Return of the Pink

Pink Floyd pig flies again to mark albums reissue

Apparently they're re-releasing 14 of their albums... I guess they want to get one last cash grab in before the physical media market for music completely tanks. To be honest I'd probably pick up the Animals reissue if it's an improvement over the original.

Geez, they're really going to town on this campaign. Check out all the details here on Wikipedia. I think I'll pass on the 7-disc version of The Wall though.

Radiohead on SNL

The band takes SNL in the show's season premiere... typical horrible sound for bands on the show, but the Moog and Prophet synths are pretty sweet.

Tempered enthusiasm

Might as well give away the whole movie, eh?

As you may know, I'm a bit of a NIN/Trent Reznor geek, so I will probably enjoy this film at least for the score, from the Oscar winning composer... The movie itself - looks decent enough, and I trust Fincher to handle the material well. The thing that bugs me is that it'll be an American crew with largely British actors tackling a story set in Sweden. I think people had their doubts about The Social Network, but that turned out not too shabby...

I would be interested to know if they are in fact adapting the book straight from the book, or in fact re-making the original movie. This trailer looks much more stylized than the original film... much more promising sound track too...

Getting Reacquainted with the Deftones

While clearing out my '2010 second listen' playlist in iTunes, I came across the Deftones' Diamond Eyes. This led me through the digital rabbit hole to the other Deftones albums in my collection... White Pony definitely stands up as a great album, it even featured a Grammy award winning song.
It's been interesting listening to these albums again... It's like I've unlocked a digital time capsule... This was one of my favourite bands in high school, and to go back to them after so long was like getting in touch with an old friend.
The group has gone through a few sonic and stylistic changes over the years... This is "Root" from their first LP, Adrenaline. The song draws mainly on thrash metal, and has a pretty heavy sound. In fact, this would have qualified under the brutally titled 'nu-metal' moniker.

Two albums later the band is into some much more complex emotional territory on this track featuring Tool's vocalist Maynard James Keenan, "Passenger":

On this 2003 lead single from their self titled album, the band touches the Pixies and My Bloody Valentine with the loud-soft and layered sound of "Minerva":

Teaming up with producer Bob Ezrin for their 2006 album Saturday Night Wrist, the band really gets close to power pop with this melodically clean and sonically concise lead single, "Hole in the Earth". This song is definitely geared for radio... listen to how the lead vocals are restrained, and pitch corrected, compared to the rough, raw vocal production of "Root" above.
Which brings us to "Diamond Eyes" from 2010. This song is a culmination of everything they've done in their career... Crushing verses, melodic, layered choruses, solid build in the bridge and a noisy outro all set to a prog time signature. Could be the perfect Deftones song.
The band is in fine form, Chino's back to good health (see above video), Chi has returned from his devastating car accident, and the drummer's wearing a backwards baseball cap. It's all here:

As for the rest of the album? Above I mentioned it was on a second listen playlist I created, so that should give you an idea of what I think about that album.
It's been pretty fun the past few days to check in with this band that I used to listen to a ton back in the day, but have listened to less in lately. Hopefully there will be more features like this to come.

WTFunny for a Friday

Umm... presented without comment I guess. It's an ad, so there's that. I guess that's a comment.

Thanks to Elizabeth for the video.

Disliking Justin Timberlake less and less

My Google Reader just informed be that Justin Timberlake Secretly Cosplayed as Ernie at San Diego Comic-Con 2011... How the hell about that, eh?

This coming after he was on TV at the MLB All-Star game, possibly (likely) drunk, and sarcastically praising the insufferable broadcast host, Joe Buck.

What's not to like?

Commentary on grunge revival

Grunge revival shows rock'n'roll is not dead – just tired

hipster nostalgia makes a crazy sort of sense: rather than summon the energy for a defining statement of anger or outrage, Gen Y has only mustered a shrug, and waited as the consumerism that grunge initially fought off washes over.

(via Daily Swarm)

Digging the new Bon Iver album

Here's a great song, "Calgary", from the group's self-titled album, released earlier this year. Definitely in contention for my year end top 10...

The album reminds me a lot of Destroyer's Kaputt, with a throwback, smooth music sound. 80s synths and vocal production, that sort of thing.

New Symphony of Science

Now with Morgan Freeman!