Sound Strike - The Day The Music Died In Arizona

THIS POST IS EXTREMELY OPINIONATED AND OUT OF CHARACTER FROM WHAT I NORMALLY WRITE. PLEASE KNOW THIS AND CONSIDER WHEN JUDGING MIXED IN THE MUSIC

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You know how there's that whole thing going on in Arizona where everyone is racist and every single person is attacking Mexicans just because they are brown? How there is this crazy governor, and that insane sheriff that all the white people love because they hate Mexicans too? Have you realized I'm being completely sarcastic?
Yes, there is a senate bill floating around, SB-1070, that is causing a massive hooplah. It has been pegged as racist, hateful, and unconstitutional. This bill has somehow made ALL Arizonans racist Joe Arpaio supporters who like to raid businesses for illegals. To be honest, I think that is a bigger issue than SB-1070 itself. Let's be honest, we all know that bill isn't going anywhere. Even if it did it wouldn't do anything. All the horrible parts in it that were there in the beginning are gone, all that's left is this empty shell of a proposal that was so lame to begin with that Arizonans have kind of forgotten about it.
I live in Arizona. Phoenix actually. I live in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood. If someone were to specifically ask me how illegal immigrants have directly affected me, I would be stumped. The majority of Arizonans that support SB-1070 would be too. You know who REALLY has NOT suffered ANY impact from illegal immigration? Arizonan Musicians. Arizonan Music Industry professionals. Promoters, managers, merch printers, sound techs, A&R reps, marketing execs, label owners, graphic designers, web developers, audio engineers, studio owners, photographers, writers and journalists, distributors, printers, keep the list going. You know what kind of people are most publicly against SB-1070? Arizonans involved in the music industry. You know who is now being boycotted? Arizonans involved in the music industry.

The Sound Strike is an organization that has decided it would be appropriate to teach Arizonans a lesson and not play any shows here. Yes, that is correct; a community has decided that the best way to act on an issue is to NOT join forces with the local like-minded folks and spread awareness. Umm... Good plan? They say the reason the Arizona music scene is being punished is because the state governement only cares about the bottom line: money. They say that as if the state government actually notices that money comes in from concerts. It's time to run some numbers.

Let's say that Kanye West (one of the artists participating in The Sound Strike) actually did decide to play in Arizona and risk funding a government deportation palooza. His highest grossing tour ever was his 2008 Glow In The Dark tour, which grossed $30.8 million and included 49 concerts. Take that and average out the gross income per each concert, and it's generous to assume that a single Kanye West concert would gross $614,000. Now take that gross income, and assume 6% gets handed over as taxes. $40,000 just got passed to the government. Multiply that by 15, as that would be about as much money as all those artists combined would make in Arizona within a year, and the government has saved up $600,000 from your concerts. NOW lets take that total of $600k and figure out what percentage goes to law enforcement; about $48,000. Now to the law enforcement who would actually be tracking down illegal immigrants, should this bill somehow come to life and pass? Not quite $1,500. Congrats Sound Strike. Throughout a whole year of your boycotting, losing money for yourself, putting our local professionals out of work, burning bridges between you and the Arizonans who had wanted to work with you, you prevented one officer from getting hired on. Or one truck from getting gas for a month. You may have prevented them from buying a three month supply of zip-tie handcuffs. Who knows, maybe you just cut funding for first aid kits in border patrol vehicles. Maybe you pissed off a cop so bad he actually wanted to ask a random hispanic person for their birth certificate, just to make you feel like you were fighting for something.

Let me put this simply. There is a community (hispanics) that are being targeted by a smaller community with more power (couple whackos in government). To counter this, a small community with power (The Sound Strike) is targeting a larger community (Arizonans). Again, ignore the irony.

All we want is our national community to help us fight SB-1070. Not whatever The Sound Strike is doing. Someone from somewhere other than Arizona form an organization that will actually do something to help keep families together, keep food on families tables, etc. I'm surprised that My Chemical Romance couldn't come up with a better publicity strategy than pretending to care about a poorly-planned humanitarian cause. Do a cover or something.

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THIS POST IS EXTREMELY OPINIONATED AND OUT OF CHARACTER FROM WHAT I NORMALLY WRITE. PLEASE KNOW THIS AND CONSIDER WHEN JUDGING MIXED IN THE MUSIC

What's So Great About Atmosphere and Rhymesayers?

Chances are if you're in high school or college and take pride in non-conforming to the mainstream, you've heard of Atmosphere. Ignore the irony. Of all the hip-hop and rap going on these days the duo Atmosphere (made up of lead emcee Slug and beat producer Ant) have succeeded in the very thing spoken about by the Gucci Manes and Flava Flavs; keeping it real. With strong lyrical content focused on the highs and lows of normal-person life and beats oriented more around instruments you can actually play live, Atmosphere is on a lower pedestal than Lil' Wayne... and closer to their audience. Take the release of their most recent album, The Family Sign. It's their seventh official studio album, they have accumulated millions of fans, and are in the midst of kicking off their album promo tour. So what can they do that even compares to Lupe Fiasco's G-Shock Watch contest for Lasers? They sit down and actually sign every single pre-ordered album by hand as a way to say thank you.

With all these fan-oriented marketing strategies and genuine passion, it's no surprise that Rhymesayers Entertainment, the label formed by the members of Atmosphere and couple other artists/business oriented guys (Sean Daley, Anthony Davis, Brent Sayers, and Musaab Saad) has such a close-knit and supportive fan base. The Rhymesayers label is pretty much what every artist or die-hard music fan has thought about at least once. It's something simple, a tool for up-and-coming artists to reach the fans, get their albums out, and pay for a weeks supply of Ramen Noodles. To a degree it still is. The only difference is now they actually have an office space, actually live well successfully in the music industry, and put on their own major tours.
The biggest thing that comes to mind to someone who knows a little bit about the label, artists, and founders is that they actually CARE. The label is actually a LABEL, they care for and work with their artists. The artists are actually ARTISTS, they put thought and effort into their work. The founders actually FOUNDED, they built the entire business from the ground up with blood sweat and tears. What did all of this get them? Fans that are actually FANS. People that religiously check to see what their favorite artists are doing, when they will release even a sneak peak of a single, that have calenders on their wall, phone, and laptop all marked for the day that a tour is coming through their town. Kids are learning more about life through the music of Brother Ali, POS, Atmosphere, Blueprint, and Musab then they are from their own fathers. They feel closer to Eyedea than they do with their cousins. Is this really marketing, or is it just being genuine? Maybe marketing exec's could learn a thing or two from these guys at the label and the artists. Maybe instead of using scientific research to determine that painting the logo red and yellow induces a reaction felt as hunger, McDonalds should use what they already know and paint "You should eat here because it tastes good" on all their restaurant walls.

Start listening to genuine music. Not completely, I'm not saying that. All music is good, and of course I have good things to say about Gucci Mane, Justin Bieber, and William Hung. But every now and then just play something that actually has an effect on you. Makes your brain do things. It's refreshing to let something invoke emotion. Especially in a world where you're not allowed to show any.

And go buy The Family Sign. It's really good.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen

As per usual, I shall begin with the background information.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” was written by Queen’s frontman, Freddie Mercury. I’m not going to do much of a biography on Freddie Mercury, just the things that relate to this story. After all, Freddie Mercury was notorious for his privacy.

Freddie Mercury was a man who loved music. If you have ever listened to a full Queen album straight through, you might notice how many of the songs are nearly different genres than the others; “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and it’s Rockabilly style versus “We Are The Champions” and it’s Progressive Rock style. For a long while Freddie was with a woman named Mary Austin. The relationship ended when he admitted to her that he was indeed gay and had an astonishing long list of boyfriends. Freddie and Mary remained best friends until his death. Freddie was born in Zanzibar, and his family practiced in the Zoroastrian religion, which strongly opposed homosexuality. His family disapproved of his homosexuality very much. After his death, a close family friend named Rusi Dalal said: ‘They were very unhappy about his homosexuality. Being gay is not accepted in the Zoroastrian religion. We also have very few believers and the religion can only be passed on through the Father to his children, Obviously a gay man will have no children and this deeply upset the Bulsara family.’

Freddie Mercury died of broncho-pneumonia as a result of AIDS. Throughout the better part of his music career his friends and former lovers had been dying of AIDS.

Shortly before his death Mercury and his family made peace. His family was very proud of his accomplishments and he loved his family very much.

Now, “Bohemian Rhapsody” has never been explained in detail by Mercury or the band Queen. As a matter of fact, they claimed it had no meaning at all, just randomness put together to make a good song. On the other hand, both Mercury and the rest of the band have confirmed that the song was Freddie’s big project. He wanted this to be the song that he was remembered for. Everyone in the creation process has agreed that Freddie Mercury poured a lot of himself into the song; including Freddie Mercury. However, a real meaning behind “Bohemian Rhapsody” has never been officially released and remains a secret; if anyone other than Mercury himself even know.

With that being said, I am now officially stating that everything you will hear from here-on-out is my own insight and conclusion and has never been confirmed by anyone with the authority to do so. Basically, this blog entry could be as far from the truth as James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces.” I’m also warning you that my analysis will probably be unorganized, confusing, and boring. Sorry ’bout that folks.

Begin: Analysis of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, as analyzed by Sam DeCross.

The song starts out with Mercury’s vocals. (This remains a feat in the recording industry, they used numerous recordings of his voice bounced down to one for the effect. It was so complex that Mercury couldn’t pull it off during live performances and instead started the song with the vocals from”Mustapha” or the piano intro from “Death On Two Legs.”) The lyrics are “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality.” These opening words seem to refer to the mindblowing AIDS epidemic at the time. AIDS was sweeping the nation and left many people in the medical field baffled. It just didn’t seem real. Next, the piano kicks in. The next lyrics with piano accompiniment are,

“Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see
I’m just a poor boy (Poor boy)
I need no sympathy
Because I’m easy come, easy go
Little high, little low
Any way the wind blows
Doesn’t really matter to me, to me.”

This has a couple different possible meanings to me. First, it could be taken as words from a narrator symbolizing all the people affected by AIDS. There are so many people that they really have lost their individuality and respect and instead have become a statistic. Second, it could be a direct narration from Mercury describing his own childhood in poverty. Mercury wasn’t diagnosed with AIDS but he was afraid he could have had the virus from the early 70′s due to the amount of sexual partners he had and the amount of former sexual partners that had fallen to the virus. A mixture of the two possibilities would suggest that Mercury was giving a first person narration as himself and saying that as a man with AIDS who used to be poor and unknown, he was just a poor boy looking into the sky and awaiting his death. In that scenario, it really wouldn’t matter what happened because he was going to die soon either way. “Either way the wind blows, doesn’t really matter to me.” This apathy toward his demise would also speak for the lack of knowledge and cure for AIDS at the time. No matter what, there was still no way of curing it or stopping it.

The next part introduces the bass, as well as the next chapter of Mercury’s lyrical story. The next lyrics are:

“Mama just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooh
Didn’t mean to make you cry
If I’m not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters”

The drums enter after “Now I’ve gone and thrown it all away.” I interpret this as Mercury’s way of acknowledging regret for his lifestyle. Not his homosexuality, but his “party” attitude and numerous sexual partners. It seems he felt guilty and blamed himself for his friends dying of AIDS as if he had given them the virus. It seems he is using the metaphor of putting a gun to someone’s head and pulling the trigger for passing the AIDS virus. He ends with “If I’m not back again this time tomorrow, carry on as if nothing really matters,” as if he’s a fugitive on the run for murder. He knows that with AIDS he is just as likely to die as anyone else. But it seems like he sees it as karma. He gave the virus to someone, now it’s going to get him to. He sees this as fair, so if it happens, just carry on as if it didn’t. Next:

“Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body’s aching all the time
Goodbye, everybody
I’ve got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, oooooooh (Anyway the wind blows)
I don’t want to die
Sometimes wish I’d never been born at all”

Again, it seems he is describing the systems of an illness along with AIDS. Shiver, aches, etc. He is acknowledging that his time is running out and he’ll be leaving soon. Still, he sees this as punishment for a crime he has committed. He doesn’t want to die, as he pleads to his mother, and again we catch a hint of guilt as he admits that he wishes hhe had never been born.

Here’s where it gets interesting! There is the guitar solo, and then the opera takes over. Lyrics for the opera:

“I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the Fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
(Galileo) Galileo (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro
Magnifico-o-o-o-o
I’m just a poor boy nobody loves me
He’s just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity

Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
Let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go
Let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go
Let me go (Will not let you go)
Let me go (Will not let you go) (Never, never, never, never)
Let me go, o, o, o, o
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh mama mia, mama mia) Mama Mia, let me go
Beelzebub has the devil put aside for me, for me, for me!”

This is my favorite part to pick apart. To me, it seems that this opera part has two sections. The first is after the death when he’s in heaven. He sees a silhouette of a man who ends up being the judge who determines his entrance into heaven. Instead of a formal judgement based on sin and acts during his life, the judge, (God, St. Peter, whoever it may be,) says “scaramouch, will you do the fandango?” Scaramouch in theatre is a dimwitted but proud character, and the fandango is an old dance. Basically, his admittance to heaven is based on a silly song and dance. “Magnifico!” says the Judge. The main character thinks this is rediculous since he was planning on being fairly judged on the things he had done for peace of mind. He asks to be let go, and a choir of angels partakes in the sing-song. He asks once more if he can go. This turns into a comical bickering between him, the judge, and the angels. “Bismillah” is an Islam phrase that loosely translates to “In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate”. So when the character asks if he can be released and the judge replies “Bismillah, we will not let you go” he is actually saying “In the name of God, we will not let you go.” The character, or Freddie Mercury, is now by the decree of God being punished for what he has done. The lyrics end by illustrating that what he has done is so evil that he has replaced the devil.

Next in lyrics:

“So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to die
Oh, baby, can’t do this to me, baby
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here”

These lyrics are accompanied by heavy guitar. This is interesting. The tables have done a complete 180. Now instead of being the assailant and paying for his crime, the character sees himself as the victim. Sure, he may have given the AIDS virus to someone. But who gave it to him? Has that person paid the way the character is paying? Now it just isn’t fair. He doesn’t belong in purgatory for what he has done, he needs to get out.

Guitar solo. Next lyrics are accompanied by soft piano.

“Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me”

Again, he’s in that mindset where he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. No matter what happens, he still has to face the same fate and nothing can change it.

“Any way the wind blows…”

No matter what happens between then and the future, he still knows that he can’t change the past and the future still holds the same fate. Any way the wind blows, he still did what he did and the consequences are still the same.

*Song fades out.*

Like I said, probably not even close. But hey, I haven’t heard a better explanation yet. Have you?

"Daughter" by Pearl Jam

This is definately one of the best songs ever created in my book. The song “Daughter” by Pearl Jam tells an amazing story, but the lyrics are… extraordinary. Their simplicity tells the whole story itself. First of all, here’s what Eddie Vedder has said about “Daughter.” (Warning: Language)

“The child in that song obviously has a learning difficulty. And it’s only in the last few years that they’ve actually been able to diagnose these learning disabilities that before were looked at as misbehavior, as just outright rebelliousness. But no one knew what it was. And these kids, because they seemed unable or reluctant to learn, they’d end up getting the shit beaten outta them. The song ends, you know, with this idea of the shades going down—so that the neighbors can’t see what happens next. What hurts about shit like that is that it ends up defining peoples’ lives. They have to live with that abuse for the rest of their lives. Good, creative people are just fucking destroyed.”

With that being said, I have heard a couple rumors about this song. The first is that the song was actually Eddie Vedder’s own childhood. It’s possible that he changed some things, like the main character being a female and such. But according to the rumor, the song is about Eddie Vedder’s struggle as a child with undiagnosed Dyslexia, and his stepfathers frustration with Vedder’s inability to do well in school. The part about being called Daughter basically highlights the pain of his stepfathers abuse, and Vedder’s feeling of being less than a son.

The second rumor is that the song is actually about a real girl who was killed by the abuse she recieved as a result of her learning disabilities.

The song itself is, like I said before, amazing. The lyrics tell the perfect story; from the emotional guilt, depression, and frustration felt by the child, to the abuse that the child recieves, to the ending where the blinds are shut so the outside world wont see what happens. Vedder’s vocals express the emotion behind the words superbly. The drums, bass, and guitar are strong enough to bring out the emotion but also simple enough to double that effect by imitating the simplicity of innocence and childhood.

If you don’t know what song I’m talking about, please look up “Daughter” by Pearl Jam.

Stay gold Ponyboy.

So, What’s Up With Lady Gaga?

Well, does anyone really know? Lady Gaga (a.k.a. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) was almost a normal kid. She was bullied a lot and hated high school. That’s really not uncommon amongst artists, right? She loved music, especially Queen. There may not be a bigger fan of Freddy Mercury than Stefani Germanotta. Her college days were spent doing shows in Manhattan. So common for artists it’s almost cliche’, right? She was signed to Def Jam after L.A. Reid heard her singing down the hallway from his office. That’s a pretty lucky break, yeah? She was soon dropped from the label, but continued to work with producers. In fact, her stage name Lady Gaga came from a weird glitch from a producer, Rob Fusari. Since Stefani was such a Queen fan, her “entrance song” at the studio was “Radio Gaga.” Fusari tells the story, “Every day, when Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing ‘Radio Ga Ga.’ That was her entrance song. [Lady Gaga] was actually a glitch; I typed ‘Radio Ga Ga’ in a text and it did an autocorrect so somehow ‘Radio’ got changed to ‘Lady’. She texted me back, “That’s it.” After that day, she was Lady Gaga. She’s like, “Don’t ever call me Stefani again.”

Her mom even calls her Gaga.

So what about her crazy outfits? Well… Who knows? It’s just Gaga. It’s crazy, it’s flashy, it’s in-your-face, it’s exotic, erotic, and neurotic. It’s her thing. There’s really no big explanation. It’s her tribute to the wild 70′s scene. Glam rock, pop, disco. She bottles it all up, shakes it like a polaroid picture, pops the cork and pours it in a tall glass of modern edge and creativity.

Lady Gaga: The definition of Performance Artists.

Oh, and no; she’s not a hermaphrodite.