it's contagious, so catch it

I've clearly busted my 'only one blog post a week' rule I set for myself for the new year. Ahhhh well. What's much worse is the amount of Tweets I've been putting out. If I'm not mistaken, I tweeted twenty times on one day. And this is me, the person who, not so long ago, dubbed Twitter 'boring' because all you talk about on there are the trivialities of your everyday life. Well, on that crazy day when I tweeted twenty times: clearly I did twenty trivial things. Gahhhhhh anyone have good tips for cutting back on tweets?


'Liquid Confidence'

I downloaded and listened to a leak of You Me At Six' new album, 'Hold Me Down', before its release date of 11 Jan (thanks to LH, who sent me the link. Guess where - over Twitter, haha, my life is so going down the drain). Because of exams and the Busted post (see post below), I'm only putting this up now. If you're a YMAS fan and haven't yet listened to it (SHAME ON YOU), I'd advise you to avert your eyes for now, because I've found that my first opinions of a new album are always overshadowed by reviews I have read (then again that could just be my easily influenced self). Come back when you've heard it, anyways.

Despite the hype (built by YMAS themselves) surrounding the release of this album, I didn't find myself excited about it at all, and didn't expect much from it at all. I listened to the sneak preview of the album a few weeks ago and wasn't fussed, though I did like some bits in there. They say that if you have low expectations, you'll never be disappointed. Well then, either YMAS are in a league of 'crap' of their own, or that saying is fundamentally untrue. I am going with the latter.

Although the album retains YMAS 'essence', it does also sound different to 'Take Off Your Colours', their debut. With more instruments, it sounds 'fuller'... or maybe that's what they call 'noise'. And a heavier feel? Yeah, I'm listening to 'The Consequence' and it has some low guitar bits. Gah I'm amazing at describing music aren't I? I just listened to their interview on XFM with Iam Camfield and he described it as 'bigger', which is exactly what I think about it. Like, arena-big. (...I'm so eloquent)

I am tempted to say that most of the songs on the album all sound the same to me. And I would not be wrong. I've found loads of ritornello patterns being repeated across different songs, and by the fourth song I knew I could expect their typical loud-then suddenly quiet-then build up to loud again- sequence. A few of the songs they've put on there are average, like 'Safer to Hate Her' and 'Fireworks'. I wanna clarify that the album is not as appalling as I make it sound, but for me the album isn't one that hangs together tightly and takes me on a journey. In their interview with XFM, they said that when getting songs together, they could put different bits written by different members of the band into one song, because, for example, it would be in the same key. That kind songwriting process seems a bit disjointed to me, because the two components might be carrying very different emotions and so make up a song that is made up of two really good but really mismatching bits.

So what is it that still makes me listen to You Me At Six, you ask, if I find so many things wrong with them? Funnily enough, this album is what's reminded me of all the things I love about the band! You can expect to find heartfelt singing from Josh (the low bits, the quiet bits, and the lungs-y bits). Some great guitar rhythms and melodies scattered across all the songs too. I'd list examples for these, but I'd just give you almost the whole album.

That's it? Nice singing and interesting guitar playing?


'Contagious Chemistry'

Sometimes it doesn't take much for music to touch someone. What You Me At Six have got is energy, some emotional charge, and proof that they know what works well together. These are the things that tell me they're not to be written off any time soon. I have faith in them. They work really hard, appreciate their fans, and isn't just another pop/punk/rock band. They're in their own league, standing apart from anything from the US that comes onto this scene. Bring on 2010 for YMAS; let's hope they experiment some more and come into their own.


'Take Your Breath Away'


'Underdog'


'There's No Such Thing As Accidental Infidelity (featuring Aled Phillips, from KIGH!)'

xxxx

p.s. zomdizzles, I hear this You Me At Six album charted straight away at no.5 in its first week! Massive well done to them, it's quite a feat for a band like them!

p.p.s.: if you're a regular on this blog, you might wanna check back tomorrow for an announcement...

sing us a song, and we'll sing it back to you

So, this has been a long time coming – my review of the Paramore (w/ You Me At Six) gig at Wembley. This was a gig that I had been looking forward to for so long, and there is a sense of not fully realising what it is that I have been lucky enough to experience, of not knowing that that experience is now gone.

Now, now every children was the only other support band (apart from YMAS) worth my early arrival. Paper Route were...simply shit. Well, they had some good sounds, but it was so incredibly boring that after a while I literally wanted to go out for a break. But, I didn't.

You Me At Six came on stage and gave a set which, I have to say, was much too short! It just went, like that; I clearly did not enjoy it enough while it lasted. They played more new songs than old: Kiss and Tell, The Consequence, If I Were In Your Shoes, Save It For the Bedroom, Jealous Minds Think Alike, Finders Keepers. Did they play Underdog? Can't remember. Oh, and Always Attract, with a special guest appearance from Elissa Franceschi (it's actually not that special – I'm pretty sure she appeared at Reading too...). Anyway, it was great, but not that great, I think. In my diary, I wrote 'they were as good as they can get', i.e. not amazing. You Me At Six have seriously dropped in my esteem, probably since they got big. Mainly because their sound has majorly mainstreamised (phwoar, I invent words by the day) for the worse. I won't go on about how I prefer 'raw' sound again. Haha, I'm about to undermine and contradict all that I've said so far, but whatever, I loved them during that set, and still love them as I now listen to 'Underdog'.

'Underdog' - You Me At Six [first play on BBC Radio 1]

'Save it For The Bedroom' - YMAS

Paramore came on stage relatively quickly, considering they're the next big thing and I expected them to take at least half an hour. I guess they've really not let fame get to their heads. Josh Farro came on stage, closely followed by Hayley, opening with... I can't quite remember. Anyway I know that Ignorance was next and that's enough. The tracks not from 'brand new eyes' were Pressure, That's What You Get, Crushcrushcrush, I Caught Myself, Misery Business, Decode, My Heart. One track that they didn't play from their album was 'All I wanted', which I was SO upset about. I can't imagine what that would have made me feel, listening and watching them play such an epic song. Sob. I'll put it up here for you to see what it is I missed. Check out 2:30 onwards. Spine-chilling.

'All I Wanted' - Paramore

'Crushcrushcrush' - Paramore

'My Heart (live)' - Paramore
My favourite live track by them

What made me enjoy their set apart from the music has to be Hayley's interaction with the crowd. You guys who weren't there really have no idea what Paramore's idea of crowd interaction is. Get this: Hayley started talking about a letter that Josh Farro (the guitarist, and also her ex (?)) had received, from (username) liam1. They asked 'Is liam1 here?' And some other girl's name which I don't remember. It took a little while for the two to come up on stage, and there was a variety of things which I was expecting, but definitely not what actually happened. Of all the things I was expecting (the two singing a song to Paramore about how awesome they are, or something) I was NOT expecting... a marriage proposal. That's right, liam1 proposed to his girlfriend. I'm so slow, when he went down on one knee it took me at least five seconds to get what he was doing and why the whole room erupted in screaming. But, when I got it, I screamed alright. While the girl hugged and kissed Liam (I assume that's his name), Hayley gently took the microphone from Liam's hand, saying 'I'm guessing that's a 'yes'', and dedicated the next song to them. That's 'The Only Exception', which I've got here for you.

'The Only Exception' - Paramore

Which song did I most enjoy? 'Misguided Ghosts', which they performed as part of their encore. Its being acoustic automatically puts it in 'tear-jerker' category, and though my tears were not jerked, I did feel something inside of me stirring and my heart going kaboom-kaboom-kaboom for Paramore. I know, I'm cringey, but I'm just saying, is all. If Paramore can make me say the cringiest of things, doesn't that mean something about their ability to move people to EXPRESS themselves? Hah, what bullshit, I'm just cringey anyway.

'Misguided Ghosts' - Paramore

Hayley was so fit that night, even a straightie like me cannot deny it. They were all on form, which I think is something you can expect from Paramore. You know, not letting fame get to their head, keeping their heads focused on the what they're doing, doing it for the music. They went out on the stage to enjoy themselves, that's undeniable, but also to share the night with a few thousand of their fans. And you can tell, as well, that even though they're guaranteed big bucks (big for a band like them, anyway) they still put their everything into those gigs and don't take them for granted. Concluding note to self and to you readers: Paramore will not disappoint. So I'm defs gonna see them next time they're in town.

And I'm gonna say it. Paramore are my perfect band. Call me emo, call me fangirl, call me teenage... but you're just an old, boring, lifeless soul who listens to... what do you listen to? Ok I was just about to say something but I'll restrain myself, because I totally respect your music. Yeah, totally.

:P love you really.

xxxx

18.12.09

A date I may never forget.

The day I tasted live music at its best.

The day I saw You Me At Six and Paramore.

More to come, soon.

<3

music

I'd like to start this post by thanking you guys for your support. I started this blog with no expectations (aside from expecting that nobody would read it), so to have anybody even going onto my page is very encouraging. I thank you even more for the lovely comments you've made about my blog, my layout, and especially those about my writing because that has previously always been an area where I've been unsure of myself. So thank you; now I only hope I can return the favour by continuing to give you light, yet – most importantly – interesting and entertaining reading (and laughing, hopefully).

Just a quick request, if you leave comments – especially in the shout box on the far right – please leave your name, or at least a screen name, otherwise it's just a long list of Guest Guest Guest Guest, and it looks like one person has become socially withdrawn and decided to spend their life on my blog. And, also you can't tell what's said by who. So yes, at least a screen name!

Music-wise: Thursday this week I heard You Me At Six's upcoming new single, 'The Consequence'. If you missed it (bad, bad You Me at Six fan), catch it on the Radio 1 Nick Grimshaw page (like I did). Or just listen to it on the right.

I like it! After hearing 'Finders Keepers' and 'Kiss and Tell', I liked them somewhat, but this is truly a move away from that kind of sound and back to their old sound (angry rawr angry rawr angry rawr. I'm SO weird.) No joke, I actually think my inclination towards angry music is really telling about my character... But back to the point, you can tell they have feeling in this song, that they've put themselves (maybe not their heart) into it. Josh Franceschi said that he had to rewrite the lyrics of most of their songs from the forthcoming album after their tour in America because he'd just come out of a long-term relationship – does that mean I stand a chance now? - so the sincerity that this shows (changing your lyrics to reflect your emotions) tells me that they are putting themselves into this song. Hopefully that will also be the case for the new album (out in Jan 2010, folks, GO GET IT). You Me At Six, welcome back.

A song that seriously makes me want to cry because of its pointlessness is Lily Allen's 'Who'd Have Known'. Yeah, I know, I loved her 'Guess What Batman (Fuck you very much)', but the former just makes me think, 'what is wrong with her?!' How could she possibly have thought that this song was good enough to release as a single? How could she possibly have thought that it was good enough to put on an ALBUM?! Things wrong with it: the chorus sounds too much like Take That's 'Shine' (perhaps that's intentional, but it doesn't work in any way!) it's slow in a lo-o-o-ong, drawn-out way, and it's lifeless. I'm not even asking for heart, or emotion, or soul, just something that makes me think it's sung by a living thing. HELP ME NOW.

Another song that's making me despair atm (but not as much) is Ke$ha's 'Tik Tok'. I mean, when I first heard it, I thought it was some weird sort of MileyCyrus-Cascada-EsmeeDenters hybrid. So – wrong. It's a tune I can't get out of my head and that's good to sing, but lyrically and musically it's crazy. The verses she sings are – what the hell are they?! It's just her talking, really... I can't even describe it. Speechlessness, but in a bad way. There's no energy in the song, it's nanananana..nanananana... I don't need this kind of music! (Oh, there goes the music snob.) Too many artists who don't know what they're doing. It's not even fun music. I can handle bad music that's jokes, but bad music that is just bad and fills a space... no.

(OMDZ what?! When I saw the name Ke$ha I thought she'd have been black. Woops.)

Last word, well done to my friend NO (I'm not just saying NO angrily, however weird I may be) for her success in the Bank of England competition!

xxxx

Dorset

[written on Saturday 07 Nov]

I dragged my mum and myself all the way to Dorset last night, to sit the SAT this morning at 7.45. In the morning. A bit of a waste? Hm, I think I failed that test. Because I did not revise enough. What a waste.

On a sidenote, does anyone know anything about the club/bar 'Jewel' in Covent Garden? Or the one in Piccadilly Circus? If you're a clubber extraordinaire reading this (why are you reading my blog) please get in touch : )

Back onto the topic. How awful, I wrote a terrible essay for the SAT. It was about rights – women's rights and LGBT rights. AWFUL. Worst piece of writing I've ever done. Rushed, thoughtless, poorly structured, just... hmm. Ok, I've just realised, what if the marker is reading this blog, they're gonna get majorly influenced. Correction, I've just written the best piece EVER for my SAT, it was an innovative piece that was insightful and masterfully structured and will be groundbreaking towards establishing rights for those mandemz.

...

Yeah.

It was so time-pressured! And the whole you-get-1/4-of-a-point-off-if-you-answer-wrong really threw me off, so that I didn't know whether to risk answering or to leave it blank. Blah. I'll just have to wait for my scores and see if i need to re-sit it. FML. December SAT Subject Tests next.

Travelling was good though. Rushed last night to Waterloo in late afternoon, to get on a train to Poole. I understate when I say that I love journeys. Just, sitting. Not sitting an exam, not sitting listening to a teacher drone on, not sitting in a waiting room. Just, sitting, cause you can. And I did some SAT revision. Go me. Meanwhile, there was a group of uni students sitting adjacent to us, so my SAT revision constituted of eavesdropping on their convos. Listening to them made me sure of how bloody excited I am for uni life – travelling, clubbing, being with friends – living the life, basically. Oh and the studying, obviously.

That's reminded me – I can't get this out of my mind (not to be corny) – but my mum said to me: if I knew that you'd wanted to do Classics (undergrad degree), I wouldn't have sent you to [my current school]. She wasn't angry at all when she said that. It was more mild disappointment/regret/benefit of hindsight. Because she thinks that I deserve doing something high-brow like Law, or something really specialised because I have the brains for it. No comment for now.

Onwards and upwards, I found out You Me At Six have announced a 2010 tour. Support: We The Kings, Forever The Sickest Kids. Sickk. Except, er, not that sick. You Me At Six have really deteriorated since I first heard them (approx early 2008). Back then their sound was so raw it was butchered.

Fine, bad joke.

The 'Save It For the Bedroom' demo is the epitome of their raw sound, with no industrial mainstream riff-raff making sound too clean-cut and Josh's voice still sounding quite fresh and unique. Now it's just.. teenage fangirl material (cause I'm defs not a teenage fangirl). I still like them – I think – just definitely not as much as before.

And We the Kings? I overplayed them back in January/February and am suffering the consequences now. Forever the Sickest Kids? I don't know their songs. I have their album on my iPod, just haven't bothered to listen. I'm such a bad music fan.

But I'm really not. Guess who's seeing Paramore with You Me At Six! And..two other bands, that I WILL look up beforehand! Can't wait. And the day after that gig, is my 18th PARTY. Great start to my holiday. I actually cannot wait to go mad once I'm 18.

xxxx