The Path of Thorns

It’s never fair when you’re given the world, and are expected to live up to it.

A year ago now, we lost a King, a leader, a sensation and most importantly, a seemingly wonderful human being.  I can’t imagine being the center of the world’s attention, and then on top of it going through such trouble, despair and confusion.  While still being all of that, for earth to see.  We all like to jump to conclusions, judge as soon as possible, and with that judgment tear people down like moldy old wallpaper.  The second something isn’t what we imagine it to be, when it’s something we can’t understand without tearing down our own walls of perfect image, we condemn and destroy it.

I may be wrong.  This man may have been a sexual deviant, a double-crosser and a disgrace to generations worldwide.  We’ll never really, truly know if he was.  What we do truly know is that he showed the world nothing but love, dedication and endless talent that we ate up and later chewed out when it tasted a little funky.  I myself have dealt with emotional issues, heartache and awful depression.  Letting the world see not only that, but how I’d deal with that, is a trauma none of us could ever begin to imagine.  He dealt with his issues with physical changes, interactions none of us gave any time to listen to or understand (including myself, absolutely), and decisions that were questionable at best.

I was having a panic attack once.  I was in financial distress, dealing with more uncertainty than I’ve ever experienced, and dealing with losses I never thought I’d have to.  If the world saw my reactions to that, and knew nearly every last detail of it, I might have changed myself and made bizarre relations as well.  I nearly lost my world; and when you want that world back, and you don’t know how to, you don’t always know your own reason.  All you know is, you lost something and you want it back.  But you don’t want to be hurtful to anyone, and you don’t want to make a fool of yourself either.  Well, to err is human, and there’s no margin of error when the scale is that large.

This man gave us every last drop of all he had to give.  His talent, his creativity, his ecologic intelligence and passion, and even a good deal of his sanity.  Yes, as we’ve all violently pointed out, he had his mistakes and character decisions that made him far, far from perfect.  But are you?  Am I?

He pleaded with us, with so many of his songs and lyrics within them.  He tried to get us to listen.  And of course we didn’t, myself included; he practically lived in obscurity and financial demise for years before he gave his final breath.  The same market of journalists, TV hosts and press that glorified his imperfect mistakes and actions all of a sudden felt compassion and loss, and gave their best words.  In the world’s best example of not knowing what you have until it’s gone, we lost the Polaris of the entertainment world.  Had we heard him out a little better when he begged us to, maybe he wouldn’t have led such a life of inner misery and with such a lack of self-understanding.

He had everything there was to have, absolutely everything – and I can’t imagine he realized much of any of it.  He paid dearly for trying to go back in time within his own life, with his home, with choices he made, and he knew it.  Still, he died wondering if the world ever even gave a damn about him beyond what he gave and gave until he literally no longer could.

…I take that back.  I saw his final documentary that hit theaters last year, and he had all the heart and talent he ever did, and it made it that much sadder to know that never got a chance to develop again.  While he should have known better in some way, he paid the price of being cast off too soon.

Do we owe his spirit an apology?  Who knows.  Should he have shown remorse for his own trouble?  Yes, and he did plenty of times.  It’s an altogether tragic, sad and confusing loss of one of the best entertainers and activists we’ll ever witness.  And if you scoffed at that last statement, I certainly can’t blame you, but I can’t help but understand and even relate a little to someone as in need of help as they were profitable in their deserved success.

He said it best in his own words, which is cryptic and even more melancholy to listen to now:

Like A Comet
Blazing ‘Cross The Evening Sky
Gone Too Soon

Like A Rainbow
Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye
Gone Too Soon

Shiny And Sparkly
And Splendidly Bright
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like The Loss Of Sunlight
On A Cloudy Afternoon
Gone Too Soon

Like A Castle
Built Upon A Sandy Beach
Gone Too Soon

Like A Perfect Flower
That Is Just Beyond Your Reach
Gone Too Soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like A Sunset
Dying With The Rising Of The Moon
Gone Too Soon

When his sunlight began to dim, we shut our blinds well too soon.  I absolutely hope the anguish you felt in this lifetime is long gone wherever you are now.  Rest in peace and quiet, Michael Jackson.

This is a post I’ve been avoiding a bit, just because I wanted to spread myself apart from music everyone who’s ever known me knew I loved.  I don’t want to come off across bias.  But then again, I know I’m not bias, you’ll learn I’m not bias, and I shall write about the feelings and emotions of any album I damn well please.

Death Magnetic.  In the eyes of most, an album that landmarks Metallica’s return to their heavy metal roots.  In the eyes of some, their best album in 25 years.  In the eyes of others, another disappointment after decades of other disappointments.  Metallica’s been in a position no other heavy metal band has ever been in; they’ve tested the depths of their limitations time and time again, ever since their beginning.  They always refused to make a duplicate sound, and when that ventured away from thrash metal, people called the band ‘sellouts.’  Which is ridiculous, ignorant and absolute nonsense, considering everything they do is for themselves, and taking risks in their careers that may potentially alienate everyone that’s ever heard them, like in Load and ReLoad, is an idea that is the polar opposite of selling out.  Metal fans have more of a fear of change than any genre ever created, and their strict and thorough guidelines as to what constitutes metal makes them about as unforgiving as the people that beat them up early in their lives and made them this angry in the first place.

But I digress.  If there is an album to call Metallica ‘sellouts’ on, it’s Death Magnetic.  It’s the first time any of us have ever seen them go backwards in any sort of sense; so backwards, in fact, that producer Rick Rubin forced them to listen to their masterpiece of 1986, Master of Puppets, over and over again until they returned to their 23 year old frames of mind.  If that isn’t proof that Rick believed this was Metallica’s last stand in their career, nothing is.  It was a hail Mary; a last chance; otherwise many would see Metallica as a band whose glory days ended twenty years ago.  Of course, other fans like myself enjoyed any sound Metallica made and felt grateful for it.

What made this album amazing, near-perfect and true is the fact that while yes, they did go back and revisit, it was a reminder to the band as to another aspect of what they were all about; “Metal Up Your Ass.”  They ventured, from country ballads to irish folk songs to symphonies and everything in between, and returned home with their decades of knowledge and experience to make this album.  It can be considered a Greatest Hits, because it’s everything in one; I hear the punk presence that they first introduced from Kill ‘em All, I hear the thrash of Ride the Lightning and their inspiration Master of Puppets, and the commercial/mainstream monster licks similar to Metallica, or ‘The Black Album’ in there as well.  But it doesn’t end there; the “ballads” of the album, The Day That Never Comes and The Unforgiven III have a strong resemblance to melodies and harmonies of the Load era.  All that’s missing is the ugliness of St. Anger, which was little more than an ugly time in their lives that had to be created, let out, and left there.

The opening song, That Was Just Your Life, has the dark openings similar to previous other first tracks like Battery and Blackened.  It’s brutal, ugly, angry and violent, and damn near knocks you out of your chair if you’re expecting anything less.  Broken, Beat and Scarred is a clear narration of the personal and professional troubles James and the boys have gone through, and while it too sounds like an angry release similar to St. Anger, the song structure, solos and non-trash can drumming makes the fury of the song much more enjoyable.  All Nightmare Long is my personal pick for ugliest track; it literally sounds like a nightmare, and has one of the most incredible solos guitarist Kirk Hammett has written in years.  The album even has its first true instrumental since 1986′s Orion, entitled Suicide & Redemption, which consists of one of the heaviest, moodiest jams I’ve ever heard.  The closing song, My Apocalypse, might be the most brutal of them all; to me, it sounds like something Slayer or early Megadeth would write.

The album has all the fury every Metallica fan has ever needed; it has a lot of comparisons to their early work, of course, but at the same time it sounds nothing like it; it’s got the experience, the battle-worn trials and tribulations of their lives and careers, and the messages created in the aftermath.  It’s Metallica coming home after a long, hard, havoc-wrecked battle, and creating some of their best work yet.  They’re nearly 5o now, with wives and children, but no matter how much they experimented and traveled, they’re the same Metallica we know and love, and Death Magnetic has the feelings and sounds to make it an instant vintage classic.  Well done.

It took me awhile to figure out if I liked Pain.  I think the band name’s pretty cheesy and unoriginal, like Death.  They’re also industrial, and at first they didn’t stand out as much to me as i:scintilla does.  Then I really listened and really studied their newest album, Cynic Paradise.  The album is a great comedic summary of how the band seriously feels.  And that’s where I got intrigued.

The more I studied this album, the more I got attached to it, and I ended up absolutely loving it.  They tackle the lack of glamor and honesty in my favorite track, “Clouds of Ecstasy”, where they really tackle the nonsense that goes on in Hollywood’s artificial atmosphere.  “Monkey Business” tackles similar fakes and liars, calling them out while delivering unbelievable industrial anthems that just blow you away.  The band thoroughly, completely and entirely calls out people they can’t respect or dignify, and they do it bluntly, but with enough tact to really understand what they’re talking about.

“Reach Out (And Regret)” and the incredibly fierce & catchy “Follow Me” with Anette Olzon of Nightwish continue the eager, aggressive industrial/metal force with feeling most new music doesn’t have.  When I think of ‘damn the Man’ bands, historically I think of the hippie generation mostly.  Having such strong messages about corruption, scandals and falsehoods from a band in such a genre is by far the most original and most interesting aspect of Pain.  These are intelligent guys, with a lot to say, and I know this will sound comical but they have the strongest opinion out of anyone I’ve ever heard from Sweden, of all places!

Pain is a outspoken, brilliantly talented industrial metal band with some of the catchiest tunes I’ve heard in quite awhile.  They’re a band to blare loud and proud, with lyrics that stick.  I’m a fan, a big big fan, and I recommend it to anyone who likes to rock out.  With meaning.

Get the album here.

Music often repeats itself.  Sometimes out of that comes something new and inspired, something that can be claimed as one’s own.  But most of the time music is recycled so closely that it’s more of a mimic and less of a revolution.  And in that comes many forgotten artists fallen by the marginal wayside.

I:scintilla is a continuation of goth and industrial music, but it’s certainly of its own.  Locally known but likable enough to take over both worlds.  It’s a genre filled with many geniuses; VNV Nation, KMFDM, Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Bauhaus, NIN and so forth – but I:scintilla has their own claim, and their own sound.  It’s a separation from anything in the genre I’ve ever heard, and I can’t help but call them an all-time favorite of mine.

They have a new EP out, Prey On You.  It’s inspired, sure, but their own sound is so impacting and brilliant that you get the idea right away this band could very well, and very well should, reach the sounds of every industrial and goth lover on the planet.  The title track is catchy, easy to listen to but also very musically inclined.  Hollowed is incredibly bluesy and moody for its genre, with incredible harmony and an almost jam-like quality to it.  It’s got the phrase ‘prey on you’ embedded all throughout it, keeping with the great consistency of the feel of the album.  Ammunition is my favorite – a fast-paced, hard-hitting and intense track that reminds me of early NIN work, but clearly not.  They’re emotional songs, with personal stories told with melodies that a general audience can truly connect with.

Prey on You is a remarkable album by a remarkable band, and though it only contains three songs and five remixes, their span of talent is just unbelievable.  The remixes prove that you can dissect their carefully designed songs and recreate parts of it to bring new life to each track.  Some songs should never be toyed with; I:scintilla doesn’t ‘toy’ with their tunes, they master them.  Over and over again.

http://www.iscintilla.com/audio/

I wrote in my last post how inspired, original, captivating music is hard to find.  How most newer music doesn’t capture the essence of its ancestral rock and pop originators.  It’s hard, after so much music in this genre has been written over the past several decades, to find a crisp new sound.  Eight out of ten people I know gave up on new music fifteen or twenty years ago.

Stellar Road is not such a band.  It’s a strong and solid argument that they’re just a branch of Dave Matthews, Ben Harper or Jack Johnson.  I can’t stand the last two artists, and I only like Dave a little.  But that’s mostly because most people I grew up with listened to only those few artists for the most part, and most of those people were like James Spader in Pretty in Pink.  So, bad connotation there.

I digress.  Stellar Road’s new self-titled effort is phenomenal.  It’s acoustic rock for the most part, with additional horns and strings as needed.  The songwriting is brilliant, though; their melodies and harmonies are, well, stellar.  They have passion that a lot of newer music lacks; you can hear it loud and clear in tunes like “Try to Be” and “Amazing.”  They’re catchy, but also intelligent; I can imagine an entire amphitheater singing loudly to the chorus of “Shipwrecked” and “Believe.”

They’re bluesier than those in their genre, and you can even hear a little jazz.  Each song is put together carefully with just enough construction and layering to make it strong and brilliant, without overdoing it.  An entire room could dance and lose their minds to their perfected jams in many of their songs, but it’s the intense passion when they let it rip that really captures me.   Daly can croon as well as he can belt out, and the band meshes so well together that you’d think they’ve been doing this for thirty years.

Songs like “Before We Dance” and “Goddamakaway”, on the other hand, put me to ease as well as anything else soothing that I’ve ever heard.  You can imagine them being played on a beach after sunset, after a long and exhausting day.  They sing of love and fun, of the future and the past; never trying to be something they’re not.  I think that stands for something.

Stellar Road is for anyone who enjoys a good rock or pop song.  What’s amazing is that the world doesn’t know them, yet; for now, I’ll enjoy seeing them at Chicagoland bars until some major label realizes these songs have to be truly heard.

Before I critique another album, I’m taking this time to make a point, or statement, whatever it is.  My thoughts are so jumbled and layered that I don’t know if I’ll make more sense to myself than I might right now.  It’s an exhausted argument and a very narrow one as well, but one I feel will always be addressed.

You know who the biggest bands in the world are right now?  That’s right, the same damn ones that have been on top for three, four, five, SIX decades now.  U2.  The Rolling Stones.  AC/DC.  Metallica.  Madonna.  The Who.  Iron Maiden.  Can Phoenix sell out 100,000 seat arenas?  No, but Edward The Great can.  They’re the biggest draws live, and they’re just as big now as they ever were.  These artists and the scores more at their level have sealed their legacies and legends, and have inspired masses and generations, and always will.

Now, granted, they’ve had the time to keep it together, stay together and stay inspired enough to stay relevant.  Time to create these legacies.  But these artists defined their generation, revolutionized music, whether they wanted to or not.  There’s no way to know if something you did will be groundbreaking and a worldwide favorite, but there’s always something magical that happens when it’s made.

These artists are the master at what they do.  Whether it’s brilliant lyrics, defining entertainment, groundbreaking musical talent, they mastered it.  You see them live, they define your own lifetime, they move you, they become a part of your own dreams and loves.

Kings of Leon?  They’re as marginally forgettable as Kingdom Come.  Rihanna?  Incredibly talented, but is the millionth R&B singer to shout out songs about relationships.  Lil Wayne?  I’ll admit that hip-hop has had many brilliant talents in their innovative and culture-defining uprising, people like Russell Simmons, Grandmaster Flash and Dr. Dre, but at what point does it begin to sound like self-obsessed noise?

I don’t write this blog to attack people who live their dreams and make great careers for themselves, and I’m trying to pick my words wisely now.  But there’s a point where you just have to take a leap and say “Will this inspire?  Will this song live on?  What is the point here?”

I’ll also say that artists, many of them, don’t want to lead the pack.  They’re not looking for infamy, or an avant-garde musical lifeline, and that’s fine.  But there’s got to be someone who can take the torch from the artists that have held it for generations.  It’s going to have to happen sometime.  The Rolling Stones are nearing their mortal end.  So is Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page and Roger Daltrey.  Rock n’ roll isn’t old enough to see its direct originators play it through their 80′s, but it’s far from easily possible.

Music isn’t defining anymore.  If it is, I consider myself dated.  Music’s movement has been technological; vocoders and auto-tuners are “in.”  Bands like The Postal Service, Owl City, VNV Nation and Shiny Toy Guns are successful due to their computerized sounds that stem as far back as Nine Inch Nails and before that, 80′s synth pop.

In that, music a continuance.  Maybe that’s all it is.  I don’t know if music is going to define our lives like it did our parents and grandparents.  I think we’re forced to grow up too fast in a harsher reality, and music doesn’t always have the sway it used to.  With more ways to get music out there, with more media and with so much created in an always-corrupt recording industry, maybe there will be no one to step up to the likes of The Beatles.  Then again, we’ve never been able to see what’s to come in music, so why start now?

I’m rambling.  I knew I would.  I guess my bottom line is that I’m bummed I missed Woodstock, missed the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, missed the foundation of bands like Aerosmith, Cream,  Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.  Those bands changed the world.  They’re honored and worshiped today and will be forever.

Is there anyone else coming?  Will my generation and those after have such incredibly earth-shattering swarms of talent that would overcome any dry spell in popular music?  I don’t know, and I don’t see it, and that worries me.

Three entries into this site’s new format, I’m going for the guts here.  I’m reaching into an album that defies almost everything I like as a music listener, a style I’d usually roll my eyes at, but I’m going to go for it anyway.  I want to try to see how objective I can be in critiquing something I’d usually despise.

Lady Gaga, and her albums, The Fame and The Fame Monster.

What would I, the listener, have against her?  Well, her sound is not all that groundbreaking, it’s not much of a new take on anything, and it sounds about as dated as Amber (remember her? ‘One More Night’?) when you’re not actually seeing Lady Gaga perform it.  “Bad Romance” sounds like something you’d hear played between Ace of Base and C&C Music Factory, groups we generally laugh at now.  “Just Dance” sounds like something I’d hear on a Disney kids compilation.  It just has the manufactured sound of a general and vague display of pop performance.

However, I respect that she came up through the club scene, working her way up to fame, which is what she’s all about.  And I salute her taste of music, in people like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, who I worship alongside her.  As a listener, I’m glad she found inspiration from them more than she might have in, say, Technotronic.  She’s not a particularly good looking woman, nothing exciting, and could have been nothing more than just another performer in New York.  But that’s like saying Madonna could have been just another flash in the pan from Detroit.

The difference is, Lady Gaga looks like an epic drag queen, loves the glamour and fashion, and brings thoughts of fame and fortune to every household.  She’s a lot for the eye to enjoy with her wildly designed outfits and makeup, who clearly enjoys working her ass off to get our attention.  And boy, does she get it.  She steps up the mystique and appeal pop stars need to be taken seriously and relevant, and is still just 23 years old.  When she performs her ordinary songs, she does it in an extraordinary way, just like KISS has for four decades.  They’re easily her best comparison.

I will say that “Speechless” is a tremendous ballad that really brings out her voice, and completes her as a musician.  That’s one that every household should give a listen to.

Lady Gaga brings fun and excitement, and a whole amazing show, to a world where people no longer care about album covers or collections, and can rarely afford concert tickets.  She brings the show to them; you can’t miss her, and if you do, you’re missing out on some amazing performances.  It’s almost like you love the songs because you love and appreciate her.  To me, that’s the height of what a pop performer can do, and I respect her for that.  “Paparazzi”, “Bad Romance”, and “Eh, eh” are songs I can imagine being played at my old high school dances, but her idea of bringing the idea of fame and stardom to her fans in a day where our stars are only a tweet away absolutely works for her.  She brings her songs to life with her style and larger-than-life performances, and makes herself a superstar in an otherwise bland showcase of new music in this millennium.

You’re not blowing me away with your generally bland music, Gaga, but you’re certainly needed in what I call a darker era for music.

In an age of advanced electronic music, that stems from techno to house to jungle, it’s all too easy to get caught up in gadgets and vocoders, and miss out on the whole purpose of music, which is of course to reflect emotion, thought and personality.  Key word; person.

Owl City’s ‘Ocean Eyes’ is a remarkable and respectable take on emotional electronic music.  “Fireflies” is their biggest hit, discussing the rotation of our world, the colorful symphony of millions of fireflies and how he’s kept them before.  Its music video and lyrics combined paint the image of the imagination of what used to thrill us as children.  I will argue that it is damn hard to bring a refreshing take to nostalgia in a song, but they pulled it off this time.

To me, that’s just one of the many peaks of this album.  The album continues to show an exciting, visual take on the world that we take for granted, and again one that hasn’t been done over and over again.  You would think these guys lay under a skyline all night every night, and let their minds explode.  “I am floating away in a silent ballet” is one of the several brilliant lyrics on the album that just provide an excellent summation of the scenery they show such passion for.   Meteors, stars, the whole non-luminescence we all take for granted.  They connect such nature to love in one of my favorites, “Vanilla Twilight”, as well as on “If My Heart Was A House”, where he dances and embraces under a sun held from a string. Adam Young, the sole member, makes his voice almost as visual as the words sung out of it, as he allows it to travel and echo and carry with the many harmonies he creates on each song, in a perfect order.

I won’t dissect albums track-by-track, because it makes an album all to microscopic.  The best albums are defined as a whole scope, and this album fits that bill when it comes to electronic music.  Again, what makes Own City so unique and outstanding is that they take the largest departure from ‘natural’ sounds in my opinion, that being synthesizers/keyboards, and combine that with the most natural things in the world; our sky, daisies, islands, and insecurity coming down like a tidal wave that myself and many others understand all too well.

It’s music that has very much to do with personal taste more than the quality of the music, so I could see how Owl City could be hated; the bizarreness of their band name, the whole electronic sound, the lack of machismo.  Who knows.  But in my opinion, the album creates a scene that envisions a combat to my anxiety, and brings me to a place where I actually feel relaxed.

I, too, got lost in this silent ballet.

To start off my blog – the non-critic critic site for all music – I am going to start easy on myself.  I only have a vague idea of what I’m doing, so I might as well start with my favorite album of all time.  It has been for well over a decade, for its perfection, energy and emotion; Metallica’s Metallica, or “The Black Album.”

From its opening, “Enter Sandman”, through its ending with “The Struggle Within”, it’s one brilliantly well-crafted tale of angst, sadness, despair and ferocity.  Songs like “Sad But True” and “Holier Than Thou” are the essence of aggression in heavy metal, but it doesn’t lame out with a song that repeats the same thing.  I see it as a perfect puzzle of all of these emotions; all songs with similar feeling and blitzkrieg, but told differently each time.  No song sounds redundantly like any other on the album, a tough achievement for any artist.  It’s like twelve different puncture wounds with a dagger constructed with a perfectly-edged blade.  Softer stabs with storytelling, intense ballads like “The Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters”, my favorite song of all time, go perfectly well with the darker bites of “My Friend of Misery” and “Of Wolf And Man.”

It’s like in Dexter, when the title character sees a perfect murder with a perfect, and in his eyes artistic, way of completing the act, he can only stand in admiration.  That’s how I feel about Metallica; simple without draining their creative intelligence, heavy without overdoing it like they had done a little to their predecessor …And Justice For All, and final without missing a single edge.  It’s the height of hard rock and heavy metal at its finest; true to its roots, but enjoyable for anyone and everyone.  A matchless record, and one of the best of all time.

My original reason to write this blog was to build up a writing portfolio for a writing career I so deeply desire.  I transformed that into a site about expressions, feelings and social situations that people have, the ‘mask’ they wear, and how many of us hide ourselves to a fault, or almost to a fault.  I then brought my passions into the blog, referencing these thoughts and feelings; baseball and music.  It became a kaleidoscope of how people are, act, and feel, and how that’s associated with things that I love.  I haven’t loved that fusion, and I no longer enjoyed it and how unfocused it’s been.  It’s one of the biggest reasons why I haven’t written on here as frequently as I once did.  The other part of that was just a lack of inspiration, and I think the inward struggle I had with myself on here was a big cause of that.

So, I start over.  I thought about what I wanted to write about, and thought of only that alone.  I don’t want to impress myself, or force anything I’m not inspired to write.  I thought about what I’d simply enjoy doing, which is what I thought to do in the first place before I got all jumbled up.

I don’t enjoy most music critics; I don’t even enjoy reading the words of most pop culture writers in general, because I always see a sale behind everything.  Peter Gammons, Paul Gargano, Craig Calcaterra and Rob Neyer are the only people in the online writing world I truly enjoy and actually truly love.

So I decided to make a music critic site on my terms; albums I may or may not listen to as a fan, albums from yesteryear or from today.  I may even just dissect a song at a time.  I truly don’t know.  What I know is; I’d enjoy this, I’d be passionate about it, and the idea wouldn’t be to sell anything to anybody; it’d be more about understanding the musician, what they were trying to do, and if I enjoyed its end result or not.  I’m doing this for me, and I couldn’t be more excited.

So, stay tuned.