It is currently 9:22 PM on Thursday; I am very tired from this week, but that is for next week's entry. I am watching Everybody Loves Raymond with my mom and I plan on finally finishing this blog and then going to bed. It is National Punctuation Day; God bless to the semicolon and misuse of it.

Last Tuesday, I listened to Dreamkiller276's new EP, "Nothing Sacred." It's a very cool EP; My favorite songs are "Blood Stained Teeth" and "Disgust." I also really like the opening track, “Knuckle Dragger,” which has a great creeping guitar riff. I am not a very reliable hardcore music reviewer - but Dreamkiller and their brother (or sister) band, Sex Agenda are some of my favorite HxC music that I've ever listened to. I think the whammy effects on a lot of Ty's riffs are really cool. I will say that Shawn, Ty, Will and their drummer (I apologize for not knowing his name) are some of the sweetest and most supportive guys towards Deaththreads. I hope to hang out with Shawn, Ty, and Will at some point in the near future when my work settles down - but one can only hope that my work settles down.

Anyways, Tuesday after work I saw Kyra and we went up to my buddy Erik's house to celebrate (pretty much) completing the album and finish one more noise track (I'll specify in a sec). We all went to dinner at Wasabi Fusion and it went really well, it was nice to see Erik and spend time with Kyra. After dinner we went back to Erik's house and we recorded that noise track which was a pencil microphone and then we recorded the mixer's feedback. We had to be real particular about how we moved the mixer's knobs but overall I think we did an alright job and then after I left I edited the noise to be more paletteable.

The big thing about the last (bandcamp) song for the new album is that I wanted it to just be "almost silent noise," the best word would be that the track is "lowercase music," which is true. I'm excited for it because it reminds me a lot of the end of "song for ur dog" from the last album. Anyways, me and Kyra parted ways from Erik and then I dropped Kyra off and then I headed home and went to bed.

On Wednesday, I listened to Blue Shell's new EP, "I Feel So Far." This was our first thing other than a single we had released since our first album in 2023. The album is really well put together - this is mostly the efforts of the other members - I hope for the next album I'm a little more present - I think Kyle has been wanting me to push a little more into Blue Shell; I think I unintentionally don't mention Blue Shell in like the few interviews I've done, but I think this is an unconscious thing. I think one of things that I love playing in Blue Shell the most is that I didn't write the songs, that the songs come from somewhere else. This is hard to explain to anyone who isn't really in the same boat, but it's a blast to play songs that aren't yours, especially when (as I was prior to 2022) you are used to playing your own songs and dealing with the nervousness that that entails. Anyways, this is a long winded way of saying that my primary enjoyment from Blue Shell has always been helping out Ryan and Kyle's artistic vision. Now I do think that this has changed with the addition of Dylon, our drummer, who is of the same age demographic as Ryan and Kyle (27-30) and music culture and ties in all of us. I do think, however, that I do need to be more involved because I worry I unintentionally come off as dismissive or uninterested. The truth is, I have been through a lot with Kyle and Ryan and Dylon (although with Dylon it's a little different since he is new, but weirdly I've known him the longest through when I did Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) and Blue Shell saved me in a lot of ways - I was just coming out of my extreme depressive ideation and learning bass line after bass line was exactly what I needed. Even as my isolation became all encompassing during that 2022 period of my life - I always had a show or a message to look forward too. Apologies for the ramble - but I really like the songs and the mix was very good. I've heard all the songs many times, too many times to really provide any thoughts on them (if that makes sense) and I'll touch on the songs briefly when I discuss our release show. Another than this, that was about it for my Wednesday.

On Thursday, I worked until I didn't. Nothing really of note happened.

On Friday, I went to work. Unforunately a main waterline broke in my office so my day was spent rescheduling and organzing the mess the waterline break caused before going to Kyra's house. It should be of note that I started to develop a cold, this will be important later. I had a slight sore throat but for the most part I was fine and I was also just a little snotty.

Anyways, I went to Kyra's and I helped her move into her new apartment. Kyra is having quite a debocale moving into her apartment and one of the things she needed to do was give her rat to her friend to take care of. It's a pretty nice deal Kyra struck up between her and her friend; basically our rat (Ghost) is 2 years old and Kyra's new apartment does not allow animals so she had to give him away and her (Kyra) giving the rat away to her friend allows Kyra to see Ghost everynow and then. Ghost is pretty grouchy, so he probably doesn't mind and probably just wants to be left alone.

Kyra made a little cot out of some blankets and a plastic container for Ghost to lay in during the drive; We listened to the first track from Brian Eno's Music for Airports. It was a pretty somber drive - me and Kyra got Spooky (now deceased) and Ghost during the first time we dated so the contrast between the drive of us as slightly younger and bitter and confused with the baby rats during our first relationship to us now during the second round, with what I hope is a better and healthier understanding of us as people and Ghost in his old age. There was also an interesting sort of metaphysical of spending most of your life in one place with a brother (or other close relationship with an extreme close bond) and leaving that place without the brother only to realize how big and vast the outside world is. Kyra cried and I certainly got choked up, but I told her that Grief is a last gift to prove our love was real. I don't think Ghost really cared about any of this - he's sort of a grumpy old man, which is charming/endearing in it's own way. I will say with my small intellect regarding rats is that if one buys a pair of rats that one will typically be more active than the other and that the more active rat usually passes away first. Kyra helped move Ghost into her friend's house and then we went dropped some more stuff to her apartment and then I dropped her off at her house and then I drove home and went to bed. Just before going to bed, I started to feeling sick like I had a cold or some sinus issues.

When I woke up on Saturday, I felt pretty bad - my sinuses were a mess and I had a slight sore throat. My morning wasn't too of note - I spent a little time doing schoolwork and I went to pick Kyra up from work at about noon. I picked Kyra up at work and then dropped her off and headed on to our drummer Dylon's house. I arrived and talked to Ryan and Dylon until Kyle arrived and we practiced our set and then headed onto the venue (which was a tattoo shop). I picked Kyra up and we had a nice drive to the venue.

Upon arriving, me, Kyra, and all of the Blue Shell crew had a good time setting up for the show. We killed some time before the show by going to a nice brewery. There was a guy named Evan who was really nice and I was glad to see. My friends Evan, Blake, and Jarrod were there and it was very nice to see them because I think they are very cool guys. I also saw my buddy Adam, who is a music teacher and is one of the nicest guys. My buddy Sam and Other Sam also arrived soon after. Sam (not Other Sam) made Blue Shell a cake for our new EP, which is super sweet and it was a very good vanilla cake. There was also 3D printed Blue Shell Cake Toppers, which I thought was super cool as well.

The first band to play was Rancor, which is our drummer and guitarist's hardcore band. They were very good and I really enjoyed seeing them play. It was a very fun but serious set and the energy was great and I really liked their riffs and it made me want to learn how to write hardcore riffs.

The second band was No Place Else, which is called our sister band. They make Easycore and it was very cool. All 5 guys from NPE are very good friends with me and they've blended a lot more metal influences into their music, which sounds really cool. I need to fully listen to their EP, but I’ve enjoyed all of their songs. I really enjoy their singer, Dalton Boggs’s solo folk project under his name.

During the breaks me and Kyra went to the car to cool off.

The third band was Together Lost was very good. They’re a proggy metal band with some catchy choruses. They’re all very fancy and/or put together guys which makes the songs feel really cool and tight and sophisticated.

Blue Shell’s set went very well. It was our EP release show and I was very excited for our set. It had already been quite a day and I was ready to perform, which we all day. We had a really good set and I didn’t mess up too much - my hand did cramp up quite a bit. I did pull a trashcan towards me incase I felt the need to throw up. I was really enjoying playing these songs and finding different things to love about all of the songs. We played three songs from our first round of releases; Airport, Optimus, and Enemies. All 3 of these were very nostalgic and fun to play and overall it was a great set that I couldn’t do justice of how much I enjoyed playing.

After the last song I threw my bass around as I do, however there was call for an encore. We had actually planned for an encore, so I made sure I was tuned and good to go and we played the song Your Deep Rest by the Hotelier. I have listened to this song in my daily life and it’s sort of a wonky song as far as bass lines go because there’s not enough to keep you engage yet there is too much to really bounce around - however I do make it work. This song I enjoy playing, but that’s just something I noticed. I will say, in the end, playing YDR was ultimately worth it - I saw a friend of mine, I won’t name him as I don’t want to spread his business, but he was crying during the song. This is a very song so I understand completely; I hugged him during the rest, and it was a very sweet, photo worthy moment but I hope he know I meant that hug from one person to another. I remember listening to YDR over and over again around 2021-2022 during the worst of my depression (see Christian Science by deaththreads. for more information about this depression) and being miserable and I’ve come a long way from that (I hope) and I really connected with my friend in that moment.

After our set, I dropped my bass because I was unsure if I was gonna puke or not - I went to the outside exit and got the fresh hair I needed, which was nice. This was my last moment of semi good health as from here on out my sinuses felt horrifically inflamed and my head was on the brink of exploding. My dramatic description at the time was that it felt like there was a billion tiny papercuts near and around my sinuses and they were in the painful stages of healing. This followed me during the entry process of packing up.

All of blue shell decided that me and Dylon would bring all the equipment to his (Dylon’s) house. Dylon’s girlfriend got a flat tire so I ended up putting the amps up, which I wasn’t too worried about. I definitely reached my physical limit whilst driving and worried (not too much) about falling asleep at the wheel, but I made sure to keep the air really cold to keep me awake. My dad used to do that when I would ride with him to Huntington in the early mornings when I was a kid.

I made it home at about 1 AM and took a shower and then Kyra made a spot for me to sleep in. I slept like a Victorian Plague patient. When I woke up I would end up not going to church (my cold was pretty bad) and I would spend the day recovering at my mom’s house.

I’m very happy with the Blue Shell EP and I’m very happy to be friends with those guys after song long; I love each one of them and I can’t wait to make more music with them.

Goodbye.