This week, I was planning on going to see \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Rocky Horror Picture Show\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Ignorantly, I did not consider how many people would want to go see a movie that the state would only play twice this year. So I ended up just watching another movie with my friends instead.<\/p>\n
However, although I was unable to go to the screening with my friends and have, what I would assume, a fucking blast, the fact that the state has these interesting screenings got me thinking \u00e2\u20ac\u201c how fucking awesome is it that we have theaters like the State and Michigan on campus. To a certain degree I have been taking them for granted.<\/p>\n
Not only will they be playing movies like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Birdman\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Interstellar\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, two upcoming movies that I really wish to see \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they also have special screenings such as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Rocky Horror Picture Show\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as well as the current series of Studio Ghibli films. On top of this they are doing a speaker series as well.<\/p>\n
This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really what I want to talk about but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, it was just a cool (epiphany? \u00e2\u20ac\u201c of incredibly low merit).<\/p>\n
Instead, I want to talk about the new Foxygen record, because it is just too fun.<\/p>\n
I never thought Sam France (Foxygen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s front man) was a particularly great singer in the sense that all the talent shows and vines (or instagram videos \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what the fuck they are I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use them) of people singing suggest as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcgood\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 singing. Rather, France\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s singing was far more stylized, evoking the voices of his influences throughout the bands songs, switching with such vigor that some songs make you feel tired as it reaches the end.<\/p>\n
I was first introduced to the band through their album \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Take the Kids Off Broadway\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which got me hooked right away, because they sounded like they had so much fun recording it. Of course, this also made me have fun listening to it. It featured great songs like: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Make it Known\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Take the Kids Off Broadway\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Middle School Dance (Song for Richard Swift)\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Waitin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 4 U\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
Then came their far more successful album, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. A fucking mouthful of a title. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be honest, I love every single song on this album, it is one of the few albums were I am not bored throughout the whole play through. There is no moment where I feel like skipping or just not listening to. To a lesser extent, I felt the same way about their last album as well. But to be fair, both of these albums were short, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBroadway\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 being seven songs long and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcPeace and Magic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 clocking in at nine songs. But honestly, who cares, they are awesome records.<\/p>\n
Actually maybe they cared, or other people pressured them? Theories\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6all theories. But their new album, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6And Star Power\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has 24 songs making it a double album with 82 minutes of material.<\/p>\n
Do I love all the songs on this new album? No. But for some reason, this album works for me best when I have the time to listen to the whole thing, instead of just picking songs here and there \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which I could do for their last album. Some songs on this album that I would probably not enjoy as much were I to listen them on their own, sound so much better when I listen to them in conjunction with the songs before and after it.<\/p>\n
Is this a good thing? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know because by all means I am no music expert. I mean I quit violin when I was young and I never really got into the whole high school band life. Ask me about notes and musical theory now; I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know a fucking thing. But that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what I like.<\/p>\n
I like this new album. Certainly not as much as the previous two, but I like it in its own way. It is quite different in terms of the influences and there are more noise pieces in this album \u00e2\u20ac\u201c pieces that I normally don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like that much. But the songs \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cold Winter\/Freedom\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Contextualize My Mind\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are pretty fucking cool, and it comes back to the same word\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6it is fun (and kind of terrifying regarding the former \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that adolescent voice of France pretending to have a radio channel is edgy and scary to a certain extent).<\/p>\n
Speaking of fun, I only recently found out, but it turns out Foxygen released, as a free download, their recordings that were not studio albums. The core duo of Foxygen, Sam France and Jonathon Rado, met in (middle school) I think. So they messed around and recorded a bunch of stuff before they were a band with a studio record.<\/p>\n
(here are the links to the downloads if you want to check it out)<\/p>\n
Jurassic Explosion Philippic<\/a>
\n(They recorded this one ^ when they were 15 apparently)<\/p>\n