Saturday, July 2, 2011
Being sick SUCKS
It's true. I'm a real authority on the subject, since today I have been sick as a dog. A really shitty, sick dog. I've spent the whole day since I awoke at 6:00 AM being fucking miserable. And what's the best part? I have to work the last hour and a half of my shift at work tonight, because no one can cover it. Yeah. Fuck.
Monday, June 27, 2011
The Dear Hunter - The Color Spectrum
The Dear Hunter's new album, "The Color Spectrum," which is actually a series of EP's, is truly an amazing collection of songs. I thought I'd share my thoughts (and a certain web link) with you here today.
There are nine EP's in all: seven for each color of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet), black, and white. Each one captures a unique mood that can be accurately correlated with the corresponding color, a feat about which I had some doubts before listening to the full collection. When I heard that The Dear Hunter would be releasing an album of the whole color spectrum, my thoughts were something along the lines of, "That is a massive undertaking; possible, but unlikely to be borne out satisfactorily." Luckily, I was wrong. Not only does each EP work on its own to represent its color, each fits nicely into the larger album, which flows remarkably well. On top of the fact that the whole is a coherent and artful experience, almost all of the individual songs are enjoyable, with many that I would describe with words such as "inspired," "beautiful," or "amazing."
The range of songwriting is quite impressive as well. It starts with the dark, heavy, oppressive sounds of the Black EP, which sounds like something approximating a post-nuclear wasteland. Moving through Red, Orange, and Yellow, the sound seamlessly changes from intense, heavy alt-rock to flighty pop/rock that inspires images of laying in summer sunshine - quite the opposite of where we started. The first EP's are the weakest though, with Yellow being the first fully wonderful collection of four songs. That's not to say that Black, Red, and Orange aren't good, but they display less of the band's full songwriting abilities than do the next six. Red and Orange are also the two that sound the least like their color (in my brain, anyway).
Yellow sounds like someone bottled sunshine and smiles and poured them out into a microphone. It's pretty damn fun. After the poppy, joyful burst of Yellow, Green follows it up with a lush, calming mood - it really feels like the band took the bright sunshine of Yellow and filtered it through a dense forest to tone it down with some shade; the result is the best EP of the collection, and a truly beautiful set of songs. I don't even want to say anything more about Green. Just listen to it. Blue is next, and is just that: blue. Depressed instrumentation, soft, lilting vocals, and an overall dark aesthetic dominate, without any of the brashness or clamor of the Black EP. Indigo is next and displays songs that are probably most unlike anything The Dear Hunter has done before, with heavy focus on electronics, repetition, and effects. It is also one of the strongest colors of the set; probably my second favorite behind Green. Violet is the color that is definitely the most like what The Dear Hunter has done before, with a very theatrical, grandiose sound, full of strings, horns, and big beats. White is last, and is a calm, uplifting close to a fantastic set of EP's.
If I were to give albums scores, this would get high marks all around. The best thing about it is that, by its very nature, there is something here for everyone. Whether you like heavy-hitting rock, piano ballads, synths aall songsnd electronic music, or soft folk-country, there WILL be an EP of these nine that you thoroughly enjoy. I, personally, happen to like all nine. Oh, and here's that link I promised you:
http://www.filestube.com/e90812593847ac2f03ea/go.html
DISCLAIMER: All songs that may or may not be downloaded from the above link should be deleted within 24 hours, after which you should buy the album at a record store and make the record companies very very happy. I promise that I actually believe that. No, really. I do!
Fine, I don't. Just enjoy the fucking album - it's two and a half hours of musical bliss.
There are nine EP's in all: seven for each color of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet), black, and white. Each one captures a unique mood that can be accurately correlated with the corresponding color, a feat about which I had some doubts before listening to the full collection. When I heard that The Dear Hunter would be releasing an album of the whole color spectrum, my thoughts were something along the lines of, "That is a massive undertaking; possible, but unlikely to be borne out satisfactorily." Luckily, I was wrong. Not only does each EP work on its own to represent its color, each fits nicely into the larger album, which flows remarkably well. On top of the fact that the whole is a coherent and artful experience, almost all of the individual songs are enjoyable, with many that I would describe with words such as "inspired," "beautiful," or "amazing."
The range of songwriting is quite impressive as well. It starts with the dark, heavy, oppressive sounds of the Black EP, which sounds like something approximating a post-nuclear wasteland. Moving through Red, Orange, and Yellow, the sound seamlessly changes from intense, heavy alt-rock to flighty pop/rock that inspires images of laying in summer sunshine - quite the opposite of where we started. The first EP's are the weakest though, with Yellow being the first fully wonderful collection of four songs. That's not to say that Black, Red, and Orange aren't good, but they display less of the band's full songwriting abilities than do the next six. Red and Orange are also the two that sound the least like their color (in my brain, anyway).
Yellow sounds like someone bottled sunshine and smiles and poured them out into a microphone. It's pretty damn fun. After the poppy, joyful burst of Yellow, Green follows it up with a lush, calming mood - it really feels like the band took the bright sunshine of Yellow and filtered it through a dense forest to tone it down with some shade; the result is the best EP of the collection, and a truly beautiful set of songs. I don't even want to say anything more about Green. Just listen to it. Blue is next, and is just that: blue. Depressed instrumentation, soft, lilting vocals, and an overall dark aesthetic dominate, without any of the brashness or clamor of the Black EP. Indigo is next and displays songs that are probably most unlike anything The Dear Hunter has done before, with heavy focus on electronics, repetition, and effects. It is also one of the strongest colors of the set; probably my second favorite behind Green. Violet is the color that is definitely the most like what The Dear Hunter has done before, with a very theatrical, grandiose sound, full of strings, horns, and big beats. White is last, and is a calm, uplifting close to a fantastic set of EP's.
If I were to give albums scores, this would get high marks all around. The best thing about it is that, by its very nature, there is something here for everyone. Whether you like heavy-hitting rock, piano ballads, synths aall songsnd electronic music, or soft folk-country, there WILL be an EP of these nine that you thoroughly enjoy. I, personally, happen to like all nine. Oh, and here's that link I promised you:
http://www.filestube.com/e90812593847ac2f03ea/go.html
DISCLAIMER: All songs that may or may not be downloaded from the above link should be deleted within 24 hours, after which you should buy the album at a record store and make the record companies very very happy. I promise that I actually believe that. No, really. I do!
Fine, I don't. Just enjoy the fucking album - it's two and a half hours of musical bliss.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Water, it turns out, is good for you!
Yesterday, I went to a park called Almaden Quicksilver Mine County Park, or something like that, with a friend of mine. We ended up hiking for three hours (mostly uphill) in 90-degree heat without water, sunblock, snacks, maps, or proper footwear. In other words, we had no idea what the hell we were doing. It was an interesting experience; it was almost like we purposely made what would have been a purely enjoyable outing into a survival test. I mean, we still had fun - we saw some awesome hawks up close and finally did find find the old murcury mine, though we didn't go in. We stayed out not because of the "DANGER - KEEP OUT" sign posted - that would be pretty damn lame. It was just that when we had gone all of three steps into the mine, we were swarmed by about eight trillion mosquitoes, and promptly turned around.
After taking a little break and realizing that we still had to figure out how the hell to get back to the car, we walked/ran for another hour, getting so dehydrated that by the end of it, our hands and feet were all swollen, we could barely talk, and my head was swimming like Michael Phelps. Maybe not like Phelps, but fuck I was all dizzy from being so damn dehydrated. Anyway, if I had a point, which I don't think I did, it's that you really should drink enough water. Oh and hiking to the mine was fun regardless of our self-inflicted health hazards.
After taking a little break and realizing that we still had to figure out how the hell to get back to the car, we walked/ran for another hour, getting so dehydrated that by the end of it, our hands and feet were all swollen, we could barely talk, and my head was swimming like Michael Phelps. Maybe not like Phelps, but fuck I was all dizzy from being so damn dehydrated. Anyway, if I had a point, which I don't think I did, it's that you really should drink enough water. Oh and hiking to the mine was fun regardless of our self-inflicted health hazards.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Baby's First Post!
I take my first step into the blogosphere with some trepidation, and more than a handful of reservations. What are you reading this for? Why am I writing this? Am I supposed to enlighten myself, or you? Am I here to entertain you? What if I don't? Worse yet, what if I CAN'T? That would be the worst. I suppose I shouldn't think about you when I write. Hell, you're probably, statistically speaking, not even reading this right now. And if you are one of those lucky few that happens to chance upon my little corner of the web, over all of the vastly more interesting other such corners, I apologize in advance.
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