Weezer "Weezer" 2008 other wise known as "The Red Album" (Spark one up and smoke, choke, and wheez to some damn good rock)

Weezer… How do I come at this band in a review? I will say this that their newest album which is their sixth and third self titled album known as “The Red Album” unofficially is one of their best. Personally I have only one album by Weezer in my collection and that’s “The Blue Album” which happens to be their first album. Sure I loved Pinkerton their second offering but never bought it and I’m not entirely sure why other than 1996 and 1997 were a couple of years I don’t remember all that well.
Evidently they were some years that affected Rivers Cuomo in a different kind of way as well. He and the rest of the band called it quits for a couple of years and Cuomo himself went into a self-admitted depression. The band never officially broke-up but went on “hiatus” and weren’t to be seen again as the original line-up ever again with Matt Sharp (bass & backing vocals) being the first to not rejoin the band when thoughts of getting back together started being worked on in 1998. Eventually all concerned worked on their own personal shit along with being creative assholes who decided to finally get over themselves.
What we got was the third Weezer album which was self titled and known as “The Green Album”, and while it was ok it wasn’t a quality release. You could hear they had rust on their song writing and music that had to be sanded off. I mean honestly a song like “Hash Pipe” should be a song sung by kids in high school or fresh out. I can understand that this album while a big seller was rusty and not so great being it was the first after a self imposed 3 year break.
Their third album Maladroit was a harder edged album and one I kind of like better than “The Green Album”, but just happened to be their lowest selling album to date. I love “Death and Destruction”, “Dope Nose”, and “Take Control” from the Maladroit album. This album went into their next studio album offering called “Make Believe”, and I almost hate this album for the one single “Beverly Hills” because it got killed on the radio and MTV. The sad thing is that with the MP3 generation that just buy singles and not albums they miss songs that are deeper cuts like “The Damage in Your Heart”, and “This Is Such a Pity” that could be off any album by The Killers. The album “Make Believe” had Weezer back at their A-game status with a collection of great songs even if “Beverly Hills” did get killed on the radio for me.
This brings us to Weezer’s newest album and their third one which is self titled known as “The Red Album”, and let me just say this album is great. Seriously people, after two listens I found myself trying to sing to a couple of the songs and that is huge. The first song on the album called “Troublemaker” is great and when he sings “how’s this for arts and crafts” and goes into a riff then shouting with the band “That’s Right!” is kind of like saying in your face. “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived”, is the second song and is great how it seems to be a commentary on ego and how some buy into it fully and how others just lampoon it with lyrics “try to play it cool like you just don’t care but soon I’ll be playing in your underwear… I’m like the mage with the magic spell” which cast one on you that makes you laugh. Yes, I said “lampoon”. The forth song on the album called “Heart Songs” is a song that just speaks to you, because we all have a soundtrack in our mind for events past and present. This soundtrack is one we are not ashamed to sing along with once we hear a song from those times we remember with fondness or with a wince. The fifth song on the album “Everybody Get Dangerous” is a song for guys who were bored and put their energies in outlets that could have led to things no so great. The rest of the songs on the album are just as good as the first five on the album and I just enjoy listening to this album over and over. I think if you ever liked a Weezer song you should check out this album and if this is a sign of the future for Weezer then I hope they go beyond the primary colors and give us more music like this. So, spark up your hash pipe and smoke, choke, and wheez along with Weezer’s new self titled album “The Red Album”, and maybe one of them might be one of your “heart songs that never feel wrong”.

Preview Weezer's music at these two places online.
Weezer's Official Website
Listen to Weezer on their Myspace page

Alicia Keys "As I Am" (Thank God You Aren't "As You Were")

I gotta say I’m a purist when it comes to soul and R&B, and being I grew up just down the road from Atlanta, Georgia I gots da street creds to be makin a step-up like dat. This brings me to the album I’m reviewing by Miss. Alicia Keys called “As I am”, and yes I do know I’m a year behind on talking about this album but hey I speak about them once I’ve given them a listen, so deal wit it ya heard.
Now being that I don’t really get much into the newer R&B and soul and feel most who dabble in it now have little of no idea of what they are doing. I will also say that I listen to more rock than any other genre, and so for me to notice “As I am” from Alicia Keys was big to say the least. The album as a whole is a really good listen. I would even buy this album in stores and will in the future. Her debut album “Music in A Minor” was a critical success along with a fan success as well. The single “Fallin” from her first album was a good change of pace from what was out there these days but as all popular songs sometimes it got played to death on the radio. So, in my case at least I hated to hear it come on the radio after a time. “A Woman’s Worth” was the typical empowering of the female cause or situation song you get on female singer albums at times and so I sorta overlooked it as a typical formula used on song making for an album. Alicia Keys second album was huge as well and sold more copies in the first week than most female artist will ever sell of an album titled “The Diary of Alicia Keys”, and even though it was hailed by critics and sold so many units I really didn’t give it a listen and found myself not really caring. “You Don’t Know My Name” and “If I Ain’t Got You”, were big hits from this album but I didn’t care to know her name and she didn’t have me. I just felt like she was something being churned out of some hit making formula scheme like Britney Spears. Alicia Keys' mother was a small no name actress and even Alicia got little bit parts like being part of Rudy’s sleep over guest in an episode of “The Cosby Show”.
Then I heard “As I am” and from that album I heard the song “No One”. I was hooked in by this song and it’s lyrics that were not bubble gum fluff but a story being told in song. So, I found the album and started giving it a preview. I was blown away by “Like You’ll Never See Me Again” and I’m not some 12 to 15 year old girl with some boy drama. It really spoke to me and even as it bordered on cliché it really was something that tugged on the emotions one feels when we’ve lost someone or someone has left. The next song that was just a damn good single was “Lesson Learned” featuring John Mayer(who I hate because he’s a prick in person), and I have to say it was a good teaming and I did like the lyrical arrangement as if a man was talking to his woman. The lyrics at the beginning of “Lesson Learned” talking about broken hearts and how “it’s raining just to rub it in” your face that you’re heart broke and suffering inside from a love just lost can speak to anyone who love and lost and the pain at the loss caused until it all made sense. “Teenage Love Affair”, spoke to her fans that were in the midst of one, and those who could remember when they were teenaged and in a love affair that seemed to mean any and everything to them. These songs strength were enough to make me stand up and take notice of Alicia Keys and not as a one hit wonder or someone churned out by the music business as a money making hit maker, but rather an artist with something to say.
Sure, while making this review I did think about Alicia Keys weird statements about how the government made Gangsta Rap to drag down the African American population. Hell I can believe the government made crack more than I could Gangsta Rap. I know this is just the words of someone who thinks the race she is identifying with while it’s cool isn’t responsible for any acts of stupidity or hurt upon themselves… which is total bullshit. See,her saying this makes me wonder does she know anything about her Irish background which are people still held under the boot of English rule even now. Anyway, you can overlook that with this music, and you can overlook her ample ass monster she stuffs in her painted on pants. Yes, is the answer because the music is just that good. So, if you are looking for some good neo-soul mixed with R&B that flirts with rock and hip hop, then go out and buy Miss. Alicia Keys new album “As I am” and see if you don’t kiss that special someone a little harder and with more passion “like this is the last time.”

Preview her work at the sites below.
Alicia Keys' spot on Myspace
This is her official website.

Rambo 4 (If you have a penis and don't love this movie you are gay or really considering it)

Ok, this movie review has been way overdue. The movie I’m about to tell you about is called Rambo (2008), or Rambo 4. This movie is nothing more than pure excellence. Now, before you start thinking “alright the Untan One is a Rambo lover”, stop and keep reading. I was part of the movie viewing public ready for this movie to be a laugh or just be ok, but nothing close to good. I was soooooo very wrong it is unbelievable. This movie moved me because it was a glimpse into Hell, and Stallone pulled no punches.
Seriously, Stallone played a Rambo in this movie that hated the world, people, and himself. He didn’t speak much which worked so well to show a man withdrawn from society and his own soul. It wasn’t some cliché riddled strong silent type but the fuck you I ain’t speaking type. Stallone didn’t pander to current events by putting Rambo into a current news worthy hot spot like Iraq or African, but rather put him in a Hell hole that few know of called Burma. Few, if any of us knew of the evil in Burma, and wasn’t it future telling irony that we saw how brutal the Burmese government was when they had a Typhoon destroy their country side and refuse aid from any where. It was like the Burmese were saying “fuck our people let them die,” and that was what they said in the movie Rambo 4 as well.
Rambo is hired to take missionaries from one of those rich churches that send groups to 3rd world cesspool thinking they are doing God’s work in a place that God seems himself to have said “fuck it”. His disdain and belief of them as fools is a feeling I have myself for those kinds of groups and thus Rambo and I felt a kinship and I was drawn further into the movie. Now, I could go on more about the storyline but it would be a spoiler in ways for those who haven’t seen the movie and everyone needs to see it especially men. Why especially men? Well, because the message it sends is one that all men need to hear. “Live for nothing or die for something”. In this society we seem to be consumed with making a buck and what we spend that buck on. We have hardly any awareness of the suffering around us much less the suffering in other countries. The call for all men should be to leave this earth in a better shape than what we found it. Sure, I know women can feel and do this too, but because I’m a man I’m talking to dudes so save your comments ladies. Ok, then when we feel a bound and gagged conscience start to loosen its duct taped mouth and call out. We then reapply that tape by going to some 3rd world toilet for “church” and painting some buildings and pass out candy. Thinking that we have done our duty and even talked about Jesus to people who blind their kids on purpose to make them better beggars for next time when we visit. Do you really think that the new coat of paint on their meeting hall made a shit bit of difference to their life? Hell no, they are still eating rat soup when we leave. Trust me people, the reason people sometimes really hate Americans is because we don’t even clean up our own backyard before we start telling others they need to clean up theirs; examples Native American Reservation system, Appalachian People, Urban rot. Funny thing is I knew a woman from Kenya who once had grand illusions about the United States until she got here and said it was so hard to make it here and wanted to go back to Kenya. Now, that sorta says something for this house on a hill we’ve supposedly made for ourselves. The point being that even from Africa where a lion could eat a relative and you could get malaria; they’d rather return to that than live here because here ain’t so great.
Anyway, I know I got preachy but can you see a point as in the fact that Rambo 4 got me this fired up?
Ok ok ok ok…. Back to the movie review.
The violence in this movie isn’t for the faint of heart. I found myself along with Biscuit hollering out loud at the sight of some of the violent acts portrayed on this film. It was a movie that pulled no punches what so ever. If you are a man and don’t like this movie just on the pure “war is hell” and violent level then you really got to check your package at the door because somewhere you lost your balls. The greatest thing about this movie is also how no one tells you the message you should take away from this film. The message just comes to you from the imagery unless you are dead from the neck up which a lot of you are these days. I was left with a feeling of wanting to get a 50 caliber machine gun and go punish some brutal dictators as well after watching this flick and I’m well into my 30’s and no longer believe myself to 10ft tall and bullet proof, but this movie fired me up.
So, get off your ass and go get this movie. Watch it…. Think about it…. Discuss it…. And “live for nothing or die for something”. Rambo 4 one damn awesome movie…. Oh, almost forgot in my Rambo fueled vigor. *The Biscuit Rating for this movie was…. Rubbing the head and face followed by Goddamn (5 stars) This movie will be bought by him and talked about for some time.* This is the highest rating Biscuit gives to a movie. Hell, I give it my highest rating as well and it got me so fired up I went Rambo on your ass in my review…. But I still love you all.