In My Head... or Something

Riley's Simple Guide To Happiness

2009-10-13T00:33:00.000-07:00

Step 1: Throw a Muse album on your turntable.

Step 2: Listen.

Step 3: I'm a fucking dork.

The Wisdom of Michael Scott

2009-07-26T23:25:00.001-07:00

"Bros before hoes." Why? Because your bros are always there for you. They have got your back after your ho rips yours heart out for no good reason. And you are nothing but great to your ho, and you told her that she was the only ho for you, and that she was better than all the other hoes in the world... and then... and then suddenly she's not yo' ho' no mo'.

40% material. right here.

2009-07-15T17:08:00.001-07:00

let the truth be heard, true love is absurd

2009-06-05T01:38:00.000-07:00

Things that fucking ROCK:

My Record Player:
So i got a free record player, and made it my mission on wednesday to get all the shit i needed to get it running. and i have been listening to records almost non-stop since. i havent been able to listen to my records for 3 or 4 months, and i am just re-realizing now that i have a totally badass record collection. pearl jam, pixies, queens of the stone age, radiohead, as well as weird shit like neil young's "trans", ELP's "tarkus" (which sounds like final fantasy battle music on acid)... needless to say im having a lot of fun with it.

Brian K Vaughn:
after reading the entirety of "y:the last man" in about a week and a half, seeing his name all of the credits of lost since season 3, and now in reading "ex machina", i think i can safely say that brian k vaughn is my favorite writer of anything, of all time. anything he writes is not only gold, but the most captivating gold ever to have eyes set on it. if muse is the undisputed greatest band of all time (which it is in my self contained little bubble), then brian k vaughn is the muse of the writing world. if everything in the world was written by brian k vaughn i would be the happiest person in the world.

Walking The Plank:
maybe this is overly self-indulgent, but my band Sordid Sentinels is working on an EP and our first song is now up on our myspace and facebook pages. anyone reading this has seen us live, so you know how awesome of a song "walking the plank" is. well our studio recording of it takes it to the next level. vocal harmonies, double tracked guitars, audible and awesome keyboard action... walking the plank has definitely been taken to the next level, and i hope you all enjoy it as much as we do.

Red Faction: Guerrilla:
the most fun ive had playing a game since bioshock (which, if you know me at all, is a tall fucking order). destructible environments have been little more than a gimmick in the first 2 red faction games. but in the new one... oh, man... every building in the game can be blown to hell. the world is your goddamn oyster. an oyster that is about to be blown the fuck up.

MUSE:
i know im very stereotypically a muse fanatic. not just a fanatic even, im a goddamn nutcase when it comes to muse, because they have some magical spell cast on me that just sucks me into anything they do and prevents me from saying any bad things about them. or so i thought. turns out there really just is nothing bad to say about them. they are musical geniuses. i havent given them a good solid listen in a couple months, and as i listen to them right now, i am re-realizing all the things that i love oh-so much about them. their new album should be here before mid-october... i have nothing but the highest hopes for what it could possibly contain. and i have no doubt that they will not only surpass my wildest expectations, but make my expectations look like shit in the light of what it truly is, which is the musical equivalent of the second coming of christ.

i like to hyperbolize when i am drunk, apparently.

*edit: also, rob liefeld is a piece of shit and can go fuck himself.

The Sea Was Angry That Day...

2009-06-01T00:07:00.000-07:00

i believe i can safely say that sordid sentinels will never again bless the seafarer bar with their presence. saturday was bullshit.

but walking the plank rocked.

c'mon c'mon

2009-04-08T00:47:00.000-07:00

'rescue me' at its finest

probably wont make much sense if youve never watched the show (so, everyone but my bro). but god damn, what a great scene and they couldnt have picked a more perfect song. the new episode cant download fast enough...

Take it Off

2009-04-06T02:40:00.000-07:00

for whatever reason, in the last month or so i have been probably OVERindulging in guilty pleasure type music. but the more i listen to it, the more i realize i really should not be guilty about it at all.

#1 - the killers
when i first heard 'mr. brightside' i thought it was stupid, but with an undeniable charm. when i first heard 'somebody told me' i thought it was one of the worst things i had ever heard. but somehow, the more i hear both songs the more i realize they are both brilliant songs. and in listening to those songs i have ended up listening to all of hot fuss many times and can say with no shame that it is a great album. super good pop hooks with an over-abundance of 80's nostalgia synth goodness. while im all for originality in music, sometimes retracing old grounds can yield pretty incredible results. mr flowers, while sounding relatively similar on every song, has a pretty good grasp on catchy melodies, and that has a lot to do with why their music is so much catchier than it really should be.

#2 - the donnas
from the very beginning, rock and roll has promised three things: sex, drugs, and rock and roll. but since the latter half of the 90's, it seems the the three pillars of rock and roll have been all but forgotten. 90% of the bands out there take themselves way too seriously and try way too hard to write shit that "means something". yeah, meaning is great and all that shit. but sex, drugs, and rock and roll are pretty awesome too. that is why i have come to love the donnas so much. blatantly sex-charged music with an affinity for guitar solos and the occasional drug reference thrown in for good measure... admittedly i have a severe weakness for a woman who plays an instrument. so a whole band of hot chicks who can rock my socks off? what chance do i have of resisting?

#3 chris cornell - scream
ok, along with 99% of the internet, when i heard chris cornell's new album was gonna be produced by timbaland, i screamed a very confused and angry WTF??!!! and upon hearing small samples of the songs i swore i wouldnt buy the cd when it came out. well come release day, surprise surprise, i bought the cd. after feeling so embarrased listening to it in the car (to the point where i had to roll my window up and turn the volume way down) i put it on my computer and blasted it in the comfort of my own home. and amazingly, i found myself not hating it at all. and actually, i think the majority of it is pretty good. its not exactly the kind of music i enjoy listening to the most. but for what it is, it is pretty great, and i am wildly impressed by cornell's ability to take his melodic ideas and meld them with a style so unlike anything he has ever lent his talents to. there is defintitely more than a part or two throughout the album that i really hate (like the backing robot vocals on the chorus of sweet revenge) (or the constant spray-paint bottle shit sound on sweet revenge) (basically, sweet revenge is just a really shitty song), but the album on the whole is pretty impressive on several different levels. it is far from the timeless perfection that is 'euphoria morning', but i think 'scream' can safely be declared a success.

Hail Hail the lucky ones...

2009-03-15T02:21:00.000-07:00

so we just rocked the shit out of Earl's in Seattle, pictures forthcoming. it was really fun playing to a packed room full of people who had no idea who we were and having them love us anyways. kind of validates the quality of our music in a way that all of our biased friends cant quite do, cause you know how that is. not to say that i dont value the opinions of my biased friends, cause you all rock.

speaking of rocking, i must now go to play resident evil 5 which (heres the tie-in) ROCKS!

i am eddie vedder!

2009-03-06T04:41:00.000-08:00

i thought i had something to say when i logged in here, but as it turns out, i really dont.

good night!

ps. i love pearl jam!

MORE tuesday thoughts! or wednesday, depending how you want to look at it.

2009-03-04T01:34:00.000-08:00

1. the prospect of playing a show in seattle excites me quite a bit. but i just realized... i HATE seattle! what does this mean?

2. watching a really old star trek TNG episode off josh's computer, and i really think riker's beard makes the character.

3. i am not the worst lyric writer in the world, as previously thought.

4. the new street fighter movie is sure to be terrible. but how can i say no?

5. the watchmen movie could possibly be terrible. but i kind of doubt it.

6. futurama makes me happy.

7. music makes me happy.

8. HAPPY!!!!

9. no, rick. i havent started 'y: the last man' yet.

10. still happy.

Regrets are for horseshoes and handbags.

2009-03-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

Who knew Tracy Morgan had so many valuable life lessons to teach me?

Yes, I WILL live every week like its shark week.

I love 30 Rock so much, I wanna take it behind a middle school and get it pregnant.

Life and Shit

2009-02-22T01:55:00.000-08:00

so ive never really taken a good listen to dinosaur jr, but for whatever reason i have felt compelled to check out every cd of theirs that ever comes into HPB. and just right now i am giving them the attention they so rightfully deserve. they are pretty great, and also have totally awesome album covers. like this one:

they rock. check them out.

im all situated at the new homestead, and so far it is pretty awesome. it is surprisingly liberating being totally on your own, and having good friends in the same house just makes things better. my room is totally badass and has everything i could want in it. i really miss eddie, but i have visitation rights so its not too bad. is it a bad thing that i miss him more than i miss clare right now?

who knows.

Oh my my, oh hell yes!

2009-02-13T15:10:00.000-08:00

excitement is on the horizon.

4 hours well spent, but...

2009-01-19T02:37:00.000-08:00

...is this a bad way of saying 'have all the space/time you need'?

http://rapidshare.com/files/185910141/hmbomt2.mp3.html

Thanksgiving Nuggets

2008-11-27T12:14:00.000-08:00

Customer: Do you guys by records?
Employee: Yes, everything you see in the store we buy.
Customer: Oh, well I didn't see any records.
Employee: They're right behind you.
Customer: *Looks behind him* Where?
Employee: *Pointing* Right there!
Customer: I'll take your word for it.
Employee: They are right behind you!
Customer: Well I don't even know what a record looks like, but i believe you.

All joking aside, it is thanksgiving. Which is awesome because it means good food, and also a good excuse to get all serious-like and tell people how much you appreciate them. So I am going to take this space to give a big Thanksgiving day thank you everyone reading this (read: all my new HPB homies, and my bro). You have all made me feel welcome and appreciated since day one, and you are all just super cool people who help keep me sane in what would otherwise be a madhouse of racism, laziness, walking sexual harrasment cases, and stupidity.

So yeah, thanks. And Happy Thanksgiving.

Rocking the Plank

2008-11-13T11:30:00.000-08:00

The Plague Doctors are now on Youtube!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAoSlEGvnmc

Chris and Josh make some epic "camera faces" so be on the lookout for those. More to come.

Also, speaking of plague doctors, there is another band in England called the Plague Doctors. And they kinda suck.

http://www.myspace.com/plaguedoctors

We have begun work on our own original songs, and what we have so far sounds pretty awesome. Theres some good old fashioned no-nonsense rock, some odd-timed riffage, dynamic soundscapes, and bringing down the house epicness. A little something for everyone. Everyone who likes awesome things, that is.

It will be mine...

2008-11-03T07:24:00.000-08:00

Oh yes...

It will be mine...

4 Days

2008-10-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

4 day weekends are awesome. Especially 4 day weekends culminating in a birthday. But now it is over and I really don't feel like going back to work. Oh well, does anyone ever really feel like going to work anyway? But i guess my job is pretty awesome, so whatev.

4 days until the Plague Doctors' first "official" show. I am very much looking forward to blowing some minds. Even though its just in my basement, I really feel like my longtime dream of being in a band is finally taking off.

I am in a very good place right now.

Until further notice...

2008-10-26T19:17:00.001-07:00

We are...

THE PLAGUE DOCTORS

Curing the world. One basement at a time.

Just because you're paranoid...

2008-10-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

Grunge needs to make a comeback...

That said, more band names:

Murgatroyd
The Argonauts
Former Saints
Brain Waves
Penguin Politics
Walrus Midnight
Crooked Walrus
Walrus Mortitian
Smooth Walrus And The Old School
Chafed Walrus
Walrus Hammer

I started out being serious, then i had a little bit of fun with a Band Name Generator. And walruses.

Ultra Puppy II - Electric Boogaloo

2008-10-10T09:58:00.000-07:00

Lost season 5 spoilers are already coming out, and some sites are a little too nonchalant about throwing them around with little or no warning. And although what I have read has gotten me increasingly excited for January, I am hereby cutting myself off from all Lost-related news sources. Why should you care? You probably shouldn't, and don't.

"YOU ALL, EVERYBODY!"

It really sucks coming up with a really cool band name, and then finding out that it is already taken. But some names that are free that I have been pondering...:

Prognosis: Negative (too Prog-sounding?)
Sweet Oblivion (too obvious?)
The Dharma Initiative (too dorky?)
Polliwog Tragedy (too 'WTF?'?)
Feast of Fools (too alliteration-y?)
Spastic Plastic (too rhyme-y?)
Aquatarkus (too awesome?)

Yeah, I don't know.

And lastly, I wish I was half as cool as this picture:

But sadly, I am not.

Exclusive Look Into the Mind of Sarah Palin

2008-10-02T23:02:00.001-07:00

No Better Place

2008-10-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the OFFICIAL blog of Kid Riley. Accept no substitutes.

FYI, if you haven't already, come check my band's myspace page. And now that we have a drummer, things are moving in full force. Expect to see us rocking the EQC in early-to-mid 2009.

CD currently rocking my socks off:

This album is a beast! It can not be killed!