(the) Gaslight Anthem

So I finally stopped being lazy and picked up the Gaslight Anthem's album last night.

Meh.

It's not terrible by any means. Some of the lyrics are kind of dumb and it's pretty obvious that the songwriters in this band really, really love Bruce Springsteen. In fact, there's one song that totally steals the tune from "Dancer in the Dark." But then again, compared to what passes off as "punk" these days, it's pretty dang good.

Anyway, I'm still listening to it right now to see if there's anything else amazing about this band, but so far...nothing. Maybe this record will be a slow burn and I'll find myself revisiting it in three months.

Come Widdit: One Small Step for Landmines

One Small Step for Landmines
Location: Florida
Sounds Like: Breaking Pangaea meets Power-Pop (Wait, weren't they a power-pop band to begin with?)

I first heard of this band earlier this year when I was interviewing Jim Ward from Sleepercar/Sparta and I was looking at the band's sparse merch table and there was a smattering of items, including CDs from bands on Ward's Civil Defense League imprint. I thought, "One Small Step for Landmines? That's a pretty cool name." Then I continued to chat up Ward.

I didn't really get around to listening to this band until I was listening to Sleepercar on Myspace and I remember this Landmine band. The image on their Myspace was of this skinny kid who looked like a regular Orgcore dude. What I heard was some pretty well played, peppy power-pop.

As far as the Breaking Pangaea comparison goes, like the Philly-based band, One Small Step for Landmines has some really intricate guitar and bass parts and it's pretty obvious that these guys have a mathematical mind with it comes to writing songs, as opposed to throwing out hooks, breakdowns and choruses everywhichway.

I don't know of too many pop bands like these guys, but they're a real gem and I highly recommend their debut self-titled album to counteract the brooding mood that fall usually brings.

[Related Links]
One Small Step for Landmines on Purevolume

i love the get up kids. apparently, they're reuniting and i'll probably watch them, but i don't think this revisit to the past will eclipse the way i felt the first time i saw them play back in 1999. as hard as you try, you can't be 18 forever.

uh-uh-updates

man, it's been a minute since i wrote in this thing.

i feel like stella's finally getting her groove back this week. a few weeks ago, nw asian weekly ran a profile i wrote about judge marianne spearman, who went on to win the lion's share of votes during the king county primary and solidfied her place as a superior court judge. i also wrote a bunch of sweet reviews for redefine and, as always, i lay down the funk on my trusty tumblr.

but lately, most of my writing efforts have been for my next (untitled) book, as well as the print-to-screen adaptation of a war torn letter. i don't know if any other writer has had the kind of issue that i've had with the latter, in which i find myself constantly revising the story. i feel like by the time i get to a workable draft of war torn: the movie, it will be much different.