Not blogging every day makes keeping up with what day it is a little bit tricky. In any case, things are going well. I'm starting to worry about some things, but they're not really related to LA life... Today I've got an important dinner tonight, an interview /listening session with the hardcore band Every Time I Die out near Long Beach in the middle of the day, and need to prep for an interview tomorrow. Phew!
On my way into work this morning, I was listening to ETID and remembering how much I love hardcore. It's entirely different than screamo, a genre, that while I do listen to professionally, I personally can't stand. Whine whine whine, scream, more whining. Yuck. Though to the untrained ear, the two genres may sound similar, hardcore is much heavier and focuses solely on writing brutal music with guitars that pulverize and vocals that threaten to shred your eardrums. I love it. But the reason I've determined for why it holds such a place in my heart isn't because it's loud and raucous (though, sure, that doesn't hurt). It's because at it's core, it, like the best rap, is poetry.
Think about it. American Nightmare, Every Time I Die, Dillinger Escape Plan, old music by the Blood Brothers (for anyone who isn't familiar with Burn, Piano Island, Burn and who likes that kind of music, it's a must have.) - the songs don't center around choruses and melodies. Instead, they are written like lyric poems, with odd, unexpected imagery. The lyrics, though of course there's the old joke that these singers could be shouting orders to a short-order cook, are central to each song, but they're wrapped in a package where they become such a part of the musicality of the song that it is sometimes difficult to figure out exactly what is being said. Like in poetry and rap, the words take on a rhythmic presence of their own.
Good hardcore pushes the envelope of art and music. Are they, and the most talented rappers the beat poets of our generation? Definitely.
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