I got to see one of my favourite bands!
I got an email from some band who for some reason have my email address saying that they would be playing, along with 3 other bands that night, all supporting Shai Hulud. I was working until 9.30pm, but managed to make it down there after work to see about 4 tracks from the last support band, (who were pretty good,) before they came on. I'd got the email in the morning & so had packed my Shai Hulud t-shirt in readiness.
The turnout was really disappointing, but not many people have heard of them. There were probably abobut 12-15 people in total & some of them were from the other bands. There weren't even enough people to form a mosh pit! Despite that, it was a good show. They played some older stuff, which I screamed myself horse to. The singer spent most of the time on the floor with us, (it was only a step up to the stage anyway,) passing the mic so we could holler out the lyrics.
After the show I bought the new CD & a couple of stickers & got talking to the guys, who were really nice. They were impressed with my t-shirt as only 2 of the band members recognised it - fuck yeah, old school! I tool some pretty crappy pics & the guys even agreed to pose for photos with me, although the light in the bar was crap so they're hard to make out:
I bought a few more CD's last week: With Teeth by NIN, Crack the Skye by Mastodon and As the Palaces Burn by Lamb of God. With Teeth is excellent, with the exception of the title track & one or two others, Crack the Skye is more melodic than Mastodon's previous ones, (I still think Leviathan is my favourite,) and As the Palaces Burn is pretty good but not a patch on Ashes of the Wake.
A while back I bought Absence of Sanity by McRad - a hark back to my younger, skateboarding days which has some of the best skate punk to be found anywhere (seriously, listen to "My Weakness") but intersperses it with some of the most cringeworthy white-boy reggae ever.
I also found a backup CD with loads of good stuff on it as I realised that for some reason I didn't have Refused in my iTunes library & quickly rectified that and added in Raging Speedhorn's We will be dead Tomorrow, (I only like a couple of the tracks - Iron Cobra for one,)Senseless Things, (one of the best baselines ever in "Hold it Down" - it's up there with "This Indecision" by McRad.) Sparta's Wiretap Scars and a shitload of Pantera for good measure.
Oh yeah a few months ago I picked up the Rarities and B-Sides from Deftones, which is pretty good, but you can tell why some of them may have been relegated to the B side.
I also listened to a load of metal on YouTube last night. It started with a post in SGUK about Arch Enemy, (not bad but they're no Walls of Jericho,) & I ended up checking out Amon Amarth, As I Lay Dying, Cannibal Corpse, Messhugah, Behemoth, The Agonist and Napalm Death. Can't say I was overly enamoured with any of them aside from Messhugah, The Agonist and Napalm Death were pretty good. Also, Skinny Puppy's Pro-Test was one of the most entertaining videos I've seen in a long while.
What else? Oh yeah I managed to give myself a papercut on my eyeball!
Well, not really a papercut I guess, but I was carrying a box with some folded paperwirk in it & in trying to get out of someone's way I moved & jammed the edge of the paperwork into my eyeball & scratched it. Fucking hurt I can tell you. About as much as the time about 10 years ago when I friend's cat scratched my other eyeball.
iPhone app roundup:
Gowalla - check in at places & earn... I dunno, stuff. I kind of like it but it bugs me that you can't override the GPS. If I'm sitting in a shop I should be able to say I'm there, even if the GPS shows it as 400 meters east.
Did I do Mashable last time? Anyway, tech & social media news in one slick app.
The Independent - News. Bloddy awfull icons though, needs a makeover.
Bump (free) - I've had this for ages but they've added a lot of functionality recently, including the ability to send multiple email addresses, multiple photos and even multiple contacts in one bump. Also you can friend request for Facebook right within Bump.
Alexisonfire (free) - Really? They brought out an app? Yes they did and they totally showed everyone how it should be done. Photos, discography, tour dates, but also a complete social network with a wall for people to post on & loads more. Very slick & well done app.
Plants Vs. Zombies (1.79) - One of the best games out there. Enough said.
Angry Birds (59p) - Kind of like Crossbows & Catapults. Fire a bird from a catapult into a tower with a little pig inside. Collapse the tower, kill the pig. Good, physics based fun but I'm still surprised it was the top grossing app for a while.
Skater Nation (On offer, 59p) - Essentially Tony Hawk on the iPhone. Not bad, but TH is coming soon, so it may replace this.
Blades (On offer, 59p) - Essentially Soul Caliber on the iPhone. Pretty good.
Dungeon Hunter (On offer, 59p) - Essentially Diablo on the iPhone. Worth a play, especially as it was on offer for 59p (ends yesterday, sorry,)
Comics (by comixology, free) - the main comixology app is to tell you when new comics are out & I think you can catalogue your own collection. I generally buy graphic novels , so I don't care, but Comics is like a comic e-reader, with the ability to buy, (or download for free,) loads of titles & even complete series'. Like Stanza for comics, it's really well done & has an interesting way of handling panel transitions, rather than showing you the whole page at once, (although that is an option,) but I'd like to see Stanza's page turn incorporated into this, rather than just clicking on the left or right to go forward or back.
Gibson Learn Guitar (free) - I aim to buy a guitar this year & learn to play. I can play a bit. I was going to look into Guitar Toolkit, which is very highly rated & 5.99 but Gibson brought this out, which seems to be the same thing for free. No contest. It has a metronome, tuner, chord library & sample learning videos.
Skateropolis (lite - free, normal - 1.79 ) - Skateboarding videos collected in an easy app. There's also a group & wall. There is a paid version with extra features, but I just wanted it for the videos, so the freebie is fine.
Vouchercloud (free) - search for offers for various places - food, travel etc, based on your location. I'll be checking to see if there's anything on there for Subway tomorrow.
Sleep Cycle (59p) - put the phone on your bed & this app monitors your movement & uses that info to find the optimal time within a 30 minute period to wake you, based on how deeply or lightly asleep you are. The more deeply you're asleep, the less you move. yet to try it out, but it sounds clever.
Day off tomorrow!
I got an email from some band who for some reason have my email address saying that they would be playing, along with 3 other bands that night, all supporting Shai Hulud. I was working until 9.30pm, but managed to make it down there after work to see about 4 tracks from the last support band, (who were pretty good,) before they came on. I'd got the email in the morning & so had packed my Shai Hulud t-shirt in readiness.
The turnout was really disappointing, but not many people have heard of them. There were probably abobut 12-15 people in total & some of them were from the other bands. There weren't even enough people to form a mosh pit! Despite that, it was a good show. They played some older stuff, which I screamed myself horse to. The singer spent most of the time on the floor with us, (it was only a step up to the stage anyway,) passing the mic so we could holler out the lyrics.
After the show I bought the new CD & a couple of stickers & got talking to the guys, who were really nice. They were impressed with my t-shirt as only 2 of the band members recognised it - fuck yeah, old school! I tool some pretty crappy pics & the guys even agreed to pose for photos with me, although the light in the bar was crap so they're hard to make out:
I bought a few more CD's last week: With Teeth by NIN, Crack the Skye by Mastodon and As the Palaces Burn by Lamb of God. With Teeth is excellent, with the exception of the title track & one or two others, Crack the Skye is more melodic than Mastodon's previous ones, (I still think Leviathan is my favourite,) and As the Palaces Burn is pretty good but not a patch on Ashes of the Wake.
A while back I bought Absence of Sanity by McRad - a hark back to my younger, skateboarding days which has some of the best skate punk to be found anywhere (seriously, listen to "My Weakness") but intersperses it with some of the most cringeworthy white-boy reggae ever.
I also found a backup CD with loads of good stuff on it as I realised that for some reason I didn't have Refused in my iTunes library & quickly rectified that and added in Raging Speedhorn's We will be dead Tomorrow, (I only like a couple of the tracks - Iron Cobra for one,)Senseless Things, (one of the best baselines ever in "Hold it Down" - it's up there with "This Indecision" by McRad.) Sparta's Wiretap Scars and a shitload of Pantera for good measure.
Oh yeah a few months ago I picked up the Rarities and B-Sides from Deftones, which is pretty good, but you can tell why some of them may have been relegated to the B side.
I also listened to a load of metal on YouTube last night. It started with a post in SGUK about Arch Enemy, (not bad but they're no Walls of Jericho,) & I ended up checking out Amon Amarth, As I Lay Dying, Cannibal Corpse, Messhugah, Behemoth, The Agonist and Napalm Death. Can't say I was overly enamoured with any of them aside from Messhugah, The Agonist and Napalm Death were pretty good. Also, Skinny Puppy's Pro-Test was one of the most entertaining videos I've seen in a long while.
What else? Oh yeah I managed to give myself a papercut on my eyeball!
Well, not really a papercut I guess, but I was carrying a box with some folded paperwirk in it & in trying to get out of someone's way I moved & jammed the edge of the paperwork into my eyeball & scratched it. Fucking hurt I can tell you. About as much as the time about 10 years ago when I friend's cat scratched my other eyeball.
iPhone app roundup:
Gowalla - check in at places & earn... I dunno, stuff. I kind of like it but it bugs me that you can't override the GPS. If I'm sitting in a shop I should be able to say I'm there, even if the GPS shows it as 400 meters east.
Did I do Mashable last time? Anyway, tech & social media news in one slick app.
The Independent - News. Bloddy awfull icons though, needs a makeover.
Bump (free) - I've had this for ages but they've added a lot of functionality recently, including the ability to send multiple email addresses, multiple photos and even multiple contacts in one bump. Also you can friend request for Facebook right within Bump.
Alexisonfire (free) - Really? They brought out an app? Yes they did and they totally showed everyone how it should be done. Photos, discography, tour dates, but also a complete social network with a wall for people to post on & loads more. Very slick & well done app.
Plants Vs. Zombies (1.79) - One of the best games out there. Enough said.
Angry Birds (59p) - Kind of like Crossbows & Catapults. Fire a bird from a catapult into a tower with a little pig inside. Collapse the tower, kill the pig. Good, physics based fun but I'm still surprised it was the top grossing app for a while.
Skater Nation (On offer, 59p) - Essentially Tony Hawk on the iPhone. Not bad, but TH is coming soon, so it may replace this.
Blades (On offer, 59p) - Essentially Soul Caliber on the iPhone. Pretty good.
Dungeon Hunter (On offer, 59p) - Essentially Diablo on the iPhone. Worth a play, especially as it was on offer for 59p (ends yesterday, sorry,)
Comics (by comixology, free) - the main comixology app is to tell you when new comics are out & I think you can catalogue your own collection. I generally buy graphic novels , so I don't care, but Comics is like a comic e-reader, with the ability to buy, (or download for free,) loads of titles & even complete series'. Like Stanza for comics, it's really well done & has an interesting way of handling panel transitions, rather than showing you the whole page at once, (although that is an option,) but I'd like to see Stanza's page turn incorporated into this, rather than just clicking on the left or right to go forward or back.
Gibson Learn Guitar (free) - I aim to buy a guitar this year & learn to play. I can play a bit. I was going to look into Guitar Toolkit, which is very highly rated & 5.99 but Gibson brought this out, which seems to be the same thing for free. No contest. It has a metronome, tuner, chord library & sample learning videos.
Skateropolis (lite - free, normal - 1.79 ) - Skateboarding videos collected in an easy app. There's also a group & wall. There is a paid version with extra features, but I just wanted it for the videos, so the freebie is fine.
Vouchercloud (free) - search for offers for various places - food, travel etc, based on your location. I'll be checking to see if there's anything on there for Subway tomorrow.
Sleep Cycle (59p) - put the phone on your bed & this app monitors your movement & uses that info to find the optimal time within a 30 minute period to wake you, based on how deeply or lightly asleep you are. The more deeply you're asleep, the less you move. yet to try it out, but it sounds clever.
Day off tomorrow!
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
spamtwo:
Give Orbital a try. I think it's 1.59, but it's a fun puzzle type game with graphics similar to Geometry Wars
lil_em:
I neeeeeeeeeeeed an iphone 