New Rave for newies

Listening too much to Klaxons made me search for similar artists on Last.fm (Klaxons have only one album.. yet: too good, but I want more!). I found a line of really cool bands, even one more lost song from Circolo degli Artisti: Late Of The Pier - Heartbeat. XD

And soon I discovered that I'm too much in New Rave.

Wiki says:

New Rave (sometimes labelled Nu Rave or Neu Rave) is a term applied to several types of music that go from fusing elements of electronic, rock, indie, to techno, hip house, electro, breakbeat. In Australia, it is also known as Electrindie.

No doubt that I would come to this: indie, electro, hehe..

So, in New Rave we have not so many but quite interesting bands. Here is some part of the stuff that I have heard:

Klaxons - perheps the most famous and still my favourites

Late Of The Pier - funny guys, like them, they have a drive

Crystal Castles - more 8-bit (need to explore this style more), but nice, more electro, female vocal)))

We Smoke Fags - listened to all the demos I guess.. waiting for the debut album. They are quite good!

Shitdisco - hmm... light, but.. O! K! XD

Hadouken! - too much hip-hop

Does It Offend You, Yeah? - they didn't impress, need to listen to more

MGMT - too... American. Didn't like so much.

In fashion, New Rave appears colourful. No surprises, it comes from the past! Exactly, tasteless 80s, it's like a reborn of Rave culture, where everything was neon, in different colours, and music was electro, techno, trance. But.. I like it!

New Rave now mostly touches rock scene, where there are too many dance-punk bands. Most of them combine exactly these 2 styles.

Wiki says:

The British music magazine NME is largely responsible for popularising the term throughout 2006 and 2007, despite having claimed in mid-2008 reviews that "New Rave is over".

I hope this music has a long way to go, because I like it! And I hope Klaxons will finally release their second damn album! Been tooooo long! :@

Mountain Sunburn or Silversun Pickups

Imagine yourself in a place full of snow. You are wearing a T-shirt but you're not cold. More than that, it's hot and you got your first sunburn.

This can happen only in the mountains. You are having a nice picnic and only 2-3 kms away there is snow and bears are having their winter sleep. And you can meet the hunter: you have read about him in thousands of books about mountains in Armenia. He has a gun as usual and he will tell you that you should be aware of the bear and that snow is too far and it's too dangerous to get there, meanwhile making a smart face. And later on when he comes down and sits 10 steps away from your "coffee table" he won't even believe when you tell him that you reached winter up there.

And when you are leaving for Yerevan, you are 100% sure that many people are going to listen to Silversun Pickups tonight because you will push the panic swith. And you will fall in love another first time.. with the band. And there will be no secrets this year!

Indie = ?

Ask yourself what do you know about indie rock? What does the word indie mean? Hmmmm... Most of the people living in Armenia will say: "... Indian?" But hey! Are you from the past?

So, what is indie rock?

Wikipedia says: "Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that primarily exists in the independent underground music scene."

Yessss, exactly! Just to remember.. Nirvana, Stone Roses, Oasis, Blur.. Most of the bands that changed the history of rock music in 90s and 00s came literally from the "underground", - playing in the basements of their houses.

Have you ever asked yourself why do you like this or that band? It's very popular among young people, especially teenagers to like a band for the hairstyle of its vocalist or as we armenians say, for his beautiful eyes. Maybe the trend came from the era of boybands, I don't know.. HIM, Linkin Park, Hinder, Rasmus.. I don't have anything against these bands but after many years most of the people will remember their appearance and not their music. As for me I will still listen to their songs but only to really good ones. Unfortunatelly they are not so many..

"I love music" - said Charley Pace in LOST TV series. Music is something psycological that can make you feel good, bad, happy, desparate, and sometimes it can say nothing. Depending on what music you listen to, you can have a good or a bad day.

But it's not only a short-time influence.

"People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands - literally thousands - of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss." by Rob, In 'High Fidelity', by Nick Homby (thank you, Luis Paolo De Sa for the quote).

Hinder - Lips of an Angel

Well, my girl's in the next room

Sometimes I wish she was you

I guess we never really moved on..

Breaking Benjamin - The Diary of Jane

Something's getting in the way.

Something's just about to break.

I will try to find my place in the diary of Jane.

So tell me how it should be.

Papa Roach - Forever

Because days come and go

But my feelings for you are forever

Because days come and go

But my feelings for you are forever

Apocalyptica feat. Adam Gontier - I Don't Care

If you were dead or still alive

I dont care

I dont care

Just go and leave this all behind

'Cause I swear (I swear)

I dont care

Shinedown - Second Chance

Tell my mother,

Tell my father

I've done the best I can

To make them realize

This is my life

I hope they understand

I'm not angry, I'm just saying...

Sometimes goodbye

Is a second chance

Try to find three differences :D

I think there is no need to go on.. All the bands from mainstream tie people to their music through sentimental lyrics and melodies. Noooooooooo! I don't want to say that music has to be rude and without any feelings. But how much? How long? I'm tired of downloading albums and songs and videos about all the same. Plagiarism - that's what rules the world and I'm sick of it.

I used to go to parties, concerts, festivals quite often a couple of years ago. Then I stopped. The same faces, same behaviour, getting lost in smoke, show-offs, music from the past. Then I started to look at the things from the side. Now I see that most of the people don't like music. They are stamping themselves as rockers, listening to metal and they are afraid they will lose their statuses of rockers.

Yes, exactly! Think deeper.. THEY! ARE! AFRAID! OF! LOSING! THEIR! STATUSES! AS! ROCKERS!

They will say "it's not rock!" if they listen to a song where there is no guitar with distortion. But they like My Immortal by Evanescence!!! Non-sense!

Most of them don't know what they want and why. And every Friday and Saturday they will go to clubs, bang their heads, scream/growl "black metal forever!" and tease everyone who will try to say that metal is not the only genre in rock music.

And that's true! But I don't have anything against metal personally. Metal has quite a wide range in rock music, and yes, I agree that Armenian mentality is close to metal music because we Armenians mostly don't like to have fun but to fall into depression and dark thoughts.

Wait a minute.. Did I just say having fun? Ah, yes! You will say "but I HAD fun during that party/concert/fest". Hmmm.. I usually have fun of doing some physical work, for example, working in the garden. Don't kill me, please, but parties in Yerevan and working in the garden are the same for me. Maybe I like the garden thing more because it's also beautiful. I want to receive positive energy from the party and not only pain in the neck next morning. That's why I want positive music. I want music that will make me move and not only bang my head.

I'm tired of stereotypes and sick of breaking stereotypes. Either you are with me or I don't care. But I promise that I will help the revolution come true!

I don't want to be the one of the thousands. And it's not because I want to be different. It's because I AM different. Aren't you? I'm not interested in politics or something stupid like that. I love music and I like when it's different everytime, from band to band. I like the uniqueness of sound. That's why I prefer independent music scene. That's why I choose indie rock and lifestyle. Don't you?

Indie = Independent!