All I Wanted

Got that resume on hand
That enthusiasm momma always told me to have
Opened up and vulnerable, he said to me:
"No, son boy, you're not qualified."
When all I wanted
Was to be what I wanted to be

Got that pen & paper on hand
Gonna write me an essay as a prelude to a free summer
Determined and nervous, he said to me:
"No, son boy, you don't get a pass."
When all I wanted
Was to be what I wanted to be

Got that I.D card on hand
Another day of work and a chance to go places
Crafty and ambitious, he said to me:
"No, son boy, you're not fit for the role."
When all I wanted
Was to be what I wanted to be

Got that passport on hand
Gonna fly to the ends of the Earth to start fresh
Dreaming and scared shitless, he said to me:
"No, son boy, you just won't cut it here."
When all I wanted
Was to be what I wanted to be

'Pith' Concept Poem

I'm clamping these crimson fists together

I've wrought much agony tonight

The pain, the wanting, the de facto nature;

The individual grasped, the identity in sight

The burning need of independent thought

Inhibited, bridled only by the living of her

This will make for a dream of dreams

A maniacal quality unheard of by most

Unsought of by most, if not all

Unsound, if even ethically stark in its quality

Matricidal intent is ubiquitously forsaken

But my desire is, in exchange, all for the taking

It was but wracking to muse;

The lover and the giver in me strongly refused

But nature prevailed and though my sanity's since sailed

A world's weight was instantly loosed from my shoulders

At the snuff of a light, the passing of one's pain

That whom birthed a sheltered life then razed by my hand

The soothsayers, the playwrights, the poets

They all shyly wrote, all timidly spoke, all penned this stage;

A child snuffing the mother and, oh in its bitterness

The child thus reborn, at the bloody loss of the mother

I broke the chain, and carved my path that beckoned to me;

I've set myself irrevocably, veritably free

Shorty #1: 25-Year Old Bicycle Scrub

I haven't ridden a bicycle in, as per recollection, 20 whole years. When I did back then, I recall having had little to no equilibrium, and thus an ability to balance myself on anything less than four wheels. I never really possessed the desire to try it again for a long time. And then I went to Sport Chek today for shoes, walking by the bike racks.

Bolling Bows Down Like a Bitch

To a COMEDIAN!

Last week, Jon Stewart, as per usual on his brilliant program (which of course has its bevy of critics and idiotic haters), skewered Fox News for its incessant attacks on the poor through use of hyperbole and outright fabrication. Eric Bolling was the guy who dared to try to attempt a retort, of sorts anyway, to Stewart's brand of comedy. In doing so, he just opened up a can of worms and ended up giving even more fodder to The Daily Show for one of their best segments in a long time. Just watch it below (this one is filtered & mirrored so as to avoid copyright infringement claims):

Given that Stewart eviscerated that hapless crowd at Fox News twice in a row on this one subject, with neither Bolling nor anyone else at that idiot show able to properly counter Stewart's delivery, one can only expect that one of them would feign surrender.

I really don't have to get into the meat of the discussion, since Stewart does that duty just fine. Also because whilst you cannot rely on Fox News to give you the full story, let alone the proper context on the subject of food stamps and the fraudulent abuse of food stamps, somehow you can rely on a comedian to give you comparatively a lot more of both. In the process, Stewart literally mops the floor and takes out the trash on every single line that Fox News tries to pound into its genuinely mentally-challenged audience's heads on this issue. The very existence of the disingenuous responses from Fox, particularly from one of their more obnoxious commentators in Eric Bolling (who is obviously the prime subject of this derisive post) would render most sane onlookers speechless, whilst it would send the comedians amongst us in to laughing fits.

As per the title, the one guy who surrender to Stewart, albeit so disgracefully and so dishonestly, would be Bolling himself. It all really makes you wonder how they manage to come back every day to carry on with surreal-quality bullshit like this. Watch him bowl not only his cajones, but his credibility, as usual, right into the fucking gutter below:

Way to go, Eric, you bowed down like the little lap dog bitch you are to a god damned COMEDIAN. Well, a ridiculously funny comedian at that. Given how pathetically inept you lot are at holding up against his rather effortless smackdowns of your garbage-heap of a 'news' network, you were out of your element just trying to taunt the guy. Next time why don't you cower under that desk of yours and spare us your phoney displays of bravado because you're only hurting yourself doing so. Or how about you continue doing so so that the collective can eventually tune out the anachronism that is your entire 'news' network from their lives.

Idiot.

Word of Mouth #9: Nothing - "Guilty of Everything"

 

"Guilty of Everything" stream on NPR

This release (out March 4th) is courtesy of Relapse records.

Now, a lot of people are probably on the fence about shoegaze - hell, many people probably have not the faintest clue what shoegaze even is. Well, for those amongst us who are privy to what it is, and how it stands out enough to be called a genre of rock, let's just consider why it may polarize listeners.

It's the heavily distorted, yet melancholic wailing guitars that permeate almost the entire aural experience. In effect, much of the material that can be considered shoegaze resembles what the ambient genre would be like if it were rock-based instead of electronica based. Instead of engineering and mixing tables, sampling and electronic-based instruments, you'd use guitars, drums, bass, and often vocal tracks. Cerebral yet primal.

What the hell does all that have to do with Nothing's upcoming release, Guilty of Everything? Well, this is a remarkable shoegaze release. As I stream the album, with its droning yet consistent quality (such is the magic of shoegaze, which allows for more atmospheric, drawn-out experiences compared to the chaotic stops & turns of hardcore and metalcore), I find myself enamored with all of the sounds contained within. There's nothing like listening to an album that draws you in and doesn't let go until it is all over, and you want to listen again. That's this album in a nutshell. 

The album is streaming, entirely free, on NPR.org's streaming service. The link is to be found above. If you've not yet given it a click, then please do so. It'll dazzle you like it is dazzling me (not sure what track I currently am on, given that I chose to stream the entire album, which is a 38+ minute endeavor). Oh, and it releases on March 4th via Relapse records, just so you can consider clunking your hard-earned money into rewarding these guys for their artistry.

Word of Mouth #8: The Twilight Sad - Live at Paisley Abbey

Download The Twilight Sad Live with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra 

The Twilight Sad live with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on YouTube 

This live release is courtesy of Fat Cat records.

It's a live album, recorded at a renowned orchestral location in Scotland, and it's totally free to download.

This indie rock group has been around since 2003, reveling in dark and very personal lyrical & instrumental overtones. As they incorporate the more experimental side of rock with noise, shoegaze, and even industrial, they produce an atmosphere befitting of their name. Then they were able to play at the Paisley Abbey in Scotland, with the orchestra providing a stunning complementary sound, and you've got yourself a free to download, free to enjoy live recording.

Because it's free, you shouldn't have passed it up before even reading this sentence; give yourself a free live album and enjoy the hell out of it.

Word of Mouth #7: Manners - Pale Blue Light

 

Manners - Wallflower on YouTube 

Manners - Pale Blue Light Stream (albumstreams.com)

'Pale Blue Light' is a release courtesy of Morsecode Recordings.

This very somber, very bluntly worded album dropped six days ago, and it's definitely worthy of a shoutout. You may think that, based on the previous description, this album is of the emo category. Well, you're pretty much dead wrong. This release sees a kind of post-hardcore that is seemingly quite rare these days; down-to-earth, heartfelt, and pissed-off all the more for it. There's no time wasted in pelting you, the listener, with the sonic onslaught of mosh-inducing riffs coupled with the sad, self-reflective lyrics. One example of that can be found in the first link provided above.

Anyway, this wasn't supposed to be a review, but if that's what it takes to get people to hear them out, then so be it. Give this one a whirl, and don't get too lost in that haunting album cover, if you know what's good for you.