"Great Big White World" MM

"Last Nights Thoughts" AaRON

"Arm Your Eyes" AaRON

Epic Antichrist Fail

I am a huge Marilyn Manson fan. For the most part, I have nothing bad to say about him. I have almost all of his albums, I have read his autobiography, seen him in concert, wrote a philosophy paper about his music in college; I even have a pair of Marilyn Manson underwear.

I inquired about the cost of his artwork once, from his website but never heard back. That pissed me off, but only temporarily. So again, for the most part--all good things. I even decorated an Easter egg as a tribute (basically I mixed all those little coloring tarts together to make black).

Marilyn Manson's most recent album was released in May of 2009. I pre-ordered The High End of Low in high anticipation of 15 more Manson songs to listen to. What more could a girl want?

Sadly, this album was a huge disappointment. The first single, "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon," has a way more menacing title than the song itself which is a common thread throughout the album The song is fairly mellow on the Manson scale.

Manson has created a reputation for himself that is hard to keep up, I'm sure. But, the song, "Four Rusted Horses" has a country twang that almost sounds like a banjo is playing which is just unacceptable on a Manson album.

"Wow" is trying to be dark and sexy but just comes across as annoying and way too electronic. Manson always use industrial metal elements in his music but if is just electronic editing to his voice the entire song, it feels like I am being cheated. I am not buying the album to hear Manson, remixed; I'm buying it to hear the delightfully creepy deep voice of his and I find there is much less of that on The High End of Low.

With titles like "Devour," and "Unkillable Monster," and "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell," I expect to get some really awesome hardcore tracks but this album really failed in that regard. It felt like this album was forced. It was like his heart (if he has one) was not in it.

Marilyn Manson was the first artist I really liked that authentically got my parents concerned. They worried about who I was hanging out with, what I was doing after school, who my boyfriends were . . . it was glorious!!! For someone who barely rebelled at all, Manson made me feel a little scandalous; a little on-the-wrong-side-of-the-street. This album does not represent all that is wrong and corrupt in his music, which in fact is what his fans love. He is the anti-normality, and this album is just way too, well . . . Normal!

This album really let me down. I mean, he has acoustic guitar on this album for anti-christ's sake! (good one, right?) In all seriousness, I have a great respect for what Marilyn Manson has done to music and for that matter, culture and society in general. And with that great admiration, I know that he is capable of better. And if and when he releases another album, I will be running into Best Buy with bells on.

If you have never heard any Manson, here are a list of my favorites (none of which are from the above mentioned album):

"Great Big White World"
"Apple of Sodom"
"This is the New Shit"
"Rock is Dead"
"Personal Jesus"
"Tainted Love"
"This is Halloween"

Tis The Season

The Christmas season has officially began. Thanksgiving dinner has been had, Santa Claus has appeared at 34th Street in New York City, and the sales have been announced at all the stores across the country. In honor of this joyous holiday season, I present the first official Christmas issue of Puppies and Rainbows. I love the Christmas season. I love listening to Christmas music, watching Christmas movies, baking cookies, decorating the tree; just plug me into an outlet and I light up with Christmas glee!

So it is important to note that even though I truly am filled with Christmas cheer, sometimes almost to an obnoxious level, not all holiday music is worth listening to.

First, let's start with the worst songs of the season.

The 10 Worst Christmas Songs (in no particular order):

1. "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" by Elmo and Patsy
2. "Dominick The Donkey" by Lou Monte
3. "Last Christmas" by Wham!
4. "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" by Spike Jones
5. "Nuttin' For Christmas" by Barry Gordon
6. "Merry Christmas, Darling" by The Carpenters
7. "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" by Judy Garland
8. "Mele Kalikimaka" by Bing Crosby
9. "Mistletoe" by Justin Bieber
10. "Winter Wonderland" James Taylor

My guess is that the most shocking part of this list is the classic, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Judy Garland. The reason I dislike this song so strongly is because it is so sad and not merry and bright at all. Have you ever seen Meet Me In St. Louis? This movie was the debut of the song, and it is a very sad scene when Garland actually sings the song. She actually is crying!! So, with that, I do not consider this a festive Christmas song, but rather, a completely depressing Christmas song that does not capture, at all, the Christmas joyful spirit. "Winter Wonderland" by James Taylor and "Merry Christmas, Darling" by The Carpenters, I put on this list for similar reasons. I respect James Taylor as a musician, but he just does not have the cheery disposition anywhere on the entire Christmas album enough to really feel joyful or triumphant. And Justin Bieber--enough said.

And now on to the best . . .

Best 15 Christmas Songs (in no particular order)

1. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon (good alternative: Bert McCracken and Street Drum Corps)
2. Winter Wonderland by Aretha Franklin
3. Silver Bells by Kenny G (good alternative: Bing Crosby)
4. You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" by Thurl Ravenscroft
5. "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" by 'N Sync
6. "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey
7. "Song For A Winter's Night" by Sarah McLachlan
8. "Deck The Halls" by Mannheim Steamroller
9. "Trim Up The Tree" by The Whos of Whoville
10. "Christmas Canon Rock" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra
11. "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano
12. "Santa Claus is Comin' To Town" by Bing Crosby (good alternative: Harry Connick Jr.)
13. "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra
14. "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer (good alternative: Dean Martin)
15. "Carol of the Bells" by Mannheim Steamroller


These are the best of the best. These are the songs I do not get tired of hearing year after year, and yes, you are reading it correctly--'N Sync is on this list. Christmas, like Thanksgiving and other holidays is a lot about tradition. Memories are made and then, the music becomes part of that memory--part of the tradition. Mannheim Steamroller was always decorating-the-tree music in my family. "Feliz Navidad" was the song playing in Christmas Eve On Sesame Street when Big Bird ice skates with the little girl. I grew up hearing my dad listen to Kenny G all year round, so his seasonal album was always playing around Christmas. And the rest are assorted songs that I picked up over the years that became part of my must-have Christmas playlist. Some of the songs include a "good alternative"--a rendition of the song that is actually as good as the first mentioned song on the list. If you have only heard one version, check out the other.

Now, for the best of the best . . .

Best Christmas Album: Merry Christmas by Bing Crosby

Christmas morning, since I was young until now, was always about Bing Crosby and this album. We used to have the record and play it on my dad's old record player. We had the tape version and the CD. Then I bought my own copy. I wake up and his Merry Christmas album is always playing. If you notice, in A Christmas Story, the family is listening to that same album Christmas morning. This album is classic, it is old, it has stood the test of time, the sound is fuzzy like all the albums were at the time. it really does make my days merry and bright, and all of my Christmases, white. (Alright, that was my last one, I promise).


Just for fun, I put together a list of the top ten Christmas movies. These ARE in a particular order, starting with 10 and moving up to the best.

Top 10 Christmas Movies:

10. The Santa Clause (best song: White Christmas by The Drifters)
9. Christmas in Connecticut (best song: Jingle Bells by James Pierpont)
8. The Ref (best song: The Holly and The Ivy arranged by Charles Tompson)
7. Muppet Christmas Carol (best song: Thankful Heart)
6. Christmas Vacation (Christmas Vacation by Mavis Staples)
5. The Man Who Came To Dinner (best song: NA)
4. How The Grinch Stole Christmas (animated and Jim Carey version): (best song: You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch)
3. Holiday Inn (best song: Song of Freedom by Bing Crosby)
2. White Christmas (best song: Sisters lip-synched by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye)
1. A Christmas Story (best song: Jingle Bells by Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters)


May you all have a great holiday season and keep posted for the best and worst of 2011!

Note: All photos are from Wikipedia.org

In With The New

One of my favorite things is finding a new band, song, singer, or album and just totally consuming myself in them. Listening to them and only them; getting so pumped about putting my headphones on in the morning; and of course, telling as many people as I can about how what I am listening to will change their lives (whether they believe me or not is another story).

I was introduced this weekend, by one of my readers, to Awolnation. Now, I had seen this name on alternative rock lists. I had seen this song" Sail" all over the place on music websites but never really gave it a chance or though twice about checking them out.

This time, I gave it a chance. I listened to the whole single. Well, that's a lie. I did not listen to the whole single right away. It did not take the whole 4 minutes and 19 seconds of "Sail" for me to realize this was something; something worth exploring beyond this single accepted by the masses. I would say in the first 34 seconds, I knew this was a great band doing something different with music. That is what makes a great band--a great artist. Someone taking what we think we know--the genres of music, the top tens, the typical instruments and chords and flipping them on their heads.

I downloaded the whole album, Megalithic Symphony, which is apparently the bands' second album. They are only a little over a year old but this album has balls, like they have been doing this forever and are cocky enough to try something new.

This album has everything; it has soul, techno, hip hop, rock, blues, pop, anything you could want. There are aspects that shadow The Beatles, MIKA, Skrillex, Chubby Checker. There is something for everyone. This album is the Coldstone Creamery of albums.

All the songs are great, but I am only going to touch on a few "Jump On My Shoulders" sounds very poppy and uplifting. It reminds me very much of MIKA. It is just so delightfully sunny and cheery and bubbly a "puppies and rainbows" type song if I ever heard one. The basic lyrics of love and togetherness are something out of the 70s.

"Burn it Down" is if Little Richie or Chubby Checker did a song with Marilyn Manson Michael Jackson and Kanye West. It is so different the only way you can react is to get up and do the twist.

"Wake Up" is another cheery song. There are so many elements to it. There is pop and heavy rock. It is crazy. It keeps switching on you, it's almost like you are trying to peg it and the song won't let you.

The two best songs on the album are "Sail" and "Not Your Fault." "Sail" was the first single off of this album and it is clear as to why. It is amazingly sexy-electronic-rhythm and blues. The whole time I listened to this song all the way through for the first time, I just kept thinking, "wow this is hardcore good." Then a few seconds would go by and I would be astonished--"wow, this song is still awesome." I got goosebumps. This song rattles you like real rawness in music should.

"Not Your Fault" is so much fun and so bad-ass at the same time. It is rare I want to jump around to a song that I am also so distracted to how good the vocals are. The lead singer is just wailing and it fucking rocks!!

This band is really one of the bands that can combine rock and electronica and pop and make something exceptional. There is a whole movement now which is inspiring; to think, there is a whole other way to remake sound that bands are taking for a spin on their records. Innovation is a beautiful thing.

On that note, one of my most recent purchases has also been shamelessly inspired by a Victoria Secret commercial. You know, the one out now where the models are walking along the streets of Prague with wings and there is this weird shouting or screeching in the song? First time I heard/saw this commercial, I was irritated. What is this? Is this a song, a sound effect, a technical error? Is it buffering?

But each time I saw the commercial, my irritation turned more into curiosity and desire to figure out what I was listening to. I googled it and there were many sites discussing the subject (why should I have been surprised, put Victoria Secret models in anything and all of a sudden we want to discuss the artistic integrity of the editing and composition of a commercial). Oh yah, and the tits look good too.

Anyway, the song is from the most recent album, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, from M83. The song is called "Midnight City" and I can't help but admit it is awesome I am moved to find some fake wings and strut my stuff down Amsterdam Avenue.

But, in the meantime, I will just enjoy my new finds for the week: Awolnation and M83.

In Defense Of Ke$ha

I have yet to speak to someone who actually enjoys Ke$ha's music. I have yet to meet anyone who has bought or downloaded one of her songs, let alone buy an entire album. Well I am here to speak in defense of Ke$ha or rather, her music.

I bought her first single "Tik Tok" a few weeks after it came out Since that first download, I have since bought many other singles of hers. I downloaded "Take It Off" while buying shoes at Aldo; "Your Love Is My Drug" at the gym; and a few others at random locations for random reasons. It has always been only singles, until recently when I bought her entire second album, Cannibal, while running in the park.

Ke$ha's music can be obnoxious, whiny, and incredibly classless. However, her songs have been continually catchy and she does not appear to be vanishing like other hit-makers and one-hit-wonders. "Tik Tok" was the start of it all. How many of us have managed to work "feeling like P. Diddy" into a sentence? I know I have. Yes, it became overplayed but before that, it was just a fun dance song inspiring harmless underage drinking and partying, not to mention the rebirth of body glitter--and we all have missed that!

On her second album, there are actually some very good songs not yet released as singles so if you are one of many who are tired of the usual, you may want to consider listening to songs you have not yet heard millions of times in assorted clubs, bars and shoe stores. For example, "We R Who We R," is not so great, but other songs on the album such as "Cannibal" and "Animal" are actually quite good.

Katy Perry has become very successful from her songs about teenage lost love and memories of the "One Who Got Away." Ke$ha's song, "The Harold Song" has a similar tone. She is surprisingly touching in this song. It's all those love songs boiled down to the basics: "They say that true love hurts/ well this could almost kill me/young love, murdered/that is what this must be." A non-sugar coated love song. When you are young and in love, this is exactly how you feel. Life is over as you know it and nothing, even your mom's homemade spaghetti sauce can't make it better. Ke$ha has captured that.

Her lyrics in all her songs are not sugar coated which is a big reason why a lot of people don't like her. But think about it--we (men and women) are constantly looking for dates and mates that don't beat around the bush, they are straight forward, they don't play games. That is Ke$ha. In her song "Sleazy," she explains "me and all my friends, we don't buy bottles/we bring 'em/we take the drinks from the tables/when you get up and leave 'em." With all these songs out there, talking about how much money people have and they are poppin' bottles and buying out the bar, it is refreshing to hear from someone normal and broke Like the rest of us. We can't afford to shut down the club and yes we admit, we have brought our own liquor. Hey; it's cheaper.

Ke$ha also speaks up for women. She has many songs talking about how men need to have a personality rather than have money, be brave and ask a girl out rather than just stand awkwardly and stare, and to not grind up on us when we certainly haven't requested one to do so. She is saying "man up!" and based on recent encounters with men, especially in bars, I second that!

So, even though Ke$ha has awful fashion, wears too much silver make up for someone who is not David Bowie, and has no filter, she is fun to dance to, spunky, outspoken and a single-making machine.

Recommended songs: Sleazy, The Harold Song, Cannibal, Dancing With Tears In My Eyes