A Band With A Cool Name (26 of 30)

Ooh, that's difficult. I'm not allowed to nominate my imaginary band Exploding Head Syndrome, am I? I have another imaginary one, Exotic Narcotic, but my friend stole that and is claiming he thought it up (lies, I told him it and said he could have it if he gave me £35, which he hasn't done).
I'm going to have to say The Killers. It's just a simple, straightforward name, and just . . . 'the killers'. It's a really good name.
Really good band, too.

Band With A Strange Name (25 of 30)

What even counts as a strange name anymore? All band names are kind of strange. I would nominate my ex-boyfriend's old band Dirty Jack, but I don't think they have any music that I can actually post on here, and I threw their CD away in a fit of anger. They did have an awesome song about pirates and stuff though.
Anyway, in lieu of Dirty Jack, I have chosen Leathermouth. I just find it kind of unusual, or more so than any other band I can think of right now.
This Song Is About Being Attacked By Monsters:

Best Picture Taken From A Concert (24 of 30)

Jesus wept, that's a difficult one. Of all the millions of photos out there of concerts, how can I choose? How can I even choose which band to start with? What kind of insane question is this?
I can show you the best picture that I personally have taken. As you can see, it is shit, but that's because I was jumping up and down and am also not a photographer, although I have tried to sharpen it up a bit.

It's Jaime Preciado, the bassist from Pierce The Veil, during the BESTGIGOFMYLIFE. I don't remember what song they were playing when I took this, but it was probably a good one 'cause they all are.

That was a really good gig, though. When Vic did I'm Low On Gas And You Need A Jacket, he stopped and the whole crowd sang the last half of the song in perfect harmony and everything, it was beautiful. As such, here is that song (although I think this is the original, not the acoustic version - either is good):

Let's Talk About Darwin Deez

As with so many bands, I have been vaguely aware of Darwin Deez for some time - ever since I heard 'Radar Detector' on Radio One a few years ago. I just never really did anything about listening to them properly because, well, it's not my kind of music. I'm into heavy stuff, and Darwin Deez is  . . . well it's so fucking light that the physical copies of their music probably have to be sellotaped down to stop them floating away.
Then, yesterday, I had the aforementioned Radar Detector going round my head for reasons unbeknownst to me, so I gave it a listen on Spotify. The next song started playing, and then the next, and the next . . .
I have to say, I was amazed. I wasn't expecting to like anything they've done because, as I say, it's not the kind of stuff I normally listen to.

It's not really like anything else I've heard, full stop. It's what I would presume most people would call a little bit psychedelic. It's all relaxing and floaty, there are nice echoing guitar noises and other things that sound a bit like guitars but not quite, the beat is never quite how you think it's going to be. Darwin has that sort of stereotypical American west-coast lazy drawl thing going on (despite being from New York City. I don't know, my accent placing is bad enough, and I make no claims to knowing anything about American geography), but not in an annoying way. You can get used to a song, but it'll suddenly do something you don't quite expect. Occasionally that's a little bit disconcerting, as in (800) HUMAN which kind of throws me off a bit, but it's done right often enough that you don't lose faith.
The lyrics are imaginative too, and I like a good lyric. They're songs about love and running about doing hipster things, but not in the boring kind of 'we hold hands and stand in book shops to look original' kind of way. They're strange and different, and the videos are kind of freaky as well - see You Can't Be My Girl. They cover all kinds of topics - not just love and the loss of it - but general grumpiness (Bad Day) and even suicide, in the eerily cheerful-sounding and aptly named The Suicide Song.

My favourite song, however, is definitely The Bomb Song. Although all of their songs conjure up images in my head, Darwin Deez have really outdone themselves with this one; I see a whole story playing out when I listen, and I love a good story about post-apocalyptic wastelands.


I don't care what kind of music you listen to, you should at least give them a try - like I said, I wasn't expecting to like them myself, and yet here I am.

Your Favourite 90s Band (23 of 30)

(skipping 22 because it was another unavoidable MCR one and I am trying to give this thing variety). I'm not entirely sure here, because all of the bands that my iTunes labels '90s music' have been active across various decades. I'm going with Blink 182 though, and if you have issue with that then take it up with iTunes, because they're who I consult when I'm unclear about genre.

A Cool Band Logo (21 of 30)

Panic! At The Disco, hands down. Any of their various logos, all of them. I drew and cut out my favourite band logos and stuck them on my wall, and I only did it because Panic!'s Vices And Virtues logo was so awesome. To celebrate this, listen to Camisado, off their first album.

Gorillaz - El Mañana

Your Favourite Album Cover (20 of 30)

Damn, that's a difficult one, it truly is. So many pictures, so many beautiful things. I was going to say the art for Panic! At The Disco's first album, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, but then I saw the poster on my wall with that beautiful picture up there. It's Flight Of The Conchords' album cover for I Told You I Was Freaky. Ducks, really good drawings of people, stars, lots of colours, it's just a really cool-looking piece of work, which was created, according to wikipedia, by a man called John Dyer Baizley. Well done, John, that's some good colouring you've done there.
The song I've picked is Demon Woman, a song which, if it isn't my theme tune, is certainly going on my soundtrack album.

Darwin Deez - The Bomb Song

I don't know why, but I just randomly decided to start listening to Darwin Deez this afternoon, and my mind has been blown.

INTERNATIONAL MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE DAY

Although it may seem like it sometimes, I don't plan out world events just so that I can talk about them - they just happen. Today is one of those days where, as a music blogger, I feel I have no choice but to talk about them, as it is in fact International My Chemical Romance Day; the anniversary of the release of their very first album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. So, to start off with, let's have a look at the song Vampires Will Never Hurt You;

They're so young in this! Gerard's got his short hair, Frank's got his dreads, it's all so new and dark and I love it, everyone loves it. Of course you do. I really like that the whispering on the end of this is repeated at the end of The World Is Ugly off Conventional Weapons 3.

Your Favourite Album (19 of 30)

(I swear I'm not using this as an excuse to go on about My Chemical Romance all the time, I swear, it's just a coincidence)
Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. Obviously. Best album that has ever walked this godforsaken rock. Listen to it now and realise that your life is a lie and the only truth is angsty murderous My Chem. Do it. It'll be great (I promise).
As a song to show you, this time I'll go for Cemetery Drive, definitely in my top ten favourite songs of all time.

We Are The In Crowd

I'll admit I feel a bit funny about WATIC. Possibly because of the unavoidably poor name, possibly because - and I am entirely open to having my mind changed here, I'm aware that my first impressions are usually very sudden snap decisions and are highly irrational - the singer seems to be a bit smug, a bit Hayley Williams-esque. But, I will repeat, I'm open to having my mind changed. I've not heard any of their music myself, and all I really know is that they gave away a signed WATIC t-shirt at the Pulp Party back in April, and people went mental trying to get hold of it. Let us hope that that was good music they were excited for.

Knife Party

I'm not just going to Leeds for fun; I'm going to write about it (or attempt to). That means that I'm going to have to stretch myself beyond Fall Out Boy, Green Day and Bring Me The Horizon. I'm going to have to look at new bands. That's something I'm perfectly happy to do, but there's so many different ones that I need to do some preliminary investigations into some of them to see who I might want to have a look at.
The first band I'm trying out is Knife Party.
First of all, I have to say that that is an absolutely amazing band name. Knife Party? That's the best kind of party ever. I am fangirling over the name before I've even heard the music.

After some slight confusion over some awesome punk music that seems to have somehow worked its way into their discography for no reason, I've found the actual Knife Party stuff. Created by Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen of Pendulum, it's what Wikipedia refers to as 'electro house', which is not what I usually listen to, but it's good. Not brilliant, as such . . . not especially memorable, more made as good background music. Maybe it's because I'm not exactly the crowd they're aiming for with music like this - your average blasted-pupil-sporting nutter going hell for leather in the middle of a club - but I'm not as excited about the music as I am about the name. It's got bleepy noises and stuff, but not any particularly good bleepy noises, and it feels just kind of boring, really. It took considerable effort to listen to each track fully.
Maybe I will go and see them, maybe I won't, but they're not top of the list.

A Band That Hasn't Got A Single Bad Song (18 of 30)

This took some thinking, because I was trying to pick a band I haven't already used. I think I haven't already picked these guys, but at least I'm not sticking to the same three I always use, I suppose. It's You Me At Six, and to demonstrate their skill I have picked the song Crash. It's beautiful but it makes you want to lie on the floor and cry afterwards.

Bring Me The Horizon - The Sadness Will Never End

I'm just really feeling this song today.

Leeds 2013

The Band That Plays Your Favourite Song (17 of 30)

Come onnnn, they cornered me here, there was no way out of this, of course it was going to be MCR. But I won't put Helena again. For the sake of variety, I'll put Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us off their very first album. Very good for when you feel pissed off.

A Band You Used To Love (16 of 30)

Aww, look at them. Look at their little faces. If it wasn't for the fact that I know how much a lot of people my age loved them, I would feel more ashamed about the fact that the one on the left was my first crush. Admittedly, not with that hair. Also, I do still love them, everyone does.

A Band You'd Love To Be In (15 of 30)

Of course I'd want to be in Gorillaz. Everyone loves Gorillaz, plus I'd get to be an awesome-looking cartoon character. What's not to like?

The Story So Far

I don't know if it's that time of year, or we're just having a very inspirational year for musicians, or the planets have aligned or something, but there seem to be a lot of new bands cropping up all over the place. One of these, one that seems to have been getting a fair bit of attention in the internet circles I move in, is The Story So Far. With a fair few EPs and two full-length albums under their belt, the Californian five-piece have been around since 2007 (Ok, so more 'newly popular' than just 'new', or maybe just 'newly popular in my narrow social circles'), but it's only the past year or so that I can recall hearing their name out and about. Considering that there are some people out there who will go for any band with angsty lyrics - which I do like - regardless of if they're delivered in a nice-sounding, memorable way - which is really what makes a good band - I was a little apprehensive about trying these guys out.

The moment I pressed play on their 2010 While You Were Sleeping EP, I knew I needed them on my iPod. It's not just 'nice' music that I could listen to occasionally, it's great music that has a sort of uniqueness to it that you need to be a successful band. They have a similar 'we're playing this in a garage' feel that you get on some early Green Day/Blink 182 records, but they don't sound like copies. They understand how pop punk works, and they're doing it well but in their own way, whether it's in Spark Fires, which makes me want to learn to drum again, or Small Talk - off their newest album What You Don't See - which I will probably try and fail to learn to sing along to.

It's fast, and it's kind of angry, but in a more rebellious than depressing way that keeps it on the pop side of pop punk. In every song there's this youthful energy that makes me so glad I've discovered them in summer. It's not so much that I highly recommend listening to them - it's more that, if you don't, you're a fucking idiot. As confirmation of that, I leave you with the video for their song, Empty Space:

Louder Now - My Name Is Leonard

(can't get the video up on here properly)

Seeing as I happen to be in occasional contact with one of the members of this band, who also happens to be in Bring Home Ohio, he sent me a link to this song and asked if I could possibly write about it or the band as a whole. I'm still working back up to proper writing, after getting out of the habit, but here's a link to the song, My Name Is Leonard - I don't know what I was expecting, but I am, to say the least, pleasantly surprised by it, it's an awesome song.

A Band You Often Hear On The Radio (14 of 30)

This is going to sound so very hipster, but I don't listen to the radio - mainly because I broke my radio. But like, what am I supposed to listen to anyway? Most of the stations out there can't be trusted not to start playing complete shit, and the talking in between is rarely funny enough to be worthwhile. The nearest I can get is Kerrang! TV, which, for simplicity's sake, we're going to assume is essentially the same as their radio station (which I did try to tune into when I had a working radio, but I couldn't). From this, I have picked The Offspring and Original Prankster.

A Band You Would Like To See Live (13 of 30)

Ooooooohhhhhhh, difficult one. Very difficult one indeed, at first. but then I remembered Of Mice & Men. I would love to see them live, I've even had a dream about it - we were in a hotel, there were only about 30 people there cause it was like an intimate show, but really hardcore and awesome, and they talked to me after. This is They Don't Call It The South For Nothing.

(oh yeah, and the photo is taken by our lord Adam Elmakias, king of band photography)

A Band You've Seen Live (12 of 30)

The first band I ever wrote about seeing live, and the band that did a show so good that it cemented them as one of my favourites, with my favourite song by them (at least at the moment), Chelsea Smile.

Any Random Band That You Like (11 of 30)

I found this slightly difficult because of my tendency to just stick with My Chem, Pierce The Veil and Fall Out Boy for everything, but I managed to remember, from among the many, many (many) other bands that I like, For All Those Sleeping. That up there is them, and below is their song Once A Liar (Always A Fake), from their album, Outspoken:

A Band That Makes You Laugh (10 of 30)

It's a band with one member. It's Without A Face. But he truly does, he does a really good funny song when he wants to. As such, here is Druggie Love - if you don't like this song, there's something wrong with you.

A Band You'd Have Sex With (Day 9 of 30)

I would have said The Emphasis, but considering that they haven't actually released anything I can't really put any music up here. Just take my word for it, though. In their stead, I'll put All Time Low, because aside from their considerable musical talent, they're also quite fit. Remembering Sunday is probably my favourite song by them.

Your Least Favourite Singer (Day 8 of 30)

Pitbull. He's not a singer, or an artist, or anything, but I detest the way he forces the whole 'I am Spanish' thing as if it's exotic and not an incredibly widely-spoken language. It's about as interesting as being from Salford. I'm not even putting a video up, I just had to get this post out of the way.

Your Favourite Singer (Day 7 of 30)

No contest. It was always going to be Gerard. How could it not be Gerard? He just has that knack for performing, and plus he's a really good singer and writer, and just wow, you know? I dyed my hair in honour of Black Parade-era Gerard. Also in honour of that, here's Famous Last Words.

Your Favourite Drummer (Day 6 of 30)

Andy Hurley of Fall Out Boy, because Andy is aaawweessoommeeeeeeeee. He's just great, and made of greatness.
Here's Tiffany Blews: