White Lies – To Lose My Life (2009) [Polydor] // Grade: C+

I guess it’s about time for a new Interpol, right? If Our Love to Admire was any indication of where things are heading for Interpol, then I’d say so. Too bad the Stills never panned out, but who knows, maybe White Lies will be up for unseating this decade’s Cliff Notes version of post-punk…

To Lose My Life is a wholly enjoyable album, but it’s also very derivative of the paint-by-number, 4-chord, heavy bass  formula of Interpol, a band who also were pretty derivative themselves…yet highly enjoyable. Now, while I forgave The Pains of Being Pure at Heart for basically this same exact flaw, I did so because they were gleefully paving over a road less traveled. To Lose My Life, on the other hand, plays like 10 very calculated auditions for either the next Apple commercial or Gossip Girl. These songs may go down smooth, but they ultimately leave you with an unpleasant aftertaste (or at least they do with me). That said, I’m still big enough to admit that songs like “Death”, “To Lose My Life”, and “Farewell To the Fairground” will all assuredly worm their way into my heart as guilty pleasures over the course of 2009… but will they have staying power in 2010?

Check out this awesome photo of this dude’s fridge. I wonder if he arranged it so he had all of these chic items in his fridge before he took this photograph. It sort of looks that way, right? Like he wanted to sort of self-express himself or something. His ‘Art’ is showing people what his life is in the most mundane and trivial way possible. Like maybe other ‘pieces’ in this ‘series’ of ‘art’ are a sink full of dishes, or a never-ending shelf full of soup cans. This is how he explores the boring struggle that is life. We are all just a product of our environment. Maybe there’s an essay and a black turtleneck to go with this photo…the pair joining forces to breathe even more furious life into the shame and despair that tiny pictures taken from one’s tiny life conveys about them.

Yeah. Nevermind. It’s an oil painting—a huge fucking painting—and it blows my goddamned brains out.

One of the greatest perks I’ve gotten from being part of Mishka is making a friend within the NJ Devils organization who, every now and again, very graciously bestows me with some tickets. I’ve been a Devils fan since I was a child. I’m talking the Sean Burke & Chris Terrari days, before Martin Brodeur ever graced number 30 and brought the team 3 Stanley Cups. The Mickey Mouse Club days! Yes, I know I’m usually for NY, but this is the team I love, for a slew of reasons I won’t go into now, so save the questions.

Today I had the pleasure of taking my family to what could very well be a preview of the Stanley Cup Finals… The NJ Devils vs. The San Jose Sharks! I had been looking forward to this for weeks and couldn’t wait to see how my Devils held up against the best of the West, especially coming off a shut-out victory over the Boston Bruins!

The game didn’t disappoint! It was a see-saw battle up until the final minutes with the Devils pulling away with a 6-5 win! Quite a shock to see 11 goals scored when both teams are considered to have two of the best defenses in the league. But the sloppy defensive play on both ends created a very exciting game to watch, and since the Devils came away with 2pts, I’m thankful for it!

For those of you who have never been to the Prudential Center in Newark, the whole arena is like a museum for vintage minor, high school, and college league hockey jerseys. For a sports logo junkie like myself, it’s total eye candy getting to gaze up at all of these exotic, rarely-seen logos.

While trying to maneuver through the massive crowd making their exodus, I tried to snap a few pics of the jerseys. I apologize for my shitty photos!

Georgia Tech Hockey… The Yellow Jackets have always had one of the best logos in all of sports!

Howell High School Rebels… I had no clue who this team was, but they’re from Farmington, NJ, and I love that they had the UNLV Runnin’ Rebel as their logo. I later realized there were a slew of kids wearing Howell Varsity Jackets in the arena.

St. Norbert College Green Knights… Again, I’ve never heard of this team, but I liked the logo.

I wish I had gotten some better photos,but a ton of them came out blurry. I really hope they keep adding to the collection because I could walk around for hours staring at these obscure jerseys.

P.S. The opening image is obviously not one that I took. I figured I owed you at least one nice shot of the on-ice action!

The Sequence Session [Lazy SNDY] from jmartinez on Vimeo.

Last weekend it was in the 50′s in NY. The Peel Sessions crew rode with Jose Martinez all over lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. Jose takes 1000′s of pictures on any given day and rather than sifting through all of them, he now puts up these HD videos of the sequences.

They come out really great. Song fits well too!

Halftime of the All Star Game = looking up vintage sex ed videos on YouTube. “Sperm, yeah it’s sort of a sticky stuff. Makes part of a baby.”

Mishka should have a custom naked lady painting gallery show to follow up that Many Mey thing.

This Sunday, for the first time in 20 years, you’ll be able to see the blemishes on Otto’s ass when The Simpsons is aired in high definition. To commemorate the occasion, they’ve created an extended beginning, available above. Anyone still into this show? I took a long hiatus from it during college, but I’ve been checking out the new episodes and they’re still on point. You can keep your Family Guy, I’ll take Simpsons over strings of non-sequiturs any day.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – S/T (2009) [Slumberland] // Grade: B

The Shoegaze  & Dream-Pop revival marches on! I’m starting to notice that most major media outlets and press releases are just conveniently calling everything Noise-Pop at this point. You know what? The label works and I’m tired of having to type “Shoegaze & Dream-Pop” or “Twee” for each of these bands who, I’m sure as 2009 progresses, we’ll see more and more of.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have constructed an album so charming a throwback to the late 80′s/early 90′s Twee & Dream-Pop scenes that it’s hard to fault it for not offering much in the way of originality. It’s not like anything new couldn’t be done with the sound (Deerhunter and Asobi Seksu seem to be having a field day with taking it on new and interesting twists). The Pains of Being Pure at Heart just seem more content with building an album that would and could fit nicely alongside Rocketship or My Bloody Valentine’s earlier efforts than leading a progression. And, as I’m sure you can tell, I’m a sucker for it.

This self titled debut offers ten fuzz-covered tracks that even the most jaded of scenesters would find it hard not to enjoy. I love debuts that leaving you wondering “What do they do on a follow-up? Will it be more of the same? Do they grow from this into more of their own band?” Who knows, but I’m going to enjoy the ride while it lasts and recommend you do the same by getting this album.

A shame about that album cover though… a real shame.

With it being Valentine’s Day and all,  I thought I would take this week’s installment of Digging For Fire the Synthpop route with the aptly named Book of Love. Book of Love had its brief moment in the sun in the mid 80′s, most notably opening for Depeche Mode during their Black Celebration tour before fading into obscurity with the start of the 90′s.

Remixes made earlier this decade and a recent retrospective rekindled some interest in the band, but that attention was fleeting. Their 1986 self-titled debut stands as an unappreciated gem of 80′s Synthpop, featuring three should-have-been hit singles in “Modigliani (Lost In your Eyes)”, “I Touch Roses”, and “Boy”.

Those of you who’ve had your fill of Berlin and want some new female-fronted Synthpop should look no further than here!

Book of Love – Book of Love

Is it just me or do little kids have a much better understanding of hilarity than most adults? Could this be because I am terribly immature and habitually nostalgic? I expect to take a thrashing for this video but it’s worth it if at least one other person feels me.