bobbysketch

The Cribs’ fourth album, Ignore the Ignorant may not be as catchy as their previous work, but it’s beginning to grow on me. Sometimes, when you fall in love with an album, you can fall right out of it; but if you grow into loving it, it lasts a long time. Yes, I’m still talking about music.

With the addition of Johnny Marr, the band seems to have matured quite a bit. At times, Guitarist/Singer Ryan Jarman sounds like he’s impersonating Kurt Cobain with his screeching vocals (see “Cheat on Me” or “Nothing”). Other times, you feel like you’re listening to a British version of a song from Green Day’s American Idiot. After you’re done listening to the entire thing, you realize that this doesn’t sound like New Fellas or even Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever
at all – it sounds grown up. Listen to “Cheat on Me” and a sample of “Nothing” after the jump. (continue reading…)

Paying $15 a month for txt messaging really bothers me. Every time I get my phone bill from AT&T, I am irked by that one line item. If I’m paying $30 for unlimited data service, why do I need to pay for SMS? Isn’t that just data also? Oh, and if I want unlimited txt capability, it’s $20. I’m sure I’m not the first to complain about this, and I’m sure that I won’t really do anything about it – other than complain. Half the reason I txt so often is that any call lasting more than a few minutes seems to get dropped. Gotta love that AT&T.

Season 4 of Dexter started off with a lot of yawning, a Trinity Serial killer, some more yawning, and a lot of romantic intrigue. Oh, and Dexter knocked off a dude also. Let’s take a look at what went down:

Hello Daddy!
Dexter’s baby boy, not surprisingly named Harrison (Harry was Dexter’s daddy), likes to cry a lot. This keeps Rita and Dexter up at night and, as a result of not getting all the sleep a serial killer Blood Spatter Analyst requires, Dexter messes up in court, thus letting a murderer walk. Do you think the show made it abundantly clear that fatherhood is messing with Dexter?

A Certain Romance
Where did all of this romance come from? It almost feels like an R rated version of The Office. LaGuerda and Sgt. Garcia hook up (gross!). Little Sis and Anton are living together, but wait – Old Man from Oregon, aka Lundy, shows up for a freelance gig (of boning or crime fighting?). Out of all that romance, the part that intrigued me the most was seeing Rita flirt with their neighbor. I have a feeling Rita’s not going to live past Season 4. How awesome would it be if Dexter killed her?!

Trinity
John Lithgow is this season’s serial killer. Special Agent Lundy is in town to help hunt him down. What Lundy knows is that Lithgow’s character, Arthur Mitchell, likes to kill in 3′s. We witness one of these three as the episode opens. Mitchell kills a woman while forcing her to bathe with him (yes, a bloodbath). Dexter and Masuka (he’s so awesome, that Masuka) discover that 30 years ago, the same crime occurred in the same house (possibly the same bathtub?). Looks like they might have a head start of the next two murders. Hopefully, they aren’t bathtub murders, because, really, I’m tired of seeing naked old men on Dexter.

I Kill, Therefore I Am
The sleep deprived Dexter still needed to get his kill on, so he did it, but was interrupted several times. First, he fell asleep in his car outside of a bar where he was awaiting his prey – got a cop in his face and was accused of being under the influence. Then, once captured, he was interrupted by Rita’s phone call to ask him to pick up baby medicine for Harrison’s ear infection. In a rush, he finished off the kill, but didn’t get to savor it. As he was driving home, he fell asleep at the wheel and flipped the car. Body parts in trunk. Yikes!

All in all, it was an entertaining premiere. A lot went down, and it setup a season that looks to be promising. I just hope that we don’t have to see Michael C. Hall yawn as often as we did in the premiere (he’s not very good at it). We get it, you’re tired, get past it. Or do something about it (like kill Rita!).

The Mars Volta wanted to limit themselves on Octahedron to inspire creativity. They did this by scaling back on the number of instruments (sounds like recession music) that played together on the album. The result is a beautiful album in Octahedron. This may be the best Mars Volta album since De-Loused in the Comatorium. For the first time in a long time, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s guitar play takes a back seat to Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s powerful voice, and Cedric shines.

Check Out: “Copernicus,” ” With Twilight as my Guide & “Since We’ve Been Wrong”