Well I think it's safe to say that I am definitely in a phase of being obsessed with Motionless In White, Bring Me The Horizon and Pierce the Veil. So this week it's Motionless. This song is off of their "Creatures" album although the song was originally released under the title "Bananamontana" on the album "When Love Met Destruction". Then they changed the lyrics a tiny bit along with the title and re-released it on "Creatures".
Chris has commented on this song, saying:
This is a song we recorded for an album which never officially got released. It was titled Banamontana. The songs, however, did leak online and this is one that I never expected people to like. But they did. Some friends who aren't fans of our music actually told me they love this song, which was crazy to me because I wasn't such a huge fan of it. We then found out over the years that a lot of people really like the Bananamontana version, so we re-recorded it to be an "official” version.
Well I think it's time to look at the lyrics. You can find them here as usual. So here's how I see this song, you have to start with some background. I think he found a girl he was really in love with and she suffered from very very severe depression. It affected him a lot and made him depressed but he still loved her and wanted her to be better but eventually she left him. So now he is alone and he is even more depressed because of it. In the first line he is saying that he is jealous of all the people in the city that go out at night and get to see this girl who is acting happy in that time. She goes out and parties and he's just keeping himself holed up in his house and he doesn't even know what to do without her. She became like a part of him and so nothing else seems to matter anymore. That's why "outside it looks like rain". He feels so hopeless that he wants to just end it all. And he knows that there is nothing he can do to help her, that she has to figure things out on her own. But that doesn't mean he doesn't want to try. And I think that even as much as she has hurt herself and him, that he still loves her and still thinks that she is beautiful even though she is lost in herself and her own pain.
Then he talks about himself a little bit... He decides he is going to end his life by candlelight so he can see some beauty before he goes and compares the wax dripping down the melting candle to his own blood dripping from his skin. Then he goes and he talks about their relationship how he had once thought it was romantic and how he then thought once she left that romance does not exist anymore and that there is only lust in this world. This line makes me think that perhaps she cheated on him. He makes the statement "You are the water in my lungs" and I think that really conveys his feelings- he is drowning in this girl. She (even while gone) is suffocating him. She is what is killing him. They have lost everything between them and maybe they've both even gone a little crazy... but the worst part is that they're alone now.
Well I think my message here are these two things: nothing lasts forever and no one is worth killing yourself over. You have to know that every relationship has one of two outcomes- you either break up or get married. And even when you do get married there is still the possibility of breaking up and even if you don't, death is an inevitability. And then also realize that there is someone out there for everyone, so don't give up the possibility of a future even brighter than your present just because of one person. Life is an unending roller coaster and there will always be ups and downs, so just because you're in a down, don't give up on the fact that an up will come soon.
Love to all,
-Autumn the Music Girl
I can't believe I haven't talked about Pierce the Veil yet! Pierce the Veil is an American Post-Hardcore band that was formed by Mike and Vic Fuentes in San Diego, California. They have three albums and this song, "Caraphernelia" is from their second album, "Selfish Machines".
About this song, Vic Fuentes has said:
"I've always been obsessed with happy songs that have morbid lyrics.
Lyrically, this song is one of the darkest I've ever written. It's about
being obsessed with someone to the point where you're hurting yourself.
A lot of it is written almost like a suicide note meant to be found by
the one you love. It's completely crazy and extreme, but it's also
comforting to say out loud the things you're thinking sometimes."
I think that it's time now to do the lyric analysis! Click here to go to the lyrics. So I think this song starts off when he is first deciding to let this girl go after she broke his heart. He sees her again and maybe she's trying to make him feel bad for breaking up with her but he tells her that he's over her and nothing she does or says will affect him anymore. But this isn't really true. It's just what he tells himself. But he has been really hurt by her, which is obvious by the line "Licking your fingers like you're done and you've decided there is so much more than me". But he can't help having feelings for her, so much it makes him shake. The line about the gun makes me think that he wants to kill himself because he doesn't want to deal with this anymore and the line about his heart says that no matter what he tells himself or anyone else, this girl is still his only reason to live.
With the chorus he's saying that he wants to forget about her and move on but he doesn't believe that he can even though it hurts him. She will remain in his life forever even if it hurts and he doesn't want her to. And even if they did fix things, it would never be the same, so why bother? Then he goes on to sort of describe her characteristics- she's heartless and selfish. Then he compares her to an animal, killing her prey (which are men). She just gobbles up men and moves on. Perhaps even in this relationship he had really treated her well and given her lots of gifts, including a necklace, and she never appreciated them and now he is taking them back. The last line of this verse makes us think that this girl was a huge part of his life and that he had even talked to his mom about her and that maybe he was going to propose. Then he repeats his feelings in the chorus and in this little bridge part he is talking to her new boyfriend after seeing them together and he is begging to him to just give her back and that she is like a drug to him since he can't afford medication so she is the only thing that "fixes" him. The line about "collide invisible lips like a shadow on the wall" suggests that he wants to kiss her again even if it's in secret.
But she completely rejects him and he is heartbroken, thinking to himself "You can't just throw me away". Then it's like he has had enough time to think about how awfully she treated him and he decides that he is finally ready to let go of her and he doesn't even want to try anymore and he can learn to be okay by himself.
so I guess my message here is that in this situation, I hope you come to the same conclusion as he did in this song. When someone isn't treating you well, no matter how hard it may be at first, you have to let go. You WILL be okay. In fact, you'll be better off! So just... let go.
Love to all,
-Autumn the Music Girl
Since it's been so wintry out I thought I would write about this beautiful song by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson called "Winter Song". I absolutely love this song and actually am singing it at a performance on December 19th and may even make this my first cover on YouTube which I'll be hopefully starting soon.
So as usual you can find the lyrics here. So as you can see it starts off with a bunch of "bum"s and I think that is basically setting the sort of "heartbeat" for the song. The first stanza of the first verse is really about that second line, "The storm is coming soon". And since this song is about a relationship, I assume that means she can tell that something bad is going to happen soon. She can feel it coming. In the second stanza she talks about how she hopes she can get him back. she hopes she can just talk to him and things will be okay and he will come back to her instead of leaving. And then she wonders if their love is still alive. Then she goes on to talk (as if she is talking to him) about what other people have told her. She tells him that they (her friends and family and such) have all told her that they are too far gone and that there is no way to fix them. But she still asks herself if there is something there.
And then comes the part where she realizes that everyone else is right. And things have gone cold between them and everything feels wrong now that he really is gone. But then she feels that heartbeat again and she starts to have hope. She reaches out to him hoping to get a response and she does but things aren't the same. It's still winter in their relationship. But she hopes that her love will be enough to bring him back. But in the end she is still constantly questioning... "Is love alive?"
I think this is a rather profound song. It has a much deeper meaning than most people think, at least.
I take a few things from this song- first, I think that if you feel a storm coming you need to be proactive. Talk to the person and if you can tell that there is no saving things, then as hard as it may be, get out. Second, it's okay to have hope but don't be tied down by it. I think everyone who is left always has hope that the person will come back. But it's not something you should hold on to forever. At some point you have to accept that they don't want you in their life, but you know what? It's their loss. And third, I think if you are wondering whether or not there is anything between you and another person, you should really ask yourself if you have feelings and most likely you don't. I find that if you are questioning something about how you feel, the answer is most often negative. But once you discover that, you're free. And you no longer have to question and feel like you're walking on eggshells.
So free yourself... before you're trapped in winter forever.
Love to all,
-Autumn the Music Girl
I decided to do another Motionless In White song because I just love them. This song is "Black Damask" from the "Infamous" album. It's the first song on the album and though it has never been released as a single, it's one of my favorites from the album.
Let's get started on the lyrics because this is kind of a lengthy song. You can find the words here. First he talks about himself and another person (we don't know who yet) but he is saying that he has this horrid black heart even if this person has "ice in (their) lungs". Then he makes a comment about the state of our world and our society, we all want to live this elegant life with this nice house and nice things but we also all want to do things that will prove to be destructive in the end in one way or another. And then I think he goes to talk about a relationship that is dead. It's basically saying that the relationship he is in is either dead or dying and he doesn't know what to do.
And that's basically what the song is about. The death of a relationship and how difficult that is when you don't want to let go. He feels cursed to always have things like this happen to him and it gets to the chorus where he just can't stop thinking about it and he keeps himself up at night, to where he realizes that not only has he been lying to himself but so has she and they've both been lying to each other thinking that everything will be okay. But it won't. He is finally realizing it and so everything he once knew becomes unfamiliar- even her. I think she was lying to him and he finally saw through it and realized she was not the person he thought she was, which is where the lines "Now what have you become? You once felt like home; Now a ghost in the fog." and ""Miss Cadaverous", show me who you really fucking are" come into play. And again it talks about how this relationship is just dead but for some reason they're both just holding on and in the end it's only hurting them both more. I really think the line "Though it doesn't beat it breaks" is beautiful because I know I've felt that way before and I'm sure I'm not the only one. When you don't feel anything but somehow you're still hurting.
And then he has this line where you can tell he just decides to end it. He realizes that the whole thing has just been a mistake and he's just done. He's going to just "burn it fucking down". And then I love the part where he says "Now go back to the start, I still hear her voice but she's lost in the fog". I have always found it interesting that when a relationship ends (most of the time) that the people say "Oh, we can be just friends, right?" and in the end you always just go back to the way life was before you knew each other. You become just awkward familiar strangers. I think that's kind of what this line is conveying. That feeling of knowing someone who isn't really a part of your life, they're just lost in the fog of the rest of the world. Then I like what he goes on to say about this girl. Honestly there are too many girls out there who are insecure and lonely and they think that they can just use a guy to make themselves feel better and it's not okay. It just hurts everyone involved. That's what this girl did. She didn't really love him she just used his love to make herself feel better.
So I have a few messages to deliver here...
If you can feel in your relationship that something isn't right but you
can't seem to let go for whatever reason, stop. You're just hurting
yourself and the other person by continuing to build your web of lies
that you still want to have a relationship with this person and you're
not doing yourself any favors by believing it if that is what the other
person is doing to you. You need to just let go- "right here, right now,
burn it fucking down"
If you are just using a guy to make yourself feel or "look" better, stop that too! It's not fair to him first of all and second of all no guy is going to actually make you feel better about yourself. You can't just use love as a way to solve all your problems. It can't fix what's in your heart. You can't love someone else truly if you don't love yourself and it isn't fair to you to make yourself think that you can. In the end everything will just break apart and you'll feel awful again and you won't know what to do without a guy by your side. You can't let yourself become one of those girls who can't stand to be on her own because in the end you'll get used, too. It becomes a vicious cycle and you have to learn to stand on your own two feet and love and accept yourself. Because if you don't love you, how can you expect someone else to?
So that's my rant for this evening. I hope you take what I have said to heart for those of you who need to. And enjoy the song.
So I have been in kind of a weird mood today and I thought I would dive into something a little out of the ordinary- not in style of music but in message. I'm talking about the song "Imaginary" by Evanescence. "Imaginary" is from their first album, "Fallen". This song was never released as a single but I still love it.
Let's go ahead into the lyric analysis. You can find the lyrics here. As the song begins you sort of get this sense of being inside Amy's dream world. I think that the "screaming alarm clocks" represent people who try to get her to wake up from being inside her own mind, just as the monsters who are calling her name. And she doesn't want to leave, which is why she is lingering in the doorway. The way she puts it makes it seem almost childlike which would very much fit with the song. And when you listen to the song the way she says "let me stay" seems almost like a child throwing a fit because little kids never want to stop pretending or grow up and face reality. And then she goes on to describe this imaginary world of hers. The second verse here is my personal favorite. It really explains how this world of hers came to be. The world is full of "rampant chaos" and she knows that very well. Basically, she decided that she wasn't interested in dealing with the things that go on in the world and she has escaped into her own dreamed up world where everything is better.Then she goes on to describe how her world was before she created this imaginary place- she had insomnia and possible panic attacks in the middle of the night and she just longed for some sleep. And so she dreamed up this world to help her get to sleep at night.
I think, whether we admit it or not, we all do this at times in our lives. I think it comes in various forms, however. Sometimes we all do things to try and escape reality because we don't want to deal with it. But unfortunately, you can't stay in that state forever. Because no matter what, life is always going to throw challenges your way and you have to face them one way or another. So as lovely as your imaginary world may be, you have to get up and face the day at some point. But challenges are a natural part of life and how you deal with them shapes who you are and you will become a stronger person for overcoming them. So don't see it as some horrible thing that you are dealing with alone- it happens to each and every one of us.
Love to all,
-Autumn the Music Girl
So I'm back with more Bring Me The Horizon! This is also off of the newest album, Sempiternal. It's the last track on the regular CD and it's one of my favorites- this is "Hospital For Souls".
Here are the lyrics so you can follow along. This first part is spoken which I think adds a lot of depth to the song considering how really deep the words are. It's a rather profound little paragraph and it really sets the stage for the rest of the song. It's all about depression really and how hard it is to get out of and how it really feels when you're super depressed. Every day it's like there is no purpose to anything and when you're so depressed you are contemplating suicide, the days really are "a death wish". All you do is look for a way out of everything and you don't want to do anything. You lose interest in everything that once mattered. You feel completely powerless to do anything to help yourself. Sometimes you think about going to some group therapy or even some AA meeting or something if you've decided to self-medicate thinking it will help but then you just sit there because you don't want to admit what's wrong. It's a war every day and even the tiniest raised voice or angry look can make you burst into tears because you're that fragile. All you can think about is how messed up and worthless you are. And I love the analogy of life he gives here to an "empty staircase" because truly our lives are our own so we all really go through life alone. It especially feels like that when you have depression. You feel alone and it's like everyone around you disappears.
I think this picture does a really good job of explaining how depression really feels and what it is. Then after explaining how it feels he goes on to say how nobody really wants to die. Sure there are people out there who don't fear death but it doesn't mean they want it. And people who are so depressed that they think of suicide... they don't really want to die either. They just want the pain and the numbness to stop. And unfortunately that's all they can see as a way out. And there seems to them to be no reason to live. There's just this emptiness in everything- nothing seems enjoyable or worth doing anymore and everything seems pointless and useless including yourself. And there is so much pain in your heart and you've had to numb yourself against so much that it feels like you've died a thousand times over
And really, you'd do anything just to feel alive again. Then he talks about how often people when you're depressed don't try to help they just sort of let you be eaten alive by the flames burning inside you and then you're consumed before anyone can blink an eye.
Then he talks about how people (mostly therapists and nurses and such) will ask you things like how you are on a scale of 1-10, one being the lowest you've ever felt and 10 being the best you've ever felt. But the problem is most of the time you don't really know how you feel because you just feel numb so that's a really hard question to answer. Then there's always "Do you want to talk about it?" and another problem is that most often you don't because you feel so alone you wonder to yourself, "How could anyone possibly understand?"
And then there's the fact that most people who get really depressed do things like cut and skip meals. Most people think that things like this are stupid and petty and are just someone trying to get attention. I mean, sure, there are people out there who do do these things just for attention. But in all honesty thest are things that truly depressed people do to keep from doing something worse. I'm not saying self harm is good at ALL. I'm just saying I have been there and I'll tell you what goes through your head. You have all this sadness and anger and pain building up and building up and it's like you're walking blindfolded into the ocean. You just keep getting deeper and deeper into the water and you're drowning and you're screaming and crying but no one can hear you and then all of a sudden someone comes and pulls you out. That's what cutting feels like in this state of mind. It's the most relief you can possibly imagine. It's not good and it doesn't really solve anything but it's not about wanting to kill yourself as most people think. It's just a relief from everything inside.
Oli ends the song by repeating the words "Hold me close, don't let go, watch me burn" and ending with the bit about the hospital for souls. And really I think that music like this is sort of like a hospital for the soul because it lets people in this state of mind know that they're not alone and that it does get better eventually. When you're this depressed it often doesn't seem like it'll get better and it often feels like you are the only person in the whole universe who feels the way you do. And it isn't true. There are millions of people battling depression every day. So just hold on and let yourself go to your own hospital for your soul and find one thing that makes you even remotely happy. You then have reason to live. Don't lose hope <3
I bet you all thought I'd be writing about metal and stuff forever... but NOPE! I actually just heard this song this weekend and it's really speaking to me. This is off of Katy Perry's new album, Prism, and the song is "Unconditionally".
Katy has actually talked about her inspiration for this song and a lot of it is for her boyfriend, John Mayer (yes, they are still together). He has a bad reputation but if she can learn to love him despite all that then I'm all for it. Her other inspiration for this was a trip she took to Africa.
‘Unconditionally’ was influenced by my boyfriend and also really influenced by Africa. I went to Madagascar and did a UNICEF trip that changed my life and gave me this song. It’s just a simple message about loving someone and accepting them and kind of driving at you don’t have to be so self-conscious, you don’t have to fear, because essentially, everybody has their stuff. Nobody comes stuff-free. Everybody has their things and you’re never going to be perfect, and accepting that and understanding that, especially in a relationship, it makes room for a real, genuine kind of love.”
So now that you have an idea of where Katy is coming from on this song, let's go look at the lyrics, which you can find here.
So in this first verse she talks about how her relationship is progressing to the point where all of his insecurities and faults and past mistakes are coming out but how that doesn't really faze her .For right now I'm going to just skip on to the next verse, which talks more about how she just accepts him for who he is in this moment. I think in any relationship this is something that's really important. I mean, it's important to talk about the past but it's also important to not judge or be judged for it. And she knows that in any relationship there are good days and bad days and you just have to roll with those. And then she lets him know that she'd do anything for him because she loves him.
And then in the bridge she tells him go just let go of his past and open up his heart and just love her and let her love him. For some people it's really hard to let another person in because they've been hurt a lot and let down a lot. And then she says that "Acceptance is the key to be, to be truly free" and I think this is a really profound statement because it is a key component to a successful relationship but at the same time, you can't be too accepting. You can't just let someone get away with whatever they want, but at the same time, you don't want to be one of those people who can never forgive anyone for anything. But the main message of this song is just to love unconditionally and that that is the only way to truly have a successful relationship- one that will last for a lifetime. It's the kind of love a parent has to a child, where no matter what you do, though it can cause tension and make you mad, you will always love that person. It's the message that no matter what, nothing will change how you feel about that person. And that, my friends, is true and genuine and 100% real love.
So accept one another and don't worry about what has happened in the past. Focus on now and learn to love unconditionally. Because that is real love and there is a freedom in that that you can't find anywhere else.
Love to you all,
-Autumn the Music Girl
So this is kind of depressing, but we sometimes have to talk about depressing things because it is a part of life. This week I'm going to talk about the song "Missing" by Evanescence. This was released to radio as a single in 2004 though it was originally recorded in 2001-02, and originally released with "Bring Me to Life" on the commercial single but only in Australia and then it was included on the album "Anywhere But Home". Now the lead singer, Amy Lee, has voiced what this song's meaning is to her, saying:
"As far as if she got it right, I would say you always get it right. When it comes to music and art it’s always about how each individual interprets it. Some of our songs are self reflective but some of them are also story telling. For me that song was all about running away, but its poetry so please do take from it what you can."
but since this song is open to interpretation, I'm going to interpret it.
So look at the lyrics here. I guess it makes sense for this song to be about running away but to me it screams "suicide". It tells the story of a girl whose home life is pretty awful. Maybe she tries running away but is always brought back home. Her parents are either drunk or on drugs all the time and they don't take care of her or pay any attention to her and she just feels totally abandoned. The way the song is written it seems as though she is telling her story from beyond the grave- as though she has just ended her life and her parents haven't even noticed yet. And she wonders if maybe someday someone will miss her and realize what they are missing in their lives without her.She feels like they won't though- she is so depressed and hopeless and feels so rejected by the people who are supposed to love her that she thinks she is worthless and no one will miss her. And in the chorus she talks about her own sacrifice and how all she wanted was to know that she was loved, but she never ended up feeling that way. And in the second verse it repeats a lot but it also brings up this idea that who this song is talking about is some kind of self-medicated person. This means that they probably have some sort of trauma in their life and they don't know how to deal with it so in order to cope they turn to things like drugs or alcohol or even self harm. And she feels like she is lost and no matter how much she is hurting no one hears her and no one notices. And so she spent years perhaps harming herself because she too didn't know how to deal with feeling so abandoned and finally she ended her life, going to sleep for the last time and waking with no one, hence the last little verse.
So as you can see this song is really dark. And as sad as it is, I just want to say that suicide is never the answer. Even when you are in your darkest moments and you see no hope try to think of one thing to look forward to and if you can, there's still hope. It doesn't have to be big it just has to be something. Believe me, I have been in that place. Even when it seems like it will never get better, it will, I promise. If you have problems with your parents, know that it won't last forever because someday you won't have to live there anymore. If you have problems in a relationship and can't end it, believe in your own strength because you are strong. Nothing lasts forever and eventually whatever situation is causing you to have these thoughts will end and things will get better. And know that your life is worth more than whatever person or thing is making you want to end it. Everyone is unique and you will accomplish greatness. When someone is telling you (directly or indirectly) that you're worthless, you just need to shut them out because those are lies specifically designed to destroy you, so don't let them! Let it make you stronger and even more determined to prove them wrong. Because you're a star and you WILL prove them wrong.
So have hope and don't give up just yet. And know that you are not alone- because so many people have been exactly where you are and we have made it through. So will you. The storm will pass and the sun will come out, I promise.
So, yes I am doing another Motionless In White song and this is a tribute to my English class and my wonderful English teacher, Mr. Elkin! In class, we just finished reading Arthur Miller's "The Crucible". Fitting enough, this song is based off of that play. The song is off of the "Creatures" album and it's called "Abigail". For those of you who don't know, "The Crucible" is about the Salem witch trials and Abigail is a conniving seventeen year old girl who had sex with a married man who was about twice her age. And she's pretty much the first person who went around pointing fingers at "witches". So she started the whole thing. Now that you all know that, you will better understand the lyrics of this song and their references to this play.
So you can look at said lyrics here and follow along with me! This song is from the perspective of John Proctor who is the aforementioned adulterer. He is saying that she who in the play becomes revered as a saint is the only real witch, especially considering the fact that she drank blood as a charm to kill John Proctor's wife. And he is now being seen as a heretic because he hates Salem's pastor and therefore he doesn't go to church very often and when he is being accused of working with the devil he says (because of the corruption occurring in Salem) that "God is dead!". So in the first verse he wonders how Abigail could be so cruel as to sentence thirty-something people including him to death. Then he talks about how she is a "product of lust". I am of the mind that if John had never had his affair with Abigail, none of the deaths in the play would have occurred so that's what I think he is saying by her being a "product of lust"- everything she is doing is, as is said in the play, "A whore's vengence". Then he goes to mention the fact that John Proctor is eventually hung as the people of Salem watch and even cheer. And John had been a pretty upstanding citizen and hoped perhaps that the people would see the corruption happening when he was actually hung.
Then the second verse talks about how Abigail is truly the guilty one and makes reference to the death of another character in the play who was killed while the court officials tried to get him to give the name of someone who accused someone else. This murdered man was really old and refused to give up his loyalty and was killed by the crushing weight of stones that were placed upon his chest. He is telling Abigail in this verse that she is guilty and must confess her sins and that she will be condemned to hell for what she has caused. And then it has a few lines that John Proctor says in the play and talks about how they'll meet again in hell.
So I don't really know of a good moral here- maybe don't send a bunch of people to their death? That's never really a good thing. And don't lie because it gets you into a whole bunch of trouble even of you seem cool or something like that for whatever lie you tell because it won't end well. I hope you all enjoyed this and enjoy the song!
Love to all,
-Autumn the Music Girl
So I thought I'd take a moment to write about a song that talks about the state of our beloved country. Some people may be upset with me about this but I feel like I need to write about it. So I'm going to talk about another Motionless In White song, "America".
"A-M-E-R-I-C-A" was the third single to be released from the "Infamous" album on April 23, 2013. The music video was released on June 3rd and was directed by Shawn "Clown" Crahan of Slipknot, which I think is really cool. So let's just get started on the lyrics!
You can follow along here but for the most part I'll be taking this line by line so you may not have to. The very first line is sort of a dig at our healthcare- it seems these days that people think taking some pill is going to solve all of your problems in life. Let me tell you right now that this is NOT TRUE. And I'm talking about taking pills for all sorts of things- weight loss, hair growth, or any actual medication. Now I understand that sometimes you can't get better without taking some sort of medication but most often with things like mental disorders (depression, anxiety, etc.) you can just work that stuff out without being hooked on some sort of pill for the rest of your life. These things change who you are so instead of trying to be someone else, why can't we just love we are with all of our faults?
The second line of this song talks about our economy. Things are tight today- everyone knows that. So a lot of people have to do horrid things just to get by. Selling drugs, selling themselves, or any number of other things. A lot of people in this country are struggling to survive. Then he just mentions piracy which although it happens all the time and is stealing from really talented people (Like Motionless in White)who deserve to be paid for what they do, it's not really the biggest issue this country is facing. And for some reason it's become a huge deal to the government when their time could be spend working on so many other more important issues. Now let's talk about Hollywood. Have you ever noticed how much publicity a person gets for murdering a celebrity or something like that? Well even though it's they go to jail, now everyone knows their name and they'll probably even get a movie made about what they did! So even thought they get time in jail, they also get a lot of fame. So in a way it sort of evens out for them.
Chris goes on to talk about how he sees all of this and to him it's "one big nightmare". Then he talks about how "the ugly truth has a model face". When I think of this I think of fashion magazines or fashion shows.
This, my friends this the ugly truth. These "gorgeous models" don't eat! And yet our society pushes us to be like them. That skinny and tan and blonde. They think we should all look like these girls
and that there's something wrong with you if you don't! And we make just total saints out of people like Britney Spears and Ke$ha and Rhianna and what do they all sing about? Sex and getting drunk and partying. And that's almost ALL they sing about. And yet millions of little girls in this country worship them! Why can't we see through all the lies and the pressures of this society and just be who we are and accept one another? The second verse is all pretty obvious. We're all pretty much living paycheck to paycheck these days and as far as food is concerned most people just buy into cheap and fast food. Well you are what you eat... why do you think America has the highest obesity rate? And now with social media just about everyone wants everyone else to know everything that's going on in their lives. We spend so much time communicating electronically instead of building REAL relationships with REAL people face to face. And when all of us are struggling the people at the top are all living luxuriously and buying themselves new and fancier cars and such. Now how fair is that?
I think that when you really take a look at the state of this country you realize that our society is really pretty messed up. From the pressures of the press to the government, there is corruption everywhere. WE can stop it though. We can stand up to society and its pressures. WE can make a difference. You don't need some pills that will "change your life", YOU can change your life. You don't need to look like the people on the covers of magazines, you just need to look like YOU! Because no matter what, you're beautiful. So live life and be yourself and stand up for yourself and your beliefs. Because THAT is what America should be about.
Love to you all,
-Autumn the Music Girl
So I've decided that I am also obsessing over another wonderful band- Motionless in White! The band started in 2005 and has been going strong in the metalcore world ever since. They have two EP's and two full length albums so far.
The song that I'm going to talk about right now is "Devil's Night" and it was the first single to be released from the album "Infamous" on September 25, 2012. Well that's basically all I have to say about that, so let's go ahead and start on the lyrics!
First of all, I just want to say that I love Motionless in White's lyrics because they have such deep meaning to them and they are really about life and the problems in the world. This song is a prime example of that and you can look at the lyrics here. I love the second line of this song- "My life is not for sale". The whole first verse is about their music career. They first talk about the difference between them and most artists in the pop world. Lots of people in music are just doing it for the money- making pointless songs (*cough, cough*, Nicki Minaj and many others like her) with no value to them besides the fact that sex sells. But Motionless and people like them write lyrics to save lives. And a lot of people try to put them down for that- telling them that what they do isn't music. But they don't let things like that get to them. As they say in the chorus, they're "here to stay, forever and always."
Then the second verse is all about how he had to push past all his own obstacles and not let anything stand in his way to get to where he is today. But everything he has been through has made him who he is today and in the end really made him stronger. I also really like this second stanza of the verse which says "So loud, we are the ones that you pushed away for drowning your voice out. You’d like to think we've been defeated, but we’re here to stay- forever and always." I think that this is almost as powerful as the first one- if not more! It's saying that though they were once silenced for speaking about real life, they are now louder than ever and they're not just going to go away. And he continues with this- saying that he has been through a lot just like a lot of us have and that even though we are scarred and even broken by our experiences in life, that doesn't mean we are weak. And then he speaks some more words of truth about human nature- "people fear what they don't understand".
You would think that in our modern world, people would be more accepting of what they don't understand but in all honesty, I don't know if that will ever happen. It seems to just be our nature as humans to fear what is not understood, what is different from the norm. People are actually scared of this kind of music. It's the same reason that homophobia exists and why people are scared of people who dye their hair crazy colors and have tattoos and piercings and listen to hardcore music. And they get a bad reputation- because we are different from "normal people". But now I ask you- what defines normal? Because if normal music for example is pointless and has no real substance to it then I don't want to be normal. If being a normal person is keeping up with all sorts of fashion trends in magazines and trying to look like some Barbie doll then I'll pass. I am much happier just being myself. And that won't ever change. I think that's really what this song is about- being yourself no matter what the rest of society thinks. Do what you love and don't let anyone stop you and don't give up on what is important to you. Make a difference. All of these messages can be derived from this song- and that's what I think is so great about it. It has meaning! So if the "Devil's Night" is the night where everyone decides to stop falling under the pressures of society and just be who they are, then let tonight be the "Devil's Night"!
I hope you all like the song and take something from this.
Love to all,
-Autumn the Music Girl
So, to continue with my obsession over Bring Me the Horizon, I'm going to talk about a song off of the deluxe version of "Sempiternal"- "Deathbeads". Now, "Deathbeds" doesn't exactly sound like the name of a love song, but once you look at the lyrics, there is no doubt.
This song actually features the lead singer Oliver Sykes's girlfriend, Hannah Snowdon. I personally think that is adorable, and she actually has a really nice voice. I really think he wrote this song for her so having her sing on the track is like the ultimate tribute to their love and it's really sweet!
Okay lyric time- click here to follow along. The first verse is one that really stands out to me. The comparisons he uses are so unusual but so absolutely beautiful it's amazing. I mean, when was the last time you saw "eyes like a car crash" as a compliment... or even heard those words for that matter? But the second line goes on to explain what he means so beautifully- "I know I shouldn't look but I can't turn away". Have you ever had that feeling? Maybe when you really feel something for someone who's already taken or when you know someone's bad for you but you can't help but feel drawn to them? That's what he's conveying here. The feeling of having someone in your heart but not being able to have them in your arms. It's excruciating but you love that person so much that you just don't care about the pain. You hold onto hope because it's all you have. He expresses that no matter what he does he will never stop feeling the way he does about her. So he watches her... loves her from a distance. Then we find out that there was a time when they shared one kiss. A single kiss is all it takes sometimes though. And before he knew it he was in love. His heart was in her hands. I love the image he then shares of him being like a deer in the headlights. It shows that he's scared. Scared she doesn't feel the same way he does, scared she'll find someone better than him, but all he can do is sit and wait and let fate decide what will happen. You can't fight fate. If it's meant to be, then it will be. If you try to take matters into your own hands you'll just screw things up. But he ends the chorus letting her know that he will always be there for her, waiting for something that might not ever happen. Even when he dies his heart will belong to her.
I think that this song shows a lot of what true love really is. It's dedication to another person. It's knowing them- their fears, their insecurities, their secrets. Seeing their flaws and not judging them. Loving them with all your heart no matter what- even if they don't love you back. It's when you can truly be yourself with someone and not be embarrassed. And I think that this song really shows you that (as much as I would love to be in her place...) Oli and Hannah have found that love- they belong together. And it's really beautiful.
Don't worry, you'll find it too. You'll find the person who will keep your heart even after you die... the person who the tides of life will always bring you back to... the one with the eyes like a car crash and body like a whiplash. And then you, too will have true love. So don't lose hope, my friend.
Since I'm so obsessed with Bring Me The Horizon I decided to write about their awesome song, "Shadow Moses"! "Shadow Moses" is the sixth track on the album "Sempiternal" and the first single to be released from the album. It was released on January 4, 2013 on BBC Radio 1. It was released on iTunes on January 14th. This is currently one of my favorite songs on this album, but this album is really good so that's saying a lot.
So, as always, you can find the lyrics here. I always think that lyrics from hardcore bands are really deep- more so than pop songs. The first couple of verses sound like he is talking about a relationship that was never really a relationship ("what's dead can never die"). He thought he was over this girl but he realizes he still has feelings for her. Then in the rest of the song it seems like the focus changes a bit to being more about society and the way we live. I think in the first lines of the chorus, "Can you tell from the look in our eyes? We're going nowhere." that he is saying we are all already a little dead inside just from the struggles of life. And though we all try to run from it, none of us get out alive. But at the same time it feels like death is so far away and like it will never come to us but the truth is that it could be at any moment. That's why we "live our lives like we're ready to die" because truthfully, we could be dead within the next minute.
The music video for this song is really cool. It's mostly just images of the band playing this song in the snow and with flares and a girl walking alone in the snow and the band playing in front of the ocean on a beach. There's a lot of cool camera work for it, though. Enjoy!
So I guess my message here is live life and don't fear death because it's inevitable!
So glad to be blogging again! I thought I would start off the year by talking about my summer. This summer I went to my VERY FIRST EVER Warped Tour! For those of you who don't know, the Vans Warped Tour is a huge outdoor concert that goes on all day and tours all over the country. They have a variety of bands and genres of music that's performed. So I thought I'd tell my story and review the bands I saw.
This year's "theme" was "The Best Day Ever" but for me this started off looking like the wost day ever. I was in Texas visiting my mom and the night before we had (admittedly this was a stupid idea) stayed up really late and the concert started at 11:30 am. Well, we knew we weren't going to get there as soon as it started but we were thinking maybe an hour or so into it. Well my mom gets up and she's kind of cranky because we only got a few hours of sleep. And on top of this she hasn't eaten anything since early in the afternoon the day before. Well to make things even better I have a four year old brother who on this day was not interested in being cooperative whatsoever, so that was stressing her out. Then I tried to curl her hair and for some reason that was not working out so that made her upset and then she had to take out the trash and there was a nasty, red, smelly, chunky goo in the bottom of the trash can. So basically this morning was going really badly. We left the house thinking to ourselves "okay we just need to get to the concert and everything will be okay".
We drop my brothers off at my grandparents' house and head off to the concert. Typically it takes 25 minutes tops to get from my mom's house to the arena where the concert was in San Antonio. Well we are barely out of my mom's little town when we hit... bumper to bumper traffic! Well at this point we think that the universe hates us. Its about one o' clock in the afternoon and we are going roughly a mile every ten minutes. We see a sign that says "two lanes closed ahead". We try to stay positive and think "okay well maybe that means we'll be out of this soon". We don't get to where people are merging for another hour. My mom and I are freaking out and people next to us are staring at us as we are screaming and cursing whoever decided to close two lanes on the highway on a Saturday afternoon. Long story short: we left around one and got there around three.
At this point I am very worried that I will have missed some of my favorite bands. Thankfully we got there just in time!
We took this picture right before getting to see Blessthefall! We only got to see them perform "You Wear A Crown But You're No King", "2.0" and "What's Left Of Me" but I was really surprised at how good they were live! I'd only listened to Blessthefall a little bit before going to Warped Tour but I discovered that I really like them because of their performance!
Immediately after Blessthefall was done, another of my favorite bands started playing on the next stage over... Chiodos! Chiodos was absolutely astounding. I really got into it for Chiodos actually. When I saw Blessthefall I was sort of just standing off in the distance and listening and watching, but with Chiodos I actually got involved! I got to see their whole set, too, which made me really happy. But I was also really really hot. In Texas, not only does it get up into the hundreds, but it is humid, which makes it seem even hotter. They opened with "The Undertaker's Thirst for Revenge is Unquenchable (The Final Battle). I'll admit that I don't know this song very well so I can't really voice an opinion about it, and the same with the next song, "Thermacare". But then they performed "There's No Penguins in Alaska" Which is one of their biggest and one of my favorite songs! It was incredible! And their next song, "Expensive Conversations in Cheap Hotels" was just as great! To be honest I even enjoyed the songs I didn't know simply because of the talent! They ended with "Baby, You Wouldn't Last a Minute on the Creek" which, in my opinion was the absolute best way to end their set.
By now it's blazing hot, my mom and I have already gone through about seven bottles of water, and we are scouring the place for shade. We rest for a while until Sleeping with Sirens comes on. So we are standing in a huge crowd and I start to feel very faint. I've been doing my best to stay hydrated but I still feel like I'm going to throw up or pass out! So we go and sit in some shade and of course, Sleeping with Sirens starts to play.
They start off with one of my favorite songs ever, "If I'm James Dean, You're Audrey Hepburn" but I am still too nauseated to get up. I chug two bottles of water and I get up and get in the crowd and I'm totally fine! The next song they play is "Low" which is off of their amazing new album, "Feel". And then all of a sudden there was this amazing moment where Kellin talked about how he was really just a normal guy who wrote real lyrics and how that was easy to forget at things like this. He asked for just one song, "A Trophy Father's Trophy Son", for everyone to put down their cell phones and cameras and just listen and watch. It was so beautiful and so amazing and not once electronic device was out during that whole song. And then they played "Congratulations" which is also off of "Feel". I had not heard this song until this moment and I instantly fell in love with it! The next song they played was "Roger Rabbit". This song is so deep and emotional and beautiful that I just about started to cry! I was going to post my own personal video of this but for some reason it wouldn't upload...
But here's what it was basically like live:
Then they moved on to "Do It Now, Remember It Later" which was awesome. I believe I posted about that song before! But one of my favorite moments was seeing them perform "If You Can't Hang". It was indescribable! So I'll just let you see what it was like...
Immediately after they were done with this amazing set, I went and bought "Feel" because it's incredible.
So after that my mom and I walked around for a few hours and came back to this stage to see "Bring Me The Horizon". I swear it was more of a packed crowd for them than for SWS, which for some reason surprised me. This was when things got crazy. I'll post a video for each song because this was by FAR my favorite performance.
The song they opened with is now one of my favorite songs- "Shadow Moses". This was where the real moshing began! I hadn't heard "Shadow Moses" more than once before I heard it live and hearing it live was what really made me fall in love with it. Nothing will ever compare.
They then played "House of Wolves" off of their newest album, "Sempiternal" and "Chelsea Smile" which is a song I have always loved and it was so great to hear live!
Then came "Go to Hell for Heaven's Sake"off of the newest album "Sempiternal" (Shadow Moses is also on Sempiternal!) and like I said I had only listened to that album once but I fell in love with all of those songs immediately! They were even better live than they were recorded, so I'm glad I got to hear them live! It was during "House of Wolves" that Oli started a circle pit around the sound tent... I got a picture- let me know if you can see that circle!!
Then during "Diamonds Aren't Forever" he had two of his crew members climb into inflatable boats and "crowd boat" in a competition to go off the stage, around the white tent and back on to the stage. It was totally insane!
Another song they did from "Sempiternal" was "Sleepwalking" which was really quite beautiful and yet still hardcore.
Then my absolute favorite song of this set was "Antivist". People were just crazy and it was really fun and really awesome.
It was after this amazing performance that I became totally obsessed with Bring Me The Horizon! This performance turned me into a super fan because it was definitely the best overall and I will never ever forget it!
I hope you enjoyed journeying through my Warped Tour 2013 experience. I think I truly lived the best day ever! I encourage all of you to go out there and do something crazy like I did because you might find out that you really really love it! I'm totally in a concert craze now and if I never went to Warped Tour I probably wouldn't have as much of a drive to do stuff like this and on top of it, I wouldn't have all these awesome memories with my mom.
Love to all,
-Autumn the Music Girl
P.S. Go and get Sleeping With Sirens's album, "Feel", Blessthefall's album "Hollow Bones" and Bring Me The Horizon's album, "Sempiternal" because they're all wonderful!
P.P.S
Sempiturtle-
Shoutout to my best friend and fellow BMTH obsessor- Emily!!
So another one of my favorite bands is Evanescence. I grew up listening to them and I have always loved them. Evanescence is an American rock band (also referred to as gothic rock or, as they say, "epic, dramatic, dark rock") that started in 1995. They've had three full length albums and another DVD/CD combination. They have released 11 singles since they made it big in 2002.
This song, "Everybody's Fool" has always been one of my favorites. It's from their first big album, "Fallen" and was released on June 7, 2004 as a single. Amy has said that this song was inspired by her little sister's love of pop music idols such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. She has said regarding its inspiration:
"My little sister was really getting into these, I don't want to offend anyone, but like really fake, cheesy, slutty female cracker-box idols, and it really pissed me off. She started dressing like them and she was like 8 years old. So I gave her the talk and I wrote a song." She later revealed that the song was written for American pop singers Britney Spears and Christina Aguileraadding, "At this point, everybody knows that Britney is fake. The song is not about Britney Spears; it's about a lot of people in this industry. It's so fake, the whole Hollywood thing. 'Look at how perfect I am!' Nobody looks like that. It's all fake and it's really hurting a lot of girls' and women's self images. Where are all the normal people?"
I think Amy tries really hard to just be herself and considers herself one of the "normal people". I mean, I don't ever hear about her in the tabloids.
So now the song. And the lyrics here. They're some really bold lyrics. And they're some really true lyrics. Most of what we see in magazines and on the internet is FAKE. Even the photos of stars "without makeup" are airbrushed and photoshopped to no end. Women all over this country and all over the world are looking to these false idols and comparing themselves needlessly. "Oh I need to dye my hair to match Jennifer Aniston" "Oh I wish I looked more like Scarlett Johannson." Well the images that we have of these women are fake. And yet we think badly of ourselves for not looking like perfect little dressed up barbie dolls that are still in their packages. Well Amy Lee is right. NOBODY looks like that. So why hold ourselves to a false standard? Why wish to be anything but who you are? Beautiful should be whatever you personally think it should be. And you should be your own kind of beautiful. These stars that we idolize so much, just like Amy says, have everyone fooled. There are some good ones out there, I believe. But most of these "perfect women" never were and never will be. There is no perfect woman. So stop comparing yourself to some girl you see on T.V. with the perfect body and perfect hair. She doesn't exist.
I think that one of Amy's most successful ways of getting this song and this message out there is through the music video for this song. Wikipedia describes it perfectly:
Before the music begins, Lee appears with blond hair, a baby-blue blouse and a long white skirt and emerges from the kitchen holding a fresh-from-the-oven frozen pizza, in a TV commercial. She presents the pizza to her family and, as the camera zooms in for a close-up, the brand name on the pizza box is visible and it is called Lies. "There is nothing better than a good lie," Lee says cheerily, through a smile.Scenes of Lee in her hotel room follow as she removes her makeup. Those scenes are followed by Lee wearing a "luxurious auburn tresses and dangling diamond earrings" as she plays a glamorous spokesmodel who violently scribbles and scratches out her picture in magazines after the photo shoot has finished. She also portrays a motorcycle girl in a commercial who drinks a soft drink called "Lies" that affords its drinker the opportunity to "Be somebody."In a Japanese commercial, she plays a Barbie-like doll with pink hair. Each scene ends with Lee crying. During the bridge, two girls are seen laughing at the model's appearance, stating that she looks much older than they thought she was. Next scene, she is shown in a bathtub singing the song to herself. Another segment shows her breaking a mirror with her bare hand, which starts to bleed uncontrollably. In the final scene, she stands on the balcony of a building, crying and screaming at a billboard featuring one of her advertisements, saying that the model side of her isn't "real and you can't save me", and that the public is oblivious to how she really lives.
You can have the beautiful, glamorous lifestyle. But most of the time, it won't fulfill you. There is always some sort of misery behind the scenes that no one knows. Because when you aren't yourself, you start to lose your sense of self. And then you don't know anything. You don't know who you are anymore or what you want.
So I guess the message here is to love and be yourself always and not to believe the lies that Hollywood wants us to. You are beautiful because you are uniquely you.
Love to all,
-Autumn the Music Girl
