DJChameleon's 'member berries

[Lexi Darling]

I never thought of myself as a super frequent concertgoer, but looking back I guess I kinda was. I've actually seen Green Day twice, once in 2005 and once in 2021 at Wrigley Field with Weezer and Fall Out Boy, though I actually had to dip about 3/4 through Green Day's set because nature called.

My first concert was Britney Spears in 1999. 

[DJChameleon]

It was wild!


I saw Nelly & the St.Lunatics when I was 13 way back too 

That's so dope. I went to my first concert by myself when I was 30. I had this weird attitude about concerts at first especially when it comes to rock music. Live music has a different inperfect sound to my ears that aren't the same as a nicely smooth production from the studio that I hear on physical media like cassettes and CDs. Some people like the rough raw sound but I much prefer the smooth highly produced sound.

I have gotten over that take for the most part but I still prefer a clean studio sound. The only difference now is that I can appreciate a live sound for what it is more nowadays.

I went to K Fest recently and the guy mixing the sound for some of the artists was doing them no justice and I was like ah ha! See thats why I don't like live shows but I tried to enjoy myself even though deep down inside my music nerd self was screaming in terror and complaining.

[DJChameleon]

I never thought of myself as a super frequent concertgoer, but looking back I guess I kinda was. I've actually seen Green Day twice, once in 2005 and once in 2021 at Wrigley Field with Weezer and Fall Out Boy, though I actually had to dip about 3/4 through Green Day's set because nature called.

My first concert was Britney Spears in 1999. 

Spoiler

I would edit out what your first concert was unless you never use that for security questions. That's why I have been purposely been vague about what mines is. I might be a bit paranoid but I do tend to use first concert as my security question stuff so. Well I have in the past.

[close]

[Lexi Darling]

Spoiler

I would edit out what your first concert was unless you never use that for security questions. That's why I have been purposely been vague about what mines is. I might be a bit paranoid but I do tend to use first concert as my security question stuff so. Well I have in the past.

[close]

Spoiler

I've never used that as mine, so it shouldn't be a problem. 

[close]

[DJChameleon]

I took a slight break from Green Day and started up Janelle Monae's discography. I'm going to head back and finish up Green Day afterwards so that I can get into RHCP next.

[SGR]

Overall, I like The Offspring better.

But Insomniac is basically the best pop-punk album of all time. Better than Dookie. A complete 10/10. The way it flows is immaculate and it doesn't overstay its welcome. Every time I hear it, my brain goes to its happy place.

[DJChameleon]

I finished up Janelle Monae's discography and will comment on it soonish.

I have started up Gym Class Heroes for the berries! I loved them so much during my college years and I like the fact that they were always repping upstate NY. They are a bit further up than me but I always liked to think they were from my area.

[DJChameleon]

Overall, I like The Offspring better.

But Insomniac is basically the best pop-punk album of all time. Better than Dookie. A complete 10/10. The way it flows is immaculate and it doesn't overstay its welcome. Every time I hear it, my brain goes to its happy place.

Now that you mention it I liked The Offspring but I don't think I ever listened to any of their albums. It was just their singles that had music videos that I gravitated towards.

Which The Offspring album is your favorite?

[Lexi Darling]

My favorite Offspring album is Conspiracy of One, I think it's their strongest front to back. But Smash and Americana are the most acclaimed ones.

And hell yeah, I love Gym Class Heroes. Such an underrated band and an unsung precursor to the whole emo rap movement.

[DJChameleon]

A friend of mines went to see All Time Low at an outdoor concert thing down in NYC. Gym Class Heroes opened for them!!

I'm so mad that I'm bogged down with family issues atm or else I would have gone with my friend and her bf.

Now that you mention it, they were definitely the precursors to emo rap. Hmmm.

[DJChameleon]

Janelle Monae The ArchAndroid.

I love this concept album. I don't know how often artists do it but it's cool when an artist's debut album is a concept album. She carries the concept over to the second album as well.
The first album is composed of the second and third parts to Monáe's Metropolis concept album series. Incorporating conceptual elements of Afrofuturism and science fiction, The ArchAndroid continues the series' fictional tale of a messianic android and features lyrical themes of love, identity, and self-realization.

Even though I listened to four of her albums, I completely forgot to listen to the initial EP that's the first part to the concept album that comes later on.

Cold War, Tight Rope and Come alive are my favorite tracks from Suite II which is the first part of the debut album. Make the bus stands out as my favorite from the Suite III part of things. It contains a feature from Of Montreal.

The Electric Lady

In this album it contains Suite IV and Suite V, even though I have certain songs that are my favorite. What jogged my memory is that Janelle is so good that there is no skippable track for me. They all sound good for various reasons. My faves are definitely the singles but Ghetto Woman and Sally Ride should've been singles as well. Q.U.E.E.N. , Primetime and Electric Lady are the others.

Dirty Computer    

I must've missed when Dirty Computer got released because I don't even remember it coming out. Django Jane, I Like That and Pynk. There is a companion short film that was released with it and I haven't watched it yet but I will find the director's cut and consume it soon. This album ventured away from the Cindy character that was in the last two albums and EP. The overall feel of the album just feel more pop heavy and like a branching out of her overall sound.

Age of Pleasure

She decided to focus on afrobeat and some reggae for this album but it feels so well and it was definitely a great summer album. Float and Water Slide were my favorites. Oh I absolutely love all the music videos associated with this album. I'm just a huge fan of Janelle Monae so I'm not even going to rate each album because they are basically all fives with no skippable tracks imo on all four albums. That's a tough feat to pull off but she did it.

[DJChameleon]

Papercut Chronicles

So Mrs. Waffles mentioned that they are pretty much a precursor to the emo rap movement that is around today. The only difference is that emo rap nowadays use trap beats as opposed to a band like they used. Listening to this album brought back so many good memories of my college days but it also brought back memories of the era when I decided that I wanted to be a pick up artist. So cringe, in hindsight I never would have gotten into that. Taxi Driver and Make Out Club were the first two songs I ever heard from Gym Class Heroes and those two songs were enough to pique my interest into the rest of what they had to offer. That's when I ended up listening to their album in full. This was during the days when I would only listen to singles and not full records. So I just discovered today that this is technically their second album. I always thought it was their debut album. I went through and listened to their four other albums without even realizing that there was an album called For the Kids. I need to double back and check that one out.

As Cruel as School Children
When this album was released I rushed down to my local FYE to pick up a physical copy of it. I didn't find out till recently that Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy produced this album. I know he's featured on "Clothes Off" but I didn't know he contributed more to the album than that. Some stupid reviewer said that they needed to get rid of the filler tracks to be successful and I'm like what fucking filler. This chick is the epitome of music reviewers just trying to find something wrong. Victoria Durham of Drowned in Sound needs a new job because she's failing at that one. Viva La Girl, Biter's Block and Cupid's Chokehold were my faves from this album. She also compared them to Outkast or said they were the Outkast of the rock world. Ugh I hate when people compare an artist/band to another one. Yeah you can say they sound a bit similar but they are both their own entities and it seems disrespectful to reduce one band to that of another major artist. It's like you are calling them a clone and that's all they are. Sure they might be inspired by another artist but that doesn't mean they want to BE THAT other artist/band.

The Quilt
I feel like they switched up a little bit but not too far from what they are known for on this album. It does seem to be a bit more rap heavy but it also has some really great features and just seems like a more mainstream album. I love how solid the album itself is. Don't Tell Me It's Over feat. Lil Wayne, Home, Cookie Jar Feat. The Dream , Peace Sign/Index Down Feat. Busta Rhymes and Blinded by the Sun were my favorites from this project.

The Papercut Chronicles II

They went back to their roots a bit more on this album. They toned down the amount of features, I feel like there were only three and they were mostly pop singers. Adam Levine, Neon Hitch and Ryan Tedder from One Republic helped out. My favorites from this album are Stereo Hearts Feat. Adam Levine , Holy Horseshit Batman and The fighter Feat. Ryan Tedder. I associate this album with a time when I was struggling to find employment and I ended up doing a load of different temp jobs. There was an agency where you would have to go there physically in the morning and wait in line. Once you got inside you would have to sit around and wait for temp jobs to come in and they would pick certain people to go out on certain days/jobs. If you weren't on the receptionists good side she wouldn't send you out for weeks. You do your temp job and at the end of the day, they cut you a check for the hours that you worked they were mostly minimum wage jobs every once in a while there would be an employer paying a bit more but that's because they would have do so much more on the job site that you really shouldn't be doing if you aren't qualified for. They just wanted to skip out on paying qualified licensed people to do the job.  My favorite jobs were when I would get to work overnight either helping to set up a store or doing overnight inventory at a warehouse. There was also like a hardware store warehouse they sent us to that made us stack pallets and get rid of the broken pallets.

[Lexi Darling]

Yeah modern emo rap doesn't really sound all that much like Gym Class Heroes, at least not in terms of the instrumentals. But as far as the ethos of fusing those two they were definitely super early. They had the emo cred being on Fueled by Ramen and collabing with Fall Out Boy and Cobra Starship, and as a huge emo kid in high school those connections were how I got into GCH.

I also didn't know they had an album before Papercut Chronicles until like 7-8 years ago. Never actually heard it though.

[DJChameleon]

I also didn't know they had an album before Papercut Chronicles until like 7-8 years ago. Never actually heard it though.

So I heard that album For The Kids, it has a track on it that I've heard before but most of it was new to my ears material.

Here is the album that I listened to if you wanna hear it someday.

[DJChameleon]

I heard an Arctic Monkeys song either in a commercial or a movie trailer recently and it made me want to re-visit their albums. I feel like I only listened to like their debut album and possibly the 4th one and part of the loungey album they put out. I'll update once I get through them. I first heard of this band around the time their debut came out but my memories of this band are tied to an old roommate of mines.