Neurosis

In my recent years, it has become clear to me that my favorite band is Neurosis. Though many other bands will often capture my spirit for a time, Neurosis has become a group I feel I am almost soulbound to. There is a connection I have with their music, and their being, that I cannot resist or deny.

I remember when I first listened to Neurosis, about two or three years ago. I was horrified, in the most exciting and enjoyable way a person could feel. I remember saying to my friend, with the utmost admiration and praise, "They are the most unpleasant sounding band I've ever heard!"

With my musical taste and background at the time, I was certainly more receiving of the somber and melodic albums of recent years, than the more raw, harsh, and violent nature of the earlier ones. But as I explored, and grew throughout the years, I slowly began to understand the music if their younger years. In my time listening to Neurosis, I came to find that the same spirit has always existed in their music, since the very beginning.

I will be the first to admit that I exhibit many "fan boy"-esque qualities on the subject of Neurosis. Were I ever to meet any of them, I would certainly be nervously excited. But it is not without good reason. Neurosis is a group that has approached creating music and existing as a band in much the same way that I have attempted to in my years. They have made a continuous effort to remain independent from genres, industry, cliche, premeditated musical design, and all other things in music and art that become otherwise dry and soulless. They've kept a constant emphasis on emotion, DIY, originality, soul, and creativity, for their entire career. And I am sure they have sacrificed more for it than most would for anything. Their discography is like a timeline, with each album symbolizing an era, a plane of existance which they once stood, for that very moment. Their visiual artwork is their own, their record label is their own, their roadies and soundpeople, merch people, their families... all Neurosis; one big family creating it all.

Neurosis is a band that I cannot help but have the highest respect for, almost solely on the fact that it is entirely genuine and personal to them. Now I can certainly comment on aspects of their being that I do not enjoy. The exhaustingly repetative nature of many of their riffs, the fizzy tones of the early albums, Dave Edwardsons' strangely deep and almost goofy sounding yell/growls, many of the disappointingly awkward progressions on the later albums, and the sort of busy and messy metal-esque artwork of some of the older albums are examples of these. But these are not elements brought into their world ingenuinely. Even if they released something seemingly ridiculous and nonesensical, I would never thing that it was something that didn't come from a very real and honest place within them.

Neurosis has a quality about their music that speaks to me deeply. It is as if listening to them summons a piece of me that is often otherwise lost, or caged. When I saw them live, the entire set had me in a sort of a trance. Listening to them is such a personal experience to me that I almost prefer to listen to them alone. While there is quite a large cult following of Neurosis, I do not see myself as part of that. I found their music and listened to them on my own, with only the help of references in various web documents guiding me to them. I have few friends who enjoy their music as much as I do, and many of the ones that do found their music later on. When I trudged through a dark era of my life, Neurosis was the anthem, the soundtrack that tied it all together, and motivated me to march willfully through. I have a personal relationship with their music.

Neurosis has truly been influential to me, in so many ways. Although there are so many others who feel the same, so many other fan boys and copycat bands, I can understand their efforts to pay homage to such a powerful group. And though I would suggest them to anyone who finds themselves with even similar perspectives and feelings on music and art as myself, I would never ask or expect anyone to enjoy it like I do. For Neurosis' own intent in their quest pays no mind to the listener, to the fans, or otherwise. It is entirely to create music that is true to them, to apease the relentless calling that many musicians have. And it just so happens that their music is as mighty as the universe itself, in my eyes.

I could never hope to create music as profound as theirs. I only wish that I will feel the same level of accomplishment, the same fulfillment in releasing my own soul through the medium of music, as they have in their years, in my time to come.

real

Just listen to Burial on the Presidio Banks, by This Will Destroy You; Then you'll know.

Frustration

This will probably become a rant.

Every musician that intends to make their art public must face the battle of "booking shows". In my experience, this has been, for reasons I cannot understand, very difficult. It feels as though there is some sort of secret language, or code, or WAY of communicating to someone else that you would like to set up a show, be it with them, or at their venue, or what have you. Normally in the instance of contact via the internet, I would write to someone like so:

Hey ******,

So, we're lookin to set up a show in ***** on the **th of *****. We were thinkin that we could have *** ***** and **** ***** **** play as well. You think you guys would be down with that? Let us know what you think

Thanks dudes!

Topher<

I usually get ignored. It is as if I am speaking to them in some way that does not make any sort of sense to them? I try to be very clear, and in some cases rather articulate. Apparelty you have to sound stupid, and write things like u instead of you, use a lot of slang, and act like it's no big deal anyway. But it seems that even that does not work...

Is it that I am addressing them the wrong way? Am I being pushy, or overbearing? Am I asking the wrong people? Are people just lazy?

Maybe it is just that we aren't IN on the cliques. We're that band that those bands played with once; those young kids that were good, but were outsiders nonetheless. We aren't trendy, we aren't the crowd drawers, we don't bring the mosh, we don't get trashed before we play. It also doesn't help that we don't get to play often, because we're busy a lot of the time.

I'm tired of the sort of catch that is the underground music scene. You can't get shows unless you're a good band, and IN with everyone else. So let's say your music is good; you still can't get shows, because you aren't in. But how do you gain respect from the cliques? I guess that's the mystery. If your band doesn't totally suck, your friends will love your shit. But if you don't have a whole lot of friends, I guess maybe you're just dead in the water......

Maybe being involved with music is really just the same as being involved with people. If you don't bring the party, you aren't worth anyone's time, no one cares, and that's the end of it...

Lonely

There are many songs, many bands, many types of music that just seem to convey a strong feeling of being alone. This music so often will be what you evidently listen to whilst you remain by yourself. And perhaps this music causes you to feel quite lonely, just from hearing it. Some music reminds you of the past, and through nostalgia, you begin to feel alone.

Tarentel is a group who tends to create a particular lonely feeling; one that feels almost like an introspective moment, staring at the ceiling while laying on your bed on some Sunday afternoon. The sound it has just makes you want to be by yourself, forgetting all responsibilities, thinking about some long lost person, some great day all those years ago that you forgot about.

Music is powerful.

among the ethereal periphary of sound

There is something truly spiritual about music, or at least the most sincere and untainted forms of it. In my relations with fellow musicians, there is an understanding which we all share, that this plane of existence is sacred to us. Though many of us have different goals, or different approaches as members of the music world, all of us who hold a sincere dedication to music have a sense of unity between us, through what almost feels like a secret language.

In listening to certain bands, certain records, certain genres, I cannot help but feel a direct connection to the (metaphorical) souls of those who wrote and performed the music. People I have never met seem to feel like dear friends, through a sort of sonic communication. Harmonies convey a feeling, or tell a story, or awaken an otherwise unknown perspective. It is as though music is a link to a separate dimension, a ghostly world of lingering emotions and messages. And it is truly inspiring.

Music has been the only thing that has ever made me consider the existence of the soul, in a literal sense, and of a life, or world outside of this one. Whether music is a door to the outer realm of the universe is beyond me, but at least I know that we as humans are bound to each other, and to the earth, through this part of life we call music.

Next time you hear a bird sing, stop and listen. You might hear more than you'd expect...

You aren't cool unless you have a GIBSON LES PAUL!

I spend a fair share of my time looking at, reading up on, web browser window shopping, and quite simply THINKING about music gear. This is an addiction, or at least a strong interest that many musicians have. But in terms of how important it is to music itself is a topic to be explored. Many will say that it isn’t necessary, and that whatever spirit within you that yearns to escape will be enough to inspire, or at least to satisfy. Others will say that not using the good stuff will only lead to a mess of bad tone, regardless of how well you play. But what these two opposite spectrums fail to account is the point I mean to drive home; with the almost infinitely variable aspects of musical equipment, understanding what you want out of your instrument, and what items can achieve your goals is the most important thing when it comes to gear in music. With my experiences in mind, I will discuss just how important the musicians’ choice of equipment is to the realm of music.

When I was young, I made it a point to myself never to get too caught up in what sort of guitar (acoustic or electric) I was using to write music with. I felt that if it sounded good on an acoustic, it would undoubtedly be pleasing in any other circumstance. I was mostly right; however, as I delved into the exciting, and quite confusing world of guitar pedals, I began to realize how much more there was to do with just the sounds that you can make with a musical instrument, whether it be a song or just some nonsense. Pieces that I had written before became far more flavorful, or more spaced out, as many might put it. What might have been a simple and sort of boring riff became a very compelling piece, just with the addition of the right effect(s). It was in this discovery that I found the beauty of music gear as a subject of it’s own.

Many will argue that pedals are merely fancy extensions of an amplified instruments natural tone, and will usually just distract the user and the listener from the music’s integrity. But what they do not realize is that on most albums they’ve ever listened to, there has been a plethora of effects used, either during or after the initial tracking process. Effects are a staple in a lot of musical genres, from basic compressing and equalization, to very thick and psychedelic phasers, to ambient delays, and probably most commonly in the tracking process, distortion. Sure, when used too much, these little metal boxes, or plugins on computers, etc. can make a mess of the sound, but when one understands how to use them, they can make the difference between a stale and familiar sounding tone or piece of music, and a rather original sound that could captivate listeners from a wide variety of backgrounds.

While it is certainly appreciated that there are people out there that wish to keep their set up simple, one cannot be so unwilling to explore the possibilities of electronic assistance (in certain circumstances, of course). It is definitely unnecessary for a drummer to mic their entire drum set at a show that is taking place inside a person’s living room. But when playing on some enormous stage in a big theater, micing a drum set only make sense, and there’s no doubt that the person running the PA is going to do some adjustments to the volumes and the EQ on them. Using the concept of obtaining optimal sound in mind, we can discuss things like guitar amps with the same perspective. Many will talk about how awesome their 150 watt guitar amp with three channels on it, and all kinds of switches to create various tones, but how practical is a loud guitar amp with a million switches for a guitarist that is playing house shows? And, if they don’t understand how to use it, how good is the sound going to be? With some research, a guitarist with such a rig could certainly end up ditching their super fancy amp for something far more simple, and maybe more inexpensive. Using the knowledge of, say, guitar amps and their various tones and features, a guitarist could make a somewhat precise decision on an amp, and be satisfied for maybe the rest of their life as a guitarist. But what many people get caught up in, which is perhaps the biggest determinating factor in music gear choices, is trends.

Music gear trends is actually the biggest factor of musicians’ choices in gear. People have been chasing the tones of various instruments from albums of the past for years. Van Halen impressed every guitarist with his “brown sound” back in the 80's, Hendrix launched the fuzz tone into the public ear, Pete Townshend from The Who brought Sunn amps into popularity (not to mention Sunn O))) bringing them back into popularity), all of which were simply personal choices made by these musicians who felt like doing something a little different. For maybe the last century, people have been trying to mimic the sounds of the past, or at least of their favorite bands, and with the help of scummy salespeople, misleading ads, and inexpensive versions of nice equipment, musicians have been sounding terrible for quite a long time. What these musicians need is a little knowledge.

We have all seen plenty of bands with shit equipment that blew us away, as well as plenty of fully armed bands with music that we could not even force ourselves to listen to and watch for more than thirty seconds. Many of us musicians have been surprised at how good a cheap and usually bad sounding piece of equipment has made us feel when listening to someone play through it. But what set apart those that sounded good from those that didn’t (aside from our own musical tastes) was their understanding of their equipment. Maybe the guitarist knew he’d get more sustain out of his guitar if he set the action higher. Maybe the drummer knew a small bass drum would give him the tone he wanted. Maybe the band used four amps because they really just wanted to upset people a little bit with how loud they were. Maybe they wanted to nail the Led Zepplin sound. Whatever the case, the musician will never be satisfied with their sound unless they understand how to achieve it.

Hectapus

If you haven't yet, you should check out my solo work, Hectapus, unless you don't like songs without drums. I've added three new songs as of late.

I'm also working on a musical project as Hectapus with some folks on a forum called Doom Forever, Forever Doomed. We are collaborating and putting together some tracks for an album. It is likely going to be primarly drone, although we are trying to make it a little more diverse. The intent is for us to be done with it by the end of February.

As for this very moment, I'm listening to a peculiar but awesome band called It's a Lunken. Check 'em out!