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Laughing Man

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Blog Entries posted by Laughing Man

  2. Laughing Man

    [UPDATED] Weezer

    By Laughing Man,

    band just released a new album (their best in years) so it's time to update this.
     
    top CD row, left to right:
     
    - Weezer (Blue Album)
    - Pinkerton
    - Weezer (Green Album)
    - Maladroit
    - Make Believe
     
    bottom CD row, left to right:
     
    - Weezer (Red Album)
    - Raditude
    - Hurley (deluxe edition)
    - Death to False Metal
    - Everything Will Be Alright in the End
     
    also pictured are my Weezer T-shirt (top) and my blue Weezer Snuggie (in the background).
    .
  3. Laughing Man

    Dead Cities

    By Laughing Man,

    just three days after ordering it, I've got a copy of M83's out-of-print second album Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts.
     
    normally this goes for anywhere from $30 for a used copy to $150 for a new one - but I lucked out and got this complete "Used - Good" copy for only $7 plus shipping, likely because of an automated price-matching bot dropping the price to match an incomplete "Used - Acceptable" listing from another seller.
     
    I actually feel like the seller underrated it, too, because both discs look as though they've never been played at all.
     
    while this isn't the rarest or most valuable album I own, it's definitely one I'm most proud of owning.
  4. Laughing Man

    Converge

    By Laughing Man,

    just sort-of completed my Converge collection.
     
    top to bottom:
     
    - Petitioning the Empty Sky (1998 Equal Vision edition)
    - When Forever Comes Crashing
    - Jane Doe
    - You Fail Me
    - No Heroes
    - Axe to Fall
    - All We Love We Leave Behind
     
    I say it's "sort-of" completed because A. Petitioning the Empty Sky is defective and has to be replaced and B. I don't have Halo in a Haystack, their long-out-of-print debut. I'd like to get the two rarities/early material compilations, Caring and Killing and Unloved and Weeded Out, which contain most of the Halo in a Haystack tracks between the two of them, provided I can find them for a decent price. I'll probably also end up getting the 2005 remastered versions of Petitioning the Empty Sky and When Forever Comes Crashing eventually.
  5. Laughing Man
    since at least one person likes to see these, how about a two-for-one.
     

     
    this one's the more interesting of the two.
     
    top to bottom:
     
    - Pass Out of Existence
    - The Impossibility of Reason
    - Chimaira
    - Resurrection (2-disc limited edition with variant artwork)
    - The Infection (2-disc US limited edition with bonus track "Revenge")
    - The Age of Heck (censored for BZP; not actual title)
    - Crown of Phantoms (2-disc IndieGoGo campaign backer-exclusive fan edition with bonus track "New Apocalypse", reworked and expanded artwork, two custom guitar picks, and exclusive digital download copy with 6 additional bonus tracks and digital booklet)
     
    though I was somewhat disappointed by their last couple of albums, Chimaira are easily one of my favorite bands to come out of the so-called "New Wave of American Heavy Metal", with their self-titled probably being my favorite album from that entire scene. because of this, I'd like to collect as much of their stuff as possible. I still need their debut EP This Present Darkness, and eventually I'd like to track down the 2-disc limited editions of The Impossibility of Reason and the self-titled as well as the European 2-disc special edition of The Age of Heck. sometime soon I also plan on ordering the Freddy vs. Jason, Masters of Horror II, Resident Evil: Extinction, and Saw VI soundtracks so I can get the tracks "Army of Me", "Threnody", "Paralyzed", and "Warpath", which are Impossibility of Reason, self-titled, Resurrection, and The Infection B-sides respectively.
     

     
    the less interesting of the two.
     
    top to bottom:
     
    - Burn the Priest (2005 reissue; self-titled debut by the band under their original name)
    - New American Gospel (2006 reissue; first album released under their current name)
    - As the Palaces Burn
    - Ashes of the Wake
    - Sacrament (producer edition featuring bonus disc of song stems and multitracks)
    - Wrath
    - Resolution
    - As the Palaces Burn: 10th Anniversary Edition (2-disc remixed and remastered 2013 reissue)
     
    not much else to get with this collection. I'd like to pick up the 3-disc Hourglass box set sometime (which I've seen for cheap and passed on, something I still regret) if only for the B-sides and rarities on the third disc. if I really wanted to be a completionist, I'd get the Killadelphia live album as well, but I've honestly never been much of a fan of those.
     
    I really need to get some updated pictures of my large Smashing Pumpkins collection.
  6. Laughing Man

    The Cure

    By Laughing Man,

    [originally published 5/18/14, updated 11/6/14, bumped 1/29/15 because I frigging love The Cure]
     
    with the acquisition of the Join the Dots box set, I've pretty much finished off my collection for my favorite band, The Cure. I've got all the studio albums, all the compilations, the remix album, the 1978-2001 B-sides box set, and a few singles. really all I'm missing now are the live albums and DVDs, which I've never had much of an interest in.
     
    all of these are the various US pressings except for Three Imaginary Boys, which is a Fiction European pressing manufactured in France, and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, which is a Fiction European pressing manufactured in West Germany.
     
    left stack, top to bottom:
     
    - Three Imaginary Boys
    - Boys Don't Cry (American version of Three Imaginary Boys with altered tracklist)
    - Seventeen Seconds
    - Faith
    - fourth album idk I can say the name of on this website
    - Japanese Whispers: The Singles (collection of non-album singles and B-sides)
    - The Top
    - The Head on the Door
    - Staring at the Sea: The Singles 1978-1986
    - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
    - Disintegration
     
    right stack, top to bottom:
     
    - Mixed Up
    - Wish
    - Wild Mood Swings
    - Galore: The Singles 1987-1997
    - Bloodflowers
    - Greatest Hits (limited edition with Acoustic Hits bonus disc)
    - The Cure
    - 4:13 Dream
    - The Only One (CD single)
    - Sleep When I'm Dead (CD single)
     
    on the bottom, joining the stacks together:
     
    - Join the Dots: B-Sides & Rarities 1978-2001 box set (4 discs, 70 tracks housed in a hardcover 75-page digibook)
     
    owned but not pictured:
     
    - Disintegration 2010 remaster on double vinyl LP
  7. Laughing Man
    I went for one thing, I left with one thing. and I couldn't be happier.
     

     
    I got Katatonia's RSD exclusive 12" B-sides compilation Kocytean, limited to 2000 copies, on glorious translucent orange vinyl.
     
    this is officially my most prized possession.
  8. Laughing Man

    [UPDATED] In Flames

    By Laughing Man,

    I would've updated this over a month ago when I picked up the new album Siren Charms, but as it turns out, the entire first pressing of the deluxe edition was defective. after a few weeks of waiting, the record label finally offered people corrected replacement discs about a week ago. I received mine in the mail just yesterday.
     
    at one point in the past these guys were my favorite band, and this collection is quite possibly the most complete that I own, just slightly ahead of Katatonia - between bonus tracks and B-sides, I've got basically every finished, studio-recorded song the band has released.
     
    from top to bottom:
     
    - Lunar Strain (2005 Candlelight Records reissue)
    - Subterranean EP (2005 Candlelight Records reissue)
    - The Jester Race (2008 Reloaded edition + Black-Ash Inheritance EP)
    - Whoracle (2008 Reloaded edition)
    - Colony (2008 Reloaded edition)
    - Clayman (2008 Reloaded edition)
    - Reroute to Remain
    - Trigger EP
    - Soundtrack to Your Escape
    - Come Clarity
    - A Sense of Purpose
    - The Mirror's Truth EP (German pressing)
    - Sounds of a Playground Fading
    - Siren Charms (deluxe edition)
     
    also owned but not pictured:
     
    - Lunar Strain/Subterranean (single-disc compilation including both the full-length debut and its follow-up EP, sans the bonus tracks available on the individual reissues)
    - "Discover Me Like Emptiness" (bonus track for Soundtrack to Your Escape, bought separately from AmazonMP3)
    - "Self vs. Self" (collaboration with Pendulum from that artist's Immersion album, bought separately from AmazonMP3)
    - "The Chase" (iTunes-exclusive bonus track for Siren Charms)
    - first press edition of Reroute to Remain featuring variant artwork (black border around the usual image)
    - a nifty In Flames magnet included with the purchase of Siren Charms through FYE, features the Purpose/Playground-era logo
  9. Laughing Man
    I was going to post an entry tonight showing off my recently-completed collection of albums by The Cure along with a ranking of their discography from worst to best, but since the final piece I needed in order to do so didn't arrive today against my expectations, I've decided to do something else.
     
    as a sort of follow up to a recent somewhat-tongue-in-cheek entry of mine, I've put together a collection of songs (11 to be exact, 3 that I consider either favorites or notable from each of my 3 favorite albums plus a couple extra goodies) that I feel would be helpful to anyone who might have recently discovered Tegan and Sara through the song they contributed to The Lego Movie, "Everything Is Awesome", and would like to check out more. I'd recommend listening to at least one song from each album, as their style tended to evolve and vary from one to the next.
     
    If It Was You (2002)

    / "Living Room" / "Don't Confess" 
    So Jealous (2004)

    / /  
    The Con (2007)

    / /  
    Bonus

    /
  11. Laughing Man
    so my 2013 Album of the Year, Seattle alternative hip-hop artist Sadistik's phenomenal sophomore album Flowers for My Father, is available to download for free from the Fake Four label Bandcamp today only.
     
    I encourage everybody to check it out, regardless of your feelings on the genre. it's an incredible, beautiful piece of work and one of the realest and most emotional albums I've ever heard.
  13. Laughing Man
    "For Those of You Who Kill" by Aftershock!
     
    Aftershock was a pioneering underground metalcore band active during the late 90s/early 2000s and perhaps best known for featuring several future members of Killswitch Engage, including guitarist Joel Stroetzel, former drummer Tom Gomes, and most notably lead guitarist and primary songwriter Adam Dutkiewicz.
     
    in addition to Adam, however, Aftershock also featured his brother Toby Dutkiewicz on vocals - who, as I detailed here, is now known for being an art director at Lego after whom the Bionicle character Tobduk was named. seems like a logical career progression to me!
     
    still, my favorite contribution to the Lego world that Mr. Dutkiewicz has made is and always will be the
    , the song for which he wrote. consider this a Song of the Moment two-for-one special.
  14. Laughing Man
    no pictures yet, but last night I picked up Michael Jackson's double studio/compilation album HIStory: Past, Present and Future Book I on CD for $4 from a local music shop, thus completing my Epic Records-era Michael Jackson collection (with the exception of 2001's Invincible which is non-essential and frankly not very good).
     
    here's one of my favorite tracks from the studio album portion of HIStory, titled HIStory Continues, which is Jackson's excellent cover of The Beatles' "Come Together":
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pk9CEG-_eM
  17. Laughing Man

    In Addendum

    By Laughing Man,

    for the last time, this is NOT something that is open to opinion or disagreement. there is NO CHOICE involved here, it is NOT just a "lifestyle". you cannot disagree with cold hard facts - not without being objectively WRONG.
     
    additionally, people telling you why you are wrong is NOT oppression. how dare you continue to insist you know or face oppression over this. you DO NOT.
     
    please educate yourself.
  18. Laughing Man
    no, you cannot. because it's not a choice, it's not open to debate or opinion, and if you """disagree""" with a harmless, intrinsic, unchanging part of who somebody is, you are not only objectively wrong but also kind of a bigot.
     
    it's like if I told you that I "disagree" with your race and it makes me uncomfortable for you to be so "overt" about it.
     
    that would be a little thing called racism, just like what you're talking about is a little thing called homophobia.
     
    please take your harmful, archaic """"opinions"""" elsewhere.
  21. Laughing Man
    these arrived today.
     
    took advantage of Fake Four's sale at the last moment and got these three CD copies of Flowers for My Father by Sadistik for just the cost of shipping.
     
    absolutely stunning, beautiful album and one that I'd recommend to anybody regardless of whether or not they like hip-hop. I'm not particularly big on the genre but this is without a doubt my favorite album of the year so far.
  23. Laughing Man

    The Figurehead

    By Laughing Man,

    every time I listen to this song by The Cure, I feel as though all light and joy is drained from my very soul
     
    like seriously how can one song
     
    be so full of complete and utter despair
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