Feeling kinda down...

Hello long time blog readers, I know I've been away for a while but lets not dwell on that. I'm here now, and that's what matters, although I may be a bit depressing.

So it's 4:05 am on a monday night (or tuesdays morning, depending on how you look at it) and I just got home. I was out driving around listening to some music, trying to comfort myself a little I guess. Lately (well lately really refers to the last 5 or 6 years probably) I've felt really lost. I graduated from high school, and without much thought as to what I really wanted to do, I jumped into university and the commerce program at MUN. I stuck with that, even though I often felt very bored, but then I finished the program and began the challenge of finding a job/career. I worked a few jobs which I hated, and here I am currently, unemployed!

But it's not all about my career path (or lack thereof), it just seems that nothing in my life has gone that way I would've wanted. I wasn't able to maintain any of my relationships coming out of high school, and it wasn't even a case of just losing contact, I basically ended things on bad terms with just about every close friend I had. I've since made many new friends, but for whatever reason I still seem to be held back by my mistakes at the end of high school.

I'm also single and have no real prospects on the horizen. I guess I often feel lonely and wish I was close with someone, someone who I could share my thoughts and feelings with, but sadly that person hasn't been found by me. I guess I put myself in bad situations when it comes to this topic, and it's given me grief many times over the years, but what can you do?

I guess a lot of it has to do with my insecurities. Fear has always been a huge part of my life, and has held me back so much. I find myself being afraid of such stupid things, of social situations, of doing something to embarress myself, etc, etc. It always seems to be that constant thing there in the background, and I guess some people would say "Just face your fears!!" but I don't know, I guess it's not that easy for me. When you feel afraid of most things you encounter on a daily basis, then dealing with that becomes a constant battle, one that becomes more and more intimidating.

I have improved a fair bit I guess. I think back to how I was in high school and man I was such a mess. I've matured a lot since then I guess, but fear is still always there in the background, for the most stupid things. I guess it's just something I'll have to live with.

I also feel like I want to do something meaningful with my life, something with substance, but I don't know what that would be. I try to think about that and how to get there, but then I come back to the mediocrity if the present. I keep telling myself that God must have some bigger plan for me, but I've even started losing faith in that.

I guess I'll find my way somehow...

Worst Lyric Ever!

You want to know what the worst lyric ever written is? Well here it is:

"And you ain't going to Nirvana or Farvana, you're coming right back here to live out your karma."

It's from the song Mass Destruction by Faithless. I don't know where the hell farvana is, but that's one lame lyric. The song is still pretty awesome though!

So I'm sitting here...

... with my laptop on my lap of all places, the basket-ball game playing in the background, trying to convince myself to make an entry in my blog. But I refuse!!! I REFUSE TO WRITE A BLOG ENTRY TODAY!!! AND NO ONE WILL MAKE ME!!!

Popular music is mostly a joke...

So anyway here I was listening to the radio online and what do you know, I hear a song which actually catches my interest. This is a pretty rare thing to happen, so I went to youtube and looked up the song. I listened to it a few more times on youtube and thought "wow, what a wicked tune!" Just in case you're interested, the song is called Happiness by Alexis Jordan. Just for a bit more information I looked her up on wikipedia, and here I discovered that the whole hook of this song is taken from another song by Deadmau5, a popular Canadian DJ/Electronic musician. This to me just proves how much of a joke the music industry is. It's like people hate originality in music and want the same things over and over, because if you turn on the radio and listen to popular music there is no originality to any of it. It's the same things over and over! Half the time it is exactly the same thing, because everything is sampled nowadays.

Another good example of this is the new song by industry creation Nicki Minaj. Her latest "song" is called Right Through Me, or some crap, but the whole melody and hook is stolen from the song Always With You, Always With Me, by Joe Satriani. Then you have the latest song by Wil I Am (what a stupid name) which steals the whole melody line from Video Killed the Radio Star. Ironically, Nicki Minaj is featured in this song, so it seems she has no originality at all. Oh, and since I'm talking about Nicki Minaj I might as well mention her first song Your Love, which steals the hook from the Annie Lennox song No More I Love Yous. I guess the whole point of this strategy is that you sample songs that are old enough and market them to a generation young enough to not know said songs. But for people like me who know music, it just proves that the music industry today is a joke.

That is my overall opinion on music today. My question is, why is the original song by Deadmau5 never on the radio, yet this new version of it by Alexis Jordan is? Obviously the song is catchy, so my only conclusion can be that Alexis Jordan is a hot young female and for some reason that makes people want to buy music.

I'm not even against sampling, but what is the point in sampling a whole song and just putting lyrics over it? How can you call that a new song? A remix maybe, but not a new song. Sampling can be creative when you consider people like DJ Shadow, who compose new songs by using thousands of tiny samples. He doesn't just steal the hook from another song just to make a hit, he combines many different samples to make a new hook, and to make something original. This is a good use of samples. This is using new technology to make something creative and original out of something old. Like original hip-hop, but now hip-hop has degraded into a rehashing of the same things over and over. For some reason the buying public always gravitates to this generic, unimaginative, stomach bile called popular music, while the real gems lie hidden often never getting the credit they deserve.

Haikus are dumb!

What is the point of
the Haiku? Seventeen syllables
of stupid!

Underworld - Second Toughest in the Infants

Many of my readers have asked me to write some reviews for different albums I love, so today I will start. For my first album I've chosen Second Toughest in the Infants by Underworld. The title is a bit strange, and is apparently something one of the band members children said, so that makes sense. For anyone not familiar with Underworld and what they do, they're a "dance" music group. I use quotations because dance only describes one part of their music, and if you're like me you do most of your listening to their music while sitting with headphones on. Anyway, on to the album.

I have a long history with this album, and it was one of my first introductions to electronic music. I remember a friend of mine sent me an MP3 by Underworld which was actually the song Cups from Beacoup Fish, but for whatever reason the mp3 was titled Pearls Girl. I enjoyed the song a lot and so the next time I was in the record store I saw this album there, noticed it contained Pearls Girl, and decided to get it. I quickly learned that the song was completely different, and to be honest I hated this album on my first listen through. It took me ages to finally start appreciating it which is something I often find interesting, the idea that I could hate an album on a first listen and then consider it one of my favorites of all time a few years later. But anyway since I was often short on money at the time and often used what little money I had to buy cds, I figured I should give it some time and almost force myself to enjoy it.

I often think about what it is about this album that can cause such divergent attitudes at different points in time, and I think it has to do with the length first of all, but also the "subtle" nature of the music. Now dance music is usually not refered to as subtle, but I'm really refering to the progression of the music. A song will start and will often take a long time to get where it's going. The first song is an excellent example of this, clocking in at over 16 minutes it really takes some patience to get into. It starts off with an interesting drum pattern which quickly turns into a traditional 4-4 beat and a bit of bass comes in. Then the singing starts, which is composed of a monotone progression of seemingly random subject matter. I know I know, doesn't really sound too promising but as it goes on you start to see more and more added to the percussion, guitars come in, and subtle synth lines enter to provide a warm bed to the whole progression. It really is epic and takes some getting used to really appreciate. It's almost like a classical piece of music in the way it ebbs and flows, going from loud bombbast to quiet. At different points the melodic parts drop out and we see the fantastic drum beat in all it's glory and the groove really starts to hit its stride. Towards the end all parts are slowly added into the mix as we reach the climax, and then it concludes with a quiet section showcasing the lush synths used. Underworld really are masters of restraint because they never seem to go over the top with their beautiful synth lines and leave you wanting more. This is maybe the greatest piece of "dance" music ever created.

The second song called Banstyle/Sappys Curry continues where the first left off, but is a little more laid back. The synth lines are more front and center here, but again we see the slow progression of the music. The synth line starts off repeating a couple notes in quick succession with a drum and bass style beat underneath. Singing comes in late which actually carries a bit of a tune this time and we slowly drift away through the song along this wave. Towards the end the song begins to slow down and an acoustic guitar comes in. This begins my favorite part of the song, and it really is hard to keep from bobbing your head to the trippy beat. Again this trippy beat slowly builds and adds different synth parts to it as it gradually builds to its climax. The end features some fast moving synth lines bouncing around the beat bringing the song to its close. Another fantastic song. At this point we've passed the 30 minute mark and have only listened to two songs.

The third song called Confusion the Waitress is another perfect example of how subtle Underworld can be. The melody consists of a few notes played over and over with a 4-4 beat pounding away underneath. The lyrics are spoken throughout the song and it gradually builds over it's duration. To be honest I'm not really sure why I like this song so much but it's one of my favorites from the album, all the parts just come together to create something very appealing to me.

One other song I will talk about is Pearls Girl. As stated in the first paragraph I had another song in mind when I bought this album, but I've since grown to love this song. It is one of the more hard hitting songs on the album with a pounding beat throughout and distorted vocals. It sounds like something you'd hear at a rave or club, just the ultimate dance song. It also features some very nice synth lines which as usuall are placed farther underneath the beats so it hangs a little bit out of range. These synth lines are brought in at different points to create a nice progression.

The album as a whole is very solid with all songs being strong on their own, and as a part of the whole. I have become a huge Underworld fan after listening to this album, but this one is fairly unique compared to the rest of their world. For me it just has a certain stylist theme to it which runs the whole length and ties everything together. It can be a difficult listen but is definitely worth the time and effort. I give it 5 stars!

Hey Blog...

tried to think of something clever to write, but I got nothing!!

How 'bout those Knicks?!?