What? He posted on time and for more than 100 words?

On time but still a dollar short.  How did that happen?

KKCK:

White Tie Affair “Candle (sick and tired)”
What, we’re a formal establishment now?  Well then, let me say that the melodious sounds of the White Tie Affair are not of the most exquisite upbringing, but this ragamuffin band of youngsters blend their synthesized beats with a contemporary pop-rock sound that is delightful as music at your more rambunctious tea parties.  Smashing.

Christina Milian “Us Against the World”
When Ms. Milian dropped “AM to PM” I thought she’d be sticking around and having a solid, Pink-esque career.  Instead, she had the minor hit “Dip It Low” (with the slightly odd video of her pouring oil or something on herself) and she went on to star in such…video games as Need for Speed: Undercover.  This song isn’t bad, but it doesn’t stand out from songs of a similar genre. 

The Offspring “Kristy, Are You Doing OK?”
When did the Offspring become a comma band?  They follow up “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid” with this number.  Consider that both have commas and both commas are near words starting with “K”.  Plus, “are” and “far” share two common letters.  The new song has one less letter, but one more contraction that, when removed and replaced with “you are”, brings the total of both songs to nineteen.  Plus, they both employ “are” and “you” but reversed.  The only logical theory I can offer is that Kristy is the kid who went far, and is now having trouble with fame.  True, listening to the lyrics might also solve this riddle, but how can you ignore those patterns?  It’s math people.  Oh, and the song is the closest I can recall the Offspring getting on the charts with something ballad-like

BONUS last week bits

Saving Abel “18 Days”
“Rarr!  Rawk band rock out!  Rawk band sing bout sex.  Rawk band need more airplay.  Me know!  Ballad aimed at top 40!  We play, fans make audience fire.  We get rawk groupies.  RAAWWWWK!”
I can only theorize this is the thought process behind this song.  Granted, maybe they aren’t as Neanderthal-rock as Hinder (because, you know, books are lame and for losers) but they sound enough like them for me to chuck ‘em in that bin.  If you’re into it, enjoy it.  I’m not, so let’s move on.

All-American Rejects “Gives You Hell”
Ever since “Swing Swing” I’ve been expecting this band to release a single I didn’t like.  The thing is, they don’t.  This song has a great chorus to sing along to when you’re in the mood to sing a song with a certain someone in mind who you aren’t wishing good tidings towards. 

Alter Bridge “Watch Over You”
If ever this band did a song that Creed could do, this one is it.  However, hearing Myles Kennedy sing it instead of Scott Stapp makes me not hate it.  So…I don’t know what else to say.  Awkward.

Pick to click last week: All American Rejects
Pick to click this week: White Tie Affair

I’m currently trying to pick my top 20 albums of 2008.  Much like 2007, there were a lot of good songs, and a lack of good, cohesive, solid front-to-back albums.  There’s always the chance I missed the best album of the year, but I’ll try to stand by my choice in the coming years.  For the readers at wordpress, here’s a look back at my choices over the years:

1992 AC/DC Live
1993 Anthrax [sound of white noise]
1994 Dangerous Toys Pissed
1995 Warrant Ultraphobic
1996 Sheryl Crow Sheryl Crow
1997 Megadeth Cryptic Writings
1998 Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe
1999 Marvelous 3 Hey! Album
2000 Sarah Harmer You Were Here
2001 Josie and the Pussycats Josie and the Pussycats: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
2002 Reverend Horton Heat Lucky 7
2003 Evanescence Fallen
2004 The Wildhearts The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed
2005 Fiona Apple Extraordinary Machine
2006 MC Lars The Graduate
2007 Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight

Read into that list what you will. 

Inspiration has been striking me a lot more lately, which sucks because I bruise easily.  I mean blog easily.  I mean I’ve started a new project, sort of.  The picture that inspired this new undertaking can be found at 52cards.wordpress.com.  Like Cliffhanger Theater, this one will be a year long project, but with weekly updates instead of daily ones.  I’m working on the first post, which should be up sometime tomorrow.  My top album of 2008 should be up here a bit later. 

If you don’t stop by later, have a great New Year’s Eve, and a great 2009.  If you do, just scroll down and read this line again.

Last week, this week, and Thursday?

I’ll go back and do a bit o’ commentary on the new songs from last week tomorrow, along with some words on the new songs.

Thursday I launch my big blog project for 2009.  Early discussion and a preview is available now.  Do take a gander at the image I’ve posted.  I’d like to hear what the first, second or even third thing you think of is.

Oops…forgot to post here

Frig!

New this week on KKCK:

Saving Abel “18 Days”

All-American Rejects “Gives You Hell”

Alter Bridge “Watch Over You”

I didn’t write much else at MySpace, as I didn’t have the time.  I don’t have a lot to say about this week’s new stuff other than the Rejects song is better than the other two.  I hope everyone’s Xmas time went well, and I’ll hopefully have my top albums of 2008 done for Wednesday.

More new songs than degrees outside

Well, not today, but when we added them.

KKCK:

Kanye West “Heartless”
I’m slowly warming to the new sound of Kanye.  I still miss his rapping, but something about “Love Lockdown” makes me turn it way up.  This song has that potential.  The way Kanye moved on stage on SNL (technical problems aside) I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to do a rock record next.  He certainly had all his lead singer moves down.

Ne-Yo “Mad”
“Miss Independent” didn’t last too long, but this song swoops in to take its place.  The song sings the familiar refrain of not wanting to go to bed mad.  I think most everyone who’s got someone has been there.  I envision a lot of calls for this song from guys who are trying to patch things up with their girlfriend and/or wife. 

Katy Perry ”Thinking of You”
Ms. Perry invited scandal and buzz with “UR So Gay”.  She then teased men and infuriated others by proclaiming “I Kissed a Girl”.  Then she kept it moving and toned things down with “Hot n’ Cold”.  Now she’s just going for the big hit with the ballad, after already scoring two number one songs.  I applaud her for a great plan, but she’s almost setting her next album up to be a dud if it doesn’t have the hit power this one has. 

Buckcherry “Don’t Go Away”
Don’t go away?  Is that the best line you can think of?  Dude, you’ve been lit up on cocaine, called her a crazy bitch, then claimed you were too drunk to WHAT and now your best tactic is to say “Don’t Go Away”?  Oh, you framed the line inside a ballad worthy of your 80s metal heroes?  Well, that’s different.  Snug that bandanna and get those bics flicked people.

Pick to click: Katy Perry

Year end top album lists are starting to pop up here and there.  Rolling Stone went with TV on the Radio, while their readers picked The Killers.  The reader pick surprised me, but the magazine pick I still can’t wrap my head around.  I’m still chapped at how much I didn’t like TV on the Radio’s last CD, so I haven’t even given a thought to checking out the new one.  I still haven’t met a fan of the band, nor someone who can tell me why TV on the Radio is such a big deal to some music fans, and a total unknown to others.  NPR listeners picked the CD from Fleet Foxes.  I almost picked that up back when this town had a Starbucks.  I heard one song (“He Doesn’t Know Why”) and that didn’t do much for me.  Is the rest of the CD like that, or is it all pretty much like that?  I’m going to start reviewing the year that was 2008 in more detail next week.  If anyone has a CD to recommend, let me know ASAP.  I always hate to hear something that would have been on my list after I made the list.

Over the past week, I’ve been working on getting my mitts on the albums I didn’t have by Matthew Good and the Matthew Good Band.  I first heard MGB when the Muchmusic feed was still on the digital tier, before it was replaced with the at-first-promising but now-really-disappointing Fuse.  I’d heard a song or two during VeeJay sets with Rachel Perry and Ed the Sock (among others), and they also made Mr. Good sound like a really interesting fellow.  A few years later, I was browsing the used CDs at the dearly departed Sound Station in Brookings, and I found a copy of the US release of Beautiful Midnight.  I thought it was worth seven bucks to give it a whirl, and it won me over after one listen.  Years later, after having no luck finding his stuff in the States, I found a few albums used when Kate and I were honeymooning in Winnipeg.  Later that year, I downloaded his stellar 2007 album Hospital Music at iTunes.  Getting the rest of his material was on my list of things to download, but for some reason or other I kept putting it off until this past week.  While listening to a song today, I thought about why I liked Matthew Good, and I have no idea.  I just do, and that’s a bit weird to me.  It isn’t like the music is that different than stuff I normally listen to, but I really don’t know why I enjoy listening to him so much.  It occurred to me that maybe it’s because he’s an artist I can claim as my own around here.  There aren’t many Matthew Good fans in the United States, and from what I’ve read he’s fine with that.  That has always struck me as an odd reason to like a band/artist, so today I’m recommending anyone who hasn’t checked out a song by either Matthew Good solo or the Matthew Good Band.  I’d be curious to hear from anybody who hasn’t heard him before and their first impressions of Mr. Good.

So…that’s all that’s really on my mind right now.  We’ll call it good for today (not an intentional pun).

4 songs get 4 words each.

Can I do it?

I really think so.

KKCK:

Britney Spears “Circus”
Tarty dancy basic pop.

We the Kings “Secret Valentine”
Rock? Sure.  Why not.

Paramore “Decode”
Slow and different.  Likey.

Vincenza DeCasare “Silent Screams”
Hard name to pronounce.

Pick to click: Paramore

It’s hard to stop.

Perhaps a new subject?

Television has been good.

No movies interest me.

Kate is still great.

Braeden is crying less.

Reflux was the cause.

That did not work.

Maybe South Dakota?  Perhaps.

Nothing new going on.

Work is going fine.

No shortage of commercials.

Diet Coke is tasty.

At least for today.

I had a thought.

Should I join Twitter?

Or maybe Last FM?

Does that one qualify?

Is FM a word?

I am counting it.

Is this old yet?

I think it is.

Well, that is all.

We will talk again.

Does next week work?

It does for me.

Help.  I can’t stop.

Did you know that…

…my lucky number is…

…four?  Ellipses are cheating.

Oh!  I almost forgot.

New Galactica in January.

SciFi has a trailer.

Check it out now.

I will wait here.

Okay, now I’m done.

Godzilla vs. Snot-zilla (oh, and songs too)

Sorry for the title.  With the cold I have I feel like a snot-zilla.  It does beg the question: is “Godzilla” the second best Blue Oyster Cult hit, or does that title go to “Burnin’ for  You”?

Think about it.  Then, think about these.

KKCK:

The Fray “You Found Me”
Am I the only one who finds it funny that ABC is using this song to promote “Lost”?  If you dug the Fray’s piano rock the last time around, this song won’t do much to change your mind.  This song actually sounds like a second album song, as the band’s sound is more…well, just more.  Everything seems bigger this time around, and that’s not uncommon for a young band.  This is probably the most time and money they’ve spent on an album, and the pressure to get it right with a fickle audience has caused many a band to press.  The Fray don’t deviate from their sound, but rather they just make it a bit bigger and more sweeping without totally ruining how they sound.  This should be a big hit, but I’ve been wrong before.

Lesley Roy “Unbeautiful”
This new Irish singer has been a project in the works for a few years, and now Jive is reaping some return.  Her wiki entry links to a Starpulse article that claims her sound is a mix of Avril Lavigne and Melissa Ethridge.  I get more of a Dar Williams with Lucinda Williams, or at least Lucinda’s smoking habit (does she smoke?  her voice tells me yes but really I don’t know).  The song gets points for tripping my spell-check as well, as “unbeautiful” hasn’t made it into the lexicon like “meh” or “truthiness”.  Upon spell-checking, those words aren’t found either.  Get with it wordpress.

Pink “Sober”
Here we have a star lamenting the end of her hard partying ways.  Oddly, it isn’t Britney.  What I really love about Pink is that she’s not afraid to tackle subjects and concepts her contemporaries avoid.  The song isn’t a mover like “So What” but it doesn’t tread into mushy ballad-land either.  It’s a slower pink song, and those tend to do very well.  Here’s hoping Pink sticks around a while.

Pick to click: Pink, just barely over the Fray, who are just barely over Lesley Roy.  This was a good week.

Have you seen this story at CNN about “Tivo Guilt”?  Isn’t it amazing that technology both solves old problems and somehow creates new ones?  I’m totally there as far as Tivo guilt (though technically mine is Moxi guilt).  I’m three weeks behind on “Terminator: TSCC” and Kate asked why I’m still recording it if I’m not into it anymore.  The thing is that show is my second favorite show (“30 Rock” FTW) but I tend to put it off until the weekend, and the last few weekends I’ve been so tired after the Shag I just go to bed.  If I let it slide much longer, I’ll have four episodes in the DVR.  That’s a time commitment akin to watching the first two Terminator movies.  It doesn’t help that I record two shows that are on four nights a week (Daily and Colbert) and two shows that are on five nights a week (“X-Play” and “Late Late Show w/Craig Ferguson”).  The article hits the nail on the head about TV becoming almost a chore because the box only has so much space.  If the hard drive was bigger I have a feeling the problem would only get worse, because the urge to “watch it later” would be stronger.  I have most of the weekend off, and we specifically planned for a weekend where we didn’t have any plans, so hopefully I’ll find out what John, Sarah and Cameron have been up to.

Since Thanksgiving, the only real update on my front is the cold.  Kate does not have it yet, which is really odd.  We’re totally screwing up the order in which illness is being passed around.  I just checked, and Kate is still being an all-star mom.  Braeden is another story.  He cries.  A lot.  A lot lot lot.  Sometimes he’ll be happy giggly baby and then he goes right to screaming his head off.  It has been the cause of some stress and frustration for Kate and I, because all we want to do is make it better, but it seems nothing does.  The doctor thinks it could be acid reflux, so we’re trying some baby-prevacid or something like that.  The kick in the pants is that Kate’s friends who have babies don’t have this problem (seriously…to a person they’re all raising little angels or something).  She needs to hear from some people who raised little banshees.  The real irony here is that I do know of one mother who had a baby who screamed all the time.  My mother was that mother.  For years my mom has told me she could not wait for me to have my own kids, and she laughed a bit maniacally each time she said it.  It turns out I was a lot like Braeden in the crying all the time department, but I’m at work eight hours a day.  Kate is the one who’s getting what I deserve, and that is totally not fair.  Sure, I get a few hours of “wahhhhh!” when I wake up or get home, but it really isn’t right that Kate has to deal with my bad baby karma.  Parents of banshees, help me out.  We can’t be the only ones raising an air raid siren.

I’m contemplating what to do with my blogs in January.  Russ4life isn’t changing, and my MySpace blog isn’t going away (it would be nice if they would add some new freakin’ features…the blog interface is almost the same as it was the day I signed up, and I lost count of how many wordpress updates have happened since I signed up).  Cliffhanger Theater will come to an end in February, as the story will finally be done.  I’ll either start a new one but not a daily one, and the characters will be different.  I might go back to some of the characters someday.  I’ve found myself getting so attached to some of them.  I’ve spent a little time out of each day with them, and now that the story is building to a conclusion I’m having trouble deciding who gets to make it to the ending.  I thought of doing a “Cliffhanger Theater: Director’s Cut” where I go back and actually clean things up, proofread, and fix bad dialogue.  Kate wants me to condense it into something I could try to get published.  One Month in 1984 will probably get one more entry, and then it will probably get rebooted.  I feel I’ve purged my brain of all of my thoughts on my time in New Mexico, and after wrapping it up sometime soon I’ll start the blog over with a new focus and theme, but I’ll keep the URL the same just in case I manage to get back to Farmington someday.  Verbiage Dump has settled into a nice mirror for my MySpace blog, and a place to stick other odds and ends about music.  KKCK Music News is still around until KKCK’s website comes back.  After that, I’m not sure what I’ll do with it, since everything I do there I’ll be doing at the KKCK site.  One blog I have a link to at Russ4life that is inaccessible is 13shots.  That was my original book idea, and I would still like to write it someday.  The problem is that when I started, I was dealing with a lot of sadness that I’ve carried around for a long time.  When I started working on Cliffhanger Theater, the purpose was to get practice writing in hopes of making 13shots better.  Writing on a regular basis has actually brought me out of the cloudy skies, so my head isn’t the right place to write 13shots right now (it will be a very depressing book in spots).  The time may come again someday where I’ll be in the right headspace to work on 13shots, but until then I’ll keep it hidden so I have the basic structure ready to go.  Originally I wanted to do some fanfic, but I’ve had plenty of original ideas since then.  I might use the One Month in 1984 URL for some of that, but I’m still deciding. 

Hey, two long blogs two weeks in a row.  How ’bout that?