The timing’s weirdly awesome, seeing as I just watched Exit through the Gift Shop. This is possibly the best thing in The Simpsons in recent years…

Quite some time back, a random comment on Tycho’s newspost sent me searching for a song called “Breaking Out“, by the Protomen. The piano opening hook and the low, angry/mournful lyrics grabbed me viscerally, and I had to go and find out what these guys were about. Discovering a whole goddamn Rock Opera, in two acts (so far), based deep in Mega Man lore was such an unexpected delight that I was compelled to buy their albums off of iTunes.

It took several listenings to fully grok the whole elaborate world they’d built around the original game framework, but that just meant that I’d have more time to really experience the work in its entirety. There’s something about 80′s style rock with a chiptune sensibility, laid over a groundwork of apocalyptic dystopia and fallen heroes that just speaks to me; hell, it doesn’t just speak, it growls my name and grabs me by the throat.

So it was really goddamn awesome to see them rock out Beneroya Hall in Seattle last Friday, opening up the PAX concert weekend. And man, their live show? It kicks so much ass. From the opening narration, to the drum procession down the isles, to the bugle calls from the balcony, and the hard rocking all throughout, they delivered a show so incandescent that it could have blinded God himself. The fans certainly got into the mood, with the fist-pumping, light-fist glowing, yellow-scarf-swinging call-and-answer singalongs that ran through their set. Like PAX itself, the worst thing about experiencing their performance was knowing that it had to end all too soon.

On the other hand, they were coming to Vancouver in just a few days, so I’d get to see them again, this time in a much more intimate venue (the Biltmore Cabaret). When they took to the stage there, if they were weary of the 2500 miles of travel between them and their home in Nashville, you’d never have known it. Having them perform Act II in its entirety was ridiculously awesome; especially since you didn’t get to hear a lot of their quieter songs like “Here Comes the Arm” during their PAX performance. Plus, seeing them cover Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in the encore was one of the highlights of an already unbelievably cool week.

As of this writing, they should either be in St. Louis or on their way home to Nashville; godspeed to you, Protomen! Here’s to your return to Canada and your release of Act III!

A double post on this last day of June, to make up for my sparse postings this month, this time, taken from the Top 25 songs on my iPod:

1. Big Wreck – That Song
2. Wallflowers – 6th Avenue Heartache
3. Everclear – Santa Monica
4. The Darkness – I Believe in a Thing Called Love
5. 54.40 – Radio Luv Song
6. The Minibosses – Super Mario Bros. 2
7. Andrew W.K. – Ready to Die
8. Yoko Kanno – Tank!
9. Tal Bachman – She’s So High
10. Richard Cheese – Gin & Juice (Snoop Doggy Dogg)
11. The Darkness – Get Your Hands Off My Woman
12. Orbital – bagpipe style
13. L’Arc~en~Ciel – Neo Universe
14. Stan Bush – The Touch
15. Nirvana – Lounge Act
16. Buffy TVS – let me rest in peace
17. Maaya Sakamoto – Hemisphere
18. Paul Westerberg – Waiting for Somebody
19. Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Strong
20. The Minibosses – Megaman 2
21. Andrew W.K. – Party Hard
22. Fluke – Atom Bomb
23. Mike Post – Quantum Leap Main Title
24. Alabama 3 – Woke Up This Morning {Theme from ‘The Sopranos’}
25. Beastie Boys – Brass Monkey

It’s a bit different from the last time I did a Top 25 (-ish) song listing; I’d hazard that the summer heat and nostalgia make up the prime reasons for this change.

Notes:

1. Big Wreck was a great Canadian band specializing in catchy guitar riffs and memorable lyrics, with “That Song” being a great example of these, being a paen to music and memories.
2. The Darkness make me believe that the glam-rock of the Eighties is back in full force, and it’s freakin’ stylish. I’m not sure if it’s irony-induced nostalgia, or the pure brash energetic catchiness of their tunes that get me, but any band who use the phrase “Get your hands off my woman, motherfucker!” gets my attention.
3. The Minibosses do guitar-rock covers of classic 8-bit video game tunes; and they’ve got good range, from their jazzy Super Mario Bros. 2 to their ten-minute-long Megaman 2 super-crunchy power rawk-opera. And they’re going to be at the Penny Arcade Expo (along with MC Frontalot and Optimus Rhyme). Rawk!
4. Yoko Kanno‘s “Tank!” (with The Seatbelts) was the theme to Cowboy Bebop, a series that interlaced Kanno’s jazz stylings with hyper-cool anime.
5. I love and fear Richard Cheese‘s lounge covers of popular music. This one, as the title states, goes over Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice”, and is surprisingly good late-night driving music.
6. Orbital‘s electronic rythms have been some of my particular favorites, ever since the use of “Halcyon (On and On)” in the movie Hackers. “Bagpipe Style” gets points for sheer driving brashness.
7. You can’t have grown up as a geek in the Eighties without having seen Transformers: The Movie, and Stan Bush’s two standout works — “Dare” and “The Touch” are indelibly linked to this movie in my brain. “Dare” is definately an Eighties tune, but is so ridiculously optimistic and enjoyable you’d have to be a total curmudgeon to dismiss it.
8. “Let Me Rest in Peace” was Spike’s rock-ballad to Buffy in the seminal musical Buffy episode “Once More, With Feeling“. It’s out now, part of the Season Six collection, too.
9. Maaya Sakamoto sang the theme to Escaflowne, and here she does the overwhelmingly catchy theme to RahXephon, an Evangelion-esque anime with strong musical inspiration (its subtitle was “Tune the World”)
10. According to the iPod, I’ve listened to Andrew W.K.‘s “Party Hard” thirty-one times since I added it three weeks ago. It’s such a good, high-energy, boisterously-good-fun summer driving tune that I can’t help but peel out of work every day listening to it.
11. So, it turns out that Season 1 of Quantum Leap is now available on DVD, which is probably why I’ve been listening to the theme song for this show. I can’t explain it otherwise, because, honestly, it’s just not that good of a song, though it is memorable-by-association.
12. On the other hand, Alabama 3′s “Woke Up This Morning” is a damn good themesong for a damn good series. I definately need to watch more episodes of The Sopranos
13. You can’t really have summer night driving music without “Brass Monkey”. I think that’s a bylaw here in Richmond for all Asian male drivers between the ages of 18 – 30.

….And I feel fine. Yes, it’s Lord of the Rings filk set to the tune of R.E.M’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know it”. Whaddaya know. It actually scans to the tune (which can be a damned fearsome thing, considering).

You don’t need a palantir to see that any public performance of this song will be a garbled mess, punctuated only by the relatively clear refrains of the chorus. Music of the Ainur indeed.

Following the horrifyingly addictive meme-life on the intar-web is bound to be dangerous, because, hey, they’re freakin’ memes and propagate by being read and absorbed. Despite Nietzschean warnings about fighting and becoming monsters (or in this case, passing along dangerously infection memes), I now present to you the following: the “Top 25-ish Most Played Songs on iTunes” (or in my case, my iPod). This is a sad commentary on my aural affiliations. Without further ado:

1. Megumi Hayashibara – Sakura Saku (3:14)
2. Daft Punk – Digital Love (4:58)
3. boa – DUVET (3:23)
4. Ah ha – Take on Me (3:20)
5. Deep Blue Something – Breakfast at Tiffany’s (4:16)
6. Buzy – Venus Say (2:13)
7. angela – Asu he no Brilliant Road (4:57)
8. Sae – Asu no Blue wing (4:28)
9. Cartoon Themes (1960-1990) – Voltes V Main Theme (3:03)
10. Kuribayashi Minami – Tsubasa wa Pleasure Line (1:30)
11. Elissa – Mamboleo (Extended English version) (4:41)
12. Swollen Members – Deep End (3:33)
13. Daft Punk – Aerodynamic (3:27)
14. Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Strong (3:44)
15. Daft Punk – Veridis Quo (5:44)
16. JAM Project featuring Masami Okui – Little Wing(TV size) (1:34)
17. Sae – Asu no Blue Wing – Daphne in the Brilliant Blue (OP TV size) (1:30)
18. The Delgados – The Light Before We Land (5:30)
19. Buffy The Vampire Slayer Cast – Standing In The Way (2:10)
20. The Calling – Wherever You Will Go (3:27)
21. Yuki Kajiura – Fake Wings (2:38)
22. Daft Punk – One More Time (5:20)
23. Daft Punk – Superheroes (3:57)
24. Daft Punk – High Life (3:21)
25. Daft Punk – Too Long (10:00)
26. The Pillows – Blues Drive Monster (3:25)

I make no excuses for any of this, dammit. The playlist is a bit skewed, as I recently scrubbed my iPod and Fixed All the Goddamn Tags. I should remember to try this again in three months and see how it changes.

Notes:

1. Sakura Saku is the main theme for Love Hina, and features the lovely and ubiquitous Megumi Hayshibara.
2. Duvet was the main theme for Serial Experiments Lain. Also sung by boa, which is a british band, in a classic case of Japanese Anglophilia. Still a damn good song, though.
3. Venus Say is the main theme for Twin Spica. Utterly infectious.
4. Asu he no Brilliant Road was Uchuu no Stellvia‘s main theme. Weird but deeply addictive chord progression.
5. Asu no Blue wing is the main theme for Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, which has the most fanservice per minute outside of, say, Najica Blitz Tactics.
6. Voltes V was a popular anime in the Philippines when I was a child
7. Tsubasa wa Pleasure Line is the main theme of Chrno Crusade, which continually fuels my “sexy nuns with guns” fascination. I blame renegade nuns on wheels, really.
8. Little Wing was the main theme for Scrapped Princess, and has lovely Celtic influences.
9. Fake Wings was Subaru‘s theme from .hack//SIGN, and was most often heard when wandering through the Venice-like city.
10. The Pillows are a freakishly awesome JRock band. They’re remembered to put the “roll” back in “rock & roll”. Plus, they provided the music for FLCL.
11. Daft Punk’s album “Discovery” continues to rawk the hizzouse. I keep getting techno-proletarian visions of a glitzy and glamorous Soviet state whenever I hear “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”.

http://www.delgados.co.uk/archive_lyrics_lightbefore.htm

The Delgados reminds me of Mazzy Star with more bite and less hypnotic sleepiness. Their latest album, Hate, is a particularly enchanting mix of velvet and vitriol and I can’t praise it highly enough. Plus, the song “The Light Before We Land” is used as the opening theme to Gunslinger Girl, which makes it all the more poignant.

Woke up to the soundtrack from the Buffy Musical (Once More With Feeling) today, and it put me in a Musical frame of mind. To get it out of my head (and into yours), I present: the Musicals of Doom!

• A Shoggoth on the Roof — for all you Lovecraft fans out there
• Silence! Silence of the Lambs – The Musical — featuring such hits as “Put the Fucking Lotion in the Basket”
• Cobra! The Musical — Because face it, it can’t be worse than the rest of Cobra Commander’s harebrained schemes