I don't think I deserve it. Selfless, find your way into my heart.

So, I haven't updated particularly lately. Partially because its now exam crunch time, and I have 3 exams over the next two days, and only one of them will be a cake walk. Thank you, Ichthyology class, for being so interesting, and therefore, being easy for me to study. Go ahead. Ask me anything about any fish from the most primitive agnathan to the most primitive of the modern body fishes. Sadly, we can only cover the less derived ones, as we've run out of time. That being said, I can give you an informative look into at roughly 1000 fishes now. Too bad that there's around 28000, and my knowledge is most related to primitive jawless fishes, sharks, skates, rays, ratfishes, coelacanths, gars, lungfishes, sturgeons, and bowfins. And some eels. Well, at least those are the interesting ones.

Wait, what was that? That had nothing to do with music.... Either way, I also haven't updated because I don't write about emo-I'm feeling-rather-meh type stuff. Even if I have been feeling rather meh for a while. On the plus side, exactly one week from today, I head up to Dearborn, Michigan(aka, the home of the largest concentration of Arabs outside of an Arab nation) for an 8 day mission trip of prayer and building stuff.

So now, onto musics.

Its official. This summer could very well be the best summer for music EVER. Or at least, in a very long time. Its technically summer, apparently, because the first "summer blockbuster" just came out. So anything from here on out is far game. Starting off though, As Cities Burn just released Hell or High Water, and its amazing. But sadly, not a part of the summer. The summer for music kicks off Tuesday, which will be a VERY metal day, with the release of albums by The Devil Wears Prada(the subject of this post), The Chariot, and Zao. In addition, we have albums by mewithoutYou, Family Force 5, and Decyfer Down in May, Emery, For Today, and Everyday Sunday in June, Project 86, Stryper, August Burns Red, and Showbread in July(I'm iffy on that July release for Showbread), and Skillet and Flyleaf in August. In addition, Relient K's new album is scheduled for sometime this summer. I'm excited.

Anyways, The most anticipated album of this week is With Roots Above and Branches Below by The Devil Wears Prada(TDWP). It is, to say the least, the best album by TDWP.

"Sassafras" and "I Hate Buffering" kick off the album, and it becomes clear that TDWP is both evolving and staying the same. Keeping the same silly song titles, but making the hard parts of the songs harder, and the more melodic parts more melodic. These two blistering tracks then lead into two of the four highlights of the album, "Assistant to the Regional Manager" and "Dez Moines". Amazing "The Office" references aside, these two songs rock.

"Assistant" has the blistering breakdowns, the amazing synths(which are more prevalent on this album. Yes!), and amazing clean vocals, courtesy of Jeremy. This includes one of my favorite lines of the album, "All glory to the one in existence. Bring upon your name, your grace, your everything". Please, let no one question these guys faith. Seriously. "Dez Moines", which I can only assume will be the lead single, as it was the first track released onto their Myspace, is the typical anti-materialism song that I've come to love. I believe I mentioned how August Burns Red had some anti-materialism songs, but TDWP is big on it. Hence their name. Yes, it comes from a book. But it has a different meaning. This is more of a paraphrase than a quote, but the band has explained the name before.

"It's the same concept as our lyrics 'emeralds hold no hope' and many many others. What we believe it to mean is that possessions don't matter at all and someday everyone will realize that this is true. When standing before God, He won't care about your sweet Prada scarf or Gucci shoes or whatever. It's a Christian reasoning for the name, we didn't name it to attempt at being fashionable or whatever."

"Dez Moines" continues that with the lyrics "Take all your medals, take all your ribbons, take all your awards, take them down to the ground!"

The next two tracks are standout as well. Seriously, a sweet run of 4 amazing tracks? Not that the first two aren't good. But these 4 are amazing. So yeah, those two are "Big Wiggly Style" and "Danger: Wildman". "Big Wiggly Style" wins the award for best intro ever, with a sweet little synth/guitar riff, before busting into a breakdown. On the other hand, "Danger: Wildman" has some of this best lyrics, opening up with a brutal scream of "I know a ghost", and later on, Jeremy lets the clean vocals fly over more sweet synths with the amazing line "All mistakes can be marked by borders. All of love can be traced to a maker." Really guys, that's pretty amazing.

The album continues chugging through as "Ben Has a Kid", "Wapakalypse", and "Gimme Half" continue. And then, we come to the curveball, and possibly the best track on the album. The title of this blog post comes from the lyrics. Say hello to the first TDWP song, sans screaming. Musical diversity? Check. "Louder than Thunder" is not only one of the first songs without a silly title, but its the only song to focus completely on clean vocals and use the synth as the primary instrument. Lemme tell ya, it is pure bliss. "I know, I could, I could be better. I don't think I deserve this. Selflessness, find your way into my heart. Our thoughts could be quieter, our hearts could be warmer." That is amazing. The album then finishes up in epic style with "Lord Xenu", and I begin to fear for the guys, as Scientologists don't take well to being teased. Not like they probably even realize that this band exists, but still...

And with that, I conclude this post. I have run out of happy, and have to study for physics tomorrow. I think my next post, if I can get it out before I leave for Dearborn, will be on Indie Bands. Right now, I'm looking at 3 unsigned bands to cover. "Sent by Ravens"(who might finally be getting signed soon), "Embracing Goodbye", and "a Clerestory".

And in the meantime, production of my EP has finally started. Band name? Check. Myspace page? Check. Lyrics? Semi-check. Music? Semi-check. I've got some lyrics to a few scattered songs(none complete), and some interesting little riffs that I'd love to build stuff around. the problem now is getting some drum tracks down(very important in electronica/pop music) and filling in various synthy background noises without an actual synth. The sooner I get a synth, the better chance I have of getting this thing done by my hopeful release date of mid-August(aka, the start of my senior year of college). Fingers crossed. The other hopeful date I have is to get at least a sample of a demo up by the end of May. I've ended the recording experimentation phase, and now how to at least get a chorus and maybe bridge completely written so that I can get a 1.5 minute sample up by Glenjamin's wedding at the end of May.