White Light, White Heat, White Trash

No, this entry is not a review of the great Social Distortion album called "White Light, White Heat, White Trash." In fact, I am briefly going to vent on something that has been in the news lately. It has a little to do with music, so here it goes...

As many of you probably heard/read/saw, Lindsey Lohan was arrested again this week. This time, it was for DUI and possibly cocaine possession. I'm going to leave my judgments about the substances out of this, so as to not cloud the issue. Lindsey Lohan has now officially joined the ranks of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. I think I speak for the majority of the world when I say that none of the three of these women have very much (if any) talent whatsoever. All three have done an album (if not more) which sucked worse than anything we could have expected. So here is my complaint. Why are these people popular? Why do people buy those TERRIBLE albums? Why are we subjected to hearing daily news stories about these people? No one respects Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, or Britney Spears. Everyone is just waiting to hear what pathetic excuse they come up with next. Lohan gets pulled over and blows a .13 or something on the breathalizer, and then releases an OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE saying that she is innocent. I dunno how the cop rigged that breathalizer to "get" Lohan, but he must've done a helluva job. Oh, and did you see Lohan's mug shot?! SHE'S UGLY AS SHIT!!! Everyone thinks she's so hot, yet when you chisel off the pounds of make-up and coke from under her nose, go figure, shes not all that hot. I'm convinced you could take the ugliest girl in the world and slather on the make-up and a boob-job and half the world would go buy her movies and albums. Are people really that blind? I really hope that parents are seeing this shit too. If you see your kids idolizing any of these drug-addicted, dumber-than-a-stick, anorexic bimbos, PLEASE stop them. Our society pushes enough negative images on people, don't buy into the hollywood bullshit and think that these people are talented, attractive, or worth more than a second of your time. These are the people that drag our society down, give women a terrible name, and ruin the thing I care a lot about, music. NO MORE PARIS HILTON ALBUMS! I sometimes wonder if the Hilton patriarchs (the actual millionaires) regret even having children. I would.

Linkin Park- "Minutes to Midnight"

In my opinion, Linkin Park are one of the most original bands of the last ten years. They burst onto the scene at the height of the rap/rock popularity, and then somehow managed to outlast most of their contemporaries from that time (Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, etc.). Now they have managed to amaze me again.

"Minutes to Midnight" is simply awesome. The majority of the rapping has been replaced with actual verses that are sung harmonically by Chester Bennington. There are a few songs where the rapping remains, such as the fucking incredible "Hands Held High," which has the most un-Linkin Park sounding chorus that will blow your mind. Like that song, the rest of the songs on the album seem to really showcase the band's musical talent. The rapping (the little there is at least) is smooth and aggressive, the screaming is intense (check out "Given Up" for the best scream in the last 20 years!!), and the beats are addictive. "Bleed It Out" has single written all over it. If you're looking for the same old Linkin Park album, you're not going to find it. This is a new direction for the band. They are breaking out of their niche (thank you Rick Rubin, as usual) and have probably made the best rock album of 2007 (so far).

Sweet Emotion

One of the main reasons I'm so addicted to music came at an early age. I realized very early on that songs have certain powers over us. Music touches us in every aspect of our lives. Odds are that at some point in your life, a song came to personify that time period which you first heard it. That's why I find music so interesting. It sticks with you for your whole life. You hear a song from times past and it immediately sends you back to that time in your head. Some songs conjur up happy memories, others bring sadness. Some songs make you angry, and others can cheer you up no matter how bad of a mood you're in.

I constantly experience this emotional roller coaster when I'm listening to my iPod. I often listen to it on "random" or "shuffle" or whatever the setting is called, so I get any of the thousands of songs I own at any given time. It can make me listen to Pantera, then all of a sudden it goes to Elton John or Chuck Berry. I was walking around today with my headphones in, listening to the iPod on shuffle. It played a song that brought up some very negative memories in my head. I won't get into specifics, but I'll say that at one point, a girl told me the song reminded her of me. That relationship ended very badly, so I'd never listened to the song since the break-up because it really depressed me and made me question what I thought of myself. But today was different. I don't know whether I was just lazy and didn't want to change the song, or if I subconsciously wanted to hear the song, but either way, I listened to the whole song for the first time in years.

I'm sure everyone who is reading this has had a similar situation like mine. I don't know about you, but for some reason, listening to that song today felt good. I won't lie, part of me was still saddened to hear the lyrics, but some other emotion was being felt. So here is why I wrote this entry... I have some advice. No matter how terrible of a time period you associate with a certain song or musician, at some point when you feel it's been long enough, listen to it again. It's very interesting what emotions one singular song by some crappy band from 2004 can bring out in you. You'll be amazed. I hope that you're experience is healing and a positive one, like mine was. But even if you get mad, start to cry, get depressed, punch the cat, whatever, you'll actually be doing yourself some good. Eventually, we need to let those emotions fade, or at least try to make them fade. Otherwise, they might just cause some major damage. So let those emotions out, and listen to the songs that you hate because they make you hurt. It really can do some good. Then, maybe, you'll be able to do what we should all do... LET IT BE (which, btw, is a great song to listen to if you need to cheer the hell up)!!!