Number 4: The Format – Dog Problems

The Format’s sophomore release was in my opinion the most well written pop album of the year, and funnily enough probably the least successful. Despite my efforts to locate ‘Dog Problems’ at my local music stores it was distinctly absent. Why?


I have no clue man. Songs like ‘Time bomb’, ‘She Doesn’t Get It’, ‘Oceans’ and many others would have been perfect for radio release and yet we see this album getting little or no recognition outside of the blogging community. This is of course a crime, and the whole conundrum of it all is mind boggling. This was the album i piucked to make it big in 20006 and it barely registered as a blip on the radar. What impressed me so much about this album apart from the quality of song writing was the sheer quality and complexity of the production. Full of horns, clarinet solos (‘Dog Problems’), epic voice loops and beautiful string arrangements, Dog Problems definitely does not feel like a sophomore album, but the fact that it is only this duo’s second effort makes me anticipate their next release. The indie community has a tendency to crap on about totally uninteresting bands all for the sake of indie cred, but the Format deserve all of their critical accolades. Please do yourself a favour and purchase this album, if you can find it that is.

Listen to: She Doesnt Get It
Oceans - itunes file

Sam Gets Emotional: Fashioncore Posuers

I hate that ‘emo’ has become a genre in itself. I also hate that it has become a mainstream movement. But there have always been bands that broke down the restrictions of mainstream while becoming so popular themselves. As an example, I'm going to take Silverchair. Silverchair is, quiet frankly, the best band I can think to explain this theory, and who were also the branch away from rock (in a strict sense of the word) that Aussies needed. But lets get something straight. I am emo. I say this freely now because I appreciate the music and the movement (even if it has become disappointingly popular for the wrong reasons). Emo, I think, as a genre, is the natural progression from the hardcore, post hardcore and post punk. Even if it started early as emotional punk, it quickly became something else. It’s disappointing to me, because I appreciate everything that came before modern emo. I'm just not going to restrict myself to listening to older stuff, in fact I embrace the new form that is emo. What’s sad about it, I find, is that it’s a genre that is being taken over by a lot of fakers and liars… in effect turning the music that is being churned out a lie basically, and it all seems so manufactured. I hate that there are some bands who and I quote, “write entire albums that’s all about relationships and girlfriends and break ups and they’ve had a girlfriends for the last seven years” (Alexisonfire). Because yes, emo is emotional, but it doesn’t mean that it’s all about the heartaches and the breakups and angst. Like Silverchair, who were and are (but I have to say anything after they released their Best of album is pretentious and dare I say it crap) able to connect to a lot of people through the simple show of dealing with tumultuous emotions, emo should be a similar movement. It’s just unfortunate that emo is now typically used to define the black clad, eye define pretty hair personification of teenage angst. It doesn’t have to be this way, and I isn't fair to apply stereotypes, especially to a new genre that has growth at such an exponential rate especially amongst the young. After all, its always been the young to define and redefine trends and genres, and if this didn’t happen the evolution of music would hit stalemate and wouldn’t have nearly the impact, across all genre’s, as it does today.

Silverchair - Tomorrow (right click,save as)
Alexisonfire - Accidents (left click)

Top 5 albums of 2006: Number 5

I’ve decided to start a list of the 5 best albums released during 2006 so far. The count down will go from 5 to 1 over five weeks and will consist of various musical styles, after all variety is the spice of life (much better than cardamon). However, predictably I’ve chosen to begin the segment with some metal.

All That Remains - The Fall Of Ideals

I’ll admit it took me a while to warm up to this album. I loved these guys last release “This Darkened Heart” when it was released a couple of years ago and though they weren’t original enough to blow my mind (being pretty straight up killswitch style metalcore with more musical chops) they definitely made an impression. I was pretty excited to see that their new album was being released and I think anticipation was the flaw to my approach. I expected this to be This Darkened Heart 2, which it isn’t. It shows All That Remains at their most melodic and experimental. I don’t mean Radiohead Kid A experimental, just enough of a change in style to make an impact. This is metal. Not classic metal (the route taken by Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold), more of a Gothenburg melodeath vibe, with Phil Labonte showing off what is a great set of vocal chords for a metal singer. This album is also a fair bit more poppy than “This Darkened Heart” with Phil dialing back the growling for some incredibly catchy melodic lines in songs such as “Not alone” and “This Calling”. It should be explained thjat this album has been criticised for being overly formulaic, ascribing to the method of melodic chorus, growled verse for a great majority of the songs. But, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it I say. Phil Labonte has such a great ear for a catchy and beautiful melodic line, and when coupled with his brilliant screamed vocal, magical songs are created. It’s not going to cause a musical revolution, but “The Fall Of Ideals” is easily the most consistent and well written metalcore album of 2006. If this album doesn’t get them some press than I don’t know what will.

Listen to: 'The Weak Willed' and 'The Air That I Breathe' (left click to download)

Introducing Jess: Cellist extraordinaire and Prog Rock enthusiast
Well...never having done this before, I thought I'd just tell you all about my favourite song – at least the song that I like best RIGHT now. But then again, realising what my favourite song is is actually rather hard. Being a music snob, most songs don't hold up to the play, play again, play again, NOW IT'S BORING problem. Here is one that I haven't yet tired of. So its probably in my awesome song list (top ten at least!)

The Canyon Behind Her – dredg.

dredg are a band that are rather pretentious, fitting snugly into the art rock vein. They take the whole 'art' thing to a super extent; for example, if you were to check out their website, you would find that you can buy their paintings, read their non-metrical poetry (at least you could before they released their latest album), and look at cartoons of the weird tired-looking, big-breasted alien thing that graces the cover of Catch Without Arms. This song comes from El Cielo, which was influenced by a Dali painting (how crazy cool/toolish is that!?!?) called “Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumblebee around a Pomegranate One Second Before Awakening”, which just goes to show how 'high art' they think they are. Most bands wouldn't base an album on a painting, or suggest that you should sit and stare at it while listening to the album because they think that one stimulus heightens the sense of the other (and where did I get that bit of info? Its a translation of what a girl says in japanese at the start of the track). So yes, this song is pretentious. The whole album can be analysed for its little 'I'm so arty and clever' things (have a look at this page because someone ACTUALLY sat down and did it ... for every album...). But it's also musically brilliant. It builds and builds, going from atmospheric niceness, to experimentalish rock song (a bit like the Doves' "Cedar Room"), hits a wall-of-sound high, and ends with some nice a cappella 'aah' chords. I'm not sure if its synth at the end or if the band/singer is actually singing, but to be honest, I don't really care all that much. This song just oozes magic, it makes you sit and listen and at the end it's just bliss. Maybe you won't like it as much as me. Maybe you will. I don't give a shit. This is an amazing song. If you can find it, because I can't work out how to share it with you, then enjoy :-)

Recruitment Time

So that my non existent readership doesn't have to put up with one post every 'whenever i feel like it' I have recruited my friends Sam and Jess to write articles for Kinky Sex. Sam is a massive emo so if your into that kind of scene she'll be able to offer you something that i can't (or refuse to) do. Jess will be chiming in with random notes on anything she bloody well wants, a little bit like what i do, except she might actually know what she's talking about. Hopefully this means from now on that you guys can get a more regularly updated site which is more diverse musically, and thats always a good thing.

Peace Out

Introducing Sam: Dedicated emo and compulsive live music appreciator

Hi! I'm Sam or Sammy if I'm feeling nice. I guess I am the emo writing on this page. Don't call me anything else or I will kill you and mail your body to a non-vegetarian friend who will then proceed to eat you. So watch out. I thought I’d kick off writing for Michael about a band that is touring soon, yes, AFI!!! I might even go so far as to be the gig reviewer, so if u want details I’ll keep you posted.

AFI- Decemberunderground


AFI (for those of you who for some reason don't know AFI is A Fire Inside. Though how you could avoid this information is beyond me), have been a bit enigmatic since their last release (sing the Sorrow 2003). I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but they’re released very few images lately, especially strange considering they have recently launched the album Decemberunderground that rocketed into the pop charts (I'm told. How revolting). Not to mention their disappointing drop out of the 2006 Big Day Out. But still, they have maintained their integrity whilst producing an album in the true spirit of AFI that is also a bit of a branch away from their previous album Sing the Sorrow. Decemberunderground is huge. The songs are frequently played on channel V and I’m sure that they are still gracing the radio. It first began with the release of Miss Murder, which I have to admit was my favourite track for a long time. But, in truth, to fully appreciate it, you have to listen to the entire album (loudly and on repeat all, until you know all the words and so does everyone else living with you). This is, I think, why AFI have begun to be described as not emo, not hardcore, not even punk, but pop. And to me this is almost blasphemy, until I realized that ha! AFI are recruiting young teens into the emo army! But even that made me retch. No, I don't think it matters where AFI are played, because truly, this album is transcendent and AWESOME! AFI are an amazing band, who have the integrity, ingenuity and presence to have lasted so long and continue to produce decent tracks that apparently everyone can love. So, to me at least, it doesn’t matter what people call AFI, because it doesn’t matter what we think: AFI have the power to transcend labels and genres to become one of the most quietly brilliant bands of the past 15 years.

Listen to: Miss Murder and Love Like Winter

Random Review

Into Eternity – Scattering The Ashes (4/5 Stars of awesomeness)

Canada’s Into Eternity are a band who are confusing at the least. Taking equal parts Dream Theater like technicality, Arch Enemy style Melodic-death type guitar riffs, A cookie monster growl that would shame Mayhem and catchy as Power metal vocals to bring you through the choruses. Let’s just say that this band is a little schizophrenic, but I can’t help but love their stuff anyway. Their previous release 2004’s “Buried In Oblivion” was fantastic and was also my introduction to this band. To surpass this “Scattering Of Ashes” would have to be pretty special, and it is, but it’s also very different. Into Eternity’s long time vocalist Chris Krall is replaced by a man by the name of Stu Block, and this change alone has caused a backlash amongst the IE diehards. You wanna know what I think though. I don’t care who sings for this band, as long as they can carry a tune. If you can crack out an amazing composition like “Severe Emotional Distress” I wouldn’t care if Liza Minelli were singing, it would still rock. Just listen to “Out” and “A Past Beyond Memory” and youll no why this is great. This album is fuelled with way too many influences to mention. This diversity makes IE one of the most important metal bands around so who cares if their singer sounds slightly different. In my opinion, I don’t really give a rats. Still kick ass quality Heavy Metal, a must listen for anyone who appreciates highly technical yet catchy metal.

Listen to: Severe Emotional Distress