I've Moved!

This blog is NOT over! It has simply moved to a different location. ALL CDs On My Shelf will now be posted to my main blog, From Kristen's Brain. Click HERE to go to the homepage of From Kristen's Brain. For a direct link to all of my CDs On My Shelf posts, click HERE. Hope you all enjoy the new blog. Thanks for reading, y'all!

The Audition- Self-Titled Album

Check out my other blogs as well:
From Kristen's Brain... A mish-mosh of stuff my brain says that I like.
One Day Tumblr Challenges... I do entire Tumblr challenges in a single post
Adventures of a Makeup Noob... I talk about and review makeup products.

Hey, y'all! Once again, it's been a while since I've been on here! I've been blogging quite a bit since getting out of school, and I finally was able to get on this one. As always, I put my iTunes on shuffle, and the CD containing the first song that played is the one I'll be talking about!

Release Date: April 28, 2009

Genre: Alternative, Pop-Punk

Track Listing

1. The Running Man
2. The Way You Move
3. My Temperature's Rising
4. Love With A Motive
5. Stand On Your Feet
6. It's Gonna Be Hard (When I'm Gone)
7. Over My Head
8. Los Angeles
9. Everybody Is Someone Else's Secret
10. Sign. Steal. Deliver.

The Audition lineup on this CD:
Danny Stevens- lead vocals
Seth Johnson- guitar
Timmy Klepek- bass
Ryan O'Connor- drums, percussion

The Audition, L to R: Seth, Ryan, Timmy, Danny

About The Audition: 
The Audition has been a band since 2003. So far, they've released 4 CDs: Controversy Loves Company in 2005, Champion in 2008, Self-Titled Album in 2009, and Great Danger in 2010. They left their record label in 2010, and in 2012 they released their first EP, Chapter II. Since then, they haven't done anything and I haven't heard anything from them. Danny had vocal surgery in 2012, and is about to do his first solo concert since that surgery. Supposedly, the band is still together, but their twitter hasn't been touched in ages. Danny's twitter handle is still @auditiondanny, so I'm keeping up hope that they're still together.  

My Opinion about The Audition:
They're in my top 5 bands, for sure. All four of their CDs are really great, and they get really regular play on my iPod. They're one band who hasn't ever drastically changed their sound. They have one CD that's sub-par compared to the others, but overall, I really enjoy them. I've created several Pandora stations off of my favorite bands, and The Audition's station is one of the few that almost never plays a song I don't like. So, they're a pretty good representation of my taste in music.

About the CD:  
This is The Audition's 3rd CD. It deviates just a little from the sound of Champion, which was released just the year before. Self-Titled Album and Great Danger (2010) have fairly similar styles, though as I said before, their sound has stayed fairly consistent. 

IMHO: 
This is one of my favorite CDs of theirs. My only real complaint is that there aren't more songs! The first 3 songs are the strongest for me. Each of them has a unique and interesting sound, and there's definitely a reason that My Temperature's Rising is their most recognizable single. It's Gonna Be Hard (When I'm Gone) delivers the CD's softest song, which begins acoustic, but gets up into a good rock sound. A few of the songs sound similar, but overall it's really enjoyable.

I'm going to try something new on this one. I'm going to give each song a rating out of 10 and then give a brief explanation of why it got that rating. 

The Running Man- 10/10. I didn't like this one at first, but it's really grown on me and I think it's a really interesting song.
The Way You Move- 10/10. Maybe not the most creative song in the world, but it's so much fun to listen to.
My Temperature's Rising- 10/10. Definitely my favorite song on the CD. It's got a really cool sound to it.
Love With A Motive- 8.5/10. Not much of an explanation for this one, I just enjoy it!
Stand On Your Feet- 9/10. I really like the lyrics in this one, especially the combo of the music and lyrics in the chorus.
It's Gonna Be Hard (When I'm Gone)- 9.5/10. This is another one that grew on me. This is really odd to say about a song by The Audition, but it's a really pretty song!
Over My Head- 8/10. One of the weaker songs. It's a pretty typical sound for the band, and isn't quite as memorable as the other songs on the CD.
Los Angeles- 9.5/10. This one's kinda interesting, because the guitar isn't as prevalent for a lot of the song, so the vocals and drums are really important. I think it sounds really cool.
Everybody Is Someone Else's Secret- 8/10. Like Over My Head, this one is very typical for the band- nothing distinctly interesting or cool.
Sign. Steal. Deliver.- 9/10. I think this one's another interesting song. Not much else to say, it's just a cool song.

Favorite Songs: The Running Man, The Way You Move, My Temperature's Rising, It's Gonna Be Hard (When I'm Gone), and Los Angeles.

Least Favorite Songs: Over My Head and Everybody Is Somebody Else's Secret. There's nothing wrong with these songs, and I do really like the whole CD, but these are the less memorable ones of the bunch.

Video! 

My Temperature's Rising music video

The Way You Move

 Rating: 9/10. 9 is the closest to the actual average of the ratings I gave the songs, so I'll put it at a 9.

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! Did you like the changes I made to the format? Have any questions? What did you think of The Audition? Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Hope you enjoyed! Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

New format for posts on The CDs On My Shelf

Hey, y'all! I know I haven't posted much in a while, but doing this last post led me to realize that I want to start giving each CD a ranking, as well as go more in depth into how I feel about each song. If not each song, then at least I'm going to start naming my least favorites. I'm also going to be putting a box at the top of the right column that will be an up-to date list of songs that I've been playing on repeat lately, just for fun. So, I'm going to go back to the ones I've already reviewed to give them ratings, and will be adding that box, so keep an eye out for those! See you soon!

Don't forget to check out my other blogs:
From Kristen's Brain... A mish-mosh of stuff my brain says that I like.
One Day Tumblr Challenges... I do entire Tumblr challenges in a single post
Adventures of a Makeup Noob... I talk about and review makeup products

Punk Goes Pop Volume 5- Various Artists

Hey, y'all! It's been a while since I've been on here! But, I've been wanting to do a blog for a while, and decided to talk about another CD on my shelf! As always, I put my iTunes on shuffle and, and the CD containing the first song that played is the one I'll be talking about!

Release Date: November 6, 2012

Genre: Alternative, Post-Hardcore, Punk

Track Listing
Since This CD is comprised entirely of different bands' covers of songs, I'll list the band beside the track.

1. Grenade- Memphis May Fire
2. Call Me Maybe- Upon This Dawning
3. Somebody That I Used To Know- Mayday Parade ft. Vic Fuentes
4. Glad You Came- We Came as Romans
5. Some Nights- Like Moths to Flames
6. Billie Jean- Breathe Carolina
7. We Found Love- Forever The Sickest Kids
8. Boyfriend- Issues
9. Girls Just Want to Have Fun- The Maine ft. Adam Lazzara
10. Payphone- Crown The Empire
11. Paradise- Craig Owens
12. Mercy- The Word Alive
13. A** Back Home- Secrets

About the CD:  Punk Goes Pop 5 is the most recent release in Fearless Records' "Punk Goes..." series. Besides pop, there have also been releases covering Rap/Hip Hop, Metal, and (my personal favorite) Classic Rock. Other releases include 2 acoustic "Punk Goes..." CDs, as well as an 80's CD and 90's CD. Punk Goes Pop has been the longest running series. The next release will be Punk Goes Christmas sometime near the end of this year.

IMHO: I'm a big fan of the "Punk Goes..." series. The only thing that bothers me about them is that I only enjoy a certain level of unclean vocals (screaming) in songs, and often, I'd just prefer if the songs were sung rather than some bands deciding to scream and sing. I feel like each CD, though good, is hit and miss. There are some I'm really excited about and others that I just never listen to. I also sometimes have some issues with the songs they consider to be "pop." Some songs they choose are alternative songs that happened to make it big on the radio, and I don't think that makes them pop, even though they are popular. But I'll get more into that when I get into the songs.

Since there are multiple artists on this CD, I'm going to do something a little different and talk about each song and artist individually... as well as the original song, because there are some songs on this CD that I had definite opinions on before hearing their covers.


Grenade- Memphis May Fire: I think this is a pretty good cover. I don't really listen to Memphis May Fire, but from what I have heard, it seems like they mostly have unclean vocals, so I enjoyed hearing what clean vocals they have to offer. Not my favorite song on the CD, but not a bad start either. I definitely prefer this cover over the original track, but the original isn't too bad. Bruno Mars is pretty OK in my book.

Call Me Maybe- Upon This Dawning: I have mixed feelings about this song. I really like the parts with the clean vocals. I'm not a big fan of this band's style of unclean vocals. I've never heard of this band, and they're also the only band on the CD that doesn't have a Wikipedia page. So, they seem to be relatively unknown. Overall, I like the clean vocals/vocalist, and what they've done with the instruments. It's hard to be worse than the original, but I feel like if they'd stuck with clean vocals, it would have been more successful.

Somebody That I Used To Know- Mayday Parade ft. Vic Fuentes: Mayday Parade has been featured on most "Punk Goes..." CDs that I have, and for a good reason: they do really great covers. They improve on the music but keep the clean vocals, which is how I really like to have it done. Also, they have Vic Fuentes (lead singer of Pierce The Veil, one of my favorite bands) singing the girl parts, which is just perfect. As always, I think they delivered a great cover. I also really loved the original song, so I was really excited that they were covering it. Since I love the original so much, it's hard to beat it, but I feel like this is definitely right on par with it. This is one of those songs that I thought shouldn't be considered pop, but this is my favorite song on the CD, so I'll let it slide.

Glad You Came- We Came as Romans: I actually haven't listened to this track very much. But, as I'm listening to it right now, I'm really liking it. I like the way that they're including the unclean vocals as the background vocals and as part of one verse. I haven't listened to much from this band, but I'm pretty sure they're another that's really heavy on the unclean vocals. I'm really liking the clean vocalist for this band as well. I didn't really have much of an opinion on the song before, and I'd have to say I really enjoy what they did with the cover.

Some Nights- Like Moths to Flames: When I discovered the original Some Nights in early 2012, I fell in love. That's why this cover hurts a bit. I like the grit that they added to the beginning of the song, and honestly, it's a pretty good cover (a bit heavy on the unclean vocals, but that's subjective). But, I just can't like it. I like the original too much.

Billie Jean- Breathe Carolina: Don't hurt me, but I'm really not a Michael Jackson fan. I like that this cover is a nice little relief from the heavy post-hardcore of the majority of the first few tracks... well, for most of the song. There's a cool breakdown at the end. This is another band I haven't really listened to much outside of this song, but I like this cover. And I like it better than the original, but only because I'm not a Michael fan. Seriously, you're talking to the girl who prefers both the Alien Ant Farm and dueling cellos versions of Smooth Criminal a lot more than the Michael version. Sorry, not sorry.

We Found Love- Forever The Sickest Kids: I really really hate Rihanna. Like a lot. She's probably among my least favorite singers ever. I do, however, like Forever The Sickest Kids. But this song, not so much. The way they arranged some of it is just weird and there was randomly screaming even though FTSK doesn't have unclean vocals normally. I'm just not a fan of the way they handled the cover.

Boyfriend- Issues: I feel like you already probably have an idea of how I feel about Justin Bieber. I absolutely cannot stand him, and the first time I heard the original song, I cringed so many times I probably looked like I was having a seizure. My reaction to this was the exact opposite. I really love this cover, thought I'd never heard of the band before this song. I like the unclean vocals and the way they're incorporated into the song. The clean vocalist isn't my favorite, but I think his voice works for the song. I also really enjoy tricking my friends with it, and when they actually hear it, they appreciate my music a bit more. Overall, this is one of my favorites on the CD.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun- The Maine ft. Adam Lazzara: I'm not a big fan of the original song, and I can't really say that I've ever heard it all the way through. I do really like the cover though. The Maine is one of my personal favorite bands featured on the CD, and I also like Taking Back Sunday, the band Adam Lazzara sings in. I wish they'd done a different song, because there's not too much that could convince me to really like this song. But, I do like what they did with it, so kudos to that!

Payphone- Crown The Empire: Crown The Empire is another band I believe is mostly screaming. Once again, I feel like the song would be stronger with just clean vocals, but I really like the way they incorporated the unclean vocals. They seemed to fit in really well. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the cover, but I definitely prefer the original. It's really hard for anyone to top Adam Levine in my mind.

Paradise- Craig Owens: This is another one that left me a bit annoyed by what they consider to be "pop". Sure, this song became really popular, but it's still an alternative song. This cover got some crap for being lackluster, but I like that it's true to the original. HOWEVER, I feel like it may be a bit too true to the original. I wish it was just a little more punk. Just a little more punkified and it would get a significant amount more play on my iTunes. Don't get me wrong, though- I still really enjoy this cover!

Mercy- The Word Alive: My least favorite on the album. They literally just scream their way through a crappy song, and then do a barely intelligible rap later in the song. I dunno, I just wasn't impressed. I think I understood maybe like two words of the lyrics. Two thumbs down.

A** Back Home- Secrets: I've never even heard of this band before, but I like what they did with the song. I like the difference between the verses with unclean vocals and heavy guitar and the chorus with minimal instruments. Definitely far above the original song.

Favorite Songs: I'd have to say that my favorite covers are definitely Somebody That I Used To Know, Boyfriend, Paradise, and Grenade. I also like Glad You Came, Payphone, and A** Back Home.

Video! 

Somebody That I Used To Know cover

Boyfriend cover (lyric video)


Rating: 6/10. Beside the few winners, quite a few of these songs are completely mediocre.

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What did you think of punk going pop? Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Hope you enjoyed! Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

Cage The Elephant- Cage The Elephant

Hello, again! As I said last time, yes, this blog has been moved to a new account, and YES, it is still me! I just moved it onto my main account to make it easier for me to get it written. And I can cross-promote my blogs easier as well. Along those lines, I have a blog called From Kristen's Brain. It's my main blog, and I post reviews of TV shows (Project Runway and Whodunnit? currently) as well as random reviews of other things. Enough shameless self-promotion. Let's carry on to the CD!

Release Date: March 24, 2009

Genre: Alt. Rock, punk blues, indie rock

Track Listing

1. In One Ear
2. James Brown
3. Ain't No Rest For The Wicked
4. Tiny Little Robots
5. Lotus
6. Back Against The Wall
7. Drones In The Valley
8. Judas
9. Back Stabbin' Betty
10. Soil To The Sun
11. Free Love

Cage The Elephant is:
Matt Shultz- lead vocals
Lincoln Parish- lead guitar
Brad Shultz- rhythm guitar
Daniel Tichenor- bass guitar
Jared Champion- drums, percussion

About Cage The Elephant: Quite a few of the members were in a band called Perfect Confusion before Cage The Elephant was formed. I actually have that band's only CD, and their music is very similar to Cage The Elephant's sound, which is probably why many fans believe that it's the exact same band with a different name. Cage The Elephant became very commercially popular back in 2009 with their single "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked." Their subsequent singles, "In One Ear," "Back Against The Wall," "Shake Me Down," "Around My Head," and "Aberdeen gained success among alternative music fans, but not among the general public. The band, and Matt Shultz particularly, is known for crazy weird concerts with odd antics. So far, they have released 2 albums: Cage The Elephant, and Thank You, Happy Birthday. Currently, they are preparing for the fall release of their 3rd album, Melophobia.


My Opinion about Cage The Elephant: When I first listened to Ain't No Rest for the Wicked, I didn't like it at all. I thought it was kinda weird and annoying. The more I heard it, the more I actually liked it. I really love them, and they're one of my favorite bands, BUT, I don't really listen to them that much. They have such a unique sound that I have to be in a certain mood to listen to them. But I really love their unique sound.

About the CD:  Although they're from Kentucky, the CD was actually released in the UK before it was released in the US (I think it was released mid 2008 in the UK). When it was released in the UK, I believe In One Ear was actually the first single, and they recorded a music video for it. They later made another one when it was released as a single in the US. It didn't reach popularity in the US until summer of 2009, when Ain't No Rest For The Wicked became popular.

IMHO: It's my favorite of Cage The Elephant's 2 CDs. For me, there are 2 types of songs on this album: The ones that I really love, and the ones that are good, but I just don't listen to much. And I would say that there are 8 of the former, and 3 of the latter.

Favorite songs: In One Ear is my favorite. I just love it. My other favorites would probably be Free Love, Ain't No Rest For The Wicked, and Back Stabbin' Betty.

Other gems: James Brown, Tiny Robots, Back Against The Wall, and Lotus. 

Video! 

Ain't No Rest For The Wicked music video

Newer In One Ear music video

Rating: 8.5/10. This CD is really great. None of the songs are bad, but there are definitely some that I just don't listen to, which is why this one didn't get a bit higher.

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What did you think of Cage The Elephant? Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Still taking comments on the time they're posted, because if you haven't noticed, I schedule them to post at the same time, as I'm either asleep or at work at noon! Hope you enjoyed! Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

McFly- Motion In The Ocean

Hello, again! Did you miss me? First of all, you may have noticed that this blog has been moved to a new account. YES, it is still me! This is simply my normal account. Putting it on my main account makes it easier for me to get it written. And I can cross-promote my blogs easier as well ^-^ 

Release Date: November 6, 2006

Genre: pop rock, pop punk

Track Listing

1. We Are The Young
2. Star Girl
3. Please Please
4. Sorry's Not Good Enough
5. Bubble Wrap
6. Transylvania
7. Lonely
8. Little Joanna
9. Friday Night
10. Walk In The Sun
11. Home Is Where The Heart Is
12. Silence Is A Scary Sound (Hidden Track)

McFly is:
Tom Fletcher- lead vocals, guitar, keyboard, piano, ukulele
Danny Jones- lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, producer
Dougie Poynter- bass guitar, vocals, guitar
Harry Judd- drums, percussion

About McFly: A lot of this is copied from my post about their Greatest Hits album. They were formed in 2003, and have had the same lineup for a decade. They've released 5 studio albums: Room On The 3rd Floor (2004), Wonderland (2005), Motion In The Ocean (2006), Radio:ACTIVE (2008), and Above The Noise (2010). Their other albums are soundtracks, live, and compilations. Each of their CDs has a distinct sound. Room On The 3rd Floor, their debut album, actually broke a Beatles record in 2004. McFly became the youngest band whose debut CD debuted at #1 on the UK charts. A little obscure and seemingly unimportant, but it's a small victory. This album definitely has a Beach Boys vibe. 2005's Wonderland is definitely a lot more orchestral, and actually includes an orchestral piece composed by Tom. 2006's Motion In The Ocean & 2008's Radio:ACTIVE are the most similar of their albums, and are my personal favorites (Radio:ACTIVE is my personal favorite album ever). These two definitely showcase the band's rock side. Above The Noise, their 2010 release, is more of an electropop album, and the weakest, in my opinion.


My Opinion about McFly: (Once again, mostly copied from the last one) As I said on my last post, they're my absolute favorite band. Not many Americans know about them, but I love them. I actually first saw them when they were in Just My Luck. I forgot about them and then in 2007 (my Jo Bro obsession time) I was watching an interview with the JoBros where Nick said his favorite song was Transylvania by McFly. I watched the video and thought it was weird, and again, I forgot about them. (Transylvania is now among my all-time favorite McFly songs!). It wasn't until I discovered that the Jonas Brothers got their song, Year 3000, from the band Busted that I actually started listening to McFly. The Busted guys are close friends with McFly, which is how I really discovered McFly. And when I realized that they were the band in Just My Luck, everything really clicked. Anyway, long story long, it was a weird winding road to discovering them, but I really love them, and I love all of the members. Tom is my favorite, though. Yes, Tom of the wedding speech fame. I've told everyone for years that Tom is perfect, and now people understand. McFly is also the exception to the dumb blonde rule. Tom, the only natural blonde, is the brain, and Danny, the only one who's been brunette for 99% of the time he's been in the band, is the lovably dim-witted front-man. (OK, he's not really dumb, but it IS a running joke that he's the slow one... Because he thought an egg was a vegetable. Poor boy)

 About the CD:  It was released in 2006, just a year after they released Wonderland and the soundtrack to Just My Luck. Motion in the Ocean shows a relatively large change from the sound of Motion In The Ocean. In my opinion, the Motion in the Ocean sound is the one that they held onto the longest, and the one that I consider to be "their sound." Both this CD and their 2008 CD, Radio:ACTIVE, have more of a rock sound than either of the ones before or after.   

IMHO: It's my second favorite McFly CD, after Radio:ACTIVE. I do, however, feel that it has some really high highs, and some pretty low lows. For example, of the 12 songs, 4 of them are among my top 15 (if you want the breakdown, 2 of them are in my top 5, 1 is in 6-10, and 1 is in the 11-15 range). HOWEVER, about 3 of them find themselves among my all-time least favorite McFly songs... which still isn't a bad place to be, since I love all of their songs, but there is quite a distinct range there.

Favorite songs: Sorry's Not Good enough and Transylvania are both in my top 5 McFly songs ever ('Sorry' finds itself at #2, and Transylvania is #4). Star Girl is either 6 or 7. Bubble Wrap falls somewhere between 11 and 15, but I can't remember where. All four of those are just amazing. 

Other gems: I absolutely LOVE Little Joanna. Friday Night is also a fun one. I also like Please, Please and We Are The Young.

Video!

Sorry's Not Good Enough music video

Transylvania music video

Rating: 9.5/10. This is one of my all time favorite CDs. Some of my all-time favorite songs are on it, and it's just overall really awesome. Even the worst songs on the CD are really good.

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! Are you glad to see me back? Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What did you think of McFly? Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Still taking comments on the time they're posted, because if you haven't noticed, I schedule them to post at the same time, as I'm either asleep or at work at noon! Hope you enjoyed! Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

Hawthorne Heights- Fragile Future

Release Date: August 5, 2008

Genre: Post-hardcore, Emo

Track Listing

1.       The Business Of Paper Stars

2.       Rescue Me

3.       Until The Judgement Day

4.       Somewhere In Between

5.       Sugar In The Engine

6.       Desperation

7.       Four Became One

8.       321

9.       Disaster

10.   Let Go Of Everything You Know

11.   Corps of Corpses

12.   Come Back Home (Reprised)

On this CD, Hawthorne Heights is:
JT Woodruff- vocals, guitar
Micah Carli- guitar
Matt Ridenour- bass, backup vocals
Eron Bucciarelli- drums

About Hawthorne Heights: I don't really know a ton about them, but there are some important things I should talk about. They released their first CD, The Silence In Black and White, in 2004. Their first single off of this CD is also probably their most well-known song, Ohio Is For Lovers. Then, in 2006, they released If Only You Were Lonely. Their third album, Fragile Future, was released in 2008. These are the only 3 CDs I have by them, although they have released 2 CDs since- Skeletons in 2010, and Zero last month. There was a very abrupt lineup change between albums 2 &3, which I'll talk about in the "About The CD" bit, because it had an impact on the CD.

My opinion about Hawthorne Heights: I’m not a huge Hawthorne Heights fan, although I have 3 of their CDs. It’s kinda odd, but the bands that are more mainstream, as in regular people who listen to top 40 stations (bands like Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco) often aren’t ones I like A LOT. While I may enjoy their music, I’m usually not a devoted fan. I think I may have mentioned this in a previous post. It’s like this with Hawthorne Heights. While I like this CD and a lot of the songs on it, I only really like their singles on their other CDs.

About The CD: One thing that had a big effect on this CD was the sudden death of band member Casey Calvert. Casey did the guitar and unclean vocals for the band. While they were on tour in 2007, he was found dead in the tour bus. He died in his sleep of an accidental drug overdose. Two songs on the CD (Four Became One, Sugar In The Engine) were inspired by his death, and it brought the band closer together, and lead to this being, in my opinion, their best CD.

IMHO: This is my favorite CD by them. But it also holds a special place in my heart for another reason. I bought this CD back in 2009 when it was fairly new. When I opened the case, I realized that there was a second CD inside. This CD had a random selection of music videos by other artists on Victory Records (the label HH was on). I was really interested in listening to some new music, so I popped it into my DVD player. I really liked a lot of the songs, and still have a lot of them on my iPod now. These included “I Didn’t Mean To Interrupt…” by Jamies Elsewhere, a “Since U Been Gone” cover by A Day To Remember, “Still Dreaming” by Silverstein, and some songs by a band named 1997, a band that I never researched much further… but the songs on the CD are great! Anyway, among these songs, I found the music video for a song called “Warm Me Up” by The Audition. I had never heard of The Audition, but I really liked this song. The Audition is now one of my top 5 favorite bands ever, and I never would have found them without this CD.

Favorite Songs: Somewhere In Between is definitely my favorite song on the CD.

Other Gems: Sugar In The Engine, Desperation, Four Became One, 321

Video!

Music Video for Somewhere In Between

Four Became One

Rating: 7.5/10. There are a lot of songs on the CD that I really like, and the rest I just never really listen to.

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! What did you think? Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What did you think of Hawthorne Heights? Did you already hate them? I know a lot of people do. Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Still taking comments on the time they're posted, because if you haven't noticed, I schedule them to post at the same time, as I'm either asleep or at work at noon! Hope you enjoyed! Check back at noon tomorrow, because might possibly be a new post. Not totally sure. Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

Apologies!

Sincerest apologies to anyone hoping for posts in the past week! Since I've had time off from work, my family has been in the Black Hills, seeing Mount Rushmore and such, and our hotel's wifi was seriously crappier than my campus' wifi at school. Which is saying a lot. It was literally nonexistent. So, I've only had phone internet, and even that only rarely worked and the blogger app is pretty limited. Anyway, definitely a post tomorrow, as I'm otw home now! See you tomorrow!

Busted- A Present For Everyone

Busted, L-R: Charlie, Matt, James

Release Date: November 17, 2003

Genre: pop rock, pop punk

Track Listing

1. Air Hostess
2. Crashed The Wedding
3. Who's David
4. She Wants To Be Me
5. 3 AM
6. Falling For You
7. Over Now
8. Fake
9. Meet You There
10. Why
11. Better Than This
12. Can't Break Thru
13. Nerdy

Busted is(was):
Charlie Simpson- vocals, guitar, keyboard, harmonica, drums
James Bourne- vocals, guitar
Matt Willis- vocals, bass guitar

About Busted: This British band was formed in 2001, and originally included Tom Fletcher, who went on to become the first founding member of McFly, which as I have mentioned in a previous post, is my absolute favorite band. Busted broke up in 2005, but in that time, they released 2 studio albums and one live album. They were the original writers and performers of the Jonas Brothers' songs "Year 3000" and "What I Go To School For," although the versions of those songs that were performed by the Jo Bros were edited to be suitable for Disney.


My Opinion about Busted: Definitely a top 10 favorite band. I love these guys so much.  I love that all 3 guys sing, and yet  aren't a boyband, because they do pop rock and all play instruments. They had to have more people play with them on stage because they couldn't play ALL the instruments at the same time (and really, I'm not sure Charlie could sing and play drums at the same time). Charlie and James are my favorites. Charlie is my favorite voice- he's the youngest but also had the deepest voice. I also enjoy the music he did after Busted as well. He's the lead singer of a post-hardcore band named Fightstar, which is currently on hiatus. Right now, he actually has released a solo album and has another in the works and is currently in America on Warped Tour (Which I really wish I could see...). Also, he's apparently at least 6 foot 6 now, and still just as attractive as ever. I love James because of his close work with McFly, especially on their first album, as well as his close friendship with McFly, AND his music after Busted. He was briefly in a band named Son of Dork, which will pop up on here at some point. They had only one CD, released in 2005, but I have it and really love it. James was the founding member, and one of two singers, but the band kinda fell apart in 2007. He's gone on to do solo stuff, and has recently been working with McFly some as well.

About the CD:  I only own this CD and *part* of their debut cd, because a bunch of the songs from their debut were repeated onto A Present For Everyone, so I bought this one and bought the six songs on the other CD that weren't repeated onto this one. So, this CD was part new stuff, part repeat from "Busted". Don't go looking for "Busted" on iTunes. I looked it up the other day, and it's not on there anymore for some reason. But, when they were both on there, they actually had almost the exact same cover art. I tried figuring out how best to describe it, but it's best to just show you a picture, which is below. The funny thing is that BOTH albums have different album art in the UK. Those pictures are below as well. I personally like both of the UK covers better than the US ones.

US cover of "Busted" which is nearly identical to US version of "A Present For Everyone"

UK cover for "Busted" L-R: Matt, Charlie, James



UK cover of "A Present For Everyone". Charlie @ top, Matt L, James R.



IMHO: I really love the CD. My only complaint is that of the 6 songs that I had to purchase from their debut CD, most of them are among my all-time favorite Busted songs. So they could've done a better job in that respect. But I really do like almost all of the songs on here. 

Favorite songs: She Wants To Be Me and Meet You There are my two favorites, but the ones under "Other gems" are also crazy amazing as well. She Wants To Be Me is just ridiculously funny, and Meet You There has great harmony.

Other gems: Air Hostess, Who's David?, That Thing You Do, Loner In Love, Nerdy. The rest are really good as well, but these are just the best.

Video!

She Wants To Be Me Live

Meet You There

Rating: 9/10. I really love this CD. The only thing that would make it better would be to have some of the songs from "Busted" on this CD. Otherwise, it's really awesome!

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! What did you think? Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What did you think of Busted? Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Still taking comments on the time they're posted, because if you haven't noticed, I schedule them to post at the same time, as I'm either asleep or at work at noon! Hope you enjoyed! Check back at noon tomorrow, because might possibly be a new post. Not totally sure. Probably depends on how exciting or random of a CD I get next! Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

Green Day- Nimrod

Well, I'm giving you a brief little behind the scenes snippet right now. When I started writing this blog, I gave myself a rule that if an album came up that I didn't want to talk about so much, I wouldn't skip it, because I'm going to have to write about it at some point. So, even though I wasn't sure about this one, I'm writing it anyway! So here we go!!!

Release Date: October 14, 1997

Genre: punk rock, alternative rock, pop punk

Track Listing

1. Nice Guys Finish Last
2. Hitchin' A Ride
3. The Grouch
4. Redundant
5. Scattered
6. All The Time
7. Worry Rock
8. Platypus (I Hate You)
9. Uptight
10. Last Ride In
11. Jinx
12. Haushinka
13. Walking Alone
14. Reject
15. Take Back
16. King For A Day
17. Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)
18. Prosthetic Head

Green Day is:
Billie Joe Armstrong- lead vocals, guitars, piano, harmonica
Mike Dirnt- bass guitar, backing vocals
Tre Cool- drums, percussion, backing vocals
(Jason White, touring guitarist, was added to the official lineup in 2012, but this has been the only lineup change since Tre Cool joined in 1990. John Kiffmeyer did percussion until 1990)

Green Day, L-R: Mike, Billie Joe, Tre. But you already knew that, right?

About Green Day: I'm sure I don't have to tell you too much about Green Day, since they're pretty famous. They have released 11 studio albums to date. And that's not even including compilations and live CDs. They've sold millions and millions of CDs. Fun fact that you may not know: Dookie, their first big success, has actually sold 10 million copies in the US, while American Idiot, which is often considered to be their most well known and successful album, has only sold 6 million in the US!

My Opinion about Green Day: Although I do really like Green Day, they definitely don't fall among my top 10 bands. I've found that of all the bands I like, the ones that are super commercially successful (like Green Day, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, and Panic! At The Disco), while I do really like those bands, they're almost never the ones that end up as my absolute favorites. IDK if I subconsciously like really popular bands less, or if the ones that are popular only among alternative fans just make better music. 

About the CD:  It's gone double platinum in the US, which is more than most of the CDs On My Shelf can say... with the exception of other Green Day albums, and a couple other scattered ones.

IMHO: It's definitely not my favorite Green Day CD. I don't listen to it a lot, and am not familiar with a lot of the songs on it, hence why I was a bit hesitant to talk about it. I don't want to come off as a fake Green Day fan, because I'm not. I just haven't listened to EVERYTHING. I'm a big fan of American Idiot. I love Dookie, the singles off of Insomniac & Nimrod, Warning, and most of 21st Century Breakdown. I own almost all of their CDs, but I'm just not a superfan. And this CD just wasn't as good, IMHO.

Favorite songs: Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) is definitely my favorite. I tried to convince my mom to allow me to use it for my graduation slideshow at church last year, but that got vetoed (I ended up using Time Of My Life by David Cook). I like the acoustic, chill side of Green Day. And I'm a sucker for strings, cause I play in an orchestra.

Other gems: Nice Guys Finish Last and Hitchin' A Ride. And I didn't even know that they were singles until recently. Honestly, I know all of the songs on the album are good, because I've listened to all of them, I just haven't gotten to the stage where I can distinguish them.

Video!

Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) music video

Nice Guys Finish Last music video 

Rating: 5/10. Definitely not my favorite Green Day CD. But it's Green Day, so it's at least good enough to get 5/10 just by being by Green Day.

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! What did you think? Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? You were just waiting for Green Day to pop up, weren't you? I'm sure my previous posts made me seem like I would listen to GD. Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Still taking comments on the time they're posted, because if you haven't noticed, I schedule them to post at the same time, as I'm either asleep or at work at noon! Hope you enjoyed! Check back at noon tomorrow, because might possibly be a new post. Not totally sure. Probably depends on how exciting or random of a CD I get next! Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

Pierce The Veil- Collide With The Sky

Release Date: July 17, 2012

Genre: post-hardcore

Track Listing

1. May These Noises Startle You In Your Sleep Tonight
2. Hell Above
3. A Match Into Water
4. King For A Day (Ft. Kellin Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens)
5. Bulls In The Bronx
6. Props & Mayhem
7. Tangled In The Great Escape (Ft. Jason Butler
8. I'm Low On Gas And You Need A Jacket
9. The First Punch
10. One Hundred Sleepless Nights
11. Staind Class And Colorful Tears
12. Hold On Till May (Ft. Lindsay Stamey)
13. I'm Low On Gas And You Need A Jacket (alt. version)
14. Hold On 'Till May (acoustic)

Pierce The Veil is:
Vic Fuentes- lead vocals, guitar, keyboard
Tony Perry- lead guitar
Jaime Preciado- bass, backup vocals
Mike Fuentes- drums, percussion

PTV, L-R: Jaime, Tony, Vic, Mike

About Pierce The Veil: The band was formed in 2006 by brothers Vic and Mike. Jaime and Tony joined the band in 2007. Collide With The Sky is the band's 3rd CD, after A Flair For The Dramatic in 2007 and Selfish Machines in 2010. A Flair For The Dramatic was actually released before Jaime and Tony joined, so the first PTV album is all the Fuentes brothers! PTV fans (especially those on Tumblr) often think of the bands Sleeping With Sirens and All Time Low when thinking of PTV. The 3 bands are all close friends and have done tours together. Sleeping With Sirens is especially compared to PTV because, like Kellin Quinn from SWS, Vic has a very unique voice that is especially high pitched for a guy. And, of course, on "King For A Day" on this album, the two collab!

My Opinion about Pierce The Veil: I really like them! I've only been listening to them since January, but I've definitely fallen in love with their music. I really like the unique tone to Vic's voice. There's seriously NO mistaking him with anyone else- not even Kellin. PTV is definitely in my top 20 bands, but that's about as far as they go... right now, at least. The more I listen to their music, especially Collide With The Sky, the more I want to move them up on the totem pole.

About the CD:  Since its release last year, it's been a real success for the band. Many consider it to be their best album to date. One key to that success is "King For A Day" because of Kellin Quinn, making the song essentially a PTV/SWS collab, and those are pretty much the two biggest bands in post-hardcore. King For A Day was voted as the best collab of 2012 by Alternative Press readers.

IMHO: It's definitely my favorite Pierce The Veil album. The other two were good, but I just REALLY like Collide With The Sky.

Favorite songs: King For A Day, for sure. I love the combination of Kellin and Vic and their screaming and singing. I also really love Hell Above as well.

Other gems: Bulls In The Bronx, Props & Mayhem, I'm Low On Gas And You Need A Jacket (the first version, One Hundred Sleepless Nights, Staind Glass And Colorful Tears

Video!

 Music Video for King For A Day ft. Kellin Quinn

Music Video for Hell Above

Rating: 8/10. I really like several songs, but don't listen to many of the songs past those.

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! What did you think? Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What do you think of Pierce The Veil? Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Still taking comments on the time they're posted, because if you haven't noticed, I schedule them to post at the same time, as I'm either asleep or at work at noon! Hope you enjoyed! Check back at noon tomorrow, because there will definitely be a new post. Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

Schedule for The CDs On My Shelf... Kinda

OK, as you can see, there is NOT a new post today. My humblest apologies. There will definitely be one on Monday, and I even have a CD randomly selected and everything. I figured I would take this time to create a pseudo schedule for the blog. And by pseudo... I mean EXTREMELY pseudo. I only have a couple things nailed down.

For starters, I'm 99% sure that I'm not going to post on Sundays, partially because I have to wake up early every Sunday and I just don't want to stay up super late on Saturday writing a post. I can function on very little sleep, but I'd rather not test it too much.

I work ~30 hours every week, so I usually have a couple days off. My plan is to have at least 3 posts a week. That'll be more for busier weeks. On an average week, it'll be about 4. And if I'm having an exceptionally free week, I'll squeeze in a fifth. For example, the week starting June 30, I have more days off than I usually do. So I'll probably do 5 that week. Overall, since I have schedules a while in advance, at the end of each post, I'll give y'all an idea when the next one will be. For example, I know that my next post will be on Monday at noon. I have Monday off, so you'll be getting another on Tuesday, and probably another on Wednesday, since I don't work late Tuesday night. I'm unsure after that, but there definitely won't be another until Saturday. So keep posted for that. From here on out, just make sure you're reading my final paragraph, because I'll definitely give you info about when the next post will be out. But for now, just know that some sweet sweet music is headed your way on Monday, and IMO, it's a pretty good one! It's also another fairly recent one as well- July 2012. Guesses and comments are welcome, and the answer will come 24 hours from the time this is posted. Happy guessing!

McFly- Memory Lane (The Best of McFly) [Deluxe Edition]

Finally, a CD I love... My favorite band's newest Greatest Hits CD!!!

Release Date: November 26, 2012

Genre: pop rock, pop punk

Track Listing
Disc 1:  

1. Love Is Easy 
2. Shine A Light 
3. Party Girl 
4. Falling In Love
5. Do Ya 
6. Lies                                                               
7. One For The Radio                                        
8. The Heart Never Lies                                    
9. Transylvania                                                  
10. Friday Night                                                 
11. Star Girl
12. Don't Stop Me Now
13. I'll Be OK
14. All About You
15. Room On The 3rd Floor
16. Obviously
17. Five Colours In Her Hair
18. Do Watcha
19. Cherry Cola
20. That Girl (Original 2003 Demo)
21. Obviously (Original 2003 Demo)
22. Memory Lane

Disc 2:

1. Umbrella (Studio Version)
2. Lola
3. The Guy Who Turned Her Down
4. Get Over You
5. You've Got A Friend
6. No Worries
7. Silence Is A Scary Sound
8. Sunny Side of the Street (Home Demo)
9. Memory Lane (Original 2003 Demo)
10. Surfer Babe (Original 2003 Demo)
11. Ignorance
12. Down Down
13. Mess Around You (Unreleased Demo)
14. Rockin' Robin
15. POV
16. She Loves You
17. Mr. Brightside
18. Little Joanna
19. Bubble Wrap
20. Five Colours In Her Hair (US Version)

McFly is:
Tom Fletcher- lead vocals, guitar, piano, ukulele, songwriter
Danny Jones- lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, producer, songwriter
Dougie Poynter- bass guitar, backup vocals, occasional lead vocals, songwriter
Harry Judd- drums, percussion

McFly, L-R in both pictures: Dougie, Tom, Harry, Danny

About McFly: I could say way too much about these guys, but I'll try not to. They were formed in 2003, and have had the same lineup for a decade. They've released a lot of CDs, but generally I just say 5 because those 5 are the regular studio albums. The others are soundtracks, live, and compilations. Each of their CDs has a distinct sound. Room On The 3rd Floor, their debut album, actually broke a Beatles record in 2004. McFly became the youngest band whose debut CD debuted at #1 on the UK charts. A little obscure and seemingly unimportant, but it's a small victory for Galaxy Defenders (I'll explain this term in a bit). This album definitely has a Beach Boys vibe. 2005's Wonderland is definitely a lot more orchestral, and actually includes an orchestral piece composed by Tom. 2006's Motion In The Ocean & 2008's Radio:ACTIVE are the most similar of their albums, and are my personal favorites (Radio:ACTIVE is my personal favorite album ever). These two definitely showcase the band's rock side. Above The Noise, their 2010 release, is more of an electropop album, and the weakest, in my opinion.

My Opinion about McFly: They're my absolute favorite band. Not many Americans know about them, but I love them. I actually first saw them when they were in Just My Luck. Yeah, that Lindsay Lohan movie from back in 2005. My boys were the band in that. And Harry almost hooked up with Lindsay in real life. And their song Please, Please is about her. But that's a whole different story... moving right along! I forgot about them and then in 2007 (my Jo Bro obsession time) I was watching an interview with the JoBros where Nick said his favorite song was Transylvania by McFly. I watched the video and thought it was weird, and again, I forgot about them. (Transylvania is now among my all-time favorite McFly songs!). It wasn't until I discovered that the Jonas Brothers got their song, Year 3000, from the band Busted that I actually started listening to McFly. The Busted guys are close friends with McFly, which is how I really discovered McFly. And when I realized that they were the band in Just My Luck, everything really clicked. Anyway, long story long, it was a weird winding road to discovering them, but I really love them, and I love all of the members. Tom is my favorite, though. Yes, Tom of the wedding speech fame. I've told everyone for years that Tom is perfect, and now people understand. McFly is also the exception to the dumb blonde rule. Tom, the only natural blonde, is the brain, and Danny, the only one who's been brunette for 99% of the time he's been in the band, is the lovably dim-witted front-man. (OK, he's not really dumb, but it IS a running joke that he's the slow one... Because he thought an egg was a vegetable. Poor boy)

About the CD:  Memory Lane is the 2nd Greatest Hits album they've released, and includes a lot of demos/ unreleased songs, along with a few new ones. The opening track, Love Is Easy, is their most recent single. I believe it's also their only single that was not from a studio album.

IMHO: I love the nostalgia of some of my favorite tracks, but some of the best were left off. And I'm not so sure about some of the new ones. My favorite new one that they've been performing, Red, isn't on here. So it had better be on their next studio album or I will have a heart attack.

Favorite songs: Lies is my all-time favorite McFly song. Transylvania is in the top 5, as is Five Colours In Her Hair (NOT the US version).  

Other gems: Love Is Easy, Falling In Love, Star Girl, Obviously... OK, just 1-17 on the first disc... minus 2&3. All 17 are from studio albums... 2&3 are Above The Noise tracks that I'm not as fond of. Sunny Side of the Street. I'm not sure why POV, Little Joanna, and Bubble Wrap are randomly near the end of this CD, but those are also from McFly studio albums and those are really good as well.

Video!

 Music video for Love Is Easy

Acoustic Love Is Easy, Dougie version!

Red live. Sorry, not the best quality. There's a much better one on youtube, but I couldn't get it to link on here.

About the Galaxy Defender thing I mentioned earlier: it comes from a line in Star Girl. "Galaxy Defenders stay forever". It has basically become the saying of the fans of McFly. McFly's fans are Galaxy Defenders, and we stay forever!

Rating: 9/10. I love all of McFly's songs. The only reason it's only 9 is because I'm frustrated that they released another greatest hits when all their fans really want is a new CD. And because the 2nd disc is a bit of a repeat of their earlier Greatest Hits.



Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! Sorry if I said a bit too much, but I just really love McFly!!! What did you think? Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What do you think of McFly? Let me know all of this in the comments. Also, any opinion on the time? I have them automatically set to post at 12. Unless I get any other preferences or info, they'll be posted at 12- maybe not every day, but many days. Hope you enjoyed! Check back at noon tomorrow to see if there's a new post! Thanks for reading!