During this rather frustrating season of basketball for Kansas State I’ve come to a conclusion that with Frank Martin at the helm there will be a definitive ceiling as to what can be accomplished. And its all because of how Frank chooses to run his program. Don’t get me wrong, Frank is a great coach and I’m very happy to have him here especially after what took place in basketball at KSU for the 15+ years prior. I hope he stays a long time. That said, I and other K-Staters will have to temper our expectations for what he can do here.
There are several reasons why I don’t think KSU under Frank will win a big 12 title or go to a Final 4. In no particular order:
Frank will play less talented players far more minutes because they do things “his way”. Whether it be practice habits or being able to play defense at a higher level, Frank will play a walk-on over a more highly recruited player because of this. These less talented players tend to have little offensive skills yet see the floor for their percieved defensive ability.
Frank runs off too many players each year. This causes a shortage in upper classmen and leaders within the program. With so much turnover it also takes longer for the team to gell. Seems like we get well into late January before the team starts to play well with any consistency. Frank is going to have to learn how to get along better with some of his talent because his misses with the high talent players he does bring in is too high and it seems to be personality conflicts more than anything.
Frank hasn’t recruited high enough level guards. Our wing and big man recruiting has been great but now that the program is all Franks (except Samuels who still was here when Huggins coached–he redshirted that season), we can see that the guard position is severely lacking. Pullen and Clemente were Huggins players. I think Angel could be solid going forward but the last 2+ seasons has produced zero high talent level guards and we are suffering this season because of it. Frank’s offensive system, as simplistic as it may sometimes appear, needs a great guard.
Like I said, I’m fine with Coach Martin and will root for him and the program always. Its time though to temper expectations and realize this program is going to have flaws that keep it from consistently winning at the highest level.
Now I will talk about the work I do in the yard or “on the ground”. In the yard there are a number of different types of jobs. The most common is a 2-man remote switching crew. Its me and another guy and we both have remote control boxes that control the switch engines we will be using. One of us controls it at a time and we use those engines to move cars to either build trains or spot cars at an industry. Its as easy as selecting forward or backward and then a speed (up to 10mph).
Another job is a transfer job. Its a more traditional railroad job because you have a 3-man crew–an engineer, a foreman/conductor, and a brakeman. What that job does is take longer cuts of cars from one yard to another, whether it be to another railroad or another Union Pacific yard across town. Transfer jobs will also do switching like remote crews if the need arises. Its typically a catch-all job that can take all day. I don’t care for these.
The third most common yard job is hostling. What that does is move locomotives around the yard. Usually taking “power” off of incoming trains to be serviced and taking power from service tracks to outbound trains. Sometimes you deliver engines to other rail yards. Hostling jobs are 2 man crews with one guy controlling the locomotives and one guy providing signals and getting switches. I try to avoid these jobs too because they pay less and you don’t really know when you will be finished in a given day.
In the yard you can bid to work one job on a set 5 day schedule at either night, morning, or afternoon shifts. Most jobs are intended to be 8 hours with someone relieving you after that. If you don’t hold a “regular” job, you can work the “extra board” which is a pool of guys that fill in for regular guys that call in sick or are on vacation. Extra board workers have to have a general understanding of all the jobs in the yard (fairly daunting, yes).
So a typical day in the yard consists of following directions given by the yardmaster as to what cars go where. Usually there is paperwork involved so we can verify the work we do. Since most jobs are remote jobs i’ll focus on that. After we figure out what our work is (most jobs do the same thing every day) we get our remote boxes and link up to a set of switch engines. Switch engines are 2 smaller locomotives coupled together. With the remote boxes we will walk around on the ground a lot to flip switches for the track we need to go to. when we aren’t on the ground we sometimes ride cars if we are shoving them into a track. its required we be on the head end of whatever direction we are moving for generally obvious reasons. Other things on the ground we do are make cuts between cars. Its done by pulling a “pin lifter” to separate two “coupled” cars. Sometimes we have to connect the airbrake hose between cars if we are going to use airbrakes. usually in the yard we don’t use air brakes, just the brakes on the engine to stop our movement. cars have their own individual hand brakes too for when you set them by themselves somewhere.
Being on the ground around moving cars and engines is dangerous but my rule of thumb is if you aren’t in the tracks you can’t be hit. We use a walky-talky like radio for communicating with your work mate and other jobs working near you as well as the yardmaster. Radio communication is a big part of what we do in the yard as often times a man on the ground will need another man at the controls to make a move for him. Its also so we can avoid hitting anyone/other jobs.
So lets say we have instruction to get a car out of a rail and put it at an industry spot. We will have a list of cars in a track and we will couple into that track and pull out all of the cars in the track till we find the car we need. usually the list matches whats in the track. we then cut off the car we need and set it over to another track by itself and then put the cars we don’t need back into the original track. then we grab our one car and head to the industry where we will “spot” it. Another typical instruction is to pull out a whole rail of cars and attach it to another whole rail of cars to build an outbound train. I like these jobs because they aren’t too complicated lol. Another thing we do is take a track of cars and shove them over a “hump” where we separate each car one by one and let them roll over the hill and into a giant set of tracks below the hump. A computer will read what car it is and automatically line the switches to the destination track in the “bowl” of tracks. The bowl consists of any number of tracks, usually 20+ and they are dipped in the middle so cars dont’ roll out of them. Each track in the bowl will be for a particular destination and when that gets full the switch crew on the other end of the track will pull out those cars to add to an outbound train, like i described previously.
I don’t know if any of this makes any sense or not but thats pretty much what i do in the yard. I mentioned in my last post that road conductors do some work on the ground but usually its to walk the train to find a problem (very rare) if we are enroute somewhere or to put the train away at our destination. So 95% of the time on the road is in the engine cab but in the yard its mostly outside on the ground. So the weather is a bigger factor in the yard and its why i would rather work the road in the winter like i’ve been doing the past month or so. I was in the yard from April till early December last year. The yard is better for having time at home so when the weather is nice its better to work there. The road does pay better though.
I was thinking the other day, I don’t know if i’ve ever really described in any detail exactly what I do with the railroad. So I thought I’d explain it. First off, there is two distinct areas of work for me, the road and the yard. I’ll talk about the road first.
My title with Union Pacific is a rather generic “trainman” but that can include switchman, brakeman, or foreman/conductor. On the road I am a conductor. Because I deal solely with freight, that means I am not what is traditionally thought of as a conductor. I don’t take tickets or assist passengers. Thats Amtrak or other passenger trains. What I do is facilitate the moving of frieght from one point to another. I’ll walk you through a typical day.
So I’m at home and I get my call to work. This is a 2 hour call though typically its not just out of nowhere as I work in a rotating pool of conductors for my direction. Out of Kansas City we work North (Council Bluffs/Des Moines, IA), South (Parsons/Coffeville, KS), East (Jefferson City, MO), or West (Marysville, KS). We bid on the direction we want to work and work exclusively on that direction. I typically work to Jefferson City. Because its a rotating pool you can align yourself against an estimated train lineup and have some idea when you work.
I show up to work and find my paperwork and meet up with my engineer I’ll be working with. On the road its just me and an engineer. The engineer runs the controls of the locomotive. Thats his only responsibility, I am in charge of the whole train. The paperwork includes a list of the traincars in the train, a general schedule of the train from origin to destination, a work order if there are cars to be added to or taken out of the train at certain areas, and a list of the track condition called a track bulletin. The track bulletin is what I pay the most attention to as it indicates where we might have to slow the train because of some temporary track problem and also it tells us if there will be any men working near the track so we can contact them before we come near them.
After reviewing paperwork we are driven by car to our train, wherever it is in the yard or Kansas City area. There are several crew change points around town. Usually we relieve an incoming crew but sometimes its empty. We then make sure we have supplies for our trip (water, ice, ect). After that I contact the train dispatcher and tell them we are ready to go. From that point we start following the signals we are given from the dispatcher. Its not much more complicated than regular traffic signals. The dispatcher generally routes us the whole way.
Once we take off it then is mostly riding. I do man the radio and keep track of signals in a log which amounts to mostly busy work though if we get delayed i have to track that. Ideally once we leave we don’t stop until we reach our crew change point but thats pretty lucky if that actually happens. We can get delayed for numerous reasons. Sometimes you have to wait on other trains (most common), sometimes the track is being worked on, sometimes our train breaks down (rare). The routes we take range from about 160 miles to over 200 miles. We travel at an avg of 40mph though it goes up to 50ish. A good trip would be about 5 hours. Federal regulation allows us to work 12 hours so if enough delays happen we would have to stop working at that point and get relieved. this happens occasionally, more often on the longer routes or when rail business is peaking.
During the trip we keep in contact with the dispatcher. He mostly tells us if we are going to be delayed more than anything else. Also during the trip there are detectors along the track (about every 10-15 miles) that moniter the condition of the train. I have to log these, they give a status update over the radio. I’ve never had one give me a bad reading yet.
Once we reach our destination we often swap out with another crew. For me in Jeff City its a crew that will take the train on to St. Louis. I then get a ride to the hotel I’ll stay at and await a train home. We get a federally mandated 10 hours rest at the hotel then after that we get a 2 hour call for our train. Usually its around a 16 hour wait period at the hotel. Like at home I’m in a rotating pool of conductors. They call us in order as the trains come in and I have a fairly good idea of what I’ll be called for and when. When I come home there is a greater chance I’ll have more work to do because of the trains we catch more of them terminate in Kansas City vs trains that have any work in Jefferson City. Jefferson City is a pretty small yard, only like 5 tracks. Kansas City is one of the biggest rail yards in the world, 2nd busiest traffic wise behind Chicago.
The types of trains we handle are coal trains (most common-they require almost no work for us they just go from the coal mines in Wyoming to a power plant somewhere and don’t usually come apart), manifest trains (all types of cars going all kinds of places–box cars, tank cars, flat cars, ect), autorack trains (trains carrying cars and car parts), intermodal trains (trains carrying trailers that you would normally see on a big over the road truck), and grain trains. Manifest, autorack, and some intermodal trains require work in Kansas City.
If I catch a one of those “work” trains, once I get to Kansas City the yardmaster instructs us what tracks we will use. A lot of times we just bring the whole train in to one track and thats that. But if it won’t fit in one track we have to cut the train and shove part of it into a 2nd track. Some trains require we add or set out certain cars then put it back together so it can go on somewhere else with another crew. If its a train that terminates in Kansas City, when we are done we remove our locomotives and put them in a service track. Having a “work train” usually adds a minimum of 2 extra hours of work. You don’t want to catch those lol. I’ll explain more about the work I do “on the ground” when I talk about working in the yard.
After we are done I go home and the process starts all over. We call ending our shift “tying up”. After tie up I go back in line in the pool and wait my call. Typically I am gone about 30-36 hours and get 30-36 hours at home.
Currently watching: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia-Season 6 and Parks and Rec-Season 2
Just finished watching: Parks and Rec-Season 1 Just finished reading: An Idiot Abroad by Karl Pilkington
Been busy since the last time I updated. Abbie and I officially booked a flight and place to stay in Aruba. This is our pseudo 2nd honeymoon, maybe more like honeymoon 1.5. Most of our vacations have been meeting up with other people and featured a busy list of things to do. This will be all about relaxing at the beach. We wanted to see the beach down in the gulf a few years back but it was cut short due to my work situation. So we are making up for that amongst other things.
The flight is about 6.5 hrs total flight time with a brief layover in Atlanta each way. Aruba I believe is in the eastern timezone. We picked Aruba because it is quite warm for this time of year, warmer than most carribean islands. its also a safe place to travel and not overly expensive unless you stay in a resort. the resorts there are rediculous expensive esp in the peak season which is dec-feb. seriously, the resorts started about $300/night and most were $500-$600 night. the very best were $800-$1k/night. crazy. So we decided to rent a bungalo from a local couple there. This is a common thing to do. A lot of people own timeshares and also many of the locals own small apts/houses and rent them out to vacationers. This is what we did for the whole week. It came highly recommended as an alternative to hotels from what we read online. Seems more fun too.
Like I said, we don’t really have much for plans down there other than relax on the beach and take in some local food options. Abbie really wants to snorkle so I may give that a try too. Can’t wait for the trip!
The other thing i’ve been working on is getting pre-approved for a mortgage which was just completed today. We are officially approved now and will start looking at houses ASAP. we have several in mind as a starting point. My main thing is I just don’t want to get screwed so I will be looking for any and all reasons not to buy whatever house we look at. I think I posted previously about what we are looking for but essentially aside from finding something in our price range, Abbie wants some land or at least not be in a crammed neighborhood, and i want to live reasonably close to work and in a nice school district. We’d like 3+ bedrooms and 2+ full bathrooms. I don’t want any kind of fixer upper, I dont like that kind of work or paying for it. I’m optimistic we will find something we like before our rental lease expires at the end of April, God willing.
OK long enough post. I’ve got several posts in mind so hopefully this blog will be better this year. I’ve been kinda lazy with it for a while now.
Just watched: Treme-Season 1and: The Ricky Gervais Show-Season 1Now watching: The League-Season 2
Now playing: Skyward Sword(Wii)Just read: Dexter by DesignNow Reading: Dexter in the Dark
***Work is going good, this might be the first winter since 07-08 that I will stay working full time. Hopefully I am past being laid off ever again in my career.
***I’ve gotten fed up or bored or something with politics. I’m back to where I was a few years ago in that its just pointless to argue with people about politics or philosophy or whatever if they don’t have the same religous beliefs as me. I’ve outlined that in detail on this blog, I don’t know why I got away from it. I’m determined to stick with it, even admist a big election next year. The Obama experiment speaks for itself, I’d be surprised if he got re-elected. Though people who vote for him won’t care about his economic record, they’ll care about the fact that he’ll defend humanistic beliefs. So theres certainly a chance he could win. Its up to God I suppose. I’ll just sit on the sideline.
***The K-State football season has been epic beyond belief. I was skeptical as to whether Snyder could recapture what he did 10 years ago but he’s proven he can do it. I hope he’s around at least another 5 years. And I hope there will be a better plan in place when he does go. I can’t withstand another Ron Prince. Life is so much more enjoyable when K-State football is doing well. Here are some photos from this season and some of the games I’ve been to:
First pic was from my dad’s season ticket seats for the KSU-Mu game. 2nd was from the amazing 4OT A&M game with my buddy Joe and his nephew. 3rd pic was this creepy ku lizard thing that was wandering around memorial. I couldn’t figure it out. it has a ku football jersey with ku basketball shorts. plus, ITS A LIZARD! Wasn’t scary enough for that little kid i guess.
Want to know why Turner Gill was fired? Just follow my in-game timeline of the KSU-ku game. Was all purple by the 4th quarter.
Last couple of pics were from the Texas game that me and some K-State friends roadtripped to. The one way up high was our original seats but the Texas fans we were near weren’t appreciating my enthusiasm so we moved down to the K-State section to watch the 2nd half and finish our celebration of a great win.
***Abbie and I have traveled around a lot this past year. New York City, Sweden, Branson, Omaha, and now we are planning a trip to Aruba during the 2nd week of February. I promised Abbie a beach vacation after our honeymoon got cut short so now we get to do it. After that trip we’ll hopefully be closing on a house. Some pics from Branson:
That third pic is from a cave tour we did. I couldn’t help but take a pic of that formation.
Just finished watching: The League-Season 1 and Entourage-Season 7 Now watching: Dexter-Season 5
Abbie and I, or at least me for sure (lol), have 3 things we’d like to accomplish in the next 6 months.
1. Take a trip to a beach somewhere. Our honeymoon was cut short a few days back in August 2009 due to my work calling me in and it kept us from spending a few days on the beach. I promised we’d go to a beach to make up for it and I’d like to make that happen early next year. Not exactly sure where yet but I’m determined to make it happen.
2. Buy a house. Our lease expires at the end of next April so we will be looking to buy a house a few months before that. We looked some last summer but $ wise we weren’t ready. Abbie and I both have a list of things we want in a house and so far we haven’t found much. My list includes being within 30 min of my various work places, at least 3 bed/2 bath, a 2 car garage, fairly up to date maintenence wise, in a good school district, and costs less than $160k. Abbie wants to have some land, or at least not be located in a neighborhood where houses are close together. We pray this will work out somehow. There are good deals to be had, just gotta find the right one.
3. Begin to possibly consider potentially probably imaginably maybe think about attempting to start a family. I guess its just about that time. Abbie is ready. I’m just about there. Want to get this house thing figured out first. Key is my job is safe now, its what has really held us back the past few years on a lot of things.
So for most of my life i’ve never been exceptional at anything mostly because I have never put my all into just one thing. I’ve tried numerous hobbies like drumming, bowling, poker, golf, and video games and I’ve managed to be average to below average at all of them. This summer, after years of struggling at golf, I decided to take it seriously and really try to get good. i picked golf because its something I can enjoy the rest of my life and its also something I can play with other people I enjoy being around. Its also quite rewarding when you do do well, moreso than anything else i’ve tried. I’m not going to completely give up the other hobbies, but I won’t take them that seriously, they will just more be for fun. Golf I’m trying to take seriously.
A little background–I took up golf when I was in Jr High after quitting baseball one summer. Several of my uncles and my grandpa played golf and I often tagged along when they played. I took some lessons and played a fair amount and eventually when I was in highschool I was able to shoot in the 90s somewhat consistently. But when I left for K-State I stopped playing and I hadn’t been able to get my game back. I had been shooting in the 110+ range for the better part of 5 years. It caused me to not really want to play much, usually like 4-5 rounds at the most in a year.
So now that I decided to start over, here’s what I did. I decided my clubs don’t fit me, a 5’6″ guy. Most clubs for men are made for at least a 5’10″ (if not taller) person. This always bothered me mentally and gave me an excuse for sucking. So I found out how long my clubs should be using some information online and I cut all my clubs and regripped them myself. The clubs I have I actually bought when I was starting highschool, an old set of Dunlops. I didn’t really see a reason to get new clubs nor did I want to pay for new ones. not without trying to cut them to my length first.
The next step was to read some books because I needed a complete tear down of my game. I looked into private lessons and I might still do that in the near future, but I wanted to try some things myself first. I checked out Ben Hogan’s 5 lessons book and also the Little Red Book by Harvey Penick. These books helped me rebuild my grip and swing from scratch. From there it was off to the driving range.
initially, all of these helped me greatly. I was hitting the ball more consistently without having to resort to gimmicks in my stance, swing, grip, or aim. I was at least able to stop just dribbling the ball in front of me as often as I did. So now armed with better equipment and a better setup and swing as well as some mental confidence, I hit the course and started playing. this was in early June.
My first round was quite encouraging, I shot a 103 on a fairly short and easier course, but still a full course. After that I had some up and down rounds but wasn’t really getting the breakthrough scoring wise. I wasn’t having the big blow up holes like I used to, but more of just general inconsistency. Like i might be driving the ball well but unable to putt. or I might be hitting putts but unable to chip. and with whatever part went bad I went and practiced that then some other part would let me down. Still though I felt like at least I was enjoying playing more and my game was heading in a positive direction.
After a few months I felt kinda stagnant so I asked a guy at work who i knew to be a good golfer and he gave me some tips which I immediately went out and practiced and my game took another step. I was able to hit my long irons better and even my fairway wood which I hadn’t touched in forever. I am not a long hitter, I usually tee off with a 3 wood or 5 wood and use a 6 iron in the fairways cause those are the clubs I feel confident with. my short game is where I feel I have some advantage, I do pretty well there. so i make up for my lack of distance with that. Still, I wanted to try and get a little better in the fairways because courses are so long these days.
Finally a few weeks ago I put it all together and shot a 43 on the front 9 of a full length course. It was all going great, I believe it to be my best 9 hole score ever. Unfortunately I lost concentration on the back 9 and finished with a 96 overall but still a score in the 90s! This really brought back my love for the sport, one that I’ve always wanted to be good at and play a lot. I hope to take it to another level next spring and shoot consistently in the 90s. My goal is to be a bogey golfer, someone who can shoot upper 80s low 90s every time. From there any other improvement would be gravy.
I really want this to be my one big time hobby. I enjoy bowling and have worked at it a lot including this past winter but its not the same as golf. I feel like i hit a ceiling in bowling that could probably only be broken with a big time commitment that I don’t have the desire to make (like joining competitive leagues). I got tired of playing by myself a lot. At least with golf I enjoy playing by myself and usually I find others to play with me anyway. I like being outside, i like the variety of golf and the different courses, I like all the different challenges.
I think 7-5 would be a great season. 6-6 might be more likely when you look at games we’ll probably be favored in, but I think we’ll steal one somewhere.
The key to the whole season schedule wise is the @Miami. I think if we can pull that off, and with all the suspensions plus a new head coach at Miami I think its certainly doable, it could lead to even more wins due to momentum. I would really like to see us go 2-1 against @Miami, Baylor, Mizzou. I think we go bowling for sure if that happens. Beyond that I think we take care of business against the bottom feeders (Iowa St and kansas) and find a way to steal one during the murderers row OU/@OSU/A&M/@TEX.
Offensively I expect us to be very good, or at least equal to last season. As long as Bill Snyder is our coach we won’t struggle to score points too often. We return a good WR corp, both of our tackles, our TE’s, and fullback. Also returning is part-time starter Colin Klein at QB which should be an upgrade over Carson Coffman. I’m not worried about the newcomers in the interior of the offensive line because i believe our offensive line coach is one of the best in college football and generally its easier to replace guards and centers compared to tackles. RB looks solid despite losing Daniel Thomas to the draft. Bryce Brown was the #1 overall recruit coming out of highschool a few years back and should eventually be the starter this season after transfering from tennessee and sitting out last season.
The defense is where all the questions lie. We are going back to a 4-3 (ran 4-2-5 defense last yr) which is what Snyder ran during the glory days. The secondary looks to be the team strength with both our safeties returning and our top corner returning. We added a lot of juco guys in that area for depth. The LB corp last season was nearly devoid of talent so it was overhauled this season with Arthur Brown (brother of Bryce and transfer from Miami) who looked like a total stud in the spring game. The speed and nose for the football he brings immediately upgrades this whole defense. He will be flanked by some speedy athletic guys who played some last season in Lemur and Walker. Depth may be an issue here though. As for the D-line, easily the biggest problem on the team last year for a team that was 113th in college football against the run, I think there are still questions. I think the D-ends should be better, we got rid of some dead weight and added a guy who was supposed to be good but was hurt all year last season in Adam Davis. Also we added a lot of juco guys across the whole line for depth. DT is maybe the biggest need on the team for an upgrade. They have a lot of bodies but I don’t know if any of them can play. We’ll find out pretty quick. If this defense still sucks, I don’t see much hope for more than a 6-6 season. From what I read, the team itself feels like it will be better on defense but I gotta see it. I wasn’t thrilled we kept the same DC so my optimism is low here.
Currently watching: Mr. Show-Season 4Currently playing: Super Paper Mario(Wii)
So I’m driving home from work at 3:30am last night and I take my usual route through the Plaza which goes right by the Pembroke Hill school and I notice a flashing message board that you usually see for construction. I was pretty tired so I wasn’t sure what I saw was correct so I pulled over and watched it cycle and sure enough, it showed the following:
I’m sure its been taken down by now but either way I certainly applaud efforts like these.
Currently listening to: Smashing Pumpkins-Pisces Iscariot
Been listening to some older stuff from the 90s lately and I started thinking about how there were some bigger mainstream bands that I liked whose best album was their first. So I thought I’d put together a list because thats what I do for fun. I tried to stick with bands to where there was no real debate that the 1st album is the best and with bands that released at least 3-4 albums.
Weezer: Weezer
Though Pinkerton was a solid followup, it could never match what the blue album gave us. Say it Ain’t So, Undone, Buddy Holly, plus other standouts like My Name is Jonas and Only in Dreams make up a beautiful, happy, powerful fuzz-pop album. There isn’t a bad song on this record, its one of the best of the 90s. Weezer is a shell of what they did here and I blame the loss of bassist Matt Sharp for their downfall.
Pearl Jam: Ten
Helping define the beginning of the grunge period of music, this was without a doubt Pearl Jam’s best record. Many classic singles like Alive, Jeremy, Black, and Evenflow…plus the rest of the album is strong too. Their followup Vs. was good but this was their peak. I give Pearl Jam some credit, they were able to sustain the sucess of this record for quite a while and through several other releases but never as strong as Ten.
Stone Temple Pilots: Core
STP came out with an angry bang and threw their hat into the grunge ring with Core. Dead and Bloated, Sex Type Thing, Wicked Garden, Creep, Plush were all heavily played singles. The followup Purple was good but it was generally downhill from there.
Interpol: Turn on the Bright Lights
Moving into the 2000s, Interpol put out in 2002 what ended up being one of the better albums of the decade and it was also their 1st one. PDA, NYC, Obstacle 1, and Untitled highlight this record which also does not have a bad track on it. Like the 3 bands above, Interpol was able to sustain most of the sucess of their 1st record with a strong 2nd record but there was noticeable decline on the 3rd album.
Strokes: Is This it?
Did you even know the Strokes released an album after their 1st? They have 3 others actually. The problem was they weren’t able to come up with anything real different from what they gave us on their 1st. Lot of great tracks here like Last Night, The Modern Age, and Is This It. Fun album all the way through.
Franz Ferdinand:
Known mostly for the single Take Me Out, Franz Ferdinand actually put out a very good first album. Lot of catchy fun songs that never let up. This band hasn’t really fallen off completely, they actually have a new record coming out this year that hopefully will revive them somewhat. Doubtful it’ll ever be like it was with this album though.
