MON THE BIFF.

Because you can't have it all, Stuck in the middle, reason one and all, I was born on a horse thats all. 

Yes it is the lyrical wonders of Biffy Clyro. I can't help the inspiration I felt after seeing them last wednesday at their teenage cancer trust gig. It was for a good cause and Simon Neil looked absolutely beautiful so all in all it was a good night. Oh yeah and their music did happen to be bloody brilliant. Lovely lovely set, Lovely lovely scottish people and lovely lovely charity work. Biffy Clyro really do represent the brilliance of modern music. Every now and then you get a few gems that you know will be timeless and Biffy Clyro are definitely one of those rarities, they have range, talent and appeal. Their lyrics are beautiful, symbolic and touching and their music is technically wondrous and you can relate to it so well. <3 It's musical genius with the added bonus of a sexy scottish accent. 

Something thats really got me shaking my fists lately is the constant drone of the 'indie kids'. No, I'm sorry but dying your hair red and claiming you "so totes love that uber cool band neon trees" while your last status update was the twelfth JLS lyrics of the day does not make you indie. STOP CALLING YOURSELF INDIE. I'm angry inside. So angry. 

I like cats.

Attention seeking Profile pictures will in future cause yourself embarrassment (if there's justice) So stop. Dear lord stop. I don't care that you have 21 likes on your photo, your face looks like you were slapped by a shark. A massive shark. With a unicorn horn. And the fact that it must be changed at least twice a day in order to annoy every normal civilian to the point where they remove and block you, Is painfully absurd. Morons.

Something i'd be really interested about seeing is "The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860 - 1900" At the Victoria and Albert Museum. It's an exhibition focusing on the development of the perception of beauty and the artistic movement that revolutionised the dull ugly materialism of Victorian Art. The exhibition is full of photographs designs and dresses from the past documenting the rise in the social ideal of aestheticism and its consequences on daily life. What I find the most interesting upon searching the exhibition is its portrayal of female visual beauty and the change in what society finds attractive, With earlier painting depicting ginger haired, more masculine women and the later years gradually began to shift to darker haired, soft featured women. It think beauty and aesthetics are perhaps to highly depended on in modern society with our eagerness to judge someone immediately from the way they look. I just reckon we need to be more accepting because although you may not find particular traits or features aesthetically beautiful, someone will. It's a common ignorant belief in life that looking good will make you happier, more successful or even better off on the whole. This can't be true at all, because some things are actually more attractive than external beauty, and if you are fortunate enough to hold one of those traits then you are more beautiful than anything. 

Thats all fo' the now 

Aisling

x

The Valentines? Yes please. Oh and I went to a Wombats concert.

So on monday night I went to see the Wombats at Hammersmith Apollo and before I start I have to say I really hate Hammersmith as a venue, I just don't like the way the place is set out and the way the sound waves bounce of the wall makes it quite obtrusive. Anywayz The wombats were brilliant, they had amazing stage presence and the audience were LOVING it which is always a good sign. Most of their audience has gradually got a lot younger with all the 'cool indie kids' beginning to love their music, they've lost the older audience they had with "Boys, Girls and Marsupials' which is really a shame to be honest.  They did a mix of their old and new stuff which was good seeing as the haven't released their album yet so it could have been extremely tedious if it was all new stuff. The set ended with 'Lets dance to Joy Division' which was bloody brilliant way to end a lovely evening.
My only concern was the support acts. In hindsight the first one wasn't that bad, they were lovely (possibly swedish people) Called Team Me, They were sort of loveable which is an odd way to describe a band but they really were. However it was the second support act I had trouble with, I didn't catch the name, But apparently nor did anyone else, I've been trawling the internet with approximately no results, But in honesty I couldn't give a jilly because they were so so very awful. They sounded like every other female indie/pop artist under the sun which I was not loving. The drummer appeared to have an arm spasm causing him to constantly point at the ceiling and the lead singers face was completely covered by her hair which was plain distracting. At one point I got extremely excited when she said they were to do a song called 'elves bus' only to be crushed by the realisation she'd said 'Hour glass', I was gutted truth be telling.
It was an overall brilliant evening despite the drunken girl in front of me, although I have to admit guessing which song she'd flat out collapse in was mildly entertaining.

Other things i'm loving this week include the brilliant and hilarious 'Valentines' band, They have brilliant music and a hilarious blog which makes them brilliant and hilarious I do conclude. Their song 'We are the Band' Blew my socks off and it is beautifully catchy and so unbelievably true and it has a charming beat :) They are my music crush for certain. You NEED to read their blog you will be pissing your self with the giggles. Their facebook page is mildly humorous too (if by mildly you mean bloody comical genius) and I do in fact fancy their way with words, if that be possible. I think I may be in love with them.

In other news Charlie Sheen may be a God of sorts, Yes of course its sad give him some pity blah blah blah but has nobody else read his interviews and thought he was like some kind of mutation? I think he's just so amazingly odd that we should make some kind of statue in his honour? No, just me then? Cool.

Sopio Cards came today :) Wahey! If you're like "What's sopio" then I pity you a bit. It's Alex Day's (Nerimon's) marvellous card game thats just to hard to explain yet wonderful. To be honest, The rules are fairly incomprehensible but I care not. They are AMAZING. I've never loved Nerimon more except the time he opened the video with "Hello, Sexy" And the "Hello youtube, Do you want me to do a video for you?" one, That was quite splendid.

On a final note I've been loving my James Blake this week and Jagga's been a recurring hit. If you're unsure as to who I speak may be, then google/youtube them. Lovely.

Now I shall return to my dull and monotonous life.
Luvz Yuz
Aisling
xxx
Oh and Tom - Dave Days. Happy?

Modern Music And Brit Pop.

So, while the 80's had The Clash, The Cure and Guns n Roses, The 90's had Nirvana, Blur and oasis and The 2000's saw the Queens of the stone age and Biffy Cylro form, This humble decade that is to be, so far has accomplished next to nothing. With a quick internet search revelling the only band formed in 2010 to see any form of success so far being the wanted, so I went and listened to one surprisingly awful track called "All time low" which I must say has to be the all time low of modern music if you'll pardon the pun. I was shocked by the lack of diversity in modern music. The main artists being Lady GaGa and Rhianna is fine with me. I can understand the appeal of their music but it seems more than that, it's the media controlling the industry which is frankly absurd. Lady GaGa makes this point so well, Strip her of her weird clothes and publicity focused stunts and videos and you're left with just another good tune and a crazy lady in an egg. I think what she has achieved is marvellous, her sudden rise to fame is something to applaud her on, but it shocks me that people think what she's doing is so amazingly new. People have been wearing weird clothes and doing crazy things for such a long time, Kiss, although I may not be their biggest fan, were quite something. Not to mention Queens video for "I want to break free". The modern concept off weirdly wonderful has become far too driven by a desire to turn heads, I bet Lady GaGa doesn't even know what the message behind her choice of clothing is. I do praise her for the nerve to do it, But she's not the first and she'll by no means be the last.

An era of music I absolutely adore has to be Brit Pop when it was at it's finest. Somebody told me to watch a feature length documentary on the rise and fall of Brit Pop called "Live Forever" and it was bloody brilliant. It explores not only the musical side of the Brit Pop revolution but the political and cultural sides too. It features The Gallaghers, Damon Albarn and Jarvis Cocker talking about the era from their perspective which is really amazing. The documentary itself is hilarious yet so educational to exactly why such a great part of music died so young and the Gallaghers are on amazing form. Brit Pop is such a brilliant time in music as so much of it is about things that Brits can really relate to. It really pushed for alternative music to enter a more mainstream audience and the way it was accepted was electrifying. When it comes down to the battle of brit pop however I have to take the side of Blur, because they were in fact a better band with more complex instrumentals. Oasis as good as they were wrote stadium anthems whereas Blur wrote solid music focusing on just that, The music. Of course thats not all Brit Pop is about. The politics of the era where amazing too, we saw the beginning of new labour a government so pressed on change that they used pop culture to force their ideology through, And it worked. Being a Labour supporter myself I feel that this is what politics is about, it's about talking to the people in their own language through their idols and musicians. I feel like the down fall of Brit Pop was inevitable though. Without the support of America in the arts we would achieve nothing and America didn't quite get Brit Pop, it was all about Britain and policies and the issues the people of Britain were experiencing, so it's not difficult to understand why that didn't appeal to Americans. And while America kept producing new exciting sounds the people of britain became more drawn toward the dead Pop tunes we have today that have every ounce of originality sucked from them. So although Brit Pop may have been short lived it made a lasting impression, just take a look at the ticket sales of wireless this year where Pulp are doing a reunion concert, For which i'm crazy excited, They alone show that the buzz of brit pop is still happening and it is in fact timeless. 

Finally I want to say watch out for some amazing bands hitting the alternative scene:

Sleigh Bells - listen to infinity guitars it's so brilliant, You'll be humming it for weeks. 

War paint - They're going to get even bigger than they are. It's some crazy all female experimental art rock. 

The Phoenix Foundation - after 10 years success in New Zealand they're hitting the British indie- rock/pop scene. Coming in with all that experience means they are going to be huge.

Thats all for the now, 

Lovely Love,

Aisling 

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