Music: Just Where Are You Going With This?

Oh My

Not another one of those articles on ‘the state of music today’, blatantly stating that everything written after the 1960s is poorly devised and culturally idiotic… Surely not.

Well I’m happy to say that I’m not one of those musical kill-joys, I love new music probably more than I love old music. Something fresh in my ears every weekend that is sufficient to cause what I call a god-awful ‘Noise-over’ the morning after.

My teens were spent worshipping the Nu-Metal ‘greats’.

I could illustrate the links between Metal nowadays and 1960s/70s Rock with no doubt extravagant references to S. Frith and something Adorno said but I’m not.

I could compare bands from the 60s/70s to bands of the present day with a useful yet pointless table of pros and cons but really, unless somebody wants to see this table (I did actually draw it up for fun) I am not going to include it in this article.

So what I will do is talk about aesthetics.

Now, aesthetics means the workings of the mind in reaction to beauty. Beauty is now a fairly insufficient word as the reactions we can feel can stem from some aggressive climax of a violent Kill Switch riff to seeing a circle pit from above on the big screen with you in it, getting pummelled by some bald grebo with no teeth.

So despite the aggressive and sometimes bloody with stitches nature of Metal today many of us experience that sudden rush of adrenaline as the beauty of today.

A few years ago a lecturer said to me that in the 1500s the word terrific did not mean something that was amazing or awesome but something terrifying. People of this era would avert their eyes from a picturesque location as it was deemed just ‘too much’.

I think it’s safe to say that people didn’t take holidays to Kilimanjaro.

So maybe as we’re becoming more and more jaded to the beauty of yesteryear we long for the dirt between our fingers and the stones in our shoes, something to pull a face at and nod in aggressive agreement for a full 5 minutes, knowing that tomorrow morning you’ll have a neck ache worse than whiplash from a car crash.

 

Down the Road to Download

I Decided to Move my Birthday this Year.

When it was announced that Download this year was going to be a regular Nu-Metal fest and that the recently re-formed Limp Bizkit, my childhood idols, were playing I practically Jizzed. Problem was I’d have nobody to go with due to the fact that I am the ONLY Limp Bizkit fan I’ve ever met (apart from the girl but she’s stuck in an illness that limits the amount of jumping required at such events). So it was safe to say that I was going to miss the Bizkit again.

So I was sitting in my house in Hyde Park pulling the lint out of my pockets and making secret plans for the large bottle of vodka that looks like a Russian doll sitting on my desk when I got a call.

My girlfriend was having a well day and decided to buy us Friday day tickets as part of what she dubs my ‘Half Birthday’ cause she’s nice like that.

The next day we arrived at Donnington just in time to miss some of the starting bands and sit and enjoy some Aaron Lewis with Staind and Billy Talent. There weren’t any notable Metal moments with these bands. Fred Durst didn’t come on and sing ‘Outside’ with Aaron Lewis, Billy talent didn’t play any new material although both bands played more than decent shows. It was refreshing to finally see some of my favourite bands at a festival! Kill Switch Engage played an intense set with lead guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz being his usual offensive self and threatening to expose himself. This was followed by the brilliant duo of bands Limp Bizkit and Korn.

I am an old fan of both of these bands and despite Limp Bizkit’s set being short (about 40 mins) it was just so darn entertaining! Wes Boreland finally back in the band and on form as usual with some crazy body paint on and a mullet dreadlock wig was the main focus of the gig as it has been a while since he last played with them. I was however disappointed as they announced that the first song on their new album would be ‘Take a Look Around’, a single released in 2000.

I’ll be covering Limp Bizkit’s reformation in length in my next article.

Korn played for nearly two hours and after releasing eight studio albums it’s not surprising. I was dubious about Korn after Brian ‘Head’ Welch and David Silveria left however their new drummer Ray Luzier is actually much better, he played more complex fills and re-worked some of the older material’s drum-lines to create a more modern sound.

The use of a ‘backing band’ consisting of Shane Gibson and Zac Baird on guitar and keys drew more attention to the three remaining members and I found it easier to focus on them properly.

So after Download Friday my neck was aching, I was sunburnt, I was drunk and more importantly I was looking forward to the infamous ‘noise-over’ the morning after.

 

- Tommy McMahon

Meet the Author on Dead Meet: tommy_the_cat

 

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