| bear in mind that I haven't put a great deal of thought into this "music" page since I was about nineteen (when I first wrote it), so much of the melodrama and "look at me!" cheesiness lingers still.
what follows is my first real attempt at revision. the thing to remember is that just about every
webpage features an all-you-can-stand buffet of somebody's favourite bands, usually equipped with far too many images and links to websites better prepared to discuss these bands at stylish length.
what i'm offering, then, is more or less the same thing, except rearranged so as to be more about me. something i tend to catch myself doing is inspecting people's music collections when, for one reason or another, i find myself inside their homes. this isn't because i want to see whether their tastes measure up to mine, but so that i can figure out what i'd like to borrow. [rimshot] -- actually, music touches perhaps the most personal and guarded of our emotions, and it can be quite revealing to understand the kind of sounds which influence someone's feelings. this fascinates me, and gives me a slightly better glimpse into the soul of a person i may or may not know very well. so if you still want to read ahead, you can figure out some of the artists which make me think and evoke some of my more intense mood swings.
i make no apologies for what you will discover, be warned now. i'm picky and indecisive about music, and poor, so if i don't know two or three songs by a band, the chances of buying that first album are slim. only word of mouth from the most esteemed sources can sway me to taking chances on really cool, really obscure bands. for this same reason i also don't tend to rush out and buy an album from a band with a number one song on the billboard charts, because i like to think that i'll enjoy an entire cd when i buy it, instead of just that one song. still, if you're the sort of person who thinks that successful, famous bands with a little exposure aren't worth listening to, you're also probably an unforgivingly pretentious wanker and i hate you. |
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I'm
so in love with Toronto's Hayden that I'm setting out traps in the hopes of catching
him for my very own so that I can keep him in a giant cage in my room as
if he were a giant Smurf and I were a hipper Gargamel. Mind you, instead of turning him into gold, I'd probably just make him sing or look cute and depressive for me, all artisticky like. Hayden is an interesting fellow, and not to everyone's tastes. He sings simple, realistic songs inspired by his thoughts, his life, and his childhood memories, and it has to be said that a lot of his songs are slow, quiet, and mournful. This has much to do with my fondness for him. My friend Broken can always tell when I'm in a horrible mood, because she'll hear one Hayden tune or another echoing through my walls like a distress signal. Hayden has a low, deep voice, and while he is singing with far more versatility than ever before, he still tends to sing in a quiet and thoughtful range, moving with intensity sometimes to a kind of strung-out screech. Hayden plays more instruments than I can. [current score: ~5 to ~0] Hayden writes literal, prosaic songs which are accessible because they ring true. He sings about heartache and loneliness, searching and regretting, about happier times, and people he used to love. His songs also feature a great deal of optimism and happiness, though, with tunes which overcome his depressive doubts and mood swings. Hayden explores his hopes and dreams, weaves anecdotal fictions, and tells personal little stories which all feature his sweet thoughts and humble self-deprecation. His songs are always catchy and are performed with an increasing accompanyment of instruments, though a lone acoustic guitar will always be, for me, his signature. If you ever have the chance to see Hayden perform in concert, do. He is friendly and warm onstage, with a quick wit and quiet good humour. He clearly exhibits the shyness and humility expressed in his music, but responds well to a good audience and performs with sincerity. He is easily my favourite Canadian artist. It has been said that Hayden hates it when his fans publish lyrics on the internet, and then get them embarassingly wrong. I cobbled together these approximations of his songs a long time ago, and I haven't found enough guilt yet to remove them. I was younger and twinkly-eyed when I first tried to type out his many songs, and there are a lot more people who love his music than there were a few years ago, meaning many better-equipped fan websites now exist which provide legions more information than I ever could. Mostly I just profess my affection in the hope of attracting converts from the masses who adore me. Still, I hope that these lyrics do continue to serve some purpose, or at least don't cause enough problems to warrant their condemnation to oblivion. In the spirit of non-Hayden-annoying, however, I'd always welcome any corrections. Here's my very best try at Hayden's lyrics for everything i long for, as well as moving careful. |
| It seems that billy corgan is losing his hair, so to make everything better he shaved it off. If billy has done anything wrong in his life, this must be it. This is the part of the page where I compliment his high cheekbones, and lament that now they do little but to contribute to his resemblance to uncle fester. In a world of wigs, hair transplants, propecia, rogaine and (indeed) even simply being comfortable with having less hair, so many other paths could have been taken than parading about in black clothes while looking sunken and unwell. That aside, i'm quick to mention how terribly fond I am of Smashing Pumpkins. I can't honestly tell you how many times I've lapsed into despair while Siamese Dream played itself thin, and yet more little bits of magnetic tape flaked off from the part of the cassette (yes, I still listen to tapes) where Soma (perhaps my favourite song of all time) can be found. I like songs which truly move me, whether to feel happy or miserable, and this band possesses great skill in writing and performing music which is powerfully evocative, tending towards unhappy, bitter, or inspiring. This is the music I tend to prescribe for a broken heart, as these emotions accompany the phases of healing one quite well. If you own nothing by this band, start with Siamese Dream. If you hate this band, well, all I can say is that I hate tomatoes, fruits du mer and Korn, so take that, you lousy tomato lover. |
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I wasn't sure if I should mention Nine Inch Nails or not, but in the wake of how
fascinatingly trendy it is to dish out hatred for this band, I thought I should say something.
The good news is, Trent Reznor personally hates each and every one of us for being his fans. I respect any band with enough sense to essentially disregard the squealing teenaged masses that flock to it in those fleeting moments of cultural acceptability, though it is sad to think that it won't be long before we start wondering, "where are they now?" as we look back on the lost years of the nineteen-nineties and the many angsty passive-aggressive acts which helped carried us through adolescence along the way. I find that I'm not really much of an angry person anymore, so this music gets less play than it once did. I'm more of the "jaded" type nowadays. Nevertheless, if you are an angry person, there is nothing more finely suited for a long misanthropic bus ride than a walkman ready to fuel your burning desire to be alone with a solid dose of Pretty Hate Machine, and (my favourites) Broken and
the Downward Spiral. Much the same goes for Marilyn Manson. I haven't bought the most recent album, but I do own many a tune by this highly successful commercial venture, and the music produced remains so much more experimental and weird than most of this ilk, and I hope that band keeps going in that direction... which is to say, towards pedophilic, misanthropic anti-Christian sentiments. If industrial music has become synonymous with darkness and evil (remember: if), then Mr. Manson is probably the guy imprisoning three naked children in his basement in a suburb somewhere near you. The only thing to worry about is that people take them seriously; by their own admission, it's just a shock band, and yet we have all kinds of little Marilyn Mansons walking around, biting people and/or shooting them. |
| Maybe I'm just too hip for my own good, or maybe you don't live in the appropriate hunk of geography, but so far as I can tell, one of the nummiest Canadian bands I've really been able to stand and groove have been the gandharvas. A lot of their songs are quirky, but generally this band goes out for some powerfully unhappy songs. Their first album, "A Soap Bubble and Inertia" really is something I'll only listen to when I want to be introspective and cool and angst and stuff. |
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Nirvana ended my years as a little boy who liked terrible music. After I saw the video for "Heart-Shaped Box" in late '93, I lost all need
for that greasy top 40 kid stuff, and made it my life's work to destroy dance
music in particular. Strangely enough, the hype for Nevermind had convinced me that Nirvana was just another jock band, but once I got ahold of In Utero, I was led by the good ministrations of the (count 'em...one...) punk at my high school into the whiny-insane lyrics and music of the oh-so many Kurtlicious songs. And I knew I had at last found a band to cherish and admire forever. It was later that same spring that Kurt Cobain committed suicide. I hate that kind of irony. The aftermath of Nirvana, of course, is the Foo Fighters, who fully deserve all the attention they get, for though Dave Grohl has gone in a different direction than the Nirvana sound, it is perhaps not a mistake... his talent for good music shines without Kurt's overwhelming personality to keep him over on the side looking like a geek. |