Band of Horses - Inifinite Arms

Just picked up the new album from Band of Horses this week called Infinite Arms. Having been a big fan of their first 2 albums I had built up a pretty high level of expectation. These expectations were raised when I caught a clip of one song 'NW Apt' off the album a few days prior to purchasing, so I was amped going into it (not always a good thing).

So I bought from JB Hifi and hurried back to the car to listen and was first greeted by a very low key song to open the album entitled 'Factory' which caught me a bit off guard as I was expecting a bit more oompf for the first song. Though 'Is there a ghost' was the opening track from Cease to Begin which started off slow but it certainly kicked in whereas Factory never gets momentum.

Moving on, the next 2 tracks are solid 'Compliments' (the single) and 'Laredo' then comes one of if not the best track 'Blue Beard' filled with cool melodies, still very chilled but has a classic BOH sound that is unmistakable. One of the beauties of this band is that when you hear their stuff you can't mistake them for anyone else.

From there the album keeps a very slow-medium pace, until Dilly which is a cool beach boys type country pop song. Then only at track 11 do we get to the kick @#!*% driving bass thumping NW Apt. The only song that raises the bar in terms of beats per minute and distorted guitar.

So like I said at the start, my hopes were up after Cease to Begin, which was pretty much flawless, so it was always gonna be hard to top that. Cease also had only 9 tracks (+ a less than 1 min track), Infinite Arms has 12, so if we were to shave off the 3 worst songs it does stack up better.
Unfortunately I don't think there is any song here that will really open them up in terms of singles. this being their major label debut I thought there would be something like that?
Anyway, in summary, too many slow songs, interest lacks in the 2nd half of the album, but enough here to keep me interested for a while. 3.5/5

Band of Horses will be playing the Powerstation on 3 August. Tickets on sale now!
Check out Blue Beard Live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74OKIsePtgg

The Avengers

With the recent release of Iron Man 2 it got me again thinking about the Avengers Movie. For those who don't know the avengers are the Superhero Team that comprises some of the greatest Marvel characters around, some of which have had movies already.
So, to begin with we had the 'real' Hulk movie, starring Edward Norton which was released around 2 years ago, that was then followed by the highly acclaimed Iron Man, which may have been the biggest unexpected hit of the Summer 2008. Now more recently we've had the release of the second Iron Man movie, which I can say is also really good with a much stronger villain in this one. So thats two of our heroes, who will make up the rest? Well, just round the corner next year is the first Thor movie, Starring Chris Hemsworth - he's come a long way from Home and Away! And shortly after that, also next year is the Captain America movie. Called Captain America The First Avenger, which sounds as though it will lead right into the Avengers movie.
Over the years there has been a lot of different heroes making up the team, but here is the list for the movie:
Hulk
Iron Man
Thor
Captain America
Nick Fury
Whatever happens its going to be an epic 2012!

Best Albums Ever

http://www.besteveralbums.com/yearstats.php?y=201

I stumbled across this website in search for a good new album to listen to and I found some interesting ones here. So what they do is take stats from 1600 different album charts to give the greatest albums around.
They have a few diffferent categories, and you can look back to as far as the 1950's.
I don't necessarily agree that they've got the best albums there, but its interesting to read anyway.
Their current top 5 albums for 2010 are:
1. Teen Dream - Beach House
2. Contra - Vampire Weekend
3. Plastic Beach - Gorillaz
4. There is Love in You - Four Tet
5. Transference - Spoon

New Pornographers - Together

Love this band. They're a Canadian Superband of sorts, who craft very interesting melodic indie pop. I saw them in concert last year at the Kings Arms and they were awesome. This is their latest album 'Together' and is due out May. After hearing a few snippets of the new tracks it sounds like some of their best stuff.
Amazon.com says "This is one of the great bands of the last decade at the top of their game"

Check out the single 'Crash years' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SUTizNQgLA

Scott Pilgrim vs the World

http://www.scottpilgrimthemovie.com/

Ok, this movie caught my attention as it sounds pretty different and combines elements of comic books, video games and sweet tunes. So the premise is Scott, 23, meets the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers and totally falls for her. The only problem is he has to defeat her seven evil ex boyfriends before he can have her.

Sounds pretty crazy, but check the trailer out and you'll get the idea of the movie.

Its based on a 6 volume indie comic book of the same name by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Above is a pic from the comic and the movie

Movie comes out around August this year.

General Fiasco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As-Rulo-E4g
These guys are a new young band out of Ireland. I'd describe them as a fresher, more poppy Snow Patrol. They've got some really cool tunes. Check out the youtube link to their single Ever So Shy. If you like that the rest of the album should be your cup of tea too!

Threadless Tshirts

 

I've known about this website for quite a while now, but its very cool and unque so I thought id try and share it with the world. www.threadless.com is an american site where anyone can submit their own design for a tee and if it is accepted will be made into a tshirt for sale on the website. Successful designers get $2000 cash, $500 gift certificate, $500 each time the design is reprinted and opportunities for more moolah if your design wins any awards.

But the beauty of it is there are literally hundreds and hundreds of designs and really cool ones at that. Each tee is unique and different from any other as it is an original design. They're all between $15 - $20 US$, so not too expensive with the current exchange rate. I've chosen just a few up top that I liked, but go check out the website. 

NY's Best Pizza in Akld

Ok so I had heard a myth that circulated for months about a pizza place in Downtown Auckland that made authentic New York style pizza. It took me a while to find it but with my powers of intense googling I found the place and  what followed was the best pizza experience of my life. I found Sals Authentic New York style Pizza http://www.sals.co.nz/ and ordered an 18" Pepperoni Pizza in a box that I almost couldn't fit into my car. It was all I ate for the next 3 days, but man was that a good 3 days!

Go check out Sal's at 4a Commerce St in the City

Someone Still loves You Boris Yeltsin

These guys have been touted as the next big indie thing (by more people that just myself). I'm not typically an indie lover but am loving them right now. They have put out two albums to date and currently working on their third which is being produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie.
I would highly recommend checking them out. I can hear tonnes of influences in them like Wilco, The Shins, Elliot Smith and Guster. So if you're into any of these go and have a listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVJ54VaOsuM&feature=fvst

Pablo Francisco Live

If you've never heard of him, you should. I first saw him on Jay Leno doing stand up 10 years ago and now he's finally coming to NZ for one live show for the comedy festival. he does the best movie trailers voiceover impression you've ever heard.
Check out this link, then grab your tickets at ticketek!
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9pAv-z2ens