Mog Why?, First Blow To The Mortal Coil, Wrath of the Fridge King

Despondent. The way Xmas is meant to be.

It's been a while since I have posted on here. The holidays were a little more overwhelming than most years for me. But they were fun nonetheless. I got some really cool things, quite a few new shirts which I desperately needed and wanted. In the shirts department I got a Mournful Congregation, Deftones, Ulver and two Slipknot shirts. Pretty awesome. I also got "Monad of Creation" by Mournful Congregation on vinyl which I am listening to as I write this. I also got Between the Buried and Me's self titled and "Rock Action" by Mogwai on vinyl. I feel that "Rock Action" is one of the most overlooked Mogwai records in my opinion. Yet it has two of my favorite Mogwai songs on it. "Take Me Somewhere Nice" and "Dial: Revenge" are masterpieces. I did a report on the song "Dial: Revenge" for an Art of Being Human class that I had in college. We had to do a PowerPoint on a foreign band that was not singing in English. In that song they are actually singing in Welsh, and the whole plot of the song is fascinating. Basically the word "dial" in English is read by a Welsh speaking person as "revenge." So as the lyrics say "A pob tro dwi'n codi'r  ffon mae'n dweud "dial." (And every time I pick up the phone it says "Revenge")" It has a lot to do with the good ole Braveheart days of Scotland and how England was a tyrannical Christian entity that ruined the lives of thousands of people and murdered any pagan looking or thinking person that lived on that small rock we call jolly ole England. Or I should say THEY call jolly ole England. The lines were drawn centuries ago but hey, gotta spread the love and grace of Jesus Christ. Gotta tear down those borders and murder and torture anyone who maybe just wants to farm and take of one another without worrying about invisible men. So in the end, I interpret the song to be sort of a loss of identity for any strong willed Scottish people who feel that their homes were wrongfully taken from them and their ancestors. Great plot for a great song.

"Tonfedd sur a chalon o ddur"

(A harsh wavelength and a steel heart)

If that was vegetable lo mein that'd be me
pre-gaming before the show.

In other news, RUINED played our first show ever last night. Other than being bogged down by about 7 pounds of Chinese food I ate an hour before we played, It actually went really well. My good friend Sky is filling in on drums, (who I actually first met in that Art of Being Human class believe it or not,) and it went really well. We only played two songs but people seemed to really like what we did. I had planned on filling the time we had with talking more than usual and discussing what the songs were about but I got the sense that no one was really interested, which was fine of course. It was our very first show and we we're just a couple of fudge-suckers boppin' over the bridge. One dude seemed VERY excited to be there and wanted everyone to be aware of exactly how excited he was. His excitement grew and grew like an invasive species of Kudzu, choking out all other forms of enjoyment and pensive contemplation. So yeah, that was fucking annoying. I kept hoping my bass sounds would thunder through his chest cavity thereby causing his rip cage to become self-aware and would start eating his lung tissue. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. We only played two songs. The first song "Guardian" went really well. My capo fell off at the very end of the song so that kind of fucked up the ending but not bad enough that it was noticeable really. The next song was "Kill God" and I was planning on explaining the song more so than just "God's stupid" but as I aforementioned I got the sense that positive partying was the only vibes anyone wanted put out. The number one thing I learned after playing this show is that I need to write more songs with less vocals in them. I felt like I had only brief moments to just rock out and play my bass. I would start thrashing and realize "Oh fuck, I have to sing again in about 0.4 seconds." So that is probably going to be one of my next goals in the song writing department. Secondly I learned that I need to start working out. I was out of breathe for way too long after load in. I am sore as fuck today but in the next few days it's time for "No Fucking Around" Zach to come out of retirement. But overall the show was a great success and I am looking forward to the next gig. 

I just need to be more like Sandshrew. 

This image sums up the way we
all must feel right now.

Unfortunately we really need a van. The show we played was literally about 0.2 miles from our house and it was a huge hassle taking two cars through the arctic wasteland we call Michigan right now. For anyone who doesn't live here who is reading this, it is really fucking cold. This is my 25th winter I have experienced, and I have certainly been through worst but this winter has been abnormally brutal for how early it is. Usually this shit starts happening 2 or 3 weeks from now. It is looking just about north of Caïna in the 9th circle of  Hell lately. Apparently we have been a treacherous bunch here in Michigan this year. We've been immersed up to our chins in ice while people step upon our frigid faces. "The place where shame can show itself." Speaking of shame, I posted this online a couple of weeks ago but never did put it up on here. This is the EP I was working on for a while entitled "Vessel." You can find and download it at this link (http://ruinedband.bandcamp.com/) I ordered some tapes that should show up sometime today so hopefully I will have some physical copies done in the next couple of weeks whenever I can get the artwork done and shit.