Sohodolls, The Academy Is.., The Matches, Butch Walker and Hanson are ON THE VERGE. Coming in early '09 from Planet Verge & Ambush TV!

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:


- The new Rooney album, Calling The World; especially "Believe In Me," "Love Me or Leave Me," the title track... Well, darn it, the whole thing with the exception of "Are You Afraid Of Me," which is too slow for an upbeat band and sounds out of place on this record.

- The new Junior Varsity, Cinematographic; especially "I Went Blind," "The Sky"--they're filming a video for that one right now!--and, again, dammit, the whole thing. It's really hard to narrow down. The instrumentation on this album is absolutely sick. If you like shredding, sarcasm, and killer hooks, this is for you. It also features a cameo on "Wunderdrug" by Ken Vasoli of The Starting Line, which leads me to...

- The new Starting Line, Direction; especially "Island" (the first single), and "21." It's classic TSL fare: catchy, earnest, and just a tiny bit lyrically old at times: Kenny, we get it, you grew up on the road and people bitched about your hair. We know. And we love you anyway. This record also marks the band's departure from Drive-Thru and onto major label Virgin.

- The Soho Dolls are starting to get their British behinds in American gear, and damn, they're good. Think Shiny Toy Guns, only better. And hotter. Oh, yes.

- Under the Influence of Giants. Not only do they make the best dance rock I've heard in quite some time, but they're also really down to earth. I sent them a myspace message asking where I can purchase their new song "On My Own" so I could listen to it on my upcoming flight to Texas, and it turns out, they answered me within five minutes asking for my e-mail so they could send me a present. Keep in mind that I've never met them and they didn't have much incentive to send it to me because I said nothing about being a music writer in my message. They're sweet. And schweeeeeet.


The Bad:

- I don't care how much buzz, hype, etc. surrounds Feist--I can't wrap my head around a song that counts "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10." I suck at math, and even I know there's two numbers missing.

- While the thunder was keeping me awake last night, I decided to watch Cops, in which I counted no less than four instances of arrests without suspects being read their Miranda rights. Oink!


The Ugly:

- As a fan of Neil Strauss' The Game, I was crazy excited to watch the premiere of The Pick Up Artist on VH1, in part so I could put a face to the characters I'd read about. While Mystery is pretty hot, I can guarantee you that "Matador" and "J-Dog" would be regarded as a tool and gay, respectively, by me if I was to be approached by them at a club. "Matador" has slicked back hair and an angry, devious looking face. "J-Dog" looks like the crackbaby lovechild of Thom Yorke, Paul Reubens (better known as "Pee Wee Herman"), and Johnny Rotten. I pray that Pradip, Spoon, and the rest don't follow figurative and literal suit.


*By Jessica, who should probably start packing soon

2 comments:

Petertherock said...

Just so you know the police only have to read the miranda rights when you are under arrest AND being questioned about the crime. An arrest isn't made until the police detain you and tell you that you are under arrest.

This is from a CA lawyers web site about DUI but this also includes all crime. I took a few courses myself in Criminal Justice...

The DUI officer never read me my Miranda Rights. What does this mean?

As California DUI defense attorneys, we get asked this question all the time. Many people are under the belief, a mistaken belief, that the cops must always read people their Miranda rights any time they make a DUI arrest.

Unfortunately, however, there is no automatic requirement that the DUI officer read you your rights as part of the DUI arrest. The Miranda rights are only required when both (1) you’ve been placed under arrest for DUI and (2) the DUI officer continues to interrogate you.

“Under arrest” means the DUI officer has placed you in handcuffs and into custody. “Interrogation” means the cop continues to ask questions designed to elicit an incriminating response—questions such as “How many drinks did you have? What were you drinking? Do you feel intoxicated?”

Once you have been placed in custody, if the DUI officer wishes to interrogate you further, then he or she must first read you your Miranda rights. If he fails to do so, a California DUI lawyer can probably get excluded from evidence anything you say after being taken into custody and before the DUI officer reads you your rights.

Petertherock said...

Also, some tricks they told us in my criminal justice courses is once you read the suspect their miranda rights you don't have to read them again even if you question them hours later. So, a lot of times cops will wait a while or even talk about things like the weather or other things just to get the suspect talking and feeling comfortable and then they will throw in a question related to the arrest.

Especially with creeps like child molesters they will start talking to them and becoming their "friend" and saying things like "You're not a bad person. I can understand how you would think that kid was pretty in her short skirts..." and they will continue to go on like that until they admit to everything they did and then they have them.