I fucking love music. (Hip hop fans and music-illiterate may want to steer clear)

[chiefMOJOrisin]

Preface: This thread is a rant.....meaning it is MY personal opinions. If anyone has a problem, don't post or fuck off.

I would first like to say one thing.... I hate Hip Hop. But I enjoy rap. Most people have no clue that there is a difference. Mobb Deep...is rap. 50 Cent....is Hip Hop. Hip Hop might as well be called 'Hip Pop', because thats exactly what it is. Music written by someone, performed by someone else, for the radio. There is a huge difference in writing/performing music because the artist enjoys it and it its a personal expression....and writing/perforiming music that other people like.

A great example is Metallica. They started out making awesome music that they enjoyed.....which also happened to be enjoyed by many people. Once that style of music became obsolete, they changed entirely so people would continue to like them......well, we all know how that worked out. Metallica is know known for being a bunch of pansy-ass sell outs....instead of one of the best metal bands ever and a huge influence on future bands.

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Ok, here we go......this is going to be quite long because my music anthology is quite large....and I have nothing better to do. So sit back, pack a pipe, and learn about what good music really is..........



If there was no such thing as music, I would have done myself in a looooooooooooong time ago.

My entire life revolves around music. I listen to music in the car, in the shower, while on the computer, while working in my growroom, while playing hack/skating, and any other daily activity for that matter.

Even when there is no music playing, I am creating, or mimicking drum beats with my tongue ring against my teeth. I have several chips in my teeth as a direct result.


No matter what mood I am currently in, music can help. It can help to calm me down, pump me up, piss me off, slow me down, or just bring me back to 'normal'.


When I am angry I LOVE me some Between The Buried and Me. So hard.....so eclectic...so original. The only other band that I can think of that is similar is Blood Has Been Shed. BHBS was probably one of my biggest influences in my decision to play music, beside Keller Williams. It didn't hurt that the band is from my home state of CT....CTHC BABY!!! (that would be Connecticut Hardcore) Yea not just Hatebreed are from CT.

It sucks to an uncomprehendable extent that Howard Jones (big black lead singer of BHSB...and now Killswitch Engage) is putting more effort into Killswitch....another band that can easily put the word 'pop' in their genre title. Nonetheless, Jones swears BHSB will never dismantle and are going to release another album sometime in 2008. I hope that is true.

The first Killswitch album (self-titled) was awesome....it had songs like 'Rusted Embrace' on it that had NO SINGING and still had classic Killswitch breakdowns and metal guitar solos. Then the second album came out when bands like Poison the Well and From Autumn To Ashes were gaining popularity, so Killswitch added some 'emo-metalcore' songs to the song list from the first album and released, 'Alive or Just Breathing'. Jesse Leach was the original singer on these albums....and was fucking awesome. And incredible singing and screaming voice......unfortunately his voice couldn't handle a whole set and needed throat surgery for some reason. Then came Howard Jones....and the gradual disappearance of one of my favorite bands. Killswitch re-recorded some of its better songs with Jones on lead vocals, and added a few new tracks.....no where near as good as the first 2 albums.

Besides Between the Buried and Me (check out 'Shevenal Cut a Flip' and 'Aspirations'.....amazing songs.) and Blood Has Been Shed, some of my favorite harder bands are Unearth, old VOD (Vision of Disorder), Hopesfall (earlier harder stuff), Remembering Never, Candiria and Norma Jean.



The first CD's I ever had was Offspring's 'Smash', and Nirvana's 'Nevermind'....I was probably around 10 and I got both for my birthday....including a kick ass radio/cd/tape player shaped like a '57 Chevy. My first experiences with music molded my future taste in music......I soon became enthrawled with Metallica's 'Master of Puppets' because I had it on vinyl (still do) and I thought it was the coolest thing to 'watch' the sound being produced.

I was soon turned on to a band that is quite underground, yet awesome...in their own right. Blood For Blood is a band all about fighting and drinking. I agree thats not the message a 13-14 year old should be getting, but oh well. My taste for B4B soon evolved into Hatebreed and Vision of Disorder.

Bands like Nirvana are special.... because they can turn a fan on to several genres of music. I became obsessed with Alice and Chains soley because they played music in the same genre as Nirvana. Even though Nirvana can't touch Alice in Chains with a 49 1/2 foot pole. Nirvana turned me on to the likes of The Meat Puppets, Neil Young, Radiohead, and believe it or not, Led Zepplin. I heard a riff in a Zepplin song on 99.1 WPLR like 10 years ago that reminded me of a Nirvana song......ever since then I have been quite the Zepplin-head.



My taste for music goes far beyond the mainstream rock and roll of Nirvana and Zepplin. I thoroughly enjoy most every sub-genre of rock and roll. Especially the jamband scene...because I myself am a rather large hippy. I live at festivals in the summer and smoke a shit load of herb.....nothing like a 20 minute, live moe. track to go with a funky skunky monkey screwbie doobie.

I've seen moe. in concert 4 times....and they get better everytime. If anyone is familiar with the download archive site, I HIGHLEY suggest you download the March 27th set from the 2007 Sno.Down festival......they fucking kill it. Most especially on tracks like 'Rebulbula', which they jam for 15+ minutes.....as well as 'Cyclone', 'McBain', and my personal favorite, 'Lazarus'. Well, any moe. set is good. An even better experience is going to one of the fesitivals they got going on. Sno.Down is in the winter/very very early spring, and Moe.Down is usually in the summer sometime.

Some of my jamband favs are (most are quite obvious) Bobby Weir and Ratdog, Zero, Railroad Earth, Perpetual Groove, Gov't Mule, WIDPESPREAD PANIC!!!!, moe. (duh), Umphrey's Magee, Scarecrow Collection, Deep Banana Blackout (not really a jamband but a festival staple, and from my hometown in CT), Strangefolk, Assembly of Dust, The String Cheese Incident, and probably my favorite after moe, RAQ. I will exclude Keller Williams, for now because I will certainly rant about him later....



Going in a different rock direction, one of my all time favorite bands is Tool. Maynard's ability to pinpoint my feelings with his lyrics is uncanny. I must say that their most recent album, although good, has slipped a bit from previous Tool standards. Even though it has got to be difficult to top a master piece like Aenima. They did however come close with Lateralus.

Maynard's voice fucking pierces something inside of me and grips me by the heart everytime. Every band's lyrics are up for interpretation, but maybe none more so that Tool. Maybe more than Tool, A perfect Circle. Some songs can easily be heard as struggles with drugs.....but to others, it has nothing to do with addiction. For me, I can relate my personal experiences to Tools music very well.....even if the songs were written for a totally different reason and with a different meaning in mind.

I had 3 close friends, one extremely close, die of drug overdoses...all before the age of 22. 2 were 19, and one was 21. The song 'Eulogy' on Aenima hits me close to home. Everytime I hear it I become totally one with the song....as if I am sitting Indian-style in the center of the stage as they perform.



I can honestly say that if a gun was held to my head, and my brians were to be splattered all over the place if I didn't give my favorite band, that I would surely parish. It is damn near impossible for me to chose just one favorite band. For the sake of whatever, here is a list of my favorite bands/artists:

(not in any order at all)

• Tool
• moe.
• Pink Floyd
• Lenard Cohen
• Radiohead
• Keller Williams
• Sublime
• Alice in Chains
• The Allman Brothers (Band)
• Nirvana
• The Grateful Dead
• The Doors
• Led Zepplin
• Dashboard Confessional
• Lou Reed
• Blood Has Been Shed
• God Forbid (Determination and earlier)
• 311
• Mobb Deep
• Nas
• The Beatles
• Widespread Panic
• Pearl Jam
• RAQ
• Norma Jean
• The Mars Volta
• Metallica (The Black album and earlier...NOTHING after)
• Interpol
• The Foo Fighters
• Imogen Heap
• Dave Matthews Band
• CKY
• Candiria
• Beck
• As I Lay Dying

That is a long list.....all off the top of my head. Those are my most listened too bands/artists. Notice that very few, if any are making new music....and the ones that are, sure as shit aren't radio-bands. Which brings me to how drasticalyy un-hip I am. I have no clue about any new artists or songs....usually because they are sorry fucking excuses for musicians. Forgive me if I think that most everything on TRL should be outlawed.



As I near the conclusion of my rant, I would like to say one thing... Sure I have a problem selecting one band/artist as my favorite....but if I could only listen to one band/artist for the rest of my life I would choose Keller Williams every time. Every time. He is by far the biggest influence on my music. I play (not great) the acoustic guitar, keyboard and drums. I'm sure Keller can play drums, but I've only seen him use electronic drum pads....and he is good with those too.

Keller's amazing ability to loop had me mezmorized the first time I saw him live. He has 3-4 guitar stands on stage, all empty. He will start by busting out a tasty riff on his custom 10 string guitar (12-stringer with the high and low 'E' removed for better harmonics) and then looping that over and over. He then puts the guitar on the empty stand to give the audience the feeling like there is a real guitar player standing there playing.....but in reality it is all Keller. Next he will make a totally original beat/melody with the guitar......although the effects he uses make it sound like a harp/drums/synthesizer/anything besides guitar. Then he loops that and puts that guitar on another empty stand. Now he has two 'band members' playing...and he then can bust out more on the guitar/keyboard/drum pads. It is truely a breath-taking experience to see him live.

I had already owned an Ibanez V-series acoustic/electric and a Digitech RP-100 effects pedal when I first saw Keller....after wards I purchased a Boss RC-20XL Loop Station. I love to loop. I love it. I love to create a sick drum beat, throw some cool barre chord rythms in there and loop both.....then just jam. If I hadn't ever heard, or heard of Keller Williams I have no clue what I would play. I would probably still be playing Neil Young and Simon & Garfunkel on a lonely acoustic.




So yea. I like music. MUSIC. What an amazing concept. I wonder if Mel Brooks got it right.....the first music was a bunch of neandertals grunting in different octaves and in unison. (History of the World pt.1)

Smell ya later....


http://www.archive.org/index.php
^^^^Download most any live jamband show FOR FREE!! I found a Grateful Dead show that was the week I was born.....I also download sets from festivals I attended. Definately check it out.

[scoobydooby67]

railroad earth - my second favorite band of all time.

phil lesh said they are the most talented band that he has ever seen.

perpetual groove - my favorite band.

i like that about bit about metallica. its "sad but true"

between the buried and me is fucking amazing, theyre coming here in a week and while i havent listened to metal in years i just might go.

edit: i once saw a small concert where hopesfall opened, then norma jean, then dillinger escape plan.

i came home from that with a black eye and sore as fuck. awesome show.

i used to love Killswitch, my old band covered a few of their songs, along with some From Autumn to Ashes and a few poison the well songs.

i will not bash you for liking tool, to each his own.

if i may however, i will challenge your Keller faith.

if i ever saw keller williams on the street, id throw anything i had at him.

he is a narcissistic selfish douchebag asshole, and it wont make a difference but i will boycott him as long as i live.

i used to be "mesmerized" just like you, dont get me wrong i used to love him.

but when you watch him at festis he always comes out whenever he wants to and plays with a band that he's not supposed to when hes drunk.

he's got the biggest head in the world.

when you go to venues around here all the jambands are from 10-20 dollars to see them, and thats for a full membered band.

when he comes, its guaranteed to be a 30+ dollar ticket, what a fucking asshole.

and when it comes to fan relationships, there is no greater douchebag then keller williams.

oh and he rarely loops like that anymore, he likes to play with "friends".

so there you go.

also, you mentioned that raq was your favorite band after moe.

have you ever heard particle? or lotus?

i think particle has a much better live show than raq, and they are more groovy.

lotus i think is also more talented, but not as "hardcore" haha (their melodies are light and airy).

[chiefMOJOrisin]

That sucks he charges that much where you are. I just payed 20$ to see him and the WMD's (dude from String Cheese and one from Phil Lesh/Trey) at a place called Toad's in New Haven Connecticut.....actually it was tuesday....or was it monday?? Who knows, I was bake-aked. It was dope nonetheless.

However, I have experienced Keller's need to barge in on other's sets. Especially at last year's Gathering of the Vibes......on saturday night the line-up was Keller and the Keels (Keels didn't show up), Les Claypool, and then Ratdog....awesome line-up, right??? Of course....but in reality it turned out to be a night with Keller Williams. Though I must say in his defense that a lot of people play on his sets. I can't think of a festival I've been at where Keller played and Bob Weir didn't jam with Keller.


Who knows..... I think he's funny. He is obviously talented.... but his personality and actions are definately up for interpretation. I can easily see why some may find him pretentious.....or even annoying. It does piss me off when he plays the same shit at least once EVERY show. Doobie in my Pocket is so fucking played out!!

[rage6945]

i know exactly what you mean man, but i have to admit i take offense to the title you got there haha
i'm a guitarist, drummer, bassist, very well studied in music theory, and at the same time i'm a turntablist, beatmaker, and an avid rap/hiphop fan

the difference between hip hop and rap is waaaaaay to broad and most people dont get it right..... mos def is considered hip hop.... if you think that mos def just writes music to put on the radio you should be smacked (he's not even on the radio). i dont differentiate between hip hop and rap, they mean the same thing to me.
and it doesnt matter if you dont listen to it, dont call musicians on the radio untalented, they're making what they like, and they're putting their heart into it whether it sounds like it or not. a lot of people dont give new music a chance because it doesnt fit the same stereotype as the older bands they listen to.

anyway i feel the same way in general about music.... theres never a moment that i'm sitting around my house without a guitar in my hands. i always have music playing.
when i'm reaaaaaally blazed sometimes i'll sit and listen to the sounds of nature or wherever i am outside, and piece together the sounds musically and loop them in my head.....i dont know if anyone else does that haha
but nice rant, it inspired me to write my own

[Junesong]

Your wrong though. Rap is not a genre of music, rap is an element of Hip-Hop music. They are NOT seperate genres. 50 cent is hip-hop, doesn't mean hes good, but he is hip-hop.



Seeing you like Between the Buried and Me, I think you should check out Opeth, much better.

[blazedandcrazed]

TOOL IS FUCKING BOMB!!!!

and a lot of people would argue your views on hip hop and rap. personaly i beleive there is no difference, only good shit and bad shit. people who argue there is would say you switched them up: rap is radio shit and hip hop is classic. whatever though, theyre the same damn thing, somes good, somes bad.