Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway Resist With Addicted to The Violence

Smart, witty, and on point, Malakian and Scars on Broadway continue the SOAD and RATM tradition of speaking out while rocking out.

When Rage Against the Machine abdicated as leaders of the type of speak truth to power rock that few bands ever engaged in so eloquently, System of a Down appeared primed to take over that role. For a while they succeeded, producing some of the most articulate protest rock albums since the first RATM album. Peaking with Mezmerize and Hypnotize, which seamlessly flowed into a perfect double album, SOAD hefted the torch of thinking man’s alt-metal. Then it all ended. SOAD frontman Serj Tankian carried forth and continued to fight the good fight, but his solo career has been a hit and miss affair. SOAD guitarist, Daron Malakian, also carried forth and on albums with his post-SOAD band, Scars on Broadway, has also put up a good fight. Scars on Broadway is easily the better sounding of the two offshoots of SOAD, even if the lyrics aren’t as strong as Tankian’s, in his solo efforts, have been. Malakian and Scars on Broadway exceed Tankian in the pure adrenalized punch of guitar rock that straddles metal, punk, and central Asian sounds though. Scars’ new album, Addicted to The Violence, is the closest Malakian has gotten to recreating the purposeful punch of sound and lyric that SOAD delivered with every album, and in the process ended up crafting the best alt-metal/hard rock album of the year.

David Letterman, Music, and Me

David Letterman, Music, and Me

My mother is 68 years old. That’s the same age as David Letterman. Now, my mother isn’t as obviously plugged into pop culture as much as the recently retired and 33 year tenured late night talk show host is, but she is the owner of a nice collection of vintage vinyl. She bequeathed the majority of my late father’s collection to me, but only upon promising that I would make her CD copies of the music so she could still listen to it when she wanted. The point being, she was quite up to date on popular music for many decades-and still is in many ways (she insists Lady Gaga has a better voice than Madonna-a point we hotly contest), but now I’m sure she couldn’t tell you the names of the members of Foo Fighters, even if the she doesn’t mind their music. As we all know now, and have been reminded of relentlessly over the past few weeks by a deluge of listicles on the topic, Foo Fighters is David Letterman’s favorite band. The point here being that David Letterman was obviously, all the way up to the end of his tenure as the king of late night (and he WAS the king of late night-nay sayers be damned) a fan of great music. He never lost that teenage-like joy at hearing a band he really enjoyed play live on his show, nor his delight and palpable emotional reaction to a band that he might not have been impressed with at first, but ended up a fan of after hearing live for the first time. The majority of music fans often lose sight of popular music after 40. Letterman never lost sight. In fact, Letterman never grew up in this sense and plenty of MTV deprived youths, such as myself, owe him a great debt because of it. 

CHIMES’ Debut LP Pile of Parts Is Worth the Wait

Mike Magarelli and CHIMES launch an inspired Dark Wave resurrection with debut album PILE OF PARTS. 

Back on September 23, 2023, I was covering Modern English live at the Radio Room in Greenville, SC. I was there to see them primarily and really wasn’t aware of who was opening. I always cover the opening bands in my reviews though, so I definitely was going to check out whomever it was. As Chimes began to play their opening set, a vibe not unlike a cool wind on a late autumn night emanated from the stage and enveloped the crowd in melancholy embrace. It was an embrace that wasn’t sad, or sorrowful, but coolly affecting. It’s the kind of vibe that bands like The Cure, The Twilight Sad, early Jesus and Mary Chain, and other goth and Dark Wave bands of a similar sound are masters of. Chimes’ performance that night won me over, ended too soon, and left me wanting to hear more. Finally after a year and a half, the LP Chimes’ lead singer/guitarist Mike Magarelli promised was coming soon is now here.