agreed Phil... i can't say all of Top 40 is useless drivel but most of it is. there's a wold of great music out there if people take to effort to discover it. i'll admit to having two Goo Goo Dolls CDs but i can easily say i file that under "guilty pleasures."

umm new stuff... the new Muse album Black Holes and Revelations is some great stuff! possibly their best albm ever, this band just keeps getting better and better, and that's saying a lot after the almost flawless Absolution album. i'm utterly surprised it debuted at #9 on the US album charts... where the hell did that come from? Absolution only made it to 101.

also, Thom Yorke's first solo album debuted at #2 on the US album charts!

with new Keane, Muse, and Thom Yorke albums, who needs Radiohead?

Tom Waits is an acquired taste, but as you idolize Bob Dylan, Tom Waits is probably up your alley. he's well known as a great singer/songwriter but still is often overshadowed by morw well known ones. like dylan (who i can't listen to for more than 10 minutes) his voice is either a love/hate thing; where Dylan is grating and sharp, really deep, raspy, smokey and bluesy.

Just picked up Amorphis' new album Eclipse. Highly recommend.

Thanks, Bong. I know it's not all drivel, but so much is manufactured and pointless that I want to blow my brains out. Esp when so many original artists go unheard of or completely missed by those that would love them and see more in their music then say, Fall Out Boy or Nickleback or yes, the Goo Goo Dolls.

And, Matt, don't go thinking I wasn't raised on the music of the 60s-90s. I was. Hippy parents and so forth and my age priming for the anything that hit in the last 15 years. There's better stuff out there than the mainstream sounds.

Saw Bowling for Soup live for the second time yesterday... they put on one hell of a show, if you can stand the bouncy teenage girls screaming the whole time...

if you can stand the bouncy teenage girls screaming the whole time...

and by "stand" you mean "look away from"?

i spent $65 on three new Depeche Mode reissues: A Broken Frame, Some Great Reward, Songs of Faith and Devotion). these Rhino Records reissues are lovely, but man do they cost money. along with the first three in the series released earlier this year: Speak and Spell, Music for the Masses, and the classic album Violator, i easily spent $130 on Depeche Mode in 2006... that's like a whole pair of Oakleys. and i haven't even bought the Touring the Angel concert CD/DVD yet.

other new stuff lately were the four reissues from The Cure (also released by Rhino Records). that's another $90.

i still have to get a few more stuff before 2006 is over though... new Scissor Sisters, Kasabian, The Killers, and other stuff i've neglected for a while like Grandaddy and Eric Bachmann (thanks Phil). at least i already bought the new Primal Scream and The Rapture.

well... because all Tower Records locations are closing (the company went bankrupt) i got a couple of CDs at 40% off... Grandaddy's Just Like the Fambly Cat and Crooked Fingers' Bring On The Snakes (very melancholy stuff, i quite like this more than Red Devil Dawn).

also, bought the new Oasis compilation Stop the Clocks (with bonus CD single, thanks Best Buy) and Depeche Mode's Best of... Vol. 1 with bonus DVD. friggin Depeche Mode made a bunch of money off me this year.

Awesome, not that Tower is closing, but your pick-ups CFs Bring on the Snakes is my fav of them all. Wasn't in the begining, but I put so much time into the s/t and then Red Devil Dawn, but after seeing them live, Snakes all the way. And Fambly Cat has been my summer fav since it's release.

Bringing it back to the top. I went out to my local record store this past weekend, bought 2 CDs, an ended up earning my listeners club bonus - $10. That's a free CD to half a free CD depending what it ends up being.

Bong and I were talking the other night, I am not finding any excitement in the music world this coming spring/summer. Luckily one of my favs, Travis, has a new release. I don't know what I'll enjoy more – that they finally have a new release or that they are using Nigel Godrich as their producer again.

Anyone else looking forward to any releases this Spring/Summer?

Type O Negative just released a new album. Haven't picked it up yet, but I'm seeing them live next week, so I'll wait. My Dying Bride released a ho-hum album. Ended up being a little too same-songy for me. And way too mellow. Fortunately Novembers Doom is coming out with a new release, and from the demo they released it sounds like a winner. Finntroll too (If you watch Bam's Unholy Union, you can hear them over certain scenes). Be interesting to hear the new vocalist.

I saw that Type O had a new one out this past wekend.

new Travis, yay! i'd love to see them live when they come by the Northeast. other expected new stuff this year... the ever influential The Cure should have a new one out, hopefully by summer; it's supposed to be really hard rockin' and raw, with no keyboards; also the next batch of remastered reissues, whenever they get done. also expecting the next batch of Depeche Mode remastered reissues, been waiting for Construction Time Again and Black Celebration to show up... two of their best albums IMO. Editors are recording with remixer Jackknife Lee. Brett Anderson (ex-Suede and The Tears on hiatus) is supposed to have a solo album. the legendary Human League is supposed to be in the studio as well.

i've been meaning to pick up the new Arcade Fire. i did buy Bloc party's A Weekend in the City buy yet listened to it.

Just bought J Dilla's Ruff Draft re-release; comes with a second disc of instrumentals. Pretty good for a sub-30 min. album.

Oddly enough, the first copy I bought was missing the second disc, even though it was factory-shrinkwrapped (!).

Hey, I make my own music now. Anyone want to review it?

very nice tick, very nice.. love the colors, that is hotrod black ?

very nice Todd. actually i've been considering putting an Oakley sticker on my Fender P-Bass Special guitar. it's been completely unadorned for years now, guess i can start covering up the scratches with Oakley stickers.

i bought two more Depeche Mode remasters last night, Construction Time Again, and Black Celebration. great albums.

Well, despite what I said above I am finding my summer music excitement levels rising. I just found out They Might Be Giants have a new rock album due out this summer with their famed "Flood" producer Pat Dillet and the Dust Brothers.

And then Frank Black, oh Frank Black, he has reverted monikers back to Black Francis and is releasing a very Pixies-esque album entilted "Bluefinger" about Dutch painter/musician Herman Brood/Brode. There has a been a leak circulating for a month or so now and I managed to find a copy. It's FANTASTIC! And such a throwback to those early solo days and later Pixies albums! This on top of his '93-'03 Best of... and a project with long time collaborator Eric Drew Feldmen and another project titled Grand Duchy with his wife. So yeah, I have found my releases to be excited about.

Now all I need to hear is that Rocket from the Crypt will finally release the long awaited "All Systems Go 3" and their last show ever on DVD.

Saw Type O in concert the other night. Was a good show, but they of course were promoting their new album, which I haven't heard yet. And of the older songs, they didn't play some that I thought would be sure things. Overall enjoyable, and I wasn't as deaf for long as when I went to KMFDM, so that was nice.

Surprised neither of us put this up sooner.
Dawn and I are totally into Fall Out Boy, and can't get enough of their last album, From Under the Cork Tree. Especially the special edition album with the remix and bonus tracks. In fact, we're gonna do our best to kidnap them to play at our wedding. =)
So of course when our friend Cullen told us he heard that they were going to have a new album out, we had to get it.
Infinity on High sounds a little more mainstream than their previous work, but after listening to it a couple of times it really grew on me. I'm especially fond of the new hit This Ain't a Scene it's an Arms Race. Very catchy and high-energy.

Dunno if it's the type of music you guys are into.
Though I am stoked to hear that TMBG is going to have a new album! Flood was their best, IMO.


~Yukio

April 17th-Trent Reznor drops his new album, YEARZERO. You can hear 4 new tracks on Myspace.com. This album is huge!

i HIGHLY doubt there are other fans of Travis in here besides me and Phil (BTW, thanks for the reminder!) but has anyone picked up their new album The Boy With No Name? i was wondering how it is... not that it matters as i'll end up buying a copy anyway. also, anyone know which retail chain has it cheapest?

i already bought several albums that came out this year and i still haven't listened to them yet. the new Bloc Party, Kaiser Cheifs, The Good the Bad and the Queen, and now this new Travis. oh, i also need to pick up Brett Anderson's (from Suede and The Tears fame) solo debut but it's damn expensive for the import here in the States. :(

I bought it today. And I found a $1.99 EP for the single Closer with 2 b-sides. Better than buying an import and *fingers crossed* that those b-sides are the two bonus tracks they mention being on the UK pressing. iTunes is reading the last track at 10 min though so we get something extra. I'll start import hunting sooner or later and I have a few b's from 12 Memories in my iTunes Store cart i'll grab soon. So far I like it. I guess Nigel only produced one song then oversaw other producers on 4 other tracks. It is remeniscent of The Man Who, with one or two darker tracks like 12 Mem, but it'll take me a day or two to really give it a good listen.

Oh, I htink it was $13.99 (on sale) where I bought it so I would suggest looking at Best Buy maybe. I don't know what's cheap in the city though. No more TOWER, right?

I read last night that the Black Francis album Bluefinger I sent you the link for isn't going to be released until September!!! Glad I have it to enjoy all summer long. Perhaps they didn;t want it to get in the way of his Best Of...

And now to wait patiently for They Might Be Giatns "The Else" in July I think.

didja buy from iTunes or the actual CD? i'll stop by my Best Buy, Circuit City, and Virgin Megastore this evening just to see who has the cheapest price and/or in-store exclusives. i hate in-store exclusives as they force fans to buy multiple copies for extra songs, but i digress...

ahh, i didn't know Nigel Godrich produced only one track, i thought it was a collaboration with the other producers but hey, Brian Eno's a legendary producer (did stuff for David Bowie, Talking Heads, U2, James, Slowdive) and so is Mike Hedges (The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Manic Street Preachers).

anyhoo, i like the introspective stuff on The Man Who and 12 Memories. i thought The Invisible Band was a bit too... sunny sounding.

Frank Black has a Best Of coming out? cool... it'll be a perfect teaser of his later solo stuff for me.

No, I bought the physical disc. I meant when I ripped it down it read the last track as 10 min. Well, Nigel does collabortate on half the tracks, but not all of them.