What gets me up in the morning.

It's 7am.
It's cold, dark, wet, hell, it's England.
I've got to be at work in an hour.
It takes me time to wake up.

I think a little lift in the morning can be enough to kick start any day. Just that little glimpse of something bigger, something better, some high point with good memories, a hint of possibility.

Some people ask how I get up in the morning. I don't know if this a smite on the futility of my existence, or a serious question about why I'm mostly so happy at 8am when customers are dropping off cars, half asleep as we're all on the third barrage of insults between each other for the day...(we're a real caring bunch of p***takers)...
The answer is my alarm. No, not in a sarcastic way, my alarm, every weekday morning, without fail, is one version, of one song. It's not the greatest song ever. It's not the greatest song by this band. By a long shot. But, it's an epic front-man performance, with a killer band, I've seen this band live, they put more energy into every song than you (read, boyband) could possibly imagine, every song is played with passion and emotion, and they really, really, want you to join in and have a great time.
Everyone who's heard this as my alarm hates it. Because they don't get it. I may only let a second or two play, but the rest of the song, the energy, the passion, the 'just goddamn join in' of it all, plays on in my head longer than it ever really has right to.
There are other versions of this song, but this is mine, (favourite) there are many *quite* like it, but none the same.

It's Machine Head. It's from Hellalive. It is Old. And for me, it's all about Robb Flynn getting the crowd going, at the beginning, in the middle, oh especially the breakdown, I can see 1500 sweaty long haired kids at Brixton Academy in 2003 doing exactly as the man says, and if I'm all alone, in my room, I join in. I look like Animal from The Muppets. Because as the man says "I F***ing Love It."

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you what gets me up in the morning. Machine Head - Old, from the Hellalive album. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE02aEAF_TU

Those self destructive songs

Right, this is not a post about Angels and Airwaves as I had planned. I will get back to that.
This is about those songs that you listen to when you're feeling down, or want to feel down, be it just to feel, to rise up anew after, or wallow in your own pit.
It started tonight by watching Twenty One Pilots' Car Radio again, for me, a song about loss, hope, anger and acceptance. The imagery of Tyler taking the clippers to his hair a sign of torment, the crowd build up a sign of hope to come, the release is just that, joy, anger, all together, the two emotions that mix so easy, and then, the ending. the quiet refrain, the falling back off the empty stage, the re-appearance of Tyler's hair. The End. I tend to think so often how music gets me going for things, uplifts my mood, extends a feeling of happiness, gets me through mediocre tasks, gives me an outlet for my anger, helps me focus and channel my thought patterns, I often forget how it can interact with my more negative side. Then, that one song comes on...and I'm sure most of you know the rest.
These songs, the ones you won't listen to 8 times out of 10, and 1 time you'll front up so no one else knows. All for the sake of that 1 play that means everything. I know from conversations with other people that I'm not the only one who has these songs, and even now I'm wrangling with myself over whether to write mine here, as they cannot be re-captured once published.
I wonder how many of you have these songs with a darker meaning. I wonder if you'll share yours if I share mine, or even if I don't. I wonder if it even matters if you or I do.

What do you do with these songs?

Do you listen to feel some tinge of pain/regret/remorse/sadness/utter misery that you will feel alive again after? (I must say, I think this is stereotypically why some women choose to watch films that make them cry.
Bloody Notebook.)

Do you listen to them when you feel down, to bed that sadness in some deep seated emotion to verify it, maybe even to feel sad just to prove you're human?

Do you listen to them to continue an ever extending downward spiral?

I listen to mine for several of the above reasons, but sometimes (most annoyingly,) they just creep up on me. Out of nowhere and 'oh crap I'm listening to x.' Brilliant, now I'm unsure how it's going to affect me, and I'm in public, or at least, with other people. Very little is more unsettling and unnerving to me.
Tonight I watched Car Radio, out of choice, due to having a Twenty One Pilots session, I then, enjoyed the shiver the drop sent down my spine and listened to something more upbeat. It could've gone another way, but this song doesn't have any particular meaning attached to it yet. Maybe that's the trigger.

Are all your songs with emotional tags?

Is it maybe that the song coincides with a time, and it could've been any song? Or is it the song was always there, and the emotion/event/whatever resonates with that particular feel or episode?

Have you ever done anything about or with these particular songs? I have learn't to play one of them, and seen it and some of the others performed by the respective artists live on several occasions. It still gets me, but at least when I play it, I own it, all the feelings are mine, and so, they are all good feelings, no matter how sad.

I will share two of my songs, I have more, what would you expect of someone like me? But the two I will share are important to me. I've probably mentioned them before. So don't muck them up. I will not share why.

1) Evanescence - My Immortal. The original version, no electric guitar Ben Moody show off guff, a piano, some strings, Amy Lee.
2) Jimmy Eat World - Hear You Me.

Ok, time to go listen to some Kid Rock and see some girls dancing in bikinis. Hope I haven't ruined your night!

When you just need to get stuff done...

...Chevelle - Wonder What's Next.

I, like most people I think, have a few 'go to' albums. Certain albums, for certain purposes. I must admit I like it when people don't know of them, and this is one of those. It is not the best written or produced album in the world. (For my money, Zebrahead's Playmate of the Year album has great production value.) But, it does have those moments that I crave. And, it has a feeling, a very defined stance. Nothing on this album is super fast with heart racing BPMs, it is a plodder. It is solid. Each beat in each song will smash the cavity of your chest with unrelenting ferocity. If you need to be doing something, and you're not too enthused about doing it, this album will kick you every step of the way home. It is a heavy album, and I don't mean thrash/wailing guitars and <insert any type here>core vocals. I mean it feels weighty, the bass tones are big in the mix, all the strung instruments are tuned down at least 1 step, mostly distorted, but more with crunch than fuzz. Pete Loeffler's voice is clear throughout a high percentage of the album, but with plenty of massively controlled fry, to a level on a par maybe even with Benjamin Burnley.

I first came across the band somewhere between some music channel (possibly Kerrang!) and the Daredevil soundtrack. (I own very few soundtracks, maybe 5? But Daredevil is so much better than the film, it was a definite purchase.) The music video was for "The Red" off of this album, set in an anger management session, video here, and Until You're Reformed from Daredevil. The Red is a great video, for a good song, it makes the experience complete. I then, as you do, aquired a digital copy of the album and immersed myself in the head pounding thumps of it. Family System starts it all off, and almost starts with a call to all to listen, and listen close, before clapping you round the ears for the next 53 odd minutes. I recently found out the band is from a Chicago suburb, which just made me fall in love with the album a little more, as 1) Chicago is one of my favourite cities, and 2) When I finally bought a CD copy of the album it was in a Best Buy on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. It just caps an amazing memory of an amazing time.

If you like Alt Rock, heaviness, well controlled vocal fry, a fair amount of deep seeded anger and have something to do for an hour that you may or may not be bothered about doing, give the album a listen.

As an aside, I pretty much love every track on the album, but, Closure is by far my favourite. It's a build track. Starting off clean, quiet, calm, and simple but with an underlying and building sense of tension, and it ends, well, less so. For me, the moment that makes the track is at the point of unleashing, there is a single note bass drop, at the same time as shattering glass. If your hardware can accommodate these two played at the same time, you will be treated. (03:50 if you want to know) it sends a shudder every time. I have to now go listen to it again.

Yup, this post was all about me loving an album, and I'm not sorry.

You get me.

I've still not really gotten behind this blog fully yet, and will probably always be a bit sporadic, because;
a) I like to pretend my life is important and busy - (it is neither.) and
b)What I put up I want to be good. I throw out several ideas a week that just don't cut it, or need more work.
That said, this may not be good enough, as I'm distracting myself with Youtube...

Today, I went for a run, when running I, like most listen to music. I like MY sort of music to run to, stuff that pumps me up, I hate running so angry pump is fine by me. So currently my running playlist composes of Atreyu, Enter Shikari, Royal Republic and Zebrahead. There are a select few songs in there that really shift me up a gear. This got me thinking, the last few times I've done any gardening, it's the same deal, headphones in, volume up, rock that mother. AFI, Zebrahead, and Andrew W K. Now the point of this is not shameless name dropping, its about how the right song can set any task off.
If I listen to the first half of Andrew W K's I get Wet album, I will be bouncing like a looney, fist pumping, and generally have more energy than you can shake anything at. It always works.
Listening to AFI's Sing the Sorrow, I'll pretend to scream along to Davy's vocals and get wrapped up in the whole theatre of the album.
It is all about letting your self get immersed into what you are listening to. I know millions of people out there hear music. They think nothing of it. On one of my more sanctimonious days I'd be tempted to say that's because they listen to mass produced pre-manufactured dross. But I'm not going there today.
I like to hear songs that mean something to someone, that can evoke a feeling. Sometimes, just a line will do it. Death of Seasons by AFI does it every time, that last tortured, painful cry, after the music has broken down and there is just atmospheric background, and Davy seemingly a million miles from the mic, wrenching his very soul out, always gets me. (it is helped by having seen it live, on his haunches, doubled over, pouring the pain out.)
I'm a big advocate of just sitting down and listening to something. When I was little, I couldn't sleep, so I went downstairs to our old Aiwa HiFi, put in a dance CD, some MASSIVE headphones, it was pitch black, the headphones shrouded me in silence, I selected the "monster mix" of Faithless' Insomnia, and I was transported. I saw some weird things in my head for those minutes, but I was connected. And it's that feeling I strive for, especially as that mix has a massive build to the drop, I had very few hairs back then, but all of them stood up, and the shiver went right to my core. That's what makes it for me. Some songs stir emotion, Flyleaf -Cassie for example, if you know the back story, then watch the acoustic version, what happens when the line "will say yes" comes up? That's the moment for me. If you don't know, go look it up, outline is Oklahoma shooting, faith and religion, and consequences. And finding the rightful subject of the song, apparently Rachel.
Evanescence - My Immortal is a song I will not listen to. The original version with no Hollywood dual guitars over the end. Just Amy Lee, a piano, maybe some strings, and loss. It's a beautiful song.
But, what I want to get you to experience today, is just how a song and video put together right, will just give you that small twinge, like something just happened there. I can't say it's my general genre of music, like MC Frontalot mixed with a eletronica/dance thing, but I like it. I REALLY like it. It is Twenty One Pilots' song Car Radio. Hang on, I'll give you the link, but first, find somewhere and when you won't be distracted for 4 minutes. Find as big a screen as you can, you want to immerse yourself in the video. Sit close, your eyes will take it. Headphones. Good ones, you like music, you will have good headphones. They need bass and treble. Now, listen to the words, maybe pull up a lyric video if you watch a 2nd time, understand the metaphor of the car radio, it's a simple and base as we are. Enjoy these minutes. I sincerely hope the one moment in the song stirs something for you like it does me. It makes me want to do. And it makes me think. Twenty One Pilots - Car Radio. go.

A Flash flood of hammers to your face.

The more I listen to Enter Shikari's A Flash Flood of Colour, the more I appreciate the technical side of their music. Fusing all those genres together to make their own sound, piecing the sections together and stitching them in such a way as for maximum effect. The more I listen the more I love the placement of the the breaks, and bass sections. Wrap this all up with their aggressive (mostly) tone, and often political lyrics, the album has a general overtone of making the world a better place, a bigger society, picking out faults with the world and laying them bare. But it comes at you like a frickin' freight train, it's big, it's loud, and it's in your ears, you must listen, and hear. You will feel the music, you will react, it's not like you have an option. If the beat and power don't get you, I promise you a lyric in there some will get in your head. The first few tracks all have at least one line that you will think twice over. You may not like the sound, but you've got to admit they do what they do, very very well. And you should like the sound, sometimes as a species, the human race needs something to jump up and punch them between the eyes, just to wake us up. You did think this through, didn't you boys? ;-)

Hurt

Hurt is a song by Nine Inch Nails (NIN) NOT Johnny Cash. Cash's version is amazing, powerful stuff, but it was not his song. It narks me that people never know this, Trent Reznor doesn't get half the credit he deserves sometimes.
That said, I love the Cash version too. I am, not entirely secretly, a big Cash fan, ever since my dad played an old album back when I was 10 in my Granma's back garden. (I heard some stuff that even to this day I like in that garden. Practically none of which the world knows I would happily listen to.) Anyways, the Cash version is great, and was a great way to sign off. I challenge any of you to listen (and by that I mean, actually sit down, take time out from every thing to LISTEN to the song and ignore everything else - Headphones will help) and not be moved in any way. If you are living, this is impossible. Anyways, I always thought Reznor hated Cash doing his song, but the point of this was post was that today, I came across this gem...

When Rick Rubin (Producer) asked if Cash could cover his song, Reznor said he was "flattered" but worried that "the idea sounded a bit gimmicky." He became a fan of Cash's version, however, once he saw the music video.
"I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore… It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning — different, but every bit as pure."

That, is pretty much what I aim to say in this blog over time, it's about, the music, the power of music, the feelings that get attached to it. All off that.

(by the way, I have an awesome Rock covers list on Media Player, once it's a bit fuller, I will post it here, there are some real gems on there, and some quite prolific coverers, some quite unexpected.) For now though, you should all go listen to Hurt, try not to cry, then proceed however you feel you should with your day.

Morning View

So, this morning I decided to have a walk to the shops, which means...the mp3 player, and today, Incubus - Morning View. Now, I am biased, I love Incubus, that's why they're on my mp3 player, they are one of the very few bands who've changed their sound and progressed and grown as a band with every album and I still like each sound (One of the others being Silverchair.) Even A Crow Left of the Murder, which is my least favoured album, when played I still love a number of tracks (talk show on mute, pistola are two that spring to mind alongside the obvious megalomaniac.) So, Morning View...perfect album for just relaxing and enjoying music. There's bits to get you going, and bits to lull you into comfort whatever you're doing. The mixing, mastering and production of the album is great, I love the panning of the guitar on the opening tracks, especially when you get Mike Einziger's guitar in your left ear, and the delay effect panning to your right. Also, as a note, Einziger's guitar sound is always distinctive, at some points sounding like he's got his muffled distorted sound and an acoustic sound at the same time. The fact you can pick out the guitar at all times without it just being noise shows just how good the production is, and without it, the album would've sounded just like a noisey mess.
It picks up with Nice to Know You, the guitar riff sending life through your ears ito your brain, with Brandon Boyd's background cry of Hey, kick-starting me at least into movement. Circles keeps you going, then Wish You Were Here provides a melodic chorus that you'll find yourself struggling not to sing along to. After that, one of my personal favourite Incubus tracks, Just a Phase. With it's slow build, Kilmore's DJ skills bring in a backing track scratched to perfection, Einziger's guitar and Boyd's use of his voice in oos and ahhs to build up the song into the first verse, the song builds and builds to a release on a chorus and they release everything at it yet still holding the clarity and tone of the whole song.
Other highlights Include Blood on the Ground. (I just love some of the lyrics)
Mexico slows the whole thing down for a few minutes for an acoustic warning to selfishness.
Warning is my other favourite track. Just listen to it. It's great. lol.
Are you in is the track released as a single in the UK and got a fair amount of radio play from my recollection. A chilled, jass room, swing, social evening type song.
and the album ends with Aqueous Transmissions. The mandolin only adds to the imagery in the lyrics, and if you close your eyes lean back and don't imagine you're lying on your back in the sun, floating down a river then you are dead inside!

I love this album. :)