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Follow Me Friday
The moon and stars are ganging up on the sun… rebellion.
Bands are more connected to their fans than ever before. It probably all started with MySpace when you really think about it. Their fans “friended” them and then the band could easily share music/tour dates and the all important “status” update. MySpace might have been the first place bands got familiar with status updates and blogs as a way of communicating with their fans.
Some bands embrace these technologies more than others. When you can follow video blogs, twitter accounts, studio blogs, and road updates, fans practically feel like roadies and drinking buddies with their favorite band! More on that in a paragraph or two…
I first discovered Guster while I was looking for remixes to add to my DJ arsenal. I came across The Astronauts’ remix of “Satellite” and became intrigued.
Download Guster – Satellite (The Astronauts Remix)
I bought the album Ganging Up On The Sun after I sampled some of their other music I found around the web. The album was acoustic pop rock from beginning to end. Released in 2006, this happens to be their 5th studio album and is the last studio album the band has released to date. There is an album in the works for 2010, and I am stoked about hearing it.
While researching Guster, I discovered that this is the kind of band that likes to connect with their fan-base through all the cool technological methods we have today. Like blogging and twitter, and the like. Manchester Orchestra had a video blog that consumed me for some time. I kept checking daily for new “episodes” on what the band was up to! Stalker-ish, I know. But it builds and strengthens a fan-base, in my opinion. You keep getting reminders about, and checking in with, the band. For example, when Manchester Orchestra announced they were returning to the studio to record a second album, I was excited, exponentially increasing, over the months they were working on it. Checking their photo blog and videos for shenanigans in the studio. Was I there on release day for that album? You bet.
Be sure to check into the tour and studio blogs for Guster. Just to catch up. I can’t wait to see all the new entries while they get together a new album and tour together this year.
Tour Blog: http://gusterjournal.tumblr.com/
Studio Blog: http://guster.tumblr.com/
Before you check those out, take a listen to my favorite track off Ganging Up…. It’s called “The Beginning Of The End”.
We’re unrecognizable
We’re sunken submarines
Trying to escape before we’re seen
You’re gonna miss us when we’re gone
Jesus is coming, better act our age
I guess it’s true you never knew the passive power of the truth.
The Manchester Orchestra has recorded an epic album. An “I guess that’s the last in-store acoustic performance” album. A “28-month-long world tour” album, and a “too bad your favorite band is no longer a secret” tour. They are quite possibly the most talented musicians the music industry has ever seen. That’s a big statement, and I don’t make it carelessly.
Even Rainn Wilson knows they’re going to be as famous as any arena band you can think of. He twittered so (wull… kind of):
Mean Everything to Nothing is their second full-length album. We covered their recent EP here. This entire piece of work brings the layering of vocals, guitars, keyboarding and skins to epic heights. Andy Hull’s promise that this album would be aggressive has been delivered. That was my impression of some of these tracks as they were previewed right around this time last year on tour. As I listen, I am perplexed by what additional instruments I am hearing. This is an amazing congruence of sound. Actually, that is just the genius that is Chris Freeman on keyboards.
“And Chris doesn’t really play keys, it’s more like lead guitar. Most of the moments that sound like a crazy guitar are actually keyboard. He really made the record his own by writing ambient swells, piercing tones, and adding chunky, beefy distortion.” — themanchesterorchestra.com
“I am not ok, and there’s a beauty in that– a calming, a forgiveness.” The album takes us on a journey of self-awareness and acceptance, but even without listening to the earnest vocals and their meanings, you still have one of the strongest rock albums that exists.
Track 5, “In My Teeth”, repeats the snarky phrase featured this blog post’s title (so timely, too…) Hull shares very plainly the intellectual struggle that the faithful possess. Did we ever really need it anyway? Will we ever find out?
[Download The Manchester Orchestra – In My Teeth]
You will notice that in the first half, the songs bleed together seamlessly as leader Andy Hull demonstrates his struggles with angst and anger. I bet you did what you did when you did just to tell every friend that you have that the Lord did it.
What I feel and hear in Track 6, “100 Dollars” is the acceptance that I am going to mess up and do dumb things, I am going to totally lose my shit in front of the ones I love, and… I am going to recover from that and forgive myself, and move on to find my place and purpose in life. From this point in the album, this mystery – our purpose – begins to slowly unfold and reveal itself, and then switch gears and remind us that it’s still a mystery that just might remain intangible. Listen to Track 7, “I Can Feel A Hot One” – which you may have heard before, but now in the context of this life journey called Mean Everything To Nothing, understand it as the awakening and the turning point of becoming a self-aware adult.
[Download The Manchester Orchestra – I Can Feel A Hot One]
Back to that 11-part concept video, it’s true. A video to go along with each of the tracks on the album. Watch part one here (it is, obviously, the video for Track 1 – “The Only One.”
Manchester Orchestra – The Only One
If you want more videos, someone wrote a great blog post about another video in the series, Shake It Out.
In keeping with the idea that this is an album to go down with all the greats in recent decades, at the end of the album there is a hidden track. A stripped down, quiet track that gives us an end to the journey, still at peace with the fact that we may not know exactly where we went, or why.
But I’d never think it any otherwise
So we’ll find the answers in time
When the bodies pile up sky high
If I am willing to travel to South Carolina, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Las Vegas to see The Manchester Orchestra, you know damn well I will be first in line to purchase this album when it comes out on April 21, despite the fact that I already have an advance copy. Are you going to be with me?
Black Hole Sun, won’t you come?
I thought Trent Reznor was just being mean and overly critical. He sent the following tweet after listening to Scream:
The album starts out with some sort of horrific trumpet fanfare and I am already cringing. wtfwtfwtfwtf is all I can think. Mookie is overjoyed because he has hated Chris Cornell ever since he took up with Rage Against the Machine members to form Audioslave. I, on the other hand, have remained faithfully devoted since Badmotorfinger in 1991. I was down with the whole Seattle thing and all the roles Cornell played in it. Screaming Trees. Temple of the Dog. Alice in Chains. SINGLES!
If I should be short on words, and long on things to say…
The thing I have most loved about Cornell, other than his general hotness (swoon), is his impeccable gift of lyricism, as showcased above in one of his first solo efforts, from 1992’s movie soundtrack to “Singles”. So as I attempted to give track 1, “Part of Me”, a fair listen through my cringes and distorted facial expressions, I had hope that this song would start to make sense.
Alas, it is a hip hop song, and it’s not supposed to make any damn sense at all. So, it doesn’t.
I love the man. I support him in wanting to do something fun. Wouldn’t you make a record with Timbaland if you were given the chance? I just can’t fathom how he can call a track finished, and sign his name to it, when the lyrics read like the ecstasy-induced scattered thoughts of a clubgoer.
He considers the album “an interesting sociological experiment,” since people seem to be more concerned about who is making the music rather than the music itself.
Well… OK, I am trying to follow you here, but… I don’t. “Of those who are given much, much is expected.” That’s my rule, baby.
“That part’s kinda fun,” Cornell, 44, told Reuters in a recent interview. “If someone is up in arms about the idea of an artist that they really care about doing something that they just can’t believe, it begs that question, ‘Well, what is it that you would want? Would you then want predictable, comfortable salad that gets reproduced year after year?'”
“The Answer is: listen to Bad Religion and yes,” says Mookie.
The title track is a disaster. Since when does Chris Cornell have to be obvious with his lyrics? It makes me want to cry.
Take a minute to tell you now
Don’t have to raise my tone
Take the level and bring it down
I just want you to know
I got no trouble with what you said
I don’t even think you’re wrong
It’s how you say it
You lose your head
Girl I’m standing right in front of you
It’s a travesty. You may find it funny, Chris, but I adore you, and it’s not funny. There is one somewhat redeeming track on the album. I was able to enjoy “Enemy.” And look, the music on the album is really good, and I should add the disclaimer that I really don’t like present-day hip hop. This is probably a really enjoyable album for Timbaland faithfuls and others who don’t know what flannel is.
Check out “Enemy”:
There are 15 tracks on this album. 15 tracks! I don’t think I can listen a second time. I’m sorry. I’m proud of you, Chris…I’m glad you are enjoying this. I’m just not there with you.
For $10, though, you might as well try the 15 track “Scream”. Listen to it and tell me what you think. And if you’re feeling nostalgic, or interested in what I loved back in the 90’s, you can check out some of the other grunge projects CC has participated in. And for God’s sake, get Singles.