update!

So, I feel an update is in order, condisering it's been quite a while since my last one! And, because you'd expect nothing more, it's going to be order in the random way it tumbles out of my head.

Snowboarding

Snowboarding is very very very good, go do it. I had an amazing week and met some really cool people. Props to Lucy, Anna, Robin, Sparks, Jason, Henry, Ben and all the other that madse the trip as sweet as it was. From three legged handstands, to drunken air off the hotel kicker, harry potter scars, two jews (not just the one this year!), cuddleparties, hardcore d-rinking rules, stupid off peiste, amazing off peiste, bad rocks, coke-blak. and shit loads of other stuff I can't remember

Christmas

Good to see the brothers n all that, and of course spend some time with dad. Only got to have one pasty, which is lame. I wanted to bring a load up this time, but no. Damn shop was shut! So, turkey sandwhichs all the way! Got some cool presents from my brothers as well, although there was proof again that only my brothers have any idea who I am. I got alcohol again... gave it to my dad!

Relationships

Well, that's enough of that one :P things have changed, that's all you need to know ;)

NYE

AT ANARCHY! see you there motherfuckers!

EDIT!

yeah, so there's some new cool people in my life, so I thought I'd give them some props as well... Yeah, I said props, what you gunna do about it? Forx - known for a long time, but recently are closer, he's cool. Knows lots about stuffs. Johnny, awesome awesome drummer and fellow straightedger, bit of a dancing legend too. Lucy - not talked to anyone in a long time the way I talked with her. It was... good. Sam V - Forx's mate, planned to be pulling partner and rather crazy at dancing as well.

I see 2009 be a fucking cool year!

Blessed by a Broken Heart

So, I went to a gig last night, it was very good!

I wrote a review for Birminghamlive.com so it should be up there soon. But because I know you're all too lazy to go looking I'll post it here as well, at the end of this post.

Yeah, so me and Emma went, while watching Fei Comodo we met two member of I Am Ghost, then met another one before they went on. Met most of Fei Comodo while Lennon/Devils Gift was on and they are lovely guys. Hopefully a band of mine will be supporting them when they come back to brum in March. After I Am Ghost we met the rest of the band (expect the lead singer who was ill :( but all the others) Emma is a huge fan so got autographs n photos... So BBABH were fucking great, stupid music, stupid hair, amazing live band. More like a party than a gig! Met some of them as well, and have photos to prove it!

So we're hanging around at the merch stand at the end of the night, I bought myself a BBABH tee. We're just standing about, chatting to random members of the bands and being cool like that (wishing I wore my nike high-tops, then I'd have been really cool) and Lennon, Suicide girl and singer tells me to buy a cd. So I'm like "I'm not sure I can afford it" knowing too well that I can, but I didn't want to, so she knocks it down to £5 and I'm feeling mean for not buying anything from her, and then she offers a t-shirt as well. So I fell well bad. But then Emma says she wants to see the suicide girl boobs. She's quite good looking, so, I ask like you do, and there we go, she pulls up her top, and the boobs look weird, all squished and nasty looking, then down comes the bra, and she has these freaky tits! Like a food bag half-filled with sand stapled to her chest! It was a sight I'd rather forget! She even kept them out for much longer than you'd Anyway, she got her tits out and I bought a cd and tee for £6, all good! Then, as expected from a drunk girl who just got her tits out, she wanted to see Emmas (far far nicer!) I think Lennon felt a bit sad when she saw Emmas awesome rack!

Damn it was a great night... shame on you for not coming! Oh, and just incase you think this might me think brum is any good. NOPE! hardly any people to see awesome bands, fuck you brum!

Review!


Blessed By A Broken Heart, I Am Ghost, Devils Gift, Fei Comodo

It's rare that I queue for a gig, but with a Line-up this good, I didn’t want to miss a thing. While I'm not the only one, the queue is very short, and the moving of the gig to the main barfly room meant the lack of people was very noticeable.

First on are Fei Comodo, probably most famous for the 'Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers' theme tune they did a few years ago. Now with a full length album and second single on the way the band have stepped things up a notch. They performed very well, the Essex boys bouncing all over the stage, the most impressive being the lead singer, jumping down to the barrier to sing along with the few diehard fans. His voice is incredible, pitch perfect and very powerful, a true front man. However while the band play good songs and put on a great show, there's the overwhelming feeling that this has all been done before, a lot. It's good but the band really aren't pushing any boundaries, this is solid emo/hardcore but it's nothing groundbreaking. Even so, I'll be back to see them in March, and I think you should be there as well.

Next on was supposed to be Devils Gift, but (as she put it) the band wussed out, leaving only the female lead singer to do her solo material. While she can certainly sing, the set was really a massive come down after the high energy stuff of Fei Comodo. Lennon is a suicide girl, which caused some heckling, mostly "Get your tits out!", but she held her own - accusing the worst culprit of being a virgin. But this was not enough to forgive 30 minutes of bland, un-dynamic piano/vocal pop.

I Am Ghost were pretty big about a year ago, with lots of Kerrang! play, so it was a really surprise that the room was still so quiet, the gothic-punk styles of 'Our Friend Lazarus Sleeps' having made waves in the UK. The band have lost their female vocalist/violinist so were using a laptop to recreate her parts. It was a little odd to hear her voice coming through the speakers while the whole band is guys. Unfortunately the sound was not great so most of the songs sounded very similar, and with the lead singers flu most songs were hard to recognise. They still managed to create a truly epic feel at times though, every band member singing, adding to the huge harmonies. Even through sickness the band looked like they were enjoying themselves, definitely worth seeing again.

Blessed By A Broken Heart come on stage, with the room still hardly half-full but this doesn't dampen their spirit. They're an odd band, taking modern hardcore and mixing it with 80s' hair metal and cheesy pop. Think Motley Cru, sleeping with Tina Turner’s synth player, Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon all covered in grated cheese. While the lesser known tracks are easily forgotten in a haze of constant shredding and double bass drum pedal, and the PA struggles to keep any definition in the rhythm section, songs like 'Show Me What You Got', 'Blood On Your Hands' and the ultra cheesy 'Move Your Body' really show off what BBABH are about. Only one band could scream, 'Throw your hands up' and 'Do the robot' and this is them! It's hilarious, but it's obvious that they are in on the joke. It's explained that bassist and second vocalist Tyler was arrested the previous night in Glasgow for defending a fan from a bouncer, which explains the rather nervous appearance of the stand-in guy, his movements minimal, especially in comparison to the rest of the band. As I watch from the balcony there is a guy beside me, joking with the guys from Fei Comodo, and when the band leave the stage a mic appears in his hands. "Guess who's free!" he shouts down, then running down to the stage to join his band mates for the ridiculous song that is 'Mic Skillz 2' A 10 minute epic, no structure, just awesome riffs, brutal screaming ("COOKIE MONSTER!") and stage invasion by members of I Am Ghost and Fei Comodo. Whether you love or hate the music this band makes, you will love them live. An amazing party atmosphere and an amazing show.

BIRMINGHAM IS FUCKING LAME!

I hate this town. it sucks

I would go into details but...

I already have. I'm actually annoyed that I've already blogged about this shitty city.

anyway.

Read my blog bitches!

Allucinere Website now up and running!

It's here!

More thanks than I can say to Forx - the most awesome guy ever.

There will be more stuff added as there's new news and shizzle, and a flash player with 'da toons' but for now, have fun reading some stuff I wrote last night :)

www.allucinere.com

I want these shoes!

I have a pair already, but they're knackered! (not naked) and they're almost impossible to get in this country. So if anyone can find them, or a way to get them to me. please please please, let me know. I want them for x-mas!

just a link will do. so Go minions go!

also. Circa Survive = good
Saosin = good
Envy on the Coast = also good

go listen to them.

finally, Em is ace.

EDIT: These Shoes!

the end.

I'll rant about something I hate soon, probably my fucking coursework DX

Subculture is undeniably shit.

Saterday was amazingly bad.

It was 'Ladies Night' so all girls dressed as slags got a free shot (pretty sure that that was for the guys...) and they had the UK Dream Men on stage... 2 things very wrong with this.

1. Guys performing choreographed strip routines is not, and never will be, sexy. It's very homo-erotic, and I'm sure the subs girls loved it, but after 3 minutes the comedy value wore off, for a lot of the girls as well as the boys. Yet those pricks were up there three times in the night, each time for about 20 minutes. Time wasted that could have been spent with decent music; bringing me to

2. Woefully poor playlist. Barely anything good all night, just the god awful subculture 'classics' if you've been more than once, you'll know what these are... there's the metal tunes that everyone's bored of (Disturbed, Slipknot, 36 Crazyfists...) there's the poppy shite that everyone's bored of (Feeder, Foo Fighters...) there's the emo shit no-one even liked in the first place (Panic at the Disco, My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy) and then... there's the hip-hop/dance section which is new. BUT EVERYONE HATES IT... EVERYONE HATE HATE EVERYONE HATE HATE EVERYONE HATES IT. I think I made my point there.

It's funny, because the week before, which was the New Found Glory after party, was awesome. A good hour of punk and ska right at the start, including actual real BRITISH PUNK BANDS :O then a good mix of metal, hardcore, emo even a touch of DnB (even if it was pendulum again) I barely went to the bar that night!

It just goes to show that the guys behind subs do know how to put on a good mix. They just don't want to...


Which reminds me of another thing.

LEARN TO MIX YOU TWATS! A real DJ actually mixes songs together, you know, like playing both at once in time with each other in a way that sounds good. NOT pressing play on CD deck two when the song on CD deck one is over. And stop playing boring songs all the way through. Sure it's nice to hear some metallica, or Beastie Boys but we don't like it so much that we need to hear the middle break and last chorus. Just skip it! Please! Just play the next song and keep the attention!

I've not seen many good DJs in my life, but one was the legend that support Enter Shikari on their last tour. Mixing DnB with alt tunes and real classics, just a pity it was a shitty atmosphere for dancing...

go listen to DJ Pdex

http://www.myspace.com/djpdex

well go see him, it's pointless listening to him unless you're gunna dance your tits off.

Fuck Scene!

Mini rant first.

Why is it that when you say to someone (this is in birmingham exclusively) 'Do you fancy going to the pub on the xth?', they will say yes. But if you ask the same person, 'Do you fancy coming to see my band (or my friends band, or this band that are really fucking good) on the xth?' they'll say 'Yeah, maybe.' and then not show up.

Is it because everyone in Birmingham is a twat? No, but there really is a serious lack of music scene here, and a serious lack of support for what might actually make the scene less lacking! So next time my friend says, hey man, my band are playing on the xth, I'm going to go, and I hope you all do too! Support your friends, Hell, they might even be good!

Speaking of which, my good friends the Tie Dye Quartet are playing on weds, go and see them, they're good and you've nothing better to do.

Rant over.

Scene

ScenexScenexScene

What the fuck is scene? Is it only liking the bands which are scene? Is it dressing scene? Is it acting scene? 

Well, yes and no to all of the above. But unfortunately it seems to me that most scene kids (and believe me I saw enough tonight!) don't really have a fucking clue about their actual music scene! Instead of 'scene' being a word to describe a certain area or cities musical subculture it is now a term that is an extension on emo. Like emo, there are certain defining styles both in music and appearance, but also like emo it is possible to dress in many scene clothes without being scene, and to not dress scene at all but still be scene as fuck. I guess a lot of it is attitude, and clothing combinations but looking scene is fine. I look scene I guess, people say I do certainly, but I only look this way so people think I am scene, and then when I tell them about Allucinere or I Have Clones, they might actually listen. See my post on marketing for more on this theory!

For some reason scene is cooler than emo, mostly because you can't be 14 and scene, there's an age thing going on. But by being scene you're credability is rated higher than if you're emo and therefore people supposedly are more likely to believe your recomendations (I may have done a post about credability too, go find that and read it too) 

But (and this is the big one!)

As far as I can tell, with only a few exceptions, every scene kid in Birmingham likes the same bands. Nothing local, nothing that's not scene. So when at Bring Me The Horizon tonight I found myself surrounded by hundreds of incredably similar, yet subtly different fringes, and I found them all hating The Secret Handshake (who were fucking shit to be honest) but loving Deez Nutz (who were also fucking shit) it became clear. A band has too look uber-fucking scene, and play brutal. A band that does not do this are either too wussy and emo, too poppy and wussy, to metal and hairy or some other shitty reason. It doesn't even really matter if the band are very good, so long as all your scene mates like them too, they're scene. But, if like so many bands in Birmingham, there isn't enough scene cred flying around your band, well, then you're fucked. The Scene kids don't know and don't care, you're nothing to them till you've toured with xallxIxwantxisxtoxdiex the ubercore band from the US.

Well, fuck you scene kids, maybe you should start listening to music in Birmingham for a change - it may not be perfect but it's at least as good as some of the shite you're listening to.

Go listen to

The Archer Home

Random Conflict

Blakfish

Kneale Brown

and of course Allucinere

I Have Clones

and then go to some fucking gigs, you pieces of shit!

God, I hate this city sometimes.

Rant 2 over.

pleasure pain

emo title I know...

But I had a thought on the bus. And it in many ways supports the idea that there is a god (me, supporting religion? Whatever next!) and it's essentially that good people are happy, and bad people have shitty lives. 

Think of all those shitty chavy wankers there are, they beat people up, and steal things, and in return they go to jail, live in shitty flats and live shitty lives. Where as good people tend to be happier, their friends aren't wankers, they live in nice places and have decent jobs. 

Of course there are more exceptions to this rules than there are expamples that support it. But I like the principle. Be nice, have nice things happen to you. Be a shit, live a shit life. I believe it is capable for everyone to live a happy life, they've just got to take the right steps towards it. 

go to www.isowish.com for a good way to start working on a new way to improve your life. 

Maybe I want to live in a nicer place! See ya later kids

Stress

Right now, I feel awful. I don't normally feel awful, but there are a few things that really really fuck me off.

and what's fucking me off right now? The fact that niether of my house mates will do any FUCKING CLEANING! Having a house in a mess really stresses me out, I mean, really fucking stresses me out. I can't concentrate unless I hide in my room and pretend it's not there. But do either of my housemates give a shit about this? Clearly not, because despite asking nicely, whining like a bitch, complaining a lot, telling them to do it directly, and shouting at them, one has fucked off to do coursework and the other is sitting in the longue doing fuck all.

They had a band practice this weekend, so understandably they couldn't do much cleaning, and the house got in a mess with the extra people and the lack of time to tidy. BUT one person had time to make a fucking roast dinner, and leave shit all over the kitchen in the process, and when I got home today they were both dicking about. Leaving my PA on, wasting electricity and leaving the band room as a fucking shit tip.

I Hope this rant will make them realise how much this gets to me.

I FUCKING HATE MESS. SO FUCKING CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSLEVES!

When I come home I want to be able to relax, and I cannot relax in this shithole.

this blog is not the blog it was supposed to be

but fuck you.

I don't care.

So, I was thinking while sat in the Hello Digital thing I went to this morning (between lectures - I am that hardcore) that blogs aren't really blogs, but columns. Just like the ones in the paper, and increasingly so, they are replacing columns. In many ways they are much better, you can find the column that is perfect for you, not just the shitty one clarkson is writing this week. Each blog has a beautifully unique style and content, so there's one out there for everyone and everything. 

One problem - they're free. No one profits from them (except the host site) people use them as shops and adverts of course, but there's no reward for the actual content. 

So where does that leave us? In my eyes, with a completely open and non-exclusive community spanning the whole world. 

Sweet.

What If Punk Never Happened

So, first up, Props to rob @ Ihaveclones.com for linking this first

I have just been to see The King Blues and I know the PUNK WILL NEVER DIE

So long as we have have inpirational bands like themselves amazing support act the Skint, and even the highly impressive brum lads Tempting Rosie then I will be happy sleeping knowing that somewhere out there are people that are those that make the nessesary changes.

I suppose I am the kind of person they hate, I'm love punk, I 'am' Punk, but I do fuck all, I'm far too lazy! So thank fuck for all the bands that Itch namechecks, and of course for current UK Punk bands.

And I mean PUNK bands, roots back in the old school, but putting a spin on things that makes it their own. If you have no idea what I'm on about, chances are you never will.

So, in my rambling way I move on to those bands which I think every person that thinks of themselves needs to know about.

Old...

Crass

Minor Threat

Operation Ivy

Agnostic Front

Sick of it All

Madball

Ramones

Oldish...

No Comply

Lightyear

Refused

Rancid

NOFX

F-Minus

Fucked Up

NOW...

The King Blues

Sonic Boom Six

The Skint

Failsafe

The Mercury League (or whatever they're calling themselves these days...)

don't tell me what bands I've missed, I'm sure there's loads, and most importantly, listen to the last lot. If you don't I don't like you.

Oh yeah, and read Last Hours mag. it's good.

bye bye, and sorry for not being able to structure my rants.

maybe that's part of the charm?

Pay to Play - fucktarded

Yeah, so my friends band asked me to play drums for them for a gig.

The gig they were playing was for a colleague as a favour as the night needed another band.

After hearing very little about the gig they were told hours before the details (location, times, little bits like that) and that in order to play they would have to bring their own gear, or pay to hire the gear that was there...

I think any of you reading this would think at this point "Fuck this" and I agree.

It worked out that we played, the members of the band have to work with the promoter in the future, and the hire costs were £30 between 3 bands (although it was charged per person rather than band) so not too much to worry about. 

However, the simple principle of having to pay for gig seems riduculous. I'm sure you all agree.

BUT

How many of you have play a Surface Unsigned gig? How many have sold tickets for a venue without seeing any of the money? How many have you have worked your ass of to get your mates to a gig only to see no credit or reward?

STOP FUCKING PAYING!!!!

Allucinere paid the £25 entry fee into Surface Unsigned two years ago, we brought over 30 people to the first show @ £5 a ticket, all pre-sold. We brought over 25 people to the next show @ £6 a tickets. We saw none of that money once SU got hold of it, and we recieved nothing, not even a fair judging system. We gave them over £300! For two gigs... We could've held two gig on our own, and used that money to record another 3 songs to make our EP an Album. But it was wasted.

My advice - Anyone ever asks you to pay - SAY NO!

This industry is shitty enough without giving the money you are earning to a fucking company! 

PS - this is not a dig at the promotor, he was only trying to re-coop his loses, and the gig was free. I got a free pint out of it, and the gig was fun, this post is about trying to stop shitty companies and asshole promoters fucking bands over. It's bad enough the record companies are doing it...

postpone

you might have noticed that I've stopped posting my progress through the challenges. That's because I can't be assed, I'll start up again once rob is here and then it will be fun ;)

in the meantime, find me a good online calendar that I can access from everywhere and displays in a nice public place, ideally a decent ap on facebook, or something nice somewhere else. And not google!

x0x

Day 4

Well... this is proving to be a tricky one. Not because the challenges are hard, but because the hot water in my house has gone! Can't have a shower without hot water. I could however do the rest of the main challenge, which is to get girls to tell me where to shop! I might go do this now actually, I wanted to buy some stuff in town anyway....

See you when I get back!

day off

so, after waking up very late and ignoring my challenges I've decided that I'll do day 4 tomorrow!

EDIT:

yesterday was pretty simple stuff as well, did the small talk, remembered some eye colours, although they were all brown...

this day was easy. don't shower and don't shave.

Needless to say I didn't this morning, but I'm going out tonight so I will be soon. I think the purpose for that exercise was for people stuck in a routine. However for me, the concept of not showering or shaving (esp shaving) is not really a big one.

Speak more betterer English. I don't think I have problems with my speech, but I did a few of the exercises, I think I talk proper awesome like.

Moviefone - fuck that, he obviously hasn't ever called a random person in _birmingham_ and damned if I'm going to get abuse from horrible chavs!

More self hypnosis - need to download this still, maybe I will, maybe I won't.

Roll on day 4

Day 2

lots more writing today :(

3 acomplishments:

get signed with a band, go on tour, pass uni

why these will make me happier:

Get to play music for a living, get to see the world and play a lot of music, finally get a degree!

I will become a professional bassist who will get signed (to a good deal) within 2 years

I will have sold 20,000 albums

I will have played over 500 gigs

I will have earnt lots of money

I will persue this mission because if I don't:

my sex-life will decrease

my social-life will suffer

my uni will fail

But if I do do it now then

my sex-life will increase

my social life will improve

my uni will pass

Ok, that's all of that filled in, now I have to download some meditation thing, and talk to 5 more strangers with added eye contact. Good thing I'm going out today!

Day 1

I think other people percieve me as:

confident, a bit wierd but not in a bad way, sometimes a bit too wacky, smart

I'd like to be percieved as:

Confident, smart, calm, collected - cool!

3 behaviours/characteristics to change:

Over-excitable, bad habits, inapropriateness

3 new behaviours I want:

never get embarrased, stay calm, be cool.

Well that wasn't too hard. I still need to make smalltalk with 5 strangers, but as I'm unlikely to leave the house I don't know if I'll do that! The reading part will be easy though!

See you tomorrow!

Stylelife Challenges

So, after reading the game a couple times I thought I'd buy the second book - The Rules of The Game. And now, as I'm single again I'm going to do the Stylelife Challenges

I know you're all thinking that it's a 'how to pick-up girls' book, and to a certain extent you're correct. But what guy doesn't want to know how to pick up girls better? So as an experiment I'm going to be doing these challenges, hopefully with a couple of friends of mine, to see what it does to us, will we become new people, sex machines, man hos' of the worst kind? Or will it simply help us to overcome shyness, and more confident?

Either way, I'm doing it. Fuck you if you think it's lame or un-cool.

I'll be posting my thoughts on each days challenge here, so keep up to date!

Marketing

Everything is marketing

Marketing is everything

Every person you meet is judging you, so make a good impression. You need to behave and appear to be exactly how you you want them to think you behave and appear. I get a fair few digs for my emo fringe - but I play with a band, my fringe ties me to my music as does my sense of dress. I'm polite and well mannered, reasonable and fair and this sells the product of Ben Duff well to everyone. People who meet me may then listen to my band based on my recommendation, or perhaps listen to other bands I suggest. This is simply one example of how everything we say effects other peoples opinions of us, and how they make further judgements of what you say based on those opinions. 

I suppose this is very obvious to a lot of you, but it's something that has a huge importance to our lives. While I'd love to say I don't care what others think, what other people think is what my living depends on. I need people to like me, like my band, think I can do the right job, trust me etc.

Apologies for the last post, I know no-one else was confused, but I had set out to write about one thing, then forgot what it was and wrote about something else entirely! Meaning Tim had no relation to the post really. I'm sure the original content will come back to me and then I'll blog about it!

love n peas ;)

more people read this than I thought!

Right, it's been an eventful week, one with lots of emotion and things and some realization, much of which I wanted to blog about at the time, most of which I've forgotten.

It's mostly down to Tim, who worked as a catalyst between me and Claire, in many ways this was a good thing, it brought me to my senses somewhat and made me think about things. This was also quite bad in other ways but much of the negative was caused and fueled by alcohol (evil stuff) and moods. Certainly I don't think (hope) there are no bad feelings and that it's water under the bridge. 

I think the biggest realization was that of self-worth. For a while I have believed that in order to make effective use of your time and to create a balanced sense of self-value you should work out that your time is worth what your personal minimum wage is. This is not the minimum you want to get paid for a job you want to have, but how much you have to get paid to do a job you hate.

For me this is around £12 an hour. Now, use this figure, and balance it with activities you are doing, your job for instance may be quite good, I certainly enjoy mine, I have fun with my colleagues and get to chat to lots of people all the time, so I'm happy with my £6 an hour. 

However it is in your free time that this has to be balanced, obviously sleep is necessary and therefore worthy of the £12 loss of profit, eating is also a needed cost. Doing fun things that are free are obviously great for the self-worth. 

Essentially what I'm trying to say is that you should make the most of your time, you have a high self-worth and should use that to some extent at all times, whether for your own pleasure or for income. Take from this what you will, but maybe it'll help someone.

Don't forget investments though - sometimes it is worth destroying this self-worth in order to help another who is in need. A sleepless night or an awkward conversation may prove far greater 'value' in the long run, it is important that while you do your best for yourself, you also do the same for others lest we all turn into the bastards punk-rock songs sing about.

Maybe I'm talking shit, maybe I'm not.

I think this is enough, I have other ideas along these lines which I may well share with you at some point in future. In the meantime listen to Reggie and the Full Effect.

Anyone reading this on the blog site comment this post please, I want to know how many there are!

some more of summer

Things are going quite nicely at the moment, which is nice!

Things I'm thinking about:

I Have Clones live shows

Allucinere live shows

Boardmasters 'Unleashed' festival

Who the fuck is Rodney P

Starting proper punk-rock band - not another blink-182 wannabe but a proper Rancid wannabe

Long words I didn't know yesterday

Poker

Car boot sales - I love buying car boots

Thats really all there is atm, just plodding along with work and hoping september will come round soon!

Birmingham Music

So yesterday I was a little miserable, I'm definitely happier today, Claire is nearly here!

Also, been thinking about the brum music scene again - I think I finally worked out one of the key problems. Promoters that put on crap bands! I blame them. Obviously there's more to it than that but hopefully, by emphasizing high quality music and pushing the brand name the promotions company I'll be starting next year with Steve-O (of L!EX fame) we should be able to re-build a scene for birmingham. Thats the plan anyway! Fingers crossed.

I also joined drowned in sound today, terrorvision101 is my username as usual so please come find me!

stupor

Let me explain my situation a little;

I am in Cornwall staying with my dad over summer (like every summer)
I'm working the bar in the least popular venue in Rock - the resort is desirable but the sailing club has a poor reputation and few people go there.
I'm doing a lot of reading.
I'm mostly very bored.

Now I thought I'd got to a stage in my life where I was able to keep myself happily occupied, writing music, practicing my guitar, reading, training my brain and all sorts. But lately I've realized that it is not me that is stopping myself from being bored, but the people around me. I am fortunate to have some very good friends (especially Tim, a life saver at times, sad to not be living with him this year) and a great girlfriend up in brum, but now I'm away from all them I feel rather lonely and of course very very bored!

I deliberately woke up very late today, to save me the anguish of morning TV.

This is not how I should be living my life, and is an obvious symptom of laziness on my part. I should have found somewhere more interesting to go for summer this year. Still america awaits me next year (fingers crossed)


Part 1 over
Part 2

I've been looking at my future, I think I want to do a placement scheme abroad after this year of uni. Having said this to Claire, she said she'd dump me if I got a place. She has good reason - to not stay in a relationship that is clearly going nowhere. But it puts me in a very bad situation, one of choosing between her and the placement. Obviously I need to get a placement before the decision really become an issue, but it's rather disheartening and will undoubtedly effect my efforts in finding a good place. Part of me wants to go, part of me doesn't want to lose my girlfriend. I've also been looking at Masters degrees, I definitely want to do one but I don't really know how to go about it. This is something I can talk to Roy about.

Part 3

I have come to admire certain people, partly for their seemingly wonderful lives, incredible time management skills, determination and ability to do things that I know I want to do, but just can't quite seem to do it. Andrew Dubber is first on the list, very up to date with technology and highly efficient this guy seems to know everything about the industry (and as far as I can tell he doesn't teach on my course :( ) The next is very good friend of mine, someone I'd like to think of as an equal, although his impressive attitude towards work and music would suggest that he is in fact far better than me at most of the things I want to be good at. Rob Moore has recorded and 'released' his own solo project I Have Clones and is currently preparing to release it both love and across the 'net in full force, his strategies, including strong influence from Dubber will be clever and probably serve him very well. If I know him well, he will also have related blogs and the music hosted on every possible music networking site available. I am honored to have been asked to play with him for the live shows, and hope that if it all takes off then Rob will take me along for the ride!

I worry for our band Allucinere, if I Have Clones does take off, then we may well be leaving our good friends Sina and Chris behind. I expect that Rob in his wisdom will find a smart way to get those guys along too. I hope so.


If life had a do-over button I'd be hammering mine now. I just know I could have done so much better!

Now time to find out my overal results from my first year at Uni!

Don't Start A Band!

I started a book last week, it's called 'Kill Your Friends' and is written by John Niven. It's very good, and if you're interested in music industry you should go and read it.

That's an excellent passage that I'd like to copy out for you, I'm not sure if it's legal, but I'm going to do it anyway, hopefully the author won't be a totall dick if he sees this, becasue it is essentially an advert for his book!

It's a chunk about what is most likely to heppen to you if you get signed.

and I just started and have decided to give up as the chunk is far too long. I don't know how much experience the author has in in the industry but if the book is based on any fact at all then every musician in the world is fucked. The industry is filled with uncaring coked up evil assholes who hate you, your band and everything you like.

I can't wait to get a job!

Leg!-End X

Well, it's one of my bands last gigs next week. I'll rather sad about it actually, but I feel it is for the best. With two members going away it's too much to try and replace them, and with a name as silly as ours, it's probably not a bad idea! I've had some great times with the band, including one of my two best gigs (Astonbury 2008) and got some great friends out of it. I'll miss playing, but the songs will live on in our hearts, and maybe on record too if I get organised enough!

The last gig is on the 2nd of July in the Sound Bar in Birmingham. It'd mean a lot to me if you were there.

Leg!-End X are truely legends, everyone that's ever played, and been a part of the band is a legend, and Steve-O the man behind it all, the driving force and inspiration should go down in history.

Best frontman in the world, just the worst at it!

Love you LEX!

My Face!!!!

So, most of you that know me will know I had a nice piercing below my left eye. It looked well sexy and all that. Well yesterday I went kite-boarding with housemate Tim, we quickly abandoned the board though as boards are slow and the wind was fast. We took it in turns getting some pretty cool jumps, moon landing stylee and dicking about. There's a few videos that may be added to facebook later. It was all going well, untill a rather big gust pulled me up, and while in the air the kite decided to nose dive, pulling me much faster than expected and causing me to face plant nicely into the field. Thankfully I missed all the cow shit, but on landing my piercing was ripped out. Cue cries of 'Gnarly' and 'Extreme' while my face bled. After packing up, and finding the bar that used to be in me (still with bits of me attached!) we went to the pub for a quick drink and for me to clean up. The nice guy behind the bar gave me a lovely big blue plaster to put on. Post drinks we went for a board, although Sutton park is rather too flat in the majority for anything good. Still had some fun though.

Good day!

Eyes Set To Kill

Right now I'm listening to Eyes Set To Kill, pretty emo as you may guess, but it's essentially pop, but I'm a sucker for girl fronted stuff (so long as she isn't a prick) so I like them. Heavier than paramore, but we're not exactly talking BMTH here.

There's more - people in the UK go see Out From Animals, I'm going when they're playing in Birmingham on the 23rd. Should be good - I hope.

And if you haven't yet, The Outline - go listen!

Heroica

Are pretty fucking awesome, really mature songwriting and some perfect perfect playing. These guys deserve to be big. serious go look them up on myspace or something

new music

Twin Atlantic and The Outline. Go listen now

twitter

twitter is cool.

find me at www.twitter.com/terrorvision101

bit of hiking anyone?

so I went hiking with some mates, but this blog is supposed to be vaguley music based so I won't tell you about that, just check out Inas' blog (link lower down somewhere) to find a far better tale than I could write. In the car however I heard the new panic at the disco album, it's very much influenced by the Beatles, and as I'm not a huge fan I thought the album was a huge dissapointment. I liked the first, the catchy pop hooks and chorus's with the indeniably dancey rhythms were great. This is boring though, serious lack of hooks chorus's or rhythms all the way through. I also listened to Muses' Absolution - still shit.

Apart from that. Go camping with your good friends. It's fun.

adverts

most of my best mates have blogs, and they're better at it than me so go have a look

Rob Moore AKA I Have Clones - awesome guy, amazing solo artist and general funny drunk
http://ihaveclones.wordpress.com/

Ina - I still can't spell his surname, but he is the best at guitar hero I've seen, and awesome Jazz bassist. Comics here http://www.tiedyeheart.com/ and blog here http://www.tiedyeina.com/

Tim hates blogs so he doesn't have one, he's my pet drummer.

I think thats everyone with a decent blog, I do have other friends, but I'm lazy and don't like them enough

future music industry

so, I had to write a report on internet and music, and as I think some of it is quite good, here are some bits :)

Hell Roy if you're checking my work for plagerism, I didn't steal of me don't worry :)

7. New opportunities

Torrents

With so much money being made by torrent and direct download sites it seems very strange that the industry has yet to cash in on such methods. With revenue to maintain severs with the downloadable files, the entire back-catalogue of a label could be available to download from an official torrent site. This would generate some revenue for the label, and because it would be run legally, uploading would be encouraged and download speeds would be increased. The constant availability of the entire catalogue and guarantee that download will not stall will attract more consumers than the illegal counterparts. If each label ran such a site, the illegal sites would soon have to close as the revenue would dry up.

The same method could be used to overtake the subscription services. By offering faster downloads for a small fee, and running adverts the companies could earn much more revenue than letting illegal sites continue. Each year trying to shut down illegal sites costs record companies and associated businesses are very high, a cost which would be negated if the companies simply offered their music free in competition to the illegal sites.

While giving away music may seem detrimental to record companies’ ability to make money, the money made from advertising would be far higher than that lost from illegal download. While CD sales would probably drop with the introduction of legal free downloads, the overall situation would improve for the industry. True fans of bands would still buy CDs, just as many people still buy vinyl currently so the CD market would not die.

Digital rights management

The use of DRM has increased as internet sales have increased. Complaints are common however, with the added difficulty in distributing the song between multiple devices many customers choose to pay for copies without DRM, or to simply download. While encryption and encoding techniques are becoming more sophisticated they never defeat the ways around such protection, at the most basic level a song with DRM can be recorded with a microphone as it is played. There are far more advanced ways around such DRM but with technology as it is, those protecting music will be vastly out-numbered by those pirating it.

Sponsorship deals

Many bands are sponsored by a brand, Jaggermeister are renowned for promoting underground music, from ska-punk to hardcore punk-rock. But now Bacardi are joining in, sponsoring Groove Armada, they pay for all the costs that a record label would, recording, production, distribution and most importantly, marketing. Bacardi does not rely on the artist to sell records; instead it uses them to sell Bacardi products. This method means that album sales are not an important figure in the accounts, taking the pressure away from the artist for album sales. This may be seen as a positive, although it will mean bands are signed according to appearance and how ‘cool’ they appear, and with only one or two singles necessary for the sponsor albums could be of seriously decreased quality.

8. A possible future

It is hard to see the music industry accepting its fault. The industry is too large and too inflexible to accept their mistakes, and to change the business model. Now that bands can create enough publicity to succeed without major support more will follow this new idea. With less people working on each project CD sales will matter less, and the money earned from each concert, and sales of albums, merchandise and downloads will be split in a far fairer way than they are now. While this may seem to mean that thousands of jobs will be lost within the industry, this is not necessarily the case, with each person earning a far higher cut from each sale, less sales are needed from each band to create the same revenue, so more bands can be released. With revenue being generated by advertisers and consumers and music being shared between people with no penalty, good bands will sell themselves. Word of mouth will be the best publicity, and forums for every genre will become very popular.

Unfortunately, with the ease of uploading torrents, there will be the problem of flooding, where there is simply too much music, too much of which is not high quality to wade through to find good bands. This will bring the rise of forums, and where the industry can benefit. By gaining a reputation for suggesting good music, bloggers will be able to use advertising to earn revenue according to their high hit count. Also, record companies will become known for releasing good music, so their sites will be visited more, earning them a more profit.

The subscription services that have been predicted, paid for as part of a communications bundle seems unlikely to me, for two reasons:

First - Why pay for something you can get free?
Second – How can the telecommunications company keep up to date with music releases?

The masses will demand that their subscription service allows them to gain access to everything they can get online, quicker than they can get it online. They will never want to wait for a new album, especially if those using the free internet service don’t have to.


OMG no harvard referencing!

Slam Dunk

Slam Dunk is awesome, I saw so many bands I can't remember them all, so I'm using the flyer to help.

I'm too lazy to write today, so fuck off, and listen to:

Flood of Red
Twin Atlantic
Story Of The Year
Sonic Boom Six
The JB Conspiracy
Zebrahead

they're all on myspace so go search them.

don't bother listening too

We The Kings
Fightstar
We Are The Ocean

and whole load of other shitty pop-punk

bye-bye for now, I have cousework to write. :(

Surface unsigned is pure evil

I'm kinda hoping to get a ride shut-down letter about this, simply so I know someone reads it... but, if you are a musician - DO NOT PAY TO PLAY!

Surface Unsigned is awful, for both you and your fans, if my band had put their own gigs on, and charged the same amount, with room hire we'd have made over £200 for the two gigs we played. Put on your own shows, do it your own way, give no-one money.

I believe in a DIY ethic, but don't let that stop you listening to me.

Birmingham Music Live!

So, I wrote my first review for Birmingham Music Live tonight, it's a review of Story Of The Year (who are very good BTW) and it should be up soon, if it's good enough that is! Go check it out at http://www.brumlive.com/ run by a nice chap called Steve Gerrard, link on the othe blog.

Also, while I'm recomending things, go look at new music strategies http://newmusicstrategies.com/ and slicethepie https://www.slicethepie.com/Signin.aspx?ReturnUrl=/Home.aspx

night x

I was thinking this morning about wh I have this blog. I guess it's mostly so when people type my name into google they have something decent to read, and more importantly, a way to get in contact with me (or my bands). If that is the purpose of this blog then updating it is really quite unnessesary and the content doesn't really matter. But just in case anyone out there is reading it. Hello.

Seen lots of bands this week. I seriously recomend Cancer Bats, Johnny Truant, Sonic Boom Six, The JB Conspiracy and Cobra Starship. I may be recomending more tonight after the show, I'm off to see GIAN presnts. Its only £5 and my mate needs me to buy his ticket.

This is probably the worst place I've ever been sat to type. My arms hurt. A lot. Technology Innovaton centre... but still not upgraded to IE 7 let alone gone to Vista. Sucks.

Enough rambling? ok

Give It A Name

So, I went off to GIAN in sheffield last weekend, and had a lot of fun. Went with my girlfriend Claire and her mate Lauren. Stayed at a friend of theirs (who happened to be my ex's es!) Ged (cheers dude)

The shows were awesome, the security was aweful so we got a free upgrade to standing and walked away with 18 tickets... but on to the bands

DAY 1

State Radio - very political punk not amazing but cool combination between Bedouin Soundclash and Anti-Flag

Envy On The Coast - absolutely awesome even if most of them wern't wearing shoes! Reminded me of Saosin and Circa Survive - highly recomended

YouMeAtSix - Irritating samey pop-punk, I've heard 1000s of times before. They want to by the new blink 182 but the have no sense of humour.

Strike Anywhere - A band I've always liked, but the singer is just too weak, both on record and live his shouty style is just weak, and preaching is boring. I still like the albums and I recomend them if you like Anti-Flag and Rise Against (but their not as good)

Anti-Flag - seen it all before, they really need to change the record (and being hypocritical)

Glassjaw - legendary band lives up to its legendary status (just) great hardcore

Billy Talent - Good and lively but the singer is a little squeaky which is upsetting, and a lack of anything going on onstage, just four guys, rocking out a bit.

30secondstoMars - Studiply perfect at doing what they do, pity what they do is so lame. Nice giant orange beachballs though.

DAY 2

Mayday Parade/All Time Low - pop-punk see above

Chiodos - pure awesome, brutal and melodic hardcore

Cobra Starship - one of favourites, it's Head Automatica disco punk, but one step more disco. Very cool, but surprisingly un popular with the girls.

Set Your Goals - are shit, I have absolutley no idea why anyone likes them, boring pop-punk with shit frontmen (yes two lead singers - both american pie extras) crap songs on album, even worse live - if you want 'party music' listen to Zebrahead, they're much better at it

Finch - sweet, I can see why most of their fans said they were shit live. They're a lot heavier, and obviously hate the 'emo' tag they got when they first came into the scene. So, less emo, more hardcore/nu metal stylings, and very good. Listen to Worms of the Universe for what they are really like.

Alkaline Trio - I love them, but they're boring, old and samey. Please guys lets put some effort in next time

Plain White Tees - see 30STM

Paramore - she's fit, the songs are catchy, everyone has fun. Nothing particually new but it's good stuff.

See you next year ;)

Listen to Flogging Molly!

Seriously, go do it. Now.

Tunes that I've just listened to

Well, no links for you as all this stuff is on my computer already but here's what's awesome

Scary Kids Scaring Kids - The City Sleeps in Flames
Reggie and the Full Effect - Under The Tray
Million Dead - A Song To Ruin
Protest The Hero - Kezia (new album is also freaking sweet! Fortress BTW)
Bayside - Bayside
Alexisonfire - Crisis
Strung Out - An American Paradox
Thrice - The Illusion of Safety
Thought Riot - With Love, The Underground
Sonic Boom Six - The Ruff Guide To Genre Terrorism
Billy Talent - Billy Talent

I'm waiting for my friends to go to a Trance night in Brum... so these are all the albums with the songs I'm listening to to get me in the mood for a riotous night! Getting fucking bored of waiting though...

First Blog

Ok, so my housemate will hate this, but I'm hoping that I will be able to help those that, like me, are always looking for new music to listen to. So I'm going to post recomendations and short reviews (and maybe links) to awesome bands and albums. I hope that you find this useful.

It'll be mostly hardcore, emo, screamo, metal, metalcore, ska, punk, dub, dnb, electro, trance, rock, trip-hop, reggae, and anything else I like. I won't be posting anything unless I seriously recomend it.

I'll be using these guys http://2tumusikytusprogramas.blogspot.com and http://musicislifespoetry.blogspot.com to find my music, and if it's good I'll let you know.