OneThree Reviews

MP3 of the Moment

2009-05-02T13:13:00.001-05:00

Artist: Me
Album: Uhhh...
Song: Saturday Noon
Genre: Piano

So this is pretty much just a geek-out about how cool GarageBand is. I was messing around on my laptop today and fired up GarageBand just to play with different instruments and make weird noises. I accidentally plinked out a few notes that sounded nice together, so I started dialing in a piano tone and adding overdrive and a little reverb. Well, a lot of reverb actually. I played around for maybe ten minutes and then thought, "What the hell, might as well record a little something.

So that's how I ended up with this song. I recorded some improvisational fumbling and got it all on the first take. The time from opening up GarageBand with no intention of writing anything to having a finished song was literally one hour. This song won't set the world on fire, but I'm just completely impressed that I could make something so professional-sounding on my laptop without even trying.

And this was done using nothing but a laptop keyboard and a pair of headphones. In an hour flat. So, so cool...

Download it if you'd like a little something to fall asleep to at night...

2008: -//-/\-\//--

2009-01-27T11:20:00.000-06:00

Another year, another mix. 2008 was a crazy year for me. I try to keep this from being a personal emo blog, but suffice it to say I had a lot of firsts, a lot of highs and a lot of lows in 2008. I look back at it as one of the most dynamic years of my life, and the memories of the worst parts are already fading away while the highlights remain.

I mention that because my mix is, as usual, a frenetic...mix...of genres that pretty well represent the ups and downs of the year; there's metal, rock, indie, downtempo, post-rock, IDM, hip-hop and so on. Most of the music was released in 2008, but a few of the songs are from older records that I only just discovered. I've even got a song from a record that was on last year's mix too, because I just didn't stop listening to that album this year. The songs are all tagged, so if you're scared of screamy music you can mass-delete all the metal songs, but there are some real gems in there (you can listen to one of them here) so I encourage you to give the heavy heavy a shot; if you don't like the tech metal you might enjoy the indie metal.

And if you're a new friend, you can find my 2006 and 2007 mixes here and here (I've been doing year-end mixes since 2001, but I've only been uploading them the last few years). I'm getting a 'temporarily unavailable' error from Megaupload on the 2007 mix download, so if it doesn't clear up and you really want that mix just let me know and get you the songs.

As always, if you find a band here you love, please buy their albums and support them.

Download It!

Track Listing:

1. Trap Them - F**king Viva
2. Meshuggah - Bleed
3. The Secret - Funeral Monolith
4. Intronaut - The Literal Black Cloud
5. The Big Sleep - Pinkies
6. White Rabbits - The Plot
7. Autolux - Audience No. 2
8. Fujiya & Miyagi - Goosebumps
9. Clutchy Hopkins - Sound Of The Ghost
10. Early Graves - Ghosts Among Us
11. The Jonbenet - Eleventh Century Folklore (Chapter I)
12. These Arms Are Snakes - Red Line Season
13. Mogwai - Batcat
14. The Roots - Get Busy (Feat. Dice Raw & Peedi Peedi)
15. Ladytron - Ghosts
16. Snoop Dogg - Sensual Seduction
17. Meshuggah - Combustion
18. Zozobra - Treacherous
19. The Secret - Inferno
20. Intronaut - Australopithecus
21. Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye
22. Maserati - 12/16
23. Fujiya & Miyagi - Hundreds & Thousands
24. The Notwist - On Planet Off
25. One Day As A Lion - Wild International
26. Nine Inch Nails - Letting You
27. Meshuggah - obZen
28. Spitfire - Arrhythmia Drift
29. Poison The Well - Purple Sabbath
30. Intronaut - Any Port
31. The Cape May - Copper Tied
32. Verbose - Turn Left Turn Right
33. Carbon Based Lifeforms - MOS 6581
34. Portishead - Threads

Charlie Huston - Every Last Drop (Excerpt)

2008-10-12T20:22:00.006-05:00

About a year ago I read Charlie Huston's excellent noir vampire novels Already Dead and No Dominion. I also enjoyed (but didn't review) the third book in the series, Half the Blood of Brooklyn, and now the fourth book of a planned five has come out, Every Last Drop. Unsurprisingly, I'm really digging it. But instead of writing a full review (you should just go buy the whole series from Amazon right now) I'm going to post a passage that I read today and really enjoyed.

Don't worry, I omitted a few lines to avoid spoilers.

This won't have the same impact as if you'd read the series up until this point, but in this passage the main character has just experienced a revelation that answers a huge question that the series has been building to up to from the beginning. Kind of a "Luke, I am your father" moment. Joe is notorious for being a loner who cares about very little in life, if anything (obviously ... it is noir, after all), which makes the transition in this passage all the more powerful. Hope you like it.

----

I don't see him anymore. I see the room behind him. I see the [huge spoiler].

The Bronx kid pokes me with his truncheon.

I look at him.

Something crosses his eyes. He looks down. Sees my bare feet.

My hands are on the back of his head and my knee is pushing the bones of his nose back through his brain and I twist his neck and it breaks and I think I start crying.

But it's not why you think.

It's not why you think.

It's not why you think.

I'm simply angry at myself for killing him so fast, so easy. I'd have liked to take my time.

But in the whole universe there is not enough time. There are not enough minutes and seconds for what I'd like to do. For the things I could dream up if I had more time.

The things I could do to this world to make it pay for being the way it is.

I look at the dead body I'm still holding. I drop it. There's a sound when I drop it, metal on stone. I kneel and find the gun under the kid's arm. I take it.

This gun. I love this gun. There are so many wonderful things I can do with this gun. So many people I can kill.

I turn and leave, eager to begin.

Golden Skull

2008-08-30T20:10:00.007-05:00

Golden Skull is an iPhone game that I recently downloaded, and I ended up writing a short review of it at the App Store. Since I'd already written the review, and because I have a bunch of friends with iPhones and iPod Touches, I figured I'd copy it here.

Golden Skull is an average game. It's similar to Bubble Breaker and many other "match the colors" gem games, although it does include a light story element. The story would help if it were more than just a way to progress from one stage to the next; Golden Skull doesn't employ any power-up mechanics like, say, Puzzle Quest, where progressing from one battle to the next lets you gain new powers. Also, you have to start over from the beginning of the game if you fail a stage; once you reach the more difficult stages it would be very nice if you could retry them without slogging back through the simple ones to get back to where you were.

The game is moderately polished. The story screens are done in a clean style, and the graphics are generally good. The animation framerate for completing gem combos could stand to be higher, and the sound effects are very basic and get old fast. It's nice that you can select your own music, although it would have been nice if the game had had its own tunes to strengthen the theme (Toy Bot Diaries does this very well).

The only other thing to note is the fact that the game has a major exploit: gold coins, which are your goal on each stage, apparently count as combo completions. The player is not forced to collect gold coins when they drop, however, which means that as long as there is a gold coin in the stage you cannot fail. In other words, you can leave the gold coins on the board as a safety net since you cannot lose if there's one active.

The easiest way to exploit this is to collect the first four gold coins and then earn the final gold coin but not collect it. With the final gold coin on the screen you can just keep completing color combos to run up your score indefinitely. And if you happen to get to a place where there are no more valid moves left (which would normally fail the stage), you can simply collect the last gold coin to complete the stage instead of having to start over.

Maybe this situation makes keeping a few gold coins around an element of strategy, but given that there is no penalty for not collecting them and that you cannot fail with a gold coin on the board, it turns out that it really just lets you artificially inflate your score with no risk. The first stage is so easy that you can trivially keep completing combos and running up your score forever with one gold coin on the screen.

I'm still giving the game 3 stars, because it's by no means a bad game. It's a decent way to pass the time, and it's got an average level of polish, but once you've played it a few times you realize that the story doesn't add much, if anything, and you just have 10 stages. Once you beat those, you're done with the game unless you want to replay it for a better score (which feels cheapened by the exploit above).

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2008-04-28T22:53:00.004-05:00

Artist: Godspeed You Black Emperor!
Album: Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada
Song: Moya
Genre: Post-Rock

Hands down, this is the greatest post-rock song ever. The climax at 8:27 almost made me wreck my car when I first heard it, and I'm not kidding.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2008-04-28T00:42:00.003-05:00

Artist: Nitrada
Album: We Don't Know Why But We Do It
Song: Old Love, New Idea
Genre: Electronic

I think my friend Brian will love this song. It's off an almost-impossible-to-purchase-in-America album by a German dude who makes music under the name Nitrada.

Great stuff, and the album is full of diversity; almost no two song sound alike. Definitely recommended.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2008-04-04T00:10:00.008-05:00

Artist: The Mars Volta
Album: Frances The Mute
Song: Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus: A. Sarcophagi/B. Umbilical Syllables/C. Facilis Descenus Averni/D. Con Safo
Genre: Magic

Was their first record amazing? Yes. Transcendental? Hard to argue with that. Was their second record a disappointing noise-fest? Yes. But there's still no denying this song. This song is full of so very many moments....the central breakdown and build is among the best things that The Mars Volta have ever done....I just can't get over the depth of that build....and the transition at 8:24 is worthy of metal.

I'm sorry, but this song is as good as anything they've ever done. First record included.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2008-03-27T22:16:00.001-05:00

Artist: White Rabbits
Album: Fort Nightly
Song: The Plot
Genre: Indie Rock

I'm way overdue with my SXSW Recap, but here's a little taste of one of my favorite SXSW discoveries....

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2008-03-10T18:46:00.003-05:00

Artist: The Pineapple Thief
Album: What We Have Sown
Song: What Have We Sown?
Genre: Rock

Yes, this song is 27 minutes long.

If I can spare the bandwidth you can spare the time; put it on when you're gonna be at your computer for a spell.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2008-03-04T23:45:00.002-06:00

Artist: The Big Sleep
Album: Sleep Forever
Song: Pinkies
Genre: Rock

The Big Sleep is back.

Big time.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2008-03-03T22:14:00.003-06:00

Artist: The Jonbenet
Album: The Plot Thickens
Song: Eleventh Century Folklore (Chapter I)
Genre: Raunchy-Ass Emo Texas Metal

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2008-02-29T00:35:00.005-06:00

Artist: Caribou
Album: Start Breaking My Heart
Song: Brandon
Genre: Electronic

It's been a bit too long since I've posted something here. I've really been digging Caribou lately; I'd checked this dude out a few times in the past but the music never quite grabbed me. For whatever reason I checked it one last time and was hooked. I really dig this song, although I really could have upped just about anything from the reissue of this album, which comes with a bonus disc that's better than most regular albums. I bought two more of his records the other day and am enjoying them just as much.

Buy It!

2007 - The Blender

2008-01-09T00:35:00.000-06:00

Another year, another mix. Same deal as last year: mostly it's stuff that came out in 2007, but a portion of it is older stuff that I discovered this year. Going back to my 2002 and 2003 mixes, my timeline with Botch in particular has been comical; I somehow missed 'Worker Bees' for all these years but randomly discovered that gem of a song while working out one day. And let me tell you, 2:40 in that song is where fat girls go to die in mosh pits at metal shows.

Anyway, I think I ended up with a really good mix this year. It of course spans everything from super heavy screamy goodness to downtempo chilled out stuff, so if the first few songs put you off I will weep for you, but stick with it and I'm sure you'll find some stuff you'll like. It moves back and forth between loud & quiet, but the end of the mix trends toward a nice wind-down.

The track listing is below, along with short comments in parentheses. Mostly they're just mentions of my favorite lyrics or moments or thoughts about each song, because whatever, I felt like it.

Enjoy!

Download It!

1. Trap Them - Digital Dogs With Analog Collars (LET IT RIDE.)
2. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Lurch (I. DON'T. KNOW. YOUR. NAME.)
3. Every Time I Die - We'rewolf (I didn't put my hair in a ponytail for nuthin'.)
4. Clark - Ted (0:36 is it.)
5. Stateless - Running Out (How long before you crack?)
6. Fujiya & Miyagi - Ankle Injuries (Like pixelated scraps of jazz max in your head. Lights.)
7. Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass (Goes like this: Duty and Death.)
8. The Big Sleep - Brown Beauty (2:04, delicious noise.)
9. Cursed - The Hands Will Abide (BOREDOM. THE EYES IN THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD.)
10. Botch - Thank God For The Worker Bees (THAT'S WHY. WE DIE.)
11. The Minor Times - Casket City Lights (HANG. TWIST IN THE WIND.)
12. Holy F**k - Frenchy's (See these guys live.)
13. Buck 65 - Spread 'Em (Wider. Wider, now. That's right.)
14. Ion Dissonance - Void Of Conscience (WHAT GOES IN ONE EAR GOES OUT THE OTHER.)
15. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Fix Your Face (NOW YOU'LL PAY THE PRICE FOR HER. PRAY FOR HER.)
16. The Chariot - They Faced Each Other (WHAT IF WE CAN'T WAKE UP? I HOPE YOU ALL REST IN PEACE.)
17. Every Time I Die - Cities And Years (WAR, COME WITH US HOME.)
18. Queens Of The Stone Age - Sick, Sick, Sick (Lose the halo, don't need to resist.)
19. Do Make Say Think - The Universe! (It's all about building up to 4:02.)
20. Rosetta - Monument (RELEASE. REVOLVE.)
21. Poison The Well - Letter Thing (GIVE ME SUNSHINE, MAKE ME HAPPY. GIVE ME SUNSHINE.)
22. Every Time I Die - No Son Of Mine (STOP. THIEF.)
23. The Minor Times - This Is The Blues (Nah, nah nah nah nah.)
24. Peter Bjorn And John - Young Folks (Talking only me and you.)
25. Buck 65 - The Beatific (Everything belongs to me because I am poor.)
26. Yppah - I'll Hit The Breaks (1:30 = Gangster.)
27. Clark - Herzog (Welcome to the future.)
28. Intronaut - The Challenger (0:39 is destruction.)
29. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Horse Hunter (COMMERCE IS YOUR GOD. CANNIBALISTIC FLIES.)
30. Poison The Well - You Will Not Be Welcomed (YOU ARE SUSTENANCE.)
31. LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great (I wish that we could talk about it.)
32. Radiohead - All I Need (It's all wrong. It's all right.)
33. Boards Of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy (3:16 is what music is.)
34. The Cape May - Desert House (Who's that there over my shoulder? I don't want to look anymore.)
35. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Mouth Of Ghosts (You were a mouth without a heart, an action without meaning.)
36. Clark - The Autumnal Crush (And I....Still....Miss................You.)

MP3 of the Moment

2007-12-02T21:17:00.000-06:00

Artist: The Cape May
Album: Glass Mountain Roads
Song: Desert House
Genre: Dirge?

You could knock me over with a feather right now. I was intrigued by the description of them posted on the fantabulous Regnyouth blog, but I expected that I'd download their record and delete it after listening to 2 songs. I couldn't have been more off base; holy hell, they've snared me.

This is not at all my type of music, but man oh man do I absolutely love this band. If it doesn't hook you right away, stick with it. If you don't feel it at 2:38 then there is something wrong with you.

Buy It!

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works

2007-11-26T17:30:00.000-06:00

Edit: Oops, forgot that whole bit where I give the album 5 out of 5 stars!

I remember one time at a Buck 65 show, he introduced his hilarious and entertaining cover of The Jungle Brothers's 'I'm Gonna Do You' by saying, "When I was growing up, The Jungle Brothers made a record called Straight Out The Jungle. Now that album is a classic. And the reason that album is a classic is because every song on that record is amazing."

That's how I feel about Ire Works, which is probably my favorite album of 2007. At first I was lukewarm on a few songs, but heaven help me I even love 'Black Bubblegum' now; it's hard to resist the cheesy hook, and I finally gave up trying.

This album is a clear progression for Dillinger. It's got some of their best math metal ever, but there's so much diversity on the record that it really feels like three different bands, which could have turned out to be a bad thing if their signature stylistic elements didn't traverse the boundaries between songs so well. This album is 1/3 crazy math metal, 1/3 IDM glitch and 1/3 melodic rock. But even that doesn't do it justice, as the glitch songs include metal riffs and melodic vocals, while one of the rock tracks has a positively Latin vibe to it ('Mouth Of Ghosts', available below).

I don't feel like I have too much to say about the record, oddly. I love every single song, even the short ones. And where the short tracks on Clark's Body Riddle felt mostly like filler, the short interludes on Ire Works serve as great bridges between the songs. If you listen to the album straight through (something I rarely do in the age of mp3s and shuffled playlists) there's a cohesion and progression that feels well-planned.

The thing I really love about the album is how many memorable moments it has for me:

-Dmitri's guest vocals in 'Fix Your Face'
-Pretty much all of 'Lurch'
-The surprising vocal appearance at the end of 'Sick On Sunday'
-The swelling, swingin' horns in 'Milk Lizard'
-The surprisingly anthemic chorus riff in 'Party Smasher'
-The throwback/homage 80's trash metal vocals in 'Horse Hunter'
-Brent Hinds's guest vocals in 'Horse Hunter'
-The Latin vibe and piano rundowns in 'Mouth Of Ghosts'

And those are just the ones off the top of my head.

Greg's vocals have grown on me a lot. He's gotten past the obvious Patton/Reznor worship and has come into his own, displaying a huge range on the album; he handles everything from snarling screams to falsetto vocals with style. And Chris Pennie's departure, which could have been a huge disaster for the band, seems like a non-issue once you hear Gil Sharone positively murdering the drums. I don't know much at all about him, but the percussion he brings to the record, which hints at jazz from time to time, is amazing. He even finds a way to make the rock songs feel slightly off-kilter. And, of course, Ben Weinman has written some amazingly intricate guitar runs offset by crushing breakdowns. Everyone showed up for this one.

Okay, I lied, I actually did have a lot to say about the record. I just can't stop listening to it front to back, and I'd encourage you to do the same.

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Preview It!

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2007-11-14T23:48:00.000-06:00

Artist: The Dillinger Escape Plan
Album: Ire Works
Song: Mouth Of Ghosts
Genre: Versatility

This song comes from what is probably my album of the year. Ire Works is absolutely amazing; I wouldn't think of skipping a single song.

And if you have any sort of preconceived notion about Dillinger, you're officially wrong.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2007-10-29T22:37:00.000-05:00

Artist: The Octopus Project
Album: One Ten Hundred Thousand Million
Song: Music Is Happiness
Genre: Quality

In honor of when The Octopus Project wrote fantastic songs....

....the song title says it all.

Buy It!

The Octopus Project - Hello, Avalanche

2007-10-29T22:26:00.001-05:00

Hello, Avalanche of Boredom. It's not that this album is bad, it's just that it's not very good. I love their previous two records, but this one just spends 43 minutes going exactly nowhere. There are a few songs that show promise, but they fizzle out every time. Man, what a disappointment.

Rating: 2/5 Stars

MP3 of the Moment

2007-10-25T22:44:00.001-05:00

Artist: Foo Fighters
Album: Foo Fighters
Song: Exhausted
Genre: Alternative

Remember back in 1995 when Foo Fighters didn't suck? I still love this song; it remains one of my favorite album-closers ever.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2007-10-22T22:18:00.001-05:00

Artist: U.N.K.L.E.
Album: Psyence Fiction
Song: Rabbit In Your Headlights
Genre: Gold

DJ Shadow + Thom Yorke = Perfection

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2007-10-15T22:29:00.000-05:00

Artist: LCD Soundsystem
Album: Sound of Silver
Song: Someone Great
Genre: Not quite sure....

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2007-10-05T17:20:00.000-05:00

Artist: Do Make Say Think
Album: Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead
Song: The Landlord Is Dead
Genre: Post-Rock

I'm about to head out for the weekend, but I figured I'd do a quick update. This is one of my favorite post-rock songs ever, from one of my favorite post-rock albums ever.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2007-10-03T00:04:00.000-05:00

Artist: Smashing Pumpkins
Album: Siamese Dream
Song: Hummer
Genre: Alternative

If you don't like this song there's something wrong with you. That's all there is to say.

Buy It!

Charlie Huston - No Dominion

2007-09-30T00:19:00.000-05:00

This will be a pretty quick post. I just finished up No Dominion, which is the sequel to Already Dead (see my review below). I really enjoyed Already Dead, so I was waiting for the mailman to deliver the follow-up.

No Dominion picks up after the events of the first novel. I'll try to keep things spoiler-free, but I think that in the early parts of the book Huston was torn about how much to explain to the reader. He spent some time recapping the events of the first book, but not enough to actually set an adequate stage for people who hadn't read it. The same goes for the general workings of his world (how the Vampyres feed, who the major Clans are, etc.). And for people who have read the first book, it feels a little tedious and comes off as somewhat aimless. Thus, an unsatisfying middle ground.

Luckily, the book moves with almost the same pace as the first in the series (a third book is due out in December). Where the first book dealt with a story both personal and political, the second book deals more with the political side of things. It's still got the intrigue and discover of a good mystery, but the events of the book revolve around power struggles and uncovered conspiracies. I personally enjoyed that aspect a bit more than the first book, which got a little too complex at times.

One of my complaints about the first book was that all of the fictional elements were integral to the story; nothing was there for atmosphere or flavor. The same can be said of No Dominion, but for some reason it didn't bother me as much this time. Maybe that's because I was more familiar with the book's version of Manhattan and was focused on the story more. That makes sense, but actually I think it was because the story, once it got going, was more engaging for me than Already Dead's.

I was sad to see that Huston didn't do a ton to further develop the main character's love story, but knowing that there's a third book on the way gives me hope. Overall, I would say that No Dominion is just as good as its predecessor, though in different ways. I heartily recommend both books.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

2007-09-29T11:15:00.000-05:00

Artist: Aesop Rock
Album: None Shall Pass
Song: None Shall Pass
Genre: Hip-Hop

I was in a store and this song came on. I asked the clerk who it was and bought the album on the spot (Amazon Prime + web phone = glory). I've never listened to Aesop Rock much, but I'm enjoying the album so far.

Buy It!