I, EJE, am very excited. Like, I think if John Lennon came back from the dead, I wouldn't be as happy as I am now (mostly because that would we very scary). My second favorite band (BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB!) is coming to Austin, and I was so sad because I thought they were only playing at SXSW...
BUT THEY AREN'T!!!
Bombay Bicycle Club (or BBC) is playing at the Red House Pizzeria on March 18th, 2011 at 7 pm, and I am going. AHHH!!! I might also become a crazy stalking fan girl and go to their hotel (because they're playing there, and the San Jose hotel). YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!
Sincerely,
EJE, who ♥'s BBC.
Sexy from left to right: Suren de Saram, Jamie MacColl ♥, Jack Steadman, and Ed Nash
This is going to be my first weekly rambling. This week, it happens to be vaguely related to The Strokes. If I am able, I will attempt to connect the end of my rambling to the beginning, but I may or may not be successful. So, to begin, March 22 is the release date of ANGLES!
Many people believe that the Strokes will be hard-pressed to live up to the legacy left behind by Is This It and Room on Fire, but from various clips I've seen, it appears to possess the same sort of strokiness (The only reason this would be valuable information at all is if anyone doubts the consistency of the band members' identities).
I personally don't think albums should be judged by how much "better" they are compared to previous albums. New albums dabble in bits of the unknown because musicians can't be successful if they continue recycling the vibes of old albums. It would create a stagnant pool of music if musicians tried to make new albums as similar to previously released ones as possible. In an interview with the British magazine, Fashion Music Style, Simon Neil of the Scottish band Biffy Clyro, says "I would rather that [our fans] hated Only Revolutions or Puzzle than we try to re-make an old album," in reference to two of the band's albums.
A lot of really great albums result from experimenting with new techniques without regard for how fans will react. To wrap up this rambling by talking about the Strokes again, I'll first tell you to check out Julian Casablancas' (the Strokes' vocalist) debut solo album, Phrazes for the Young, because it is ridiculously great.
And second, comment if you saw the Strokes at ACL last year, because though I was there, I'm not really sure what to think about Julian Casablancas, who was wearing sunglasses after the sun set and could not see past the front of the stage..
~ OMO
Also - Here's a video of the single they've already released from the album.
Hipsters: "Someone who tries to be original but fails."
This is my definition, at least. Most people would probably define a hipster as someone who hates anything mainstream, from music to fashion. But this style of, well, person, has now become mainstream, which is the irony in it. Hipsters can't acknowledge that they're hipsters, because then they're acknowledging that they're mainstream and popular. AH! SO CONFUSING!
Personally, I find this style rather annoying. Sure, there's some great unknown music, but there's also some fantastic popular music. You can't write off all popular music, because generally... there's a reason it's popular. This is just as stupid as saying you hate pop music because you hate Justin Bieber, or that you'll never read a book written by a woman because it'll suck (yes, I've heard someone say this, and it was a GIRL who said it). As a fan of some popular music and some indie music (The Beatles and Bombay Bicycle Club are two of my favorite bands, the former being one of the most popular bands of all time* and the latter being an unknown band from England), and all genres, I think that all kinds of music are valuable**. You shouldn't say you don't like something until you've seen a good enough selection of it.
Also, you shouldn't dress like this:
A classic hipster, with classic hipster glasses. Photo credz to PJ Gallagher/Chromewavesdotorg on Flickr.
Sincerely,
EJE
* See my article "Roll Over Beethover, The Beatles Are Here" in our upcoming spring issue.
** See Clyde's article "Rage Against The Machine" which talks about why all kinds of music are valid forms of music.
I recently acquired a brand spankin' new camera and I thought I would review it, show you some pictures I took with it and share with you how very much I love it. If you do not enjoy lengthy rants about technology that are verging on love poem-level creepiness, you might want to not read this.
So, first of all: LIGHT. This camera is just meant to make light look amazing. I mean, look at this lovely glow. Did it look like that in real life? Uh, NO.
It also makes color look really, really nice.
When the camera is on it's macro setting (It has settings for practically everything...whee!) it can get very close to the subject without blurring. This is awesome because you can take macro shots without using a special lens.
It's usually set on an automatic shutter speed to make the photos not turn out blurry, but if you put it on manual, you can control the shutter speed and take photos with interesting blurs.
The focus is easy to use, so you can focus on different subjects in your pictures and switch between background/foreground. Huzzah!
You can set it on everything from 18mm-55mm, so you can take fish eye shots or wide ones.
So, uh, yeah. Pretty freakin' amazing. I mean, there are things I don't like, like the fact that there are only three light settings: dark, normal, and bright. And...okay, actually that's it. I told you I have an affinity for it that should not be applied to inanimate objects! Oh well, now to go sit in my room, stroking it and growling to myself...
So, Facebook has this really fantastic feature where you can "like" things that other people post, thinking that it is funny or witty or deep or some such nonsense.. This feature is so fantastic not because the people who post are successful in their quest to be interesting, but because they are so very, very unsuccessful. Not only are the names of these "like"-able things amusingly narcississtic, but THE GRAMMAR! Oh, THE GRAMMAR! For someone who is really creepily obsessed with grammar, things like this are extremely funny to read. For example:
<3 Wellsad Storii <3
boi:hey wil u go out wif mii? x
gurl: i cant rite nw cos i luff sum1
boi: omg who il beat him up
gurl: noo u cant cos i dnt want u hurt x
boi:h no w cos i can kil him. 4 u
gurl:den u wood kil urself 4 me :/ :/ x
boi:yea (kils himelsf)
LIKE IF U R AGANSTE TERORISMS
I took the liberty of highlighting all the spelling and grammar mistakes for you. You are so welcome! But, there are so many MORE things wrong with this. First of all, why would the girl say she can't go out with the boy because she loves "some1" when the "some1" is HIM? And what boy says OMG? And why would he think that killing someone she loves would make her like him instead? And are the x's at the end meant to represent affection? WHY? And why is he killing himself for no reason? AND WHAT DOES IT ALL HAVE TO DO WITH TERRORISM?
Okay, I'm sure you want to read some more, so here are some of my other favorite "sad storiiis".
''SAD STORIII!!!
boi: happey vielsentines dai bebebey!!1 (hands her sum chocliets)
girl: yum (eateses choclieties)
boi: do u lik thiem??
girl: yeh but is am illergik 2 chocilets
boi: y didnt u tell miii!?!??///
girl: cus i larve yu
boi: u gon 2 beh okai????
girl: no (deis)
LIK IF YU CRYED''
REALI SAD STORI
boi:hey bbe whats up i love u
girl: em hu r u
boi: wat
*TURNS OUT GIRL HAZ AMNEZIA*
boi: (diez from heartbrake) :(
like if u cant stop cryn n can barely c da screen x
Do you have any favorite Facebook "like" pages? Post 'em in the comments, please!
So, EJE was bored, and decided to make pictures of each of the group members. They may not accurately represent the person, but they look cool. So suck it up :)
We have written half the answers to the questions for our advice column! IBI and OMO have been falling slightly behind, but as soon as they are done, we'll post them on our blog Vinyl Advice, and once a week, we'll take a problem off there and put it on this blog.
