Thursday, September 23, 2010

We Just Lay There

So the award for cutest song ever goes to this song. It makes me feel fuzzy inside. Grab yo gurl.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

In Case You Were Wondering, I Can't Get Comfortable In My Own Skin

Today in Guelph it’s raining. It was raining when I went to bed last night and it was raining when I woke up this morning. It got me thinking about how people say that they like the rain all the time and why that might be.

I guess a major thing about it is the sound. This is sort of the only part I can relate to. Sometimes rainy days are kind of fun. You can just take the day off, not get dressed, watch Ghostbusters, order a pizza and not do much else. But this sounds an awful lot like most days in my life, with the only variation being the sound of water hitting everything outside. So yea, I guess that sound is pretty relaxing, I’ll give them that, but I would be just as pleased if there was some nice sunshine coming through my windows while Bill Murray yanked out the tablecloths in that dining hall.

Plus if it’s a sunny day out, I have the option of doing things outside. I can go skate and grab a grapeaid at the convenience store if I want to. If it’s raining out, all this becomes a royal pain in the ass.

So I guess this point ties into what I just said. While curling up with Dr. Venkman and a large ‘za in basketball shorts and my Daggermouth hoodie is very appealing, I’ve got all winter to do that. When you actually have things to do (ex. going to class) when it’s raining, it fucking sucks. It was raining pretty hard one day last week too. Even though I was standing under the tree beside my bus stop, I still got soaked. Going through a lengthy bus ride and a 90 minute lecture in a light grey hoodie with a dark back and sleeves and jeans that are stiff from rain is not fun.

When it’s raining it’s also very rare that the weather is warm. I’m sure you’ve already drawn this conclusion, but let me tell you anyways; being wet and cold at the same time fucking sucks. Come to think of it, there are only three times that I enjoy being wet: when I am swimming, when I am showering and when it’s too hot at work in the summer and I jump in the pool to cool off. I don’t like just lounging around wet man. I think that’s pretty weird. You know?

I also find (apologies if this sounds like me being pretentious and bitching about hipsters) that some people say they like the rain just so it sounds like they’re “different” or “individual”. You like walking around downtown Toronto in the rain? It reeks like Satan’s asshole and the roads are uneven so when you cross the street your vans get wet, feel like you’re walking in mud and your feet stink. There’s a line from a Wonder Years song (hey, I’m listening to that record right now! Best of the year by a wide margin. Oh and the song this line is from, “This Party Sucks”, is up there as the best song of the year in my opinion.) “Can someone tell these kids, liking the rain no longer counts as an idiosyncrasy”, which I think sums up what I was just saying. Telling a girl you like to stand outside and get wet doesn’t make you sound deep asshole. Like it says right there in the song; so many people say it that it isn’t even distinctive anymore.

I don’t know, maybe I’m just an asshole and don’t get it. Or maybe I would rather wear my dumb sunglasses, dumb tank tops and dumb cut-offs in the sun than a jacket to try and keep dry.

But I'll Remember you!

I saw Comeback Kid on Monday so I'm feeling all hxc. Make fun of me all you want, but these are my favourite breakdowns:









You can hate all you want about Daggermouth, but I just do not give a fuck.

Monday, September 20, 2010

I'm The Guy That You Forgot You Hated

I never realized how good Chixdiggit! are!

The first time I heard about them, they were opening for NoFX on tour during the height of my NoFX fandom. I knew they were Canadian, on Fat Wreck Chords and apparently had some ska songs.

Fast-forward this summer. I won a Fat Wreck contest and it came with a sort of "Greatest Hits" of the label. I knew pretty much all of the songs already but there were a few I didn't. One of these was "I Remember You" by Chixdiggit. I found that I really, really liked that song and it really became one of my "summer jams".

So I just got their full length "Pink Razors" that that song was off of. IT'S REALLY GOOD YO! Sort of likeRamones, Screeching Weasel, etc. pop-punk, but the production is different and makes it sound really good. There's something else that makes it different, but I can't really put my finger on it. The main dude is a great song-writer. Not in the sense that he writes really introspective or individual lyrics, but in the sense that he is just an awesome pop-song writer and can get stuff stuck in your head for days. He also has a kind of Rivers Cuomo habit of throwing an absolutely fabulous guitar solo on every song. Not that they're huge face melters or anything but just that they fit the song perfectly.

Oh, and pretty much every song is about love and stuff. And I... uh... like that.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

One By One! We Gently Fall Apart

Alright, so yo (meant to be said in the manner of Donovan Strain) after a few days of internetless existence, I came online to find that No Trigger is getting their shit together and putting out a ton of new music! I first saw them when I saw Set Your Goals and Daggermouth also for the first time about 4 years ago. That show was pretty pivotal in me expanding my musical tastes, rediscovering my love for pop-punk as well as being a gateway into hardcore. I wasn't digging them that much at the time, but got their album "Canyoneer" later and really, really liked it a lot. They are definitely one of the bands that works hard but doesn't really get any recognition for it. You know those bands that seem to be a favourite of other bands and go on rad tours, but the kids just don't really go crazy over it? These guys. Probably one of the reasons they slowed down for a while.

They play fucking fast and their singer fucking rules and they have some rad guitar lines.

So first, the video explaining the situation (I love the Bigwig reference right at the beginning) (also, notice how all the kids at Warped Tour don't know who they are, but all the guys in the actually respectable bands on Warped do):

And a personal favourite:

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

You're Looking At Me With Those Glossy Eyes, They're Gonna Bury Me

Watch this fucking NOW!


Best video. Best band. Best lyrics EVER. Best guy.

I know I shpeal about Jeff all the time and have done so in length already. But I already wrote this out somewhere else, so here you go:

The first time I went through a break-up the only thing I listened to was "Three Cheers For Disappointment" because it was the only thing that made me feel better. I was 17, naive and thought I'd never recover and those 13 songs were my whole world. I got heavily into BtMI! afterwards because a lot of the kids at my high-school (sort of prestigious private school in Toronto. Not tooting my own horn, I'm a moron.) were pretty well-off and had high-paying careers lined up for them because of their parents (I really, REALLY liked "To Leave or Die in Long Island" because of this. I would line it up so that "Syke! Life Is Awesome!" would be the last song I heard on my walk home from school.) I also started to get depressed semi-frequently and obviously this issue is dealt with all the time in BtMI!'s lyrics. I finally saw them about two years ago and obviously Jeff was walking around before because it was a small shitty punk venue. I stopped him and said "Hey man, Three Cheers got me through a lot of stuff. Thanks a lot dude." and he said "Aw thanks" and gave me a giant bear hug. He had on the same sweater as me and the same shoes and it made me think of the third verse of "Syke..." because sort of the same thing happens to Jeff.I legitimately almost cried because it meant so much to meet the guy (I don't think he could tell. That would have been fucking weird. Then he fucking rocked the house.

tl;dr. I hate break-ups. I hate people moving forward while I feel like I'm staying put. Sometimes I feel really shitty. Jeff's songs deal with those topics better than any others for me.