…Life…

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Most of you “met” me when I worked for the site-that-shall-not-be-named, which was my dream job. I happened upon it — I was doing other, mundane work, when my bosses hit me with the idea for a music news site.  I started work — spent a few months in development, and then we started hiring people.  I remember jumping up and down in front of my boss’ desk screaming, “WE WILL HIRE THIS GUY” when I saw TomZ’s resume and samples. I was so excited for, and proud of, our site. I was the “Content Overlord” [in my own mind - my real title was “Content Manager,” I just thought the former would look much more badass on business cards…] and I cared so goddamned much about that site.

So now, I am going to tell you about me,

I went to college for journalism, but ended up majoring in fiction, playwriting, and screenwriting. There’s little difference, for the record.  I’ve worked all over the place — advertising, editorial, whatever. I have a supposedly impressive “client list,” but if you ask me honestly what I am proud of? Click the “interviews” link on this site. That is all I ever wanted. Those are some of the greatest moments of my life.

When I was high-school aged, I didn’t fit in. I had no friends in school and barely spoke to anyone. I met a skater boy named Paul who I fell in love with on the spot, and he introduced me to punk. We’d go to a store and the guy who worked there would feed us music — Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Dead Milkmen, Operation ivy, Jawbreaker… whatever we needed. He saw it in us. And we grew together to r ealize we weren’t like everyone else.

I’ve gotten by… until now.  After the demise of the site-that-shall-not-be-mentioned, I was left unemployed, also known as “fucked up the river,” when you have rent, bills, and have had cancer twice-maybe-for-a-third-time and need medical insurance.  So I took the first job I could. I work at a state college, and it is hell on earth.

My BOSS is a horrible woman who makes 4 to 5 times what I do annually. She has a gripe with the way I dress — she’s afraid she will send me to interview someone [judgmental asshole] who will look down at me for my shoes or clothes. FUCK THAT. I have no respect whatsoever for people like this. THIS IS NOT WHO I AM MEANT TO BE.

There is so much more… I’m just drained.  All I can say is, since most of you who read this site are younger than I am? I would LOVE to ask you this: Don’t crap on anyone. And fight for your rights. We’re all people. I am a talented writer, a hard worker… someone who takes her job seriously. But yet, because I don’t have the “right” shoes or the clothes that please someone who makes a couple of hundred thousand per year? I feel like shit from 8:30am to 5:00pm.

I hate that the other site didn’t work. It was part of my life. I cared so much.

But I don’t deserve this.

And neither do you.

And neither does anyone.

I can’t fix this; I am some powerless girl just trying to get by and get the love of my life and my doggy back to me. But YOU… you are the future. Take control. Don’t let this happen. Don’t live in shame. Fuck them all. Nobody should ever feel bad for, or ashamed of, who they are.

hey guys? Just LIVE, okay?

LIV

[Rare Review] What Gives, The Academy Is…?

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[Prelude to a review: I may have mentioned this before, but back at the site-that-shall-not-be-mentioned, Tom Z. and I often discussed how useless album reviews are. For the most part, they go on and on about meaningless details, pretentious language, and you often can’t even tell if the reviewer likes it or not. Music reviews have almost become a competition to show off how much the reviewer knows about a band/scene/producer. That said, I am going to put this out there, much in line with what Tom Z. and I said made a good review.]

I have never liked The Academy Is…. I tried to, but they just didn’t work for me. The lyrics didn’t click, the melodies didn’t work, and nothing about their music resonated with me. One of my sisters always told me how great they were, and every time I gave them a try, I ended up disappointed because I just didn’t like them. For example, I gave Santi about 20 tries, and it just always ended up being “God, I have to get this off my iPod so it stops coming up on random.” I’d written The Academy Is… off as a band I should probably like, but never would. [There’s a short list of those, the other two I can think of off the top of my head being Against Me! and Angels and Airwaves.]

Fortunately for me, I have self-diagnosed musical OCD. This unique condition compels me to listen to or get just about every new album that comes out [in the genres I like, anyway.] I’ve been known to put little Post-It notes on pages of Alternative Press, marking bands I’ve never heard of, but seem interesting. I spend hours on end combing MySpace, looking for the next band I will like a lot. Naturally, this led me to check out The Academy Is…’s album, Fast Times At Barrington High. The verdict?

Holy. Crap.

What happened to these guys? At the moment, on the eve of September, this album has a firm top 5 best albums of 2008 spot. It’s great! Poppy and comforting on some level, with nicely put together lyrics that are entirely memorable and quotable. Everything I disliked about this band seems to have ceased to exist — it’s as if they were replaced by a totally different band that I have completely fallen in love with. I guess with these guys, the third time is a charm.

The odd thing is, I went back and listened to the first two albums. Nope, they still don’t work for me. But this album? There’s something amazing about it. I think it’s sad it was all but slipped into stores under the cover of night, especially considering the press that Santi got. This album is two thousand times better and deserves recognition, which is why I wrote this review.

If you already like The Academy Is…, I have no idea if you will like this album. But if you have never liked them before? Give it a try. It just might work for you. Stranger things have happened….

Good Morning! We have new BEMIS.

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There is only one thing I would like more than this at the moment… and since that is constantly in the back of my mind, percolating, I’ll take these videos of Max Bemis playing acoustic versions of two new Say Anything songs.

The first one is called “Loathing” and from what I can make of the lyrics, it has about 15 quotable lines, particularly if you are sad and lonely in the way that Max seems to be able to perfectly explain. I definitely feel it, anyway:

The second one is “Cemetery,” and there is some supreme Max adorableness in this video that I won’t ruin for the rest of you, who like me, adore the little things he does:

This song is going to be amazing with the full band.

Since there are no more Say Anything dates for the rest of the year, my OCD is compelling me to seek out Two Tongues dates [which are supposed to happen before the end of the year] so I can re-attempt “Operation: Meet Max Bemis [and Use the Awesome Pick-Up Line of ‘Im Over 18, Dude’.”

Also, these two new songs make me so sad that he announced he’d write a personalized, unique song for a mere $150… on the day I moved.  I would have paid that in a heartbeat, and even wrote out what I wanted my song to be about [I would have requested the title be “P.M.”] but I didn’t have the money. Hopefully, he’ll do it again. I’ll sell blood if I must, to get that song.

Anyway, I digress. Enjoy the new songs, because they’re quite good and pretty much guarantee the next Say Anything, supposedly out in 2009, will be album of the year for said year.  [I’m pretty sure that is the earliest prediction for album of the year I have ever made… and it could be weird if MCR roll something out that year… but I’m standing by it.]

Citizens For Our Betterment Give Us Free Music

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It’s a mixtape and it’s hit and miss, thanks to rap, but there are some rare songs and demos on it that are worth your time. I guess I just have to deal with the fact that Pete Wentz likes rap… I’ll never get it, but hey.

Tracklist:

01. Guy Ripley (intro) [:40]
02. Ludacris (interlude) [:40]
03. Fall Out Boy - ALPHAdog and OMEGAlomaniac (demo) [2:09]
04. Fall Out Boy - Lake Effect Kid (demo) [3:37]
05. Fall Out Boy - I Don’t Care (27) (featuring Clinton Sparks & Seth Green) (interlude) (demo/snippet) [1:09]
06. Fall Out Boy - Catch Me if You Can/Proclamation of Emaciation (featuring Travis from Gym Class Heroes) (demo mashup) [2:51]
07. The Cab - Bounce (snippet) [1:25]
08. Tyga - First Timers (featuring Evan from the Black List Club) [2:31]
09. Panic at the Disco - Northern Downpour (snippet) [2:02]
10. The Paul Revere Jumpsuit Apparatus - Nearly Witches (demo) [:58]
11. Cobra Starship - I Kissed a Boy [3:01]
12. The Academy is… - Automatic Eyes - Suave Suarez remix (featuring Tyga) [2:40]
13. Hey Monday - Homecoming (snippet) [1:07]
14. The Cab - Take My Hand - Machine Shop Production (featuring Cassadee from Hey Monday) [3:38]
15. Tyga - California Girls (demo) [2:47]
16. Gym Class Heroes - Cookie Jar (snippet) [2:02]
17. A Rocket to the Moon - Oh, Dakota (acoustic demo) [1:14]
18. Four Year Strong - Bada Bing! Wit a Pipe! [3:26]
19. Text Fall Out Boy: FOB to 66937 (interlude - signup and instant betterment) [:15]
20. The Academy is… - About a Girl (snippet) [:53]
21. The Hush Sound - We Believe in (Barack Obama) [1:52]
22. The Hush Sound (interlude) [:24]
23. Butch Walker - Mixtape (snippet) [:28]
24. Cobra Starship (interlude) [1:46]
25. Fall Out Boy - America’s Sweethearts (demo/snippet) [:37]
26. Clinton Sparks & Pete Wentz (outro) [:34]

You can download it here.

On that page, there’s also an ad that confirms a new Fall Out Boy album [November 4th — 3rd if you’re in a country with Monday releases] — it’s called Folie A Deux, and well, there you go. I’m guessing the next couple of months will be full of interesting free things like this mixtape and other Web sites.

Say what you like, but the band is definitely embracing the Internet, and that’s never a bad thing. Way too many bands/labels are still shunning it, despite the whole “it’s here to stay” thing. It’s good to see bands with power [however you define it] in the industry doing original things and taking chances. It’s the only way we’ll ever see major label stupidity undone.

I Hereby Pledge My Lifelong Love To DVR

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Holy crap on a stick — no wonder I never caught “FNMTV” before.  While I may like Pete Wentz, I don’t like him enough to sit through some awful rap-fest.  Yes, he played a few seconds of a new Fall Out Boy song [it sounded okay, but the title is “I Don’t Care,” and I don’t see how it fits in with the CFOB site that looks so amazing and promising.

So, that’s where we are on this whole CFOB thing.

If you want to spare yourself the pain of the rap-filled horrorfest that is FNMTV, head here to check out “I Don’t Care.”

Hey, maybe they wrote it about that awful show that in no way makes sense to have Pete Wentz host.

Waiting for something more interesting….

More Citizens For Our Betterment Stuff…

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This is what happens when you have an obsessive mind, are still officially unemployed, and are waiting on something that is extremely important — you follow this stuff endlessly.

Here are the latest links:
Citizens For Our Betterment: click “data.” I’m pretty sure the first 100 might be filled, but they’re still taking addresses. I hope I get something. It’s nice to get cool mail/good news once in a while. “Media” also has a new picture on it - not sure what the deal with that is. “Exposes” and “Scandals” also brings you an old photo [that is still nice to see, mind you.]

And now it appears William Beckett [The Academy Is…] is in on it as well — check this out The Wiilliam Beckett Blog. It seems to have lyrics or something — plus a link to a new site, Run Right Back to the Art. At the moment, there isn’t much going on there, but I am sure at some point, there will be.

Clearly, there’s more to come… this is seriously the most interesting viral thing since NIN’s Year Zero, which was also really well done. Feel free to post any discoveries you make….

Oh, and — people seem to think Midtown might have something to do with this: so here’s their deal: they re-did their myspace, and there’s this video:
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

Wow, Copeland are Kind of Dicks

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In the latest “Citizens For Our Benefit”/Fall Out Boy news, it seems Copeland decided to get a slice of the action — by launching a mirror of the Fall Out Boy site [Citizens For Our Betterment] under the amazingly clever URL Citizens FOUR Our Benefit. The only difference? At the end of Copeland’s site, you get a link to YouAreMySunshineAlbum — which is a photo with the date October 14, 2008.

This really makes no sense — but here’s what I gather. Someone posted a link on a Fall Out Boy LiveJournal, and Copeland sort of just latched on to the Fall Out Boy campaign, as they were already doing some viral stuff of their own. [Which is news to me, but hey, let’s face it — it’s Copeland. I don’t think they’ve ever made it to the “elite” area of my overfilled iPod for even an afternoon.]

Speaking to MTV, here’s what Aaron Marsh of Copeland had to say:

“We had been discussing a viral campaign for three or four months now, placing some stuff on the Net, so some of this was just wacky timing. The whole concept behind our campaign was that we wanted people to be looking at our Web site while they were thinking they were looking at someone else’s. So we were poking around, and then FOB started their site, so we decided to use theirs. There was nothing malicious about it; we just saw an opportunity to reel in way more people.

And when I think about how it might affect Fall Out Boy, all I can say is that Pete’s a clever bloke, and he probably would’ve done the same thing had he thought of it,” he continued. “I mean, think about it: The two campaigns are very similar — theirs is supposed to look like an ominous organization that’s mucking around. The way [the two campaigns] crossed didn’t hurt anyone.”

Well, obviously, nobody was hurt! It’s a freaking viral campaign. Then again, is Copeland going to suffer a bit for it? In my eyes, they’re unoriginal hacks. The quote above should really read, “Yeah… well, we were doing a viral campaign of our own, but nobody was paying attention. And then Fall Out Boy did theirs, and it was successful and got people interested and talking, so we decided we’d just copy them since they’re smarter than we are. It’s not like they’d mind, they’re smart, after all!”

It reeks of pathetic, if you ask me. And I find it hard to believe that Pete, being a “clever bloke” would have done what they did. Say what you like about him, he tends to have pretty original ideas and seems above latching on to someone else’s coattails to such an extent. It must suck to be a band and realize that someone has outdone you in the whole viral thing, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Fall Out Boy’s campaign is actually the first viral campaign I have paid attention to in ages — most of them have been boring, stupid, or ill-planned.

For the record, Copeland also launched a fake AbsolutePunk site — Abso1utePunk.net. Which is hilarious because nobody would type that by accident, though I guess if they were putting fake links to AP, it would work. Christ, they’re so desperate, I’m wondering when the EPB mirror will show up… [note to Copeland: do it! I’m writing an article trashing you right now — nobody will catch the fake! That’s what I call using your heads!]

Copeland’s final comment was just a bunch of crying that their “brilliant” idea was destroyed over night [welcome to a world where people can look things up and aren’t entirely retarded] and repeated insisting “Pete would have done the same thing.” I’ve never seen anyone so positive that someone else would do the same stupid thing they did, but check it out:

“The whole idea was mocking other sites, and if life went according to plan, you would’ve seen that continue, instead it got ripped to shreds overnight. But, like I said, this wasn’t done maliciously. And everything I’ve heard about Pete is that he’s a marketing kind of guy; he’s the king of making people talk and ruffling feathers, so he would’ve done the same thing if he could have. So if Fall Out Boy fans are mad about this whole thing, well, all I can say is that Pete would’ve done the same thing.”

Mad? No. Laughing at you? Yes. Pete said there are still “many twists to come” and it may have nothing to do with an album… he said it was really just art. Not surprisingly, concerning Copeland, he didn’t say he would have done the same thing. Go figure.

It Looks Like New Fall Out Boy is On The Way

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Do I care? I’m not sure yet. I didn’t love Infinity on High when it came out, though I do find myself enjoying the songs more these days, when they come up on random on my iPod. And I really kind of gave up on Pete Wentz ever writing something gorgeous again after [accidentially or intentionally] becoming another member of the breeding masses. And yet, I find myself intrigued by the whole Citizens For Our Betterment site — especially with the new and updated changes.

All of this started a couple of days ago when Decaydance was “hacked.” It has since been restored to its normal self, but the “hack” was credited to Citizens For Our Betterment. That site wasn’t much — until today. When you click on the sidebar, you’re taken to Run Right Back to the Start, which says “this is a maze.” And it is — each page has a sort of “choose your own adventure” thing going on, and you can get lost in circles or keep finding new things, depending on where you go. I played with it for about 20 minutes and kept finding new things.

But here’s the most shocking part - the words are very clearly Pete Wentz — and they’re gorgeous. They strike me as almost on par with his usual writing… and much more in touch with emotions, ala “The Boy With A Thorn in His Side” or believe it or not, From Under the Cork Tree. If this site is full of lyric blurbs from an upcoming album [title: Run Right Back to the Start ??] — I am really looking forward to some new Fall Out Boy. Who knows? My eternal pessimism may lead to a surprise — I figured we’d get great lyrics again when his wife spat out her spawn and they had a MTV show and got divorced.

Anyway, play with the links, see what you can find. I’ve yet to find any music — but Absolute Punk had a simple post that said, “Fall Out Boy fans should make sure to watch FNMTV on Friday.” [By the way, I had no idea when this was on, but just set my DVR — it’s Friday 8-9pm EST on MTV.] I suspect if there is an announcement, or even better, a song or video, clip, this is it. A lot of people are speculating the new album will come out on Election Day [because the CFOB site looked really political on the first day], but you never know with these viral things — or with Fall Out Boy. I can’t imagine they did all of this for a tour announcement or some weird goal like playing Antarctica.

I guess we’ll see. I’m not in love with viral campaigns, but this one actually seems pretty well-done, and without too much of a wait time if something is happening on FNMTV in two days. It could all be a huge letdown, but in an odd moment of optimism, I’m hoping for the best.

*Footnote: Ah… I love that I just posted something that would have been censored quite a bit on the old site that shall not be named. It always drove me insane that they kept me on a leash for fear I would “offend” people with my real opinions. I have to remember not to hold back anymore… it feels good. And I’ll need this site more than ever when I start a soul-sucking job come Monday.

New Song From I Am Ghost

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Considering everything I have been dealing with lately, I take my happiness where I can get it. In this case, it’s in the form of a new song from I Am Ghost on myspace. It’s called “Bone Garden,” and makes me not want to wait until October for the whole album, because this is awesome. I think this will probably take the award for 2008 “Album of the Year” [Jamies Elsewhere is still holding strong at #1 at this point] if this is indicative of what we can expect from the whole album, which will be titled Those We Leave Behind.

The band’s MySpace has also been revamped with a ton of European tour dates, for some reason or another. It looks like after the current West Coast run, there’s nothing happening in the US until next year. Strange… but maybe they do better over there. A lot of bands do, unfortunately. [Well, unfortunately for me, since I like seeing live bands.]

And as for this new photo of them? I just want to touch them all. A lot. Damn. Those are some nice-looking boys. Obviously, music is the most important thing to me, but if the visuals are nice as well, I’m certainly not going to complain.

New Valencia Video — With Bonus Max Bemis!

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I have been a fan of Valencia for quite some time, and while it seems their jump to major label Columbia didn’t work out so well for them, in terms of video budgets, they did a great job on their own. The video, which has tons of Warped Tour stars in it, is really cute and the song “Holiday” stands a decent chance at being a “hit,” at least in our world.

And of course, there are many reward appearances towards the end of the video, but I assure you, none made me squeal to the extent that EPB’s chosen superstar Max Bemis did.

It’s things like this video that make me wish I could experience something like Warped Tour, but being anything but a summer girl, it will never happen, unless they move it to a more reasonable month like April or October.

Anyway, enjoy the video… because it’s awesome.  And check out the band’s new album, which is out next Tuesday.