I can't remember how i heard about the band Shinobi... was it through frontman Eric Grothe Jr or the other way around. either way it doesn't matter, because i'm glad i did.
for clarification, Eric is the Parramatta Eels number 5 jersey or Wing. Eric writes the lyrics for their songs.
On October 08, 2009 the band released a video for their track Trouble. which can be viewed here:
Shinobi is:
Darren Stapleton (guitar)
Eric Grothe (guitar/vocals)
Daniel Grothe (bass)
Wayne Langfield (drums)
with a song about the trappings of alcoholism, Shinobi play a form of Australian Hard Rock that i haven't heard in quite a while, as i honestly don't listen to many Australian bands at all and when i do return to music made on our shores i tend to gravitate towards the more indie crowd - Because Of Ghosts, Art of Fighting, Fourth Floor Collapse to name a few - but Trouble, with its driving riffs and effected verses has the ability to make you take notice enough to ask, "who was that?" and lead you to search until you find the answer.
News is that the band has been working on a second EP and may be launching both via iTunes as well. at the advent of this occurrence it is likely i will write a review when i get them in my hot little hands.
some new songs for the Barrage, some old yet unspoken of.
these are the ones i got right out of the latest batch of covers i recorded. i'm quite liking recording and making moving videos for them now. these three all feature video that i have self recorded and edited from Halo 3: ODST. making these videos also gives me a reason to use my iMac at the moment as Pro Tools still is not up and running smoothly. grrr.
emjoy.
Of Dust And Nations - Originally by Thrice
here i present to you two disjointed tales of random occurences experienced by myself at two separate points in history. i wanted to share these tales, they must be known and laughed at.
#1 - NRL Grand Final Live Site
this one is fresh in the memory, occurring yesterday.
Martin Place during the lead up to the NRL Grand Final gets 'transformed' into a hub of 'entertainment' for those people with nothing better to do on a week day than stand around and partake in the loosely gathered activities with overly opinionated strangers.
i went to have a peek at this proceedings. the entire place was cloaked in a thick sense of FAIL. the merchandise van was the most interesting thing to occupy ones time with... i bought 5 badges for my Full Metal Alchemist bag. i wanted more... but the one's i asked for were not in supply.
1st point of randomness: a small spanish man decide he wanted to talk to someone. that someone was apparently me. he cited facts as plain as day to any Storm follower or to anyone who had watched the NRL Finals Series. the conversation skidded to halt after my answer to the question "where in Melbourne are from?" was answered with, "i live in sydney." he replied with, "and you follow the Storm?" the only answer, as i stood in my Melbourne Storm Media Polo Shirt... "yes". and with that he wandered off.
2nd point of randomness: what could only be described as a dessicated, old crazy man wandered past. he saw us as he passed and let loose with an endless stream of "**** OFF MELBOURNE".
we cocked our heads and laughed at him as he continued, wandering out of sight and earshot.
this form of behaviour from followers of other teams only helps to reinforce my position as a member with my club, and also with my standing with the greater portion of humanity.
3rd point of randomness: young-ish girl letting us know that she thinks we're wearing the wrong colours. from her perspective i'm sure this would have been true, but for me there is no other.
4th and final point of randomness: as i strolled out of JB Hi-Fi after purchasing Muse's The Resistance and the Mountain Goats' The Life Of The World To Come at Town Hall, after passing the EB Games, looking at the display table with contempt, a rather large and attractive man walked directly at me and stopped to talk to me about the excessive hype surrounding the Eels' fullback Jarryd Hayne and to wish my team well in the Grand Final on Sunday. his exact words being, "I hope that your boys smash the Eels, especially after knocking us out." unfortunately i never got to know who exactly "us" was. my suspicion rose to the fact he may have been a player with the League. the odd thing about the conversation was his eagerness to lean in close and almost whisper sentences in my ear, close enough to feel his presence and smell his breath.
#2 - Federal Park
a friend and i occasionally take our acoustic guitars down to the park near my apartment. the first time we did so, some time last year, was a lesson in prevalence in the face of randomness.
we sat underneath a tree, a little way off one of the paths in the park and set up for an afternoon of mucking about with our guitars, voices and our hacky-sack.
1st point of randomness: a small child threw her bike on the ground and walk over towards us declaring that she'd heard the song i was currently playing before. i looked up. put my head back down. continued on.
2nd point of randomness: in the middle of playing The Decemberists' We Both Go Down Together, i look up (yes i usually tend to stare at the ground or my strumming hand) and there's a homeless looking guy standing in front of us, watching me. i finish the song... a song about lovers being together in eternity by throwing themselves off of a cliff... the man starts a conversation with us, crouching down to be on the same level. he asks what the song i had just played was; if we knew any of the performers he listed. he then asked if he could sing a song to us... we didn't, but he went on... dropped to both knees, clasped his hands in front of him and begun to sing about "the lord and saviour", the one and only jesus. i dropped my gaze again as his voice grew louder. my colleague looked around to see if anyone was watching this unfold... they were.
after his song, he began to give us his life story ending in how a man he had been talking to had told him to go away and pointed him towards us. he took this as a sign from god, of course... that's not the way i would have interpreted it. he then asked about our religious beliefs and what we think happens when we die. my colleague was not having a bar of it and proceeded to shoot down his musings and theories in a cold, methodical and scientific manner. i refused to join the discussion. with that he stood and left.
3rd point of randomness: i lifted my gaze once more to look behind myself as my sensors were blazing after being put into a hyperactive state of awareness. a woman pushing a baby in a stroller had stopped behind us and leveled a digital camera at us. she urged us to continue with what we were doing.
i turned back around.
4th point of randomness: by this stage we had moved to another location within the park. after finishing a song, and my whilst my collegue started another i looked around to find yet another woman, this time a jogger, had stopped not too far away from us to level a digital camera at us. pictures were taken and she jogged off into the distance.
5th and final point of randomness: as the sun began to set we packed our things and heading back to apartment. as we mused over the day that had just unfolded and strolled homeward behind us came a cry from a young woman, "guitar people! guitar people!" we stopped and turned around, assuming that it was our attention she was trying to gain.
our assumption was correct. she asked us what it took to be serenaded. as confusion settled on our faces she begun to explain that she was part owner of the youth hostel we had just passed, and asked us if we could play at the hostel. we declined the invitation. we had honestly had enough of this particular days interactions. she left the invitation open and returned.
we wandered wearily home and then went for dinner at the Indian place up the street, returning to my apartment to eat and watch cartoons.
moral of the story: don't look up.
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