Comeback Musicians and A Crazy election candidate

It's Friday (the 13th even!), let's have some fun entry.

In the last 2 weeks, there are new materials from 2 bands that I heard a lot in 2003/04 - Maroon 5 and Linkin Park. I like their stuffs a lot, used to listen to them until I get sick of them. There hasn't been anything new from them for over 2 years until now, so let's see what they've got:

Maroon 5 - Makes Me Wonder



I'm a big fan of Maroon 5 since I heard "This Love". It was followed by "She Will Be Loved" and "Sunday Morning" - one great song after another. Even if they had their generic-rock-song hit - "Harder To Breathe", I didn't mind. After "Sunday Morning", I did something I rarely do: buy their album - Songs About Jane. Maroon 5 had this nice blending of soul, a little jazz and rock into their songs and Adam Levine's lazy falsetto focals makes them stand out.

I've really been anticipating their new stuffs greatly. So when I heard their new song, Makes Me Wonder, I can't help but getting a little disappointed. This Love, She Will Be Loved, Sunday Morning - I fell in love with those songs the first time I heard it. Makes Me Wonder - not so. Maybe it's not really fair to have such a high expectation - it's actually quite a nice disco/dance inspired song, but it's still not as good as their best stuffs.

Linkin Park - What I've Done



I used to hate Linkin Park when I saw their video for Crawling - eww, those stuffs are so dark and bleak and those screaming are too hard to stand. But when I started to listen to their stuffs, I changed my mind. I have been waiting for their next song since "Breaking the Habit" and "Faint". Their new song, "What I've Done" is all right, sounds like a typical Linkin Park song - with a few differences. Mike Shinoda isn't rapping and Chester isn't screaming anymore (maybe those vocal surgeries have taken its toll). Furthermore, in the video, the band looks like they're U2 wannabe, with Chester being a cheap man's Bono. Linkin Park has gone on record saying that they're going into different direction with their new album and they won't do their old stuffs anymore. Until I hear more, it remains to be seen if it's a good thing or not. Their latest album, Minutes To Midnight, comes out on May 14/15.



Speaking of musicians with new albums this year, I actually didn't want to pose this embarassing stuffs but I have some strong feelings about this:

Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend



I confess I once liked Avril Lavigne. There was a time in early 2000s when she and Michelle Branch, Nelly Furtado, Pink came on to the scene and challenged the bubblegum pop princesses like Britney Spears. "Complicated", "Sk8ter Boi" aren't really great songs, but their pseudo-punk rock sounds are fresh during that time. In fact, I still listen to "Sk8ter Boi" as a guilty pleasure song (Lyrics: "He was a boy, she was a girl, can i make it anymore obvious." - is a case study of lazy songwriting). But flash forward till now, I watched this video of her latest song, Girlfriend. I didn't even finish it and I thought, isn't she too old for this shit? Seriously, she's married now and she is still doing the punk rock high school girl stuffs like her first album on the video? She's even worse than Ashlee Simpson in that video. Really embarassing stuffs and I don't think I will listen to any of her juvenile crap like this anymore.

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This has almost nothing to do with music. But I found this extremely funny stuffs yesterday. Apparently, in Tokyo, Japan, each candidate for the gubernatorial election can have a 5 minute video where they can speak their mind and basically convince people why they should vote for him/her. Last year, Tokyo just had one and along comes a left wing musician candidate with a mission. a video.

Damn, his candidacy video is just one of the most hilarious thing I've seen recently. Please watch it all the way to the end. If you think Ralph Nader or some 2003 California Governor recall election candidates (like Gary Coleman) are crazy, you ain't see nothing yet. Without much further ado, I present you: Koichi Toyama for Governor



They even made the South Park version:



... and apparently, he isn't the first one to do it. Years ago, another musician did a similarly strange video too:



I would seriously consider voting for any of these guys, especially Koichi, whose immortal awesome last words are "If I win, the majority will be freaked out, I will be freaked out too! Vote for me!". Now, that's a candidate worth voting for.