I have received a few messages a week for the last few months from livejournal members and from other non-lj users over not being sure how to listen to the files once they had downloaded their specific album from my megaupload account, thus not being able to listen to the album. So this is just a post that will remain at the top of my livejournal page to assist any of you fine music listeners who don't know how to extract the song files.
( How to listen to the album/songs )
( Other Frequently Asked Questions... )
- Writer's Block: Sh*t Happens
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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1)
deansodisco- February 11th, 20:05
Realise that almost everyone you know is worse than you. Realise that hatred and insanity are a perfectly fine way to adapt to situations that others would just be emotionally numb to for the sake of appearing strong. Everyone cracks. Realise being a demon is everyones way in life, every human being is selfish, everyone operates for personal gain in some way, everyone strives to achieve their own goals, everyone bleeds. Try to fight social and economic injustice by taking the side of the common man instead of faceless media driven piles of wank. Try not to keep bridges that just connect you to memories of anxiety and withdrawal, burn those fucking bridges away, they are connecting you to vessels that will destroy you.
Do something. Do anything.
- 95% of the Manics B-sides INCLUDES ALL Postcard From A Young Man & National Treasures B-sides
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- deansodisco
- January 26th, 15:45
UPDATE as of 26/01/12 - Okay, yes, Megaupload is down for good and that means every. Single. Link to b-sides/live gigs on this ye olde Livejournal is dead. However, given the fact so many people have used these links (I know thousands of downloads according to my last view at the Megaupload account) I may work towards re-uploading these via mediafire/rapidshare etc. I just don't have as much time to do it, given this started in 2009 when I was more of a mess and more liable to insomnia and mania that lasted for 4 week periods.
Looking through comments, I see people I grew to become good friends with, people I fell away from or slightly dislike now, an ex-girlfriend, a really nice fellow who put tons of work in to download things for his wife, just...amazing. I miss most of those people so much. Like a personal history of sorts (not that I got all that through these people seeing this LJ page and wanting t get to know me, I assure you, I'm a more social animal than that and get myself about!) that was helped by the Manics fandom.
Add onto that, if I know you properly and haven't spoken to you for a while, talk to me, life's been Hell and I need more people to play guitar with.
I know I have a lot of dislike for fandoms because it inspires sheepish behaviour (everyone wants acceptance, everyone hates you being a bit of a loose cannon at times which I self admittedly am), or because some clique stuff is embarrasing, or because anywhere where you have a lot of people you get utter wankers (I'm a complete wanker, I am not a good guy, I do not wear a white hat) but yeah...it also means other people are nice to counteract that.I'll re-upload things going backwards. First will be the Postcards For A Young Man/National Treasures/Journal For Plague Lovers B-sides, and as usual, one or two b-sides may be missing from all era, but that's up to you lot to find ;)
Keep safe,
Stay beautiful,
Straight edge means I'm better than you,
Dean x
We live it up in here, we destroy Megaupload...
---------------------------------------------- Updating this post for the 25th time to re-upload dead links AND to add the Postcards From A Young Man & National Treasures Era b-sides. Enjoy, Manix fans.
Thanks to Rach (Another Colour) for sending me Umbrella to add to the Send Away the Tigers bunch
( All eras of Manics b-sides )
- DOWNLOAD: Mansun - Six B-sides - The Dead Flowers Reject Project
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- deansodisco
- 6th October 2011
( I Care... )
- A respectful nod to the talents of Andy Cairns of Therapy?
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- deansodisco
- 11th April 2011
Over the last few weeks I've been relearning tons of Therapy? songs and it has made me realise (after being a fan of the band for about 10 years) how unique Cairns playing style is, his mix of powerchords to strange somewhat un-melodic riffs, and sheer guitar playing technique make some awesome atmospheric songs along with some sheer classic rock anthems. McCirrick is an awesome bassist too and tey've never failed to have a superb drummer through several changes in that role.If you don't know of Therapy? listen to some of these songs:
Dancin' With Manson (live webgig 2009, originally from their first EP Babyteeth)
Rock You Monkeys & Long Distance (my two favourite songs off Never Apologise, Never Explain)Bad Mother (live 1996, originally from their best album Infernal Love)
- No, you're not alone! says David Bowie
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- deansodisco
- 10th March 2011
I've been relistening to a lot of Bowie lately after buying a replacement copy of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars and remembering how jealous I am of his songwriting abilities.
Whereas most people cite The Beatles as the most influential pop artist ever (which is fair enough) I like to think Bowie is really. Not related to sales but overall exposure and the lack of death meaning he has released music continually since the late 60s none stop. This may simply be because I am not fond of The Beatles (I'm a Scouser, who apparently sounds like a rougher Ringo at times, who actually prefers most Beatles solo projects to the band) and have always loved Bowie but yeah...
His acoustic playing isn't complicated, his rhythms and vocals aren't the most complex, his lyrics border on the in(s)ane at times, but his sense of melody and atmosphere through production adds so much to certain songs. Space Oddity is the saddest song of all time (Alice in Chains - Heaven Beside You and Manic Street Preachers - Door to the River compete for that spot at times though) due to the vast but almost empty production that holds most of the song alongside the storytelling narrative. It's heartbreaking.
Given the influence literature had on him (one of the more famous tales being about his use of Burroughs sentence fragmentation for lyrics at points) it's a pretty obvious part of his songs, the story aspect of them. This is most apparent in the pseudo-concept album around the Ziggy Stardust era, where songs like Five Years tells the tale of being told by someone that the World will end in five years, with the character getting on in life knowing this fact...as with most Bowie songs you could bring it down to a smaller scale (knowing that you may be dying in five years time, as if a loved one as the "news guy" was telling you the results of a test) and it'd still retain it's message.
I can't really write about other songs from that album as it's a very simple formula really, but it sits true for a large part of Bowie's work. On top of the incredible melody and songwriting, there is a real story strand that you can connect to. It adds personality to songs that could be seen as quirky gimmicks.
I don't really know what point I'm making now, just wanted to rant about how fantastic Bowie is!
- Writer's Block: The start of something wonderful
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- deansodisco
- 5th February 2011
What is your favorite opening line of a book, and why?
First question listed was submitted by
theropod. (Follow-up questions, if any, may have been added by LiveJournal.)
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
The Dark Tower Book One: The Gunslinger - Stephen King
Why? It's a hook line that inspires cliche visual ideas of Clint Eastwood style Western films, a summary of what is going on, a confusion over who these two characters are...it inspires a hundred ideas and questions, without an answer to a single one. What an introductory line should be in a book series that was written over 30 years and sits as the greatest book series in any form of literature.
The Dark Tower series makes me laugh, has actually made me cry, inspires and depresses me, and above all is just a damned perfect read. Nothing will ever take the inspiration from our World and implement it in such a smooth way the way King did in it. An absurd series filled with enough internal logic so that it isn't absurd at all to the reader.
- Writer's Block: The name game
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- deansodisco
- 2nd February 2011
My username is based on the excellent Suede b-side We're So Disco.
It first came out as WSD during the Coming Up Era and was much ado about nothing, but a re-release occured mounted with excellent guitar riffs, full band accompaniement and unaltered 1996 Brett Anderson vocals. Here it is:
Reading the description I can see I got the production changing the wrong way round but still, excellent song.
I am also a King of Disco. Maybe. Probably not.
- Writer's Block: Lean on me
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- deansodisco
- 27th January 2011
How do you define a true friend? What would lead you to end a friendship?
First question listed was submitted by
minskickasslj. (Follow-up questions, if any, may have been added by LiveJournal.)
To me a true friend is someone who isn't afraid to be different to you or worried about getting into an argument with you over difference of opinions. A friend who can argue with you (sometimes fiercely) and then be able to chat again with you the next day without it ruining a friendship is the best because, well, who wants friends who constantly agree with everything you say?
Who wants a cult of personality like that outside of people who are scared of peoples opinions and so try to keep them onside with AGREE ALL THE TIME rhetoric? Who would want to have such a shallow friendship that no opinions are ever developed?
I think generally friendships die on my part due to me just being distant from people and thinking/realising "oh wow, I don't get on with this person in any way," and given my prickish attitude I'll always feel better letting go of those links, because otherwise I start to get irritated with them. I don't have a want to network socially too much as well so don't have the whole 'oh if I know this person, I'd better get to know these people' annoyance. Plus I'm not socially shy or anything, I don't struggle to get along with people but on the same page I have a tendency to tell people I think they're dickheads/dull/boring/scenesters etc at random.
At the end of the day I have shitloads of acquaintances, but only a few friends, as cruel as it sounds I like being able to be selective about who I'm friends with as I have a lovely friendship circle nowadays, and I don't have to be anyone but myself around them. All hail.
- Manic Street Preachers - 14/12/2010 Birmingham Academy - why...
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- deansodisco
- 27th January 2011
I simply can't be bothered to finish the review I had promised, simply put it was a decent gig (7/10) of a band I have a love/dislike relationship with after 5 years of not seeing them live...some of the gig was great, half was just meh, looking back on it making me think 'why am I rating this as decent when if this was another band I'd slate them far worse?' so for the sake of my own want to remember the gig nicely I will leave well alone. I suppose in the end the lovely build up to the gig (nice train journey, nice queue people etc) made me think better of it which is pretty cool.
Here's the pre-gig parts of my review which I think are pretty nice though:
( Comments on the train, queue, why I dislike British Sea Power etc )
To make this more positive I will say the best songs of the gig were:
You Stole The Sun acoustic - everyone bouncing to an acoustic song with James seeming arsed to be performing for the first time in 3 years - 10/10
Ocean Spray - AMAZING, mindblowing etc. 8/10
This Is Yesterday - I am not a big fan of this song on record but live it gave me chills, made me feel a bit depressed too haha - 8/10
Autumnsong - on record I HATE this song, but live it is a perfect singalong anthem, really a very good laugh - 8/10
Everything Must Go - another real gigging anthem, superb song built around a tremendous chorus with the band bouncing around, the mix for this song wasn't too bad either and one of the issues I had with songs like Faster/Australia was they sounded AWFUL due to the frankly shit mix - 8/10
Only three Postcards From A Young Man album songs were played (It's Not War, Some Kind of Nothingness, Golden Platitudes) but with the guitar overpowering the synth strings they sounded MUCH better. Stop overproducing your albums, Manics, the songs sounded alright live!
The only truly abysmal song was La Tristesse Durera, which was a travesty (2/10). A fair few songs were bloody dull though, Design For Life, If You Tolerate This etc etc.
I also wish that they played Hazelton Avenue...I love that song far too much.
