R.E.M.’s new album is f*cking AWESOME!!!

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Allow me to open this with an admission: I am a HUGE R.E.M. apologist (with the interesting exception of their 1999 single “The Apologist” off the Up record, which I did not care for (Up, however, I feel is a great collection which is better appreciated now with more years under it)). Be that as it may, I am still able of listening to the bands music critically and while I can find justification is near-every of the bands artistic decisions through the years (I really mind mind Around The Sun! And when Reveal came out, I listened to it a lot. Nowadays, not so much) I am not afraid to call out my heroes when a gamble doesn’t pay off.

Thankfully I am not having to do that today. R.E.M.’s 15th full-length album Collapse Into Now is brilliant. I am weary of calling anything created in this modern age a masterpiece and I won’t relinquish that distinction for this album, but it is close as you can get. What makes Collapse Into Now so great is they feel comfortable bouncing forth and back from pop-centric radio singles (”My Smells Like Honey,” “Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter,” “That Someone is You,” “All The Best”) and moody, Bush-era Stipeian angst (”Oh My Heart,” “Walk It Back,” “Uberlin”). The flow of the album is a bit janky at times, most noticeably following the aforementioned “That Someone is You” with the beautiful, but superbly mellow “Me, Marlon Brand, Marlon Brando and I,” but that change-up sets the stage for the closing, near spoken word “blue” which references the titular concept of 20th century collapsing into the present day.

Collapse Into Now is the 2nd album in a row where lead singer Michael Stipe sings self-referential lines to the groups previous word (previously seen on Accelerates “Sing For the Submarine.”) On this albums fourth track, Stipe references “the storm didn’t kill me/the government changed” a direct reference to his line “if the storm doesn’t kill me/the government will” from the Katrina-centric song “Houston” on Accelerate. In fact, the themes in “Oh My Heart” regarding a return to a place once special and the joy to ones heart brought by this homecoming, in addition to make similarities musically, might make “Oh My Heart” a direct sequel to “Houston;” another R.E.M. first!

Choice tracks coming out of “Collapse Into Now” included all of the above mentioned songs in addition to “It Happened Today,” “Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter,” “Walk It Back,” “That Someone Is You.”

Collapse into Now is an incredible album and merely knowing that this record exists returns to me hope that music, in this modern era can be saved again.

Highly recommended.

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Should We Make Pitchfork Sucks T-Shirts?

Wanna know what the most popular article on Rockworms.com is? This one: Best Article Ever: Pitchfork Sucks! Yep. That post gets more traffic than any other post in our history. And do you know why? Lot’s of people are googling “pitchfork sucks.” Seriously! You all seem to share in this feeling that people who hate music don’t deserve to write about music for a living.

Rough Artists Rendering of "Pitchfork Sucks" T-Shirt

Rough Artists Rendering of "Pitchfork Sucks" T-Shirt

So we got to thinking: “How can we make more money here?” After all, our mom’s have been funding Rockworms.com’s hosting bills for the last 5 years. So we want to ask you a question: If we made “Pitchfork Sucks” T-shirts, would you buy them? If you bought them, would you wear them to all of the hipster concerts that you go to every week? And when people ask you where you got your awesome shirt, would you answer: ” I got it at rockworms.com, the best music blog ever!”? (Ok, that was three questions…but humor us).

No but srsly…we’re thinking about printing shirts. The image above is rough (not final design), but you get the idea. If you’re interested, let us know in the comments section (leave your real email sport; we’ll let you know when they’re ready).

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Best Headphones Evar? [Cheap] Headphone Reviews

Rockworms know that choosing the best headphones within your budget can make a huge difference in your aural pleasure. We realized that we had never done headphone reviews here on Rockworms.com, so we thought we’d give it a shot. For your budgetary convenience, we’ve sorted these into three ranges: $100 headphones, $20-30 headphones, and cheapie-cheap headphones (around $10). Of course, if you want to spend more on your headphones than I did on my big-screen TV, go right ahead. Let me know how they sound.

Mid-Range Headphones

If you’re like us (broke), you need to find a balance between good sound and good value. In the $20-30 range, you’ll want something that’s a signifcant improvement over your old walkman headphones, but we all realize that these are not the cadalac of headphones (like these $3,000 beauty’s).

Sony MDR-XD200 Stereo Headphones ($20)

The MDR-XD200’s are the little brother of the studio-standard MDR7509HD’s. And while there’s a substantial difference in price (around $160), we’ve got to give these little XD-200’s credit for closing the sound-quality gap. At $20 these are a phenomenal value. These phones are very listenable to music of any kind, but we also liked that Sony added a built in EQ that let’s you switch between movie mode (bigger bass) and music mode. Nice. These puppies are a little bulky (we’ve heard them called “the Princess Leia headphones”), and a little on the heavy side, but you’re a rockworm. You don’t care about that. Right?

Sennheiser HD 202 Dynamic Headphones ($30)


If you’re going to spend a few more bucks on your headphones than Sony’s XD200’s, Sennheiser’s HD 202 headphones are a great step up. These are the most natural sounding headphones under $80 on the market. The closed dynamic design gives solid bass (although they’re not temple-thumpers, like some similar headphones) and while they’re not billed as “noise cancelling”  headphones, they manage to keep out a lot of outside noise. The extra bonus (imho) is the comfort factor. These are also really light, and very comfortable to wear for hours at a time. Not much else you could ask for from a $30 set of headphones.

Headphones à la Benjamin

If you’re willing to drop a Benjamin on your headphones, you’re going to want a few things over the cheapies, and the mid-level phones. First and foremost - an audible difference in sound quality. After that probably comes durability, and then probably some personal style/sound preferences. So if you’re shopping in this price range we’ve got two picks for you:

Sennheiser HD-280 PRO Headphones ($99)

Once upon a time I was at a bargain-basement recording studio in Los Angeles, and our sound engineer/producer/janitor pulled a set of HD-280’s out of his backpack. They were folded up, and I thought to myself: these things must be cheap. Only crappy gimmicky headphones would need to be “collapsible” in order to be different. I was wrong. These are, imho, the best hundred-dollar headphones on the market. period. These have huge sound, great isolation (very handy while recording, when headphone sound can bleed into the mic). They are also made with quality materials, and will hold-up for years of frequent use and abuse. I’ve also come full-circle on the collapsible thing. I love that these fit in the small outside pocket of my man-purse (aka laptop bag). Buy these headphones. You won’t be disappointed.

Sony MDR7506 Professional Headphones ($85)

The MDr7506 headphones are the Toyota Camry of headphones. They’re a helluva nice ride, at a good value, and they’ll last forever. While Sony has improved upon these phones with the more expensiveMDR7509HD’s, these have been the standard by which all other headsets are judged for the last 20 years. They’ve been criticized for having an “unnatural” sound, but yet their so ubiquitous that some professional engineers & studio musicians have trained their ears by these headsets, and they wouldn’t use anything else. Whether you’re a rockworm who loves listening through a great LP, or a recording musician or engineer needing to upgrade from your iPod earbuds, it’s hard to go wrong with the old MDR7506. If nothing else, you’ll send a signal to other music lovers who are in the know. It’s like sporting Chuck Taylor’s, Levi’s 501’s, or a Fender Strat.

The Cheapie-Cheap Headphones

Ok, you’re cheap, we get it. Let’s move on shall we? Here are a couple options that’ll only cost you a Hamilton (plus maybe a couple Washington’s for tax and shipping).

JBuds Hi-Fi Noise-Reducing Ear Buds ($8)

If you want big sound out of little money, you’re better off going with ear-buds rather than a full headset. These little buggars from Jbuds are comfortable (a must when sticking anything in your ears), and really do have a good sound at high, mid, and low levels. If you’ve lost your iPod earbuds (or your dog ate them…in my case) these are a good substitute.

Sony MDR-XD100 Headphones ($13)

So you want that “I’m really into music” look at that “I really live with my parents” budget. The sound from these is throughly decent. You can hear good detail at low levels, and they don’t blow-out like most cheap sets at this level when you crank up the volume. On the negative side of things, there’s not much going on in the bass department. But hey-just don’t expect much and you won’t be dissapointed. If you can spare an extra $7 we would definitely step up to the  MDR-XD200’s. 

There you go! Happy listening rockworms. If you grab one of these, let us know what you think! Oh and PS - if you are going to buy…do us a solid and buy from Amazon by clicking on one of the links above. We will get $0.000001 for every purchase you make. We’re hoping to earn enough to buy some JBuds by sometime in the 24th century AD.

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