Band Of The Moment               Back

Week 5:

Yeah, again its been about half a year since I have updated this part of the site but that’s going to change! I have seen and heard of many amazing bands since the last post and I swear this time there will be a huge change in this laxity and i will start updating this as soon as I hear a band worthy. I have now heard of a band which is worthy and it is these people:

Well, I can't really find any reviews for Ash partly because whenever I search for them all I can find is these damn antismoking sites. However i have found a good unofficial site which I find has a very humorous hatred of Muse, in particular Matt Belamy! All I can say is I got the bastard 182 times before I got bored finishing a a god like ratt killer!! Play whack-a-matt now and get 'The chance to beat the living shit out of Matt Bellamy and his army of semi-Goths.'

Its all a good laugh and I look forward to seeing them both at the Hammersmith Apollo and at Reading!

Week 4:

Ok, yes I have not updated this for a while and as a consequence I have changed the name for this section! Lol! Nyway the band I am going to introduce u, the fine readers of my humble methods of entertainment on the web is the Band Stone Sour, who are really quite amazing!

I'll just let you read what their official website says about them, click here to go to their website: www.stonesour.com. 

'As intoxicating as the libation it was named after (1 part whiskey and a splash of orange juice and sour mix), Stone Sour is a Molotov cocktail of an album - 1 part pure rock adrenaline with a splash of melody. “We are melodic hard-rock with content and initiative,” explains Stone Sour vocalist Corey Taylor. “Stone Sour allows me to execute the writing style that I love and can't necessarily do with Slipknot.” While still embracing the heaviness true to the fundamentals of Taylor and Root's other band, Stone Sour offers a more introspective and intimate take on music, thus the absence of their masks while performing with Stone Sour.'

As Taylor states, “The difference this time around is that we lost the fear of trying to compete with what is popular. We are going to stay true to the type of music that we want to make, and no matter who likes it or not, I am still secure that we have produced a great album.” Boasting a surprisingly varied selection of songs, ranging from the poignant “Bother,” which can also be heard on the platinum-selling Spiderman “Music From and Inspired By” Soundtrack, to the aggressive collage of sound that is “Get Inside”, Stone Sour is in Taylor's opinion, raw, emotive rock in its purest form. “With this band, we just go in to churn out good hard-rocking songs.”

What can I say, I can't really say much more as I have no real love of Stone Sour, I have literally picked up their album by chance and I love it! To anyone out there I would say buy this album, it truly rocks and is very different from Slipknot so don't let the bands members past stop you buying this album!

Week 3:

Well I have been a little preoccupied to update this but I have got a new band of the week, this is a band that was introduced to me by NATASHA and consequently since the Monday of the week my family went on holiday without me I have grown to liking them. Now what I can say is that NATASHA majorly seems to fancy the lead singer on this band, a guy named Colin Macintyre. The band is known as the Mull Historical Society and can be reached at http://www.mullhistoricalsociety.com. There is a huge difference between what I usually listen too and this, as a consequence I will post a track from their debut album Loss, a favourite of NATASHA's called Animal Cannabus (which will be up as soon as I can upload it.) which was also featured in the recent film release Ripley's Game. This will be up for a while so don't be afraid to download it l8er!! When I got copies of the CD's off NATASHA she also gave me a set list from the March/April 2003 tour! (god knows how she got this, I can never remember what is played at the gigs I go to, that is if I even remember going!! MHS Set List. 

GREAT QUOTES FROM GREAT BANDS ABOUT MHS
Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips said on Radio One live from T In The Park on Saturday 12 July: "I really rate MHS, they have a lot of potential for coming through".

Mike Mills of REM said in the Daily Record: "We have some great people touring with us including the Mull Historical Society. It's a great thrill to take people on tour that you like and see them play every night. I see no reason why Mull wont go on to greater things, so I'll be checking on them."

And in Hot Press, Grandaddy's Jason Lyttle when asked for his current five favourite albums said this of 'Us': "I'm throwing away all my recording gear".

Note from NATASHA: I can assure you the mull historical society get better the more you listen to them. So even if on the first listen they are not your cup of tea I guarantee you will soon appreciate him for the wonder he is!!

E-mail from NATASHA: Quote on how she got the set list: 'A few extra things bout the set list, one of the techies gave it to Georgia cos we always make sure we r at the front so as everyone was going out we shouted and waved till he noticed and gave her one!' (georgia being one of NATASHA's mates.)

Week 2: 

With the act of me purchasing the newish (hed) Planet Earth album BLACKOUT [Considering what's going on politically on planet Earth, this is truly a disc for our times. New York Post Online Edition] I have come across an album that is possibly better than my favourite: Available in all colours by One Minute Silence. It is truly a musical masterpiece, while their first album Broke was violent and in your face rap metal with the boastfulness of hip-hop the new album is a more relaxed offering not relying on the violence so much to achieve a sound that is infinitely more mature but still with the boastfulness that makes it so refreshing.

"It's not the end of the world/ It's just a phase/ They all love to see you fall/ Flat on your face/ As hard I try/ They underestimate"

---"Suck It Up"

"That's a credo for me," declares (hed) Planet Earth vocalist Jahred. "The first words of the album are very personal. It's not a story. It's life. "BLACKOUT is fourteen tracks worth of life, and it ain't all pretty for Jahred and (hed) Planet Earth.

"Sometimes there are bands out there, you see the singer singing about how rough his life is, and you wonder if that's made up for the album," notes drummer B.C. "I don't really know. But I know one thing that has been tough is the last few years with this band, and those lyrics are pretty real and true. "Nearly a decade after their genesis in Huntington Beach, California, (hed) Planet Earth has spent the last few years on the cusp of success, touring the globe with bands such as P.O.D., Metallica, Slayer, Linkin Park, Korn, Slipknot and Papa Roach, and cracking over 250,000 sales with their second album, BROKE, which continues to sell very well even though it was released almost three years ago (August 2000). Rolling Stone raved about the album, saying, "The missing element in too many rap-metal bands is hip-hop's sense of bravado and celebration. (hed) Planet Earth - like Kid Rock - are the rare rap-metal act willing to admit that good times actually exist.

"A sign of how far the band had come: the single "Bartender" hit the radio airwaves in the summer of 2000, peaking at #17 on the Active Rock charts and #27 on the Alternative charts, outperforming past singles like "Serpent Boy" from their 1997 self-titled debut.

But while (hed) Planet Earth steadily built a fan base, they continued to toil largely in the underground, even as friends like Korn, Incubus, and System of a Down with whom they first passed through the ranks of the California scene-vaulted to stardom.

It's a thin line that Jahred has walked between self-awareness and self-destruction in the time since BROKE was released in 2000. This precarious balancing act is what provides the fuel for BLACKOUT. "I was going through a lot of turmoil when I was writing the lyrics for this album," says Jahred. "I was feeling really suicidal, felt really double-crossed by so-called friends who turned out to be really evil friends. It brought me to this realization, like an epiphany, to where, oh my goodness, I need to pull myself up out of the muck and mire."

Behind the veil of an infectious chorus, single and title track "Blackout" captures the suffocating confusion of being pushed to the brink. "The words in the middle breakdown are "I can't breathe/ My heart is freezing/ While we pray/ My soul is packing its bags and leaving," Jahred explains. "You can't take it. Something's going on, and you don't know how to figure it out. And everyone's telling you what to think, what to say, how to do things, how to act. Pressuring you. Pressure, pressure, pressure. You're freaking out."

Week 1 :  This band are well known to me, I have been to see them live three times now, two of them when this band were headlining. The first time I saw them was when they were supporting Papa Roach at MTV's five night stand along with Sunna, which I went to see with Ed Thollo. At the time traveling to the venue in his dads car listening to their two albums it thought, 'mmm, not bad' but when they came on and started playing I was amazed, they do really sound allot better live (probably as their music is written to be played live not listened to on CD). The band of course is One Minute Silence, a band to which I owe much for many hours of great music listening sessions of which they are most often featured.

Available in All Colors, the debut album by One Minute Silence, takes its cue from the blistering, macho rap-metal sound of groups like Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine, and to a certain extent, Korn. Their hard-nosed social commentary is also reminiscent of Biohazard, an important formative influence on the genre, but One Minute Silence is not without a sense of humor either, albeit one that's often fairly dark. Although there are a few slow moments, overall the album serves as proof that it is possible for a British alt-metal band to grasp the essence of the sound and pull it off well. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide

One Minute Silence's sophomore effort finds the group expanding on the rapcore style it emerged with on its debut, Available in All Colors, while adding more structure and format to the creative mindset in order for the songs to hit the targeted American market the band members wish to be recognized by. There is much to like on Buy Now...Saved Later, as the maturity of the band over the two years between albums is very noticeable, and by far an improvement. The clever wit has quite possibly been developed even further, coming off as less childish and striking the listener with fierce intelligence along with the inevitable smile that OMS' songs always manage to put on one's face. Colin Richardson's production is tremendous, leaving the songs sounding crisp and clean and allowing the band to truly deliver a quality album. Unfortunately, while these things are beneficial to the group in the long run, Buy Now...Saved Later comes off as a weaker album than its predecessor, primarily due to its more focused design and format. It almost appears as if OMS spent more time developing the fundamentals needed to propel the band into the mainstream, yet failed to follow up with excellent songs to adhere to this new found glitz and glamour. Each song has the potential to stun the listener, yet never quite manages to leave an impression. Despite the slick production and direction, One Minute Silence offers up an album devoid of any memorable songs. ~ Jason D. Taylor, All Music Guide

Now I don't agree with the review featured here of Buy Now...Saved Later, but I want to produce a piece which is even handed and as such everyone's opinion is welcome. There is a new album on the way and as such I am looking forward to hearing it. They did at the last gig I went to play We Bounce which will feature on the new album and from what I remember (I had had quite a bit to drink) it was as good as any other they have done with the possible exception of 1845 and Brainspiller. The gig as a whole was good (and not just because of the girl who was table dancing!) but the preview of We Bounce was the crowning point. So as you can probably tell I do really like this band and as such I will feature some excerpts from their F.A.Q from their website which can be found here: http://www.oneminutesilence.com

Where did the name 'One Minute Silence' come from?

One Minute Silence is a reference to the practice of shutting the fuck up for an entire minute when someone important or well respected dies. (Examples of important or well respected people: Ethel Merman, Princess Diana, Champion the Wonder Horse, Skippy).

How long have One Minute Silence been together?

Why do OMS try so hard to not play '18 years and over' shows?

Which came first; the film 'The Matrix' or the 'Available In All Colours' album cover?

Links:

http://www.oneminutesilence.com

http://www.hedpe.com

http://www.mullhistoricalsociety.com