with all said and done, it's weird how bills look once you get them in the mail. i guess i need to get used to the awkwardness of how it all looks on print because i'm having a hard time figuring out how much to pay for my cell phone charges. ugh, oh well. it's not a big deal. i know things will work out in the end, so no use worrying over money like it's my life's blood or something. i knew that once i started my own phone line i'd be taking on a responsibility, so there. anyway, i'm currently at home writing this post. i didn't feel good at all this morning, so i stayed home today. i think it stems from yesterdays scramble at work. i got so much stacked up and i did accomplish a lot, but after the day was through, i felt like nothing was done. i went to church and came home feelin' sick. i guess it just carried on to today. oh well, at least i'm blogging again!!!
this coming weekend will be awesome and pretty busy. friday night i'm hangin' out with kristy, then who knows what. on saturday i'm shopping for some furniture with my mom and then taking kristy to the conservatory to watch Red City Radio play at their cd release show. and as for sunday, i'm gettin' together with my family and we're gonna watch the thunder vs. the lakers. after that, i gotta start packin' for my big move next tuesday. overall, it's goin' to be zoppity!!!
so, yesterday during the last hour or so of work, i happened upon an older band in my music collection that i haven't listened to in a long time. i played their music a bit loudly while i worked away the last minutes of my schedule. the band i'm talking about is called, Boris.
boris are a three piece band from tokyo, japan who have been playing their own selections of genres since 1992. they are known for their intense and very loud shows of pure heavy metal. well, not metal like you think, but the more obscure and extreme genres like drone and doom metal. recently they have incorporated other styles like dream-pop/ambient/shoegaze and post-metal. it's easy to say, that if you like thee styles of, say, Isis, Neurosis, Cult of Luna, Earth, Sun O))) and Pelican, then you should like boris. heck, even if you like the shoegaze styles of My Bloody Valentine, then you should like boris. check it...
oh, and before i forget, i'm only posting one of their albums and that album, of course, if called, Pink. it's their most highly acclaimed and my favorite. its what got me into them as well as many many others. it's a masterpiece of music that will challenge you as well as compliment you. dig it...
back to the grind. the holiday was very nice and welcomed by me. i managed to relax a bit and catch up on some much needed me time. shoot, on black friday i went out and purchased six new video games!!! DUDE!!! six new video games that i now need to beat… here’s the list:
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Fallout: New Vegas
Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
God of War III
Demon’s Souls
in addition to these, on monday i checked out the cyber space sales and found three more games!!!
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
Sin & Punishment 2: Star Successor
MadWorld
so, yeppers. i got’s me some new games that will last me a LONG time. these need to be spread out over the upcoming year, so no rush to conquer them all. heck, i still have about ten left from the last few years that are all in the stages of being beaten. (most of them are about 75 to 85% complete…) don’t you hate it when you stop playing a video game and then come back and have to remember the feel of it all over again??? I DO!!!
anyways, back to the weekend. saturday night was an exciting one, what, with OU almost getting beaten by OSU at bedlam. OMG, seriously, it was a close game!!! very close… there were way too many missed plays to remember, but in the end, my team won and my family celebrated by jumping up and down, making the food in our stomachs churn and mix like cement. (mom made spaghetti!!!)
tonight will be my first practice for the upcoming native american christmas pageant. i will need to muster up all the strength i have in order to make this work. i was nicely asked, so i better step up and be a man, or in this case, joseph, the father of jesus…
i want to make this a one album post, so here is a little known band that kills every time i listen to them. they went by the name of, Mare.
mare was a very short lived band that existed from 2004 to 2007. they were from toronto, canada and shared members with the band, The End. aaaaannnnnnnndddddd that’s all i really know about them. how did i come to find them you might ask??? well, i did so by reading up on other bands such as, Isis, Jesu, Godflesh, Neurosis, Keelhaul, Converge, Botch, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Cult of Luna. as you hopefully can tell, mare have a close relation to the style those bands produce/produced. they were always mentioned when i scoped out profiles on that particular doom metal/post-metal/shoegaze style of music. glad i paid attention, because these guys were good. really, REALLY good, and they only released one ep!!! yes, ONE EP!!!
do yourself a favor and check these guys out. they were on the top of their game and remain legends despite their very short career and recorded output. if you like any of the bands i mentioned, this should work for you. dig it...
well i finally got to see the series finale of LOSTthe other night. it was a bit overwhelming and emotional for me. you see, this series takes me back to my first year of college in santa fe, new mexico. it reminds me of a lot of things during that short time in my life. to see it all finally come to an end is sad, but also rewarding. i stayed with it all the way to the end just like i did with school. (my last semester almost didn't happen though...) but, like my college graduation, the show's ending left me a bit confused and saddened. after time has passed, i look back on it and see how certain things happened and what i should have done to make other things better. i hope i am more wiser now... and with the show, i look back on it and see how certain events took place and made the ending the way it was. i don't think television will ever be this good again, for a very LONG time. and once again, just like college, there was a time and a place for it...
continuing with my mention in yesterday's post about bands that are, or have toured with Converge this year, i now like to welcome the band, Keelhaul.
keelhaul are a very underrated band in the current scene of metalcore/math rock/post-metal. trust me on this one. if you dig bands like, Neurosis, Jesu, Isis, Pelican, Red Sparrows, Cult of Luna and Botch, you will like keelhaul. this band started back in 1997 and come from cleveland, ohio. they take their time between albums and have just recently released a new lp through hydra head records, which is an awesome label. i suggest you give these dudes a listen and see if you can catch on quickly to whats good in the world of music.
today was the start of several months of training in order to get my body in tip-top shape. i'm making some huge plans for my life and in order for those to happen, i need to get physically fit. so far, i'm terribly out of shape. i haven't worked like this since high school baseball, and even then i didn't always go all out. still, this is different and it's something i'm not going to quit. i'm nervous, or better yet scared, so i need to build up my confidence and strength and ability to believe in myself. i don't want to look back on this and regret a lot of things like i have been doing for the past year. this is my time and it's starts right now.
i want to mention an awesome band that is under the radar, but very respected amongst those who know. the band is called, Cult of Luna.
this is an awesome post-metal/post-rock/doom metal/ambient band from umea, sweden just like Refused, who i posted on last night. to describe this band without only using genre tags, i guess i'd say you take the metal heavyness of bands like, Isis, Jesu, Neurosis and Pelican, and then mix those with bands like Envy, Between the Buried and Me, Mogwai and the always amazing, Radiohead. the music is epic in a post-rock sort of way and it builds and builds higher and higher. it's amazing and very pretty music that gets interrupted by the ferocity of the lead singer who has a painful sounding growl. trust me once again when i say, this is awesome music and something not to miss.
today i have one album for you all to check out. it's their breakthrough album and the one that got them the attention they deserve in the underground. that album is called, Salvation, and it's a great piece of work. also, the video below contains some of their music alongside clips from the japanese psychological horror film, Suicide Club. enjoy!!!
ugh, i felt sick after eating mexican for lunch today. not that it was bad food, it's just that my stomach, for some odd reason, acted like it couldn't hold the food down. this is a weird situation since i love mexican food and i always have it under control. today all was not well though. maybe it's because i had a hot chocolate this morning and we had lunch around eleven, or maybe it's because of my nerves and stress. regardless, i feel much better now as i type this. let's see how the weekend goes for us. apparently, we are to get another massive snow storm coming this weekend. it's going to hit us saturday morning and drop over ten inches or so. i guess winter wants to mess with us one more time before it finally goes away for the summer. this is completely fine with me. i love winter and hope it can stay for as long as it can!!!
today is a massive post on one band. this one band is very unique and something i'm very grateful for discovering on my own. here today, is the band, Envy.
first off, envy is from japan. all their lyrics are sung in japanese and there is nothing wrong with that. when first listened, it doesn't take long for one to notice the depth and pure emotion that is contained within this music. envy are a hardcore/screamo/post-rock band that has been around since 1992. over the years, their music has greatly evolved from frantic screaming, to almost godly beauty in the form of lush instrumentals, and spoken word vocals. comparisons to bands like, Explosions In the Sky and Mogwai, are frequent and not far off, but that shouldn't pigeonhole them. they are one-of-a-kind in the fact that they pave their own way with their brand of chaotic elegance and graceful unrest. this is music for the sleepy ones who wake from nightmares with angry thoughts or peaceful feelings. there is a mix of all kinds of emotions contained here, that one must contemplate where, and who they are as an individual and a living organism. most seriously, this music can change your life, or change your day depending on your overall attitude and such...
it's been a real pleasure to know this bands music for a few years now. they hardly, if ever, come to american and play shows, so if by chance that opportunity comes along, by golly, TAKE THAT CHANCE, and go see them!!!
right here is their ENTIRE, discography. the only thing i'm leaving off are their early splits and 7inches because those are all compiled in a latter release, so you got it all here anyway. first thing to start with is the album, Breathing and Dying In This Place. take note, that this is an early release and it contains their spastic screamo/skrams style of music and not the post-rock style they would latter be known for. still, it's an interesting place to start, seeing as how the band has evolved so much over the years. next is the album, From Here To Eternity and then the ep, Angel's Curse Whispered In The Edge Of Despair. (you might want to get used to the long album titles, because the song titles can top it!!!) again, these are early releases and chaotic pieces of music. next we have two more ep's, titled, The Eyes Of Single Eared Prophet and Burning Out Memories. following those two we come to the awesome lp, All The Footprints You've Left Behind and the Fear Expected Ahead. this is the start of the bands change in sound and structure. they cut off a lot of the hardcore elements and begin to stretch out the song lengths and flow. check out the song, "chain wondering deeply" for a great example. okay, so with all of those behind us, we now come to what many fans consider the bands best work, the lp titled, A Dead Sinking Story. this is where i first started with the band, and to see them from their past all the way to their current present, i will say this is their final gap between hardcore/screamo to post-rock gods, and perhaps their best work. there is great continuity in this album, and all the slow buildups presented within are some of the best payoffs i've yet heard in music. the ideas behind this album are solid, and it's just really intense and satisfying to hear. now is the album for those hardcore collectors. Compiled Fragments: 1997-2003, is the bands best effort to put all of their hard to find material into one great package. all their early splits with bands such as, Sixpence, Endeavor, Iscariot, This Machine Kills, and Yapheto Kotto, are all contained here along with a few unreleased tracks, some singles, and live tracks. overall, it's worth it for those who are hardcore about all that stuff. following that release we come to the album, Insomniac Doze. this is their album following a dead sinking story and, like many might have thought, it takes the band into the post-rock world and almost leaves behind their hardcore roots. don't take that the wrong way though, because when needed, the band still rips most throats wide open. it's just that this time, it's all a bit restrained and more carefully used in conjunction with the dynamics of the song craft. the song titled, "scene" is probably my favorite track the band has ever done and one to check out below. phew, almost done here!!! okay, now for the last three. next we have the ep called, Abyssal. it's another great album and a short stop in between full lengths. but wait!!! the band hasn't released anymore full lengths yet??? no, no, instead they released two more split ep's with some well known bands in music today. first is the split with metal/shoegaze artist, Jesu. this split is awesome in the fact that envy seem to be doing more experimental approaches to their craft by mixing in some electronic elements. no, they haven't gone techno, but instead have tried out a minimalism idea, and for me, it works. it's great to hear and offers something new and different from the band. and now we come to the last release, which happens to be a split with, now emo legends, Thursday. this is the album that made many people notice envy, and that was entirely the point behind it. thursday are an awesome band, and they know good bands when they see them. they have often spoken highly of envy, and recently borrowed some of their post-rock style for their newest releases. it can most definitely be heard on this little split, and it's once again, totally awesome. envy are on the top of their game, and one band to not miss. give them a look see and lay back to listen to beauty and chaos.
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