~Dio_DeWitt

Music is one bipolar mistress. One minute she'll lovingly stroke your head while feeding you gold-plated grapes that taste of happiness and sex, then the next minute she's hammering railroad spikes into your head and expecting you to take it with a shot to the nuts. As horrible as that analogy is, my point is its a two-way street. I've recently been expanding my horizons in the field of music. Whether it be delving into new genres and artists or just diving deeper into bands that have already established themselves with me. I've always hid in a 'safe zone' of music, by which I mean if I heard a song by someone, I would get that song and ONLY that song, refusing to delve deeper into the artist's musical catalogue for fear of discovering music I'd dislike. I stayed like this for years, terrified of the unknown. I felt what I knew was good enough, never sparing a thought to what I might be missing out on. And sometime last year, after 20 fucking years, I decided it was time to venture out of my safe zone and taste what music had to really offer, goddammit. For the most part, it paid off. Greatly so. I discovered what I now consider the pinnacle of music and the greatest band of all time. I discovered hidden gems from artists I thought I already had the best of. I even discovered gems from artists I had long since discredited. Unfortunately, with all good comes bad. I discovered that some artists I thought I loved just got lucky and mostly spewed out stale, uninteresting or just plain terrible garbage. And of course I discovered a large mountain of shit with new to me artists. All in all, it was very much worth it.


The Good

Led Zeppelin. Led fucking Zeppelin. The band I now hold up and say, "This is it. This is the greatest of all time. Though you never will be, this is what you should strive to be." Everything this band put out was solid gold. And I love gold. Everything from their self-titled debut album back in '69 to the live album they recorded in '07. And when a band puts out a fucking live album I love, not just like but love, they're truly beyond comparison. I really don't need to go on because that could and would go on for a long while. They're just that damn good. Pink Floyd was another wonderful discovery. Though not going over as much as Zepp did, they still pleasantly impressed with a beautiful, hypnotic and truly touching sound about them that was greatly exemplified during the Roger Waters era. 'Wish You Were Here' is still one of the most moving and beautiful songs that's even entered my ears. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers deserve a mention alongside Rush. Mr. Petty's bad boy image, refusal to stand down in the face of troubling times and melody to what is either marijuana or just an Indiana girl are both charming and genuinely interesting to listen to. Rush I, for the most part, find invigorating, clean and downright adorable when backed up by Geddy Lee's high-pitched voice. Moving forward in time a bit we have Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots up to bat. For some reason people seem to constantly state how they have a hard time distinguishing Vedder (Pearl Jam) and Weiland's (STP) voices. This confuses me, because I have no difficulty telling them apart. Anyway, both bands started out with only one song apiece going over with me. After hearing Interstate Love Song and Black, and frankly falling in love with both, I decided they were worth expanding on. Both bands started out on great notes with their first 2 albums being big hits with me. Then things kinda soured... big time. STP's third album Tiny Music was god awful. Vitalogy didn't fare a whole lot better. STP picked back up with No. 4, but then slipped with their next album before falling completely off with their latest self-titled album. And now Weiland has been kicked out of STP (again) and I fear I'll never be presented with a new album reminding me why I loved them. On the other side, Pearl Jam never seemed to pick back up. They just put out a long line of mediocrity, ending with the awful Backspacer album. I have hopes for Lightning Bolt though. At the time of writing I am testing out Anthrax. The band that is. So far things look mostly positive, so they deserve a mention. Seeing as I've been stuck in the area of rock I need to mention Ice Cube. In the genre of rap, Ice Cube is who I hold up and say, "This is what true rap is." A very large quantity of rap is garbage, pure and simple. Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, however, are shining stars burning bright in a dim sky. Cube for me is the embodiment of true rap. Though he has shown signs of falling to modernity in his last couple of albums, most of his work is gold. A few honourable mentions are to be thrown to; Motley Crue, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alice in Chains, 'N Sync, Backstreet Boys, the Cars, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, The Who and Everclear.


The Bad

Now that I've gushed about what gets my musical motor running, its time to give the opposition equal time. I need to get this one over quick considering I don't hate this artist. My traverse through their music was merely disappointing. Lady Gaga. When I first heard Bad Romance, I flipped. I loved the song. I was nuts over it. And when I saw Gaga, I thought she was kinda hot despite her odd behavior and taste in apparel. I finally decided it was time to put that crush to the test how blind it could make me. Good news? It didn't blind me at all. Bad news? There wasn't much to her music I liked. I was left saying, "Was that it?" over and over. I was just so upset. But I've since gotten over it. Aerosmith is in the same boat as Miss Gaga. Great first impression. Disappointing and fruitless effort to get into more of their music. One more group in that boat is an interesting band. The Butthole Surfers. Now I kinda fucked myself over in this instance. I went backwards through their discography. Starting with the strong and well liked Weird Revolution, but things only went downhill from there. Electriclarryland was a 50/50 split for me but everything after (or before really) was unbearable noise. Letting that boat sail, let's check out the boat that never made it out of port. Skrillex. Goddamn everything I do not understand why the effortless garbage is considered good or even fucking music. There's bad music caused by personal issues in life. There's bad music caused by trying to mix things up differently than what you did in the past. There are a lot a viable reasons that cause bad music. Laziness is not one of them. Skrillex is lazy. His music is lazy. And its frankly insulting he's considered a musician. His... "music" is a mixture of annoying beeps, boops, wubs and screeches that aren't even mixed well. Fucking terrible. I need to move on before I start getting petty and unfounded. After all he could be a cool guy. But his music still and will always blow. deadmau5. Pretty much what was said about Skrillex can be said about this guy. I know there is a difference in the sound of their music an styles, but it still falls into that area of total garbage. Next on the list is Nickelback. I tried these guys out and made it further than Skrill and mau5. But that's not really a good thing. So generic, so boring and so uninspired. Every song sounds the same and is about one of three things. Remembering the past, being pissed or wanting to be famous. Well they are famous, and I can't see why. When I said it wasn't a good thing I made it further with these guys I mean that I legitimately forgot I was playing their music. I kept thinking, "Why don't I have any music playing?" until remembered that Nickelback was playing. I then laughed and put on Zepp. Skrillex and deadmau5 kept my attention and kept me awake (though not in a good way) but Quarterfront just disappeared while playing. That's pretty fucking terrible. Moving on to new artists we have Nicki Minaj and Lil' Wayne. A boastful whore with no talent. A boastful druggy with no talent. Both worshipped by impressionable kids who think they're cool. How disgusting. Lil' Wayne's music falls into the bland dough of rap mediocrity and Nicki is... just there. Just taking up space and stealing oxygen... and money essentially. Dishonourable mentions go out to; Def Leppard, 50 Cent, Shinedown, Imagine Dragons, Poison, DMX, Maroon 5, Katy Perry and Robin Thicke.


So that wraps this up. Don't know if I'll do this very often but felt I needed to get this off my chest. Not like anyone will read it or care. So take it easy anyone who might be psychotic enough to read this. Take care.