Corkus

Okay, given it a few full listens now, tentatively placing it at #3 behind Boxer and High Violet but at least on par with Alligator. In other words, pretty damn good. I feel like "Slipped" and "Graceless" are filler tracks that could've been left out, but the rest is fantastic. Top 3 are "Humiliation", "I Need My Girl", and "This Is the Last Time" respectively.

Preferred to win - Grammy. It's universal, not specific to artists from a certain country or continent. Least preferred - NME award. Yay, I won a fan-voted award because all my fans are 12-year-olds who have no lives and all ditch school to spend 24 hours a day spamming a poll on NME's website. No thanks. Well, unless it's the "Hottest Male" award. I'll gladly accept that one. :cool:

This is gonna take several more listens for me, but Boxer and High Violet probably got 100 listens from me, so that shouldn't be a problem. Humiliation was a standout after a first listen, but some of the others kinda blended together so give me a week or so to familiarize myself.

The talk show performance of this song actually sounded much better, which is rare since talk show performances usually suck.

You know, the best concert I've ever been to was an Arcade Fire one, but I know they certainly aren't the best live band ever or even the best live band currently, especially since that show had them doing special things. It takes consistency for greatness. I've seen Coldplay twice. One of those times they were incredible. The other time they were completely awful. My point is that all bands have their high performances and low performances and you can't use one show to decide. I'd say the best live bands are the ones who play their hearts out for their fans and give you your money's worth by playing 2-3 hours instead of half-assing it for 90 minutes and going back to their bus to collect their paychecks. Bands like Foo Fighters, U2, Springsteen, etc. (though I haven't seen Springsteen yet)

Whenever a band shifts their style and I get upset about it, I get hounded by "ACCEPT CHANGE" and "IF YOU LOVE THE BAND, YOU'D GROW WITH THEM NO MATTER WHAT" and "YOU'RE NOT A REAL FAN IF YOU DON'T LOVE EVERYTHING THEY DO" comments. Generally, these comments are said by idiots. If a band changes their style, there's good change and bad change. Vampire Weekend used good change. Very good change. Fantastic album.

Bagged a pass for Weekend #2. Had fun last year but this year looks even better.

Back to the sound of the 2nd album, so we can finally pretend the 3rd one didn't happen.

I'm not sure I could even LISTEN to any one song on constant loop for 6 hours, much less perform one! Hahaha. Though I'd be fine with that since there's like 8 or 9 better songs on High Violet.

Not in probably 3 years haha

Now THIS is Travis. I haven't obsessively listened to these guys in at least 5 years and I can't wait to get back into them.

I saw Jeff Mangum last year and I suddenly feel less satisfied about that with this announcement. Anyway, ecstatic, even though I don't treat these guys like religion like half the hipster universe does. :laugh3:

I feel sorry for anyone who went to the first night of any back-to-back show in the same city on the NA leg (well except in LA, night 1 was actually the best here). :laugh3: Also, Matt let it slip in an interview that they're playing ACL this year. I had tentative plans to attend again this year depending on the lineup, and Muse might be the clincher I need. Come join me, the more the merrier! (Violet, this is your chance to finally see them dammit :P)

Quite the opposite. I didn't mind Panic Station until I saw it live and thought it was unbelievably boring live.

First great Muse video since "Knights of Cydonia". Now if only it was for a better song. :laugh3:

Marina and the Diamonds >>>>> Coldplay (also, have fun)

I'm not the biggest Biffy fan, though I also now feel fortunate as hell to have seen them last Saturday. And Dead Sara is a freaking Warped Tour band. That should tell you all you need to know. :dozey:

Coachella scheduling was stupid and scheduled Phoenix, Sigur Ros, and New Order ALL AT THE SAME TIME, so I missed Phoenix and went to New Order. Sad though, especially since an R. Kelly appearance may have excited me just as much as a Daft Punk appearance, which everyone was (stupidly) insisting would happen all weekend.

Tame crowd was expected, and the band knew that. This is a market who doesn't know who Blur actually is aside from MAYBE "Song 2", with the hardcore fans being more of a cult than anything else. I spotted several of those cult pockets in the audience and they were definitely having a euphoric time, while Damon seemed to be most concerned with winning over a crowd who didn't know a damn thing about them. He seemed to succeed by the end of the night. As for me, as an American resident, I'm happy I got to see them once in my life. I may never again get the opportunity again, but I didn't think I would get this opportunity in the first place. And that "Tender" singalong was goddamn beautiful.

Bingo. If you're going to use a camera, hold it in front of your face, not above your head. This especially applies if you're tall. Also, use a real digital point-and-shoot camera, not your phone. A digital camera won't take shitty photos and videos where you can't decipher a thing because of how blown out your phone's speakers get. iPhone video on Youtube is virtually unwatchable.

That was one of the 5 best shows of my entire life. (Stone Roses, on the other hand, were a huge letdown. Ended up walking over to Tegan and Sara.)

Phones are killing live music. If you're going to record, use a real camera, not your phone. At least a real camera won't have shitty visuals and incoherent sound.

Another new single, this one's better: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFnA-8H-5lo]The National - "Don't Swallow the Cap" - YouTube[/ame]

There'd been a fan campaign to get Dead Star played in North America for a while now (they hadn't played it here since 2004) and the band finally broke down and acknowledged it last night, so you lucked out!

You got Dead Star. You suck. No seriously, I have another friend who went, his 10th Muse show, just posted on FB that it was the best one he's ever been to.