Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

You don’t need any brains to listen to music

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Luciano Pavarotti once said, “You don’t need any brains to listen to music”, and he’s right… that’s why I love music. Whenever I need to clear my head I pick up my mp3 player and go outside for run.

As you probably already know I’ve got a pretty diverse taste in music and some were really surprised by my previous picks. (1, 2) Not many people expected me to be a hardcore “kid”, and I’m talking about hardcore punk not the rave stuff. Besides hardcore I’ve also got a “weak” for British bands and old thrash metal. It’s a weird combination, I know.

I’ve picked three bands again that helped me clear my head over the last couple of months. I love to explore new bands and would like to ask every single blogger out there to post a top-3 of your favorite bands at the moment.

The Last Shadow Puppets – Standing Next to Me

Usually when I listen to a new album I know almost instantly if I like it or will like it or not. This album took months to get used to. The first couple of spins made me  nervous and I skipped to the next album with 1 or 2 songs. But after a while I got used to the sound, and I think the reason it took me this long is the atmosphere the orchestra creates. But this is also the reason why I love this band at the moment. It sounds bombastic at times, but they’ve kept most songs relatively short which makes it easy to listen to. Both vocalist also have a very distinct sound but they complement each other in a way that you hardly ever hear. I’ve picked this song for no particular reason, I actually like most songs of the album but this was the first I clicked on:

Backfire – The violent view

Hardcore-punk has always been an important part of my life. Like most people in the Dutch hardcore scene, or at least the “old” guys like me, I started out listening to bands like Right Direction, Discipline and of course Backfire! Especially Backfire in the early days made a huge impression on me, their enthusiasm and energetic/aggressive style is what I liked the most. On the 20th of March 1999 their drummer Richard Bruinen took his own life. I never forget the set Backfire played during the European Hardcore Party in Eindhoven. It was the most impressive, emotional and energetic show I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any decent video online of that set. I picked an OLC cover song, because OLC has always been a controversial band and probably misunderstood by many. Although I’ve never been a big fan of all the intro’s OLC added to their songs, their music was fast, energetic and aggressive… just the way I like it. Same goes for Backfire by the way, no holds barred – straight up – in your face – hardcore.

As I said I love hardcore, British bands and … thrash metal. This last band is a thrash metal band and one of the best bands around: Sacred Reich – American Way

Although they have always been labeled as “thrash” metal, these guys have got a hardcore mindset. Their lyrics aren’t about deceases and horribles deaths but about politics and society. I’ve seen them a couple of times, but one of the best shows most definitely was the reunion show in Eindhoven(Dynamo club). These guys came to Europe to play a couple of shows. Instead of just playing large venues and start cashing they decided they wanted to play at the venues where they had the most fun back in the days. For all my friends from the US, The American Way:

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Seriously? what does any of this have to do with virtualization. I ask myself why I plugged this website in my RSS. To waste my time getting some writers opinion on the music he likes? On top of that, the quality of these videos are crap. Do whatever you want with your website dude, but this is lame.

  2. I think you can call this blowing off steam…
    This site has offered plenty of insight into virtualization. If they want to go off on a tangent every now and then who cares.
    Or by a book and read it and come to your own conclusions. Contribute, don’t complain.

    whiner.

  3. Uhhh, it’s his personal blog, and it’s nice every now and again to share a little bit about ourselves. Nobody forced you to subscribe to his blog, and this post is hardly grounds for a personal attack.

    Grow up.

  4. lol @konkwest33 – what a fucking cock.

    Sacred Reich – what a blast from the past, nice one :-). Anyway, I too have a broad taste in music, and am a massive old school cal punk fan (descendents, bad religion, nofx, etc). Lately I’ve been listening to a few Japanese groups who contributed tracks to one of my favourite TV animes, Bleach.

    Here are some links, and Yui is girlie jpop but meh, sif care – she’s cute 😉

    Uverworld – D-technolife http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW8YHpuneeY

    Asian Kung Fu Generation – After Dark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ko0zp2aFew

    Yui – Life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE1qaeODxU0

  5. Nice post Duncan!
    People who complain about it should skip. I like it whenever somebody shows some personality and hey…it’s HIS OWN blog and he can write whatever comes up in his mind!
    Blogging is all about sharing minds.
    Nice to hear what takes you through the week Duncan and funny enough my music style is not so different. Whenever there’s a guitar in it I like it, so is this post.

    -Arnim

  6. Mr konkwest33, I’m sorry you feel this way. I try to do something different every once in a while. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. I’m not forcing you to read it.

    Kinda sad though, I wrote 556 articles in 15 months, of which 553 virtualization articles. And you need to comment on this one anonymously and try to bash me. Please unsubscribe if you don’t find any of the 553 posts useful if you do find it useful stop complaining and start reading.

  7. @konkwest33 What an Idiot.

    Duncan, keep up the great work on the blog, dont listen to that pathetic looser, you have great taste in music.

  9. I don’t mind the off virtualization posts. Shows that Ducan is a real person! Keep up the great work you do in your blog.

  10. Duncan, Hopefully he clicked a Google AD on his way OUT. 🙂 Your contributions to the BlogOsphere are well documented and the ridiculous comments don’t even deserve your response.

    Keep up the great work!
    Carlo

  12. I’m not mad about the departure from virtualization. I’m just mad that you are blogging about Punk music instead of something better like blues or blues-inspired classic rock. 😉

    {clicking Google Ad-sense ad on way out}

  13. I’m with the other guys, konkwest33 is clearly a cretin of the highest order.

    Your site has to be ranked as one of the very best and I for one have been helped out of pickle many times using your articles.

    I agree with Sean though, maybe some reference to old school hip-hop would be better 🙂