Bad Religion still on their game with Dissent of Man

Photo: metalwarez.com


It’s hard to believe, but chances are Bad Religion has been producing aggressively catchy punk rock tunes since before you were born. Together 30 years, the SoCal punk godfathers just released a staggering 15th studio album, The Dissent of Man on Epitaph Records (actually founded by BR guitarist Brett Gurewitz).
Artistically, it pales in comparison to the band’s classic albums like Suffer, Stranger than Fiction, and Recipe for Hate. But most of the songs on The Dissent of Man prove why Bad Religion is still musically relevant 30 years into their careers.
The album hits the ground running with “The Day That the Earth Stalled,” a 90-second work packed with a rapid tempo and complex drum beat, especially in the opening verse. Lead singer Greg Graffin speeds through the lines, pining for nostalgia: “Do you remember when we were young, adventure had no end? Those were the days, my friend.”
“The Resist Stance” has the makings of a quality single. It starts with a lethargic and heavily-distorted guitar riff, much along the lines of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man.” This transitions into another rapid punk instrumental, but the riff is cleverly layered beneath, creating a pleasant contrast between punk-fast and heavy metal-slow.
Die-hard fans may be turned off by the first single “The Devil in Stitches.” It’s slower in tempo, and resonates a bit of a country feel. True, the song has an edgy sound echoing from the guitar trio of Gurewitz, Greg Hetson, and Brian Baker. But the guitars won’t overwhelm your eardrums like BR staples “Generator” and “American Jesus” can. “Devil” feels mature and maybe even a bit mellow, especially when arriving at the interlude before Gurewitz’s guitar solo.
The country influence takes full force with “Cyanide.” This number that feels like Hank Williams Jr. meets Gin Blossoms. Gurewitz uses a guitar tone that gives off a twangy effect, evident in his plucking notes at the end of the choruses. The solo is the simplest one on the album, with the guitar crying more than screaming.
This tone is coupled with lyrics that are an ode to those punch drunk love poems penned on napkins at the country diner: “The road to you is paved right through with bloody good intentions/And missing you is like kissing Cyanide.” These revelations may have punk enthusiasts crying “sellouts!”
But rest assured; this is only a detour through Nashville, not a permanent stop. And left turns like this prove why BR is still relevant in today’s music scene. If they’d played the exact same style throughout their discography, they probably wouldn’t have made it long enough to see record 15.
While there are some detours, themes of religion and evolution remain constant, a continuation from the last album, 2007’s New Maps of Hell. These themes appear throughout Dissent. Religion is the central theme of “Devil” (“And let the devil come join us dancing/Across the yellow sun/We’ll run/While the devil in stitches goes and has his fun.”). And hearing the oohs, aahs, and whoas from Gurewitz and bassist Jay Bentley on almost every BR praise chorus gives the impression they’re part of a church choir led by the baritone voice of reverend Graffin.
Evolution is taught by Graffin at UCLA, who recently published a book called Anarchy Evolution, depicting some of his thoughts on the matter. In “Won’t Somebody,” he gains a sense of urgency concerning higher powers, wondering: “Won’t somebody please come up with something/ Cuz’ Jesus just don’t seem to be impartially working.”
The dissent of man is discussed in-depth on “Wrong Way Kids.” Graffin dishes out some of his vintage social commentary, served with a side of sarcasm. Pertaining to the wrong way kids, he notes: “The kids today are gone away petitioning the dust/With nobody to look up to because they’re looking up to us.”
Not to be forgotten is the solid work of veteran Bentley and relatively new drummer Brooks Wackerman. Bentley’s bass lines flow seamlessly throughout the LP, with a nice mix of filler and bass riffs. Wackerman’s energy is a breath of fresh air. With his flawless execution of the intricate and intense percussion on Dissent, it’s tempting to wonder just how much more legendary Recipe For Hate and Stranger Than Fiction would’ve been had he appeared on them.
Still, Dissent lacks many of the catchy pop features and striking melodies that were free-flowing during the band’s heyday of the late 80’s/early 90’s. Today’s songs simply don’t hold a creative candle to classics like “21st Century Digital Boy,” “Infected,” “Struck a Nerve,” and “Atomic Garden.” And the intro to “Someone to Believe” is completely ripped off from the backing track to Green Day’s “American Idiot.”
But there are no real duds on Dissent; you’d be hard pressed to find one. This speaks for itself about any band that’s 30-years strong. And if they keep churning out this music, Bad Religion’s dissent may still be a while off.

NBC's Sunday Night Football asking to be sacked

Photo: typophile.com

In between catching up on my homework, I’ve been watching NBC’s coverage of the Sunday Night Football. I can’t believe it took me this long to realize just how much NBC’s NFL coverage is lacking.

For starters, the broadcasting duo of Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth was extremely biased towards the Colts as they faced off against the Redskins. They made no effort to hide their man crushes for Peyton Manning and Dwight Freeney, and declared that the Colts were a “machine” midway through the game; because after all, the Colts looked like such a machine in losses to the Texans and Jaguars and a near loss to the Chiefs.

Then you switch to the studio coverage, featuring analysts Tony Dungy (former Colts coach) and Rodney Harrison (former Patriots player). It’s always awkward watching these two interact in the studio. It’s no secret that they probably dislike each other, given they battled each other for years in the bitter Pats-Colts rivalry.

And do you really need two studio hosts? Sure, Dan Patrick is actually in the studio, while Bob Costas is on site at the weekly game. But Costas is useless here; all he really does is preach some oral essay at halftime on the happenings in the NFL. Just do us all a favor, NBC, and keep Costas in hiding until the next Olympics.

The icing on the cake is hearing Faith Hill’s annoying “I’ve Been Waiting All Day For Sunday Night,” a tired cover of Joan Jett’s “I Hate Myself For Loving You.” It was cute the first hearing this song at the beginning of the game the first 20 times. I even had to mute it when it came on tonight. I would’ve changed the channel completely, but Faith Hill is eye candy you don’t change the channel on.

Catching up with Jimmy Eat World

Photo: NME.com
Singer Jim Adkins and Jimmy Eat World rocked the House of Blues in Boston this past Friday night.

While some spent this past Friday night reuniting with the bottle, I spent it in Boston, reuniting with a musical friend that I had forgotten about over the past few years. I was at House of Blues for the Jimmy Eat World concert, and I had lost interested in the Arizona alt-rock veterans following their disappointing 2007 album Chase This Light. But their resurgence from a new album (Invented) and hit single (“My Best Theory”), coupled with the HOB show made me realize what I had been missing over the years.

I was disappointed that they opened the show with “Bleed American.” In my opinion, it’s undoubtedly their best single and arguably their best song. I like when bands save their best song for last, not for the open of the concert. I also think the HOB is a terrible venue for a concert. Everyone is standing of the floor, packed in like some kind of a pig pen. I had to stand in front of the bar to catch a good view of the show, and people were constantly bumping into me through the night en route to their next alcoholic beverage. But other than that, I (and thousand of other JEW fans) had a great time belting out all of the band’s incredible hits, including “The Middle,” “Pain,” “Sweetness,” and “A Praise Chorus.”

They even threw in a couple of lesser-known favorites like “Get It Faster” and “Blister” off of their legendary album Clarity, which was sung by guitarist-and former lead singer- Tom Linton. The reunion had a perfect ending when the rabid crowd obliged to singer Jim Adkins’s request to “sing it back” during the show’s finale of “Sweetness.” A sweet night had by all, indeed.

Hall of Shame irrelevant to music fans

Photo: yazmar.com
LL Cool J could be in the Rock and Roll HOF? Seriously!?

By Trevor Medeiros

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recently came out with its annual nominations for its next class. Some of the nominations come with liits next class. Some of the nominations come with little surprise (Bon Jovi), feelings of being long overdue (Alice Cooper) and just plain headscratching (LL Cool J?).

While the artists nominated every year make news, the artists continually snubbed are the ones who always ignite the bigger debate about who should really be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We can talk all day about what artists really should be in (that’s you, Depeche Mode, the Smiths, Judas Priest, Rush, Roxy Music, Bad Religion, Van Halen, and on, and on, and on) until we’re blue in the face.

But honestly, who cares who’s in? With every LL Cool J that gets in, this Hall of Shame loses any credibility they have in deciding which artists really are the best at what they do. Maybe it’s a blessing that the previously-mentioned snubs aren’t in. Why would they want to be associated with such a joke of an institution?

Most reasonable music fans know who should really be regarded as the greatest musicians of all time. They don’t need the Hall of Shame to tell them.

Did Moss really force his way out?

Photo: Footballbabble.com

By Trevor Medeiros

Because everyone has beaten this subject of Randy Moss’s (not so) sudden departure to Minnesota into the ground since it happened a few days ago, I’ll only give one thought on the whole situation.

First off, after the deal went down, news came to light that Moss was becoming a real problem in the locker room. Apparently, he had a heated confrontation with offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien during halftime of Monday night’s win in Miami. Then on the plane ride home when head coach Bill Belichick tried to confront Moss on the confrontation, he received the cold shoulder.

Look, if this is all true, then Moss had to go, and fast. The best way to defeat cancer is with early detection. Belichick got rid of that cancer that was Moss before he ended up killing a young Patriots locker room.

But I’m not sure what to believe here. For the past three years, all we heard about was how great of a teammate Moss was with the Pats, even from sources like Belichick. Now all of a sudden, he’s blowing up at halftime and is a locker room cancer? Sounds like a smear campaign by the Boston media to me.

All I’m saying is take what you’ve heard about Moss’s final days in New England with a grain of salt.

OMG! EVERYBODY READ MY ALBUM REVIEW OF WEEZER'S HURLEY!

Photo: www.hypetrack.com

To those diehard Weezer fans who are frustrated with the direction the band has taken recently: Rivers Cuomo hears you. Or maybe he doesn’t.

Whether consciously or not, a nostalgic Cuomo proclaims in the first song of Weezer’s eighth and newest album “Hurley,” that the “memories make me want to go back there.” The album was released last Tuesday (September 14). While it’s not exactly a return to the glory days of the blue album and “Pinkerton,” the band’s latest effort is at least on the right path, compared to the antics they’ve been pulling the last few years.

During this time, Cuomo and company covered Lady Gaga, jammed with Paramore’s Hayley Williams, penned an atrocious Indian-themed song, and if that’s not bad enough, the quartet even collaborated with Lil’ Wayne on its last studio album (2009’s “Raditude”).

Even before the release of “Hurley,” Weezer enthusiasts must’ve been pleased with the band’s return to its roots. That’s because Weezer left its longtime label Geffen over the summer to join forces with the legendary Indie label Epitaph records, which sparked the careers of The Offspring and Bad Religion.

The aforementioned opening song-and lead single-“Memories” brings back the good ol’ days of great Weezer pop rock. The chorus is very catchy, with a violin-tinged synthesizer riff matching its melody.

The song definitely isn’t short on Cuomo’s typically quirky lyrics, with lines like “Pissing in plastic cups, before we went on stage/ playing hacky sack back when Audioslave was still Rage.”

The album hits a high point with “Unspoken” and “Where’s My Sex?” Both songs would easily have a place on “Pinkerton.” The former begins with a simple acoustic guitar riff, backed by a psychedelic-sounding flute. This combination gives the song an awesome 60’s pop vibe.

Following the bridge, “Unspoken” explodes and releases all this boiling tension via electric guitars. The tension comes from the dark Cuomo’s dark lyrics. For one, he states in the chorus that “if you take this away from me, I’ll never forgive you, can’t you see/ our life will be broken, our hate will be unspoken.”

“Where’s My Sex?” is just a pure musical guilty pleasure. This number features heavy electric guitars, but in a pleasantly poppy style. And Cuomo’s play on words is genius. Throughout the song, he’s clearly describing socks, not sex.

“Mom made my sex, she knitted it with her hands…I can’t go outside without my sex, it’s cold outside and my toes get wet.”

Cuomo collaborated with many decorated songwriters on this album. These include pop star Ryan Adams; Desmond Child, co-writer of Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer”; Linda Perry, writer of Pink’s “Get the Party Started”; and Mac Davis, who published songs for Elvis Presley.

The end result is mediocre songs like “Run Away,” “Time Flies,” and “Trainwrecks.” They’re not bad songs, but given the resumes, you would expect the works to be more impressive. That being said, there really isn’t any one song on “Hurley” that you can single out and say “wow, that’s dreadful.”

You can say that about a handful of songs on the band’s last two albums, “Raditude,” and the red album. And this alone is enough to declare that Weezer is slowly but surely on its way back to the glory days.

And if that’s a stretch, then at the very least they’re back to producing quality pop rock.

late 2010/early 2011...great time for new music

Hey everyone,

I haven't been on here in awhile, so I just decided to check in. Been busy this summer with work, and whatnot. But I will be posting again soon with a flurry of new album reviews. With great alt acts like The Offspring, Weezer, Sum 41, Bad Religion, Jimmy Eat World, Blink 182, Franz Ferdinand, and a host of others coming out with new albums in the coming months, it should be enough material to keep me busy! I'll be back with my album review of Weezer's new album "Hurley" (Sept 14 on Epitaph). See ya then!

t med