A lot has happened since I last updated this page. You see, I have been without a computer for the past two weeks and without email for the past three weeks. I finally got back online yesterday and came home to a mailbox with messages numbering in the triple digits.
A quick update:
I no longer work at Starbucks. My new place of employment is Wherehouse Music! That's right, an employee discount, free promotional discs and the possibility of internal theft will guarantee more new album reviews than ever!
Frames Per Second is now internationall distrubuted. I have granted the German company Realmusic the rights to reproduce and translate my album reviews for use on their website, one of the largest of its kind in Europe. Check them out at http://www.realmusic.de
Next, I would just like to say thank you to everyone who emailed me during the last three weeks. I was really bummed when my connection was down, and reading the email from fans when I finally got back online was great. It made me remember that I really am touching the lives of other music lovers and giving back to the online music community which in turn gives back to me.
That said, I think this would be as good a time as any to officially state what has probably already become apparent over the course of the last six months or so. As my musical interests change, so do the CD's reviewed in Frames Per Second. It's a simple law of economics. I can't afford to buy ten CD's a month or hire anyone else to write additional reviews. Therefore I only review selections that specifically interest me. As is obvious, if you're into corporate-created boy bands or recycled metal-rap you probably won't stay here long. And as long as the commercial rock market stays as stale as it is, the more rave music I'll be buying. And as long as commercial hip-hop stays as stale as it is, the more I'll be digging deeper underground for that indie rap.
Have I given up on the mainstream altogether? No. August will bring reviews of Richard Ashcroft's (formerly of the Verve) solo album, and possibly the new album from Travis. But also be prepared for some freaky-ass hip-hop from Princess Superstar and a live mix from Kimball Collins. So get your glowsticks ready all you speaker freakers. The party is ready to begin...
06-18-2000
New reviews up this month are, as promised The Marshall Mathers LP from Eminem and the Belle and
Sebastian Boxed Set, as well as the new Perfect Circle album and Movement in Still Life by BT. Still looking for the
new Del record, however. I would have updated earlier, except I spent Tuesday through Thursday in a drunken haze. I had
planned on having two friends over just to chill and somehow I ended up having parties for three straight nights. Ahh the joys
of summer. Next month I'll try to have Del's latest, as well as Sandra Collins' new mix, and a few other suprises.
05-12-2000
I've decided that if there is a heaven then it would probably look a lot like Berkeley, California - except without all the traffic and
homeless. Clothing stores that play Death in Vegas and sell shirts with "MDMA" written on them, record stores every few blocks, the
best pizza I've ever eaten in my life, street vendors selling bongs and fine-ass girls everywhere you look. I managed to drop about $50 at
the Rasputin Records, so look for some killer new reviews real soon. Also in the next few months be sure to scan these pages
for reviews of new albums from Eminem, Belle and Sebastian and Dan Nakamura + Del's new project: Deltron 3030. Also, coming back
from the city I happened to see a gigantic billboard for none other than soundbreak.com ,
my newest affiliate. Pretty damn cool if you ask me.
04-27-2000
Just wanted to announce that the review of Bedrock by
John Digweed is now up, as promised.
04-21-2000
One of the great things about having a website is that I am my own
boss. In the beginning I had made all these rules for myself: I'd have at
least three album reviews a month, they'd all be new albums, I'd announce
them beforehand in the news section... etc. etc. Well, being my own boss
means that I can take those rules and then break every damn one of them if
I feel like it. This month I'm not reviewing any album that was released in
2000 because I didn't happen to buy any. Instead I have some damn good CD's
from the Jungle Brothers (1999), Robert Miles (1996) and in a couple days,
John Digweed. (1999) Also, I decided NOT to purchase the Tektonics album
after reading two unfavorable reviews of it elsewhere, and I decided also
that I really didn't want to drop $22 for the Moby's favorite electronic
songs collection disc. Next month I'm sure I'll have some current stuff, I
can't help it if quality recordings are few and far in between in this age
over-commercialized and under-achieving "artists". OK, that's my rant for
the week. Come back soon.
03-27-2000
Here is an indication of how busy this last week has been for me.
Yesterday at work I realied I didn't know what day it was, so I checked the
clock on the computer and it said "March 26" and I realied "holy shit! my
birthday is tomorrow". I truly had no idea it was that close. So. In
celebration, I have finally updated the site. I'm really sorry that both
February and March have only two albums each, but things have been so much
crazier than I had predicted. Hopefully things will work outin the end, so
just hang in there and know that I'm doing my best. Thankfully my paper for
Political Science is done, and there won't be a test for a little while in
Physics, so now all I have to worry about is about 99 other things including,
but not limited to Rant N Rave (which frankly has seen better days),
Epinions.com, my Photoshop class, another project which I will be able to
update you all on a bit later and, oh yeah, my life. If I'm rambling, I
apologize, I just had way too much coffee and my hands are actually shaking.
I've had to re-type quite a few words actually.
So. Next month look for reviews of Tektonics, Moby's compilation of
electronic music and possibly some Trance stuff. Take care party people.
03-15-2000
I hate it when I go to update this page and I see that
it's been almost a month since the last update. It makes me feel
like a bad parent to the site (in the words of my friend Chris,
webmaster of the Neo-Communist page). As always, there has been a
lot going on and I am always willing to share my excuses with you.
Rant N Rave, the NY music page I write for is going through a
rough time. One of the two webmasters quit, and now the other guy
is trying to pick up the pieces. Epinions.com officially launched
their site on March 13. (You can check out my portion of the site
here.) February
is just a bad month in general. Now that it's March I feel a whole
lot better. And since I turn 21 in 17 days I am extra happy! So,
to sum things up, the world is a crazy place, but there will be
new content up soon.
02-17-2000
Hey hey hey! Those of you perusing the new reviews will
find that the first two are up as of today, with at least three
more expected as the month goes on. In the very near future look
for reviews of Standing on the Shoulder of Giants from
Oasis and the long, long overdue Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
from Kid Koala. And as always I'll have a few suprises in store.
I'm working this weekend and will miss out on the Love-A-Fair,
the 2-day rave put together by Vlad. This will be the second time
in two months I've missed seeing Dyloot. Damn!
01-25-2000
January reviews are up! Five of them, ladies and
gentlemen. Of course, those of you who checked out my link to
Epinions got to see some of them a day early. With any luck I
will be going record shopping tonight, and will come back with a
brand-new bag of goodies for the month of February. Unfortunately
I was not able to go to that rave on Saturday, which sucked,
because I reeeeeally wanted to hear some good trance. Ah well.
Life goes on. If anybody can recommend some good trance CD's
though, I'd love to hear from you! So, until we meet again...
01-21-2000
Howdy-Ho everyone! Yeah, I know I haven't posted the Jan
reviews yet, and I feel just awful about it, but I've been
reeeeally, really busy lately doing some top-secret stuff for the
good folks at Epinions.com. Really, I had to sign a nondisclosure
agreement and everything. By the way, somehow I've slipped to
12th place in the top music reviewers list, so anyone who
hasn't checked me out over there yet feel free to
surf on over.
01-01-2000
I would just like to take this opportunity to say that
the car ads were wrong. Y2K not bring nuclear winter and my
computer is working fine. Or rather, it's not acting up any more
than it usually does.
12-26-1999
Hey, how's everybody doing? I'm feeling good, though I'm
just getting over being sick, which is why this update is a bit
later then I would have liked. I have decided to try something
new this month. Instead of reviewing new albums like I usually
do, I thought I'd take these last few moments of Y1.999K to look
back at what were - in my opinion - the best albums of the year.
Next month things will go back to normal, and all you happy
people can read my articles on Rage Against the Machine and Beck,
but for now, why don't you take the opportunity to check out the
absolute best albums of the year, and then when you're done,
why don't you email me to
say I'm so right, or to violently disagree, or otherwise provide
some feedback. Thanks, and have a happy new year (those of you
on the solar calendar) and I'll see you in the year 2000!
(Provided of course, that nuclear winter or whatever doesn't
hapen, in which case I'd just like to say a big "hello"
to Elsie right now before we go.)
11-22-1999
OK, so it's been almost a month since I've last updated
this page. So how many of you noticed that ugly ass banner at the
top of the main page? It seems that Angelfire, my web hosting
service has started making advertising mandatory, and it was
either the banner or a stupid popup ad, and I don't know about
anyone else, but I really hate those things. But feel to send
some email and tell me which you find least offensive. Damn
capitalist society... In other news, I am gearing up to make
some big changes of my own for the new year, which unfortunately
means that updates have been slow. However, you can look forward
to reviews for Showbiz by Muse, as well as the new
releases from Counting Crows, Rage Against the Machine, The
Situation and Beck. Also coming in December, my list of the best
albums of 1999. See you then!
10-24-1999
Hope everyone is well this Hunter's Moon. What is that, you ask?
I don't know either. Apparently it's a time of feasting and celebration.
At least that's what the ad for new motherboards said it was. The October
reviews are all up. Check out the newest Urbat Beats compilation as well
as the Roni Size/DJ Die/Leonie Laws project. Seeya next month.
10-14-1999
Whew, what a busy month it has been for me! So much music, so
little time! I have been listening to The Fragile constantly for
the past few days. Damn good album. Also in the news, my long-delayed
review of Chaz Vegas' Venus is finally up in the September reviews
section. Sorry it took me so long to get it up there, Chaz. As far as
October goes, be prepared to see reviews for Muse, Breakbeat Era, as well
as the Prince Paul - Automator collaboration, Handsome Boy Modeling School,
out on the 19th. Don't forget to check out my section in
epinions.com . There you can preview
the site before its official launch! Seeya.
9-18-1999
OK, so it's been over a week since the MTV Video Music Awards
aired, and now I finally have gotten around to writing about it. Chris
Rock's "comedy" consisted mainly of making fun of all scheduled performers.
(Though he didn't say one damn thing about Nine Inch Nails.) Speaking of
NIN, was anyone else completely blown away by Trent's performance? They
were the only band that night to perform a brand new song no one had heard
before. I sure as hell hope the rumors are wrong and NIN will tour to
support this album, because they can put on a hell of a show. Trent Reznor
took the mic with the subdued trancelike fire of Jim Morrison. The drums
were given added texture by placing a tambourine on the snare, and the
whole thing was introduced by Johnny Depp. Funkin' amazing! Also a nice
suprise was Eminem's performance with none other then Dr. Dre, which
morphed into Dre rapping with Snoop Doggy Dogg. (Who does kind of suck
without someone like Dre to play off of.) Glittery pop bands won way too
many awards, and Jay Mohr showed up to make a few racist jokes. Perhaps
the best part of the entire night (besides seeing that whacked-out dance
troupe from the "Praise You" video) was the house DJ who was none other
then Moby, over whom absolutely no fuss was made whatsoever. Once again,
except for a few bits and pieces, MTV has once again proven themselves
able to make a 30-second commercial that is better then the actual 3-hour
event it advertises. Wild stuff.
On a completely unrelated note, you might want to head over to
the brand-newest site on the internet (as of this nanosecond),
epinoins.com . They are a consumer-
goods review site, covering movies, cars, and lots more. I have written
nine reviews for their music section and am currently their most popular
music reviewer. It's a very cool place, sez me. Until next time, sayonara.
9-4-1999
Just three days left until 9-9-99, that magical day who's all 9's
may cause some really, really old computer programs to crash, if they
read the "9999" as a (now almost totally unused) "stop program" command.
Anyhoo. I've got some new album reviews. Coming up soon will be a special
feature on a nifty little project called "Living in a Box". More on that
later. For now just sit tight and enjoy everything new.
8-19-1999
The first of the August reviews are up as of today. Sorry for the
lateness, for the last seven days or so my ISP was down. Frustrating as
hell, but what can you do? Anyway, I've got lots more albums to put up in
the next few days, so hang in there, folks.
8-11-1999
OK, so I'm back from Santa Barbara, which was cool, but not
astoundingly so. They had a pretty good alternative radio station which,
when I first found it was playing that new song by Tonic. It then went
into "Burro" (a non-album track by Beck sung entirely in Spanish) before
playing "Gangsta Tripping" by Fatboy Slim. Needless to say, KJEE was my
favorite station the last few days. I managed to find a couple of
independent record stores and picked up a few items which will be appearing
in the review pages shortly.
8-5-1999
Hey, just wanted to let everybody know that tomorrow morning I'll
be heading out for Santa Barbara for a few days of vacation. In other
words, don't expect any updates to the site until next week. In addition to
visiting the bars, cafes and the beach, I'll also be checking out the
record stores for hot new material. See you all again in a week!
7-29-1999
Things seem a bit slow as far as cool new album releases go. All
I can do is say, hey, don't look at me, it's not my fault! If you
want to buy Ricky Martin's album, be my guest. Look for things to pick up
pretty soon. I'm trying to get my hands on DJ Craze's new solo album, as
well as the new Quannum album. It was produced by DJ Shadow so I can't
wait to hear it. Until next time...
7-23-1999
Recently, MP3 surpassed sex to become the number one word searched
for on the net. Music lovers everywhere should probably see
this as a victory of some sort.
On a completely unrelated note, is anyone else as sick of hearing about
Woodstock '99 as I am? OK, so 30 years ago a bunch of hippies listened to
music in New York in an orgy of peace love and LSD, does that really mean
we now have to make it corporate and bill it as the "music event of the
millennium"? Something that was once about rebellion has been turned into
just another ad campaign. Today's youth need something they can call their
own. Something more then just hard rock bands and a few multi-platinum
rappers and some DJ's on the second stage. I propose a new festival, I
don't know what the hell it should be called, but it should be more than
just a reason to sell Pepsi and Budweiser. To that end I have proposed a
list of bands I would like to see there:
The Chemical Brothers
Fatboy Slim
Moby
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Underworld
3 Colours Red
Eminem
DJ Shadow
Nine Inch Nails
Primus
4 Hero
Busta Rhymes
Erykah Badu
Ozomatli
Ani DiFranco
Soul Coughing
...and while I'm dreaming, we'll have the concert in my backyard...
6-29-1999
Alrighty then! Notice anything different about the site? Frames Per
Second is now one year and three months old, so I decided it was high time
for that birthday present. The new interface is more streamlined, easier to
navigate, and way cooler than the New Beetle. All the reviews for the month
of June are up, by the way, and there is a brand-spanking new Frequently
Asked Questions section, for Those Who Want to Know.
Email me and let me know what you
think about the new look. Until next time... ciao!
6-18-1999
June is turning out to be quite the month for new music. The
Underworld and Red Hot Chili Peppers reviews are both up, and you can look
forward to reviews of new music from 3 Colours Red and Naked Funk coming
very soon. Also, "Play" by Moby and "Surrender" by the Chemical Bros. a
little while after that. Anyone who says '99 has been a bad year for music
is an idiot. Just forget about Ricky Martin and Brittney Spears and keep
it tuned to FPS music. You won't be disappointed.
6-3-1999
Check out the final May reviews for the Freestylers and the new
Tito & Tarantula albums. The June reviews should be popping up shortly.
I'll have the new Chemical Brothers record "Surrender" as soon as it's in
stores on the 22nd. In the meantime look for reviews of Underworld and
Naked Funk coming soon.
5-12-1999
I would just like to thank California punk band The Ataris for
being cool enough to write a song about Claire Danes and title it "My
So-Called Life".
5-6-1999
May is here, and so are the new album reviews! Up as of today are
Aquanaut and the much-promised Lo Fidelity Allstars.
4-28-1999
Ok, ok, so I know updates have been slow lately, and I still
haven't done that FPS 1st birthday thing like I said I would, but between
packing, unpacking, work, school and dating strippers I haven't had a hell
of a lot of time these past few months. Bear with me through the storm and
when the clear skies return they'll seem that much better. Or something.
Whatever.
4-17-1999
My most humble apologies for the lack of updates lately. I wasn't
wasting time or anything, I was moving. I now live at the very south end of
the beautiful Napa Valley. (Whereas before I lived at the very northern
tip.) As if anyone really cares. I know why you're here, it's the music,
dammit! Look for reviews for albums by Eminem, Random, Beth Orton, and
oodles more.
3-13-1999
March is gearing up to be the best month for FPS in quite a while!
Expect reviews of new material from N8, Cirrus, Eminem and more. The Rant N Rave site is back up, and has a new look. Right now they're featuring my reviews of DJ Dara and the Beth Lisick Ordeal. Check back often for all the new material. Guaranteed to kick booty.
3-3-1999
First things first: yes, I know the February reviews were late. There has really been a lot going on lately. I'm working 38 hours this week, plus school, plus thrashing attempts at a social life. Not only will I burden you with my own troubles, but I'll put other people's troubles on your shoulders too, just because. My partners at Rant N Rave aren't being smiled down upon either. Their ISP dropped the site, so their whole system was down for a while. They will be up and running shortly. In other, happier news, look for a neat-o suprise later on this month to celebrate Frames Per Second's FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! This will occur just before my 20th birthday on March 27th. In the words of my amigo John: Hasta la bye bye!
2-12-1999
Hello there, music junkies. Today I'm going to talk about the newfound admiration I have for the group of persons collectively known as DJ's. My friend Elsie turned 18 recently and had a cool party which I was invited to. At this party were two guys spinning records. Not big names, just two kids having fun. The point is that they were really good! From creating syncopation by scratching a record to verbally imitating drums to one helluva good Cartman impersonation, these guys were "kick-ass", so to speak. In news more related to this website, look for the Lo-Fi Allstars review to (finally) arrive. Totally unconfirmed possibilities for upcoming reviews include: DJ Dara, Cirrus, Busta Rhymes and some sort of Korean techno. See y'all later.
1-16-99
At approximately 12:35 PM, California time Frames Per Second recieved its 2000th hit! Yippie!!! In other news, in case anyone has been wondering why reviews have been seeming few and far between, here is the explanation. And for the rest of you, pay some more attention to what's going on in the world, for crying out loud. My partners with Rant N Rave in New York are currently in the process of switching servers and have not had a chance to send my CD's. Brian, RNR's web-man (like me) also works and goes to school, so give him a break, OK. The rest of the "December" reviews should be up by next week.
1-6-99
Well, 1-1-99 has come and gone, and still not 1,999 hits on my site. Oh well. But I'm not bitter. I'll go ahead and give everyone the suprise anyway! Except it might not be done for a little while yet. More on that later. As for those of you who have noticed that the December reviews are a little slim, you can place all blame on the US mail delivery service. CD's that I should have recieved in December have still not arrived. Rest assured however that the new
year will see a flood of new reviews, including Beck, 4Hero, Dr. Israel, Lo-Fidelity Allstars and lots more! Promise!
