I’m a DJ now, apparently.

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I fear that my iPod is in its death throes. It’s doing that thing where it clicks a little bit here and there; I think it would rather be a woodpecker than a hard drive. Today, songs that normally contained music suddenly had none, and I would be booted back to the album menu with nary a sound. It’s depressing.

It still works for now, however, but sporadically. What a shame that every Apple product I’ve owned has begun to fall apart after a year. Convenient, considering it’s just outside of warranty range.

For the sake of irony, I should note that my Sony Walkman still plays CDs like it’s 1996.

In what is probably a blow to my manliness, I’m a pretty big Coldplay fan. Things have become so bad that I wear green flannel and chop down trees while listening to the British four-piece, just to keep my innate gruffness in check. It probably doesn’t help my middle name is Martin, either.

Yet, during one of my more recent Coldplay binges — each song followed with a shot of manly whiskey, no less — I came upon a startling realization. The Coldplay of today is not the Coldplay of yesterday. Stunning, right? I’m expecting a gold star for this startling discovery in the mail any day now. But while every band obviously goes through some sort of transformation — a distinct evolution throughout their careers — Coldplay’s strikes me as particularly strange.

You see, Coldplay was once a band that had actual guitars involved in the song-making process. And I’m not talking about a half-hearted, Talk-style solo. These were full-fledged riffs that actually went somewhere musically, and more importantly, carried the song. Maybe even a little bass, that actually deviated from the chords in play. Today, we get a whole bunch of strings, an overabundance of keys, and a couple of band members wondering how long it’ll be until they have to learn the glockenspiel.

It’s a far cry from the early days, no doubt — just ask Bigger Stronger.

Maybe this is just the irritated rant of a fan who loved Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head oh-so much. There was something about the mix of guitar and piano that was different at the time — sappy, perhaps, but catchy. And that mix has arguably made Coldplay one of the biggest bands in the world.

Just a band with a little less guitar.

Now, to never speak of this forbidden fandom again; I’ve got some power tools to clean.

Modest Mouse played The Sound Academy here in Toronto last night. I attempted to take some pretty pictures with my new 50mm lens. You can check more out here.

I really don’t care what your opinion on chiptunes is; there’s simply no denying that this is just too damn cool to ignore. A group of popular chiptunes arists have come together to create what is essentially an 8-bit Weezer compilation, with songs spanning the band’s entire career. For anyone with fond memories of Weezer and SNES throughout the early-to-mid nineties, this is made of %100 undeniable awesome.

What’s neat is how each artist’s style varies greatly between covers. Some take a more traditional approach and incorporate familiar blips and sound effects used in a number of popular 8-bit games, while others layer sounds, and push the effect chips to make whole new sounds. It’s even interesting to see how the covers themselves differ from the original material, to the point where some artists must get particularly creative to replicate a given sound.

Or maybe I’m just a giant nerd, and see this sort of stuff as cool.

But if you feel like reliving your childhood in a decidedly unorthodox way, break out the cheesies, fall back into your hot-pink bean bag chair, and enjoy a bit of 8-bit Weezer this afternoon.

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Buddy Holly – nordloef