Top 10 Teenage Tunes: Aidan from Murdock

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.