University Memes

So over the last two weeks, or so, there have been hundreds of different meme pages for different universities set up on Facebook. From pretty much the moment that I first saw them, I hated them. Now, I love a good meme as much as the next internet user, but there becomes a point when they just stop being funny.

Being the good, critical music student that I am (hence why I'm writing this post instead of doing background reading), I tried to figure out why I have such a fundamental hate for these pages. My first instinct would be that  it's because I'm a meme hipster, meaning that I think that all memes are not funny now that everybody uses them. Not true. I've still got plenty of time for Philosoraptor and Socially Awkward Penguin. But numerous tiny variations on this:

I''ve seen variations for University of Manchester (with Man Met being the shadowy place), Cardiff (Newport), Man Met (Salford), and many others. But apart from that obvious reason aside about them being unoriginal, I couldn't think of why else I hate the university meme pages. Then it hit me.

They're just lazy. To make a good version of a meme, it should be a universal truth, something that everyone can relate to. Like this:

Fun and harmless, it doesn't exclude anyone, and some actual thought has gone into its creation. It hasn't changed one word from a previous meme incarnation to make it funny, it's funny because it is.

I love Arcade Fire too much for words.

I should be revising for my exam tomorrow morning, but I'm sure that the law of diminishing returns as to the amount of information that can stick in your head the night before an exam will redeem me. I can only hope that tonight's episode of Sherlock isn't too gripping... There's a major flaw in that plan, somewhere.

Will Butler is one of my favourite people on earth, and the band's performance at Austin City Limits just goes to show why the previous two statements are true. And then Win giving away microphones at the end of the gig... never seen that before. Can't wait for them to get a new album out, whenever that happens to be.

50 minutes of music of epic proportions.

*Blows dust off blog*

Hi. It's been a while since I last wrote anything in this blog... over a year now, I must admit. Quick catch up of the last year and a bit: carried on with gigs with my (very amateur) jazz quartet, managed to send of UCAS forms, get an offer from the University of Manchester and then subsequently got my AAA at A level to get me in, saw Jools Holland at Ripley Castle (epic), saw Arcade Fire at the MEN Arena (super epic), survived Freshers' Week without any signs of Freshers' Flu or hospital visits, saw And So I Watch You From Afar and The Joy Formidable at Academy 2 (more epic than Jools but not quite at the level of Arcade Fire) and didn't get kicked off the course for being useless.

Oh, and I like Barbershop now, Barbershop's cool (Said in the manner of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvWYw0CnuSI).*

No idea if it's the cheesy lyrics which do it, or the fun upbeat nature of most of the songs, or just the irresistible harmonies which get thrown around, but since the start of October, I've loved it. I joined the university's Barbershop Chorus then, and haven't regretted a moment of it. Eventually, it culminated in this performance in the last week of term in December (this was the last and best song of our set).



In February, we're going to see a night of Barbershop groups at RNCM, and among them is an American group called Westminster Chorus. They won the International Barbershop Chorus Competition in 2010 with the second video being a part of their performance, but the first video is their version of the same song posted up there, only with it being done properly and with amaaaaaaaaaaazing choreography (which we copied for the most part). Recently, watching all of the videos from their performances at the 2010 competition has been a main means of procrastination for me. A really epic one, nonetheless, and I don't regret it anywhere near as much as I probably should.

The Arcade Chart

Just a quick post giving a ranking of Arcade Fire's album songs. Hard enough just doing that without throwing in the old EP songs and b-sides.

37. Wasted Hours
36. Deep Blue
35. Neighbourhood #4 (7 Kettles)
34. Neon Bible
33. The Suburbs
32. The Suburbs (continued)
31. Half Light I
30. City With No Children
29. Black Mirror
28. (Antichrist Television Blues)
27. Modern Man
26. Ready To Start
25. Suburban War
24. Half Light II (No Celebration)
23. Wake Up
22. Windowsill
21. Une Année Sans Lumière
20. Sprawl I (Flatland)
19. We Used To Wait
18. Empty Room
17. Rococo
16. The Well and The Lighthouse
15. In The Backseat
14. Crown Of Love
13. Black Wave/Bad Vibrations
12. My Body Is A Cage
11. Keep The Car Running
10. Intervention
9. Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)
8. Month Of May
7. Ocean Of Noise
6. Haïti
5. Rebellion (Lies)
4. Neighbourhood #3 (Laika)
3. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
2. No Cars Go
1. Neigbourhood #3 (Power Out)

That took a good hour to order, and about 10 minutes was spent thinking about which I prefer out of No Cars Go and Neighbourhood #3. Looking at that list, you might think that Funeral is by several miles my favourite Arcade Fire album, but to be truthful, it is, but the other two are very close behind it. The Suburbs is a great album, but it doesn't have brilliant song after brilliant song like Funeral and Neon Bible do. Feel free to throw abuse at me for putting Wake Up in 23rd.

7 Reasons Muse Are Awesome

As many of you know, I regularly write a guest post for the generous chaps over at 7reasons.org. This one was written a few weeks before I went to see these fellows in Manchester at the start of the month, which I must say was an amazing night. njoy.

1. The dress sense. Completely non-existent in the frontman, Matt Bellamy. From sporting such catastrophic outfits as ill-fitting suits to his alien waterproof, you know that his outfits during gigs will be extravagant. Then you look to the drummer, Dom Howard, and you see him sporting his favourite superhero costume in a Halloween gig, and you know that these people are either insanely brilliant, or just plain insane.

2. Chris Wolstenholme. The most awesome man to have touched a bass guitar ever. Combine him with a Rickenbacker and a harmonica, and you have several buckets of spare amazing. His epic headbanging antics, his backing vocals and his sheer size, you would be hard pushed to find someone who you’d like to meet more. Except Jennifer Aniston in some cases. Oh, and he does use a bit of slap bass and smokes a pipe.

3. The Instruments. I’d say guitars, but that isn’t all. From the extensive range of custom Manson guitars, Bellamy can choose from a guitar made of an old bomber plane, one with built in lasers and the quintessential red glitter guitar. But, then we have the choice of double neck guitar, keytar and sparkly. My personal favourite: the purple guitar. Yes. Purple.

4. Matthew F****n’ Bellamy. Abnormally short vocal chords, Bellamy can sing insanely high notes, as shown in such tracks as Showbiz and Micro Cuts. He can also play the guitar quite well, even if he is spinning around at several hundred revolutions per minute, or if it’s behind his head. His hair also changes colour/style dramatically every few years.

5. Dominic Howard. A left hander, always a good start in my book, Dom Howard always stands out from the crowd. Whether he’s in fancy dress or wearing a pair of his brightly coloured jeans, he’ll catch your eye one way or another. Finishing each gig with the infamous sign off of “Cheers”, that is the official Dom Howard word. A typical conversation would go, in my mind at least, something like this:

Me: Hi Dom, how’re you doing?

DH: I’m alright, cheers, and yourself?

Me: Everything’s good, Dom. How’s the tour going?

DH: It’s going really well, cheers. We had a great night last week at , and after it, I just thought, “Cheers guys”, because they were cheering awesome.

Me: So what’s up next for you guys?

DH: Cheers for asking, I’m going to be working on my cheers solo album called “Cheers”. It’s a one track, 68 minute drum solo album, with the one track being called “Cheers” cheers. There have been a few cheers….. etc.

6. Morgan Nicholls. The man behind the several hundred synthy bits in every song, Morgan keeps the band ticking over at all times. Whether it’s his cabasa (not a shaker) playing or playing three notes on the keyboard during Map Of The Problematique, the band simply could not function without him. Unless his wife was due to have a baby while Muse have a performance at the VMAs as well as several TV and promo gigs, in which case they can find one of Trent Reznor’s pals to deputise. Apart from those times, he cannot be replaced.

7. The Fans. We’re the best fans in the world. Some people are flying in from America, Australia, Scandinavia, Canada and even York to see them play in their UK stadium tour. Possessing the rare quality of bashing the band endlessly, then reacting with anger when someone else has a little rant, they have on average 300GB* of gig bootlegs on their computer hard drives at any one time, downloading approximately 4TB* of material over their lifetimes. Whatever you say to them, don’t call Muse a rip off of Radiohead to their faces. Just don’t.

*Source: completelymadeupstatistics.com