Right now I feel like I'm trifling through my own little addictions. It is really a curious thing to live like this, and in a way rather sad. So here is an exercise. I just made a playlist, and here I will write about said playlist.
Guns N' Roses - Dust N' Bones
Joy Division - Day of the Lords
Travis Meeks - Empty Pocket
Ghost - Snuffbox Immenence
Muse - Knights of Cydonia
Steve Von Till - Running Dry
Alice In Chains - Right Turn
Isis - Weight
SunnO))) & Boris - The Sinking Belle
(Tracks will be furnished upon request)
Guns N' Roses is a band that a lot of people have attributed to the duo of Slash and Axl. The reality behind the situation was that they were the public faces that everybody knew and thought were really cool. While apart, Axl has done better than Slash (just an opinion, Velvet Revolver sucks), but both have just kind of floundered. Slash's solo stuff with Snakepit was just disgraceful, and Axl's stuff sounds pretty cool, but its all either live recordings from cell phones or leaks on the internet of demos from baseball players. Then again, Axl has pretty much had the past 15 years to make these songs not suck. What the driving force was behind Guns N' Roses was Izzy. Songs like this are just so great, and neither Slash nor Axl can come close to duplicating a straight up rock n' roll song like this. Axl is too busy trying to create epics with samples, and Slash is too busy trying to stay hip and relevant.
This song always provided such an amazing texture, and was a great song to have placed near the beginning of this album (UYI I). If anything, this was one of the main contributors to the overwhelming tone set for this first album; while UYI II had more of a 'cool' and vast feeling like an ocean (set by Estranged, much, much later), this album had this warm, blistering desert feeling to it. Awesome. I don't think either Slash or Axl have the ability to create a musical texture like Izzy has done on his own and did here.
I'm in no way an expert on Joy Division, and honestly I don't listen to them that much. That being said, I could listen to this song over and over again without getting sick of it. In part, what makes this work so well is the production of this track. It is difficult not to get the feeling of doom from this track when it sounds like it was recorded in a basement while the apocalypse plays out on the streets, only getting a peak from the basement window.
I've already written about Travis Meeks, but this track is in no way the cleanest or best track. Actually, this was the only track that got left off of his 'live bootleg' that he shills on his website and myspace page. I can understand why, as it really feels like a work in progress and still has a few quirks. It in no way is up to snuff for guitar work when compared to a lot of his songs. But I don't know if he has done anything this honest or compelling in a long time. The lyrics are at times awkward, but the intentions are always clear. It moves from regret and confusion to him just tearing himself apart.
"Why don't you give it up?
Let the love -- let the love lift you.
You've got to answer for every mistake--
every mistake.
Money won't buy you what you don't have
But you wanted to use my heart as a stone
Step down an' go back home.
Go back home.
I'm hurtin' inside --
But you like to pay to watch me die.
So don't fill me in on your secrets, no.
Cause I'm doing fine with my own.
I've got an empty pocket, so go back home.
Go back home."
There is something about a dude baring his soul that will never grow old to me. The delivery of most of this song is just vicious in nature. It isn't a heavy or complicated song, but his conviction to every word can turn anybody into a believer that he means everything he is saying. One of the cool points is his guitar-work is Kazuki Tomokawa-like at times in his delivery and complete abandon. He really doesn't give a fuck if that note doesn't ring through, the muffled, flat note says more than a clean one would have anyway.
My mind sort of melts and meanders here. I've found the best way to unwind is to just listen to something that can serve as a background, or easily take you on a trip. Ghost is a band that caught my ear when their album, 'Hypnotic Underworld' came out. It was beautiful, fun, energizing and really delicate all at the same time. Exploring deeper into their library is by no means a bad idea. The album which this is the title track for is if possible more of a traditional album than the latter, without starting off with one giant jam track. They still jam, there is still the same soft vocals and twangy guitar that can in an instant turn into a menacingly hazy drill. The title track does not in any way disappoint, as it has everything Ghost is good at; Jamming, switching between soft and gentle to crazy and everything in between.
I didn't even know Muse had an album that came out last year. Hell, I didn't even get into Muse until I saw the trailer for 28 Weeks Later. I thought 'shit, this sounds like Radiohead with balls.' Now I can't go a few days without putting on some Muse. That speaks volumes for them, I think. This song will go back to my previous point about texture. This song has texture and a really awesome atmosphere to it. What is even more shocking is that the video for it fits so extremely well into the mood and atmosphere that this song creates. This song sums up some neuvo-pulp western to a T. That being said, it could also be seen as almost a Queenish tribute, as the vocals are just fantastic and infectious. The amount of times I've had this on at work and felt the need to sing along with it is rather embarrassing. Music can totally be fun, and should really be fun and make you want to just sing along and get caught up in the moment with it.
"You and I must fight to survive."
Neurosis is a band that will always be near and dear to me, but it is a band that more or less has branded themselves on destruction and subtlety. That is why Steve Von Till's solo stuff is so refreshing. Neurosis are the kings of making music that takes you somewhere. Every album has its own distinct feeling to it, and is something that no other band is able to recreate. I remember when one of my friends hipped me to them. It was under the pretense of; "You like Tool, right? You should like Neurosis. Neurosis is Tool if Tool did Tool right."
Von Till's solo album(s) will take you somewhere. Unlike most Neurosis albums, Von Till's albums are just so basic and vulnerable. I can't think of a more vulnerable track than 'Running Dry.' Whenever I hear this, I want to be sitting out in the woods with an acoustic strumming away about how sorry I am that I can't relate to the world anymore.
Man, I just fucking like Alice In Chains. Leave it at that.
'Oceanic' is seen by many as ISIS' crowning achievement. I think they have done a great job of living up to that album, but Panopticon didn't have the same sort of unity that this album did. The latest one did, but that is another story for another day. Oceanic creates a clear and easy picture, and Isis does a fantastic job of making an album that is as serene and vengeful as an ocean. 'Weight' goes through many transformations, and in doing so creates the same sort of awe and respect that an ocean should yield.
I feel like the last month is sort of defined by 'The Sinking Belle' by SunnO))) and Boris. Somber, slow and restrained. There is just something so surreal about SunnO)))'s music that is hard to explain. I can listen to SunnO))) while at work, while unwinding or deep in thought. It is always inspiring and always makes me want to just start slamming my fist onto my guitar and let the sustain do the rest.
This song is really not like any other SunnO))), which is what I think really draws me to it. It is out of the ordinary for them, yet it is completely something they would do. Even the apocalypse needs to have an eye to the storm. That is what this is; the eye of the storm. It is the calm, eerie in between point that lets you rest and urges you to push forward. If you give up now, you've only gotten part of the way there.
That is the kind of song I need right now, and completely where I am.
