In the mood of summer music I’ve purchased a bunch of new CDs. So far two of them stand out, I will have a little something to say about them. The others are great but haven’t separated themselves from the crowd yet. I’m curious in a few years when I look at this list how many of them will still be around. Its very possible that all of these bands are at the top of my favorites at that time.
I categorize these as Popemo. They aren’t really pop-punk. Somewhere along the way this stuff transformed so far away from whatever punk roots they all sprouted from that there isn’t much in common anymore. I also don’t think of them as pure pop, just that the sound is very popular right now. A lot of people refer to it as emo. I don’t like that comparison. When I think Emo, I think The Get Up Kids, Saves the Day, and Dashboard Confessional. One other new album I bought was from Secondhand Serenade. The lead singer sounds almost exactly like Chris Carraba in some of the songs. I didn’t include them on this list because they don’t fit with the Popemo theme.
As for how I say Popemo … I don’t put a hyphen in the middle there. I go with pop-eh-mo, said very quickly. If I knew how to do that phoenic type spelling with all the accents, I would.
Quietdrive
The top of the rotation right now. The album starts out reminding me of The Ataris and then throws a Cindi Lauper cover in there.
Pick: Maybe Misery
The Higher
Currently right behind Quietdrive in the pecking order.
Pick: Darkpop
Boys Like Girls
Pick: Heels Over Head
Permanent Me
Pick: Until You Leave
The Summer Obsession
Pick: Down For Whatever
The Rocket Summer
Very disappointed I missed out on this one. The most recent album is from 2005. The new album comes out in July. One guy plays all the instruments on the album. The whole thing is amazingly fun. He’s on a major label now and has a single out for the new album. I think you’ll be hearing from him.
Pick: Brat Pack (Possibly the catchiest song ever.)
New releases for June 12, 2007.
Music
Paramore – Riot! – I enjoyed their last album and gave the stream of the new album a listen. I enjoyed it as well. However, it won’t make the purchase list this week. There is too much on the list for the next few weeks.
Cauterize – Disguises – I’ve always liked their sound. Take a listen on their MySpace.
Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur – Covers of John Lennon songs. I’m curious to hear the cover by Mick Fleetwood and Jack’s Mannequin.
Games
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii) – I haven’t played the DS version, I assume its nearly identical to Brain Age. How will this translate to the Wii?
Tenchu Z (Xbox 360) – Any game description that starts with ‘Become the ultimate ninja assasain’ has my instant attention. I checked Game Rankings and so far two reviews gave it an average of 87%. I need a little more than that but things look good so far.
DVD
Nothing very exciting this week.
Ghost Rider – I had no desire.
Breach – I don’t even remember it coming out.
Office Seasons 1&2 – Not really new, just selling them together. I think I saw you get a free ticket to Evan Almighty with it. If you don’t have these seasons yet then buy them with or without the free ticket.
Hopefully the highlight of the week will be the return of Last Comic Standing. Sadly, I fear that it won’t be. Still, with the College World Series starting up I should be able to survive.
Sports
NBA Finals
Game 3 @ Cleveland: Tuesday (9, ABC)
Game 4 @ Cleveland: Thursday (9, ABC)
Game 5 @ Cleveland: Sunday (9, ABC, if necessary)
Men’s College World Series
Starts Friday at 2pm on ESPN2. Continues until June 24 or 25 on ESPN and ESPN2.
US Open – Golf
June 14-17 on ESPN/NBC. Taking place at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, PA.
See the rest of the week in tv … (more…)
Audio: mp3
Running Time: 30:23
Hosts: Evan and Mike
Evan and Mike took a look back at what we watched this TV season, compared to what we expected to watch at the beginning of the season. Evan had a turbulent week relating to the Gators and the Billy Donovan situation. The Ducks won the Stanley Cup and unlike everyone else, Mike has no problem with that. The French Open finished up which means a trophy presentation that Mike really enjoys for some reason. Evan tries to make tennis more popular with a reality show (didn’t he suggest that for horse racing too?).
Topics
Evan is without AC.
Look back at the TV season.
Billy Donovan saga.
What’s the problem with having a Stanley Cup Champion from a warm weather city?
Grand Slam Tennis trophy presentation, other good trophy presentations in sports.
A reality show featuring tennis players would make the sport more popular.
Back in the olden days, prior to Inter-Dis Material there was The Janke Chronicles. I had been wanting to do some sort of show for a long time but having a solid idea and people willing to help wasn’t easy to find. Finally, I just figured I’d try something out and see if it worked.
The idea was to talk to a different one of my friends each week. We would discuss any recent events and then anything that was on our minds. That actually still sounds like a pretty good idea. Perhaps the Chronicles will need to be revived or the format incorporated into IDM more often.
I am telling you this because I finally added the shows to Borderline Fantastic. You can find them all in the new section for The Janke Chronicles.
The first two shows as well as the end of the third show features Evan, my co-host on IDM and sometime contributor to Borderline Fantastic.
The sound quality on these isn’t the best. No one had a decent headset at the time. Most everyone was on a cell phone while I was on my computer. This also caused some delay.
I went back and listened to a bit of shows and I’m a little shocked that we were already on top of our game at that time. Ok maybe not. We have gotten a lot better over all the shows. Still, from these first shows you could tell we had some skill.
On of the staples of TJC was having rulings on the show. Someone would have an issue they they weren’t sure what to do about. I would discuss with my co-host and, in some cases, make a ruling. The topics ranged from relationship issues to etiquette on the golf course.
Have a listen to these five shows. They were done at the end of last summer and led right into Inter-Dis Material.
A weekly look at what I found plus what made its way to my inbox.
Headlines of the Day
Man in wheelchair stuck to semi, taken on 50-mph ride.
Games
Shuffle – Marbles?
Videos
Braves minor league manager goes crazy. I especially like the army crawl behind the mound then using the rosin bag as a grenade. He even pulled the pin! Oh, he was suspended for three games. Seems reasonable.
The rest are a little older …
Denver the Last Dinosaur
MASK
New Radicals – You Get What You Give
Music
Yellowcard – Five Becomes Four
3 new Straylight Run songs
Goo Goo Dolls – Before It’s Too Late. Its on the Transformers soundtrack.
Mayday Parade – When I Get Home You’re So Dead
Other Worthy Links
This guy really likes GOB. Oh, how I’ve missed Franklin.
A great look at expansion in the NHL.
Mmm, more soup.
When I need my tropical weather update, this is where I go.
If you want to see the videos, read more. (more…)
Last time I covered the early days of my pop-punk experience. This time around I’ll take a look at the bands I got into toward the end of my college career. During college I was introduced to tons of bands. The ones that follow have released a full length since and survived my constantly changing rotation this long. Once again I included a pick that is a solid example of why each of the bands is great for summer.
Cartel
Almost two years after hearing Fall Out Boy and instatntly knowing they were going to be huge, I heard Cartel and felt the same way. That was just after hearing their EP. When I got their full length, I knew I was right, it was nearly perfect. They got some play but didn’t really get popular. Besides of course in my CD players where it was at the top of the rotation for a few months. Now they are in the bubble on MTV recording their new record. I watched the premiere on MTV and it was unwatchable. Its MTV’s fault that its terrible. They barely covered anything about the actual band. They just asked them dumb questions about going into the bubble and for some reason thought talking to the crowd would be interesting. I’m glad they are getting the exposure and I hope the new album is great.
Pick: Burn This City
Hit the Lights
Hit the Lights was my third pick after Fall Out Boy and Cartel, these things seem to come every two years. I put their sound near Simple Plan but their lyrics have just enough evil in them to make me like them so much.
Pick: Loose Lips Sink Ships
Punchline
I could have gone to see them for free during my sophomore year. I wound up not going and thus did not realize what I was missing out on until my senior year. Action was the album that hooked me. 37 Everywhere came out last year. Another fun, incredibly catchy album. I have no idea why these guys aren’t huge. They have what it takes.
Pick: Not Afraid
All Time Low
This band doesn’t date back to college. However they fit better in with this group than my final installment. So far I just have an EP from them. I’ll give them time apparently they haven’t been out of high school for a year yet. They are just as good as the other bands on this list they just haven’t proven it over time yet. I need a least a full length.
Pick: Break Out! Break Out!
Next time, a look at my pile of recent purchases. They all fall under a genre I like to call Popemo.
I may have jumped the gun with my look at the Red Stripe commercials. The new ones from Cold Stone Creamery might just be better. I think they may be from the same people that did the Emerald Nuts ads. They have the same eerie feel to them, the graphics are similar, and the web site is solid. The plots make a little more sense than the Emerald Nuts ones. In the sense that the fears of each person make sense. The fact that broccoli is in a Cold Stone might be a reach.
The idea is that the main character approaches a Cold Stone Creamery. Inside are four arch nemeses (I had to look up the plural of nemesis). The character wants his or her favorite creation but they have to face what they fear most inside of the store. I mentioned the broccoli, which was one of the fears of the Kid. He had the other standard kid fears: Boogey Man, Monster Under the Bed, and the Monster in the Closet. The commercial ends with ‘Do you love it or do you love it love it? This is a play on the sizes at Cold Stone: Like It, Love It, and Gotta Have It. On their web page they explain the sizes as Like It: tennis ball, Love It: baseball, Gotta Have It: Softball.
The site lets you see the current commercials. There are bios about each of the main characters. The bios contain even more information about the main characters. Makes me hope there may be a variety of spots for each character.
Make sure you check out the outtakes. By far my favorite is the Bigfoot Tracker. He loves to lose things, so he can track them down. The Monster Under the Bed is pretty entertaining as well.
On the site if you view the you can click on the balled up paper in the corner and you can submit your own story. I’m not sure if you get anything if your story gets picked. Still, I love the idea that they are asking for more suggestions. It leads me to believe there will be a lot more and they could have a ton of variety.
I should mention that I’ve only been to Cold Stone twice. It opened at school a few years ago. However, my school is known for its Ice Cream on campus. The fact that an outsider showed up trying to sell ice cream was unheard of. I refused to go for the first year or so. I had a coupon for a free one, so I figured I’d stick it to them by not paying them anything. The special that month was Cotton Candy. The creation had marshmallows. It was unbelievable. One opened recently near where I live, so I will be going more often, especially thanks to these great ads.
So far Bigfoot is the only one I’ve seen on TV. I am looking forward to a ton more of these. With new characters or a new variety of the current characters. They will reach greatness if they feature some of the nemeses as the main characters. What is the Boogey Man afraid of??
Go to the site for the ad campaign.
This week the Stanley Cup Finals are wrapping up (unless it goes 7), the NBA Finals are getting started. There is no horse going for the Triple Crown but I’ll still be looking forward to the race. French Open finals are also coming up on the weekend.
Besides sports there isn’t much to look forward to until Sunday with the Sopranos finale and John From Cincinnati premiere. Plus, Brian Regan has a Comedy Central Special.
Sports
Belmont Stakes (5, ABC) – No one going for the Triple Crown this year. Still, I’m hooked on this horse racing thing. Just watching, I’m not at the point of betting on it. You can make picks for fun at Ice Cream Helmet.
Stanley Cup Finals
Ducks vs Senators
Game 4 @ Ottawa: Monday (8, NBC)
Game 5 @ Anaheim: Wednesday (8, NBC)
Game 6 @ Ottawa: Saturday (8, NBC)
NBA Finals
Spurs vs Cavaliers
Game 1 @ San Antonio: Thursday (9, ABC)
Game 2 @ San Antonio: Sunday (9, ABC)
French Open
Women’s Final: Saturday (9am, NBC)
Men’s Final: Sunday (9am, NBC)
Check out the week … (more…)
Some things I came across this week that I still liked when I went to write The Past Week.
Headlines of the Day
Study-Female Cheetahs Sleep Around
Yankees Litsch-slap Blue Jays
Steelers assistant sorry for e-mailing sex video
Other Links
Trying out MyBlogLog. The way I see it used best is that you join the community of the site. Then see what other sites members like to visit. You’ve already got one site in common, maybe you’ll find something new you like.
Great game if you’re looking to kill a few days. I hate these stupidly simple games that suck me in.
Favorite post of the week from my new favorite blog, at least when politics or global warming isn’t the topic. But that’s the whole point of these blogs. Write about want you want and if you come up with something brilliant or at the very least amusing every week or two then I’ll be a fan.
I need to study. Apparently I should have learned all these words six years ago.
Music
Hawthorne Heights – New Song: Come Back Home
The Rocket Summer – New Single: So Much Love
