PANIC STATION; AKA MUSE WHAT ARE YOU DOING

There's been talk floating around for a while of the next single/video from Muse's The 2nd Law being Panic Station, and lo and behold stills/gifs from that video began to surface recently. Then the video itself dropped today. 

What.

The.

Fuck?

See for yourself...

I can't embed the video so here it is

theNOISE PLAYLIST 25/2/13 - 3/3/13

So, every now and then I try and implement a weekly something-or-other, and my latest attempt starting this week is going to be my weekly playlist - namely, the songs that I have been listening to this week, in an attempt to share my music taste with you all. I'll link to the songs on Youtube in the song titles, and I hope you discover something new that you love/rediscover something you'd forgotten about!

Songs will be new or old, it entirely depends what I've been listening to. So here goes, Episode #1 of the Playlist.

1. Hearts Alive by Mastodon (from the 2004 album Leviathan)
2. Can You Feel My Heart by Bring Me The Horizon (Sempiternal out April 29)
3. Secular Haze by Ghost (Infestissumam out April 9)
4. Concealing Fate Part 2: Deception by TesseracT (from 2010 EP Concealing Fate)
5. Follow Me (Live from the O2 Arena) by Muse (from 2012's The 2nd Law - live version download link)
6. Great Expectations by The Gaslight Anthem (from 2008's The '59 Sound)
7. Boys Don't Cry by The Cure (from 1980's Boys Don't Cry)
8. Bruane Brenn by Kvelertak (Meir out March 25)
9. Where Are We Now? by David Bowie (The Next Day out March 11)
10. David De La Hoz by The Chariot (from 2010's Long Live)

But because I'm nice to you (too nice, probably. I don't know on what basis though), I made a Youtube playlist of all the above which you can find here. Enjoy!

ALBUMS THAT MADE theNOISE #1; ABSOLUTION by Muse

So, last week I warned you all that, for lack of anything better to do, I was going to write a series of pieces on the albums that I credit with having made me who I am today, which is to say, a bloke with a dishevelled scruffy beard who sits alone listening to rock/metal and writes about it. And finally, I've got round to #1. It's not a full-blown review, mind, but an excerpt from my life story that you're free to laugh at mixed with review elements. Enjoy...

EPISODE #1; MUSE, ABSOLUTION

If you know me personally, then I classify it statistically impossible for me to have not mentioned my undying love for Muse around you at some point. Maybe not directly to you, maybe you heard a conversation I was having and I mentioned it. But I love Muse. People who know me well/those who have seen parts of me naked on the internet will know that Absolution in particular is a special album to me. 

Yep. I took this photo right after it was done, hence why it's a bit manky round the edges, but there will always be a reminder of how much Muse changed my life, and how Absolution turned me towards a different style of music altogether, inked on my right shoulder. So this importance this album has in my life made it a good place to start.

Let’s rewind a few years. Around the late spring/early summer of maybe 2005/6, I bought Absolution on eBay for about a fiver. For the last few years up to this point, I had been very much in a musical purgatory, if you will. This was back in the day when social constructs such as ‘greebo’ were rife in high school life (do they still exist?), and instead of declaring myself part of one tribe or another, I tried to fit in to all the social groups around me. I convinced myself that I liked both rap and rock, although metal was a no-no. Hell, I didn’t want people to think I was a goth or an emo. “I will NEVER like Slipknot” I said once. How times change.

But really, I had never had a music taste – I just liked some stuff, mostly chart stuff. And now, internet, I would like to share with you my eternal shame. Some people have really awesome albums as their first records. One of my favourite musicians, Brann Dailor (drummer of Mastodon), counts really cool shit like Iron Maiden and AC/DC among his first albums. Me? Vapid pop pretty-boys A1. Oh yeah. Bless you the 90s.

Those guys. Remember them? Technically speaking, they weren’t even my first album. My first was Now (That’s What I Call Music) 48, but as a compilation I don’t count it. To this day I could not tell you another A1 song without Wikipedia. But really, I did not have a cool musical start. The Black Eyed Peas’ Elephunk album was next (actually not a bad album, before they went shit, but still not great), then others I forget/am ashamed to admit. Among those was a fucking Tim Westwood compilation. I thought I was cool. HAH.

So this time went by with me having no strong musical taste, trying to convince myself that I liked lots of different styles I’d barely even heard of – case and point, I heard Slam by Pendulum on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show as ‘Hottest Record In The World Today’ and suddenly I loved drum ‘n’ bass. Ahem. But among the band names I’d heard on that show, before I realised I didn’t like Zane, was Muse. Or Mews, as I thought it was spelt. I know, I’m a tool. And I remembered they had a recent album, called…um…Absolution? A quick Google search confirmed, then a quick trip to eBay and a fiver bagged me a copy. And largely, from the point it arrived onward, my life changed. Sounds overdramatic, and it wasn’t instantaneous by any means, but it was a milestone.

Obviously I knew what the word absolution meant, with the connotations of the absolving of sins at the end of the world, so I was thinking “shiiiiit, this is gonna be so dark and heavy and cool”, and so imagine my surprise when I was right. A summary of my first listen goes something like this, as I remember it;

Intro/Apocalypse Please: Is this playing? Oh wait, I hear something. Thump, Thump, Thump Thump Thump. Ooh, intriguing AAAAAHHHHH JEEEESUS that’s loud piano. What IS this?

Time Is Running Out: Cool bass.

Sing For Absolution: This is nice. In a sad way.

Stockholm Syndrome: *headbangs*

Falling Away With You: *gets goosebumps on arms*

Interlude/Hysteria: OH SHIT this is building to something epic. *bass comes in* :O

Rest of the album: :O with varying degrees of spinal chills, particularly during Blackout/Butterlies & Hurricanes/Ruled By Secrecy

Basically, from the first time I heard Interlude/Hysteria, I was hooked. There is so much I love about the album. The heaviness of some songs, the tender, epic beauty of others, and the way they transition perfectly into one another. My favourite example of a transition in the album is between Falling Away With You into Interlude, because the underlying sound of Interlude is there from the second verse. It just runs perfectly underneath the song, providing this dark spine to the song, so that when the rest of the song fades away at the end we’re just left with the fuzzy tremolo before the bassline that everybody knows them by kicks in. It’s perfect.

And so that was the point at which my life began to change really, between Interlude and the ending track Ruled By Secrecy. Whereas before I’d been in the no-mans-land I talked about earlier, I started to develop the taste in music I have now which has had such a huge impact on my life. I fell in love with Absolution, so I immediately set about obtaining their back catalogue, so very soon I had it – at this point, Absolution was the most recent album, so just Showbiz, Origin of Summetry and Hullabaloo – and I was hooked. It was the start of a beautiful relationship.

Absolution is an incredible album; the depth of the apocalyptic concept, the mastery with which every song is constructed, from the soaring classical elements to the straight up rock; it is Muse’s best album, and my joint favourite of all time with Origin of Symmetry (yes, my 2 favourite albums are both Muse). So it is the first album that really began to make me into what I am now.  I could not recommend it more.

VLOG #1, AWARDS SEASON SUMMARY

The inaugural theNOISE Music Awards have come to a close, as has 2012, so thank you to everybody for reading and Tweeting  - it all helps, and I'm very grateful! Now, sit back and enjoy my first attempt at a vlog! The video quality is pretty bollocks and  I need to do something about it, but here we go...

As a final note for 2012 then, here's a rundown of how shit went down...

FALLEN HERO OF 2012; Mitch Lucker of Suicide Silence
A tribute over an award; RIP Mitch, you will be missed by the legions of SS fans everywhere.

BEST LIVE BAND; Marmozets

BEST EP/MINI-ALBUM; Marmozets; VEXED

BEST SONG; Muse; SURVIVAL

BEST BAND; Enter Shikari

BEST ALBUM; Enter Shikari; A FLASH FLOOD OF COLOUR

Happy New Year! x

AWESOME THINGS COMING IN 2013

There will be many awesome things in 2013, the majority of which are yet to be announced, but here's a comprehensive* list of the things we do know are going to happen.

New albums from;

• Paramore; Paramore (April 9th)
• Killswitch Engage; ? (April)
• Queens Of The Stone Age; ? (shrugs)
• Biffy Clyro; Opposites (January 28th)
• Bring Me The Horizon; Sempiternal (early 2013 but unknown)
• Animals As Leaders; ? (shrugs)
• Everything Everything; Arc (January 14th)
• 30 Seconds To Mars; ? (unknown but expected by summer)

Download Festival

Muse's Summer Stadium tour

Fall Out Boy reunion**

Mastodon are set to enter the studio to record the follow-up to 2011's The Hunter, but don't expect anything soon - expect another year's tour before we see a new album.

I'll add things as I come across them, but these are the main things I'm looking forward to. Of course, there are/will be tours attached to all the above new album releases, so fingers crossed for UK dates from the foreign bands.

* I'm lying. Comment below if there are any glaring omissions and I will gladly un-omit them, which is to say, add them to the list.
** I'm lying again, although I had a strange dream where it happened but I was Pete Wentz.

TOP 10 TRACKS OF 2012

Let there be no ado about this - a brief countdown of my top 10 songs from this year, more or less rated on how addicted to them I got. Set? Let's dive in.

10. Muse; UNSUSTAINABLE

The first we heard from The 2nd Law, containing (in my opinion) one of the best bits of music Muse have ever written (in the middle section), and all told a breathtaking live intro.

9. The Chariot; FIRST

The highlight of my 10/10 rated album from the mental metalcore pioneers. Metal x spaghetti western is all I'll say. Genius.

 

8. Rolo Tomassi; OLD MYSTICS

Full to the brim of shredtacular riffs and general brilliance.

 

 7. Parkway Drive; DARK DAYS

Brooding from the start, a killer riff, some brutal breakdowns and powerful vocals, it's PWD at their best.

 

6. Biffy Clyro; STINGIN' BELLE

A joyously triumphant song, and that's before the bagpipes come in. It's just awesome.

 

5. While She Sleeps; SEVEN HILLS

Everything that makes WSS good - heavy power with melody, emotion and an anthemic chorus.

 

4. Enter Shikari; GANDHI MATE, GANDHI

An absolute gem that continues to set ES apart. Dubsteppy beats, hardcore breakdowns and a classic Rou rant.

 

3. Marmozets; GOOD DAYS

I'd have settled for a song's worth of the opening sexalicious bass hook, but no, everything's awesome too. Way to keep getting better, guys.

 

2. Baroness; EULA

Lyrically clever, beautifully complex; an outstanding song.

 

1. Muse; SURVIVAL

A rousing, intentionally ridiculous but brilliant piece of Olympic bombasticness.

 

So, something Marmozets didn't win? I am still in possession of most of my marbles. Butt I just loved Survival so much, it was over-the-top, inspiring, but at the same time almost a pastiche of itself. The perfect Olympic theme, and a microcosm of why Muse are modern prog rock/the natural successors to the mighty Queen.

 

 

UPCOMING LIVE REVIEW; MUSE, PALACIO DE DEPORTES, MADRID

So, at long, long last I'm on the point of going to see my favourite band of all time for the 

third time, this time in Madrid because, well, I'm in Spain. So, review to come after! 

Apologies for the sporadic nature of my posting recently, for you see, I don't have internet in my

 flat because Orange are shit. 

Been using the local library if I need t'internet. Bit of a pain. Hey ho.

ALBUM REVIEW; MUSE - THE 2ND LAW

MUSE; THE 2ND LAW

10/10

Bombastic fantastic. Diverse perfection from the Devonshire gods.

The 2^nd Law is Muse's 6^th studio album, and shows just how far they have come since their first album Showbiz, more than a decade ago, from angsty teenagers to a band that have played a huge part in the evolution of modern prog rock. 

The most striking thing about The 2^nd Law is the way it merges together different styles of music, with a distinctive Muse spin, through the distinctive vocals (in particular the falsettos) of Matt Bellamy and the strength of the guitar, bass and drums in differing combinations. For example, opener Supremacy wouldn't be out of place in a Bond film with a healthy dose of dramatic strings alongside a huge riff, while next track Madness takes a sexy electronic detour with a naughty-bits-a-quiver synth bassline and wonderfully emotion-filled vocals. Candidate for best song on the album is Panic Station, the main port in Funk City – there a awful lot of groove going on here. (Non-disco) slappa-da-bass, trumpets, crazy guitar and a generally punchy rhythm that asks you to shake dat ass. Then there's the bombastic brilliance of Survival, a suitably rousing and over-the-top Olympic theme song, before diving into a Nero-produced beautiful maelstrom of swirling synths and bass drops (no dubstep here) in Follow Me, which feels like the most personal track on T2L – it contains a sample of the foetal heartbeat of Bellamy's son Bing as a base rhythm.

Animals is a concoction of melody with a fairly large riff; it remains almost haunting for a lot of the song, before picking up at the end, yet without becoming...raucous (I feel like a grumpy old man, writing the word 'raucous'), while Explorers is a quite beautiful piano-led quasi-ballad and Big Freeze is almost pop like in it's upbeat echoing guitar and bouncy drums. Then, the most interesting part of the album unfolds; the two tracks in which bassist and backing vocalist Chris Wolstenholme takes over on lead vocals for the first time on a studio album. Chronicling Wolstenholme's long, yet ultimately successful, battle with alcoholism, Save Me is deeply personal and rather lovely, showcasing a truly beautiful voice with matching, twinkling guitar work. Liquid State is also very personal, but by contrast is awarded Best Riff – the opening bass is classic Muse, and it is a different style of song to Save Me insomuch as it's much heavier - but both do Wolstenholme proud.

And then, to finish, we have the almost-instrumental almost-dubstep of Unsustainable, though done entirely on guitars. Backed by a driving strings rhythm, it's a fantastic moment when the 'drop' comes in, and the middle section, with squeaky guitar, powerful bass/drums and the strings once again, makes for one of the band's best compositions ever. Then, the very final track Isolated System carries a haunting guitar/piano harmony through subtle electronic beats to bring a close to an incredibly diverse and overall excellent album.

It really is a remarkable feat, what Muse have achieved. Several years in the making, musically perfect throughout and so well balanced; it is superb. It's not decided yet, but given how this has surpassed my expectations, will be in the running for the best album of 2012.

I'M ALMOST BACK BABY

I'll be back to the reviewing front tres soon; I've been quiet recently on account of 1. personal laziness (because listening to music then writing my opinion is SO difficult) 2. preparation to go abroad...which is happening the 27th. 4 days! ARGH.

But I'm queuing up a few reviews; One Wing by The Chariot, Gallows by, well, Gallows, Coexist by The xx, Battle Born by The Killers, and of course my most anticipated release of this year, The 2nd Law by Muse, which is out a week tomorrow. 

I'm also switching from a 0-5 star rating system to a 0-10 number system, because I think it's more representative.

And, I do plan to expand THE NOISE into Spanish upon my arrival, to open it up to everyone there. And then maybe French, because my housemate for the coming year is French and I'd like to brush up, and Catalan, because I'm going to Catalonia in Spain and they're veryyyyy independent. 

Hasta luego. EL RUIDO x

WE HAZ THE SEXY MADNESS

M-m-m-m-m-m-mad-mad.

First and foremost - Muse are not going to win many new fans with their new stuff, I don't reckon. They will probably lose fans, given their departure from the styles of albums past. New single Madness has divided opinion between bland, generic pop-sounding beige-ness and a sexy electronic evolution of their sound with the sort of subtle wubbing to set your naughty bits a-quiver. 

My opinion falls on the side of the latter opinion. 

I love it. No, it's not what you might expect from them. GOOD. Thinking outside your box is essential to music for it to grow and evolve. Madness is as Chris described it in an interview - a simple bass hook, that draws you in. It's one sexy-ass mo-fo. End of. Here's the video, out today.

ALBUMS, ALBUMS EVERYWAH

So, today saw an announcement from le mighty Deftones regarding...a new album, due out November 12! Excitement abounds, because I LOVE Deftones. The name's a bit of a, well, 'wtf?' moment;

Koi No Yokan

Maybe they've been to the Coldplay School Of Album Naming? But that is where I end my comparisons with them...my hatred of Coldplay is quite vehement and I don't want to tar Deftones with the same brush. 

But the point of this is to highlight an ever-growing list of albums that I'm ridiculously excited for that are due out before the end of 2012. And the nominees are:

1. Gallows - 'Gallows'
2. Muse - 'The 2nd Law'
3. Biffy Clyro - 'Opposites'
4. Rolo Tomassi - 'Astraea'
5. The Killers - 'Battle Born'
6. Coheed & Cambria - 'The Afterman: Ascension'
7. Neurosis - 'Honor Found In Decay'
8. The alleged new Queens Of The Stone Age album, which may or may not be released this year...
9. And I'm sure, even more to be found as I get into more bands. I'm going to need a bigger iPod...

MUSE 2ND LAW TRACKLISTING!

As a devout Muser, this makes me happy.

September 17...

NEW DAWN, NEW DAY, NEW LIFE, FEELING...CONFUSED.

I've thought for so long that Nina Simone's Feeling Good was the original...I never realised it was originally written for a musical, The Roar Of The Greasepaint and The Smell Of The Crowd. Go figure.


I may not, for the most part, like musical, but it doesn't make any impact of my opinion on the song; it's still my favourite song of all time, alongside Muse's version.

BOMBASTIC FANTASTIC - MUSE; 'SURVIVAL' 2ND IMPRESSION

If I'm perfectly honest, my initial reaction of new Muse track Survival was not entirely favourable. I didn't hate it as such, just didn't know how I felt.

My how times change.

I can honestly say I love it, and I can't wait to witness it live. It's over-the-top, bombastic, ridiculous, rifftastic, everything that makes Muse Muse. And if you're not a fan, well...

You tell 'em, Bells. Bring on The 2nd Law, I can't wait. 

On a slightly different note, this here playlist was created by It's A Muse Thing, You Wouldn't Understand on FaceyB. Listen and enjoyez. 

SURVIVAL OF THE MOST-QUEEN-SOUNDING - MUSE'S NEW SONG

So. Survival. 

I just don't know. 

It has several things that make it distinctly Muse; a few badass riffs, ridiculously grand orchestral-nicity, and the inimitable vocal stylings of Mr Matthew Bellamy. These are good things, but yet, I'm not sure. It's very Queen in several places, and it seems to me to lack a little coherence.

I'm basing this post on literally one listen to the song, and on the whole I'm not 100% convinced. It still, to me, sounds a bit The Resistance, when I (and I think a lot of people) were hoping for Absolution meets Origin Of Symmetry, I personally don't entirely think it's quite there. But hey, it's perfectly suited for the Olympics, as it is now the theme song, and further listens may bring with them more insight. So for now, I rate it 7/10. 

n.b. I realise this is like the 3rd consecutive Muse-themed post. Not deliberate, I've been working ridiculous hours the last few days and this is the only news I care about atm. There is the new Gallows song as well that I'll listen to soon.

THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOWBIZ-NESS

I always forget how good Muse's first album is. I've been on a bit of a Muse hype this afternoon because of my new tattoo (do tell me if I go on about it), and then I remembered I was going to see them in October and got all excited and listened to Absolution absurdly loudly when I was alone in the house, 'singing' all the way. 


Several albums later, including last but most definitely not least (such is the point of this post) Showbiz, I remembered how good the album actually is. When I've thought about it before, its always been 'an ok album, not their best, but with a few good tracks.' Then I realise that, when I list those good tracks to myself, that they make up three-quarters of the album, and that the rest is still awesome. Dare I say it, its better than The Resistance.


I've got a notion I've already done a post to this effect, but meh. Plz Muuse, we can haz moar noo moosics?

SO I GOT A MUSE TATTOO.

There's a lot of skin in that photo, but at least there's no nipple. Only just.

After many years of waiting/mustering up enough courage, I went and got a bit of the Absolution artwork indelibly inked on my shoulder. I love it and could not be happier.

People decry band tattoos (and tattoos in general) largely on the basis of something like "well, you won't always like the band, so what's the point? You'll just regret it." These people clearly do not understand Musers. Absolution is my favourite album of all time. It was the album that got me into rock - I had never heard a single song by them, but I'd heard the album existed because I'd heard Muse referred to on Radio 1 (I thought it was spelt Mews for crying out loud). So I bought it, loved it, bought more Muse, fell irreversibly in love with them, and here I am now, still just as mad about them - when I found out I had tickets, I squealed like a small child and couldn't sleep for 3 hours. 

But more than my adoration of the Devonshire gods, they inspired me so much musically - I wouldn't be half as good at the bass as I am now were it not for them (I'm so modest, I know). But seriously, learning Muse songs taught me so much technique that I owe them a lot. 

In summary, I owe the band an awful lot. Inspiration on a musical level, overwhelming happiness on the 2-soon-3 times I have seen them, appreciation of rock music which opened the floodgates to the wealth of random crap I listen to now - I don't think I'll ever regret it. Even if, in later life, it doesn't mean as much to me as it does now, I can look back and remember the period in my life when it was important. Besides, it's my first - there's sentiment to that too. 

Final note: if you're getting tattoos done in the Norwich area, go to Factotum Body Mods. They did mine, and the place is brilliant.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSICAL EVOLUTION.

I was watching the trailer for The 2nd Law, Muse's new album, which I've talked about here. It's divided opinion massively, from what I've seen, in so much as it appears that Muse are now incorporating dubstep into their sound. But there was a comment on the video that I thought sums everything up perfectly;

"People criticize when a band's style of music stay the same, but they also criticize when they change, so what can they do? Muse is a band that love experimentation, so yes they are far from their original music style, but they are right to evolve. If you're a Muse fan, you'll understand it." (Youtube user madlois1)

This person has hit the nail on the head. The very essence of music, as I see it, is to experiment, to push the boat out and make something truly unique that will stand the test of time and really stay in people's heads, so that later they'll look back and say "wow, they were brave and really went out on a limb to create something special, and it worked, even if they didn't entirely know what they were doing".

 If you stick to a standard formula, things might become generically popular, but it doesn't make them stand out. Most of my favourite bands are incredible because they push the limits of what people might expect from that band, and it breaks down the barriers of 'genre'. Bands such as Enter Shikari, Mastodon, Rolo Tomassi, Pink Floyd - they're all distinctive because they don't stick to a set formula. Each of those bands, just as examples, have songs in their respective repertoires that sound like they could have been written by different bands altogether, and that is what will help them last the test of time. 

Take Mastodon - I've spent too much time over the last day watching some of their 'making-of' documentary films about their albums, and it's really interesting to hear from them how in some songs, they really didn't know what they were doing, but just went with stuff because it sounded cool. It resulted in some of their best work. The song Creature Lives from The Hunter; the first time I heard it, I was just like "wut?". Listen to it, then listen to something like Blood And Thunder from Leviathan. Could be different bands. But Creature Lives is my favourite song from that album, because it's just...epic. And it's things like that that have made Mastodon into one of the world's finest metal bands, because they stand out and aren't afraid to be unique and unusual. 

So back to my original point, regarding Muse. People may criticise, but I would say that they don't truly respect and appreciate the band's vision, their willingness to remove themselves from their comfort zone so that they can make something that's never been heard before, to blend genres and make something undefinable that really holds its own as being truly unique. 

The root of inherently great music is to do what the hell you like, not to worry about a definition, and above all, be different. Because it's fun, too. 

Keep your eyes peeled, because I'm going to try something new soon, a giveaway...if you like Japanese Voyeurs then it will be of particular interest. But I haven't actually considered how it's going to work yet.

A BLAST FROM THE (RELATIVE) PAST; MUSE - FURY (LIVE)

I've just been having a dig around in my laptop's folders to try and create some order out of the general chaos they're in, and I stumbled upon this gem.

In keeping with my current Muse-adoration because they allocated me some tickets for their upcoming show in Madrid on October 22 (do tell me if I go on about it), here be Fury, live from the Royal Albert Hall in 2008 in support of Teenage Cancer Trust.

IMO, this is one of Muse's best songs, and too-oft forgotten I think, being as it's a B-side (from the Sing For Absolution single/bonus track on Absolution's re-release). Enjoy.

I NO CAN HAZ TICKETS FOR MUUUSE?

Why, Muse, why? 

"We have been overwhelmed with the response. All applicants will be notified by email on Tuesday 12th June."

You have just over 2 hours. I WANT TO KNOW IF I HAVE YOUR SPECIAL FAN PRE-SALE TICKETS. 

It is fair to say that if I don't, then I'll just get on it when tickets go on general sale on the 14th. 

BUT STILL THOUGH.

Has anyone actually got any? Let me know. x