Janszoon

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

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BIG NEWS UPDATE
My brother saw the CD's that I had checked out of the library ("Oceania" by The Smashing Pumpkins and "Axis: Bold As Love" by Jimi Hendrix), so he brought down his CD collection is allowing me to "do what I will" with them. That means review. But, in order to keep things balanced, I'll see what other things of other genres I can find. Thank you guys for your requests, this journal is now really gonna take off!

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Powerstars

Review #009 - "Gypsyhook" by Sonny Moore (AKA Skrillex)

This is one of the different things I was talking about. In 2009, before Sonny Moore (AKA Skrillex) hit it big with his dubstep stuff, he recorded an EP of Electronic songs called Gypsyhook. He was also supposed to record an LP, but the tapes went missing and he took a completely different approach: Dubstep. So, let's take a look at Skrillex before Skrillex was Skrillex.

1. Gypsyhook
Quite a catchy little song. Sonny sings well, albeit sometimes sounds a little odd. This song could've been a big hit had it been released as a single, but not in a bad way.

2. Mora
Quite possibly the most famous of the "Skrillex before Skrillex was Skrillex" tracks, this one is a heavy electro track with a few clear rock influences such as the synth crunching resembling guitar crunching, and just generally the presence of distorted guitar sounds. It does sound a bit like the stuff Sonny became known for, but not much.

3. Copaface2
Intro almost reminds me of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," in the most mediocre possible way. It gets better from there. Out of the 3 songs that aren't remixes on here, I gotta say, this one foreshadows Sonny's future the most with the heavy bass. Ending is real nice.

4. Gypsyhook (Vs. DMNDAYS)
Ooh. I like this. Bassalicious. Not much to say, a nice mindless remix of a good song.

5. Mora (Vs. The Toxic Avenger)
Neat smooth little intro there. Then comes the bass. This is a very nice remix and is very much a precursor to Sonny's later work, like much of the EP. Later on, it even draws influences from Glitch, which is really cool.

6. Mora (Vs. LAZRtag)
Even more bass heavy, I can't say much about this track that hasn't been said of the others. Although, I must say, the heavy bass really compliments the vocals here.

7. Copaface2 (Vs. Dan Sena)
The song is one that was meant to be played in clubs in an extended mix. With it's bass, drums, bleeps, and bloops, heck, even some symphonic elements, this may be the most danceable song on the album.

8. Kai Sui
"Mora," but in gratuitous Japanese. Just weird, not sure if I like it or not.

Conclusion: A cool thing to listen to hear the roots of the single most controversial dubstep (I'm sorry people who consider Skrillex Brostep or whatever) artist of all time.

Final Score: 70/100 (Danceable, but mildly forgettable)

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Powerstars

Review #010 - "Nevermind" by Nirvana

Ah yes, as some of you may have read from my signature, this is my favorite album of the moment as of Late May/Early June 2013. This is one from my brother's previously mentioned collection. I had wanted to hear this album for a while, and while looking through the collection, I found that I had it, so I popped that sucker in. I watched a documentary on it's history also, so I know a thing or two about it. Let's do it.

1. Smells Like Teen Spirit
One of the two tracks that I already knew going in, Kurt Cobain hated this song. It came from when his ex-girlfriend wrote "Kurt smells like Teen Spirit" on his wall. When finding out that Teen Spirit was a deodorant, he was very disappointing. Still, a great song. Not one of Nirvana's finest, but still, as my brother put it, "the theme song of the early '90s."

2. In Bloom
My favorite single from the album, also one of the two that I knew coming into this album. A song about the underground music scene, the verses are groovy with the drums and bass, and the chorus is stereotypical Nirvana awesome. I really love the video for this, where the band stars on a '50s/'60s-esque variety show and then trashes their instruments at the end.

3. Come As You Are
Cool, chill song. One of the songs where you can understand what Kurt is saying is what we needed. The guitar has some cool EQ on it, and overall, it's an amazingly catchy song that I'm surprised wasn't a hit. The hit of the album was "Teen Spirit" and the label thought it would be "Lithium." If I had to guess, I'd think this would be the one. Only real problem I have with the song is that the line "I don't have a gun" is very painful after Cobain's death.

4. Breed
One of the first truly heavy songs on the album. As Butch Vig put it (Paraphrasing here), "Even if you couldn't quite understand what he was singing about, you knew it was intense as hell." I really love this song with it's guitars and Kurt's constant yelling. Yelling Kurt is Kurt at his best. Not much more you can say but SHE SAID! SHE SAID! SHE SAAAAAAAAAAID!

5. Lithium
As previously mentioned, the label thought this would be the hit of the album, and it certainly has the makings of one. It's one of the few Nirvana songs you could dance to, though, upon further inspection, the lyrics are rather dark. He's imagining having friends, not to mention the whole, "I kill you, I'm not coming back!"

6. Polly
A song written about a rape victim at a punk concert. The twist? It's written from the perspective of the rapist. One of the things that adds to the eeriness is the simple cheap sound of the guitar. Another cool thing about the song is how Krist holds it together with a little bass groove. It's a great song.

7. Territorial Pissings
We open with Krist singing "Get Together." Then we get heavy. This song isn't really all that memorable, except when Kurt's tone completely goes and he's screaming at the top of his lungs.

8. Drain You
Kurt considers this one of the finest songs he's ever written, and that's a point that's hard to argue. It's a fairly cheery alt. rock song until you realize it's about two babies in the womb draining each other. Yeah.

9. Lounge Act
Underrated, but still forgettable. Bass is nice, though.

10. Stay Away
Another catchy heavy song. I don't really have much to say. STAAAAAAAAAAY. STAAAAY AWA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

11. On A Plain
A pretty catchy song about writer's block that has also been interprited about being how hard Kurt can be to understand sometimes due to the line "What the hell am I trying to say?" The ending is nice, showcasing the vocal harmonies and the original take also had some synth at the end which many hate but I like.

12. Something In The Way
Kurt is once again hard to understand, but that's because of his sad mumbling. Very melancholy song, and also my personal favorite song from the album. It's so amazingly good, I love it, I can't describe how good it is.

Conclusion: No, I'm not reviewing "Endless, Nameless" because my copy doesn't have it. Anyways, this is an amazing album with a few amazing standout songs. If you don't already own it, you should pick it up right now!

Final Score: 95/100 (Dude, Kurt, you're awesome!)

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Trollheart

Never got the appeal of Nirvana. Hate "Teen spirit" and well, that's about it. If that's seen as their best then I need go no further. How they became the spokesmen for a generation is quite frankly beyond me, but then I'm a bitter old man, so what do I know? Good review, but definitely not ever a band that's going to get anywhere near my ears.

Matter of interest, who is Krist?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

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Krist Noveselic, the bassist of Nirvana. "Teen Spirit," in my opinion, is not their best, even Kurt Cobain hated it later in his life as I said in the review. Kurt's personal favorite is "Drain You" while I'm partial to "In Bloom," "Lithium," "Breed," and "Something In The Way." Oh well. Nirvana can't be everyone's cup of tea. Just curious, what do you think of the Foo Fighters?

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Dark Horse

Teen spirit is almost never considered nirvana's best, though. In Utero is a much better album.

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Wouldn't know if it's better, only heard Nevermind. I'm interesting in grabbing "Bleach," "Incesticide," and "In Utero" though. Also, Trollheart, if I send ye the album, will you review it?

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Powerstars

Sorry guys, no new review this week. I'm kinda burnt out. :/ Next week, I promise.

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Powerstars

I'm not going to review this album because I don't know (or care, in some cases) about some of the respective artists and I don't really know how to approach reviewing a live album. But I am going to rant. Why? Because in all, the concert featured 62 songs. But the album only has 24. I understand they wanted to fit it in the space of a double album and all, but here's an idea: if we had a triple/quadruple album, we could raise more money to help New York recover from the god dang hurricane! I understand it may take time to produce the album and such, but personally, I think the audio sounded fine at the concert itself, it didn't need much production. Heck, I probably could've produced everything in Audacity myself.

Second thing wrong with this rushed release is the fact that 2 of the artists from the concert aren't even on the album. First up is Kayne West (Which I'm not too bummed about, but still), and second, and way more maddening is the removal of "Cut Me Some Slack" by Paul McCartney and the remaining members of Nirvana...Sirvana, if you will. I might've let it slide if I thought it was because Courtney Love would've sued (Being Courtney Love and all), but no! It's on the Sound City soundtrack, which I now have to go buy because, for one reason or another, they decided including one of the highlights (along with The Who doing "Bell Boy" with Keith Moon via archival footage, also not included on the album) wasn't gonna be a good idea! *sigh* Hopefully I'll get a new review out this week, but ya never know, so until next time, peace!

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