Life, the Universe, and Everything

18-15

2010-01-01T23:43:00.000-08:00

#18 The Killers- Hot Fuss
There was a time when I thought the Killers were cool. Before Sam's Town and their ode to Joy Division (whom 90% of people have never heard of). Back before guitar hero and rock band. Back before the Killers were popular they seemed a whole lot cooler. Still though this is a great album. The first song that brought me to the Killers was All These Things I've Done. The music video where Brandon Flowers ends up face down in the mud with I've got got soul but I'm not a solider blaring in the background. That is why I like this album.

#17 Matt and Kim- Grand
This is possibly one of the most upbeat albums created to date. I saw Matt and Kim at outside lands over the summer and that may have swayed my viewpoint on the album. They were great live, they played the final countdown. There is no song on this album that I don't like. "Me and Kim, instead of getting health insurance this year, decided to get a T-shirt gun." (crowd go crazy)

#16 Iron and Wine- The Shepherds Dog
I remember I first heard about Iron and Wine when I googled good music to fall asleep to. And that is exactly what this is. Perfect music to take a nap to. In most cases I prefer lo-fi to high production albums, but I think lots of production actually worked well with Sam Beam. He keeps the earthy quality that is what I like most about him. I picked this Iron and Wine album specifically because I feel that it is his most diverse and ambitious album. "White tooth" is reminiscent of George Harrison's Within You, Without You and Tomorrow Never Knows. "House by the Sea" feels nautical and reminds me of something that would be on We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank.

#15 Wolfmother- Wolfmother
This album is the most classic rock album since classic rock. Wolfmother may be overused in video games, but it is still fine by me. Andrew Stockdale has a voice that rivals Robert Plant's. I watched 500 days of summer yesterday and I was pleased to hear Vagabond in the soundtrack. Pitchfork wrote "The obnoxious three-and-a-half-minute garage-punk blast "Apple Tree" features the album's most uninspired songwriting and laziest delivery." I happen to really like Apple Tree, and if you are able to tell so well what is inspired and uninspired maybe you should be doing something besides writing music reviews. kthx. I don't like pitchfork, but I like this album.

So I felt like making a list...

2010-01-01T15:33:00.000-08:00

So it's new years and lately I've been reading a lot of pitchfork and rolling stones lists of the greatest albums of the decade. I do hate the entire idea of juxtaposing music and comparing and saying which one is "best", but luckily no one reads my blog so I can do that and not feel like a hypocrite. So this is Drue's 20 Best Albums of the Decade

First off notable mentions--

Sondre Lerche - Dan In Real Life Soundtrack
I wouldn't feel right putting this in the Top 20 list seeing that it is made for a movie music. It still is great though. Great acoustic singer songwriter stuff in this album. Nothing really can beat Norwegian pop music. Honestly, its great.

Radiohead- Kid A
Okay sure send the hate mail. Kid A was the #1 album for both Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. Radiohead is alright and all but lets get a little more creative. I feel weird using this reference (i think it applies for most of my audience though), but Picking Kid A as your #1 album is like playing magic with a horsemanship deck. Sure you may win, but do you really feel good about yourself. The answer should be no.

Peter, Bjorn and John- Writer's Block
There is no disqualifying type reason why this didn't make the top 20. Really the only reason is that I thought of 20 albums that I like more than this. So I deem this album #21 on my top 20 list. Peter, Bjorn and John is pretty good music, and boy howdy do I love to whistle along to Young Folks.

#20 The Bravery- The Sun and the Moon
This album is very cool. I'm not sure where I read it, but I heard that they use an organ in this album that predates electricity. Crazy. The singles, Believe, and Time Won't Let Me Go are on this album. Another thing I really like is that when I bought this album (one of the few I actually own) it came with 2 disc with 2 versions of each song. Some of the 2nd versions are cool, but most of them are just worse versions.

#19 Gorillaz- Demon Days
Many will probably disagree with me, but this is my favorite Gorillaz album. I am a sucker for concept albums and I like to think that this loosely follows the concept album format. This is one of the few bands that I listened to in middle school that I look back at fondly. Sure D-sides was absolutely horrible and I haven't heard anything about the Gorillaz in 2 years, but come on lets all go back to a time when it was all good and fun to listen to them.

2009-10-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

So my work study job is to review cd's. I'm pretty sure no one in the radio station reads the reviews so I'm going to start posting them here too. RIYL means similar bands and I don't know how to do a fancy 5 star rating system so im going to use ***** 10 stars being the highest.

Blood and Sunshine

EP (self-released)

Blood and Sunshine is a San Francisco native band that relies on creating interesting beats using a mass amount of different instruments and sounds. This is a moody electro sounding album that is extremely dark. The

RIYL: Moby, Orbital

***3/10

Zee Avi

EP (Bushfire Records)

Izyan Allrahman, also known as Zee Avi is a signer/songwriter from Borneo that landed her first record deal when Raconteurs drummer Patrick Keeler discovered her youtube channel. Keeler showed the videos to Monotone Record’s Ian Montone. Zee Avi creates pleasant acoustic guitar based songs with Zooey Deschanel-esque singing.

RIYL: Sondre Lerche, Jack Johnson

********8/10

Iron and Wine

Around the Well (Subpop)

Sam Beam is an Austin native that creates acoustic driven “sleepy” folk songs. Sam’s whispery instantly puts me to a calmer state of mind. This album is a collection of songs and performances from the past few years.

RIYL: The Mountain Goats, Nick Drake, Noah and the Whale

*********9/10

The Everday Visuals

The Everday Visuals (self-released)

The Everyday Visuals have a good a variety of up-beat songs along with mellower ones as well. The beats and guitar riffs are really catchy but the lyrics sometimes feel awkward and not really sing-a-long-able. The album seems really

lo-fi at certain parts but in a good way.

RIYL: Sea Wolf, The Shins

******6/10

Walking on the grass

2009-07-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

Favorites of the week

2009-06-16T01:00:00.001-07:00

My favorite fruit

My favorite Picture

My favorite song

Naked As We Came

2009-06-12T20:08:00.001-07:00

How do the people get better?

2009-06-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

Try to listen to this song and not feel good.

There is this guy and his name is Darren Waterston. He makes the most amazing watercolors and paintings and I am insanely jealous. How does he do this?

King of Carrot Flowers

2009-06-02T19:05:00.001-07:00

btw i didn't mean to cutoff my face. imovie kinda did it when i uploaded the video to youtube.

She shreds the cello

2009-05-13T22:44:00.000-07:00

she really does shred that cello. Go to the second song.

so i've been playing mvp baseball 2005 on my gamecube lately.

And the game is now making me depressed. Im like 12 years into the future in owner mode and there are like no real players left on my team any more. They all retired and and got old and now all I have are computer made up fake people that I don't recognize. Its just not fun without Juan Uribe anymore. Yeah it kinda gives me the same feeling as when I watch bicentenial man when like his entire family dies and there are all these new people, but you were just getting use to the old people and you don't want to take the time to like the new people. Yeah thats how I feel right now when I play that game. On a side note LOL at Manny Rameriez

Luckily the real world is a lot more rewarding and fufilling and my friends aren't gonne die anytime soon.

So I dunno what else to say. Tomorrow is my last day of actual highschool. Then finals, Then graduation, then who knows what. The summer is my buritto. I am slightly inclined to hop on the super secret team shawn washington mission bandwagon, but that bandwagon doesn't pay. for me at least. which kinda sucks. idunno. I should just get a fake birth certificate. Sounds like the most logical gameplan.

Things I want

2009-05-09T07:42:00.000-07:00

Heart of Gold

2009-05-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

yeah im done haha. i get bored working on the same pic after a while

this is what i did today in art class. im good at starting stuff, not so much completing things

Peter Pan

2009-05-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

First off this is amazing

So after this month I will no longer be in high school. Werid......

but next year I shall be repping the whittier poets yee.

haha thats creepiest looking poet ever. sooo last night I had a dream. I was at like a humungous mall with my senior synth class. Mainly just like Michael Kiper, Joe Demes, and Jason Kass. And we were eating panda express in the the food court. Jason, Joe, and I were trying to get away from Michael Kiper because he had swine flu. So me and Joe walked around in a mall for a while. There was no giant climax where zombies attack. All we did was walk around for a while. It was an okay dream I guess. Orange chicken is like the best thing ever.
Joe aproves of orange chicken too

Damn those half japanese girls

2009-04-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

guess what came today...

probably the best team i've been on in a while...

well i was conquering my fear of performing in front of others today. i played my hypochondriac song in psych and such great heights at the beat cafe

Alex and JP

2009-04-20T19:54:00.001-07:00

These are my friends alex and jp. Theres was a better video but i couldn't find that one on youtube... sadface =/. heres the link to the better one because for some reason you can't embed facebook videos http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=59089226903

Positivly my favorite song lyrics ever:

I wish I was a T-rex

2009-04-19T18:45:00.000-07:00

Soo yesterday was pretty amazing. I got to hang out with the most amazing people ever.

Yeah there was Nein square and extreme tic tac toe. There was song singing, guitar playing, and jedi lightsaber wielding (the man tried to keep "The Awesome 2: Electric Bugaloo" down and he succeeded).

Well anywho after the caritas day in the bay Shawn Washington and I thought it would be best if we headed over to Rasputin's to see the Siversun Pickups play for free. Amazing I know but we got there like an hour late and didn't get to see them play. We did however wait in line and get autographs and such. Well the line was kinda long, but it moved fast once you got in there. Their was lots of time to look at all the albums rasputin's had to offer. This Harry Connick Jr. CD was only $0.50!!

What a deal. Soooo we were moving along in the line and then headed up stairs and there were some LIVE 105 representatives passing out stickers. I took one, but Shawn said he didn't want one because he doesn't listen to LIVE 105. The LIVE 105 people said cmon take one. Then Shawn replied with "That would make me a poser." The LIVE 105 people got all offended and would continue to harrass us and make us feel awkward by says stuff like "I'm so not a poser. You're the poser" under their breath. I have now have agreed to take part in a LIVE 105 boycott until they get some not dickhead sticker passer outers. Plus they need to stop playing that one Offspring song because I hate it. If I wanted to listen to The Offspring I would play Crazy Taxi. Well we were getting pretty close to SSPU now and I was trying to think of something witty and exciting for me to say to them so that they would have to reply with "Hey Drue your cool. Come tour with us and be our friend." I was trying to remember what that one kid from "almost famous" says but i couldn't. I found this picture in my pocket that a little girl drew that looked pretty much excactly like this

So I gave it to Shawn and he was going to give it to Brian (the lead singer)

This was the conversation:
Brian: Hey, nice to meet you.
Shawn: Nice to meet you too. This is for you.
Brian: *opens it* oh?(in a WTF voice)
Shawn: Yeah, see, it's deep though, cause he wishes he was a T-rex, but he IS a T-rex.
Brian: Oh yeah, it's kinda like the whole warped body image thing(in an enlightened voice)
Shawn: Exactly! It's also a good song title ;)
Brian: Yeah, or like, the band 't-rex' I'm gonna draw Marc Bolan
Shawn: ha, yeeeah(in a I don't know what your talking about but whatever voice)
Brian: Thanks, I like this, I'm gonna keep it.

That pretty much made my day even though I was having a fantastic day to start with. Even if they threw it away like 2 seconds afterward i still was amazingly cool. So I got my swoon cd signed and a poster signed too. I got to meet SSPU and then after go eat chinese food and play magic with Shawn E Fresh.

Awesome!

Heres my review of swoon since we are on the topic

Its decent not their best. Not as chill as some of the stuff in Pikul or Carnavas. I do like the double tracking of Brian's voice and they do it a lot in this where he is like yelling and whispering the words at the same time.

Favorite Songs: Panic Switch, Growing Old is Getting Old

Now time for really amazing song covers:

If you've ever said...

2009-04-08T11:46:00.000-07:00

I wonder what drue is doing right now. most likely it is this

This is why i like indie folk

2009-04-07T20:42:00.001-07:00

panic switch

2009-04-06T19:17:00.000-07:00

i like it but its really long for a single. i think sspu could video tape themselves pooping and id still like it.

I shred the cello.

2009-04-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

Photoshop is really fun....

On a side note this guy named David Garibaldi came to my school last week. Hes a speed painter and painted 4 portraits for us in like 40mins is was pretty amazing. Heres a pic of one of them and me haha. He did Barack Obama, Bono, MLK, and Jesus for us. Here is one of his youtube videos.

They call me tomahawk for a reason.

2009-03-31T17:09:00.001-07:00

Vince Shlomi aka the shamwow guy, was arrested last month on a felony battery charge following a violent confrontation with a prostitute in his South Beach hotel room. According to an arrest affidavit, Shlomi met Sasha Harris, 26, at a Miami Beach nightclub on February 7 and subsequently retired with her to his $750 room at the lavish Setai hotel. Shlomi told cops he paid Harris about $1000 in cash after she "propositioned him for straight sex." Shlomi said that when he kissed Harris, she suddenly "bit his tongue and would not let go." Shlomi then punched Harris several times until she released his tongue. Lesson of the story. Do not trust men with headsets.

General Grant

2009-03-30T18:56:00.000-07:00

He's well on his way... almost done. this is like mosaic mode btw the finished producted wont be like this

You are all cordially invited...

2009-03-25T21:36:00.001-07:00

To see this movie with me

Alley Cat Strike

2009-03-23T21:55:00.001-07:00

Best Movie Ever

Direction Game

2009-03-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

so im in my VW bus and im going to make a stop Borneo and im going to pick up 1 Notebook. Then im going to go to Denmark and pick up 13 Dingos and 4 more Notebooks. Next im head to Finland and get 1 Cactus when I arrive its going to be 2 'oclock. Where am i?

This This and That

2009-03-21T00:21:00.000-07:00

July 10th

2009-03-20T23:15:00.000-07:00

ENFP

2009-03-19T21:33:00.000-07:00

According to myer briggs i am an ENFP

General: ENFPs are both "idea"-people and "people"-people, who see everyone and everything as part of an often bizarre cosmic whole. They want to both help (at least, their own definition of "help") and be liked and admired by other people, on bo th an individual and a humanitarian level. They are interested in new ideas on principle, but ultimately discard most of them for one reason or another.

Social/Personal Relationships: ENFPs have a great deal of zany charm, which can ingratiate them to the more stodgy types in spite of their unconventionality. They are outgoing, fun, and genuinely like people. As SOs/mates they are warm, affectionate (l ots of PDA), and disconcertingly spontaneous. However, attention span in relationships can be short; ENFPs are easily intrigued and distracted by new friends and acquaintances, forgetting about the older ones for long stretches at a time. Less mature ENFPs may need to feel they are the center of attention all the time, to reassure them that everyone thinks they're a wonderful and fascinating person.

ENFPs often have strong, if unconvential, convictions on various issues related to their Cosmic View. They usually try to use their social skills and contacts to persuade people gently of the rightness of these views; his sometimes results in their negle cting their nearest and dearest while flitting around trying to save the world.
Work Environment: ENFPs are pleasant, easygoing, and usually fun to work with. They come up with great ideas, and are a major asset in brainstorming sessions. Followthrough tends to be a problem, however; they tend to get bored quickly, especially if a newer, more interesting project comes along. They also tend to be procrastinators, both about meeting hard deadlines and about performing any small, uninteresting tasks that they've been assigned. ENFPs are at their most useful when working in a group w ith a J or two to take up the slack.

ENFPs hate bureaucracy, both in principle and in practice; they will always make a point of launching one of their crusades against some aspect of it.

Some other ENFP's

Set controls for the heart of the sun

2009-03-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

Shawn Washington also did this so im going to do my own version. So heres 5 bands you probably don't listen to but you should...

5. La Rocca:

La Rocca was formed in Dublin Ireland. They are like indieish pop rock. With a pretty cool piano player.

This Life - La Rocca

4. Neutral Milk Hotel:

NMH is indie folk rock from the late 90's with uber cryptic lyrics that leave quite a bit of room for the imagination.

Holland, 1945 - Neutral Milk Hotel

3.Darker My Love:

Darker my love is wah wah disorted stack-o-goodness. If the white stripes and the singer from iron and wine had a baby that would be this band.

Summer Is Here - Darker My Love

2. Silversun Pickups:

Shoegaze is the type of music where the musicians spend just as much time fiddling with their peddles and effects as they do actually playing. Silversun pickups exemplify this. Kind of a mix between my bloody valentine and smashing pumpkins. Plus the bassist is pretty cute You just in time to become their greatest fans cuz their next album comes out april 14th.

Little Lover's So Polite-Silversun Pickups

1. Just Jack

Jack Allsopp is a solo artist from north london. Apparently hes pretty popular there. Hes almost as cool as alixx moore who is this cool creeper right here

Starz In Their Eyez - Just Jack

My Lights!

2009-03-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

There are several reasons why I love this picture. First off you have banks who I know for a fact does not care about what is going on in the game he just doesn't want to take a picture. Then you have spencer next to him throwing up a peace sign like he is sum hella chill nor cal dude. Im not sure what taylor is doing but its still funny none the less. Then you have Julian in the background. Playing the guitar that is most likely missing a string and horribly out of tune.

On a side note:

"95% of white males have at one point in their lives, experienced yellow fever. Many factors have contributed to this phenomenon such as guilt from head taxes, internment camps, dropping the Nuclear bomb and the Viet Nam War . This exchange works both ways as asian girls have a tendency to go for white guys. (White girls never go for asian guys. Bruce Lee and Paul Kariya’s dad are the only recorded instances in modern history). Asian girls often to do this to get back at their strict traditional fathers. There is also the option of dating black guys, but they know deep down that this would give their non-english speaking grandmother(s) a heart attack.
White men love asian women so much that they will go to extremes such as stating that Sandra Oh is sexy, teaching English in Asia, playing in a coed volleyball league, or attending institutions such as UBC or UCLA (please note that both schools’ colors of “blue” and “yellow” are intentional also the “A” in “UCLA” stand for “Asian” while the “B” in “UBC” stands for “Billion” try and figure out what the rest of the letters stand for). Another factor that draws white guys to asian women is that white women are jealous of them.
Take for instance the fact that asian women well into their 30s and 40s retain teen / college girl looks without the help of botox, yoga or a trendy diet (future posts). Asian women also avoid key white women characteristics such as having a mid life crisis, divorce, and hobbies that don’t involve taking care of the children (also future posts). Should white guy / asian girl marry, they produce hybrids that are atheistically pleasing, but are very annoying. This practice is also a means by which white people can catch up to the asian peoples in the population race, as most of the hybrids often act white rather than asian."

Now I realize why the show John and Kate Plus 8 is so baffling and confusing. Its not the fact that they have 8 kids its the fact that an asian dude got with a white girl.

Imagine a train gently chugging away in the clouds while you listen to this song

Hello darkness my old friend

2009-03-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

Yeah for my Drawing and Painting final i've decided to make a pictue of Ulysses S. Grant except he would be a tree. yeah its going to be amazing you don't even know. its going to look something allong the lines of this. I did this last semester haha. I call it the "Annexation of Puerto Rico"

pretty much the most relaxing song ever

hey hey hey (fat albert voice)

2009-03-15T21:21:00.000-07:00

Yeah this is a comic that I made for my english class haha. I still gotta photoshop it up and make is pretty. I'll post the final product.

This is not me. But it is pretty cool

This is me