Look at My Sisters, Brilliant Like Fireflies up in Their Bedroom

Major labels can be very helpful to a career because they have the money to get your music into the ears of potential fans, but sometime getting releasing the chains the bind from big corporations can be very liberating for a band. The first full length album from Eisley under Warner Bros. gave focus to their independently released EP’s but never sadly caught with a larger audience, then came their sophomore slump with Combinations which was kind of a dud.

Now free of the confines of a major label, the band sounds rejuvenated with the release of The Valley off the independent Equal Vision Records Label. When the band sings “I’m smarter than you think” during Smarter you cannot help but wonder if it is about its former label, but either way it is fun to sing along with. With the crunching guitar, the song also sets a rougher tone for the album.

With that tougher sound come more mature lyrics, gone are mythical themes of albums past replaced by songs based on relationships, some rocky (the band has been a few failed marriages and engagements in the four years since their last album) and you can hear them take those themes right on with songs like Watch it Die, Sad, and Please. But the music still swells with big orchestras, piano and guitars that adds to the weight to the growth of the band.

Song to Download – Smarter

The Valley gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Would Rather Starve than Eat Your Bread

It seemed the less Pearl Jam wanted the spotlight, the more popular the band got. They refused to make anymore videos after Jeremy off their first album and their second Vs. had the biggest first week sales to date. Then they canceled their 1994 tour in protest of Ticketmaster’s service charges and their third album Vitalogy went on to be the second fastest album at the time after behind Vs. and like Vs. is being inducted into the Scooter Hall of Fame. Those two albums that chronicle the band’s tenuous rise of fame will rereleased as a three CD set later this month. Or if you have money to burn, you can also pick up the limited edition five LPs, four CDs, one cassette, an 80-page composition notebook and a memorabilia-filled envelope set. Vinyl hounds will have to trek down to your favorite independent record store when they will be sold exclusively.

Much like its predecessor, Vitalogy starts off with a one-two punch of guitar infused aggression with Last Exit and Spin the Black Circle, an ode to vinyl. I have a theory that the band loves vinyl that they made a CD that is guaranteed to scratch the CD. But in a time when the band was anti-music videos, they came up with some interesting packaging with the medical book theme of Vitalogy (which is the study of life) and the collector cards that were packaged with No Code.

In an age when the band wasn’t keen on self promotion, Better Man was still a commercial success despite never actually being released as a single and is up there with Black as one of the band’s best melancholy songs to date. But my favorite song on the album is Corduroy, a driving song that has an edge to it but remains as catchy as any pop song at the time.

Vitalogy also saw that band go into the bizarre musically whether it be Eddie Vedder singing about bugs around a poorly played accordion or the singer just repeatedly spelling privacy over and over again for a minute, or the vitrally wordless Spanish tinged Aye Davanita that just fades out as it did in. But it didn’t get any weirder than the album closer Hey Foxymophandlemama, That’s Me which saw more repeated phrases, this time about spanking. But the highs of Vitalogy helped Pearl Jam complete one of the best trio of first albums by any rock band.

I Want My Music Television - 2/28/11

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


I Need a Doctor - Dr. Dre featuring Eminem and Skylar Grey



After a decade long layoff, I really do not need an introspective Dr. Dre song as the second single (fifth maybe if the first four are bangers), I need Dre to be the soundtrack of me getting my drink on, my smoke on, then go home with something to poke on. And I do not even do two of the three (okay, I really do not do any of them).


Give a Little - Hanson



Seriously, they really need to put old people making out warning front of videos these days, first Parenthood and now Hanson. This trend really needs to stop.


Go Outside – Cults



MTV released their second “Supervideo” and juts like their first one it features a hot young actress (this time Emma Roberts subbing in for Anna Kendrick) and the video they made for Cults is just as nonsensical as the one they did for LCD Soundsystem.


Second Chance - Peter Bjorn and John



I always enjoy a good music video in reverce, and you can tell from the messy first frame that this would be a good one, but I wished Peter Bjorn and John would have at least tried singing backwards so it syncs up, that always makes a video in reverse.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 2/27/11

Shameless: The Gallagher family seemed a little too fine with helping faking their father’s death. Maybe wishful thinking. Then tonight there is even more family bonding when Frank actually goes sober. No, seriously. But of course it is for money.

Chuck: Holy Robin Givens Sighting! Did she just take the 00’s off? And working in Castle means we may be seeing more of her as she teases Casey with what is behind door number two. The rest of the episode was pretty obvious who the chick would turn out to be and the necklace being the key. But what exactly did she see? I am kind of hoping it is another Intercet. It is about time Chuck met his own match. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.

Greek: Thankfully they cut to commercial after Catherine slapped Casey because I need the entire break just to stop laughing. I can’t believe it took five seasons to realized that Casey needed a good slapping. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Castle: There is nothing I hate more on television than the clichéd “x amount of time earlier” start. And this episode of Castle was even worse because it completely failed to live up to the intro. When the episode started I had thoughts of ET rolling through my head. But when the scene came rolling around again, we learn there was really no reason for Castle to be resisting. And to make matters more boring, they ended up being let go like that. No tests or anything. Hurmph. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Parenthood: Eww, they really need to add a warning whenever they are going to show graphic scenes of old people making out. That scene seemed to never end. I had to run to sink to wach my eyes out like Alex Dunphey. That aside, I do not know what Crosby is thinking but I would totally give up my first born to get Minka Kelly. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.

Lights Out: This is the reason why I tend to avoid fictionalized sports stories. So Lights hasn’t fought in five years and he is able to knockout a fighter who has never been knocked down before in the second round with a bad eye? Alighty. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Lights Out on iTunes.

Survivor: Redemption Island: I really have to laugh whenever Boston Rob talks down about his tribe mates calling them amateurs while he continues the same boneheaded moves that gets him voted out pre-jury. Sure he has seen the coupling alliance before as he utilized it for the closest thing to success that he has ever had in the game, but a couple is only a threat when your alliance gets down to four, and that are certainly not less than a week into the game. Yet he is repeating the same problem that got him voted out during his first go-around, an alliance means nothing if you cannot make it to the merge. And with the new twist in the game, I am certainly not blindsiding someone who could come back and haunt me. Now Rob has to shrink his alliance even more by getting rid of Andrea too because if Matt comes back and she is still around, they can both flip (not to mention he has to get rid of Kristina too because she would be easy to flip also).

But I cannot wait until next week (I wonder if this is going to be another season of Survivor where the previews are the best part of the episode). First my girl Andrea goes on a warpath and then the “biggest blindside ever.” I have a feeling that it is Russell that will be on the wrong side of the blindsided this time. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.



Modern Family: Poor Alex, she never seems to come out on top of her far inferior sister. You knew somehow Hayley was going to get away with her lack of a waitressing job. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Justified: Most cop shows are better when the badge take on master criminals, not for Raylan Gibbons, he is at his bed when taking on the criminal inept, and his greatest adversary just may be Dewey Crow. This guy’s stupidity knows no bounds. Raylan questioning the witness was classic. Too bad Raylan’s deputy doesn’t come around more often, and I am guessing Oxy trafficking and impersonating a Marshall may keep him behind bars for a while. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Justified on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: Hopefully Sheldon’s new crew gets back together every once and a while because they were comedy gold. Can’t Sheldon make Thursday karaoke night? You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.

Outsourced: Instead accepting any of them, isn’t the correct answer to your least favorite Backstreet Boy be all of them? If you accept multiple answers, it was for the March question, because you should be able to also accept March Madness. You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Outsourced on iTunes.