Orgasm In Journal Form-A James Thread

[Gavin B.]

That Pig Destroyer gave me a grand mal seizure. My lawyers will be contacting your lawyers. LOL

[jackhammer]

I would never had you down as a Pig Destroyer fan but the fact that you noticed the lack of Bass guitar and still got into it suggests someone who appreciates music on many levels however it reaches our ears. Good stuff.

I would be interested to hear what you think of this album:
Altered States of America - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[James]

Originally Posted by Gavin B.

That Pig Destroyer gave me a grand mal seizure. My lawyers will be contacting your lawyers. LOL

, I'll see you in court.

Originally Posted by jackhammer

I would never had you down as a Pig Destroyer fan but the fact that you noticed the lack of Bass guitar and still got into it suggests someone who appreciates music on many levels however it reaches our ears. Good stuff.

I would be interested to hear what you think of this album:
Altered States of America - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks, that really means a lot. And 100 tracks? Jesus, I'll check that out.

[James]

A Few Underrated Gems Of 2010

I originally was planning to do separate reviews of some underrated albums, but after writing a review I accidently deleted it. It's getting late and I don't want to retype the review so instead I'll do a roundup of the albums, like in my last entry. I apoligise for my laziness and may look like a lazy journal writer, but I really want to move on and do more reviews so I want this over with.

2010 in my opinion has been the best year I have ever came across in music. So many fascinating albums have been released this year and being around to hear the albums as they are released has been amazing. A lot of the albums I've heard this year haven't got enough love in end of year lists, and have been awarded by me as hidden gems of 2010.

Forest Swords are a band I very seldom see mentioned and I can't for the life of me figure out why. Their debut album Dagger Paths was released in february and it's one of those rare album that are near impossible to pin down genrewise. The album goes from sprawling, heavy, straight up Psych Rock songs with droning guitars to lovely, folky songs with perfect pop melodies. You can tell the guy has excellent music taste just by listening to the album and combining all these tracks together creates an absolute work of genius in my eyes. The guys vocals are brilliant and near perfect to the music, really staunch and reminiscent of a foggy night. Miarches the opener is my favourite, gorgeous song that I can;t understand any hate for.

Sean McCann is another musician who is very underrated. His album Open Resolve is one of many albums he released this year and it still manages to inspire more awe than most artists who released one. The music is so incredibly layered and complicated it's hard to believe the guy is so obscure. Pass Away may not be the best song of the year but it's certainly the most epic and the most fascinating. Sean McCann has been called the new Sun Ra and I would say it's an apt comparison as both had a certain mystique to their work.

[Gavin B.]

In addition to the Dagger Paths ep, the Forest Swords released Rattling Cage which is a 2 song single released in June. One of the reasons the Swords are under the radar is they've only recorded the five song Dagger Paths e.p. and a few impressive singles on an obscure NYC based indie label. I'm embedding the single Rattling Cage to give your readers an idea of what the Forest Swords sound like. The chiming of the synthesizer near the beginning of the song, reminds me of the sound of those xylophone type instruments used to play Balinese gemelan music.



I know very little about Forest Swords but they have a great studio sound. I'm not even sure if there's one or two lead guitarists in the band. It could be the same guy playing double tracked leads. The guitars leads have the kind of reverb soaked, acid burned psychedelic sound that I've always loved. The is a bit of a traditional Celtic folk influence in some of the the guitar riffs.

I listen to a lot of music, and rare ones that sound unlike any of the other ones are the ones that really grab my attention.

[James]

Planning on getting this up and running again. I have had an abscence and would like to let my dear friends here know what I have been up to. I have been a bit of a slacker with this journal in the past but I plan to change that. Truthfully, I can't find much to post on the general forums right now, because of the vast amounts of new members that I am unfamiliar with. I plan on using this a lot to make me feel a bit more comfortable here again. In my abscence, I have been doing a lot of creative writing and it's became a bit of a hobby of mine. So I am now a lot more accomplished with my writing I think(and hope). So keep your eyes out for a good few posts in here for the foreseeable future. I'll try to throw some stuff together tonight.

[Bulldog]

Originally Posted by James

Planning on getting this up and running again. I have had an abscence and would like to let my dear friends here know what I have been up to. I have been a bit of a slacker with this journal in the past but I plan to change that. Truthfully, I can't find much to post on the general forums right now, because of the vast amounts of new members that I am unfamiliar with. I plan on using this a lot to make me feel a bit more comfortable here again. In my abscence, I have been doing a lot of creative writing and it's became a bit of a hobby of mine. So I am now a lot more accomplished with my writing I think(and hope). So keep your eyes out for a good few posts in here for the foreseeable future. I'll try to throw some stuff together tonight.

I'm basically in the same boat here...that and I've stopped caring as much as I once did. I like my journal though, so posting random crap in it still gives me kicks.

Looking forward to seeing what you've got lined up for this, Jim.

[James]

My Life In 2011

My last journal entry was a review of the hidden gems of 2010. Now, one year on I am once again looking back at the past year in music. I haven't listened to as much new releases as last year, mainly setting them aside to wallow in my music collection and revisit albums which I hadn't yet grown to love. Let's us start off with what this year was like for me.
At the end of 2010 I was the lowest of the low. I had lost all of my friends that year and I basically had nobody left. It was the worst stage of the loneliness that has plagued me for a while now and I was in a very dark place. If 2010 was the year where I burnt all my bridges, 2011 was the year I built more. Better bridges, like the previous bridges were ramshackle wooden bridges and the new ones are made of a strong corregated iron....I'll stop now, might be milking this metaphor a bit.
From the very beginning 2011 was a hell of a lot better. I was pleased with my prelim results, I got high for the first time and most of all I got a hell of a lot closer to a girl I knew and we soon became the inseperable, best friend types....I was invited to a st patricks day party where I got drunk for the first time, that was where I met my new friends. After a few meetups I was a fully fledged member of their group and I haven't looked back, my dark days were over - I was happy again.
Until I broke away the denial and realised me and the aforementioned girl were not friends. I liked her. I really liked her. I worked up the courage to tell her and everything f*cked up from there. She didn't feel the same, we drifted apart, she got a boyfriend, they broke up, we don't even acknowledge eachother anymore. Six months down the line I still feel the same. Everytime I try to get over it just comes back and hits me again, twice as hard as before. There was a moment when I satrted to like someone else, then she came out of the closet to me whilst drunk. So I decided against that and just about then me and the original girl had the first conversation in months and now I am as bad as ever.
Tagging my whole year with "unrequited love" would be an exaggeration. It was a large part of it but it's still been quite an amazing year, but with overviews I find it hard not to focus on the negatives. My dad got married, that was fun. But then my grandpa was dreadfully ill in hospital for a while. I turned sixteen, I can buy scratchcards but the idea of being an adult is terrifying. Thinking about time right now makes me head hurt at the moment. The fact is, in a year and a bit i'll be getting ready for university. It's like I am getting ready to be born again, there's a countdown and once it reaches the bottom I have to restart everything that I have achieved in the last six years. It feels as if I am goin back to the first day of primary school, not knowing anybody and suddenly expected to maintain all thse new responsibilities. I can get a job, I can get married, I can concieve a child. It's crazy. i still feel like a child myself.
Overall, 2011 has had it's ups and downs. It's been the best year of my life up until this point. I pray 2012 be even better.

The Soundtrack

2011 has been a strange year musicwise. It seems as the years go by the music scene gets more peculiar. It's like a huge melting pot of different styles, a giant pot of soup that is cooking. Constantly adding new ingredients and seasoning. As previously mentioned I have been unbelieanly out of the loop these past few months but before that I had kept up to date and I have been catching up this last week.

In terms of big music news we had The Stone Roses reunion. I was originally going to TITP too but decided not to go because of lack of funds. I will no doubt regret it when I hear next year about how the minds of thousands were blown by a phenomenal performance but until then I am not too bothered. Amy Winehouse passed away, I was never a fan but it was a tragic loss of a beautiful voice. It made me see what awful attitudes people had towards death when I heard the uproar after her passing. My facebook feed was flooded with horrible comments like "F*cking junkie scum deserved it" and "Just another drug addict of the streets". It says a lot for the respect people have for the artist's in the spotlight when human lives are being trivialised like that. In 2010 some of the greatest musicians of all time were taken from us - Mark Linkous, Alex Chilton, Jay Reatard. I feel sad whenever I hear about deaths but thankfully none of my favourite artists left us this year. Also Steps reformed and Westlife disbanded.

Me, when Westlife broke up

Me, when Steps got back together.

In terms of releases, this year has once again overwhelmed me with the eclectic masses of new music. A quick look at the Rate Your Music charts and the end of year lists on Pitchfork, Tiny Mix Tapes and The Quietus makes it clear that PJ Harvey's "Let England Shake" is an album that many publications consider a great achievement. I personally don't think it deserves to be considered the best album this year. It's enjoyable enough but if you observe Polly Jean's previous albums and how they have been rated for their respective years it's ridiculous. Dry was rated the fiftieth greatest album of the year and I find it a lot better than Let England Shake. Dry is an album of such honesty, intensity and rawness, it just blows me away every time. Let England Shake is warm, welcoming and most of all, it's filled with catchy pop songs. They're both fantastic and my preference will most likely say more about my tastes instead of the quality of the albums. What it says more than anything else however, is PJ Harvey's diversity as a musician. In a career which spans almost two decades, she's been almost impossible to nail down, evolving her style from album to album.

My choice for the album of the year would be ****ed Up's David Comes To Life (Only #240 on the RYM charts for 2011). Hardcore punk has a bad reputation. Most music snobs consider it simple, barbaric and lacking in substance. With David Comes To Life, ****ed Up prove them wrong in one of the most ambitious albums Hardcore Punk has ever seen. It's a concept album, telling the story of David and Veronica as they fall in love and likewise, drift apart. I happen to love Damian Abraham's screams. 2011 has been a great year for illustrating that great punk is not dead and brilliant modern punk albums do exist. Along with the energy of Iceage's New Brigade, the lyrical flare and storytelling of La Dispute's Wildlife and the heavy crust stylings of Amebix's Sonic Mass - ****ed Up have made for a great year in modern punk music.

****ed Up, in a rare fully clothed moment.

Getting late, I will do a list of honourable mentions tomorrow <3

[Trollheart]

A few points, or replies, or responses, whatever you like to call them.

First off, sorry that you had such a crappy year. I know what that's like, but that's another story. Something that did strike a chord with me though was your recounting of your best-friend-to-more-than with that girl. I had something very similar, and yes, it's a real pain when the feelings are not reciprocated isn't it? You kind of wish you hadn't said anything. Makes a mockery of that old adage, "nothing to lose by asking". Of course there is! A whole friendship, sometimes.

Hope things are getting a bit more on track for you now, and you're looking forward to Christmas. One point on Amy Winehouse: no it was not nice what people said, but the view I took was that she constantly refused treatment, acted like there was nothing wrong with her, and really, created a terrible role model for impressionable young girls. I think that was unforgivable, and while I would never say anyone deserves to die, I do find it hard to have much sympathy. It's like George Best: given TWO chances at life and he STILL drank himself to death! In my opinion, that's thumbing your nose at fate and daring her to do her worst. Baaaad move...

Anyway, though they may not be your favourites, I would just like to point out that we lost two rock legends over the course of the last two years, Ronnie James Dio and Gary Moore, and yes, it's terribly sad when people that talented and respected die so young.

As for Westlife disbanding, well sorry but I did pop the odd champagne cork! Being an Irishman too sort of lent weight to my feelings about them. It annoyed me that their breakup was HEADLINE NEWS. I mean, HEADLINE. Front of the papers. And I'm not talking the Mirror, either. Respectable Irish newspapers led with the story, as did the news. What sort of world are we living in?

But in the spirit of the season, let me wish you a Happy Christmas and hope the new year will be a lot better for you.
And good luck at university!

Trollheart

[Alfred]

James, this may be my new favorite journal. It stuns me how much we have in common and I never realized it.

First off, great to see you reviewing Pig Destroyer. I'll admit, I haven't heard that album, but I adore Terrifyer and enjoy Phantom Limb a great deal. I'm not a massive grindcore fan, I like some of it, but they're one of the bands I always go back to.

Secondly, glad to see you give a nod to Envy. Recitation is an awesome album, one of my favorites of last year and certainly my favorite Envy album. It blew me away on first listen.

Finally, your last post put a huge smile of my face. I too once had a crappy year, similar to that one (although I was 14 when mine happened, not as recent or... mature I suppose). And you tying David Comes To Life, my favorite album of 2011. I agree that the album is a metaphor for a bad breakup, and the pain, guilt, and finally, acceptance felt and expressed by one party. It's an album most of us can relate to.

I agree that this year was great for punk. Have you heard Touche Amore's Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me? You might like it if you liked Wildlife. It's the same style of punk, but faster, briefer, and more direct.

Anyways, awesome thread, will read again.