Song for November 27th, 2010: "Finally See Our Way" by Art vs Science

The song for today is....Finally See Our Way, by Australian dance-punk-band Art vs. Science. Art vs Science formed back in 2008, out of Sydney, Australia and consists of members Jim Finn (vocals and keyboards), Dan McNamee (aka Dan Mac) (vocals, guitars and keyboards), and Dan Williams (aka Dan W) (drums and vocals). Finally See Our Way is the lead single coming off of Art vs Science's upcoming debut LP, and it is currently available for purchase on itunes US and Australia, and probably UK. Art vs Science toured the UK as a supporting band for La Roux and then Groove Armada this past May of 2010, and they received 3 nominations at the ARIA Awards 2010. Check this band out if you haven't already, I also would highly recommend their previous 2008 single release track Flippers, innit!Art Vs Science

Brief Movie Review for "Gentleman Broncos" (2009)

Brief Movie Review for Gentleman Broncos (2009)

3/5 Stars ***

Similar to Napolean Dynamite, same director anyways, however not quite the same. Jemaine Clement (of Flight of the Conchords) plays a role of a Sci-fi author who has run out of ideas, and a teenager who is aspiring to be a sci-fi author who's work is copied and used by Clement's character as well as some local film-makers. This movie left me wondering what the point is, but then what is the point of any film, it occupied me for an hour and a half and was moderately amusing and worth watching once.

Brat Mashup: "Easy Heaven" (The Cure vs. The Commodores)

Song of the Day for November 25th, 2010: "I" by Bleeding Knees Club

And the song for today is....I by Australian indie-punk duo Bleeding Knees Club. Bleeding Knees Club originate out of the Gold Coast, in Queensland, Australia, and consists of members Alex Wall (Drums/vocals) and Jordan Malane (Guitar). I is a demo-song, although it didn't seem to make it onto their just recently released Virginity album, which is was just released earlier this month on November 2nd, 2010. So, you can check out their myspace page here or check out their unearthed page and download the free demo-mp3 of this song here. Booyakasha!

#40 of VJ Samsonite's Top 100 80's Dance Hits Countdown: "Rock This Town" by Stray Cats (1981)

Its time for #40 of the countdown! And the song is...Rock This Town, by 80's American rockabilly band the Stray Cats. Stray Cats originated out of the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York and were active on the rock-music scene by 1980. They consisted of members Brian Setzer (vocalist and guitarist), Lee Rocker (bass guitar), Slim Jim Phantom (on drums), and Gary Barnacle (on saxophone). They are one of those 80's bands that has had active and inactive periods, with members (such as Brian Setzer) doing work with other bands as well as solo-projects, but Stray Cats have been active as a group as recently as 2009. Stray Cats were a unique band for the time, as there weren't a whole lot of other rockabilly bands that I am aware of from the 80's era that were at all successful or in the mainstream much like the Stray Cats were. Rock this Town would be a major hit coming off of their 1981 release album, self-titled Stray Cats, it was their first studio album. The Stray Cats album was never actually released in the United States however, and hit singles Rock This Town, Stray Cat Strut, and Runaway Boys would later be released onto their Build for Speed album in the USA. The Stray Cats album was released in the UK in 1981 where it was very successful, and Rock This Town peaked at #9 on the UK Singles chart. Once released on their second US album, Rock This Town would also reach #9 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and it was their first of three eventual top 10 US singles. Rock This Town was listed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 most important songs in the history of rock and roll and it appeared in the video game Guitar Hero II. I really like this song, and the Stray Cats as they were one of those 80's bands that really added some variety to the over-all 80's music scene making it one of those great musical decades. And now, on to the 30's portion of the countdown!

team9 vs Stereogum mashup: "Good After Time" (Cyndi Lauper vs Lykke Li)

Song for November 23rd, 2010: "Post Acid" by The Wavves

Today's song is...Post Acid, by American surf-rock band The Wavves. The Wavves consist of members Nathan Williams, Billy Hayes, and Stephen Pope and are based out of sunny San Diego, California. The band formed back in 2008, and have released 3 full studio albums. Post Acid appears as the track 5 on their latest album of the same name, which was just released on August 3rd, 2010. Makes me want to go surfing, although at the moment it is snowing here, so maybe I should settle for the mountain??

Song for November 22nd, 2010: "Palaces of Montezuma" by Grinderman

And today's song is...Palaces of Montezuma by English rock-band Grinderman. Grinderman was formed back in 2006 in London, UK and it consists of members Nick Cave ( on vocals, guitar, organ, and piano), Warren Ellis (bouzouki, Mandocastor, violin, viola, acoustic guitar, and backing vocals), Martyn P. Casey (bass guitar, guitar, and backing vocals) and Jim Sclavunos (drums, percussion, and backing vocals). All members in Grinderman were also members in the former group called Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, basically it was a name change. Palaces of Montezuma comes off of their latest album release (September 2010) titled Grinderman 2. Nick Cave has those very unique sounding vocals, and the band is obviously multi-talented, so check them out!

Song of the Day for November 21st, 2010: "Cabin Fever" by Howl

Today's song is...Cabin Fever by Australian alternative-punk-band Howl. Howl formed at Ballarat High School and apparently are named after the Allen Ginsberg poem of the same title. The band consists of members Daniel Marie (Drums), Tim Street (Guitar), Michael Belsar (Vocals and Guitar), Lachlan Morrish (Vocals), Galen Strachan (Keyboards and Vocals),  and Johnathon Crawford (Bass Guitar). For more info and songs by the band check out their Myspace page HERE, or there Unearthed page HERE. Cabin Fever comes off of their Brothers in Violence EP (released September 2010), which is available in US Itunes store now, woot woot!

Party Ben Mashup - Tegan & Sara vs Mylo - "Walking With a Ghost in Paris"

Brief Book Review for "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle

I have deemed it now time to start adding a few book reviews onto this blog to enrich the content a bit more, which has been mostly music and a few movie reviews. So, here it is folks, my very first book review, and the book is....A New Earth, by author Eckhart Tolle: If you were to read one book of all the books out there I would recommend this one. Eckhart Tolle has written a few other books as well, including the well known Power of Now. I read the Power of Now about 13 years ago when I was in highschool still. Now I remember thinking that the stuff he was discussing and talking about made sense, but of course that was my first time being exposed to the material and it didn't really stick that well. A few years ago Tolle rolled out A New Earth, which I found to be much more palatable material, and well, it just clicked with me the first time I read it, and I think it would be the same for most people. Now, do not get me wrong and think that I am putting down the Power of Now in any way, now, when I re-read the Power of Now I find it much more digestible (is that a word?). Once you have been exposed to multiple sources/authors and spiritual teachers, and as you progress (if it can be called progress) down a Spiritual path that is right for you, you will naturally become familiar and multifaceted when it comes to this material. Thus, you will have been exposed to many different perspectives on the same topics, as well as have expanded range.

Now if I had to give an explanation for how I view the Power of Now vs A New Earth (and I would like to hear the views of others who are familiar with these books) I would describe the Power of Now as being more masculine or slightly more intense and in your face (I see the color green when I think of it, whatever that could mean), and I feel that the A New Earth is a step back, more gentle, and sort of leads you by the hand, so to speak through material that has become a bit clearer (color of lavender comes to mind when I think of it). Now Tolle is one particular filter through which the information comes into this world, as is anyone that the material comes through, and like all things, with time, these filters change, and so perhaps the teachings became clearer and that is why it was clearer, or perhaps it was me, or a combo of all the above. In the end I say read both of them, but for the purpose of this article A New Earth (and the audio-book version for all of you long-distance-commuters) is my first recommendation to those of you starting out on a spiritual path, or any path for that matter. I have included the intro excerpt to the audio-book as read by Eckhart Tolle, which was found on youtube.com, just to get you interested, enjoy...

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 or fewer of the 100 books listed below!

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Check out the list and see if you are up to par with the BBC. Also, I posted this because I thought it was an interesting list, and a good challenge to all those of you who would like to read more, but don't know where to bloody start or what to read next!! How many have you read hmmm???
1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four- George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials/The Golden Compass – Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch – George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

34 Emma – Jane Austen

35 Persuasion – Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne

41 Animal Farm – George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel

52 Dune – Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

72 Dracula – Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses – James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal – Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession – AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94 Watership Down – Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Song of the Day for November 20th, 2010: "Echoplex (feat. Mai)" by Miami Horror

And the song for today is....Echoplex (feat. Mai) by Australian electro-pop group Miami Horror. Miami Horror has been posted a few times on this vlog, so to remind you who they are I will paste a portion from an earlier post. Miami Horror is a four-piece group out of Melbourne, Australia which has been active on the music scene since 2007 and consists of members Benjamin Plant (producer), Josh Moriarty, Aaron Shanahan, and Daniel Whitechurch. The group has released an EP titled Bravado (2008), as well as a full studio album titled Illumination (just released in August of 2010) from which today's song comes off of. Much of Miami Horror's music has been influenced by 70's and 80's dance-pop and electro-synth-pop, which makes for an interesting mixture going into the '10s. Echoplex comes off of their Illumination album, and features the enchanting vocals of Mai.  I recommend checking out both the Bravado EP and Illumination album as they both have great tracks on them!