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Heavy Metal isn’t usually my go-to genre of music when I turn on my iPod — you have to be in a certain mood for metal. When I do feel the urge for the heavy stuff The Charred Walls of The Damned is at the top of my playlist. The band consists of Steve DiGiorgio, Tim “Ripper” Owens, Jason Suecof and Richard Christy (yes, the same Richard Christy of from The Howard Stern Show). Christy explained on The Howard Stern Show that the band’s name derived from a series of radio prank calls he and Sal Governale made to a Tradio show on a Christian radio station. In mentioning the pranks they had been receiving, the host describes how he prays for the pranksters and will “save their soul” and to be “saved by God’s grace and not in the devil’s hell where you’d be put in your nails in the charred walls of the damned”.
Music Pick: Charred Walls of The Damned
iPhone App Picks 1
Let’s be honest– with over 65,000 apps now available on the Apple App store there is alot of crap to sift through to find the quality. We’re here to lend a helping hand and save you a few dollars and some time. Keep your iPhone and/or iPod Touch happy with some of these great apps.
Gas Buddy
Save money at the pump! Gas Buddy will show you up-to-date gas price listings for all the gas stations in the US and Canada. Even if you’re out of town, just hit the “Find Nearest” button to show you a listing of all the gas stations around you sorted by price and distance. You can now easily find the best bargain for your next fill-up.
Sign up for an account and send gas prices listings from your local gas stations to Gas Buddy for points you can then use to enter raffles for prizes like $250 gas cards. Gas buddy has a great UI and a ton of features. The Gas Buddy is $2.99 in the Apple App Store. This app easily pays for itself. For more information visit http://www.gasbuddy.com
Everlast – Love, War & the Ghost of Whitey Ford
Erik Schrody, better known by his stage name Everlast, is an Irish-American rapper and singer-songwriter, best known for his hit “What It’s Like“, and for his unique genre-crossing mix of hip-hop and acoustic-based rock music. Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford is the fifth solo album released by Everlast. The album was released on September 23, 2008. So why am I reviewing it now?
The album went fairly un-noticed or reviewed by the mainstream media, which is unfortunate because it may be Everlast’s greatest work. With the exception of opening track “Kill The Emperor,” the album largely abandons any hip-hop influence one might expect, instead delivering dark tales and gritty personal musings all threaded together by Everlast’s baritone crooning and a gang of live instruments.
Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Phoenix is a French alternative rock band started during their childhood by Thomas Mars, Deck D’Arcy, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz in the affluent suburb of Versailles, in the same culture that produced late-’90s bands such as Air and Daft Punk. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is their fourth studio album. I would describe their sound as Gorillaz meets Death Cab for Cutie; a blend of soft rock and electronic.
To be honest I had never heard of Phoenix before I stumbled upon this album, so I can’t really comment on what (if any) kind of evolution this album is from previous works. However, I can say that I really enjoyed this album and it’s great from top to bottom. There’s a sense of purpose about the album’s opening salvo of tracks: Liztomania and 1901, in particular, are so well done, so perfectly constructed as to outflank any reservations you might have about the band’s slightly dry approach.
There’s also a nice range of tempos throughout the album, Fences spikes the electro beat of Daft Punk with an urgent acoustic-guitar breakdown for splendidly danceable melancholy. To the near Brit-rocky rave-ups of Lasso.
Eminem – Relapse
After four years away from the music industry Eminem is back with his much anticipated 6th album Relapse. The album is aptly titled as Eminem seems to have relapsed into past habits. This album is filled with familiar references to his pill-popping mother (My Mom), his relationship with Mariah Carey (Bagpipes from Bagdad), Christopher Reeves jokes (Medicine Ball), and his crazy urges to murder (3am, Stay Wide Awake). Is he stuck in the past? Perhaps somewhat, but I think the song Beautiful reveals some insight into an artist struggling with a lack of creativity and motivation.
MSTRKRFT – Fist Of God
MSTRKRFT (pronounced “Master-craft”) are an electronic music group from Toronto, Canada. Fist Of God is their second album, following up their first album The Look
which was released in 2006. Fist of God is a high energy slap in the face of electronic, pop and rap vocals. This is not your grandma’s techno album. Featuring guest rappers Lil’ Mo, NORE, E-40, Ghostface Killah & Freeway just to name a few.
Keep in mind this album is dance music so don’t expect deep thought-provoking intelligent lyrics, the music is the main focus. Sadly you can’t help but notice that a lot of the songs on this album have a near identical sound to them, so about 4 tracks deep into listening you might find yourself feeling like this whole album is just one long techno track.
Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy
Seth Macfarlane is the creator of such hit shows as Family Guy, American Dad and the upcoming Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show. Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy is a new uncensored video which I can best describe as Family Guy meets WarioWare meets HBO. If you’ve ever watched Family Guy you’re certainly familiar with the constant cut-away sketches and flashbacks. This video is basically a collection of these style of shorts presented in a rapid-fire fashion. Only the material and language is way more explicit. Expect plenty of swearing, poop, racism, religion and sex jokes.
Fans of Macfarlane and politically incorrect humor will no doubt love this video. There are a lot of pop-culture references and celebrity parodies.
Continue Reading…
Asher Roth – Asleep In The Bread Aisle
One look and listen to Asher Roth and it’s easy to agree that he is not your average cookie-cutter hip-hop artist. Don’t expect Asher Roth to rhyme about guns, ghettos and brag about how rich he is. He’s just a 23 year old college kid who grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, who admits the first album he ever bought was a Dave Matthews Band cd.
Roth finally discovered hip-hop in 1998 “When I heard the Annie sample with Jay-Z….When I wrote my ‘A Milli’ freestyle, that was me listening to 10 years of hip hop and not relating to it at all. Like, Damn I don’t sell coke. Damn, I don’t have cars or 25-inch rims. I don’t have guns. I finally got to a point where I had the confidence to do this thing myself, and I was making music for me. And it turns out, a lot of people feel the same way I do.“
Royksopp – Junior
Junior is the 3rd studio album from Norwegian electronic music duo Röyksopp. The word Röyksopp is a stylized version of the Norwegian word for the puffball mushroom, “røyksopp” or literally, “smoke mushroom”. This is their first album release for the year. The group plans to follow up “Junior” with “Senior” which is slated for release in the latter-half of 2009.
I first discovered Röyksopp when the HBO series Entourage featured a remixed version of their song “What Else Is There”
