Madina Lake Blog and Journals

Went to the Detroit Warped last Friday. So. Fucking. Amazing. 
My computer has been down so i havent been  able to post, but now it's working again!

The Devil Wears Prada
OMG I don't think I've ever been more scared for my life than I was at this set.  I'm really not a fan of them, but they are one of my best friend Haleys bands, and she missed them last year because we were in line waiting to meet Cobta Starship. 
So we went to see them this year, and it was a disaster.  We couldnt even stay for the whole set. 
We accidentally got caught in a Crop Circle in the first song and were knocked over and trampled.  We both lost our shoes and my foot was dripping blood all over the place.  Some randon guy had to help me up before I was hurt worse and then we left during the first song.  Unfortunately it took us fifteen minutes to get out of the crowd.  Never again....

Sing It Loud
I have only recently fallen in love with this band.  They remind me alot of All Time Low, which is pretty awesome.  They played all my favorites! No One Can Touch Us, Best Beating Heart, Come Around, Bite Your Lip, and Don't Save Me. Ah - mazing. 

After this we Had like two hours to kill o we just shopped around and stuff. 
Went to the All Time Low meet and greet and it was awesome.  I got a high five from Jack! and Alex smiled at me! *faints*
I got their Break Your Little Heart t shirt and a copy of Nothing Personal and they signed them for me!

So then we had another hour or so until All Time Low's set.  (funny, all of thee bands we wanted to see were either early in the day or late.  So we had alot of spare time!)

All Time Low
What can I say? It was All Time Low.  That's really all that needs to be said.  This was my second time seeing them, and was still unbelieveable. 
They did Weightless, Six Feet Under the Stars, Lost in Stereo, Dear Maria, Break Your Little Heart, Damned if I Do Ya, and Jasey Rae.  I really wish they would have done Therapy, but hey, they're coming back in the Fall so maybe they'll do it then. 

Chiodos
Went and saw Chiodos last year too.  Still really good show.  They broke My Chemical Romance's record of 60 Crowd-Surfers all at once.  It was so cool to see all those people in the air.  New album out soon.  Cool Cool. 

3oh!3
This was our first time seeing 3oh!3 and they did an epic show.  Did all my favorites.  'Nuff said.  We only watched the first half of the set though, we wanted to see Cash Cash!

Cash Cash
Another one I only recently fell in love with, their sound is like a sweet combination of Forever the Sickest Kids and All Time Low, which is a cool combination.  They did my faves, Party in Your Bedroom, Sugar Rush, Radio, plus a few I haven't heard before, but definitely liked. 
I met the lead singer at their merch stand earlier in the day, but was (unfortunately and infuriatingly) too shy to say anything except "hi".  I felt like an idiot. 

We tried to make it to The Maine too, but we couldn't get good enough spots and couldn't see a thing so we left.  Which is ok because I saw them last November so I didn't mind too much. 

Spottings and Meetings:
All Time Low (met)
Cash Cash (met Jean Paul Makhlouf, vocals)
Madina Lake (spotted)
A Skylit Drive (spotted)
Sing It Loud (spotted Pat Brown, lead vocals)
Mandy K (met. Weren't performing, but I went to their High School in NY and they were total Hometown Heroes.  Way cool dudes.  Check'em out, they have an EP)
30h!3 (spotted cause we were on side of fence and they were on other)

So that was my Warped this year! despit the battle wounds, it was still better than last year.  Way more encounters with the bands, whereas last year they were almost non existent. 
Hopefully I'm going to blinks reunion tour later this month, so let's keep our fingers crossed!

Issue 61 of Black Velvet is out now and includes:

Interviews with We The Kings, Duff McKagan (Duff McKagan's Loaded), Black Stone Cherry, Madina Lake, Billy Talent, Ashbury, Damone & The Mission District.

Heaps of concert reviews including Go:Audio, Hundred Reasons, Papa Roach, Nickelback/Black Stone Cherry, Madina Lake, The Rasmus/Backyard Babies & Bon Jovi/Soraia @ Summerfest

A Download Festival 2009 report

A Warped Tour festival report

Tons of album, single and demo reviews including Billy Talent, The Audition, Green Day, Zombina And The Skeletones, Defueld, Sains Of Eden, Rachel Stamp, Ashbury, Eighth Wave, Jim Davies, Anti-Flag, Heavens Basement, Aiden, FACT, Mollygogo, Taking Back Sunday, Go:Audio, Eureka Machines, Young Guns and more.

'Me, Me, Me & My Rock CV' - If you have a job in the music industry you get to tell us what you do and why you do it. Answer the questions in the zine and we may feature YOU. This issue we feature Rob Spacey of Viva Hate store in Derby.

A new column by our new columnist in Japan. Wanna hear some rock news from Japan? Check Ando Terumi's column.

All the usuals such as Fanzine Reviews, Books & DVD reviews & Supersonic Future Superstars (featuring The Jokers and Winch House).

And your chance to win some awesome free Organica vegan chocolate.

Advertisers this issue are: My Son The Bum, Punk Rock Shop, Shred Guy Records, The Jokers, Cornerstone, Sinful Soles, Spank & Screaming Red.


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well Hollywood got the boot today. I honestly feel bad. not because he doesn’t deserve it but it’s always a bummer when people can’t get out of their own way. I’m a firm believer in kharma. If you put bad or negative energy out into the world it will eventually come back and even the score. Which is why I feel it’s so important to always try to be a good person, work hard, help people whenever possible and take care of our planet. In Hollywood’s case, he just came in way too hot and heavy, treating people really shitty and being a tremendous negative strain on all 15 of us on the bus. now he’s made his bed and shall lay in it.

ML world is on fire. We’re about to announce our first UK and European tour which will follow Warped relatively soon. After Reading/Leeds of course. We’re simultaneously booking another headlining run in the UK for early next year. To have 2 UK commitments almost on the books feels fantastic, we miss you guys! and that doesn’t leave out the USA at all, plenty of those dates coming soon! To those of you have taken to Attics to Eden, we couldn’t be more proud. It’s finally spreading like FTTUTY did. We knew it would take a minute to adjust but being a solid artist means pushing the boundaries and never playing it safe. It’s scary and risky but we’re finally coming out of the tunnel thanks to you guys!

BTW anyone ever see the Lost Boys? How about Bill and Ted’s excellent Adventure? well the blond dude (not Keanu Reeves) is apparently an ML fan and he will be coming to our Miami Warped date as our guest!!! Not sure you understand how awesome that is for us but it is hahah.. love you guys!

Follow Nathan's blog @ http://madinaswan.tumblr.com/

oh boy last night ws fun/interesting. remember that love triangle i was talking about earlier? well that exploded last night in a meteor shower of joy and pleasure in the form of fighting, tears, big scenes etc. it’s hard to explain without sounding incompassionate but basically this dude on our bus we call hollywood ( he’s the “rockstar” guy i was talking about). this is the type of guy that has to tell everybody exactly how much he drank, about what kind of “moves” he made on stage that day, about how many chicks wanna “bang” him, etc. a real piece of work. i think he’s been coddled his whole life because he expects everyone to do things for him (like - dude, get me a beer- even if he’s closer to the beer). He tried to demand that schprokit go get him catering because he just rocked too hard and needs to rest. schprokit doesn’t work for him nor would anyone from ML ever expect anything like that … that’s diva shit - you know we all hate that. anyway, he made out with a girl a few nights ago and last night went all hotmail cuz his girlfriend Alana was flirting with a scary kid .. so you see i dont feel so bad.. but it was awesome.

then there were these 2 pschyo band sluts. i’m not being mean, these are the girls that come to the shows not to watch bands but instead to creep around the buses like little child molesters solely in an effort to get on a bus, any bus. these girls are trouble and need to be avoided like the plague. you’ll know them because they’re always rattling off names of band dudes that theyre BFFs with. they’re also the ones that make outrageous claims like .. this band dude molested me, i slept with this band dude, i got roofied on so and so’s bus blah blah. well Ba Ba Boey told them to leave and I witnessed them making up a story about him hitting her. it was wild really - i’ve never been ringside to the creation of such bullshit in my life and it was pretty eye-opening to say the least. So I yelled at them and made them leave and the 30 normal people around cheered. they proceeded to the Chiodos bus to tell them that MLs manager beat them lol. on a side note - they previously told me that Chiodos and 3OH3 physically threw them off their buses. I’m tellin ya be careful with these live wires!

but alas i finally got to meet Kevin Lyman last night and he is AMAZINGly cool. got some fantastic Kerrang pics with Fat Mike, JStar, Underoath kids which should be out soon. and finally the shows kick more ass every day. seriously were floored by the amount of kids that come to see us and its been so fun i can’t even explain. all the love in the world

Follow Nathan's Blog @ http://madinaswan.tumblr.com/

This is a MADINA LAKE one shot.  I hope you like it. There is no dialouge. I just got got inspired by the song "Here I stand."
Comment and Buzz!
XO'KEEFE.

Hands shaking; breath caught in his throat, Nathan stared up at her though she couldn't see him. His heart raced at an abnormal speed, clouding any clear thinking process and begged him to just lie on the floor and let himself die because here he was. He was standing on the base of cold metal stairs, eyes fixated on the love of his life--thought perhaps he wasn't allowed to use that title anymore, since she had clearly told him she didn't love him back. In one hand a drooping daisy was being squished under his clenched fingers and his other hand was balled up as if he might actually do something besides stand there, which God knew would never happened because there was too much pain residing in him. There was a physical pain in his chest and despite his usual tough exterior, tears were threatening to break free of his eyes and cascade down his cheeks like shameful exposures of his emotions. How to put this clearly so you understand...he was having trouble breathing. He was having trouble breathing. He was having trouble living because he was stuck on the fact that instead of being with him, his girlfriend---well, now ex, was at the top of the stairs, arms around someone else; someone that wasn't him.

The urge to do something, anything was there but how could he when she had warned him. She had told him with time that there was nothing left between them and she had warned him purposefully that if he back to her apartment she might see something he didn't like. There was no easy way to just leave him. She had loved him at some point but something never last and what was she supposed to do? Stay with him simply because he had grown attached. There was nothing there anymore. She had realized that and accepted it unlike he, who insisted that they were meant to be. The only way to get her point across was to make things very clear, very bluntly and now it had come to this. She didn't know he was down there, but it didn't matter. She might as well have been in this situation on purpose because it hurt all the same. That was supposed to be him. It was supposed to be him holding her that way, gazing into her eyes, loving her and instead someone else had replaced him and there was nothing he could do. How was he to live a life when she was his air? A life without her just wasn't a life worth living and she didn't seem to understand that. He absolutely hated himself for all of these emotions. If he could have bundled them up and tossed them to the ground to be forever forgotten, he would have, but things weren't that easy. Every muscle in his body was tense with anger, with pain, with confusion. He didn't even know what to do from this point. He had an inclination that leaving would be a good start  but his feet were rooted to the ground and his eyes only had one destination and that was his love kissing him. As if he actually deserved her.

Things were fixable, in his eyes. Didn't she see that? It took effort. Things just didn't come easily. She couldn't just expect every problem to disappear, every conflict to resolve itself. He was putting in the effort, why not her? His eyes grew wider by the inch. They followed the person he both hated and loved right now into her apartment and once the door was shut, he forced his feet to move but they went the wrong direction.

There was no stopping himself; he climbed the stairs and before he knew what was happening, he was kneeling by the front window and peering through the slit in the window curtain that just so happened to be in alignment with her. Wit her touching him. Everywhere. It made his skin crawl. It made his chest hurt. It made his mouth dry with anxiety. From her hips to her arms, the stranger's hands traveled and touched her. Touched the person he loved. This wasn't right at all. Other people weren't allowed to just touch her like that. HE touched her like that, because he loved her. Like a small gasp, Nathan sucked in a deep breath but no air filled his lungs. He licked his dry lips and blinked back tears that burned his eyelids with an intensity that matched the stinging in his heart. Anyplace than this place was better so why couldn't he move himself? Why was he sitting here, torturing himself; watching them? The envy inside of him was enveloping him, filling him, promising to take over until something very bad happened. It had gotten so far to this point where he couldn't even understand what had happened; how they gotten to this point. Things had started out well and now they were trash.

Nathan shifted in his crouching positions, the pressure coming off one foot to the other and leaned against the window without any regard to what might happen if he was seen. He didn't care. His life was nothing but a joke. Lying to everyone around him, pretending to be alright. Attempting to fool himself when it was obvious to everyone except him that it wasn't over. Nothing was okay. It was all a bunch of smoke and mirrors and he was stupid enough to think that pushing away the pain would make it go away. The only fact that seemed to make any sense anymore was that he was past the point of sanity. If he could be anyone else in the world, he would have taken the offer in a heartbeat. It was the only thing he was sure of anymore. The boy was falling apart on the inside to the beat of her clothes, falling to the ground. Whether he could handle seeing them was questionable. On the outside, he was silent, calm but the disguise did nothing for the emotions train wrecking inside of him. Her shirt slid off the couch to the floor, unheard of and unimportant. Each movement she made was like a cue for his heart to break a little further, sting a little longer, taking away the oxygen he had in his lungs.

Please no, he gasped for air and finally tore his gaze away from the window before he saw anything else. Nothing was left anymore. A hollow space was taking over the place where rationality should have been. The boy tugged off the necklace around his pale neck, struggling for a second, fumbling before finding the clasp and breaking it free. He hung the silver chain around the knob of the apartment door and without a second though turned to the stairs and bounded down them; his steps echoing off loudly and filling his ears. He ran. There was nowhere to go. No one to speak to. No one he wanted anyway. So he just ran and ran, one foot in front of the other, pounding pavement in the darkness; driving him through the cold breeze that whipped at his face and commanded him to return home; safe, where he could be alone but he wasn't thinking anymore, let alone caring. Several cars passed him, but none stopped nor cared for the lonely boy running along the road; eyes wild and face tear streaked. He stopped when he could longer breath for most of his oxygen had disintegrated just from the heartache and leaned against the railing that overlook the river.

The metal was cold and wet against his hands and he stood there, heart hammering against his ribcage; mouth slightly open in temptation; eye furiously blinking back tears so he could see his feet clearly step onto the railing and hoist himself up. He wiped a hand against his hoodie, then the other and careful pulled himself to stand; carefully balancing himself on the ledge to overlook the mass of black water before him. The moon above him cast a glow against him and made his pale white hair shine in the darkness. Arms spread, he threw his head back, enjoying the danger, the rush, the exact feeling he felt when he was in her arms. If this was only way to harbor that feeling for just a few more seconds then he would go all out. Nathan gulped, but he was not afraid. His smile laugh rang out in the darkness and cut through the silence, but it did not erase his pain. It didn't make the tears go away. His blurry eyes fell to rushing water beneath him. The only way to get rid of these tears were to cover them up. And river water would do just nicely. He took one breath, and smiled one last smile. A life without her was a life not worth living. One day she would realize that. One day, she would understand that he had given it all up for her. Just her. Exhale. He put one foot out and stepped over the edge.

The kerrang! awards were revealed on Wendnesday. The nominees are ...

BEST BRITISH NEWCOMER
My Passion
In Case Of Fire
Attack! Attack!
Young Guns
Fei Comodo                                           

BEST INTERNATIONAL NEWCOMER
Shinedown
Five Finger Death Punch
The Gaslight Anthem
Metro Station
Versa Emerge

BEST LIVE BAND
Metallica
Slipknot
Enter Shikari
The Prodigy
Gallows

BEST SINGLE
Metallica - All Nightmare Long
The Prodigy - Omen
Slipknot - Dead Memories
Slipknot - Psychosocial
Placebo - For What It's Worth

BEST VIDEO
Papa Roach - Hollywood Whore
Slipknot - Sulfur
Metallica - The Day That Never Comes
Mastodon - Oblivion
Placebo - For What It's Worth

BEST ALBUM
Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
Metallica - Death Magnetic
Slipknot - All Hope Is Gone
Gallows - Grey Britain
Placebo - Battle For The Sun

BEST BRITISH BAND
Bullet For My Valentine
Bring Me The Horizon
You Me At Six
Enter Shikari
Gallows

BEST INTERNATIONAL BAND
Green Day
Slipknot
Metallica
Madina Lake
Lamb Of God

You can cast your vote for the nominated artists at the Kerrang! Awards Blog right now.

Who do you want to win?

What band do you think should have being nominated?

Any bands you don't think dhould be in?

I decided that im going to try to post one of these every week, in a hope that i can share my music taste with you:)

10. Drain The Blood-The Distillers

Just an awesome song, Brody Dalle's voice is so PUNK! This is a fun song to dance about to, if your into kinda Grunge punky stuff.

9. Legends-Madina Lake

Oh gosh, ive had an obsessionw ith these guys for a while now. This is a track off of their new album, Attics To Eden, and i love it so much. Its different to their older rstuff, but its never failed to get me singing along once.

8. If You Run-You Me At Six

I just..i love this song. Its my favorite off of the album, i think its a bit of genius. It may be getting fairly old now, but i love it anyways.

7. Vegas-All Time Low

I've been listening to this all week! Its such a good song, and i love singing along to it in the car with me best mates;)

6. Yokan-Dir En Grey

Ok, i think this song is back from their 'Gauze' period, where they dressed up as girls(There is a better phrase, but i've forgotten it...). I just love this song, i dont care that its in Japanese. The guitar solo just makes me wanna pick my guitar up and learn something new^_^

5.Papa Mama Nozomare Nu Baby-Miyavi

I love this song. I just seriosuly do. Don't yell at me, im going through my Jrock period:) Everyone has to go through it once:)Also, the solo in this is f'amazing:)

4.Sakura Sake-Arashi

Ok, a lot of people are going to be going 'hold on she was on about Jrock a minute ago and now she is listening to freaking Jpop'. But i like this song, so...yeah:) Also, i know all of the words to this song, even though its in Japanese:) And when the wee guys all do the glasses thing, i just crack up:)

3. I (hate) Everything About You-3 Days Grace

Emo, i know. But i think some people can relate, and i just like the song. So dont start flaming me with all your emo crap. I like it, and i dont care if you think im emo:D

2. So Over You-The Mission District

Ok, can i start by saying i FUCKING love these guys! I saw them live supporting Elliot Minor on Saturday, and i think they are just awesome. This is a brilliant song that just cries out to be sung along with:) Oh yeah, and you Canadians will be happy to know that one of your bands got to number 2:)

1. Solaris-Elliot Minor.

Ok, this has been on youtube for an average of about an hour. But i fucking LOVE it. You all know i have an obsession with these guys, but this song is just love. Actually. And isnt Ed Minton looking rather lush in this video? I think so!

So here you go, my number one this week, Solaris:

Clicky

Edit: Codefail fails. So im just gonna have to post the links for these.

Okay so here i am sitting at my computer chair, scuzz on in the background when i hear a band i recognise, turned round and it was madina lakes new song, i didn't catch the title but in my opinion it was nowhere near as good as their last album which is disappointing, plus i don't like their whole plain white look they had going on in the video, lets hope the rest of there new stuff is gonna be better.

Just out of interest if any of you guys have heard it what do you think?

Mock exams. Not my favourite school passtime. Ehh, but I don't mind the study leaves because my amigos and I just usually crash at Starbucks. Well basically, I only have one exam left and that's graphics. An hour and half long, and I have no idea what's going to hit me.

What's been going on recently? -scratches head- Meh, I don't even know to be honest. I got a new haircut, thank FINALLY. Full fringe, which I was doubtful about doing but I'm glad I got it done. I just don't hope I get bored with it too soon.

Currently listening to: House of Cards by Madina Lake. Not such a great fan of them, but this song is good.

Talking about music, I NEED TO SEE GREEN DAY LIVE. You know, they're like one of those must-see bands. So I MUST see them. But I'm not allowed to any gigs with friends this year because I 'over-do it' according to my parents. But I'm allowed to see anything that they want to see, which isn't too bad because our music taste is quite similar to be honest. Dad likes Muse a lot, so I might be able to see them if they tour this year, which I heavily doubt at this rate. I think their new album is out next year. Humbug.

Mum wanted to go see Taylor Swift, but she's already been and gone to London. Shit. Haha, well another time then? My dad slightly likes Green Day, so if I get him really into them, then he might take me to see them. We shall see. I'm so selfish, haha! I should really stop.

Anyway, I should be off now doing something that doesn't involve the computer

You know you love me,

xoxo Gossip Girl- I mean, Ria...