The Power of Music Posted on November 2nd
I’m having a piss-poor morning and I want to take advantage of the creative force that happens whenever I get like this so I’m just going to keep going and keep going until I finally stop to see what comes out on the other end. When I elloped to the beach last week I had quite a while to pretty much listen to music and think a lot of things through; first thing that comes to mind out of all of the things that came out of that trip was that of Jimmy Eat World. Ever heard of the band? They’re most famous for this song called “The Middle” that was popular a good couple of years ago… I’ll see if I can post the video for the song later today in this here post but it was pretty famous, too… house party full of people in their underwear while the camera follows this fully-clothed guy around as he feels terribly out of place? The song’s very much a good example of those songs that make you feel good about yourself in the sense of “hey, you’re weird! But it’s quite alright.” Well, I always thought that song was rather gay. Actually, to this day it’s the song I like the least from their whole repertoire but the way I was introduced to the band was with this song called “Sweetness.” It’s fast, fierce and it has all of the themes I seem to inadvertedly like within its lyrics which are as basic as the premise of a hero… “to save and be saved.” This song is from the same album “The Middle” is in (“Bleed American”) and it was one of the records I burned for my trip. I never really listened closely to the album enough to notice the things I did that day but I can safely say that my perception of interpersonal relationships and my history with them is beautifully layed out and explained int he span of the 11 songs that are composed of the album. Seriously. Pick out any song. Any song. Listen to it and seek out the lyrics; what you read and what you listen to is exactly how I feel. At any one point in time… it was a long fucking trip, so I had to entertain my mind and in doing so found the hidden gem. Even the weakest songs of the album are ones where I find something I identify with… it’s bloody disgusting how much I identify with the album.
So, why do I? Well, if I think about it long enough, in a couple of ways the record is somewhat of a concept album. That would explain my connection to it: Most of the album has a very “deep thought” sound to it, the type of layered stuff I usually like and coincidentally gravitate to most of the time but it’s not just that… it’s not their sound, one which I can explain (at least in my mind) as very hopeful and sure of itself, even though there’s a small part of the whole that thinks everything is gonna go to hell. The sound’s like the band that plays while the boat’s sinking in “Titanic.” I love that. The simple lack of will to give up, with melacholy sprinkled all over for good measure. The sound’s an assault to the senses too, abrasive and without apology, even in the softer tracks where the song wears its heart on its sleeve. This goes back to the themes I like… one of them being the concept of how someone that’s strong and seems otherwise unbeatable needs to be saved just as much as the people he looks after. I find it fascinating; it humanizes the character and strips him down to its most basic, proving to me that no one’s infallible and if you peel off enough layers of the onion you’ll realize that people who you think are the most incredible on the planet are just as messed up as you are. It’s raw emotion, man… no bullshit kind of experience that I like an incredible bunch, and ironically the feeling is plastered all over the songs of the album to an almost ridiculous degree (for further evidence, listen to “Your House” or even “A Praise Chorus”) and the execution of the emotions the songs carry with them is amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever posted any of my poetry here, have I? Oh God, it’s ridiculously in-your-face.
In fact, back when I was at the UTP “studying” this heap we had an exercise that required us to start off a poem with a random phrase that the professor (Hector Collado, by the way. Fantastic on all levels) would give us and when we were done we’d put them all up at random across the board and everyone would have to guess who’s poem was written by whom (no names on the pages)… to sum it up, I had just broken up with the girl who killed who I was then and birthed who I… umm, was until a few weeks ago so I had a lot of emotions bottled up so I unleashed them on said piece of paper. The result? A piece of work that the professor took home and to this day has it hung up somewhere in his apartment, from what I gather. Everybody knew which one mine was because by that point I had picked up a reputation as being the one that was there not to make Carvaggio paintings out of my writing but rather something out of Sydney Pollock. A different kind of beautiful, very raw and knee-jerk. Well, I accomplished it because the poem was a beast. It really was a beast. I wish I could remember it but that was a good 3 years ago and my memory’s shot as it is but the point I’m trying to make with this is that the lyrics to “Bleed American” remind me of the way I do poetry… a lot. Maybe that’s also why I identify so much with it… I suppose that if I were to write songs they’d come out somewhat like this. It’s just very sweet, while at the same time a cry for help. Someone that’s overwhelming and seemingly powerful who desperately wants to be saved, to be taken into account… the list is long. So, what comes on after “Bleed American?”
Rage Against the Machine.
“Evil Empire” is one of the only albums on earth I can listen to entirely and not get bored every single time. If you still don’t see why I would like the band then I will lay it out for you because you obviously haven’t been around here enough: I like my country very much, but there’s a lot of things wrong with. I’ve used this medium to vent out my frustration and perhaps spark some type of attention on the issues I believe should be addressed because as long as 1 person reads what you have to say, no matter what it is, you’re already causing change. It reverbs, like the ripples on a lake. Rage Against the Machine is all about calling out governments’ shit against its people; a socially conscious band that even though it’s dead now (though it has evolved into what we now know as Audioslave) still to this day has very relevant themes in their songs. Their sound screams revolution and they pull no stops to let you know about what ills the world. Corrupt politics, corrupt societies and a lot of wrong has showered our cultures and it’s bands like Rage Against the Machine that let you know how something must be done. Fuck yeah… bulls on parade!!!
I’ve found a new appreciation to the album because when I first heard it I was too naive to understand what they were talking about but now I do… crap, do I ever. It hits you like a brick. Also hitting me like a brick in the same road trip CD was this other song that any Tool fan should be familiar with it, not entirely because it’s part of the Tool repertoire but of what you could call a sister band… said group is called A Perfect Circle. Out of their first album, called “Mer de Noms,” there are quite a few songs that stand out but only 2 really do it for me… one is “Judith,” which is a powerful song that talks about the Jewish interpretation of the Bible and how Eve wasn’t the first woman in all of creation… I’m not going to get into details but the story is fascinating; you should look it up. The one song I’m going to talk about this time around is one called “Three Libras,” a truly beautiful and sad song that talks about, you guessed it, not being appreciated… being passed over. It’s simply tragic. Beautifully tragic… there’s so much sadness in that song that you can’t help but feel sympathetic to whoever sings it. The whole album can be rather depressive if you don’t stop to notice how beautiful it all sounds.
Whenever I write a story I always try to be in the mood of the characters or situations the process asks for and a big part of that is the music… as you might or might not tell, music dictates how I feel at any given time. This is not uncommon, since I’m not the only one who listens to Deftones whenever I’m pissed off about something. I don’t know what it says about me, but right now I’m listening to Mos Def. Tucked inside my hoodie, waiting for the day to run its course.
I think this topic has ran its own course, now that I think about it. I think I’ll disappear again to the interior, but this time in much better terms with the people and places I’d be leaving behind. I have to ponder on the goodies I have planned for you come January, as well as some stuff for December. Which brings me to the question I’ve been meaning to ask you, esteemed reader, for a long time: do you think I should change the look of the site? It seems I’m letting the sea of change wash over my chunk of the Internet as well.
Rob is lazy and has not put tags yet!
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