Hang around Joel long enough, your musical tastes *will* expand

[highlyeccentric]

... and they will expand in wildly divergent directions.

Joel describes himself as a 'genre fanatic', which seems to mean that he's a splitter instead of a lumper: he likes listening to lots of things, and cutting them up into smaller and smaller categories. Tonight I have acquired a slew of Dance Gavin Dance, who apparently fall into the genre of 'post-hardcore'. I heard Joel playing them last night and took a fancy to them.

I have also acquired a couple of albums of My Chemical Romance, who are not so bad overall and quite excellent in spots. Needlessly shouty at times, but then so were Silverchair, and I loved them to shouty pieces when I was fifteen. The first few songs of 'The Black Parade' didn't grab me, but everything from 'Welcome to the Black Parade' onwards has been fun. ('Welcome to the Black Parade' itself reminds me of Pink Floyd, which association will probably have me strangled in the first ever co-operative effort by emo kids and old school rock fans. ETA: Ooh, and 'Mama' is good stuff, also reminding me of Pink Floyd.)

I'm using an old USB keyboard of Joel's, and I can see why he got rid of it. It's very strange. And it needs to be BASHED to get anything typed at all. Next task is to plug in my new mouse- which I shall name Reepicheep, naturally.

Comments

[kayloulee.livejournal.com]

SNIGGER.

[areyoustrange.livejournal.com]

Yeah this basically. Maybe with a 'DERISIVE HIPSTER' in front of the 'SNIGGER'. :P

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Oh shuddit you two.

[kayloulee.livejournal.com]

Ezactly. My little sister listens to them! She's not that little anymore, but my point stands.

[xxlucyferxx.livejournal.com]

Dance Gavin Dance are amazing. :) I find them such an energetic band to listen to, I don't know why...if I need to go on a crazy cleaning spree or something, they are always on my playlist.

Ok, listen carefully to me. You, my dear, are on the edge of something truly spectacular. You're teetering on the brink of the exquisite, all-consuming wonderland that is My Chemical Romance. The first few times I heard them I, too, thought they were 'pretty good' but nothing particularly special. Listen some more. Read their lyrics, get to know their message...that is a command.

Melodrama aside, MCR are an amazing band and I swear I'm not just being a silly teenie fan when I say that their music, if it hasn't actually saved my life, has offered me motivation and something to cling to in the times when I was most desperate for it. And they are the most amazing thing ever live. YouTube videos cannot convey the raw energy at their shows.

I'll shut up for now, I think. Honestly, you should know better than to bring up MCR around me. *runs away in transports of fangirlish glee*

[xxlucyferxx.livejournal.com]

Also, I love that you picked the Pink Floyd thing, because classic rock was where they drew the inspiration for the album from. Welcome To The Black Parade actually reminds ME of Bohemian Rhapsody...so, you need fear no stranglication from me.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Is The Black Parade a concept album? It seems to string together remarkably well...

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Lucy m'dear, you and your fangirly glee are the REASON for bringing up the topic of MCR. It's entertaining :P.

You, my dear, are on the edge of something truly spectacular. You're teetering on the brink of the exquisite, all-consuming wonderland that is My Chemical Romance.

*giggles at you* I think I'm slightly too old for this particular all-consuming wonderland. Also I've never been one for all-consuming musical wonderlands, aside from that Whitlams period. But I like it :).

I swear I'm not just being a silly teenie fan when I say that their music, if it hasn't actually saved my life, has offered me motivation and something to cling to in the times when I was most desperate for it.

One gets that impression from reading your LJ, yeah. ;)

Silver Chair were a bit like that when I was at school- never got fangirly obsessive about them, I still haven't got their older albums straight through. But for having something to loop excess angst through, my thing is Silverchair or - if extreme - Pink Floyd's The Wall (album not song). The Whitlams took over at some point - they were good for adjusting to Sydney.

ANYWAY. I have finished with The Black Parade (liked 'Teenagers'. Goes on the list with The Wall pt. 1 and Anthem for The Year 2000 and Good Charlotte's The Anthem. At some point I need to admit that I'm too old for teen solidarity songs... woe...). Have moved on to Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge.

Is there a reason why there's a gunfight in the middle of a restaurant? The rest of the song makes sense (AWESOME sense) but the beginning is perplexing me.

[xxlucyferxx.livejournal.com]

But it's NOT teen angst. *pouts* It is SERIOUS BUSINESS, thank you very much.

Yeah, it's a concept album. Wanna hear the whole story? Too bad if you don't, I'm afraid...

It's written from the point of view of a character known simply as The Patient. He is, as his name implies, a patient - dying of cancer in hospital (hence Gerard cropping his hair and bleaching it during this period to make himself look like he'd been undergoing chemotherapy). It's pretty much him reflecting back on his life, the things he hasn't achieved, the opportunities he missed, the selfishness of his existence. The premise of the whole 'black parade' thing derives from Gerard's own idea that death comes to people in a form they find comforting and familiar. In The Patient's empty life, the memory that stands out to him is when he was five years old and his father took him to see a parade. So when he dies, he sees death come to him as a black parade that sweeps him up into its ranks and carries him away. The only song, interestingly enough, that ISN'T a part of the concept is Teenagers. They just threw that one in cause they wanted to.

Ahhh, Three Cheers is a fantastic album. I'm pretty sure the gunfight in the restaurant is just part of the storyline (Three Cheers is also a concept album, although not quite so coherent as TBP). Prison was actually written about touring, the whole jail thing being a metaphor, and I guess it amounts to something along the lines of being swept away from normality and into this circus of sweat and loud guitars and endless hours trapped in stuffy tour buses. Or something along those lines.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Luce, teen angst IS Serious Business, and anyone who thinks otherwise is daft. So's grownup angst, for that matter, but no one makes entire musical careers catering to midlife crises or post-retirement blues.

Hmm, I think I did know about TBP's concept when it came out, that seems very familiar.

Huh, Three Cheers is supposed to be concept? That explains why Joel was muttering about it not fitting together properly and the vast superiority of TBP.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

Duuuuuude.

MCR are like ... well, they're actually pretty awesome (I like 'Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge' - it's a lot angrier than the Black Parade and I think has some very clever lyrics) but their vocalist's voice does annoy me. I was all set up to hate them and have actually found myself unable to do so, so yeah.

Speaking as a Pink Floyd fan though I will not lynch you for comparing 'Welcome to the Black Parade' to them, because I can kinda see where you're coming from.

But I would kinda like to see Floydies and emos join forces in some sort of riot, it would amuse me liek whoa.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

You're right, the singer's voice is what's stopping me from falling head over heels for even the best of their songs. You just want to grab him and tell him to STOP SHOUTING.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

and to go and get some lessons and try to be less nasal.