=Z – The Hard Way, LIVE! from equalszee on Vimeo.

my buddy zach, aka equalszee, just dropped his first full-length album.  you can download it for free on his blog.

so, full disclosure: i helped on the mixing of some of this album, mostly technical issues.  i also made the cover art.  and i yelled at zach for most of the two years he was working on the album to keep working on the album.  so i am pretty close to the creative process here, but to counter my disclosure, those of you who know me know that i pretty much have no problem telling people if something they did, are doing, or will do sucks.

all that being said, this album is pretty awesome.  it’s quick, it doesn’t take a track off (except for K over L, suck it zach), and it definitely brings something to the rock-pop conversation.  it’s too bad, because zach isn’t going to put that much effort into getting it out there so it might toil in obscurity, but you can easily help change that.  go download a couple tracks, share with your friends if you like it, and force zach to do something more than just passively put out music every 2 years.

one very good way to show people that the RIAA and its bully tactics have no place in the 21st century is to take advantage of good, free, home-made music and listen to it and share it and find it and promote it.  it’s also a great way to listen to modern rock-pop albums that are soaking in ’90s nostalgia (for example).

later this week i’ll recap sundance 2012, where i am now and where things are AWESOME.

amongst my huge mess of life, my friend =Z and i put together an electronic track based on a photo i took from my balcony in may.

i’ll wait while you process that sentence.

ok, so you can find the track and the cover art below. tell me what you think.

Possibilities (8:14)

a quick list of things that i’m listening to and you should be listening to also (in that i can recommend these things):

male bonding – nothing hurts

i saw the video for “year’s not long” the other day on stereogum. the video is … well, whatever. it degenerates into dudes making out, which i wouldn’t consider noteworthy except for the force with which these dudes make out. this is, of course, the point of the video. and tangential to how awesome i find this noise-pop to be.

paul simon – graceland

talk about being late to the party.

passion pit – manners

late to the party here, but not quite as egregious. it’s slowly grown on me since i first bothered to listen, to the point where i feel obligated to tell people that yes, i am one of those people who likes passion pit.

japandroids – post-nothing

i’ve been pimping this album to anyone i can since i started listening to it, but i guess i never really mentioned it here. maybe because i disappeared from here for a while. regardless, AWESOME. i like all these bands who listened to my bloody valentine but then were like “let’s make it rock”

deftones – diamond eyes

i’ll stop here for now. diamond eyes is the platonic ideal of an album from an established band. the deftones have been around since i was in middle school pumping out awesome, evolving hard rock. they’ve taken a leap with this album, where they combined the best elements of previous works and produced something so awesome that it brings their previous works into a new, better light. let me say that again in a different way – this album makes their past albums sound better. think about how incredible an accomplishment that is and then go listen.