Selling Out

This blog isn't about any artist in particular. It's more so about the idea of what a lot of bands do that a lot of people tend not to like; "selling out".
Bands sell out; it happens. But I feel that people often throw this term around without fully understanding what it means. To me, selling out means that you're just putting out garbage to appeal to the mainstream and to the record companies, ergo: you're only doing it for money; financial success. I think that's a fair definition.
I think the best examples is comparing Green Day and Metallica. A lot of people would say that Green Day sold out when they made American Idiot. I would have to strongly disagree because American Idiot was described as, "The most personal album they've worked on." With that in mind, it has the perfect kind of songwriting; attitude and passion with just the right amount of pop. Never on this album does it become too poppy. My point is, there's a difference between selling out and growing as an artist. Yes, they had more financial success, and yes they're a Hot Topic band, but they had the intention of just wanting to create something beautiful and they did, and that's why I love it. If Green Day sold out, they weren't trying to. They were just a bunch of kids just trying to have fun, and then they grew up.
When Metallica made the Black Album, they had the intention of just selling a buttload of records. And then when they made Load and Reload, they didn't stop. Black album is a bit forgivable for a having a handful of good songs, but nothing on Load and Reload is at all memorable or worth mentioning. Fuel and King Nothing. I BARELY like those songs. Fuel is just catchy and King Nothing's bassline is sweet. That's. It. And to be honest, I can't tell you which album(s) those songs are off of. Neither can Jason Newsted, actually. He said so in a relatively recent interview, it was quite hilarious.
Yeah, Metallica's tried to get back to their roots with Stanger, but a major problem they had I think was Bob Rock. The problem being he was still there. If anyone wants to blame anyone for Metallica losing their edge and respectfulness, fingers tend to be pointed at Bob freaking Rock. I kind of agree. Point is, him being their means he was still taking place as producer, which is what they should get away from to get back to their roots. Then when Death Magnetic happened, they fired him and got the producer for Slayer. And while that album had the intention of getting back to their roots...again, it kind of worked, but not really. To me the album is like Metallica trying to be as heavy as they were and as proggy as AJFA. "Trying" is the key word. The album isn't really creative or interesting, and the mixing sucks. And that's the problem. No creativity. I feel that Metallica will never be able to grow artistically.

Snoop Dogs (Lions?) Movie

This movie was interesting. Interesting choice in movie to show that is; interesting as a movie, not so much. The Reggae was good, and personally I don't care what Snoop does, because he can do both. My only issue with the movie was that 99% of it was just them smoking weed, and the other 1% is them talking about their old careers and recording the new stuff.
Overall: I like the change; it's interesting and cool. The movie wasn't needed.

Mastodon's Leviathan

Leviathan is the second album Mastodon put out, and it's my personal favorite. It's the perfect blend of Prog and Heavy Metal, and that's just my jam: Prog Metal.
From Blood and Thunder to Joseph Merrick, this album is a masterpiece. The instrumentation and overall concept this album tackles (being Moby-Dick) is phenomenal; everything is pulled off well.
My one complaint: The mixing for the bass and drums could be better. the guitars are easily the loudest thing on the album, and they sound really good, but I'd like to hear the bass more clearly. It's not as bad as AJFA by any means, but it could be better.

Dookie

I like to play albums in the car when I'm with my girlfriend because she has a subscription to Rhapsody, so the other day we were listening to Dookie from Green Day. This is probably my favorite album from Green Day in terms of the music because it's punk, but it's also just musically...smart. I dunno. It's a lot more creative than most punk rock. Whenever people talk about Green Day, they like to put them into the genre of Pop Punk, which is technically correct, but I don't like that title for them because Green Day's actually good. That, and they don't really sound like Pop Punk...at all. Compare them to Blink 182, We The Kings, Fallout Boy, etc... Green Day sounds totally different. I kind of like to think of it as Black Sabbath being a root for Heavy Metal, but they're technically not metal. Maybe Pop Punk being lamer is the same of heavy metal getting heavier...and perpetually lamer.
ANYWAY. Dookie is a great album. The songs are punk while still being musically creative, and it's got a good element of pop to it. Enough of it, anyway.

American Idiot Broadway

Watching this movie brought out the child in me. You've gotta understand, American Idiot was not only the first album I ever bought and owned, but it really got me into being who I am today. Now, I love all the stuff I listened to beforehand, but when I discovered Green Day, it was like Moses discovering the 10 Commandments, OK? It was really big freaking deal.
I thought that what they did to bring their songs onto Broadway was really interesting. I really liked the story they told with the songs and the choreography that went along with them.
MY ONLY COMPLAINT: And this can't really be fixed, but I'm just really picky about people who sing Green Day. I think Billy Joe Armstrong can sing Green Day...and that's about it. There's just certain words he sings with a certain tone and a certain way that just can't be replicated, not to say that anyone tried to replicate it...but that's another problem. It's really odd/unsettling to hear those songs sung by not him; that's all I'm saying.
It's kind of like if you were to listen to someone cover a Bob Dylan song. Yeah, they might get the music totally right, but it won't be the same because they're doing their own thing, or they're trying to much to be like him be imitating him. And if the imitation is a joke, that's cool, but you shouldn't base your whole show on that unless you're Weird Al or something, in which case you can do whatever you want.
Great movie. Thank you so much for showing it.

My performance at Trojan Live

Danger Dog I thought did a very good job at Trojan Live on Friday, and an alright job on Thursday.
Thursday's showing was just sloppy. I feel that a lot of the focus from the band was put into the energy as opposed to actually being good. Yeah, we played our most upbeat songs, but we didn't play them as well as we ever had.
Friday was much much much better. The crowd was better, the performance was better, and the music was much better. I would say that an accurate performance is better than that of loud, not good performance.

School Of Rock Southern Rock Show

This show was amazing at it's best, and kind of alright at it's worst.
The best song in the set was Freebird. You can't beat that song in this kind of set. You just can't. It's too epic. Also, both of my band members played the ending solo (they split it) and they rocked it.
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed was probably a real close second because of how genius it is, and that it was pulled off so well. The guitarist in my prog band, Jupiter Five played the solo, and I've never seen him play with that much passion. It was beautiful.
And my third favorite was Black Betty for the same reason. Really great performing to add on to it.
I'll bet money that those 3 songs make Best of Season.