Fancy seeing you here! Well, it’s that time again, when my IPod can either make me seem effortlessly cool and indie or it can utterly shame me into a big black hole of Miley and Pitbull (it’s happened before). Let’s see what it wants to do this month shall we? It’s musical shuffle time…

Song 1: Misdemeanour – Mallory Knox

‘Hush little baby,’ begins and I know Mikey’s voice instantly. I heard their debut track Lighthouse on the radio and was so intrigued. The lead vocals were so powerful and pure and heavy guitars always get me, regardless of who is singing. But those vocals. I simply love his voice and could listen to it over and over. That staccato drum beat at the beginning gets me instantly too, and any song that has a climactic build to a beat drop has me hooked too. It’s not long before I’m singing along to this belter once it starts. I simply LOVE Mallory Knox. I’ve seen them twice now (not enough, more needed) and they’re getting better each time I see them and with each album. This track is from their debut ‘Signals’ from 2013, 2013! Damn. I played this album endlessly when I discovered this band and waited patiently to go see them with my housemate for my birthday back in 2014. This is a really good album for getting me amped to write something; pretty sure I wrote most of my undergrad thesis to this album (and Disney songs- there is no judging here!)

Song: all I want is you – Frnkiero &the celebration

Oh shuffle! So these two songs are actually intrinsically linked for me. I started listening to Frnkiero & the celebration because they were the support act to Mallory Knox on their aforementioned tour back in winter 2014. Damn that gig was awesome. This song was every bit as loud as I expected. Frank Iero, former member of My Chemical Romance, wrote and recorded the record ‘Stomachaches’ back in 2013, playing every instrument except the drums himself on the record. He then formed a band and took them to the road to perform the record and it was pretty awesome. I remember Frank Iero wore a very cute red cardigan at the gig. He looked adorably cute (not what I expected to experience) while he threw himself around on stage. My housemate played this loud for some weeks after discovering it and the video for all I want is you contained so much blood that it severely scarred another of my housemates when we played it to her. Oops.

Song 3: Welcome to Paradise – Greenday

This reminds me of afternoons after school, home alone, with my music up loud. I used to shout along, pretending that I knew the lyrics to effortlessly cool bands like Greenday and Panic! And then I would rewind all the songs on Kerrang to pour over the videos and soak up the lyrics. It kinda helped that a guy I liked at the time totally loved Greenday. It must have been around this time that I realised just how important music was to me. I found bands that I really loved and would follow for years and mourn the loss of when members came into difficulty years later. Knowing at least part of the Dookie album, and being able to casually slip it into conversation, I thought would be the sure fire way for my crush to notice me at the time and for him to realise just how awesome I was and how perfect we could be. Thankfully, this never happened because I was young and naïve and he was many things, including ignorant. But I damn well knew all the words to the ‘American Idiot’ album. And those who hate it, sorry, but ‘American Idiot’ will be seminal for me forever. It, and this band, have defined way too many of my life moments.  Most of them involve boys or best friends, or both. But that’s for another day. Ah being a teenager. You couldn’t pay me to go back there.

Song 4: Here we go – Girls Aloud

Oh it was good while it lasted. I was edgy and musically cool for three songs until something minorly embarrassing came out. But let me tell you, the ‘What did the neighbours say?’ album is ideal to badly sing along to in the car, or the shower actually. Just hope that no one is home. On the whole street.  This is quite a tune though; hear me out! Put aside the saucily whispered opening and the ‘put your tongue in my ear, it’s queer but kinda fun’ line. That baseline behind the verses gets you, the bridge – with the drum beat that somehow reminds me of the Inspector Gadget soundtrack- and then the chorus with the harmonies and ‘ooh’s in the background. Oh boy, I’m singing along. But hey it was released when I was 13, I was the target audience! That’s my excuse.

Song 5: Bangarang – Skrillex

Oh I have such clear memories of drunken nights involving his song. Released in 2011 this dubstep classic was a staple and is still on my getting ready for a night out playlist. (Disclaimer: this playlist is buried in my Spotify and probably has cobwebs on.) This was back in the days when I didn’t care if my heels hurt or my skirt made me look like a giant person only with legs (I am rather tall) all I wanted to do was drink a little Sambuca with my girls and dance, as long as I got  a subway on the way home. This gem was released during my first year of uni, which really says it all. I distinctly remember a trip to a friend’s uni, with my friends piled in my car and this played loud. Then it played later in the club and we went wild. It’s one of those songs that can strongly invoke a place and time in my memory. The rest of the night was a haze of drinking games involving Bin Laden, indoor rounder’s played with stale baguettes and insisting that new found friends learnt my name before we all went home for toast.

 

Well, thank you ITunes for making me a well-rounded music lover. As ever, my article works to prove that we are all musically diverse, and some of us still have ancient Girls Aloud songs snuck in between our favourite rock anthems. Until next time folks.