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ficsci

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  4. Posted · Edited by ficsci
    updated photos

    Hey guys,

     

    I'm moving to a different country, and I can't take most of my VK collection, even though I spent many years & money acquiring them. So I'd rather give away a bunch of these stuff for cheap to people who care about VK than throw them away. I live in New York  right now (leaving September 1). If you're in the area and want to come pick up some stuff, just let me know. If you live somewhere else, tell me which stuff you want, how much you want to pay for them, how you want them shipped, and please pay for the shipping. PM me if you're interested. I'm really giving these away for any price you're willing to pay.

     

    I have cocklobin merch (A LOT of them), Sugar, Time Section, dummy-xD, amber gris, Moran, Merry, Plastic Tree (book), and a bunch of magazines. Also some manga if you want them. Sorry, I can't list them in details since I'm kind of in a hurry to move.

     

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  6. Posted

    Actually I got straight A's for the entire college music theory course (counterpoint, 4 voice harmony, Baroque and everything). Except when I write, I ignore nearly everything I've learned.. Reason for it is, when I think of theory when I write, my stuff ends up sounding really stiff :( Also I really dig 7th chords and dissoances for a really self-indulgent reason. Also modal music (non-tonal stuff, but not atonal). I realize that it tends to go a little too far (^^; ) Haven't found a middle ground to make it not sound so jarring.

    Thank you for listening! I'm working on more stuff, so taking all your feedbacks ^^

  9. Posted

    Awww man! I really wish I had something to post about my former band! XD But we sucked so much that the band only lives on in memories, ancient social media profiles, and a handful of pictures from practice/meetings (and, I think, one silent video). Now imagine THAT level of suckage for a band!!! :P

     

    For the long, boring story then continue reading (otherwise ignore :D):

    My best friend/roommate (vocalist, bassist, and "Leader-sama" ) started a band with one of her friends (drummer). She knew I played guitar and bass, so she asked me to join... at least until she found someone else to join permanently. I thought I would play guitar so I declined (I only ever played acoustic), but it turns out that she can't sing and play bass at the same time so I was to play bass. I agreed to be their temporary bassist because my daughter was still a toddler back then and I had a lot of "free" time to practice and whatnot.

    During our first meet up they told me more about how they were inspired by jrock bands, were thinking of being a vk band, yada yada yada. I'm only a "temp" member and was planning on hiding my identity anyway so none of it mattered to me. What did matter was that the kind of music we liked and were interested in playing were all similar. Sadly, my opinion wasn't shared with them; the drummer only talked about what kind of "costume" he should get, how much it'd cost, whether or not we should have matching outfits as a band, et cetera. My friend normally dressed oshare kei style, so she was planning on wearing the same stuff for the band. I admit that I got quite excited while designing masks for myself. ^_^;;

     

    While practicing cover songs I also started writing out music that came to mind (despite having no prior knowledge/experience with songwriting). Within 5 months I had completely written 2 songs (music and lyrics) and had partial music/lyrics for a handful of other songs. The drummer loved the songs and helped a lot with the drum lines. Vocalist listened to the computer generated music, read the lyrics, and gave me a thumbs up with comments like, "I love this part! It sounds just like An Cafe!" I told her that it felt awkward writing the words that were supposed to come from her, but she insisted that she wasn't confident enough to write her own lyrics (besides, I was "doing fine!" -_-). She finally broke down and started writing her own lyrics for a single song, but that was because I refused to use Japanese and she wanted to sing in Japanese. I also kept trying to get her to sing for me so I could know her range/style (it's kinda important to know that when it comes to writing music and lyrics) but she'd make one excuse after the other. The drummer said she sounded "like an angel" because she used to sing at practice before I joined, but that wasn't helpful for me. And we still didn't have a guitarist!!!

    A month later I was informed that we had a guitarist! Awesome, right?! I thought we could finally have an actual band practice (at that point it was only ever the drummer and I practicing together because the vocalist never felt like singing), but it turns out she was too busy with university to meet up with us. I spoke with the new guitarist a lot online and found out that she picked up guitar that year, wasn't interested in joining a band but our vocalist pressured her, and that she had over a decade of vocal training. Behind "Leader-sama's" back the three of us got together to discuss the band, it's future (or lack-thereof), and if we should drop her as a member. In those 6 months as a band I had NEVER heard my best friend/roommate sing, I honestly had no idea what my vocalist sounded like! That was a deal-breaker of a bad sign for me, so I said that if she wouldn't sing at the next band practice that I'd agree to the member shuffle.

    The next band meeting would be our last because the guitarist had to study for exams (or something) and our vocalist ditched us to go on a date. The drummer wanted to kick the vocalist out (that wouldn't make homelife awkward for me at all! *eyeroll* ), make our current guitarist our songwriter (since she didn't even want to be in a band), and take over the band's social media profiles (which were being managed by the vocalist). He had picked the band name and I had created all the songs, so he saw no reason to change those. I thought completely disbanding would be best (remember, I was only supposed to be a temp member to begin with... but I got addicted to creating songs). When "Leader-sama" was told about the secret meetings and the band members' feelings, she rage-quit the band. The drummer soon found another band (but this time it was metal instead of vk/jrock) and the guitarist stopped worrying about learning how to play guitar. XD I secretly worked on the unfinished songs (for my own satisfaction) and continued practicing bass, but the disbandment marked the decline in my relationship with my best friend/roommate.

    I know of two separate Japanese-inspired bands that she tried to join (as a bassist) after our disbandment, but she wasn't chosen for either band. One of the bands was geist.

    To this day I still haven't heard her sing.......

    Cool story, bro X'D X'D X'D X'D X'D

  11. Posted

    ^ Holy shit, I gotta check it out XD

     

    Yah, there are a lot of flying shit on flames on what is "screamo" or even what is "emo" online. A lot of people (read: a lot of hipsters who feel like they have the authority to define things, and by a lot, I mean a really small minority) argue that screamo is actually a lot older than you think and should be assigned to only a few very old, very obscure bands that also fall under emo. But then you also might get confused on the difference between "screamo" and "emocore". But since most people now use the word to explain something else all together... I'd say fuck tags.

  12. Posted

    Thanks for the recommendations guys > < and Coheed and Cambria is one band I've never been able to get into...I think it might be something in his voice? It's better than I remember it being, but still

     

    Karnivool on the other hand, that song has me hooked! I think I might be buying Sound Awake because of this ^_^

    And definitely will check out their new album too! I've just been a little busy recently > . <

    I, too, haven't been able to get into Coheed. Well, honestly I haven't listened to much of their stuff other than the catchy songs from back in 2003-ish and the ones I saw them play live last year, lol. Maybe I just have short attention span for anything that's not really catchy or technically to go gaga over.

     

    Guess I don't actually listen to that many prog bands, but I've been listening to Protest the Hero, Intervals, The Faceless, and Periphery (and a bit of Between the Burried and Me, still need some time to get used to it. They sound like someone who just discovered everything about opera and going all spasticly enthusiastic about it lol). Other than that are maybe bands that don't really really fit into the genre, but definitely have prog-like qualities. Or just technical and bizarre. Like, the Dillinger Escape Plan (more like mathcore/metal, really). And you might not consider Mudvayne as progressive or metal, but they have some of the qualities.

     

    I gotta confess that I'm not always fond of the "slow movement" that usually people consider as characteristic of progressive rock/metal. I prefer to be overwhelmed. Also, not really gravitating towards the older prog metal bands with a more "classic" metal feel, or with a slow doom feel.

  13. Posted

    I have arrived! (and so has my Volition CD)

     

     

    Actually, hate for not being one of the tr00 fans who all hate Scurrilous, but I love Scurrilous! (But I'm obviously also a self-indulgent VK fan)

     

    Having said that, Volition feels really different from Scurrilous, but I don't hate it. It's just that, I find it harder to get into right away. I still need to listen to it more, so I can't give you very detailed, backed-up comments on them. Maybe I'll add some more comments later.

     

     

    One thing I've noticed is that it's less "catchy", less pop-like. To me it's very reminiscent of a post-hardcore album. The hooks aren't as magnetic, and not always as uniquely characteristic to the particular song. Headbangin' parts don't have a straight-forwardly headbangin' feel. (You know, the one that just tells you "headbang... NOW!"). Not saying that I don't like it (after all, I'm a post-hardcore fan first, and metal second). In fact, something that isn't as straightforward don't get boring very easily. This album makes me want to actively listen for the cool parts, puts me into confusion for a moment and forces me to figure out by myself where the resolution is (or maybe it doesn't always give a resolution). And sometimes not instantly liking something could mean that I'll actually really really love it in the long run.

     

    Another thing is the sound production. I get the instant impression that it sounds "flatter" and "less 3D" than Scurrilous, which is totally understandable because now they had decided to leave the record label and do everything by themselves. (I gotta be honest that sound production itself can sometimes makes me totally jizz my pants, even if a song is just so-so.)

     

    So all I can say now is that Volition isn't as much of a "fun" album, or rather, not as much of "a collection of fun songs". This is kind of an overly mentioned thing, but it works more as an album that you need to listen to from start to end. Very intriguing.

  22. Posted

    but at the same time...

    how to find a niche?! 

     

    Constantly stuck between wanting to be REALLY good at something and wanting to be good at ALL the things, but then the logical side of your brain takes over like 'yooooouuuu....suck. And are not being realistic in the slightest and go master one of your interests and become FUCKING AWESOME AT IT.'

    Then the short attention span kicks in... 'NEW SHINY THING OVER THERE! GO. TO. THE SHINY.'

     

    or that's at least how it is for me

    Dude I can relate

     

    I think in the long run, if you have an interest that you know you'll keep obsessing over for the rest of your life, it's better to invest time and energy into it. If you don't, you might regret it later when you're older. Since you're also naturally inclined to be interested in a lot of things, there's no helping about getting into other stuff. But I think you'll be able to find a balance between getting really good at 1 thing and doing other stuff eventually. As long as you keep doing the 1 thing you like most... when you find out what it is ^^

  23. Posted

    The band member I'm totally obsessed with hasn't updated his Twitter as often as he usually does, and his last post was about food. I bet he's on a date with his girlfriend *fucking cry* (T________T)

     

    Yes I've been thinking for months about what to do with this stupid obsession, but I haven't figured out what to do, also he just keeps doing awesome things, and real people things. The less perfect he seems, the more I like him.

  24. Posted

    ^ Ok! Thanks @Manabu and @Pandabear for the advice on mixing + drums+ guitars! I'm pretty new to all those (in fact I just kinda recently figured out how to use this guitar pedal, lol *ignorant bass player fail*). I did have kind of a hard time finding the clean sound that I wanted for the rhythm guitar :/ need to do some more pedal-probing. Wow, didn't realize that lead guitar on the left is a thing, thanks for bringing that up, Panda (O_O). Also just started using some free drum sample plug-ins, but I think there should a way to figure out how to adjust the sounds better.

  25. Posted

    @AltermaliceNero Thank you!! XD

     

    I think your rhythms sound find—I actually like that aspect of it. 

     

    The main problem that I hear is that your guitar is out of tune (or maybe you're just playing a few really strange chords). There are also the occasional notes in the lead guitar, towards the beginning especially, that sound like they are in a different key than the majority of the melody. It sort of starts to work after awhile because it sounds like you're playing in some sort of jazz mode, but it's rather jarring.

     

    It's really difficult to give any concrete advice on this, but the most crucial thing I would say is "less is more." There's a lot going on in some of these parts, and it makes it difficult to focus on any one thing in particular. I wish I could be a little more direct, but hopefully someone else can be more helpful.

     

    Ah ok, I see what you and bada9412 are referring to now :D Yeah, actually I really like using dissonant chord progression, jazz chords, etc. Math rock is kinda a big influence (hmm maybe I'll use that tag).

     

    There's also that one line where the guitar plays 2 notes a half-step apart (I thought the out-of-phase frequencies could sound really cool on certain pedal effects... lol XD)

     

    But I find your "less is more" advice really useful, thank you!! I'll work on it ^^

     

     

    @bada9412 Cool! I'd be interested in listening :)

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