My Ten Favorite Albums....Ever!

It's so hard to put a list of only ten. Tell me what you think.

10. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
9. The Beatles - Abbey Road
8. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
7. Red Hot Chili Peppers - BloodSugarSexMagik
6. The Beatles - The White Album
5. Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
4. The White Stripes - Elephant
3. Radiohead - OK Computer
2. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
1. The Beatles - Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band


Honorable Mentions:

- Sublime - Sublime
- Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
- The Doors - The Doors
- Radiohead - The Bends
- Pixies - Doolittle
- Outkast - Stankonia
- Daft Punk - Homework

Twin Sophomore Success

I explained in an earlier post of the disappointing sophomore albums in the past few years, and how it looked as if Gnarls Barkley might nullify the streak with their upcoming album, 'The Odd Couple', based on the first single they released 'Run'. The release date for the disc was said to be April 8 but because the album leaked over the web, they changed the date to March 18 for Amazon and iTunes and March 25th everywhere.

When I first listened to the album my first thought was that it was a bit scary. 'The Odd Couple' is filled with..well...odd music. Danger Mouse mixes in beats that show more of a dark side to the duo, and Cee-Lo fills it in with beautiful lyrics. The album comes across as different, but I feel that is what the music scene is lacking, originality. Gnarls Barkley is definitely not afraid to show their originality and they pull it off with excellence in a CD that maybe doesn't match up with their brilliant debut, but still reserves them a spot in my mind as a praise worthy group today.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Jack White is one of the supreme musicians left on this earth today, being the lead for both The White Stripes and his "side project" The Raconteurs. The Raconteurs debut album 'Broken Boy Soldiers' has to be one of my favorites in the last couple years, and even with the success of the new band, there were speculations of them not releasing a second album. Even recently I hadn't heard any news on the band releasing a new record until..well...it was released! I was hoping dearly that this band wouldn't be another sophomore failure, but as you can probably speculate by the title of the post, it wasn't! Jack White and The Raconteurs 'Consolers of the Lonely' is filled with bangin' garage tunes and that classic vintage sound. They pulled of a sophomore album that I can say impressed me, and it isn't an easy feat to follow up 'Broken Boy Soldiers'. Every song flows well and leaves you with more than a satisfied feeling when the album closes out with the excellent"Carolina Drama". I give major props to the band as they set the bar pretty high for 2008 with this sophomore release.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Amazing

This is art, so I'm not going to write anything about it. Just observe and create of it what you will.


By: "Punkadelic"

Update

I haven't been writing posts as frequently on this blog as usual, due to my extremely busy schedule. Haha. No, seriously, life has been throwing a lot of things my way and I haven't been able to sit back and watch a flick or read a book or hear a new album. But I am sure things will calm down and I can enjoy some of the things I love...and write about them, right here! New posts will be coming soon!

Ultra Music Festival 10

My spring break was very eventful so I this post is coming a little later than I wanted it to, but I guess it's better late than never.

Living in South Florida and being a huge fan of electronic music it was pretty much a necessity to attend Ultra. Ultra Music Festival is the biggest electronic music event in the country and among some of the most popular in the world. It has featured artists such as Daft Punk, Tiesto, Benny Benassi, Dieselboy and Infected Mushroom. This year was the festival's tenth anniversary, located in Bicentennial Park in Miami, and the headliners included Underworld, Benny Benassi, Tiesto, Carl Cox, Paul Van Dyke and Planet of the Drums. The first day lasts 8 hours long and the second day 13 hours.

I had the pleasure of attending the second day and I can say that hands down I had the best time of my life. I met people from all over the world (Australia, England, Russia, Israel), I had never been in one place with so much diversity, and I live in South Florida! The sound system there was unbeatable and every performer played great. They also usually feature a band every year and this year it was the Bravery. I honestly can't say anything bad about it, except maybe that the water was 5 bucks a bottle. The experience was an incredible way to start my spring break and I will definitely never forget it. I recommend to anyone reading this that if you like electronic music, to attend this next year. You won't regret it. The only thing I regret doing is not getting my tickets when they first went on sale, because that way I could afford both days.

Horton Hears A Who

These days, traveling to the movie theatre and purchasing a ten buck ticket to see a animated family movie is an extremely rare occasion for me, but when I heard that Dr. Seuss' 1954 classic 'Horton Hears A Who' was being adapted into a animated film starring the hilarious Jim Carey and Steve Carrel I immediately penciled it down on my list of movies to watch. Considering I am on my spring break at the moment, I had the opportunity to join a couple friends and go see the flick. Now, I have always loved Dr. Seuss' books. The creativity and imagination he uses is incredible and he always ties in life lessons that are crucial to understand, not only for children but for any age. This story was no exception. The plot is about a comical, charismatic elephant, named Horton (Jim Carey), who comes across a miniature town, Whoville, that lays inside of a spec of dust. No one but Horton can hear the town mayor's (Steve Carrel) cry for help as he knows his town is in grave danger. Horton's world is run by a callous kangaroo who views Horton as a nuisance and convinces the community that Horton is crazy, while in Whoville the mayor is trying to warn the city of the dangers and the towns people consider him foolish and ignore his warning. The characters in the story teach you to never underestimate someone based on outward appearance. I didn't expect the movie to have such a meaningful life lesson. Going to see 'Horton Hears A Who' really made me think about life and how I treat other people; I not only consider this movie to be an excellent family flick but in over all film as well. I definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking for a good story.

My Generation

The past two weeks I haven't been logging onto this blog as frequently because of failed Internet connection at my house. I am lucky that I attend a technical high school which uses an online course for their 'Health/Personal Fitness' class (yes, I know, personal fitness over the Internet. haha.) or else I wouldn't be able to write on my blog. But something I can't do is download music! I am, like most of the people in this world, an illegal file sharing user. I would pay for music, because I don't think it is a waste of money, except it's so expensive. I have a pretty big library of music and I can't possibly afford to pay that much for a single album, so I rely on the Internet to fulfill my musical needs. My school server blocks file sharing sites and consequently I haven't heard anything new for two weeks.

As I stepped onto the school bus this morning I gazed at my young high school peers and what I saw was not students studying for their mid-terms or reading a book but instead, jamming out to the iPod and texting on the latest cell phone. After I sat down I then looked at myself, with my iPod head phones fitting snug in my hears and I realized at how much I was connected to modern day technology. I understand that this is a new age where technology is the future and I do agree that the Internet and computers are an amazing invention that are very important to society but I thought about that last two weeks and how much mental suffering (self created) I was going through because I didn't have Internet connection. It sounds and is ridiculous! I do read often and write as much as possible and I have not completely engulfed myself in the world of Myspace and texting but I still find it sad on how connected I was to my computer. Like the other day, a girl in my class was caught texting during a test and had her phone confiscated. I watched her plead and beg and eventually start crying because she was separated from her phone until the next morning when her mother came and picked it up from school. At the time it didn't even cross my mind as not-normal behavior and that is what really makes me disappointed.

I really want to get away and go travel. I have never been out of American culture and I am getting sick of it. Maybe it's not the luxurious lifestyle that most of us live (because who doesn't love that?) but the people and how spoiled and rude we are. Like how we think that we are somehow entitled, as if it's one of our rights, to have these material luxuries and do whatever we want with them.

I am not going to give up talking on the phone or stop checking my e-mail but what I will do is keep in mind how important these things are to me and whether or not I can live without them. Because I know I can. And hopefully not, but maybe, some day we will all be forced to live without them and then what will we do? Who knows? I do know that I don't want to look like that pathetic, spoiled girl in my class who is so connected to her cell phone that she would give her life for it.