The Spill Canvas- No Really, I'm Fine

Hey, y'all! It's time for me to talk about another CD on my shelf! As always, I put my iTunes on shuffle, and the CD containing the first song that played is the one I'll be talking about!

Release Date: October 2, 2007

Genre: Emo, Acoustic, Pop Rock

Track Listing

1. Reckless Abandonment
2. All Over You
3. Battles
4. The Truth
5. Saved
6. Hush Hush
7. Low Fidelity
8. Connect the Dots
9. Bleed, Everyone's Doing It
10. Appreciation and the Bomb
11. One Thing Is for Sure
12. Lullaby

The Spill Canvas lineup on this CD:
Nick Thomas- Guitar, Vocals
Dan Ludeman- Guitar, backup vocals
Landon Heil- Bass
Joe Beck- drums, percussion

L-R: Landon, Nick, Dan, Joe

About The Spill Canvas: 
The Spill Canvas have been together since 2002, and in that time have released 7 CDs and 5 EPs. Their most successful CDs to date have been 2005's One Fell Swoop and 2007's No Really, I'm Fine. In the earlier stages of the band, their music was mostly categorized as emo, and much of it was acoustic or had a very raw sound to it. Progressing forward, their music became more pop rock/ pop punk.

My Opinion about The Spill Canvas:
While they don't make it into my top 10 bands ever, I'm a big fan of theirs. I was actually able to go to one of their concerts in October 2012, and got to meet the guys! Nick was a total sweetheart, and I actually got to talk to him for a while. It was really cool. I have all of their music, although there are definitely some CDs that I just don't listen to much at all.

Aww, I was just so excited!

Also, as a side note, the songs they performed at the concert that were from this CD were: Reckless Abandonment (their first song of the set!), Connect The Dots (introduced by Nick saying "this one's about sex."), Battles (which I forgot they did until looking through my pictures from the concert), and All Over You (Their finale song, since it's the most popular of their songs). I think they also might have done Hush Hush, but honestly, it was more than a year ago, and if it's not documented, I have no idea.

About the CD:  

This was their most commercially successful CD, getting into the Billboard 200 and reaching #2 on the Top Heatseekers chart. This CD has more of the pop rock sound that becomes more and more prevalent in their music throughout time, but there's definitely a mix of the emo in there.

IMHO: 
This is definitely my favorite of their CDs. Many of my all-time favorite songs by The Spill Canvas come from this CD. While I like some songs better than others (as always!), there honestly isn't a single dud on this CD. 

As always, I'm going to give each song a rating out of 10 and then give a brief explanation of why it got that rating. 

Reckless Abandonment- 9/10. It's a really powerful opener- which is why it was also a concert opener. It's fun to jam to, and it was definitely a strobe light song.
All Over You- 10/10. This one's definitely a fan favorite, and there's a reason. This song just screams SINGLE. The chorus has such a great beat to it, and I absolutely love it.
Battles- 8/10. It's not forgettable, per se, but I did have to listen to this one over and over to figure out a rating. Honestly, it's just not as spectacular as the rest of the CD. It's not a bad song, it's just not as good.
The Truth- 8.5/10. Once again, this song shines on the chorus. The way the guitar and drums combine is just great, and the guitar part between the chorus and verse is just great. And like most great songs by them, it's just so sassy.
Saved- 10/10. A slower song for them, but a very successful one. As much as I love their cheeky songs, it's nice to see their softer side.
Hush Hush- 9.5/10. And then we jump right back into the cheekiness. This time, I really like the interaction of the guitar and drums in the verses. Also, telling her to tie the mattress to her back makes me laugh every time.
Low Fidelity- 8/10. I really like the brass on this song. Once again, the chorus is where this song shines, but the verses aren't really anything special.
Connect the Dots- 8.5/10. Nick wasn't kidding- this is a very sensual song. It's also a bit of a different sound for the band, which is really cool. Not my favorite, but I really do like it.
Bleed, Everyone's Doing It- 10/10. One of my favorite songs by them. I just absolutely love the message and it's SO sassy that it hurts.
Appreciation and the Bomb- 10/10. The chorus contains one of my all-time favorite lyrics (If there's one thing I've learned, it's that we never feel the heat until we get burned/ But we try so hard not to die, sometimes we forget to appreciate life.), and it's just so beautiful. 
One Thing Is for Sure- 7.5/10. I like it. It's ok. It's nothing special, but I like it.
Lullaby- 8.5/10. It's very soft for them, and it really works for them. I think this lullaby would help me go to sleep. It's just so pretty and vulnerable.

Favorite Songs: Appreciation and the Bomb, All Over You, Saved, Hush Hush, and Bleed, Everyone's Doing It.

Least Favorite Songs: Honestly, One Thing Is for Sure is the only so-so one. Battles is maybe next.

Video! 

All Over You music video

Saved music video

Rating: 9/10. I knew this CD was going to get a 9 rating before I even rated the songs, but that choice is made even better by the fact that the songs' average was nearly exactly 9. CDs like this are the reason that I enjoy doing The CDs On My Shelf. This helps me to rediscover CDs that I genuinely love, but don't listen to as often as I would like to.

 Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! Have any questions? What did you think of The Spill Canvas? Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe/follow, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Hope you enjoyed! Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

How NOT to Color Your Hair: My Journey to Becoming a Redhead

Hey, y'all! This post is going to be just a bit more... random... than usual. It's not really a review or a challenge or even a get to know me. I'm going to be telling you about the absolute WORST hair dye experience I've ever had. Seriously, never EVER do this to your hair.

Before college, I'd never colored my hair. It was just this color:

Me, in either my junior or senior year of HS

Then, in October of my freshman year, I really wanted to put some red in my hair. I wasn't totally sure what I wanted to do for sure, but I ended up coloring the tips of my bangs red.

Thanksgiving break freshman year...

Then, after my Christmas break, I cut my bangs shorter and realized that if I just did the tips again, I would only have the tiniest red left. So, I decided to do all of my bangs red...

Febuary-ish, freshman year.

...which I kept throughout the rest of my freshman year and the summer. Then, not too far into my sophomore year, I got bored. I decided to amp it up a bit. I decided to color my tips as well, but rather than just put the red dye on my natural color, I decided to bleach it first to get a more vibrant color.

SUCH a good look for me...

So then came the red hair color, and it actually turned out really nicely!

Seriously, I LOVED this color- even when it started to fade to orangey red. 

ALL THE SELFIES!

My parents, unfortunately, did not love this color, and told me that it had to be gone when I came home for thanksgiving. I could keep the bangs as long as I got rid of the tips. I wasn't too terribly upset to lose the tips, since by that point they were almost completely orange. It was, however, a bit of a struggle to get rid of them. I tried Color Oops, but that didn't work. Eventually, I ended up coloring my entire head (sans bangs) a dark brown, and then, for myself, I had a couple inches cut off.

Honestly, I actually ended up really liking this color. I was really glad to get a hair cut, and the single pop of red was great. Now, we approach the point of this post... my journey to becoming a redhead.

I've always kinda wanted to be a redhead. I'm super pale with pinky undertones, and my mom says I totally missed my calling to be a redhead. I've wanted to go auburn for a really long time- even back in high school. Early January, I decided to go for it. My bangs were growing out and fading to orange again, and my dark brown was fading a bit to reveal the remnants of my red tips, so I figured it would be the best time. My roommate was wanting to color her hair as well, so we went together and got color. We each got Garnier's Olia, because a friend of ours really likes that brand. She went for a dark brown, however.

I got the color shown above, and around 2 in the afternoon, my roommate and I began coloring our hair. We both left it on for the right amount of time and then applied the conditioner, rinsed it out, and dried our hair. I was SO confused. My hair appeared to be literally the EXACT same color it had been before on my entire head except for right at the roots at my part. That hair was somewhere between my dark brown and the color on the box. Clearly, something went wrong. What, I'm not sure. But there was a definite problem. Anyway, I thought about it a bit and decided that the best way to get everything to the same color was to bleach it and then apply the color I wanted. So, I went back and got these:

I was extremely wary of repurchasing the Olia 6.60 because of the poor results the first time, so I went with the Garnier Nutrisse foam. I used Splat's hair dye for both my bright red and for bleaching my tips, so I knew it would get good results. So, first I bleached my hair...

Overall it turned out pretty well but I was really concerned about the bangs because they never totally stopped being red. So then, I continued on with the light intense auburn color, but it didn't exactly turn out as expected...

Oops...

Bright, bright red? That's definitely not what the box said it would look like when used on blonde hair! Anyway, I looked at it for a while, and had done SO much coloring on my hair that I thought about just leaving it. I like bright red, and even though it totally wasn't what I was going for, I actually thought I could rock the red. And then, my roommate got back from dinner and we noticed some problems...

AHHH! Everything seemed like it was the same color, but all of this was lying underneath! And obviously some of it didn't even get the blonde! It's so terrible! Good thing I didn't decide to rock the red! Anyway, we headed back to the drugstore to buy MORE hair color, and this time I got:

I was still a bit worried about using Olia, but since my roommate's worked fine, I decided to go for it. I also decided it was best to go for a reddish brown rather than a brownish red. I figured there was enough red already in my hair. I have to admit, it was super awkward walking into the drugstore with bright red hair. So, one more color later, it was finally over. My hair ended up a single color, and everyone's happy. 

Seriously, that's the biggest struggle I've ever had while coloring my hair, and I'm legitimately surprised that my hair didn't fall out. I colored it FOUR times in a single day, all permanent. As the title suggests, this is how NOT to color your hair. Never, ever, ever do this.

Anyway, I hope you liked this totally random story about my usually boring life. I've told it so many times to amused friends that I figured the internet would appreciate it as well. Needless to say, I'm staying away from hair color for a little while! Let me know your crazy hair color stories in the comments! If you enjoy my posts, I'd love it if you would subscribe/ follow, so that I know you like what I'm doing. Thanks, y'all!