So it’s only Tuesday, but already I’m feeling pretty stressed about my university workload that is beginning to accumulate. Grammar tests, essay outlines, in-class debates – it all seems to piling up this week, and if I survive until Friday, it’s going to be a small miracle. Luckily, I have a pretty uncommon method that may just help me avoid having a mental breakdown. I’m going to a metal show tonight.

Not just any metal show though. I’d be the first to admit that metal isn’t my preferred listening genre by any means. I don’t own a single Black Sabbath-related article of clothing, nor would I like to discuss the finer points of the new Metallica album with you (but if I was to guess, I’d say that this is pretty damn accurate). Yet, there’s something about a good metal album with southern-fried rock influences, pummeling riffs and drums that you can jump around your bedroom violently to, and lyrics that if you listen really, really hard you can almost make them out. That album for me last summer was Every Time I Die’s The Big Dirty, and the band is finally getting off their asses and are bringing their “November Reign” (how appropriate now that Axl has finally announced Chinese Democracy will be in stores November 23) tour to The Opera House tonight at 7. For those of you not willing to brave the inevitable mosh pits, but don’t mind their music with a bit of volume, check this out.

If you’re feeling something more mellow, Matt & Kim are playing a show with Best Fwends at the Whippersnapper Gallery this Saturday, and you can still pick tickets up at Rotate This. If really good, infectious pop-rock isn’t incentive enough, Mel and myself will also be there to check the show out. Score!

Another band that should make you smile, is New York’s Jesus H. Christ & The 4 Hornsmen of the Apocalypse, who just put out a new album entitled Happier Than You. If the absurdity of the band’s name alone doesn’t do it for you, their horn-drenched catchy pop songs with a wry sense of humour (they have a song called“Connecticut’s For Fucking”), will.

I’ve had the new Bloc Party album Intimacy stuck on repeat on my laptop the past week, and it is easily the best album that I have listened to in months. Seriously, if you are fans of the band and you don’t own this album, you need to run out and get it right now. For those of you who were disappointed with A Weekend In The City, the new songs are more in the spiky post-punk experimental vein of Silent Alarm, with electronic elements that has me definitely hoping this spawns a remix album. Classics-in-waiting include “Mercury”,“Ares”, “Biko”, “One Month Off”, and “Talons”, which you can watch the video for here.

I almost hate to dirty this website’s good name by mentioning their name here, but last Tuesday, my friend and I were out walking on Queen St. West on a chilly evening when we came across Fall Out Boy playing a live set outside the MuchMusic headquarters. I’m sure most of your reactions were similar to mine – who gives a fuck? – but it just was another reminder for me where I am living, and that so many bands come here on a regular basis. Here, Fall Out Boy playing a free outdoors show is just an ordinary Tuesday in Toronto. Oh, and apparently (not as if you care though) Chicago’s “finest” have a new album under their belts, entitled Folie A Deux. I watched the new video for the first single “I Don’t Care” and I thought it was complete garbage – it’s full of gratuitous product placement (let’s hope Nokia’s cutting them a fat royalties cheque as we speak), shameless guest appearances (hey, is that the guy from Cobra Starship? Pharrell? really Gilby Clarke, you didn’t have anything better to do with your time?) and a supposed political message (or at least that’s what they calling it and trying to disguise the fact that they’re just trying to cash in on the Barack Obama fever sweeping the nation).

That just reminds me that today is election day in the States. It seems that there is a greater interest in Canada about this federal election than the botched excuse of one we had the other week (I’m not bitter). If you are an American reading this, and you haven’t done so, go vote for Obama. Us Canadians (and the rest of the world) will thank you for it. Heck, and if Obama’s personality and politics haven’t impressed you yet, maybe his dance moves will. Hilarious.

Anyways that’s all I have for today. Get out there and enjoy the unusually warm weather that we are having this week for me, as I will be confined to labs, the library and my dorm room. Such is (university) life.

Cheers,
Max