"Ich heiße Super Fantastisch!"

Yeah, now I understand what you were saying early on about Alex. Not super-special as far as looks (but not bad either)... but he has that charisma.

It was funny because I bought all of Muse's albums at the same time. The cashier at Borders was like, "So, you're just getting into Muse, huh? They have a new album out or something?" And I said I just got HAARP so I'm catching up.

I guess that would make sense that Alex's prose would sound like FF lyrics. I either read or watched an interview of him explaining how he likes to start off with prose first, then whittle it down to lyrics.

Here's the first story I saw on the tornado. They have a video on there too that's a bit surreal. http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/14019/245/

Thanks. I was gonna change it just now to a pic I found of Matt and Alex together (gasp!) but I guess I'll wait until the current one gets old.

I actually prefer "Darts of Pleasure" too, but the other day I was listening to "Words So Leisured" on the bus. I was feeling a bit tired and the song came on and I was like, "Oooh, he sounds really sexy on this." Hehe.

Hope you get all that stuff for your birthday! If not, you could get the Muse stuff for your birthday and the Franz stuff for Christmas. Or vice versa.

I'll let you know about Sound Bites. I just ordered FF's DVD too, so I'll let you know how it is too.

OT: Tornado in Kapolei today. First heard about it through Twitter, then my coworker said he passed by it right when it was happening. Strange weather we've been having... what's next, hail?

Whoa! Weird that you said that because today we actually had a small tornado about 10 miles away from where I live. Strange... tornadoes are unusual in Hawaii!

Shucks. Well don't get caught because I'd hate to have you grounded even further!

Exactly! A Scottish poi dog, haha. That's cool he seems so down to earth. I wouldn't mind meeting him too. I just bought his book, Sound Bites. I'll get to reading it as soon as I finish a couple of other books I should've been done with by now!

"Words So Leisured" is a b-side that was on the special edition of their first album. It's acoustic and slow, and Alex sounds really sexy. It has reworked lyrics from "Darts of Pleasure," like how Tonight has "No You Girls" and "Katherine Kiss Me."

Aw. =( So does that mean we'll be seeing less of you on the boards because you're grounded? Or is it more not being able to go out?

I know, I love how he talks! It's neat because it's not a straight Scottish accent because of his mixed heritage too.

I love how he sounds on "Words So Leisured."

Oh no, that sucks! Hope your friend is all right! Are you still grounded?

The interview was funny; see for yourself! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoN8_GBGE9Q&feature=channel_page

And they ended up performing "Ulysses": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd7ersrc8Dc

Hey how was the rave? And did you get to watch Franz Ferdinand on Craig Ferguson yet?

I love Matt's red hair in your avatar.

Nope, neither of them won. According to the Grammys website, the White Stripes won best alternative album in 2005 and Gnarls Barkley won that same award in 2006. But whatevs.

Have fun at the rave! Where's it gonna be? And congrats on getting that final driver's ed slot!

Haha yeah, rowdy at a Jimmy Eat World concert. Maybe "rowdy" isn't the right term... it was pretty much just crowd surges, like when suddenly it seems like the crowd decides to push towards one direction all at once. My sister couldn't keep her balance at one point and fell, and that's when we decided to go outside for a bit to catch a breath.

FF's self-titled album and YCHISMB were both nominated for Grammys; I didn't know that until a few days ago. Not that I usually care about the Grammys, but that's cool they've been recognized here in the States. Unlike Muse... which is odd because I'd think Muse in comparison are much more massive than Franz, even though they're both pretty popular. Maybe whoever decides on those awards doesn't like Matt's voice. But yeah, I like YCHISMB, but I could see why some people wouldn't. They have a different vibe or sound going on with that record.

Wow, I had the same thought about Alex looking like Cillian Murphy in the video for "Michael" too! I guess that must mean we're not seeing things!

Congratulations on your permit! I know, it's like once you get the permit, no one wants to make time to teach you. Same here. Hrmph. I've thought about getting driver's classes, but I'm afraid of getting a mean instructor. Plus you have to pay for it, which I feel is unnecessary if you already know someone who could teach you how to drive...

Franz on Craig Ferguson in two days! Woo hoo!

Yeah, there's always that conscious effort to not overtalk about Muse (or anything else) for fear of being perceived as an obsessive weirdo. I know what that's like.

When you mentioned he was one of the winners, I went to AFI's website and found him among the five winners, and figured he must be Scott, since he's the only one from Honolulu.

That radio contest was really a miraculous stroke of luck because I usually never win anything! Jimmy Eat World was my second concert I've ever been to, but it was the first time I was caught in a crowd surge. I was with my sister and some friends, and my sister in particular couldn't handle it so we had to go outside for a few minutes to recuperate. But otherwise the concert was awesome. This was when I was just getting into them so the show helped grow my interest in them further, especially since they played a few b-sides I wasn't familiar with at the time. Plus the guys of Jimmy Eat World are really friendly, laidback guys, so it was cool we got to meet them.

YCHISMB took a few listens for it to grow on me. I've been listening to the album in order and now I'm at the point where I'm actually having a hard time skipping tracks because I like most of the songs on the album. "Do You Want To" is so friggin' catchy! I also love "The Fallen" and "Eleanor Put Your Boots Back On," and right now, I have "Walk Away" stuck in my head.

FF has more music videos than I thought. They don't have a LOT, but hadn't seen most of them. I stumbled upon this website: http://franzferdinand.co.hu/videok. I like saving videos to my laptop though, but I only managed to find a torrent for the "Walk Away" video. A few of the others are for sale on iTunes, but I usually check to make sure they aren't available for free anywhere else before purchasing.

All right!!! Finally you got to meet someone else who's into Muse! When I started talking to you, and then found out two coworkers at my Apple job were into Muse, I had this euphoric feeling, like, yes, I'm not alone on this island in my Muse fandomness. Haha. Now get Scott to join Eventful and demand them to come here.

Btw, I'm thinking this is Scott's profile on the Begin Transmission site: http://begintransmission.afireinside.net/raine. I thought that was a neat idea for a fan contest; way to make use of YouTube. Congrats to him! That's so awesome he won -- some Hawaii representation!

I just watched his contest and winner videos on there. His video entry is one of the better ones on there. It's cheesy, but you can tell it's intentional. A lot of the other submissions were talking heads, basically. With his winner video, I thought it was funny Davey Havok called him the day that storm was expected to arrive. Plus that video reminded me of when I called in to a radio station to win Jimmy Eat World tickets, when they came down here the first time. I was not expecting to win at all, and I did, but I also was not the type to scream and jump up and down about it, so the radio announcer was like, "Aren't you excited to win?" Hehe. I was more stunned and speechless. And the same thing happened when I got to meet the band. I can't remember what I said to them, I just remember feeling very happy.

Oh, let me know if you want Franz's second album.

That's funny that seeing the Kooks was both the best time of your life and a sort of turnoff towards the band. That makes sense though because of how the singer was behaving. It kind of makes you wish you knew less about the band so you could just enjoy their music.

I don't think Eventful is a popular enough website to accurately gauge interest in a band, and I don't really think bands use that site as a measuring tool to decide where they'll perform. But I still wish there were more people demanding Franz!

You gotta help me out, Kylee. I'm the only person demanding Franz to come to Honolulu on Eventful. How depressing. http://eventful.com/honolulu/demand/franz-ferdinand-/D0-001-002841072-3

I'm downloading Kasabian's albums right now. I'm sure I will enjoy them, too!

I've started listening to more of FF's first two albums so I don't get too exhausted of their new one. Plus, I'm sort of catching up. I already had their first album from when it first came out, but I never owned their second album until I downloaded it a few weeks ago. Yesterday, in fact, I went out and bought a DualDisc edition of You Could Have It So Much Better. (That's when one side is an audio CD and the other side has DVD bonus content.) I went to Mai Tai with some coworkers yesterday and one of them saw me with the CD and said it was a good album.

I just watched the DVD, which has the "Do You Want To" music video, footage of of them in the studio, an interview, and a video of their first time playing "Walk Away" in Japan. I love watching bonus snippets like that. Then I found myself wishing FF would play a show here. You never know.

Btw, did you go to The Kooks show a few months ago? I don't listen to them, but I knew they had a show at Pipeline and since we're discussing UK bands, I thought I'd ask.

Did you catch the webchat Franz did on Thursday? I wasn't aware of it, but I stumbled upon some links to videos of the chat: http://community.livejournal.com/franzferdinand/786924.html?#cutid1.

I'm still in my Franz phase and haven't been listening to much else, aside from the occasional Muse song.

That's neat that the Muse board had a contingent at the Amoeba gig hehe. Lucky buggers.

Kasabian is band I keep hearing of, but have yet to check out. I'll look into them too. I downloaded two Kaiser Chiefs albums recently that I have yet to listen to in full. A lot of Brit rock lately for me. A lot of downloaded music in general this month.

Now that FOTC video, that was lol worthy!

I caught the rebroadcast last night, thank goodness! I enjoyed it. I cracked up with that sign that one girl passed to Alex that read, "You can drink my vodka any time!" And there was that other one, something about "Franzy pants." Oh fans.

I haven't heard any of Friendly Fires' music until now; I'm streaming the music they have on their Myspace. Are they from Scotland, too? Seems like they make dance-able music, too.

It was exciting to see them on American TV for once! Alex's feathery hair was cute. Now for Craig Ferguson. I'm looking forward to the interview and hoping for a performance of "No You Girls." Don't know if they would play "Ulysses" again, since they just performed it on Leno.

I'm bummed I missed the Amoeba webcast, though. I was hoping to be home from our video shoot in town in time for the performance, but that along with traffic dashed all hopes for that. It looks like Amoeba archives their performances, though, so hopefully FF's will be up sometime soon.

In a couple hours, they'll be on Leno! Woot!

In celebration, here's another animated GIF... this cracks me up:

I'll be in town all day tomorrow, but I should be back home to catch the Amoeba stream. Thanks for the heads up!

I'm expecting and hoping for the same for Leno tonight. "No You Girls" would especially make for an awesome performance. It's just a catchy track.

Haha yeah I saw your sig. Looped Franz craziness ftw!

Yeah, Craig Ferguson is the Late Late Show on CBS. Franz is appearing next Friday (February 7), though. I found the info over here: http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCProgram.do?t=The-Late-Late-Show-With-Craig-Ferguson&pgmId=EP007151230868

Were you able to get the avatar working?

Try this version. I forgot that the max avatar size here is 90x90, not 100x100. Maybe that was the problem?

Otherwise, does this message board allow animated avatars? I know some don't.

I just found out Franz will be on Jay Leno this Thursday and Craig Ferguson next Friday. (Alex is supposed to be interviewed by Craig Ferguson on the show too. Two Scottish blokes!) Break out that DVR or VHS recorder...

Haha WORD. You're welcome! Enjoy!

Tada! Here ya go!

Oh, and I have non-acoustic Shine if you want it!

Yeah, I love the Ulysses video too! I was searching the Internet last night and stumbled upon a website that had it for download! For free and great quality too! Go here and right-click the "MOV" link below the band's picture and select the download option. I'm so happy I have it on my computer!

Sometimes it's the ad agencies that can't produce anything creative, but a lot of the time it's the clients, too. At the marketing agency I interned with and at the place I work at now, there have been a few times when we came up with ideas for clever ads, but the client was just too conservative to go with it and wanted us to do something traditional and boring. Like they were already assuming that people would be too stupid to "get it." I don't blame them, but at the same time, a good commercial will make your business look better. Like, I really like the Ala Moana commercials. No dialogue, just good music, good cinematography, and good text treatment on the screen. And it gives Ala Moana a classier image, not an embarrassing one.

Thanks for the input for the Muse songs! I was thinking that Absolution would be the album to start her off with, though Origin of Symmetry is a really good album, too. I was looking at all the Muse songs I had, and I realized it would be intimidating for a new listener to have all that music and not know where to start. Especially the miscellaneous b-sides, Hullabaloo, and HAARP.