so i spent friday and saturday doing this -

stay up until 5, talk to thad online, listen to music, play poker, and watch sports.

this post is going to focus on the third activity i just mentioned, listening to music. here are the cds i listened to this weekend while doing the rest of the nothing i was doing - new jimmy eat world (with the extra track, gave it another shot), new talib kweli, new r.e.m., new cake, new chevelle, new green day, a maroon 5 acoustic set, new fatboy slim, and the new killers cd.

so now we're going to go through each one, rapid fire, with some tamale ratings. we're going to go out of ten, cuz thats what we were always going out of. now, something i've been hesitant to do, i'm going to give you some idea of what this rating system means by rating some classic cds.

1) who's next: 11 tamales
2) zeppelin's III - 17 tamales
3) white album - 35 tamales
4) anything by the eagles - 2 tamales

remember, burnout 3 was 19 tamales. and yeah, this is out of 10. let's just move on.

jimmy eat world - futures
i revisited j.e.w. since thad asked me to, and i have to say i was pretty impressed. now, the key note i realized was this - listening to this cd as driving music doesn't work, because its slower than the first major label release. having said that, the first track has an amazingly cool riff, and the rest of the songs stick together all right (some of them fall apart, others don't), but i gotta give this one a solid 6 and a half tamales, the half tamale bonus for how cool track one is.

talib kweli - the beautiful struggle
this guy is way too cool. this cd is way too cool. he samples the police on track 6. and thad didn't like the first half, but i did. man this cd rules. fuck.
8 tamales.

r.e.m. - whatever this cd is called, who cares
yeah it's ok. track 1 is really catchy. and there's a song in there with q-tip that's pretty good. but i mean, more of the same from r.e.m. if you like them post drummer leaving (arjune), you'll dig this cd. otherwise, just pass it along. 5 tamales, but only because some of the songs reference their new adventures in hi-fi cd that no one but me seems to like.

cake - pressure chief
this cd took me by surprise. i don't dig the single, it's annoying to me. but some of these tracks have this weird vocal harmony over interesting chords that reminded me of... the beatles!! and there are some fun keyboard riffs going on... yeah i think i liked this cd ONLY BECAUSE i heard some weird beatles-esque stuff going on that may very well have not been going on. but as far as i know its 6 tamales, only due to the residual effects of "the distance" and their cover of "i will survive", which cost them two tamales. also, i can't in good conscience rate this cd over the j.e.w. cd.

chevelle - this kind of thinking (will do us in)
this cd is the only one i listened to that was actually rocking. and boy did it rock. first track on, just amazing... geoff called them the new tool, but i think they are a little less prog, a little less dark, and thus a whole lot easier to just put on and go. this cd is definitely one of my favorites, probably my third favorite from the weekend. 7.5 strong tamales. do you guys even know what tamales are?

green day - american idiot
jesus of suburbia is the best song of the year. 10 tamales. seriously, i'm not even fucking around. go buy this cd right now.

maroon 5 acoustic set
i'm going to go ahead and give this one 5 tamales, but only because the songs make me feel like a 13 year old girl. i was really, really surprised by how well the lead singer sings though. his voice holds up pretty well. and that cover of "highway to hell" was a neat last track, but unfortunately it was ac/dc, who people like for some stupid reason.

fatboy slim - palookaville
only fatboy slim can make a song out of a white guy saying "the sign on the store said long hairy freaky people need not apply" and make it sound good (this is where he differs from moby). i was overall pretty impressed, but i didn't have the highest expectations. still, a solid 7 tamales - great music for doing stuff on the computer, such as playing poker and talking to thad.

the killers - hot fuss
this is the most disorganized, disjointed cd i've ever listened to in my life. ok that's a bit hyperbolic. but seriously, this was a really inconsistent cd, with some songs that were solid and others that were a joke, and some songs that were somehow BOTH. god this cd makes me mad just to think about, because this band, as the lead singer croons in the single, "has potential". too bad they didn't fucking hit any of it this time around. 4 tamales.