bad blogger! no doughnut

true, true, the blogging tapered off of late (and that's a generous assessment). what can I say? time is in short supply.

the tunes they are a-rockin', though. when I'm not madly duplicating my main playlist to the iPhone, AppleTV, both PSPs, three Macs, the PS3, and now the (cough, cough) BlackBerry, well. you can imagine that takes a bit.

fortunately, the List at present is fairly solid. Here's quick impressions on the Stuff accompanying me as I fly all over the country this spring. cheers.

Lyrics Born, Everywhere at Once
Thank God! I've waited long enough for this to drop. Seeing posters all over San Fran was one of the highlights of that first week out west. New Lyrics Born album? Then all must be all right with the universe after all. Sigh, relief.
See "Don't Change" in particular. Good shit.

Nine Inch Nails, The Slip
Thanks for the free album, Trent! And it's a damn fine piece of work to boot. Bonus!
See "Echoplex", and the lovely "Discipline" for fine returns to NIN form. After the instrumental endlessness that was Ghosts I-IV, I'm glad to have Trent's gravel pit, fuck you like an animal voice scratching the back of my skull again. Hooray!

Coldplay, "Viva la Vida" and "Violet Hill"
Hey, if the album is as good as these two leaks, sign me up, man. At least SOMEbody still wants to take on U2 for Greatest Band in the World.

R.E.M., Accelerate
I know, color me surprised too. First listen didn't do much, then I saw the acoustic video for "Living Well Is the Best Revenge" and something clicked. Now I'm hearing threads of Automatic for the People and Monster weave in to the once-tired Athens sound of R.E.M., the ten-song death-dirge suites that posed as their last couple albums have been forgiven, and by golly we have a Rock and Roll album here. Shocker of the '00s. I thought these boys were toast.

Madonna, Hard Candy
Growing on me. Some of the Pharrell stuff was a little hard to swallow at first. Some of the lyrics are just freaking painful. But it is hard to argue with "Give It 2 Me" and "Dance 2Night" and even "4 Minutes..." once they're tattooed on your cranium. Give the lady credit, she knows the Hook from a mile away, and seldom fails to include it.

Moby, Last Night
I know: is it retro night in here? Apparently so. Everyone I was listening to in the 90's in back in heavy rotation it feels like. This album is not Amazing, but it is Very Good. Once the music is all licensed out to commercials, we can all wallow in its vibe for eternity in 30-second chunks. Thanks, Moby.

Bitter:Sweet, Drama
Supreme Beings of Leisure, 11i
I'm lumping these two together; so far as I can determine, they're pretty much two forks off the same Oversoul 7 road anyway. All I know is when I want to drive to Lounge Town, these are two of my first stops. I'm so delighted to have new albums: having both drop so closely to each other is tiki-licious (I hang my head in shame for writing such dreck. forgive me). The edge definitely goes to SBoL: these cats can Howwwwl.
See especially: "Pieces", "Everything" from SBol, "The Bomb" certainly is by Bitter:Sweet.

The Presets, Apocalypso
I must have done something good to deserve all this slamming music at once. Where do I begin with these nutbags? Take some early Depeche (when there was still a little "Something to Do" metallic crunch to their synthesizers), throw in vocal styling and attitude akin to one of my faves, the Faint. Add a dash of "Paninero" era Pet Shop, a can of Red Bull, some vodka, and mix it up. Loud, rude, a little sweaty. Some hot stranger pressing up against you on the dance floor. Delicious.

Cex, Actual Fucking
Already holds the distinction of Album It Took Me Too Damn Long to Find, Darn It. I've a deep and abiding love for Cex, weird crazy experimental Cex. He played once in Champaign a few years back, an absolute train wreck of a show, but it was I think just before the time this album emerged in 2006, so putting the pieces together after the fact, I begin to see how he was working it all out. "Baltimore" and "Los Angeles" are the real stars here, IMHO. I'm just thrilled he sounds like Cex again. Hoo freaking ray!

Sacha Sacket, Lovers and Leaders
I'm so jazzed that I may get to see Sacha next weekend in Pasadena. L&L is so beautiful, so lovely, you really ought go buy a copy today. You'll feel muuuuch better afterward. Splurge and buy 2004's Shadowed while you are at it, it is excellent and on par with the new disc. And he's dreamy cute too! Sigh.

That's it, folks. Oh sure, there's still some In Rainbows from Radiohead and Distance and Time from Fink in heavy rotation, but that is so 2007. And let's not even mention the new Aimee Mann. Blech!

Now up, up and away!