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3rd July 2008 - Wassadillio.

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Hell of a day, nothing big happened at all..well actually... a few hours ago i got invited to a wedding of an old good friend...which will make them my third married friends, but the first where I will be at the wedding.....the first which i'm invited to the wedding.... But I don't know... I'm writing this at 4:29 am In the van to the airport to play a festival in france.
I haven't slept.. and my mouth tastes of stale meat... i haven't really eaten today, mainly through lazyness rather than anything else, i'm kinda thirsty... i digress....

I did a blog post yesterday... which was an attempt at a comedic (but 100% truthful ) list of online insults regarding my person, ending with the guardians review of our glastonbury show on the john peel stage... i don't think my humour translated yet again... so i deleted it.. but just so you know, the review in question I pretty much agreed with, I left the tab on my firefox browser with the review open for a good few days just to look at every morning and every night, i also found 10 other pages of insults e.t.c and left them open and would look at them from time to time... is that weird? I guess... i think it's effecting my songwriting... i've closed at least 4 of the tabs now...slowly but ... yes, i do have a problem.. I plan on shortening the set... well that was the plan, untill i literally.. as i was thinking about this, got an email saying the benicassim set has to be 60 minutes long... gulp!!!

I went to see the amazing Ladyhawke tonight, so so sooo sick! Please try and catch her live... Luckily she was playing tonight, a random day off in london... this is the lead up to said event...

I met up with Fred Ox Eagle and his flatmate Ant. They said they knew a small cafe we could go and chat in, as we stood outside we made funny remarks about how it looks like a "nationalist cafe" whatever that means.
Needless to say, when we sat down, the woman working there gave ant and fred a menu each, looked at me, then walked away... we burst into laughter.

Walking to go see Ladyhawke now..I pass the back of a girl I almost instantly recognize but keep walking anyway, I hear her speaking to whom I assume is her boyfriend behind me but I keep walking... the reason I keep walking is that this girl is actually a girl I once cared very much for. I'm almost certain too tat she cared for me quite a bit.. why aren't we together? Good question... with a horrible answer...

I blew it.

I know, with all this talk I do on this blog... whine whine wallow wallow whatever..

The reason I didn't turn back and speak to this girl is because she once ended a text message.. (the last she ever sent to me) with ..

"...Please never speak to me again."

And so I obeyed, I figured it was the least I owed her.
I never went out with her... it was more complicated than that, but only because I made it, that very same night she sent the text i laid the very final straw that indeed broke the camels back.. after dumping non stop barrels of hay on her.

Anyway... after the Ladyhawke show in the same venue I bumped into a friend I hadn't seen in a long time, and she was confessing to me a love she had for a guy that was acting like he really liked her, then when he could have her, acted cold.. which i thought was quite appropriate for the fact that I had just passed the girl i spoke about earlier...

In fact... I lied, i didn't obey her command to "...never speak to" her again..

Half a year ago I sent her a text... there was no reply... I like to think that she's changed numbers, so never received my text, and thus I still haven't "spoken" to her.

NOW. All of this reminded me of an incident a few days ago on a plane.. where I was struck down with an 84% feeling I was going to die in a crash.. I feel weird even typing this, fuck... well... I went to put my diskman on (yes, my diskman) but there were no batteries.
So I thought to myself, wow, this is like a bad film.. what do they do in these situations, I then remembered the stereotypical answer is to think of the happiest moment of your life..

Ok I don't know for sure if this is or not.. but I remembered the night after god knows how long of being friends, this girl told me she had strong feelings for me, and we kissed. I couldn't believe it.. we held hands... sat in the corner of this horrible party untill 7 am.. then decided to walk home... and then stayed awake outside in the sun lying on the floor the whole of that day, which was a sunday.
I think other factors as to why this was a happy time was, unlike right now as I write this blog and any other moment in my life...if i remember correctly, i didn't feel sick.. my stomach was in a rare complimentary mood.
Also... I had paid my rent in advance, so no hassles there either... and I think I had enough money at the time to at least eat 3 or 4 meals that week...

By the time I had come to that point, the plane was about to land.


28th June 2008 - Path(etic) Rock

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(Derek and Me)

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(I wrote this blog a week ago.. I think, whatever)

And here it is, it comes down to this moment.

Me sweating, fevering, shitting, backstage at the troubadour in l.a, whilst stevie wonder plays over the p.a. It's one of those.. "what's wrong with me? am i going to die?" fevers where our life flashes before your eyes...

I think about a few nights ago when at 3am on my own, i bombed on my board all the way down a huge hill at a ridiculous pace.. the trucks trebling, cars zipping past honking, drunken youths shouting at me... I stood up from my low position, still riding the board, and still racing down the hill... i opened my arms out and closed my eyes. Was that moment the purest moment of my life?

I think about the girl I saw in wholefoods this morning... no words exchanged, i saw her for literally 3 seconds... but was that love? no chance for letdowns disappointments arguments future grief of any kind.. just a glancing look.. I also think what the fuck have i been eating for a month to make me get to this point, pretending my stomach is like other peoples when really we all know from countless horrible moments... it is NOT!!!!

I've turned the lights off in the bathroom.. maybe that will cool me off some more. (And yes I have taken my hat off....) .i can hear explorers club playing their set now..
I can't wait to play... but at his moment in time i can;t face anyone nor can I stand up... i want to go to bed. I don't have one, Officially homeless.. completely.. fuck.. whatever... think about now.

I'm gonna be sweating soo much onstage fuck... Derek from flowers last night said i was sweating soo much and using the towel in between every song, it looked like i was on speed.
He'e nicknamed me "Light speed-Freak".

geddit?

I bought some peptobismal... where is it? remember, I need to find it, fuck... i also need to stop going into bathrooms with my laptop.. people must think i'm being sordid sad truth is i like the company, and only really excrete when i'm feeling ill. so it distracts me.. just like how i need to watch something, like a programme, tv show when i eat... to distract myself from the fact that i'm eating, it's not an anorexic thing, I just hate feeling ill, and most food makes me ill.. shit!? People waiting to get in, the lights off.. so they think no ones in, hope they dont break the door down, me sitting here topless sweating with a laptop on my lap.. OK... get up, get up you cunt.. ok, I'm leaving... .. .


Thursday 19th June 2008 - STAN (RIGHT) D(U)ARD

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Taken by Julian Gilbert

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"Funnily enough, me and C were saying we have the perfect girl for you..."

"No way!!" I screamed. In recent times i've given up the pretending I'm not desperate game, i've also given up the "Don't talk about girls on the blog" rule... fuck it... fuck.it... We're in the dressing room of a show on the u.s tour... my friend M after hearing me moan about girls for the thousandth time has decided to intervene with the help of his girlfriend C.

"Yeah, we were talking and C was saying oh she would be perfect for Dev."

"That's amazing, where is she... is she coming to the show?"

"Yeah she is.. you can meet her after, she's currently being hit on by (actor guy, who's in a film that once made me cry, girls love him)".

Of course she is..I think.. sigh, "JESUS!! So I have no chance?"

"No... if you can believe it, she's turning him down.."

"WHAT!!! wow, ok.. wow.... she's coming then? fuck... what does she look like? does she have myspace? forget I said that.. ok.. sweet..."

"There's actually another girl I originally thought of, I think she'd be better for you..."

"Oh man.. wow, ok, make it happen!!"

"She's married."

Fuck.



We had some time to kill before the show, as always, so I walked around a bit, watched the other bands... a couple of my friends came down so we hung out on the staircase by the merch.. I swear to god the most ridiculously beautiful girl walked past us... but it was another one of those situations where either m taste is completely different to everyone else's, or just, the people that i'm with are used to seeing amazing looking girls. Whatever.
I think to myself... there DEFINITELY should be a limit on hotness at these shows, it gives me a stomach ache.

The show ends.

Backstage .. I'm sweating, my red eye I get after every show is in full swing.. did I mention i'm sweating? I'm sweating....

"Hey dev!! "

M walks in with C and a few more people.

"Oh man.. how's it going?"

"Hey dev... this is K..."

Obviously it's the amazingly beautiful girl I saw whilst on the staircase. Obviously.

Did I mention I was sweating?

K sits down next to me... M smirks a little and talks to some people.

I'm sitting talking to K.. sweet beautiful K...special K... sorry, had to do that...

The conversation is flowing, easy... maybe all the red bull and cokes were getting to me..but I was feeling a connection, and she's honestly.. so amazing... music talk, if ever there's something I can talk for hours about...

I break away to talk to M.

Dude,, amazing.. you guys were right... we get on so well.. i can't believe this might actually happen, marriage , kids...e.t.c.."

M grimaces...

"Oh man... bad news... this is erm.. this IS the married girl."

The island vanishes.

Later on I get a redemption text from M.

"Didn't wanna say before, but the whole reason we came back after the show is because K wanted to meet you.. hope this doesn't make things even darker..."

No, no it doesn't.
Because i'm such a pathetic soul that I take solace in little things Like this..

Obviously i am NEVER going to talk to this girl ever ever ever again.. In a twisted way I'm happy with this ending.

Whatever.


13th June 2008 - Mrazmt

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I have been doing short episodes of late, in regards to the American tour i'm on right now, you can view them by clicking the link below, or by going to the Lightspeed myspace...

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OK!
Serious talk now.

I'm ready to talk about it, the LOST Season 4 Finale.

It was yet another great one from the LOST team.
Tears.. screaming..anxiety..suicidal thoughts.. and this was all from me whilst I was watching it.
I'm not sure i'm going to be able wait untill Febuary 2009... whatever.. i'll just watch every single episode that exists again up untill that moment, maybe there's a time schedule I can work out that would mean I get a good regular dose up untill the season 5 premiere.... I hope.. I'll get to work on it soon.

I had a pretty strong theory about the supposed HUGE clue the producers put in the original Pilot that links up until Season Four...It even got printed up in the Main newspaper in Philadelphia... Now that's some realness.

So obviously.. i've fallen in love multiple times on this tour thus far.. it happens, Some of the times are actually whilst i'm onstage, a subject i've touched upon many 'a fucking time...
Last night for example, the most beautiful girl was pretty close to the stage dancing... I can't handle that... seriously.. it's too much, I had to close my eyes for pretty much the rest of the set.. at least she wasn't making out with her boyfriend..That's the worst, when it happens i always imagine i'm in some kind of 80's film that's actually a mock up of the 50's (or 60's, or 70's....or 80's or 90's actually) where The only way to get the cheerleader is to get my band to play at the dance.
That way Chuck the football captain would have no chance, so i'm up onstage rocking guitar. I see the girl... let's call her 'Maria' .. anyway.
Maria is now dancing, she's left her friends to go towards the front of the stage.. she cares not for what they think... things look like they're going towards a good ending, then Chuck walks in from nowhere whilst i'm playing, and kisses Maria, whilst the performance is a huge success, and a man in a suit walks up to me whilst i'm onstage offering me a contract... I turn it down saying..
"Yo, home don't play that card game chief...i'm doing this one on my own terms...."
Then years later i'm homeless with no money, and no friends because the crazy jazz prog trend I was tailing has suddenly died... I turn on the tv in my howard johnson hotel i'm staying in for free for a few nights because my cousin dwayne works in one downtown... I turn on the t.v. and see chuck and maria...
They have their own reality show on mtv... and it's about their marraige... Maria is now a famous model, she was found on myspace... they were amazed when they saw she actually looked like her photos... she was the last great person on the site before it got crushed in the great online war ....wait, i'm mixing up time spans... whatever.. this story transcends time.. just like LOST... annnndddddd BREAK!

Whatever.
So yeah at the new york show I was telling my friend how there should be some kind of limit on hotness of girls at lightspeed shows.. it's too much, why are you listening to this!?!? Listen to Jason Mraz or MGMT...(two great artists).. but y'know what I mean right? Sorry, is this on the verge of being offensive?
It's 6am... i can't be to blame.

We're up in the lobby of the hotel in Toronto as I write this.
The show last night was sold out... so fucking crazy!! I don't really understand, pretty awesome though!! it's odd because the night before there was about 20 people!? I've enjoyed playing every show thus far though. Flowers Forever Explorers Club are two great bands!!!
In fact my least favourite days are the ones in which we don't play..."Travel Days".....

So i digress, we're up this early so we can go to Niagra Falls on the drive to Pittsburgh tonight. My best friend Fifi is on the road with us also, but she doesn't have an exemption letter, so on the way across the border she had to take the greyhound and meet us..
Even more awesome than that greyhound ride is the fact that she has to walk across the border today... I really wanna do it....

"hello america..hello canada .. hello america... hello canada..."
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So we're back from niagra falls... alot of water. Who knew..

HOLY COW!
Have I spoken about Conan yet? that was crazy, didn't meet Kim Cattrell.. but Anna saw her in the toilets!!
I wish I saw her on... wait.

Forget it.
sweet.


Saturday 7th june 2008 - The day my face broke open

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(1st pic Central Park with Julian)
(2nd pic Julians room with Fifi Brown)

CONAN O'BRIAN FUCKKKK OH FUCKKK WE JUST PLAYED TODAY, FUCKK JUST WATCHED IT, FUCKKK FUCKKKKK SHZBVMAXNCB FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!

FUCKING HELL!!!!!!

Anyway,

Hey everyone, it's been a hell of a long time since I last wrote an entry, so I thought I would in this drive into new york, American tour has been sick so far.
The shows with Adam Green were sooo cool and Flowers Forever are literally one of the best bands ever!
OK!!
So here's something disgusting. Ya'' wanna hear it? Listen up yo.

Remember I had a blood infection not to long ago? Well due to going on tour again days after I had finished my medicine course, I eventually managed to get an abscess on my face... it was horrible, I think there's a picture below this post mid growth, holla.
Check it... it went down a bit as I realised I have no time to see a doctor..
So last night in Phillidelphia, I was sitting on the toilet and started playing with my face...(as you do) and.. oh god, my stomach turns thinking about this... but it popped.

My face popped open...broke open. whatever.
I've never seen so much gnarly shit in my life, and it sprayed all across the cubicle door, there was blood all over the floor, and I really wish I was exagerating...

So as i'm running out the toilet with my face leaking... I notice Flowers Forever have finished playing .. meaning that we were meant to go on pretttyyy soon.

Luckily, my mother when she came to see us play a couple weeks earlier had packed me a first aid kit. (Another funny story actually... i forgot she gave it to me, and came across amongst some luggage, and i saw a box which i thought were condoms, and was struck horrid thinking 'oh my god my mum has packed me condoms, but it turned out to be paracetamol. My mother knows me tooo well it seems).
Anyway!!
So I ran to a mirror, and started taping my face up with plasters, Nelly style.. great.. THEN obviously, I remember, that the show was being filmed for public access tv... so many fears, sweat dripping down my face taking the plaster off...my face then leaking with puss-blood..lame, whatever...
Gahhhddd though, it's the next day and the actually toilet face break..ahh, it keeps replaying in my mind.. in slow motion, oh godddddd please stopp!!!!

The show actually was a comedy of errors, everything breaking, and I mean everything... jeeezeus... it was cool though!

Hey, i'm in the new spin magazine, and it's the one with weezer on the cover... i can quit music happy.

Also, The Red Album is one of my favourites i think, deluxe edition.

p.s.... i do NOT want to talk about the LOST two hour finale, i cried... i'm not even slightly ashamed at admitting that, I have heart yo.

So since I last wrote in this, we played some quite next level shows!
Royal albert hall, evolution festival, prima vera.... prima vera was interesting, I think we were the only band on the bill with choruses apart form dinosaur jr...who were fucking sickkkkk!!!!!!

Actually whilst I was sitting watching them from afar, more listening I guess, a guy came up to me saying
"Hey man, I really love your album....shame it tanked."

Jeez.

ANYWAY.
Upcoming projects.

1. Lavender Bridge the hip hop album.... yes, actually,
2. Making a movie of the whole of the american tour... in similar vain to my recent youtubes, i'm sorry....
3. Shout out to fifi. Peace.




23rd May 2008 - Blogging Molly

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Original draft of an article I wrote for NME magazine published 21st May 2008

The End Of The World, Time Travel and Michael Jackson

The large Hadron Collider is the worlds largest particle accelerator .. or atom smasher to some, which is in it's final stages of production.
It is a collaboration with over 2000 different physicists in a hope to create the Higgs Boson...which is a WHOLE OTHER kettle of fish,
The whole project has cost between 5 and 10 billion dollors and should answer some of the questions of the greatest scientific minds in the world.

Anyway, The "LHC" for short, will be opened in Geneva around some time in August of this year.

And I think i'm the only person slightly freaking out about this...

We could be facing year zero!?!? What relevance then would Michael Jackson have... someone who's sold over 700 million records... what would that mean if technically he didn't exist before 2008? I digress...

... and once opened, two Russian scientists have predicted the end of a "closed timelike curve".. which could result in essentially the creation of a "Time Machine."
Now because you can't travel further back than the invention of the first time machine.. this would mean that 2008 will thus become "Year Zero"?

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If we found traces of the past after that, like footage of Michael Jackson walking out onstage at Earls Court to receive his Award and not being able to give his speech due to overwhelming screams, tears and general jubilation from the public.. would we see this man as god?
In his performance that same night he walked out, and said I love you multiple times to the audience , 85 per cent of which were in tears... what does it mean to be a God? Or to be someone special? Magic? Someone that can move someone just by standing in front of them into such happiness that their tear ducts burst.

The two men that I mentioned earlier are pursuing this case in federal court in Hawaii right now.. it's kinda crazy, imagine if they win, they could have saved the world and we wouldn't even really know if they did.... apart from when we go back in time and change the course of events, but even then... we couldn't, because we wouldn't be able to travel beyond the point of it opening...and we wouldn't be travelling back in time anyway because, well they would have succeeded in their case to not open it.

I doubt they will win though,. as Scientists have been running tests non stop checking such things and the theory did get squashed a while ago... but you know...there's always that bit of doubt in the back of our minds.

It's like the 1995 Michael Jackson performance for the MTV awards.. He did a 12 minute medley of pretty much of all of his songs up until his recent hit of the time 'Dangerous'. Slash even came out and joined him... (but solo'd for way too long, an assistant had to run onstage and tell him to stop because they were about to go into 'beat it'.) Anyway, I told my friend Martin that this performance would blow his mind. I've told alot of people, even when I first watched it, I didn't want to believe it..I think the world has forgotten quite how incredible Michael Jackson is, 104 million records of One album... the biggest ever, no one will ever beat that, ever. And even more incredible, he's only made 5 solo records of all new material....700 million sold though, 8 Grammy awards on just ONE record...so yeah.. obviously the performance was going to be mind blowing, the doubt in the back of all our minds, was truly blown away.... so if there's a possibility of our minds being blown... then we should probably allow and accept the fact that... well, shit might happen.

The lawsuit was filed 21st march in Honolulu and hopes to stop CERN from running The LHC untill a detailed safety report is provided. Fair enough I guess,..

But maybe ..if it did create a black hole.. it's what everyone needs anyway..a new slate..

But then who will create the next "Thriller'? How long would the world have to wait for another 'Moonwalk' live from the Motown 25th Anniversary special..

Irony would be that a black hole is endless but i see it as a kind of net to stop falling in. whatever..

Anyway, one of the guys that is filing the lawsuit has filed such things before... also against Colliders, the last one was in 2000... and The Ion Collider has never had any problem.

Dr. Arkani - Hamed doesn't give these wild claims any merit...and that because of the random nature of quantum physics, that almost anything could happen.
"The Large Hadron Collider might make dragons that might eat us up"...

lol.

That's like black people turning white.
Crazy Talk.

Drawing and Writing by Dev Hynes


10th May 2008 - Photoboot In The Balls.

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A month in 'photobooth' macbook applications.

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1. At my parents house, on meds getting over blood infection.
2. Leaving for Practice with string section day before tour.
3. On tour in Birmingham, Eddie Ox Eagle Lion Man, Jareth lurking in background.
4. Abscess on my face, thank you on going blood infection, I look like john merrick.
5. Jamaica.
6.Mini R2D2 given to me by awesome fan in Dublin.
7. Present from Tower Records Dublin 1 - Bubble Head Darth Vader.
8. Present from Tower Records Dublin 2 - Bubble Head Storm Trooper.
9. Present from Tower Records Dublin 3 - Cantina Showdown Toy Models.


27th April 2008 - Thek Off Keith Cheguevara

I should start living out some fucking cliches..
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I always used to say that cliches are just truths though. Maybe ..
I can see it now...
I drew the above picture for some mini strip I did a week or so ago... it was called the cliched touring life of dev.... no one will ever see it... except for this panel I guess.

ANYWAY!!!

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Touring started up again yesterday in Luton, with Ox Eagle Lion Man and Operator Please as support. To celebrate we put two mentos in a bottle of 7up free....
Both amazing bands, if you're coming down, please come early and catch them..

I'm sorry though, to anyone that came to the Luton show.. I was still a little shakey due to infected blood, i still am now to be honest. I also feel we played for too long, I wasn't sure what to do.. I swear I could see people walking away mid song... no one likes acoustic numbers... unless it's a cover. an uplifting one.. I dunno... short and sweet.. we came on late.. it's the first date, that rhymes, I didn't mean it to.

I still find all of this so weird, people coming to the shows.. it's something I can't get used to.. these songs, these moany songs... whateverevrveveerevevevrevevrvevr.

I'm backstage in Bristol right now.
Ever since I was younger i've had on goign problems with being outside in the daytime.

It's something I can't even begin to explain ..but I don't know, as you could imagine, I get quite a bit of stick.. whether it be physical, a laugh, or pointing, staring, e,t,c,e,t,c,,, it gradually got worse over the years, how I dealt with it rather than the actions the people were making.

It progressed to a bad point..

A couple years ago, I was quite, depressed... aghh. i hate that word, I feel it's power has been completely taken away over the years... it's such an overly used term, in the same way I guess Love has been denied it's true power.
But to get to the point.... I wasn't in a good way, in fact I was writing alot of the songs from this album during this period...'Devil Tricks..." which was the start of a period of staying indoords just so I didn't have to deal with the people outside. Well, obviously I did and do go outside in the daytime, there's unavoidable moments, and in fact, the only place in London I found I felt safe and Ok to walk around and quite happy at times was around Oxford street and central London, but anyway, east london is differant, especially where I had chosen to live. In dalston... around hackey e.t.c......
One day everything got to a point where my reaction to such abuse escalated. I won't go into detail, there was quite a period and it affected me in quite away, and those around me..

I'm thinking about this now, because just now, i decided to break free from my hiding indoors at a venue,,, mainly because I hadn't eaten.. and still haven't in 3 days now....
So I ventured out with my band around Bristol.. things were fine at first, but soon.. well.. I won't go into ti but the terms coon and nigga were thrown around, whatever.. I guess it's re assuring that white people still hate me as much as black rude boys...(they were actually punks too, i shouted something back about "not knowing it's 1982 still".. then looked for a gun to shoot them in the balls... but couldn't find one)...

I walked back to the venue.Like a fucking loser.

And here I am now.

Last night was pretty interesting...if I may go back to that...I'm trying new things, new life experiments, yet again, something I do from time to time, lifestyle experiments... they usually fail, But last nights first step was... hmm... depending on how you look at things... o.k... is this making any sense? I think i'm losing it.


I should end on something positive... and something pretty fucking mind blowing!!
Actually... I'll wait, makes it more interesting then.... but god knows i'm fucking nervous, I was nearly sick when I found out... whatever.

I'm now in the hotel room in Bristol, i feel we played better than yesterday, we didn't do encore tonight as last night literally scared me possibly out of ever doing an encore. I reasoned why earlier... oh well...

I'm going to watch a downloaded south park episode.. we don't have to leave the hotel until late tomorrow.. so maybe I will eat in the morning.... eat my words!!!!!!


19th April 2008 - mind blocked

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(based on a dream I had couple nights ago.)

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It;s 3:30 am, saturday morning.. it's been a week and 2 days since I flew back to london from switzerland and came to my parents house in essex on crutches not able to walk.
I've finished the first course of drugs that I had to take to get rid of the infection..
I've only left the house twice. Once to see the Doctor and another time with my mother and niece for a food run, apart from that I just stay in the spare room which has somehow transformed itself into my adolescent bedroom... somehow my memories have all been relegated to this room in my mind even though it didn't exist before,

I haven't seen anyone, I guess I had no choice in that matter.. as I have been incapacitated but there's also the factor of I don't really know how to communicate with anyone anymore.. being away for so long at a time...it's strange..

Now i'm feeling somewhat marginally better than I did a week ago.
A strange new cycle in my sleep pattern has emerged though... one that I guess makes sense, i've always had trouble sleeping, and getting roughly a few hours has always been suffice enough.
Play a show, get back to hotel... fall asleep around 4 maybe... wake up 8 ish...

But now, and I guess due to exhaustion or the infection i've been falling asleep almost like clockwork at 9:20 pm then waking up around 1:00am... then I stay awake. At first it was really frustrating.. but it's been a solid week like this now, so whatever I guess.

I've been stressing about songs for the next album again somewhat, it comes in phases, sometimes i'm so happy and can't contain my excitement for new songs, then I realise they're all shit and I want nothing to do with them..
A few songs constantly stay exciting to me... but i've started to worry my writing is getting too similar in chords, and somewhat lazy.
I listened to Lavender Bridge today.... i don't know where my mind was when I was writing it, well, i know exactly where it was.. but some of the chords are soo nice, and I know this may sound weirs, as I did write it. But it was really refreshing to listen to these album versions. Is it weird taking influence from yourself? I don\t know.. i mean. If you can't listen to the music you make then why are you making it?.. that\s the only reason I write songs anyway,. and I guess I forgot that for a while.

So today I got somewhat inspired... it really does come in phases.

But alas, in this bed (which is pretty much all this room is), which I haven't really left in a week.. there is a guitar.. but it did only have four strings, then my niece used it, and snapped another string, usually i'd be ok with this, but not today..

I finally ventured down the staircase to the piano, but it's so out of tune... again I usually wouldn't mind but not today, today i need something solid. Although this piano has served me well over the years,

I remembered when moving out, my red gibson copy electric should be here at my parents house somewhere.,.. alot of my stuff is here, spread evenly between here and my friend sylvias place...(sylvia who kindly lets me stay at her place when i'm in london)... i looked for the guitar, the most active i've been since being in europe.
It was nowhere to be found.
I sent my sister a text message asking if she brought back with her when she was helping move out, she replied saying she was sorry but she had it with her,

So alas, no instrument.. so i decided to just record acapella tracks.
And sing some of the instrumentation that I wanted,
When I get in these phases I have to record... I admit, the results were somewhat disappointing and left me again in a state of musical despair. .. shit.

Now some good music.

Have you heard of Niyi? you should check his myspace out... I saw his video for poached eggs a couple of days ago, and i thought it was amazing.. please look it up... where it's not a musical form I would usually listen to, something about the video struck me and I couldn't avert my eyes from it.

Also Ladyhawke! I'm not joking... "Back of the van" is one of the best songs i've heard this year.. first week of European tour i couldn't get it out of my head.. the other songs on her myspace are also amazing!

Soko also, you've probably already heard her because you're all much more on the ball than I am, but whenever I talk to her she seems to share a common ground musically with me and her lyrics are so genuine, I wish I could write lyrics like that, genuine without sounding shit as I've been told countless times hah,

A few nights ago I watched way too many michael jackson documentaries online.. that martin bashir one is still killer.. that shit's crazy, i couldn't even finish it as I started getting scared,.. i can't even explain what was scaring me.. it was late... whatever..

Another scary factor,,, I find it increasingly difficult to open myspace messages on the Lightspeed account. It's slowly been creeping up on me , But i'm terrified, I'm sick of all the wise alec messages and insults... so i just leave them unread, which kinda sucks, and saddens me that it's got to that...sometimes people even trick you into thinking it's going to be a nice message.

I get it on my personal too sometimes.. sometimes... actually no one bothers to message me anymore.. and i've had about 4 phonecalls this week. I really don't have contact with alot of people... hmm.. i'm treading over ground i've rolled on way too many times.

I can't believe Trans World Sport is still on t.v? wow...I haven't seen this in years!
Ok, i'm rambling now.

I'm going to go over the acapella tracks I recorded today and write a list of things that suck about them.

SHIT. Just remembered a cover/remix I did needs to be edited.. I guess i'll do that instead... fuck.. why did I have to get sick... it's much better when you're just touring and you don't have time to think about things...

Looking back through my flickr, i used to take much better photos.. i need to step up my game... step up 3...

Another truth bomb that's been simmering in my mind are all the relationships i've somehow managed to destroy with people, whether as friends or something more or both. Some really special ones.. people that will never talk to me again, not for one specific reason, but mainly for lots of little reasons.. and there's nothing I can do about it. People i've really cared about, gone... just slightly out of reach... the worst is hearing about people. Not even seeing them, or stalking them online, because they're presence only exists in the real world... real people, can you imagine? I have someone in mind i'm thinking about right now... god I fucked that up.. fuck fuck.... i wrote a song about it some months ago, i actually demoed it on the laptop that broke at christmas... i can kind of remember it.. the music was pretty shit, but the lyrics i was pouring my heart out.. i can't remember them, i've tried to recreate it at several points this year.. but failed every time.. it was about one of the happiest moments of my life that I could remember... fuck...

I really am writing nonsense now.

End on a positive.....erm.

It's now 20 to 5 in the morning and i'm watching st.elsewhere whilst looking up a character on the show online to see what they're doing now.

"I'll eat my candy with the pork and beans."

Good morning/night.




18th April 2008 - Free Music.

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Live Set from Austin, Texas for WOXY.COM

Hey everyone, here's an mp3 of a whole live session Mike and I did in Texas for Woxy.com.

There's some interview stuff in the middle also... it's all pretty stripped down, just me singing, guitar, piano and mike on the violin.

Here's the set we did....

tell me what it's worth

everyone I know is listening to crunk

no surprise

dry lips

(A longer than I remembered it to be Interview)

galaxy of the lost

midnight surprise


Enjoy the free music! Let me know what you think!

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16th April 2008 - oh man.

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The camden crawl show is cancelled... not because of the above reason, i was trying to be funny... I failed... it's cancelled because of the whole body infection thing... I can walk again now kinda though.. that's a good thing right?

So anyway, today has actually been a good day so far, well, a good morning at least.
First of all, my constant googling for the new weezer single payed off, as it was played on KROQ for the first time this morning, my god... i love that band soooo much. I've been waiting for so long...
Second great thing that happened this morning was my friend Jackson telling me that LOST are going to be doing a TRIPLE bill for the season four finale....

I only care about Weezer and LOST, which is something most people should know about me.

Man... life is just downhill from now, apart from obviously when the red album comes out and when the LOST triple bill airs... fuck...

I attempted working on some songs this morning...,as this illness has free'd up some time for me... but I seem to have lost the ability to do so.
I keep getting distracted with the constant taste of drugs in my mouth.

I semi wrote a song about it .. but it sucked.

If only you knew how hard i'm trying not to write about girls right now, i'm literally searching my brain for something else.. something that isn't moaning about how shit the medication course i'm on is making me feel or females.... but yeah. the only other two things that occupy my mind are LOST and Weezer... standard really.

I had a dream I spoke to Socrates last night, but i can't really remember what he said to me.. imagine if it was something of grand importance, and I managed to force it out of my brain because I was so excited about the new weezer song.. sorry, I've spoken about it too much haven't I?
fuck.
Anyway, it sucks we can't do camden crawl, we were going to play as our alter ego's "Certo Boyo" ...they were gonna 'tear y'all faces off'... but maybe another time.

If you get the time check out this bulletin I did yesterday, had some good music in it.

Lightspeed Myspace Bulletin

I'm having some trouble with a song at the moment... I can't come up with a non shit melody line.. dya think I should just keep it instrumental? I was thinking in the future of doing an instrumental album, so should I save it for that? but then what if musically it doesn't match up? maybe I should force out a vocal melody, it's been a long time fighting with this song... actually, I just remembered no one cares.

Hospital tomorrow, I fucking hate them.

I have to stop typing now, before my head explodes.

edit: i'm in love with ashley tisdale, i can't believe she's older than me!! My god...


Whatever dude.


15th april 2008 - stranded

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11th april 2008 - home

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I'm in my parents house. Reading the watchmen and listening to paramore....

How did this come to be? One second on tour in europe somewhere next second relegated back to the age of 15...(although it was Taking Back Sunday when i was 15..)..

Well ladies and gentlemen...to cut a semi long story short. I got taken to hospital in Switzerland as I couldn't walk..we all thought it was torn ligaments in both my ankles... but it turned out an infection that had started in my tooth had slowly spread throughout my body and made it's way down to my ankles, rendering them useless except for the art of excruciating pain.

Everything is related though, headaches, cold sweats... fevers, loose bowels, constant tiredness...exhaustion gone into overdrive due to no immune system at all.. and any little that i did have has been trying to fight this infection that's been slowly taking over my body.

So I got flown straight back to london, wheel chaired around an airport...

and here I am at my parents house about to take some hard (prescribed) drugs.

SEE YOU NEXT TOUR!


8th april 2008 - The LHC Part 2

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Two men are filing a lawsuit in the united states hoping to block usage of The Large Hadron Collider.
The reasom for the lawsuit goes back to an earlier theory...that the worlds biggest particle accelerator that opens in Geneva this summer will create a black hole that will swallow the world, and maybe the universe.
The two men are pursuing this case in federal court in Hawaii right now.. it's kinda crazy, imagine if they win, they could have saved the world and we wouldn't even really know if they did.... apart from when we go back in time and change the course of events, but even then... we couldn't, because we wouldn't be able to travel beyond the point of it opening...

I doubt they will win though,. as Scientists have been running tests non stop checking such things and the theory did get squashed a while ago... but you know...there's always that bit of doubt in the back of our minds.

The lawsuit was filed 21st march in Honolulu and hopes to stop CERN from running The LHC untill a detailed safety report is provided. Fair enough I guess,..

But maybe ..if it did create a black hole.. it's what everyone needs anyway..a new slate..

Irony would be that a black hole is endless but i see it as a kind of net to stop falling in. whatever..

Anyway, this guy that is filing the lawsuit has filed such things before... also against Colliders, the last one was in 2000... and The Ion Collider has never had any problem.

Dr. Arkani - Hamed doesn't give these wild claims any merit...and that because of the random nature of quantum physics, that almost anything could happen.
"The Large Hadron Collider might make dragons that might eat us up"...

lol.

Writing by Dev Hynes
Information from various sources...look it up!


5th april 2008 - playlist

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I still feel I have nothing of interest to say... so here is a list of albums that I have been overly listening to whilst on the road.

NEIL YOUNG - A Mix Of The 29 Albums I Own...

DEAD BOYS - Young, Loud and Snotty

MORRIS DAY AND THE TIME - A Mix Of Stuff Also..

THE Db'2 - Stands For Decibels

EMINEM - Encore

BROTHERS JOHNSON - Various

CIARA - The Evolution

SAVES THE DAY - Stay What You Are (only the last track 'Firefly' really)

HEART - Magazine

CHRIS BROWN - A Mix Of Songs...

HEART - Little Queen

THE CLASH - London Calling

THE CRIBS - Mens Needs, Womens Needs, Whatever

ELVIS COSTELLO - A General Mix of His Stuff Really.. good and bad....

LIL WAYNE - Tha Carter 2

WEEZER - Everything, as usual...

THE B52'S - Wild Planet

THE MOVIELIFE - 40 Hour TRain Back To Penn

MICHAEL JACKSON - Thriller


30th March 2008 - hostel part 47683

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Simple pages on my mind.

I've just woken up in a hostel in..copenhagen? I think.
I woke up to the sound of my old makeshift laptop slamming against the floor...It's one of those mornings where I can't work out if it's hot or cold.. I think i'm sweating... but at the same time I want nothing more than to wrap the duvet around me some more..

I'm realising how beautiful everyone is. Alot more than I usually do anyway..hah.
Europe.. ridiculous..level of beauty.. i can't work out if this is rascist or not... or just fact.. but some of the girls that have been at the front row of these shows have made it really hard for me to carry on singing.

"Marlene".. one of the new songs, has gone down really well every night.. as in better than all the other songs, I think this is a good thing, unless it becomes one of those tracks i'm never able to re produce on record..

So the incestual homoerotic athenian philosophy i've been reading has literally stretched my mind bended it backwards around and then shat on it... yes,. shat, not sat..
This Socrates book is blowing my mind.. it's all i can do now i have to wait a month untill LOST is back on.

I invented a drink. We call it the "Cruddy Mary"... secret ingredients, I will share one day, maybe one by one in code.. it went down a storm in stockhokm...and caused a storm in my stomach... it was a great time...i think...

I just realised where i have had things to say before when I was thinking about writing a blog post...., i don't actually have anything to say in this post... I just thought that maybe I should write something, which is pretty bad i guess, but I really have nothing to say... I have alot of video blog stuff that I haven't been bothered to put online the few times I've had internet.. it's all seeming so pointless.. i don't know what my problem is... fuck.

EDIT : Not sure how I feel about Rick Danko doing myspace bulletins about 'Ebay Listings'.... myspace from the grave..


24th March 2008 - punica class sicks.

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Last night after the first date of the European tour we stayed in some infested hostel... as always I couldn't sleep so i decided chronologically listening to a handful of cd's I took out of my bag, lying fully clothed pretending i was asleep whilst drunken germans were rolling and bouncing around the woman...
I woke up in the morning and my video camera had been stolen along with Mike's credit card..
Fucksake.

I'm in a hotel now in hamburg? I think...

Everyone's gone out for a drink, I thought i'd use the time to work on more songs.. But instead i've fallen intom the trap I fell in two nights ago..
I always have questions in interviews asking about how I feel about things people say about me online, in blogs e.t.c... I honest;y do try not to read that shit, but obviously.. sometimes, it get's the better of you//

Couple nights ago I spent an obscene amount of time looking up shit.. only looking for the horrible stuff... i/e

"This guy looks like aids"
"This guy looks like a peadophile"
"..He is the ongoing musical equivalent of cancer.."
"I want to shove an axe in his face.."
and constant critique about my clothes hair , hat....

and on and on.. haha... ah man, whatever... I dunno, I know there are people that say positive things.. i knowww.. but no matter how many times I or other people can say that, the insults are still going to hurt, People would rather ask about my hat which i guess i do wear alot, just because i like it... it's the only reason i do anything really.... there's never anything more than that to anything about me, so maybe i don't have much depth..... but peple do care more about a furry hat than music these days...oh well.. Untill they find a cure for cancer I guess you're all screwed!

The show last night went really well actually, considering we haven't played as a band together in over a month.. martin and I had to remind each other how the songs went before almost every song heh..

I need to stop playing covers.. i have lots of songs, but either don't know the words of by heart, or just know that no one wants to hear them, and even if they do, i don't want them to be heard in an acoustic form.. as the rest of the band don't know them yet, i keep being asked why i do so many covers, and i don't think i actually do, i guess comparing to other artists maybe so... and maybe this goes back to another comment i found online saying "i need to grow up"..

These new songs.. I think i like them, i'm questioning myself, i was reallyexcited but lately it seems to be going furtehr down and down again... i've been told my lyrics are shit... actually one of the times was from a friend, last week, I played them a new song and they stated how they loved the music but i had to go and ruin it with my shit lyrics again, something that's been said to me way too many times since i was 13...

I figured trying out a new form of narrative in songwriting could maybe get rid of this stigma.. but now i think they're shit in another way..

A song about the french canadian revolution, is still shit lyrically ,., it's not so much the content, but how i portray it?

I've been reading a book on the writings of Socrates...I'm trying to work on lyrics to another song where it's loosely based on his forms of argument with an athenian soldier...
"Why are you courageous?"

Back and forth again and again untill the soldier finally caves into the answer Socrates new and wanted him to get to all along...

I haven't eaten in a few days, unless paprika crisps count.. Maybe tomorrow... my stomach is small now.. so i'm not even hungry anymore..

I love writing and recording, i feel lucky i'm in this position.. but sometimes you know.. I get thinking..

Deus, dona mihi serenitatem accipere res quae non possum mutare, fortitudinem mutare res quae possum, atque sapientiam differentiam cognoscere


22nd March 2008 - Cut Us Some 'Slacks'

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Holy Cow.

Well, today started off originally as just another 'fun' day fred and I had planned...or not planned, whatever.
Well.. I told myself I wouldn't tell anymore honest to god pathetic girl stories, but whatever... I can always get lower.. seriously, it's like a fucking talent or something..
So we went to a restaurant in central london... Now, the waitress was so beautiful, seriously , her eyes, and her smile... she was being soo friendly aswell, talkative, more than a busy waitress on good friday in central london on a rainy day should be...
So obviously, I instantly read too much into it.. (fuxsake... why oh why!?!?!? ).. I tell him how I think maybe this girl might actually like me, and fuck if i'm going to miss another opportunity...anyway... fred then say's one of the most true things he's ever said...

"Is this going to turn into one of those situations where we walk out the door then you start of a sentance with "oh man"...."...

Well....

Yes would be my reply to that, I left her a note with the bill.

OH GODDDD

I know I know... notes... filming people... what the hell am I turning into!? Anyway, i've already looked into the procedure to become a unik, or however you spell it....

Ok, officially, no more girl moaning, seriously.. i'm done.. whatever dude... i'm just going to devote the rest of my life to LOST.
In fact, I just said to Fifi, that if I was told I could have the answers to only one thing in the whole world.... I would choose LOST. it's all I think about... it's all I care about.... fuck... fuck... season 4... fuck... I just watched episode 7 and 8 in a row.. my brain can't actually function anymore, amybe this is why i'm going loopy in the girl region, i've lost all real perspective of the real world!? seriously, answers to one thing in the world... i would have to flip a coin between 9/11 and LOST..... i know that's a horrible thing to say, but it's SOOOOO GOOOOD....

Anyway, we then decided to the ground zero spot of our old favourite club White Heat, which now exists in soho.. but was once in mayfair.. and is now an office.... sour times... But we then decided we wanted some chinos and slacks...

ALONG comes the Abercombe store...

fuck./.. It's like every day is opening day.. you walk in and there's a semi naked ripped man standing there with blond ehair blue eyes greeting you.. it's like a stroke on the face and a kick in the balls at the same time..
"Wow someone's being friendly to me.. fuck.. i will never be that guy..." e.t.c.......

The amazingness of this store can not be expressed though, even the half hour mix of "re-light my fire" (takethat version..obviously) whilst the unrelentless aroma of "axe" smellalike (and what I soon learnt was) "Abercombe 'fierce' Cologne"...wafted through the air..... it's like an all american dream.. fuck... kind of scary though, the homo erotic artwork, and the same employer that 3 times said to us "hey guys you alright?"... with the same expression, like he had never seen us before...then we find out they don't even sell any 'slacks'!?!? what the hell?

We got out as fast as we could.

If this is what happens when people stop getting polite and start getting real? then I need to go back on tour.. well, only one more day till I am anyway,..

HELLLLOOOO EUROPE!!!!!!!!!

p.s.. I got myself some chinos in the end...god bless GAP.

And god bless this mp3




16th march 2008 - spaceship, austin we have a problem

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Before I start this post here's a cover of the weezer song "perfect situation" which I did at a show this morning!?!? Already online.. the internet world is speeedyy.

perfect_situation_weezer_cover_live_@_sxsw_2008_.mp3 - 3.65MB

And here's the video blog..
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Opportunities.

One of those things I've been fighting with for as long I can recall.
The funny thing about opportunities to me is that certain things are more seen as standards set by others that we see may be for the greater good of our lives?
Some things do come in and out.. and are obviously positive things, and we need to push ourselves at the last hurdle just to get to something we know is good and we know we want..(and i'm actually not talking about music right now!! )

I feel like I'm a champion (absolutely NOOO pun intended AT all) at wasting these things.

Time and time again the season will end with no real conclusion.. not even disappointment, just.. nothing? (I might might might be talking about females..fucksake.. broken record e.t.c.)

Maybe the Texan heat has got to me.

I also realise that I am NOT funny, and I may have offended a band that I actually am quite a big fan off... i'm a dick, yes it's true.

I met a girl the third night I was here..which seems like a lifetime ago..
I invited her to a show which is something i've never ever done before.. she was dancing at this bar with a load of old mexican men, her and her friend, just having fun, sade was playing on the jukebox, and me and a couple friends were hanging around the pool table. There was no one else in this bar.. well, outside was a show, but inside was just us... In a moment of trying not to die being a complete pussy.. (as I was told I would by a friend in new york less than a week earlier) I decided to go u[ to her and speak to her.. obviously... i did this by filming her first... which now as I look back i am aware at how overly creepy that is... ANYWAY.. she was one of the 2 per cent of people actually from Austin that is in town at the moment...

well, she didn't come to the show, or message the lightspeed account as she said she would...

Earlier today... a week later from the original meeting, i see her and her bike ( i forgot to add that she rode a bike... and i even saw her later that same night riding her bike home..we waved.. i think.. or nodded, or at least i nodded... or maybe i just stared... yeah... ) and we attempt i guess a kind of stop and chat... today this is.. if you're still following this horrible trail of thought i'm going on... i push myself to the limits and talk to her... asking about her band who's name i forget...it's a 10 second convo.. which ends with the last 8 seconds spent by her trying to escape this psychopath creepy stalker dude who she met at a bar when she was drunk who she only spoke to for 2 minutes who was filming her from afar whilst she danced with some drunken mexicans who then tried to get her to come see his shitty band play on a day in a week in which her home city see's 1699 better bands playing...

So yeah.. approaching people doesn't work.

And neither does the "knowing" someone before thing..but that's something i definitely can not write about.

I'm so tired... I know i said this last time, but i am.. 16 performances at sxsw this week, not including u.s tour before that, and uk tour before that,..uk instore tour before that.. and europe dates before that, and japan before that, brazil before that, uk before that..more uk dates before that.. europe dates before that.. haha... it's awesome I get to go to these places,. I think I probabaly shouldn't have written all of this, it's easy to pick up the wrong message, but maybe the message isn't wrong.. if it's accurate? right? like... if i'm worried i'm coming across as a cock,. maybe it's because i just...am?

We fly back to london soon.. but i'm homeless, i have no idea what to do or where to go... i have no base...just a huge bag... futuretarded...all ic an do right now is listen to "Spaceship" by The Vines on loop.. i'm on the 7th play now... no other music in the world right now can soundtrack these current minutes.

i'm moaning too much, sorry... good great amazing things have happened recently!

I did fuck up and disappoint alot of people recently though aswell....whatever.. i'm feeling odd right now, so many things racing through my head.. i feel like i can see them too... i walk around, like earlier today,. and I was having trouble seeing because I felt as if the words of my thoughts were racing across my eyes, I went up to a friend and I said to them "I feel so cold" .. but it was BOILING hot out... but i realised I didn't even mean to say that either, god knows what I meant, they just looked at me...

Then I walked away.


10th march 2008 - uhohbyohnowest

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I'm in Austin!!

We just played with The Spinto Band who i'm convinced are the best band in the world...seriously.

We played a tv studio, the one where Austin City Limits is! So many amazing acts have played there and the walls are littered with all the greats!

I hate some mexican food... and now i'm spitting blood in the hotel room, but as I said to Mike.. the only sensible thing to do at this point and time of the night, is to ignore it.. so I shall.

Now here are my TOP 3 sentences of the last week..

Although to be fair 1 of them was last night at a bar after the New York show...and 2 of them were at the show in Austin tonight..my first taste of SXSW... alot of adults, wearing alot of laminates around their necks.....

Ok, so here it goes.. Top 3 Sentances overheard in the past 2 days!

1. (Middle aged man to a roughly thirty year old woman)

"Hey.... I know you, we're facebook friends right?"


2. (Tall french man to me after the show in Austin tonight)

"Hey....maybe I will write about you on my blog.." (said whilst he ate free mexican food, walked off, and in a tone that implied.. hey maybe I can get these kids some cred! )


3. (Overweight drunk girl in bar... too a gay male friend)

"Man... I don't usually dig these faggot clubs."


Ain't life grand !!!

Oh man... I'd been in quite a great mood through this jaunt across the states.. but now, being in Austin, well.. I love the city, it's not that, but it's the whole sxsw thing.. I don't know, this is hard to explain, it's just, real people don't go? or do they?
Because I always thought people only go that get given free tickets, and those people work in the music industry OR magazine or fashion industry, and no one really cares about you unless you're already hyped up, and or have 20 plus people in your band, a good beat, or ironic rap, which isn;t ironice because you have a "black" guy in your group.. but it's ok for a and r to like it, because he's wearing skinny jeans.. and yes i'm aware of the irony of me typing this.. but the point i'm making is, the argument people always come back to me with is that "new talent is found, and the next big thing" and then I say " well i'm prettyu sure the next big thing can't actually afford a ticket from Hull or wherever to go to austin and then somehow get on some fashion magazines party showcase... and pack out the room with a + r...

ANYWAY..

it'll be fun, so i'm told.. it's only about 13 shows in a week...gulp.

To turn this post on it's head, i'm going to talk about a free gift we got today at the show, it was a magic eightball... something to do with getting your people to vote.. but obviously I used it to answer questions regarding current and non-existent love situations.... even the eightball knows the truth!

Now back to my eroding bleeding stomach....fuck.


8th March 2008 - Star wars exhibition // Philadelphia

I AM NOT JOKING.

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I just had the most ridiculous day EVER.

Philadelphia... fuck.

FIRST, mike and I did this live radio station to MILLIONS of listeners?! what the fuck!?!? That was weirdd. then we went to the STAR WARS exhibition !!!

SO SO SO SO next level, as soon as my films are developed I will post them.. all of them.

But really, I don't know how to describe the STAR WARS thing.. like, everything from the film was there, and we got to go inside the Millennium Falcon!!

SOSOSO good.,

And as you can see from the photo at the top of this post.. we then rode bikes backwards across the top of the franklin institute...

Then before we played our second show of the day everyone ahd to evacuate the venue because the fire alarm went off.. So we had to wait for the fire department to come down and "ok" the whole building.. which they did...
the show was cool!!!

BUT.. just as we thought this sick sick day was over...we pull up to the hotel we're staying in.,. and who pulls up in front of us.,..

THE HARLEM FUCKING GLOBETROTTERS!!!

I shit you not..

I was freaking out, their buses were there and everything, and limos.. you kept seeing these fuciing huge dudes walking around in globetrotter tracksuits..

WE walk into the lift to go to our rooms.. and a couple globetrotters jump in the lift, and start talking to me!?!?

Now i'm in the hotel room watching Flavor of Love two and i'm trying to work out what Life really means...


3rd March 2008 - Toronto

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More funny signs from the road...
I'm thinking of making this into more of a 'thing'..

We're in Toronto right now..

I'll write something a bit better than this soon..
But for now enjoy my P.Diddy impression on the video blog...

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2nd march 2008 - I'm in Chicago (part 3)

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3 Blog posts in one day?! Crazy I know...

Show tonight was fun..

The video blogs might be back... and updated...I guess...

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=69935


1st march 2008 - i'm in chicago (part 2)

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I've been working on this song alllll day now... in between breaks of going for a walk in the snow.,.. buying food...eating it, feeling sick, getting a headache.. working on the song..watching the TNT Will Smith Marathon.... back out for more food...e.t.c. e.t.c..... I've been awake for sooo long now... I guess Lobby call is in 45 minutes then we have to go and soundcheck....

My phone.. notorious as it is... just turned itself off and on again, and deleted all of my information numbers e,t,c,,, without me even touching it, I just stared at it... on my bed.. weird... it does this form time to time, takes a few days for the information to come back.. but that doesn't stop the feeling that it never will come back...some kind of minority report...

So this song... a riff taken from the Blaxploitation soundtrack I was working on (on my Old new Old New laptop which is lost and broken somewhere now in a box in my parents house in essex)... and I've been trying to develop it into an upbeat simple Pop Funk song..

I always either A : Over complicate things... or B : Use ideas i've used a thousand times already in songs...

I'm really trying this time, to push myself somewhat, for my own personal amusement..

I'm close now.. On the last walk it helped clear things out a bit,..

Humming the main chorus melody over and over in my head whilst walking downtown..

I wandered into a contemporary art exhibition... i'm not the biggest fan. But it was either that or KFC.
I kept the melody circling round my mind... Lyrically the song is mainly about a night I had in Shibuya in Tokyo late last year... but also progresses into a completely made up story.. as I am working on shredding the auto biographical element of my songwriting... things can cut.. and it takes a while to heal...I'm still learning.

Finally.. I walked back, and bought alot of chicken and tofu and salad.. went back up to my hotel room, and ate it all way too fast whilst watching College Basketball..(Rice has just done his career best for Boston)..

I can't demo on this lapto i'm using..(my old old old old old old) laptop..the memory is dead and it's falling apart.. so it's all down to memory again.. I will give this song another breather... I just realised this is an acoustic tour, and I have no idea what to play!! Especially for 45 minutes...christ... I should probably start thinking about this now... shit.

Whatever..

I have "Southern Pacific" By Neil Young playing on repeat in my head.. look it up, it's one of my favourites of his.

Tomorrow we have a day off before we fly to Toronto.
I plan on walking to Lake Michigan and working on songs... but it is freezing cold and as much as I love the fantasy of this idea.. the reality is I will be in the hotel room watching more Will Smith films.


1st march 2008 - i'm in chicago

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(Photos from Nottingham show taken by http://www.flickr.com/photos/becausehannahsaidso/ )

I'm in chicago.
It's 4:30 in the morning and I couldn't be anymore awake if I tried..whatever. It's strange, usually jetlag doesn't affect me, but I guess i'm just tired all around..as soon as I lay down on the bed I feel asleep.

It's snowing here right now... which is pretty cool.. actually pretty cold more like.

The NME awards were interesting, the performance was so fun! I can't wait to see footage of it!
I made friends with BIlly Bragg... bonding over our time growing up in Barking town.

God.. i'm probably one of the biggest most self absorbed douches ever.
I take everyone for granted and at the same time expect more from everyone around me.. I criticize my self non stop but still am constantly disappointed by those around me. ..I don't know where I'm going with this..

I'm obviously talking about girls though haha... kill me.

One overly nearly dreadful embarrassing moment nearly came after the awards.. when I saw a reasonably attractive girl I know getting sleazed on by some dude.. so I saw this as my chance and walked over and did the whole "i'm here to save you routine"..
She gave me a really weird look... but I assumed it was working..Someone then tapped my shoulder to give me something, so I turned around for a split second, when I turned back they were kissing!!!! ...Kissing!!!!

I walked away somewhat semi bemused ...

It turns out it was actually just her boyfriend!

Turns out I still have some deep down sub conscious form of prejudices inside me...which is interesting to say the least.

The quest to be tied down but not to be tied down is driving me insane.... but out of it I have spawned some pretty interesting songs.. which I can not wait to record.

They sound kinda calypso western !? yeh... man..

So u.s acoustic tour... please come out to these shows and say hellp.. hang out.. it's saturday here in Chi-town right now... what do you guys do? I can see myself going bowling.

Chicago is like the one place i literally know NO ONE.... maybe I should hit a bar.. or club... maybe I could even do that NOW! it is 5 am... hmm... maybe that's a bad idea..

Maybe I should give Michael Jordan a call, or Opera....Common...Kanye..? pete wentz? actually I'M SURE he lives in L.A now... Talib probably keeps it real though! BIlly Corgan?

ANYWAY...

Whatever...my head hurts and I have nothing interesting to say.. as always!!!!!!!!!

Fuck.


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