Greatest Guitar Songs: Mission Creep

I know many things I say may reveal my tastes as suspect; I can live with that. Anything that I say I like or don't like is honest, and not an attempt to appear cool. In that spirit of honesty, there was a time when I thought maybe Matchbox 20 would be added to my list of favorite bands.

On the strength of "If You're Gone", I requested Mad Season for my birthday. The first time through, I did not like it, but was struck by how bad the breakup behind it must have been. I listened again, though, and liked it better. For a while I played it a lot, and thought maybe they could be in the top bands. Guys would tell me no, I was wrong. Depending on how overbearing they were about that, I would either be irritated with them, or wonder if maybe Matchbox 20 was a band for girls.

A few months ago, someone tweeted a picture with Kyle Cook, their guitar player, but admitted in sharing that picture that he did not like the band. I thought about that, and tried listening to Mad Season again, and I could not do it. It's not even that I liked it less; I was so irritated with it I had to stop. I guess I still like some songs, but my feelings have changed.

It's not just that music taste is subjective, but it's also a moving target. There are moments when a song works for you, but they may not last. That's been one of the interesting things about this last review, along with that tendency for things to expand.

For example, one of the groups mentioned in the comments I was going through was Fall of Troy. I listened to them early on, while I was still doing most of the listening via Youtube. (Towards the end I was using Spotify more.)

I was impressed with Fall of Troy, and still am, but one of the other videos that came up as a suggestion was by Circa Survive. I clicked on it and was amazed. I had never heard of them before, they did not appear anywhere in the comments, but I knew I wanted to hear more.

While out buying CDs one day, I found a copy of Juturna and bought it. Great! Now I can listen to more Circa Survive. I do not like Juturna.

I have tried listening to some of their other stuff, and I am just not feeling it. Sadly, I did not make a note of which song it was, and it wasn't an actual video- just the song with a single screenshot. I feel like I am not finding it, or maybe it was just something that hit me right then, and now that need is gone. Honestly, that makes me wish even more that I could remember the name, because those momentary connections are important too. Maybe someday I will hear it again.

There were some other similar situations. I don't remember whom I was listening to when Jack Rabbit Slim came up as a suggestion, but I did have in my notes "Kind if liking Jack Rabbit Slim." Listening to them now, I hear why I liked it, but the sleaze factor may be a reason not to listen. (And the sleaze is important to them; they keep mentioning it on their web site.)

Also, when I was talking to Lisa about liking Gang of Four and Richard Hell and the Voidoids, she said I should give Johnny Thunders a chance, with and without the Heartbreakers, so that was another diversion. They're okay, but I don't know that I will go back to them. Still, she is the one who introduced me to the Misfits, so I always have to take her seriously.

Another odd thought came when I was listening to Pink Floyd's "Mother", which was on the list. I had recently become aware that John Lennon had one with that name as well, as did Glenn Danzig. So, I thought I should listen to the three of them together, along with "Mama" by My Chemical Romance. The three "Mother" songs really did kind of go together. "Mama" did not, but that is a different word, isn't it? They are technically synonyms, but we use them differently, and those different connotations lead to them being used for different kinds of songs. I'm sure one could dig deeper there, but I'm not sure if I want to delve that much into Danzig's personal life.

The last one was not directly related to the list and comments. Once upon a time, Frank Iero tweeted about listening to "Meanderthal" by Torche, and I think he mentioned the guitars. I brought it up. It was okay, but I clicked on "Triumph of Venus" by them, and that was amazing. It was like "how do you ever not mention this song" amazing. When I first started looking through the comments, that's the song that should have been there. I can't believe it was missed.

(Recently I realized that both tracks are on the album Meanderthal, so he could have meant the album, not just the song.)

Anyway, because of this, Torche was on my radar, and another tweet last October was about them playing a show with Converge, Kvelertak, and Coalesce. That was interesting to me, so I checked for other shows, and almost the same lineup was coming to Portland, only it was going to be Nails instead of Coalesce. Based on Frank's endorsement of that lineup (he is an amazing guitar player and has a good ear for music) and my own admiration of Torche, I was going to have to listen to all of them.

Sadly, I could not go to the show. That was the one where I doubted my ability to get there and back without getting murdered or at least barfed on. Actually, if I can bring Frank up one more time, he has been writing about some shows lately, and he makes them all sound kind of terrifying, but he always goes with a buddy. So, I will go to shows alone, and I will go to scary venues, but not both at the same time. I was pushing my luck with the show at The Haunt as it was.

Still, music can be appreciated in other ways than live, and so I listened to all of them. Torche is still amazing. I admit it is more of an intellectual admiration than an emotional affinity for me, but I'm okay with that, and I still feel like more people should be mentioning them and how great they are. I don't know why that's not happening.

Other than that, I liked Kvelertak quite a bit, despite never being able to type their name right on the first try. The other three did not resonate as much, but I intend to listen to Coalesce more somewhere between The Get Up Kids and New Found Glory, due to the James Dewees connection if nothing else. There may be real differences between their sounds, but sometimes you notice interesting things nonetheless, and I am always interested in that.

There were some other things that required extended listening, beyond the comments, but that was due to two categories of glaring omissions, which we shall get into Tuesday and Wednesday.