As The Crow Flies 04.17.09: I Love Rock With Added Value (Part One)

Posted by Chris Crowing on 04.17.2009

Call it post-prog, alternative metal, conceptual or art rock - from Faith No More to Muse, I love the bands who are that little bit different, give that little bit more.



Through the Fire and the Flames

Oh, I successfully ruffled a few feathers last week (mission achieved), and it's only fair to give fair rejoinder to those of you who took times out of your busy schedule to attack or acclaim me.

Would guy incognito please stand up. Thanks. I feel you have to understand that saying ‘sorry, but: fuck you' as the first part of your comment is a very contradictory, not to mention immature way to begin a relationship. As to the content of your comment, where you say I basically show favoritism to bands I like when considering their worth or commerciality, you must surely realize the difference between Aerosmith and Metallica being massive commercial machines (each with their own version of Guitar Hero no less) and the insidious pop pervasion of Miley Cyrus and Souljah Boy.

I'll lay it out in easy terms. Both Metallica and Aerosmith worked their way up from the meanest pubs and clubs, and only became massive commercial machines after nearly a decade of acclaimed albums that defined musical scenes (that's thrash/groove metal and American 70s and 80s rock respectively.) Compare that to the immediate impact of overtly commercial pop acts, such as Miss Cyrus, and there is simply no comparison. I have NO issue with bands being commercial and selling all manner of merchandise aside from the music (I myself have spent a worrying amount of money on such merch,) but the defining factor is that the music has to come FIRST and for the bands who make it to that level, whether I like them or not, the success is commercial success is earned through years of hard work - pop stars who‘s first tour is in arenas cannot make the same claim.

Even simpler - nobody made James Hetfield a superstar in the 80s because of his looks…



…it's the music that made him and that is the difference.

To Martin - I never said I didn't like Leona Lewis (In fact I‘m a big fan,) and I'm well aware that she tried her damnedest for years before her deserved victory on the X Factor.

However, I'll stand by my distaste for the format, as it has produced far more flops than hits, and the focus of such shows continues to be on soulless karaoke and making sure you make your phone vote rather than truly finding a talent. The real tragedy is that talent like Leona's can be passed over with such frightful regularity by an industry which surely has a vested interest in seeking out new stars…

To John Griffiths, I'll bow my mistaken head in supplication. For some reason I had convinced myself that Will Young had been playing Billy Flynn in Chicago in London's West End. This is simply not true (although Will has had some acclaimed acting work with the BBC and on stage) and I have no idea where such a thought came to me, although I think he'd be strangely awesome in the role. The point remains is that I think Will is one of the few genuine successes to come from the glut of ‘reality TV talent' shows.

To Random - I'll accept that Gary Numan is indeed credited as a co-writer on the Sugababes "Freak Like Me" and that it was indeed also a reworked version of the song of the same name by Adina Howard (with the Numan sample being the main difference.) The point was more that many such beats are plagiarized by pop bands and not properly credited ON THE CD - so their less inquisitive or knowledgeable fans will never know the nature of the beat. Observe the CD case below…



…now, if it was billed as Sugababes feat. Gary Numan, then I'd have no complaint. I'd also like to point out that I never said I have a blanket hatred for covers, just those bands that lean on covers to the exclusion of original material and those covers which are so harrowing in execution as be without worth.

Wyatt Beougher and tony danza took offense that I occasionally reference my own music ‘career.' I don't think I've ever referred to my experiences as a ‘career' except perhaps with tongue firmly in cheek - I think in my whole life I've made a one fifth share of £40 playing music, so it's a dashed unsuccessful career if you want to call it that!

I have no issue with the existence of pop music, other people being famous or anything so asinine and reactionary.

I am actually quite offended to be placed in the same category as the crusty, bitter types of guy who sit sipping their lukewarm beer moaning about how they 'could have been a contender.'

I simply love my music, listening to it, watching it live, writing it, playing it, talking and writing about it, and all of that leads me to believe in certain aesthetic and procedural tropes which I feel are the correct way to go about things. In short - music over fashion, art over cash (but if you happen to make a mint along the way, that's just fine.)

What's more, I referenced the fact that I've sang in musicals and choirs to evade a potential accusation of just being a ‘metal guy' who has a fundamental opposition to the concept of ‘nice' music, as opposed to some evidence of my own tragic lack of success.

While I'm always excited about whatever band or project I'm engaged in at the time, I know I'm probably not good enough to make a mark, and I'm certainly not dedicated enough to get there the right way. I'm old enough to be fine with that, yet young enough to still enjoy the sacrifice of money and time that comes with playing in a band. I grind no axe against the pop industry on my own account, but I feel that this manner of fast tracking attractive stars as opposed to forging durable acts short changes the public and holds down our best creative souls.

It does therefore rankle when I see artists who are friends or contemporaries of mine who I regard to be genuinely impressive talents, who are passed over in favor of more fashionable acts from more accessible areas. I know that's the nature of the industry, but I don't need to like it.

With that in mind, these guys are friends and far more talented than your humble writer so please check out…

…the Hazey Janes for sun kissed indie wonderment, Binary Zero for messed up electronic beats and/or Burning Earth for some epic metal shreddage…

…and you should find something to tickle yourself.

However, Wyatt Beougher did made a good point in that I referred to the hateful, rubbish edge of hip hop as the underbelly, quite incorrectly. In truth it is the mainstream, uber-successful edge of hip hop which is to be reviled, as all the creativity and drive in that genre has been pushed to the underground in favor of recycled beats and ham fisted rhymes about bitches, pretending to be a gangster and just being famous. How inspiring! A full on ATCF rant against the hatefulness of this phenomenon shall follow in the future.

Last, but by no means least Andrew Barbarash said my column was full of contradictions, and I'll give the benefit of the doubt to artists that I like. I'd agree that perhaps my view isn't the most coherent, but that's because there are no black and white lines in the issues I'm discussing.

There can be songs I quite like, but are by artists who are utterly manufactured, and there can be songs that aren't to my taste, but yet also show signs of quality in the playing/songwriting/production.

Music is fundamentally about personal taste and such things are different for us all, and even different within ourselves over time.

The point is was largely trying to make, in a column that was more a stream of consciousness conversation with myself as opposed to an essay-like dissection, was that I feel music should be about skill, passion and at the end of the day - coming up with a good song, as opposed to coming up with any old shite, so long as it sells a million copies. I believe in craft over unit sales, but like I said, I'm an idealist, perhaps even a romantic.

Andrew also says that he feels the industry has to potential to get better, for fans and artists at least (death to the major labels!!!) with the direct communication possibilities of the internet - this is also something I am mightily excited by, and is already slated to be the core topic of a future column.

To all the above (especially those who caught my lapses,) and the folk who I haven't responded to directly, I'd like to thank you for reading, and showing your appreciation or argumentativeness. This column is all about a love for music, and a love for talking about it so even if you disagree with me, it's great to see there are still people with enough passion to argue their corner. I'll do my best to continue to entertain and aggravate you in equal measure.

Enough of this touchy feely rubbish, I'd like to share some awesomeness with you…

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This week I Love Rock With Added Value!

I'll say at the start, in a vain attempt to avoid pedantic trollish flaming that I am in no way lumping the bands I am about to talk about into one cohesive genre, but they are linked (in my mind at least) by their ability to inspire and amaze me.

This week, I'm talking about those bands who put a little more into their music than the standard rock or metal fare, the bands who aspire to opera-like flourishes and arrangements, or who weave stories around their music, giving their record life outside of your stereo in the same way that the mythos built up around the likes of Star Wars means it is now about so much more than just the movies.

The motivation and inspiration for this week's column came after several days plowing through you tube for the pop videos I included last week. Thoroughly disgusted and near suicidal with the horrors I endured for your benefit, I turned to my music library and sought out the bands who truly inspire me with their sheer musical ability, lyrical flights of fancy, willingness to piss all over traditional genre boundaries.

Of course, Metallica were one of these bands, but I've talked enough about them recently.

So welcome to a quick tour around those bands who make me sit in wonderment, giggle with childish glee and cackle like an evil genius when the thunderstorm is about to hit…

You simply cannot talk about bands of eclectic taste and massive influence without talking about two bands who basically had the term 'alternative metal' (quite erroneously) designed for them - Faith No More and Tool.

Once they signed up the versatile, and ever so slightly insane Mike Patton on vocals, Faith No More became more than just another quirky rock band, and have since become the banner act of choice for all of those who have disdain for the industry's desire to neatly pigeonhole every act into one neatly marketable box. This is the band who found huge success with the radio friendly sweep of "Epic" and later their cover of the Commodores "Easy"...



...but refused to replicate the songs on future releases, instead producing songs like the awesomely off the wall "Gentle Art of Making Enemies" and the delicately title "Jizzlobber."



You simply have to salute that commitment to writing the song you want to write, over the pressure to write the song your label wants you to right. Although their technical culpability for the eventual evils of corporate nu-metal might count as negative… Nah!

Since FNM split, Patton himself has been a beacon of creativity, lending his singular vocal talents to acts as disparate as Fantomas, Tomahawk, Mr Bungle and Peeping Tom.



To my mind, he is a hero and deserves your respect, even if you can't quite tune into Radio Patton the way I (and millions like me) do.

Likewise, Tool are a band who have always evaded the neat boxes they have been pushed towards, managing to encompass elements of grunge, metal, prog, punk and electronica into their distinctive sound.

Now they tend to be placed in that awesomely vague box called 'alternative' and couldn't care less what the media call them, so long as they get to record and tour in their own sweet time, but nowadays having the clout to bring their trademark light show with them, creating an experience that can truly and utterly without pretension be called performance art.



During Tool's downtime, their legendary vocalist Maynard James Keenan has also found time to record a handful of records with his 'other' band, the superb A Perfect Circle who like Tool veer from the accessible (covers of "Imagine" and "As The Levee Breaks spring to mind, as well as singles like "Passive") through their trademark melancholy like "3 Libras" and "Magdalena" to the downright weird and politically charged tunes like "Counting Bodies Like Sheep..."



(you tube UK has blocked all ‘official music videos' so I had to find another way to show this song, and this vid is in the vein of the original)

Maynard has also lent his guest vocal abilities to other acts, most notably (for me at least) when he collaborated with the Deftones for the hauntingly awesome "Passenger" from the White Pony LP.

One of the direct musical descendants of these bands is System of a Down who were first packaged as nu-metal (like everything else released in 1998-2002) but have since become one of the most interesting and vital bands to grace this past ten years.

Taking up Rage Against the Machine's baton as the educated voice of righteous anger, System weaved off-kilter rhythms and ethnic beats with crushingly modern guitars and blastbeat drums underneath Serj Tankians wonderfully versatile and affecting voice.

Tracks like "Sugar," "Science" and "BYOB" are deceptively catchy, but all have a genuine message hidden in their by turns cryptic and refreshingly direct lyrics.



I have to say that I really wish they'd reform, for as much as I have enjoyed Tankian's solo work, Scars on Broadway were a disappointment. and the whole is distinctly more than the sum of it's parts.

Few acts have come along to challenge these bands for their crown as Kings of the Awesomely Inventive, but Muse would certainly be among the leading contenders. From their origins, being touted as the new Radiohead, Matt Bellamy and company have left those comparisons far behind and are probably (in my mind) the most important British band on the go at the moment. Given their tendency to soaring falsetto vocals, shredding guitars, obscure lyrics and less than conventional rhythms, I am frankly amazed that they are as popular as they are, but by the Gods they certainly deserve to be!



Oh, and Bellamy has gone and plugged a Chaos Pad right into the body of his guitar and uses it to make awesome fucked up noises. I need to get me one of those! Not that I'd have the first idea how to use it, but I'd have fun working it out!

While Muse were never the ‘new' Radiohead, Thom Yorke and company certainly have a place in this pantheon of the entertainingly different. From creating some of the most memorable British indie of the 90s, successfully edging out the likes of Suede to be the most affecting and edgy band of a talented group, they wandered away from the mainstream into truly experimental territory, while still managing to sell loads of records.



Pablo Honey, the Bends and Ok Computer are a stunning career in their own right, but the same band then went on to produce the less commercial, but awesomely innovative Kid A, Amnesiac and In Rainbows. Respect is due!



Bearing in mind that I have been chastised for the extreme length of my submissions, and appreciating that my American readership may well be of limited attention span, I'm going to split this topic down the middle here, and come back next week with another bundle of bands I love for their concept albums, experimental outlook and general wonderment factor.

Please note that I am NOT done, so don't give me any ‘you didn't mention…' until I draw a line under the topic next week. For all that the ones I've talked about this week were a tad predictable, next week will see a more varied and possibly contentious selection.

Thanks for reading, seeya next week.

Slainte
Chris Crowing