The Storyboard is a good friend of mine's band. In fact, I guess I reserve the right to call all of the members my friends, because honestly that's what they have all become. Their music is more on the indie side of things, it's got a dark alcoholic vibe though, highlighted by lighter fun songs, with a twist of horror movie and 80's film references that all comes full circle to melodic, 6 piece love songs. The best thing about them by far is the diversity of instruments they have on stage and the great one liners throughout the whole CD. It's something for every one in the indie fan base. They just released their full album on itunes not too far back and they have plenty on the way. Check them out!
Kenny Custom man, what can I say. This kid is sick. His rhymes are well thought out and eloquently executed. He doesn't rely on bashing, cursing, speed or up-selling his ego to get his words to appeal. You can tell he's doing this for a deeper cause and it's bigger than anything you can buy or bang or smoke. He literally spits the truth and his old school sound as a backdrop compliments nicely. If your looking for a wholesome, more substanced rap with a bit of a soulful sound try him on for size.
I was browsing through Pinterest the other day and I found this picture of a diy dry erase board calendar. Since I will use any excuse to go to Lowes and steal thousands of free paint swatches, I decided I could fulfill that inner klepto as well as create something unique, useful and beautiful for my dorm/apartment.
What you will need:
- A frame no smaller than 13.5 by 17.5 but I used 14 by 18 I think, if that's possible. Mine was $4.99 at Gabriel Brothers. You can find them at Walmart, Michaels, and Ikea for cheaper though.
- Paint Chips/Swatches/Samples ( You can find these at any hardware or paint store & they are free so take as many as you want.
- Different colored pens/shaarpees
- Scissors & a glue stick.
- A ruler if you're good with one.
- Some type of background to stick everything on to, I suggest flipping over the picture insert with all of the advertisements of the frame and just use that.
WATCH OUT FOR:
- Touching the frame. My frame was black and cheap, as I held the edges to line up the paper and the frame the black paint from the frame rubbed off on my finger tips and I got prints all over my samples, not to worry, this came off with a damp paper towel.
- The only measuring I did was outlining my paper within my frame. All frames have a tiny 1/4 in. of space where the frame juts out and it will cover your work if you glue your swatches right on the edges of your paper. I recommend waiting until you're about to glue, slowly lifting your display onto the cardboard backing. Take the glass out of the frame and put it all together. Take a pen or pencil and go around the outside edges where the frame meets the paper. This way when you take it apart you'll have a line that shows you where to put your cut samples so no white shows through if you don't want it to.
All in all it was a little time consuming, but totally worth the price and a fun cute way to liven up a room.
Not that I'm a real mother in any way... I feel bad though nonetheless, I haven't been posting since school. I have however been "pinning" like crazy! http://pinterest.com/mryseas/ follow me.
Pinterest is a great little website that allows you to make visual pin boards of anything you want. I love it because it gives me a ton of diy ideas and crafty little rules to cleaning and making life simpler, as well as fashion trends and how to braid your hair, all organized neatly on one site. Loves it.
It's free to join, but it's invitation only, waiting for them to email you takes weeks, so if you'd like I can send you an invite via your email if you want to join. Send me a line at mryseas@gmail.com.
Anyway, I'm going to try my very best to start posting not only music related articles, but diy, beauty & health, fashion, and random other organizational projects to keep your life stress-almost-free. Mind you, I do this while writing papers, dealing with roommates, and reading millions of novels. Sike, it's really not that big of a commitment, I'm just lazy. See you soon!
Upcoming indie/folk band out of nothern VA The Story Board just released their first studio album a few days ago. I'm so excited for them. Go check them out and support if you love them. Twitter Facebook Itunes
Finding some really good music on youtube right now.
Youth Lagoon, Princess Chelsea, Wolf Gang, Walk The Moon, Ron Pope, Neon Indian, Arsenal, Oh My!, The Honey Trees, The Art of Sleeping, Radical Free, Paper Lions, The Tallest Man on Earth, The Perishers, Memoryhouse, We Are Trees, White Flight, NonTiq & Those Dancing Days
Check em' all out. Similar to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Foster the People, The Shins, & Grouplove.
Believe you me, despite my dislike of preachy lyrics, I was very excited to listen to the new Attack Attack album released earlier this week. Listening to the first few seconds of the first song I thought, "God damn are they god." Their sound somehow seemed to grow even tighter and their epic heavyness to their songs even bigger and bolder. Then The screaming settled in, "That's different. Is this the right band?" With the change of the logo and the completely serious and grimy artwork I thought I could have mistakenly listened to the wrong band. Nope, it is definitely them guys.
Things that I noticed immediately were different:
-Screamer
-Singer
-Techno interludes and break downs almost non-existent
-Funny titles GONE
-Lyrics not about jesus
-Sound darker
-Rooted more in metal and punk than hardcore and pop
I'm really kind of upset. I never got the chance to see them live and now the sound and line up is so different. They're practically a brand new band. I decided to do a bit of research to see what the hell happened to my crabcore saviors.
Bare with me, this cuss is harder to figure out then calculus. All of this information came from the know all of the internet Wikipedia, the only trusted source on the web, duh. Okay so let me break this down for you guys.
The first, and in my opinion best, full length album Someday Came Suddenly (2008) consisted of members Andrew Wetsel (drums), Andrew Whiting (lead guitar), Austin Carlile (Screamer), Johnny Franck (rhythm guitar/ lead clean vocals), Caleb Shomo (keyboards, synths).
Attack Attack - Stick Stickly 2008
So Austin Carlile gets fired, mistake one. They hire Nick Barham who takes over screaming. He was in the band for like 6 months, mistake two. He was never recorded on any album. Caleb stepped up and started screaming.
Austin Carlile (former singer/screamer?)
So then for the recording of the second self titled album Attack Attack (2010), the line up is recorded as Caleb screaming and playing synths, and Franck on vocals and guitar as usual. I went back and listed to this album while writing this post and I can admit that you can hear some of the changes. I only listened to Smokahontas about a billion times and the album as a whole still retained that techno-fun-rap-poppy singing-ness that the former had, just in less dosage. I guess i figured the screamer was just working on his range, not realizing it was a completely different screamer.
Attack Attack - Smokahontas 2011
Caleb Shomo (current screamer and keys)
Third mistake, Johnny Franck leaves the band to discover god or something. So now the band is forced to find a new singer again. I'm assuming that Caleb recorded screams, clean vocals, and keys on the new album This Means War (2011), I couldn't find much information on that. However, for touring reasons the band has replaced Franck with Sean Mackowski who fills in rhythm guitar and clean vocals while touring.
Johnny Franck (former rhythm guitarist and singer)
So now, the line up is completely altered from the first album. In my opinion the quintessential element of a band that must stay the same is a singer and or screamer. You can generally replace instrumentals without being able to tell a dramatic difference, but singing and screaming to a band as unique in sound as Attack Attack is detrimental. Certain critics have commented that on the self titled album Calebs screams were deep and almost disturbing to now on This Means War (2011) they are higher pitched. I don't hear it. To me his screams will never resemble those of Austin's.
Former
Johnny Franck - rhythm guitar, clean vocals (2007–2010)
Nick Barham - lead vocals (2008–2009)
Austin Carlile - lead vocals (2007–2008)
Ricky Lortz - rhythm guitar, clean vocals (2005–2007)
Nick White - bass guitar (2005–2007)
Touring
Sean Mackowski - rhythm guitar, clean vocals (since 2010)
The first album is crabcore gold in a bottle. This last album however, has no oomph! They are turning into every other cliched hardcore band. Attack Attack used to be hilarious. They had serious lyrics, stupid and humorous titles (Bro, Ashley's Here), great rap intros ("Attack Attack where you at? 2008! hahaha"), and amazing electronica and keyboard break downs and solos. Not to mention their ridiculous invention of the "crabcore dance" (those guys must have thighs, glutes, and quads of steel). The meshing of techno rifs with the double bass and elloquent screams was what set Attack Attack aside from all other bands in the genre, love em' or hate em' you could dance and trash grab to em'! It's what made them famous and the lack of it is what will lead to their demise in mainstream hardcore/metalcore.
I for one am really dissapointed in this new sound of drab hardcore they have going on. There's nothing fun about their music anymore. Their singing parts have become seldom in the last album and their keyboard solos are almost nonexsistent. No more are the slow electronic songs with poppy upbeat breakdowns leading into the best three sounds ever struck. They are still talented no doubt, but they have lost their way as a band and it's very evident. They don't know who they are anymore, they have thrown away what sets them apart from other bands and they are quickly fading into the abyss of once great and unique hardcore music groups grasping for anyone that allows them to still tour.
I ask of you Attack Attack, where is my unknown rapper telling me I'm listening to a second wave of your greatness? Where are you're thoughtless and meaningless titles that I once so looked forward to reading? Where are the techno tracks that I can just skip ahead, and drive like a maniac to? Where are the sick beats interrupted with hardcore/techno break downs, base and double kick? In this new age of dubstep how are you not fitting in seamlessly to a new version of hardcore? Where is your prior genius and why has it been stifled? You have all the resources to grow within your original sound, so grow! Stop unplanting your seeds and joining an over populated garden. Find a field filled with epic beats and super sonic break downs and destroy it with your epic talent. Flourish my little crabkins flourish!
I want crabcore, I want clapping, I want chanting, I want distorted autotuned voice being interrupted by base, and I want techno! So slop it on guys, you have your work cut out for you!
So I've been on a Natalie Portman kick lately. I think physically she is a perfect human being. Ratio wise she resembles a great likeness to Audrey Hepburn in my opinion. Anyway, I've loved her acting since Where The Heart Is. Recently I've become obsessed, so I IMDB'd her and 'm currently attempting to watch all of her movies.
This week thus far I have seen a recommended film by someone in my pop culture class, Leon: The Professional, which was awesome! It features miss Portman when she was thirteen. She was still brilliant. The movie is about a girl from a bad family being taking in by a hit-man. I will say no more. I give it 6 stars. I thought it was very well done for 94.
Last night I watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. For the most part I enjoyed this film, I wish the ending wasn't so abrupt though. 3 1/2 stars.
I followed that with Hesher, staring Joesph Gordon Levit. I thought it was pretty fantastic. The film is about a young boy that just lost his mother. Levit's character is a hardcore metal head that just ruins everything he touches. The movie is along the same lines of humor as Little Miss Sunshine. I laughed quite a few times. 5 stars.
I don't really know if it's just me, but do music videos have no semblance to anything anymore? It's like artists/directors now throw in a ton of crap that makes no sense. Leave some things on the editing room floor, we don't need to see every thought that comes into your creative little brain. This video had a lot of potential.
AT THE DRIVE IN IS GETTING BACK TOGETHER!!! Rumored sometime early next year. I'm so excited. One armed scissor is one of my favorite songs and I loved them before I understood and came to love THE VOLTA! I so can't wait to hear the new stuff, given last time they did anything they were all on drugs. This new sound better be just as good, but honestly HOW COULD IT NOT?
Lastly,
Dear Cedric please love me.
His eyes are like ghost prophets, that's the only way I can describe them. If you haven't seen Mars Volta or At The Dive In live then WHAT S WRONG WITH YOU? And if you've never heard of them it's time to do some googling.
GO SEE THEM LIVE, it changed my life.
