Kickapoo

"Hey, how's it going dude?"

"Fantastic"

I mean what the fuck. Seriously? Bring on the floating unicorns and ET and lets just have a powerpuff party.

And on this week's show we have...

When Your Heart Stops Beating
(+44)

What really miffed me about the whole +44 thing was that last.fm didn't allow me to tag the MP3s as (+44), so I had to tag 'em as Plus 44. Now that sucks for more than the obvious reason - Plus instead of + is like calling fat people horizontally challenged. Euphimisms is not something that Rock music does very well. Take a look at bands like Third Eye Blind, Jars of Clay, Guano Apes and The Velvet Underground. To the unsuspecting and unknowing eye it may seem as if there are forces greater than creative thinking at play. Like potty thoughts for example. Anywho...

Before I had the album in its entirety I'd just heard Lycanthrope, When Your Heart Stops Beating and a shorter version of No It Isn't. Frankly, No It Isn't was the only song that really got me. Everyone looked at Angels & Airwaves and (+44) with the hope that there would be something, at least something, that reminded them of blink-182. Goshdarnit, I wanted another What's My Age Again. Angels & Airwaves was the bummer of the century, so the impetus on Mark and Travis to bring back blink glory was double, if not more. Sure you wouldn't say it outright that you were waiting for another blink, but I know you wanted them, like I know you're never really satisfied with anything till it gets old and then it's classic. Obviously. They didn't make Tom's mistake of playing it up; if they did, this review would be a whole lot different.

There's nothing that really gets me about this album. It's a solid piece, but I think they've played it safe. Travis' drumming is brilliant as usual, but Mark isn't his usual expressive self. They've held back, just to get it right. Just right. But it could've been bigger. #2 will be. But for the next two years, its just No It Isn't and When Your Heart Stops Beating that'll get repeats on my playlist.

In other related news...
The Pick of Destiny has stood the test of three repeat plays. Go D! Full review in another post, but know this, the D is back, and if I don't see the movie soon, something bad's gonna happen to the mouse that has inhabited my room.

The brand new Brand New demos are brilliant. The anticipation of a new album that I'm already so terribly biased towards is, well, terrible. Considering I've already heard some of the new material, I have to say there is a need for me to step away from the Winamp for a while and take a walk or wash some clothes. Brand New have been a sort of revisited welcoming for me. I had dismissed them to the depths of the only-one-listen basket where Thursday, Taking Back Sunday, Taproot, As Tall As Lions and Senses Fail currently reside. I may need to go there more often.