solace

i know some people are going to the Liffey which is across the street from Xcel on 7th btw, does anyone need a floor GA ticket for tonight? i've got one for under face if so.

AGIB, even though i don't love it, would still probably crack my own personal top 200.

Phrenology is damn good tho, my last favorite Roots record

i love The Roots but for me their best 3 albums were released pre-'00.

maybe we have different copies. plus the melody to Convinced By The Hex is like Spoon on acid. Silver Trembling Hands also has a really great melody too. it's not just "random blips and bloops" either btw, there's a lot more going on under the surface. it's certainly a psychedelic rock album at it's core, no question about it. if you're not that into psychedelic stuff i can completely understand not enjoying much of the album.

http://www.myspace.com/builttospill i've had a watermarked promo of this for the last couple weeks and it's a really nice record. sure it's not going to unseat KILAS, PFNO, or TNWWL, but it fits nicely in their catalog and has a ton of really great pop songs. not nearly as expansive/crazy musically like the last album was tho, but still some really nice guitar work on a few songs. i f'n love the horns on a couple songs on the record (esp. Life's A Dream)

as much as i adore Justin, i only like 3-4 songs on Unmap unfortunately, the rest i find pretty boring (was never a huge fan of Collections of Colonies of Bees however)

well this record is certainly WAY more engaging. it's their most ambitious album musically in almost a decade. it's not nearly as poppy as their last 3 efforts have been, i'll give you that. but listen with a nice pair of headphones, there's a lot of crazy/cool stuff going on. not saying it's an amazing record, it's a challenging one, but one that imo is pretty rewarding if you give it a little bit of your time.

There Is No Enemy is pretty solid, but far from my favorite record this year (maybe top 20 tho), and BTS are one of, if not my favorite band from the late 90's.

while i realize music sales are down a lot, some interesting figures... Backspacer is their first #1 debut since No Code, it sold 189,000 copies it's first week. Self-Titled sold 279,000 it's first week... so with a giant push, the Target exclusive thing, etc. and it still sold 90k less it's first week than the last album (a 33% drop from the S/T) not to mention at this point how many hardcore fans buy multiple formats? (shit i even bought the iTunes LP thing for $9.99 cuz i had a gift card to waste and was curious how that LP thing looked/worked (it's kinda neat btw, imho). compared

kinda like Nada Surf's song 'The Blankest Year', that song was super catchy but didn't get any radio play here really on the local MPR station cuz an edited version sounded so goofy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXRLUeVXpMA

Supersonic is a ton of fun tho... but def hear the Mankind riffs. And I can hear LBC in the intro of UT as well. but i agree, it's a decent but otherwise very average PJ album (and yes, still doesn't have nearly the sheer # of crap songs that Riot Act has)

Speed of Sound is pretty damn bad, but i think Force of Nature has a pretty killer swagger to it and i love the chorus. Got Some & Amongst are the other 2 i like a lot too tho. Unthought Known from the 1:30 mark on rules, but that first 1/3 sucks

despite that wussy drum intro, Force of Nature is def my favorite song on this record now. funny that it's the only one they haven't played live yet...

btw, if anyone is curious, my friend Josh who has been talking Girls up to me most of the year, reviewed the album a while ago (it just published today tho) and is a bit more even-handed i think. http://www.culturebu...ls-album-review

basically the reviewer's score has very little to do with what score they deem the album... which is why you often read reviews that glow more than the review score states (or vice versa). just seems they often have too much editorial control in the overall score. and like i said above, even if I don't really take much stock in their scores, plenty of people do. it's great when it helps a band, but sucks when it really hurts a band too (esp. in cases where other media outlets have a fairly positive consensus on a record)

i should have clarified above, this album isn't BAD by any means... if it wasn't for the vocals i'd probably dig it a bit more. def not hating on it, i just don't think it's one of the better records this year is all.

i guess i've never experienced that kind of consistancy/matchup with my tastes and ANY publication, past or present, so maybe i just have pretty weird taste (wouldn't surprise me in the least). but as you said, forum recommendations, whether it's Via, SOMB, UKK, etc. are much more useful for me personally since i usually have some type of knowledge of or relationship with the person making the recommendation (even if it's strictly online), and i tend to know their tastes a lot better than I would a random Pitchfork reviewer. it used to be easier when Pfork was the same 5-6 writers, that much

OUT TODAY!

true... i'm sure if i went back and looked at my favorite records from the last 10 years, only a handful would have gotten above a 9 and most would be between 6-8.5.

yeah, my complaints about Pitchfork aren't usually because of what they champion, but mostly the very painful and sometimes impossible to read reviews, not to mention the smarmy attitude or the attitude that the review they are writing is as important as the music they're talking about. i recognize their impact and applaud Schreiber for creating something so widely regarded out of his basement in suburban Minneapolis, but i think far too many people take what they say as the gospel. but what bugs me more than them slapping a 9.x on the latest thing, is probably the so-so reviews and scores (

quite possibly his best album yet. certainly better than the last 2-3 boring ones. came as a total shock to me... sounds a lot like his old live shows used to

not quite as amazing as his last one, but still a DAMN fine record