It's a sunny day in heaven and no one is around

Listening to: Kings and Queens - 30 Seconds To Mars // Crash Love - AFI
Reading (or at least trying to): The Kite Runner



I must read this book. I must read this book. I must read this book.

But, I'm having no such luck. I'm only up to chapter four and I'm expected to have read all (or there abouts) of it in the past week. What did I do? Watched all of Gossip Girl S1 before buying S2 and starting on that, did textiles homework and .... not much else. Why must you do this to me cruel world? Why oh why? And I've had other things to think about so I've not had the time, patience or mental capacity to read a book set in Afganistan, dealing with Russians and the violation of a twelve year old boy. Not today, please.

That aside, I'm so excited for eighteen days time. I get to see this lovely band again whilst wearing my equally lovely FLASH YOUR YASH tshirt.


This weekend I'll hopefully be going toget tickets for the Kerrang! Tour. All Time Low, The Blackout, Young Guns and My Passion? Yes please! How long have I waited to see My Passion? How happy am I that I'm going to see them along with three other amazing bands in one night? And how excited am I that I may even meet MR BEE? Oh, plus I'll get to see The Blackout and squee in delight at their lovely Welsh accents.

Speaking of squeeing with delight, words cannot express how happy I am that this amazing specimen of a woman is playing in Newcastle on March 7th next year.




Anyway, here's my concert list as of now:

Nov 21st: Yashin // This Is Divine // This Way Up
Feb 3rd: K! Tour - All Time Low // The Blackout // Young Guns // My Passion
March 7th: Emilie Autumn

Mission #8

I AM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW!!

That is all :)

Life in the Arctic and an early xmas list

Listening to: American Jet Set by Kill Hannah
Reading: Handling The Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist


My room might as well be the Arctic. When I woke up this morning, my feet were freezing and every part of my bed (apart from the bit I was lying on) was cold. Got out of bed, put my slippers on: still freezing. Sat downstairs watching Paris Hilton's New BFF and Gossip Girl: unbelievably, more freezing than ever. Now I'm sat with my thicker slippers on and my school leavers hoodie and I'm still cold! Goddamn I need some hot chocolate.

It may only be the middle of October, but I already know what I would like for xmas.

1) Wake Up The Sleepers deluxe package

That's pretty obvious, is it not? I haven't been able to find the CD in any HMV that I've been in recently; plus I want that pillowcase so much.

2) Emilie Autumn - Opheliac (Ultimate Book/Album bundle)

No words. At all. Just that book is going to be so amazing, therefore I must have it. Plus I love EA, she's pretty damn amazing. If you haven't heard her stuff, do so now

3) Dr Martens

I'm torn between a black pair, or a red/brown pair. My mam thinks that the red/brown pair are awful and will make me look like a skinhead. Hm, yeah. Totally.



4) Jack Skellington as Sandy Claws
HOWCUTEISTHISPLEASE?! Seriously, when I saw this in the Disney Store I SQUEED with delight. Oh and please, please, please check out all the other amazingly cute Jack stuff they have. I want that cushion, coaster and cookie jar.

Other than that, I would greatly appreciate donations to my "SEND FAYE TO NEW HEART 8" fund. Btw I'm not sad to want to start saving for next year, when this year's hasn't even happened yet. I've blabbed on about NHFXMAS in other blogs so I really don't need to go over this again. But this year they're going to play American Jet Set in it's entirety, which means only one thing: SICK BOY!!!

Now you may be thinking, "why is that important?", "why should I care?" etc. But just so you know, Mat hates Sick Boy, so this will be pretty epic and I'm gutted that I'm not going to be there to experience it. People have to record it for all of us who aren't going. On the plus side, us Non-New Heart people will be having our Non-New Heart Partaaay on Stickam; something we had last year and something that was extremely fun.

But, the "SEND FAYE TO NEW HEART 8" fund, is basically going to be me saving all my EMA money and money I get for xmas/birthday and not spending anything after December. I only will spend money when absolutely necessary; like for concerts tickets, bd presents and such.

Now I'm going to watch The Nightmare Before Xmas, drink fudge hot chocolate, eat a Curly Wurly and do some textiles homework.

Old music is better / I'm copyrighting 'The Divino Collection'

Listening to: Wake Up The Sleepers - Kill Hannah (mainly Laika, on repeat)
Reading: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

Hello October. How I love you. What, with the amazingness that is Halloween and half-term and all. Plus, I can go back up to my old school on that date to get my GCSE work back! Did I mention that it was of Mat Devine and belongs to the collection known as Divino McMat? I didn't? Oh, well here he his anyway:


I'd like to point out that I got an A for this wonderful piece of work that I will hug when I get it out of whatever shitty art cupboard/Examination Board place they've kept it in since the end of May. (And I'm aware of the little white spot under his nose on the right hand image that I neglected to paint in brown. But what-the-fuck-ever, I still got an A)
Speaking of drawings/paintings of Mat, I don't know just how to go about Mission #8 on the KHK. Do I draw & paint one of all of Kill Hannah, or do I simply draw & paint yet another one of Mat; adding it to the Divino Collection once I'm finished? Hmm... need to decide quickly. I only have 'till the 21st.

Bucket List:
1) Get 'The Divino Collection' copyrighted and make it an actual art collection.

Oh how cool would that be?! Then I could sell my own prints of paintings from 'The Divino Collection', sell them in limited runs and just make it this huge thing! And ofc I will go through with the plan Abbey and I have for me to draw a load of Mat's and get him to sign them for what reason, I forget. But no way will I be drawing a massive X through any of my Divino pieces, no sir. No matter if my art teacher says that's what you actually do, I'll keep all my Mat's in a cupboard or something.

2) Steal Mat's mind for a day.

That was decided on the KHK Stickam chat last week. I have no recollection of just how it came about, but it's a life-goal for me now. Don't ask why, just accept it.


Ohai Mat, I'm going to steal your mind rn, it's already been decided by a bunch of us KHKers. Y'know, cause we talk about shit like this all the time. Therefore, your argument is invalid.

ORLY?

Yahrly. Now, stay there while I cut open your head and switch my brain with yours. Just so you're not in too much distress at this thought, I've never cut anything open in my life and don't really know how to go about cutting open someone's head; so I might just have to go Saw lll on your ass.

OFMG D: *runs away*



Okay, before this post gets too weird, it's International Moment of Frustration Scream day. No, rly. So, I'd like to have a little rant about some things that frustrate me. Okay:

1) People.

I mean that in the nicest possible way, obviously. 'People' is a pretty broad subject, so what I mean is the way people behave/look/dress/talk etc. People in this town have no sense of style. at. all. Simple as. They couldn't give a shit whether or not the trousers they're wearing are too small for them, so rolls hang over, or if they're committing the DD crime (Double Denim: denim jacket with denim jeans. Of the same colour) or any other horrific clothing combination, like tracksuit bottoms tucked into their socks, that should NEVER have been invented in the first place.

2) Slow walking people

Seriously, I don't care if you've got a bum leg, you get out of breath if you take two steps or you're just having a nice relaxing stroll around town; you're walking too fucking slow. And it makes me want to punch you in the back of the head! (Old people = most notorious offenders)

3) Pigeons

Do I have to explain this? They're just so fucking annoying and look stupid, simple as.

4) Twilight


























Self-explanatory.

5) People who lack good taste in music/books

Books....books are tricky. I'd cite The Picture of Dorian Gray, Let The Right One In, The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, Misery and anything by H P Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe as good books. Then there's the abomination of a book that one SMeyer has shat out and suddenly has the whole world roped into the not-so-subtle Mormon brainwashing, anti-feminism world that is Twilight. Urgh, I hate that I keep mentioning this fucking disgraceful excuse for literature. I feel like throwing up. But then I read this and the world makes sense again. I know I'm not alone in my hatred towards this series, so I can sleep a little better at night, knowing the whole world hasn't completely gone to shit.

And what is "good taste in music"? I don't even know for sure. It shouldn't be something so narrow as "This band, this band and this band are good. Everything else is utter bog-rot and I'm going to ignore it completely." When I was still in Year 8/9 you would never have caught me listening to some of the stuff I do now. I was strictly a Fall Out Boy-My Chemical Romance-Avenged Sevenfold-Aiden-Lostprophets-Green Day-Bullet For My Valentine-Panic! At The Disco-Taking Back Sunday, kinda girl. I hardly listen to some of those bands now (apart from Aiden, Green Day, TBS and occasionally MCR), because I've expanded my musical library.

Back then I would never be listening to Emilie Autumn, Amanda Palmer, The Dresden Dolls and Patrick Wolf. And not even My Passion, William Control, The Audition, The Birthday Massacre and The Blackout (my previous dislike for them already mentioned in another blog). I probably wouldn't have bothered to listen to older bands like The Cure, The Smiths, Joy Division, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Slowdive and Smashing Pumpkins, cause I. DID. NOT. CARE. I thought it was pretty cool how when I was in HMV yesterday, my mam picked up a Joy Division CD and just shoved it in my face. Literally. Then she picked up another one and shoved it in my face again. But £21 for one CD? No deal. But I did go looking through the CD collection downstairs the other day. Found a JD best of album, Bowie CD's, New Order, Blondie, The Clash... stuff like that. Surprisingly, parents have good taste in music. Sometimes...

And since the influx of bands like Brokencyde, Breathe Carolina, Hollywood Undead etc, I appreciate music so much more. I'm glad I'm not one of those kids at one of those shows, even though I DO listen to Jeffree Star; but that is constructed in a decent way, the music's pretty good and the lyrics provide me with some lolz.

With that said though, I think I'll stick with Kill Hannah and all the wonderful music I've found through them.

A message to the KHKers.

I thought about doing this a few weeks ago and with the release of WUTS, it gave me all the more reason to put this down in words:


On Septmember 30th 2008 I joined the Kill Hannah Kollective. I had no idea what to expect other than a community with a shared love of one amazing band. It wasn't hard to make friends, just a little strange as is everything when you're one of the new people. But everyone was so welcoming, polite and kind, just like a big family.

Some of my best memories from the past year have been with you guys, like the Non-New Heart party on Stickam for all of us not going to NHFXMAS, the random conversations we've had via comments or even on the forum. Plus the regular Stickam chats, watching people dance on webcam, spamming the chat with the worst fan-fiction ever, staying up 'till the early hours talking gangsta, and talking about how exicted we are about the new KH album. Then there's the mini chats on msn, coming up with KH anti-lyrics, random youtube video wars, talking about our love for The Big Bang Theory and giving each other Smurf names in German. Oh and who could forget the epicness that is Divino McMat? Even though we couldn't go through with our mission as planned, that whole thing provided so many laughs and helped work our over-active imaginations more than usual.

Then there's all the hard work we've done (and still do) promoting Kill Hannah and the KHK. With promo days, at concerts, online; basically doing everything we can to get the word out there. Our love and support for KH keep us together and I can't imagine not having the KHK in my life.

You've all been there every single day if I needed someone to talk to, cheer me up or just have a random conversation with. I feel like I know some of the most wonderful people in the world, all because of one band. To have the ability to attract so many fans from all over the world and to have one big community for them is pretty damn impressive. Even though I don't know each and every one of you, or might not have known you for very long, I can honestly say you're the most wonderful people I've never met. I can't wait until I can meet some of you in person, but until then:

I LOVE YOU ALL <3

Jeffree Star - 'Beauty Killer' album review

Love him or hate him, Jeffree Star has released a new album.
And there's no getting away from it.

Jeffree Star is undoubtedly one of the biggest internet stars to have emerged in the last five years. With a total of over 80,000,000 plays and 1,036,267 fans on Myspace alone, this is pretty impressive for an artist who people seem to "hate on" a large percentage of the time. But with his new release Beauty Killer, all this is going to change.

Rewind three years ago and Jeffree Star's song writing was nothing more than "some crazy verses" and "making silly songs on a computer". Now, it's clear that Jeffree has matured as an artist and wants the world to take him and his music seriously. The lyrics may still be far from what most would call 'serious', but Jeffree is here to have fun and take us all along for the ride.

Album opener Get Away With Murder is an extremely danceable track, full of synth, electronics and a thumping drum beat that contrasts perfectly with the dark lyrics "It's time to spill your guts/And I don't like what I see on the inside." Whereas the lyrics to title track Beauty Killer are all about vanity and the need to look beautiful; but there's a sombre edge to the song that shines through Jeffree's flawless vocals.

Thanks to the sheer hilarity of the lyrics, Bitch, Please! could well be the song of the album. Almost every line makes fun of someone in Hollywood at present, "Be Flo Rida and spin me right round round/But don't try to bite me like Chris Brown" or even "They all go Lady GaGa over my throat skills/Gave Zac Efron my poker face & left him with chills". Whether Star is going for the shock factor or not is really irrelevant; since the drums, synth and the lyrics themselves, are such a good combination the song is definitely one that will stick in your head.

Among the light-hearted tracks that don't take themselves too seriously is Prisoner, the first 'new' song that was put up on Star's myspace. This particular song feels like the most personal and heart-felt track on the entire album; lyrics like "I know this seems so wrong/But I'm just a love-sick criminal." show a new side to Star that has never been seen before. The vocals here, and on the whole record, show how much feeling has been put into this release, rather than having an album full of 'rap' songs.

Being such a big name clearly has it's benefits, on Beauty Killer Jeffree has collaborated with Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio, Nicki Minaj and the popular band Breathe Carolina. And if that wasn't enough, tattoo artist Kat Von D is behind the gritty album cover art.


Beauty Killer is full to bursting with sugary-sweet synth and electronics; but there's a rock edge to it to prevent listeners from ODing on the sweet stuff. Some of the lyrics are laugh-out-loud funny, showing that Jeffree still has his comedic side despite taking his music seriously. But, you either love him or you hate him. For most people, Beauty Killer will satisfy your craving for up-beat, electronic music you can dance to. And for the latter, you may have to find a safe place to hide: Jeffree Star is here to stay.

Track Listing:
1. Get Away With Murder
2. Prisoner
3. Louis Vuitton Body Bag (feat. Matt Skiba)
4. Beauty Killer
5. Electric Sugar Pop
6. Love Rhymes With Fuck You
7. Bitch, Please!
8. Lollipop Luxury (feat. Nicki Minaj)
9. Get Physical
10. Fame & Riches, Rehab Bitches (feat. Breathe Carolina)
11. Fresh Meat
12. Queen Of The Club Scene

Beauty Killer is out now through Popsicle Records

Kill Hannah - Wake Up The Sleepers album review

"In this climate of economical collapse, it’s so cool when bands can collaborate in the true spirit of art." The Chicago five-piece are back with a new album they call the "proudest accomplishment of our lives."

Kill Hannah may well be Chicago's best kept secret. With an extensive back-catalogue, a combination of fourteen EPs and albums, that dates back to 1994 you might be wondering why you've never heard of this band before. After over a year of touring in Europe, Kill Hannah are back with a brand new full length, Wake Up The Sleepers, which will prove to be the album of their careers.

Recorded in Chicago over a period of two months, Kill Hannah took control of the production themselves going back to the early days of the band where everything was done by them and no one else. The title itself is a "statement of affirmation in a music industry that has tragically lost its way.", proving that this is a band that wants to make a change in the industry.

Wake Up The Sleepers is a far cry from the more 'commercial' sounding 2006 release of Until There's Nothing Left Of Us, this album is darker and more intense; a sound that makes your heart ache due to it's sheer beauty. Why I Have My Grandma's Sad Eyes is a mixture of dark synth, bass and Mat Devine's trademark effeminate vocals, with uplifting lyrics like "Universe wrap your arms around me/Make me strong so I can take on anyone." that are sure to make anyone feel unstoppable. Whereas Promise Me, the shortest song on the album, uses only a bass and Mat singing in almost a whisper which creates a delicate and heart-breakingly beautiful song reminiscent of the early Kill Hannah material.

As would be expected from Kill Hannah, there are Mat's super-romantic lyrics that add more depth to each song. Especially on track number two, Snowblinded; it's put quite simply "I just want you to know I think you're beautiful". The chorus of Mouth To Mouth is also pretty blunt, "Get over here/I need you mouth to mouth". But the layers of that song in particular, ambulance sirens, synth that resembles a pulse and piano, add a darker and more lustful romanticism to the entire track.

Something that may be thought as unusual for Kill Hannah, are the more upbeat and danceable tracks like New York City Speed, Tokyo (Dance In The Dust) and Escape Artistry. NYCSpeed is a remastered version of a demo from a few years back that has been given special treatment with heavy guitars, electronics and a thumping drum beat. Tokyo features the same elements but with a breakdown with only vocals chanting "T.O.K.Y.O", it's almost impossible to imagine this song would not be played live. And Escape Artistry is a fast-paced song with stunning guitar work that could easily become a live favorite as well.

What is also impressive about this album is the number of big names Kill Hannah have collaborated with the create this album. Benji Madden from Good Charlotte, Chibi from The Birthday Massacre, Shiny Toy Guns, the lengthy guitar solo in Strobe Lights is done by Tom Schleiter, from Chicago band Powerspace, and Amanda Palmer all lend their musical talents to create what truly is an amazing album. On this subject, vocalist Mat Devine wrote on his Fuse blog: "In this climate of economical collapse, it’s so cool when bands can collaborate in the true spirit of art."

Overall, Wake Up The Sleepers is an extremely impressive album that is a perfect combination of uplifting dance-esque tracks, deeply romantic lyrics and beautifully intense music. This is definitely one album that you will listen to over and over, and still have a hard time picking a soild favorite because of the wide musical variety. One thing that is certain, Kill Hannah won't be an underground band for much longer.

Track listing:
1. Radio
2. Snowblinded
3. New York City Speed
4. Living In Misery
5. Strobe Lights
6. Why I Have My Grandma's Sad Eyes
7. Tokyo (Dance In The Dust)
8. Mouth To Mouth
9. Vultures (Be There For Me)
10. Escape Artistry
11. Acid Rain
12. Laika
13. Promise Me

Wake Up The Sleepers is released on September 29th through Original Signal