Guilty pleasures

17-09-2024 ♪ category: music

I’ve talked before about how I don’t believe in “guilty pleasure” music. I’ve made a conscious effort to stop being annoying and pretentious and just enjoy stuff, so I’m not actually embarrassed to like any of these songs! So rather than guilty pleasures, here’s a list of songs that may be considered bad, but I like anyways!

One Thing – One Direction

Yeah buddy we’re starting off with one direction! I won’t lie, I was a huge 1D hater as a tween. I was one of those people who thought I was just so much better because I listened to the beatles instead. But now some years later, I have realized that yeah, this song is stupid and shallow but I don’t care because it’s good!

Like a G6 – Far East Movement

I have nothing good to say about this song! I don’t know what I like about it and I really can’t say it’s a good song, yet here I am. It’s stupid and catchy and that’s all I can ask for. It’s a little ironic, I never go outside and yet I’m kind of a sucker for club music.

Stick Stickly – Attack Attack!

A shocking pick, I know. Me? Into cringey metalcore? Who could have seen this coming? And they’re Christian too. Lol. Anyways yeah this is just a good song no strings attached, crabcore 4ever.

TiK ToK – Ke$ha

Luckily, I think these days people are way less mean to Ke$ha after everything that happened to her and with the advantage of hindsight. But there’s no denying that her early pop stuff is kinda bad (affectionate). And that’s what I love about it! My taste in pop music might say something about my personality (that I’m annoying).

Fer Sure – The Medic Droid

…Ok this one might actually be a guilty pleasure XD. Leave me alone it’s good. The S3RL remix is good too. Actually I only found this pretty recently in a nightcore mix on youtube lol and I'm not kidding I listened to this song like 20 times in a row that day. I have no defense I just love it!!! (JKJKJKLOLOLOL) (except I'm 100% serious there's no JK to be found here.)

MY FAVOURITE POPULAR SONGS

03-09-2024 ♪ category: music

Once upon a time, I was an annoying music snob… then I stopped being stupid and realized that just because a song is popular doesn’t mean it sucks! So here are some of my favourite “normie” songs (idk what else to call them).

Barbie Girl – Aqua

I don’t think it’s any secret that I’m a pretty big fan of aqua lol. So it’s also no surprise that I love their biggest song! I think Lollipop is better but it wasn’t as big of a hit. Anyways I would absolutely LOVE to do a cover of this song, it’s so insane and campy and awesome, but I am uh… not comfortable singing some of those lyrics haha.

You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) – Dead or Alive

Alright I’m being fully serious, I think this is a perfect song. I listen to it with terrifying frequency and it never gets old! It’s on the radio a lot where I live and I really appreciate that LOL. Blaqk Audio has a pretty awesome cover of it too, but it doesn’t trump the original. The synths, the vocals, everything, it’s perfect! I’m not sure it’s my favourite song of all time but it’s definitely in the running.

I Wish – Skee-Lo

Cheesy? Yes. Still cool? Totally. Hip hop for losers, that’s something I can get behind ;) There’s something to be said for managing to be cheesy without being cringey. Also at this point in writing the list I’m realizing these are all kinda one hit wonders… just ignore that. It’s just a very memorable song and I like that.

Burning Up – Madonna

I don’t actually know how popular this song is in comparison to other Madonna songs, but it’s Madonna it’s not like it’s underground lol. Anyways yeah this is my favourite Madonna song I don’t have anything to say about it. God the bassline is so simple yet so effective <3

S&M – Rihanna

Listen, I don’t believe in “guilty pleasure” music, I like what I like and I’m not embarrassed of it…. But if I did have guilty pleasures, this might be one of them. There’s something about the chord progression of this song that just really “scratches my brain”, as the kids say. It’s not like it’s a rare chord progression lol, but it’s just good okay! Actually everything about the song is pretty simple and restrained and I just think it works so well!!

Genre

18-08-2024 ♪ category: music

I think genre is kind of a weird thing. On one hand, I acknowledge its important in carving out subcultures and niches and it helps people classify music etc. etc... but on the other hand I think it's stupid and restrictive and pointless. Here's two good examples!

I'M GLAD THAT SASSCORE IS A GENRE! About a year ago, I was exploring wikipedia and discovered the "sass" section of the screamo article and then discovered some really good bands! So I'm glad that sasscore is a thing, it defines a specific type of screamo that I wouldn't know how to describe otherwise. I can explain what it sounds like, and most importantly it's actually distinct from its parent and sibling genres. Basically, there's a reason it exists and I think the term is useful.

I WISH THAT ALTERNATIVE ROCK WASN'T A GENRE! In my opinion (which I am willing to change btw) it's a completely meaningless term. Alternative to what? Maybe it meant something at one point (ex. 90's alt rock), but it just encompasses so many different sounds and scenes that I think it's pretty useless. If you asked me to describe what alternative rock sounds like, I couldn't do it. I think every "alternative rock" band could be better described with a more specific term ...But that's just my thoughts!

Speaking of genre, I've never known what exactly to call Sour Note Symphony. Not because I think we're some unquantifable, genreless enigma, just because music artists are consistently TERRIBLE at describing their own genre. So I just go with pop-rock cause it's not inaccurate. Also, I like to avoid aligning myself with any scene to avoid being a poser ;)

TL;DR, genre is kinda stupid but still kinda fun :p

Pretentious-ness

10-08-2024 ♪ category: music

Do you know what my worst fear is? Coming across as pretentious. I really hate it when (especially indie/alternative) bands and musicians act like they're so much better than everyone else (especially mainstream people). I never ever want to sound like I think I'm smarter or cooler than anyone else, cause I'm not. I don't care if people think I'm a stupid idiot who can't write songs, but I would hate for anyone to think I'm a stupid idiot who can't write songs but thinks they're great. Lately I've been trying to write some more confident songs (lol right) but I am SO SCARED of sounding like a self-righteous asshole! Yeah anyways, I know that writing a blog post about this isn't helping my case, and neither is the heaps of writing I have on here about my thoughts and opinions, but hopefully no one thinks I'm full of myself! (I shouldn't worry about this! Nobody is thinking *anything* about me LOL)

I deeply regret writing any of the songs where I'm trying to say something or I sound confident at all, because I have a chronic case of not being able to take myself seriously and everytime I try to write about anything like that I sound like an idiot.

the future of SNS

09-06-2024 ♪ category: music

Ok so I know that our last album literally came out a weeks ago but I have already started writing new music hehe. I'm feeling a little unsure about what exactly I want to do. (TBH I'm a little unsure of everything right now). Having a sound and direction I was aiming for with dissecting circuitry was helpful and interesting but also felt somewhat creatively limiting. I'm only a week into this but I've found myself thinking about doing a more dance punk type of thing, really upbeat and fun and also featuring a lot more real drums since dissecting circuitry was lacking in that department. But I kind of miss my usual process (aka doing whatever I want for 10 months then calling it an album.) I feel like our music has been a little too polished lately (yes I understand that we still very much sound like a DIY band) and I miss just being messy and weird and throwing everything at the wall until it sticks. I guess after writing so much electronic music lately I'm just a little over it. But at the same time, I don't want to just make another Shiny Plastic Teeth. I don't want to "return to form", I want to continue growing. Yeah IDK. I shouldn't worry about this so much. This album is going to be about FUN, so I'm just going to write whatever music is fun to make. Yeah.

some cool music I've been listening to!

23-04-2024 ♪ category: music

Hey! It's been a minute so I just wanna fanboygirl over some bands I really like lol ;D

I've been listening to SeeYouSpaceCowboy's new album, Coup De Grace, and omg it's so good! I don't think it's surprising at all that I like SeeYouSpaceCowboy haha. But to be honest I was a very casual fan and only really knew a few songs, but then I just saw that they had released a new album so I gave it a listen and now I have been converted lol. I don't think I can say I have a favourite song because they're all awesome! I wanted to buy a CD but that international shipping made it like $40 :'(

I've also been into Charming Disaster! Their song "Monsters" just popped up on my youtube feed so now I'm hooked. I've gotta say they're not at all like what I normally listen to but something about their music is just so captivating. I've fallen in love with the song "Stockholm Syndrome" lol. Fitting I guess. Haha I CAN appreciate slow(er) music!!

Again this is probably a surprise to no one but I've been listening to Chiodos lately >:). I'm going on a trip through their whole discography and so far I've listened to All's Well That Ends Well and Bone Palace Ballet. I really like "There's No Penguins In Alaska" and "If I Cut My Hair, Hawaii Will Sink"! ....I don't have much else to say it's just some cool 2000's post-hardcore!

Recommending music like its 2008

28-02-2024 ♪ category: music

Lady Gaga - The Fame

Okay you don’t need me to tell you that Lady Gaga is awesome, that’s just a given. But! I think there are some overlooked tracks on this album! Of course there’s the classics: Poker Face, LoveGame, and Just Dance, however I think everyone should appreciate some other songs too. (Though I ‘m not great at telling the relative popularity of things so who really knows?)

Favourite tracks: The Fame, Money Honey, and Beautiful, Dirty, Rich

Capsule - More More More

A very cool electronica album! Pretty much every song on this album is just so fun and energetic it can make the least dancey person ever (me) want to get up and dance! Or maybe just do some head bobs… But either way if you want your life to feel like an endless party this is the way to go! I think More More More just has a perfect balance of catchy pop hooks and awesome more intense EDM stuff.

Favourite tracks: JUMPER and e.d.i.t

Danger Radio - Used And Abused

Incredibly underrated! I guess you could call it dance rock. If you couldn’t tell by now I like FUN music! This album is basically slightly funky 80’s pop mixed with 2000’s pop-rock. If you’re hearing that description and thinking “oh my god oh no that sounds like a description of Maroon 5” trust me, that’s not what they sound like! I don’t know what else to say lol.

Favourite tracks: Your Kind (Speak To Me) and Things

The Vincent Black Shadow - El Monstruo

I really don’t know what genre you might call this band. They’re some kind of alternative rock, but they’ve got some cool little dark cabaret vintage bits in their music. El Monstruo sounds weirdly… classy? But it’s aggressive and punchy too. And those unique sounds don’t seem like a gimmick, they sound natural in my opinion. The whole album kinds of reminds me a little of that one PATD music video, yknow the one for But It’s Better If You Do? But with more attitude. Idk lol. (Oh also TVBS is Canadian which is cool!)

Favourite tracks: Stereogram and Dig Dig Dig

Does It Offend You, Yeah? - You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into

I actually only discovered this album very recently. I just saw the album cover on youtube and thought “yeah that looks like something I’d be into” and I was right! The power of a good album cover! Anyways I digress. There’s some very British indie pop type of stuff on here (I’m looking at you, Being Bad Feels Pretty Good) and there’s some more energetic electronic stuff like Battle Royale. A lot of the album sounds kind of like boss battle music in the best way possible. I don’t know, it sounds how the album cover looks! They did a good job what can I say!

Favourite tracks: Weird Science and Doomed Now

Recommending music like its 2007

20-01-2024 ♪ category: music

I realized a little while ago that a lot of my favourite albums came out in 2007 (because in the year 2007 they invited us to heaven (pls I hope someone got that reference)), so here are some really good albums from 2007 that you should listen to!

Metro Station - self titled

OKAY off to a great start lol. I think this is a pretty popular or at least well-known album because of Shake It. Before you write it off as MySpace cringe just hear me out: it is MySpace cringe, but in a good way! It’s super catchy and fun and dancey. Listening to this album just puts me in a good mood, it sounds like tight v neck t-shirts. If you like any sort of 2000s electronic pop you’ll probably like this. Go have some scene kid fun!

Favourite tracks: Control and Disco

Blaqk Audio - CexCells

Blaqk Audio is a side project of Davey Havok and Jade Puget from AFI! It’s dark and gothic but in a very fun way. I think you could probably call it dark wave? There’s some faster, more dance adjacent songs but there’s also some slower, darker songs. Something for everybody. But every song is just really… impactful? I don’t know if that’s the right word, like every song gets you pumped up, whether it’s pumped to dance or go for a jog or kill someone.

Favourite tracks: Where Would You Like Them Left? and Again, Again, and Again

Pierce The Veil - A Flair For The Dramatic

Pierce The Veil’s (in my opinion) most overlooked and also best album. Yeah, Selfish Machines and Collide With The Sky are also great, but god does this one just have something about it! I don’t know! There are so many amazing guitar riffs on this album. Actually just a lot of guitar parts in general! It kind of amazes me how many different riffs these guys can fit into every song. It’s so emo and dramatic, I love it. Listen I’m not good at describing music, just go listen for yourself.

Favourite tracks: Currents Convulsive and She Sings In The Morning

Motion City Soundtrack - Even If It Kills Me

Yeah obviously I love MCS. I don’t think this is their best album (that would go to I Am The Movie), but it’s still great. This is another kind of emo album, but I guess in more of a chill way. Don’t get me wrong it’s still an energetic album because I am incapable of enjoying calm music, but it’s just emo in a different way than Pierce The Veil. PTV sounds like getting your heart broken then bleeding out on the road during a thunderstorm, MCS sounds like getting shoved into a locker. But also I think MCS tend to be more mature than a lot of other pop rock bands from around the same time. I don’t know, that’s the best way I can describe it. Anyways sorry I got a little sidetracked, Even If It Kills Me is just some awesome solid pop punk, and of course you’ve gotta appreciate their signature Moog synth.

Favourite tracks: This Is For Real and It Had To Be You

This was fun! Maybe I’ll do it again sometime. If there’s certain year anyone would like me talk about (lol) you should tell me in the guestbook!

End of Year Music Thingy pt. 2

07-12-2023 ♪ category: music

Oops, turns out I lied! I remembered I didn't stop using Spotify (because of their god awful UI update lol) until April, so I have stats from January to April! And I changed my YouTube settings so I have stats from September to November for that!

Jan-Apr

Sept-Nov

Unfortunately still missing anything from the Summer but that's alright

Some interesting stats not included in the picture:

• Listened to 375 artists
• Listened to 29 genres

End of Year Music Thingy

06-12-2023 ♪ category: music

So it’s (almost) the end of another year! This is usually when people start to post and talk about their Spotify Wrapped… but I use YouTube Music and I have my history set to auto delete so IDK what my actual stats are. So instead I’ll just talk about my favourite music of this year, and I’ll guess at some stats. My memory isn’t the best though so accuracy is not guaranteed.

Old Favourites (artists that I’ve liked for a while and listened to a lot this year)

• Motion City Soundtrack
• AFI
• Fall Out Boy
• Muse
• The Vincent Black Shadow
• Pierce The Veil
• Zombina And The Skeletones

New Favourites (artists that I started listening to this year)

• Head Automatica
• The Blood Brothers
• Polysics
• Blaqk Audio
• Cobra Starship
• Capsule

Songs I was obsessed with this year (in no particular order)

• Trash Flavoured Trash by The Blood Brothers
• OK, Alex by Blaqk Audio
• Kill Caustic by AFI
• Ingenious Forms Of Torture by Rufus Rex
• Die, Die, My Darling by Aiden
• Zuttomo by Shinsei Kamattechan
• 你懂不懂 by Lilan Chen
• Evacuate The Dancefloor by Cascada
• You Spin Me Round (the original by Dead Or Alive AND the cover by Blaqk Audio lol)
• Her Voice Resides by Bullet For My Valentine
• Conventional Lover by Speck
• Guilty Pleasure by Cobra Starship
• Checkmarks by The Academy Is…
• Just Dance by Lady Gaga

Anyways yeah no one cares! But if you’re interested in what I’m interested in then there ya go!

the journey to weirdness

08-11-2023 ♪ category: music

Lately in my songwriting I’ve been trying to be a little weirder, for lack of a better word. Weird lyrics, weird sounds etc. Of course I could go a lot weirder (odd time signatures and stuff) but yeah. Actually maybe I will try that. Anyways I do really like pop music but I’ve gotten a little bored of writing it, and I really enjoyed my small adventures into weirdness in Hajimemashite and Who Are You And What Do You Want. I’ve also always admired artists who are able to blend noise and unconventional stuff with catchy pop hooks to create something that sort of merges the worlds of avant-garde and mainstream. I’m definitely no expert on experimental/art/noise music, it makes up a very small portion of my music taste, but it’s something I’d like to explore. I’m not going to start making 10 min long songs in 15/8, but I do hope to experiment with new sounds to make something different than our previous albums.

But don’t hold me accountable if I completely change my mind and our next album is full of pop songs, this is just an idea.

CDs

26-09-2023 ♪ category: music

I'm really sad today so I just wanna talk about something that makes me really happy: CDs! :)

CDs aren't entirely before my time, but for most of my life youtube and spotify have been my main methods of listening to music. (And also illegally downloading it lol) But over the last year or so I've started collecting CDs! The first CD I bought was Billy Talent's self titled album. I also just ordered 3 CDs from Ebay, Rain In Hell by Aiden, Embrace The Curse by I Hate Kate, and In Ghost Colours by Cut Copy. And they were all pretty cheap! For Ebay at least. It was about $28 CAD, which is really good because Ebay is usually somewhat pricey in Canada due to shipping costs when ordering from the US. But regardless, Ebay is fun to look for CDs on. Especially while looking for relatively obscure or forgein artists, there's no way I would have found Sheena Ringo or Falco in a local record store or thrift store. Those places are also where I like to buy CDs. Record stores are nice because they're organised, but obviously they are significantly more expensive and you're limited to what is stocked in the store. Then there's thrift stores, disorganised and mostly old people CDs, but much cheaper (usually $1-2 where I live) and you never know what you'll find! It's fun. Normally I don't like to collect things because it makes my brain burn but I just love music so much and I love that I can collect it in a physical form :D. Also I know that these blog posts probably suck to read, honestly sometimes I just need to ramble.

Music and mental health

06-09-2023 ♪ category: music

Warning: I’m gonna be talking about suicide and self harm today, so just skip this one if you don’t want to hear about it

Normally I kinda hate talking about this sort of stuff, but wow I have a lot of thoughts that need to get out of my head! I think it’s pretty clear in our music that I’ve had some difficulty with brain chemistry, if you will. We’ve got a couple songs that are either explicitly or implicitly about suicide, and a couple songs about cutting too. But when I write those songs I try really hard not to make things seem more glamourous than they are. (If my lyrics ever come off that way it’s not my intention.) There’s lots of songs that make suicide out to be beautiful or cinematic in some way, and I guess it can work sometimes, but I find it kind of off-putting most of the time. Of course there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using metaphors or pretty poetic words in songs about suicide, but it just crosses a line sometimes. I don’t know how exactly to describe it but you know it when you hear it. It especially bothers me when they do it in a way that seems very commercial. Like turning depression/self-harm/suicide into an aesthetic and then selling that aesthetic to sad vulnerable people (example: All Time Low’s hospital bracelet merch. Yikes.) It’s just so insidious feeling. Anyone who’s been through that sort of stuff knows it’s not pretty. In all the times I’ve tried to kill myself, it’s never like a scene from some coming-of-age movie. It’s messy and it’s ugly and honestly its plain embarrassing sometimes.

I struggle with this issue in songwriting sometimes. Like I said before, I never want to romanticize stuff, but I wonder if I ever do it accidentally. Sometimes I wonder if I’m being too dramatic with lyrics. But the thing is, a song that’s completely literal would just be a poorly written song (IMO). So it’s a fine line between dressing things up to make better lyrics and dressing things up into something that no longer even resembles the actual thing. I don’t know. It’s definitely not a simple issue and there’s a lot more things you could say about it that I’m just not smart enough to think about. Obviously I can’t dictate what’s genuine and what’s just selling a fantasy. I just hope I’m not contributing to the bad side of the issue.

3 cool albums

18-08-2023 ♪ category: music

I just wanna geek out about some music that I like, so that's what I'm gonna do! There's three albums that I'm just going to fangirl over for a bit, those are:

• Decemeberunderground by AFI,
• Death Valley High by Zombina and the Skeletones,
• and Muzai Moratorium by Sheena Ringo

OK Decemberunderground first. I've been a little obsessed with AFI lately. I LOVE pretty much everything of theirs from 1999-2009, and I like their first three albums too. Everything after 2009 is okay, just not my cup of tea. Decemberunderground is just such a good album! It’s kinda emo, and softer than their earlier stuff, but ya know what it still rocks pretty hard in some songs. Old AFI fans love to complain about it though. I love this album so much that I learned most of the album on guitar. Kill Caustic is SO FUN TO PLAY omg. As is Affliction. Of course the popular songs from it (Miss Murder and Love Like Winter) are really good too. They’ve got great music videos too. (Also unrelated but I love the all the glitter and fake eyelashes Davey was using in his makeup around this time.) I don’t know *why* exactly I love this album so much. It’s good to listen to in an angsty mood, but it’s also catchy enough to just casually listen.

Next! Death Valley High. This album is absolutely in my top 3 favourite albums of all time. I like to listen to it while I'm at school since the whole album is school themed. It makes school feel a little more interesting than it actually is, and it adds some prom drama that I think my life is lacking (prom isn't really a thing in Canada) It’s definitely my most used CD. I don’t know man it’s just amazing. The whole “vibe” (I hate that word but I can’t think of another word for it) of the album is a lot of fun, it’s all cheesy horror movie kind of stuff. But there’s also some kind of sad and relatable stuff about being lonely. Or maybe I’m just reading into it too much. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Either way Your Girlfriend’s Head is my favourite song off of it. I don’t have much to say, it’s just a really good album that I want to share.

Last one, Muzai Moratorium. All the lyrics (except for a few) on this album are in Japanese, and I don’t speak Japanese so I can’t say anything about the lyrical content. But I don’t think lyrics are always so important anyways. The first song I heard was Onaji Yoru. I was walking around outside at school during lunch and it came up on autoplay after the album I was listening to ended. Normally I don’t like anything that slow and with violins, but I don’t know it just really clicked with me. I was very miserable that day. So then that led me to listen to the rest of the album (and Sheena Ringo’s entire discography…) and yeah the rest of the album is even better! There’s so much chaos and calm and everything. I love the noise and screaming on Koufukuron. I don’t know how to say this but the album kind of feels like walking down a city street just as the day is ending and everyone is driving home. It’s a good album to put on just to lay on the floor and cry.