Die nächste Woche wird super – nach zwei Tagen Arbeit, gehts am Mittwoch beruflich nach Köln zum Dreh für einen neuen Trailer, Mittwoch Abend dann aufs Billy Talent Konzert in München und Donnerstag Früh gehts dann für drei Tage zum Shoppen und Sightseeing nach Stockholm.
Berichte und Fotos folgen nächste Woche.

Als ich gerade durch die Stadt lief und mich nach dem Kauf eines 2,99-Euro-Buches auf die Stufen am Marktplatz setzte, fingen zwei Straßenmusiker an zu spielen. Der eine mit Klarinette, der andere mit Gitarre. Nichts künstlerisch Wertvolles, wer jetzt sonstewas erwartet, aber vollkommen ausreichend.

Von oben konnte ich die Situation schön betrachten. Es war reges Getümmel auf dem Platz. Einzelne Menschen, Familien mit Kindern, Familien (Paare) ohne Kinder, Kinder pur, Freunde, Arbeiter. Menschen. Die Musik gefiel mir. Swingige Dudelmusik. Nun aber lautete der Titel meines neu gekauften Buches “I Did It My Way”. Und was spielen die zwei betagten und begabten Herren? “My Way” von “Old Blue Eyes” Franky Sinatra. Ein Klassiker, den jeder Straßenmusiker drauf hat. Ist so. Und das Buch habe ich gewählt, weil es die wahre Geschichte eines Mannes im New York der fünfziger Jahre erzählt. Sowas mag ich. In meinen Augen ist das alles sicherlich ein Zufall, aber ohne weitere Bedeutung. Außer der, dass der Zufall so erstaunlich sein kann, dass es nicht verwundert, wenn “leichtgläubige” Menschen dann an “mehr” denken. Wobei es keine Herabwürigung bedeuten soll, wenn ich von “leichtgläubig” spreche. Denn Assoziationsfähigkeit, Fantasie, ein Bedürfnis nach Geborgenheit und Egoismus sitzen in jedem von uns. Egoismus deshalb, weil der Glaube an Bestimmung oder Schicksal, eingeleitet oder ausgeführt von so vielen unabhängigen Faktoren, voraussetzt, dass man sich selbst als Ziel dessen versteht. Alle Personen würden also letztlich dem Plan folgen, der nur im Kopf eines Einzelnen zum Erfolg führt. Ein Ziel gibt es dabei aber nicht. Es ist das zwangsläufige Zusammentreffen eines Repertoirs an Erfahrungen, Handlungen, Wissen und Menschen, die, im selben Kulturkreis, sehr ähnliche Repertoires besitzen. Warum Geborgenheit? Weil Geborgenheit sich schon dadurch ergibt, dass man weiß, dass jemand an einen denkt. Der Gedanke, eine übermenschliche Kraft hätte diesen Moment, diese Gedanken geschaffen, um quasi “hey du da” zu sagen, lässt im simplen Mensch schon so etwas wie Geborgenheit aufkommen. Kommt rüber, was ich sagen will?

Die Musiker spielten noch ein bisschen. Die Menschen gingen an ihnen vorüber. Manche lauschten kurz, andere unterhielten sich (direkt oder mit Handy), einige hörten nichts von der Musik, sondern lieber Billy Talent. Wenige blieben stehen oder sitzen. Dann setzte der Regen ein und hörte nach einer Minute auch schon wieder auf. Aber den zwei Musikern war das Zeichen genug, die Koffer zu packen. Mir dann auch. Ist das Leben nicht wundervoll!? Ja!

..man merkt wirlich, dass ich einfach kein Gewohnheitsmensch bin. Ich bin noch nicht mal im Stande regelmäßig zu posten, ganz davon abgesehen etwas Sinnvolles zu posten

Zurzeit geht in der Schule wieder alles drunter und drüber und die Französisch Arbeit hab ich leider in den Sand gesetzt :/ Manchmal hab ich einfach keine Lust mehr, wenn nie was Gutes rauskommt obwohl man sich den Arsch aufreißt! Aber naja, NUR (Achtung Ironie!!) noch 3 Jahre bis zum Studium Bis dahin Augen zu und durch!

In der Zwischenzeit freu ich mich aufs Jennifer Rostock Konzert am 22.11. und aufs Billy Talent Konzert am 29.11. Tokio Hotel lassen ja leider noch über 4 Monate auf sich warten!

Acum ceva vreme, l-a troznit pe colegu’ o idee, şi a postat un playlist de 10 piese calmante. Am zis că de ce să nu vă incânt şi eu cu 10 piese din lista mea de preferinţe, şi astfel să continui tradiţia “Chillout Sessions”.

Sper să vă placă piesele alese, majoritatea sunt piese pe care le-am mai ascultat în ultimele zile, destul de stresante, aş putea zice. Audiţie plăcută!

1. Jason Mraz – You and I Both

2. Goo Goo Dolls – Iris

3. Bob Marley – Top Rankin’ (da… ascult Bob Marley)

4. Coldplay – Yellow

5. Billy Talent – Surrender

6. Deep Blue Something – Breakfast at Tiffany’s

7. Eric Clapton – Layla (unplugged)

8. Reamonn – Supergirl

9. Incubus – Love Hurts

10. Jonathan Rhys Meyers – This Time (August Rush)

Of the gigs from my birthday weekend, there were two I was really looking forward to: Black Stone Cherry was the first, and I’m still gutted that I had to miss it. I did get a second chance with the other gig, though.

The Billy Talent gig at Leeds O2 Academy was rescheduled, to this Monday night just gone. So, after a first day back at work getting back into the swing of things, I rushed off, met Matt and Ceri in town, and trundled off up the motorway.

Matt’s navigating (even with the help of my iPhone’s Maps app) proved a little… interesting… to say the least, and after some creative guess work by me, we found a parking spot. Which was nowhere near where we were going, so there then ensued a brisk walk in the cold night air. Before I realised we were going in totally the opposite direction to what we should’ve been, and ordered an about-turn. Ten minutes later, after discovering that at one point we had been on the right road, heading in the right direction in the car, we found the Academy.

Inside, Canterbury were already in full swing, and we caught the end of their set as we grabbed drinks at the bar under the balcony. Though sounding quite young, Canterbury were a good opener. They disappeared, and we took the opportunity to check out the Merch stall, picking out which tee-shirts we were interested in.

Cancer Bats were next up, more my kind of music with lots of screaming, grunting, and heavy riffs. I was in my element, though Ceri looked a little nonplussed.

Cancer Bats left the stage, and we all shuffled forward a bit, to get just a little closer to the action. We didn’t go too far into the melee, the mosh pit had been looking like a meat-grinder during Cancer Bats’ set, so I wasn’t going to risk it. Ok, I’m a wuss at times.

Finally, the lights went down, and Billy Talent took to the stage. They rocked. Ben bounced around the stage like a man possessed. Jon and Ian framed him like towers of power riffs and chugging bass. And Aaron finished the quartet off from his perch at the kit, unable to keep the smile from his face at times when the crowd joined in with Ben and Ian’s vocals.

I can genuinely say it was the best show I’ve ever seen. Each song brought more crowd participation than the one before (I admit, I was singing my throat hoarse on the songs I knew) and it was an amazing atmosphere. Ben was slightly confused when the crowd started chanting “Yorkshire!” (customary for Yorkshire based fans at home gigs) and at first thought we were saying York-shit until Ian whispered something in his ear, and Jon pointed out that Yorkshire is a county, not a town. Ah well, he’ll learn.

It was a brilliant night, and they left the stage all too soon, after the closer of Red Flag. We shuffled to the Merch stall again, and I bought the Billy Talent tour tee-shirt, the album shirt, and a Cancer Bats shirt as well. Matt had a tee-shirt too, then we shuffled through Leeds to find an open McDs for energy food, and then home and in bed by half past midnight.

So the birthday wasn’t a total disaster, after all.

Billy Talent have been playing the UK relentlessly, it seems, for most of 2009 so it’s forgivable that while the floor was a seething mess of humans, the balcony area was barely populated and while it provided an unhampered view, the energy remained below and so for the most part, it was if you could have been watching the B.T DVD filmed there in 2007.

If one thing remains constant with the band it’s that they are a whirling dervish of enviable energy. It’s a Sunday night and it’s getting chilly, but inside the Academy, the four members of the award-winning Canadian band are working up a dripping sweat, frothing their loyal fans into a seething mass of waving arms and screaming.  Frontman Benjamin Kowalewicz knows what his fans (and assorted pit photographers) are after. In between songs are some sarky, knowing asides that amuse and put the audience in their place in equal measure, but it’s his galloping, unstoppable dancing and posing on the monitors that keep eyes firmly pinned on his slight frame.

The band’s sound, with Kowalewicz’s vocal not once lost under the barrage of guitar solos and vibrant percussion, is as crisp as its ever been, no mean feat in a venue that has a sneaky habit of mangling a thunderous rock band into a murky pile of grumbling, tired riffs. Billy Talent, for the novice, could be defined by their hits ‘Try Honesty’ and compilation favourite ‘Red Flag’ but, during this 15-song plus set, it’s somewhat a surprise at how many impressive songs they’ve cooked up in their seven year history.

Equally at home on agonised yelps or a pleasingly twisted grasp on eyeliner smeared pop, Billy Talent use crowd pleasers like ‘Rusted From The Rain’, ‘Devil In A Midnight Mass’ and ‘This Is How It Goes’ to demonstrate that having a lead singer with such a distinctive voice doesn’t mean getting stuck in a rut, a lesson to the likes of Anthony Keidis. Their light show proved the only low point; flooding the audience with spotlights or plunging the room into a deep-sea blue that constantly jarred against the snappy, nimble performance.

While Billy Talent remain somewhat of an acquired taste in the States, their homeland and Europe have clearly made up the numbers and despite their latest offering being unimaginitively titled ‘Billy Talent III’ (post Billy Talent and Billy Talent II), they are remarkable showmen for a band that favour a simple approach rather than gimmicks or fanfare.

I want to list a few of the recent albums that have been sending music into my airways lately.

• Creed’s new album isn’t bad, though it does trail off into “old” creed habits of light rock near the end.
• Billy Talent 3 – A good local act that while they may not please everyone, they certainly provide the typical punk rock fix for many
• Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown – An instant classic.
• Ten Second Epic – Another indie act, but has some potential.
• Lights – Local, good, buy it.

That covers most of what i’ve been listening to lately, however, I haven’t had as much time as I would have liked to check out all of the new releases lately.  I’ll post more later on if I can think of any worth mentioning.

What is your favourite type of music? Do you have any bands worth mentioning that you can’t live without, perhaps that may not be very well heard of?  Let us know below!

Some appreciation for the first Billy Talent album, The newest Album, Billy Talent lll, shows off their more mature and slower side so I guess this album should show them off at their most immature and punk. It is quite an accesible album and it’s easy to see why they have legions of fans who are under the age of 18 but that doesn’t mean it is a bad album, far from it.

They are pretty amazing live as well so if you ever get the chance to see them definitely do it, but just make sure you don’t get too drunk and get confused as to why there are so many little kids around.

Best song is probably the opener, This Is How It Goes

The full album can be found on Spotify

And music. It’s great.

And I just bought floor tickets to Billy Talent with Against Me and Alexisonfire. I don’t really like Alexisonfire but I like Billy Talent enough to go see them.

I went to two concerts in September. Marilyn Manson, which was only an hour and a half. And MSTRKRFT/Steve Aoki/Small Town DJs which was SIX HOURS LONG. Holy sheesh.

I want to buy a loop pedal so I can actually get back into guitar again. My amp and guitar are gorgey and I shall post pictures sometime.

Every Billy Talent fans should get tickets for a show of them, really. I’ve seen them 3 times, live, and 1 thing I remember, is that it was so *&?! awesome. For people from Quebec, the bad thing is that it will be presented at Bell Centre, with an average price of $90CND each tickets… which is kinda high.. as I paid about 50-60 bucks for the past shows(that weren’t in the Bell Centre).

The tour will be ran with two other very good groups. One that you guys probably know, Alex is on fire, and another great band Against Me!. Hoping to see you there, have fun!

Don’t worry, not the full tour, only the first two dates.

the official statement says:

“We regret to inform you that the first two UK shows will be postponed due to a band member being ill, the UK tour will now commence on Wednesday, October 21 at the Sheffield Academy.The Leeds and Nottingham shows will be rescheduled for a later date, Stay tuned for further details. We apologize to our fans and hope to see you again soon.”

Billy Talent
Poison the Well
The Paradise Rock Club, Boston
October 9th 2009

The Paradise Rock Club in Boston isn’t the city’s flashiest venue, and Billy Talent certainly isn’t one of the city’s best known bands, but when the two came together on a rainy October night, the results were anything but shabby. The Canadian quartet, along with South Florida’s Poison the Well, put on the type of show that delighted and damaged the hearing of those who packed the grungy club.

The show began with a set from AM Taxi, which I unfortunately did not witness (there was a Qdoba next door…). When we did make our way into the venue, we didn’t have to wait long for Poison the Well to take the stage. While I may not be a huge fan of the entire metalcore genre, witnessing them play was an enlightening experience. The band simply killed it. They performed a set that was that was insanely fast, ridiculously technical, and epically loud.

While many in the crowd (including myself) were unfamiliar with the veteran quartet, lead singer Jefferey Moriera displayed the type of stage presence that kept the audience completely absorbed throughout their 40 minutes on stage. Moriera mixed gruff screams and howls along with melodic choruses, while the rest of the band deftly sprinkled atmospheric elements in with their hardcore shredding. It served as the perfect warm up for Billy Talent’s headlining set.

Lead singer Ben Kowalewicz led the chart topping Canadian act on stage and they immediately burst into a rousing rendition of “Devil in a Midnight Mass.” Despite the over zealous security and “no moshing” rules at the Paradise, it was obvious from the start this show would be anything but tame.

The crowd surged towards the stage and shouted along throughout the set, and the band used this energy to their advantage. Kowalewicz spent most of the show at the foot of the stage, going face to face with those in the first few rows. With eyes wide and veins bulging, the dynamic front man alternated between melodic singing on tracks such as “Surrender” and frenzied screams on crowd favorites such as “Line and Sinker.” 

Between songs, Kowalewicz ran through the normal Billy Talent banter, most of it revolving around sports. He praised Boston for its successful teams, and declared his hatred for the Yankees.  Kowalewicz also made note of the large student population surrounding the club, joking that a group of  well dressed college girls had thrown change at him earlier in the day thinking he was a bum.

The musical portion of the set included an even mix of tracks from the band’s three full lengths. Songs from the recently released Billy Talent III sounded great and received a nice reaction from the crowd, but they couldn’t match the intensity of more familiar songs such as “The Ex” or “Try Honesty,” which closed the set.

The band would return for an encore consisting of “Fallen Leaves” and “Red Flag,” both from 2006’s Billy Talent II. The crowd filed out of the club more than satisfied with what they had witnessed, and looking forward to a promised return engagement in 2010. The group certainly seemed to enjoy their stop at the intimate venue, especially considering many of their shows in Canada take place in monstrous arenas that set fans far back from the stage. In fact, the band had announced an enormous 2010 Canadian arena tour with support from Alexisonfire and Against Me! earlier in the day.

While they might not be playing arenas in the states any time soon, Billy Talent is quietly building a dedicated fan base on the strength of their stellar live shows. High profile opening slots for bands such as Thursday, Rise Against, and Rancid have helped, but the quartet has proven that they can hold their own as headliners in any setting.

Set list (probably not exact)
Devil in a Midnight Mass
This Suffering
Line and Sinker
Rusted for the Rain
Saint Veronika
Surrender
Diamond on a Landmine
River Below
The Dead Can’t Testify
The Ex
Devil on my Shoulder
Turn Your Back
Try Honesty

Fallen Leaves
Red Flag

Billy Talent – Devil on my Shoulder

so for anyone whose been wondering what i’ve been up to recently this is it.. shooting concerts has somehow turned into my main job (and way to pay the bills) this seems a little odd to me but i’m not complaining.. below are shots from billy talent, U2, Moby, Katy Perry, Jason Mraz and Beyonce;

Happy Thanksgiving all!  I didn’t really do anything to celebrate this day/weekend of thanks and turkey.  I was invited to Jeromy’s house for dinner Sunday night, and was going to go, but then a few more people were added to the mix and I didn’t really feel like trying to be social with a bunch of people, well, all of whom I’ve met, but don’t really know very well or socialize all that well with the few times I’ve hung out with them.  Plus Amy tends to ignore me in situations like this.  She actually seemed really sad that I wasn’t coming (I may have said I wasn’t feeling so well, which actually wasn’t all that untrue, but I could have handled it under different circumstances) and tried to convince me, but I just wasn’t digging it enough.  Thanksgiving has never been all that important to me anyhow, and I did not mind at all eating alone.  I roasted a chicken and veggies on Saturday night, so I had leftovers from that + cranberry sauce = pretend turkey dinner!  I also made coffee cake, and these chicken, cranberry, brie turnovers that I was going to bring to the dinner if I went, so I felt fairly festive (alliteration!).  Am I pathetic?  We’ll go with no.

I was actually going to go out Friday night and be all social (at a scary bar/club, no less!), but Emily fell rather ill with what the doctors initially feared was swine flu, but turned to just be pneumonia or something lame like that (actually she was really crazy sick, but she’s starting to feel a bit better so it’s all good).  Ah well.  Our time will come.

So now that Thanksgiving is over and done with, bring on the Halloween candy!!  I resisted for a little while, but it got the best of me today.  I also remembered that it’s Monday, not Sunday, so there’s lots of fabulous tv on tonight! Plus 4 day work week yes please.

Just found out that Billy Talent announced their Canadian tour for the spring, and went crazy for a while trying to figure out what I was going to do since there is a Victoria and Calgary date, but March is so far away, yet tickets go on sale tomorrow (again, I’m writing this Monday) so I’d have to decide fast.  Plus Victoria is March 3, and I was planning on coming home in Feb to see Tammy, and it’s a Wednesday which is a sucky day in the middle of the week…but then I discovered that tomorrow is actually the presale day for website members only, and if you get your tickets through this presale, you actually get let into the venue 15 minutes earlier than everyone else so you have a better shot at getting all nice and squished up at the front (which is definitely what I want, I so desperately wished I was up in the crowd all through the Virgin fest show), plus Alyssa is in Vic…plus they’re playing with Against Me and Alexisonfire which is rad…so yeah I’m getting tickets for that for sure.  I’ll make it work, definitely with the Tammy visit.  I was thinking about it in terms of taking time off work at first, but really, I should get a new job by then, I was planning on staying at Good Earth til Christmas, and then seeing what happens after, and there will be travelling anyways over the spring and summer, so everything will be worked out some way or another.  I emailed Emily about the Calgary show too, so if she gets back to me soon, I may just go to both shows, which would be fine by me, but at least the Vic one is a for sure.  Suuuuper excited about that one.

Trevor recently wrote about his top five influences for the album, which included the Foo Fighters, Muse, Led Zeppelin, Stone Temple Pilots and Billy Talent. From a musical standpoint, I think these influences come in incredibly clear and Trevor has done a great job at taking these varied sounds and styles and combining them to make our own brand of pop rock.

Now I’m going to talk about my influences for vocal stylings and lyrics. I keep a pen and paper with me at all times because lines just pop into my head throughout the day. I keep a blank TextEdit file on my Mac that is filled with these lines, as well as passages from books that inspire me, notes and lyrics from other artists. A lot of times, I will even end up quoting these other artists in my songs (“this ink will grant me my revenge” is a reference to the Juliet Simms song “Black Ink Revenge;” “they say obsession never lasts” is a response to Bayside’s “don’t confuse neediness for love, because obsession never lasts” from the song “Carry On”). As Trevor mentioned, this blog will inevitably show the sharp contrast between our tastes, which has ultimately become our strongest feature as a band. So here they are, my top five influences for Blind:

Schoolyard Heroes- The fierceness of Ryann Donnelly’s vocals are unmatched. She can sing soft and sultry and then switch on a dime to shrill opera or screaming, without losing an ounce of her power. Ryann and the rest of the Heroes are inspired by horror movies, so her words tend to center around death, zombies, dismemberment and a lot of blood and guts. While I don’t write about these things, I try to channel Ryann every now and then, both on stage (where do you think the dress and Converse sneakers idea came from?) and in my words and vocal stylings. The most obvious Ryann influence are in the songs “Come Around” (which I re-wrote with Ryann in mind) and “Nowhere to Go,” where I have darker lyrics and a chorus of my own “ah”s singing behind me in the bridge.

Automatic Loveletter- Automatic Loveletter is the newest addition to my list of favorite bands. While I really didn’t like them the first time I heard them (which was live, opening for Secondhand Serenade), something about  Juliet Simms’ acoustic performance of “Makeup Smeared Eyes” struck me and I downloaded it when I got home. I was instantly hooked. Juliet’s voice is so different from everyone else’s and I love that she’s not afraid of hitting some less-than-pretty notes. Her raspy tone brings emotion to her already incredible lyrics, which, like mine, center mostly around destroyed relationships. Juliet works a lot with internal rhyming (like “pictures inspire and songs never tire” in the song “Parker”), which is something I picked up, like in the verses of “Bleed” (“the light fades now, as you allow/ the night to die with no reply”). Vocally, Juliet taught me to be less afraid of using scoops and writing higher melodies.

My Chemical Romance- Like Schoolyard Heroes, My Chemical Romance is a very theatrical, over-the-top band. Their first two albums, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love and Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, are absolutely loaded with metaphors involving murder, vampires, ghosts and, of course, violence and revenge. Gerard Way’s dark and powerful lyrics are complemented perfectly by his shrieking and growling vocals. The most obvious MCR influences come through with the beginning scream and references to bats, murder scenes and sharpened teeth on “Nowhere to Go,” as well as the hospital scene in “Away from Here.”

Emery- Emery is one of the most underrated bands around today. They are extremely versatile and unafraid to experiment with different sounds, which is something I greatly respect. This band truly shines with their vocals and lyrics, however. The three vocalists, singers Toby Morrell and Devin Shelton and screamer Josh Head create complex and melodic parts that bring a new dimension to their post-hardcore rock. I especially love when Toby and Devin sing different melodies and different lyrics at the same time. I don’t think I borrowed anything directly from Emery’s lyrics, but it’s bands like them that make me re-write songs two or three times before I’m satisfied…they just set the bar that high.

Taking Back Sunday- TBS’ “Tell All Your Friends” is a staple for any pop punk fan. The lyrics are full of biting, hateful (yet incredibly clever and quotable) lines. This is another band that has set the bar high for lyrical content and Adam Lazzara’s vocals are youthful yet powerful and truly bring life to the words.

I hope you guys will enjoy the vocals and lyrics on this album…and I strongly suggest that you check out all the bands I listed (click on their name to go to their MySpace!). Feel free to comment with any questions about the writing process, we’d love to talk more about it!

♥ Rebecca

After months and months of hard work slaving away as a producer, I finally get to come out and talk a bit about the music! If you didn’t know, one of the things that gives us our unique sound is the fact that we all listen to such drastically different things. As far as writing goes, Rebecca tends to write the lyrics while I come up with a good deal of the music and arrangements. These five bands are not only some of my favorites, but probably the five that you can hear the most of on the album:

Foo Fighters- In my opinion, the Foo Fighters are pretty much the center of modern pop rock. On top of releasing six major albums and winning a bunch of Grammys, I feel like they are one of those bands that has influenced a large percentage of modern bands, even if they don’t realize it. At first, they did seem like the expected off-shoot of Nirvana, but over time, they developed into their own, and took that grunge sound in a more refined, poppy direction. They were the first band that I really got into that wasn’t loud for the sake of being loud; they taught me that the melody is what is most important. Even since I heard “There Is Nothing Left To Lose” in 1999, they have been one of my favorite bands…so it makes sense that they’d be a big influence on my writing.

Stone Temple Pilots- Very possibly my favorite band. When I was a little kid, I used to wake up on Saturday mornings with my dad blasting “Core” throughout the house. The songs themselves are all great, but the big influence comes from my favorite guitarist: Dean DeLeo. His playing is very unique, and a lot of times, the sounds he uses are as much of what makes it good as the notes. I used a lot of STPesque sounds and jangly chords on the album, most notably in the song “Obsession”, as well as some very DeLeo inspired parts laid in from time to time, like the second guitar part in the bridge of “Bleed”.

Led Zeppelin- There would be no Stone Temple Pilots (or most rock bands after 1969) without Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page is a guitar god, as well as arguably the greatest producer of all time. His playing, his guitar tones, and everything he ever did in the studio influenced this album both directly and indirectly. But it was more than Page; Zeppelin is about as good of a band as there has ever been. They may not have been the tightest, most precise band in history, but they had a groove that only those four could have created. They also taught me that you didn’t need to be loud and fast to be heavy. It was about attitude. It was a discussion of the song “Achilles Last Stand” before the practice we first played “Hold On” that turned it into one of our favorite songs on this album; even though we didn’t notice the influence for a few weeks after that.

Muse- I liked Muse when I heard “Time Is Running Out” and “Hysteria”, but I didn’t realize they were really something special until I heard “Supermassive Black Hole”. The video for “Knights of Cydonia” really pushed them over the edge as one of my favorite bands, and later that year I was astounded when I saw them live at Madison Square Garden. They are able to be so big, and so epic while not losing the drive and aggression of the three-piece rock band that they are. Matt Bellamy is one of the only truly great musicians out there today. He takes inspiration from Tom Morello and Jimi Hendrix, and then combines it with the grandness of Queen without losing the edge. Without Muse, I’m not sure if we would have been willing to push songs like “Blind” as far as we did. The Muse-inspired “Hold On” also helped us break out of the 4-chord pop rock templates we were working in before and push the envelope a little more.

Billy Talent-One of the few artists that Rebecca and I both listen to. I saw them at the World Ski and Snowboard Festival at Whistler in 2003, and really thought nothing of the two-song demo I was handed. I liked those two songs (“Living in the Shadows” and “Prisoners of Today”), but never went on to listen to the band beyond that. When I went to orientation at Northeastern, the a booth for the campus radio station gave me a copy of Billy Talent II and was hooked as soon as I turned on “Devil in a Midnight Mass”. There is some pretty clear Billy Talent influence in certain songs (and of course their two vocalists), but in general I think we were trying to go for their type of clean, yet heavy power. And I’m sure I’ll only hear more Billy Talent come through as I hear the finished version of our album, because while recording, I was listening to them more than anyone else.

There are certainly other major influences (The Beatles, Queens of the Stone Age, The Hives etc.), but none had quite the same impact. I think we’ve done a good job at blending the old and the new, and I hope that you guys like what we put out there!

Been there twice this week for shows, first one Tuesday to see In Flames play with the Between the buried and me, also 3 Inchs of blood. Wonderful show at the Fox Theater yet Anders of In Flames didn’t seem to feel the crowd very well, it was unfortunate but I still loved it, moshed to my favorite song too, ‘Clayman’.

Second, which was tonight, was to see Billy Talent and Poison the Well at the Glass House which was AMAZING show, first time seeing Billy Talent and it was so worth it.

Now I’m thinking of the KMFDM show next month then the Mastadon/Dethklok concert in November, I hope I can go!

-Spooky McGee

Here are this week’s new music releases:

Alice Donut – Ten Glorous Animals
Basement Jaxx – Scars
The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love
Billy Talent – Billy Talent III
Black Tape for a Blue Girl – 10 Neurotics
Brand New – Daisy
Brother Ali – Us
Chynna & Vaughan – One Reason
Guy Clark – Somedays the Song Writes You
Harry Connick Jr. – Your Songs
David Crowder*Band – Church Music
Alan Cumming – I Bought a Blue Car Today
Deadmau5 – For the Lack of a Better Name
Diamond Rio – The Reason
Orla Fallon – Distant Shore
Five Finger Death Punch – War is the Answer
Flying Machines – Flying Machines
Lisa Germano – Magic Neighbor
Girls – Album
David Gray – Draw the Line
Richard Hawley – Truelove’s Gutter
Andrew Hoover – Chances Stances & Romances
Reagan Hudson – The Boar Hog Twist
Islands – Vapours
Joshua James – Build Me This
Janus – Red Right Return
Sean Kingston – Tomorrow
ksm – Read Between the Lines
Larry the Cable Guy – Tailgate Party
Los Lobos – Los Lobos Goes Disney [Amazon exclusive]
Mae – (M)orning
Matt Maher – Alive Again
Mika – The Boy Who Knew Too Much
Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk
Monty Are I – Break Through the Silence
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Speed of Life
Noisettes – Wild Young Hearts
Pillar – Confessions
Rain Machine – Rain Machine
Rescue Signals – Indecisions
Sea Wolf – White Water, White Bloom
Jon Secada – Expressions
Skindred – Shark Bites and Dog Fights
Sonata Arctica – The Days of Grays
Spiral Beach – The Only Really Thing
Jeffree Star – Beauty Killer
Adam Steffey – One More for the Road
Angel Taylor – Love Travels
Three Days Grace – Life Starts Now
J. Tillman – Year in the Kingdom
Times New Viking -Born Again Revisited
Vertical Horizon – Burning the Days
Wallpaper – Doodoo Face