I've been really into this band lately.

"Fuck What You Like" by A.R.E. Weapons.

Although I dislike labeling things, especially music, I think this is a great example of modern punk. While it doesn't have the cliche punk sound, style, or fashion, I think it definitely has a punk sound and style. Despite the simple sound of the song, it really makes me think. It has a wonderful, yet simple message, which I think people could really benefit from. Just do what you do for your own reasons without being controlled by what other people will think of you or what you think other people will think of you. Don't do things based on what you think other people will like; a concept that's definitely important when it comes to any creative endeavors.

I think the lines "Fuck what you like, I don't care what you like. Fuck what you like, I'm living my life" stick out to me especially in the context of the vocabulary used in things I've been noticing lately on the internet. There was a recent change on Facebook that I really don't approve of, where pages no longer have a button you can click to become a fan of whatever the page represents, and instead have a button for you to click to "like" whatever the page represents. It makes things much too black and white in my opinion. I think people already think in terms of everything being black and white, and this just makes it easier for them. Everything is now easily organized into two groups. Things they like, and things they don't like.




Obviously the song is not about that, after all, it has been around for a few years now, but I think it applies to the meaning of the song. Look at the top right corner of the Vimeo video player I embedded at the beginning of this entry. It has a button with a heart symbol on it, labeled "LIKE". If you like the video, you're supposed to press that button to let people know what you like. If that's not irony, I don't know what is.

I was disappointed recently when a few people decided they no longer "liked" my music page on Facebook, because I feel it's like finding out people who you thought once supported you suddenly no longer do. Going from someone who supports you to someone who doesn't is quite a significant change for an action involving one mouse click. Although their actions still upset me, it's really not a big deal. It's not for them, so I don't really care if they like it or not. To them it's not about support. It's about what they like or don't like. I don't care what they like, and what they like doesn't affect how I do things, because I'm doing it for me. It's my life.

Yesterday was rather productive.

I'm changing the name of my music project, and over the past couple months I've been creating profiles for it on various different sites like Myspace, Facebook, Bandcamp... I've even made an Etsy page because I think it would make for an interesting store for my band's merchandise. I really dislike the various online stores made specifically for selling band merch. Having an Etsy account makes it so not only do I not have to deal with those other sites, but it will set me apart from everyone else. I'm very into the whole "do it yourself" or DIY attitude or approach, one of the things I really like about the punk. Unfortunately, many bands wanting to come off as punk do things like have very simple "punk" looking buttons and t-shirts made, but they're made by the big companies that make everyone else's merchandise too, and that punk aesthetic is just a facade, and is really contradictory to what the merchandise really is: simply merchandise made by a company to be sold to make money and that's it really.

The general attitude seems to be "We need to make a shirt to sell, let's just take a black shirt and slap a logo or picture on it. And if we make it look like someone made it with a stencil and spraypaint, it will look very punk!" One of my favorite bands is AFI, and I wish the band members themselves actually put some work into the design of their t-shirts and other items they sell. One of the new t-shirts they're selling in a package with their new album has an octopus on it. Octopi are cool and all, but what does that have to do with the album? Nothing. So since Etsy is all hand-made items, I'm going to be making a lot of really creative items people can buy, things I'd actually find interesting if one of my favorite bands were making it. This includes t-shirts that I will personally print with stencils (designed by me) as opposed to getting them printed by a company or by using cheap iron-on's. I think that would really set me apart from all the other musicians out there who just pay other people to print their shirts for them or use cheap iron-on's. And it would be something I wouldn't feel bad about selling. I'd feel like a terrible person selling someone a t-shirt when I know the graphic on it is going to fade or peel off the first time through the washing machine.

Anyway, that wasn't even the point of this blog entry. I just totally went off on a tangent. One reason yesterday was productive was because I finally have the url www.facebook.com/jacobsshadow on Facebook. They have a lot of ridiculous rules like you have to have a certain amount of fans before you can have a url, and you have to have been on facebook for a certain amount of time. If you have a newer account, it has to be verified. I actually had to get back my old account so I could make it an admin of the page so I could use it to change the url, because my new account isn't verified. So anyway, I finally got the url I want. That's important to me. The url's for all my various sites match.

The other way in which yesterday was productive was the recording I did, which I talked about in my last entry. I didn't know if any of it was usable at the time I wrote the entry, but last night I spent some trying out the clips I recorded, putting them into the song. The first one I did actually had airplane sounds in it. I don't remember there being an airplane when I was recording that one, but apparently there was, because it was loud in the recording. I used two of the six takes in the song, layered over each other, each one slightly panned to a different side. I think it sounds pretty good, and will sound even better when I record the guitar parts for real. For now it's just the demo, which has softsynth guitar sounds filling in for the real guitar parts I am going to record when I'm done writing the song. The recordings of the leaves are a little bit tinny sounding from my camera microphone, but it doesn't bother me. And I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to my music, so if it's good enough for me, it's good enough.

To me it sounds like someone walking in leaves on the recording, but maybe that's because I recorded it so I know what it is. I'm not quite sure if just anyone listening to the song when I release it will be able to tell it's someone walking in dead leaves. Maybe I'll let a few people hear it and see what they think.

Anyway, I'm going to be seeing AFI tonight with Todd and my cousin Patrick. It's hard to believe for some reason. I'm sitting here in my room right now, and sometime this evening I'll be standing in front of a stage watching AFI. Should be a good time.