Soulfly: Conquer review, 9/10

I’m a longtime Sepultura fan, and when Soulfly’s first CD came out, I thought it was good, but a little too nu-metal. I remained a fan of both groups as their paths took them in different musical directions over the following decade. After forgetting about both for awhile, I rediscovered them through Cavalera Conspiracy, which although good, didn’t have enough musical diversity to make me want to have repeat listens.

After reading a few reviews of Conquer on wikipedia, I decided to give it a chance. Man am I glad I did. This is the best CD I’ve heard from Cavalera since the Roots/Chaos A.D. era. Every single song has its own unique sound, and they all work together to make an amazing album. I haven’t felt this way about a metal cd since Machine Head’s The Blackening. Granted, I’m not the biggest metal fan anymore, but this CD had me from start to finish.

I haven’t watched the DVD yet, so I can’t comment on whether it is good or not. It was filmed in 2005, so it doesn’t have anything from this album on it. I own a Sepultura DVD of a live show they did, and the energy Cavalera brings on the stage is impressive. So I’m sure the DVD is worth paying a few extra bucks for.

The CD also comes with three bonus tracks. All of them are solid, but I can see why they left them off the regular cd.

I don’t really want to get into a track by track breakdown, because every song is great. It’d just be repetitive praise. Just know that the lyrics and vocals are great, the guitar work is fantastic, and the drums and bass fit each song perfectly.

If you liked Sepultura before Cavalera left, and have ever liked Soulfly, you should definitely buy this CD.

9/10

Phil Mickelson shoots a 79 at British Open

The only reason I made this post is to show this picture, which I got off Deadspin. Hilarious.

Cobalt SS Reverse Boost Hilarity

http://cobaltss.net/forums/showthread.php?t=118899
This link above me has been circulating many car forums, and it is absolutely hilarious. It’s by a Cobalt SS owner curious about how his engine works with his turbo in reverse. Not only is it a joke, but it is so clever that most people don’t realize it. The thing that made it even funnier were the random pictures people would post making fun of the guy. I will post them, along with a few others that I found funny:

Tiger Woods wins U.S. Open, claims 14th Major Win!

(Tiger giggles like a schoolgirl after Rocco Mediate tells him a dirty joke about sand traps)

Tiger Woods has done it. He has slain the mighty giant, Rocco Mediate, and claimed his 14th Major. He is now 4 major wins away from tying the all time leader, Jack Nicklaus, at 18. Sadly, I was unable to watch the final 18 round playoff, but I heard it was a doozy. They ended up going into a sudden death playoff after Tiger tied Mediate on the 18th hole with a birdie. They played the 7th hole in sudden death, and Tiger birdied to win the tournament.

Lil’ Wayne: Tha Carter III Review, 7/10

After Tha Carter II came out, I officially became a Wayne fan. His lyrics, swagger, and songs were all on point. He was fairly well known in the rap game, but the 3 years after Tha Carter II consisted of numerous guest starring and mixtapes, making the guy the most hyped rapper since 50 Cent. The problem with that time period was that his voice changed, he discovered the vocoder, and his lyrical ability dropped significantly.

I’ve been waiting for Tha Carter III for a long time, and now that it is here, I am fairly disappointed. He has some great songs on the album, but overall, it is just unfocused and sloppy. Lets start with the good:

Mr. Carter ft. Jay-Z: This is the best song on the album. It produced by Just Blaze, and just works well. Lil’ Wayne could have gone a little harder, but I’m not complaining. Jay-Z killed the track. I wish every track on this album was this good.

Tie My Hands ft. Robin Thicke: After a few mediocre songs in a row, this is where the cd picks up and really starts to shine. It’s a Post-Katrina song, and has a great vibe. Lil’ Wayne does great and so does Robin Thicke.

Shoot Me Down: It has a very laid back vibe, with a nice chorus and good lyrics by Wayne.

Playing With Fire: Another great track. It’s energetic and infectious. It has recycled lyrics for some reason, and that’s probably why I like it!

Let The Beat Build: This song is pretty good, despite Lil’ Wayne.

The Bad:

Just about everything else. Lollipop is catchy, but not a great song by any means. Got Money is worse, but it is sorta catchy too. The third vocoder song is Nothing On Me, and it is pretty terrible. Fabolous and Juelz guest star, and Wayne sounds terrible in his verse and on the chorus. Phone Home is ok, but fairly annoying. Dr. Carter is a cool concept, but has a fairly boring execution. Comfortable, ft. Babyface, is pretty bad. A Millie sounds like a mixtape song, and 3 Peat is a solid opener. The rest of the songs are forgettable, with Mrs. Officer being absolutely terrible.

The final verdict is a resounding “meh”. It isn’t as good as Tha Carter I or II, but still has enough good songs to warrant buying.

Bun B: II Trill Review, 9/10

Ever since UGK released “Underground Kingz”, I’ve been obsessed with them. I bought every one of their albums, and also Bun B’s first cd, “Trill”. Every release has been amazing, aside from “Dirty Money”, which is OK, but not great. “II Trill” deserves a place right above “Trill” as another solid release.

Bun B steps up his game, and creates a truly memorable album that is severly needed in today’s Hip Hop world. Every song on this album is good, and a handful of them are great. Songs like “Swang On Em” ft. Lupe Fiasco, “You’re Everything” featuring everybody, and “Damn I’m Cold” ft. Lil Wayne show how great Bun B is at collaborating with all different kinds of artists. He has a couple tributes to Pimp C, with “Angel In The Sky” working really well and “Pop It 4 Pimp” not so much. Their collaboration with Chamillionaire, “Underground Thang”, is really great, and makes me hope that Pimp recorded enough verses for Bun to put out a CD of new UGK material.

“II Trill” is another stellar album that Bun B should be proud of. With Pimp C gone, it’ll be really hard for him to ever be as good as he was in UGK, but if this is as close as he comes, I’m happy with that. Great Bun B is better than 90% of other hip hop artists out there. 9/10

Scorpion Vs. Beetle

Just saw this video on a link from Deadspin, and wanted to post it. It is an epic battle inside a Japanese Dojo, where a Scorpion and Beetle fight to the death.

Wii!!!

So I finally got a Wii, after months of searching! I’ve been randomly going to Best Buy, Fred Meyer, and just about any other place that sells Wiis, hoping they recently had a shipment so that I could pick one up. Finally, after calling Freddies every day for a week, I got the inside scoop and bought one last Monday.

I’m very happy with my purchase. It was $250, which is a great price considering the demand is still insanely high. I also bought a charger dock that cost about $38, and I bought Mario Kart.

It was a great purchase, and came with a free steering wheel that the controller hooks into. It’s a lot of fun and cool to play with friends. I only wish I had a bigger TV to truly enjoy multiplayer.

After buying Mario Kart, I decided I needed another game and bought Tiger Woods Golf ‘08. Even though the new one is coming out in August, I couldn’t wait so I bought this one. It is a lot harder than the Wii Golf, but so much more fun and in depth.

I never thought I’d be considered a gamer, but the Wii has me entranced in all things game related. I don’t think I’ll ever buy a Playstation or Xbox, but spending a couple hundred of my tax rebate on a Wii was a great investment.  Next stop, Plasma TV!

So I started a Roth IRA…yay retirement!

Seeing as that I am 23 and already want to retire, I figured it might be a good idea to get a start on that by opening up a Roth IRA. If you make less than $100k a year, you can put a maximum of $5000 in it each year. This amount rose from $4000 a year ago. Instead of allocating a monthly payment, I decided to put the money in all at once.

The main benefit of a Roth IRA is that your investment is not taxed when you take it out after the age of 60. Obviously, you are investing money that was taxed to begin with, but at least you don’t have to worry about it being taxed when it is taken out.

I decided to go with Vanguard, who posted the highest annual yield last year, approximately 12%. It was very easy to do. All you need is information that can be found on a check and basic contact/billing info. I wasn’t sure what funds to start with, so I am in a low risk money market fund right now. I am going to change this soon, but I wanted to put the money away now while I have it.

You can look at any investment calculator, to see where your money could be at when you want to retire. This $5,000, with an average 8% yield, will make around $126k when I’m 65. I don’t really see that as being very accurate, but it is an easy way to judge how much your money might grow.

Trevor Immelman wins Masters, wife is hot

Tiger Woods has more competition, in the wife hotness department. Trevor Immelman impressed on the golf course the entire weekend, beating Tiger Woods by a sizeable margin and winning the Masters for the first time of his career. The viewers were rewarded by seeing yet another attractive wife of a pro golfer. First we had Phil Mickelson’s wife Amy, who is still tops in my book. Then we get Tiger’s wife Elin, who is gorgeous as well. Now we have Carminita. Their son is cool too, with his red hair and humorous facial expression.