Afterall, the band released back to back classics with 1991’s Out of Time and 1992’s Automatic for the People, only to be followed up by the 1994 rocker Monster.

Then, the Athens legends began a slow descent.

In retrospect, 1996’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi is actually a great album, but was hard to realize that then after the departure of drummer Bill Berry and the following releases.

Up from 1998, Reveal from 2001 and Around the Sun from 2004 are, for the most part, lackluster albums that many have forgotten.

Long story short, I haven’t looked forward to a new R.E.M. album in a long, long, long time.

So, does the band’s latest release, Accelerate, fulfill expectations?

Absolutely. Critics were actually right when they announced that this is R.E.M.’s best release in years.

The guys sound exceptionally fresh, as if they’re catching a second wind just to respond to current events.

Accelerate is a right to the point and solid rocker, with some classic R.E.M. sprinkled in between.

This is album should defiantly be picked up.

Check out these tracks:

“I’m Gonna DJ”

“Living Well Is The Best Revenge”

And, of course the video for “Supernatural Superserious”

Post from: The Production Side

Wait a minute…didn’t that come out in 1992?

Yes, it did. But, it’s receiving the good old collector’s edition treatment.

So, here’s what the collector’s edition contains:

Disc one is the original album (with classics like “My Drug Buddy”, their cover of “Mrs. Robinson” and of course the self-titled track), plus ten bonus tracks; which are mainly demos of tracks from the album, but still very cool.

Disc two is a DVD filled with lots of goodies, like three live videos from Australia, such as “Ride With Me,” “Alison’s Starting To Happen” and “It’s About Time, eight music videos for tracks that include ”Mrs. Robinson” and “It’s a Shame About Ray”, commentary from the main Lemonhead Evan Dando and some footage of the band having fun in the land down under.

So, for any Lemonhead fan, this a must. And, if you don’t own this classic 90’s album then get out the door and pick yourself up a copy. There is no way that you can resist the fuzzy vocals of Evan Dando over the poppy and melodic alt-rock tracks that were the soundtrack to so many people.

Ah yes, nostalgia.

Post from: The Production Side

The two-disc set features tracks from legends like Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, John Lennon to some great new acts like Bright Eyes. Tom Morello appears with Rage Against The Machine and The Nightwatchman, while Serj Tankian and Eddie Vedder appear with solo tracks and from their bands (System of a Down, Pearl Jam).

In fact, Vedder’s folksy and powerful track “No More” is the anchor for the entire album, since it was specifically written for the subject of the film Tomas Young. He unveiled the track last April at Jack Johnson’s Kokua Festival in Hawaii and took it with Pearl Jam to Europe and then Lollapalooza. The version that appears on this soundtrack is a live cut with Ben Harper (the studio version can be found on the deluxe edition of the Into The Wild soundtrack).

Proceeds from sales of the soundtrack will benefit Iraq Veterans Against the War.

For more info on the soundtrack, there’s also a link for the film’s site, click here.

Here’s the video for “No More”.

Post from: The Production Side

These Are the Good Times People hits stores today and is the band’s sixth studio album; so if you enjoy the simplistic and goofy music of PUSA then you should snag a copy.

The band is also currently on the road. They’ll be on the west coast, which includes a stop at the SXSW Festival before heading to the east coast and then they’ll set off to Europe.

To hear some new tunes, “Ghosts Are Everywhere” and “Mixed Up SOB”, and a full list of tour dates check out the band’s MySpace page.

For now, enjoy the video for “Mixed Up SOB”, which was directed by none other than “Weird Al” Yankovic.

Post from: The Production Side

I would have to say that Fiona Apple’s debut album Tidal was an unexpected way in giving women a new voice. It was anything but the classic “I am woman, hear my roar”, instead it was dirty and giving guys a taste of their own medicine.

The opening track, “Sleep To Dream”, is a fine example of this, as well as her breakthrough hit “Criminal” and “Shadowboxer”.

There are also gems on Tidal show that Fiona isn’t all bad, like the especially loungy “Slow Like Honey”, the semi-tropical “The First Taste”, and the piano driven “Pale September”.

Overall, Tidal proved to a powerhouse of an album, without loud guitars and screaming vocals. That’s quit an accomplishment from an artist in the 90’s. Although her career seemed to hit some bumps along the way, no one can argue that Fiona Apple hasn’t influenced a new generation of female artists and it all started with this album.

Post from: The Production Side

It marked the 10th Anniversary of my favorite Pearl Jam album, Yield.

Released on February 3, 1998, Yield was the band’s fifth album and marked somewhat a return to the band’s more straight forward roots, following the huge success of Vitalogy and the underestimated No Code.

Most of the album was influenced by Daniel Quinn’s novel Ishamael, most notably “Do The Evolution” and the recording was captured on the documentary Single Video Theory.

Yield kicks off with a bang during “Brain of J”, which is apparently about conspiracy theories, as if the title didn’t give it away. It segues perfectly into “Faithfull”, which seems to be about religion until it morphs into a song about relationships. From there the seldom live played “No Way” proves how great this band is.

Then the back to back hits enter with the beautiful “Given To Fly” and the simple, yet complex “Wishlist”. “Pilate” follows, which is one of the two tracks written by bassist Jeff Ament; which were also his first lyrical contributions on a Pearl Jam album.

“Do The Evolution” roars by next, which besides being a powerhouse of a song, is also remembered for the Todd McFarlane animated video. The band then gets a little silly with the untitled track, which seems to follow the more experimental tracks like “Hey Foxymophandlemama, That’s Me” from Vitalogy and “I’m Open” off of No Code.

“MFC” sneaks in next and proves to be a perfect driving tune, which is then proceeded by the other Ament song “Low Light”, which is one of my all time Pearl Jam favorites. “In Hiding” follows Ament’s gem of a song, and was influenced by the work of reclusive author Charles Bukowski.

The album comes to it’s conclusion with yet another experimental type track, “Push Me, Pull Me”, before ending with the splendid “All Those Yesterdays”.

Although Yield was the first Pearl Jam album since Ten not to debut at number one on the Billboard charts, it’s still become arguably a classic to fans. For those who have never picked the album up, you should be ashamed of yourselves, it’s damn good and should be in most people’s music collections.

Here’s “Faithfull” from Single Video Theory

Here’s the video for “Do The Evolution”

Post from: The Production Side

Well, how about giving the classic album a bit of that deluxe edition treatment.

So, what does the deluxe edition add to to the album that already spawned “Devil’s Haircut”, “Where It’s At”, “The New Pollution”, as well as the personal favorites, “Novacane” and “Ramshackle”? How about 19 more tracks of sweetness!

Beck throws in two unreleased tracks onto disc one, “Inferno” and “Gold Chains, before unleashing a second disc full of b-sides and remixes, which many here in the States have never heard before. Probably the coolest gem on this deluxe edition is “Burro”, which is “Jack-Ass” sung in Spanish with the assistance of a mariachi band.

This is a most have, it’s the perfect album to help many of us snap out of the winter blues.

Here’s the tracklist:

* Photo and tracklisting taken from CD Universe

Post from: The Production Side

You may actually be asking yourself right now “You the bleep is Mr. Bungle?”; which is a fair question.

Mr. Bungle was the first band of former Faith No More frontman Mike Patton. When Patton landed the gig as lead singer for Faith No More, he remained in Mr. Bungle. He is actually wearing a Mr. Bungle t-shirt in the video for “Epic”.

Anyways, California was the third and final major label album from the band released on July 13, 1999; it was supposed to be released a month earlier (June, 8), but Warner Brothers didn’t want to tick off anyone off, meaning a guy named Anthony Kiedis, because the Red Hot Chili Peppers released Californication on the same day.

California is overall just a neat album, probably one of the more accessible Mike Patton involved albums, with probably the exception of Faith No More.

The album kicks off with seagulls and a beachy/loungy tune entitled “Sweet Charity”, one of my favorites on the album. It then launches into “None Of Them Know They Were Robots”, which is like a Brian Setzer on acid influenced song, which is what you would except from this band. From there the band tunes it down just a bit with the hypnotic “Retrovertigo” and the Beach Boys sounding “The Air-Conditioned Nightmare”, which also has some of that Mr. Bungle uniqueness, noises and all that.

From there the band leads us to “Ars Moriendi”, which is a pot luck special of music influenced from Eastern Europe, Surf Music and of course some good old guitar thrashing. It’s followed by my favorite track on California,“Pink Cigarette”, which returns to that loungy sound, and is a lovely song of heart-ache.

Then, Mr. Bungle returns to doing what they do best with “Golden II: The Bionic Vapour Boy”, a song filled with vocal effects, circus theme music and some 70’s funky bass. “Holy Filament” follows and is another one of those loungy and spacey tunes.

“Vanity Fair” could be a close second as my favorite song on the album. Awesome vocals by Patton, which is backed by lots of doo-whoop vocals, add some saxophone and you’ve got a killer track. The album closes with “Goodbye Sober Day”, which sounds like the theme music from a cartoon meeting the nightmares of a person who isn’t all there.

California may not be for everyone, but it’s defiantly worth checking out. Whether you like it or not, I’m sure it will be an album that you won’t forget.

Post from: The Production Side

Anyways, this soundtrack is great, it fits perfectly with the movie (which is very good and is defiantly worth catching). It’s indie friendly, but manages to squeeze in a couple classic songs and some 90’s alternative tracks, which is why is it is relevant to this blog.

The soundtrack, just like the movie, opens up with the folky “All I Want Is You” by Barry Louis Polisar, which pretty much sets the stage for the rest of the soundtrack and movie.

From there it moves to the Kimya Dawson track “My Rollercoaster”. I should state right now that Dawson is the glue to this soundtrack as she also contributes the tracks “Tire Swing”, “Loose Lips”, “Sleep”, So Nice So Smart” and “Tree Hugger” with Antsy Pants. Her simple acoustic tunes hold the soundtrack and film together, these tracks are almost like the narrative for the character of Juno. I really feel that without Dawson’s tracks neither the soundtrack or film would be the same.

Here are the tracks from classic artists: ”A Well Respected Man” by the Kinks, Buddy Holly’s “Dearest”, “All The Young Dudes” by Mott The Hoople and “I’m Sticking With You” from The Velvet Underground.

The tracks from bands from the 90’s are from Belle & Sebastian, Cat Power and Sonic Youth. Although the movie had references to The Melvins, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, which made me happy.

Belle & Sebastian contribute two songs, “Piazza, New York Catcher” and “Expectations”, while Cat Power and Sonic Youth contribute covers. Cat Power does a beautiful version of the classic “Sea of Love” and Sonic Youth tackles The Carpenters “Superstar” (which originally appeared on the Carpenters tribute album If I Were A Carpenter), which is eerie and sweet at the same time.

The soundtrack winds down with yet another Kimya Dawson track, although this time from her previous band The Moldy Peaches. “Anyone Else But You” is a quirky love song, which is also performed by the main characters in the film Ellen Page and Michael Cera. I think it’s central to the love story in the film and it will get stuck in your head for days.

Give this soundtrack a chance, you shouldn’t be disappointed.

Post from: The Production Side

Basically, this is 18 track compilation of demos by Cuomo from 1992 to like 2005. Most of the material is taken from Weezer’s early days, outtakes/demos from The Blue Album and Pinkerton; which is very good, because Pinkerton is hand’s down Weezer’s best album. Also from around this time are tracks taken from the space-themed concept album, Songs from the Black Hole, which was supposed to follow Weezer’s debut album.

Other tracks worth mentioning are a demo of “Buddy Holly” and a cover of Ice Cube’s “The Bomb”.

The compilation gets stale towards the end with newer demos; which makes sense since the last few Weezer albums aren’t really worth mentioning.

The booklet is also pretty cool, since it features various pics, lyrics and histories on the songs featured on the album.

I guess if you have the extra cash you should pick this up; but I’d probably wait until after the holidays when I hopefully get some cash coming my way.

Post from: The Production Side