Wednesday, August 27, 2008

"Rather Be Dead" and wishing for change



Day three of school just beginnning and I've been meditating on the phrase "Rather Be Dead," just like the Refused song. I'm sitting in class, thinking about it all day. I figure something can't be healthy, however it forces me into a certain place where all I want to listen to is late 90s/early oughts post-post-hardcore or post-emocore/screamo or whatever you like to call it. My professor is talking about dairy farmers and how they make the cows produce more milk by forcing them to listen to music. She's totally a Chinese lady who lives in Monterey Park. She said, "Maybe some of you grow up in rock and roll... maybe that relax you."

I've really changed over the last few years. I used to fall asleep listening to Poison the Well's The Opposite of December. I actually used to relax listening to "A Wish for Wings That Work." These days, I listen to music that normal people listen to, but there's still some part of me that loves that stuff.

"Rather Be Dead" is probably where this movement started. Refused put out two wonderful albums: Songs to Fan the Flame of Discontent and The Shape of Punk To Come: A Chimerical Bombation in 12 Bursts. These albums are often cited as the heirs to the throne that The Nation of Ulysses left as well as the last great punk albums of the century. The Shape of Punk to Come was released in 1998 and started a revolution that made its way to the United States in the early 2000s. Bands didn't just want to be brutish hardcore dudes anymore; they wanted to be complex and have influences that came before 1982.

Curl Up and Die was one of the first metalcore bands in this era. They had math parts and breakdowns and all the formulaic nonsense, but they referenced Starship Troopers and had wonderfully perplexing parts in their songs that confused your everyday FSU dude. Their first EP called The Only Good Bug is a Dead Bug came out in 2000 and wasn't completely revolutionary, but was a great first release.

In 2004, DC band A Day in Black and White put out one of my favorite EPs in the genre to date called My Heroes Have Always Killed Cowboys. The sound is beyond raw in a way that you wouldn't imagine. I've even imagined that the sound of these recordings was a step up on Albini, however that is just plain ridiculous.

Following in Albini's mean sounding guitar steps, OXES put out an eponymous EP in 2005 that is intended to blow minds and eardrums. Basically, all you need to know is contained in the cover.

2005 saw the release of the last Cave In album, Perfect Pitch Black. This was a perfect swan song for a band that has had so many different "sounds" in so few years. This album brings their late 90s-Converge-copycat-Boston sound forward and merges it perfectly with their space rock/Failure/Catherine Wheel sound and even bits of their MCA era-modern rock radio aspirational hooks. The first song, "The World Is In Your Way" is a great example of this.

I've grown tired of this. I was thinking about posting like 25+ albums, but you'll just have to wait. None of you will download any of these anyways.

I guess I've had time this week to reflect on what's changed and what's the same. It leaves me feeling like I need to change something. I don't know what it is yet, but if someone figures it out, let me know.

Monday, August 25, 2008

The Summer Ends

I don't quite understand myself. I'm tired out of my mind, and yet, I'm not ready to sleep. Tomorrow is my first day of class for the semester and I am looking forward to listening to this song (see embedded video) while walking to class way more than anything else about the first day of school.



As a matter of fact, I will be listening to that song pretty much all day tomorrow.



Yes, summer is about as over as the 90s. Side note: can you believe this song came out in 1997 and not 1993?