The Poseur Cave

Isbjørn · 07-18-2014, 01:43 AM

Pierce the Veil Week will be next week too, at least for me, as I don't think I can finish it this week (nor have I made a very hard effort to do so *cough*).

Isbjørn · 07-30-2014, 09:44 AM

Listen up:

Pierce the Veil week is off. It's been two weeks, plenty of time, but I've just not been motivated. So instead of forcing myself through three sh*tty albums just becauseI said I would, I'm going to write about stuff I like instead. Yay!

Isbjørn · 08-01-2014, 05:54 AM

The Batlord posted this in one of the "What Are You Listening To" threads a while back. So... Quorthon made a grunge album. It's not really above average, but since we're all used to his raspy screeches, it's still a pretty interesting listen.

In that song he went from "demonic voice that haunts you in your dreams" to "guy less butch-sounding than King Diamond". On the rest of the album he sounds like a normal grunge vocalist, though.

Isbjørn · 08-17-2014, 12:40 PM

"I See Fire"

You all know this song, either as «oh, the song from The Hobbit» or «that goddamn song on the radio». Also, some of you might already know that I was away at a camp this week, so my access to music was restricted to:

Christian songs sung around the evening campfire
Scout songs sung around the evening campfire
“Thank you, Lord, for giving us food”
Whatever songs everyone knew that could be sung on the bus
Bon Jovi songs screamed on the bus
Whatever songs from people's phones were played on the bus before the Music Angel died
Whatever songs from people's phones were played on the bus after the Music Angel died, some of which were played on a cup speaker that didn't work at all
The raps a friend and I improvised at the evening campfire
Other people's pre-written (but practising is cheating and for sh*tty rappers) raps
Pop songs sung by people with guitars

...and I came home from camp with a hatred for Ed Sheeran's song “I See Fire”. People played it on their guitars. People sung it without guitars a little more energetically than what I was comfortable with. But why did that piss me off?

Have you heard the trashcan argument?

I think it's a contributing factor. I first heard it on A Dose of Buckley (Buckley is an angry guy on YouTube who rants about stuff that pisses him off) in a video/podcast thingy he made about the dance group LMFAO, a so-called “musical autopsy”, where he takes the lyrics apart and tells us in an angry voice exactlyhow stupid they are. I don't remember a lot about music from 2011, as I mostly just sat in my room listening to Queen, Springsteen and naught else, but I do remember the song “Party Rock” and exactly how passionately I hated it. That synth hook or whatever it's called seriously grinds my ears and gears, and I didn't understand why my peers loved it so. It reached the goddamn number one spot on Billboard Hot 100 and it was absolute dog sh*t. So I agreed and nodded when I, last year I think, discovered Buckley and his rant about the group. But one thing he pointed out, that I didn't even think of, was that there is a lot of worse dance songs out there that doesn't piss off critics merely because they only make it to the dance charts. He compared this to people getting irate at the dog turd lying in the middle of the street, while being perfectly fine with the one lying in the nearby trashcan.

Why is this relevant?

“I See Fire” was made for being played during the credits of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. It didn't have to be great. All it needed was a couple of lyrics about fire and dragons and stuff, and that vaguely traditional-sounding vocal intro so that it would fit into the movie. But, I guess it was because the artist already had a couple of hits, it charted. I should know, because it reached number one over here. This, despite it being totally mediocre. The guitar hook is alright, but very simple and doesn't really stand out much (it still has 2,623,933 views on Ultimate-Guitar.com as of now). The lyrics are, you know, about dragons and fire and stuff, and they get the job done (their job was to go with the movie), but they aren't memorable or anything. The chorus is boring. Thus, it is mediocre. But now it's stuck in my head, and that makes me hate it. It's sung by some guy with a guitar, and that somehow makes it seem more genuine than it actually is. You think “this ginger guy really does see fire” (Dashboard Confessional is a not-really-guilty pleasure of mine). And so, even though I think it's dumb and boring and very non-outstanding and all that, I can't get it out of my head. And that vastly increases my blood pressure.

Isbjørn · 08-22-2014, 10:01 AM

Warning:
This entry contains sentimental ramblings and might be a little depressing

Artist: Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate)
Album: You Will Eventually Be Forgotten
Year: 2014
Genre: Midwest emo

You will eventually be forgotten. I was at a scout camp the summer of 2013, and I had so much fun. During the camp, I met an Irish girl, and I think we fell in love. I say "think", as I'm not yet sure how to define "love", and it was very brief. Anyway, the day after we met, camp was over and we had to go home. After a long goodbye, which included several hugs and a kiss on the cheek, we parted, and the other girls in her group sang "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift. Ouch. So, hours later, I knew there was an ocean between us, and I burst into tears. I wasn't sure whether or not I would ever hear from this girl again, as I for some reason I can't begin to understand had forgot to ask for her last name. But I was wrong, and I managed to get her e-mail address from the leader of her group. We tried to mantain a long-distance relationship, but it didn't really work. Now it's over a year since we met, and we're not really talking to each other anymore. She's moved on, and I guess I've kind of moved on, too.

Are you in a long-term relationship? Or married? Even you will eventually be forgotten. You might be lucky and stay in a relationship the rest of your life, but you simply can't avoid oblivion. You are going to die someday. Your family and friends will mourn your loss, but they're going to die someday, too. "But what if I make a lasting impact on the world, like Albert Einstein or Gandhi? Then I won't be forgotten!" Yes, you will. All life on Earth will die out as a result of nuclear war, a global pandemic, the sun dying out, or whatnot. "But my lasting impact will be documented in books and newspapers and on the internet! The aliens will visit Earth, find the ruins of our society, find a history book and think 'hey, that guy on page 215 sounds like a pretty cool dude', but in other words because the aliens obviously won't speak any language we know." But even if there are aliens out there to find the ashes of our civilization, they will have to find them before we the Earth is swallowed up by the sun, or hit by a big-ass comet, or before the universe implodes. You know, if the universe implodes, even the aliens who picked up that history book won't remember you, because they will all be dead, too.

I'm writing all this just because of the album's title. But what about the album itself? Well, musically, it's just the same old Empire! Empire!, but that's a good thing. Lyrically, it's different. The lyrics to all the songs tell vivid, direct stories, as opposed to the more vague ones they usually tell, and some of them are really good.

From "We Are People Here. Not Numbers.":

Cathy was nervous and began to fidget, refusing to get in line
before our friends and I talked her into going

When the ride started,
any romantic idea I had of holding hands or an embrace
was quickly abandoned when I saw the white-knuckled grip on the safety rail
like she feared for her life

Did that make you feel something? Anything? Of course it did. Combine that with Keith's passionate vocal delivery and the well-crafted mellow tunes, and you've really got something.

4/5

Pet_Sounds · 08-22-2014, 11:01 AM

Any chance that's the same Cathy who boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh?

Isbjørn · 08-23-2014, 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pet_Sounds

Any chance that's the same Cathy who boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh?

Of course. Cathy was actually 70 years old and had a heart attack on the ride, but that's a story for another day.

Pet_Sounds · 08-23-2014, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Briks

Of course. Cathy was actually 70 years old and had a heart attack on the ride, but that's a story for another day.

The lyrics to We Are People Here, Not Numbers sound a lot like something Paul Simon would write. Especially this:

Isbjørn · 08-26-2014, 07:00 AM

Artist: Exhorder
Album: Slaughter in the Vatican
Year: 1990
Genre: Thrash metal

Batty and Wpnfire like them, and I've seen them mentioned a lot lately, so I thought I'd give this album a try. And what did I think of it? Well, I liked the instrumentation. The music is fast and hella brutal, and when it slows down, it does so in the coolest, grooviest way possible. The drummer KILLS. There is, however, one thing that bothers me. It's the vocalist, I don't like his singing (or barking, whatever) style. He sounds a bit like Philip Anselmo, but I don't really care much for him either. Had it not been for that, I'd give this a higher rating. Solid album.

3.5/5

Isbjørn · 09-05-2014, 11:02 AM

Artist: Jets to Brazil
Album: Orange Rhyming Dictionary
Year: 1998
Genre: Emo/indie rock

From Jets to Brazil, fronted by Blake Schwarzenbach, former frontman of emo punk pioneers Jawbreaker, comes Orange Rhyming Dictionary. Our dear Blake was known for his trademark hoarse, raspy voice, which was caused by polyps. Prior to the recording of this album, he had surgery to remove them, so on it you can easily hear that his voice is cleaner than it was when he sang for Jawbreaker. Appropriately, Jets to Brazil has a pretty accessible indie sound, as opposed to the gruffer punk rock sound of Jawbreaker. And in my opinion, it's just as cool. Just about every song is good in its own way, and there are some really great ones: the obvious ones, “Sea Anemone” and “Sweet Avenue”, and a couple of less obvious ones, “Conrad” and “I Typed for Miles”, the latter of which has some really well-crafted lyrical lines:

I live in a hotel, I must keep writing
If I'm to be better than everyone else

Note to self: no one cares, your voice is average

They're playing love songs on your radio tonight
I don't get those songs on mine

4/5

07-18-2014, 01:43 AM	#221 (permalink)
Isbjørn cooler commie than elph Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: In a hole, help Posts: 2,811	Pierce the Veil Week will be next week too, at least for me, as I don't think I can finish it this week (nor have I made a very hard effort to do so cough). __________________ fast(ml) Hear me play the guitar Look, mom! I got a journal

07-30-2014, 09:44 AM	#222 (permalink)
Isbjørn cooler commie than elph Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: In a hole, help Posts: 2,811	Listen up: Pierce the Veil week is off. It's been two weeks, plenty of time, but I've just not been motivated. So instead of forcing myself through three sh*tty albums just becauseI said I would, I'm going to write about stuff I like instead. Yay! __________________ fast(ml) Hear me play the guitar Look, mom! I got a journal

08-01-2014, 05:54 AM	#223 (permalink)
Isbjørn cooler commie than elph Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: In a hole, help Posts: 2,811	The Batlord posted this in one of the "What Are You Listening To" threads a while back. So... Quorthon made a grunge album. It's not really above average, but since we're all used to his raspy screeches, it's still a pretty interesting listen. In that song he went from "demonic voice that haunts you in your dreams" to "guy less butch-sounding than King Diamond". On the rest of the album he sounds like a normal grunge vocalist, though. __________________ fast(ml) Hear me play the guitar Look, mom! I got a journal

08-17-2014, 12:40 PM	#224 (permalink)
Isbjørn cooler commie than elph Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: In a hole, help Posts: 2,811	"I See Fire" You all know this song, either as «oh, the song from The Hobbit» or «that goddamn song on the radio». Also, some of you might already know that I was away at a camp this week, so my access to music was restricted to: Christian songs sung around the evening campfire Scout songs sung around the evening campfire “Thank you, Lord, for giving us food” Whatever songs everyone knew that could be sung on the bus Bon Jovi songs screamed on the bus Whatever songs from people's phones were played on the bus before the Music Angel died Whatever songs from people's phones were played on the bus after the Music Angel died, some of which were played on a cup speaker that didn't work at all The raps a friend and I improvised at the evening campfire Other people's pre-written (but practising is cheating and for shtty rappers) raps Pop songs sung by people with guitars ...and I came home from camp with a hatred for Ed Sheeran's song “I See Fire”. People played it on their guitars. People sung it without guitars a little more energetically than what I was comfortable with. But why did that piss me off? Have you heard the trashcan argument?* I think it's a contributing factor. I first heard it on A Dose of Buckley (Buckley is an angry guy on YouTube who rants about stuff that pisses him off) in a video/podcast thingy he made about the dance group LMFAO, a so-called “musical autopsy”, where he takes the lyrics apart and tells us in an angry voice exactlyhow stupid they are. I don't remember a lot about music from 2011, as I mostly just sat in my room listening to Queen, Springsteen and naught else, but I do remember the song “Party Rock” and exactly how passionately I hated it. That synth hook or whatever it's called seriously grinds my ears and gears, and I didn't understand why my peers loved it so. It reached the goddamn number one spot on Billboard Hot 100 and it was absolute dog sht. So I agreed and nodded when I, last year I think, discovered Buckley and his rant about the group. But one thing he pointed out, that I didn't even think of, was that there is a lot of worse dance songs out there that doesn't piss off critics merely because they only make it to the dance charts. He compared this to people getting irate at the dog turd lying in the middle of the street, while being perfectly fine with the one lying in the nearby trashcan. Why is this relevant?* “I See Fire” was made for being played during the credits of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. It didn't have to be great. All it needed was a couple of lyrics about fire and dragons and stuff, and that vaguely traditional-sounding vocal intro so that it would fit into the movie. But, I guess it was because the artist already had a couple of hits, it charted. I should know, because it reached number one over here. This, despite it being totally mediocre. The guitar hook is alright, but very simple and doesn't really stand out much (it still has 2,623,933 views on Ultimate-Guitar.com as of now). The lyrics are, you know, about dragons and fire and stuff, and they get the job done (their job was to go with the movie), but they aren't memorable or anything. The chorus is boring. Thus, it is mediocre. But now it's stuck in my head, and that makes me hate it. It's sung by some guy with a guitar, and that somehow makes it seem more genuine than it actually is. You think “this ginger guy really does see fire” (Dashboard Confessional is a not-really-guilty pleasure of mine). And so, even though I think it's dumb and boring and very non-outstanding and all that, I can't get it out of my head. And that vastly increases my blood pressure. __________________ fast(ml) Hear me play the guitar Look, mom! I got a journal

08-22-2014, 10:01 AM	#225 (permalink)
Isbjørn cooler commie than elph Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: In a hole, help Posts: 2,811	Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) - You Will Eventually Be Forgotten Warning: This entry contains sentimental ramblings and might be a little depressing Artist: Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) Album: You Will Eventually Be Forgotten Year: 2014 Genre: Midwest emo You will eventually be forgotten. I was at a scout camp the summer of 2013, and I had so much fun. During the camp, I met an Irish girl, and I think we fell in love. I say "think", as I'm not yet sure how to define "love", and it was very brief. Anyway, the day after we met, camp was over and we had to go home. After a long goodbye, which included several hugs and a kiss on the cheek, we parted, and the other girls in her group sang "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift. Ouch. So, hours later, I knew there was an ocean between us, and I burst into tears. I wasn't sure whether or not I would ever hear from this girl again, as I for some reason I can't begin to understand had forgot to ask for her last name. But I was wrong, and I managed to get her e-mail address from the leader of her group. We tried to mantain a long-distance relationship, but it didn't really work. Now it's over a year since we met, and we're not really talking to each other anymore. She's moved on, and I guess I've kind of moved on, too. Are you in a long-term relationship? Or married? Even you will eventually be forgotten. You might be lucky and stay in a relationship the rest of your life, but you simply can't avoid oblivion. You are going to die someday. Your family and friends will mourn your loss, but they're going to die someday, too. "But what if I make a lasting impact on the world, like Albert Einstein or Gandhi? Then I won't be forgotten!" Yes, you will. All life on Earth will die out as a result of nuclear war, a global pandemic, the sun dying out, or whatnot. "But my lasting impact will be documented in books and newspapers and on the internet! The aliens will visit Earth, find the ruins of our society, find a history book and think 'hey, that guy on page 215 sounds like a pretty cool dude', but in other words because the aliens obviously won't speak any language we know." But even if there are aliens out there to find the ashes of our civilization, they will have to find them before we the Earth is swallowed up by the sun, or hit by a big-ass comet, or before the universe implodes. You know, if the universe implodes, even the aliens who picked up that history book won't remember you, because they will all be dead, too. I'm writing all this just because of the album's title. But what about the album itself? Well, musically, it's just the same old Empire! Empire!, but that's a good thing. Lyrically, it's different. The lyrics to all the songs tell vivid, direct stories, as opposed to the more vague ones they usually tell, and some of them are really good. From "We Are People Here. Not Numbers.": Cathy was nervous and began to fidget, refusing to get in line before our friends and I talked her into going When the ride started, any romantic idea I had of holding hands or an embrace was quickly abandoned when I saw the white-knuckled grip on the safety rail like she feared for her life Did that make you feel something? Anything? Of course it did. Combine that with Keith's passionate vocal delivery and the well-crafted mellow tunes, and you've really got something. 4/5 __________________ fast(ml) Hear me play the guitar Look, mom! I got a journal Last edited by Isbjørn; 08-22-2014 at 12:49 PM.

08-22-2014, 11:01 AM	#226 (permalink)
Pet_Sounds Remember the underscore Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: The other side Posts: 2,488	Any chance that's the same Cathy who boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh? __________________ Everybody's dying just to get the disease

08-26-2014, 07:00 AM	#229 (permalink)
Isbjørn cooler commie than elph Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: In a hole, help Posts: 2,811	Artist: Exhorder Album: Slaughter in the Vatican Year: 1990 Genre: Thrash metal Batty and Wpnfire like them, and I've seen them mentioned a lot lately, so I thought I'd give this album a try. And what did I think of it? Well, I liked the instrumentation. The music is fast and hella brutal, and when it slows down, it does so in the coolest, grooviest way possible. The drummer KILLS. There is, however, one thing that bothers me. It's the vocalist, I don't like his singing (or barking, whatever) style. He sounds a bit like Philip Anselmo, but I don't really care much for him either. Had it not been for that, I'd give this a higher rating. Solid album. 3.5/5 __________________ fast(ml) Hear me play the guitar Look, mom! I got a journal

09-05-2014, 11:02 AM	#230 (permalink)
Isbjørn cooler commie than elph Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: In a hole, help Posts: 2,811	Artist: Jets to Brazil Album: Orange Rhyming Dictionary Year: 1998 Genre: Emo/indie rock From Jets to Brazil, fronted by Blake Schwarzenbach, former frontman of emo punk pioneers Jawbreaker, comes Orange Rhyming Dictionary. Our dear Blake was known for his trademark hoarse, raspy voice, which was caused by polyps. Prior to the recording of this album, he had surgery to remove them, so on it you can easily hear that his voice is cleaner than it was when he sang for Jawbreaker. Appropriately, Jets to Brazil has a pretty accessible indie sound, as opposed to the gruffer punk rock sound of Jawbreaker. And in my opinion, it's just as cool. Just about every song is good in its own way, and there are some really great ones: the obvious ones, “Sea Anemone” and “Sweet Avenue”, and a couple of less obvious ones, “Conrad” and “I Typed for Miles”, the latter of which has some really well-crafted lyrical lines: I live in a hotel, I must keep writing If I'm to be better than everyone else Note to self: no one cares, your voice is average They're playing love songs on your radio tonight I don't get those songs on mine 4/5 __________________ fast(ml) Hear me play the guitar Look, mom! I got a journal