#23

It's Not Easy Being Green

I was going to try to write something witty in the vein of an epitaph about how I feel like this blog is dying or is already dead. In fact I already had a solid paragraph penciled in. Something about hitting a wall and trying my hardest to walk through it. Bloody nose and all. But I didn't know how to go further than that. I thought to myself, "what else could I say that I haven't already said before?" Music...emotion...music and emotion. It all sounds like an echo that's bouncing off that same wall and won't stop. So, the only choice I do have is to stay silent for a bit to let the sound cool off. Being still comes easy for me. Hell, I haven't been to the gym in over a month now. I've gone back to smoking the occasional cigarette. My health hasn't necessarily deteriorated, but it's not exactly running on all eight cylinders. I guess the real issue is trying to convert that gas-guzzling engine into something more clean and efficient. Something that will carry me through the long haul of life. I need sustainability. I need to go green.

Holidays are always rough patches for me. The lack of money and then the stress of working more because of the lack of money. It can drag any person down as we have already seen in the past three years since the crash of 2008. I don't have to tell you that people have lost their jobs and homes. I don't need to give you the answers, you already know them. Some of you are a statistic. And what do the commercials say in regards to drunk driving or wearing your seat belt? "DON'T BECOME A STATISTIC!" Too late. This country (or should I say the 1%?) has already drank enough Four Loko, gotten behind the wheel, and hit the gas. I know many people that are jobless. Sure, it may be a lack of skills, but mostly it's a lack of money in the small business sector to provide those jobs. Oh, but wait, wasn't that what TARP was supposed to do? Where's that money? I think we already know the answer to that question too.

Don't get me wrong, folks. I still love music and I still love writing about it. But it's not just about me anymore and my problems. It's everyone else too and their 99 problems, or, their 99% problems. Which is why I'm going back to school for economics and political science. I don't think money is god, but I want to find out why people want to keep money as god. Gandhi said "be the change you wish to see in the world." So if we want our political landscape to change more of us need to take part in it or at least be knowledgeable about it. And I'm not talking about old ideas that cause people to sail under one flag or another. Conservative versus Liberal. Keynesian versus Hayekian. Korn versus Limp Bizkit (remember that fight? HA!). We need to go radical and come up with a plan that helps everyone. Even the ones that like Nickleback.

For now though, this new found obsession with the state of things has breathed new life into 5SIAR. I know I said I wanted to concentrate on the music and only the music on this blog and nothing else. But now it's time to flip-flop on that decision. Music means something different to me now. Just don't call me Newt or Mitt for changing my mind. You've been warned.

"One Time" - The Roots

The Roots have a new album out. Good, I needed some space to fill on my year-end mix. There hasn't been too many albums released this year that have grabbed my attention. However someone just gave me a few more new releases for me to ingest and digest. But first, this album, undun. It's become standard practice for The Roots to deliver us from evil with their intense story lines about the world in which we live in. For example, Black Thought name drops the Occupy movement on this track. I haven't listened enough times to really grasp what the context of the mention is, but I'm sure Thought and the rest of his band are pro-Occupy. I mean, they played Fishbone's "Lyin' Ass Bitch" as Michelle Bachmann's intro music when she was on Jimmy Fallon. Of course she was none the wiser, but in an interview with Pitchfork ?uestlove said that they regret doing it now. I say keep stirring the pot.

Every time I think of a politician listening to music I always think of George W. trying to play drums with that African dance company or Bill Clinton jammin' on the sax. Or the pièce de rèsistance, John Ashcroft singing "Let The Eagle Soar." Oh, the humanity.

I wonder what Obama listens to. Hrmm... Nah, he's not that cool.

I'm going to have to say that in the realm of music political activism is partly erased. Or maybe I'm not listening to the right shit? As noted in Chris Hedges' book Death Of The Liberal Class, people used to listen to Bob Dylan for their answers not LBJ and Nixon during the 60s. I'm paraphrasing of course. While people may not look towards artists for their revolution ammo now, that doesn't mean it's not there. A good example would be PJ Harvey's recent album Let England Shake or some punk band that I'm not listening to but probably should.

My mind is drawing a blank again. Forgive me if this post winds up being short. It could have something to do with me being hungry. To combat this I have begun to shove Ritz crackers with peanut butter into my mouth like a fat kid clinging desperately to a failed diet.

Oh, look, the Grammy nominations just dropped. My Twitter feed is abuzz with Bon Iver getting the nod for an award or four. I'll call it right now that Señor Vernon will win and NO ONE will even know who the heck he is just like NO ONE knew who Arcade Fire was when they won last year. There's a tumblr about that actually. But what's even more hilarious is this video. I guess you could've just watched the video on the tumblr page, but I as I said before, I want to help people in this world. Consider that my first act of public service.

"Who's That Girl?" - Robyn

So, yeah, nominations. Radiohead is on there, obviously, for The King Of Limbs. No surprise there. But what's this my eyes do see? Robyn has been nom'ed as well! I was going to use a Radiohead song, but fuck it, we're going with Robyn. Did I mention I was the only dude dancing at Bonnaroo when she was on stage for her set? I have no shame. I'm sure at some point if I decide to run for public office this will come back to haunt me. No, not my illicit drug use. None of the (alleged) trespassing charges that never stuck. But some pundit will break the story of me dancing my ass off in public to Robyn. America is getting so goddamned tight-wadded that I wouldn't be a bit surprised to open the newspaper one day in the future and see a headline that reads "NICHOLAS TRUDEN CAUGHT DANCING TO GIRL MUSIC!" Yeah, so? I'll admit it. I shook that thing my mama gave AND I waved it around like I just didn't care! Suck it, America.

There's another Robyn track I really love too. It's called "Who's That Girl?" and was the song that garnered her a negative response from her label at the time which then propelled her to start her own label, Konichiwa Records. Every time I listen to "Who's That Girl?" it reminds me of a quote from the author of the comic Phonogram, Kieron Gillien, and what he said about the track. I may have mentioned it before in a previous post, but here it is again.

“i listen to "who’s that girl?" and i think of every girl i’ve trapped in my expectations of her, and think of every time i feel as if i’ve been trapped in theirs. i think of the infinite distance between people and - nevertheless - our urge to cross that gap, knowing that most people fall into the void. it makes me want to dance, and makes me know that no matter how big the dance floor, no matter how many friends i was with, how happy i was…i’d be alone, and i know i’ll always be alone. and so will everyone else. but - most importantly - it doesn’t matter.”

Whenever I feel down I go back to that quote and listen to the song. It makes me feel better. I don't know how or why, but it does. Maybe because Kieron is right. We are alone, but it never really matters anyway in the greater scheme of things. There will always be friends and a dance floor and songs from Robyn. Those things are eternal.

"Cruel" - St. Vincent

"You can't apologize your way into people's hearts. You have to go full force." - Annie Clark

I envy this woman. She makes not having any emotion look so damn easy. And beautiful. Her gestures speak for themselves and they're not really saying much. This is what numb looks like.

"What If We Could?" - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

I had a dream. I had a dream you were my neighbor. I had a dream you were my neighbor and as we were sitting outside a man approached us at our little table. I don't remember what he said, it's possible he didn't say anything at all. But I remember the look on your face when you told me that this wasn't going to work. You and I. You looked down at the table and your dark hair masked the sides of your face like blinders on a horse. The man was then blocked from your view so I looked at him just so I wouldn't have to look at you. Or our table.

That was all I remember from a dream I had this past week. A brunette with dark eyes sitting across from me. I don't remember the dialog, but I'm sure it wasn't kind judging how I remembered the scene by listening to this new song from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo soundtrack. All I can recall now is her face and head, and the brown hair that fell from it that hid her brown eyes. I thought I'd be okay, but it's always something, something aural, that causes the most painful sting. Which is why I will always consider Trent Reznor one of the most prolific and conscious songwriters of our time and how I wish Chad Kroger would just stop already.

Am I bitter? Yes. Is it going to go away? Unlikely. I am who I am because of my penchant for not forgetting. I tend to hold grudges. I've buried most of them, but that doesn't mean they aren't there beneath the surface. I just need to throw the shovel away, but my grip on it is like that of a vice. I won't let go. And that will always be my problem. I'll never leave the table.

"Bloom" - Radiohead (Jamie xx Rework)

I decided to go ahead and put Radiohead on here anyway to make a point. The Kings Of Limbs has become the new bad Radiohead album. It pushed ahead of Hail To The Thief to take the top spot of least favorite among many of the casual and non-casual fans. Myself included. But I'm at war with this decision because I don't want to give up the idea that Radiohead can make a bad album. Truth is, any band can. Even Radiohead. Now what I want to know is, did they do it on purpose? Is King Of Limbs Radiohead's Exit Through The Giftshop? Did they turn the camera on us to see what we would do? I keep wondering if that's the statement between the songs. I mean, it's still Radiohead, and even though we're not getting the same kind of OK Computer or Kid A kind of genius, I feel like King Of Limbs still has something to teach us; It doesn't matter who it is, art doesn't always have to be loved.

It's weird to think that someone could be fucking with our heads like that. Making us sit down and question things. But that is what we should be doing most of the time anyway. This is why I feel Radiohead commissioned all of these remixes to be created. They asked, "how would you have done it?" It's not surprising that most of the remixes are actually better than their originals. Listening through it sounds like the only piece used from the original tracks is Thom's vocals. Everything else was produced by the remixers. Truth be told, this collection is the real King Of Limbs.

Radiohead isn't hurting for cash. I'm sure they wouldn't have flinched if absolutely no one bought The King Of Limbs. What I'd like to know is whether or not these remixes have had higher sales than KOL. If so it would almost be like Radiohead is doing what other leaders have suggested doing, and that is to "spread the wealth." Sound familiar? I'm sure it does to you and I'm almost just as sure you might be calling me a commie inside your head. Fair enough, but I'm not talking about a set of ideals taken from the story of Robin Hood. Where a thief takes from the rich and gives to the poor. Our society doesn't need a middle man. What we need are the opportunities without the enormous cost or any cost at all. What people don't understand about capitalism is that its goal is to have everything bought and sold in a market. It's a system of haves and have nots. I wish more people would see this, but it takes turning off the television and opening up a book or newspaper once in a while. You'll find that death is a pretty hot commodity lately.

People say that capitalism has improved our way of life and we are better for it. Noam Chomsky made a good point saying the same thing about the improved conditions of slavery from the 18th century to the 19th century. Does that still mean slavery is moral? How can America be the richest country in the world yet be in the middle or at the bottom on lists of countries with a better health care system or school system. The only thing we're at or near the top of the list for is the amount of money we spend on defense and the number of people incarcerated.

We need new ideas. Ones that aren't based off the systems we have in place now. The thing is is that these new ideas aren't new at all. They've been around for a long time and have become bastardized by our government, the media, and even the art community. We have no real choice anymore, and if voting actually changed something it would be illegal. This is why we need the remixers of the world to stand up. We've seen what Occupy Wall Street has done, just imagine what else we can do once more people wipe the dust from their eyes from sleeping so long to get to the American dream. We need to stop seeing green in everything and start seeing red. But first we need to get mad.

#13

"Sometimes when you win, you lose." Or, A Cluster of Bad Timing

Does anyone remember that line from What Dreams May Come? I do. It's a constant reminder to stay grounded and to always be humble. Although sometimes that's easier said than done. I can be on top of the world and feel invincible, but I must always remember that below me lies the same shit I deal with day in and day out- My own personal demons. They are always there to keep me in check and to remind me that every day is to be treated as a gift, albeit a very subpar one. Almost like getting socks for Christmas. Sure, you're thankful, but at the same time you feel cheated. It's only my ego, and one day I'll learn to kick it to the curb.

I recently was a cast member in a production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The connections I made and the fun I had with all the cast and crew will be with me forever. However, if I have to watch that movie at all any time soon I could quite possibly commit suicide. The upside to it is I have memorized pretty much every character's part in the movie. So if I do it again I will be prepared.

Before the show there was a performance from the Florida Dance Theatre. The dancer's characters were everyone's preferred occult figure for this year- the vampire. Vampires are the new black what with all the buzz with Twilight and True Blood being big hits. If you are a fan of those I suggest to you the movie Let The Right One In. Great foreign vampire film and definitely worth your time to watch it.

The dance the FDT performed moved me, which is a rare thing. Dancing doesn't do much for me, but this one was different. The dancers were amazing and it was wonderfully choreographed. It wasn't just that though, it was the music they used that brought it all together. The songs they chose were a perfect fit and I realized that they would make a great addition to 5SIAR. The dance, the songs, and the mood they put me in (which was suffice it to say not a happy one) compelled me to want to write this. That, and, well, a skirmish with a friend. All of those things grabbed me by the arm, sat me down, put my fingers on the keyboard and said "tell us about it." You asked for it. So here it is.

"Us" - Regina Spektor

Us - Regina Spektor

Scene #1: Man and woman meet. Man and woman fall in love. Man and woman are happy.

The opening number to the performance was a track from Spektor's Soviet Kitsch but was also put on the soundtrack to this summer's indie feel good/feel sad movie 500 Days Of Summer. It's your typical grab your lady by the hand and fall in love kind of song. There does, however, seem to be some kind of underlying message of love costing more than what it is worth. Yes, I'm putting a price tag on the emotion because in the greater scheme of things love is the thing that dictates pretty much everything in the universe. Or, at least, something on par with it such as gravity or magnetism. Somehow, someway, attraction is our life's path and that was the center on this part of the dance performance. Two people meet and they fall in love, and it's grand. It's grand because it spreads to others. That wonderful feeling is truly contagious. So much that people will use "Us" as a blueprint for their love.

As lovers rise, in time they eventually fall. Like Icarus, the lover flies too close to the sun, is burned, and falls back down. This is the nearest approximation of falling in and out of love I can conjure. That is the way of things. The path of love is not without its pitfalls and hiccups. Giant sacrifices are made for the other person all for the sake of keeping the connection alive when it's already on life support. Some people sign a prenuptial before getting married, what they should be signing are DNR forms. Do Not Resuscitate.

We all have this hope and dream that love will conquer all and I honestly think that is our first mistake in love. We can't count on it to fix everything because sometimes it does more harm than good. You know that old saying that one man's trash is another's treasure? Well that can also be reversed when it comes to matters of the heart. One man's treasure is another's trash. The shine that was there becomes tarnished and rusted to the point of taking the easy way out and throwing it away instead of polishing it. The same analogy can be used with two people in love. The feeling becomes tarnished from wear and tear (countless fights and disagreements). It becomes so broken that it is thrown away with no chance of survival or revival. Yeah, we've heard it before, love is a battlefield, and we are the soldiers at arms. And yes, sometimes peace treaties can be made, but most of the time the two sides just lay down their weapons and walk away from each other.

OK, now that I've depressed all of you I will say that beyond all of the bullshit and excrement that goes along with falling for someone it really is a great feeling when it all works out. When all the little pieces fit into place perfectly (which is more rare than one might think) it becomes something more than your standard boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in and out of love kind of story. The explosion from this occurrence echoes across our visible and invisible universe dictating courses of action and ultimately becoming the pebble thrown into our pond.

"Emotion Sickness" - Sliverchair

Emotion Sickness - Silverchair

Scene #2: Woman runs away. Hides. Man is attacked. Dies.

Silverchair- A band that has struggled to escape the label of 90's grunge relic to become something of their own; Something a bit more than the dropped D tuning they stole from Helmet. Well, it took a few albums, and from the sound of their most recent release Young Modern, they have come into their own and finally have shed all the Frogstomp stigma left over from their teenage years. In between Frogstomp and Young Modern there was their third album Neon Ballroom- an album that saw a band trying to shed its skin by exploring new territory in a soon to be post-grunge world, yet still maintaining a kinship to their roots of Nirvana-esque antagonism.

The bands and their intentions aren't the point of this issue but the meaning behind the songs are instead. What the songs represent in the dance routine and what that means to me and what I feel and what I think the rest of the world feels. Simple, right? Wrong.

With love comes struggle to keep that love alive. People say, "If it's meant to be then it should be easy!" No, it's never easy. Because we are all so different from one another and complex no one couple in this world will ever have it easy. There are too many nuances to one's personality that prevents that. You're going to have bumps in the road. You're going to get emotionally sick which inevitably leads to being physically sick. Why do you think after one spouse passes away the other follows shortly after. People die from broken hearts, and it happens more often than not.

We can either heal or become ill from overdoses of feeling. How do you feel when you're falling for someone? Invincible, right? Like you could take on one hundred Osama Bin Ladens or Rush Limbaughs and take them all down with one swift gesture. You're on top of the world. Unstoppable, even, yet that is only one end of the string. If there's a positive, there's always a negative.

What happens when love dies? Not only does depression and heartache follow, but now and again a physical malady as well. For instance, what I stated before, someone dying from a broken heart. There is no medical reason why this happens, nor can we really explain it. It just...happens. It amazes me how well connected the mind and body are with one another. Our body has responses to a wide range of emotion. If we're nervous, we sweat. If we're happy, we seem to "glow". If we're angry or threatened, adrenaline kicks in. And if we're sad, we feel nauseous, drained, and unable to properly function. Trouble arises when we lose control of our bodies and let emotion become the pilot. We are rash and we do and say things we wouldn't normally consider doing or saying and it always gets us in trouble.

As for our lovers- the woman leaves the man to be free and experience more only to return to find him broken and expired. Drained of life from the separation.

"The Fragile" - Nine Inch Nails

The Fragile - Nine Inch Nails

Scene #3: Woman returns to find man deceased. Commences to repair him.

When we cannot mend ourselves from what we may consider to be irreparable damage, we have friends and loved ones there to help us along. We break and those close to us are there to sweep up the pieces and help put them back together in some kind of recognizable order. This, of course, is achieved by heavy boozing and late-night drunk dials to the breaker. Luckily I've never been on the receiving end of one of these notorious phone calls of liquored belligerence, nor have I ever had the reason to make one. My life is still young though. I'm sure at some point someone will do something to warrant me drunk dialing them to blast obscenities and curses at them all while my friends are carrying my near de-hydrated and collapsed body to the bathroom to vomit some more. Yes, heartbreak sucks and who better than to school us about it than King Heartbreak himself, Trent Reznor.

The first thing that sticks out in this song is the use of tambourine to sound like chains being dragged. The chains are the focus of the song as them being the object holding down the main character with Trent supposedly being the one making the promise of not letting her succumb to darkness. This of course is my literal translation of it and is more than likely wrong, or is it? Sometimes a song's literal meaning is more often than not the right one. I get so tired of songwriters beating around the bush with in regards to their lyrics. Sometimes they are so abstract and distant that it's difficult to identify with the song which becomes turn off. I understand some level of mystery and privacy for one's feelings, but don't jump the shark with what you're trying to say to sound cool in front of the kids!

Ahem...

Getting back to the subject at hand- Hearts get broken, and then they are mended. It is a process as natural as the sun rising and setting. We win some, we lose some and occasionally both happen at the same time. Love never really dies. It just gets transformed into something else. It evolves. We have to stick by this concept (me included) or else we're all destined to keep falling down until we aren't able to pick ourselves back up. Friends or no friends, it is ultimately up to us to oil the machine and make it all work. But it never hurts to have a little help from your mates.

"Let Go" - Frou Frou

Let Go - Frou Frou

Scene #4: Man is turned to vampire and is healed to spend eternity with woman.

Yet another one-hit indie soundtrack wonder for this issue. This one comes from the Garden State Soundtrack and in all honesty I haven't heard anything released from Frou Frou since. I'm OK with that, too. I've never heard any of her other songs and judging from this one I don't feel like I would be missing anything that's a masterpiece. In this case the music isn't the meaning, it's the message. I believe I've stated that once before, actually. A lot of what I've been doing lately feels like I've done it all before. There's a little bit of past in everything, I guess, or else now wouldn't be the future. That will make more sense later. I promise.

So yes, it's the message. The words, the lyrics, what is being said, which in all actuality can be summed up by the title "Let Go." Let life take over. Don't worry about what is going to happen because then you will spend all of your free time pining over the very worst that may or may not transpire. You will not get to enjoy conversations with friends or ice cream with your children. You will not have your first kiss with someone. You will not catch the 2009 Tampa Bay Buccaneers win their first game of the season. No, you won't experience any of these instances because you were too busy buried inside your own head conjuring up expectations in life that, again, may not happen. Let go. Let whatever will happen happen. It may be what you're looking for.

Sometimes it may seem that at every corner you find a brick wall. Something to impede your forward progress. You can't let that stop you. You are your own worst enemy in this situation. Don't succumb to failure. Stand back up, turn around, and just go another direction. And if that too has another brick wall, well, then, that's life. There's positive and negative, opportunity and brick walls, perfect timing and bad timing....bad timing. People call it fate, or at least some do. The others still believe that we create our own destiny. As for me, I've been leaning more toward the bad timing theory for quite a while now. Sometimes things aren't supposed to happen for a reason. It's tragic though when a person's life becomes nothing but bad timing. However it's sometimes comforting to know that your life has a hand in determining so many other outcomes in other people's lives as well. You almost can't be mad about it. If it was meant to happen that way, bad timing or not, then that's what it was supposed to be. A cluster of bad timing.

Was it fate that determined man and woman being together forever? I honestly don't know, but I know I had a part in it all. This is also why there isn't a fifth song. Whatever it will all be - Winning, losing, good or bad timing - we just don't know. The song hasn't played yet.

"Untitled" - Unknown

PRESS PLAY. Don't let life pass you by.

#4

Generalissimo Genre at your service.

"I Will Possess Your Heart" - Death Cab For Cutie

People are getting tired of the same ole college indie rock of the new millennium. Everyone, their mother, and their dog have been retooling their sound to stay current including the purveyors of the genre, Death Cab For Cutie. The term "indie" isn't defined anymore by just being signed to an independent label. It has become the status quo for labeling a band that simply has that textbook indie sound, isn't played on typical broadcast radio (satellite doesn't count), or doesn't receive Grammy nominations. Death Cab has achieved all of the above. So why are we still calling them indie? They are signed to a major label- check. They are played on the radio (college radio doesn't count either) - check. And they received a Grammy nod this past year for Best Alternative Music Album for their 2008 release Narrow Stairs- check. Yet we still can't break that steady habit of categorizing them as indie. Why you ask? Because this is the direction music is going in our present day thanks to sites like Myspace and Facebook. The artists we used to know as strictly “indie” (Death Cab, The Decemberists, Rilo Kiley) are being signed to the labels the music zealots were against. And so, being signed to a major label became synonymous to selling out.

I was skeptical when it came time to listen to Narrow Stairs, Death Cab's second major label release. Its predecessor Plans was far from exceptional in my opinion. It sounded like a commercialized version of the heavily lauded Transatlanticism. The same thing seemed to have happened with The Decemberists' first venture into major label territory with The Crane Wife (as mentioned in Post #3). And let us not forget Rilo Kiley's stink of an album Under The Blacklight. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from that LP. Out of these three bands Death Cab was the first to release a sophomore major label album so of course I was ready for another disappointment, but thankfully that was not the case. Death Cab threw what guitarist and producer Chris Walla dubbed as a "curve ball." Their previous albums had always sounded smooth with very few sandpaper moments. Narrow Stairs was the complete opposite with it being louder and more abrasive. The first single from it "I Will Possess Your Heart" with Gibbard's lyrics exclaiming, "You've gotta spend some time, love. You've gotta spend some time with me." still hails back to the pre-Atlantic days but with a new twist of jam-band swagger a la Wilco. It is a fine demonstration of a band trying something new without losing the formula that brought them to the stage in the first place.

With the shift in the music industry pointing more towards internet-only releases we are seeing the comeback of what indie meant in the first place- being able to get your music to the masses without the aid of a deep pocketed label. As the days go on though, more and more independent labels pop up from the ground. We also see more major labels turning their ear towards unsigned acts that are already doing a damn good job selling their music on their own. This is all well and good considering the marketing and money that is offered, but we should all share in the lesson that the label does not necessarily define the band. Let us not forget that it’s the poorly written, watered down, swill that a band may release that either makes them or breaks them in the major label world. I’m looking at you Rilo Kiley.

"Nice & Blue Pt. 2" - mewithoutYou

I've never felt inclined to prescribe to the genre of Christian rock, its repetition, or its message. It is filled with a congregation of carbon-copy bands and stale singer/songwriters that bring nothing that’s truly genuine to the table. Just the same two words- "Praise Jesus." That is all well and good for the usual Sunday morning into Sunday night church-goer. They think anything not approved by their sanctuary of choice is, well, the devil's work. Although some of the less orthodox forms of Christianity have swung a bit more to the left lately, but not that far. They still hate gays no matter how tolerant they claim to be. But this blog wasn't intended to step on the toes of the pious and devout. I am here to bring you my thoughts on music, but if that means rubbing the face of Christian music into the dirt a little along the way, then so be it. But worry not my god-fearing readers; there is light, hope, and a burning bush by the name of mewithoutYou, a band that has consistently proved me wrong time and time again that maybe there is a band with a venerable message that doesn't suck. Honestly, I could never bring myself to put the label of "Christian Rock" on mewithoutYou. It's just wrong.

At the root, mewithoutYou's music lends itself to the hard-hitting, pre-numetal grunge days of Helmet with a dash of the melodic side of Sunny Day Real Estate. What captures the listener more though is singer Aaron Weiss' thoughtfully and elegantly poetic lyrics sung in the style of a preacher witnessing to his flock. His message isn't the usual Christian one either. Instead Weiss gives the listeners an intimate look into his life and how he has walked the footsteps of Christ and what exactly that means to him. His message doesn't convey the idea of how to be a good Christian, but how to be a good person and leading others to do so by example. An idea that was the core of Jesus' teachings and has remained relevant to the morals taught to us today.

Now three albums deep (and a forth along the way) mwY have asserted their stance in the music world. This is the part where I swallow my pride and say that mwY deserves to be on a bigger label than their current one with the power to push them towards listeners who may not have heard them yet. Who knows, they have probably already gotten offers to step up on the ladder to join the bigwigs, but I am sure that they have respectfully declined for reasons that are obvious if you understand the significance and importance of what they are trying to do. And that is to just bring beautiful music into the hearts of the lost no matter what label, genre, or classification the public seems to want to nail them to.

“Shell Of Light” – Burial

Since we seem to be following the theme of genre generalization in this issue of 5SIAR I’m glad to see that my ipod has decided to enter the realm of electronic. Like indie, it’s another classification of music with an endless assortment of sub-genres. Every artist, producer, and DJ has put his or her mark on what was once just a style of music, but is now an entire culture. Like the previous artists in this issue, and their respective genres, the school of electronic has a penchant for churning out one-shot club hits with nothing else to solidify them as worth listening to while sober and stagnant at home. However, this is not the case with the electronic dubstep artist from the U.K. known as Burial. He has been able to craft two creditable albums, 2006’s self-titled Burial, and 2007’s Untrue (from which this track comes from) that house an eeriness that makes you feel like you’re on some kind of acid trip in a haunted house that’s stuck inside an dance club sized aquarium.

While “Shell Of Light” is a memorable track, it was the song “Archangel” that made everyone’s 2007 year-end mix, including mine. I think there were a few days where I had to play it at least ten times a day (Thanks, Aaron). Burial makes the kind of electronic that is repetitious, yet hard to get tired of. The steady two-step beat of Untrue is the album’s kernel, but it’s the mix of ethereal soundscapes and underwater vocal effects that give the album its push.

Not much was known about Burial at first. For a while the public didn’t even have a face to put to the music. A few speculations made the British tabloids as Burial being either Richard James (Aphex Twin) or Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim). The media’s thirst was finally quenched when a photo and a blog were released from the real Burial on to his Myspace page humbly stating, “I'm a low-key person and I just want to make some tunes, nothing else.” If only other artists would take from his mantra and stop focusing all their efforts on being the next big thing. Burial proves the point that if you just take a step back and concentrate on what you love to do it’ll come natural and it won’t sound like a pile of used rubbers falling to the floor- flat and unappealing- which is, unfortunately what most of the club anthems sound like these days.

“Time = Cause” – Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene is about as indie as indie can get. These canucks have provided its listeners with a treasure trove of various full lengths, EP’s, and solo albums from main songwriters (and pretty much the only two band members that don’t seem to come and go) Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Most of the band is made up of people from other Canadian bands from around the Toronto area including members of Stars, Emily Haines from Metric, and everyone’s favorite ipod commercial sweetheart Feist. What makes this band so inviting to the ears is their ability to string together so many different little odds and ends borrowed from all over the genre map and make it sound organized and pleasing.

BeeHives is comprised of nine mostly instrumental B-sides taken from BSS’s LP You Forgot It In People. Get it, BeeHives, B-sides, nevermind. Like Burial’s Untrue, BeeHives is another great record to just put on and let it carry you through your day. It’s mellow, but not enough to make you want to go to sleep (Listen to their debut Feel Good Lost for the purposes of slumber). “Time = Cause” was the B-side to the popular song “Stars and Sons” featured on the movie Half Nelson along with several other BSS songs. Though the song that clenches the heart the most is the stripped down piano version of the ballad “Lover’s Spit.” Feist’s soft and aching vocals make this song even more painful to listen to than the original version found on You Forgot It In People.

Even though BSS are still signed to an indie label that doesn’t mean that all of their albums have been pure works of genius. While at some points throughout BSS’s career they have hit the mark with beautifully arranged rock and pop, at other times their music comes off as stale and overdone. It’s an unbroken habit by many budding artists to just choose the safe route, though BSS is hardly a newcomer to the scene so I expect a little bit more. Pitchfork said it best in their review for BeeHives, “B-sides are B-sides for a reason.”

“Spitting Venom” – Modest Mouse

Modest Mouse is yet another fine example of a small indie label band turned major label, platinum-record rock stars. What was once a band that used to open for Built to Spill in bars is now all grown up and headlining shows of their own at much bigger venues. It took them long enough too. How many albums does Modest Mouse have? It seems like more than a dozen and it could very well be considering that they’ve been around since the early 90’s. Their success came in the form of the albums The Moon & Antarctica and Good News For People Who Love Bad News from which the radio and bar jukebox hit “Float On” comes from. Since then they have also added on to their line-up including The Smith’s guitarist Johnny Marr and percussionist Joe Plummer formerly of The Black Heart Procession for the help on their 2007 LP We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank.

“The opinions that I do not give are the opinions I ain't got,” sings Isaac Brock during the first few verses on this track, a track that is definitely one of my personal favorites from We Were Dead. The quote stands out to me because as I’m traversing down the long road of becoming a music critic and journalist I find it difficult to just sit down, listen to an album, and give it an objective review. Music is subjective, different people have different tastes. What I say about a song or album may not translate to what a person feels from that particular piece of music. No one is ever going to completely agree with what anyone may think or write. You become offended if you see someone talk bad about an artist you might love; and such is the dilemma of reading reviews. Sometimes we take it a little too personally.

Modest Mouse has joined the ranks of other bands that have made the crossover to major label while still being able to capture audiences and procure Billboard chart success. They have left fellow west coast indie rockers Built to Spill in the dust even though BtS had achieved major label status long before the Mouse did. I’m quite positive we’ll be seeing good things from this seasoned band as they continue to sprig new signs of life into the songs that have already given them the grandiose status they rightfully deserve. Maybe they could possibly fill in for the recently vacated spot from Amy Winehouse on the Coachella bill? Morrissey will also be playing Coachella this year. It would be about as close to a Smiths reunion I think we’ll ever get.