One of my favorite indie rockers, Jeff Hanson, was found dead on Friday in his new concrete-floored apartment of an apparent accidental fall, reports the St. Paul, Minnesota Star Tribune (via The Onion A.V. Club).
I was first introduced to Jeff Hanson's music by fellow UCLA Animator, Lena Podesta, who used Hanson's song "Just Like Me" for her film Dead Girl + Live Boy. I was blown away by the delicate vocals so I asked Lena, "who's the chick that does the song for your film?" but Lena corrected me and said "believe it or not, it's a dude" and she lent me Hanson's debut solo CD Son, which is one of my all-time favorites.
Jeff Hanson's death reminds me of Elliott Smith, who also died at a tragically young age, though Hanson did not have the life-long battle with drugs and depression that plagued Smith, and Hanson's death was probably an accident while Smith's was ruled a suicide. Still, Hanson and Smith had very similar guitar and vocal styles and they were both talented musicians, playing almost all of the instruments on the albums they each recorded for the indie label Kill Rock Stars.
I first got into Our Lady Peace after seeing their second album, Clumsy, among a friend's MP3 collection in the dorms at UCLA during my first year of undergrad. I loved what I heard so I immediately bought Clumsy and their first album, Naveed. Since then, I've always downloaded each new album before buying it, usually months in advance of the release date. But I've always, and I mean ALWAYS, bought the CD the first day it was available because I want to support the artist and I prefer CDs over MP3s. Unless it's encoded at 192kbps or higher, MP3s just don't sound as good as CDs and they don't come with the artwork (even when pirates scan the CD booklet, I can't take it with me on the bus).
Well the new OLP album, Healthy In Paranoid Times, was no exception to my download-then-buy routine. Thanks to broadband, I had the entire album on MP3s in less than an hour after learning a new album was going to come out. I've since rocked out to the MP3s right up until today, when the CD was offically released and I bought it at Best Buy along with the new Our Lady Peace: Live DVD. I even deleted the illegal MP3s, though that's entirely an issue of saving hard drive space than disposing of evidence.
I realize that I'm not the typical downloader. Most people download the MP3s and then never buy the CD. And you know, I've downloaded plenty of MP3s and never bought the CD too, but those were crappy albums. If the music industry (and movie industry) would find a way to promote a "try-before-you-buy" service, they might actually make money on CDs (and DVDs). Then again, the record producers would have to first stop wasting millions of dollars on shitty artists who make super-shitty records. If people aren't buying CDs even when they like the album, then they sure as shit aren't gonna buy after they've tried it and it sucks.
Until there's a legal way to preview music and movies online, I'm going to continue to download them first, and then buy the really good CDs and DVDs when they come out, as I've been doing for years.
Anyway, Healthy In Paranoid Times is a damn good album. It's not my favorite Our Lady Peace album (I'd probably rank them in the order that they were released), but it's still rocking stuff (especially for a Canadian band 
). And I'm glad I bought the CD because the booklet is pretty cool. It doesn't have the lyrics (
), but it has a list of statistics of things that happened during the 1165 days it took to record the album and there's a list of recommended websites, several of them are sites that I already frequent (in BOLD).
TO BETTER YOUR HEALTH AND WELLBEING VISIT...
THINKEXIST.COM
ADBUSTERS.ORG (incorrectly listed as ADBUSTERS.COM in the booklet)
THEBROOKLYNRAIL.ORG
WARCHILD.CA
MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY.ORG
NERVENET.INFO
THEONION.COM
CORPWATCH.ORG
OTHERVOICES.ORG
KCRW.COM
ZMAG.ORG
AMNESTY.ORG
RELIEFWEB.INT
OXFAM.ORG
NRDC.ORG
GREENPEACE.ORG
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Current Mood: 
Currently listening to: Healthy In Paranoid Times by Our Lady Peace (duh)
As a huge Soul Coughing fan, it was way over due, but I finally got Mike Doughty's new album, Haughty Melodic.
I loved hearing "Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well" every once in a while on the radio in my car (usually on Indie 103.1) so now I can rock out to it at home like I did all day today.
Two of my all-time favorite albums are Ruby Vroom and Irresistible Bliss (I've actually had to replace Irresistible Bliss cuz I scratched the CD from overuse) so I'm sure Haughty Melodic will quickly join them in the heavy rotation since Doughty's rhymes were always the best part of Soul Coughing for me.
One track on Haughty Melodic, "His Truth Is Marching On," has got me curious though.
They say that God is great/They say that God is love/And I believe them
These are not lyrics I'd have ever expected to hear on Mike Doughty track. I'm wondering if Mike is speaking personally or rather through a character who is exploring his belief in some almighty force. As a fellow human, I totally sympathize with the feeling of being "fucking starved for love", but as a hardcore atheist, I wish more people looked to those around them instead of to the heavens.
Mike Doughty has a website, a blog (updated very regularly), two MySpace profiles (a professional one and a personal one and a Friendster profile.
Michael Connally's Hydro-Foam Plane/Boat/Racer
http://www.michaelconnally.com
MC Frontalot
http://www.frontalot.com/music.html
http://www.peelander-z.com/movie/steak.mov
Ess Tee EEyay Kaaaaaaaaaay
Hey, I have question for you!
How would you like cook your steak?
Medium Rare! Medium Rare! Medium Rare!
S T O... I don't know
S T A... I don't care
Sucks cuz I just gave up meat but this song is making me hungry for a slab of manure-fed cow.
I found this really cool streaming webcast site that plays nonstop japanese music (J-Pop, J-Rock, Electronica and Anime)... even the name is cool:
I stumbled upon the site while searching for the song that plays at the end of episodes 21 and 14 of Samurai Champloo, called "The Million Way Of Drum" by Force of Nature and Nujabes.
Speaking of Samurai Champloo, Nation Public Radio's Day to Day animation critic Charles Solomon recently reviewed Samurai Champloo, Paranoia Agent, and Full Metal Alchemist.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4492335
Samurai Champloo and Paranoia Agent are two of my favorite recent anime releases, and Full Metal Alchemist is currently the most popular anime in Japan.
Today was my monthly Elliott Smith marathon.
I've been an Elliott Smith fan ever since Good Will Hunting, which featured many of his songs and came out right smack dab in the middle of one of the rockiest times in my life (but hey, isn't that what the first year of undergrad is all about?!). And ever since Elliott Smith's apparent suicide last year, I have little monthly marathons where I play all of his albums back-to-back nonstop all day.
I didn't make it very far in my marathon today, though, cuz I found myself listening over and over to the song "Last Call" from his debut album Roman Candle. I was particularly stuck by the lyrics:
You're a crisis
You're an icicle
You're a tongueless talker
You don't care what you say
You're a jaywalker and you just, just walk away
And that's all you do
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