Category Archives: relationships

There is no hell more harsh than a memory

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Winter takes the warm away.
Spring takes the cold away.
Summer takes the rain away.
and Fall took away my friend.




Download Eyedea and Abilities – Hay Fever


I was in a daze on Sunday. I was back on my couch watching football. I had spent a lot of time on this couch this weekend. You see, I was participating in ExtraLife, a 24 hour video game marathon to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. The marathon is no 5k race. Nothing that easy. The marathon was to play video games for 24 hours straight. From Saturday 8AM to Sunday 8AM.


I fell right into deep sleep at 8:01 sunday morning and woke up at 1PM. Watched some football and walked around my house like a zombie, unsure what to do next.


Then I watched the late game, Skins almost beat the Colts, and then started to feel the weight of sleep on my head again. I planned on doing one last check of email and facebook and then head back upstairs to go back to bed.


That’s when I caught the news in my facebook feed.

RIP Michael Larsen aka EYEDEA. The 28 year old MC and indie rap legend passed away today at his home in Minnesota. Our condolences to EYEDEA’S family and our friends at RHYMESAYERS. “Ya know I’m saying Kinda just turned around from the whole situation Rejecting everything that was going on Thats how I walked into heaven. I Walked away, walked away, walked straight into heaven…I Walked away, walked away, walked straight into heaven…”

I sat there crushed. Totally unexpected and way before his time. We lost a great artist and lyricist. The underground Hip-Hop scene just lost a major player.



Eyedea started his career in the late 90’s early 2000’s with rap battle wins at Scribble Jam and Blaze Battle. Although his technical skills are sharp as a knife, it’s his ability to tell a story in his raps. Another rapper that does this is Tupac, and it’s one of the reasons that I am such a fan. If you can rap and tell a story, I’m totally impressed.


While listening to Eyedea all of Monday, I realized there is even a track by both Tupac and Eyedea with similar subject matter but with two completely different perspectives.


Tupac has a track he did under the Makaveli moniker that relates to the relationship he has with his gun. Check out Me and My Girlfriend below.



Download 2Pac – Me And My Girlfriend

Tupac loves his gun. Like any relationship it has its ups and downs. Relationships can sometimes be very toxic. Eyedea lays down a story about a boy and a gun that starts to take a bad turn, but luckily doesn’t have the ending you might expect.




Download Eyedea and Abilities – Time Flies When You Have A Gun





And it wasn’t until the day that he got rid of it that he felt like he was safe / no longer a slave to that piece of shit.

Weaving a tale so perfectly into a rhyme and then into a rap song is something many rappers should learn. Otherwise you aren’t connecting with anyone. I’ve connected so strongly to Eyedea, Tupac, Biggie, and Jay-Z because they master the art of storytelling in rhymes.


For some reason though, with the exception of Jay-Z, this tends to coincide with an early exit of life and career. Rest in Peace Eyedea. You will be missed.


  

I savour hate as much as I crave love

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The Foo Fighters have disbanded for the foreseeable future and Blue October makes you want to cut yourself.

Ok. I got something for you… Biffy Clyro.

2007’s Puzzle was the record that caught my attention, but there were three albums before Puzzle that I had to delve into once I discovered the band. Blackened Sky (2002), The Vertigo of Bliss (2003), Infinity Land (2004) were the albums I checked out next. Lots of potential, if not a bit rough on the edges. Still, it was a band I needed to keep an eye on.

So I was stoked when Biffy Clyro released Only Revolutions early this November. The title, and maybe the message of most of the album, comes from the love story written by author Mark Danielewski. The book, and Simon’s recent marriage and experiences. He explains:

“I got married last year so a lot of the lyrics are about me and my wife,” he explains. “It’s kind of a relationship record in that sense and a record about life. The track ‘God And Satan’ for instance questions what’s there for us when we die. Everyone has lost someone close to them and whenever that happens you do start to question your own existence and you do start to think maybe there is no grand picture after all. But while we’re here, we might as well try and make people happy and make ourselves happy. It sounds defeatist but I’m almost happy that there is no happy ending. As far as I’m concerned your happy ending is happening right now.”

When I read this snippet from an interview with the band in Clash Magazine I immediately opened iTunes and played God And Satan.

The song opens with this lyric:

I talk to God as much as I talk to Satan cause I want to hear both sides.
Does that make me cynical?
There are no miracles and this is no miraculous life.

Don’t take my word for it…Listen to it yourself!

Download Biffy Clyro – God And Satan

Can you hear a little Grohl and a little Furstenfeld? I do. I think the vocals remind me of Blue October but the music makes me think of what I love about The Foo. The rest of the album is just as fantastic as this acoustic track. Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age provides some shredding guitar work to the third track on the album. A song called Bubbles! It starts of poppy and ends up melting your face.

“We spent a lot of time with Queens Of The Stone Age when we toured the States and Europe with them and we got on with Josh really well,” says Simon. “We knew we’d be in LA recording so we said we’d give him a call. Sure enough he came over at midnight one night after tucking his kids into bed and played guitar on ‘Bubbles’.” “It was really cool and he really caught the gist of the song,” adds Simon. “I think he just listened to about ten seconds and he was like (adopts booming American accent), ‘I got it, I got it.’ It was total pinch yourself stuff and even now although he’s a really good friend, we’re still like, ‘It’s Josh Homme, I can’t believe we know you’.”

Biffy Clyro are about to go mainstream in my opinion. This is not a bad thing, but familiarize yourself with the old stuff and the new stuff so that you can maintain your coolness with the other less informed people in your life.