Happy New Year to all that tuned in. I probably would assume you'd be waking up from a nights worth of festivity and wanton hedonism. I can't say the same to me; just went for karaoke...belting to out to a random selection of songs, murdering every shred of it with off key yarbling and screams that make the demons of hell sound like cherub faced choirboys. Yes....it was that bad...but who cares....we had our fun. :D
My Git's discography finished downloading yesterday. It's very easy to understand that the soul of the late singer Mia Zapata very much embodied the spirit of the band. Listen to "It all Dies Anyway" and you'd feel the goosebumps in your skin rising. The question of mortality has not been asked in this very intense of very manner. It's like she's asking an urgent question which had been tormenting her every moment of her nights.
Also noted in my play list would be my Flipper discography. You kids would probably recognize
this band from the late Kurt Cobain's shout outs. It's rather ironic that Flipper had initially started with the rather dubious aim of being the band everybody hated. In mere listing , you'd probably agree, for the vast amount of atonal feedback they employ in the guitar work could pass for the soundtrack of the apocalypse. Any so-called connoisseur of good music could give it a pass and argue as an article of artistic pretension (blablabla). But somehow, despite all my better judgment and that, I turned out to be a fan. The track "Hahaha" is an indictment to the callow materialism of suburbia done in the crudest of sarcasm. It however takes the turn to the creepy by the end when loop samples of the vocalist's feigned laughter goes on a surrealistic overdrive.
But one song stands out from the usual nihilism of Flipper's post-punk leanings. "Life" is actually a repetitive loop of a song, complete with sparse lyrics (this is not Bob Dylan here, folks!). But I can't help remembering a forum post by an ex-junkie saying that the song actually was the catalyst for his redemption from substance abuse. This, to me, nails whatever argument I have
towards punk music being a negative trend. You might say that genres like death metal or hardcore fuels the aggressive psyche in individuals. But music means different things to people.
These days I can't help noticing the allegories of Jesus and his saving grace in some secular songs. It's true that most of them don't know what they are writing about but I believe it's very much a response to the God-shape void in their lives; the search for a man or God that would change lives forever.
It's not fair to generalize music content based on the trend they belong. Music was never meant to be sorted to neat little categories for easy identification. To say a particular music is depressing or negative or to low-brow or whatever..... to me it's a tad elitism if you ask me.
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