Reckless Abandon is live!

My new all music blog is now up and ready for action. Check it out @ analogisbetter.wordpress.com

Let me know what you think, some new reviews will be up soon!

A change is coming...

I've recently decided to make a change to The Wood Between the Worlds. Up until now it's pretty much been a mix various things but I think it's time to give it a more specific theme. From now on I'm going to stick mostly to posts about my thoughts and reflections on life. But if you think I'm giving up on blogging about music, think again. I'm starting a new blog entitled "Reckless Abandon" which will be all music all the time. Reckless Abandon is currently a work in progress but I'm hoping to have it ready very soon. I have a few ideas up my sleeve that I'm really excited about so stay tuned.

-Darren

The question of Children

My wife Rachel and I have been married for nearly three years. Before we were married we both knew we wanted to wait several years to have kids. Now three years in we've begun to discuss more frequently when we should start "trying."

Growing up my view of having kids was shaped by being abandoned by my biologic father and having an often frustrating relationship with my step father. Both of these scenarios led me to want kids if only to prove I could do it better. This still holds true for me in many ways but now as I'm facing the reality of being father more thoughts and questions come to mind.

It isn't even a question of whether or not I want kids; ultimately I do want kids. It's more a question of why do I want kids and how will kids change me or change my marriage. Right now the answers don't seem clear. I can certainly see the joy in having kids but I can also see the frustrations. Then there is simply the overwhelming fear I have of being a bad father. What if I make the same mistakes my biologic father made or what if I'm unable to establish a good relationship with my kids?

It's really a daunting task having a life placed in your hands and until the doctor literal places that life in my hands for the first I don't think I'll be able to wrap my mind around it.

Manchester Orchestra - Mean Everything to Nothing LP and Fourteen Years of Excellence EP

A lot of things where said about this album before it's release. Singer Andy Hull mentioned in an interview that it sounds like Weezer and that it was an angry album. Alternative Press wrote in their five star review that it was a southern rock album. All of these comments and others had me a bit worried. I'm not a fan of most of Weezer's cataloge and I hate when bands try to sound like other bands. I'm also not a big fan of southern rock and I thought it was weird that Hull would say the album was angry. I mean the guy just got married, what did he have to be angry about. However, there were a number of things about this album that kept me hopeful. Last year Hull had release the second of his solo albums under the moniker Right Away, Great Captain! and it was amazing. He really stepped up his song writing and it had a much more seasoned sound. Last year Manchester release an EP featuring a song called "I Can Feel a Hot One" which was also to be featured on the upcoming LP. That song was one of the best Manchester songs I'd heard up until that point and one of the best songs of 2008.

Fast forward to Tuesday April, 21 when Mean Everything to Nothing came out and I listened to it for the first time. I was blown away and hooked from the first listen. Sonically this album is loud and lush, it is a rock album to it's very core. The production is just fantastic. Each song features blazing guitars, pounding bass, loose drums, and some nice pop synth sounds added for filler. Hull's vocals often begin each song in his usual fashion, somewhat soft somewhat whiny (not in a bad way) but as the songs build his vocals become more and more ferocious with broken yells and screams (again not it a bad way). And I think that's what he was talking about when he said the album was angry. He's vocals certainly sound angry, but lyrically it comes off more as frustration even embarrassment which also somewhat explains the Weezer connection.

In a post album release interview Hull mentioned that he was particularly inspired by Weezer's Pinkerton album which was a very personal and embarrassing album. I can see that to certain degree in Mean Everything to Nothing but as personal as it is it still seems pretty ambiguous especially in comparison to their first album Like a Virgin Losing a Child, which was mostly about Hull's struggle with his faith. There certainly is an overall theme of self consciousness and questioning self worth, but Hull doesn't seem to get into the specifics very often. With that said Hull's song writing hasn't been better. I mean the guy is only 22 years old and he's penning some of the best tunes out there right now both musically and lyrically.

One thing this album lacks are the softer more subdued songs which are scattered through out the first album. That's were the Fourteen Years of Excellence EP comes in. Fourteen Years is a rare companion EP which feature three wonderful acoustic numbers and an acoustic version the song Shake it Up. So after getting blow away by the LP it's nice to throw on the EP to mellow out a bit. At this point the EP I'm guessing is pretty hard to get your hands on but I'm sure it's available to download online somewhere.

One last comparison I wanted to make is the progression of sound this band has made. As great as Like a Virgin was it never really stacked up to Manchester's live show. Live these guys are gritty, loud, and full of emotion. They one me over so well with their live show I saw them three times in the course of year. The new album however captures their live sound perfectly. I'm actually seeing them tonight at Station 4 in St. Paul and I'm super excited to hear the new songs!

Finally a couple of stand out tracks:

Pride - This song features this amazing guitar lick throughout the whole song that would make Tom Morello proud.

Shake it Out - By far the most aggressive song on the album. It has a 70's rock kind of sound with a perfect twinge of Indie rock thrown in the mix and plenty of emotion to go around.

Tony the Tiger - I haven't spent a lot of time with this song but it always make me happy when I listen to it. It's both somber and poppy, and features some awesome backing vocals and harmonies.

Pick up this album people!!! Best of the year so far!!!

Poetry

A few folks where interested in reading some of my poetry, so I thought I'd post some. However, before I share any of my writings I'm going to share a couple of other pieces as to take the focus off of me. These aren't poems in the traditional sense but they are poetic none-the-less.

The first is from the book "The Diary of a Young Girl." In fact it is the last sentence from the book. It was referenced in a podcast I listened to today and I found it to be rather striking and something we can probably all relate to in some way. I don't have the book so I had to transcribe it from the podcast and just guessed on the punctuation. Here it is:

When everybody starts hovering over me I get cross, then sad, then finally end up turning my heart inside out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside and keep trying to find a way to become what I'd like to be and what I could be, if only there were no other people in the world. -Anne Frank


I've been reading the book "That Hideous Strength" by C.S. Lewis and today I was thinking of a song that shares the same name by one of my favorite bands, Thrice. I assume the song was inspired by the book. The lyrics are as follows:

Oh, that I could scream
And the world would stop and listen
And these scars could speak in volumes
But who has ears to hear
Or eyes to see
Again I scream
But my voice is buried in an unearthly silence
Like in nightmares when ghosts steal your breath
I pray that power be not in my words
But in truth that supersedes the mind of man
And our dead hope, and our blind faith in means that look to justify the ends
I feel a presence in the room
I feel cold fingers close around my neck
With out you I am lost
Let mine eyes not fail with looking upward

Lyrics by Dustin Kensrue

And finally here is my poem. I wrote it about five years ago. It's one of the few poems I've written I actually still like.

Surrounded by bottles and the smell of an open wound.
Shaking my head hoping this will end soon.
Motives based on nothing, more than anything my conscience could conceive.
I've seen too much.
Nothing could ever take away what I already know.
Asking this question because the point isn't very clear in these smoky rooms.
It's okay...
Just keep saying that and wonder how many times I could believe it.
It's not as if I would say "no" just to be cool...
Because I never thought I was very cool and wasn't that what I was thinking anyway?
Somehow this feeling can't be shaken, though it always ends up being wrong.
Can't it?
What is it that is so important and really so irrelevant to the point of nausea.
Please close the door.
I'll shut up with eyes open, smiling.
I won't let myself into this position because I can only learn from this.
I hope I can learn from this, I hope the smile wasn't fake.
Please restate the question.
What was meant by it if one side got it and the others walked home?

Keeping up a blog ain't easy...

It's almost April so I figured I better get blog post up will before March is over.

I've been thinking about a lot of stuff lately but as usual I've had difficulty translating my thoughts into written form. Here is a list a of what's been on my mind lately and may at some point make it onto this blog.

-drinking

-atheism

-I could always do more music reviews... does anybody like reading those?

-Target vs. Walmart

-money

-C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy

-Watchmen

-some of my poetry... maybe, it's all pretty old at this point.

...I'm really tired right now so that's all I can think of.

Peace and blessings.

At times like these, it's obvious...

For a huge fan of music one of the worst things that can happen is to hear that your favorite band has broken up. Four years ago this happened to me; the band was Blink-182. During the winter of 2005 Blink-182 announced they would be going on "Indefinite Hiatus" which is a polite way of saying they had in fact broken up. I was crushed. Their last album was nothing short of amazing and I had been anxiously awaiting what genius they'd have in store for their next album. Not only that, I'd never had the opportunity to see them live. All that anticipation had vanished with one announcement and I needed answers.

When the announcement was made it was very vague. It seemed as though they had simply decided to call it quits. However, over the next year it would come out that the break up was an ugly one. The band had become divided as a result of irreconcilable differences. On one side there was singer/guitarist Tom Delonge and on the other was singer/bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker.

The division within my favorite band was hard to swallow but in the wake of the break up two new bands were spawned. If there was no more Blink then this was the next best thing. Tom Delonge formed the U2esque rock band Angels and Airwaves (AVA). AVA was a pretty big departure from the signature Blink-182 sound but one of my favorite things about Blink was Delonge's songwriting and it translated very well into his new band. On the other side there was Hoppus and Barker who formed the electro-pop-punk band (+44). (+44) retained more of the Blink-182 sound and despite the absence of Delonge's songwriting and guitar, put out a very strong album. It was great to have new music from the Blink boys and I was able to see both AVA and (+44) live which was incredible. In the back of my mind though I couldn't help but think, I wish these guys would make up and Blink would get back together. Then this past fall one event would change everything.

On September 19, 2008 Travis Barker was critically injured in a plan crash. When I first heard this news I was freaked out. Barker is my favorite drummer of all time and it would have really bummed me out if he had died. Though, several weeks after the crash when it was clear Barker would be okay I started to think about Blink and how it's things like this that bring people together. The following weeks were met by silence from those in the Blink camp, that is until November 18 when Mark Hoppus wrote a blog stating that he, Tom, and Travis had all spoken together for the first in nearly four years and were beginning to rekindle their friendship. All of a sudden all my hopes had returned. I knew at that time a Blink-182 reunion was inevitable, but I didn't think it would come for at least a couple of years. From that time until a couple weeks ago rumors swirled and things were said by all parties involved. Then an announcement was made. Blink-182 would be presenting an award at the 2009 Grammy awards marking the first time they'd appear on stage together in over four years. But what did it all mean!? Naturally I made sure I watched the Grammys last Sunday to see what would happen. When Mark, Tom and Travis came out on stage I was on pins and needles. Travis then stated "we used to play music together, and we decided we're going to play music together again," with Hoppus adding, "Blink-182 is back!" When I heard those words I got all tingly and emotional. If I hadn't been amongst friends I think I would have went nuts.

Very shortly after (like minutes after) the appearance at the Grammys a new Blink-182 website was launched with a statement from the band saying they are in fact back, recording a new album and to be on the look out summer 2009.

With all that said, all I can say is BLINK IS BACK!!! And I couldn't be more excited for whats next in the history of my favorite band.