So, once again, it has been a good while since I have been able to write a blog post, for which I can only apologise, but now I'm back at university I expect to have a lot of spare time on my hands, so the frequency of posting should pick up again.
Not really sure what to post about, which I suppose is a bit of a handicap, what with this being a returning post and all, but looking back at the time I spent away from blogspot, most people did one a "Top Ten of 2009" type list/summary, so I suppose that might be a good place to start.
So here it is;
A list of ten things I was doing in the time everyone else was posting a list of ten things they did.
1. Battled at Academia.
What was billed as a DJ battle, ended up turning into me and Tiger Lightning DJing together, was still a really good night though, really enjoy DJing with Sam, aside from being a super nice guy he manages to provide such a range of genres in a small amount of time all nicely mixed together. Saw some old school friends at the gig, I still find this pretty awkward, people always seem so surprised when they see me again, and say things like "Oh you've changed" But I'm just as surprised that they are still the same person they were at school, I always assumed people would grow up and develop as a person after the shackles of compulsary education were removed, but apparently not.
Overall the night was a success, was a really good atmosphere in there and everyone was enjoying themselves, of course there was the token girl being sick all up the stairs, and the madatory lads standing around trying to look menacing, and the drunk "I'm so ditzy and lovely" girls asking when I'm going to be playing R'n'B, but what is a clubnight without them?
2. Finished off my Exams.
Pretty glad that at Brookes we get all our exams out the way before the Christmas break, a lot of people I know have exams early in the new year, which I can only imagine makes the Christmas break a little less relaxing, what with revision and impending testing always on the back of the mind, not that revision is usually anywhere in my mind. The exams didn't go too badly, managed to pass them all, which is really all I was hoping for as my interst levels in my course have finally hit zero, after hovering just above that level for some time. Just one more semester to go and then I can forget about it all together, feels like I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel, but focussing on that light is still extremely difficult when dragging myself out of bed in the mornings to go and sit through a two hour lecture on the most tedious material I've ever encountered.
3. Was The Worst Campaigner Ever.
I was right behind the "RATM For Christmas Number 1" campaign, although I did think some people kind of missed the point, including most news channels. Quite often I'd tune in and hear them saying how people are buying the single as they hate Simon Cowell, but that wasn't the reason I was behind it, in fact, I quite like Simon Cowell, I think he can be quite funny, I'd rather watch him slate some awful karaoke singers than watch Cheryl Cole sit wondering why no-one has told her how beautiful she is for a couple of minutes. I got the impression that it was more about reclaiming the charts, showing the record labels that we are still interested in bands who make good music, and that we aren't all taken in by their samey, well promoted, songs. But anyway, turns out I'm a rubbish campaigner, as before I got round to it, yes I know it was only a few clicks on iTunes or whatever, the Christmas number 1 had been announced. Still, glad they did stop the same old boring cover song claiming it, seems like the record companies really took notice, and stopped inundating the world with awful music made using a formula they tell us is correct.
Oh what, JLS have a new single out? Ah wow, I love how different they are from the terrible 90s boy bands that we poke fun at now, where can I buy it?
4. Had It Large On NYE
Never really understood the attraction of going all out on New Year's Eve, I've never been out to 'celebrate' it before, and so I stuck to staying in again this year. The concept of celebrating the inevitable change from one year to the next has always seemed slightly odd to me, I would much rather stay in and play video games, so that's what I did.
I'm willing to bet I had a much better night than a lot of people who went out too, sure I was looking forward to playing a major room and that fell through, but I had a really nice night in with the girl I love, playing Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 (Isn't it odd how the sequel to a film is never as good as the original, yet that doesn't seem to apply to videogames. The people at Treyarch and EA should have some words with them over in Hollywood I feel) and then we watched the fireworks everyone else had paid to see, perfect. Fireworks are one of the many things that still fascinate me in a childlike way, I can't decide if it is the ability of their designers to create such a controlled explosion, or the difference between the speed of sound and light, that fascinates me more, either way, I love gorping at the sky like a 3 year old who is seeing them for the first time, kind of wish I had some candy floss to go with it.
5. Was Rained On Inside
Ok, so it wasn't strictly rain, but I thought it was to begin with when I was woken up at 7am on a Sunday morning (I love how people still mention that it was a Sunday if they were woken up early, as if it being Sunday matters anymore? Everyone's given up on the idea of it being God's day of rest, and if it really is his day of rest then maybe you should let him have a lie in, not go into his house and starting spouting prayers at him?) with the sound of gushing water above me. It took quite a while before we realised what was going on, when water started running down all the walls, and coming through the ceiling. Sian and I managed to grab our laptops out of the room just in time, as the water flowed through ceiling soaking everything underneath. After running upstairs, Sian found out that the people living above had left their taps on all night because their pipes had been frozen, yeah, I know, spot the logic. After about 35 mins of water pouring through the floor above it started to slow and we could see the damage, the room was soaked so badly that there was a centimetre of surface water all over the floor.
That put a bit of a dampner on an otherwise perfect weekend. (Sorry, it would have been wrong not to insert at least one water related pun?)
6. Played Odd Job Man.
With Sian's flat covered in water, and everything, from her bed, to her drawers, tv, books and artwork, ruined, we spent the week living at my parents house. That was pretty cool, my family love both Sian and Millie, but I think it was stressing Sian out a bit, which I am impressed at, I would have been more than a bit stressed if my flat was ruined by incompetent neighbours.
Trying to get everything sorted was predictably frustrating, we ripped up all the carpet, but the concrete floor still took 2 days to dry, and the flat was overrun with the smell of damp. The new carpet was fitted nine days after the incident, and we moved back in that night. Moving everything around was a lot of effort, I forgot just how heavy things like washing machines and chests of drawers were, but it was worth it. The flat is all sorted now, and aside from that Sian's moving to a recently renovated new house in just a few hours time, at least no one can flood that from above!
7. Eyed Up Gavin's Ends.
Went to look round where I hope to be going in September, Guildford. Hopefully I'll get myself a place on the Music Production degree course at the Academy of Contemporary Music there. It is a really nice place, really looking forward to spending some good quality time in the studio producing both, original material, and bands, I think the thing I'm most looking forward to is working with other musicians, I can't wait to learn all about it and then work with bands to produce something everyone is truely proud of. The Academy has taught people such as Newton Faulkner and Last Japan, and has guest sessions run by people like Steve Vai, Pete Waterman, and that bloke with the silver mask from Slipknot, seems like a really exciting place to be based.
I cannot wait.
8. Was Mildly Productive.
Finally found the time over the Christmas break to sit down and write some music. I ended up making two rather different tunes, one inspired by tech-house, and one more uptempo and 'fidgety' (Yeah alright scorn me, I use the word 'Fidget', got a better name for it?) remix. I'm sure at some point over the near future I'll post them up here, or reveal my myspace address or something, so keep your eyes peeled for that, I'll hopefully post some half finished tunes up soon too, so I can get some feedback from you all, as soon as Reason, Logic and Ableton decide they want to load on my MacBook again /:
9. Chased a Status.
Played with Chase and Status last week, was pretty gutted to be missing the night everyone went out for my housemate's 21st birthday, but still, it was pretty exciting. After a taxi tour of Gloucestershire I arrived at the gig, unable to find the promoter, to see my name had been missed off the setlist posters. Is there anything more frustrating? I understand the mistake, but still it was a bit annoying. Other than that it was a pretty big night, really busy, and I opened with my own song, which seemed to receive a good reaction. Not been into Dakota before, it's a pretty cool club, not sure I liked the layout of the main room, but it seemed to generate a good atmosphere, and I suppose that is the intention, so yeah I'd recommend it. Rusko is playing on the 26th of February (Still takes me a few trys to spell that month right) I'll be there, hopefully playing out a new song, so make sure you come say hi, I get lonely.
Highlight of the night has to be Sian seeing a man be sick all over himself. That must have ruined his night, no matter how much he loves the repitition of Drum'n'Bass.
10. Felt Out Of Place Seeing A Band I Love.
It's been a long time since I went to a specifically 'Indie' gig (Yeah I know, they're not indie because they're singed to Polydor, rah rah rah, you all know what I mean) and I had kind of missed it, so it was really nice to go and see them. They rifled through crowd pleasers like Precious Time, Love You Better, and First Love, and they were surprisingly tight, a lot tighter than the last time I saw them, really impressive. But the night did point out a few things to me that I don't miss whatsoever. Firstly the other people that go, full of girls desperately trying to look both eighteen, and cooler than the girl stood next to her, and 'lads' filled to the lager loving brim with Stella' and finding it wholly appropriate to crowdsurf during Toothpaste Kisses. Secondly, bouncers. I think this every time I go out at night it seems. I know a lot of bouncers, and they are all nice people so this is in no way a reflection on them, but it seems they are far more concerned with finding something on a stop and search, or dragging someone out, than they are with ensuring that the people at the event are having a nice time. I mean I was made to wait in a queue outside the building, whilst the people I was with were allowed to go join the queue inside the building, I'm perfectly capable of queuing, I don't see how the three metre gap between me and the ticket check point is going to be of any benefit, if anyone was incapable of queuing I'm sure that would have been made clear during the period of time we spent queuing outside? Pfft. The last thing I haven't missed since not being at an Indie gig for a while is the chanting. I don't know who these people are, or why they think it's a good idea, but doing football-esque "We love you Maccabees, We do" chants while they prepare for the next song really gets on my nerves. Music is an artform, there are talented musicians stood in front of us wanting to perform their art to us, please stop chanting at them.
That's not to take away from their performance though, was a really good set, and the line up for the rest of the NME Awards tour looks really good, so I urge you to go check it out.
So there it is, my list of ten things, just like every other blog in the world. If you have made it this far down the page, well done, go rest your eyes and get a drink, then watch something on TV to relieve your boredom (:
In other news, I was always cynical of high definition televison, I couldn't see a great difference when those demonstrative televisions showed the difference in various shops, but since setting up the HDMI output on my Playstation I am a changed man. I urge you, set up high definition, and buy Fifa or COD, the realism is mindblowing, my degree is going down the pan, but my Fifa ranking is going through the roof.
Sian's Blog
The Maccabees
Chase and Status
NME Awards Tour
Totally Radical Awesome
Rage Against The Machine
Academy of Contemporary Music
Not really sure what to post about, which I suppose is a bit of a handicap, what with this being a returning post and all, but looking back at the time I spent away from blogspot, most people did one a "Top Ten of 2009" type list/summary, so I suppose that might be a good place to start.
So here it is;
A list of ten things I was doing in the time everyone else was posting a list of ten things they did.
1. Battled at Academia.
What was billed as a DJ battle, ended up turning into me and Tiger Lightning DJing together, was still a really good night though, really enjoy DJing with Sam, aside from being a super nice guy he manages to provide such a range of genres in a small amount of time all nicely mixed together. Saw some old school friends at the gig, I still find this pretty awkward, people always seem so surprised when they see me again, and say things like "Oh you've changed" But I'm just as surprised that they are still the same person they were at school, I always assumed people would grow up and develop as a person after the shackles of compulsary education were removed, but apparently not.
Overall the night was a success, was a really good atmosphere in there and everyone was enjoying themselves, of course there was the token girl being sick all up the stairs, and the madatory lads standing around trying to look menacing, and the drunk "I'm so ditzy and lovely" girls asking when I'm going to be playing R'n'B, but what is a clubnight without them?
2. Finished off my Exams.
Pretty glad that at Brookes we get all our exams out the way before the Christmas break, a lot of people I know have exams early in the new year, which I can only imagine makes the Christmas break a little less relaxing, what with revision and impending testing always on the back of the mind, not that revision is usually anywhere in my mind. The exams didn't go too badly, managed to pass them all, which is really all I was hoping for as my interst levels in my course have finally hit zero, after hovering just above that level for some time. Just one more semester to go and then I can forget about it all together, feels like I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel, but focussing on that light is still extremely difficult when dragging myself out of bed in the mornings to go and sit through a two hour lecture on the most tedious material I've ever encountered.
3. Was The Worst Campaigner Ever.
I was right behind the "RATM For Christmas Number 1" campaign, although I did think some people kind of missed the point, including most news channels. Quite often I'd tune in and hear them saying how people are buying the single as they hate Simon Cowell, but that wasn't the reason I was behind it, in fact, I quite like Simon Cowell, I think he can be quite funny, I'd rather watch him slate some awful karaoke singers than watch Cheryl Cole sit wondering why no-one has told her how beautiful she is for a couple of minutes. I got the impression that it was more about reclaiming the charts, showing the record labels that we are still interested in bands who make good music, and that we aren't all taken in by their samey, well promoted, songs. But anyway, turns out I'm a rubbish campaigner, as before I got round to it, yes I know it was only a few clicks on iTunes or whatever, the Christmas number 1 had been announced. Still, glad they did stop the same old boring cover song claiming it, seems like the record companies really took notice, and stopped inundating the world with awful music made using a formula they tell us is correct.
Oh what, JLS have a new single out? Ah wow, I love how different they are from the terrible 90s boy bands that we poke fun at now, where can I buy it?
4. Had It Large On NYE
Never really understood the attraction of going all out on New Year's Eve, I've never been out to 'celebrate' it before, and so I stuck to staying in again this year. The concept of celebrating the inevitable change from one year to the next has always seemed slightly odd to me, I would much rather stay in and play video games, so that's what I did.
I'm willing to bet I had a much better night than a lot of people who went out too, sure I was looking forward to playing a major room and that fell through, but I had a really nice night in with the girl I love, playing Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 (Isn't it odd how the sequel to a film is never as good as the original, yet that doesn't seem to apply to videogames. The people at Treyarch and EA should have some words with them over in Hollywood I feel) and then we watched the fireworks everyone else had paid to see, perfect. Fireworks are one of the many things that still fascinate me in a childlike way, I can't decide if it is the ability of their designers to create such a controlled explosion, or the difference between the speed of sound and light, that fascinates me more, either way, I love gorping at the sky like a 3 year old who is seeing them for the first time, kind of wish I had some candy floss to go with it.
5. Was Rained On Inside
Ok, so it wasn't strictly rain, but I thought it was to begin with when I was woken up at 7am on a Sunday morning (I love how people still mention that it was a Sunday if they were woken up early, as if it being Sunday matters anymore? Everyone's given up on the idea of it being God's day of rest, and if it really is his day of rest then maybe you should let him have a lie in, not go into his house and starting spouting prayers at him?) with the sound of gushing water above me. It took quite a while before we realised what was going on, when water started running down all the walls, and coming through the ceiling. Sian and I managed to grab our laptops out of the room just in time, as the water flowed through ceiling soaking everything underneath. After running upstairs, Sian found out that the people living above had left their taps on all night because their pipes had been frozen, yeah, I know, spot the logic. After about 35 mins of water pouring through the floor above it started to slow and we could see the damage, the room was soaked so badly that there was a centimetre of surface water all over the floor.
That put a bit of a dampner on an otherwise perfect weekend. (Sorry, it would have been wrong not to insert at least one water related pun?)
6. Played Odd Job Man.
With Sian's flat covered in water, and everything, from her bed, to her drawers, tv, books and artwork, ruined, we spent the week living at my parents house. That was pretty cool, my family love both Sian and Millie, but I think it was stressing Sian out a bit, which I am impressed at, I would have been more than a bit stressed if my flat was ruined by incompetent neighbours.
Trying to get everything sorted was predictably frustrating, we ripped up all the carpet, but the concrete floor still took 2 days to dry, and the flat was overrun with the smell of damp. The new carpet was fitted nine days after the incident, and we moved back in that night. Moving everything around was a lot of effort, I forgot just how heavy things like washing machines and chests of drawers were, but it was worth it. The flat is all sorted now, and aside from that Sian's moving to a recently renovated new house in just a few hours time, at least no one can flood that from above!
7. Eyed Up Gavin's Ends.
Went to look round where I hope to be going in September, Guildford. Hopefully I'll get myself a place on the Music Production degree course at the Academy of Contemporary Music there. It is a really nice place, really looking forward to spending some good quality time in the studio producing both, original material, and bands, I think the thing I'm most looking forward to is working with other musicians, I can't wait to learn all about it and then work with bands to produce something everyone is truely proud of. The Academy has taught people such as Newton Faulkner and Last Japan, and has guest sessions run by people like Steve Vai, Pete Waterman, and that bloke with the silver mask from Slipknot, seems like a really exciting place to be based.
I cannot wait.
8. Was Mildly Productive.
Finally found the time over the Christmas break to sit down and write some music. I ended up making two rather different tunes, one inspired by tech-house, and one more uptempo and 'fidgety' (Yeah alright scorn me, I use the word 'Fidget', got a better name for it?) remix. I'm sure at some point over the near future I'll post them up here, or reveal my myspace address or something, so keep your eyes peeled for that, I'll hopefully post some half finished tunes up soon too, so I can get some feedback from you all, as soon as Reason, Logic and Ableton decide they want to load on my MacBook again /:
9. Chased a Status.
Played with Chase and Status last week, was pretty gutted to be missing the night everyone went out for my housemate's 21st birthday, but still, it was pretty exciting. After a taxi tour of Gloucestershire I arrived at the gig, unable to find the promoter, to see my name had been missed off the setlist posters. Is there anything more frustrating? I understand the mistake, but still it was a bit annoying. Other than that it was a pretty big night, really busy, and I opened with my own song, which seemed to receive a good reaction. Not been into Dakota before, it's a pretty cool club, not sure I liked the layout of the main room, but it seemed to generate a good atmosphere, and I suppose that is the intention, so yeah I'd recommend it. Rusko is playing on the 26th of February (Still takes me a few trys to spell that month right) I'll be there, hopefully playing out a new song, so make sure you come say hi, I get lonely.
Highlight of the night has to be Sian seeing a man be sick all over himself. That must have ruined his night, no matter how much he loves the repitition of Drum'n'Bass.
10. Felt Out Of Place Seeing A Band I Love.
It's been a long time since I went to a specifically 'Indie' gig (Yeah I know, they're not indie because they're singed to Polydor, rah rah rah, you all know what I mean) and I had kind of missed it, so it was really nice to go and see them. They rifled through crowd pleasers like Precious Time, Love You Better, and First Love, and they were surprisingly tight, a lot tighter than the last time I saw them, really impressive. But the night did point out a few things to me that I don't miss whatsoever. Firstly the other people that go, full of girls desperately trying to look both eighteen, and cooler than the girl stood next to her, and 'lads' filled to the lager loving brim with Stella' and finding it wholly appropriate to crowdsurf during Toothpaste Kisses. Secondly, bouncers. I think this every time I go out at night it seems. I know a lot of bouncers, and they are all nice people so this is in no way a reflection on them, but it seems they are far more concerned with finding something on a stop and search, or dragging someone out, than they are with ensuring that the people at the event are having a nice time. I mean I was made to wait in a queue outside the building, whilst the people I was with were allowed to go join the queue inside the building, I'm perfectly capable of queuing, I don't see how the three metre gap between me and the ticket check point is going to be of any benefit, if anyone was incapable of queuing I'm sure that would have been made clear during the period of time we spent queuing outside? Pfft. The last thing I haven't missed since not being at an Indie gig for a while is the chanting. I don't know who these people are, or why they think it's a good idea, but doing football-esque "We love you Maccabees, We do" chants while they prepare for the next song really gets on my nerves. Music is an artform, there are talented musicians stood in front of us wanting to perform their art to us, please stop chanting at them.
That's not to take away from their performance though, was a really good set, and the line up for the rest of the NME Awards tour looks really good, so I urge you to go check it out.
So there it is, my list of ten things, just like every other blog in the world. If you have made it this far down the page, well done, go rest your eyes and get a drink, then watch something on TV to relieve your boredom (:
In other news, I was always cynical of high definition televison, I couldn't see a great difference when those demonstrative televisions showed the difference in various shops, but since setting up the HDMI output on my Playstation I am a changed man. I urge you, set up high definition, and buy Fifa or COD, the realism is mindblowing, my degree is going down the pan, but my Fifa ranking is going through the roof.
Sian's Blog
The Maccabees
Chase and Status
NME Awards Tour
Totally Radical Awesome
Rage Against The Machine
Academy of Contemporary Music
