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June 19, 2006
red and yellow cards = the orange card?
This is still my favorite song of 2006 (so far):
The intricate drum programming (with so much pace), those torqued guitar sounds, sexy vocals (both male and female), the sweaty, slippery bass (tossing some hard looks in everyone's direction), and whoa, that breakdown: "I'm not making silly claims/I'm not playing silly games/I'm not saying silly things...am I?". This song is custom made for summertime parties when the momentum hits its apex and shit is just suddenly, viciously out of control, when the room seems like a diorama of non sequiturs- look left, there's a group of people wandering around half-naked, look right, there's some folks playing an unexplained but subdued game of baccarat. Free Blood have earned a place in my heart by constructing a song that is an unequivocal grab for attention, a chunk of party energy carved into a complex, delicious 3 minute pop song.
Right now, it looks like the band is busy making the transition to a new website (under construction), and their debut 3 song EP is finished (sounds like it'll include the better-recorded versions of "Quick and Painful", "Never Hear Surf Music Again" and the mystery song "June Havoc"). No label for the EP release yet, and definitely no date, but with any luck, this band will sign with someone great and get the attention they deserve.
World Cup
Been distracted over the past week and a half, watching as many games as I possibly can with my irregular work schedule. Big news for the tournament is the ridiculous number of yellow and red cards that have been given out, per FIFA's new taking-no-shit stance. Used to be you could pretty much tell by the way the player fell whether the ref was going to call it as a normal foul, a yellow card, or just dismiss it as a dive. I mean it sort of does add an element of danger/surprise/adventure for both the audience and (in a more negative sense) for the offending player, but it's so radically unpredictable now- seems like about 65% of fouls warrant a yellow, somehow, and the games just end up feeling so choppy and disrupted. Beckenbauer and some others have complained, but apparently FIFA is holding their ground, stating that they want to make sure the players get the picture re: the shirt-tugging, the late tackles, etc.
Teams that I love so far: Ivory Coast (even though they haven't had much success, I still think they're one of the most talented teams in the tournament, they just got an insanely bad draw for their group), Australia (played Brazil very well today, hopefully they'll move into the second round), Ghana (cannot believe that Czech Republic game), Argentina and Spain (both look unstoppable). The US team made me sick to my stomach with that first game, but Saturday's match with Italy was pretty solid- they looked a little tentative even when they were up a man, but at least they were starting to attack a bit more and had some good opportunities (even in the second half, with 9 men)- they might be able to win against Ghana if they get some crazy luck and can work their reverse-offense psychology magic to force like 3 or 4 Ghanaian own-goals.
Posted by Kevin at June 19, 2006 12:13 AM