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In Foot I Trust 

First up - I’ve fucked my ankle. I realise that’s not what you come here for but I’ll make any excuse to post my foot on the site. You can’t really tell from the photo but believe me it’s painful. I rolled it helping a mate move and it kills when I walk too far. Check out those toes though. Tell me they’re not sexy!

I’ve been listening to two recently released double-albums, giving them a solid workout on the iPod and stereo and have come to the following conclusion. One is quite excellent and the other just decent. What disappoints me most about double-albums in general is that more often than not, they’re unnecessary. It becomes clear after a coupe of listens that there’s plenty of filler and that the artist just doesn’t want to let go. Take the new Ryan Adams album Cold Roses. Some of the tracks I really like such as ‘Blossom’, ‘Meadowlake Street’, ‘Sweet Illusion’, ‘How Do You Keep Love Alive?’ but the majority of the others are fairly forgettable. And they tend to be the one’s where Adams enters rock mode. Ryan Adams is one of those artists who walks a very thin line between writing simple, personable songs and self indulgent tripe and on Cold Roses he only just manages to fall into the former category. I think he’s at his best when he writes simpler arrangements so proceed with caution if you’re thinking of buying Cold Roses. But it’s definitely worth a listen for all those seeing him at Splendor in the Grass (which has sold out already).

A double album where it all comes together though is the new(ish) one from Eels entitled Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. This one is obviously planned as a ‘journey’ record and when you have frontman Mark Oliver Everett (or ‘E’ as he prefers) delivering what could be his life testament, you get something strange, dark, funny, uplifting, and magical all at once. Some tracks are purely instrumental such as ‘Marie Floating Over The Backyard’ and ‘Theme For A Pretty Girl That Makes You Believe God Exists’ while others are just plain strange and funny as ‘Whatever Happened To Soy Bomb’. I can’t help but think that he’s taken a few music lessons from film composer Jon Brion (he of Punch Drunk Love and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind fame). And if ‘Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living)’ doesn’t make you jump around the room, then nothing will. But it’s a double album where all the tracks seem appropriate to give the listener a complete experience. Definitely their best record to date.

Got tickets to Bloc Party at the HIFI Bar in July. They sold out so fucking quick, you had to be related to Road Runner just to have a chance. Luckily he’s a distant cousin! Meep Meep!

Iceland’s other famous musical export Sigur Ros have a new album on the way and if that’s not enough to cause an excitement aneurism, they’re also touring the world including Australia! I’m not 100% sure if this is their first Australian tour or not but if you want to see the band that inspired Radiohead’s direction for Kid A and have possibly the most magical live musical experience of your life, then you must see them. Tickets go on sale this Thursday at 9am and will sell out lightning fast so get in there quick (the pre-sale tickets from the official site have already sold out for all the Australian gigs but general tickets will be available on Thursday). They’re playing at the Arts Centre (in Melbourne) so expect the sound to be amazing too! They tour between August 3rd and 5th.

Onto the world of visual pop culture, and I’m currently up to the three-part season finale of Lost, having just seen the first hour of the finale. Without ruining it, yes some questions get answered but something tells me the last two-hours will be the most revealing. It’s all great television. I also checked out the two-part Tarantino-directed season finale of CSI and although I’m no fan of the show, this one was better than average. Lots of long shots, excellent set-pieces and twists-and-turns as one would come to expect from Tarantino. His last foray into TV was an episode of ER several years back (back when that show was at it’s peak) but he only came on as director. This time he came to the CSI producers with a story in mind. He can’t seem to get the ‘buried alive’ concept out of his mind either since that’s the focal point of this episode. It’s not on par with his film work but it’s still 1000% better than that piece of excrement known as Big Brother.