Category: BOTM

You’re not gonna like what I have to say, but I’ll say it anyway: I don’t really feel like writing an article this week. To make up for that, I have thrown together a new page for the CD collection (it’s been ages!) and we’ll call that this week’s article. If you don’t like it, tough. That’s the way she goes.

Also, I’ve neglected to do my obligatory BotM post all month, so I guess i’ll sum it up now, just so I can say I did it.

Loverboy. Classic Canadian act. Maybe not as classic as, oh, let’s say Rush, but pretty classic no less. I’ve never really been in tune with how much Canadian music those Mexico-touchers get, but I’m fairly sure that “Working For The Weekend” was big enough to get play down in them States. Either way, I still hear them a lot on the radio up here. Plenty of great songs by these guys (“Notorious” being my personal fav), and as always I give a hearty recommendation. Of course, commanding as much radio presence as they do, you’re probably already well-acquainted with a bunch of their music. If not, where the crap have you been? Radio can be pretty good, if you listen to the right stations. I guess there’s plenty left that can be said, but I’m really not up to it. Go poke aorund their website if you really care.

This month’s BotM is Poison. Look how I got right to the point there!

Yeah, so Poison. Chances are pretty good that you’ve heard of them. I mean, come on. Who hasn’t heard “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn” sometime in their life? Hippies, that’s who. And you know what I think about hippies. Well, maybe also someone who never attended a junior high dance between now and the eighties. But what are the chances of that?

Anyway, if you know Poison, there are basically two possibilites: you love them or you hate them. I’ve taken notice over my many years that there exist two breeds of people in the world: those that love 80’s music and those who hate 80’s music. And generally, when you hate 80’s music, you hate the 80’s on the whole. But how you could hate the 80’s is far beyond me. That decade brought us so much, including hair bands, the NES, and everybody’s favourite webmaster. There’s a lot more, but those are clearly the most important ones.

But back to Poison for a moment. I very much adore the band, as they take the basic rock n’ roll formula and make it their own by adding in plenty of bluesy/country twists and great music. Not to mention that they’re just plain fun to listen to. If you need a quick rock-out, pop in some Poison and you’re good to go. I know there’s a lot more to say, like how lead singer Brett Michaels is a judge on “Nashville Star,” but frankly, I really want to go play some video games right now, so I’m going to wrap it up.

This’ll probably go on record as the shortest BotM post ever, but that’s okay. I got my point across. I like Poison, I think you should listen to Poison. If you don’t like them, then that’s too damn bad. You’re missing out on some good times. So that’s the end of that. I’ll see you around. Later.

Today we present to you a very special Band of the Month. …Nah. It’s a normal one. But I bet I had you going for a second there, right? Well whatever, let’s get it on.

I’ve been listening to a lot of new (to me) bands during the last couple weeks, and while a handful of them are definite candidates for the BotM title, this month I’ve decided to go with an old favourite: The Vandals. I’ve been listening to them since late ’99. I’ll give you two guesses where I first came across them. Give up yet? Not surprisingly, it was the first Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game. Back in that day, I wasn’t overly open to different kinds of music, and the punk scene was totally new to me. I immediately took to two bands featured on the soundtrack: Goldfinger and the Vandals. Those were the glory days of Napster too, so I was still enamoured with the fact that I could download any music I wanted. That really has nothing to do with the story, but the two memories are pretty close to each other, so I figured I’d mention it. Anyhow, the fascination with the Vandals died off after a short while, only to be revived by chance a couple years later.

At that time, the storm hit with full force, and the Vandals became a mainstay in my rotation and still sit there to this very day. I still don’t own any Vandals CDs (the only one I’ve ever seen is the Shingo Japanese Remix Album, which I’ve heard is disappointing). I have downloaded a couple albums though, so I have a very good idea of their range of music. And what a range it is too. With about 13 discs under their belts, the Vandals have explored a huge variety of music styles from punk to country to metal (they’ve even got a Christmas album). Mostly punk though. Aside from the range of style, the other really notable thing about the band is that they write incredible lyrics. Sometimes they’re serious punk-esqe lyrics, but most of the time they’re just downright silly and hilarious. A couple that spring to mind immediately include “That’s My Girl,” “Christmas Time for my Penis” and “My Girlfriend’s Dead.” A couple songs are even exercises in mercilessly kicking your ass through music, like “The New You” and “I’ve Got an Ape Drape.” In the end, though, it’s pretty much all good. Like all bands, they’ve got a few weak songs, but they’re not that common.

Honestly, I don’t know what else to say. I don’t want to point-by-point each album, because there are way too many. I’ve told the story, relayed the highlights, and that about does the usual BotM post. I could list some more songs that I recommend, but that could take forever and would look bad. At least rambling like this doesn’t look bad unless you’re actually reading it. I guess to sum it all up, you should look into the Vandals if you’re up for something that’s definitely different from anything you’ve ever heard before. They’re definitely in their own league. Comparing them to any other band would be like comparing apples and wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube men.

The other thing I neeed to mention today is that I found a torrent for all the bonus (and uber-rare) tracks from Guitar Hero. Now I share the wealth with you. It’s got some real gems on it like “Cheat on the Church,” “Eueka, I’ve Found Love,” “All of This” and “Guitar Hero.” Highly recommend you take advantage of that as soon as possible. Seeders don’t stay that way forever, you know. I’m gonna ask you about it the next time I see you, so either download it or make sure I don’t see you.

You know, you’d think I’d have learned to change the year in the post date to 2006 after a couple posts, but no, I’m a fucking moron. Well those are corrcted now. I also swtiched the link for my counter so it’ll count this page’s hits, and not those of the Angelfire page.

Thrice was actually supposed to be January’s BotM, but since I rather like them, and the month was almost over, it felt like a shame to bring them to attention for such a short time. Anyway, Thrice. I’ve only really been listening to them for a while, but the story starts a long time ago, in a mall far, far away. Actually, it’s the closest mall to here, but that’s an insignificant detail. It was a normal September afternoon in 2004, and I had recently come into a rather large wad of cash. So I did what was naural to most teenage beings: I went to blow it on CDs. I popped on into the local HMV, and I grabbed a couple discs. Turns oout they had a 3 for $50 deal going on (or something similar), so the clerk advised me to pick out another one. I was having a bit of a time trying to find a good CD to take home, since between what I already owned and what I was already buying, I had pretty much all the music I wanted. So the guy decides to suggest some bands I mihgt like (based on my other two choices). One of those bands was Thrice. While it was tempting, I decided not to, since I’d never heard of them, and I like to at least have an idea what I’m buying. So I went with a different disc and was on my way. The next day, I popped in on of the CD I’d bought, the Resident Evil: Apocalypse soundtrack. A little more than halfway through, this really awesome song came on, and I checked the case to see who it was. Turns out it was *drumroll* Thrice. Now that I’d gotten a taste of the band, I was a little disappointed I hadn’t picked up one of their albums. So to make up for it, I did a little downloading. Sadly, most of the songs weren’t as good as the one from the RE soundtrack, so I kind of forgot about them for a while.

Nearly a year and a half later, I’m going through some of the songs in my library that never get played. And then I see Thrice. I decide that since a good amount of time has gone by and my musical tastes have changed a bit, I’ll give them another shot. That was the right choice. Damned Past Ryan had no taste. Thrice friggn’ rocks. Let me tell you, I cannot believe I’ve ignored them for so long. Like many bands I listen to, they fall into the hardcore-punk-emo-metal mélange. This is good. While I don’t listen to a lot of straight-punk, I’ve very much come to enjoy the punk-metal sound. And it’s not even the pop-punk that you might’ve come to expect from me. Ha, the facade thickens!

Why do I like Thrice? Perhaps the kickass guitar work? The pertinent dumming? The deep and inspired lyrics? The screaming that doesn’t come off as annoying or juvenile? I’m thinking pretty much all that stuff. The album you see above is their fourth real album, entitled Vheissu. If you don’t understand the name, go look it up. Apparently, it has some sort of ties to a Thomas Pynchon book called “V.“. Anyway, the album, as it turns out, is radically different from their first three. Vheissu is notably slower than its predecessors, with a much more significant feel to it, and militaristic tones in most of the songs. I really like it. “Image of the Invisible” is the first song, and is probably the most like any older Thrice songs. “Atlantic” is really worth noting, and “Music Box” actually starts with a music box that continues playing in the background.

The other albums, Identity Crisis, The Illusion of Safety, and The Artist in the Ambulance (released in that order) are all far harder than the latest, featuring tons of hardcore riffing and less structured songs. Of course, this stuff rocks just as much as Vheissu, just a lot harder and faster. A couple songs I want to point out are “Under a Killing Moon” (from The Artist in the Ambulance), which is featured on the Resident Evil: Apocalypse soundtrack, and “See You in the Shallows” (from The Illusion of Safety). I give both songs the brunt of the credit for getting me into the band in the first place, and are definite keepers. There is actually another Thrice disc, released between The Artist in the Ambulance and Vheissu, called If We Could Only See Us Now, which is a couple live tracks and some B-sides thrown together. But it’s more of a second disc to a DVD “anthology” of sorts.

For the first time, I’m gonna tack on my own little bonus to a Band of the Month post. If you’re looking for an easy score, I’ve got it for ya. As a special bonus, I’ll give you the torrent for all four main Thrice albums. While this is a nice, cheap way out, if you like them, I highly recommend buying them like I di… like I will. I’ve got Vheissu, but I intend to acquire the rest sooner or later.

Anyway, that’s it for today. Come back soon for more crazy hijinx! Or maybe visit Comedy Napalm. There’s definitely higher quantities of crazy and hijinx there. Especially on the forums. (Hint hint)

Well, we’re off to a smashing start, no? Yeah, I’ve been trying to get the BotM done all month, but when the internet died, progress was impeded, and then the Unix computers wouldn’t let me save images, and everything was going all wrong. But here we are and here it is.

Who the hell is Trooper? You say. And why the hell are they band of the Month? That you also say. Come closer. Closer. I’ll tell you the story.

See, the thing is, it’s so late in the month that I’m pretty much doing a Band of the Week thing here, and I couldn’t let a band I listen to a lot get the shame of only seeing a week of fame when it should have had a month. So I picked a band I don’t listen to a whole lot. To be completely honest, I almost never listen to Trooper. Sure, “The Boys in the Bright White Sports Car”, “Two for the Show” and “Raise a Little Hell” have spots in my playlist, but then again, what classic rock fan doesn’t have those songs in his playlist? Exactly. I honestly know very little about Trooper or their music, so there’s no much I can say. I know my parents went to a Trooper concert when they were teens, but that’s about it. Oh, and they’re Canadian so yay.

If you want to know anything else, you’re gonna have to figure it out on your own. I’m not doing any research for you this month. All I can really say is to listen to any of the songs I mentioned in the last paragraph, or listen to your local classic rock station. They’ll come up eventually. What a sham this is. Oh well. Article Thursday, and if you hadn’t noticed yet, I’ve got a new bit on Comedy Napalm.

I’d like to go off about how I don’t put enough pictures in the blog, but there’s more important things to discuss today. Like HIM. Back in July of 2004, not long after I redesigned the site, I reviewed HIM’s Greatest Hits CD. I don’t know where I’m going with this, so let’s just hit the usual. I first started listening to HIM near the end of my high school career. As you may or may not be aware, Mike is totally obsessed with the band, and that would be where I first heard of them. See, back in the days of high school, when I started listening to a new band, it was because one of my friends had been raving about them. It was just the way I went about finding new music to listen to. But that’s not the whole story. See, while Mike would rave about HIM for countless hours a day, I still never really picked up on them. It wasn’t until I watched the movie “Haggard” that I decided to give HIM a chance. See, “Haggard” was directed and whatnot by Bam Margera, who might very well be the biggest HIM fan in the world. Anyhow, I noted that the music in the movie was excellent, and coming as little surprise, it was all HIM songs. So I finally went and did a little P2P search for HIM.

There’s a lot to like about HIM. Most people seem to have some kind of brain defect where they think that anything from their country of origin or where their family comes from should be praised as some sort of diety, and since HIM is a Finnish band, I suppose that should be one reason I like them. The main reason I like them, of course, is because their music is awesome. It’s like a perfect mix of rock ‘n’ roll and metal with goth overtones. Some songs are hard rock anthems that could melt even the most jaded of faces, and other songs are some of the most touching ballads ever recorded. Not to mention their ten-point covers of “Solitary Man”, “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and “Wicked Game”.

HIM has released five CDs and a greatest hits collection, and though it needs not be mentioned, I own them all. The first, Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666 is probably the weakest of all (though I expect some people would like to impale me for saying so), but it does have its high points. The biggest problem is that the recording of “Wicked Game” on this one isn’t even as good as the Chris Isaak original. Fortunately, they redid it somewhere along the line and now it kicks so much ass. The next is Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights, which is so very much better than the preivous CD that you’d never believe it if you haven’t heard them. I love both “Salt in Our Wounds” and “Lose You Tonight”. “Pretending” is pretty great too.

Then along came Razorblade Romance, which sported some slick updated versions of “Your Sweet Six Six Six” and “Wicked Game” along with a plethora of great new tracks. Their fourth release, Love Metal, seems to be the most widely considered to be the best HIM CD available. Every song on Love Metal is incredible, but it does suffer from having only ten songs. It’s not really a huge deal, because HIM isn’t some dumb punk band whose songs are two minutes long at best. “Circle of Fear” is my personal favourite, but I’ve also taken a shining to “This Fortress of Tears” and “The Path”. The last two CDs are the greatest hits CD And Love Said No and the latest release, Dark Light. I’ve reviewed both in much greater detail elsewhere on the site, so I don’t feel I need to go into any greater detail here.

So that’s the end of that. I don’t think I should have to go into the whole “I like this band blah blah you should look them up blah blah download” spiel. That’s all very obvious and is a crappy way of concluding the post. So I’ll go out with a bit of advice today: “Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing.”

Before we get started, I just thought I’d mention that about an hour after I got my network set up, it went all iggldy-biggldy and even after spending several more hours trying to get it back, it’s still broken. I guess I’m just not meant to have a home network… Until I buy an access point! That will work for sure! Money down the toilet!

This month’s band is the third band I’ve reviewed that partcipated in the 2004 Nintendo Fusion Tour, but the only one that I was listening to before said event. I stumbled onto the Lostprophets way back in the day when WinMX was still the best P2P on the market. I just happened to be looking for ninja music (as odd as it may sound, I kid you not) and came across a song called “Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja” which turned out to be a really good song. But who were these Lostprophets that were credited with the song? I searched up a couple other songs, “Still Laughing” and “Ode to Summer.” I liked, but wasn’t taken enough to really look into them much more than that.

Lurch forward in time to early 2005. I’m shopping for CDs, and come across a band I know very little about, Lostprophets. I’d heard a little about them recently due to the NFT’04, and remembered that “Start Something” was a pretty decent song. $20 later, I walked out of the store with the CD in hand. And that’s my story. Also, somewhere in between the second and third paragraph, I’d heard the song “Last Train Home”, which helped make my decision. Should have mentioned that before.

So the band. Yeah, they’ve released two CDs. The first, The Fake Sound of Progress, came in 2001 and I never noticed. However, Start Something managed to catch my attention nearly a year after its release. As far as the fans are concerned, it’s pretty much a split between those who like Start Something and those who hate it. I’m in the former group. Those who hate it say that the first album is infinitely better, but since I’ve never listened to most of it, I really can’t pass judgement.

Start Something, however, is a totally different story. I think it’s a great album. Rather than run down each track, today I’ll just mention a couple high points. Firstly, I’d like to point out that the Lostprophets do a really good job of moving from one song to another. Most bands will finish a song and then movce onto the next. On this CD though, there is a segue or interlude between nearly all the tracks. It’s not a huge thing, but it’s a very nice touch. As for songs, I’m stuck between “Burn Burn”, “Goodbye Tonight” and “Sway” when it comes to my favourite song. They’re all distinctly different; “Burn Burn” is strong and offering a unique sound, “Goodbye Tonight” is a technically slow song, but ends up being really heavy and emotional, and finally, “Sway” is… Well, it’s “Sway”. It’s so soothing and atmospheric. If there is any one song you need to download from this CD, that would be the one. Not to mention that at the end if it, they go into another instrumental piece that counjures thoughts of a movie with a tragic ending.

Definitely a sweet band, check ’em out if you like the kind of new wave rock/emo/screamo business that I seem to enjoy so much. Though emo is a harsh word to use. It’s more of a civilized punk sound, as much as that seems like an oxymoron. Regardless of classification, the band is good. I shouldn’t have to say it a third time. You know, it’s odd. I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve reviewed these guys before…

First I’d like to note that the offers on both the Super Mario Bros. Super Show and Bots Master theme songs have expired. If you really want to download those songs, youse-a gonna hafta find ’em youseselves. It’s sad, I know, but the dumping of excess weight saved me over 1.5MBs. Hooray!

On to the task at hand, this month’s “band” is the Canadian rocker Matthew Good. Anyone out of the loop might be inclined to ask “But isn’t it Matthew Good Band?” Then I would point out that “No.” True, there was a band, but that was ages ago. Sometime in between 2001 and 2003 (I can’t remember for sure, and I’m not going to look it up), the band broke up and Matt went out on his own. Word on the street is the breakup was caused by Matt’s assholic personality, and who’s to say differently. If you want to try to figure it out, the picture on the sidebar leads to his blog, and you can read into that if you really care. If not, you can keep reading this. It’s not like there’s anything better out there. Trust me, there isn’t.

It all started back in 1995, when the MGB released their first album, entitled Last of the Ghetto Astronauts. This was before I listened to them, so I’ve never heard this one, even though I’ve bought mostly every other MGB/Matt Good CD. The other one I don’t own was a half-assed attempt released two years later, featuring only five songs, two of them coming from the previous disc. Raygun may only have five songs, but they generally charge the normal CD fee of $15 for it, and I’m not shelling out $15 for five songs. Some places even bump it up to around $20. “Generation X-Wing” is a pretty damn good song, though. Almost makes it worth it.

My personal experience starts with Underdogs, which was released the same year as Raygun. I think the first MGB song I ever liked was the incredibly slow “Apparitions”. I still really like the song, but there are better ones out there. Other greats on the CD inclued “Everything is Automatic” and “Indestructible.” The next CD, Beautiful Midnight, was easily the peak of MGB’s success, being home to at least four hit singles. “Hello Time Bomb”, “Strange Days”, “Load Me Up” and “The Future is X-Rated” are all great, but don’t think that that’s all the album has to offer. “Giant” is a first-rate and somewhat touching song, and “Jenni’s Song” mixes a great chorus with a tune that I know is from another song. Or at least very similar. This is a great CD to start with if you’re just getting into MGB. My personal favourite of the MGB releases is their last, The Audio of Being. This one sounds different from the previous ones, or it does to me anyway. The sound gets a lot more serious and while I don’t stretch as far as to call it emo, some might apply that tag here. There are plently of good rock songs here, but the overall mood seems to be of a slower pace and has a more mature tone to it. Eventually, “Anti-Pop” hit the big time with some radio/TV play, but I think that’s all the mainstream world really saw of this album.

And that was when they split. Would this cause a big change in the music? No. Not really. As far as the music tells you, Matt was pulling all the strings, at least towards the end. There’s very little differenece between the Matthew Good Band and the Matthew Good solo act, so fans could breathe a sigh of relief. His first solo release, Avalanche, is fantastic and provides a great split between the moodier sound of The Audio of Being and the more rock-oriented previous CDs. Something for everyone here, and it even brought Matt back into the mainstream with the singles “Weapon” and “In A World Called Catastrophe”, the latter which had something of a thematic video (at least I think it was that song), presenting you with footage of the war on Iraq. While I generally look down upon political music (another story altogether), the song itself doesn’t explicitly touch on the subject, so I can deal with it.

The most recent album, White Light Rock & Roll Review is just as good, if not better than its predecessor. In fact, I often confuse some of the tracks between the two. More radio hits here, I’ve heard both “Alert Status Red” and “It’s Been a While Since I Was Your Man” get plenty of play on the local rock station. I personally like the uber-simplified “Put Out Your Lights” and hard-rocking “North American For Lofe”, but hey, if I chose what they played on the radio, I’d be the king of mainstream. And yes, I meant for that sentence to go nowhere. The cool note is that this is the only MGB/Matt Good CD (that I’ve listened to/can remember) that totes a hidden track. “Hopeless” is an excellent song that’s almost country, but I love it, and am very disappointed that it doesn’t show up on the upcoming greatest hits CD.

And speaking of that, In A Coma (October 11th, if you’re interested) will be released in not one, but two versions. The first is your regular greatest hits package with a couple new songs tacked on for fun. The second, though, is just mind-blowing. Not only is it two discs long, but the second disc is full of acoustic classics and rare songs. To top that all off, it also includes a DVD packed with videos, commentary, a documentary and all sort of other superfluous junk. As you may have guessed, I totally coozied when I heard about this one. It’s probably gonna cost a pretty penny though, and I’m not really looking forward to that part of the transaction. Other things I should mention include two EPs, Loser Anthems and Lo-Fi B-Sides, the latter of which was given a limited release, with only 500 copies produced. Too bad none of those copies made it into my grubby hands. The former also has some limited availability jargon associated with it, but I don’t feel like retyping my finds.

And so another Band of the Month segment comes to an end. Seriously, if you like Matthew Good and are thinking of picking up a CD, go with either Beautiful Midnight or one of his solo CDs. Of course, the impending release of the In A Coma anthology looms on the horizon, so you could always wait for that. There’s not much else to say, except for that tomorrow I’ll be putting up a new mini-review, somewhat related to today’s post, and I’m not gonna be making a post specifically to draw attention to it tomorrow. I’ll be too busy, because Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow and MegaMan Zero 4 released yesterday, and Future Shop or EB should have them by tomorrow.