Set Your Goals On the Cover Of AP

Update! I've been lacking in the updates for a little. I've been soo busy with work and school. I have a whole load of albums I want to review because it seems like the last 5 months everyone has been coming out and dropping some new shit on us! Hopefully this week I will be working out getting out a song preview of albums I want to review in the next month!


Set Your Goals! To give you something to keep your little hearts content I thought I would plug one of my favorite bands because AP has put them on the cover of their Magazine this month. Kudos to you AP for manging to make this band look somewhat physically attractive! I had to do a double take to make sure it was really them. Lately I've shunned away from purchasing AP unlike in my past because either my music taste has grown (better or worse in your opinion) or AP is just plastering some really shitty bands on their covers now-a-days, but whatever the reason it is I haven't been to0 inclined to dish out 5 bucks unless its an artist I really like. I'm glad SYG is starting to really get the recognition they deserve. The article inside reads like any other AP article does so really it's not worth the $5 dollars. This issue was also on the light side compared to prior issues I've bought of AP. I guess everyone is starting to get cheap. Seeing Set Your Goals on The Fall Ball bill along side The Academy Is.. actually had an adverse effect on me. I thought the only place I would see those two names beside each other and Mayday Parade was on the t-shirt wall in Hot Topic. I've always thought two bands I really liked touring together would be an awesome mixture but in this case it makes me want to throw up a little, put a dash of the likes of You and Me at Six and The Secret Handshake and I have to think "Who the hell do AP think they're appealing too?" It makes me sad to think of the inevitable bleeding of my ears when I would hear "Miserable at Best" and then not fully be able to enjoy "Mutiny!" during Set Your Goal's set list. Maybe Set Your Goals have not fully paid their dues yet, but they deserve some better touring bands than The Secret Handshake.

Patent Pending Review! See them Saturday!

Being the music nerd I am belong to a message board system of one of my favorite bands (it shouldn’t take you too long to figure out who if you know me well enough). I was happily surprised when I stumbled upon one of my fellow boardies who had an icon from a band I liked that I did not think were very popular. This inspired me to write a review on Patent Pending’s Save Each Other, The Whales Are Doing Fine.

I would also like to make you aware that Patent Pending will be playing this year’s Italian Heritage Festival in Clarksburg, WV on Saturday September 5th. (I’ve included the flyer from the show above). My good friend Alex Voldeck has been lucky enough to book them again this year. You might notice a line up change from last year, lead singer Michael Ragosta left the band to be replaced by guitarist and back up vocalists Joe Ragosta. This is be the first time I have been able to see Paten Pending live but I’ve already been told their amazing stage presence. Plus you might even see me there if you look hard enough!

The first time I listened to Save Each Other, The Whales Are Doing Fine I was stunned that this band wasn’t bigger than they were. Not only are they a good band but they also combine that with being very mainstream-able. Normally people take main stream as a bad thing but not necessarily. If you can pull off being good and having the potential to be the next big thing then my props to you.

I’m gonna skip through my normal bullshit and tell you my three favorite tracks and why.

“Decemberween”: This is my favorite song on the whole album. The rest of the album leans more towards pop punk but this definitely has a lot of ska influence. The song will hold your attention all the way through without leaving you hanging somewhere in the middle.

“Cheer up Emo Kid”: Subject matter wise, I always get a chuckle out of hearing this song. Even though dated (come on emo was like three years ago, its all about being scene now) there will always be a group of kids brainwashed by a certain kind of music so the message is still relevant. Though I get lost at the little sing along slow part towards the end.

“The June Spirt”: Vocally this song is the best on the album. Lyrically I love the bitterness and revenge angle (I don’t know what that says about me). This song only furthers my belief that they have the potential to open up for bands like Blink-182.

So there you have it. Three reasons why you should by this album now and why I will be seeing you saturday! Don't forget to say hi!

Blink-182 Concert Review! Aug 14th at The Post Gazette Pavillion

Incase you didn't know,I attended the concert of my life. My friend Alexis and I got there early so we could snag merch in our sizes (for some reason all the smalls sell out really fast). First thing that pissed me off was they wouldn't let us take in our draw string nike backpacks. Last year at warped tour they let us in with them but this time we had to pretty much throw them away (almost like throwing $20 away).

I'm gonna skip going in to every little detail about the concert, since I know you probably hate reading. I'm just going to do a "quick"review on each of the bands before I drop the pictures on you.

Cheaster French: I'll be honestly with you, I had never heard of this band before I saw them on the line-up for the concert. They suprized me by being good. Thier songs were up beat and danceable. I guess they made a rap cd too because the lead singer was talking about it but I did not hear them rapping. I actully think I'm going to check this band out, maybe they'll even be review worthy!

Panic(!) at the Disco: My history with Panic is alittle rocky. I felt indiffernet when I found out they were going to be playing this show. I really liked thier first cd when it first came out and no one knew about them. But then Pete Wentz had to run his mouth all over MTV and plug them and then at one point there were bigger than Fall Out Boy. That's when I stopped liking them. This was only more confirmed when they put out Pretty. Odd. After seeing them live at this show, my apperication for them was found again. Brendon Urie sang perfectly live. The band mostly played songs off of thier first album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out. I think they only played two songs off of Pretty. Odd (one of those being the single "Nine in the Afternoon"). Brendon was funny and nice. Over all I thought they did a wonderful job and I would even concider seeing them again!

Fall Out Boy: I'm not even just saying this because I'm a hardcore FOB fan but Fall Out Boy have gotten so much better live. I was expecting alot less from them because I had seen TV performances where they sounded awful. But FOB has grown alot since I saw them two years ago at the same venue for the Honda Civic Tour. Patrick sang perfectly and didn't skip around with the words. Pete talked most of the time, typical Pete, but i enjoyed his little remarks none the less. I was very impressed by the setlist they chose to play. They picked alot of old favorites to play, even ones that weren't singles. The best part of thier show was when Pete had the audience decide on weather we wanted to wear "The Take Over" or a very old song. Not knowing what we were in store for, the crowd went nuts and picked the "very old song". Suddenly Brendon Urie came on stage and they started to play a cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' ". I don't even like Journey and I thought this was incredible. Fall Out Boy have always been known for bringing other bands out on stage with them to do a song. I remembered why Fall Out Boy is my favorite band after thier performance.

Blink-182: Somehow me and Alexis mangaged to seat hop up closer than we already were. The back ground for blink's show was neat (as pictured below). The had a large bunny set up near some of the amps (the bunny is blink's logo except this bunny was revamped from the 90's one we are so used to). They came out and ripped the stage apart with "Dumpweed" as thier first song. I have to say Blink's preformance was the best I have ever seen live. They choose alot of great songs, including all of thier hits and alot of fan favorites. Though the setlist seems like it might have been recycled from thier Greatest Hits tour before thier hiatus. I do wish they would have played more songs from Duderanch. Mark and Tom were as funny as ever. It reminded me of being able to experience TheMark, Tom, and Travis Show Live. I am still in awe. I am so greatful that I got to go to this show. It was way worth the $83.50 I paid for the ticket.

PICTURE TIME! I picked the best pictures out of the ones I took. Really these pictures don't do justice to where our seats were. Towards the end when Blink was playing my camera started to screw up and not focus in on anything.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhotos&albumID=2587071

Album Review: Four Year Strong "Explains It All"

I thought the combination of a band I merely liked and a cover album would be disastrous, but when I heard Four Year Strong’s Explains It All I was happily surprised! When my eyes rolled through the track list I smirked a little remembering all of the songs from growing up in the 90’s and spotting a couple from some of my favorite bands (No Doubt and Third Eye Blind). Maybe they are just following in the foot steps of another band almost in the same genre as them who like to cover 90’s hits that you would not associate them with (cough cough, New Found Glory).

Somehow, somewhere God (or whoever or whatever you believe in) shined upon this album and made it work. I would even say better than “work”. My personal opinion on Four Year Strong is that all of their songs sound the same. I like and can sing along with a couple of them but there are only so many variations of “Bada Bing! With A Pipe” my ears can withstand before my A.D.D. kicks in and I change to another artist. I wish you readers could have seen my face as I listened to the album. Seriously, my mouth was ajar the whole time. I was so taken aback that a band managed to stay true to the original songs but also make them their own. Often times, covers fall short of the original because you can not top the artist’s first intentions; obviously there was something that worked the first time around.

You have to chuckle to yourself a little bit when you see Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic”. I love that Four Year Strong had the balls to only change the song’s original lyrics a tad from “It’s meeting the man of my dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife” replacing “my” to “your”.

As hard as I am to please when some band is covering a Third Eye Blind song (BEDlight For Blue Eyes’s cover of “Jumper” on Punk Rock Goes 90’s is a perfect example of how horrible a TEB cover can be) Four Year Strong made the song explosive. They seem to have left out a verse, I’m sure it was intentionally, but as I was singing along I had to go back and listen to original to make sure I wasn’t going crazier than I already am.

I was blown away to find Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes featured on the song “Fly”. That definitely won brownie points in my book. Though McCoy’s “talking” throughout the song does not really do much.

I highly recommend you giving this cover Album a try. It is nice to see bands not taking themselves to seriously anymore. I think if you were a fan before Explains It All you’ll appreciate the humor more. Yeah, it’s kind of a joke, but we’re all here laughing right along with Four Year Strong.

Album Reivew!: Rancid's Let The Dominoes Fall

Hey Guys! Sorry for the lack of updates! My internet has been down for the past two or three weeks. I am currently updating from Panera Bread right now. I love wireless hot spots! Get in touch with me.


There are few bands that upon hearing the announcement of a new album I get giddy like a school girl: whether it is due to their dashing good looks or simply because they are a fucking awesome band. Betting on the latter (though Armstrong might be right up your alley), when Rancid dropped Let The Dominoes Fall my excitement was at a high. Six years after their last album, and with the gain of new drummer Braden Steineckert (who was formerly in the band

The Used) I have to say Rancid still has it.

Let The Daminoes Fall is a 19 track album. In true punk fashion most of the songs are under three minutes long (with the exception of the longest song being 4:11). The record starts off with

“East Bay Nights”. This song is nothing short of an anthem and is very catchy with out being too main stream. Lead singer and solo artist Tim Armstrong sings/snarls a picture in your head of the bay area from which the band is from.

“Up To No Good” has an insanely additive ska grove to it. The first time I listened to it I could not stop myself from nodding my head to the beat. The walking bass lines add a nice layer to the song without being over barring. Again, Rancid manage a chorus that will be stuck in your head for days.

My least favorite track on the album happens to be “I Ain’t Worried”. I dislike this song mainly because Armstrong sound like he has a mouth full of marbles while he is singing, though I am not claiming that any of the other times he sounds like Whitney Huston, his voice is just a little to mumble-y for my taste on this song. There are just too many things going on that become distracting.

The song the albums title was derived from is “Dominoes Fall”. This is a perfect example of why Rancid continues to be an amazing band. All of the parts of the song fit together perfectly. The only thing I wish they would have left out is the “Nah Nah” singing, eh you will understand once you listen to it.

Since I am a sucker for amazing bass playing “You Want It, You Got It” became my overall favorite. The opening reeled me in and stuck out the next couple of times I listened to the record. It is short and sweet and to the point.

“The High Way” rounds out the album by slowing things down for Rancid’s normal pace. Again Armstrong’s voice is not the first that comes to mind to be heard over an acoustic guitar, but it surprisingly works. The position of this song breaks it for me; I think it is too slow to end the album on.

With Let The Dominoes Fall Rancid shows us that they have not lost their touch. I do not this is their best work, but it defiantly stands its own in their discography. The record fills the six year void they left after Indestructible and hopefully will keep fans tied over until their next release. Hardcore fans of the band should look into buying the special edition version of the album that includes a DVD and acoustic CD as well as the full length and other goodies. I can safely say Let The Dominoes Fall will not disappoint.

Happy Half Birthday To Me!!!!

Wow! It's been 6 months of me reveiwing! How the time flies. I've decided to celebrate this occasion by writing an editorial-ish thing. I hope you like and maybe get some insight. I can't wait to plan things out for my one year!


I have been asked many times “Why don’t you want to play music?”
I shrug my shoulders. I have never had that itching feeling to go start a band of my own or to play music. I love music in a different way than most people who claim to love music. It’s so cliché’ to say “oh music is my life” but to me it is only the truth. When I am sad or upset, I can get my angst out through listening to song. Adrenaline rushes through my veins when that fist pumping sound comes on through my speakers. It is comforting to hear someone else sing a song that I can relate to. I love the feeling of being in crowd singing along. Looking up from the floor can be just as rewarding as being on the stage.

Tribute: The King of Pop

In music there are certain genres that people themselves defined. Paths have created by this man. Future careers and fortunes would not be had if it were not for this man. In the past decade, Michael Jackson’s tremendous influence on modern music has been over shadowed by his person life and court trials. Though many of you might not realize it, the music that he made shaped Pop music and many of your favorite artists today would not be here if it were not for him. His music video for “Thriller” paved the way for the flashy vids you (not very often anymore) see on MTV. So I suggest you go buy yourself a copy of Thriller (if you can even get your hands on one right at the moment) and pay your respects to the King of Pop.

Album Review! Taking Back Sunday- New Again

Sunday’s are great days to take back. Over the time period between Taking Back Sunday’s last album Louder Now and their new album New Again a lot has happened. The band went through a very public loss of a member, and words were exchanged as he immersed himself in his solo project. A replacement has founded. Band members tied the knot (though not with each other). It is no wonder this new album was entitled New Again.

Ironically enough, with all this talk of new beginnings and change, New Again sounds like a b-sides compilation to Louder Now. The track “New Again” starts off the record with a mediocre approach. There is nothing about this song that instantly stands out for me.

The next song however is my favorite, even upon the first listen to the album. “Sink Into Me” is musically more up beat than pervious TBS songs. My favorite thing about this song is the lyrics because even with the catchy music, the lyrics maintain a sense of desperation and pleading.

The rest of the album flies by under the radar. “Lonely, Lonely” might catch your ear with its appealing choruses. Though most of the songs fall through the cracks. My least favorite song off of the album is “Where My Mouth Is” simply because I do not think TBS fairs well with slowed down acoustic songs; this is definitely the sore thumb if there ever was one.

“Cut Me Up Jenny” is the last song that holds any punch. Lazzara’s vocals have always made girls (and some boys) swoon everywhere. This is the song that will be stuck in your head days after you have listened to it.

Over all Taking Back Sunday did not do too badly with New Again. I was disappointed though because I thought the band would have come up with something a little more creative because of the large time span between this album and the last. The only minor difference is most of the songs seem to be a bit faster than the majority of Louder Now. Original Taking Back Sunday fans might think of this as a snack just to keep them full for the next album.

You Can Check Out Songs From New Again and other Taking Back Sunday Albums by visiting thier myspace: http://www.myspace.com/takingbacksunday

Top Four Summer Albums! Summer Is Here Kids!

Top Four Summer Albums

Songs are dedicated to it. Kids in school fight each other off when the last bell rings to be the first one out. Teachers often dream of it too. All for three months of relaxation, tans, swimming, and vacations-- all in the name of Summer. Not one word has brought more joy to children since "Christmas". Below I have compiled a list of four albums I am encouraging you to go out and pump through your stero speaker this summer. Who knows, I might end up writing your summer soundtrack, I know I already have mine written.

4. 3OH!3- Want

This album is pretty much the definition of a party album. What's a bigger party than summer? 3OH!3 somehow mange to create thier own genre of music by mashing together thrash, electronica, and hip-hop. The smart lines they drop will leave you rethining what it means to be "dope as hell". Recommended Tracks: "Richman" and "I Can't Do It Alone".

You can listen to 3OH!3 by visiting thier myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/3OH!3

3. Death Cab For Cutie- Plans

To slow things down a bit I choose Plans. THis is the perfect ablum to put on during bonfires to chill the mood. Death Cab maintains a certain sense of laid back-ness without putting you to sleep. Nothing is more relaxing than this ablum through your headphone while you work on your tan. Recommended Tracks: "Soul Meets Body" and "Summer Skin".

You can listen to Death Cab For Cuite by visiting thier myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/Deathcabforcutie

2. Blink-182- Take Off Your Pants and Jacket

Nothing has made this album mean more to me than the recent announcement of Blink-182's summer tour with my favorite band Fall Out Boy, and they are coming near me! After this hiatus, the band got back together this year. Though this is not my favorite Blink record, I still appreciate its humor and pop punk sound. It is one of those ablums to turn your car speakers up while you are driving with the windows rolled down on your way to Warped Tour (see you there!). Recommended Tracks: "The Rock Show" and "Rollercoaster".
You can listen to Blink-182 by visiting their myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/blink182

1. Lady Gaga- The Fame

This, hands down, is the best pop album I have heard in a long time. Lady Gaga is so inventive and new she sometimes suprises herself. There is not one skipable track on this alum. The Fame represents everything summer is- fun and exciting. Each song on the album has dance beats and Gaga's singing make her a power house. While serveral tracks from this album have already produced hits for the singer, the album as a whole hits the mark and raises the bar. Recommended Tracks: "Summer Boy" and "Starstruck".

You can listen to Lady Gaga by visiting her myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/ladygaga

November Gentlemen! Songs Of The Day!

The sweet smells of chi lattes and chocolate peanut butter pies are all things that come to mind when I hear the sweet soundings of November Gentlemen, not to mention dashing good looks. November Gentlemen, Kevin Merrill’s stage name, has just released two new songs entitled, “Being A Gentleman…” and “I Can’t Bring Myself To Believing” on his myspace. Merrill may not be going by this birth name anymore, but we can certainly tell he has not lost his touch. Not only do these two songs contain the elements in November Gentlemen that we love such as great acoustic guitar playing and a raspy voice that boarders on pretty without being too over the top, but Merrill’s playing and music abilities have gotten better. The recording in both of these songs is crisp and clean. I enjoyed the very soothing guitar melodies on “Being A Gentleman…”, along with the lyrical content. The drumming and organ playing on “I Can’t Bring Myself To Believing” are a great a accompaniment and give the song a more light hearted feeling. Over all both of these songs are great, and I can not pick with one I like better. Hats off to you, November Gentlemen.

You can check out November Gentlemen by following this link: http://www.myspace.com/novembergentlemen