Toys

Last night my band played at a pub in town called the Frog & Parrot. As usual we had a few problems organising everything, but in the end we played a good set and people seemed to enjoy it. In Sheffield the Frog & Parrot is quite well known, and it has quite a history for putting on bands that went on to be super famous. The pub is also pictured in the liner booklet of the Arctic Monkeys first album, so it's cool to say we've played there now.

I went to the Early Learning Centre for the first time in ages the other day. I was with some people and we needed some black poster paint, but it kinda brought back memories going inside. It's a shop I went in a lot when I was kid and I especially liked the shelves full of small plastic animals they had. I remember each one always had the animal's name printed on the bottom and for some reason I used to really enjoy that fact. Actually, I might have to invest in some of these plastic animals again; they're well cool, especially the dinosaurs.

I found something else from my childhood whilst browsing Ebay the other day - Fuzzy Felt. It's one of those things that I'd totally forgot about until seeing it again. I seem to remember having more than one set of Fuzzy Felt which would contain a plain board and lots of felt pieces in the shape of animals or cars which you'd use to make loads of different scenes. Everything was re-usable, as the pieces only stuck together because of the texture of the felt.

I love re-discovering things like this. More than most people I think I have a strong urge to stay a kid or at least feel some kind of connection with those times.

疲れた

I've just finished work for today and I'm right tired. I was carrying 6 foot tables around for much of my shift and I decided to walk home too.

A few weeks back Asian Man Records ran a deal through their website where you could pick up a random 25 CDs for $25. I managed to get an order in, and with postage I think it worked out at around £25 for me. The CDs came today, along with a note from Mike Park saying that he had to send the CDs minus their jewel cases as the postage would have been too high, and so it took half an hour to remove the cases and complete the order, which I thought was kinda funny. I got a couple of albums which I already owned and I'm gonna have to invest in some jewel cases but it's still a fantastic deal. Asian Man Records is badass.

Recently I acquired two fairly unique music releases

Recently I acquired two fairly unique music releases.

The first was an CD by arcadecoma., a Scottish Game Boy musician. It's called The Game Boy Tree Adventures EP, and as well as featuring some cool Game Boy music, it came supplied with anaglyph glasses - those red and green cardboard ones. You can use them to view the front album art, making everything pop out, 3D style. It's the first time I've seen this done, and I thought it was pretty cool. Also, for my work with the Gamewave Podcast I was included under the thanks section which was pretty awesome.

The second release I received was vegavox by alex mauer, another video game style artist. But this release was on a NES cartridge! Apparently this is the "first ever NES cart album", so I snapped one up before they sold out. The thing is, alex mauer is from the US, and I forgot that the cart might not be compatible with my PAL NES until I tried to play it. I guess that's why everyone's using CDs instead these days. I'm thinking about cutting the regional lockout so that I can listen to it.

You can still get a copy of The Game Boy Tree Adventures at arcadecoma.'s site, while vegavox has sold out, but another NES cart album called color caves is now available from alex mauer's site.

Bomb the Music Industry!

I first heard the band Bomb the Music Industry! on the Ska Is Dead compilation, and I was impressed with their fast-ska/punk-with-synth sound. I recently heard an interview with them as part of a podcast that I really like - Sound Scene Revolution - and during the interview they talked about the fact that they release all their music for free, hence the name. The have their own label, Quote Unquote Records, which releases full albums by BtMI! as well as other artists for free and runs through receiving PayPal donations.

Now I'm quite involved with netlabels and such, and my band releases all our stuff for free too, but it's good to see a band get this big doing so. OK, they're not massive, but quite a few people know who they are, and their music is cool. This kind of thing raises some serious questions about the future of music. I don't have a problem at all with people making money from the music that they make - I believe that if you're paid to make music, you're going to have more time and maybe motivation to make great music. But I do have a problem with the way the buying of music is organised currently, so my hope is that as more and more bands start releasing stuff for free we might start to see a breakdown and rearranging of the music industry.

I picked up my new 17" Z Custom Rock Crash cymbal from the shop yesterday. And I'm happy to say that it sounds as good as I hoped it would. Usually when I buy a new crash cymbal it takes quite a lot of playing to get used to the sound, but this one took me about 4 hits before I liked it. It isn't the most distinctive sounding cymbal, but it just sounds so rich and cutting. It does have quite a long sustain, but that's probably the only negative for me. I'm glad I stepped up an inch from what I'm used to; it's loud and powerful, and I can't wait to get back to playing it.

It's my birthday again

I'd say I'm settled in at my new place now. I've been here for over 3 weeks, and I've managed to establish some sort of routine. And routine is quite important for me. I don't like having my life disrupted too much, but it's inevitable when big things like moving house happen.

It's actually my 20th birthday today. I'm not doing much else other than going out for a meal with my family tonight. I'm not particularly excited. I guess that's how it is from now on. And 20, that sounds like a big number and I don't like it too much. I'll probably just end up getting money, which I will be spending on a new crash cymbal.

Even after having the original crack cut out of my current crash cymbal, another formed just above the cut. Whilst it's a bit annoying, I'm not too surprised, and it does mean that I get to buy a new crash. My current cymbal setup is all Paiste, but after this crack I thought I'd try something else and I've decided to splash out on a Zildjian cymbal. Although they are the most expensive brand of cymbals, they are also widely regarded as the highest quality brand too. I've not really played too many Zildjians, but I've always been impressed with them when I have. I've put a deposit down on a Zildjian 17" Z Custom Rock Crash. I decided to go for something from the Z Custom line as they are apparently highly durable, and the sound sample on the Zildjian website sounds great. I look forward to picking it up and playing it soon.

I've been intending to get a Wii for a while too, and I assumed my birthday would be the time I would finally go through with it and buy one, but it looks like I'm going to have to wait a little longer (maybe Christmas?). I don't think I'll have enough spare cash and I probably won't have enough time to play it that often as well. I'm forecasting quite a busy year ahead. Now I have the internet I'm going to work on getting a few episodes of my podcast released as well as setting up a video game style music netlabel I'm working on. I'm also starting a new band with a friend from university. Yeah, I'm gonna be pretty busy.

Internet!

We now have internet at the new house which makes me a happy guy. It's been over 3 weeks! I can feel the warm blood of the internet coursing back into my veins as all the updates come flooding in.