I spent some time last night listening to the debut album by Arcade Fire. It's a pretty strange name that conjures up images of a Mortal Kombat machine engulfed in flames - as well they should be. Anyway, the music is equally strange. I was led to believe (by Rolling Stone's 4-star review, no less) that this was a polished indie pop-punk record. It's really more of a low-fi take on Sandinista!, in my opinion. There's definitely a bit at the end of "Wake Up" where the band shifts gears abruptly to channel the exact groove from "Hitsville U.K." Arcade Fire employs liberal use of outros in their songwriting, as several songs work the same way, switching over to disco grooves or other uptempo madness to ride the faders out.

It's a weird album, but I think it's growing on me. I don't expect it to have any mainstream success whatsoever. The sound is way too dirty for that. Still, it's well put together and I can appreciate their vision.

In other news, I found another cool Christmas present type thing. Not just for myself, but for any discriminating Internet junkie.

strongbad_email.exe

This is a DVD set of the first 100 Strong Bad e-mails (have there been that many already? wow). If you don't know what I'm talking about, click on the "sb emails" link at the above website. Pick one from the list, and if you like it, there's lots more fun where that came from. You can thank me later when all your free time is spent scouring homestarrunner.com for cartoons or secrets you may have missed.