CD of the week.

Burn Planetarium
Valse Mechanique
2008

Let me start off by saying it is very late right now. I have been procrastinating and putting off the mountain of homework that looms on the shelf above my bed, instead I've been wasting time (I like to call it being productive in an ambiguous sense) playing super mario 64, watching man vs. wild and the food network on demand and inventing games, now I'm going to write a review because that is obviously my highest priority.

Now to the album... while I was efficiently wasting my time into the wee hours of the night, songs from this cd kept coming up on shuffle, prompting me to just listen to the Valse Mechanique all the way through for what will be my probably 100th time. Listening to it I realized that I didn't know a whole lot about Burn Planetarium, I don't even know where I found this cd (likely when I interned at the radio station).

Let me point out what I did know.
1. I know they are a college/university punk/altpop band.
2. I know nearly all their songs by heart.
3. They kind of sound like a mix between Born Ruffians and Tokyo Police Club
Note: While they share certain qualities with these bands, Burn Planetarium has it's own sound.

What I didn't know was that this band was from one of my home towns, Guelph! Ok, so the music on the album. Musically its not super impressive, its got all the components of a generic teen punk artsy pop-influenced band making it fun to listen to automatically with a bunch of really cool lyrics. But what really makes this album worth getting is the enthusiasm that Burn Planetarium put into each song. Trust me, none of these songs will disappoint you. Each time the track changes you are hit with a fresh new song that will make you move in different ways.

Track List.
1. Death! Death! Death!
2. Frankenstein kids
3. Snakefight at the Octagon
4. Werewolf by Night
5. The Mechanical Waltz
6. We Were Stenographers
7. New Way to Love
8. Red Army Fighter
9. City Wings

I'd love to see a music video for any of these songs. Maybe I'm just bad at the Internet but I couldn't even find fan made music videos for any new or old song by Burn Planetarium. I did however find a really cool live video of them in a radio library. It's on their myspace, you should probably check it out. www.myspace.com/burnplanetarium

Sorry for a sort of vague review, but that's my album pick of the week. If you are at all interested in punk/altpop get Valse Mechanique (although it might be hard unless you go to one of their shows, which is also a good idea)

Support the local scene
Peace and love
Joey
ps. if you're a band send me your stuff, I like new music, my pockets are empty so i can't buy cds and i never download because i just don't.