I hope they cannot see......

Well, dear friends, today is the day. Just a shade under half a year too! I mentioned previously that I am little tentative to post the last album because all this fun has to come to an end. But, a mission is a mission and you don't get to check it off as completed till you get it all done. As promised, I will post the iMix on iTunes for those of you who may wish to have a copy of the music. I still listen to it all the time, but I recently have made a "New Hotness" mix as well which I have been working on for a month that I will post too. So you have 2 possible lists from me if you are looking for some beach/travel music. If you search iMix for "SVC best of 07" and "Summer Hotness" you should find them in the next couple of days when iTunes posts them. Feel free to holler at your boii if you can't get it to work.
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This album should come as no surprise to those who know me on a more intimate level, but my number 1 album for 2007 is.......
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Nine Inch Nails "Year Zero": What can I say about Nine Inch Nails? Well I guess I can start out with Nine Inch Nails for dummy's which basically means that Nine Inch Nails is not so much a band as it is Trent Reznor's call sign. He uses a band for the live shows and certain recordings, but he does all of the production himself. He is a fantastic producer behind many other albums as well and help put Marilyn Manson on the map. He started as a helper in a studio and was paid partially in studio time. This is where Trent got his start on going solo since he could not find anyone to agree with him on a musical direction. He was influenced by Prince to do it all himself. Thus, the studio time he earned is what gave him the ability to lay down one element at a time, then mix them all. Trent's first album "Pretty Hate Machine" was one of the first independently produced albums to go platinum.
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Why do I love Nine Inch Nails? It's the way Trent mixes such strong ideas and music so perfectly. When musicians get aggressive, the result is usually sloppy. Sometimes that sloppyness is good, because there is nothing nice and easy about anger. Somehow, and I can't really define it, Nine Inch Nails captures the entirety of anger, agression, despair, and paranoia. Your favorite musicians have a way of being the voices you hear in your head, and when the mood is dark, there is no ones voice and music that quite hits me like Trent. He is calm and then not. He is crazy and unabashidly uncensored. Lots of other musicians are these things, but Trent seems to access it on another level. His visuals are also so unique and the videos are generally fantastic. His live shows are out of this world and he is always ALWAYS remixing his songs. The good news is that he is so secure in his ability, that he often lets other musicians, even common fans, remix his songs just so there can always be a new twist on an old favorite.
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Lets face it, to really be a Nine Inch Nails fan, you don't roll like Dick and Jane. Nine Inch Nails fans, (most of them are shithead teenagers who think they know, sucked in by NIN's cool logos and images) are people who have a connection to the macabe. They are closet horror fans and posses a darker soul than regular people. They have usually experienced real pain and despair at some point, or have found themselves attracted to it. I knew the first time I saw the video for "Closer" just before I started high school that I had to know more about this band and where it came from. It wasn't the peep show/gross out shock factor that attracted me, but rather the way Trent seem's so at home in the chaos. Like someone who grew up in a completely different world than everyone else and was honestly de-sensitized to the horror. Selling that genuine-ness is why NIN is so successful despite its very un-popular subject matter. I know I can't sell this kind of sickness as art to someone who can't get past the images. So I won't, but there is something so re-freshing about uncensored images and a beautiful song with ugly lyrics.
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"Closer" is the number 1 played song on my iTunes. I have it on just about every one of my playlists and its the only song I have never gotten sick of. At this point, my iTunes has it as being played 209 times. It's haunting, it's real, it's dirty, it's awful, it's wrong, and it's awesome. As similar as the style is from album to album, NIN is pretty diverse once you start to dissect the songs. But the similar industrial thump to most of the songs is something that once you let it in, It will always be near and dear to your heart or you'll never get it. You either love NIN or you don't.
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So why is "Year Zero" number 1 on the list? It's because its back to basics (somewhat) for Trent. Between 1995-2003 Trent was lost in some sort of "where do I go now?" period. The follow up to the smash album "The Downward Spiral" a 2 disc monstrosity of mix and matches called "The Fragile" was universally dis-credited and although I personally feel it was a great album, I think Trent felt as though he had lost the touch with his audience. He hid after that album, just doing some producing on the side. And although his new creativity was so fresh and easy early in his career, "Year Zero" is not mix and match because as a more mature musician, he needs a universal direction of story to be successful in popular music. "Year Zero" is a story of a future society in violence and despair based on the current government propaganda and egotistical/overconfident attitude of powerful nations. Something that most people can identify with due to the war and universal distaste towards President Bush.
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But, this isn't why I like this album so much. I like this album because Trent seems convicted. And when Trent seems convicted, I am convicted. Because when it comes to crazy, it isn't cool unless you believe it. So, its good to have Trent back, if only for a little while.
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Song Samples: Survivalism, Me, I'm Not, The Great Destoyer (hang in there on this video, it gets awesome) Capital G
Amazon Page
NIN home

22's son!

I will be completing the 6 month task of the album reviews soon. Sometimes, I think that I am extending this out because I hate when I need to give my blog attention and I have zilch to write about. For quite some time, I have always had something to write about when I wanted to. Soon I will have to come up with fresh and original ideas (GASP!).
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So, for practice I will talk about non-music things and tell you that I got a new monitor at home. You would think that would lead to even more blogging, but alas, I am slightly hooked on my Xbox now. Nothing like M17 violence to end a long day. But soon, I will be on a much more sane video gaming schedule and will hopefully lead to quality internet usage. My computer sat at home, monitor-less, for almost a year. So I am still weirded out by having a connection to the outside world less than 10 feet from the very large indent in my couch.
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The monitor is a 22 inch wide screen and it is sooooooo sweet.
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Speaking of the Xbox, a few months ago I got a delivery and as soon as I opened the door, as in the door is halfway open, the delivery man spotted my Xbox, which is not out in the open at all, and asked me what games I had. I told him the 3 that I do, and he then proceeded to tell me all about each game, the pros and cons, and then made sure I was aware that Grand Theft Auto 4 was coming out soon and that the Xbox version was going to have "play online" capabilities and that it was going to be AWESOME!
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This was a grown man. I fear that one morning I am going to find him in my apartment playing my system and asking my why I have my visual settings at 500x750 pixels when it is sooooo much better at 780x1000.
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What can Brown do for me? Stay the fuck away from my xbox, that's what.

Do video games spontaneously combust in Canada?

Okay, I am feeling much more inspired today. I think the problem yesterday was that I got too much sleep and not enough coffee. I like to roll on about 5 hours of sleep and 3 cups of coffee. If my body is too awake, I think it stalls out and doesn't know what to do with itself. Just like flooding an engine with too much gasoline.

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I guess for now this means I have to continue upon my album quest. There is no way I am letting this thing take 6 months........right? Well, there is no way I want it to take 6 months so I should write 2007's number 2 album review.
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Quick YFYB news is that I officially tweet'd for the first time today. I guess you can check that out over on the right hand side of the page. I don't really know how to use it aptly yet, but every other nerd is doing it, so I gotta do it too or else they might take away my Han Solo rookie card or something.

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NUMBER 2: Arcade Fire "Neon Bible" Big upps to the Grzylle for forcing me to like this band way back in 2005. Even if it does seem like only yesterday......

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Straight outta da Quebec, yo, Arcade Fire is a collection of like 100 musicians.....or maybe just 7, but with the number of instruments that they all play, it sounds like a full orchestra. They are centered around the husband and wife combo of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne who are the creative force of the band. Win started the band with some prep school pretty boys at the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy where they probably wore really nice sweaters and talked about Clipper ships or whatever it is the prep school kids do. Eventually he ditched the snobs, who now have their own band, and started this superforce with his ball and chain. Between Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene, Canada is the home of 2 of the most acclaimed indie bands in the world.

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Arcade Fire picked up steam shortly after releasing the 2004 record "Funeral". Their signature sound attracted the notices of people like Bono who used it as house music before U2 concerts and David Bowie, who was featured in a few of their live shows. Unfortunately, their secretly awesome status is quickly dissolving due to their highly regarded live shows and commercial air wave prominence. Appearances on David Letterman and SNL were highly successful. With music that holds this much quality, Arcade Fire is more like Radiohead than The Fray and everyone on the bandwagon doesn't have to be ashamed of being an AF fan just because you heard them on Grey's Anatomy or some other girly show.

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Neon Bible is aptly titled because it was recorded in an old church the band bought in Farnham, Quebec. A bunch of the songs have an evangelical feel about them and instrumentation/lyrics about things like faith, confusion, and being an outcast. The neon in Neon Bible is what reflects this distinction between the TV preacher and the more accepted church clergy. Especially one of my favorites "Antichrist Television Blues". It would seem like a huge deviation from their first album, but lyrically much of their ideas and poetry is the same, just using the evangelical culture of outcast believers as its foundation in which they express it. It's quite a shrewd concept actually that they made work well for them.

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The biggest deviation is in the universal use of loudness and bombastic-ness on this album as opposed to Funeral. Funeral is more rich and slow. It has it's loud/fast parts, but they are built up to slowly. Funeral is more elegant and invested. Neon Bible "rocks out" with a little less instrumentation, a lot more vocality, and quick builds. The vocals and style of Win Butler on this album reminds me a lot of Torquil Campbell from Stars in the way he uses his pronunciation and shouts at the opportune moments. They both command attention on the microphone and the songs flow with their vocals much more so than other bands.

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Like the other top 5 albums, all the songs on this album are great. They are each quite unique and easily grow on you with each listen. Personally, I like Intervention, Black Mirror, Antichrist Television Blues, and The Well and the Lighthouse best.

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Song Samples: neon bible, no cars go, Black Mirror

Amazon Link

MySpace Page

one of those days.....

Feeling rather uninspired today. My day requires that I do lots of things, and I usually have time to do all of them with plenty of focus and to do them well. But with all that extra time, I also do other fun things like read blogs, gossip columns, hunt for music, e-mail friends, shop for overpriced sunglasses, etc.
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It's a beautiful day outside and I feel like doing nothing but taking a nap. But what do I do when I wake up?
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I blame the internet for failing to entertain me today. I think the internet has off days too. Nothing interesting is happening on any of my regularly attended websites, and I can't summon the excitement to do any of my tasks with my usual S.Vincent vigor. So, in pondering my uninspiredness, I decided I would try to force out a blog post. Sooo....here it is. In all its uninspiring glory
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Why do some days that contain the same requirements as the day before feel less exciting than others? Maybe I need to start taking (more) drugs.......