Mobile phones at gigs drive me insane. This incessant need to film grainy and crap footage of a band rather than actually enjoy them makes no sense to me, and I wish it would just stop. I am far from alone in feeling like this as well, with recent times seeing everyone from Jordan Buckley from Every Time I Die to David fucking Draiman getting annoyed at people being glued to their phone during a gig. All of which seems to have climaxed in Parker Cannon of The Story So Far kicking a female fan off the stage and the mainstream media attacking him for it.
Farewell To The Defiled
The Defiled are the latest band to throw in the towel, announcing that like many of their peers, the financial cost of remaining a band is too much to bare. This follows high-profile cases like CJ from Thy Art is Murder, who left the band while claiming that trying to live life as a member of a touring band in 2016, is hard fucking work.
AC/DC
AC/DC are one of the best rock and roll bands ever to strap on a guitar. You just have to hear one of those booming riffs blare out and you are taken to a better place. It doesn’t matter if you are a drunk eighteen-year-old in a field or an aging rocker reliving your youth, AC/DC are universal. And yet all good things must die, and in the last few years it feels like time has finally caught up with this particular behemoth.
Download So Far
The Download line-up is shaping up and, as usual, it is setting itself up to be one hell of a weekend. While the headliners all felt a bit same old, same old the real joy is usually to be found on the lower stages, where you can see the bands that will hopefully be headlining in 10 years ripping it up in front of a handful of fans.
Anselmo
I’m a bit behind the rest of the world but today I figured I’d throw my two pence into the whole Phil Anselmo debate. When I say debate, what I really mean is I am going to agree with everyone else. YES, Pantera are one of the greatest bands of all time. YES, Anselmo was a big part of that. YES, he has since gone on to be in some other brilliant bands. YES, he is also a massive racist cunt.
Where Next?
There is an unsettling feeling in the air right now, rock and metal heroes seem to be dropping like flies and for the first time, we are about to see an enforced changing of the guards. In the last few months, we have lost Lemmy, Scott Weiland, David Bowie and now today the sad news of Glenn Frey of Eagles fame. We are reaching an age where the rock and roll bands of yesteryear are getting old and their members are passing away. So the question is, what next?
David Bowie and Searching for Heroes
If I am being perfectly honest, I can’t call myself a David Bowie fan. The sole Bowie album in my collection is a Greatest Hits compilation and while it is a pretty comprehensive one, I doubt it does him justice. However, love of his music or not, I had a lot of respect for the man and while I may not have had the personal reaction to his passing that I did to someone like Lemmy, it was still a sad day for music.
Guns N’ Roses
The first time I heard the stomp of ‘Paradise City’ was the moment I thought this rock and roll stuff might be for me. It was a long walk round to cementing that opinion, with a little detour through emo, but it turned out to be a good assumption and the rest of my life was shaped. Yet, for the last few years, I have not given a shit about Guns ‘N’ Roses. I have no time for Axl’s crap and while I still listen to the music, Chinese Democracy being the obvious exception because who can be arsed, the idea of them as a live entity held nothing for me. Because again, who can be arsed?
Top 20 Albums of the Year
Today I am going to tell you my top twenty albums of the year, but before I get to that I think it would be remiss of me to not mention the death of Lemmy Kilmister. There are going to be a thousand people writing a thousand words about Lemmy over the next few days. Most of whom are in a better place to do so than me. However, for my two pence, the man was rock and roll. Few have lived as fast and as loud as Lemmy and none of them have done it until the age of 70. His blend of punk rock attitude with rock and roll has been influential on everyone who likes to play loud and he will he be missed. In tribute today, I suggest you play your music a lot louder and live life just that little bit wilder. Anyway, on with the show.
Covering the Best
Covers. They are as much a part of music as anything else. A great cover can put a band on the map while murdering a classic is never a good career move. So what makes a cover stand up? Why are people like Marilyn Manson and Johnny Cash as well known for their interpretations of someone else’s music as they are their own? While others efforts are scorned.
Ramblings About Wrestling 