Conventional Weapons

 If you know me at all, you're aware of my total love of the band, My Chemical Romance. They've been my favorite band of all time since I first heard them at the beginning of eighth grade. And I know that with their amazing music and personalities, My Chem will always have that #1 spot on my list.

MCR's most recent album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, came out in the November of 2010. It was amazing. It was perfect. And it wasn't the only music the band had recorded during their time off.

Before Danger Days, My Chemical Romance had recorded a whole album that they ended up scrapping, and was never heard by their fans. I wasn't sure if they'd ever decide to share these discarded songs, until the band's rhythm guitarist, Frank Iero, wrote a post on their website announcing the release of Conventional Weapons. This album is made up the 10 songs that My Chem made before Danger Days. They'll be releasing two songs each month off the album, and the first two were just let out yesterday.

"Boy Division" and "Tomorrow's Money" are absolutely amazing. Their excellence can hardly be described in words. The best way I can put this is that My Chemical Romance always reminds me of who I am whenever I listen to them, and these songs did the same.

"Boy Division" is a fast-paced song with the clever lyrics that the band never fails to produce. It starts out strong and stays just as beautiful throughout the entire song. Gerard, Mikey, Frank, and Ray all sound fantastic. I especially loved the lines "I'm not dead, I only dress that way" and "I know it. Take me out there / Far away away and save me from my / Self destruction. Hopeless for you." The whole song was written smartly, but those lines in particular were my favorites.

I was hesitant to write this post because I knew I wouldn't be able to do these songs justice. I can't explain how fantastic I thought "Tomorrow's Money" was. Once again, the lyrics were awesome, Gerard sang perfectly, the instruments sounded great, and it was the catchy rock type of music that only MCR knows how to create. My favorite lines from the song have to be:

"If we crash this time,

They got machines to keep us alive.

When the mixtape lies,

Choke down the words with no meaning.

I stopped bleeding three years ago

While you keep screaming for revolution."

I truly love this band and I want to thank them in this post for affecting my life so greatly. These songs are absolutely awesome and I'm so glad that My Chemical Romance decided to release them. This band has never released a song that I didn't completely love. I'm aware that I wasn't able to do these songs justice so you can listen to them yourselves below. I'm so excited for the release of the rest of the album, but until then, I'll just have to...

Here is "Boy Division" and "Tomorrow's Money," the first two songs off of My Chemical Romance's Conventional Weapons:

Song For The Painfully Indie

I've decided to add a new aspect to my blog, Rock Transmissions. Rather than limiting myself to only addressing news in music, I'll also be writing about songs that I'm listening to at the moment whether they're new or decades old.

I'm not going to lie - I spend way too much time watching videos on YouTube. It was about a month ago that I discovered the British YouTuber, Alex Day, who goes by "Nerimon" on the Internet. Not only does he make videos, but he's also a musical artist. It was through him that I found Tom Milsom, a musician living in London who's a friend of Alex Day. I clicked on one of Tom's videos and, in the suggestion bar, was the music video for his song, "Song For The Painfully Indie." Intrigued, I clicked on it and instantly became addicted to this song from the Painfully Mainstream album of 2009.

With a catchy tune and impressive lyrics, "Song For the Painfully Indie" is impossible not to enjoy. In the song, Tom speaks of how there's a girl that had caught his eye, and I would assume they're in a club since he says that he sees her on the dancefloor. He's not sure how to approach her. What should he say? What drink should he buy her? Does his hair look alright? He questions whether or not he actually wants to talk to her at all in case they have nothing in common. "And I don't want to talk to her or take her by the hand / In case she tells me her favorite band is not my favorite band," Tom sings in his pleasant and unique voice. Since he can't muster up the courage to speak to this girl, she leaves without even knowing that he exists.

I loved how awkward Tom was describing himself to be in the song. He obviously doesn't take himself too seriously and is able to make fun of the fact that he's shy and bumbling. I really liked that about the song. I also really enjoyed how he told a story in the song. Rather than just singing about how he's an awkward person with no clue how to deal with women, she tell a story in first-person as though it's actually going on.

The song ends with Tom Milsom giving up on getting the girl and moving on. I found it humorous that he was so infatuated with this woman at one moment, but he kind of forgets about her the second she drives away in a taxi.

Overall, I think this song is absolutely wonderful and enjoyable. I've been listening to it a lot lately and I know that I will still be listening to it on repeat for much longer.

Here's the music video for Tom Milsom's "Song For The Painfully Indie."

The Q Awards

The Q Awards took place in London, England this past Monday. Honestly, I'd never heard of this awards festival until a few minutes ago, but the results of who won which award was interesting.

 The first thing that I noticed as I looked at the list of winners was Muse's name. I then glanced above the band's name to see the title "Best Act in the World Today." Muse is one of my favorite bands, so I was really excited for them in receiving such an award and for getting to the place they're at now. They deserve all the fame and credit they get, in my opinion. Although there is another band that is the "best act in the world today" in my opinion, I'm still really happy that this band obtained this award.

What I noticed next was that Blur had won the title for "Best Live Act." I only recently found Blur's music, but I'm enchanted by their songs "The Universal" and "Song 2." If this band performs songs even a fraction of how amazing they sound on their albums, then this award is absolutely deserved.

I'm surprised I'd never heard of this award ceremony until now, since it involves some really awesome bands and music. I'll definitely try to remember to watch the Q Awards on television or online next year. I offer my congratulations all the bands that just won titles at the Q Awards. 

Here's the full list of bands that won: 

http://news.qthemusic.com/2012/10/muse_blur_plan_b_pulp.html

Foo Fighters Taking Hiatus

Dave Grohl, singer and one of the guitarists of the Foo Fighters, announced on the FF website earlier this month that the band would be taking a break. To be clear, the band is not breaking up, but they're "not sure when [they] are going to play again."

It's understandable that the band is going on a hiatus. I mean, they've been together for eighteen years now, so I can see why they'd want to do other things. Personally, I hate routine and the thought of having a job that would force me to do the same thing every day scares me. I would never be able to be a secretary, doctor, librarian, etc. because of those reasons. Doing one thing for too long is tiring. So, after being in the same band for all those years, I'm sure that most people would want to do something else for a while. For example, Dave Grohl wrote that he plans on focusing on his Sound City documentary about the recording studio by the same name in Van Nuys, California.

Grohl promised on the website that he will never give up this band and I believe him. I'm sure that a band that's been together for this long will someday put out a new album. But for now, I wish the members of FF the best of luck on whatever it is that they're doing now.

Here is the post in which Dave announced the band's hiatus: http://www.foofighters.com/us/news/hey-everyone-dave-here

The Killing Type

Amanda Palmer, formerly the singer and pianist of The Dresden Dolls, released the album Theatre is Evil  last month. I've only listened to one song off the album so far, and it's absolutely amazing.

"The Killing Type" doesn't sound much like the few Dresden Dolls songs that I know, but it still has the powerful lyrics and quirkiness that Palmer is known for. The song begins with Amanda telling the listener that she would never kill someone. She wouldn't "kill to win a war" or to "save a life." The problem is, though, that she feels that someone important to her has no emotions. Although she had said she would never murder, she states that she would take this person's life if it meant they would be less cold towards her. I love the way this line sounds in the song. For one moment, nothing other than Amanda's voice is heard as she says, "But I would kill to make you feel." Her voice is so powerful and the lack of instruments in that few seconds just adds to the effect.

The only problem that I had with this song is that, as soon as Amanda says that she would kill to make the person feel, she takes it back. I wish she had just gone with it. I'm sure anyone who listens to the song knows that she wouldn't actually hurt someone, so there was no need to explain that. A larger impact would have been made if she had continued claiming that she would kill this particular person.

Overall, I think that "The Killing Type" is a fantastic song and is definitely worth listening to. Amanda sounds great, the drum beats and guitar parts fit the song perfectly, and her lyrics were moving.

If you haven't heard the song, you can check out the music video below:

Muse in America!

Like many other people on this planet, I have a bucket list. It's a collection of things that I want to do before I die.

A part of that list is some bands that I really want to see perform live in my lifetime. Smashing Pumpkins is one of those bands. I just bought tickets to their concert, which I will attend later this month. Green Day is another band that I feel the need to see perform, so I bought tickets to their concert, which I am extremely excited to go to. Being in the crowd of a Muse concert is also on my bucket list, but, as I wrote in my "2nd Law" post, they don't seem to come to America to play very often.

If I close my eyes, I can picture myself standing in the crowd at a Muse concert. I have a couple of my closest friends at my side, but I'm mostly surrounded by total strangers. The people playing on stage aren't strangers, though, despite the fact that we've never met. I've heard Matt Bellamy sing his most private thoughts to me more times than I will ever be able to count, even though he doesn't know me. Muse's music has made my life one much more worth living, although I've never met them. The arena was dark, but now is illuminated by a beautiful light show.

This reverie used to seem so far-fetched, but now it's so delightfully realistic.

Earlier today, I logged onto their official website and found out that they will be playing in my state next year and the presale for that concert starts tomorrow!

I'm so excited to write that Muse is coming to the U.S. and Canada for a North American tour. They'll be playing concerts all across the two countries from January 21 to April 26 in 2013.

Muse, in my opinion, is one of the best bands of all time so I am really happy about this North American tour. If you don't know the band very well, you can listen to one of my favorite Muse songs below.

Here is "Hysteria" played live at Wembley Stadium:

Green Day at iHeartRadio

The iHeartRadio music festival, an annual event held in Las Vegas, just ended after two days of performances by popular artists such as Aerosmith and Bon Jovi. Green Day was set to perform on September 21 for 45 minutes, but their set time was decreased to 25 minutes, supposedly to give more time to Usher. The frontman of Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong, explosively reacted to this set time cut while onstage.

As the band finished playing "Basket Case" off of their 1994 album, Dookie, Billie Joe looked at the countdown clock and realized they only have one more minute to perform. This intensely angered him and, with the punk attitude that Billie Joe is famous for, he let everyone watching the performance know.

"Give me a f**king break. One minute left. One minute f**king left. You're gonna give me f**king one minute?" Billie spat into the microphone. He continued on later with, "What the f**k? I'm not f**king Justin Bieber, you motherf**kers!...Let me show you what one f**king minute f**king means." He finished this monologue by grasping his guitar by the neck and repeatedly smashing it against the floor until it broke into two parts. As he began to walk offstage, he told the audience he loved them and promised that the band would return to Las Vegas.

Soon after this incident at the iHeartRadio Festival, Billie Joe Armstrong checked into rehab. This was announced in a post on the band's official website on September 23, along with an apology for what happened at the festival. You can read the statement here: http://www.greenday.com/news/news-70741

I truly hope that Billie gets better in rehab and I wish all the best for him.