theWell - Everything and More

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I am officially endorsing utorrent, for a bittorrent client. At least, for the time being. No install required.

Now I need to tell you all a little bit about me, before I get into this review. I am a child of the eighties. I feel for the grudge scene in Seattle. I know disco will never die. That all being said, I was born three months into 1989, so while my memory of this wacky time may not seem to be perfect, it is. Besides, if you remember the eighties you weren't really there, amiright? huh?

And to all of you math majors in my audience, I know. If I was born in '89 that makes me only 25 years old. Old enough to be feared and respected as a serious blogger.

Ok, that all done with, we have a new band this week. theWell. A band that not only looks silly at the start of a sentence, but reinforces to everybody how poor my punctuation knowledge is (It should have been "...this week: theWall"). I can't really pick a specific genre out so I've decided to make my own up eighties-styled, Law-and-Orderist, cosmos jazz.

Eighties styled: Not so much similar to the eighties, but if I were making a TV show about the eighties this would be the background music.

Law-and-Orderist: A lot of the guitar styling (that guitar sliding thing-a-mabob) and licks, as well as some of the auxiliary percussion is reminiscent of Law and Order. Also there is great work with the synths.

Cosmos Jazz: It sounds cosmosish, plus thats what they call it.

Pros: I like this synth and the crazy eighties guitar stylings. It sounds like I am being ubducted by aliens why being attacked by cops on the streets of New York.

Cons: It's a full length album in only five tracks; that leaves each at about 8 min long. It's mostly instrumental.

Summery: Listen to it. It's great working music, if not worthy for your mp3 player. Three combs and a hot make out session out of five. Start with 'Jamafrika,' don't bother with 'Save Yourself.'

Steve Dunston - To Get Home Before Night Comes

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I am officially endorsing utorrent, for a bittorrent client. At least, for the time being. No install required.

Soft Jazz. They call it pop, but it is TOTALLY soft jazz.
But nobody listens to soft jazz so they call it pop.

So I'm back to Jamendo now. Has everybody downloaded Bittorrent?

So I've just gotten one of my reviews edited. Ouch. Aparently I like everything too much, and use "fun" and "really" excessively. I personally would have pointed out how jumpy I am.

Steve Dunston. This dude is fairly high profile for a nothing Jamendo artist. He has apparently written for Scrubs, a few commercials, and a musical: "Witness". I really (used that word again) don't care about that. He has good-to-great-leveled songs on his album, and two that are total and complete crap. A pretty good ratio, I'd say.

Um, the band (Steve Dunston being the band) is fairly minimalistic. A consistent drum line for each some, a keyboard. There's a bit of synth in there someplace, but I bet its just a setting on the keyboard. In fact.. I sense a drum machine.

Um, the lyrics are not bad by any measure, but they are repetitive. Not a bad repetitive, it works really well

Pros: Many iPod-worthy tracks, its minimalistic but it works. Why did I say iPod? I mean Mp3 player! I will not stand by as another brand name dominates an entire product industry. This will not be another "Kleenex" or "Rollerblade"!

Cons: Two sucky tracks, probable drum machine, only one real instrument (but it works well)

Best Tracks:

• Danger Girl (fun)
  
• Better Man (slow)
• 360 Degrees
• Lost in my Head
• Alone in a Room (fast, fun)

Summery: Give Danger Girl a chance and go from there. Three tears from the crushed soul of Bill Gates at the sight of Apple winning market share out of a possible four.

Enter the Haggis

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Crap, I saved over this entry. Sorry.

Um, its kinda country but not really. They say its Celtic Rock/Newgrass.

Its good, very effective use of metal-style electric guitar with pipes and a fiddle.

Um.. Twirling Towards Freedom is a perfect example of the fusion (instrumental).

Bye, and sorry again.

I like the lyrics to Gasoline.

Randy Coleman

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I am officially endorsing utorrent, for a bittorrent client. At least, for the time being. No install required.

I'm not really sure how to write this review. I've decided to back off from Jamendo for a while as half of my audience informed me yesterday that they don't have bittorrent or e-mule. I've spend my morning searching GarageBand.com instead and found a pop artist I like: this guy.

There is absolutely nothing in any way new, or special about this guy. His music is easy to listen to, but in no way original. I'm not saying he's not good, he's great, but his band is comprised of a single vocalist (himself), a piano, a guitar, and a drum set. Drums don't get too much more complicated than tapping the high hats each beat, piano goes up and down the scale, etc.

Think of James Blunt for a second. Are you thinking of James Blunt? I hate James Blunt. This man's music is James Blunt, a bit better, but still James f*cking Blunt.

**Removed due to extreme suck.**

I don't want to give you guys the wrong impression. I like listening to the music, I just hate everything else about it.

Start with Goodbye Renee', and if you like it listen to the rest.

Summery: Four and a half severed head of James Blunt out of a possible five. (Little known fact about James Blunt, if you chop off his head, three more grow in its place.)

NOTE: It is currently unclear to me if this song is licenced under CC. It is free, legal, and easy to download so I will leave it, but I am unsure about the exact details of the licence.

Kolokon - Rock'n'Roll Patxuko

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Ok, I have to be honest with you, I spent too much time this weekend playing Defcon and not enough on Hemlock Wine. As I result, I don't really have a review for you.

So what do we have here.. *flips through the files that don't actually exist, but only serve to make me seem more professional*. Ah, world music. Ok, so Kolokon is a Spanish group, from Spain. Some of the music is in English, but its mostly Spanish. Each track is a distinctive "world music" genre. Its kinda fun, as each song is completely different. One track sounds like a Greek wedding, one is modern blues, one's a circus! There's funk, a tiny bit of rock mixed in, basically a feel for everything except for pop and country. They are very effective electric guitar lines and decent instrumentation.

Don't let the first few songs fool you, this track gets better as it goes.

Best Tracks:

• The rebel call - Funk.
  
• A beira do mar - At first I thought it was the Macarena.
  
• Ella - Lyrics sound great, I almost wish I spoke Spanish.
  
• Welcome (House of Blues) - Modern Blues.
• Coito interurbano - Traditional, great electric guitar solo at the end.

Summery: Three and a half stars. I love it, but they ruined it for me by starting with a weak track. Too much "world music," not enough guitar solo, blues or funk.