Tuesday, 7 December 2010

Mitch McCann's review of Deadmau5's 4X4=12...

I was made aware of this 'review' yesterday just before I had to catch up on some beauty sleep, so I couldn't write yesterday. However.. Hi, I'm here today. Before I start, it's better you read the review for yourself.

*Waits for you to come back*

So, lets break this down shall we. Starting with on major error in the first sentence.
"Ever since Daft Punk broke down the doors of what a techno group could do with their late 2000 single “One More Time”
 If you're going to write a review on a certain genre... You should probably research into that genre... Stating with it's proper title. Which would be 'House' in this case. Or at the very least 'Dance', that way, you've broadened your scope. Also, in the line following this, he mentions that "technology’s place in music has increased exponentially" ... Err... Hasn't it everywhere? Since the birth of music, musicians have been using the newest technology available, it hasn't just happened since 'One More Time'.

My next issue is this line...
"Their epic tapestries of music forced techno into the mainstream and not only presented themselves to the world, but paved the way for others to do so as well."
 And my problem is this. Daft Punk were very well established a long time before 'One More Time', in fact I'd say about 5 years before that with their debut single 'Da Funk' and the follow up 'Around The World' which was huge. Those are the songs that put Daft Punk and French House on the map. I'm not sure whether Mitch was around in the 90's, or whether he was genetically frozen from 1990 to 1999, but I seem to remember a huge chunk of it being all about Dance music. In fact, so was the 80's and 70's - More-so if anything. Daft Punk didn't bring Dance music to the lime-light. Without Funk, we would not have House. Anyway, I'm going off course. Also.... There's that 'Techno' mistake again.

Next is this... Which doesn't make much sense in my opinion...
"However, not all press is good press and sometimes just because you can produce music, doesn’t mean you should."
 Pretty sure it does, Mitch. Unless you want people who can't produce music to do it?  A word to any producers who can do it properly... You definitely should. Because I'm sick of Will.I.Am. Oh and the first line "Not all press is good press"... Where is this press coming from Mitch? If you're talking about press involving Deadmau5, I'm pretty sure most of it is good press mate. And if it isn't, it's usually people who are ill-informed of the genre *cough* or people who think he's a 'sell-out'. But whatever right? He's got the cash to do what the fuck he wants because he's been a success. I wonder why that is.

Now. If you are someone who listens to and knows about Dance and it's sub-genres. The next few lines are a direct hit to the gonads. Or vag. Whatever.

"but to those who are able to listen to his music while not under the influence and away from the glamour and stigma of the genre are able to see that these trance, Tech-House, electro, dance, dubstep (or whatever the fuck you want to call them) beats belong alongside Ke$ha in some trashy club, not on your iTunes."
First of all. I have never been to a gig/rave/party/club where everyone is out of their fucking nut and thats the only reason they enjoy the music. Actually, most of the people I know who listen to dance are under 20, a lot who are under 18 and CAN'T go to clubs and gigs. And guess what... they're what built these artists up from the ground. They're the ones who have gone out and bought the albums, the singles, the tee shirts and spread the word about them. So maybe, Mitch, in the future, you'll actually stop to think about who is actually listening to these artists on their itunes. Unless you wanna go by ugly stereotypes and spread that shit all over the internet... Oh and Ke$ha? You really have no idea about this genre do you?

For a genre that has and will continue to gain considerable ground and no doubt continue to inch its way into the mainstream, “performers” like deadmau5 will soon be idolized, the Springsteen in a genre that will one day be king, and that makes me terribly, terribly sad.
Does it? You wanna know what makes me sad? Bullshit popstars who don't write their own songs, mimes on stage and are pretty much only famous because society deems them 'Pretty' filling up the charts with their crap. Thats what makes me sad. So bring on the 'Trance, Tech-House, electro, dance, dubstep (or whatever the fuck you want to call them)' artist who have some fucking talent to fill up to top 40.

Mitch then goes on to attack then listens of Deadmau5 (or House, I still can't tell whether he just ranting about a genre he will never understand)
"These derivative beats are solely for hipsters that consider themselves too hip to be hipsters to bump in their car or in their over-priced, over-sized headphones."
Wrong. We sit on the internet all night talking about how much we hate people like you. We don't even have cars. And my rather small headphones were £25. Cheap compared to what 'Hipsters' actually buy, which is probably something ridiculously over priced from Apple.
"I almost pity Zimmerman, because the tough thing about techno is you’re either “it” or you’re nothing"




And heres the track that Deadmau5 is most famous for...



And there's Daft Punks 'One More Time'...




And finally...
"and when your contemporaries are the likes of Daft Punk, Justice and LCD Soundsystem, it’s hard not to look like just another guy with a gigantic foam mousehead and a laptop."
So... Where exactly are these other guys with giant foam mau5heads? I only see one. And he's done a lot better then you with just 'a laptop'. Which by the way, turns out to actually be, a G5 MacBook Pro, Apoge Ensemble soundcard, a 16×16 Monome DJ controller, a Pioneer DJM 800, a Pioneer EFX 1000 and two ipads to replace the Lemur that broke.


So, my advice to anyone planning on 'reviewing' an album. Firstly get the artists genre right. Secondly.. Don't mention Daft Punk if it's a 'dance' artist and thirdly.. Actually review the album. I dunno if you noticed, but Mitch didn't actually do that.

Sunday, 5 December 2010

Sundays Hate Campaign... Plus Special Guest.

This weeks 'Sundays Hate Campaign' has a very special guest.... Snow.

I'll get Mr. Collins over and done with now, so.
 Now onto the snow. I was going to write about this the first day it snowed, but I thought it would be better if I let my grumpiness build up inside me for a few days, and then let it all out in one go. It snowed for about four days here in the UK, which irritated me enough in the first place. But what annoyed me more than the fact that it snowed, was the facebook status updates making sure I didn't forget that there was some frozen water falling from the sky. Not to mention the photo uploads.
'Yes, I realise it's snowing, I've been out in it all day, I can see it through my window, I don't need it on my PC screen...Please kindly stop it'.
'But it's so pretty'
Lets just get something straight right now. Snow is only ever pretty on mountains or in Forrest's where people rarely go. NOT when it's a grey slush that has been trampled on to within an inch of it's annoying life. People ruin the beauty of many things, but snow would be the number one example.

This is how snow can be pretty.

On Friday night it rained quite heavily, so I thought 'Ah, that'll melt away the rest of the snow that hasn't fucked off already'. It didn't. It just made everything more slippery and slushier than before, making walking to the shops about as safe as playing Russian Roulette. Where I could, I walked in the road, which, lets be honest, is the wrong place for a pedestrian. It pretty much gives out the message 'I'd rather be hit by a car than fall into the cold snow'... Which I would rather. I hate the cold and I hate it even more when the cold is accompanied but wet.

I refuse to let this happen to me.
However... An upside to the rain was it warmed a bit. And when I say a bit, I mean I could cut down the sock wearing from seven pairs to about 5. I could also take off my thermal catsuit, which I had been wearing for three days. Next week, I'll be back to wearing my trademark outfit...

Wednesday, 1 December 2010

Dear Facebook...

Here are a few issues I've noticed on facebook since I got out of the bath ten minutes ago.

Failure to deliver three status updates to the new feed AND my wall.
Failure to delete two of afore-mentioned statuses when they finally and randomly did appear on my wall.
Failure to keep all three status updates on my wall.
Failure to delete an inbox message.
Repeatedly sending me teh same two notifications... 5 times in ten minutes...
Opening and closing my chat box in the middle of conversations.

Now, Facebook, I am going to assume that you are not a 5 year old and the you can indeed fix these problems. I'm sure it can't be that difficult? This may sound a little crazy, but perhaps you could fix the existing problems on facebook instead of trying to 'improve' everything else. Everything worked relatively well before you started messing around with things.

Sincerly,
Pissed of member.

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Extra Effort

I'm trying out new Tac-Tics today... New methods of hate, if you will.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.


Friday, 26 November 2010

WTF is this shit?

A friend of mine very kindly made me this after a Tinychat session I had with some friends for a forum...


I thought it was very appropiate for this blog so I think I'm going to use it quite often.

Thursday, 25 November 2010

Repeating myself repeating myself.

Two days ago I broke my third blackberry. I was wandering up the stairs, as you do, with my little Storm II in my pocket when it slipped out and down half a set of stairs and crashed onto the hard wooden floor below. Surprisingly, this didn't make me grumpy, though I put that down to me being previously grumpy about a previous subject matter.Whatever. Point is I currently have no phone. Which is driving me nuts in a variety of different ways. I can't listen to my music on the train, I can't update my facebook status every 5 minutes, I can't take picture of unimportant things and upload them to facebook, I can't prank call.... The main thing that is irritating me most about not having a phone, is telling people I don't have a phone.

I posted on facebook, when I broke my phone, that I probably wouldn't have a phone for the next few days, possibly a week, apparently foolishly thinking that people will read it.  I guess not, because I still have people asking me "Oh hey, did you get my text?"..
No, I didn't
"Why"
My phone is broken.
"Why"
It fell down the stairs.
"Why?"
.....

And then most of the time, turns out the text simply said "Hello, how are you?" Which is another thing I hate. Dude, I just saw you, you know how I am. A lot of my IRL friend will verify the fact that I mostly ignore texts and BBM. I don't do so well with 'chit chat' on phones. I find it pointless and time wasting. I'd rather have an actual conversation.

Another thing I seem to find myself repeating is 'No, I don't sell my Deadmau5 paintings'. Which NEVER sinks in. I love that people want to buy it, I love that people like it and I appreciate it. But for the love of my sanity can people not read? I've lost count of how many times and how many places I've said this online. And then, a lot of the time those people get grumpy with me because I wont sell something that I own. What the actual fuck? You complaining about my not selling it to you, will not make me want to sell it to you. I usually just send them a link to my video showing how to 'do it yourself' and hope that stops them. That painting is a curse just as much as it is a blessing.

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

Sooo.... MOAR HATE!! :D


SUNDAY/MONDAY/TUESDAY HATE!!!

Yes Ben Collins.... Thats you. I hate you.

Also... CAPS LOCKS HAS BEEN REALLY IRRITATING ME RECENTLY, JUST FUCKING TURNS ITSELF ON WHENEVER IT FEELS LIKE IT. What a wanker.

Also also. University. That is all.

Wednesday, 17 November 2010

Daft Punk: Dazed and Confused 3D interview.

No time to be grumpy this week for tomorrow is the day the December issue of Dazed and Donfused comes out. Normally, I wouldn't give a shit... However, the December issue features an all new interview with my most favouraite band EVER... Daft Punk. Not only do we get a new interview (which is to promote the new Tron Legacy soundtrack) but we also get some rather amazing photographs by Sharif Hamza to look at... in 3D!











So, my fellow Dafts... Go out tomorrow and buy Dazed and Donfused if you can and I shall resume being grumpy next week.