I still have a few dance songs to post, but I'd rather talk about this album. I'm really surprised by the critical reaction to this album. I thought reviews come out overwhelming in support of the fabulously musically eccentric brother and sister duo of Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger, but I guess people can't get over how terrible Rehearsing My Choir was.

This is without a doubt their best album, and I was really surprised to find fans of Blueberry Boat giving Bitter Tea a lower score than what they gave Blueberry Boat. This album is infinitely more accessible than that album and has much more direction and focus. The only explanation I can think of is a nasty aftertaste is lingering with most critics and their confidence and interest in this band has waned.

Take 'Oh Sweet Woods' for example. What an outstanding acheivement. Upon first hearing it, it totally took me by surprise. I had no idea this band was capable of making such a powerful song. This song is a testament to their endless inventiveness and their ability to visit all different styles of music and mold any common style or beat into something that is uniquely their own.

'Waiting to Know You' is a classic pop song and one of the most accessible songs in their catalogue. Nothing on Blueberry Boat spoke to me so clearly as this song does, and I think it is s sign that they are going more conventional. But when is the last time you went to Fiery Furnaces to hear conventional pop songs? You listen to this band to hear something different, something interesting, and every song on Bitter Tea is exactly that. In a perfect world, every song would bring something new to the table, something that we haven't heard them do before, and I think it is safe to say that Matthew and Eleanor accomplished that with this album.

The only criticism I have for this album is that it can get tiring to listen to it repeatedly. My enthusiasm for this album upon first hearing it was enormous, but I have listened to it less and less since that initial week where I kept it on repeat in my car and on my mp3 player. It is difficult to tell if that is a fault in the music or if that is just simply me over exposing myself to the music. I've been known to get sick of Wilco and Spoon at times... two bands that can do no wrong in my opinion.

I still will be visiting the store today to buy this album. I think everyone should at least give this album a chance, even if you don't particularly like the Fiery Furnaces.

I'm always looking for some good dance songs, and I'll be the first to confess that I don't have a lot of good club music. Many of these songs wouldn't be considered "good club music," but I find they are fun as hell to dance to... especially after I've consumed a dozen beers or so.

These songs come from fairly well known bands (and/or artists), but I'll go ahead and give a little description for each of them.

Franz Ferdinand - Do You Want To

Franz Ferdinand, those England rockers that sorta look middle aged but get a lot of air play on the radio. They sorta went astray (in my opinion) on their second album, but I still find this song quite enjoyable. Their first album was one of the best of 2004. It was so great that the single 'Take Me Out' was included on that horrendous game Guitar Hero and I have since been unable to listen to it because I've heard it so much it makes me nauseated. Check out their discography here.

Bloc Party - Luno

Hailing from London, Bloc Party was, arguably, the hottest band of 2005. Every hipster was playing their debut album Silent Alarm at their hipster parties in 2005 and continue to do so in 2006. Apparently they kicked ass at this years SXSW so they have established an even larger fan base. What's not to like about this band? 12 out of 13 songs on the album are solid, but this one might pack the most punch of the bunch. The key word is might because that is a difficult judgement to make. For instance, some might argue that you can't even dance to this song, but my response to that would be "You aren't trying hard enough" or "You aren't drunk enough". Buy their music here.

The Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers

The Rapture's sophomore album Echoes gave me mixed reactions. In it existed songs so perfect (House of Jealous Lovers) that it is hard to imagine they were ever written. (Warning: That could be my medication talking). Mixed amid these great songs were just as many songs that lead nowhere and were very frustrating to endure. This band has some real potential, but if past experience is any clue to the future, I'd expect a entirely different style from the Rapture whenever they decide to release their third album. Dance punk is dead, but I never grew sick of it. See their albums here.

M.I.A. - Baile Funk One

Try to sing this song! It's so fun! Go ahead try it, no one is listening so no one will make fun of you. This song is from her experimental unscripted cd Piracy Funds Terrorism. I realize that title is kinda ironic given that I'm posting this song for free on the internet so 5 people can download (of which probably 4 already have the cd), but if M.I.A. or Diplo (who she did the remixes with) gets angry they can shoot us an email. I think the name is just a joke though. I jam to this in my car at least once a week, and I have almost totally gotten the lyrics down despite my in ability to sing or rap. Piracy Funds Terrorism is much better than the cleaner (i.e. scripted and rehearsed) Arular, and if you haven't gotten into M.I.A. yet, I'd advise picking up Piracy before Arular. Piracy just never gets old, it seems fresh with each new listen. Check out M.I.A.'s catalogue here

P.S. I'm not sure if you can buy Piracy Funds Terrorism. I remember cokemachineglow.com had the entire album up for download when they first reviewed it, but I don't see it at amazon or insound.

Volume 10 and Roni Size - Raised in the Hood

This song comes off the Blade II soundtrack. I was actually surprised at the number of good songs on the Blade II soundtrack. There is of course Eve & Fatboy Slim's 'Cowboy' with such great opening lyrics as "WHERE MY NIGGAS AT [WHAT]? / WHERE MY THUGS AT [WHAT]? / WHERE MY NIGGAS GETTING STACKS? [YOU KNOW WHERE WE AT]" There is also a collaboration between Cypress Hill and Roni Size called 'Child of the Wild West' that has a great beat. I was hesitant to post 'Raised in the Hood' over 'Child of the Wild West', but I think overall this is the better song. But anyway, I'd check out the rest of the tracks on the Blade II soundtrack here . I don't promise they are all this good, but it still worth picking up because as far as I know most of these songs don't appear on other albums.

OK, that's it for now. I had 5 more songs I wanted to post, but I didn't realize this would be so much writing. I'll post the rest tomorrow. George the Badger, I bet you know a lot of good dance songs. I'd like to hear some suggestions from you.

Yesterday I finally received Loose Fur's Born Again in the USA from amazon.com. I've only listened to it a couple of times, but I'm really liking what I hear so far. There has definitely been more effort put into this album than usually can be expected from most "side-projects". Loose Fur is of course the collaboration between Jeff Tweedy, Jim O'Rourke, and Glenn Kotche. A couple of months ago I posted an acoustic version of "The Ruling Class" that Jeff played at one of his solo shows. Most of these songs are quality songs, except they'd never fit on a Wilco album because of the humor ingrained throughout the album. It just wouldn't make sense to put a song about Jesus smoking crack on any of Wilco's albums, and despite the occasional obscene album cover (read Eureka), O'Rourke also tends to release more serious songs as well. So it can be inferred that Loose Fur was invented to not let these great songs go to waste and never get released.

Hey Chicken is the first song on the album and my favorite so far. Very catchy tune with a rambling guitar riff that reminds me of Led Zeppelin. Check it out if you haven't already and consider getting Born Again in the USA. But don't expect to find it in the usual locations; the Bestbuy, Circuit City, and Soundwaves near me didn't bother stocking it.

Loose Fur - Hey Chicken

Buy it here

This is a file that I picked up off of regnyouth a week or so ago. More than likely you guys missed it or over looked it. The Peel memorial website (if that's what it is now) says that this song was actually done in 2 parts, but this mp3 lasts 18 minutes with no breaks, so maybe the website is wrong or complicating things for no reason. This song is classic Godspeed, and it makes me really miss this band. Rumors have been spreading that they are making another album, but I haven't heard anything on it in a while. Sounds kinda similar to the Portishead saga... where the fuck is the new Portishead album already? 8 years is not long enough to wait?

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Hung Over as the Oven in Maida (Parts I and II)

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In other news, allmusic.com updated their layout. Check it out, I like it better than the old one: http://www.allmusic.com/

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I also wanted to focus on this new Destroyer album entitled Rubies. It has been hyped up quite a lot by every music publication in existance, but I think it deserves all the praise it can get. This is some really good stuff, and this particular song is irresistably infecting. Listen to it some more if you didn't pay much attention to it when it was first being passed around.

Destroyer - Painter in your Pocket

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Oh yeah, and that Tool song I was just talking about leaked, and yes I downloaded it. It's pretty damn good, so my hope for Tool's new album to be shit has definitely diminished somewhat. Oh well, I still say fuck them. This song will definitely get played out on the radio. I want to link it, but considering how sensitive that band is on their music, I better not. I wouldn't want jail time...

read

I don't know how big of Tool fans any of you are. This topic brought rather heated discussions a year or two ago on the message board, and I think from those discussions we can all glean that Biznotch fucking loves Tool. In fact it's his favorite band. But I don't want to spend all my time talking about Biznotch's love for Tool, he can bore us with that at a later date.

Vicarious is due to hit the radio this coming Monday (April 17), and Tool has done such a good job at hiding their music from the public that no one has heard Vicarious except people who have been expressedly sent the song by Maynard (or Danny, or Adam, or Justin). While this could be looked at as a great achievement for the band (wow they managed to keep their music from leaking at a time when most albums leak months in advance!), I think it should be viewed in a more negative light.

Yesterday Chris on toolshed.down.net had this to say on the subject:

With "Vicarious" just days from airing on the radio, some folks would have expected it to leak by now. Why hasn't it? It turns out that most radio stations will be downloading a digital file from a secure webserver (no, we're not telling you which one) and may receive a physical CD at a later date. Other info indicates that, instead of mailing out promo copies of the album, Tool is flying journalists to LA to review it under their supervision.

Reading the forums on toolshed, I noticed that there is definitely a lack of fans responding negatively to this news. Most of the immature, douche bag fans that visit those forums are writing things like "OMG! Vicarious on the radio Monday! I WON'T BE ABLE TO SLEEP AT NIGHT OMGOMGOMGOMG!" Only a few are writing that they are upset about the way they are being treated as longtime devoted fans.

Fans should be upset. Tool has been going way out of their way to hide their music from the their fans. While Tool has never been a band that embraced the media or their fans, they have now (in their old age) gone so extreme in their tactics used to prevent piracy that they look like a bunch of paranoid old codgers still living the life of a rock and roll star.

Why does this band refuse to upload the single to their website and provide a free public download? Why do they insist on keeping a strict release date of April 17th on the radio? Why in the hell would they want to subject their fans to having to sit and listen to top 40 radio for hours on end just to get to hear a Tool's new song (only to be rewarded by a shortened, poor quality version designed to fit in a 4 minute time slot)? Do they really want us to have to sift through Godsmack, Nickelback, Creed, etc. to hear their song?

And what does it really matter anyway? It is inevitable that this track will leak on the internet at some point, so what does it really matter if it leaks today or 3 weeks from now? Will that have any impact on the sales of the album as a whole? It can only hurt them, because less people will be exposed to the song on the radio than they would be if it were being offered up as a download on an mp3 blog. I can promise you that I will not be listening to the radio just to hear this single.

This leads me to the point I've been trying to make from the beginning. This band doesn't give a shit anymore what they do to their fans. They have us hooked, so they are going to treat us like big floppy penises and expect that we will maintain our loyalty. What is the incentive anymore to like this band? Yes the music is good (usually), but what more than that? It seems like all they do is just release things to drum up more money from their fanatic fan pool. For instance, the Schism and Parabola DVDs for $10 each. Wow, one music video and a few crappy repetitive remix songs. And for a bonus, they include some boring ass commentary. When is the last time Tool has released any music to benefit a charity or to benefit anyone other than themselves?

I really would hope you guys would consider not buying 10,000 Days when it finally comes out. Biznotch, I know that will be hard for you, but I hope you could download it for free instead. This band deserves that much. If they don't want to have anything to do with their conniving, thieving fans, then the fans shouldn't want to have to do anything with them. And if you, the fan, can't control yourself, then at least download it for free and don't give them or their worthless label any hard earned money out of your pocket. I really doubt Maynard has had a hard days work in the last 10 years. He seems to have forgotten where he came from. It wasn't long ago that he was a poor struggling artist, and he was dependent on fans to show up to his shows and provide him with money so he could get a meal at the end of the day. Now that he's loaded with money and Mr. Powerful he is repaying those fans by treating them like dicks. Karma Police anyone?

Tool would not have the fan base it has now if it wasn't for the internet. I would not be a Tool fan myself it I didn't downloaded Undertow 6 or 7 years ago. I started by listening to a couple of songs every now and then, and gradually I began to like them, and finally I downloaded the entire Undertow album and I loved them. I then proceeded to buy every album they have ever released (aside from those two shitty DVDs they just released). If it wasn't for the internet, I wouldn't give two shits about the band. They are fighting the very thing that gave them such a wide fanbase, and it is simply in the name of greed. The band has never denied this statement, but it should be vexing to fans to realize they are audacious enough to admit they work solely for money when rock and roll is supposed to be the antithesis of corporate greed.

Everyone loves shitty electronica, right? Especially the homebrewed stuff, no doubt. Thats why I'm here to fufill that unholy desire with two fat slabs of shit I cooked up with fruity loops, because, well, I kill a lot of time on that program, so why not share it? Forgive, well, everything about them (shitty names, shitty sounds, shitty mix, shitty skillz, etc) and just listen, dammit, and then assuage my ego. Please? oh well.

Hoopla

Internal Organs

I swear to god I'll actually post real content someday.

I just wanted to take a moment to spotlight this often neglected and definitely underrated piece of Spoon's discography. This 2002 five song EP highlight is Chips and Dip, which until quite recently I thought was found on Kill the Moonlight (recently as in I looked today and figured out it wasn't on there). Any of these songs could easily have appeared on that album without diminishing the value of that recording. This particular track, I Didn't Come Here to Die, is a groovy jazz number that completely suits Britt Daniel's vocal style. Sadly Spoon has really avoided writing dance pieces like this during their decade long career. This would be an awesome song to experience live.

Get the EP at amazon

Spoon - I Didn't Come Here to Die