if that's the way it is, then that's the way it is

It's pretty unusual for me to hear something before the four readers of this blog, but it looks like I've got the jump on this Bravery thing. I haven't taken to a record like this since Arcade Fire's "Funeral", and I have to say this one grabs me a bit more. I think it's best described like this: Franz Ferdinand showed up for a gig with (old skool) Duran Duran but the van that was carrying FF's instruments plunged into a ravine so they had to borrow Duran Duran's. It's fun and it's dancey and a lot of it is silly ("Stop drop and roll/'Cause you're on fire," I mean, come on), but every now and then The Bravery make serious music ("Sometimes/I forget I'm still awake/I fuck up and say these things out loud"). Further description might mention New Order and Strokes, but I think I've said enough.

Then there's Bloc Party. Who tipped me off on this? I have a random mp3 that I downloaded somewhere. Was it you? Or you? Anyway, I pulled the whole record down off the World Wide Wave, it's kind of got hold of me in a wierd way. Does this stuff qualify as 'math rock'? It's just this side of too proggy for me, but I love the dark energy.

A quick note on Six Feet Under: I must heartily disagree with the "Yawn" review of last week's episode. The one before didn't really upset me, but this one certainly did. I sobbed all the way through. The power of literature (for want of a better word) is so amazing - I feel like I knew the guy, like he was family, and the funeral was just plain hard to sit through.

Next week I'm driving halfway across the continent in three days with Alex as he moves back to Port-Land from Madison. Wish I had a bigger memory card for my camera.