Friday, December 6, 2019

ok, so it took me a little longer to catch up on most of the things, but i think i have.

i simply don't have time to get to the printer today before plaid, and i hope i don't regret it. i'm sure they're open monday, actually. so, i'm going to need to put that stuff off until tomorrow or maybe sunday. i also have a few reviews left to finish in my tabs. and, i'll have to wait until after the 20th to get my g1.

the schedules being as they are, i simply have to take a nap before the show tonight.

but, i think i've put the loose ends in order, at least.
yeah, i'm coming to a conclusion on the armed.

as mentioned, i distinctly recall the pumpkins cover, which was quite a long time ago. but, i didn't get over the genre barrier - i simply don't like metalcore, and there's just so much of it....i don't usually have time for more than a few seconds of it before i move to something i might actually like....

i stopped, this time, for whatever reason and listened a little more carefully, and it's actually the pumpkins influence that i want to pull out as peculiar. i am, myself, a substantive smashing pumpkins fan, and i know that this is a kind of commonality amongst musicians of my generation - we all worship the smashing pumpkins, for their musicianship, in a world that doesn't fully get it. if you play anything at all, you know. i think it was pitchfork that described them as savage virtuosos, or something like that. so, we all grew up playing these songs, and we all grew up acting out the same routine. i had my reznor fetish, others were into whatever else, but the pumpkins were the common ground. and, i bet you even gravitated towards your friends in high school because they were the pumpkins fans, didn't you?

so, these boys and girls are big smashing pumpkins fans, and they give it away, and it kind of roots their writing in a specific place. that's the thing that musicians get about the pumpkins that non-musicians don't, the detail, the complexity. that extra half note at the end of the riff. that goes over their heads! they don't even notice. if there's something special about this, it's that attention to detail.

and, we don't actually know who's playing guitar here, right? hrmmn.

the singer sounds a little like nivek ogre too, but what are the chances, right?

so, i'm willing to concede that this is interesting. i'm less willing to concede that it's actually any good. as the order forms out of the chaos, it's partitioning the sound into unlistenable trash and sappy slop. you want that intersection, especially at the trumbullplex. but, this is just a series of one-dimensional analyses.

i'm leaning towards going, though, out of the spectacle. i'm willing to concede it's interesting enough to experience, even if i'm skeptical as to whether i'll totally enjoy it.

it's how these things work out sometimes - you go for the show, and you ask questions later.

we'll see how i feel after plaid. but, there's often people at the 'plex all day.
the new record is still pretty dumb overall, but it's maybe a little less boneheaded.

i'm just wondering if it's a good place to meet drummers...
if it was nicer out, i might go early and then go dancing after.

as it is, i think it's going to be hard to get me out of the house.
i do understand that, in a certain kind of cultural sense, that armed show is where i want to be this weekend. i'm more likely to meet people that are more accepting of me in a situation such as that.

but, i don't actually like the music. rather, i'm really looking forward to plaid.

i'm waaaaaay more into warp records electronic jazz type stuff than i am into crossover metal. and, if you actually listen to the music i've written and recorded - especially since i've moved to windsor - it's way, way, way more similar to plaid than it is to the armed.

i don't think i've been confusing about that point, either. i've been very critical of modern rock, and demonstrated a strong interest in abstract techno.
actually, i'm sure that i stumbled upon that pumpkins cover at one point previously.

and, i know that when people say they like punk rock in 2019, this is something like what they mean.

but, i never listened to music like this....

when i said i listened to punk rock in 1996, this would have been thought of as some kind of metal. and, i still basically interpret it that way.

to put it another way, my concept of punk is inherently pre-refused, and i didn't follow their reinterpretation of punk at all, i completely rejected it.

this is just way, way too loud and way, way too aggressive for me. and, it always has been; there is really no stage in my life where i would have listened to much of anything like this. like, remotely. i like my punk a lot catchier and a lot fruitier and a lot more cerebral and a lot more political than this.

so, what i'm going to suggest is that you ask somebody that likes metal, even if those words mean something completely different to my gen x mind than they do to your gen y mind. it may be an anachronism, but this used to be a kind of crossover sound, and i never crossed over to it.

https://thearmed.bandcamp.com/album/untitled
i just want to add a weather update.

i have not been to detroit since oct 4/5/6th. i nearly went a few times after that, but i was sick, or something else. i made it to the bus stop on nov 7th for black midi, but turned around, unprepared to weather the overnight. i was in toronto on nov 19th. plaid is tonight.

the first few weeks after i got back weren't so bad, but november was broadly terrible. the funny thing is, though, that, since the beginning of november, the calendar has largely caught up.

it has not been that bad the last few days, and the longterm is not very scary, right now. it's detroit in december, mind you - don't go out in a tshirt, or at least not for too long. it's going to hover around or dip below freezing, sure. but, it's not awful, and it's not even unseasonable; if you crunch the numbers, the averages may even turn out on the + side.

what's going on? well, it has to be all of that hot air in the ocean.

...even as the forecast is warning us that it's -40 in northern canada, right now.

i suggested that we'd have a cold start to the winter, and i was right. but, i pointed out that we're bottoming out, right now. it's going to get better. really. so, i held out hope for an early spring.

it's still too early. that vortex could still roll right through here like bernie sanders looking for a hot meal. but, the solstice is only two weeks away, now, and it's starting to look like it might not be so bad, once the days start getting longer again.