#8

The doctor will see you now.

"Over & Over" - Hot Chip

Sometimes I feel I run out of things to talk about on here. I have different songs each time but what I have to say is pretty much the same each time. With every issue I have some kind of loose theme to tie all the songs together. It makes the blog more interesting. This morning I realized that there is a constant theme surrounding all the issues and tying them together. Music is therapy. It's other things as well to other people, but for me it's therapy. When I put on an album on my record player and set the needle down for it to play it's the equivalent of walking into a shrink's office, sitting down, and he or she looking at me and asking how I'm feeling. Then, when the music plays, I let go. Whatever I have on my mind that happened or didn't happen in my life gets flushed down the pipes of a vocalist and drowned in a sea of guitar, bass, and drums. It's a catharsis.

I've had this on my mind for almost a week now. I was hoping to have songs that would fit what I have to say (something from Sea Change?), but the randomness of 5SIAR is what makes it challenging. This song from Hot Chip, for example, is a great song to dance to. In fact, pretty much all their songs give you that get up and move feeling. The question I ask is why? The answer: because not only does the music heal you, but dancing to it does as well. Since time began humans have incorporated dance with their religious rituals that are set to music. The two go hand in hand. It's easier for the music to move you mentally and emotionally if it's moving you physically. I know some of you don't like to dance, but really, it helps. OK, so you're white. Big deal. So your best friend makes fun of you while you're shaking your ass. It's all in good fun because she looks just as awkward trying to move away from some douche-nozzle trying to rub his crotch all over her back side.

The night's over. You're drunk. Very drunk, and very sweaty. Sweaty because you've been on the dance floor all night, unable to leave it because the DJ is actually spinning (or these days cuing from a laptop) decent shit. The friend you conned into getting your drinks for you the entire night insists on leaving. Fair enough. Your time is up. You've had your session for the evening. The wadded up tissues filled with tears have become the sweat, piss, and vomit you left in the toilet. You feel better. That is until the next time you don't. If this hasn't happened to you yet then eventually it will. I promise.

Over And Over - Hot Chip

"Natural Resources" - Dntel

(In a Jerry Seinfeld voice) What's with people naming themselves just letters? What do they mean? You've got MGMT (Management), MSTRKRFT (Mastercraft), and Jimmy Tamborello's Dntel (pronounced din-tel according to wikipedia). You may know this guy as being one half of The Postal Service. The other half being indie music's poster boy Ben Gibbard. Sorry Conor Oberst, you've been dethroned. Dumb Luck does however feature Oberst and a slew of other indie music voices like Jenny Lewis and Ed Droste from Grizzly Bear. The album isn't great, but it's not without a few moments. For me it's the pure fact that all the music is programmed, something I aspire to do one of these days when I get my hands on enough money to buy equipment.

Music itself is a therapy and so is creating it. I view programming beats and dialing in synth settings as surgery. Very delicate surgery. One slip of the scalpel and your song will flatline, or will it? With music, sometimes mistakes can be blessings. Obviously when a doctor is repairing an organ he doesn't want to slice an artery. When I'm retooling a preset on a synthesizer to make it sound different I may screw it up in the process, but I make sure to let myself try it out before scrapping it completely. I break it all down. I let it be something it's not. It's something every electronic musician does, which to me, is therapy. You have the ability to create your own sound out of noise. You are the composer and the conductor. You are also the doctor.

Now you're on the other side of things. You're the creator so you're the one providing the therapy. You're the one that's offering the means to a release. It doesn't have to just be music though, it can be the words as well, or a painting. It can be anything you create. It's there for a purpose. It helped you, now you can let it help others. It's a cycle that will always keep going as long as we're here.

Natural Resources - Dntel

"Cloche" - French Kicks

There's another thing that bothers me about some bands lately. Hell, I don't even know what to call it since I'm not a guitar player. I'll give it my best shot though. Strumming pattern? 32nds on one or two strings to give the guitar that, I don't know, Radiohead sound? I can't put my finger on it. Just listen to the song and you'll know what I'm talking about. Whatever its called the French Kicks use it, a lot. Almost too much. I don't really consider it a bad or a good thing though. It's just a thing. Overdone, yes, but at least it sounds cool, right? Well, just because it sounds cool doesn't mean you have to keep doing it.

I feel bands sometimes fall into a comfort zone. They find a sound and they stick with it. It works for some, like the French Kicks, others get bored and venture off into new territory. Experimentation is just another kind of release and catharsis. How does a person learn without taking those steps toward the unknown?

We have an aversion to the unknown. We're scared of it, actually. But progress has never been made without some kind of leap of faith by someone. A person willing to risk it all for the sake of whatever it is he or she believes in. Painful, yes, but needed. I don't think I, or anyone else, would be where they are today without that pain. You need it. How else do you learn? How else do you finally rid yourself of what ails you?

Cloche - French Kicks

"Come Together" - Spiritualized

We're nearing the nitty gritty now. We have a song from an artist that has created music laced with references to people being sad, people taking drugs because they are sad, and then being sad because they took the drugs. And then, of course, we listen to those songs. People use a song as a drug. Other people just go ahead and use a drug, but that's neither here nor there. It's kind of like the beginning of High Fidelity....

"What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?"

It's a constant, unwavering cycle. It serves itself. The motion of sadness begetting sadness is an occurrence that, to me, is a paradox. It will never end. People will never stop feeling, so obviously people will never stop exploring that feeling through music which in turn will cause other people to explore the feeling. As I said before, it just goes on and on. It's another way we are all connected in this universe. A song is played for you and you attribute that song to that moment and the feeling you had at the moment. It'll break you, but it'll also fix you.

Come Together - The London Com...

"The Way Out Is Through" - Nine Inch Nails

What better way to end this issue than with the king of healing through misery, Trent Reznor. Even the song title sums up the theme. Yes, the way out is certainly through all the noise and clutter you are surrounded with. You can't go around it because you will learn nothing. Healing hurts sometimes, but that's why we have Nine Inch Nails, or at least I have NIN. Trent has more of a cult following lately. There aren't too many people just now getting into his music. Either you've been a fan since the days of Pretty Hate Machine and beyond, or you haven't. But the time spent being a fan doesn't play into the equation anymore in my opinion. It honestly doesn't matter if you've listened to an artist's music since their inception or just recently started listening.

So yes, personally, Reznor's music is my antiseptic and bandage. There was a time after some not too recent heartbreak that I listened to the album With Teeth on repeat for a very, very long time. When that album first came out I wasn't exactly the biggest fan of it. I have discovered, however, that most albums from the past are played more now than when they originally were released. I suppose an album can serve a certain purpose at a certain point in time. Before that time it doesn't make sense. It's not ready to be listened to until that one moment comes when you're listening to it and it all comes together. It suddenly becomes your best friend. Your lover. Matter to fill the hole until it can fill itself again.

Art is used for a lot of things, but it's greatest purpose is in healing. The rhythm can get you on the dance floor and make you feel free and forget your cares and worries. The beat can stimulate your brain as you're trying to write a sequence of drum patterns for a song. Even something as simple as wind passing through the holes of a flute can do wonders. A few little notes are all a person needs to feel at home and at peace with themselves and others.

The Way Out Is Through - Nine ...