Posts by Mits:
Mits’ Pick of the Week 5/14/07
May 14th, 2007By far, one of the most fucked up songs I’ve ever heard in my life. Aphex Twin makes liberal use of overdriven vocals. The vocals are backed by a drum n’ bass beat that is all over the place and a fuzzy melody. All I can discern from the lyrics is screaming about the need for souls…as for the video itself, it’s got that whole possessed-children thing down pat.
Enjoy.
Mits’ Pick of the Week 4/29/07
April 29th, 2007I’m not going to lie: I hate ska. I swear, every song sounds the same. Three chords! Upbeat! Hep hep hep! As soon as I hear that twangy guitar and high-tuned snare drum start to crack, I either turn off the radio or grab the closest heavy, blunt object and proceed to bash my head.
Anyways, despite my distaste for the genre as a whole, I came across a rather catchy ska song a few years ago. The band is Fishbone and the song is “Party at Ground Zero.” This song, to quote Marvin Berry from Back to the Future, “really cooks.” It kicks off with double-time shuffle ska groove. The musicianship of the band members really shows, as the trumpet player and guitarist play some ripping solos. Vocally, the song is powerful, as the is a commentary on the Cold War.
The video is worth checking out for the band’s costumes/face paint alone. It also makes an interesting use of newspaper headlines and pictures of political leaders, making them do goofy things reminiscent of Mony Python animation.
Fishbone – Party at Ground Zero
Mits’ Pick of the Week 4/22/07
April 22nd, 2007If you ask someone if they’ve ever heard of Thin Lizzy, chances are they’ll respond with something along the lines of “that’s the band that did ‘The Boys Are Back in Town,’ right?” Yes, that’s their biggest radio hit. But most people don’t know that Thin Lizzy has an extensive discography and a musical career which spans about 30 years. Read the rest of this entry »
Beer Time: Rochefort Trappistes 8
April 1st, 2007That which is different tends to interest me. This beer, Rochefort Trappistes 8 is a beer brewed by monks in an abbey in Belgium. Only six or so of these abbeys have the right to apply the term “trappistes” to their beers, so this is some pretty esoteric stuff.
Maybe it’s just because I’m not a beer snob, but I didn’t find this beer particularly enjoyable. This is disappointing, not only because it received such rave reviews on ratebeer.com, but also because of the bottle’s price tag (elaborated below). Read the rest of this entry »
Mits’ Pick of the Week 3/25/07
March 25th, 2007I first became familiar with Gogol Bordello in February, as Steve and I were driving from Pittsburgh to Penn State. He had a few songs of theirs on his iPod mix, and they began to catch my fancy. Gogol Bordello plays a high-energy mix of punk rock and Roma (that is, gypsy) folk.
This week I chose one of their slower songs, “Start Wearing Purple.” To me at least, the lyrics make no sense. In the third verse, the lead singer even lapses into another language (which language exactly, I’m not sure; it sounds Slavic). Despite the slower tempo, the song has a powerful groove augmented by a simplistic yet effective bass line, and an interesting instrumentation. Accordions and fiddles can be heard throughout the song.
Gogol Bordello – Start Wearing Purple
Weltraumen Kriegen!
March 18th, 2007Not too long ago, in a forum not too far away, I made a thread in which members of the Space Pirate community posted some of their favorite Star Wars quotes, and I attempted to translate them into German. Here is the result of that thread. First is the original quote, followed by it’s German translation, then in parentheses are literal translations from German.
That’s no moon…it’s a space station!
Das ist kein Mond…es ist eine Weltraumstation! (That is no moon…it is a space station!)
Hold ‘em off. Angle the deflector shield while I make the calculations for the jump to light speed.
Verteudig gegen ihrem! Angel das Abfälschenschild, obwohl ich kalkuliere für die Lichtgeschwindigkeit gehen! (Defend against them! Angle the deflector shield while I calculate for the lightspeed going!)
It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. Read the rest of this entry »
Mits’ Pick of the Week 3/3/07
March 3rd, 2007To me, some of the best examples of good musicians are those who are versatile. King Crimson has gone through three so-called styles, starting with a dark progressive rock from the late 60’s to mid-70’s, then moving on to a progressive new wave style in the 80’s, and then dabbling in experimental rock/ progressive metal in the 90’s.
While each King Crimson lineup is composed of stellar musicians, one of their more impressive members is Adrian Belew, who had formerly worked with Frank Zappa and David Bowie. He first worked with King Crimson in 1981 on the album Discipline, in which Belew’s powerful vocals and guitar wizardry stood out on the album.
This week, I chose a live version of the first track from Discipline, “Elephant Talk.” Belew’s amazing vocals and guitar work is complemented by a powerful rhythm section featuring drum-maestro Bill Bruford and Tony Levin, a progenitor of the bass-like instrument called “the stick.”
This is one of the tightest live performances I have ever seen. Enjoy this. I certainly do.
Mits’ Pick of the Week 2/23/07
February 23rd, 2007How do you say “good day” in Swedish? “Goddag.”
How do you say “a great band” in Swedish? “Dungen.”
I was introduced to Dungen about two years ago when a friend told me about their show that he had seen at his college. Read the rest of this entry »
Retro Game Review: Samurai Shodown IV
February 13th, 2007Most game reviews scope out newly released games, but today I’m taking a look at a blast from the past.
That blast of which I speak is Samurai Shodown (sic) IV: Amakusa’s Revenge, released in 1996 for arcade and Neo Geo.
I have been playing Samurai Shodown games since the early 90’s. I owned the original game for Sega Genesis, but sold it (in retrospect, I wish I had kept it). While browsing Demonoid one day, I came across a torrent for a Windows version of Samurai Shodown 4, and quickly nabbed it. Read the rest of this entry »
Mits’ Pick of the Week 2/6/07
February 6th, 2007Aightchyall, listen up. For dis week’s Pick of da Week, I picked a phat jawn from across the pond.
Of course, by “pond” I mean the Atlantic Ocean and by “phat jawn” I mean an interesting pop-cultural anomaly.
Hip hop is an American verbal art form, plain and simple. Tibet has throat singing, Pakistan has sufi musiqi, and we have that salvo of syllables called hip hop. Rooted in east- and west-coast scenes in the 1980’s, hip hop is now popular all over the world. Read the rest of this entry »
Album Review: DJ Spooky vs. Dave Lombardo - Drums of Death
January 29th, 2007Several months ago, I learned of this album’s existence during one of my many trips to Wikipedia.org. I was astonished to find that Dave Lombardo, one of the finest drummers to ever grace the double bass, had worked on a hip-hop album. Read the rest of this entry »
Mits’ Pick of the Week: 11/5/06
November 5th, 2006Dan and I have decided to revive the pick of the week. Picks will now be posted via YouTube, so that you can enjoy music not only audibly, but visually as well! Ain’t that swell?
My first choice is a goofy, yet awesome one. The band is a early 70’s hard rock group from The Netherlands called Focus. The song is their only hit, “Hocus Pocus.” This song shows the diverse musical capabilities of the band’s leader singer, who pulls triple duty on the instruments (as you’ll see). The guitarist has some really good leads, and the drummer seems to walk the line between rock drumming and jazz drumming. Enjoy this.
An Ethnomusicological Look at American Heavy Metal
June 4th, 2006The term “heavy metal� conjures of a number of images in the modern American mind: blazing guitar solos, high-pitched vocals, long hair, and obnoxious behavior. These components are neither the beginning nor the end of the heavy metal phenomenon. While not an American musical form originally, it was brought into the mainstream by American bands, and contains a loyal Stateside fanbase.
Although its origins are debatable, it is safe to say that heavy metal developed out of the psychedelic rock phase of the 1960’s. From this initial point, hard rock bands formed in what is now called the classic rock period of the 1970’s. The most important bands to influence the heavy metal movement are Led Zeppelin (who brought a powerful instrumentation), Black Sabbath (who brought dark lyrical themes and sustaining guitars), Blue Oyster Cult (who brought innovative soloing and the proverbial “heavy� guitar riffs), Van Halen (who brought guitar wizardry) and Deep Purple (who brought the speed element). These bands would in turn influence the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, which included bands such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. American bands took this subgenre’s style to the next step, creating songs with aggressive riffs, vocals, and drumming. This first movement in American heavy metal was centered in San Francisco’s Bay Area, and would come to be known as thrash.
If there is any type of heavy metal that American is known for, it is thrash. The “Big Four� of American thrash consists of Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer. Metallica achieved the most mainstream popularity, partially due to their qualms with Napster in the late 1990’s. Thrash metal sounds exactly what its name implies: getting beaten up. Fast tempos characterize most thrash songs, though most thrash bands have slower songs (for example, “Fade to Black� by Metallica). Lyrical themes are greatly varied, depending on the band. Metallica and Megadeth have lots of songs written about war and societal issues, whereas Slayer tended to write songs about death and other grotesque things (Slayer is a big influence on death metal, to be discussed later). To complement the aggressive vocal style and themes, linear rhythms, usually in 4/4 time, are commonly used in thrash. As for melody, it all depends on the band. Slayer features dissonant melodies to complement their dark lyrics; however, this does not go for all thrash. Megadeth’s “Skin O’ My Teeth� features a consonant main riff, complemented by pentatonic soloing. Monophony, despite melodic ranges or scales, is a common aspect of thrash. Two guitarists playing the same riff bolsters the song’s aggressive nature. These guitar riffs are usually palm-muted, and played with down-strokes of the picking hand, created a staccato sound.
By the early 1990’s, however, thrash had lost its popularity, largely due to Seattle’s grunge rock scene. The next big scene in American heavy metal would be found in Florida: the death metal scene. Here, bands like Obituary and Death took a node from Slayer and wrote songs with titles like “Body Bag� and “Chopped in Half.� The aggressive singing style of thrash had now become a guttural roar. The majority of the Florida death metal’s melody found itself in the bass register, for it emphasized the bleak and evil nature of the lyrical themes. Death metal also popularized the use of double bass drumming. A simple double bass pattern would find the drummer playing sixteenth notes alternating each foot, while playing eighth notes on the hi-hat or ride cymbal, and then hitting the snare drum on the second and fourth quarter note of each measure. Death metal never attained the level of mainstream popularity that thrash had achieved, but this is probably due to societal standards of decency, which would prevent any such music from becoming popular in the mainstream. Nontheless, death metal found an underground following, which it still holds today.
Metalcore is “the next big thing� in American heavy metal. Combining the technicality of thrash, the riff styles of European-influenced melodic death metal (“melodeath�), and the singing style of hardcore punk, metalcore bands can be found on MTV as well as on major radio airplay. Homophony is a major characteristic of metalcore. Quite frequently, a rhythm guitarist will play the chord progression, while a lead guitarist will play a riff that is likely to be remembered by the listener. This adds to the catchy nature of metalcore, which in turn makes it more radio-friendly. Bands will frequently switch between screaming and “clean-singing� styles. Usually the verse will be sung in a normal voice, while the chorus/breakdown will feature a hardcore punk-style scream. This is a consistent feature amongst many metalcore bands, which is why many metal buffs don’t consider it to be true metal.
Heavy metal has lived in American society largely as a counterculture. While bubbly teenagers bounced to synth-pop hits of the 1980’s, angry “metalheads� sweated and moshed along to the sounds of thrash in the early 1980’s. Heavy metal did achieve mainstream popularity in the 1980’s, however, in the form of hair metal. Like metalcore, heavy metal cynics state that hair metal is not a true form of heavy metal. Like David Bowie did in the decade beforehand, hair metal featured cross-gender performances, in which band members often wore women’s clothing and had perfectly styled hair. Like most pop fads, however, this died out rather quickly.
Heavy metal, because of some of its subgenres, however, has held negative connotations in the minds of many people. People see heavy metal bands as devil worshippers, evil enthusiasts, and anti-societal outcasts. It is absolutely ridiculous to apply this sentiment to the entire metal community. The “evil� nature of heavy metal is mostly found in black metal. This is an offshoot of thrash, somewhat similar in style to death metal. However, instead of writing about death, black metal bands are usually openly anti-Christian and denounce Christianity in their lyrics. Some bands go so far as to take physical action, such as the attempted bombing churches by members of the Norwegian band Mayhem. Due to widespread news coverage, people tend to associate black metal behavior with that of all heavy metal. This is an unfortunate circumstance, as there are all different kinds of metal bands, even Christian metal bands (such as Living Sacrifice and Tourniquet).
In modern times, heavy metal is somewhat more accepted than it had been. This is largely due to heavy metal’s influence on a number of genres that are currently popular. Emo finds influences in heavy metal guitar work, particularly the palm-muted staccato riffs of thrash. A number of emo bands also use double bass, which was popularized by heavy metal bands. Heavy metal also is used for propagandistic matters as well. United States Army and Navy commercials used to feature the song “Keep Away� by Godsmack, a “nu-metal� band which was briefly popular in the late 1990’s. The heavy guitar work augments the images of soldiers running through fields or large ships firing large guns.
Heavy metal will continue to maintain its popularity, either underground or mainstream. It is undeniable that American and European metal scenes have symbiotic relationships. Metalcore wouldn’t have become popularized were it not for Swedish melodeath bands. Likewise, the thrash scene in Germany would not have come about were it not for Bay Area thrash bands like Metallica. Given certain factors, such as the fact that most melodeath and mainstream power metal bands in Europe sing in English, prove that heavy metal’s epicenter is centered in America and Great Britain. As mentioned before, heavy metal did not originate in America, but it was raised to an art form and perfected here.
There’s nothing else in all the world
That will bring it down
We will play our wildest step to all around
We need it as a liquid in our veins instead of blood
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Heavy Metal is the law that keeps us all united free
A law that shatters earth and hell
Heavy Metal can’t be beaten by any dynasty
We’re all wizards fightin’ with our spell
-Helloween, “Heavy Metal (Is the Law)�
