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Coachella 2007: Peaches

Posted on April 16, 2007 by mygoodgomez

Peaches will rock you so hard that every concert you go to afterwards is just cakewalk. Peaches is the hardest girl in electroclash, no, make that the entire universe. Just listen to her music, and while it might be kinda hard not to be offended, you will soon realize that you have never heard anything like it before.Before I get to her lyrics, let’s tackle her beats first. Drum machines run when they hear her name. Her sound is comprised of drum machine patters, guitar riffs, and distorted synths layered all over each other. It’s repetitive and grabbing at the same time.Now on to her lyrics. Sexist? Erotic? Nonsense? Genius. The sex that she screams makes wil.i.am’s music sound like the words of God. The persona of Peaches is gender confused, and this is blatantly obvious in the lyrics of songs such as “Tent In Your Pants” and “Boys Wanna Be Her”.

How do you do that cool dance?Baby donâ€™t split those hot pantsI got these moves that we can do to and singI donâ€™t look too good in pinkI used to slash myself upI like to play it toughCuts, bruises, blood oozes, bones breaking roughYou gotta handle that stuff

Oh, and did I mention that that song is a collab with Iggy Pop?! Because it is…With lyrics as repetitive as her drum machine beats, it’s no wonder that her cult following of fans knows every single word in her songs and screams them at the top of their lungs at every show. Energy is guaranteed. But please, be aware that the explicitness of her lyrics outdo even Marilyn Manson.

Coachella 2007: Red Hot Chili Peppers

Posted on April 15, 2007 by mygoodgomez

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been a staple in my music collection from as far back as I can remember (not of my own volition in the beginning.) Their great amalgam of funk metal, punk, rap, and pop makes a sound unique from anything around them throughout their current 24 year career. While their first two records didn’t do too much regarding chart success, from Mothers Milk on, success has followed them wherever they go.I want to spend the most time on album #5: Blood Sugar Sex Magic. My favorite album, and judging from chart success, may other’s as well. Having been produced by Rick Rubin, it almost seems obvious that it would be an amazing record, and having sold 12 million copies worldwide, there is no doubt that this is one of the greatest rock albums (of all time). This album is pure energy and fun. Heavy bass emphasis puts funk at the forefront of the record with Anthony Kiedis’ rap sharp and powerful lyricism. “Give it Away” and “Under the Bridge” are two amazing singles that showcase the creativity put into every song on the record.Moving on to the following albums, Californication was an even larger chart success than its predecessors with singles like “Californication”, “Scar Tissue”, and “Parallel Universe”. To date, it has sold 15 million copies. Californiation allowed RHCP to basically clean up at the 2000 MTV VMAs (and win a few Grammys at the same time.) Skipping past By the Way, which is another great record, we arrive at Stadium Arcadium.So much hype surrounded this album that I didn’t think that it could live up to what it was supposed to be, and in my opinion, it didn’t. There is no denying that the amount of awards that Stadium Arcadium has garnered speaks volumes about its success as a pop album, but I feel that RHCP left their sound behind them and replaced it with some cotton candy and bubblegum. I don’t feel that it’s a bad album, I just hope that they play more than Stadium Arcadium at Coachella…

Coachella 2007: Björk

Posted on April 14, 2007 by mygoodgomez

Many people have called David Bowie a chameleon, but he is nothing compared to Björk. She has gone through many transformations both physically (how she looks) and sonically (how her music sounds) since her solo debut in 1993 with Debut. Being from ReykjavÃk, Iceland, her accent and tonal voice goes against nearly all of western culture’s pop sounds. Here is the progression of her sound though each successive album:

Debut: A very expansive album, probably more-so than any of her following albums. It contains a mix of dance, earthy, new age, beat-centered songs. The beat-driven aspect is a vein or theme that does run through all of her music.
Post: More abstract. Just listening to the opening tracks “Army of Me” makes it obvious where she wanted to go with this new album (following the platinum Debut.) Possibly a bit darker… just a progression. Björk describes it as being more “extreme”.
Homogenic: My favorite album. This album is definitely in my top 10 of all time. The beats are much more pronounced, scattered, and massive. Homogenic just has an epic sound to it. The song Pluto (2nd to last track) has become the song for her to perform and/or close with. Its griding and distorted synths, vocals, and beats make it raw and brutal. “Emotionally, this album is about hitting rock bottom and earning your way up. So it’s the darkest album I’ve done emotionally, but it’s got a lot of hope.”
Vespertine: Much softer. The sound that characterizes Vespertine is very angelic. “Vespertine is sort of a winter album for me. I think Homogenic was very summer, very hot, burning desert.” It has a light sound that seems to float away.
MedÃºlla: When it was released, MedÃºlla received quite a bit of backlash. It was Bjork going against what her fans had grown to know and love: beats and synths. It didn’t matter whether hard or soft, but beats and synths combined with her other-worldly vocals are Björk. MedÃºlla has nothing other than human voices on it. Being fairly new to Björk when MedÃºlla came out, I enjoyed the sound. It is her most different album so far. It pushes our voices as instruments to their limits.
Volta: Yet to be released, the sound of Volta has been revealed only through interviews with Björk and a leaked track titled “Earth Intruders”. Volta is said to be very brass centered. Björk collaborated with quite a few artists for Volta, including Timbaland. We’ll see how it turns out, but “Earth Intruders” is amazing to say the least.

So that basically wraps up Björk as an ever changing artist. Just go look at some pictures of her, and you will realize what I mean when I say that she is a chameleon. She is truely a musical genius who has remained relevant through the fickle tastes of pop culture that are constantly changing.

Coachella 2007: Rage Against the Machine

Posted on April 13, 2007 by mygoodgomez

Anyone remember one of the biggest political bands of all time? Rage Against the Machine left the scene in 2000 due to Zach de la Rocha’s (lead singer) announcement that he didn’t feel that he could stay honest to himself and be in the band. After the breakup, the rest of the band (Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk) joined together with former Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell to form Audioslave (which recently broke up.) Forgetting their complicated history, Rage is reuniting to play at Coachella and three more shows as a part of the Rock the Bells concert in New York and Northern/Southern California later this year.Rage plays amazing funk metal infused with very politically charged lyrics. Everyone of their albums is sure to punch you in the face and leave you on the floor bleeding. Tom Morello’s strong guitar sounds go hand in hand with de la Rocha’s emphatic style of writing and execution. Another characteristic of Rage’s music (common to funk metal) is the way that they push the bass to the front many times. It’s very heavy music with a message.I have been in love with Rage for about five or six years now. Yes, this means that I wasn’t into them while they were a band (I was only in 3rd/4th grade when they broke up), but their music hasn’t diminished in meaning as time has passed. If you want to check out what they sound like, I recommend checking out the songs Calm Like a Bomb, Bullet in the Head, and Killing in the Name. If you don’t like those, oh well, those are just my favorite songs. Read more to see the video for Sleep Now in the Fire. Rage Against the Machine will be the headliner for Sunday of Coachella.

Joost getting serious content w/ CBS

Posted on April 12, 2007 by mygoodgomez

It seems that the Joost lot has seen a very nice turn of events as of late. Before now, the programing that Joost has offered its beta testers has been both random and irrelevant to their wants. The program is nice, but a pretty interface cannot cover up horrid content. It looks like CBS is coming to Joost’s rescue.

It has been announced that CBS is taking a shotgun approach to webcasting their TV programming, and Joost happens to be caught in the shot spray. This announcement is a buffer to the recent addition of Viacom programs such as MTV, VH1, and BET (all music channels). As to the programming being offered by CBS, already aired shows such as CSI, NCIS, and CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. It is unfortunate that Joost is getting more old content, but at least these shows have been viewed and praised by millions. This is quite unlike the other programming on channels such as LXTV and The Diddy Channel.

Being a part of the beta testing program, I am glad to see the recent increase in content which was released no less than a week ago. As the versions of Joost approach v1.0 (they are currently at v0.9.2), more exciting news is sure to rise pertaining to the program. While strides still need to be made relating to how users will be able to manage hundreds of channels at once and other usability issues, the ability to watch free TV programming is exciting for anyone involved.

If you want to participate in beta testing, I have a few invites left!

YouChoose brings politics to the YouTube age

Posted on April 11, 2007 by mygoodgomez

The YouChoose section of YouTube has started to allow presidential candidates one week each in the Spotlight on the News & Politics page of the massive video site. During their time in the Spotlight, they will be able to pose questions to the YouTube community. In response, people everywhere can upload their own “RE:” videos answering the questions asked.

This is your chance to engage the leaders who are competing for the most powerful position in the country. Let them know what you think and keep an eye on their replies. This is a great chance to get to know the candidates better by speaking across the level platform that is politics on YouTube.

This is a very interesting idea that YouTube is trying out. They are taking advantage of their massive active user population to possibly influence the ’08 elections. So what does this mean? I think that the number of 18-24 age voters will go up. If this does nothing else, it will put good amounts of information right at the fingertips of millions of YouTubers. Giving people information where they already are (in this case, YouTube) is a very important aspect of informing potential voters. People are lazy, and putting political information in a place that doesn’t make people go out of their way is great.The Spotlight pages that the candidate pages are nice because they aren’t just places to post videos. They let you see both critical and fun facts about the candidates. This adds to the concept of putting information where people already are.

The downside? You are allowing the millions of pre-teens ample space to start more flame wars. As nearly every web forum has proved, it only takes one idiot to post something like “i will pwn u all! u suxors!” to have an entire thread to go astray. Hopefully the users of YouTube will keep their heads on while talking about politics so that we can see some actual intellectual debating go on.

Right now, we have Dennis Kucinich, Duncan Hunter, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, Ron Paul, Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Tom Tancredo, and Mitt Romney up on the page.

Alanis Morissette’s Humps better than BEP’s

Posted on April 8, 2007 by mygoodgomez

Why is it that this spoof/cover/mockery of the Black Eyed Pea’s My Humps by Alanis Morissette far better than the original? Yes, the YouTube video that has garnered over 4 million views so far is very funny. But as Adam Polselli points out, it’s the song that really shines here.

The fact that she has completely redone the song, and not just dubbed over the music, emphasizes the stupidity of the lyrics. Watching/hearing this cover makes you wonder how the original version was able to peak at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Leave it to Miss Ironic to shove the materialistic nature of our society in our faces…

Being John Malkovich

Posted on April 7, 2007 by mygoodgomez

Anybody looking for a stoner movie even better than The Wall? Because if you are, Being John Malkovich will definitely sooth you for a while. The basic premise of the movie is that Craig Schwartz (John Cusack), a failing puppeteer, finds a door that allows its entrant access to the world as seen through John Malkovich’s own eyes.

Sounds pretty cool, huh? Let’s go farther. The door is located at Schwartz’ work behind a filing cabinet. The floor the offices are located on is #7 1/2; it has ceilings about 4 feet above the floor. Schwartz’ wife (Cameron Diaz) discovers her lesbian tendencies after her first “trip” into Malkovich and later uses the door to have sex with Schwartz’ love interest at work. Those are the basics without giving away anything important relevant to the ending.

Nearly everything about this movie makes you realize that your imagination isn’t as cool as you think it is. One very strong and interesting aspect of this movie is the lack of special effects. The view of people sliding into Malkovich’s mind is the only sequence I can think of. Another small weird observance of the movie is the number of cameos it has. Randomly, we see Brad Pitt, Andy Dick, Sean Penn, Winona Ryder, Charlie Sheen, and all three of the Hansen boys (yes, those Hansens). If only we could have seen Keanu Reaves, it would have been complete.

Time for my final opinion. I give it a B+. If I did drugs, I would definitely give it an A+, but alas, I do not smoke pot or do anything of the kind. This movie is by far the most original, creative piece of work I have seen in quite a while.

EMI takes first steps for DRM-free music on iTunes

Posted on April 2, 2007 by mygoodgomez

It is official: EMI is going to offer its library of music on iTunes without DRM. For those who don’t know, DRM is what prevents you from doing whatever you like with your music (ie. using something other than an iPod). DRM stands for Digital Rights Managements. DRM is applied to every file you buy in iTunes, every song you download in Rhapsody, basically it’s everywhere. It’s also crippling your free usage of what you pay for.

After Steve Jobs’ blaming the record industry for DRM saying that he’s all for DRM-free music, but not taking any personal responsibility for the problem, the major record label EMI has published a press release stating that it will be offering higher quality, DRM-free music on the iTunes Music Store. Here is a great summary of the points made today (by Gizmodo): Continue reading “EMI takes first steps for DRM-free music on iTunes” →

Justice – Waters of Nazareth

Posted on March 27, 2007 by mygoodgomez

It really isn’t fair. Chopped up samples that have been distorted and modulated to no end shouldn’t sound this good. Honestly, they shouldn’t be able to get away with this. Enough of the complaining, the point is: Justice hits you hard… in the face. From the moment you press play, you get a noise that makes you wish that you had bought another stereo with just a few more watts; you can’t ever get the bass heavy enough or the volume loud enough.

So, what genre does this three track EP fall into? My personal analysis is that it is a fusion of some kind of electro-clash, industrial, and house. It seems that every synth/sample has been run through some kind of distorting filter that makes it scream with fury, every drum line kicks a little more than anything before, and that repetition is the name of the game. As with many of the artists signed to the Ed Banger record label, Daft Punk seems an obvious comparison. Both are original, progressive, a duo, French, and insanely popular.

Whether this quick claim to fame through an EP is founded in any way is yet to be seen. But please don’t get me wrong; even with only 3 tracks, Justice won’t be leaving my playlists anytime soon.

Justice – Phantom Part I