Just like Film Noir.

2005-03-27 - 18:17

Underoath, Plan B...Eww, I think I'm having a change of heart.

Be Desireless. Be Excellent. Be Gone.– The back of Sarah's What Would Steve McQueen Do? t-shirt inspired by The Tao of Steve

I have a borderline compulsive shopping habit. It’d be a problem, except that I also have a regular habit of consigning clothes I don’t wear anymore and selling CDs that I don’t play. Oh, and I’m predictable enough in my habits that I budget for the inevitability that is the coupon from the Express or the sale on Best Buy’s website. CDs and books are my favorite impulse purchases. So much so that I recently had to declare a moratorium on buying books in order to catch up on my reading. Underoath’s They’re Only Chasing Safety was one of my impulse purchases. I went in looking for Elliott Smith, I left with Underoath (and Elliott Smith.) I listen to They’re Only Chasing Safety all the time. I’m listening to it now. And, for the longest time, I couldn’t tell you what I liked about it. Its screamo, lighter than their earlier work. Its well put together. Their departures from the norm of the genre, like the church choir, are appropriate and not overeager and irritating or bizarre. It doesn’t seem like they set out to do something new or redefine their sound. They have some new members and this naturally rippled through the music. All that aside, for a good month I honestly couldn’t tell you what I liked about it, just that I did.

Now, this is going to sound odd of a CD that begins with the screamed lyric, “So lets not even try.” But there’s hope here. Maybe not in the words, but there’s something in the delivery that makes me think that whatever is the current source of my anxiety is nothing and that I should relax and let it go. After some reflection, it occurred to me that this is what I dig about this CD.

If I didn’t know prior to hearing them, I’d have known after a cursory pass that these are men of God. Which is cool, except that I have a pretty big chip on my shoulder when it comes to organized religion. Christianity in particular is something that is okay only at arms length. Usually, I see it coming and I say, “No thank you.” I like Jesus’s pamphlet distributing, name tag wearing, SUV with the fish bumper sticker driving fans best when they aren’t within earshot or eyeshot. The word disdain comes to mind. Jesus is okay. Its pretty cool that you’ve taken him as your personal savior. I just don’t want to hear about it. I don’t want to talk about it. And, please don’t try to save me. In my clique, we tend to not talk about religion. And, when it comes up it tends to come up as a sociological concept. This saves us all from an argument. Underoath had the good taste to not be obnoxious about their faith. Listening to the CD, I knew it was there. But, it wasn’t in my face and I could take it or leave it. Mostly, what it seemed like was that these were good, clean guys who’d decided they wanted to be moral and decent human beings. And, I have to give them props for that. Its hard trying to be decent. Taking the high road is always more work.

So, here’s my thing. Here’s where organized religion loses me every time. We are what we are. There are things about us that fundamentally can’t be changed. There are things that just have to be accepted and lived with. And, no amount of prayer or preaching will change them. I understand that what constitutes an unchangeable thing is open for debate (and a heated debate at that) but my point is that to acknowledge and to name is to know. Knowing is required if you’re going to deal with and/or control something. In general, human beings have the capacity to be both absolutely amazing and fucking ridiculous. And, we do the weirdest stuff. We shout at the rain and cry when we’re laughing. E always has to wink twice to balance things out. I love cheese, yogurt and ice cream but I can’t stand milk. In fact, just thinking about milk grosses me out. Now, you could tell either of us how ridiculous we’re being until you fall down dead from exhaustion and it won’t make a bit of difference. E will wink twice; I will still be grossed out by plain milk.

People are that way with their vices. Smokers, at least all the smokers I know, are well aware that they’re doing their lungs a disservice. I know my impulsive shopping habits are bad news. Pointing this out to me is probably just going to piss me off. Hey, thanks. I got it. If you really want to change someone’s mind, if you really want to change my mind you have to be excellent. And, you have to be excellent because its something you want to do. You have to be so amazing and comfortable with yourself and happy in what you do that you make people wonder. Excellence makes you think, “What are they doing that I’m not? How come they’re so happy?” Excellence is what makes great art moving; it offers you the opportunity for insight and it gives you a shot at changing your perspective. It gives you the chance to move . And, the church has never seemed excellent to me. Its always seemed like this behemoth that says on loop that we’re all bad people. It doesn’t shine with the light of the God its claiming to champion and what’s worse it extinguishes flames in people who’d like to be better but who have heard they’re bad so many times that now they believe it. So, this thing that is supposed to bring the world light and clarity has brought us noise and darkness. Feh to that.

They’re Only Chasing Safety shines. It shines and it makes me want to ask what makes it so special that it can do that. That’s awesome, borderline miraculous even. Ask and you shall receive, right? That gives me hope and makes me think that maybe I should stop using my cynicism as a shield and that the human race is not the heinous thing I like thinking of it as. Maybe we’re not all self-centered, fur wearing monsters that ignore human rights violations in favor of watching American Idol. Huh. Now I’m a little curious.

I was listening to Underoath while walking through the mall yesterday and I stopped at an Easter table in a bookstore. Anne Lamott has a new book out, its called Plan B. I think it might be time to lift the moratorium on book buying.

Oh, and Underoath were amazing live. Crazy and all over the stage and a lot of fun. I’m dragging my roommate to the Warped tour basically just to see them, Bleed the Dream and Funeral for a Friend. Oh, yes.

1 Comments

Artificial Sound for the Artificial World: They're Only Chasing Safety--Underoath

Still more noir than you are.