Lightspeed Blog

I just noticed you can’t see the time I post things on here, but it’s currently 7:10am. Not because I got up early, but rather because I stayed up late. Oh dear. This has been happening quite a bit lately - maybe a 28-hour day schedule would solve all my problems…

Since I’m in that awkward stage where it’s too late to go to sleep but too early to start the day, I’m going to write a bit about two fantastic bands I’ve come across recently - Attica! Attica! and Neurosonic.

Attica! Attica! is an American musician named Aaron Scott with a fancy pseudonym. It’s somewhere between punk and that “singer-songwritery” sound (I’m bad with genres); but however you classify it, Dried Skin/Dead Blood is an album filled with notably emotional music, played with a diverse range of instruments and styles, and one I haven’t been able to turn off since I got it - I’m averaging about 4 complete listens a day(!).

Specific things I like about the album include:

• The parallel between the first and last song
• The frequency of vocal harmonies, non-standard chords and timing changes
• The not-so-subtle sarcastic take on overzealous American patriotism on Way Down in Gitmo
• The sparsity at certain points, e.g. Mint and Tyres is just guitar and vocals, and We’ll Always Be Home is organ and vocals

I suppose I could compose a similar list for Neurosonic’s album, but it would probably consist mainly of:

• The ferocious, balls-out rock
• The ferocious, balls-out rock
• The ferocious, balls-out rock
• etc. etc.

Although, once I stopped listening to the ridiculously catchy yet heavily metal-influenced first couple of tracks over and over, the album actually comes out with some slightly more standard tracks. Me Myself and I has a very radio-friendly feel to it, without becoming bland; So Now You Know could have come straight from My Chemical Romance’s last album. Overall it varies enough that each track is distinct but the album as a whole doesn’t sound disjointed. Thanks to Oisin for introducing me to them! (Showing me their music, not setting up a meeting)

This entry has taken ages to write because of frequent spacing out and a record level of mid-blog yawning - I’m starting to think maybe it’s a bad idea to wildly mess with my sleeping schedule. More words when I’m completely conscious…