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The FTMMTB 2K7 Round One: Gym Class Heroes vs. Simian Mobile Disco

Simian Mobile Disco – Attack Decay Sustain Release

I like: Kind of has the makings of a good party album with decent dance beats. At times it’s simultaneously ambient and head-nod worthy.
Do not want: Some songs drag on too long and are made worse by annoying voice samples.
Standouts: sleep deprivation, it’s the beat, tits & acid
Conclusion: I always think “THIS is the album that will start my electronic(a) collection.” Then, I actually listen to the album and realize I am not on ecstasy. This just sounds like standard café del mar fare. Maybe it works for euro-ravers, if such an emaciated tightpants anomaly actually exists. Deleted.

Gym Class Heroes – As Cruel As School Children

I like: NO SKITS OR INTERLUDES. What I hate most about hip hop albums is thankfully absent here.
Do not want: absolutely retarded lyrics. I think the high school theme is intended to be kind of innocent and nostalgic, but for a genre that’s supposed to be LYRICAL, they blow.
Standouts: 1st period: the queen and I, 4th period: clothes off!, 6th period: viva la white girl
Conclusion: Since I can easily say that lyrics are the least important part of any song for me, I can really get into the frontman’s (Travis, I think is his name) flow without his thoughts on a myspace “new friend request” getting in the way. Simply a really fun album. A keeper that could make some noise in the second round.

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The Fat Toby Memorial Music Tournament Bracket 2007

Our school had a band that wasn't very good, but it was the "school band" when I was a freshman, which meant they were plugged in for all the school-related gigs and received decent support, for no reason other than the fact that no other bands existed. Rather than making snarky comments, I should have started my own stupid band. Anyway, this tournament of forgotten names is named after that band.

Here is the promised bracket for the music tournament.



As always, you'll want to click on it to get a full size picture. I'll update the bracket once I've got one of the four quadrants done.

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Costa Rica Summed and the Dark Times Ahead

Here's some of the one’s I’ve knocked out since the last update.
Went to go see Paul and Megan in San Francisco, which would count for "Visit Friend Outside of L.A. County", but that also counted for "Take a Road Trip of at Least 750 Miles."

Oh and about the part where I Go To Costa Rica

Amy and I got stranded in the rain for our last 60 hours on the northern pacific coast in Costa Rica, and even though we were trapped inside our hotel we couldn’t muster the interest in keeping up this damn thing. Instead, we spent the last few days complaining about being surrounded by Americans for our first time there.

So as a form of weird summation, here’s a link if you want to see the whole huge collection of strange and silly photos from the trip.

As for where this space goes from here through the upcoming blue period (aka the time where I prepare for the February bar), I’ve decided to shift it into a part-time capacity. One project I’ve been putting off is sorting through the digital pile of music that’s been rotting on my hard drive unlistened for two years. I’ve been getting bored of the fifteen or so albums I've been playing in a heavy rotation, and I've got too many albums that I've downloaded, then never really sat down and thoroughly listened to. It's a stupid, gluttonous situation that I hope to remedy in the way college basketball and Mortal Kombat is resolved. A 64-team tournament bracket.

I've sorted through the music on my computer that I've added for the last two years and came up with 64 albums that I need to make a judgment call on. My idea is to put them in a single-elimination bracket style tournament in which I match each album up against another I've not listened to until a final hidden gem rises from the rest as the best album I've ignored for the last two years.

I've intentionally excluded albums that have already made my regular rotation from the tournament, because they would be heavy favorites in any bracket and undercut the purpose of this contest, which is to figure out what I don't hate. I'm thinking I'm going to have to come up with at least one good and bad comment for each album, a mention of any standout tracks, as well as a final verdict. The verdict should include not only which of the two albums moves on to the next round, but whether the album is to be kept or deleted. Towards the end, I imagine most of the chaff will have been culled, but you never know what a second or third listen through will do.

So here are the tentative rules:
- Each album must be listened to in its entirety
- Tracks can be skipped, but only after at least 50% of the track time has elapsed
- The artist's previous work cannot be considered in ruling on the present work
- In order to ensure that there have been no unfair pairings (beware of Russian judges) in any of the brackets, I will simply seed them in alphabetical order, based on album name
- As for whether an album should be judged on the totality of its work, or whether two excellent tracks and the rest as crap can carry the day over a nice, that will have to be determined on a case-by-case basis

Final bracket to be uploaded in the coming days.

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