The Black Keys

Grammy award-winning indie blues-rock from Ohio? Really!? The Black Keys. I have been into this band for about two months now, and they continue to grow on me, like a deep raw fungus. [?]

It's hard to describe the Black Keys any better than I just did.  They are a deep raw fungus, with some smooth bluesy beats and electrifyingly simple riffs.  They cut your soul with a butter knife made of diamonds and minced garlic (if you are a vampire).

The Black Keys

A two man band, the Black Keys have the same hurdle that other duos have: creating interesting songs with primarily two instruments.  Many of their songs include other instruments, but they primarily rely on their heavy, deep drum and buzzy guitar lines.  In this regard, they are similar to The White Stripes.  However, unlike The White Stripes, the Black Keys don't suck ass.

Lead-singer Dan Auerbach gets me with his skinny tie.

Dummer Patrick Carney looks gawky. 

They are simple and un-produced, straightforward rock, poured from a canned of distilled bluesy whoop-ass.  So basically, you can bet your top dollar that these bad boys will make your iPod catch on fire, and the rubber on your shoes melt.  You will not have a better time anywhere else getting electrocuted by awesomeness.

Looks like heaven, or any random grungy

pollution-filled American city -- you decide.

Lo! Hyperbolic metaphors abound!

P.S. See this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLSpj7q6_mM, for a rare cross between two features on The Good, The Bad, and the Badass (the hot Tricia Helfer, and The Black Keys).

I am a Liar Liar Pants on Fire

I said I wouldn't post until Tuesday, but I wanted to quickly comment on two things:

1) Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate "Nuggets" With Almond. These bad boys are sustaining me through finals time, I suggest you go out and purchase a bag or three and consume them as meals -- breakfast, lunch, and dinner, no exceptions.

2) Rilo Kiley. I will give this band the full treatment they deserve sometime in the future. But for now, a quick comment will suffice. They have always been on my radar and slowly growing in my playlist, but recently they have become one of my favorite indie bands. Jenny Lewis is gorgeous, and their music is fairly unique and straightforward enough for me to dig their shizz. Sometime, I hope to see them in the DC area. Please tour!

Rilo Kiley

Check out their stuff on Youtube, it's not bad, not bad at all. 

Moneymaker by Rilo Kiley
(camcorder, but not too bad quality)

Yours forever, dWis.

The Arcade Fire

Simply put: The Arcade Fire. You don't need adjectives like "awesome" or "amazing" or "bonerific" to describe this band. These words, and more, are intrinsic to the name Arcade Fire. They are one of my favorite bands, and they should be one of your favorites too. (at least in your top five, like me)

This is a good playlist: We Used to Wait, 

Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains),

The Suburbs, Neon Bible, and Wake Up

Arcade Fire has released one EP and three LPs. The EP is called simply "The Arcade Fire EP" (2003). And the three LPs are Funeral (2004), Neon Bible (2007), and The Suburbs (2010). I recommend checking out these albums in their entirety, because they are all really that good. I'll provide a few details below.

Funeral (2004)

Favorite songs: Wake Up, Haiti, and Rebellion (Lies). 

If you are thinking about buying an Arcade Fire album, I'd go with this one first. I think it's a good starting place. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album #6 on the list of greatest albums of the decade (2000s), beat out only by a bunch of garbage (i.e. Radiohead's Kid A, The Strokes' Is This It, Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Jay-Z's The Blueprint, and the White Stripes' Elephant). This critic refers to those albums as garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage, and garbage, respectively.

It was also ranked #8 in a book titled The Top 200 Canadian Albums by Bob Mersereau. It ranked high in the mix, near the top with albums like Harvest (#1) and After the Goldrush (#3) by Neil Young, and Moving Pictures (#9) and 2112 (#17) by RUSH. This was quite an impressive feat considering the monster-legacy and mega-epicness of those artists.

Neon Bible (2007)

Favorite songs: Intervention, Windowsill, and Keep the Car Running. 

This was my first Arcade Fire album. I was introduced to Intervention and Keep the Car Running while laying on the floor of my dorm room during sophomore year of college. I was really drunk and watching SNL. They were the guest band and really stood out. During that time of my life they had a big impact on me. Thanks for being you Arcade Fire.

The Suburbs (2010)

I think they released the album with

multiple different covers, which is unique.

Favorite songs: The Suburbs, We Used to Wait, and Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains).

This is their newest album, and I think it is my favorite album of theirs. I think I read somewhere that when they mixed the CDs, they took the sound off of records to try and give that "vinyl sound" too it. I'm not sure if that actually works, but I appreciate the effort regardless. Either way, the album sounds great. I picked up a copy on vinyl too, and that makes me feel special, so yay.

--

I was fortunate enough to see Arcade Fire this year in Madison Square Garden with my good buddy Eric Sedler. We lucked out and saw them the second night of their performance, which they were filming for the "Unstaged" series of music videos. The entire concert was filmed. It was awesome. You can find the videos on Youtube.

I can't really say enough good things about this band. I really suggest checking them out. Their only downside is that they are Canadian (just like RUSH and Neil Young). What's that all aboot? I'm just glad that they don't sell their CDs with gravy on them. Whatever, I still love them (you too RUSH and Neil Young). xoxo

Regina Spektor, Respek

You don't need to tell me that the name of this blog includes the holy words "Heavy Metal." You don't need to tell me that Regina Spektor is not Metal. And you don't need to tell me that I have a vagina for liking her music... I concede that figurative description. But I like her anyway, so whatever, suck it.

Other than kind of having Dracula hands in this picture, 
she's not that bad looking.

(I mean, she'd be hotter if she was blonde... of course. haha)

I haven't really gotten into Spektor's music too much yet, but I have had the pleasure of listening to some of her songs. They are fairly original, she has a unique enough voice to not bore me, or annoy me, and her musical composition deserves at least an A-. All in all, I think she's a pretty good musician.



I have a soft spot for piano generally, but this girl really hits my piano-spot in a lot of her songs. It seems to be a focus of hers, which is awesome, because the piano isn't really used very much (or correctly, in my opinion) in modern music. But whatever, I guess that could be attributed to things slowly turning to crap -- aka ke$ha, e.g. Spektor rocks it in the indie sphere, and I think she pulls it off.

Ya'll will be gettin' a flavor for my tastes as time goes on. My blog's title is slightly a misnomer for me, but it sounds better than "Law School and/or Heavy Metal about 60% of the time with Indie/Alt. Rock about 40% of the time." See, e.g., The Arcade Fire, Jenny Lewis, Company of Thieves, Rilo Kiley.  :)