I like to think of myself as a music fan who has a fairly diverse range of likes (and dislikes) but mainly enjoys songs/albums/artists for “the music” and not what they stand for (there’s the odd exception to that rule of course).

But sometimes, despite the diversity and such, I find myself completely baffled by comments from music fans.
Biffy Clyro are the inspiration for this particular musing.

I didn’t quite get the furore that surrounded them as an ‘alternative’ (ugh, I hate that category) band, until the release of Puzzle. The first single from that (and first track) Living is Problem Because Everything Dies made me sit up and pay attention in a big way.
The big orchestral pieces and the way the song just conveyed so much energy made me buy the album, and I wasn’t disappointed. Almost every track was good, some excellent, and I started to think that maybe I’d given them short shrift before.

Lyrically, they are fairly … different is the kindest way of putting it I think, but compared to a band like Mansun from the late ’90s (especially their album Six) it’s definitely a pedestrian level of different.

So yeah, anyway, Puzzle was good. They started getting radio play, got into the charts, and got noticed on a wider scale. Naturally, the hardcore of fans got upset, because obviously ‘alternative’ (there’s that word again) bands belong to the fans that ‘discovered them first’ and aren’t allowed to be successful and make plenty of money in the process. (Does that need pointing out that I’m being sarcastic? No? Good.)

I saw them at Leeds Festival last year (as a ‘fan’ that discovered them only after they started being played on mainstream radio, I was risking a lynching it is true, but thankfully I slipped by undetected) and they were great, exuding a massive, all-encompassing energy that just filled the tent, sucked everyone in and then spat them out exhausted and happy at the end (does that sound wrong?)

Recently, they released Mountains, their first new release since Puzzle (and a track that is destined not to go on any album, apparently they were so excited about the track they just wanted to release it).

Zane Lowe got so excited about it on Radio 1 that I felt a little dirty just listening to him. Good god that man can gush about a band. Supposedly it was the best thing they’d ever written, the best thing since sliced bread, a mammoth of a song.
I was left a little cold by the whole thing.

I’ve heard it since, and have definitely warmed up to it. It’s doing pretty well in the charts (certainly the iTunes charts anyway) and I checked out the reviews.

The main thought is that it’s an improvement on Puzzle with some going so far to say that Puzzle “wasn’t Biffy”.

Hmmm. Okay then. I just listened to Mountains (purchased legally thankyouverymuch). It’s a good song. But it is unmistakeably a continuation of the direction the band started to go with Puzzle and, to my mind, not nearly as complex (musically or lyrically) as songs from that album.

So … what? Puzzle wasn’t “Biffy enough”, yet Mountains is. Despite the latter being less complex in every way that supposedly makes Biffy Clyro who they are.

Is anybody else seeing the complete lack of logic involved here? Am I missing something fundamental, or is it just yet another case of the ‘alternative crowd’ simply hating “their” favourite bands going mainstream?

You know what really gets on my tits?

Idealists. To be more precise, environmental idealists.

I joined a group on Facebook called PRICE OF PETROL!!! SOLOUTION (sic) HERE! yesterday, because of what it was about.
Was it about petitioning for a cut in fuel duty? No it was not.

“Hay guys!!11 Instead of buying all that expensive petrol just ride your bikes to work! That’ll solve all the problems!1125″*

*may be paraphrased

Yeah, nice one genius. I’ll cycle 95 miles to work, and then 95 back again! Down the M4. Wicked. The other solution was to use public transport. The same public transport that consistently runs late, takes twice as long as driving straight to your destination, and in most cases actually costs more than driving your car.

Naturally, this group had a chorus of approving comments, because “If I can ride a bike to work, so can everybody else.”
But what if I live too far away? No problem at all, according to this group of intellectuals, simply buy a house nearer work.

Yeah. That’s right. To save money on petrol, they think that spending tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds to move house is a sensible idea.

I’m happy for people that can rearrange their lives around not using a car. I am. It’s healthier, it’s less polluting and it’s cheaper. Win, win, win. But I cannot abide those that conveniently forget the millions of people that can’t do that, and decide that higher fuel prices are absolutely fair enough, because we’re to blame for global warming and thus deserve everything that we get.

It’s no small wonder that so many motorists hate cyclists with attitudes like that.

[EDIT]

I should point out that I don’t personally hate cyclists. I know a couple in fact. But the perceived attitude of the stereotypical cyclist is of a person who runs red lights and thinks that anybody that drives a car is a planet killing twat.

Watching a lot of TV before bed can have weird consequences. I watched the season finale of Reaper (excellent as always), then went to bed and watched Shooter (a half-decent film with Mark Wahlberg in it), before falling asleep.

So this morning, I’m dreaming a lot. I’m running around chasing/being chased by escaped souls from hell, demons, and weird crap like that, in a strange sort of film noír-cum-comic book landscape (it’s as odd as it sounds). I get back together with my ex-girlfriend, then go running off to find a sniper or something. Wait, what? Back up there a second. Where the hell did that middle part come from?

I know that I have some weird dreams, but what does that mean? Am I really so unhappy/alone that my subconscious has taken me back … what … four, five years into the past?? The best my mind can do is hook me up with somebody that I’ve barely spoken to in at least a year, yet alone seen, and who managed to wreak an extreme emotional disaster upon me when I was a much crappier, weaker person than I am today.

That’s just cruel. My mind obviously hates me. Or perhaps it’s just that I’ve not moved on as far as I thought I had in terms of who I am and how I view my life. It probably sounds crazy, but that dream has me questioning my life right now. It’s ridiculous, and yet here I am, finding it important enough to write about.

My mind hates me.

Jane Longhurst was killed in 2003, strangled to death by a man addicted to violent pornography. This was, and is, a sad and sickening event. That one person should take the life of another, especially for sexual gratification, is an appalling state of events.

The mother of this girl, Liz, called for violent porn to be banned. She says;

“It made it seem alright. I think he knew from quite a young age that it wasn’t really alright.

“But I think he thought, well, there are all these sites, I’m not the only one and it must be alright really and so he just went with the flow.”

This is where she and I start to disagree. By the sound of Radio 1’s Newsbeat programmes today, a lot of other people disagree too.

I don’t enjoy violence in porn, in any way. It’s no real skin off my nose whether it’s banned or not. But it sets a dangerous precedence that modern media is constantly fighting against. Video games have been attacked more times than I can remember, as has porn, but it seems that now attempts to over-legislate and censor have won through.

In this case, how does Liz Longhurst know with any certainty that her daughter’s killer thought those things? Unless his murder trial subjected him to an intense psychological review, I doubt that she can.
Let’s face it, it’s fairly obvious that the killer was not a completely mentally balanced individual. Sensible, intelligent people with a clear view of right and wrong know that there is a distinct difference between watching something and enacting something.

Whether it’s porn, video games or films, the same applies – the publisher of the media assumes that it is being distributed via responsible outlets to people with full control of their faculties.
Such is life, but this is impossible to guarantee. There will ALWAYS be somebody who slips through the cracks, whether it’s the kid whose parents never taught him right and wrong who re-enacts something from Grand Theft Auto and ends up stealing a car and shotgunning pedestrians to death (with a gun belonging to his parents) or a grown man who strangles a girl to death because, in his mind, there is no barrier between reality and fiction.

So do the odd few mean that thousands or millions of people should suffer, as Liz suggests?

“Sometimes the freedoms of like-minded, decent people have to be curtailed because of a few others.”

This is a dangerous, dangerous path and one that I completely disagree with. How far does this go?
Because the dole-queue enthusiast chavs decide to get smashed on cheap alcohol and vandalise their local communities, should we ban alcohol?
Because inattentive drivers cause accidents, should we blanket the roads with restrictive speed limits so that any accident that does occur is less serious, ignoring the fact that it inconveniences millions of other people?

I could give endless examples. Perhaps the scariest aspect of this ban on violent porn comes from the invasion of privacy that is now allowed:

This new law means looking at one on your PC could result in a jail sentence.

Liz says: “What it’s allowing is for the police to walk in to anybody’s home, pick up anybody’s computer and check out what’s on it.”

Pardon me for being blunt but … fuck that. My data is my own private property. I don’t look at violent pornography, nor store it. But what if somebody decides that I do? Let’s face it, understanding of technology amongst law enforcement doesn’t exactly promote confidence. This new law is saying that police can walk into my house, take away my personal property and invade my privacy for no reason at all.

But why go after this in particular when there are far worse – in my view – forms of media out there?
Violent porn appeals to those that enjoy it, and I imagine the odd few that might stumble across it and get interested. In this respect, it’s fairly niche, yet has disturbing connotations for the rest of the porn industry - I’m sure religious groups are champing at the bit, just waiting to get the rest of it banned.

Hostel, Hostel 2, Saw, Saw 2, Saw 3. All films depicting truly grotesque forms of torture and murder. I haven’t seen them, so I don’t know if there is a sexual element in any of them, but those two alone should surely be cause for concern?
These films were in the cinema for public viewing, and are now on DVD for purchase. They may be 18 Classified, but films are some of the easiest forms of media to get your hands on illegally if you really want to. A simple age classification is not going to stop younger people from viewing it.

Can you imagine trying to ban viewing and purchasing these films though? No government is going to go up against the multi-billion-dollar powerhouse that is Hollywood and the film industry.

Therein lies the murky truth. Banning violent porn, banning violent video games … these are soft, easy targets. They make headlines, they satisfy the people that see media and not people as the problem, they make everyone feel that the world is a safer place, whilst ignoring far more easily accessible media forms.

Banning violent porn will not prevent somebody else being killed like Jane Longhurst. In my opinion, it heightens the likelihood of it occuring again.
For some people, what was an addiction manifesting itself through viewing of films and pictures online could well turn into enactments of the violence. It’s illegal to own porn like it now, so the next step is surely to start doing it for some people.

Instead of focusing on the human causes of these sorts of problems, it’s easier for the government to simply slap a ban on whatever the most newsworthy element of the problems are, and those that are campaigning for change are playing right into their hands by not properly understanding the problems in the first place.

Before I begin, I’d like to suggest that you check this out. It’s a real-life robotic exoskeleton. Called the XOS, it allows its wearer – currently – to utilise superhuman strength, and by the look of it, it’s just the beginning.

Anyway, onto my topic of today, entitled ‘The Missing Person of the Party’.
I was supposed to be out tonight, after I got out of work at 7.20 (yup, long day today!) and after I drove into Newport, found nowhere decent or accessible to park, I came home intending on catching a bus. But being that public transport is shit as usual, there was only one more bus, and it was at 10.35. Anyway …

Those that know me, probably know me as a fairly quiet person a lot of the time, other than when with close friends when it can be hard to get me to shut up (usually with appalling jokes about meaningless stuff … my god I’m becoming Chandler more and more everyday). I’m not a massive party-goer and never really have been, but I do enjoy spending quality time with friends and generally having a bit of a laugh.

The only problem is that I’ve developed a trend over the last few years of not showing up. I’m becoming one of those people who you invite out of courtesy, but don’t really expect to show. It seems that this only applies to Newport gatherings though …

I apologise to anyone who I may offend with this, but I really, truly hate the place. It’s filthy and vandalised, mainly due to the god awful chavs that seem to infest the entire city. There are no decent bars/clubs/pubs (that I know about) and it’s not cheap enough to make it worth the odd visit, nor expensive enough to price out the Dole Queue Specials. There’s no decent parking, and I’m pretty convinced that if you park a half-decent-looking car in certain areas, the local shitheads will throw rocks at it just because they don’t like success of any sort.

It takes a lot of will and effort for me to go out there, and more often than not it’s much easier to just not bother. Cardiff is a quick train journey away, and Chepstow has proven more than often enough that it has some excellent pubs to have a nice drink with friends in.

The problem is convenience. Newport City Centre is nice and easy. What’s that? Easy? Not for me it ain’t. But then again, living where I do nowhere is – I always have to travel. So for me, going that extra step to Cardiff or going just as far to Chepstow isn’t an issue, but apparently for other people it is. I don’t want to make out like I’m a martyr or anything but when some people require a car ride for what is essentially a 5 or 10 minute walk, you realise that the chances of going further afield are pretty slim.

I have no hard and fast rule for what I like to do when I go out, but it’s either chilling and laughing, or raving my socks off to some decent dance/electronica (then anything goes after I’ve had enough to drink). A Newport night out seems to fall fairly flat on both counts, if I’m honest. Sitting upright in a soul-less Wetherspoons all night long is definitely not my idea of fun, especially when nobody really has much to talk about, and as I mentioned above, there aren’t any decent non-chav-infested clubs around.

Maybe it’s wrong, but the way I see it is, if I’m going to put the effort in to make a journey and (if I want to drink) sleep on a couch, I should be getting some fun out of it. Newport just isn’t fun anymore, and hasn’t been for years. Cardiff is full of life and has some fantastic places to go out, and to my mind there’s no reason not to go there. But it has never happened and continues to never happen, so maybe it’s time to make a break and go it alone, see what happens. Who knows?

Clare mentioned something in a reply to a previous post that really got me annoyed. Not at her, but at the vast number of what I like to piously call ‘Musical Idiots’.

Pendulum, a Drum’n'Bass/Electronica/Rock (I guess) band are performing at Glade as well as a whole host of other festivals this summer. Glade is pretty much billed as an Electronic dance music festival first and foremost, so I’d say that Pendulum is a pretty good fit, especially given the sneak peak of their new album ‘In Silico‘.

Apparently, some people are saying that Pendulum is ‘too commercial’ for Glade.
Let’s just examine that in more detail. First, a little history.

Pendulum started out as producers, before hitting the scene with ‘Hold Your Colour‘, an album that was critically acclaimed and did what a lot of bands try and fail to do – bring a totally new, interesting take on a standard music genre or – in this case – fuse some together and create a sound that can only really be described by using the band’s name. Think of Prodigy, who have hits spanning so many genre variations that you can’t possibly pigeonhole them other than under the broad ‘Electronic’ umbrella.

The album, deservedly, did very well. They are now about to release their second album ‘In Silico‘ and, by the sound of what I’ve heard, they are again trying to morph genres – taking what they made with ‘Hold Your Colour’ and bringing in a more rocky element, this time a bit heavier on the home-grown vocals. I was dubious at first, but I now can’t wait for the release.

Now, about Pendulum being ‘too commercial’.

Well, as far as I can see, they took a bit of a risk and a gamble with their first album. They took all the good elements of drum’n'bass and gave it their own injection of their vision of what music should be. It was a huge success.

They’ve now taken that sound and again thrown a whole bunch of new ideas at it, citing influences from all over the musical spectrum.

Nowhere along these lines did they ever ’sell out’; i.e. start creating a more mainstream sound for general consumption, start neutering the music to be more ‘poppy’ or anything like that.

So what are these people trying to say? Pendulum are too commercial … what, successful? Oh christ, cancel the bookings now. God forbid that we should promote a successful band that produces good music. If you ask me, what these people want is a festival that only showcases the little guy. The weird and wonderful music that a handful of people like but is a bit too off-the-wall for a larger scale audience.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone has got to start somewhere, and experimentation with sound is one of the things that I love the most about electronic music.

But why the fuck should we penalise those bands or individuals that DID make it big? Their music is JUST as individual and innovative as the guy playing to twenty people in the corner with a name that has the letter Q in it seven times. So what if they’ve had the money and opportunity to polish it and refine it in a studio? All that means is people enjoy it and, in the case of Pendulum, a LOT of people enjoy it.

Yeah, we all know that huge corporations can be a little evil, but if a band is good enough, the labels will never TRY to mess with the music, because it’s good enough already. And if a label DOES have to mess with the music … maybe they were never that good in the first place. Saying that a band shouldn’t be included for being good enough is ridiculous, frankly.

This is the thing that bothers me about music. A lot of people take it far too seriously. Instead of just enjoying it for what it is, they start catagorising individuals and bands into moronic groups so that they can pretend to be part of some sad little society that nobody really cares about.

Here’s an imaginary conversation.

“Oh, I only listen to independant music.”
“So as soon as your favourite band gets signed up and goes on tour, you won’t listen to them again?”
“That’ll never happen, they’ve got too much integrity.”

*Six months goes by*

“I can’t believe they sold out. What a bunch of losers.”
“Sold out? You mean … signed up to bring their music to the masses, introduce a new sound to the world and make a living? Got the opportunity to expand their sound and explore new avenues? God forbid.”
“But they’re part of the corporate machine! THEY SOLD THEIR SOULS! Plus now normal people like them too, I can’t possibly continue my support!”
“You’re just a bit of a wanker really, aren’t you? Get a job for fuck’s sake.”

Like I said. Makes me annoyed.