glitter_n_gore | Entries tagged with music

And we're back! Almost forgot to cross-post this one, so apologies if you're getting this twice.

Originally, I wasn't going to get into Nu Metal for this retrospective. I promised myself I wasn't going to cover any bands I don't genuinely like, and several of the big names in Nu Metal are NOT bands I like. You can guess from process of elimination who that includes by the end of this post. *AHEM*

However, it would be disingenuous of me to pretend none of the music that came out of this particular sub-genre had a profound affect on me. Let me remind you that this is not a strictly linear retrospective, but I was introduced to Nu Metal in the late 90s, which was a big, formative period of my life music-wise. I have many positive memories of this era, of friends turning the radio all the way up on long drives, and learning to play the guitar in my bedroom. (Although I never got good at it, so don't ask.)

First, I should probably set some parameters for what I mean by "Nu Metal." Because even though it's one of the most hated sub-genres among True Metalheads (whom, I remind you, seriously need to chill out), it's also unique enough to have a fairly recognizable style. This was still a time of fusions between genres. Where Industrial was a combination of Shock Rock, Gothic, and Electronica, Nu Metal grew out of the existing scene and stirred in Alternative and Hip Hop. Also, much more radio-friendly than anything outside of Hair Metal.

This one's for you, Chester.

( I Won't Be Ignored )

(Cross-posted to

rhoda_rants.)

This is probably a good time to mention, while I am focusing on the 90s for the next couple of posts, this is not a strictly linear retrospective. I haven't forgotten Dio, I haven't forgotten Iron Maiden. There's a method to my madness, so bear with me.

In the hazy space between Hair Metal and Grunge, a LOT of different sub-genres, fusions, and crossovers were taking shape to create the general atmosphere we call "Alternative." Hip-Hop fused with rock to become Funk (Red Hot Chili Peppers, 2 Skinnee J's, Rage Against the Machine), old-fashioned brass band swing music mixed with punk turned into Ska (Save Ferris, 311, early No Doubt), and Metal dropped the soaring, intricate melodies of its signature guitar solos in favor of heavy, chugging rhythms and distorted guitar tones.

That, more or less, is Thrash Metal. Everything's loud and droney, with some really interesting melodies and less adherence to the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus song structure. Metallica is one of the best examples of this, although they also brought in some classical influences to create a more complex overall style. Put a pin in that idea though, because I'm coming back to it later.

Industrial is what happened when Thrash blended with Shock Rock and Goth, layering in sounds with a darker tone on those synths I love so much. This music had a beat you could dance to and a grim, sometimes nihilistic vibe that recalled the horror movie influences that first showed up in the 60s. Only this time, the demons were personal or sociopolitical, not fictional . . . some of the time. Everything's filtered through a dystopian, cyber-punk lens. Unlike Alice Cooper singing about Universal movie monsters, or Mötley Crüe posing as biker gang vampires, the message behind Industrial bands seemed to be: "We have seen the future, and it's bleak and terrifying."

There are reasons this stuff still resonates. Fright makeup is still common, but it's very different from the more cartoonish, playful look we'd seen before. Not for nothing, this is the era I grew up in, and finally includes bands I got to see live. I am HOME.

Warning: These videos are no longer Safe For Work. No nudity or violence, but uncensored swear words. FYI.

( This is the first day of my last days. )

(Cross-posted to

rhoda_rants.)

Current Music: Nine Inch Nails, "Gave Up"

Studded leather. Hairspray. Fright makeup. Gang vocals. Welcome to the era of Glam Metal.

Also sometimes called Hair Metal, but there are a few subtle differences between the two. What you need to remember is this is when image started to become important. The aesthetic of Glam is almost as central to the genre as the sound itself. IMO, Hair Metal is what happened when the image overtook the sound entirely. To simplify things, let's just call this the Bill & Ted era. If Wyld Stallyns had their t-shirt, it goes in this category.

Bill & Ted playing air guitar with text "EXCELLENT!"
Source.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Remember what I said in the intro post, about Screamin' Jay Hawkins creating a wild, over-the-top style to go with his sound? That tendency towards flamboyant excess was brought to 11 with Glam Metal. Again, the influence of horror movies cannot be overstated. But who says you can't scare people and look good doing it?

( I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night )

(Cross-posted to

rhoda_rants.)

Current Music: Guns N Roses, "Sweet Child O' Mine"

Hi There.

I mentioned this briefly on the Twitters, but basically the purpose of this blog series is to a) gush shamelessly about my favorite genre of music, and b) create a curated list of some less intimidating starter songs/artists to ease into it. I say "less intimidating" because much of the buzz around Metal seems devoted to Death Metal and Black Metal, and honestly? Those subgenres are not for everyone. It can push people away. And that is the last thing I want.

Metal comes in many different flavors--the aforementioned Death and Black Metal, but also Sludge, Doom, Power, Glam, Speed, Symphonic, Metalcore, Grindcore, Progressive, Industrial--and it takes some digging to decide which one is for you. They are as varied--and sometimes as divisive--as the many variations between New Wave and Emo. Woe betide the newbies and casuals who get it wrong.*

*Let the record show I think people need to chill out on the territorial hair-splitting here, but that's not what this post is about.

I am not going to get into ALL of the subgenres I just mentioned. But I want you to know what you're getting into. This territory is vast. Here be monsters. I'm just one guide of many, and we all walk very different paths. This is mine.

( First, a history lesson. . . )

Current Music: Jimi Hendrix, "Purple Haze"

I slept only three hours last night. It was worth it.

If you somehow don't know this, My Chemical Romance is my favorite band. I saw them live four times in the late 2000s, folded myself into the amazing fan community they inspire, and was devastated when they officially broke up in 2013.

There have been rumors about the band getting back together pretty much since that day. My personal fantasy was that they would come back for a reunion show, sometime far into the future, and end the set with "Welcome to the Black Parade." Everyone fortunate enough to attend--and whoever was at home watching via livestream--would sing out every word of our emo anthem once again.

GIF: The Black Parade float with the boys on board
Source.

Last night, that fantasy came true. My mind is a little blurry since I was up WAY past my bedtime and I'm only just starting to come down from the high of knowing I now live in a world with My Chemical Romance back in it, but I will do my best to document my experience here.

This is gonna be a long one.

( You only hear the music when your heart begins to break. . . )

(Cross-posted to

rhoda_rants.)

Current Music: My Chemical Romance, "Welcome to the Black Parade"

Way, way back in the late 90s, after I first started writing fanfiction but before I knew it was a Thing outside of the world of my spiral notebook, I wrote a crack-fic starring Trent Reznor and Britney Spears. The basic plot was that Britney was tired of her candy-coated pop star image and wanted to do something else, but was struggling to break away from that artistically. So she tracked down Reznor for help, looking for a mentor who was completely different stylistically than anything she'd done before.

I say "crack-fic" because it's the kind of idea that's so outrageously far from reality it could never possibly happen. Then I watched "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too." Damn, I wish I'd pitched that story before someone on the Black Mirror team beat me to it.

SPOILERS BELOW!

( Bow down before the one you serve. . . )

I've been a casual fan of Nirvana for most of my life. They've been in the periphery of my little world for as long as I can remember, but I never dove all the way in. In 1989, when their first album, Bleach, came out, I was 6. Much more into sparkle ponies and mermaids than punk rock. I don't regret that--sparkle ponies and mermaids are consistently rad, after all--but there's no way I would've understood this music back then.

Still, I grew up in the '90s. Nevermind wasn't exactly hard to find. I've always known who they were. I generally liked their songs. I flat-out loved the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" once we actually got MTV at home and I could see it. Once, I had a confrontation with a high school classmate who was giving one of my friends a hard time for restringing his guitar. (He was left-handed.) I got up in this kid's face and said, "You know who else switched their guitar strings? Paul McCartney! And Jimi Hendrix! AND Kurt Cobain!" He brushed me off with, "Yeah yeah--has been, overdose, suicide, who cares?" "SHUT UP they're LEGENDS!" was my response. Or something like that. I don't know if my friend remembers me defending his honor like that, but I like to think he appreciated it.

And yet, I never felt like Nirvana was, or ever could be, "my" band. I couldn't even tell you why.

So hear I am now, coming up on my thirty-sixth birthday, and I decided that my present to myself this year (I'm allowed one) would be Bleach. Since it's the early, indie album, I expected it to be kind of ragged and grating. Y'know, where you can hear the groundwork of what they'd do later, but with a lot of rough edges. Because that's how most of my other first album purchases of bands I like have gone.

Yeah--no, this was love at first listen.

( If you wouldn't mind, I would like to breathe. )

(Cross-posted to

rhoda_rants.)

Current Music: Nirvana, "Blew"

(Is it bandom blasphemy to use a My Chemical Romance album title in a review for a book written by the singer of The Birthday Massacre? Meh, I'm rolling with it.)

The increasingly arbitrary line between Adult and Teen fiction continues to bewilder me. Why is Sara Taylor’s (aka “Chibi’s”) Boring Girls not a teen book? I'd guess the violence, but Danielle Vega's The Merciless is on a comparable level of gruesome, so it's not that. Maybe it's the realistic setting, as opposed to fantasy or dystopia. This isn't a clearly imaginary world like Holly Black's The Coldest Girl In Coldtown or Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, which makes it feel like something that could happen, even though it's entirely fictional. Then again, Tiffany Jackson's Allegedly is in that boat too, so never mind.

View on Goodreads

Honestly, what this reminds me of most isn't any particular novel in any age category, but horror movies centered on dangerous young women. Heavenly Creatures, Ginger Snaps, Stoker, The Craft--all films told from the point of view of the teenage protagonist, but with a restrictive rating that won't allow their age peers to view them in theaters without adult supervision. There's something insidious and fascinating about that. The truth is being a teenage girl is inherently dangerous, violent, and terrifying. Only this time, the catalyst for our main character, Rachel's, transformation, isn't witchcraft or lycanthropy, but death metal music.

( I’m the Wickedest Witch of All )

Current Music: The Birthday Massacre, "Forever"

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, both the book by Brian Selznick and the movie (called simply Hugo) directed by Martin Scorcese, is about this kid who lives in the walls of a Paris train station. He keeps all the clocks in the station running, routinely pinches food from the shops to survive, and sometimes clockwork toys from the toy shop for parts. You see, he's trying to repair an automaton--a mechanical man who can write. The automaton is his last connection to his father, who died in a fire at the museum where he worked, and Hugo is sure that when he can get it working, the automaton will give him a message from his father.

Book Cover via GoodReads

Now, in order to get into the real meat of this story, I am going to have to spoil a mid-point plot twist--namely what Hugo actually finds when the automaton comes to life. I went into the movie completely cold and found myself spellbound, and I wouldn't want to rob anyone of that experience if you haven't seen / read it yet. So if you don't want to know any more, this is the place to stop reading.

( Read more. . . )

Current Music: Smashing Pumpkins, "Tonight, Tonight"

Hello, my name is Laurel, and I am a Fangirl. I want to tell you a story.

This past Saturday, December 6th, 2014, at my favorite rock club (the NorVA), I saw the Black Veil Brides in concert. And they kicked ass. My personal Best Rock Show Ever is My Chemical Romance at the same venue in 2006. The BVB show was not better than that, but they were pretty damn amazing. They gave everything they've got and then some, and I had a total blast.

If you aren't familiar with the Black Veil Brides, they're a Hollywood-based rock group that's been around with the current line-up for about five years and four albums, although the earliest songs came a few years prior with frontman Andy Biersack and a rotating shuffle of other musicians. I first heard them when my dear friend Christine sent me their third album, Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones, this Halloween. (Thank you, Christine, thank you thank you THANK YOU.) I'm not quite sure how to classify them genre-wise--there are elements of punk, metal, and glam rock, but nothing that defines them as any specific type. I mean this as a compliment, by the way--genre-blending is one of my favorite things. Personally, I see them as a throwback to the brazen, audacious fabulousness of '80s hair metal, with a gothic visual aesthetic and a thematic emphasis on believing in yourself and following your dreams.

What's ironic is I've occasionally heard these guys described as the "new" My Chemical Romance. So what do I think? As someone who's seen them both live at this point, I should be able to make that call, right? I don't really think that's fair to either of them--not to mention intellectually lazy. They're both great bands, but they're great in different ways despite the similar uniforms of their respective fanbases (which I suspect is why those lines are drawn in the first place). So why even bring it up? Well, because it's the first and only rock show I've seen since the MCR show eight years ago that's come anywhere close to matching it.

( Read more... )

Current Music: Black Veil Brides, "In The End"

I'm saying "queer" because it's easier to type than "LGBTQ + a bunch of other letters I can never remember." (Love the people, not the acronym. It's not kind to dyslexics.) Apparently this is the only thing I'm doing for Pride Month this year. Which is still better than previous years, in which I've done absolutely nothing because I'm horrible at keeping track of when things are.

I ran into a lot of unforeseen qualifiers once I started putting this list together. For instance, I wanted to only use artists who are actually out and on the record as not-straight. As opposed to people who've been the subject of speculation but have neither confirmed nor denied anything, or people who use fanservice as a gimmick (particulary the girl-on-girl kind--yeah, don't get me started), or people who appeal to a queer audience for whatever reason but aren't queer themselves (Madonna, Cher, Celine Dion, etc.). And from there I had to narrow it down to music I actually like.

Wasn't easy, let me tell you. I've also, sadly but somehow not surprisingly, wound up with a completely male-dominated list here. It's not that I don't like Tegan & Sarah--I saw them live once, opening for Ben Folds, and they put on a good show. But it's still not really my thing. And much as I've tried to like Lady Gaga, I still feel only "meh" about her music.

That in mind. . .

( My Top Five Queer Artists! )

So who have I left out? Anyone have recommendations? Questions? Hit me--I'm all ears. :)