Modern Soapbox

Before I start this post, I’d like to wish my brother Neil a very Happy 24th Birthday!
I know it’s almost eight in the morning. I woke up to the theme song of My So-Called Life on repeat since the Play All function did its round and returned to the DVD menu screen.
Here are some more [...]

This post is going to be delivered with photos, captions and some ranting. Enjoy.

Flickr’s BLundin took this photo from the Pumpkins show at the Backyard on Tuesday.

Myra from Blogspot took this photo of Billy Corgan on bass guitar jamming with Jimmy Flemion from The Frogs on guitar and Jimmy Chamberlain on drums. Jeff Schroeder can [...]

Austin Texas holds a reputation for being the live music capital of the world. Unfortunately, they also hold a reputation for having a strict noise ordinance that make shows start earlier than anticipated.
Tonight was the night I finally had the opportunity to see one of my all-time favorite bands, Smashing Pumpkins. I was off work [...]

I recently visited the site that supplied Scraps, the companion CD to Alkaline Trio’s Remains album. The site has been taken down.
Information on Scraps was posted on Alkaline Trio’s MySpace blog. Anyone wanting this collection had to download and print a couple images: a cipher to decode a message that was the URL to get [...]

The end of the month has finally here. This week has been a little busier than usual. Let’s recap.
Sunday: Dinner with the family that involved a long discussion about the plans for October. I’m sure I’ll go into detail here in the near future.
Monday: The work week begins. The day is usual, but the main [...]

My salad days were in the ’90s, but I have great respect of the decade before. Electronic drums, the overuse of synthesizers and power ballad vocal stylings set the stage to this decade of downfall.
eMpTyV debuted which rocketed the music industry, especially pop music. The radio shifted its airwaves to cater to the rockstars sporting [...]

Tonight, Mare reheated a calzone she brought home from work almost two weeks ago. It still tasted delicious. She also brought home a spinach artichoke dip and some bread which topped me off. I have yet to enjoy an ice cream sandwich I got from the grocery store on Sunday.
I also had a craving for [...]

I received the news today that Thrice will be playing Stubb’s on November 16th with Brand New. I am looking forward to this show and hearing some of their new material. Coincidentally, they played on this same date last year.
I also heard through the grapevine that Thrice and Island have parted ways. My guesses are [...]

I obtained an “advance copy” of the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist. The pleasure was mine to listen to Corgan and crew return to their Mellon Collie era roots to deliver a sonic wall of symphonic guitars, tight drumming and Corgan’s signature vocals.
The production of this record is much better than that of Mellon Collie [...]

Yesterday, June 12, was the release date of albums from two different bands that I enjoy listening to. The most important one was released by a pop-punk group called Strung Out. The album, titled Black Hawks Over Los Angeles, is good but significantly more political than their previous release. Some of the themes prevalent [...]

Before work today, I noticed that the new Smashing Pumpkins single, Tarantula, had been sitting in my ‘neo downlodes’  folder unlistened. I hadn’t been in a hurry to listen to it, but I had to once I knew I had the song in its entirety.
I had heard a short clip of it when it first [...]

A couple days ago, the cover to the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist, debuted on their official website as well as their MySpace page. The release was also pushed to the 10th of July instead of the 7th. The cover was designed by the same artist infamous for his Obey Giant street art. The last [...]

Yesterday, a 30-second clip of Tarantula, the new single from The Smashing Pumpkins, was released on the internet. The single hits the radio this upcoming Monday. Their new album titled Zeitgeist is scheduled to be released on July 7th.