Black Holes and Revelations

The glamour of K-Rock's return wore off on the second day, when I realized they were looping a very limited playlist of songs I was listening to five years ago. They were great songs but the station lacked the variety of Jack FM and the new music of...well, I realize I don't hear much new music any more.

There was one tune that kept popping up amid the old ones though, and I finally had to look up the lyrics and find out who I was grooving to on my way to work. The British band Muse is apparently not all that new, and the song I've been enjoying lately, from their album Black Holes and Revelations, is Starlight:



I really like the steady, pulsating bass that runs throughout, even as the jaunty keyboard is introduced. I thought it all reminded me of something, perhaps the band's influences? That's when I noticed the video for Knights of Cydonia:



Finally. Months ago, I wanted to reference that video but couldn't remember where I'd seen the link or what it was called. Searching for things like “Spaghetti Western Science Fiction Music Video” surprisingly didn't help. The name escaped my memory and, in time, the video. It's such an epic video, a short movie really that draws in elements of pulp science fiction and kung fu movies along with Spaghetti Westerns. It's a hybrid of things near and dear to various kinds of geeks, and at the same time is ridiculously cool. I would seriously pay money for a feature length version.

Another song I've been enjoying lately is 9 Crimes by Damien Rice. Though not on the CD soundtrack, a portion of this haunting duet does show up briefly in Shrek the Third, and it wasn't the first time I'd heard it. I want to say it showed up on an episode of Scrubs because it seems like the type of song they'd sample, but I suspect the truth is less respectable and I heard it on Smallville.



Freaky and heartbreaking. The way the male and female voices layer and crescendo reminds me a little bit of early Evanescence.

I've also been hearing some new Linkin Park. Bleed it Out:



and What I've Done:



That last one can be heard on the soundtrack of the upcoming Transformers. I'm not sure if I've mentioned my anticipation for this movie enough, but I will close with a clip from the film revealed by Shia LaBeouf the other night on The Tonight Show:



I guess when things seem darkest, there's always more to be revealed...