The Andrew Extravaganza

I previously promised a post by the end of last weekend. Problem was that I didn’t have anything worth writing. Not until this afternoon that is. I had to drive to Best Buy in Willowbrook (40 minutes each way – I love Magnolia!) to get a printer ink cartridge. In the process of bending over and taking my medicine to the tune of $35, something positive happened...

So there I was, at the ‘M’ CD rack, unsuccessfully looking for Doug Martsch’s album, Now You Know, when I stumbled upon an album that I thought would never see the light of day.

That’s right, Marcy Playground’s third album, MP3, finally made it to shelves. Apparently it was released in late March, but when you take 5 years to release an album people tend to forget about you (see The Toadies, but not so much with Weezer), hence the lack of publicity. Two complete listens to the 14-track album aren’t enough to form strong opinions, but I will offer my first impressions. The songs seem more straight-ahead rock like than the previous two albums, probably because they don’t the have the great drummer Dan Rieser anymore. Toward the end of the album the songs do begin to sound more like the old Marcy Playground, although the last song, Barfly, actually sounds like it belongs on an album by The Good Life. Deadly Handsome Man and Punk Rock Superstar are old tunes, both of which I first heard at SXSW in 2001 and both of which are the most Marcy Playground-ish of the tracks. It’s a solid pop record, but after a five year wait I would have preferred something a little more groundbreaking.

On a separate trip to Best Buy (I got bored last week – go figure) I picked up The Good Life’s new release Album of the Year . It’s another concept album by Tim Kasher (also of Cursive). Each of the twelve tracks represents one month of a year long relationship that ultimately fails. This was the first record that I’ve purchased since…I don’t know when. (It’s been a long time now since I’ve had money to spend on CDs.) The two albums that led me to buy Album of the Year are Novena on a Nocturn and Blackout , which I judge to be excellent, catchy, sad bastard music. Album of the Year is much more produced and has more varied sounds (a bongo kicks in during the first song; others include a Wurlitzer, sleigh bells, an organ, dobro, congas, violin, mellotron, accordion, and trumpet). For me, the biggest draw of Cursive and The Good Life is Tim Kasher’s voice. It can be a little rough around the edges at times, but his deep voice packs a lot of emotional intensity. The best song on the album is You’re Not You , which starts off as a quiet acoustic number and ends like a pop anthem. This album might give The Shins a little competition for my listening time.

Bonus thought: Scrubs is the best show on television right now. I hope that it pulls a decent number because there aren’t many good sitcoms left to turn to should Scrubs receive the axe.