Monday: Emblem3 at the Belmont

Emblem3 at the Belmont in Austin

Now, let me just say that I was a huge fan of Emblem3 when they were on the X Factor - I voted for them religiously every week and have been kind of waiting with baited breath for their album.  I do have to admit, though, I was a little disappointed when their first single, Chloe (You're The One I Want) came out.  It still had hints of their style that they had in older songs, but it was more poppy and boy bandish.  Still, I did really like them and when I heard they were coming to Austin, I knew I needed to see them.

Emblem3 is a hip-hop/reggae/pop fusion band from California made up of brothers Wesley and Keaton Stromberg and friend Drew Chadwick.  They were on the X Factor last year, coming in 4th place, and have since been signed to Simon Cowell's record company with their debut album coming out on July 30th of this year.

They started the concert off with a new song, Girl Next Door.  This one I was not very impressed with - the lyrics were pretty weak and it, like Chloe, made them sound like a boy band. However, they followed it up immediately with an older song, Reason, which brought them back to a very Sublime influenced beach rock style.  They managed to work the stage amazingly, though it was very small, very hot, and there were only about 100 people there.  They reached out to their fans, walked through the crowd, wore the ridiculous hats fans had thrown to them, and at one point, Drew actually did a back flip on the stage.  Still, they remained genuine, thanking everyone for being there, having a great time and supporting them, as well as promising to meet fans outside afterward.

Wesley singing

After a few energetic songs, they slowed it down and told the crowd to put their phones and, to paraphrase Drew, "experience the music as humans", bringing out their acoustic guitars for a performance of a new song, Jaiden.  I do have to admit this wasn't exactly a fantastic song - in fact, it's painfully cheesy - but it's the biggest guilty pleasure song I have ever heard. They sang it beautifully, featuring Wesley's fantastic vocals.

However, the spell cast over the audience with this song was quickly gone as they went straight back into another set of fast songs, and quickly the cell phones returned.  To close it all they played Chloe, calling for the crowd to sing along.  They obliged and sang, jumped up and down, and screamed until it was hard to hear anything at all.  They left the stage, waving and thanking the crowd.  But wait - they hadn't played the song they played at their first audition, the song that got them this far, the song that everybody knew and loved and had been waiting for the whole time.  So, five minutes and many shouted chants of "EMBLEM3! EMBLEM3! EMBLEM3!" later, they were back out with an encore of Sunset Blvd., bringing the crowd to their feet, screaming out the lyrics, leaving a feeling of excitement and contentedness that wouldn't leave for hours.

Throughout the concert, they played eight new songs, including the weaker, more poppy Nothing To Lose, Teenage Kings, and Spaghetti along with the stronger Just For One Day and XO, along with four older ones, including Riptide and Curious.  They also featured their version of Matisyahu's One Day.  Overall, I was amazed at at how well they worked the stage, even in a small place.  Though there were a few songs off of their new record I did not like, there were still plenty of good ones to balance them out.  I would absolutely go see them again - today, preferably.  I will definitely be back to Emblem3 in about three weeks to really review their full, newly released album.

Fact of the Mostly Daily

Fact:

From 1984 to 2000, Martin Luther King was honored in Virginia on the same day as two guys who have very different legacies: Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The state holiday was known as “Lee-Jackson-King Day."

Fact of the Mostly Daily

     Starting today, I'm going to start a new kind of post: The Mostly Daily Random Fact. Mostly daily because really? I have a life too, and a post (even a small one) a day is a commitment too big for a teenager.

Today's fact of the mostly daily:

Sadi Arabia bans anything and everything having to do with Christmas, including putting up Christmas lights and trees.

~Adair

Thursday Review: Manic Panic Hair Dye!

Manic Panic in Rockabilly Blue

For the last few months, I have been really wanting to dye my hair a crazy color, and yesterday, I finally did it!  I used Manic Panic semi-permanent in Rockabilly Blue to dye the underlayer of my hair and I am pretty happy with how it worked!  With the help of my dear sweet mother, I did my hair basically the same way you do highlights - taking chunks, putting them on foil, painting them with the dye, closing up the foil, and moving to the next piece.  I left it in for 30 minutes, like it says on the bottle, and even though I hadn't bleached my hair beforehand, it turned out super vibrant blue - in fact, I'm hoping it fades out a little more in the next few days because I feel a little like Cruella de Ville.

Rocking the no-makeup Bellatrix hair look.

The product itself was really easy to use, though I would definitely recommend using an applicator.  Even using one, my (and my mom's) hands are still faintly blue, as is my neck. Be warned also: when you first rinse out your hair...well, you'll know exactly what Purple Rain must have been about.  This dye will stain everything.  And I do mean everything.  There may have been some bleaching of the shower afterwards, and the t-shirt that I was wearing died a brightly colored death.

The final result:

What do you think?

But overall I am really happy with how it looks! I love how bright it turned out, even though I didn't have to bleach it, and I will definitely be using this dye again in the future.

Temporarily Unappreciated Geniuses

     Sadly, many great thinkers, artists, and scientists who are now very famous and admired today, were ignored or laughed at during their lives. But which ones were they? You may be surprised (or not) at the people listed below. I wanted to learn more about why they were ignored, because who knows, maybe we're all just misunderstood geniuses.

1. Galileo Galilei 

      On February 15, 1564, One of the most famous astronomers ever was born. Galileo contributed many instruments and information to the world of science. He built a telescope with which he discovered the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, sunspots, moon craters, and lunar mountains. But the thing he is most famous for and was his downfall was his belief in, and ability to prove Copernicus's heliocentric (sun in the middle of our solar system) theory. This threatened the church which was a government all its own back then; they firmly believed that the earth was the center of the solar system (not to mention the entire universe), for why would God send his only son to a lowly planet? Pope Urban VIII accused Galileo of heresy and he was put under house arrest until his death.

2. Gregor Mendel

     The father of modern genetics, Mendel, was born in 1822. He became an Augustinian monk, but was as devoted to mathematics, and his experimentation on the inheritance of pea plants as he was to God. Mendel was always shy, quiet and rather prone to psychological breakdowns; he never shared his findings with the world, but was way ahead of his time. In fact, his two laws, The Law of Segregation and The Law of Independent Assortment, both hinted at the inner-workings of cell functions and DNA that wouldn't be discovered until later. He was however, spot on.

3. Henry David Thoreau
     Born on July 12th, 1817, Thoreau is best known for his rather long and dry book (you decide whether or not that was sarcasm) Walden about his time living in a shack by a lake. In it, and his other books, he preaches the importance of living naturally. Much of his writing was over the heads of many of its readers, for he could write stanza upon stanza filled with symbolism and hidden meanings. In fact, when no one would publish his book A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers he printed 1,000 copies at his own expense, and in the end, fewer than 300 books were sold. Today, his writings are greatly esteemed and have inspired many leaders such as Ghandi, and Tolstoy, along with many people all around the world.

4. Edgar Allan Poe

     In Massachusetts, on January 19th 1809, one of the most famous writers ever was born. Poe wrote short-stories, books, and poetry, most of which had a ghoulish or mysterious twist, and was the first to write a short-story featuring a detective. Unfortunately, Poe's works were not appreciated while he was alive, and he wrote mostly anonymously. He had a hard time getting his works published, and when he did, he was either not paid, or paid very little. The Raven, a now greatly admired piece of literature, was sold to The American Review for $9. Unfortunately, after his wife's death, his life took a turn for the worse. Poe started drinking, and it got harder to publish things; he had to move constantly to stay out of trouble, and eventually, in 1849, he died. Oddly enough, the cause of his death is shrouded in mystery; doctors' opinions ranged from insanity to suicide to rabies to disease of the heart. Rather fitting for Poe don't you think? 

5. Vincent van Gogh
     Perhaps one of the most famously misunderstood geniuses is this fellow, a Dutch painter born on March 30th 1853. He is now considered one of the most influential artists ever, and the most famous Post-Impressionist painter. As a child he was very shy and had low self-esteem; he later started to do missionary work to become a priest, but his ambitions changed and he soon turned to painting and drawing. Although his works contain bright colors and scenes, his life was much different. He suffered from epilepsy and depression making him mentally-unstable which eventually lead to suicide.
     Van Gogh's approximately 2,000 pieces of art were not truly discovered until after his death, but are now among the most influential and admired works ever.

     So really? You could be a misunderstood genius like the rest of these people, just waiting for your immense intelligence and talent to be discovered by the world. Keep that in mind as you go around making history today.
 
~Adair

The Dancing City

Today's guest blogger composed this poem driving home from a night in downtown Austin. 

The Dancing City
At night the owl hoots,
then tucks in his head,
The deer find a spot for the night.
But the true magic is in the cites,
which at night come alive.
The buildings they sway,
their lights beating in time to music
only they can hear.
The buildings touch the sky,
move the clouds,
yet still grow.
The metal groans
the earth thuds
and still they move
swaying forever
no reason to stop
the night is forever theirs
as it should be.

T. A.

Monday Review: Orange - Diamond Youth

Diamond Youth

Ok, let me preface this by saying I know that the album I'm about to talk about is not a super recent release. And it's technically not a full album, it's an EP.  But I still feel like they deserved some attention.

Anyway.

Diamond Youth!  You might not have heard of them - the only reason I do is because I've watched more than my fair share of live Paramore songs, and in a bunch of the tour their singer been wearing their t-shirt.  I've been looking for new bands to listen to anyway, so I just went ahead and looked them up.  And they were definitely worth the listen.

With three EPs out now and an upcoming album, Diamond Youth is a Chicago-based alternative rock quartet.  Their latest EP, Orange, came out in January.  When I first listened to it, I was a little unsure about whether or not I really had liked it - it was a bit like having stepped into an old-school Muse album with just a hint of Foo Fighters.  It was very 90s emo/college rock and though it did feel a little generic, I already knew that I liked it much better than the similar Queens of the Stone Age album I listened to just a few weeks ago (...Like Clockwork).  There was no doubt the music was more complex, well done, and, well, musical, but I didn't know if it was enough to make it something that would be introduced into the library of music I listen to  consistently.  So, since there were only six songs on the EP (and I have more than a little free time) I went ahead and listened to it again.

The second time listening to it, I decided that I officially liked it.  While still maintaining a very 90s-esque sound, they brought in different styles and influences while creating a very cohesive but not overly repetitive structure of the entire EP.  They showed a distinct sound clearly set in the first track - to quote this site's review, "Cannonball is a great opening track, as it tells you everything you need to know about the band; fuzzed-out guitars and clear melodic vocals, mid-tempo yet still high energy, with a clear debt to '90s emo".  The album overall was one musical arc, providing a strong opening and a buildup continuing through the the first three tracks, peaking in loudness and complexity at the fourth track, Orange, slowing back down at the fifth song Swinging From You, and completing itself by fading out, though still maintaining its old energy, at the final track Lola.  The vocals reached an almost aerial quality over the songs, providing great dynamics between the swooning choruses, especially seen in Separator and Orange.  Though the style and structure of the songs were still basically the same, there was some divergence from the typical style with Come Down starting as a more classic, almost 80s rock style that adds multiple layered melodies in the mix, until later turning into a bright alt-rock second verse.  Because of this, the album comes across more as a large work of art rather than one long song.

There's no doubt that Diamond Youth is a good band with potential.  Personally, I think they are probably the best group right now attempting this style of music, bringing different styles and musicality to the table that similar bands are not really offering.  It's hard to judge how well they will do in the long run since they have not had a full record out yet, but from listening to their older EPs it is pretty clear it will be a good album.  For music-lovers searching for a band that combines the best of the 90s, Diamond Youth will definitely have a space for themselves in the current rock music scene.