2/4/16

"Get lost in the dead of the night where once I lived on Grand Street.
Deaf from Chucks on bones crushed white. 
New Brooklyn bows before me. 
Soak it all in and let it run deep, glory in delusion. 
I can picture us, 
Waltz in the ruins of this wilted gray contusion.

Sometimes, when she’s far and I’m drunk, I clutch her like a compass. 
Never thought of being anything but quixotic and self-conscious. 
Some ache to guide your hand, to pull out of the socket. 
I’m the cricket that lets you burn while I smolder in your pocket."
~Jiminy
Say Anything, I Don't Think It Is


I didn't know Max Bemis planned on releasing a new Say Anything record this week, so I was had an extra surprise when he started streaming it for free the day prior.

Sad to say I lost the plot on his records after "In Defense of the Genre," which always felt like too much to wrap my head around despite some catchy standouts. This record feels far more organized than that, with the same outrage-inspired message. The musical maturity of Max Bemis since he stole a generation's heats and minds on "...Is A Real Boy" is obvious, with more intricate parts and progressions, but the same tired, aggressive snarl.

Emotional expression remains the star of this show, even in newfound restraint - the end of "Attaboy," in particular, features a nice sort of post-rock delicacy under screamed-in-despair vocals.  Track 2, "17 Cokes Up Speeding," feels like a throwback, capturing the anxiety and depression Bemis has always channeled with punked-out chords and dizzying technique. There's some really excellent guitar parts and harmony-filled hooks, and Darren King (brother-in-law by marriage to Bemis) is a strong addition to the sound (feel like I hear more of him behind a kit on this than I do on MuteMath's "Vitals," it seems, at least as far as that smooth, understated backbeat goes).   

As a musician, Max Bemis remains experimental - whether this is for its own sake or to underscore his messaging, I can't be sure. He continues to plays around with spoken word and hip-hop samples, like on "Goshua" and odd choice for a closer "Varicose Visage" and I have to wonder what feedback he's received. But then a track like "Jiminy" returns to the dramatic kickdrum-backed melodies and brilliantly twisted wordplay that have made the backbone of Bemis' discography, full of buoyant grit and graceless glory.

I'm surprised how much I like this, having given up on Say Anything's sound as a little too disorganized and radical for my tastes. I've preferred to hear Max Bemis acoustic or in Perma, like when I caught that show in December 2013.  But where "I Don't Think It Is" veers into unfamiliar territory, it's still a confessional ode to the art of grappling with the mind and its anxieties, which is an unsurprisingly comforting listen for me, for now, regardless.



"I’m 23 locked up in the asylum
Listening too much to my own album
Sent me spinning out death-wish-bound to forge a callous
Stomping on the seesaw where I balance
I’m at that age where I actually go to parties
And I sit in the back with a drink and let them judge me While I pray to the devil that a hurricane comes to take us
We’ll be torn away from all the ways we fake trust

'Hey, kid!
You’re not a kid anymore!
You’re not a kid anymore!'
 Said the fool to the mystic
“Be realistic!”
He replied with a lipstick sigil:
'You always think too much and feel too little'
'Hey, kid!
You’re not a kid anymore!
You’re not a kid anymore!'
Said the fool to the mystic
'Be realistic!'
He replied with a lipstick sigil,
'You always think too much and feel too little.'"
~17 Coked Up Speeding
Say Anything, I Don't Think It Is

2/2/16

Saturday! SaturdaySaturdaySaturday. On Saturday I finally get to see Marianas Trench, one of my most favorite bands due to their musicality and lyrics and being an all-around good time. I've been binging a little bit, in the middle of putting Kanye West's discography on repeat in anticipation of "Waves."  The contrast is a little rough, but energizing through long, grey days nonetheless.

While I'm expecting a total barrage of hooks and harmonies from "Astoria" during this Marianas Trench tour, my fingers are crossed for some special covers and old favorites, perhaps like this "Iris/Good for You" one. It's a pretty simple transition, nothing fancy, the connection is all in the chords and the sentiment. I could do without the crowds screaming along, but I can't say I won't be acting in a similar fashion in four days time.



"And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am....

Everyone's around, no words are coming now.
And I can't find my breath, can we just say the rest with no sound.
And I know this isn't enough, I still don't measure up.
And I'm not prepared, sorry is never there when you need it.

And now I do want you to know 
I hold you up above everyone.
And now I do want you to know 
I think you'd be good to me
And I'd be so good to you."
~Iris/Good to You, as performed by Josh Ramsay  

1/25/15

This is one of my favorite pop hits of the past 10 years covered by an artist, who,musically, has never received the highest of accolades but has cemented celebrity through other mediums. But credit where credit is due - Jared Leto crushes this performance of Rihanna's "Stay" that I stumbled across on YouTube tonight.


From the moment Leto begins to sing, he promises a fierce performance. The first crack in his voice on "cold sweat hot headed believer," sends shivers down my spine. For a cover, I love how dedicated this is to the original, strict and dramatic piano with subtle percessuion to highlight slow builds to a melodic climax. His voice in the final chorus, bellowing and screeching those long high notes, is nothing short of rock star status. Just when I was getting tired of spending bored afternoons and lonely evenings practicing the same old chords and songs, feeling like I can't bring anything new or original to the performance with my barebones skills, there is some evidence that keeping true to the song, in its,message and sound and integrity, is worthwhile indeed.


"It's not much of a life you're living
It's not just something you take, it's given
Round and around, and around, and around we go
Oh now, tell me now,

Tell me now, 

Tell me now you know...

Not really sure how to feel about it
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you
It takes me all the way
I want you to stay."
~Stay
Rihanna, Unapologetic

1/15/17

If ever a day almost reaches its inevitable end without my heart getting caught in my throat, or without remembering the beauty that is just being, may I always remind myself to go listen to some acoustic Ryan Adams, and everything will settle into where it ought to be.

This performance of "Desire" for Austin City Limits is tender and quiet, the version of Adams that I think I like second-best, after the slightly manic howling one. I ought to go back and listen to "Demolition," it's been quite some time and it never captivated in the ways "Heartbreaker," "Easy Tiger" or the Cardinals records did, but I'm quite happy to indulge in this for now (I also love his to this performance preface as reported by Rolling Stone). I am such a sucker for this kind of song structure, the one that's an endless, silky, melody repeated for each line, without any kind of interruption. It's the kind of song you can write when you latch onto the perfect little sequence of three or five or seven notes that can be cycle through. Adams, who is equally adept at spinning a soul-shattering chorus, finds a stunning one here, and he softly lifts his voice to let it lilt away, letting the three-syllables of the title express so much more than he bothers to say.

"Two hearts fading, like a flower.
And all this waiting, for the power.
For some answer, to this fire.
Sinking slowly. The water’s higher.
Desire.

With no secrets. No obsession.
This time I'm speeding with no direction.
Without a reason. What is this fire?
Burning slowly. My one and only.
Desire.

 

You know me.
You don't mind waiting.
You just can't show me, but God I'm praying,
That you'll find me, and that you'll see me,
That you run and never tire.
Desire."
~Desire
Ryan Adams, Demolition

1/14/16

I started checking out some live Marianas Trench performances in preparation for their Feb. 6 concert in Pittsburgh, and I couldn't be more excited. Those harmonies! Those high notes, that Josh Ramsay is able to scream out without missing the next beat. I couldn't be more obsessed, or impressed.

This song crept up on me as a favorite from "Astoria," but hearing it acoustic creates a new intimacy. The recorded version sounds like it ought to to head up a parade, with a baton-baring Ramsay as grand marshal, but the stripped-down setting reveals a little more self-reflection. I love re-hearing it this way, and I love this as an anthem of reclamation, the underlying theme of "Astoria" that becomes clearer the more you listen between the lines.



"God, it's been so long wide awake that I feel like someone else I miss the way that you saw me or maybe the way I saw myself
But, I came back to you broken and I've been away too long
I hear the words I've spoken and everything comes out wrong
Just can't get this together, can't get where I belong
Who do you love?
Well, I've been deep in this sleeplessness, I don't know why
Just can't get away from myself
When I get back on my feet, I'll blow this open wide and carry me home in good health
Screaming, 
Who do you love? Who do you love?

From fable to fumble, from stable to stumble, nevermore
I'll say goodbye to my demons and all my break-evens, ever yours
I, I won't come back to you broken, I won't stay away too long
Even if words I've spoken seem to still come out wrong
I'll get my shit back together, get right where I belong
Who do you love?
Well, I've been deep in this sleeplessness, I don't know why
Just can't get away from myself When I get back on my feet,
I'll blow this open wide and carry me home in good health
Screaming, 
Who do you love? Who do you love?"
~Who Do You Love,
Marianas  Trench, Astoria