Album of the Week: Asleep In The Back

Published on April 20, 2009 in Album of the Week. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Most of you by now have probably heard about the band Elbow, through their critically acclaimed latest album “The Seldom Seen Kid” (especially with Grounds for Divorce being featured on the “Burn After Reading” trailer). So, I’m not here to talk to you about how great it is (it is amazing so if you haven’t heard it whole go check it out right now!). The album I’m featuring this week is their 2001 debut album, Asleep In The Back. It is impressive how they have had a unique and varied sound right from their debut album, with very different kinds of song nicely executed (for instance “Red” and “Bitten by the Tailfly”). It is slightly darker than the aforementioned Seldom Seen Kid and overall it is well worth a listen. I hope you like it as well!

asleepintheback

You can listen to Bitten By The Tailfly on grooveshark lite, which is in a totally different style than their most recent work. Also, if you enjoyed this album you do want to check out the rest of their work, especially Cast of Thousands, which has some really great tracks.

Album of the Week: Myth Takes

Published on April 13, 2009 in Album of the Week. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

And it happens again… another album which I had wanted to listen for the longest time but never did makes it to album of the week. This time, I finally gave a listen to critically acclaimed Myth Takes by the awkwardly named band !!! (chk chk chk). This album progresses from over the top party dance songs to some more grounded indie rock ones towards the end. It’s very unique and interesting throughout and a nifty blend of musical styles and instruments. Highly recommended if you’re feeling like something a bit more uptempo!

warp154

You can listen to a neat selection of tracks from it on the band’s official website (I also really highlight Bend Over Beethoven which is not available there).  Hope you like it!

The Meaning of Life (well… sort of)

Published on April 7, 2009 in Life. 5 Comments

This is a post I have been wanting to do for a very long time. I will try to say what are the conclusions I have drawn about society and life in geral and how it can be improved in my opinion. I’m not saying I am impervious to those influences though, I feel them and have noticed that I was in fact influenced by it. Nevertheless, I found it helped me to understand the influences so that I could use those influences for the best effect.

First off, society, as in massive global force of masses. It shapes you, it forces you into thinking stuff, it is one of the primary forces in your mind growth, whether you like it or not. It’s there and you can’t avoid it. You are part of it without being aware, and you must fit. Commercial companies use this to their advantage, through trends! Trends are the ultimate capitalization of society. It is using society to make you think something that everyone thinks. Trends can be created through advertisement, media, and sometimes, a really really genious one, through word of mouth, but it’s rare. And you end up being the trends and all your behaviour is modelled after them.

Now, how do you live your life? You can live for the now, and you do while you’re a teenager, but that gets boring after a while. Some people get lost amongst complicated relationships and that I can understand. But for other people, their short term goal of getting a degree IS their long term goal! And then they get lost when they realize that the degree is not the end and be all of life’s problems. Then they get shocked and get into a working life, which gets monotonous after a while. And they spice it up through “entertainment”.

They look at entrepreneurs and successful people and think “That guy got lucky”, or “I’m not smart enough” or “I can’t do that”. I say, why not? WHY do you insist that you aren’t smart enough? Give it a shot, give your best, use yourself as best as you can, explore whatever you see interests you most… but explore! Don’t just wait for stuff to go raining on your forehead, your dreams are more important than that.

Now when you say how bad some real world situation is it boils down to this…  you made it that way, but it’s not your fault, a lot of the “big” guys aren’t smarter than you but they make you think they are. Because they want to stay big! And they make you be in the same mindset which is so goddamn appealing to them. In my opinion, it’s really a question of mindset.

If we want to change “the world” we must change the mindset. This is a really bold statement. I’m saying that the way certain people think is dragging everything down for the majority, and upwards for a select minority whichs takes advantage of it. It’s the minorities’ fault though, the mindset creators and keepers. It feels right to everyone and it’s reinforced by millions!

How can we change it?

* Make people unite forcibly => catastrophe, war!  That would work, but it would make some terrible conditions. In my opinion it is the only way to change the mindset quickly, but undesirable.

* Influence: Use the exact same channels that created the mindset to tear it apart. Social media, like radio and TV is obviously controlled by big companies, so there isn’t much one can do. There were ham radio stations and that was great, but too local and restricted.  We have a new media though, the internet. It is uncentralized by design, so no one can control it. Just think about it. It allows anyone to have a voice to say whatever they want. More importantly it creates diversity in mindset through the diverse cultures which interact. It also gives you contact with different realities and shows you what mainstream media tries to hide. So get the word out there about documentaries like Steal This Film or storyofstuff.com! Get people using the internet. Get the word out about podcasts. And then challenge people to make content. Make everyone see how “special people” are just people who worked hard to create the opportunities. Luck is created, opportunities are made.

Don’t just stand there! Do something! :)


References:

Thanks to Afi, Ana,  Hok, Mafalda, Marita, Rui and Sofia for the wonderful opinions and input, and for all the motivation for finally getting this post out!