The Virgins- Private Affair & Rich Girls

The Virgins come in riding the coatails of New York bands like The Strokes and We Are Scientists. Their retro-rock approach might be a few years to late to generate any mainstream buzz, but at least its good enough to get mentioned on LOP.

Does It Offend You, Yeah?- Dawn of the Dead

There have been many a posts earlier about upstart British import DIOY, Y?, partly for their ridiculous name, partly for their eclectic new album You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into.

A long winded band to say the least.

Combining Daft Punk electronica, rave elements and new wave rock, some coming altogether in one song, some coming in seperate parts, makes their new album interesting from end to end.

I caught them at during their Saturday afternoon Lollapalooza set and the energy they put out make them a must-see (9/22 @ The Troubadour)

Their new single is Dawn of the Dead, in which the electronica takes a back seat for New Wave and some steel drums.

Jamaica is having quite a week.

Its British.......

SuperClassico....EN VIVO!

7:35pm- Just got inside the press box, its up at the very top of the stadium. But I feel that its way better to watch soccer up high either on midfield or exactly behind a goal. It gives you a better feel for the game in terms of field placement, player movement, etc. that you don't get two rows up in $1,000 dollar seats.

Well i got hear at 6pm, and NOBODY knew where the parking was for media. And then Chivas got all bigtime on us (isn't that the Galaxy's job?) and the media had to pay to park tonight. Wasn't too happy about that.
Just caught a Tony Parker sighting. He apparently escorted Becks into the estadio tonight and just got done giving a Mexican TV station a quick interview up here.
The worst thing about the Home Depot Center (HDC from now on) is that its in fucking Carson. The worst spot to put a stadium. Always bad traffic. Not near anything. Wherever you are in SoCal it takes you an hour+ to get to this stadium.

So granted the estadio is only half-full right now 30 min before game time but probably about ten minutes into the match it will be sold-out craziness. Chivas tix are cheap compared to Galaxy's, so the booze will be flowing and the rivarly, which has picked up since you know who arrived, will be in strong form tonight.

Gonna go grab some tortillas y shredded beef from the Media Room, get my grub on and be back with starting lineups.

8:15pm- Your starting lineups are...
Galaxy
Donovan------------------------------Buddle
Beckham---------Pires-----------------Vagenas-------------Allen
Klein------------Franklin------------------Jazic----------------Vanney
---------Cronin--------------

Chivas
Braun---------------------------------Harris
Savage------------Marsch---------------Nagamura-----------Paldini
Talley------------Burling----------------Thomas---------------Mendoza

Interesting things to note:

• The Galaxy switch back to the classic 4-4-2 under the first game with Cobi Jones, and so far its paying dividends. They look sharp and hungry. The biggest question asked by the media was how they would come out and respond and with Klein beautiful pass to streaking Donovan on the right side for the 7th minute easy goal. Seems to be working
• Chivas is without Sascha Kleijstan tonight, who is still at the Olympics. He is their best player and most important in the midfield. With the Galaxy controlling that area early on it seems to be quite the uphill battle for them early on.

8:20- GOAL! Donovan streaks down the right side, perfect leading pass from Chris Klein. 1-0 Galaxy, looking very very strong early on.

8:25- AEG CEO Tim Leinwieke is in the press box, as is Bruce Arena, former US National team coach. They just did a presser with ESPN2, although Bruce I guess is not in the coaching hunt. Soo....why go on TV? To say he's not even though you invited him? Look for Arena to be the next GM I feel. I think he is done with high-profile coaching.

8:35- Chivas is starting to collect a few runs and string some nice passes, but its ultimately nothing compared to the runs the Galaxy are putting together. Each one has the potential to be a goal so far. El estadio is full now, loud, the way it was built to be. Beckham is playing all over the field tonight and his cross field passes are just a beauty to watch.

8:50- Halftime. The Chivas girls are out on the field doin there thing.

"Not very synchronized," leans over a reporter. Whatever gets a gringo fired up you know.

The field was recently sodded after they tore it up for the X-Games. It looks horrible. I really think they need to find another venue to have the motosports at. It probably costs a signifigant amount of money to get the field back into shape year in and year out.

I'm gonna go exploring, the guy I'm job shadowing isn't exactly Mr. Yapper over here.

9:02- Wow, what a day for stories. Buzz around the press box is that Sasha IS HERE. We didn't even know he was in the building! He just returned from the Olympics a couple hours ago. Maybe if they show his face on the jumbotron it could give the fans a little boost after Chivas ended the half on a strong with some good chances and free kicks in the last 15 min.

9:11- GOAL! Chivas strikes as I predicted. The Galaxy's defense is looking very lax like they did with Gullit right now. They pretty keep up the offensive attack so they don't expose their defense.

9:14- And they do just that with several opportunities in the last few minutes. Donovan and Buddle both recieved beautiful passes from Beckham but after Landon beat the goalkeeper to the left with a dribble he lost control and couldn't put it home. Buddle was called offsides.

9:20- Chivas is pulling their defenders up big time to stop this barrage of Beckham lead passes. Donovan just got called offside twice in a row. Jesse Marsch from Chivas, the man who high-kicked Becks in the stomach last year, just got a yellow in the 59th

9:25- Becks picks up a yellow in the 61st. I don't blame him, play was dead and some dude tried to laser shot a blindsider at him.

GOAL! Quick counter from Chivas and Harris and Nagamura play beautiful touch football inside the penalty. Easy goal for Nagamura. 2-1 Chivas.

9:28- Sometimes David Beckham can be to unselfish. He picks up a wide open lane on the right side from a pass from Donovan inside 18 and decides to pull back and cross it rather than blast it with his $250 million dollar right leg. His free kick is good a minute later but nothing comes out of it.

9:30- Chivas almost scores! A header goes off the cross bar and a diving Cronin breathes a sigh of relief.

Some more Galaxy chances. Beckham corner and Chris Klein has his shot blocked by his own midfielder Pires!! Oh what a chance! Pires just had a serious lapse of judgement!

The atomsphere is really picking up here. Both Chivas bands are going and the Galaxy band just played some old school and well-needed Offspring. The Galaxy need to equalize quickly before Chivas drops back too much and plays for the 1-goal win.

9:55- GOAL! Allan Gordon on a nasty header from 10 yards out! I'll write more when I get back gotta go down to the trophy ceremony and lockerroom. Galaxy equalizes in stoppage time to get the SuperClassico crown.

Live Blog Tonight from the SuperClassico

I'm gonna try another live blog tonight. I successfully failed at producing one for my first Dodger game because the Internet was spotty at best in the press box. Maybe I'll posthomously produce it one day when nothing spots up on this blog.

Tonight I will be covering my first soccer game for the Daily News, The Honda SuperClassico, and its arguably the biggest game for both Chivas USA and the Los Angeles Galaxy. Their derby (pronounced "daarrby") match tonight (both clubs share the same venue, The Home Depot Center) is the third and last match between the two this season.

Obviously the hoopla here is the Beckham circus which can be seen live on ESPN2 tonight at 8pm PST.

Galaxy GM (and former US national player) Alexi Lalas and coach Ruud Guillit were tossed by AEG CEO Tim Linwieke Monday and put in recently retired Cobi Jones in charge as interim head coach.

Both clubs come in somewhat dissapointing form. The Galaxy are winless since June 14th, and Chivas USA has been sliding down the ranks in the last month to sit behind Becks' side in 5th place.

This is a huge game for both sides.

For the Galaxy, its almost make or break for their season as year two with Beckham has hit a standstill.

Under European coach Gullit, who brought in "sexy football", the Galaxy were on a roll the first half of the season with Landon Donovan, Eddison Buddle and Beckham showing fine form. But their defense has been lackluster all season and now that they are facing teams 2nd and 3rd times around everyone is exploiting the week midfield and backfield play.

Although the Galaxy lead the league in goals scored, ditto that to their defense giving them up.

Since this game is being broadcast nationally this has huge reprocussions for the Galaxy. They NEED to win.

Linweike said so.

For Chivas, this is another chance for them to stick it to their stadium-mates and possibly gain some ground on popularity in the LA media market. And of course leap-frog the Galaxy in the standings.

I'm leaving the Daily News office in about an hour to head over to good ol' Carson, CA. Home of a go-kart racing thingy, an auto mall and the Home Depot Center.

Then onto the pitch for pre-game interview with Cobi Jones.

Then let the madness begin!

Keith Urban and Usher?

One just wants to talk about himself in a superficial way and the other just wants to get dirty with Keri Hilson on the bar . That’s right two superstars of separate musical spectrums, Usher and Keith Urban are having a free concert to kick off the NFL season. Last year’s kickoff show in Indianapolis featured performances by John Mellencamp, Faith Hill, Kelly Clarkson, Hinder and Keyshia Cole. Are Usher and Urban Roger Goodell's personal favorites, or guilty pleasures? Why couldn't he just create a line up from this years Madden 09 soundtrack and rock in the new season with Disturbed, Franz Ferdinand, The All-American Rejects, The Offspring, or Linkin Park ? Anyway, I'm going to be drinking a quadruple Hennessey with a gin back and skipping on the country.

P.S. If you're like D-Rock and haven't seen Pineapple express your to-do list is as follows:
1. Support your local drug dealer, and buy a dime bag
2. Smoke out your Hyundai on the way to the theatre (bring Ozium to spray after smoking)
3. Buy tickets and like me get your ID checked three times before entering theatre
4. Enjoy the cross joint and vulgarity

Everybody Nose.....REEEMIIIIX!

I think its safe to say that Kanye West, The Neptunes, Clipse and Lupe Fiasco own the rap game these days. They all show up here for The Neptunes' N.E.R.D. remix for Everybody Nose.
An upgrade I say. Note the sweet Atari graphics!

Live from MSG- Kanye and HOVA- Jockin' Jay-Z

Still in its early stages, Yeezy brings out Jigga for his encore at The Garden (getting your daily shortening of titles yet?) to show a new song that will be on The Blueprint 3.
The first verse in the new song (which seems to only be a few bars in length)? A diss to Oasis.

BLUEPRINT 3 from kwest on Vimeo.

Pure rockstar.

Rather Red's Favorite Albums of 2008 (Thus Far)

1. Children 18:3- Children 18:3

The most catchy and consistently exciting album I've heard in awhile. The band is made up of two brothers and a sister. On the surface, they're just a punk band, but there's a lot of meaning in their lyrics. Some that I've found most profound are explorations of lost youth (All My Balloons), violence on TV (You Know We're All So Fond of Dying), and the Book of Revelations (Final).


2. Alesana- Where Myth fades to Legend

Melodic screamo at its best. This is the stuff I live to listen to. Screams are all over the spectrum, both growls and shrieks... only adding to the energy. The choruses are super catchy and powerful. Induces moshing.





3. 3OH!3- Want

I already posted about these guys, but I was really impressed with the consistency of their album. There were MANY quality sing-a-longs on this album. For those who don't know. 3OH!3 (named after the area code for their hometown of Boulder, Colorado) is a bunch of white kids acting gangster and crunk over some catchy techno beats.



4. Flo Rida- Mail on Sunday

When I first heard of Flo Rida, I thought he was gonna be a wack one-hit wonder. However, I took a listen to some of the iTunes previews for his album. They piqued my interest enough to coerce me to buy the album. WOW are there a lot of great rap songs on this album. The hooks are solid, the beats are solid. Flo Rida's style is more based on delivery than lyrical content, and he comes through on delivery.


5. The Used- Shallow Believer

This was The Used's B-side album. Because they're such talented song writers, the album is still great quality despite it being full of songs that didn't make the cut on their first three albums. Hopefully they bring back the emotion we saw on their debut when they come out with their next LP.




6. A Skylit Drive- Wires and the Concept of Breathing

See the description for Alesana's album. Same style, same quality, same energy. Not as consistent an effort as Alesana's, however.








7. Does It Offend You, Yeah?- You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into

Props to D-Rock for finding this band. Throw some techno and electronica (and maybe a little insanity) into The Killers and this is what you get.







8. Flobots- Fight With Tools

Motivational, inspiring punk rap. When I say punk, I don;t necessarily mean the style, I mean the political mindset. Their lyrics are a lot like Rage's. Yet they sound like Eminem rapping over guitars and brass.





9. Machinae Supremacy- Overworld

Swedish alt-metal with synths. They sound pretty produced and manufactured, but the songs and solos are quality.








10. Take the Crown- Relapse React

They come from the same scene as my boys from National Product (whose debut, Luna, I would HIGHLY recommend). Orange county hard rock with higher-range vocals and few screams.







Honorable Mentions:
The Audition- Champion
Panic at the Disco- Pretty. Odd.
Lil Wayne- Tha Carter III
Tyga- No Introduction
Disturbed- Indestructible

I'm currently still listening to and judging many more albums including Trapt, The Classic Crime, Nas, From First to Last, Tickle Me Pink, There for Tomorrow... and some albums that take many listens to actually define, like Coldplay and The Mars Volta. They'll be on this list sooner or later.

And there were a lot of albums that I didn't like... but I don't believe in unnecessary negativity towards art, so I won't mention those.

Lollapalooza: Day 1

RIDICuLOUS
Its been extremely hot as me and almost 70,000 others have braved the 90-degree heat (plus about 40% humidity). Right now is the end of my beergarden break (aptly named The Leiderhosen) as we are a mere 10 minutes away from Radiohead bringing the city to its knees.
During my break I did my usual sports blog surfing and found these two gems.
I will write tomorrow morning about Day 1 so for now let Will Ohman (Pepperdine grad) --reliever for the Braves serenade you with his pitch-perfect Harry Carey impression (I'm not to shabby myself which has become my staple here in Chicago at the bars)



Ohman Does Carey
by TheFightins

And what do to star point guards do during their downtime (and not playing for their national teams)?
They make a Step Brothers trailer parody and dance on 3rd Street in Santa Monica of course.