Public Image Ltd, "Home"

8 Days to Find a Home



Look at the chorus to "Home": "Better days will never be, home sweet home." Then remind yourself that this is PiL, which means John Lydon is delivering the message.

The rest of the song is as acerbic as one could expect the sometime Johnny Rotten to be, skewering warmongering politicians and world leaders but too deft to call them out by name, creating a message that is equally universal in 1986 and 2015. Like the best political artists, Rotten delivers revolutionary ideas with revolutionary music, his post-rock dance beats and free vocals landing as violently as his ideas. Steve Vai, the dizzyingly flashy guitarist then best known for his showmanship on Frank Zappa and David Lee Roth records, shows up to play metal guitar, but Rotten keeps him in check more than any of Vai's previous bosses. I wouldn't want to cross him either.

Converge, "Homewrecker"

11 Days to Find a Home



I don't know what word Jacob Bannon screams two seconds into "Homewrecker", from the certifiably classic Jane Doe, but I'd rank it with metal's most brutal interjections, up there with Tomas Lindberg's "Go!" in "Slaughter of the Soul" and Ozzy's "Ooh!" in "I Don't Want to Change the World."

What he says doesn't really matter. As with almost every Converge song, it's all but impossible to decipher what Bannon is screaming. Not that his lyrics don't matter--they do, and are often quite good. But as with Frank Zappa or Mike Patton, there's more of an emphasis on the sounds of the words and the vocal melodies than the lyrics themselves. Even without being able to comprehend the words, I'd rank Bannon with young Henry Rollins as one of the world's most ferocious frontmen, "Homewrecker" being a prime example.

Frank Zappa, "Zomby Woof"

For George Duke.

Pig Destroyer at Public Assembly

Five things learned from Pig Destroyer's CMJ show:



1. Hipsters can get down.

 The blend of CMJ pass holders and metalhead ticket buyers was an awkward one, unable to work up a mosh pit for the first three acts. However, smartphones and plastic cups disappeared within seconds of guitarist Scott Hull's first grindcore riff, kicking off a night of involuntary movement to some seriously undanceable music. Now you know why their latest, Book Burner, is streaming on NPR.

2. Early Graves needed Makh Daniels.

It's agonizing and unfair. Shortly after releasing the first great thrash album of this decade, Early Graves lost their lead singer to a van accident. They're carrying on with a new singer and noble perseverance, but they sound like they belong in the hardcore heap now.

3. Book Burner was worth the wait.

Five years after Phantom Limb, Pig Destroyer have gotten better at everything they do. Calling it grindcore seems like a disservice, like all those Napalm Death records that you listened to just once or Cattle Decapitation before they got into jazz. The riffs thrash, the drums threaten to kick everything out from under and the songs are addictive.

4. The lyrics still don't matter.

Early reviews of Book Burner are making much of how singer J. R. Hayes reads Henry Miller and Cormac McCarthy and brings their influence to his lyrics. Advance copies must come with lyrics sheets, because I couldn't understand a word that he screamed all night. However, like Mike Patton or Frank Zappa, the sounds that he brings together and enunciates in his lyrics are engrossing, unsettling and funny enough for you to not worry about Tropic of Cancer.

5. The show matters.

Pig Destroyer headbang in place, incite horns-flashing and bellow the names of their songs, just like hundreds of club metal bands you've seen before. But it felt like they invented every move.

System of a Down at Jones Beach Theater

Seven years after their last album, System of a Down still sound like mainstream metal's last stand. They're still the newest cutting edge metal act whose CDs could be sold at Target, the most modern metal band to write a tolerable song that your sister knows the words to. At Jones Beach Theater last Sunday, they gave no indication that they'll be releasing new music, even if that may be exactly what underground metal needs right now. System's ability to be avant-garde and popular was reflected in the line outside the venue, where Wiz Khalifa and Daniel Johnston t-shirts met.

Headbangers will always need our System of a Downs. Gripe all you want about it not being kvlt enough for you, but you never would have discovered grindcore if you hadn't heard Pantera, and there is an abundance of exciting underground metal bands with no modern gateway artist. Either System have to make new music, or Pig Destroyer is going to have to start writing choruses.



Openers the Deftones tore into "Rocket Skates" moments before the sky turned black and released a torrential storm on the band and attendees. Undeterred, either by their own professionalism, the crowd's energy or the fact that their biggest foe was still the Jones Beach acoustics, they boosted a standard "Best of the Deftones" setlist by employing the weather into their show. "This is some Michael Jackson shit happening, without (mechanical) fans," commented singer Chino Moreno, while the winds and downpour gave songs like "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" a grandeur that they never could have found in the Deftones' usual club setting.



System of a Down opened with "Prison Song," an anti-incarceration anthem that alternates between singer Serj Tankian's barked statistics and guitarist Daron Malakian's squeaked imitation of a crack-smoking Hollywood dwelling. It was a reminder of how the band originally stood out, by blending goofy irreverence and dour politics somehow never undermined each other (most System-y shirt: an armored vehicle with an erected tank gun that read "MINE IS BIGGER THAN YOURS.") Like Malakian's hero, Frank Zappa, System's songs danced between cheery melodies ("Bounce," "Cigaro,") and guitar spazz outs ("Suite-Pee," "Sugar,") often in the same composition ("Chop Suey," "B.Y.O.B.") If anything, the band's sense of humor gave their politics more weight than the self-serious riot acts of Rage Against the Machine and Lamb of God.

But like Rage, System of a Down showed last Sunday that they are best as a unit. Tankain's solo records or Malakian's Scars on Broadway have been struggling to come up with anything as instant as "Needles" or at wrenching as "Hypnotize" ever since System of a Down announced their hiatus in 2006. By last Sunday's show, they've still "got it," and if SOAD never records again as a band, it would the metal community's loss.

Sister to LA

Why my sister would move to LA when New York is readily available, I will never know. But I do know better than to try to change her mind, and as long as she's going, I will make her a road trip soundtrack.



Sister to LA

1. Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Under the Bridge"
2. 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre & Roger Troutman, "California Love"
3. Patti Smith, "Redondo Beach"
4. Rufus Wainwright, "California"
5. Snoop Dogg, "Gin and Juice"
6. The Ramones, "California Sun"
7. Guns N' Roses, "Welcome to the Jungle"
8. Frank Zappa, "San Ber'dino"
9. Tom Waits, "Hold On"
10. Joni Mitchell, "California"
11. Lesley Gore, "California Nights"
12. Billy Bragg & Wilco, "California Stars"
13. Elliott Smith, "Angeles"
14. Liz Phair, "Dogs of L.A."
15. X, "Los Angeles"
16. Beck, "Hollywood Freaks"
17. LL Cool J, "Going Back to Cali"
18. Tom Petty, "Free Fallin'"
19. Led Zeppelin, "Going to California"
20. Neil Young, "L.A."
21. Green Day, "Welcome to Paradise" 

As I've mentioned, there are far too many great California songs for one CD. To make this easier on myself, I eschewed the most predictable choices--no "Girls," "Dreamin'" or "Here I Come," although the latter's Bill Evans rendition tempted me. I couldn't resist "California Love," even though it hasn't been cool since it was included in the Marmaduke trailer, and I gave LL Cool J's "Going Back to Cali" preference over Biggie's, due to the former's appearance in a movie with my sister's favorite actor.

I'm happy with the mix of deep cuts and standards. Underrated tracks from Frank Zappa (a redundancy?) and Liz Phair (ditto?) both honor the state, and my music buddy Jesse hooked me up the excellent yet out-of-print Neil Young number. Then again, I'll never get sick of "Under the Bridge," "Gin and Juice" or even "Free Fallin'."

The sister likes girl groups, so I've included Lesley Gore, and she is also partial to Elliott Smith, Tom Waits and Rufus Wainwright. Sis also probably knows every word to Joni Mitchell's "California," so for good measure I've included it here with the song that Led Zeppelin wrote for Joni.

Welcome to LA, Sis. Enjoy the fun n' games.

PS> Good thing I had the playlist handy, as my buddy Erica also informed me that she's moving to LA on hours' notice. She's getting a mix with Frank Black, the Grateful Dead and others.

PPS> Sis, if you're reading this, the Morningside Heights Post Office is kind of sketchy. If the CD doesn't arrive soon, download it below.

Download here: Sister to LA

Boyz II Mom

My mom doesn't ask for much, except for a mix CD two days of the year. One of these days comes on a Sunday in May.



Boyz II Mom

1. The Beatles, "Mother Nature's Son"
2. Warren Zevon, "Mama Couldn't Be Persuaded"
3. Mr. T, "Treat Your Mother Right"
4. Ozzy Osbourne, "Mama, I'm Coming Home"
5. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, "Motherly Love"
6. Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson, "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys"
7. Bob Dylan, "Mama, You Been on My Mind"
8. Funkadelic, "Cosmic Slop"
9. Marc Rizzo, "Mamasita"
10. John Lee Hooker, "Mama, You've Got a Daughter"
11. The Rolling Stones, "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?"
12. Neil Young, "New Mama"
13. Danzig, "Mother"
14. The Jackson 5, "Mama's Pearl"
15. 2pac, "Dear Mama"
16. Pink Floyd, "Mother"
17. Merle Haggard, "Mother Tried"
18. John Lennon, "Mother"
19. Johnny Cash, "Send a Picture of Mother"
20. Paul Simon, "That Was Your Mother"
21. The Beach Boys, "Mama Says"
22. Stevie Wonder, "Easy Goin' Evening (My Mama's Call)"

22 recordings of boys honoring moms in song.

With my mom's preferences in mind, metal is at a minimum. Ozzy was of course the first to spring up, and Danzig's "Mother" is almost as cuddly these days. Marc Rizzo from Soulfly pulls off an impressive flamenco number on "Mamasita," but Mom's tastes are more reflected in the Beatles and Stevie Wonder picks.

Of course a Mother's Day mix needs a lot of country ("Mama Tried" being the one I can relate to most,) and I got to rescue 2Pac and Pink Floyd tracks from records that I used to bother Mom with. I actually like both of them better in this context, and I'm hoping she will, too. With the Stones and Beatles, I shunned the obvious choices ("Mother's Little Helper," "Your Mother Should Know") and wound up with better songs. Not that I'm elitist enough to admit it.

Luckily, two of my favorite sources for music, Rob Sheffield and Sound Opinions, also came up with playlists for me to cherry pick from. This resulted in Funkadelic's terrific "Cosmic Slop," which I hadn't realized counts as a mom song, a wistful a capella number from the Beach Boys and most notably, "Treat Your Mother Right," which could not exist if not for mixes like this one.

Listening again, I'm wondering if the Zappa and John Lennon choices were appropriate. I guess that many boys have complicated feelings about their mommies.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom Apatoff.

Download here: Boyz II Mom