Mayweather vs. Guerrero; Floyd 44-0

Well first off, I'm glad the boxing judges finally scored a fight right. No more Bradley or Canelo nonsense. For a second there I thought they were gonna pull another robbery on everyone.
The most amazing thing about tonights fight was the sheer speed of Mayweather. Training defence with his dad sure payed off cause he was literally untouchable. Offence wasn't to bad either... landed a little over 60%. Floyd seemed to be half a second ahead of every move Guerrero made. In video games terms, Mayweather was host and Guerrero was lagging on a T-mobile mobile hotspot connection. Alright maybe not THAT bad, but he was still lagging. I think Guerrero only landed about 30% or less of his punches honestly. Floyd played a good pure boxing game with Manny, tied him up a lot and got him pissed off and flustered. Floyds speed was just amazing tonight. Hes is deffinitely one of the greatest boxers to have ever lived. What Floyd said is exactly right, the less hits you take, the longer you last.

Sabian AAX X-plosion Crash Cymbals & X-treme Chinese Cymbal

I have only been drumming for about 9 years but in that time I have come to find that Sabian AAX cymbals are a great fit for me. Here's why. First off, everyone will tell you, if you want to be professional, you have to get yourself a pack of Zildjian A Customs or K Customs, however i find that the sound the AAX's give off is far more fuller and natural sounding. Although i do personally like the sound of K Customs for playing metal or darker sounding music, I don't believe they are as versatile as the AAXs. I play in two bands, a progressive metal band and and an alternative, post-rock indie band, and these cymbals are the perfect fit for these polar opposite genres.
One trait I love about them, is how full they sound. Even when using the bell or as a ride they give off a gentle nice sound but when struck hard, have a projection that in my opinion is unmatched. these are the cymbals you play arenas with. There's a reason why they named them x-plosion cymbals. I have owned a 15", 18" and 19" crash and a 19" X-treme Chinese cymbal.  A the crashes have been spectacular, and the bigger the better. The smaller ones like the 15" are great for quick accents but can still be used to crash on when needed. 
The best cymbal, is the 18". It has the perfect sound and pitch for, I think, everything. the bell is amazing, you can ride on it, sounds amazing when played with mallets or cool rods, and perfect for single cymbal hits or 4/4 crashing. If you haven't heard this cymbal I recommend you hit up a local music shop and check one out. One thing about all these cymbals that will make or break them for you, is they are very bright cymbals. The fast- crash versions of all the AAX cymbals are twice as bright and thinner(hence the brightness). So if you like darker warming sounding cymbals, you can still go out and get a 19" or larger, but just know its still going be bright. I personally love bright cymbals so these were a perfect match for me. I have nothing against Zildjian A Customs, but I just think they're too, initially gong and artificial sounding at times. If I was not playing Sabians I definitely would be playing the A Custom or K's.

One cymbal I do want to specifically talk about, is not an x-plosion, it is a Sabian 19" AAX-treme Chinese cymbal. This cymbal... I believe is the best china to ever be created by the hands of man. I first discovered it on the August Burns Red album, Messengers. I heard the amazing crash Matt Greiner was playing and had to find it. Low and behold, it was that cymbal, later I found out The Rev from Avenged Sevenfold, And Disturbed were also well known drummers who have used this cymbal. This cymbal is amazing for many reasons, some being its unbelievable loudness. I recommend wearing earplugs if you play one of these because you ears will be shot playing this thing. It is amazing for quick china accents with a snare or whatever you're playing and great for playing 4/4 on as well, as Matt Greiner does a lot. A lot of people are switch to the Zildjian Oriental China Trash which at first I thought was a pretty good sounding cymbal, but the sheer power of the X-treme Chinese just can't be outdone.

These cymbals usually run about $20-$40 cheaper than the leading A Custom Cymbal but I believe in less is more. One personal word of advice to drummers looking for cymbals: go big or go home. Don't waste your money on lower end cheaper cymbals when you could just save up the extra money and get some awsome dream cymbals. That's just my thinking. Especially if you're on a budget.

The ONLY flaw with these cymbals is they break pretty easily. BUT Sabian does offer a 2 year factory warrenty. They will replace any cymbal that gets busted within the time frame of 2 years from the purchase date, just make sure you keep the original packaging and receipt.

"Telle" Tyler Smith & The Word Alive

I recently saw The Word Alive live for the 3rd time and this time they really impressed me. They opened up with the fan favourite 2012, which was interesting because that is usually their encore song. They surprised me when played my favourite song Lights and Stones form their first album Deceiver, for a while there I thought they may have tossed it from their set for good after their new album Life Cycles dropped, which I'll make a few comments about further on. What really made respect TWA this time however was their front man, Telle Smith.


I don't know if he got better or if I wasn't paying attention last time or if the sound was better at this venue but for some reason, his vocals sounded AMAZING that night. I will also give him props because we were TWA's 2nd to last stop on their tour so that means his vocal chords should be worn out, but boy did he prove that idea wrong. His vocals sounded fresh and strong throughout the whole set and he displayed his highs and lows with ease, holding out all the ones he had to. His singing was also on point as well. His vocals in their song Lights and Stones are pretty tough to sing live and in the middle of the set but he pulled them off perfectly. Like I said I don't know what factors were at play last time but he definitely had his stuff down this night. On stage he's also really great with the crowd, trying to get everyone involved in their music, however off stage he is more secluded and sometimes will not come out for signings. For the most part though he will, but I guess the better you are the more people you'll have after you all the time and I could imagine you'd want a break from it after a while. The rest of the band including their newest member, drummer,  Luke Holland,

are always out around the venue talking, signing and taking pics with the fans. Its great when a band stays down to earth where their fans are.

Now about their new album. I wasn't completely satisfied with it and in my opinion didn't live up to its expectations, but that's pretty hard when your predecessor was Deceiver.  Being a drummer, I listen out for those parts a lot (obviously) and they were just not up to par with the rest of the album. Now, they did lose their old drummer whom wrote the parts in Deceiver, and Matt Horn did fill in, but I think that was a bad move. I understand they had a deadline to reach to release the album but I think it compromised the album causing the drums to be lacking. As a fill in drummer, you would just listen to what the rest of the band wants, you wont show your true flavor and style because you're a fill in, there's no need. However now that they have Luke as their set drummer, maybe their next album he will feel 100% part of the band, which he is, and bring in his style and writing potential into play. Maybe this will kick up the drum parts in the new album, because frankly, the ones in Life Cycles were boring. It was like they were just playing with a post-hardcore drum metronome. They didn't stand out on their own, but like I said in reality they shouldn't since it was a fill in drummer. So, yeah a bit of a vicious circle in a way.

One interesting thing a few people may not have considered is that TWA could easily pull off a style such as Periphery or Born Of Osiris if they wanted too. Maybe not as intense, but they could hold their own. If you have ever heard their song Smoke Monster than you'll know why I'm saying this. It was an interesting song they released whose first 2 minutes were very entertaining and fresh coming from them. I personally would become a bigger TWA fan if they went that direction, being that Life Cycles was a bit of a weak album for that style. Nonetheless, The Word Alive is a great band to watch live, they're one of the few bands who still play "face melting solos" and nail em live. Its not all processed studio magic. If you haven't heard them yet I recommend you check them out. TWA is a band full of talented musicians; lets see where they take their style too in their new album which will probably be recorded very soon.

Twenty One Pilots

My most recent discovery of weird and unique music was Twenty One Pilots, and they took the record for becoming one of my favourite bands in the shortest amount of time. I first listened to their song Guns For Hands and was amused with the fresh sounding electronics sounds and the vocals of Tyler Joseph who I will talk about in a second. What I thought was really neat was the fact that its only two guys performing this music and if you didn't feel it straight from the track, watching them perform is definitely what grabs the attention of anyone. They play with so much energy in the music video, and from other live video searches, at concerts and live events as well. Throughout the first 2-3 minutes of the song I was liking it, but what set them over the top was when the weird reggae beat kicked in and flipped the song followed by Tyler's rap.
Tyler's poetic background is what accounts for the very symbolic and in-depth lyrics he puts down; Tyler's lyrics may not be so easy to understand or grasp their meaning at first listen. Once one does peel apart his poetic lyrics however, you find the message and it is usually a good one. Tyler says his lyrics aren't about a girl or past love or anything cheesy, instead they allow you to come away with something, or not. I know there's some people that just want to listen to music and not have to decode anything or want to get fed a message, however, I personally enjoy Tyler's writing style and messages. Anyway if you want more on Tyler Joseph just look up interviews of him and you'll get an idea of who he is.

The next music video I saw from them was my personal favourite, Holding On To You. I think every second of this song is a masterpiece. The up-beat hi-hat keeps your head bobbing the whole way, holds up for the catchy chorus and then comes right back. What made this song for me was the long build up and then the drop: Tyler rapping a bar of lyrics, getting more and more energized every time and then just one more drop back to the chorus/bridge part. Which is another cool trait about Tyler's song writing, is he grew up not knowing that music had any rules so if you listen to Twenty One Pilots extensively, you'll soon realize that they aren't your average song arrangements and chord progressions. just one more thing to either love or hate about them. I can easily rank Holding On To You as one of my favourite songs.

Twenty One Pilots' strongest asset is their stage presence. Sure it's just two guys, but they make up for lack of members in crowd involvement and doing things to make sure you remember them when they walk off the stage. They put on a great show no matter how big or small the venue. Its hard to find bands that involve the crowd as much nowadays, but TWP does a fantastic job of making them a part of the show, even including their hometown crowd in on of their latest music videos, Car Radio. I can only say so much about this topic, but you just have to Youtube their live videos and see what I'm talking about.

Now, Twenty One Pilots has been signed to Fueled By Ramen for about a year now and they look like they're going to be taken care of. They're on a lot of Youtube channels aside from their own playing exclusive shows as well as their recent appearance on the 2013 MTV Woddie Awards. Their latest album release Vessel is starting to get circulated. If people can catch on to their new weird style, I can guarantee they're gonna explode, and their facebook likes ,and twitter followers will skyrocket. Be expecting them to hit your commercial radio within the next few months as well.

www.twentyonepilots.com