Top 10 albums of 2008 countdown: #3

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Yeah I know I didn't post #3 yesterday, I sorta kinda forgot.

So today we explore the world of MGMT (pronounced Management).  They have set the new bench mark for many bands to ascend to, and this was their first album!  The music is new fresh sound and they explained best on the Tonight Show "its like 70's music, but from the future", that quote makes me laugh when ever I think of it.

Recommended Songs:

Time to Pretend, Weekend Wars, Electric Feel, Kids 

Our video is kind of a interesting one, the song is Electric Feel, but is preformed by the  sweet band from Showbiz Pizza known as, Rock-afire Explosion.

Top 10 albums of 2008 countdown: #4

Beck - Modern Guilt

Ah yes Beck, Beck has not had a bad album sense the early 90's, he continually progresses and experiments, and because of this every album of his is unique, but still retains his trademark sound.  Modern Guilt feels a little darker than some of his albums but doesn't depress you like Sea Change (strangely my favorite album of his).  

Recommended Songs:

Orphans, Gamma Ray, Modern Guilt, Profanity Prayers

Todays song from Modern Guilt is Orphans, this is the opening song for the album and sets the mood very well.

Top 10 albums of 2008 countdown: #5

Passion Pit - Chunk of Change EP

I technically should not have this on here cause it is a EP not a album, but it is amazing.  They are a very new group, as in so new they have not even released an album yet, but when they do, presumably next year it should be great.  They are an electronic group again and like a great deal of new stuff coming out is heavily influenced from the 80's.  

Recommended Songs:

Cuddle Fuddle, Live to Tell the Tale, Sleepyhead

This is Sleepyhead, a very very fun song, it is one that causes you to start toe tapping.  Enjoy!

Top 10 albums of 2008 countdown: #6

Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Death Cab has been within my top five favorite bands for a few years now.  This is a great album but I am worried they are slipping (becoming more mainstream).  The album has received great press and reviews, but is not the Death Cab of old.  But again their okay albums are better then 90% of the best stuff out there, hence it being on my list.  It is a fun album and Death Cab is a great way to be introduced to indie rock, its how I started.

Recommended Songs: 

Bixby Canyon Bridge, I Will Possess Your Heart, No Sunlight, Cath..., Long Division

Our video is the radio edit for I Will Possess Your Heart, the full version has a four minute intro that I love, but I figured you wanted the just hear the song.  

The Little One

Olivia has in the last week come alive.  She started smile allot more and is cooing for awhile at times.  These are a few pictures I got of her while Cassie was at work.

Top 10 albums of 2008 countdown: #7

She & Him - Volume One

First off I need to apologize, I have been having issues with videos from Youtube being attached to my posts.  That issue is obviously fixed and then I have been kinda busy the last two days.  So I will do one post tonight, then I will do two on Saturday & Sunday to make up for lost time.

She & Him is what the name says, a girl and a guy, thats the band.  The she is Zooey Deschanel, one of the few if not only actress to transition to music successfully.  If you don't recognize her name, she has been in Elf, Yes Man, Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy and many others (Her sister is the lady in Bones).  Unlike most actress's that do music, she wrote most of the lyrics (a few are covers), plays all the piano, and does the vocals.  The Him is M. Ward who is well known in the Indie music world, and he does just about everything else that Zooey does not do.

The album has a heavy influence from 60's female pop groups, and a dash of country (yes I know, I hate country music).  Because of this it has a more timeless feel to it and is great to crash on the couch with this comforting your thoughts.  Other than that I think you need to listen for yourself.  A few music critics have given this their top honers and labeled it album of the year.

One other thing; you can download the entire album off Amazon.com for only $5.00.

Recommended Songs:

 Why Do You Let Me Stay Here, This is not a Test, I Was Made For You, Sweet Darlin' 

This is the Video for Why Do You Let Me Stay Here below, also you can click on the recommended songs and hear a 30 second clip. 

Top 10 albums of 2008 countdown: #8

Tokyo Police Club, Elephant Shell

Today we move from the world of electronic and venture into indie rock.  TPC has been around for a few years but this is their first full length studio album, they had a EP come out in 2006 called A lesson in crime, that I like more than this.  Elephant Shell has a more polished sound than previous EP's and LP's, but the feel is still intact (thats  good).

My only gripe with the album is the average length of each track is about 2:30 long, that is a little to short for my personal tastes.  All in all it is a very solid album and I look forward to future albums as they hone their sound and skill.  I think they will be around for awhile and could potentially become more mainstream and popular if they sign with a bigger record label (that could be bad). 

Recommended Songs:

  Centennial, In A Cave, Juno, Nursery, Academy, Listen to the Math.

This is the music video for In A Cave, they do a good job at making plastic cups look cute.

Top 10 albums of 2008 countdown: #9

Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles

Im gong to bet all of you will dislike this album, it takes a certain kind of person to like this.  First off it is electronic and I love electronic music.  Second it sounds like good old 8 bit Atari and Nintendo music.  I heard that they have a Atari sound chip built into a synth, to accurately reproduce the sound.  This is their first album and as of yet they have had nothing but praise from music critics and fans alike.  

Recommended Songs: Crimewave, Air War, Vanished, Black Panther

The track I have for you below is Crimewave, so give it a try.

Top 10 albums of 2008 countdown: #10

For the next few days I will be counting down my ten favorite albums of 2008.  Chances are most of you will not like what I like, cause I dislike most top 40 tripe.  I will post the album cover and sample of a song, some are not the best examples but it is all I can find.  So enjoy what you see and hear and let me know what you think.

#1o Bryan Scary & the Shredding Tears, Flight of the Knife

This album took a few listens to fully sink in, but now has grown to be one of my favorite albums to listen from beginning to end, and it gets better each time around.  They have one of the biggest sounds I have heard, and they move around quite a lot.  One minute they sound like Queen then jump over to ELO back over to Ben Folds and the lead singer sounds a bit like John Lennon, they have also been compared to David Bowie, The Who and many others.  So the reason it was hard to listen to initially is its like ADHD album, it jumps all over the place.  Also the whole album revolves around the theme of flight.

The track I have for you to sample (Fire Tree Bird) is not my favorite one but not much is out there. 

Recommended songs: Imitation of the Sky, Heaven On a Bird, Venus Ambassador.

Part time job

Well as most of you don't know, I applied for a job at archivers ( a scrapbook store) in the university mall. And come to find out I got the job. I am really excited but also scared, just because I haven't worked for 3 1/2 years so I hope it goes okay.

Pics of livi

chloe thought she should be in

the picture to. 

I guess I better put a picture of sofie on here

so she won't be sad ( like she will know anyway).

Badly learning how to use our new camera.

I just picked up a new digital SLR for steal.  It was on clearance and then dropped to 50% off with an additional $100 in other savings and a $100 gift card, so I got it for about $115.  The cheapest that I can find it on line is for $450-500, I guess I could sell it but I have been wanting one of these for awhile.  So these are just a few meh! attempts that I took of the girls.

Sofia Autumn

Chloe Marie

Olivia Ann

Gumby - Lost and Found

I love Gumby, I remember watching this all the time at a friends house when I was a kid. I now have Chloe hooked on this brilliant show, and when she is at the appropriate age she will introduce it to her kids and so on.

More of Sofia

Sofia is a cute little demon, she can be so innocent when she is doing something bad that you forget about what is.  Then it dawns on you what she is doing and tell her to stop! and she will turn and give you a scowl that will burn right through you.  These are some of her scowls that I have been trying to preserve in picture for ages (she is sitting on my lap laughing at the pictures of herself as I post this).

I will post more of the other girls soon, Sofia has just been overly entertaining lately.

3 weeks old

Olivia had he doctors app. She weighs 8 lbs 12 oz so she is in the 50% and she is 21 inches long and in the 75%. She is doing great, she mostly sleeps through the night, even though sofie still doesn't but oh well.

Our version of time-out

When you are bad in our home... we stick you on the top shelf of the pantry!

Halloween Candy

Sofia is a little stinker, spend a little time with her when her big sister is not around and she will have you laughing to tears.  These are a few photos of her expressions with candy that she was given as an experiment to see her expression (by me of course) or some she found.  enjoy.

I gave Sofia a lemon sour patch kid to see what she would do.  This is right after I gave it to her. 

This is when it took full affect, if you think I was being mean she loves them now, but fortunately there was not very many.

Cassie had to change Olivia and while she was distracted Sofia got ahold of some skittles and stuffed her cheeks full.  She's a little poo, but she entertains us. 

Retro Intro #2

Well this is the next intro I will post from my childhood. I remember watching this show religiously......it is not as good as I remember it.

Snow Day

Well as most of you know we got a light dusting of snow yesterday.  Chloe woke up before Cassie and I because we wanted to sleep in due to Sofie having a little cold.  She was up for a healthy chunk of the night and Olivia did her usual routine as well.  I was awoken from noises coming from the girls room, Chloe was standing there with nothing on but a pull-up and snow boots, boy was she ready to go out and play.

Chloe in the snow after I made her put on the proper attire

Sofia watching from the warmth of the house because she has the perpetual runny nose plague

Two weeks old

I can't believe two weeks have already gone by. She 

is actually a great baby only wakes up once or twice

during the night. She has to be held all the time. I try

laying her down when she is asleep but minutes later she

wakes up and wants to be held while she is sleeping.

NMRA Show

Cassie gets angry at me cause I don't let many people know about some of my hobbies, it is just the way I am and I try not to impose myself on to others.  But due to pressure from Cassie and some guy's that I know, I entered two of my structures into a judged and popular vote competition.  Cassie can tell you how I couldn't sleep and was very worried about the whole thing.  But I ended up doing okay and this is how I faired.

Newton County Co-op:

2nd in judged portion

1st in popular vote

M.S.Butler Farmers Supply:

1st in judged portion

Best of show in judged portion

2nd in popular vote

More detailed photos and shots of them being built are on my separate blog, a link is in my blog list under rotating coupler.

Well she finally came.

So I would like to introduce the new addition to our clan.  Her name is Olivia Ann Brimley (what else would her last name be).  She was born at 16:40, weighs 7.7 lb. and is 20 in. long or tall or short. . . . . whatever.   For Cassie's sake it was the fastest labor yet, just 8 hours and then  she only pushed 3 times.  Both are doing very well, everything went smooth, there was only a few little hiccups is all.  Oh I am doing fine as well just so everybody knows, it's hard work sitting in that chair, not doing anything productive.  Olivia has a bit of what the nurse's call "Stork Bite" on her face, it has some technical name but who cares about that.  It will clear up in a few days so it not that big of a deal.  They should both be home on Thursday and thats when the real fun begins.

Frontrunner Daddy Daughter Trip

Yesterday I took Chloe out on a little Daddy Daughter Day to give Cassie a break for a bit.  We drove up to Salt Lake Central Station and rode Frontrunner to Ogden.  In Ogden we spent about a hour walking around historic Ogden Union Station.  They have a couple of museums there, but we just looked at the old locomotives and rail cars outside.  Then we rode the train back to Salt Lake and walked around the Gateway, then drove home.  

I knew Chloe would have fun, but I didn't think she would have as much fun as she did.  When we came home she couldn't stop talking to Sofia about the whole adventure.  She then made her own train out of chairs so Sofia could ride along.  Chloe wants to go ride the train again right NOW.  

Chloe standing in front of the Frontrunner #2 MP36 diesel electric built by Motive Power inc.  

These are the Bombardier bi-level cars that we rode to Ogden and back in.

I stuck Chloe on the front of this old 0-6-0 yard goat steam engine at Ogden Union Station.

These big guys used to be fenced off but now you can go right up to them.  The purple thing on the right was a special car build by Union Pacific for the 2002 Olympic Torch relay.  The yellow loco in the center is a massive DDA40X built in 1969.  The steam engine on the left is a 4-8-4 wheel configuration, it's sister engine is still being used today.

Chloe standing by one of the main drivers on the 4-8-4 #833.

You don't realize how big these are until you are right next to it.

Standing between the beastie creatures. 

An old Rio Grande caboose that Chloe liked playing on.

This is the train that Chloe built after we came home.

Dollhouse Show

Yesterday the girls and I decided to attend the dollhouse show at the Provo Library.  I was excited to attend due to the fact that I want to build one for the girls when they get a little older.  I wanted to get some ideas and study the fine craftsmanship of some of the examples.  The whole thing was advertised on buses, in newspapers and on television and I thought it was kind of a big thing.

Well what a bust it turned out to be, I felt like I was at a dollhouse garage sale.  I thought I was setting my standards a little high but even Chloe didn't seem all that interested in anything.  95% of the dollhouses were something I would let a family of rats live in.  Another problem I had was there was two large rooms that had a bunch of thrift store fodder that was for a silent auction, then all the dollhouses were thrown out in hallways.

So I am sorry I am being so negative but I was expecting quite a bit more.  Here are a few moments that we preserved in picture.

One of the few good ones.

A view of pressboard estates.

Chloe studying a fine example of a tenement, the one on the right was okay.

This one had potential.