Mastodon

When a band is pigeonholed into a genre, it sometimes makes it extremely hard for that band to grow. And when it comes to metal music, the one huge thing a metal band needs to fear is pissing off its fan base. Metal heads are some of the toughest sells to change. They want speedy riffs, heavy vocals and overall brutality. In the case of Mastodon, the band's past few efforts have showed winds of change, but were still essentially brutal, metal. Mastodon has decided to do the unholy shift in scope and sound on their new record, Crack the Skye. From the perspective of a non-metal head, this album is a transcendent piece of spaced out prog metal that shows the band at it’s most coherent and precise. The shift in production and sound may piss off some metal heads, but to be honest, if they can’t get down with this record, fuck em.

Crack the Skye is a revelation. Mastodon has always written intricate stories within their brand of metal. Leviathan took a stab at Melville’s Moby Dick and Blood Mountain tells tales of strange forest creatures and paranoia. Ambition is something that Mastodon has in spades and Crack the Skye may be the most ambitious yet. A story of astral travel, golden umbilical cords, usurping Czars, Rasputin, the devil and lofty out of body experiences pervade the story arc of the album and with that, we have easily the strangest and most unique concept album in some years. Their past records are said to represent one of the elementals and this time around, the element of aether, the space between the heavens and Earth, is definitely executed not just thematically but musically.

Album opener and stellar single “Oblivion” rockets through a chugging riff and launches the listener into this world. The vocals, which in exchange for Mastodon’s usual screams and howls, moves to melodic harmonies and lamentations. Although the mood and structure of songs is somewhat different, with touches of Tool style prog and Pink Floyd melodic guitar soloing, Mastodon’s signature booming rhythm section and multi-vocalists still prevails. “Divinations” is a superb rocker with a howlingly fast guitar passage and bone crushing drumming.

The second half of the record houses some of Mastodon’s finest work to date. The loud and technical “Ghost of Karelia” is the albums high point. Structurally, the song is a workout of epic proportions. A pulsating riff with a hypnotic bass line that is constantly swirling and changing, it’s dynamic, fast-paced metal that is a welcome change to the bands thrashy goodness. “Crack the Skye” is where we hear Mastodon at their more traditional with the help of Scott Kelly of Neurosis. His beckoning screams a backed by a furious drum beat that pummels your ears and a deep chugging guitar part that is relentless and loud. The album closes with “The Last Baron,” a lofty 13-minute metal epic that never eases up and spazzes out from time to time. It has movements that are an all out assault on the ears. It’s the pinnacle of the albums intensity.

The complaints are sure to flow, but at the same time, Mastodon has definitely topped themselves. This brand of audacious space prog from a generally brutal metal band comes as a pleasant surprise. The band is embracing the album format more so than before with a seamless flow and a theme, although ambitious, very intriguing and coherent. Masterfully crafted, Crack the Skye is a fitfully brilliant rock record that takes no time to get into. It isn’t a sellout record by any stretch. Major label success has yet to ruin Mastodon’s integrity and this disc is nothing short of dazzling.

by Paul Tsikitas

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Duane Swierczynski

A timely review of Duane Swierczynski's 2005 crime-noir thriller, The Wheel Man.

Progress with regards to my list of to-reads didn't receive any particular shot in the arm this year as things like relocating to Collingswood, my introduction to podcasts, a personal video game rennaisance, beer blogging, and youtube on the projection screen of my new man-cave largely took over the main focus of my culture-time expenditure. The fact that I actually read all 220 pages of this lightning fast thriller smack in the middle of Philly Beer Week--a week when very little ought to be getting accomplished--should illustrate exactly how quickly this book moves.

The protagonist is a mute Irishman who serves as a getaway driver for a bank robbery. The book opens with him getting ready to make a getaway, when--take a guess.. Something goes wrong? Bango. And things continue to go so wrong for the next two days as an assortment of characters vie for the loot, the guns, the girl--it's basically a classic noir clusterfuck all Swierczynski'd up for a Philly free-for-all.

It seemed as though the odds were stacked in my favor to love The Wheel Man because: it serves as a noir-tastic travelogue in and about my nearby metropolis--including a few stops in at my old dorm; it features characters with (at best) blurred ethical compasses; and it reads like a transcript of Tom Waits muttering in his sleep. On top of all that, the author himself is my former journalism professor, which, in a way, makes him partially responsible for quality of this website. hAHAHAHA FART@@

A lot of common adjectives are used to describe Duane Swierczynsky's works--gritty, sharp, violent, pulpy, clever, dark, slick. I'm going to pitch a few new ones: Funky, soulful, jazzy... Is Swierczynski the Herbie Hancock of modern crime-noir? It would be rude of me to say "definitely, yes" having only gotten around to reading a pathetic (1) of his prolific (5) fictions per presidential term. But there definitely is a certain rhythmic quality to this heisty shoot-em-up.

Just as Guy Ritchie will slow a bullet down so you can admire the art on the wall behind it, Swierczynski goes from cut-the-crap plot-points to savoring the little details... then right back to business. This creates a pace that would be dizzying, but the narrative has enough meat to dig into that you never spin out or lose comprehension of a plot-twist. The arrangement of these pace-change-moments add just the appropriate amount of flesh and never seem merely like sprinkles of humanity-dust atop a 90-foot steel nihilism-coaster.

By the way, Swierczynski never lets us forget that he's in love with heistery on a grandiose scale. The closest that this theft-loving romp comes to being boring is when Duane stops to lists six or ten of his favorite bank robbery books that a particular character (read: Duane) read when he was growing up. But I admire Duane's indulging in his passion (as well as--most likely--the passion of many of his readers!). Besides, the only reason this seems boring to me is because the titles are all about bank robbing, instead of, say, the history of dry-hopping.

I think the coolest thing about The Wheel Man is that so many different characters come and go--a total quantity which, normally, would be overwhelming. Swierczynski manages to weave your interest into the fates of these different characters like a lazer surgeon. But he never over-does or under-does a particular character's development, and that includes characters we only meet in the final pages. On back cover, Duane thanks his editor "Marc". I can tell that "Marc" had a big hand in helping Duane look good, because this book could be a 700 page project to read. Instead I got a huge novel's worth of thrills and depth, but it took me a day and a half. This "Marc" seems like a good professional, and I look forward to sending him a few of my still-up-for-grabs manuscripts such as, The Over-Eater, The Problem Drinker, and Unemployed: Mom, would you like to buy a Young Writer Bond?

Las thing I'd like to mention is how flat out funny this book is at times. Duane's blend of humor, which I like to call SophistiFrat™ suits the over-all tone of the work just about perfectly. The characters are a fun array of archetypes that sometimes rely on cheap laughs just so as not to wander off-topic, and other times work the context of their relationships to humor's advantage. Even though I wouldn't call this a comedy by any stretch, there were certainly at least a few out-loud-laughs (or "oll", for those of you who are hip to texting).

What's next for my Duane-queue? Might as well start with the titular book from his blog, Secret Dead Men, although I'll certainly have to czech them all out at some point. Only worry is I hope I can get to finish before he cranks more out, and no, that wasn't meant to sound dirty!


Visit Duane on the Internet!
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editor@MarginalMinds.com

Josh Garza

Secret Machines Drummer Discusses New Album

M.M.: Josh, the new album is self titled... Why is that?
Josh: I know it sounds pompous, but the truth is there were really no stand-out songs or themes on the album, so...

M.M.: Tell me about the Warner Brothers' fiascor.
Josh: After it was recorded, Warner Brothers didn't feel like it would sell 50,000 or 100,00 copies, so they didn't want to go ahead with it. We asked them to drop us, and let us keep the album rights, but they wouldn't. Instead, they liscenced us out to an indie label. World's Fair / TSM... Most of the time, bands get dropped and these reccords get shelved all-together. Especially with today's economy, bands need to sell a million coppies... They were scared to let us go, scared to go ahead with the reccord. So doing it this way, they sorta did us a big favor.

M.M.: How do you feel about the album over all? It sounds like it very well could be your guys' best work...
Josh: Well, I'll tell you what, I'm glad you said it before me... It feels sorta [awkward] to come right out and say it, but it's just a really excellent rock reccord. Also, we did all this stuff with live tapes, no computers, it's serious rock and roll.

M.M.: Do you feel pressure from fans--now that you're developing a serious fan base-to play certain 'hits' during your live set? Are you going to be focusing mostly on the new material during shows?
Josh: We're just doing what we love to do... entertain people.. have fun... We're going to be shying away from "Now You're Gone" and "Last Believer, Drop Dead" which are two tracks in particular that we haven't really worked out a transisiton from the studio piece to a live performance yet.

M.M.: What have you been listening to lately?
Josh: Uh... Grindermen... The new Nick Cave is great! I like the new T.K. Webb. I like full reccords, can't just get into single songs...

M.M.: Who did you listen to growing up?
Josh: I grew up with 3 brothers, they played full reccords, and I got to listen to bands that have a lot of personalities in the sound. The Who, Stones, Zep, all unique personalities. And my brothers pushed me into the drums. Listening to these reccords, we'd play air-instruments a lot, and the drums were the only air-instrument left for me to pick! But the personalitiy in the music always meant a lot... U2, Joshua Tree, Actung Baby, Unforgetable Fire, they all have great songs but I didn't like the production. I didn't care about Brian Eno's drum machine, I always preferred guys banging away on stuff...

M.M.: Who do you like to read?
Josh: Kurt Vonnegut... ...he's really a funny writer!

M.M.: Any sweeping generalities about the current political climate?
Josh: You know.. it's like watching the game. People have turned politics into a sporting event. I'm not a huge fan of either party, but people don't really care any more, they don't really listen, they just root for their fuckin' team.


Check out the new Secret Machines album, and here's a youtube of Josh wailing on skins: