Supernova makes me fucking sick. Promoters are supposed to be out there, doing their job. They're supposed to book gigs at venues, put up posters... Exposure, that's the promoters job. Rather than doing their fucking job properly, Supernova get a bunch of kids to run around town selling tickets, making money for them. They have to do little to no promotion of any kind. In the end, bands don't get paid, but some unnamed judge decides which one did the best job and gives them maybe a day of recording time, which might cost 300$. They claim that booking 10 bands brings in 10 bands worth of friends, except nobody sticks around for longer than an hour. Supernova shows are a good way to play a set in front of your friends, something you can do yourself at a party.
If you're going to run around town trying to get money from your friends and family, you might as well call up Vector and start selling knives door to door. Nobody wants to sell knives door to door.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Deftones - Diamond Eyes (music review)
Nu metal bands saturated the end of the 90's with all the worst parts of the 90's: angst towards some vague offender, hatred for oneself, useless dj's, unnecessary use of lame white guys rapping, blah blah blah. I could go on; this isn't anything new for anyone who remembers the 90's.
Anyways, amongst all the new shit rock, all the Limp Bizkits and Nickelbacks and Korns, there were the Deftones. And the Deftones really are a strange breed: straightforward enough to please the retards who listened to Durst (admittedly, myself included), melodic, even clever enough to get the attention of reputable critics, and catchy enough to get some decent mainstream play. But with screaming.
The most amazing part about this band, especially when you consider the scene they came up in, is that they're still going strong; the shelf life on most of those shit bands they were associated with was maybe 7 years, tops. But not only are they on their sixth release, Diamond Eyes, they wrote and set aside a whole other album in the last two years. That effort was to be called Eros.
Eros was supposed to be them experimenting with a new sound, taking the band in a new direction. Chino is quoted as saying he wanted it to sound as “weird as possible without alienating people”. Chi Cheng, their bassist, was hospitalized with a coma after his bus crashed on Novermber 8th of 2008, and a few months later they put Eros on hiatus and started working on Diamond Eyes. They say the two things are unrelated, but for an album that wasn't written because their bassist is in a coma, it sure as hell sounds like a band trying to relax because their bassist is in a fucking coma.
First of all, look at the history of bands that try experimenting with new material. Radiohead damn near broke up during the Kid A sessions because they argued over creative directions and were unsure of themselves. Likewise with Pink Floyd, arguing over creative direction in the 80's causes the band to break up. I'm not saying the Deftones were on their way to splitting up; I'm not even saying they were arguing. I'm saying that moving in a new direction often causes stress of some kind, and if your bassist is in the hospital, the last thing I'd imagine you wanting to do is something even remotely stressful.
So, my whole point is that Diamond Eyes is a through and through typical Deftones album, because that's what they needed to make right now. Nothing weird, nothing out of the ordinary, no extensive long odd instrumentals with strange talking in the background about anal-sex or whatever, no really oddly placed electronic parts. Just a collection of standard Deftones style songs. The really heavy track (CMND/CTRL and Rocket Skates), the quiet or more melodic one (Beauty School and Sextape), the obvious soon-to-be-fan-favourite and live-show-closer (976-EVIL, I hope). Just your bread and butter Deftones.
And that's not so much a bad thing. It sounds like the band just wanted to get an album out. They didn't like the approach they took to Saturday Night Wrist, a process that has been described as being 'Piece by piece', which to me sounds like a focus on multi-tracking (which is not that much fun for this kind of band). It sounds like a band in the studio engaging their hobby, and committing it to recording. This might as well have been what they did before, or after, going bowling on a Wednesday night.
“Hey guys, want to get together? Wife's busy, I've got nothin to do, what say we grab some brews, bowl a couple games, maybe write a whole fucking album?”
“Yeah sure man, why not, lets just churn out a whole fucking album like we usually do.”
Thankfully, 'how they usually do' sounds pretty fucking good.
So by all means, the album isn't groundbreaking, it's just a great album. Because it's a great album, it attests to how fucking well these guys get along, and how on top of their shit they are. They don't lose a member and decide break up. They don't lose a member and then completely lose their shit. They don't use the opportunity to do some monumental tribute to their lost bassist; across the 5 listens I've put in, I can't really pick out any solid Chi references.
To sum it all up, Deftones are still that band that should have sucked but didn't, and they're still putting out good albums that are worthy of purchase. When your friends are reminiscing about how shitty their taste in music was circa 1999, you can still toss in “but Deftones are still pretty rad...”, you get some weird looks at first until everyone remembers, “oh yeah...” Or maybe you're taking some cute girl out to a Vampire Weekend show, and she's complaining about her friends going to the dive bars for metal bands, complaining about metal as a whole. You nod your head to agree, but then remember, “oh fuck, Deftones.” I don't advise telling her that.
I fucking love the Deftones, I might talk her ear off all night about how Diamond Eyes is a good album. I might be going to sleep alone... But the point still stands.
Anyways, amongst all the new shit rock, all the Limp Bizkits and Nickelbacks and Korns, there were the Deftones. And the Deftones really are a strange breed: straightforward enough to please the retards who listened to Durst (admittedly, myself included), melodic, even clever enough to get the attention of reputable critics, and catchy enough to get some decent mainstream play. But with screaming.
The most amazing part about this band, especially when you consider the scene they came up in, is that they're still going strong; the shelf life on most of those shit bands they were associated with was maybe 7 years, tops. But not only are they on their sixth release, Diamond Eyes, they wrote and set aside a whole other album in the last two years. That effort was to be called Eros.
Eros was supposed to be them experimenting with a new sound, taking the band in a new direction. Chino is quoted as saying he wanted it to sound as “weird as possible without alienating people”. Chi Cheng, their bassist, was hospitalized with a coma after his bus crashed on Novermber 8th of 2008, and a few months later they put Eros on hiatus and started working on Diamond Eyes. They say the two things are unrelated, but for an album that wasn't written because their bassist is in a coma, it sure as hell sounds like a band trying to relax because their bassist is in a fucking coma.
First of all, look at the history of bands that try experimenting with new material. Radiohead damn near broke up during the Kid A sessions because they argued over creative directions and were unsure of themselves. Likewise with Pink Floyd, arguing over creative direction in the 80's causes the band to break up. I'm not saying the Deftones were on their way to splitting up; I'm not even saying they were arguing. I'm saying that moving in a new direction often causes stress of some kind, and if your bassist is in the hospital, the last thing I'd imagine you wanting to do is something even remotely stressful.
So, my whole point is that Diamond Eyes is a through and through typical Deftones album, because that's what they needed to make right now. Nothing weird, nothing out of the ordinary, no extensive long odd instrumentals with strange talking in the background about anal-sex or whatever, no really oddly placed electronic parts. Just a collection of standard Deftones style songs. The really heavy track (CMND/CTRL and Rocket Skates), the quiet or more melodic one (Beauty School and Sextape), the obvious soon-to-be-fan-favourite and live-show-closer (976-EVIL, I hope). Just your bread and butter Deftones.
And that's not so much a bad thing. It sounds like the band just wanted to get an album out. They didn't like the approach they took to Saturday Night Wrist, a process that has been described as being 'Piece by piece', which to me sounds like a focus on multi-tracking (which is not that much fun for this kind of band). It sounds like a band in the studio engaging their hobby, and committing it to recording. This might as well have been what they did before, or after, going bowling on a Wednesday night.
“Hey guys, want to get together? Wife's busy, I've got nothin to do, what say we grab some brews, bowl a couple games, maybe write a whole fucking album?”
“Yeah sure man, why not, lets just churn out a whole fucking album like we usually do.”
Thankfully, 'how they usually do' sounds pretty fucking good.
So by all means, the album isn't groundbreaking, it's just a great album. Because it's a great album, it attests to how fucking well these guys get along, and how on top of their shit they are. They don't lose a member and decide break up. They don't lose a member and then completely lose their shit. They don't use the opportunity to do some monumental tribute to their lost bassist; across the 5 listens I've put in, I can't really pick out any solid Chi references.
To sum it all up, Deftones are still that band that should have sucked but didn't, and they're still putting out good albums that are worthy of purchase. When your friends are reminiscing about how shitty their taste in music was circa 1999, you can still toss in “but Deftones are still pretty rad...”, you get some weird looks at first until everyone remembers, “oh yeah...” Or maybe you're taking some cute girl out to a Vampire Weekend show, and she's complaining about her friends going to the dive bars for metal bands, complaining about metal as a whole. You nod your head to agree, but then remember, “oh fuck, Deftones.” I don't advise telling her that.
I fucking love the Deftones, I might talk her ear off all night about how Diamond Eyes is a good album. I might be going to sleep alone... But the point still stands.
More from CRWR 1100
These were the notes I took during a creative writing class...
_____________________________________________________
Metaphor. Saying one thing is another unlike thing. Does not use “like” or “as” as a comparison. Not a simile.
I know this!
My friend is a hippie festival. There's lots of nice art, and you feel like you're really proving something while you're stoned, but at some point you have to shower and go to work.
He's a modern day Rod Stewart. Just keeps singing other peoples music, wearing younger peoples haircuts, and nobody has the guts to tell him brunettes are in style.
_____________________________________________________
Metaphor. Saying one thing is another unlike thing. Does not use “like” or “as” as a comparison. Not a simile.
I know this!
My friend is a hippie festival. There's lots of nice art, and you feel like you're really proving something while you're stoned, but at some point you have to shower and go to work.
He's a modern day Rod Stewart. Just keeps singing other peoples music, wearing younger peoples haircuts, and nobody has the guts to tell him brunettes are in style.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Something random
I had a course in creative writing which I dropped this semester. I didn't like my teacher, essentially that was my reason, maybe it's not a great reason. Anyways, I did get some little pieces of writing done.
This is a short little piece from that class. She asked us to write about our first kiss. Rather than describe it in detail, I wrote about a conversation I had with a friend of mine two years after my first kiss, as we were talking about how I was dating that girl again.
____________________________
We were about 3 beers in each, and she wanted to kiss me. It had been built up so much, I couldn't believe it had taken this long to happen, so I moved my mouth the way I thought I was supposed to and we kissed. Then, she said those horrid words you'd hope to never hear: “um, what are you doing?”
Colby started laughing at me hysterically “You didn't know how to kiss? Are you kidding?” I really need to pick and choose my conversations with this guy, he's kind-of a dick for someone I call my best friend.
“That was our relationship round one back in grade 8 man” I blurted. “We only dated for like a week!” He was still going on and making all sorts of comments, bowling over his lanky frame from the laughter. I had to get the words out quickly to stop him.
“Now.. hey man,” I stammered to silence him. “NOW, dude shut the fuck up..” he stopped enough for me to get a word in, “I'm dating her again two years later, and I have no idea what she was talking about! Every other girl I've dated since has told me I'm a great kisser.”
Pure cheese. There was a pause, and then he burst out laughing again, blurting out something like “yeah right man...”
I continued, “it's always gone really well..” I stopped... I started to feel like I needed to assert myself. “In fact, y'know what, I don't even know why I'm dating her again.”
I felt bad about this comment because I really did like her... maybe more as a friend, but I knew the other kids would tease me for dating her.
This is a short little piece from that class. She asked us to write about our first kiss. Rather than describe it in detail, I wrote about a conversation I had with a friend of mine two years after my first kiss, as we were talking about how I was dating that girl again.
____________________________
We were about 3 beers in each, and she wanted to kiss me. It had been built up so much, I couldn't believe it had taken this long to happen, so I moved my mouth the way I thought I was supposed to and we kissed. Then, she said those horrid words you'd hope to never hear: “um, what are you doing?”
Colby started laughing at me hysterically “You didn't know how to kiss? Are you kidding?” I really need to pick and choose my conversations with this guy, he's kind-of a dick for someone I call my best friend.
“That was our relationship round one back in grade 8 man” I blurted. “We only dated for like a week!” He was still going on and making all sorts of comments, bowling over his lanky frame from the laughter. I had to get the words out quickly to stop him.
“Now.. hey man,” I stammered to silence him. “NOW, dude shut the fuck up..” he stopped enough for me to get a word in, “I'm dating her again two years later, and I have no idea what she was talking about! Every other girl I've dated since has told me I'm a great kisser.”
Pure cheese. There was a pause, and then he burst out laughing again, blurting out something like “yeah right man...”
I continued, “it's always gone really well..” I stopped... I started to feel like I needed to assert myself. “In fact, y'know what, I don't even know why I'm dating her again.”
I felt bad about this comment because I really did like her... maybe more as a friend, but I knew the other kids would tease me for dating her.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Stars of the Lid
I've discovered this band recently. The sounds they make are amazing. I'd recommend getting their album The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid, with some really good quality headphones, and reading or doing something relaxing. It's like a massage for the sides of your head.
Damien
Damien
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
What a load of bullshit (rant)
So today while I was eating some leftovers, I decided to watch some TV for the 15 minutes that it takes to eat leftovers. When I turned on the TV (which I don't do very often) I found the office, which was almost over. When it ended, the next show on was called The Insider. Apparently The Insider is the porch where intellect crawls to die at the end of its life of ball licking and poo sniffing.
So without getting too namey (because I don't know their names), one of the personalities is Star Jones. Already this show is off to a bad start. But there's 3 other people and they're all about as brain dead as Star is.
The only reason I watched more than 5 seconds and changed it is because they started off talking about Obama and Palin, and as I don't really watch TV I don't know much about the current shitstorm in American politics (I just safely assume that there is always a shitstorm)
Apparently Palin is commenting that she thinks Obama is doing a 4/10 job, and she managed to write a book in between giving birth to hundreds of children because shes a moron (reference, the first 10 minutes of the movie Idiocracy). I'd like to point out that Sarah Palin did a 0/10 job getting voted in, which is the first job her and Obama had, and he passed with flying colors. What a fucking tool factory.
Anyways I mention all this because the assclowns clinging to Star Jones' celebrity status with dear life started talking about whether or not Obama did the right thing when he responded to Sarah. Obviously it doesn't matter, but they managed to drag this topic around like first class assholes.
And then the next topic they brought up was whether or not People magazine made the right decision voting Johnny Depp the worlds sexiest man. How do you live with yourself debating shit like this?
I don't understand celebrity! I don't get it! How can people be so goddamn vapid and deranged! I don't get how you can live with yourself, following people around like this, disputing every little detail of THEIR lives, ignoring your own. Who gives a fuck if Angelina passes out, or when Farrah Fawcett dies! Angelina is a retard with an incredible body who is an amazing actress, but picks the SHITTIEST movies to star in. She hasn't made a good movie since 'Girl, Interrupted', and before that her only good movies were Original Sin and Gia, and almost purely because she got naked a lot in both. What else has she done that's worth watching? Mr and Mrs Smith? Tomb Raider? Gone in 60 Seconds???
What really gets me about all this, is how people are so used to, and perpetrate, double talk. People will talk about their lives, but compare it to people they don't know. They berate celebrities for making poor decisions, and then stuff their faces with McDonalds. They complain about celebrity crash diets, or ridiculous weight gain, but can't deal with their own. Diets aren't even proven to work, at all! They're used in emergency health situations! Why do people buy into this bullshit? Is nobody honest anymore?
I have friends who would rather wait 15 minutes for a bus to go down the street than make the 8 minute walk it takes to get there because they're tired. This is the world we live in. Fucked.
So without getting too namey (because I don't know their names), one of the personalities is Star Jones. Already this show is off to a bad start. But there's 3 other people and they're all about as brain dead as Star is.
The only reason I watched more than 5 seconds and changed it is because they started off talking about Obama and Palin, and as I don't really watch TV I don't know much about the current shitstorm in American politics (I just safely assume that there is always a shitstorm)
Apparently Palin is commenting that she thinks Obama is doing a 4/10 job, and she managed to write a book in between giving birth to hundreds of children because shes a moron (reference, the first 10 minutes of the movie Idiocracy). I'd like to point out that Sarah Palin did a 0/10 job getting voted in, which is the first job her and Obama had, and he passed with flying colors. What a fucking tool factory.
Anyways I mention all this because the assclowns clinging to Star Jones' celebrity status with dear life started talking about whether or not Obama did the right thing when he responded to Sarah. Obviously it doesn't matter, but they managed to drag this topic around like first class assholes.
And then the next topic they brought up was whether or not People magazine made the right decision voting Johnny Depp the worlds sexiest man. How do you live with yourself debating shit like this?
I don't understand celebrity! I don't get it! How can people be so goddamn vapid and deranged! I don't get how you can live with yourself, following people around like this, disputing every little detail of THEIR lives, ignoring your own. Who gives a fuck if Angelina passes out, or when Farrah Fawcett dies! Angelina is a retard with an incredible body who is an amazing actress, but picks the SHITTIEST movies to star in. She hasn't made a good movie since 'Girl, Interrupted', and before that her only good movies were Original Sin and Gia, and almost purely because she got naked a lot in both. What else has she done that's worth watching? Mr and Mrs Smith? Tomb Raider? Gone in 60 Seconds???
What really gets me about all this, is how people are so used to, and perpetrate, double talk. People will talk about their lives, but compare it to people they don't know. They berate celebrities for making poor decisions, and then stuff their faces with McDonalds. They complain about celebrity crash diets, or ridiculous weight gain, but can't deal with their own. Diets aren't even proven to work, at all! They're used in emergency health situations! Why do people buy into this bullshit? Is nobody honest anymore?
I have friends who would rather wait 15 minutes for a bus to go down the street than make the 8 minute walk it takes to get there because they're tired. This is the world we live in. Fucked.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Music to relax by (rant)
It's November 2nd, and I am in the library at Kwantlen. This is my first semester back to school, and I'm finding it easier to adjust. First of all, everyone is younger than me: so this time around I know what kind of bullshit to expect from my fellow students. Second of all, I feel like the 5 years I spent not in school have motivated me to learn about things I've always wanted to know. Example: I have always been interested in my family's history, of which a quarter is Russian and mysterious, so I'm taking a history course and writing a rather lengthy paper on the Bolshevik-Russian revolution (the reason for my grandmother being in Canada). I've always thought of myself as a good/creative writer, but always received bad marks in English classes, so I'm in a 'catch-up' English class, relearning the basics of structure. Finally, I always end up in situations where people ask me for advice, so I'm in a Psych class trying to understand why we think the way we do. I feel like I'm leaving all my old habits behind me.
One of the things I'm taking with me from high-school, however, is my constant need to listen to music while working, and I feel like my musical taste has refined to actually help with that. In the past, especially during high-school, my taste leaned more towards slightly abrasive, maybe angst-y alternative rock. I can fully remember a time when I could honestly tell people that Incubus was one of my favorite bands, that Pearl Jam was one of the greatest live bands ever, and that System of a Down was the most creative metal band ever. To some that may be true, but listen to the fucking music I was listening to while working on homework. Abrasive shit when my brain should be thinking freely.
So I'm discovering little pieces of what helps me to relax, and think without restraint. Music without lyrics is a good start: when people are talking, I can't read. So I'm discovering over and over again that I love ambient music.
This all traces back to the moment I discovered that music was my primary interest in life. I have a pretty terrible sleeping issue, it's probably some sort of disorder; anyways, I don't know how to relax and go to bed. I'm one of those ADD kids raised on ritelin, so I've got some relaxation issues. I'm drawn to melody and mood in a song more-so than the energy of it. Coldplay released Rush of Blood to the Head at the end of a period where i was only sleeping 4 hours a night for a month, and one day I listened to the album while all fucked up from lack of sleep. That was pretty much it, sad to say it was a Coldplay album that did it.
Not like it's a bad album or anything... I just can't stand 'Coldplay today'.
Anyways after that I really got into albums that... envelope you in their ambiance, mood, and melody. Albums that make you zone out and just wander through your mind. Soon I had discovered Bjork's 'Homogenic', Sigur Ros' untitled, Broken Social Scene's 'You Forgot it in People', Godspeed and their various amazing albums, and what I consider to be my alltime favorite album still to this day, Radiohead's 'Kid A'.
And relaxing is resulting in all of my shit getting done. Instrumental music, ambient music, or music with an emphasis on melody and mood. That's what gets me, really. Right now I'm listening to William Basinski, a record producer who put together a series of 4 albums of ambiance called 'The Disintegration Loops vol I-IV'. They're just ambient loops compiled on magnetic tape that he had made in the 90's; recently he tried to transfer them over to a digital format, but in the transfer the tapes started to disintegrate. He looped each tape until it was completely disintegrated, and recorded that as tracks for the album. What results are 4 discs, with tracks that range from 8-40 minutes in length, of the same short loop, playing over and over, disintegrating with every repeat.
Do you ever get part of a song stuck in your head? Listening to this takes it's place, and is kind of comforting when you're trying to read.
One of the things I'm taking with me from high-school, however, is my constant need to listen to music while working, and I feel like my musical taste has refined to actually help with that. In the past, especially during high-school, my taste leaned more towards slightly abrasive, maybe angst-y alternative rock. I can fully remember a time when I could honestly tell people that Incubus was one of my favorite bands, that Pearl Jam was one of the greatest live bands ever, and that System of a Down was the most creative metal band ever. To some that may be true, but listen to the fucking music I was listening to while working on homework. Abrasive shit when my brain should be thinking freely.
So I'm discovering little pieces of what helps me to relax, and think without restraint. Music without lyrics is a good start: when people are talking, I can't read. So I'm discovering over and over again that I love ambient music.
This all traces back to the moment I discovered that music was my primary interest in life. I have a pretty terrible sleeping issue, it's probably some sort of disorder; anyways, I don't know how to relax and go to bed. I'm one of those ADD kids raised on ritelin, so I've got some relaxation issues. I'm drawn to melody and mood in a song more-so than the energy of it. Coldplay released Rush of Blood to the Head at the end of a period where i was only sleeping 4 hours a night for a month, and one day I listened to the album while all fucked up from lack of sleep. That was pretty much it, sad to say it was a Coldplay album that did it.
Not like it's a bad album or anything... I just can't stand 'Coldplay today'.
Anyways after that I really got into albums that... envelope you in their ambiance, mood, and melody. Albums that make you zone out and just wander through your mind. Soon I had discovered Bjork's 'Homogenic', Sigur Ros' untitled, Broken Social Scene's 'You Forgot it in People', Godspeed and their various amazing albums, and what I consider to be my alltime favorite album still to this day, Radiohead's 'Kid A'.
And relaxing is resulting in all of my shit getting done. Instrumental music, ambient music, or music with an emphasis on melody and mood. That's what gets me, really. Right now I'm listening to William Basinski, a record producer who put together a series of 4 albums of ambiance called 'The Disintegration Loops vol I-IV'. They're just ambient loops compiled on magnetic tape that he had made in the 90's; recently he tried to transfer them over to a digital format, but in the transfer the tapes started to disintegrate. He looped each tape until it was completely disintegrated, and recorded that as tracks for the album. What results are 4 discs, with tracks that range from 8-40 minutes in length, of the same short loop, playing over and over, disintegrating with every repeat.
Do you ever get part of a song stuck in your head? Listening to this takes it's place, and is kind of comforting when you're trying to read.
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