Kings of Leon are one of my favourite bands. I’ve liked these for ages (I actually got slagged for liking them years ago, and look at them now ya shower of bastards!).
Their fourth album, “Only By The Night” is due out in September, but of course, we get to hear some of the stuff before then. The label gave one song “Crawl” away for free download, so there’s good quality versions of that going around. Here’s a youtube video for it anyway :
Then the Kings released a video trailer for the album, which featured a song called “Use Somebody” which sounds just class, and I reckon will be a big hit. Here’s that video :
A third song has been released to radio stations etc, called “Sex on Fire”, Here’s that one, complete with an interview with Caleb (the singer) by Zane Lowe (who’s really fucking annoying, every second word out of his mouth is “man”).
Finally, the last one going around is called Manhattan, and I can only find a live version of this song, which is here :
It looks promising. Kings Of Leon release albums very quickly, they don’t seem to mess around like other bands do. Zane Lowe said they’ll have 10 albums out before we know it, and will be selling out stadiums every tour. I don’t think he’s wrong. I’ve seen them live twice, once at Oxegen 2007 and again last November.
Anyway, this post was mainly to get all the new material together in one place for any fans, as it was a pain in the arse for me browsing around trying to find what I wanted. Enjoy.
Here it is, something new on the blog. I briefly mentioned this the other day, so here’s a full explanation.
I plan on doing this post early every Sunday (ideally I’d have it done before Saturday and just publish it on Sunday) and it’s basically a round-up of the past week, things I’ve noticed, found, experienced, liked and disliked. I’m still getting my head around what will be included every week, so it might be a bit all over the place to start with. Some things in this will be specific to that week (news etc), others will be personal favourite things of mine that I feel like praising (eg. There’ll be a sort of song of the week, which can be from any time).
Let’s get going then.
My abstract distraction this week is : Crash Bandicoot.
Oh yes folks, that lovable Bandicoot from the old Playstation one days. I was addicted to this game as a kid, and this week I found a way to play it on my laptop. Oh lord I had fun. The charisma of this bandicoot knows no bounds. Those weird mask things that protect you, Crash’s way of saying “Woah”, the boxes and the apples, and that nasty Neo Cortex. I fucking love Crash Bandicoot. And his sister, Coco, is sex on virtual legs. If you’ve seen her you won’t argue.
Something that made me laugh this week :
Let’s face it, intelligent graffiti is hilarious.
Curses on :
This new law stopping drink being sold after 10pm. Boo-urns to that business. Yesterday my friend was buying beer for us and got into a panic when he realised there was only 10 minutes left to get to the off-licence. This resulted in a frantic rush and rash decision making. Personally I like taking my time when buying beer, to consider important issues like alcohol percentage, price etc, and also to bask in the experience and knowledge that I’ll soon be consuming this beverage. This post by Twenty Major gives a perspective I’d never even thought about properly.
I’m pleased with :
Meteor stepping up their game again and offering free texts to all networks. Those smug O2 bastards thought they’d gotten one over on the meteorheads, with their free texts and getting The Point Depot, but how foolish you all were. I just don’t like O2. That stuff with their customers getting priority for tickets in the Point (it’ll always be the Point, I refuse to call it “The O2″ - how ridiculously shit is that name?) is so annoying. Keep concerts and music separate from that kind of stuff, thanks. I don’t want to miss out on seeing an artist I love because of my choice in phone network. Basically, nice one meteor, I knew my loyalty to you was justified. O2 and all your customers : go away.
A pointless anecdote from this week :
My sister returned from America, after travelling around some major cities there for five weeks. Lucky cow.
Her return did include a new Tommy Hilfiger shirt for me though, purchased at a fraction of what it would have cost here. American sizes are strange, that shirt is a “small”, and is even a little loose on me. I’m a tall fellow and by no means runty I’d say. What the hell would a truly small person do over there? Buy kids sizes?
Her stories made me realise how much there is to see over there, so much for one country. Ground Zero has a memorial centre, and inside there they met a man who goes there every morning (despite the $7 entry cost) as his son died in the events of 9/11. Supposedly once you’re inside there and see the list of all those that perished in on that day, it can really affect you, similar to how I’ve heard places like Auschwitz still have a depressing and eerie air about them.
The grand canyon, Vegas, Times Square - so much to see and do!
Great guy/gal of this week :
Remi Gaillard. This guy is a French prankster, and is absolutely hilarious. I saw him a few weeks ago doing some football skills (kicking balls through windows form distance etc), and only found out this week about the other stuff he does. Some of this tricks include imposter work, and one where he dresses up as a giant chicken and walks up solemnly into a place where they had a chicken being cooked, spinning around. He places a flower in front of the oven and looks sadly at it before walking off with his head bowed. There’s also hilarious things done in elevators too (Disco Elevator and Reggae Elevator). His own site is here, but those links should lead you onto more on youtube, which is handier for browsing. Remi <3
Product/Service I like this week :
Twitter. I finally set myself up an account on this microblog thing, and have gotten to grips with it. It’s handy for getting small updates on friends/fellow bloggers, and any way to network and potentially get the blog some new visitors is always good in my book. If you look in the sidebar you’ll see I’ve put a twitter thingy in there. So if you’ve got a twitter page, come follow me and if you’re worthy I may consider thinking about possibly maybe following you someday.
A quote :
(From any time, not this week, that’d be hard work) : “It is well for our vanity that we slay the criminal, for if we suffered him to live he might show us what we had gained by his crime”
-Oscar Wilde.
I’m sure Wilde will feature here a lot.
And finally,
Favourite song this week :
The Only Moment We Were Alone - by Explosions in the Sky.
I had to pick this one first, it’s one of my favourite songs/albums/bands, and I think they’re a band anyone could like. Such beautiful music, and remember I saw ‘em live?
Here’s a youtube video someone made for the song I’ve chosen :
They’re an instrumental band, but even if you’re not used to that I implore you have a little patience and give them a chance. It’s a long song but worth listening all the way through, honestly.
So that’s all I can think off for the very first Sunday Round-Up. Please let me know what you think of this idea (it’ll take you a few seconds for Christ’s sake!), and if you’ve any ideas/suggestions, do send them my way, I’d appreciate it.
This is an area I tend to stay away from (complaining about the government etc) because in general I don’t know enough to make a good argument, but this is something that has been bugging me lately.
Ireland is known worldwide for being a nation of heavy drinkers. Sure I’ve just turned 18, and I’m well on my way to alcoholism. There’s a lot of problems with drink in this country, and while there are many positives to alcohol, it can really do some terrible things.
Drinking laws in Ireland don’t help the situation in my opinion. This week a law was introduced stating all off-licences had to stop selling drink by 10pm, every night. I’ll give my views on this, and feel free to entirely disagree.
This won’t make a massive difference, but still, I have to go buy my drink earlier now. Irish people (particularly young folk) seem to have this natural impulse to drink as much as possible for as long as possible. If I buy my drink earlier, I’ll just buy more than usual and start drinking earlier. As will most people. This means people are drinking earlier and drinking more. Not good.
That natural impulse is also important with another aspect of Irish drinking laws. In any club or pub, when you hear they’re about to stop serving, what happens? Everyone rushes to the bar, and will possibly buy two or more drinks and down them before having to leave. Solely to get as drunk as possible before having to leave. Everyone gets rushed out at the same time, freshly boozed up, and the fresh air hits us all together and the frenzied scavenge for a taxi/bus/burger begins. This is how fights and trouble starts. If you’re dumping everyone out at the same time, what can we expect?
I’ve heard about other European countries that have places open all night, people go in and pace themselves, and leave when they start getting a bit tired. No mad rush to get completely langered as quickly as possible and get kicked out/fall asleep and not remember anything the next day.
The attempts at being strict on alcohol in the home just give it a sort of taboo for young people. Kids reach 14/15 (they’re getting younger these days, I know) and wanna try alcohol, wanna see what it’s like to be drunk. The forbidden fruit. They gang outside the shop and find a suitable adult to “gerrus some drink mistah’ “. And they sneak off and get pissed off some 2 litre Tesco cider, don’t know about drink, can’t handle it, god knows what.Then tell everyone in school how great it is.
My parents would often offer me a glass of wine with dinner or a taste of beer when I was younger, no big deal. The benefit of this was that whenever I sipped alcohol as a child, it tasted ungodly, and this put me off for a while. There was never that whole forbidden fruit attraction to drink for me when I was younger. The first time I drank properly (I think I was sixteen), I just told my parents I was going to have a few drinks, but I’ll be sensible.
“Right so, just don’t make an eejit outta yourself”. I’ll be grand, don’t be worrying. “Alright, off with ya.” Eh, d’ya have a loan of twenty quid?
A friend of mine had the same sort of attitude to drink in the house when growing up, and it seems to have served him well.
There’s often talk about raising the legal drinking age to 21. Please don’t. Imagine the massive numbers of 18-20 year olds that wouldn’t be allowed into clubs and pubs. Would they (I) stop drinking? Not a chance. Crazy house parties please. And if not available, there’s a local field isn’t there? Raising the legal age would be a catastrophe.
The local night club in my area is known as a bit of a shit hole, and we’ve often laughed about how it turns shit as soon as you actually turn 18 and can get in on your own ID. The feeling of getting in somewhere you’re not supposed to made the place great.
Apparently the new law also has a bit about giving guards permission to take drink off underage people. Couldn’t they always do this? If not, I’d like to make a complaint and request all my confiscated cans from my past be returned to me immediately.
Is it true that in Germany the legal age is sixteen and people are allowed to drink in public? If so, how’s that working out for them? I’m not saying this would be good for Ireland, as we’d probably fuck it all up and abuse those rights completely, but it’s certainly interesting.
Apparently the price of drinks here (well over €5 a pint in some places - absolutely ridiculous) is something to do with taxes or a government attempt to discourage people from drinking. My hole. Perhaps lower the prices of non-alcoholic drinks? Let’s say I’m in a pub with friends, and I’m not in much of a mood for getting too pissed. I have the choice of a pint of beer, €5+, a pint of non-alcoholic beer €5+ (I think) or a pint of some soft drink, €5+. That’s a no brainer for me. If I’m going to spend a fiver on a beverage I might as well get a bitta’ buzz off it. If those non alcoholic drinks were significantly cheaper than the ordinary beer, then I’ll think about it. I don’t know how much of this is down to government, or how much is at the pub’s discretion, but surely something could be done there if the government really wanted to reduce alcohol intake?
Some things don’t make sense to me. Why is Guinness cheaper than other beers in pubs, but more expensive than others in can form? (There’ll probably be a very logical answer for this and oh, how foolish I’ll feel when someone tells me!).
Feel free to give your own opinions/information on all this, as I really don’t know all that much fact or reasoning behind some of the stuff mentioned here, and I have no qualms about admitting that.
Fuck this, it’s half two in the afternoon - I need a drink.
