Some things:

Sloan

I saw Sloan live awhile ago. The Golden Dogs opened, they were also pretty fun. Sloan was excellent though. They played all their hits, gave an awesome performance and really just were pretty great rock musicians. I really respect a band that can constantly deliver fun, exciting, catchy rock music without having any pretentious attitudes towards their legitimacy as musicians. Some of their songs are pretty poignant and touching, don't get me wrong, but they never get dragged down by such things and can always be enjoyed for good songs without having to "feel" them on any significant levels. They're good musicians playing well written music. That's what I think about Sloan. The crowd was pretty entertaining, too, loads of drunken douchebags. Saw a few fights, a couple people got arrested, and oh man, the homosexuality. You know all the jokes about like "oh man some frat boys are repressing their gayness but it leaks out in football etc"? Well I dunno man I don't think they're jokes. Well I knew that they were never really jokes and were actually based on truth but now I have seen shirtless men ignore their girlfriends to grope each other and jump around and I was like "wow beer can only explain half of this I think."

Anyways I was in some VIP seating area so I could look down on the sea of popped collars and backwards hats and confusing "partying" and I couldn't really connect it with the sort of music that I heard, which I figured would maybe pull more of the "indie-rock PBR hipster" demographic? And there were a few of them there, but maybe I'm underestimating Sloan's mainstream success. I knew they were popular, but I dunno, I guess I equated them with The Tragically Hip and maybe Barenaked Ladies and such in the "intelligent but none too serious Canadian rock" genre. Of course, I haven't been to see The Hip in awhile, so that concert could have a bunch of douchebags too. Maybe every concert just has douchebags. Maybe I should stop using the term "douchebag" because it's one of those pointless "safe" insults like "hipster".

But Sloan was fun.

I think my favorite album of theirs is uh, their compilation of singles, A-Sides Win. Is that cheating? It's a really solid collection, though, and it flows together pretty well despite representing over a decade of music-making.

Sloan - A-Sides Win

"If it Feels Good Do It", one of Sloan's most successful singles, begins with some concert-style call and response, audience cheering, and the impassioned speech: "This song is dedicated to you, because this song is dedicated to people who know what rock and roll is about!". Well, one could have figured that out from the title, or maybe the layered riff, heavy drums and stuttering slide that emerges a few seconds later, or maybe from the nicely harmonized opening line that sounds somewhere between modern Beach Boys sweetness and grunge classics. The whole song really is about what rock and roll is about, heck, the whole album should be included with the textbook for "Modern Rock Music 101". It's got the riffs, the choruses, memorable lyrics, nice little solos and breakdowns... any thirty seconds of this album could make it big on the radio in almost any context.

And that's the real beauty of this sort of music, and it's the modularity. There's nothing huge to digest here, each song presents itself in a way that you helps you quickly become familiar with it while still anticipating what will come next. Even songs with considerable buildup, like the beautifully constructed "People of the Sky", establish the oft-repeated and short-term memory burrowing catchy sections early on. These sections can be what the rest of the song is build around, giving the listener a ground to anticipate and return to with familiarity and adding to the dramatic nature of its inevitable deviation. Most importantly, the listener is never disappointed, whether the song turns back to the established core or deviates into new territory, because they always make whatever course is taken make the song more exciting and dramatic. Nothing ever sags or lags or even approaches dullness. Not even in sections when the band is steering their hardest towards introspection, personal storytelling, morals or other such normally fun-killing stuff do they ever deviate from their desire to make good music first.

That's some high level babbling. On a more direct level, this is sixteen songs that all deserve their single status and represent a good range of the band's capability. There is a nice variety of tempos and instrumentation and subject matter and such, but they're all undeniably linked with an undying energy and genuine enthusiasm, signature of the band. Highlights include the aforementioned "If it Feels Good, Do It", rock music distilled to it's very essence and "People of the Sky", a nicely presented story with catchy hooks and suspenseful progression, "Underwhelmed", a bitingly clever love song with a good selection of puns and subtle hints of unreliable narration and self-deprecation that's worth a bit of analysis, "The Good in Everyone", crazy jumbling garage sounds condense to something that flashes quickly to nice radio type rock before spiraling back out into solo-powered chaos in a tantalizingly short supernova fashion... actually, pretty much every song could be said to be a highlight. Sloan isn't likely to write the most moving rock ballad of all time, nor the coolest most progressive song of all time, but they've found an excellent middle ground between solid rock music and catchy pop. 9.5/10

What is the coolest most progressive song of all time.

It is this, and the second coolest thing one can ever do is loudly sing along to it in a room they thought was empty.

What is the coolest thing one can ever do?

It is watching the new K-ON!! episode and singing along to the opening theme in a room they thought was empty.

On that Subject: K-ON!!

Only one episode left! I've decided to be pessimistic and assume this is the last season. Best case scenario, I'm happily surprised. Worst case scenario, I probably won't die of shock and heartbreak by the time it's clear that it won't be happening. Actually I lied, I will never believe this is the last season, I'll rename season 2 to season 3 and have someone wipe my memory before I do that.

Anyways one episode left! And I bet it'll be a "barn burner". Graduation episodes are always some of the most powerful, and this'll be no exception, even if they're all going to university together (for season 3!!!). Prediction? Lots of tears. On both sides of the screen.

On that subject: Hey uh is there any quick way for you to get rid of whatever respect I have left for you?

Um well I'm considering buying this...

Maybe not though. I think there's nicer ones out there.

Buying a fig is like a jumping off point for powerlevels and such, though. So far I've bought manga and DVDs and such, sure, because they're sort of functional. But buying something just to display my fandom? That's the point of no return. After that I might as well get some posters and wall scrolls and gain 300 pounds and never go outside. Oh well, I probably won't get it. I'm just way up on the hype train for K-ON!! right now. I'll probably want this after the next OVA comes out. When does that come out, anyways?

Hey change the subject as much as you can as fast as you can.

OK so I'm listening to this new Outkast mixtape. I have no idea where it came from. I think it's a fan made thing, but most of these tracks are new to me and pretty quality. Cee-lo's on a few of them. I have a few choice words about his "Fuck You" thing, but that's another post I think. In quick summary: "excellent song but guarantees that Cee-lo will never be what I want him to be again". He's a bit more on his "classic form" here, though, and it's pretty fun. Going to bed now but I'll listen to the rest later and give you my thoughts. Hopefully I'll figure out where the heck this mixtape came from too. It was on Waffles, so it must have some legitimacy, I'd think.

Anyways more stuff tomorrow hopefully. Need to make more posts! Must make money from posts! Uh yeah unlikely!!