New music bonanza!
Some new notable band releases that just happened or will happen shortly: Arcade Fire - Neon Bible, Bright Eyes - Cassadaga, Voxtrot - self-titled LP. So here is my take on this new music...

Arcade Fire-Neon Bible: Can I tell you how much I love the organ addition? Neon Bible rock's just like their previous album, but the addition of the organ seems somewhat appropriate and fitting, I think. After listening quite a few times I have to say that, similar to the new Killer's album, they have been bit by the "Bruce Springsteen bug" , it seems, most notably on the song "Antichrist Television Blues". They have also added some pretty interesting instruments... cue the hurdy gurdy on "Keep the Car Running". Yes, it is an actual instrument. Google it! Overall, I think this CD is an excellent follow-up to their debut CD. I even got the actual CD with packaging since it just looked way too cool.... My favorite tracks: "Keep the Car Running" , "Intervention".

Bright Eyes-Cassadaga: This new CD is good, but arguably not the best they have done. I think that it definitely sounds more produced than their previous albums. In addition, there are some good songs and some OK songs. It seemed to not stand up to the other classics of Oberst. Overall, still good and worth buying though. One thing pretty creative was the packaging. The CD includes a decoder which reveals artwork in the seemingly plain gray packaging. Nice touch! My favorites on the CD are "Four Winds", "Soul Singer in a Session Band"

Voxtrot- self-titled LP: This due to be released May 22nd. I am one of the fans who has been waiting for a while for their first LP. What I have heard so far on the songs they have on their my space page, I think the album will be great! In addition, on Voxtrot's website they have a link posted to videos of the making of the LP released weekly. I also will be checking these guys out in concert next month!

Anyway, that is it for the new music... Any thoughts on these bands or other new releases that stand out?

Concert Etiquette....
So I know it seems to have been centuries since I last posted. I never meant it to go quite this long... So hopefully people are still with me. I guess I have no profound excuse than I have been doing other things... Most notably getting new music and going to concerts among other standard, mundane day to day things. But I will save the concert experiences for a future post to summarize. I wanted to get everyone's opinion on some concert etiquette. At one of my recent concerts that I went to in a bar/rock club venue had an opening band chatting away quite loudly (in multiple conversations) during the performance of the headlining band. It wouldn't have been quite as bad, but the headlining band was pretty quiet during their performance. So this brings me to my question. Is is rude to talk loudly in a bar/club concert? I was in agreement with my friend who said they should have respected the code of conduct and been quiet for the other bands performance. I think that there is definitely some room for talking in a concert venue such as this (since it did have a bar in the venue), but there is a limit to talking. Because some people actually came to see them perform and not only to grab a beer and chat. My thought is go to the other room if you are going to talk that loudly. Thoughts? Anyone else have similar experiences or other annoying experiences at concerts?