Oh you know I can’t wait for this to come out. I love this teaser, it is sort of Mad Max and comic book like and you all know how I feel about Gerard Way. Check out his red hair in here.
Rumor has it their new CD, Danger Days: True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoy will be out November 22, 2010.
I had to borrow Sweetpea’s car yesterday because Blane had mine. I was in a state of shock as I hadn’t seen the inside of it in a while. It looked as if it had never been cleaned. Much like her room.
The floors were completely covered with empty soda cans, candy wrappers, school books, artwork… even clothes. If I had the time, I would have opened all her doors and cranked up the leaf blower on that interior. I didn’t, I was running late.
Getting out of our driveway takes great skill and patience. Precision driving.
We have these rear entry garages with a narrow alley behind the house. Here’s a photo.
If you’re lucky, your driveway lines up with the neighbor’s behind you. Not the case with us. Ours backs up to a tall wooden fence.
I start the car and the CD player is on but between songs. I usually like Sweetpea’s music so I don’t bother to change anything. I concentrate on getting out. I’m late. There is a film on the windows and the sunlight is giving me no visibility. So I roll down the window and am backing out when the music starts.
Hip hop/rap/crunk, not typical for Sweetpea, but whatever, I’m backing out.
And the lyrics start up. Loud. “Back That Ass Up…” (Repeat a few times)
Okay, I’m no prude, I can handle it. I actually think it’s a little funny because I’m backing the car out. The song gets worse, however. Seriously nasty, like worse than Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop.” I stop the car to listen to the lyrics, I mean how bad can a song get?
Bad. So bad I can’t even repeat what I heard.
I was not the only one concerned about these lyrics. The neighbor heard it all and decided to peep her head out the gate to see who was playing that. I hurried up and shut the music down, gave her a weak wave and drove off. Guess they won’t be trick-or-treating at my house this year.
My God I’m so embarrassed.
I need to wash my kid’s ears out with soap. Mine too. My ears, my ears!
One of Sweetpea’s friends came over last week saying she had to offload two Honda Civic Tour (Dallas concert) tickets due to a scheduling conflict.
Spanky and I just looked at each other, quite surprised at our good fortune. Headlining that tour was Panic At The Disco, one of her favorite bands. I never liked them until a few weeks ago, with the release of their “Pretty. Odd.” CD.
Spank and I dropped everything and went, of course. She says she feels she must to do a review of the show so people will open their minds to this band. I don’t know if she’ll get to it though, she has a pretty bad cold right now.
I’ll give you a run down of what it was like for me.
First, the cool factor. There is nothing about being at a concert that makes me feel cool or hip, especially one such as this where most of the fans are teenaged girls and I am one of the oldest persons in the place. I keep in mind that all the teenagers at these concerts probably don’t feel cool, either (it comes with being that age), AND I don’t think a single person notices me, anyway.
Is it horrifying? Maybe for a hip music reviewer who can’t stop thinking about how out of place he/she is for being there at the age of over 25. I find it taints their work and the reviews are not usually well thought out but a hit job on the talent because of who their audience is. They should actually pay attention to these acts because they grow with their audiences and change styles as these kids get older.
Panic At The Disco (PATD) is a perfect example of this. Spanky started listening to them when she was about twelve. I wasn’t too crazy about their music then, it was a bit on the whiney side. Three years later, this band has a new CD, “Pretty. Odd.” and it is exceptional. I’d think if one likes the Beatles, they’d like some of these songs. Maybe. Beatles fans can be a bit possessive about a music style and shout, “That’s a rip-off!” I don’t feel this way since I’m not happy with a finite set of tunes.
Now, about the show.
Starter bands usually suck because they’re new and trying to make a name for themselves. We were downright shocked with the first band, Phantom Planet (here’s their MySpace page). They’re not new, but I think they’ve recently become “quite good.” I don’t even know how to categorize them, it’s like classic and new rock rolled into one package. Their live performance was spectacular and missing their set because they are the first band would be a big mistake for anyone with a Honda Civic Tour ticket. Trust me on that. It’s forty-five minutes of pure music bliss.
The second band, The Hush Sound was excellent, if you like breeezy California rock. The front-woman, Greta Salpeter’s voice is pristine, but sounds a bit too much like other popular front women vocalists such as Hayley Williams of Paramore, Avril Lavigne, and Lacey Mosley of Flyleaf. After about three songs, Spank and I were hoping they’d hush their sound as it got into Brady Bunch territory.
Third in the lineup, Motion City Soundtrack, another of Spanky’s favorite pop-rock bands. I don’t like their music, but they performed well. I was fixated on Jesse Johnson’s (synthesizer) dramatic emo bang. One of the things I like to do at these concerts is get at least one great photo of something unusual. That was my challenge of the night, to capture this thing. The guy has this chunk of hair in the front that is about a foot long while the rest of his hair is buzz cut length. The entire time he plays, he rocks his head back and forth really fast and this hair thing is an act of its own.
Come on, emo bang, cooperate.
Yes, you.
It’s hard enough fighting the lights and fog.
Don’t get all smug. you haven’t won, yet.
Ha ha, Gotcha!
Now for the headliner, Panic At The Disco, which started at about 10 PM. Their lead vocalist, Brendon Urie pulled off his part with perfection. I usually find that about half the time at any given show of any given band the vocals are not en forme. All four bands on this tour did surprisingly well as far as vocals go. It could be that this is the first week of the tour and voices are still fresh.
Okay, Spanky just passed by and said to save her some space for her forthcoming review. Yay, Spank saved the day. It won’t be in this post as she hasn’t started it yet.
In the meantime, I’ve uploaded a few photos here, if you’re interested.
Here’s a YouTube I uploaded of one of my favorite songs from their current CD. What’s funny about this video is what’s happening at the beginning, left of screen. A security guard struggles to heave a kid out of the pit. Reminds me of birthing. From my perspective, a mom bringing her kid to a concert… well you get the metaphor.
Maybe it’s just me, but I can hear Spanky’s voice singing in there. Funny thing.
Oh, and about the venue. What’s odd is how the name of the venue changes with the type of music… They call it the Palladium Ballroom for rock concerts, but Gilley’s the rest of the time.
Gilley’s as in Urban Cowboy. Mechanical bulls. Country music. Small place. Small crowd.
This was a great show. Go see it if it comes to your city.
It was no great shock on October 4th that Taking Back Sunday (TBS) announced Fred Mascherino quit their band. The last two times I saw them live, Fred carried them through the show.
Fred was their guitarist and co-vocalist. Even though the spotlights were always focused on the band’s frontman Adam Lazzara – with his good looks and swinging mic act – my eyes were drawn to Fred. He was the one doing most of the vocals while busting ass on that guitar.
It wasn’t always like this. About a year ago, we saw them just after Louder Now was released. Lazzara’s voice was in form. I didn’t even notice Fred too much. Since then, Lazzara’s voice has been in and out, but mostly out. The last two shows, he seemed like a puppet on stage, mostly lip singing to Fred’s vocals. That’s how it looked to me, and it was interesting to watch these guys cover it up. Even more fascinating was that the fans didn’t seem to care or maybe they were just willing to cut Lazzara some slack. I certainly did. Thing is, he wasn’t just hoarse, he lacked energy.
Unlike poor Fred (left, with the white guitar).
I don’t know how TBS will manage without Fred, especially if they will be touring anytime soon. He also wrote a good chunk of their music. Hopefully Lazzara will rest his voice and keep putting out new music. TBS says they are working on a new album.
So what is Fred up to now? Launching his solo career with his band, The Color Fred. I know, that name is just so blah. His first album, Bend to Break will be released on October 30th. There are a few songs on his website and MySpace page to sample. It sounds a bit more acoustic than the new rock he was doing with TBS. If you click this link to preorder, you might be able to score an autographed copy of the CD.
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