From Me to Me

Every year for the past 3 or 4, I've been getting myself something for Christmas. The first it happened to be that I was searching frantically for copies of The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, found them at a 'decent' price and bought them.

Those purchases happened around Christmas, so H1 took it upon herself to wrap up my games, stuck them under the tree and made me write out tags "From Me, to Me" much to my dismay.

Since that time, she has insisted that she wrap things up that I get for myself and put them under the tree if it happens in the month of December.

Last year, she did an expert job of using the scraps of paper at the end of the gift-wrapping sessions and used them to fancy up my Radiohead Discbox of "In Rainbows".

The year before that I'm fuzzy on and don't recall what it was, if anything at all.

So I just wanted to ask H1 if she had any intention of wrapping up my Ultimate Collector's Edition of The Nightmare Before Christmas 15th Anniversary Set I got recently (number 15, 483 of ?????).

I think that'd just be wrong of you, H1. It's September. Don't you be wrapping up my shart!

Speaking of shart, where are my Christmuth Liths from previous years? Weren't we supposed to post those on here to show my ridiculousness (in your opinion)?

Currently listening to: "Numbernine [Back in TYO]" by Fat Jon and Force of Nature, from the Samurai Champloo Original Soundtrack.

The Hatred For NJ Just Keeps On Growing

For some reason, concert promoters, bands or who the eff ever have been opting to go to New Jersey to put on their shows instead of NY.

I'm not sure why NYC's being blacklisted but it's damned annoying.

I've resigned myself to the fact that I will never see Stone Temple Pilots because goodness knows volatile, lovable Scott will quit the band in no time and mouth off to them like he did to Velvet Revolver (and the rest of STP, back in the day).

I will never see Radiohead. Those mothereffers are playing a festival in what they call "NY". I know you're not from here, RH but that's just damned insulting. Get a freakin' hold of yourselves! You can't fool me and Google maps! Tch. I mean, I didn't actually verify this with google maps but eff a festival anyway! And your four dates over there are making me reeeaaaally pissy right now.

The Nintendo Wii is also on my shit list. How dare they have a Mario Kart Wii tour go to Jersey and not NYC?! Okay, so maybe they'll have a big event closer to the date at Nintendo World but still! Not that I would ever go visit a Nintendo Tour but it's not right, anyway!

Maybe people in NJ are stupidly not playing the wii because they didn't pre-order.

After all, people in NJ are pretty stupid.

Especially you, Frass...Especially you.

Currently listening to: "Shattering Egg of Dreams" by Yasunori Mitsuda, from the Xenogears Soundtrack

1:33 AM

Again with this 1:33 AM.

That's the time my exciting e-mail came in on October 1st and that's the time I got the follow up.

I just woke up to find it.

I am so overwhelmed right now...

First I was in bliss, and now I'm wondering if forty pounds was too much.

Maybe I should go ahead and download the one I bought for free? Maybe it'll sound better?

Ahhh...

It's too early to be tossing all these new noises at me.

I just need to calm down and let this simmer in 5 hours when I'm on the train and properly awake.

Currently listening to: "Jiggsaw Falling Into Place" and the rest of In Rainbows by Radiohead

A Question Posed

To which I responded: ₤0.00

But not without some thought.

Without a record label - fans, critics and anyone who cares speculated on how the release of Radiohead's 7th album would pan out.

Well, for weeks we've known that the record was done but today, it was announced the album would be released via the band's website in two available formats. The first as a limited edition discbox and the second as a digital download.

The LE of "In Rainbows" costs ₤40.
But the real surprise? The digital download costs... whatever the buyer wants to pay.

Here I was, actually given the opportunity to "buy" music for free. And this wasn't just music - this was an entire album from one of my favourite bands.

I pondered.

The choice, while obvious to many (if it's free, it's for me!!!!), had me questioning exactly how much I would pay for the album.

I wanted to pay.

Ultimately, I ended up purchasing the Limited Edition and decided that (partially out of curiousity) I would 'buy' the digital download for nothing.

Aside from curiousity as to whether I'd seriously be allowed to put zero pounds on my credit card (yes, I'll have to pay whatever transactional fee), I also justified my price tag by the fact that I paid for the LE, and finally, I wouldn't get that until December 3rd and hell, I want my new Radiohead in 9 days. (Consider this saving me the trouble of mp3-ing a cd. Of course, I'm not sure if this will be in mp3 format but I'll see on October 10th.)

So...

Even though I've 'technically' paid quite a hefty sum (a testament to Radiohead's musical worth to me), why do I still feel slightly guilty about my nil bill?

Edit: I did find it odd that if I bought the hardcopy that I wouldn't actually get it until December. It turns out that you get a download with this package as well. So, in fact I get TWO downloads - one paid and one not! Who wants the freebie?

Currently listening to: "2+2=5" by Radiohead

Follow Up

Yeah I was right about something.

Editors' new album is up on their myspace, so I got to hear the entire thing and I think I'd like them much more if they didn't sound so much like Interpol.

But... I guess not really because lyrically, Interpol's much more complex. This is also true of their sound.

There's no mistaking Paul Banks' voice really.

It'll be like that Thom Yorke/Matthew Bellamy controversy I hate getting involved in (but will of course, take a moment to defend my boys) Radiohead and MUSE are two of my favourite bands and no, I do not think MUSE ripped off Radiohead. Their voices are different. They're two very different bands. End of that story.

Back to Interpol though.

I felt a little bit disillusioned yesterday when I did research on Interpol and found out that two of the members are Ukkers! They grew up in NY but were born in England.

And here I was hailing them as one of NY's best bands!

Meh, they're still New Yorkers. And hell, it was then I realized that that's probably why I heart them hardcore.

You know how I fancy some Ukkers.

Currently listening to: "Pioneer to the Falls" and "Obstacle 1" by Interpol. I feel lost. Stop haunting me, Paul Banks! Your voice is like a Siren's song and I'm sucked in! ::shudder::

Oh no!

...today my heart swings?

MSN's Turn To Get Blazed

I saw this article on MSN about a band to watch at Live Earth this weekend (you know the bs concerts around the world about doing our part to save the planet).

The band's The Parlotones, who MSN and some others have been hailing as the next big thing. So, I took a listen because I like to preview new music once in a while, ever since I almost missed out on Arctic Monkeys (again, for the millionth time, thank goodness for Virgin-Atlantic) and they remind me of Thom Yorke gone bad.

It's not so much that the lead singer sounds like Thom or that the music sounds like Radiohead but the style reminds me of Radiohead to an extent. That just might be due to the fact that they did a slight theft of the repetitive "...it's happening". Idioteque, anyone?

That being said, I can kind of get into these people. Possibly. At least that's what I thought until I heard "Dragonflies and Astronauts" and I realize they're just another alternative band with nothing incredibly special.

Also, the next time someone comes out with a song called "Beautiful", I'd like it to be the most hateful thing I've ever heard. I know that may be very contrary but I'm tired of hearing people go on about "…you deserve to be adored" and whatever it is James Blunt was saying.

MSN, you suck.

Thanks for nothing.

Thanks.

Next up: someone needs to get me Editors. I think I might be missing out on some good times involving them. Though it could just be that I could continue listening to Interpol to have a similar experience and possibly, a classier, better experience.

Speaking of Interpol - how are things on the west coast? Ha, no. That's not what I wanted to say. I think their new album is going to kick ass. Big time.

Finally, Cillian Murphy recommends a band called Field Music. Let's see if he's as crazy as the roles he plays. I love that CM. And with good reason. He recommends decent music to us. I mean, it does sound like gddh stuff but that's to be expected from an indie band.

Random

Did anyone else notice that Kelly Clarkson's "Walk Away" sounds suspiciously like Tony! Toni! Tone!'s "If I Had No Loot"?

Also, that new song by Fort Minor "Where'd You Go" is horrendous.
I really don't have much against Shinoda for the most part...but that song irritates me. And it doesn't help when HOchie 1 calls me up just so I can hear it playing in the background.
I hate it when I might have to support Mike Shinoda ONLY because he did a collaboration with Kenna. I suppose though that I'd really be supporting Kenna... yes. That's it.

Finally, I would like to thank Ticketmaster for allowing me to be arsed out of seeing Radiohead.
But I won't be a little crybaby about this one. And that's only due to the fact that I can just hear Thom in my head taunting me.
And I am not Scott Tennorman.

Currently listening to: "Vicarious" by Tool.
Now there's a band. A band that is thoroughly disturbing me right now but they're hella' awesome. I am most impressed by Maynard's vocal work and musically, they're amazing.