Punk Goes Pop 2 Album Review

I'm going to try to make this review quick...this CD rocks! It is a collection of popular pop songs that were covered by rock bands. It's that simple.

A few of my favorites are One Republic's "Apologize" covered by Silverstein, The Pussycat Doll's "When I Grow Up" covered by Mayday Prade, and Britney Spears' "Hit Me Baby One More Time" covered by none other than August Burns Red. Attack Attack also made a somewhat comical cover of Katie Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" that totally rocks (and is sung by a guy, which makes it a more clean song). There are 14 tracks total, and all in my opinion were covered very well. It doesnt seem like a bunch of thrown-together rock versions of songs. The artists definitely took their time in making this album enjoyable.

As far as content goes...most of the songs that are covered are secular. Some have suggestive lyrics or themes (IT HAS TWO BRITNEY SPEARS SONGS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!), but, there is no language of any kind. Thumbs up to the cover artists for that.

Overall, it's worth checking out if you enjoy some rockin' bands making radio songs sound more unique. Go buy it! 8 out of 10.

You can listen to the entire album with this LINK if you want to preview it (don't worry, it's not illegal...it's MySpace).

UnderOATH - Lost in the Sound of Separation Album Review

On the week of September 2nd, 2008, the Billboard 200 chart was rocked with a Christian album that premiered in the number eight spot. The name of the band is UnderOATH and their new album is called, Lost in the Sound of Separation.

In 2006, UnderOATH released a monumental album titled, Define the Great Line, which was their highest-rated and highest-selling album they’ve ever created. It premiered at number two on the Billboard 200, tying with DC Talk’s Jesus Freak as the highest position on the chart that a Christian album has ever had.

UnderOATH had a lot of hype to live up to when they announced their newest record, Lost in the Sound of Separation, and I can honestly say that it hugely surpassed the hype! This album is one of the most perfect hardcore/rock CDs that I have ever heard; if not just one of the most perfect albums I have ever heard, period. Lost in the Sound’s opening tracks wake you up with some crushing breakdowns, rhythms and some of their best lyrics they’ve ever written. One of my favorites is, “A Fault Line, A Fault of Mine” because of the harmonies and variety of music that goes into the song. Every instrument has a key part of the song. The middle section of the record has a more familiar UnderOATH sound with songs like “The Survivor was Miraculously Unharmed” and “We Are the Involuntary” packing in the some of the hardest tracks on the CD. The last few songs though, are the songs that make this album truly epic. After a more upbeat rock song, “Desperate Times, Desperate Measures,” which has a reminiscent sound to their They’re Only Chasing Safety CD, the album shifts gear into two highly melodic ballads that are what I think the biggest highlight of the album and possibly the greatest songs they’ve ever made. They bring a soft but, well-placed close to the CD.

The general lyrical theme of the album is about being far away from God, even after you accept Him as your savior, and the struggles that happen trying to get back to Him. The lyrics are very deep and truly their best work. Spencer’s screams and Aaron’s singing add the much needed emotion that brings the lyrics to life.

UnderOATH has done it bigger than ever this time! This is a job well done for the band, and is for sure going to give them more attention in both the Christian and secular music market. If you are a fan of any Hard Rock/Screamo/Hardcore-type music, please do yourself a favor a buy this CD. It gets a superior 10 out of 10 from me.

UnderOATH's MySpace

T-Mobile G1 Review

This is my review for the T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream). I have had the phone for about two months and am really enjoying it! It is a touchscreen 3G phone that runs Google's operating system, "Android." It also sports a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard and a Blackberry-like trackball.


Overall, getting around on this phone is a snap. The touch screen is easily the best I've seen or used ever on a smartphone besides the iPhone. It doesn't officially support multitouch (using more than one finger one the screen for a gesture, such as pinch-and-zoom), but it still is a solid screen and responds very well in comparison to most touchscreen phones. The trackball, surprisingly, is very useful. When surfing the web on pages with small buttons, it is easier to use the trackball to cycle through the links than to first zoom in and then use the touchscreen. The slide-out keyboard is also a surprising navigation tool. The user can program shortcut keys and application keys that cut straight to where you want to go to. As for typing, the keyboard is solid. I was already comfortable with it after a half hour of use. It feels great in the hand and the buttons feel good when you push them. Other than the physical keyboard, there is no other way of imputing text into the phone. There isn't a soft (touchscreen) keyboard like every other touchscreen phone out there. This can get annoying at times because when you want to send a quick text saying "Hi", for example, you have to flip the phone to the side, and slide out the keyboard to do so. Google is currently working on a solution for this, and is releasing a soft keyboard via an over-the-air update nicknamed, "Cupcake." The update is rumored to be available in April.

The hardware of the G1 itself is not that bad. It is very durable and good-looking. It definitely isn't as stylish as iPhone, but it isn't bad at all. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, which is nice, but there isn't flash. The only problem I have with it is that it doesn't have a 3.5mm headphone jack. The only port on the device is a USB port. This means, in order to plug a headset in, you must plug in an adaptor first. This is a HUGE flaw. Mainly because Google has partnered with AmazonMP3 to allow G1 users to option to buy and download songs to the device. That's great and all, but you can only listen to the music with the device's mono speaker. It is loud, but not good enough. HTC needs to make sure that the next "Google phone" has a 3.5mm headset port if they really want to take on Apple's iTunes on the iPhone.

The Android software is really where this phone shines. Every Google fan, or GMail user will fall in love with the G1 because of this. The very first thing the phone asks you to do when it is first turned on is for your GMail account. The backbone of the device is your Gmail account. It stores all of your contacts, numbers, emails, and calenders into your account. This basically means that once you save a number to your phone, it syncs it with your GMail account so it will be on your PC as well! Once you are logged into your account and the phone is ready to use, you will find a home screen with three sides to it. All of the sides are open for you to customize with shortcuts, widgets, applications, pictures, or even a Google search bar. I currently have made my left side for games, the middle for important stuff like phone dialer, GMail, contacts, and text messages, and the right side for web-based stuff like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube. There also is an app store called The Market. There is a wide variety of apps to find there. Everything from RSS feed readers, joke or novelty apps like a lightsabor, games like PAC-MAN, or even better versions or user created versions of the apps that come with the phone. Android is open-source, meaning that someone can look at the code of the phone and change it the way they want it. Many of the apps available can do amazing things that the creators of Android probably didn't see coming. The community is really taking this platform farther than originally intended, which is great because it is advancing the potential of Android. Another quick thing about this amazing platform is the notification bar at the top of the screen. Say, you are playing a game of PAC-MAN, and you get a text. Instead of backing out of the game, you can pause it, and slide the bar down from the top of the screen and view and reply to the text. Once you finish, you press the back button and your back to the PAC-MAN game. This feature makes multitasking a breeze. Anyone can easily be checking MySpace, send a text, email, and download apps at the same time.

Overall, this phone rocks! With the cupcake update coming out soon adding a soft keyboard, video recording, stereo bluetooth, and more features, this phone will definitely still be up-to-date for this year. It is priced $179 with a 2 year contract with T-Mobile. I highly recommend this device and am giving it 9 out of 10.

Welcome!

So...I'm in the blogging world. Quite an interesting place! I don't really know exactly what I will write on here. I'm guessing techy nerd stuff, music stuff, maybe some biblical stuff. Whatever comes to mind. :)