Even More Music Pickups! Remix Addition

So, I bet this is getting kind of annoying having so many music pickup posts so close together, so I swear the next blog will be about something else and will actually have substance unlike the previous blog lol.

Anyway here are some CD's I recently bought

Bis - Plastique Nouvau



OK, so I basically got this CD because it was obviously a DJ copy with write saying what tracks would be good to play in the club and what songs are dancible lol, but it is actually really really good. If you don't know who Bis is, they were an indie pop band who did a song I bet many of you remember, The Powerpuff Girls theme song! Anyway, this was their last CD and it's basically straightforward electronic music! Yep, that's right a pop group that had a CD full of electronic music with very minimal singing. The whole CD reminds me of another band, Alice in Videoland. This Cd actually sounds so good it makes me wonder why Bis wasn't an electronic band, but then I remember I still like their poppy music too lol. Anyway here are my favorite songs on this CD

"Protection (Nude Mix)"

"The End Starts Today (Tommie Sunshine's "Nail Me Down" Glasgow Summer Freestyle Mix)"  - Ok so this track does actually have a lot of singing, but hey, I think it's most singing on the whole CD lol.                                                  


Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral (and The Perfect Drug [Versions])


 


I originally wasn't going to get any NIN Cd's because for some reason I don't like getting CD's from extremely popular bands since I think their CD will always be available and other bands (like All Gone Dead or Ashbury Height) will either go waaaaay up in value or won't even be available when I want to buy it. However I ended up caving and buying these two CDs when I was at my local used CD store (the one really close to my house isn't a good one though, it's basically like a gigantic Wallmart, but they do have a huge collection of old CD's and video games, as well as books too, however their huge selection usually doesn't have any of the CD's that I really want and only a few bands I actually listen to (which is crazy since I listen to a ton of bands, but then again I don't listen to a whole lot of popular bands since I find most of my music on the internet lol, although I do have to say that I would really doubt a store like this would have Turkish pop music... yes that is the kind of music I loooove to listen to and it's totally the opposite of goth, Blaspheme! Lol.).....

Anyway back on topic, The Downward Spiral is OK and The Perfect Drug is a great single. The Downward Spiral has a few well known NIN songs like March of the Pigs, Closer, and Hurt, and The Perfect Drug has 5 different remixes with 4 different bands (yes, NIN did their own remix lol), including Meat Beat Manifesto, and Spacetime Continuum. My favorite songs on these CD's are

"Heresy" 

"March of the Pigs" 

"The Perfect Drug (Meat Beat Manifesto Mix)"

"The Perfect Drug (Spacetime Continuum Mix)"

Both of the remixes aren't on youtube so here's the original song

Front Line Assembly - Re-Wind



So this is basically just a whole remix CD, on the first disk FLA did all their own remixes, however on the second disk there are many different artists/bands that did the remixes (like Front 242). I really like this CD since it's more on the electronic side of FLA and not really metal sounding like some of their earlier stuff (ex. Millennium) Anyway my favorite tracks on this CD are

"Aftermath (We All Shall Perish-Mix)"

"Evil Playground (Chainsaw Mix)"


Wolfsheim - Popkiller



Wolfsheim's 4th album, 2nd CD. This is probably my least wanted Wolfsheim CD, however since Wolfsheim is such a hard band to find where I live I had to get it, and since I like Wolfsheim anyway it still ended up being a good CD. I don't believe it has any of their popular songs though  (Tender Days and Lovesong might be popular but idk, the songs I remember from Wolfsheim aren't on this CD lol). For those of you who don't know, Wolfsheim is basically in the slow and more emotional synth-pop/electronic music like the band VNV Nation, if you like them you'll probably like Wolfsheim. Anyway my favorite songs on this CD are

"Entropy" - Actually one of my favorite Wolfsheim songs

"Tender Days"

Let's Talk About The Weather!

Actually how about not since that would make a very boring blog, unless we talk about global warming or something like that, but I'm not going to do that, sorry random person wishing I would talk about global warming.

Anyway I don't really know what to really blog about, I'm trying to do a post every day though so I need to come up with something.... How about I do a blog post about coming up with a blog post and then the blog post I come up with is a blog post about doing a blog post about a blog post.... Nah, that would be too confusing for people.

OK so now being serious I have nothing to really talk about in this blog post, I mean I recently got these nice pants on amazon but I have no clue if I can wear them and not get crap for it or if they're too girly (I have a huge problem of not knowing what clothing is for guys and what is for girls, and because of that if I'm unsure of the clothing and it's something I like I'll either get it or try to get it and it turns out being for woman lol I'm so bad at "being a guy" lol. and I'm probably totally weirding you all out, but what do you expect from me? :P )


Laces (above) No Laces (down)



OK, so more music pickups will most likely be the next blog, followed by some actual Halloween themed blogs (omg Halloween themed blogs in October what is going on?) if everything goes to plan and I actually keep on posting blogs!

Until then I'm off to get some sleep (I ended up almost missing class because I basically slept through my alarm lol, gotta get to bed earlier tonight!) Also if anyone gets the title reference you get 20 goth points! lol

The Stereotypical But Unusual Emo Post With Special Guest Mr. Music Pickup.

I want to start out this blog by saying sorry it's been so long since my previous blog post, I intended on making a "moving into my dorm" post but the day was too busy and I ended up forgetting, so here you go a new blog post just 2 months late!

Anyway, University has been going pretty badly, not because of the classes (there's only one I don't like) but because I think it basically kicked up my gender-dysphoria (with soooo many reminders that I'm not a girl) which in turn kicked up my depression. It seems like whenever I'm alone or I'm not hanging out with my friends or family I tend to think about myself and that isn't exactly the best thing for me to do because I reflect on everything and I get depressed because I think of myself and cannot stand that I was born a guy, along with other things like not having many friends that live in the dorm (I have like 1 or 2, and all the friends in my classes drive to University from where they live), or not having a girlfriend, or other stuff.I hate saying that I'm depressed because I hate and it makes it seem like all Gothic people are depressed when they are not! I also hate it because my life isn't as bad as other people I am in University, and I already my Associates degree, I have a job (just got that at University a few days after I got here), I have some good friends even if I can't hang out with them that much, heck,  I even won a guitar at some University event! But to be blatantly honest I would give up that guitar in a heartbeat if it meant I would have a great girlfriend or amazing friends in the dorm, or I would especially give it up if it meant I could start life over as a girl.

However, lately I bought a Genesis and some video games and that seemed to help take my mind off of this stuff for a bit which is good for now, but I still need to see a gender therapist in the future though I'm just kind of scared and nervous about starting therapy.

OK, enough depressing news here's Mr. Music Pickup to save the post from being too depressing! Here's more music I picked up from over the summer to now.

Alien Sex Fiend  - Fiend At The Controls



Alien Sex Fiend is a hit-or-miss band for me, some of their songs I just love (like E.S.T Trip To The Moon, and Magic) but then there are some songs that I just cannot stand at all (such as Smells Like..). However I think this CD is pretty good! It has tons of dubs (I believe those are basically instrumental remix tracks), other remixes, and a few demos and original tracks, and one interview. Oh and apparently it seems like this CD is kind of expensive, so I guess it was good I found it for $7 basically brand new! My favorite tracks on this CD are


"Comatose (The Ultra Mix)"

"Mrs. Fiend Goes To Outer Space (Edit)" - best song on the whole CD in my opinion


ASP - Hast Du Mich Vermisst



In my opinion ASP can be a really good band when they sing in English in German they're ok. However I found out almost all my favorite ASP songs were on this disk so I had to get it lol


"Where Do The God's Go?"

"Sing Child"

"Imbecile Anthem"


Emilie Autumn - Liar/Dead is the New Alive EP



When I saw this CD being sold at a decent price on Amazon I knew I had to buy it, it's one of the hardest Emilie Autumn CD's to find, the only one that might be harder is her Laced/Unlaced album, and it has some really great acoustic songs that are found only on this CD, not to mention some great remixes! There are remixes on this CD from Brendon Small, ASP, Angelspit, Dope Stars Inc, and Velvet Acid Christ). Now I basically have every EA CD (besides some of her early EP's) I just need to get Laced/Unlaced and Enchant from "real" labels and not the stupid IronD one... Oh and the best part was that this CD was autographed by Emilie Autumn! My favorite songs on this CD are (hint some of the only acoustic songs EA ever did)


"In the Lake"

"Let It Die" - learn the lyrics in Spanish! :P


Project Pitchfork - Dhyani



One of my favorite albums by Project Pitchfork (it's also their first) it is pretty much great electronic-industrial music at it's finest and some people think it sounds similar to Skinny Puppy. I see that a little bit because they both sing oddly, however Project Pitchfork is easier to listen to (if you haven't heard any Skinny Puppy before, if you have then they're both not that hard to listen to lol), and they are still both very different bands. You can really see that now if you compare their new stuff. It also seems like this album might be a little bit rare, but who knows lol.Anyway there are some really good songs on this album that are my favorite songs I've heard from Project Pitchfork They are

"K.N.K.A"

"2nd Step"


Well it's getting late, so I may end up posting a new blog in the future with more CD's, I need to start making more blogs on here, so maybe I'll try to post almost every day in October from now until Halloween? Idk

Pickups from late-ish 2011 to Now, A Few of Many

Sorry, for some reason blogger messed up and I have no idea how to remove the text background color completely :(


I was going to make a blog last week, but I just felt horrible about what happened in the Aurora Theater shooting :( I feel horrible for everyone who was effected by that disgusting event that took place and my heart goes out to everyone. I wish I could not make this as generic as it sounds but I am never great at saying how bad I feel for the victims :( RIP, you deserve to be remembered and not the insane homicidal maniac. The victims will live on through their loved ones and will never be forgotten. 


Now that I got the sad part of this blog out of the way, let's get into new music I got (it's totally important right? Lol nah, I just make these blogs so others may find new bands to enjoy)! I bought a lot more music than this but I am just going over the highlights (and more "gothy" bands, since I bet more of my readers will be into that kind of music. I doubt many people would be super thrilled that I got Junta from Phish or Riot! by Paramore lol). Oh, before I get started I just want to say all the links in this blog will open up the music in a new tab so don't worry about having to constantly hit the back button.


1). Santa Hates You - Crucifix Powerbomb . This is one of my favorite CD's I own it's like industrial mixed with techno with aggressive singing but not too aggressive (I know that isn't the best description but it's a hard band to describe lol). I love how this band doesn't take itself seriously and is basically Peter Spilles' band that he uses to make "fun" music. that being said, you cannot discount Jinxy because PS is such a huge name, she is also amazing. This is basically accessible dance industrial music made by two people having fun, and you will be hard-pressed to find another band like them. Yeah that sums it up well lol. There is one thing that I hate about this band though, they have never toured in the US. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? They have been around for 5 years (possibly more) and it doesn't seem like they went on many tours so far (I guess it's understandable but still I want to see them live lol).


My Favorite Songs


EVERYTHING (Lol ok, so I have to pick 2 since I don't want to list every single song, so I'm picking the two songs that have music videos out, just to show you how "serious" this band is. If you like them you should definitely check out their music video for "Raise The Devil" it is pretty funny, oh and if you're not in the mood for music then maybe check out their mini FAQ video, it's hilarious). 


Rocket Heart


Hexenpolizei 


2) Hannah Fury - The Thing That Feels. Hannah Fury is an artist who has both of her full length albums sold out! This kind of sucks because both of the CD's are good. Anyway, The Thing That Feels is Hanna Fury's first full length album and I really enjoy it, all she uses is her piano and her voice. Hannah Fury sings all of these songs in a manner that almost gives you chills! If any of you have heard of Kate Bush, Hannah Fury kind of sounds like her, and she also kind of sounds like Emilie Autumn (with EA's more slow-piano songs). This album is also pretty interesting because almost every song is based on the book Wicked: The Life and Time of the Wicked Witch of the West. I believe this is a sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and it got turned into that play "Wicked". I love listening to her songs because you can tell what characters she is singing about (however I never read Wicked so I don't really know the story). However, even though I do love this CD there is one BIG downfall, almost every song sounds the same! I actually didn't mind that on this album but it does limit the album, especially if you don't like the style of any track since there really isn't much variety in this CD :( 


Favorite Songs (because every song sounds so similar I'm only going to be linking one even though I love the entire CD).


The Vampire Waltz 


3) Hannah Fury - Through the Gash. Hannah fury keeps her haunting tone, but now she adds some drums, overlapping vocals, and her music seems a little bit more electronic now. This is definitely a step up from The Thing That Feels  for two reasons, she does have some variety in this CD, and she seems to be growing as an artist, by now adding more instruments! There are some really interesting songs on this CD like the ironically named "Don't Be Scared" which creeps you out and is very otherworldly at the same time.... actually Hannah Fury is the first artist that comes to my mind when someone says ethereal! 


Favorite Songs (The first actually has a music video out, and tell me she doesn't look like Kate Bush lol)


Carnival Justice (The Gloves Are Off) pt 2


Status


4). Ego Likeness - East . This is an AMAZING EP! For those of you who don't know, Ego Likeness has made 4 EP's, each of them based on a direction (South, West, North, East) I believe they have all been limited edition but I do not know how many of each (except for East, only 300 of those). This is what I hate about this CD I wish so many more people could experience how great this EP is (I can't lie though, I do kinda love that this CD is going to be hard to find and I have it lol). However, seeing how Ego Likeness operates they might make a few songs on this CD free to download off of their website (they're awesome like that, makes me want to support them more).


Favorite Tracks


Persona Non Gratis


Tea in Sahara 


6). Emilie Autumn - Fight Like A Girl. What can I say except I was kind of let down with this album. I think my biggest disappointment was that none of these songs were adapted from a poem or a play. EA's main CD's (Enchant and Ophiliac) both had amazing song adaptations of old pieces of literature (like Shalott, or my favorite of EA's songs, Juliet) and those were some of my favorite songs on her CD's. Sadly this CD is basically just the musical from her Asylum book (from what I understand). That's not to say there are not any songs I love off of this album but there are just songs on here that I simply can't stand, which is very hard for me to say since I love almost everything Emilie Autumn has put out and there has been so few EA songs I didn't like before this album came out. In all fairness though Emilie Autumn did tell everyone what kind of CD this was going to be. I do think it was a mistake to release the CD and not have a whole extra part of a live show because it really sounds like a soundtrack to something that could be an amazing play.


   Oh and I should say that even though I did not get my CD in the mail yet, the Digipak looks amazing! I do love collecting Emilie Autumn's CD's and even though this is my least favorite of hers it does have some good songs and I don't regret buying it. However if you were expecting that "Harder" stuff I believe EA said (I think I saw someone comment about how she said Fight Like A Girl was going to be harder than Ophiliac if I remember correctly, sadly that was only true for a few like maybe 4 or so out of 17! However it is great to see that this CD has quite a few songs on it), you should download the harder songs on itunes (when it's out on there, you could also visit her website and listen to song samples if you want). However, I really really really recommend seeing her live because I feel like this CD was made for her live show instead of a stereo, and since EA always has amazing live shows, I'm thinking this will be her best one(s) yet!


Favorite Songs (I'm adding more because of how hard I came off on this CD lol)


Fight Like A Girl


Time For Tea


Take The Pill


Goodnight, Sweet Ladies




OK that's about it I might end up making another blog about more CD's I picked up and my thoughts on them. Peace <3

Addendum to previous blog "A Short Rant on Discrimination..."

So I was thinking of adding to my older blog "A Short Rant on Discrimination Plus a Game Plan for Future Blogs", but as you know I'm obviously kind of lazy lol. So, instead I found this really good video that basically just says what I would have said in my blog.

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAdJUm79xi4

That's about it for this blog, don't worry I'll make a decently long one soon! (and I don't think it'll be another chapter "review" of 50 Shades of Grey, unless anyone wants me to read another chapter *shudders* lol)

Hello Love - A Poorly Written Review of the Poorly Written First Chapter of Fifty Shades of Grey

I glare with terror at the book in the front of me. What the - did I just write an awkward sentence to post in this blog post? OMG am I'm cursed with the curse of bad writing? What kind of horribleness is this?

           OK, I'll stop now, but wow this book is badly written. I was amazed when I read the first chapter of this book and almost died of brain damage, I mean I heard that this book had some bad writing, but I didn't think the writing would be as bad as it is. I honestly don't know if I can write a review of the next chapter, it's been such a chore to read this awkwardly written literature... I should say story shouldn't I? Literature makes it seem like it was professionally written.

           Background: To start off, Fifty Shades of Grey is a book written by a woman named E. L. James. This book started off as a Twilight fanfiction, that's your hint that the book is not exactly what you might call impressive. However I hear that there are some fan fiction stories that are actually pretty good, so it isn't really all that fair to judge this book just because it started off as a fan fiction novel.

          Also, to be fair, I actually did not mind the first Twilight movie (obviously based off the book, and I know it's blasphemy so put some tar on me and throw feathers this way lol), but that movie just didn't have super irritating characters (yet), they were just bland. So I was thinking, hey there might be a chance that I won't dislike this book. Well, sadly, that is not the case. So far the main reason I don't like this book is not because it is horribly written, but because it was a best seller, turning it into a symbol to how low the intellectual level has fallen. People actually think this is good and decently written! I admit, I'm not the best writer either, but I'm pretty sure I'm a better writer than the author of this book! I guess the difference between E.L. James and I is that I'm not narcissistic and I realize that I should not be writing books (or at least if I ever end up write one I would have someone check them for mistakes over and over again). I mean oh my god, this writer sounds like she is 15 years old and is writing her private romantic fantasy novel about that one guy in her class whom she fantasies about being with. There is nothing publish worthy about this, how did it not get rejected? Did this woman even pass English class? I'm sorry if I'm sounding so harsh but it is amazing to read something published with such badly written sentences, I'm still in shock at what I just read. Didn't E.L. James' writing teacher ever tell her to show not tell?

          Anyway moving on to the plot of the first chapter. It starts off with Kate (the protagonist's roommate) having the flu so the protagonist (named Ana) has "been volunteered" to do an interview with a "mega-industrialist tycoon". Kate tells Ana that she is once again her lifesaver, and we realize how the author sees this character, the savior of the story (which I believe will come up later when she tries to "save" her future lover from his "awful" bdsm lifestyle. Which, by the way, is not a lifestyle people need saving from if they are in it >:( but I'll get to that if or when I come to it).

        Ana goes to the "headquarters of Mr. Grey’s global enterprise" AKA Grey Enterprises Holdings Inc. (Interestingly enough this is the first time Mr. Grey's name is mentioned, we the reader do not know who Mr. Grey is, and all we can assume is that he is who Kate was supposed to interview. But is Mr. Grey the CEO, is he owner of this enterprise and thus not the person Ana is going to interview, or is he both? We do not know because he hasn't really been introduced). Finally she starts interviewing him after meeting two of his blonde receptionists. Finally we get a name, Christian Grey. These two talk and do the interview is done (finally we know that Mr. Grey is both the CEO and the owner of the company, and an interview is "totally" not a lazy way of flushing out the character of Christian). During this interview Christian asks “Are you colleagues on the student paper?” (James, 14), this either makes me think that Christian has a bad time with the English language or that E.L. James or her editor did not look at the story close enough to see a basic mistake.  Anyway, back to the story. Christian ends up offering Ana an internship at his company, but she turns him down (at least right now), and she leaves the building and drives home.


      Review for this chapter: It was horrible lol, but I do suggest anyone who does not think that a book would be published with such terrible writing go check this out, read a chapter on Amazon. WARNING: You might give yourself a concussion by the time you're done with reading a page of this book, PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

     Also, I would like to ask why there are so many references to the color grey, Ana's last name is Steele, the love interest is named Mr. Grey, the building where the interview takes place is made of steel, the outfit the secretary has on is black and white (mixed together = grey), Mr. Grey has grey eyes, etc. This author repeats words so much on some instances while I was reading the story I was like "let me guess, you're going to say that the desk is sandstone again", or "OMG I bet I can't guess what color Mr. Grey is wearing is, and what color his eyes are. They are purple right? Totally won't be grey, nope not at all" (sorry, sarcasm is hard to show on a computer).

    Quoting Fifty Shades of Grey "Nothing changes" (James, 8), this is the perfect quote to express the extent of repetition in this story. EVERYTHING IS FREAKIN' GREY!!!!! What is the author's obsession with Grey? Is that her favorite color?


Random Works Cited For Fun (yay)!

James, E. L. Fifty Shades of Grey. Waxahachie, TX: Writer's Coffee Shop, 2011. Print.

A Short Rant on Discrimination Plus a Game Plan for Future Blogs

Sorry it took so long for a new post, I'm still taking classes (and sadly I'll be taking them all summer, but at least I'll graduate when I'm done with the summer semester lol).

Anyway I was thinking about doing a blog about this topic a while ago but school kind of got in the way, luckily classes haven't been as hectic so now I can do a blog about discrimination.

Since discrimination is a gigantic issue I'm only going to be covering the Goth discrimination against other Goths since, obviously, this is a Gothic blog lol and I do find it pretty sad that some of this stuff is happening.

So, narrowing this type of discrimination down even more, this is the discrimination that (mostly older) Goths do to either younger Goths, or people that are new to Gothic culture.

 I don't understand this, I mean we are already discriminated by society so why do some Goths feel like they should discriminate against newer or younger Goths? You would think that people who know how discrimination feels would be less judgmental of others, but yet there are Goths who make fun of, hate on, pick on younger Goths or people newer to Gothic subculture calling them "posers" and the like, and not paying any attention to them.

I personally say if these people want to be called Goths and look Gothy then they should go for it, I'll support them . I mean everybody has different preferences, some people might love the Gothic look but hate Gothic music, some might love Gothic art, and literature but can't stand the look.

Even though I am extremely supportive for anyone who wants to enter into the Gothic subculture, I will easily hate anyone who comes into this subculture as a way to justify their hatred, anger outbursts, depression, and other things such as a way to get attention. These kinds of people are what makes other people afraid or makes them dislike Gothic culture and helps fuel the prejudiced that they have.



Now that that is done, it's time for a "happier" subject. I've been racking my brain trying to think of something to blog about and I could not think of anything, but luckily one of the people I'm subscribed to on youtube made a video about a bestseller book that sounds horrible, so I thought "hey, why read it over the summer and post blogs about each chapter!" So, on the next blog prepare to see an overview of Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One. I'm sorry if I'll be offending anyone by the review, but it does sound pretty bad, poorly written, and anti-BDSM culture :( So I just couldn't resist lol. How does this tie into Gothic culture? Well it ties in loosely (probably very loosely) to Gothic culture by the BDSM part, but who knows maybe some of the characters are Gothic. Oh, and I guess it originally started off as a Twilight Fanfiction novel, yeah that book hardly has anything to do with the Gothic culture too, but it did unite most Goths who all started saying how horrible the author's depictions of Vampires are. I guess this book is kind of like the same but instead of Vampire lovers uniting against Twilight, it's BDSM lovers and supporters against Shades of Grey... but that's just from watching a long video about the book, maybe I'll change my mind when reading it?