Coldplay: Mylo Xyloto (Coldplay finally turns into U2)

The comparisons have always been there. Since Coldplay apes much of what makes U2 unique: the simple yet somehow complex sounding guitar work, the marching drums, and the political lyrics, the comparison to U2 has merit. Mix in Chris Martin’s self importance, the fact that all Coldplay songs sound vaguely alike upon first listen, and Brian Eno as producer and the metamorphosis is complete. Coldplay is really the new U2 now, but sadly they don’t sound as good, interesting, or powerful as U2 did for years (and still do to me—although that’s an opinion that many would argue with, including many a former long term U2 fan). I suppose every alt-rock generation (a term that really doesn’t exist anymore, but I like to hold on to) needs a U2. U2 aren’t finished by any means though, even though their massive 20^th Anniversary Edition of Achtung Baby is unbelievably only a week away. The guys from Dublin are still making interesting music. Coldplay, as a band, is now the reigning king of political/poetic/thinking man rock though. Like U2, you either love them or hate them. Strangely, I fall into a third rare, but not unknown category, I don’t hate them, but I definitely don’t love them. I guess I could say I like them as one likes a cold day. Exhilarating at first and almost beautifully melodic, but if it drags on too long, becomes numbing. Like a cold day, you have to just get inside and away from Coldplay after a bit, more often than not now, at least at this point in their career.

Evanescence (Self Titled Album)

Evanescence makes profound, lyrically deep, and darkly romantic music that speaks to the soul...if you’ve the soul of a tween or particularly moody teen, or actually are a tween or particularly moody teen. Granted, when I was of that age, I probably would have felt this same way about a band like Evanescence. That’s the age when most kids are discovering the original late 18^th and early 19^th Century romantics in school, realizing their mortality, and generally experimenting with grander thoughts about the world and their place in it. Although Shelley, Byron, Coleridge, et al were quite a bit more profound with their words than Amy Lee is on her second full Ben Moody-less project album. That’s really what Evanescence is now. Now completely devoid of all the former members that came together to make Fallen (2004), the Amy Lee helmed/Ben Moody-less project called Evanescence, marches on. Amy and her main songwriting partner Terry Balsamo (also of Cold) continue to churn out the moody nu-metal styled goth rock. Wow, that description sounds so much like a cliché now over a decade since the inception of “nu-metal” as a real category in the rock/metal canon. Nu-metal hasn’t held up too well over the years. At least grunge got a decently imitated. Nu-metal has drowned in its own ponderous weight and allowed moody punk to gain a foothold in its targeted market (and greater acceptance in the pop culture arena) in the form of emo and its many derivatives.

Pearl Jam: Mother (Cover)

Pearl Jam took part in the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Show's “Pink Floyd Week” event of September 26^th through the 30^th 2011 that was designed to bring attention to the recently re-mastered and re-issued classic Pink Floyd albums. Many bands, along with Roger Waters himself, made appearances that week on the show. Pearl Jam appeared on the Friday night show of the week and covered “Mother” from Pink Floyd’s magnum opus The Wall. Of all the songs played by all the bands that appeared, Pearl Jam’s choice of “Mother” was the most significant, and historically and personally (to Pearl Jam) synchronic. Besides being a powerful and moving performance, as most Pearl Jam performances are, Pearl Jam’s chosen performance of “Mother” thematically matched the band’s overall thematic message and lyrical interests as well as bringing to light the band’s political message. A message that is a spiritual inheritor of Roger Waters’ original political and lyrical message that infuses The Wall with important meaning. Like nearly everything that Pearl Jam does, composes, and plays, their performance of “Mother” was an intelligent statement on where society in general, and the band personally, have been and are potentially going. 

20 Years of 1991

Most Gen X alt-rock purists, if we were still as young and anti-establishment as some of us were in 1991, would now call 1991 the year that alt-rock sold out, our personal favorite bands became too mainstream, and our peers across the country and world were simply jumping on the cool bandwagon that we established with our Sub Pop Singles Club memberships, flannel shirts, goatees, piercings, and penchant for dark sounding yet often times lyrically uplifting music. Most Gen X alt-rock purists, all grown up and approaching or already into middle age, now call 1991 the year that we forever left our musical mark on the landscape and ushered in the last “new rock/cultural revolution” that we will, as a species, most likely ever see. It is just too improbable that one musical movement, or one cultural mindset (one set on change and individuality) will ever spread and change the collective unconscious as the music and events of 1991 did. Now, with the incredibly splintering power of the internet, a mass cultural movement like the one inspired by the music and Cultural Revolution of 1991 is highly unlikely. It really doesn’t seem possible that a meme based on a specific musical style and the look inspired by its most culturally recognized region will ever have as much mass appeal and affect as the grunge/alt rock movement did.

Pearl Jam 20 (The Book)

 

Leave it to filmmaker, rock critic, and all around rock fan extraordinaire Cameron Crowe to come up with the description of what it’s like to see Pearl Jam live in concert. A description that I’ve been trying to communicate for years, but just never got quite right:

“A Pearl Jam concert today is about much more than music. It’s about the kind of clear-eyed spirit that comes from believing in people and music and its power to change a shitty day into a great one, or looking at an injustice and feeling less alone about facing it.” 

Red Hot Chili Peppers: I’m With You (but Frusciante isn't)

Anthony Kiedis, Flea, and John Frusciante existed as the holy trinity of their own brand of varyingly spaced out and grittily grounded rock/funk fusion music. Drummer Chad Smith hammered out the articulate chaos that infused it all with form, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers took their listeners on journeys that were invariably spiritual, sexual, and existential, sometimes all at once. Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic (1991), Californication (1999), By The Way (2002), and Stadium Arcadium (2006) are four of the most uplifting, introspective, and simply groovy records ever recorded. Any one of these albums are the types of compositions that hundreds of lesser talented bands would love to have recorded, even if just once. The Chili Peppers did it four (five if you count the double album Stadium Arcadium) times. The immense success of these albums set the guys up for life and seemingly embraced nearly every type of beat, guitar and base chord composition, lyrical twist, and trippy musical journey that could be conceived. Apparently though, even with the departure of their holy spirit, John Frusciante, there is more to be written and said.