hiding in the crowd but all alone
so with teeth comes out on tuesday. the hand that feeds didn't exactly knock me over - it felt very radio-ish, the last thing i would expect from trent. i figured, hey, they've been getting exponentially more progressive and experimental, this one's gonna be 90% sprawling intrumentals if things keep up as they have. then i heard only on ethel, and it was more of the same style - verse-chorus-verse, guitar-drum-bass-driven, structured songs. something that i haven't heard since wish in 1992. and i'm thinking - is this gonna be a pop album? an attempt to sound less like the innovative, daring, thoughtful, intelligent art of the past? more like a linkin park? kinda scary. especially since trent's been talking about how this disc is going to be the greatest stuff they've ever done.
to relieve my fears i checked out their myspace page, where the entire album is available to listen to, straight through. i figured i'd check the first couple of songs.
oooooooh dang. how foolish of me - this disc is gonna be really good stuff. a mix of everything i've enjoyed about my favorite nin tracks (the becoming, i do not want this, into the void, wish, the fragile, just like you imagined, the big come down, etc etc). a masterful blend of more prominent vocals, a little more coherent structure, great guitars and synth, and absolutely perfect drums and bass. that's the first three songs. i need to stop listening so i don't kill the surprise. i'm just re-excited again. this is how it should be.
hitchhiker's was actually very good, it turns out. laugh-out-loud funny for most of it. the first 30 minutes or so were dead-on the book, and then it just got jumbled - not terribly bad. it ended up making about as much sense as the book does (not all that much), just in a different way. casting was perfect. and around the end it got sappy and weird. they made a huge deal out of trillian & arthur hooking up, which consumes about five seconds in the book - a typical hollywood refocus. oh well. it was well worth seeing and i'll definitely see it again.
then b and i hit up take 5 down the street from our place. he's raved about it for a while - and with good reason. they have some tasty, non-skimpy wings with a good variety of sauces; pork wings (riblets on a stick), saratoga chips... the band played some buffett covers.. i think it'll be a great regular place. until july anyway :)
new family guy tomorrow, son!
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