Books, Films, Gigs, and My Life!

No books or films this time - mainly because I'm reading quite a boring book so its taking me a while to get through it, and plus I haven't been reading or watching films as much as I got all the stuff for the OU course I'm doing. I'm a bit ahead already though - I've already studied the first three chapters and should be on the first assignment, and the course hasn't even officially started yet! (It starts in March). I think I will just press on with it though, while I'm motivated to do it, and then discuss it with the tutor and make changes if I need to. Its really interesting so far, a little bit science-y, but not as much as I thought it would be, so thats good. Have done 2 1/2 hours of studying today, doesn't sound much, but considering I haven't really done any for about 5 years, I'm quite pleased with myself.

Having a bit of a weird day today, Katie went back to uni today, which always makes me feel a bit meh, and we went out to a gig and Slimelight last night, neither of which were as good as they could have been, so we just went home early and got the last train instead of the first train. but oh well. we've got other trips to slimelight planned, so hopefully they'll be better :)
( Assemblage 23 at Islington Academy, and Slimelight )

But ah well. Some things are good, some things are bad, thats just how it goes. Its strange writing things in here really, as I don't really know who I'm writing this for - just random people who come along, my online friends, or my real life friends. I've asked my real life friends enough times (Well through facebook) to add me if they have a Livejournal, but none of them seem to have done so. But oh well. I'll just carry on writing, its good practice for essays I suppose!

By the way, if you're just a random, Katie is my sister, we get on really well and I visit her a lot in Huddersfield where she's at uni! :)

Might watch a film tonight I think - after Lark Rise to Candleford that is! :)

:D Best.Video.Ever.

I love it!

And Them!

And I'm seeing them (well, him anyway!) again in April! Woo! :D

...the new Guns N Roses song ....

(ah think of all the people who have waited so long to say that!)

...and it was RUBBISH!

But wait - before you say "but you don't even like GnR" - it didn't even sound like them!

Sounded like a Nu-Metal-y version of what I think MachineHead sound like...

(although I'm not sure *exactly* what MachineHead sound like...I have an idea...)

So yeah. Compared to the new AC/DC song I heard the other day - one was Brilliant, one was Terrible.

And they were both on Radio 2!

Rock! \m/ :D

Only The Good Die Young....



"Well the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Until the end
Until the end......."



"Well I could call out when the going gets tough.
The things that we've learnt are no longer enough.
No language, just sound, that's all we need know,
To synchronise love to the beat of the show.

And we could dance......."

As i'd never been there before, I had absolutely no idea what to expect...but it was great :D

(apart from having to sleep on the floor!)

Only two things I'd personally do differently next year - I'd go see more bands, as this year I only went to see the ones i'd heard of, and I will make more of an effort to dress up more! Even though Katie made me some lovely skirts, I was getting really bored of V-neck tshirts by the end of the weekend! Must start saving money now i think....

Was amazing to have so many people all in one place who liked such great music! And One were brill, Front 242, I can see why people like them and why they're iconic etc, but I did find them a little boring to watch.
I like to dance! :) Deviant UK and Skinjob (bands i'd heard of but not seen before) were amazing! Just going to buy their cds now :D

And I made friends with some cool people (and a band :D ) , which was surprising as I don't usually do that, chat with random people i mean.
But Katie did help as they all (well some of them) recognised her from Combichrist! I think its the hair!

But all in all it was a great weekend. The party / club in D block of Arkwright was excellent...I really just expected it to be a bloke in the corner with a cd player, but really wasn't, haha. Although I continue to be naive enough not to notice when people have taken things they shouldn't....but *shrugs* ...as long as they don't make me do it!

Will made a better journal / bulletin about it when I have my pictures back...and might have to do one about Bloodstock (which couldn't have been more different, hehe!) as well! :)

...was actually great! I'd buy their cd! Shame no one else really thought so...although they did get more than the uk, which was really surprising.

All this political voting has really got ridiculous. Bosnia-Her...(can't spell it!) 's song was stupid, as was Spain's, but they're got relatively high in the results.

pah.

but anyway, the Finnish band was called "Teräsbetoni", and they looked like Manowar! :)



and here the video for the song that they did:

I had a brilliant weekend this weekend - went to the most goth gig i've ever been to! :D I went to see The March Violets at Leeds Met on saturday night (8th December), it was great, they had great support bands as well.

First there was screaming banshee aircrew, they are what i would call 'modern goth' , and i think other people might call 'darkwave' - though im not sure what that is exactly, haha. they have female and male vocals, a upbeat sorta sound, with violins..and do a song which sounds so much like 'lovecats' by the cure, its called 'crazy cats' and its great, haha! :) the next band was "Salvation", and they were excellent! a sort of rocky goth sound, i recognised a couple of songs, the guy has a great voice. i really have to get one of their cds :) or vinyl of course! hehe! Next on was James Ray - he was weird. the music wasnt that bad, but he was doing a weird kind of dance around the stage and filming the audience on a little hand held video camera for most of it, which was a little strange! the music was sorta gothy music with a beat - it was ok. then there was Chris Reed Unit (I'm not sure if thats one word or not really, haha!). He used to be in Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, and I love them, so i was quite looking forward to seeing him. First thing that i noticed though was that he looked like Kt's mum's boyfriend - that was scary, haha! His music was ok - his voice is good, but it was a little boring to watch - was just him with a guitar and a backing drum track. I would listen to it on cd, but not sure about watching it live.

And then The March Violets. I wasn't sure what to expect really, i've seen a few bands who were from back in the 80s, and some were brilliant (Bauhaus) and some were a bit disappointing (Sisters of Mercy) - but luckily, The March Violets were great! not quite as good as Bauhaus i think, as i didnt know a huge amount of the songs (but thats my own fault really, haha) , but they were great. Great sound, great atmosphere, they had really good interaction with the crowd as well, which was good. and their new song, cut up pretty, was just amazing! aaa! definately my favourite song at hte moment - ooh and there was another new one about a dress (can't remember what that was called) but that was great too! the woman has a great voice! and the man as well - though he really didnt look like what i thought he would look like! most goths are thin and pasty, but he was..not. it was great, haha. Ooh and i got the copies of the lyrics after as well, hehehe! :D

And then after that it said there was going to be an aftershow party - we at first weren't quite sure where this was going to be, but then suddenly turned a corner and there were lots of people dancin g, so we danced to some great goth music for about 1 1/2 hours - then we had to go and get the train back to huddersfield.

So all in all, it was a brilliant night, i havent heard that much goth for ages, so it was brill :) and we were some of the youngest there, haha! and i felt so underdressed compared to everyone else (anyone want to buy me some overly extravagent goth clothes? hehehe! :D )

The next day (after a loooong lie in and some nicely cooked pasta, hehe!) we went to Manchester to see HIM. Now, I've seen HIM loads of times, and each time before i see them i think i might not like it, as i've seen them so much, but they really were quite excellent. Ville is a great performer, and the music they are doing now is just great, though a lot of people don't like it. I think maybe because its more "metal" than their other stuff (though obviously not as metal as proper metal - don't have a go at me about it!) people don't like the change in their sound. one thing i didn't like though - they really should do a black sabbath cover at some point!! as Ville talks about them all the time, and some of their riffs are similar (to me anyway) - i don't know maybe they won't do it because it might scare their fans! who now all seem to be about 15 - annoy as they all scream horribly when Ville comes on stage - but good as it means i can see over all of them, haha! :) they were great on stage, so overall it was a great night. Kill Hannah, the support band, were rubbish though!

Overall, I had a very excellent weekend :D I had written an excessive amount here, so i think i might just stop...but just to add that im quite excited about this week - am seeing Apocalyptica tomorrow (with my mum!), HIM again on thursday (again with my mum :D ) and VNV Nation next saturday as well....woooooo :D

The next one is this thursday, 6th September :)

This afternoon I have subjected myself to some truely awful music, to try and understand whats so popular about all these bands that everyone seems to like nowadays. I have heard bits and pieces of their songs, and from those combined with reading interviews with them, I have gathered that they're not the best bands in the world, but I thought I'd have a go and try to listen to at least one song by some of the most popular "alternative" bands nowadays, just to see what all the fuss is about. I almost gave up half way though - I couldnt cope with so much mediocrity and same-y-ness, but I got through the list I had given myself (through reading kerrang, music messageboards, etc). My findings are quite interesting really. Most of the bands I listened to are horrible and derivative, and I have come to the conclusion that:

My Chemical Romance, The audition, panic at the disco, taking back sunday, cute is what we aim for, fall out boy, madina lake, paramore, funeral for a friend, atreyu, aiden, 30 seconds to mars, kill hannah, senses fail, mewithoutyou, the academy is, coheed and cambria, hellogoodbye, bayside, biffy clyro, and i am ghost

all sound basically the same. And Alkaline Trio and AFI should be doing some serious sueing here - not only do all those bands basically sound like each other, they all sound like a mixture of alkaline trio and afi. I dont know how people can like things like this - they are all so much the same, there is no originality of music or style, half of the songs could have been by any one of the bands!!

there were also some other bands, which fitted into the 'shouty vocals, trying to be metal' catagory:

the bronx, mastadon, poison the well, blood brothers, thursday, alexisonfire.

and then you have trivium, who are just a total derivative of everything that metallica and slayer have ever done, they dont have any kind of original ideas.

get cape wear cape fly is just whiny and acoustic.

but the prize for the worst band ever must go to from first to last. I can't even begin to describe how terrible they are! their music is all over the place, they cant decide whether they want to shout or whine, or shout in a whiny way, its too fast ,theres not really a tune...just terrible! how do people listen to this rubbish!

there were however a couple of bands which I thought weren't too bad. Tv on the radio was the first, their vocals were excellent, and they were something different from the majority of the bands that i listened it. also 65daysof static sounded really interesting and electronic, but i couldnt find any songs with vocals, so i dont know, they could be bad anyway!

so yeah. quite an illuminating afternoon (i cant say interesting!). At least when I'm critisising them I now have a more fuller understanding of why they are so bad.

Does anyone else have any bands which they think i should listen to? any kind of new, alternative bands. I'm not into modern new music at all, but if anyone has any bands that they think I should listen to, please tell me! :) (whether you think i'd like them or not!)

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