Nightmare Revisited

as many of you may know, i have loved the nightmare before christmas for many many many years (i think i even saw when it was new in theaters practically 16 years ago). it does hold a special place in my heart. from the creepy cool story that time burton wrote to henry selick's directing to the (ever) masterful music of danny elfman. it's always classic and can really be watched any time of the year. just a great flick.

now in 2006, they released a 2-disc version of the soundtrack. disc one was still the same, but disc two is where is started to get interesting. the majority of the disc are highly forgettable demo versions of many of the songs (when you hear them you can tell why they went the way they did, but it's still cool to hear the evolution of the songs). but the first 5 tracks of the second disc were covers by popular artists. it has marilyn manson doing this is halloween, fiona apple doing sally's song, fall out boy doing what's this?, she wants revenge doing kidnap the sandy claws, and final panic at the disco (also) doing this is halloween. now that right there was the springboard for nightmare revisited. 

nightmare revisited is a compilation cover album. with lots of different bands and artists of all sorts of sounds and background coming together to pay tribute to something that (i'm guessing) they all love. the only thing that is truly original on here (and i have great respect for this) is the original opening and closing. it's been a little while since i've watched the movie so i can't remember if they changed it there (though i think they did), but the narrator at the beginning and the end was eventually re-recorded by patrick stewart and as much as i love that man's voice, it's just not right in my book (but that's pretty much what bruce campbell did on dead next door). so it really is great that they have put that on here. although i can't remember the original narrator's name (and i can't find it on imdb).

it really is a bit astounding how many people they pulled in for this, the only one that had been heard before (to the best of my knowledge) was the manson cover of this is halloween. but for bands you should have heard of before, you have korn covering kidnap the sandy claws (which if you can imagine korn covering it, that is what it sounds like and it's awesome), devotchka performing the opening overture (and i hope that people still remember devotchka from little miss sunshine), amy lee singing sally's song (as much as i don't care for her typically, she does really well with this and i like her version more than fiona's). there is also rise against covering making christmas and (as a bonus track) tiger army doing oogie boogie's song (while it's fun i still like the other version that is on this disc more). all american rejects also have a cover of jack's lament, but i didn't really care for it. it's not a bad song, but the singer's voice bothers me a little. finally, for the shit you should know (at least anyone who knows me will know him) rjd2 doing such a crazy bad ass version of the christmas eve montage. rjd2 was one of the major deciding factors for me to buy this album. 

now for the stuff that you've probably never heard of, but should you check this disc out, it will make you want to check out more of them. the town meeting song being covered by the polyphonic spree (the only reason i even knew they is because of work that they have done with rjd2) is transformed into this monumentally epic 9:50 laid back chillfest. others include nabbed by the yoshida brothers (a japanese duo that combines classic japanese instrumentation with western sound configurations [they also have a song on the animation show one short mt. head]). the (in my opinion) better version of oogie boogie's song is by rodrigo y gabriella and the song sounds like you might think it would by their name. it doesn't have any of the lyrics in it, but it's primarily played acoustically and is also sped up maybe a quarter or half beat (but it might just sound like that to me). also noteworthy are amiina's doctor finkelstein/ in the forest, vitamin string quartet's jack and sally montage, datarock's  to the rescue (super crazy disco bad-ass-ed-ness), and shiny toy guns' finale/reprise.

while i didn't really hate anything on this disc, there are a few tracks that i just don't care for as much as others. i've already mentioned the all american rejects and tiger army songs that i don't really like. of the remaining four tracks i have yet to mention, two of them i could give or take. flyleaf's what's this? and poor jack by plain white t's. neither of them are bad songs, but sometime i feel like listening to them more than i do other times. sparklehorse's jack's obsession is just too toned down and laid back. this is a song of passion and excitement, but here the singer just sounds like he couldn't give a shit. plus (again) the dude's voice just grates on me. lastly, the album leaf covering the end titles. now this one is not bad or even skip worthy. it just isn't especially memorable. it's actually a very good song, but still it makes no impact.

on the whole, this is worth checking out even if you don't dig nightmare but still dig good music. this album will more than likely turn you on to a bunch of music you never knew existed. but then again, anything i write about in here, you out there should be checking out. so go, do it.

Battlestar Galactica (a short love letter)

tonight, as many in the geekdom know, is the series finale of battlestar galactica, or BSG as it's known to us dorks. a little bit of background; this is a recreation of the 70s/80s series of the same name. BSG is a space opera about a band of human trying to survive in space trying to get to earth after their worlds were decimated by mechanized beings known as cylons. 

for the last 5 or so years we have travelled side by side with the members of the galactica and the various other ships in their convoy across the galaxy. we have felt every high and every low, felt every death and the couple of births there were. we asked ourselves if starbuck was a cylons and were all shocked when we learned who really was a cylon. from boomer shooting adama to the whole big cock tease that was earth, we have been there for every moment. 

it really does feel in many ways to be the end of an era. while this show has, in the greater scheme of things, only lasted a short. it's legacy will live on. this is going to be a show that is studied and analyze for years to come. but i must now be going for the end is beginning.

good-bye Battlestar Galactica

Danger Doom

so thanks to the cut chemist pandora station, i had had danger doom's mince meat stuck in my head for quite a few days. you can imagine my disappointment when i was looking on various hard drives and coming up dry. so i did what i always do in those situations, illegally downloaded it. i downloaded by the LP, the mouse & the mask (referencing the fact that it was DANGER mouse and mf DOOM coming together to do this), and the EP, Occult Hymn (no clue what the fuck that one means).

it's kind of funny to listen only 4 years after it came out. if you're not familiar with it, it was essencially a concept collaboration spured by [adult swim]. what makes it so funny now is that unless you've been an [as] viewer for years and years now (that just seems kind of crazy to think about) you're not going know shit that they are referencing except for aqua teen and probably the singular family guy clip in it. but who out there remembers the brak show or perfect hair forever or SGC2C or 12 oz. mouse or minoriteam. hell i'm sure alot of you don't even remember harvey birdman: attorney at law. and even though i think it still has new episodes on the way, who ever thinks about squidbillies? i know i do because i think it's funny shit. but it just goes to show you how much a station can change over less than half a decade. hopefully one day [adult swim] can get it's own network and then we can be reminded of some of the old greats.

the music itself is good. again, to really enjoy it you almost have to be a old [as] viewer, so you can get everything that their saying, but i think that even if you don't know what they are referencing, it might still give you a bit of chuckle and make you bob your head just a little bit. don't go buy it though, borrow it from a friend, i'm sure you know at least one person who has it...


and a message to [adult swim], give me back my fucking space ghost....

Fingathing

so i had my pandora running earlier today with a psychotic quick mix of stations (pink floyd, tool, slipknot, morcheeba, rjd2, cut chemist, the ramones, richard cheese, ratatat, sublime, incubus, atmostphere, sound tribe sector 9, tabla beat science, japancakes, and billy preston {thanks amelia}[speaking of, i hate how pandora mixes their stations sometimes] crazy fucking combo though). and on comes from the d2 station "walk in space" by fingathing. really cool song. obviously it has a space feel to it... think "what if the moon was a record, and when we landed it gave us sound instead of image"... plus the "chorus" of the beats is pretty damn awesome too. 

but this isn't about that song. after hearing that song i decided to do one of my favorite interweb illegal activities and hit up my favorite torrent site to see what they had for fingathing. they had 3 albums total so i downloaded them all, and decided to listen to whichever finished first. that did not end up being "And the Big Red Nebula Band" (the one that has walk in space and rock the whole planet and big bang and cluster buster) but was instead "Superhero Music". now i had never heard anything off of this album before, but figured "what the fuck". listening to it, the opening was slow going. the first few tracks were very cold for me, but then we get to first hot track. that is "criminal robots", it just has this drum & bass/tech-hop (if that even exists)/galaga  (yes the old video game) feel to it. it's pretty bad ass. and then from there the album just builds speed. there are a couple more duds along the way but then you notice that suddenly "haze" (7:13) is over, you realize that they are a force to reckon. having a song that long is hard to do properly (without leaving you bored halfway though), such a feat only always done well (in my book) by tool and led zeppelin. then after that, between "skitch", "once upon a time in the east", "superhero music", "imperial mince" (a hip hop/scratching slowed down version of star war's imperial march, funky and fun for all of us geeks out there), "don't turn around", "chase", and "epitaph". it really is a primarily solid album, and who knows, you may dig the tracks that i didn't as much.

but this is me to you, check out fingathing. i can vouch for "and the big red nebula band" and "superhero music"... i haven't had a chance to listen to "main event" yet, so i don't know about that one, but given the other two, i have a weird feeling it's at least decent. 

ok so more than halfway through "main event" and i just realized that every album has a specific theme to it, and i may be slow but that is bad ass. and then that idea theme of each album translates into the sound of the album. and i am really digging "main event". it has this funky jazzy circus feel to it. plus i always love the integration of classical strings and the more various and exotic instruments (sitars rule) into styles of music that one wouldn't think them in (so really put them in with damn about anything else, again, good in my book). but yeah people, don't care if you buy it or download it, check it out.