Countdown.

The wait begins. John Mayer has put the first single off of "Battle Studies" up on his website. (If you want to give it a listen, it's right here.) With his last two albums, I managed to wait until the release date to hear the entire thing for the first time (excluding a few listens of the single, which is hard to avoid due to the radio, music TV, etc.), and it definitely paid off. I grew to know each album as a whole rather than The Single and then The Rest Of It, commonly known as The Good Stuff. I don't want the single living in a different space in my head than the rest of the album. This almost always pays off for listening to most full albums for me, and I don't want to make Battle Studies any different.

That being said, 1 month and 22 days until the album is released. Good grief.

-Jon

"Hey, wha' happened?"

These two clips are from the Christopher Guest-directed a mighty wind. The film is a fake documentary about the organization of a tribute concert featuring three old folk acts from the last 40 years and it stars much of the same cast as other movies directed by Christopher Guest: Best In Show, For Your Consideration, Waiting For Guffman, and the classic This Is Spinal Tap. I'm not a giant fan of any one of them; they're all pretty funny but not laugh out loud. Except for these two clips. Each scene features Fred Willard as a ridiculous manager of one of the folk groups in this tribute concert. Colleen and I were crying after this first clip, we rewound it like four times. Not much else by way of introduction so here you go:

And the second one:

I can't get over how funny his character is to me. The love of catchphrases, the fart machine, the whispering, his hair. His phrasing is just too funny. The "19seventymmmm" is such a funny idea, when I get that old and I ever have to reference anything from my 20s I'm going to do that everytime. Again, the movie as a whole is alright, but man this guy is thoroughly entertaining.

-Jon

Sorority Girls Keep Texting Me.

On Monday, I was at the Union grabbing a bite to eat before class and I got this text that I subsequently deleted because it was from a number I didn't recognize and it didn't make any sense. Anyway, the text itself read somewhere along the lines of "ahoy ladies! anyone up for a kill today?"..... What did it mean? I didn't have a clue, and that's why I deleted it. I thought it was a fluke. I have since received a string of texts like this, and I have yet to reply to any of them to tell them I'm not who they think I am. Here are the other texts I've received in chronological order (note: all poor grammer and spelling is exactly as the texts are received by me, with a blank indicating an excluded phone number):

"Hey girls! If anyone is free between 3 and 4 today... Contact Caitlin lueck about an easy kill for big points! This is laura muyres btw."

"Nik miller is leaving olin at 1 45. Anyone have his name and is ready to kill then? Txt jankowski ______"

"Trevor funk is in class in the school of ed until 1215. lets get him he'll never suspect it and hes worth extra points. Txt _______ its schmelds"

"ahoy ladies! Claire needs ppl to go to intermurals let her know if you are free"

"ahoy laides! Stake out at noon whos in? Talk to jesse if you can make it"

"Ahoy who has Kriepkes name??"

"Anyone free from now till one?"

"Who has matt abrahmsons name?"

"ahoy are you up for a kill at 345"

"Ahoy! If you are not busy, we need to kill some boys who are in aliber. Blake and nick thierer are for sure here. Tell me if youre in! Spread the word please."

"ahoy! Who is up for a stake out this afternoon? Is you are available contact beth ann"

"This is from Carley. we need these names.. brunning rapp myhre brice raether frahm dang and david text claire asap!! ______ foward on"

"BE CAREFUL!! Try not to leave your dorms! Stay inside and if you need to go somehwere get a ride. NO hubble and No spikes! We are almost done!"

"Yes. Its a waterballoon fight!"

"We played better and harder than those baby TCs so let's go super soak them and finish it off! Everyone come to the house at 10 for some sneaky TC fun! Forward!"

I'm so confused by all of this. It seems like some fraternity/sorority type of game of which I've inadvertently become a part. Weird. I'm not sure how long I should keep receiving these before I text back to say I'm the owner of the phone number and not whoever they think they're texting. What a weird problem.

-Jon

album art exchange.

Check THIS website out. By far, it is the most substantial, comprehensive collection of album art I've ever found. And all really high quality too. Plus a nerdy little blog about the new cover art that comes out each week. It's awesome.

I stumbled on it a few days ago and went on a rampage through my iTunes. The only albums that didn't have cover art were a few John Mayer live shows I had, but everything else had at least some kind of art. The problem was that a lot of the cover art was from Google images and wasn't the same size, good resolution, etc. So I went through all my cover art and replaced as many images as I could that weren't uniform. And aside from the approximately 10 dissimilar album covers I couldn't find, all of my 539 albums now have consistent album art. It is a wonder to behold.

-Jon

fall music preview '09.

just noticed that rolling stone has again released another seasonal music preview. let's do it. artist name followed by album title in italics and release date in parentheses.

1. mika - the boy who knew too much (9/22)

this is almost certainly going to be the most fun record this whole season. now i'm not crazy for mika; his last album was great, and i just never really got into it. it's just a good one to have on reserve in your ipod just in case you're ever driving and want to start a party in your car. he's got pop music down to a science, big sounds, colorful melodies, hooks like you wouldn't believe. and he's got the voice to sell it perfectly. he sounds like freddie mercury dashed with just a hint of gay. good joke jon.

2. the roots - how i got over (10/20)

torn on this one. i've got lots of roots records, but i've never fallen in love with any of them. and since i've never seen them perform live, i can't actually lend any weight to the "best live band ever" title that they get all the time. i didn't really give their last two albums more than a few listens as they seemed very dark and very unhappy about white people in general. their beats have always seemed pretty raw and not meant to draw the listener in by being easy to digest. that being said, i saw them perform their single "how i got over" off album of same name on late night with jimmy fallon, the show on which they are the house band (and really make the show watchable in my opinion), and it was super great. lots of fun, high energy, just a great tune. i've also heard the album version on okayplayer.com (the roots flagship website) and while it is different than their performance, it's still a good tune. so i have no idea about this album. could be great, could be a pass-over for me.

3. creed - full circle (10/27)

hahaha. remember how awful these guys were back in 2001? when i mock a song by singing in a ridiculous "rock" voice, scott stapp is who i'm emulating. can't believe they got back together to make more music. a real shame.

4. the swell season - strict joy (10/27)

looking forward to this album more than all of them except jm's. the swell season are glen hansard and marketa irglova, the two actors/musicians from the 2007 movie "once". i've never really written about this movie or it's soundtrack, and i'd like to sometime because it is incredibly affecting to me. suffice it to say that both the movie and the music from it are real beauty, and what i've heard from this new album is very, very good. i've heard a few live versions of a couple tunes and the record version of the tune "low rising" and it completely blew me away. this album is going to be a year-end favorite for me.

5. john mayer - battle studies (11/17)

last and the one i'm most excited for, without a doubt. what's up with jm releasing all his studio albums in the fall? he's got a thing for autumn i think. as of yet, i haven't heard a single thing except background snippets of tunes off this album, and i'm excited and anxious to hear where he's going after one of my very favorite records ever continuum. it's been three years since that album came out and lots has happened in his life since then. mainly he's become a douchebag in the public eye. we'll see how that translates to music. hopefully something great.

there we go. loads more albums were on the list, just nothing that really excited much more than these. and i'm probably only going to buy the last two when they come out, the rest i can wait awhile to hear.

i was looking back at my previous "music preview" posts and noticed that i said lots of things about albums i was excited about and then they let me down or they totally blew me away. i think what i'm gonna do from here on is every time i go over a new music preview, i'll take a look back at the most recent preview and take stock of what i actually liked or didn't like. that being said, i'm gonna do the last two spring previews from this year and last year to catch up. album title first followed by artist in parentheses.

- hard candy (madonna): didn't even listen to it. heard the single with justin timberlake, thought "eh."

- rising down (the roots): like i said earlier, very dark and raw. hard to listen to for me. didn't love it.

- lay it down (al green): without a doubt one of my Top 5 Favorite Albums. of any genre. any artist. of all time. fantastic, brilliant, luminous album. can't say enough good.

- we sing. we dance. we steal things (jason mraz): never really digested it. but it sounded alright.

- viva la vida or death and all his friends (coldplay): another brilliant album from coldplay. totally love this band, and this album, along with al green's, was for sure my most played during 2008. such a great, great record.

- weezer (weezer): didn't even bother. i wrote about it just to make fun.

- seeing sounds (n.e.r.d): definitely let down by this one. i loved the single but the rest was just too off-kilter for a n.e.r.d record. i was hoping for much more along the lines of fly or die and i got just something weird.

- way to normal (ben folds): loved it. listened to this a ton. really fun, great melodies, great hooks, great tunes overall. awesome album.

so those were all from the spring '08 preview, and the four albums i wrote about for the spring '09 preview were all duds, as in i didn't listen or buy any of them so i have no follow-up at all.

have to mention one album that almost fell through the cracks here, since it wasn't on the spring '09 preview and it was just released so it missed the fall '09 preview too. jay-z just released the blueprint 3 a week ago and i must say he has another winner. i am in love with this album right now. great beats, great rhymes, great collabos, everything on here is awesome. jay's still got it. such a great record. definitely will tide me over until october 27th, which will then suffice until november 17th. come on autumn!

-jon

2 videos.

i've come across 2 videos lately.

1: this one is 10 minutes from jay-z's 9/11 benefit concert at madison square garden in new york. he had loads of guests but this is a clip of my favorite guest.

now while i love john mayer, i'm a little iffy about his performance at the show. i don't know what it was, he just didn't seem totally on. he didn't seem to add tons to the music. and he was a little too styled out. leather jacket and tight pants? it just didn't seem very representative of how he usually is. but whatever. he played guitar for jay-z. talk about cred.

2: cat massage.

man i find this funny. i'm assuming this is just a edited version of an awful longer version. this is from the twitter page of neal brennan (created chappelle's show with dave chappelle). hilarious at 2:37 when the cat looks to the cameraman for help.

-jon

make up some music.

this thing is so freakin' sweet.

directions:

click any of the squares. each square makes a tone. each square in a horizontal row makes the same tone at a different timed interval. if you light up two squares next to each other, there will be no pause between the tones. light up two squares with a space in between and you'll get a longer interval between tones. likewise, each square in a vertical column makes tones; the lower the square in the column, the lower the tone. press space to clear the board and start over.

on top of that, if you click on the audiotool button below the grid, and then the audiotool button again on the next page, it loads a flashplayer program where you can basically make your own beats in your web browser. and we're not just talking one simple keyboard here. there are so pedals, electric keyboards, soundboards, and other equipment that you can use to tweak your beat. i discovered all this like ten minutes ago so i hardly even know what kinds of stuff i can do. this is clearly for experts, i'm gonna look at it for like thirty seconds, not figure anything out and be done.

but the tone matrix is awesome. and simple. whether you spend a long time figuring out some nifty little beat in your head or you just randomly light up a bunch of squares, you'll have a very cool sounding thing. have fun.

-jon

p.s. this is from k. west's blog. bummer about him this weekend.

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day

I just watched the trailer for The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. Yes, the sequel to the "cult classic" The Boondock Saints.

This movie, or set of movies, now joins the list of "Why did they keep going?" franchises. I know that sounds negative but it's not completely; I would add good movies to that list along with bad. This list includes, yet is obviously not limited to: Green Street Hooligans (yes, there is a sequel), basically any horror franchise, every single superhero franchise (good and bad included, I'm looking at you Christopher Nolan's Batman movies and Fantastic Four, respectively), Lost Boys, most of the Disney Animated Classics, and loads more I can't think of right now. The point is why do studios/filmmakers/directors/etc. continue movie franchises when continuing almost certainly means devaluing the franchise of any sort of credibility?

Let me go back a little bit. The Boondock Saints is a great movie. Funny, violent, exciting, artistic, it's very entertaining to watch. While it doesn't seem to have much premise other than "two Irish residents of Boston go on a violent God-ordained rampage and kill lots of bad gangsters in their city," it makes for an interesting concept and really is more of a vehicle for how the killing goes down. Which sounds mindless but translates to a very cool movie.

So you have this movie. It was (apparently) a disaster to make, made no waves when it was released in theaters, and then became a huge hit released on DVD, thanks to the powerful effect of word-of-mouth between college kids. It's considered a cult classic. And now, ten years later, a sequel is being made. I just watched the trailer, and it looks like they've replaced the Rocco character (comic relief sidekick from the original) with another Rocco-like character, and instead of Willem Dafoe playing the FBI agent tracking the Saints down, he's been replaced with a "sexy" crime-fighter who's "really gonna give them hell." Those are not quotes from the trailer, just a way to emphasize the cliches of movie sequels, the whole "upping the ante" factor. Sounds awful doesn't it?

Here's the interesting part. It might not be. The same writer-director of the original is helming the sequel, and the whole main cast (excluding Dafoe) is returning. This means the same two Saints (who really sold the original), their same bushy-bearded dad, and the squad of Boston police officers who were Dafoe's lackeys in the original. It actually seems like it might turn into a decent movie, as far as movie sequels go.

I think I was just a little annoyed by the fact they were making a sequel at all, as good as this might be. The Boondock Saints was a great movie, why can't it be left at that? People sacrifice their art and continue to make something after the creative well has dried and it cheapens whatever of the original was good.

So unless I hear that it really is awesome, I probably won't see this movie. Because honestly, how many people do you remember saying "Man Home Alone 3 is really where the series took off. I'm so glad they got rid of Macaulay Culkin"?

-Jon