Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue Acoustic

by Andy

When pop punk was on its peak and bands like blink-182, Sum 41 and Green Day were played on the radio all day long, one of the greatest albums of the scene was Yellowcard's “Ocean Avenue”. Released in 2003, the album was convincing with a mix of impressive punk songs and heartbreaking ballads. Also the use of a violin in many songs was pretty cool. The smash-hits “Ocean Avenue” and “Way Away” got a lot of reputation in the scene. Now, ten years later, the band around the charismatic singer Ryan Key, published an acoustic version of the whole album simply called “Ocean Avenue Acoustic”.
The album cover looks very similar to the original cover and all songs are in the same order. The first 3 songs “Way Away”, “Breathing” and “Ocean Avenue ” are very loud for an acoustic record. The drums are as fast and as hard as the drums on the original songs. Furthermore, the bass guitar is a little bit too loud.
“Empty Apartment”, which was already half acoustic in the original version, is now completely acoustic and has beautiful guitar and vilolin parts in it. In “Miles Apart” you have loud drums again and the peaceful atmosphere gets lost. “Only One” and the amazing “Believe” (which prevents teenagers from depression since 2003) are still awesome songs when played in acoustic but they kind of lost the “Fire” they had back in 2003. “One Year Six Months” is played on a piano, so it slightly breaks up the album before “Back Home” finishes the record with a nostalgic touch.

All in all I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed by the album. Of course all the songs are very well written, but the original album from 2003 is way better than the acoustic version. It seems like Yellowcard didn't try very hard to give the songs their own spirit. Almost every song is played exactly like the orignals, just with acoustic guitars.
However, its a great album for an evening you spend with your girlfriend or for having a good time with your friends or you can just listen to the songs and imagine you are back in 2003.
At least for 49 minutes. nostalgia is in the air.

Stay true to yourself.

Cheers, Andy.

Rating: 7/10

Songs for listening: Empty Apartment, View From Heaven, Back Home

Back To School - A Playlist

Hey guys, summer is almost over for all of us and many of you will go back to school for another year of useless knowledge, lessons in how to deal with bullshit and finding out that you really won't need maths in your later life. For those of you who can refer to this, I created a little playlist in order to make the first few days a little bit better. I hope it'll help and good luck, you'll do just fine!

30 Seconds To Mars - This Is War

The title speaks for itself I suppose.

Fall Out Boy - I Don't Care

Honestly - how many times a schoolday do you think "Good God, I don't care about why this author wrote the scene like this and not in another way.", or "I don't care about this, what do I have a calculator for?" or "I don't care whether you'll see your boyfriend tonight or not, shut the fuck up." ?

Bring Me The Horizon - Antivist

Middle fingers up, if you don't give a fuck! :-) 
Well, obviously you can't walk around school with your middle fingers up all the time, so just do it in your mind. 

Of Mice & Men - The Great Hendowski

This song offers some very inspirational and comforting lyrics, so if you can't bare with school or life in general anymore, listen to this one. 

We Are The In Crowd - Better Luck Next Time

In case you fuck up an exam: don't let it bother you too much, it happens even though you studied a lot or put some extra effort into it, it happens to all of us from time to time. You'll have better luck next time. 

All Time Low - Stay Awake

No, actually not. Make sure you get as much sleep as possible, sleep is important when you gotta fight a battle called school five days a week. 

Bullet For My Valentine - All These Things I Hate (revolve around me)

at least that's how it was for me when I went to school (at least around 90% of all the 9 years I spent at secondary school).

Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

I believe that school does this thing where it breaks and ruins your dreams. Maybe because they're "impossible to reach", maybe because they don't provide a safe job and a good career, maybe because people there don't understand the value of big dreams. Let me tell you something: if you're already on it, leave the boulevard of broken dreams right now. Don't take shit from anybody, this is your life, you can do whatever you wanna do with it. 

Coldplay - Don't Let It Break Your Heart

No matter what happens to you, don't let it break your heart. Everything will be okay in the end, I promise. 

Blink-182 - Easy Target

Don't be an easy target. I know it's easier said than done, but try to stand up for yourself, try to show the douchebags that you're somebody, too. 

Bring Me The Horizon feat. Josh Franceschi - Fuck

Oli says "Fuck" a lot, that should be enough reason. 

All Time Low - Heroes

Because no matter how you handle school, you're all heroes and I'm proud of you. 

Rise Against - Make It Stop

Bullying is shit. It fucks up young adults who already have enough crap to deal with, sometimes it even costs lives. So, if you ever see how somebody gets bullied, please grow some balls and help them, you'll make a change and maybe save a valuable life. 

Blink-182 - Neighborhoods: A Guest Blog by Andy

Good evening lovers of reliable pop-punk music, I have something special for you today, a premiere: There are a few bands out there I have absolutely no connection to, for example blink-182. However, that's no problem at all because Andy, a friend of mine, is a huge fan of them with a whole lot of knowledge about this genre in general, so he sat down to write about Neighborhoods, one of the albums by blink-182. Enjoy!

Back in 2011, my absolute musical highlight of the year was the new album by my favorite band blink-182. I had been waiting for this record for years, so I was close to tears when I finally held it in my hands. Called "Neighborhoods“, the album was the first material in 8 years, and many people were wondering what style the album would be. Although the 3 gentlemen are known for their amazing pop-punk songs like “Dammit“, “All the small things“ and “Whats my age again?“ (the song which belongs to the video where they are running around naked), the self-titled album in 2003 was already showing a different, darker side of blink-182. So it was pretty obvious that Tom Delonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker would not go back to writing fun songs about dating girls, parties and sex with dogs.

“Ghost on the dancefloor“ opens the album quite sad and slowly, it's a song about a lost love. You can clearly hear the “Angels and Airwaves“ influence on that song, Tom Delonge added a lot of effects and synthesized parts. The second song, “Natives“, is quite the opposite of the first one. Really fast and with an amazing guitar intro, the song reminds of Mark Hoppus side project “+44“. The next two songs, “Up all night“ and “After midnight“ have very strong and solid riffs, but they also can't hide their influence by the past side projects of blink-182.
“Hearts All Gone“, written by Hoppus and Barker, could easily be on the bands second LP “Dude Ranch“, the punk song is incredible fast and Travis' Drums nearly beat the sh*t out of you.
“Wishing Well“ and especially “Kaleidoscope“ belong to the better songs of the record. While “Wishing Well“ has some of the old blink-182 spirit in it, “Kaleidoscope“ impresses with a strong guitar riff, amazing drums and great lyrics, which makes it to my favorite song of the album.

All in all “Neighborhoods“ is an awesome album but it can't keep up with their previous albums because those are just masterpieces. “Neighborhoods“ is a very serious and dark comeback and in most songs you can hear influences by Tom Delonges side projects “Box Car Racer“ and “Angels and Airwaves“. In particular this means both strong riffs and many synthesizers.
People who buy the album because they hope for funny pop punk songs will be disapointed. This is a much more mature blink, it's like blink 2.0. If you allow a band to mature and you like open alternative-songs, buy this album !

Rating: 7/10

Songs for listening: Up All Night, After Midnight, Kaleidoscope

NEW RELEASE: Avenged Sevenfold - Hail to the King

Yesterday, Avenged Sevenfold from Huntington Beach, California released their sixth album Hail To The King in several countries, you can check all the release dates here. 

Hail to the King starts with one of the best intros the band could have chosen. "Sheperd Of Fire" sounds impressive with the combination of guitars, drums and trombones and their vocalist only underlines this impressive song with his incredible voice. 

Avenged Sevenfold probably has two of the best guitarists ever: Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance make the songs on this record alive with their instruments; I'm not exaggerating when I say that this is magic, for example "Hail to the King", the song which gives the album its name, starts with the best guitar solo I ever heard. However, it actually doesn't matter which song you pick because these two guys prove their excellence in every single part of this record.
If you take a closer look at the lyrics, you notice again that Avenged Sevenfold are very special. They carefully write and choose the words so it's not that easy to figure out what's going on. "This Means War" could be about struggling with inner demons and about being lonely because one line says "Lash your tongue of bane, carry me to nowhere, mental holocaust, battle never ends."
"Requiem", song number five, has a very religious touch. At the beginning there's some latin chanting which sounds like a church choir (I'd translate it for you but I don't trust google and I stopped doing latin at school three years ago so I don't remember anything useful).
The topic of religion can also be found in the lyrics with words like prayers, heaven, mercy or prophets. 
Another song which tackles religious aspects is "Heretic". I have to admit that this is one of the songs that makes me wonder how artists come up with lyrics like these. 

I can't really decide on which would be my favourite, but I like the last song "Acid Rain", especially this line: "Life wouldn't be so precious dear, if there never was an end."

Once again, Avenged Sevenfold showed the world why they're such a popular and famous band and if you don't already own this album or at least pre-ordered it, I highly recommend to do so!

NEW RELEASE: Blessthefall - Hollow Bodies

Two days ago, the five-piece band from Phoenix, Arizona released their new album Hollow Bodies and if you haven't listened to it yet, you're definitely missing out. 

Kicking off the record with "Exodus", we already get a promising start with a brilliant intro. Going on with "You Wear A Crown But You're No King", I feel like being taken to a huge concert - this song makes me think of sweaty bodies in a huge pit, it's one of those songs I listen to when I'm really angry. 

Blessthefall stick to the style we know from their other albums, they also added a calm song without any screaming again: "Buried In These Walls". In this genre, songs that only consist of clean vocals are the most interesting part of a record because they separate the vocalists from each other.
The band also got some guest vocals for Hollow Bodies: Jesse Barnett from Stick To Your Guns sings in "Youngbloods", Jake Luhrs from August Burns Red can be heard in "Carry On" and my personal highlight of the record is Lights, wife of blessthefall's vocalist Beau Bokan, singing on the last song "Open Water". The beginning of the song reminds me of "Don't Go" by Bring Me The Horizon where she sang with Oli Sykes but then Beau starts to sing and you stop thinking of anything else. These seven minutes belong to him and his wife and it's safe to say that  this is one of the most beautiful songs I heard in a while. Lights has such a clear, fragile voice and then there's Beau in contrast to her and before I start rambling I can only say that these were the best seven minutes I ever had while writing about an album. 

Hollow Bodies turned out to be worth the wait. It definitely fulfilled my expectations and you won't regret buying it, that's for sure. 

New Discovery: Lacey

It's been a while since I had a new band to introduce but today I'm supposed to review a band from Nottingham, UK: Lacey. They asked The Wellz Street Journal for a review about their current EP "Outlaws" and I gladly sat down to write a few words. 

Lacey are: Graham Turner (lead vocals and bass), Josh Lewin (guitar and vocals), Pete Maksymiw (guitar) and Dave Pearson (drums and vocals).
Formed in 2010, the four-piece band already released two EPs and achieved several things, for example headlining the Red Rooms Stage at Hit the Deck Festival. 

Their current EP, "Outlaws", contains four songs which emphasise the band's talent and passion. Throughout the whole record, it's noticeable what a pleasant voice Graham has and how well the other members build their instruments around it. It doesn't matter whether it's a fast song like "Burning Out" or a slower song like "Hometown" - Lacey perfectly manage to capture you and make you wish for more than four songs. At least that's what happened to me so I really hope there will be more songs coming soon!

Since you all fully trust my taste, go and check the band out here: 

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We Are The In Crowd - Attention

This is probably my shortest post ever but my babes in WATIC released a new song last night! It was 2.30am when I heard it for the first time and I liked it back then so now that I'm awake and listening to it again, I like it even more. 

We Are The In Crowd grew and changed a lot since Best Intentions happened. They experienced more, got more stories to tell and memories to share. They sacrificed a lot to make it to the point where they are now, they never gave up and it's just amazing to see how they find their place in this genre. I'm really looking forward to the whole album because "Attention" is already very promising and we're all just weird kids in the end. 

NEW RELEASE: Asking Alexandria - From Death To Destiny

"You're fucking crazy if you think that I'll ever change." 
That's the first sentence you hear when you listen to From Death To Destiny, the newest record by Asking Alexandria. If you know a little about Danny Worsnop's past, you'll find this at least as worrying as I did because it's not a secret that the vocalist has been struggling with drugs and alcohol for quite a long time. Don't Pray For Me, the song that opens the record, deals with this issue.During their whole career, Asking Alexandria had to cancel one single show, which took place in Seattle, because of this issue. Danny wasn't able to perform because he was too drunk and Ben asked the crowd to raise their hands if they'd support Danny if he went to rehab. I wasn't there but only the thought of it sends shivers down my spine. 

From Death To Destiny is like the diary of Danny Worsnop. It's brutally honest, it deals with his struggles and inner demons, for example in Killing You or Creature. Danny doesn't sugarcoat anything and this is the first time we get the chance to look behind the surface of the tough rockstar. It's a chance to identify with him on a whole new level, it's a chance to finally understand a little better what's going on in his mind.
This album is a lot more mature than their first two records were, it's inspirational. Run Free, song number four, is probably the best song on the album because if you take a closer look and pay attention to the lyrics, you'll realise that there's a very important message behind the song.
From Death To Destiny is a chance for Danny to show the world what an amazing vocalist he is, especially when it comes to clean vocals. It doesn't matter if you pick Run Free or Break Down The Walls or Believe or Moving On. His voice improved a whole lot, it's developed, it's able to completely capture you. 

This record totally blew me away. I have to admit that I didn't really know what to expect because Asking Alexandria never do what you expect them to do, so that's why the surprise was even bigger. From Death To Destiny is much more than I imagined it would be, it's much better than I imagined it would be, it's deep and honest and different than the Asking Alexandria we knew before. 

I've Been Up In The Air - A Special Playlist featuring 30 Seconds To Mars

Hello everyone, the weather is really bad so I'd like to use the time I still got with the working internet connection to present you a little playlist. 30 Seconds To Mars released a new music video for their song Do Or Die (I'd love to link you but it's not available in Germany) what once again reminded me how much I actually love this band. Between all the pop punk and screaming they get lost sometimes, so it's time to cherish them in an extra post.

A Modern Myth

Oh all the tears I cried when they announced their break and I didn't know when they'd be back. Obviously this was the best song I could have chosen, sometimes you just need some dramatic songs in your life.

Up In The Air

The first new song they released; I still remember how excited I was until it finally came out, how happy I was when I heard Jared's voice again combined with completely new sounds, how great it felt to finally have them back again. 

The Race

You saved my life with blood and through sacrifice... and that's what I'd like to thank this band for. 

Do Or Die

If you don't live in Germany congrats, go and watch the video to this song! If you're from Germany, there's a video on facebook going around!
When I watched it, it sent shivers down my spine and gave me goosebumps because it's so beautiful how fans aren't just fans but this one big family and everybody is connected no matter what background you have and yeah...

Bright Lights


This is one of the songs that makes me wonder how it's possible to create something beautiful. Like, when I listen to this song, it's like Jared appears at the door of my house with some ice cream so I let him in, he tells me to sit down on the couch where he wraps me into a blanket and sings to me until I feel better again. 

100 Suns

I believe in nothing 
Not the end and not the start
I believe in nothing
Not the earth and not the stars
I believe in nothing
Not the day and not the dark
I believe in nothing
But the beating of our hearts

I believe in nothing
100 suns until we part
I believe in nothing
Not in sin and not in God
I believe in nothing
Not in peace and not in war
I believe in nothing
But the truth in who we are
Closer To The Edge

When I listen to this song, I see how I had to fight with myself to go to school. I see how I was so scared of interacting with people. I see how I listened to this song what gave me at least some strength back. Enough strength to go to school, enough to interact. I see how I went to see Mars live for the first time, I see how I cried during this song because I realised how stupid everything was at this point of time. I see how I wanted to give up so many times but I didn't because this song always caught me before I hit the ground. I see how it gave me back so many things. It gave me back my smile, my hope, my will to fight. It taught me so many things - to stop regretting things, for example. It taught me that you only got this one life so you could as well turn it into the greatest thing that ever happened to you. 

Alibi

I fell apart but got back up again.

Album Of The Week: Biffy Clyro - Opposites

Hands down, the three guys from Scotland were my new discovery and biggest surprise at Rock am Ring (no, I'll never shut up about it). I still remember how Simon changed his guitar for every song - one was blue and one was red. I also remember how blonde his hair was and how they didn't wear shirts. What I'm trying to say is that Biffy Clyro is a special band and I'd like to discuss their current album Opposites now. 

Opposites was released on January 28th and contains 14 songs. The first thing I noticed after listening to the whole record was that there's a pattern in the arrangement of the songs: Slow songs alternate with fast songs which creates a balance -  neither the slow nor the fast songs outweigh the other. 
If you take a closer look at the lyrics, you'll see that most of the songs have a slightly dark touch. In Black Chandelier for example it says "we begin to relax when it’s just the two of us, and a cute little cup of cyanide". Cyanide is toxic, so it could be a metaphor for a toxic relationship. Skylight leaves a bitter taste in your mouth when you hear Simon singing: "Looking alive with a broken mind, why don't you ever take my side?" or later in the song: "We're users but at least we use each other."

There's something about Simon's voice that makes you forget everything around you. Combined with the instruments, these tunes capture you and take you on a journey from reality to your deepest thoughts and secrets. Suddenly you forget to blink, you forget where you are, you even forget to breathe because in these 55 minutes nothing else seems to matter. With songs like Black Chandelier, Biblical or The Thaw you easily lose yourself in the sounds and I recommend you to take your time when you decide to check this record out because it deserves your undivided attention. I recommend you let Biffy Clyro do their magic and show you what great artists they are because I'm already a big fan and I'm sure you'll like them, too. 

All in all I can say that Opposites is an amazing piece of work. It doesn't matter whether you've been a fan of the band for a while or if this will be your first time listening to them - Biffy Clyro know exactly how to fascinate lovers of good music.