2008 Through My Ears, And In Your Face!

Hello there.
With 2008 slowly drawing to a close I think it's about time for my first annual good music review.

The following are my favourite albums from the last 12 months and the reasons why.

Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
This set of intrumental works came out of the blue for NIN fans, it was the result of an experiment over ten weeks last year in which tracks would be made and laid down that sounds both like nine inch nails, and unlike they had anything they ad done before, everything that was recorded was to be released. Not only this but the album art with this included some of the best asthetics ever seen. (so much so that the physical package has been nominated for the 2009 Grammys). so we have nearly 40 tracks, great album art and asthetics, what else would fan's want... oh yes, the first 9 tracks are completely free, here.


Thursday/Envy - Thursday/Envy Split EP
Thursdays contribution on this EP is stunning, featuring two instrumental peices and two vocal pieces set with stunning soundscapes, I confess to not having heard of the japanese band Envy prior to this, but the goodness that is started on this EP by Thursday is certainly carried on by Envy.





Sigur Rós - Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
with thier last album, Takk, Sigur Ros reached an audience they never quite expected. it was the constant airplay of the song 'Hoppípolla' that garnnered them so much attention, on the new album (roughly translated as 'With Buzzing in Our Ears We Play Endlessly') they have stripped back thier sond a bit, but that in no way means a lower quality collection of songs. as proven by album opener Gobbledigook.


Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death and All his Friends
A great new height was reached with this album. it shows coldplay willing to think outside the box and reject the formula that is all to evident in much of thier back catalogue and singles such as lost and viva la vida show coldplay at the top of thier game.

Metallica - Death Magnetic
After 5 years of waiting since the much criticized saint anger this is a real return to form, songs such as 'The day that never comes' 'Cyanide' and 'The Unforgiven III' return metallica to thier former status as the leaders of thrash metal (well at least until Slayer release a new album).



EDIT: edited out for being annoying everytime I view the page

This is a playlist of my favourite music from the last 12 months, now i'm not cruel enough to go through each and every track like i have for my favourite albums, God i couldn't write that much and you couldn't suffer that much.
But this list contains both songs you will have heard (unless you've spent the last year in a coma), such as Kings of Leon and We Are Scientists, and some which I like but you probably haven't heard of such as White Lies, Modwheelmood and Jubilee. Hopefully you'll like some of the new stuff, but if not then at least you've been open mineded enough to have a listen. Which is always important.

A quick note, if you like free music then as you will have noticed the last year or so has seen the idea of the free promotional single become an industry standard, with most bands giving them away before the release of albums, but Nine Inch Nails are the only major band that has given away a full album for free (of course they left interscope last year so are free to do whatever they like), the album 'The Slip' is still availiable for free download here. this is on top of previously releasing the first of the four volumes of thier instrumental set 'Ghosts I-IV' for free.
Even if you don't know thier sound or other material, at this price, it's worth a listen.


Anyway, that's about it for me, however, it wouldn't have been a music in 2008 blog without you at least visiting this site.

That's all from me, let's hope 2009 is just as good as this year has been.

Happy New Year.
[Shep]

Something Diabolical

Well, here I am.

It's half past 6 and I'm in the library, stealing teh interwebs.

Fucking computers!, why does mine have to go and decide that it doesn't want to start up the day before the work I have on it is due in?. leaving me to be up until 3am so I can re-do the entire thing, followed by a soils lecture at 9am (a form of torture in itself) anyway, back to this in a bit....

Last Wednesday the Miles passed through (not as in died) so we went to town for a little walk around for a bit before he met the kids 'too cool to have exams the week before Xmas' and sodded off to London, we went and got some lunch, had a rummage in Woolworth's, (and by rummage I mean he walked around mixing what was left of the shelves) although we did get our last ever pick n' mixes, good times, oh and we found a peadobear inflatable balloon in 'Mrs Christmas' GOOD TIMES.

On the Thursday I went back to Woolworth's with Mikey only to find the queues unbelievably long, so we left. on the way out we were cornered by a lady from Rock.Fm asking about the opinions about the closure, however, she was originally talking to Mikey next thing I know is hes moved back and I'm answering the question with "I like the Pick N' Mix, I'll miss that", yeah great response Shep, weirdly it wasn't broadcast, anyway after this we nipped into HMV where I bought 'Sigur Ros - Takk' (A Damn good album) and Mikey attempted to buy the best of Reel Big Fish (did I mention we have tickets to see them in Feb), only to actually buy the best of Reef (including that 'put your hands up' song and 11 other rather grungy repetitive drones).

After this I discovered my laptop was broken (See above), I ended up spending the rest of the day running around trying to get an extension for the work that I'd lost, though when I received the email from the head of school he wanted 'supporting evidence', what supporting evidence I can give that my laptop refuses to work short of actually taking the damn thing to him still baffles me, anyway I decided that seeing as I have three exams over the week I may just as well spend the night re-doing the entire thing.

So I did, I got to bed at 3am Friday morning, woke up at 8 for my 9am soils lecture, then went back to the library to print the bastard off, handed it in and attended my 15 minute Biogeography revision lecture.

Luckily things got better that night when I had one of the best nights out I've had in a while (yes, even more so than that time I sat on a glass and broke it), the plan was originally to go for a Chinese with some of the guys off my course then the pub for a couple... we inevitable ended up in warehouse dancing (for lack of a better word) to RATM, Metallica and all the old favourites til half two in the morning (God was I tired by then).

Oh and I also pulled... apparently.

*Pukes*
So this week I've essentially been revising my arse off for the 5 hours worth of exam I had today, the first wasn't so bad, the second was a disaster, but can't dwell on that as I have another exam on Thursday, then I'm home for winter solstice or whatever you crazy Christians are making everybody 'celebrate' these days.There better be some good (cheap) parties!
Anyhow, that's about it from me for now, another blog due on the 30th.See you crazy cats soon.[Shep]

P.S. - some of you may have noticed me posting links to here recently, CHECK IT OUT!

[Scrooge]

Hello.

Well, here I am again, rather bored.
so bored in fact that aswel as recently listening to some classic albums in full, such as 'The Dark Side Of The Moon', 'OK Computer' and a 'IV'.

In fact, i've been so bored today and last night i've gone one step further. I have worked out, to the top 25, my favourite albums.
and here they are:


Now obviously this is my list and music is completely subjective. So i'm not going to justify these to anyone. There are some albums that everybody has (or at the very least, should have) heard and loves, such as 'IV', 'OK Computer', 'Nevermind'.
And there are some that some people have heard of but others won't, e.g. 'Funeral', 'Blink 182', 'Silent Alarm' etc.
and finally there are some that i don't expect many people to have even heard of e.g 'Selected Ambient Works Vol. II', 'The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place' and others.
I chose the albums on the list because, to me at least, they are all albums I can listen to all the way through withhout feeling the desire to skip any song.
these are some songs from the more obscure albums if you fancy a listen. (I reccommend you do)

Anyway. in other recent news, a christmas tree was installed in the flat today. gahh.
But's it's all ok though, a quick search on wiki and any feeling of happiness associated with the 'celebration' is gone, in fact, i discovered that christmas inherited alot of it's ideologies from the pagans, and there is no biblical mention of anny date of birth for ikle baby jebus. (just so you know, wouldn't want that annual infectious feeling spreading).
I feel it may be time to get ot the old 'bah humbug' black santa hat again, if only it wasn't at home.


Oh, and I need to find a present for the secret santa for a £5 by wednesday, any thoughts / recommendations welcome.

Anyway, i'm writing and procrastinating, because I could be doing some of my essay thats due in for friday, however, I simply haven't had the motivation to do it today, don't know why, but i suspect the talk of christmas sapped it out of me.

[/Scrooge] (for now)

That's all for the time being.
[Shep]

A Weekend In The Country

Hello again.

Just a quick update on what been happening in my world since my last blog.

We'll start off with an update on the previously metioned china fieldtrip. It would appear that (after a bit of inter-departmental faffing) I will be reciving a £500 bursary towards the visit. WOO HOO. This now means that all i have left to pay is £270 in January and the trip itself is paid for. Of course, I still have to pay for a passport renewal, jabs etc, but hey. £500 is £500, now if only I had that much in my bank account.

Moving on, I braved the freezing weather and went home this weekend for two reasons, firstly it was my sisters 14th birthday during the week, and secondly it was Naitlin and Cicks (as they now appear to be called) house-warming party. although I got home on the Friday evening and discovered that it was a friennd of the family 40th birthday celebration at Ulverston sports club, so although I expected a quiet night in with the family I ended up getting tipsy and listening to a cover band for the evening. The cover band in question seemed to do a bit of everything 'rock' wth varying degrees of success. Although they murdered the pink floyd solo which made me sad.

On the saturday I went to Tesco to beg for a xmas temp job, but was told that the application system for temps is now being handled by personnel, rather then by each department, so my details have been passed on and hopefully i'll be getting a phone call in the next week or two. after going to Tesco I decided to go and annoy Shoey for a bit before the party, by which I mean we sat and played lips for a couple of hours, good fun, I recommend it.

Then that evening there was the house-warming party. fun was had by all, especially Caitlin it would appear. (who almost definetly had more than 2 drinks!) although shoey waking her after 5 mins and telling her she'd slept for and hour and a half was a laugh.

Day after the night before me Caitlin, Jon and Nick wet for a walk down towards the gas terminal and salthouse mills in the frost, then got back and watched survivors.

it wasnn't until i decided to leave that afternoon that I realised how cold it must have been. in that I walked to the car, got in started up thhe engine and turned the lights on only to realise there was a layer of ice on the screen, so I got out and rubbed what i could off annd got back in and tried again, it was only then that I realised that the layer of ice had formed INSIDE the car, and although i got some hot water from nicks to remove what i could from the outside, in a car with no heating system it was a bloody long, cold drive home!

Anyhow, that's it from me for now. there will probably be another blog around christmas time (well it's something to relieve me from the mind-numbing commercialism and mass psychosis that is december the 25th.

[Shep]


EDIT: some pics from weekend now up on my flickr, may, or may not be uploaded to facebook in the near future, depends if i can be arsed with it.

Motivation, or lack thereof

Finally, another 'proper' blog from me.
Hello again folks, i've finally decided to write a proper blog about what ive been upto and the like.

We'll start at uni. as it is where i am [/sarcasm].
Well I moved back in a few months ago and almost instantly became an alcoholic, this time a fair bit worse last year I suspect. As last year was generally a case of go to lectures during the day, then occasionally go to the Atrium (uni cafe) or go back to flat and either do some work or procrastinate on wikipedia, and then go out round town or to the pub maybe a couple - three times a week. nice and simple.
I Get back this year and what happens?, for some reason i've taken to going to the pub after most lectures and then staying most of the day, worse than that though, if i get bored at the flat i'll find myself meeting people at a pub just for something to do, this is on top of evenings out etc. worrying.

I also appear to be in a state of mind in which I can put off work till a week or so before it's due in, and I often have to remind myself that i'm at uni and that i really should be doing more work. I don't know where my motivation has gone this year (possibly to the pub and has drunk itself stupid), but I want it back!.

I've only been back home from uni once this year so far, (well, it is Barrow i'd be going back to) that was for my birthday weekend and to say goodbye to my grandparents as they head off to spain for thier annual half year out there, damn i want to be retired but i guess i've gotta work at some point in my life before i can do that, shame. Anyway, it was nice having a meal with them. Then i went to the cinema to see the new bond then, you guessed it, the pub with a few mates to celebrate my birthday. Thank you for turning up to that were there by the way.
While i was home I also got to see, and doss around in Caitlin and Nicks new house. Damn it's nice, I know i've said this before, but you will find me living there for most of any holidays I get!.

Speaking of holidays, guess where i'm going in May?






You got it yet?



... that's right,
i'm going to CHINA bitches.

Ok, so it's not a holiday as such, it's with the uni so we have to keep a notebook while were there and do a report when we get back. But for £970 all inclusive for two weeks, possibly with the option of a third week in Shanghai for an extra £100 i'm not complaining, especially considering we'll be spending out time at the Great wall, the Terracotta army, and a Panda Conservation centre. I'm so bringing a baby one back to put in my flat!

Of course, a slight problem is how the hell am i going to cough up £1000 by may?, well so far i've paid the £200 deposit, but with a $400 installment due in January and my attempts at getting a job in Preston have been futile so far i may have to go back to Tesco, although I said I didn't want to after they ended my contract early in July I feel that money is money and to be fair Tesco ain't bad wages for the job you do. (although i was shocked and appalled when I found out my flatmate, who just got a job at Aldi get £7 an hour, no fair!). So i am going to ring up Tesco tomorrow and see if they'd be willing to let me back over xmas, if they don't i'm not entirely sure what i'm going to do apart from put CV's in every shop in Preston :/

Just to add to my list of things that don't want to go to plan, Banks. god they're a pain in the arse aren't they?. Somehow Natwest gave me £400 less than i asked for in September when I asked to withdraw money from my account to put it into my parents to cover my accomodation fees, it wasn't until two weeks later when my mum told me she was £400 quid down that we realised either, A, the machines in HSBC where you deposit cash into accounts hadn't registered the full amount, or B, Natwest hadn't given me the full amount. so for 2 weeks i was in and out of the two banks registering complaints getting documents and standing in queues for half an hour just to be told to go and wait for a member of staff. Finally HSBC confirmed that there machine had tallied that day, whereas Natwests till hadn't, whereas most people would think that would be the end of it, oh no. Natwest were still messing us about, it's only since i've gone into Natwest in Barrow with my aunt (she's the manager of one of the furness building society branches) and talked to someone high up that it's been reffered to there regional headquarters. Grrrr! *shep annoyed*

Another thing that's annoying me, 'coz i'm sure you all want to know.
CHRISTMAS.
Or more specifically seeing decorations up in October and November! when will people learn that it's evil to be celebrating this early, people dont want to have to think about it this early, why would you?, to paraphrase Frankie Boyle "the credit crisis will hopefully make all those people on council estates with thouands of lights outside their houses have to downscale, to one sign written on wood in thier gardens that simply says 'scum'".

Anyway, moving on from annoying things, I will hopefully be back in the Barrow area on the 28th Nov for the weekend. be prepared!

Apologies for switching between my wordpress blog and this one, I origionally went from this one to wordpress because i prefered the asthetic and customisation that could be done to it, however, I find this one to be more functional so have moved all my new blogs onto here and will be sticking to this one from now on.

That's all from me at the moment, my next blog will probably be written when something interesting happens, so maybe after i've visited home, maybe sooner, maybe never.


Love, Peace and SuperAIDS.
[Shep]


P.S. I've been adding alot of new and old stuff to my flickr recently, check it out!

Self-Indulgent Nonsense.

all of Mikeclarketallicas infamous rehearsal videos are availible to view here:

At the time of writing this video playlist includes the first video of us covering The Clash, and more recently covers of REM, The Who and a semi-instrumental cover of The Clash (again), this video playlist will be updated with any new material as soon as it surfaces, so you don't even have to search for it.

it would also appear that these videos are harnessing quite a bit of viewing on youtube, with one report coming in of a viewing in Latvia. (Mikeclarketallica: international superstars), who knows, we may even tour next year.

That's all for now. peace, love and superAIDS.

[Shep]

Back When I Wer' A Lad...

we didn't have all this technology,

we had to make do with nothing but our imagination for fun...

View it here

ahhh the fun we had.

i miss it. a bit.

[Shep]

The difficult second blog

hey again,
here's the first video of the legendary phenomenon (of turd) that is Mikeclarketallica performing* the clash's 'should i stay or should i go'.

live** on the 22nd october 2008 (a date to remember, clearly) from the Ship Inn, Preston***.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6mNRghFSj7U

[Shep]

* there are aedemic disputes as to whether this would class as a performance, or rape. your choice.
** whether song is actually performed using gaming technology is at bands discresion.
*** A fantastic value student pub. with great offers on food and drink, and with thier exclusive discount card you'll never be left with not enough money in your wallet [/advert]

my summer holiday: by mike shepherd

Hello,
this is the first 'real' blog from me.
unless you count my random assortment of lyrics and videos on my myspace (http://tinyurl.com/6f3auy)

anyway. after a long and tiresome summer i'm finally heading back to preston.
and i'm kinda having mixed feelings about it, moreso this year than last i think.

something in me just gets the feeling i didn't quite say enough.

i am going to miss my mates from barrow, and soon to be spread around the UK like mad. we've had some good times this summer.
such as the several walks around the lake district with different people taking in different views, (http://tinyurl.com/6rn3v7). there was also leeds festival (http://tinyurl.com/54t85e) where we had atrocious weather, leaking tents, mud upto our knees and most importanly a great time. and various nights just out having a few drinks and laughing at caitling getting with short ginger guys called 'dave' (http://tinyurl.com/5qbe72).

on the otherhand. i intend to visit you guys over the next year, so be prepared for me!, hopefully some of you will come visit me too (cough*hint*cough).

anyway. i'm ranting now. hope you have a good time if i don't see you guys for a while. and keep in contact.

love
[Shep]