One Year Left...

I haven't done an entry for a week or 2 because I have been finishing up at Uni. Firstly concentrating on the big essay for the year, which was all about the Doctor Who theme. Now as interesting as the theme is writing 4000 words on it was a bit on the dull side. After handing that in and handing my last essay in 2 days ago 2nd year is now over! WOO! 

Also in the past 2 weeks I've enjoyed my birthday as well as the rest of my bandmates birthdays as luckily our 4 birthdays are within 9 days of each other. So we decided to go out on a big night out to celebrate all our birthdays together! It was quite the evening but I don't think i'll go into detail! 

Last weekend I had my own birthday weekend, which i spent with my lovely girlfriend Paige. It was an awesome weekend filled with meals out, meals cooked for me, board games, Sherlock Holmes 2, an yummy Millie cookies birthday cookie, balloons, Beyblades, picnics and so much more!!

With all this excitement and stuff going on it's finally reached a point where I have a little time to do some stuff that I have been wanting to do for a while. I've picked up my guitar for the first time in a good few weeks, I've finished watching Deathnote (which is this amazing anime if your not sure what it is) that I started a few weeks ago and I have started my little summer project of making stop motion videos. My first one, which i made today, is just a little celebration for the fact I finished 2nd year:

I have so many more ideas (that will have a lot more preparation time) for these videos so if you like that one you can subscribe to my Youtube channel or just wait until I tell you about it!

As I like to talk about music I listen to (who doesn't) recently I have rediscovered a band I totally forgot about: Goldfinger! They are such a good ska/punk band and this song is my favourite:

The lyrics and melody just go so well. This is one of my favourite songs to sing along to (if only i could sing!) The bass line in the second verse is so good even though its one note for about 20 bars just sounds ace under everything else!

I have also been watching The Voice UK and also rediscovered Tyler James who is an amazing singer  and his old songs are incredible but some of the other people on the show are slightly better singers and I have no idea who I want to win! 

This post was written whilst watching Russell Howard's Good News such a hilarious programme!

Chase

Jonny Sniper

A few days ago I came across mine and my friends acoustic version of this song and thought to myself why the hell don't I listen to them anymore. So here I am, hooked (again!):

Admittedly when I first heard Enter Shikari I was like "whats all this screamy shouty shit" but now if done well, like they do, I love it. The bass line in the verse sounds really intricate but it is so simple and fun to play and fits so well into the song. When I first tried to learn this on guitar I thought it was going to be easy but the tapping in the verse got me. I have to give it to Rory Clewlow, and because tapping is not my forte I went the long way around learning it and re-tabbed it in a different tuning, just so I could pick it. Im glad I did so me and my band could cover it and after recently being told by a friend about the meaning behind the lyrics to all of their songs I have new found respect for them (not that I didn't love them before).



Chase

Sounds Of The CIty

I love The Dykeenies, they are a really cool band but I found out the other day, that earlier this year they had spilt up. This news made me a little upset and made me listen to this song. This was on their last album (which I still haven't got):

This song is just a really nice song. It is really laid back with some beautiful strings (even if they do sound slightly fake at times) throughout. I heard this on the radio a few years back and I was just like "Wow! I need to get this song". Loved it from the very first listen and I still love listening to it now. Near the end, where they put in a guitar solo underneath everything gives the song a nice little power boost that builds up until it drops out for the last line of the song, along with the strings, to calmly leave the song. The album I do have of theirs though, "Nothing Is Everything" is amazing and if i had known they were playing their last gig very soon I would of tried to get tickets to see them. I will have to get the last album soon because if the rest of it is anything like this song it's going to be a good album.



Chase

Scott Farcas Take It On The Chin

As much as I love strings in a song, I also love a good brass section! Less Than Jake never fail to put me in a good mood. They have provided me with one of the best weeks of my life (more on that after the song!):

This is my favourite song by them its so upbeat and happy. Whenever it comes on, whilst my itunes is shuffling, I have to start dancing along (no matter what mood I'm in). Just like many of their basslines it is pretty funky and stretches your hand like a beast but is so much fun to play. The bass breakdown in the middle is where you hear it at its most awesomeness. The brass in this song is just intense as well, just perfect. It sounds so good as the lead part in the intro and underneath the vocals in the verse making the song just that much more fun. The reason they gave me one of the best weeks ever is because I went to see their "6 albums 6 Shows 6 Nights" gigs in London with 3 of my good friends and it just got better and better night after night!



Chase

Wishing Well

Blink 182 have been one of my favourite bands forever and if it weren't for them like most people I wouldnt love the awesome music that I do now.

This songs chorus lyrics are just breathtaking. On first listen to this song I was instantly grabbed they just put a huge vivid image in my mind and it made me look at lyric writing in whole new light. The way he sings about all these things that should bring luck and they just don't work out as planned "I reached for a shooting star, it burnt a hole through my hand". The music is just classic Blink; relatively simple guitar and bass and then some slightly more intricate drumming from Mr. Barker. The whole of Blinks back catalogue is another like Motion City Soundtracks that I could spend each day writing about but im going to spread it out. I'm going to see them live again in the summer and I just cant wait. I've only seen them once before and that was at Leeds 2 years ago. Being a big fan I really should had seem them a lot more (before they broke up)!

And who doesn't love Mark Hoppus?!

Chase

Rough Landing, Holly

Yellowcard (in my eyes) the best band on the planet. (Biased as they are my favourite band)

As I said in my last post I love me some strings in songs and Yellowcard provide that with an amazing violin player as part of the band. Sean Mackin is the man behind the violin and he plays it so well but onto the song. This song is just everything Yellowcard stand for:

Rough Landing, Holly has it all; a powerful heavy guitar intro that just gets you going from the start, strong vocals with a nice melody, some amazing drum fills (Longineu Parsons III is a drum god! and I shook his hand once!), an awesome violin riff over the chorus and the guitar break down that is so easy but so good especially when they bring in the harmony guitar, which Yellowcard do so well. I've seen them live 3 times (which is not enough!) and the first time they didn't play this. I was a bit upset but when i saw them again and they did play it my god was I blown away. The drumming was just intense and the whole crowd just singing along, heaven. The only song that was better though was of course Ocean Avenue but that song is hard to beat live.

I wish my camera was better!

Chase

Sons Of Liberty

As tempting as it was to just go through Motion City Soundtracks entire back catalogue for the next few weeks I thought it would be nice to change things up a bit!

So one of the best musicians to have ever graced this planet Frank Turner is up today. I've him seen live 3 times so far and for a 4th later this year and obviously this song is the song i cant wait to hear. When played live he just seems to make it even more epic and awesome:

I love strings in songs and the violin solo in this song is just insanely good. The first 2 times I saw him live he played the violin solo on the guitar and i was just blown away at his mad guitar skills. The third time one of his support bands (sorry I cant remember the name of them) played the violin solo on a violin and it just made my year seeing the song how it was meant to be played. My favourite line of the song has to be "and I'd rather stand up naked against the elements alone" it provokes a powerful image in mind. The strong lyrics along with his passionate and powerful singing is just what makes Mr Turner so good.



Chase