I Will Fight Every Last One Of You (A Punk Playlist)

I blame Pax Am Days for this. I got Save Rock And Roll for Christmas off one of my aunts, but in a bizarre stroke of genius, she got me the Pax Am Days re-release version. Normal Fall Out Boy is pop punk, but in Pax, they're so amazingly punk that I have trouble not sitting there quietly screaming whenever I listen to it. It reminded me that, if I'm anything, I'd like to consider myself at least a little bit punk. My tastes may stray to other things, but punk always calls me back eventually. Of course, there may be some of you out there who scoff at what I consider punk - consider that your elitist categorising and pigeon-holing of music is really not punk, and therefore I win. You're just a servant of The Man.
In this spirit, I have created a bit of a punk playlist that I wrote in that cool way people do on tumblr. Some of it's 'proper' punk, some of it's hardcore, some of it's pop punk, some of it might be a little bit metal if it suits. It is, as the title is supposed to suggest, get you up, about and motivated. Please don't necessarily fight anyone. If need be, crumble them to dust with your words, but don't get me for inciting violence. There's fighting The Man and then there's being an arse.

My Chemical Romance - Give 'Em Hell, Kid
Fall Out Boy - We Were Doomed From The Start (The King Is Dead)
Green Day - Letterbomb
All Time Low feat. Vic Fuentes - A Love Like War
Good Charlotte - Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous
Leathermouth - Murder Was The Case That They Gave Me
The Story So Far - The Glass
Blink-182 - The Rock Show
Black Flag - Rise Above
Ramones - My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down
The Used - Put Me Out

ARE YOU READY FOR LEEDS YET?!

(I got onto a computer! Crazy, isn't it. Mine's still broken though, which makes posting regularly very annoyingly difficult)

On Friday, this very Friday, begins the 2013 Leeds Festival. I am going to this festival. I am so excited that I have been having trouble sleeping, which is somewhat troublesome because I should probably get the rest now seeing as I'll be up and about pretty much all day every day when I get there.
This year has an amazing line-up, the best line-up you could hope for after 2011 featured My Chemical Romance. We've got Bring Me The Horizon, Green Day, Deaf Havana, and - most importantly for a fair amount of people, I think, because until this year all the newer fans like myself thought we'd never get to see them perform live - Fall Out Boy. Stoked does not cut it.
So, to try and help work through my own excitement enough that I can sleep tonight, and also help any of you who are somewhat unsure who to go and see at Leeds this year, here are the songs by my favourite bands and artists that will be there that I am most excited to see. (apologies for the breakdown in my ability to express myself as the post goes on, I was getting more and more excited)

Leeds 2013

5 Songs: O

My Chemical Romance - Our Lady Of Sorrows

Pierce The Veil - One Hundred Sleepless Nights

Of Mice & Men - O.G. Loko

Fall Out Boy - Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued

Green Day - Oh Love

The Deranged Hermit Student Exercise Playlist

Picture this. The sun is shining brightly outside, and the sky is clear for once. Kids run past, screaming wildly and kicking footballs. It's probably pretty warm out, even in the slight breeze.
But you wouldn't know. You're not outside. You're sat inside, on the sofa, where you've been since you got up at mid-day for nearly six hours straight. You haven't washed. You've given up on the usual Western traditional eating times and are eating meals that would look weird, even to the average pothead. Your pupils are dilated from sitting in half-darkness, staring at a screen and writing notes, or more likely drafting blog posts to keep you from actually getting anything done. You're refusing to pay attention to anything, lest you give in to the voice in your head that says you're definitely going to fail your exam tomorrow because you don't have enough examples of Judicial Reviews in action, and, to be honest, you don't even know what that is in the first place.
You need a break. A break from the procrastinating, a break from the sitting and stewing. You need to get something else done so that you use up enough energy to sleep tonight instead of sitting reading until 5 am. Hopefully this will help a bit.

Fall Out Boy - Rat A Tat (feat. Courtney Love)

My Chemical Romance - House of Wolves

Lostprophets - A Town Called Hypocrisy

Green Day - Basket Case

Pierce The Veil - Caraphernelia (feat. Jeremy McKinnon)

A Day To Remember - I'm Made Of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?

Bring Me The Horizon - Chelsea Smile

Slipknot - Before I Forget

Heaven's Basement - I Am Electric

Muse - Supremacy

All Time Low - Weightless

The Blackout - The Fire

Sleeping With Sirens - Low

Florence + The Machine - You Got The Love

The Strokes - Reptilia

5 Songs: J

Ghost - Jigolo Har Megiddo

Funeral For A Friend - Juneau

Without A Face - Jr. High Emo

Green Day - Jesus Of Suburbia

The Killers - Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine

5 Songs: G

Deadmau5 feat. Rob Swire - Ghosts N Stuff

The Cribs - Girls Like Mystery

Rise Against - Give It All

Green Day - Give Me Novacaine

Of Mice & Men - The Great Hendowski

5 Songs: E

Black Cards - End Of Pretend

MGMT - Electric Feel

Gorillaz feat. Little Dragon - Empire Ants

My Chemical Romance - Early Sunsets Over Monroeville

Green Day - East Jesus Nowhere

Songs You Need To Defend Pop Punk

(image from canyouseethesunset.com)

So I did that ‘songs you need to live’ thing the other day, and I was thinking that it was a bit too general. The songs you need differ on what you listen to. Therefore, I thought I’d try again, but with a slightly narrower selection.

This time, I’m doing The Songs You Need To Defend Pop Punk (the phrase 'defend pop punk' is apparently the slogan of the band Man Overboard who I need to listen to because bands). What’s Pop Punk? Self-explanatory – it’s the rebelliousness of punk music mixed with the daftness and shiny lights of pop. It’s a bit angsty, but not as much as other genres. It’s what – forgive me for using a very sweeping generalisation – your classical emo kid listens to when they’re happy (which, given the people that I know that would come under this mysterious ‘emo’ umbrella, actually happens quite a lot,so there). Guitars and drums and thrashing about, but in a happy, sunshine-y way (be prepared to hear those words a lot). It’s how you subversively get people into other kinds of rock music. Hopefully, when you listen to the songs you’ll understand better.

Blink 182 – Feeling This

Yes, it’s Blink 182 again. They are, however, the kings of pop punk. You say ‘pop punk’ three times in the bathroom mirror and turn the light off, when you turn it back on Mark Hoppus will be crouched in your sink. This song’s a good one, because it is a bit angsty and it’s about the typical horny teenager, but it’s all happy and bouncy at the same time. I had a phase last summer where I listened to this one about five times a day for a week straight. Then my mum said she didn’t like Blink 182, so I bought their best hits album as revenge.

All Time Low – Weightless

More people know this one than I think people would think. That sentence got away from me a bit . . . But it’s an awesome song, and I think the sort of signature song for ATL, or at least the one most people would recognise them by. It’s definitely the first song I remember hearing by them.

Fall Out Boy – Thnks Fr Th Mmrs

Come on, this is a brilliant song, and one of my favourites by them. You can’t say you know pop punk if you don’t know every word of this (or at least every phoneme, I don’t blame you if you can’t understand Patrick Stump). Big, loud, the kind of song everyone will dance to because everyone knows it.

The Offspring – Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)

This is just a song you need to know to live in general. If someone says “Give it to me baby” and you’re not in a porno and you don’t reply with “UH HUH, UH HUH” then you should be ashamed of yourself. Go and sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done. I’m ashamed of you. You are not fly, no matter what race you are.

A Day To Remember – All I Want

Ok, maybe this one is slightly less well-known than the others (my favourite’s actually I’m Made Of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?), but you can’t deny ADTR’s presence. They’re a formidable force, and I think the fact that they managed to get so many other bands to show up in this video proves that.

Paramore – Misery Business

Off their 2007 album Riot!, this is probably their most well-known single alongside Ignorance, but I like this one better and it’s my blog so I’ll do what I like. I am somewhat opposed to the video for its slightly sexist edge – oh, the girl’s make up has been wiped off, look how much she was wearing ‘cause she’s the baddy in this and only bad girls wear makeup, godddddd – but other than that it’s a good one, and a catchy song (I don’t like saying the word ‘catchy’, I feel like a bad 80s DJ).

Green Day – American Idiot

I kind of wanted to put Basket Case here, but this is supposed to be about the songs that you absolutely need to know and, although you really should know quite a lot of Green Day’s songs because they’re massive, everybody knows American Idiot. Everybody. I was at a party and this song came on and everybody sang it. My nana was in the room while the video for this was on TV and she said she likes a man with ‘some moves’. I’m not sure she likes men with lots of green paint all over them though.

Bowling For Soup – Girl All The Bad Guys Want

I remember hearing this one years and years ago, before I actually knew what music was, or how one ‘creamed over tough guys’ (can I just say, why do they bleep out ‘goddamn’, but not that?). Not my absolute favourite song, but one I think it’s somewhat important to know.

Good Charlotte – Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous

Good Charlotte is one of my little sister’s favourite bands for some reason. Were all their songs this one, they’d be one of my favourites too. It’s more punk than pop, but I absolutely love this song, and the crazy hair.

Panic! At The Disco – I Write Sins Not Tragedies

I keep saying this, but everyone knows this one. My friend Ryan knows this one and he normally listens to Adele and stuff. But come on, it’s like the scenekid national anthem – stupidly long song title that has some deep, clever meaning that I haven’t figured out yet, similarly long-winded lyrics that still manage to be awesome.

There you go. Now, go forth and defend pop punk! Learn guitar and make boob jokes! Wear tight jeans and hair gel and take your top off on stage! Change your name to Tom Hoppus-Gaskarth! It’s 2:30am and that’s why I’m shouting!