Farewell Jon Lord

Deep Purple founder member Jon Lord died today.  Thanks for all the great songs mate, we'll miss you.

Mini Rock God

Mr. Moosehead's young 'un Matt plays a stonking cover of Muse on a guiter almost as big as he is!

Using History

"If history is the judge to which we appeal, then it can also find against us. It can highlight our mistakes by reminding us of those who, at other times, faced similar problems but who made different, perhaps better decisions" - Margaret MacMillan, (2009) The Uses And Abuses Of History, London, Profile Books.

"A cockroach in the concrete, courthouse tan and beady eyes
A slouch with fallen arches, purging truths into great lies
A little man with a big eraser, changing history
Procedures that he's programmed to, all he hears and sees
Altering the facts and figures, events and every issue
Make a person disappear, and no one will ever miss you

Rewrites every story, every poem that ever was
Eliminates incompetence, and those who break the laws
Follow the instructions of the New Way's Evil Book of Rules
Replacing rights with wrongs, the files and records in the schools" - Lyrcis to Hook In Mouth by Megadeth, written by Dave Mustaine.

RED FANG - "Wires"

Battle of Evermore

The Petty Officer of Fucking About

""TODAY THE God Of Fuck is merely the Petty Officer Of Fucking About; the Local Ombudsman Of Mildly Irritating Behaviour. He's locked in his suitably grand room at a Park Lane hotel with plenty of absinthe and 'a young lady friend'. A wide-eyed reporter from a London free title eventually comes down the stairs declaring him to be "leathered"; saying that the lanky industro-goth was striding round his room with the girl tossed over his shoulder chatting bare nonsense."

- Journalist John Doran reaches the end of his tether while waiting for Marilyn Manson to turn up for a scheduled interview, 2009.

Hot Rock Chicks - Grog

The strangely monikered Grog from London metal outfit Die So Fluid.  Ooh, more than a hint of Siouxsie Sioux. It's safe to say that I'll be down the front at Hard Rock Hell VI when DSF are on stage.

Hot Rock Chicks - Lzzy Hale

Lzzy Hale of Halestorm.

Spooky Julie's Snuff Tape by Release The Bats

N


NSFW in all sorts of ways.

The Blog Isn't Dead...

Image via Wikipedia

...but it came close this time.

I know I've been rather non-existent on the blogging front for nearly a month, a busy period at work, uni work and then our annual holiday all got in the way.  The holiday was wonderful, we spent two weeks in Florida and did all the touristy things including the Universal theme parks, Gatorland, watching the Mars mission being launched and, er, shooting a Glock handgun. Not at anybody you understand.

After Florida we spent a weekend at the UK's premier classic/hard rock festival, Hard Rock Hell, drank slightly too much, got a new tattoo and heard some great, and hugely loud, bands.  Magnum, Black Stone Cherry, Therapy?, Michael Monroe, Voodoo Six, Quireboys, Wolfsbane, Kobra and the Lotus and a host of other bands made it a great weekend.  We have booked our tickets for next year's festival already as they tend to sell out rather early.

I got some rather good news from The Open University yesterday, I passed my foundation module with flying colours and received a Distinction.  I managed seven maximum scores from the eight marking points and a good score on the online multi-choice exam.

Now that I am a quarter of the way through the 60 point module AA100 The Arts Past and Present, I am very glad that I did the foundation module as nearly all the work we did on art, poetry and history is highly relevant to this course as well.  My first essays on this course, on Plutarch's view of the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra, and a critical comparison of the styles of Cezanna and Zurbaran, were both marked as being only a fraction short of Distinction level so I am really pleased with that as well.  The second essay, a re-write and reflective analysis of the Plutarch essay I handed in while on holiday. The next essays are on Michael Faraday, and a critical analysis of some poetry about cats, due in the first week of January 2012

You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeGreat song by The Beards

"He rubs his bristles on your mammary glands" - this song is full of hirsute win.

Bill Bailey's message to Metallica

Black Stone Cherry - White Trash Millionaire

Stacie Collins - Tied To You

Sahg - Pyromancer

One Problem With Studying Art On The Internet

Cover of Hold Your FireThis is the Google image search page for Rush's Hold Your Fire album cover.

So when you click on an image of, for example, the Mona Lisa, what are you seeing ? Which of the hundreds of images shown on the search screen is closest to being a true representation of the original artwork ?  The Hold Your Fire search throws up hundreds of images in a wide variety of shades and hues, but without having the reference point of the original cover, who can say which is nearest the true image.

Therapy? - Screamager

Album Review : Next Round - The Holy Goats 8*

For Fans Of : Black Crowes, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zep

From the rich opening twang of Something To Tell You to the closing chords of title track Next Round this blues touched, Southern rock album delivers 11 highly enjoyable songs with a very classic rock, very retro, very stylish feel.

Next Round positively reeks of sour mash whisky spilt on sawdust.  The songs are performed with an easy and seductive swagger and an amount of self assurance that never quite gets reckless but will get you shaking to the Goats' highly infectious groove.

The whole album is steeped in its Southern rock roots, but there is enough variation to keep things interesting. Some songs would have been bona fide classics if the band could really let themselves rip loose, tracks like the slightly slow burning Temptation would really have benefitted from a small upwards gear shift, whereas the deep groove of the higher velocity Every Time We Meet is absolutely spot on.

A point that may (or may not) detract from your enjoyment is that Holy Goats' sound is so close to that of The Black Crowes that the two bands seem to have been seperated at musical birth.  If on the other hand you don't object to a really good contemporary band sounding just like a great classic act (Airbourne's homage to / plaigarism of AC/DC springs to mind) then this is an album well worth investing in.