bITS 'N CHUNKS
Ay everyone,
Welcome back to That's My Jam! If you were on the internet maybe back about 2011-12 I have no doubt you caught at least a few thinkpieces and hot takes on Zebra Katz, the man behind the sinister vogue beat of "Ima Read". Unfortunately I think what got lost in all that well deserved hoopla is that Zebra Katz is amazing. My preferred album from him is the Nu Renegade EP. Please check it out. He's a fucking beast. I enjoy the neo-doomed-occult soul vibe of this album and it actually helped me get through a short story I'm currently working on. The story is Lovecraftian in nature but set in the south and deals with a small sect of black Dagonites. That is probably complicated enough to explain why I was struggling with the (admittedly simple) concept but something about the title track and "Nina Simone" really jerked me out of my slump with this one. I was writing too much and saying nothing. I had no vibe. If I'm in a black church, why are there no hymns? What does an occult hymn sound like? Like...this. Not to mention "You Tell Em" is my actual jam in every sense.
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Ay everyone,
Here we are again with another jam. My fascination with Porcupine Tree would best be explained with my fascination with the progressive genre in general. To be blunt, progressive rock & metal is made for writing. It's populated with speculative fiction dorks. I mean, look at Rush. Look at Yes. Math geeks writing songs about Lord of the Rings. Don't get me wrong, metal in general does that as well (especially when you start getting in the Dio realms) but with prog it's...different. Every ounce of the music from vocals to drum beats is contributing towards the theme of the song. It's complex because it can be. Someone is trying to tell you a story. Porcupine Tree breaks off this a little by being a lot more personal and introverted. When someone asks me about them, I call it good time depression music because it IS. Songs about isolation and misery. Hey, I write about alienation and misery! Yes, "Way Out of Here" has made my soul cry and hurried me along on several stories. One of my first long form non-fanfic stories contains a direct reference to the first verse of the song and I am not embarrassed but I will not show you (probably). Please check it out.
I encourage you to hear the full song. As for Blank Planet itself, my actual introduction to PT was In Absentia, an entire concept album about...a serial killer! Yeah. It's probably their most commercial record too. That was so odd that it sparked my imagination. Blank Planet now is probably a little dated in that it deals mostly with man's battles against technology and, to an extent, himself. That theme aside, what resonates with me about this album is its plain language. The music is there and the textures are there but the language is actually fairly blunt. It helps me not write flowery words for the sake of writing them -- it says, "get to the goddamn point, E". The swells and climax of "Anesthetize" are so damn cathartic. I hear this whole album in my head a lot. It's interesting because the brain of PT, Steve Wilson, said this album was inspired by Bret Easton Ellis. Interesting because I don't really care for Ellis to put it politely. That might be why, admittedly, some sections of this album make me cringe. Especially when Steven starts shaking his fist at the kids. Sadly, Porcupine Tree is over but Steve Wilson is still trying to make you feel the ennui in his kind of folky solo career. Which is somehow more literary than PT. Check that out too. If you're into fables and fairy tales about death it's right up your alley.
Ay everyone,
Well, while I'm trying to diversify my bonds on this blog, I was gathering up ideas and I realized one thing I almost never write about is music. It's absurd, because music inspires a good 90% of my writing. I'm not one of those people that is good at making playlists or anything, but there's a lot of times when I can read an old story and pinpoint either the movie I was ripping off or what was playing in the background. I love sharing music, but I'm fully aware the majority of my friends don't listen to what I do and I also cop to falling into Tortured White Man or You've Probably Never Heard of Them genres. I won't tell you how long I've been listening to thrash or how I feel about postmodern punk, I would rather just show you and have a good ol' chat about guttural screams and writing. I dub this segment.... That's My JAM! |
Ia! If you've come this far, you're either looking for weird or you know you've found it... TRESPASSING
September 2018
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