Sometimes less is more.

Now GET FAMILIAR!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz! (2009) [Interscope] // Grade: B

Outside of their first self-titled EP, I never really jived with rest of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs catalog. As Karen O’s voice grew stronger and more confident, the rough, rootsy rock that dominated so much of their sound felt more and more at odds with their front woman. For every masterful pop-ballad like “Maps” there were 5 “Y Control” mucking up it’s glory. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have always been about a pop star waiting for the band to catch up to her… Well they’ve caught up.

On It’s Blitz the Yeah Yeah Yeahs finally drop the indie rock pretenses they’ve  long been too polished for and embrace being the pop-rock band they were always meant to be. Like so much Pop of the 80′s, It’s Blitz! relies heavily on the interplay between synths and a powerful voice in creating songs that can be rockers, ballads and/or danceable in a showcase for Karen O that hints at, but never falling into New Wave revival territory. This was not only a smart move, but the right one for a band who had gone as far as they could go were they to simply put out another Fever to Tell or Show Your Bones..

As expected with any band growing into their new legs, there are some bumps in the road. Most caused from those moments where you sense the band holding themselves back from fully crossing over to the “dark side” of mainstream Pop. But in those instances where they wholly embrace it on tracks like “Zero”, “Heads Will Roll”, “Dull Life”, “Shame & Fortune”, “Dragon Queen” & “Hysteric” they create a sound and new-found swagger that make It’s Blitz! really refreshing and something special.

Will It’s Blitz! eventually be seen as the stepping stone in a career that will take them out of music halls and into sold-out arenas? That answer depends on what sort of band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs decide they are on their next album.

Our 350 Broadway shop got a very special visit this Sunday from Olé & Paul Ryder (on the left, in a Panzer Shell) of the legendary Happy Mondays!

In case you didn’t yet put two and two together, a good deal of our Spring 2009 collection takes its inspiration from the whole UK Rave/Madchester/Baggy/Hacienda scene with particulair influence from the Mondays (Hallelujah! anyone?). So this visit was quite a treat for us, and just further proof as to why we’re *cough* cooler *cough* than the next brand.

Everyone should know that the new record for the amount of time holding a Lambo from peeling off the line by use of bare hands is seven seconds. This is a big deal and shit.

We Can Do Anything - Garbage Pail Kids

Howard the Duck - Cherry Bomb

New York, New York - Gremlins

Are Your Ready For Freddy? - The Fat Boys

??? - Troll

Fen – The Malediction Fields (2009) [Code 666] // Grade: D

I’ve had this for about two weeks now, and I’ve concluded that it’s probably one of the worst Black Metal albums I’ve heard in a long time. In fact, I’m not even sure I’d characterize it as Black Metal. The Malediction Fields is evidence of a growing trend in the genre: Shoegaze’s influence on Black Metal. It’s not that the two genres aren’t successful mates, it’s just that the use of brutal and melodic vocals to signify climaxes in each painstakingly-awkward track fail horribly. Mixing the grotesque and the beautiful are two traits that are commonplace for Black Metal, and Fen over-saturates both, especially when the choir begins to sing.

What Fen seems to be going for here is more akin to Alcest’s music, which in turn reminds me of early Hopesfall and other early “Emo Metal”, not Black Metal. Bottom line: this album would be popular with Hot-Topic Cryshield Metal-Heads.

Go listen to Agalloch!

Growing up in Brooklyn, it was pretty hard to avoid Hip Hop. It boomed out of most cars, walkmans, and shops in the area. It became the unintentional soundtrack of growing up in South Brooklyn for myself and, I’m sure, many others. While I enjoyed Hip Hop, I never really got into it until hearing Dr. Octagonecologyst when it released back in 1996. That was the catalyst for when Hip Hop stopped being background music for me, and became something I truly began appreciating.

Like with everything I take an interest in, I don’t take baby steps, I plunge in head first. So after hearing Dr. Octagon, I quickly scooped up anything and everything Kool Keith had done up to that point. One of those releases is Ultra’s Big Time, Keith’s overlooked collaboration with Tim Dog and (more importantly) Kutmasta Kurt’s first time handling the main production duties for Kool Keith. As much as I loved what the Automator had done with Keith on Dr. Octagonecologyst & his A Better Tomorrow EP, Kool Keith has always sounded more at home, demented, and intense when going over Kutmasta Kurt’s production.

Big Time was the start of what would mark one of the greatest & under-appreciated Producer & MC team-ups of the 90s. I suppose Keith’s long string of awful albums over the course of this decade, Dr. Octagon’s huge shadow, and the rise of M.F. Doom as the new Hipster Hip Hop messiah have all contributed to Kutmasta Kurt & Kool Keith falling more and more by the wayside.

Ultra – Big Time

Despite it’s appearance, this is oddly captivating.

Vampires are REAL! Forbidden Knowledge, Occult Rituals, Secret Priesthoods, Spells, Luciferian Initiation, Illuminism, Ceremonial Magick, Vampirism. This was his world : Adept, Occultist, Satanic Priest, Black Magician, Vampire. Lured into the occult with the quest for knowledge, this nine hour video chronicles the life of an adept in service to the darkest powers of planet earth until saved from a horrible fate. Discover the preparation, initiation and the “bringing over” of the initiate into the world of true vampirism. The other-worldly initiation by a being of immense power that claimed him for its own. The reality of vampires and werewolves and the positions they hold in the dark world of the occult. The secret priesthood that helped him survive. The lust and hunger of the true vampire and how it destroys its victims. And much, more more! Containing secret, first-hand information that has never before been revealed to the public.

Next Sunday part 2!