pot kettle black

Funny article over at blabbermouth, appears EMO fans have got their knickers in a twist over Machine head winning best album at the Kerrang awards.
As with most news articles on the web I like to read the comments section, these I find are far more telling than the news item itself. the response of the anti-emo crowd seems just as juvenile as the My Chemical Romance supporters on the Kerrang forum.
Can the grown ups please come back the children are getting unruly.

Oh but it did make me laugh.

birthday

I missed it on friday but it was the blogs first birthday

Any suggestions what to do about a cat that insists on sitting on top of your monitor and farting would be most appreciated.

high-new model army

I can never say anything bad about this band, even if I didn’t like the album I would not rant about it just put it down as one of those things.
First listen on Monday night I thought it might be just so, apart from a few tracks it felt like their last release Carnival which left me a little cold, but after a few listens today I am glad to discover that I am completely wrong.
The key I think was volume (Mrs was at work so no complaints about it being to loud). While High does not reach the greatness of Thunder & Consolation or Impurity, the album still inspires. New Model Army write songs for the people, songs about life, god, love and hate, disappointment and disillusion, its not teen angst its just angst. They seem to project a sort of spiritual nationalism that has nothing to do with religion or nation, just everyday life, a nation of people bound together through life. It makes you angry and happy at the same time (well it does for me).
To be honest individual tracks seem almost irrelevant, you can mix and match almost anything by these guys, and it works. What you get is a picture, though depending on your mix the picture will tell you slightly different things.

This album is good, there I said it, I would love to go through track by track but I do not have the time, you can download the first track from the album here (plus some other stuff). This band has never reached the greatness they so richly deserve, but having said that I like the feeling of privilege I get from being a fan, it’s personal.
Carnival may have suffered by the time of its release, with the littlest metalhead only 7 months old and my wife still on maternity leave the CD probably suffered from terminal quietness, this I will have to rectify.

The tour hits London in December and I thought I would give it miss this year; this may have changed my mind.

You Are a Blue Crayon

Your world is colored in calm, understated, deep colors. You are a loyal person, and the truest friend anyone could hope to find. On the inside, you tend to be emotional and even a bit moody. However, you know that people depend on you. So you put on a strong front. Your color wheel opposite is orange. Orange people may be opinionated, but you feel they lack the depth to truly understand what they're saying.

What Color Crayon Are You?

Hmmmm what ever!

New Model Army are back

Finally got hold of a copy of Raw Melody Men by New Model Army, it was a couple of tracks taped from this live album that first introduced them to me, followed a few weeks later when I was dragged to one of the best gigs I had been to at that point. I‘ve been hooked ever since.

Further more a new album is due out on the 20th of this month, and this the one band whose albums I will buy without thought. It’s not that every release is a winner but they all contain good tunes and 8/10 are brilliant. The only two I do not like through and through are Strange Brotherhood and Carnival.

Let’s just hope the local HMV gets a copy in.

Rosenrot

A very recent acquisition Rammstein’s 2005 album Rosenrot.
My daughter and I have differing opinions on this one, she prefers the older stuff while I think it is the best of the three that I have. Her argument that it lacks the heaviness of the previous albums ( we (I)have Herzeleid and Mutter) but like most “yoof” she judges things by other standards, the ironic thing is she will probably end up listening to indie pop as she gets into her college years.
The best track on here in my opinion has to be Stirb Nicht Vor Mir//Don't Die Before I Do which features Texas singer Sharleen Spiteri, a haunting little ballad sung in both German and English it certainly appeals to my darkness.

Rammstein’s appeal is the aggressive ambience it creates, a sort of nameless anger almost, perfect for cycling through woodlands too. My word of advice to any non-German speakers (like myself) is to leave the translations well alone, they spoil the effect, and something is always lost in translation.

I'd like to leave you with a video shot durin their tour of Legoland.

I’m a bit behind with this one and I had intended to say something earlier but when the time came I just could not be bothered, but now after some thought on the subject I think the time for righteous indignation is now.
Mr Michael Eavis, 72-year-old dairy farmer and grandpapy of Glastonbury has said he thinks the festival has become too middle aged and too middle class.
Let us start with the second bit first, middle class has always been Glastonbury and Glastonbury has always been middle class. Who else could take the time off work and travel halfway across the country to sit in a field stoned for three days in 1970 (apart from my mother in-law(how weird’s that )), and who else can afford the exorbitant ticket price that is now demanded by the vendors of free love and enlightenment.
Now lets move on to middle aged, does this mean there is an upper age limit to liking live music, if and when you reach a certain age do you have to start listening to Danny O’Donnell or cliff Richard? Does the guy not realize that Keith Richards is now well past one hundred and ten years old, that even the Sex Pistols will soon be reaching pensionable age (sorry Johnny, a little inaccurate but I am trying to make a point). What is the certain age? Where can I go when I reach it? How much will it cost? A lady I worked with had come back from a holiday, I asked her if she had enjoyed it she replied “it was fantastic but one thing worries me, mike(her husband) and I are nearing retirement and the only thing on offer for us is tea dances, we grew up on the Stones and Beatles we don’t want to go to fucking tea dances”.
Fair enough

Harry Potter and the healthy salads

I didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon and rush out and buy myself a copy of the new Harry Potter book, and as my daughter had already ordered her copy months ago with her birthday money it seemed a waist, but I cannot go through what happened with the last book. About fifty pages from the end of the book my son says to me “do you want to know who dies?” , I replied “no, and if you tell me you are grounded for ever” my daughter then says “you don’t know what happens” “yes I do Dumbledore dies”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaargh”
So this time I will not wait, I have agreed with my daughter that I will only read it when she has gone to sleep, she did not stop reading and go to bed until 12.30. its now 03.20 and I think its time I stopped, if any of you finish it before me and ruin the ending I will find out where you live and burn your house down.
Good night.

eating my words

I have decided to revisit some of the albums that I dismissed earlier in this blog. I think it has taken time for me to re acclimatize to some of the music. With more and more late eighties and early nineties music finding itself in my CD rotation this seems a logical step, there must be a reason I liked it first time round.