iJFP.com

I’ve bought music online before plenty of times.  Pearl Jam live albums, rarities, digital only compilations, things like that.  But today for the first time I bought a legit normal full length album from Amazon instead of going to Best Buy to get the physical CD.  I have a slightly embarassing obsession with the Killers for awhile and their new album is full of ridiculous 80’s synth pop goodness.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well Amazon worked.  The album cost $3.99 (for 10 songs), the MP3’s are variable bit rate 256k with no DRM and the little program thingie automatically added them to iTunes and started playing after 1 click on the website.  I’m still hesitant to buy through iTunes with all the DRM garbage and I feel like Apple already owns enough of my soul but for $4 I can definitely get use to this.  I especially enjoy that you can stream pieces of all the songs right before clicking on buy which has gave me second thoughts about buying the new Kanye - what is with all the singing? Lame.

Last night I went with Chris to the most anticipated show I’ve wanted to go to this year so far.  While Bloc Party might be my new favorite band, I had heard they were not very good live so I didn’t have much expectation.  Editors on the other hand though were totally different.  I’ve heard some good things about their live show and I love their new album even more than the last.  They didn’t disappoint at the Fine Line.  They played a really tight set, moving from song to song without saying more than a few words in between.  It was clean and polished like you had just bought their CD and played it through the stage speakers with the perfect mix.  The lighting was the most dramatic I’ve seen at the Fine Line with white and red back lights casting shadows of the band members on the brick walls as the lead singer twisted his arms like he was trying to crawl out of his skin.  It reminded me a lot of the Interpol show in Chicago.  I was happy to hear every song I wanted to off of both albums and they even opened up their encore with “You Are Fading” a B-side off of the Bullets single.  The highlight of the night though was in “An End Has A Start” where everything but the guitar and vocals cuts out.  Every time I hear it I feel like I’m going to be lifted off the ground and fly away, it’s that good.  Hearing it live was even better and I warned Chris ahead of time in case I passed out from hearing it.  I braced myself with the chair next to me though and survived the amazement.  I can’t remember the last time I’ve left a show that happy, great sound, great songs, and a great performance.  If you haven’t listened to this album yet, go get it.  It’s great stuff.

Friday night I flew in to Chicago and took the train to Pat’s place where I met up with Wipert and him to go to the Bloc Party show. I’m so glad I finally got to see them. They’re the first band I can honestly say I like more than Pearl Jam and they put on a pretty good show despite being outside and having a bad sound mix. They played everything I wanted to hear off of both their albums. “Like Eating Glass” was the highlight of the night for Pat and I. Wipert claims “Banquet” was the best but they had the second guitar turned down WAY to soft so it didn’t sound as good as it could have. The stuff off their second album seemed to come across live better than “Silent Alarm” even though they are slower and have more production effects added to it. Something about the complicated timing off of Silent Alarm just doesn’t work as well live. Either way I am really glad I got to see them and I can’t wait to see them in a proper club sometime. I have a feeling they will always remain a better studio band. (more…)