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Adam Bender Posts

Kaiser Chiefs By Faded Wave

Published by Adam on June 6, 2011

fadedwave

One of my favorite eccentric British bands, Kaiser Chiefs, have come up with a novel concept. They have just released 20 new songs and are asking fans to pick 10 of them for their new album, The Future is Medieval.  This is no election, mind you — everyone gets their own custom mix of the CD with personalized cover art to boot!  And even more mind-blowing, everyone gets to sell their custom album to the world!

To be honest, I was actually a little annoyed when I found out about all this. It was a Friday evening after a particularly long day at work. Picking ten songs from twenty, based on mere samples of the songs, seemed like a tall order. What if I left out a great song? What if that song I thought was great actually ended in three minutes of Billy Corgan screaming the letters of the alphabet?

The Future is Medieval (Faded Wave edition)

So I decided to put off making the album until Saturday morning after I’d had a good night’s rest. The result can be streamed and purchased for download at www.kaiserchiefs.com/fadedwave.

I’m happy to report that I rather like my/their album. It’s got everything — super British pop (“Problem Solved”), synthy silliness (“Heard It Break”) and even poignant balladry (“If You Will Have Me”). I think I found a great balance between the band’s fast rockers and slow grooves. But in the immortal words of LeVar Burton, don’t take my word for it.

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Now Amazons Can Read It

Published by Adam on May 2, 2011

I’m happy to announce that We, The Watched is now available on Amazon.com and in the Kindle store! That means the ebook is now sold in the stores of all the major eReaders, including Sony, Apple and Barnes & Noble.

As a happy Kindle owner myself, this particular edition has been a long time coming. I had originally hoped to publish to Amazon through the good folk at Smashwords, but the self-publishing company has had difficulty making a deal with Amazon. Fortunately, doing it myself directly through Amazon turned out to be easier than expected. I even put together a snazzy press release to herald the news.

As with the other editions, the Kindle eBook is $2.99 on Amazon. If you’ve already read it and have a minute, please leave a customer review on the Amazon book page. Thanks for your continued support!

Update (5/3/11): Check out my new author page on Amazon.com here.

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Divided We Fall

Published by Adam on April 26, 2011

To everyone waiting for the sequel to my dystopian novel, We, The Watched, I thought I’d provide an update with a few juicy details.

First of all, the title is Divided We Fall. I’ve been couching that as the “tentative title” for a while now, but it’s been that for long enough now that it’s unlikely to change. Besides cleverly bringing the word “We” back into the title, the title nicely captures two major elements of the story — the made-up nation’s masochistic conflict between “Patriots” and “Heretics,” and the complicated relationship between our hero Seven and the lover from his former life. Originally I was calling the sequel “The War Comes Home,” but I decided that was a bit too literal.

Here’s some trivia for you: The original tentative name for We, The Watched was “Ignited.”

Divided We Fall is divided into two parts. Each is about the same length or a little shorter than the entirety of We, The Watched. I’ve completed writing Part One and am a few chapters into Part Two. I’m planning this as the conclusion of the Seven storyline, though I’m not writing off the possibility of coming back to this world later.

Of course, if you haven’t read We, The Watched yet, you’re missing out. You can sample the first few chapters of the Kindle, Nook, iPad and PC-compatible eBook for free at Smashwords and other popular eBook stores. If you like what you read, you can get the whole thing for only $2.99 (about the price of a Starbucks coffee).

Update (4/28): We, The Watched is featured today on NewBookJournal.com!

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The Strokes Get Back Their Mojo

Published by Adam on March 26, 2011

I’ve been trying to figure out why I haven’t loved the Strokes since their debut Is This It? It wasn’t like they sounded any less talented on their 2003 and 2006 followups.

But something was missing.

After listening to The Strokes’ excellent new album Angles five years later, I think I’ve figured it out. The Strokes got negative, man.

OK, so they weren’t exactly singing about sunshine, lollipops and rainbows on Is This It? But at least their attitude toward broken relationships and total assholes was imbued with some level of self-worth. Sure, singer Julian Casablancas was pointing out a lot of BS, but he also didn’t seem to be all too affected by it. And that was cool.

Take “Hard to Explain,” for example:

I watch the TV; forget what I’m told
Well, I am too young, and they are too old
The joke is on you, this place is a zoo
“You’re right it’s true”

But by 2006’s First Impressions of Earth, the Strokes sounded very very affected, and boy was it a bummer. Take these lyrics from “On the Other Side”:

I hate them all.
I hate them all.
I hate myself for hating them,
so I’ll drink some more.
I love them all.
I’ll drink even more.
I’ll hate them even more
than I did before.

Or how about “Ask Me Anything,” featuring a chorus in which Casablancas sings “I have nothing to say” over and over…and over….and over. And if there’s something worse than hearing the guy mutilate his vocal cords on tracks like “Fear of Sleep,” well… I don’t want to hear it.

Now here comes Angles, and I’m happy to report that the Strokes have got their mojo back. Song for song it doesn’t match the brilliance of their debut, sure, and stylistically it’s definitely different. But after a five-year absence, the Strokes actually sound happy to be making music again.

You hear it instantly on opener “Machu Picchu.” It’s a track that takes the band in a new, more reggae direction, but revives the undeniably fun Strokes arrogance that’s been missing all these years.  “Taken for a Fool” is classic Strokes, but the band shows more range than songs previous. Not every song is great — “Metabolism” could have been another mediocre cut from First Impressions — but by the end of the set I felt like I had my old friends back.

Let’s hope they’re here to stay.

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Irish Band Has Sharp Claws

Published by Adam on March 13, 2011

For your listening pleasure, here’s the first single by Morning Claws, a new indie band from Northern Ireland. The slow-burning “Slack Magic” mixes electronic bleeps with intricate vocal harmonies and earnest lyrics. The effect is quite hypnotizing, demanding repeat listens. Fans of Postal Service take notice!

Play “Slack Magic” by Morning Claws (right click to save to PC)

New bands always have trouble with the first photo.

The band is looking for a U.S. label and hasn’t announced plans for a full release. But if they’ve got a few more tracks in them like this, I think they’ll do just fine. For more info, go to http://morningclaws.com/

 

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Adam Bender | adambenderwrites.com | watchadam.blog