"Belief or Lack Thereof" A Short Story.

 3 A.M. and I am still as tired as I ever was. I watch drops of rain fall out my window, illuminated by a porch light, outside my single wide trailer. I can't help but think that this lifestyle I have become accustomed to is no longer fun and is now very silly. I can go on a rant about how capitalism is wrong and we need to be our own masters, but that doesn't change the fact that the food I need to live still has to be bought at stores. The power I use to live is generated by people with the sole purpose of generating profit. I am trapped, Beneath the rubble of forced hypocrisy! I can't survive independent.
 This is the moment where I shockingly think they might have won. I can't believe it, but everything is telling me they have. I have thought for the last 3 years that at the best we have 6 or 7 months left until the collapse of civilization and my judgement has failed me. I guess it's time to admit it to myself, it's over. This one versus 7 billion war I am running against the world has crashed in on itself.
 Just as the moment of doubt surrounds me I hear a crash at the door.  I look over and I see a ram that has broken into my house. It starts rubbing it's feet against the ground looking straight at me. Knowing I only have moments before it eponymously completes the task of ramming me, I jump on my kitchen counter. My heart races as the beast's head hits the side knocking my coffee pot off.
 I look down hearing it grunt for my life. I look back for an exit, but I know if I got off the counter it would attack me. I look up and I think to myself "I know I stopped even consider praying to you sometime ago, but for Christ's sake God, you have to save me now".
 Just as I finish this thought my counter starts to creak and it collapses in on itself. I don't just fall through to the cabinets below...I keep falling, further, and further more, until I land on to the hardest most jolting surface ever. I am sitting, heart beating fast as I look around. I am back at my computer where I was minutes before contemplating my beliefs. I check my door it's normal, I check my coffee pot it's still in place, my counter is fine as well, no endless hole. I guess it's a dream, probably doesn't mean anything.

Going to Hell The Pretty Reckless Album Review

  I haven't published a post in quite sometime, and I decided to make a comeback, because one of the first bands I reviewed released a follow up. It's been nearly four years since The Pretty Reckless released their freshman LP, Light Me Up. I was a huge fan of it and then, the band just seemed to disappear. At a certain point I just assumed they broke up, until they started making some noise releasing a few radio singles. Then, promotion started heavy on their Sophomore album "Going To Hell". This started nearly 9 months of non-stop tweeting, touring, and facebook posts promoting the record. Finally after an agonizing waiting, Going To Hell has finally been released, but was it worth the wait or all hype?

 Back in 2010 when I reviewed, Light Me Up, it was this supercharged 90's throwback album. Everything sounded very Smashing Pumpkins, it was a great record, that got far too much negative attention, because of lead singer Taylor Momsen being an actress on the television show "Gossip Girl". With the show having ended in 2012, Momsen has since built TPR up to be something entirely separate from her acting career. With the release of the tonally different Going To Hell, Momsen and crew prove themselves to be an incredibly talented band.
 The sound they went for on Going to hell is far more 70's hard rock than anything. At times, it seems like Taylor is channeling Robert Plant and Rod Stewart all at the same time. Her voice isn't the only thing of note on this album, if you don't play air guitar to Ben Phillips' riffs or head bang to the amazing drum work by Jamie Perkins, you are not human.
 The album isn't all hard rock, there is definitely still an alt vibe throughout the whole album, and the last track "Waiting for a Friend" is a solid folk track. The only issue I have found with this near perfect record, is the fact that track 11 "Fucked Up World" sounds exactly like a Green Day song "Warning". That one critique aside, I have to give Going to Hell by The Pretty Reckless a 5 out of 5.


The title track single