Seriousness: Save Scartho Baths

Long time no post and this one's not even music related.

My local council are... a bit stupid? Ridiculous? They seem to operate on the basis that "if-we-say-we're-going-to-do-something-no-one-can-possibly-object". The latest example of which was their recent announcement that they plan to demolish my local swimming pool, Scartho Baths. The plan is to replace the pool with a new one at the Leisure Centre. Said new pool will be 25m long and have no diving boards. The current pool is somewhere short of Olympic standard (i.e. 50m) and has diving boards. It's on a lot of major bus routes, unlike the Leisure Centre, which is on just one bus route.

Problem, much?

Many years ago, I learnt to swim at that pool. I imagine most people in my area learnt to swim there. In the wake of the Olympics and Paralympics, demolishing a decent-sized pool and replacing it with one that's half the Olympic length seems ridiculous. What's happening with the Olympic legacy?

I should point out that the council claim that the pool is structurally unstable. Something about draining it would make the pool collapse. Now, this seems unlikely to me as I'm sure that up until fairly recently the pool was drained once a year for cleaning anyway. Obviously I know nothing about engineering. That said, the engineering report or whatever it is hasn't been made available. I'm half tempted to demand it be released so we can see how much truth is in the council's claims.

Anyways, enough ranting. I've probably missed important things out. If you're local to Grimsby, signing THIS PETITION would be vaguely helpful. And if you happen to be from the council and reading this, please think back to when you tried to shut down our nursery schools. That didn't entirely go in your favour, did it now? And I see that there's already been progress, which is also viewable at the same address as the petition.

"We won't stay silent - we'll make as much noise as we can." Enter Shikari - Tribalism

Band of the Week: The Runaways, earthtone9 & Bitter Ruin

Soooo, first post in over a month. Not doing too well at keeping on top of this, am I? Ah well. Let's kick off this week's post with the classic all-girl punk rock group The Runaways. Y'know, Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Cherrie Curry? General awesomeness. Here's their brilliant Cherry Bomb.

Next up, British alt-metallers earthtone9. They're in the process of recording a new album, their first in about a decade. You can still donate to their PledgeMusic campaign HERE. For now, check out recent single Tide of Ambition.

Finally, indie-noir/dark cabaret duo Bitter Ruin. Deliciously dark, quirky and amazingly energetic. All of their material is available on their Bandcamp page, but for tasters, let's have the Hung, Drawn & Quartered EP/mini-album.



Only three today, that;ll do, right? Check it out and pass it on.

Current Love: Fight Like A Girl by Emilie Autumn

OK, so my plan to get this blog back to some sort of proper schedule seems to have failed epically. In good news, I still have a lovely long list of bands to write about so there's still hope. For now though, I intend to squee over Emilie Autumn's just-released new album. Hurray hurray.

Where do I start? Well, Fight Like A Girl is a great mix of styles blending the best bits of previous albums, faery-inspired Enchant and the more industrial Opheliac. It's important also to note that this is very much a concept album, regarding The Asylum, previously covered in her semi-autobiographical novel The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls. It's dark (Take The Pill), slightly sick (Girls! Girls! Girls!) and sometimes downright creepy (Scavenger). Opening with the call to arms of title track Fight Like A Girl, the album descends into the depths of hell that is The Asylum, touching on the sinister goings-on of the resurrection men as it does (Scavenger again). All that darkness aside, the album finally ends on something of a lighter note, with the march of One Foot In Front Of The Other and in amongst the heavy beats there are softer, if rather sad moments, with the beautiful Gaslight. All in all, the album has shaped up to be, potentially, Autumn's best yet. It certainly lends itself to the theatrical style of her live shows and who knows, maybe she'll manage to fulfil her plan to write a musical.

Stand out tracks include the typically EA-style (if I'm going down, you're coming with me) If I Burn, the haunting Gaslight, the carnival atmosphere of Girls! Girls! Girls! and the creepily slow drone of Scavenger. And now I'm going to shut up, because I have a horrible urge to squee and gush about every single track. Go look it up HERE where you can also listen to samples of tracks.

Band of the Week: The Birthday Massacre, Chthonic, Sonata Arctica and more!

Soooo, might possibly have not posted for months. For anyone who does actually pay attention to and like my blog, apologies. On the plus side, I have an absolutely enormous list of bands to write about, so hopefully we'll get a few more posts out of me before I start forgetting again. Here goes.

First up, Canadian electro-rockers The Birthday Massacre. Delightfully creepy at times with excellent female vocals. Yum. Check out the video for Blue below and then go check out some more of their awesomeness.

Next, we have Taiwanese black/symphonic metal band Chthonic. So, OK, I can't decipher the lyrics to most of their songs, but the music itself is pretty brilliant. Have a listen to Takao from latest album Takasago Army.

Then we'll have a bit of Sonata Arctica. Power/symphonic metal from Finland. Check out recent single I Have A Right below.

Some Brit stuff now - metalcore in the shape of Sheffield natives While She Sleeps. At least, I'm pretty sure they're from Sheffield. Should probably check that... Anyhoos, their debut album This Is The Six is being released at the beginning of August, so for now check out the title track and then go have a listen to some more of their lovely stuff.

And finally, the loveliness that is InMe. Alternative rock/metal. Well worth checking out. Think we'll have Single Of The Weak.

That'll do, yes? Check it out and pass it on.

Current Love: This. Just this.

Sierra Demulder: Paper Dolls.

Seriousness: Running the British 10K for Women's Aid

No, not me. I'm unfit and have always sucked at running. My friend Lizzie, on the other hand, is being completely awesome and runnning the British 10K on July 8th for Women's Aid. The charity essentially works with victims of domestic abuse and is as such lovely. Now, I know that I personally am always loathe to donate to people I don't know, but I assure you that Women's Aid is worth it. Sooooo, if anyone is willing to donate a few pennies, you can check out Lizzie's JustGiving page HERE. I'm sure she'll really appreciate any support and obviously it's all for a good cause.

In unrelated news, Band of the Week will be back soon. Exams are over so hopefully I can get back to a regular schedule.

Short post is short.

Band of the Week: Sleepbringer, Silver Loves Mercury and more!

Why hello thar, lovelies. Sorry Band of the Week's been a bit AWOL the last few weeks - blame revision and my parents' poor internet connection. To make up for it, let's have a nice big BotW feature, shall we?

Let's kick off with some doom metal in the form of Canadian band Sleepbringer. Check out the only music I've been able to find by them, Compendium:


Next up,Texas-based hard rockers Silver Loves Mercury. Wonderfully dirty, female fronted sleaze. Just a Facebook link for these guys - HERE. Well, there's some videos too, but they're not the best quality, so that'll have to do.

Then, because I finally got round to looking them up a few weeks back, let's have the delicious Alice In Chains. Grungy goodness. Streams of some tracks can be found on their site HERE. Let's also have a video. Here's Would? from the album Dirt.

Following on, Ivyrise - pop rock loveliness from the main support band on McFly's recent UK tour. Here's latest single Line Up The Stars from their self-titled debut album.

And finally, the most awesome With Knives, a new(ish) project from Josh Newton (of numerous bands, including Every Time I Die) and Joe Trohman (yes, that dude from Fall Out Boy). Stoner rock? Probably. Not an area I'm overly familiar with, but I've just seen a comparison (from a trusted dude) to QOTSA and Baroness. I'm going to take that as a good sign. Here's their just-released debut EP, Schadenfreude:


Will that do, or would we like more scrumminess? More?

One more. Not exactly a band, but this is from the guys at Hat Films who do gaming videos on YouTube. They make pretty much all of the music for their vids and this materialised out of a recent Minecraft video.

Hopefully Band of the Week should go back to being regular now I have a decent net connection again.