Native

As Native prepares for to release their new album, Bobby Markos offers a few words about the album.

"A light that couldn’t be described.
A feeling that could not be accurately captured by human language.
The next session brought new hardships.
A cycle of emotions, between acceptance, hatred, happiness and acceptance.
This work will never be an open and shut case unfortunately, it will never be black and
white.
Too much has been invested, but at least there’s reassurance in that."

Read the full article here. I am so excited for this album. Native is beyond any other band when it comes to truth in words, and this next album will be such an important step for the band.




On a side note, Andrew just got kicked out of the bar after finishing his long island and proceeding to raise it above his head then smash it full force into the ground.

Outreach

Wow, two band's have e-mailed me today within a couple hours from each other asking me to listen to their free music and to make a post about it on my music blog. Really?! Because I'd love to! It brings me back to my last post about downloading music. It has built bridges across thousands of miles. Never before in history has such technology existed that allowed for these possibilities. We are in the first beautiful stages of global unification, imagine seeing and hearing about everything at once, a constant network of beings, all together forming one. It reminds me of a book I'm reading, The Raw Shark Texts. This evil genius Mycroft Ward discovers the means to split his mind and exist in two beings at once, collecting forty-eight hours worth of experience and information in the rest of the population's twenty-four hours. Not to spoil it, but something goes wrong, and the being continually splits and splits to a point where it is able to gather years worth of time and experience in one single day of a normal human, and we can't forget that knowledge is power.

Download Away

My professor and I have been getting into debates about downloading music illegally lately and I think if I write down my thoughts it'll help me get my grasp around it a little more. I just downloaded a recently released post rock album from a band named Across the Waves. This group is one of the few post rock outlets from the country of Iran. Yes, there is post rock in Iran, and I believe that without the ability to download music from the internet I would never have gotten the opportunity to hear their music. Their sound made it around the world and into my ears, which is astonishing to think about. Never before has this been a possibility, and to add to that, this band may have never even formed without the use of the internet. I mean, post rock is a pretty small genre, and it's not very widely accepted in countries like Iran. They were inspired by the music they heard from other bands thousands of miles away. I'm sure you've heard people say that music isn't about the money and now that is being put into literal effect. Bands are going to have to focus their attention on the music if they want to attract a following, they'll need to bring people into their shows and gather real fans. I love it! It's forcing record companies to change everything they know about the business. Sharing music has opened up so many new doors to thought and inspiration. I have the opportunity to listen to more music then I could ask for, finding new bands every single day, constantly searching for new sounds and ideas. The genres are always reshaping and evolving and new ones seem to pop up all the time. There is no way I would ever have been able to pay the money or even have access to all the music I have in my collection without the use of sharing. So for that reason I should never get the opportunity to hear the music they've made? If you're in it for the music you should be happy that people get to hear your music in any situation, and you should feel honored if anybody else tries to mimic your sound or incorporate it in some other way. What happened to the humble musician?

The Places You'll Go

I haven't seen that much of the world yet and it's a strange thing to think about. I'm so used to my own little nooks that it's hard to imagine what it would be like anywhere else. There are quiet places and loud places, crowded cities and remote terrains, languages I'll never understand and people I'll never meet. Soon I'm going to be let go into it all with no real direction and no real guidance other than my own mind and the people I hold close to me. We're always moving away. Nothing lasts, but nothing is lost!

Trial

So last night turned into a expensive night. I'm flying down the freeway on my way to the concert, when I come upon a well hidden cop. Soon as I saw him I knew I was in for it. He pulled out behind me and after a minute or so he pulled me over for speeding. Luckily I was in hickville and he was a very forgiving and understanding cop. He didn't even try and search my car, you don't get that in East Lansing. Anyways I was clocked going 86 but he generously gave me a no points 5mph over ticket. I didn't let it bum me out though, I said thank you and I went on my way. It's so easy to turn a seemingly negative situation in a positive one. Having gotten my first speeding ticket, I no longer feel invincible on the road and will hopefully become a safer driver in the future. Life throws a lot of trials at you, how are you going to handle them?

Minus the Bear - Knights

Going to see this band for the first time in about an hour from now, incredibly excited to see how they perform. Here is one of my favorite tracks by The Bear.

Paralyzed

So for my first post, I'm going to recount a sleep paralysis experience I had just the other night. This is the third of three sleep paralysis episodes that I have ever had in my life, it is also one of the best.

I laid down to take a forty minute nap before going to my next class. I had had about 6 hours of sleep the night before, so it was already prime conditions. I was very tired and nearly fell asleep as soon as my eyes closed. I awoke into an extremely vivid dream. I had just walked out of the back doors of my old high school, and I continued to walk forward across the parking lot and into the field towards my house. This is a walk that I made many times in high school, as I lived so close you could see my house from the school. While walking across the field, I noticed a grand intensity in the colors around me, I could even feel the hot sun on my neck. It was at that moment of realization, that I became aware that I was dreaming. I told myself to open my eyes and look around, as soon as I opened my eyes, sleep paralysis attacked my body like lightning. I recall a dark black floating object directly above my head, and another smaller black object floating above me to the left. Having experienced paralysis before, I knew exactly what it was, which allowed myself to think straight and decide what to do next. I have read a lot about astral projection and so I decided that was my next step. I closed my eyes, and tried to pull my conscience away from my body. At that moment, I literally felt myself rise up from my body, although it was a difficult and slow struggle. I would describe the thing that came out of my body as pure white light shaped similar to a human body, but with no features whatsoever. I got about halfway out of my body, my lower stomach and legs still inside. When I got to that height, it was as if something pushed me back down (possibly the blackness floating above me?). I was forced back into my body and instantly released from the hold of sleep paralysis, I was fully awake.

It's a bummer that I had to wake up, but I am very happy that it happened. I have been trying to achieve the state for nearly two years since my last episode, and this was the closest I have ever come to astral projection. I think there is some meaning behind all this, that in someway I have taken another step forward in my life, but I'm not completely there yet. There seems to be some force that I must conquer before I can understand it all, and it's up to me to find out what that is. Next time this happens to me, I will be ready, I will have absolutely no fear inside of me, and I will look down at my sleeping body from the ceiling and laugh.

Things I did differently before taking the nap: ate a bunch of peanuts, read a chapter of my book.