Depth of Passion

Taken from my blog for my freshman seminar
Since starting this course, I've gone back and listened to some of the older Beatles records I have (which is all of them) and then I think about "Abbey Road." The disappointing thing about that album (other than it being the last by a hugely influential and amazing band) is John Lennon's output on it. Most of the songs are incomplete and lack the feeling that his earlier recordings with the band have. When you listen to "Money" or even "Dig a Pony" there's a passion in his voice that you don't hear in any of the songs he recorded for "Abbey Road." Maybe that's why I don't listen to "Abbey Road" as much as the other records. Either that or because most of the songs are only partials, and the whole thing is slightly depressing because it was the band's last.
Depth of passion. Amy Winehouse, despite her problems, still has passion in spades which makes her recent issues so sad. Kaiser Chiefs (a name you will soon learn to appreciate) have passion, despite what a certain seventeen year old reviewer thinks. Franz Ferdinand, for all their giddiness and very danceable beats, have passion. But if you really want to hear passion, listen to the "Once" soundtrack. Passion, and how much passion an artist, is what makes rock good or bad. If you listen to any song on "London Calling", despite being almost indecipherable, Joe Strummer has passion when he's singing. The passion that Glen Hansard, Joe Strummer, Ricky Wilson, Patti Smith, and all the great rockers (and quite a few of the not so great rockers) is what draws the audience to listen. That's why, thirty years after his death, Elvis is still considered a legend. Listening to his back catelogue, particularly his early recordings, you can hear why people were interested. He meant what he sang and meant it with every fibre of his body.
The list of passionate singers is long and crosses nearly every genre of popular music a person can listen to today. But those passionate singers, those who meant what they sang the most, will be the ones who are remembered in fifty years, when their bands have long since broken up, or they've long since stopped recording for whatever reason. The exploits of bands and artists will be forgotten, but the words, the passion, will be remembered. That is what makes rock (and R&B, pop, country, jazz, punk, and "Once") great: the Depth of Passion.
Train in Vain --- "Train in Vain" The Clash

God I Hate Myself

There are certain downsides to a) being a fast reader and b) reading about the beginning of civilization multiple times. These two factors lead to me doing stupid things like checking the Kaiser Chief's site and their blog. Which leads to even worse things like this entry. You see tonight I found out, quite coincidentally, that I really do have a critical personality and so when I read something along the lines of this I'm practically forced to draw the oh so obvious comparison to this. Now if you didn't click the links, what I'm comparing is the latest entry of the Kaiser Chief's blog to a previous entry in Lily Allen's blog. If you didn't read the links, I suggest you do because a) the comparison will make more sense and b) you'll be able to understand why I'm currently trying not to become a complete idiot, because both of my roommates are in the room. The problem is compounded by the fact that I'm listening to YTAM, and for some reason can't stop. In any event, I will end this section of the entry with a very simple sentence/declaration: I hate Ricky Wilson because I love him too much.
In other news Amy Winehouse continues to be a sad, sad example of what happens when you mix drugs, alcohol, an immense amount of talent, a song called "Rehab", and today's media. So, so sad. Also, the Wind and Percussion ensemble (aka band) is ten million times better than high school band and Prof. Naylor is a hundred million billion times better than Mr. Fore. So that means I'll be in three performance groups and taking two different private lessons. I will be living in Pollard for the next semester.
Alright, I'm off for now. Again, till I next write mes petites, until then.

The Cribs (and guests) Set List

Takka Takka [I actually have the handwritten set list for their part, so I'm just copying that]

1. Fight On
2. Coco
3. Sofia
4. Silence*
5. Ratio
6. You & Universe*
7. Safer

White Rabbits

1. Kid on My Shoulders
2. Tourist Trap
3. While We Go Dancing
4. Navy Wives
5. Stanford Town*
6. Fort Nightly
   
7. The Plot
8. Maggie's Farm [Bob Dylan cover]
9. I Used to Complain Now I Don't

The Cribs

1. Major's Tilting Victory [aka MTV]
2. Hey Scenesters!
3. Our Bovine Public
4. You're Gonna Lose Us
5. Girls Like Mystery
6. I'm a Realist
7. Moving Pictures
8. I'm Alright Me
9. I've Tried Everything
10. Women's Needs
11. Martell
12. Men's Needs
13. Mirror Kisses
14. Another Number
15. Ancient History
16. Wrong Way To Be

*New Song

Upper Classmen with Cars

So I've suddenly become very "popular" in the world of the wide web. I swear, I've been getting like five hits a day on my blog. Mind you, they're probably all accidents, but still. That's well above the former average of like two hits a day, if that. In any event, a big hello to my international "readers."
So I'm a wee bit tired from today. You see I've been up and about, and quite active, since like 7:30am, and that's gonna take some getting use to, considering how I've been waking up around 9am most mornings this summer. Nonetheless, my classes went really well today, except for showing up late to the instrumental ensemble. Thankfully we weren't really doing anything to do, so my life isn't totally ruined. My history teacher has a thick-ish Russian accent and crazy eye make-up which was bugging the crap out of me during the class. I also know way more about history than most of my classmates which was kind of awkward because I felt like I was the only one answering questions. To back track a bit, I'm absolutely in love with my seminar. Which isn't really a surprise, since it is about rock and roll, but I really, really, really love the class. I plan on indoctrinating my fellow students in the ways of good Britpop (not the Libertines, thank you very much) and Kaiser Chiefs. Other than that, I love my seminar and am very pleased with the calibre of my classmates. They know their shit.
So I come back from chorus auditions (yet again I'm in the all female group, why is that?) and Allison asks if I want to go to dinner. I was hungry since I didn't have the much for brunch (cereal and peanut butter sandwich) and so I said yes. Now I was expecting a rather awkward dinner without much talk, but it turned out to be anything but that. You see, Allison and I bumped into some upper classmen that she knows and we had dinner with them. It was quite cozy with eight of us around a little table meant for less, but a lot of fun. One of the people there was Bryan, who is not only cute but absolutely hilarious. All in all a very good dinner for me.
Not much else going on. I've got band and Newsgathering tomorrow, so I'll probably do laundry in the intermittent hours I'll have. That and the reading I have to do for theory and history. Yay for practically free days! Well I'm off to finish the reading for seminar. Till then my pretty ones, till then.
P.S. Set lists for the Cribs will be up tonight, but no review, sorry.

Incredibly Bored and Nothing To Do

Since I'm bored, I think I'll post a few links. I will also tell you that my clarinet audition went horribly because I had very little control over what my hands were doing. There are two reasons for this: 1)I'd only just had my first meal of the day at 1:15pm and 2) I was nervous as hell. Somehow I got asked to be in the Wind and Percussion ensemble, which means I won't really have a life outside of the music department. I met my theory prof through this experience and he has bright white hair, which might prove distracting. In any event the audition was horrible and I'm planning on apologizing profusely to Prof. Gately, because I feel bad he had to listen to such garbage. Anyway, that was my day in a nutshell. That and some NMTB after the hellish audition. Now, onto the links.
So as we know this weekend was Carling Weekend, which is possibly the best festival known to man. There were some excellent bands playing there, like Kaiser Chiefs, Maximo Park, Interpol, Kings of Leon, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hot Hot Heat, and loads of others. Well one of those bands were the Cold War Kids, who made the same mistake they made when I saw them: They played "Hang Me Out to Dry" in the middle of their set. At least they did at Reading, but still. It's like the anonymous poster says, end with a massive (aka your number 1 hit) song. :sigh:
Oh, the Smashing Pumpkins played as well, and Billy Corgan is a twat. He said that American girls are sluts and thus he is a dick/twat. And just because you're alternative, doesn't mean you get to say nasty things Mr. Corgan, that's for me to do.
Finally, Panic! at the Disco got bottled again this year, which makes me happy, because I hate them. That is all.
So classes start tomorrow. I'm not really nervous (yet) more worried that I won't wake up on time to get to breakfast and class on time. So here's to hoping that Nore gets to all her classes on time. Oh and big hello to all my random readers from basically all over the world. HELLO!!
P.S. I got some really cool posters including: The Ministry of Silly Walks, "Is your washroom breeding Bolsheviks?", and Tournee du Chat Noir. The room is starting to feel more like a room and less like a dormitory.

Pure Sugar and Artifical Flavouring

The world is conspiring against me slightly I believe. The weather in Fredericksburg is 99 degrees while in Leeds (at 11, almost midnight) it is 69 degrees. Also, Kaiser Chiefs played there this evening, as a surprise, so I hate the world. But otherwise life's not too bad. My vocal audition went well, so all is good. Hopefully my clarinet auditions will go well as well. So I'm off, just thought you might like to know that injustice still exsists in the world, especially when it comes to the weather. God I miss A/C. I'll update later, when classes start and all that. Till then my little ones, till then.

Surely I Could Retire...

So my internet is slightly buggered, but I can get on and check my things and go to my sites, so I'm happy. My other two room-mates are mostly moved in, Allison is putting her clothes away and Cecilia is off doing something with her mum. I've got my printer out, though I haven't installed/hooked it up yet, but it's sitting pretty at the moment. Basically, I'm completely moved in. Yay!
What else is there to say? I met this really nice guy who lives on my hall named Hunter who really likes hip-hop and can break dance. We watched "Eureka" together last night, which was nice, having somebody to watch the boob tube with. My RA, Becky, is really nice and I suspect that we won't be having too many problems, even though she's right next door. At the moment I feel like hiding, but lunch started at 11:30 and we have to be back at our rooms by 1, and I know I'll get hungry between now and then, so no hiding unfortunately. Hopefully I'll be able to find Alex, but who knows.
By the way, Franz Ferdinand is up to something and I'm wondering what. Otherwise, not much happening in the music world. Pete Doherty will never be clean, Amy Winehouse needs to get her shit together, and a bunch of bands are splitting up for some reason. Carling Weekend is sometime soon in the future, in fact it's this weekend. I wish I were there instead of here, but them's the breaks. Yup. That's it.
Now, to lunch or not to lunch, that is the question...

Here Comes the Rain

At this moment it is pouring outside. Thunder, lightening, heavy rain sounds, the whole gamut. I don't think I've seen this kind of rain in...oh months probably. It's nice in a way though because there's a very cool breeze coming through the window, which along with my lovely semi-silent fan, is helping to cool the room. All in all, the rain is a good thing.
I've moved into my dorm room, though the desk area is in entropy at the moment. Cords and shit lying everywhere. Oh well, at least it will give me something to do after orientation tomorrow. Other than some random athletes and possibly other LD kiddos, the dorm is practically vacant. I'm wondering whether Alex has moved in or not, what with crew, but eh. Anyway, I'm in F-burg, loving my top bunk status.
I'm off to sleep now, very stressful day, what with my card key not working and getting connected to la internet being a bitch and a half. Plus the general anxiety of moving in and whatnot. I did get my books though! Beowulf, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid are currently staring at me along with Ricky doll and my mini-TARDIS.
Alright off to sleep...sort of.

Building Blocks

Uuuuuhhhh. I have a horrible cold, which is horrible because I'm auditioning in a little more than a week and haven't been able to practice a note for the past few days, dammit all. Mind you this hasn't kept me from keeping update with the music news of the world, which has been very interesting. Amy Winehouse has been in a whirl-wind of controversy for the past week or so, the poor girl. Seems she should probably stick to rehab, which means the shirt I got of her's that says "I don't wanna go to rehab" is now even more ironic than before. I feel bad for her because she's so talented and being a drunk druggie is not going to do wonders for her career. Otherwise, not much news. BBC Radio 1 is coming out with this totally awesome album of covers from the past forty years, which incidentally is how old it is. I want it, kind of like I want to work for DIY, but I don't think I'll be able to get it, which is sad. Ya know what else is sad? The fact that I'll never see Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, Lily Allen, or anyone else ever. They hate the Metro-DC, which means I will never see them again. Hopefully this means the White Rabbits will be available for most of the late-fall/early winter/winter season for my enjoyment. Mind you they are touring with KC, which might rub off on them. But god I love them. Especially the two main vocalists, who will be continually referred to as the blonde keyboardist and the brunette shorty. But really I love them all because they're all absolutely amazing. A proper review of the Cribs concert sometime in the future (promise!), but let's just say that the main act wasn't nearly as gratifying as the openers. In the mean time I'll be here at the beach with this awful cold and then moving off to college. Just a few more days and then I'm off, free! Something like that anyway. Uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh.
Ooooh, look at the block of rabbling. So much fun.

Unplanned For Post

So I wasn't actually planning on posting anything today, but then I did a search on deviantART for DW related works, and saw that the much anticipated Doctor's Boys had been posted by Miss Mimi-Na and so I felt I needed to post that lovely piece of art. If you'd like a closer look at what's going on (as well as who is in the picture) just click "Doctor's Boys" and click the picture itself, as well as looking at the what mimi-na wrote for the cast. Anyway, my mouth is killing me (damn dentist) and I've got some music cramming to do (hurrah for the Cribs tonight!), so I'll be off. Have a fantastic week, day, whatever.

And Tonight...

We can truly say/Together we're invincible

There are certain downsides to getting into a band rather late in their career, relatively speaking. For instance, much of their back catalogue may be unknown to you, so when fans who've been into the band for years and years get excited and you have no idea what the band is playing, it can be a bit discouraging. Fortunately for all of us who don't have the conviction to troll through and memorize over 30 songs from the past 8 years, there is the internet. The incredibly helpful and loving internet. So, instead of having to figure out last nights set list based on my somewhat inaccurate jots and barely deciphered lyrics (damn your falsetto Matt!) I've got Muse Wiki to fill in all the blanks in my list. So, to start off, here's the set list!
1. Knights of Cydonia
2. Map of the Problematique + Maggie's Farm outro
3. Hysteria
4. Supermassive Black Hole
5. Butterflies & Hurricanes
6. City of Delusion
7. Apocalypse Please
8. Riff + Feeling Good
9. Invincible
10. Starlight
11. New Born + riffs
12. Misirlou Twist riff + Man of Mystery
13. Time Is Running Out
14. Bliss (extended) + Balloons [I'll get to that in the main review, it's not a song]
Encore:
15. Plug In Baby
16. Stockholm Syndrome
For more information on some of the songs (Like "Man of Mystery", "Feeling Good", and "Maggie's Farm") be sure to check out the original at Muse Wiki. (Might as well give credit where credit's due right?)
:sigh: The concert itself was excellent, which it would seem is par for the course with Muse. They have so much enthusiasm and have an impeccable sense of showmanship. Sure they're not exactly chatty Cathies, but given the type of music they play and thus the type of audience they play to, a lot of jibber-jabber doesn't really seem appropriate. As for the Cold War Kids (the opening act) it felt a little like a flash back to when Kaiser Chiefs opened for Weezer and Foo Fighters. They aren't a very well known band, and although the kind of music they play is similar to what Muse plays, people just didn't know them well enough to get pumped. The only problem I had with CWK's set was the fact that they played their major single, "Hang Me Out to Dry", in the middle of the set, which made the rest of their set less exciting because for the majority of the audience there was nothing to look forward to. Muse on the other hand only disappointed me in that they didn't play "Soldier Poem", which is my favourite song. All in all though the show was incredible and I had a fantastic time. And now last but not least, the notes I took during the show, with some explanation.

Cold War Kids

• KC flash backs
• Trickle down effect [people kept coming in and out of the stadium during CWKs set, either because they were just getting there or because they needed more beer. It was only annoying because I had an aisle set and so these people would keep passing in front of my view]
• Ginger fan front row [she started standing up, but then realized no one else was, so sat down. She also changed shirts in between CWKs and Muse, which was interesting.]
• Roaming bassist
• For the love of syncopation [oh boy, lots of syncopation in their songs lots]
• Lead conducting [the lead singer would sort of conduct when he was singing at times, which was amusing to me]
• Lead's cousin Laurie [was present, so if we saw her, we should say hi]

Muse

• Bravo for heavy handed political statements [at the beginning of their set they played a speech given by JFK that was heavy in irony given the current American political situation]
• Blonde crowd surfer coming back for more [literally this chick would surf to the front of the standing area, get sent to the back, and then crowd surf back to the front. Complete idiot in my op-ed]
• ENGLISH FLAG!!! [yes there's a difference between the British flag and the English flag]


• In love w/drummer [he's so cute!!]
• Balloons of Doom [huge balloons partially filled with confetti]

Dog Days of Summer

The further I get away from Saturday (aka Virgin Festival) the less enthusiastic I am about writing about it. The day started out optimistically enough, but by the time Amy Winehouse's set was over, I'd had my fill of the heat, the heat, the heat, and I just didn't want to stick around for another 3-5 hours to see the Police. There was no point. I had gone through two one litre bottles of water and a standard Gatorade bottle. This is not to say that I had the worst time of my life or that I've somehow changed my mind about festivals in general. I just realized that festivals in Europe are a hell of lot cooler (even without the massive amounts of rain they got this year) and so are more enjoyable than ones in 90 degree heat with a heat index temperature of over 100. Mind you, depending on next years line-up, I'll probably go again, but I'm just that crazy. Hopefully though, next year won't be as hot as this year.
Now, as to the performances: I was incredibly impressed with all of the artists I saw (Fountains of Wayne, the Fratellis, and Amy Winehouse) and would love to see them again in a cooler venue. I have to admit I wasn't really paying a lot of attention to any of the artist I saw, either because I didn't know them that well or because I was feeling absolutely wretched from sun over-exposure (I was wearing a hat, I had sunglasses on, and I had sunscreen. I still felt like shit.) For the artists I did go to the festival to see (Fratellis, Amy Winehouse) I was very impressed with their ability to play tight sets (not as easy as it looks) without that much time in-between sets (about 20 minutes between each act, including switching gear and sound check, the one's I've experienced take much longer) as well as their overall musical performance. Basically, if it hadn't been for the god damn miserable fucking shitty heat, I would have had a lot of fun.
Oy, I'm off to bed now. Got all my accommodations and then some, yearned to be in London where the current temperature is a nice 71 degrees (God I hate them) and to answer Mr. Last Bus' question: I DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, bed.
Oh, and if you want a set, go listen to the previously mentioned artists' albums and add "Valerie" to Ms. Winehouse's list. To tired to write them up proper.

A Day of Relaxation

So tomorrow is V(irgin) Fest(ival) which means I'll be out for the count for a couple of days (at least). After that I have my meeting about accommodations down at UMW on Wednesday and then Cold War Kids/Muse concert Thursday and the Cribsies on Saturday. What does all of this mean for you my well meaning reader? I'm going to be incommunicado for a week to two, depending on how this upcoming week goes and whether I'll be actually be able to check things while we're at the beach (leaving Sunday after the Cribs' show.) Thus, no blog updates. Anyway, just a warning ahead of time.
The Friday Five of Randomness
1. If you were a fruit, which would you be and why?
Umm...Granny Smith Apple and not just because it's green.

2. If you wake up and smell smoke, and you have to get everybody (pets included) out of the house safely, but you have time to grab one item, what would you grab?
That's a toughie. Oh, who am I kidding? Mp3 player, duh.

3. If you were stuck on an island, who would be the one person you would want with you and why?
Okay, now this actually hard. I don't know maybe a man (or woman) made of electricity, who never runs out, so I could constantly have my music. But, in loo of that...dunno.

4. If you could change one thing about your physical appearance, what would it be?
My doughy physique. Either that or my height.

5. If you could spend the day with one famous person, dead or alive, who would you choose?
Oh god. I'm not answering this.

Music News
It's the end of the Arctic Monkeys as we know it. Ya know why? Alex Turner is cheating on his band with some punk named Miles. It's all down hill from here my friends, all down hill. Pretty soon Alex will think he's better than the Monkeys and won't want to work with them any more. Then the band will break up, because the rest of the guys won't be able to put up with Alex's inflated ego, and Mr. Turner will start writing shite songs about being betrayed by his friends and the "good ol' days." Yes, the end is nigh!
While we're at DiS, let's look at a review they wrote for Kate Nash's debute album. Normally what I do is read the opening sentence or two, just to get a feel for how things are going for the artist, then scroll to the bottom of the review to see the how they ranked out of 10. With Ms. Nash's review, reading the opening sentences is useless. So I read about the different eras of popular music and then gave up. I don't normally read reviews for artists I'm not really fond of, but this review is just ridiculous. If you take the review and copy into Microsoft word, the whole thing comes out to about four pages. The actual review (without all the background nonsense) is a respectable, if slightly above average, page and a half in length. In essences Mr. Adams thinks that the album is light fluffy crap, along the lines of...no one I listen to, and he gives the album a four out of ten. But for chrissake, does it really take four pages to say that Ms. Nash is a product of her era, if a slightly less talented than some? And aren't there word limits over at DiS?
Now, over to a place where I'm sure there are word limits for their reviews, NME writer Jamie Fullerton thinks that all the British music festivals should be taken abroad. Now, as Mr. Fullerton points out, this would nullify the festivals British-ness, but I think this is a great idea. I vote for Carling Weekend being moved to DC and Baltimore. Glasto could be in upstate New York and O2 could be in Maine. Wouldn't that be nice?
In my own psychotic way, I've been waiting for DIY to post their reaction to KC's new video. Since they seem to love the band as much as I do, I knew that eventually they would do one of their quick little write-ups and put it up for a few days under the videos section. Well they didn't fail me and this is what they have to say:"We're a bit confused by this one, to say the least. And not just 'cause Simon's hair looks weird..." To read the rest (and watch the damned thing if you desire to have your eyes scarred), click "this." I agree with them (as I usually do) and was glad someone else noticed the way Simon's hair looked. Anyway, I love DIY, I want to work there when I graduate university and the people who work there are the coolest people alive. God I wish I could work for them.
:sigh: I'm such a ridiculous human being.