Nine Inch Nails

Back when I was really starting to sort myself out, I would definitely lean on good, solid advice for music. Many times it would come in the form of being able to find something/someone (that in turn, amazingly has grown with you through thick times that it has grown unique, singular to your own tastes and loves for specifically personal reasons) through a great tip. In high school I would get shelter and aid from many people through my times there – living twenty minutes away from school – I could probably share stories about so many different friends. There was one who loved Nine Inch Nails and really was the kind of fan Trent Reznor would be proud of. I remember two distinctive times driving with him.

There was one time when we were driving and he had just made a cassette copy of The Downward Spiral. At this point most of Nine Inch Nails’ material was foreign to me: strange and spectral for sure. We got to “Closer” and I remember being in awe of the massive beats blasting through his modest stereo. Later, after exploding gun shots came “A Warm Place.” I still remember sitting there in awe of how carefully constructed every passing note was. We discussed the softness, the gentleness and it was something extraordinary for me. It’s downright stunning music, yes, it’s very short too. It’s almost classical in both its delivery and composition and yet, it’s this resting spot towards the end of Reznor’s breakthrough album. It’s melodically beautiful and gorgeous in every aspect of the word – it’s one of my top ten songs of all time probably. The spiral spins down and it gets further depressive but on “A Warm Place” everything is flawless for three minutes and change.


And then I remember another time driving home and hearing the opening strands of “Somewhat Damaged” through the much more advanced stereo system; a different vehicle of course. Here the focus was on the addition of layers and layers. I remember hearing the overcoming layers and getting lost in the bliss of sound. As the beginning to The Fragile (it is here where my love for the word begins), it starts with a trickling guitar part and a higher octave pickling before the stomping beat rears through. There’s the hi-hat in the form of a shaking synthesizer and the actual synthesizer that comes blaring in from above before Reznor sings “Tried so hard to be like you…lost my faith in everything” (taking out of context). As his voice gets shrouded by his forceful singing the music continues to rise and rise before it swells into massive guitar riffs and his shouting of the wretched damaged. This song is such a stark difference from the previous one for myriad ways of style and demeanor but each highlights his skill at precise compositions that shake and rattle and roll through entirety. – Bryan

Elliott Smith – Either/Or

I used to write for a very small, independently run and non-profit magazine called The Stripe a few years back. Well, quite a few years back now. It was a tiny black and white magazine that was available in less than ten locations in El Paso that lasted for maybe like one, two years?

One time we met for a collective meeting on ideas. Brainstorming about latest releases and such – I remember talking about how Get Behind Me Satan was great as usual and how I didn’t like Coldplay – you know, being topical and such. One forgets how much is shown in one’s character through a debate on ideas and creative delivery. I remember sitting back because well, I only write about music mostly. There’s a lot of films and TV shows I love, there is art that I can share and think about, there is an opinion on almost many topics of interest but music is my passion. While most discuss current events to detail, people they’d like to interview, I didn’t really care much.

So then this dude pulls out these drawings he’s made. He’d drawn and colored various images of things – idols, people, significant figures, et al – and he pulls out these three different drawings he’s made of Elliott Smith. I remember thinking they were decently done and somewhat similar yet, dissimilar, from the original person and then he showed one of Smith with a green background and his first name in huge letters in front, like a marquee: ELLIOT. It was like in some cursive type manuscript he had done, in bold black letters with a white border to make it even more distinctive. I remember instantly wanting to correct him for the misspelling; the drawing is nice, yeah yeah but you don’t even know how to spell his name? That’s like saying my favorite artist is Jon Lennon or something, it’s small, but huge. But I waited, I stayed quiet. I hadn’t said anything in our meeting yet, why would I contribute something now? I figured, too, that he would maybe state that the drawing was unfinished, that maybe he misspelled it on purpose, some kind of explanation. It never came and neither did the question by anyone there on why it was misspelled.

I maybe should’ve spoken up back then, could it be that he himself was unaware it was misspelled? Or am I just that pretentious when it comes to music: “You better know how to spell it if you’re gonna say you love it!” It doesn’t matter much anymore but whenever I think about Elliott Smith and the impact he left, it’s a pretty substantial one. Anyways, back then I was heavy and still am on From a Basement on the Hill but as much as I liked it, I couldn’t get past how it might’ve sounded if Smith finished it himself.

But back on Either/Or Smith was on top of his game and really making the music of his own fruition. It was here, on his third album, that many consider his breakthrough and for me, well it’s probably my favorite album of his. There’s a lot to be said here and maybe I can make a part two very soon about it to highlight more of the music and less lame stories from my past haha. Smith was a master at songwriting in demonstrating the uncanny ability at being raw, uncouth and emotional while still being poetically poignant. His words were as beautiful as his own voice was. He would layer it in a manner that it multi-tracked as backing vocals, harmonies, the melody layered on top of his and much more. Aside from that, all of the instruments on Either/Or are all played by Smith. It’s really a spectacular album; many other, much better and much more sophisticated words have gone on to be written about it.

Here is “Angeles” which has come out in two Gus Van Sant movies and is probably one of the most well-known. It’s an acoustic guitar with Smith’s voice singing about wanting to be that special someone for her.


And this is “Ballad of Big Nothing” which in my opinion, is a perfect song in many ways. It has the amazing verses that sing about arguments and living life in a broken relationship and the choruses are these big sing-offs to her, “You can do what you want to, whenever you want to…though it doesn’t mean nothing. Big nothing.” It’s surely ironic but more so, grippingly devastating. The big guitar and drums pounding away behind him, it’s the perfect balance of heartfelt desire and sadness. – Bryan

Blonde Redhead – 23

Poppy music derails me sometimes. There’s usually not so much of an attention for it and yet again, I don’t really dig for music the way I used to. But pop music is either hit or miss with me; Blonde Redhead is definitely a hit.

I really like the cover to this one for whatever reason. I’m guessing it’s the combination colors with the blue being the most encompassing, the red being the most distinct and the legs being the most interesting. I especially liked the CD version with its sleeve and how it was stylishly elegant and simple. The way the music was able to layer a dreamy landscape of sounds and the way everything sounded lushly enveloped against Kazu Makino’s breathy vocals: 23 was a dreamy escape. There’s music coming out now that sounds like it and still, it’s a few years dated now.

The songs I’ve chosen here intersect the album somewhere around my imaginary midway point. The first one, “Spring and by Summer Fall,” pounds with relentless drums and male vocals for a change of pace. The song is somewhere in between a marching pace and the driving fall of leaves from trees. The melody travels in and out, and around, through the thick wall of sounds that you forget there’s a true depth here. The subtle changes in mode and mood are just that, subtle, and mostly, it’s a chase for the percussion throughout but there’s energy, intensity and plenty of fervor on this song. It goes on for a briskly pumped up drive of pop hyperflow.


On “Silently” the pop takes a step back for more dreamy proof of how the perfect ‘boom’ can sound so seamless. The moment of the song for me is when the drums come pounding through for the ultimate delivery but everything before and after is so flawlessly crafted that it all melts away together. Makino’s vocals are back as they reign in on top of the light guitar melody and swaying textures. There’s a tender amount of pumping fusion and while her voice remains the brightest star in this galaxy, the combination of beats, drums and ambience on “Silently” is where pop perfection is truly made. There’s lots more around and about on 23 but for now, here’s a slice of it to enjoy. – Bryan

The National – High Violet Pt. 2/3? ---- England -------

I’ve been blasé about it all lately. About writing, about the blog, about the way it all works. It’s not necessarily an entire waste though. Lately some of the lyrics on this album have continued to creep in. This album is still one of the best albums last year had to offer. There’s probably newer stuff we could discuss, until then here’s some words on “England” here.

There’s a sort of stomping presence throughout – this type of relentless beat that mimics a sort of heartbeat filled with emotion – and as the music builds and builds, the beat’s momentum follows. I love the way the piano melody is heard towering above and intertwined with the soaring vocals and it acts as part of that stomping presence. They guide the song through a massive amount of sounds and tones that eventually disperse for a resolute ending. The same piano melody begins it all and each texture comes flowing in: the stirring strings, the thumping drums, the chugging guitar, the amazing words.

Personally, it sounds like they’re evoking some kind of love for what London must feel like, through metaphors like rain, loneliness, runners. They’ve mentioned runners before so it makes sense to me when he sings, “Someone send a runner through the weather that I’m under, for the feeling that I lost today,” that he feels as if life is just passing him by. The words most likely feel like wanting to have a love in your life because of all the emotional pull you go through. A lot of the themes on High Violet encircled adulthood, finances, growing and breaking relationships and they were highlighted with subdued shades of gray and charcoal. As a sensitive adult, there is a lot of interesting layers to the grind and being able to feel them and encompassing what they mean, while wrestling with what we want, and ensuring we get what we need, The National simply know how to pinpoint all of that so utterly well and “London” is just more of that amazing presence. – Bryan


(Above pic: Chelsea bridge in London //// Nothing associated w/ The National or High Violet...Chelsea FC #1)

Real Estate - All the Same

We saw this band once on an epic Thanksgiving night here in El Paso. They played to a rowdy crowd of fifty or so people, packed into a dirty bar with no stage to perform on what is now a memorable night. I’ll try to see if I have any pics of that night anywhere, I’m pretty sure I have some of a weatherman for sure. Haha.

Anyways, Real Estate put out a new album last month that I missed out on it. But the time is new and changing and I just got their album and am quickly falling for it. Their last album, Real Estate, was a stellar ride of heady ambience and folk-rock tendencies. And now, their newest album, Days, shines with refined sensibilities and more gorgeous melodies and harmonies.

This is the first song off that album, “All the Same.” The band sings about how everything ends up being all the same, the night is just another day. Many of the growing passages one takes is exploring life during the night, I like how the band relishes in realizing the night life has many opportunities. The song glistens with a looping melody that travels throughout the song’s seven-minutes into a realm of glory. At first they shift from verse to chorus with magnificent ease before ending it all with a growing mass of instruments and sounds.

It’s a stellar way to start an album, for sure. November will be a month where this blog reaches double digits in posts, that’s a for sure. Until, then more music to come soon I hope. – Bryan