alaska Customer Review: Ignore the naysayers
I’m glad that I didn’t read too many reviews here before buying BTBAM’s album alaska. This is my first BTBAM album and I bought it on good faith from some positive word-of-mouth that they were a great band and that Selkies was a beautiful song.

Even though I’m a fan of Meshuggah, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Opeth, The Mars Volta, etc. etc. I was not prepared for the intensity and speed of the heavier parts, the all out insanity of tracks like alaska and Autodidact, the growling vocals that sometimes don’t enunciate the printed words at all, or the superb lyrics that mix humor and emotion and some great imagery. This is an album that rewards with multiple listens–in the car, on the computer, on headphones while looking at the lyric book. You’ll hear something new every time, and each song will start making sense and exposing it’s brilliance as your brain begins to put the pieces together.

Anyone that buys a CD because a record company placed a sticker on it referencing other bands, and then complains when it doesn’t sound like those bands deserves a boxing of the ears. You folks are suckers. BTBAM utilizes a wide variety of styles and sounds and they do it very, very well and very tastefully. The vocal high point “It’s raining” in Backwards Marathon is an amazing moment in the song, and actually is not falsetto–Tommy is singing (belting?) with quite a full sound there–and has a very reminiscent sound of the singer from The Mars Volta at that moment. The only laughter it should elicit should be like the nervous laughter of adolescents and children who aren’t sure how to react when they’ve been caught being bad by Daddy during his weekend bender.

Amazing album.

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Miami Herald - Democratic Presidential hopeful, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards strains to hear a question following a policy speech in Goffstown, N.H., Monday, Oct. 29, 2007. Edwards cast Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton and her ties to

Another election fiasco in Florida?
Salon - The most visible Democratic candidate in Florida is former alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, who appeared last weekend at a state convention in Orlando. The other candidates have no state offices, no direct mail operations and no local press operations.

Anti-Clinton video draws attention
Miami Herald - First came the Orwellian mash up YouTube video that portrayed Hillary Rodham Clinton as Big Brother. Then came a clip of her off-key rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. Now, a stinging 13-minute video by a bitter Clinton foe is finding its own

Homeowners lukewarm about tax amendment
Miami Herald - Homeowners in Miami-Dade and Broward counties adopted a defeated ‘’something is better than nothing” view on property tax revisions Monday as legislators sent a watered-down plan to voters. The proposed constitutional amendment would require 60

Ill. hospital to screen for staph germ
Miami Herald - Loyola University Medical Center on Monday announced plans to start testing all incoming patients for a drug-resistant staph germ and isolating those who carry the dangerous bacteria. The 589-bed hospital in Maywood, just west of Chicago, is among

Bombardier Q400s’ Grounding May Imperil Plane Orders (Update3)
Bloomberg - Horizon Air, a regional unit of Seattle-based alaska Air Group Inc., which has 33 Q400s, plans to continue flying its turboprop fleet, spokesman Bill Conniff said. The company has an order for 15 more aircraft to be delivered starting in October 2008

China arrests 774 in product crackdown
Miami Herald - China said Monday that it had arrested 774 people in a crackdown on substandard goods, part of ongoing efforts to calm international worries over the quality of the country’s products. The General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection

Bid impasse stalling new recycling plan
Miami Herald - Used juice cartons, ink-jet cartridges, fluorescent light bulbs and medical needles are all still headed to Miami-Dade’s landfills instead of recycling centers. County taxpayers are still paying about $250,000 more each month for recycling than they

No debate that focus of debate is Clinton
Philadelphia Inquirer - NBC News barred the former alaska senator on the grounds that he failed to meet minimal standards in terms of money raised, campaign activity, or support in the polls. The Democrats last met Sept. 26 in Hanover, N.H. Two more party-sanctioned debates

Dominican storm kills at least 20 people
Miami Herald - People move thier belongings from thier homes flooded by Tropical Storm Noel in Lucas Diaz, west of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, Monday, Oct. 29, 2007. Tropical Storm Noel brought heavy rain and flooding to the Dominican Republic as

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