The Streetlight Renaissance

I'm jumping,
A spring breeze is blowing
Though the dusty regions of my heart
Left to rot from the very start

Of this new-found age of skepticism
That's left me blind, to the joyous wonder
Of sunshine dreams, moonlit fantasies
A soul to yearn for, and grow ever fonder

I had no reason to believe
Fed up of exhausted reprieves
The suffocating acid of naked obsession
And the crush of being no more than a possession

That left me shattered, lifeless on the floor
Sitting, watching emotion trickle down the drain
Questioning own existence under the stars
And vowing: To Never Fall In Love Again.

Easier said than done,
And so, as the setting sun
Bathes the cornfields in fire and light
And ushers in another one of those cool summer nights,

I let my mind wander, and it settles on you
With an unsurprising lack of hesitation.
You have a real knack of infiltrating my mind, you know
Not that I'm complaining - it's a beautiful sensation

When your eyes grab my gaze and hold it to rapt attention
And fills my heart with new and powerful energy
That threatens to drive me to sheer delirium
Unless I relent, and allow it to break free

And smash negativity to kingdom come,
This smile on my face is real, and true
I just have one question left for you to answer:
I still believe in love; do you?

Movement in Transit

Where did all the time go?
We lost it when we were free to roam,
Letting all the good times roll,
Away, to a place, far away from here,

Oh, where did all the love go?
Words sting with barbed suspicion
Come, let's free our minds from this old grey nightmare
And learn the lost art of escapism.

Small-Town Big Brother

There's a prying eye
And a watchful stare
A rigid look
Unfeeling glare
A feeling of constant watch,
Unsympathetic force to dodge,
Emotionless eyes attempt to analyse,
The crimes I've yet to commit,
And never will.

Rational thoughts
Never crossed their minds
So why should I
Freely surrender mine?
Caught by over-zealous suspicion,
Trapped in a power-hungry condition,
Condemned by a thought, not an action,
Stand by, everybody!
It's the public execution.

30 Days Challenge - Day 20

Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future.

Very difficult one. I have quite a few friends, and a select few who mean a great deal to me, but - and this is nothing against them - I really don't know whether they will stick with me for a long time into the future. You can never tell, can you? I think the only one I can say with any confidence I could remain friends with for a long time would be Mike, simply because we are so strong and very tight as friends, and I trust him more than anyone. The thought of not having him around even in a mild capacity frightens me, and I fear I would end up rudderless without him to confide in. He is a fantastic friend to me, and I can see ourselves, no matter where our lives take us, never loosing that friendship.

Funnily enough, I'm going to sort of mirror Emily's sentiments from her blog, as if Mike stays in my life, then it just goes without saying to me that Emily will be there as well. I've never known it any other way, and I can't see it being any other way, and quite frankly, I wouldn't want it any other way - Emily is a lovely person and I count her as one of my good friends :)

Again, this is no disrespect to any of my other friends, who all mean a lot to me, and I certainly HOPE they remain in my life for a long time yet, but who can say if they will or not? Time will tell.

As for marriage? I wish! That's still a long way away yet. There's hardly anyone I can see myself being with as lovers, let alone husband and wife. I'm getting better at dealing with this though - for years I was just so desperate to find a lover and enjoy a relationship because I feared I was somehow running out of time, and my life was whittling away the worse for it. It lead to quite a few mistakes on my part, regrets and even some moments I quite frankly cringe about now, and I'm now realising that there is no time limit, no rush. What happens will happen, and I'm much more content for it.

30 Days Challenge - Day 19

Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them.

I have multiple, to be fair! Or have had, should I say.

Let's start with the various affectionate ones I've had from my own parents, and that are still used to this day, bless 'em! The two main ones were Cub/Cubbie and Monkey Man. Cub was used earlier on in my life, then as I got older and more mischievous (so they say - I was an angel, honest! :P) I was christened Monkey Man. Both nicknames are still used today, and will continue to be used for a long time yet :) In fact, my parents have a pretty neat tradition on my birthday relating to my nickname. There is a song by a great old reggae band called Toots and the Maytals that is actually called 'Monkey Man', and its a great song! Really happy and bouncy. When ska band Reel Big Fish did a cover of it, Dad got it on CD, and ever since then has blasted it out loud at least once every year on my birthday! The one I remember most was for my 17th, a year ago - I was still asleep and dozing, and Dad put the song on his phone, and snuck into my room and set up the phone and a pair of phone speakers for it. It couldn't have been timed better - as I finally sleepily open my eyes, I see him press the Play button and grin at me, and the opening chords blast out. I remember, despite being very sleepy, cracking a large smile at the time - great fun :)



As for friend nicknames, I was stuck with Ad through primary school - how they could find a way to shorten Adam, I don't know, but they did! - and in secondary school I was happy to be called AJ, and for nearly five years that was all I was known as! Sadly there were times where it became used as a derogatory term, so when I moved schools for sixth form, I sort of wanted to be known by my real name again, but after a while I relaxed about it and I'm happy with AJ again, mainly because I know it's lost the negative connotations. Plus it sounds kinda cool :)

30 Days Challenge - Day 18

Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have.

Well where do I start? As I outlined in an earlier post, I many different goals of mine, spread over various timeframes and such. I supposed I've already covered the short-term ones, so time to look at the bigger picture.

My main dream has always been to live a comfortable life, where I'll have no problem with taxes and such - not rich, though. Rich would be excessive, and would just lead to an unsatisfying and probably tedious life. I don't want everything, but I want enough money to live comfortably and not have to worry about finances.

I also want to see the world, especially America, and perhaps settle there one day, as well as visit and experience Japan, a country that just seems like such a fascinating place to be, with a culture that almost appears to be a perfect mix of native tradition spanning thousands of years and modern Western contemporary culture. Obviously people will point to the whaling deal, and as Emily pointed out at her blog, the awful massacre of dolphins, but I'm certain that, though they are appalling acts, they are not indicative of the nation and its psyche as a whole. Just the same as the most ardent, jingoistic rednecks are not representative of America as a whole, see? I could perhaps also see myself visiting Spain and other European nations, as well as spending time down in Australia, funnily enough! That would be mainly for the fantastic weather, as well as the fact they are a nation big on rugby and motor racing, which links into my next point.

Being an unashamed petrolhead and motorsport fan, one thing I'd love to do is to visit and watch many famous motor races around the world - the Le Mans 24 Hours in France is very high on that list, as are the Isle of Man TT motorbike races, the endurance races at the Nurburgring (24 hours) and Sebring in America (12 hours), and atop that lists sits any kind of NASCAR (America) or V8 Supercar (Australia) race you can think of. They are my two favourite motor racing series in the world by far, and their flagship events - the Daytona 500 for NASCAR, and the Bathurst 1000 for V8 Supercars - are spectacular occasions; and that's just from me watching it on the telly! I'll have to settle for video for now, but one day I would love to experience this in the flesh:








Coming back around to the dream I started this post off with, relating to the kind of life I have; I've been pretty explicit in saying I don't want to get stuck where I am for the rest of my life. The regular life, with a wife and some kids, and a nice steady job in something you probably have no interest in whatsoever, doesn't appeal to me at all. Forgive me for being a dreamer, I'm aware I probably have very unrealistic expectations, but if I believe somethings achievable I'll go for it. The last place I want to spend the entirety of my life is Swanley and to waste my life away doing nothing in particular or of any satisfaction to me. The only two ways I can really see myself getting out of here and getting to the life I want are via either putting a band together and writing music, or writing poetry and novels for a living.

Isn't that what everyone wants, really? The ability to be paid and make a living by doing something you adore and love. There are opportunities to make my living by doing something creative, and writing and music are two of the most important things in life for me. I'm leaning more towards writing as I go along, but as music burns so strongly, I can't discount the idea of that at all. Writing is probably my strongest creative skill and the one I love doing the most - you can't beat the feeling of the creative process in action, and reading back something I've written that I'm particularly proud of is a fantastic feeling. Not in an arrogant way, simply in an "I made that, and I'm proud of that" type way. I love the feeling. I know friends of mine who are exactly the same, and they operate in other areas, such as photography, filmmaking, art, etc. I would love to see these people make a living out of that as well, simply because I can see that they are like me in that they get such a huge kick out of the creative process and realising something, but also - not to inflate anyone's egos here - but they are damn good at what they do, and I believe it would be a great shame if that sort of got swept under the rug as life went on and wasn't realised as much as it could. Plus, another thing about making a career out of these things - you can be freelance! Of course, say in writing, there is a publisher who would like you to write stuff for them to publish, but there is no formal boss like a traditional career - nobody saying "right, be here at x time and work for y hours and get paid z wages". There is a freedom and flexibility there, which would allow you to enjoy the little things in life a little more, something I feel too many people don't get the chance to in whatever they end up doing in life.

The only 'traditional' choice of career, as in, get up, go to work, come home x days a week type career, I can see myself doing is journalism - again, writing, but this time in a non-fictional aspect. It's what I'm hoping to do at university/college (with any luck, fingers crossed!) and it strikes me as a nice career choice as it still has a degree of flexibility, there are so many branches of it. The only thing is, it has a real stigma of snideness and secrecy about it - how many times do we see a person's secrets splashed over newspapers like nobody's business and a snide journalist just saying "well, it's what THEY want to read, don't blame me...". My conscience wouldn't allow me to be like that, and I hope I'm not placed in a position to do that by a future employer.

In a nutshell then, here are my plans and dreams for my life:

• Get out of Swanley as fast as possible.
  
• Work hard to try and make a living out of being a writer, with music and journalism being the other two options there.
• See the world.
  
• Have financial security.

Too much to ask? Probably - ain't gonna stop me from trying though! :)

30 Days Challenge - Day 17

Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why.

Man this is tricky! It's difficult to actually visualise someone else's life and if I'd want to experiance it, but there are a couple that, based on what they seem to be, I would be fascinated to experiance a day of their lives. The two musical choices for me are Greg Graffin, singer for the band Bad Religion, and solo artist Nell Bryden.

Graffin is everything you wouldn't expect from a punk rock band frontman - well-spoken and incredibly intelligent, and I'd love to live a day of his life to gain more of an insight on his views on religion, atheism, existance and such things, as well as a day on tour with one of my favourite bands :D

Nell Bryden would be similar, but for different reasons - she has that whole Americana feel in everything she does, music included, and she tours in such a renegade fashion, with a random selection of musicians in her backing band each time, and tours just so so much - would be pretty mind-blowing to get a taste of all that just for a day.

Gekido

Its a self destructive soul,
He's sat up against the wall
And hes got the power
To wreck a self-destructive hell,

He looks just like me,
And he's staring right through me
Devoid of emotion
And restraint.

A shotgun in his bag,
Blood on fists and hands
And I can't hold him back,
Anymore.

And I'm in the shadows, hiding from a blaze
Of a rampaging inferno
I cower in the dust and wait for the backlash
Nowhere left to go

What Has He Done?

The white noise subsides
And the mob is hunting me down
But I'll hide in the undergrowth,
Underground.

And I'll run and I'll run and I'll run and I'll run,
And I'll stagger, and I'll fall, on the far skirts of town,
But at least I'm free from me, after all.

What Have I Done?

Pyre in the Parkland

This is the only way I've known
The cover has finally been blown
On this charade of five years ago
Those melee years sure have flown.

I'm ready for your stoning
Deep breath, control your breathing
Listen to those windows smashing
Stand straight when exonerating

Wispy smoke in the twilight
Mingling with the fading sunlight
Hold up hands, give up the fight
And slip away into the night.

So at last, the show is over
Goodnight, fictional lover
Someone fire the director,
For hiring such a false lead actor.

30 Days Challenge - Day 15

Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play.

1. The Clash - White Man in Hammersmith Palais
2. Pendulum - Slam
3. Bad Religion - Beyond Electric Dreams (how ironic!)
4. Thurston Harris - Little Bitty Pretty One
5. Rancid - The 11th Hour
6. Torn Out - Knuckles And Pride
7. Feeder - Piece By Piece
8. Nirvana - Come As You Are
9. Bob Marley - Exodus
10. Billy Talent - Where Is The Line

30 Days Challenge - Day 13

Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently.

This is one of those clichéd moments, isn't it? It's not you, it's me, kinda thing. In a way I really don't have a right to be hurt by you like this, I'm not supposed to be hurt by it, am I? I even said it myself. It's alright, that makes sense, it would be selfish of me to think otherwise. No problem.

Well that was the plan...

Except those emotions are difficult things to control, aren't they? Because I can't escape the feeling that I've been swept aside. That's what bugs me the most. We grew pretty close quite quickly, despite the distance and relative age gap. We were promising the world, everything seemed in our immediate grasp. Live life, right? Everything is up for grabs, find yourself, and see what happens.

I'm well aware it was probably a little over-ambitious of me to think these things, but I wasn't the only one. Well, at least you said you thought the same way. Then again, I've always found it difficult at the best of times to read people. Maybe I took you all too literally on what you said.

What hurts, and it does hurt, no matter how I put it to one side, is how easily I appear to have been swept under the rug, and history has been re-written. Am I the only one that actually remembers our conversations, and what we said we'd do and what we planned to do?

Oh yes, I forgot: he takes priority.

That was always the line. Every time. He takes so much priority that I go from a good companion to bit part to nigh-on nothing? Let me make one thing clear - my ire does not lay with him. It would be truly selfish and spoilt of me to be angry with him, he has done nothing wrong. He happens to be in a better place at a better time. Fine.

What I just don't understand is how easily I have become marginalised. In such dismissive fashion, as well. No say in the matter. Insignificent. Doesn't matter.

I doubt that was your intention, as I had you down as a much better person than that, but it still hurts me that it's panned out like this.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Apologies if thats a bit too raw and honest - I've needed to say that for a little while now.

30 Days Challenge - Day 12

Day 12- How you found out about blogger and why you made one.

You know, I honestly can't remember how I found out about this place! I've been racking my brains about it, but I can't come about how I found out about it. Probably stumbled on blogs on here on the internet, and had it in the back of my mind when I said "I know, I'll make a blog!". I used to have a Livejournal at some stage, but I sorta prefer this setup now. I do remember why I made one though - I was bored in many A-level Computing lessons (no surprise I dropped it at the end of year 12 then), so I'd go on newspaper websites and read the blogs of writers on there. The opinion pieces, stuff like that. And I had the idea to do my own version of those, see? If you look back through all the posts I've done, back to the very start, you'll see the early posts were very serious and in-depth about stuff, trying to be like the guys in the newspapers. Nowadays theyre a bit more fluffy - I havent the inclination to go into great detail about how the world sucks anymore :P

30 Days Challenge - Day 10

Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad.

Tricky one this, but interesting! I am the sort of person whose music taste does differ by mood, so let's see...

Happy: Usually most of the stuff on London Calling by The Clash. So much uplifting stuff. Here's three tracks straight away:

Rudie Can't Fail



Wrong 'Em Boyo



Revolution Rock



As well as that, you've got all the lovely summery stuff by The Beach Boys, the entire Blues Brothers compilation 2-disc my dad has, the American Graffiti soundtrack (so general 50s and 60s American music and rock 'n' roll), stuff like that. Here's one I was dancing around unashamadly to the other day from the Graffiti soundtrack, Come Go With Me by the Del Vikings, top notch doo-wop :D



Sad: hmmm, tough one. I have plenty that I listen to when I'm a bit angry, whether that counts I don't know. This is where your angrier end of punk rock comes in, for example:

Rise Against - Tip The Scales



I still remember one particular day blasting this out on the headphones on the way home from college, it was a particularly crappy day, raining hard, but this tune had a sort of cathartic effect, like the anger and power was mine as well as theirs. Made the day feel that bit better for it. A lot of Bad Religion and other Rise Against tunes have this effect on me too.

A lot of AFI's back catalogue has a similar effect on me, so atmospheric and gorgeous, really good stuff. Again, the perfect tonic to depressing cold nights:

End Transmission



The Missing Frame

30 Days Challenge - Day 9

Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days.

A little thing really, but the fact that I've actually started taking active steps towards sorting out my room. I've gotten rid of so much old stuff that I sort of kept out of nostalgia or 'oh I might use that one day...' and cleared out so much space, and I even moved my bed around on my own! It now faces out of the window wall, i.e. the head of the bed is underneath the windowsill, and on the first night I had it like that, it was a lovely sunset, so I sat in bed on my laptop with the red glow of the evening sun bathing the bed in colour, really nice :)

30 Days Challenge - Day 8

Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why.

There are a number, it's just which ones to post I suppose. There are some long-term goals in progress, some rather personal short-termers which sort of are long-term at the same time, if that makes sense (so really no timescale on them at all), and a few others. The main ones would be:

• Write, write, write. I've sort of stopped altogether since I got off holiday a few weeks ago, which is a bad sign altogether! I guess I sort of ran out of inspiration - I get periods where I can't stop writing, then periods where I can barely write a single line. I can feel inspiration coming back now though, so time to stop procrastinating and get the notebook out!
  
• Get more involved in music and guitar playing. Sounds like an odd one, but I'm only realising now how I've really underused my guitar playing for the six-odd years I've had a guitar. For too long I've sort of shrugged, and talked myself down, like, 'oh I'm a sort of alright rhythm player, I could never play those chords, or solos, I'll sort of be in the background'. No more. I'm bored of it, frankly. My self-inflicted inferiority complex in this department is just one of many bad habits I'm trying to shake off, and now that I'm actually throwing myself at guitar playing a bit more, and just enjoying it, I'm discovering that I'm a bit better than I give myself credit for. I'm no Hendrix, believe me, but I'm progressing along a bit more now than I have for a few years. I place this new-found confidence in John Frusciante, the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist, who has a real 'less is more' style to music, using simple chords and suchlike to create really great tunes and melodies, which is right up my street. Also, instead of being awed and feeling inferior to the great musicians I know personally, I'm becoming a proverbial sponge - instead of saying "man that's awesome, I can never do that", I'm saying "okay, so how do you do that?" I'm already enjoying playing that bit more, and I seem to have developed a penchant for things with a bit more of a groovy beat, slightly funky stuff - brilliant fun to play! :) I'm sort of halfway along this goal already, but the mindset change is the key part here for me.
• Read! I've got so many books I'm meaning to read, not out of necessity but out of interest - can you believe two of those books are ones to do with the Clash?! Hell, one of them is a Joe Strummer biography - you'd think I'd have my eyes metaphorically glued to the pages of that one! These are just two of many, though - several novels, some poetry, drama, biographical stuff, it's all there. I'm even tempted to start diving into my parent's bookshelf and reading some of their books on art styles - Vince Ray in particular looks brilliant.
  
• Sort out my room. I suppose this links into more personal goals, but my room is due a massive clear-out - I have so much 'passing interest' stuff that I only really use or do anything with once in a few years, less than that, so now is time to go back to basics and focus on what I really love, and rid with everything else. The clearout began today, and it's going well, and will sort of lead into my plans for a complete redecoration of my room, to give it some life, some sorta identity - at the moment it just looks like a place where a teenage boy sleeps and stores his stuff in. Time to change that :)

30 Days Challenge - Day 7

Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you.

This is rather difficult to narrow into just the one choice. There are plenty of people who have had a tremendous impact on my life and how I do things - my parents cheif among them. For this post though, I'll focus on two people; two heroes of mine in different ways. They are Michael Burrin and Joe Strummer.

Joe first.
























I'm rather gutted with myself that it took me nearly 6 years after Joe's death in 2002 to really realise who he was and how much of an impact he was to have on my way of thinking and on life. He is and will remain for a long time an inspiration to me on so many levels. Firstly, there's the fact that he was one quarter of my favourite band of all time, The Clash. The man responsible for nearly all the fantastic lyrics and heart-on-sleeve vocals that make up such a big part of the band. You only need to watch one live Clash tape to see that, though technically he couldn't sing that well, he was a fantastic frontman, completly lost in the energy and madness of the music his band were playing. But the guy behind that is just as inspiring. An everyman who allowed fans to mingle with the band after shows and geniunely enjoyed chatting to the everyday fans and was fascinated by the little things in life, his atttitude to life and work is just awe-inspiring. In every Clash and Strummer biopic I've read or seen (and believe me, I've read and seen a lot), it comes across so effortlessly just how humble and big-hearted ol' Joe was, and how he seemed to be everyone's best friend without even trying. His open-mindedness should be a lesson to everyone, and certainly taught me that there is a lot more to music than just rock 'n' roll - inspired by him I wound up getting into reggae, ska, dub, and many other types of music I just would've turned my nose up at before.

And now to Mike.

(I know, I know, I already used this one before, but hell, it's such a lovely photo I fancied using it again :) Mike is the figure on the right.)

Mike is my other biggest hero, which sounds weird as he is a direct friend of mine rather than a legendary figure like Joe. But in terms of inspiration, admiration and just being the best company anybody could ask for in a friend, Mike is just as much of a legend as Joe or anyone else.

He's actually the sort of person I wish I could've known for most of my life, because the things he has taught me and done for me over the year and half or more of knowing him have been invaluable to me. After years of being made to feel uncomfortable in my own skin, be it by actions of my own or other people, it's so refreshing for someone to not only make me feel completly at ease with myself and have so much patience to listen to me and help me out when I need it, but to help me discover myself a bit more, and ditch the bad habits of yore behind. Obviously this is all before I get on to mentioning how much of a creative talent he is, in whatever field he chooses, be it music, art, photography, film, or anything else, and how he is just the most easily likeable person you are likely to meet. A great friend and a geniune hero of mine :)

30 Days Challenge - Day 6

Day 06- Favorite super hero and why.

Well, I sort of have two. I have a favourite superhero and a 'superhero' that I used to feel an affinity with. My favourite superhero has always been ol' Spiderman. The ability to have what he can do would be just unthinkably amazing, soaring high above the roads and houses, and the great line - 'with great power comes great responsibility'. Plus his alias, Peter Parker, is the ultimate awkward teenager, so it's amazing to have that sort of alter ego - shy geeky guy one minute, brilliant superhero the next. So that's my favourite.


The other would be The Incredible Hulk. He's in there with all the other heroes, even though it's debatable if he is a 'superhero' per se. I've had an affinity with him simply because, and I'm ashamed to admit this, for many years I had a pretty vicious temper, and I could relate to the feeling of just, well, having had enough of it all. That whole way that, when he's pushed enough, he becomes this all-destructive monster, and yet, he's really a rather gentle person in reality. However, the fact he is the Incredible Hulk means he is constantly pushed and pestered by the military and authorities, and this just gets his back up further. Fortunatly, I've become much better at keeping control at my own inner Hulk nowadays, and I know how to keep it more in check - I suppose what helps is that I'm not in a place where I'm constantly harassed and heckled for being who I am, which was the case for several years - but the affinity to the angry green guy remains.

30 Days Challenge - Day 5

Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to.


Very blokish of me, I know, but the place pictured above means a helluva lot to me. It's the Santa Pod Raceway in Northants, a drag strip that me and my dad, along with various friends down the years, have been to many times, mainly for one show in particular. The raceway is a fully professional track, with many top Formula 1-style drag race championships running events there, but the big one for me has always been the Mopar Nationals, an event at the end of July which sees thousands and thousands of gorgeous classic American cars, mainly muscle cars, descend on the facility and either just show them off or actually race them head-to-head.

As I said in an earlier post, classic cars have always been a big deal for me, especially old American muscle, and despite the tedious arguments many people trot out against them (can't turn, basic, redneck-mobiles etc), my love for them has never really dimmed. The combination of gorgeous fastback looks and wonderful growling engine noise just does it for me, I suppose :)

So a meeting of thousands of these cars from across Europe in the middle of summer is a day in paradise for me, and I've pretty much been to this event every year since I was about, what, 9, 10 years old? So the best part of 8-9 years, with the odd year missed out due to weather (rain = no racing). This year's one will be in exactly 2 weeks time, and I cannot wait :D

Below are some more photos I've got over the years from the event.

30 Days Challenge - Day 4

Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have.

Not sure if one would consider this a habit, but I have an annoying ability to randomly sweat very easily. I always break out in a sweat just as I'm getting ready to go somewhere, wherever it may be; especially annoying when it's somewhere quite important, any aftershave or stuff like that just gets washed off as I break out in a sweat whilst getting my shoes on! More annoyingly, I really don't have any idea how to stop it, though I seem to be able to control it a little more nowadays, if that makes sense.

30 Days Challenge - Day 3

Day 03- A picture of you and your friends.

A little delayed I know, but funnily enough I don't actually have that many shots of me with friends, for some unknown reason. An evening out in the local cornfields with my dear friends Mike and Emily, however, changed all of this, so this post is dedicated to them both :)

That One Song...

This has happened a few times before, and it happened to me again last night. I was listening to various songs in my music library, and a track came on that I hadn't heard for a little while...and completly managed to sum up the exact way I'm feeling right now. In that four and a half minutes the song in question took on a completly new meaning for me - I'd liked the song anyway, but now it seemed to have a special significence. Like I say, it's happened several times before, sadly I can't think of the exact examples off the top of my head right now, but suffice to say it's a slightly odd moment when it dawns on you that a piece of music has just wrapped up everything you're feeling at a current time, something which would normally be so difficult for even you to describe fully.

The song in question this time is 'Suture Up Your Future' by Queens of the Stone Age, one of my favourite bands. They can rock and roll with the best of them, but they are also masters of the quiet, atmospheric songs, and this is one of the latter - a gorgeous song, and when I realised that the lyrics had taken on a new meaning for me, it just made the song even more special in my eyes. Here they are:

I'm gonna suture up my future,
I ain't jaded, I just hate it.
See, I been down too long,
It's kinda hard to explain.
Done and buried all I carried.

All my evils is through a needle,
As it pull through the eye,
What was and what will are now gone.

Don't sweat it,
Thread it, to forget it.
To feel like you've already gone on,
To the rest of,
The rest of the life that you've got.
Take a picture and bury it all away,
Bury it all,
Away.

Tried to fake it, I just can't take it.
I don't care if it hurts,
Just so long as it's real.
I won't waste it, turned to face it,
I'd sharpened a knife, then used it,
Until bone made it dull.
Tried explaining, done explaining,
I got caught in the plaid,
All of this talking at once.
I've been giving my love away,
To the things that tear it apart,
I'm gonna suture up my future.

Thread it, to forget it,
To feel like you've already gone on,
To the rest of,
The rest of the life that you've got,
Tie the loose ends and bury it all away,
It's like this, just like this

30 Days Challenge - Day 2

Day 02- The meaning behind your blog name.

Quite simple really - it's the title of a Bad Religion song :) They are one of my favourite bands, and the song is one from my favourite album of theirs, The Empire Strikes First - a fantastic album. I could've chosen a fair few titles, but I liked the sound of this one, as to me it has a feeling of escapism, of fantasy (hey, I spent a lot of my life in my own imagination!) and things like that. It feels kinda appropriate somehow :)

30 Days Challenge - Day 1

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself.

[Insert picture here] I have got some recent photos of myself, they are on my mum's camera at the moment from our holiday, so I'll grab that ASAP.

Time for the facts:

1. I actually have a very mild form of Aspergers syndrome.
   
2. I have an odd scar on the back of my neck that resembles a worm.
3. Linking into #2, I also have a tiny lump just on my left eyebrow where I banged my head on a table by accident as a little kid.
   
4. I've never been drunk in my life (something I'm quite proud of).
5. When I first started finding my music taste, The Ramones were the first band I really ever got into, closely followed by Dr. Feelgood and Green Day.
   
6. Part of me wishes I was born in the 1960s, i.e. when my dad was born, so that I could experiance the 1970s punk rock scene in London.
7. I've always loved classic American cars, particularly late 1960s muscle cars. One of my life ambitions is to own an original Dodge Challenger :)
   
8. Another life ambition of mine is to road trip across America, and then live there, as well as stay in Japan for a little while.
   
9. My hair has a ridiculous habit of growing into a natural bowl shape, so that, in it's normal state, I look like a giant Lego figure.
10. Joe Strummer, the sadly departed ex-lead singer of The Clash, is my biggest hero and inspiration. R.I.P Joe.
11. I've had a love for literature and writing, to some degree or another, since I was very young.
    
12. Linking into the last point, my favourite novel that I've read thus far in my life is, by some distance, Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre. It completly blew me away, and re-wrote what I figured was acceptable in literature and storywriting.
    
13. I still buy CDs despite the rise in mp3 downloading, and in fact, I still buy and listen to vinyl records when I get the chance.
    
14. My middle name is Edward, and I actually came very close to being named Arthur instead of Adam.
    
15. I am the sort of person whose mood is affected by the seasons - I'm generally the happiest during summertime, my favourite time of the year :)
    

The 30-Day Blog Challenge!

This is something I spotted on Emily's blog, and I fancied having a crack at it myself, because it sounds rather interesting. It's essentially a quiz spread over the course of 30 days, with each answer being posted up each day that goes by :) Here are the question thingies (some of them aren't technically questions, but you get the jist):

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
Day 02- The meaning behind your blog name
Day 03- A picture of you and your friends
Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have
Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Day 06- Favorite super hero and why
Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why
Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12- How you found out about blogger and why you made one
Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14- A picture of you and your family
Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16- Another picture of yourself
Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23- Something you crave for a lot
Day 24- A letter to your parents
Day 25- What I would find in your bag
Day 26- What you think about your friends
Day 27- Why you are doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned?
Day 30- Who are you?

Feeder - Renegades Album Review

It's the eternal question for bands deep into a decent career, isn't it? How do you keep going when you've got many miles on the road, years in the studio and record sales racked up and under your belt? Welsh power trio Feeder have been having that exact problem. Hands up who can name any of the great rock anthems Feeder have been responsible for in the last ten-odd years? Buck Rogers, Seven Days In The Sun, Just A Day, Lost And Found, maybe Insomnia and a few others on there as well? Not bad at all for a band who tragically lost their original drummer and dear friend in an unexplained suicide shortly after their breakthrough album was released.

But there is a flip side to all this; Feeder have to also be held accountable for a whole lot of rather tedious dross. I'm sorry, but to my mind, having an album compared to Travis, Keane and Coldplay (2005's Pushing The Senses) is nothing more than panning it as moping, insipid bilge. And here's the frustrating part - we know that band leader and frontman Grant Nicholas is capable of creating great songs, and yet, we are forced to pick out the odd good track here and there from the most recent long players (for example, 'Miss You' from Silent Cry, 'Godzilla' from Comfort in Sound). And before anybody throws the accusation at me that not everything has to be up-tempo and rocking, I do actually like slower, quieter music as well - when done well. Feeder's attempts at such music has, pretty much always, been anodyne and, well, dreary.

After 2008's Silent Cry, Feeder could have slowly crested over the hill into retirement or something else. Their UK record label, Echo, was dissolved, and interest was waning - it was more a sort of nostalgic look back at previous hits rather than a current, electric buzz. So Feeder decided a novel approach, and it has worked perfectly.

Essentially, they donned a disguise - suddenly, they were Feeder no more, and a new band named Renegades had appeared in their place. They acted like a new band - EPs, small gigs in intimate venues, underground word-of-mouth promotion - and yet, the people involved were the same people involved with Feeder (aside from new drummer Karl Brazil, but he was a replacement in Feeder for Mark Richardson anyway). What gives?

Simple: Nicholas fancied getting back to their roots, taking things full circle, back to where they began in the '90s with the Swim mini-album and the excellent debut LP Polythene. Which means that rock is back on the agenda - the piano has been retired to a dusty corner of the studio, and the amps are being turned up to 11. No more moping, no more sorrow, time to have some fun. Bring it on.

And so we arrive at Renegades, the album. You can tell from the cover - a topless, balaclava-ed woman holding a battered skateboard - that this will have a little more of an edge to it than previous efforts. In fact, if the band are trying to rediscover their roots, then they do a damn decent fist of it just in the album artwork itself - it definitely has a feel of a young band starting out rather than a bunch of middle-aged veterans. And this is followed up by the music, which I must say, is excellent.

Opener 'White Lines' is a little bit of a curveball, as it does distinctly sound like something you could hear from the previous albums, but in the context of the album, it makes sense - it works as a book-end to what has come before and a signpost for what to expect across the album. It's not a bad album opener, but give it a minute...then first single 'Call Out' drops, and the album is underway proper.

This album, I'll be honest, absolutely stinks of a band who are really rather enjoying themselves. No longer do sales or the path of their career really matter - how some critics can accuse the band of sounding jaded and old on this I really don't know. Nicholas (for he is the chief songwriter) has used any and every influence that has ever been felt in the band's songs before, from the very start of their career onwards, to intelligently craft 11 very strong songs - an achievement in itself given the notoriously inconsistent nature of their previous output. Nope, the band aren't going through a mid-life crisis at all - just getting themselves down the gym, trimming off the unnecessary flab, and getting back the muscle they used to have years ago.

No, it doesn't sound exactly the same as those early efforts, but then again, tell me a band that can successfully sound the same as they did when they were 20-somethings forever? Bad Religion, perhaps? The Offspring, at a pinch? But even then, the natural process of evolution and growth does play into it. Here, it can be heard in a natural quality control that every song gets filtered through, as well as a myriad of subtle influences that are added into the mix alongside Feeder's own natural grasp on rock 'n' roll. For example, a Kasabian-gone-heavy melody populates 'Godhead', and the title track is a half-decent homage to Green Day, with it's bouncing, pounding beat and barked 'Heys!' in the chorus. The opening riff in 'Call Out' is a dead ringer to the intro riff from the Foo Fighters' 'All My Life', and the crunching verse chords of the excellent 'Left Foot Right' are reminiscent of Apocalyptica's 'Life Burns!'. Throw that in alongside the sound of them delving into their grungy '90s output for inspiration ('Sentimental', parts of 'This Town'), and you have a muscular and outrageously hook-laden combination of great rock 'n' roll.

Despite the change of drummer, the band are still as phenomenally tight as ever, with new boy Brazil pounding the kit with the same lethal precision as his predecessors in the hot seat. Taka Hirose is still solid and unspectacular, but really, the star of the show from this perspective is Nicholas. His lyrics may be still a little hit-and-miss, with the odd cliche cropping up, but when they hit, they hit hard. It's his constant knack for a melody that is the band's main strength, and something that really only comes out on the fast, rockier numbers - having said that, the album's one slow-burner, 'Down To The River' is pretty decent, helped by the occasional raucous bursts of drop-D riffage. But really, this album is all about energy, and lots of it. It's not reinventing the wheel, and certainly isn't anything radical - it's essentially what Feeder have been doing the past few years off and on. Now though, they've shunned the pretensions of being the next Travis, and in the process, whilst not quite sounding like teenagers again, they do sound energised, powerful, and, dare I say it, a lot of fun. And funnily enough, the fact that it isn't a tremendously radical sounding record may be an advantage - as many UK guitar bands desperately try to cram smart-arse lyrics and as many pointlessly twiddly leads into their songs as possible, the combination of relatively simple, energetic, outrageously catchy and well-crafted songs on this LP may be just the breath of fresh air rock 'n' roll fans are looking for. For now, it's taking pride of place as my current album of the summer and possibly one of the very best and most consistent albums Feeder have yet produced in their career.

Details
Label: Big Teeth Music
Release Date: 5th July 2010
Rating: 8/10
Standout Tracks: 'Call Out', 'Renegades', 'Home', 'Left Foot Right'.

Feeder - Back to their Best?

I always like a few albums or two to really make a summer. You know the ones, the ones you buy and then intrinsically become part of everything you do that summer - so much so, that when you look back on the memories you have of the period, that record or songs just become the natural soundtrack.

Well last year, I wound up not really having one - unless you count Forty Licks (the Rolling Stones compilation) aside. The big release that I thought might just do it was Green Day's then-new record, 21st Century Breakdown...and we all know what happened there. The first Green Day record I've bought, and then promptly sold on; sort of says it all really.

This year, we could have a surprise candidate in the form of welsh rock 'n' rollers Feeder. Well, I say rock 'n' rollers - they've had an annoying knack in the last few years of putting out a teeny tiny amount of the belting rock 'n' roll we all know they can do really well, and insisting on filling up the rest of their albums with tedious MOR bilge. I'm sorry, I've tried, but I just don't get along with Feeder's quiet stuff.

I was pleasantly surprised then, the other day, when I was with a friend of mine in a bar in Camden, and saw a billboard for a new Feeder album named 'Renegades'. Upon arriving home, I investigated further, and found out about the ingenious Renegades 'side-project' that Feeder have been running for the last six months or so.

Similar to how Green Day created the Foxboro Hot Tubs, Feeder have actually been touring small venues around the U.K. under the moniker of 'Renegades'. Same band, same members - just a different name. In one fell swoop they sidestep the issue of playing the old Feeder standards, because, well, even though they are Feeder in a sense, at the same time they aren't. They jokingly do play several 'Feeder covers' at their shows, but even these are hardly what you'd call the classic hits - think some of the darker rockers from the early days. The Renegades album that is out right as we speak is essentially the new songs written by the band under the name Renegades...if that makes sense.

Essentially, the vibe emenating from the band and the project is that 'Renegades' is gonna be a return to the old-skool rocking exploits - enough MOR and acoustics, Grant Nicholas fancies turning up to 11 and rocking again. And from the evidence of the two singles - one currently released, one due to be released mid-August - they're sounding like a damn fine outfit once again. The album is on order and should be arriving any day soon...fingers crossed for a new soundtrack to match up to the hot July nights we've got right now :D

First single 'Call Out'



Second single 'Renegades'

If Only Everything

1. Behind The Red Door

My heart beats faster with every footstep
That ticks away and fades forever in my wake,
Looking for that door, not sure how much more
Of this my patience can take,
I scrabble at the handle, don't deny me now,
and it opens without a second thought.

Clumsily, breathlessly, I stumble into your presence,
And what resistance I had crumbles to nought.
The door locks silently, three inches of wood
Separates us from society.
They've no need to know the things yet to happen
The moments yet to be shared between you and me.



2. Welcome to Paradise

My eyes look towards you and freeze
I'm the rabbit caught in the lover's headlights
An attempt at a casual smile
Plays across your unflinching face.
Beneath your everyday jeans are the reason why
I'm stood here shivering with elation.
Trembling, I take my place, kneeling before you,
There's no thoughts of marriage in the June air tonight,
Just a confession to make, and a refusal to allow
These feelings to be hidden anymore.
If they are judged to be evil, then stone me this day,
Cast me away, with a sneering backwards glance.
But the truth is that, as I hold you in my hands
Feeling your warmth, and smelling your scent,
These are my feelings, and I shall let them roam free,
Whatever your consequences may be.



3. Immersion

My lips touch your skin.
A static shock snaps through me.
You close your eyes slowly.

You know what's coming next.
I lift you to my face.
I feel you wriggle against my cheek.

My lips brush against you
Analysing every contour.
You part my lips and slip inside.

My tongue forms a polite
Welcome committee.
Greeting you with a backwards tilt of my head.

I'm starting to drown.
Will you take my hand?
I'll cling to you to survive.

My lips and hands
Wide-eyed with wonder.
Travelling your beautiful body.

From the arch of your back
To the curve of your sole,
I'll find them all
One way or another.

You push down on me
And happily consume me
Just as I feel you pulsing through me.

I'm gone. Ruined.
Hopelessly destroyed.
Your delight destroys me from the inside out.

I let out a cry
The voice is not mine
The submission is all but complete.



4. The Unspeaking Clock

It's at this exact moment that the clock on the wall stops,
Forgets it's purpose, and gazes on.
I'm blissfully unaware that time is still passing,
That a world is still spinning beyond the net curtains.

Only our subconscious has any idea what we're doing
My rational mind is simply along for the ride
Trying to enjoy the view at breakneck speed
Holding on for dear life as we spin out of control.

I sweat, you sweat
I kiss? You bet.

I can't stop.
You won't stop.

This won't end.
It'll never end.

Forever this day.
Forever today.

Forever tomorrow
On day by day.

I'm free to love you
And you're free to fuck me

The runaway train
Misses the station

And ploughs on unabated
Well beyond salvation.

Someone is screaming
"Stop, I wanna get off!"

It falls on deaf ears,
Dismissed like a moth

In an innocent breeze
Well away from here

All I'll ever hear
Is "I love you, dear."



5. Silent Sweetheart

Pokerface on?
Pokerface off.
You've nothing to be ashamed of
And nothing to be proud of.

Walk from street to street,
March to that old beat,
Move away from that pulsebeat
And stick to normality.

A sideways glance is all that's permitted
But in that split second I know,
You can hear the cries, the gasps and the shrieks
Just as vividly as I do, right now.

But the turning of your head away
Dismisses me from your mind
With a click of the fingers,
I'm nothing more than a broken bind.

In a ratty, graffitied toilet cubicle
I crumble and allow a tear to escape.
Nobody knew, nobody will ever know
Not even we will know, will we?

The door will hear everything,
Every sob, chokeback, and outbreak of "why?",
But it'll never say a single word
As time continues to tick by.

Good Old-Fashioned Record Shop

In my last post, I talked about the lovely holiday I enjoyed in Devon. I was going to include this in the post, but I decided to give this story it's own post, as I think it warrants special mention :)

I would often prefer to relax and stay at the cottage most of the time on holiday, but I did make an exception one afternoon and head out to the town of Okehampton, making a beeline for a fantastic little record store I'd found the year before - Rockhen's Coop.


I had stumbled across it by accident last year, and was crossing my fingers hoping that it wouldn't be closed - but it was still there, alive and well. It's a wonderful store, a proper old-fashioned record store, with a deceptive exterior - out front are chart CDs and some Beatles LPs, as well as several guitars. But hidden inside the store are just a complete miriad of rock 'n' roll albums and records, some of which you will never knew had ever existed, as well as general music equipment, t-shirts, and music magazines.

The owner is an interesting one as well - a European metal-loving middle-aged woman who can talk at great length about any element of rock 'n' roll history. Both times I've wound up in there I've ended up having lengthy conversations with her about various gigs, tours and bands.

The first time through, I departed with my now-beloved Rolling Stones t-shirt, as well as a No Doubt singles collection and a Pennywise LP. This year, I came away with a fair bit more. The day I came in, I inadvertandly stumbled upon a treasure trove - an assistant was sorting through several boxes full of used CDs which had been passed on for the store to then sell on. When I say used, don't be fooled - as the lady said, in such mint condition were the records, she could sell them on at £10 a CD, as if they were brand new. If I showed you any of the records I wound up buying in the store, you will be pretty convinced they are new - labels and everything. Instead, they were going at £6 a hit, with a 4-for-£10 offer in place as well. So when the assistant pointed to a door at the back and said "there's 6 more boxes out the back, feel free to browse" my eyes completly lit up.

For an hour or so, that dusty grey backroom of the store became my proverbial Aladdin's cave, and I literally immersed myself in hundreds of albums from rock history. If I tell you I stumbled over a very rare pressing of Jimi Hendrix's 'Electric Ladyland' and found a Bad Religion album I've never seen on disc in any store in this country (not even my beloved Rough Trade!), then you'll begin to get the jist. The last 30-40 years of rock were fabulously represented in these boxes, along with other eclectic choices. I could've bought any number of around 30 CDs, but I managed to pare it down to just 11 (he says, just 11! :P), and here they are, with a mini-review of each:



Rancid - And Out Come The Wolves
Yup, sacriledge I know that I didn't already own this. In fact, more sacriledge - I never used to see the mass appeal in Rancid. I used to think they are vastly overhyped, and that, although I do like gritty vocals, Tim Armstrong's completly tuneless hollering just grated the hell out of me. One spin of this disc from start to finish changed my mind - the barking vocal delivary is a perfect fit to the gritty, crackling energy that emenates from this disc in waves. What makes this record so great is the quality of the melodies - I've not heard a record packed so chock-full of catchy chord progressions and tunes for quite a while. Highly enjoyable :)

Standout tracks: '11th Hour', 'Time Bomb', 'Ruby Soho'



Rancid - Indestructable
Very much a similar story to '...Wolves', except that the decade-odd between the two albums has seen a further increase in Rancid's already very capable songwriting abilities, and that coupled with having more money to lavish on production means that this one is equally as fun, if not more, than their mid-90s classic. The title is a tribute to the Ramones' 'Too Tough To Die' LP, and it's certainly worthy of sitting alongside such legendary punk dignaties comfortably - great fun and great energy.

Standout Tracks: 'Fall Back Down', 'Out Of Control', 'Django'.




Feeder - Polythene





















One listen of this record, and you'd be hard-pushed to guess that this is the Feeder that everyone knows and loves, of whom have built up such an enviable collection of hits across the 2000s. This is their debut from 1997, and in all honesty, sounds at times like something a mid-90s US grunge band would put out - it has hints of Pearl Jam about it, and apparantly the singer from Korn rates it highly. However, what is recognisable is Grant Nicholas's delicate/aggressive vocals (depending on the circumstances) and ertswhile knack for finding a great tune, and this one is chock full of them.

Standout Tracks: 'Cement', 'Descend', 'Stereo World'.



Feeder - Echo Park
This should be more familiar to most of you - or at least, some of the tracks should be. It might just be because I got into them off the back of their Singles compilation, but I've always seen them as a great singles band, without a great consistant album under their belts. This is a very decent effort though, their breakthrough from 2001, and it has two key elements for a great album - an awesome start and an awesome finish. It also has a great mix of songs, including the timeless hits 'Buck Rogers' and 'Seven Days in the Sun', and despite the usual melancholy efforts which mar most Feeder album, this is the best overall and most consistant of their career thus far.

Standout tracks: 'Standing on the Edge', 'Seven Days in the Sun', 'Bug'.



Ash - Free All Angels

















From one British Isles rock band to another - we head from Wales to Ireland to find a band whom are, to my mind, actually quite similar to Feeder. Ash have a similar knack for a top quality, summer rock anthem, demonstrated perfectly here on track 3 of this record, with the amazing 'Burn Baby Burn'. However, this record isn't a great single and a collection of so-so B-sides - it's a good overall album, and taken in context of how the band were going at the time, an excellant return to form after a few years in the wilderness. It's a sunny record, perfect to be played in hot July evenings - just my kind of record then :)

Standout tracks: 'Walking Barefoot', 'Burn Baby Burn', 'Shark'.



Anti-Flag - The Terror State


















Whilst Green Day desperatly try to fumble through their bloated political protest opera thingy, Anti-Flag have been doing the whole political protest rock thing on a much more low-key (and more direct) level for years, and this effort from 2004 lays it's heart (and beliefs) firmly on it's sleeve. It is stunningly intense, and barely lets up - you do have to be in a certain frame of mind to listen to this from start to finish, as being pummelled with bellowed vocals about the legality of the Iraq war and crashing riffs and drumbeats for 45 minutes is not for the faint hearted. When you do take the plunge and press play, however, you will be treated to a fantastic collection of aggressive yet instantly melodic punk rock 'n' roll, recalling the similar crackling intensity of Irish punk legends The Stiff Little Fingers - and that, from me, is one of the best compliments I can give a record :)

Standout Tracks: 'Wake Up', 'Power to the Peaceful', 'One People One Struggle'.



The Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation
Okay, so it's not strictly rock per se, but...it feels like a rock record, for sure. The main reason The Prodigy have been so successful and garnered such appeal (Pendulum, listen carefully) is that, although they move in the sphere of electronic music, they create tracks with all the power and energy of a live rock 'n' roll band. This, their second album, is the one where this simple but very effective crossover formula comes to the fore. What also helps, of course, is that they know a good tune when they hear it, and that's the main reason that this record is so strong, and one that everyone, no matter what your allegience is to electronic beat music normally, should give a spin at least once.

Standout tracks: 'Break & Enter', 'Voodoo People', 'Poison'.



Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth

I picked this up on the basis of "hmm, I've heard a fair bit about them, let's give this a try." There were a number of N.I.N. discs in storage, but I chose this one as I at least know that I like the lead single from it, the excellant 'The Hand That Feeds'. It's a tough album to get into, and this is certainly no easily digestable piece - it's dark and menacing, moving in a world of sinister bleeps and synths mixed with industrial guitars and pounding, metallic drums, all lead by the raw growlling of band leader and singer Trent Reznor. There is certainly much to admire here.

Standout Tracks: 'All The Love In The World', 'The Hand That Feeds', 'Getting Smaller'.




Marilyn Manson - Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death)

I owe a debt of thanks to my great friend Emily for getting me into Marilyn Manson, and it was her recent influence that prompted me to pick this one up and give it a spin. The overriding concepts investigated in the miriad of tracks centre around the accusations Manson faced at the time of being an overriding influence behind the Colombine high-school massacre. On this, he not only deftly rebukes such flimsy accusations, but provides his own theories about the causation of the massacre - the influence of the American media, high school culture, martyrdom, and a culturual obsession with guns, religion and fame. What we are left with is a sprawling journey of sinister sounds, very few easily digestable songs (the excellant singles 'The Fight Song' and 'Disposable Teens' notwithstanding) but an overriding air of scatching, dark critisicm of the American culture model, and for that he and his bandmates should be praised for having the gall to create something so stark and menacing.

Standout Tracks: 'The Love Song', 'The Fight Song', 'Disposable Teens', 'The Nobodies'.




The Beatles - Let It Be

Little bit of a curve-ball to finish, but I've wanted a Beatles record in my collection for a while now, and having digested the famous rooftop concert (of which the setlist is comprised of songs from this album), I thought this, ironically their very last album released when they were still together, would be a nice place to start. You can see, to a degree, the different elements pulling apart from each other, and certain songs sound a little flat, even in comparision to the variants played and recorded on the rooftop concert. However, they didn't become one of the biggest-selling and most popular bands of all time by accident, and even in this, their darkest hour, the time where certain members of the band could barely look each other in the eye during some sessions, they still create some wonderful tracks - the soulful Lennon-led 'Dig a Pony', the quasi-Motown 'I've Got A Feeling' (no relation and a million times better than the Black Eyed Peas song of the same name), and the brilliant 'Get Back'. Hit and miss could be a good way of describing it, with the misses being very bad, and the hits being very good.

Standout Tracks: 'Dig A Pony', 'One After 909', 'Get Back'.



All of these discs, plus a pack of Rotosound guitar strings all came to just over £40 - complete and utter bargain! Aside from Rough Trade Records up in Brick Lane, there are very few proper little record stores left to my knowledge, and this is one of them. I would certainly kill for a store like this near me - a friend of mine tells me there is such a store in Gravesend, which I'll have to investigate at some stage, but for now, I can only recommend you to head to this store if you ever happen to be in the area in the near future and support it all you can :)