Tag: Eat Sleep Drink Music (Page 27 of 31)

Dress up like Weird Al, and he’ll call you!*

All right, so Bullz-Eye is doing their most off-the-wall giveaway yet. They are giving away The Essential “Weird Al” Yankovic, a two-disc retrospective of what can only be described as satirical genius. Three runners-up will receive the CD set, and one grand prize winner will receive the CD and…a five-minute phone call with Weird Al himself! Suh-weet!

Ah, but there’s a catch. This isn’t one of those contests where you just send your name in and sit by the phone. Nope, all entrants must provide a photo of themselves dressed as Weird Al. Happy Halloween! So break out your curly-haired wig and start mugging for the camera. But before you get started, take a look at the clip that Jib Jab put together of Al’s White Stripes-riffing homage to “Match Game” panelist Charles Nelson Reilly. Funniest clip we’ve seen all year. Giddy-up, Gene!

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For more information on Bullz-Eye’s Weird Al Yankovic contest, click here.

*- Odds of winning based on the number of entries. And how much you already look like Weird Al.

Angel Taylor: Love Travels


RIYL: Vanessa Carlton, Kate Voegele, Cobie Caillat

No album in the last five years has brought out the big brother in us quite like Angel Taylor’s Love Travels has. The former California coffeehouse singer has assembled an album of mannered piano pop so wistful that it should come with a bonus CD of heavy sighs to play concurrently with the album. If we ever meet Ms. Taylor, the conversation will start with us giving her a big hug, tousling her hair and assuring her that everything will be all right, sweetie. She’s not exactly reinventing the wheel here, but the songwriting has a throwback feel to it, lifting songs like “Make Me Believe” and the Vanessa Carlton-ish “Chai Tea Latte” over the dreck that passes for adult contemporary pop today. And, thank heaven, Taylor has no use for melisma-inspired vocal runs, preferring to keep things simple. That is one trend we hope picks up some more steam. If you have a sensitive tween girl in your life, this is the album for her. And her mother. (Sony 2009)

Angel Taylor MySpace page
Click to buy Love Travels from Amazon

Steal This Song: Gazpacho, “Winter Is Never”

The problem with a band reaching the upper reaches of the rock star food chain is that inferior bands begin to imitate them. And the band that has inspired the largest number of shitty copycats of late, sadly, is one of this writer’s favorites.

Muse_14 edit

Yep, Muse.

The thing about Muse is that their approach is a lot simpler than it appears. The song, by and large, comes first, whereas the band’s copycats see the flashy solos, the lightning-fast drum fills, and the busy bass lines and instantly forget about writing and concentrate on playing. Big, big mistake. Without a tune, that stuff is just masturbation.

Which brings us to Gazpacho, which seems an odd name for a group of Norwegians, but then again we suppose that everything is served cold there. (This moment of cultural insensitivity brought to you by Jack Daniel’s.) This is the first Muse-y band we’ve heard since “Knights of Cydonia” that seems to understand the order of things. They can play, and they make sure that you know they can play, but it’s not their endgame. And, in the case of “Winter Is Never,” the haunting ballad that closes their new album Tick Tock, the song comes first, second and third. David Gray is probably gnashing his teeth over this one, as this could pass for a White Ladder outtake, with a few Buckley-isms from lead singer Jan Henrik Ohme in the second chorus. Gorgeous stuff, and best of all, it’s free! The download link is below.

Groepsportret Gazpacho

In the meantime, those who felt a tad disappointed by Muse’s new album The Resistance would be wise to check out Tick Tock. It won’t make anyone burn their copies of Black Holes and Revelations, but for a mere $6.23 to download, it’s a steal. Dig in.

Gazpacho – Winter Is Never

Gazpacho MySpace page
Click to buy Tick Tock from Amazon

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: The Twilight Saga: New Moon


RIYL: Vampires, werewolves, everlasting love

Say this for soundtrack supervisor extraordinaire Alexandra Patsavas: with the soundtrack to “New Moon,” the second installment in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, she leaves nothing in the bag, as it were. With a lineup chock full of megastars and indie darlings, New Moon is the most ambitious soundtrack to come down the pipe in a while. It’s also decidedly more grown-up than its predecessor, forsaking teen angst poster children Paramore and Linkin Park for the moody stylings of Bon Iver (teamed up with St. Vincent here), Sea Wolf, and Grizzly Bear. Muse is the only returning act – expect them to appear on the soundtrack for every “Twilight” movie, as Meyer is a devout fan – and it’s a doozy, as “I Belong to You,” from their latest album The Resistance, is punched up and, more imporantly, edited down (no piano break, woo hoo!). Thom Yorke delivers the wonderfully minimalist electro brooder “Hearing Damage,” and Patsavas scores a massive coup by securing the first new song by OK Go in four years, the endearingly oddball “Shooting the Moon.”

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON

The biggest problem with the soundtrack is the sequencing. It will surely make sense in context with the movie, but as a straight-through listen sans visuals, it’s awfully up and down. All quibbling aside, New Moon is far better than anyone had a right to expect it to be, growing up along with its audience. Bravo, Alex. (Chop Shop/Atlantic 2009)

Twilight: New Moon MySpace page
Click to buy New Moon from Amazon

Yo Gabba Gabba: Music Is…Awesome!


RIYL: Old school hip hop, hipster bands, your children

Anyone who was lucky enough to snap up a copy of 2008’s here-today-gone-yesterday Yo Gabba Gabba! CD will likely be disappointed with Music Is…Awesome!, the newest release of songs from the TV show that’s a hit with both kids and stoners. Eight of the 13 tracks from the previous release are here, along with songs from the Shins, Chromeo, Of Montreal, I’m from Barcelona, and Money Mark. That’s a whole lotta hipster, right there, and the decision to include the hipster bands over acts that actually had our kids singing along – there is no excuse, for example, for the exclusion of the Aggrolites’ “Banana” or GOGO13’s fantastic ska tribute “Pick It Up” – is a curious one, to say the least. Then again, the soundtrack supervisors had positively tons of bands to choose from (The Bird and the Bee, the Ting Tings, Mates of State, Jason Falkner, MGMT, Jimmy Eat World, Datarock, the Clientele, etc.), not to mention original songs (“Hold Still,” “Please, Thank You”), so it stands to reason that they were going to leave some essential YGG moments out. Be that as it may, Music Is…Awesome! is good, but not quite as awesome as it could have been. (Filter/Fontana 2009)

Yo Gabba Gabba MySpace page
Click to buy Music Is…Awesome! from Amazon

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