Junk mail is the bane of the internet age. I’m not talking about the spam, I’m talking about the “newsletters” and “important notices” that get sent out every time you register for a site or express interest in a store. Nevertheless, I try to tolerate what comes my way; maybe a cursory glance will reveal something interesting or noteworthy. Can you guess what motivated this post?
I get a notice from Amazon pointing out a band. They say that people who bought this particular Nine Inch Nails album also bought this other album that I’ve never heard of. It’s a self-titled release by a band called “One Day as a Lion”. Heck, I like NIN and have not heard of this other band so why not give it a shot? Turns out, ODAAL is Zack de la Rocha’s new release. Since I don’t follow music news very closely for bands I’m not insane about, I have no idea what Rage Against the Machine does in their spare time. I remember hearing they were done and that Zack was on to a solo project. I suppose this is it. The press also seems to be making a big deal that the drummer from Mars Volta is paired up with Zack for this album. I liked RATM so I thought I’d give this album a try.
First off, it’s not a furry tribute album as the title may suggest. Indeed, that’d be a rather large leap for Zack, to go from politics to deviant sex. Second off, the “album” is only five tracks long. It’s decent rock but it seems to be focusing more on Zack’s lyrics and Mr. Mars Volta’s (whose name I don’t know and am too lazy to look up) drumming. I have never focused on lyrics when listening to music. The syncopation of the words is more enticing to me than the message. If I make it to the point of listening to the song repeatedly, the lyrics work themselves into my brain and I sing along. But rarely do I really sit down and digest the message of the song, which propably undermines around 90% of the effort musicians make. I’ll make excuses: Skinny Puppy’s lyrics are nearly stream-of-consciousness and you’d go insane trying to pick up on their messages, electronic music doesn’t have lyrics, ummm… yeah whatever.
Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that ODAAL didn’t blow me away since the focus of the stuff was on lyrics. Maybe if I give it another listen while looking up some lyrics and/or reviews, that will add some substance. Nevertheless, it is something I have not listened to before so that’s progress.
(Bonus points if you can identify the movie where the subject line came from.)