Rock Reading Tuesdays

Hello everyone welcome back to Rock Reading Tuesdays and welcome new readers,

This week I will be covering three bands that each offer something different to the discussion of Rock Music. They each offer something special to the genre, the first band we will be covering sounds more like a traditional rock band but what makes them special is their lyricism. They also have a great ability to tone down the rock and turn it into something much slower and soulfully heartbreaking. Citizen Soldier is a relatively newer rock band, some of my favorite songs by them is Mess of me, Scared, and Would anyone care. These songs lyrically connect to a place inside of the listener that has felt hurt, insecure, and in the case of Mess of me the masks we put on for others. The lead singers voice draws you in and you can almost physically feel the meaning behind these songs. Its like a balm for the battered soul, each song is a call saying “I see you”. Musically the way how they switch between Hard rock and a more alternative sound is amazing as well.

Our next band is called Starset this band fuses Electronic music and Hard rock; this band has evolved and grown overtime and made their own iconic sound. Their most famous song is called My Demons and introduced the world to their Electric rock music genre, their song Echo gives us an updated sound seeing as these songs are 7 years apart you can hear how they have changed over time. I like hearing the growth of this band and lyrically they are still relevant. They managed to hold their own when it comes down to retaining fans and gaining more.

Our final band is Hollywood Undead which is a Rap Rock band, this band readily speaks about whatever they want and express it however they want damn the consequences, an example of this is their song Bullet. That song speaks about suicidal thoughts, addictions, being pushed to the brink, and wanting to escape the pain that they are going through. This song is very dark when you read the lyrics, but the song musically sounds very fun and upbeat mimicking a person would mask their pain. This song on so many different levels blends so many different things artistically, lyrically, and musically.

I recommend everyone take a moment to check out all this bands just to appreciate how rock changes from band to band. These bands all deserve a quick listen and appreciation, I hope you enjoy some of these songs. This concludes this week’s Rock Reading Tuesday, have a great week everyone. See you all next week!

Thomas Benke: Looking Around In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott, in the Chapter “Looking Around,” says this: Now, if you ask me, what’s going on is that we’re all up to here in it, and probably the most important thing is that we not yell at one another. Otherwise we’d all just be barking away like Pekingese: “Ah! Stuck in the shit! And it’s your fault, you did this …” Writing involves seeing people suffer and, as Robert Stone once put it, finding some meaning therein. But you can’t do that if you’re not respectful. If you look at people and just see sloppy clothes or rich clothes, you’re going to get them wrong. She goes on to speak about empathy for other people and also, as an extension empathy for yourself. So, in a sense as you try to write believable, relatable characters, you will come to forgive people their trespasses—because no one believes they are the villain of their story, so you have to write “bad,” or “evil” characters from a point of view where they rationalize what they are doing in such a way that it is the right or only way they see is possible. By extrapolation, then, if you begin to forgive and withhold judgment from your less-than-desirable, or annoying characters, perhaps you can extend the same courtesy to yourself and forgive your own trespasses and sins. This, for me, starts to enter the realm of “writing as therapy,” and though I am a firm believer in that—I practice it to this very day—I think I would caution anyone who thinks that simply writing through things is going to lead you to a place of light and love. I am not saying it can’t by any means. What I am saying is I have wrote through my thoughts and my problems and my desperation and depression for decades and I still had enough baggage on my shoulders to supply an army platoon with rations for a year. In any case, when thinking about craft, it is very important to step into the shoes of all of your characters, especially those characters that you see as antagonists and villians. I believe there are very few universal maxims in writing but one thing is virtually certain: every character you write is your version of that human being. Confucius said “everywhere I go, there I am,” and that is never more true than when you are writing. So if you are writing a character that is distasteful to you, it might be effective for you to ask yourself why that is the case. I wrote a blog for Obscura last semester titled, “The Puppy Had It Coming.” The gist of the article was to pose a puzzle to writers. How can you write a scene where an adult human kicks a puppy across the room and the reader at least understands why. I am not saying there is any way to justify the action or for the readers to be on the human’s side unless they are sociopaths. I am saying you need let the reader know how dark the place is in the character’s mind that he is capable of doing that.

Rock Reading Tuesdays

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Rock Reading Tuesdays

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