Heavy Metal in Baghdad Part 3.

Happy Thanksgiving guys. I forgot I had to post a third blog about this until today...

Anyway, lets finish this thing up. So, the big question is, "Is Acrassicauda a successful protest band?" And I'd have to say that, yes, they are, or at least, I think they will be. I mean, it is definitely hard to judge them at this point since all they have out is a four song EP; however, if their EP is any indication of their future releases, then I think they will definitely be a very good protest band. They totally have the right attitude to be a protest band, and I think once they actually come out with their first album, they will become more recognized as such. I believe that they have laid down a solid foundation to be a protest band, and their anger toward their home country could definitely fuel some great protest songs. The band's members, though they may not realize just how political they are, definitely make a huge statement. They speak and recorded their EP completely in english, something that would get you killed in Iraq. They listened to bootlegged CD's of classic american metal bands, which were looked down upon by their government and the majority of the population. These guys have been living the protester's life style their entire existence, and I think it will shine through perfectly once they have a chance to make a full length album.

Heavy Metal in Baghdad Part 2.

Despite Acrassicauda's drummer's notion that they are not a "politic band", their only studio release, Only The Dead See The End Of War, is an EP with 4 songs which are all about the war in their home country. In the first song on the EP, "Message From Baghdad", the band speaks on how they feel about Iraq. The first stanza paints a picture of anger and depression pointed towards their native country. In the chorus, they speak about the mass of people who have died and they say that they can't understand why this cold-blooded killing is accepted. The second verse, I believe, is a call out to the soldiers. Acrassicauda calls them "fearless zombies among the living". The notion of the soldiers being mindless, blood thirsty drones obviously shows that the band does not have a favorable opinion of those in arms.

The next song, "Garden of Stones" is a song that is a straightforward story about having guilt after killing a man and burring him beneath a stone pile (aka "garden of stones"). They again make a mention of soldiers as "the death." It is also stated in the story that he has lost his humanity, "all that he [has] known", because it is now buried beneath the garden of stones. I think this song is a protest toward the killing of others, something they definitely had to put up with on a regular basis.

The third song, "Massacre", speaks about how war destroys a generation and while those in power start the problems and gain a "sick joy" from demolition, the people "pay the dues". Acrassicauda then states that it is the country that controls their fate, not them. This loss of free will is terrible and they would rather "die than disintegrate" into nothing. The song then mentions how the narrator's family is torn appart. He says that his child is starving and crying while his mother's heart is burning. They stole his land, home, and ripped and stripped his flesh and bones. "They" here is obviously a mention of the government officials and/or the military.

The last song on the EP, "The Unknown", is again another song making mention of the Iraqi government. They say that they are blinded by hatred for the government and they mention that the government has continually broken their promises. They say that living in this government's "world" makes them have to endure "hate, discrimination, lies, violation" which "enslave generations", and they say that this must be ended. The narrator says that he is "[bleeding] inside his head" and that he has "died but is still undead." This could mean that he has lost his fear of death and views himself as dead as he imagines himself bleeding. "The unknown" mentioned in the song are most probably a  This song is again a protest against the government and briefly mentions how desensitized this whole ordeal has made them.

Heavy Metal in Baghdad.

         Acrassicauda, an Iraqi thrash metal band formed in 2001, is featured in the 2007 documentary "Heavy Metal in Baghdad", and the band is one of the very few metal bands to come out of Iraq. Since their creation seven years ago, they have only been able to play six live shows due to increased security in Iraq over the years and other complications. In order to even play live under Saddam's rule, they had to play at least one song that glorified him in one way or another, otherwise they would be jailed immediately. Acrassicauda fight for what they love, metal, which is something I can totally respect. All of the members of the band speak near perfect english (which is an extremely dangerous thing to do on the streets), and they listen to bootlegged CD's and tapes of classic American metal bands such as Iron Maiden, Slayer and Metallica. With this, it is quite evident that they have definitely bucked against the system in which they were raised. One of the members of the band, Marwan, says in the documentary, "We are not a politic band. We're not like System of a Down or something.", but by their very existence they are making a stronger policial statement than System of a Down could ever make. They are creating music that could get them killed. With the terrible and terrifying state of Iraq, they were afraid to continue practicing or even seeing each other. Obviously, they made it a priority to make their way out of Iraq, which they eventually did. They knew that they had no power, but they fought against their country in the best way that they could. They are still together now, and they have recently played a show in New York, and they have released an EP called "Only the Dead See the End of War."

Art is Dead.

A

Bo Burnham is a pretty awesome 21 year old kid. He got really famous on Youtube for making funny songs with plenty of puns, and has gained a total of 98 million views for his 22 videos. He has been featured on Comedy Central and has gone on tour plenty of times. The video above has, at this moment, 2 million views. "Art Is Dead" is a commentary about how art has been destroyed by industry. Burnham expresses his anger toward actors/industry/artists. Burnham sings, 


"Have you ever been to a birthday party for children
And one of the children won't stop screaming
Cause he's just a little attention attractor
When he grows up to be a comic or actor
He'll be rewarded for never maturing
For never understanding or learning
That every day can't be about him
There's other people you selfish asshole".

His anger toward entertainers is quite obvious here. Calling them immature and self-centered. Later in the song, he even realizes that he has become obsessed with all of the attention he has gained, but questions if he is worthy of it all, which he definitely thinks he is not. Burnham knows that he is an artist and thinks that he shouldn't be revered or respected, just as others should not. He mentions that industry takes comics who others think are funny and then try to figure out how to get the money of those people, which Burnham has experienced. He also mentions that he has enough money to feed a "family of four for forty fucking fortnights", but he wanted his name in lights so he ignored this. This song is very negative toward the entertainment industry and rightfully so. So much money is spent and gained in the industry of entertainment, and it's vastly unfair to those who "work at the drugstore" while artsits get to "[sleep] in late." I agree with this song because it points out how silly it is that some people can gain so much money and attention just from being somewhat talented or funny. Art may not be entirely dead, but I believe that in the mainstream, art simply isn't what it could be.  

Who wants to go to D's Diner?

Above is the song, "D's Diner" by the band Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade. This song is simply about a dude praising this place called D's Diner. This is no doubt a very strange song, and every person that I've shown it to could only say, "Where the hell do you find this stuff?" Anyway, since it is such a strange song, I do not believe that the great philosopher Plato would like this song very much. He said that only a select few instruments should exist; well, this band likes to incorporate as many instruments as they can, such as the saxophone and the cümbüş. Plato also likes music to adhere to a set of standards, which this song most obviously does not do.  It's sort of spacy, sort of zen, and funky all at the same time. Its intense outlandishness would definitely make Plato upset. Also, the lyrics are rather meaningless, which Plato would like since it doesn't inspire any sort of emotion, but he still wouldn't like the way in which the lyrics are sung since the singer sounds like he has a severe mental problem. Plato just wouldn't dig this song at all, and I can't blame him. I think he would be the type of dude who would put on the radio and jam out to the latest hits. This song has never been on the radio before, to my knowledge, which makes sense, considering just how peculiar it is. I don't think Plato would be too happy if he looked through my music collection. Oh well, can't please every ancient greek philosopher can we?

When the President Talks to God.

"When the President Talks to God" a song by the Nebraskan band Bright Eyes, was released in 2005 as a free release on iTunes in tandem with their album I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. With the critical success of the album, Bright Eyes was asked to play for the Jay Leno Show. Instead of playing any of their well-known hits from the album, they decided to play a song that had not been released on their album called “When the President Talks to God”. The song, folk in style and angry at heart, speaks out against President Bush and his actions while in office. The song mentions many blunders that Bush made, such as infringing on women's rights, the war in Iraq (which he was "told by God" to start), and oil hikes. And those three are mentioned in just the first verse of the song! Bright Eyes actually participated a campaign AGAINST Bush before the 2004 elections. They went on a tour with acts including Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M. The tour was called the "Vote For Change Tour" and all of the acts would urge people to sign up to vote and ultimately vote for anyone except Bush. Conor Oberst (the lead singer of the band) is even quoted as saying, "if you vote for Bush, you're going to hell". The band, not being the biggest fans of Bush, were obviously pretty mad when Bush got reelected in 2004. So, when "When the President Talks to God" was released, there was a lot of built up anger toward Bush. The song asks if either God or Bush do the most talking, and if they actually have in depth conversations or not. The answer to the latter, as evidenced by the song's mentioning of several different topics, is no, they do not. The answer to the previous, as evidenced by God seemingly barking orders at George while he "merely nods", is that it is God's doing for all of these heinous acts. However, the last verse of the song corrects this by saying, "When the president talks to God
Does he ever think that maybe he's not?
That that voice is just inside his head

When he kneels next to the presidential bed
Does he ever smell his own bullshit
When the president talks to God, I doubt it, I doubt it."

This simple statement that the President's 'talks with God' are merely figments of Bush's imagination and that his ideas are 'bullshit' is more than enough to make the listener laugh, but make the listener realize that this song wasn't ever about bashing God, but rather bashing Bush's ideas and how he blamed his worst on God. "When the President Talks to God" is a very direct and effective rhetorical protest song, and though it may be limited to time simply because it mentions the specific actions of a specific president, it can still remain effective for years to come. That is, if there is another president stupid enough to say that God sent them on a mission to do something morally wrong, which is only a matter of time, of course. 

Vicarious

Tool - Vicarious

Told ya there were going to be more Tool posts. So, this song "Vicarious" comes off of the album Lateralus. The music video is completely unrelated to the song, which Tool tends to do a lot. Anyway, this song is about how people have become unaffected by, and even obsessed with, violence. The song is taken from the perspective of a man who keeps his "eye on the T.V., 'cuz tragedy thrills [him]". Then he admits that "it's no fun 'till someone dies". I think this sentiment can be shared all throughout society. I mean, think about it. Can you name a movie, in recent years, that had mainstream success and DIDN'T

have someone die over the course of the movie? Honestly, I don't think I can, unless it was a movie meant for children. Do you ever wonder just how many people die in a movie? Well, luckily there's a website for that. If so many movies and T.V. shows depict people dying as if it was nothing, then how should the public feel about death? Perhaps it's a good thing to degrade the idea of a life (sarcasm), perhaps it makes it easier for the public to keep on having fun even in the midst of war. There have been countless times where people are more concerned about the new celebrity news than our soldiers dying overseas. Has death become such an underrated and overlooked thing that it has been covered up by glamor queens? Possibly so. Or is it that people have realized that death happens every day, so you might as well try to enjoy life as much as possible by mourning those passed as little as possible. I mean, at least four people died when you finished reading this sentence. This song though, doesn't talk about covering up the idea of death though, it speaks about ENJOYING the death of others. Getting excitement from death. The character of the song says not to "look at [him] like [he is] a monster" because people will "frown out [their] one face, but with the other, stare like a junkie into the T.V., stare like a zombie." The man says that no one is different from him. He says that all people are obsessed with violence, and that all people love watching others die. This is a pretty bold and pretty intense statement, however, how true do you think this to be?