For some reason, I FUCKING LOVE LISTS. Weather it's a list of greatest albums of all time from whatever genre in a magazine or a list of hottest whoever-the-fucks on VH1 or E!, I just can't help but watch or read the damn things, and why? Cause I want to see who's number one!
Out of the (what seems like) 137 members and affiliates of the Wu-Tang Clan, you would think that it would be hard to stand out from the Clan crowd and easy to be overshadowed by members that have more hype like the very popular movie and rap star Method Man, and sometimes it is (see the Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck), but if there's one member of the Clan that shines based on skill alone - with no help from movie and television popularity - it's the GZA aka the Genius, my favorite lyrical swordsman in the Clan and somenoe who I believes earns his name.
Was I planning on writing one of my overly-long album reviews today that no one really reads to begin with? Yes, yes I was. The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band to be exact. But shit, why put forth the effort to write a deep, thought provoking analysis of an all-time classic album (that's the intent, at least) when instead I can lament as to why I'm still single in my twenties? That takes almost no effort! Therefore, let me proceed in my self indulgence.
Tool is the one band I have the
most respect for over any other band, even more than my favorites like Judas
Priest and Opeth. Why? Because the band, against all odds, broke into the
mainstream playing 7 minute progressive metal songs which were mostly unedited
on the radio and they became hits - big hits.
Throughout the years they have refused to water down or pop up their signature
style, and despite that, their songs continue to top the rock charts and their
album sell into the millions. They pack arenas to this day (when they came to my
city in 2007 they sold out our arena two nights in a row) and only need to put
out an album every 5 years thanks to the phone book sized royalty statements
they receive on a monthly basis thanks to the fact that their music is
gratuitously played on rock and alternative radio all over the world. So how
can a band that plays music that sounds like this play bigger venues and make
more money than all those cookie-cutter radio rock bands like Hinder and
Shinedown who have a much more accessible and appealing sound? The world may
never know.
Honestly, guys, I only go to about one fucking show a year. And why is that? Why would an avid music listener like myself voluntarily avoid going to see the musicians he loves live and in person? The honest truth, other than the fact that the tours I want to see rarely ever come to my city, is that I don't really enjoy going to shows to begin with.
[Taking a break from music today, I'd like to discuss an unbelievably moving video clip I saw earlier today that I deem very important and believe should be talked about. It is called "To This Day" by Shane Koyczan.]
This masterpiece has to be the most moving and unapologetically evocative and provocative piece of video I have ever seen in my life. Remember Amanda Todd's pre-suciceide youtube clip from last year that caused a waves-worth of tears from everyone who was ensnared by its content? I didn't shed a tear watching that. In fact, I was more into the awesome song playing in the background than anything Todd was telling us about with her note cards, and let me assure you, I could relate to almost everything she went through before her death (I still don't know the title and the artist, by the way.) This, on the other hand, made me break down in tears like a kid who just lost his favorite blanket, or a man who just lost his pet cat that he's had for all his life to a terminal blood disease (that scenario was actually the last time I cried, almost three years ago.) The sheer level of quality inherent in Koyczan's writing in this video is masterful and makes everything I have written on this blog so far look like Rebecca Black's "Friday" in comparison to Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". I'll be honest, It temporarily made me want to quit writing right after I saw it, and even after the tears eventually subsided enough for me to start thinking again, I was still apprehensive about writing a blog today. But, hey, there's always going to be someone better than you when it comes to anything you can do, like it or not. So, I persevere.
Pitch, time, meter, division and subdivision, intervals, scales, functions, logical relationships, rules, formulas, etc...All those words, believe it or not, describe the technical workings of something that most all of us love: MUSIC. And all these terms are just now being hoisted upon me in an attempt for me to understand the science behind how music really works in a basic music theory class I'm taking, and almost regretting.
