sketch away!!

You have to copy the drawing shown to you in 4 seconds or less... extremely fun, additive, and frustrating! Test your mouse doodling skills here.

god loves a liar

This weekend consisted of nothing but watching NHL playoffs (Go Habs Go) and studying for my Popular Music in North America exam... which for the past week, I thought is on Tuesday, but it is actually tomorrow!! ...and yes, I am taking a course in university called Popular Music in North America, and I may be able to used "Fuck The Police" by NWA as an answer for the final exam, how cool is that! Anyways, looking at the front page of this blog, I noticed that there is nothing but Patrick Wolf, Final Fantasy, and Feist posts. I think I have shown enough affection for those artists; as a result, I am going to try to feature different musicians for at least the next few posts. So, I am here to introduce A Wilhelm Scream – a punk rock/post-hardcore band that I have been listening to nonstop this past month and a half. I currently have two releases by A Wilhelm Scream: Mute Print and Ruiner. Both are great records, but in my opinion, Ruiner is far greater! Ruiner features memorable guitar riffs: catchy, but not poppy in a sense that it will make you get tire of the album after five listens; as well, it has lightning fast rhythms along with aggressive vocals. Seriously, I cannot put this album down. This is the closest to good old punk rock without being too poppy, not that there is anything wrong with pop punk (well, some pop punk). Please, if you like fast post-hardcore punk rock music, you absolutely have to check out A Wilhelm Scream. They are playing tomorrow night at The Opera House with Protest the Hero and Bayside!

Sounds like: Against Me, Hot Water Music, Propagandhi, Rise Against

Famous Friends And Fashion Drunks from Mute Print
The Rip from Mute Print
The King is Dead from Ruiner
Killing It from Ruiner
Congratulations from Ruiner ***file has expired, reload upon request
Less Bright Eyes, More Deicide from Ruiner (i highly disagree with the title... but a great song nonetheless) [wicked-cool song] ***file has expired, reload upon request

buy A Wilhelm Scream releases here

great great minds against themselves conspire

"To the Lighthouse" by Patrick Wolf is truly a spectacular song. The song is brilliantly composed: saddening lyrical content is backed up with ironic electronic dance beats. I don’t know what P.Wolf’s intensions are for this song, but it can easily be interpreted as a tribute to Virginia Woolf, hence the title. But continuous hints in the song like '…stop collecting stones and the river bed shall not be your home…', or '…now the bombs drop around our feet…' only strengthen this presumption.

Patrick Wolf - To The Lighthouse [wicked-cool song] ***file has expired, reload upon request

http://wolf.ratafacha.com/audio/live/Live_@_Benicassim_Festival_Spain_-_08-08-04/02_-_To_The_Lighthouse.mp3
http://wolf.ratafacha.com/audio/live/Live_@_Kulturzentrum_Nuremberg_2005/15_-_To_The_Lighthouse.mp3
http://wolf.ratafacha.com/audio/live/Live_@_Paradiso_Amsterdam_(05-04-05)/13_-_To_The_Lighthouse.mp3 [wicked-cool song]

Murder By Death - I'm Afraid Of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf [wicked-cool song] ***file has expired, reload upon request


buy Patrick Wolf releases here

vote for Natalie Portman

Who’s the World’s Sexiest Vegetarian?

Go Habs Go!

If you are not a hockey fan, stop reading now. I posted this at the beginning of the season in my old blog. 5 of the 6 teams on that list made it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Clearly, I want Montreal to win the Cup, but I think Ottawa and Detroit (damn I HATE the Wings!!!) have the best chance. I'm still not counting out the Sharks either! So, what are your predictions? Which two teams are making it to the finals? And which team will win the 05-06 Cup?

a post before i head out to school

I found yet another high quality live concert by the mighty Feist. This one is "The Black Session" live on France Inter back in 2004. I have also found two bonus tracks that are only available on the UK import of Let It Die. Enjoy!

Feist - Black Session, Live on France Inter

Amourissima from the UK version of Let It Die
Tout Doucement from the UK version of Let It Die
***all files have expired, reload upon request

buy Let It Die here

there might just be modern romance after all

Every time I talk to someone about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or the song "Modern Romance", I usually mention how much I love the hidden track at the end of the record. The response I get is always similar: "what?! I didn’t know there’s a hidden track!!!" or "I usually hit the stop button after Modern Romance!"
So, since I am such a cool and nice person, I have edited off the beginning of "Modern Romance", leaving just the hidden part... umm... I hope this is legal! Oh well, here it is:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - the untitled track at the end of Modern Romance [wicked-cool song]
***file has expired, reload upon request

hmm... that picture of Karen O (thanks, millie) up there looks a lot like this one or this one...

here are the beautiful lyrics to the track:

baby I'm afraid of a lot of things
but I aint scared of lovin you
baby I know your afraid of a lot of things
but dont be scared of love

cause people will say all kinds of thing
that dont mean a damn to me
cause all I see is whats in front of me
and thats you

well, I've been dragged all over the place
i've taken hits time just don't erase
and baby i can see you've been fucked with too
but that dont mean your lovin days are through

cause people will say all kinds of things
that don't mean a damn to me
cause all I see is whats in front of me
and thats you

well I maybe just be a fool
but I know you're just as cool
and cool kids
they belong together

buy YYYs releases here

introducing...

lycanthropy v. 2.0!!!

love it? hate it? tell me what you think!

i have also updated two previous posts: upcoming concerts and top 50 indie films
i will be updating both of those posts periodically. there’ll be links under 'notable posts' so you don’t have to go search the archives.

featured artist

Sorry for the last post, I hope it didn't depress anyone. So, now on a more lighter note... today, I found yet another very cool artist. From what I have seen so far, a big part of Ronald Kurniawan’s style is combining surreal objects with realistic, heroic landscapes. This style is very conventional among surreal artists: disturbing reality by using surreal objects or creatures in realistic environments. In many of his paintings, he uses block letters and numbers to create some really smart and interesting pieces. For instance, click here to see "B Plantation"... I don’t think any explanation is needed here. Some of the themes that Kurniawan deals with are conflicts, fears, and isolations. He uses these themes, as well as beautiful imageries and colours to create some very mysterious narratives in his pieces. In addition, he utilizes all these techniques to create some extremely unusual sculptures. My personal favorites are "One could stand on its own", "I had a dream that I was on a boat with trees for sails", and the amazing "Birdhouse". Be sure to check out Ronal Kurniawan’s website, but beware, you will probably be stuck there for a long time as you will find yourself looking at every single one of Kurniawan’s magnificent work. Enjoy!

On a side note, some BIG updates are coming soon including a facelift to the entire blog as well as more live Feist tracks.

nobody plans to be half a world away at times like these

This is my 100th post since I started this blog. I want to dedicate this post to my grandpa in Australia, who has just passed away today. I have not seen him in over 10 years, but have talked to him every so often. From what I could remember, he was a very sweet, loving man. He gave me my very first coffee... he poured in extra sugar and milk because I could not stand the bitter taste of black coffee. I think I had like four or five cups that day because I loved it so much and he liked to spoil me. I feel extremely bad that I have not seen him for so long. Every time I talk to him on the phone, he would ask when I’ll be visiting. I was actually planning to go see him this summer since I’d be done in U of T, but it's now too late and I will never get a chance to see him again. I guess that is all I want to express right now, sorry for such a downer post.