Bully: Feels Like an Awesome Album

As much as I listen to and love music that is either from a different era or reflects a different era, I actually hate nostalgia for the sake of it. I loved Guns N Roses back in the day, for example, but I can't stand to listen to them now. I'm not blinded by how much I was into them before to the point that I stop finding Axl Rose's voice simply grating and unlistenable. And as much as I loved the 90s, at a certain point, I moved on from that and it was only recently that I could really bring myself to rediscover my love for the alternative era. So it's a perfect time for a band called Bully to release their debut album Feels Like, which may as well complete the sentence with 1996 Never Ended.

But let me get something straight right away. This is not aping or throwing back. This is a continuation in the truest sense of the word. This is Weezer or Juliana Hatfield influenced grunge of a very confessional variety, but there's a definite millennial perspective to it that is eye opening in the greatest way possible. Too often my generation is dismissive of the "kids today" because as 40 somethings we're all acting out the same bullshit our elders did with no sense of irony because Cobain took it all with him I guess. But it's hard not to see the progression from the 90s in lyrics like "So stand still, don't you wanna be a part of something bigger. Something strange is catching up to you," from "Reason." It's nice to see this evolution of something that started way before Nirvana but, which lets face it, peaked in the 90s. And as much as it would be something to have generational bragging rights to that apex, I'd rather see the music, the ideas, the culture progress and influence the next gen. I don't doubt that this has happened already, but Bully makes it clear to me.

To top it off, Bully is fronted, in every sense of the word by a young woman named Alicia Bognanno, who, by the way, interned with Steve Albini at one point, so this punk/grunge thing is no gimmick. And while the mere fact of a woman in a band isn't a genre, I've said before that I find a certain heightened level of authenticity and power when a rock band is fronted by woman. In fact, if you look back on who some of the greatest front men in rock are, most, if not all, were at the very least very much in touch with their feminine side. For example, did you know that just writing the name David Bowie causes the word androgyny to just magically appear in the sentence like some mystical autocomplete that challenges the cultural norms of every era? I think this is because if the culture is so steeped in male dominance, then rebellion, true rebellion, has to have a strong female influence in it. Maybe. Maybe I'm overstating. I don't know. The point is, rock is about freedom and there's nothing more freeing than a woman rocking out. Or screaming out about her frustrations as Alicia does in expert fashion all over this album. The primal screams at the end of "Trash" are an absolute gut punch and a catharsis.

The angst in Bully's songs comes from everything you might expect a twentysomething to be angsty about. And a lot that you might not, since it gets to some very specific personal shit such as the fact that Bognanno broke her sister's arm when she was 6 and still feels guilty about it.  And the stand out track, "Trying" is all about the everyday struggles and life questions we face in our twenties. It's very familiar and while even the line "there's no flawless education just a stupid degree," could be something gen xers would have related to, it's very much a millennial reality that grounds this in the present. Yet it's all tempered by a vibe and point of view that is somehow confessional and intimate but maybe a little distant. Or at the very least there's a bit of that shake it off feeling to it in lines like "When you want like that, here's a ship, there's a wreck, better keep yourself in check cause all these loaded questions gonna eat you alive." It's angsty but it's freeing in a truly cathartic way that I'm not sure our 90s angst was. You confess, you deal with the emotions and then you move on. This isn't wallowing and that's where this is new and fresh and not some retro neo grunge thing. No, what this "Feels Like" is good fucking music. This is easily one of my favorite albums this year.

2015 Week 35: My Mind is an Asshole

Thursday morning, like any other day, a certain song came up on my Spotify from my favorites, as I dropped Shayera off at school. And as she was about to get off the car, she gave me the secret code that tells me she wants me to add it to her playlist so she can hear it on her tablet later. That secret code is "I want that song." Now you know it too. Anyway, I had instant mixed feelings that had to be conveyed in the seconds left as she exited the car. On the one hand it was a proud moment that she responded to it but on the other, well, here:

So, yeah, my answer was "I don't think so," but followed up quickly by saying it had some words I didn't want her singing on her own, but I didn't mind if she heard it with me. She's 6, so that's all I got for now. And to a certain extent it's a compromise I'm making with society because truth be told, I would actually have no fucking problem with putting this on her tablet otherwise. But I really don't want to wind up having to go into the school one day because she was singing it or something, so I'm a little cautious for the time being. At the end of the day, though, I'm pretty sure this song is MUCH less offensive than a lot of the more accepted mainstream pop out there that is just glorifying stupidity. Anyway, as she gets older the gates will slowly be let open on stuff like this, but then again, making it somewhat forbidden is part of the appeal and what will hopefully drive her towards it, so it's a balancing act like no other. And by the way, little did we know that morning how that song was the perfect opening theme for the not so funny sitcom that was my day, but that's a whole other story.

So the other day, I was exhausted and took a nap. Except I dreamed that I couldn't sleep, so when I woke up it was like I hadn't. So now I was tired AND confused. My mind is an asshole. And that's the basic idea of this week's Spotify playlist, more or less. It's a little tense, confusing and it's over before you know it. It's a bad nap, but a good set of songs so go listen to it, but don't go to sleep (RIP Wes Craven).

Los Frikis

Back in the mid 80s I entered Jr. High and suddenly a bunch of kids from nearby elementary schools came along to disrupt the group I'd pretty much known since kindergarten. One of those kids lent me Ozzy Osbourne's Bark at the Moon album on cassette, and the rest is history. A history that can best be summed up by the word outcast. For our whole Jr. High career, a small group of us "rockers" were the rebels in a sea of Miami Bass loving adolescents. Interestingly, the smaller group of kids who were discovering punk at the time were much quieter about it and under the radar (and many times I've wished I'd given these kids more of a chance, but that's for another post.) We knew we were right, but what we didn't realize at the time, I think, is how lucky we were. Meanwhile, in Cuba. . .

I often talk about the power of music and I'm usually focused on a more personal, human aspect of that power. But sometimes, that can lead to much bigger repercussions. You can't talk about 60s music without making the connection between the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam protests and everything else that happened politically at the time. And it wasn't really the first movement to have a soundtrack. Dylan was inspired by Woody Guthrie and his songs, many of them protest songs, coming out of the Great Depression's Dust Bowl. Punk rock's roots, especially in the UK, were political as well, hence the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" and "God Save the Queen" and The Clash's "London Calling" among many, many others. And in more recent times, Russia's Pussy Riot comes to mind.

And those are all just obvious, explicit examples of artists making music as protest. But beyond that, music has the ability to change lives even unintentionally. Today I heard a podcast that demonstrates this in moving, dark and complicated ways. As a Cuban American in Miami, discussions about Cuba can often be very black and white. This can lead to frustration on both sides of that divide. It's not as simple as a generational line, though. And while we may disagree among st ourselves, I think we all get frustrated by how the rest of the world views the Cuban situation. This is most clearly demonstrated by the fetishizing of Che Guevara as a symbol of rebellion (which only becomes more ironic when you hear the podcast). But this isn't a political blog, I only point these things out for context. And the conclusion is that we need more human, universal and real stories about life in Cuba and I heard one today on Radiolab's Podcast titled "Los Frikis," thanks to my wife's recommendation. And like her recommendation, I don't want to spoil the details. But be prepared because it twists and turns in some nihilistic, truly punk ways that are none the less, somehow beautiful at the same time. Just listen.