Just Off Center

As I've mentioned before, for a period of time I was training at the Indiana University School of Music for a career as an opera baritone. I chose this vocal style because my voice had changed from tenor to bass, then back to tenor all in the span of two years in high school. By the time I entered college, I had developed a very rich baritone voice that I was very proud of. But it took me all of three semesters to realize that, talented though I was, I simply didn't want to spend my life in a career I hated.I loved singing, but I just couldn't imagine depending on it my whole life. And I have almost no tolerance for drama types, though at times I have to admit that I am one, through and through.

One of the benefits of the strenuous musical curriculum I was on was that it gave me the tools needed to dissect music to its basic components with my ears. At the time I sought out only music that had some degree of musical ingenuity to listen to. I listened to Nine Inch Nails and Bizet, Counting Crows and Hoagie Carmichael. I simply couldn't tolerate the redundancies of pop, country or heavy metal and I may never be able to truly respect most forms of hip-hop and R&B. Not that there aren't talented musicians in these genres. But once you break down these songs to their base components they all look 90%. That's just not enough to keep my interest.

Every now and then Nina will tell me to listen to a song she likes to see if I like it. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. But I always take a stab at trying to figure out what she likes about it. A couple years ago she was all about the band Fuel. She just couldn't place what it was about the songs she liked. I could tell right away by process of elimination. There simply wasn't anything at all unique about the band other than the singer's voice, who seemed to place a great deal of emphasis on just yelling in key. That made him sound passionate. Nina likes passionate. And Mike likes Nina thinking about passion, so I decided not to do any real bubble bursting.

However, some things have changed in pop music lately so I thought maybe I should take another shot at figuring out why I like (or dislike) some of America's favorite bands and songs. And since I just happen to have a radio station on at work I'll just write about what I'm hearing.

JIMMY EAT WORLD - Their new track "Pain" is a slight variation on the repetitive tracks of their first album. J.E.W. has smartly decided not to stray from their trademark hook, constant eighth notes. In every song of theirs you like you are bound to hear that catchy hard rockin' chorus and just want to pump your fist in revolt. The reason for this is because J.E.W. uses a steady pulsing of guitar, bass and drums all playing eighth notes almost exclusively. It gives the music a very structured, but revolutionary feel. Still, I just can't get enough of it. The singer does have some talent too.

BEASTIE BOYS - Ok, now don't change the channel on me just yet, but I simply can't figure out for the life of me why I like these guys. Their lyrics are so retarded that I spend the entire song with my finger over the button of another radio station. Yet I never press it. Their samples are just fantastic and I love Ad Rock's voice. Mike D. puts me to sleep every time and you can really tell by his dynamics that MCA truly believes that his rhymes couldn't have been formulated by a 1st grade class during recess. Regardless, it looks like I'm gonna have to research this some more.

VELVET REVOLVER - Why is everyone so hot shit about this band? I think that millions were spent by the recording studio on publicity before their release just getting DJ's to tell their listening audience that they were destined for rock legend status and that their new sound is phenomenal. You know what they sound like? Guns n Roses with Scott Weiland singing, that's what. Slash is still an amazing guitar player, but he spends the entire song playing sixteenth notes in scales around the tonic and dominant. It just never ends. My prediction is that these guys will be Damn Yankees by the end of 2005.

GREEN DAY - How the fuck is "American Idiot" the number one song in America? And what is up with radio personalities trying to compare the change in their musical style to the change found in Metallica's Black Album? OK, I get it, you blame the media for the problems in America, just like Michael Moore...and Al Franken...and about twelve other members of the liberal media. So that would make you part of this new and oh so "it" anti-media wave. You know what that makes these former punk idols? Sell-outs, plain and simple. It's like that Nextel commercial with Dennis Franz telling his agent how he won't do commercials because they're deceptive...over a Nextel phone.

LINKIN PARK - It breaks my heart to say it, but I'm getting pretty fucking sick of hearing the newest permutation of "One Step Closer" they've put out this month. It's the same thing every damned time. Every song starts out with their DJ Shadow clone, aka Mr. Hahn, pumping out some catchy little sample, then the guitarist who always has his headphones on starts blaring out so much distortion you can hardly tell what note he's playing, followed by the rapper doing his usual angst filled, desperate-to-sound-intellectual rant, and finished by the blonde guy without any milk money screaming about why he's just not good enough to....whatever. Now I'm sad.

CROSSFADE - I simply can't get enough of the song "Cold". Sure it's a cookie cutter score straight out of the textbook. The melody is fairly catchy, but nothing that wouldn't be forgotten in a couple months. It gets a little repetitive in the middle too. But the singer's clarity and his transitions are just fucking beautiful. I could listen to this song every morning for a year and be ready to hate everyone who crosses my path. Let's hope they can keep the drugs and loose women at a level that they don't crash and burn Sponge-style.