It may be chilly out there in late February but hey, sometimes we get quite the view…
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Category: Media
This is a container category for media reviews and related drivel.
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One Night In Portland
I’m going on record (ha ha) with an unpopular musical opinion, and I don’t really care who knows it.
Back in early 1985 two singers released their own versions of the same song. I was thirteen years old at the time, right in the target demographic for Top-40 “Z” stations like Z-100 here in Portland. One of their gimmicks involved voting for the better of two songs via a phone-in tally. Since this one song’s two renditions came out within weeks of one another it probably seemed a brilliant idea to put them up against one another.
It’s possible that I still have my cassette tape recording of the event kicking around here somewhere but I wouldn’t put money on that bet.
Everyone who lived through the ’80s is familiar with and may even like the version that went on to become a one-hit wonder. Me? I still prefer this one, and I always will. So be it.
(For the love of your sanity, don’t seek out the actual promotional videos for either rendition. They’re very, very… ’80s. Hooboy.)
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Gundam Winging It
Oh hey, look at what I assembled over the weekend.
Such a fierce little dude, isn’t he?
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Not-So-Giant Robots
So, in order to give myself something to do (possibly even accomplish) I have begun assembling one of the models I bought … oh, late last year? Ahem.
Yes, that’s a little Wing Gundam. And it doesn’t require glue, which was a pleasant surprise I don’t mind admitting. Hopefully I’ll have a finished robot to show off… soon…
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All The Ducks
This is the sort of thing I get up to when a silly joke idea gets stuck in my head and won’t go away.
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Filter – The Sun Comes Out Tonight
I decided not to write anything about the new Daft Punk record here because, wow, who didn’t have something to say about it? (Mostly unmitigated, unabashed praise… and I’m afraid I couldn’t have done that, as I found the album kind of dull in several ways. But we’re not here to talk about that…) However, I noted at the store recently that Filter have a new record out, The Sun Comes Out Tonight.
I’m probably not the most representative Filter fan. Title Of Record is one of my favorite albums ever. There simply are no bad songs on it, and it’s one of the few albums not made by Genesis or Midnight Oil that I’ll listen to all the way through and not want to press the “skip” button. Conversely, I find most of the next album, The Amalgamut, to be some combination of annoying, offensive, and trite. (I’ve joked that the sole purpose of The Amalgamut is to give us the song “The Only Way (Is The Wrong Way)” which is an absolute gem.)
The few reviews I could find for the new album indicated a return to early form, and I’m okay with that. Do what you wanna, as I’ve said about artists time and again. So I spent some of my precious monthly eMusic dollars and downloaded the new work.
The Sun Comes Out Tonight leads off strong with two barn-burners (the excellently NSFW “We Hate It When You Get What You Want” and the snarkily-anthemic “What Do You Say”) and a solid ballad (“Surprise”) and if you’ve heard Filter on the radio you know what to expect. From there on it settles into a middle stretch of thoroughly passable loud-and-angry fare, then finishes with the romantic ballad “It’s Just You.” It’s the standard pop-record layout: Front-load the really good stuff and hope people stick around for the rest. Nothing here is going to revolutionize music. On the other hand, if you like the Filter songs you’ve heard on the radio before, then this is exactly the kind of thing you’ll like and I can recommend the purchase without reservation.
Just… don’t play that first song while at the office. Trust me on this.
