Alright guys,
I know I don’t post too much, but when I do they’re brilliant, right…..RIGHT?! Anyway, I thought I’d let you know about a post that I’m planning on doing. Basically social networks have been doing my nut. So I spontaneously decided yesterday, in light of my constant bitching, that I would go ‘cold turkey’ from all forms of social networking for a week. Not a ban from updating, but a full ban from checking and everything. Yes I know you’re probably cool and don’t use Facebook already so it’s no big deal. I’m very thrilled for you but this is about me - someone that frequents Facebook quite a lot (even though I don’t update) so as much as I would agree it’s not a big deal - as I don’t really like it much either, or rather I hate what it’s become, but I’ll go into all kinds of detail when I post the final thing - I thought I could make something cool out of it and document some things about my week without social networks.
Note social networks. Twitter has been banned too. Checking and updating. I think this will be as missed as Facebook in a sense. Even though I hate TT’s (Why not turn them off then? …because you sometimes find some cool stuff out via TT) Twitter gives me a similar experience to Facebook, but I get to keep up with all the dudes who are massivley anti Facebook…as well as air my views about how much Facebook annoys me to a more appropriate readership (big up #bsk) Also there’s the celeb element. I don’t follow many ‘celebs’, but a few of them are genuinely cool to follow. I like the ones that use it in the same way I do: “I’m watching this that or the other, it’s great/shit or whatever” instead of: “I’ve got a DVD out, go and buy it” - Jimmy Carr and Kevin Bridges come to mind, they’re both quite entertaining.
Basically I’m going to diary each day and try my best to document my experiences without social networking. The aim is to try and conclude whether I like being without them, or if the drama and hassle is in fact worth it because they’re actually cooler than I think.
Stay tuned. Oh, it’ll be a long post - consider yourself warned.
So yeah, this guy is one my favourite musicians. And er…yep, that’s a skeleton suit.
(Source: metallidon, via fuckyeahmastodon)
(Source: justinrampage, via galaxynextdoor)
Here’s my second and last post from LastFM’s ‘Journal’ section, on the subject of Reading and Leeds festivals:
Entry 2: Reading and Leeds Festivals - originally posted March 21 2011
Its no secret i’m not a fan but I genuinely feel I have justification. I figured that here was the best place to vent my feelings on the issue without having people think I’m just hating on EVERYONE that goes - which i’m not, cause some good chums are avid attendees of R+L, and even people who’s music taste I at least respect if not agree with - or that i’m just being anti-popular culture for the hell of it, or putting my own taste on a pedestal or all of the above. Here’s my main gripe with Reading and Leeds:
You know how people think it’s cool to go to a festival, not because they like the music but because they like to be able to say they’re going to Reading Festival? Yeah? Well, it’s basically these people that fuck me off. And in my experience, it doesn’t happen as much (emphasis on as much) as Reading and Leeds. I’ve been to both Reading and Leeds (day tickets) and while we were there, waiting hours for our beloved ‘tallica (who didn’t see that one coming!) we were surrounded by annoying little douchebags absolutely covered in make up, wearing their pretty sun glasses with their perfectly done hair. Now, the reason that this annoyed me as much as it did is because you don’t go to a festival and care what you look like. You’re in a fucking field. You go there and get wasted, watch some bands, then get more wasted. Now, if people want to make an effort with how they look then that’s fine, but at the same time it really annoys me that they’re not even paying attention to the band on at the time - which in itself isn’t unusual at a festival, if you’re near the back chilling/drinking…but in row 3, on the mainstage, halfway through the day you’d think people who made the effort to get that close to the front would at least like the band. No. My gripe was justified even more that when Tenacious D finished and people just left the mainstage - now, I should point out that people leaving when my band are on genuinely plays no part in formulating this opinion, most people won’t believe me, but it’s actually true; if nothing else I can get closer to the front :P - but they’re the headliner. I’m not a fan of AC/DC but I still watched them at Download, because they’re a big name and it’s good to be able to say i’ve seen them play live…because I like music and I realize that it’s not something to be missed.
I guess I should point out that the reasons people go to a festival don’t annoy quite as much as it seems, I don’t sit around crying about it…honest. But the knock on affect of people trying to look and act cool is that the atmosphere suffers. When i’ve been to Download previously for the w/e or the day there’s just a relaxed atmosphere - no one gives a fuck what other people are doing, and you don’t feel like a twat at any point, where as at R&L I got the feeling that people weren’t that eager to let their guard down, they were a little bit concerned about looking like a twat (the other half were drunk, but I like those ones!). I don’t know, that’s the vibe I got.
I must point out tho that R&L do wonderfully well at getting bands that are popular in that year to play. If I liked popular music more i’d be on it, and my gripes aren’t enough in themselves to put me off - but I choose not to go because I don’t care that people will go ‘cool’ when you tell them you’re going Reading, compared with going ‘Wha?’ when you tell them you’re going to Sonisphere haha. I chose the less (tho not unpopular by any stretch) popular option because the music appeals more to me than saying i’ve been to a popular festival.
If you can’t be arsed to read my rant, here it is in short:
Don’t go to festivals because you think it makes you look cool, go because you like the bloody music. And my dislike towards R&L goes toward a fairly small percentage of the demographic, but the sheer fact they exist puts enough of a cloud over it, when compared to other festivals that I might frequent, to turn me away.
Re-reading this has just made me question my disdain for R&L - is it pointed in the right direction? Is it the fault of the organizers that they, as I said earlier, are arguably the best place to go for all the popular rock music - to the point where the festival in its own right gains a reputation for being cool regardless of the bands on a given year. Reading my post back makes me question if its ‘it’s fault’ as it were. It doesn’t change my feelings, I still groan when I see people on moronbook going ‘yay, i’m going to reading’ - and 362 days of the year they don’t even hear a song that’s not on Heart 102.9, or in liquid. These people don’t like music! I think the long and short of it is that it’s almost the creator of it’s own downfall. Because of the reputation it has made for itself it attracts the posers, which as a result turns people who go for the music away because we don’t want to have to mix with all the posers there. Arguably meaning the festival suffers (not because i’m not there personally, but…well, you know what I mean you pedantic fucks!)
I know, most of you that might read this are probably going ‘dur’ - but that’s because you’re not morons.
increase the peace
I’ve got a couple of things posted way back as what Lastfm classifies as ‘journal entries’ - but who’s going to see them on there all hidden away and stuff? So I thought it’d be cool to post them in here.
Entry 1 - originally posted Jan 20 2011
So, here’s the deal: I’ve been listening to a bunch of new music lately. New in the sense that I’ve not personally heard it before - not in the sense that it’s just come out. Because let’s face it - there is not a whole lot of above average music coming out all that often. Not in my field of interest anyway.
I’ve been listening to a bunch of music that’s a lot heavier than I ever figured I might get into. The reason for this I reckon is that as I discover bands that I feel are heavy when I first hear them I soon get desensitised to the heaviness of their music, and so I go in search of something that I regard as ‘heavy’ again, in comparison to what I already know. And repeat. So I’ve gotten to a point where I’m into the realm of some pretty hardcore shouting and screaming. But I’m not too fussed about the pussy high pitched screaming, it’s all about the bordering Death Metal low, I guess you might term ‘gutteral’ vocal style. The best discovery in said category is easily Lamb of God. They’re exactly what I’m after in this kind of music; a heavier version of the music I love (‘normal’ verse/chorus/verse/breakdown -not necessarily in that order!- structured metal) LoG manage to make heavy music interesting and engaging without resorting to making everything damn near inaudible. Their album ‘Wrath’ is an excellent example of a heavy but perfectly listen able album. It’s fucking quality. I recommend it, highly.
Having mentioned that I enjoy a particular structure I am not confined to this type of music because, as enjoyable as it is, this would be boring. I’ve also recently discovered Architects. Their music, in terms of structure is far from normal. This kind of music, on first listen is all over the shop. But the good thing about this band is that it is brutally heavy, but mixed as such that it all remains audible. Their breakdowns, or as I term them ‘chuggy sections’ (another type of riff that I immensely enjoy) are phenomenal. As well as being technically amazing musicians makes listening to their stuff a really enjoyable endeavour. Also, the great thing about their blend of frantic, constantly changing within songs style is that you notice and identify with different parts of the song each time you hear it through.
Continuing on the theme of ‘enjoying ‘chuggy’ stuff a hell of a lot’ - this means that the door has opened to another dimension of heavy music. Some of which might be termed ‘metalcore’ - tho I’m not the greatest fan of all these sub labels within the same genre. Enter: Parkway Drive. These guys are, from the wee amount that i’ve heard - most notably their newest release Deep Blue - a kind of blend of all the things i’ve said I enjoy about the two previous bands i’ve highlighted. Some great all out riffs coupled with some really heavy breakdowns and brutally heavy vocal work. They’re definitely going to get explored in more depth. Having said that, I identified on Twitter as I was exploring Deep Blue for the first time that they, at times, came across a bit cheesy - not in a musical sense, but in the context of lyrical content and delivery. Now, cheesyness is not something that I dig in music. I think it stems from my disdain for most joke bands, that take themselves a bit too seriously for a joke band. I’m not suggesting that PWD are at all a joke band tho, and it doesn’t come across as such either. It’s just a comparison and partial explanation for why I might not identify with certain parts of their music…at the moment.
‘At the moment’ is a crucial part of that paragraph. because my music taste is an ever changing entity, and something that I might not enjoy on one listen through might be the most enjoyable thing about it on a separate listen through, when I am in a different mood so identify with another part of their style. Also I realise that with bands in this musical category lyrical content isn’t what most people are interested in - usually because you can’t fully make out what’s being said. Perhaps you could interchange cheesy and cliche in this respect. I don’t know/care.
In a complete 180 spin away from metal I also did a bit of rediscovering of some of the hip hop I was introduced to whilst at university. i.e Jurassic 5, Blackstar, Mos Def, MF Doom. My opinion of this type of hip hop is always changing; sometimes I listen to it and find it really phat, and awesome and groovy. Other times I just don’t identify with it. This is because usually, I must confess, generally I enjoy the more mainstream style of rap, i’m not sure why, but it has something else to it. I guess you might call it swagger. Tho I use this term not fully understanding it and using it in the context of my own definition. I also think that this opinion arises because mainstream rap is something that you might hear in a club when you’re out, and drunk, and it’s just great to throw some shapes to and even better if you know the lyrics to spit some bars all over that shit haha. I also think that with mainstream rap the emphasis is usually on the rapper, compared with some of the artists I listed above where the music is as emphasised as the lyricist. And initially it takes me a lot longer to get into the instrumental side than it does to identify with stuff where it’s all about the vocals. However, taking a step back from my own generalised view I’ve really enjoyed revisiting this kind of hip hop, because it is pretty amazing, and a lot of the rappers (notably Charli 2na) are fucking amazing and miles ahead of what you’ll find in mainstream rap/r&b. Recommendations: Jurassic 5’s ‘Quality Control’ and ‘Power in Numbers’
Finally i’ve been listening to some of the really old Prog Rock recently; Hawkwind (ok, you might call them space rock, whatever.) and Genesis. I started with their first releases and I enjoyed them, but I also felt there was a lot that I didn’t identify with and some of it is quite hard to process! Nonetheless I enjoyed parts of both records (Hawkwind self titled and Genesis Foxtrot) and shall continue the discovery of these bands by going against the ‘chronological’ approach I usually use to exploring bands, and I’m just going to jump in with their most well know/rated albums before I make a call on weather or not I do or don’t like them. I do like Prog, but right now, based on my initial impressions from the two records I head, i’m not sure if they’re a little far out. Too much Prog and not enough Rock - to put it cheesily.
So, that’s that. I’m not really sure how much this post might be understood, because discussing music in depth is really hard to do unless you’re face to face with someone, because it’s just easier and you can use examples without having to find them on youtube or try and demonstrate what you’re on about purely by explaining it. But I have tried to explain my taste and opinions as best as I can with what little power over the English language I posses.
incredible band, incredible album, incredible looking piece
(Source: miguelthrashes, via fuckyeahmastodon)
Don’t you love inside jokes? You know, stuff that Joe Bloggs just wouldn’t understand but you and a few pals think is the best thing ever. Well, me and pal frequently try and put song names/lyrics or general catchphrases we make up about bands into our everyday text message/facebook exchanges - even if it means sucking all meaning out of said exchange, because I for one find it hilarious. I thought I would post a recent example, as writing it made me chuckle. If you don’t know Deftone’s ’Diamond Eyes’ album this will make no sense to you at all:
Samuel Foster to Craig Rockett
“Deftones rule your balls!”
[To which I replied…]
“shut up before I put some rocket skates on, go up to Notts, look you right in the diamond eyes and carve ‘You’ve Seen The Butcher’ into your sorry excuse for a face. Then you’ll have to go to beauty school to get that shit repaired and your dreams of making a sex tape with Michelle McManus will never come true. Going to such extreme measures is a bit of risk, but that’s what it takes to be a royal prince, because this place is death. What a load of bullshit, I might as well be talking in code - some sort of cmnd/control, 976-evil mumbo jumbo.”
See, absolute bull crap, but I found it funny enough to blog.
Inside jokes rule.
[Flash 10 is required to watch video]
I’ve recently discovered the joys of plugging my guitar into my computer and recording into Audacity. I don’t claim to be amazing at guitar, or the software side of it, but this took me a bit of time - and it would all be wasted if it didn’t share it with you. It has no name.
30 Years down the line, the Mighty Metallica Machine rolls on. Some of the things they’ve done at the 30year celebrations have been incredible. Most notably, obviously, is the return of the ginger ninja - Dave Mustaine - and appearances from Black Sabbath members. Personal highlights include ‘To Live is To Die’, ‘Outlaw Torn’ and perhaps more surprisingly, I would love to have seen ‘I Disappear’ and ‘Dirty Window’ played live. Suffice to say I would have sacrificed a testicle to be at those shows.
Wassup Internet?
I realise I haven’t posted for a wee while, I’ve had a few planned but haven’t really put them into practice - I want, and will get around to eventually, write a couple of posts about Mastodon’s The Hunter and Machine Head’s Unto The Locust. But those little gems (or snore-fests, depending on your view) will have to wait. Although the subject of this post is about music, it’s a little different to my usual ‘this or that band/record is awesome’ structure that usually dominates my posts, or ramble. This little excursion is actually about me.
So, a few of you might know that I’ve been taking guitar lessons for about 3 or 4 months now. Something I would recommend for anyone who’s half tempted to start playing an instrument. I was originally teaching myself and had been for about 5 years or so, and I can do the basics really well, as well as some more difficult stuff - mostly relating to speed, because I was teaching myself through learning songs, and the songs I found myself wanting to play are usually, because of my music taste, quick-ish metal songs (Which basically translates to me teaching myself Metallica’s back catalgue xD) So I got to a point where I was quite content with my rhythm playing, but lead was always a massive mystery to me. Partly because of the speed of the solos of bands I regularly listen to are about a million miles an hour, and also because there is so much more going on with lead playing - bends and slides and such - that you can see a tab and replicate it, but it will have no resemblance to the original. Something that really annoys me, I like to be able to play something and people go ‘yeah, that sounds just like X or Y song’
The other reason I wanted to get lessons is the creative element. I’ve been to jam with a few randomers I’ve found via the interweb, and only being able to play songs is a bit of a constraint - especially if your fellow musicians aren’t as big into the bands I am. It makes for an awkward jam session, and doesn’t usually translate to a second meeting. So I wanted to get myself to a point where I could turn up and improvise and handle the different things that might be thrown at me in a jam situation. The best example of this I’ve had is with the first chap I started jamming with. He’s hands down the best guitarist I’ve played with. We turned up, set our shit up and stood around waiting for someone to take charge. This dude says: Right, I’m going to solo in A, so give me a riff and the drummer will give us a beat around it. At this point in time, I had NO IDEA what this meant, which notes I could and couldn’t hit in that key. I had no choice but to look up and say ‘I don’t really understand that at all’ - so we ended up jamming on Black Sabbath’s Paranoid (Isn’t that a massively cliche song to jam on!?) and moved onto me playing some other riffs I knew. He was such a brilliant guitarist, could really really play. But I’ll never forget how kind of silly I felt having to basically say: I can only really play what a tab/someone tells me to. I was in a really rubbish situation because I could play my instrument, but I couldn’t really adapt and play something improvised. I’d always said I would like lessons at some point and unfortunately a couple more jam sessions that came to nothing occurred before I took the plunge and booked in.
When I first started I was very nervous, even just playing in front of someone meant to be teaching me. Because I’d literally never played in front of people (who weren’t morally bound to say ‘yes, Craig. Very good’) and also because my teacher is absolutely mental at guitar - as you’d expect. Since I’ve started I have come on so much quicker than I would have done teaching myself. My teacher (Steve) as you’d expect, is in a band. The other people in his band also teach their respective instruments, so every few months or so they have a ‘Student jam’ where, as the name suggests, students get up there with the band and play a couple songs each with the band. Do you see where I’m going with this?
In case you don’t, allow me to spell it out for you: A couple of lessons in my teacher (Steve, for those of you who’ve forgotten) says “What are you doing December 11” “…nothing” I gingerly respond. “Well, (explains the concept of the student jam) I’d like you to play a couple songs” I immediately said yes, knowing that even though I didn’t really want to I would kick myself if I hadn’t done it. The next question was what I’d be asked to play: “Well, we don’t do any metal songs, but you could play on Lenny Kravitz’s - At this point in time I was immediately thinking ‘Please say ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’, which is what he said. He then casually added: “and I want you to take a solo” …suffice to say I shat myself. He also wanted me to play Cee Lo Green’s Forget/Fuck You. The point in this was to get me out of my comfort zone. Which it did, but I have a soft spot for that track so I agreed again.
I’ll stop the minute by minute account of how it came about now and get onto the good stuff. I had massive amounts of trouble with the solo, I wasn’t going to be learning it note for note, more playing ‘a solo’ in the same key - Eminor for those that care - so I spent a good few hours just playing along to the rhythm track that would accompany the solo section (thanks to GuitarPro!) and recording it, playing it back to myself, seeing what I liked and what I didn’t. Eventually I had 40seconds (I think it’s about that long) of solo, written entirely by myself, that fit very well. I was absolutely ecstatic as I thought it sounded great - and that’s half the battle, right?! When I showed it to my teacher he thought it was pretty good too, and we worked on timing (Not my strong point) and it was all mapped out. I went on to rehearse it for about 5weeks or so until D Day arrived.
D DAY: I didn’t sleep too well the night before, but eventually 9 30am came around and I got up had a coffee and done all the usual morning bullcrap without being too nervous. As the clock raced around toward 1pm I was getting decidedly more nervous. Jump forward to about 10 past 2 and the preceding song was going on. I tuned up and constantly wiped the sweat off my hands and guitar pick. Then it finished, my teacher took to the mic and said something along the lines of: “The next guy is Craig - he loves his metal, Metallica and Megadeth type stuff as well as a bit of Justin Bieber. That’s right isn’t it Craig?” To which I nodded and laughed and took to the stage. I heard one of the other students say: “No way, he’s got a flying V” - which made me chuckle.
As soon as it was time I jumped right in with the riff, felt like I was playing it at about a million miles an hour - then the groove of the riff kicked in and I slowed to tempo. Eventually we get to the bridge before the solo, I step on the pedal to jump to ‘uber distortion’ mode, yoinked the guitar volume up and thumped through my solo. Having mentioned my struggle with timing earlier, I remember getting to a simple run down the high e string towards the end of the solo and thinking “The timing’s worked, awesome!” Afterwards there’s about 30seconds left and I enjoyed it more because I’d successfully played the solo and I had a bit of banter with Steve (remember him? …Guitar teacher. Ringing any bells?). The song ended and I wasn’t really sure what to do, so I just walked off stage looking kind of nervous and out of place.
Turns out, I was the only one that played a solo of all the students. This made my ego a little bigger.
The second track didn’t go quite as swimmingly, nothing terrible - I just got a little muddled up at one point. The one thing I noticed was that it was a little awkward being on stage - probably because I’d never met the rest of the band! Also because I had never been in that position before, so didn’t wanna act like I was a rock star and get to into it, you know? So I just kind of played through my song without much fuss. One thing that pleasantly surprised me was that I expected to feel a little more scrutinized than I did. I think it helps that lights were set up so I could barely see anyone, and I spent 90% of my time looking down at my guitar, and the other 10% facing a different way!
The most relate-able way I can put the whole experience is you know when you get given a presentation to do at school/uni and you really don’t want to do it - but once it’s done you wonder why you were nervous? Yea, it’s like that. I do have the bug to play live now though; I want to do it again, quickly - preferably playing a couple more songs more up my street. But I now know I can do it, and that’s the main thing. I think also it makes you realise, and I swear I’m not being a big headed prick, you can actually play the guitar so going forward I’ll have less apprehension about being judged. I must say some of the other guys that were playing really inspired me. There was a few of the drum students that were as young as about 7, and they got up there and were really good! I thought, if they can man up and get it done, I have no excuse.
Where all this is going, is it’s given me the confidence to get out there and play. And also when people ask if I’m any good, instead of jumping to my default answer of no, I might be inclined to not put myself down as much which might benefit me more in the long run.
I know most people who might stumble on my blog somehow might not care about me, the type of music I like, and in turn my musical endeavours but I thought it was important to document and put out there my thoughts and feelings on the whole thing both for future reference and for myself to think about and evaluate the whole process.
So if you made it this far, I salute you.
Cheers for your time
Craig.
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