Music Time

It’s time for the one and (probably) only music related post you’ll ever read on this blog, curtesy of Emily from Monsterlady’s Diary who wrote out all the questions you’re about to see me answer and welcomed fellow bloggers to answer them if they so wished. I did wish. It sounded fun, and it’s been a while since I did one of these quirky QnA posts. Just as a note, a lot of these questions are to do with bands but I frequently listen to more artists than bands, if that makes any sense. Anyway, here it goes.

A band that changed your life?
Simple Plan. I’m not even a fan of their music, honestly. Basically, when I first met my girlfriend I thought I’d listen to a bunch of music she liked so we could share it together and I ended up listening to a lot of Simple Plan. They’re okay, got a lot of good songs if you’re that age they’re targeting but I’d not say I’m into them or anything. But because of the fact I did get closer to my girlfriend from listening to them and did grow to genuinely like them a little outside of that, I’d say that’s at least somewhat life changing. I mean I do live with her now. So there’s that. Yes, let’s chalk up an entire human relationship to me listening to Simple Plan. Sounds good.

A band you like that disbanded?
Electric Light Orchestra. I mean they disbanded before my birth, became ELO Part II, had a legal dispute with Jeff Lyne who owned the original ELO and then disbanded again, and now Jeff Lyne has his band called Jeff Lyne’s ELO. My Dad, the ELO super fan of the world more or less indoctrinated me into liking ELO by refusing to listen to anything else during any car journey we ever took together when I was young, so I basically grew up listening to this band. He was never a fan of the Time album, but I recently listened to it and thought it was okay. Not as good as their other stuff, but there’s some pretty good stuff on there still. They’re just a bop, honestly.

A band you’d like to get into more?
Florence and the Machine. Florence has a couple of obvious hits like Dog Days and I’ve been interested in listening to more of her stuff but just can’t get into it for some reason. I like the stuff pretty much everyone knows she’s famous for, but struggle to get into the rest of her backlog of songs. I think I need to give her another good, honest try.

A band you’ve never seen live but want to?
I’ve only ever seen one band live so there’s a lot of room here. Nonetheless it’s not really my thing. I find most songs sound better when not performed live – although there are exceptions to it. Honestly, I think the best live performance I’ve seen was Jeff Wayne’s War of the World’s but that was like a musical stage play with lots of special effects and a hologram of Liam Neeson. Not really a band. If it was ever live again though, I’d love to see it once more.

A band you wish you could hang out with?
I’d want to hang out with Avril Lavigne. She just seems so nice and chill outside of her music, and is responsible for a large amount of the better punk rock songs of the 2000’s. I’d definetly insist on singing Sk8er Boy at least once… Twice… Okay, maybe three or four times together.

A band that was love at first listen?
The Shins. I was introduced to their album Port of Morrow after hearing one of their songs play in The Amazing Spiderman (2012), and found I enjoyed pretty much the whole damn album.

A band you rely on to improve your mental health?
Okay. Nothing is a better pick-me-up than Taylor Swift. I know that’s an odd choice for this question, but she has so many pop bops, country bangers and such a diverse range of totally out there songs and quaint quiet ones that there’s one for every mood. Most recently I enjoyed her albums Folklore and Evermore, which I think are some of her best work considering how different it is to the stuff she is better known for.

An underrated band you love?
There’s this little underappreciated band called the Beatles and-
Okay, for real… I don’t think I listen to any bands or musicians one could call underrated. I suppose I could choose something that’s not too mainstream; Two Steps From Hell. It’s an orchestra headed by Thomas Bergeson. You may know them from those YouTube channels that stream “EPIC MUSIC” six hours a day, as most of the songs used are those from Two Steps From Hell albums. There comes a point where you think you’ve heard every possible combination of notes musical instruments can make after listening to their music for a while, only for their next song to somehow sound massively unique. And I think to do that without lyrics and just through the flow and structure of the orchestra working as a team is great. Still, Two Steps From Hell are very popular so I don’t know if they class as underrated.

And that brings an end to the questions. I’m supposed to tag people now but, much like Emily, I think it’s better if bloggers choose to do this… Except for Cameron from Cameron’s Considerations. I’m specifically tagging him because I really want the answer to the mental health question to be something about pirate shanties. To be honest anyone who listens to pirate shanties is encouraged to take this upon themselves. Bonus points if it’s metal/heavy metal pirate shanties. I don’t like metal. I don’t like pirate shanties. But together they are worryingly entertaining.

Retroactive note:
I use the Bop a few times in this post. If I describe music as a bop, it just means it’s good, easy to sing along to and get groovy with.