Roomrunner

Two very good polar opposite releases this weekend

Brutus - Nest: If you're into that Deftones style kinda metal/hard music where there are deliberate attempts to sound graceful and melodic, Nest could be your jam. Lots of well crafted hi/lo compositions.

Laura Stevenson - The Big Freeze: A much more personal output from the country/folk Long Islander. It's personal in both the sound (recorded in her childhood home with little more than her voice, guitair, and some light strings added in), and in the lyrics (a lot of stuff in here she has been keeping in all her life). It's been a few years since her last two albums, which were more of a crowd-pleasing style, but there is something special and precious about this one.

new stuff I've gotten so far:

Foals - Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost (pt 1) : Foals is one of those bands I begrudgingly follow. I always feel like they never live up to the potential they offer, but still make "good enough" albums. This one seems to have a bit more than usual with innovative production tweeks. Some of the stuff on here sounds like a YMO / Radiohead / Phish hybrid. I'd complain about the on the nose lyrics, but honestly, they've never had good lyrics; and we live in a post-satire/subtlety world, so whatever, at least their hearts are in the right place.

Ibibio Sound Machine - Doko Mien : Good funk, mostly sung in Ibibio. The single, "Wanna Come Down" is such a banger, that I was a bit let down by the rest of the full album, but I'm sure it will grow on my over time. Lots of sound to pick apart and listen to again and again.

Stephen Malkmus - Groove Denied : The aged indie hero has had this electronic album on the shelf for years, and finally convinced Matador Records to let him release it. Well... he did it, and I'm happy for him, but this is bad. It's tough to get into, minimalist Kraftwerk-esque, slow music. That ususally isn't a bad thing for me, but Malkmus doesn't have the chops to make it sound compelling, and his usual charms (odd lyrics, out of tune style) have the opposite effect, and just make the songs more annoying. And on top of all that, he doesn't even follow through with it, and just fills the last 10 minutes of the album with guitar/folk driven leftovers. Nothing outstanding on this other than a couple "check it out, he's doing this kind of music" novelty tracks.

The Birthday - Vivian Killers: A once unstoppable power garage rock outfit has had a few rocky releases over the years. Vivian Killers feels like something back on track, but nothing has dramatically stood out. It ranks on the low half on the list of Birthday albums (now on number 10!), but if you're way into this sound you should enjoy it.

I usually skip WM season. I forgot to this year and regret it.

I don’t care about Bryan anymore. He’s been “branded” as a character now, and I’m not seeing the wacky promos about lawns and baby boomers. He’s just a generic heel now.

Kofi sour-pousing with New Day while all they do is knock on Vince’s door and get shot down every week is not compelling, and makes them look like do-nothing geeks. Don’t care about Kofi any more.

No idea who KO is as a humble babyface. Don’t care about him.

Lol Rhonda, made me not care about Becky.

Doing nothing with Asuka.

Generic Shane and Batista heel work.

No idea who Dean is anymore.

Love Rey, Almas, and Joe though!

The only bad thing I have to say about the Chamber match (it was great) is that this is becoming a typical formula for the Chamber. Build the match around an underdog that WWE currently has no intention of actually pulling the trigger on. They did this with Bryan once before, and I think once with Santino? It's just gonna become another predictable thing WWE does that they won't understand why it doesn't work when they do it the next four times.

With that out of the way, Smackdown's prescient for experimenting with champions makes me believe in Kofi for 2019. We've been hearing Xavier talk about this plan for years on podcasts and social media, it's great that Vince is finally warming to it. I hope they go all the way with it, and also never break up The New Day.

It’s a real shame the “I haven’t slept in days, and have serious emotional problems that I cannot comprehend, so I’m just looking for a fight” Dean Ambrose only existed in FCW. I freakin loved that character.

"Hey Rhonda, you're heading to the store, right? Can you pick me up a-"

"Why are you imagining the ligaments of my arms and legs flexing and relaxing to propel me forward and pick up things!? My muscles are none of your business!"

Kris Wolf being happy makes me extra happy.

Like how that other guy tried to get in on it and immediately ate it.

Asuka is talking trash in ring in Japanese now, and it’s the best.

I don’t know how to feel about the new AKFG. So far, the best I can say about it is that the production and mixing is a million times better than the “guitar music factory assembly line” sound of Wonder Future. This new one feels much more alive and vibrant.

The performances and song composition are just... really dull. The LP is mostly ballads, but just because you’re making ballads doesn’t mean you can’t put some good hooks in them, or put some ‘umph’ into the performance.

The frustrating thing is the accompanying EP, Can’t Sleep, rocks! Every single song is catchy and fun. They do interesting things with vocal tuning. Even the ballad at the end is way better. So it’s not like they forgot how to write good songs, they just pushed all the interesting stuff on the the EP for some crazy reason.

It’s like the LP is their buttoned up job interview. Everything is radio appeasing, neat and tidy, colored within the lines. Then the EP is like the weekend version of the band. I dunno, maybe the LP will just click with me after a couple of years, like Fanclub did; but for now it’s kind of tough for me to sit through.

I turn on Raw and not only is the ref a wrestler, but he’s reffing a no DQ ladders march, which doesn’t even need a ref anyway. Checkov’s Referee.

And the betrayal was the most lackadaisical performance I’ve ever seen. Like... laughable.