Song of the Day

**1/20/10

The Downtown Fiction - Take Me Home

-----------I'm sure some of you took home Motion City Soundtrack's highly roared about My Dinosaur Life yesterday. Pretty solid, right? How about including a trio of dudes from Fairfax, Virginia to your Recently Added playlist? The Downtown Fiction have the vocal chops and the catchy, Jimmy Eat World attitude to compete with the T-Rex's of pop rock music. I've wandered about their Myspace page, just for you! and I had a tough time choosing my favorite.

"Take Me Home" is dedicated to the couple in the library that was way to heavy on the PDA for my comfort level - stolen hearts and fiery passion? Get a room and check out "Take Me Home."

Also from The Downtown Fiction EP:

"I Just Wanna Run"

"Living Proof"

http://myspace.com/thedowntownfiction/

Boombox at Legends - January 19, 2010

It's been so long since I've posted any pictures, I deserve 40 lashings and a night in the brig. Here are a couple from Boombox this past week. Great show, though probably the fifth dubstep show I've seen in under a month. I'm ready for a change of pace, which you'll see tomorrow.

Song of the Day

**1/19/10

Set Your Goals - Echoes

-------------Continuing with the punk phase here. Ever since Avril hung up her skull-flower "I'm-acoustic-but-my-label-made-me-hardcore" image, punk seems to have taken an upswing. Hence, Set Your Goals, one of female rocker Haley Williams' favorite bands right now. Sounds like Set Your Goals spent some time in the studio with Blink or The Starting Line - any fans will approve with a tremendous "hell yeah!"

Set Your Goals reminds me of all the stuff that inspired me to wear Converse and paint my nails black in middle school. It brings me back to those simpler, angstier times...aah, to have those days back when mom had to drop me off at the skate park...Anyways, you can wax nostalgia or polish off a copy of Set Your Goals 2008 album Mutiny: The Deluxe Edition. Also check out their new album, This Will Be the Death of Us.

http://www.myspace.com/setyourgoals

Song of the Day

**1/18/10

Gray Matter - Burn No Bridges

-------------Most of us hear about music from other people (like this blog, for an obvious example). Allowing a genius or Pandora to create a playlist is only a secondary recommendation to word of mouth. Sure, the digital playlists are great and I frequent these tools often if I'm too lazy to throw a mix together on my own. Getting a recommendation from a living being, though, is even better.

Found out about Gray Matter from a forum in one of my music classes. The guy who recommended this band is the type of guy who says "don't listen to that screamo-crap!!!" at the end of the post. If you agree with this guy, Gray Matter is for you. "Burn No Bridges" is fast, furious, frantic, and furrowed in ambition. Get it from Food For Thought/Take it Back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMYHJsoz3yE

Song of the Day

**1/17/10

Augustana - Stars and Boulevards

-------------Alright, I owe you guys, big time, for the extreme absence from the blogosphere. Here's a look into one of my favorite bands that I always forget to mention when someone asks me about the music I like. Augustana flickered for three minutes on Vh1's Top 20 with the single "Boston" off this 2005 album, All the Stars and Boulevards, but the rest of the album is what you should hear to know what Augustana is all about. Lonely in the most compelling sense, Augustana sounds like Train with a bit of baggage to haul around. The album as a whole is rather contemplative with a crossroads theme. To hear new Augustana, check out Can't Love, Can't Hurt. Hope you enjoy it!

Key Tracks: "Sunday Best," "Hotel Roosevelt," "Mayfeild"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xih8l7YAT6g

Song of the Day

**1/12/10
Run D.M.C. - My Adidas
-------------When the black button-downed garage-band haircut record store cashier guy says "that's a claaaassic!," you can bet your fly kicks you've come across a phat find. Such was the case today when I bought Raising Hell, the Run D.M.C. album that birthed a hip-hop/rock collaboration of epic proportions and basically summarizing the entire musician's rhyming dictionary.

Raising Hell and Run D.M.C. are solely responsible for all of the pre-programmed buzzes, quips and wabbles on the DJ setting of your Casio. The hip-hop group from Hollis, New York, also brought sneakers onto the scene with the eponymous hit "My Adidas."

Joe "Run" Simmons Daryl "D.M.C." McDaniels and Jam Master Jay put a new shine on sneakers with a tribute to the fly kicks:

"My Adidas only bring good news and they are not used as felon shoes."

Run D.M.C. removed their laces from their shoes as a fashion statement based off of the laceless shoes prisoners wore while serving time. Why no laces? So they wouldn't hang themselves.

Ha...hope I didn't scare you with that last bit! But for real - check out Raising Hell to hear the hip-hop legends in old school prime. Now you can wear that Run D.M.C. shirt from Urban Outfitters with more B-Boy cred than one episode of Run's House.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrqJrRvng8w

Song of the Day

**1/11/10

Avenged Sevenfold - Burn It Down

-------------Avenged Sevenfold's album City of Evil comes with the infamous black-and-white "Parental Advisory" sticker slapped onto the right-hand corner of the cover art. If you're the type of person who middle-fingers these stickers, "Burn It Down" is for you. Aggressive drums by The Rev bring out the best for mosh pits, as well as killer rock-God vocals from M. Shadows, who went through vocal coach Ron Anderson for City. If I can get a little "ya know what I'm sayin'?" props from devout metalheads out there, Avenged Sevenfold reminds me of Iron Maiden, and if Maiden rocks, then Avenged Sevenfold rocks. Simple metal-math lesson for the day.

Our thoughts still go out to the family and friends of the band's late drummer, James Sullivan, who passed away this past December.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nzTj1UwbII&feature=related

Song of the Day

**1/10/10

Of Montreal - Suffer for Fashion

----------Being back in my element has also required me to be in full Everest garb. We're talking single-digit temperatures with negative wind chills. There's not a doubt in my mind I will have to suffer some numb fingers and toes, whether it's for fashion or not. That's why Of Montreal's "Suffer for Fashion" from Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? is singing loud and true for me today. Of Montreal are finishing their tour with a stop at The Orange Peel, the legendary Asheville club that I have yet to experience. Take one listen to Of Montreal, and you'll know not to miss their show. Stay warm, people!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41kLIqW8_o8

Song of the Day

**1/9/10

Walk Harbor City - Arms and Ears

---------Once in a while, exercising my musical tastes just takes a few laps around the "I've-never-heard-of-this-band-in-my-life" circuit. Such was the case today when I came across Walk Harbor City, a Boston band formed in 2008 that just released a new E.P. entitled III Colors.

Walk Harbor City is not a band you'd expect to see with a crowd that's a foot shorter and ten years younger than you. Sure, pop-punk hooks are a dime a dozen, but WHC steps into the genre with more valuable lyrical content than other Weekend Warrior bands. "Arms and Ears" was my favorite from the Myspace page, and with a frontman name like Rocco D'Angelo, Walk Harbor City is bound to make more favorites in the days to come.

http://myspace.com/walkharborcity

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