The Sandlot

Blink-182: Neighborhoods

Blink return with their first post-break-up CD.  I was aware they had reunited but was unaware they were recording new material much less already had a new disc released.   During one of the rare occasions I had the radio on in the car, their new single just so happened to be on.  I have to say its about what I expected, which is to say its not very good.  Blink's best work in my opinion was Take Off You Pants and Jacket.  Their self titled effort which followed that was OK, but you could tell the band was trying to do something different from their prior releases (Dude Ranch and Enema of the State).  That's not a bad thing by any means, but outside of a few tracks, they missed the mark.  After they split up, the members launched two competing side projects; Plus 44 and Angels and Airwaves.  I found both of these new bands to be a breath of fresh air and specifically in Angels and Airwaves case, I felt that was the logical next step that Blink-182 should have taken after Pants and Jacket.  Longer songs, more skilled and complex instrumentation and more mature/deeper lyrical content.  Ultimately, Neighborhoods comes up short.  Its part Blink, part Boxcar Racer and part Angels but not good at all.  It takes a step back musically and lyrically from any of their side works and unlike some of their earlier work, lacks that catchy pop-punk mood they used to capture so well.  No one song really stands out and I found while listening that most of the songs just bleed into each other with no differentiation between them.  Its almost as if after all this time, Tom still can't properly play guitar outside of different arrangements of power chords while he still sings about his parents divorce and relationship woes, which would be OK if he wasn't 35.

 Final verdict:  Blink die-hards will probably like it just because its Blink but if you're looking for something substantial you'll be disappointed.  * out of *****

Noel Gallagher and the High Flying Birds

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Noel Gallagher's first solo offering since the Oasis break-up with his new backing band, the High Flying Birds.  From the very first song I knew I was listening to something special.  Noel has written numerous songs that will go down as some of the best of our generation and on this record he takes his craft to another level.  Free from the restrictions that the structure of a band brings, Noel is free to do his own thing on this disc.  It kind of sounds like Oasis in a few parts but for the most part its completely different.  The songs are more open and airy with less emphasis on hard guitar than their Oasis counterparts and also feature a good amount of strings.  Overall its more on the mellow side but incredibly catchy.  Noel's voice sounds as good as ever as he touches on various topics from subtle references of the Oasis break-up to politics.  It all adds up to an excellent disc with no real weak track on it.  My only complaint, ironically enough, is that there isn't enough guitar if only because Noel is a phenomenal guitarist and only on the last track does he really showcase that with a chaotic, shredding solo. 

Final Verdict:  If you like Oasis or brit-pop type music then you'll love this.  If you don't then this probably won't do it for you but I suggest giving it a whirl anyways as its the best thing to come out in a long time.  **** 1/2 out of *****

Coldplay: Mylo Xyloto

Coldplay seem to have gone a little off the deep-end with their latest release.  In some regards its your typical Coldplay record. In other regards its Radiohead meets Jay-Z in that there's obvious hip-hop and electronic influences at work right down to the collaborative effort with Rhianna.  Coldplay are in that rare air of a band that can really put out anything they want and it will be relatively well received and that fact really shows with this album.  After my first listen I was left scratching my head trying to process what my ears had just heard.  I think its going to be a disc that takes multiple listens in a truncated time frame to fully appreciate or make sense of.

Final Verdict:  Its Coldplay being Coldplay.  There's a few good songs, a few weird songs but nothing overly spectacular.  ** 1/2 out of *****

Parlor Mob: Dogs

The Parlor Mob is a band I was first exposed to at Lockport's Molson Canal Concert Series when they were opening up for The Cult.  They had a little buzz around them and from what reviews I read they seemed to be a good up and coming band.  They proceeded to nearly steal the show so I checked them out afterwards and was pleasantly surprised with their first CD.  Their second release draws on the successes of their first release and expands organically.  They're often compared to early Led Zepplin, a deserving comparison that's more prevalent on their first disc than the second.  Deep, thoughtful and emotional lyrics are backed up by excellent guitar work.  Its a fairly straight forward rock record but with plenty of catchy hooks and foot tapping jams.  I confess I really know nothing of them other than they hail from the Jersey area.

Final Verdict:  Solid disc with varied songs and top notch work across the board.  Definitely worth looking into.  **** out of *****

Is there not an administrator for this page
everyone please remember that this is the internet and anyone can read it
including children, women, your grandparents or you Mom

The above quote I took off the Molson Concert Series facebook page.  Terrible spelling, grammar and punctuation aside; a more serious problem lurks in the shadows.  This once quaint page existed as an informational tool for people seeking to attend the weekly summer concerts, hear reviews or anything else concert related.  It has since boiled down to a bunch of out of touch old people tearing into each other about any number of issues ranging from what bands the promoter should book for next year to out right personal attacks.  Mind you when I say old, I'm talking people in the 40+ range(who shouldn't be on facebook or the Internet to begin with but that's another story for another day.) (Facebook was invented by a college kid for other college kids, take the hint parents and stay away.  Just because you can join something doesn't mean you should.)

Which brings us to the problem at hand.  People getting offended by the presence of foul language on the Internet.  Like it or not, the Internet is largely an unregulated domain which often times represents the purest form of the freedom of speech portion of the 1st Amendment.  I have noticed, that it is generally the older crowd that takes more offense to cursing.  As a 28 year old, I do my fair share of swearing much to my parents dismay at times.  There exists an ironic hypocrisy with that generation. They don't find it inappropriate to swear in casual conversation, but put a swear word on TV or the Internet and its the end of the world.  I understand the reason for this.

As kids, we grew up being exposed to vulgar R-rated movies and we pioneered the start of the Internet boom, where anything went.  Social norms that existed in the real world did not apply to the Internet, and to this day still do not in some cases.  Our parents on the other hand, had a much more "white-collar" upbringing.  There was no Internet and very few films had gratuitous language and violence, therefore they have less tolerance for it, where as we just deal with it because it's always been there.

Back to the quote.  It implies that people should censor themselves and/or their feelings because the Internet is a public domain.  I have a problem with that.  If you don't want your child exposed to vulgar opinions and comments, stop being a lazy parent and either monitor their Internet usage or don't let them online.  Don't blame other people for your kid seeing or hearing something that's above their age grade when you easily could have prevented it.  The Internet is for gambling, pornography and occasionally academic/recreational research, no place for unsupervised small children.  I'm not advocating or condemning swearing, I'm just saying that its going to happen and its not a big deal, but if you have that big a problem, take some precautions.  As for the rest of the quote, I find that a bit sexist as it implies women can't or shouldn't.  They're big girls like the rest of us and need not be sheltered or treated differently.  Isn't that what the women's right movement was about?

In summation, there's bigger problems out there to occupy our attention with how people choose to express themselves in the digital realm.  Things I don't care about like foreign policy and Wall street.  Now where did I put my dirty fucking magazines?