It just came out today (the 27th). What astounds me about this band is that they're always finding ways to improve in areas where I thought there WAS no room for improvement.

Revisions is a collection of older songs by the band with the number for a name, and given a revamp, hence the album's title. The songs range in birthing age from 1998 to 2006, and most of them had never seen an official album release before now, previously being only available in very old demo form, some of them even only previously available on bootlegged live recordings you could find in the folds of the Internet.

Revisions is a true gem of an album, especially in today's saturated and largely unoriginal market of music. From the melodies to the lyrics to the musicianship to presentation, this is an album very much worthy of being called great.

I'll now give you the exerpt from 3 themselves from Revisions' liner notes:

"3 has always been a band apart. We've never been afraid to follow the artistic impulse. Whether it has lead us to genre bending progressive experimentation, or, as in the case of Revisions, drawn us into a world defined more by melody and lyric than by instrumental prowess. This collection taps the rich history of 3 by reexamining some of the earlier songs that made us who we are today. Some of them are known from early live bootlegs, others existed only on cassette and were transferred to the internet by dedicated fans. In any event, these are songs that we felt deserved a second chance, a 'revision,' if you will. Our passion for music is truly the common thread that binds our diverse body of work."

In Revisions you'll find an instrumental track that showcases the immense talent within the hands of the band members. You'll find a song about a peeping tom who can't swim spying on a swimming girl and is forced to watch her drown with no way to help, containing lyrics as equally haunting as its melody. You'll find a song about those of us who wear masks to hide our dark sides from the outside world with an irresistibly catchy chorus. You'll find a song about a gangster whose killing ways are unexpectedly turned on him, with undertones of American social commentary. And at the end of the album, you'll find a folk song about Joey Eppard, head of 3, killing off his bandmates, regretting the act, then turning his murderous ways on himself to reunite the band.

3 has an amazing knack for creating melodies that will get stuck in your head for days and melding them with lyrics more thought-provoking than your radio pop fodder.

If you're in the mood for something new, something undeniably unique, something beautiful, and something actually worth buying versus downloading, find yourself a copy of Revisions.

Immerse yourself in it.

Let it sweep you away.

And enjoy.

"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows, it's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you can hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take...and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be 'because of him' or 'her' or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that."

-Sylvester Stallone in Rocky Balboa

I've never heard it put into better words.

Without any one of the following, a relationship will fall apart:

1. Open communication
2. Trust
3. Respect
4. Emotional closeness
5. Physical closeness

You could have any four of these and be missing one of them and not have a functional, happy, healthy relationship.

I stand by this completely, and anyone who wants to date me needs to know this.

In fact, everyone on the planet needs to know this and abide by it.

The world would be a much less depressing and heartbroken place if it did.

I feel like flowing, so I'm going to lett my mind go a little here.



I'm waiting for something real to come along.

I've got a real job finally, one I like with people I like.

But I suppose I'm waiting for someONE real more than someTHING real.

I'd like to meet a musician I can truly work with, someone who won't blow off plans to get together and play so we can start putting something great together.

I feel like my voice is being wasted on the unmotivated. I want to sing. I want to be on stage in front of a crowd with a group of friends as we play our fucking hearts out on a regular basis, making music straight from our psyche. I want to put my soul into an audible format. Maybe I'm not putting myself out there enough. Maybe I should be making myself more public.

As a matter of fact, now that I have my computer back (thanks again Daniel!), I'm going to do something about it right now. Craigslist, here I come.

As far as women go, I'm somewhat indifferent at the moment. I'm happier right now than I've ever been being single, just living and loving life. But it'd be nice to be able to share that life and love for it with someone. I haven't been in a meaningful relationship for about a year now, just sort of been running into the wrong women and wasting my time on them as they screw me over. So many things feel like they're finally coming together for me right now, so I'm wondering when love will join the party. No rush of course, because I'd prefer it real and late than shallow and soon. I've been chasing love for too long, so I'm going to wait for it to come to me and see how that works out.

The other day I found out my dad cheated on my mom quite a bit throughout their marriage. I always suspected it may have happened once, but it was a shock to hear how many times it really happened. It's hard to take, but I'm glad I know. That just gives me all the more reason to not be that kind of man. Now not only have I seen first-hand how smoking rips apart families via death, but now I've also seen firsthand how cheating rips apart families. Of course I've already known cheating leads to families breaking up, but it was always an outside perspective. Now that I know it happened to my family, that gives me that much more motivation to want to be the best father and husband I can be when it comes time for me to settle down and raise a family.

My step-brother and my sister are having pretty big problems of their own recently, so there's a lot of shit going down at the family's house right now. My sister never got over our dad's death which has caused her years of anger directed at nothing and no one in particular; just anger with the world entirely. My step-brother seems to be having a problem with looking at too much porn, but at least he's man enough to admit he has a problem, unlike my sister who doesn't even really seem to acknowledge the fact that she can't live life the way she's been living it all these years treating everybody like shit. I'm slowly becoming closer with my parents, I think, and I'm really glad about that. I love them both to death, and their frailty and humanity is beginning to make itself more prevalent as time passes. They're becoming more human and less iconic to me now. I can relate to them better. I'm growing up. They're growing old.

Time.

Life.

The fragility of it all.

I miss the good times I've had with people I'm no longer close with.

Friends, girlfriends.

I'm tired of the hatred, the drama, the displeasure, the grudges.

Life's too short to be pissed off all the time.

Appreciate the living while they're still living.

Because before you know it, both you and everyone around you is going to be gone.

A friend will pass.

Your family will pass.

You'll be on your death bed.

And all of the problems you had with all of your so-called "enemies" throughout your life aren't going to matter anymore.

All that matters at the end of it all is love.

The love you felt for everyone you ever had a connection with.

The love you still have left for the few you still do have a connection with.

And all of the problems that plagued you in life will fade away, because none of it matters when you're about to leave the living world.

There are so many things I wish I could patch up with people, but I know it's impossible because they're all so stuck in the past, so stuck on the negative and can't bring themselves to forgive and forget.

There's a girl I dated for only a week a few months ago named Christina. After we weren't seeing each other anymore, we decided we'd stay friends. So from time to time I'd ask her if she wanted to hang out, and she'd always decline, but what kind of friend do you never see? What kind of friend do you always decline spending time with? That's not a friend. Despite all this, I found out she was jobless and bored all day with nothing to do and she was going crazy, so I was nice enough to bring her a couple games and a controller so she could play something when she was at home with nothing else to do. I found out a month or two later that she never bothered playing them, so I wanted to get them back. She said she'd mail the stuff back to me, and I asked if she'd honestly rather go so far out of her way to mail it than to just meet up for a second so she can give it back. She said she just didn't want to see me. So I waited for the mail. For a few weeks. For a few months. Then I tried calling her a few times, wondering about getting my stuff back. No answers, no calls back. She had a livejournal that she'd post on from time to time, so since I couldn't get hold of her any other way, I made a livejournal account just so I could specifically comment her journal to ask for my stuff back. She proceeded to block me from her journal. I've been trying to find another way to contact her, to no avail, so I just keep calling once every few days and leaving a message asking for my stuff back, and I never hear back. Just the other day she actually deleted her livejournal altogether. I can't do anything at this point but keep calling and trying, but I doubt I'm going to see my stuff ever again, even though the only reason she had them in the first place was because I was thinking of her and doing her a favor out of the kindness of my heart. Look where that's gotten me.

That's just an example of some of the stuff I'm talking about when I say people are fucking crazy, to the point where they'll take advantage of and screw over even the people who are nice to them and do them favors. Everybody is so negative. They can't just appreciate people for their flaws and talents, they can only view the world and the people in it through skewed vision in which the negative is the center of focus and the positive is forgotten.

I don't know what more I can say. It's not worth treating people as if they're below you, because you're no more godly than any of them. We're all equally human with flaws and talents. Anybody, myself included, can focus on others' flaws and be a jerk to them because of their flaws, shutting ourselves off from love and happiness while trying to justify it through scapegoats and excuses and lists of reasons when most of the same negative things could be said about ourselves. But it's no way to live. You can't go through life avoiding people and hating them. Nobody likes being hated. Nobody likes being avoided. Nobody likes being ignored. So what the fuck makes you think you've got the right to treat people as subhuman when you hate being treated that way yourself? When somebody does something you don't like, you have to let it roll off your back, because years from now it's not going to matter anymore. You're not going to remember that one asshole who cut you off on the road years from then. You're not going to still be bitter about a friend who forgot to pick you up when they said they would when you're breathing your last breaths. You're not going to care about that one girl who overreacted to something innocent you said who took it the wrong way fifty years from today. So none of it matters. Life moves on, people make mistakes, and they learn from their mistakes to become better people. By avoiding them and ignoring them and treating them like shit, you're childish, and you're automatically even lower than you think they are.

Life, art, and love. These are the only things that matter in this world.

Death doesn't matter, because it's unavoidable. All that matters is the life we still have left while we're here.

Art can be anything from the art of loving a person to the art of forgiving to the trade you happen to be good at and passionate about. Art is passion and inspiration, and without that, nothing would ever be accomplished in this world.

Hate and drama and dislike doesn't matter, because it all stems from grudges held against the human flaws of others. All that matters is the love you give and receive.

You reap what you sow. If you sow good seeds, you'll find love growing all around  you. If you sow bad seeds, you'll find nothing but emptiness surrounding you.

Next time someone pisses you off, think of them as both an infant, and as an old person. We all come in fragile and flawed, and we all leave fragile and flawed. All that matters is the love you spread in that time between the start and finish.

Forget the negative. Remember the positive.

But I don't need to tell you to do that.

You'll do it on your own as you draw your final breaths.

This is a quick disclaimer for anyone planning to read anything on or in my myspace, be it blogs, bulletins, or comments I make on them.

This myspace is my journal, and therefore you read at your own risk. I will write about the best and worst things that go through my mind here, and if you are offended by anything within you are free to click that little X button on the top right of your browser which will quickly whisk you away to a world without my thoughts and opinions.

You cannot expect to read someone's journal without coming across things you may not like to see, things you may not like to read, things you may not like to know. By reading anything on this webpage, you must understand that and view its contents with such in mind.

If you don't like what you see, show yourself the door. If you want to know more, continue your journey deeper into the twists and turns of my head and feel free to read or look at anything contained herein.

It is impossible for two people who know nothing about each other to be friends.

It is impossible for us to get to know one another, and thus be friends, if we can't talk to one another.

It is impossible for us to talk to one another, and thus get to know one another, and thus be friends, if you try to add me yet only accept messages from people on your friends list.

If we are not yet friends, and you only accept messages from friends, we cannot become friends because we are unable to talk before becoming friends.

If you aren't interested in getting to know me, and you won't talk to me until we're already on each others' friend lists, don't waste my time by trying to add me, because I will deny your request.

I have a truth box.

I encourage people to say things in my truth box.

When somebody says something nasty in it, I call them out and say they're a bitch chicken for not being able to say so to my face without hiding behind a veil of anonymity.

When somebody says something nice in it, I'm still curious as to who said it, but nice things are acceptable to say/do for people anonymously, unlike nasty things.

REASON:

Problems should be confronted face to face and talked about. It's not cool to say nasty things anonymously because it makes you a ball-lacking, ball-licking wuss.

Nice things, however, are fine to do/say anonymously. Look at Secret Santa, or white elephant. Nobody is at a disadvantage and nothing bad comes from doing/saying something nice anonymously, unlike the hurt feelings and dissonance created between a person and their social world which stem from mean anonymous expressions.

There is a third category of anonymous messages: those of concern.

Anonymous messages of concern are just as acceptable as those of niceness.

Sometimes it's difficult to approach an area of concern with a person face to face, because you may be concerned about something very personal in someone else's life. It may actually cause more harm to confront them about this personal concern face to face than it would be to let them know anonymously that somebody is concerned about their well-being.

Therefore:

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAY SOMETHING NICE IN SOMEBODY'S TRUTH BOX, GO RIGHT AHEAD AND DO SO! THE RECIPIENT WILL LOVE RECEIVING NICE MESSAGES, NO MATTER WHO THEY'RE FROM!

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAY SOMETHING NASTY IN SOMEBODY'S TRUTH BOX, MAN UP AND SAY IT TO THEIR FACE! YOU ARE NOT HELPING THEM BY TAKING THE WAY OF THE COWARD AND BEING MEAN BEHIND YOUR HAPPY LITTLE ANONYMOUS SAFETY VEIL!

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS A PERSONAL CONCERN YOU HAVE WITH A PERSON, YOU SHOULD FIRST DECIDE IF CONFRONTING THIS PROBLEM WITH THE PERSON WOULD CAUSE MORE HARM THAN GOOD! IF YOU DECIDE IT WOULD INDEED CAUSE MORE HARM THAN GOOD, GO RIGHT AHEAD AND LET THEM KNOW ANONYMOUSLY, BECAUSE NO MATTER WHO SAYS IT, LETTING THEM KNOW ANONYMOUSLY WILL SHOW THEM THAT SOMEBODY OUT THERE IS CONCERNED FOR THEM.

I'm so sick of bands who think it's cool to scream like everybody else.

1. Develop a singing voice

2. Sing

3. Screaming/growling is not singing

4. When you scream/growl you sound like everybody else that screams/growls

5. If you want your band to stand out and you want any sort of serious success beyond a short time, one-hit record that nobody will give a shit about in ten years, find a singer with a unique singing voice and don't try to fit in by screaming/growling

6. Occasional screaming/growling is fine as long as the majority of your vocals are actually sung

7. There is no reason for anybody to listen to your screaming/growling band because there are so many others out there that do the same thing

8. Success comes from uniqueness and originality

9. Screaming/growling is not unique

10. Screaming/growling is not original



Inspiration for this post provided by The Asylum: http://www.myspace.com/theasylum

Zip Code Ness: "I’m more of a radical. I want all forms of smoking to be illegal, and in particular illegal in public places. It’s bad for America’s health, and in my opinion smoking is just lame."

Zip Code Ness: "I’m not going to say that smoking pot is an avatar of Satan. That’s just silliness. Even I will admit that smoking is not against the Torah or the Bible or anything.

But still… I just really don’t like it"



EBsessor (myself in response): Let me explain something to you, my friend. We live in this country called The United States of America, or simply America, or even the U.S., for short. What America stands for is freedom, liberty, and the ability to live as you want to live without anybody governing your beliefs. What you’re standing for is hindering the way other people live so you can be happy and comfortable. You want to lay laws on everyone else’s lifestyles and market it back to them as “freedom”, but this goes completely against the principles this country was built upon, and what the country stands for. I’m inclined to say that this makes you quite unamerican, since you do not believe in freedom, but instead believe in the freedom to limit the freedom of others. These sorts of conservative, typically republican viewpoints are precisely what hinder this country from progressing and evolving into the haven of liberty it’s been striving to be since the day it was founded.

Illegalization of drugs, illegalization of gay marriage, and illegalization of abortion. These are all examples of a hinderance on personal freedom and the right to live as one wants to live so long as he or she is not harming or inconveniencing any other American citizen – along with his or her own personal freedom – in the process. With conservatives ruling this country, we continue to live under a governing system that lays laws on our beliefs and lifestyles, while restricting personal freedom, on the supposed grounds that the things they’re trying to outlaw are “for the good of the country”. That’s a clever scapegoat the conservatives have been using to justify their unamerican ways for a very long time, and people buy into it. Luckily, with somebody more liberal and truly American in the presidential office, the majority of the country is hoping for abolishment of these laws against personal freedom so we can all move forward and evolve into a better country.

Since Barack Obama has been in office, many primarily conservative states have answered in polls that they would support their own secession from the country to become their own, independant nation. What’s truly quirky about this is that most of these conservative states also claim to be some of the most nationalist, truly American states in the country; Texas, Georgia, mostly southern states. Yet, how can you claim to be so American and for the good of the country if you would support ripping the country apart state by state until we’re no longer The UNITED States of America, but instead various smaller nations? Keep in mind these are the very same people who want to keep their guns and keep the drugs, the gays, and the pro-choice folk (it may be noted that “choice” goes hand in hand with “freedom”) hindered. How American of them to want it all their way or the highway. How noble and nationalist of them to wish for us all to be the same as long as this sameness falls under their stict Bible-taught rules.

What we as a people need to be aiming for as a collective is not to BE a collective, but to be a nation of individuals who live as they choose using their Constitutionally-protected freedom. It’s time for change, and that’s why a black man with a name that sounds a bit similar to some of our biggest “terrorist threats” has been elected by the majority of the country’s population to be in power. A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. Names don’t matter. Skin color doesn’t matter. What matters is what the man stands for, and that is a change for the sake and promotion of liberty. For the first time since Clinton was in office, there is hope in America for us to reach for the freedom we’re supposed to be standing for, and that is what this country is all about.