An obsession with mediocrity…

Before I start this post, I just want to make it clear that this is not meant to be a personal attack on any one person, even though it’s going to read exactly like that. This is to do with taste, a subjective concept and what good music  is to me.

I may as well come right out and say it. It’s about Angus Stone. Not Angus and Julia Stone, but the cock n’ balls half of that duo that has since gone solo. We all remember ‘Big Jet Plane’, the feel good, angsty hit that came in at number one on Triple J’s Hottest 100 in 2010. The song itself was harmless enough, catchy in it’s own way with breathy vocals that are the trademark of the brother and sister combo.

I know I’m digressing from the main theme of this blog post but I’m just trying to set the scene for it. ‘Big Jet Plane’ isn’t memorable. It’s not terrible, but it’s certainly not remarkable. I believe personally (and Angus and Julia Stone are not the only Triple J darling artists this has happened to) that it was essentially voted number one due in part to the amount of times Triple J played the song. This presents the ‘what came first, the chicken or the egg?’ syndrome – is the song great? Or have we just heard it 100 times so we hum it on train carriages and in the queue at Coles? Is it simply the result of noises being played over and over within ear shot so often that it infiltrates our minds and leaves our body in the form of whistling and Super Requests?

I’ll use an example as a counter-balance. There’s no doubt that there are differing views of what constitutes a ‘hit song’. Take last year’s winner for instance, Gotye’s ubiquitous ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’. You need to hear that song once to understand that it’s a special track. Once. If you listened to ‘Big Jet Plane’ out of context, without it’s high rotation repetition, I seriously doubt it would have any semblance of the impact it’s had on Triple J listeners as a result of it’s aural assault due to multiple plays. I’m not ignoring the fact that, yes, Gotye’s song has spread like wildfire and has subsequently been played thousands of times by radio stations over the world as well as featuring heavily on various television shows.

But – using the context that we discussed earlier for ‘Big Jet Plane’; listen to ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ within that context and you can hear something far more special going on in that song. (And if you need this explained to you then I guess you should probably stop reading now)

Now, the true purpose of this post. Lately I’ve been hearing some of Angus Stone’s solo stuff and I have to admit that it’s drab, boring and absolutely devoid of anything that would make me want to request the song, download it or buy it. I’m referring specifically to ‘Bird On The Buffalo’. If you haven’t heard the song, you’ll be able to listen to the song at the bottom of this post and make up your own mind. It’s played on my mind so much over the past few days that it’s made me simmer with rage. Who are the tastemakers these days? Who’s approving this boring, hook-less crap at the radio stations?

This kind of music is about as edgy as a school formal; it’s music that is watered down and diluted to be sparse and ‘thought provoking’ whilst standing for absolutely nothing. It’s palatable for a mass audience and takes absolutely no risks – it’s devoid of BALLS. And yes I’ll take your question – ‘what do you have against acoustic pop/rock!?’ – and I’ll counter with ‘absolutely nothing’. I’m a huge fan of pop music in general, in fact I’m a massive supporter of UK singer/songwriter Frank Turner. And why? Because he has something to say and his songs are fucking fantastic. And that’s not including the myriad of Australian acts I have a huge respect for (You Am I, Busby & Marou, Paul Dempsey etc.).

Let me again just reiterate that this is nothing against Angus Stone, I’m sure he’s a lovely guy who’s doing what he loves and I’m not hating on anyone for liking his music – I just had to vent my feelings on this subject in the hope that I can have someone explain to me what I’m missing out on. Or, alternatively, to have someone agree with me and perhaps give Frank Turner some new fans.

Either way, listen to both Angus and Frank and tell me who you’d rather at the top of your Triple J Hottest 100. No hard feelings either way (that’s for you as well Angus).

 

 

Stuff to check out…

I apologise to my static readers (if any) about the delay in posts. Work has been a time consuming siege over the past few months and music commitments have also rendered me incapacitated from the written word. A sad state of being you’d agree.

Anyway, I just felt compelled to write about some of the stuff I’ve been watching, listening to lately as I’ve actually been pretty surprised with the quality of films I’ve been catching of late as well as a couple of bands that I have been listening to.

So, here’s a list of stuff to watch if you haven’t already (it’s not like it’s terribly niche or anything, if you’re halfway connected to any kind of pop culture you’ll have no doubt at least heard of most of these):

Mad Men has already cultivated a huge fan base for high quality, engaging drama and season 6 is no different. It’s great to see more dimensions added to Don Draper as well as more story lines sprouting from some of the other characters. Roger Sterling in particular is getting some great storylines based on his character. I won’t spoil anything for those who haven’t watched the latest season yet but let’s just say there’s one particularly psychedelic episode which leaves an indelible mark on him. The show just keeps on improving and it’s a testament to the writing, art design and production. It’s a show that doesn’t compromise on quality and the next episode can never come quick enough.

Okay I have mad love for Game of Thrones. The first season in particular was enough to persuade me to go and read all of George R. R. Martin’s novels to date – an activity which unbeknownst to me turned out to be very time consuming due to the size of each volume (they’re very long!). So season two comes around and it’s all systems go for our Starks, Lannisters, Greyjoys and Targaryens. For those that know nothing of this show, it’s essentially Lord of The Rings mixed with The Borgias. Lot’s of sex, violence, back-stabbing and conspiracies in a fantastical land that spans continents. It features some great performances, especially from Peter Dinklage, the pint-sized actor who plays the verbose and cunning Tyrion Lannister. The show is worth watching for his performance alone but the whole ensemble does lend credibility to the entire operation.

That said however, there’s a reason why I’ve listed this after Mad Men and that’s because the second season has left something to be desired. They’ve tried to compress two novels into one series in this season, something the writers and producers may not have had a choice on considering the breadth of Martin’s novels. There are some plot lines that have been glossed over, and others that have been rubbed out and altered to make them play better on screen. I’m not sure if this is a complaint due to my having read the books and not seeing the series in as an objective light as I did the first but nevertheless, it had to be said. Great show and very much enjoyable but with a very very slight taint to it in the second season.

There’s no doubt about it – Archer is the funniest cartoon on television right now. Wait, I’ll rephrase, Archer is just as funny as the funniest cartoon on television, South Park. Archer focuses on Sterling Archer, a misogynistic, smart-arsed secret agent working for the ISIS agency. The voices and delivery of some of the lines in this show are what makes it so enjoyable. Nothing is politcally correct – there are sex jokes, racist remarks and homophobic quips yet it’s all delivered with a tongue-in-cheek irreverence similar to say, Arrested Development. It’s the characters themselves that help this show shine; they are well written and voiced by pros such as Chris Parnell and Jessica Walter. In fact, ironically, Jessica Walter who played Mrs. Bluth in Arrested Development plays the ‘M’ type character at ISIS who also happens to be Archer’s mother. This makes for some hilarious showdowns between the two. If you’re into funny – and who isn’t? – then Archer is must watch.

I have to admit, going into this film I didn’t have high expectations. Liam Neeson to my eyes lately has had a string of roles where he’s essentially playing ‘himself’. Or the projected ‘self’ that he presents on camera in films such as Taken: a gruff, no nonsense, humourless tough guy who will punch you in the throat and bust your knee cap in under three seconds and deliver shitty, shitty lines about vengeance. Plus being he probably has a hot daughter but I digress.

The Grey on the other hand is an excellent return to form for him. It’s a movie where Liam can play the gruff, humourless guy but with some added extra dimensions that lends more credibility to his performance. In a nutshell, The Grey is about a bunch of hardened ex-cons who work on some kind of rig facility in the Arctic Circle. It’s the end of their season on the rig and are flying back to civilization when their plane crashes. The survivors are faced with a harsh, icy wilderness where they are up against the elements and hunted by a pack of savage timberwolves. It might sound ridiculous, but the film is handled deftly by A-Team director Joe Carnahan with a brooding score by composer alumni Hans Zimmer. There’s emotional weight added to the story with a grim back-story applied to Liam’s character, one that I won’t spoil here. It’s a solid survival tale and one that packs an emotional punch. Check it out.

This movie also came as a massive surprise to me. Why? Because I always thought Daniel Radcliffe was going to fall into the trap of being Harry Potter in every film he participated in subsequently yet this isn’t the case here. Not only does Radcliffe put forth a solid performance in this reimagining of the novel of the same name, the film is also scary as fuck. Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, a man widowed as a result of his wife dying during giving birth to their first child, a son. As a result of his grief and depression dealing with his wife’s death, his job as a lawyer is threatened and he’s given one last chance to keep his job – he’s instructed to settle the estate of a deceased eccentric woman in a small English village.

Once finding himself in the village and venturing out to visit the suitably creepy and monolithic manor house, strange things start happening. You’d think this would be the instance where plot development and characters give way to cheap, horror movie devices yet the film makers manage to keep the viewer engrossed in the story whilst building a sense of tension and foreboding through less conventional methods. Sure, there’s the occasional loud noise and suspenseful scare yet these are juxtaposed with longer, drawn out scenes where things in the background slightly alter and figures are noticed by accident in larger scenes. It lends a real sense of creepiness to the whole affair and it’s one of the more genuinely scary films I’ve watched in recent times.

I’ll endeavour to keep this place updated a bit more in the future. Be sure to let me know what you think of the above if you manage to check it out. Comment away you bastards!

If you didn’t think boxing was a farce already, you will now…

Usually The Sun is my sensory equivalent to a brain-dead YouTube marathon. Funny videos, amusing stories and journalism firmly based in codswallop. So it shames me to say that I’m actually sourcing a Sun article as the catalyst for this blog post.

Rest assured though, it’s mainly about the video they sourced than any artistic integrity based in the report itself.

Boxing is a sport that over the past twenty years has easily degenerated into the biggest athletic farce of all time. I’m speaking mainly of what we see of it in Australia, yet it seems to permeate the entire sport around the globe. Let me be specific – there are still amazing fighters out there doing great things in the sport with talent to burn, yet for every Manny Pacquiao there is a dozen of thuggish, dodgy fighters who liken the pugilistic sport to playing a game as opposed to participating in the loneliest sport in the world.

When I say ‘playing a game’, I mean they negotiate the labyrinthine rankings, belts, divisions and weight classes like slippery eels looking for the path of least resistance to fortune (I purposely omit ‘fame’ from that cliche as they don’t get famous, they get infamous as it’s widely known by anyone who pays half their attention to the sport that these fighters, for lack of a better phrase, are completely full of shit).

Take the latest embarassment to boxing – the melee that erupted at a Munich press conference between UK fighters Dereck Chisora and David Haye. Before I get into the specifics of what went down, let’s set the scene.

Press conference, boxing journalists everywhere – a professional event which you’d assume, would have ample security on hand. Enter David Haye, yelling from the back of the conference at Chisora. Haye has a beer in hand so I’m going to make the assumption that he’d been drinking, was most likely even tipsy, let’s say.

The yelling goes back to a previous match up where Chisora was scheduled to fight Wladimir Klitschko, trained ten weeks for the fight only to have the fight taken away from him so Klitschko could receive a bigger pay day fighting David Haye. Now, the press conference of the fight Chisora always wanted with Klitschko, Haye mouths off, naturally provoking vitriol from Chisora.

Now, audibly throughout the video of the incident below, you can hear panel members calling security to eject David Haye from the room prior to the physical altercation even kicking off. Security do nothing, the situation escalates and what everyone expects to happen at a boxing press conference gone bad, happens.

The saddest part to all this is that minders, entourage members and bystanders were injured with reports of people getting glassed with bottles and struck with folding chairs.

And people wonder why boxing struggles for a serious audience when the UFC goes from strength to strength.

I’m scared of Facebook timeline…

Perhaps scared isn’t the right word. I’ll start this blog post with a question – why should it be necessary to edit your Facebook page?

I remember when Facebook started and it was fun. You uploaded pics of yourself doing stupid things, you posted inappropriate wall posts to your friends and drunken status updates of the current or previous night’s exploits. There was no harm in it; the fun of it was the fact that it was open and that your friends could see it. You weren’t worried about your boss seeing your updates or recruiters being put off by the inanity of your social activity.

Alas, these glory days are dead and buried and timeline is the newest incarnation from Facebook to ensure that they are well and truly forgotten. As soon as timeline was announced, Facebook users everywhere panicked – jumping onto their profiles as soon as they could to hide anything incriminating. Privacy settings were triple checked and most profiles locked down from suspecting eyes and disapproving voyeurs.

Is this the Facebook that you want to be using?

Now there are new social networks emerging each day; ones that aren’t as popular and aren’t as crowded as Facebook is. Sooner or later, these smaller, tighter networks are going to become more appealing to users as the surveillance Facebook users are subjected to becomes a tiresome, annoying aspect of the platform – perhaps more so than it already is.

The saddest part about this whole state of affairs is that your Facebook profile should be yours – outside influences should not dictate how you use it or what you post on it and yet that’s the reality of using it in 2012. And this is coming from someone who likes Facebook.

I’m just not sure I will in a year.

You’re not getting any younger…

This year I’m turning 28. It’s strange because when I was in my early twenties, I had this odd perception of how people in their late twenties were these elderly statesmen like mature types who were considering purchasing a ‘property’ and ‘settling down’. To be perfectly honest, I don’t even know what ‘settling down’ means. It’s been bandied about by my parents and various condescending personalities in my life who are no doubt trying to indirectly tell me that I need to slow down, to evolve into a responsible, splendid person of maturity.

I say fuck that.

And I mean that with every little bit of respect that I can muster for those who seem to think that when you’re approaching thirty that all your dreams and wants just get flushed away. I like being irresponsible and I like acting like a fool. It’s who I am and it allows me to not take life too seriously and retain my youthful vigour (which I hope to retain well into my elder years of my life).

The irony here is of course that I now cannot stand teenagers or generally people from the ages of 18-22. It’s not so much the fact that it’s any one individual that bothers me, but more so that it takes me back to when I was that age and I suddenly realise how annoying I must have been to the mature, statesmen-like elders living their quaint, slow-moving existence in their late twenties (or early thirties).

So I guess an evolution does take place as you grow older. It’s not that you suddenly lose that youthful exuberance, but you begin to understand that nothing really changes within you. When in your early twenties you think that things are going to be excruciatingly boring and serious when you start reaching that big three-oh mark but as you approach it, you realise nothing is further from the truth. If anything, you have the resources and the personal education to achieve goals that you would not have had the minerals to even entertain when you were younger which, in a way, makes you more likely to achieve any goal you may have struck out on at a younger age.

So I guess what I’m saying is, if anyone in your life begins that diatribe of ‘well you’re not getting any younger….’ with that raised eyebrow? Tell them to go fuck themselves.

This isn’t the gold rush period – we’re not trying to colonise a new society or expand the population like the baby boomers. Move towards what you want and what you think you can create and do it with a smile on your face.

If you want to save money and buy a property and have a lifestyle that is aligned with what society expects you to have? Then by all means, go and get it. If you want to be a nomad and travel around and never settle down then I tip my hat to you also. There is no right or wrong answer here but the judgement should not come from anyone else.

Be happy with the decisions you make and don’t succumb to anyone else’s social pressure to mature.

Life’s too fucking short.

The Iceman

About a week ago I watched an interesting documentary called The Iceman. I didn’t know anything about it – I’d only read on a documentary site that it was not to be missed.

So I settled into the couch and turned it on and I was captivated for the next forty five minutes.

The Iceman was produced by HBO who, in 1992, requested and succeeded in gaining entry to the maximum security facility prison the Iceman was to spend the rest of his life, recording seventeen hours of interview footage.

The Iceman (born Richard Kuklinski) was contracted as a Mafia hitman and has admitted to murdering upwards of a hundred people through various different means such as cyanide poisoning, various firearms and even a crossbow.

The most remarkable thing about this entire story is that during his time as a hitman (upwards of twenty years) Kuklinski maintained a completely normal family life complete with children, a wife and a family home. Attending his conviction and witnessing his many admissions was the first time his family heard about his true nature.

Why am I writing about this? Well it really struck a chord with me. This guy is a very remarkable creature. And I mean that in every connotation. He was a product of a vicious upbringing by his parents and horrendous bullying from street gangs around the Brooklyn area that no doubt contributed to the lifestyle that he later took on.

His methodical ‘work-like’ approach to his murders is interlaced with a subtle warmth he displays toward his family puts the viewer in a unique position; you feel like you’re reluctantly empathising with him – and believe me, I find that hard to admit considering the amount of people he killed. That said, his homicidal career provided for his family who were never left wanting and besides a few innocents that found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, Kuklinski only conducted mob hits. His obscure moralism towards the whole nature of assassination wound down to two conditions – he would not kill a woman, and he wouldn’t kill a child.

I don’t think these are the moral tenets of a psychopath or a monster. I’m still trying to figure it out myself which is why I felt I had to write something about it.

After doing some research a few days after viewing it I learned that a Hollywood film is in production called ‘The Iceman’ which I’m assuming will be a biopic of Kuklinski. The Iceman will be played by Boardwalk Empire’s Michael Shannon which, if you see Kuklinski in The Iceman Tapes, you’ll agree is very good casting.

Do yourselves a favour and check out The Iceman Tapes – I’d be very interested to know how people feel after watching it.

You can stream all parts of the documentary on YouTube.

Part 1 is below:

‘Their Only Good Album #3’: Pendulum – Hold Your Colour

I honestly don’t know where to begin when it comes to Pendulum and I have to say it’s pretty sad what’s happened to them.

When I first heard their groundbreaking album Hold Your Colour I was absolutely gobsmacked. The production was massive and the album well balanced with tracks that ebbed and flowed to create one of the finest drum n’ bass albums of recent times. In fact, it was one of the albums that initially got me into drum n’ bass. That’s right, Pendulum USED to be a drum n’ bass act.

Fast forward to today and the Pendulum you hear on radio stations such as Nova and Triple J is a shadow of the edgy, dark, provocative tracks they released early on in their career. Their remix of the Prodigy’s Voodoo People as well as their collaboration with The Freestylers on Blood Sugar were an exciting indication of what was to come for the group with Hold Your Colour. They delivered one of the staple drum n’ bass albums to be released in the past twenty years and it’s proved to be their undoing.

I discussed this with a friend of mine the other day. Hold Your Colour was such a solid album that the band really had no where else to head except downward. It’s the trap that many artists fall into – release a perfect album and spend the rest of your career fighting a losing battle attempting to match or exceed it with a follow up.

This is exactly what happened for Pendulum. In Silico, their follow up is allegedly the band’s self confessed ‘least favourite’ record and to my ears it is under produced. The bass drops in and out, the synths aren’t strong enough and their experiments with introducing ‘rock’ aspects into their sound just seem contrived and unnecessary. [For an example of an artist doing the 'rock drum n' bass thing right, check The Qemists]

The only hints of a Pendulum of old was the inclusion of ‘Granite’ which is a banging drum n’ bass track which, ironically, was produced by the group early on and must have been included as an afterthought on In Silico. It’s the only track on the album that has that Pendulum production sheen to it and easily the standout.

In Silico also saw Rob Swire of the group take on more vocal duties which in my eyes was the ultimate indicator that the group’s intentions had shifted. The ambience and atmospheric sounds of Pendulum was what made them such a great musical experience to begin with and replacing that moody vibe with Swire’s autotuned, nasally vocals smacks of self indulgence.

Unfortunately it was around this time that commercial radio began to pick up on Pendulum in Australia and songs like ‘Propane Nightmares’ began to receive heavy national airplay. They joined the festival circuit and Pendulum’s new palatable, nonsense drum n’ bass tunes became the drum n’ bass anthems for Australian festival-goers whilst many drum n’ bass purists thought to themselves – ‘if they could only hear Hold Your Colour’. (I’m not going to even bother critiquing Immersion as it is such a departure from the band’s original sound that I don’t think it warrants consideration)

If you’ve never seen Pendulum live and you happen to find yourself at a festival they’re playing at, it’s still worth checking them out; at the very least to see them perform some of their big songs from Hold Your Colour. But as far as their recording career is concerned, it’s pretty much over for them. With Rob Swire now writing songs for artists like Pink, the chances of Pendulum releasing anything worthy of note in the future are pretty slim.

Have a look at the two videos below, the first track ‘Another Planet’ from Hold Your Colour juxtaposed with ‘Watercolour’ from Immersion. It just makes me sad.

{NB: read the highest rated comment for ‘Another Planet’ – it’s telling}

‘Their Only Good Album #2*’: No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom

For anyone who listened to this band in the 90′s, the current sound emanating from Gwen Stefani’s aging scarlet lips must be somewhat of a fright.

Let’s put this into perspective briefly. No Doubt started their musical career off as a ska/punk band. That’s right, that obscure genre of fun loving, infectious dance punk that boomed in the 90′s via bands such as The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Reel Big Fish. The style still has a small, underground following (particularly in Australia) and is closely linked to reggae/ska/punk pioneers such as the legendary Sublime.

Speaking of Sublime, it may surprise some neo No Doubt aficionados that Gwen Stefani actually provided guest vocals on a Sublime track. The warbling alto you hear on ‘Saw Red’ juxtaposed with Brad Nowell’s heroin fuelled manic vocal attack is none other than everyone’s glittering pop queen.

So with that brief breakdown, let’s consider Tragic Kingdom.

This was the album that launched No Doubt into the commercial consciousness. Piggy-backing off the success of the Orange County ska/punk scene at just the right time, hits such as Just A Girl, Sunday Morning and the massively popular Don’t Speak defined No Doubt as a band destined for great heights – that is, if those heights involved completely ignoring the roots from which your band grew from to embrace with open arms the shallowness of the commercial pop industry.

Do I sound bitter? Perhaps. At the end of the day, every band just wants to make some cash and play to monstrous crowds everywhere they go. That said, there are some bands who manage to do this with aplomb and retain credibility. Unfortunately, No Doubt are not one of those artists.

I’m not sure how many fans of the band’s recent sound would be aware that they released a self titled album BEFORE Tragic Kingdom that was an amazing collection of catchy, pop-hooked ska/punk tunes which showcased just how talented the band that backs Gwen Stefani is.

These days, the band IS Gwen Stefani, something that must seriously bother the rest of the band. But then again, if they are receiving substantial paychecks for celebrating Gwen not so much as a musician, but as a sex symbol then that must be hard to argue against.

I’m not going to bother looking into their newer albums. If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past ten years then you know the trainwreck that No Doubt have become (I mean fuck, ‘I Ain’t No Holla Back Girl’ must make die-hard fans of the Gwen Stefani of old shit their two tone pants).

In conclusion, I’ll leave you with three tracks – ‘Ache’ from their self titled first album, ‘Sunday Morning’ from Tragic Kingdom and ‘Hey Baby’ from Rocksteady, a depressing sign of what Gwen Stefani’s career would become.

* I’ve listed Tragic Kingdom as ‘their only good album’ as their self titled debut would be largely unknown by the general populace, however it technically is also a great album

‘Their Only Good Album #1′: Lost Prophets – Start Something

So I’ve decided to introduce a component to this blog where I look at some awesome albums from bands who pretty much dropped the creative ball soon or happened to jump the shark in a gloriously embarassing manner soon after.

I’ll be calling these chapter based posts – ‘Their Only Good Album’

Today I’ll be looking at the Lost Prophets. I’ll probably cop some schtick for listing this album as it’s one of those fashionable nu-metal/pseudo-pop punky records that came out in the early 2000′s.

Essentially, the Lost Prophets are a Welsh band that have become somewhat obscure since this record came out. A six piece band at the time, they had all the pop sensibilities, the rock nuance and nods to the appropriate sub-genres to bring them to the forefront of the Australian and American touring circuits (they were out here for a Big Day Out tour when this album launched, riding off the success of the two bigger singles from the album ‘Last Train Home’ and ‘Burn, Burn’).

Considering how this band looks, it’s no wonder to see that they are a marketers dream and it’s usually enough for me to run screaming in the other direction when I see such painstakingly crafted fringes and endlessly practiced pouts from a ‘rock’ band.

This however, took a backseat when I saw the band perform live at the Big Day Out (2000-?) and I was well impressed.

Of course this led me to acquiring the album and let me say, every song on the album is worth a listen. The production is big and heavy, the drums made to sound like large boomy tubs rather than the woody drum sound most bands try to aspire to in the studio. Lead singer Ian Watkins and turntablist/synth backing vocalist Jamie Oliver (is not also a successful celebrity chef) regularly wrestle each other for vocal glory without actually out shadowing each other. It’s one of those special instances where a band, regardless of the genre they’re playing, simply get the mix right and took the time to really get the songs down.

Unfortunately, this is where their track record ended. The horrible ‘Liberation Transmission’ that followed Start Something was an eclectic mix of mediocrity, trying too hard to stray from the path they’d so capably forged for themselves and in doing so, losing the sound that had brought them to a commercial audience in the first place.

These guys definitely aren’t for everyone and yes, they border on the commercial end of alternative/punk/screamo/nu-metal music but a good record is a good record.

I’m sure you can track down Start Something in most good record stores and I’m also quite sure you’d be able to pick up heavily discounted copies of their horrible follow ups Liberation Transmission and The Betrayed in Sanity bargain bins across the country.

Check out a track below:

Watsky

So the other day a friend forwarded me a video of this American kid rapping. Usually this wouldn’t be very interesting however I was quite taken with the video. The lyrics were intelligent and amusing and further to this, it was one of the fastest raps I’ve ever seen.

This led me to taking a closer look at this guy and viewing some of his other videos. Turns out this kid is George Watsky and he’s blowing up on the internet in a big way. I initially thought he was just a rapper yet his bio credits him as a poet.

This guy is smart, funny and bringing attention to the long-forgotten art of word-slinging. I hope he goes far and continues bringing modern poetry to the fore.

I think poetry is really misrepresented to people, especially the younger generation. George Watsky seems to understand that and knows how to dress it up to be palatable for a new audience.

Check out his viral rap video below and below that a fantastic poem he delivered to the students at his university.