put judicial weight on me

What happened, Crystal Castles?

2010-07-13T19:15:00.011+01:00

Lots of people have heard of Crystal Castles. Lots of people have bought their albums. Lots of people like them. Lots of people don't.
I love Crystal Castles, I love their first album but what the fuck was up with their 2010 album? The second self-titled album got fairly good reviews online and what not but I've a different opinion.

It was quite disappointing, I don't even know where to start with this. The opening track did nothing for the album, and then there's the clump of tracks (Celestica, Doe Deer and Baptism) that everyone heard and went mental about. Celestica is definitely one of my favourite tracks on the album, it has really interesting synth and nice clean vocals which made it sound like it belongs on their first album. And Doe Deer? Man, that is the definition of aggressive, gritty, punk as shit electronic music. But it kinda went downhill from there. Crystal Castles sampled Sigur Rós' track "Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur" on Year of Silence, I thought this would be great when I heard it first as I'm a big Rós fan but it droned out a bit and bored me. Song like Birds, Not In Love and I Am Made Of Chalk just made me want to load up a gun, get my Italian cousins* with me and shoot Alice Glass and Ethan Kath personally.
And to be honest, most of the songs on this album just didn't cut it for me. They have played it a bit safe and lost a lot of their old sound. There is no more 8-bit, there is less sampling and an excess of distortion. The album overall is less spontaneous, less creative and, if you couldn't already tell by the album artwork, it's darker and has depressing elements to it.
So you've heard my opinion on the album. Some people will probably disagree with me and say that Crystal Castles have "matured" and are toning their work down "for the better" but I don't know. I'm still a CC fan and if given the choice I would still go to one of their gigs but I'm gonna give it a strong 5/light 6 out of 10. If you have anything to say, to agree or disagree, leave a comment. Here's some links to my favourite songs below.
"Celestica" - Great song, although it gave me high expectation for the rest of the album.
"Vietnam" - Sweet build up that leads to a bang of magic that could blow up Hogwarts.
"Intimate" - I really love this, and I wouldn't mind hearing some DJ's remix it, just as long as they don't put a fucking 'donk' on it..

*I do not have Italian cousins.

My first album review

2010-07-07T22:37:00.009+01:00

*gasp*
I was thinking of doing the odd album/movie review here and there, instead of just talking about life in general. So I'm going to review "Merriweather Post Pavilion" by Animal Collective.
Yeah I'm aware this was released over a year ago, but I only bought it today out of interest. I've listened to Animal Collective's older albums but I just couldn't really get into them. I'm sure AC are a band you would really have to listen to over and over again for it to eventually click in with you, unless you have no time for experimental music.

At first listen to this album there was lots to take in. There are so many hooks, loops, samples and synth that it can just confuse you at first and distract you from the vocals. I'm not saying that all that added flare to the songs aren't a good thing because AC definately know how to use it when they need to. I was just wondering how the fuck they would play half those tracks live! There's a couple of samples and sound effects thrown into the songs, for example there are real floaty, spacey and kinda 8-bit background noises throughout the album. I'm pretty sure I heard animal noises on a couple of tracks too. You can't deny that the album is really well recorded and put together and especially if you compare it to their last few albums. They've really cleaned up the vocals (there's less screaming) the bass has been kicked up a notch and the guitar is toned down. Verrrry trippy.

So moving away from the actual breakdown of the sound. On the third listen of Merriweather Post Pavilion I found it easier to listen to and it eventually sunk in with me. I haven't given much thought to the lyrics but they're very abstract and there was no booklet with the cd so I'm not arsed looking them up. The album is great although Animal Collective have gone back a few steps in the experimental and psychedelic side of things. Also, the tracks are quite long and I find myself skipping through the repetitive parts. So I'm giving it a weak 8 out of 10 and here's some links to my favourite songs below.
"My Girls"
"Daily Routine"
"Brothersport"
(Liking Animal Collective does not make me hipster, I don't like any of their old stuff so there! Just sayin') ;D

Procrastination and some rambling

2010-07-02T14:51:00.008+01:00

According to my horoscope, being a Capricorn and all, I'm "practical and ambitious" and "not afraid of hard work". That's true but it's gone out the window since I've finished my last JC exam. It happens every summer actually.
My sleeping pattern is fucked up, then half my day is gone, I get lazy and don't bother doing anything and before I know it a month has passed. June wasn't really a month off and I'm hoping for July to be better but I just can't kick myself out of my lazy state.
For example, I go to bed around 2, get up at 12, have a shower, hang around the house doing nothin' (the weather is to blame, in a way :P) and 'cos I'm left at home on my own I've no one to tell me to do something, even if it was chores or some shit like that. Sometimes I go for a walk around Prosperous but I feel like a freak just walking around with no cause. Sometimes I read but I'm reading like 3 books at the moment, which kinda puts me off it. Sometimes I play the Wii but then little kids on my road see me through my window right about the time that I'm doing the hoola-hoops on WiiFit or screaming at the tv when when I'm losing in MarioKart (which is often, I'm a sore loser and just keep restarting the game until I come at least 3rd). Sometimes I watch a movie, but I've watched all of my dvds before and get bored with most of them half way through. I sound really fussy, don't I? I swear to you, I'm not that bad.
My mam is still working, my dad only calls in sometimes to give me food or to leave work equipment in the garden and my sister goes to her friends down the road. Don't get me wrong, I like solitude, but after weeks of being home alone it gets boring.
I don't have that much money to go get the bus to Liffey Valley or Clane even. I've to keep it for my holidays this month (at least that's something to look forward to). The other day I went shopping in town with my dad, I told him I needed to get stuff and he insisted he would bring me in. I couldn't really say no. Everytime I go shopping with him it doesn't really end well, whether it be an arguement or I just don't see anything and it ends up being a waste. We went to get some food before we left and he brought me to this tiny place (I wouldn't even call it a restaurant, but it was nice) near Temple Bar to get fish and chips - not fancy, I know. Before your one came out with the food we didn't talk, it was just silence but it wasn't awkward. I didn't know what to even start talking about and it kind of upset me. Some lad behind us was boasting loudly to his friend about his new script he'd written for a film and about the cast. We laughed a bit about that but it was still weirdly quiet between us.
Sorry for boring you with my little thoughts about my day in town and everything else. That's all for now though :)

2010-06-28T15:25:00.006+01:00

Sponge cake recipe

2010-06-22T17:25:00.004+01:00

Today was my first official day of summer holidays and I decided that I'm going to try bake something every week. My sponge cake turned out a bit flat (I put it in a wide tin) but overall it came out great!

Ingredients

100g self-raising flour
100g butter
100g castor sugar
A bit of vanilla essence
A pinch of salt
2 medium eggs

Preparation time: around 15 mins
Cooking time: 20-25 Minutes

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 190/200°C.
2. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.
3. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and add to the mixture a little at a time with the flour. Keep the same smooth and creamy consistency.
4. Make sure the mixture doesn't get too wet or dry, and add more egg or flour if it is too dry/wet. Make sure to fold the mixture over with the wooden spoon to bring in some air to the mixture.
5. Add a few drops of vanilla essence and a pinch of salt and mix.
6. You can put the mixture into two separate dishes if you want to add a filling or just put it into one circular dish if you don't.
7. Put it into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. It is better when the oven has been on for around 15 mins to make sure it's well-heated.
8. Leave to cool on a rack.
9. When cool put one upside down on a plate spread with jam/chocolate/cream and put the other one on top, then flip over. If you didn't split it in two, just dust with icing sugar or icing.
10. Guten Appetit!

My dad

2010-06-22T16:59:00.003+01:00

I know this is late (nearly everything I do is) and Father's Day was on Sunday but I only made this blog on Sunday so whatever.

First off, my dad is fuckin' badass. He is the funniest, craziest and most hard-working man ever and I love him to bits. He has his bad sides but I'm not going to talk about that. I don't have many recent pictures of him but he still looks the same as when he was young so here's some photos :)

That's my dad with the ginger beard when he was in his 20's, haha!

I'm pretty sure my dad is the one with all the face paint on him..

Tegan & Sara, 15th June

2010-06-20T18:32:00.000+01:00

Okay, so it was a mid-Junior Cert Tuesday but I knew I'd regret not going to it. I ran to the back of the que at around seven and I was sitting in my seat around twenty past. I got a seated ticket because a) standing were probably already sold out and b) I had a history exam the next day and wanted to be able to get up in the morning. It wasn't regrettable, like the seat wasn't bad, but I would've prefered to see Tegan and Sara in front of me.
Oliver Cole was the support and he played a few songs and told us silly anecdotes about albatroses and his missing band in his between songs. He was good but yknow when you get that feeling where you're just like "I don't want support just gimme the main band PLEASE!"?
Tegan and Sara came out onto the stage with their band and ran into songs from their newest album, Sainthood. The twins then played a few oldies like The Con and Walking With A Ghost which seemed to make everyone happy. Some acoustics, including Back In Your Head (one of my favourites) and Living Room, finished the night. Tegan and Sara performed brilliantly, the set was hella long and mixed with some awkward yet cute humour from Sara (and Teegz, of course, but more Sara) made one of the best gigs I've been to :D

During 'Alligator', if you didn't guess..

I'm slow on the uptake

2010-06-20T17:43:00.000+01:00

Hello Blogspot, I have spare time to waste and now I can clog up your feeds with rambling bullshit! Just kidding, but I am gonna post now and again about summer, music, news etc.
I only have one more JC exam left tomorrow, which is tech graph and I can't study for that, and then I've nothin' to bother me for two and a half months so I'll be updating this inbetween events etc. I know this is probably a really stupid time to be starting this but I didn't have much time the past few months. And I'll admit that I will most likely be really stupid and not half as interesting as Áine, so excuse me.
Dat iz all fah nao! :)