Rusted From The Rain "Download 2024" Save me.

 Please excuse me, while I try to find the words and the energy to write this, I like so many am rather sick from eating something that disagreed with us and spending many hours in the medical tent from very early Monday morning till nearly lunch time. I have never had food poisoning before and I never want it again.

I'd spent 45 years happily avoiding it. It is so rare I vomit that no one I know has ever seen me do it. I can keep down most things. But this oh my word, I am going to stop here I think you get the picture. 
Enough to say when I got home on the Monday I slept till the Tuesday. 

So please accept my apologise for this one being a little later than normal, I still feel rough now and I am fairly sure someone will shout at me for doing it later anyway. 

Lets just get into the Wednesday, we got out on time we got to the car park for 9:30am and we were in and set up by 11:30am. Can't fault this well happy got nearly the same spot as the previous year.
Purple camp for us always just because well we like it there. 

So camping wise some moving around of things like the total removal of the loo's from the Green camp so every one was piling into the purple loos in the morning. While they had the Camping Plus in Green and the Eco in Green if you were not part of these camps (Paid extra) you couldn't use the loos.

The weather we should talk about this as well, and this is a bit of an iffy one as the weather leading up to download was all over the shop and even to the point of changing hourly, I wish I had taken wellies, I didn't as the weather before we left was mild shower, what we got on Saturday was thunder storms and heavy rain. Well we got a lot of rain from Thursday onwards which of course as always turns the arena and the village into a mud bath, which in turn saps your strength and stops you slogging backwards and forwards for bands. This resulted in my only going to see bands I wanted to see and while I Planned to check out newer bands I didn't, not that it mattered as a few of them dropped out due to Barclay Card, or because they were ill. 

Thursday night we did wander into the village to see Halocene

Friday, well who did i check out on the Friday?
Well we planned to go down for Halocenes actual set but due to the que getting in we got this for 45 minutes as we were scanned searched and prodded.

Yep that's the que to get through the gates. As a friend of mine said when they came on the Sunday on a Day Ticket they had to get through the entrance, walk across the track and then go through this again. This year they lumbered the day tickets in with the campers and it caused chaos. Well it did on the Friday. 

First band without photo was Scene Queen, Yeah I barely managed to get through the opening song before walking off, and from those I know watched the whole set they declared that it was very mixed signals and contradictions with everything she did. I didn't  watch it as I have zero interest in listening to someone sing about masturbation. And as such I can't really comment on this more but I won't be looking into this group at all.

Here have some photos of us wandering in on the first day instead.

So what is next? Well as I said only bands I wanted to see this year as well you can see the mud already forming plus I am not that interested in the actual headliners today so off I wander to Black Stone Cherry, as always an amazing set, can not fault them all these years down the line they have been knocking it out of the park. Enjoy watching these guys play from seeing them at Downloads past or supporting Whitesnake and Def leppard. Just a good all round sing along band with some very good albums under their belts. I know they have been around for decades.

So, I want to see Mr Bungle so shall take a wander over to the second stage. (I am never going to call them by the names they were given they will always be first and second) Now as always I am going to rock up and I don't know a lot about Mr Bungle I just know it is a Mike Patton thing and I do like Faith No More so lets go see what this nut job is up to here. Yep still nuts, and as always a blinder of a show can't fault it some fun some piss taking, such a good set, total surreal and if you check out there wiki page you can work out why. Just looked like they were having a lot of fun on stage together. 

I would like to see Wheatus. I say this as as close as I got to the tent all I could hear was bad bass and nothing else. All the busted fans had rushed the stage and so there was no chance in getting in to see either, so with this I went back to camp, as I was wet, and tired and the drinks in camp were far cheaper than the ones in the area. 

 

Evening in camp as it is wet and cold so no wandering no meeting new people this year all very dull group stays together. Shall we get on to Saturday?

Up and at them! Due to the rain and the cold it was a nice little lay in for the Saturday. Though we did decide to change the breakfast haunt this morning and it wasn't worth it. I miss the All day breakfast / Chinese that used to be in the village. We would wander up every morning get a full English sit have a coffee plan the day and wander back before heading out it was one of the things we had done for years until the new lay out came into existence. Did set you up for a decent day of drinking and wandering, now a days well the last 3 years it's an English in a bap and not great, or as this year a slightly under cooked English in a box with out the egg or tomato's. 

Lets hit bands who do I want to see today and who will I get too see?
So I want to see Baby Metal. Have never seen them and as such I thought I should as well the songs are catchy, although I am also interested in what everyone else see's in this J-Metal group. They are after all Idols and as such. So annoyingly we have a thunder storm and they get pulled after a song and a half, with a lot of frustration, now I don't know the name of the song that I am about to put here, but the following song the second song I do know the name of, though this don't really go to plan as Electric Callboy are ill. So yeah,  don't actually get them either but that's just me I guess. 

So that is over after some technical issues we will wander over to second and catch Tom Morello, interesting rendition of killing in the name of also known as we sing it they play it which was fun.

Right I was going to catch Enter: Shikari but I have seen them several times before and watched from a distance while also wandering and I picked up merch while they were playing. As the first band I was really waiting for where about to hit the stage and that was The Offspring. 

I can not fault this at all, was a great set with some amazing old songs but would have been nice to have heard let the bad times roll be played, even though we got keep them separated, your going to go far kid and pretty fly for a white guy. 

Shall we go see Billy Talent? Yes yes we shall this time though we are eventually going to get into the tent and yeah I was happy with that by a long shot so happy i nearly forgot to get the video below. I have been waiting a while to see these guys and I was happy I finally got too, yes I only got in the tent for the last three songs but it was worth it and the sound outside was spot on. 

Right then, shall we move on to Sunday? No of course not we need to talk about Fallout Boy! I really enjoyed this and you can tell because it is just photos. Was like a history of Fallout Boy playing through in albums as they went using different parts of the stage show from different tours over the years and I did really enjoy it, that is the thing with me I do enjoy a good performance and a catchy tune and that is what Fallout Boy are. 

Now we will do Sunday. Firstly delays in order to get the arena a little drier so the first hour is cut. Meaning sets are cut and every band is pushing to be finished on schedule or ahead of it. I keep hearing people saying it was Seven Fold that was forcing this as they wouldn't give up their own set time. But unless someone from live nation comes out and says this is fact then I am taking a grain of salt. I'll be honest Seven Fold don't interest me so didn't watch them. 

While wandering though I did catch some of 311, sounded alright, but as said it was while wandering, I also caught the first few tracks of Royal Republic as I was waiting for Bowling for Soup to start. I also wanted to see Zebra Head but the issue was that now they had changed the time I had to bail on tem before the end for Bowling For Soup. 

I am a big Bowling for soup fan and it was nice to be stood in a crowd of people all singing along word for word on every song. Shame Chris was rushed back to the states for medical reasons and I hope he recovers and is back on the road with the rest of the band soon it was good but would have been better with him there.

Lets jump to Sum 41. As I went to get a drink and forgot about other bands. Once more no video for this one as was just enjoying the set, shame it was the end of their time before I ever got to see them but I am glad I did get too.

It might be time to limp with the Bizkit. Seriously amazing set, I wanted to see Corey and Limp but as they were now on at the same time I picked Limp. I was in a high energy mood and that is what Limp always bring to the table. Was such a good set was like being 20 again and back in the pits of old. To old and to broken for that now a days. Was an amazing set and it is a shame they were rushed through for seven fold as well. Seven fold meh.

I did go to see Machine Head, but after the massive up from Bizkit they were mellowing me out, so I went and got food and wandered back to camp and we all know what happened at 1am so lets not go through that again. 

Right let us look at the issues. So didn't really have a parking issue this year the new route in seemed to work for the camping. Toilet issues not enough though neither in the arena or in the camp site, and the green camp site being segregated as it was this was an issue. The camp site lay out as always was good I do like the new layout for the camp site and the solid standing for the village we just need to wort out the toilet issues in these areas. 

Arena got shrunk a little due to the numbers being lowered, seating would be nice they shrunk this down as well, Rocktail Cocktail got flooded out so that was closed on Saturday I don't know if it reopened on Sunday as it was too damn muddy to get over there. Though the rain thing in general allowed me to actually get the merch I wanted and in my size and even in the mid afternoon I was able to walk straight up and get what I wanted! 

All in all the event wasn't terrible, I didn't get to wander because of the weather I would have liked to have Sunday but I'll be honest I was feeling a little rough when I got into bed. 

Anyone else in Purple camp never want to hear Celine Dion ever again after the Sunday!

Right going to go sit in the bathroom for a while and hope this passes soon. 

See you in 2025 Download Festival. 

 

Music Review Time Once More! Slash: Orgy Of the Damned

 

You want to do this? You know you want to do this right?

It's been a while, I did the Green Day thing and I will do Thee Offspring at some point, but to do a new album live, it has truly been a while but it is playing and I am feeling it, so the latest Slash album Orgy of the Damned. Where you want to start? At the beginning well that's not hard. 

The opening track kicks in at 7.08. An it is a belting blue rifts called the Pusher and while this is a Blues Album musically it is so far phenomenal, so I am presently sat here slow grooving out to 

Track 2. Crossroads. Gary Clark Jr. Punchy kick drum start, Does sound like something you would have heard on the 2nd Slash's Snake Pit album but it really isn't, it quick up beat tempo blues track, and a true blues track, sat here swaying away in the chair as it plays through keyboard in my lap moving with me. 

Track 3. Hoochie Coochie Man. Billy F Gibbons. Muddy Waters I am hoping would be impressed with this cover. Such a low tone gravelled sound coming out of these speakers. An a voice that could be gargling gravel. 

Track 4, Oh Well. Which is with Chris Stapleton and it is just that level of rock and roll you would expect from Slash but also very clearly Blues. So far it has been like this from track 1 to here. Leading into 

Track 5. Key to the Highway, with Dorothy, as with all these tracks still a Blues track, so expect that soulful howl of the vocal with every song, but total tempo change still tapping my toe and just letting this slide over my shoulders and down my spine. My Media Player is labelling this all Metal and Hard Rock. It is NOT Rock and Blues yeah, with a lean lyrically to he Blues side and the guitar to the Rock Side, Only Track 4 comes in at under 5 minutes and that is only just at 4.53.

Track 6. Awful Dream it is with Iggy Pop and it just opens up like a bowling ball slamming from a great hight into a barrel of tar. With Iggy crooning away on the lyrics with a voice that sounds like pebbles falling down a glacier. (That is possibly the oddest description I have done yet) there is a reverb in Iggy's voice that sounds like he is singing through the distortion arm on the guitar. It is I don't know how to describe it. It is possible he is doing it with a wobble and moving the microphone back and forth. I feel he is that old school it wouldn't be post production. It sounds awesome but it really does something odd to my skull!

Track 7. Born Under A Bad Sign with Paul Rodgers. Comes out as a very bluesy track just what you would expect if you didn't know the Blues. Now I will be honest I am an Alternative so my closes links to the Blues are Lisa Sings the Blues from the Simpsons, and several of the tracks from Slash's Snake pit and Velvet Revolver, Because Slash does like to play the Blues. But this track I unfortunately would consider just generic Blues Rock. 

Track 8. papa was a rolling stone. Demi Lovato. Okay. erm. I might have to go find the original to play that through to try and work this out. No it is a pretty faithful cover, slightly faster speed but yeah it is okay. I wish I could say more but it is a classic song and sometimes doing covers though it sounds alright and good it isn't the original. 

Track 9. Killing Floor Brian Johnson. Already dancing and it hasn't even started yet! Shortest song on the album now, funky up beat blues rift, with harmonica backing it up. The further you get into the album the more rifts start to come back round though, great harmonica break in the middle of this track though and Brains voice just superbly fits it so well. 

Track 10. Living for the City. Tash Neal. I know nothing of Tash Neal. I am enjoying the track, though I am not wanting to groove in my seat it is well put together and that is all I have on that to be honest. I wish I could say more but not knowing the contributing artist I can't cross with their normal work so I am just enjoying it. 

Track 11.Stormy Monday. Beth Hart, Let's slow it right down now for this one, the moment of the giggle from the vocalist is just a thing the way the words slip and slide over words along in tune with Slash's guitar, a totally gorgeous ly performed blues track. 

Track 12. Mental Chestnut. This is just Slash and the band and it is a beautiful ending to the album, just enough to calm you down make you relax and walk drive your worries away. 

I don't star rate I do not score I just give it the love it deserves these artist took their time to make this music for us and even this metal head can accept this album is perfectly good for just grooving out too and relaxing, so if you didn't know Slash's Orgy Of The Damned is a Blues Album but it is so worth picking a copy up from where ever you can buy music from now a days! 

History of Green Day in review. My History of Green Day to me more accurate.

Out of boredom, or out of losing my mind I am not too sure,but for one reason or another I decided to review Green Day albums from the beginning to the present day. I will endeavour not to get angry at this awful keyboard I purchased and type my way through the Discography of Green Day. From 39/Smooth in 1990 to Saviors 2024. I will only be covering studio albums, I will be skipping greatest hits and best of albums. I'd love to skip Uno Dos Tres as well but  I won't I will suffer through. 
So why am I doing it, well partially boredom, and partial because I am presently playing through Saviors, which is a little better than Father of All MotherFers, but not quiet American Idiot and nothing ever comes close to Dookie, so this is my was of killing time and listening to some old school Green Day and enjoying using my brain to write something I hope someone will enjoy. So shall we start at the beginning then?
There is a massive Wikki on Green Day. 

1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hour. "Wiki says 90 Media Player says 91."

I'd like to say this is the definitive Green Day sound but it isn't not by a log shot they had been working as a band for 3 years before this debut album appears and yet they still don't really have their sound yet. Did they ever though? 

The album while still a corker of a debut you can hear that they still want to find themselves. Which as I stated seems odd for a group that's been around 3 years already. While songs adapt and later as we go along giving different speeds and song structure it comes across as a solid room to improve and room to grow album. 
A varying cavalcade of 180 second tracks, nothing much over that in that generic punk style.
I didn't want to write that last line but this is how it feels now in 2024.

This album of course is more of a hybrid of the early years and EPs collected together. 
Though there is very little within the song make up and performances to allow the casual listener to even notice, if you are lucky enough to have the deluxe edition there is another EP attached to this epic.

Shall we move on?

Kerplunk! "1991"

Now we see Green Day starting to become Green Day. 

Adding Tres Cool to drums and we start to hear and feel that Green Day sound. 

Also it is nice to be able to play an album and not hear autotune. 

While Kerplunk! has all manner of amazing tracks it still just as 39/smooth ended up with an EP bolted to the back of it making up the last 4 tracks. Though when you have tracks as catchy as welcome to paradise and Dominate Love Slave which is yeah so many questions about this song. Yet it shows the ability for Green Day to just do something totally off the wall. Yet again though nearly every song on the album trying to stay under three minutes and even the longest track only reaching 3:30. 

As we know though this isn't going to last. 

Kerplunk! Is another solid outing by Green Day, if you are an American Idiot generation and haven't looked at the back catalogue you really should. 

Everyone ready for Dookie? 
This and Insomniac got me through college. 

Dookie "1994"

Those drums start and you know this is a Green Day album. As the album moves long we come to something familiar but a little different and that is a rerecording of Welcome to Paradise, after playing through Kerplunk! Straight into Dookie you can hear the differences in sound quality and recording and while it is the same song it is also different. This shows that sometimes you just have to rework things a little to make a bigger noise. That sounds wrong! Though I actually do not know why they did this but they did and I like both versions. I also feel it might not be the only time Green Day do this. Of course this album also holds Basketcase, Green Day's biggest song until American Idiot and we will get to that. Dookie is also the first time I discovered Hidden Tracks! Which are more common now a days. But for me back then this was a new thing. Though since my house flooded and I had to replace my copy Dookie has gained a track and it ends with All By Myself instead of F.O.D.

Quick we have to capitalize on the success of Dookie

Insomniac "1995"

Well it's Green Day. Drop the Bass a couple of levels and go heavy and hard. The only song going over 3 minutes on here is Brain Stew. Every track is high energy fast playing tunes with bleak and slightly downer lyrics. I do wonder if this was a forced album to try and keep the train rolling after Dookie. Some bands do manage to spin new albums year on year but the quality does sometimes suffer, now personally I love Brain Stew. But there is not a lot else on this album that makes me go this is a banger. Not even that awesome Bass riff on Stuart and the Avenue. 

I often say that since Green Day stopped being angry they lost their way, but replaying through all these albums I don't think Green Day were ever angry. 

Nimrod "1997"

Ah Nimrod, I actually love this album. It is one of those albums where every song is unique and original, the creation of the whole thing just gives a new side to Green Day. According to the Wiki this is one of the worst selling albums, yet it is the album with Nice Guys Finish Last, Hitching a Ride, Redundant, Platypus, Uptight, Walking Alone, and Good Riddance (Time of your life) on it and if they played I bet you'd be singing along with them. 

Get Nimrod. If you don't have it already. 

I'm just going to erm yeah Americana is calling me erm....

Warning "2000" (UK special edition)

Warnin' live without warnin'. The century turned to 21 and we got Warning. Which is in my eyes an excellent album, you can hear Green Day starting to change their sound a little yet they aren't. It is an interesting twist on the dynamic. More structure to songs and a very tiny style change but nothing t make them not still be recognisable as Green Day. Also this is the first album with a song going over the 4 minute mark with Macy Day's Parade. 

Here is a musical interlude. 

American Idiot "2004"

Here comes prog-punk. Amazingly this album only has 3 songs that are under 3 minutes. Gone are the quick fast paced bellters we had been getting for the last decade and we had this progressive punk opera. A mind shattering work of originality and a whole new showing of creativity from Green Day. How they came to this I don't know the Wiki says it was from them falling out and failing to get along what created this piece of musical genius but as I do not know I can't comment on this at all. I do not know any member of Green Day I am just a fan and I shall not comment on it. Though American Idiot stands out as a piece of Punk mastery. While it has its moments of politics and history within it this is an album that does not age like so many that are to the point of the time. This one is timeless. 

And we should quit with the September Ends shit. 

21st Century Breakdown "2009"

Song of the Century is 57 seconds long. Go to spotify, youtube, your MP3 collection. Go on go play it then come back. I'll wait. 

That is the opening song for the album... Yeah I can not find the words to carry myself through the rest of the album. What's worse is I know what is coming and how they went from American Idiot and 21st Century to what was coming I do not know! 

Okay I have composed myself and we can carry on with 21st Century Breakdown, it carries on that new style of sound and performance from American Idiot, though we lose the long prog-punk songs and go back to the more 3 minute give or take track type. Though the speed has not returned for these shorter songs and it becomes more of a rock band than a punk band. While keeping the politics and brutality of fighting the system within it lyrically. 

Okay okay okay I'll do Uno, Dos, Tre. But as One Album. 

Uno, Dos, Tres, "2012"

Nope can't do it they were terrible vanity project in an attempt to keep each band member happy and urgh do I have too. It is just early Green Day cleaned up I say cleaned up what I mean is the sound is cleaner it is snappier and yeah it is very plain. Yes it is Green Day but that is it, there really is nothing for me to go OH WOW about here nothing original nothing at all. I am 7 tracks in to the play through and I am trying not to fall to sleep. I actually avoided buying them back in 2012 I did get round to picking them up around 2018 when I started replacing the damaged albums from the flood. Trouble Maker is presently playing and it just reminds me of Electric Six. Hippy Hippy Shake! I mean F**K Time. BLURGH, I have been blaming Revolution Radio on songs sounding like songs from Green Day and I might have been wrong! I do generally play my entire music collection on shuffle and rarely double check what is actually playing, so this this is interesting to me as I might have gotten my albums mixed up when listening to them on shuffle. But Uno Dos Tres so far has been Torture. I got to move on.

So it was mentioned in the last album so we shall get on it. 

Revolution Radio "2016"
Slow start with somewhere now. I feel this is where I started saying Green Day not being angry is the issue. It is odd how over the years Green Day have slowed down, Bang bang which is trying to sound fast does not sound that fast. Also why does this sound so familiar? Is it a case of Green Day have been going that long the tracks are now starting to just sound like older stuff they have forgotten then have written? It is a question I am asking myself, mainly because i have spent most of the day playing Green Day through in Album order and when you have 14 studio albums that is a lot of music to go through. 

It does feel like a paint by numbers Green Day Album where is the anger where is the rage, I can hear the politics and despair in the lyrics but it just isn't punching anywhere near its weight class. 

Moving into the moderner age.. blurgh..

Father of All MotherFu***** "2020"
Yeah I played this through when it came out and I didn't like it. 

My mood hasn't changed, it does feel like they are trying to fit in to the modern world, the distortion on the mic and the way the song structure is built feels about 10 years too late for what it was. An it felt late when it arrived with everyone else. Every track is a variation of a theme every beat is so damn close to the previous it just sounds like one long song. This is not Green Day, out of all the albums until now even in the experimental it was still Green Day this this could be kaizer chiefs, this could be franz ferdinand. It's generic pop music from one of the largest punk bands of the 90's and 00's and I want to cry because if I don't I am going to be swinging my hips like an ageing dad at a wedding. Urgh next album and the last one please come on 2024.

Saviors "2024"

The American Dream is Killing Me! WOO Green Day Sound like Green Day once more!

Look Ma No Brains. It is actually fast! They can still play a rapid fire 120 second song!

Do we think the rest of the album can hold this slightly angry and rapid pace? Green day are aging as are the rest of us. It's 30 years since Dookie and 20 years since American Idiot. They can't keep clinging to these amazing albums and need to advance and so far Saviors appears to be an album that is moving in hat direction. Once more though still clean sound but that is also an advancement in recording and studios not just the fact they have become so much better with their instruments. 
Though like earlier albums you can still find rifts they have "borrowed" from older songs. Which has become a bit of a Green Day trait since the Uno Dos Tres days. Which isn't that long ago.

So far though Saviors is heading in the right direction after several years of losing their way. 

So Green Day a brief review  here is it, and while I have gone over the albums I have avoided the live and best of albums. An yeah we are all getting older but it is always nice to look back and with my old man head not that teenage anxiety and anger that I held back in the 90's. 

They are Green Day, they are one of the bands that shaped my world and make me who I am. Obviously in that list is also the Offspring, Guns and Roses, Terrorvision, Bush and a whole host of other bands and groups and maybe I will start going back over them all one more.

Before I vanish to work on the next thing, I am going to drop this demo for Basket Case..... 

And I will leave you wondering if this had been released would Green Day have been as big?

 

But then there is a lot to go through.