Friday, August 30, 2013
elevating the thermals’ the body, the blood, the machine to benchmark status
congratulations to the thermals for making the benchmark albums list. review will come in time.
the listing is on the strength of the writing as much as it is on the self-righteous anger. i gave this lots of time to age; it nails it as well today as it did the day it was released, and it will nail it just as well a decade from now. hopefully, it won't have to.
the listing is on the strength of the writing as much as it is on the self-righteous anger. i gave this lots of time to age; it nails it as well today as it did the day it was released, and it will nail it just as well a decade from now. hopefully, it won't have to.
elevating our lady peace's naveed to benchmark status
i'm promoting this from classic to benchmark based primarily on the vocal approach. it was always on the fence, waiting for an assessment...
i should clarify that a little.
i've never quite understood how anybody could sit there and claim that emo (and, throughout, i'm using emo in the appropriated corporate rock sense, rather than the initial dc punk sense) or pop-punk vocals are somehow an emotional response to the lack of emotion in alternative rock. i don't want to yell orwellian, but if the topic matter was more serious then i probably would. it's completely backwards - the primary reason that corporate emo sucks is that the vocalists sound like soulless robots. i can handle the music alright, and sometimes the subject matter isn't boring, but the vocals are a really massive blocking point.
the reality is that these distinctions are all quite silly. it's all punk rock in some incarnation or another. the best way i know how to demonstrate how silly it is is to point out that dave grohl was right in the middle of the dc punk scene, before he joined nirvana. the primary influence on the first foofighters disc was, in fact, dc emo. yet, who is going to sit there and argue dave grohl was a more passionate vocalist than kurt cobain, even before the colour and shape?
if you want passionate, emotional, melodic vocalists, i'll take corgan, cobain and cornell over anything corporate emo (which apparently traces back to weezer and sdre - both of whom jumped immediately to massive success) ever produced, and i simply don't understand how anybody could make the alternate argument. i'm not working in a different definition, or falling into something subjective. it's just flat out wrong.
this particular our lady peace disc is really weird in terms of classification. i've read as many reviews praising it for not being grunge as i have for accusing it of being a grunge knockoff. personally, i don't hear the grunge influence. the dissonance seems to actually come from a big cure influence; the punk aesthetic seems to come from detroit and minneapolis and even athens, rather than seattle. corgan's accusations notwithstanding (and, trust me: don't ever listen to corgan), the weak surface similarity to gish seems to come from a shared cure fetish; this seems to be contemporary with the movement from the 80s into the 90s, not a response to it or an aping of it. and, it ultimately took it's own, rather unique spin on that evolution.
but, the vocals. what are these vocals? are they punk rock vocals? they have the snarl and the snide and the attack. are they rock opera vocals? a bit. beatnik scat poetry? almost, at points. but, really, the question is this: are they corporate emo vocals? how much of an influence did raine maida have on the development of this style of singing?
i don't know. i've seen it suggested in a few interviews with the band itself. i've seen the band and fans reject the label. however, i've never seen any corporate emo acts address the question.
regardless, it sure sounds like there was an influence, and a rather large one. if olp were "post-grunge", that ultimately places them in the same genre that weezer and sdre andjawbox jawbreaker (although if you want to hear some dc emo, check out jawbox) and the others were placed in during the 90s. the e word had yet to be appropriated during this time period. i was listening to 3/4 of those acts at the time; i would assume that was fairly normal, and that olp would have been in all of those playlists. so, i'm going to give him credit for that...
...but there's a big difference: these vocals actually really *are* passionate, intense, emotional. they really actually do have the ability to work a group of kids into a frenzy...
hence, the promotion to benchmark. in a convoluted sense, this is one of the very few examples i know of of corporate emo done right.
i should clarify that a little.
i've never quite understood how anybody could sit there and claim that emo (and, throughout, i'm using emo in the appropriated corporate rock sense, rather than the initial dc punk sense) or pop-punk vocals are somehow an emotional response to the lack of emotion in alternative rock. i don't want to yell orwellian, but if the topic matter was more serious then i probably would. it's completely backwards - the primary reason that corporate emo sucks is that the vocalists sound like soulless robots. i can handle the music alright, and sometimes the subject matter isn't boring, but the vocals are a really massive blocking point.
the reality is that these distinctions are all quite silly. it's all punk rock in some incarnation or another. the best way i know how to demonstrate how silly it is is to point out that dave grohl was right in the middle of the dc punk scene, before he joined nirvana. the primary influence on the first foofighters disc was, in fact, dc emo. yet, who is going to sit there and argue dave grohl was a more passionate vocalist than kurt cobain, even before the colour and shape?
if you want passionate, emotional, melodic vocalists, i'll take corgan, cobain and cornell over anything corporate emo (which apparently traces back to weezer and sdre - both of whom jumped immediately to massive success) ever produced, and i simply don't understand how anybody could make the alternate argument. i'm not working in a different definition, or falling into something subjective. it's just flat out wrong.
this particular our lady peace disc is really weird in terms of classification. i've read as many reviews praising it for not being grunge as i have for accusing it of being a grunge knockoff. personally, i don't hear the grunge influence. the dissonance seems to actually come from a big cure influence; the punk aesthetic seems to come from detroit and minneapolis and even athens, rather than seattle. corgan's accusations notwithstanding (and, trust me: don't ever listen to corgan), the weak surface similarity to gish seems to come from a shared cure fetish; this seems to be contemporary with the movement from the 80s into the 90s, not a response to it or an aping of it. and, it ultimately took it's own, rather unique spin on that evolution.
but, the vocals. what are these vocals? are they punk rock vocals? they have the snarl and the snide and the attack. are they rock opera vocals? a bit. beatnik scat poetry? almost, at points. but, really, the question is this: are they corporate emo vocals? how much of an influence did raine maida have on the development of this style of singing?
i don't know. i've seen it suggested in a few interviews with the band itself. i've seen the band and fans reject the label. however, i've never seen any corporate emo acts address the question.
regardless, it sure sounds like there was an influence, and a rather large one. if olp were "post-grunge", that ultimately places them in the same genre that weezer and sdre and
...but there's a big difference: these vocals actually really *are* passionate, intense, emotional. they really actually do have the ability to work a group of kids into a frenzy...
hence, the promotion to benchmark. in a convoluted sense, this is one of the very few examples i know of of corporate emo done right.
elevating do make say think’s other truths to benchmark status
yeah. the other truths bump was always expected - it was clear from the first listen three years ago, but i wanted to give it some time. so, i pegged it at a strong 4.5. 4.75, really. but, that was always, always meant to be temporary, until time allowed me to justify the bump.
that's disc number three from dmst in my benchmark records list, btw.
all their records carve their own niche; this one takes their typical horn/drum/bass/guitar sound and inverts it into a more traditional noise-punk aesthetic. that's not to say it's going to break your ears. but, where this thing excels is really in it's pure guitar-driven noise rock. i always found the post-rock thing a little ironic, considering it was the best rock music out there at the time (this hasn't been true in many years, but it was then, before the form became homogenized and all the creative drivers went their separate ways). this thing just drives. but, better is that there isn't any fluff, it's just four epic space shuttle launches. it had been a while since dmst had released a disc without any fluff....
that's disc number three from dmst in my benchmark records list, btw.
all their records carve their own niche; this one takes their typical horn/drum/bass/guitar sound and inverts it into a more traditional noise-punk aesthetic. that's not to say it's going to break your ears. but, where this thing excels is really in it's pure guitar-driven noise rock. i always found the post-rock thing a little ironic, considering it was the best rock music out there at the time (this hasn't been true in many years, but it was then, before the form became homogenized and all the creative drivers went their separate ways). this thing just drives. but, better is that there isn't any fluff, it's just four epic space shuttle launches. it had been a while since dmst had released a disc without any fluff....
unpublished note on the meat puppets’ too high to die
one of things i like doing when listening to the meat puppets is waiting for the one-liners.
”yeah, my head’s got a hole in it, and everything’s been ruined by the rain”
”things we should not do: should not walk through walls.”
”yeah, my head’s got a hole in it, and everything’s been ruined by the rain”
”things we should not do: should not walk through walls.”
unpublished note on limblifter
those of you from canada may remember a radio rock band from the mid 90s called the age of electric. they had a few minor hits up here. i guess they were “ok”, but there was this really disconcerting epidemic up here for a few years in the mid 90s when the crtc’s rules, combined with somebody’s really tragically bad taste, produced this slew of mildly talented acts with just horribly annoying vocalists. limblifter was a side project launched by the drummer and bassist from the age of electric, who happen to be brothers. ditching the annoying singer didn’t get them more airplay, but it did produce a more interesting record.
the main reason i’ve hung on to this all these years is that i’ve liked a lot of the lyrics through various phases of my life. on some level, songs like “dominantmonkey” and “i wonder if…” are really generic mid 90s explorations of alienation from and statements of rejection of the dominant patriarchal culture. for whatever reason, this was one of the records of this type that i strongly latched on to….
an objective analysis? well, the record is really saturated in catchy hooks, but recognize that this was very much the norm in 1996. stylistically, it belongs in the same genre as another brother-driven group, the meat puppets, and while the comparisons are actually sort of deep i’ll stop before i begin.
the main reason i’ve hung on to this all these years is that i’ve liked a lot of the lyrics through various phases of my life. on some level, songs like “dominantmonkey” and “i wonder if…” are really generic mid 90s explorations of alienation from and statements of rejection of the dominant patriarchal culture. for whatever reason, this was one of the records of this type that i strongly latched on to….
an objective analysis? well, the record is really saturated in catchy hooks, but recognize that this was very much the norm in 1996. stylistically, it belongs in the same genre as another brother-driven group, the meat puppets, and while the comparisons are actually sort of deep i’ll stop before i begin.
unpublished note on the offspring’s ignition
Classic
the bigger they come, the harder they fall. a little ironic foreshadowing from everybody’s second favourite punk rock biology doctorate…
yeah, well, there’s a reason they don’t advertise dexter holland as a phd student anymore. the whole thing is rather depressing, really. however, none of that is remotely contextual at the moment because you’ve walked through a time machine back to 1992, when the offspring were signed to the highly seminal epitaph records. note that epitaph was still a punk rock label at this time. we’re in a sort of a weird vacuum here, in the period between nirvana’s nevermind and two records that had a far more pervasive and wide reaching influence on mainstream rock music, namely dookie by green day and smash by the offspring themselves. further, refused are not dead yet, so punk hasn’t yet been taken over by dumb marxist crunk/metal hipsters who see themselves as some kind of intellectual vanguard that needs to dictate terms to the proletariat (lol); it’s still about maximizing propaganda potential and mobilizing the masses through producing choruses that can be sung along to. ignition exists within the genesis of what would later be called pop-punk and was released in it’s most formative period.
yet, it also exists at the very end of socal punk as a serious social and musical idea. i’ve retained a soft spot for early green day that i’ll probably never let go of, but it has been clear for many years that the only truly substantial thing to come out of the pop punk trend (besides nevermind itself) was the offspring. they were always different than the others in three substantial ways. first, they leaned harder towards the straight-edge tradition than the other acts in the pop-punk mould did. second, they leaned more towards the political side of hardcore than the others did. to an extent, the offspring were guilty of accusations of ripping off the dead kennedys in their early days; jello biafra even did a spoken word introduction for their fourth record. third, they actually had a harder edged, more complex and sometimes thrash-influenced sound. that is to say that they were initially the most intelligent, the most interesting and the most musical of the pop punk acts – in the beginning, this was a legitimately interesting band with compelling perspectives and musical talent.
alas…
it’s 1992, though, and you don’t care about any of this. you’re just an alright kid skating through orange county listening to the new epitaph band and thinking to yourself how tight they are. then, you see an ad for a job you’re interested in and stop to write it down. laaaaaa la la la life goes on….
the record absolutely nails the pre-refused punk rock ideal of merging extremely catchy music with politically challenging subject matter and for that reason alone deserves a classic rating. what’s remarkable is that they were able to one-up it on smash, which is a really perfect punk disc by the aforementioned traditional punk criteria. the flaws in ignition are mild, but worth noting.
first, you have to consider that the track lapd was horrifically misinterpreted by a lot of complete fucking idiots who just heard the word “nigger” and instantly assumed they were listening to white supremacist music. i’ve often found myself turning the volume down when it comes on or skipping the track because i don’t want that confusion thrown out there or spread around. it isn’t that there is anything particularly wrong with the track, it is just that the attempt to shock people with language was so successful that it is difficult to play publicly…
second.
the bigger they come, the harder they fall. a little ironic foreshadowing from everybody’s second favourite punk rock biology doctorate…
yeah, well, there’s a reason they don’t advertise dexter holland as a phd student anymore. the whole thing is rather depressing, really. however, none of that is remotely contextual at the moment because you’ve walked through a time machine back to 1992, when the offspring were signed to the highly seminal epitaph records. note that epitaph was still a punk rock label at this time. we’re in a sort of a weird vacuum here, in the period between nirvana’s nevermind and two records that had a far more pervasive and wide reaching influence on mainstream rock music, namely dookie by green day and smash by the offspring themselves. further, refused are not dead yet, so punk hasn’t yet been taken over by dumb marxist crunk/metal hipsters who see themselves as some kind of intellectual vanguard that needs to dictate terms to the proletariat (lol); it’s still about maximizing propaganda potential and mobilizing the masses through producing choruses that can be sung along to. ignition exists within the genesis of what would later be called pop-punk and was released in it’s most formative period.
yet, it also exists at the very end of socal punk as a serious social and musical idea. i’ve retained a soft spot for early green day that i’ll probably never let go of, but it has been clear for many years that the only truly substantial thing to come out of the pop punk trend (besides nevermind itself) was the offspring. they were always different than the others in three substantial ways. first, they leaned harder towards the straight-edge tradition than the other acts in the pop-punk mould did. second, they leaned more towards the political side of hardcore than the others did. to an extent, the offspring were guilty of accusations of ripping off the dead kennedys in their early days; jello biafra even did a spoken word introduction for their fourth record. third, they actually had a harder edged, more complex and sometimes thrash-influenced sound. that is to say that they were initially the most intelligent, the most interesting and the most musical of the pop punk acts – in the beginning, this was a legitimately interesting band with compelling perspectives and musical talent.
alas…
it’s 1992, though, and you don’t care about any of this. you’re just an alright kid skating through orange county listening to the new epitaph band and thinking to yourself how tight they are. then, you see an ad for a job you’re interested in and stop to write it down. laaaaaa la la la life goes on….
the record absolutely nails the pre-refused punk rock ideal of merging extremely catchy music with politically challenging subject matter and for that reason alone deserves a classic rating. what’s remarkable is that they were able to one-up it on smash, which is a really perfect punk disc by the aforementioned traditional punk criteria. the flaws in ignition are mild, but worth noting.
first, you have to consider that the track lapd was horrifically misinterpreted by a lot of complete fucking idiots who just heard the word “nigger” and instantly assumed they were listening to white supremacist music. i’ve often found myself turning the volume down when it comes on or skipping the track because i don’t want that confusion thrown out there or spread around. it isn’t that there is anything particularly wrong with the track, it is just that the attempt to shock people with language was so successful that it is difficult to play publicly…
second.
unpublished note on a frustrations cassette demo
Strong Effort
i picked this up in a basement in ottawa a while back and have listened to it a lot more than i thought i would. frustrations were floating through town and one of the local promoters used it as an opportunity to put on a show for one of the many terrible local acts; frustrations opened for the local act, who i didn’t stick around for. i think i had an exam to go study for. i’m not the hipster in this equation, though. the process seriously got inverted, somehow. it’s an ottawa thing….
perhaps part of the reason i’ve been listening to this a lot is that i’m actually not entirely sure how to describe it. some people will no doubt wish to use more recent terms, but i’m going to reject that approach. the demo has a very retro sound that pegs it, roughly, as punk rock c. 1985. however, the way it combines influences makes it difficult to conceive of it actually existing c. 1985, and i’m not aware of anything that exists that sounds quite like it. a basic description would be that it sounds about halfway between the earliest sonic youth and the earliest nirvana; in a very real way, it sounds like the missing link between no wave and grunge. however, you can also hear some influences from early emotive hardcore in the vocals, as well as a touch of husker du in the song structures and quite a bit of joy division in the overall atmospherics.
i’m often not a fan of retro approaches, but if retro is to be done at all then this is the way that i’m going to find it interesting. while it’s not *actually* an underground punk demo from 1985, it really sounds like it could be one, and, if it was one, it would be unique enough that it would carve out a space for itself in the crowded punk spectrum. it could have launched it’s own genre, even.
more importantly, perhaps, is that it’s a whole lot of fun to listen to. what dragged me out to the show was nothing more complicated than the promise of some thick feedback coming at me from close range in a basement. i certainly got that; listening to the demo, the noisy guitar atmospherics absolutely form a very central part of the sound. it is the rhythm section, though, that drives these songs in the different ways that they’re driven. while the vocal melodies are sort of generic (especially within the larger grunge meta-genre), the vocals are definitely melodic and that itself is a driving factor. more to the point, though, is that most of the vocals are very silly and are fun to be silly with. the ones that try to be more than silly fail in the sense of them being bad poetry….which is itself silly, so it remains consistent. in the end, listeners and musicians alike are all laughing with each other.
overall? yeah, this is pretty good. it’s very familiar, but it’s somehow sort of novel. frustrations have put together a fun demo, and are solid and noisy when they play it in front of you. hopefully, some people will get a chance to hear it…..
i picked this up in a basement in ottawa a while back and have listened to it a lot more than i thought i would. frustrations were floating through town and one of the local promoters used it as an opportunity to put on a show for one of the many terrible local acts; frustrations opened for the local act, who i didn’t stick around for. i think i had an exam to go study for. i’m not the hipster in this equation, though. the process seriously got inverted, somehow. it’s an ottawa thing….
perhaps part of the reason i’ve been listening to this a lot is that i’m actually not entirely sure how to describe it. some people will no doubt wish to use more recent terms, but i’m going to reject that approach. the demo has a very retro sound that pegs it, roughly, as punk rock c. 1985. however, the way it combines influences makes it difficult to conceive of it actually existing c. 1985, and i’m not aware of anything that exists that sounds quite like it. a basic description would be that it sounds about halfway between the earliest sonic youth and the earliest nirvana; in a very real way, it sounds like the missing link between no wave and grunge. however, you can also hear some influences from early emotive hardcore in the vocals, as well as a touch of husker du in the song structures and quite a bit of joy division in the overall atmospherics.
i’m often not a fan of retro approaches, but if retro is to be done at all then this is the way that i’m going to find it interesting. while it’s not *actually* an underground punk demo from 1985, it really sounds like it could be one, and, if it was one, it would be unique enough that it would carve out a space for itself in the crowded punk spectrum. it could have launched it’s own genre, even.
more importantly, perhaps, is that it’s a whole lot of fun to listen to. what dragged me out to the show was nothing more complicated than the promise of some thick feedback coming at me from close range in a basement. i certainly got that; listening to the demo, the noisy guitar atmospherics absolutely form a very central part of the sound. it is the rhythm section, though, that drives these songs in the different ways that they’re driven. while the vocal melodies are sort of generic (especially within the larger grunge meta-genre), the vocals are definitely melodic and that itself is a driving factor. more to the point, though, is that most of the vocals are very silly and are fun to be silly with. the ones that try to be more than silly fail in the sense of them being bad poetry….which is itself silly, so it remains consistent. in the end, listeners and musicians alike are all laughing with each other.
overall? yeah, this is pretty good. it’s very familiar, but it’s somehow sort of novel. frustrations have put together a fun demo, and are solid and noisy when they play it in front of you. hopefully, some people will get a chance to hear it…..
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