Viva La Mainstream Has Moved!!!

¡VIVA LA MAINSTREAM HAS MOVED TO A NEW LOCATION!

Effective immediately, ¡Viva La Mainstream! can be found at the link above. This site will remain open for archiving and linking purposes, but all future entries will appear on the new site. Please update your RSS feeds, Google Readers, etc. to reflect this change. If you are a blogger and link to VLM on your site, please update your link so readers can still find the material you enjoy enough to recommend. The new site still has a few changes to be made before its complete (mostly stuff to make the folks at MOG happy), but in the near future everything you see on this site will be available at

HTTP://VIVALAMAINSTREAM.WORDPRESS.COM

Thank you all, and see you on the new site!

==TJ==

Album A Day: Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

[TJ's note: We're inching ever closer to the official move from this site to our new home on Wordpress. Any and all mp3s posted here will not longer be picked up by Hype Machine, as they have been given the new URL for the site. Odds are by the end of next week this site will be officially closed. Change your bookmarks, Google Readers, RSS feeds, etc. accordingly.]

In honor of Nine Inch Nails' release of 400 GB of video footage yesterday, I'm listening to their most recent record, 2008's The Slip today. I was considering playing the bootleg I have of their show at Woodstock '94, but I'm saving that for an eventual week of live shows.

The Slip was a stellar blend of old and new for Trent Reznor. It had the driving, danceable singles in "Discipline" and "Echoplex" that were reminiscent of With Teeth, alongside the spacey instrumentals of "Corona Radiata" that made Ghosts I-IV a hit earlier that same year. In between those, you get the head-pounding, teeth-gnashing industrial that made Trent Reznor a hit in the early 90s. In many ways its a perfect introduction to NIN for people whose knowledge of the band begins and ends with the line "I wanna f--- you like an animal"*.

Lyrically Reznor is rarely better than he was at this point, and the music carries an intensity that warrants the epic tour that just wrapped up. Even "Lights In The Sky" (the song for which said tour was named) in its subdued angst holds so much power that you forgive its funeral march tempo. Despite getting a bit tedious around the seven minute "Corona Radiata", The Slip holds up so well leading to that point that you let Reznor indulge for one song just to hear what he does next. Sure enough, the patience is rewarded with the trippy "The Four Of Us Are Dying" and one last headbanger in "Demon Seed". A worthy end to an album

It's a shame that The Slip was so widely ignored on Best of '08 lists this year, since in a year where rock music struggled to have its voice heard amongst the return of Britney Spears, the reign of Lil Wayne, and that friggin' garbage that was "Low", Nine Inch Nails stood out as a shining bright light amongst a dim sky.

Nine Inch Nails - Discipline
Nine Inch Nails - Lights In The Sky
You can still download The Slip for free at NIN's official website

==TJ==

*I'm of course referring to the chorus of "Closer", not that of the despicable Limp Bizkit song "Hot Dog". Apologies for any confusion (though if you were thinking of Limp Bizkit in the midst of a blog about Nine Inch Nails, we might need to have a chat...)

Album A Day: The Boxing Lesson - Wild Streaks and Windy Days

Today's installment of Album A Day takes a trip to the underground with Texas space rock (their words, not mine) band The Boxing Lesson. I've received emails from The Boxing Lesson a couple times now, but as life goes, I'm only really giving a hard listen to and blogging about them now.

The biggest problem with the entire psychedlic/progressive rock genre is that its almost too broad. In its attempts to reach out and touch the farthest reaches of the universe, I always feel like I get left behind. Even the best in the genre (Rush, Pink Floyd) have a hard time keeping my attention from time to time. The Boxing Lesson have the same problem on their fourth release Wild Streaks and Windy Days, but its certainly not for their lack of trying. Tracks like "Freedom" and "Hopscotch and Sodapop" are wonderful, talent-laden rock songs that sound like they could've come straight out of the '70s. Even some of the longer, spacier songs like "Lower" have the allure to keep you involved more than usual. But once the lyrics are out and the token jam session gets going, The Boxing Lesson become a challenge to listen to again. Still, even for an underground band in a subgenre that has never impressed me, The Boxing Lesson show a remarkable amount of talent, and an equal or greater potential to bring something meaningful to the table. I can't in good faith slam or dismiss Wild Streaks and Windy Days since its not an outright bad album. I'm sure a number of my readers are seeing the description for the band and clamoring to hear it, and more power to them. The Boxing Lesson caught my attention for a little bit this time, and in the not too distant future I see them making another appearance on VLM.

The Boxing Lesson - Freedom [iTunes]

The Boxing Lesson on MySpace

==TJ==

Jay-Z and Radiohead Get the Mixtape Treatment

I don't know how badly I missed the boat on this one, but from the looks of it, this isn't too moldy. Not too long ago Minty Fresh Beats dropped a new mixtape entitled Jaydiohead featuring mashups of, you guessed it, Jay-Z and Radiohead. Look, I get that the title makes it clear what they're doing, but would a little originality have killed 'em? How about Black Rainbows? Hell, Kid Jay! But I'm here to critique the music, nothing else.

The mixtape focuses mostly on the later works of both artists (The Black Album and American Gangster for Jay-Z, OK Computer through In Rainbows for Radiohead), but takes the best selections from both and creates some wonderfully ingenious mashes. "No Karma" takes "Karma Police", arguably Radiohead's most recognizable track not named "Creep" and "No Hook", an abstract filler cut from American Gangster and gives the latter, well, a hook. The most impressive thing here is just how seamlessly everything fits in. Jay's raps and Thom Yorke's vocals on "Optimistic Moment" fit so organically that Yorke must be sitting in a room somewhere wondering why he didn't come up with this first. Admit it; no one reading this would have considered the riff from "Paranoid Android" having any similarities to that of "Dirt Off Your Shoulder". And yet when you listen, it's like the whole thing was somehow divinely planned out years ago, and us along with Minty Fresh Beats are just late to the party.

Overall the mix is brilliant. Even the mashups featuring songs I didn't really know work really well. Best of all, unlike other mixtapes that are best heard start to finish, Jaydiohead works just as well as singles as it does elsewhere. Think the Jay-Z/Linkin Park Collision Course project, just a bit more natural and focused.

Jaydiohead - No Karma

Pick up Jaydiohead here. (Thanks to A Future In Noise for posting this first)

==TJ==

Album A Day: The Rules

Since I never did post the rules for the Album A Day project…here they are. You’d think I wouldn’t need to do so, but if they’re written here, then I have to stay honest about it and you get to call me on it if I screw up.

THE RULES

• The basics are simple; there are 365 days in 2009.
• Between January 1 and December 31, I will listen to 365 albums.
• Things that count as an album: Albums, EPs (use sparingly…let’s not cop out), Soundtracks, Bootlegs/Live shows, semi-official mixtapes (anything by Lil Wayne or Kanye, etc), greatest hits compilations, and other things I’m not considering.
• Items that do NOT count: self-made mixtapes, iTunes playlists, CD singles.
• If for whatever reason I miss a day, I must double up on the next day. If I miss consecutive days, the earliest day is considered lost and cannot be made up (if I miss tomorrow and Thursday, I can only make up for Thursday).
• I cannot listen to two albums in a day and have one count for a future day.
• Each day (unless a skip like the one mentioned in rule 5 occurs) I will post a response to the album. Not necessarily a review, just a response to what I think and feel as I listen and how I think others will respond.
• Other rules can be added at my discretion; none of the above may be deleted.

I think that covers it. Listening to today’s album right now. Back soon with more on that.

==TJ==

Album A Day: Wicked: Original Broadway Cast Recording

I'm happy to report that work on the new site is very nearly complete, and I'm now able to show you what it looks like right now. The site is still very much in its early stages, and until I get my computer back tomorrow I'm still limited in what I can post, but it's up and alive and ready for you to see. This site is going to stay active for at least another week or two while I get some other business in order, but checking the new page as well, since I'll slowly be introducing more material there and less here.

The NEW ¡Viva La Mainstream!

Feel free to leave any and all feedback you have. Now, on to today's album.

When people browse my CD and mp3 collection and come across my numerous Broadway and film soundtracks, they tend to respond with a confused look of “Dude…really?“. The answer is yes. Really. A Broadway soundtrack, when done properly, can be as enjoyable and great to listen to as any other album. People seem to want to relegate soundtracks to the scrap heap for reasons that never made sense to me, but then again, I’m a theatre major.

Even without the stage performance from whence it came, the soundtrack to Wicked stands out as a wonderful example of pop music that holds its own against the Taylor Swift’s and Britney Spears’s of “real” pop. It’s got hooks that latch on to your brain for hours, harmonies that never let up, and in terms of emotional punch…folks, it’s a friggin’ Broadway musical.

If you’ve never touched a Broadway soundtrack before, it might strike you as overly cheesy and vomit-inducing. That’s understandable. In that case, ease yourself in with one of the other big shows from the last two decades (Rent, for all its flaws, is a good jumping-off point). If you’re like me and can appreciate Broadway musicals alongside your rock n’ roll, then give this a chance. Just have something more catchy on standby so you don’t get caught humming “Defying Gravity” in public.

==TJ==

Album A Day: The Smiths - The Sound of The Smiths

For the record, I am deeming greatest hits records to be fair game for this project. Really the only thing that doesn’t count as an album is a homemade mix since, well…it’s a mix.

A friend of mine wore a Morissey T-Shirt awhile back, sparking a conversation about music that lasted well over 2 hours. I stopped short of confessing that I had barely ever listened to The Smiths (or Morissey’s solo stuff). Given the conversation my friend and I had, I decided it was time I broadened my horizons and picked up the recently released Smiths compilation.

Usually when I say of a band or album that it’s the kind of thing I need to hear more than once to understand, it means I wasn’t a fan of it. I liked The Smiths…the 23 songs I heard anyway. But The Smiths are something I need to hear more than once to understand. The music is poppy, entertaining, and alluring, but there’s something vaguely melancholy in the music in spite of it. It probably has something to do with Morrissey’s brilliant falsetto and heartfelt lyrics. Granted, I only understood about a third of the words to any given track on the record, but it left me wanting more. And in a good way. I can’t even make a call as to which track is my favorite, because they all left the same kind of impact that I need another listen to decide what really sticks. So in closing, if you’re like me and have never gotten around to listening to The Smiths, go take care of that problem.

==TJ==