Noah Has Ideas

I’m currently working on My Top Ten List for movies, and music. This is something we all talk about and say, but what does it actually look like?
MORE TO COME. BOOM!

Apparently  it is going to be a short movie, that maybe turned into a feature about this robot, who is a murderer.

Creepy, right?

Noah.

( The tagline is: “Soon every house will have a robot helper. Don’t worry, your kids are perfectly safe.” )

Video stinks, but Tosh.0 has not put up the actual interview. Daniel Tosh handled himself very well whilst dealing with Fred.
interview starts around 1:18ish, you dig?

Noah.

This song is great, it is from their new album due out in early 2010.
This song and another one dubbed “Broken China” will be out at the end of October. Music is straight Buttery, you dig?

Noah.

Noah- So where are you guys from?
Jamie-We all live in Oxford, which is a fairly small place laying in the
south of England. It is possibly the most handy place to be for us as
a band due to it’s location; it is only 90 minutes from Birmingham and
London, and you can get to most places in England with relative ease.
We are all happy here for the time being and the city has some
wonderful architecture. Originally, Stu is from North Wales, Tim and
Chris are from a place named Sutton Coldfield and I (Jamie) am (is)
from Oxfordshire so has spent his whole life near to Oxford.

N-How did the band get started?
J-Stu started this band at University after being bored and generally
fed up with daytime television. Tim joined shortly after followed by
Chris who took over drum duties a year or so later. Jamie was the
final member to join as a replacement for Dan Adams (who recorded
Animals with the band).

N-How did you come up with the name?
J-A friend of Stu’s wrote a letter to his girlfriend about an incident in
Grimsby (where he was from), he’d witnessed some heartless acts by locals, one
being someone throwing a brick at a bus and the last line was ‘…this
town needs guns.’ Stu thought it was a decent name and with nothing
else on the table at the time, used it and it kind of stuck. We get some funny looks by people when we tell them the name and one middle aged woman even wrote to her local paper trying to get a show cancelled in her home town, then again she was probably a busy body and I feel that she kind of missed the point somewhat. Also her favourite band was the
grindcore outfit ANAL CUNT, so she had no legs to stand on! But some
people do take it the wrong way and it sometimes makes us a little
embarrassed when say an old guy asks what the name of our band is, so
we say it quick and then try and get out of that situation. This is
probably a bit of an exaggeration! But it makes for interesting
reading.

N-What are some of your musical influences? We all listen to
J-different things. Primarily it is American indie music for us all,
which is why it works, we all have a fairly similar interest in
certain bands and scenes, for instance we all enjoy bands from ’90s
Chicago. But then it varies and we all go off in different directions
of interest. We can be influenced by any number of bands at any
specific time, but American bands seem to be omnipresent. We are
particularly all fans of Make Believe and Joan Of Arc. Though I
(Jamie) like folk music like A.A. Bondy who used to be in the grunge
band Verbena. Chris is a Venetian Snares fan, and we all like The
Lemonheads. Tom Petty is also pretty rad.

N- What are you guys listening to right now?
J-At this moment in time Noyes is playing on my iTunes. I can’t speak
for the others.

N- You guys have been pegged as an intelligent rock band, or (math
rock), do you agree with this?
J-Of course, we use time signatures and polyrhythms to keep us happy, as it is a great thing to stretch ourselves musically and it also
broadens our minds and keeps us on our toes. The ideas and parts we
come up with in practice keep things fresh. We are currently writing
new material and there are a lot of interesting sections but this time
it seems to be less imbued with timing changes, this said the songs
are somehow harder to play, which is funny; it has been fun but we are
all ending up with achining forearms. But we all are very excited by
the new material, however playing a show of all new songs we will have
to be physically and mentally fit, otherwise it may just all turn into
JELLOOO.

N- Do you guys hope to come and tour the States, or have you in the past?
J-We are currently planning a tour of the East Coast of America and some
dates are in Canada too. We are pretty stoked about this as have
always wanted to go and play some shows in the US. We will be playing
with Love Of Everything who we played with in the UK. So it will be
great to hang out with those guys again. The big thing is that when
you live in such a small place like England, America just seems
colossal in comparison and therefore massively daunting. Also people
have been like: ‘WEST COAST, COME TO THE WEST COAST’ but that is
pretty hard as we have two weeks designated to this tour. It makes me
laugh because we say we’re playing in the UK, then people say ‘Come to
the US’, we say we’re playing in the US and people are like ‘Come to
Australia’, it could go on and on until we are playing shows on
Jupiter, touring the moons, though we may need space suits and we
don’t have a space ship, though I am saving for one.

N- What do you guys love about England?
J-Well it is where we spend a majority of our time, and I am a firm
believer that you should respect where you are from, treat people
well, treat the environment well, be helpful to less fortunate people.
So of course, I am always happy when people share the same love of
their surroundings. Sometimes it is disheartening when others
disregard this and don’t respect stuff. But generally it is great
having all different types of weather, the countryside is great too.
Scotland, Ireland and Wales are all beautiful places too and we like
playing in those countries too.

N- Where is your favorite place to go in Europe?
J-We have been to Germany a couple of times now and there are some great cities there, like Hamburg and Berlin. Also Paris is pretty wonderful,
we played to around 300 people there which was the last day of our
last European tour, we were really happy with that. Though some of the
places we have been people are confused by the music. We played in a
very traditional southern town in France and no one there had really
heard us before and were used to more traditional French things so I
am pretty sure we weren’t received too well. Luxembourg was also an
amazing place to be.

N- Animals is such a great album, how did the creative concept of
this album come up?
J-It wasn’t such a preconceived notion, it was more that Tim and Chris
had a bunch of riffs which turned to full songs and they couldn’t
really remember each individual part by saying ‘Let’s play the one
which goes durrr dddaaaa durrrr’, so for ease of remembering the
tunes, they gave them names of animals which just stuck.

N- Being from Europe, I assume you guys are football fans (soccer),
who is your favorite team?
J-Stu is a Manchester United fan, I can’t stand Manchester United one
bit as used to be a fan of Arsenal. But there are teams you don’t
necessarily support but admire and it is good to watch the highlights
of all of the weekend matches. Tim plays a lot of football but I don’t
think he supports a specific team.

N-What is the weirdest thing you guys have experienced on tour?
J-There are so many funny things which happen that most of them just
stick in the memory and some don’t, but all are equally entertaining
like really happy drunk Chinese men walking into walls whilst saying
‘HHHEEEEEYYYYY BOOOOYYYYYSSS’. A new song we have been working on is named Women & Swimming which is a line a drunk man from York told us. He was saying ‘Daniel O’Donnell, housewives’ favourite… there are two things I love in life, women… and swimming.’ There have been
many nights out where just amazingly entertaining things happen. Or
even just by chance we walk past something funny. And these things
become catchphrases which we just blurt out from time to time. A
favourite is when we were in Groningen in Holland and a police man
said ‘You can NOT go up this road, it is forbidden, so you must take
the second left over to this street… ALSO FORBIDDEN.’ He seemed
happy but angry.

N-What do you think you would do if you weren’t musicians?
J-If we weren’t musicians, well I think we all kind of do the things
we’d be doing anyway. Tim is a primary school teacher, Stu works in a
big publishing company in Oxford, Chris teaches too, and works doing
delivery but has been a librarian for a bit too, and I (Jamie) do
design work though not as much as I used to. But if I could, I would
be a bat specialist

N-Batman or Superman?
J-Well, you see, in England we have a different kind of superhero, he is
Eric, and when Eric eats a banana he becomes Banana Man. So I would
have to say, a superhero that means a lot to us is Banana Man.

N- If you guys watch LOST, do you have any theories?
J-Okay, well I am the only one who doesn’t watch Lost. Tim, Chris and
Stu watch it, Stu watches it on tour when he isn’t driving. But I
still have a theory, I believe that the entire cast are robots
controlled by Jay Leno. I also believe that there is a secret portal
in the centre of the island which is a gateway to the set of Who’s The
Boss? starring Tony Danza and Judith Light. I also believe that the
fat guy with curly hair is Screech from Saved By The Bell and he got
put on the island by Mr Bellding because he cheated on Sports Day,
beating both Zack and AC Slater in the egg and spoon race because he
stuck his egg to the spoon with some chewing gum. People may shout me down and brand these notions as farcical; I may be alienated for these beliefs but I have unprecedented evidence that this the truth, the
truth is out there my friends. Open your frigging EYES, MAN!

N- Favorite movies of ‘09?
J-Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. NEXT!!

N-One place you as a band want to visit the most?
J-Chicagooooooooo; the Windy City YO!

Seriously some great guys, thanks to Jamie for taking time out to answer these. Go out and buy their latest cd, Animals. It is a great listen, and hopefully if enough of you buy it, Jamie will fulfill his dream of seeing the windy city.

Thanks for reading!

Noah.

Mix one part tailgate with one part hostage situation, and you have Every Time I Die. One of the guitarists of ETID is Jordan Buckley, frantic and unapologetic on stage. While he is accompanied by Andy, who is the other guitarist, who just stands still and looks threatening. Keith, the lead singer, who engages the crowd with his brother. Josh, is their newest bass player and hopefully their last. I’ve had the pleasure of attending and surviving two ETID shows. If we wanted to get nostalgic, I’d tell you my first concert was an ETID concert. But that is beside the point,
Jordan was nice enough to answer some art questions I had for him, and then some bullshit questions.

Enjoy..

Noah- What made you start producing art at such a fast rate? both for the NJA cover and booklet, and all the vans?
Jordan- pure enjoyment

N- What inspires your art? I truly have seen nothing like it, which I guess is the point of art.
J- thanks!i find my life to be inspirational. i hate wasting a single moment. so drawing is a great way to use every second fully.

N- What are the steps you are taking to get your art out there and seen?
J- well, I see my bad as a great way to expose my illustrations. and since they get to use it for free, it’s a win/win!

N- And what are the next steps in your art venture? Selling pieces? Galleries?
J- yea man, i am hoping to have a showing of all the New Junk Aesthetic art hung, as soon as i’m done painting them all. This could potentially ruin them, so wish me luck!

N- What’s your favorite piece of your own art?
J- unfortunately, the only art i own is my comic book collection! maybe once i buy my mansion, i can start hanging dope pieces!

N- What’s your favorite famous piece of art?
J- you know, i had to take art history classes in college, and i forgot everything i learned. i guess if it was that good, i would have remembered it! i love anything by Alan E. Cober. not exactly famous, though.

N-Where are you guys headed on your tour? Who are you touring with?
J-oh come on, do your homework. ( I’ll be honest, I didn’t, they are in Cali. But they are not going to be in MI before they head off to Europe.)

N- How is everyone like Josh, fitting in well with the normal ETID antics?
J-Josh has been in the band for about 3 years, so he is ETID.

N- Favorite movie of ‘09?
J-I know i’m going to remember as soon as it’s too late. Inglourious Basterds was great. Bruno was hilarious.
N- What tattoo do you wish you had, most outlandish thing you can think of, right off the bat, Go!
J-any tattoo i wish i had, i would have had by now.

N-Any truth to the rumors of a Shit Happens 2?
J- rumors? you mean when we openly talk about when and where we have been filming it for the last year now? including RIGHT now? not much of a rumor.
N- What are your theories on this coming season of LOST?
J- it’s pointless to say. Locke is obviously that other guy from the beginning of the last episode. It’s gonna be fun to see who that guy has been taking the shape of this whole time. it’s been a couple months so i need to recollect my thoughts. they are probably brothers.

N- Will we ever have the pleasure on seeing you on Dancing with the Stars?
J- no.
N- Could you ever beat Andy in a true fist to fist fight?
J- no.

N-What would you say if you had the chance to take the mic from Taylor Swift at the VMA’s?
J-i wouldn’t. ever. i actually like seeing others do well.

N- What are you going to buy from the money you guys get sales from NJA?
J-i have never made a single dime in cd sales in the 11 years i’ve been in a band. that question seems straight up outlandish.
N- What song would you most want to cover?
J- never really felt the need. something grunge for sure.

I picked up ETID’s new album, New Junk Aesthetic, it’s great. Full on ETID, not letting up on the usually punch in your face music. They’ve done it again with a fun DVD to accompany the music, Party Pooper.
Check them out, support them.

Thanks for reading.

-Noah

I recently Watched the Beard/Travel time lapse video and was really inspired by it. Not only was it amusing and cool to watch, but I’m a sucker for travel and travel blogs. So I got in contact with the guy that made it, his name is Christoph Rehage and he hails from Northern Germany but is currently living in China.
Here is the interview…

Noah- So where are you at right now?
Chris- Shanghai
N- So how are you liking it? What has stood out the most?
C- About Shanghai? I like it better than the last time I visited in 2006. I guess I am more forgiving.
N- haha, How long did you travel for? and by what means did you do it?
C- I covered my distance solely on foot. There were times when I had to take other means of transport to take care of some things, but my distance was pure walking.
N- How did you fare? Ever feel like giving up? What kept you going?
C- I was mainly riding on principles, like, there are high times when it’s easy to just keep going, then there are tough times, that’s when the principles kick in, and guide me through the dark.
N- Very true, I think we all experience those moments. Yours was probably more intense because you were traveling by foot in a distant land haha. So where are you headed to now?

C- I’m Going to get my degree in Asian studies.

N- What prompted you to make the beard time lapse video?

C- Well I wanted to make a time lapse from the start. Something between Matt and Noah ( To other time lapse videos dealing with photography and travel.) Then the beard just started growing and I thought what the hell, why not.

N- What do you think of your recent popularity? I first saw you on Soulpancake.com, Rainn Wilson’s websited, Dwight from The Office.

C-Don’t know him, but the attention is charming =)

N- What do you miss about home, both important and materialistic? Or has China become your home?

C- I am not sure about this, after all, it’s all about the people. Sometimes I miss the desert, but then I guess I would miss something else if I was in the Desert. The thumping of my shoes is nice, heavy boots, haha. Seriously, I always miss my family.

N- Understandably, In the video you thank a Teacher Xie, Who is he?

C-  The day I met him is archived on my website, Thelongestway.com, I had it moved to a different server, just on the weekend. Lunarpages were being such bitches.

N- Hahah, Do you stay in contact with Teacher Xie? Or is he still walking, planning on retiring at 65?

C- He is still walking, has a mobile though. I just spoke to him two days ago, and met him in august.

N- Did he inspire no only with his dedication to walking, but with other things?

C- Other things entirely, he was wise.

N- Did you meet anyone else in your travels that really left an impression?

C- All the Chinese people together, but also my big brother HuiHui, and my uncle Shen. My (real) brother Ruben, my girlfriend at the time, but most importantly, all the wonderful people.

N- It’s truly the people you meet and have that make things worth while.

C- Especially since there are so many awesome people in the China countryside.

N- hahha, In your travels what was the craziesst thing you saw? be it scary, beautiful, funny, whatever.

C- Well, I would have to think about that one. A sandstorm can definitely be pretty scary

N- Hahaha, I bet, what’s the plan of action when you find yourself in one?

C- I don’t know up until today, I just held out, kept walking and enjoyed the punishment.

N- You have some guts.

C- Nah, what else is there to do?

N- I guess just grin and bare it like you said haha

C- There is nowhere to run, so you’re in for it anyways. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t make a squealing sound when I saw my first one though.

N- So you spent a year in the states while in high school, what did you think of the States?

C- I loved it, Wichita was very interesting for me.

N-  Ever plan on coming back if the opprotunity presents itself?

C- I think I will, I miss my American family.

N- If someone were to come up to you and say ” Christoph, I will pay for your trip, where in the world would you like to go.” Where you want to go?

C- I wouldn’t, at this point, I would not be able to come up with anything.

N- So you’re content

C- I wouldn’t think so, but I have my mind set on other things.

N- Very good, kind of an off question, but music makes us who we are, so what are you listening to these days.

C- I walked into a small shop yesterday and it hit me. It was an old Metallica song I think. Absolutely awesome moment in that small shop. Besides that, I am listening to Snoop Dogg

N- Hahaha, really, in a small shop in China?

C- Yeah it was awesome, just rhythm guitars shredding, it was cool as hell.

N- Haha, that’s great, I feel like those two things only meet when everything in the universe is aligned perfectly.

C- Haha or someone behind the counter is a cool ass heavy metal dude.

N-  haha, how are the movies over there? Do you get to see some new releases? Or do you not pay attention anymore.

C- I don’t honestly, I want to see that new disaster  movie, I don’t remember what it’s called, some number.

N- 2012?

C- Could be.

N- So what are your plans after you are finished studying?

C- Dunno, gotta stay flexible

N- Well christoph, I have to say you’ve had some pretty awesome adventures.

C- haha, I wouldn’t dare to say so.

N- No? well they are pretty awesome from the perspective of a kid in cold Michigan haha.

C- Well, it could always be Montana or Kansas, right?

N- True, seriously great talking to you, best of luck in your travels.

C- I had fun, thanks little dude.

N- haha I’m 6″7 but I’ll take it.

C- haha my bad.

N- Good luck, God Bless

C- You too dude.

Great guy, Follow him on his site thelongestway.com and The beard video that started this whole thing can be found under videos.

Thanks for reading.