If you want to know what is really going on in music, skip Amazon.com, and go to Amazon’s UK site. Unavoidably, they will still have the mainstream garbage, but scattered throughout their top selling albums are the gems that will either hit the American charts in a month or two, or will get overlooked by the American scene. A case in point is Franz Ferdinand’s album. On the UK chart, this album has been in the top ten for a while now, and in the US it has finally broken into the top 50. And the UK is correct to embrace this album. The comparisons to The Strokes, Interpol, and The Rapture are evident, but that doesn’t stop Franz Ferdinand from breaking some new ground and establishing themselves as a force to be reconned with. The album is fun and highly addictive.

“Good News For People Love Bad News” has really impressed me. I had an appreciation for Modest Mouse based on “The Moon and Antarctica,” but their new album has made me look at them in a new light. Now that it has become a favorite album of mine, it doesn’t make it any easier to describe, however. All comparison to other bands fail.

I have read reviews that say Modest Mouse is trying to appeal to a broader audience, but I think the broader appeal of this album is due more to the effective arrangement of the Modest Mouse sound than to any shift in the direction by the band. I can’t see anything in this album that wasn’t present in small doses in previous Modest Mouse albums. The lyrics are interetingly clever, but it takes the intensity of Isaac Brock’s vocals to make them engaging. You are rewarded if you listen to the lyrics, but it is not necessary. It is what is going on beneath the vocals that is really important. It is experimental at times, but even the weirdest moments support a melody or rhythm that holds it all together. It is really impossible to describe the Modest Mouse sound, so listen to it online or at the store before you buy it.

Design notes: The album cover is great, and their video for “Float On” is excellent. Very nice.

I have been working on updating my online graphic design portfolio to replace what I currently have at design.adrianhanft.com Hopefully I will have it up and running in a week or so. Above is a teaser of the direction the graphics are going. I am building it all in Flash, so hopefully it will look pretty slick.

I have been listening to Ben Kweller’s new album “On My Way” for about a month now. Here is a little background before I talk about the album. BK had a little known album called “Freak Out, Its Ben Kweller.” I am not sure how widely it was distributed because the only way I could hear it was to download it via Kazaa. His first major album was “Sha Sha” which had several of the the same tracks as “Freak Out,” but the production and arrangements were much tighter. “Sha Sha” has remained a favorite album of mine, and when he, Ben Folds, and Ben Lee formed “The Bens” it solidified BK as a favorite artist of mine.
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This weekend we had a garage sale. We did really well and made almost $100, but the highlight of the day was what I bought at a garage sale a few blocks away. I bought the two planes above for $5 (he was asking $3 each). I was researching the planes online, and couldn’t find anything on the tin wind-up plane, but I was able to learn a little about the Mickey Mouse plane. It was made by the Sun Rubber company in the 1930’s or 40’s. I am going to have to research the value a little more, but I am guessing it is worth about $150. It says “Mickey’s Air Mail” written on the side, and it has the original wheels. The paint is almost all still present, but the blades of the propeller have broken off. I think I am going to sell Mickey on Ebay, and keep the tin plane for my desk. I know alot of designers like to have toys on their desk. Why is that? Maybe since we enjoy our jobs so much, it just makes sense to surround ourselves with fun things.

To anyone thinking about starting a blog, I found some encouraging words on Whitespace. (What a fantastic name for a blog.) Being relatively new to blogging, I have found myself wondering if it matters if anyone reads this blog. Why do I want to keep writing? After thinking it over, I decided that I write to hear myself think. More than anything, it is a great way to document my thoughts, clarify my ideas, and to let me vent. That is rational enough for me. If you are questioning whether or not it is worth contributing to the constanly ballooning blogosphere, you might be interested in the conversation found on Whitespace.
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