I'm a Music Lovuh Too...

Well, I talk about music a lot, given that my immediate friends have wildly varying tastes. Two of my closest friends love Showtunes or anything from any musical ever written, yet one also dabbles in country, Cher, and the like while the other has the entire discography of HIM (and all that entails, hee hee).

So I thought it's time for a personal look back at the music that has been our foundation of what we listen to every day, and what kinds of music influences us constantly. Hopefully this will be sufficiently different from my colleauge's post. So beginning with myself:

I grew up a steadfast Christian, listening to boring hymns every single Sunday. But my brother had copies of Metallica's Black Album (that I don't remember ever listening to) and Offspring's Smash (which I do). Needless to say, Offspring was a keen reminder that there was a world outside repetitive worship songs and extra-mind-numbing hymns. At the same time I was listening to Delirious and Jars of Clay, I was also listening to Metallica's S&M double album and more on-the-fence bands like Creed. But your musical taste can only reflect what you hear, and as such, I liked bands my brother likes, because he was the sole source of the music I listened to.

It wasn't until my family moved that I began to search the world for music that I could have as my own. Interactions with far-reaching friends led me to take interest in bands like Evanescence, and A Perfect Circle. I listened to them incessently, as bands I've never really heard the likes of before. But the obvious progressions of Evanescence and APC respectively were their more extreme brother bands, Within Temptation and Nightwish (for Evanescence) and Tool (for APC). I fell in love instantly.

Nightwish and Within Temptation are symphonic/opera metal bands. Orchestras back drums and electric guitars, with operatic female singers at the helm. It is epic, it is fantastical, and it encompasses every emotion. You can headbang, you can sway, and so on. My brother, who goes for the epic, loud sounds, latched on, and last Halloween ('07) we went to a concert in Seattle, and generally had a good time, not counting the morons we had to deal with.

Tool is another, deeper direction. They are a thoughtful, insanely talented band, where every song is influenced by each member. Nobody is left out, and each member can be cited as one of the best in their field. To illustrate, Maynard James Keenan is their most well-known member, as the lead singer of both Tool and A Perfect Circle, but he doesn't write any of the music, just the lyrics. Their grammy winning song, "Schism," has a heavy riff everyone has heard, created by their bassist, Justin Chancellor.

They are a bit of a polarizing group, as their fans tend to be hardcore zealots, and completely elitist (yes, I admit it). But it's difficult to ignore their talent, and even those who have heard and don't want to listen to their music admit that they are quite good (I'm looking at you, big bro).

I look at these three bands as the platform for all the other music I listen to, be it U2 and Coldplay or Metallica and Korn, Lacuna Coil, Anberlin, Rise Against and on and on.

Now, what music has left you speechless, has had you begging for more? What music are you a fangirl or fanboy for, and what music in your childhood set the stage for your current headbanging material?

And yes, I will look up bands I hear about that I don't know about already. So list a ton!

What We Say Goes

If anyone has read Noam Chomsky, you may have unleashed the destruction of some of your foundational beliefs you may have had since kindergarten. Noam Chomsky is a very influential linguist and sociology professor at MIT, and is one of the most brilliant men of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I recently read a book of his interviews, essentially summing up his political science views.

The keys were simple: America is a menace on the world stage. We have been so powerful for so long that our audaciousness has reached such hypocritical levels that if we were to submit to the very international laws we pridefully support, we would be humbled to the point of nonexistence.

There are very clear international laws, made by the Geneva Conventions, the UN/NATO, and the WTO most significantly. The problem with these laws is that only the nations that aren't the most powerful nation are policed by them. The select few otherwise cannot be held accountable unless you go to war with them. In the case of going to war against the U.S., probably still the most powerful nation in the world, that's a most unhealthy proposition.

The overall effect of this is that the U.S. does whatever it wants, and the rest of the world be damned. We topple anti-US, completely democratic regimes... in the name of freedom, in order to install pro-US despots that massacre their own population, but smile at the US while they do it. This is the height of hypocrisy, a tragic happenstance of a country too big for it's britches.

Does our country promote freedom and democracy? Do you still believe that? Or are we merely the biggest bullies on the block, with so much power that our abilities have become such that we believe it is our national duty to abuse our powers. What are your thoughts? Agree, disagree? Do you remember events in your childhood where it occurred to you that you might be being more or less brainwashed?

Oh, You Music Lovers!

Recently, I was sifting through Facebook while doing all the normal interwebby-series-of-tubey things I do. I came across a posting of a Tool fan who ranted about the nature of some Tool fans who had gone so completely overboard with their obsessiveness that they seemed like cultists and became rather annoying to those who just wanted to honestly love Tool and live out the rest of their lives. The conversation degenerated, of course, but it was thought provoking.

As a Tool fan myself, I know exactly where these other fans are coming from. I could go down that road myself if I so chose. I could quit any semblance of building for my future, name any kids I have "Maynard," follow the band on any tour, and get Lateralus tattoos all over my body. I don't do this because I think for myself, incorporate many opinions into my world view, and generally do not think Maynard is a prophet. Tool is an ubertalented band, my favorite for sure, but that doesn't mean I must devote my life to them.

To get back on track, at no point in time should a music fan ever become so obsessed with a particular band that they scorn anyone who doesn't love that band, and speak of the band as if they're on a higher plane. I shouldn't be able to listen to you, exchange every "Maynard" for "Jesus" and think you were hella on fire for God. That of course, could go with anything, be it sports teams, your own country, or whatever you may think of.

And of course, it is perfectly OK to have things you love affect you. For example, I think who I am has been largely defined by a small number of fictional characters in fantasy novels that I read when I was young. I said: "I admire that person, and will attempt to emulate their morals and standards as much as possible," perhaps subconsciously. Originally it was Kerbouchard, from Louis L'Amour's amazing book, "The Walking drum." Or Richard Cypher, from the Sword of Truth books, for example.

What books/songs/bands/people have had such an impact on your life, that they shape and model the very way you think and act?