Neil Perry - Lineage Situation
Mkah, so. This is the first article I plan on submitting to Orange Lazarus. Elfen Lied will come when I have more free time. I haven't emailed this to Tony yet, as I just want some proofreading and opinions on it. Let me know if there's anything I should change, please let me know if you know anything I don't about the band, which could be a lot. >_>;
I basically just picked a recent purchase that I liked and wrote about it.
Audio :: CD Review? :: Neil Perry - Lineage Situtation
When underground bands break up and their multitude of miniscule releases go out of print, they finally gain popularity. Fans desire their albums, even down to the two-song split records. These albums end up on eBay for extreme amounts of money when they cost the original buyer no more than $10. Welcome to the world of Screamo, a genre where bands last no more than four years together, starting and ending with the same number of fans. This holds true for Neil Perry, who like other screamo bands, got tired of seeing their records going on sale for way more than they're worth. Again like screamo bands, when they saw this happening, the got back together to produce a compilation of all their works in a CD format so the masses can hear them without emptying their wallets.
From this mentality comes Lineage Situation by Neil Perry. Forty tracks in about the same number of minutes. Hardcore fans of the band will be annoyed that the "improv" tracks that Neil Perry was famous for are not included. However, upon releasing the compilation, they went back into the studio to write two new songs. Also included are two songs from the recording session of their most recent release that didn't make it on the final version.
So, the first seven tracks (the newly recorded ones, plus all the ones from their last recording) are damn amazing. Track six, "Fading Away Like the Rest of Them," caught my ears the most and became my favorite on the cd, and one of my favorite songs out of the genre. I also enjoyed track two, "Kicked," which was a departure of sorts for the band, considering it's instrumental.
As far as the rest of the compilation goes, they're almost straight from the albums, the touch-ups are there, but the quality is barely improved overall. Also, the drumstick claps (a 1, 2, 3, 4!) have been removed for better flow from one song to the next. The quality definitely gets worse as Lineage Situation goes further and Neil Perry gets younger, but I got a decent sound out of the later tracks using a graphic equalizer. While none of their early songs are anywhere near as awesome as their new ones, there are still a few stellar songs in the bunch. Some of their songs are hardly songs, there's actually one that is only sixteen seconds long. Also, the titles to these songs are about half the experience to me, some being poetic while others being worth a laugh or two. Let's face it, there's a song called "When My Favorite Sports Team Loses, It Makes Me Want to Hit My Girlfriend."
Also included in Lineage Situation is a CD-ROM packed with two videos. These videos feature live performances, touring and onstage antics, and a look into their reunion recording session in the studio.
As far as the actual band, I'm almost sure you haven't head of them. They were a four-piece from New Jersey. They have enough different releases that it's hard to keep track of them. As of this writing, I've yet to find a comprehensive list of their albums. I do know from the back of the packaging for Lineage Situation that they have had six recording sessions, but the songs taken from them have been shared among splits with other bands, so there's nowhere close to six albums featuring Neil Perry. After they split up, the bassist/vocalist joined Joshua Fit for Battle and then Hot Cross. Other members joined Welcome the Plague Year and A Life Once Lost. For the most part, they sound like a mix between Orchid and Saetia, which again, probably helps you very little. If you have enjoyed any songs by any of the bands I've mentioned thus far and haven't heard of Neil Perry for some reason, go shoot yourself in the head, reanimate yourself, and pick up Lineage Situation. It'll be worth your time.
Neil Perry puts the "emo" in Screamo, evoking different emotions through different guitar textures and soforth. Even without knowing the lyrics, which sadly aren't included in the compilation, your emotions are tugged in different directions. These being mostly sadness, anger, or a nice uplifting feeling, depending on the song. The textures of "Kicked" have a serene feel to it, I feel like I'm flying when I hear it. Meanwhile, the pounding beats of "You Can't Fight Jose Cuervo and Win" just make me want to beat someone up. If you take the time to look up the band's lyrics, they're not that bad.
All in all, I'm glad that Neil Perry was forced down my throat through music reccomendation websites. Since buying their discography, I've become interested in similar packages. I've recently purchased Completed by Jerome's Dream, as well as Disinformation Fix by Usurp Synapse. While both are pretty cool bands with a larger selection of songs, they fell short to Neil Perry's excellence in my opinion. If you feel like something new, Lineage Situation's compilation of 55 minutes of music and 35 minutes of video should do the trick. I highly recommend Neil Perry to fans of the more modern bands like Circle Takes the Square and The Number Twelve Looks Like You.
While I'm at it. Here you go.
http://rapidshare.de/files/19989605/Neil_Perry_1-7.zip.html
07. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #01] Nine Minutes of Non-Fiction [3:40]
08. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #02] Kicked [1:51]
09. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #03] Seeping Through the Cracks [3:16]
10. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #04] What Is in the Making [3:27]
11. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #05] Looking Back on the Way You Want to Be in the Future [0:58]
12. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #06] Fading Away Like the Rest of Them [2:50]
13. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #07] Sorry for the Misunderstanding Mr. Watts, It Won't Happen Again [2:32] Comments (2) |
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Monday, May 8, 2006
Cloud's Dream
I happen to believe that these videos are the best thing related to Final Fantasy. This includes the games. And the movies. And the merch. This series pwns them all.
Oh, and there might be spoilers. These may also ruin your future experiences with the movie. Comments (2) |
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Monday, May 1, 2006
Kylesa show, Thursday, April 27th.
Ok, this post is coming waaay late due to my insane amount of homework... and maybe too much partying. Who knows?
I got to see one of my favorite - no really, like, top five favorite bands - Kylesa. Ohh mah gawd!
Anyway, here's the whole story, complete with lotsa pics and downloadables, because I'm nice... and no one's told me to stop uploading things yet.
Brad got me to The Flying Anvil waaay late due to MapQuest's shear level of suck. I wish I took pics of the building now, as it was pretty funny. It was this while brick building with some paint chipping off in places. It had this huge anvil with wings painted on the side. I thought it was funny.
Despite being more than half an hour late, Giant, the first band, still hadn't come on yet. I actually got to talk to the guys right before they were setting up. They approached me since I was the only person who walked in with their shirt on. Those of you who saw my videos with Michaela in them have seen the shirt, it's black with GIANT in gray letters and it has a moose over the T.
Anyways, Giant has a new third guitarist now. I didn't get to meet him, but I think he throws the image of the band off. You have all these emo boys and then this balding guy with a babyface and glasses all the way to the side. Granted, the music was much better with him there, but he doesn't fit their look, lol.
Giant things:
Next up was a hilarious punk band that was actually pretty damn good. They're called Crimson Spectre, and most of them wear make-up, masks, wings, you name it. The band's stage antics were funny, as you can tell from the pictures. I actually got to meet the bassist, John. It's nice to meet musicians that aren't snobby, I've talked to a few that are. Thanks to my indecisiveness, I nabbed both of their cd's for just $10, and they're well worth it. Anyways...
Crimson Spectre:
After Crimson Spectre was Des-Ark. Well, just the singer and her friend. As they were setting up, Kylesa set their stuff up on the stage. Hollly crap, two drum sets! Des-Ark took the area on the floor in front of the stage.
Des-Ark are a punk band that apparently has some decent following. However all I got to see of them was a girl with an acoustic guitar and a guy with a violin. It was kind of cool, we all sat on the floor for this one. Aimee, the guitarist/singer, was very emotional it seemed. She cracked jokes in the middle of her songs to keep the mood up, while she had these forceful moments where it felt like she was ready to burst into tears at any moment. I'm interested in seeing the full band sometime.
Lastly, Des-Ark cleared away and the members of Kylesa manned their instruments. Did I mention that there were two separate drummers? That was pretty badass, almost every song began with almost a drumline, I caught almost the entire set on camera, aside from two songs which I don't like of theirs, so I took pictures. I got to meet Laura, who was also nice, yet had an aura of coolness around her. Oh, and yes, in that video down below, and all through the set, her nipples were popping out of her shirt. Consider it a warning?
Anyway, Kylesa was incredible, they put on one of the best shows I've ever seen. But they're just one of those bands that to me, that a nuclear bomb could have went off onstage and I still would have been dissappointed, as I had tremendous hopes for them, of course. They didn't play any of my favorite songs by them, sadly, but the ones they played, they played well. When you listen to them on their cd's, it doesn't sound very technical, but when you can see all of them playing in front of you, it just looks like they're all soloing constantly. It was awesome, really. And their bassist had so much energy, he seemed to be constantly entranced in whatever was causing him to constantly spaz around and headbang.
In the video I put up, it should be known that I am right next to the speaker that Laura's guitar is coming out of, so that's most of what you're able to hear. Also, the mosh pit was literally bordered by my back. I got hit multiple times and I'm lucky I didn't drop my camera. I ended up barely looking at where my camera was pointed and I ended up realizing a bit too late that I was chopping the musicians' heads off. You can see me correcting this, lol.
And, I have a LOT of extra Kylesa pics, but they're all about the same. I couldn't get any pics spanning the whole band, as I was at a weird angle. However, I do have zoomed-in shots of all the members too in case anyone wants them.
EDIT!
I forgot that I stole the pictures Brad took at the show. Some of his turned out really good, so here's more!
Movies: Kylesa - 1st song in set, unknown title THis actually might be "The Scarab," if so, there's a large chunk of the middle that's cut out of their live version. The beginning sounds like it, though.
(MORE UPON REQUEST!) Comments (1) |
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Tuesday, April 25, 2006
The Sound of Animals Fighting - Lover, the Lord Has Left Us...
As some of you who pay attention to my tastes in music know, TSOAF's new cd has leaked. I downloaded it (it's coming in about two weeks to my house anyway). And I'm unimpressed, to say the least.
The old singers from Tiger and the Duke practically got shafted to make room for the new singer from Chiodos, as well as a Sanskrit singer, whom is supposedly not an actual member of the band. There's several tracks of just static and spoken word, as well as two acapella tracks by the Chiodos singer.
Anthony Green, who is dubbed the frontman of the band, is only to be found in two or three tracks. He is so unimportant to this album that it is debatable if he is even in one of the songs that I deem him to be in. I'm obviously pissed off about this.
Finch's former singer is only to be found in one song that I know of, and it's not a very good song.
The band has gone almost a completely electronic route, save a few tracks like "Skullflower." The problem with this is that the beat is either too fast or too slow or completely indiscernable. The singers in no way match what's going on in the background most of the time. I'm going to ignore the fact that some of the electronic parts are taken from a series of noises (like pots banging and paper crumbling) sped up really fast and looped. It's not a bad idea, but it just doesn't work in the songs.
What is up with all the ethnic singers?
Compared to 2003's EP, Tiger and the Duke, this album blows. However, it's not completely horrid. There are a few tracks I completely like, and some contain parts that I like. Sadly, most of the album is garbage to me.
At least my preorder comes with a shirt.
Here's the GOOD songs:
http://rapidshare.de/files/18946241/03_Skullflower.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/18946306/06_Horses_In_The_Sky.mp3.html Comments (1) |
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This theme took me fifteen minutes to make.
No kidding. All images are scanned from the insert out of "Document #8" by pg. 99, a defunct screamo band from Sterling, VA, USA. If you follow me on last.fm, you already know how much I love these guys.
0072: My Spidey Sense is Going Fucking Nuts
Yeah, I've been back since Wednesday, but haven't really seen fit to post here without having pictures to show for it yet. I've been too busy to go through the resizing process that I find tedious. I promise they'll come.
When I have more time I will type some fun stuff up, but right now I just hope you all had a fun Easter. Mine was fun. :D Comments (2) |
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Thursday, April 6, 2006
0071: Uggghhh...
So, apparently I'm Pennsylvania-bound tomorrow.
I have straightened hair now.
My parents bought a laptop.
I can't type worth shit.
Dane Cook made me laugh until I puked in my mouth.
I have a new, less-offensive AIM S/N that's in tandem with RiflesAtRecessNC. CalmsongNC, IM me if you want to...
Hopefully, I'll be able to IM you guys on the laptop.
I downloaded what I assume to be every NES game on the planet onto the laptop, as well as a bunch of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Apocalypse Hoboken, and G.I. Joe PSA's.
Umm... I've had insomnia for about a week now. It's resolving itself, I think.
Report card: AABC, much better than expected.
I wrote a short story that I HATE and was planning on putting up here, but I'm not.
There's more I want to put here, but my brain has gone to shit.
So, have a nice fistful of days, my friends! See you Tuesday or Wednesday... I don't really know. Comments (2) |
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Sunday, April 2, 2006
Happy birthday, Brad!
Do me a favor everyone! Everyone needs to email JHardy26@aol.com and tell him happy 19th birthday. Extra points if you mention sea turtles. Really. Comments (1) |
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