Killing of Mailmen

So what I wanted to do is write about sitcoms or the new Shrinebuilder track. But instead I'm going vomit this at you, dear public. I simply can't help it.

Take a look at this video.




Your politics towards health care is not really relevant to me, but what this video shows is that the people who say inspiring words such as: "Abolish all health care" or "expand medicare rather than Obamacare," it makes it difficult for me to take you guys seriously. I wonder, where are you getting all of this? Where in the world is this coming from?

Notice how this name keeps popping up. Glenn Beck.

Okay. You know the guy. Unfortunately if you are a quasi-rational person, you would absolutely know that this guy is a journalist in the same way that I'm a journalist. A guy who reads whatever crazy shit he finds on the internet and present it as fact.

No, he's far worse than your average lazy blogger. He delivers it as more than fact but as warnings. He brings an apocalyptic doom in his rants and demands that people do something about it. He often compares himself as a modern day Howard Beale (our unofficial and *cough* unlicensed mascot here at Lack of Command). He makes this comparison due to his "mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" attitude towards the news Glenn Beck has clearly never seen the whole movie nor clearly has he ever read the full monologue. Beale says things need to change, where as Beck seems to only say things need to stop.

What I don't think he realizes is that a call for things to stop, for some people means a call to go backwards. So he uses the same tactics as McCarthy, getting Czars fired, protests started, and people's fears (whether legitimate or not) to shift to blind anger.

AP posted today that a man in Kentucky was lynched. He was a census worker and according to the report: the word "Fed" was sketched on his body.

So we're back to this are we? I understand the anger, I can even understand the hatred. Lord knows, I called for the head of George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. With some degree of seriousness as well. Not in the sense where I really wanted to see them in the gallows, but I definitely wanted justice. Now, just because I felt anger and hatred, I didn't kill the fucking mail man!

A message to Republicans: to whoever wants to be the leading canidate in the 2012 presidential election needs to stand up now and demonize this kind of behavior. Honestly too. But you won't will you? After all, when George Tiller was killed this summer (in CHURCH of all places), what did you do? You all pretty much said: murder is wrong, but there's a special place in hell for him anyway. Or how about Joe Wilson? Shouting at a joint session of Congress at the President and than touting that line as a battle cry. You allowed it.

This is what happens when hatred meets stupid.

What happened? Where are the smart people on the right? The problem is the religious right has taken over. The only problem is we didn't see this coming but we should have. They've bullied and muscled there way on to the school boards, on to the library boards and community chairs. They did it quietly in some places. So they get to advance and give suction to those who were beneath them and agree with them on "moral standpoints." And used a media system and a "scorched earth" political tactic. Filling people with the idea of: it's us or them.

That mentality has carried over into the nut house.

This is may just be an isolated incident. I hope so. But this one incident to me is one too many. I desperately want there to be "have you decency, sir?" within the Republican party to oust these guys away from the megaphone, like in the McCarthy era. Here's the thing, I don't want it to get to that point. I don't want there to be another McCarthy era. Or another blacklist. Nor another Civil War.

Is it racism? Probably. Is it an irrational fear and anger towards the federal government? Probably. Is it people being poor and not having anyone to blame for that fact? Probably.

I don't know how to fix this. I wish I did. I thought that if someone could only show them that they are incorrect in their conclusions but welcome to the process, we would be done with all of this. All I know is that we as a society have to move past this. We have to grow beyond these all too familiar cycles. We have to be able to trust ourselves and each other. After something like this happens, it damages that trust I have for people and almost destroys any sort of hope I have for a better country or a better human race.

Only time time will tell how this will play out but we've seen this happen before. We need to change it before it gets that bad again. The killing of mailmen just because they are mailmen is the type of hatred that lacks all logic.

Anyway. We now return to our regulary scheduled program. Just pay attention. And remember, keeping your moral high ground is the most important when the stupid and the crazy lose theirs.




Command image: Mailman Command

Doom and Drone, Sludge and Stone Part 4: Stone

The Stone

Josh Homme, guitarist for Queens of the Stone Age and stoner icon band Kyuss, once said that he hates the term Stoner Rock. Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of the term because I feel it very much pigeon holes the music into only singing about wizards and harsh pipe hits. However, I think the term “Stoner Rock” should stick because the term was created by the bands and the fans. You see, once a “music scene” begins to turn into some sort of fucking fashion function, or ends up being exploited by greedy artists and even greedier record companies: the control is no longer honest. It’s either you got to stay hip or, for lack of a better term, staying the course on what made you money. Music scenes, especially music scenes that start regionally, are always ripe for the taking. From punk to hip-hop to grunge to indie. They are then usually marketed in the corporate friendly, non-judgemental and non-exclusive term of “alternative.” Alternative. Remember Alternative Rock? College friendly love songs or misguided teenage angst that usually just led to keg-stands and one-night-date-rape-parties. Now, alternative has found another feast for the platter. It’s called “indie.” Indie rock is the new Alternative. And so the cycle continues.

Which is why I find it necessary to maintain the term “Stoner Metal.” It really has nothing to do with the actual act of smoking weed. I mean, it’s part of it I guess, but the idea that you need to do drugs to listen to and enjoy music is absurd. It has more of the fact that this is a style of music that its roots are born from 1990’s (going further back than that I know, relax music historians, but go with me.) In the 1990’s we saw the destruction of crappy hair/opera/cock/butt metal by the hands of grunge sound coming out of Seattle. Meanwhile, a few hundred miles south in various parts of California we had the likes of Kyuss and Sleep. The two bands that many would dispute are the ones that re-defined (due to lack of a better term) Stoner Rock. Or at the very least introduced a new way to play rock and roll. The new way was simple: try the old way again.

Riffs. Cymbals. Low bass. High distortion. Sing (or scream) like you mean it.

So, stoner metal fans should feel fortunate that it has a term that wasn’t “given” to us. It was term that we all created and continue to perpetuate. Because if we can keep our name, we won’ t be fooled again. Until they at least de-criminalize marijuana, there is no really long term way to market stoner metal. So if you can’t market it, you leave it alone. Our name is the last defense. They should have just called punk rock, shit rock; or maybe called hip-hop fuck-hop. Keep it dirty. Keep it off the grid. This way we can stay our own community and we can control our own destiny.

Now, onto the lesson….




Remember these guys from our first lesson? Sleep. No stoner fan is complete without hear every track from "Sleep's Holy Mountain" at least ten times. The album was called the album Black Sabbath never made. Sure the lyrics are goofy, but what Sleep demonstrates is the absolute touchstone of the Stoner Metal Genre, the riff. Stoner, Sludge, Doom and Drone all have that in common. The celebration of the riff. While most metal bands are trying to cram a thousand riffs into a 5 minute song , this genre will take 7 minutes to play 2 or 3.

Or in the case of their hallmark stoner masterpiece, "Dopesmoker," where Sleep took an hour to play 3-4 riffs. It's a head rattling journey into heavy. It was later renamed "Jerusalem" and split into tracks, causing the eventual demise of the band. The members of the band have become stoner metal icons, Al Cisneros, Chris Haikus and the mighty Matt Pike. Like I said with Wino, Matt Pike is one of the most overlooked guitarists in all of metal. See: High on Fire.



It's like Elmore James learned how to play metal.

Now we can't talk about stoner metal without talking about their California counterparts, Kyuss.



If "Sleep's Holy Mountain" was the album that Black Sabbath never made, Kyuss is like Alice Cooper's pissed off, pot smoking little brother. The emphasis is still on simple, fuzzy riffs, but this is not dragon slaying music. This is for getting in your car and driving down miles and miles of desolate desert road. The quartet of guitarist Josh Homme, drummer Brant Bjork, vocalist John Garcia and bassist Nick Oliveri only made two albums, but it was more than enough to make an impact.

To me, what stands out about Kyuss is it's cymbal heavy drumming which would eventually become another characteristic of the genre. Most metal bands are about the pounding double bass, but the emphasis on the cymbal adds to the characteristic fuzz of stoner metal.



Doors-esque tripped out guitar solos, Black Sabbathy riffs, and rough unpolished vocals. This my friends is why we so proudly listen to this style of metal. It's funky. It's bluesy. It's evil. It's trippy. It provides some serious rocking in bulk supply. And for stoner metal, you don't have to wander too far from the these California powerhouses. Enjoy!



Today's Command Image: Commander Riker (you knew it was coming)