Thursday, March 29, 2012

Crazy As It Sounds

You guys, this is a very good cover of my favourite Smoking Popes song. I feel like I haven't given checking out Into It. Over It. enough effort and should probably change that.



So good, right?

Sunday, March 25, 2012

You Got Me Spinning Like A Mercy-Go-Round

Something I've always found really odd/incredibly annoying is everybody's need to out-do somebody else when they're telling a story or saying something about themselves. The most logical conclusion I can come to about this matter is that it forces everybody listening to listen to them and I guess (or hopefully) complement them in some way. I try to stop myself from doing this too much, but I know I'm guilty of it, as you probably are as well.

For example, my friends and I had an acquaintance in first year of university who was the fucking worst for this. We would be telling a story, for example my skate bail story, and about 2/3 of the way through (Isn't it convenient that this always happens before you can finish/get to the best part?) she would interrupt to say something like "Well, one time I fell off a swing and broke my arm and it was GUSHING blood and my mom was freaking out and we rushed to the hospital!" It was a pretty big piss off, for the following reasons.

Firstly, don't fucking interrupt people in the middle of a story. It's fucking rude. If you do apologize for it.

Secondly, your story sucks. I mean I realize that my skate bail wasn't the worst injury. It was a few deep cuts and a lot of road rash. But the story and context that go along with it make it pretty funny/interesting (At least in my mind they do.). While a broken arm is clearly much more serious than what happened to me, the way it happened is very typical and uninteresting.

Third thing: If your story sucks don't try to enhance it like she did by adding "GUSHING" or my mom was freaking out to make it seem more interesting. Everyone that you are talking to realizes that you adding fictional elements in the places where it won't affect the story later on. It makes you seem very stupid.

Anyways, the reason I bring this up is because this always happens when people are discussing "nerddom". Being a nerd used to suck, but then Adam Brody's character on The OC happened and a lot of guys realized that if you aren't a nerd, but fake like you are, it has a chance of making you more endearing towards girls. Same goes the other way as well. This whole idea of faking being nerdy in order to outnerd other people and seem cool is very odd to me. Because people say something like "Lol, I'm such a nerd." all the time, but when I say that I still have a subscription to The Uncanny X-Men as a 22-year-old I get weird looks.

Case-in-point (and reason I bring this all up in the first place) is a remark a former co-worker of mine made on twitter the other day. She says that people often tease her for being a hipster. She countered by saying that in terms of her style of dress, she's just trying to stay current. Whatever no problem there, it's perfectly normal for someone to try and stay up to date with trendy clothing. Then she said she's always been a nerd and the example she gave was "In grade 6 I did my speech on FAIRIES. What's more nerdy than fairies?" which made absolutely no sense to me. I could be wrong, but it isn't that uncommon for 11-year-old girls to like fairies is it? Tinkerbell? She seems pretty popular. Also, do you still love fairies? I'm pretty sure you don't.

Anyways, I guess I'm about to epitomize everything I just wrote an entire blog entry against, but here are things I do that are more nerdy than someone writing a speech on fairies in sixth grade:
  • Buy so many comics that the employees at the store know me by name. When I enter they have my comics ready for me at the desk without me having said a single word.
  • Buy an almost 20 year-old VHS box set because it has no CGI in it.
  • Watch anime based on a 16th century Chinese novel in Japanese with very badly translated subtitles.
  • Realize that most of The Big Bang Theory's jokes aren't actually nerdy and are just broad generalizations about things that fans of the show don't fully understand.
But I guess my saving grace is that I'm aware that there are people who are much, much nerdier than I am.

Comics are serious business, you guys.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Did I Hug You Goodbye? Did I Say Goodnight?

I really tried to think of a long and heartfelt write-up for this song but ran into some writer's block because to be honest, I'm having a pretty shitty day. And first I was going to post "The Shit That You Hate" but then decided that this tune would be better.

So I guess I can compromise by saying this:

Whenever I get into a shitty mood, I put on a Bomb The Music Industry! album and open up the lyrics to read along to while I listen because I've found that no matter what is going on with me, that always makes me feel better about things. Doing that is my little 40 minute escape from the world and reminds me that everything is going to be okay and I'm not alone and maybe things aren't so bad and I'm stronger than I let on sometimes.

... So there's that.



Seriously though, I'm an atheist but thank fucking God for Bomb The Music Industry! because I don't know what the fuck would be going on with me if I didn't have them to listen to when I freak out.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

I'm Just Your Little "&."

Yesterday I saw John K Samson on his tour supporting his recently released and completely, totally excellent full-length solo debut album Provincial. The show was fucking incredible. He played most of the new album and a great selection of Weakerthans material. In addition to this he also whipped out a great cover of "The Boat Dreams From The Hill" by Jawbreaker as well as grabbing a bass to do a rendition of "Gifts" by Propagandhi which lead right into "Anchorless" to end the show. If you were in the Ebar and not smiling, you have something very wrong with you.

What grabbed me most during the show though was when John K played "The Last And" off of his new album. He prefaced the song by saying something along the lines of "This song is about an affair between a teacher and her principal that took place during the 1980's. It's totally fictional though. I realized after it that it had a bit of a Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner vibe to it." and this made me realize two things.

1. As if you had to do something to make me love you even more John, now you're making Simpsons references during shows? Come on!

2. This is probably the saddest song I've ever heard. I really didn't notice this until I saw him perform the song live after his shpiel about it. It's about an affair falling apart from the teacher's perspective and it is seriously the most sobering fucking song.

I would definitely recommend opening the lyrics first, right here and then watching this video:


Try not to cry, I DARE YOU.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Where The City Meets The Sea

The following things completely baffle me:

1. Some people do not like The Bouncing Souls.

2. People say The Bouncing Souls are not a good live band.

3. People say that The Bouncing Souls don't make good music anymore.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Stupid Habit

It's always a great feeling when a band goes completely past your expectations on an album.

Low expectations+a product that is much better than those expectations=Happiness.

I recently (Really not recently at all, it was all the way back in the lost time of last summer. It just seems like recently because I barely post on this blog anymore.) had this happen with The Swellers' last album Good For Me. You go in with low expectations because you don't think the band will do anything new or exciting or you don't like the direction the band had taken on their previous album. Then the band surprises you with a collection of fucking bangers.

This just happened to me with the band Static Radio NJ. The band's first album An Evening of Bad Decisions was totally in the vein of Lifetime/Kid Dynamite; very fast hardcore/punk that is equally as poppy and melodic as it is for lack of a non-worn-out-80's skater-term "fast and gnarly". While I think that that album totally fucking rips, I figured they would put out an album that was pretty much identical. And hey, I'll be the last guy to complain about bands that worship the altar of Dan Yemin, but I don't really need another album that similar.

Then I heard that Static Radio had taken a different approach on their new record We Are All Beasts, opting more for pop-punk than fast hardcore. My interest was piqued, brah. The new record to be totally awesome! To me it sounds like they took their old sound, added a Bouncing Souls feel to it and listened to pretty much only The Descendents while recording it (The bass-line on the first song? Some hooks are vintage Stevenson!). I like it lots and lots and it goes really well with the unseasonably warm weather that Southern Ontario's been experiencing lately.

Feels good man.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Short, Just Like Your Temper

It's starting to get really nice out and I'm sure it's the case for a ton of people but I find that enjoying some sunny weather and throwing on some music I really enjoy is a combination that is just about the best thing on earth. There's something to be said for wearing jorts, putting on sunglasses and blaring Brand New (Or The Temptations) (Or blink-182) (Or Dead To Me).

Anyways, I've heard of Candy Hearts a bunch this year, but only got around to listening to them today despite everyone I know heaping praise on them (This is a pretty common trend isn't it?). Is there anything more convenient than discovering a soul-crushingly great pop-punk band with dynomite female vocals on one of the first over-20 degrees Celcius days? Probably not, you guys. I like songs about love/relationships a lot and I like really poppy music a lot. This shit is right up my alley and that should probably be the case with you as well.

Also, the title might be a reference to a Louis CK joke but I'm not sure if it is. If that is the case, then this band is really doing everything possible to attract my listening.

Check it out:


How can you not smile at that? GIVE ME A BREAK. (Of that Kit-Kat bar.)

THE SONG IS CALLED "SLEEPY KISSES" FOR CHRIST'S SAKE.

I think it would be wrong to not state where I got this from. My friend writes for a music site called The 1st Five and they put up a "Bands You Should Know"-type mixtape. He knows more about music than you. You should download this mix:


Lastly, I think that if somebody stole my ipod and replaced it with one that was 160 gb of just the first minute and a half of this song, I'd be totally cool with it.


Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Blood In My Veins

I definitely do not like the band Brand New as much as most people do. Don't get me wrong, I think they're a good band and I really enjoy Your Favourite Weapon, but I find that most people who like this band REALLY like this band. It seems to me that there are very few casual fans of Brand New, like myself. They're definitely polarizing, you either don't listen to them or you fucking adore them and dream about drifting around in limbo with Jesse Lacey. I guess I'm the exception.

Like I said, Your Favourite Weapon is my favourite Brand New album, which isn't too much of an unpopular opinion I don't think. Where I differ from most people is that I don't flip over their later material. I'm only sometimes in the mood to listen to Deja Entendu (A fucking great album title.) and don't enjoy The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me. To be honest, I've never even listened to Daisy.

Again, like I said (Jesus, use a thesaurus bro.) I'm only sometimes in the mood to listen to Deja Entendu. I pretty much need to be either bummed out, tired or hungover.

But I'm definitely in the mood right now and I'll be damned if this isn't the best shit in the world at the moment:

Monday, March 12, 2012

All Things Considered

The idea of theme songs is pretty weird. I mean this in regards to people, like how somebody will often say "This is my theme song." whenever one of their favourite songs comes on. Or at least I do that a lot. It's probably pretty annoying. But these aren't these people's actual themes. Most people do not have theme music.

But the weirdest part is that some people actually do have theme music. They have a song that plays anytime they make a hired or public appearance and that is pretty wild. What got me to start thinking about this is this song:


THAT IS ACTUALLY SOMEBODY'S THEME MUSIC.

And not just that, but a person who is one of the most popular figures in his medium (Pro Wrestling, a medium? I'm on a roll, just let it happen...) to the point that this is considered a "classic" theme.

Let's think about this for a moment. Every time Shawn Michaels comes back to the WWE to make a guest appearance, this song is played. I can't say this with 100% certainty, but probably every time he makes any type of public appearance ANYWHERE, this song is played. Whenever people hear the corny guitar riff and hear "I think I'm cute, I know I'm sexy." they think "Here comes Shawn Michaels, the motherfuckin' Heartbreak Kid." The song is awesome in a "Wow, that's so terrible it's hilarious" way but in actuality that is a really, really bad song. It might be a different case with Shawn Michaels, because he's a pretty huge redneck, but having that as your theme music must be terrible.

I just looked to see if I could find Shawn giving his opinion on it, but couldn't find it anywhere. I am very interested in this, because swallowing that you are going to be defined by a single song for the rest of your life is probably pretty tough to swallow.

This happens with other people as well. I fill forever associate Shawn Green with "Song 2" by Blur because of the summer he used it as his music when he came to bat (awesome) and same goes for BJ Ryan and some Slipknot song (nawesome).

I guess the main thing I'm trying to say is "What if your theme music really sucked?" It's one thing for me to speculate saying "Man, "Thank You" by the Descendents is my theme song!", but imagine if you got stuck with a really shitty one.

Or maybe it's just me trying to wrap my head around a 46 year old waking out to a song as ridiculous as that and still trying to seem like he's taking himself seriously.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Been Gone All Summer

So I was checking my stats today and the two leading keyword searches (Notice how I said "two leading" instead of "the only two" to make it sound like this shit is a big deal!) that have lead to hits on this page are:

"skate bail"
"why does shit always fall apart"

This is cause for celebration. Cause for picnics and coffee.

Mostly cause for me to smile while I'm slaving away on a French essay though.