The New Predators Jerseys Double as Working Guitars

Over at On The Forecheck I've got a new FanPost taking a quick look at a demo of how the guitar strings from the new Nashville Predators jerseys will look on numbers over than 1s. Go ahead and hope on over there to take a look.

How Will All These Strings Work on the New Preds Jerseys?

Friday Music: Call It What You Want, Call It All Punk Rock

After yesterday we are all now intimately familiar with the new Predator Jerseys. If you haven't seen them then take a look at my blog from yesterday. I do hope that the overall design grows on me, but I am highly apprehensive. Still, there were assurances from the team that what we were looking at was not in fact the final design. I guess you can upgrade me to anxiously excited.

I admit I was shocked to see Carter and Richards get shipped out to the Western Conference. Still, the moves don't bother me because the Flyers at least got picks and NHL caliber players in return, including the much touted Brayden Schenn. It will be interesting to see the Orange & Black come out next season with a brand new attitude on the ice. One can only assume that the fearsome Chris Pronger will be named the new captain of the team. I think this is a bold new direction for the team, and I'm looking forward to the next season.

The Swellers – Good For Me (iTunes)

The Swellers have become a frustrating band over the years. When I first listened to the band they seemed like they were working to revive the sound of ‘90s skate-punk. Since that time they have steadily been moving in other directions and growing the depth of their sound. Unfortunately, I don’t think the changes have served the band very well. On this year’s Good For Me we find the Swellers writing some melodic pop rock with tinges of their punk rock past. The record struck me similarly to how Millencolin experimented with their sound on 2002’s Home From Home and to a lesser extent 2005’s Kingwood. The difference between those albums and Good For Me is that the Swedish skate-punkers had a strong grasp on their identity. Meanwhile the Swellers are delivering ten tracks of modern alt-rock with catchy choruses, but those choruses don’t have much of impact. I think the strongest track is The Best I Ever Had, a song that would feel very comfortable on a Bouncing Souls album. Fortunately that track comes immediately after Parkview, which is lyrically cringe worthy. Overall the music is really tight, clean, and well arranged, but all together the album is a bit on the dull side.

Tin Armor – Life Abundance (album is "name your own price")

Upon listening to the first track on the newest Tin Armor album I was first stuck at the beauty of stark arrangement of piano and vocals. It worked, but it was mightily different from the springy introduction from 2007’s A Better Place Than I Have Been. The next thing that revealed itself was the fuller sound that the band achieved, part of that possibly due to an improved recording quality. The beginning tracks are pretty jaunty and casual in feel while still maintaining the sound defined on the band’s previous full length. The band is certainly having a lot of fun with rock & roll on Life Abundance. Tin Armor’s love for Ted Leo can still be hurt lurking around the edges of many of the songs, but it isn’t quite as pronounced on the new album as the band has further established their own sound. A couple of highlights are the bass lines in Wayward Kites and the wonderfully crafted lyrics in Shake Up. The lyrics are one of the real treats on the album, it is well worth the time to sit and absorb the poetry. I also really love the title track and I Am Resolved because singer/song-writer Matt Umland absolutely croons, and the effect is fantastic.

Since the band doesn't seem to have any videos of the new songs... you can stream them all below. Alternatively you could click the link up there and it will take you to a magic place where you can get the album for yourself and stream all the tracks.

New (?) Predators Jersey Ranting

Update: Here is an update on the jersey from On The Forecheck:

UPDATE: My contact with the team is saying those aren't the sweaters, but that could mean many things. These could be preliminary versions to be used at Development Camp, or other prototypes. But it's telling that the logo and coloring match what was unveiled yesterday, so I'd say it's likely these are pretty close to what we'll see this fall. - Dirk

I'm happy to read something along those lines. Since the pictures were first posted I wanted a statement to emerge like the ones that that Dirk was able to provide from the Predators Organization. It gives me hope that some of the improvements I was hoping for may still be realized.

Do you see that?  Those may be the newest jerseys for the Nashville Predators. Yep. Now, I admit I like the white look quite a lot, if I ignore the truly awful pipping that runs down the front and the back. But really, the one of the left looks like one of those free jerseys that team give away to the first 1000 ticket holders. At best it resembles a sickening merger between a soccer jersey and an Underarmour top. I really feel like there is potential with these jerseys... if it weren't for the mistakes. The striping on the home jersey simply looks heavy and dark, while the piping the away jersey makes it look like a disastrous minor league jersey immediately following the switch to the Edge system. It really looks like the design team unlearned many of the mistakes made in jersey design from the dawn of the Edge jerseys.

The more I look at these the more it just scream lost potential.

I also feel like the new primary logo is lost amongst the gold of the home jersey.

Apparently the stripes on the number are supposed to be guitar strings, which makes sense since there are 6 of them. wow, that is actually so much worse.

You can also see the keyboard inside the collar... because why the hell not right? You're already putting guitar strings and a guitar pick on the jersey, why not throw in some piano keys.

HEY DID YOU KNOW NASHVILLE IS THE MUSIC CITY?! DID YOU KNOW THE PREDS PLAY THERE?! Well, if you didn't you sure as hell know now.

How much crap can they put on this jersey? There are random splashes of color, minute and heavy handed nods to Nashville's Music City nickname.

The very worst thing, take a look at the white striping on the gold jersey... it looks like suspenders holding up a pair of pants. In that sense Canadians should be huge fans of this jersey since it combines two national staples, hockey and lumberjacks.

Screw that.

In honestly, what kills me is the ridiculous piping and the unnecessary details.  They make what could be a great jersey and turn it into a heavy handed effort to pay tribute to a city.

In Case You Weren't Paying Attention (or Why Juuso Puustinen is The Boy Who Destroyed The World)

There have been some small, yet important, happenings in the world of Nashville Predators hockey. Now, there are some great blogs out there with some talented and highly knowledgeable folks doing all the writing and analysis. I try not to tread on their toes because there are way to many of them and you people don’t need another person telling you all about what has already been covered. Fortunately, this frees me to dig in and find out what is really going on behind the curtain. Some may recall when I revealed Ollie Jokinen as the reason for the numerous injuries to Predators’ centers. Others may recall the exemplary passable accuracy of my playoff predictions that I channeled through the nearby shelves of assorted objects of nerdy goodness. Well, now I’m applying my considerable skills to interpreting some of the recent bits of Preds news.

Just Call 'Em the Jets? Even if It Was I Would Always Disagree

I find the whole Winnipeg NHL naming thing to be all together tons of fun. The very second that it looked like True North Entertainment was going to acquire the Atlanta Thrashers organization one of the biggest topics has been the new name of the franchise. There were previously assurance from TNE was that the name would be revealed only after the 13,000 season ticket mark was reached, and this number was achieved almost immediately. Well, we still have not as much as a whisper as to the future identity of the franchise. I recently read an article from Tom Oleson of the Winnipeg Free Press talking about the deep and widespread commitment to the Jets moniker. It is a fun little read, even if the author is a tad fixated on polar bears. I agree with Oleson that the Polar Bears would make for a terrible name, but a third of the article talking about bears? Still, he gives further credence to the fact that the overwhelming number of hockey fans want the franchise to be renamed the Jets, whether they are Manitoba or Winnipeg is another thing.

Personally, I'm not a fan of bringing to name back into the NHL. The original Jets organization moved to Phoenix. It still exists, and the Phoenix Coyotes still recognize and pay tribute to the Winnipeg Jets. The new team coming to Manitoba is totally unrelated to the former Jets and I believe deserve their own identity that is not mired in misplaced nostalgia. Yes, misplaced. There is nothing innately wrong with nostalgia but there have been suggestions that there could be a fan backlash, disillusionment, and a loss or departure of fans if the team is not named the Jets. These fans seem to forget that regardless of the name, Winnipeg will once again be home to an NHL team. The whole threatened negative reaction seems extremely ungrateful towards the folks that have worked hard and spent millions of dollars to bring the NHL back to the province.  Which leads me to the big issue.

Why hasn't TNE come out and announced the name of the team?

I think it is because TNE has stated that they want the franchise to begin its own history in Manitoba, but are faced with massive support to revive the Jets name and colors. Paul Friesen of the Toronto Sun reminded us all that even if the team were called the Jets TNE wouldn't own the history (source). The team would be the Jets in name only since, as I mentioned, Phoenix has possession of the Winnipeg Jets' history. Another recent article from the Winnipeg Free Press also discusses the complexities and problems with renaming the franchise as the Jets. History, records, retired numbers, these are things that would have to be tacked on but are all things officially held by the Phoenix Coyotes organization.

I break it down like this:
The fans want to paint stripes on a horse and call it a zebra, whereas TNE would rather replace the horse with something like a moose or maybe another bird.

Friday Music and then Ship! Sun! Wham BANG!

Believe it or not, I am actually working on some hockey related material. It is honestly no fun to write about whatever everyone else is writing about because if you're reading this sentence you've already gotten the idea. I have got several idea that I am looking into. One of which involves that profile on the UTC inline hockey program that I mentioned when I first started this blog. But, on to the reviews.

I have a system when it comes to prepping to write the reviews. Each album gets one side of a standard 3x5 index card. Whatever I can fit on there goes into the review, with the goal being to keep these things short. Seriously, no one wants to read long-winded reviews. Today we've got two bands that are awfully different, as you'll quickly learn.

Reviews after the break