This is Mr. Hammonds sophomore album and I've got to say, it's pretty good. Then again, I am biased. Albert Hammond Jr. is my favorite member of the Strokes, or I should say, would seem like less of an a-hole. Don't get me wrong, I like all their albums, but they just don't seem like nice dudes. I don't know, I'm probably wrong. Anyway, I have always liked him and I really loved his 2006 debut album Yours To Keep (which I also wrote about ^.^).
This time around, it does seem like he's having a hard time fixing on a "sound", but that doesn't necessarily mean the album isn't good. Perhaps he's just trying to distance his own sound from his other band. But I wouldn't have found anything wrong with that. Sounding like the Strokes that is. So yeah, I picked the song Lisa and I hope you like it too.
So go ahead and pick up a copy of Como Te Llama today. It's out today
actually. I wanted to do this a couple of days ago, but I've been too busy. So just in time right? Oh, and about a week ago I was at his webpage and it's got this little feature where you can add your picture to the checkerboard background. Well it's pretty much filled up now. I don't know, I thought that was a cute idea. So here is the song I picked and a few links to follow. Commence enjoyment!
Oh yeah! Tour Dates!! go check him out ladies and gents.
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Albert Hammond Jr on MySpace // A. Hammond Jr. dot com
All of my normal VOX posts are below.
There will be a private event from July 8th-July 23th or the bank account is opened.
Certain VOX posts on my VOX blog is for neighborhood only.
Most of my VOX posts are viewable to the public.
I ACCEPT ALL FRIEND REQUESTS ON VOX (not until july 23rd).
Until then, I will only accept certain friend requests due to the private event, starting july 8th.
If you want to view neighborhood-only posts you MUST be added to the VOX neighborhood. Please don't write useless things in the PMs or comments (such as "you are nosy", "i will block you", etc.), they will get deleted or reported via the feedback form.
NEVER block me from your VOX. If you do, I will use the feedback form to report your abuse. Also NEVER BLOCK ME FROM YOUR FLICKR EITHER I am still muted for 48 hours from flickr due to stealing photographs.
I accept any drawing requests, If you want to do that, leave a request in the comments, or PM me. (this will take about 2-6 days of drawing requests due to the lack of new colored pencils/use of photoshop*.), I just need to get new colored pencils, first. Here is my collection of my old drawings from summer 2007-may 2008, if you want to look at it.
My personal homepage: Coming soon (I do not wish to use any of the free web hosting services any more).
I want to keep everything green for this fortnight.
I want to make the VOX banners that are green.
*I do not have photoshop on my Vista just yet.
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07/11/08 Traffic Free Festival Torrino
08/30/08 Offset Festival London Album Discography
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Wire have been around for a long time! I'm so very pleased to see that they are still making music, and having listened to their new album, Object 47, I can tell you that they are still amazing after all these years.
Since forming in 1976 in London, this band took their influences of the UK punk scene (Sex Pistols, after all was quite huge from 1975-1978), although I have never really thought of them as pure punk. They reminded me of more art rockers, with a talent for writing very catchy melodies.
Their short, but influential debut album, Pink Flag (1977), seem to have inspired a slew of bands either covering their songs (REM, The Urinals, Minor Threat) or ripping them off (Meanswe@r, Elastica, Clinic). Elastica and Wire eventually settled out of court for "Connection" infringing on "Three Girl Rhumba". Be sure to also check out Line up the Fly article for even more comparison between Elastica and Wire.
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With Object 47 to be released this July 7th in the UK (it looks like July 15th in the US according to amazon), this will be the first studio album in over five years. The album's name comes from this is the 47th release from Wire since their very first Mannequin EP in November 1977.
If you're a fan in the UK, you'll probably already bought the album. Here's a guide to the best songs on the album:
I absolutely thought "One Of Us" was brilliant. The bass instantly will make you move, while the lovable singing of one of us will live to rue the day we met each other will remind you of old school Wire. The song is a free download on their official website.
"Are You Ready?" should make a great object 48, as a single. Let me to try to explain the song to you, it seems to be Colin Newman asking a series of questions, and his guitar answering back.
Are you part of the future, part of the plan?
Are you willing and able to do what you can?
Are you part of the problem, or part of the band?
Are you willing to draw a line in the sand?
Are you true to your friends loyal to your brand?
Are you smoking for China, Iraq or Japan?
Are you searching for something you don't understand?
Do you still hold ambitions of being a man?
The last song is an energetic, driving song, "All Fours". It seems to build up with some excellent drumming here. It is really too bad that it doesn't just keep going on, but it does send the album to a great finish.
So what I have noticed here is that they are more or less sticking with what works here, kind of minimal guitars, bass and drums, and less art/experimental of their early 90s work, after the loss of their drummer, Robert Gotobed.
Speaking of losses, it seems that their longtime guitarist, Bruce Gilbert, was not involved on this album. They look, currently, to be a three-piece band.
Wire's Object 47 was released in the UK yesterday, July 7th, and in the US, July 15th. If you have always loved Wire, then you'll love the new album. They are only doing some music festivals this year, so good luck on finding a good spot to see this legendary band.
The Google Van didn't go down this street. This is the best view I can get. But this is the street where I learned to roller skate and ride a bike. It used to be cobblestone. And I think there were more trees.
Memory is a weird thing. Was that Dead End sign always there? I can't remember. But that is certainly how I felt about this place - that had I stayed, I would have never thrived.
We knew most of the neighbors. Next door there was another family with two girls (the same age). They lived upstairs from their grandparents (we lived downstairs from ours), and had a baby brother (we had a dog). When it snowed, we would go to the neighbors' yard across the street (on the end) and make snow angels in their yard because that was where the snow was the deepest.
This is the house that fell on me (well a piece anyway) while I was sitting in the yard on the slide, eating a balonie sandwich. The nail went into my head and required three stitches to repair.
This was the first school I attended. It was right across the street. I remember it being P.S. 17, but I think they renamed it to P.S. 1. I know that this school district was the first in the country to be taken over because it was so bad. I remember my mom calling me to watch the Today Show as they announced the news.
My cousins (who lived around the corner) also went to this school. Two of them decided to burn the teacher's desk when they realized they were going to fail her class. Another climbed that fence (twice) and broke his arm (twice).
I entered kindergarten able to read and write. First grade had the same books as kindergarten and required that we return after lunch. There is only so much "Fun With Dick and Jane" a girl can take. I routinely had headaches in the afternoons so I didn't have to go back. I also peed in my seat because I was afraid to ask to go to the bathroom. Once I was sent home in boy's underwear.
A few other memories before we move on:
- At an assembly, I watched a boy stick a fork in an electric outlet on the stage. Yes, he got shocked.
- We moved before the school year ended, but my parents didn't want me to tell. It was June and hot, and I showed up wearing a halter dress and got picked to bring up the attendance sheet. When the Vice Principal saw what I was wearing (my back was exposed but the dress was sown closed, not tied), he told me that I was to change at lunch. Only problem I had no clothes at my grandmother's and couldn't tell him that. When I explained to my grandmother, she sent me back with a navy blue button down sweater. I wore that sweater all afternoon, buttoned up.
- My dog, an Old English Sheepdog, got out of the house and ran up the block to his favorite park. I ran after him and into my kindergarten teacher, who taught my father and my aunt. Her name was Mrs. Dingly. My father called her Mrs. Dingaling. My aunt told me stories of how badly she treated black students.
The previous owner was a drunk and a wife beater. When I first saw it, I cried. It was in terrible shape. I didn't want to live there. I especially didn't like the idea of moving across town to be away from my grandmother. This is the house where my parents told me they were divorcing. It is where we would all decide to escape.
My mom worked hard and transformed this house. She put in wallpaper and new carpets. She even stuccoed the ceiling by hand. I didn't recognize it when we moved in. The room I shared with my sister had Holly Hobby wallpaper. My father got us the matching bed linens after we moved across the country and weren't really into Holly Hobby anymore, but we used them anyway and over the years they were soft and comforting.
That room was where I heard my father fall off the roof after my mother yelled at him to not put the ladder like that. When he refused to go to the hospital, my mother insisted he get back up there and fix the leak. He did, but in the end, put the paper on wrong side up, and make the leak worse. When it rained we put down shower curtains and buckets.
The gate which seems to be missing, but never closed properly, is where I put the trash can against it to close it to keep the dog in. That would have been good, except I tied the dog to the trash can. When he moved the trash can moved. It scared him (he was afraid of his own shadow) and he took off. He was done for several days, during which I was inconsolable.
This is the stoop where my sister sat and cried because our insane babysitter, Anne Marie Rogan, didn't feed my sister lunch. She purposefully bought things my sister didn't like and then made her sit outside when she started crying. Our neighbor found her and took her inside and made her lunch and told my mother. But that isn't what got Anne Marie fired.
Anne Marie was in the 8th grade and the daughter of one of the people my mother worked with. Anne Marie borrowed my mother's clothes and played my parents' records and invited her friends over. She could eat a whole can of fruit cocktail by herself. When her friends came over she would send us to our room to clean. She would brag to her friends that she had us under control. She would spend the afternoons on the phone, before call waiting, and my mom would have to have the operator break in. But none of that got Anne Marie fired either.
I told my parents what was going on in their home when they weren't there. When I kept at it, they finally started to think that maybe things were not okay. And one day my Mom, who worked down the street, came home. She found Anne Marie on the couch with her boyfriend. I think they were more than kissing. She was finally fired, but then we had no babysitter and had to eat lunch at school. This required special permission and meant that we sat in a classroom and ate lunch.
This is the school. St. Anne's. It had no playground.
It had a church. We were supposed to go to the children's mass on Sunday. I had to answer questions about the sermon on Monday morning in religion class. I was going to fail. My parent's didn't get up early on Sunday. As a compromise, my father, a non-Catholic, took us to 5pm mass on Saturday.
When Anne Marie was preparing for her confirmation, she was required to attend mass on Friday morning. Since she walked us to school, this meant we went to mass too. Sometimes the priest didn't finish by 8:30am, but we knew better than to leave mass early (that was a sin). Instead we walked back to school with the 8th graders and slipped into our classrooms on the first floor. One morning the Principal, a nun, was waiting for us. She wanted to mark us tardy. It took everything to bite my tongue and not call her a hypocrite.
The window I think is the gym. We had a gym uniform which we wore under our uniforms instead of our shirts on gym day. It had matching bloomers. Seriously - bloomers. When my sister left crayons in her uniform pocket, and my dad washed and dried them, it ruined all of our (mint green) uniform shirts. We had to wear our gym uniforms that day and everyone thought we didn't know when gym was. We eventually got new shirts and I learned how to do the laundry.
That door is where my mom passed out after the Principal explained what my sister, who was in the first grade, was up to. No one will ever know because she doesn't remember. And really it doesn't matter because they are both dead.
- 11:25 @secretagentjo Happy (belated) Birthday!!! Let the party continue!!! #
- 11:26 blueberry pancakes for breakfast. a tasty way to start the day. #
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It's been a little over a month since I last blogged about Elimination Communication, AKA "Kat's Quest to Get James Out of Diapers". Well, I can't say that James is out of diapers yet, but I can say that I only see a poopy diaper once a week (if at all!), James has woken up with a dry diaper on several occasions, and my favorite - he's even had days where I had to change his diaper due to wetness only once!!! Talk about a breakthrough!!!
I haven't seen a whole lot of crappy diapers lately...Dan and I have been working with James so much that I think he's really realizing that having a crappy diaper is well...crappy. Even my parents have been seeing less dirty diapers. James had a few accidents (mainly due to our work schedule), but overall has been doing so great - I'm really proud of him!
Having the Little Red Potty is really nice, also. Because he can sit up by himself, James can sit on the potty while I'm brushing my teeth in the morning. He really knows what to do while sitting on there - very rarely will I put him on the pooper without getting some kind of deposit! While I'm not thrilled to clean it out, it definitely beats wiping the crap off him - at least I don't have to touch any of that stuff!!!
Our goal is still the same: let's hope James will be out of diapers by 1 year old!
We officially have to baby proof everything in our house...James is on the move and is showing no signs of stopping!
In the last 2 weeks, James learned how to crawl across the room in order to get what he wants. He's gotten so adept at crawling, one day I put him in his room only to see him crawl out the door and into the hallway bathroom so he could examine the linoleum. In the past week or so, he's also figured out how to sit up from his belly. He's been sitting by himself for a while now, but just recently figured out that we don't have to help him get into position...he can do it himself! These two new skills opened up a new world for James, as he's now able to crawl over to toys he wants and sit up to play with them - he's also unfortunately (or fortunately for him!) learned that getting things off his shelves is not so difficult anymore...
To keep James entertained, we now carry him in a Deuter Kangroo Backpack. He loves being able to check out all the goodies at the Farmer's Markets, getting samples at Costco, and partying with the big kids at the Shoreline Amphitheater. Did I mention that he loves to eat? James has now graduated to eating practically everything we eat (including steak, pho, and even sponge cake!) His favorite treat right now is peaches and apricots - he even helped us eat our salads at Pluto's...
I had a really great Fourth of July weekend.
I spent the day with Shawn and Kathleen, and the three of us went pretty much everywhere.
We even went to the garage where Shawn is keeping his new motorcycle,
and he took Kathleen for a short ride. (She loved it!)
Later on that night, Kathleen and I kept the tradition alive: we played with sparklers!
The next day, Shawn and I went to the beach, where it was warm.
I was finally able to lay out in the sun and not think about anything. ^__^
I brought one of my Alice's Adventures in Wonderland book with me. (I have at least 30 copies.)
I love perfect weekends.
...okay I still haven't even opened them up yet and I have to admit the song title..."Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance" has me a bit apprehensive of just what this song is going to sound like. :P What's amazing is that Cdjapan sent these out really early this time and I've actually received them before they're even on the shelves in Japan as the street date is July 9th and it's the 8th right now in Japan. :O Both covers are pure joy but I especially like the regular edition's photo of them jumping which others have previously mentioned as being similar to "High School Musical"'s cover artwork. The LE includes a close up version of the pv so I'll have that to look forward to while waiting for their pv DVD single to arrive which looks to be about 2 weeks away....and I probably won't get around to listening to/watching these until tomorrow as I'm helping my mom get ready for her trip to Hokkaido which she leaves for tomorrow. I don't know what weather is like typically this time of year in Hokkaido but it does sound a bit strange for Summertime.....60's to low 80's with lots and lots of rain!! :O Hopefully not too much rain!!..and I do hope to post some photos from her trip when she gets back. :) Quite a few H!P members were born in Hokkaido and maybe she'll bump into Nacchi, Konkon, or Mikitty...not that she'd know who they are.... :P
Hopefully I'll have my thoughts on BK's new single posted here tomorrow.
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