One by One All Day

RANDOM ALBUM REVIEW

2009-08-01T20:52:00.000-07:00

The Promise Ring - Nothing Feels Good

"Nothing feels good like you in red and blue jeans"

This is one of those albums you don't get the first time you hear it but if you give it a few listens it comes through as something beautiful, and it will actually touch your heart as cliche as that sounds.
The vocals are really moving and match the music really well, the lead singer has a strange but amazing voice,Davey von Bohlen actually manages to sound sad without making it sound fake.
The word emo has of course become something of a stigma these days but honestly bands like this were amazing and really heartfelt, people like to attack emo bands for being "cliche" and all there songs being just whinging about girls but honestly this and most of the other bands of that first and second wave had alot more to say than people give them credit for, plus everybody in the world gets miserable over the opposite or same sex sometimes its just life and i think its nice to have music for comfort in those times.
I would have loved to have been around when they were touring this album i think some of those shows would have been really powerful.
Not that this album is completely depressing it has some real fun moments, the funky bassline on "a broken tenor" makes me want to dance and "why did we ever meet" has a specactular hook in the chorus that will get stuck in you head for days.
Its a good album to listen to when you first wake up in the morning i dont know why but it seems to really suit that time of day
The lyrics are really strange in parts and not very straight forward which i really like, some parts remind of Capt'n Jazz and there lyrical style, Davey von Bohlen actually played guitar in Capt'n Jazz too
At other points on this album the lyrics are just plain amazing, i get massive chills whenever i hear the line "I don't know anyone,And I don't know god,And I don't know if anything at all will be all right" i think everyone can relate to that now and again.
Its a pity this is another one of those bands that didnt live up to there potential.
The album before this one is pretty good but anything after just kinda sucks, its been said that no emo band can make more than three albums without turning shitty and this makes me agree, the get up kids had the exact same problem too.
it came out in 97 on the legendary jade tree records home to kid dynamite and the blood brothers plus about a million other awesome bands
i would suggest this album for anyone into REAL emotional music

NEWBES TOP 5 PUNK ALBUMS

2009-07-31T05:06:00.000-07:00

NEWBES TOP 5 PUNK ALBUMS

2. T.S.O.L - Dance With Me
"I never got along with the girls at my school Filling me up with all their morals and their rules They'd pile all their problems on my head I'd rather go out and fuck the dead"
Oh man dance with me what a fucking album i legit listen to this full album nearly once a day it is perfect for living in a city full of complete fuckwits.
This band has one of the most badass lead singers of all time Mr Jack Grisham, he used to dress up in drag to play shows just so people would insult him and then he would beat the shit out of them, he also married a 16 year old girl in Mexico and got arrested for driving backwards down a street while lying on the bonnet of his car and steering while one of his friends used the pedals
This is what is missing in modern day music, fucking characters,
Everybody is just so god damn boring these days even the "punk" bands are mostly just way too politicly correct or sound like 12 year girls whinging on there myspace blog, music has gotten way too dull .
Anyway i should get on with talking about the album, there is not a boring moment on this whole cd, every song is just amazing with some of the best lyrical themes of all time including necrophilia,secret agents, horror movie clichés, joining the army and even a classic miserable about a girl song.
There is something about this album that is just cool as fuck, it might be Jacks awesome vocal delivery or the dark cover art this is good music to listen to while sitting in a graveyard wearing alot of black and smoking cigarettes. (not that ive done this but if i was going to this would be the soundtrack)
The instrumentation on this album is inspiring and really original, as a bass player im blown away by some of the melodic bass lines on this album and the guitar really takes what is considered "punk guitar" to the very limit.
It is a pity this was the last good thing T.S.O.L would ever do, after this album Jack Grisham left and was replaced by his brother in law who i cant remember the name of so we will just call him mr douchebag-whoruinedtsol and they made about 100 albums of horrible fucking hair metal
some time around 2004 Jack Grisham returned but they still made fucking horrible music that sounded like the worst ramones albums crossed with the new misfits, also of note Jack Grisham ran for governor of California against Schwarzenegger and Gary Coleman plus some other people
He got like 0.3 of the vote haha but still good try.
this album is for everyone who likes good music that is fun and yet serious

2009-07-30T03:23:00.000-07:00

NEWBS TOP 5 PUNK ALBUMS OF ALL TIME!

1. Gray matter - Food For Thought+Take It back Ep

"Kill confusion by killing options burn no bridges to stay warm."
This album is so so so fucking amazing, it is close to being the perfect piece of art, enjoyable, inspiring,passionate,uncompromising and beautiful.
Even the cover art is mind blowing, 4 scary looking dudes in the middle of a brillantly drawn forest.
I can distinctly remember the first time i heard Gray Matter, it was on Ali Boulala and Geoff Rowleys Parts in "Sorry" a skate movie by Flip skateboards, it had a awesome soundtrack with the stooges and velvet underground plus many other amazing bands.
I will credit that movie for getting me into punk rock and out of shitty gangster rap, But it was those 2 songs that really got my attention.
The songs were "burn no bridges" and a cover of The Beatles "i am the walrus" no music had made me feel the way this did it was like i could do anything, i remember going skating that day and getting so wrecked trying to do stuff i would never have tried before, But this scary music made me feel fucking bullet-proof.
Honestly nothing has changed, if i am having a shitty day or even a good one this is my go-to album.
Now enough about me time to talk about the actuall music, this was a mid 80s release on the legendary Dischord records, home to minor threat,government issue and about a zillion other amazing harDCore bands.
From this you obviously would get the idea they came out of the 80s DC hardcore scene, home to inspirational bands such as Bad Brains,Fugazi,Bikini Kill and Iron Cross(3 members of gray matter actually played in this band).
This being said they really dont sound like the other bands they came up around,
they are not as straight forward hardcore as bands like Minor Threat or Teen Idles,they are not as funky or rhythmic as the late era "emo-core" bands like rites of spring or embrace.
The sound on this album is totally unique, i am yet to hear anything like it aggressive without being unlistenable melodic without sounding to poppy and simple but still musically impressive.
The album opens with "retrospect" the start of this song lulls you into thinking this might just be another 80s hardcore album, and then the amazing vocal melody comes in.
it really shows to you what to expect throughout the album lyrics about being confused and growing up, they are a repeated theme throughout the album but its not overused at all.
Now i could go through the whole album track by track i enjoy writing about this band that much but i think that would make this totally unreadable so ill only talk about one more track
"crisis and compromise" its my next favourite track on the album, its about a friend changing in front of your eyes and not being able to do anything about it, im sure everyone has experienced this at least once.
"Cause things aren’t always how they appear
And he’s not the same person he was last year"
i could fill a whole blog just with lyrics from this band they are that good, keep in mind that the members of Gray Matter were still in fucking HIGH SCHOOL!! when they made this album
and it puts every fucking major rock band in the history of music to shame.
they broke up after releasing the take it back EP and they were put together in a reissue witch is the album i first got my hands on and it was life changing. they got back together in the 90s and made another album but it just wasn't the same.
in the end i feel like everybody in the world should hear this album at least once.

Album review 1 - Battles: Mirrored

2009-07-26T02:32:00.000-07:00

this sounds like what would happen if you put a random punk in a electro band and gave them all lsd and stuck them in a room,
from what ive read of the production of the album could have actually happened.
you can tell from listening to it that it was a really fun album to make.
strangely enough they released a single off this (atlas), to me any song from it would sound really strange on its own without any context for its complete weirdness, but the album as a whole is really enjoyable and easy to listen too. it sucks you in and makes you want to dance like a spazz (well did for me anyway)
there doest seem to be much in the way of lyrics that you can understand. it feels like to me they have used the vocals as just another instrument somewhat like what sigur ros did on the () album
some parts of the singing makes me think of early butthole surfers with all the vocal distortion and just plain trippyness(for lack of a better word)
brief moments of beautiful melody shine though the noise at points but they never let you as the listener get to comfortable
no idea seems to last more than 30 or so seconds on this whole album but i think that is one of things that makes it brilliant
it is perfect that they are on warp records i cant think of anywhere they would belong more than beside the likes of aphex twin and squarepusher
i would suggest it to any fan of good/strange music

2009-07-26T02:11:00.000-07:00

Captains Log StarDate 26/7/09.
i did nothing at all today, sat and read questionable content i never saw myself getting so obsessed with characters from a webcomic but I'm so into the story now, just dying to know how it all pans out. If you have never heard of it go check it out now but start from the beginning or it wont make sense http://www.questionablecontent.net.
Also played some Call Of Duty 4 at the internet cafe today i think the little kids there are starting to respect my skills haha
been listening to alot of sufjan stevens i was never really that into him,but im getting quite obsessed lately he has the most amazing instrumentation his trumpets and string sections make my heart happy.
wish i caught him when he came to Australia i always seem to get into bands just after they tour
the people i live with watch tv in the kitchen so i can like never go in there without nearly dying from awkward, so i havent been able to make some dinner tonight so i'm real hungry
idle chit chat is like my kryptonyte,its even worse when its with accents that i just cant understand

i feel like such a racist jerk but it really just confuses and scares me.
Everyone should be cats they are alot easier to make friends with, here's a picture of the only new friend ive made since i got to Sydney.
he sneaks in my window for pats and kittie treats

ISNT HE CUTE, his name is archie i wuvvvv himmm
for real though i really wish i had some friends but trying to interact with people socially seems to be like the hardest thing for me to ever do.
but star trek meet up group is this week so i have hope yet that i can meet some cool people and have a nerd posse :)
well im going to go listen to the cure and read more webcomicssss
newbes out

Blog Virgin

2009-07-26T01:46:00.000-07:00

So here i am, i finally caved and joined the pretentious masses and got a blogspot.
Hopefully i will keep it regularly updated, like a diary or something just minus the bad poetry about how everything feels dark and black.
Guess ill try and put some album reviews and stuff on here too just to keep myself busy