The Purple Beanie Boredom Writings

Again night has washed over this city with a blanket of false promises and a shroud for those who only exist in darkness. Bright neon signs display themselves vividly in an almost defiant act towards the blackness that the night has brought along with it. It seems like I've been traveling down these streets for an eternity, seeing the hungry, the poor, and the waste that roams in between the cracks and alleys of the city, never having enough courage to show themselves in the daylight. Dirty politicians and their dirty rules have made this city more of a hell with each passing day and night, oblivious to the repercussions they have set for themselves, assuming that there will never be too high a price to pay. It is nights like these I can feel myself age, like the sand in a time keeper, I can feel the years slip through my grip as I gaze out and see I'm not the only one infected by this sociable disease. Most choose not to get involved with what they do not understand, but then again it would seem that most choose to not even try to understand. So they sit, still and idle as the world around them falls to pieces, never moving out of line, never breathing on their own. I have felt my inner self wanting to grasp my hands around their throats and end their meaningless existence while screaming to the Heavens that none of them deserved to live anyways, but it's always with a heavy heart that I bite my tongue and let those who live vicariously through their governments continue to do just that. It seems all I can do at this point is gaze out into the eternal night and try to comprehend just how endless it has become over the years, biting my time, sitting on my hands until the cancer that has been eating this city piece by piece finally turns it's attention to me. Some would blame others for the way this world has become, most would blame a religious figure such as a God for their problems and curse his name until the day the can no longer breathe another breath of the putrid air they have come to rely on, while all the while it is only few that truly understand that we have sealed out own fates, it is our choices and the willpower that was bestowed upon us so many years ago that lead to where we are now, and when this city is no more and the world finally burns, cleansing itself back to purity, I will see the many crawling over each other for salvation, and I will lie back and finally understand that in the end we were never meant for the world just as the world was never meant for us, and I shall smile as it reclaims all that once belonged to it...

The Weekly Movie Review

Alright movie fans and comic fans alike, I figure it's time I do a more current comic book movie for this review, and yeah I know I already wrote a quick summary of it early, but here is the official Purple Beanie Review of Frank Millar's movie "The Spirit".


















"The Spirit" tells that story of a former police officer who was gunned down in the prime of his career only to return to life and carry out justice like Central City has never seen before. Although there were many people who didn't want to see this movie because they aren't too fond of Frank Millar, I find this movie to actually be the least Frank Millar of all the Frank Millar movies. I mean don't get me wrong there are plenty of elements that you can obviously tell Frank Millar wrote, but since this movie was based off of Will Eisner's works, it was almost as if Millar had a hypathetical line he wouldn't cross like he would in his other films and/or comics. The filming style is of course the same to Sin City which was the main thing that stood out that made people realize this was a Frank Millar movie, but I have to say the way this movie was filmed really added to the whole atmosphere of it. It was dark, but still had bright enough colors to distinguish one thing from another. The way the movie portrayed women was nothing short of amazing. Most have said that all the women were just typical scantally clad dames, but that's what they are supposed to be! Ok one huge thing about this movie most over look is that it's mainly supposed to be an old school type of mystery (such as sherlock holmes) only told in modern day. It has all the technology we have in this day and age, all the griddiness, all the sexuality, and all the humor we have come to know in this century. You have an entire smorgisboard of women to choose from in this movie! You have the evil ones, the good ones, the evil yet good ones, the utterly mysterious ones, the in your face ones, the ones you want but can't get, the ones you get but long for more, it's astounding how much this movie covers when it comes to women. Now I can understand that maybe some people would consider the women in this movie to be objectified or whatever, but honestly it seems that the character of The Spirit is literally in love with every woman he comes across. He doesn't treat them like meat, you can tell he seems to actually love them (unless he's just trying to sweet talk his way out of something). In fact, throughout the movie he seems to have a steady love intrest that he is trying to stay loyal to because he knows that she is the one geniune woman that will in turn better him. But anyways, that's enough about the women for now. The villain, The Octopus was brilliantly and obsurdly hilarious! Now in the comics I believe he is taken a little more seriously, but in the film if they tried to take a villain such as The Octopus serious, I think it would have been a disaster. The man is a master of disguise, could you imagine taking him seriously when in one scene he is dressed like a samari and in the next he is dressed like a nazi? Well anyways, the chemistry between The Octopus and The Spirit is utterly amazing as they are obviously bitter enemies and yet can still hold a conversation with each other while in the middle of a fight (and don't worry, I'm not even going to try and spoil the AWESOME fight scenes they have). In the film The Octopus is trying to achieve immortality so he can in fact rule the world with no one to stop him, but of course The Spirit can't allow that as he is on an almost obsessive mission to take down The Octopus while at the same time having to travel down memory lane as an old childhood ex-girlfriend returns to stur up the waters in The Spirit's city. There's not a lot I can say about this film that wouldn't ruin it, so I'm just going to leave it at this, this movie is NOT meant to be taken seriously! If you walk in there expecting this to be a down to earth, serious mystery/detective film, then you might as well get your money back right now for the ticket you just bought because there is no way that this movie was made to be serious in any way, shape, or form. Now don't get me wrong, there are some serious parts, but the overall movie is just a fun ride that you just need to sit back and enjoy.

I give "The Spirit" 8 sexy nazi Scarlett Johanson's out of 10

The Weekly Movie Review

Alright before I start this review I want all of you to keep an open mind, because that's sure as hell what I did while watching this. It's one from the late 90's as it seemed to be a pretty mainstream hit, even though the majority of the audience of this film were just dough eyed girls who were just into whatever flavor of the month movie was out at the time, but I decided I'd dig deep and try to find a reason why this movie is worth watching. This is the Purple Beanie Movie Review of "Cruel Intentions".


















Starring Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Reese Witherspoon, "Cruel Intentions" is the film of a dysfunctional yet sexually tensioned step brother and sister (Phillippe and Gellar) who seemed to find no joy in this world other than causing others misery and getting what they want along the way. Now right there I'd say forget it, I'm not even going to bother but there was something about this movie that was really standing out to me, I'm not sure what it was at first but it wasn't until I recently watched did I realize it was the incredibly dark undertone of this movie that really makes it captivating to me. Well the step brother and sister are very used to a rich and posh lifestyle as it would seem that they basically have enough money to do whatever they want, the only thing that seems to bind them down is their reputations. Although Sarah Michelle Gellar's character Kathryn is a very vindictive and seducing character, the persona she puts on in front of the public is rather innocent and bright, not at all what her character truly is. As for Ryan Phillippe's character Sebastian, he seems to have a proud standing reputation of luring girls with false promises and sweet words he knows they want to hear, but even though he takes joy in fulfilling his own greedy and dirty desires, he begins to grow tired of sleeping with the same kind of girl over and over again. Enter Reese Witherspoons character Annette. Annette seems to be the purist of pure girls, she goes as far as to write an article in a magazine about why she wants to save sex until marriage, thus catching the eye of Sebastian. Annette is the daughter of the new headmaster of the prep school Kathryn and Sebastian attend as Sebastian sees his golden opportunity to make his reputation legendary but sleeping with the daughter of the head master and corrupt the holyer than holy Annette, and so a bet is placed between the two step siblings. If Sebastian fails, Kathryn gets his rather nice looking car, and if Sebastian wins and winds up sleeping with Annette, he gets to sleep with Kathryn (weird). Now there is an entire sub plot I'm leaving out involving Selma Blair's character and her music teacher, but honestly I don't think it serves really any significance in this review other than proving the fact that Kathryn is a bitch. Well Sebastian tries as hard as he can to seduce the virgin Annette, but she is more clever than she lets on as she is fully aware of his reputation and won't be swayed so easily. Seducing Annette becomes a quick obsession with Sebastian, as he begins to find himself falling in love with her. Soon enough however he actually does sleep with her, but by this time the bet doesn't even matter anymore. Rather Sebastian does this act out of love rather than greed and bragging rights. But as their relationship progresses, Sebastian of course has a cruel run in with his conscience and realizes he has to break up with her because obviously he can't continue a relationship that started because of a bet, that and Kathryn decided to be a bitch once more and threatened his reputation if he didn't do something about it. So Sebastian ended the relationship and of course put on a charade in front of Kathryn making it seem as though he didn't care about breaking up with Annette, only to have it thrown back at him as Kathryn makes it ubuntently clear that Sebastian is nothing more than a toy that would break up with the love of his life just because he didn't want to ruin his reputation. Well of course Sebastian apologizes to Annette by giving her his journal which revealed everything. The bet, who Kathryn really is, everything. After reading it, Annette forgives him and wants to be with him as she soon finds him in a fight in the middle of the road with Selma Blair's music teacher because he found out that Sebastian slept with Selma Blair's character as a part of Kathryn's plan to make her music teacher jealous. Well as they are fighting in the road, Annette comes up to try and stop them as Sebastian pushes her out of the way of an oncoming car and thus is struck by the car killing him, but before he dies he reveals to Annette that he loves her and that she loves him. In the end, Kathryn gets whats coming to her as Sebastian's journal if photocopied and spread around school, thus fucking her over and Annette continues her life a little bit wiser it would seem now. Alright now I get that the film sounds like just some 90's teen flick but honestly this movie was pretty gripping. Of course it had many dumb parts, but they were pretty tolerable in the long run. It had a perfect balance of comedy, sexuality, and darkness that you don't really get with many movies now a days. If you're tired of watching the same kind of movie day in and day out, I strongly recommend this movie to you, it's a unique story, and it will really make you realize that the purest evil of this world is by far corruption.

I give "Cruel Intentions" 9 Sarah Michelle Gellar making out with Selma Blairs out of 10

So Why Is Superman Worth Defending?

Superman...What is there to say about that character that hasn't been said before? He is THE superhero, he was the man that started it all. With a very successful comic book career and major motion pictures, Superman has truly stood the test of time and he will most likely continue to even when our lifetimes are good and over. Well recently it seems that Superman has been getting a bum wrap all because of the latest movie. Now comic book wise, Superman has been doing AMAZING! With such story lines as "Escape From Bizarro World", "The Return Of Brainiac", and the Legion storyline, Superman has had a great year as he has been at nothing short of the top of DC. Unfortunately most people in society though only watch the movies. Now that's not usually a problem, if you don't want to read a comic, then don't read a comic, but the only problem I see is the people assume that the movies are direct adaptations of the comic books. So far I have never seen a comic book movie that was exactly like the comic book it originated from. I don't believe that's a bad thing though because who would want to hear the same story again and again? BUT! I'll admit that I can not wait to see the Watchmen movie because it seems that film so far is following the comic book page for page with some exceptions. Anyways, I'm getting off topic now. The whole Superman hatered seemed to have started way back when, when everyone though Superman was far too powerful, so what did they do? Of course they dulled down his powers, but then he seemed to become stale, and rather uninteresting. So now, I believe the found the perfect balance between the two that so far has worked amazingly for the character. Well now that the subject of him being to powerful was resolved, there is the issue of the latest Superman movie "Superman Returns". "Superman Returns" opened to very well numbers actually as most found themselves disappointed because I suppose they were expecting a total brawl fest throughout the film. Now I can't go blamming them entirely because even I agree with them at some points. The only difference though is that I don't believe that "Superman Returns" was a terrible movie as most make it out to be. It carried over from the old Christopher Reeves Superman films, basically picking up after the second movie. Now I believe the best part of the film was how much Brandon Routh reminded me of Christopher Reeves, it was almost uncanny. The special effects were astounding, the way they captured superman's powers were literally breath taking. Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor in my opinion was far superior to Gene Hackman's Luthor (even though Hackman did a great job as well). This movie treated it's audience alittle more seriously than the previous films where it was mainly all about wacky villain antics, and Superman obsessing over Lois the entire time. Of course there was plenty of Superman wanting to be with Lois, but what Superman story wouldn't have that? But this film had more, it had Superman coming back to a world that he quite literally abandoned as he finds that Lois had fallen in love with another and even had a kid, and we find out that maybe people didn't need Superman just as much as they thought they did. Now on to the bad about this movie, Luthor is after the whole wanting to possess land again even though it has a unique twist by making his entire island made out of kryptonite that Superman has to endure to destroy it. Lois's kid is actually Superman's kid which is my main problem with the whole movie. Because in the second one obviously the had sex and he made her forget, so when she realizes that her kid is actually Superman's, I wonder if she would be asking herself "when did Superman rape me?!". Another big complaint about this film people have is that Superman is too sad or too depressed during it. Well what do you expect?! The man returned to a world that claims they could give less of a shit about him when in actuality EVERYONE needs his help! He finds out the woman that he loves more than anything in the entire universe decided to utterly forget about him and find some other guy to be with, and then he even finds out he has a son but can't even be a part of his son's life, not to mention the fact he has to go against Luthor again on an island made of fucking kyrptonite! Well weither you hate him or love him, Superman will always be there weither it be in comics or movies. Over the years he's been praised and trashed just for doing what he does best, inspiring people to pick up a comic or to even write their own comic. He is the embodiment of good and the hero we all grew up with. So if you want to go and hate him, fine, but don't you dare be little a character as large as Superman, because all in all it won't matter what crummy review you give him, he will always stand the test of time with his cape waving proudly. That is why I believe Superman is worth defending.

The Purple Beanie Guy's Ode To "How Soon Is Now"

Oh, I know what you're thinking, "You listen to The Smiths? That must mean you're really depressed!". Well I can tell you in all honesty that is not the case what so ever. Now it is well known that The Smiths are a band known for their rather darker side of music, not anything evil or anything like that, they just seem to be well known for really knowing how to capture an emotion and really display it in ways that weren't common in their day. As of course the lead singer of the band Morrissey went on to do his own solo projects, The Smiths were a statement, a band that knew it had to separate itself from most of the well known acts going on during that time period. With their hit song "How Soon Is Now?", The Smiths were able to catch the attention of music listeners everywhere as they brought with them a beginning of a new era. Although most would call it "Dark New Wave" or some other categorization such as that, I can't help but think it's Grunge before there was Grunge, the 90's before there was the 90's.

















Released on their album "Meat Is Murder", "How Soon Is Now?" has become a landmark song that has been covered countless times and frankly seems to be the anthem of any depressed teen. That really kind of annoys me though that this song is just overlooked now a days as just some teenage suicide song, I believe this song deserves far more credit than it is getting in this day and age. Although I realize that most songs that teens are into are from bands such as Three Days Grace, and Manson and what not, when songs such as "How Soon Is Now?" and a band such as The Smiths are pushed aside for previous generations. Now look, I'm not saying that the only way you can enjoy this song is if you are depressed and dark, honestly I believe that it can be enjoyed by anyone because it is a broadcast of the raw emotion, a tribute to it if you will. Using a unique sound and very bold lyrics for that time, The Smiths have created many songs and albums that I hopefully believe will stand the test of time and hopefully be appreciated for what they are rather than just cast aside as melodramatic teenage angst songs. It's songs such as "How Soon Is Now?" that show that not every darker form of song writing needs to be written with repetitive lyrics or be masked by heavy rhythms, but rather can be just as powerful of a song through sheer dedication for what they write and being able to produce the songs with soothing and calming rhythms while at the same time singing about something as horrible as depression. In my opinion The Smiths were truly innovators of their time!

Just A Few Comic Book Quotes I Like

"I could do it. I could restore our crumbling top soil to the lone from which the rich jungle sprang. And why stop there? Why not rebuild the forest of the Amazon, less green now than an average suburbia and shrinking by the day. I could drop grapes into the mouths of all the hungry children. Turn the Gallivan Sahara into green and rippling meadows, give the widows roses and the old men strawberries. I could touch all this world with wilderness as I have touched Gotham, could transform this planet to a sphere of perfumes, colors, and full bellies. I could save mankind. I could do anything. Anything. Is this then what it is to be a God? To know and never do? To watch the world wind by...And in it's winding find content? If I should feed the world, heal all the wounds man's smoldering industries have made, what would he do? Would he renounce the wealth his saw mills bring? Step gently on the flowers instead and pluck each apple with the respect for this abundant world and it's providence? No. He would pump more poisons, build more mines, syphen the knowledge that I stood on hand to mind the bio-sphere, endlessly covering the skies he could now endlessly inflict." - Swamp Thing

"There is a red and angry world. Red things happen there. The world eats your wife, eats your friends, eats all the things that make you human, and you become a monster. And the world just keeps on eating." - Swamp Thing

"Why is there something instead of nothing?" - Doom Patrol

"...No...No, don't leave me...You'll die...With me you live forever...This isn't happening...It cant...No pain...No pain anywhere...Light fails...Music falters...I need pain...Oh, the dark comes on in waves...I...I...Thought I was part of the grand story...The story that...That would at last give meaning to this senseless trajectory...The loop and spin of being...Instead...Instead I have learned a horrible truth of...Existance...Some stories have no meaning." - Doom Patrol

"If I'm going to have an origin, I perfer it to be mulitble choice." - The Killing Joke

"Nothing in this world shall ever touch me physically or emotionally again!" - Books Of Doom

The Weekly Movie Review

That's right boys and girls you guessed it! Based off of the old Batman 90's cartoon series I bring you The Purple Beanie Movie Review of "Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm".

Yes, the one full length feature film from the batman cartoon series that actually made it to the theaters, and managed to actually be better than some of the batman movies that were coming out at the time. Of course when I was a kid, I was psyched to see this film, it was like Christmas, only times about a million! I suppose if it were to have come out now a days, I would have been a little skeptical about it since it was just based off of a kid's cartoon series, but this movie just destroys any doubt! Although I don't believe it did well at the box office, this movie really stands up on it's own as one of the most treasured movies among Batman fans.













The film is full of action that is of course entertaining to children and any Batman fan, but it surprisingly brought a long with it, it's own share of darkness and really deep story lines. The creators of this film knew it wasn't going to be just some kids movie, it's obvious that they really respected their audience and truly brought them a movie worth all the praise it receives! Basically this film reveals how Bruce Wayne came to be Batman (when in the cartoon we only got brief hints of his training mainly.). We also find out that Bruce almost refused to become Batman since he finally lets himself be happy and drop the burden of guilt he carries every time we see him. It's very well told the way they showed how tormented Bruce Wayne truly is. It really was a nice change of pace since usually Bruce would just be the playboy and Batman would be the dark, deep character. You really feel for Bruce in this movie as you can tell all he wants is to live a normal life and not be tormented by the memory of his parents. Now of course in this film Batman does fight mob members, The Joker, and even a new villain known as The Phantasm who is going around killing those who "deserve" it, which obviously goes against Batman's code of conduct. Well I really don't want to spoil too much of this movie, and believe me, I only told you the tip of the ice berg here. There is so much of this movie that will lure you in and make you hesitant to look away. I understand that now a days people are very much so into "The Dark Knight" which I can understand why since it was an amazing movie, all I'm saying is that if you are a Batman fan, then please check this movie out if you haven't seen it! It's an amazing watch and worth every penny!

I give it 9 laughing Joker's missing a tooth out of 10

My Thoughts On "The Spirit"

Ok, so on Christmas day the movie adaptation of the popular/unpopular comic book series "The Spirit" is coming out and so far I've heard nothing but mixed ideals of the movie. First of all, the reason I call it a popular/unpopular comic book series is because in the comic book community, The Spirit is very well known, hell they even named an award after the creator of the series, but to most who usually only see the comic book movies or have only read more mainstream books, they probably don't know who the Spirit is. Well basically in a brief summary, the Spirit is a detective created by Will Eisner way back when who was shot over and over again but continued to live on and in fact gets every woman in the comic. Now I understand you might be thinking "that's pretty lame and uninteresting" and yeah at first I really thought the same thing, but what you really need to realize about the Spirit is that it is really not meant to be taken seriously. Ok let me put it this way, when you pick up a Sherlock Holmes book, obviously you are going to take it seriously, when you read/see The Watchmen, you're going to take the detective character Rorschach seriously, same thing with Batman, but the Spirit on the other hand should not be taken seriously by any means! You remember those old 1920 style mysteries? Kind of like Dick Tracie and what not, well just imagine that only with less name calling and bright yellow jackets. This seems to be the problem with people who have never read a Spirit comic and are seeing previews for the film. I read or heard somewhere that a critic said that the line in the trailer where the Spirit says "I'm gonna kill you all kinds of dead" was the worst line he had ever heard in any movie. Now ok I understand that it's the man's job to do movie reviews and to not always like what he sees and hears, but I can't understand why he would take that line so seriously. I get that the Spirit won't be some kind of academy award winning gold nugget, but it is what it is! So far all I've seen that movie promise is to tell a story of a gumshoe, yes a gumshoe who solves crimes and has the uncanny ability to not die. What people like this critic need to get is that this film is trying to bring back the old style of detective stories, the whole "of all the places in all the world she had to walk into mine" kind of feel you know? It's like watching a western and getting upset every time someone in the film says "hombre". Now I'm not exactly the biggest Frank Miller fan, frankly his run on All Star Batman & Robin was in my opinion a disaster, but I do admire some of his works such as Sin City and Ronin. Although I'm sure many hardcore Spirit fans might have been appalled by the fact that Frank Miller was writing and directing the Spirit movie, in my opinion he really is the best man for the job. I mean look at Sin City, he had perfect dynamics in that film that I believe will carry over and work incredibly well for a story such as the Spirit. The filming style I think looks amazing in every way! It's like looking at a comic book but not so much that it would be like the Eric Bana Hulk movie. *shudders* Well this movie is coming out on Christmas and I really can't wait to see it and I hope all of you will go out and see it even if you are a little hesitant. Just remember that this is a movie that is not meant to be taken seriously, it's just meant to entertain and tell a great story.

So Why Does The Purple Beanie Guy Like Bob Dylan?

For a while now, I've been asked over and over again why I got into Bob Dylan's style of music. It would seem that a lot of people are confused by why I like it which I'm not sure why since I used to be a huge Nirvana fan (and yes I do know that Nirvana and Bob Dylan have completely different styles of music). Well I'm going to write this blog to hopefully clear up any questions as to why I find Bob Dylan's musical workings amazing! Ok, well I'll admit this first and foremost, the first thing I ever saw or heard from Bob Dylan (other than "Blowin' In The Wind") was the recent movie "I'm Not There" which told the very unique story of Bob Dylan's life. The reason I picked up this movie is because "The Dark Knight" was coming out and I wanted to check out what other roles the actor Heath Ledger had been in before I saw his portrayal of the Joker, and I was really captured into the story of Bob Dylan as it would seem that he has lived and is continuing to live a very obscure life. Before I saw the movie I never really listened to much folk music, I never really bothered to care since I foolishly assumed that all folk music was exactly the same in every way and form, but I couldn't have been more wrong. After seeing the movie I went out and picked up a few of Bob Dylan's cd's since I really liked what I heard in the film. Now obviously not all of his songs are amazing, to tell the truth he has a lot of songs I don't really seem to go for, but the songs that I like are quite literally some of the most amazing songs I've ever heard in my lifetime. Just like most Bob Dylan fans will say, my favorite album of his is "Highway 61 Revisited". Now when this album came out the majority of Bob Dylan fans felt betrayed by him as "Highway 61 Revisited" was a complete left turn from his other works. Every artist seems to have this problem at one point in their life, they will be known for a certain style, and the moment the decided to try and explore their creative horizon, the avid fans of them feel alienated and unappreciated as if the artist was claiming that they didn't need the fans in some odd way. Well "Highway 61 Revisited" turned out to be a genius move by Dylan as it gave us the song he is known best by which is "Like A Rolling Stone". This song was recently featured in Rolling Stone Magazine's top 500 best songs of all time list and came in at a towering number 1. Now I don't know if that's because the song is just that good, or if Rolling Stone Magazine just wanted to try and promote their own title, but either way that song topped the list which I believe is quite well deserved. Now I understand that not everyone out there is a Bob Dylan fan, and thats alright by me, to each their own I always say, but I absolutely can not stand it when someone will judge negatively my taste in music or books or what have you just because they haven't heard it or read it or whatever. I believe that Bob Dylan was a genius without trying to be a genius. When he came onto the scene way back when, his style of music was almost unheard of, and to be able to shift his way of music in the mid of his career was a daring and brilliant move that some artists are still doing in this day and age. I find Bob Dylan to be a person who took the term of open mind quite literally and applied it to his works. He didn't think in a box, he wouldn't be restricted by what people thought of him, and sure enough he was able to endure even the most outlandish of hatred from fans and publicists alike.

Well I could talk about this subject for hours, but I figure it will just be me saying the same thing over and over again only worded differently. The point is that just because your friends and/or family listens to something and expect you to listen to the same does not mean at all that you have to. Go out and find what inspires you and work with it! That's the entire point I'm trying to get across here.

And that is why I like Bob Dylan.

Purple Beanie Album Reviews

Greetings and salutations again all, this is The Purple Beanie Guy with a new blog segment I like to call "Purple Beanie Album Reviews". These posts are going to be all about me reviewing albums I like, I'm hoping I can review albums that most of you have never heard of, but now a days there is always someone out there who's heard just about everything, but I'm going to do it anyways. And I'm going to start off with Modest Mouse's "The Lonesome Crowded West"!



Released by Up Records on November 18th 1997, "The Lonesome Crowded West" is by far Modest Mouse's crowning achievement. Although people mostly know Modest Mouse through their hit album "Good News For People Who Love Bad News", most don't even know about this album or have just not chosen to listen to it. I can understand why people are against Modest Mouse because of "Good News For People Who Love Bad News" since in my opinion it wasn't really their best stuff. Now don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the album, but I do believe they've had better. "The Lonesome Crowded West" was released near the end of the grunge movement as society seemed to have taken a turn and bask in pop music as if the grunge era had never happened. Fortunately though, "The Lonesome Crowded West" gave us one last taste of grunge before that musical era died out completely. With griddy guitar riffs, unique selection of instruments, and odd lyrics and song meanings, Modest Mouse was able to capture what the 90's were all about and put their own twist on it. With such songs as "Cowboy Dan" and "Doin' The Cockroach", Modest Mouse set out to make nothing more than a great album and sure enough delivered in every way. If you're not a fan of Modest Mouse, or you've only just heard of them and don't know much about them, or if you just a fan of grunge, go out and get this album! You will not regret it!

I give it 8 teeth like God's shoe shines out of 10