Post-"Weekend"
Days off were spent well. Had a very Starbucksy Tuesday, as that was Partner appreciation day. Went to the beach, and went to the pub fundraiser that evening. Pub was meh, but the beach was greaaaat. Must go lots. Wednesday was very musical, though. I practiced for a long while, then I packed up my kit and went down to Surrey to jam with David Manuel who I met again coincidentally. Turns out he likes a lot of death metal. I had never played with anyone before, so I didn't know what to expect at all. I had barely even played along to music at all.. not even songs I liked. I mostly just played out loud, with no back track or anything, and tried to incorporate styles of drummers that I liked. It was really fun playing with him though. I played a lot of simple rock grooves at first, but I started to add a lot more once I got comfortable with what he was playing. I feel so stupid because I always have to mentally re-assure myself that "simple isn't a bad thing, Rowan". It's better to play simple and keep a beat, then lose the beat every 2 measures... and this is something I knew going into it, so I had minimal embarrassing moments.
In listening-related news, I made a total jump back in time recently. Dillinger Escape Plan's "Calculating Infinity" album is something that I listened (tried) to way back in the day when I learned how big of an influence it was on Textbook Tragedy. For some reason, I loved Textbook Tragedy's crazy, erratic, complex stuff... but couldn't get a single brain cell wrapped around Calculating Infinity. After many years of music listening later the learning curve on this album seemed a lot less steep, and I actually gave Calculating Infinity a couple whirls just the other day. Holy shit... what a fucking spectacular album. So much chaos in such a controlled fashion. They absolutely hate repeating riffs, so nothing really sticks out in your head as catchy... but I still find myself singing along with some of these crazy parts. The lyrics (that I can understand) are just as crazy as the music. All-in-all, Calculating Infinity is definitely not an album I'd recommend to just anyone... in fact I probably would tell the average person not to listen to it. However, anyone who has the patience to sit down and get their head around this album will find it quite rewarding.
In listening-related news, I made a total jump back in time recently. Dillinger Escape Plan's "Calculating Infinity" album is something that I listened (tried) to way back in the day when I learned how big of an influence it was on Textbook Tragedy. For some reason, I loved Textbook Tragedy's crazy, erratic, complex stuff... but couldn't get a single brain cell wrapped around Calculating Infinity. After many years of music listening later the learning curve on this album seemed a lot less steep, and I actually gave Calculating Infinity a couple whirls just the other day. Holy shit... what a fucking spectacular album. So much chaos in such a controlled fashion. They absolutely hate repeating riffs, so nothing really sticks out in your head as catchy... but I still find myself singing along with some of these crazy parts. The lyrics (that I can understand) are just as crazy as the music. All-in-all, Calculating Infinity is definitely not an album I'd recommend to just anyone... in fact I probably would tell the average person not to listen to it. However, anyone who has the patience to sit down and get their head around this album will find it quite rewarding.