Perfect 10's: Mezmerized-System of a Down

So a couple of weeks ago I was watching a recording of System of a Down's free show up in Armenia and after being blown away by the sheer awesomeness of them blasting through a catalog of awesome album cuts and singles I was motivated to grab my copy of Mezmerize/Hyptotize and give that a listen and that's where today's post comes to mind.


We all have a small list of albums that we've heard that in all honesty from beginning to end there isn't a single tune that is bad in all honesty the whole album from beginning to end is all killer with pretty much no filler and after kind of reliving my middle/high school nostalgia fueled excitement I thought to myself that I should highlight such records and with that in mind I'm a do a little segment called Perfect 10's which in all honesty is just a term I'm  using to describe an album that from beginning to end is all great with no dips in quality at all.....in my humble opinion and since this album was the first one to come to mind I figured fuck it why not.

Mezmerize was System of a Downs 4th studio album released on May 17, 2005 and was the first half of a double album with the second half Hypnotize released about 6 months later and while they should be observed as a whole album in all honesty I find Mezmerize to be such a superior product in it's own right that I often just kind of keep forgetting about Hypnotize even though it is a solid album in it's own right but that's not the thing we're talking about here.

From beginning to end this album is an all our assault on your senses just brimming with fast paced rockers and amazing guitar work through and through with the right blend of super obscured and awkward lyrics like Cigarago and Violent Pornography that are merely there to kind of make you listen so you can come to realize like every album this band has done it's an incredibly politically charged work that shines very heavily in it's biggest cut B.Y.O.B. and Sad Statue the latter of which has some of the most impressive guitar work I've heard from this band probably ever and actually wiht that in mind the middle eastern influence in guitar tones is more overt in this album especially in a track like Revenga.

Overall this album really shines for me because it just doesn't let up at any points it's a hard hitting effort of amazingly well done songs that for whatever reason or another haven't aged like their contemporaries and when i come to realize it's been 10 years since it came out and it still pounds as amazingly great now as it did then I'm only more impressed.

Really if you haven't given this a listen and you want some Heavy Metal that's more then just breakdowns and screamed vocals then you should own this album 10/10 highly recommended.

Quality Cuts: Sad Statue, Old School Hollywood, Violent Pornography, and Questions?

Lost Great Albums Vol. 3: Pretty. Odd. Things to Panic! about....

You ever sit back and get reminded of a time when any particular band was hot shit then seemingly out of nowhere just kind of fell off the face of the earth as everyone kind of grew up, moved on, and decided to listen to other musical endeavors?

Well a few days ago I was hanging out with a buddy listening to some random shenanigans on Pandora and upon just general interest of the songs being played I was reminded about the band Panic! At the Disco, and while I do recall covering one of their efforts in the form of a song of the day with some sense of being impressed by them returning to a mildly electronic heavy but familiar sound of power poppy emo goodness that we all fell in love with when, “A fever you can’t sweat out,” was released but I kind of just ignored the effort released and realized they’re still making records and people do still in fact listen to this band albeit the tunes aren’t really that spectacular but this isn’t really a piece to bash what’s honestly a band that never really went to shit like their contemporaries but in the process of looking back I’m fairly inspired to do another edition of Lost Great albums.

Pretty. Odd. Its’ an interesting record that upon doing my research beforehand seemingly didn’t seem to get as well received as it’s processor but upon actually giving a listen while writing this article seems to rather strongly stand up at the very least in the first few tracks which kind of abandoned that familiar new-wavey feel of their earlier record in favor of what was a very Revolution-Era Beatles inspiration in the form of a series of natural instruments and kind of semi-psychedelic sounding tunes that are in some way’s straightforward pop tunes that do their best to try and be very lyrically imaginative and for the most part that really does work.

I’m not saying these guy’s hold a candle to the fab 4 themselves but in terms of looking at this as an attempt to beat the sophomore slump it’s strong especially in tunes like, “That Green Gentleman,” which is really a very amusingly bouncy number that treads a fine line between power pop and early to mid 60’s baroque pop, you have an album by a band who decided to do their best to not be another emo group and it’s kind of a shame because this record didn’t get too much praise when it came out and from the looks of it like Panic! It’s just faded into obscurity.

SO if you’re looking for the attempt of another myspace-era group to actually break the mold and make a very well crafted kind of Beatles inspired tunes that are both strongly done and that hold up a million times better then the album that came before I’d advise you find yourself a copy of this either amongst your old CD’s from High School or maybe in a random CD store if those are still around and you kind of enjoy yourself what James Montgomery (asQuoted from the Wikipedia  page) Said, “Give this one a decade…We could have another Pinkerton on our hands,” and in all honesty we just might….

Lost Great Albums Vol. 2: A Nightmare for You....

Due to various unforeseen circumstances I was unable to post on here for what was quite some time and a rather large pain in the ass, but let’s not dwell on that people because I’m back and in my time of no internet I got a little inspiration to bring to you guy’s another exciting edition of Lost great Albums.

In all the years of angst ridden rock and roll there was this odd period of time in the early part of the millennium where alternative music took a turn towards a very squeaky voiced lyrically driven sound that’s best described as whinny, simple, and quite annoying and while there was groups who decided to go in a more vocally shredding direction ala My Chemical Romance, Hawthorn Heights, and Thursday there were acts that decided to go in a more poppy direction where the tunes where simple, radio friendly, and the pants where tight and lyrics a straight shot for top 40 gold ala Fall out Boy, but this is Lost great albums people we don’t talk about successful acts here no instead I’m going to talk about my favorite overlooked, under-appreciated, and forgotten act of that terrible decade known as Nightmare of You and their eponymous début album.

I’m not going to lie Emo as a Genre is probably worse in most way’s than boy bands with all those tight pants eye liner heavy Ian Curtis inspired individuals doing their best to be socially accepted Goth kids there’s a special group of hipsters today that could really come to realize they were the problem then and have now moved on to more electronic affairs but amongst the myriad of Joy division inspired Pop Punk groups to come out of htat time phrase there’s a diamond in the rough and that’s what this album truly is.

From stupidly simple cuts (My Name is Trouble), Deliciously Dirty cuts (Thumbelina),and even a tiny bit of amusingly self aware destiny (The Studded Cinctures) this albums one of the most lyrically driven pieces of work you’ll possibly listen to and have the pleasure of enjoying, with each song using more and more vivid wordplay even when things are so stupidly simple you have this kind of innocence to the tracks that just kind of demands you make importance of them and really take note.

Now I’m not going to lie there’s a lot of memories I have attached to this album that give it that special place for me personally and I’m more than sure it’s exactly why I haven’t dismissed it as another throwaway work of it’s time but there’s also the fact that this really is an effort that the mass media and world didn’t even acknowledge and they’re my super special semi generic alternative music act hell after six years of being on Youtube their lead single hasn’t even gotten a quarter of a million views, but I digress.

So yeah this isn't’ an original album by any means but there’s a certain smiths like charm that each of these tracks have in the fact that they’re all self aware pieces of work that thrive on the joy’s of one’s misery and it’s those miserly crafted numbers that have managed to stick with me for this long and I guess after one amazing EP to follow up this bad ass debut and a lack luster follow up effort this band will have to forever be just a faded product of their time, which in all respects leaves me with yet another Lost Great Album….

Lost Great Albums Vol. 1: The Great Power Popaganda

You know world record stores are the greatest gift to grace this fine planet of ours and upon randomly deciding to both make a stop and brows through the bargain bin I’ve stumbled across what is truly the lost great Power Pop record of its time in the form of Head Automatica’s Popaganda so today I’m going to explain to you guy’s why this is truly an amazing find while it’s feelings of poppy alternative bliss are at their most pleasureful.....

Now before I get to explaining how from the larger tehn life feelings of tunes like Graduation Day, to the hollowing dark subtleness of Cannibal girl, and the utter Cars inspired She’s not it I got a story about that first song that’s why this album has some significance for me personally, you see here this album came out 6/6/06 which was more a publicity stunt then anything else because well why the hell not so it was released when I was a freshman in high school so they were one of many kind of pop punkish emo groups that where an object of desire that still in some sick twisted way bring joyful memories of that time of discovery and it was the last day of school and for whatever reason I got up at the ass crack of dawn for whatever reason so I decide to say fuck it and go to my living room and turn on the tv to the music choice channel because it’s like radio with no commercials and a specific variety of tunes and this song was the first thing that came on and at that very second it was the most awesome thing of all time so because of that this tune’s kind of anthemic opening of Graduation Day and it’s very teen movie vibe make me smile any time I hear it and it’s kind of the best way to express how from the first song you’re going to end up hearing the best new wave album in a long time.

Like I said this album is just larger then life poppy cut after poppy cut with plenty of strong guitar work especially prevelant in tunes like She’s not it which is a fine balance of do-whopy sing along gold and well performed rock and roll.

There’s absolutely no loss of energy at any point in this album which just keeps everyone in high energy which is the strength of it all because Daryl Palumbo as a vocalist is quite strong when he’s channeling his inner Rick Ocasek finely balancing a blend of Doo-Whop and rock which this album is chocked full of.

So what I’m trying not to repeat all over is that this album’s damn good people and the fact that the company decided it’d be a smart idea to tack on Beating Heart Baby as a bonus track is just a cherry in an already amazing Sunday so if you’re going through a clearance sale or just on Amazon/iTunes/ect. Get this damn album it’ll make your life that much better…