Happy hardcore heroes Four Year Strong have just dropped Enemy of the World, their second full length of blast beats and break downs. The eleven-track album treads familiar water for the Worcester, MA quintet. The riffs are heavy and the vocals are in your face. Enemy is a small step forward for the band, particularly in production value, but each song relies on a similar formula and rarely diverges from the double bass/vocal attack that made them the scene’s rising stars on Rise or Die Trying.
Familiarity and repetition are a double edged sword. On one side, you satisfy your core audience and give them what they want/expect. On the other, you become stagnant and somewhat pigeonholed. Enemy rocks. Album opener “It Must Really Suck to be Four Year Strong Right Now” is one of my favorite songs of the year. “Wasting Time (Eternal Summer)” is a nice little heavy pop song and “Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride” has a great half-time vibe to it. That being said, the cuts just seem to blend into one another. After several listens, I feel the disc has great moments, but not great songs. Keep reading →
Chances are if you’ve been to the New Hampshire seacoast region, you know Markey’s and Brown’s. Two restaurants directly across the street from each other on Route 286, who do the exact same thing and are perpetually mobbed. The only real difference is that Brown’s is BYOB and Markey’s serves.
Both offer fresh seafood either steamed, boiled or fried at comparable prices. Both are very casual, only take cash, and function on a ‘place your order, find a table and wait for your number to be called system’. I’ve eaten at both and couldn’t tell you the difference in the food. So that brings us to what makes Brown’s different–the ability to BYOB, which is a gift and a curse. Respectful patrons can plan ahead, bring a few beers or a bottle of wine and hang out while enjoying their meal. But then there’s the others who believe this is an open invitation to rage with wheeling coolers and thirty-racks under each arm, camping out for hours with domestic light beer and fried clam strips. The BYOB policy is nice if you respect it; but when it’s taken advantage of, I’d rather cross the street and pay that three bucks for a Sam Adams with the civilized folk. Keep reading →
At this point, I think there’s a little too much American Idol on Fox. They expect me to watch five hours of programming a week? I don’t think so. This is the beauty of DVR. There’s no need for the singing shows to be two hours long and the results show is just one long cock-tease. They could do away with the entire results show and just break into the late news like the lottery does and announce who’s been voted off. But that would never work because they need to sell more commercials and waste more of our time. The point is, I’ll be cutting back to one AI post a week, most likely put up on Thursday or Friday. Maybe some weeks will be so weak that I don’t write anything at all, we’ll have to see how this season plays out. (If Katie leaves before the top 12, I’m gone too. You’ve been warned.)
The Guys
Michael Lynche was good. At first I didn’t think he could handle the James Brown song, but he ended up being the best of the night. Alex Lambert was better but cut your hair. It’s bad enough that you made up your own language but you look like CAROL BRADY. I’m already sick of Casey James. Wow, you know how to rock a wah-wah pedal. Like Kara said, this is a singing competition. Playing an instrument helps you as a packaged artist but not vocally. Keep reading →
Why do put a Boston Cream donut into its bag upside down? Don’t you realize that when you casually pick the donut off the shelf and toss it into the bag, the donut always gets flipped and stuck to the bottom of the bag, thus ruining the frosting balance and forcing me to scrape the luscious chocolate off with my finger after inhaling the scarred donut.
Right Side Up!
The Boston Cream is easily your best confection. We’re not talking about no regular glazed or jelly that can be thrown around like a hockey puck here. This is the Boston Cream–cakey dough filled with rich Bavarian cream and topped sweet chocolate frosting. Respect it. Understand that this donut requires a little more finesse when being placed into a to-go bag. It doesn’t seem like to much to ask. Don’t put the donut chocolate side down! Why did you change to the flat style dozen donut boxes? TO PRESERVE THE DONUTS IN TRANSIT AND KEEP THEM FROM SMUSHING TOGETHER. Can this concept not also transfer to a smaller scale?
Does the mail man kick your packages up the driveway like Ace Ventura? Does Macy’s spill soda on your shirt at the register? I don’t think so. I know you’re the only donut game in town, but it’s time to step it up. When I want to lick a bag or wrapper, I’ll do it because I want to, not because I have to.
The only good things to come out of Comcast fucking up my HD conversion was that they gave me HBO free for three months. The best thing about HBO? How to Make It In America.
We’re only three episodes in, but this show is solid. The pilot was the best I’ve seen it years. The show captures the energy of New York City and the characters’ struggle to be successful on their own terms. There’s definitely a live-in-the-moment vibe of NYC that is accurately reflected by writing and pace. I expect good things going forward. My only concern is that it could turn into the east coast Entourage where the show is more concerned about name-dropping, filming at famous locations and being hip, than focusing on the story and the characters we like. And guess what? Same producers. Enjoy the show now while you can.
Wow. Another completely disappointing show. This really might be the weakest season yet. It was hard to be worse than the girls on Wednesday, but I think the guys pulled it off. There was only one insane train wreck courtesy of Tim Urban, but as a whole the guys were just blah. Pencil Casey James into the top five right now, but other than that, I just don’t know.
Favorite Performance
This is like picking a decent album out of the sale bin at the record store. No one sent me, but I’ll give it up to Todrick Hall for his version of “Since You’ve Been Gone.” Nowhere near as good as the original, but at least he tried something. However, I think he should have kept this arrangement in his back pocket for when he makes it to the top twelve. It’s the kind of “risk” the judges will love in ten weeks, but right off the bat sounds forced. Keep reading →
I’ll keep this short: American Idol sucked last night. All twelve girls either were boring, made bad song choices or just sounded like lame karaoke. Even my home-region girl Katie Stevens skewed way older with her Michael Buble song and missed the mark. I think she’ll still coast this week but she needs to have more fun and stop trying to prove she has pipes.
As Simon kept harping all night, there was no single female that screamed “star.” Simon nailed it when he said everyone was just trying to do an impersonation of other popular artists. If these were the twelve best women that AI could find, then…yeesh. Keep reading →
