College Slide Show

This is a slide show I made for my college friends in my spare time, which is actually all of my time these days. I got impatient waiting for the e-mail attachment to load, so I thought I'd try to upload it here and see if it was any faster. Enjoy, dear friends. Hope this makes you bawl like a baby.

***Update: So I watched it. Van Morrison sounds like he's coming out of $5 speakers and a poorly burned CD and the picture quality leaves something to be desired, but you get the idea. I'm not sure if it would be any better if I e-mailed it, but I might just try, considering I have nothing better to do. You still get the idea. Right? Right?

"Viva la Vida" versus "Narrow Stairs"

Disclaimer: This writer does not actually know anything about music as an art. Please keep this in mind as you read. For real reviews of the following albums, click on the links below.

Rolling Stone's review of Narrow Stairs

Entertainment Weekly's review of Narrow Stairs

Rolling Stone's review of Viva la Vida

Entertainment Weekly's review of Viva la Vida

Last Tuesday, British rock band Coldplay released their fourth album, Viva la Vida. On May 13, Bellingham, Washington-based band Death Cab for Cutie also released a new album, Narrow Stairs. (Technically, Narrow Stairs is Death Cab's sixth studio album, but it is arguably their fourth mainstream album, and the first two were LPs.)

The music of these two bands has served as the soundtrack for many an angst-filled teenage life. As many twenty-somethings will now tell you, Death Cab and Coldplay played a large role throughout their pitiful high school existences. I am no exception.

Needless to say, I was excited when I found out about the new albums. I downloaded them from iTunes soon after their respective releases.

Narrow Stairs was out first. Death Cab's previous album, Plans, released in 2005, was good. Not as good as Transatlantacism (2003), but good. Enjoyable. There are some fantastic songs on that album. The Photo Album (2001) is definitely Death Cab's best album, but that does not diminish the grandness of Transatlantacism or Plans. Although I have always enjoyed Death Cab, was nervous about the new album from the moment I heard the single "I Will Possess Your Heart" on the radio. Death Cab has become so ungodly popular in the past 4-ish years, and I was worried how fame, fortune, and pressure would affect their newest music. Well, it's still got the classic Death Cab feel, but it's no Photo Album. It's not even as good as Plans. But it's good. I do feel a bit ripped off though, considering one of the tracks on the iTunes version is some guy reading the album credits. Not so pleasant when you're laying in bed listening to the soothing voice of Ben Gibbard and then some guy comes up through the headphones and assaults your ear canals.

The best tracks on the album are "Bixby Canyon Bridge", "Grapevine Fires", and the lovely 1:59 "You Can Do Better Than Me." The lyrics throughout the album are stunning as per usual for Death Cab. Where Coldplay's lyrics seem generic and cliche ("Every door I ever tried was locked.")

I knew right away that Viva la Vida wouldn't disappoint. After being somewhat let down by the 2005 album X&Y, I could not be more thrilled with Coldplay's new album. It is wunderbar! No song on this album is alike in any way, except for the fact that a couple of them have to do with death. Personally I would rather have a sincere, great song about death (as in Viva la Vida) than a crappy, weepy song about love (as in X&Y). Of course, Viva la Vida has its songs about love, but they are not so weepy and whiny. If Chris Martin came and sang them to me, I wouldn't gag!
The sounds on the new album aren't exactly "new" but they are certainly an update of the quintessential Coldplay sound. And it is music to my ears! My favorite track on the album is hands-down "Strawberry Swings."

So, in summary, if you're can only pick one album to buy, get Viva la Vida.

Lupe Fiasco at Occidental!?

Chicago-born rapper Lupe Fiasco is coming to Occidental College next week. Lupe's like, really famous. He just won a Grammy. He was on Ellen last week. He was MTV's Artist of the Week (as if that's a great honor anymore). His most recent album is barely two months old and he's pretty much bff with Kanye.

How, may you ask, was Occidental able to get Lupe to even think about coming here? Our fabulous Thorne Hall seats only 835 and general tickets are selling for $10. Recently Lupe has played at Ohio State and Yale, big schools with big budgets. The answer to the question...Julian Mitchell is magic. Julian, a senior here at Oxy, has a knack with getting the best people to come play here. Last semester we had an awesome krump dance-off with Tommy the Clown and it was awesome.

Mega props to Julian, Black Student Alliance, KOXY, and everyone involved with getting Lupe to come to Oxy. It's going to be badass.