London is Calling

I would totally buy this if I had the money. This guitar is sweet!

Emo... a how-to guide

Here's an interesting article I just found. It's quite entertaining.

Enjoy

Make Up Your Mind!

Ok so I have to admit when "Screamo" first started making an appearance in the music scenes in North America, I was intrigued. But as we all know it started being the new "it" thing in the music business and everyone and their fucking dog started playing screamo in their suburban garages with expensive equipment bought by lawyer mom and doctor dad.

It was about this time that many "screamo" bands tried to separate themselves from other screamo bands by becoming more metal, more pop or learning acrobats to perform on stage. And somewhere along the lines it became ok for shitty bands to be just that, shitty. In comes Escape The Fate, a 2005 addition the Epitaphs ever growing and mostly shitty* line up of bands. According to Wikipedia Escape the Fate, "prided itself, above all else, on an energetic and visceral live shows." That sounds about right because they're certainly not concentrating on becoming good song writers.

Why I feel the need to pick on Escape the Fate at this point, besides the fact that I just heard one of their songs on the radio, is because they are exactly the kind of band that I am talking about when I say "make up your mind" (see song The Guillotine). There are a million bands out there that feel that the more extreme they are on the metal side and the equal extreme of pop they demonstrate will put them a cut above. Wrong! It ends up sounding horrible. Imagine gutteral vocals overtop of really bad cheesy guitar licks and tossed around with a bit of emotional declarations of angst. I do realize that I just described most of the screamo bands out there, but crank up the shit factor to about 11 with Escape The Fate. Damn it! Just pick a genre and stick with it, especially if you're not that good in the first place. Get good at one thing at a time instead of being mediocre or bad at a bunch of different things.

There are bands out there that can combine many different genres and make it sound good but my guess is that they've been playing music for longer than these screamo kids have been alive. They're veteran musicians and can do it well. My suggestion to these bands is to play music for a lot longer and then think about (re)creating a genre. No matter how good you think you are, you're not.

It sure does feel good to vent.

Banana

*with the exception of
Atmosphere
Bad Religion
The Bouncing Souls
Cadence Weapon
Converge
Danger Doom
I Am Ghost
The Locust
The Matches
Millencolin
Motion City Soundtrack
Pennywise
Pulley
Some Girls
Vanna
The Weakerthans




Thank you and good night!





Banana

Don't Do Me Like That

This one is about the worst musical heart break I've ever experienced... I still get a little emotional just thinking about it. :'(

"Come on everybody get loose tonight, throw a hand in the air if ya feelin alright" most of you know this song or are at least familiar with it. This, "Get Loose" along with "Roth Kung Fu" were The Salads first big hits. I didn't take anytime for me to love them, it was instant and easy. I loved ska anyway and these guys were a toned down version of it with all the fun but not as many instruments. Fold A to B never left my stereo.

They made their way out east a few times and I made it a point to attend the show everytime. The first time was at the now defunct Chestnut Club on their Jagermiester tour a show at which my fiances band had the pleasure of playing, back when they were still called El Diablo. The whole show was great, everyone was so full of energy and alcohol. I bought a shirt and I managed to get some pretty great pictures. It was this night that my huge love for The Salads expanded.

Remember how the Chestnut was three floors? Well this night the top floor was for the bands complete with a big screen TV, pool table and a huge spread of alcohol, like buckets of it! I found my way upstairs eventually and somehow lost Breagh on the way. So there we are (by "we" I mean bands, band members girlfriends and random people) hanging out with The Salads, chatting and drinking copious amounts of Jag (which The Salads were sick of by now). A great night for sure.

The next time they came through town I made sure I freed that night on my calendar, there was no way I was going to miss this show. One downfall to the show was that it was being held at Sweetwaters, for whatever reason. But I was still willing to brave hanging out in the worst bar in Fredericton for the Salads. I'm pretty sure the bar and/or the promoters for this show randomly picked where the "stage" would be set up. The band was to play on a lower level of the bar while fans/patrons looked down at them while sitting down. THIS BAR IS NOT CONDUCIVE FOR A ROCK SHOW!! It seemed as though my friends and I were the only ones enjoying the show and letting the music move us. Despite not feeling as though I could really let loose at this show or the next show they played there, I still enjoyed myself because it was The mutha fuckin' Salads!! Oh I almost forgot to mention that shows at Sweetwaters fail miserably in the promotion department.

So after two horrible shows at Sweetwaters I said "fuck it" and decided to get a hold of The Salads and put them in contact with the many promoters I knew in Fredericton. Chuck got back to me and was stoked about getting better shows in the Maritimes. That was in 2005 and they haven't been back since.

In 2006 they released The Big Picture. As soon as it came in the music store I was working at at the time I opened it and played it. As soon as the first track started to play I knew that the Salads I knew and loved were no more, yet I continued to listen thinking that maybe there was a chance that Growing Up was the only track that sounded like Simple Plan. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and let the album play through. I wanted to like this album, I really did 'cause I loved The Salads. They sold out long before this album by selling their songs to Zellers commercials and Dawson's Creek but I was ok with that. Was I was not ok with was they're decision to make a radio-friendly pop-rock shit album. Not only was the music shit, the vocals sounded like some shitty Theory of a Nickel Creed wanna be. It's like they completly forgot about their reggae sound and influences and started only listening to Nickelback (shitty rock) and shitty metal. I could not bring myself to like this album, not even one song or one part/riff of one song. I'm just glad that I didn't go ahead and buy the album before hearing it.

I'm sure they wrote this album to break into the Top 40 and gain themselves a ton of mainstream fans but that didn't even work. Do you hear anything from them now? I don't even think they got medium rotation on the two singles they released. I guess that kind of backfired.

I am obviously getting a little angry writing this so I will leave it at that. Now you know the story of my biggest musical heart break.

Good night.

Banana

It's my Rock 'n Roll Duty...

... to rock out to Kim Mitchell!! Although I'm not sure it will be the same without the bald head mullet, I'll just imagine it.




So today the city of Bathurst, New Brunswick announced that the headliner for Hospitality Days in July will be none other than Kim Mitchell. I think anyone who grew up in the 1980's owes it to themselves to see Kim Mitchell live if they haven't already. Fuck it! Even if you have you should go again.

Go For Soda, Patio Lanterns and Rock 'n Roll duty were like 3 of my favorite songs as a kid. I know all of you reading this loved those songs too. There's no shame in a fondness for Kim Mitchell. I remember cranking the radio whenever those songs came on then singing and dancing all over my bedroom. Ahh those were the days. Dance parties for one aren't quite the same anymore. In an apartment like mine anyone eating on Dimitris patio or leaving the building out the back are going to witness my wonderful dancing skills... (my apologies I seem to have gotten a little off track, phew, dancing takes a lot of energy)

I've never been to Bathurst but Kim Mitchell seems as good a reason as any to take a trip there. I hope to see some of you obeying your rock 'n roll duty on July 28th along with me and whoever I manage to drag with me. Kyle, you know you wanna go!

Banana

Disaster is an Addiction

(My apologies for not writing lately, I promise to try to try harder from now on)

For those regular readers of my blog you may also know what I mean by Exclaim! Readers Poll. (For those of you who don't, get to know Exclaim! it's awesome!). Every year Exclaim allows readers to imput their opinions on the best albums and films of the past year. For some reason I decided to give them my two cents worth on what I thought about the releases in 2006. I thought why not I have nothing better to do right now, I would love for people to read what my favorite albums of the past year were and I get a change to win a great prize by doing it. So I made my way to the computer and began my Readers Poll adventure.

After asking the obvious Exclaim! reader questions about your Exclaim! reading habits the form got down to what I was in this adventure for the music categories. They looked a little something like this:

Pop/Rock Album of the Year:
Avant Garde/Experimental Album of the Year:
Electronic Album of the Year:
Punk Album of the Year:
TV collection on DVD of the Year:
DVD reissue/collection of the Year:
Music DVD of the Year:
Soul/Reggae/Global Groove Album of the Year:
Folk/Country/Blues Album of the Year:
Hip-Hop Album of the Year:

Metal/Hardcore Album of the Year:
Film of the Year (movies that were theatrically released in 2005):

Of course Exclaim! knows that not everyone knows what all the releases for all genres are all the time so in order to qualify for a prize they only expect a minimum of three categories to be answered. Being somewhat keen I ended up answering 4 or 5 of course at this point I can't remember any of the answers I provided. I'm sure most of my answers are included somewhere in my Things That Made 2006 That Much Better post.

15-20 minutes later I am finished and it's time to pick my top three prizes. I can't remember exactly what the prize packs were but I'm sure they included a couple instrument packs (ie. Fender, Premier), a couple record label packs (ie. Epitaph, Relapse) and a couple TV/Movie packs (ie. Paramount, 20th Century Fox). After a lot of thinking and a little talking with J-Woo I decided on a couple prize packs.

I didn't give the readers poll a whole lot of thought after I submitted my answers, it was just nice to put my opinions out there. That was until I receive an e-mail from some guy called Cam Lindsay who claimed to be from Exclaim telling me "Congratulations! You've won a prize from Exclaim!'s Readers Poll" and "we just need a little more personal information". Hooray!! See, I am one of those people that don't win a god damn thing regardless of the number of contests etc. I enter. It seems it was my lucky day. So I replied with the information requested with no regard for the possibility that this very well could have been a scam. I was too excited about winning a prize to think about something so negative. This was back at the beginning of February and I assumed that in a few weeks I would be receiving my prize. A week came and went and then another and another. On February 24th I decided to e-mail this Cam fellow to see where the hell my free stuff was and expected a reply shortly after he received the e-mail. I think he went on vacation this week 'cause I didn't hear anything back and ended up forgetting about the prize all together.

A month goes by and I came home for lunch like I always do and there is a box proped up against my apartment door. My first thought is "what have I ordered off the internet lately" of course nothing came to mind. So I picked up the box and carried it inside. I wanted to build the suspense for a little longer so I took the time to take off my shoes and coat and start my dinner. I glanced at the box and right away notice the label, it read "Relapse Records". I obviously had picked the Relapse prize pack when I filled out the readers poll. Yay! FREE STUFF!! I wasted no time in tearing into the box to see what they had sent me. After having pieces of all that wonderful styrofoam sick to me and wading through layers of my favorite wrap, the bubble type I finally find my first prize. A pile of stickers and some pins. They're obviously pushing The End really hard because they included like 8 Elementary stickers compared to the other bands in which they only included 2. The second thing I spotted was a T-shirt, I'm already well aware that there is no way they included a shirt that would even come close to fitting me. It was a large, at least it will fit J-Woo. Next! I then find 4 7" singles from a couple bands that I've never heard of nor can barely read their name because of the metal font they used. We own a record player so at least I can listen to them. After looking at my new 7"s I dive into the box again to find 4 piles of CD's. Jackpot! There's like 16 CD's in there!! I almost shit my pants. Many of the bands I hadn't heard of but who knows my new favorite band might be hiding in there somewhere.

I decided not to open the CD's just yet. Because I'm such a great girl I decided to wait until J-Woo was home and we would open them together. J-Woo and I have this weird thing where we really enjoy opening new CD's and DVD's and there's hell to pay if one of us opens a new CD that was purchase by the other person. So just like that our night was all planned out, thanks to Relapse and Exclaim! Being able to open this many CD's is like every OCD's dream come true but proved to be more of a pain in the ass than pleasurable experience. For some reason Relapse likes to put their promotional stickers onto the actually CD case instead of the plastic. So because J-Woo is better at taking stickers off we decided that would be his job for the night and I would get to take the wrapper and sticker across the top off (He totally got the shitty end of this deal).

And so it began, hours of unwrapping my box of new CD's. I love opening CD's, I probably wouldn't had I not learned a neat little trick while working at Music World. Thanks Patrick! You thought I was going to tell the secret didn't you? Fat chance! If you really want to know you'll have to ask.

The excitement began but I'm sorry to say it was short lived. After 6 CD's or so it started to feel more like a chore. I can only imagine what it would have been like for those who hate opening CD's. It's hard enough for those who don't know the trick to get the wrapper started but when you do you feel like you're in the home stretch. Sadly that's not always the case because sometimes you get half the wrapper off and the rest stays in place and you can't just pull it off like a pillow case. You either have to wiggle it off or try to start another rip to get it off. I really don't recommend trying to open a CD while driving, this could prove to be very dangerous. This task takes all of ones concentration. And as if it weren't bad enough having impossible plastic to deal with you then have a sticker that covers three sides of the case. Arrggg! Of course thanks to Patrick yet again there is a simple way to get these off. Without this advice you're stuck with a sticker that is coming off in pieces. I've seen many people just cut the sticker with a knife to get into the CD and then the sticker remains a part of the CD for as long as that person owns it. I'm sure these are the same people who cut the stickers on their DVDs as well. I don't know what it is, maybe a little OCD but I can't stand having any sort of packaging left on my stuff. It's like the people that used to leave the wrapper on their VHS tapes and leave an opening at the bottom to get the tape out of. Really what is the point of this? My apologies, I've gotten slightly off track.

So needless to say I had difficulties with my task of opening the CD's. J-Woo had even more trouble than I. Sticker duty is the worst especially when the don't come off cleanly the first try. I've tried numerous tricks for this including cooking oil, and tape but neither trick has worked 100% of the time. I'm still searching for that perfect trick. Maybe I should call the ladies that host How Clean is Your House? they have all kinds of tricks.

Anyway the moral of the story is most of the bands on Relapse are dirty, dirty metal. :)

Hope you enjoyed my story.

Banana

Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song

"But some of my friends are big people. They are famous, sensitive and talented
Their names are household words"

Those of you that keep up with my ramblings here might know that the title of my previous blog was taken from a line from a Squaredance Kid song, "A Song For Oak Point". For those of you that don't know, Squaredance Kid is my friend Jon Bowie and this blog is dedicated to him because he finally has a recording up on his myspace. I'm so proud and excited. I want the whole world to experience and enjoy his music as much as I do. So please check him out.

Luv Banana