Fact >= Fiction: God Gave Rock and Rock To You!

Hello all

I trust all is well?

Just so you know, this blog entry is named after a Kiss song, and not my personal views on what a theoretical deity might have given you.

As many of you know, my music genre of choice of the last 10 or so years has been rock music. I first started getting to know the genre in the late 90s, with my first experience being "Engel" by Rammstein on the soundtrack to Mortal Kombat Annihilation (both videos below) and then the emergence of Blink 182 with their anthemic "All the Small Things"

RAMMSTEIN - ENGEL

BLINK 182 - ALL THE SMALL THINGS

However, despite knowing about the genre, I didn't fall in love with it until I first heard Linkin Park. I was introduce to them by Andy Faller, probably my best friend through school, and that band opened the door for me and I was soon into bands such as System of a Down, Adema, and bands of such similar nature. I was a regular at Sugarcubes night club in Lincoln with my friends from various jobs.

More bands would be added to that list as time would go on but more of a similar nature to Blink 182, bands such as Good Charlotte, Jimmy Eat World, Greenday, All American Rejects and so on.

Signed poster from the "Heavy in the Day" complete
bundle from Canterbury.

In recent years however my love of rock music started to fall as there were very few bands coming through that I thought were particularly unique, or interesting, and I started getting into other genres and recently started falling in love with synthesised music (search for Sound of Arrows to get an understanding of what I mean), however, the last week has seen my fall in love with rock again)

Firstly, Canterbury, one of the few new bands over the last few years that I have actually got excited about, released their second album, Heavy in the Day. Their debut "Thank You" was one of the most perfect albums I have ever listened to and the follow up is just as good, with my personal favourite song of their's "Gloria" featuring. I, in the most polite term possible, fucking love this band. They were the first band I ever saw live twice, and they spend time with all their fans after the gigs, how often can you say that about a band you go to see? All of them have time to talk to you and I have a lot of time for them as all four are some of the most humble guys guys you could ever meet.

Their "Heavy In the Day" album came in a complete bundle with a signed poster, art book and t-shirt, all for a reasonable £24.99, or alternatively you could just get the album on iTunes for £7.99, whichever you prefer.

I'm not going to sit here and claim I know all the words yet, but hopefully that won't take long and I would urge everyone to start getting into them as they will, hopefully, be massive one day. I have yet to hear a song from them that I haven't loved, and those that I didn't love straight away (such as Saviour) have grown on me to the point where I can listen to them over and over again. I really can't recommend the band this much.

Below is a documentary they made about their career so far and two of my favourite songs of their's.

CANTERBURY - THE STORY SO FAR

CANTERBURY - GLORIA

CANTERBURY - READY YET

So onto a new band that I love to a band who are legends in the rock industry, Blink 182.

As I mention towards the beginning of the article, Blink 182 were one of the first rock bands I heard and I have loved them from the first moment. They are the ONLY band where I have bought all their albums on their release date after I got to know them. Enema of the State is one of my favourite albums even to this day, with the follow up of "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket" also a favourite, however, my favourite of all their albums is the 2004 self-entitled album, although it took me a LONG, LONG time to start liking that album, however, it is arguably my favourite album ever.

After a hiatus that looked like it would never end due to the very public spats that singers Mark Hoppus and Tom Delonge had, however, when they reformed and announced a new album, I was very excited, even more so when they announced they would be having a tour in the UK, both of which I bought as soon as they became available.

I wasn't that impressed with the new album "Neighbourhoods" and even now, nearly 10 months on, I still just haven't got into it at all, I just really can't. I try and listen to it but only get four/five songs in before I have lost interest, and I have really tried. The only hope I have for it is that it took me nearly a year to start liking the self-entitled album.

But anyway, on Wednesday that concert finally happened and it was one of the most amazing evenings that I have EVER experienced. I can't even begin to describe it so I am going to just show you the video that I made by filming most of their songs.

And finally, to end this blog, I'm going to share with you with a selection of some of my favourite rock songs. Some are very heavy rock, others are quite pop-rock, but yeah, deal with it :P

JIMMY EAT WORLD - THE MIDDLE