I could have just commented on Brian's post below, but I also wanted to ring in with a full post devoted to this:

Weezer has become the worst band in the world. Oh. My. God. It's a travesty. I wish they would change their name to avoid completely sullying their earlier work. I guess when I'm talking to my kids about Weezer I'll just probably tell them that Weezer released two albums: Blue and Pinkerton. Everything after that was some foreign band who evaded copyright and trademark laws and came out five years later with a string of progressively worse euro trash pop. Let's just go with that. When it comes to Weezer, I can totally stop partying. And unless the reviews for this new album come out saying that aside from the three new songs I just kind of started to listen to it's awesome, my Weezer days are over. Really sucks, because they did release two of the absolute best albums I've ever heard. Ah well.

Thanks for the mini-reviews of the Rock Band songs, Adam. I went ahead and picked up the Rise Against, Rancid, and Weezer packs. I play guitar for the most part, but I've finally broken several skill barriers on the drums, thus allowing me to finish most of the songs on expert. Maybe not well, but it's passing. Anyway, haven't tried them on drums yet, but I'll take your word for it that they're fun.

Speaking of music, let's talk about Weezer for a second. For reasons unknown to me, I still visit punknews.org on a daily basis. Sure, I've outgrown 99.9% of new punk music, but I still check in. Today, there's a blurb about Weezer unveiling three new songs during a recent live show in South Korea. "Okay," I think. "That's kind of cool." And then I read the titles of these tracks: "I'm Your Daddy," "The Girl Got Hot," and "Can't Stop Partying." Then I listen to the YouTube videos of the songs and turn them off before making it halfway through each song. It's just awful. So what the hell happened to Weezer? Playing Weezer's back catalog on Rock Band reminded me how good the Blue Album and Pinkerton are. Even the Green Album is a strong offering, compared to these songs. Does Rivers Cuomo think he's still a teenager? Is he stuck in some bizarre time-warp where, to himself, he doesn't age but, to everyone else, he does? Honestly, the only explanation that would make me happy is if these three songs are part of an upcoming concept album poking fun of a band who can't grow up. But something tells me they're not that clever. They're still hungover from all the partying. (Really?)

Great! Alright, so here we are. My first post in Denver. And this one goes out to Brian.

I did buy the Rock Band packs for both Rancid and Rise Against. I can only tell you how they are on drums, because that's really all I play, but both are pretty damn fun on drums anyway. I'm sure they might be a little more boring on guitar because the punk tracks generally seem to be pretty bland on guitar. But if you're a drummer, you should go for it.

Beatles Rock Band will cause me to lose my job and probably all my friends as well. I'm so fucking excited for that game it makes me ashamed of myself.

The new job at the publishing company is good. Right now all we're doing is sampling books to college professors to see if they'd be interested in buying them. But really, all that matters to me is that instead of working 7 to 6 like I did at Hertz, I am working 8 to 4:30, and I am so much happier than I have been in years. People at the job are cool, I have a lot of energy, I live in the city, the view from my apartment is sweet, and I can walk to a kick ass record store. So things are good. Only bad things are parking (street parking can kiss my ass) and elevators (one of the three elevators is generally working, which as you can imagine is awesome for a 15 story apartment building). Good things associated with that: exercise! Walking fifteen minutes from my parking spot and up nine flights of stairs should kick my ass back into shape.

I'll write a full post later on. Also, the Weezer track pack is good this week, and the Blink 182 one isn't bad either. I fucking love Rock Band. Cool beans.

Here's what's going to happen here: This post is totally directed to Adam, but anyone can join the discussion. Sure, I could have just sent him an email, but that's soooooooooo 20th century. These days, only the Amish email.

So, Adam (and everyone), did you buy any of the new tracks for Rock Band this week? If so, I'm curious as to your thoughts. I've looked at the charts and the Rise Against and Rancid packs both look entertaining enough. I was just wondering what your opinion was.

Also, how about that Beatles: Rock Band, huh? Game looks amazing. Cannot wait. Super glad they have "Twist and Shout" on the disc, as that's one of the Top 5 songs I was hoping for.

While I'm at the questions directed to Adam, what's your new job at the publishing company? And when does it start up? Have you moved yet? Anyway, congratulations on the big move!

Email. Pshaw.

Big news around these parts, huh? Adam packing up and moving to Denver. Me packing up and moving to New York City. Or Queens. Close enough. Crazy.

So, yeah, my unpacking is pretty much complete. I need to buy another bookshelf to store the crazy amount of books I have, but, other than that, I'm in good shape. My living room is completely set up and looks amazing, if I do say so myself. All that's missing is some high-quality artwork made from various artist friends of mine (thanks, Ben, Chris, and John). And the reason that's missing is because I'm an idiot and forgot to pack thumbtacks/nails. But, once I get the proper supplies, you can expect some one-of-a-kind stuff to line these walls.

This is getting too self-indulgent, my self-indulgent meter is telling me. Watch me dodge the topic by talking about As Tall As Lions. I last brought them up in April, when their self-titled album made my list of Top 25 albums. That album, oddly enough, is not their debut CD. Their debut is an album called Lafcadio. For the longest time, I thought that the self-titled album was a stronger album. And, for a new listener to the band, I think it is. However, Lafcadio is still an incredible, incredible album. It's slower, mellower, and takes its time delivering the goods. But if you're patient (I've had this album for about five years now), then it'll pay off. Hugely. Tremendously. Now, I'm not saying that it takes five years to fully grasp the brilliance of this record. But what I am saying is that this CD has stuck with me for this long and I'm only now getting to a point where I think it's nearly flawless. I can't say that about too many of my other records. So check them out, if you get a chance.

And I'm back. Sorry about that. Of course, when you're reading this, no time will have passed. But, for me, while I wrote this, twenty minutes passed. In that time, I decided to look up As Tall As Lions' MySpace page. Once there, I discovered that they not only have a new CD coming out that you can pre-order (I did), but also are playing a show at Irving Plaza next week. Neato! (My use of the word "neato" automatically negates any cool/hip connotation I hoped to affix to said show.)

So, there you have it. Looks like the first show I'll be seeing here in New York isn't going to be The Weakerthans in September. But it'll be As Tall As Lions, RX Bandits (!), and Dredg (!!) all in one place. Neato!

This won't be long because I'm busy packing. That's right, I'm packing and I'm moving to Denver. I got a job at a publishing company down there and I'm done renting cars, and I'm done with this little town, and I'm done with roommates, and I'm pretty much done with everything I've known for the past three and a half years. So yeah, Brian moved to New York, I (will have) moved to Denver. Aren't we just real people now. Wish me luck. Wish him luck. Wish yourselves luck. I'll see you on the other side.

Brian here. Before I delve into the review of our crappy home videos (spoiler alert: they're crappy. Well, kind of.), I have some fun facts I'd like to share.

I'm watching the Wimbledon men's quarterfinal matches as I type this. Federer is playing a monstrous Croatian named Ivan Karlovic. This guy is 6'10" and has a massive serve. This is how good his serve is: He's won the last 129 service games he's played. What?! No one he's played in the tournament has broken his serve. Every time it's his time to serve, he wins the game. For 129 times in a row. That's crazy.

But here's how good Roger Federer is: In Karlovic's second service game, Federer broke him. And he made it look so easy.

This last bit of information comes courtesy of Nova Science Now: So there's this device called the reCaptcha. You've most likely used it before. It's the device that asks you to type the two words you see on the screen. It's the test to make sure you're a human and not a computer. The way it works is, the computer only knows the answer to one of the two words. So if you get that one word right, it's safe to assume you can decode the second word. Now here's the crazy cool part: That second word, the one the computer doesn't know, isn't just some random, made-up word. It comes from an old document (a newspaper, a book, whatever) that's been scanned to be digitally preserved. But the computer needs your help, since, in older publications in particular, most of the text is off-kilter or blurry. So every time you use the reCaptcha device, you're helping preserve old documents. How cool is that?

So, the home movies. As Adam said, we made them during a time when we were creative. And I'm still impressed with how creative we were, just taking a camera around and making shit up. Also, considering we never really had a script or a budget, and that we shot each segment in one take, it's decent stuff. Not great, but decent.

We filmed the first one here in Virginia. It involves us taking the camera around to local hot-spots: PetCo, Toys R Us, Dunkin Donuts. And, of course, my basement. Highlights include: a Frederick Douglass hand-puppet lip-syncing "Wonderwall"; a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire parody where I play a jerk of a host; a "making of" segment where we got my sister to do some narration that she botched several times (but thanks for your help, Laura!); and, of course, the Home Shopping Network skit (we were selling a Nerf dart). Bloopers were fun, though the Home Shopping Network outtakes sometimes ran too long to get to the funny part where we crack up.

The second video represents a monumental leap in quality... of the transitional effects. Content stays relatively the same. But the second, third, and fourth volumes were all from Georgia. And Adam's dad had some cutting-edge (at the time) editing software on his computer, so we have all sorts of cool title cards and such. Anyway, highlights: Adam, as Steve Irwin, in search of the Moroccan Giant Duck (or the Giant Moroccan Duck -- we sometimes inverted our words [again, no script!]); touring Stone Mountain Park in search of the haunted, uh, music thing; a Blair Witch parody; segments from the first three episodes of our "B&A Records" TV show; and, of course, the Home Shopping Network skit (we were selling a tennis ball).

Volume 3: World's Slowest Police Chases (where we followed cars around Stone Mountain Park and made shit up); a parody of Big Brother, featuring Aaron (this one is quite funny, actually); a parody of Fear Factor, also featuring Aaron; and, of course, the Home Shopping Network skit (we were selling a coaster).

Apparently we made volume 4 in a day and a half. I don't remember this, but it definitely has a rushed feel to it. It's also our weakest one, which may explain why it was the last. From what I recall: two "guided tours of Georgia" (kind of like the Slowest Police Chases from last time, but not nearly as funny); the Dos and Don'ts of Weightlifting; the Dos and Don'ts of Tennis; another "making of" segment, sans my sister; a Weakest Link parody (where I play three characters!); and, of course, the Home Shopping Network skit (we were selling a, uh... I'm not sure what it was, exactly. Small candle holder?).

One last note about the movies: I really am audacious enough to compare our crappy home movies to Arrested Development. Let me explain. We had recurring gags/foreshadowing not only in a single volume, but also across the multiple volumes. Jokes such as: Adam always picking up Line 5; me always using a product twice; a "I feel it in my bones" line that I use one year and Adam uses another year; maybe one or two others. So, watching the four volumes relatively back-to-back, it was cool to see the continuity.

Yikes, this has been a mammoth post. Sorry about that. Bottom line: Adam, find/borrow/steal a VCR and watch the movies. They're worth it for the nostalgic factor and the occasional laugh.