A Post

Yep, unfortunately It is going to be another of those posts that contains random comments about my life and some music I’ve been listening to. As no one actually cares or reads what I’m saying, it may as well be that way. It turns out writing random thoughts out in a post like this is quite therapeutic.

Its funny how things change, isn’t it? After hearing Men’s Needs I had ranked the Cribs alongside Hard-Fi as another appalling band, based purely on the fact that one of them really can’t sing – you know which one I mean. Anyway, after my brother got the album late last year I started listening to it, if only to recognise a few more of their songs when I saw them supporting Bloc Party. Anyway, it turns out a lot of the other songs on their third album, ‘Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever’, are quite awesome, addictive and, dare I say, I might even have got used to the ear-piercing wail on Men’s Needs. Personally, Our Bovine Public is my favourite off the album. It has to be one of the most catchy on there, at least. I think I’ll definitely have to invest in their previous two albums as soon as I can. I’ve been missing out.

Aside from sitting at home, listening to the Cribs’ album and reading a lot more than I ever have done before, there’s not been a hell of a lot else going on in my life at the moment. I wanted to go and see British Sea Power last night; my friends refused because they’d never heard of them. I wanted to buy tickets to see Foals in March; my friends refused, once again, because they’d never heard of them. I wanted to go and see Justice, Simian Mobile Disco, Hot Chip, The Young Knives and Late of the Pier; Yep, you guessed it, they didn’t want to go. I tell you what, my friends need to get out more!

At present, I’m waiting to go back into college for the most useless and pointless subject ever to be known. That would be fucking Key Skills ICT; something I’ve been made to pickup because I don’t do the right combination of subjects. Basically, I don’t do Maths or an ICT-based subject. Despite getting A* at GCSE, I’m being forced to go back over a load of stuff that my 3 year old cousin could do. I don’t normally go but I have to show my face occasionally, which is what I’m going to do this afternoon. Anyway, that’s all for now.

 

You’re Second Best

Today could have been awful; another mind-numbingly boring day at work, with no one but the over-70s for company. Instead, it ended up being a bit better. Not loads better. Just a bit.

 

Basically, that Foals track that I mentioned yesterday – Cassius – had been eluding me for too long, so late last night I got serious and went on the hunt. Eventually I found a copy and despite its slightly low sound quality, I’ve listened to it many, many times today. I really can’t wait for that damn album to be released.

 

What’s interesting is that this is the second version of this post I’ve written; the first, I realised was just a collection of things that I said in November. It seems a long break from blogging doesn’t work well for the smoothness between posts. Perhaps I should delete some of the older ones then I can quite happily repeat myself! Anyway, I was just going to refer to my hope that Foals aren’t another Air Traffic/Reverend and the Makers. I.e. something that didn’t live up to any hype at all. I’m fairly confident, though, that Foals are a million leagues above the latter two bands. They’ve just turned out to be quite….well, naff. So, basically, I’ve just been saying what millions of people already know; hype ain’t no good for a band.

 

Which is why the ones that creep up on you are usually a lot better. Recently, in the two-month break from posting, I’ve been loving the new Band of Horses album, ‘Cease to Begin’. I don’t listen to it several times a day like I do with other new albums for about a week. Instead, I’ve been putting this album on a couple of times a week for the last few months. It just keeps growing and growing on me. Which is good.

Although they’d already released what I’m told is a great debut album (I must get my hands on that), my uneducated mind had never heard of Band of Horses before. When I went into the record shop in Manchester the other month I was really fed up and bored of all my other music; I needed something new to listen to and something different. As I said on this blog that very evening, I bought it based solely on the shop’s recommendation. All I can say is thank God I was in that mood. It was a real find. Perhaps I should try it more often.

 

It’s Been A While…

Yeah, it certainly has been a while.

In fact, it’s nearly been two months since I wrote anything on here. The reason? I just couldn’t be bothered. Still, I’m not abandoning the whole thing just yet. I figured it’d be fun just to dip into on the odd occasion. Whenever it takes my fancy.

Not that I’m making excuses – I’m waaay past that now! – but a hell of a lot has happened in the last two-ish months. So where do I start? Well, firstly, I had an eventful christmas, along with millions of others around the world, which was quickly followed by a three week burst of revision for some Chemistry and History exams; perhaps there were a few less people doing that. But…I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.

Music –> I saw Kaiser Chiefs again; it seemed a bit lame, really, and wasn’t half as fun as when I saw them at the Apollo earlier in the year. Arctic Monkeys were fantastic but I didn’t quite get close enough to the front to get the most out of it. Also, Bloc Party now stand at joint 1st in my best gigs of all time – alongside Muse at Wembley. Adding to the pleasure of Bloc Party’s gig were the superb support acts; The Cribs were great fun (I almost forgot how awful that man’s voice is!) but they weren’t nearly as incredible as Foals. I’ve fallen in love with their music since that concert and am impatiently waiting for the release of ‘Antidotes’ in March. I’ve got a few crappy quality tracks to keep me going but am craving Cassius like nothing else right now. I need it so much and can’t even find a crummy radio rip to satisfy the need. It seems I’ll have to wait for March.

Elsewhere, I’ve made a New Year’s resolution to read more; its going great so far. At this rate, I’ll have more than doubled the length of last year’s reading list. It seems the ‘Penguin Popular Classics’ that sell for £1.89 on Amazon are incredibly useful. I’ve got a nice big pile of luminous green books at the side of my bed just waiting to be read.

Something else that’s been consuming a lot more of my money is DVDs. I decided over christmas that I quite enjoy watching a good film before going to bed and so have proceeded to try and build a collection that could rival my CDs number. Of course, that’ll be expensive and will require a lot more time but I’m having fun with what I’ve got so far.

If I get my act together I might even post on here a bit more frequently. Now that exams are out the way. All that remains is to get into a half-decent university! I have an interview at UCL the week after next…..and it’s in french!! Ah well, that’s what I applied for, after all.

Finally.

If you’re looking for someone to blame for the return of my relentless internet littering, look to the blogroll on the right; it’s their fault for not posting as often as they ought to. I’ve been deprived of good quality blogging recently and that’s what has turned me back towards my own.