Winter's Chill

“Burn the winter landmarks that said I was there, burn the spirit of cold that travel through my soul” Opeth, Under The Weeping Moon

It’s nearly February now, a month since the jubilant holiday season. Walking into stores, Christmas is a distance memory. Aisles and aisles of decorations, wrapping paper, and toys have been replaced with whatever items they normally sell. It’s an in-between time. The after-Christmas discount buzz has long since faded and most people have returned Aunt Thelma’s sweater vest with matching mittens. Valentine’s is coming, but even that seems a far way off. Spring isn’t even on the radar.

So where does that leave us musically? Once Thanksgiving is over our musical choices are made for us: Christmas carols. For at least a month, everyone casually puts aside their rigid musical boundaries and embraces Christmas songs from every genre and decade. I have no problem mixing classical and jazz arrangements with Bing Crosby, Mannheim Steamroller, or Trans-Siberian Orchestra. When you hear ‘Linus and Lucy’ or ‘Frosty the Snowman’ you know it’s time to curl up on the couch with a piece of pie and a plate of gingerbread cookies. Even though cats are stealing ornaments from the tree and you’re fretting over the Christmas menu, these mellow tunes make everything ok. So now what do we listen to? Unless you’re in a time warp or heavily medicated, you’re probably not still cranking up the Christmas music.

This winter has been exceptionally crappy. I feel like every couple of days I’m shoveling snow, looking for parking, and tripping over fresh ice on the sidewalk. Here in New England we’ve been getting our snow 6 inches or more at a time. Looking into the backyard, I can’t even see the picnic table I built last summer. My dreams of warmer temps and outdoor eating are literally buried. What music do you turn to during the long nights and frosty days of winter? Do you prefer soothing soul and R&B while you sip hot chocolate by the fireplace or maybe some dance music to get you moving? I decided to check through my own iTunes library to find some good music for keeping warm and keeping my sanity.

Here’s a quick playlist

1. Wintertime Love – The Doors

2. The Thin Ice – Pink Floyd

3. Cold – The Cure

4. Into the Frost of Winter – Opeth

5. Cold Contagious - Bush

6. Wintertime – Steve Miller Band

7. Snowblind – Black Sabbath

8. Snow (Hey Oh) – Red Hot Chili Peppers

9. Trapped Under Ice – Metallica

10. Cold and Ugly - Tool

When I climb into a freezing car first thing in the morning and prepare for another bitter commute, I need some heavy music to get the blood moving. A good choice is Katatonia’s ‘The Great Cold Distance.’ These guys are from Sweden and they’ve been around for 20 years, so they know something about surviving bleak winters. The album is dark and moody. Jonas Renske’s smooth vocals complement the gritty rhythms and pulsating sounds throughout. Punishing guitar riffs break through the sound like the sun punching through winter’s chill.

Another CD that gets me going is Filter’s ‘The Trouble With Angels.’ This was easily my favorite album of 2010 and one of my favorites to come out in a while. Richard Patrick returns from his last album (‘Anthems For The Damned’) with a punishing, in-your-face, unrelenting onslaught. Like previous albums, his vocals are distinct and his lyrics dive deep into the human psyche. Each track is packed with churning rhythms and soaring choruses. The album plays brilliantly like a complete thought from start to finish. This one will continue to stay in heavy rotation on my playlists.

So, those are just a few of my thoughts for keeping you moving through the cold winter months. I hope it helps. I mean, it can’t snow all the time, can it? This is rock, this is life, what are you listening to?

Shoulders of a Giant

“Because something is happening here, But you don’t know what it is, Do you, Mister Jones?” – Bob Dylan, Ballad of Thin Man

There’s something strange about waiting for a band to take the stage. You’re waiting for things to begin: everyone is milling around aimlessly and the dull drone of idle chatter fills the air. You try to start small talk with the people around you, but you’re never paying attention for fear of missing even a millisecond of the performance. I love when the crowd claps and cheers when they catch a glimpse of the sound tech’s hat from behind an amp. Think about the shows you’ve been to and that electric anticipation at the start. Then multiply it by a hundred, a thousand, a million. I really had no idea what to expect. This wasn’t just any show by any band I had seen a million times before. This was Bob Dylan.

Even before he stepped out on stage I was trying to wrap my mind around what I was about to see. Not just 50 years of music, but 50 years of music history. Bob Dylan changed the way music was recorded and performed. He changed the meaning and the value of music. Everything since is really just an echo, a tribute.

The venue on this night was the indoor arena at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. The stage was casually arranged and minimally dressed. The crowd, gathered close to the stage, ebbed and flowed with anticipation. A deafening roar errupted as he took the stage and kicked off with ‘Gonna Change My Way of Thinking.’

There was something so pure and inhibited about this set of songs. There was no excess or fluff. There was no holographic packaging with bonus tracks and hidden features. It was just Bob Dylan and his band – as advertised. Less is more. So very true. From the bluesy grit of ‘It Ain't Me, Babe’ and ‘Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again’ to the laid-back ‘Simple Twist of Fate’ and ‘Visions of Johanna’ it was truly an epic experience. Bob Dylan stood at the organ, effortlessly coaxing sinewy grooves from the shy keys. The band, in perfect synch with him and his harmonica playing ‘Tangled Up In Blue’, was so intense it gave me chills. The memory still has an effect on me as I write this, months later. ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ (one of my personal favorites) was beautifully tough and raunchy.

At the conclusion of ‘Thunder on the Mountain’ everything changed. For the first time, the lights stayed low as the band started ‘Ballad of a Thin Man.’ This song, with its ghostly organ and slithering beat, is one of my favorite songs of all time. Yes, I know I’m metalhead and I should be in love with some Sabbath doom or Metallica thrash anthem, but this is it. This is the song that makes me stop whatever I’m doing and just listen. It’s got some otherworldly power that I can’t even attempt to adequately describe. Hearing it live was incredible. The world could have ended and that would’ve been fine by me. Maybe the world did end and I didn’t notice because I was just too busy being swept away.

He closed out with ‘Jolene’ and ‘Like a Rolling Stone.’ Whether you had a hunch or had been following set lists from previous shows on Facebook, you knew how it would end. And just like a good book you’ve read over and over again, the ending gets sweeter every time. The journey was just as epic as the destination. But hey, this was Bob Dylan… this is rock, this is life, what are you listening to?

A Journey into Sound

"This is a journey into sound." And so begins Anthrax's Sound of White Noise. Music has always been a part of my life. And though trends come and go, the essence of music hasn't changed. I continue looking for the next thing to challenge my perception of what music can achieve. Music is a journey and like many things in life, the road itself is as valuable as the destination. My goal is here is simple: to share my own exploration of music.

My earliest exposure to music came from what my parents listened to. Whenever we traveled as a family we would ride in the car. Whether it was just for a day of fishing or a trip to New England I was always in the car. I don't remember listening to the radio much, but instead my parents would rotate through a collection of cassette tapes. They had more tapes, but I imagine that they were trying to select those that would be age-appropriate for passengers under the age of 10. I remember Roy Orbison, The Monkees, Mamas and Pappas and Blood Sweat and Tears. We would listen to these over and over again to pass the hours of driving. Even today, if I hear Orbison's ‘Only the Lonely,’ I find the words returning from some vault deep in the recesses of my memory.

The radio choices in my hometown were equally as limited as my parents’ cassette tape collection. The classic rock station seemed to only have a handful of bands and apparently those bands had only ever recorded two or three songs. I simply don’t remember what was played on the popular music station. As 90’s grunge and post-grunge took over popular rock, I eventually started listening to music that was written after my birth.

My musical world began to expand rapidly. I was soon old enough to have a job and therefore purchase CDs without begging my parents or waiting for my birthday (especially since letting your parents know the music you like was definitely uncool). Another fortunate thing was that the local music store was only a short bike ride away. I wasn’t old enough to drive and a bike trip to the mall would surely have resulted in being hit by a car or worse: suffer being grounded by my parents if they found out about it.

This musical and financial freedom allowed me to explore. I would wander around the store looking through the rows of CDs for a band that I had only heard of in passing, saw at a friend’s house, or just had awesome cover art. A friend once said that it was probably good that I didn’t listen exclusively to the stuff on the radio because those CDs were always more expensive. Maybe I was just cheap.

Early on in this new exploration there were a couple of CDs that changed my musical life. The first was a free sampler from the local rock radio station. It had a bunch of songs from bands that I’d never heard of but were supposed to be the ‘next big thing.’ This included songs from Godsmack, Kid Rock, Monster Magnet, and Korn. The other was the soundtrack to the movie Scream 3 (I didn’t buy it because of the movie - horror movies are not my thing, but maybe we can talk about that later). This album introduced me to Coal Chamber, Slipknot, Finger Eleven, Dope, and System of a Down. I’ve never looked back.

I started to discover music that pushed the boundaries. It tested my perception of rock and metal and what sludge-laden guitar riffs, bombastic percussion, and poetry could do in their own unlikely marriage. The multi-dimensionality of metal is what keeps me coming back. Sure jazz, classical and pop have a lot to offer. Personally, I listen to a little bit of everything. But I love finding all of those elements and more in metal. If you know what you’re looking for, you’ll find the influences and references in everything. Metal itself is difficult to define. Just when you think you have it figured out, something comes along which alters the reality of the genre. It’s elusive and ever-changing. And that’s why I enjoy the journey. There is always more to discover; a band that’s been around for 20 years or a new song on YouTube. That’s why I’m here. This is rock. This is life. What are you listening to?

So, I'm going play around with this blog thing and see how it goes. I'll put a post once a week - at least that's my goal. Thanks to eMusic, I'm always getting new music, so I'll throw in some feedback on whatever I've just downloaded. Feel free to contribute, disagree, or make your own suggestions. Stop by anytime and offer your insight and experiences.