The Alibrary Experiment

When walking one of the quieter Vancouver streets recently, I spotted a bright cabinet by a driveway, labelled 'Alibrary'.

Vancouver people have a pretty good habit of leaving free swag in public places..but was this a whole cabinet of free books?!

Hell yes! Naturally I had to get in on this action and use it for an experiment. I decided to take a second hand book from my collection, write a note explaining what I was doing, and leave the book in this wonderful Alibrary. What book did I choose? Well...

Ok, so it won't be to everyone's taste, but I'm hoping whoever is willing to pick up a book of wisdom from Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson will be willing to drop me an email telling me when they picked it up, and where they are going to leave it when they are done with it, etc.

So.. I brought the book with me the next time I knew I would be passing the cabinet. What did I see waiting for me in exchange for my tale of the most electrifying man in sports entertainment?

Only four Calvin and Hobbes collections! This was the cherry on top of what was already a lucky day for me. I'm hoping I was owed some karma or something. If you didn't know, I love Calvin and Hobbes, but had to leave my collection at home, two years ago. What an amazing, unselfish act for someone to give such a generous gift to a stranger like me. I will of course be returning the collection to Alibrary before I return to Ireland.

As for The Rock book..only time will tell if I will be able to track its journey or not. I will however be adding more books to the experiment in the coming weeks.

Good Bad Flicks asks WTF happened to movie posters?

At first I thought this was going to be another case of ‘I’m getting old, things have changed and I don’t like that.’ However, this is just the kind of over analysis into marketing that I enjoy! Discover the techniques used by Hollywood to make you watch their movies, from ‘floating heads’ to ‘teal and orange’.

If you enjoy seeing movie studios being taken down a peg or two, check out Good Bad Flicks.

One Mile Left go full blink-182 worship

Don't get me wrong, I love blink-182 as much as the next guy whose teen years started in 98/99. I even really wanted Tom hair back in the day, but genetics were against me. Moreover, finding a band your own band all dig is a cool moment and a great team-building opportunity.


This, however may be taking it too far. While the bassist slowly betrays his Mark influences as it gets further into the video - shot, I'm assuming in the warehouse that one of them work in - the guitarist is full Tom worship from the start.

While Mark and Tom are both talented songwriters, Travis is the only 'real musician' in the band, and it's interesting that the drummer of One Mile Left seems to be influenced by the technique but thankfully not the style of Mr. Barker.

For the record, this is a cool version. But it's 2001 style, not 1999 style.

New Music Crush: Six Stories Unknown + interview

Ever since I got into Easycore I've been hoping a band would combine it with my other favourite genre Epifat punk (aka Skate punk with pop punk vocals). I made a semi-successful attempt at this myself with Nevernoodz, but Swedish band Six Stories Unknown have pretty much nailed it, check them out!


It's like a checklist of my favourite things!

• A rhyming song name
• Slightly accented vocals
• RIFFAGE
• Posi lyrics, with slightly awkward nautical/war metaphors about being in a band!
• A singer who can sing! Juxtaposed with a screamer
• Good production! There's even a pinch harmonic, you guys!

We Won't Fall Asleep is probably actually a better song, but I'm not sure about the video.. I mean, I know it's meant to be a zany tour video, but it's not very zany. Sweet song, though.

Vocalist Ludvig took some time to talk about his influences, the Swedish scene and how the band got together.

The band was formed back in 2010 by me, our former guitarist Robert and bass guitarist Martin. We all met in school as we we're in the same class. I had never heard of the genre back then and thought it would be fun to try something new. One after another we dropped a lot of members for different reasons until now when we've finally reached the best setup possible. Ludwig (lead vocals), Magnus (Bass, vocals), Pontus (Lead guitar), Danny (drums) and our newest addition Estefan (guitar). 

You started out easycore, but have added melodic hardcore and skatepunk, how did this come about; did you decide to change direction or did it just happen?

I think we really just have matured as musicians and learned a lot from every drop out. We're all from different genres from the beginning and when we've been mixing it together we've reached the genre that is Six Stories Unknown today.

The alternative music scene in Sweden seems to be going from strength to strength, is that actually the case? 

We've actually been having problems getting booked for shows and such in Sweden as the scene is being hidden behind other genres like electro and house. The music industry in Sweden isn't really working in our direction at the moment which is kinda sad.

Can you notice different sub groups of people coming to your shows; pop punk kids, hardcore dudes etc?

We've always had an wide audience as we've chosen a sound which satisfies the ears of different groups of people. For instance if you listen to songs like For Better, For Worse, My Sight Says: Forward or Your Crown, My Anguish there are parts with catchy choruses and heavy breakdowns as well as advanced guitar riffs and solos.  Music brings people together and we've always tried to be liked by as many different groups as possible.

What is the writing process in the band?

We usually write in two different ways. The first one is that I'm staying up late drinking loads of coffee and getting creative writing lyrics to some simple chords, I bring the ideas to the guys and let them work out the instruments to a more advanced level. In some cases we're done with the instruments long before putting vocals for it. I guess it's hard to say how we usually do it.

Who was the first easycore band you heard?

Well, when we first started our biggest inspiration was Four year strong with their Rise or Die Trying record along with Set Your Goals and Me vs Hero.

What bands are you listening to at the minute?

As I've been saying we're all very different when it comes to taste in music, I can only speak for myself but I'm in to bands like Chunk! no, Captain chunk!, ADTR, Memphis May fire, Sleeping with Sirens and Hands Like Houses.

And finally what's next for you guys?

At the moment we're booking some shows for this spring in Europe, along with some writing for a new record!

Facebook: Six Stories Unknown 

Dodgy Film Club: Season of the Witch

A meeting of two actors who seem to have trouble turning down work! Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman are Crusade knights, who are tasked with escorting a ***SPOILER ALERT*** witch demon to a trial by monks. Oh and the witch demon is possibly responsible for the plague.



This was added to our watchlist as it featured on How Did This Get Made? and I may have a bone to pick with the good podcasting folks. Admittedly, they saw it upon its release, but this film doesn't even work as a bad horror movie. Don't get me wrong, it is bad. Highlights include

• Fluctuating accents 
• Historical and cultural inaccuracies
• Ron Perlman playing himself!
• Nic Cage in a glorious wig
• Phrases like 'let's get the hell out of here' and 'shit'..in Crusade times..
• Bad CGI
• Wolves werewolves vampire wolves? with an apparent death wish

Some good old fashioned Crusade-era banter. And hair.

So basically the Church sent these guys to kill all the non believers. Nic Cage is fine with this until he kills some woman and he is suddenly hit with righteous remorse. Nic and Ron leave the army, only to be eventually captured and held in a cell. They then agree to transport the 'girl' (witch/demon) to her trial by monks. There's a demon (satan?) involved, who looks like something out of Doom and sounds like a pantomime villain. In the end religion wins and the plague goes away. Yeah...

On the plus side, Claire Foy, who plays the oddly attractive Adorabelle Dearheart in Going Postal, is 'the girl' and by gods there is just something about her in this too.

Punktual Library: The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero

  
THIS BOOK. Everything you wanted to know about the making of The Room, and more! Take away the greatest bad movie ever as the subject matter and you still have a captivating, creepy, gripping, funny, vaguely unsettling, curiously optimistic page turner.

For every answered question there springs forth another half dozen fresh questions. We learn much about Tommy Wiseau; mainly that he is a secretive, confusing enigma, even to someone as close to him as Greg Sestero.

Seriously, if you have any interest in The Room, psychology or weird characters, buy this book now.. Things we learn:

• Where Tommy is actually from (sort of!)
• How Tommy made his money (kind of!)
• Why Greg and many of the cast got involved and more importantly, stayed involved
• What it's like to be roommate with Tommy!
• Seriously, just read it

There are also photos and lines from the original script including such classic broken English as:
“Promotion! Promotion! That’s all I hear about. Here is your coffee and English muffin and burn your mouth.”

Read my interview with Greg Sestero AKA Mark here

Top 5 punk-ish bands of 2013

I don't usually do 'end of year' lists, but here is the Good Days And Cliches Top 5 punk or punk-related bands of 2013, based on my last.fm play count. Surprisingly, all but one have had an album out in 2013, so it's actually vaguely relevant. You won't find any tumblr bands here..as much as I want to keep up with modern pop punk, I think I'm slightly stuck in the Epifat, skate punk years!

1. Alkaline Trio



Every time I'm drinking with my punk rock friends, drunk, feeling nostalgic, feeling bitter, feeling trapped, or a mixture of all the above, I listen to Alkaline Trio. Even if they hadn't released the decent offering of My Shame Is True they would still be in my top 5 list, based on play count.

 2. A Day To Remember



ADTR are one of the newer/younger bands on my list, but they've been stapling breakdowns to pop punk songs for ten years now! I got to see them this year, so I was listening to them a lot even before they dropped their latest album, Common Courtesy, which is getting better with each play.

3. Bad Religion



Bad Religion released a new album this year and I was also lucky enough to see them for the first in 2013. Though I haven't listened in a while, True North was on regular rotation for me when it came out first. I took a short break from listening to them after seeing them live, but they are never far from my speakers.

4. Nofx



The only band in my top 5 not too release an album this year or play a show nearby. Nofx make the list through the sheer volume of their back catalogue, which is stuffed full of classics.

5. Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!



Scraping in at number 5 are the French easycore specialists. Pardon My French was one of the best albums of 2013, even if it did veer away slightly from pop punk.

Honourable mentions go to Less Than Jake and Streetlight Manifesto, who both released good albums this year!