Ah, Japan. What a baffling land of head-melting goodness it is. It reminds me of the artistic guy in your class who would be pretty cool if he just stuck to what he was good at and didn't try to pass himself off as the rebellious trouble-maker. Instead of drawing on his own background and skills, he copies another culture down to the last detail and basically becomes a parody of himself.
And so it can be the case with Japan and the U S of A. Don't get me wrong, Japan is scarily far ahead in terms of technology and karate and all that stuff. There's also some great bands like Engrave and some funny bands that are ok like Brain Failure. (No idea if either are from Japan or China or wherever but same difference, am i right?!)
I tried to make some order to this but they are an assault on the senses! Alright first off - the name. Firstly it is lol just by simply existing as a band name. If I have to explain this then you need to pay more attention to post hardcore/anything-core bands. That's before I talk about DAT COMMA. Did they intentionally say 'fuck you grammar' when they chose it, or was it a ridiculous attempt to distance themselves from crazy ol' Hunter S?
Then there's their sound and videos...
I actually like the first 20 seconds or so of the song. I mean, they are jumping around like overgrown androgynous kids dancing in front of a mirror but it's upbeat, it's fun, I can dig it...and then.... DAT AUTOTUNE
W...T....F.... I'm guessing they set it to 11?! Holy shit. Talk about taking an idea and going with the 'make it more make it better' formula! Why not just have a robot, that would be x10000 times cooler and just as natural sounding. Though I will say when the screams come in I think it works a bit better aaaand they can write/programme a catchy chorus! 1.25 brings some of the best 'get the fuck up!' nu metal style bounce riffing I've heard in a long time and that guy/girl really can scream! Also the little breakdown with the guitar lead over it is kinda sweet.
But let's get back to the comedy!
Has anyone else noticed that the screamer moves a lot like a certain magician in Arrested Development?
I thought 'party by the pool' music videos were meant to have, you know, people? Friends..fans..guilt-tripped girlfriends..
Flip flops...
Dat keyboard playing at 2.01 looks familiar...
(SRSLY PLAY THE SONG IN THE BACKGROUND AND WATCH THESE TWO GIFS)
...and this is only the tip of the iceberg...they have loads of videos ..!
I would non-ironically lose my effin' mind to the first half of this song if I was in a club. I think I got a nose bleed about 2.30 though.
Now, I'm sure you're all saying 'this is A grade stuff, but they won't be my new favourite band until I connect with the lyrics.' I hear you! Here is a lyric video.
I'm going to go on record and say I would actually be super into this band if it wasn't for the autotuned lad. The intro is sweet and the heavy bits are nailed down MOSH. But, back to the lyrics. Some highlights include.
Travelling all four point wherever wind blows
Do not hold any bag courage is all you need
There are no choice for you but to go forward
Things you've never met exist in the world. It's will surely make your journey worthy.
But fie on all my jokes, dat breakdown 2.00. Hooooooly.
I'm actually going to check out some more, but I might need a lie down first. As their last.fm biography says:
"The audacious and unique fusion of heavy music and various electronic
sounds produced by the keyboard has facinated many audiences."
The Moral Majority, for the unenlightened, are a Christian, right wing,
conservative group who are very concerned about family values and morals.
In their bid to rid the world of EVIL these do-gooders have created a site
(www.movieguide.org) dedicated to promoting nice little films that are clean and
happy and safe for kids! They also detail the sordid elements of movies and
rating them, from a ‘concerned parent’ type of view.
Now, anyone who has read this blog knows my taste in films, and might be
wondering what could possibly interest me here. Do I really want to see films
such as The Nativity Story
or The Ten Commandments?
Hell no!
But not only does Movieguide rate good-intentioned, family-friendly films, it
also give minus stars for the most SHOCKING, BLASHPEMOUS and IMMORAL movies! It
just so happens that some of us like these despicable creations.
Machete
First off, I can't believe I haven't written about this for Dodgy Film Club,
something I will rectify asap. The moral majority have listed the following
adjectives in relation to the film all about the mustachioed Mexican:
Not only that, but it also contains “68 obscenities and 17 profanities.”This,
I remind you, is all before a summary of the film itself is actually touched
upon. These are merely red flags of disgust, to spark the beginnings of a
righteous, moral fire. Red Flags of Awesomeness more like!
I’ve just realised that I’m assuming everyone knows what Machete is
about, or at least can have a stab at the gist of it from the poster.
Apologies, let me have the good people at MovieGuide.org explain:
“MACHETE
is an ultra violent, extremely lewd and bloody exploitation movie about a
Mexican immigrant who, working with left-wing revolutionaries, violently stops
a conspiracy involving a corrupt white businessman secretly in cahoots with a
Mexican drug lord who’s manipulating white vigilantes killing illegal
immigrants. MACHETE is one of the worst movies ever – an ultra violent,
bloody mess with extremely lewd content and a hateful, offensive, racist,
Anti-American worldview.”
I don't know what they could possibly find offensive about this.
Sounds amazing, right?! I think so. But perhaps it’s not for you. I mean,
exploitation films are kind of a niche.
How about a film that is a true celebration of being alive? A film in which
a man, who suffered terrible punishment and died, came back to life! That
sounds like something Christians could get on board with!
Crank High Voltage
“CRANK HIGH VOLTAGE is a repulsive action movie about a former hitman who
must find the Asian gang leader who replaced his heart with a mechanical one
that needs constant electrical stimulation to keep working.”
Okay, they don’t like it, but it can’t be the worst action film they’ve ever
seen?
“CRANK HIGH VOLTAGE may be the worst, most abhorrent and evil action movie
ever made.”
Ah. Moving on then…
Tell me there's nothing angelic about this scene!
Piranha 3DD
Next up is GDAC Dodgy Film Club favourite, Piranha 3DD! A tale about man
struggling to find his place in the ecosystem. Initial signs are good with this
review, as the MovieGuide tag line says ‘This movie really bites’. That’s right
folks, that’s a pun! A real, live pun!
I’m not sure they’re thinking this reviewing craic through, because if the
lines: “more than 120 obscenities and profanities; extreme bloody, gruesome
violence includes piranha comes out of woman’s body and attaches to man’s
private parts" makes me want to (re)watch this as a 26 year old, think of what
impact it would have on teenage boys.
There’s also a very odd segue, when the reviewer talks about 'anti-smoking
Nazis’. Are we SURE this isn’t a parody site? Does the reviewer really detest
films with swear words and nudity because they harm children, yet he is pro-smoking?
Lololol.
(I don't want to spoil any of this by adding gifs. Plus, I can't find any vaguely religious themed gif.)
I’m sure the list contains any number of entertaining/evil films I have yet
to see. MovieGuide.org has gained a new fan, albeit for all the wrong reasons.
There are some examples of metal that are just so over the
top, so ballsy, so joyous, that they go full circle, passing ironytown on the
way, and become songs that I actually enjoy (after a few drinks).
The Book of Heavy Metal by Dream Evil is one such example. My
relationship with this song started like many others of this genre; found on a
compilation CD from Metal Hammer, funny to listen to a few times, then pretty
much forgotten about.
Soon however, I unearthed the accompanying music video,
which came to receive heavy rotation on the ‘you have to see this video, lololol’
type of nights my friends and I partake in every so often. There is so much
going on, from the outfits, to the CGI, the power stances, the drummer (in
general)…not to mention the delight in having someone discover the ‘to be or not to be’ line for the first
time.
Things the singer doesn’t want:
A flashy house
A car
An ugly wife
Things the singer does want:
What his parents don’t
To be in the book of heavy metal
Whether they are being serious or not, I can’t help but sort
of admire them. From a distance, of course.
Almost exactly a year ago I wrote a post pondering what Can’t Bear This Party would do next. Would they continue writing ‘progressive easycore’ (aka
fast melodic skate punk with extras), or would they go down the dreaded hipster
route.
It seemed like disaster had struck when the band broke up earlier this year
but the good news is that not only are CBTP! back, but they are still as zany
as ever! After I posted about their new song Lil Bowotomi, guitarist Quentin
aka Sushi, was cool enough to answer some of my many questions over the
weekend. I’ve cleaned up some of the ‘Frenglish’ (his word not mine) here and
there. My questions are in bold. – Alanso.
GDAC - So to start, a lot has happened with CBTP! in the last few months.
For a time it looked like we would never hear from you again. Can you tell us
anything about the last few months, and how are things in the CBTP! camp now?
Quentin - Yes we were done, our guitarist Lino left France for Boston so we
were a bit demotivated. After 6 months, we all really missed the band so decide
to revive it! Lino won't play live with us but is still implicate in
composition at this time. We already have friends to can replace him on tour.
We are about to record our upcoming album and will tour in Thailand,
Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and Russia this winter. We hope to reach UK and USA
in 2014.
The new song, Lil Bowotomi, has really grown on me since I first posted
about it. The lyrics seem batshit crazy, what the hell is it actually about?
It’s a long story dude…it talks
about a booking agency from France who gets pretty famous American bands play
here! We played for them with title fight and transit. These guys are really
bitchy with local bands. We were not paid but we’re okay with that. But we
expected to be treated with respect, we’ve never felt uncomfortable like this
in any other show before! It’s a shame that foreign bands think French shows
are all shitty like this, every single DIY promoter does a way better job. The
song talks about the owner (of the agency).
What I love about your band is that you aren't afraid to mix up the genres
and add different instruments. I often call you 'progressive easycore'. Did
this happen naturally over the years or was it something the band always wanted
to do?
I don’t know! It came naturally, it offers a lot of new ways to compose. I
don’t think we use too much stuff, basically, it's still pop punk (but) in a
different way.
And what is the songwriting process within the band? I've found it hard to
get a band of 3 people to agree on things, how does it work with six French
dudes who add xylophones and phone tones?!
I usually compose the songs then the others arrange their parts the way they
like. But on our last song, it's our singer jean who composed the song. At
first it was only 8 bit but I added pop punk part and beats! The singers write
the melodies. We don't take CBTP too seriously, the goal is to have fun and
play catchy and energetic music!
You guys do still seem to be having fun with the genre, I hope there aren't any
plans to start writing boring indie-influenced songs to show how you are 'real'
musicians who want to be taken seriously?
I know what you mean! We won't ever turn troo pop punk, even though I love
some of those bands I think it’s just being close minded. You can show you are
a real musician and play fun music.
I'm from Ireland, so I can understand how you guys could have grown up
listening to lots of different genres without knowing that some people think
you have to be one or the other. It's pretty mind blowing to me that there
seems to be a great scene in France right now. I thought everyone there just
played accordions and drank wine. How did you get into 'heavy' music and what
is the French scene like now? What are some other good French bands?
So, I posted on skatepunkers.net that I'd be asking
you some questions and there are some questions from the forum users there, so
I'll pitch some at you.
“Where did the name come from and what does it mean?”
I don't know dude! I don’t even have a good fake explanation for this!
“How old are they?”
We’re all 24 or 25 but Remi, he is 17!
"Are they ever going to visit their Spanish neighbors?”
I don't know yet but we would love to! It’s really not far from us…same for
Ireland.
"Do they sing with that accent on purpose or did they just have bad English
teachers?"
Our singer jean has a terrible accent even when he speaks in French! One day
we’ll get accent auto-tune and your question will be obsolete!
New Feature Time! I was going to call this nostalgiacore but I'm pretty sure that's what Title Fight are doing, hence the awkwardly long, alliteration-heavy name. Anyway, seeing as I know lots of folks who also have opinions on music, I figure once in a while I should ask them about the songs they loved when they were dealing with hormones and whatnot.
I think I want to be Aidan from Murdock when I grow up. For those of you that don't know, he is singer/guitarist in Irish metal/hardcore punk/noisecore nice guys, Murdock. (We're not big on sticking to one genre in Ireland, thank goth). Not only this, but he also runs his own studio, The Forbidden Zone. And his day job? Oh yes, he only goes and teaches sound recording! - Alanso
Nostalgia you say? Any of my friends will tell you that I am a very
nostalgic guy, sometimes too much so! To me, all great memories are safe and
cannot be changed, they are good times locked up in the bank of nostalgia, to
be called upon whenever needed. They are mine, and YOU can't have them! Why,
did you want them?
So I will do this in some what of a chronological order of me getting older.
These are not my favourite songs by any means, they are the soundtrack to
memories that stick in my head and make me happy.
Stereophonics - Bartender and the Thief
This song was the first I ever heard that made me realise how loud gutiars
could be, and Im pretty sure It is the reason I bought my first electric
guitar. At the time I was about 12, I was getting lessons on acoustic guitar
playing 'she'll be coming round the mountain' and that was boring me. I heard
this song I and thought 'THATS WHAT I WANT TO DO'
Nirvana - Mr Moustache
So I started playing electric guitar, and I thought I was so awesome. I had
braces, too much gel in my hair, a navy sweatshirt and beige trousers with
white runners, I couldn't talk to girls, and my voice was at the squeeky head
wrecking 'pre-drop' stage. Did I give a fuck? NO! Cos I had an electric guitar.
I first got into Nirvana from the Nevermind album, which I LOVED, and I
remember saving up to get some more of their stuff. I got the album bleach and
could not get over how much better it sounded, it was darker, dirtier, and much
less polished and I loved that. Im still convinced to this day, that the Bleach
album is responsible for getting me into darker, weirder, noisier, music and it
is the reason that my band Murdock sounds like it does today. We don't sound
anything like Nirvana, but it is in there somewhere.
Less Than Jake - Gainsville Rock City
So as far as I knew, the only bands out there were Green Day, Nirvana, Blink
182 and Korn. And that was all I needed, or so I thought.
One day I came home from school, it was just coming into the summer, and my dad
had bought Sky Tv for the house, which had Kerrang, Scuzz and P-Rock TV showing
music videos around the clock and my mind was blown away. So many new bands, so
many cool videos and all summer long to watch them all and learn them all on
guitar.
This was the first song I saw on Kerrang TV and it always reminds me of how
good that summer felt.
Alien Ant Farm - Movies
Following on into the next Christmas after I got Sky TV, I must be 14 by
now? All I wanted was the guitar from this video! I nagged my parents and ended
up getting a guitar which I thought was this guitar, but it actually wasn't,
BUT it was an awesome guitar which I still have. That Christmas the house was
snowed in, so it was me, my guitar and all the songs that I could learn from
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3. A game I still play every Christmas to this day!
Blink 182 - Anthem Part II
So the next summer I got a part time Job. For the first time I had some
money to spend. There was a bass in the local music store on special offer and
all I could think of, waking up in the morning, going to sleep at night was
THAT BASS. I ended up not buying it, but this song reminds me of that summer. I
also vividly remember my friends calling over to get me to go to a youth disco
to hang with some girls, and I wouldn't because I was too busy learning the new
Blink album on guitar. I have no idea how I have a girlfriend today.
Korn - Clown
So around this time, Nu-Metal was everywhere, and I loved it. I still throw
some of it on every now and then. My part time job was cleaning cars. They were
all older used cars, and they all cassette decks in them. Every morning going
to work, I made sure that in my top right pocket of my overall's, I had Korn's
first album on tape in there. The album is about 40 minutes long, and I
listened to it ALL DAY, EVERY DAY! And I never tired of it
Every Time I Die - Ebolorama
2003 hit and everything changed for me musically. MTV 2 started showing
'headbangers ball'. All of a sudden things got, heavier and faster and louder.
Hatebreed, Converge, Every Time I Die, Poison The Well, As I Lay Dying,
Killswitch Engage, The Black Dahlia Murder were regularly on. Late one Tuesday
night, Ebolarama by Every Time I Die came on and I could not believe what I was
hearing. It was rock and roll but it was insane!
One of the coolest moments of my life happened last year, where my band played
a few shows with Every Time I Die. They were playing the song, while a couple
of them were wearing my band Murdock's tee shirts, and I couldn't help but
smile like the biggest weirdo in the venue, thinking back to 2003 and falling
in love with this song/band. (That is me being nostalgic about being nostalgic,
cos that gig was Oct 2012, That is like inception shit!)
Between the Buried and Me - Mordecai
One night me and all my guys (2 of which would start Murdock with me), were
hanging out in the car park in a retail park. Driving around bollards,
skateboarding. I don't remeber much of the details but I remember that this
song was blaring thought it.
Also one of the guys jumped in though the window of the moving car and landed
perfectly on the passenger seat. It was great!
Moden Life Is War - D.E.A.D.R.A.M.O.N.E.S
This song is probably the reason that I play music and drive around in a
smelly van, with smelly guys playing smelly venues.
This song is from 2005 and at this stage we were playing music for fun, with
out biggest goal being to get a gig at a local venue.
The song made me dream of playing a million miles away from home and being so
tired you cant even breathe. If any song resonates inside me, with any sort of
a creed or anthem, then this is it
Posion The Well - Ghostchant
The opening guitar riff and snare roll of this song, actually bring me back
in time to 2003. No TARDIS or Flux Capacitor needed.
I remember reading a review of this album in Kerrang magazine, before I had
ever heard of this band. And from the reviewers words alone, I knew it was
going to be the best thing in the world. I still have the magazine in an old
drawer somewhere, I dont think I have ever had music make me shiver as much as
this song does when the chorus kicks in.
(SRSLY PLAY THE SONG IN THE BACKGROUND AND WATCH THESE TWO GIFS)...and this is only the tip of the iceberg...they have loads of videos ..!
