My semi-bi-annual discussion of current music

My bi-annual discussion of current music Okay, so I hardly ever pay attention to new music or bands, and despite being on Fuse I'm still not really sure about chemical romances or how you could get to Mars that fast. Every once in a while though, I do buy new albums, normally when they're by an old standard I can trust. For example, I definitely bought more than three albums last year, but I think I only bought three albums that were actually released in 2006. One of them was by Tool ("10,00 Days"), one by Andrew W.K ("Close Calls With Brick Walls"). and the other was by Slayer ("Christ Illusion") because I never get sick of them rhyming "revolution" with "pollution" on every one of their three thousand albums. Find something you're good at and stick to it, y'know? Anyways, it's not that I'm too "cool" for music or anything, I just really don't pay attention unless it's DragonForce, and one amazing magical band can only do so much.

But what all this babble is really about is: I got the new Marilyn Manson and White Stripes albums, and I think they both kick ass, and here's some more babble about that.

The White Stripes got big right as I moved to New York (maybe even because I moved here?), and I've always liked them. Like any annoying hipster, I didn't really listen to them that one year when they were HUGE, but I've always kept them on my radar. They have a great bluesy rock thing mixed with a little creepiness, and although what she actually does is up to debate, Meg White is adorable. But anyways their new album "Icky Thump" is awesome. I liked their last album too, but it was a departure, and this one is great because every song kind of changes it up while keeping up their old-school White Stripes sound, and they have bagpipes in a couple! And one song's about a junk sale! That's awesome.

Marilyn Manson, on the other hand, doesn't have any time to talk about antiquing on his new record "Eat Me, Drink Me." Late last year, some stripper CRUSHED this guy's heart and now he made a record about it, and although that's not at all a new subject for songwriting, he does it real real well. It's actually a little mellower than his last two albums. It kinda sounds like he tried to do a regular rock album as opposed to a metal one but still ran it through his Marilyn Manson filter. I love how he always changes up his style on every album. He's like the Gothic Beck. Anyways, the lyrics here are fucking GREAT. I'm not very good at intrepreting lyrics, but every song here seems to be either "love is horrible" or "women are evil." Or both. I think my favorite lyric so far is "love is a fire that burns down everything it sees." I rarely listen to people singing about bummers, but when I do, I want it to be awesome, and this is some of the best bummer music I've ever heard.

Okay, that's it. Now I'm off to see a Cracked Out and Reggie Watts show at a nightclub owned by the Polish mafia. Yeah, I don't know how that happened either.