I feel real bad for people who don’t have computers to read this week’s online only review for a couple of reasons:  the first being that I have all the space I want to rant and rave about this week’s music and the second being that this week there were some great recommendations from our student body.  I want to remind you all that you can hear the songs here in the form of a podcast by following the instructions directly below.

 To listen to the podcast you will need a separate program. I recommend iTunes to do this. Using iTunes go into Advanced -> Subscribe to Podcast and copy the following link into the window:  http://www.thepacificanonline.com/images/media/hollencomium.xml. The podcast should download automatically. For more information on how to subscribe to the podcast click here . Also, if you click and drag on the podcast image below into iTunes or other podcast subscribing programs, the podcast should download automatically. The playlist for the podcast can be found weekly at the bottom of this page.

The Music
The People
The Music

This best of 2002 British dance rock song comes to you on the recommendation of Casey Newlin, a University of the Pacific student. It is just catchy enough not to make you sick to your stomach with a beat that makes you wiggle your toes and bob your head no matter where you are. I think the most redeeming factor of this song is the integration of the electronic and instrumental aspects of the music. You aren’t going to get much but the face value, but that is how it seems to be with most pop/dance songs.

Originality:  6.2
Catchiness:  8.7
Personal:  8.0

 

Band of Horses
St. Augustine
Everything All The Time

“St. Augustine” was the last song I heard on the Band of Horses debut album Everything All The Time. I’m telling you right now that the band is in trouble. Very few bands can create a sound that is entirely their own, ready for commercial success (although I doubt that will come on a large scale), and diverse enough to make the listener interested throughout the whole album. The Shins pulled this off following their debut Oh, Inverted World with their sophomore album Chutes Too Narrow, but they seem to be an exception to this dangerous task. Following this debut album is going to make or break this very young band.

“St. Augustine” is the song that wraps up the album. It is a somber, relaxing song with one of the most interesting rhythms I have heard in an acoustic song. Usually different is a little harder to get used to, but on the first listen I was hooked to this song. The nine songs that proceeded this one set it up quite nicely and I ended the album ready for another listen.


Originality:  8.5
Catchiness:  6.9
Personal:  8.3

 

Seu Jorge
E´ Isso Ai
Ao Vivo

This song comes from us on recommendation of Kristen Robertson, who is currently studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina and getting into the local music scene down there. I’ve played Seu Jorge before on the podcast, but decided he needed a real review.

This song is a cover of the Damien Rice song “The Blower’s Daughter” which gained popularity for being the theme song on the movie “Closer”. His version of it, which is in Portuguese, is hard to place at first, but when the chorus starts you start to recognize the song. This is a live version of the song and I was really impressed with the quality at which they play live. I would also be impressed with the translation if I knew Portuguese, but I will trust that they also did a good job with that.

Originality:  5.1
Catchiness:  5.7
Personal:  7.0

The Hollencomium Review Podcast Playlist

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Comments:

hiiiii. Written by Guest on 2006-03-23 15:17:49 i'm going to talk to victor, who speaks portuguese and english about what the translation's like.. i'm curious too!  great review!

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