Rebecca Black. Friday. In Her Defense. (and some thoughts on japan)

now i'm sure if you're reading this, your first thoughts are probably somewhere along the lines of "seriously? somebody is going to defend such an awful song?" whelp....here we go.

first of all. she's 13 years old. 13. thirteen. that's 8th or 9th grade. lets look back on ourselves at 13 and what we wanted more than anything. if someone came to you and told you they could make your biggest fantasy a reality, would you say no at the sake of artistic integrity? no you wouldn't. you're 13, you don't know what artistic integrity is. now let me clarify, this song is in fact a fucking AWFUL song, but the hate it is generating and the hate towards her is completely unjust. this girl took a shot at becoming a famous singer because it was her dream and she was successful. you can not condemn her for that.

now, of course, the anti-globalist conspiracy theorist in me wants to say this is just a ploy by big corporations trying to dumb down our society even more....and let's be honest...that's exactly what it is. the people to blame for such a bad moment in musical history are the people that wrote this song and the people that used a 13 year old girl to make money. not rebecca black. she's blame free. she is doing what any other 13 year old girl would do in her situation. seeing interviews with her saying that the hate her video was gathering was bringing her to tears....that's just not right. the hate should be at the money-makers and the suites who tried to bank off a poor girl by giving her such a piece of garbage to make her famous.

rebecca black, as far as i can tell, is a role model 13 year old, and the world could use more of her. she's donating the money she's making from this song to relief efforts in japan and to her high school. that's fucking awesome. this girl could stand to make enough money off this garbage to sit pretty for some years to come, whether it be to pay for her college or fund a legitimate recording career. instead she's giving it all to charity.

hat's off to you, rebecca black. good for you.

_____________________________________________________________________

some other thoughts on the world right now. the mess in japan and the crisis in the middle east are all fucking awful. this world has been so violent both naturally and militantly that it's unnatural. what happened in japan is just another example, as far as i'm concerned, that God is pissed. and i don't blame Him.

now let's go back to when the earthquake first hit japan and they were talking about how the nuclear reactors weren't going to be a problem and that everything was going to be okay and that death tolls were low and blah blah blah blah. i was sitting in a hotel room in savannah, ga with a couple guys on my rugby team and i said out-loud "that's bullshit, give it a week and all kinds of bad things are going to happen with the nuclear reactors." well.....here we are.

every night when you watch the news, it's almost always horror stories and depressing bullshit. we try and downplay the severity of such things and then we just consistently correct ourselves and tell the real side of the story as it keeps getting worse.

let's get fucking optimistic.

how does one do that? when such an event happens, expect the fucking worst. say everything is as bad as it could possibly be. and then, when it turns out that it isn't so bad, and the reactors aren't so awful, and the death tolls aren't so high, it'll be some fucking good news for a change and people will have a sense of relief saying "oh, well it isn't as bad as we thought" instead of it constantly being the other way around. i'm just so sick of being lied to and fed so much depressing news about how the world keeps getting worse.

Noah and the Whale. Last Night on Earth, Toronto. 3/24/11

Last Night on Earth was easily my most anticipated album of the year and one of my most anticipated albums ever. The First Days of Spring is far and away one of the most moving albums I've ever heard, and is easily in my top 5 favorite records ever made. That being said, did Last Night on Earth meet my expectations? No, I unfortunately can't say that it did. But the reasons why are mostly due to my own personal tastes and not the quality of the music. One of the reasons why the first two albums are so great to me is how organic they sound and how real the place they seem to come from. Anyone who's ever had a heartbreak can relate to the second album, and anyone who's ever been in love can relate to the first. The third album is a change of pace. It's a lot more electronically driven. Gone are the guitar and violin hooks, and in are the electronic drum beats and keyboards. The catchy pop sensibilities are still there and as soon as Charlie Fink starts singing, you know it's still the same band. I have my theories on such a change, I feel as if Doug leaving had a lot to do with it, but that's neither here nor there. The album is far from a bad album, it's just different. Sure it has it's bad moments (the hook "your life is your life, you gotta live like it's your life" is a rather dreadful lyric), but you can't expect a band to make three albums without a single down moment.

That being said, I never thought I'd get the chance to see them live in the era in which I fell in love with as they're from across the pond. Luckily, on just their second trip, I was able to catch them in Toronto. Their first appearance at the Mod Club before the release of their second album would have been the night of my life had it occurred last night, but such a feet would be impossible, either I'd see the songs I love before they were even released and I would have stood there like a zombie, or I see the show I saw last night and love every minute of it. And I did in fact love every minute of it.

The night started in the freezing cold, waiting in line for doors (which opened a half hour late). While waiting, I saw the band ducking out the back door and heading down the road to some local restaurant or something of the sort. I found it kind of odd for some reason, but that's neither here nor there. The local band Bahamas was the opening act and the crowd loved them. They consisted simply of a singer/guitar player, a drummer, and apparently a pair of female backing vocalists performing for the first time with the band. The guitar player's style was awkward to watch but the music they put out was incredibly engaging and really fun to listen to.

To Noah and the Whale's credit, the change-over between sets was incredibly quick (oh I hate a long wait between bands, it can be so frustrating). And soon the lights were dimmed with that white Jaguar center stage on a guitar stand. Damn, that guitar that wrote one of my favorite albums ever was only a couple feet away.

Over the PA comes a familiar tune: a big-band instrumental of Bohemian Rhapsody. The entire crowd sang along, and just before the final "nothing really matters," out came the band. Besides the new album, the setlists I had seen had mildly lowered my expectations, a lot of new songs to start and a rather short set in general. That wouldn't be the only time I was proven wrong. With no introduction to the crowd, the band blasted into Blue Skies, and the rest of the
show was nothing short of excellent. Tom's violin levels were a little low at the start but other than that, the entire band sounded excellent. With all 5 guys in suit and tie, it was almost funny to see Charlie so animated in his performance seeing as he always seemed so docile in videos. His small stature was fun to watch fist pump and pseudo-direct the band. His appearance almost seemed arrogant and cocky, but every time he opened his mouth to talk in between songs, that notion was out the window with such a calm and almost shy voice settling over the crowd.

The band was friendly and engaging with the crowd and played through the entire new album, half of the second, and a good dose of the first. "Give a Little Love" turned into a full blown rock jam, and seeing my two favorites off of the new album ("The Line" and "Old Joy") only made me like those two tracks more. After Fink noted that we were in fact in the first days of spring, the back to back tandem of "I Have Nothing" and "My Door is Always Open" was one of the most beautiful concert moments I've ever witnessed.

Criticism of this show would be almost impossible minus some petty things. Sure, I would have loved to have heard "Mary" or the entire second album front to back, but that wasn't to be and that's fine. I still think Urby needs a haircut, I thoroughly enjoyed his old short haircut/hat look from back in oh'8/oh'9. But he seems very into the suit and tie/long hair/peace sign-giving niche he's found his way into, and that's fine. The show was absolutely incredible and was everything I had hoped to be and blew all my worries out the window. The only possible HONEST complaint I have was that the setlist had "Stranger" but the song was cut for some reason or another. I would have loved to have seen that song live as the last minute of the piece is absolutely beautiful.

Thank you, Noah and the Whale, you were fucking incredible and I pray you come back within my driving range soon. I have never been so close to tears so many times in a show, the music has such a place in my heart and represents so many incredible memories in my life.


Setlist:
-Blue Skies
-Tonight's the Kind of Night
-Give a Little Love
-Give It All Back
-Love of an Orchestra
-Life is Life
-Just Me Before We Met
-The Line
-Stranger (NOT PLAYED)
-I Have Nothing
-My Door is Always Open
-Wild Thing
-Rocks and Daggers
-Shape of my Heart
-Waiting for my Chance to Come
-The First Days of Spring
-------------------------------------------
-Old Joy
-L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.
-5 Years Time