With the exception of a few songs here and there, I am not too familiar with Peter Gabriel’s work both in Genesis and his solo career. The following is a song-by-song review of his new album Scratch My Back which is a collection of covers beautifully set to strings, horns and the occasional piano.

1. “Heroes” originally performed by David Bowie
I’m not going to lie, I first heard this song on the Godzilla soundtrack as performed by the Wallflowers. I’ve since heard the David Bowie version, which is a thousand times better (though the Wallflowers one isn’t bad by any stretch) but I really LOVE Gabriel’s version of this song. I’m not really sure why. Maybe it’s how intimate his vocal performance sounds to me. The closeness of the mic placement, how quietly he begins the song to how epic it becomes later. I love the loop-like nature of the string arrangement. I also like the idea that loving your partner is heroic. I also love how the higher register singing Gabriel does reminds me of my favorite college professor (which is a huge reason I like this record as much as I do, and why I like “Everything That Happened Will Happen Today” by Brian Eno and David Byrne.) This song is just epic and Gabriel treats it as such.

2. “The Boy in the Bubble” originally performed by Paul Simon
“The Boy in the Bubble” begins pretty plain but is surprising towards the middle and end. The lyrics are visuals. Each line puts a picture in your head and associates with a memory. I really like the line “these are the days of miracle and wonder” and how it is in reference to the advances in technology in the modern age and they can be used to keep people connected.

3. “Mirrorball” originally performed by Elbow
At first I thought this was a cover of that Sarah McLachlan song “Mirrorball” but as it turns out, Mirrorball was just the name of her live record and wasn’t actually a song she penned. Anyway. I like this song’s placement before “Flume.” The line “we made the moon our mirrorball” and “everything has changed” and how confrontational the song seems to be to the singer’s former lover. A “screw you” kind of break up song. Fantastic, soaring arrangement in the strings this song, particular during the “life off love” section. Gabriel’s vocals are in top form.

4. “Flume” originally performed by Bon Iver
I was very affected by Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago when it came out in 2007. I caught a Bon Iver live set on an NPR All Songs Considered podcast and was blown away by the fragility and power present at the same time in Justin Vernon’s voice.
Gabriel’s take on it somehow makes it even more frail and heart breaking. From the slow start with piano and vocal, to the crescendos in the choruses both in the string section and Gabriel’s voice. The moon comes back, but I get the impression it is a different moon than in the Elbow cover, and this is one colored with regret. There are various interpretations of the lyrics out there but the one I identify with the most is feeling isolated and different from your surroundings. An extra layer of sadness is applied to this interpretation when you put the words in Gabriel’s mouth who is twice Vernon’s age which make them particularly potent. The extra refrain of “she’s the moon” at the end also lead to an interpretation that this is being sung as a tribute to the singer’s mother, who may have died.

5. “Listening Wind” originally performed by Talking Heads
Despite the fact that this song is just Gabriel’s voice and strings (and maybe a flute too,) it makes me move. I feel my body sway back and forth, my head keeps the beat and the emotion of the song finds its way inside. The lyrics “he feels the presence of the wind beside him” are perfectly transformed into the string arrangement. The rising, scalar nature of the lead melody in the violin balance the jumping violas and bass and run contrary to Gabriel’s melodies which generally start at the top and find their way down the scale. Similar to the movements of a tree wrestling in the wind, the movement of each individual branch is seemingly cacophony, but the wind is blown with a steady beat which keeps me listening, and swaying.

6. “The Power Of the Heart” originally performed by Lou Reed
Building slowly like most of the tracks on this covers album, one can imagine being in rehearsal space or a large living room with Gabriel at the piano and a string quartet in front of him. Pretty simple verse, chorus, bridge arrangement and dynamics. The arrangement’s understated nature may by the opposite of what the lyrics intend, but that also could be the point. The lyrics say it without any help from the instruments. “All around the world just to bring you back, it was the power of your heart.” Even the rise at the end of the song underpin the fact that with or without the bombast the power in the song is not the music.

7. “My Body Is a Cage” originally performed by Arcade Fire
The main refrain of the song, “my body is a cage,” makes me wonder if the lyric is sung with the thought of inevitable death from age in Gabriel’s mind. Being 60, I can’t imagine he can move around in the same way anymore. The string and horn arrangement build to claustrophobic levels and overwhelm the singer even at the top of his range. Despite the physical decline the line “the mind is the key” is repeated over and over towards the end of the song with an angelic choir in the background.

8. “The Book of Love” originally performed by the Magnetic Fields; a duet sung with Melanie Gabriel
This song is Nicole Krauss’ “The History of Love” in nearly four minutes. Love is a bitch. Love is painful. Love is dull. Love is beautiful. Love is worthy. Love is enthralling. Love is idealized by the young but understood by the old. Love is selfish and sacrificial.

9. “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” by Randy Newman
Randy Newman will best be remember by me for his songs in Toy Story. That was the first time I noticed him and have a hard time taking his non-Disney-approved songs very seriously. Gabriel conjures his best Cash on this version of “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today.”

10. “Après moi” originally performed by Regina Spektor
Gabriel slowed down Spektor’s “Après moi” to a tempo fit for a funeral march. While Spektor’s version of the song is manic, scattered and almost comical, Gabriel’s is comical in it’s utter seriousness. The lyrics seems to be about fear of totalitarian theft or a crazy delusion that there are lame people out there trying to steal your legs. Be afraid for what you have because someone may steal it. I may be missing something that would tie it all together, but this cover is my least preferred thus far.

11. “Philadelphia” by Neil Young
I can identify with this song and feeling afraid of being rejected by your community. Having been pushed out to sail without a map it’s been an interesting couple of years since graduating from college. Trying to figure out what it is I’m “supposed” to be doing with my life, learning how to be married and how to love unconditionally, taking care of stupid details and bills. I really like the line “I will not be ashamed of love.” It resonates on a couple levels: not being too concerned about the way people think of me, in other words, by myself; not being afraid of really getting in depth in to what I love, mostly metal and hardcore; and to love my friends without self-consciousness as they deserve to be loved.

12. “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” originally performed by Radiohead
The change of the constant guitar arpeggios to slowly outlined piano 9th chords transform the song that originally (and brilliantly) ended Radiohead’s “The Bends,” to a formless entity somehow bleaker than the original. Out bleak-ing Radiohead is a tremendous feat in and of itself. The arrangement of the song slowly pulls the listener down the drain unaware but the real magic is in Gabriel’s choice to mimic Yorke’s vocals. Cracking, tearing his vocals all through the “ohs” and “fade out again” perhaps better than the original recording, or perhaps how Yorke would record the song now. On top of this, the ending is fantastic. In the last few seconds, Gabriel slides into chords foreign and beautiful despite their darkness. Much like the ending of Radiohead’s Kid A with the orchestra tuning that crescendos to heaven’s pearly gates Gabriel’s slide transports the listener from a place of despair to euphoria but one must wonder if the euphoria is heavenly or perhaps we’re feeling warm because we’re about to freeze to death.

Listen to the full album at the Guardian and at Lala
Scratch My Back at Wikipedia

Backwards it begins, and backwards we end. As though blind, we walk with our hands out, feeling our way through the mess of cacophonous noise and following notes that dart and dive and make every effort to remain unseen. Notes that are not restricted by meter and seem to travel free of the restraints of time. It is like witnessing the creation of Michelangelo’s David but in reverse. Psyopus do not write songs; they dismantle them.

Psyopus‘ 2004 debut album Ideas of Reference is an in depth study in regression. Contrary to other technical metal albums released in 2004 (Dillinger Escape Plan’s Miss Machine, Pig Destroyer’s Terrifyer, as well as less-tech Converge and Mastodon with You Fail Me and Leviathan respectively) which, in one way or another, were more progressive and dynamic, begging the listener to gape in awe of their massive scope and depth and be terrified of the monstrous wall of impenetrable sound they created; Psyopus ripped open a black hole.

Beginning with the vacuum that is “Mork and Mindy (Daydream Lover)” and through all 9 songs that comprise Ideas of Reference, Psyopus make void, as opposed to leaving behind destruction and dead bodies, erasing what each previous section was building with the one that would follow; breaking it down into small parts and examining each for fitness.

While their complexity at first listen seems like random, mashed together parts, each song is an actual song which was a serious anomaly in the aftermath of the “breakdown-core” and “part-core” bands in the early part of the Aughts. The songs contain repetition, unity of key centers, rhythmic and melodic repetition and variation, inversion; like Stravinsky at his more chaotic moments, Psyopus is full of Ideas… and fleshes each out nicely in the 9 tracks.

From blast beats to syncopated grooves, to punctuated rhythms that require a calculator or a slide rule to count, Psyopus’ beats are in their second semester of calculus in the school of mathcore bands. But the drums do not build in complexity so much as they move through the problems they are working on, rhythmically tearing the song apart as it plays. The melodic players move in similar fashion. The guitar and bass are both working out problems of their own, often intersecting, than chasing down separate strands only to intersect again but inverted. Often too bass and drums relegate themselves to the background so the guitar can explore variables only it is fast enough and small enough to fit into. You see this throughout Ideas, yes, the bassist and drummer are both mind blowingly complex and ridiculously proficient players, but it’s the guitarist that really knows its stuff.

Psyopus’ guitarist Christopher Arp is a quadruple armed, eight fingered mammoth handed man whose fingers can stretch 12 frets and his pinky can move independently of his ring finger. He is the love child of Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman and Morbid Angel’s Trey Azagthoth that was conceived while on methamphetamine. Arp’s guitar playing is faster than imagination on Ideas… and is at times chaotic and discordant, moving minor 2nd notes up and down the neck, to jazzy and progressive but never stagnant. His secret weapon is placing both hands on the fret board and playing two set of melodic lines at a time as though sounding as though a second guitarist is present. Do not be mistaken, he really can play that fast. It is that speed and two-handed technique that give Psyopus such a distinct, almost obsessive compulsive sound. Their minds seems to justify the notion that playing every note possible, as quickly as possible, is the only way to keep the demons away. And if challenging Psyopus is anything like how Charlie Daniels says it is, the demons would do good to stay away.

Pysopus’ Ideas of Reference is an escape, an exercise in reversal, an attempt to erase. With each step forward the band creates backwards momentum, and moving backwards is future.

Last night I was feeling a bit crafty so I decided to do a bit of work on the old PILOTS myspace page (who uses myspace anymore anyway?) The page had been lacking a nice header image of us for quite a while (years maybe?) So I took one my favorite photos of us from the Off Broadway show back in October, added some text, figured out the code, and wha-la! A tasty header image. There’s a little preview below and you can see it in full effect here.

PILOTS 2008 demo, that we recording with my former prof. Dr. J, is online for your consumption for the price of bandwidth only. It can be found at the same website where the 2007 demo resides. http://stlpilots.bandcamp.com

Like the previous two EPs, the 08 Demo is free to stream and download. I can’t wait to finish up our new LP and get it up on the bandcamp for everyone. But this is good for now.

I also made some sweet artwork to look like an old scanned LP cover. Check it out:

After graduating from Greenville in 2006, my band (which was then referred to) When Sorrow Fails when on tour. After tour we buckled down, wrote some songs we were proud of and recorded with me using Greenville’s studios (thanks to my favorite prof., Mike Johnson!) Before we took the weekend to track the songs, I called up Matt Goldman (the guy who did the Chariot, Copeland and others) and got him to mix the tracks for us. His mix was sent to Alan Douches at West West Side Music (Converge, Mastodon, Sufjan Stevens) to master and the result was pretty satisfying.

I’ve made the EP available online here: http://stlpilots.bandcamp.com/. You can download it for free in many formats including high quality mp3s, FLAC and others. I’ll be uploading our 2008 three song, and the final full length once it’s finished. So keep an eye out.

I forget to mention this in the previous post about album #6. Zao’s most lasting influence on my guitar playing from their album (Self-Titled) was my choice of fiddle. Scott Mellinger’s axe of choice was an ESP LTD Viper, so naturally I too played an ESP LTD Viper. He played a black one, but I found the red one more visually appealing. I actually had the chance to see Zao in high school and asked Scott why he plays the Viper, and he loved it so much that I had to get one. Here’s a picture of a younger, fatter, more poorly dressed, and unbearded me playing my old Viper:

I got the guitar for Christmas my freshman year of high schoolcollege (before that I played an Ibanez RG570) and kept it until the spring before my junior year ended. I sold it on eBay and bought a different guitar because of another guitar player I grew to admire. It’s a few albums before we get to him though so you’ll just have to wait to see…

Fight Amp’s “Manners & Praise” 3.5/5 Young Widows if kept Breather Resist moniker – Jesus Lizard + Shellac #howfire: 3 #nwms

Iron Age’s “The Sleeping Eye” 3.5/5 “Dress as your favorite centurion” themed thrash party that degenerates to fantasy drinking games #nwms

Kylesa’s “Static Tensions” 3/5 Nate Newton fronts Baroness playing Old Man Gloom covers. Crusty sludge rock #nwms

Pissed Jeans’ “Hope for Man” 4/5 Disgorging noise punk, dirtiest stripper bar band in PA, vocals akin to David Yow #nwms

Rollins Band’s “End of Silence” 4.5/5 Being punched in the head while staring at Henry’s four black bars bc he has you in a head lock #nwms

Now, the next album in our series is one that held a huge place in my development as a person and musician. It marks a turning point in my life. Through P.O.D.’s Warriors EP from album number 2, I discovered Tooth and Nail Records. This discovery turned me on to Tooth and Nail’s harder subsidiary Solid State Records and particularly bands like Zao, Blindside, Living Sacrifice, Embodyment and eventually Luti-Kriss/Norma Jean.

And while all of those records expanded my understanding of heavy music, I would be lying if I didn’t include another album by Zao in my top 15 albums that have changed my life.

In the later years of high school, Zao was my favorite band and I eagerly awaited the release of this album. For months I religiously checked their record label, Solid State Records, website in hopes of a release date or sample mp3s (I think, this may have come out before mp3s previews were commonplace) to no avail. And then, one day, my friend and bandmate Chris gives me a cd he burned of a leaked copy of the album about 2 months before it came out!

I was as excited as the proverbial birthday boy who pukes all over his gifts in ecstatic joy. I could have kissed Chris! I immediately listened to the record and was astounded by Zao’s departure from Liberate te ex Inferis.  Electronic drums, keyboards, samples instrumental passages, and vocalist Daniel Weyandt’s scream sounded like three men and some kind of animal combined. Truly monstrous.

Around this time a lot of the band’s drama came to light. I blame the Internet. All the details about drummer Jesse Smith’s dissatisfaction with Solid State Records and the group being pegged as a “Christian band” could be read anywhere. The troubles the band experienced on previous tours with members getting angry and quitting just to rejoin again hours later. The departure of long-time guitarist Russ Cogdell (for school, graphic design I believe) and bassist Rob Horner (who rejoined the band after (Self-Titled) was recorded) and the uncertainty of Dan remaining the voice of Zao given his many side projects (opening a tattoo parlor and his rockabilly band primarily.) A lot of these gritty details were also discussed in an article published by HM Magazine shortly after the album was released.

Anyway, about the record itself. Beginning with the vicious post break-up but not at all emo “5 Year Winter,” the album immediately punches you in the face. Instead of a crawling, almost liturgical intro like what is found at the start of Liberate… or a rhythmic build up found in Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest, all you have are four bars of “clean” guitar to prepare yourself. The song begins with a pummeling breakdown and the immortal words “Dear Tiffany, you’ve made me nauseous for the last time!” Zao would eventually feature this track as the opening song on successive tours and the mosh pit would explode. “5 Year Winter” was followed by what was in essence the album’s titled track, the instrumental “Alive Is Dead” (“Zao” is a Greek word means which means “alive” and “Alive Is Dead” is both a reference to how close the band was to breaking up, plus it was the original title of the album.)

Other notable songs are the anti-abortion song “A Tool to Scream,” the murder ballad “The End of His World,” the melodic, cleanly sung, nearly Deftones’ acoustic b-side “FJL” and my personal favorite, the album ending statement of purpose, that Zao will not die without first killing a giant, the chaotic “At Zero (Simon Simmons).” Compared to 1999’s rough and raw Liberate…, (Self-Titled) is sterile, distinct and played with a surgeon’s precision. The use of electronics, keys and looped drums convey a mechanical feel as though Zao themselves are tired of their robotic nature and the unfeeling way they have dealt with their label, their fans and themselves.

The overall sound of the record also adds to the feelings of alienation and isolation in the lyrics. From bitter anger with an ex, to regret over the death a loved one, to speaking out towards harsh judgment and criticism the whole record is a study is estrangement. I identified with this on a superficial, mostly boy-girl relational level during my junior year of high school. Liking girls. Being rejected by them. Doing some rejection myself. Several of the songs became anthems to get me through those emotional times. But on a deeper level I found communion whether consciously or not with feeling different from my parents, peers and community. I was the only one of my friend who liked this extreme, rather angry sounding music. I could not quantify to my parents why I identified with a dude bitterly screaming or why I might want to wear all black and dye my hair and paint my fingers the same color. The music helped establish my identity as separate and mine. It was the inevitable rebellion against my parents as I understand it now and Dan’s lyrics helped me work through that.

Musically, Scott Mellinger’s playing was more melodic and tonal. Overall, given the production was much cleaner and I could actually understand what Scott was playing, I was able to figure out a few of his chord formations and riffs. Being that he was the lone guitarist in the band, Scott’s playing was predominantly rhythmic without too many overdubs other than doubling. While there weren’t any musical epiphanies that profoundly effected my guitar playing like the last two records, a lot of what was learned from them was reinforced. I experimented more with lower tunings since Zao played dropped D a whole step down (“dropped C”.)

Representing a turning point in my musical development, it confirmed that I was now a “metalhead.” I could listen to other bands and not have to take a lot of time to adjust to the harsh screaming. I could handle stranger, non-melodic scales and chord patterns. I also began to fall in love with the rhythmic breakdown, but we run into a few records next that take that idea to the extreme. So, until next time.

(Self-Titled) on La La
Zao’s MySpace

High On Fire’s “Blessed Black Wings” 4/5 Crazy Train Sabbath w/ manic vocals that fully embrace the melodic Dies Irae #howfire: 7 #nwms

High On Fire’s “Blessed Black Wings” 4/5 Crazy Train + H&H Sabbath w manic vocals that fully embrace the melodic Dies Irae #howfire: 7 #nwms

Neurosis’ “Times of Grace” 4.5/5 Loneliest sea battle of man vs. God ever, an atheistic Jonah in crashing chords #howfire: 6 #nwms

is listening & enjoying an old TX hardcore band Big Boys for (nearly) the last hour #nwms

Big Boys’ “Fat Elvis” 4.5/5 31 song comp of three LPs, Bad Brains – Bob Marley + Funkadelic, new fav. early hardcore band #nwms

thinks he may have heard the first hardcore “breakdown” ever in Black Flag’s “My War” from the 1982 demo #nwms

Black Flag’s “1982 Demo” 4.5/5 All the aggression of the first EPs no BS noodling, perfect line-up, songs & intensity FAV HXC album #nwms

Jucifer’s “L’Autrichienne” 4/5 The soundtrack to Terminator starring Clint Eastwood directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. In a word: Trippy #nwms

Daath’s “The Concealers” 3.5/5 Entombed/Repulsion-esque death metal, slick production, endlessly heavy #howfire: 7 #nwms

The Flaming Lips’ “Embryonic” 3.5/5 More noir, noisy & paranoid than Kirby’s Dreamland, suffers from being too long (18 tracks!) #nwms

Propagandhi’s “Supporting Caste” 4/5 All over the map, fast “emo” rock with hints of Bad Religion & Thrice. Really good. #howfire: 2 #nwms

Polar Bear Club’s “Chasing Hamburg” 2/5 Poppy emo-rock, formulaic songs played with good equipment #howfire: -3 #nwms

Goatwhore’s “Carving Out…” 2/5 Black/death metal with crust & doom influence. Starts strong, ends boring #howfire: 7 #nwms

Thursday’s “Common Existence” They get better with every record, melodic hardcore that pops, Rickley’s vox are spot on too #howfire: 1 #nwms

At the Gates “Slaughter of the Soul” 4/5 Beginning of melodic metal, tasteful use of keyboards, riffs on fire #howfire: 6 #nwms

Blut Aus Nord’s “Memoria Vetusta II” 4/5 Chilling & epically prog black metal. Solos smooth as ice on frozen duck’s back. #howfire: 4 #nwms