On Categorizing Music

First thing, now that I am back. I won't bore anyone with the relations of my tech-problems, but before I get on to pseudo-ranting about stuff I have been musing on, I will get right back to doling out free music.

Today's song of the day (feels good to say that again) is Lawn Wake IV (Black) by The Flashbulb (which I have a tendency to type as 'Flashblub'). I was teetering on the edge as to reccomending anything by this artist, as normally I won't push music without having a whole album, or discog, or something like that. Today, however, singles were in abundance, and after having heard some of the fellows music, I've decided that this is worth sharing. Good luck getting any more songs of his though... I only have 4 as it is. >> Anyway, about the song. I remember when I first discovered Goa-Trance - that's trance music fused with psychedellic guitars, for those who don't know. I was delighted to find that electronic music could have the same sweet riffy, catchy-ness that popular music could. And, then, I discovered just the other day that IDM and Breakcore could use guitars too. Genius! The Flashbulb makes music in a variety of styles, as is usually the case with prolific electronic musicians (who are actually worth listening to). Squarepusher and Venetian Snares, anyone? Right. Well, this song is pretty downright awesome. A very noisy, glitchy start, not nearly as abrasive as that Dev/Null track I reccomended a while back though, and then a sweet breakcore guitar-fest of mind-melting proportions. This song, as well as the other that accompanied it on the limited promotional EP Lawn Funeral, are available for download here. Enjoy.

Now, what do I have to say about categorizing music? Really just a wonderment, actually. As I'm a big advocate of music being freely distributed in the first place, it's easy to see that knowing what I'm getting would be a point of interest for me. What I have more to gripe about, however, is how proper music categorization is almost non-existent today, and indeed, most modern-day technologies and utilities seem to stifle the idea, rather than help it. Let me give you an example...

Say I purchased a CD from my local music retailer. Let's use Nirvana's breakthrough album Nevermind for the example. I take the CD home, unwrap it from its shiny plastic packaging, and after listening to a while, decide I want to copy the files from the CD onto my computer. A lot of programs allow me to do this - Winamp, Windows Media Player - I think Windows even has a built in utility. But, what do I find when I check the directory I extracted the files to? I can't tell which is which anymore! And so, I have to listen by ear and manually recategorize everything with my CD in hand as I scroll through a proprietary file tagger.

You'd think with all the time in the world to organize, format, and press CDs, a music company would take the needs of the consumer into place, and embed file information into the files on a CD. You'd think that, on the off chance that they do, that the music ripping program would make an effort to read that data.

I know this is an out of place gripe. Most CDs now a days are properly formatted, and with iTunes, there's no limit to the instant categorization! But to extrapolate further on this idea... go on to any random P2P music sharing program. Download a popular song... something by The Beatles. Play it in your music player of choice. No doubt, you will find things such as genre, album, and year are completely blank - and that the title is something like "the beetles_(song name)". No artist, or the artist will be the song name... blah blah blah, it goes on. When someone has the time to group and upload a torrent file of an artists entire discography - or, more to the point, even just that one album, you'd think they could also take the time to properly label it. Not so!

It ends up so that I'm one of the only people I know who has a near even close to properly organized music collection - at 50 gigs and rising, that's no small feat, but even I'm not close to done - and it's taken me literally days of work to get where I am. Even when I transferred over all my old music files, I had to retag them, because WMP tags weren't compatible with Winamp, and Winamp wasn't compatible with iTunes, or some stupid shit like that... it's just ridiculous. This is like a gripe people used to have on KaZaA back in the day - dialup users not sharing files. I disagreed with that one, but I think I'd like to take it to the extreme in a different way...

If you don't have properly categorized and labelled music files, do not share them.

I'm just kidding, really, but it is a huge pet peeve of mine. The fact that there's no 'auto-tagging' system for music these days makes me wonder what the internet is for... For people who actually want to tag their music properly though, look into getting Tag & Rename - it covers all different formats of tags, and all different audio formats as well. Really useful.


And that is all I have to say about that. Until tomorrow.

Computer Problems = hiatus

I wouldn't normally do this, but right now I'm having massive computer failings - I don't know when my PC will be working again, but until it is, I have no access to music, new or old, other than my stupid CD player, which is of no real use. I'll try to get back to my box as soon as possible, but until then readers will have to make due with the songs I've posted already.

Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck has some fans. People should check that out.

Until I return.

Edit: Return is nigh! I have the compu-comp back, and flooding of music will commence. Huzzah.

The Blood Brothers Are Good And Crazy

Today we have a brief mention of post-hardcore, and more mathcore!

I would have posted the album of the week yesterday, but technical difficulties have been horrible prevalent lately. I don't want to go over that though.

Ever since I got turned on to post-hardcore, I've heard talk of two experimental bands within the genre - The Blood Brothers, and The Locust. Both are fairly... well, they're way out of the mainstream. They make what kind of is a hybrid between post-hardcore, and like... experimental grind-core. So, not airplay friendly. That being said, it's almost impossible to find their music. After a lot of searching, I managed to get a discography of The Blood Brothers - no luck on The Locust yet. Apparently these are the kind of bands that have fat emo chicks in white belts show up and fawn over lead singers, so that's pretty cool, I'd like to be in a band like that.

Basically, The Blood Brothers are a more... well, it's hard to say what they're more of. They sound kind of like HORSE, only noisier, and with shriller singing - less abrasive instrumentation in some parts, more abrasive in others, and the lyrics seem to speak more. In any case, I'd heard good things about them, and it's easy to see why. Thusly, I decided to make the song of the day one of their tunes that I'm addicted to - it is one of their more popular songs, but I couldn't pass up the chance - it's just stuck inside my head. I'm writing a story about it. The lyrics are amazing, and it just sounds wonderful. If it exposes people to this band that I should have caught onto a long time ago, then I'm glad. The song is called Love Rhymes With Hideos Car Wreck from their 2004 album Crimes. It's about... well, it's complicated, especially when you can't hear all the lyrics, but basically... it's wonderful. Check it out, I implore you. Megaupload link is here.


Originally I was going to reccomend this album for album of the week, but I realized I shouldn't go around toting things I haven't listened to extensively myself - and while there are some amazing songs on this album, I don't have an in depth knowledge of it. So, I'm going to try and go in a different direction... actually, what am I talking about, this album is just too good to pass up. Though, one of their prior releases, Burn, Piano Island, Burn is also really good. In any case, there's a Megaupload link for just the above track up there, and for those who want the entire album, the link is here. Enjoy. ^^

Basically, this group takes post-hardcore in a nice experimental direction that fuses a lot of different sounds - I highly reccomend checking them out, and would as of right now kill to see them live.

That's all for today.

It's Glitching In A Good Way

I wanted to put off another post until I felt I had something relevant to say. Thusly, herein lies great contemplation on the nature of sound... and stuff.

As if I haven't already been spouting off about the site enough, I have to mention BrEaKcOrE-AdDiCts today, if only because it was through said site that I acquired today's song of the day, as well as more free music than I know what to do with. Before I get right to the track though, I have to cover something.

For those of you reading this who don't play video games, you might not understand the soundtrack/remix culture associated with the medium of entertainment. For every big game, there is a soundtrack, and for every soundtrack, there are more remixes than you can shake a... Japanese Doujin Band at (S.S.H., Mint Jam). OC ReMixes is a good example of this. This kind of phenomenon exists for the same reason that people eagerly purchase rereleases of their favorite games - they are eager to play their favorite content over again, but in a new and exciting way. Thusly, the remixed soundtracks are analogous to this kind of thing - listening to a soundtrack is like playing your favorite game moments over again in your mind, and remixes are a different way to do that. Also, many games have amazing scores, and composers just seem to be getting better and better.

All that said, today's track may be a remix - if it's not, it's an amazingly done piece of original work - and even if it is, it certainly sounds good enough to warrant listening to anyway. As I earlier mentioned my oft visited breakcore site, I was lead through it to an artist called MegAAngelo (not unlike the dog from Final Fantasy VIII). He has quite literally, his entire catalogue for download, which consists of no fewer than 10 albums. He also has several partner artists hosted as well. People who offer their music for free download amaze me, and I hold to this day that if I secure a record contract in some soon to be famous band (the upcoming Battle o' the Bands in march may determine the reality of my future fame) I will offer my band's entire compendium of music for free download. In any case, after extensive re-labeling and organization of the (what seemed like hundreds of) zip files, I was ready to listen to this artist.

I wasn't really very impressed.

Let me interject something here though. I pride myself on my ability to have at least enough knowledge of a given 'music' scene to hold my own in any medium of discussion about said scene. Possible exceptions are Country and any amalgamation of 'street-cultured' music such as Rap and Hip-Hop. One of the scenes that is small enough whereupon it's not overly hard to know most everything about it is the 'Intelligent Dance Music' scene. Abbreviated to IDM, this is computer music for 'intelligent' people. It can also be called 'braindance'. It's very cerebral, clicky, mellow, and meticulously programmed. I know a lot about it, but I'm not a huge fan. When this supposed 'breakcore' artist came off as IDM, I was a little disappointed. After a while, though, I warmed up to it... incidentally, the fellow seems to be a fan of the anime FLCL (pronounced "Furi-Kuri"), which gave him points. I remembered noting what sounded like a remix of the Super Mario Bros. theme (entitled Super Musical Brothers), so I checked that album out. I'm glad I did.

A high contender for album of the week, this delightful EP is an amalgamation of IDM style mods and clicks, as well as some home-brewed video-game instrumentation and sound effects, with a healthy dose of pre-established samples and remix work as well. I can't say why, but the second I heard the opening track I was hook - the entire album, without even listening to all of it at first, made a place on my 'Music worth noticing' playlist. The song of the day today, is the first track, Battle Sequence, from awesome free-download music artist MegAAngelo's EP album, Vidiot.

MA seems to make music in a more ambient, quieter, glitch associated thing than I'm accustomed - there's a decent breakcore influence though. His site offers all his music for free download, so rather than upload (even though maybe I should be), I'll just offer a link - you can download invidual MP3s, or the whole album - even though I would reccomend this whole album, you don't have to get it. Here is MegAAngelo's site. The link to the album is on the right, along with tons of other musical deliciousness. Even if you don't like breakcore, this stuff is worth checking out - it's far less abrasive, more melodic, dare I say creative - and free. Can't go wrong with that.

Album and artist of the week approaches, and my recent music listening habits my skew my decision a bit. Hopefully someone awaits eagerly.

Many days, and no business comes to my hut...

Today's track of the day is Nevermind by The Birthday Massacre. For those of you who haven't heard of TBM (Another band by that abbreviation is The Black Mages, who earnestly are quite a bit better. That TBM is a Japanese power-metal band organized by the acclaimed composer of most of the music for the epic Final Fantasy video game franchise, Nobuo Uematsu. They play mostly covers of FF songs, and are really good - I highly reccomend checking them out)... um, I was talking about The Birthday Massacre? Right. They're a bit hard to describe - not genre defying by any means, just... different. They're post-retro industrial tinged synth featuring metal. They're not very dark... they have quite a light-hearted, yet emotional and sometimes morbid quality. Really, they should be every teenager's dream band, as they sound like their lyrics are just for them.

This song is off their 2005 album Violet, which I haven't listened to extensively - a couple tracks stick out as decent picks. This song is nothing that will blow your mind, but it felt so uplifting and yet bittersweet at the same time, I thought it deserved a spot. This group really has something going for them - besides that, they did a really nice remix of MSI's Straight To Video, which is my favorite off that remix album... I looked into them from that, actually, and while they're a tad too... light-hearted for me to normally consider, they are actually mellow in a decently fun way. I'd go see one of their shows for sure. In any case, this song tells a story that doesn't make great sense, but is kind of poetic, and again, very mellow yet fun. Megaupload link is
here. Also, "Nevermind" is one of my favorite words to hear in song since the album of the same name by Nirvana. Yes, I like them, big deal.

One of the things I will never understand about music is the genres... and more in that, why certain genres are so much more elitist than others. If you listen to metal or rock, or punk or country or pop, you never really get into fighting about genres... unless you are a hard-core metal head, in which case, that is a whole different story. One of the worst genres for in-fighting, however is industrial, and I find it just stupid. Any given site on the subject will have ten different opinions on what 'real' industrial is, and every other poster will get flamed for liking a 'pussy' band that isn't 'real' industrial. I understand that there are limits to what a style is and isn't, but I do not get why it is cool to be so picky about divergences within genres. Looking at it this way, Black Sabbath, Opeth, and Rhapsody of Fire are all metal, and sound completely different, and while people will come up with different words to describe all those kinds of metal, they are still that; metal. Now, when people say something like "Oh man I love Opeth they are good death metal" and some wanker comes in and says "YOU FAG OPETH ARE PROGRESSIVE DEATH METAL OMFG STFU GHEY"... well, I think I've already ranted about this before.

Arguing aside though, it amazes me how divergent genres can be. The above of metal is a good example. Industrial also serves to be further... looking comparitively at Skinny Puppy and the more danceable EBM influenced industrial sounds of Frontline Assembly and such like that, it's crazy how two of the 'classic' groups of industrial sound so different. Also, if I get anyone commenting about how FLA isn't real industrial, the world will explode from the irony.

Trying to keep the track buffer going. Haven't listened to near all of my music, but am moving up slowly to the B's. Still no traffic... enjoy the songs though.

General Incompetence (and his commanding officer, Major Dumbass)

I originally had a jam scheduled for today that I was going to write about, but in lieu of that, since it didn't really pan out - have a semi-rant like piece!

This isn't a blog about myself, it's about music, but I just have one thing to say - why are human beings so mind-numbingly, frustratingly incompetent and worthless when it comes to band practices? Never have I experienced so much anger and disappointment as I do when dealing with band members. If I didn't love music so much I would swear off playing it all together, just because of the sheer apparent idiocy of everyone involved. Ugh.

On to the actual music. In discussions with various musicians about my school, I've realized that I have something of a fetish for time signatures - apparently something unusual. Thusly, it's amazing that I don't like mathcore more - but that's mostly because the guitars all sound the same, and it's hard to even identify the time-signature beneath the squealing and yelling most of the time. Sometimes you get lucky though... In this interest, I'm going to take to listening to The Dillinger Escape Plan more. I've heard they're the best live show on the planet (in those exact words), so I'd love to see them... I got my hands on a Gigantour DVD last night (the Dave Mustaine (of Megadeth) organized heavy metal alternative to Ozzfest), and they were originally set to play for it - but since they had to drop out early due to an injured guitarist, they weren't on the DVD, which I was peeved about - though one of the drummers on the DVD was wearing a DEP t-shirt, which I found nice. I also meant to go over that DVD a bit... I'd reccommend it as long as it could be secured for less than fourty dollars - though the Dream Theater set was worth almost that. They only did two songs, but they were lovely. John Myung, the bass player, got a lot of screen time, which is nice, because he almost never gets any - but the acclaimed keyboard player, Jordan Rudess, got almost none, which kind of annoyed me. He would be busting a mad solo, and for some reason the camera would close up on Mike Portnoy, not really doing anything. I find stuff like that just ridiculous, as much as I like to look at Portnoy. When Symphony X was playing, if you relied entirely on the camera, you could barely even tell they had a keyboardist. Ugh.

Song of the day today is The Dillinger Escape Plan's cover of Aphex Twin's Come To Daddy - this is off their EP of 2004, Irony Is A Dead Scene, which is a sweet title. Even if you don't like Aphex Twin, or IDM at all, this song is still pretty sweet - and if you don't like mathcore either, it's still okay. If you don't like it... well, that's your call. Covering something like that is not straightforward, and I respect DEP heavily for it - it rocks.
Megaupload link is here. I'd like to note - these links only last 90 days from their last link, so there's a good chance a lot of the older one's will stop working in a month or two, unless I get an influx of traffic - so, highly, unlikely.

Going back to my thing on time signatures - I can understand how they wouldn't be for everyone. Most people just like to listen to their music, and for it to sound 'normal', but I think there's a whole other level to appreciate music on. Noticing all the different things going on in music makes it a lot more noticeable - which is why musicians, in general, appreciate music more. I'm not saying you have to be an elitist ass-hole, or be like "Oh man this piece is sweet 3/4 then 5/4 then 7/8 lolz!", but if you want to listen to a nice piece of music that doesn't follow a conventional song structure, it can be a bit refreshing. Just to hear "Oh I thought that was going to end there but it didn't!" Plus, the more I listen to them, DEP just sounds better and better - give them a chance, they're the artist of the week, or something. >> With Dev/Null being a close second.

I'll try to give some more listenable music later - though I highly reccomend checking out the EP today's song is off - so far it's pretty amazing. Is it cool to like The Dillinger Escape Plan anymore? Hmm.

That's really all it takes

I hate to rant on in a sort of 'freaky electronic music' binge, but it's all that's on my mind lately, excepting progressive time signature crap - and that's not for everyone.

Neither is breakcore, really, and I can see why. A synopsis couldn't hurt. Basically, as I understand it, Breakcore is a fusion of the genres of gabber, glitch, noise, and IDM. Just as speedcore was a response to the childishness of nu-style gabber and happy hardcore, breakcore is the response to IDM being too ambient... or something like that. I see Aphex Twin and Squarepusher listed as Breakcore a lot, and I'm not sure if it's true. I doubt that AFX (that's Aphex Twin, don't ask me why, it was his idea - him being Richard D. James, fyi) really qualifies, unless some of his more obscure and harder to find stuff fits the label. As for Squarepusher - he's really all over the place. As long as no one calls him jazz, it's all good. Anyway.

Breakcore, in my experience, is typified by harsh breakbeats, and a maximum output of sonic density. Artists will try to cram a lot of sound into one piece of music... resulting in what can sometimes seem an imposing wall of noise. Noise music, however, is an altogether different thing - it's made with lots of static, tape-looping, and vicious feed-back. I do enjoy some noise music, but it takes a very specific taste to like it. If someone you know doesn't like Venetian Snares and calls it 'not music', do not show them noise music. Heck, even the most hardcore VSnares fans don't like the searing feedback... I do, but again, I'm not everyone.

Breakcore is primarily made with sampled drum noises, synths, and crazy smooshing off sounds together to create sound effects that can't be replicated acoustically - a good example is the 'snare rush' VSnares does in a lot of his songs, that blurs the sound together into one continuous grating stream. If you're a fan of gabber, IDM, glitch or noise music, breakcore is probably a good idea to check out. There's some melodic type stuff out there: notably, a lot of Dev/Null's tracks, and a huge amount of VSnares, cosnidering his vast discography - especially the much toted album Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett by Venetian Snares - the title is Hungarian, and means 'born under a bad star'. Everyone who like VSnares usually loves this album, and it's reccomended by people getting other people into breakcore, which bothers me immensely. It's like reccomending Metallica to people looking for Progressive metal... perhaps not that bad. But the album doesn't really epitomize the genre - it is an amazing album, don't get me wrong. Hungarian feeling string orchestras mixed with vicious VSnares-esque breakbeats is awesome, but... it's not the best example. VSnares goes melodic on a lot of his other albums too, so people should check those out. I'd reccomend Rossz, as well as The Choclate Wheelchair Album and Higgins Ultra Low Track Glue Funk Hitsn 1972-2006 - yes, they all have long and weird titles, but those are some good albums.

In any case, I'm going to link BrEaKcOrE-AdDiCts, and say that anyone who's intersted in checking out this totally diverse, unreal, out of the way and awesome genre gives it a look. I reccomend Dev/Null and Speedranch - they have the most stuff for free download. Dev/Null is a lot more melodic, and Speedranch is a lot more noise influenced, but their both good.

As a sample of this delicious genre, I'm providing todays song of the day - Bolt Thrower In A Chinese Resteraunt by Dev/Null. This might not be the best song he offers, but it's my favorite. It starts off a bit frighteningly, so for those who want something more accessable, check out Symphonies of Suckness. Instead of wasting my bandwidth, and dealing with Megaupload (though I love them), I'm just going to link to the page for downloads on Dev's site. Here is the link - the MP3 section isn't hard to find. If you like it, please check out more, and if not... well, you're silly.

As Promised

Like I said - second post.

I have some things to cover in this one that are actually important. First, an update on my jam session with emotional yet not so technically proficient guitar player, Django!

Things went quite well this time, I think a lot better than they did last time. I'm not even sure if it could be called a jam session - basically we tried to get down parts to a song for all the time he was over. We actually succeeded to a degree as well. I was convinced I didn't want to do something in normal time, and I had been working on this crazy 5/4 / 6/4 intro thing that I wanted to work with. We started on that, and didn't really get very far with it - so then we started working on an intro hook in that pattern - alternating between 5/4 and 6/4 every bar, essentially amounting to 11/8. Then we took a chorus pattern in 6/4, and then started working on a bridge in 5/4. Basically, we had to go back over some stuff, and we don't have anything solidly finished, but we have a lot of components for what promises to be a sweet song that's a hybrid of prog-metal, mathcore, and some form of death something. I'm loving the math-core influence.

I also have a jam to go with Julien, the 'Metallica' kid. I dunno how that will go - I wrote lyrics to a song of his, would like to see how that goes - and maybe we'll get something accomplished.

As for the other things I wanted to rant about - I wanted to say some things about my posting of a VSnares album. I know that I have held that I will not post albums by my essential artists - and yet in two days, I've posted two of them. I think the MSI album speaks for itself - it was an accompaniement to the review - but why the Snares? Mostly because I realize that there's not enough exposure to Aaron and his wonderful music - I fell into the world of breakcore purely by mistake, but Venetian Snares makes tracks so innovative and wonderful I can't help but want to share them. I was originally just going to post one track from that album, because I found it amazing, but then I wanted to post another, and another, and now, I have uploaded my favorite Venetian Snares album for everyone to enjoy. I've also stumbled upon something amazing... BrEaKcOrE-AdDiCts. Holy crap. This site is astounding - almost every artist there has an MP3 download section, and over the course of just today I've exposed myself to tons of new artists. Expect to see some breakcore tracks posted in the next little while.

That's all for now, I suppose. For those of you who haven't immersed yourselves in the world of odd time signatures, I suggest you check out Dream Theater, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Venetian Snares... and that's all I can think of for now. Rush is pretty good for it too. Just do a Google for "Mathcore", and you'll do fine.

Apparently a cure for boredom

As promised, a new album is going up today - as well as perhaps a follow up post on some musical musings later on in the day. For now, I'll try to be concise.

Right now, I've got a jam with that fellow I spoke of some time ago in about fifteen minutes. We might have vocals for this mix, so that will certainly be something interesting - I've never garage-banded with a vocalist before. I'll post an update on how all that goes.

As for the album promised: I present to you, Winnipeg Is A Frozen Shithole by Venetian Snares. I try to avoid uploading stuff by the Funk man, but I consistently realize this album is too good to not expose people to.

As I said, I'll post thoughts about music, jam progress, and new track discoveries later - for now, enjoy the breakcore. Megaupload link is here.

Music Review!

As promised, here follows my review of Mindless Self Indulgence's new album in its entirety - comments will be afterward. This is a sample of what my writing is like in a journalism capacity...


"Co-ed Punk Band’s Latest CD “Another Mindless Rip-Off” Hopefully Proves Different Than Its Namesake

As with the majority of holiday seasons, Christmas has once again proven to be a successful means to harness consumer greed and exploit the soon to be empty pockets of frantic shoppers. While the motivation for selling certain things at Christmas might simply be the idea of offering the right product at the right time, frequently it is only because the ‘right time’ is the time of year is the season when people spend the most money. Whether or not that is the case with the music industry, however, is debatable.
For the New York based electro-punk band Mindless Self Indulgence the plan seems to have worked like a charm. The co-ed group of punk rockers released what they claim is a “preview of their upcoming 2007 album” on a CD entitled Another Mindless Rip-Off. The album was released in limited pressings through the Hot Topic chain of stores only, leading to some frustration from long time fans fond of the band’s underground obscurist image. Only 15,000 copies were made, and quickly sold out. Luckily, this reporter was able to obtain a copy, and can therefore review this CD as a statement on this lately more and more popular group’s music – as well as advising those inclined to download their music on the value of this release.
For those not familiar with Mindless Self Indulgence (henceforth referred to as MSI), the band’s sound might register as something of an oddity. Attempts to designate MSI as one genre is a challenge in itself – though largely identified by a punkish sound and ethos, the prevalent use of synthesizers and sound programming gives nod to a strong electronic influence. The band has covered songs such as Method Man’s “Bring the Pain” and “Big Poppa” by The Notorious B.I.G., clearly wearing hip-hop and rap influence on its sleeve. Adding further to the confusion, the band has collaborated extensively with industrial artists such as Frontline Assembly and KMFDM – making a literal mish-mash of the band’s influences something along the lines of electro-punk-hip-hop-industrial with goth-metal leanings. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Initial impressions of this album are as to be expected for a supposed ‘preview’ of an up-coming full length – though to their credit, MSI included several remixes of a popular track on this album in order to give people their money’s worth. Clearly demonstrating the vast stretch of musicians in their myriad genres, remixers on this album include Chester Bennington (of Linkin Park fame), post-retro synth-punk band ProCon, post new-wave band The Perfects, and EBM/Futurepop group VNV Nation – as well as a completely unpredictable remix by the virtuoso beat-boxer Kenny “The Human Orchestra” Muhammad.
The album also of course contains some original tracks: five in total. Observed as a whole, it’s obvious this once exclusively obscure and underground band is trying to become a little more public-friendly – as well as exhibiting a noticeable shift to more electronic and hip-hop influences. The electronic influence is taken to high extremes – out of the five new tracks on this album, only one has any member of MSI other than intentionally iconoclastic lead singer James Uringer (a.k.a. “Little Jimmy Urine”) contributing – track number four, “Lush”, features guitarist Steve, Righ? – All other sounds were programmed by Jimmy and the albums producer, James Galus (making up the due entitled “The James Sisters”).
In contrast to their earlier, more ‘classic’ work, songs on this album are more radio friendly, consisting of noticeable chorus and verses – the band also seems to be losing its profanity laden “screw the mainstream” sentiment. The same ironic statements, which parody classic teenage angst and self-importance, are still around – but now the thrill and shock is gone, leaving an album that is weak both lyrically, and musically. In particular, the lyrics from track two, “Pre-Teen Violence” (a title that could have used a rewrite or two) bring up the thought - since when is “Too cool for school” an original quip?
The opening track, “My World”, proves somewhat addictive due to a plinky synth riff that repeats throughout the song. It seems to be one of the stronger original tracks on the album – track number two, “Pre-Teen Violence” is at best, something of a joke – the lyrics make even less sense than MSI’s typical songs, and not in a good way – If MSI’s previous full-length album had good lyrics, it’s easy to see that the band is running out of ideas. The third track, “Frying Pan” proves somewhat danceable, but blends together in a manner with the rest of the new sound this album presents. “Lush”, the next song, is the only on the album featuring more than one member of Mindless Self Indulgence – the more classic sound is certainly here, with the formulaic repetition being phased out in favour of a somewhat haphazard lyrical progression. Perhaps the best track was the final new one on the album – “Born to Be Beheaded” is a fusion of contrasting vocal styles, from Jimmy’s trademark falsetto squeaks and shrieks to a more aggressive style of lyrical screaming. This song’s style is all over the place, but in a very likeable manner, and seems to go back a step into the sound of MSI’s last full-length – which is good for fans of the band’s semi-recent work.
Overall, as a collectable short-stock album, this press is definitely worth picking up – but if it wasn’t in such limited qualities, its value might be debatable. To anyone wishing to check out this genre-transcending, quite literally crazy band, the album’s more mainstream friendly sound might be a nice intro, but to long-time fans, or people looking for a more unique style, the band’s early releases (Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy, Tight, You’ll Rebel To Anything) are more worth acquiring. At the very least, however, Another Mindless Rip-Off is a nice musical tid-bit taste sensation from an unpredictable band that could move in any direction in the future."



Yes, that is my review as a whole. The things I wanted to mention that I'm not saying are - I'm frankly disappointed in this album. I don't like the musical direction that MSI is going in at all - as I noted, only two new tracks were at all decent - though a 2/5 return ratio isn't horrible. They're so different though... different from their last album, and different from the songs I love. You'll Rebel To Anything is my favorite album, but it's not 'real' MSI, and this new album certainly isn't. I'm tired of collaborative remixes, and I don't want hip-hop dance-electronica - I want punk roots, and it doesn't look like that's happening any time in the future.

However, in a rare notion of... something... I've decided to Megaupload this album, to let people out there be the judge. Let me know what you think - limited edition my ass, quite frankly. Really though, I'm wishing for more and better MSI stuff in the future of this year - hopefully their full-length sounds nothing like this 'sample'. Born to Be Beheaded is pretty good though.

Also, I'll be posting another album tomorrow - whether either it, or this, are album of the week, I can't decide. You be the judge...

As promised, Megaupload link is here.

What an endeavour

Been without posts for a while. I can explain, really. If while means 'two days', anyway.

Basically, I am trying to make good on my promise to expose other people, as well as myself, to new and exciting music - thusly, I'm going to try and listen to every piece of music on my computer. That will be quite a challenge. It will, however, give me a lot of exposure to good music I'm sure I have - right now, I haven't even hit the 'A's, but all things in time.

I've finished a review for a local paper of the new Mindless Self Indulgence album, which I'll be posting tomorrow - remember it's written from a reporting stance, so might be slightly different in tone and voice. Their new album, in case anyone missed it, is called Another Mindless Rip-Off. They only pressed 15,000 copies and distributed them wholly at Hot Topic stores (which, in my opinion, makes no sense for MSI, but whatever). I didn't manage to get a hard-copy, but thanks to the mystery of acquiring files magically, I was able to give it a listen. You'll get my full on opinion tomorrow, as well as some thoughts outside my review - there are some things I can't just come out and say in the paper, after all. I'll be much more liberal outside of being a reporter.

As for tracks of the day, I suppose I do have one for today - a cover by Squirell Army (not bolded because I was frankly unable to find any evidence that they really exist) of a classic Mindless Self Indulgence song - I Hate Jimmy Page. The song is really short, only over a minute, and is a quiet acoustic cover. Oddly enough, I find it highly delightful, though perhaps something of a novelty. It's nice to be able to understand the lyrics - if it had been looped a bit longer, it would be a lovely track. It still is, just... not as lovely. In any casae, I felt it deserved notice - and though I might be blathering about MSI tracks tomorrow, this one is different both in feel, and in artist - if anyone knows anything about Squirell Army, let me know. I found the cover on a torrent that literally had everything to do with MSI... a lovely torrent. I'll link it some time. As for the acoustic wonderment cover by this obscure artist, the Megaupload link is here.

As for that song title - I really have nothing against Jimmy Page. I'm just not a fan, and I think that the early MSI ethos is most prevalent in this sentiment - making music is not about wanking solos or marketability or doing crazy shit that isn't music - it's about making music in the first place that's good to listen to. I'm not saying Page is guilty of forgetting that, but that's Little Jimmy's take on the matter, anyway. For the record, I don't drum as loud as Bonham did.

Obscure Crazy Name

For something a little different today, I've picked a track people might not have expected of me. I've also decided I'm going to take a break on 'song of the day' for a couple days, maybe the rest of the week after today, to make it so I can listen to my new music without worrying about finding something every day to list here. Today, however, I do have a track for everyone...

Song of the day: You Can Make Him Like You by The Hold Steady. I feel a bit odd posting about this one - I've never really listened to an Indie band before, but I got this album (Boys and Girls In America) on reccomendation from a music critic I respect highly - he inspired the creation of this blog - and I have to say, it's more appealing that I would have thought at first. The guitar on this album is really my favorite part - and something about it is just catchy. Though, it seems 90% of the songs are about girls, or getting high - a fair bit, more than the standard fare, anyway. I don't know why I picked this song from the album - the title just stood out, as well as the message of the song. I usually try to nominate tracks based on 'this is a good song' rather than 'I like this song', but maybe I made a little bit of an exception this time. I'm sure a lot of people out there have felt like they were on the other end of this - dispensable, ready to be cast away when they're no longer useful. And yet, I'm sure there are girls out there who feel like this too - so really, this song can speak to everyone. Megaupload link is here.

Indie rock is something I've never really given a look, but I think it's something I could put effort into checking out. It's really a whole new genre to expose myself to, and everyone else out there could do the same. The whole "I'll make music without caring if it's marketable" notion is wonderful, and I'm a huge proponent of the idea - but as for the "We're not allowed to be well known and still be good", I don't know. I avoid most main-stream music like the plague - not because it's popular, but because the bulk of popular music has no effort, thought, or real musicianship within. It's all about what's marketable. That's why within my scenes, I like some stuff that is popular - Rush, Dream Theater, Nirvana, Mindless Self Indulgence - I could go on for a while. None of those besides Nirvana are majorly popular (I'm not ashamed to admit that I like Kurt Cobain and his music), but they're all that kind of 'underground popular' that's just pretty cool.

I might not have a lot of time for daily posts - in the next couple months, I'm trying to work on learning Instrumedley by Dream Theater - quite a challenge! I want to perform it for a Battle of the Bands in March (maybe April), and I hope that if I practice every day I'll be able to do it. So far, having trouble finding a guitarist, but that should all get worked out eventually.

Thar she blows (well, hopefully not)

I feel a little like I've caved, but also gone in a different direction. Let's see what everyone thinks.


Album of the week - Tokyo Warhearts by Children of Bodom. I've already mentioned this album before, but I don't think a brief note gives it the credit it deserves, so I'm giving it a full expose. Everything about this album is amazing - if I had to pick one metal album to live with the rest of my life, this would be a top contender. It's my favorite Bodom album by far - though a lot of later stuff is absent, this album is decked out with classics - Lake Bodom, Bed of Razors, and others. This was back when "Warhearts" was going to be a new album. There's not a song on this album that isn't good. While there's not a lot to be said for the stage presence on this album - Alexi Laiho is not Jimmy Urine - for some reason I find the death growl announcement of each new track intoxicating. And, as Alexi points out, Tokyo loves "fucking heavy-metal!" The sound quality on this album is superb - unlike live albums that have shoddy production and require overdubs, this album sounds like a straight-up studio production - and at the bands request, there were no overdubs, making it even more extraordinary. The group even adds some fills, licks etc. into songs where they're not found on studio albums. Just amazing.

And, in a bizarre twist, the track of the week is - War of Razors from this same album. A live only track that basically consists of a duel between Bodom guitarist Alexi 'Wild-Child' Laiho and the amazing talented Janne 'Warman' Wirman. I could not have any more respect for these two musicians - and in case I haven't mentioned them enough, check out the band Warmen as well - it's a side project from this very same CoB keyboard player, and takes all the delicious power metal sound of Bodom, only more melodic, less growling, and more instrumental songs. For intros, I reccomend their album Accept the Fact - very, very good. As for the track in question - the guitar solo at the end is one of the best and most delicious things I've ever heard. Everyone should listen to this slightly over two-minute masterpiece.

I'm not sure if this is a cop-out or not - but this album certainly warrants being album of the week. I hope everyone ends up liking it.

Megaupload link is here. OMG!

Don't get too excited!

Track of the day: Suicide Jag (Surgical V 2001 Mix by UCNX) by Chemlab (or UCNX, I guess).
I was hesitant to put this track up, but it's certainly a new take on an old favorite. I discovered it while perusing the internet looking for Chemlab related material - for those of you who haven't heard of them, they're a darkwave/industrial rock band from back when KMFDM used to be popular. >> I got into them when I first got hooked on industrial, along with artists such as DJ Sharpnel (really more of an anime-influenced happy-hardcore/gabber/speedcore thing) and Atari Teenage Riot - whom I am still a fan of to this day. I'd reccomend checking out any and all of them - especially ATR, which might well be contenders for song of the day some time in the future.

Chemlab classifys themselves as 'machine rock' - I think it's an apt descriptor. Their subject matter and overall sound exudes 'dark industrial', and to anyone who likes dark, electronic/guitar mashups, this is definitely a band to check out. I'd tie their music very closely to the idea of Cyberpunk - one of my favorite genre concepts, in literature, film, anime, music, etc... listening to some of their tunes, it's just so easy to envision dank streets, overrun with technology and human beings down on their luck, rain dripping from ancient street-lights... just a very cool imagery

As for the actual track, it's perhaps not as enticing as the original song was - but it's a new take, and as much as I'm motivated to expose people to new things, I would also like to expose myself to new things. The remix takes the track in a different, more dance oriented direction - less lyrics, less brooding dark vocals. I'll post the Megaupload link here, but if people ask me for the original, I'll gladly give it to them; via Megaupload or MSN or whatever. I'd highly reccomend it. To be one hundred percent frank, I think this is the weakest track of the week - I'm trying to decide whether I should take a week long hiatus to build up a buffer wherein I can actually listen to and appreciate a lot of my music. It's hard to do when I feel I have so few artists - really, it's just because the mainstream is off limits.

Now, as for the long awaited album and track of the week - I've decided I won't make it a point to select a track I've already done this week for 'track of the week', but it certainly looks like that's going to happen - because, as week is better than day, chances are a random track that doesn't make 'song of the day' won't make 'song of the week either'. After some deliberation, I will post the first song of the week - and, yes, album of the week. And, for anyone who's been reading and wondering - I will try to post the album for download! It depends on how big it is, I might have to do it in chunks - but I'm more than comitted, and it's no worry for me to post something for everyone to enjoy. Assuming people actually download it, anyway.

So that's all for now, but check back later to day for the first 'of the week' madness, and my decision on whether or not I'm going to take a week long break - track of the day is hard to do. Maybe I'll just take a couple days break, who knows. Ciao.

Soon to be thwarted ambitions

Track of the day: On The Breath of Poseidon (Live) by Symphony X. This is from their album Live At The Edge of Forever. As far as live albums go, in a two disc, it's pretty good. For those of you who haven't heard of Symphony X, they're basically a more neo-classical, mythology based version of Dream Theater. While DT's lyrics are rooted somewhat in commonplace existence and ideology, Symphony X is sort of the same thing, only also about legends and dragons and existentialist jibber-jab. It's astounding that throughout all my time keeping an eye on Progessive music, I'd heard of them but never really given a listen - There's no overwhelming rush to listen to them, as they're basically just another voice of Dream Theater-esque kind of thing - maybe I've become too accustomed to the amazing musicianship in DT. They are good though, and I'm hoping to give more of their discography a listen in hopes that I can like more progressive stuff than the 'mainstream' would push at me. As for the track - I understand that this song was originally a bridge piece without much consequence - as is the case with live shows (often, anyway), it has mutated herein into someting beautiful, and I'm a big fan of it - there's a ripping guitar solo that demonstrates pretty good talent at the latter half of the song. As far as 'tracks of the day' have gone, it's not the most stand-out-ish piece, but I wanted to try something different, and here it is. Megaupload link (as so far unvisited, I'm thinking) is here.

For something a little different, I thought I'd relate a scope of my musical life at the moment. Normally, self-indulgence isn't important, (unless it is Mindless), but I had a jam session today I'd like to reflect upon.

Basically, I feel it went well - I seemed to get along a lot better with the guitar player this time than usual (His name is Django - an interesting monocre, eh?), at least as a person. Musically, I feel our directions are quite a bit different - and he's certainly the least talented of any of the guitar players I've jammed with so far, but for the fact that he decently knows how to actually jam. He can just pick a key and play in it, and I'll lay a back-beat kind of thing. Sadly, however, everything we played was standard metal fair, maybe with kind of a punk twist. It sounded familiar, though I had never heard it before.

As with everyone I jam, with, we got in talks of starting a band. Right now, focus is on finding a vocalist, bass player, and rhythm/lead guitarist. I can't imagine it would be overly difficult - but I'll see what happens, I guess. I usually don't put much stock in projects like this after my first band fiascos, especially when the subjects involved are unmotivated teenagers - myself included.

Basically, I am finding it hard to develop a progressive direction of music internally. I can play to Portnoy decently, so I have a feel to his drums - and the same with Peart - but right now my own, internal style is too... bland Metal. I want to develop a progressive edge, and it's hard to develop that right now. I need to work on it. It's hard when the only riffs I get sound like Metallica though.

I'm thinking that when decent album comes out, I'll write a couple reviews and send them to some papers, see if I can get published. I mean, I write about music all the time for free, I may as well see if I can get paid for doing it - there aren't a lot of things I like doing better.

Now, at the risk of making this a faux-Livejournal entry, I'll end things here. Tomorrow, we have album and track of the week. Be excited!

I almost covered this once

Track of the day: Mouths Like Sidewinder Missiles by The Fall of Troy. I tried to think of something I hadn't been obsessed with for a while, but I decided a couple of my buffered tracks were better left waiting.

I got into The Fall of Troy a while back... maybe half a year ago. I think I remember being linked to them off HORSE the Band. That was using Last.fm for those who haven't checked it out before. That's an amazing site... probably responsible for half my musical taste right now. Anyway. From what I can gather, this band used to be a lot more unpolished. I've mostly just listened to their latest release, Doppleganger, and there's not really anything I don't like. This track is just my own personal favorite from the album, in the hopes that conventional mainstream peeps won't pick up on what a great song it is until it's too late. The reason I like post-hardcore, is because herein we have crazy screaming, more so, screaming that you can actually understand - along with a very intoxicating brand of soft vocals, as well as crazy song structures, and awesome solos! The frontman of this band sings all that crazy stuff, as well as plays the guitar - and that's some talent, because the guitar in The Fall of Troy songs is pretty complex. There's just something about the little ascending/descending pattern in this song that I love, so I'm saying it's well worth a listen. Megaupload link is here. Note that there is an earlier version of this song, and this one is the re-record for their latest album. I must admit that the earlier one has a certain unpolished charm to it - I would reccomend checking out this artist's earlier stuff before the album I posted, actually - but there are things happening in this re-master that just weren't in the original. It was a tough call, and I made it. I'm sure torrenting these discogs won't be hard to find though.


So I got flamed on my last.fm profile today - some scene (when did that become the retarded new adjective for kids trying to look cool?) kid no doubt, bitching at me about calling Alex Is On Fire (hahaha) screamo in one of my early posts. He failed to note that I later went on to credit them as helping post-hardcore into the mainstream... but apparently it's still cool to argue when you're uneducated and, furthermore, a wank. His point of contention that one of the bands I embellish on (Enter Shikari) is tagged as screamo on the site. Excuse me, when did I let other people decide the genre for what I was listening to? I could tag The Beatles as gaycore wrestle-metal (I heard that actually is a genre, kind of scary), but that doesn't make it right. Furthermore, I bet I have more extensive musical knowledge than some kid who can't even spell post-hardcore. I really shouldn't let people like this get under my skin, but stupidity itches like a disease, or something. The bad kind, with a really long name, like, five syllables.

Got a couple contenders for album of the week coming up. I'm wondering if it has to be something I've nominated a track from, or can it be completely random? I don't think I should be taking the album one lightly... a track is just a track, but an album... well, I don't have to finish that statement for the gist to pass across. I'm going to try to fill my track buffer with more things I've not listened to prior... always about exposing myself to new things.

I won't give away contenders for tomorrow, but I've mentioned one of them in the past, in one of my more complex and wordy posts... and the second contender (which I'm hesistant to post only because of its length and subject matter - if it were longer I would post in a second, I love it) is a cover of one of the artists on my 'essential artists' list. Not like anyone couldn't wait until tomorrow anyway.

Call-out

I don't make it a point of hating one single artist or genre (hip-hop now withstanding), but I must make a point of ranting at Panic! At the Disco. For one, that exclamation point in the middle of their name is ludicrous. To properly pronounce it, one must say it as "Panic! At the Disco." There is a full stop after an exclamation point. Apparently they did not realize this when thinking of their band's name. This is also a point of contention I have with Godspeed You! Black Emperor. An exclamation mark is a full stop, damnit.

Secondly, the main point of frustration I have with Panic! is sourced in the following quote. From their frontman Brendon Urie (which makes me think of urine, and then makes me think of Jimmy Urine of Mindless Self Indulgence, an infinitely better band - I will tell the story of that concert some day) - "'I Write Sins Not Tragedies' isn't the only song we've written."

You know why everyone acts like it is? Because it's the only half-decent song they've ever written. I got their debut (and to date, only full length) release, because I thought I liked their 'hit' song. Honestly, yes, it is catchy, but I'm more than sick of it by now. Like artists before them that are known as one-hit wonders, however, I didn't want them to die without me listening to their other stuff. So I did - and I regret it to this day. Well, not really, because if I hadn't, I couldn't make pretentious comments like this.

Seriously. Even their other 'singles' I found intollerably bad. I don't understand how people like Panic! for anything other than their super-hit song - they're like a lamer, electronic influenced version of Fall Out Boy - and there's nothing too great about them either.

So I guess what I'm saying is, electronic-indie-emo-power-pop-punk is the worst genre ever and should go die.


Note: I posted Megaupload links to all songs of the day, and will continue to do so in the future, at least for a little while, unless people start downloading them. Then nothing will stop me.

I swear I'll get to more than this...

Track of the day: Beloved by Glay. Now, don't be concerned if you've never heard of this group before - I wouldn't blame you. They're a Japanese rock band that I got into way back in my hey-day of loving Japanese culture - in case I haven't mentioned, at least 15% of my available music library (probably) is Japanese stuff. I was convinced that J-Pop was the thing for me - sadly, eventually my loathing of everything pop carried over, and I stopped listening to it. J-Rock, on the other hand...

Anyway, about the track. I've loved this track ever since I first heard it, and if there's something I learned, it's that no new song can compete with an old one that's been rediscovered. This is one of the only songs I've ever found to touch me emotionally - it has one of the most beautiful guitar breaks I've ever heard. Understanding the lyrics isn't necessary - though, for J-Rock that's mostly in English, check out X-Japan. Since I stopped listening to them, Glay seems to have developed into more of a 'real' rock presence than the usual pop-rock thing that the Japanese seem to be addicted to. Though, they are also huge fans of Swedish and Finnish death metal over there, so I don't know... in any case, this track has always spoken to me. Everything about it... I even love the acoustic intro, which is saying a lot for someone who's never been a fan of the acoustic guitar. There's a specific point in the guitar interlude that I'm in love with - everytime I hear it I want to get a little weepy. There's nothing good I can't say about this track, but for the fact that it's not exactly head-banging material. A rare exception for me. Megaupload link is here.

All that being said, we may have a new contender for Album of the Week. I don't know how I'm going to make that decision, but I'm sure I'll come to something. The problem with 'anything' of the week is that I'm trying very hard to make sure I'm not exposing people to things they know I'll like - nothing I have an artist for in the 'essential artists' list, anyway. Also, I can't shove overly popular things in people's faces - I considered a Misfits track for a track of the day, and decided that if other people talk about a band on a regular basis, it has to get discarded. There are one or two exceptions, just because they're such good songs, but still, it's a tricky business. I'd also like things I haven't heard a thousand times before... sure, I could post a list of my favorite songs from way back when that I've had forever, but that would be pointless - because as much as this blog is about showing people new things, it's about discovering new things myself. Right now my bandwidth for the month is pretty much dried up, but I have a lot of new music to go off of. Most of that is Neo-Classical metal though, and I know how much people hate that unless they're old-school rockers trying to look avant-garde, or people who love virtuosos. Indie kids and Post-Grunge kids will never give it a chance, so I might be in a bind here.

Plus, it feels like all that's already been done before. I don't want to give reccomendations about Yngwie Malmsteen or Steve Vai or Joe Satriani, because maybe I feel they're not the right 'feel'? I have no idea, honestly. I'm trying to promote the lesser known stuff in the world, and all three of those guys have gotten a lot of publicity in their fields - so therefore, they're pretty much off-limits. That's a shame, because I just downloaded a 1.73 GB discography for Yngwie... most of it sounds all the same to me. Mistake? Maybe. I did the same thing with Vai. Luckily DragonForce's discography wasn't that large.

I will continue to sort through new things as I acquire them - I'm willing to bet I haven't listened to over half my music collection. Hopefully I won't have to resort to posting the same old stuff - and besides, just because it's a classic to me, doesn't mean other people have heard of it. I have a back-log just in case I run out of ideas, though I've got some cool new contenders for the rest of the week. Today's choice was a close call.

I'm considering posting upload links for all the songs of the day - I would if anyone let me know they were going to download them. If I get any indication of real interest or traffic, I'll start posting links - because so far, from outside reflection, my taste in music has not gone awry.

That's all for now.

The Movement of the Future

Track of the day: When a Jealous Man Finds a Gun by Enter Shikari. Everytime I listen to these guys, I find myself wishing they had a more prolific discography. There's nothing I've heard from them that I didn't like, and for some reason, this song always catches me. It's a bit irregular, not being the title track from their four song EP, but I think it definitely warrants notice. Admittedly, it sounds a little pop-punkish in parts, though not in a bad way. Not like... Good Charlotte or something. That is intollerable. When I think pop-punk, I think... well, okay, it doesn't sound pop punk, but the main 'riff' is catchy enough to be in a pop-punk song. Don't mean to scare away from this track - it really is amazing. Megaupload link is here.

The label of 'trancecore' as a development from hardcore is genius. As opposed to what might actually be termed 'hardcore trance'... we don't need genres that overlap like this, I don't think. Also, 'core' can be added to any genre now a days. Herein, however, we have 'post trance-core', which I think is one of the better genres out there. I think it needs a re-working though, because the synths that Enter Shikari uses don't really make it a trance feel - I would kill for a post-hardcore band that used their synths in a fashion reminiscient of Dream Theater, Stratovarius, or Warmen. I guess that's why I love HORSE the Band.

Have I not mentioned that I love them? Well, love is really too strong a word, but I'm a big fan. They're one of the only bands I got the discography of, and committed most of it to memory. Only 4 real albums, two of which are EPs, but still... that's something, for me. But for their almost infantile approach to music sometimes, HORSE is pretty much everything I want in a band. I would call them post-hardcore without hesitation - and they have one of the most intoxicating synth sounds ever. Like 8-bit era Nintendo, played by Jordan Rudess. Well, not quite so fluid or liquidy. But it's still really nice. If they had a better mix, and more personable musicians, they would be without a question one of my favorite bands. They have one of the best sounds out there, in my opinion. Anyone wanting to give them a look should check out the album R. Borlax. I think that's the best representation of their material - and it is a classic.

I'm having a hard time not posting Venetian Snares tracks each day. I listen to him too much, I guess. I'm trying to avoid exposing people to stuff they know I'm in love with - I made an exception for Instrumedley because it was new to me... and really, just delicious.

No traffic yet, but the day will come... I hope.


Post-Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention! Enter Shikari is one of only two unsigned bands to sell out a concert at The London Astoria. The other was The Darkness. Between the two, I think it's easy to determine which is the better band. I hope the former sees it fit to release a full length album some time. If any of my musical projects ever get off the ground (God willing), I would love to play the Astoria... along with the Croation Cultural Center in Vancouver (What? I know), and Tokyo! Metal bands in Tokyo rule! For references, check out the albums Tokyo Warhearts by Children of Bodom (one of my favorite albums of all time), and Burning Japan by Arch Enemy. More to come if I find them. Interesting note - both the lead singers address the crowd in the same way. What's up with that?

Power Surf-Metal? Win!

Song of the day: Mr. Sandman by Blind Guardian. This is without a doubt one of the best covers I've ever heard. For one, this song is utterly addictive by itself... adding in the little chorus hum is almost impossible not to do. Secondly, Blind Guardian, one of the premier pioneers of the power-metal sound, deserves some recognition - they started talking about wizards and swords in their songs and actually meant it. For note, the 'breakthrough' album for power-metal was Helloween's Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1, though I haven't listened to it as much as I should. Suppose there's always more music for me to dip my tastes into. Megaupload link is here.

On the note of new music, I just recently came into the possession of Necrophagist's amazing two album discography - I was listening to their first album, Onset of Putrefaction last night, and I have to be honest - I didn't know death metal bands like this actually existed. Song names like Dismembered Self-immolation and Intestinal Incubation - I was totally taken aghast. This is one of those bands that people use when they want to make fun of death metal. And yet, I actually liked listening to them. So far, that first album is a top contender for album of the week. At least they didn't stretch quite as far as "Dripping Bloodgore in the Demonic Rancid Filth of Your Putrid Wounds", or something. Though, that would be a cool song. I will go about trying to work out what it would sound like.

The great thing about the year 2007, is that it holds more releases from one of my favorite artists - I speak here of Venetian Snares. If you hadn't gathered from the blog url, VSnares is, in my opinion, one of the best artists out there - and at three albums a year, it's hard for me to not be excited about his next releases. I got into Mr. Funk a while after he'd been producing, so while I can appreciate all his older albums, it's different than saying that I liked him while he actually produced something - though, to be fair, I thought Hospitality (his latest release, in October 2006) was just an in-part continuation to his prior album. It was only six-tracks long, and didn't do much for me. Thankfully, however, new soundscapes are always being explored, and maybe his next album will push boundaries even further. In case anyone really wanted to know, my favorite album of his is Winnipeg Is a Frozen Shithole. Love love love.

Bands and unlikely genres

This is sapped from another of my crazy music profiles. I love it so much though, I felt it needed posting.

" Ranting about crazy original genre conceptions. Original subject line: "Reindub Stoben Reigs". That subject line is genius. Now I know how Venetian Snares comes up with his song names. I chopped it because people might have thought this entry was in Swedish or something... >.<

Peerless Octane
Circuity Wheel
Linear Subconscious
Caustic Culture
Jagged Asylum
Anthem of the Jagged Rhyme
Minimal Plant and the Sanctity
Static Shower
Toxic Meditation
Massive Damage
The Great Green Silence
The Way It Sounds
Intestinal Psychology
Misguided Quasar
The Ethereal Dynamic
Undercover Worship
Act Hunger and the Deconstructed T(r)ail
Hide Behind Pole (And Look At Girl)


Ludicrous genre experiments:

Black Thrash-pop-core
Ambient Indie Powernoize
Post Post Progressive-death-metal-core
Post Jazz-trance-core
Psychedelic Acoustic Industrial

And of course...

Post Prog-post-hardcore-core

That one I think is my favorite. The hardcore musical movement after the 'progressive' branch of post-hardcore. What would it sound like? Take The Fall of troy, make them more hardcore, then double the profiency of all the instrumentalists involved, and then make the song length longer, make the lyrics about epic space ballads and psuedo-psychological issues, and voila! I had some other ideas for those genres too.

Black Thrash-pop-core: Britney Spears singing for a band that is a cross between Megadeth and Katatonia. (Note that Britney is not bolded because she is not a band. Lol.)

Ambient Indie Powernoize: This one is so hillarious it makes me want to die. Basically, 30 year old moog synthesizers and chip-tune generators (think The Postal Service) played in a plinky, melodic, soft fashion at over 250 BMP with abrasive snares somehow made to sound soothing. I don't even know who the fuck would ever come up with this, but I would listen to it for sheer novelty.

Post Post Progressive-death-metal-core: This one is a little boring. Basically, it is the punk laden vocals of a band influenced by a band that is influenced by Opeth and Dream Theater. This one is just a matter of time, I think.

Post Jazz-trance-core: I think Jazz and Trance need a fusion, as I haven't seen one yet. It's ridiculous, as every metal band (as well as IDM artist) claim Jazz as a 'major influence'. Why do people think this is trendy? Squarepusher is not Jazz. The Dillinger Escape Plan is not Jazz. Seriously. Why not other electronic musicians? When Paul Oakenfold or DJ Tiësto start fusing their music with Jazz, the transition will begin. Then it just needs some hardcore punk vocals, and that is this genre right here.

Psychedelic Acoustic Industrial: I can barely even think of a way to come up with this one. Okay, let me think... Militaristic drum beats, in an 'unplugged' fashion... with trippy, um, dark guitar and lyrics reminiscient of Jim Morrison poetry? Fuck, I have no idea. This one is the height of unlikely genres.

I am not in the process of trying to come up with band-names for these genres, but I think it might be fun. I eagerly await the day when all these genres become real tags on last.fm. "

I personally think those genres are awesome. I would love to see any of them exist, with the possible exception of Psychedelic Acoustic Industrial. I don't like psychedelic stuff, for some reason. I heard someone prophesize the existence of Acousticore - breakcore performed with real-time synths and like, three drummers. That would be sweet - I would be an acousticore drummer so fast. Heck, a quarter of my drumming influence at least is Aaron Funk (Venetian Snares, rabble). I'd have to put Portnoy and Peart in for the rest of that, a quarter each, with the last quarter being filled by 'miscellaneous'. Yeah!

Oh yeah. One of those band names is the real life name of my budding music project. Guess which one!

Not another retarded "Best of 2006" list

I hate how with the advent of the new-year, suddenly everyone is an expert on the music that filled the year past.

I will abuse the new year in the same fashion...

With things I am looking forward to this year. That's right, 2007 albums and possible advents in music that will not suck crap.

Dream Theater's new album - Octavarium was largely a disappointment, though Panic Attack deserves the love it gets from DT fans.

The new Black Mages album! Metal is what the new year should be all about, I would hope.

You know what, this isn't even working for me. "Here is what I am looking foward to" is shit.

Basically, what I am hoping for is a new year where some genre outside of pop and hip-hop will be on the local top fifty. I don't want indie to be the new cool thing - I don't know why it is. The Arcade Fire has so many popular tracks, and are too pretentious for their own good - yet they are labeled Indie. Well, the pretentious thing totally goes along with that.

I want less mellow music, more of the mainstream hopefully liking stuff that they don't just 'chill' too. There is a ton of good music out there that, because it is agressive, is not listened to by the general public. That really irks me off. It also annoys me that 75% of songs on the charts are pop, rap, or hip-hop. Instrumentalists everywhere cry out each time they see one of these songs on a top 50 list. People spend their lives learning to play instruments, and then get discarded because some pop-diva or bling-blingin' gangsta gets the spotlight. Annoyance! I actually have some respect for rappers, because busting rhymes at such a high speed is challenging - it's like an instrument in its own right - but cookie-cutter hip-hop artists need to PISS OFF.

I want people to take notice of obscure genres. Is it possible to see post-hardcore or breakcore in popular music circles? Probably unlikely for the latter, but with the advent of Alexisonfire (which I have taken to pronouncing "Alex Is On Fire" against their wishes) maybe post-hardcore has some hope. Even though I haven't heard anything from them that sounds like more than 'screamo' - which is the worst idea for a genre ever, hip-hop now-withstanding. Did I mention that I don't like hip-hop?

And maybe DragonForce getting some airplay? Power-metal needs mainstream notice.

Basically what I'm saying, is that I hate the mainstream scene, and people are stupid.

Best of 2006, lol!

Why people are like this is beyond me.

I stole this from a forum I frequent - yes, I posted it. Note - I am a genre snob. I am not an elitist. I try to be polite and help people learn. I hate flaming lamers.

"I just came out of a subforum on the music forum where someone started a post with "Please don't flame me". The person was pleading this because they didn't know what genre certain pieces of music were, and they didn't want to get raged at by the community of the sub-forum - who evidently possess God-like, infallible knowledge of music and its genres.

I'm just wondering - why is it that people are forced into situations like this? If someone doesn't know what genre a piece of music is, shouldn't they be allowed to learn without fear or being reprimanded for their lack of knowledge? That's like killing younger people - because they don't know some things older people do, and they shouldn't be given a chance to learn. Damn kids.

Seriously though, when was it the new 'thing' to be such a snob about music genres, or the music one listens to? I swear that fifty percent of threads in a lot of these subforums are ones that mention a band - and then some 'regular' of the forum decides to post "OMG are you a retard with no arms and legs who also has no brain and his gay and eats shoe polish? (insert band) is /not/ (insert genre)!" despite the fact that genres are open to interpretation, definition, and many genres are related.

note that there is a big difference between the following exchange: "OMG, I love Slayer, they are my favorite pop-rock band!" "Um, actually, Slayer are Thrash Metal..."
and...
"I was listening to Darude the other day, and I got to wondering what genre they were? Techno, Electronica...?" "OMG, Darude are (specific subgenre) of trance, you stupid flaming faggot, I can't believe how dumb you are, kill yourself."

Why is that the attitude people insist on having?

Music is a great way to share creativity and one's emotions - wouldn't it make sense that, when someone wants to learn more about music, shouldn't we give them a chance to do so, instead of shooting them down so that they never learn new things?

This is partly a rant, but it's really something that's been bothering me. What's more ironic is that /this/ post will probably get flamed too. Oh, crazy world. "

I just don't get people. Especially with lesser known genres, music can use all the friends it can get - so why scare away interested new-comers? Maybe because they think that the more people that listen to an artist, the worst they will sound, and the less cool they will be for liking them? People are morons.

First in a long series

Track of the day - Instrumedley by Dream Theater. From their album Live at Budokan, this is one of the best pieces of musicianship I've gotten my hands on in a long time. Frankly, it's pretty amazing. A twelve minute mash-up of some of Dream Theater's best tracks, including some stuff from the delicious side-project Liquid Tension Experiment. Favorite part right now is the Paradigm Shift excerpt, followed by the opening section... for some reason it just hooks me. Megaupload link here

I can't be the only person bothered by the fact that John Myung never gets in on any of these side projects. Rudess and Petrucci have worked together, MP, JP, and JR all worked together on LTE, and Mike drummed for John at several of his G3 shows (I wonder who'll get announced for 2007, or where it'll be held?)... yet the Asian bass player never gets any cred. Except for that time he tackled LaBrie. As for LaBrie getting cred... meh. DT wouldn't be DT without him, and he is Canadian, so it'd be unpatriotic of me not to like him, but other than that... he barely contributes musically at all.

Album of the week will be posted on Sundays.