1. "Wait and Bleed" by Slipknot

2. "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine

3. "Diary of Jane" by Breaking Benjamin

4. "Stupified" by Disturbed

5. "Pain" by Three Days Grace

6. "Getting Away With Murder" by Papa Roach

7. "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath

8. "Suicide Messiah" by Black Label Society

9. "Caught in a Mosh" by Anthrax

10. "Headstrong" by Trapt

These are my top twenty favorite songs IN ORDER from my favorite to my least favorite of the top 20. But rest assured, there are MANY other great songs out there that I love!!!

1. "Diary of Jane" by Breaking Benjamin
2. "Speak" by Godsmack
3. "Coming Undone" by KoRn
4. "Enemy" by Fozzy
5. "Thank You For The Venom" by My Chemical Romance
6. "Far Away" by Nickelback
7. "Billy Jean" by Michael Jackson
8. "Voodoo Child" by Jimi Hendrix
9. "I Can't Dance" by Genesis
10. "To Be Your Man" by Josh Turner
11. "As Good as I Once Was" by Toby Keith
12. "In Bloom" by Nirvana
13. "About a Girl" by Nirvana
14. "You Know You're Right" by Nirvana
15. "Dragula" by Rob Zombie
16. "Duality" by Slipknot
17. "Beautiful Soul" by Jesse McCartney
18. "Do You Love Me?" by KISS
19. "This Kiss" by Faith Hill (gay, I know, but don't judge me!)
20. "I Love This Bar" by Toby Keith

This is a list of who I think are the greatest musicians of all time. It may be for their lyrics. It may be for their music. It may be for both. But these people have drawn me in over the years to bow at their feet. I hope you'll agree with me on some'a these. ;-) Until then, arevaderce!

1. My Chemical Romance
2. Disturbed
3. ICP (Insane Clown Posse)
4. Shinedown
5. Papa Roach
6. Godsmack
7. KoRn
8. Eminem
9. John Cena
10. Kottonmouth Kings
11. Evanescense
12. Breaking Benjamin
13. The Monkees
14. The Beatles
15. Nirvana
16. Alice in Chains
17. Slipknot
18. Metallica
19. Ozzy Osbourne
20. Black Sabbath
21. AC/DC
22. ZZ Top
23. Hinder
24. Three Days Grace
25. Elton John
26. Billy Joel
27. The Police
28. Panic! At The Disco
29. All-American Rejects
30. Little River Band
31. Soil
32. AFI
33. 12 Stones
34. Rage Against the Machine
35. Drowning Pool
36. Fallout Boy
37. Hit the Lights
38. Miles From Midnight
39. Auburndale
40. D12
41. ELO (Electric Lights Orchestra)
42. HIM (His Imperal Majesty)
43. ABK (Anybody Killa)
44. Aerosmith
45. Aiden
46. Creed
47. Anthrax
48. Audioslave
49. Avenged Sevenfold
50. Avril Lavigne
51. Billy Ocean
52. Blind Melon
53. Bon Jovi
54. Bowling for Soup
55. John Mayer
56. Teddy Geiger
57. Toby Keith
58. Josh Turner
59. Bruce Springsteen
60. Bullet for my Valentine
61. Bush
62. Counting Crows
63. Black Crowes
64. Nickelback
65. Incubus
66. Staind
67. Dave Matthews
68. Dropbox
69. Eagles
70. Earshot
71. Simple Plan
72. Good Charlotte
73. Greenday
74. Faith No More
75. Foo Fighters
76. Fort Minor
77. Gin Blossoms
78. Live
79. Guns and Roses
80. Hurt
81. Institute
82. Jason Mraz
83. Boston
84. Chicago
85. The Doors
86. The Traveling Wilburys
87. Kelly Clarkson
88. Kid Rock
89. Killswitch Engage
90. Linkin Park
91. Lifehouse
92. Marilyn Manson
93. The Offspring
94. Michael Jackson
95. Matchbox 20
96. Rob Thomas
97. Santana
98. Michelle Branch
99. Motorhead
100. Oasis

This is just a random thought and such and has nothing to do with what my Blog is about, but why, on Batman, do they call Mr. Freeze...Mr. Freeze? I mean, I realize that his name is Victor Freeze and his powers and such involve ice and cold and freezing things, but here's my thought: His full title is DOCTOR Victor Freeze. Yes...DOCTOR! When he's not posing as Mr. Freeze and is in his "normal human state", they call him Dr. Freeze. But when he's a villain, suddenly he's Mr. Freeze. Why isn't his name Dr. Freeze? It's like on "Kim Possible" with Dr. Draken. They don't call him MISTER Draken. He's a doctor, so they call him Dr. Draken! And in "Austin Powers," they call Dr. Evil DOCTOR Evil! In one of the movies (I believe it was the second one), someone called him Mr. Evil and he said, "It's DOCTOR Evil. I didn't spend 6 frickin' years in evil medical school to be called MISTER Evil!" I realize that Mr. Freeze was around long before Dr. Evil and Dr. Draken came around, but still! When you think about it, does it make sense? NO! So PLEASE, someone explain that to me!!! UGH!!!

But anyway, on with my real Blog. What I thought was rather cool and sweet yesterday was something that happened while talking with my "friend," Corinne over the phone. Now, I'll explain real quick who Corinne is. I originally met her over MySpace unintentionally because I did a search for the name "Corinne" because my 4th and 5th grade crush (who I was basically obsessed with and STILL think about, obviously) was named Corinne. Well, I just then decided to add every Corinne around my age that I found attractive. LoL! Makes sense, right? Right. (you have to remember...I'm 16! ) But seriously, me and her started to get a connection. I then found out that she lives in a little rinky-dink town just east of me named Baltimore (yes, there is a Baltimore, Ohio, and it is filled with what I call "dairy air"). So when her birthday rolled around, I mentioned it to my mother and expressed my deep sadness that I couldn't be there. Well my mother, being the patron saint she is, said "Oh. Well, if it's not too far away, I'll take you." My jaw hit the floor. So anyway, I went, didn't have such a great time because I'm shy and knew NO ONE there except for Corinne, but ended up giving Corinne a 14 karot gold locket that said "Forever In My Heart" on it and a mix CD with a bunch of my favorite gooey love songs on it, AND I got two hugs out of it. Can't complain about that. But anyway, I asked her if I could be her boyfriend and she explained that she didn't like long-distance boyfriends, so no, but it wasn't something personal about me or anything. But we still say "I love you" and such over the phone and I hope to see her again whenever I get my liscence. But yeah, anyway, back to the story. I was talking to her yesterday and her sister kept yelling something into the phone. Corinne didn't want me to hear and kept making noises and yelling so I couldn't hear in between us all laughing. Here's what I thought was cute. Here's how this part of our convo went:

Me: What did she say?

Corinne: Nothing! You don't want to hear it!

Me: Yes I do!

Corinne: No you don't!

Me: Yeah...I kinda do.

Corinne: No, you're lying to yourself! After I tell you what she said, you're going to tell yourself, "I wish I wouldn't have asked."

Me: No I won't. I never speak to myself in that manner.

Corinne: Yes you will! Just trust me!

Me: No! I wanna know!

Corinne: No you don't!

Me: *in a retarded, Donny impersonation* Yes I do!

Corinne: *laughs* No you don't!

Me: *same voice* Yes I do!

Corinne: *laughs again* No...you don't!

Me: Well ya know what? ...Your face!

Corinne: Yeah? Well, your face!

Me: No! YOUR face!

Corinne: Well...your MOM!

Me: Well...your FACE!

Corinne: Your mom!

Me: Your...cupcake!

Corinne: Your dog!

Me: I don't HAVE a dog! So HA!

Corinne: See! there ya go! Lying to yourself again!

Me: No, YOU'RE lying! Your face!

Well, I thought that was cute. I dunno about you. But I thought it was kinda cute that we could do that. But yeah, come to find out, her sister yelled clearly enough for me to hear what she was saying FINALLY, and she said, "THE DOG BIT ME ON THE ***!" To give you a hint, the blanked out word started with a "T". LoL! Yeah. But anyway, then me and Corinne got into a discussion about how humungous her dog was. And trust me...this thing is HUGE! If you want a reference, watch that stupid commercial where the family keeps saying "I fed Muffin." "No, I fed Muffin!" "No I fed Muffin!" and then the little pug comes out and looks like a Macy's Day Parade balloon and is snorting as the family looks at each other like, "Uh-oh." Yeah, that's Corinne's dog. But apparently, the dog they were refering to was not their male dog, Buster, but their equally fat chihuahua female dog. I dunno its name. But yeah, this has to be the biggest friggin' chihuahua I've EVER seen!!! BAR NONE!!! I felt sorry for it! Musta ate too much Taco Bell. But anyway, there's my little story. I know, it's random and stupid. But that's me. Get over it! LoL!

New Emo Goth Danger? My Chemical Romance confront tabloid criticism (written by Drowned in Sound: http://www.drownedinsound.com)
Today should, really, be a day off for New Jersey quintet My Chemical Romance: the night before they played Hammersmith Palais, tomorrow they’ll play second-fiddle to Muse’s ambitious prog-rock in Edinburgh before then entertaining muddied attendees at the Reading and Leeds festivals. But there’s no rest to be had: a new album’s on the horizon, and there’s press to attend to. For an entire day.
Gerard Way – the band’s vocalist, whose glossy black locks have now been shorn, almost military style, and bleached white-blonde – yawns after only five minutes in DiS’s company. He apologies immediately, explaining that the band’s promotional work began at 10.15 in the morning. It’s now gone eight-thirty in the evening. His bandmates sit around him in a west London hotel room: Gerard’s brother, bassist Mikey Way, remains silent throughout, and drummer Bob Bryar curls up on a sofa, visually shattered. Only guitarists Frank Iero and Ray Toro can muster enough energy to occasionally contribute to the band’s final interview of the day, one that arrives on the back of an afternoon spent talking to the German rock press.
“It’s the record of our dreams,” says Gerard of My Chemical Romance’s third album, The Black Parade, due for release in October. The title’s been a badly-kept secret for weeks. “It’s a record that you want to sit down with – you want to listen to the entire thing. Conceptually, I believe, we’ve finally hit what we wanted – even with what we got to say with the record, it’s what we wanted to say.”
Something that the band repeatedly stresses during DiS’s allocated time is their desire to bring theatrics back into rock music. It’s something they dabble with on stage at the Hammersmith show – an announcement is made prior to their performance, saying that MCR will not play; instead, they’ll be replaced by The Black Parade. The kids in the crowd, of course, knew what was up.
“We did it with full knowledge that when the announcement was being made, the kids would kind of know what the deal was,” says Gerard. “There was a little bit of theatre to it, yeah. You listen to this new record, and there’s that kind of ambition on it – it’s the ambition of hopefully bringing rock to that place where it’s majestic again, where it’s theatrical again. There’s a pageantry to rock that’s been missing, and that’s the ambition on the new record.”
DiS gets to hear half-a-dozen or so songs from The Black Parade prior to our rendezvous with the group. Where it does improve upon its predecessor, 2004’s breakthrough release Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, is in its coherency and flow – songs fade in and out of each other, with a specific narrative running the record’s length. You’d call it a concept record, progressive even, but that’d be potentially misleading: it still sounds like a massively commercial rock record, one that owes more to Queen than any contemporary emo act.
“I don’t think it’s ever a conscious decision to write mainstream songs,” says Gerard. “In fact, I think some of the structure is the opposite of mainstream structure, but the idea was to directly affect people in a larger way, in a more direct way. That was the objective with this record – we wanted to cross over to, like, many people, so that this affects lives, lots of lives.
“There are strings and horns and a marching band on the new album,” continues the singer. “We got a big toy box, and got to do what we want. We got everything in our arsenal that we wanted, but luckily we’ve a sense about ourselves that stops us being self-indulgent, so we used just enough – well, that’s what I feel. We went a little over the top, but never to the point of boring people, I think."
The proof, of course, will be in the proverbial pudding. For the first time in their history, My Chemical Romance will release a single prior to its parent album: ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’ is the taster in question, and its video led to an incident that was widely misreported across the music press.
Gerard laughs, rocking his head back onto the sofa – we’ve not even said ‘burns’ or ‘car crash’ yet (DiS reported weeks earlier that My Chemical Romance had been in a car crash and drummer, Bob Bryar had suffered second and third degree burns and singer, Gerard Way had torn up his foot pretty badly). “The internet can actually work against you,” says the singer – My Chemical Romance were one of the first bands to really benefit from internet coverage prior to their signing with a label, major or otherwise. “The minute you don’t want to talk fully about something – say you have to cancel a show – then all of a sudden the internet answers it for you.
“The reason we didn’t want to talk about it was because we were filming a video,” he continues, “which goes back to that secrecy thing. So all we could say was, ‘Hey, we’re hurt’. And then suddenly we’re in a car accident? We were just filming two videos, back to back, and the second was really intense and involved lots of fire, and a couple of guys got hurt. We tried, against doctor’s orders, to rehearse for our Street Scene show in San Diego, but the hospital said, ‘You shouldn’t be walking, the two of you’. So we wrapped that up and went to Japan, and we were okay for the most part.”
The injured individuals – drummer Bryar (suffered burns to his legs) and Gerard himself (torn ankle ligaments) – seem well enough now, but the cancelling of their Street Scene Festival appearance meant that they missed witnessing a crush during Tool’s headline set. Some fifteen people were injured in the incident. “We get a lot of young kids at our shows, and when there’s a rush of kids, little kids will fall,” says Iero. “We’ve had that hardcore education, but these kids haven’t, and we try to tell them that once we know where it’s likely to happen to get out of there, as people are gonna fall into them and over them.”
Gerard’s suddenly giving the matter his absolute attention. “That’s a good point, as we’re very experienced in that kind of situation,” he says, leaning forward and out of his relaxed, lounging position. “We were schooled, basically, on Warped Tour, and we’re very observant about that stuff. We stop songs in a heartbeat – it doesn’t matter to us, as if we kill the momentum we know how to get back into stuff. We’re good at it now, actually. You have to work with the security, and the second you see a large hole open, that’s when the crushing will start, and you have to pay attention to that hole. If it doesn’t fill up with people again, as in people standing up, then we have to stop. So you have to be very conscious of that. A lot of bands don’t know what to do – they’re like, ‘Whatever, it happens, let’s keep playing’ – but you should stop. You need a really good security team, but the kids will also communicate with me, and you’re able to read mouths and see if people are panicking.”
The band’s young audience is a concern to know-nothing sorts who’ve been campaigning against the alleged persuasive nature of rock music for what feels like forever. Only recently, in August 2006, The Daily Mail ran an article warning parents of the ‘New Emo Goth Danger’ – those are exact words they used. One of only three bands mentioned in the piece – bands that apparently encourage behaviour such as self-harm – was My Chemical Romance. Gerard doesn’t know whether to laugh out loud or cry silently to himself.
“The funny thing is that I’ve met more kids that have stopped self-harming because of us, than anything,” he says, his face masked with absolute seriousness. “That’s the case with most of the kids I meet, especially in the UK, so I guess it is some sort of epidemic. Most of the kids that I meet, that say thank you, are kids that used to self-harm. Kerrang! was involved, as one of their readers wrote in about it, and I ended up having a very personal discussion with this girl. I noticed she had all these cuts, and it really bummed me out, and I was hoping that she didn’t feel that she needed to do that in order to come to the show. And I ended up meeting the girl and her mother – the mother had written a letter to Kerrang! – and she said because of the band she’s now stopped doing that. Papers like that will never do their homework, but it is kind of funny to call it ‘emo death cult’, or whatever it was called. ‘New Emo Goth Danger’?”
Iero cackles: “Ha! I like that! That’s the title of the next album, New Emo Goth Danger!”
The matter raises a final point, though. My Chemical Romance are superstars nowadays, playing to thousands of kids – and we do mean kids – at each and every show they play. They must come in for a lot of stick from right-wingers who haven’t taken the time to realise that the band’s fantasy-horror lyrics are just that: fantasy. The music's immediate and the lyrics fun: there are no hidden messages calling for kids the world over to scratch their best friend's eyes out. Sure, the five-piece have posed for photo shoots covered in fake blood, playing-dead models lying at their feet, but that doesn’t make them a bad influence. They just like, as has already been mentioned, playing it up, theatrically.
“We live in a very sick bubble, made of concrete and bullet-proof casing,” says Gerard. “If you acknowledged all the ignorant stuff you heard, you’d never sleep, we’d never sleep. There’d be no time. I gotta say I’m not a fan of that Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back movie, but it has one of the best scenes I’ve ever seen. They literally go around to peoples’ houses that have talked shit about them on the internet and give it back to them. It’s the coolest thing in the world.”
Bloggers of the world beware: My Chemical Romance have your name, your number, and now they’ve quite probably got the money to order a hit. Or at least arrange for someone to unplug your broadband connection.