Back from the dead, Fopp and missing gigs...

Jeese, it's been a while, huh. To say the least, I've been somewhat absent from the music scene, what with all the writing I've been trying to do, the art I've been trying to draw and the dropping-out-of-uni-to-get-a-full-time-job-only-to-realise-it-was-a-mistake-and-re-apply-to-the-same-course, *breathe*, well... you can tell I've been kinda busy.

I tried to write a novel; twice, in fact, but they both fell through. It started out with one story line, based loosely on a role-play world I wrote for at the time before I got bored of it, realising that the genre was outdated and not as reflexive as I originally thought they might be. Then I moved on to possibly the most original story line I have ever concocted in my life, called Redermia, a steam-powered future city built under the surface of a post-apocalyptic Earth. It was fun, but I just didn’t seem to have the patience for it. Still in the works, Redermia will most likely become my final year project in uni, so all is well that ends well.

I was going to make a webcomic based around it too, but that also fell through. Instead, I’m currently laying down a storyline for “Finding Tokyo”, a story about a boy (me) who goes to Tokyo on holiday but ends up staying there, as he loves it so much. I have a few online friends in Japan who are going to help me with stuff like geographical and cultural references so it should be a laugh.

As for the music, well, I’ve been on the hunt. Did you hear about Fopp? Oh Noes! I used to love that shop! And it shut down over night. I mean, seriously; they were only accepting cash in a lot of stores as their “card systems were temporarily down” which translates into “we are so sure we’re going into administration, we won’t have the time to process payments.” Kinda funny, really.

I’ve been getting into The Mars Volta in a big way, recently, after a friend of mine leant me their ‘Deloused in The Comatorium’ album. I was blown away, frankly; it was somewhat awesome. And from that, stemmed the seeds of venture, finding such bands as The Sleeping, People in Planes, Mars Volta’s predecessors At The Drive In and a great band I have to mention at least three times today to anyone who’s listening, Wax on the Radio. Seriously, get out there and buy an album, I’d recommend ‘Exposition’. Big thanks to the guys are Pandora.com for their ever vigilant updating of the site and music databases. It really is the best way to find new music these days; eat your heart out Radio 1.

So I’ve been trying to take in a lot of gigs locally recently, also, due to encouragement from many people to start this back up again (thanks to Casper and Lorri especially), and I was absolutely outraged to find that I missed Nine Black Alps in the Westport Bar on Monday night. I really need to keep an eye on Groucho’s ticket sales for this kind of thing, because that’s no small amount of awesome, with a band like that playing in the Westie, as all who frequent affectionately refer to it. But I did take in a good one last night, Wednesday. I’m not going to rant about it here, I’ll put up a review later on today, as this is a “hullo, I’m back from them dead” post and not a “woo! Music!” post.

It’s good to be writing again, though. I’ll update the blog and the myspace as much as is humanly possible from now on. Also, with money being as tight as it is, gigs are difficult to get to, but more on that later, too. Keep an eye on the myspace bulletins, as they’ll tell you where and when and, more importantly, whom I’ll be reviewing. Link to the myspace is on the right, there. Add me, I love friends!

Love and that.

M_x