Peace.

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DN

Russel Brand imitator - Azaria from TheArt

Another disgusting thing is that a band I once enjoyed previously known as The Follow – now called TheArt – are in their top friends and vice versa. The reason? I can’t figure it out because I never would have thought Azaria would like something so banal with sights set on the mighty dollar. It goes to show that his entire presence in the music world has all been for the glory, the buck and any passion he once had has been stripped from him and replaced with a demon shell, sweating syphilous from his pores. Of course, he still believes that he’s got it and his passion is clear and decisive and he knows what’s going on. It’s clear to us, however, that he’s become deluded and is no longer worthy of praise. Which is a fucking damn shame because if you listen to his songs, you get the impression he could have done something good. Instead – we find this fucker hand in hand with these slimey scatmunchers probably to progress in his own career. Respect drops – interest drops – and we realize it was all a jib. I, for one, feel quite ripped off.

Mother fucker.

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DN

I’m not going to say that Myspace is the musical revolution or that it’s turned out to provide the world with great music because in general, most music out there is terrible and it’s giving access to all those wannabe fuckers to get their shit out there to the world ontop of the already present riff raff. What I will say, is that you can find some fucking gems on there. I have a Myspace site (as you know) and this band Innersky from France contacted me stating they enjoyed it. That was great, not just because a band across the globe enjoyed my tunes but because when I listened to their music it was fucking awesome. It also led me to find some other pretty good bands, such as The Retarded Potentials. I then went on a quest to find more good bands and for a good 6 months I looked almost everyday and found NOTHING BUT SHIT.

That has now passed. Curiously, the other night well past midnight I browsed through Myspace and found 5 interesting little gems that I thought I would share with you. The reason I did this wasn’t because I wanted to prove myself wrong, it was because that lovely guy Steve Albini had a recommendation which was The Desert Fathers which led me to find these others. Fruitful and interesting, I will, in the future, be doing a little write up for most of the following bands:

Modey Lemon. Sun City Girls. Neung Phak. El Jesus De Magico. Apes.

In the meantime – go and figure out if you like these bands. Come back and we’ll have a nice little chat about it.

Peace.

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DN

Now, let’s cut to the chase. I like raw music. I like it served with a side of salad and I like it fresh. I want the sauce to be creamy without being too phlegmy and god damnit I like it to taste good.
You really can’t go wrong with bands like – Stooges – Beatles – Led Zeppelin – Pink Floyd – Bowie – Sonic Youth – Pixies – Morphine – Vaselines – Joy Division – Sex Pistols – Nirvana – Primus – Tool  etc. These are some of the bands I love the most. They’ve got this thing about them that makes you feel. It’s really fucking important for a musician to make you feel because if they can’t – then you should be demanding your money back.

I’m somewhat of a musician myself, and I’ve decided I should share these little pieces with you because it will give you a good representation of what I like in music. Click on the picture above to visit my Lonos Curse project. These, of course, are not all my songs. Just a bunch I recorded the last time I ditched the shitty job I was working before another snatched me up and well, my hard drive filled up…

The full demo is available here. You can download any of the songs for free.

Peace.

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DN 09

Yes, they do look like douches

I’ve seen advertisements for this band in various street presses and I think what inspired me to check it out was their pathetic poster hanging around in Newtown. So I went to their myspace and here’s what I thought:

Introduction has most plays – is fairly interesting – a nice melodic piano with the occasional scream. It builds nicely and becomes disturbing and atmospheric and far better than I anticipated from an emo-goth tryhard looking band…

Next song starts off with a fairly nice guitar riff. the song moves into a pretty punky tune – the verse however, isn’t that good – kind of a bit weak in my head. the screaming part that blends from it fits well, I think. Reminds me of Ruby Sue, but harder and more like something like Marilyn Manson. It’s for the radio, no doubt – but atleast it’s something interesting and whilst not as fresh as it could be, builds a nice atmosphere and some of the songs have a nice feel to them and are well produced – I think a band like this could be listened to by inexperienced teenagers and open doors for them.

Witch Hunt and Queen 222 were my favourite songs. Cock o Roach sounds like a Foo Fighters song. It sucks that I know that but you know, that’s how it is. This song especially sounds like Ruby Sue, not in a good way though. It’s a rip , to me. I have had to skip through some of the songs because they’re just that annoying kind of, for the sake of it – fun for us not for you kind of song that is best kept for live shows.

I don’t think I hate this band enough to discredit them…they look like dicks – they’ve taken a look at the scene and made it cleaner in appearance. It kind of shits me, but it doesn’t make me want to murder them. Not to mention some of their songs are good, and may even deserve a little bit of praise. Another thing I like is that the whole album is available to listen to on their myspace and you know what that means – it’s essentially free to own. Unfortunately, as it progresses it becomes less listenable and more familiar.

Oh no – by Rule Of Three (track 13) I can feel I’m making that face. The kind of face that says, god – stop repeating what you’ve already done and making me feel like I’m wasting my time listening to the full album. The element of surprise has certainly vanished.

Watched a youtube video - it comes off a bit wanky, but more or less down to earth. I think Magdelana is arrogant, which can be good, but she’s stood on her soap box and stated “..if i see a band that stands there and plays and doesn’t friggin move or if a girl is on stage in heels that are too high so she can’t move, just take em off and jump around – that’s what I do…if you just don’t have it live just give up now…” and I’m like, wait a second – there are plenty of bands out there who are just fucking PROFESSIONAL and they don’t feel the need to be candy for the audiences eyes. I think she kind of misses the point and has now drawn some nice and stoned anger within me. Fucking idiots who think that music is all about glamour and show. Well, it’s just fucking not ok. If you think so, go and kill yourself now because throughout history – musicians have always been able to sit there and get deep within themselves and deliver all this powerful emotion without jumping around like a lunatic. The fact of it is, if you feel that you need to be physical to get your emotion across, then you’re doing something wrong. There’s certainly a balance, as they state in the video but at no point should it be the main focus of a fucking rock gig. First comes music – then comes marriage – fail to deliver then you’re just fucking average.

In the end, it’s near enough to what I like for me to say that this band is worth seeing live – just once. They’ve got a lot of  ”filler” songs on the album, obviously they’ve got some kind of “thing” goin on with this album to say it’s got atmosphere but I think they could’ve cut it down to size and used all the good songs to make it stronger. The interview made me feel like she’s kind of there but is more into herself than not. They fit into the Sydney scene very well, maybe too well and they look like retards on stage. What can I say? They exceeded my expectations enough for me to go and check them out live but it would be a one-time thing and I may even end up walking out because I feel like they’re far too spastic about it. If you like it a little bit, check out Ruby Sue – you’ll probably get more out of it. 

Think what you will, I’m giving them a 3/10 zeroes. 

Peace.

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DN 09

Steve Albini

There’s this great article, written by artist/producer Steve Albini which appeared in Maximum Rock n Roll magazine in the early 90s. It’s a good insight into why the music industry is a gigantic piece of Satans semen encrusted shit.

Check it out.

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DN

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DN

Here’s what I thought:

We all know that there are those out there who are easily spoon fed this stuff because their passion for it just isn’t there or is very weak. What pisses me off is how they’ve turned general rock and alternative etc into this marketable cartoon product that the kids can digest and the mothers and fathers think its good for the kids cause it’s clean and innocent. Problem: they’re fucking wrong. The content is blatant sexual mediocrity. It’s a Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson with distorted guitars – no more, no less.
 When first listening to these guys – a song called “Addicted” – I get the distinct impression that a producer has run a fine tooth comb over it. The chorus is pathetically weak – a rhyming, blatant attempt to be catchy with subject matter I think this Jared Weaks stole from a teenager girls diary/poem book. Apparantley it took them three months to finish it – fucking weak. No way should a song like this take more than 20 minutes, on a bus – dead. Two or three listens and it will start to irritate you – shame for it’s victims as it’s going to be on the radio a lot somewhere. Poor fuckers.

The song “New Tattoo” is like, if you have heard Nickelback – you have heard these guys. Whilst they are, being brutally honest, better than they it still isn’t enough to give you something to get excited about. More the opposite. It’s a constant dissappointment really. You want to get excited – you want to hear something and be like “FUCK YEAH!” and scream your heart out along with them and get all that emotion and energy and let it swirl around for true appreciation and the mental and physical stimulation it supplies. Instead, you’re left with this dry taste in your mouth thinking ”It’s another one. Another fucking band that’s following this boxed up, packaged business plan that you buy at your local supermarket for $59.95. The DIY Rock Star kit – complete with structure, sound, chords, clothes etc. Helps you identify and persuade a sappy manager to find a sappy label with a sappy producer who knows how to suck any emotion that’s there and make it sound completely artificial.” It’s digestable – but so is McDonalds – so would you rather have a huge burger that’s gonna satisfy you, or something quick and convenient to chew on only for your hunger to return shortly after you’ve swallowed your last bite?

Reading interviews with them was also a great laugh. These guys are the kings of banality. It’s a joke, right? If it’s not then honey, get my gun cause I’ve got some demons to kill. They did it, you know. They said that fucking evil sentence AGAIN! It goes like this “…when we were writing the album, (guitarist) Jason and I basically just wanted to sing about stuff that we knew people had been through and you could relate to…” If you say it in that sarcastic mock tone in your head you will hear what I hear every single time I read this garbage. WRITE ABOUT SOMETHING FROM YOUR FUCKING HEART YOU EVIL COCK BLOWER!

We then come across another little fascinating tidbit, from their myspace page in regards to their other “hit”. It says “…18 Days,” a huge rock ballad dedicated to the troops…” and once again, I flew off the handle. I can’t believe they’ve dedicated this to the troops. It seems so meaningless. What is the point? Is it so they play their song for them over some speaker system in the desert and feel rejuvinated after their slaughter? I doubt it, it’s a fucking LOVE SONG. Soldiers don’t need love – they need guns and prostitutes. I don’t get it. It’s produced sentimentalism, and I guess it’s for those who have hearts and are missing their girls. It’s trying to fucking snag that pro-war, pro-lifer christian majority in big shit America. It’s so bland and lame and uninspiring that if I was a soldier I’d want to transfer my killing over to them.

They call it rock, but there is seriously no rock in these songs. None of it. You can call it rock, but it doesn’t fucking mean it is. I can call Christina Aguilera hard rock but you all know it just isn’t so. You can’t just put a distorted guitar beneath something and call it rock. Rock just isn’t that shallow. Fucking get over it already.

divert thine eyes or forever perish in the depth of satans vast rectum

Their clothing style reminds me of Linkin Park – they’re cover is a chicks ass in blue jeans with the band name written in a tramp stamp – the reviews were all 9/10s and high praise standard bullshit reviews they have saved as templates so they can copy and paste it all over the web written by the kind of guy who would suck Satan off to get a VIP pass to a Nickelback concert. Their producer (Skidd Mills) is apparantley “famed” but doesn’t even have a wiki page and only hits 860 odd thousand results when googled.

Their myspace is a marketers wet dream – it has comments like “Thanx for adding me! Rock the world to the bones so loud and hard as you can!! DON’T LET IT DIE, ROCK AND METAL FOREVER!!” – obviously marketed out so they appear to have more “friends” and I mean, if the guy had actually fucking listened to the music he’d probably have realised it was shit. Then again, how can you actually be sure? He could have a totally different interpretation of what metal is – let alone rock. Only thing is – he’d still be fucking wrong. Truth is, these guys totally suck.

In the end though, it’s up to you to decide on what’s good and what’s not. I’m only here to give you an incredibly biased view on terrible music because you agree with me, mostly because I have good taste, and there’s nothing more to be said.

10/10 zeroes for sure.

Peace.

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DN 09

Alright, so it goes down like this – I was just playing some guitar. I’m stoned, naturally – so it goes. There’s no better opportunity to play some guitar when you’re stoned. Back to the point though – there’s a certain feeling you get when both listening to music and playing it. It can suck you deep into it, you can get lost in it. It’s a mental thing, and it’s really good.

It reminds me of the days when I used to dabble in the skateboarding world. There’s this rush, this thrill that you get when you land a trick. It’s really important to a skateboarder to land their tricks. You know why…
Anyway – the sense of accomplishment you receive when you land a trick is a very good feeling indeed. The comparison I make is this very rush, though with music – it’s amplified. When you nail a song, you feel quite fucking satisfied.

Now, I don’t really know many covers as I essentially only play songs I write – and I gotta say, some of my songs are very easy emotionally to play. Some – really drain the hell out of me. I don’t mean this in a bad way as they’re usually the really good ones. I’m not trying to be all “I’m the best” kind of pretentious bullshit, but I know a good song when I know a good song and I’m not gonna be a douche and lie to myself or others about it.

I feel this same sort of draining and attentiveness I get from these songs is the same that I get from the artists I like songs. You know what I’m saying? You’ll be sitting there listening to something you feel an emotional attachment to and it will really hit home for you and you can just fade into it. There wouldn’t be much of a doubt that you could say that song has some raw heart and soul then.

It essentially got me wondering, is it better that there’s heaps of heartless, soulless pieces of shit so called “artists” out there so songs like these can be cherished more?

…and I wait…

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DN 2009
]]> http://guitarzeroblog.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/raw-power/feed/ 0 dannynash http://guitarzeroblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/cognative-apparatus/ http://guitarzeroblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/cognative-apparatus/#comments Thu, 29 Jan 2009 06:52:09 +0000 dannynash http://guitarzeroblog.wordpress.com/?p=140 ]]>

My mind is not focussing. My mind is going crazy. Where is my mind? Who told him he could leave? What a bastard!
Phosporescent rays sucking the energy from my brain – crazy vibrations battling against my amusement. A mirage in the desert – hot sand, dehydrated – my life is an illusion and I am only the imagination of the universe. I do not exist and nothing around me is real. Reality has been twisted. Fortunate enough for me, it does not matter. There is no concern; so it goes. Death is over-rated. Life is undervalued. 

To fathom the universe, first we must bathe in our insignificance. To become so insignificant that we realise just how significant we are. Not as an individual of course – the only thing significant  about that is loneliness, and that – I feel – is the catch.

It’s easy to believe in some force guiding the light at the end of the tunnel, controlling the darkness – holding us warm like a baby and bottlefeeding us. Much harder to accept is the notion that loneliness is reality and at the end of the day, chaos is supreme. 
There is no life after death, no heaven – no hell – no comfort in death except to escape this harsh beaten up world. However, that can be done in life – ignorance, drugs – television – work and workaholics. Escape stares everyone in the face day in and day out and nobody in this world can escape that. It is written in our programming. We plan out material things to do, but rarely do we plan on thinking about things – non-material things, that is.

 Not to overanalyse is a special gift, and something we should be conscious of. It separates the body from the mind. In my experience, most people have already gone too far. They have detached their mind from their body and have allowed them to operate as two separate entities – these entities, in this instance, fail to cooperate with each other and they end up lost. Quite often they cannot stand by their convictions, they make empty promises, fail to acheieve their material plans and spend too much time analysing things that are of no importance. Cherising less and less the things that really matter in this world. In short, they become superficial. 
 

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DN
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