Lyricus Hocus Pocus

"... we've got the means to make amends. I am lost, I'm no guide, but I'm by your side"
(Leash, Pearl Jam)

I've never been someone who pays much attention towards lyrics, but lately for no apparent reason I caught up with some interesting lines that lies in some songs. One of them is the lyrics of Pearl Jam's Leash that I've written above. Never been a big fan of the band, though I enjoyed Eddie Vedder's voice nonetheless,not a big fan of the song either. It sounded very early 90's/ Seattle sound-ish. However, there's something that hits me in the chorus. It's the lyrics. I don't know why but there's something that I can connect with in that line. Well, probably a lyric will hits you when you feel exactly like it. In my case, that was probably it.

There's another song that I really liked because of the lyrics. It's Bright Eyes's At the Bottom of Everything. The song itself is very simple, only three chords progression is used in the song. It started with Conor Oberst (the vocalist) narrating a story about a woman and a man in a plane and continued with the strum of folk guitar. His lyrics reminded me of how Bob Dylan wrote his songs. It was like a critical view on his surroundings, how he felt towards the world, and he put it in a very delicate way. Oberst is not your ordinary lyricist, he's more like a poet. A comparation with Bob Dylan is inevitable, as they have so many things alike, from their lyrics to their musical style. This is is the lyrics I'm talking about;

We must talk in every telephone, get eaten off the web
We must rip out all the epilogues from the books that we have read
Into the face of every criminal strapped firmly to a chair
We must stare, we must stare, we must stare

We must take all of the medicines too expensive now to sell
Set fire to the preacher who is promising us hell
Into the ear of every anarchist that sleeps but doesn't dream
We must sing, we must sing, we must sing

And it'll go like this, all right

While my mother waters plants, my father loads his gun
He says, "Death will give us back to God
Just like the setting sun
Is returned to the lonesome ocean"


Now, since I'm already on the music topic, I'm gonna have a say about some of the music that caught my ears lately. First off, did any of you saw the Grammys? More specifically, did you see Coldplay and Radiohead's performance? Holy cow they were great. Coldplay did an awesome job with Lost, in which they collaborated with Jay Z, and Radiohead blew my mind with their live version of 15 Step. Interestingly, rather than using drum machines like they did in the album, they invited the whole USC marching band to serve as their percussion. What a great touch! Thom Yorke is one crazy cool motherfucker. Look at how he moves on the stage with all that energy. That was one great live performance from my favorite band!



Secondly, I've browsed myspace for new music a couple of days ago and found this new under the radar band called The Winston Jazz Routine. They got me interested because I thought they sounded like a blend of Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, with the vocal that sounded like Colin Meloy of The Decemberists. In short, it was a blend of everything I'd like to hear from a band. I searched everywhere and downloaded their album called Sospiri. Calling the album decent would be an understatement. I thought it was a good album. Suited for those who like Indie or Post-Rock genre. Curious? This is their myspace page; http://www.myspace.com/thewinstonjazzroutine

Thirdly, I chatted with an old friend of mine, who's musical opinion I've always held high. He recommended this local indie band called The trees & the Wild. I was actually surprised when he gave me the link to their myspace page. While the local major scene has been dominated by crappy love songs with whiny lyrics, the local indie scene was also stuck with bands that sells generic rock n' roll sound. Now, the trees & the wild isn't like any other so-called indie bands. While their sound didn't actually original, they managed to offer genuine sound that echoes like Sigur Ros's songs with a John Mayer-ish vocal. They created this peaceful and relaxing melodies that no other local band have ever made before. Apparently, they haven't release an album yet, but some of their songs that they put on their myspace page are good enough for me to buy their album. Here, check out some of their songs at http://www.myspace.com/thetreesandthewild

Ha! Enough ranting for today, I've spent way too much time doing nothing and this is how I deal with boredom. I thrive on it by writing nonsensical bullshit. Well, hope you still enjoyed it though. Until next time, fellas!

What Happened to DC comics?

As a long fan and follower of the (American) comic book industry, I tried my best to digest as many comics as possible. But for the past 2-3 years, my comic preferences has shifted heavily towards marvel comics. I stopped giving DC any chance after the disappointing Final Crisis series, written by the great Grant Morrison. Now, let's try to analyze this by pieces.



DC is the home of some of the iconic names in superhero business. I'm talking about the DC Trinity that consists of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Those are the household name of superheroes. They got support from many other great characters in comics such as Green Lantern, The Flash, and Aquaman which are also some of the most popular superheroes even for those who didn't read comics. Their stories has been told since the 30's and 40's.

The main history began in 1985. At this very year, DC tried to rid many inconsistencies in their story. For example: at the early comics Superman can only jump and leap over length and the over some time, he managed to fly. Then came the story of Superboy, who is claimed to be the adventure of young Clark Kent before he was Superman, and Superboy can fly while he was supposedly to fly when he's older. Almost all DC characters at this point have no back story. So DC came up with the idea that all of the characters in their comics, up to this point, are from different universe. They establish something called Multiverse. Superman, Batman for example, are from Earth One. The old Flash, Jay Garrick (the one with the plate over his head), and the entire Justice Society of America is from Earth-Two. Superboy is from another universe called Earth Prime.

After that been established, DC created a tie-in cross over for all of their title called Crisis on Infinite Earths. The aim for this is to erase all the Multiverse and created one single universe for their comics. In this comics we see Superman from Earth One team up with Superman of Earth-Two (older superman), and Superboy of Earth Prime to destroy the threat that exist because of the existence of the Multiverse. The conclusion, Earth-Two and other universes are destroyed, leaving only Earth One. With the series now finished, DC writers can now re-invent their characters from scratch. Almost all of the characters are given new back story and now a modern era of DC comics is created. That was in 1985.

In 2005, 20 years after the original Crisis, DC opened up again the idea of Multiverse through series called Infinite Crisis and 52. At the end of these two series, DC universe now has 52 universes. For me, this is where the confusion begins. Old characters are popping up, back stories are added to further complicate the story, those who are dead came back, and tons of other things that i couldn't mention one by one. The culmination of those are concluded in Final Crisis. This event actually has potential when Grant Morrison, who wrote great comics like All star Superman and New X-Men, was announced as the writer and JG Jones was the assigned artist. I thought this would be the turning point of DC. But apparently I was wrong. I tried so hard to keep with the pace of Final Crisis for a couple of issues until I decided to give up after issue #3. The plot is meandering, far too many characters, the action didn't kick in from the beginning, the art was inconsistent (mainly due to JG Jones withdrawal from the series), and delay on the production. By the end of the event, I can only say; what the fuck?

On the contrary, Marvel Comics garnered success with their major crossover event of this year, Secret Invasion. It got more compact and less complicated story, great art, brilliant conclusion, and most importantly, it delivers its premise.

The other thing I've noticed is almost all of the great writers in comic industry are in Marvel. Brian Bendis, Mark Millar, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Joss Whedon,Brian K. Vaughan, etc. The only writers in DC that hold the same standard as those writers are only Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, and Greg Rucka. Johns is great with his job at Green Lantern, which is the only DC title that worth picking up regularly. I have mixed feelings about Morrison after his disappointing Final Crisis, and Greg Rucka was great if he's writing detective story, just like he and Brubaker did on Gotham Central 5 years ago, other than that he was pretty mediocre.



In terms of characters, Marvel have always been more relatable than DC. People are finding that it's easier to relate themselves to Spiderman/Peter Parker, a nerd outcast with superpowers, rather than to Superman/Clark Kent, who's an alien with perfect personality and seemingly able to do anything. This has always been DC's problem for a long time. Stan Lee, Marvel creator, said himself that he meant to create superheroes that are more relatable to the public than DC's superheroes. This can be seen and reflected by the characters job, and issues that's brought up by each story. My point is that the relatability of the character to the reader is one of the most important reasons for people to buy comics. And in this case, Marvel has got the upper hand.

Of course, DC still could regain their glory days if they invented stories with less complications and less pointless crossover. I still remember how much fun it was reading JLA back when I was still in Junior High. They were a lot fun. I really. really wanted to read a good DC title. For all I care, I only pick up DC if it were written by Geoff Johns. They need more people like Johns because he understand the characters so well and he can wrote a perfectly fun comics. Look at what he did with Green Lantern and Action Comics. Those two are the only title that works. I'm still crossing my finger hoping that DC can regain its glory. Until that time comes, I'm gonna stick with the currently more superior Marvel comics.