Well, That's It

As of today this blog is being retired to the quiet and peaceful world of blog heaven.

Sadly, this does not mean the end of my all to infrequent writing. From this day forward I'll be writing about hockey and punk rock over at Up The Pucks with a group of other passionate people that share my peculiar range of interested. Further, my fellow blogger Dan has graciously allowed for me to occasionally post my thoughts on the Nashville Predators over at the respectable Predlines on the Fansided network.

Thanks

The 2011 Puck & Punk Music Awards

This is probably the slowest I've ever gotten out one of my Top 20 Favorite Albums list, but I did get it out, so there is that. This is going to be as pretty long post, but there isn't a ton to read so you don't have to worry about a thing.

Under Album Appreciated of 2010:

Fake Problems  - Real Ghosts Caught on Tape

I don't know why I doubted Fake Problems or their 2010 effort. Real Ghosts held a semi-permanent spot in travel CD case throughout the year. Sonically, they are almost exactly what I'd want my own band to sound like, which is just to say that I'm jealous of the level of quality these guys have achieved.

Favorite Song of 2011:

This ends up being a close competition between two powerful female vocalists. The runner up this year would be The Sounds with "Dance With The Devil". But the song that I fell in love with, and continued to fall in love with all year, was "Master of Art" by Laura Stevenson and The Cans.

Worst Album of 2011:

The Aquabats - Hi-Five Soup

The Aquabats are a silly band. They are often juvenile. Sometimes they can even be flat out embarrassing. But their newest album is just not good. The band skipped juvenile and basically aimed straight for the preschooler crowd. If it had been marketed as a companion album to Yo Gabba Gabba then I think I would give the music a pass. I fought through a couple of listens before ignoring the album for the rest of the year.





Top Albums 20-11

20. Honorable Mention! Instead of picking a 20th album, I just want to mention some other albums that I enjoyed (anything marked in red I either got to too late or I highly recommend):

Amateur Party "Truncheons In The Manor," Atlas Losing Grip "State of Unrest," Bangers "Small Pleasures," Banner Pilot "Heart Beats Pacific," Bomb The Music Industry "Vacation," Bridge and Tunnel "Rebuilding Year," Cute Lepers "Adventure Time," Doomtree "No Kings," Ellwood "Lost in Translation," Face to Face "Laugh Now, Laugh Later," The Gateway District "Perfect's Gonna Fail," Good Luck "Without Hesitation," Landmines "Commerce and Marx," New Found Glory "Radiosurgery," Nothington "Borrowed Time," Red City Radio "Dangers of Standing Still," Sims "Bad Time Zoo," The Sounds "Something To Die For," Star Fucking Hipsters "From the Dumpster to the Grave," William Elliort Whitmore "Field Songs," The Wonder Years "Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing," Zoey Van Goey "Propeller Versus Wing,"


19. Banquets – Top Button, Bottom Shelf

The downside to release an album later in the year is that doesn't have as much time to grow on you. Top Button, Bottom Shelf had me hooked from the first listen, but each time I go back to it I seem to enjoy it a little bit more.

18. House Boat – Thorns of Life

Damn, I love some snotty, poppy punk. House Boat have developed a formula that I'm happy to consume by the spoonful.

17. Wild Flag – Wild Flag

This is a great album that pays tribute to the great female rockers that used to grace the popular music charts. Wild Flag also gets a prize for having so much diversity that when mixed in with other records I sometimes mistook them for three or four different bands, each capability of making me go "woh, I need to check out who this is." Now I just know that it is Wild Flag

16. Frank Turner – England Keep My Bones

If he released nothing but an album of traditional style English ballads I would buy that album for me and everyone I know.

15. Austin Lucas – A New Home in The Old World

I Austin's music was only elevated by the addition of a backing band and songs with a quicker pace. Those louder, faster songs also went a long way to showcase the stripped back acoustic efforts that allow for Austin's voice and lyrics to shine.

14. Night Birds – The Other Side

A quick and banging album of filthy punk rock. The Other Side was one of those albums that came out of left field.

13. P.S. Elliot – Sadie

I'm sorry that P.S. Elliot is no more, but I am grateful that the band went out on such a strong record.

12. Cobra Skulls – Agitations

I think Cobra Skulls are one of the, possibly the, most important band in punk rock today. I don't think their most recent album is quite as good as their last effort, but it a damn fine piece of work.

11. Candy Hearts- Everything’s Amazing & Nobody’s Happy

I constantly want to find a way to wedge this album somewhere within the Top 10. Really, I could replace this album with any album 7-10 and I wouldn't be all that bothered. The album manages to be cathartic, heartwarming, clever, amusing, and energetic from start to end. I could gush over this album constantly, but I won't because you could just go back and read my review of the album.

And there is 11-20


Top 10 Albums of 2011

10. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Belong

What this album loses in cliché is makes up for with enjoyable music and a sincerity that lets the listeners share in the angst and pain.









9. Mischief Brew – The Stone Operation

There are a lot of different sounds on this album, and I love them almost all the time. I really don’t think they do much wrong. Sometimes I don’t think it deserves to be the top 10, but then I listen to it again and know that it was the right call.

8. Heartsounds – Drifter

No doubt this album would be higher on the list if it weren’t for the terrible lyrics that end of Don’t Talk With Your Mouth Open. I love punk in the vein of Strung Out, and on the technical end Heartsounds might actually be better. They are certainly better with the vocals, but Strung Out are stronger lyrically.

7. Old Man Markley – Guts n’ Teeth

I guess this’ll be the album to which the future onslaught of punk/blue grass bands will be compared. This album really taps into traditional Southern bluegrass and folk sounds and topics. I may not smoke, but their song about running pot is pretty much a perfect modernization of the stories about moonshiners and whisky runners.

6. Laura Stevenson & The Cans – Sit Resist

It’s just a really pretty album that provides lots of variety. But it stills flows and each song feels like a natural progression. Master of Art may also be my favorite song of the entire year. If I base it solely off of plays then there is no doubt that it isn’t my favorite track.

5. Touché Amore – Parting the Sea

This is an intense album, and it fulfills my Top 20 Hardcore Album of the Year slot. I pretty much thought I would hate this band until I listened to the record all the way through.

4. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar

It is amazing how much noise and rock comes out of this Welsh three-piece. I usually have trouble with longer songs, but I didn’t find that to be an issue on The Big Roar. I know that 2012 will find this album getting lots of listens from me.

3. Polar Bear Club – Clash Battle Guilt Pride

This is the sort of album that makes me wonder if I might find a summer home in the world of “post-“ music. The album held me enthralled for the entire run. It also provided me with some of my favorite lyrics of the year. I’ve really sold this band short in the past, but now I feel that I’m giving them their due.

2. Have Nots – Proud

If I rated SERF City USA highly, then Proud deserves at the very least an equivalent rating. The band improved in just about every way. There is more variety on Proud and through that variety I would find myself anticipating the next track because I knew it would bring a little something different.

1. Restorations – Restorations

My surprise album of the year. Restorations is a mature and thoughtful album that holds all the energy and passion of a pure punk album without the harsher elements of the genre. It’s an album that is really worth pursuing if you haven’t already gotten your hands on it.

0. Fucked Up – David Comes to Life

I stuck this at spot 0 because I really don’t know how to rank it. Listening to the album takes an investment of time and effort, but it pays out. I found the story being told to be both engaging and moving, although a little confusing on the first listen. At a time when huge punk bands like Green Day and Rancid are making “punk” musicals, Fucked Up snuck in a put together something that those bands wish they could’ve achieved.





2011 Top 20 Mixtape:

1. Broken Vacuum - Restorations
2. Dead Man - Have Nots
3. Solastalgia - Cobra Skulls
4. Dallas in Romania - Mischief Brew
5. Boom - Wild Flag
6. Neon Gray - Night Birds
7. Letterman - Old Man Markley
8. Heart In Your Heartbreak - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
9. Dance With The Devil - The Sounds
10. Master of Art - Laura Stevenson & the Cans
11. ~ - Touché Amoré
12. Best Night Of The Night - Banquets
13. Throwing in Those Weird Chords Did Wonders for The Copyrights and Dopamines (Theme From    

      House Boat) - House Boat
14. Sleepy Kisses - Candy Hearts
15. Thunder Rail - Austin Lucas
16. English Curse - Frank Turner
17. Asphalt - P.S. Eliot
18. Drifter - Heartsounds
19. Screams in Caves - Polar Bear Club
20. Cradle - The Joy Formidable

Realignment Woes Grow

As most everyone has heard by now the NHLPA failed to approve the league's realignment plan by the set deadline. This lack of movement was essentially the Players' Association rejecting the realignment plan without actually rejecting it. It was a clever bit of maneuvering on the part of someone or someone else to do something that pretty much just pisses everyone off in one way or another.

A number of quality blogs have done a great job poking holes in the NHLPA's statement about why a plan popular amongst the league, owners, and fans (except, probably Florida and Tampa) would be unceremoniously rejected. The travel complaints from the NHLPA have been a target from the media, and with good reason, the claims are overall pretty silly in the face of the efforts of the league to add parity to travel schedules across the league, except for Florida and Tampa. But the area in which I'm more interested is that the Players' Association was given no say during the formative period of the new league structure. Just today Travis Hughes of SBNation and Broad Street Hockey reported that Flyers player rep Braydon Coburn said that the unbalanced conferences structure was the primary area of concern for the NHLPA. While this concern is certainly notable, the conference structure is far more agreeable than some of the other setups suggested by the owners and the league.

Where I Again Try To Guess The Future

Bergfors predicting how many goals he'll score for the Nashville Predators

Many Nashville Predators were excited about the off season acquisition of Swedish sniper Niclas Bergfors. He was seen as a Kostitsyn-esque low-risk investment. Like the Belarusian Niclas never seemed to be able to settle down into a consistent role. Unlike our trigger shy Eastern European friend Bergfors never could seem to put anything interesting on the table. His single goal this season didn't come off of a shot, but rather involved a surprised Swede chesting the puck in the net past a likely very startled Miikka Kiprusoff. What made the play all the more hilarious was that the puck was coming off a rather silly looking shot from Hillen. Bear Force has generally been a disappointment and watching McGrattan gobble up the last roster spot had to be tough on the kid, so it came as no surprised when the Predators chose to waive the player.

We've Crossed the First Threshold.

There are two simple rules that I follow early in each and ever NHL season. The first that the standings are pretty meaningless until (American) Thanksgiving. This is the time of year with bizarre stat leaders, neck in neck races between future champions and lottery winners, and the Ottawa Senators not thinking that they are going to be spending the second half of the season hanging out with the Blue Jackets in their mom's basement listening to Jawbreaker and watching The Kids In The Hall DVDs. I know, doesn't sound like the worst Friday night, but it certainly isn't how you want to spend the second half of your hockey season. My second rule is that I start to evaluate a team's performance until they've struck the ten game mark. While teams continue to go through changes, work around injuries, and have mid-season surges, I think that you can get a solid feel for the look and feel of the team.

That brings us to the Nashville Predators. At the start of last week I would say that I wasn't anticipating sitting down and writing this little piece. Sure, when I'm ranting and going off the deep end I'm far more entertaining, but it would still mean the Preds were playing like utter crap and that I was twitchy from people jumping ship, calling for Trotz's/Poile's head/blood, and declaring war on the color gold. Fortunately for my mental health things have settled down from that point and the team finds itself right in the thick of the Western Conference and only three points from the Central Division leading Blackhawks. So, with all those positive thoughts in mind let's actually take a look at the team.

To Address Some Issues

So, last year I used Photoshop to hack together the Predobear that has become to endeared to OnTheForecheck community. After updating Predobear's jersey this season I played around with some other ideas in order to make the meme more versatile. Along the way OTF user Poiju recolored a honey badger in gold and blue in order to pay tribute to former University of Wisconsin Badger and current Nashville Predators forward Craig Smith, a player we affectionately call the Honey Badger.

Because dammit this is hilarious

In what I can only imagine was a fit of insanity or some sort of fugue state brought on by the consumption of too much tea I created the image I unveiled during the recent Preds victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. OTF readers have offered several excellent names for the... piece... but currently its just loosely referred to as Predobear Rides to War. The image has garnered some attention from the fan base, which is nice. It has also started a few mummers in regards to Predobear t-shirts.

The topic cropped up last season when Predobear first gained traction within the OTF community and started leaking around the internet a bit. I'm always happy to explain to people that Predobear is a repurposing of the Pedobear meme. Pedobear is a 4chan meme. It is a pedophiliac bear. Not really the most pleasant thing. Predobear bear is a pun on the the Pedobear name and the concept of sexual predators, but that isn't what the Predobear is. Predobear is essentially a sexless (as in not male nor female) bear that happens to be an energetic puck bunny. Predobear simply has an extreme love for Nashville Predators hockey players. Predo is just another fan.

To get back on the topic of t-shirts. There are a lot more people out there that know what Pedobear is than Predobear. What people often see, since it is true, is Pedobear wearing a Predators jersey. This creates problems because I don't know a lot of people that want to be associated with pedophilia, and I am certain that the Nashville Predators don't want to be associated with pedophilia. Therefore I'm hesitant to authorize--as much as it is my right since I just hacked a trademarked jersey onto an anonymously produced cartoon bear--any sort of merchandise with Predobear appearing on it. It is a somewhat disturbing albeit often hilarious meme that Preds fan that are in-the-know can enjoy.

The Return of Album Reviews: You've been here all along...Haven't you? Well, maybe.

So, ok. It has been nearly a month since I've posted anything at all. Between mass amounts of school work and working on my guitar project I basically used it all as an excuse to take a break from the whole color scale thing. In the NHL we're going to hit the 10 game point soon where I feel like I can start to evaluate what the Predators are going to look like this season. If the current trend of sketchy play and anemic shooting continues it is going to be a cold and whiskey friendly early evaluation. I do have at least one hockey related blog rolling around in my head, and I can promise that it will be a return to the general weirdness that seems to permeate my hockey related blogs.

In the mean time I decided to write a review for one of the big releases in punk rock as well as one for an album that I've really being loving since I got my hands on it. In case you can't figure out the Cobra Skulls are the former and Candy Hearts are the latter.

2011-2012 NHL Colors Scales Super Turbo Bonus Edition: The Rejects

If you actually read all the crap that I wrote then you know that there were several colors retired before the start of the 2011-2012 season. Instead of just dumping them into a lonely pit of silly names and broken dreams I compiled them into a single sad block.

And here is it, with all the glory of a Wheatley designed test chamber, the rejects of 2011:

Nashville has totally eschewed silver this season, and having seen the gold jerseys we should all be grateful. I couldn't picture actually look at another human being in direct light without being afraid of severe retinal damage due to the combination of silver and eye-bleed banana peel gold. Still, at least no one has to worry about the eye twisting purple and gold combo. I was under the impression that outside of film buffs everyone was glad that the 80s had died, but for some reason hockey fans pine for the NHL equivalent of leg warmers and Miami Vice. We also got to witness True North taking the Thrashers colors out back and shootin'em right in their cutely named hues. 

Oh, the Islanders also retired a color but no one cared.

If at any point some color seems off or flat out wrong, then please don't bother emailing me. My goal is to stick this little scale here for my own entertainment, and since the colors are retired I'm not terribly concerned with perfect accuracy. Thanks

2011-2012 NHL Color Scales: Red & Blue

And so we have reached the final color scale. I do plan on releasing all of these on a single page so that people can have them or fiddle with them or whatever it is that people do when they are downloading pictures off the internet. Today we have the two largest scales in the Red and the Blue scales. People often talk about how overused these colors are in the league and this pair of scales really demonstrates how extensive the use of blue and red really are. It isn't terribly surprising since blue and red are often tested as the two most popular colors in the world. In case you're curious, orange is often picked as the least appealing color, go figure. If this is your first time looking at these scales I invite you to go back and take a look at the first two entries for the rest of the the scales in the series: Green, Purple, & Natural and Orange, Silver, & Gold.

And since both of these are so long, you can find them both after the bump if you navigated here via the main page.

2011-2012 NHL Color Scales: Orange, Silver, & Gold

Ok, time for the second round of color scales. As the scales get longer things get more interesting as you can see what has been added and dropped for the start of the new season. The three that I'm posting today consist of the Orange, Silver/Gray, and Gold scales. If this is your first time here then I want to point you back towards the first entry where you can find part one of the series.

EDIT: It just occurred to me that the Islanders haven't unveiled their new third jerseys. If there is one team in this league that I'm not going to wait on it would be the New York Islanders. If there were two teams it would be them and the Red Wings. I stuck this edit here because the jersey is supposed to include grey, which would fall on the silve scale.

Orange Scale:

So, I lied a little bit because not much happened in the world of Orange. Really the only change that we have is that the redish toned orange that the Flyers have employed since 1999-2000 has been totally retired in favor of the brighter orange from the heydays of the franchise (or the years when they won those shiny Cups).

2011-2012 NHL Color Scales: Green, Purple (sort of), & Natural Tones

Back in December of 2010 I sequestered myself in my apartment for an entire weekend working on a single, time consuming project. Granted the only difference between that weekend and my typical weekend is that I spent less time sprawled on my office floor mumbling the lyrics to Off With Their Heads songs. Still, it was an incredible fulfilling project that several people got very excited about but was ultimately ignored until someone did the same thing only with a pretty but useless presentation that got linked on Puck Daddy. Ultimately I found myself undaunted and moved ahead with updating my color scales for the 2011-2012 season. Now that all of my somewhat pretentious angst is out of the way I can go ahead and start breaking out the scales.

If at any point some color seems off or flat out wrong, then please email me at puckandpunk [at] gmail [dot] com. My goal is make this as accurate as possible and I'm always happy to accept input. Thanks

Austin Lucas Needs Your Help

If you don't follow Austin Lucas on twitter, then you may not know that someone sold him a shitty van that is now all broke like. He says the read differential needs to be rebuilt. I don't know what that is, but it sounds complicated and expensive. Austin is accepted donations in exchange for some live recordings from his most recent tour. I really encourage you to offer any little bit you can so that I can get back to doing what he does best. I met him just a few days ago and really enjoyed his company and his attitude. If you'd like a point of reference I reviewed his latest album just a little while ago.

http://t.co/hC2sDad

Don't use Facebook? Then you can donate via Paypal by sending your donation to the follow email address: blownamps [at] hotmail [dot] com

*and I really hope that link works...

More Bargain Contracts From the Nashville Predators

There has been an ongoing series over at NBC Sports’ ProHockeyTalk where James O’Brien takes a look at each NHL team’s best bargain contracts. The only two players that made the cut for the Nashville Predators were Pekka Rinne and Ryan Suter who next season will be making $3.4 million and $3.5 million dollars respectively. Clearly both of these are extremely talented hockey players. What is also clear is that they both only have a single season left on their contracts are due sizable raises when the 2012 offseason arrives. Those aren’t the only bargain contracts on the Predators roster, and I am hardly surprised that Mr. O’Brien overlooked some of Poile’s deft signings. 

Friday Music: Most of the good bits were about frogs, I remember that

I am so happy that the bulk of the Webergeddon (Weber Watch, Sheananigans) stuff is all behind the Predators now. But this has been a fairly shitty week as far as I'm concerned, so I'm just going to let the reviews take over.

Aficionado – Self Titled (iTunes Link)

I have to say that the energy and excitement surrounding this album drove me to make the purchase. I’m fond of the indie + punk rock sound, and from what I’d heard, that was exactly what Aficionado were serving. Right off the bat I’m going to let you know that the band’s eponymously titled debut is a good album. What it is not is a great album. That may prove to be fortuitous because Aficionado has a lot of room to grow and really wow people whenever they record and release a sophomore album. The thing I love most about the record is the guitar work. The entire album is packed with soaring guitar riffs that are just too energetic and alive to be compared to metal. I instantly thought of a less technical Fang Island, which makes sense with Fang Island being an instrumental band. I’m not entirely sold on the inclusion of the keyboard. Frequently the keys are used to support the melody and it sounds wonderful. Other times the keys try to make themselves known and it just sounds forced. The other thing is the flute. I saw all sorts of people talking about the flute. There is one song on the album with a flute part, and it is pointless. The melody during the bridge of “Everything Was Right” is wholly given over to the flute, and the flute sounds totally out of place and weak. It strikes me as being somewhere between a gimmick and pointless addition.

 I am found of the vocal work. Nick Warchol puts up some really great vocal work that is reminiscent of an American Frank Turner. Laura Carrozza sings what I guess you would call back-up vocals. She takes the lead on a few songs, but gets overpowered the second Warchol joins in. This could be due to a difference in loudness of the vocals or it could be due to the mixing, but it works. Laura’s more melodic tones are pleasant and contract nicely with Nick’s voice. Finally, the band really shines lyrically and compositionally when they slow things down. It may be because there seems to be a greater emphasis on the lyrics or possibly because Laura and Nick can play off one another better at a slower tempo. All things considered Aficionado put out a solid album, and I could see them having a bright future.




Aficionado:EOAYSDF from brighterlightsmedia on Vimeo.



Larry & His Flask – All That We Know (iTunes Link)

You can’t just sit down and write a review for Larry & His Flask. Every song that the band performs is meant to be heard and experienced in a live setting. When you record that music you lose an important element of what makes the band what they are. But I would in no one deny that “All That We Know” does not do its absolute best to capture the raucous spirit of the band. L&HF belong to the same general family as Old Man Markley and Mischief Brew. All of the band’s songs are punk-infused bluegrass romps paired with lyrics that are part Americana, gothic and part drawn from the diaries of free-roaming rapscallions. There is lots of shared vocal duties, but guitarist Ian Cook handles most of the leads. What the band can guarantee is that they will do their best to sweep you up in their stories and carry                
                                                      you dancing into the night.

Since I’ve had the privilege of seeing Larry & His Flask live I wanted to touch on the band in their element. They were touring with Streetlight Manifesto, and I have to say I’m grateful that they were first band on that night. If there had not been a buffer band between the two I think Streetlight risked getting shown up that night. The boys on stage were certainly a unit, it seemed like they could switch around instruments at will without losing a beat. Well, to be honest they did exchange instruments regularly without a drop in skill or intensity. Within the first thirty seconds the entire crowd was into the set, and for the last five minutes the band was into the crowd. Literally. The final song found the whole band intermingled with the crowed dancing, playing, and singing. It was a wild good time, and I imagine that the remnants of my memories of the show enhance my enjoyment of the album.

This song features Andrew Carew on lead vocals. The crazy bearded man with the guitar is Ian.

Call it What You Will - Larry and His Flask (Music Video) from Wes Coughlin on Vimeo.

Wouldn't You Want Out?

This blog is inspired by recent events and certainly this CBC Sports article from Elliotte Friedman. There are assumptions and speculation, and a surprising lack of humor, floating around this piece.

There has been a lot of talk about the Nashville Predators taking the next step. David Poile shocked Preds fans last offseason when they went out and grabbed one of the best players available through free agency Matthew Lombardi. The organization further shocked fans by going out and grabbing center Mike Fisher from Ottawa (replacing the Matt Lombardi), showing a commitment to spend the money needed to compete. Myself and other Predators fans were looking forward to an offseason where we could solidify our team around new captain Shea Weber and get the missing elements needed to make Nashville a real Stanley Cup threat. At this point any fan of the team knows that the offseason is not going how anyone envisioned it.

I can't verify that this Shea, but it could be

This offseason, the Preds have brought on board Brett Ledba, Zack Stortini, Niclas Bergfors, and Tyler Sloan. Wow, about the only thing that we can get excited about it Bergfors, a player that is basically this season’s Sergei Kostitsyn. What have we lost? Where to begin? Joel Ward, Mark Dekanich, Marcel Goc, Matthew Lombardi (who may never play again), Shane O’Brien, JP Dumont, Steve Sullivan and Cody Franson were all either traded, not invited back, or had their contract bought out. Any and all replacements are rookies that have never seen NHL ice or only played in the NHL due to last season’s injury woes. On top of all the player movements we had and error on the part of David Poile that almost cost the team O’Reilly, Halischuk, Kostisyn, and Spaling. So, here we are. If you were an elite defenseman, is this the commitment to winning that you want to see from your organization?

Your 2011-2012 Nashville... Predators?

What we’re left with is a team that has once again decided to work with what they’ve got. After clearing all sorts of cap space by buying out Dumont, trading away Lombardi’s dead fish contract, and passing on a new contract with Sullivan fans have seen nothing happen. No one can say whether the team is going to be better or worse next season due to the assumed influx of young, homegrown talent. The team has clearly adopted this very passive strategy in a division where we saw rivals make bold and numerous moves to improve their teams. And now think about Weber; a player that had faith in the organization and frequently expressed that he wished to remain with the team. He’s been watching this offseason unfold right along side, and as we grew more and more tense following the draft, we could assume that Weber was feeling that right along with the rest of us. He’s approaching that soft “prime” age of 27 years and he has to think about his future, his future holding the Cup above his head.

When I start thinking about things that way I can start to understand his point of view. Already this summer we have seen people argue whether or not Predators Hockey can even win the Stanley Cup, a brilliant blog inspired by the idea that the organization believes that the team can win on the merits of defense alone. Weber gets to see all of this first hand and has access to information for which bloggers and fanatics would practically kill to obtain. You take everything that has happened this offseason and that “sure thing” attitude of Weber might have taken a few hits. He may have just gotten fed up. And what about the agent change? The switch was made before even the draft had taken place, and like Patten over at Puck Scene writes about, the agent change may have created an even bigger mess out of this offseason. If he wanted to give the franchise one more shot then he could’ve set up a one-year deal before arbitration, but I agree with Elliotte Friedman that Weber may just want out at this point. The goal and dream of any NHL player is to win the Stanley Cup, and it is perfectly reasonable for Weber believe that such a victory is not within the grasp of this Nashville Predators organization.



Of course this is all speculation. My personal favorite theory is that Poile and Weber are just trying to help Weber’s new agent gain some experience at being a player agent.

Selfishly, I also don't want to have to work on new art for my sidebars for the 2012-2013 season. I really enjoy the ones that I have at the moment.... *Warning, lower resolution screen users may have no idea what I'm talking about*

How Much Is Too Much: True North Entertainment and Canadian Militarism (or how to write sensationalist titles)

I guess you’d have to say that the biggest thing happening this offseason is the ongoing emergence and changes of the new Winnipeg Jets. The most recent round of controversy surrounded the unveiling of the team’s logos. Personally, I’m not a fan of any of the logos that the organization unveiled. I think they could potentially become iconic, at the moment they currently are just boring, or flat out bad when it comes to the word mark. But I’m not here today to throw in my 2 cents (or 0.0191 Canadian cents) on the branding. Well, I guess I am doing just that, in a way.

Disclaimer: I don't know a ton about Canadian politics, so this piece is based entirely off of the articles that I read as well as a personal reaction to the concepts discussed within those articles.

Friday Music: What's Yellow And Dangerous?

There really isn't anything hockey related that I really feel like addressing today. Shea Weber's arbitration is slowly approaching, they're expanding Bridgestone Arena by a hundred seats, and Preds fans are so desperate that some are looking to Chris Drury as potential free agent to bring on board. Yikes. Oh, and the Predators signed Tyler Sloan. It isn't entirely clear if this guy is a hockey player or the new head of group ticket sales. I'm sure we'll all find out when training camp rolls around.

The reviews start after the break. Also, there is a special feature today! Well, depending on what your threshold for special looks like.

It's Friday Music Reviews! Don't Be Alarmed, the Lizards Have Been Retired

As always here's some hockey stuffs people I dive into this week's reviews. If you stumbled across a brief post from earlier this week then you already know about Cait and here ongoing series about punk bands that love to roll around in some tasty hockey goodness. The first post featured the Hanson Brothers, and since then she's looked at hardcore, straightedge band Slapshot and, most recently, the hugely popular Dropkick Murphys. Cait even has a video and some pictures of the Bruins loving DKMs playing in Vancouver not to long after the Canucks lost out to Boston. So, I say that its worth heading over to HockeyN3rd and catching up on the series.

Wednesday evening I was able to enjoy my first ever Skate of the Union event and got to be there for the unveiling of the new Predators gold jerseys. I of course warmed up greatly from my initial impressions and am looking forward to wrapping one around my body in the next few months. Chances are you can get really detailed and wonderful impressions of the event from the real bloggers, but it was all good stuff. Also... massive discounts in the pro-shop... so I bought me some mugs.

mmm... tea

Ok... Reviews after the Break!

First off, I haven't been available lately to do much writing because I was slowly becoming overwhelmed with a summer class. I thought it would be a great idea to jam Managerial Finance into fives weeks... my both worked and made me work a lot more than I had anticipated. Since I haven't been active I wanted to pass on this link to fellow hockey punk blogger Cait. She has started a series that focuses on punk bands with a definable hockey connection.

The first band she takes a look at is the obviously hockey themed Hanson Brothers. So, head on over there and check it out. It is a series, make sure you don't miss any of her posts!

HockeyN3rd: Hey Ya Think They Show Speed Racer Here?

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?