Music

Words As Weapons

Standard

I know Seether has a lot of critics, mainly because of their unoriginality. And even I have to admit when I first heard this song I thought it was a remake because it sounded very familiar. But I’m still a fan. Maybe they do borrow some elements from older songs but they usually are pretty original with their lyrics. This song in particular includes a part that I think most writers can seriously relate to.

“All I really want is something beautiful to say
To never fade away
I wanna live forever”

In fact that’s likely the exact ambition and motivation for many writers, past and present included.

In case you are wondering, “Mad World” would the the song that it’s eerily similar to. They aren’t exactly identical, identical but they are close enough that I really did think it was a cover.

But that wasn’t really my point here it was simply an observation about he lyrics themselves. Please feel free to comment with any thoughts, I’d love to hear what you think.

New website

Standard

So I actually launched my new website a couple weeks ago now. Unfortunately, I have been so busy I didn’t have a chance to write a blog about it. All winter break I didn’t have anything to do so I decided it was time to work on making a website. I am currently using Moonfruit as my hosting company because it is free. So I wasn’t able to do things exactly the way I want it but they have software to  make the process easy. If I were to really create my website exactly the way I want it, I would need the program Dreamweaver, well not need but want. I don’t have it, don’t have access to it and even if I could afford it I don’t even have a good enough computer to run it on. So for now I just paid for the domain but  am using the free hosting. Most likely that will have to change because I will eventually run out of storage space but I will deal with that when the time comes.

The website is kind of a vanity site. A place for me to post things that I have done. Mostly the idea started out as a place for me to put up my concert pictures. But I also wanted to be able to add some kind of depth to it with interviews and music reviews. I think the real goal of it though is to be a digital portfolio of my talents. I think it’s a great way for me to display all the different skills I have in addition to writing. It easily shows that I can work with many different media tools and learn any kind of software.

One of the other real inspirations for the site was that I just want to know that I made some kind of mark on the world. Which is really the true concept of the site. I want it to be like if I died tomorrow I can say this is what I left behind, hence the name, Last Remains. It’s a little similar to the concept I thought of when naming this blog. I thought of it as if I had a chance to write what my last thoughts were it would be things I post here.

Well enough babbling about the site so far I only have up one set of photos and an old interview but I am really hoping to be able to get some new stuff up soon. I am going to try and add new material at least once a week. By the way if any of you reading thing happen to be a musician, or work in the Metal music industry I am looking for new people to interview or material to review so please contact me. Without further ado I present Last Remains Website.

Short Update

Standard

I know this blog has been pretty stagnant lately. It’s just not as easy as some people make it seem. With no editor I don’t have anybody assigning me stories. I also don’t have anybody to answer to if I don’t meet a deadline. I have several drafts waiting for me to go back and edit to publishing quality. I am an extreme perfectionist and would rather put nothing up than something sub par. I have seen blogs with simple misspellings and grammatical errors, it makes me sick. And the most important problem I find is that I just don’t have the time with school, work or looking for work, other writing projects and trying to live life.

However, the motivation behind starting the blog was to keep me writing on a fairly regular basis. I do get to do this with all the other work so I don’t feel that bad. As a matter of a fact I just got a new writing gig. As of today, my birthday, I will be writing album reviews for the website M is For Music. My first review was for the new band Baptized in Blood and you can read it here. I do hope to add more post to Last Words and I am considering creating a whole website. But for now I’m just happy that I’m still writing and enjoying it. (usually)

Annoying MySpace Bands

Standard

Have you ever found a band on MySpace that you kind of liked but then they annoyed you into hating them. I found one. I was reminded of this today when I had my iTunes playing and all of a sudden came on this really great music that I didn’t recognize. When I checked to see who it was I found it was this band that had their album for free download a while back on MySpace. I had downloaded it, put it onto my ipod,  and then forgot about it. Right after that my ipod died and with that any hope of me listening to it. Then they added me from about five different profiles, the band, the singer, an art page, etc. Then bombarded me with bulletins and messages. It drove me to the point that I deleted every one of their profiles. I’m now really disappointed because it was a chance to find a really great band and now I’m so annoyed with them I wont bother to add them again.

In case any readers are in a band or promoting anything here are couple things that they or others have done that annoyed me to the point of deleting them:

  • Multiple messages asking me to listen, add, comment, etc. If I want to I will not because you ask me a million times.
  • Sending bulletins minutes apart for an hour about your new song or your latest gig, or whatever. I got it the first fifty times. (this goes for anybody)
  • Posting your song on a automatic player in a comment. Many times I’ve gone to a music page and couldn’t hear their music because of this.  And if I wanted your song on my page I’ll add it myself.
  • Adding me to several different of your accounts that send out the same exact thing a million times.
  • Constantly promoting things that have nothing to do with their music. (Especially, if it is totally unrelated and completely uninteresting to me)

I’m sure there are many more.  Maybe as time passes I will add some more. Can anybody think of anything else?

Lamb of God at Atlantic City House of Blues

Standard

LOG 10-23-09

Friday Lamb of God played the House of Blues in Atlantic City. For a while I kept telling my friends we should make a trip out there. I used to go all the time but haven’t in a while. So when I saw the concert listed, I immediately bought tickets. I decided we had time to iron out all the rest of the details later. And as I planned it did. Me and my friend saved up cash, booked a cheap hotel room and headed out there on greyhound.

I didn’t expect House of Blues to the most metalhead friendly venue, especially when I found out this was one of the dates that Gwar was not playing with Lamb of God, but I think their security was a little overboard. We had to walk back to our room because they wouldn’t let anybody in with spikes or even a studded belt on. Thankfully, we were very early and the hotel room wasn’t too far. Otherwise our option was to throw them out.

LOG 10-23-09
We finally make into the show and Hatebreed is on, yet they were missing Jamey Jamsta. I’m not sure what happened but not being a fan of Hatebreed I really didn’t care.

I’ve seen Lamb of God twice before, and I think this was my favorite. As always their energy was amazing. In fact, Randy ran around the stage so much I could barely get a good picture of him-I did finally though.And as annoying as security was the House of Blues had a great sound, and I like that it’s a little bit smaller venue than some others I’ve seen them in. LOG 10-23-09And I think since this was in Atlantic city there were a lot less young kids around and the guys that I did end up around when up front were okay guys.

Of course I ended the night with wandering around casinos, and grabbing some drinks randomly while passing through or stopping at bars. One of the best nights I’ve had in a long time. The last bonus was shopping the next day at the outlets before hopping on the bus back to the city.

I have a ton of other pictures but they really need to be edited. Hopefully in time I will be able to get them up. (note: more pictures available at http://www.facebook.com/album)

LOG 047(edit) copy

Royal Flush Festival

Standard

This weekend I am volunteering for the Royal Flush Festival. It’s a once a year festival that this year marks the release of Royal Flush Magazine. It includes film screenings, art shows, parties and rock concerts. It started on this past Thursday and runs until Monday.

Yesterday there were several movies screened at the Anthology Film Archives, and the official magazine release party at Crash Mansion. The bands playing this party were Cinema Cinema, Black Water Rising, Goes Cube and Suicide City. They all killed, I did get to check in on the bands every now and then but even while at the door I was able to hear.

Today it continues with more short films, panel discussions, an art show, more live music, and parties. Monday is the last day of the festival, and I highly suggest finding your way to at least one of the many events going on. For a complete schedule go to www.royalflushfestival.com.

“Careless Whisper” by Seether

Standard

The first time I listened to Seether’s cover of Wham’s “Careless Whisper” it took me a minute to recognize the song. Though it seems like an odd choice for them, they make it work. They’ve taken an already incredible song, reworked it to make it sound original and made it just as good. The video, however, gives a nod to the songs roots. It includes 80’s video games graphics and pop culture, including an animated George Micheal appearance.  Yet if you pay close attention it deals with all of the problems we face in the world today.

I’d love to hear what other people think. You can watch it here at Yahoo.com.