Forget it

I said I’d post an article yesterday, but I had it written all out and after thinking about it a little, I didn’t like it very much so I trashed it. Yeah. It just wasn’t up to where I want my material to be. And considering that 90% or so of this site is utter bullhock, you’ve gotta imagine it was pretty bad for me not to run it. So today you get links! Links to my favourite sources for celebrity gossip/bashing/nakies!

What Would Tyler Durden Do? – A good place to hear anything that might be important or funny. Honestly though, most of the humour is less about teh celebrities than it is just from the dude’s rambling. Also, the source of the aforementioned nakies.

Go Fug Yourself – The best site I’ve read as far as celebrity bashing goes. I recommend starting on the Britney Spears page. There’s nobody more fun to laugh at than good ol’ K-Fed.

Unmasked: RP’s Blog – Technically not centered on cleberities, but it’s written by Ryan Perry of GorillaMask.net, so if the old GMask (before it turned into a link dump) is any indication, there’ll be some good dirt in the future.

Band of the Month – November 2005

Before we get started, I just thought I’d mention that about an hour after I got my network set up, it went all iggldy-biggldy and even after spending several more hours trying to get it back, it’s still broken. I guess I’m just not meant to have a home network… Until I buy an access point! That will work for sure! Money down the toilet!

This month’s band is the third band I’ve reviewed that partcipated in the 2004 Nintendo Fusion Tour, but the only one that I was listening to before said event. I stumbled onto the Lostprophets way back in the day when WinMX was still the best P2P on the market. I just happened to be looking for ninja music (as odd as it may sound, I kid you not) and came across a song called “Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja” which turned out to be a really good song. But who were these Lostprophets that were credited with the song? I searched up a couple other songs, “Still Laughing” and “Ode to Summer.” I liked, but wasn’t taken enough to really look into them much more than that.

Lurch forward in time to early 2005. I’m shopping for CDs, and come across a band I know very little about, Lostprophets. I’d heard a little about them recently due to the NFT’04, and remembered that “Start Something” was a pretty decent song. $20 later, I walked out of the store with the CD in hand. And that’s my story. Also, somewhere in between the second and third paragraph, I’d heard the song “Last Train Home”, which helped make my decision. Should have mentioned that before.

So the band. Yeah, they’ve released two CDs. The first, The Fake Sound of Progress, came in 2001 and I never noticed. However, Start Something managed to catch my attention nearly a year after its release. As far as the fans are concerned, it’s pretty much a split between those who like Start Something and those who hate it. I’m in the former group. Those who hate it say that the first album is infinitely better, but since I’ve never listened to most of it, I really can’t pass judgement.

Start Something, however, is a totally different story. I think it’s a great album. Rather than run down each track, today I’ll just mention a couple high points. Firstly, I’d like to point out that the Lostprophets do a really good job of moving from one song to another. Most bands will finish a song and then movce onto the next. On this CD though, there is a segue or interlude between nearly all the tracks. It’s not a huge thing, but it’s a very nice touch. As for songs, I’m stuck between “Burn Burn”, “Goodbye Tonight” and “Sway” when it comes to my favourite song. They’re all distinctly different; “Burn Burn” is strong and offering a unique sound, “Goodbye Tonight” is a technically slow song, but ends up being really heavy and emotional, and finally, “Sway” is… Well, it’s “Sway”. It’s so soothing and atmospheric. If there is any one song you need to download from this CD, that would be the one. Not to mention that at the end if it, they go into another instrumental piece that counjures thoughts of a movie with a tragic ending.

Definitely a sweet band, check ’em out if you like the kind of new wave rock/emo/screamo business that I seem to enjoy so much. Though emo is a harsh word to use. It’s more of a civilized punk sound, as much as that seems like an oxymoron. Regardless of classification, the band is good. I shouldn’t have to say it a third time. You know, it’s odd. I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve reviewed these guys before…

All fear the SoulNet!

After, oh, five minutes of tampering, I was finally able to set up my home network, and now I have the power of internet in my room! Expect swarms of locusts and a blood-red moon anytime now.

So with that in mind, not only can I write articles in my room, but I can also post them! Ha… ha…. Yeah, it’s not going to make a difference. All it’s really good for is keeping me off the family compy so that others may (hopefully) do more productive things with it. The only downside is that I haven’t been able to unlock the mysteries of file sharing, so all the SoulNet (as it has been branded) is good for is internet. Which is still plenty damn good. I have an article ready for posting soon, but not today. Tomorrows will be the BotM and maybe the next day I’ll give you an article.

Three thousand

It’s coming up soon. Not much else to say about it, but I am going to put up a new banner to celebrate. Some of you may have already even seen it…

On a video game related topic, I was standing pretty strong for… four days. Today I couldn’t restrain myself, and bought Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix. But it’s not as bad as all that. I’ve wanted a DDR game for the longest time, and this was the perfect excuse. Now I just need to sucker someone in my family to buy another dance pad thing. While the game is all you can expect from DDR (assuming you have prior knowledge of the Dance Dance Revolution series), the songs are quite an odd bunch. It’s mostly remixed Mario music, as you would assume, and all the other songs are remixed classical songs. No popular music to be seen. Not that I’m complaining. The one thing that does bug me is that the “story mode” is the most ridiculous thing ever, but it’s not a big issue. There are actually quite a few mini-games too, but most of them are boring and not worthy of mention. There really isn’t much more to say, so that’s all for now.

Letterkills – The Bridge

Letter Kills is one of the three bands that I started listening to after being introduced to them by the Nintendo Fusion Tour of 2004, along with AnBerlin and Autopilot Off. It’s the only one of those three that I still listen to regularly. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend any of tour’s shows that came close to here, but that’s another story altogether. Today, it’s a CD review for you.

As I was saying, I started listening to Letter Kills pretty recently, and with just cause; they’re a relatively new band. The album in question happens to be their debut, so it’s not like there was a band to follow before the release. Anyway, I didn’t listen to them a whole lot right away. I downloaded a couple songs to see what they were all about, and wasn’t too keen on the band. This happens a lot, I find, and predictably enough I listened to ’em again a couple months later. Now we have a reaction.

I think the foremost reason that I didn’t get into Letter Kills on the first try is because of one song: “For the Weekend.” It’s a slow acoustic song, and of a lower quality than most would appreciate. But when I listened to it for the first time in so long, I realized that it’s actually rather well-written (cliche as it may be) and a little touching. Then I listened to the song I’d never bothered with the first time around, entitled “Lights Out.” This is where our story truly starts.

As the first track on The Bridge, “Lights Out” does an impeccable job of hooking the listener. It’s hard, fast, and powerful. You’ll get more or less the whole Letter Kills experience with this song, but that’s no reason not to keep on listening. Follow-up songs “Don’t Believe” and “Whatever it Takes” keep the pace up well and are composed of some sweet riffs and great singing. The former even features some intense guitar soloing that will seal the deal if “Lights Out” alone didn’t make you want to listen to the rest of the CD.

“Brand New Man” takes the speed and power down a notch, and relies on more of a beat to get by than hardcore guitar work, but does it really well. “Clock is Down” also sacrifices speed, but brings the melody to the forefront, and sports a snazzy of not emotional chorus that takes the song from slow to hard rock. “Time Marches On” brings back the hard rocking sound of the first few songs, but has a feeling all to its own, as it’s got a slower yet stronger beat and blurs the line between metal and rock. “Carry You” does kind of a flip-flop and has pretty intense verses while the chorus feels a bit slower (though in reality, it isn’t).

“Hold My Heart (Part Two)” is where it really gets interesting. When you first look at the track list and see that part two comes before part one, you’re gonna be wondering what’s up. Upon listening to it, you’ll realize that even if the placement is a little unorthodox, this could be plainly used as a closing sequence to the first part. It does seem more like an opener though…

“When You’re Away” is in the running for my favourite song. It’s easily got the strongest case, but I’m still on the fence. You have to listen to this song at a high volume, or else the awesomeness of it is all lost. There’s a lot of feeling in this song, and the powerful chorus nearly makes it a shoe-in for the top spot. “Radio Up” is essentially your run-of-the-mill rock song, but it’s really good at what it does. “Shot to the Chest” is another one of those slower-verse/power-chorus types, but it does keep up the level of kickassery towards the second half of the song. Also worthy of mention is that it features a good amount of screaming, which I think lead singer Matt Shelton pulls off really well. He never overdoes it, and it never gets in the way of the lyrics.

Finally, “Hold My Heart (Part One)” is your token slow finisher, and boy does it git ‘er done. Not only does it have a lot more heart (har har) than most rock bands display in their slow songs, but surprisingly enough, the backing vocals have just as big a part as the lead vocals in making the song as touching as possible. Token it may be, but it’s certainly worth far more than the term implies.

I read in a couple other reviews that Letter Kills is actually composed of devout Christians, and if that’s cause for worry for you, forget it. The songs don’t directly reflect it, and you’d have to look pretty deeply into the subtext for anything that might hold religious value. In any case, they’re more or less your standard punk/rock band that plays a slightly above-par game. There’s not a lot special here, but I can’t in good conscience tell you that you could just as well skip over ’em. I’ve searched high and low for the disc, but no such luck, so chances are that you’re going to have to go the download route too. Let’s just hope they’re not another Span and their second album doesn’t wind up being mediocre and borderline boring.

The Good Stuff:
  • Starts off with a bang
  • Excellent speed balance
  • “Hold My Heart (Part Two)” makes a great interlude
The Bad Stuff:
  • Doesn’t really stand out from other punk rock albums
  • Take-it-or-leave-it screaming

From rags to… more rags

And God said, “let him bust a crunch.” After many years of searching, I finally found a term that wasn’t already featured on the Urban Dictionary.

And now for something completely different.


My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

 

I guess I’m not surprised, as I haven’t spent a cent on the site, but you know, it would have been nice to at least lie and tell me I’m worth $1.43.

NEWS FLASH! (12:07PM) – Maddox is BROKIES!!

The first paragraph contains gross. You were warned.

I just saw the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen on children’s programming. It was this frightening dancing puppet that was a dead ringer for the infamous Brian Peppers, just with popsicle stick arms. Chills me to the bone. After a little research, I fould a picture of the monster. A bit small, but you get the idea.

In other news, went to a hockey game last night. Kickass game, the Moose raped the Peoria Rivermen 6 to 1, and there were some fantastic goals; the first in particular. But there was one thing bugging me the whole time: Peoria. Sound familiar? And to top that off, their logo resembles Stan from American Dad. It left me pondering if by chance Seth McFarlane was the owner of the team. Also, at one point there was a “wave” going around for like 3 minutes, and I lost three precious minutes of hockey because it was so damned entrancing. Did I mention that the box seats at the MTS Centre are ultra-posh?

The best part of the game, however, was during the last two minutes. Seriously, 1:06 left on the clock and a brawl breaks out. At first it’s just the standard two guys throwing down, but then a couple more guys start throwing punches, and finally a third pair starts trying to beat each other’s face in. It was magical. Anyone who says hockey is boring needs to go to a Moose game. I’ve never been disappointed, and that’s even without the beer. (Seriously, it’s too goddamned expensive.)