Just Like I Left It, Or Not
Blogger
Has changed. It made me click some evil box to "upgrade" and now buttons look different and the icon in the top left corner of this page won't take me to the Blogger homepage and I grew a third arm. Never click on a suspicious button, even if the button in question won't let you pass across a bridge. Walk away with your dignity and lack of deformities.
Some Kind Of Monster
So whilst away on holiday these last few days C4 screened Some Kind Of Monster, a two-hour-plus award-winning documentary looking at the making of the worst album of all-time, St. Anger, from it's birth to it's death (aka release). Metallica are an... interesting band, and watching this (fairly engrossing) film I often found myself wondering a few things like (1) how they could have still been together at that point, given their extensive internal squabbling, (2) how they could still currently be together five years after those particularly squabbly early scenes were shot, and finally (3) how the hell this band, given how dumb they appeared to be (or just dazed/stoned in Kirk Hammet's case) and how incompetent they came across as in writing such inane lyrics and marvelling at such repetitive riffs, could have completed an album like Master Of Puppets or written a song like Nothing Else Matters or more recently No Leaf Clover (their final "great" song, from 1999's S&M live/orchestral album). Even when their lyrics in the 80s were basic, immature and forced in an effort to appeal to millions of suicidal goth-reject headbangers the songs hung together as a whole on concept albums with strong overall political messages or timely rants against injustices in the world (even the depressing suicidal shit in Fade To Black - track 4 on Ride The Lightning - and Trapped Under Ice (track 5) were followed by Escape, track 6, which revealed the "protagonist" climbing out of that rut, so they didn't wallow too much in self pity). And all the while those early albums, while initially seeming repetitive on first listen, revealed themselves to the persistent listener to be carefully structured in quite a subtle way (subtle? Metallica?) to bring out the strengths of each musician in the band, building toward some sublime Hammet solos or Lars Ulrich drum magic or even a flutter of bass heaven. Or something. Ahem. St. Anger was an obvious attempt to return to the band's thrash metal roots, much like U2's self-conscious return to the sound from their 80s heyday (albeit updated) on their last couple of albums after some 90s failures, but Some Kind Of Monster revealed a deluded band barely stringing music together with no conceptual/thematic focus and, apparently, no understanding of what ever made their music *good*. Even in the 90s, when they "sold out" and switched to radio-friendly hard rock, The Black Album kicked all kinds of ass and the more vocally-variable Load and Reload would have been good if they'd done one album of the best ten or so songs from those sessions instead of two albums filled to the brim with every damn track they'd written over the previous 5-6 years (surrounded by shitty filler or not, songs like Hero Of The Day, Until It Sleeps and Low Man's Lyric were all strong, even lyrically for once, often focussing on deeper personal themes). Why oh why did St. Anger happen? R.I.P. Metallica. Good documentary though.
iTunes NZ Store Is Here
Now I just need a credit card and I can consider uninstalling uTorrent. Can I be bothered getting one for the priveledge of getting music for a cost instead of for free? Stay tuned folks, it's a cliff-hanger.
Obligatory Mention Of Chinese Democracy: An "Impression" Update
Been listening to the demos / live tracks on and off for a while now and I have to say that There Was A Time is fucking awesome. Catcher In The Rye and The Blues are really good too, but it's a shame I haven't heard any new trademark GNR hard-rockers up there with them; instead, these are Axl Rose at his wussy best. Madagascar is "interesting" but aside from the cool voice-clip/solo section in the middle isn't anything special, the title track Chinese Democracy's still "decent" and "solid" while I.R.S. and Better are mixed bags of both good parts and mediocre parts (the I.R.S. solo rocks though). I repeat what I said before: if this turns out to be the best of the bunch, this will be pathetic after ten years of work. But if we get ten There Was A Time calibre tracks, I'll be in heaven.
Cheers Dennis
Tagboard working. Was too lazy to investigate the problem myself :p
Has changed. It made me click some evil box to "upgrade" and now buttons look different and the icon in the top left corner of this page won't take me to the Blogger homepage and I grew a third arm. Never click on a suspicious button, even if the button in question won't let you pass across a bridge. Walk away with your dignity and lack of deformities.
Some Kind Of Monster
So whilst away on holiday these last few days C4 screened Some Kind Of Monster, a two-hour-plus award-winning documentary looking at the making of the worst album of all-time, St. Anger, from it's birth to it's death (aka release). Metallica are an... interesting band, and watching this (fairly engrossing) film I often found myself wondering a few things like (1) how they could have still been together at that point, given their extensive internal squabbling, (2) how they could still currently be together five years after those particularly squabbly early scenes were shot, and finally (3) how the hell this band, given how dumb they appeared to be (or just dazed/stoned in Kirk Hammet's case) and how incompetent they came across as in writing such inane lyrics and marvelling at such repetitive riffs, could have completed an album like Master Of Puppets or written a song like Nothing Else Matters or more recently No Leaf Clover (their final "great" song, from 1999's S&M live/orchestral album). Even when their lyrics in the 80s were basic, immature and forced in an effort to appeal to millions of suicidal goth-reject headbangers the songs hung together as a whole on concept albums with strong overall political messages or timely rants against injustices in the world (even the depressing suicidal shit in Fade To Black - track 4 on Ride The Lightning - and Trapped Under Ice (track 5) were followed by Escape, track 6, which revealed the "protagonist" climbing out of that rut, so they didn't wallow too much in self pity). And all the while those early albums, while initially seeming repetitive on first listen, revealed themselves to the persistent listener to be carefully structured in quite a subtle way (subtle? Metallica?) to bring out the strengths of each musician in the band, building toward some sublime Hammet solos or Lars Ulrich drum magic or even a flutter of bass heaven. Or something. Ahem. St. Anger was an obvious attempt to return to the band's thrash metal roots, much like U2's self-conscious return to the sound from their 80s heyday (albeit updated) on their last couple of albums after some 90s failures, but Some Kind Of Monster revealed a deluded band barely stringing music together with no conceptual/thematic focus and, apparently, no understanding of what ever made their music *good*. Even in the 90s, when they "sold out" and switched to radio-friendly hard rock, The Black Album kicked all kinds of ass and the more vocally-variable Load and Reload would have been good if they'd done one album of the best ten or so songs from those sessions instead of two albums filled to the brim with every damn track they'd written over the previous 5-6 years (surrounded by shitty filler or not, songs like Hero Of The Day, Until It Sleeps and Low Man's Lyric were all strong, even lyrically for once, often focussing on deeper personal themes). Why oh why did St. Anger happen? R.I.P. Metallica. Good documentary though.
iTunes NZ Store Is Here
Now I just need a credit card and I can consider uninstalling uTorrent. Can I be bothered getting one for the priveledge of getting music for a cost instead of for free? Stay tuned folks, it's a cliff-hanger.
Obligatory Mention Of Chinese Democracy: An "Impression" Update
Been listening to the demos / live tracks on and off for a while now and I have to say that There Was A Time is fucking awesome. Catcher In The Rye and The Blues are really good too, but it's a shame I haven't heard any new trademark GNR hard-rockers up there with them; instead, these are Axl Rose at his wussy best. Madagascar is "interesting" but aside from the cool voice-clip/solo section in the middle isn't anything special, the title track Chinese Democracy's still "decent" and "solid" while I.R.S. and Better are mixed bags of both good parts and mediocre parts (the I.R.S. solo rocks though). I repeat what I said before: if this turns out to be the best of the bunch, this will be pathetic after ten years of work. But if we get ten There Was A Time calibre tracks, I'll be in heaven.
Cheers Dennis
Tagboard working. Was too lazy to investigate the problem myself :p
posted by Steve @ 4:21 PM
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