Daily Affirmation

Reading Henry Rollins' daily dispatches on the 2.13.61 website. This guy is truly one of my heroes. I just think it's so cool to see a person as insightful and...useful as he is to take time to write about his day just because people were curious enough to ask him to do it.

The small venue Tool shows sold out in ten minutes today and, no, I did not acquire a ticket. I am half relieved about this. As we all know, 10,000 Days is set to release next Tuesday the 2nd. The show in Oakland is on the 4th. This would only give me a total of two measly days to get comfy with the album before hearing the songs live. I already made that mistake with Lateralus in high school and I won't do it again.

Why not just download the album now like everyone and their mother is doing? I'm not against downloading. I pirate music from the internet. Yes, I am a pirate. But I've got plans for the 2nd that shan't be spoiled. These plans consist of buying the album, taking it into my den and not coming out for at least 4 hours. One hour listening. Three reflecting. As a rock critic, I am a creature of habit. While I am listening to the material, I research, I examine, I determine. If I don't know a lot about the band, I get online and gather what I can. I download past work to make comparisons. But one of my most essential habits is the careful inspection of liner notes, lyrics and album art/packaging. I am a dictionary of names so liner notes can usually help me make connections between artist collaborations. (For example, did you know that Josh Freese did the drums on Tracy Bonham's The Burden of Being Upright? Rad).

Looking at album art has often inspired me with a theme for longer reviews. Honestly, I need all the inspiration I can get. Music is such a broad category and there are so many subjects out there. It's easy to get jaded and start thinking that everything just sounds the same therefore how can you describe it since you already have? Bands like Tool awaken me from ruts like that.