Tag Archives: and

My iPod #410: Fall Out Boy – Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying

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Honestly, I liked this track much more in the past than I do now. If I had the same attitude towards it like I did then, I would have provided the song’s full title, but that is just too much. I’m tired and burned out. Not to say that this track is bad, ‘cos I’m gonna write about it anyway. It has lost its effect on me, that’s all.

“Get Busy” is a very bitchy track. It appears to be from the perspective of a guy used for sex, and eventually dumped by a girl who he really had feelings for. The guy’s understandably pissed, but feels that justice is served when the girl’s ‘secret’ (what it is, we don’t know) comes out and rubs it in by telling her that the secret was shit anyway. He’s over her. She don’t matter no more.

I have always liked the music on this track. The palm-muted guitars add a very sinister tone to the song’s atmosphere, and the track also showcases Patrick Stump’s vocal talents. He doesn’t just sing on here, but he also (kind of) screams along with Pete during the bridge, adding a real harshness on his voice. It did take me a while that it actually was him who was doing that and not just a guest vocalist from another band they knew.

Pete Wentz also reads out a poem as the final chord is struck and fades out. To this day I don’t know what it’s about, but as he continues reading it his delivery rises in intensity as the guitar fades in again until coming to a sudden stop. That ending’s always made me feel a bit uneasy. But it’s a good lead in to “XO”. Very similar to what they did with “20 Dollar Nose Bleed” and “West Coast Smoker” on Folie á Deux.

A shame I don’t feel as excited by the song as I used to. But those were some good few years I had when I was.

My iPod #337: The Beatles – Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey

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Hey what’s up how’s it going?

Today’s first song is from disc two (or side four for all you vinyl people) of The Beatles self-titled album from 1968. Or “The White Album” as almost everyone refers to it. That year was when John, Paul, George and Ringo started to dislike each other a bit. Why? Well there’s one word that the latter three, and a lot of fans would answer that question with. Yoko. John Lennon and Yoko Ono were hardly ever apart, even during recording sessions, and this aggravated George, Paul, and Ringo quite a bit. How did John answer this? Possibly by many ways which would have gone on behind closed doors, but for us he wrote “Me and My Monkey”.

“Monkey” should be played very loudly out of speakers. It gets me in the mood to party. It sounds like the band had a very fun time recording it, what with the random howls and screams which appear after almost every “Come on” that John yells, that incessant bell that never seems to end and when John also appears to start becoming a sheep right when the song begins to fade out.

It may be about heroin use and there may be some sexual connotations thrown in too, but those are just interpretations.

Dunno about you, but has anyone else noticed during the breakdown near when only the guitars and bass are playing that the bass plays a sharper note than the guitar chords? Just irks me a bit. But still, it’s cool. Very good hard rock song.

My iPod #304: Alexisonfire – Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints

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Alexisonfire were alright, man. The contrast between George Pettit’s psycho screamo vocals and Dallas Greens nicer-to-the-ear singing was a dynamic that I’d never witnessed from a band before. And I liked it. I got into Alexisonfire for a bit; and that initial liking toward the group started just as they were about to release their third album “Crisis” which came out in 2006.

“Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints” is the first track on that album, and what a way to start it. There’s no proper introduction, just a yell of “ALRIGHT” and then it charges on from there. I heard it fully on YouTube when someone matched the track along to some fitting scenes from the anime “Afro Samurai”. The video is still on there if anyone wants to see it; it is very well put together.

The track is about the love of sharing their music to anyone – the suits AND the squares – and they’ll carry on doing their thing because they never get bored of it. That was then obviously. Sure, there are some insecure thoughts the band question us on: do we as an audience really appreciate what we’re doing? Are we even listening? Yes, we are Alexisonfire. We continue to even in your absence.

After an onslaught of screams, angelic singing, something sort of in the middle provided by guitarist Wade MacNeil, and an onslaught of continuous guitars the track comes to a noisy ending as the fading notes roll around in feedback, as drums fade in from the distance. Those segue into the next track, but that’s for another day.

As I said, Alexisonfire were alllllright. This track is slick stuff. A brilliant opener to set the tone for the rest of the album.

SIDE NOTE

The next song is a Lostprophets one.

Now, I’ve been thinking on whether to write posts of the songs that I have on my iPod by the band since… well you know. I like those songs, but I won’t do them if people don’t want me to. I probably should have asked this yesterday so more people could answer.

If you still want to see Lostprophets posts, then comment or something. These are the songs that won’t have them if it comes to it: “Dstryr/Dstryr”, “The Fake Sound of Progress”, It’s Not the End of the World But I Can See It from Here”, “Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja” and all the other tracks on “Start Something” that aren’t “Burn Burn” or “Sway….”

So yeah, keep following. Leave a like or something. Tell all your friends.

My iPod #259: The Futureheads – Decent Days and Nights

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When I was standing on a chair in the living room and being an idiot like every other child, the original video for “Decent Days and Nights”, the song from The Futureheads’ debut album came on MTV2. In the video, the band were in a huge warehouse, standing on podiums whilst playing their instruments. That video seems to have disappeared, as it’s not even on YouTube. Does anyone else remember the version I am talking about? It is cool if you do.

No, the video above is one they produced when they re-released the single in 2005. That was the radio mix, which included a new introduction and overall cleaner production. The version I listen to is the original album version, which is the opposite. The guitars sound a bit rough and messier, I swear I always hear this hissing sound during the ‘chorus’ but apart from that the punchy drums, those sweet harmonic vocals the band are known for and the song structure is the same.

I also didn’t recognise until recently why I thought this song was a bit disorienting. The time signature changes throughout the bloody thing. It is 4/4 for the majority, but it switches to 3/4 and 2/4 too. It’s very strange, but does it makes the track a lot more fluid. The verse just rolls right into the ‘chorus’ (which it doesn’t really have hence the apostrophes) which then segues into the bridge and so on and so forth. Not one section drags on for too long and so it maintains your attention.

Another one to remember from the good times that were the mid-2000s.

Update (18/11/2014): Here’s the original video. How good is that!

My iPod #257: Coldplay – Death and All His Friends

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Ah, Coldplay. Not my favourite group. But nevertheless they are back with a new album, their sixth to be exact, in May entitled “Ghost Stories”. They’ve put out two songs already: “Midnight“, which got some polarizing feedback due to its minimalism  – and the first official single “Magic” which is quite similar to “Midnight in the way that there are barely any instruments in it, but actually has a beat and a good melody. It is the one which I like a bit myself and it is better than the former song. But that’s just my opinion.

Today’s song is the other title track from Coldplay’s fourth album “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends“, commonly known as “Viva la Vida”. Most people know it for the album where Coldplay changed. They went around wearing suits a la The Beatles during the Sgt. Pepper phase and generally went for a new approach in making their music. Some may have found it pretentious. I think it’s their best album. I have “Parachutes“, “A Rush” & “X&Y“; they have their moments, but “Viva” along with “Prospekt’s March” – that is good listening. No to “Mylo Xyloto” though.

The beginning of “Death and All His Friends” is actually a song that was meant to be separate altogether. This was its original incarnation. It’s very calm and soothing for the first half before bursting into life when the rest of the band join in and abruptly changing into the soaring and climactic ending (in 7/4 time signature) which will catch any first listener by surprise. The song is a triumphant ending to a wonderful album. There is a full version of the instrumental that you hear at the beginning of the very first track of the album, but I cut that out before putting it on my iPod. You can’t beat that ending.