Music Monday

Goodness gracious, it's been a disastrously long time since I've posted anything here.  Two weeks, a little more?  Something along those lines.  September 29-October 12; that makes 14 days--exactly two weeks.  Damn it, I'm good! haha.  Anyway, moving along.

So, in the past two weeks, I've bought 10 CDs.  [scratches back of neck in slight sheepishness] Oh, who am I kidding?  I'm not ashamed of myself in the least.  Other girls buy clothes, makeup, shoes--I buy those, too, just not as much--with their money, I buy music.  It's a damn good investment, if you ask me.  So there.
I figured out one day last week--Wednesday, actually; the day of my dentist appointment--that I have bought at least 59 CDs this year.  And those are the ones I recall buying in 09, not 08.  It's give or take, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.  From here on out, I'm counting. I've already spent $600+ on music alone this year.  And I have bought clothes, makeup, shoes, notebooks and writing utensils, food, et cetera.  That adds up to a fuckload of money I've spent this year, dude.  My teacher gave us some statistic about how much money teens spend in a year, but I never really believed him.  I think, starting January, I might start keeping receipts and adding shit up.  Talk about a very scary endeavor. =S
Anyway! Back to the music I've bought in the past 2 weeks!
The albums consist of:
AFI--Crash Love
Breathe Carolina--"Hello Fascination"
Never Shout Never--The Summer EP
Jeffree Star--Beauty Killer
Saosin--In Search of Solid Ground
Mayday Parade--Anywhere But Here
Relient K--Forget and Not Slow Down
Skillet--Awake
Thousand Foot Krutch--Welcome to the Masquerade
All Time Low--Put Up or Shut Up
Paramore--Brand New Eyes

AFI's is abso-fucking-lutely amazing as HELL.  I love it a lot.
Breathe Carolina's is definitely an impressive progression from "It's Classy, Not Classic."  Both of them are awesome albums, full of the cool electric stuff that I love so much and poppy/punky screamo.  I'm quite impressed.
Never Shout Never was surprisingly adorable, and pretty much exactly the opposite of what I was expecting.  It was double cool with knobs, as the Brit in my book (Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison) puts it--meaning incredibly cool, just without all the "very"s that people might throw in, like "very very very cool"--anyway--and "I Just Smile" when I listen to it.  I'll definitely have to be on the lookout for their other albums.
Jeffree Star's album is pretty much as fricken awesome as I was expecting it to be.  Jeffree is as beautifully cocky and....somewhat violent...as always, but this time in a full-length, 12-tracked CD available in stores like Target, in bigger cities than where I'm at.  Which is okay, because we have a Hot Topic, which is where I buy 95% of my music anyway.  Lollipop Luxury, which was on the "Cupcakes Taste Like Violence" EP has been redone just a bit and placed on the album.  Prisoner, found on the Warped Tour Compilation Album 2009, is also on Beauty Killer, along with the title track, Louis Vuitton Body Bag--which taught me how to correctly say the name of that designer, oops, haha--and Getting Away With Murder, all with their fair share of "I'm beautiful, love me!" and violence.  For example, Louis Vuitton Body Bag starts out with "stab you with scissors, and let's hold hands."  Friendly mix of "I hate you" and "let's be friends =)!"  Only...haha, not so much.
Saosin's new album is...a completely new ball game from the last, and I really, really love it.  It seems as though my musical tastes are evolving along with the bands' that I listen to.  Anyway.  There's not quite as much screaming on this album as the last, and I'm 100% okay with that.  Don't get me wrong, I like good screamo, but... I prefer singing in my music.  I'm sure all the "metal-heads" (listening to screamo, which is pretty much an emo rip-off of metal--an opinion for which I'll get ripped up by others for) out there are glaring at their screens when/if they read this.  But like I said, I like my fair share of screamo, but there's just something about being able to SING along with my music... I'm not so big on screaming along...just saying.  ANYWAY.  The album is really good, and I recommend at least going and looking at it.  I thoroughly enjoy it.  All of it.
Mayday Parade's new album is definitely my favorite along with AFI's.  It's absolutely amazing.  Bruised and Scarred is in my mind constantly, and I don't mind at all, because I completely love it.  There's a certain hope, or...something...on this album that the last didn't have--in respect to the words, I mean.  There's just a completely different feel to it, for me, at least.  I don't know about the rest of you.  But then, I'm in a different state of mind than I used to be.  Maybe that has something to do with it.  I don't know.  Regardless, Anywhere But Here is a beautiful, inspiring album.  I've used quotes from a couple of the songs in my messenger displays already.  Definitely a #1 recommendation.  Go buy it! NOW! haha. Kidding.  But seriously.
Relient K's new album is all right.  I mean, it's Relient K.  Has their sound ever changed?  I'm not certain.  Regardless, the vocals are still nice, and the guitars are still pretty good.  They're still Christian, still pretty soft, still Relient K.  But I like them that way.  So "just another RK album" is still a plus.
Skillet's new album makes me think that they had all of this planned out.  Collide, Comatose, Awake.  Hm.  Sensing a pattern?  I don't know.  I sure as hell am.  Anyway, it's a really amazing, powerful album.  Lucy made me teary-eyed, but I didn't actually cry.  I was on the road to work, actually; crying wasn't much of an option.  But Monster is really moving, Awake is strong and fast, and it's just reflected in the entire album.  It's Not Me It's You is another really good listen.  I give the album a solid 4.5 stars, lacking the final .5 because, still, though Skillet is amazing, and so is Comatose, Awake is just a touch of a repeat on Comatose.  I mean, the sounds are so similar.  Actually, on second thought, I'm going to make it a 4.75, because it's different enough to make another quarter point.  Also a #1 recommendation.

Thousand Foot Krutch's album is definitely just more TFK.  I mean, shit, don't get me wrong, it's good and all, but it's just another album of the same-old.  I'll like it a lot for awhile, and then it'll just be more music, and then I won't even feel like listening to it for awhile.  Just like the other albums.  Not a good track record... Oh well, they put on a really good concert.  I was impressed.  One of the first live bands I ever saw, so it's still a fond memory.  And I have a hat. ^^  haha.  I like it.  Don't wear it much, but I like it.  The one really interesting thing about this album is that the "chick" on the front cover, looks strangely like a man. Seriously!  Look at that jaw line!  It's intensely masculine. Maybe it's me?  But inside the cover, it's got a chick holding the mask, and she looks fine.  I don't know.  I know that "she's" got long hair there, and her lips are...somewhat plumpish but so what?  Guys have long hair! And some have nice lips!  It's just weird, that's all.  I'm terribly sorry if I just offended some chick with a strong, masculine jawline.  I also unfortunately have some strangely masculine traits, too... but I prefer to think that most are personality wise, haha.  =S  shutting up now.

All Time Low's sophomore album, Put Up or Shut Up.  It's fun.  Definitely as fun as the next two, which, of course, I do own.  I don't have a lot to say about this album, except that Jacie Ray is definitely my favorite song on it.  Oh, and I still rather love Alex Gaskarth.  haha

And lastly, Paramore's newest, Brand New Eyes... It's good.  They've gotten really, really, REALLY big since Twilight, because they've got a couple of songs on the album.  I need to go get that, speaking of which.  The soundtrack, not the movie.  I didn't like the movie.  The soundtrack rocks, though.  (Oh, and just saying, I was a fan of Supermassive Black Hole and Muse LONG before Twilight.  So there.)  Anyway.  Paramore.  It's a good album, but I don't have to say a lot about it since "everyone who's anyone will have this album anyway."  Maybe not.  I don't know.  But Hayley's voice is still awesome and fiery red--I see voices in color to clear things up--and the guitar is still moving and clean.  I like it.  The drum beats are pretty damn cool, too.

Thankfully that wraps things up, because the bell for the end of the day rings in 2 minutes.  Hah. SO!

Until next time, with love

--Emily

~xoxo~

Post Playlist (courtesy of first my Zune and then http://www.pandora.com/):
End Transmission--AFI (Crash Love)
Miseria Cantara-The Beginning--AFI (Sing the Sorrow)
When I Get Home, You're So Dead--Mayday Parade (Tales Told by Dead Friends)
Like a Knife--Secondhand Serenade (A Twist in My Story)
Heels Over Head--Boys Like Girls (Boys Like Girls)
Running From Lions--All Time Low (Put Up or Shut Up)
When I Grow Up--Mayday Parade (Punk Goes Pop: Vol. II) [Pussycat Dolls cover]
Sweat the Battle Before The Battle Sweats You--Cute is What We Aim For (The Same Old Blood Rush (With a New Touch))
I Want to Save You--Something Corporate (Leaving Through the Window)
Your Call--Secondhand Serenade (A Twist in My Story)
Myspace Girl--The Afters (Never Going Back to OK)
Everything You Ever Wanted--Hawk Nelson (Smile, It's the End of the World)
Captain's Chair--Sanctus Real (Fight the Tide)
Letters to the President--Hawk Nelson (Letters to the President)
Gone--Switchfoot (The Beautiful Letdown)
One Real Thing--Skillet (Alien Youth)
When Our Hearts Sing--Rush of Fools (Rush of Fools)
Sing--Sanctus Real (We Need Each Other)
Meant to Live--Switchfoot (The Beautiful Letdown)
We Change, We Wait--The Maine (The Way We Talk)
The Way She Moves--Forever the Sickest Kids (Underdog Alma Matter)
F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X--The Fall of Troy (Doppleganger)

Introduction Tuesday

I actually had to go back to blog 1 and find out what the heck I was supposed to talk about on Tuesdays, haha, and then I was going to title it "Celebrity Tuesday" but decided that was dumb... not that Introduction Tuesday is much better, but c'est la vi. (French: "Such is life.")

Anyway.... today, I think I'll talk to you about my idol--because I hate it when people call them heroes--David "Davey" Anthony Passaro Marchand "Havok"--Davey Havok for short. I used to know way more about him than I do now, partly because I quit caring as much, and partly because I realized how creepy stalkery it really was. Anyway. I know he was born on the east coast--I want to say Pennsylvania, but maybe New York; too lazy to look--and when he was seven, his dad died. His mom remarried and they moved across the country to California, where he went to school and then a year of college, double-majoring in English and psychology before he dropped out. (Which I actually find highly amusing, because the guy can't spell for shit.) He started singing into a wooden spoon at a family reunion when he was three. AFI started when he was in high school--I want to say age 15...--and was based on the fact that Davey could sing...because none of the others could play an instrument. And they picked up from there. (I have to say they did a damn nice job for kids who couldn't play.)
He's vegan, and he's straight-edge. He's been both since high school. I don't agree with his dietary decision, nor really his reason for being that way, but I respect his decision and that he sticks to it. Straight-edge is a term used for people who don't smoke, drink, or do drugs. At all. Ever. Period. Some of them go so far as to not even drink coffee, or use pain meds, or....shit, eat chocolate! (He doesn't go that far.) Up until recently, he had inspired me to be that way, but that's a story for another time.
I love the way he writes. He writes all of the lyrics (except for a few on Answer That and Stay Fashionable) for all the songs the band writes. Davey writes ambiguously, so that the direct meaning of a song will change with who you are, the mood you're in, your life experiences, and what you want to take out of that song, but they're still somehow specific. They can channel an emotion, and that emotion just builds. And he has an incredible way with words. (I have respect for anyone who can use words like "amaranth," "exquisite," "monolithic," "banality," and "disassociate." (I looked for the best one, but couldn't remember what song it was in and couldn't find it. sorry.))
The guy's also gorgeous, I won't deny it. I mean, some people--like my mom, for example--think he's creepy or disgusting (that's my mom) or just plain psycho or something. Probably gay. I think he's hot. Not as much as I used to, granted, but still. He's beautiful. Incredible facial structure...and beautiful eyes. Oh my God, that man has the most beautiful brown eyes I've ever seen in my life... ugh... Anyway. Ahem... As I was saying... He also has this incredible voice... I just love it. I see voices in color, and his is...well, maybe I'll leave that for another time. That requires explanation I don't have time for. I've only got 23 minutes until it's not Tuesday anymore. I'm hurrying...

Anyway. Basically, the guy's my idol for being so different in an industry where everything's thrown together. He doesn't drink or touch drugs or smoke--and in his case, he can be a rock star without consulting Nickelback's repertoire of conditions involved--he's highly intelligent, incredibly talented, and beautiful. What more could you ask for?


Until next time, with love,
--Emily
~~xoxo~~

(Tuesday doesn't have a tracklist because I typed it in bed when I was supposed to be sleeping because I have standardized testing in the morning. Yay me. Ugh...)

Music Monday

So I realize that I just posted my introduction like, 30 seconds ago, but it's Monday. And I like talking about music. So I'm gonna. And you can't stop me. (But you can go away and quit reading, but don't let me give you any ideas....)

So. AFI is one of my very favoritest bands ever. They started in California when they were in high school, but since then, they've put out 7 studio albums [plus some EPs], with the 8th coming out in just a couple of weeks. I said it once already, but I'll say it again, I'm so excited, I just can't stand it. I personally own 5 of these, and once Crash Love comes out, that number will increase to 6...unless I find another before then.

Jade Puget and Davey Havok of AFI came together a few years ago and put together Blaqk Audio, who, after a few years of work, put out Cex Cells in 2007. They're electronica, and really different from anything that AFI has ever been, which is good, because otherwise it'd have been disappointing. But that's me. (By the way, I own this CD, too.)

All Time Low is another favorite. They've got 3 studio albums, I believe, and I have 2 of them. I'm only missing their first, with Circles and Coffee Shop Soundtrack on it. I forget the name just now, and I'm too lazy to go look it up. Maybe later. I've probably got it written down, anyway.

I get Alternative Press magazine, which is the source for a lot of bands I end up getting into anymore. If they're featured in AP, I have the tendency to look them up online. If I like them, they get added to my "I want this CD!" list. If I don't, I cross them off and move on to the next. Consequently, I have an "I want" list a few hundred disks long...haha...and an "I Own" list nearing 200.

As far as genres go, I mentioned this a little before, but basically, I don't care what genre it is so long as it's good. I like strong, moving beats, but I also like slow music. Rock, Alternative, Powerpop, electronica, techno, metal, hardcore, punk, you name it. And Christian. With screamo, I used to like it a lot, but lately, I only like it if it's really good, and I have to be in the mood for it. I don't know how to define "good screamo" though. It's kind of an opinion thing. You either like it or you don't, right? Precisely. Such is the way of music. As far as Christian goes, I like bands like Kutless, Reliant K, Flyleaf, Skillet, etc. The edgier, more rocked-up Christian music...and often times, the Christian music that isn't in-your-face, God-God-God. I find preachy music--of any type--to be obnoxious. But a good song about God? Sure, why not.

Along with music, I love live music. I love to go to shows, and I love to support local bands. There are a few in the Minot area that I know of and have seen, like Stay Out Late, Diabolic Octopus, The Earth and Everything In It [who are on a perhaps permanent hiatus with one member in Minneapolis for college], and......hmm....Agony of Apathy, but they're from Williston... I'm trying to think of more, but I'm drawing blank. There's a chick who does acoustic stuff, but I can't remember her name, and I guess, to be honest, she's only okay. And then there's Merrick, but to be quite honest, they suck really bad. (Sorry guys...) Oh, and there's Galaxies, but as far as I know, they haven't recorded anything or done shirts or anything, so, I don't know how serious or side-projecty that one is. Up in the air.
I don't get to go to a lot of shows, because my mom's kind of against the whole idea... I don't really know why, but unfortunately, I don't get the option either way. Most of the concerts I get to go to end up being Christian bands because the people I get rides from refuse to listen to anything but Christian music...which, to be quite honest, is rather frustrating. I got the girl's dad into Shinedown (because someone told me they were Christian when they introduced me to them and I hadn't looked yet to find out that they weren't) and then he got pissed when he found out they weren't Christian and now he's decided that he can't like them because they're not. It's like, come on, get a life. There is such a thing as Christian-friendly secular music, all right? Get over yourself. I don't know. Whatever.
Anyway......so yeah...... As far as albums coming out in the near future that I know of and am pretty excited for are Saosin's new album in October, Paramore's on the 29th, AFI's on the 29th, Jeffree Star's on Wednesday, and.......I know there are more, but I don't have that document with me, and I'm too lazy to go to the other computer and look. So there.

So that pretty well ends Music Monday....
Meet you tomorrow! (Different time, same place.) =)

Until next time, with love,
--Emily
~~xoxo~~


blog playlist, courtesy of www.jango.com:
Live This Down--Papa Roach
Moon Mad--The Psychedelic Ensemble (only about a third of it; I skipped wiht 6:30 left)
Summer Shudder--AFI
Year Zero--30 Seconds to Mars
Prayer of the Refugee--Rise Against
Our Time is Now--Story of the Year (was okay, as screamo goes)
Walk Away (Maybe)--Good Charlotte
Faking My Own Suicide--Reliant K
Hurt--Thousand Foot Krutch
Nothing Left to Show--Hawk Nelson