rock and roll musings by Tim Byrnes

Nothing To Say. Again

     Sorry it's been a while. Been sick and found myself skating into my bi-annual crippling depression again and decided not to burden this page w/my rampant negativity. At least for a while. I figured if I'm sick of feeling this way and sick of writing about it then whoever's still reading this is probably sick of it, too. So I've decided not to go through all the quasi-suicidal dramaqueen posts like last year and just ride this motherhubbard out. So far, it's OK. Played a couple of country gigs in the last week or so. No money, but they got me out of my house and out of my head - both dark, dirty places right now.

     Gonna go home now and clean my house and hope my head follows. I'll be back when I have something worth hearing to say. Hope it don't take too long.

   Oh and as far as 'punk rock' goes. I recommend anything by the band Anti-Flag. A rush of teenage defiance and agitpop like the old days. Real, heartfelt angry stuff and the way the world's been going lately, angry seems to be a proper response. But even I know that one can't be angry all the time and when one just wants to ignore the shitstorm of modern life and just feel what good they can, I'd recommend 'TAKK', the new CD by Sigur Ros. It's like going back to the womb.

     At least for this old punk. 

Posted by: timbyrnes at 18:19 | link | comments (3)

MORTALITY AS A WAY OF LIFE: NOW I KNOW WHAT DEATH METAL'S FOR

      Not to be too overdramatic about it (who me? nooooooo), but I've been down with some kinda superflu for about 2 weeks now and let me tell ya, it's been wearing me down. I'm not the most stable of mables on a good day and being this sick has worn the nerves down to their last nubs. As an extra added attraction, the apartment next to mine has recently been rented out to what sounds like 17 twentysomethings who all get off work at like 10 pm and celebrate this fact by drinking large amounts of beer every night while blasting what sounds like Cannibal Corpse CDs until like 2, 3 in the morning. Now, apart from the lack of sleep this type of adventure entails, there's also the new thrill of being the 'old guy next door' who keeps pounding on the wall and, failing that, actually knocking on their door to ask them to 'turn that shit down.'

     I've always tried to keep an open mind about Death Metal (and it's various, vaporous offshoots: grindcore, deathcore, hardcore etc) and the best I can come up with is that it's a scream for those who (feel they) have no voices. So, theoretically, I can see the attraction.  Just not when I'm trying to sleep. I remember and understand the attraction of such an antisocial music. I'm pretty antisocial myself and have a pretty high tolerance for non-melodic music. Hell, I still love Metal Machine Music and we all know how I feel about Sonic Youth, but - and this is probably informed just a little by my recent sickness and lack of sleep - could this supposedly 'rebellious' music be any more regimented?

     Heavy metal begats Death Metal and it seems like the same 6 bands keep changing members and names and basically releasing the same damn album year after year. It's a given, at least here at prb, that life basically sucks. It's also come to my attention recently that life's also what you make of it, and I can't help but think that submerging one's self in this style of banging, thudding music w/it's lyrical themes of death, death and more death - not to mention necrophilia, rotting corpses and juvenile anti Christian rhetoric (and yes, I know I'm anti-Christian myself. Actually I'm anti-Religion, even anti-god because I think these concepts are so divisive as to lead to Holy World War III. But that's hardly juvenile and another post entirely.) would tend to stunt any growth, either personal or spiritual.

     Hate is a powerful emotion, one that deserves it's time in the light, so to speak. Negativity exists and should be explored, but this music seems to me to be a celebration of all that is dark. Hate, anger, hostility: all part of the human condition, but Death Metal trivializes it by reducing these complex emotions into a by-the-numbers cartoon of rebellion, and let's not forget that all these bands 'exposing the lies of life' etc. are doing so in order to seperate you from yr cash, just like any other rock band (or insurance salesman or Amway clone) in the first place.

     Teenagers, as well as people, have moments when they feel powerless. In a very real sense, the 'cards' are stacked against them and us old folks. The State, the Church, the Law all have final say over us whether we like it or not. I've stated before and will again, to me, rage is a perfectly normal reaction to the way of the world. But rage alone, rage without some kind of plan to change what enrages you, is just as impotent as the scent of Nihilism that crippled the first wave of Punk. When anger becomes an end to itself then nothing changes and, in that wallowing, it would appear that one really is happy with the way things are. I understand the cathartic value of screaming in a dark, dark tunnel but what value is there, beyond catharsis?

     Simply put, if yr not going to kill yrself, then stop glorifying death because in glorifying death all yr doing is wasting whatever time you have left. And let the old man next door get some sleep. His misery doesn't want yr company.

Posted by: timbyrnes at 20:53 | link | comments

TALES FROM THE TOP TEN 2: TWISTING WHAT MIGHT BE INTO WHAT IS

Bruce Springsteen: Darkness on the Edge of Town

     It's been said that most men live lives of quiet desperation and I believe that to be true. So much of life often feels like the mere remains of possibility, dully doing our duty dressed in the dust of dreams ground down by the relentless wheel of what's real. Coming after the Peter Pan rush of blind joy that was 'Born to Run', Springsteen's follow up 'Darkness On the Edge of Town'  was a harsh, though cannily accurate, depiction of those earnest believers hitting the brick wall of the day to day. Numbing, endless and ultimately, all that there is after all.

    I know, too many metaphors to say 'life sucks' and I know it doesn't, not much or really, but there's something in this record that calls out to me to surrender. To know the struggle and walk through it without the (artificial?) comfort of family or religion. To wear the wight of humanity w/something approaching quiet pride  for as long as I can until, finally overcome by the unfairness inherent in this human condition to howl in rage. To howl in glory, at Glory. To realize that while the howl has no power over circumstance, that the White Man always wins, that the howl exists as and for itself, as and for ourselves. Animals crying in the night at the pain and the joy, for there is joy, of being alive.

   "She sits on the porch of her daddy's house

     Where all her pretty dreams are torn.

     She stares off, alone, into the night

       With the eyes of one who hates for just being born." - Racing In the Streets

     "... one who hates for just being born." How many soldiers, you think, in that army? This record feels like facing up and moving on. A symphony to regret and, as such, a  more honest gift to mankind than the cryptojingoisms of "Born in the USA". Like the country death songfest "Nebraska", this record tells uncomfortable truths, addresses concerns most would rather not. Failure in all it's phases, with all it's faces permeates these tracks. In 'Adam Raised a Cain' Springsteen rails at the damages families can do. On 'In Candy's Room' he spins a tale of damaged lovers, hiding their lives from the light (and includes a killer-by-way-of-Jeff Beck-guitar-solo) and pretending that all is well.

       Like most of us do everyday.

     That this record has been eclipsed in the Sprinsteenian canon by 'USA' and the Boss' most recent folk forays as the 'Official Troubador of This Post 9/11 World', not to mention the preacher parodies his concerts have become, speaks no ill of Mr. Springsteen but as usual, leaves us holding the bag.

     Brother Leghorn, would you lead us in the evening prayer?

Posted by: timbyrnes at 19:54 | link | comments