The Butterfly Effect
I just picked up the second album by Aussie band The Butterfly Effect, called Imago... and I'm delighted to report it rocks.
The last five years or so I've barely listened to the radio, partly because they seem to think some pissant idiots yapping at each other about how pissed they got last night is more interesting than playing music, and partly because the actual music when they do get to it has been steadily getting crappier and crappier. But I've been complaining about this ever since one of my favorite songs 'Love Raises its Ugly Head', by my then-favorite band Living Colour, was remastered in dance-format, and released. They ripped its guts out, took out Vernon Reid's awesome guitar licks, replaced Will Calhoun's equally awesome drumming with a drum machine drone, and it hit the top of the charts. That was when it hit me that the popular music scene is actually talent averse, and will kill all musical talent if allowed to. Talent exists, and can succeed, but it has to fight for every inch. Bullshit, on the other hand, gets a free pass.
The '90s were rock heaven for me -- Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam's good phase, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, etc. How amazing, I thought naively, to be experiencing an era where the popular and the talented were actually the same thing. But the record labels crushed it, as they always do, and lately I've had only Tool, and Maynard Keenan's other band A Perfect Circle for consolation. The only good point was that I started listening to more classical and world music, rediscovered Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, etc (music exists for me to evoke emotion and beauty, I don't care if it's violins, sitars or amped stratocasters that do it).
But lately, rock started making a comeback. Wolfmother's good, though a little too predictable to be bothered buying. The White Stripes, Audioslave... close, but no cigar. I listen to those songs a few times, get bored and don't desperately need to hear them again. And then I hear The Butterfly Effect's new single 'Gone' and finally, that's what I've been waiting six years to hear. New rock that's complex, melodic, powerful, takes several listens to completely absorb, and sticks in your head, demanding another listen to recapture that riff, that rhythm, that thing you loved the first few times you heard but couldn't quite remember in entirety. And they're Australian! That's rare, most of my favorite bands are American.
If my taste sounds anything like your's, check it out. If you love Eminem, Shakira or 50 Cent, you'll probably hate it. But that's cool, there's enough love and hate in the world to go around...
Oh... and at the mention of Tool, if Vicarious, off the album 10,000 Days, isn't the most kick-ass rock song of the last decade... well, I'll argue!
The last five years or so I've barely listened to the radio, partly because they seem to think some pissant idiots yapping at each other about how pissed they got last night is more interesting than playing music, and partly because the actual music when they do get to it has been steadily getting crappier and crappier. But I've been complaining about this ever since one of my favorite songs 'Love Raises its Ugly Head', by my then-favorite band Living Colour, was remastered in dance-format, and released. They ripped its guts out, took out Vernon Reid's awesome guitar licks, replaced Will Calhoun's equally awesome drumming with a drum machine drone, and it hit the top of the charts. That was when it hit me that the popular music scene is actually talent averse, and will kill all musical talent if allowed to. Talent exists, and can succeed, but it has to fight for every inch. Bullshit, on the other hand, gets a free pass.
The '90s were rock heaven for me -- Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam's good phase, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, etc. How amazing, I thought naively, to be experiencing an era where the popular and the talented were actually the same thing. But the record labels crushed it, as they always do, and lately I've had only Tool, and Maynard Keenan's other band A Perfect Circle for consolation. The only good point was that I started listening to more classical and world music, rediscovered Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, etc (music exists for me to evoke emotion and beauty, I don't care if it's violins, sitars or amped stratocasters that do it).
But lately, rock started making a comeback. Wolfmother's good, though a little too predictable to be bothered buying. The White Stripes, Audioslave... close, but no cigar. I listen to those songs a few times, get bored and don't desperately need to hear them again. And then I hear The Butterfly Effect's new single 'Gone' and finally, that's what I've been waiting six years to hear. New rock that's complex, melodic, powerful, takes several listens to completely absorb, and sticks in your head, demanding another listen to recapture that riff, that rhythm, that thing you loved the first few times you heard but couldn't quite remember in entirety. And they're Australian! That's rare, most of my favorite bands are American.
If my taste sounds anything like your's, check it out. If you love Eminem, Shakira or 50 Cent, you'll probably hate it. But that's cool, there's enough love and hate in the world to go around...
Oh... and at the mention of Tool, if Vicarious, off the album 10,000 Days, isn't the most kick-ass rock song of the last decade... well, I'll argue!
3 Comments:
Speaking of classical, I recently rediscovered an Elgar piece called 'Nimrod (Adagio)' from the Enigma Variations. You can hear the BBC Orchestra do a wonderful job of it on iTunes for 99 cents btw.
The piece had fallen completely out of my mind since high school, when I was joined-at-the-hip to classical through violin and being the concertmaster of an orchestra... I woke up to it the other morning and was amazed at the power of emotion -- of creation and of scene -- that it brings. I grabbed it off iTunes and have been listening to it about once a day as I start writing my new novel. I'm in love with Elgar all over again.
Some people just do things so well in their compositions or in their music, and some of it is just pure dross. I haven't listened to radio in a long time, but if it's getting better, I'm glad to hear it.
The funny thing is that lots of people today who say they don't have much interest in classical probably know more than they think. There's classical all the time on TV commericals, and listening to Rachmaninoff, I constantly hear things reminiscant of John Williams movie scores -- Star Wars, Indiana Jones, whatever, all the Hollywood composers were hugely influenced by the big classical composers.
I think it's another of those things people would like more if they heard it, but it's difficult to package in today's modern media environment... the guys who wrote it are all dead (all the good stuff, anyway) and it doesn't come in easy packaging four minute bursts. And precisely because it's been taken over by TV commerical jingles and the like, and there's so many bad versions. I used to think Vivaldi's Four Seasons was a lightweight, powder puff peice of music usually heard in elevators or selling bathroom detergent, until I heard Israeli violinist Gil Shaham's version -- he plays violin like Jimmy Hendrix played guitar, less precision but more passion, and suddenly it rocked.
Good points, good points! I really enjoy it when classical musicians break the dainty and delicate rule. I remember the first time I heard an "electric" violinist play Jimi Hendrix actually. It was pretty damn cool.
I grew up with classical music flooding my life. The only piece I can't stand is Eine Kleine Nachtmusik because I was asked to play that so many times by cocktail parties and wedding receptions and it is just so vapid. Never subject a poor quartet to that piece, I beg you!
Vivaldi has always been one of my favorites. He was bent and brilliant! Playing Summer on one's violin is the best form of anger management ever made. Trust me. This morning, I woke up to a mandolin concerto he wrote which I'd never heard before -- was great stuff -- classic Vivaldi all around.
Another beautiful piece is a love song written by Brahms for Clara Schumman, wife of composer Robert Schumman. She was an outstanding pianist and Brahms was a family friend with a big case of unrequited love. That spills out all over his Intermezzo Op. 117 No. 3. Though it is a slow piece, there is nothing dainty or discreet about it. Rubinstein does an admirable but rather studious job of the work but I'd love to find someone with a more passionate interpretation one day.
Ahhh stop me! I could go on and on!
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