No, not infinitely better songs by Pearl Jam or Sia; today I was bothered by the Christian metal stylings of P.O.D. burned in my brain. For the most part the songs that play in my head each day are random. A couple days a week it will be something that I’ve been listening to recently, but on the whole it’s hard to know where the influence came from. There is no mystery who the guilty party in this case.
In the last year I’ve taken to intermittently deleting Facebook for various reasons, often related to interpersonal drama, mind games, or both. This week’s FB furlough was because I wanted to shield myself from seeing some specific photos, but it has turned into a nice break from the time sink that is social media. My dear friend Spencer, meanwhile, has been trying to bring me back into the fold by bullying me with P.O.D. (see figure 1.1). I haven’t reactivated yet, but I am suffering more than if I’d seen those pictures I was avoiding.
We were teenagers at the peak of one of music’s dumbest genres, tailor-made for angsty suburban youth, the syncopated, seven-stringed shit parade called nu-metal. I spent a lot of time listening and going to shows of bands that I now absolutely loathe, but I guess most teenagers in the last forty years probably went through something similar. I won’t name those bands as I’m sure one of them will show up on this blog eventually and I don’t want to tempt fate. I will, however, defend some bands of the genre such as System of a Down and Deftones who are distinctly talented and remain relevant.
P.O.D. was maybe a little after our time—their thinly-veiled, mega-church Christianity is a major turn-off anyway—so there’s no real story behind the joke. But if you want to hear this song and Alien Ant Farm’s “Smooth Criminal” cover, get yourself to the Observatory on May 4th! #ad
“Now that I’ve seen you I can never look away.”