Growing up I listened to cassette tapes. Back then the quality sounded great to me, I liked how sturdy they were, and I loved to write the names of every single song on my mix tape cover. If I ever bought an album on cassette, I also had to listen to much more of the whole album - simply because rewinding and fast forwarding were a bitch. This in return made songs that you initially didn’t care for, grow on you. By the end of the week, you were also into that one song before your favorite song on the album. Take Appetite for Destruction by Gun’s N Roses for example. If you bought the album for Sweet Child O’ Mine, there were probably times where the tape would continue on to the next track, You’re Crazy without you even noticing. You might not even like the song, but because you don’t wanna rewind again, you listen to it. Soon, you realize that You’re Crazy is a great song too.

Fast forward to the 90’s and CD’s. When I first got into CD’s it was all about skipping tracks. With the press of a button, you could get to the very beginning of any song on the album. As a result however, if I wasn’t into a song, I would just skip it. Whereas cassette tapes forced me to get into ALBUMS, CD’s, for the most part, got me into SINGLES. So why even listen to albums anymore? Well, CD albums usually had about 3 good singles, and you couldn’t get all three of them on a “singles” CD. And so I’m stuck with buying albums. Unfortunately those suckers were typically anywhere from $13 - $18… I couldn’t afford to buy all my favorite artists’ albums, although I was getting sick of albums much quicker.

And finally we have the new century and iPods. Remember how CD’s were too expensive? Now I can have any song from any album for FREE. Every song I instantly like in this little white box put into “shuffle” mode. The album is officially dead. Why would my attention span suffer to “grow” to like certain songs? I can listen to any song that I like the moment I hear it. Don’t like this song? Skip it! Don’t like the album? Skip it!

This brings up a couple of questions. Is it weird for me to be a little scared by this? I guess I’m so used to the notion of “albums” that I can’t help but feel like we’re losing something good here. Maybe it’s natural selection and we’re weeding out the bad songs, even artists, from the good ones. What about on the artists’ end? Musicians will have to rethink the concept of “albums” as well as how to make money off of one single song, let alone standing out amongst a sea of other artists who have music available for FREE. It’s an exciting time, the revolution has begun, but a government hasn’t been established yet. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

I can’t lie quietly and let this website be overrun with Motion City Soundtrack posts. Where’s the New Found Glory love?

Just a friendly reminder by your resident straight edge to pick up the new NFG album “From the Screen to the Stereo pt. II.” The track-listing should sell itself:

1. Kiss Me (originally performed by Sixpence None the Richer)
2. It Ain’t Me Babe (originally performed by Bob Dylan)
3. The Promise (originally performed by When In Rome)
4. The King of Wishful Thinking (originally performed by Go West)
5. Stay (originally performed by Lisa Loeb)
6. Lovefool (originally performed by The Cardigans) - my favorite
7. Iris (originally performed by Goo Goo Dolls)
8. Don’t You Forget About Me (originally performed by Simple Minds)
9. J’y Suis Jamais Alle (originally performed by Yann Tiersen)
10. Crazy For You (originally performed by Madonna)
11. Head Over Heels (originally performed by Tears for Fears)

New Found Glory - Kiss Me

First things first, I headed out to the NMM group show which included the works of Nomzee, David Brady, and Bendow. It was a rainy evening but this made for a good show, people huddled in together to enjoy the works.

Meet Bendow, He’s 15 years old and this is his second show… complete with entourage.

The show was rather diverse featuring assemblage, mixed media, digital media, etc. The painting on the above right is the work of Nomzee.

After the show I headed on out to Tangiers for a showcase. It was nice out there, the perfect crowd - not too packed, not too sparse. I arrived to catch the last two songs by artist Phil Good. The first thing that struck me about Phil Good was that he looked like he should be singing “Rocket Queen” but instead he was singing tunes more along the lines of “Lately”. Hard Rock look, R&B vocals… interesting. The dude could definitely sing. Right after his set came The Jane Doe’s. They sounded exactly like what they looked like. The band was super tight and played funky R&B. Although the musical genre is not my cup of tea, it’s way more interesting to me when I hear it live then recorded.

Here’s a story about Randy Pausch, a true rockstar of America.
It’s inspiring and encouraging, and I can’t help but be moved by his story and last lecture.

Courtesy of CaffeineGuy

Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch recently discovered that his battle with pancreatic cancer was lost, and that he only had several months - possibly weeks - to live. The video’s about his final lecture, which he entitled “How to Live Your Dreams.”

He begins by saying, “If I don’t seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you.” And that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the lecture, which is filled with self-deprecating humor and absolutely no trace of fear or self-pity.

At the end of the lecture, he reveals that the lecture wasn’t for the audience - but his three children. As his oldest son’s just five, he’s focusing on making videos during his remaining days so his younger kids will have something to remember their father. “I find that I am completely positive. The only times I cry are when I think about the kids — and it’s not so much the ‘Gee, I’ll miss seeing their first bicycle ride’ type of stuff as it is a sense of unfulfilled duty — that I will not be there to help raise them, and that I have left a very heavy burden for my wife.”

“Lead your life the right away, the dreams will come to you…”
Well said, Professor Pausch.

Motion City Soundtrack has always been one of my favorite bands. I’ve been waiting for their new album… and the wait is over!

I picked up their third full-length, Even If It Kills Me at Best Buys on Tuesday. From the start, album just took off. Some of their songs reminded me of their first album I am the Movie (which is a great thing), but you can hear the maturity mainly due to clear-headed Justin Pierre (who recently overcame some drug and alcohol problems).

The wait was well worth it and it’s definitely one of those albums which you can listen to from start to finish. Check it out! You can listen to their full album here.

Motion City Soundtrack - Broken Heart

courtesy of: EpitaphRecords

Official Website: http://www.motioncitysoundtrack.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/motioncitysoundtrack

Wanna wake up to some good morning news and awesome music in the morning? Wake up to KTLA Morning News (Channel 5 - Los Angeles, California) every weekday morning with DJ Hapa!

Recently TEAM FR*A had the chance to follow him around and live in Hapa’s world for 3 days. Look for our exclusive interview with DJ Hapa coming next month or wake up a little early and watch him on KTLA!

Official Website: http://www.hapaworld.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/djhapa

DJ Hapa’s World

courtesy of freshkind

From barsukrecords on YouTube:

Based on more than 25 hours of never-before-heard audiotaped interviews conducted by noted journalist Michael Azerrad, the movie KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON is an intimate and moving portrait of the late musician and artist Kurt Cobain, told entirely in his own voice — without celebrity soundbites, news clips, sensational or tabloid angles. It’s who he was from the man himself, with cinematic imagery shot on film of the three cities in Washington State that played a major role in his life (Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle) and set to an evocative score by noted Northwest musician and producer Steve Fisk and Death Cab for Cutie frontman Benjamin Gibbard, as well as the music of more than 20 artists who influenced or touched Cobain during his life. Kurt Cobain About A Son opens in select markets in October.