Music: The Vines - Highly Evolved

Do any you guys remember the Garage Rock Revival? Over 10 years ago there was this craze that was sweeping the United States, even Rolling Stones claim that "Rock is Back" (The Vines where on the cover!), as I recall there was 4 bands that where part of this so-called revival, the bands are...The Hives, The White Stripes, The Strokes, and The Vines. All four bands where successful, many had better and successful careers in a long run, in my opinion I think White Stripes are the best of the four, Strokes and Hives had there own success and they got there own faithful fanbase, the worst of the four is sadly the one I lost a bet on...The Vines. Seems like The Vines where pretty much one hit wonders with there song "Get Free", they have other singles but they are not as successful as "Get Free". I decided to take a listen to there debut album to see if its any good, I know the album even around that time, they got average reviews, as I listen to it, I got more than I bargain for.

Starting out the album the titled track "Highly Evolved" it started out like I just jumped into a random conversation, it was a pretty rockin' track, pretty good way to start the album, I was looking forward to hear the next song. With the song "Autumn Shade" just like that... the album took a completely different turn, and completely different pace, we got to a rock song to a bland ballet, don't get me wrong, I do like ballets, but in order to make a good ballet, it should not suck! there is nothing memorable with that song, after that song was over we go back to the rocking with the track "Outtathaway" the bands second single, it was an ok song, its not that memorable of a song, it kind of got that Jimi Hendrix mix with Iggy Pop and Nirvana, which is not bad of a combination. After that song was over, the album dragged its feet again with a Beatles inspired ballot, I got not much to say about it, but its just really boring to listen to, I can't believe I actually compare it to The Beatles, and we got another boring ballot with "Homesick", and finally after two boring songs we finally got the real true highlight of the whole entire album..."Get Free"! Without a doubt "Get Free" is an awesome song, but I do get the feeling that song was actually under pressure from the record label to make a hit single, and thats what they did, a less then 2 minutes of awesomeness, but it is a great song none the less. After that...what do we get? More boring ballads!! Seriously you guys, they made really bad ballads, than about 8 songs in, I was starting to get bored and I started to yawn, and I was losing faith with this album. I even notice a pattern, it looks like this "Rock/Ballad/Rock/Ballad/Ballad/Rock...repeat". Pretty much the whole album has pretty much reaches its downfall after 6 songs, and it certainly did not recover, even there closer song left us wanting something better, hoping there is a better song afterwards, but it basically said "fuck this, this really sucks".

Overall, I may sound like I am bashing the album, but if I have to say something positive about the album, the production is good, it sounds clean and I can hear everything, There is basically 3 good songs, but only one of the three I can listen to over and over again, and sadly these 3 songs and the good productions is the only thing that its saving itself from getting a bad score. The album is just generally plagued with boring, and unmemorable songs, it really made me wonder they never made it beyond one hit wonder status.

Movies: Monty Python's Life of Brian

Monty Python...good old Monty Python, I have been quiet a long time fan of Monty Python, but how I got introduced to is an interesting story, I never watched the show, I have not watched Holy Grail until afterwards. But what introduced me to Monty Python is actually a PC game called "Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time", it mostly made up on mini games and clips, but I enjoyed it, plus it introduced me to Terry Gilliams unique art style, I enjoyed it, I played it to death, and I love love the jokes, then my Uncle introduced me to Monty Python's Holy Grail and that became one of my all time favorite movies, and the rest is history.

Now, I have found myself a copy of this movie at a used bin, other than it cost like $10, it was the Criterion Collection version, for me, I am little bit of a collector of Criterion films, so without any doubt, I decided to buy it.


Since its an early DVD there are non of those BS unskipable previews so bonus points for that! The quality of the film they where using is quiet grainy but I find it rather charming since everything has to be clean these days.


Now you guys are thinking, is the movie any good? well, I like the movie, I have always like Monty Python's humor, although they basically just come up with something and hoping it would be funny and luckily most of the jokes are funny and well executed, but there is only one joke I don't like but I am just nitpicking, I don't like the "Dickus Biggus" joke, I just think the joke kind of gone on way too long. If you are expecting Oscar award worthy performance, just don't expect too much, its a bloody comedy! I mean its not like its bad, they are top notch performance, everybody has done there job, they all knew there shtick and they do it well. My favorite scene is when the whole movie completely derailed itself into a Si-Fi battle scene, if you seen the movie for the first time, you can't even see it coming, but at least ended and it was never mentioned again and it just go back to the chase scene, I thought it was complete genius.


Overall, I thought it was a great film, defiantly a good deal on getting it for $10. For the record, I have herd the movie has some controversy because of the theme of the movie, I mean yeah its a pie to the face to religion but for me I am not a religious person, but I thought the movie pretty spoke to me that how much people are easily manipulated by the little things of life, Brian is just an everyday person that is pretty much caught up in a knot and all he wants is just to be left alone, I considered it an everyday man story who is just caught up with unwanted glory, I am pretty sure we are all like that, I certainly don't want it myself. But we all got to look on the bright side of life.