There was a time when I thought there were only two kind of Weezer fans: the ones who identified with Pinkerton and the ones who jumped on the bandwagon because “Island in the Sun” was so damned catchy. But since the group’s 2001 re-emergence, more and more of the former group have shunned the band, writing off front man Rivers Cuomo as a two-trick pony and calling Weezer (The Green Album), Maladroit, and Make Believe nothing but average power pop. Early reviews for the band’s sixth offering, Weezer (Red Album), follow that path, solidifying the new kind of Weezer fan: overly analytical elitist. Surely, none of the post-cloister albums are as good as Pinkerton or Weezer (Blue Album), and some of them do have some awful songs, but they’re all remarkably listenable, and the red Weezer is no exception.

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It’s Friday, and that means time for another video from Movie Hawk. Enjoy the music video of “Car Crash” by Matt Nathanson. Anyone who reads this site with any regularity needs no explanation for why I’m posting this.

Edit: Whoops, looks like they aren’t allowing embedding. Here’s the link.

For as long as the series has existed, Guitar Hero has fascinated me. Whenever I would walk by an open demo station in my local Best Buy, I couldn’t resist stopping and playing a song. Or three. But, as my console ownership has a history of both brand loyalty and generation skipping (I went from the original NES to N64, running both into the ground before buying a Nintendo Wii), I had precious few opportunities to get more acquainted with the high concept game. All that changed last week when the series’ newest member, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, came to the Wii.

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There’s a reason that America went ga-ga over Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising in 2002. It was a time when America needed to lean on its homegrown folk heroes, and the Boss responded with politically charged, yearning numbers that recalled the glory of old New York and ached over the day that changed it forever. We ate up The Rising because Springsteen and the E Street Band were something familiar, but the album – artistically bombastic but commercially bland – was far from the product we had become familiar with. On Magic, the Boss’ new album and first collaboration with the band since ‘02, he offers an age-defying set of nostalgia, the aura of which should last far longer than his previous effort.

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On the cover of Rilo Kiley’s Under the Blacklight, singer Jenny Lewis and guitarist Blake Sennett stare coldly at each other as their band mates look forward. Their romantic breakup after the release of 2004’s successful More Adventurous nearly killed the band’s momentum, especially after Lewis found acclaim with her solo Rabbit Fur Coat. The band is back with the release of Under the Blacklight, and while many critics are noting Lewis and Sennett’s Fleetwood Mac-like ability to churn out music under emotional turmoil, what’s more noteworthy is that Rilo Kiley has taken their music in a whole new direction and put out what may be their most enjoyable album to date.

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Matt Nathanson is something of a paradox. He’s a serial jokester who writes intensely touching songs. He’s a radio-ready pop star who seems content having spent ten years under the radar. And while some might suggest that he “sold out” when releasing the robustly produced 2003 album Beneath These Fireworks (which didn’t really sell, per se); true to this dual nature, his sound benefited from the move.

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It’s somewhat strange that, after three years working at a place that switches to flexible hours during the summer, I haven’t found a proper way to take advantage of the fact that I don’t have to work most Fridays between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Through Mark at the Long Cut, I knew of WXPN’s Free at Noon Concert series, but I never thought it would be worth my afternoon to take advantage.

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Full explanation to follow, but suffice to say that this autograph pretty much guarantees that I’m having a spectacular birthday weekend.

While you’re waiting for an explanation, why not check out the rest of this photo set on my Flickr page?

When he first burst onto the music scene as the teenaged frontman of the grunge band Radish, Ben Kweller was all sizzle and no steak. Adored by creative teams at record labels, Radish never caught on commercially, and Kweller broke away from the band at the age of 19 to start a solo career. In his most recent album, a self-titled effort, Kweller finally seems to have settled as a songwriter, reflecting on his erstwhile music ventures and the rediscovery of young love.

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As a reviewer, I’ve never felt dwarfed by a band whose album I was about to critique. From Springsteen to the Shins, I’ve always been able to take a step back and listen to the music without feeling an attachment to the artist. But when They Might Be Giants’ new album, The Else, arrived in my mailbox and made its way to my car stereo, I suddenly became nervous. It’s not that I have any great affinity for this band that has been making music since the year I was born – one of my closest friends is a rabid fan girl, but I only have an attachment to a mix CD of their work that she made me. It’s just that their fan base is such a unique niche and their oeuvre is so cemented in the pop culture landscape after 25 years that it doesn’t feel like what I’m about to say is even going to matter. But, because I’m something that resembles a professional, I’m going to say it anyway.

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