Defunct bands I love

I recently discovered the amazing Merchant Ships through the power of last.fm and was simply blown away. Now I'm not a fan of screamo, but I couldn't help but fall in love with these guys, Long Term Relationships being a masterpiece in my eyes, raw emotion, genuine pain, and it shows. But of course the discovery was marred, for they are no more, and although they have gone on to make amazing music in the aftermath it's still just a little sad. I find this with a lot of bands that have split really, so I've decided to share defunct bands that I adore or inspire me on a semi regular basis, starting with these guys.

Anon's Plan

I've never really been into Anonymous, but if this plan's legit then this could be a good year indeed...

Haven't posted for a while, but Halo 4.

Due to being quite busy these past weeks I have neglected this, but the release of a Halo 4 trailer was easily enough inspiration to start posting again. I love Halo, it's easily better than the Call of Duty franchise which churns game after game out each year, it's lost the passion they had when they made Call of Duty 4. I was quite content for Halo Reach to be the swansong of the Halo series because Halo 3 finished perfectly, but to be fair the idea of a new trilogy does sound brilliant, this is Halo, the most epic Sci-Fi game on the face of the planet, and as long as the developers put in as much effort as in the first trilogy, which they will, it will be amazing. Which reminds me, after the Bungie/Microsoft split who is actually developing this?

 Another piece of good Halo related new is the announcement of Halo anniversary. Now I'm ashamed to admit it, I've only played the Halo games on the 360, not the original Xbox, something I've always wanted to get round to doing, but the idea of dealing with those blocky graphics isn't too appealing, It's do-able but I'd rather they were shiny and new. Well now I can play Halo Combat Evolved on November 15th, fully remastered and updated, the joy!

 Again on the E3 hype has anyone else noticed Assassins Creed has invaded the Youtube homepage again? Oh Ubisoft, you and you're effective marketing.

Courage the Cowardly Nostalgia

Someone I know recently reminded me of the obscure kids cartoon Courage the Cowardly Dog, you know the ridiculously creepy one that aired during the night on Cartoon Network from 1999-2002, but now is reserved to reruns. I think it just made me sad, I'm not sure if it is just nostalgia speaking or truth, but cartoons like this were so much better a decade ago when I was a kid. I remember watching it and just being a little unnerved by the content, as Courage would find himself faced with horrors that could have only came from the depths of Hell, and it was genuinely an intense 22 minutes each show. The fact that it managed to evoke that with the creepy music, the desolate setting and the generally sinister under and overtones showed the show was made with a lot of love, as was true with a lot of cartoons back then, such as Rugrats or Grim & Evil. Now I don't watch cartoons anymore, and maybe that's my problem but on the rare occasion I do flick past one all you get is something terrible like Ben 10: Ultimate Alien which should have been cancelled a long time ago, as I mean, everything peaks.

The Rapture?

Well May 21st came and went, that gives us 19 months to prepare for the next big doomsday, cool.

Quelle Surprise

With the release of Quelle Surprise by Enter Shikari I thought it would be a good way to start off my Blog. I think it's quite natural that I'm a fan, Enter Shikari blend Electronic with Post-Hardcore, and strike the balance perfectly. Quelle Surprise is a good example of what they can do, and personally a relief that they haven't peaked yet. I find the Electronic brings out the softer side of Hard Rock, and the Hard Rock brings out the aggressive side of the Electronic, the result is a wide spectrum of emotions hidden within a Post-Hardcore package. Unfortunately people can't see past the screaming and shouting, which is a shame because they aren't just another Hardcore band that is just shouting about their teenage angst whilst still being in their mid 20s, instead we have songs about gambling addictions, the ruthless Tescos, and Quasar. OK the last wasn't a good example of being a serious band, but it is a good example of creativity, thats for sure. It's quite clear however that they are good artists, simply because the lyrics match the music, and it all has meaning. Did I mention they are completely independent again?

Welcome to a Place of Reason

I've been mulling over the prospect of starting a Blog for quite some while now, the only things that have really held me back are the ideas that it would require time and effort, and that I'm not quite sure what to write about. The former, of course was never really a problem, I'm happy to spend copious amounts of time on something that I want to do, it was more the latter idea that prevented me from starting this. So I decided that I'm just going to do what everyone does and write about things that I care about, so this means you're most likely to find things about music, film, media and issues, and also anything I see fit really.

For now just watch this space...