Chris C: Every year, I start this conversation out with some sort of philosophical musing about the nature of time, aging, and whatnot. That doesn't feel like the right thing to do this year, given the state of the world. This has been, by far, the weirdest year of our lifetime. Never before has life been so disrupted, challenged, and the very idea of what a society is at so much risk. For so much of this year, music has felt completely secondary to reality, far more than usual.
Before we get too deep into any of those societal issues, I'll say this; initially, I thought music was going to be a great salvation during this ordeal. Music would be there to serve as a distraction, to give us something else to think about. It did, at least for a while. What I've found is that at least for myself, the numbness created by the news has carried over to the world of music as well. There are records I was excited about and loved at the time they came out, and while I wouldn't say that has necessarily changed, I feel less than I did then. That's made it a bit difficult to keep sorting through the records that are coming out (the ones that aren't is a topic I'm sure we'll get to very shortly), since I'm struggling to figure out if my malaise is due to the albums, or me.
But as weird as this year has been for me, I'm sure it's been even stranger for you, as you are the concert-goer among us. Having such an integral part of your identity and self-expression taken away from you, and without any clear indication when it will be back, must be a bit like a boat coming unmoored. I'm curious what your perspective on this is, and whether you have been able to replace it with music of your own, as I have been doing.
Now that the preamble is there, I'll let you sink your teeth into the weighty stuff.
D.M: If I may, I'll address the meat of the societal issue at large as briefly but poignantly as I can. Every generation is defined by a few transcendent moments, either great or terrible. For my parents, it was Sputnik being launched, the looming specter of the Cold War, man walking on the Moon, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam Conflict, and Woodstock (and my dad would add - the Jets winning the Super Bowl.) For my older brother, it was the Berlin Wall falling, the Challenger explosion and grunge music. For us (children of the '80s,) it was the OJ Simpson trial, the Columbine High School shooting, the terror attacks of September 11th, the mapping of the human genome (this is underrated, by the way,) and music file sharing. I don't presume to speak for the generation that follows us, but I'm certain they will have their moments, too.
I bring all that up because the pandemic strikes a different chord - this colors the life experience of all living generations. The disruption of our daily routines has been so total, that from the youngest child going to daycare to the most elderly citizen who takes a daily afternoon walk, literally everyone has had to adjust their expectation in some lasting way. The pandemic has not and will not discriminate. My wife is one of the frontline workers, and while the situation at her hospital has stabilized somewhat, the sacrifices and dedication her and her teammates have had to take on makes my largely working from home pale in comparison. The experience has, they all admit, given them a sort of scar that they'll carry for the duration of their professional careers.
In the face of that, I, too, turned to music as an interlude. Whether I was playing it or listening to it or writing about it, it has passed and will pass many hours for me.
I find I have not become jaded with it yet, although I recognize what you're talking about with the constant beatdown of the headlines becoming an overbearing weight upon your enjoyment. If I may offer a suggestion, I have found that my sanity is largely saved by checking the news once, in the morning, to try and encapsulate everything that happened the day before, and then I'm detached from it the rest of the day (though I admit to checking my stock holdings twice a day, but that's strictly a numerical transaction,)
The only part of the musical process I've become frustrated with or mellowed on at all, and you and I discussed this off-line a couple of weeks ago, is the number of bands who have pushed off releasing their new material to a later date. I won't speak for you, but I think we're in general agreement that this seems counter-intuitive. Wouldn't you, as an artist, want to release music now, when you have a captive audience? Secondarily, if you can't tour until a later date in support of your new music, doesn't that offer you two bites at the apple? You could gain an entire second wave of interest if you were to tour six or seven months from now. There has to be a logic here, and listen, if artists just feel like now is not the time from a moral perspective, that's their prerogative, and I won't criticize them for that. If, by contrast, this is a financial or marketing decision, even with the unemployment rate being what it is (and is projected to be,) it seems awfully strange to me.
As for the concert going experience, I haven't felt that pain too acutely yet. Frankly, with working from home and filling my hours with personal and home projects, time is passing much more rapidly than I had anticipated, so I haven't noticed the drought so much as I would have during my younger years when I simply had less on my plate. My last show was in the middle of February, so three months is an uncommon drought for me, but not unheard of. As I look back in my notebook, at the end of 2017, I went from the beginning of November to the middle of the February without a show, and then at the end of 2018, went from the end of December to the middle of March. So I'm still in charted waters, but I'm also trying to consciously ignore how long it will be until I see another show. No less than six things I had planned to attend have either been re-scheduled or outright cancelled, which means my dance card is already filling up for next year, but it also means that events I have tickets for in the later summer are very much in jeopardy. That long a drought would be unique in my concert going history. I will miss the energy and the catharsis, frankly.
Anyway, you seem like you were leading into some thoughts on the music we have gotten this year, and I have a fair number as well, so I'm all ears - take us there.
CHRIS C: Starting with society, I've been thinking about the ways in which our generation has been screwed in a way no other ever has. We were just old enough feel the effects of Columbine, which made us feel unsafe at school (around that time, my school was notorious for getting bomb threats - we probably had at least ten one year). Then we went through 9/11, which made us feel unsafe in a more ambiguous way. Then we saw The Great Recession right after we got out of college and started building our lives, which made us feel unsafe financially. And now we're going through this as many of us have or are starting young families, which makes us feel unsafe everywhere and everyhow. No music is going to get us over all of that.
I do understand what artists are thinking by delaying their albums, but I can't say it makes much sense to me. As I told you before, there are a couple of reasons why; 1)It could anger the fans, 2)It isn't necessary for their future touring plans, and 3)It might all be for naught. Let's take them in order.
1)As we are all starved for diversions right now, I think it's safe to say we're all appreciative of anyone who gives us one. While there is a world of older releases, it's something else to get a new and novel piece or entertainment to sink your teeth into. It takes a different function of brain power to process and assess a new record than it does to put on an old favorite for the hundredth time. Many of the bands that are delayed releases are depriving us of that opportunity, when we might give them far more credit if they were there for us when we needed them most. A little good will can go a long way.
2)We all have seen how the touring industry has been divorced from the album cycle. Bands can easily go out whenever they want, whether they have a new record to promote or not, and there is hardly any difference to their drawing power. Tool spent over a decade playing sold-out shows without releasing a record. Iron Maiden sells out whether they're playing new material or the old hits. The days of syncing everything up are gone. Waiting to release your record when you think you'll be back out on the road, or closer to that point, isn't necessary. The people who aren't afraid of going to a show are going to have such pent-up demand for live music it won't matter when the record came out. The experience will be all that matters.
3)There is no telling when a better time to release your music is going to be. We have some releases that got bumped for a month. Right now, does it really look at if June is going to be a better month for a release than May? There is talk of no sizeable concerts taking place in large American cities until next year, so what difference does it make whether you release your album in one month you can't play live shows or another? But it's more than that. Among the things we don't know is whether there will be a second spike in cases. If there is a setback, and we have to tighten the reigns on society again, it's likely to happen in Fall and Winter, which is when some of these records are getting pushed back to, and when bands think they might start touring again. They might have just put all their hopes and expectations on the one period in time where the rug could get pulled out from under them. Steven Wilson delayed his album for seven months until January. What happens if there's still no touring then? They are putting faith in a future that isn't certain, and when there is going to be a giant glut of records and tours they may not be able to stand our from and get their requisite attention. The head start from releasing a record now might come in handy down the road.
As for this year's music, the themes seem to be the continued rise in the septic pool, as well as the stuff I like being fundamentally flawed. Combined, that is why I've been questioning if my mindset is the cause of my feelings. Let me explain; There are still a good number of records I really like so far, but not a single one of them is without a flaw I can't overlook. There's the melodic metal duets album where only half of the album features the two singing together. There's the doomy hard rock record where the great singer is replaced by a far lesser voice for two tracks. There's the melodic rock album that is almost a clone of its also great predecessor. And there's the concept album that only has 28 minutes of real songs, with the rest being padded out by transitions and set-up pieces. I have a reputation for being overly critical, and maybe it's all the philosophy classes I took where I was trained to find the flaws in arguments, but I can't look past these issues when I hear them. If I know an album easily could have been made better, my enthusiasm for what greatness is there is obviously not as strong as it could have been.
Last year, I noted that there were more terrible albums than ever before. Sadly, that seems to have continued. I have a solid list of truly horrible records that made me angry, as a musician. Records that so blatantly show a lack of care and/or effort that I'm not sure how to put it into perspective. We have Green Day giving us a 'fuck you' album to fulfill their contract with whatever crap they had left, we have Poppy throwing random noise into a blender, we have Witchcraft using 'acoustic' as an excuse for not even writing songs, and we have Richie Kotzen putting out a record of FIFTY songs he never thought were good enough for anything before. And there's still more records I outright hate. Both as a fan and a musician, I don't know what to make of a system that doesn't require more of a good faith effort from artists. It's depressing. And that's without addressing the "Danzig Sings Elvis" album that I have managed to reward myself by not listening to.
Those are my early thoughts. What has music given unto you so far?
D.M: While I agree that our generation has seen our fair share of major events, I would caution against putting us on top of the anguish heap - if you were born at the right moment, you could have been born into World War I, gritted your teeth through the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, and then been asked to serve in World War II. I know the whole "Greatest Generation" thing has become a bit of a cliche, but there is validity there. I would also caution that this entire part of our conversation is entirely American-centric, and largely from the view of two white guys. I mean, not to overstate it, but there are multiple generations of people who have been born in Eastern Europe, Central Africa, Southeast Asia, or a dozen other places who have known nothing but disease, famine, civil war, persecution and other kinds of strife. That doesn't diminish the impact on our particular age group of the things we've been asked to endure, but it does put us in a proper perspective.
Anyway, the part that's become most interesting in the touring world, to both tie into our discussion of why bands are moving their release dates and your query about the sudden halt of all things concerts, is that most of the tours that have been rescheduled have been rescheduled for approximately the same dates next year. Which is easy from a logistical standpoint, but it does seem to cast the idea that 2021 will essentially be a 'do-over.' Which isn't a problem, it just feels....strange. I keep a running concert calendar of all the things that I might conceivably be interested in, and I overhauled the whole thing yesterday to reflect the new state of affairs - for the first time in memory, I have concerts planned out as much as 15 months in advance.
Which begs the larger question - will the smaller venues be able to hold out that long? The pandemic brings with it a million little unforeseen twists and details, and one of the ones worth watching in the musical landscape will be to see if these places can be kept afloat. One hopes they've been available to apply for the aid that's been offered at the federal level, but that does come with some strings attached and more importantly, is not indefinite. Depending on how long this all takes, we could see a world where only Livenation-sponsored venues and their ilk would continue to exist. Now don't get me wrong, some of those are great venues, but the death of a place like St. Vitus in Brooklyn would be a real loss to the community.
Boy, I appear to be disagreeable today, because I am also forced to disagree with you about the state of music in 2020. I have been having a great year; we've just past the halfway point, and there are six or seven albums I already feel strongly about, including two that I think have already cemented their place at least in the top five when the end of year accolades roll around. This comes as a minor shock to me, since the trend had been going the other way in recent years, and also because my personal theory about the twenty year cycles of music (which parenthetically, has long since been shot to hell, I don't know why I keep referencing it,) would dictate that we're coming into a dry period - the early 2000's didn't offer a lot of all-time great works for me personally.
I think the theme that I'm taking away from this year so far, and we've been coming to this conclusion over the last several years, is that rock bands are coming to a greater understanding of what electronic music can do for them. This likely comes as no surprise from the European artists, where that genre has been a strong resident for many years now, but the trend seems to be circling the globe, and is resulting in more confident and all-encompassing releases from artists from every corner. Perhaps, referencing my preceding paragraph, this is what we're taking from twenty years ago (the last vestiges of my theory may have a burning ember among them yet,) that we're seeing a resurgence of industrial metal, which was in its infancy during the halcyon days of Rob Zombie, Powerman 5000 and Disturbed.
Plus! After roughly 7,302 years of waiting, Blackguard got to release "Storm," so that's a huge win.
The other trend I see, and it's too soon to know if it's good or bad, but it does bring some cause for concern, is that everyone seems to want to be a doom band now. It feels like fifty percent of the releases I get have a band that wants to be some combination of slow, noisy, fuzzy or doomy. Every band seems to want to write an album about not the apocalypse, but the post-apocalypse, with all its deserted landscapes and haunting overtones. That in and of itself is fine, I guess, and perhaps it's a reflection of the times we live in (more on this in a moment,) but it's long been secretly true that doom only offers so many outlets as a genre, and it's also pretty easy to be extraordinarily lazy and call yourself a doom band. Write some three chord rock, drop it into D tuning and play it at half speed, and you're just about there. Have you noticed the same?
You know what? That's enough for now - I'll let you digest that before I expand on the point I want to expand on.
CHRIS C: I don't think there's a way to fully delve into what I was trying to say that wouldn't come across entirely controversial, so I'll skip that and instead agree that we're clearly talking from our position of privilege, which probably isn't the best thing to be doing, so I'll move on.
There will be an element of do-over to 2021, but it's going to be a weird mix of the past and present colliding. We're going to have all of the big moments of 2020 bleeding over, whether it's The Olympics or the Motley Crue lie-fest tour, but we're also going to have everything fresh fighting for our attention. Somehow, the business is going to expect everything that was supposed to happen in 2020 to slide into 2021, while everything that is planned for next year still goes on as scheduled. I know there's going to be pent-up demand for entertainment and events, but I can't see how it will sustain two years worth of stuff all at once. The most likely option I see is the same thing you were talking about with venues; the big will survive and the small will suffer.
The Olympics will still be a big deal when they happen next year. Motley Crue's tour will also still be a sell-out by virtue of its rarity. But for your fringe band that draws 500 people to a club? They might very well be out of luck, since everyone is going to have twice the big 'event' tours to attend. I heard Lzzy Hale mention that a lot of bands we know aren't going to make it out of this. She's right. Even when things were good, a lot of bands we assume are successful were barely getting by on their touring income. Without that, they will become hobby bands making the occasional song and playing the occasional show, while the members do other things to live.
And that ties back into your query. There are certainly going to be venues that have to close down. I've already heard some people talk about places in their areas that aren't coming back. Right now they have no income, and if they are allowed to open at some percentage of capacity, that's not going to be nearly enough money to keep the doors open. Not to wade too far into politics here, but our country happened upon the least efficient way of trying to keep the economy going of anyone. These nebulous loans so many will never be able to get aren't enough. It would have been far simpler, and more effective, to either give everyone a set amount of money each week/month, or subsidize employment for a period of time. The way it is now, these venues aren't going to be able to take in the money they need to survive until we get back to nearly full capacity. The margins on service businesses aren't great, so even if we have half capacity shows in the fall, that can't possibly pay everyone's salaries as they were. Something will have to give.
The flaw in your twenty year cycle theory has nothing to do with the theory, and everything to do with society. When we were talking last year about the end of the decade, I mentioned how this past decade had no identity of its own. It's as if culture stopped and stagnated. With that being the case, it's no wonder that we have deviated from the cycle. I can't exactly explain why it happened, but if I had to hazard a guess, I would think it has something to do with the fragmentation we have often talked about, and how it's hard for a society to evolve if only a few members are going along for the ride. We no longer have the shared experience of even something like TRL to drive all of us in a certain direction of understanding, and so we are now more of a blob oozing in every direction than we are a ball rolling downhill. That being said, Puddle Of Mudd are trying to make a comeback, and there's a tour of forgettable schlubs including Trapt that was scheduled, so maybe the cycle isn't entirely broken after all.
I haven't noticed a preponderance of doom, but I have noticed that noise is becoming more of a factor. My inbox has seen a lot of bands that are either psychedelic, stoner, or death-influenced rock/metal where everything is coated with a layer of annoying noise. I have never understood the appeal of such productions, but I've also never been high, so some of it is naturally lost on me. Like doom, however, it does sometimes seem like taking the easy way out. Anytime you're masking your playing and singing, you reduce the work you need to put in with regard to songwriting. Can it still be good? Sure it can, but I have a hard enough time sorting the wheat from the chaff in the genres I'm more fond of. I've lost a lot of patience for areas where the rate of success is going to be so low.
I think that's one place where being a musician myself is a detriment. There are many aspects to music and the process of making it I would never consider that I almost hold it against those that do. Case in point, the review I wrote for the recent Witchcraft album, which I found to be an insult to the very instrument I play most often. But I'm starting to get off on a rant, so I'll let you make the point you wanted to.
D.M: I suppose there's some natural inclination to assume that if next year is do-over, then everyone must be saving their concert pennies to double up in the following session. I know I'm certainly saving a fair amount of money right now by not really doing...well....anything, and so I've started a couple slush funds to put my liquid assets in that I'll be able to disgorge on an orgy of live experiences next year, from concerts to sports to exotic European vacations (destination TBD.) BUT! The obvious fallacy here is that this idea assumes people are going to be able to save their money, which only works if people are actually getting paid. Which a whole lot of folks aren't. I have zero data to back this up, but as we've noted before in this space, the metal community, my home base, so to speak, is largely populated by the middle and lower-middle class, and there's a damn good chance that while I've been extraordinarily lucky to be able to work from home, many of my contemporaries probably haven't. I am torn - there is certainly the concept that people are going to be clawing to get out of the house by January, which lends me to believe that crowds at shows will be massive in the beginning part of the year. I also suspect however, that by March or April, the concept of what this is all costing will curtail that trend, and the size of the crowds may actually regress.
For all that though, I disagree with Lzzy's statement. (There I go being disagreeable again.) I get what she's saying, I really do, and there's a lot of logic in her words. And please let me preface my argument by saying that my heart goes out to the musicians for whom her statement applies - the level of disruption we've all had to endure is particularly unfair to those in the service industry, as you mentioned, and I would argue that artists of all stripes are in that business to some degree. My counter though, is that most if not all bands have lived through that state of affairs before. Virtually nobody comes out of the chute as bankable stars (maybe Silverchair? Weren't they a bunch of rich kids?) and thus we get all the great stories of dudes sweating it out at day jobs and then having to race home to change clothes and get to the gig on time. This trend doesn't extend to just the bargain basement or those new to the game either - I don't want to call anybody out, but I interviewed a lot of headline artists who had day jobs, and I know this because they had to sneak out of their day jobs to do the interview. Security guards, landscapers, bricklayers, contractors, firefighters, bartenders, small business owners, and of course, parents, all within the realm of artists I chatted with. So the concept of these guys having to find regular jobs to balance against their music career isn't a foreign idea, or at worst, might be a reversion to a previous lifestyle until some capital starts to come back in. I would venture that to be in Lzzy's position, where 'musician' is your sole job title is the stark minority of cases. Now, whether those guys and gals can find employment, either permanent or temporary, is a larger and more concerning questions.
And while we're at it, let's make sure to direct some vitriol at Ticketmaster, who generally deserves it, but in this case is the target of my ire because I am quite sure that they are not going to reduce or suspend any of their fees as concert goers, sports fans and theater enthusiasts try and return to their favored patronage.
I saw the Trapt tour! I couldn't freakin' believe it! (Tantric is the other name band on that bill.) I know we're coming up on the twenty year anniversary of a lot of these bands' debut albums, but come one, Trapt? Far be it from me to criticize, but man, you weren't that big a deal the first time. On the other hand, let me confess openly that I was somewhat interested in Disturbed's proposed tour this summer, because they were celebrating the twenty year anniversary of "The Sickness," which 1) I am an apologist for, and 2) I was supposed to see Disturbed in 2000 open for Black Sabbath, before Sabbath decided to can their headline tour and concentrate on Ozzfest. I haven't really wanted to see Disturbed since then, so the chance to see more of their one good album was too much to pass up.
Anyway, let me get to my larger point as it relates to the noise, fuzz and desolation of the current musical flavor. If you recall, at the end of our conversation in December, I was curious why we haven't seen a greater surge in what I will refer to under the large umbrella of protest music. I don't think we've caught up to that lofty goal from a lyrical standpoint, but now the puzzle pieces start to fit a little; are we seeing music become more artistically bleak as an intentional response to the general state of affairs? is this the form that protest music will take now? Certainly, without the lyrics to back it there's a piece missing, but must like artists from the '60s-'80s felt it intrinsically necessary to lash out against the Cold War backdrop they'd had to put up with, are musicians now consciously channeling their disaffection into the sounds they're composing? It sounds a little pretentious even as I say it, but it would account for the preponderance of artists who want to aurally show us what happens both at the end of the world, and particularly after it.
If that is the case (and I could be way off base,) that might be a first, where the very character of protest music takes on the nature of the protest, as opposed to just the words within it. I can't think of another example off the top of my head.
Now, a larger question that I am not equipped to answer is, why hasn't rap music hopped back on the protest bandwagon? Outside of some releases by Killer Mike, there just aren't many hip hop artists making those kind of statements anymore, which strikes as odd for a genre that so long has prided itself on its counter-cultural and polemic appeal.
I'll let you respond to that, and then, what the hell, let's get happy. What have you liked this year?
CHRIS C: Ok, I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent here. While a lack of money has never seemed to stop people from splurging on the things they really want, there is certainly going to be a large swath of people who will be hurting financially for a long time. That's what bothers me. For as smart as humanity can be, and for all the miraculous invention we have done to create this world out of the dirt, we're also complete morons. Money is an abstract concept. The only reason it's worth anything is because we believe it is. So if it's a construct of our minds, why do we tell ourselves there can only be so much for a few people to have the lives we all want? There is literally nothing stopping us from creating enough money to make sure everyone is comfortable, other than our own indifference. It wouldn't devalue money and create an inflationary death spiral, unless we want it to. Markets don't actually exist. A stock that goes up isn't any more valuable than it was the day before, it's just that some people are willing to spend a little more to buy shares. Likewise, if we print more money and all agree that it's worth the same amount, it would be. It's funny how wealth can be magically created on paper, but money can't.
Now that I've gotten that out of my system, let's get back to the point. I think what Lzzy was getting at was more that there are going to be bands where the expense of being musicians won't be tenable anymore. Yes, lots of artists currently do have jobs other than being musicians, and every time they want to go make a record or go play some shows, it involves some degree of personal sacrifice. Coming out of this situation, more of them might decide it isn't worth losing time they could be making steady money, or time they could be spending with their families, to travel around trying to break even. I do think she overstated the amount of bands it will apply to, but chasing the dream when it involves risking your health for so little reward isn't an attractive bargain.
That could be solved if streaming payments could ever improve to make up some of the difference (believe me, I get why they're so low - not saying it's fair, but it makes mathematical sense). Want to open a can of worms? Bands are getting pennies for thousands and thousands of streams, but Spotify just paid a boatload of money for the cro-magnon Joe Rogan Experience to become exclusive to their platform. Artists should be more pissed than ever. Their music built the entire streaming model, and they aren't the ones getting the payouts.
Another quick question; favorite circa 2000 nu-metalish 'hit' song? I was actually reminded recently of just how big Trapt's "Headstrong" was (a legit top twenty single - not just on the rock charts), and had completely forgotten that scene was truly big at the time. Far bigger than rock is now in the mainstream. I'll save space so we don't have to revisit this more than once and say my pick is probably Taproot's "Poem". It was the first that came to mind.
What you mention is something I had assumed would have happened. With politics being what it is, I was certainly expecting there to be a wave of political songs and albums tearing into this current administration, but it hasn't happened. There have been the occasional mention here and there, but we haven't seen music galvanized in the same way we did during the Iraq war. I firmly believed many bands would be trying to write this generation's "American Idiot", and I don't know why they didn't. Maybe we're all just so tired and numb we're looking more for distractions than righteous anger. I'm not buying that the actual music we're being presented is a form of protest. Pop music started getting depressingly cold before the last election, as did the whoe 'blackgaze' thing that has helped make noise more accepted outside the extremes of metal. We were already heading down these paths. Perhaps it was foreshadowing, perhaps it was dumb luck, but it was happening. I think it's more a reflection of the disconnect social media and our current society have created between people than anything else.
I'll have to take your word that rap hasn't been as political as expected. If there was going to be any genre to stand up to the power, you would think it would be rap. No other community has more to be angry about, to be hurt about, to be aggrieved about. And yet the biggest act in those circles is Drake, who from what I gather writes a lot of songs about how hard it is to be rich. Society is falling down on the job everywhere. Music isn't giving voice to the voiceless, nor is the news media. It might be as simple as this; when you have to work like hell to get the truth out to an audience, but one powerful person's lie can dwarf it with no thought or effort, why try?
As for what I liked so far this year, at or near the top of the list would be Russell Allen and Anette Olzon's album, despite my gripe over the structure. It's everything that melodic metal should be, and it continues to justify my distaste for Nightwish. The fact that the 'genius' who runs that band couldn't figure out how to write for and utilize Anette, when she sounds this good, is all the proof I need that he misses the point entirely. So yeah, that album is great. Serenity finally released an album I can enjoy in full. You've liked them in the past, but this is the first time I'm fully sold on one of their records. Harem Scarem have put out another fantastic melodic rock record, which is interesting since their two best albums have come more than twenty years into their career. I even found a punk(ish) album I like from The Bombpops, who are the good kind of pop-punk. That's rather different for me, since the only other punk I've ever really bonded with is The Offspring and the one Bad Religion album that is more classic rock than punk ("The Dissent Of Man", which is bloody awesome).
I've also liked that the tenth anniversary of Dio's passing gave me reason to go back to many of his records. I'll say a couple things about him; 1)The Dio band is easily my least favorite of his three main bands, and 2)Rainbow's "Long Live Rock N Roll" is better than "Rising". Yup. I'm that guy.
So what gems have you found?
D.M: So long as we're going on tangents and getting some things off our rant list, can I have a turn? I was on a conference call for work, partaking in a departmental meeting meant to disseminate some new information about the status of our work and when most people might return to the office proper. As representatives from security, facilities and human resources are taking us through all the measures that are in place for workers who are already at the office (like me,) those that will return in the near future, and those who are working from home indefinitely, someone in my department, I don't know who (though I'd like to,) entered an anonymous (because of course it was,) question in the Q&A section of the video conference call:
"Is there a plan to reimburse employees for the extra electricity and HVAC they're using running computers at home?"
Are you fucking kidding me? There's more than a hundred thousand people dead in this country alone, and this is where your priority is? And listen, I work for a pretty large company, and no one in my department is a low-wage worker. We're not suffering. Also, how about the fact that you haven't had to start your car in two fucking months? Any savings there? The computers you're talking about are company-provided laptops, so they're not that heavy duty. And, for God's sake, don't sell me that HVAC bullshit like you're running a server farm. So you have your central air on. You were gonna do that anyway. I was beside myself. And the anonymity of the question made it even worse - if you're gonna ask some shit like that, have the fortitude to put your name on it. The fact that it was anonymous means whoever it was knew it was a shitball question. That absolutely ruined my day. Get the fuck out of here with that bullshit.
Okay, I'm better now.
Can I ask a larger question? Why is Joe Rogan popular? I mean, say what you will about Ryan Seacrest, but that guy works really hard. I don't know Joe Rogan personally, I only know him as a personality, and he always seems to come off as a marginally more eloquent version of every fraternity stereotype you can imagine. I can't picture him in my mind for more than twenty seconds without imagining him smashing a beer can against some extremity or another.
Oh man, favorite nu-metalish hit? A few come to mind. And I know the definitions here vary greatly, but I presume you're making me stick to the mainstream hits, so that's where I'll try to stay. Man, I feel bad admitting some of this stuff in public, but here goes - Drowning Pool's "Bodies" is always going to be a guilty pleasure. I am a legitimate defender of Union Underground's entire "...An Education in Rebellion" album. Static-X's "Push It" is a classic. Saliva's "Ladies and Gentlemen" is a masterclass in writing stupid, simple, amazing, neck-breaking rock. Those are the ones that come to mind. And I don't consider them nu-metal, but because some do, let me add that I love some old school Powerman 5000.
Let me ask another larger question - how long can rap and hip-hop's dominance over the popular music scene continue? It's not a complaint - all things in their turn, merely an objective and empirical query. Rap has been at the absolute peak of public consciousness (having pushed rock out,) for roughly fifteen years now. And I'm not counting pop music, which has always come and gone, nothing there has really changed, though pop in the Top 40 sense has always infringed on whatever the primary movement is. I suppose rock had a long run - not counting the brief disruption by disco, rock in one form or another pretty much ruled the roost from the '50s until the early aughts. So we'll see.
You mentioned how hard it is to get truth out to the masses. Without wading too far into the waters, I will add only this - twenty years or so from now, one of the more academically interesting aspects of our legacy that we're going to have to explain (or attempt to.) to our next of kin is the war concerning what 'truth' is. It used to be that people presented their case based on friendly interpretations of raw data. Now, if you disagree with someone or something, you can cast them as off by simply saying they're not telling the truth. And then make up whatever shit suits you. That seems untenable.
You brought up the Allen/Olzon album, so let me ask a genuine question, since you've always been more in tune with power metal than me. Why does it seem like all of pwoer metal is composed and performed by a circle of like, ten dudes and ladies? And why do they all seem to put out seven albums a year? Like, the whole genre seems like one inbred circle just propagating more material. We've talked before about the genre is somewhat at a dead end because it all sounds so similar, but this is a separate issue. Is power metal closed off? Why does it seem like there's no one 'new?'
What have I enjoyed this year? Lots, in short. Some of my favorites are "Love Like Machines" from the Heavy Eyes, because as we discussed with fuzz rock, it's real easy to slow it down and get carried away in seven minute dirges, but that band only has one cut over four minutes on their record. And they're the only band in recent memory who can make a two and a half minute song feel like a four minute one, in a good way. I like Master Boot Record's "Floppy Disk Overdrive" a lot, because I think the masses are finally ready for a purely electronic metal experience. It would be one thing to write a bunch of video game music, but MBR actually crafted something with body and depth that provides a little but of a journey. (Even if, in parts, it still reminds me of a rich man's version of Final Fantasy V's "Clash on the Big Bridge," which is one of the best video game music pieces ever written.)
Despite everything I said above, there's always a decent power metal album that pokes through, and I'm enjoying the new Dynazty album somewhat. I actually kinda like the new Black Dahlia Murder record, which is a first for me, and I'm a fan of the new Alestorm album, who I've never been against, but never called myself a fan, either. They, for lack of a better term, calmed down a little on this one. (And if you can't enjoy "Shit Boat," what are you even doing?)
More than anything else, I've appreciated the number of artists who have gone for it and stretched themselves with either new sounds or personal projects, even if I didn't like the execution so much. Good for Nergal to give it another go with "Me and That Man," which branches him out from Behemoth. Good for Kool Keith and Thetan to step outside their comfort zones and get together. Also, points to BPMD - just good to see those dudes working, and to This Will Destroy You, who released a soundtrack for a restaurant. Udo Dirkschneider, that loveable shrimp, put out an album with the German military's official concert orchestra, or something. It wasn't that great, but it new and different and fun!
We need more of that. Especially while we're all home with nothing to do. We need more artists just going for it with weird dalliances and fun side projects. It breaks up the monotony, even if it doesn't always work.
We got six months to go - what are you looking forward to?
CHRIS C: There's the old saying about crisis revealing character. We're getting a very good illustration of that right now. From the top on down, there are so many people who have concern only for themselves. I knew there were narcissists out there, but I don't think I realized how many, or quite how ugly a mentality it can turn into. Look, I am the furthest thing from an empath, but even I have no trouble feeling a responsibility not to be a dick to people who are in places harder hit than where I am. 'Don't be a dick' is always a good rule, but especially now.
I've never listened to a Joe Rogan podcast, so I'm assuming he's popular because he was one of the first 'celebrities' to have a podcast. Once Hollywood realized he wasn't talented ("Newsradio" is perhaps my favorite sitcom ever, and Joe Rogan sucks on it. His character isn't funny, and he constantly breaks on camera. Fun fact; that part was supposed to be played by Ray Romano. How different history would be....), he started talking to himself, and he was one of the few to listen to. But now he's more popular by being the only long-time face of organized bloodletting still legal. (Another aside; knowing what we know about CTE, how is boxing still legal? A sport where the idea is to cause your opponent so much brain damage they're rendered unconscious would be unfathomable if it wasn't already a tradition.)
I hesitate to answer such questions, but my belief is that we're likely to see rap and hip-hop continue to dominate for many, many more years. I reserve the right to change my mind if some new genre pops up to replace it, but rock isn't going to do that. Rock fans don't really listen to the radio much, and we still tilt further toward buying in the buy/stream equation that support won't show through in the charts, which is the main way history measures success and influence. Even if mainstream rock wasn't filled with lousy, generic bands, where the fans are means it isn't going to be climbing the charts again anytime soon. Even the 'big names' in rock can't really chart on the Hot 100 anymore. Now, I don't for a second believe the charts are able to properly pull data from all segments of the audience, but that's the world we live in. It's similar to how I don't believe the Nielsen ratings that say only 2% of the country is watching 'hit' programs on tv. I believe the measurements as relative barometers, but not absolute ones.
Maybe we didn't realize it at the time, but one of the truly defining cultural moments of our time was the debut of "The Colbert Report". In that first episode, when he defined 'truthiness' as what he feels is true rather than what is actually true, it set the stage for everything that has happened since. Even the Confederacy apologists who scream about slavery not being the cause of The Civil War don't go so far as to say the practice didn't exist. But today, there is no limit to how far the truth can be stretched. Somehow, and not just on this issue, shame has been eliminated from public life. No one seems to feel any remorse about anything untoward they do or say. I can't explain why that is, but it's one of the questions of our lives.
Power metal seems that way because it is. Or I should say that a large amount of what one certain record label sends us is. There is a roster of people who are employed to crank out records for different singers to put their names and voices on. Songwriting is hard, and when they find someone who can crank out good material, they get put on the conveyor belt, since it's easier than finding five more bands that can create the same quality. Let's take that Allen/Olzon album as an example. Magnus Karlsson wrote it, and he's written a lot of great stuff, but he's played out. He also has a solo album that will be out by the time this is posted, and he will have songs on Primal Fear's upcoming album. That's three albums this year, and that's not even all the projects he works on. It all comes down to the fact that this kind of metal doesn't make nearly enough money for artists, so they need to constantly have irons in the fire to keep up a steady stream of income. If you have three bands, you can have a record every year, or rotate when touring to keep things fresh. It gets excessive, no doubt.
Weird side-projects can be fun, but we don't want artists to think every idea they have is worthwhile. For instance, Richie Kotzen got it in his head to celebrate his fiftieth birthday by putting out an album of FIFTY songs. Let's put aside that most of them were songs he never thought were good enough to put on any of his dozens of albums, but there were bloody FIFTY of them. How does anyone expect listeners to sit through three hours of their music? It was overload, and really annoyed me. I would have been happy to listen to and review a new album, but there was no chance in hell I was investing that much time in any record. I'm already tired by records that are an hour long.
The next six months? One of the things about the world we're currently in is that it's hard to know what to expect. The one thing I know for sure (at least right now) is that Creeper's new album is due to come out in July. It's been delayed once, but they're running out of singles to push it back again. That could be anything from a masterpiece to a bizarre patchwork, but it's going to be interesting. I can't wait to hear that one. Other than that, I'm not even sure what's due to come out. I'm thinking it's going to be another bleak summer, and hopefully a mad rush at the end of the year to save things.
Do you know of anything exciting?
D.M: See, I happen to think it's the inverse. I agree that there's very little shame, but I think it's a product of their being no accountability. If nobody is capable of calling anybody to the carpet to explain themselves or be redressed, then what's to stop people from dropping the pretense of social decorum? Hell, we can't even hold a baseball team properly to account when they admit they cheated to win a World Series. And that, in the grand scheme, doesn't ultimately matter, but it's a reflection of the lack of a will toward accountability. Never mind the myriad examples of occasions with actual consequence where punishment hardly matched the severity of the offense.
No easy transition off that, but here goes - But Chris, I love weird side projects! Sure, a lot of them fall horribly flat, but without oddball side projects, we'd never have gotten Them Crooked Vultures, or Bobby Blitz with The Cursed, or Mr. Bungle, or just about everything Buzz Osborne's ever done, and where would we be without Wes Borland's Big Dumb Face? (Okay, maybe that's a bad example.) I mean sure, Night Flight Orchestra swings and misses sometimes, but it's still cool that they're giving it a shot. I still pine for the fulfillment of one of the internet's great rumors of several years ago - that Max Cavalera and Eugene Hutz wanted to do an album together. See, this is where I'm a defender of "Lulu." Sure, it was doggedly awful. Pure crap. But! It was a passion project for those involved (at least for Metallica, I can't speak for Lou Reed,) and why not? They're well within their right to try. That doesn't mean we all had to hear their bizarre jam session, but you're already there, and the recording equipment is set up, so give it a spin. Besides, this was clearly something Metallica needed to get out of their system. If one album that's easy to ignore results in them staying on track in their main line, and not going down the "Load/Re-Load/St. Anger" road again, then do it! I can't think of anybody who's career was destroyed by a bad side project. Briefly ridiculed, sure (The Damned Things comes to mind,) but not destroyed.
What am I looking forward to? In some cases, the obvious. A conclusion to the NBA season. Baseball (speaking of a player's union with no shame and a league with no accountability.) Over and above that, the Mets, because I've come to realize that I don't just miss the Mets, I miss complaining about the Mets. The NHL playoffs, which even at a mind-numbingly bizarre twenty-two teams might still be the best playoffs going.
While I admit I am somewhat in the same boat as you in that in all the confusion I've lost track of what's being released when, but there are albums coming from Torrefy and Tetrarch that I'm interested in. I'm sure more than that will darken my doorway, and I look forward to all of it.
Dovetailing to an earlier point, as much as I've maintained a sense of zen about the cancellation of the summer tour season, I am greatly looking forward to whatever my next concert may be. I do miss the scenes. And the venues, and the bands and the sound. Not to mention my fellow weirdos. I get the impression that there will be an unusual amount of smiling whenever we all see each other again.
That's it for me. You said it correctly at the top of your last missive - don't be a dick. That goes for everyone.
CHRIS C: Accountability. Yup, it is sorely lacking. A baseball team admits cheating, and now that the pandemic threatens the season, the perpetrators could serve zero games suspended. A president gets impeached, and continues to this day to say everything he did was 'perfect'. Hell, ESPN just gave Lance Armstrong four hours of primetime television to try to explain himself. What lesson does it tell people that you can be a cheater, try to ruin the lives of the people who knew what you were doing, and still be a famous celebrity who gets network time that could be going to people who actually deserve it? If it was four hours of people raking Lance over the coals, fine. But to give a lying, cheating bastard a platform is ridiculous and inexcusable. That goes for the news as well. We are only 'music journalists', but even those limited credentials would have me embarrassed and ashamed to publish things I know aren't true without making it damn clear they aren't.
I'm not against weird projects, but I do think all artists should ask themselves; "Is this a good idea?" Like you mentioned, "Lulu" is one of the worst albums I've ever heard, but the basic idea of collaborating with a legendary musician you respect is just fine. There's a difference between a project that doesn't work and one that could never work. "Lulu" didn't work, Kotzens's fifty song-er couldn't work. Likewise, I don't think almost any of the rock bands jumping on the electronic pop bandwagon have done it well, but I know it can be done, so I'm not mad at them for trying. Ok, sometimes I am, but that's me being selfish.
That being said, it wouldn't be the worst idea to have a bit more quality control oversight.
I was thinking musically, but I am intensely curious to see what The Masters will be like in November. I at least have that to look forward to, and hopefully conditions will allow me to see at least one person I'm supposed to have by now. Steps must be taken!
Unless you have something to add, I think we might have reached the end of this conversation. I have no idea what the rest of 2020 is going to give us, but I'm sure it's going to be an adventure. We'll be here to catalogue it, and we'll regroup in December to make sense of it all.
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