Friday, July 31, 2009

This is not a test...or is it?

So fuck. I keep getting hit with these things that I don't know what to think about. Firstly, Katie's all telling me she enjoys brokeNCYDE. What the fuck? Seriously, what am I supposed to think about my girlfriend liking the worst band in the world? She also cut her hair off. Not sure what to think about that yet, either. But probably most importantly is what I learned today.

Dead to Me has finished their new album. I know what to think about that bit initially, right? "FUCKING AWESOME!!!!" But wait, there's a catch. Jack did not record with them. What?! What is Dead to Me without Jack?! That's like Shane and I recording an I Forget album without Brittney. I don't get it! What do I think about that? Dead to Me is one of my favorite bands ever but...without my favorite singer? What's left? Chicken is fun sometimes but I usually really enjoy him when he's playing off of Jack's vocals. Now he's in charge of singing the very melodic things and...that's not what Chicken is really for. Also, their other guitarist Nathan is supposed to sing a lot on this album. I don't even know what the fuck he sounds like because he's never sang for them before. Seriously, this is like Brittney or Shane not being around and me filling in on half of the vocals. It's not the same. But hey, if we're gonna move to Maine and Shane doesn't come, maybe that's how it'll be for a while. But no, Dead to Me is even more different than that. Shane doesn't write that much in I Forget. Jack does. There's a very honest contrast in songs Jack writes and ones he doesn't. That element will just be gone unless he helped write these songs. Fuck kids. Who has kids? Brendan Kelly has a kid and he just recorded. Fuuuck.

That's all this week has been. Things I don't know what to make of. I know what to make of the show last night. It was fucking amazing and amazingly fun. I drummed 'till I bled and then kept drumming some more. That's what you get when you don't drum for...threeee weeeeks. Now I've got 4 bliiiiisters. And two on my toes. And that's what you get when you run cross country in Descendents shoes. Whoaa-ooooh-oh. That's a good rendition of Paramore, eh? It accurately described my last night and this morning. I bought running shoes after I ran. I get a physical in the morning at 10. Can't wait for someone to cup my balls. That's been on my must do list for like...ever. Fuckin' sports.

Here's how last night went first, then I'll get to this morning. Well basically everyone who reads this was at the show. First was a band called мища (pronounced mee-shah). They were like experimental thrash punk screaming something. Not something I'd ever just sit down and listen to, but I have the fullest appreciation for the emotion put into the music. Second was Fair Root. Just a guy playing drums (he had a clear acryllic Pork Pie snare drum just like mine) and a girl playing guitar and both of them singing. Most of their set, I was bringing drums in for our set. When they were done, we traded with the other guy that came from Baltimore and went on third. So we played like...this:
  • FCCK U
  • Get a Clue
  • for.the.$$
  • The Enforcer
  • I Hope You Take It Personally
  • (Prairie) Dog
  • Back Seat
  • Bulbasaur
  • I Love You (As a Friend)
  • That One Song
  • Jeeznips
That's about it. After us, counterfeitmatt played. I had to get home, but what I heard was awesome. Think early Against Me! anarcho acoustic punk before they were a full band and it was mostly just Tom Gabel. That's what it was like but with a harmonica thrown in.

This morning, I woke up at 7:25, drove to the middle school on a low fuel light, stretched, jogged down to the soccer field, and attempted to run with the rest of the team for 35 minutes around the soccer field. I pussed out at 15 and had to sit my ass down. I got up twice more to run around two laps each time but I think Nick was right in that I popped my cherry. Hopefully it'll get better from here as they say it will. After all of that, we stretched again and I drove home on a low fuel light. Then I went with my mom to get me new shoes and eat CiCi's for my cousin's fourth birthday.

Here's one more thing I don't know what to think about. Josh Freese is still touring with Weezer and drumming for them on most songs. That's so fucking weird. What's Weezer when Pat Wilson isn't drumming? I guess it's still Weezer...

love,
Kyle

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

My own words won't cut it today

I could paraphrase everything I've read today, but I might soil it. So I'll leave you with the articles and excerpts I've read. First, The Get Up Kids apologize for the state of emo and punk bands today.

James Suptic, one of the founding members of the Get Up Kids, has spoken out against the “emo” scene the band inadvertently helped create in a recent interview with Drowned in Sound, adding that he apologizes if the Get Up Kids were in any way responsible for what he encountered at this year’s Bamboozle Festival. The band, who broke up in 2005 but recently reunited for a tour to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their biggest album Something To Write Home About, see startling differences from when they released their 1999 album and now.

“Honestly, I don’t often think about the state of ‘emo’. The punk scene we came out of and the punk scene now are completely different. It’s like glam rock now,” Suptic told DiS. “We played the Bamboozle fests this year and we felt really out of place. I could name maybe three bands we played with. It was just a sea of neon shirts to us. If this is the world we helped create, then I apologize.” Rock Daily was at this year’s Bamboozle fest, and as our photo gallery from the event proves, there was a lot of neon.

While Suptic didn’t name specific bands in the interview, punch “Get Up Kids” and “influenced” into Google and bands like Midtown, Hellogoodbye, Fall Out Boy (who headlined both of the Get Up Kids’ Bamboozle appearances) and countless more appear. “If a band gets huge and they say we inspired them, great. The problem is most of them aren’t very good. What does that say about us? I don’t know. Maybe we sucked. We at least can play our instruments,” Suptic added, citing bands like Fugazi, Sunny Day Real Estate and Superchunk for influencing the Get Up Kids, so we can pretty much pin the entire state of emo at this point on Minor Threat. The reissued Something To Write Home About is out September 7th.


Secondly, BrokeNYCDE finally have their own Wikipedia page. Oh joy. Well first I read that their new album debuted on Billboard Top 200 at #86 which says something about the world and that it all needs to go to hell. Anyway, here is the part about critical review.



Metal Edge Magazine has called Brokencyde "fucking horrendous".[10] Thrash Magazine has called them "a mockery to the world of music".[11] Another metal magazine, Decibel, has repeatedly made fun of the band, mentioning them in a interview with the group Big Business, and once ironically referring to then as their "favorite screamo-crunk band". British commentator Warren Ellis calls Brokencyde's "Freaxxx" music video "a near-perfect snapshot of everything that’s shit about this point in the culture".[12] Says August Brown of the Los Angeles Times, "The 'Albucrazy'-based band has done for MySpace emo what some think Soulja Boy did for hip-hop: turn their career into a kind of macro-performance art that exists so far beyond the tropes of irony and sincerity that to ask 'are they kidding?' is like trying to peel an onion to get to a perceived central core that, in the end, does not exist and renders all attempts to reassemble the pieces futile."[13]

"If this is the future of rock music, we're fucking outta here", - wrote Kerrang! in it's January 2009 What the F* is up with Screamo Crunk feature. Placing the 'irritation factor' mark at level "very high", the magazine concluded - "Thanks to their tacky, lightweight and frankly rubbish sound, they've probably only got a shelf life of about six months". [14]


Oh, and this is the band members section according to Wikipedia.


  • Se7en - screamed vocals, rap vocals (2006–present)
  • Mikl - clean vocals, autotune vocals (2006–present)
  • Phat J - synths, guitars, beats, backup vocals, backup screams and growls (2006–present)
  • Antz - fog machine and lights (2006–present)

Just thought I'd enlighten you all.

love,
Kyle

Monday, July 27, 2009

Cedar Piss!

I gotta get to bed soon because we gotta get up early enough to get into the park at 9 in the morning before it opens to the public! We're staying at a hotel at the park, so the guests get in early and can ride rides before the lines get to be a million miles long. I was up until 3 AM last night because Katie had to go to the hospital and I was making sure all was well. Needless to say, I was not up and at the park by 9. Being that I was at the park for at least 6 or 7 hours today and rode three rides, I think getting there before the rush would be a wise decision.

These goddamn roller coasters know how to drop you three hundred feet with style. The one here they said cost $25 million, which might not even be the most expensive one here. We're riding one first thing in the morning that shoots you off at 120 mph straight up (well, sort of straight up, but it spirals upwards) and then comes spiraling straight down. Whole ride is like under 12 seconds long. So uhh...that'll be fun. Standing in line for 3 hours to ride a 12-second ride seemed silly, though. Motherfucker has to be over 300 feet tall itself. Cedar Point knows how to build a roller coaster.

Lake Eerie feels disgusting on your feet. Maybe I'm not used to gooey mud and algae on my feet, but bleh. I'd rather swim in the cold pool. "Heated pool" my ass. The hot tub here is the temperature the pool should be. They actually have the nerve to call it a "spa." They also don't claim to have internet in their rooms here for whatever reason. Well I'm in my room and I'm definitely communicating via the internet, so that's flawed, too. Real go-karts are fucking amazingly fun.

Okay so I'm gonna maybe get to bed. Sarah Palin needs to get out of the earth. I'm still deciding whether or not to do marching band. The Weakerthans are playing DC the same night as one of the competitions, so I'm thinking no.

love,
Kyle

Saturday, July 25, 2009

No time for the ol' in-out, love. I've just come to read the meter!

Okay, so maybe a quickie after all. July 25th. I don't care how off the hours on the blog is, it's July 25th right now. A little while ago I obtained a girlfriend by the name of Katie Mullan. As I said to her after she said "yes," IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME! How long have I been writing about her? Since probably my third or fourth blog post, I'd say. I do believe the first time her figure was mentioned was on December 8th. That's a long time in pursuit, eh? Of course, there was quite the detour when she moved away in January and I saw her however few times and all of that you can read back on but here we are. Finally paying off, eh? Brittney and Britnee were so happy for me. Britnee couldn't refrain from typing with the caps lock key on and making me feel very scared. All is well that ends well. So yeah, as I said in a bulletin post, we cared about each other very much before we even pushed this boat into the water, so let's see how this motherfucker floats!!!

In other brief news, I've decided to quit band. I texted Mark Gauthier and he said that he sure hates to see me go but he definitely understands, told me to keep playing and that I could call him if I needed anything. Thanks, Mark. You really have meant a lot to me and to my inspiration for playing drums over the years. I would not be where I am today without Mark. So I'm sorry to leave him with the rest of the band, I'm sorry I can't enjoy my time there with him, I just feel bad for doing this to him in general, but I am very thankful and I'm so glad he's understanding. And if I have any say in it, I'm going to be playing drums until I die.

In even briefer news, I Forget will now be available to play fall dates. Hooray! No football games or competitions! Now if I could just break this all to my dad and find the cross country sign up sheet. Cedar Point with Tim, Jim, and Alex on Sunday! WOOO! WOOO! WOOO!!! Mario Kart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


love,
Kyle

Friday, July 24, 2009

Oh man, wish I'd have read Caleb's comment about a week ago

So I've been at Myrtle Beach for the past 7 days and just returned earlier today. At Myrtle Beach, we had only dial-up internet in which we had to pay for by the minute and the hook-up was in the parents' bedroom, so needless to say, my time online was very limited. I missed a lot of things including some punknews.org updates, BSC's one year anniversary post, and Caleb's comment to me telling me that Mark Gauthier was this distressed about me wanting to quit band. Now I'll go over this once more and this is it. I would love to love to want to be in band or to even want to be in band but the fact of the matter here is that my friends in the drumline and some in the entire band have already quit and left me to deal with those who Mark, so Caleb pointed out, also cannot stand to be around. Now if there was one reason I'd want to stay it'd be to be there for Mark because Mark Gauthier has really made me into a drummer that I'm proud to be and I hate to leave him on his own. But I don't know if it's really worth it for me. Everyone keeps pulling this "You love playing drums. You should play drums in the band. It's that simple." No, it's not. I'm sorry, but it's not.

Okay, so I'm heavily considering running cross country this year since I won't be doing band. I was asked today, "Do you like running or playing drums more?" Well, drumming, of course. But no, that's not a reason to play in band. I love drumming, so I have a band that I play with and play however I like whenever I want and not whenever I don't want. Playing in I Forget also doesn't require me to spend an entire month of my summer standing out in the sun with a bunch of people I can't stand to be around being ordered to do this and that. I Forget is my dream, Frankfort High School Marching Band is like a whatever thing. Running sounds like fun and there's someone I'd like to be around (Nick George) who I'd be running with. So it makes sense to me whether or not it makes sense to anyone else. Also you can't fuck up running so no one can criticize me.

So I gotta break this to my dad sometime this weekend probably. I'm leaving on Sunday with Tim, Jim, and Alex to go to Cedar Point in Ohio until Wednesday. I'm super stoked. And we play a show next Thursday. So I am just set to go for the next while, but breaking to my dad that I'm not doing band isn't going to be easy or fun. Now about my past week!

So I spent the entire week laying on the beach, getting a little darker, running, playing Mario Kart DS, watching TV, and putting up with Zane. I enjoyed myself to my fullest for once even though Zane made it very difficult. Guess where I went last night!!!!

Okay, so the week of sun and screaming ended with a punk show. Rise Against, Rancid, and Billy Talent at the House of Blues. Okay, I'll start from opening act.

Billy Talent. The only song by them I really knew was "Try Honesty" though I have their entire first album on my iPod. Little did I know they're very enjoyable all of the time. Great show. Guitarist had great hair that you could have eaten cereal out of and played guitar like it was killing him. Very good at it, though. Singer has a very unique voice. Cross between Mike from the AKA's and something more melodic. Very good vocal melodies and songs in general. Great live show, great intros, great breakdowns, great banter. Canadians do it best arguably.

Rancid. Rancid, Rancid, Rancid. Never been a huge Rancid fan. Never really, really got it. Well they showed me what it was all about. It was more of a hugpit than a moshpit, which was kind of fun. When they came out with "Fall Back Down" it was like everyone was a huge family and were all singing together and fuckin' whatever. Great time. It was like watching Disclosure times 50. Great performance while not giving a fuck. I was expecting it to be sloppier than it was. The crowd really weren't all that familiar with the new songs. Nor was I. I think they only played two new ones. I remember they played "Fall Back Down," "Ruby Soho," "Olympia, WA" (my personal favorite), "Time Bomb," "Maxwell Murder," "Journey to the End of East Bay," "East Bay Nights," "Tenderloin," and...I think that's all I remember. Great set for them, too! Only time they kind of lost everyone was when they played a new song that Matt sings with acoustic guitars, an up-right bass, and those thick drum brush-like things. Bad choice in that part. I don't really like songs that Matt sings. But whatev. Rancid is officially a fucking awesome punk band. Tim and Lars didn't look the way I expected them to in person. Tim looked less scruffy and Lars was a lot smaller than I imagined him.

Rise Against. I've been listening to Rise Against since I was in 7th grade. RPM is still my favorite album by them I think, though I do love me some Siren Song of the Counter Culture. Blah blah blah, no one cares. Point being I don't like their new album very much. I've been over this. Well it was a good thing I didn't know all of their new songs or I'd have probably screamed so many lyrics that I'd have died or something. Just singing their old ones was enough to fuck my vocal chords and I'm just short of good descriptions. I don't plan on being a journalist in my future, so it's not a real big deal. Anyway, second song they played was "State of the Union." Felt like I was back in Baltimore watching Paint It Black again. Tim McIlrath is fucking awesome. Rise Against is a fucking good band and it's not fair to judge a band by their latest album I've decided. Songs I knew include, and I've always been bad with their song titles, "State of the Union," "Paper Wings," "Blood to Bleed," "Ready to Fall," "Everchanging" (acoustically), "Dead Ringer," "The First Drop," "Give It All," "Dancing for Rain," "Chamber the Cartridge," "Prayer of the Refugee" (particularly kickass), "The Good Left Undone," and "Survive." They played a lot of new songs I didn't know. Including that acoustic one. Done talking about it. Go see them for yourself. Bands from Chicago kick ass. I just have to go see The Lawrence Arms and I'll have seen the arguably three biggest punk bands from the city.

love,
Kyle

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Krusty Krab is unfair! Mr. Krabs is in there!

Standing at the concession! Plotting the oppression!


That's kind of how my day started. With the remembrance of how funny Spongebob is. Today was fucking interesting. I came across the most interesting bit of information I've come across probably in my whole life time that applies to my life. Can't tell anyone here, though. What we do is secret. I may or may not come back to this later in life and tell you what it was. I'll let you know this, though: my birthday is going to be fucking epic! Cant let you know what that means, either.

I'm leaving for the beach in a few hours. Caleb sent me a message saying that Mark Gauthier wants me to call him. Wonder what that could be about...wouldn't have anything to do with him not wanting me to quit the drumline and leave him with all of those other kids, I wouldn't think. I think I'll hold off on calling for now. I've got a week's worth of vacation to enjoy to its fullest. Brittney brought this emulator with Mario Kart DS, Super Mario 64, The Sims, Harvest Moon, Mario Party DS, and a ton of other games but most importantly Mario Kart DS over so I could borrow it for the week. I've played Mario Kart DS all day pretty much. Why? Because that shit is addictive. It has 16 classic tracks that take me back to the good ol' days of being 8 years old. Who am I kidding? These are that happiest days of my life.

I'm attempting to stay up all night so I can sleep the whole way to the beach or whatever. It'd be a lot easier if Tim were up for me to talk to. There's seriously no possible way to keep myself up for another 6 hours by talking to myself or to my blog. Boy if I did, I'd say a lot of things I'd regret and just a lot in general, eh? I wonder if blog posts have a character limit. It's probably like a trillion letters. I wonder if you could put like the entire Moby Dick novel on here or something. Or the manual to running the universe. Did I cover how I saw Public Enemies and wore a very appropriate Dillinger Four shirt that had a gun on it and says "We'll make you dance" to the movie? Too bad no one can see what my shirt says when the lights are out. My paragraphs aren't based around one idea.

My friend Lauren from Texas wants this tattooed on her foot. It's from the show Flapjack.


It's 3 AM in the morn. Put my key in the door. Dead bodies layin' all over the floor. I don't remember how they got there, but I guess I must have killed them.

I'm listening to different versions of old Alkaline Trio songs I know and the slight differences are eating me up inside, but in a good way. I need to see those motherfuckers again. I hope they tour with The Lawrence Arms in support of their new album they're recording here shortly. That'd be the best tour since the last time the two of them toured. I just want Brendan Kelly, in some form or another, come within 200 miles of here so I can go watch him perform music and have a chat with him. "Hi! I'm kylewagoner from the Sock Drawer!" He'd totally know who I was, too.

I don't deserve this....

I don't deserve this....

I don't deserve this....

No, I don't deserve this....

I don't deserve this....

No, I don't deserve this....

I don't deserve this....

No, I don't deserve this....

No, I don't deserve this....

NO, I DON'T DESERVE THIS NOW.




love,
Kyle

Sily Goose! 2.0

Or maybe it's 1.1. Whatever. Brittney has asked where I get my movie leaks and she's going to physically be at my house any minute now but I'm sure she'll forget to ask and I'll forget to tell her and someone else here might want to know, but I tend to hear about movie leaks at strikegently.com. Also, if you go to watch-movies-links.net, you can find all sorts of leaks to all sorts of movies on all sorts of sites. A lot of them don't work in America, but there are usually so many options that you can find one that works for you. The movies at strikegently.com always work, though. They also leak new albums and entire discographies of certain bands. Unfortunately, their favorite people are All Time Low and Ollie Sykes because they're sceneass-kissing motherfuckers.

In other news, I can't find my keys still and I'm leaving for the beach early tomorrow and can't find my iPod. So what am I to do? I haven't completely figured that out yet, but it'd be GREAT if I could listen to my songs on the 8-hour trip. Peachy great. Brittney's bringing Mario Kart DS over here in a little bit for me to borrow for the week so I'll have at least something to entertain myself with. I think I'm gonna fuck bitches and get money at the beach.

There's this band from Minneapolis that recently signed to Fat Wreck Chords called Banner Pilot. Maybe you've heard of them. Kind of in the same department as Dillinger Four, Off With Their Heads, and Dear Landlord. Anyway, they describe their sound as "If Jawbreaker, The Lawrence Arms, and Alkaline Trio got in a knife fight and Jawbreaker won...but just by a little bit." Well the band Jaws are described as "for fans of Alkaline Trio, Jawbreaker, and Lagwagon." So is the difference between Jaws and Banner Pilot the same difference between The Lawrence Arms and Lagwagon? I they just say Jaws is for fans of Lagwagon because their drummer used to drum for Lagwagon back in the day before he shot himself through the head. It was actually a little before then that he left Lagwagon and did other things like play for Jaws. Anyway, that's the tale of Derrick Plourde. Crazy bi-polar alcoholic punk drummer. Drummed for Lagwagon, RKL, Mad Caddies, Bad Astronaut, The Ataris, and Jaws. Killed himself in '05.

I Forget has confirmed the show at The Warren on July 30th. We're playing with...Fair Root? We rarely know anything about the bands we're playing with. Maybe one day we'll play with The Lawrence Arms, Lagwagon, Alkaline Trio, and Jawbreaker (if they get back together). Or we could settle for Banner Pilot.

love,
Kyle

Silly goose!

I saw the new Harry Potter movie today. So did a lot of people. I love that shit. Takes me away to a better place or something. If Harry Potter was real, it'd be way cooler than Twilight being real. I don't really know what to say about it other than it was tough getting tickets and getting in. We bought tickets an entire show early because they were sold out for the 6:30 showing. We went at 9:45. It was Brittney, Tim, Kierston, and I. Yeah, whatev.

Set Your Goals sound like Propagandhi music with some more metalcore influence and some chanting and much scener vocals. Chris Hannah couldn't sound scene no matter how scene the vocal melody was. I think they might love Jesus, too. Propagandhi doesn't give a shit about Jesus.

I spent my night watching Bruno because it was leaked. It was pretty good and I think the gay community needs to cool down sometimes. Once again, this guy exposes a lot of ignorance and in this case homophobia. I don't think it really gives a solution, but it shows that yes, there is no logic in people when it comes to hating gays.

I've come to accept that I really have nothing insightful to say today, either. I'm packing for the beach tomorrow and leaving early Friday morning so I might not blog for a while or if I do, it'll be at weird times of the day for me. I gotta get up rather early (probably before noon) and help my mom with feeding animals and other shit before we go, so I should probably get to sleep now since it's quarter past 4 AM. Yeah. Great. I don't like vacation. I hope this goes nicely. Pray to your gods for me.

love,
Kyle

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I AM NEVER GETTING OLD OR CHANGING ANYTHING!!!!

I hate finales. Scrubs. Fucking Scrubs finale. Who invented endings? They're terrible. So much change there at the end. J.D. leaves Sacred Heart to work somewhere closer to his kid. Why? Why would you do that?! Here you have your best friend, your happy workplace, your crazy janitor with no name, your smokin' hot girlfriend working with you and what do you do? You move 37 minutes away to be closer to your son who is a result of you knockin' up an ex. Great job. See, kids? Sex ruins everything. It not only ruins your life, but it ruins the lives of everyone who works with you, your kid, and everyone who watches your show.

But seriously, that whole thing it's like...I don't want to grow up. I don't want to waste any time in my life. I want to get married and have a family starting tomorrow and raise them right and find the right friends, live in the right place, work the right job, and live a perfect life while maintaining everything that makes me happy. Life's tough, eh? Don't you ever wish you were a moral-less cannibal that only cared about killing people and eating them? No love. No happiness. Just the needs to eat and kill to fulfill. Or you could be a tax collector and only have the same essential needs.

I've made a decision to move to Maine to go to school after I graduate. People who have agreed to come with me thus far are: Brittney, Tim, and Katie. The plan is to get an apartment and all pay for it together while we all enjoy the best years of our lives. And when we're done college, why not just stay up there? No reason to move back here. Our degrees wouldn't mean shit here. What's having an audio engineering degree gonna do me here in West Virginia? What's Tim having a journalism degree going to help him here?

Amanda apparently also quit the band, so that's further reason not to be in the band. I'm really, really leaning towards not doing band this year. Someone's yet to give me a reason why I should not quit other than the band needs me. Of course the band needs me. What's that matter to me, though? You know who needs me? I do. MY band does. Other people need me and the school band is going to take me away on many opportunities those people could have at having me. Fuck band. This last month of my summer needs me! I don't need band! I can play drums perfectly well without it. Trust me. I know what I'm fucking doing.

Computer just completely shut itself down to install updates or some shit. The dogs need to quit barking at nothing. I hate dogs sometimes. If a cat meows outside, all of the cats in the house don't jump out of bed and start meowing and running around. Dogs need to chill out.

love,
Kyle

Monday, July 13, 2009

Quit saying that!!

I goddamn hate looking back at my blog posts and seeing me mention Katie's name. For one, I hate her actual first name. It's fucking annoying. I hate saying it. I hate typing it. No offense to her, I just don't like the ringing of her name, but I do like the person who it represents, so it doesn't really bother me to say it. However, reading back over it just like glancing through the pages....that's fucking terrible. Just terrible. I feel like I sound like a brainwashed douchebag or like I'm always bitching. Maybe if she was my actual girlfriend I'd feel better about mentioning her--that I'd feel I had some right to mention her name instead of just fooling myself. I don't know, I'll work on that and see how it goes over. Katie Mullan, if you still read this blog, I hope you don't take it personally. You don't like your first name, either. I know too many Katie's.

Anyhow, not to change the subject, but I spent this evening throwing hay bales off a truck. And in return, I got $5 and my mom to say, "Your [Rise Against and Rancid] ticket is paid for." That's right. I'm seeing Rise Against, Rancid, and Billy Talent after all. How do I feel about that? Well I've been saying I want to go to a show and not worry about the music and just mosh, so this might be my perfect opportunity.

My mom has this conditional stupid accent when she talks to rednecks. She was doing it today while we were making hay and talking to this guy who was helping. The whole time I was thinking, "Quit it. You don't really talk like that." And there they were talking about what goat meat tastes like. For real? Are you seriously going to stand there and compare what goat tastes like to other things? Lord, my mom belongs here. How sad...

I have had nothing insightful to say lately. Things with my dad are going well. I had a great weekend. Katie Mullan needs to come back here because I'm leaving this Friday for a week. I'm seeing my psychologist in the morning and supposedly meeting up with Krystal and Timmy for Taco Bell. I'm also supposed to clean the windows in the living room for money. I decided earlier this week that it's wise to keep track of what I am doing each day on here because if I lose something and forget where I was or what I did, I won't be able to trace my steps as easily. Like last Monday I lost my keys and all I remember doing is going to the dentist in the morning. Anyone know what I did last Monday?

I really don't want to do band. Why? Because all of my friends quit save Belle and Caleb, for one. Another important reason is that high school band is not a place for musicians. There's no praise for practicing when everyone else is fooling around and talking. There's a shit ton of "QUIT PLAYING! WE'RE TIRED OF HEARING YOU PLAY!" though. That's no fun. Plus being in band is forfeiting both the last month of your short summer vacation and also every weekend in the fall. Paint It Black and Naked Raygun are playing on 9-11. If you're in band, you can't go to that because you have a football game to play at on some random-ass field. Not fun. Fall used to be my favorite season. Fall to me is now marching band season. It's not here for me to enjoy. It's here to dread. That's no fun. Not fun. Remind me one more time why I should want to play in band. One more thing! I have had to cancel potentially really good gigs with I Forget multiple times before for band. And band camp blows.

Anyone know how to contact someone who isn't responding to texts without seeming like a pest? Should I just back the fuck off? I need advice hardcore. Or maybe I need to read my own preachings and chill the fuck out. Yessssss. Okay. Let's try this again...

love,
Kyle

Saturday, July 11, 2009

To band or not to band?

Let me make a quick note on what happened over the past two days. Thursday I got my drums and stuff from my dad's, picked Katie up from her house in Fort Ashby, took her to my mom's where we restrung a guitar with Brittney, Shane, and Britnee, walked around the house some, and then we went off to play a show. Katie had to go eat dinner with her daddy. Here's how the show went, though. It was unique.

So I'll set the stage with us getting stuck behind traffic on our way there since we always run into road work when we really have to be somewhere at a certain time. We had to be at the show by 5:30 and left my house around 4:55 or so. We dropped Katie off, went to 7-11, and then got stuck in traffic for like 10-15 minutes. Wonderful. So we get to the venue a little bit late. It's okay because no one else is there yet. Not even the sound guy. In fact, the PA didn't even arrive until about 10 minutes after the show was supposed to start. Sean Farr sang first. He did some covers and some good originals. I guess coke makes you a good singer/songwriter but sacrifices your ability to seem like you're from this planet. Sean's set ended with him breaking his low E string. Good set, Sean.

Next was Even Falling. I guess I shouldn't really voice all of my opinions of people who we get to actually play with, but this is for document's sake! So Even Falling is this acoustic band that has a guy who plays acoustic guitar, a guy who just sings, a girl who plays bass or only sings on some songs, and a girl who plays bongo drums. The guitarist obviously has some metal influence and the girl plays bass like she worships Shane. Shane was very impressed by her bass-playing and singing abilities. The guitarist needed to tune his D string. I'm not real sure what the bongo drums brought to the band, but hey, that's not my call. They're a young band, they'll improve or break up. That's what bands do. Their set ended with the guitarist breaking a string. Good set, guys.

Well here's the thing. There was supposed to be this fourth band coming and we were to be third. We were relying on this fourth band to bring a guitar amp since we had no room for ours in the cars. So what we decided to do was to play "acoustically." Now both Sean Farr and the guitarist in Even Falling broke a string. So we couldn't actually play with an acoustic guitar. What we did was we plugged the Gibson Les Paul Jr. '55 into a small PA system and then micked that PA through the main PA. Interesting, I'll give it that. So we were like a quieter version of I Forget. We started our set with "I Love You (As a Friend)" where I used drum brushes instead of sticks so that I'd not overpower everyone else. I was told when the song was over that I could probably get away with using drumsticks. That's what I wanted to hear! So then we did "I Hope You Take It Personally." We played "Get a Clue," "Dog," "Jeeznips," "Back Seat," "The Enforcer," half of "Bulbasaur" before the guitar went out of tune, and "Perfect Day." No "Great Smile," no "Cut Your Hair," and we completely forgot to play "for.the.$$." Did I ever mention that there's a band called for.the.win? Yeah, totally didn't hear about them until after we wrote and titled that song. Also, I saw a shirt that completely ripped off Freaky J's song "Rawr Means I Hate You In Dinosaur." It said "Rawr Means I Love You In Dinosaur." It was being advertised in a corner on Facebook. Complete bullshit. Anyway, our set was interesting. Shane and Brittney sat down to play. It was our first time playing together since May 2nd when we played our last show with Freaky J and the Bears! Oh, they actually changed the name of that song I was just talking about to "How the Indians Was." Anyway, our set ended with Brittney's guitar going out of tune and then getting out the Jagstang and it playing very quietly, so I had to use drum brushes when we played "Perfect Day." Great set, guys. I should come see you play more often.

After the show, Tim, Brittney, Shane, Britnee, Kierston, Alex, and I all went out to eat at Denny's. We sat at the big corner booth and terrorized the other people eating. It was a funny time, as always. You put a lot of funny people together, you're gonna hear some funny things. It's really quite simple. If you put Brittney by her self, even, you're gonna hear some funny things. After Denny's, I came to Mark's house and spent the night.

In the morning, I went home! There I uhh...got a shower and then slept until 2:30 because I was so stressed out about going to my dad's. I decided soon afterward that I was not going to be able to go to my dad's that night. So he came to pick Zane and I up later and I laid in my mom's closet freaking out while my mom went out to talk and rationalize with him. He calmed down after a while and my mom told him to enjoy the evening with Zane and she'd talk to me about going to his house later on. So here in a few hours, I'll be going to my dad's with some hope. I feel a lot better. Oh, and Katie informed me last night that she's staying here for all of this coming week, which is excellent news for me. We got a lot of shit ta do. Oh, and Off With Their Heads at the Talking Head club at Sonar in Baltimore on August 18th and Paint It Black and Naked Raygun at the Ottobar in Baltimore on September 11th, which is a Friday. If I quit marching band, which I may, I'll be able to attend that.

So that was my last two days, pretty much. Any questions? The plan for today is to go see a movie and get dinner with my dad. That'd be nice. Katie wants a kitten, so I'm gonna see if she can't come over to see ours tomorrow. That'd be nice for everyone. I wish I knew how to open a survey. I'd ask if I should quit marching band or not. I vote yes. People in marching band are going to be biased because the drumline is gonna be a lot worse without me. It feels so empty without me. I don't care, though. I want to keep the last month of my summer, keep my weekends in the fall, and maybe go see Paint It Black on 9-11. Why do I feel like something else special happened on that day?

love,
Kyle

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

s(exlax)

First and foremost, go listen to the new Cobra Skulls album. http://www.punknews.org/bands/cobraskulls

They are, as I always say, the lovechild of Dead to Me, Against Me!, and Tiger Army. (The three me's.) Alex should like that description. He likes them bands purty good.

So I got into some manual labor today! Put my ass to work in the hay fields and unloaded probably 6 or 7 wagons of hay! Woo! Tone my scrawny muscles right up. I been workin' and liftin' a lot of stuff lately since moving in to my mom's and I like it. Feels like I'm actually doing something when I'm actually doing something instead of sitting at the computer all fucking day long. At the end of the day, I'm tired not only because I've been awake for too long but because I actually exerted myself that day. I felt a little out of place going into a barn filled with rednecks wearing skin-tight plaid pants and a matching Paint It Black t-shirt. They appreciated the help, though, and were very thankful and respectful which is all I ever asked from anyone.

I went to Hagerstown this morning in an attempt to see Katie but someone overslept! No matter, I went to Hot Topic and FYE there and found some good shit I want to get. Hot Topic had Propagandhi's Supporting Caste on vinyl, and the same for Alkaline Trio's self-titled album, Alkaline Trio's Agony & Irony, NOFX's Frisbee (the alternative title to Coaster since vinyl records are closer to frisbee-sized than coaster-sized), Green Day's Kerplunk and Dookie, some Minor Threat, Tim Barry from Avail, and just some other cool shit. They had some alright CD's there, too, but I was mostly interested in the vinyl records because you never see those. FYE there had Paint It Black's New Lexicon which makes me want to return to the store with money and purchase it. Both stores had Gaslight 59 Sound which I intend to buy one day. Oh, and FYE had all sorts of good Alkaline Trio shit including the Goddamnit: Redux, the Crimson with bonus shit, and the Alkaline Trio album. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Since my dad took my laptop, I've been dying for some Alk3.

I then went to Cumberland and drove the car to Dr. Searles' office 3 hours early. I tried finding someone that'd come get lunch with me, but no one was available, which is just sucky. So I didn't have lunch. Dr. Searles showed up a little after 1 wondering what I was doing there and let me in. I proceeded to sleep on his couch waiting for 3 PM to roll around. Then I talked to him about my dad! He's my psychologist, after all. He just assured me that my ideas here are reasonable and I'm the sane one and everything I've said in my blog about it is probably accurate. Whatev. I gotta look for the keys to my dad's house or else I'm not gonna be able to get my drums on Thursday for the show we're playing! We're probably playing The Warren on July 30th. Woo!!!

love,
Kyle

Sunday, July 5, 2009

"Irregardless"

There's apparently some debate on whether "irregardless" is or should be a real word or not. Regardless means without regard, right? So irregardless should mean without without regard, right? So...I guess it really doesn't make sense and shouldn't be transposable. Anyway, not important.

So Jason says that we aren't recording until he moves into his new studio space; we'll just mix until we make the move at the end of the month. So that gives us time to get the album art together! Woo! That also means our album probably won't be out until mid to late August! Woo!!

Katie told me her touch-screen on her phone is broken, so she cannot text back. That is why she answered the phone when Tim called but would not reply to me. Either she's telling the truth or that's one of the best lies I've ever heard. I'm gonna give her the benefit of the doubt because she told me I need to call her from now on and usually if someone's trying to get rid of you, they don't have you call often. No one cares about that. I'm documenting, leave me be.

Garlic bread. Texas Toast. You can tell your breath is going later before you even put the whole thing in your mouth. Peppermint candy. They are breath-savers. Grandparents. They can provide nice emotional support and peppermint candy. Fathers. They can also provide emotional support but some have trouble with that. No peppermint candy here. Sons. They need emotional support. They also like Texas Toast and peppermint candy in that order.


I am trying to talk to Brittney, Britnee, and Timmy about our new album concept, so I can't do that and do this at the samet time! It involves bathroom stalls!

love,
Kyle

Nothing goes as planned

All my shit just got erased and now I have to type it again.

Anyway, the whole concept and album cover that I showed you before for our album may very well have to be scrapped. You see, Megan resized the picture before she sent it and doesn't have it in a high resolution anymore, so we can't use that. So now we're toying with some other ideas that don't involve blending a bunch of pictures together or anything like that but is still good. If anyone out there has or know someone who has an album art concept sitting around, we'd be more than happy to at least consider it.

I love how Helen K comes here and posts comments now. It's like she's trying to bring BSC here or something, but I think I come up short of Brendan Kelly. I almost feel like I'm what she has to read while Brendan is away whether it be to go to Florida or Wisconsin or wherever. I can live with that, though. If all of Brendan's followers also followed me and only posted on the weekends or when Brendan was away, I'd be more than okay.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. What's here now is that we need to get an album cover and some art done very soon. Here's all that we need:

-Album cover
-Back side of album cover insert
-CD design (as in what is on the actual disc)
-Back of CD case (where the barcode and tracklisting and shit is)

That's a lot of shit to get together, though I'm not sure if we're really going to finish up the album right this minute. Still, I get so jealous when bands on Fat Wreck show the album art like 3 months before the album comes out. AND they show a tracklisting. I couldn't put our songs in the right order for this album right now if I had to. I don't know how they're going to transition. I wish we'd have recorded this whole album in a week instead of over the past...8 or 9 months. We went in in like October or November to start recording and now we're here. We're like GNR or The Offspring or Green Day or something.

Oh, so maybe you were wondering what I decided to do yesterday? I went to Ridgeley to meet up with Nick and Timmy for fireworks or what have you. I really felt like burning a flag now and then just for the sport of it. I wish I'd had a big boom box and could have walked around playing "Fuck the Flag" or some shit. Or maybe "Stick the Goddamn Flag Up Your Motherfucking Ass You Son of a Bitch" or whatever order the curse words come in that title. Regardless, I don't get teary-eyed on independence day. Maybe I should be more outwardly thankful but it's like...come on, everyone is kissing so much ass. Anyway, about yesterday.

So I tell Nick about my sexual excursions because I don't always get a chance to and he loves it when I do that. A thing he often says as I describe past events is, "God! I've got a boner right now!" That's always brings a profound sense of satisfaction. I did get ahold of Katie yesterday. We called her while walking to Cumberland. She says her dad never came to pick her up but her stepbrother offered to bring her out here today. So today I can either see her if and only if she comes OR I can catch up on some sleep since I had to wake up and go to church this morning. Yawn. We'll see how it turns out. I'll believe she's coming when I see it. If I finish up this blog soon, I'm gonna sleep then.

So uhh...fireworks, fireworks, screaming kids, fireworks, oozin' ah's, boom, boom, boom, fireworks, God Bless America, good night. Right? Isn't that what this country is all about?

Is there something else I wanted to cover? If you haven't noticed or I haven't announced it yet, I officially have 10 followers on blogspot now. And you can buy I Forget merch at http://cafepress.com/i_forget

And love your parents. Especially if they talk to you. We may or may not have a show this Thursday at Salvation Army but Shane's being a wiener about it. The only show we had lined up has been canceled beacuse a fucking fire marshal closed down the venue and then the authorities wonder why kids get involved in things they shouldn't. I hate this bullshit.

love,
Kyle

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Why do I do this to myself?

This weekend isn't going to go as planned, I do figure. Katie rumored that she was coming to this area today and I cannot get ahold of her for shit. So she may be, as Alkaline Trio would say, "off someplace far away laughing at me." Or maybe there's a logical explaination. Then again, there's always some sort of logical explanation for everything in life and I think, personally, that the real reasons behind things aren't usually logical, so by there always being a logical explanation from everyone (be that my dad, Jason, Katie, Belle, etc), I think I'm not recieving the whole truth. But hey, what do I know? I'm just saying that I have no idea what's going on and it's a bummer as usual and I'd prefer that people'd be straight with me more often.

On that note, my dad is being very, very illogical and probably even more so childish. He, in a desperate attempt at controlling me, has taken my laptop, my Wii, my drums, guitar, and bass all for hostage, so to speak, and not letting them leave his house. The Wii I can understand because he did buy it for that house, but my logical reasoning (which is completely true in this case) is that it was played more at this house than his because it was hooked up to the main TV that everyone watches shows on and shit. Here at my mom's we have no satellite, cable, or any sort of service like that. Just television sets. That and my brother lives here and can play it while I'm always drumming or doing something less productive at my dad's. However, him taking it back makes sense. I didn't appreciate how the first thing he said to me after a few days of silence was, "Is the Wii here?" and proceeded to ask me to go get it from my mom's house so he could take it back. Thanks, Dad, I have also been trying to make the best of this situation. How insulting. But anyway, he bought the Wii, it was just a very opportune time for him to ask for it back. My laptop, however, was NOT bought for the entire family. He argues that it was bought to replace the the desktop that crashed in the basement that was initially bought for the whole family. Okay, two things about why it's not ridiculous for me to take my laptop to my mom's:

1. It's a laptop and unlike that desktop, it is mobile.
2. The desktop, unlike my laptop, was bought before everyone else in my dad's house had their own computer.

So uhh...yeah, you can force logic out of it in his favor, but it's really irrational. So anyway, my dad basically took this week of time to cool off to instead get more pissed at me. Will he be the same to his son as he's been to everyone else in his past that he feels has "wronged him" in some way? Perhaps, meaning he'll hold a grudge against me until one of us dies and he'll never really be able to hold a real and logical conversation with me. And if he gets progressively worse, well, my mom is looking in to see if I lawfully am required to see him at all and also if he lawfully can take back all of the things he's gotten me. As I often say...hasn't he ever had a girlfriend? You should know that if you buy a girl a gift, that money towards it is an investment and if you let it fail or something happens, it's gone. No refunds. You can't make up rules after it's done. A gift is a gift. So anyhow, that's basically how that's going. Oh, and no gigs on weekends he has us and no visiting friends on his weekends. Sounds fair, right? Since my mom would let me play gigs and go to my friends' houses on her weekends. Shows some real maturity on his part, it seems.

Oh, so anyway, one more thing. What I'm taking my dad doing this as is this: I have to buy things on my own if I'm not going to accept his help (though that's not what moving back with my mom was about or is about at all). So! That being said, I should get a job and work to buy my own things! Right? That's how it seems to me. So I'll do just that. I've been applying for a few places and I'm going to apply to a few more. And get this: if band gets in the way, then I'll just quit. I'm not going to be in band to please my dad if it's going to conflict with me taking care of myself, as it seems he also wants me to do. This isn't about pleasing my dad anymore. I tried moving out and not offending him and the whole time I was there I tried my hardest to please him, but if I get complete irrationality and disrespect in return, then I'm not going to do this to myself any longer. Do I make myself clear? I'm doing something punk for the first time in my life and living for myself. I am not giving up my dreams; I'm going to go to college to do what I want in life. Fuck anyone who tells me I can't or I should do differently. So this is it, I'm done. I'll worry about other things.

Next on the list to worry about: how am I getting my stuff out of my dad's house? How am I going to deal with his reaction? Should I deal with him at all? What am I doing this evening for the Fourth of July? Burn a flag? Go to Ridgeley? Go to Cumberland? Try to contact Katie some more?

Is this a good post? It's very personal. I think I should write an entire album-worth of lyrics because I obviously have a lot to say about this. See, musicians are always supposed to be told that they'll never make it, so that's playing out nicely. Motivation to prove people wrong.


love,
Kyle

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Back to the grill!

'Kay, I've kind of been slacking here on this blogging thing a little in the past few weeks because I've been doing shit and adjusting to moving back to my mom's and all. Well enough of that shit! I stay up 'till 4 AM every night, so I think I can find some time to rant a little here and there. Well I've got quite the topic to talk about today! How about...I Forget's new album? I Forget in general? Okay, everything I Forget.

So Brandon Irwin, David Irwin's brother, designed us a website today. You can find it at http://iforget.hostoi.com for now, but we're going to get a domain name soon. I'm not sure why he wants to do this all for us and buy us a domain name when MySpace is free and much more frequently used, but this is all him. He can do this for us if he wants. It's pretty much just gonna be where all of our stuff on all of our sites are easily put together. Like one page has all of our Youtube videos, it'll have tour dates, some extended info on each of us, and whatever else. Song lyrics. So like, when we make our new album, it won't say "Go to our MySpace and read the lyrics in a blog post." It'll say "Lyrics at iforgetofficial.com." That's way more badass. But yeah, we're cheap and we're not gonna put all of the lyrics with the album. We're doing System of a Down's Steal This Album! approach and just giving a link for the info. Which brings me to the next part of this! The album art and shit!

Okay, so! I have been trying to get my album concept across for more than half a year now and to get it made so everyone can look at it and marvel at my genius. Well it's changed here and there. It was initially going to be drawn by Michelle like our last cover but she never got around to it and I got tired of waiting, so I got Megan Green over and we took her picture. She recently sent me the pictures and I made a rough concept of how the final one will look. Now I'm still new to Photoshop and all so I really can't make the finished product on my own. So! Britnee gave me one of her friends to contact who is excellent with Photoshop. Makes fucking amazing shit with it, really. Just take my word for it. Anyway, here's my shit rough copy and he will make this amazing. Keep in mind, we still need the caller on the other end in the picture and the background image here is stolen, so I'd like to somehow get something in the back that is legal to use since we're already ripping off Beyonce and Destiny's Child and the Blackeyed Peas on the album.



So there it is! A rough version of our new album! That being posted, here's a rough tracklisting! In no fucking particular order!

1. Is Your Mom Still Around?
2. Dog
3. I Hope You Take It Personally
4. Bulbasaur
5. When I'm With You
6. Jeeznips
7. for.the.$$
8. Not for Resale in California
9. F.C.C.K.U.
10. Flannel Shirt
11. Back Seat
12. Perfect Day


We're sure on like 1-3 and 12, but everything in between is up in the air on order. "Is Your Mom Still Around?" isn't a real song. We might scrap "Not for Resale" and do some acoustic song about religion that Brittney shit out. It's fucking mighty. Everyone will know all of the songs on the album before it's out because we've played most of them live before. It'll be really fucking good, though.

Umm...Brittney quit her job at ACS, I moved out of my dad's house, and Shane has a girlfriend. I Forget has gone through some drastic changes lately, as you can see! That probably means our next album will be a prog country hip hop album after this one. No but seriously, we listen to a lot of Alkaline Trio and Eminem anymore, so keep that in mind if we start sounding different.

I told Sean from Toys That Kill on MySpace IM the other night that I play in the only pop punk band in West Virginia and he goes "The one that plays 'Bomb Sniffing Dogs?'" I said, "Yes!" That is fucking us! That's kind of amazing, eh? So though I didn't get to go see him and his band play at Insubordination Fest, he knows who my band is, which is very satisfying in itself.

Anything else I Forget-related? Fuck you, I'm not telling you anything else. I told you pretty much everything about our new album here. Go get a new hobby.

love,
Kyle