M. Drew's blog

By now, you've likely all seen the news. Metallica is going to be enshrined in the rock and roll hall of fame April 4th in Cleveland.

I'm acutely aware of the varying opinions of Metallica in the metal community, and I know that debate will rage on for months and year and decades more. Still, I stand that this is one of the biggest days in heavy metal history.

-So my friend and I got wrapped up the other day in a conversation about some of the "could have beens" in music. Almost like a Marvel comics "What If," but with even less bearing on actual events. For example, "what if Rage Against the Machine had listened to us and gotten Chuck D to be their new singer?"

Figured I should get this up before I see the band live in a few weeks.

Throwback. That's the only word that comes to mind when I'm listening to The Sword's album "Gods of the Earth." Close your eyes and it's easy to picture the music coming from a van circa 1977 with dragons and wizards and whatnot painted on the side in dramatic action. The album sways at points between the soundtrack to a Renaissance festival and some headbanging, adrenaline charged mosh pit fuel.

So I happened across this article the other day, which describes how headbanging might raise the risk of brain injury.

I'm forced to ask, wasn't that kind of the point?

Plus, the picture in the article singles out Iron Maiden fans, which to me is clear discrimination. Plus, it's a blatant false portrayal of character, as nearly the only actual band mentioned in the print of the article is Motley Crue. I don't know anyone who listens to both "Powerslave," and "Dr. Feelgood."

So, I spent the entire weekend without electricity, wandering around between friends and family seeking warm shelter like a wayward gypsy. Mental note: not a fan of ice storms anymore. The point is that while I really had nothing better to do, my ruminating turned toward the upcoming holiday. To that end, I have composed a wish list of things I'd like see to happen as a favor to me. Most, but not all, are music related. They appear in no order.

M. Drew's Holiday Wish List!

Pardon me if none of this goes anywhere.

I don't listen to the radio much these days. It doesn't offer me a lot. Most stations are playing today's streamlined and easily-digestable but ultimately flavorless pop/rock/alternative music that I find so mundane. Worse yet, some stations (mostly college, but some commercial,) have gone off the deep-end of indie culture and scraped the bottom of the nigh-unidentifiable-as-music bin just for the sake of sounding different. I'd almost rather listen to a lot of mainstream stuff.

Frustration. It’s a word not commonly used when reviewing an album. To use it demonstrates a bias, gives the feeling that the reviewer was not objective when considering the merits of an album. Still, it’s the word I’m using. It’s all I can come up with for an album that sounds perfect one minute, and then sounds like amateur night at the Double Deuce the next.

Thomas Wolfe wrote a modernist novel called “You Can’t Go Home Again.” Normally, I wouldn’t mention that here, but I think that’s the best way I can sum up my reaction to Guns n’ Roses’ (read: Axl Rose’s) much ballyhooed new opus, “Chinese Democracy.”

So last weekend, my friend asked me if I would volunteer to help out his charity art auction. Being the decent guy that I am, I gladly told him I would. So there I was, helping set up, having a good time, marveling at the wonder that is a chocolate fountain, when a few pieces of art in my hand caught my eye.

(By the way, me at an art show is a huge mismatch. Still, it was great to be able to help out.)

Anyway, I got talking to Dan, the artist, and we discussed how he came up with his art, which he described roughly as follows:

Sometimes, you see a great one. Sometimes, if you’re lucky enough, you see THE Great one. (Not Wayne Gretzky in this case.)

AC/DC at Madison Square Garden last night. I don’t even have proper superlatives for this show. Amazing seems passé, awesome seems insufficient, phenomenal an understatement.