rancid - let the dominoes fall

http://www.hell-cat.com/artists/artist/61/Rancid

They are streaming the record already on pretty much every official Rancid related website (Rancid's, Hell-Cat's, Machete's, and Epitaph).

I'm trying really hard to give this record a chance, but I skipped through every song.  I made it 1:30 into one of the songs and that is, by far, the longest I lasted.  The average time is about :30, which is an awful time.  Some songs start off well, like they're going to be good, then I don't know what happens.  "The Bravest Kids" sounds like old Rancid for about 20 seconds and then it sounds like new Rancid.  A few songs, Lars sings in and it sounds like it could be good, then... again, :20 into, something happens and its back to that new Rancid sound they have going on.

I mean, really... listen to "Skull City".  Just listen to as much as you can take of it.  What.  The.  Fuck.  I can appreciate a band changing their sound and all.  It happens.  Bands mature.  They age.  They try new things.  Whatever the case is, most bands do change their sound.  However, bands that have changed their sound don't release a single about how they're still around and still the same.  Yeah, you're still around, but have you listened to what you're writing lately?  Have you listened to the harmonies and guitar riffs?  Have you listened to the blander bass lines?  This isn't the same Rancid.

I was just listening to some of Let's Go and And Out Come The Wolves with a friend of mine yesterday and we were just talking about how those two records are just solid.  There are no bad songs on those records.  Its catchy, but still Rancid.

I need Excedrin.

may 7 & 8, 2009 - the ataris

Normally, I post pictures or videos that I find of the performances I go see, but this time, I can't find any.  They were smaller shows than I had actually thought they would be.  On Thursday, I saw The Ataris at Hangar 84 in Vineland, NJ with Stacy.  South Jersey?  Weird.  On Friday, I drove down to Fletcher's in Baltimore, MD with my brother.  Baltimore was more like the NJ I'm used to and it wasn't even NJ.  Ugh, south Jersey.

First off, let me start off by saying that I thought this Hangar 84 place was going to be pretty cool.  It looked it.  The stage was a decent size, there was a good amount of space for a crowd, there was refreshments even!  There was also a lot of younger kids.  Stacy and I were joking that she was the oldest one in the crowd that wasn't in a band or worked there.  The worst part is that I think that's correct.  Then the next oldest was me, it felt like.  I dug the bands that went on before The Ataris, although there was way more than I thought there would be.  I knew Pull The Pin was playing and I had assumed that maybe 2 more bands were playing.  Apparently there was like 5 opening bands.  We arrived late, so we didn't catch them all.

Pull The Pin is a fun band to see live.  They're like if No Use For A Name ("Dumb Reminders" era), No Motiv, Fenix Tx, Blink 182, and pop punk in general had a baby together somehow.  Good times, though.  They've got fun stage prescense and are just overall silly without sounding terrible.  I mean, I bought their CD.  I haven't bought a CD in... a... while.  I can't remember the last time, actually, so there you go.  Check them out.

I loved The Ataris set.  They even played some Misfits covers at the end, like they did at Hoodwink.  I thought that was pretty cool.  Even though no one in that crowd had any idea who the Misfits are.  I mean, I'm not a Misfits fan, but at least I know who they are and why they're of significance.  I mean, really, kids, they're from New Jersey and they're kind of a big deal.  Do we know anything at all?

They played a good mixture of songs both nights.  If I remember correctly, it was the same songs both nights.  There was a different Misfits song and Kris covered the Replacements while their guitarist ran offstage to puke, which had me worried, but then had me laughing because Kris was funny about it.  He also played "Choices" because someone shouted it out and he said that he had never heard anyone ask for that song.

All in all, Balitmore was the better show.  The crowd was more diverse and fitting of an Ataris show.  Also, Pull The Pin didn't have to tell everyone to not stand 15 feet away from the stage like they were scared or something.  I mean, really.

Not sure if I'll be going to Hangar 84 ever again (although, A Static Lullaby is playing there next month).  South Jersey is so much different than an hour or so north of it.  Who would have thought?  Baltimore, though... is great.  I don't think I need to say that again, do I?

Sorry this review kind of sucks, but I waited a few days in hopes to find some pictures or something (I saw people taking pictures!), but alas, no luck.  I'm also feeling quite unmotivated.  I love The Ataris, though.  They are great.  Which is why I've seen them 4 times in the past few weeks.  Hoodwink, Bamboozle, Hangar 84, and Fletcher's.  Whew!

Rancid "Last One To Die"

RANCID: "Last One To Die" video

In all honesty, I did not make it through this whole song.  The beginning had me excited.  The first few guitar chords are reminiscent of older Rancid.  And Out Come The Wolves Rancid, to be exact. Once he started singing, I was like, it's okay, I can get through this, he still sounds like Tim, no difference there.  Then the chorus came and I couldn't take it.  It sounds like the worst parts of Indestructible.  The parts of that record that made me not like it as a whole.
All of the things that made me love Rancid from the start are starting to disappear.  I'm not understanding what is going on with these guys.  It's seriously disappointing.  I can't even begin to describe the sound that they have going on now.  I just know I don't like it.  I miss the old Rancid.  The one before Indestructible.
Maybe I'm overreacting?  I mean, I didn't make it through the song.  What are your thoughts on it?  Go listen to some songs off of Lets Go and then let me know how you feel.

The Gaslight Anthem videos on YouTube.

Found a couple from the show I went to on Saturday.  Not bad quality, either!  I'm going to post them here, even if I'm the only one that they make smile like an insane person. 

There are also pictures up on The Stone Pony's website already! http://stoneponyonline.com/photos/2009/0509gla/index.html

may 9, 2009 - the gaslight anthem @ the stone pony

Photo credit to bob sanderson on Flickr.

Last night, I went to the Stone Pony to attend the second night of the two sold out shows The Gaslight Anthem were doing.  I'm a big fan of The Gaslight Anthem.  So much that I didn't care that I was missing the Bouncing Souls at Asbury Lanes because I was so excited to see The Gaslight Anthem.  It was my first time seeing them live, so I decided it was worth it, regardless of what they played and how good they were.  The first time you see a band you love is something you wouldn't regret.  At least, I don't.

If you search on YouTube for live videos of these guys, it appears to be a hit or miss.  Sometimes they sound great, sometimes Brian Fallon does weird things with his voice that makes the song sound a bit weird...  Last night, however... watching these guys perform... was absolutely amazing.  I regret not getting tickets to see them the night before even.  I won't be making the same mistake of waiting until the last minute to get tickets next time.

I was waiting for my friend, Melinda to arrive, so I ended up missing the first few songs, but I stood outside the door to hear them.  The staff at the Stone Pony that night were so great.  They were all super nice and they all were where they needed to be and handled everything really well.

I only forgot to write down one song, but here is the setlist from the night.

Great Expectations

High and Lonesome

Old White Lincoln

Even Cowgirls Get The Blues

Wooderson

The 59 Sound

Senor and The Queen

Film Noir

The Navesink Bank

Miles Davis and The Cool

American Girl (cover)

Drive

Casanova, Baby!

Here's Looking At You, Kid

The Patient Ferris Wheel (I forgot to write this one down, but I feel like they played this song)

Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts

Say I Won't (Recognize)

Stand By Me (cover)/I'da Called You Woody, Joe

Angry Johnny and The Radio

They were amazing.  The crowd was amazing.  I wasn't moving, but I was sweating so hard.  I loved how into the set the crowd was.  The first few chords of every song had the crowd screaming.  Right after the last chords of the song, the crowd was screaming.  I was up until about 5am, still hyped off of this show.  I don't think I stopped smiling until about 2am.  This was one of the best shows I have ever been to.  If you ever have the chance to see The Gaslight Anthem, take it up.  I can't believe this show was only $16, seriously.

I'll have to update again when videos and pictures are all up, but for now, that's the only one I found.  Not even sure if it's from the same show.  They wear the same clothes all the time for shows anyway!  Either way, it's a great picture and it's from one of the Stone Pony shows.  Seriously, if you can go to Stone Pony, do it.  If you can see The Gaslight Anthem, do it.  If you can do both at the same time, DO IT.

may 3, 2009 - bamboozle festival, day two

This day was rainy and pretty cold and I showed up earlier than all my friends, so I was wandering alone for a while.  I also missed the first few songs of the Ataris, which sucked, but I left my ticket back at my friends' place, so go figure, haha.  Needless to say... the Ataris were fantastic.  They still sound amazing live, which makes me happy.  I need to see them more often.  I can't go years without seeing them again.  There's no way.  They played a few old songs, "Boys of Summer", and ended with "San Dimas High School Football Rules".  I want to tell you how happy I was watching them, how loud I was screaming the words, how I didn't care that I was being trampled by tall people and crowd surfers, and how this performance just made my entire weekend, but I don't know how to put it into the proper words.  If you've never seen The Ataris, you're missing out.  I'm posting this video because this is from where I was standing.  I'm probably in the video, but since YouTube has yet to have a slow motion feature, there's no way of telling.

After this, I looked for Ataris merch and failed.  Just like I failed to find the Get Up Kids merch the night before.  So bad at this.  Bamboozle is disorganized.  I heard some of Billy Talent and I have to say, that guy sounds like he is out of his mind.  I dig the stuff on their records, but live he sounds absolutely CRAZY.  I don't mean crazy good or crazy bad either.  I mean mentally insane.  I don't know how else to describe it.  I was looking for one of my friends and I knew she was standing by the Imagination stage, so I hung around there since there were no bands I absolutely had to see at the time.  I watched Tinted Windows, which sounds exactly like more recent Hanson songs, honestly.  Taylor's stage prescence was lacking, but his teenybopper fans were absolutely not lacking.  There were even girls standing against the fence after the performance, yelling "TAYLOR HANSON" in unison.  Something not to be expected of Bamboozle.  There's seriously only Taylor pictures on Flickr.  Not kidding.  Blue pants.

Photo credit to chariotswinglow on Flickr.

Then The Sounds went on.  Sometimes you realize how much you love a band until you see them live.  These guys (and girl!) have great stage prescence.  The singer is adorable.  She just straight up looks like a hipster Debbie Harry and I love it.  I couldn't tell you what songs they played, but I enjoyed watching and listening to them.  I wandered after their set.  The crowd for 3oh!3 was obnoxiously insane.  They weren't anything great to see and we tried really hard to just pass them by.  I felt like their set was everything I hate about music.  Stupid lyrics, no live band, little girls in neon jumping and screeching words and how much they love so and so in 'the band', and the worst dance moves ever to be seen on scrawny white girls.  Needless to say, I left that area and looked for good music.

Or maybe I waited around to see Sum 41, since they make me feel like I'm 14.  I was hoping for a lot of old songs, so I could feel like Warped Tour 2001 all over again.  They... kind of played older songs.  A few.  I listened.  I wasn't as excited as I thought I'd be when they got on stage.  I did sing along to "In Too Deep" and of course I know all the words to "Fat Lip".  All the videos for "Fat Lip" are obnoxious, but I found this and this wasn't as obnoxious.

Demi Lovato played Bamboozle?  Yes, that's a question, because I still don't understand.  Her talking voice is somewhat of a screech!  I had to put an exclamation point because all she did was exclaim.  Her singing voice isn't terrible, just her talking voice.  I was waiting for The Used to go on and heard her.  Speaking of The Used... when did Bert stop doing drugs?  Because he needs to be on them again.  He was a much better performer when he was all doped up, just sayin'.  I saw them at some Warped Tour years ago and he climbed up the stage, about 30ft or more in the air and jumped into the crowd.  This time, I'm not sure if he moved that much.  His voice sounds quite worn as well.  The band sounded okay.  I think they had a much more talented drummer in Branden (not sure of the name, but he is now the current drummer of Rancid).  

Face To Face.  I had to admit, I was sort of shocked to see them on the lineup, but I was happy about it.  Unfortunately, the crowd vanished for their set.  Or maybe fortunately.  I can't remember if I've actually ever seen Face To Face live.  If I have, it was years ago.  As in, I was in high school.  Maybe a freshman or sophomore even.  They played great and I loved that they were talking shit half of the time.  Their fans definitely stood out amongst the whole festival.  I bet they were some of the same people that were screaming and chanting during The Ataris doing Misfits songs and Anti-Flag doing The Clash songs.  The only shirt I bought at this entire festival was a Face To Face shirt.  These guys deserve a video in this post.  

Rise Against was next and they are a great band to see live.  I think musically, they sounded wonderful, but their choice of songs was slightly disappointing.  They didn't play "Swing Life Away", which was shocking.  When the acoustic guitar came out and they played "Hero Of War", I was ready for it... but then the acoustic guitar was gone.  It was a very new set, which was slightly disappointing because I enjoy their older stuff more than this most recent record.

Taking Back Sunday was on the next stage after them.  I hadn't seen them since their first Warped Tour with the lineup change.  Now there's another lineup change in their guitarist, I think.  I liked their song selection somewhat.  They played some of the songs I wanted to hear (which pretty much is everything off their Tell All Your Friends record, but mostly I was waiting for "Cute without the 'E' (Cut From The Team)", which didn't happen) and some songs I just didn't know.  I only have Tell All Your Friends and Louder Now, though.  Those are my favorites.  Adam's voice was amazing, then it wasn't, then it was, then it was okay.  The other guy (yeah, I don't know his name) was mediocre the whole time.  He was better than the last performance I saw from them (which was with Fred), but not as good as when they played Skate and Surf.  No one is Skate and Surf good anymore :(

Photo credit to Mike McDougal on Flickr.

No Doubt was after them.  Let me repeat that.  NO DOUBT was next.  Gwen Stefani wasn't Gwen Stefani as everyone knows her now on that stage.  She was the Gwen Stefani I saw back when I was 17 and I just got my license and Garbage and The Distillers opened for them.  She was that Gwen.  They were FANTASTIC.  They opened with "Spiderwebs"!!!  I mean, really.  I can't even talk about this set.  I don't even know what to say.  I can't form words.

Photo credit to wheresweevil on Flickr.

Found my stage climber!  Photo credit to Fire the Canon on Flickr.

I'm sure there was a better quality video, but I don't even care.  Watch it.  She climbed the friggin stage.

Before I officially end this, I would like to say that you should all go onto YouTube and search for the Green Day covers that New Found Glory did on Hoodwink.  They did a GREAT job from what I can see and the songs they picked are amazing.  They're not playing "Minority" and "Jesus of Suburbia", they're playing songs like "J.A.R.", "Longview", and "2000 Light Years Away".  Fuck yeah, NFG.

may 2, 2009 - bamboozle festival, day one.

There wasn't a ton of bands I wanted to see this day, but there's no way I couldn't go.  I mean, honestly... The Get Up Kids were playing and that was enough.  Going into this day, I had hopes to see New Found Glory, International Superheroes of Hardcore (basically NFG again), The Get Up Kids, Cobra Starship, Horrorpops,  and Gwar (don't even like them, but I aways hear about their live show).  Not a big selection, so I did some wandering.

This is a shot from the ISHC set.  Credit to n1njadrum on Flickr.  They played a great set.  I had seen them before from the last New Found Glory show I had seen at Starland Ballroom.  They didn't play all their songs, which was weird since they don't have a whole lot to begin with.  They switched it up halfway into their set and did a couple of NFG songs and their cover of "No Reason Why" by Gorilla Biscuits.  The crowd for this set was so awkward.  It was a bunch of NFG fans trying to be in a hardcore pit.  While they were still playing ISHC songs, my friend was dancing and when the song ended, some dude just ran up and punched him in the face and ran away after.  Not even during a song!  Not even while dancing or anything, which makes no sense.  I don't know.  I just remember going to shows when I was younger and being in pits and the only time you got hit was if you were too close to someone that was dancing.  Not because you were standing around while no one was dancing and no song was even playing.  Regardless, the set ISHC played was fun and I began getting my v-neck tan line during this set.  NFG has great stage prescence and they showed it during this set.  I wish there was a picture of Jordan wearing the NFG snuggie as a cape.

After this, my friends wanted to see Metro Station, so we headed that way.  The crowd for this band was HUGE.  I'm not a fan of them in the least, but I was definitely outnumbered.  Mostly by little girls.  I can't say I paid much attention to their set.  I think I was in an attempt to get service on my Sidekick and load Twitter or post a Twitter.  We headed to check out Hey Monday after their set and stuck around for maybe 2 songs before we realized we weren't impressed.  I don't know what it was, but their live performance just wasn't that good.  Everything as a whole just sounded kind of terrible.  Like a bad demo or a band rehearsal.

Then again, my friends wanted to see Young Love.  I of course go, since as I mentioned, there wasn't a whole lot I wanted to see this day.  Again, not a fan, but this guy has great stage prescence.  It's not my kind of music at all, but I wasn't miserable during this set.  It was good.  The crowd was really into him and went crazy for pretty much every song.  Also we Wiki'd him and he was the singer for Recover before this?  Wow, who knew, haha.  Either way, here's a halfway decent video of him doing "Discotech".

I honestly have no idea what we did after this.  I know Young Love made it to his merch area faster than the speed of light and my friends snagged a picture with him, but then what?  Not sure.  New Found Glory went on about a half hour later and that's where I ended up.  They played a GREAT selection of songs.  They played "Sincerely Me".  I mean, what else could I have asked for?  Chad posted a twitpic on his twitter of half of the crowd.  The half I wasn't in, but you can get the picture of how insane the front of the crowd was for this band.  You can also see the ferris wheel.  New Found Glory is a great band to see live.  They're catchy, they've got great stage prescence, they always play great, and they're just a solid band overall, in my opinion.  They always play a good set and never disappoint me.
I stayed in the crowd while Cobra Starship played the stage next to the one New Found Glory had left.  I was against the barricade all the way to the right of the same side of the crowd I was in for NFG.  Why did I stay there while no band was on?  Because I had a sick friggin spot for THE GET UP KIDS.  That's why.  They played a few songs off of Something to Write Home About, which is my absolute favorite record by them.  I wanted to embed this video for "I'm A Loner, Dottie, A Rebel", but the user had disabled it, so you'll have to follow that link.  I was about this far back, but against the barricade on the right, so I had a clear view of them.  They played fantastic.  They sounded great and the crowd really just added to their performance.  Everyone knew the words, everyone was calm and not pushing each other or being dicks.  It was just a great crowd to be in.  It was a great performance.  I can't even describe how content I was after this set.  I'm even content thinking about it!  They closed with "Ten Minutes", which is one of my favorites and the song that made the crowd go a little insane.  They didn't even need microphones, the crowd would've had it under control.
"Linc's Special Guest" was Journey.  My friends saw it, but I headed over to the smaller stages to see Horrorpops.  I had never seen them before, so it was cool to see them.  There weren't many people in the crowd, but I had felt like I went to a completely different concert with the people who were in the crowd.  It was cool.  I enjoyed watching the Horrorpops.  This video doesn't do their performance justice, since they sounded much better than this.

I missed Gwar.  I met up with one of my friends from high school during the set of Lydia and wasted most of their set and the entire set up for Forgive Durden talking to her.  After we split, I completely forgot about Gwar and also wanting to even see Forgive Durden and I went to find my friends from earlier.  Missed both sets, but caught some of Third Eye Blind, which was funny in a way.  Because it's Third Eye Blind.  They were awesome, though.  Except when we thought their set was over, then it wasn't, then we thought it was over again, then it wasn't.  Then we thought they stopped playing, but then they didn't.  Needless to say, they ran overtime and we weren't even sure if they were playing the last two songs or what was going on.

Photo credit to alex kral on Flickr.

Fall Out Boy went on after that and they've gotten better live since I last saw them, but I didn't really need to see them.  We caught the beginning of their set and heard a couple more songs as we we were walking out of the festival.  I honestly can't remember what songs they played.  I have most, if not all, of their records, but honestly, I only listen to that song, "XO".  The band played very well, though.  The only downfall was the way Patrick's voice sounded during most of the songs.  I'm not sure what it was, but it was off.  It sounded stressed and as if he was sick, which if that's the case, then what can you do, right?  There's quite a few pictures to choose from on Flickr, but here is one I found that I liked a lot.  You can get the idea how many people were really there, except this isn't even close to half.

Photo credit to gargladdy on Flickr.

may 1, 2009 - hoodwink.

May 1, 2009 was the Hoodwink portion of the Bamboozle Festival.  It was a bunch of bands covering other bands, to sum it up.  I arrived to this late, so I missed a good amount of the show.  To be honest, I only really wanted to go to this to see The Ataris cover The Misfits and Anti-Flag cover The Clash.  I did see a couple other performances, though.

Walking into the festival grounds, we heard the tail end of We The Kings performing the music of Jimmy Eat World.  I wish I had heard more.  I've never really given We The Kings a listen, but they sounded pretty good doing Jimmy Eat World songs.  Then again, Jimmy Eat World songs are pretty great in general, so that could've helped them out a bit, hah.  We also heard a bit of Mercy Mercedes doing Midtown songs.  I love Midtown, but I couldn't even tell that they were doing Midtown songs until they introduced themselves and I put two and two together.  They're another band I've never really given the chance, but their performance of Midtown didn't really encourage me to do so.  Although, I found this video and it doesn't sound half bad.  The guitarist has an epic 2002-2003 pop punk voice.

From this point on, my friends and I stayed at The Break stage (which was next to Passion Brand, so we were able to see those bands, too) since that's where The Ataris and Anti-Flag would be going on.  The Cab performed Queen on the Passion Brand stage and it wasn't too bad.   Queen isn't the easiest band to do, so I have to give them a little credit there.  He did forget some of the words, which was a downfall, but overall, it wasn't all that bad.  I've heard good things about The Cab, so maybe I'll have to check out their music.

We caught Forever The Sickest Kids doing Avril Lavigne songs, which was quite possibly the worst thing I've ever heard.  It was just terrible, really.  He forgot the words to most of the songs and there were so many little girls around flailing their hair and screeching the words to the songs to top it off.  I'm only 22, mind you... but being in that crowd made me feel pretty damn old.  They also dressed like it was winter out.  I know it was raining, but it was still about 60 degrees and a bit humid.  Too humid for a ski vest.  They ended their set with "Fat Lip" by Sum 41, which... well... wasn't Avril Lavigne?  Unfortunately, I couldn't find pictures of any other band from Hoodwink yet, but here's a cool shot of FTSK.  Of course this is after the singer took off his winter wear.

photo credit: Aaran Safai on Flickr

Danger Radio performed Britney Spears on the other stage, further from us.  Now, I had no idea who they were before this performance.  I have to admit, they were cute.  They looked short and young and they dressed the part.  I'm no Britney fan, but I didn't want to die during their set, so I was pleased, haha.  I want to tell you they had good stage prescence, but I can't.  I can tell you they had cute stage prescence.  They were just a cute band.  I don't know how else to explain it.

They ended and FINALLY, the moment I had been waiting for... The Ataris.  I haven't seen these guys in years, so it made me feel 16 again (which matched the girl who was next to me, babbling about how she was such a big Misfits fan and how she saw No Doubt in 3rd grade).  They did an amazing job, in my opinion.  I'm not the biggest of Misfits fans, but I appreciate them.  They're from Jersey, so I have to hand it to them there and they pretty much started the whole horror-punk thing and paved the way for tons of bands to follow in their footsteps.  I loved the crowd's reaction to this set.  The younger kids cleared out and wandered off to another stage (probably to watch New Found Glory or Sum 41) and what was left was a bunch of older people with beers in one hand and another pumping their fist into the air as they shouted the words along with them.  They actually were told to play another song as well, which was amazing.  They went with a Black Flag song... WHICH. WAS. AWESOME.

Unfortunately for me, Brokencyde performed a "Crunk'd set" after that.  I don't know any of the songs they did.  I just know it was too long for my liking.  I think I twittered and checked my Facebook during their set.

Anti-Flag was on after them, performing The Clash.  I may not know all of the words to every Clash song, but I love them and I'm happy it was Anti-Flag doing their songs because whereas no one can do The Clash justice, Anti-Flag came pretty goddamn close.  They picked a good selection of songs and they have great stage performance.  They're another band I haven't seen since I was about 16.  I wish they played the festival.  They would've been good to play in between Face to Face and Rise Against, I think.  I was sort of rooting for them to play "Lost in the Supermarket", but they went with more upbeat songs like "White Riot", "London Calling" and "I Fought The Law", which is understandable.  Also, this is the only Anti-Flag video I found on Youtube.  Bad quality, but great performance.

After their set, it was over and we left.  I'm glad I decided to go because I had never been to Bamboozle before and was iffy on it because of the scene nowadays, but since I had a few friends that were going already, I decided to give it a look.  I was sold on Hoodwink from The Ataris and Anti-Flag.  Bamboozle sold me on The Get Up Kids and The Ataris.  I haven't seen The Get Up Kids since Skate and Surf 2002!  That's a whole different blog, though.  Maybe when I recap Saturday and Sunday.  If I had this much to say about Hoodwink, I don't even know how much I'll have to say about those two days!

entry number one

My name is Cherise. This is my first entry here, so I will lead you on with some basics. I love music. I live it. I translate my feelings and thoughts through song lyrics. Whether they're lyrics that I've written or lyrics that have already been written and record it, I don't do much feeling if they aren't in the form of song lyrics. I had been joking about making a music blog, since blogging seems to be the thing to do as of recently. Only the joking turned into more of a serious thought when most of my friends responded to me seriously and said they had wondered why I didn't already have one. It seems as if my ideal job title is 'Music Blogger'. Which leads me here, I guess.

Like I said, my name is Cherise. I'm from the Jersey shore. I was born in 1986 and attended my first real concert one day before I turned 13. It was the Backstreet Boys at Continental Airlines Arena and I went with my mom. I can't pinpoint the exact moment when I discovered the local scene, but I remember it was done through a band called the Dissenters. It was after I met one of my current best friends, Laurie. I attended a Dissenters show with her at a Knights of Columbus. I remember Dumbfound and The Bank Robbers played. I want to say Forever's End did also. It was mostly No Milk Records bands, to say the least. You know you're from Central Jersey when you know who No Milk Records is.

My most recent concert was Bamboozle. As I'm typing this, I'm in aches and pains from being there all weekend. I'm tired, my back hurts, I'm dirty, I probably smell, my shin is bruised, and I'm probably sick from being in the rain all day. I don't care, though. The whole event was worth it. I'll review it this week and probably search Flickr for some pictures, since I was too busy being in the crowd and getting trampled by teenagers and guys who happen to be a foot taller than me. I'm not complaining, though. Just stating what happened. I still had fun!

My favorite band of all time is The Living End. I've had the pleasure of seeing them live only once, but it was a great performance at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park. I'm not a fan of their newest record, White Noise, and it sort of left a bad taste in my mouth about them, but there's no way I could deny that they're my favorite band.

I think that's enough about me. I'll leave you with my absolute favorite song. Its slightly faster than their recorded version, but I can't help it. I adore Chris Conley and I adore acoustic guitars.