Is your hipster cred waning? Having trouble keeping up with the indie scene? Getting bored of the same old "mainstream" indie and looking for some new candles? Or are you just really pretentious and want to be the most obscure kid on the bloc?
If you answered yes to any of these questions or picked up on the dcfc/bloc party references then here's a hobby I would suggest for you:
Sign up on last.fm and start viewing the Users section for random countries, view the foreigners' pages, and write down a bunch of bands you've never heard of. Now search for those bands or artists on last.fm and listen to their similar artist radio. You can't really get much more obscure than that (information really DOES travel faster...). Reference some lyrics or artists that interest you at your next "coffee of doom" visit or to your hipster posse and watch your indie cred sky rocket.
New Hobby: search random countries on last.fm to discover new bands
Band Evolution
I was reading up on the Dire Strait's history on wikipedia and listening to "Romeo and Juliet" and I noticed their member list was quite diverse. Subsequently the question came to my mind, "At what point is a band not the same because of shifting members?" In the Dire Straits example it's not too drastic because they did keep the lead singer(Mark Knopfler) and bassist(John Illsey) but at the same time the other two to four members over the years altered regularly. They might play the same songs and try to imitate the style but the real feeling of a musical group is with its soul members. When the members are switching around ever year or so can you really say you enjoy the Dire Straits or did you just enjoy the Dire Straits during their 1982-1984 era? Personally, I don't think a band should rightfully retain the name if it's not the true heart and soul of the group or the founding members. Realistically they can't just decided to change their name when they've gotten considerable success but I don't think they can really be considered that band without at least mostly original members so they retain that real emotion that the creator put into it. Maybe nothing can really change, it's a fact of life musicians move around and find other opportunities or have needs they need to fill and it's understandable, it just doesn't seem right to refer to a band as the same name when the current members barely resemble their predecessors ten years prior.
Face First Into the Sky
I've been beginning to make up some songs on guitar and bass, starting to think about that solo project. I came up with Face First Into the Sky as a name for something....maybe an album or song, i dunno. Once I find/get some proper recording apparatus I'll start putting together the songs and try to make up some words.
the scene
So I was just urbaning up on some random stereotypes and I came upon scenester. The descriptions seemed pretty accurate but the pictures had me torn. At first I was thinking, "that's hardly scene, that's called emo...just needs some Dashboard Confessional and guys in their girlfriend's jeans," but then I realized, emo IS scenester. I mean, there's certainly a difference, but there isn't really such thing as a unique emo (for lack of a better noun). Stereotypical emo: all black, tight shredded jeans, hoodie, pin striped chuck taylors, and obnoxious hairstyles...and since they're basically trying to conform to that one sense of style then they're following that definition of scenester; "a person who tries very hard to fit the stereotype of a certain scene."
I heard about some band called Get Him Eat Him and they're coming out with a new cd by this summer called "arms down." I listened to some mp3s on their site (http://www.armsdown.com/) and they sounded pretty decent....no intense rock ballads but not at all Death Cab-esque, very cheery. Might check it out.
The band's website is actually:
http://www.gethimeathim.com/
Games, Computers, and battling Spoons.
Well first of all I just finished reading an interview with the Game Director for Age of Conan:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=146522
I've been looking at it for awhile, trying to decide on my next MMO, and it sounds like an amazing game! Much more action and story oriented than most cliche, point-and-click, grind-your-ass-off, WoW clones that are around the market these days, can't wait til next christmas!
Also, my new computer seems to be a go...almost got enough money (it's gonna be just under 1,100) I've had some second thoughts but it'll probably be for the best. I've been having trouble deciding on what parts to use with mixed reviews and tutorials, but I've got a good two months to worry about it. Hopefully by then Vista well be working properly.
On the concert front i went to Battle of the Bands last night and it was quite a show. The first couple were enjoyable, had some good musicians and song choices, but the last two were the interesting ones. The last band was The Casual Fridays, somewhat famous around campus, they were expected to be one of the best and they did end up winning...enjoyed them a lot. The interesing band was 1000 Plastic Spoons. I'm friends with most of them, or are at least acquainted, they did a blow out job...for freshman. In song choices and musicians they were very close to Casual Fridays, I'm sure the juniors and seniors were not happy to see such competition from freshman....nothing bad happened though, was an honorable show.
Next year should be interesting...Spoons are a shoe in and Infrastructure is thinking about trying out...hopefully we actually do something RIGHT this time.
Infrastructure
Well, me and a member of my current band decided to break off and start our own little conglomeration of music. We found someone who can sing (something we were lacking in SatN..) and plan to do some kind of Neutral Milk Hotel, Sonic Youth style stuff. I myself will mainly be on drums and various percussion instruments along with piano and the occasional bass part (I'm a one man rhythm section) , my other friend will be playing guitar and drums, and i guess whatever other abilities he shows, and our new singer can play various mallet instruments (xylophone, etc.) as well as sing beautifuly. You can check out our PureVolume page at http://www.purevolume.com/infrastructure
Kinda empty at the moment but I'll be updating it soon.
Bored...readin some QC
Totally my idle. Or maybe that's just a summary of my life..either one.
Yeah that's possibly the best webcomic ever..Questionable Content. You should read it.
Not much happenin lately. Joined this site www.lost.eu its pretty cool, check it out. You can join (and help me get more points) at
www.lost.eu/1504e
Found out about some new bands from my brother...some of em are pretty good.
The Format
Murder by Death
Explosions in the Sky
Minus the Bear
(Gave me some Bloc Party and Snow Patrol but we already know about them don't we)
I'd suggest you check out The Format's cd Dog Problems. Probably my favorite out of those four bands.
OH! almost forgot!
Well Macworld started today, the famous keynote address is tomorrow morning, sposed to be an hour longer than usual. There've been many predictions but it looks like the basic line up (this is just guesses and hunches) is the introduction of the iPhone and the iTV, some updates on Leopard, the usual intro of iLife and iWork, and a few others. Check out http://www.macworld.com/ for info, predictions, and updates during the keynote.
Til next time...
~*Morris*~
Holiday
Four days til christmas! Always a good thought. Will be gettin my bass, can't wait, it is such a fun instrument. My band, Suave and the Normies has been working on some tunes, namely one Raconteurs-esque one. We don't have any lyrics or titles yet but they're some nice jams that we could work on. We don't have our own Purevolume quite yet but here's one of the guitarists in SatN, my friend Mike:
http://www.purevolume.com/miie
Otherwise...just waiting til Friday when I'm finally free. Don't see many concerts soon that I can go to. There's the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at either the Civic Center or Madison Square Gardens sometime next week and my friends plan to go to an O.A.R.concert which is probably in New York. Dunno if I'll see either of em.
Til next time...
http://www.questionablecontent.net/