Question: What would make OK Go‘s great music videos even better?

Answer: A whole pack o’ dogs!

The Black Keys make great music, and The Black Keys are great live. The Dispatch review of last night’s show at the LC Pavilion is… okay. Describing Brothers as the band’s defining album is way off base: it features some very good stuff, but also several utterly skip-worthy tracks. I agree, though, with the tone of the Dispatch review, as I heartily recommend seeing the Keys live if you like bluesy rock even a little.

I’ve got all but the first Keys album – yes, I’m one of those late arrivals who didn’t hear of the Akron duo until Attack & Release – and couldn’t have been much happier with the set list. Although Dan Auerbach’s voice lost the battle against drums and guitar, the rocking-ness of his guitar and Patrick Carney’s drums completely made up for that.  I was hoping to hear 10 A.M Automatic, but when a band has 6 albums to cover it’s hard to be picky!

If you want to see a movie based on a web comic which is itself heavily influenced by video games, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is nearly perfect. It’s more stylized than I expected, which won’t sit well with some viewers, but I was impressed. The trailers had me looking forward to indier-than-thou dry humor in a geeky wrapper, with some goofy action for good measure. That could have been entertaining, if not exactly original… given that Michael Cera himself has been in, what, 19 films matching that description? Pilgrim is, in fact, something unique, and something very, very funny.

For a year or so I’ve been using Microsoft’s Zune software – despite the fact that I don’t have a Zune – because of how cool the online community features are. It’s a memory hog, it does janky things with your library’s metadata, and not all of your plays are tracked as they’re supposed to be. I’ve always felt a little guilty, operating on the assumption that iTunes was far superior software.

I was wrong. iTunes sucks. Want to add some music to your library? Give iTunes a few months to move everything… and convert it to a proprietary format. Want to get art for the 90% of your CDs whose album art was not recognized? You’ll have to sign in to the iTunes store. Then you’ll have to go to the website to confirm your identity. Then you’ll have to log in on the website again. Then when you’ve updated your account info (which requires you to provide a credit card), you’ll have to log back in through iTunes.

Congratulations! For all your trouble, you’ve earned the right to sync your music to your iPod. If you want to copy said music onto a different machine… good luck. If you connect a different iPod it will be logged in to your iTunes account, and you may have to smash it with a rock to sign it out. Each time you connect an unregistered iPod, it will try to register itself to your account until you’ve told it not to four times. If you need to charge someone else’s iPod, you’ll have to sync it with your library — or all the iPod’s contents will be deleted. Really, Apple? It takes some seriously aggravating “features” to make me wish I were using a Microsoft program.

Got back a little while ago from the LIVESTRONG Summit Presidential Town Hall on campus, and when I went out back to water the plants something caught the corner of my eye: a fluffy white tail, hopping away from the flowerbed. Little bugger hopped just over the property line – we’re talking a matter of inches – and watched me water what I thought were my plants, but which may more accurately be described as his.

Regarding the Town Hall, it was pretty good. I went to see John McCain and Lance Armstrong in person, and was impressed by both. It’s no wonder Obama doesn’t want to be within a country mile of McCain without a prompter. Sure he’s a stubborn old codger, but he’s also sharp and quick of his feet and brimming with experience. He had my vote before and he certainly has it now, although I could have gone without mentions of McCain-Kennedy and McCain-Feingold.

In the vein of continuity (is that what this is?), continued prayers for the Roeths and Chivingtons. I don’t know how long the page will be accessible, but there’s a good article from the 7/18 edition of the Troy Daily News following Carrie’s passing.

Further continuity still, the book o’ Faces tells me the following:

Griffin House’s performance for The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is now scheduled for Friday, July 25th.

Tune your TV and watch Griffin performing “The Guy That Says Goodbye To You Is Out Of His Mind” on national TV.

There you have it – a reason to watch Craig Ferguson. Who, apparently, is still on the air? Griffin will be on Conan soon enough, by golly!

I got a few things from griffinhousemusic.com in the mail today and remembered that I haven’t mentioned Griffin enough, since I stopped writing my crappy little music reviews way back when. Although he may not have realized it, with a name like Griffin House the man was always destined for fame and/or notoriety. It’s a spectacular name.

Griffin was leaving Miami around the time I was arriving. One of my best friends there had an older brother, who got him listening to Griffin our freshman year when I’d barely started to realize there was good music other than the few bands I liked from what the top-40 schlock stations play. So it took awhile for the southern rock, or alt-country – whatever they’re selling him as – to grow on me. Griffin knows how to write a catchy tune, and his lyrics strike such a good balance between plain and poetic. Again I’ll link griffinhousemusic.com, with the suggestion that if you like “alternative rock” (or any of the samples playing on his website), you’d be hard pressed to do better than Griff.

To establish that I’m not a clueless fanboy, a complaint about Flying Upside Down, Griffin’s latest album. “I Remember (It’s Happening Again)” is a single – I always hate when an artist I like releases a single, and it’s one of the few tracks I skip. I have no place to talk and no expertise in the matter. Further, if it gets people talking and grows Griffin’s audience, all the better. But as a person who cares about lyrics, “I Remember (It’s Happening Again)” is… well, kind of silly. If you’re a person who thinks that war is never justified or that America should defend her interests only within her own borders, you’ll adore the lyrics. If not, you may find yourself digging the tune and shaking your head at most of the words.

There you have it, a complaint. As for the rest of the album, tracks 1, 3-6, 12, and 13 are great songs – some upbeat, some not… some about God, some about “the ladies,” all of them genuine Griffin. There are a handful of dupes from Homecoming or previous releases, but it happens. It wasn’t enough to keep me from ordering the disc, despite having bought a FLAC version of the album last year. I’m not sure whether I like Flying Upside Down as much as Homecoming or Lost + Found, but that’s not much of an issue considering that I love all three. Check out the man’s website!!

A few quick things so I’m not horribly late for work: first, I will be listening to Chuck Berry this morning. Does every song sound alike? Sure. But it struck me a bit ago that it’s great Friday music, just the same.

Thing numero dos: My roomate just showed me a short and wonderful video from YouTube, everyone’s favorite (and least favorite) home of grainy video clips. Adjust your speakers to the appropriate level, and check “Birdtown” out!

Finally, please tell me you’ve been watching Reaper. My parents recommended it to me (let the record show that they also watch The Big Bang Theory – so, I don’t always agree with ‘em), and it’s the best thing going for the CW at the moment. Which, alright, may not be saying a lot…  still. The guy playing the Devil is spot-on: sharp and sly and of course, awful. All the cast is entertaining, but Sam especially. It’s fun to watch an actor go from being the dork in Grounded for Life to being the awesome dork in Reaper.

And I’m off — everyone have a decent Friday and a great weekend!