Thrice: Beggars

Taking a cue from a similarly music-based blog (as this one seems to be shaping up to be), i am going to review Thrice's new album Beggars as I listen to it, so as to best give my first impression of the album. Here goes!

Track 1. All The World Is Mad

Cool intro. The Breckenridge brothers are tight and solid. Dustin Kensrue's voice has a nice, smooth vibrato to it that seemed to be lacking in the previous EPs for the respective elements. Haunting sort of melody, with a busy, Telecaster-laden riffage happening behind it. Drummer's kit is kinda noisy, but it lends energy to the song. "Something's gone terribly wrong, everywhere... all the world is mad..." Excellent songwriting once again, Dustin. Props. And this arpeggiation Teppei is putting out is HOT. Fast, tasteful, and driving. Overall song rating: 4.5 stars.

Track 2. The Weight

Lightly fuzzy, acoustic-y sounding intro. Kensrue's famous "bathroom stall" echoes in intro as well. Little bit of a math-rock vibe to this one. It's in an even signature, but you can count on breckenridge, Inc. to make you think twice about that. Chorus is a powerful kind of slow-slamdance one, a la' "The Earth Will Shake" from Vheissu. (Did Teppei put away the Les Paul for good on this record? I think i hear another 70's Tele). Another noisy kind of drum kit vibe, must be a theme for the record. Oo... clever interlude happening here. Drummer's classic kick-and-rimshot beat. Theme for the song seems to be standing up under opression, a great weight etc. Overall song rating: 4 stars

Track 3. Circles

Acoustic intro. Slow and contemplative. Tricky melody by Kensrue. True slowdance material for indie-rock kids. Once again, the Breckenridge brothers mess with my sense of rythmn and such. Seems to be a sort of "where do we go from here" kind of mood going on here. whether this is based on a relationship or a dry season of spirituality, it isn't clear.

Clever but simple guitar solo from Teppei. Maybe playing a Strat? I really should know but it's kind of effects-laden. Overall song rating: 3.8 stars

Track 4. Doublespeak

Math-rocky intro. I think the first time there's a dominant piano part. "Ends justify the means" kind of mindset. Another slow-slamdance song. I think this is what people mean when they say "groove-based rock". It doesn't sound fast, mostly just really locked in tight. Make no mistake, though, not any hack could play this. Half-time feel to the chorus, with a slowed-down kind of "Artist In The Ambulance" vibe to it. Bridge is laced with feedback and whammy-bar type harmonics. Overall feel seems to be reaching for "epic", but landing around "huge".

Song rating: 4 stars

Track 5. In Exile

Another slower intro, but fairly simple beat. Drummer's using fans, or similar soft, jazzy kind of "sticks". Allusions to C.S. Lewis and the Apostle Paul, a la "through a glass darkly". Seems to be a "not of this world" vibe. Aaand there Dustin said it himself. "I am not of this world, i'm just passing through". hehe. Reminds me of the drawing Jude made in "Across the Universe". If i could get a print of that, that would be amazing. I would put that up in every room i ever stayed in. but i digress. Solid, simple-for-Thrice kind of song. Ethereal sort of ending, which i really dig.

Overall rating: 4.8 stars

Track 6. At the Last

ooh. Fast. but groovy, like they said. Cool shuffle effect with the snare and kick drum. Seriously detuned bass (i thought they got rid of that after "Ambulance"?) or maybe it's a 5-string. That would make more sense. Kind of minimal approach for guitars, but it works for this song. Bass continues to drive, almost incessantly. Ugh... Breckenridge's doing that annoying "crash-cymbal-on-every-beat" riff. Not a fan. Oh well it's over. Oh. OH. Teppei, what is UP man? You been taking lessons from BB King? That lick was BLUESY. Overall rating: 4 stars

Track 7. Wood and Wire

Ethereal, lightly fuzzy guitar intro. Reminds me of the Air EP from The Alchemy Index. Another shuffle beat that makes me happy. And thickly-layered Kensrue-on-Kensrue harmonies. Really makes me happy. Although this isn't exactly a feelgood kind of song. Mellow, rainy-day-in-seattle kind of vibe. I want coffee... *pauses song and brews a pot* Back! Still digging the harmonies Kensrue is coming up with. Longish instrumental outtro, trippy kind of end. Overall song rating: 3.5 stars

Track 8. Talking Through Glass / We Move Like Swing Sets

Heavy kind of groove drum intro... cool. AND DUSTIN KENSRUE IN YOUR FACE! REAAAAHFREARARRRRGARG!! cool. I'm sold. The title has me confused though... Meh. It's not as important as I think it is, i bet. Cool vocal bends that Dustin's trying out. Nothing extravagant, but it gets your attention. *sips coffee* i think this french roast is the best thing that's happened to me as far as coffee is concerned in a long time. Like since espresso. Ooh. And now we've gone all acoustic, Earth-EP-esque. Hmm. Cool humming in BG, I dig. The swing sets part of the song seems to be kicking in, but these are not happy swing sets, they're sad and wistful. Overall song rating; 4.9 stars

Track 9. The Great Exchange

Interesting sort of guitar intro. I like the drumroll kind of beat Breckenridge is putting out. Kensrue is consistently creating some memorable-yet-original melodies too. Very haunting. I think that if i could pick one word for this album, it would be haunting. Or ethereal. Lots of oohs and hums and such. The Great Exchange seems to be referring to Christ's willingness to trade his life for ours. "Your body is a bridge across an endless sea..." Cool. Overall song rating: 5 Stars

Track 10. Beggars.

Ok. This is it. The summation of this album. Intro reminds me of "Miserable Visu" from Anberlin's latest record, but it sounds a little smaller, scale-wise. It seems to be very restrained, like they're afraid their audience will run away if they play too loud, but they also seem to have an urgency to say what they need to. Kensrue's melody is very inventive, again. Bends. They're new to his repertoie, but they are sweet.

ooh. bigger. More distortion, more passion to vocals. Gritty. mm. mm.. goood. Desperate. And then back to tender and quiet. Almost crack-ily quiet, for the vocals. Ooh, i sense an epic guitar solo coming! Hmm... Maybe not what i was expecting, but it's still pretty good. Longer than many of Teppei's other efforts. Kinda repetitive, but i guess it's becoming more of a riff than a solo. Almost atonal, very Tele-like tone. Overall song rating: 5 Stars

And that's it! I was kinda surprised at the end. Expecting more, perhaps. A more epic end, like Red Sky did for "Vheissu". It's the shortest Thrice album that I own, anyway, not counting the Alchemy EPs. It almost seems unfinished, in that it ends very noisily. Ah well. It's a good album, and I would recommend it to any long-time Thrice lover, for certain. For a new recruit, i think i would have them listen to at least their 3 previous albums, to get a feel for where they're coming from. The transformation that occurs from "The Artist In the Ambulance" to "Beggars" is simply astounding.

Sigh...

Prepare yourself, those of you who don't care much for quasi-depressing blog posts. i'm in a bit of a hum-drum mood, as i seem to be at a dead end as far as options are concerned. i'm enlisting into the Active Duty portion of the army, adn i can't say that currently i'm all that excited about it. Granted, there are a lot of benefits that come with SERVING YOUR COUNTRY but i'm in such terrible shape... It doesn't seem like i'll be in good enough condition to make it through basic. I went running this morning with one of my recruiters from the Bozeman office, and i nearly died. at least, i thought i had. the last couple hundred yards were absolute hell, and i wanted to drop dead, drink a gallon or two of water, and take a massive dump all at the same time. And this was with semi-supportive people running with me, prior to basic. How I'll make it through the real Basic Training, I don't know. I hear success stories like this guy Sean who lost like 35 pounds in one month, and i think to myself, "That's really nice and all, but i just don't think that i could do that without massive amounts of willpower and not a lot of "fun foods". I like to eat. I like eating unhealthy foods. I'm not exactly a fan of running.

I've been a musician for well over half my life. I'm not a warrior. Granted, I'm not in a combat MOS, but I don't much care for the warrior mentality. It all seems so destructive and reckless. I'd rather create and build and invent and so on, than destroy. Destroying is easy. It comes naturally. It's part of fallen human nature. It's not something God has commanded us to do as followers of his Son, Jesus Christ. How can I justify serving a portion of our government that has largely been responsible for a good deal of human suffering and death for the past 200 or so years? Even if I'm helping the individuals who have participated in this destruction to recover and lead healthy, productive lives, I'm not sure that it's really worth it.

Your input, dear reader, is of course, greatly appreciated. Am I over-analyzing my role in the American Armed Forces? Should I worry about the actions and misdeeds of people out of my control, even out of my sphere of influence?

The End of The Music Industry And the Return of Music as an Art Form

Sounds like doom and gloom eh? Not so much. No my friends, with the advent of p2p sharing sites like limewire and BitTorrent that allow you to get whatever artists and songs you want for free, the music industry as we know it is in for a change. I think we’re all aware of this, what I intend to establish is that this change will be for good.

How is this possible, you might ask? It's rather simple. Remember how rock stars used to get "money for nothing and their chicks for free"? (Apologies to Dire Straits). That was a huge draw to someone considering musicianship as a career. Make a record, get signed, play some shows, make a music video, BAM. Instant stardom. This is what the music industry was for the past 30 or so years. Music was brought to you by the radio, TV, and occasionally that friend you had at the record store. Yes, there actually was a time when Metallica's "Master of Puppets" and Pantera's "Psycho Holiday" were played on FM radio.

But all of this changed with the advent of computer popularity and the internet. For a while, the internet actually boosted album and single sales. Bands that would otherwise have gone unnoticed for lack of publicity, exposure, or a label to promote them could promote their music with their own Myspace page that allowed others to listen to samples of their music for free. It was great for a while. But then peer-to-peer, or P2P sharing programs like Limewire, Bittorrent, and Frostwire made it possible for others to share unprecedented amounts of media to anyone who agreed to the terms of service and had a high-speed internet connection. Granted, all of this is illegal by the passage of numerous Federal and State laws, but frankly you have to be downloading terabytes of media in order for your ISP to flag you for illegal downloading. It's practically impossible for the government to catch someone on an illegal downloads charge, which is why the penalties are so harsh and the fines so steep when someone is caught. There's quite a bit of media attention for it as well.

So, dear reader, you may be thinking to yourself, "ok, all of this makes sense, but what about the return of music as an art form? That I don't get." Well, I'm glad you asked.

This is my hope and aspiration for the music industry. I anticipate that, since it will become harder and harder to make a living as a musician, there will be fewer mediocre and poor musicians attempting to make music for a living, as it just wouldn't be feasible anymore. The ones that do try, will make the absolute best music that they can, maybe take some theory and composition classes at colleges, and, in short, make better music. Granted, this is a pretty optimistic hope, but I think it can happen.

One of the bands that is doing just this is a little group from Berklee School of Music in Boston, named Dream Theater. The level of musicianship, complexity of composition, and intensity of passion is simply unbelievable. A number of the band members have Bachelor's and even Master's degrees in Music Performance from Berklee, and frankly, it shows. While the setting of the music is clearly a progressive metal environment, the classical schooling they've received for their music is blatantly obvious. If more bands took the approach that Dream Theater has, I am confident that better, more accomplished music will be on the rise for popularity and music will return to an Art Form, rather than a Business or Industry.