Here's some album downloads for you. Unfortunately a lot of them are stuff I ended up not liking, so it's not really recs, per se... XD But maybe there's something you want anyway! (And there are some recs in there, too!)

Enrique Iglesias - Enrique Iglesias, Enrique Iglesias: 95/08 Exitos
I wasn't that thrilled with either of these and ditched them both except for one song from each album. IIRC they were both Spanish-language albums.

Favorites: Experiencia Religiosa, Dimelo

Mika - The Boy Who Knew Too Much
At first I wasn't sure I liked this as much as his first album, but it soon grew on me, especially Blame It on the Girls, which is now my favorite song by him, period.

Favorites: We Are Golden, Blame It on the Girls, Rain, Good Girl Gone, One Foot Boy

Serpenteens - The Superhuman Monstershow, Dead Men Walking
I grabbed these ages ago when I was interested in more horror punk after falling in love with The Spookshow, but these guys were nowhere as good. I didn't keep anything off either album.

Whitesnake - The Definitive Collection
I've always liked Here I Go Again, so I thought maybe I'd like more by them? But as it turned out, no, I don't. In the end, Here I Go Again was all I kept. XD

My Little Lover - Identity
I think I just need to give up on these guys. I loved their early albums, but I haven't really liked anything of theirs in years. This was no different. It was okay, and pleasant to listen to, but nothing jumped out at me, so I just deleted it without keeping anything.

Unicorn - Hige to Boin, Unicorn Golden Half Special
I always think I should like Unicorn more because the few songs I do like by them I really, really love. But I listened to both of these and really didn't find anything new to like besides the songs I already had favorited.

Favorites: Maybe Blue, Daimeiwaku, Subarashii Hibi

Weezer - Weezer Red, Raditude
Raditude is AWESOME. So after listening to it a bunch of times, I decided to give Red another few listens to see if I liked it any more this time as I'd been really disappointed when it first came out and nothing on it was anywhere near as good as Pork and Beans. But no, I still am really not a fan, though I did manage to find one more song off it to favorite.

Favorites: Pork and Beans, Troublemaker, Heart Songs, King, (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To, Can't Stop Partying, Put Me Back Together, Tripping Down the Freeway, Love Is the Answer, Let It All Hang Out, I Don't Want To Let You Go, The Prettiest Girl In The Whole Wide World

La Roux - La Roux
These guys are really good. davidap turned me on to them and I was totally hooked.

Favorites: Bulletproof, In for the Kill, Tigerlily, Quicksand

Lady Gaga - The Fame: Monster
I didn't love this as much as I thought I would. It was good and I liked all the songs on it a lot, but for the most part they just didn't really stand out from each other, and nothing comes close to Bad Romance on the awesome scale.

Favorites: Bad Romance, Alejandro

Adam Lambert - Take One, For Your Entertainment
Take One was boring. I deleted everything. Apparently it's an unofficial release of some of his old pre-AI stuff. For Your Entertainment, though, is pure awesome. Very, very catchy.

Favorites: For Your Entertainment, Aftermath, Pick U Up, Whataya Want From Me, Music Again

Amuro Namie - Past<Future
This took me a bunch of listens before I really got into it, but once I did, I loved it. (Though I don't think it's her best thing ever.)

Favorites: First Timer, Copy That, Love Game, Steal My Night, Shut Up, Wild, Defend Love


Also on request, I uploaded everything Digimon from Adventure and 02. That's like a zillion albums and singles, so if you like Digimon, have at it.

Similarly on request, I uploaded Spitz's complete album discography plus whatever other random B-sides I had. Again, that's a ton of stuff, so if you like Spitz, go wild! If you don't know Spitz, um...I'd suggest trying their Fake Fur or Indigo Chiheisen albums. I think those are my favorites. Good stuff! (But I love pretty much everything of theirs, so.)

I have a an album post I should do, and I still need to do those last three letters of the alphabet meme, but instead here are some songs I can't stop listening to right now. Some I've probably recced before, but some are new.

Coldplay - Viva la Vida
Coldplay seems like they're one of those love them or hate them bands, but I'm not really either. I like a few songs and am bored with most of their stuff. But omg this song. I could seriously listen to this one song forever and never ever get tired of it. I can't explain what makes me love it so, but it's one of those songs that makes me want to bounce around whenever I hear it. (It's a good "waiting in line/at the bus stop" song because of that!)

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
This is her new single and wow. I think I love it more than anything on The Fame, though it took a couple listens to really get hooked. Reading friendsfriends the other day I saw someone's post that said something like "Explain the difference between Lady Gaga and Madonna" and it was obviously meant to be derogatory in that "we already have Madonna, so why do we need Lady Gaga" sort of way (which I see a lot about Coldplay, actually; "Why do we need Coldplay when we already have Radiohead?"), and I just have to say, I don't understand that thinking at all. Yes, Lady Gaga is similar to Madonna in a lot of ways, but THAT'S GOOD. It means MORE MUSIC THAT I LOVE. XD There is no bad here.

Mika - Blame It On the Girls
This is off his new album and has quickly become my favorite song of his EVER. Even more favorite than Grace Kelly, which is saying a lot. But seriously, it's just so, so, so catchy.

The Killers - Four Winds
This is a Bright Eyes cover and I like it way better than the original. Which I had not actually heard before this, but I went and listened to it on youtube and while it was good, I just really like this better. This is a little more upbeat, and I like Brandon Flowers's voice better than Conor Oberst's.

The Killers - A Dustland Fairytale
This is from Day & Age and it's not one that immediately burrowed its way into my brain, but after seeing them live, I went back and listened to a few Day & Age songs I'd skimmed before and this was one of them. And since then it's totally taken hold of me and won't let go. I don't know how I missed it before, because it totally sounds like it should have been on Sam's Town.

My Chemical Romance - Famous Last Words & Welcome to the Black Parade
I put these two together because I don't really have anything to say about them individually, just that they are always my go-to songs when I'm not sure what I want to listen to at the moment or where I want to start my random playlist from. They're also really great for karaoke.

Billy Joel - My Life
I recently rediscovered this song, which I loved as a kid as the theme song to one of my favorite shows, Bosom Buddies (which is totally something I would have nominated for yuletide!). I love the tune, I love the lyrics, and I love how it always makes me think of that show.

Gelugugu - Anpanman no March
This is an awesome, awesome, awesome punk cover of a kiddie anime theme song. It is seriously one of the best things I've ever heard.

Brahman - You Don't Live Here Anymore
I have really been enjoying Brahman a lot lately, but this is one in particular that I just keep coming back to over and over again. It's apparently a cover of a song by a late '70s/early '80s English band called The Fans. But enough of them and more of Brahman! Who are a Japanese punk band with a vocalist whose style of singing makes him nearly incomprehensible in both Japanese and English (though slightly less so in Japanese). I love these guys so much.

Here's some stuff I've been really liking lately. Some are new to me, some are recently rediscovered, and a couple have been linked here before.

The Lonely Island - Boombox (feat. Julian Casablancas)
This song has beat out Dick in a Box, Jizz in My Pants, and even On a Boat as my favorite song off this album. It's so catchy I always get it stuck in my head, and I just love Julian Casablancas. ♥

Himuro Kyousuke - Safe and Sound (feat. Gerard Way)
It's Himuro Kyousuke with Gerard Way! How awesome is that? It has a very My Chem sound to it.

Adam Lambert - No Boundaries
Apparently he and Kris Allen both released this single? I haven't heard Kris Allen's version of it, but this is pretty good. (Though I hope Adam's eventual album will be better than this.)

Mika - We Are Golden
I have been loving this more and more the more I hear it (which is a lot).

GLAY - Run
Really, really pretty up-tempo-ish ballad.

Spitz - Okera
This is I think the coupling of their most recent single. It's rockier than their usual stuff. Reminds me of like Yumeoimushi and such.

Lightning Seeds - Pure
Heard this the last time I was at karaoke. Had forgotten it ever existed, but it's really good.

The Exies - Different Than You
These guys opened for Vamps and I was surprised by how much I liked them. This is probably my favorite of the songs I've heard so far.

Nakamura Ataru - Watashi no Naka no "Ii Onna"
This is just so upbeat and catchy. I love it.

Jonathan Rachel Williams - I Respect Women (link to his website where you can download)
This is the text of a misogynist concern troll comment set to a catchy tune. I love the refrain of "but I am by no means a sexist" and find myself singing it at odd times.

Only three more letters left of this! I think it's been like two years since I started this meme, guys! (Haha, omg, it really has. I did the first letter in August of 2007. D:) I'm ready for it to be over!

Except I'm tempted to redo it with songs I've discovered in the meantime... XD


( 55 songs starting with I )

I was somewhat iffy about seeing a show at the Bowl considering the size and price. After Ticketbastard fees and the park-and-ride tickets (+ more Ticketbastard fees for those), the $49.50 tickets ended up being $72 total. BUT. It was actually totally worth it. I definitely wouldn't go there to see a band I was at all ambivalent about, but for a band I really love, I would totally do it again. They had large screens, so even though the stage was teensy from where we were, we could see everything just fine on the screens. And I really liked the park-and-ride experience, plus the Santa Monica stop is very close, so I could totally walk there and back if going by myself.

Anyway, so last night. :) alejandromagno and I got to the park-and-ride just as the first bus was filling up, but another one pulled up immediately, so we weren't waiting long there. Someone gave the driver a copy of Hot Fuss to play, so we got to listen to that the whole way there. I guess the ride was a little under an hour, since the album did loop a bit, but not by too much. Since we got on the bus a little after six, there was still plenty of time before the show started at eight when we got there.

The bus was freezing because of the air conditioning and I was regretting not bringing a jacket or something because we were going to be sitting outside on top of a hill for hours, but as it turned out, the weather was really nice and not only did I not get cold, because I ended up standing (at least during the main event; everyone else was, so sitting meant not seeing anything) and thus bouncing around, I was quite warm and even sweaty.

I had no idea who the opening act was going to be beforehand. I'd tried to look it up, but couldn't find any info. They didn't introduce themselves and I didn't recognise the music, but Alexander did. He asked asked someone and it turned out it was the Psychedelic Furs. I can't say I was that excited about them, though the music was pleasant enough, but I felt like I got a bonus to see a famous band as the opening act rather than some nobodies.

They played for about forty minutes and then there was about half an hour before the Killers came on. The place was pretty packed out once things really got going. I would guess it was sold out or nearly so. There were also a ton of people smoking pot. I was smelling it throughout the show.

And I have to say, the sound was awesome, probably the best of any show I've ever been to. I could actually hear things clearly instead of the instruments all just sounding like a bunch of noise. XD And afterwards my ears weren't ringing.

When they came out for the encore, they sang one song and then someone (whom I later found out was Jimmy Kimmel) came out on stage and did the Kanye West thing. I don't remember exactly what he said, but something about Beyonce and then maybe that the Psychedelic Furs were the best band ever. Then the Furs came back out and the singer did a duet with Brandon of Pretty in Pink.

Setlist minus Pretty in Pink:

Human
Somebody Told Me
For Reasons Unknown
Bones
Joy Ride
Bling (Confessions of a King)
Shadowplay
Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
Sweet Talk
Smile Like You Mean It
Spaceman
A Dustland Fairytale
Read My Mind
Mr. Brightside
All These Things I've Done

ENCORE:
This Is Your Life
When You Were Young

Zipfile on megaupload.

So they did five songs each from Hot Fuss, Sam's Town, and Day & Age, and two from Sawdust. The only song I really wish they hadn't done was Shadowplay (Joy Division cover), since I actively dislike that song. I wish they would have played Sam's Town instead! Or Neon Tiger. But overall I was really happy with the lineup. I'm especially glad they did Read My Mind and Spaceman.

I didn't think I would be going to any more shows this year, but I just got an email today saying the Decemberists are playing next month at UCLA... >_>

Just a little over a year since I saw GLAY the last time and almost twelve years to the day since I saw them for the first time, I got a chance to see them again, and this time for only $10! Which is almost more amazing than the fact that I got to see them in LA again. XD I would go to a hell of a lot more concerts if they were priced like that!

I didn't think I would be able to go at first, because I didn't have money for a ticket or a way to get there. But then the tickets went on sale for $10 with no fees, and the only thing holding me back was having no way to get there, but hakuen offered me a ride, so there was no way I could not go. :D

Doors were at eight and she picked me up a little around 6.45. Traffic wasn't bad, so we got up to Hollywood around 7.30 and then had to look for parking. We drove around and around for about twenty minutes trying to find someplace cheaper than $10-15 and finally found a parking structure on Kings and Santa Monica that was $4! They are open til 2.30 on weekends and midnight on weekdays, so it's definitely somewhere to remember. It meant about a half mile walk uphill, but for that cheap it was worth it. We got there a few minutes before doors and hakuen had to pick up her ticket at will-call, so we didn't even bother getting in line, just waited til everyone went in.

Some of her friends were there, so we hung out with them upstairs for a while. I've never been in the dining area. Apparently you have to buy stuff in order to stay up there, which is not surprising. The only table left was kind of set back and so the view was horrible, so hakuen and I decided to go watch the show on the floor once it got started.

But! I'm glad I went upstairs for a bit because omg. At the special reserved table right in front of us? Tak Matsumoto from B'z! O_O And Yoshiki from X Japan had been there the night before.

Anyway, the show itself was really awesome. Even though hakuen and I were at the back of the main floor area, that's still within like twenty feet of the stage, tops. And there were a couple tall people directly in front of me, but I managed to move over a little and get a good view for most of the time.

Teru talked a lot. Not between every song, but a little bit between every couple of songs, and there were maybe four longer periods. He spoke mostly English, very broken and accented, but he was obviously trying really hard and I was impressed with how much he did say, more than any other Japanese acts, I've seen, I think. It was obvious that he was really thrilled to be here and really moved by having so many fans outside of Japan. I actually think he was kind of tearful at the end, and he promised they would be back again (I was worried since these shows hadn't sold that well). I will definitely try to see them next time and any time they come to LA, because it's obvious they really appreciate their fans here.

I was a little disappointed by the setlist. It had a lot of good songs (I have almost all of them favorited in iTunes), but was not a lot of my very favorites. I can't say I'm too surprised, since a lot of my top faves are older songs and even worse, album songs rather than singles, so the chances of them being on the list were pretty low to begin with.

There were a couple songs I hadn't heard before, including Run, which is now one of my all-time favorites. It's really, really good!

And Jiro got to do Shutter Speeds, yay. :) I love Jiro and like that song a lot. :D :D :D Even though I don't know the lyrics too well. I could sing along with about half the songs easily, and do choruses/partial singing for a bunch more.

They ended with I'm in Love, which was a huge thrill. That's such a great sing-along song. At the end, the "I'm just in love, I'm just in love oh sing my life" part must have gone on for about five minutes. Though I had a hard time keeping a straight face for the part that goes "we will rock you words from heaven", because it always sounds like "we will rock your ass from heaven", and last year when Carla and I were driving across country and listening to a GLAY mix with that on it, we would sing "we will rock your ass now, Kevin". XD

I kind of want to go through and do a music post with their entire discography and ramble about each song, but for now, here's mp3s of the songs they played last night.

Great Vacation
Yuuwaku
Ikiteku Tsuyosa
Glorious
Cynical
Starless Night
Run
However
Be with You
Verb
Synchronicity
I Am XXX
High Communications
More Than Love
Shutter Speeds no Theme
Acid Head

ENCORE
Kanojo no "Modern..."
Peak Hateshinaku Soul Kagirinaku
I'm in Love

And here's a zip of all 19 songs on megaupload, since I'll delete the tracks on my server eventually.

1. I made a cake! The cake itself is just a mix (on sale for 97 cents!), so I'm not expecting anything special, but I did make homemade buttercream frosting, so that will be yummy. It's triple chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, which is all rather more chocolate than I'd like, but I won't turn down cake (though I will be wishing it were yellow cake with white frosting).

2. I was mostly translating lyrics yesterday, which is perfect for watching TV, so I got four episodes of Brothers & Sisters watched. I realised I really cannot watch any more ongoing shows, though. When the new season starts, I will be following Ugly Betty, Supernatural, Brothers & Sisters, Leverage, Better Off Ted, and the Simpsons. At least the last two are half-hour shows, but still! That is way more TV than I want to be keeping up with on a weekly basis. I don't know how you people who watch a zillion shows do it! (I still haven't watched this week's Leverage.)

3. I've really been enjoying Mika's new single, We Are Golden.

There are actually not a lot of recs in this post. I've been going through my "to listen" playlist and it seems like everything I came across lately was a dud. But I did like a few songs here and there, and maybe you will find some stuff you like that I didn't, so...

Hirai Ken - Ken's Bar II
This is a collection of covers, some English and some Japanese. I love Hirai Ken and I love covers, but I didn't really find much here that interested me.

Favorites: Boku ga Konna ni Kimi wo Suki ka Kimi wa Shiranai, Love~Destiny~, Wakare Uta (with Kusano Masamune), Shiroi Koibitotachi

Janet Jackson - Design of a Decade 1986-1996
I downloaded this to see if there were any Janet songs I would like that I hadn't already heard on the radio and really, the answer was no. The ones I favorited were all old school and I dumped the rest.

Favorites: Love Will Never Do (Without You), Escapade, Alright, Black Cat, Miss You Much

Kiroro - Nagai Aida~Kiroro no Mori~
I love their first two singles, but didn't really find much of anything else on this album that I liked.

Favorites: Nagai Aida, Mirai e, Nigasanaide

Kylee - Love Kicks...
Kylee is a Japanese-American artist who sings entirely in English. Her style reminds me of Kelly Clarkson or Avril Lavigne. I really liked her first single (all three songs), but this mini album didn't grab me at all.

Lindberg - Lindberg IV
This is another one I tried just to see if there were any songs I'd like besides the ones I already knew and again, the answer was "not really".

Favorites: Looking for a Rainbow, Blind Soldier, Dream On Dakishimete, Believe in Love

Usher - Usher, My Way, Confessions
I liked a couple Usher songs a LOT, so I at one point I grabbed his entire discography thinking there would for sure be other stuff I liked. Answer? Not really.

Favorites: Red Light, Yeah

Paolo Nutini - These Streets
This is one I downloaded randomly because I was going through a journal with a bunch of album recs and it sounded like it might be good. Unfortunately I didn't like any of it at all.

Melee - Everyday Behavior, Devils and Angels
I grabbed these at the same time I got the Paolo Nutini album and for the same reason. Really didn't think much of the first album, but Devils and Angels had a couple good songs.

Favorites: Imitation, You Got

Mucc - Shion
I really love Libra, which is on this album, and I really love several songs from their cover album, so I had high hopes, but they were dashed.

Favorites: Libra, Na mo Naki Yume, Saishuu Ressha

Nakamura Ataru - Ten Made Todoke, Watashi wo Daite Kudasai, Ashita wa Haremasu You ni
I had heard of Nakamura Ataru before, but never checked out her stuff because there's just five million random female vocalists and I tend not to pay attention to new ones unless someone specifically recs them or I hear a song and want to check out more. What made me finally check her out was finding out she's trans. I had no idea! When I first heard her name, I thought it was odd that she had a boy's name, but I just figured her parents gave her a boy's name. (Also I thought Nakamura Ataru was an awesome name because in kanji it's a palindrome! Naka and Ataru are written with the same character.)

Anyway, so after finding out she was trans, I wanted to check her out. After hearing one song I thought I wasn't going to like her, because it was totally not my thing. But I'm glad I listened to more because a lot of it is my thing, totally. She does this really upbeat piano happy song stuff where just hearing it makes you want to grin. But then some of her stuff is really slow and kind of enka-ish. Meh. The two styles don't really seem to go together...

Favorites: Kakeashi no Ikizama, Yogoreta Shitagi, Miren Doori, Kaiten Butai, Watashi no Naka no "Ii Onna", Sayonara Juudai, Mayonaka no Cinderella, Sayonara wa Iwanaide, Trunk Song

Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters
I didn't like this nearly as much as Ta-Dah (which I loved).

Favorites: Take Your Mama, Comfortably Numb

The Hiatus - Trash We'd Love
The vocalist is the vocalist for Ellegarden and The Hiatus sounds pretty much exactly like Ellegarden, so if you like one, you will like the other!

Favorites: Centipede, Ghost in the Rain, Lone Train Running, Storm Racers

Placebo - Battle for the Sun
New(ish) Placebo album! I wasn't that thrilled with their last album, but I really love this one.

Favorites: Ashtray Heart, Battle for the Sun, Breathe Underwater, Kitty Litter, The Never-Ending Why

Bump of Chicken - Yggdrasil, Orbital Period
The first time I listened to Orbital Period, I actually deleted it because I didn't like it that much. But after translating all the lyrics, I went back to it and gave it another go and liked it a lot more this time. Still not too many songs stood out as favorites, but I enjoyed the album as a whole. Same with Yggdrasil.

Favorites: Hammer Song to Itami no Tou, Kasabutabutabu, Only Lonely Glory, Fire Sign, Tentai Kansoku

Vamps - Vamps
Going to see Vamps in two days! This is a side project by Hyde of L'arc~en~Ciel. I can't say I like them quite as much as either Hyde's solo stuff or L'arc, but they are quite good.

Favorites: Love Addict, Vampire Depression, Redrum, Deep Red, Time Goes By, Sweet Dreams

Shinee - Romeo, Amigo
These guys are a Korean boypop band I discovered when I heard a mashup of their song Amigo with Lady Gaga's Just Dance. (You can download the mashup and/or watch the video of it here. I highly recommend all of this guy's mashups. He does all jpop/kpop mashed up with English songs.)

Favorites: Amigo, Forever or Never, Love Like Oxygen, Love Should Go On, The Shinee World (Doo-Bop), Hit Me


kakeochi_umai had asked for music not in English or Japanese, so I uploaded a bunch of my favorites as well as some albums. No commentary, but I like all of it! Especially the Paulina Rubio album and all the individual songs listed (the Shakira and t.A.T.u. albums have some great stuff on them, too, of course).

Paulina Rubio - Pau-Latina (Spanish)

Shakira - Pies Descalzos (Spanish)
Shakira - Fijacion Oral Vol. 01 (Spanish)

t.A.T.u. - 200 Po Vstrechnoy (Russian)
t.A.T.u. - Vesyolye Ulybki (Russian)
t.A.T.u. - Ludi Invalidi (Russian)

Nell - Hyeonshileui Hyeonshil (Korean)
U;nee - One (Korean)
Rocket Diary - Taeyangeul Gunnuh (Korean)
Rocket Diary - Heart Messenger (Korean)
Napoleon Dynamite - Useo (Korean)
Lee Hyori - Hey Girl (Korean)
Lee Hyori - 10 Minutes (Korean)
iM - Be My 1004 (Korean)
Lady - Attention (Korean)
DBSK - All in Vain (Korean)
Shinhwa - T.O.P. (Korean)
Golf & Mike - Moshi Moshi (Thai)
Golf & Mike - Mai Wang Gum Lung Ten (Thai)
Kyo - Dernière Danse (French)
Herreys - Diggi-loo Diggi-ley (Swedish)
O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei (Romanian)


And here are some live covers by Utada Hikaru:

Take on Me (A-Ha)
Living on My Own (Freddie Mercury)
I Won't Last a Day Without You (with Shiina Ringo) (Carpenters)
Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day)

1. Got in a four mile walk yesterday and did a bunch of errands while we were out. First stop was Sears to return the shoes Bruce bought a week or so ago which turned out to be too big. I was afraid they might not take them back, since they had been worn a few times, but I don't think the woman even looked in the box (all that time spent scrubbing the soles for nothing!). So yay for that, too.

2. I wrote 500 words last night on my fic for mcshep_match. That is really a lot for me in one day! But I was on a roll, yay. Hopefully that will keep up, because it's like three weeks til the deadline and this looks to be a longer-than-usual one for me.

3. I've read 40 books so far this year! That's double the amount I read all last year, and there's still five months left to go. Whee! (Meanwhile, I've read 151 manga. ^_^;;)

4. We've been having some delicious tomatoes lately. Though our plants are all very scrawny and the tomatoes are tiny (barely bigger than cherry tomatoes, even though they're all supposed to be much bigger), they taste omg so good. Too good to want to put in or on anything. They have to be eaten plain!

5. nixwilliams had a concern troll over on his blog who spewed out a huge chunk of text including the gem, "i am by no means a sexist but i believe that feminists are very bigoted in their beliefs, hardly recognising the injustices that can also befall men", so what did he do? He put the concern troll's words to music and made an awesome and lolarious song!

6. I discovered this blog yesterday. A woman who's lived in Japan twenty years and is planning on moving back to the US in 2012 is writing a list of 500 things she'll miss about Japan and 500 things she won't. It's neat!

1. I don't know if it's that I've been drinking so much of this Emergen-C stuff or what, but I was definitely feeling a lot better yesterday. Still like crap, but better than Sunday. (It probably helped that I was finally able to get more than four hours' sleep, too.)

2. We checked over at the college again and they finally got in the fourth of Bruce's five transcripts. I had asked the outstanding one to be faxed, thinking that would be okay, so I just happened to ask about it today while we were there and the guy said they don't accept faxes, so I guess that's the reason for that one still not being in the system. So we filled out another form and put it out for the mail today. Hopefully that will be taken care of fairly quickly as that's the only thing holding us back from our money now!

3. A couple weeks ago when we had friends over for a BBQ, I was talking with Mimi about walking and stuff and she said she takes these glucosamine pills and they really help your joints. Specifically, she said she used to have really crackly knees and after taking it for a while, her knees don't crackle at all. Well, mine are pretty horrible, so I decided to give it a try. After just a couple weeks, I can really tell a difference. They still make some noise, but not nearly as bad.

4. I finished watching season two of Avatar last night and started on season three. I was really disappointed that Zuko didn't join them at the end of season two. He was so close! Iroh has just gotten more and more awesome, though. I hope he's okay. Also Aang is adorable with hair.

5. If you liked BoA's US album, check out this post with a bunch of remixes and mashups of the songs.

6. This is a cover of Janet Jackson's Nasty by a "Tampa public-access star from the late 80s / early 90s". You have to click. Words cannot do it justice. Really.

Just posted the last of my recs for lgbtq_recs. Links to the previous batch can be found here if you missed them.

Author: Jackie Kay
Author: Sarah Schulman
Book: Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Duncker
Comic: Just So You Know by Joey Allison Sayers
Music Video: Sing Me Spanish Techno by The New Pornographers
Movie: Kinky Boots
Movie: Love My Life

kakeochi_umai, I think you would really like Love My Life.

Today was the last day of my first week of reccing for lgbtq_recs so I thought I'd post a round-up over here. I have recced all of these on my journal at some point or other, so to long-time readers they may not be anything new.

Graphic Novel: Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki
Author: Ali Smith
Manga: Hourou Musuko by Shimura Takako
Movie: Imagine Me & You
Book: Luna by Julie Anne Peters
Music: The Cliks
Book: City of Night by John Rechy

I'll be doing a second week at the end of the month. :)

Oh hey, I finally got another of these lists written up! Only four letters to go after this.

This one seems more Japanese-heavy than previous lists. All those kimi and kaze and kimochi songs.

( 45 songs starting with K )

Well, I still haven't got any more of those alphabetical favorites done, but here are some albums I've uploaded.

Various Artists - Yesterday Once More~Tribute to the Carpenters~
This is Japanese artists covering the Carpenters (in English). It's...okay, but I don't think I ended up saving any of the tracks.

Various Artists - Matchy Tribute
A tribute to old school Johnny's artist, Kondou Masahiko. I wasn't really that thrilled with it, but I did save a few songs.

Favorites: Andalucia ni Akogarete, Midnight Shuffle, High Teen Boogie

Friends & Lovers - Tokunaga Hideaki Clip
This is Tokunaga Hideaki songs redone in English and sung by an unknown American(?) band called Friends & Lovers. I could not find any information about it or them anywhere. It was interesting to hear the songs covered in English, but the style was quite different, too, and I didn't really like any of them.

Me First & The Gimme Gimmes - Have a Ball, Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah, Have Another Ball
I love the Gimmes, but I hadn't heard these albums before. I actually wasn't that thrilled with either of the Have a Ball albums, though, alas. The songs were not anything I knew, for the most part, and even as punk covers didn't really do much for me. Johnny's Bar Mitzvah is a live album (it's...actually a full recording of a show they played for some kid's bar mitzvah! XD). If nothing else, you should download The Longest Time because it's so, so awesome.

Favorites: Uptown Girl, The Longest Time, Superstar

The Lonely Island - Incredibad
So awesome. *_* I fell in love with Dick in a Box first, and then with Jizz in My Pants, and then I found there was a WHOLE ALBUM and it made my day. Lots of good stuff on here.

Favorites: Jizz in My Pants, I'm On a Boat (feat. T-Pain), Lazy Sunday (feat. Chris Parnell), Boombox (feat. Julian Casablancas), Dreamgirl (feat. Norah Jones), Dick in a Box (feat. Justin Timberlake), Natalie's Rap (feat. Natalie Portman), Incredibad

The Checkers - Motto Checkers!!, Zettai Checkers!!, Mainichi!! Checkers
I am a huge, huge Fujii Fumiya fan. I have never really listened to a lot of Checkers, though, so I downloaded a few albums to check them out. I wasn't really that thrilled (though his voice is still awesome), but there were several songs I favorited. If you're at all interested in early '80s jpop with a retro '50s vibe you should check them out.

Favorites: Konya wa C Made Rock 'n' Roll, Kanashikute Jealousy, Weekend Aventure, Namida no Request, Summer Rain, Marry Me Tomorrow, P.M.9.00 Cinderella, Scandalpolis

Demi Lovato - Don't Forget
I think she's a Disney star? idk, I just saw her album somewhere and downloaded it because I wanted to try some new girlpop. It was okay, but I really only liked a couple songs.

Favorites: Trainwreck, Until You're Mine

Debbie Gibson - Electric Youth
This was one of the albums we put up for sale and cocori asked for mp3s of it, too, so I figured I'd give it a listen. I know the singles from back in the day, but I was never really a fan and I'm not sure I ever actually heard the album. And now, having heard it, I can honestly say I'm still not really a fan. :p

Favorites: Electric Youth

And now here's some stuff I was recently asked to upload for people.

T.M. Revolution - Best, Restoration Level -> 3, Triple Joker, The Force, Progress
T.M. Revolution is Nishikawa Takanori, currenly of abingdon boys school. The style's pretty different, though. TMR is techno pop, produced by Asakura Daisuke of Access and Iceman (who is also the man behind the music for Gravitation, so if you're familiar with that, it should give you an idea of the style). He's not one of my favorite artists, but he's got some really catchy stuff.

Favorites: Dokusai -Monopolize-, Level 4, High Pressure, Wild Rush, Madan~Der Freischutz~, Hot Limit, Tomorrow Meets Resistance, Imitation Crime, Mind Escape

Mr. Children - 1992-1995, 1996-2000
These are, obviously, two single collections covering the first eight years of Mr. Children. So much good stuff on here. These albums are a great introduction to Mr. Children.

Favorites: Hoshi ni Naretara, Dakishimetai, Love, Cross Road, Innocent World, Ame Nochi Hare, Over, Tomorrow Never Knows, Es~Theme of [es]~, Seesaw Game, Na mo Naki Uta, Hana~Memento Mori~, Everything (It's You), Alive, Owarinaki Tabi, Lalala, Tsuyogari, Kuchibue, Hallelujah.

Metallica - Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, And Justice for All, Metallica
The first three are okay and have a few songs I like (especially One, which is just...damn), but for me it's all about the black album, Metallica. I loved this album so hard in high school and it is still awesome. I have every song on that album favorited, but I tried to just pick out the ones I really, really liked as stuff you should sample. I kind of hate Metallica because they're assholes, and I haven't listened to anything recent, but these early albums have some really amazing stuff.

Favorites: One, Enter Sandman, Sad but True, The Unforgiven, Wherever I May Roam, Don't Tread on Me, Through the Never, Nothing Else Matters, Of Wolf and Man, The God That Failed

Amazon has a bunch of digital albums on sale this month for $5 each, including Hikki's new English album. I had been meaning to buy it (as well as BoA's English album) because I really want to support Japanese artists putting out stuff in the US as much as possible, so this was good incentive.

Stupid shit:

This and this are articles about a trans boy in Australia whom the courts allowed to get top surgery despite his still being a minor (the first article is more broadly about trans youth in Australia). They consistently use the wrong pronouns and refer to him as a girl, trot out a lone example of someone who had SRS and then regretted their decision without ever mentioning that the majority of people who transition don't regret it, and they psychoanalyse these kids and say it's because they're from broken homes. Oh yeah, and the have a guy saying that trans people are more likely to commit suicide and be unemployed... Shouldn't the solution to that be to STOP DISCRIMINATING??? No? I guess that would be too logical. Fuckwits.

Also LJ stupidity. At least they reacted fairly quickly to remove the ads, but ugh. I had not previously been against ads. I don't actually mind them, since I use adblock (and on LJ, I have a paid account and thus don't see them anyway), but the way the way these are working with the keywords means a horribly offensive ad could appear on the same page as content against it. I don't want someone reading something of mine and seeing homophobic or transphobic ads. :( I don't know... I don't want to leave LJ, and I'm not going to any time soon, but it's certainly making me think more and more of DW as my home journal rather than LJ.


Here, have some music to take away the rage. These are ten songs I've discovered and liked recently.

Tarou - Danjo
This is the song from those silly Transformers vids I linked the other day. It's so catchy I can't stop listening to it! 違うわ！よく聞け！こうやって座れ！XD

Bump of Chicken - Fire Sign
I discovered this a few weeks ago when I did the lyrics. Such an awesome song.

KAT-TUN - D-T-S
This is the coupling to their last single. I like the A side, too, but this is better.

Berryz Koubou - Dakishimete Dakishimete
Whoa, what? A Hello! Project song? Yes! This is so catchy and fun. Tsunku can still occasionally write good songs. Who knew?

Santogold - L.E.S. Artists
It took me quite a few listens to get into this, but once I did, I was hooked. I like a couple other songs, too. I should download her album.

Gackt - Blue Lagoon~Shinkai~
Newish Gackt song. It's very dark and heavy, which I like.

Magnapop - Open the Door
I don't know a thing about these guys, actually. Bruce had the song on a mix CD he was listening to while making dinner the other day and I totally fell in love with it.

Noodles - Love My Life
Another song I discovered while doing the lyrics. This is the theme song to a movie by the same thing about a lesbian romance (downloaded, but haven't watched yet). It's based on a manga of the same name, which I can't seem to find anywhere here because lesbian manga is like, the most minor of ladies' genres, srsly. Ladies manga is always hard to find here anyway. Compared to seinen, there will be like one little shelf, over half of which is BL vs ten or more for seinen. Grawr. ANYWAYS. The video is adorable.

BoA - Eien
Newish BoA single. Upbeat and catchy.

Arashi - Truth
Newish Arashi single. Very, very catchy.

Okay, I mentioned I had an album post building up, so here it is. :D Really random selection of stuff, much of it actually new albums.

Nico Touches the Walls - Who Are You?
These guys sound really, really, really like Mr.Children. Like to the point where I think I'm listening to Mr.Children until I look at the track name. (Much like Remioromen and Spitz.) Specifically, they sound like some of the harder Mr.Children stuff from Bolero and Discovery. However, while I liked the album quite a lot overall, I really had trouble picking out any as favorites as it all seemed to blend together.

Favorites: Bunny Girl to Danny Boy and Anytime, Anywhere

Kouda Kumi - Trick
Kouda Kumi's newest album is pretty much more of the same for her. I liked several songs, but wasn't wild about the album as a whole.

Favorites: Introduction for Trick, Taboo, This Is Not a Love Song, Driving

Cocco - Best + Ura Best + Mihappyou Kyoku
I downloaded this because there's a couple songs of hers I love to death and I thought, hey, maybe I'd like more. But as it turns out, no, it was just those two. I actually ended up deleting everything but the one song on there I already had and liked.

Favorites: Raining

Kelly Clarkson - All I Ever Wanted
This, on the other hand? Totally awesome. I loved Breakaway but wasn't that thrilled with her last album. This was maybe even better than Breakaway, though. Even if "My Life Would Suck Without You" is a super stupid title. It's so, so catchy, though. *_*

Favorites: My Life Would Suck Without You, Cry, All I Ever Wanted, Already Gone, Long Shot

Utada - This Is the One
Most people seem to either love this or hate it and I'm on the love side. I hated her other English albums, but this one is really catchy (although the lyrics are pretty crap and Dirty Desire is kind of skeevy in the way she deliberately plays into the sexy Asian girl stereotypes). I actually gave every single track five stars, so it's hard to pick just a few representative favorites, but I will try!

Favorites: On and On, This One (Crying Like A Child), Automatic Part II, Dirty Desire, Come Back to Me, Me Muero

Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Volume I and II
A while back Bruce and I were somewhere...at a restaurant, actually, I think, and they were playing Billy Joel's My Life and I had a sudden burst of nostalgia because it was the theme song to Bosom Buddies, which was one of my very favorite shows as a kid (uh, hmm, looking back now that is TOTALLY NOT SURPRISING). Anyway, I loved the theme song as much as I loved the show itself, but I don't think I ever realised it was Billy Joel. So I asked Bruce if he had a copy and he had this best of album, so I listened through and was surprised at how many songs were very familiar even though I would have said I didn't know much more of his than Uptown Girl and We Didn't Start the Fire and River of Dreams.

Favorites: Piano Man, Captain Jack, My Life, Uptown Girl, The Longest Time

BoA - BoA
This is BoA's first English album and damn, it's really good. Even better than Hikki's. I also rated everything five stars, but I will try to pick out a few...

Favorites: I Did It for Love, Did Ya, Scream, Hypnotic Dancefloor

Hamasaki Ayumi - Next Level
Ayu's newest album. Not my favorite album of hers by a long shot, but after several listens I had marked quite a few as favorites.

Favorites: Energize, Sparkle, Rollin', Rule, Curtain Call

Various Artists - Jewel Songs~Seiko Matsuda Tribute & Covers~
I wasn't that thrilled with this. I downloaded it more because I love cover albums than because I love Matsuda Seiko and I just didn't find any of them compelling enough to keep, except Anata ni Aitakute~Missing You~ by Lisa (of m-flo) and that was such a straight cover I doubt I would have kept it if I had the original (which is one of my favorite Seiko songs).

Favorites: Anata ni Aitakute~Missing You~

Various Artists - Judy and Mary 15th Anniversary Tribute Album
This is another one I wasn't that thrilled with. I wanted to love it, because in addition to loving covers, I actually do love Judy and Mary. But most of these were pretty uninspired. :-/ I kept a few, though.

Favorites: Daydream, Sanpomichi, Chiisana Koro Kara, Classic, Doki Doki, Sobakasu

The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
The Decemberists' new album is not as good as Picaresque, but then I don't think anything ever will be. This is good, but all the songs are similar and flow together and nothing sticks out as really catchy the way a lot of the songs on Picaresque and Her Majesty did.

Favorites: The Hazards of Love 1, Won't Want for Love, The Hazards of Love 2, The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid, The Rake's Song, Annan Water, The Hazards of Love 3, The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)

B'z - Flashback
This is not a new album to me, but kakeochi_umai requested it, so I figured I'd add it to the post as well. This is an early best of album collecting some of their old stuff. Apparently it's actually not an official album. It's not a bootleg or anything, but it was released by BMG without Inaba or Matsumoto's permission. Anyway, there's a lot of good stuff on it and it's always been one of my favorites. For those who know only their more recent stuff, their old stuff was quite different, much more euro/techno.

Favorites: Kimi no Naka de Odoritai, Half Tone Lady, Dakara Sono Te wo Hanashite, Oh! Girl, Yoru ni Furaretemo, Break Through, Stardust Train

Oh man, how long has it been since I did one of these alphabet posts? Wow, it looks like the last one was R in September. O_o

Since there are probably a lot of people who didn't even have me friended back then, much less when I started this, I'll give a little explanation. Back in August of 2007 (damn, has it been that long?) there was one of those memes where you get a letter and you pick your favorite five songs or whatever. Well, there was no way I could limit it to just five, so I chose like 30 or 40 for the letters I was given. And I liked it so much I decided to do the whole alphabet.

So the lists were actually all created back then (and thus don't reflect any new favorites I've discovered since then!), but because I write a little blurb about each one, it's ended up taking me nearly two years to finish the whole alphabet. In fact, I still have I, K, L, P, and T to go after this.

I've deleted all the old stuff, but if you're curious about the songs, they can all be found in the "alphabetical favorites" tag and I'm happy to reup anything you want.

( 60 songs! )


I also have an album post coming up sometime in the near future. I already uploaded the albums, just need to write about them...

Just crossposting some albums I've recently uploaded. No commentary because I can't be arsed, but generally these are recommended!

All these bands are English-language. You can look them up on Wikipedia if you're curious about them. :p

Alkaline Trio
Goddamnit
Maybe I'll Catch Fire
Alkaline Trio
From Here to Infirmary
Good Mourning
Crimson
Remains
Agony and Irony

Ben Folds
Rockin' the Suburbs
Songs for Silverman

Ben Folds Five
Whatever and Ever Amen
Naked Baby Photos
The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner

Cake
B-Sides and Rarities

Moxy Früvous
Bargainville
Wood
The 'b' Album
You Will Go to the Moon
Thornhill

Placebo
Placebo
Without You I'm Nothing
Black Market Music
Sleeping with Ghosts
Once More with Feeling
Meds

The Spookshow
Psychosexual Chapter 1
Psychosexual Chapter 2

And then one that needs a little more introduction. This is one of my favorite albums ever. It's eurobeat covers of old anime songs. So catchy!

Shine
Euro Anime-J


I have more proper music posts coming up... I've uploaded a ton of stuff, I just need to talk about it. But in the meantime, have this! :p

I've been pretty good about going through my massive "albums to listen to" playlist lately, so I have a ton of stuff to share. :D

v-u-den - v-u-den Single Best 9 Vol.1 Omaketsuki
v-u-den (or Biyuuden) are apparently the "sexy" Hello! Project group. I heard Jajauma Paradise a couple weeks ago when I had a request for the lyrics and ended up really liking it, so I grabbed their best of album and was surprised to find I liked several of the other songs quite a lot. The rest of the album was enjoyable as well, if rather samey. Of course it turns out they've since broken up. :p My luck with H!P groups never seems to be good.

Favorites: Fantasy, Jajauma Paradise, Koi Suru Angel Heart, Ajisai Ai Ai Monogatari

Sid - Renai
I downloaded these three Sid albums aaaaaaages ago and just never got around to listening to them, but it turns out they're really good! It's pretty typical visual rock, more on the melodic than screamy side, which is how I like it. :)

Favorites: Ajisai, Watashi wa Ame, Virtual Bansaki, Ao, Hitsuyouaku, Mousou Nikki

Sid - Play
Favorites: Yogoreta Yubi, Room, Shutter Speed, Slow, Wana, Otegami

Sid - Sentimental Macchiato
Favorites: Yuuwaku Collection, And Boyfriend, Orion, Mascara, Smile, Dear Tokyo

Brahman - A Man of the World
Another artist I downloaded a bunch of stuff of ages ago and only just now got around to listening to them. Arrival Time and Deep have been favorites for years, and last year sometime I got the album those were on and liked it fairly well, which is probably when I downloaded the rest of this stuff, too... Anyway, these guys are punkish. Think Mongol800 or...yeah, actually just think Mongol800, because they're really similar. Nice and melodic, rather than screamy. A Forlorn Hope has actually been released in the US.

Favorites: There's No Shorter Way in This Life, Cherries Were Made for Eating, No Light Theory

Brahman - A Forlorn Hope
Favorites: Basis, Deep, Arrival Time, Bed Space Requiem

Brahman - The Middle Way
Favorites: A White Deep Morning, Double Blind Documents, Byway, A Piece of Bluemoon, From My Window

Brahman - Antinomy
Favorites: Speculation, Stand Aloof, Silent Day, Oneness, You Don't Live Here Anymore

Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
I think I'll just have to accept that Coldplay is never going to have an album as good as A Rush of Blood to the Head. This was okay, but aside from the three songs I favorited, I'll probably ditch the rest.

Favorites: Lots!, Viva la Vida, Violet Hill

Younha - Someday
This is the first time I've heard any of Younha's Korean music. I really liked this album a lot. It's not really anything new or different, but it's catchy.

Favorites: Gossip Boy, Hero, Telepathy, Best Friend, My Song And...

GLAY - White Road -Ballad Best Singles-
I think I downloaded this because it had a couple songs I'd never heard (White Road, Blue Jean, and Tsuzureori~So Far and Yet So Close~). They're okay, but I wasn't that impressed.

Favorites: Soul Love, Beloved, Special Thanks, A Boy~Zutto Wasurenai~, However, Zutto Futari de..., Be With You, Winter Again, Toki no Shizuku

Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray
I'm not sure what made me have a sudden wave of nostalgia for the Lemonheads, but I found that for the most part I wasn't really that keen. Listening to these definitely took me, back, especially It's a Shame About Ray, which had quite a few songs that got a lot of radio play. In general, though, I just found they reminded me a lot of Soul Asylum but not as good. XD I just ditched everything but the few songs I favorited.

Favorites: Rockin' Stroll, Confetti, Mrs. Robinson

Lemonheads - Come On Feel the Lemonheads
Favorites: Into Your Arms, I'll Do It Anyway

Field of View - Memorial Best~Gift of Melodies~
Another best of album by a band I like. I didn't find much new on here that I didn't already know I liked, though. The second disc was a lot of later stuff I'd never heard, but to be honest, I didn't like it nearly as much as their early stuff. Their early stuff all has that familiar Being sound that dominated the charts in the early '90s with artists like Zard, Deen, Wands, Field of View, Ooguro Maki, etc.

Favorites: Kimi ga Ita Kara, Totsuzen, Last Good-bye, Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku, Doki!, Dreams, Kono Machi de Kimi to Kurashitai, Kawaita Sakebi, Crash, Fuyu no Ballad

Arashi - Dream "A"live
This is another one I downloaded because I was doing the lyrics. I used to love Arashi when they first debuted, but I haven't been that keen on them in recent years (seems to be the story of my life with Johnny's), so I was surprised at how many new favorites I found on this album.

Favorites: Happiness, Do My Best, My Answer, Life Goes On, Take Me Faraway (Ono solo), Hip Pop Boogie (Sho solo)

Gollbetty - Betty's Buggy
I did not like this nearly as much as their Golling!! album. In fact, it was hard to find any favorites at all and I ended up deleting everything but two songs. Try it out if you like that girl ska/punk thing, but I recommend Golling!! over this.

Favorites: 99%, Happyramid

Last, but not least are some mashup albums. I didn't upload these to my own server, because you can download them from the guy's blog. But I figured I'd still mention them and list my favorites. I wish there was a little more variety in the artists and more use of older songs rather than just whatever's new and hot, but still, I'm really excited that anyone is doing mashups with j/k-pop at all, and some of these are really good.

Mas4 - K-Bootie Vol. 1
Favorites: Hung Up Cinderella (Seo In-Young vs. Madonna), Love Cry (Son Dam Bi vs. Justin Timberlake & T.I.), One More Toxic Agent C (Jewelry vs. Ivy vs. Jolin Tsai vs. Britney Spears), Better Off Without Paparazzi (Ajoo & Younha vs. Alice Deejay)

Mas4 - J-Bootie Vol. 1
Favorites: Right Mirrorcle (Hamasaki Ayumi vs. Nelly Furtado), Piece of Planetarium (Ootsuka Ai vs. Britney Spears), Sweet Look (Amuro Namie vs. Gwen Stefani), Before the Girlfriend (Crystal Kay vs. Avril Lavigne)

Mas4 - J-Bootie Vol. 2
Favorites: Do Me a Poker Face (Amuro Namie vs. Lady GaGa), Why Did I Fall In Love With Your Halo? (Touhou Shinki vs. Beyoncé), Flavor of Life Has Departed (Utada Hikaru vs. Brandy), Decision About Us (Hamasaki Ayumi vs. t.A.T.u.)

Hey, look! Here's some stuff I listened to! And yet my list of albums to listen to is not really going down? D:

Kuraki Mai - Touch Me!
This is Kuraki Mai's newest album. Pretty much...if you like Kuraki Mai, you'll like this. It's not her best, but it's good, and it's pretty much more of the same thing she's been doing all these years.

Favorites: Touch Me!, Ichibyou Goto ni Love for You, Yume ga Saku Haru, Catch

Kuraki Mai - Secret of My Heart
This is a US release with English versions of a bunch of her songs (as well as some other stuff). I wasn't really that thrilled. In fact, I already deleted the songs off my hard drive after uploading it. I don't know why, but I just didn't like the songs in English as much as I liked the originals.

Franz Ferdinand - Tonight
This took several listens to grow on me, but once it did, I really, really loved it. I'm glad I gave it more than one listen, because at first I didn't really like it at all.

Favorites: Ulysses, Turn It On, Twilight Omens, Can't Stop Feeling, Lucid Dreams, Dream Again

Danity Kane - Welcome to the Dollhouse
This was okay. Catchy, typical girlpop. Nothing compared to Damaged, though.

Favorites: Damaged, Pretty Boy, 2 of You

Darin - Break the News
I don't even know where I got these albums? Darin is a Swedish pop star, but he sings all in English. This is very, very catchy stuff.

Favorites: Extra Ordinary Love, Everything but the Girl, Saturday Night, Everything You're Not

Darin - Flashback
Again, very catchy and fun. Girl Next Door is a cover of Lady GaGa's Just Dance.

Favorites: Dance, Flashback, Strobelight, Girl Next Door, See You At The Club

Fall Out Boy - Folie à Deux
Wow, I was really surprised at how much I liked this because I've never really liked them before except for one song. This album hooked me right off the bat, though. Soooo good.

Favorites: Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes, She's My Winona, America's Suitehearts, (Coffee's For Closers), What A Catch, Donnie, 27, Tiffany Blews, 20 Dollar Nose Bleed

Scissor Sisters - Ta-Dah
This is another one that took a while to grow on me. I liked track one right away, but then it took me a while to get into their style. Once I did, I was hooked. It's very catchy.

Favorites: I Don't Feel Like Dancin', She's My Man, Lights, Land Of A Thousand Words, The Other Side, Might Tell You Tonight

This year I stopped keeping a list of albums I listened to as I found it wasn't really something I went back to reference. Instead I think I'm just going to make more album music posts. So here's the albums I've listened to so far this month, as well as a bunch of individual songs.

( Lady GaGa, Mindless Self Indulgence, Avenged Sevenfold, AFI, NEWS, LM.C )

And then here's some recent music I've listened to and really liked.

( 20 random songs I love lately )

1. I finally managed to nab a pinch hit for yuletide! I've been watching the pinch hit list the whole time, but there haven't even been any fandoms I could write (except one, which of course came in while I was sleeping and someone else nabbed it). I'm not doing any other holiday fic exchanges this year (a first for me) and I was enjoying not being under that pressure, but was still really bummed at the thought of not being able to do Yuletide at all. So yay.

2. Bruce downloaded the Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog soundtrack for me! So I uploaded it for all of you! Tada! I probably listened to it about ten times this morning. :p

First off, have some random songs I've heard and liked recently, a bunch of which are the last of the massive music posts kakeochi_umai made back in like July. XD Mostly English, I think, with a few Japanese songs.

( 12 songs! )

The rest of these are from a huge batch of cover albums I've been going through lately. I tried to get the originals when I could, too, and if not, linked to youtube. Most of the originals are old stuff, '70s and '80s, and are almost all Japanese.

( Covers! )