Hellooooo everyone and welcome to another issue of Woman Crush Wednesday! This week the coveted honor of being Lil Red’s Woman Crush goes to…..GWEN STEFANI!!!
^^^ AYYY! #WCW
Dear Gwen Stefani,
Oh sweet Gwen, you beautiful little starlet! I so admire your talent and your amazing fashion endeavors. I had the pleasure of seeing you perform in No Doubt when I was fifteen and was blown away by your show-woman-ship and rockin bod. So for that, it is only fitting that you receive a hubba hubba! Everything that you do, I love – fronting No Doubt, your solo career, coaching on The Voice, and all of your amazing clothing lines. I have countless Harajuku Lovers purses and fragrances as well as your perfume for L.A.M.B.! You are so fabulous and creative and I always look to you for celebrity style inspiration. Thank you for giving me music that I can sing poorly to while driving the Little Red Love Machine. Thank you for creating clothing lines to bring some of your flawless style to a gal in Akron, Ohio. And thank you very much for creating fragrances that keep me smelling “Yummy” on the daily! I LOVE YOU!
^^^ She’s so gorgeous I just can’t even! And miss thang can rock a red lip like no other! Hoochie mama. :*)
So there you have it, my Woman Crush Wednesday: Gwen Stefani Edition! I hope that all of you are having a fabulous Hump Day! Who’s your Woman Crush Wednesday? What’s one of your favorite creative endeavors from Gwen Stefani? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Heyyy everyone and happy Thursday! I had a really fabulous night last night with my sister Kristen and her satanic dog Winston at Bark At The Park. Akron, Ohio’s minor league baseball team the Rubber Ducks play at Canal Park in downtown Akron and two times during the summer, you’re allowed to bring your pup to the game with you. Last night was obviously one of those nights so we got ourselves ready, packed up the devil dog, and was on our merry way! Now you guys may be thinking “Winston looks so cute, there’s no way that he’s as bad as Sarah says he is”. BUT on contrare – he’s literally the worst dog ever! Yes, he’s cute but he’s the biggest yippy yappy brat in the entire world! He loves to bite, bark, growl, and just be flat out annoying. The only person who he likes in my family is Kristen so the rest of us our left to suffer at the paws of a twelve pound dog. SHAMEFUL! Anyways, we got to Canal Park with Winston in tow, purchased our tickets, and found our seats in the “dog friendly” section of the park. Throughout the walkway there were huge kiddie pools filled with water and loving owners walking their tiny, small, medium, and flat out huge four legged (and sometimes three legged!) friends. Winston had a blast getting his hump on and smelling a bunch of butts and Kristen and I had a great time too! We weren’t paying attention to the game at all, so I couldn’t tell you anything about that but we had an awesome time enjoying each others company, petting dogs, looking at dogs, being a dog, and taking a million batrillion selfies! Take a look:
^^^ I LOVE US!!! Our evening at Bark At The Park was seriously so much fun – much more than I thought it would be because I wasn’t too keen on going originally but Kristen talked me into it and I’m so glad that she did! Once we got home from the game, the good times just kept on rolling because one of my favorite guys took me out for a night of drinking and good old fashion tom foolery. White girl wastedness definitely happened and lots of wonderful moments were shared between my handsome devil and I! So yeah, it was a pretty swell night – and after my shit show of a birthday I think I deserved it! All of these outings with my friends has helped take away the birthday blues and I’m feeling much better about the whole situation – especially when drinking heavily is involved! 😉 The big 2-1 is finally here… It started off rocky but it’s been vastly improving as the week goes on which you better believe I’m beyond happy for!!
I hope all of you are having a fabulous day so far! Does any of the sports arenas you live by have an event similar to Bark At The Park? And also, does anyone have any recommendations on how to ease the god awful itch of mosquito bites? I got bit up last night and I basically wanna tear my skin off right now – that’s how bad they itch! I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Hello everyone and happy Tuesday! Because I was away this weekend, I didn’t get to write about the beautiful afternoon my best friend Kate and I had last Thursday at the Akron Zoo! The weather in Akron was absolutely perfect for a zoo excursion, so best believe I broke out a sun dress and some fun wedges for the occasion! We had some lovely quality time roaming the park and the aquarium and making friends with the animals which Kate captured on her mom’s fancy camera. All photo credit on this post goes to Kate Powell, and shout out to her because she did an amazing job! Take a look:
Featured Image photo: LLAMA LLAMA LLAMA LLAMA LLAMA!!!!!
Picture 1: Cute little birdy in the aviary! Honestly all of the birds in the Akron Zoo’s aviary set up were birds that I could see in my backyard, but that’s okay because they were still fun to look at! The aviary is laid out like a tree house that looks over the entire zoo, complete with a rickety wooden bridge. Love it!
Picture 2: The grizzly bear in this pic was gnawing at a fallen tree like nobody’s business. Hey, a bears gotta eat. The bear eating the log looked very similar to me when I’m eating Taco Bell, therefore the grizzly bear is one of my many spirit animals. (Lil Red Fun Fact: My number one spirit animal is a peacock!)
Picture 3: Ahhhh that goat was the cutest – and I must say my nails look fantastic in that picture! There’s an adorable barnyard section at the Akron Zoo complete with goats and sheep that you can feed and pet, and I especially bonded with the little sweetie in this picture! :’)
Picture 4: Spotted! A wild Sarah!
Picture 5: This tiger pic is mine and Kate’s favorite. Kate captioned this photo “Lunch a la toddler” because there was a little kid standing by us when Kate snapped this shot, and the tiger is definitely looking at something pretty longingly! And let’s talk about those eyes! So gorgeous!
Picture 6: I’m also very fond of this photo of the majestic looking lion. He had his tongue hanging out for most of our time looking at him, and it looked so ridiculously goofy and I loved every minute of it!
Picture 7: Lololol, Kate captioned this pic “The Introvert” and that pretty much sums up this big guy. Every time I see a tortoise I always have a fantasy of climbing up on top of its shell and riding around on it cowgirl style…A girl can dream, right?
Besides all of the gorgeous animals that you can see, the Akron Zoo also has lots of fun stuff to offer like their carousel and a clear plastic slide that takes you through the watery otter exhibit. One thing that Kate and I particularly enjoyed was the touch tank in the aquarium. We got to feel up some stingrays, a crab that I forget the name of, and a chocolate chip starfish. The stingrays did not feel like what I was expecting them to feel like at all – they were really silky and velvety as opposed to the greasy and slimy that I was expecting. Despite all of the amazing exhibits and activities, The Akron Zoo is relatively small and Kate and I got through the entire zoo in under two hours. If you’re ever in the Akron area and are looking for a fun way to spend your afternoon, I can’t recommend the zoo enough!
So there you have it, my Akron Zoo Adventure. Is there a zoo near you in your neck of the woods? What is it like? What’s the best zoo that you’ve ever been to? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Heyyyy everyone! So as you can see by my featured image, it’s super hot in good ol’ CFalls, Ohio right now. It’s our first summer like day of the year, so what better way to celebrate than by having a little Popsicle party?! Take a look:
My mom got these super delicious jelly bean flavored Popsicles from the grocery store and I’m pretty obsessed. My sweet treat didn’t last too long in the eighty-six degree heat, however! About two minutes after this picture was taken it started melting like crazy! This little impromptu photo shoot was fun and as usual, here’s the break down of each item that I’m wearing in my OOTD!
Bad Ass tank: PacSun, Volcom
Shorts: Kohl’s, So
Wedges: Kohl’s, Apt. 9
Daisy aviators: PacSun
And in case you were wondering about the black lace poking out from beneath my tank top, that’s actually my bra not a bandeau, and it was purchased from Victoria’s Secret!
I’m very excited that it’s finally nice and warm in my neck of the woods, but I’m hoping it cools down just a little! My ideal temperature would be in the high 60’s or low 70’s. When it gets really hot out, I can literally feel my pale skin melting off…Now I know how my cherry Popsicle felt in the heat today! The lovely sunny weather that Ohio has coming up officially means that summer and most importantly my birthday (ha!) are on its way – and this lil lady is freaking pumped!
I hope the weather is terrific where ever you guys are at right now. Is it warm? Chilly? Just right? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Helloooo everyone and Happy Monday! So as you guys know I had a pretty rough few days this weekend, but thanks to a glorious Saturday night hang out with my best friend/soul mate Kate (whom you should know all about!), I’m feeling much, much better. Sometimes all you need is an evening of girl time to shake the blues away. We had an eventful night of:
Telling each other our sob stories while drinking the most delicious hard cider I’ve ever had in my life.
Deciding it would be a good idea to finally see 50 Shades of Grey to help cure #50shadesofdepression, so we drove off to the only movie theater in our area still playing it. We then decided it would be a good idea to get some mini bottles of wine to sneak into the theater (because 50 Shades of Lame is definitely a movie you need to watch while drinking wine), so we went to Target and picked out some fabulously delicious Barefoot Bubbly Pink Moscato baby bottles.
After we got our dranks, we changed our mind on the movie and came up with the brilliant idea to go to a nature park to enjoy the great outdoors while sipping on our bubbly. So we went back to Kate’s apartment to get a blanket in case we wanted to sit down and some to go coffee mugs filled with ice to put our drinks in. Then we headed off to the Gorge, which is a hiking trail right near Kate’s living quarters.
Once we got to the trail we saw that it was jam packed with people because it was one of the first really nice days in good ol’ Akron, Ohio (#represent). So we decided that until the park cleared up a little we would sit in my car (AKA The Little Red Love Machine AKA #TLRLM) and smoke cigarettes, drink our vino, and listen to One Direction. (I’m just now realizing how antisocial that sounds, haha!)
After some down time in my whip we decided to walk to the overlook area that the trail has where you can gaze at the dirty Cuyahoga River #EW. Keep in mind that I had no idea Kate and I would be anywhere near a hiking trail today, so I had to walk there in my beloved black lace up Vera Wang wedges. I felt like such a goon, but hey, a gals gotta do what a gals gotta do.
We admired the filthy and flammable river for a while and then walked back to my car to refill our drinks. Best believe I’ll have buns of steel from that trek on the trail in wedges! So once we got back to the car we both had to pee like no other, so we made a dash back to camp to empty our bladders before hitting up Swenson’s (AKA the best thing that Akron has to offer) for a late dinner.
We got our food to go and then went back to the headquarters one last time so we could watch Parks and Rec while enjoying our food and some best friend cuddling! :*)
My best friend evening with Kate was honestly one of the best nights I’ve had in weeks, and I needed it so bad. I’m no longer a bummed out wreck over some of my sob stories that occurred this past weekend and for that I am so thankful! It’s seriously amazing how one evening of drunken tom foolery with your bff makes all of your problems seem so much less significant than they did initially. I feel like I’m ready to take on the world, and I have my partner in crime to thank for that! ❤
I hope all of you guys are having a fabulous Monday! I’m off to start a ten page research paper, so hopefully all of you are doing something much more enjoyable! Where are all of my fans of The Following at? How excited are you for tonight’s new episode?! I for one am stoked! I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Hey! Good news, I’M ON SPRING BREAK!! But unfortunately, it doesn’t feel like spring quite yet in good ol’ Akron, Ohio (#represent) because there’s still an ungodly amount of snow on the ground. -___- Luckily, it’s warming up a little bit so fingers crossed that all of the snow blanketing my homeland will melt away pronto! All I want to do is wear a dress without tights, is that too much to ask for?! My sister Kristen and I went on a walk yesterday at one of Ohio’s lovely hiking trails the Beaver Marsh, and it was basically like trekking through the tundra. We were out of breath, tired, and slightly damp from throwing snowballs at each other…but we managed! Here’s a few PicStitch collages that I created of our excursion:
Now you guys might be thinking “that looks so pretty and picturesque!” But I’m thinking “this snow better fucking melt ASAP before I loose my mind.” I’m experiencing spring fever like no other and the only prescription is green grass and sunshine. Akron is truly a winter wonderland of AWFUL right now and I’m so over it it hurts! I have hella homework to finish up before I can fully enjoy my break of sitting around and doing nothing, so like I mentioned in my last post, I’ll be M.I.A. minus a few short and sweet entries. So this is me checking in and wishing you all a fantastic day! This is also me procrastinating a little bit before I buckle down and do some math homework….at least I’m honest! OH btw, I got the first math test we took back today and I got a B!!!! I’ll take it! YAY SARAH!
Well, I must be off, so I will talk to you all very soon! But before I go, what’s the weather like where you’re at right now? If it’s sunny and warm, I’m jealous of you by default. Do any of you have any wild spring break plans? I’d love to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
PS: My featured image is a lovely view of my sister from behind! Nice ass! 😉
I had an absolutely magical night yesterday thanks to my beloved best friend Kate, whom you guys know all about! For my Christmas gift, Kate got me tickets to see 2Cellos – AKA two hot guys playing classic rock and looking fine as hell. Last night was the night of the concert and we celebrated the belated holiday with a bang! To start the evening we went to the mall and did a little shopping, while sipping the most sub par coffee ever from Starbucks – but that’s okay! After an hour or so of perusing, it was off to dinner at Bravo, an absolutely delightful restaurant right across from the mall. I had never been there before and it was so delicious!! Bravo is an Italian restaurant, and it’s like a step up from the Olive Garden. I got the Penne Mediterranean and it was so insanely good! Penne pasta with a butter garlic sauce, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, and feta cheese. YUM!!! After a beautiful meal it was off to EJ Thomas Hall, which is a stunning concert hall located near the University of Akron. As soon as we neared the university, the traffic was insane (it was a sold out show, so that explains it)! Luckily, Kate goes to Akron U, so she knew a super secret parking spot and we were able to beat the crowds of people waiting to park. Mwahaha. It was a bit of a trek to EJ Thomas, and it was freezing cold out! I instantly regretted wearing a maxi skirt and my beloved Vera Wang wedges…but not really – beauty is pain. Once we got into the warmth of the theatre, we found our seats, which were the most PERFECT nosebleed seats ever. Like seriously, they were amazing. We were smack dab in the middle of the row and we were essentially looking down on the stage so we could see everything perfectly! At EJ Thomas we were joined by Kate’s sister Erika and their lovely family friend Donna, whom I had never met before but heard amazing things about so that was such a treat! Here’s a few of the pre show selfies Kate and I took:
^^^^ I LOVE US!!!!
Anyways, the 2Cellos show was nothing short of phenomenal! The studs in my featured image picture are from Croatia and it’s safe to say that I’m in love with both of them. Throughout the night, the boys played some classical numbers, but mainly played cello versions of classic rock, like U2, Guns n’ Roses, AC/DC, Nirvana, and Michael Jackson. The music was astounding and the light shows put on were great as well. The best part of the night was when the beautiful blokes played their version of U2’s “With or Without You” which is mine and Kate’s favorite. We held hands (even though both of ours were super sweaty) the entire time and it was such an amazing moment to share with my best friend. Another awesome part of the performance was when they did a medley of Michael Jackson songs, including “Smooth Criminal” which was SO COOL!! The lights that were used during that number was perfect – bright whites and dark blue. WOOF! Needless to say, the music was impeccable, the night was lovely, and the boys of 2Cellos were so hot that they literally made me clutch my pearls. What more could a girl want?
^^^ Posted above are some of my favorite covers that 2Cellos performs, which I was lucky enough to see last night! If you enjoy good music, please PLEASE give these videos a watch….it will blow your mind!
So there you have it, mine and Kate’s late Christmas celebration extravaganza! We had such a beautiful time and I’m so lucky to have her as my best friend, partner in crime, and soul mate. Have any of you guys heard of 2Cellos before? What’s your favorite cover that they do? I’d love to hear from you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much Love. – A Very Happy Sarah
Hey guys! I don’t know what the weather is like in your neck of the woods, but it absolutely SUCKS in good ol’ Akron, Ohio. It’s snowing like hell out and I had a super truamatizing drive this morning. I was supposed to help out at a therapeutic drama class for kids on the autism spectrum, but unfortunately that didn’t happen, because my car got stuck on the side of the road. -____- STORY TIME: So, I was driving to the theatre and everything was going fine and dandy, the roads were complete shit, but the Little Red Love Machine was pulling through as best as she could. About half way through my drive to the theatre there’s a huge hill that you have to go up, and the car behind me was riding my ass SO HARD. I kid you not, he was at least two feet away from the back of my car and all the while it’s snowing like mad and the roads are barely driveable. About half way up the hill, my car lost all of her power and I was inching along slowly but surely. At this point the car behind me is about one foot away from my rear end and I start to panic. I knew that if this car was behind me for one more minute he would more than likely hit me, so I swerved my car out of the way and ended up getting stuck on the side of the hill. What really pissed me off was that as soon as I made the swerving motion with my car the asshole behind me cut me off, barely missing the Little Red Love Machine. So here I am now, seething and scared on the side of a massive hill. I do the only thing that I can do, I call my mom. She gives me the number for AAA and they told me there would be at least a four hour wait for someone to come help me get my car unstuck and ain’t nobody got time for that! After I got off the phone with AAA I noticed two other cars that had to pull over to the road side because of the driving conditions. About five minutes later, a plow truck spun out on the road about twenty feet in front of me – it was pretty scary! Luckily, a police man drove by shortly after, probably to take care of whatever happened with the plow truck and came to my rescue. I told him what had happened and he told me that he would turn his car around so he could help me out. He drove off, came back, and parked his car. The kind soul got out of his warm vehicle and helped direct the flow of traffic, then once all was clear he gave me directions on how to manuever my car back onto the road. Thanks to this amazing officer, my car was back on the road within minutes, and I made my way back home. It was an extremely terrifying situation to be in, and this is a PSA to everyone: Don’t ride someones bumper in this type of weather! It’s an asshole move no matter what the conditions are outside, but it’s down right dangerous to be ass riding when it’s damn near blizzarding outside. Smh. To give you all a feel for what it’s like in the 330 right now, here’s a few pictures that I took from my window:
^^^ UGH.
This is Lil Red urging all of you to stay safe, whether that be on the road, at home, whatever. This morning was an absolute nightmare, and I’m so thankful that I’m okay. What’s the weather like where all of you are at right now? I’m curious and I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love and stay warm! -Sarah
Whatsup guys! Hope you’re all having a fabulous day! I’ve had an absolute blast listening to one of Akron, Ohio’s newest bands on the scene, Millstone. They’re releasing their debut album in March, and I was lucky enough to get a first listen to their debut “The Dreams We Don’t Remember”. There’s just so much that was working really well on this ambitious alternative album (yay alliteration!) and I’d love to discuss everything and more with you guys!! I’d especially like to discuss some of the songs that are available as a sneak peak on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MillstoneMusic. Please make sure you press that “Like” button and show them some love!!! (PS: The songs currently available can be seen when you click on BandPage on their Facebook page!)
Millstone: This is the opening song to “The Dreams We Don’t Remember” and I absolute adore it. I’m very fond of albums that begin with an introductory song. (Like “Miseria Cantare: The Beginning” from AFI’s “Sing The Sorrow”! Hello!) Anyways, I love that this track gave me a feel for the rest of the album in under three minutes. That’s genius. From one simple song I got a feel for the vocal style used through out the album which just screams “early 2000’s alternative” to me, and I’m so into it. To those of you who have read my blog before, you’ll know how much I love Bear Hands, and this song reminded me so much of their “Moment Of Silence” in the best way ever. Solid, solid opener.
Cheer Down: Yes. Hell yes. this song is what I would consider a “filler song” on the album since it’s so short and sweet. But that’s what I like about it. I love when bands take their filler songs seriously, as opposed to just a dumb track of them talking or making fart noises with their armpits. One of the lyrics that really stuck out to me in this song was “I don’t want to feel exposed, I like the me that no one knows”. That’s fantastic. I’m sure everyone has felt that way at some point or another. I know I have. There’s so many little quirks and struggles that I deal with that I wouldn’t want anyone but me knowing about. But I like it that way, and this lyric captured that love of introversion to the T. This song was jam packed with content for an under three minute track, and to me that just shows how serious Millstone was about making this album a hard hitter. It definitely packs a one-two punch track after track. POW POW!
Suits and Sighs: “Dreams are for the dreamers, reality is much meaner”. #TRUE. This song definitely touches on some depressing subjects, perfectly invoked through the lyric “we’re living just to die”. But the good news is, I LOVE DEPRESSING SUBJECTS!!! If there’s one thing I love (more than depressing subjects 😉 ) it’s when the band members sing the lyrics in a round, so it made my heart very warm when I heard this the first time I listened to this track. “Suits and Sighs” is another short but sweet song, clocking in at barely over three minutes. I honestly would have loved to hear more from this song, because I really liked the vocals and the vibe that was created. Unfortunately, I feel like it got cut short just a smidgen. Thirty more seconds and it would have been perfect!
Making New Friends In Hell: First things first: LOL at the title. Second of all, this track is just about half way there to me. I would have really loved to hear just a bit more screaming in this song, because I feel like the name of this track in itself calls for a bit of the ol’ emo screamo. That opinion doesn’t take away from a great effort though! And what does my stupid opinion matter anyway?! 😉
Second Impact: The final song available for a sneak peak from Millstone happens to be the final song on the album. One of my favorite things about the lineup of songs featured on “The Dreams We Don’t Remember” is how it begins and ends with a short song. I love that both the opening and closing track were kind of slower paced, because it really gives you time to reflect on what you’re about to hear and what you just heard as the album comes to a close. While listening to “Second Impact” I thought about just what an impact this album had on me. I was blown away by the talent and ambition of the band for one. But I was also so impressed by the time it took for this album to become what it is today. One of the members of Millstone, Adam Jones told me that they’ve been working on “The Dreams We Don’t Remember” for three years – and I can tell. All of the songs feel so nurtured to me. And by that I mean, they’ve been worked on and reworked on until the band felt that they were perfect, which I respect so very much.
Of course the other songs on “The Dreams We Don’t Remember” won’t be available for your listening pleasure until the beginning of March, but I can tell you a bit about what I really liked about this album. The main thing that stuck out to me while I listened and relistened to these tracks was the lyrical content. I got a very AFI vibe from some of the lyrics, like “I gave you my life and it lingers” in one of their mid album songs “Sparrow”. Another lyric that really stuck out to me, and that might be kind of lame to some of you guys was “I’m glad I know that you never cared” from one of my favorite songs on the album “It Hurts”. I know what some of you might be thinking “I’ve heard this lyric before, blah blah blah”. Well guess what, so have I – but that doesn’t take away the impact that a simple statement like that makes. Have you ever been cheated on? Broken up with? Stood up? I can answer yes to all three of these questions, and I’m sure many of you can too. I’m sure many of you who answered yes to these questions have thought something similar to “I’m glad I know that you never cared” – a simple statement that shows so much power. It’s quite fantastic. Another strong point on this album was “Two Birds And No Stone”. It’s actually one of my other favorites on the album, I’ve been listening to it quite frequently since I got my hands on “The Dreams We Don’t Remember”. It’s SO very Taking Back Sunday to me, and that’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. Such a strong chorus with some really great collective vocals from the gentlemen of Millstone. Top notch. If there was two things I could have changed about this album it would be:
The screaming content: Like I mentioned for “Making New Friends In Hell” there were a few songs on the album that could have benefited from a tinge more screaming, in my humble Lil Red opinion. Perhaps that’s because I love the combination of gorgeous vocals and some heavy screaming thrown it. Millstone doesn’t lack in the gorgeous vocals department though!
The song lineup: There was one point about halfway through the album when the songs started to blend together a bit. It was in the lineup of “It Hurts”, “Sparrow”, and “My Bride”. These tracks could have definitely used a filler song in between them to break up the similarities between the songs.
So there you have it, my review for Millstone’s debut album “The Dreams We Don’t Remember”. Now I need a favor from you guys, my faithful readers: Give this band some love!!! Here’s all of the links to their social media sites:
If you happen to be on any of these social media sites, PLEASE make sure you like and follow them!
ALSO! My boys just released their lyric video for their single “The Dreams We Don’t Remember” on YouTube today! Make sure you check it out!
What did you guys think about the songs that are currently available for your listening pleasure? Do you have any constructive criticism for Millstone? Myself and the band would love to hear from you, so leave us a comment and let’s chat! Much love! -Sarah
PS: A follow up post will be made on their album release date so you can purchase “The Dreams We Don’t Remember” on iTunes!! ❤
Whatuppppp guys! Today I have the pleasure of writing for one of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio’s immensely talented upcoming bands In A Broken World. (Cfalls happens to be my hometown! #REPRESENT!!) If you’re into thought provoking lyrics, gorgeous screaming as well as vocals, AND a heavy dose of metal – these guys are the band for you. In A Broken World was formed back in March of 2014 by a great group of dudes, one of which happens to be my dear friend (and vocalist!) CJ. Just saying right now – I know this kids speaking voice like the back of my hand, and the things he can do vocally and screaming wise are so impressive! As you guys well know…mama likes her screamo. I was lucky enough to have a copy of their debut EP “For Those Like You” burned right in front of me by CJ in my beloved Starbucks…it was very legit. 😉 More importantly, I was absolutely blown away by their music while I was playing it on the way to school. Best believe that some head banging occurred in the Little Red Love Machine! “For Those Like You” is only four songs long, but that was long enough to get a great feel for who these guys are as a band and what to expect for albums to come.
The EP game starts out strong, opening with the three minute banger “Charade”, which offers one of my favorite things that a metal song can do, which is provide a break in the screaming and go into some stunning vocalizing. It was very Of Mice & Men-esque. One of the great things about In A Broken World’s Facebook page (which I will provide!) is that they provide all of their lyrics for those of you who can’t understand the screaming, so I really enjoyed reading through everything that these guys had to say. “Charade” boasts some lyrical winners such as: “I want to run from all the lies, and get lost inside my mind.” Very nice. What I was particularly struck by while listening to all of their songs, was how completely solid the band is as a whole. Everything from the insane guitaring, drumming, and vocals were SO in synch with each other. The amount of practice and hard work that went into all of these tracks is beyond evident. There was not one point when I was listening to “For Those Like You” that I detected the slightest hint of sloppiness, whether it be in the music itself or the production of it. That’s definitely saying a lot, because I’ve heard many a local bands EP albums that sound like they were straight up recorded on someones phone. The level of professionalism in the production of “For Those Like You” is very impressive for a fairly new local band.
The following song “For Those Like You” is one that I’m particularly excited for. When I spoke to CJ a few days ago, this was the one track that held the deepest meaning to him and it’s so evident through the emotional content of the song. A major shout out is in order for the guitarists of In A Broken World, Daniel and Cody because they absolutely annihilate this track. And PLEASE don’t even get me going on the drumming by Brad, because this kid holds it down and provides such a solid base for all of the songs. Do yourselves a favor and read the lyrics as you’re listening to this track, because like I said – the emotional content is ALL there. These words invoke the feeling of disappointment (which is something that I hate the most) so perfectly:
You said you were OK
You said you were happy
You’re lying to yourself
You made a big mistake
^I love that one!
I’m not sure if you guys are aware of this, but there’s a celebrity appearance made on “The Unfaithful” by none other than the legend himself….Ron Burgundy. #stayclassy The track opens with a message from the mustached myth which I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at in amusement. Once you’re done having a chuckle, let’s just talk about the vocals on this track – because I find them the strongest on this song. The ranges that are hit on top of the fast pace of the track earns a tip of the cap from Lil Red. “The Unfaithful” offers a lot of really classic metal sounds, particularly in the guitars that I appreciated. I actually got a strong System Of A Down vibe from this track thanks to the high pitched screaming that I love so very much, so that was a nice touch.
“For Those Like You” closes with the second longest song “The River of Lies”, which is my personal favorite. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Dance Club Massacre and this song definitely reminded me of them. My whole thing with metal music is that there has to be constant change ups in the sound in general for me to appreciate it. I can’t stand when bands stick to one particular sound of screaming or instrumentals, and I also can’t stand when the transition into different sounds isn’t sharp. When it gets to that point, all it sounds like is noise to me. In A Broken World defies all of these pet peeves in a maturity well beyond their not even a year of playing together. Their transitions are SO smooth, like BUTTA! “The River of Lies” ends this short and sweet EP on such a high note and closes the album with the appropriate lyrics of:
Let’s finish out strong together
I’ll help you put the pieces back
This is not the end for you.
^If that’s not motivation to get up and do something…or at least head bang a little – then I don’t know what is.
In A Broken World’s Facebook page provides you with some great photos from previous shows, band updates, and videos and can be seen at: https://www.facebook.com/inabrokenworldofficial I urge all of you to give them a like and send them your support from wherever you are in the world!
ALSO, the link to their bandcamp page is: http://inabrokenworld.bandcamp.com/album/for-those-like-you In A Broken World’s EP “For Those Like You” is available for download and if you wish to purchase it, you can name your price for how much you’re willing to spend. In the words of CJ “you could buy the album for sixty-nine cents.” – What a deal!
In A Broken World’s next show will be happening on February 15th, so make sure you go on their Facebook page and wish them luck! What did you think of “For Those Like You”? What is some constructive criticism you have for the band? We’d love to hear from you, so leave us a comment and let’s chat! Holla atcha girl. -Sarah
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