thingwraith
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Yesterday I received my copy of Dir en Grey's "The Marrow of a Bone" in the mail. Limited edition, of course. :D It came with a 3-song "unplugged" CD, and a cool plastic folder thing, not to mention the shnazzy black-on-black packaging. The CD is as excellent as I knew it would be. Worth every penny, and then some. The versions of "Ryoujoku no Ame" and "Clever Sleazoid" are slightly different from the singles released last year. They did that with "Embryo", too, back when "Kisou" came out. I have never cared for the album version of Embryo for some reason, but I really like the newer recordings here. Clever Sleazoid in particular is great. They've given it a really raw, live feel that reminds me of seeing them perform in August. Speaking of live performances...the concert is in just a few days now! I'm dangerously excited about that. :) However, I'm not so excited about this: I found out via the offical MySpace page that they were going to be doing another meet & greet through FYE like they did during the Family Values tour. Immediately I was thrilled to again have the opportunity to shake hands with any member of the band and was fully prepared to spend any amount of money on FYE merch to be able to do so. Then I calmed down and actually read the bulletin. And this is what it said: "Those who buy the "Pre-SALE" Dir en grey's new album, THE MARROW OF A BONE will have a chance to become one of the lucky fans, who will be able to meet the band after the show! Participants to this exclusive event will be selected randomly at each venue.
The "Pre-SALE" of album will begin at each venue starting from Ft.Lauderdale to Dallas. You will be able to pick up your CD at any of the local F.Y.E. shops on February 20.
Please take note, you must be a concert attendee with a "Pre-SALE" album."
That's cute. First of all, I pre-ordered my copy of the album from CDJapan back in like November. I already have it. Bu you know what? I'm actually willing to pre-order another damn copy just to do the meet and greet, but they are going to be RANDOMLY selecting people. I think that's bogus. But I'll probably be ordering another fucking copy anyway. For the record, I think FYE are a bunch of fuckerfaces. I haven't forgotten the way they herded us along like cattle at the last meet and greet. It's all about the money, of course. Whatever.
2006 is coming to a close in just about 12 hours, and this is the day that I typically compose a list of the best things of the year (albums, movies, books, etc). I don't have time for a full list today as I have to head off to work shortly (bleh), but I do want to make note of one album in particular: My Chemical Romance's "The Black Parade".
Who would have thought I would ever get into this band? I certainly didn't. In fact, I ferociously avoided them, being the snotty old bitch that I am. So how did I end up with their album on constant rotation, writing a gushy entry about them in a public forum? Heh. I'm still not sure about that. Things are kind of fuzzy. I think I downloaded a couple songs. "Teenagers", maybe. One day it came on my iPod, and I was like: "What. The. Hell. This is fucking brilliant!" I went to FYE the very next day and purchased the album (quite unusual behaviour for me).
Even though there were a lot of great albums in 2006, I wanted to talk about this one in particular, because while I have seen it get a lot of critical praise, I have also seen people dissing it and the band. To classify them as merely an angsty "emo" bit of fluff would be a mistake. One need only listen to "The Black Parade" to understand why. Don't worry, I'm not going to spend a bunch of time trying to convince the detractors that they should become fans. I'm not going to spend any, actually. If you don't like My Chemical Romance, that's your business. I'm spending my time writing this to say that I was wrong (which does not happen often, folks, so mark this day on your calendar), and I'm glad I pushed aside my pre-conceived notions and gave a chance to something I normally never would. There's probably a lesson in there somewhere, but honestly, who gives a fuck?
So, the album. Yes. It's been on pretty much constant rotation in our house and car for more than a week now. My ten year old daughter (who is a pretty staunch Elvis Presley/Johnny Cash fan) was desperate for her own copy. I'm prone to repetition myself (I have been known to wear out cassette tapes from too much play), but my husband, a musician, is not. It says a lot about this CD that he has not gotten sick of listening to it. "The Black Parade" has spawned many animated conversations between us about music, emotions, concept albums, influential artists, and more. Music is at it's best and most powerful when it goes beyond just being fun to listen to and makes you feel, think, discuss, or even change the way you look at something. There have been a handful of bands in my life that have done that for me. My Chemical Romance can now join the ranks with honor.
Happy New Year everyone! May 2007 bring luck and success to us all.
P.S. One more thing... Gerard Way, how I miss your lank ebony tresses! Please do away with the blonde butch cut. Your sudden resemblance to Billy Corgan is disturbing to me. Fondly, Elisabeth
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Dear Elisabeth, Fear not, I have returned. I apologize for my brief error in white hot judgement. Sincerely, Formerly long but equally awesome short Black Tresses.
I have seen and enthusiastically approve of the new coif. A little balance has been restored to the Universe. :D
I love my music, therefore I love my iPod. It goes everywhere with me. It keeps me company during my lunch break walks and staves off boredom while I'm in traction at physical therapy. Not only that, it's a very wide, uncurtained window into the depths of my music collection. That said, I feel a little protective about it. I mean, music is a vital part of my daily existence and something I obsess over pretty much constantly. I don't necessarily want to share my music with just anyone. Call me selfish, but I've been burnt a few too many times by people. Quite often, it goes something like this:
Random Someone: What bands do you like?
Me: Um, Dir en grey, Burzum, Death in June, I don't know...[mumblemumble]
Random Someone: WHO? WHAT? What the hell kind of music is that? Do you like Country music?
Me: Ahm....not really....
Random Someone: [disturbed look] Yeah, anyway...[changes subject]
To put it simply, I get tired of explaining what I like to people who neither understand nor really care. Furthermore, I've begun to think of musical preference as personal information that not just anyone has a right to know. You know, sort of like sexual orientation or what your weight is. (I also think "What does your husband do for a living?" and "Is he your daughter's real dad?" fall into the personal info category, yet I get asked those very questions quite often by people I've only just met! That's for another post, though.) /digression
This brings me to the topic of my post. Because my iPod contains about 4 GB worth of personal information, I don't want people rifling through it. Okay?
So listen up, co-workers and random people around me:
You do not have permission to grab my iPod and scroll through my artists, tracks, or playlists!
You do not have permission to make assumptions about me based on any musical information you DO possess about me. (ie: assuming I like, say, Slipknot because I have Marilyn Manson in my playlist.)
You do not have permission to interrogate me about any band t-shirts I may be wearing, and please keep your withering looks and eye-rolls to yourself when I give you an abrupt response. :P
Another tech gadget I can't live without and also view as somewhat of a peek into my personality is my camera cell phone. Please, people, do not go through my photos! And absolutely do not ever go through my text messages! You may think this is a no-brainer, but I have caught at least 2 people doing that in the past couple of weeks when I left my phone sitting out for a mere few minutes.
Any more of this shit and I'm gonna have to start breaking fingers.
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aah, the old person who grabs your mp3 player, skimming through it as their face produces wrinkles from the confusion. they say, "what is this?" like it is not an mp3 player, but 18th century farming tool. they then become disgruntled, handing back your mp3 player back, and wandering off to find someone with "toxic" by britney spears on their display screen. yes, i feel your pain. and i feel even more awkward when someone says, oh, well i don't know like half the bands you listen to, so....when you offer them your mp3 to listen to music.
sniff.
Do i detect some territory issues? Anger issues? c'mon dude! I'd be willin' t'bet that most mogs are familiar with the phenomenon you describe, most don't blow a gasket over a simple question. BUT your other point is well taken. Under NO circumstances will anyone touch my music w/out permission. (the format is irrelavent). having said THAT, the ipod is STILL an object of curiousity to many folks, forgive them ....ONCE then shoot t'kill lol
NOBODY touches my ipod for fear they'll drop it!!! If I like them I'll hold it and show them, if I don't don't I tell them it's got gay pron on it and that kind of ends the conversation!
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the album sounds great, your so exclusive, i wish i had one...