Apparently we have a community here! Who knew? (It's me, I'm the guy who knew.) As regular viewers of my journal should know, I am a gigantic fag for Rock Band and anything Harmonix has ever done. Rock Band 2 is coming out in a matter of days and it has one of the most solid track lists of any video game in recent history. However, the bonus tracks are where it really shines, and it's for that reason I bring you Sinners Stick Together by Cambridge locals The Sterns. Track two, "Supreme Girl", is featured on Rock Band 2 and is about former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, as sung about from the point of view of George W. Bush.

The rest of the album is similarly done, with catchy, poppy songs about subjects such as getting drunk all day and terrible parenting. It incorporates Hammond organs, keyboards, and saxophones along with strong bass lines and guitar hooks to create one of the most solid albums I've heard in a long time. It's hard to pick just one genre for them, so I'll settle for power pop until something better comes along. If you like music, you'll probably like this CD.



01) Sinners Stick Together
02) Supreme Girl
03) This Side of the Screen
04) Buffer Zone
05) Rosemary Cross
06) About the Author
07) Papa, You're in Your Prime
08) Undergrad
09) All Saints
10) Twenty-Three Hours
11) Virginia Radio

Year: 2006
Genre: Power Pop
Support the Industry! Buy the album | Check out the artist

Download (40MB)
[ sendspace ]

There's only one thing in this world that could have made me want to bail on studying Japanese in Japan this summer, and that's scoring a ticket (or three) to Wacken Open Air. deltashade and me are pretty sad pandas about the fact that we had no idea how many of our favourite bands were going to be there this summer. Sure, I'm seeing Children of Bodom in Tokyo three days after Wacken, but to see Children of Bodom, Sonata, Killswitch Engage, Kamelot, and a fucktonne of other bands? I could be run over by a tank after that and still die happy.

Here for you now is a mixtape of some current Wacken artists, two that have played in the past, and one that needs to play at Wacken or I will riot. Below are a bunch more words for you to read (or not read, cos them's a lot of fuckin words).



01. Girugamesh - "Vermillion"
02. Children of Bodom - "SixPounder"
03. Amon Amarth - "Asator"
04. At the Gates - "World of Lies"
05. Killswitch Engage - "Rose of Sharyn"
06. Galneryus - "Last Farewell"
07. Arch Enemy - "The Day You Died"
08. Kamelot - "When The Lights Are Down"
09. Ensiferum - "Victory Song"

( about the bands )

download (71.17MB): [ sendspace ]

Wacken Open Air is the world's premier metal festival, held every year in Wacken, Germany. A ton of amazing bands come from all over the world to play there, and understandably, tickets sell out quickly. potassium and I are pretty big in the European metal scene and we both would have gone to this if we'd known ahead of time how many awesome bands were going to be there. It makes us sad.

So to alleviate that, we're bringing the music to you so in case you enjoy it, you can suffer with us. I've got a bunch of acts that are playing at Wacken and one act that is not but is still awesome. Avantasia, fronted by Tobias Sammet, is a project that takes a bunch of guest musicians and makes kickass prog metal out of it. Lordi, winners of the 2006 Eurovision contest, are giant singing monsters. Sabaton writes songs about war and how metal other metal bands are. Sonata Arctica is the greatest metal band in the history of ever and I will fight anyone who says different. Sturm Und Drang clearly know where it's at; these kids idolize Sonata and you can definitely tell in their music. Brother Firetribe is the one group not playing, but it's cool because the guitarist is from Nightwish and it is so 80s it hurts.



01 Avantasia - Another Angel Down (f/ Jorn Lande)
02 Avantasia - Ride the Sky (f/ Eric Singer)
03 Brother Firetribe - Game They Call Love
04 Brother Firetribe - I Am Rock
05 Brother Firetribe - Kill City Kid
06 Lordi - Devil Is A Loser
07 Lordi - Hard Rock Hallelujah
08 Lordi - The Chainsaw Buffet
09 Sabaton - Attero Dominatus
10 Sabaton - Metal Crüe
11 Sonata Arctica - Fullmoon (Live - For the Sake of Revenge)
12 Sonata Arctica - My Selene
13 Sonata Arctica - Tallulah
14 Sonata Arctica - The Wind Beneath My Wings (Bette Midler Cover)
15 Sturm Und Drang - Forever
16 Sturm Und Drang - Miseria

.zip file, 116MB
[ sendspace ]

Oh my god I'm really sorry people for not being up to speed with this community. Crazy things have been happening on my side of the coast, so I' haven't been too close to a computer the past few days. Anyways, I love mix tapes, and this one is a placeholder for a new mixtape I'll make later.

I made this mix a while ago (July, actually!) and I still like some songs on it, so here you go. The best of the old mix. No complete zip from me because my internet can't handle this much stress right now. The tracklist is cut so it doesn't dominate your friends page. Links are there as well.
( 13 songs )

So I've basically been sick all week. It's kind of ridiculous. I've been trying to get well by indulging myself with guilty pleasure music and the things I like doing. The tracks I've picked for this week's theme reflect that. They're available individually and in a .zip on sendspace.

01 Flyleaf - I'm So Sick
02 Disturbed - Stricken
03 Poe - House of Leaves
04 djshangrila - Girlfriend (Avril Lavigne cover)
05 Cobra Starship f/ V.I.P. - Damn You Look Good And I'm Drunk (Scandalous)
06 Renaldo Lapuz - We're Brothers Forever (Dance Remix)
07 Prabhu Deva - Kalluri Vaanil
08 [erka:es] - Zweite Stage der Iris ~ Der Garten, Zeit und Raum
09 Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.

.zip file, 44MB
[ sendspace ]

How're you doing? No, really, how are you lately? Me, I'm stressing. So here's a mixtape of the things I've been listening to lately, in no particular order. And before you ask, yes, only tracks 4, 5, and 6 are in English. All tracks are up on SendSpace. I'd make you a cute little cover, but there are more important things I have to do right now. Namely, to stop procrastinating ;_; for serious this time

01. epik high - love love love
02. boa - best friend
03. utada hikaru - heart station
04. the shins - girl on the wing
05. galneryus - shiver
06. fall out boy - dance, dance
07. se7en - run
08. big bang - my girl

It is said by many that Stratovarius is the predecessor to Sonata Arctica... or that Sonata Arctica is the heir of Stratovarius. Either way, they're both Finnish power metal with emphasis on melodic speed. Who doesn't love that, man? Well, if you don't, then I do.

This album is actually a compilation of their best/most popular songs such as "Black Diamond," "Hunting High and Low," & "The Kiss Of Judas." These guys are credited with being influencial to modern power metal -- for example, by reintroducing keyboards as a primary instrument. Anyway, if you've listened to Sonata or are into power metal or just like stuff that goes really fast or the bus will explode, you should give these guys a try -- you might like them.

Fun fact: For some reason, this album was only released in Japan.



01. The Hands Of Time
02. Distant Skies
03. Tomorrow
04. Coming Home
05. Destiny
06. Future Shock
07. Black Diamond
08. Why Are We Here
09. We Are The Future
10. Forever
11. Hunting High And Low
12. The Kiss Of Judas
13. Rebel
14. Mother Gaia

ALBUM TYPE Album - Compilation (Best Of)
RELEASE DATE 09.19.2000
GENRE Power Metal
LYRICS [ official site ]
BUY IT [ amazon ] [ cduniverse ]

download (104 MB @ 192kbps)
[ sendspace ]

Se7en is a Korean R&B artist under YG Entertainment (that also manages my other lufs, Big Bang ♥ and used to manage my second favourite rapper, Lexy, till she bailed last year). He worked for about four years before debuting in 2003 and has since gone on to release 4 Korean albums, one Japanese album, did some concerts in China, and is now focusing on a US debut. He did one song with Amerie and another with Fabolous (♥) last year, but once the latter leaked his management was like "omg must make debut album" so that's what he's doing now.

This is my favourite of his albums, his third Korean album, 24/7. I like all his albums, but I listen to this one the most, I think. All the titles are romanized, and the translations are in the tracklist. Don't be turned off by the fact that this is in Korean; you'd be surprised how well the language lends itself to r&b and rap.



01. Intro (24/7)
02. I Know (난 알아요) / ft. Teddy
03. LOVE STORY / ft. Masta Wu
04. Come Back To Me Part 2 (와줘 (Part 2))
05. OH-NO! / ft. Teddy
06. Interlude (Heaven)
07. All Night (밤새도록)
08. Because I Want to Live (살고 싶어서)
09. THE ONE
10. Worm (벌레) / ft. Jinu
11. Block My Mouth (내 입 좀 막아줘) / ft. Perry
12. Interlude (Follow Me)
13. BABY U
14. Run / ft. G-Dragon & Taekwon
15. A Departure Like Ice (얼음같은 이별)
16. Just Like That Man (그 남자처럼)
17. Outro (7 Virus)

ALBUM TYPE Album
RELEASE DATE 2006.03.08
GENRE R&B/hip-hop

download album (58.1MB @ 192kbps)
[ sendspace ]

I had two ideas for this theme and couldn't settle on just one, but the other album is in .m4a format and I need to convert it all before I upload it. But you're getting double the Sargon for this theme.

I couldn't tell you where I first heard about wytebred. It's probably mid-2005, but I really don't have any idea. His real name is Alex Vaughan and he does (or did) design work at Crystal Dynamics, the people behind the Gex and Legacy of Kain series. Unsurprisingly, a few of the tracks he makes sound a lot like video game music. His first album, To Be Somebody, uses a lot of samples from Casey Kasem; 's Delicious has foregone that in favor of electronic music that's pretty great to chill out to.

He never actually completed this album and never officially released To Be Somebody; all the tracks have been available for free on his website, which I link after the jump. These nine tracks are a compilation of ones I had and ones that he's put up since, but the entire project seems to be dead right now. You might have a piece of history in this download. Enjoy it.



01) Confused Secrets, Naturally
02) Extraterritoriality
03) Forever Grey
04) Kapellmeister
05) Midnight's Calling
06) Nonparticulate Extraterritoriality
07) Space
08) Subsidize My Creation
09) These Formularized Wishes

Year: 2006
Genre: Electronica
Support the Industry! Check out the artist!

Download (46.5MB)
[ sendspace ] [ megaupload ]

Hopefully all you mesopotamians have something that adheres to this theme. If not, I can switch it around and make it easier.

When I first saw this album, I thought these guys were a hip-hop group or something, but I was so, so wrong. They're not even religious. It's just their gimmick to draw attention, even if they don't really need it in the first place. People from all over the internets (and even the real worlds!) have been flocking to Justice.

Justice makes very loud, danceable electronica that supposedly divided a crapload of people in the dance scene because they weren't sure if they were making the genre better or simply destroying it. I, obviously, am one of the people that believe they're making the genre more diverse. Most of their songs pack an amazing distorted rumbling sound that just grabs you and shakes you in the best way possible. Their best examples of this are portions of "Waters of Nazareth", "Let There Be Light", "Phantom + Phantom Pt. II" and "Genesis" where the riffs are the catchiest. Then there's "D.A.N.C.E.", the who-knew-disco-was-still-cool song that everyone loves after a first listen. Like, seriously, if you haven't heard this song before, listen to it, NOW. I'll even link you to the video.

This was easily my favorite album of 2007. I cannot tell you how many times I have played this all the way through and danced my ass off. If there's one album you download from me, it better be this one.


1. Genesis
2. Let There Be Light
3. D.A.N.C.E.
4. New Jack
5. Phantom
6. Phantom pt. II
7. Valentine
8. The Party
9. DVNO
10. Stress
11. Waters of Nazareth
12. One Minute to Midnight

ALBUM TYPE: Album
RELEASE DATE: 2007
GENRE: Electronica
BUY IT: [ Amazon ]

download the album (54.75 MB)
[ megaupload ]