Alright, so, the world’s largest sounding band is back with 2 songs from their upcoming album “Viva La Vida.” They sound grander and larger, especially with the help of their Co-Producer Brian Eno. He is the man who produced U2’s old album “The Joshua Tree”. The song “Where The Streets Have No Name” has a very similar intro to Coldplay’s Violet Hill. Both begin with a long silence, and slowly you can hear an aurora of music come in. For U2 it was those timeless guitars, but for Coldplay it was Piano. Coldplay’s song then brings in the deepest guitar they have probably ever had. Sounds distorted, but still Coldplay. Then the drums come in as well. Chris Martin’s voice echoes through every nook and cranny in the room. Sounds familiar, but darker and more like music to listen to late at night.

The other single they have out is the title track, “Viva La Vida.” This one starts out much faster and with strings. It already got my head bobbing within the first 10 seconds. That takes a pretty powerful song. Then Chris Martin’s voice comes in pretty softly. By 30 seconds in, you can tell this song will be stuck in your head. And as the song goes on, a few instruments here and there are added. Like in the first chorus, bells are added. This is much more of a song for stadiums or concerts and I would definitely look forward to seeing it at a concert.

So from these two songs, the album is shaping up to be another solid Coldplay album. Which is all they need for millions of people to buy it at this point. The only thing that makes me sad is that the album is supposed to be pretty short and no filling, so we might be hearing quite a bit of the album already. But if all the rest of the songs on the album are of this caliber then we are in good shape for a good musical year.

From the beginning of the first track “Bixby Canyon Bridge” you hear Ben Gibbard’s unique voice wail almost a cappella until a little guitar comes in to give it a little bit of a beat. Then the drums come in and it becomes more of a conventional song. It sounds more rock oriented than usual, but make no mistake. This is still Death Cab For Cutie.

According to them, their goal on this album was to just “let things go” and not try to fix every little thing. If something sounds a bit ugly, they said they wanted to just roll with it. You can definitely hear what they are talking about on the second track of the album, “I Will Posses Your Heart” which simply asks for a girl to give the narrator the time for her to give him a chance. The instruments come in one by one, and all build until around the 4 minute mark or so, and Gibbard starts singing. The jam session in the beginning is something they would have never done on their last album “Plans” but this is a new album and new songs.

The lyrics in this album are much more dark and desperate than previous DCFC outings. The character that Gibbard paints in this album is one of sadness and longing and depression. It may not sound like it from the beats and instruments, but this is a pretty dark album. “Cath”, my favorite track on the album, discusses a girl about to get married that is having doubts. Or “No Sunlight” which discusses how when you are young everything is nice, and as you grow older, things become more depressing. He uses sunlight as a metaphor for how life is going. The lyrics are dark but also very well done. It seems that he does many of them with ease. Like on “Cath” he says, “As the flashbulbs burst she holds a smile/Like someone would hold a crying child.” The language here is beautiful.

The backing music is almost the direct opposite of the lyrics. A lot of the darker songs have up-tempo beats. It makes for a really good listen. So we aren’t dragged down by loads of dark and slow songs. The instruments seem to be much more deeep and full. The bass also gets used more than I ever remember for them. Well done Gibbard and company. You have pulled off a solid album. The best songs on the album are: “I Will Posess Your Heart, No Sunlight, Cath…, Talking Bird,” and “Grapevine Fires.” Now that they have a good album for people to be talking about for a while, lets hope Gibbard can sneak away to work on some of that new Postal Service album.

Score: 8.5

5 games, count them. Half Life 2, Episode 1, Episode 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2. Five of the best games on the market, for the price of one. 5 games that excel in every way. 2 of the games alone are Game of the Year worthy. Suffice to say, the Orange Box from Valve is by far the best video game package of all time.

Lets start with the poster child of Valve, Half Life. The original Half Life was a cultural phenomenon, so when Half Life 2, released in 2004 on the PC, people were blown away. It won over 40(yes FORTY) Game of the Year honors when it debuted. Now its been console-ified to fit those mouse-and-keyboard illiterate like myself. I can say that so far it has been one of the most enthralling experiences of my videogame lifestyle. The NPCs(non-playable characters) are realistic and so when I’m in a room with one fearing for his life, I can almost wish to be cuddled in the fetal position alongside him. They are that encouraging. The enemies, especially the ones that come out of nowhere, are terrifying yet at the same time, it makes killing them all the better. And that is just the gameplay. Graphically, even after 3 years, Half Life is gorgeous. The ripple effects in the water are insane. And while new engines haven’t left the Half Life character models too much to brag about, the environment that the characters walk in is more than enough to make up for it. The game sounds even better. When sprinting away from enemies in an underground sewer, I almost squirm as I hear my foot seep into a vat of gunk. When firing a gun, I damn near get blown away by the satisfying pop and recoil. And to go along with it is one of the creepiest yet engulfing soundtracks. The dark ominous musical score that tunes up when I’m blinded in a small room makes it even worse when an enemy jumps out of nowhere, yet the glorifying tune that emits when I complete a mission makes it all the sweeter. Without a doubt, Half Life 2 is a game that cannot be missed. (Keep in mind that I have yet to access Episodes 1 and 2 but I shall write a follow up review upon completion of both.)

That brings us to Portal. Lemme get the off my chest first. If you don’t have a strong PC(as in, windows 98) and cannot afford to purchase either a new computer or an Xbox 360/PS3, then you are excused. For all those that do not fall into said category, then shame on you for not playing this game. Portal’s innovative gameplay is astounding. You never know what will happen next. Each level improves upon its predecessor with an even better puzzle to solve. And for what little story elements it possesses, it is just plain awesome. The quirky Glados leads you through each maze, hinting more or less your outcome at the closing of the game. She alone possesses the most hilarious videogame dialog since Gears of War’s Cole-train. Graphically, the plain walls and boxy exterior, which would normally be a design flaw, gets the point across without making anything too flashy or seem out of place. What little sound that is in the game, also works to perfection. Seriously people, BUY THIS GAME.

Which leads us to the final game. Team Fortress 2. It is without a doubt one of the best multiplayer games you will ever witness. The bland surroundings do take away from the cartoonish style of the characters, but as far as I am concerned, bland is okay. Because you won’t be concentrating on the environments in the heat of battle. Each character has its own strengths and weaknesses. The speedy Scout has minimal health. The fiery Pyro, while a beast in close-range combat, has a terrible long range tactic and will be more or less a bullet or two distraction for an experienced sniper. Speaking of the sniper, you must be good with the weapon to keep enemies astray from your position, because once an enemy gets near, you can more or less say goodbye. The uber-powerful Heavy can be slow and an easy target for scouts that can avoid the main fire, but that can be easily quelled with a Medic to follow you. Of course, don’t expect much help from the medic as far as covering fire goes, because only skilled players will rack up any kills with the Medic’s weak weaponry. The explosive Demoman has fantastic range, and its sticky bombs make it a defensive god, but a lack of a true weapon hurts it in the field of combat, except for those that get lucky with the grenade launcher at close range. The Soldier has a powerful rocket launcher, but its slow re-load rate and bad aiming make it hard to do well if you don’t connect and kill early. The engineer is awesome. His turret is near-impossible to beat, unless you are a skilled shot or a skilled Spy. As for the Spy, it is one of the most fun and exciting characters to play, but once you are found out, you don’t stand much chance. As far as sound goes, a gun shot sounds like a gun shot should, and the dismemberment of limbs with a bloody emptying of vessels sounds just as one imagines.

All in all, you can’t go wrong with the Orange Box. It is one of the best gaming set money can buy.

Score: 9.9

-lego

Ok, this is the second review in my ongoing series of my takes on what others consider to be “classic” albums. Next up is Portishead.

At the very beginning of each song, before Beth comes in singing, you would swear this is a hip hop album. Every song it seems like begins with some kind of beat that continues through the whole song. But this album plays out nothing like a hip hop album. Beth Gibbons’ voice wails over the crackle and pop of what you would think is a vinyl record playing. Her voice is a perfect complement to the film style this album has. It sounds almost like the soundtrack to a dark movie. But it works relatively well. It sounds like it wouldn’t work at all, hip hop sounding beats with samples strung throughout and a slow pace as Beth sings over it all. It almost sounds like a live band you might hear at a slow paced nightclub. But it works well.

This album is somewhat of a harsh listen the first time around. Because of the slow nature of every song, there isn’t much change up in pace. But as you continue to listen to it more and more, you will appreciate it all. The album is very cohesive in this manner. The album definitely plays off of each song before it to make it continue to escalate to what I consider to be the highest point on the album, and that is, “Glory Box’, which is the last song on the album. It captures everything that this album is about. A few other strong points on this album are, “It Could Be Sweet”, “Sour Times”, and “Pedestal.”

The background to each of these songs on this album are great though. You have guitars, drums, trumpets, DJ scratching, sampled sounds everywhere, and more. It makes for a lot to hear and take in. But it makes for amazing layering in the songs. Some of these things you might not even notice on the first listen, like the subtle DJ scratches here and there. This is what draws you back in to listen to it again. To maybe catch things you may have missed before. Its the same reason I sometimes go back and watch episodes of the TV show, “Lost.”

But aside from the things this album does well, there are a few things that it fails to do well on. Like I mentioned earlier, most of the songs are the same kind of pace. All of them are relatively slow and “heavy.” Which makes for a cohesive album and a set tone for the album. It also makes for a tiring and somewhat boring listen the first time around. Once you get used to it, it is a little better, but it doesn’t all go away. Also, I would have hoped for maybe a guest appearance by someone else. Beth’s voice is great, but if maybe she had gotten some accompaniment somewhere on this album, it would have made us appreciate her smooth voice more. Other than that I really don’t have many gripes about this album.

And all you readers are lucky. If you listen to this album and decide that you like it, there is another album titled “Portishead” and came out in 1997, three years after their first, but after that they had nothing; Until recently when they announced they are coming out with a new album at the end of April, entitled “Third“. So all you new fans will be in luck if you happen to enjoy their music. You wouldn’t have had to wait over a decade like the rest of the fans.

Score: 7.5

Songs To Listen To:

Pedestal

Sour Times

Glory Box

-G

With a whole new adventure mode, a revamped classic mode, more than a dozen new characters, and the most enjoyable multiplayer in recent memory, Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii is one of the greatest games to debut this year.

Gameplay:

You don’t find better, more responsive controls in many other games. Whether you are using the Gamecube controller, the classic controller, or the Wiimote/Nunchuck system. The only lacking control use is the lone use of the Wiimote turned ninety degrees onto its side. Which is clunky and unresponsive. The many characters add to the variety that has made Super Smash Bros. a household name. And with the addition of Konami’s Solid Snake(of Metal Gear Solid fame) and Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog(from the series of the same name), now people can settle the infamous arguments of our past. While some are overpowered(Ike from Fire Emblem) and some are useless(Ganondorf, the antagonist of the Legend of Zelda games), the overall character scale is balanced. The many stages that dot the multiplayer scene are some of the most diverse and exotic in the series’ history. From Sonic’s destructible Green Hill Zone, to the interactive Warioware level(which by the way, has my favorite song list of all the maps), you have never seen maps as strange yet as awesome as the ones in SSBB. Online play however, is where this game flops. The friend system is all fine and dandy, but what about when no one on your friends list is available? Well, you can always join a Basic Brawl(your normal 1v1v1v1 battle) or Team Brawl(a 2v2 fight). But lag hinders these greatly, and a lack of interactions between players means you may never again battle that player you went toe-to-toe with for the full two minutes. Speaking of two minutes, the 2-minute showdown is the only way to fight online, which means no stock battles, which is a serious negative. The adventure mode, dubbed Subspace Emissary, is awesome. The annoying enemies(which isn’t a bad thing mind you) can get boring and repetitive at times. But the gorgeous pre-rendered cut scenes are great. Its an overall great story that can’t be missed. Aside from online issues and enemies in SSE, you don’t get any better than Brawl.

Graphics/Sound:

Where to start, you don’t have a better looking Wii game on the market at the moment. While that’s not saying a whole lot, its nice to see adult Link and cell-shaded Toon Link bear a significant difference in appearance. The textures are great, and while the framerate can jitter at times with all the activity on screen, its negligible and barely noticed. As far as sound is concerned, when a sword connects, you hear a satisfying slash. When Wario lets one go, your nose jumps from the realism(I feel for whoever had to record that!). When Mario unleashes a deadly barrage of fireballs upon you in his Final Smash, it sounds like someone is getting fried. But the shining star of sounds is the game’s soundtrack. With new orchestrated scores of songs from classic games as well as songs from previous installments of the game, included with new lyrics, this game has some of the most beautiful songs ever. Whether its hearing the Pokemon music in a new orchestrated way, or Mario’s classic beat, this has the most astounding array of music in recent memory. This game looks and sounds marvelous, and it shouldn’t be held in any lower account.

Overall:

What can be said that hasn’t been already. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a marvelous game that excels in nearly every way. Its a near-flawless experience that I recommend to all Wii owners, present and future, no matter if you are a fan of Nintendo or not. This is not a gimmicky knockoff, it is the best fighting game in the world today.

Score: 9.5

-lego

Design
The LG Chocolate is very sleek and overall very well made. It is called the chocolate because of it’s shape. It has a rectangular shape to it like a candy bar. It is a slider phone and it slides flawlessly and makes a satisfying “click” sound when you do so. The phone has a glossy finish over it and comes in very cool colors that will please a broad amount of people. The colors include,red(cherry),white(white chocolate),black(black
chocolate),green(mint chocolate),pink(strawberry). The screen is very nice. Although it may not be the biggest screen,the colors pop and it shouldn’t bother anyone. The LCD screen is 320×240 pixels and support for 262k colors.
Below the screen is where the navigation is located. It has a wheel kind of look to it.(up,right,down,left,ok). Around the navigation is the touch sensitive pads. The bottom left is to make a call and the bottom right is to end calls.When you slide the phone up it reveals the number pad.On the sides are the volume buttons,microphone,end,music and camera buttons and a micro SD card slot.. You will have to adjust to the button placement and the touch sensitive navigation.

Function

The main feature of the phone is the touch sensitive navigation. Sorry to tell you, but, it has many problems. It has a very high learning curve for the average joe and even for a tech junky it will be frustrating. The touch sensitive navigation locks when closed or in a call. This may be good and bad. This prevents from making phone calls by accident if it’s in your pocket but, when you are in a call and another person calls you, you would have to somehow find a way to unlock the touch sensitive navigation and then touch the call button to switch call, then repeat again to go back to the first caller. The easiest way to unlock would be pressing “music” on the side while in a call. This may be confusing and most people would never figure out how to unlock it since the way to do so is pressing “music”;which has no connotation with unlock. Also, you have to be very careful to not double touch something or press a nearby touch function on the navigation. This may lead you to somewhere on the phone where you never intended,such as internet.When in doubt just slide the phone down and it will bring you to the main menu.The battery life of the phone is very weak. It last about 3 hours of just straight talk and only 6 hours of standby. This is very bad for people who are out a lot and don’t have time to charge their batteries constantly.

The phone also has V-Cast. V-Cast lets you download music straight from your phone if you do not have a micro sd card or are away from a computer. You can also download ring tones and pictures.

The phone has a 1.3 mega pixel camera. It takes very good quality pictures. It is very impressive. The video is nothing special though.
Picture taken by “www.cnet.com”


Music/Sound/Text

This phone was made to be a mp3/cell phone combo. The music sounds very good on the phone with earphones. On speaker, it sounds well but the higher the volume the more quality it loses. The awesome sound of the phone is sadly paired with a bad mp3 program. In the mp3 program, if you would like to listen to a song in the middle of the song list you would have to go one song at a time to get there. This is due to the touch sensitive navigation. You can’t hold it down since it is not a button but touch. This makes it frustrating navigating to the next song you would like to listen to.

The sound of the phone is good. It is a little iffy on speaker but still decent.Voice quality is top notch and with Verizon “EV-DO” support you will have a slim chance of drop calls and having weak signal. Texting will be annoying to do on this phone. The buttons are flat and just doesn’t feel right.

Overall

The phone is somewhat useful for daily life. It is equipped with a very good quality camera, “EV-DO” support,micro SD card slot, V-Cast music download and good sound quality.The phone has a very nice,sleek design with a frustrating navigation.The battery life is weak and wont last long if you talk for a long period of time constantly. Texting is a hassle to do and to control the phone itself has a steep learning curve. LG update to the chocolate is much better and fix most of these problems mention. So if you like the chocolate charming looks go get the updated version(V2).

Score: 5.4

-Jeo

This is the first of a few of my takes on what others consider to be “classic” albums.

So, lets get one thing straight before I dive right into this review. This album is about Anne Frank. It is all of Jeff Mangum’s(Singer and only steady member of NMH) feelings and emotions after reading her diary. This is an emotive album where he goes on for almost an hour in his own language where we can hope to try an understand a line or two here. This is some of the best songwriting one may ever see. And I am writing this about 10 years after the original release in 1998. That definitely bodes well for it being a classic. It has stood the test of time so far.

But lets get down to the music. If you haven’t heard of Neutral Milk Hotel before, they sound somewhat like the soundtrack to a carnival, instrument-wise; Especially on their first album, “On Avery Island.” But this album is much better than the former one because of just how simple but how good it is. It has a folk sound to it, but also doesn’t sound like normal folk either. It is really hard to categorize this album.

I talked a bit about how great the lyrics are, but its not just lyrically well done, I find myself wanting to sing along to songs like, “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea”, or “Holland, 1945.” It is a lot to take in though, how complex the lyrics are, and Jeff Mangum’s odd-sounding voice at first. It is reminiscent of the voice of the singer of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, but much easier on the ears in my opinion, and a better singer. The most powerful song on this album though, by far is “Two Headed Boy” where Jeff Mangum sings his hardest on the whole album. You can hear the emotion in his voice. He gets as loud as you will hear him get on the whole album. There is a reason for it that we may never understand because of the lyrics, but you can feel it anyway, whatever it may be. I feel like I am a part of whatever it is.

That is also another thing about this album, it makes you feel like a pat of what Jeff Mangum is writing about. You seem to feel the emotions he is going through as he is singing it. Its somewhat of a troubling album, but you may not realize it upon first or even second listen. It is masked somewhat by the more uptempo songs. But it is definitely a sad album in some respects. Especially sad due to the fact that this is the last Neutral Milk Hotel Album we have seen. Neutral Milk Hotel played their last show together on December 5th, 1998 and went on a hiatus after that. They declined every show afterwards. It supposedly took a toll on Mangum. The last show Mangum played by himself was on February 4th, 2001. Ever since then, Neutral Milk Hotel has virtually went under the radar. No news about a new album or anything has been heard. Luckily this album is enough to last a lifetime. But when they do decide to come back, which will definitely be sometime, we will be ready singing the songs of “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.” I, for one, can’t wait until that day.

I definitely recommend you give this album at least one listen sometime. Please.

Score: 9.6

Here are a few songs to listen to:

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Two Headed Boy

Holland, 1945

-G

Wolfmother is an Australian Hard Rock band formed in 2003 by Myles Heskett (drums, percussion), Chris Ross (Bass,keyboard,piano,synth) and Andrew Stockdale (vocals,guitar).

Well i got only one word to describe this band “Pure” they’re sound is authentic Rock not alternative not punk not metal just pure rock right there,its like travelling back in time to 1960 and 1970 they definitely couldve been one of the bands from that era like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, etc.

This albums counts with 13 tracks and it was released in 2006.

The album starts with the song “Dimension”a fast paced song with a nice chorus

Then #3 is Wolfmother greatest hit to date “Woman” a relatively fast song with a great main riff that guides the whole song,this song appeared on GH2.

And so on the album is full of great songs like “Love Train” “Pyramid” “Vagabond” “Colossal” and “White Unicorn”,some fast songs like “Apple Tree” and “Witchcraft”,and some mellow ones like “Mind’s Eye”, “Where Eagles Have Been” and “Tales From The Forest Of The Gnomes”.

The voice of Andrew can reach very high tones like in woman or nice harmonic singing like in Where Eagles Have Been which turns andrew into a very diverse singer

Wolfmother is IMO the revival of Hard Rock on an era dominated by pop, hip hop and punk rock music,If you want some good rock music this band is for you

Score: 9.0

-Chacho

This album had a huge amount of hype coming into it. Vampire Weekend had all the music blogs buzzing about how well the album would do, or fail, or anything. All eyes were on Vampire Weekend. But now that the album has come out and set a little bit, how did it go?

This album plays out well. They have really well done songs here. These all sound like instruments we have all heard before, but in a different kind of music. Like Caribbean music or something else, but not in this kind of music. At least not for me. But it works pretty well, and they keep the album from seeming too heavy at times. Even on the slower songs; Which, for me, was nice.

But it is definitely obvious that their strength is in higher tempo songs. Songs such as A-Punk, the most well known song so far, M79, and Walcott. I enjoyed these songs a lot. I think it is how they should be more of the time. I also wish the album was longer it was only around 35 minutes, but the short songs do work pretty well. These are my only real problems with the album though.

It plays through as a pretty good album; Streaks of slower songs are broken up by faster ones to keep some interest. I absolutely love their main song “A-Punk.” They are working full force on this song. The fast guitars, simple drums, and the breakups with violins and other instruments, then coming back into the song again with yells that sound reminiscent of “The Go! Team.” The album also has a very fitting ending in the song, “The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance.” Its a pretty catchy ending, but it eases you out of the album very well. The orchestration and guitars and drums go together nicely.

This is a well done freshman album by these 4 guys. I think they lived up pretty well to the hype, and I can’t wait to hear more from them in the future.

Tracklisting:
1. Mansard Roof
2. Oxford Comma
3. A-Punk
4. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
5. M79
6. Campus
7. Bryn
8. One (Blake’s Got A New Face)
9. I Stand Corrected
10. Walcott
11. The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance

Score: 8.0

-G

Well lets start this review with some BG info on what HAARP is.

HAARP IS A MASS DESTRUCTIVE WEAPON – NOT PART OF ANY NEGOTIATIONS

From a military standpoint, HAARP is a weapon of mass destruction. Potentially, it constitutes an instrument of conquest capable of selectively destabilising agricultural and ecological systems of entire regions.

While there is no evidence that this deadly technology has been used, surely the United Nations should be addressing the issue of “environmental warfare” alongside the debate on the climatic impacts of greenhouse gases.

The use of HAARP-if it were to be applied-could have potentially devastating impacts on the World’s climate.

HAARP antenas

Well now that you know why is the album named that way lets get down to bussines

This a live album recorded at wembley stadium on 2006 the album will be released on march 17 (Im reviewing from a leak but no worries since im planning to buy it day 1) and it will come with a dvd of the concert

The album counts with 14 songs including some of they’re greates hits like starlight, hysteria or knights of cydonia

The album got a nice quality sound for a live recording, all the songs sound much better live imo they got more life and more vibe to it and the band makes some good improvisation on some songs to keep it entertaining,the tracks arrengement is pretty nicely done exept for the last song which didnt fit at all as a closure for the album.

The singing is terrific amazing job by mat bellamy and also great musicianship by all band members

Something i didnt like is that it was way too short imo the cd ends pretty fast and you end up wanting more

HAARP is an awesome piece of music with a few mistakes more in the production area than in the actual music,definitely a must have for any muse fans out there

TRACKLIST

“Intro”

‘Knights Of Cydonia’
‘Hysteria’
‘Supermassive Black Hole’
‘Map Of The Problematique’
‘Butterflies’
‘Invincible’
‘Starlight’
‘Time Is Running Out’
‘New Born’
‘Unintended’
‘Microcuts’
‘Stockholm Syndrome’
‘Take A Bow’

SCORE: 8.5

-ChaCho