Been nostalgic with my iPod lately, since lately, new music hasn't defined my life like MAC Smolder Eye Kohl defines the inner bottom rim of my eyes. Because the way I/the world listens to music has changed. Because the way music is delivered to the world has changed. Because radio has changed. So I've been going to the iPod, which ironically is one of the key reasons the way we hear and connect with our music has changed, and listening to songs that have defined times in my life, which transport to the time that the songs were the soundtrack and background music to events in my life.
One of those songs is Stone Temple Pilots' "The Big Empty," from the Crow soundtrack. That's arguably one of the best soundtracks of all time, but that song always stood out to me because it was a moody, dank ballad with sucker punch lyrics. If you're not familiar or have not heard the song in some time, it goes a little something like this: "Time to take her home / her dizzy head is conscience laden / Time to take a ride / It leaves today / No conversation / Time to take her home / her dizzy head is conscience laden / Time to wait too long / To wait too long / To wait too long / Conversations kill." Now, one note of that song sends me back to 1994, when my college sweetheart and I would drive to record stores in South Jersey and listen to that song on the tape deck (!) of his Mitsubishi Precis car. I literally feel cold when I hear the song and smell the vanilla of his car air freshener, because those are the smells and sounds I associate with that time in my life. Now, some 15 years later, the song still resonates. It can take me back down memory lane and it still has poignancy for my life today. This song came out after STP had broken and broken big, and their tunes were all over the radio; this song was from the period when they were rollin' and ballin' as some of the biggest rock stars on planet earth and their ability to write songs that could stand the test of time was becoming very visible and obvious ... and proven as I write this column so many years later. Weiland's voice is craggy and husky, but that vulnerability in his words and how he songs over those gloomy, yearning riffs is what makes this song one for the canon. It was not their biggest hit, by any means, but it is certainly the song that I love the most by the band.
Maybe I am on a grunge revival, with all the talk of the Soundgarden reunion or non-reunion. No one knows WTF is going on with this situation. Maybe Chris Cornell is trying to regain some hard rock cred since his work with Timbaland may have diminished that, simply by virtue of genre parameters. That said, my favorite Soundgarden song of all time is not one of their most well-known. It lives on Down on the Upside, and it's "Blow Up the Outside World." Cornell can sing; his pipes are some of the most robust and emotionally walloping in hard rock music and of course from the grunge/Seattle era. This song is somewhat polished, but much like "The Big Empty," it's gloomy and maudlin, and a thread of pessimism and a current of sonic sadness runs through it. While I am a metalhead for life and was even a bit bitter about grunge sweeping through and destroying so much of the cheesy and viable glam rock that I loved so much, I still enjoyed grunge bands and post-grunge and hard rock/alt bands like the ones I am writing about simply because they were a branch of the same tree of rock ‘n roll. When I lived at home with my parent during my fourth year of college, I was running my college radio station and I would bring home music to listen to it and I used to listen to music when I would shower and get ready in the AM and the evening, too. I remember listening to this song on the promo CD while I would get dressed and how it came with an interview disc where Matt Cameron dubbed his drumming as "bipedal" and as a writer, I've gone on to use that phrase when discussing drumwork! A little subtle influence, touché! I was in a pre-transitional phase in my life, getting ready to move to North Jersey and seek jobs in NYC as a writer and/or a record label employee. I have since gone on to be successful and both, and whenever I listen to Cornell yelp, "I'll given everything I'd need / I'd give you everything I own / I'd give in if it could at least be ours alone / I've given everything I could / To blow it to hell and gone / Burrow down / And blow up the outside world," I am reminded of my youth, my excitement about the next step of my career and of the hope and uncertainty of the future, since so many changes were blowing through my young life at the time. When I listen to it in 2010, I am reminded of my innocence and naivete and how I didn't know what lay ahead of me. It's still my fave of all the Soundgarden songs.
Again, Faith No More are allegedly touring this year ... in the US. I will purchase tickets for that tour for sure. And I am hoping that the band performs my all-time fave song from their catalogue, "A Small Victory" from Angel Dust. Sure, everyone creams about Mike Patton's vast body of work and his immense talent in the post-FNM era, but some of his best work occurred within the confines of this band. This song has an opening, slide-like riff that has an almost orchestral feel to my ears and when Sir Patton sings, "If I speak at once constant volume / At one constant pitch / At one constant rhythm / Right into your ear / You still won't hear" at the end of the song, chills walk up and down my back. Another song from the college sweetheart era, when we used to talk about how that was a song we'd love to just send to someone on a mix tape.
I could do this all night, but I've got to save some more nostalgia for next week's column. Every week when my esteemed editor Bear writes me to say he loved this week's musings and that he loves taking this type of look at music, I am happy. I will continue to let this column be formless; that is, whatever I want to talk about when the spirit moves me that week. I won't always be walking down memory lane. But right now, it's comforting and reminding me why I feel in love with music. Till next week, pull out some oldies and goodies and re-acquaint yourself. ~ Amy Sciarretto
One of those songs is Stone Temple Pilots' "The Big Empty," from the Crow soundtrack. That's arguably one of the best soundtracks of all time, but that song always stood out to me because it was a moody, dank ballad with sucker punch lyrics. If you're not familiar or have not heard the song in some time, it goes a little something like this: "Time to take her home / her dizzy head is conscience laden / Time to take a ride / It leaves today / No conversation / Time to take her home / her dizzy head is conscience laden / Time to wait too long / To wait too long / To wait too long / Conversations kill." Now, one note of that song sends me back to 1994, when my college sweetheart and I would drive to record stores in South Jersey and listen to that song on the tape deck (!) of his Mitsubishi Precis car. I literally feel cold when I hear the song and smell the vanilla of his car air freshener, because those are the smells and sounds I associate with that time in my life. Now, some 15 years later, the song still resonates. It can take me back down memory lane and it still has poignancy for my life today. This song came out after STP had broken and broken big, and their tunes were all over the radio; this song was from the period when they were rollin' and ballin' as some of the biggest rock stars on planet earth and their ability to write songs that could stand the test of time was becoming very visible and obvious ... and proven as I write this column so many years later. Weiland's voice is craggy and husky, but that vulnerability in his words and how he songs over those gloomy, yearning riffs is what makes this song one for the canon. It was not their biggest hit, by any means, but it is certainly the song that I love the most by the band. Maybe I am on a grunge revival, with all the talk of the Soundgarden reunion or non-reunion. No one knows WTF is going on with this situation. Maybe Chris Cornell is trying to regain some hard rock cred since his work with Timbaland may have diminished that, simply by virtue of genre parameters. That said, my favorite Soundgarden song of all time is not one of their most well-known. It lives on Down on the Upside, and it's "Blow Up the Outside World." Cornell can sing; his pipes are some of the most robust and emotionally walloping in hard rock music and of course from the grunge/Seattle era. This song is somewhat polished, but much like "The Big Empty," it's gloomy and maudlin, and a thread of pessimism and a current of sonic sadness runs through it. While I am a metalhead for life and was even a bit bitter about grunge sweeping through and destroying so much of the cheesy and viable glam rock that I loved so much, I still enjoyed grunge bands and post-grunge and hard rock/alt bands like the ones I am writing about simply because they were a branch of the same tree of rock ‘n roll. When I lived at home with my parent during my fourth year of college, I was running my college radio station and I would bring home music to listen to it and I used to listen to music when I would shower and get ready in the AM and the evening, too. I remember listening to this song on the promo CD while I would get dressed and how it came with an interview disc where Matt Cameron dubbed his drumming as "bipedal" and as a writer, I've gone on to use that phrase when discussing drumwork! A little subtle influence, touché! I was in a pre-transitional phase in my life, getting ready to move to North Jersey and seek jobs in NYC as a writer and/or a record label employee. I have since gone on to be successful and both, and whenever I listen to Cornell yelp, "I'll given everything I'd need / I'd give you everything I own / I'd give in if it could at least be ours alone / I've given everything I could / To blow it to hell and gone / Burrow down / And blow up the outside world," I am reminded of my youth, my excitement about the next step of my career and of the hope and uncertainty of the future, since so many changes were blowing through my young life at the time. When I listen to it in 2010, I am reminded of my innocence and naivete and how I didn't know what lay ahead of me. It's still my fave of all the Soundgarden songs.Again, Faith No More are allegedly touring this year ... in the US. I will purchase tickets for that tour for sure. And I am hoping that the band performs my all-time fave song from their catalogue, "A Small Victory" from Angel Dust. Sure, everyone creams about Mike Patton's vast body of work and his immense talent in the post-FNM era, but some of his best work occurred within the confines of this band. This song has an opening, slide-like riff that has an almost orchestral feel to my ears and when Sir Patton sings, "If I speak at once constant volume / At one constant pitch / At one constant rhythm / Right into your ear / You still won't hear" at the end of the song, chills walk up and down my back. Another song from the college sweetheart era, when we used to talk about how that was a song we'd love to just send to someone on a mix tape.
I could do this all night, but I've got to save some more nostalgia for next week's column. Every week when my esteemed editor Bear writes me to say he loved this week's musings and that he loves taking this type of look at music, I am happy. I will continue to let this column be formless; that is, whatever I want to talk about when the spirit moves me that week. I won't always be walking down memory lane. But right now, it's comforting and reminding me why I feel in love with music. Till next week, pull out some oldies and goodies and re-acquaint yourself. ~ Amy Sciarretto
Adam BernardWelcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from Dancing With The Stars finding some hot celebrities willing to test their skills, to a hot new voice for Smurfette, to a famous family getting themselves in some really hot water, and since it's Pop Shots, you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude. Read More ...
William DeshairI wanted to set the table with this edition of "R.eal A.nd P.ersonal" for columns to come on the subject of the Female Emcee. As time goes on, I will slowly phase out that title and ho Read More ...
Matt BjorkeBeing a huge fan of music, I learned of American Idol and watched it from the first season. The success of Kelly Clarkson and Chris Daughtry, Clay Aiken and Carrie Underwood may have made Idol a viable television property and given the music industry one more outlet to find talent. But rarely has it offered up an interesting topic for debate such as the presence of teen country singer Haeley Vaughn on Season 9's ros Read More ...
101 Distribution news is available via RSS feeds, which uses a technology called XML to deliver headlines and summaries to your desktop, browser, and mobile.To use RSS, copy the feed address and paste it into an RSS news reader, or use a browser which supports RSS feeds.
|
|
|||||
