Hey, did you guys know that Young Adult authors Libba Bray, Natalie Standiford, Dan Ehrenhaft and Barnabas Miller are all in a band called Tiger Beat together? I didn’t! Not until this morning when I saw this video of them performing “YA Song” in the New York Public Library.

You can play “spot the literary references” with the lyrics as well. They throw in some Hunger Games and some Catcher In The Rye, what else can you pick out?

It is the central library’s 20th birthday today.  To celebrate, we thought a Top 10 list was in order, so here are five books and five CDs that first appeared in 1991. You might not have realised they were so vintage.

1. The Juniper Game, Sherryl Jordan (New Zealand) – “Juniper, a fifteen-year-old girl with telepathic powers, convinces her best friend Dylan to experiment with her powers.” (catalogue description)
2. Out Walked Mel, Paula Boock (New Zealand) – “Mel never knows when to keep her mouth shut and when she storms out of school she sees it as an escape – from a past and present too messy to deal with. But running to her self-centered father or her boyfriend aren’t easy answers either.” (Syndetics summary)
3. The River (the sequel to Hatchet), Gary Paulsen – “Because of his success surviving alone in the wilderness for fifty-four days, fifteen-year-old Brian, profoundly changed by his time in the wild, is asked to undergo a similar experience to help scientists learn more about the psychology of survival.” (catalogue)
4. The Awakening (the first Vampire Diaries book), L J Smith – yes, way before Twilight there were the Vampire Diaries. The Awakening is the one in which Elena first meets Stefan, while the town of Fells Church is the repeated victim of vicious animal attacks.
5. Letters from the Inside, John Marsden – “Two teenage girls become penpals and over a period of time seem to get to know each other – but do they?” (catalogue)
6. Nevermind, Nirvana – ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ — ‘Come as You Are’ — ‘Lithium’ — ‘In Bloom’ etc etc etc. Pretty brilliant.
7. Gish, Smashing Pumpkins – this was the Pumpkins’ debut album.
8. Blue Lines, Massive Attack – possibly best known for ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ which was a rather large hit.
9. Metallica, Metallica – the tracks on Metallica average out to be about 5.1 minutes each, Metallica being fans of the long song.
10. Ten, Pearl Jam (adult CD – we ran out!) – Another dirty great long list of classic tracks. I like ‘Release’ the best.

Coast To Coast – Cody Simpson
Talented swimmer
leaves pool behind for a shot
at “Bieber status”

Making Mirrors – Gotye
Ashton Kutcher and
Lily Allen cosigned this
via the twitters

The Fall – Gorillaz
Recorded on tour
with Damon’s iPad, what an
age we live in, huh?

The Essential – Korn
Misspelled cereal
grain’s discography shoehorned
onto two CDs

Neighbourhoods – Blink 182
Together again,
“indefinite hiatus”
over, pop-punk back.

Cults – Cults
Indie blogosphere
swoons. “Album of the summah!”
- Skinny-jeaned critics.

All Things Bright And Beautiful – Owl City
Starting in parent’s
basement, it stands to reason
that Mum gets guest slot.

Junk Of The Heart – The Kooks
Breezy guitar pop,
hummable choruses and
mostly about girls.

Hell The Sequel – Bad Meets Evil
Which one is which? Royce
is the “Bad”, Eminem is
the “Evil”. Oh, thanks.

Hey Gleeks, this is really funny. It’s a Sesame Street parody of Glee, it makes learning about the letter “G” fun #infotainment.

You can enjoy the real version of Glee right here on DVD and CD and Sesame Street on DVD too.

Sorry For Party Rocking - LMFAO. After getting a few tracks into this I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re not sorry for party rocking at all. If they were really sorry they’d do something else once in a while, either that or they’re continually wracked with guilt. Fun fact: members RedFoo and SkyBlu are the son and grandson of Motown label founder Berry Gordy.

In Waves – Trivium. The American metallers took a welcome and fresh approach with this, their fifth album, focussing on “writing for the specifically for the songs. not to show how well [they] could play”. which results in a less complex, more evenly structured set of songs. Not that this means a scaling back on “epic”, far from it.

Here I Am - Kelly Rowland. Fresh off her chart-topping singles with David Guetta, Kelly Rowland has recaptured the attitude and fire that made Destinys Child so compelling back in the day. Here I Am flits easily between pop, R&B and hip-hop and features appearances from Lil Wayne and Big Sean (when is a rapper going to use “Medium” or “Regular” as a prefix?).

Dirty Work – All Time Low. This is All Time Low’s major label debut and their first to make it onto our library shelves. Hopefully those two (equally important) milestones give them some much needed self-confidence. Seriously, All Time Low, there have been plenty of lower points throughout history than you and your music. Oh, unless it’s sarcastic. Carry on then.

Auckland natives, Cut Off Your Hands, released their second full-length album, Hollow, recently. It’s really good. A more fully realised version of the new wave/post punk sound they’ve been producing since 2006. But why listen to me when you can preview some of the new tracks below? They do a much better job of describing the sound, since they are the sound.

If you read the title of this post and then expected a competition to win a bag, fear not, I didn’t mislead you! Simply be the first to comment on this post (and also have a valid Wellingon Libraries YA card) to win a swell Cut Off Your Hands tote bag. It’s official. You could carry library books and the other Cut Off Your Hands CDs the library has (You & I, Blue On Blue and Cut Off Your Hands) home in it. Do it!

Ok, it turns out that the entire time I was doing haiku reviews I was actually writing senryu. You see, haikus are about nature and are serious, while senryus are about human nature and are more humorous. How about that? Excuse the lack of poetry in this post, I need to come to grips with this revelation.

B In The Mix: The Remixes - Britney Spears. Are your favourite songs on Britney Spears albums always the dance numbers? Do you always skip past the ballads while saying, “Pffft, this lacks a certain energy and I just can’t feel it, yo.”? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you’re in luck. All of these songs are the dance numbers, only they are even more dancetastic thanks to Justice, Jason Nevins and various other DJs.

Give ‘Til It’s Gone - Ben Harper. The prolific singer/songwriter has enjoyed such a long career that some of his albums are no longer eligible for a YA card! Sorry, Pleasure And Pain, that Justin Bieber CD is going to cost you $1 now. Ex-Beatle drummer and voice of Thomas The Tank Engine, Ringo Starr guests on this latest effort.

4 - Beyonce. Even though her last album I Am… Sasha Fierce broke the record for most Grammys won by a female artist in one night, I’d like to put it out there that this is even better. Beyonce always has great singles, but on 4 every track is strong, making it one of those rare pop albums you prefer to listen to start to finish, rather than simply cherry picking favourites. #sashafiercewho? #team4bb!

Rome - Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi. Danger Mouse is not a man who is afraid to take some left turns on the way to crafting a pop album. From inventing the mash-up genre by making unlikely bedfellows of The Beatles and Jay-Z, to spending the early years of his career in a mouse costume, it shouldn’t  really surprise that this project is a soundtrack to a spaghetti western film that doesn’t exisit. Jack White and Norah Jones “guest star” on a couple of tracks.

More new CDs coming soon…

Are haikus getting old? Is there another form of poetry you would like to see music reviews in? Comment away.

Live At The Aragon – Mastodon
Crack The Skye in its
entirety, plus other
concert favourites

Fomo – Liam Finn
Displaying usual
consistent quality with
added “spaciness”

Ukulele Songs – Eddie Vedder
Pearl Jam front man jumps
on bandwagon. What have you
wrought, uke orchestra?!?

The Dark Side Of The Moon – The Flaming Lips & Stardeath And White Dwarfs
Pink Floyd opus by
way of Wayne Coyne’s musical
circus plus Peaches

Smoking In Heaven – Kitty, Daisy & Lewis
As a child of the
nineties, musical siblings
recall Hanson bros

Habits – Neon Trees
American alt-
rock band from Provo, Utah.
Good ole wiki, eh?

Two noteworthy music videos were released yesterday and they will battle it out on your computer screens in our new feature, Rock Fight! How exactly do pieces of film set to music battle you ask? By being watched sequentially and then voted on in the comments. Easy.

Our first combatants in the ring are The Beastie Boys featuring Santigold with Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win off their album Hot Sauce Committee Part Two.

Good stuff, Beasties! (FYI; Santigold’s album is here)

Taking them on in this titanic struggle is Rebecca Black with her new song, My Moment. She doesn’t have an album yet because she is such a fresh new artist, but I understand an ep is in the works, look for it coming to the library soon!

Nice one, Rebecca!

Now that you’ve sized up both contenders, vote for your favourite in the comments. Who will win the Rock Fight!?!