en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/Fatblast40/journal The Last.fm journal for Fatblast40. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/Fatblast40/journal/2007/05/09/2pq5_beirut_%252B_final_fantasy:_great_show! Wed, 9 May 2007 07:15:53 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Fatblast40/journal/2007/05/09/2pq5_beirut_%252B_final_fantasy:_great_show! Tue 8 May – Beirut, Final Fantasy

If you were there, you already know this was a great show and such a great experience. I am just curious if anyone has a decent memory of the setlist, because a lot of the songs from Beirut and FF I don't know yet, because I only had the Gulag Orkestra album before the event.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Fatblast40/journal/2007/01/23/2pq4_sigur_ros..._amazing! Tue, 23 Jan 2007 04:30:41 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Fatblast40/journal/2007/01/23/2pq4_sigur_ros..._amazing! Sigur Ros

Like the Dresden Dolls before, my being turned on to the music of Sigur Ros is just an unbelievably lucky, and fateful chance of happening. Yet through this rare chance, I have yet again discovered a new favorite artist of mine, completely out of nowhere, though definitely here to stay.
I happened to set an alarm on my iPod for the morning so that I could easily plug it into my stereo when I wake up and play music to help me get out of bed. I don't remember which playlist I set it to play, but over a short period of time that playlist happened to get renamed or deleted or whatever, and so the alarm would just revert to playing my entire iPod library upon waking instead.
Add to this the fact that I usually forget my iPod in my car overnight since thats where that particular iPod of mine gets heavy usage, it turned out to be pretty convinient to have my iPod already on and ready whenever I first get into my car on any given day. Well I went to run the track early in the morning, and was just so out of it that I didn't bother to change the music playing when I got in that morning, and figured I owed it to my friend Kristin to listen to this unknown Sigur Ros music that she had given to me long ago. Well it played on that morning for the short drive to the track and back home, and I figured it wasn't so bad after all. I let it play all day in the car while I did my delivery shift, and I started to really love this stuff.
That was just last Wednesday, the 17th of January. Well according to my last.fm charts updated for the new week, from that point through Sunday, I have already logged over 270 tracks played, and thats only through iTunes on my Macbook Pro. Add in the plays on my iPod and well... man have I listened to a lot of this artist. And I really love it. People who know Sigur Ros already don't need me to go into detail explaining the beauty of their music, you already know. If you don't, then just give any of their albums a try. The () album is amazing, the first that I fell in love with. Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do is another amazing album, only 3 songs, but it shows a complete other side of music for this band, I can't describe it, it is just really interesting stuff. And now I am really in love with Takk... I already have the majority of their songs in my library tagged as 5-stars, 4.5 stars, and 4 stars. I love it, I can't say it enough, the music is just so perfect, of course I'm a sucker for anything with a beautiful piano to carry it, but its just so great.
I can already say with certainty that Sigur Ros is at the very least, my 3rd favorite artist all-time, only trailing Nine Inch Nails and Moby, who both have served as huge inspirations in my life, and now Sigur Ros as well. If any artist could ever have a chance of unseating Moby or NIN for me, they def. have the potential to, though they'll need some time since NIN and Moby have such a huge catalogue, I have well over 100 songs by both of them tagged as 5-stars. But looking at the proportions, as long as Sigur Ros keeps making more great music, who knows what else. I already think of them to myself in the same class as NIN and Moby. After only a week of listening... amazing.
To these great musicians of Iceland, thank you for this gift of music, thank you.

Nine Inch Nails
Moby]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Fatblast40/journal/2006/04/23/2pq3_the_dresden_dolls_are_amazing! Sun, 23 Apr 2006 18:22:30 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Fatblast40/journal/2006/04/23/2pq3_the_dresden_dolls_are_amazing! I have recently fallen in love with the Dresden Dolls. Such a lucky chance that I was even exposed to them at all. They are now one of my top favorite bands, therefore I feel compelled to write about how that came to be.
Back in May (I think) of 2005, around the time of Nine Inch Nails' new album, "With Teeth" being released, I was desperate to finally see them live. They finally had a show scheduled in NYC, and so there was no way I could possibly pass that up. So determined I was to finally see my all-time favorite artist live, that I spent $150 per ticket to see them at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
Just by chance, some unknown (to me) band called The Dresden Dolls were opening for NIN. I had seen them listed as the opener on nin.com, but didn't know anything about them, nor had I ever heard their music before. When the show finally started, I remember enjoying their music, I personally love the piano, and it was really catchy, really different than any other type of music I had ever heard.
After the show, I went home and downloaded some of their music, played through a few of the titles I recognized, and them put them on the back burner for a long time. Finally, I don't remember what the reason was, but I played a couple of their songs this month, almost a whole year after first seeing them. I liked them, but again, was ready to move on to some more random music to build up my charts here on last.fm. I really wasn't giving them a fair chance, as I am a very closed-minded person when it comes to music. I only listen to what I like, and I stick with it. (see NIN on my charts)
The next stroke of luck came when by chance, my friend Jenn (Chester870 on last.fm) noticed the songs played on my "recent tracks" list. Let me just elaborate on how lucky this is, because the recent tracks list on shows the last 10 songs that I played, so if she had looked at my list 20 mins earlier or later, or any time other than in that small 30-40 minute window of time when The Dresden Dolls would appear on my list, then she would not have seen it, therefore she would not have IMed me to commend me for listening to TDD!
So she IMed me, cause TDD are pretty small as of yet, and so to see that somebody else knows this great band that she already loved, it was worth mentioning. So then she started telling me what her favorite songs were by them, and I already had them all downloaded, just didn't recognize any of them by name. So I start giving more of their songs a good listen, and this is where I start to realize that I really like their music. From this point on, I really love "Half-Jack" "Girl Anachronism" "Bad Habit" and "Gravity". Then I start to really lean towards "Bad Habit" I love this song, and want so badly to be able to learn it myself. (Once the songbook thingy on their merch website is released, I am definately buying it) The piano is so chaotic, harmonic, upbeat, the lyrics are sung beautifully with it.
This is where I start thinking that this band is really good, and where the next stroke of luck finally comes in. How lucky is it, that the week that I just happen to start listening to The Dresden Dolls again, is the very week that their new album, "Yes, Virginia..." is released?? So I find out that their is a brand new album by a band that I am just starting to really like, right at the time that I'm starting to like them. So I download a torrent (sorry, I will buy the actual album once I go to a store, I promise) of the album, listen through it, and fall in love with it! I happen to listen to "First Orgasm" first just because it has the provocative title, but I love it again because of the beautiful piano being played in it. But this is an album where I like it so much, I have to listen to it in full from beginning to end, it is not a simple one-hit wonder with fillers, every single track is very well done. I especially love "Sex Changes" "Backstabber" "Modern Moonlight" "Delilah" "Dirty Business" "First Orgasm" "Necessary Evil" "Me & the Minibar" ... why don't I just list the entire album??
Overall, my iTunes smart playlist (smart playlists are the most amazing concept) titled "Most Played - The Dresden Dolls" says that my fav is still "Bad Habit" which I have to agree with. But the whole point is, for me to really like a band, they can't be a one hit wonder, no matter how good the single song is. For that matter, they better have more than just one good/great album. That is where "Yes, Viriginia..." comes in and pushes this band from a new band that I really like, into one of my Top 5 favorite bands now, probably even Top 3 in the near future too. In a matter of less than 2 weeks time, this band has become one of my personal favs, what an unexpected turn in Nicky's world of music.
To go along with my photography, I am hoping that I can start to shoot concerts for TDD, I wrote the band an email along with my credentials, and I gave them links to my 2 best photosets of Nine Inch Nails live, and so I hope to hear back from them soon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, I am pretty confident that they will be impressed with my concert photography, so I'm hoping against hope that I can catch my first big break with photography here. For anyone reading this that's interested, the links to my photography are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatblast40

Nine Inch Nails
- NIN live at UMass:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatblast40/sets/72057594080155982/
- NIN live in Boston:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatblast40/sets/1513107/


Air
In other news, I am also secondarily starting to really like the band "Air" of which I've always loved the song "Alone in Kyoto" appearing in the soundtrack to "Lost in Translation." But them my new friend Kristin gave me a DVD packed full of music, most notably, Air's album "Moon Safari" which I love. I love the songs "Sexy Boy" "Kelly Watch the Stars" and "La Femme D'argent" among others. Music is such a great gift in life, isn't it? It's not very often that I find 2 new artists that I really start to like, in this short a period of time.The Dresden Dolls]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Fatblast40/journal/2006/04/07/2pq2_music_quiz_-_nine_inch_nails Fri, 7 Apr 2006 01:15:51 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Fatblast40/journal/2006/04/07/2pq2_music_quiz_-_nine_inch_nails I changed this music quiz around so that I could ask questions that instead of random, will actually give a good explanation of my musical taste. For this particular entry, all the questions are about my #1 band, which is currently (and always will be) Nine Inch Nails, because Trent Reznor is so great, this quiz is better served answering questions about NIN. Ok well maybe I'll answer some questions about other bands there too. And since I love listening to movie soundtracks as much as I do listen to bands, I will have a separate list for my favorite soundtracks, and maybe answer some questions about them too. If I'm not too lazy, maybe I will start to post a recurring journal entry like this about my favorite music.

- - - -


Name your top 15 favortie bands on Last.fm:

1. Nine Inch Nails
2. Moby
3. A Perfect Circle
4. HORSE the Band
5. Pearl Jam
6. Garbage
7. Linkin Park
8. Tweaker
9. U2
10. No Doubt
11. Björk
12. Evanescence
13. Disturbed
14. Rammstein
15. Staind

Favorite Soundtracks:

1. The Last Samurai
2. The New World
3. Traffic
4. The Thin Red Line
5. American Beauty
6. Lost In Translation
7. Syriana
8. K-PAX
9. The Terminator
10. The Matrix



Questions:

- What was the first song you ever heard by NIN?
The Perfect Drug, I think.


- What is your favourite album by NIN?
The Fragile, more specifically, Disc 1 of it. The Downward Spiral is amazing too though, and Still, from And All That Could Have Been, has some amazing stuff on it too.


* What are your favourite lyrics that NIN has sung?
(in no particular order)
"and all that could have been" - And All That Could Have Been, and The Great Below
"and if you look at your reflection, is that all you want it to be?" - Right Where It Belongs
"happiness and peace of mind were never meant for me" - And All That Could Have Been
"in your filthy little worn out broken down see through soul" - No, You Don't
"nothing can stop me now" - recurring line appears in many NIN songs
"maybe there will come a day when those that you keep blind will suddenly realize" - Ruiner
"the best thing about life is knowing you put it together" - A Warm Place (lyrics are silent, the track has to be decoded to hear it)
"if i could start again, a million miles away, i would keep myself" - Hurt
"i listen to the words he'd say
but in his voice i heard decay
the plastic face forced to portray
all the insides left cold and gray
there is a place that still remains
it eats the fear it eats the pain
the sweetest price he'll have to pay
the day the whole world went away" - The Day The Whole World Went Away
"you and me
we're in this together now
none of them can stop us now
we will make it through somehow
you and me
even after everything
you're the queen and i'm the king
nothing else means anything" - We're In This Together
"and when the day arrives
i'll become the sky
and i'll become the sea
and the sea will come to kiss me
for i am going
home
nothing can stop me now" - La Mer


* How many times have you seen NIN live?
Four times, at Hammerstein Ballroom and Madison Square Garden in NYC, the Fleet Center in Boston, and UMass.


* What are your favorite songs by NIN?
The Day the Whole World Went Away, Right Where It Belongs, We're In This Together, Leaving Hope, And All That Could Have Been, Just Like You Imagined, Hurt, Ruiner


* What are your favorite instrumental songs by NIN?
Leaving Hope, The Frail, A Warm Place, Just Like You Imagined, La Mer, Adrift And At Peace


* What is a good memory you have involving NIN?
Getting thrown out of the show by security at UMass at the 3rd to last song of the show after they caught me taking photos the entire show with my professional camera, and then when they tried to make me erase everything on my memory card, I tricked them and erased an already blank card, then got back into the show!
Other great memories are the amazing emotional rush I get when I hear "The Day the Whole World Went Away" live, that also applies to "Hurt" and "Right Where It Belongs" nothing can match that feeling ever.


* Is there a song by NIN that makes you sad?
"Leaving Hope" "And All That Could Have Been" "Hurt" among many others.


* How did you get in to NIN?
I'm not really too sure, it's not clear in my memory. My brother reccomended me to buy the "Lost Highway" soundtrack to hear "The Perfect Drug" when I was young. Got hooked, then tried to find what album "Closer" was on, and ended up listening to every album they have to try and find that song when I was young, and got hooked on everything.
- - - -


Anyway, that was a lot more writing than I had planned to do. I will get back to questions about other bands I like in another journal entry some other time, and go further on NIN as well.
Nine Inch Nails]]>