Estamos de enhorabuena!. Una de las bandas más creativas y originales de los últimos años lanza Neverender, una caja que incluye un DVD en directo  y cuatro  C.D´s de la gira que ofrecieron el año pasado en U.S.A. en las que tocaron sus cuatro discos de estudio completos . Un artefacto acojonante para todos sus seguidores en el que nos encontramos a esta maravillosa banda en todo su esplendor …vale es cierto, a veces se nota que las pasan putas para recrear esos juegos de voces y harmonías vocales que en sus discos de estudio te vuelan la cabeza, pero a cambio te ofrecen una interpretación llena de pasión y con nuevos matices de su maravillosa discografía…y que cojones!, si conoceis algún disco en directo oficial sin post producción hacérnoslo saber…

P.D. Para los que no los conozcan …No!…el cantante no es el de Mojinos Escocíos aunque se llame Claudio Sánchez

ourWorld could be better if it had the following:

• Better Music (Linkin Park, Fee, Kings of Leon, Owl City, Coheed and Cambria)
• Gift Gems (you can give your own gems, not have to purchase them)
• Cooler Flow Boosts
• Ice Rink (like Starlight Lounge but with skate rentals like 20c per hour)

Linkin Park cD :[HYBRID THEORY]

The gap between the years 2000 and 2010 seems like a good time for me to write about my favourite albums of the decade. These also happen to be the years that I went from the angst ridden age of 16 to the slightly (emphasis on slightly) maturer age of 26. It also provides me with a great opportunity to show you that my taste in music is probably not the same as yours (and obviously not as good), and that my list isn’t eclectic in the slightest.

I have fallen in love with hundreds of albums in the past ten years so to name only ten of them is an extremely difficult task. However, I’ve done it and if you’d like a rough idea of my top artists over the last few years, you can take a gander at my last.fm page.

The following list includes ten albums that for me, have either; strongly influenced me in different ways, remain nostalgic and still spark brilliant memories of growing up or simply, still remain extremely enjoyable for me to listen to from start to finish. In fact, these are the factors that helped make my final decision a hell of a lot easier. Oh and don’t expect any of these albums to appear in any other list of ‘Great albums from the last decade’. It just wouldn’t happen…

So let’s get on with it. (Beware – I WILL go over the top when I write about my number 1)

#10. Fenix TX – Lechuza

The number ‘10′ spot was the hardest spot for me to fill, and if I’m honest I’m still not sure what should have truly gone here. This album was released whilst I was in the sixth form and it was usually on repeat during my I.T lessons via my trusty mini-disc player. The eleven tracks on Lechuza have a bit of everything, from angst to emotional with some humour and fun to boot. I guess this albums lasting power could have been due to the fact, the band split up a couple of years afterwards, but I honestly still get enjoyment from it and am now itching to see these guys live once more. I’m pretty certain that the inclusion of ‘Lechuza’ in this list will surprise almost everyone, but I feel it rightly deserves its place in my personal top ten.

#9. Less Than Jake – Borders & Boundaries

So here’s the token ska-punk inclusion in my list. I have to admit I have gone off ska in general an awful lot over the past couple of years but Less Than Jake will always be welcome in my collection with open arms. Borders and Boundaries is another album that spent A LOT of time making friends with that trusty mini-disc player of mine. It’s an album that worked for me all year round and it provided so much fun it’s unreal. It mainly reminds me of bus journeys and walks to work, so technically it shouldn’t be great based on the memories, but the fact is, those bus journeys and walks to work were really great thanks to my favourite Less Than Jake album. Admittedly it doesn’t get played as much these days, but I think I’ve unfairly abandoned it. So 22 tracks of ska-punk fun help to earn Borders and Boundaries the #9 spot.

#8. Coheed & Cambria – In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

Ok, this is getting a bit harder now. I have the next 8 albums decided upon, but I’m putting them into order as I go. I was slightly late getting into Coheed & Cambria, and probably discovered this album about a six months after its release in 2004. This album is probably one of the few in my top ten that took a while to grow on me, but once it did I’d discovered a new favourite band. At the time of writing this the band have four albums and this remains my favourite by a substantial way. It also introduced me to a new genre of music that I hadn’t really given the time of day prior to discovering number eight in my top ten. Prog-Rock, punk rock, pop and t’riffz all in one near perfect album. That’ll slot it nicely into my list. Thanks Coheed.

#7. Saves The Day – Stay What You Are

So number seven in my list brings me to a band that I’ve never really loved quite as much since the release of this album in 2001. This album is mainly in my list for the memories it conjures up as a ‘just discovered alcohol’ eighteen year old ‘yoof’. I can recall many drunken nights where me and my good friend Greg would recite the dark lyrics off of this album whilst wandering the well known streets of my home town slightly inebriated. ‘Stay What You Are’ is truly host to many anthems of ‘the best years of my life’ and to this day I continue to enjoy them just as much as I did eight years ago. I keep worrying that this album shouldn’t be here, but the more I think about it, the more I realise it still brings a huge smile to my face on every listen. Yeah it’ll definitely remain in my list at number seven.

#6. Jimmy Eat World – Jimmy Eat World (Bleed American)

Jimmy Eat World are easily one of my top three favourite bands from the last decade. Every album I own by them could have probably been here if I’m honest. The reason I picked this one however, was because 1) It’s the first one I owned (and consequently fell in love with) and 2) It easily owns the nostalgia factor over any of the others. The catchy pop rock from start to finish on this album is as fresh to me now as it was the first time I heard it. I’m starting to realise there is a theme of anthems helping these albums into my top ten list, but that’s what it’s all abut for me. The anthems that moulded me into who I am today and were with me through both good times and bad. A little cheesy? Maybe! But I’m not writing the popular classic albums of the last decade list am I now.

#5. Brand New – Deja Entendu

You know, if I had written this list two years earlier, I’m certain that this album would have been a bit higher up the list. In fact it would easily have been number one at one stage in my life. Don’t get me wrong, I still adore it but I just can’t love it as much as I once did. If listening to an album on repeat too many times could break your CD Player then this album would have done just that. Brilliantly written songs, that you can’t necessarily relate to, but they were so good you didn’t need to. I don’t really know why I’m talking in past tense because to this day they still are really good and that’s why it made it into my top five. If you knew me five years ago, the chances are you heard me harping on about how this was the best album since your favourite album of all time. Unfortunately, not many people agreed.

#4. New Found Glory – New Found Glory

I’ve sort of surprised myself here, because I didn’t really expect New Found Glory to rank so highly in the list. I’m unashamedly a huge fan of pop-punk, a genre my peers will say I should have grown out of when I hit the 21 mark, but… I haven’t. This is an album I discovered shortly after Blink182’s album ‘Enema of The State’ (which was painfully released before 2000) and included some of the biggest ‘tunes’ for an eighteen year old who was on the verge of becoming a punk rocker. All the songs on this album are also about girls, and for an eighteen year old me, it was easy to relate to. I can still put this album on and sing along to every single word. My neighbours probably think I’m singing my heart out to busted, but little do they know it’s actually my fourth best album from the last decade. An album that earns it’s place easily. An album that I’ll always have on my ipod.

#3. Alexisonfire – Watch Out

It would appear that most of my list isn’t really the last decade at all. It’s mainly albums from around 2000-2004 and this is no exception. Although it was probably around 2005/6 I actually discovered it. This album for me can do no wrong. I love it from start to finish. Obviously I have my favourite tracks on ‘Watch Out’ but I love every single track on this album. This is probably the heaviest album on my list, but it does have a bit of everything. I’d be prepared to bet this is one of my ‘most listened to’ albums in my life and actually contains a couple of songs that would certainly be on my top ten songs of the decade list. Well written lyrics, well written music and some of the best vocals you’ll ever hear (Dallas Green *ahem*) and I have myself an album that I have no hesitation to put in my top three of this decade.

#2. Frank Turner – Sleep Is For The Week

Anyone that knows me probably saw this coming. Frank Turner has quickly become my favourite song writer of the last decade. I literally could have put any of his albums in this spot, because I love them all but I chose this one for a couple of reasons. I can relate to the lyrics a bit too much to describe my life over the last ten years. This sort of makes it perfect for this list too. Also whenever I see Frank live, I always get an amazing feeling when he plays anything from ‘Sleep Is For The Week’. More-so than any other material. This album helped shoot Frank Turner to the top of my played artists list on my last.fm account, and as a recent discovery that’s pretty good going. I could sing my praises for this album and Frank Turner for another 2000 words, but I guess I’ll spare you the boredom. Just know this was always going to be in the #2 spot.

#1. The Movielife – This Time Next Year

I’m laughing to myself as I fill in the spot for my number one album of the decade. I can hear 90% of the people reading this article going ‘Who?’. Some of you are probably even a little baffled or disappointed. Just hear me out. This album – this band were always going to be here. If you asked me in the year 2000 to state my favourite album I would have said this one. Ask me now? You get the same answer. This album single-handedly defines the last decade of my life. It’s at least played a couple of times a month and has been for the last ten years. It’s the album that made me want to start a band. It even played a hand it me purchasing my first guitar (although Green Day and Blink182 also deserve some credit for that). I very rarely get excited about seeing a band live for the first time, as I did when I first saw The Movielife live. It’s influenced me in so many ways, and even probably convinced me I was punk rock back in the day. Unfortunately the band split a few years after this album was released and I was absolutely gutted. However, last year I got to see a sort of re-union and it was the best gig of my life. This album sits above any other album I own. Its not musically genius, it’s not ground breaking and you probably won’t like it, but to me it’s everything. To me it’s my number one album of the last decade.

So there you go. If you’ve made it this far I congratulate you. If you’ve skimmed it, then I don’t blame you, but you might need to read it to understand why my list is so shocking. If you think my list is crap then I probably think the same about yours. That’s why it’s my list. Oh and I’d also like to list some albums below that could just have easily been in this list. Now I’m finished I’m even a bit confused as to why some of them weren’t.

• The Used – The Used
• Finch – What It Is To Burn
• Lost Prophets – The Fake Sound of Progress
• Something Corporate – Leaving Through The Window
• Thrice – The Illusion of Safety
• Midtown – Save The World, Lose The Girl
• Muse – Showbiz
• JJ72 – JJ72
• Thursday – Full Collapse
• Rise Against – Revolutions Per Minute
• Rx Bandits – Half Way Between Here & There
• Sum41 – All Killer, No Filler
• Billy Talent – I
• Limp Bizkit – Chocolate Starfish

The work ethic of the supposed “mad genius” can certainly be admired. You know the type: they hide in their studio,  meticulously crafting their latest endeavor that must outdo anything they’ve ever done, and yet, will never be good enough for their own taste. The three guys from Russian Circles, a Chicago-based instrumental and otherwise unclassifiable band, apply this attitude to their songwriting through precise layering, looping and obsessive tweaking. They work and rework one song for days, sometimes months, on end until it eventually leads full (Russian) circle back to the original idea.

Opening for the likes of Tool, Minus the Bear, and Coheed and Cambria, they’ve managed to convert fans of any taste through the mesmerizing intensity with which they play. Before they hit The Casbah on Thursday, I spoke to drummer Dave Turncrantz (above, far right) about how substituting Brian Cook for former member Colin DeKuiper changed the entire songwriting process, how they avoid being pigeonholed in today’s label-ridden music scene, and where they plan to go compositionally from their most recent (and most acclaimed) album, Geneva. 

CityBeat: Everyone knows the best way to reflect upon important benchmarks in someone’s life is have them slip into a coma on a cheesy soap opera and see what moments they flash back too. So,  if your band slipped into a coma on Days of Our General Passions, what would those important moments be that lead up to where the band is now, and what would be the fondest, most important memory that ultimately juts you guys awake?

Dave Turncrantz: [Laughs] Wow. That’s a good question. I’m used to “what does your band name mean” and standard, stock answers. Major points were definitely when Brian got in the band when we asked him to play on [2008's] Station. He said yes to play on the record, but the big moment was when he said he would join the band as a full time member. Very big moment. Playing with Tool in Europe was something that put our name on the board here in the states and overseas. It’s funny how many Tool fans look at message boards, and they all kind of freak out about who Tool takes out and if they like them or not. That was definitely a big step for the band. Let’s see… we bought a van! That was a pretty big moment. [Laughs]

CB: How did the dynamic of the band change with the addition of Brian Cook, and departure of Colin?

DT: The major change was the addition of a really good musician that we really, really trust, that could sit back and listen and then contribute something. When all three of us are together it’s a good, soothing writing process because none of us are trying to take the lead or be too loud. We all listen to each other which is very essential for a band. We always joke around that if we had another guitar player, everything will crumble down. It would be awful if we had another guitar player because a lot our stuff is just loops by Mike and then we play on top of it. So we layer and layer on the loop, and if a guitar player had to play that loop for five minutes straight, I mean I don’t blame him, I’d want to kill myself too. So it’d probably for the best that we don’t have another guitar player. The main thing is, is that we all get along, and we all really enjoy playing music together. Writing is such a big part of being in a band and if you just can’t do it, it makes things extremely difficult, let’s just say that. We’ve definitely had our share of bad practices [before Brian], so it’s nice to have good practices. Let’s just say that.

CB: Did you decide from the start that you would forgo vocalists?

DT: No. When we first started, pretty much everything was up in the air. I lived in St. Louis at the time when the band just started, and Mike drove down to St. Louis to help me move to Chicago. We actually had a practice at my old apartment in St. Louis. We wrote “Carpe” that night, or at least structures here and there for the song “Carpe,” and when we did that we thought maybe we’d have another guitar player. Maybe we’d have a singer. We thought about who would sing and then the more and more we started practicing, the more and more we realized that a singer’s just going to make everything really weird. Especially if we’d get someone that screams. We could definitely be an Alternative Press band in no time, like snap of the fingers we’d be another… I don’t know any crappy, shitty screaming bands. I’m bad with examples of bad bands because I try not to listen to them. How about, uhh… God, what the… Come on, help me out here, what’s a bad band?

CB: Just take your pick, any of any of the ones you hear too many times on the radio.

DT: [Laughs] Yeah, yeah. Exactly. From the get-go it’s really hard to get a vocalist that is unique that does something new and beings something new to the table. Especially when we play heavy parts, if we’ve got a guy screaming then all of a sudden we’d be categorized as a hardcore band or a metal band. If we had someone singing—I don’t know. [Laughs] I can’t even imagine someone like really singing over some of these songs. Because then we’d be placed in another hilarious genre of music that we don’t want to be placed in. So we’re actually kind of happy that no one can really define us. Everybody puts “post-rock.” The one term we hate the most is “Instrumetal,” which is really clever—just take away the “n” and then all of a sudden it just all works. But “post-rock” is always slapped on us. It’s just funny to us because we feel like we could write a folk album the next time around—which, we’re not going to say we wouldn’t [laughs]—but we could totally write a folk album and we’d be fine. That’s something I’m very proud of because we like heavy stuff, but we also like the most depressing, wrist-slashing stuff out there. It could go from Will Oldham to a black metal band from Sweden. I like that there’s nothing really holding us back musically. We can kind of do whatever we want.

CB: I suppose your band is filed under “post-rock,” but it’s a grey area. Is there anything you try to incorporate into your songwriting to ensure you can’t be cleanly categorized?

DT: It’s just going to happen, unfortunately. The first thing someone does is try to categorize it. Like any band. TV on the Radio could write a noise record that ends with funk basses behind it and they’re all automatically going to say it’s funk, but it’s not really funk, man. That doesn’t even make sense. It doesn’t matter. Even if we write a folk record, someone’s going to say it’s post-rock just because there’s no vocals. We think its kind of funny, to be honest with you. It’s just what people do. And I do it too. I’m guilty of it. If  someone asks me to describe something I always categorize it in something it probably shouldn’t be in. So, I can’t be that mad if I do it myself.

CB: How has your band’s sound evolved from Station to Geneva?

DT: I definitely feel Brian, when he became a full band member [after recording with them on Station], became a huge part of the writing process so the bass is a huge deal on the new record [Geneva]. I think it’s pretty evident from listening to it that the bass is really up front. On Station, me and Mike wrote all the songs, and Brian had input on a lot of them, but they were mainly just given to him a couple weeks before we recorded. So he really didn’t have a lot of time to sit down and voice his opinion on certain things here and there. So with Geneva we all got together, we all wrote. Me and Mike got structures, but very, very little into them and we all sat down and played along with it and all voiced our opinions and I feel it shows on the record that all three of us put our brains to it. that’s the main thing. And we weren’t afraid to experiment a little more in he studio because we had more time. So, you know, we got the string section to come in, and Brandon [Curtis] from Secret Machines produced the record. He’s a lot smarter than us when it comes to music. That definitely helps when you have someone that tells you these things and you have no idea what he’s talking about, and then he shows you and you’re like, “Yes, you’re smarter than me.”

CB: You guys are known to be extremely meticulous when crafting a song. How long does it, on average, take you to write a song, and how do you know when it is complete, if ever?

DT: That’s hilarious. We are—we’re kind of crazy. It could take one week to five months. We always try to use the philosophy “keep it simple, stupid,” kind of thing. The “K.I.S.S.” philosophy. But then we always dissect it, and every time we dissect it we just ruin it. Always. I can’t even tell you how many times we wrote a song that was really good and we kept trying to change it and change it, and then six weeks later we’d realize and say, “Hey, let’s start playing it like the first time we recorded it. Let’s just start by playing it.” We’d play it like that and we’re like, that’s amazing—why did we change it? We can be kind of hilarious when it comes to that. But it’s always for the best because you always wonder, you know, what if we did do that? And we try it, and we keep trying it, and if it doesn’t work in the end, it wasn’t meant to be. So yeah, it varies. A song like, for example, “Melee,” the third song on the new record, we wrote it like it was and then spent so much time trying to change it, and it really didn’t need to be changed. We had an idea that we wanted strings on it, and we almost scrapped it a week before we recorded, but luckily we didn’t because now that’s one of my favorite songs on the record. It’s funny though, my mom wanted to hear the demos so I played them for her and she hated that song. She’s like, “I don’t like that song at all. I don’t like it.” Thanks, mom. Awesome. Thank you very much. And then, of course, when the record comes out that’s her favorite song. Even our parents voice opinions, but no one knows what they’re doing. [Laughs] It’s one of those things where you think you’re fixing it, but you’re really just making it worse. So we’re glad that we kept it kind of the same as when we first started and it came out really awesome.

CB: Is there a difference between “simple” and “minimal” to you?

DT: I put them in the same category. When we first started, we didn’t know what kind of band we were. On the drums I was trying to do—not crazy stuff, but stuff that was a little harder to pull off. Looking back at that record [Enter], I can’t even get through it all the way. I mean, I like it and I’m glad that we put it out, but the older I get the more I want things to be more of a hook. Something to grab on to. I would say minimalist stuff is just something we can write and loop for three or four minutes and slowly layer and layer and layer on top of it, and that’s something that grabs my ear more than someone doing some crazy drum solos and some crazy guitar riffs here and there. So “simple” and “minimal” to me are kind of the same because “simple” is just keeping the back beat on the drums, and not really trying to take the lead or be in the spotlight. Just making the song speaks for itself.

CB: Cellist Allison Chesley and violinist Susan Voe are featured on Geneva. Do you plan on incorporating more strings into your songs?

DT: Yeah! I think so. We really enjoyed it. Like I said, Brandon was an awesome producer and knew his stuff, but those two came in the studio with sheet music. They asked us crazy stuff like in line 2 on the second chorus—and we were like, what are you talking about? It’s “the heavy part.” We have the dumbest names for parts of our songs. So these people, professional musicians, are mind-blowing to us because a lot of us are self-taught, or we took lessons but for us to come into a studio with sheet music and to play directly off the sheet music is totally out of our realm. So it was awesome to have them down there. I’m a huge sucker for cello. Cello and grand piano are two of my favorite instruments. Just like Brian Eno stuff, minimalist composer stuff is something that I really, really like. I can definitely see a lot of violin, cello, and grand piano on the next record for sure.

CB: You’ve played with Minus the Bear and Tool, among a handful of other great bands. Is there a certain genre of bands you prefer to play with that you think complements your performance best?

DT: It’s funny because we get shows with Minus the Bear and we’ve play a lot with bands like Clutch, and we get a good response either way. It’s really awesome. I really like to play with bands that you wouldn’t normally see us with because we’ve got a lot of great fans in a certain niche of instrumental—I said “instrumental,” not “instrumental” [laughs]—and we grab a lot of those audiences from playing because there’s not a lot of bands like us out there besides, like, Pelican, so it’s always nice to play with a band you wouldn’t really expect us to be with. Us playing with Mono is kind of expected, but with a Clutch, or when we did a Coheed and Cambria tour, it worked out in the end too. Playing for audiences who wouldn’t normally see you just offers more opportunities for more fans.

CB: I want to hear about your relationship with the band Pelican, and the kinship (if any) of the Chicago music scene.

DT: Pelican, they’re good friends of ours. We actually share a practice space with them in Chicago. They definitely helped us out in the beginning when no one know who we were. they’re just great guys. two of the brothers live in LA right now, Larry and Brian, the bass player and drummer, but Laurent—Mike, our guitar player, works with Laurent at a tutoring program at local schools. So we see them quite often. Chicago has a great music scene. It’s something that’s very inspiring for a musician. For example, Tortoise and Shellac—the list goes on and on and on, there’s great musicians all around. A lot of guys from Tortoise do improve stuff at bars in the Chicago area so you can see them play and get mad because they’re really great players [laughs]. Get your mind blown. I’m really proud that we come from a great music scene in a great music city because the bands in Chicago are a little different than other cities. They’re more about unity and helping each other out more so than trying to one-up someone else or be better than someone else. You know the music industry can definitely be kind of nasty at times with people trying to be bigger than their friends’ band just because. In Chicago it’s more like here, we’ll put you on a show and hopefully you’ll gain some fans out of it. It’s something that definitely helped us out in the beginning because if we started in LA it would have been us trying to fight for an opening spot on who knows what kind of bill.

CB: Heard you had some bad luck starting this tour off, did Mike find his guitar yet?

DT: He did not find his guitar yet. It’s pretty frustrating because we know who the guy is who took it. We know his name, we have pictures of him, we just don’t know where he lives! The one good, shining moment out of that is that he did have it insured. So he can buy another one, but the problem is it’s such a rare guitar it’s going to take awhile for him to find one. there were very, very little made. I think there were 100-200 made. So it’s a bummer. And the guy who did it is an asshole. But it was just hilarious because it was the worst first show ever. Everything fell apart, and then we get a guitar stolen. That is the best way to start a six-week tour, let me tell you.

CB: Well, you get it all out of the way at the beginning.

DT: Yeah! I guess you’re right. It’s funny, I got sick the second day and then everybody started to get kind of sick. I got my brother [the tour manager] sick, Brian’s kind of sick. So we’re getting all the sickness and guitar stealing out of the way right at the get-go, and then hopefully by the time we get to the west coast everything will be great. Or we might all be dead. There’s only one of two routes for us right now.

CB: What can you tell San Diego about your live show to adequately prepare us for such an experience?

DT: Ok. We’re an acoustic rock band. We kind of sound like Dashboard [Confessional] [chuckles]. This is weird, I hate talking about ourselves.

CB: Sorry, I have to do it. I have to ask the hard-hitting questions.

DT: Yeah, it’s going to be soul-crushing. No, we just try to recreate what we put on record and it’s definitely something you can’t get off a CD player or record player, it’s something you have to experience live. We have a great time doing it and I think it shows. Um, we play with our shirts off which is a definite plus.

CB: Ooooooh.

DT: You don’t want to see that, actually. We have a good time and it should be a lot of fun. It’s going to be a very loud show.

Russian Circles plays with Red Sparowes, Young Widows and Helms Alee on Thursday, Nov. 12 at The Casbah. 

What years of listening to Rush records in your mother's basement can do to your complexion.

Prog has always claimed that it was ‘music for musicians’. It’s a pretty attractive label, and much better than the alternative ‘music for geeks who aren’t getting laid’. Regardless of the tag-line, the point is that even if you don’t actively listen to progressive rock, chances are that the bands you DO listen to count progressive rock artists among their influences. When young bands (that don’t suck) are talking to the press and the reporter asks them who their influences are, if they’re brave enough to mention people outside their own genre 90% of the time the drummer will include Neil Peart and/or Mike Portnoy, bass players will mention Geddy Lee, Tony Levin, and/or Chris Squire, and keyboard…well…ok, if they have a keyboard player, chances are he isn’t being given any face time unless he’s also the front man and super duper pretty (guitarists gets more genre dependent, but I see Steve Vai’s, David Gilmour’s, Frank Zappa’s, and Steve Howe’s names thrown out a lot).

So what happened to all these progressive-rock-influenced artists? How come none of them ended up making progressive rock? The answer is that you are simply being a naive fool. Progressive rock has worked long and hard to covertly work its way into more mainstream genres, and the fruits of decades of labor are now beginning to ripen. Below you will find examples of some genres where artists are now becoming popular who show significant signs that they’ve been infected with the prog.

METAL

What, no corpsepaint for the baby?

Metal was one of the earliest and easiest genres for prog to branch into. For one, a lot of metal musicians are extremely talented. I realize that, to people who aren’t fans of metal, a lot of the music just sounds like loud noise and unintelligible lyrics, but under the growling and the corpsepaint you’ll find some of the most technically skilled musicians around. Good metal guitarists can play diminished augmented pentatonic chords using alternate sweep picking just as fast as the proggy-ist prog douche bag guitar player, they just chose not to so because it’s not brutal enough (note: metal people judge all things on a scale of 1-brutal). Metal drummers and prog drummers are in an eternal pissing contest over who can play double bass faster, and just like how metal singers and prog singers are always trying to see how high they can sing without causing a sonic boom. Also, they put equal emphasis on physical activity and hygiene in their personal lives. So prog and metal have been pushing each other’s buttons for a very very long time, and the results have been enjoyable for both fan bases:

Examples of prog/metal marriages:

Dream Theater – Basically the flag bearer for progressive rock. Train of Thought is their most metal album, but every album has significant metal overtones through out. Scenes from a Memory is widely considered to be one of the best prog album of the 1990’s if not of all time. (Dream Theater Example – “Painc Attack”)

Opeth – If Dream Theater is a prog band with metal overtones, Opeth is a death metal band with prog overtones. The band drifts between melodic haunting passages and crushing metal destruction almost too freely. If you can’t handle cookie monster-style vocals you’d best start with Damnation which is their ‘mellow’ album, but then quickly get Deliverance and give that a spin as well. (Opeth Example – Death Whispered a Lulaby, and then The Drapery Falls)

Other prog/metal bands (and their albums that you should check out):

Symphony X -  V (Example: “Inferno”)

Fates Warning – Inside Out (Example: “One“)

Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime (Example: “Spreading the Disease”)

Tool – Lateralus (Example: “Sober”)

Between the Buried and Me - Colors (Example: “White Walls”)

Scale the Summit - Carving Desert Canyons (Example: “Dunes”)

Pain of Salvation - One Hour by the Concrete Lake (Example: Inside)

Coheed and Cambria (Example: “Welcome Home”)

Jazz

Above him, Led Zeppelin was stealing his music

The other genre that prog was able to easily seduce was jazz. Jazz has been the most popular kid in school basically forever. Everyone wants to claim that they’re influenced by jazz, or that they have jazz tendencies, or that they once slept with jazz at a party but jazz wouldn’t remember it because jazz was really drunk that night. No matter how much jazz wants to deny it, jazz and prog did in fact hook up a few times in the 60s and 70s, resulting in the genre fusion. If you know jazz, think of Kind of Blue. Fusion is the exact opposite of that. It’s fast, complicated, crazy shit that most of the time sounds like a bad jam session made up of really good musicians (note: I love fusion). If someone tried to dance to fusion they’d be mistaken for a seizure victim and taken to a hospital. The people who play fusion are of course ridiculously talented to the point where they could probably have a full conversation with each other using only their instruments. One problem fusion inherited from jazz  is that any band that considers itself to have drawn from jazz and some other genre automatically considers itself to be ‘fusion’. What can I say, jazz was a whore:

Examples of prog/jazz marriages:

Mahavishnu Orchestra – If there was ever a band that sounded like an acid trip, I’d pick Mahavishnu Orchestra. Drawing from Indian, European, jazz, and classical music, as well as John McLaughlin’s own eccentricity, the music they produced was frantic, intensely complex, and mind blowing once you manage to wrap your brain around it. Birds of Fire and Apocalypse may be the best characterizations of the band’s sound, but if you don’t enjoy either album that’s fine, you’re probably still too sane. (Mahavishnu Orchestra Example: “Trilogy”)

Frank Zapppa – I’m not even going to try to explain Frank Zappa in three lines. I don’t even know if I can call the majority of what he did ‘fusion’ but he’s fucking important and he fits best here. Go listen to Hot Rats, Roxy and Elsewhere and Apostrophe, and if you don’t like those don’t worry about it, there’s about five billion other albums that sound totally different that you can get into. (Frank Zappa Example: “Waka/Jawaka”)

Other prog/jazz bands (and their albums that that you should check out):

The Mars Volta – Francis the Mute (Example: “Wax Simulacra”)

The Dixie Dregs – Night of the Living Dregs (Example: “Assembly Line”)

Liquid Tension Experiment - Liquid Tension Experiment 2 (Example: “Biaxadent“)

Jam Bands

There wasn't actually any mud. Hippies are just this dirty.

Unlike jazz and metal, prog hasn’t shared a lot of common ground with the jam scene. The Grateful Dead were thoroughly un-complicated and yet they became extremely popular by touring their asses off and playing a lot of simple country and blues covers in cool new ways  (making them…….progressive? MY BRAIN CAN’T HANDLE THAT). For a long time hippies were content bopping along to country and blues music, and probably would have been fine like this forever, until Phish came along and expanded the genre by writing songs that made as little sense as possible. Moving from the relatively comfortable confines of country and blues to the total nonsense that Phish produced (note: I love Phish) blew hippie’s minds. So hippie musicians, being totally incapable of rejecting any art form, started incorporating every possible genre of music into the covers they played, into their huge and totally awesome music festivals, and eventually into their own music. Alternative and bluegrass were some of the first genres to gain popularity with hippies, then some electronica and punk weaved its way in, and now metal and prog are starting to poke their heads in as well:

Examples of prog/jam band marriages:

Umphrey’s Mcgee – UM is the cream of the crop as far as blending technical skill and musicality. It’s really an amazing balancing act that they pull off, and they do it flawlessly. I also find their live improv stuff to be far less meandering and self indulgent than a lot of other jam bands. Anchor Drops is the place you start for their studio efforts, but after that I suggest downloading their eight billion podcasts, as a lot of their best songs haven’t ever been recorded in the studio. Honestly I’m not even going to bother discussing other prog/jam band marriages in depth, Umphrey’s is really the top of the line and an experience like no other. (Umphreys Mcgee Example: “Bridgeless”)

Other prog/jam bands (and their albums that you should check out):

The Disco Biscuits - Uncivilized Area (Example – “I-man”)

Keller Williams - Laugh (Example – “Freeker by the Speeker“)

moe. – Wormwood (Example – “Crab Eyes”)

Oysterhead - The Grand Pecking Order (Example – “Mr. Oysterhead”)

Bluegrass

A tradional bluegrass band. Guitar, upright bass, banjo, mandolin, and no black people.

I’m going to be upfront about this. I hate country music more than any other genre of music on the planet. Most of the performers are talentless and I think the stereotypes it generates are more damaging to rednecks than gangster rap is to urban youth. That being said, I also think the slide guitar/dobro, mandolin, and banjo are some of the coolest instruments ever. So I compromise and enjoy bluegrass. Bluegrass to me, is what happened to all the talented southern musicians. They sing about all the same topics the crappy country artists do, but their songs are ten million times more interesting and their lyrics are ten million times more creative. To be honest I don’t know if bluegrass is actually even aware of progressive rock, but both genres are fast, technical, and full of energy, so if they haven’t met maybe I can help.

Examples of prog/bluegrass marriages:

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones – This band probably only gets lumped in with bluegrass because it features a banjo. It’s also probably one of the few, if not only bluegrass band to include sax and electronic drums (note: electronic drums that are actually awesome, unlike most electronic kits which sound horrible). All of that being said, Bela Fleck might be the most well known and universally respected banjo player ever (even more than Steve Martin!), and Victor Wooten is part of the pantheon of modern bass gods. Kind of bluegrass, kind of fusion, whatever, it’s extremely creative and fun to listen to. Little Worlds is a 3-disc set that’s probably less bluegrass-y than their past efforts, but it’s a great introduction to their sound. (Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Example: “Next”)

Yonder Mountain String Band – The shining symbol of ‘new grass‘, YMSB is talented and technically proficient and blah blah blah, but that’s probably the least attended to part of their music. What makes them such an incredible band is how they’ve taken bluegrass out of the realm of genres like polka (i.e. dance music that’s a joke to most people) and made it emotional and joyful. I’ve never seen so many universally happy people in my entire life as I’ve seen at YMSB shows. The crowd just emits rainbows and sunshine and good emotions. They make 80 year old men act like 10 year olds on their birthday, and the coolest hipster turns into a Appalachian mountain dweller before their onslaught of elation. Mountain Tracks: Volume 5 is a great selection of live tracks to check out, and their new album The Show is pretty solid. (Yonder Mountain String Band Example: Sideshow Blues)

Other prog/bluegrass bands (and their albums that you should check out)

Railroad Earth – Amen Corner (Example: “Seven Story Mountain”)

Hopefully this has given you a decent idea of how prog isn’t actually as alien a genre as one might think. There’s a lot of common ground between prog and genres that are far more popular, and there has been and will continue to be bleeding between groups as new bands find their own unique sounds.

P.S. – I do want to mention one band that I left out, that being Muse. Muse has a totally absurd amount of popularity for a band that prog fans consider to be ‘one of us’. It’s not super duper technical, but it at least creates the illusion of being super duper technical, and sometimes that’s good enough. It is high energy and features a guy who sings high enough to make the guy from The Darkness jealous so I guess the leap in prog-faith isn’t too absurd.  I can’t really explain why the rest of the world loves them, not that I’m complaining either. So I guess if a band like Muse can be touring with U2 and performing on the VMAs then I can still hope that prog will take over all of music one day. A man can dream can’t he…a man can dream…

The MARAZENE Machine

www.Youtube.com/user/marazenemachine
Facebook search: MARAZENE Machine
www.Twitter.com/MarazeneMachine
www.Myspace.com/Marazene
www.VampireFreaks.com/MarazeneMachine
www.Last.FM/music/Marazene

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A busy day today, so I will see if I can get across all of the worthwhile  information down in bullet-fashion.

Debris has been proofed and, I believe, will be sent to the printers within the next few days.

Just got permission to include a pretty unique prize for the upcoming Debris Super-Duper Ultra Cool Contest.  More to come in the coming days.

Brokes Skies is now so close to being finished that it scares me.  (Any willing beta readers that aren’t afraid of hurting my feelings, feel free to raise your hand).

I have found a photographer that, I believe, is going to assist with some of the oddities I will be including in my admittedly overly-complicated chapbook/novella project The Final Case of Cooper M. Reid. More on this project to come.

And now, although I am no longer the biggest fan of their music, here is what both a rock show AND story based songs should sound and look like.  (If you aren’t familiar with the structure of Coheed and Cambria’s albums and songs, do yourself a favor and Wiki or Google them).

ok, so I realized if I post about things that I regret and that torment me I might end up putting my head in the convection oven. Soooo how about a change of pace?

The hubby and me took the offspring to see “9″. It was breathtakingly, beautifully bleak. The little sac-people (my name for the creatures) roaming about in a barren, post-apocalyptic wasteland kept us on the edges of our seats. We were sucked in and rooted for them fervently to survive, although for what reason we did not know. The ending was pretty open-ended.

I really appreciated the digs at military states, “peace”-keeping robots first helping the nation destroy its enemies and then turning around and destroying humanity. They also took on “the Church” . #1 declared himself the de facto leader of the motley group of sac-people. He made a bunker for them in a Church.  They were basically hiding inside until everything blew over, living in fear, not fighting back. The Church burnt down and they were all thrust into the environment they feared. Interesting concepts, symbols, and archetypes were at work throughout the film. Pretty heady stuff for children but what do you expect from Tim Burton? I enjoyed it immensely.

On the way back my youngest daughter’s friend’s incessant chatter was beginning to take its toll. She started singing the Day-O song and my foster son and youngest daughter started to join in. My oldest son quickly snapped, “I will not tolerate any Al Qaeda references!”  Everyone paused, and then he sang deadpan, “Come, Mr Taliban hand me a bandanna.” We all howled.

My children are very funny, droll, and quick-witted. I took my youngest daughter to Legal Seafood about 3 weeks ago to celebrate the onset of her menarche. We talked about menstruation formulas (how many pads do you need for school?), and special hygiene tips. No need for “The Talk” because all of my kids knew the Birds & Bees type info since they were in elementary school. We end up talking about societies’ unfair expectations for women’s appearance.

“What is the thing about big boobs? What is wrong with little boobs?” she asks with an exasperated air. “Well nothing is wrong with them, but for some reason right now in America they are all the rage. I mean everyone is getting these huge implants now  its kind of crazy!” I reply. “But you said you wanted to get implants.” she reminds me. “Well, I wouldn’t mind having them a bit bigger, they look good in certain clothes.” I answer, feeling a bit sheepish.

“Mom, you would probably get gigantic ones!” she says with an impish grin. I decide to play along. “Yeah I would totally get the hugest ones, they would help me get more patients, I’d be the psychiatrist with the huge boobs!” I giggle and take a sip of my soda. “No Mommy it would make you lose patients. This would be you, “Um I see, so how did that make you feel?” And you wouldn’t be able to see your notebook over your chest so you’d have to hand it to your patient. “Here, could you write down how that made you feel please?”  And then your patients would go to the receptionist and be like, “Um I would like another psychiatrist please. Um, maybe a guy or one that doesn’t have big boobs, because um, I can’t really see her face, so I don’t know how she feels about the way that I feel?”

She acted the whole scenario out with hand gestures, facial expressions, and different voices. It was side-splittingly hilarious. I laughed until I was choking. I told her she is very funny and I love her so very much and I can’t wait to see what kind of woman she will grow up to be…

These are the days that hold the darkness at bay.

PREVIEW: Download 20 Watts’ PROG ROCK MIX on Mediafire

Like epic compositions, time signature changes and songs that can last for more than 15 minutes? Progressive rock is for you. Emerging primarily in Britain in the late 1960s, the oft-critically maligned genre (commonly known as “prog”) has persevered with the simple goal of adding artistic credibility to rock music. Founding fathers like Yes, Pink Floyd and Genesis set themselves apart from their contemporaries by featuring classical and jazz influences in their songwriting. The innovation continues today, as bands like Porcupine Tree and Opeth incorporate hard rock and metal into their own experimental, progressive sounds.

So what’s the very best in progressive rock? 20 Watts’ DAN KAPLAN has the answer in our fifth 20 installment. Watch for new 20s each Thursday, only on 20 Watts, and check out our previous 20s below!

The Reaping
No World For Tomorrow
The Hound (of Blood And Rank)
Feathers
The Running Free
Mother Superior
Gravemakers & Gunslingers
Justice In Murder
The End Complete I: The Fall of House Atlantic
The End Complete II: Radio Bye Bye
The End Complete III: The End Complete
The End Complete IV: The Road And The Damned
The End Complete V: On The Brink
A Favor House Atlantic (Acoustic) (Japanese Bonus)
Always & Never/Welcome Home (Acoustic) (Japanese Bonus)

Download

Second Stage Turbine Blade
Time Consumer
Devil In Jersey City
Everything Evil
Delirium Trigger
Hearshot Kid Disaster
33
Jusnesong Provision
Neverender
God Send Conspirator
Elf Tower New Mexico
Junesong Provision (Acoustic Demo)
Everything Evil/IRO-Bot (Demo)

Download

Keeping The Blade
Always & Never
Welcome Home
Ten Speed (of God’s Blood & Burial)
Crossing The Frame
Apollo I: The Writing Writer
Once Upon Your Dead Body
Wake Up
The Suffering
The Lying Lies & Dirty Secrets of Miss Erica Court
Mother May I
The Willing Well I: Fuel For The Feeding End
The Willing Well II: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness
The Willing Well III: Apollo II: The Telling Truth
The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut/Bron-Y-Aur

Download

The Ring In Return
In Keep Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
Cuts Marked In The March of Men
Three Evils (Embodied In Love And Shadow)
The Crowing
Blood Red Summer
The Camper Velourium I: Faint of Hearts
The Camper Velourium II: Backend of Forever
The Camper Velourium III: Al, The Killer
A Favor House Atlantic
The Light & The Glass
A Lot of Nothing I (Hidden Track)
A Lot of Nothing II (Hidden Track)
A Lot of Nothing III (Hidden Track)
A Lot of Nothing IV (Hidden Track)
A Lot of Nothing V (Hidden Track)
A Lot of Nothing VI (Hidden Track)
A Lot of Nothing VII (Hidden Track)
A Lot of Nothing VIII (Hidden Track)
A Lot of Nothing IX (Hidden Track)
A Lot of Nothing X (Hidden Track)
A Lot of Nothing XI (Hidden Track)
21:13 (Hidden Track)

Download

Second Stage Turbine Blade
Time Consumer (w/ Dr. Know)
Devil In Jersey City
Everything Evil
Delirium Trigger
Hearshot Kid Disarter
33
Junesong Provision
Neverender
God Send Conspirator/IRO-Bot

Download

CRAIG OWENS KICKED OUT OF CHIODOS

To the surprise of many Chiodos fans, the band has announced that they have kicked lead-singer Craig Owens out of the band.

Could this just be a bad week for bands? This news comes only a few days after VersaEmerge kicked out their drummer and original member Anthony Martone.

The band released a statement today, regarding Craig Owens:

“To all of our friends, family, and fans: We would like to let you know that we have let Craig Owens go as the singer of Chiodos. This decision was a necessary one. Out of respect for all of the hard work that we have put in together for all of these years we will not be discussing the specific reasons that this needed to happen. We wish Craig well . We will absolutely be continuing on as a band and we will keep you informed as this next chapter unfolds. Chiodos fans are the best fans in the world and all we can ask of you, after everything you have already given us, is to share in our excitement for this next album. We promise you will not be disappointed…………Brad, Jason, Pat, and Matt”

Chiodos just finished an entire summer of Warped Tour, and made obvious by their Myspace name, are working on a new record. We’ll keep you updated on this situation, and who they plan on taking Owen’s spot.

Watching previews is a thrilling roller coaster ride that prepares a viewer for the feature ahead. Some previews outline a feature’s story and others montage the best shots and lines out of a movie, enticing viewers with anticipation of quick but satisfying visuals. Modern theatrical standards such as Dolby 5.1 sound, stadium seating, and gigantic screens have hyper sensualized today’s cinematic experience, including the intensity of the preview roller coaster ride.

After seeing the preview for 9 at the beginning of the summer, I found myself at the edge of my seat and my hairs on their ends.

The visually stunning goth punk art design and Coheed and Cambria rifts immediately awoke my inner 9th grade self. I have a weak spot for apocalyptic tales, and another for Tim Burton, despite my growing disappointment with his last few features. I’ve also been paying more attention to computer animation studios after reading The Pixar Touch by David A. Price. Maybe Starz Animation would give Pixar some good competition. As a final cause, over the last year I’ve been obsessing over Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards, a beautifully animated and socially relevant apocalyptic tale from 1977 (find the trailer on YouTube). If 9 turned out to be as poignant as Wizards, its success would be guaranteed in my book.

9 is the story of a team of Stitchpunks, tiny doll-like humanoid robots living in a post-war world where humans have been eliminated by hyper intelligent machines. The Stitchpunks learn their mission in a message left by their inventor: they must destroy the supercomputer B.R.A.I.N. and its armies of terrifying robot creatures, in order to give life another chance of survival.

It is easy to sympathize with our round-eyed, soft-bellied protagonists, and even easier to understand their nightmarish situation every time a red-eyed, razor-clawed cyborg monster attacks and kills an outsized Stitchpunk. The action sequences are terrifying. Like Wizards, 9 is one of those movies that isn’t necessarily appropriate for the kiddies just because it’s animated.

The visuals are stellar, as anticipated, but the plot is disappointingly weak. Most notable are the social references that lead nowhere. There is a saying in theater that if a gun is presented on stage, it has to go off. 9 had several guns, but each one only produced a flag that said “Bang” on it.

In the beginning of the movie, the Stitchpunks hide out in a gothic church. The leader of the Stitchpunks, 1, wears a tall pope-like hat and carries a large staff, but he arrogantly abuses his authority and therefore comes off unlikable. The choice to make 1 an antagonist is audacious considering The Pope is generally a positive social figure. B.R.A.I.N. is a huge, black and red spider-like robot that lives in an old factory, complete with fire and brimstone. But, if B.R.A.I.N. is the devil, and 1 is the Pope, who is 9?

The character of 9 is too naive and powerless to represent God. Perhaps 9 represents humanity. But all the Stitchpunks represent humanity, so it would be misleading to single one out as the true or only representation. Maybe 9 doesn’t represent anything. Maybe the writers figured that because we met him first in the narrative stream and that he’s the youngest and the bravest out of all the Stitchpunks is enough for us as viewers to title him hero.

The religious motif pops up again in the resolution of the movie. (Spoiler alert!) Each Stitchpunk was given a piece of the soul of their inventor. Remember in the Harry Potter novels when Voldemort tore his soul into 7 pieces and hid those pieces into 7 horcruxes so that he could resurrect himself later on and live forever? Like that. The inventor of the Stitchpunks built a soul-dividing machine, and instead of putting the pieces of his soul into 7 horcruxes, he gave a little piece of his soul to 9 Stitchpunks, which in turn, brought them to life. Throughout the movie, B.R.A.I.N. murders a number of Stitchpunks by zapping them with a tremendous amount of electricity and sucking the soul out of them, into its own body. At the end of the movie, 9 releases the souls from B.R.A.I.N., holds a burial ceremony, and we see the glowing green translucent figures of the dead Stitchpunks rise into the sky (heaven). Then it starts to rain. And little glowing green specks mixed with the rain drops fall on the camera lens. The end.

The problem with this ending is that it’s not a resolution. 9 and the surviving Stitchpunks have finally terminated the beast, but humanity is lost, and there are only four Stitchpunks left. Should we be happy that the five Stitchpunks are resting in peace? Should we somehow understand that the little glowing green specks of rain are life-giving bacteria that will evolve over billions of years and populate the earth once more? If each of the 9 Stitchpunks have a piece of the inventor’s soul in them, and five have died and their souls released, that means that four more pieces are still trapped on earth in the bodies of the remainder of the Stitchpunks! If there is a heaven, the poor inventor is sitting at the pearly gates with only half a body.

The social focus of the movie is further crowded by political commentary. Obviously there is a message behind the fact that the world in 9 was destroyed by war, and not only war, but war escalated by machines who turned against their makers. Wizards shares a similar message. Its apocalyptic setting exists billions of years after the world was completely destroyed by nuclear war, when life grew anew. Its villain, evil wizard Blackwolf, digs up the ancient artifacts of weaponry and propaganda and uses them to take over the world. The symbol of war in Wizards is the swastika, an appropriate image. 9’s political villain, shown in flashbacks via newsreel, looks a lot like Stalin. The newsreels show the inventor of the Stitchpunks building B.R.A.I.N. a super machine designed only to make every day appliances. The Stalin-like dictator pressures the inventor to make the machine even more intelligent so it can make powerful weaponry. Of course, this order spiraled out of control and doomed humanity to extinction. 9’s political commentary alone would have been acceptable, albeit unoriginal, if it weren’t for the religious complexities mixed in.

9 was based on a short film by director Shane Acker, and maybe it should have stayed a short film. Imagine if Pixar’s Luxo, Jr. had been made into a full-length feature. Could the audience’s attention be sustained watching two lamps hop around the screen for two hours? Actually, if it were made by Pixar, probably. The difference between Pixar and the rest of Hollywood is that John Lasseter actually puts time and effort into the script so the story is both engaging and makes sense. They don’t move forward with animation unless the story is flawless (let’s hope they can sustain their level of perfection now that they’re working under Disney’s whip). Because animation takes so much time and effort, the fruits of that labor better turn out ripe. 9 isn’t ripe.

9 would have probably been better if it left out the business about the souls. The movie already has a PG-13 rating, probably because so many of the heroes were brutally murdered throughout the movie, there’s no reason to sort of kind of bring them back to life at the end. If 9’s writers didn’t want to take the time to tie up the loose ends, they could have at least excluded the nonsensical plot frills, and left the movie would have been an animated post apocalyptic horror show adventure ride! If that were the case, an audience member could just relax and enjoy the thrills and chills of the visuals and follow the loose plot line with minimal extraneous effort. I’m not a big fan of horror movies, but there’s a reason cult horror is one of the most successful facets of the film industry even though it rarely produces films with intellectual value: entertainment with minimal brain work. 9 required way too much thought that never paid off. Which is such a shame, considering how much thought it took to make.

Producers need to be more careful about going into production without a solid script in place. It takes very little money to edit a text document on a computer, versus how much is lost to release a bomb flick. If more producers cared about what they were investing their money into, there would be a lot more quality movies and very few bad ones. Yesterday I turned the TV and Ghost Rider was playing on FX. I watched about 25 minutes of it. My heart ached. What an awful, terrible, no good movie. It was a waste of resources and a waste of time. Nicholas Cage was so brilliant in Wild At Heart and even Con Air. As an actor worth millions of dollars, why would he ever agree to make a horrible movie? Everyone involved in the industry needs to raise the bar and stick to it.

Am citit acum câteva luni un post. Mi-am propus atunci să ascult şi eu albumele, mai mult din curiozitate. Între timp am uitat ce îmi propusesem. Apoi mi-am amintit, dar întâmplarea a făcut că atunci chiar nu aveam timp de ascultat. Acum… singurul lucru pe care îl am cu adevărat e timpul, aşa că era cazul să termin dacă tot aveam asta în gând. A nu se considera recenzii… nu de alta dar nu am mai ascultat [încă?!] un alt album de la trupele de mai jos. Ordinea este total aleatorie.

Iar dacă vă întrebaţi de ce ascult astfel de formaţii, răspunsul e cât se poate de simplu: vreau să mă descopăr muzical.

Mournful Congregation – The June Frost

Australia, 1993

Când am văzut că piesa doi are 17 minute mi s-a făcut rău. Am dat play şi prima piesă m-a lăsat mască. Mă bucuram că am decis să ascult albumul la căşti. Apoi a urmat piesa cea lungă pe care nici nu am sesizat-o ca fiind atât de dificil de ascultat [cum îmi imaginasem]. Mai spun doar de piesa care dă numele albumului – superbă. Sinceră să fiu nu mă aşteptam să îmi placă atât de mult întregul album.

Napalm Death – Time Waits For No Slave

UK, 1982

Mi se pare că toate piesele seamănă între ele, apropiindu-se de a fi identice. Recunosc că albumul acesta a fost prea mult pentru mine.

The Arrival of Satan – Vexing Verses

Franţa, 1999

„Vai de capul meu!  Eh… hai că nu e atât de îngrozitor. Ascultă în continuare… poate, poate!” Începutul piesei Morbid Libido mi-a plăcut… sau ca să fiu corectă mi-a displăcut cel mai puţin. Ultima piesa m-a derutat un pic cu tusea aceea, dar oricum acceptabilă. Un album pe care nu l-aş mai asculta a doua oară.

Vanhelgd – Cult Of Lazarus

Suedia, 2007

Prima piesă interesantă, chiar mi-a hrănit curiozitatea de a afla ce mai urmează. La Heaven in Lost mi-a plăcut cum se aud tobele. Avlad I Synd cu începutul chiar fain, are ceva ce m-a atras. La Drunk Beyond Death tobele joacă din nou un rol important. Totuşi ultima piesă cam seacă.

Beyond Ye Grave – Raping The Creation Of God

Rusia, 1999

Repede, repede să nu ne prindă cineva. Parcă asta ar spune piesele, parcă ar fi pe fugă. La Beyond the Seventh Sphere am crezut că mi s-a blocat winampul, dar nu… chiar aşa sună. Nimic interesant, nimic provocator aici.

Orcustus – Orcustus

Norvegia, 2002

Aici se întâmplă nişte treburi mai complicate ce mi-au atras atenţia. Dar vocea parcă pe de o parte răguşită, pe de altă parte sugrumată nu m-a atras deloc.

Absu – Absu

USA, 1990

Nu m-a atras nicio piesă în mod deosebit. La un moment dat am auzit un solo la chitară ce a părut interesant, parcă pe la piesa opt. Spre sfârşitul unei piese de pe la sfârşit este un moment mai uşurel destul de plăcut, dar urmat de nebunia din restul albumului. Cam atât. Nu pot spune nici măcar că a fost de nesuportat, pur şi simplu a trecut.

Blood Of The Black Owl – A Feral Spirit

USA, 2005

Superb album. Piese lungi, dar deloc plictisitoare. Toate sunetele şi vocea alcătuiesc o poveste ce chiar mi-a plăcut. Nu am nimic în plus de zis, doar că merită să fie ascultat.

IXXI – Elect Darkness

Suedia, 2006

Underworld, Nothern Floods, A Bitter Lesson încep chiar promiţător, sfârşitul plăcut, dar mijlocul le face să îşi cam piardă din farmec. Nu am găsit nicio piesă care să îmi placă în totalitate.

Kreator – Hordes of Chaos

Germania, 1984

Singura piesă ce mi s-a părut OK cap-coadă a fost Amok Run. Mi-au mai plăcut pe ici pe colo: To The After Burn, Distroy What Distroys You, Absolut Misantropy. Momentul de respiro pe numele lui de Corpses of Liberty foarte reuşit. Restul deşi destul de digerabile, mai greoaie pentru mine. Cred totuşi că mi-ar fi plăcut mai mult albumul dacă era doar instrumental.

Archgoat – The Light-Devouring Darkness

Finlanda, 1989

“Hopa! Ia taci că aici e treabă serioasă. Nu mai glumim!” Asta credeam după prima piesă. M-am lămurit între timp. Nu pot spune că îmi place cum îi sună vocea, nici că o detest. Dar prea se apropie de grindcoreli, iar grindcorelile chiar sunt peste nivelul meu de rezistenţă. Albumul m-a plictisit, de abia aşteptam să se termine.

Au fost două albume ce nu le-am găsit: Afflictis Lentae – Chaos Fire Hate; Teitanblood – Black Putrescence Of Evil. O să încerc să fac rost de ele şi probabil că o să revin cu aceste ultime păreri.

Închei într-un ton mult mai liniştit. Nu se aliniază ca gen cu cele de mai sus, dar o să scriu şi despre ei. Am auzit o piesă de-a lor într-un trailer şi chiar am fost curioasă ce altceva mai au.

Coheed and Cambria – Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Vol. 1

Vocea cam lasă de dorit, dar nu mă deranjează atât de mult încât să spun că nu îmi place. Sună chiar bine, dar piesle au o notă cam tristă. Iar acum nu prea aş avea nevoie de aşa ceva.

so today im spending some time working though my itunes library, and adding some new stuff in. the type of music i listen to varies greatly, but today im looking for one thing, songs to sing loudly to in the car. so i’ve been searching the internet to see what other people like, but their stuff sucks. so rather than to continue looking through lists that include Culture Club and/or Sir Mix Alot, im making my own of what i already have. hopefully it will help other people in my predicament. this list is in no order, it’s just what i put down as they came to me.

99 problems – jay-z

this is one of my favorite Jay-Z songs of all times. so good.

good life – kanye west feat. t-pain

kanye does a lot of stuff to tarnish his name in the media, but he IS good at what he does, and that is what matters. and t-pain can make any song popular.

at last – beyonce

yes, the etta james original, but i prefer beyonce’s updated version from the movie Cadillac Records.

just around the river bend

please don’t make too much fun of me on this one, it’s just something i can sing crazy amounts of loud to and have fun. ignore the first 45 seconds of that video.

crushcrushcrush

i love paramore, period. and this is just a good, loud song.

a favor house atlantic – coheed and cambria

i love coheed and cambria. claudio’s voice is like nothing else.

american boy- estelle and kanye

i love this. of course because of kanye, but estelle’s voice is awesome as well. plus it’s fun.

baby you wouldn’t last a minute on the creek – chiodos

my favorite “new” band is Chiodos. they are amazingggggg. this song is epic.

hey jude- the beatles

you didn’t really think i could make any sort of music list without them, did you? i shouldn’t have to explain why anyone would like this song. it takes care of itself.

lets stay together- al green

i will probably sing this song up to 5 times a week for the rest of my life.

i can’t quit you baby – led zeppelin

like the beatles, i can’t make a music list without some zeppelin peppered in there. this is my favorite song from led zeppelin, probably because it has so much feeling.

get like me – david banner feat. chris brown

this is nice to turn the bass up, roll the windows down, and act G to. hahah. i love it.

roll to me – del amitri

i remember this song being on the radio when i was younger, and i have always liked it.

holy diver- killswitch engage

this song has been a favorite of mine since last summer. the crew of people i was hanging out with were hardcore kids, as was i at the time, and this was a bit of a theme song for us. originally done by Dio.

grounds for divorce- Elbow

i LOVE elbow. all of their songs are great, but this is the first that i ever heard, and i’ve been stuck on it since.

so yeah, those are 15 of the many songs i like to sing in my car. i know that list looks like a crackhead put it together, but i’m really not kidding when i say i like all kinds of music. i hope it was helpful, or at least slightly entertaining.

Seattle Times
A tradition, actually a big part of being from around here, is trekking to Puyallup every year for the fair. There’s something rejuvenating about petting llamas, watching pigs race and catching a concert or two. The entertainment runs the gamut. There’s a rodeo, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Heart, Coheed and Cambria, and Third Day. For a full lineup follow the above link.

In Changing My Opinions Of My Changing Opinions VII: Volume I: From Preconceived Notions Came My Shoddy Judgment

I must admit, for most of my teen years I had a narrow musical mind and an intense hatred for anything that even mildly suggested ‘emo’ to me. I remember so many of the band names rattled off to me on a daily basis: Dashboard Confessional, Further Seems Forever, Mae, Days Away – so on and so forth, etc, etc. They all seemed to reach for some far away meaning, some elusive happiness that every teary chord and lyric brought closer somehow. One sappy syllable after another, I cringed and wondered when and how rock had lost its backbone. My musical discussions with people always went the same way – poorly.

Step 1: Meet and greet new person.

Step 2: Exchange a list of interests.

Step 2a: Arrive at the topic of music.

Step 3: Listen to them mumble through their favorite bands (that I hated).

Step 4: Politely refer them to Ozzy (Oh how sophisticated I was).

Step 5: Pray for their lost soul as I lost interest.

(The term social pariah probably applied to me back then.)

Once in a while, though, the name Coheed and Cambria emanated from someone’s nondescript, repulsively lip-ringed mouth. Those words weren’t on the lengthy list of names that screamed hormonal misunderstanding and were riddled with Simpson’s quotes. It was new and suggested no feelings – my interest piqued. But the suggestion to try them out came from people whose taste I didn’t respect (No Ozzy, no dice).

After hearing ‘A Favor House Atlantic’ and ‘Devil In Jersey City’, I gave up. Too cutesey. Too concise, I thought. No one bothered to explain it to me. No one told me the story, the continuity behind the music. They probably didn’t know much beyond the fact that Coheed’s sound fit nicely in their chosen pop music niche. I forgot about them in seconds.

My opinions softened since then, and at the suggestion of a certain bass-slapping friend, I gave them a second chance. I’m glad I did, as this is a band whose work really can’t be taken at face value.

First – a brief lesson. Coheed and Cambria, since their second album (and to some degree the first), have composed their music around a story entitled ‘The Amory Wars’, conceptualized by lead singer Claudio Sanchez and depicted (at least partially) in a series of comics/graphic novels. Their arrangement on the albums is similar to a movie soundtrack, setting important aspects of the story to song.

The songs each tell a part of the surprisingly complex story, in comparison to most other popular music, where songs – though they deal with many different themes – do not feed into an overarching narrative. This interrelatedness and direction towards a defined end point provides each song a certain added cohesiveness, in a way that actually made me crave more of the story.

Sure, the concept album has been done many times before – Rush’s 2112 comes to mind, as do a number of Dream Theater albums – and Coheed may not be the best at what they do, but they’ve managed to bring a slice of progressive rock into the mainstream (though the prog label might be an improper fit). Prog rock isn’t always an easy sell – so it’s nice to see it, or at least something like it, getting attention.

My initial negative reaction to their music had a lot to do with the lyrics – with the high pitched singing, emotional hooks, indecipherable lines and phrases – I just couldn’t seem to follow any of it. Approaching the songs on a case by case basis was simply the wrong way to go – a heartening fact, because if their fans somehow got it, why couldn’t I?

After discovering the story and the nature of the albums, my prejudice against the lyrics evaporated.  Following a narrative was much more engaging than trying to latch on to each individual song. Though much of the inspiration for the lyrical content undoubtedly comes from the author’s personal experience (like many works of fiction), the novel approach he took to songwriting cleared up the vanity that I usually associate with pop lyrics. To wrap it all inside a work of fiction may be vain as well – but frankly, I’ll take a good story based on someone’s feelings over a true outpouring of emotions any day. Good thing I’m not a therapist.

As each song unfolds, the central hero learns, experiences and changes, adding weight to the journey with every step (It’s downright folky, if you think about it). Even if every song means something different, those meanings build the character and explore the lore instead of remaining self contained. This unique structuring created a situation, at least for me, where going back and forth through the songs uncovered little things here and there I hadn’t noticed before. Usually this is something I associate with books, movies, or serialized shows like Battlestar Galactica – not music.

A great deal of music insists on listeners to identify with the lyrical content. Think about this: how often do we see Facebook statuses and away messages that consist of meaningful song quotes? I’ve seen it a lot – and used to be guilty of it too. I’m not suggesting there’s anything wrong with it, of course – just illustrating how often we look to music for guidance, or to say something we can’t adequately express ourselves. Most artists have a story to tell, but usually not one that spans more than a single song, much less several albums.

It’s akin to reading short stories versus reading novels. Both are valid forms of literature, but where the short story gets to the point quickly and packs every sentence full of meaning, novels are immersive, letting readers identify wherever and with whomever they wish, yet always convincing the reader to move on and finish out the journey.

I’d tell other artists to try Coheed’s model, but then I’d have to hate their imitators for the very same reason I thought I didn’t like Coheed in the beginning.

Oh, the irony.

-Alex

P.S. Chaos Collage welcomes you back.