::December 31, 2003::
articles will be trickling in the next couple of weeks. The concert review of Ryan Adams is up, boy, was that an awesome concert. I might be able to put up the one picture that I took at the concert, but I'm not making any promises. To start off the new year, our band of the month or rather the singer-songwriter of the month is Conor Oberst. Woohoo! I could've concentrated on Bright Eyes, but inevitably it would be about Conor Oberst, because he's the only permanent member in the band. Well that's all folks (so far). so enjoy partying tonight, and i'll talk to y'all in the new year.-Nancy

::December 28, 2003::
Hey! Hope everyone's enjoying themselves. The year is about to end soon, so we're putting up out Best Albums of 2003 list up. We didn't put them in a specific order, because it's hard pick which is better and all that jazz. It was hard enough to downsize the list to 10 albums:

Radiohead-Hail to the Thief
Radiohead has reached the status where it doesn’t matter what they do, as long as they keep making music. Truthfully, if Radiohead released a hip hop album, people would still buy it and praise it. It’s amazing how they develop a different and distinct sound with every album. Hail to the Thief is a blend of all the previous Radiohead albums into one. It takes the rock elements from Pablo Honey, The Bends, and OK Computer and the electronica elements from Kid A and Amnesiac. Radiohead’s lyrics continue to be abstruse and vivid. The songwriting is exceptional as usual and the special effects just make the songs more mesmerizing and out of this world. Even the artwork for the album is exceptional.

Ryan Adams- Rock n Roll
Ryan Adams confessed he was quitting his solo career and was only going to play guitar is someone else’s band. It was all over-alternative country was going downhill and fans were in the doldrums. However, Adams rose from his meaningless words and released Rock n Roll out of practically nowhere. It was difficult to listen to this CD at first, because his previous albums were alternative country and this albums sounds exactly what the title implies; it’s pure rock n roll. Ironically, the title track is the only slow tempo song on the record, making it seem he was forced to make this album. “Everybody’s cool playing rock n roll. I don’t feel cool at all.” He should feel “cool” considering this album is a great rock themed album. “Anybody Wanna Take Me Home” is a splendid example of how Adams combines his country roots to his nouveau rock obsession. All the songs are infectious and well-written. This could be Ryan Adams’s breakthrough album for mainstream rock. Hooray for good mainstream rock. It just all depends if he wants it.

PaloAlto- Heroes and Villains
Their website was on hiatus for a while, and no fan sites had any concrete information on the second PALOALTO album. There were only the songs “World Outside,” “Going Going Gone,” and “Fade In/Fade Out” on various samplers and soundtracks. The albums was dropped in Europe by the end of February, but make no mistake, these gentlemen are from the States even though they sounds like Brit Rock. The album was finally released in the native country on July 1. Heroes and Villains have some great rock anthems, reflective melancholy tunes, and songs in-between. It was produced by Rick Rubin, one of the most sought out producers in rock, making it one of most under-rated and essential CDs of the year.

Rooney- Rooney
Rooney was being buzzed about way before the album hit store shelves. The only thing that could satiate fans needs were bootlegs. Of course, the recordings had annoying cheering that made it difficult to hear most of the song, but they did make noise come out of the computer speakers. Hearing the recorded versions was mind-blowing. The album is a little over-produced, maybe because the only tunes available beforehand were shotty demos, and bootlegs. Aside from that small nuance, Robert Carmine’s lovely voice being backed by Ned Brower and Taylor Locke could finally be heard! Louie Stephen’s keys, Matt’s bass lines, Ned’s beats, Taylor’s licks, and Rob’s notes are pristine on this album. The only disappointment is not being able to hear studio versions of “Gone,” “Oh What a Day” and various songs. “That Girl Has Love” has amazing harmonies, and touching lyrics that were not captured on the bootlegs when it was formerly named after a girl.

The Postal Service-Give Up
Give Up is great for revving up energy before a concert or a party. With Ben Gibbard on vocals, guitar, and drums, Jimmy Tamborello from Dntel mixing, Jenny Lewis from Rilo Kiley on backing vocals, and Jen Wood on backing vocals, they create an indie music super group, just like the Desaparecidos but different. They make surprisingly video game blippy and bleepy, fun, catchy synth-pop. It is certainly innovative and daring do such a thing, but it works. Touring for the first time only two months after their release, the concert venues were filled and it wasn’t just because of the pull of the band members, it was because of the danceable fun tunes they produced, making it okay for uptight indie elitists to dance again-at least in their own privacy.

The Strokes- Room on Fire
The sophomore album is notorious for being abominable, but The Strokes break the stereotype. They return with their fuzzy vintage guitars, and Julian’s muffled voice to scare bad mainstream rock. The Strokes are one of the few bands that realize what makes their albums sell. The cultivated their sound and added more intricate, and complex songwriting. No keyboards were used in “12:51” as it was not an instrument listed in the credits. Nick Valensi was able to produce a clear keyboard-esque sound playing along with handclaps, making “12:51” one of best singles of the year. There’s a distinctive drum pattern that begins each phase in the song “Under Control” as the song progresses that makes the song irresistible. ”Meet Me in the Bathroom” was heard on their 2002 fall tour, and they successfully recorded a pleasing studio version.

Azure Ray- Hold on Love
Beautiful and depressing songs are the best in the fall and winter. Azure Ray have the ability to capture all their emotions in sweet compact songs. Probably the only happy sounding song is “If You Fall”, but don’t expect a song describing pure ecstasy, because it seems that even when they are happy, they still have doubts holding them back from enjoying themselves. Their harmonizing voices are stunning making it hard to distinguish their voices; Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink were destined to Azure Ray. That’s why Maria and Orenda are always referred to as “half of Azure Ray.” Their lyrics are profound yet melancholy and their music compliments their lyrics. The extra beats in songs like “New Resolution,” and “We are Mice” work well with Azure Ray’s ethereal music.

Cat Power- You are Free
You are Free was a short-list finalist, it didn’t win, but it was a good competitor. The album begins with a seemingly autobiographical song, “I Don’t Blame You” on her musical career, but uses “he” as a metaphor for Chan Marshall. With only the sound of Chan Marshall’s enthralling voice and her hands pressing they keys on the piano, it is the most simplistic yet the most weighty song on the record. “Free” is a drastic change from the previous melancholy track, making it almost danceable. Marshall stated that she used innocent young girls’ voices in the chorus of “Good Woman” to increase the impact on the listener. Genius. “Names” is a little repetitive music-wise, but the lyrics are very serious, and sad, allowing the listener to focus on the gravity of the song. It’s simply a beautiful album with nothing too fancy. Except maybe appearances by Eddie Vedder and Dave Grohl as she affectionately credits them as EV and DG in her album insert.

Damien Rice-O
O tell me the story of O, Damien Rice. He won the Shortlist Awards with year with his majestic songwriting. He plays acoustic guitar, he has a female back-up singer, and he has a tiny orchestra. It’s the formula to a great singer-songwriter album, just listen to his fellow competitor Bright Eyes’s Lifted. “Delicate” is a delicate acoustic song with beautiful string arrangements, as well as the other songs on the record. There are even “hidden” tracks, one of which Lisa Hannigan, his back-up singer, toys with “Silent Night’s” lyrics. It’s a good album, but at times he adds unnecessary things to his songs, but hey this is a Best of 2003 list...no need to nit pick.

AM Radio- Radioactive
Sad and depressing music can’t get anyone through an entire year. That’s when AM Radio comes to the rescue, and ushers the person to move on and get out of the house. Pop, punk, rock, and new wave all create an indescribable sound. Distinctive beats, guitars, bass playing, and vocals make it different from all those other records. They also defeated the sophomore slump gracefully like The Strokes. “Cold Blue,” “Becoming You,” and “Distant Shining Star” are striking ballads. There’s also great fast-paced songs like “End of The World,” “Take Time,” and “Oh Oh Oh.” “Media Life” has a groovy bass line, and “I Just Wanna Be Loved” is everyone’s love anthem.

There were some albums that we didn't get to listen to, but we're 99% sure that they are awesome. Death Cab for Cutie's, The Shin's, and Belle and Sebastian's latest, and The Stills's debut album. Honorable mentions are: The Beautiful Letdown by Switchfoot, The Ugly Organ by Cursive, and if Love is Hell was an album...Have a Happy New Year everyone. Party hard on New Year's Eve, just not too hard.-Nancy

::December 25, 2003::
happy holidays y'all! hope you are enjoying your holiday, whether it be hannukah or christmas or kwanzaa or something else...happy holidays! here are some songs that we like to listen to over the holidays:
"The hannukah song" (or whatever it's titled) by Adam Sandler
"Last Christmas" by WHAM!
"Happy Christmas (War is Over)" by John Lennon
"Blue Christmas" cover by Bright Eyes
"Bizarre Christmas Incident" by Ben Folds
"Xmas Cake" by Rilo Kiley
I heard a song on the radio but i have no idea what it's called...uhh yea
Well that's our list thus far. So hope everyone is enjoying themselves...be safe and jolly!(by the way, we'll have our favorite albums of 2003 list up sometime...before the year ends)-Nancy

::December 12, 2003::
So the year is coming to a close...and we decided to compile a list of our favorite songs from the year of 2003:

stay tuned for our favorite albums of this year. (Our song list isn't finalized...so yea)-Sandhya & Nancy

::December 6, 2003::
I was thinking of Army of Me today for some reason, and i thought of adding a paragraph to their article. So if you want to see a paragraph on how their dedicated to their fanbase, by all means check out the article.

::December 5, 2003::
It's that time of year again when the stores are overcrowded and you don't want to leave your house...go online shopping! Well, here's Headcase's wishlist for the Holiday Season 2003:

Well it's just a made up wishlist..and can we afford this stuff? no. But if you're lacking ideas for gifts to give to any of your friends, we just came up that random list. Happy Holidays everyone.

::December 1, 2003::
Awww...Army of Me isn't the band of the month anymore, because it's DECEMBER! It's sad to see them leave the main page, but don't worry they're going to be in our archives...yay! Everybody Else is replacing AOM for December. It's kind of strange to have them as band of the month for December, because their music is so sunny and happy, but outside it's windy and cold and cold...and really cold...but oh well...hopefully their music will warm ya up. so until the next update...au revoir!-Nancy

::November 29, 2003::
Fixed some odds and ends on the website that we've been avoiding. Pictures from the Superchunk concert are up-such a fun show. For some reason our page of the Paloalto CD review disappeared when we were messing with renaming files and moving things around...so we created a new page and the link is in the archives. Even though it was in our printed issue 2 months ago, the Radiohead concert review is now up on the archives page. well, hope you all had fun on thanksgiving and after-thanksgiving shopping.-Nancy

::November 27, 2003::
YO YO YO! happy turkey day...hope you enjoy y'alls thanksgiving! Hmm..what am i thankful for? Family, friends (you know all the usual stuff), food, good music, saddle creek records for having bands that produce superrrbbb music, people that respond to e-mails, and other stuff.-Nancy

::November 25, 2003::
two days before turkey day! we have an updates archive now and we organized and added some links to our links page...joy! On some unrelated news, Cursive, Desaparecidos, and Mike Park will be included in the Plea for Peace tour that will occur from April 2004-June 2004. Very exciting news, because all them bands are awesome. For more updated and detailed info on this tour go to Plea for Peace Website.

::November 14, 2003::
It's been a while since we've updated the page, but uhmm...there's only one addition to our page today. I read an article on Ryan Adams from Time (thanks Sandhya for the article) and i found out Ryan Adams had an EP, so i finally got my hands on it...it's really good. check out the CD reviews section for more...-Nancy

::November 5, 2003::
I cannot accept the golden hardworking award (haha i know it doesnt exist). Sandhya's been really busy, and stuff just keeps on coming back to bite us...She doesn't even have time to watch "Whose Line is it Anyways" re-runs or the OC...shocking! Pick up Ryan Adam's new CD if you have time...it's pretty different from his previous albums.-Nancy

::November 4, 2003::
I must say that none of this re-organizing should be credited towards me, all of this hard work is Nancy's doing, while I've been running, doing other things for running and studying for sats...(yes, they are in december...and yes, i am scared)...Nancy has been doing all of this work. So,a BIG thanks to Nancy who has been really patient with me, and been really nice to me and forgiving and hardworking, she put a lot of effort into this issue, she even bought me the book for the book review, I mean how much better can she get? Yes, the only thing I did was read it, and write about it. I think the golden hardworking award for this month's issue goes to Nancy (except we don't really have a "golden hardworking award")...we can pretend! I put up the book review, just about the only thing i've done...maybe when im done being busy you might just see a movie review up, but until then be like Nancy..patient, nice, forgiving..etc. And in case you were bored, (don't know why anyone would be) you can make Nancy an award and send it to her! Spread the sleep. "Stay safe" and No we are not taking the metro to king street.-Sandhya

::November 4, 2003::
We just realized, after we printed our first issue,that our bands of the month aren't really bands of the month because we are a bimonthly newsletter...so that means our "bands of the month" are actually the band of the 2 months...and we don't like how that sounds so we actually have 2 bands this time! Yay!!! So...for November...Army of Me is our band of the month (everyone clap or do something that relieves your feeling of jubilation)! A huge Thank You to Vince and Army of Me for the superb interview. Our band of the month for Decemeber is Everybody Else...yay! If you want to cheat and look at our article on them here it is: Everybody Else Article. We have most of our articles up, after having a lot of trouble with the organization of our site and jpegs and all that other stuff...By the way we have an Archives section up...uhmm and we have a Stuff section where we put random bands that we like, but we dont feel like writing articles on them. As for the printing...we're not sure that's going to happen due to some issues...but for now enjoy the articles!-Nancy

::October 25, 2003::
If links and pictures don't work...don't panic! Start panicking when it's not working by the end of the month...Anyways, we're moving things around to prepare for our upcoming issue. Thanks for putting up with everything.-Nancy

::October 20, 2003::

by the way the site is being naughty and not allowing the picture to load...but it says happy birthday sandhya in cheesy letters
Didn't you know it was Sandhya's birthday?!! Go out and get her a present now!!! She is beyond the coolest person and deserves millions of gifts...haha happy birthday sandhya!!!-Nancy

::October 17, 2003::
Nothing much is going on, so that's why we haven't really written anything under updates. We are both working on our articles for the upcoming issue we're hoping to get out in November sometime. I don't want to give you a precise date, because things always happen and delay the date by...several weeks...There's really not much to say. On a side note, "Head over Heels" by Tears for Fears can put anybody in a strange, but good mood. Stay tuned!-Nancy

::October 6,2003::
Nancy and I took the Which Rooney Member are you quiz and we both got....
Matt Winter
You wear your sunglasses at night,but that just
makes you even cooler.You are the only member
of Rooney that looks healthy,good job!Sometimes
people forget you,but that's only screaming 13
year olds,don't worry,we all love you!

What Member of Rooney Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
I think its because we both eat everything...like matt...
if you haven't picked up a copy of headcase...please do..!~Sandhya

::September 27, 2003::
yes it is finally out! yes, so go out and pick one up...and also, we forgot to put in our newsletter, if you want to write a letter to the editors, please send us an e-mail at headcasepaper@yahoo.com, stay safe.-Sandhya

IT'S OUTTT NOW!!! everyone party!!! that doesn't rhyme, but it doesn't have to. For our first issue, thanks to AM Radio, friends and family. We finally did it! By the way...if it's not at the places that we said we would put them, then we're really sorry. The Cure was on last night on Craig Kilborn again and played "Just like Heaven" and it was indeed, just like heaven.-Nancy

::September 23, 2003::
powers back...a while ago, but sorry about the delay (on my behalf) Headcase should be out as soon as possible, i need sleep, and water...good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite(nancy).-Sandhya

::September 20,2003::
so...yea...both of our power in our places have gone out...and i just got bitten by a bug. akjsldjkasljkdlsa! it's even worse seeing the bug eating your flesh...sorry...anyways, we won't be able to distrubute until next friday or saturday, because most of the places we were gonna distrubute aren't open right now...or they weren't yesterday. so on the behalf of both of us...we're really sorry, but if it makes you feel better my bug bite is swelling to the size of a tennis ball. by the way, we both missed The Cure of Craig Kilborn for obvious reasons, so if anyone saw it, e-mail us at headcasepaper@yahoo.com. we we're hoping they would play "lullaby" but they probably played something more recent. -Nancy

::September 17, 2003::
I warned my partner in crime not to post the certainty of the due date, because this year has been really strange...hopefully we'll get it out by friday. Cross ya fingaz. -Nancy

::September 13,2003::
We are done formatting...we are in the process of PRINTING!!!! YAY!!! It will be out for sure on September 19th!!!!!!-Sandhya

::September 12, 2003::
I don't know if this counts as an update...but i'd just like to say RIP Johnny Cash and John Ritter...they were both amazing people...uh..on a happier note, we're working on formatting...sorry for the lack of transitions...-Nancy

::September 9, 2003::
The info on AM Radio is up now...we've been holding back on it...because it was uhmm...not perfect...and it's still not perfect. Formatting will be done this weekend, and distrubution has been pushed back to September 19th. Sorry about all the delays!-Nancy

::September 6, 2003::
The Book review is up! After much hard work...Formatting underway...Hopefully this will be out by next week! Happy Birthday to Dana R.!-Sandhya

::September 4, 2003::
Planning is underway for the actual formatting of the newsletter...woohoo!We're striving to get this thing out is on September 13th...lucky 13.-Nancy

::August 28, 2003::
This actually isn't an update it's actually a warning of lack of updates...if that makes sense. Electricity isn't working at my place...and explaining how i am on the computer and on the internet is a little difficult to explain. well not really, i just don't feel like explaining it. Sorry to say it, but we might have to postpone our printing of our first issue due to lack of resources, and work load. Tune in for more details...we promise it won't take much longer to get our first issue out!-Nancy

::August 19, 2003::
Band of the Month is....::insert drumroll:: AM RADIO!!!!!!! woot! the interview is up, but we havent made a formal intro to the interview, so be patient and we'll put it up soon...hopefully. BIG THANK YOU TO KEVIN RIDEL AND AM RADIO! YOU GUYS ROCK!!!-Nancy

::August 5, 2003::
added Concert Review, Editorial, and CD Review. Enjoy! oh..on a side note, Happy Birthday to DanDaniel and Taylor Locke from Rooney!-Nancy