Talk about cruising… The Ramones, 1979, “I Just Wanna Have Something To Do”

What you see here is the very first of our soon-to-be-ubiquitous Video CD Reviews, with Synthesis marketing maverick Cayle “Ride of Game” Hunter reviewing the new Hail of Bullets CD. I just did the second one, which should be finding its way to our YouTube channel tomorrow on New Found Glory’s new Greatest Hits CD HITS, and though its all well and good to be a part and parcel of the new video revolution taking hold of the web, I’d much rather take the time to sit down and write a CD review out then have to sit in front of two cameras like a spokesmodel and try to be witty on the spot without slumping too far into a chair, and try not to look lost when I’m pretending to be hearing the music coming out of the stereo that won’t be added in until long after I’ve finished filming. But hey, fuck it! If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. After all, the few hundred CD reviews I’ve written over the years on Synthesis.net put together probably haven’t even gotten half the views as one of Video Matt’s Paramore interviews, so I guess I better brush up on my enunciation and posture and get ready for my protracted, archived and cached 15 minutes of semi-fame. SIGH…

American Idol judge Paula Abdul made headlines last night after mistakenly criticizing a contestant for singing a song he didn’t actually perform. The hours since have seen Abdul bashed across the internet for this slight of tongue. Frankly, I don’t see what all the hubbub is about, as Abdul makes a fool of herself on each and every broadcast. She’s bat shit loopy and deliriously out of touch. Why should it be shocking that Abdul would imagine a performance that didn’t take place?

And is it plausible that American Idol might hang it up anytime soon? Does anyone else find the formula to be a little, dare I say, tired? Hey Simon, what’d you think of that performance?

“Dreadful. Absolutely ghastly.” Ha ha ha. Haven’t heard that one before. Randy, what’s your take?

“You just gotta be yourself dawg!” Genius. Thanks for the tip. Hey Paula, what’d you—actually, let’s pass. I guess at 30 gazillion viewers or so a week, the cash just keeps flowing in. Enough cash at least to pay Cowell’s cut of $20 mill. per season (fact).

But for Christs sake, has anybody seen Taylor Hicks around? Last time I checked he was spinning circles singing about a fucking Ford truck!

In the latest episode of Video Matt’s long-running YouTube saga Paramore Being Crazy, he catches up with the band at the Hard Rock Cafe in Sacramento and proves once again, that despite selling 28473739475 records, Paramore are still some fun-loving kids. Also worth checking out is the footage of the band’s set later that night at the Hard Rock, videos of which can be found on our YouTube channel. To give you another taste, here’s the band doing “That’s What You Get.” Watch that shit and help Video Matt achieve his lifelong goal of being the biggest thing to hit YouTube since the “Let’s Get Some Shoes” song.

The highly touted boys from Brighton are back with their sophomore release, Konk, that hit stores earlier this week, but some are questioning whether the pre-release hype matches the merit. The Kook’s debut release Inside In/Inside Out was exceedingly well received, but reviews for Konk have been mixed. Betty Clarke of The Guardian gave the record 4 out 5 stars saying, “The woolliness of their debut has been replaced with a determined pop sound that dips into hard-edged rock,” but New Music Express was less than optimistic, and rather disappointed:

“What’s clear is that they’ve lost the songwriterly knack they originally wielded with abandon and replaced it with clichés and a foggy palimpsest of what they once had. We recommend they search high and low for that spark of brightness in time for album three.” NME.com

I haven’t picked up the record yet, but if the single is any indication it looks like I’m in store for a watered down version of Inside In/Inside Out. To be honest, when I first heard “Always Where I Need To Be” I thought I was still listening to The Kooks first album. Check out thise video below and decide for yourself.

The Kooks- “Always Where I Need To Be”

Back on March 7th we tipped you off to a small taste of Death Cab’s newest single, and now you can hear the whole thing! Check out the music video below for their startling lengthy single “I Will Possess Your Heart.” It clocks in at about eight and a half minutes, but be patient. It pays off at about 4:41.

Death Cab For Cutie “I Will Possess Your Heart”