When Life Gives You Lemons...

...You paint that shit gold!

I know, I said I'd see you next week, but I couldn't help it.

This week has been full of good music so far.

On Tuesday, Atmosphere's new album, "When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold," came out, and I went to the Honda Civic Tour last night, which was a blast.

First, the Atmosphere album: it's amazing. It's definitely different compared to any of Slug and Ant's old stuff. This album has some, I guess you could say, "modern" hip-hop, as far as the beats go. There are some downright bass-heavy, slow-paced beats that'll make you wonder if Ant had an epiphany while listening to T.I. But, of course, there are several tracks that feature Ant's catchy trademarked drum and piano beats. The track "Yesterday," one of the songs with a "traditional" beat, had the most memorable tune, in fact it's probably the most memorable song on the album. The song just drips with an inescapable feeling of reminiscence, as Slug raps about a friendship that went wrong and how he regrets it. It has a pretty interesting twist at the end: a twist that actually got me a bit teary-eyed. Like the last album, "You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having," all of the songs on this album have some serious themes and undertones. The album is really moody, but it's not in a bad way. Slug goes into different topics like cigarette addiction, suicide, and emotionally abusive relationships. He's still a master storyteller: you'd swear that he actually lived the life of the woman trying to cope with her life and her crappy boyfriend on the track "Dreamer." His lyrics are still incredible. There's some very deep, deep poetic shizzle on this album.


"All of us cut from the same damn cloth / Some of us never cut the price tags off..." -- Slug, "Like the Rest of Us"

Panic at the Fillmore!

The Honda Civic Tour came to Miami last night. Phantom Planet, The Hush Sound, Motion City Soundtrack, and Panic at the Disco all came out to perform at the Jackie Gleason Theater down in South Beach. My girlfriend, Peter, Shany, and I all went together, and I think it's safe to say we all had a good time.

We walked into the theater around 7 p.m., and, much to my surprise, it was already packed as Phantom Planet was about half-way into their set. I had never heard them before, and I was pleasantly surprised by them; they played some good ro ck n' roll type stuff. My girlfriend and I sat in the first floor's mezzanine, while Peter and Shany sat on the second floor. The seats weren't that great, but it thankfully didn't ruin the experience.

The Hush Sound came out after Phantom Planet and did their thing. Their stuff was pretty cool too. It kind of made you want to dance, but it was nothing out of this world in my opinion. There's just something about female lead singers in rock bands that just doesn't turn me on. I can hear your sexist remarks already...

Motion City Soundtrack, one of the greatest bands ever assembled in the history of the universe, came on next. It was the second time I saw Motion live, and although I enjoyed it more the first time I saw them, their performance was still energetic and entertaining. I got to meet the band after their performance. Justin Pierre gave me a hug, which Shany totally missed on camera, and the band signed my album and t-shirt.

Finally, Panic at the Disco came on, and I then began to seriously reconsider ever having children.

See, if I have children, then there is a fifty-fifty chance that that child may turn out to be a female.

If, in fact, my child is a female, then she was God-willing someday become an adolescent.

I now officially despise female adolescents.

Two of them sat directly behind me, and they both started yelling like maniacs, at the top of their lungs, as if someone was chopping away at their toes with garden scissors, at the s ight of Brendon Urie. My ears are still ringing. I turned around once and gave them my super-intimidating menace look, but sadly, it was to no avail. Any time Brendon spoke, or Ryan Ross spoke, or even just for the hell of it, they yelled like castrated Tarzans.

Brendon Urie says: STFU JOO LITTLE BITCHES!

Sigh.

Besides that... Panic was great.

They played a bunch of the songs from their first album, except they were played without the funky electronic sounds. They simply turned them into straightforward rock songs. Brendon performed an acoustic version of my all-time favorite Panic song, "Time to Dance," and Ryan got to show off his solo vocals on "Behind the Sea."

After the show, ears still ringing, we walked over to Lincoln Road, had some pizza and ice cream, spotted Justin Pierre eating with his family (he put a face like 'Aw, shit, they found me), and went on home to stop the bleeding in our ears.

And that's the post for today, ladies and gents. Sorry if I haven't been getting back to the IM's. I can't hear them.

Toodles!

Comment my blog! E-mail me! Tell me your story about yelling adolescent females! What do you think of Atmosphere's new album? Have you shaved a kitten this week? Let me know!