Bad Religion - 30 Years Live

Artist Website: Bad Religion

Record Label Website: Epitaph Records

Track list:

1 - Fuck Armageddon, This Is Hell

2 - Dearly Beloved

3 - Suffer

4 - Man With A Mission

5 - New Dark Ages

6 - Germs Of Perfection

7 - Marked

8 - A Walk

9 - Flat Earth Society

10 - Resist Stance

11 - American Jesus

12 - Social Suicide

13 - Atheist Peace

14 - Tomorrow

15 - Won't Somebody

16 - Los Angeles Is Burning

17 - We're Only Gonna Die

Download links: [MP3]

I adore Bad Religion. After discovering them through their songs in the video games Crazy Taxi and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 I started grabbing all the music of theirs I could find. The fast-paced mosh pit-inciting guitar riffs, combined with intelligent lyrics covering a variety of social, political, and religious topics appealed to me in a way that, at that point in my life, no other music had. Needless to say, when I found out earlier this year that Bad Religion was releasing a live album in honor of their 30th anniversary as a band (for free!), I was incredibly excited. While the setlist isn't perfect in my opinion, the album is quite solid.

I think that choosing to open and close the album with songs from their debut LP How Could Hell Be Any Worse? was a great idea, especially with two of the more popular songs from the album, We're Only Gonna Die and Fuck Armageddon...This is Hell. Both songs represent the more raw, adrenaline-charged youth of the band, and while the original studio versions of the songs are classics, its nice to hear them redone by the band with 30 extra years of practice under their belts.

The album goes on to include several songs from their latest album, New Maps of Hell, including Dearly Beloved, an atheistic anthem, and Germs of Perfection, which showcases Bad Religion's trademark thesaurus-like lyrics. Also included are songs from Suffer, The Empire Strikes First, Recipe For Hate, and several others.

The sound is as good as you'd expect a live album to sound in today's industry. It's easy to tell that numerous studio touch-ups were made, especially in the "oozin-aahs" (backup vocals), but it doesn't detract from the overall listening experience. It was nice to hear some of their older songs performed with Brooks Wackerman, their newest (and in my opinion, most talented and energenic) drummer.

One of my only gripes with this album is the fact that, although it is supposedly a representation of their 30 years as a band, there are seven Bad Religion albums that don't have a single song represented, including The Process of Belief, my favorite album of theirs. I found this odd, because there are several songs from that album that have been staples of their live shows since its release in 2002. At the very least, the inclusion of either Supersonic or Sorrow would have been great.

This album is a must-have for fans of this group, and for people on the fence or who have never heard their material, this might be a good place to start, as there are quite a few of their hits on this album.

Just a quick note about the distribution of this album: 30 Years Live was originally released as a free digital download through Bad Religion's website. However, the album is no longer available through the band, and there is no hard copy available for purchase. As such, I've taken the liberty of uploading the album to Mediafire so people interested in listening can download it. If for some reason anyone from Epitaph Records happens to read this and wishes me to remove the download link, please send me an email letting me know, and I'll be happy to take it down.

until next time!

As most of you can probably tell, it's been a while since I've posted anything in this blog. I've come to the realization that as much as I love writing and finding free music, setting a weekly deadline for a blog that I write in my spare time is only going to cause me to write about music that I don't really enjoy, just for the sake of meeting the deadline. Therefore, I've decided that I'm not going to be updating this blog as frequently as I have in the past, and instead update it only when I find something really special that I enjoy listening to or want to talk about in the music biz. When an update does occur, I'll be sure to post links on my facebook, twitter, and netlabel twitter accounts.

Until then, keep listening!

Dan Dectis - Deeply Superficial

Artist Website: Dan Dectis at Bandcamp
Netlabel Website: Copyleft Records

Track list:

01 - Helios
02 - Nothing Serious
03 - Deeply Superficial
04 - Gloom
05 - Unreliable Narrator
06 - Morning
07 - No Words
08 - Go Slowly
09 - Cool Off
10 - Grandparents
11 - Stray
12 - On A Roll
13 - Away Again
14 - Solid State
15 - Because
16 - Mystical Forest

Download links: [MP3] [FLAC]
Stream/donation link: [Bandcamp]


I don't mind being honest with you all and saying that sometimes when I post a new album in this blog, it just feels like I'm going through the motions. Sure, I'm always happy to find new music, and I feel that every album I've covered here so far has its own merits that make it a unique listening experience, but often the albums just don't carry the "WOW" factor for me that make me listen to it ten times in a row like some of my favorite major-label artists. However, I can assure you that this is not the case with Dan Dectis and his debut album, Deeply Superficial. I met Dan through a private music community, where I found out that this album had become a hit on the popular website Reddit.com. Despite the fact that Dan agreed to become a part of my netlabel and graciously offer his music for free, I still purchased a copy from him because it's that good.

There's really no single tag that can describe this album. Part jazz, part ambient, part rock, and part singer-songwriter, Dan performs every instrument featured on the album, including guitar, organ, and saxaphone. One of the reasons why it's hard for me to classify his music is because each song is a unique piece of music from the previous track. While this can sometimes mean that the album is lacking in focus, nothing could be further from the truth in this case.

The album opens with the upbeat Helios, setting the tone with a very singer-songwriter feeling. However, the album then proceeds to go in an entirely different, darker direction with the ironically named Nothing Serious. Third in line is the title track, Deeply Superficial, with jazz so smooth it'll make your head spin. Gloom is the next song, and again it goes in a different direction than the previous three tracks, taking on a somber, ambient feeling with echoing saxophone tones laying a subdued backing for the electric piano.

If Deeply Superficial was an EP that was comprised of nothing but the first four tracks, I'd still consider Dan's asking price of $8 a bargain. However, you get a total of 16 amazing tracks on this album, and the quality of the recording is such that you'll think you're listening to a professionally recorded album.

Like I mentioned above, Dan's work is available for free through Copyleft Records, but if you really like what you hear (or you'd like to sample it before you download), head on over to Dan's Bandcamp page (link at the top of the article) where you can stream all the songs, and purchase the album in any bitrate for a minimum of $8.

It's A King Thing - Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

Artist Website: It's A King Thing

Track list:

1 - Old Hobbies

2 - Mush Mouth
3 - Baby Tantrum
4 - Everything Backwards
5 - Kira
6 - Bill Haverchuck
7 - Number One Option
8 - Vegetarian
9 - Hanging Out
10 - Wine and Ponies
11 - Tammy Faye
12 - Triple Jump

Download links: [MP3]

Hooray, another free indie album! Seriously though, I'm always happy to stumble upon new free music that isn't electronica (not that I don't like it, but it seems free rock/indie music is much more rare).

This week's album entitled Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo comes from the group It's A King Thing. On their website, they list their "sounds like" counterparts as "The first 2 Weezer albums, The Lemonheads, Nada Surf, Ben Kweller, Superdrag, The Shins, Guided By Voices." Unfortunately, the only one of those artists that I have listened to for an extensive period of time is Weezer so I can't agree or disagree with their other choices. I will admit that there were several points during the album that were reminiscent of The Blue Album and Pinkerton, if not in the songwriting, then certainly in the sound they managed to achieve. The distortion used on the guitars in Baby Tantrum could have come from Rivers Cuomo, and the 3-beat feel of Vegetarian reminded me of the classic Weezer tune My Name is Jonas. Other than those songs, however, I think it'd be a real stretch to draw any more similarities between the two groups.

The only thing I can think of that I didn't really care for in this album are the lead vocals. For the most part they seemed rather wispy and breathy, although I suppose that type of singing complements this kind of music better than someone with a really heavy tone.

I suspect that those of you who are certain that they don't like music that can be put in the "indie" genre are not going to get much from listening to this. You can tell the guys in It's A King Thing are fans of the genre and made this album specifically for people who also enjoyed their type of music. However, the tunes are easy enough to listen to and if you don't feel like actively analyzing the album, it makes a great background soundtrack for whatever it is you happen to be doing at the time, whether you're surfing the Internet or driving in your car.

Overall, not one of my favorite release, but I did enjoy listening to it several times through for this entry. If you aren't totally opposed to this kind of indie rock, give 'em a listen.

Free music news: Bad Religion planning to release new live album as a free download

This post isn't really a review, but more an interesting bit of news that I thought I'd pass on to the few of you who follow my blog. As any of my close friends could tell you, I'm a huge fan of the punk-rock band Bad Religion. I've been a fan for years now and I own all of their albums. So when I found out through Punknews.org that not only was Bad Religion planning on releasing a live album to commemorate their 30th anniversary, but that they were also planning on releasing it as a FREE digital download, needless to say I was a tad excited.

My first exposure to Bad Religion came in the form of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (their song "You" was featured on the soundtrack) as well as the game Crazy Taxi. If you are even slightly interested in punk music you are already probably a big fan of this band, but if you've never listened to them before, I strongly urge you to put aside any preconceptions you might have and give them a shot. Their lyrics are a lot deeper and more meaningful than you might initially give a punk band credit for, and front-man Greg Graffin can certainly hold his own in the intellectual arena, having earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology and geology, a master's degree in geology, and a PhD in zoology. When not touring with the band, Graffin teaches several sciences courses at UCLA.

Tomorrow will be a normally-scheduled review!

Bad Blogger, bad!

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay in the new review. For some reason Blogger wasn't letting me update the other day, but everything appears to be working now. I have the day off from work tomorrow, so expect the next review sometime tomorrow during the day. I'll make a facebook/twitter post when the review has been added.

Music that's actually worth buying: Souleye - PPPPPP (Soundtrack to VVVVVV)

Artist Website: Souleye

Track list:
00 - Pending Silence (0:02)
01 - Powerup (0:03)
02 - Presenting VVVVVV (2:40)
03 - Pause (0:08)
04 - Pushing onwards (3:39)
05 - Path complete (0:09)
06 - Passion for exploring (2:52)
07 - Positive force (2:48)
08 - Predestined fate (2:11)
09 - Phear (0:17)
10 - Potential for anything (3:43)
11 - Pressure Cooker (3:27)
12 - plenary (game complete jingle) (0:22)
13 - Pipe dream (2:22)
14 - Popular potpourri (6:09)
15 - Positive force reversed (2:48)
16 - Waiting for VVVVVV (0:56)

purchase link: [PPPPPP]

Welcome to another installment of a series I like to call "Music that's actually worth buying." Today I decided to feature the album PPPPPP, which is the soundtrack to indie video game VVVVVV. The artist's name is Magnus Pålsson, but goes by the alias of Souleye.

I fell in love with video games long before I developed even a passing interest in music. By the time I turned three years old, I ate, breathed, and slept Nintendo. Nowadays, I feel like I've almost built up a tolerance for gaming, as it takes something really special to get me excited like I used to. Recently I started searching for smaller, low-budget indie games and came across VVVVVV, one of the most fun platformers I've played in a very long time. Not only was the game engaging, but the soundtrack was a blast to listen to as well. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that not only was the sountrack up for sale on the artist's website, but it was being offered at a very reasonable price!

I won't delve into the actual game this soundtrack complements, although at a price of $15, the game is well worth the purchase as well. The music is incredibly catchy and is guaranteed to bring out intense feelings of nostalgia in gamers who can remember when Sega made actual game consoles. The nice thing about PPPPPP is that even if you have never played the game, you'll still probably enjoy this album. This is a collection of some of the best chiptune songs I've ever heard, and at the criminally low purchase price of $4, you'd be crazy to pass this one up. If you are interested in listening through the album before you buy it, I found a channel on Youtube that has every single song on the album available as Youtube videos.

I have several favorite tracks on this album, with each one having a very different feel from the last. the song that plays during the opening title screen, Presenting VVVVVV is a very subdued tune, without a lot of complex melodies. However, the upper notes that start playing about a minute into the song take it to the next level (har har har). Pushing Onwards picks up the pace, while Passion For Exploring is often heard while the player is exploring the overworld within the game. However, I think my favorite tracks are Predestined Fate (numerous note runs building on top of a techno beat) or Potential For Anything.

If you are a fan of chiptune music, definitely give this a listen. If you are like me and love indie games or nostalgic 8-bit games, you must buy the game, then go buy the album. Together, it'll only set you back around $20.