Arcane Delicacy or Blunt Force?

My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes

This song changed my perspective on distortion. I'm sure it was done at least once before Loveless was released in 1991, but for some reason to me the idea of a heavily distorted guitar played without any accompanying drum arrangement to form a song seemed so novel. Who knows what ungodly effects Kevin Shields wound his guitar through to create the sound -- but it comes barreling through with all sorts of raw emotion and angst in tow, channeling a destructive but acquiescent otherwordly space-out kind of vibe (not to mention inspiring at least half of Siamese Dream). Rarely in music do we see such resounding dichotomy between arcane delicacy and blunt force; between individual confidence and gripping self-loathing; between beauty and destruction. But even so, after you listen to it as much as I have you realize there's not really any dichotomy at all, and that all of these sensations are one and the same. It's a delicate and moving force, an inexplicable confidence in one's own self-loathing. And If you can see deep enough into the destruction, you might just see the beauty contained therein.

Recommended listening on high volume or with headphones!

Workin' on a Brand New Stadium

Yo! So I went to the Bruce concert at Giants Stadium last Friday, the LAST CONCERT at Giants Stadium EVER! They are knocking it down to build a bigger and better one right next to it (actually it might be smaller, if the owners are as prudent of businesspersons as the Wilpons and the managers of Yankee Global Enterprises, LLC). Anyway, this concert was toted as the great blow-out to top all great blow-outs, and what better entertainer than The Boss to celebrate the demise of such a grand hallmark of brute New Jersey nationalism? Honestly, it was the first time I had ever been to the Meadowlands, but will hopefully not be my last, now that I know they are constructing a huge indoor ski slope there.

Considering that it was my first time to either the aforementioned venue or a Bruce concert, I felt like a bit of a tourist at first. That is, until the man himself stepped onstage, and instantly warmed over every last frozen fingertip of skepticism in the place with his big, dumb, Garden State charisma. Granted, the only fingertips of skepticism in the place were probably my own -- I mean this crowd was ROARING. And rightfully so -- Bruce is everyman's Everyman, all wrapped in bud-light gold Americana, the voice of every recession-afflicted Joe the Plumber. Within minutes, this avante-art snob was singing right along with those glorious middle-American incantations.

Mayhap I hath imbibed a generous share of the bitter mead and barley-wine, but I managed to punch some pretty spot-on notes into the Notepad app of my Blackberry (yeah bitches, we have apps too). Thought instead of trying to fumble through the regular gauntlet of self-glorifying prose, I'd simply share the notes with you:

"I'm going down down down" [yup, just typing in lyrics]

"Powerfuck new jersey pride machismoism"

"Every song was the most dramatic thing since the roman senate murdering julius caesar"

"No one wants to be an alcoholic, but glory days just makes it sound so convincing"

"Every song began with 1234, opening the testosterone floodgates and turning the volume up to rock you silly"

"There were no discernable instruments, only an underdriving, mulling sound of powerfuck, with bruce's voice crashing down on your brain with the most driving" [at this point I think I just couldn't think of anything clever to say so gave up]

"To be honest, he might not be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but he is certainly the fucking boss. No one can deny that."

Amen.