Hangover Reflections

Over the past week or so now I've been looking into different routes into the music industry; returning to college, gaining experience or getting in the thick of performing on open mic nights to create a base of work. All I’ve found so far is that college will cost a bomb, you can’t get experience “without previous experience” and my schedule disallows the progression of my creative mojo.

Thankfully, my experience in Cathouse as a DJ assistant is doing me great favours in giving me insights behind the usual view of a punter - Dance until a song you don’t know comes, go for a drink, repeat.

Over the 7 or so jobs I’ve had so far, the only one directly linked to music is the one that I can step back and say “I love my job”. I almost feel cheeky saying it’s a job because it’s just like “I’m getting paid for this? Really?!” Yeah there are drawbacks like the hours I work and amount of travel, but it’s all worth it.

So to want to move in that direction but lack the qualifications is frustrating. I’m all for “Temporary bad, longer good”. I apply it to everything in life so each of the options I have I’m seeing pros and cons, sacrifices and gains and weighing them up.
The ultimate gain, of course, is reaching my goal of having a foothold in music.

If my life could be summed up through song, right now its Proud Mary; Nice and simple, a happy song but a bit repetitive. Now is the time to kick it into Raining Blood. Fast paced, exciting and never knowing what’s coming next, and yet, still structured. Baby steps in the right direction is better than no steps at all!

One day I’ll reach that status, although given we’re in Scotland it’ll be more rain than blood.

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Foo Fighters are teasing us...

So it has just been poured online that Foo Fighters have posted an 8 second clip of a recording of a speaker. Although in description that sounds less than intriguing, clock on the sound and you will hear Dave Grohl screaming “All Rise!”.

It’s so far believed that this could be the first 8 seconds of their new album release as it falls in line with the recent social media frenzy depicting the rumoured cover of Foo’s new album. Of course all is speculation. These could be cleverly marketing promo stunts...which are working!

Link to the video is here

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REVIEW: Alter Bridge – Fortress (2013)

“Fortress” was the fourth, highly anticipated studio album released by Alter Bride. It was the product of 3 years of work while touring, the band’s hiatus while frontman Myles Kennedy toured with Slash and guitarist Mark Tremonti was writing his own album “All I Was”. Producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette coordinated the album and has worked with Alter Bridge on their previous albums Blackbird and AB III.

Prior to its release, “Addicted to Pain” was the lead single for the album and received a great reception which was the sign for what was ahead. “Fortress” in its first week sold 30,000 copies and opened at the top new album releases in the US, Canada and Sweden based on iTunes sales.

Fortress is a great example of Alter Bridge broadcasting their talents, both as a band and from each of the members. Each of them brought their own influence into the composition and you can tell these worked perfectly
“Cry of Achilles” – the album’s first track – brings an intricate, fair paced finger picking introduction similar to that of “Anastasia” from Slash’s record “Apocalyptic Love” (2012) that Myles Kennedy provided vocals for. This snippet of similarity opens doors for those listening to the album to get into Slash’s new material as well.

“Fortress” also featured the track “Water Rising” which has Mark Tremonti on lead vocals, a first for Alter Bridge on a recording stance. A move like this was beneficial for the band as they were then described as “experimental”. Tremonti’s album itself received great reception. Both “Fortress” and “All I was” complimented each other when it came to their separate releases.

Personal opinion on “Fortress”? I love it. The year they were in hiatus dragged by for me and although Tremonti and Kennedy were releasing material through different project is just wasn’t cutting it for me. When they pre-released the full album online I spent days listening to it and couldn’t wait for it to be available to purchase. The slower songs like “Lover” and “Calm the Fire” took a while to grow on me, but they perfectly showcase Myles Kennedy’s powerful voice and the unison of the band.

I would highly recommend “Fortress” without a second thought and I still listen to it just as much now as I did when it was first out.

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Best Degree Ever?

So I recently stumbled upon this course which is by far the coolest qualification to have;

A Degree in Heavy Metal. That’s right, you read that correctly.
It may as well say on your award “I am certifiably awesome”.

Looking into the course content it focuses mainly on music performance that takes you to a whole bunch of venues and concludes in a UK tour with your band! It goes on to cover the back end of music business (event management, promotions, live sound and so much more) giving experience for people looking to get into the music industry without being the centre of attention.

The course also educates in heavy metal theory looking at the history and contextualisation of heavy metal. So not only will you know how to play, promote and generally have an amazing foothold in the genre, you’ll be able to know exactly what it means.

Being the only course of its kind in the entire UK this degree comes with some amount of demand. Based on the rock scene in Nottingham, with many rock venues including Rock City, the success rate and contacts you would gain from this is unimaginable.

I could definitely get behind the idea of this being a mandatory course in all universities and colleges in the UK. This is as close to “School of Rock” as you will ever get (minus Jack Black, of course)

If being able to say “I have a degree in Heavy Metal” isn’t a life goal, I’m lost for what is.

To have a nosey and subsequent life direction change, here are the details.

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Celebrations, Commiserations and Thanks

As the weekend now closes in I find myself simultaneously celebrating and commiserating. My usual Saturday routine of working in the club draws to its last month and while I can say I will not miss the 4am bus home with Glasgow’s finest as company. Nor miss the fact I’d much rather be tucked up in bed watching Sons of Anarchy with the other half. But what I will miss is the buzz of seeing people throw down when their jam comes on. And the beer. Always miss the beer.

What I can take away from it though, is the direction it’s giving me in life. To be the guy that can say “yeah I’ll sort it out for you” is a nice feeling, even if it is just playing that one song. If it’ll make someone’s day I’ll have done my job.

On a lighter note - I’m glad to see this page growing, all be it very gradual. For those one people reading this in Poland and The Philippines, the cluster of people in the USA and a bunch over here in the UK – Kudos to you!. You’re the reason I’m becoming more committed to this and with more followers comes more content and more content is more enjoyable for everyone!

So yeah, keep doing what you’re doing and I’ll hold up my end.

Horns out!

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HMT – Number of the Bleach

Even we metalheads have days when chores simply must be done. Whether it’s washing your favourite pair of black jeans that just aren’t like the 20 other pairs you have, dusting down your amps or generally tidying the result of one of the many beer fuelled parties you host, you’d always prefer to sit on your arse and blast some metal.

Salvation! You can join the two in order to make the cleaning bearable. A hand crafted list of must-play songs when cleaning will see you through.

Please note: Anything can be used as a guitar when cleaning.

I Want To Break Free – Queen
No cleaning should be started without taking inspiration from the drag queen housemaids who can hold a tune. Hell, if you’re not in drag to start you’re already doing it wrong.

Cult of Personality – Living Colour
Easing nicely into some 80s funk metal you can sing along to the politically driven song and feel the need to fight against your own agenda of wiping down the sink.

Pour Some Sugar On Me – Def Leppard
There’s nothing like doing the dishes to a bit of Def Leppard while Joe Elliot sings about adding the finishing touches to his lemon drizzle cake (that’s clearly the underlying theme of the song)

Crazy Train – Ozzy Osbourne
This riff is scientifically proven to lift your mood from the housework blues
*details of the experiment was personally tried and tested

Run to the Hills – Iron Maiden
Cleaning may make you feel like this and I don’t blame you, but the nice fast beat will help you whizz round the living room with the hoover and you can even appropriately use it as an air guitar.

Gravel Road – Clutch
Fast paced country rock is bound to get your blood pumping. Hey, by now you should almost be enjoying yourself!

Burn It Down – AWOLNATION
Keeping the tempo up as your bob your arse around the house is the key to successful cleaning. Burn It Down will do more than suffice this requirement.

Hard Rock Hallelujah – Lordi
Everyone needs a little Lordi.

Absolute Zero – Stone Sour
Getting into your chunkier beats this will get you headbanging, get you angrier and you can use the rage to scrape the burnt pasta off the bottom of the pot

Cowboys from Hell – Pantera
Finishing nice and strong with Phil Anselmo, by now you should have the floors clear to go absolutely nuts with your mop guitar and celebrate the end of your cleaning quest. Enjoy it for now, because you know you’ll have to do it all over again eventually...


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Foos for thought

Recently I find myself daydreaming a lot about what I want to do; imagining scenarios of standing on an arena stage facing tens of thousands of fans. Granted, this usually happens when the office has come to a grinding halt and my thoughts have the freedom to wander, but it’s still a nice reminder of an end goal.

Listening to Alter Bridge, Breaking Benjamin,Foo Fighters, Motorhead...all my influences and loves are just sitting there festering in my mind offering nothing but amazing music (which obviously I’ll never complain about). The very word “influences” though, gives the idea that whatever I’m doing these guys should be helping motivate me.

Reading into stories and hearing about times where these idols of mine went through similar situations really does bring it home again. Everyone starts somewhere. Everyone has to work their way up and not think about the hard work and effort that has to go in, but how great it’ll be once you get past it all.

That sudden realisation hit me like a brick wall and now I’m going to drive and commit to getting where I want to be. My dreams are becoming one of my focuses. All the people who say “aw that’s just a dream” can heave ho to Negativille and I’ll be happy starting my path on reaching doing what I love. Dream big.

Download Headliner? I can manage that.

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So...Slipknot did a thing.

If you happen to have been locked in a box for the past week or so, you can’t have missed the fact that Slipknot have resurfaced!

“The Negative One” was the first instalment of a very exciting, long-awaited album release. Tease after tease of the song and video had come about earlier this month and the hype began with everyone putting in their opinions and predictions. Word from Frontman Corey Taylor says that this is in fact NOT the single of the album and was described as “a gift to the fans”. He went on to say “The single comes out in a few weeks and it’s completely different” as well as mention plans for an October release for the album.

The anticipation of this was only made more intense by the 6 year time gap from Slipknot along with this being the first material released since the untimely passing of Bassist Paul Grey in 2010 and Knot drop out Drummer Joey Jordison parting ways.

In a recent interview, Taylor spoke with BBC Radio 1 Rock Show to give more insight on the new material;

“People don’t know what to expect from us and that’s kinda the way we like it. the great thing is that—I was telling this to somebody the other day—”The Negative One” isn’t our single. That was just a gift for the fans, like we wanted them to hear a piece of the album. The single comes out in a few weeks and it’s completely different. It’s more melodic, but it’s dark, it’s powerful man, its something different, people are going to lose their minds when they hear that.”

“It’s got the spirit. The thing I love is that everyone’s reactions are very, very similar. They love the fact that there’s new Slipknot out. They also love the fact that it feels like old school meets new school. Like you can feel the original craziness of the early stuff but you can tell that the evolution has happened. And that’s kind of what we were shooting for, ya know? Remember I said I wanted the album to feel like a cross between “Iowa” and “Vol. 3” and I think we did that. Wait till you hear the whole album, because this story is so deep and so honest and so crazy that people are going to lose their minds when they hear it.”

Taylor gave a better idea of where the album stands just now and what we can expect from the release later this year;

"I'm not sure what the definite date is. I know we're shooting for October. Because we wanna release it right around the time the Knotfest shows [in San Bernardino, California] happen, so everyone can have it. We've got pretty much all the artwork done, which Shawn [co-founder, conceptualist and percussionist M. Shawn 'Clown' Crahan] did a hell of a job on. We're getting ready… probably in the next couple of weeks, we're gonna shoot a video for the first official single, which is called 'The Devil In I'. So we're gonna shoot a video for that. [And] that's about all I know right now. [Laughs] 'Cause we're still finishing mixes. We've still got a couple of songs left that need final mixes, then it'll go to mastering, and everything will just start kind of coming together, and [we'll come up] with a more stable, final release date, and as soon as we know that, the world will know."

As for the questions left unanswered like who the drummer is and the details of the album, Taylor commented;

"We're keeping a lot of that under wraps, out of fairness, because we want the music to speak for itself," he said.We don't want people listening to our music and making up their minds about something before they even know what the music is. So trust me, you know, when the time is right, we will give you the answers that you need, and that's the way it is."


Speak of a US tour are definite and elsewhere such as the Europe, South America, Australia and the UK are in the works with possibly more show locations.

You can find “The Negative One” video at http://www.slipknot1.com/

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Under Construction!

For anyone keeping up with this page growing some legs, you've probably seen some changes of layout/links/colours and pretty much everything else!
Not to worry! I'm just working out the kinks of making this page perfect for what it'll be used for.

Stay tuned!

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7 tips for a school night session

We’ve all been in that position; Your pals are dying for a night out, it’s destined to be a good’n and you have to say those sorry words – “Can’t tonight lads, I’ve got work tomorrow”. To save yourself a lonely night of binging on munchies, watching an endless amount of DVDs and - of course - wishing you were out, we have devised a 7 step plan to allow you to enjoy your night free of envy.

1. Know your drinks – By now you should have a pretty good of what gets you steaming, what boggs you down the morning after and what makes you dance on top of the bar with your top off. For a midweek bev, make sure to know what you enjoy that doesn’t have the bad repercussions.

2. For those who don’t know their drinks – Don’t know your limit? No problem! As a rough idea, easy drinks that take a while to finish are good on nights like this. Always having a drink in your hand that is there for a while is ideal – things like beer, cider or if you’re feeling fancy - a long vodka. Spirits, doubles and all things that comes in a shot are all bad for a night like this.

3. Make a budget - In light of point one, everything is good in moderation. Plan to take enough money to see you a few drinks to get the buzz and the ride home. Ergo – take 60 quid with you and you’ll spend every penny, probably have a decent night but have some amount of regret in the morning.

4. Make room for “peer pressure” – Inevitably, once you’re out you will fall to the timeless “aw, go on. Have a drink!” chants from your group. If you’re smart enough to know that this will happen, make sure it’s slipped into your drink allowance of the night. Results – don’t get over your limit and keep your pals happy (for a while). More so, if the chant comes round again you can say you’ve already had the peer pressure drink.

5. Break it up – Make sure to have a soft drink in there every so often. If you have a drink in your hand it probably won’t be questioned. A cheeky half pint of Coke or Lemonade can pass for something with vodka in it and holds off the people who are destined to get you legless.

6. Once you’re home – To take advantage of the time you have in the morning; get everything you need ready for the morning in place so getting up is a breeze and you don’t need to spend time flapping because you can’t find any clean underwear. Also have a glass of water sitting beside you for waking up, it’ll do a world of good.

7. Most importantly HAVE FUN! – Don’t spend the whole night thinking “...I’ve got work tomorrow”. You’re out now. Enjoy it. If you hold back you’ll drag down your group buzz and the night out will be a bit of a waste and you’ll still feel awful in the morning regardless. You can still have fun without being fuelled with gallons of alcohol (note: Mum phrases will not be used often here)

7 ½. Don’t have Sambuca – Really. Don’t.

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