least... Goo Goo Dolls are rumored to have a new album next year, which I think won't drop until 2010, but that's just my pessimism.

(Last-minute/final note: Amungus released an album, but I have not yet got it.)

that's what we learned about flyin'