Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Heyo!

Everyone posted shit! Why? There were like 4 or 5 blog posts from like everyone I've subscribed to in the past day. Even Tom Gabel posted something! Tom NEVER posts anything! Oh well, not important. Point being, I felt left out. However, I feel that my time was spent on better things yesterday than blogging. In fact, Brittney and I wrote us a little number. (Number = song.)

Okay, so Brittney and I went to the studio after I got home from school. We then recorded some music. We then talked about the music we recorded. We then talked about how Jason's taking me to Legz when I turn 18. We then talked about Jason's last trip to Legz and the nasty stripper and the fight and the lapdance switch-off thing. I'm almost sorry I missed it. That's why I'm going when I turn 18. Then I'm getting a million tattoos, a subscription to 10 porn magazines, 3,000 cartons of cigarettes, and a monkey. Then Brittney and I went to Cici's where I saw my sorta-friend Katie who went to VoTech first semester and goes to Keyser, so I don't see her. I guess that was cool.

Whatever.

After my last post, I went to a show at The Warren in Frostburg where we'd played a month or so before. I wanted to see the bands I'd never heard of and also see if there were any interesting-looking girls there. There weren't any girls that appealed to me, but there WAS a guy with a third nipple. I told him that it looked like it missed the party. He told me he wished he had a fourth so he'd be like a cat. I told him I wish I had an entire 6. Whatever.

I missed one of the bands I went to see. I only wanted to see them because they were called "Beer & Pretzels;" I'd never heard any of their music (or any of the music of any of the other bands there) before. I heard they were super amazing.

You know who was amazing? Press Black. You know what was amazing about them? Their music, their bass, their drummer, their DIY ethics, the stickers on their guitar, the fanzines the handed out, and their split CD that I bought. It was a perfect follow-up to watching that interview of Dan Yemin of Paint It Black talk about the hardcore/punk scene. Check out Press Black.

The little number that Brittney and I wrote is a cross between The Hives, Alkaline Trio, Sublime, and The Misfits. It's called "Bless My Soul" and it's our first conscious attempt at writing a somewhat serious song. That's tough for us. We usually write to the lyrical style of The Vandals or Nerf Herder, if you haven't noticed. O_o

Did I tell you that Apple is sending me a new iPod? If I didn't, they are. I'll be able to listen to music mobile-ly for the first time in 2 or 3 months.

Tomorrow: April Fool's Day. If I was going to be in school, I'd go in a wheel chair. I, however, am going on a band trip. Ajudication. We're going to score horribly, I reckon. You know what else tomorrow is? The one-year anniversary of the release of I Forget's first album, "We Ride!" This means that we've like officially taken longer to record this current one than the first. Maybe. I really haven't been keeping track of when we went in on the first album and when we started recording this one. Keep in mind, to all of you impatiently awaiting our new album (there might be half a dozen of you...), that we completely scrapped everything we'd recorded from October through like mid-January and started over again. So we kinda have only been recording album material for 2 or 3 months. I can't do the math. It's actually probably 2 and a half months. No one cares.

Anyway, has anyone been embracing DIY ethics since my last post? You should have been, since it's the single most best way to go about doing anything. I'm very biased and opinionated today, but if you dig into DIY, you realize that everything is much truer and more enjoyable. The music is more original, nothing is commercialized, the articles (in zines and such) are much more interesting and a lot less sugar-coated. If you want true accounts of what's going on in anyone's head, DIY is where you should go. Shameless self-promotion. Listen to I Forget! Read my blog! Add me on MySpace and have sex with me!

love,
Kyle

Saturday, March 28, 2009

This is why the scene is killing kids

"The scene" used to refer to the hardcore/punk scene. It now refers to the metalcore/screamo/powerpop scene. They call it the hardcore/emo/pop punk scene, but they're poorly educated on what any of those things mean. This is why it's destroying kids.

Originally, the scene came about when bands started playing songs for the kids that felt out of place and needed a place so they felt they could belong to without being judged for what they looked like, wore, or thought. It was about respect. The hardcore/punk scene. And not only was it music played TO kids that felt lost, but played BY kids that felt lost. They didn't need huge rockstar pricks to tell them what to do. They needed someone on stage they could relate to who could tell them that they're alright for thinking the way they did and being the way they were. A prime example, though I wasn't alive for it, was Minor Threat.

Now, what of that do we have left? Kids think they're "alternative" so they listen to what society has labeled "alternative" which is "the scene." What does society at large know about the alternative scene? Nothing. This new scene has brought all of the bullshit that the original scene was about avoiding and brought it right into the place for escape. Fashion. Drama. Rockstar pricks. Calling each other "faggots." Who are the bands we look to on the stage we can relate to now? Those 5 guys with the same haircuts as you have? The guy with the shudder sunglasses? The guy singing about ditching his girlfriend at the prom (see All Time Low's "Jasey Rae")? No wonder kids are so fucking lost. They think being "emo" is being part of a group that says it's okay to cut yourself. Fuck no it is not okay to cut yourself. It's okay that you have deep feelings of being upset, yes. It's okay to have deep feelings and to express them, yes. THAT is what emo is about. Emo shouldn't even exist, as any of its founders will tell you. But if it had any purpose it was to show that it's okay to have and express your feelings freely. No, Hawthorne Heights, do not fabricate trying to kill yourself. You're piles of shit. You're not even good at it like Matt Skiba is. Give up. But don't take that wrong and kill yourself.

Do you see where even the anti-corrupt scene became corrupt? Kids looking for an out find this and think they've found a place they belong. The scene is the LAST place a kid feeling lost wants to go. Do yourself a favor if you're feeling lost and go to a punk show. Not a Bad Brains show, for they'll only make you feel good if you're not gay. Go see Paint It Black. See Dillinger Four. See Propagandhi. See NOFX and do the opposite of what Fat Mike says (he's a complete dick on stage and off, but he means well I think).

I watched the movie Milk the other day and you know what I thought? Good for him. A gay man getting elected into office. A gay man with political power. It was amazing. But not only a gay man; an openly gay man! Unprecedented at his time. Good for him. Too bad people can't watch Brokeback Mountain without saying "What a couple of fags." If America is the truly the land of the free, then gays will have all the rights as everyone else does one day.

The events taking place in the movie were unbelievable! They'd passed laws saying that gays couldn't be discriminated against being hired or buying houses in certain states. What a disgusting concept to begin with--having to pass laws in order to allow people to not be openly discriminated against. But what was worse was that the laws were being repealed! To simply take people's rights away! What the fuck? There was no propaganda to it. They were taking rights that a certain group of people had and getting rid of them. Fucking. Ridiculous.

And have we improved in the past 30 years? Well, we just passed Proposition 8 in California saying that gays can't marry. Is that progress? Yes and no. It's a definite yes that we've gotten so far as to gays are at least allowed to be together and live together and get jobs, they just can't get married. But it's an even more definite no because WE'RE TELLING A GROUP OF PEOPLE THEY CAN'T HAVE THE SAME RIGHTS AS US. It's as simple as that! No two ways about it! We are telling other humans that they shouldn't be allowed to do what we can do. Simple. It's digusting. How about I tell you who you can and cannot marry? This all goes back to this little thing called "mutal respect." And who's preaching it now? No one. Look to your idols as they stand on stage calling each other faggots. What have you learned?

love,
Kyle

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Guess what I've been reading

I may have touched on my computer being a douche bag recently. "Recently" is relative, since I feel that I haven't posted ANYTHING recently. But in one of my last posts, I may have mentioned the computer at my dad going apeshit...or more accurately: doing nothing. "Nothing" is also relative, as it now literally does nothing. So it goes.

I'd tried figuring out what was wrong with it. I, at first, thought it was the general internet connection in the house, since every computer's internet was being shitty. I then left for the weekend and reportedly, everyone eles's computer was doing fine while I was gone. When I returned and turned my computer back on, their internet connections once again slowed to a point of intolerable...slowness? Lack of a good adjective.

So it was made certain: my computer had a problem. "Try defragging it," my aunt suggested. She came over and I opened the defragging system tool. It said "Free Space: 1%." Shit. So I got to deleting some shit. I got it up to 8% free space. Then I ran the defrag that night. When I returned the next day, it said "Free Space: 0%." Apparently the free space is eaten if you leave the internet on all day and night. Go figure. So I ran some virus scans, some cleaning things, and a couple of disc cleaners. I got up to 25% free space, I think. Still slow. So I did as the farmers in the Great Depression did: the only thing I knew how to do (in their case, planted more crops when they weren't selling any to begin with). I continued deleting things. Everything. I put all of my music and files on an external hard drive and deleted, deleted, deleted. 66% free space. That's a shit ton of deleting.

For about 3 minutes, my internet was faster than it'd been in probably 3 years. It soon came to an arupt halt. It was slower than ever. Pages wouldn't load. Connections kept being lost. MSN kept getting closed. Something had to be done. That something had to be a complete system restore. I was getting violent. I was kicking and punching my CPU for being an asshole. A reader of my blog, Chris Kenney, told me that it sounded like malware was eating my processes. That sounded just wonderful.

I searched my house for those fucking restore discs everywhere. No where. Gone. So I went to Belle's house and borrowed her's. They're the wrong year, though, so my computer didn't even know the discs were readable. The next day, it wouldn't turn on. So it goes.

(You know, I was never a big fan of when he'd say "So it goes" more than once for one thing's death. I think each and every person and object's death deserves one and only one "So it goes." Maybe that's just me. But in the spirit of Kurt's ways, I said it twice.)

So what am I going to do about the computer? Nothing. It's history. I'm looking into laptops now. That'd be pleasant, huh? That is, of course, what I'm using now.



Enough about computers! I've played two concerts since my last post! One to 300 or 400 kids in FYE with I Forget another one last night to 100 to 200 people at Church McGee Center (or something similar to that) at Potomac State with the Frankfort jazz band. Let me tell you about the former.

So Twilight! Fucking phenomenon, huh? WRONG. More like a nation-wide realization of vampire fetishes to little girls. Not only little girls. Moms. Grandmothers. Teenagers. Zombie boyfriends. Guys who think it's still cool to slick their hair back into a cowlick. That's about it, though. The normal, sane population doesn't get why glittery vampires are cool. How don't you see how fucking awesome it is? Everyone knows that vampires don't die in the sun. They just get reconfigured! (For all you Digimon fans.)

Seriously, Twilight = some dumb shit. However, I Forget music = music that people that read said "dumb shit" enjoy. Weird, huh? Who'd have thought our target audience was preteen to 15-year-old girls? I guess anyone could have thought that, since we're a self-acclaimed "pop-punk" band. I was just glad I was helping them not listen to Nickelback, All Time Low, or The Maine. Gabel was right, you CAN be the media.

We were supposed to play in FYE for about 2 hours with a break in the middle. That in mind, we wrote a set list of about 23 songs. We skipped one because it sucks and didn't get to play the last 8. Kind of lame, but we'd already sold every CD we had to sell by that time anyway. Man, those girls ate it up. I signed so many CDs, shoes, and shirts. Okay, one shirt and 3 shoes, but at least 10 CDs, I'd say. It felt like a lot. And all this time, I was wearing a shirt signed by an almost unheard of band called The AKA's. So here's a drummer for an unheard of band wearing the shirt signed by a nearly unheard of band signing shirts, CDs, and shoes. It was weird and rather ironic, but it was nice. When I got done with one girl's shirt, it said "I [heart] (Kyle More Than) Nerds."

There were a bunch of girls years younger than me stalking and/or taking pictures of me all night. That was kind of cool. One girl gave me a number to call when I got home. I did that. I talked until 4 a.m. I wasn't so lonely.

At the show, we spoke to the interested people of age who had the power to book or give connections to being booked. I Forget might be getting its feet on the ground. It'd be nice. We played our new album almost in its entirety at the show. I'd say there were 4 or 5 songs from it we didn't get to play. That's going to be nice to get out there, too. We might start making money. Maybe I can quit my job as a loser, then.

I'll tell you about the Potomac State concert when I feel like it. Basically, the jazz band played and I had no music to read from, so I had to act like I knew how the songs went and did an alright job at it. That's about all there is to tell. Oh, and I wish more people would stay and listen to music just because it's music.

love,
Kyle

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Part Two: Wasting These Days

This is the part where I tell you where my best week ever went wrong. It started...today. But let's take it back a little to give some background information.

Since early this week (I want to say Sunday or Monday), Katie and I had been planning on hanging out this weekend. We'd decided on Saturday, as I figured I'd be coming through Williamsport. So she was very enthusiastic about the idea as was I. I offered to take her to the shows with me, but she said that her grandma threw a fit about them being on school nights. So we decided to just leave it to hanging out on Saturday.

Well Saturday arrived. I spoke with her this morning and told her that we (Belle, my aunt, and I) were leaving around 1:30 to go to Williamsport. She said that she was going to her aunt's for a bit and I told her just to tell me where to be and when. So my aunt got to my mom's house to pick me up around 1:40. We picked up Belle around 2 and headed off to Williamsport--getting there around 3:15. But that's getting ahead of ourselves.

On the ride out, Belle tried finding out how she was going to arrange hanging out with Drew and where they'd be hanging. He wasn't even in Williamsport, but rather hanging out with Garret (Dude) from The Vankills in Martinsburg. We later found out that the show The Vankills were playing was about another hour and a half from Williamsport, so we didn't have enough gas or gas money to get us there and back. So it would be a day spent hanging out with Katie! I could live with that.

So I texted her when we got halfway there. No reply...so I told her when we were almost to Williamsport that I really needed to know where to be. No reply. So we went to the mall down there and waited and waited. After being in Williamsport for two hours, I texted her a third time telling her that if she didn't get back to me soon, we were going back home. We'd also tried calling about a dozen times. Never did we get an answered call or a response to a text message even to this very minute. I don't know if this was a planned joke in accordance to the Alkaline Trio song "Hell Yes" which says "We made plans to meet, but you never showed. You kept me waiting....they're off some place far away laughing at me." I felt like she thought it was hilarious to make me drive all the way out there to be ditched. Guess that makes me the fool, but maybe there's an excuse to why this happened, which I haven't gotten. (I just deleted a bunch of shit on accident. Fuck.) But that's all I'll say on that.

So what did Belle, my aunt, and I do? We came home. We went to the mall to meet with Tim. Guess who else was in FYE? Shane and Brittney. I told Brittney a little about the shows and how awesome they each were. Words cannot describe how awesome they were; only Alex and I understand. We got to check out the stage that we're going to be playing on this coming Friday for the Twilight midnight DVD release show...which you should come to but not support, since it's Twilight, but you at the same time SHOULD support because it's a show in FYE and it's gonna be awesome. Apparently people have heard about it and it's going to be in the newspaper.

I want to cut my hair. I'm sick of it. Cut or dreads...don't know which it's gonna be yet. I'm really getting sick of these shitty hair days. You know, maybe a trim will suffice and help considerably. I've been asking for one. I'd also like a break from life.

I've got to read a bunch of shit tomorrow and fill out some driving thing. And I've got to go to a house of worship for a religion I believe nothing of. Once again, a break from life would be nice.

I'm going to bed. It's 1:00 A.M. I've got to get up relatively early.

love,
Kyle

Part 1: Fight. Fuck. Dance. Destroy.

Okay, I've had like no time to sit down and write about these shows I promised I'd write about. A lot happened to me today (meaning nothing happened to me today when a lot SHOULD have happened), so I'm gonna separate the shows in a different post than the events of today. Thus, I will have a very different attitude from post to post. Here's part one in today's posts: Fight. Fuck. Dance. Destroy.

So you think you've seen a good show? You probably don't know what a good show is...that is...unless you've seen D4, Propagandhi, or The AKA's. Granted, I loved watching Paint It Black and The Bouncing Souls, too (Ruiner was also good, but I had no connection to them), but the former were fucking amazing. D4 and Propagandhi are my favorite bands, so I'm biased, but what's not amazing about Paddy telling his bible story? This is how it went:

"So I thought the last Pope was a good Pope. You didn't hear much from him, so I figured, 'Hey, he's leaving everyone alone, he's probably a good Pope.' However, this more recent Pope I heard said that global warming is a publicity hoax. We shouldn't worry about taking care of the planet, if it's doomed, then it will happen regardless of if we help take care of it. He did say, however, that gay marriage is bringing the end of the world. Global warming is made up, but if two guys want to suck each others' dicks, get married, and get a tax cut, that's going to bring armaggedon.

"Because The Bible said that being gay is a horrible sin, it's going to end the world. Well, The Bible is a load of bull shit anyway. [lots of crowd cheering] I know, I know. I'm preaching to the converted crowd, but The Bible isn't even what it was when they found it 1,000 years ago. It's been translated like a dozen times. And all it really is is a book that someone dug up 1,000 years ago and said, 'Whoa! So that's where we came from!'

"So Billy and I...and all of here at Dillinger Four Incorporated...we're going to bury some Batman comics....Praise baby Batman!"

Fucking amazing. Who comes up with that kind of shit? D4, that's who. I want to see Disturbed come up with that kind of bullshit at a show. You won't hear it from Disturbed. Why not? Because they don't know how to do anything other than play their songs and be rockstars. Maybe I sound like a close-minded prick, but have you listened to D4? No. Have I listened to Disturbed? Who's close minded here, again?

Here's something everyone in the world needs to know and I'm sure will soon figure out on their own: The A.K.A.'s are amazing and they are everywhere! Here's a few examples of what Mike, their lead singer, said:

"Man, there's a lot of fuckin' white people in here!"

"Yeah, we're pretty sweet. Don't be that impressed. We do it every night; it's our job. It's called charisma! You can't buy that at Hot Topic, kids!"

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say there were a bunch of black people in here!"

Then there was Propagandhi who were Propagandhi. Chris Hannah in his baseball cap and sleeveless t-shirt. Todd is sick with something, so they didn't play any of his songs, except for "Fuck the Border," in which Dan from Paint It Black came out and sang for. It was probably the most violent song I've ever witnessed live, as a room packed wall-to-wall with angst-filled punk kids screamed "FUCK THE BORDER! FUCK THE BORDER! FUCK THE BORDER! FUCK THE BORDER!" Dan is also viscious and ripped, so watching him sing the verses kneeling over the monitor speakers was fucking badass in itself.

Dave Hauss of The Loved Ones and ex-Paint It Black was there, too. He played a song with The Bouncing Souls. I wish I'd have gotten to meet him as I did nearly everyone else there. On that note, Todd, Jord, Paddy, Billy, Andy, Dan, Josh, Jared, Chachi, Mike, and Michael were all very nice to talk to. For the record, I still love talking with Eric Funk, I just didn't get the opportunity to this time. The venue, The Ottobar, was awesome. Like Paddy was just walking around before the show started and complimented my Toys That Kill shirt. Dan from Paint It Black thanked me numerous times for coming out to the show and remembered commenting me on MySpace. Jord and I talked about where he got his cymbals and drums from. Todd and I talked about MySpace being a losing battle for bands trying to go without one and about NOFX and Bigwig and the new Propagandhi album. Jared from Paint It Black, Alex, and I talked about playing in marching band and appreciating punk music at the same time. Josh from Paint It Black and I talked about Dillinger Four and how necessary it is to see them at all possible opportunities. Andy from Paint It Black and I also talked about Dillinger Four and about us coming all the way from WV to see them (which was a common topic for a lot of people). Chachi, Michael and I talked about Angel loving The AKA's and I told them that she requested they come to Chicago and I understood why they are her favorite band. Everything was amazing.

Did I mention the people are amazing? They are. The obnoxious, drunk NOFX fans were even tolerable in small doses. I was just glad I wasn't the guy whose hair they were spitting in. And all punk girls have boyfriends, did I mention that? They do. They're all attractive, too.

I was first in line the first night and third in line the second. Alex and I talked with the people in line around us. On the second night, the girl behind us knew who The Vankills were and who Drew was. Small world, I suppose. And on all of the "No Smoking" signs inside was written "The Vankills" in red Sharpie. Very funny.

Brendan, who lives at The Warren House, where I Forget played in Frostburg a few weeks ago, was at the Propagandhi/Paint It Black/Ruiner show. It was a nice start to what I planned on being the "best week ever." Part two will cover why that didn't happen in the end.

love,
Kyle

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Propagandhi! (trumpet fanfare)

It is officially March 11th, 2009. That means that I see Propagandhi within the next 24 hours and Dillinger Four within the next 48. Do you know what kind of excitement this brings me? A good kind of excitement. Excitement involving a chronic erection.

Due to none of my initial plans working out and everyone I'd asked to come with me not being able to, my fellow blogger, Alex Grabenstein, will be accompanying my journey to Baltimore over the next two or three days. We, together, will witness a lot of moshing and face melting and utter amazingness from an array of fucking amazing bands. So stoked. So totally stoked.

I will not have a computer with me over the course of the next few days, so I will not be able to tell you about my time at either concert until both are over and I've returned home. That's kind of lame, because I'd like to journalize my feelings about the venue after the show on the first night and then come back and follow up after the second night. I guess that means you also won't get to read Alex's blog for a while, too. Man, this is almost as bad as breaking both of your arms at the same time. You can't even rely on one while the other's gone! Or like busting both nuts. Of course, that's not really a bad thing baby-making wise.

I fully intend to spend whatever money necessary to buy every Dillinger Four, Propagandhi, and Paint It Black shirts and/or CDs that I find fitting to filling my desires. If that entails spending $50 on merch, then so fucking be it. It's a hell of a lot better than spending $50 on a pair of jeans at American Eagle.

Against Me! is touring with Off With Their Heads this spring. I might have to go to that in Virginia Beach....

I'm going to Williamsport this weekend with Belle to see Drew and I'm going to meet up with an old friend. Then we might all head out to Shred Fest to see some punk bands and I'll get to sing "Minor Threat" with The Foul Mouths. I'm looking forward to that. This is going to be an excellent week. I was really fretting earlier today because it seemed I was going to go to Baltimore by myself and not share the experience with anyone. Grabenstein saved the day, though! Fort Ashby drummers UNITE!

I'm sending my iPod back. They sent both boxes to my dad's house...even though his house doesn't even have a street address. That either means that the mailman is really stupid or...someone knows who I am and where I live. Either way, I'm a bit concerned...but at least I'll get my iPod fixed. Hopefully it comes back purple. Or tiger-striped. Or the texture of a shower loofa. Or covered in vaginal secretion. Okay, that one's a little much for even me...

To any readers that don't already know this, I did not sleep on Sunday night. I woke up sometime Sunday evening after sleeping a bit in the middle of the day and then did not go to bed until last night. I write this mostly to mark this time in my life incase I want to read all of my blogs again one day. Oh, and my internet at my dad's has been really out of wack, but I think it's fixed, since when I saw the modem today, it wasn't flashing like a crazy mofo. It was making conversation with everyone impossible. That's a big factor to the lack of blogs posted recently. I've also had no material, as you might be able to see. All I can say is "Propagandhi! Dillinger Four! I love me some boobies!" I do love me some boobies. How many things can you think of that are cooler than boobies? There's your essay topic. Go.

love,
Kyle

Friday, March 6, 2009

(as you might have guessed it) Apple Goes Asian at 8 p.m.

So my iPod doesn't work right, right? That's established. So I send Apple a message thing on their site asking them to call me immediately (which seriously is IMMEDIATELY[like when I got upstairs to wait for the phone, Rod was already talking to them]) so that I could talk to them about it and this sweet-sounding American girl named Laura (I think) is talking to me. I must have caught her near the end of her shift or something, though. She was very nice and very helpful and I gave her my address to send me a box (free of charge) to put my iPod in and send to them so they can fix it and send it back (also free of charge). I almost wish I could have spoken with her longer and about more personal things than just my iPod because she was very nice and I love when people are just fucking nice. Anyway...I get like a confirmation email a little bit ago with my mailing address on it. Well it's wrong. It's HC 86, not HC 6. So you really can't just message Apple because that's too easy. You have to call them. So here I am like an hour and a half later and I have to call them this time.


Asia! Indian/Chinese/some other Asian country woman speaking to me. She's also very nice, but I can't understand her very well. Twat juice! So she puts me on hold and then comes back and tells me that I have to call tomorrow between 8 and 8 because they basically can't do shit for me any other time. So that's great. I was so happy that Apple was so nice an hour and a half ago and now they're shutting me out in the cold. Anyway, so I guess I'm calling them again tomorrow to put one more fucking number in my address that was left out. SHE EVEN REPEATED MY ADDRESS BACK TO ME CORRECTLY! Goddamn. This is overly complicated when it really shouldn't be. I hate my iPod.


(end MySpace bulletin post)

So Watchmen came out today. I kind of wanted to see it since everyone's making a big fuss out of it, but more importantly because all of my friends were going to see it today. I decided not to go because a.) none of my friends directly asked me to go, b.) I didn't have an easy ride getting there, c.) I wasn't sure if I'd get a ticket even if I did get there.

It's kind of lame how it seems that everyone thinks it'd be a bother to ask me to do something with them. Like I feel like I'm a plan B or a plan C. No one's ever like "I want to hang out with Kyle today!" It's kind of lame, as I said. But I'm kind of self-centered and I can be an ass, I geuss, and...maybe I'm not that fun to hang out with, so I can see some logical reasoning behind it. I realized that I don't really leave my house unless I'm going to my mom's or if I'm doing something I Forget-related. Sometimes I'll go to someone's house if they're inviting a bunch of people, but it's rare that anyone invites me and only me over to their house or to go out somewhere. At the same time...how often do I invite people over here? Also at the same time...what is there to do here? I don't know...it's kind of lame.

Propagandhi's new album is incredible. I think I covered that in my last blog post, but maybe I didn't. If I didn't, then I'm telling you now that it's fucking awesome and I can't wait to see them next week and buy it directly from their merch guy. I'm 90% sure I already said this, though.

Some guy tried to give it a bad review. 5/10 he gave it. I called him a twat. I could find no words to appropriately express how much of a moron he was for posting such an ignorant review on the album. So lots of other people started posting comments about how he's an idiot. There were no supporting comments--no one agrees with an idiot who'd rather Propagandhi play Boys Like Girls covers and sing songs that convey no message and sensor their views and feelings. One guy's comment was so great I'm going to repost it here.

"

its nice that you tackled this review without having any agenda whatsoever.

and also its such a pity that propagandhi slap people round with face with a wake up call so pure and accurate with some modicum of musical talent and vocal delivery that goes beyond the boundaries of the inoffensive, the mundane, the norm.

how dare they actually write heartfelt songs about heartfelt issues?

"


Thank you, OH DEAR, for making me feel more sane. God, not only does mainstream music suck nowadays, but the critics don't even know good music when it hits them anymore! What the fuck?! Some other reviews gave it the score it deserved (5/5 stars, 4/5, 5/5, 8/10). Seriously, the music reviewer was getting bent out of shape because he loves eating his meat and doesn't like when people oppose of it, so he blew it out of proportion and said that Propagandhi are saying that eating KFC makes you a cannibal. Yeah, that's definitely what they mean by "Human(e) Meat." Uhh...let's try the thought of...maybe they're asking us to be in the place of the animals? Imagine walking into someone's house and they have people's heads mounted on their walls and humans stuffed and a big, dead, roasted, naked guy with an apple in the middle of the dinner table. The song starts off with the sound of a hacksaw and a guy screaming. It's asking you to imagine if people were put through slaughterhouses in the same way. In my view, at least. I really don't see how you could draw a parallel between cannibalism and KFC, no matter how much you oppose either one.

Anyway, at the end of the album, there is a bonus track that is a cover of "Come to the Sabbat," originally by Black Widow. Everyone says it's fucking amazing, but they don't have it on their MySpace for the album stream, so I'm dying to buy the album. If you know the song "Come to the Sabbat," you'll know it's some fucking trippy hippy song with a dumb flute and shit that chants "Come, come, come to the sabbat. Come to the sabbat; Satan's there." Propagandhi's covers are always very stretched from the originals, though, so it should be fucking epic.

In other news, I have no idea what to do with my weekend. I'm thinking about doing nothing. I have to write a paper and finish reading The Doll House. I really hope I find the motivation to do both of those things. If I don't, then I guess I deserve a shitty grade.

This blog is getting quite lengthy for the kind of shit I've been posting recently. Maybe that means I should stop for now. If I'm gonna start writing long blogs again, I gotta slowly lead you readers into it. Bye, I guess.

love,
Kyle

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Yo ass STANK (did I already say this?)

New Propagandhi album on MySpace. Now. Go to it. www.myspace.com/propagandhi

It...is awesome. One of the best Propagandhi albums I've ever heard, which is comparing it to every Propagandhi album there is. I am seeing them a fucking WEEK FROM TODAY! AHHH!!!

I just don't blog anymore, do I?! See, it's this state of being...happy, but not complacent where I just don't blog. When I'm complacent, I talk about bullshit nothingness and when I'm unhappy, I talk about how shitty I think my life is. But when I'm happy and exploring life, I don't blog. It's weird. I just don't journalize anything until like...I know what I think about it, and while I'm exploring life, I don't draw any permanent conclusions. So like I could say that I really like something one day and take it back the next when things are like this. However, I really like this Propagandhi album, Supporing Caste. I'm buying it directly from them, I think, that way they get more money from it and I don't have to pay any corporations in between and it'll probably cost less, too. They don't make albums I don't love, I'm sorry. I'm extremely biased.

I'm done recording drums! FINALLY! I shouldn't announce that, but I'm so relieved that I have to. I've realized that more people read this than I was aware of...and more people listen to I Forget regularly than I was aware of. I feel like I'm being watched. Maybe I'm a celebrity in the UK and don't know about it. You ever wonder that? If a bunch of Ethiopian kids watch you on the single TV in their town every day? The odds probably aren't good, but who can say?

I can say this: I hate work. School work. I am such a lazy student and I'm the worst procrastinator and underachiever in my house. Class work is fine, I can do all of it that anyone wants me to do, but when it gets to be taken home, it's a pain in my ass. I DID finish both Frankenstein and Oedipus in the past few days, though, which I'm proud of myself for doing. However, I probably completely neglected to do probably 5 other things for each of those. The Master Hand knocked me off of the edge on my last life when he had 1 HP left on Super Smash Bros (the N64 version) and I got pissed and said "fuck this," and did not continue. I do hate that bullshit. Nothing is more discouraging than getting really far and losing unepically.

It's cold down here. I want some food. I wish I could play that goddamn piano better than I can. I want my drums. I want our album art and album to be finished. I want to go to Baltimore and I want Kaila to be able to come, too. I want a week off of school. I want to be motivated enough to write my essay paper in Mr. Alkire's class. Whine! Whine! Whine!

Okay, I'm gonna get some food and bathe. Good night. I'll let you know if something interesting happens in life. And I want to start something. If you would like advice on ANYTHING and don't mind me publically answering (you can submit anonymously), please do so! Contact me however you want. be it here, MySpace, telephone, email, whatev. BK does it and I want to try it. It can be ridiculous questions, too, I just want something to write about.

love,
Kyle

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Dear world,

I want to slit your brother's throat. Okay, but seriously. I've posted one or two blogs in the past 7 days. That's not very many, I realize. So here I am telling you about my past week. Well, I played shows the past two nights of my life. First night was in Frostburg where we played with The Undercover Saints and Anarcoustic.

How did that go? Well, we opened (as we always do) for everyone. Jim and Tim came. Sierra came (with a really cool Black Flag shirt on). And people I didn't know came! That's the best part. Expanding our fanbase, we are. The room was probably like 10x10 with a 7 foot ceiling, I'd say (in which the drummer for The Undercover Saints had to duck his head to stand in). It was a super punk venue. There were like 20 people in a very tiny room. If you're lame, you'll think that sounds like a shitty place to play. It was awesome. I had no elbow room and the room was lit with tube Christmas lights. If you live locally, you should come out next time if you didn't this time...or even if you did come, you should come the next time, too. The ScReW-b@lZ didnt' show which was uhh...really, really lame of them. That's not punk. Punk is that The Undercover Saints are touring without a bassist because their bassist is a "stupid cunt."

Night number two, we played at the Tuscarora Ruritan in Martinsburg. This was a building that used to be a concession stand that is behind the church on a back road in Martinsburg. Out of the way? Yes, but bigger than The Warren House in Frostburg? Yes. More people came to this one, but we made less money. Why'd we make less money? Because Matt is a horrible promoter and blames his horrible picks of venues and doormen on our "shitty bands." He said he made $60 yesterday and it cost $125 to rent out the place. Okay, let's do the math. At $5 for each person's admission, $60 would mean that 12 non-band people came to the show and paid. Something seems wrong since there were at least 30 people there throughout the night. I hate drama, I hate bad promoters, I hate poseurs that start drama. However, Matt is the only promoter around here period. So what are we bands to do? We either put up with Matt or we don't play shows. All the bullshit aside, I had fun playing both shows. The lineup for the second night was I Forget, Disclosure, The Undercover Saints, The Vankills, and The Nunchuck Bastards. The latter was a ska-core band that was very, very talented and very, very strange. They were the most un-punk looking band I've ever seen at a punk show, but they definitely had some punk influence...hardcore punk. Like Black Flag shit. Awesome band. A little girl sang one of their songs, which was adorable and weird. An example of how weird they are...they played the Golden Girls theme song...which was kind of screamed and accompanied with a trumpet and trombone. A bald redneck with a doorag on drinking an Arizona Tea that pulled in an a huge pickup truck sang some song with The Undercover Saints that I'd never heard before and he was as loud as truck and didn't really need a mic. He sounded like Lou from Sick of It All. I didn't quite know what to make of that...

There was a man with a Cheverolet logo tattooed on his neck at the show yesterday.

And after both shows, we went out to eat with the other bands and after both shows, I was fucking exhausted. I can only imagine what the Propagandhi and D4 shows in Baltimore are going to be like on the body. Oh! And Justin from The Vankills and Drew are going to the D4 show, so I'm going to hang out with them when I get there. And I'm trying to get my friend from New Jersey to go to the shows with me since I have extra tickets and no one to take. I'm excited. I've had a good weekend. I'm going to record in a few minutes, so I'm going to leave you at that.

love,
Kyle