End of the Month Music Bitchfest - April 2014

Nine Inch Nails
These recent NIN shows have been too unfocused. I know, I know, will I ever be happy ever. With virtually no lighting set ups and the random grab bag of songs we've already heard...I don't know, getting a little anxious about this shared bill with Soundgarden AND an opener.
I feel like we're gearing up for half of a Nine Inch Nails concert, for $100 a pop.
This does not please my kitten.
But, at least I'll finally get to hear "The Hand That Feeds" live.

A few weeks ago, we got the first taste of the Gone Girl score and it sounds like something from Silent Hill.
I'm thinking this score is going to be less incongruous than that of The Social Network but more incongruous than that of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, based on the book at least.
Honestly, after that little clip from the web site (this web site), I'm now hungrier than ever for a Reznor/Ross Silent Hill score.
Where do I throw the money?

Eels
A bit bummed by my lack of instant love for the new album.
Short version: The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett sounds like a better, fuller End Times. I think, as much as I love E and his music, that the pity party / sad bastard diatribe is, just now, almost twenty years after first hearing his stuff, starting to wear a little thin. Not that I don't think it's genuine, it's just, you know, getting a bit overworn. I'd love another Souljacker; a blistering work of rock fiction with no set instrumental style, maybe get away from the songs about all the emotional trauma that's happened to him in the past year and a half.
Part of me is dreading that the next Eels album will be entitled I Got A Splinter: 12 Songs About How I Hurt My Finger.
You're a sensitive dude. We get it. We got in back in 1998 when you turned the greatest tragedy in your life into something hopeful and harrowing.
Holding out hope for the tour though, as they've always been amazing experiences.
Full review of the new album is in the works, so make sure to ignore that.

Cake
*sigh*
They've resorted to re-releasing all their old albums on vinyl.
Colored vinyl.
How can they be so cruel and thoughtless?!
DON'T THEY KNOW HOW MANY COLORS DIED FOR THEIR FESTIVE-LOOKING RECORDS??!?!?!?
But, at least that fucking live album from goddamn 2007 is getting a vinyl release.
Which I'll then have to convert to digital.
Fucking Christ, can these pieces of shit ever do anything that doesn't piss me off?!
I suppose re-releasing their catalogue is better than putting out some random compilation of songs though...

They Might Be Giants
Wow, this thing (called Idlewild) has nothing interesting on it, whatsoever.
Two or three tracks from their last four albums, including Nanobots, which came out just over a year ago and one or two from a handful of other albums, EPs and compilations they've released over the past decade or so.
The whole thing just seems lazy.
Hope this doesn't count as either of the albums they were planning to release this year.

In other TMBG news, a music video I created with my wife, Chris, and friend, Phil Maniaci, for the "Am I Awake?" video contest placed fourth or fifth out of over a hundred and fifty entrants, receiving an Honorable Mention from John Hodgman (the judge of said contest).
Of the three winners, I think two of them completely deserved to win, hands down.
You can check our video out here: "Am I Awake?" music video.


One of the other reasons I wasn't super focused or stoked about the new Eels was that Damon Albarn's first solo album, Everyday Robots, was released around the same time. And it is just as impressive as one would hope Damon Albarn's first solo album would be.
There's a lot of focus on the spiritual malaise generated by the technology that was built to bring us closer together as a people further isolating us from one another. Not really the most groundbreaking topic to tackle in 2014, especially for Albarn, but, hey, write what you know.
The whole thing is sparse and sorrowful and melodic and a little spooky at times.
Full review coming soon.
Probably.

The new Lykke Li has Lykke leaked* but I've yet to get into it. A very quick flip through it makes me think it's a lot more spare than her most recent, insanely amazing album, Wounded Rhymes.
But, again, I haven't heard more than a song or two.

New Tori this month.
Let's roll the dice together.





* I apologize to the families of victims of that pun.