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Abandoned Pools – Humanistic
This is the first album from Abandoned Pools (AP). This album was released in 2001. This is a solo project from Tommy Walter. The music comes from material he had been working on with a previous group and material that he came up with after the breakup of said group. The album was released on a record company called Extasy Records. The band toured until the record company folded. There were a couple of singles from the album too. The first was called The Remedy. The second was Mercy Kiss. This album came out when I was just getting into the indie sounds. I had not even heard the word indie before ad would not know that it was a reference to music fro years to come. I can’t remember where I heard the first single, if it was on TV or the radio. I do remember getting on line and looking up the band. I found the record company and put in a request to get some music from the band through them. This was still a time when companies would send out physical products. They gladly sent me a promo disc of a few tracks from the album. They also sent me a computer disc from another band called Sub.Bionic. This was how I learned about the latter group. I listened to that demo disc for the few months before the album came out. I went to Best Buy to pick up the album when it came out. Best Buy was at the time the best music source I had with out going into the city for the independent record stores. I loved this album, it has sounds that remind me of industrial music but it is so laid back that I don’t get tired of it. I was very happy when I heard the first single on the TV show ER. I thought that was some great exposure for the band because I wanted them to succeed. When the record company folded I was very worried for the two groups that I really liked that were on the record label. I was happy that AP continued to make music after this but was saddened that Sub.Boinic couldn’t find a way out. I have not heard anything about Sub.Bionic after the record label went down. AP went on to Universal Records after Extasy Records folded.
Ben Folds – Rockin’ The Suburbs
This is Ben Folds first solo album. He had previously been a part of Ben Folds Five and they released four albums, one of which was a rarities and b-sides disc. This album, Rockin’ The Suburbs, was released in 2001. Despite the use of profanity on the album the Parental Advisory sticker was never added to the album. There were two singles from this album. The first was the title track to the album, Rockin’ The Suburbs. The song pokes fun at white youngsters and their woes of life. It is a really funny track. There are a few American swears in the song especially at the break of the song. Ben sings repetitively, “Ya better watch out cause I’m gonna say fuck.” The video is just as great as the song is. “Weird Al” Yankovic directed the video so you know it is going to be a riot. I pulled this information from Wikipedia about the video:
The music video for "Rockin' the Suburbs" was directed by friend "Weird Al" Yankovic, who also plays the role of a producer who fixes Folds' "shitty track," directly riffing on one of the song's lyrics.
The video, which closely reflects the joke-heavy style of Yankovic's own videos, features Folds playing multiple members of an angry rock band in a suburban den and in front of a white background.
After the song's bridge, Folds is shown outside in a suburban neighborhood wearing a backwards red Yankees cap, the trademark of Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst. During this part of the video, Folds does suburban things such as jumping in pools and flipping burgers.
Near the end of the video, Folds can be seen playing a keytar. On occasion, he also plays the keytar for live performances. The make and model he uses is a red Roland AX-1.
At the end of the video, the "band" (all Ben again) plays in front of a black background with holes punched in it, a style that matches the live-action parts of the Korn video for "Freak on a Leash." A subliminal message reading "Korn Sucks" briefly appears.
The next single from this album is Still Fighting It. It is a dedication to his son Louis. It is supposed to be a bitter sweat ode to adolescence. The album is just as good as any of the Ben Folds Five albums. This should be plain as Ben did all of the writing for the lyrics in Ben Folds Five. The album was actually very perfect for the time considering that the album was released on the day of the terrorist attacks. The only super up beat song on the album is the title track. I think that this was a much needed track for the US considering the incident at the time and the following back lash. I use to think that the attacks did not really hit me as hard as most. I think that I was in denial. I think that the music that I listened to helped me get through this hard time but I also think that the attack aggravated my depression so badly that I ended up in a divorce and as a result lost my job and house. It makes me wonder what my life would have been like had the attacks not happened. There is nothing I can do about this but it is still a wonder.
Man or Astro-Man – EEVIAC
This is the sixth album from Man or Astro-Man? I like to view it as the fifth album since one of the albums, Intravenous Television Continuum, is mainly a covers and remixes album. It was released in 1999. I got my copy as a repressing in 2010. This is an album that came later in their career so it has more of an experimental edge to it. The albums full name is EEVIAC Operational Index and Reference Guide, Including Other Modern Computational Devices. The word EEVIAC is also an acronym meaning Embedded Electronic Variably Integrated Astro Console. It is a play on the ENIAC which is hailed as the first modern computer. The band actually built a mockup of the super computer for use on stage. I don’t believe that there were any singles officially released from this album. There is a lot more noise on this album than have been on any of their previous albums. This doesn’t mean that there couldn’t have been any singles from the album but that radio stations may have been turned off from playing anything from the album because of the noise. I can’t say that it is a great album or a bad album. It hangs somewhere in the middle. I like that they don’t put out many songs with lyrics. It makes me happy when I hear that rare track with vocals. There are only a couple of tracks with lyrics on this album of thirteen tracks. For me it is an extra when I get to hear lyrics from the band, unlike almost every other band where you expect to hear lyrics for every song on an album. Sometimes I don’t want to be told what to think and I want to think for myself.
Snow Patrol – Final Straw
This is the third album from Snow Patrol. It was released in 2003 (UK) and 2004 (US). There were four singles that were released from this album, one of them was released twice as strange as that sounds. The first was Spitting Games. This song was also re-released as the fourth of five singles. The video of the song is just the group playing back to back in a circle with the camera spinning round them. It is still an interesting concept and the song itself keeps you watching because it is so good. The next single is Run. This is the song that intrduced me to the band. It is a slow song that has a great chorus. I first saw the video for the song. The video was filmed at night with the boys using red colored hand flairs to light up the video. The group waived them in their hands and tossed them back and forth. There was also a motorcycle that was driven in the video, not exactly sure what that is supposed to represent except that they were having a great time filming the video. The next single released was Chocolate. The video for this one was sort of strange in my opinion. Everyone runs rampant based on this hourglass timer. When it runs out they all stop waiting for the world to stop but the lead singer just walks over and flips the hour glass over and mayhem ensues again. The song itself is very good. It has a nice driving beat with some bells accentuating the guitar. The next and last single is How To Be Dead. The song is basically about a conversation between a couple. It is a down-tempo song that brings the listener into the conversation as a witness. It is an interesting song. The whole album is very interesting. I had just started coming out of my depression but was still very much into the depressing music that was indie at the time. Well, I guess it was more that I was into the music that was on the edge of indie but more crossing over into pop music. I think that the whole album has a great driving beat and is part of why it crossed over to the mainstream.
That is all I have for now...
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