I’d heard of Kuma’s Corner for months and have craved their metal-themed hamburgers and pretzel buns for many a month I’ve lived in Chicago. Tonight, I set out for the famous metal bar and was able to snatch a spot before the looming crowd grew larger than the small room had space for. And I noticed something so curious that the New York Times picked up on before I was able to get to my WordPress:

I DON’T know what I was expecting — guns? outlaw bikers? — but the restaurant, with its high ceilings and a pleasing corner location, didn’t end up all that threatening. Sure, there were drawings of half-naked female vampires on the walls, a scrawl reading “Die Emo Die” above the bar, and the incessant and propulsive fluttering of double-kick bass drums chugging under growled vocals on the sound system all night, but my girlfriend’s parents — not the target demographic, one assumes — described it afterward as “a hoot.”

Yep. “Die Emo Die.” The Times piece actually makes it a bit more prevalent than the three words actually are. They’re scrawled in chalk, are a bit small and sit atop a gigantic picture of a bear. And with all the other chalk descriptions (what charity they’re giving money to this month, the burger of the month), t-shirts and random ephemera on the wall, it isn’t terribly noticeable. I guess that is unless you’re me and it sticks out almost immediately. It also helps that I sat at that part of the bar directly facing those three words.

And yet, just after sitting down something curious blasted through the bar’s speakers. At The Drive In’s “One Armed Scissor.” At The Drive In, a band that is by any other means, emo. Sure, it’s hard as hell, but it’s emo nonetheless. So, I smiled to myself, made note to my roommate who joined me in the metal meal quest and awaited the arrival of my burger (the “Melvins” burger.)

And man was it delicious. The atmosphere there was great, and is certainly another fond reminder of some great metal acts that exist. It’s just another great place that only seems to exist so perfectly in a place like Chicago.

Before Omar Rodriguez and Cedric Bixler gave us The Mars Volta and several solo projects they were in a band that was often hailed as the saviours of rock music when this album arrived on the scene mid 2000. The third and last release by the band finally got them the recognition and success they deserved but sadly it also proved the to be the end of the band, with Omar and Cedric moving on and forming Mars Volta and Jim Ward (guitarist) and Tony Hajjar (drums) creating Sparta.

Obviously it contains One Armed Scissor, which is an amazing song but I am going to overlook it and give one of the other singles that was released a chance. So the best song is the slower ‘Invalid Litter Dept.’ which has a great video as well.

The full album can be found on Spotify here

It’s that time of year again where writers and editors alike scramble to piece together coherent lists of the albums that shone the brightest over the past 12 months.  Personally I find these lists extremely difficult since I always, always, always leave one or two essential albums out that for some reason didn’t cross my mind when I searched through all the dark crevices to find the music that meant the most to me.

Alternative Press took things a step further by providing a list of the Top Ten Singles of the Decade.  The results are void of many of the scene bands that grace the covers of their pages these days and reflect an era of music most prominent when I was in high school, so much so I felt the need to comment on each song and it’s relevance to me personally and how I see it fitting into to influential music.

10. Thursday – “Understanding In A Car Crash” – I am very excited to see Thursday on the list, especially this track.  Thursday changed the way music was played, incorporating elements of various styles into their post-punk poetry.  Their songs were decidedly darker than their contemporaries mostly thanks to unfortunate circumstances in vocalist Geoff Rickly’s personal life.  What they created was something so beautiful its impact is something that will forever resonate with me.  Musically, they are some of the most talented people I have ever heard, weaving intricacies around lyrics that shatter my heart, creating an eager dependency.  Their influence is something not recognized in the modern derivative of this style of music, and perhaps this is simultaneously also the biggest punk disappointment of the decade.
9. Jimmy Eat World – “The Middle” – I fell in love with Jimmy Eat World when I first discovered the album Clarity, a record that solidified so much those feelings of being lost and those confusions about love.  It’s beautiful and heart-wrenching and easily one of my favourite albums of all time.  The selected track is from their record Bleed American and arguably that song that made them a household name.  And this is a song that will also forever speak to me because it is very much about not believing in yourself, it’s about losing yourself while attempting to find yourself, but ultimately it’s really about standing up for yourself.  It’s about not giving up.  It’s about acceptance of self.  For a sad song, it’s so full of hope and sometimes hope in music is all we ever need.
8. My Chemical Romance – “Helena” – When I think of My Chemical Romance two memories come to mind.  The first of the time they played the Kool Haus with the Used, a show I attended with my good friend Shyla back when we were young and full of rockstar dreams.  While I was never religiously into My Chem, I always really liked them.  The second memory is when I attended Bamboozle in ‘07 and watching their theatrical version of their hit single “Welcome to the Black Parade” with the company of a few great girls.  This song is so terrific, with piano that reminds me of Meat Loaf songs that thus remind me of when I was young.  With an intro so epic, I have no choice but to post the video here:

7. Dashboard Confessional – “Screaming Infidelities” – Dashboard is often associated with being one of the first mainstream emo bands, but they remind me of this girl I used to know named Elizabeth.  In fact, Elizabeth introduced me to a lot of the music that later greatly influenced me as a music lover and as someone trying to make sense in a crazy world.  “Screaming Infidelities” is one of Dashboard’s most well known songs, but I much prefer “Hands Down” as their best single and “The Sharp Hint Of New Tears” as one of their best songs.  They allowed it to be okay for grown men to cry about their girlfriends, and whether you love them or hate them for this their influence and presence cannot be denied.  Not only has it helped shape an entire movement of music, but it’s also helped get a lot of losers laid.
6. The Postal Service – “Such Great Heights” – I totally agree with this song choice because this is one of the most amazing songs I know and it is always stuck in my head.  This song really put Ben Gibbard on the map as an important multi-dimensional songwriter, as his other project Death Cab for Cutie was already successful. I love the way the lyrics wind around the meanings in this song, which is constructed almost like a Weakerthans song.  This band allowed indie electronic rock to be welcomly incorporated into the punk scene.  As much as I love them, I feel the modern bands who try to encapsulate this raw, innovative energy are actually partially responsible for the decline in the Warped Tour style of punk rock, as more and more electric music seeps into the scene.  However, I do not put this blame on the Postal Service at all.
5. Taking Back Sunday – “Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From The Team)” – Taking Back Sunday came onto the scene as a breath of fresh air, with a new way of displaying their ideas.  Catchy, swinging lyrics and melodies laced with spite and conviction, they were in a league of their own that roped me in right away and continues to harness my love.  They too faced their share of Long Island drama, silly affairs that lead to some of the best songs and shows I know.  Behind sugary sweet vocals were battle scars that slowly crept more and more into the music, solidifying my connection to this music and warping them slowly into deeper and darker musical avenues.  This band never got the true respect they deserved, so thank you AP for including them in the list.
4. Fall Out Boy – “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” - Back before Pete Wentz entirely ruined Fall Out Boy’s authenticity (even though he writes the majority of the lyrics), they were making waves for their unique style of song writing.  Off their debut album From Under the Cork Tree, this song encapsulates the rise of poppy emo bands in the mainstream.  Since there are way too many politics in punk rock, this band also divided people into emo lovers and punk lovers, and those who sided with this album were also often discredited.  However, their impact tells it’s own story.  They were one of the firsts to name songs with obnoxiously long titles, my favourites being “A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little more Touch Me,” “”I Slept with Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written about Me”  and personal favourite “I’ve Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth (Summer Song).”  They embraced their image and continue to hone it without sacrificing their ideas and visions.  I respect them for this, especially considering they do put on a stellar live show.
3. Jimmy Eat World – “Sweetness” - Also from Bleed American, I feel this spot definitely should have gone to Brand New. Brand New created a dramatic, cult following that was still apparent in their two sold-out Toronto shows this past weekend.  If TBS is on the list, BN should be too.  Brand New continually changed the way I personally looked at music in terms of development, and I mean this in both positive and negative ways.  Their earlier material wasn’t that amazing, but they still could have put “Mix Tape” or “Soco Amaretto Lime” in here.  It is hard to deny their influence, especially on Deja Entendu and the Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. Did someone have a memory lapse?  Brand New seems like a no-brainer to me for an AP list.
2. My Chemical Romance – “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” -  Another great song by My Chem, but perhaps the people at AP couldn’t think of other bands (Tight deadlines? Too much on the Go?).  Really they have only named eight bands as the most influential over the past decade, where I feel a spot could and should have gone to acts like Propaghandi, Rise Against, AFI, Greenday or even Blink 182.  What about the Get Up Kids?  Or Bright Eyes? Or Alkaline Trio?  Or Thrice? Or Rancid??? So many influential and important artists were not included in an otherwise fabulous list and thus I’m going to have to disregard this allotment.  I really do not think My Chem deserves two places.
1. At The Drive-In – “One Armed Scissor” – I love At the Drive-In, but I was never in love with them, especially this song.  While I appreciate their infusion of ambiance and understand their cultural significance and impact on modern artists, I don’t know if they warrant the number one position.  Musically, they are above many of their contemporaries, with an understanding of song construction that likens them back to psychedelic ’70s music and with that same post-punk neuroticism mastered by Thursday.  I cannot deny their significance, but I would agree more with this award had I experienced that connection with them like I did other acts on this list or even the acts I mentioned that weren’t featured on this list.  I like to think I have really good tastes, but they never captured my heart in the same fashion as other bands in this era.

Reading over my reflections on each song, it’s crazy to realize the impact music has on an individual and how certain songs or certain bands are symbiotic with precise moments in our lives.  They remind us of times we came out triumphant and of times we couldn’t stop feeling lost.  They give us hope when nothing else will and they make us feel like we belong when we feel lonely.  They create community, they divide community, they have the power to make us want more out of life, to make us become better people, and also the power to destroy.  Music allows us to see things and experience things we may not otherwise have and it allows us to reflect on life in an intelligent, intimate way.  It can alter our moods from happy to sad, from sad to happy depending on the connotations it stirs up within each individual.  It truly is one of the most powerful and beautiful of all creations.

To retell the story of the band that could have changed popular punk music forever, I’ve created an interactive Google Map that tracks At the Drive-In’s last month together in early 2001. From their performance at Big Day Out in Australia to their last show in the Netherlands, the map gives some insight into how the band started to break down towards the end of their run with pictures, videos and details of each concert. Later today I plan on posting a timeline chronicling the bands entire existence through photos.

View Larger Map

So, here we go. The start of the new Millennium, and with the huge technological and musical advances of the 100 years prior, music had the opportunity to completely change faces. The growth of the internet, especially in file sharing sites, was at a peak in the early 2000s, with dial up gradually being replaced by broadband, meaning users could download files at a faster rate, and of course share their musical experiences, recommendations and creations online too. Within the studio, more digital effects were being made and experimented with, especially Antare’s Auto-Tune, a feature so over-used this decade that it has spawned dozens of spoof songs and videos, especially on YouTube.

Interestingly, I didn’t really discover or hear of any of these albums that I am about to talk about the year they came out. However, I feel these are the best albums in my opinion that came out in 2000. And they are in no particular order.

1) Deftones – White Pony

I have talked about this album in previous blog entries; stating that it is an album that changed my life. I still hold this opinion today. I first heard this album in 2001, a friend of mine gave it to me on CD, and I recorded it to tape, seeing as I only had a portable tape player at the time to bring to school with me. That tape eventually got played out. Listening to White Pony was unlike anything I had ever heard before. My still rather untrained musical ears did not fully appreciate it at the time, but the production of this album was unlike anything I heard in Rock at the time. Songs like “Digital Bath” and “Elite” instantly struck a chord with me, whereas the epic “Change (In the House of Flies)” and “Passenger” got a deeper appreciation as I got older. To me, this album has everything I ever want in music. Dreamy, almost ambient landscapes, heavy passages, fantastic drumming and great vocals, both clean and screaming. White Pony is a timeless album that really shows Deftones’ maturity, coming from their heavy 1997 classic Around the Fur (another personal favourite of mine.) The whole album really has a very dark, haunting aura, and the album greatly needs to be played at a loud volume in order to be fully appreciated. I still get chills when I listen to “Teenager” and the amazing bridge in “Knife Prty”. This is one album I am never, ever going to get tired of. One of my favourite albums ever. Oh, and I eventually bought the CD

2) At The Drive-In – Relationship of Command

The album that introduced me to the world of post-hardcore music, and of course the ever interesting worlds of Cedric Bixler and Omar Rodriguez. The very first thing that grabbed my attention in this album was the lyrical content, again, it was unlike anything I had heard before; almost like Cedric was just randomly putting words he found in a dictionary, but somehow they at times made sense in context to the message of the song. I first heard this album in 2004, when I was discovering some bands like AFI for example. They complemented both my love for Progressive music, and for Alternative and Punk music that I had at the time. “Arcarsenal” is still to me one of the greatest album openers, so heavy and gets you ready for what is ahead. Unfortuately, I haven’t gave this album a good spin in recent months, but it’s still up there with one of my favourite albums of the decade.

3) Pain of Salvation – The Perfect Element, Part I

Out of this whole list, this was the album that I discovered the most recently (2007). While I did give it somewhat of a listen a few years prior (and really dug “Rope Ends”), I never fully got into it until I met one Daniel Acheson, who introduced me to the world of Pain of Salvation. I was looking for music similar to Dream Theater, and Daniel recommended PoS to me. Good recommendation! The Perfect Element Part I really is an amazing concept album, up there with the all time greats like Dark Side of the Moon and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Again, this album has everything – unbelievable singing by Daniel Gildenlow, both in clean, falsetto and unholy high screams; heavy riffs that are also complemented by beautiful acoustic passages, whether it be on piano or guitar; and almost tribal like drum passages at times. For anyone who likes a good album with a story behind it, I recommend this highly.

4) Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

And here is another album that introduced me to the world of post-rock. Grand, majestic and uplifting are the 3 perfect words for this album. Many have called this a masterpiece, and I would agree with them. 2 disc masterpiece at that. This is just one of those albums that you can turn on, and just sit back and enjoy what unfolds infront of you. Musical texturing at it’s best, a quality many bands have tried to emulate, but many fail at. A truly great work.

So, there you have it. My picks of 2000. Next up, you guessed it. 2001. Keep checking back for 2001!

I will attempt to regularly post short capsule reviews of the albums I have selected to represent the best that 2000-2009 had to offer. Hopefully, I can get through them all before January 1st, when I will post the list in its entirety. The final list will be rated accordingly, but the reviews will be chosen at random. It’s become a fun way to re-experience these albums, some of which I haven’t listened to in awhile, and also a great reason to listen to many albums I have missed out on. Here are the first batch of capsules.

Nonesuch Records

Brian Wilson—SMiLE!

The most talked-about and longest-awaited rock album of all time just happened to finally be released in this particular decade. Great—looks like all the other albums on the list can pack up and go home, right? Not necessarily. Wilson may have finally finished his masterpiece some 40 years after the project’s original inception, but there is no way the SMiLE! that finally saw the light of day could ever have measured up to the album that should have been created in 1967, Wilson’s creative heyday. There’s just no way! First of all, Wilson’s voice is about 1/8 what it used to be—these days, he has hardly any range, and on top of that, very little personality to his voice. Still, none of these flaws make SMiLE! less great. Its impeccably crafted whimsy and stream-of-consciousness song cycle have become insanely influential, thanks to the underground circulation of bootlegs over the last four decades. Conceptually, idealistically, and in pretty much every sense save for its execution, SMiLE! ranks among the best rock records in history. It also could be #1 on my soon-to-be-written list of Rock and Roll’s Most Tragic Could-Have-Beens.

Grand Royal Records

At The Drive-In—Relationship of Command

Of all the bands that have broken up over the past decade, At The Drive-In should be missed the most. They brought a much-needed punk rock “fuck you” to the music industry in the late nineties, and took everyone completely by surprise—which is exactly what we need to happen today. Not a theoretical today, but actually TODAY. Tonight, At The Drive-In, or a band like them (yeah, right), need to be on David Letterman hopping around and dive-bombing the special guests. They need to be completely shredding ass to “One Armed Scissor” or a song like it (yeah, right). We NEED that, because seriously, how much more Biggest Loser and So You Think You Can Dance can this nation take? Why did ATDI have to go? If they had made one more album like Relationship of Command, it is likely music would be different today. Maybe that was too much pressure for them, which is understandable. This business eats people up. The question needs to be asked though—is this writer alone in the feeling that Mars Volta and Sparta were like the Devil’s cruel joke to anyone who never got lucky enough to see At The Drive-In live? Seriously.

Ashmont Records

Pernice Brothers—Yours, Mine & Ours

Very rarely do albums this sad evoke such feelings of happiness. It’s possible when the songs are just that good, and such is the case with the third album from the Pernice Brothers. Their career milestone to this day, Mine & Ours surprised and delighted those who were nonplussed by their iffy sophomore effort and carries a distinction very few records receive—it is a perfect album. That’s right, there’s not a bad song in the bunch. Granted, these songs are very melancholy and for the most part suit a certain mood, but music this good can’t be pigeonholed as “mood music”. It’s not something the listener can control. Undeniably catchy mope-anthems like “Weakest Shade of Blue” and “One Foot in the Grave” permeate and eventually become the mood. Once under the spell of the rock tunes, the listener is no match against breathtakingly beautiful ballads like “Blinded by the Stars” and “Number Two”. Almost always, they are rendered helpless and goo-like.

It’s around this time each year that journalists, bloggers and any one else similarly obsessed with letting everyone know their bloody opinions get rather excited.

This has nothing to do with the imminent gifts or feasts of meat and alcohol that xmas inevitably brings.

No, this time of year means one thing for these people. Lists.

Yes, they have already started flooding in. Furthermore, this year, while not quite as salivatingly-big an opportunity as the Millennium, we have the prospect of a ‘greatest album of the decade’-a-thon!

The NME has this week been the most prolific perpetrator of this culture with their 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade.

On first inspection, and considering the usual standards of the aforementioned publication, their list seems surprisingly good. The Strokes don’t seem a bad shout for number one seeing as whatever is chosen will make people who believe too much in their own opinions cry. The album also sounds fairly relevant nine years on.

The inclusion of the obligatory Radiohead, Interpol and The Holdsteady also tick the seemingly ‘given’ boxes needed to appease their blinkered readership. And although I wouldn’t argue with any of these, how they figure In Rainbows is better than Kid A is bewildering. Even for the NME.

Arcade Fire’s Funeral and Relationship of Command by At the Drive In are nice surprises, as are The Rapture, Bright Eyes and The Walkmen. All excellent albums.

But, and this is rather large interjection, when you look at the detritus filling out the other spaces on the list, and think about it for marginally more time than it takes to flick through the New Musical Express’ fickle pages, the list loses rather a lot of credibility.

I know this debate is essentially down to taste so I wont deride choices such as Green Day’s American Idiot or Klaxons’ Myths of the Near Future; no one is forcing us to read this. However, I feel the list is characterised by its frankly puzzling omissions: worthy albums; albums which I would expect the NME to include.

Where was Phoenix’s amazing Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix? Where was Burial’s Untrue? Where the bloody hell was Madvillainy?!

These are not the esoteric choices of a bitter music snob. These are merely the most surprising and obvious absentees from an NME list. Is Kasabian’s Empire a not better — if not, more obvious — choice than the detestable and shallow ‘band’ Hard Fi?

Are the NME being purposefully pugnacious by not including anything by Daft Punk? How can one recognise Bright Eyes and Sujan Steves yet ignore Iron and Wine?

My point is to ask if NME are taking the piss or if they really are as inept as we have long suspected?

Lists are controversial; that’s why they are published. But to show that when making a list there’s no need to be so firmly camped inside a bubble of shit, here are some far more considered alternatives.

Paste Magazine’s top 50 albums of the decade.

and

Pitchfork’s 20 greatest albums of the ’00s.

Opinions etc?

As a sort of feature for every week, I’ll be putting together a collection of tracks for different genres from live performances. This week is the post-hardcore genre with progressive influences. All these bands have exemplified more experimentation in the post-hardcore format and stand out from the typical punk/metalcore scene that has developed over the past few years.

Progressive Post-Hardcore Live Mix by phildavis89

The Sound of Animals Fighting

The first track is from The Sound of Animals Fighting off of their live DVD, We Must Become the Change We Want to See. It was the only recorded performance of the band where they played in front of a sold out crowd at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California. The Sound of Animals Fighting is a supergroup created by ex-RX Bandits member Rich Balling and features the likes of Anthony Green, the vocalist for Circa Surive, Craig Owens, the former vocalist for Chiodos, Matt Embree, the lead guitarist for the RX Bandits, Christopher Tsagakis, the drummer for the RX Bandits and several other guest appearances who showed up during the live show like Steve Choi from the RX Bandits helping on rhythm guitar and Joe Troy from the RX Bandits on bass.

The band’s sound can best be described as a fusion of the progressive punk featured in the RX Bandits with the heavier post-hardcore influence of Anthony Green’s Circa Survive and Craig Owens’s Chiodos. Their focus on more progressive scale verses is a fresh take on the power chord heavy genre.

The Fall of Troy.

The second track comes from The Fall of Troy. In early 2009, the band gave a visit to Hurley Studio in Costa Mesa, California to give a three song live set. The Fall of Troy takes a heavier approach to the post-hardcore genre, taking influences from bands like At the Drive-In and The Blood Brothers while creating crazy, technically proficient guitar riffs to drive their songs. To view the full set, click here for the video performance of “I Just Got This Symphony Going,” “Chapter III: Nostalgic Mannerisms” and the now titled “Nobody’s Perfect” (Called “Untitled” in the performance).

Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta. Picture taken by Nick Helderman.

Speaking of At the Drive-In, the last song on the playlist comes from the ashes of the highly influential post-hardcore with The Mars Volta. The performance of “Inertiatic E.S.P.” comes from the rare recorded performance of the band at the Electric Ballroom in Camden Town, England on July 9, 2003. While The Mars Volta tend to lean more on the progressive side with their music; the band’s first full-length release, De-Loused in the Comatorium, showed the band had not completely abandoned their punk and post-hardcore roots with songs like this one.

My body is reject everything near it and I can’t shake anything off but the one thing it still loves is music so here’s a little remedy consisting of mostly melody. I even threw in six today just because I was feeling cheery.

Estelle: Wait A Minute (Just A Touch) – Such a beautiful blend of modern hip-hop and easy listening – not to mention Estelle’s voice is like smooth molasses. It’s a great song with a fantastic beat. I don’t like a lot of female singers but she is an exception.

At The Drive-In: Cosmonaut – Absolutely brutal song. Out of this band’s ashes came Mars Volta and Sparta but before those creative giants At The Drive in did a marvelous job of merging progressive rock and hardcore music. If you haven’t been introduced to this group before – you’re welcome.

Methods Of Mayhem: Crash – Mr. Tommy Lee is a maniac and it comes through in vivid colors on this track. It’s a beat-bashing, head-banging, adrenaline rush and I’m going to warn you now not to put this in your car.

Michael Jackson: Get On The Floor – This is my favorite MJ Song ever recorded. It takes us back to his early days with Quincy Jones and will make you remember why he’s so respected in the music community. “Off The Wall” was probably a better album that “Triller”. Just saying…

Kings Of Leon: Crawl - Ok, so they’re getting really big really fast and I’m not on board yet but I do love this track. They have a lot of potential and I hope they don’t turn into the next Pearl Jam and they find a way to separate themselves with their own unique sound.

Temposhark: Joy – I’m not sure this band will ever become noteworthy because their new CD is really super gay. On the upside at least they recorded this awesome electronic jam. If you never listen to anything else they record you’ll still be ok in my books but this track is worth your time.

Quando conheci o At The Drive-in minha vida musical – que puta termo boiola, hein? – mudou drasticamente. O At The Drive-in é uma banda de sonoridade única. Eu os considero como a única banda com som nonsense, ao menos é a única que já ouvi na vida.

O som deles é muito variável e sempre bom demais. Se você conhece The Mars Volta e todo o seu experimentalismo, saiba que, no ATDI (nome da banda abreviado) o psicodelismo também ocorre, mas em doses menores e com mais peso hardcore.

Hourglass é uma faixa diferente do característico da banda, mas nem por isso deixa de ser boa. Ela é mais calma que a grande maioria das músicas, tem um tom mais melódico também. Mas é incrível. O vocal mostra toda sua qualidade, o instrumental – repetindo – mais leve que o normal é impecável. Até que chega o refrão, aí o vocal solta o berro e os instrumentos ficam mais agressivos. Isso ocorre apenas lá pelos 2 minutos. E isso não quer dizer que tudo que vem antes é ruim. Não mesmo.

Faz parte de In/Casino/Out, de 1998.

Ouça.

At the Drive-In live. Copyright Fearless Records.

Shaky cam footage, non-soundboard quality audio with levels to make your ears bleed and late 90s level VHS video quality. But, thanks to the filmmakers at unartig, we have yet another six views into the world of the last 3 years of At the Drive-In, including their second to last performance in February 2001.

Everything from Omar’s opiate induced sporadic guitar solos to Cedric’s berating of slam dancers; it’s all on display in this series of compiled videos. These videos give a new perspective for those who, like myself, were never able to see At the Drive-In live before their infamous breakup. They span from 1999-2001 and serve as almost a visual and aural timeline showcasing the band’s energetic and often uniquely flawed live shows from the In/Casino/Out tour to the Relationship of Command tour. They were never the tight pop rock shows that larger, more commercial bands would put on. However, their shows were renowned for the band’s on-stage presence and improvisation within songs. These videos simply further the legacy of the punk band that helped to create post-hardcore as we know it today. The band’s second to last performance in Bremen, Germany is below. Be sure to check out the article at unartig for all the videos and unartig’s blip.tv profile for individual videos and larger size.

At The Drive In waren eine, zumindest für mich, der großartigsten Bands. Leider haben sie sich viel zu früh aufgelöst. Nun gut, es ist The Mars Volta daraus entstanden, die einen fantastischen Stilmix schaffen, aber At The Drive In haben die Hardcore Welt ( obwohl sie nach eigenen Aussagen ja nie eine Hardcore Band waren ) ganz schön durcheinander gewirbelt und hatten das Zeug was richtig großes zu werden. Aber wie heißt es immer so schön, “Man soll aufhören, wenn es am schönsten ist.” Glücklicherweise hab ich sie live gesehen. Wer das nicht könnte, hat jetzt die Möglichkeit diverse Auftritte aus den Jahren 1999 und 2000 HIER zu sehen. Leider ist das Konzert aus dem Kölner Underground nicht dabei, aber man kann trotzdem sehen, welche Energie die Jungs damals rausgehauen haben. Toll.

Ray.

Yesterday I watched “Million Dollar Baby”. I often consult imdb.com and Wikipedia after watching movies, to kinda, you know, explore the background of the film, find links to reviews, and check out the filmographies of the actors and director. Wikipedia is especially helpful as a sort of annotated bibliography, leading me to articles like the one I’m going to trash in just a moment. Under the heading “Response”, the Wikipedia entry about MDB discusses the controversy regarding the movie’s ending, and states that disability rights “activists believed that the ending supported the euthanasia of disabled people”.

Supported? People? No. Condoned, maybe — maybe. One person — Maggie, Hilary Swank’s character — yes. But “supported the euthanasia of disabled people”? This sort of willful misinterpretation is both ridiculous and infuriating.

Clint Eastwood came back with this: “I’m just telling a story. I don’t advocate. I’m playing a part. I’ve gone around in movies blowing people away with a .44 magnum. But that doesn’t mean I think that’s a proper thing to do.”

Here’s the bottom line: “Million Dollar Baby” contains no politics and no ideology. When politicians and ideologues and advocates and activists and moralists come along and start criticizing art with political and ideological and moral arguments, they not only endeavor to smear a particular piece; they threaten creative freedom and shake the foundations of art. (One can sympathize with Twain’s jocular warning at the beginning of Huckleberry Finn: “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”) Artistic criticism is like surgery; ideology is a dirty scalpel.

Wikipedia directed me to this article from the Weekly Standard, a decidedly conservative magazine. Read it, and note the blurb about the author at the end: “Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, an attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture.” Check out those organizations — we are not dealing with a disinterested film critic here.

Smith argues that Clint Eastwood should have made a film with a more hopeful and inspirational ending, rather than one with a “dark and ultimately defeatist death message”:

The movie could have ended with Maggie triumphing once again, perhaps having obtained an education and becoming a teacher; or, opening a business managing boxers; or perhaps, receiving a standing ovation as an inspirational speaker.

If you didn’t like the ending, Mr. Smith, then by all means make your own movie. If you’re into the Rainbows and Puppy Dogs school of film making, try Frank Capra or, if you can stand a bit more tension, Preston Sturges. But don’t come to Clint Eastwood for smiles and rays of sunshine. Suppose Sean Penn didn’t kill Tim Robbins at the end of “Mystic River”? What would have been the point of the whole movie? Alright Tim, go on, and let’s just forget this whole silly thing ever happened. No. The same can be said for MDB. The film is not about Maggie, the scrappy girl boxer; it’s about Frankie, the old, hardened, lonely, disappointed trainer. Notice that when we don’t see Swank and Eastwood together, we see him alone more than her — getting shafted by his star fighter, going to church, collecting his returned letters to his daughter in boxes. He is the subject of the story. You say Maggie should have overcome her depression and Frankie should have been more supportive. You prove to us that in real life this would be possible. But in life, as in art, what’s possible doesn’t always occur, for there are infinite permutations of possibility.

All this is besides the point though, because you don’t care about the damn plot. You offer some nice alternatives not because you’d hoped for a better work of art but rather because you don’t like what the movie you’re given could be said to say about disabled people and euthanasia. Which leads me to my next point: The movie does not say those things about disabled people and euthanasia. You write:

Frankie kills Maggie because she doesn’t want to go on living after being catastrophically injured and disabled in a boxing match. It isn’t just the disability that leads to her suicidal desire. In the world of the script, she is plunged headlong from triumph to utter hopelessness. Indeed, the script writers manipulate the audience emotionally into thinking, “Of course she wants to die. Given the same situation, who wouldn’t?”

This is simply not so. We see Frankie who, as I have asserted, is the subject of the story, first refusing Maggie’s request outright and subsequently agonizing over it. We aren’t told directly why he reacts this way. We understand that it has to do partially with his Catholic view on the matter, but mostly it’s because Maggie has become his surrogate daughter, and he can’t bear to lose another daughter, and to be the instrument of her end. Maggie, for her part, has her little speech in which she explains why she doesn’t want to go on living, but it’s not her reasoning that ultimately sways Frankie, it’s the pain behind the reasoning. Frankie talks about her pain with the priest in one of the most affecting scenes in the film. We see the whole struggle through Frankie’s eyes. We see very little through Maggie’s. The script, then, is not manipulating us into siding with Maggie; it is sucking us into Frankie’s painful struggle.

And what if we were given the happy ending you so badly crave, Mr. Smith? We’d smile with tears in our eyes and say Aww how sweet and leave the theater and go home and forget the movie by the time we fell asleep because the ending wouldn’t stick, because contrary to your opinion that your happy ending “would also have been more consistent with the internal strength of Million Dollar Baby’s characters”, it would actually be inconsistent with Maggie’s stubborn streak and Frankie’s underlying weakness. But I’m getting off-topic again — back to the film itself and away from your agenda.

*Sigh*

Listen: Pursue your goals. Save quadriplegics. Treat depression. Oppose euthanasia for people who want it. Do whatever the hell you want. But do not use your personal convictions to wage war on art. Even if you win a battle or two, in the end, art will always come out on top.

Torsten Meyer hat auf seiner Webseite “Unartig” eine beeindruckende Retrospektive über At the Drive-In zusammengestellt. Sie umfasst 6 volle Sets, die die Band zwischen 1999 und 2001 in Deutschland gespielt hat. U.a. das vorletzte Konzert überhaupt, sowie ein abgedrehtes Konzert in einer viel zu kleinen Bar.

Unbedingt ansehen

Uma pequena dose de historia é necessária para compreender a importância e para reconhecer a grande contribuição dessa banda para o rock. No inicio dos anos 80, surgiram bandas que traziam como grande influencia o Hardcore Punk do Sonic Youth, mas que faziam algo mais na maneira de tocar, esse algo foi batizado como Post-Hardcore. Essas primeiras bandas mostravam letras de punho social, e um som que, apesar dos traços do hardcore punk, tentavam mostrar mais os sentimentos de amor e ódio, misturados no mesmo frasco. Bandas como o Embrace, Rites of Sping, Nation Of Ulysses e Lungfish. Quando atingidos os anos 90, e com o surgimento do Fugazi, Helmet e Glassjaw, o post-hardcore sofreu grandes influencias do emocore e metal, perdendo assim parte de sua essência original. É aí que vamos enquadrar o At The Drive-In, rotulado por muitos como a “salvação do post-hardcore”. A banda surgiu em 1993 com raízes também no hardcore punk, mas com uma pegada marcante que resultavam em shows frenéticos, fazendo com que a banda fosse notada rapidamente. Os dois melhores álbuns são o debut pela Fearless Records “In/Cassino/Out” e a obra-prima “Relashionship Of Command” pela Grand Royal.

IN/CASSINO/OUT (1998)

TRACKLIST:

01. Alpha Centauri
02. Chanbara
03. Hulahoop Wounds
04. Napoleon Solo
05. Pickpocket
06. For Now.We Toast
07. Devil Among the Tailors, A
08. Shaking Hand Incision
09. Lopsided
10. Hourglass
11. Transatlantic Foe

BANDA: At The Drive-In
ÁLBUM: In/Cassino/Out
GÊNERO: Post-Hardcore
RELEASE: 18/08/1998
SELO/GRAVADORA: Fearless Records

MYSPACE: http://www.myspace.com/atdi
SIMILARES: Sparta, The Blood Brothers, Fugazi

DOWNLOAD
SENHA: rockernation

RELATIONSHIP OF COMMAND (2000)

TRACKLIST:

01. Arc Arsenal
02. Pattern Against User
03. One Armed Scissor
04. Sleepwalk Capsules
05. Invalid Litter Dept.
06. Mannequin Republic
07. Enfilade
08. Rolodex Propaganda
09. Quarantined
10. Cosmonaut
11. Non-Zero Possibility
12. Extracurricular
13. Catacombs

BANDA: At The Drive-In
ÁLBUM: Relationship Of Command
GÊNERO: Post-Hardcore
RELEASE: 09/12/2000
SELO/GRAVADORA: Grand Royal

MYSPACE: http://www.myspace.com/atdi
SIMILARES: Sparta, The Blood Brothers, Fugazi

DOWNLOAD
SENHA: rockernation

UPLOAD POR DU

the latest Six Mix…

MP3: IAMX – Kiss And Swallow

MP3: Mystery Jets – Half In Love With Elizabeth

MP3: At The Drive In – Pattern Against User

MP3: The Kills – Fried My Little Brains

MP3: Andrew Weatherall – Liar With WIngs

VIDEO: Frank Turner – I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous

S.I.T Wolf X

The End Humans are not to blame. They cannot be. Ergin Sprock is not to blame, though he is the key.

Why is Cedric Bixler Zavala? Because you made him.

Was he becoming? (Note: Cedric Bixler Zavala born 1974 – Ergin Sprock born 1974)

Cedric Bixler Zavala Education:

– unknown. Human pysche variable. Human guesswork for Bixler Zavala filed here but mystical, not sound.

Cedric Bixler Zavala Interview:

Cedric Bixler Zavala quotes: “That’s when it started, and the more and more I played it, the more and more I wrote everything down that it was saying, and the more and more I was excited by it, because I was having such a dry spell for inspiration.”

“That’s when it started…..” – follow leads from article. Emergent Two.

At the Drive-In lyrics. Interesting. Check. Source? Bixler Zavala.

I could post the crappy cellphone pictures of have of the concert, but it wouldn’t serve as a true memory of the event for two reasons. First, they are far too blurry to even get a sense of what’s going on. If you want some decent photos of the concert, check out rights_reserverd’s flickr gallery. Second, and more importantly, a photographic memory is only half the experience.

The Mars Volta live at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Photo taken by mrdoubtfire.

When I first walked into the Electric Factory, I started to think about the set list that had been circling setlist.fm and how I wouldn’t want to hear some of the songs off of the new album. I looked upstairs at the bar section and thought about how it would be great to be 21 and drink after the show. As I looked out on the public admission crowd, I was worried about how this relatively young crowd would act (Although, I’m glad their age contributed to their height). The showtime on the ticket was at 8 PM (In my head it was an 8 o’clock show anyway. Later found out it was an 8:30 show). At 8:29 PM, I started to get impatient and started to wonder how fresh the band was going to be, whether or not they wanted to be there and maybe, just maybe, they had cancelled the show last second. All these worries continued to pile up as that 30-minute wait started to weigh down on me and, presumably, the rest of the crowd.

Then, Isaiah, Marcel, Juan, Thomas, Cedric and Omar all started to file out of the back room to what sounded like the soundtrack to an old western movie, and all the doubt and impatience washed away. As the prelude to “Intertiatic E.S.P.,” “Son Et Lumiere,”  from De-Loused in the Comatorium (their first full length) began with the ominous keyboard intro and Cedric first emoted those almost nonsensically complex lyrics dripping in his acidic version of a male-singing soprano, there were no doubts.

From Intertiatic E.S.P. on, it was obvious that “the Mars Volta” came to play. I could go on about how well each song was performed. There were some noticeable moments, including one mishap at the end of “Roulette Dares” (Also from De-Loused) where it seemed like Juan Alderete couldn’t get a bass loop to stop and Omar was forced to take an already slow, moody jam and stretch it out even further. I could complain about how I wanted them to bring the jam that they did at Bonnaroo of “Cygnus Vismund Cygnus” to this concert. But, after having experiencing what transpired between the hours of 8:30 PM and 10:05 PM, complaining would sound like needless bickering.

Now, what I said before about the Mars Volta’s new album is true. Out of the four songs from their new album they were on the set lists circulating online, I was only looking forward to “Cotopaxi,” one of the singles off of the album. However, the performance was able to supersede any of the problems I had with the songs previously. Originally, I thought these songs felt lifeless and they felt like fruitless attempts at trying to create pop songs that were still distinctly “the Mars Volta.” Basically, the whole “their old stuff is better” argument just re-purposed. But their performance of these songs was with so much vitriol and confidence, it was hard to not to believe in these songs.

The live show did for me what many punk shows do for new fans; it opened my eyes. After being a  Mars Volta fan for a little under two years and really preferring the tracks off of De-loused in the Comatorium and Frances the Mute, this was the live show I needed to see. It wasn’t a two and a half-hour jam session (outside of that Roulette Dares thing), but everything was tight and well put together. Perhaps it was because their secondary guitarist, Paul Hinojos, and their wind performer, Adrián Terrazas-González, weren’t with them, but something about the show struck me like I was watching Cedric’s and Omar’s previous band, At the Drive-in, back in the mid to late-90s and I was going to get a demo CD after the show. They didn’t play with the same amount of energy, as that what opiates and age will do to you, but they still have the same amount of enthusiasm when it comes to performing.

Cedric was his normal, insane self doing hand plants and generally just gyrating around stage like a mad man, although it wasn’t exactly At the Drive-in at Big Day Out 2001. Also, his vocals were the best I’ve seen in a while as he was able to nail pretty much everything, including the stuff off of De-Loused. Omar was relatively reigned in compared to his other live performances, but he still had his moments like the solos to “Drunkship of Lanterns” and “Goliath“. What was more surprising was how confident he seemed in everything that he was doing; constantly stepping to the front of the stage during his guitar solos and walking with the swagger that you expect more out of Cedric. The standout of the night was Thomas Pridgen, the drummer. It might have been the fact that the acoustics of the Factory were way too far in his favor, but he dominated the set and has become far more in tune with the band. He was  the driving force during the more aggressive songs yet knew when to settle down during the softer songs unlike his previous performances like those during the Nissan Live Sets. During this set, he was noticeably excited with his mouth wide open during the more aggressive parts that showcased his skills and during his solo towards the middle of the performance. He’s a technically proficient madman and has really found his own sound within the band.

If there was one complaint I had, it’s that the last two songs of the set, “The Widow” and “Wax Simulacra,” gave the set a crowd-pleaser feeling rather than the raw dynamic the band is known for. With the rest of the performance so captivating and full of energy, by having both “The Widow” and “Wax Simulcra”, both very pop-oriented songs, it seemed to create this weird contrast with the rest of the concert. Ultimately, it didn’t matter which songs they played, as the way they were selling themselves to the crowd would have made any song more than acceptable.

Hello Blog. I am the worst co-blog owner ever. I AM SORRY. I have been doing so many manymany things, which you can read about here (which is almost as badly updated as poor old B.B.A.S.N).

Here is a quick recap though. Imagine it as a montage. That’s more fun. I moved to London and am now living with Layla and other lovely people. And I am freelancing manically. And I’m going to New York in a week’s time.

In other news, I am the worst-packing emigrant ever to leave the Island. It’s now October, and since I didn’t pack a coat, I now just layer jumpers like there’s no tomorrow. Great. But, yknow, I did bring two leotards. Which has got to count for something.

Right, well, that was suitably slapdash. Let’s pop up a youtube clip for the closer, and remember happier times, when this blog was updated more than once a month.

x
A

Hey everyone. I know I’ve really been slacking with the blog lately — not that anyone would notice, since I haven’t had a double-digit hit count since September 24 — but I just haven’t really felt like blogging for whatever reason. I’d like to say I had a better excuse than that for slacking off with this thing, but that’s just how it is.

Anyway, here’s the playlist from the 9/25/09 show. Hopefully one of these days I’ll actually write something more substantial than one of these playlist posts. That, however, would require me to stop being a lazy slacker.

1. Radiohead, “Bangers & Mash” (In Rainbows bonus disc)

2. TV On The Radio, “Golden Age” (Dear Science)

3. Arctic Monkeys, “Fake Tales Of San Francisco” (Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not)

4. Cave In, “Lost In The Air” (Antenna)

5. Band Of Horses, “Is There A Ghost” (Cease To Begin)

6. RX Bandits, “Tainted Wheat” (…And The Battle Begun)

7. At The Drive-In, “A Devil Among The Tailors” (In/Casino/Out)

8. Kings Of Leon, “Notion” (Only By The Night)

9. Interpol, “Slow Hands” (Antics)

10. Deerhunter, “Saved By Old Times” (Microcastle)

11. The Clash, “Lost In The Supermarket” (London Calling)

12. British Sea Power, “Down On The Ground” (Do You Like Rock Music?)

13. Thrice, “As The Crow Flies” (The Alchemy Index: Vol. 3 — Air)

14. Foo Fighters, “Cold Day In The Sun” (In Your Honor)

15. Spoon, “Jonathon Fisk” (Kill The Moonlight)

16. My Morning Jacket, “Thank You Too!” (Evil Urges)

17. Minus The Bear, “When We Escape” (Planet Of Ice)

18. The National, “Secret Meeting” (Alligator)

19. R.E.M., “Near Wild Heaven” (Out Of Time)

20. Pavement, “Major Leagues” (Terror Twilight)

21. Radiohead, “Lucky” (OK Computer)

22. Red Hot Chili Peppers, “She’s Only 18″ (Stadium Arcadium)

23. Muse, “Muscle Museum” (Showbiz)

24. Snow Patrol, “Shut Your Eyes” (Eyes Open)

25. Bloc Party, “Signs” (Intimacy)

26. Weezer, “El Scorcho” (Pinkerton)

27. The Beach Boys, “Wendy” (Endless Summer)

28. The Decemberists, “O Valencia!” (The Crane Wife)

29. Elvis Costello, “Veronica” (Spike)

30. The Beatles, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (Abbey Road)

its been a long time coming…

Mixtape #4

1. A Bloody Romance Kitten by Death From Above 1979, Miss Kittin, & thebloodbrothers
2. Banilla Beans by AFTA-1
3. Red Sock Pugie by Foals
4. Stranger Than Strangers by Tim Kasher
5. Six  Different Ways by The Cure
6. …Accidents Happen So Fast by September Malevolence
7. Gravity by Days Away
8. Electric Rainbow by Minus The Bear
9. Song For Clay (Disappear Here) by Bloc Party
10. 13 Monsters by Lightning Bolt
11. Pantomime by Engine Down
12. Antihero by The Appleseed Cast
13. Missoula by Uzi & Ari
14. Glsli by Sigur Ros
15. Lights & Shapes by Moving Mountains

Download

Mixtape #5

1. The Shape Of Punk To Come by Refused
2. Bad News by Owen
3. Grease Wizard by Tobacco
4. One Month Off by Bloc Party
5. Where Is My Mind by The Pixies
6. Who Do We Care For? by Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains
7. Anyone Can Have A Good Time by Owls
8. Sugar Coated Sour (Live) by The Dillinger Escape Plan
9. Horse Warming Party by Portugal. The Man
10. Sell My Old Clothes, I’m Off To Heaven by Saves The Day
11. Sinking Ships by Bear Colony
12. Woodlawn by Ampere
13. The Wolf by Miniature Tigers
14. June by Pinback
15. Catacombs by At The Drive-In

Download

enjoy.

En este episodio sobrepasamos grupos que han salido en los últimos años, que como siempre son algo menos conocidos. Por ejemplo:

Evergreen Terrace
A Song For Chi
Black Tide
Enter Shikari
Lazarus A.D.
White Wizzard
Airborne
Municipal Waste
Maylene & The Sons of Disaster
Senses Fail
Sparta

También hablamos de lo siguiente:

Helmet, Los Simpson, The Simpsons, The Deftones, Korn, Slipknot, Machine Head, Metallica, Sevendust, Hatebreed, P.O.D., Disturbed, Killswitch Engage, Post Hardcore, Screamo, Metalcore, Retro-Thrash, Thrash, Sonisphere, Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I., Christian Rock, Southern Rock, Metal Hammer, Still Searching, Mars Volta, At The Drive In

El podcast se puede descargar en formato que prefiere desde aquí:

O escucha online aquí:

A banda possui mais de 14 integrantes espalhados nos mais diversos e desconhecidos papeis, mas o grupo inteiro pode ser resumido a apenas duas pessoas, os fundadores e front men Cedric Bixler-Zavala e Omar A. Rodriguez-Lopez da banda americana The Mars Volta. O projeto foi criado em 2oo1 com Cedric e Omar, ex-membros do At the Drive-In e se chamava DeFacto e chegaram a lançar um álbum. Após a passagem e inclusão de produtores, técnicos, amigos e muita influência latina, o grupo firmou-se final como The Mars Volta, no intuito de preencher as lacunas deixadas por seus antigos projetos. A banda utiliza de influências de reggae, punk, rock, principalmente o psicodelismo e experimental, chegando por fim a fusão de todos esses gêneros e formarem o então conceitual Art Rock. O grupo usa de muita guitarra e solos impressionantes vindos da fantástica técnica musical de Omar e do vocal penetrante de Cedric e suas músicas remetem caráter introspectivo, profundo, misterioso e eles inovam por utilizarem um vocabulário um tanto diverso e rimas originais. Não distante estão as diversas mensagens subliminares escondidas em cada faixa de cada álbum, principalmente a sua considerada obra-prima Frances the Mute.

As músicas do The Mars Volta são bem intensas, ecléticas e dançantes fazendo com que atingissem sempre uma boa critica dos veículos especializados. Recentemente lançaram o álbum Octahedron e estão em turnê promocional. Aqui para download um de seus primeiros trabalhos, o EP Tremulant         Download

1 – Cut That City