Concept albums can be tricky – just ask Jethro Tull. Or, God forbid, Styx. Atlanta’s Mastodon, however, don’t seem to be bothered by the idea. Take their ’94 album Leviathan, for example. A ten-song opus of sludge metal gone berserk, it was loosely based on Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick. With songs like “I am Ahab”, “Seabeast” and “Aqua Dementia”, the 4-piece band was able to assault the intellect as well as the ears.

And on the recently released Crack the Skye, the Mastodon boys are at it again, although they’ve set their sights much higher. There’s no logical way to explain the concept of this album, so I’ll just let drummer/primary lyricist Brann Dailor do his best (brace yourself):

There is a paraplegic and the only way that he can go anywhere is if he astral travels. He goes out of his body, into outer space and a bit like Icarus, he goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So he is in outer space and he is lost, he gets sucked into a wormhole, he ends up in the spirit realm and he talks to spirits telling them that he is not really dead. So they send him to the Russian cult, they use him in a divination and they find out his problem. They decide they are going to help him. They put his soul inside Rasputin‘s body. Rasputin goes to usurp the czar and he is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin’s body through the crack in the sky(e) and Rasputin is the wise man that is trying to lead the child home to his body because his parents have discovered him by now and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get him back into his body before it’s too late. But they end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down…there are some obstacles along the way.

That’s right, we’ve got wormholes, astral travel, Russian cults and Rasputin all blended into one heavy metal concept album. And yet, somehow, it all makes sense when you listen to the seven (incredibly) long tracks.

The first track, “Divinations”, begins with a banjo riff which dissolves into the band’s signature sludge metal crunch and ultimately winds down with a surf rock inspired guitar lead before ending abruptly. It’s stunning in its unorthodox madness, yet beautiful at the same time – much like the band itself. And on the title track, they’ve enlisted Neurosis’ Scott Kelly to add a screeching, thundering guest vocal that somehow homogenizes the cacophony of the band’s sound.

The album’s title refers to Dailor’s sister’s early death and is obviously his attempt to reconcile his feelings with some type of closure. And while no one can begin to understand the pain he must have gone through in writing this album, it is by far the band’s strongest performance to date.  One can almost hear the chaos of Dailor’s pain in the constantly-changing time signatures, the sludge and wail of the guitars and the peripheral recording effects. What is certain, though, is that Mastodon is poised to crack the sky(e) of the sludge metal world and this album only puts them one step closer.

Verdict: If you don’t know Mastodon, you need to know Crack the Skye.

14. You read more than you watch TV.

13. There are currently more newspapers in your house than there are DVDs.

12. You actually know what the hell a lede is.

11. There’s a notepad in your pocket right now.

10. You tend to speak in questions rather than statements.

9. There’s at least one tweed jacket in your coat closet.

8. You have mixed feelings about the word “editor.”

7. You think in word counts instead of page numbers.

6. You believe Public Relations is an evil occupation.

5. You realize that blogging does not immediately equal journalism.

4. Perez Hilton makes your skin crawl.

3. You don’t believe that the printed word is dead.

2. You’ve ever been called a “wordiac.”

1. You caught the error in the title of this post.

Album reissues are generally a tough sell. They already have two strikes against them, as most people have already heard them in their entirety and all the real fans already own the original release. The only selling point they offer is that the existing recordings have been tweaked – a certain song’s opening riff may be featured a tad more prominently or the vocals may have been processed more. There’s nothing new about a reissue that a casual listener would probably even notice.

Pearl Jam have decided to tackle those very concerns with the new reissue of their debut album, Ten, by releasing a “Deluxe Edition” and literally cramming as many extras as they can into the package. Along with the original and reissued versions being offered on both CD and vinyl record, they’ve also included a rare, early performance from ’92 (also in CD and vinyl versions), a DVD of their previously unavailable MTV Unplugged performance (with a never-before-aired version of “Oceans”), a reproduction of the cassette tape demo that was responsible for the bands formation, a copy of one of lead singer Eddie Vedder’s lyric journals and a ton of pictures, stickers and other odds and ends. You even get a Mookie Blaylock rookie card.

For $150, it would be natural to expect a lot of bang for your buck, but the set is so completely detailed and so obviously catered to die-hard fans, opening it for the first time is nothing short of astonishing. In fact, the reissue itself is actually the weakest part of the collection.

Though released in a year when Nirvana’s Nevermind managed to shadow everything else hitting the record stores, Ten managed to make a name for Pearl Jam and open the door for the steady popularity they have enjoyed since. Upon listening to those same 11 songs now, it’s surprising how much they hold up.

Opening track “Once” still snarls with crushing guitars and aggravated vocals. “Deep” still sucks the listener in like a whirlpool of reverb while employing the loud-quiet-loud formula of songwriting to a much better effect than Nirvana usually was able (though became infamous for). And the original hit singles, “Alive”, “Evenflow” and “Jeremy” still capture that early ’90s blend of angst and melody.

Unfortunately, the reissue does nothing for any of these. Admittedly, the bar was already set pretty high with the original (begging the question, “why was a reissue even necessary?”), but in some cases the new changes actively worsen the songs.

Slow closing track “Release” has been ruined by bringing out volumes in the chorus which help only to muddy up the overall sound. And Vedder’s vocals have been polished on many songs to the point of sounding synthesized. For a band known for their growling, gravelly voiced lead singer, this seems a huge oversight.

There are six new songs included on the end of the reissue, none of which are worth listening to beyond once. “2,000 miles” is a blatant Jimi Hendrix rip off and “Breath and a Scream” and “State of Love and Trust” are both available (and in much better recordings) on the Singles Soundtrack.

But as mentioned above, the reissue really isn’t the point of this collection. The Unplugged DVD is amazing, featuring the band 17 years younger and playing with the youthful excitement that defined their early shows. The concert album from that same year is nothing short of a must-have for any fan. Showcasing the band before they would become the serious, “political” band they have a reputation for now, they play all their hits with such fervor that it is not hard to close your eyes and believe you might actually have stepped back in time and are standing before them.

Once you add in the cassette demo (interesting as a piece of the band’s history, if nothing else), the journal (which is filled with pictures, notes and lyrics and is quite fun) and all of the rest, it really is a remarkable collection for fans and an interesting take on the reissue release norms.

And that really sums up the Deluxe set: probably only die-hard fans are going to spend the money on an album they already have, but at least with this collection, though asked to part with much more of your paycheck, they buyer is at least rewarded with enough goodies that it would be hard to be disappointed.

Verdict: Highly recommended – if you’re a big Pearl Jam fan and have $150 to part with.

Grammar can be learned, a voice can be developed and with the invention of laptops, most writers have, at their disposal, an arsenal of tools to ease the physical act of writing.

Yet, even with all of these amenities, many writers stumble when it comes to the inspiration for a work. This is not the case for Bill Bryson.

Bryson is a renowned author of several best selling works, with topics ranging from travel, science, history, linguistics and memoir.

He has received the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin and the lauded Aventis Award for best general science book with his A Short History of Nearly Everything.

He has travelled the globe, from Middle America to Britain and Australia, and has even hiked the Appalachian Trail for his A Walk in the Woods.

This is a man who likes to see and know everything, and who is not content to be labeled as any one particular type of writer.

“Quite often writers will get pigeonholed to a certain style or a certain book,” Bryson said, “but what ends up happening is the person just writes the same book over and over again.”

Bryson was in Houston on Monday for the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series at Wortham Center.

A program like this is important for young writers, and Bryson is a shining example of why. The lectures and readings offered by Inprint give aspiring artists a chance to get to know about how their idols work and how they create the masterpieces they have become famous for.

In addition, Bryson took an hour aside that afternoon to answer questions during a short campus event hosted by the Honors College.

About 50 students and faculty were present to hear Bryson talk about his early life, his travels and, of course, his newest book, Shakespeare: The World as Stage, but the most memorable moments of that hour were when he spoke of his craft and his approach to it.

As soon as Bryson began answering the questions being peppered at him from all sides of the room, it became apparent why he is such a popular author on such a varied range of topics: he’s quite simply a fascinating person.

And as with most writers, he works at his art every day.

“I try to record everything. I take notes all the time,” Bryson said, “but sometimes the things that stick in your memory are the only things worth remembering.”

After enjoying his first cup of coffee in the morning with his wife, Bryson likes to begin writing with his second cup. He feels that as he starts up his computer, his mind is “waking up right along with it.”

Once in front of that screen, however, he is all focus. No checking E-mails. No thinking about the seedlings in the greenhouse and how they’re growing. The writing becomes his entire focus.

He said that after a short time, usually around 90 minutes, he finds that he is completely engrossed in the writing and is happy to do it.

“I wake up every morning with that same blank screen and that same sense of dread,” he said. “Although, I think I’m pretty lucky to have to wrestle with this kind of problem every day.”

He also concentrates on writing about topics that are, above all, interesting to him. He is currently writing a book on the culture of households, using each room of his house as a chapter for the book.

The kitchen chapter will focus on food, the bedroom chapter on sex and so on.

He said he got the idea sitting at his coffee table staring at a salt and pepper shaker set and musing on why, in every place he’s been, there’s always salt and pepper on the table instead of, say salt and cinnamon.

It is often easy to forget that writers of the caliber of Bill Bryson are regular people, with the same hurdles to clear as any other writer. Upon hearing Bryson speak, it’s obvious that he is good at what he does because of one reason — he loves it — and that’s the best advice he had for everyone there to see and hear him.

“Always do what interests you,” Bryson said, “but try to find a way to get paid, too.”

1. Chuck Klosterman –

Long before Klosterman became famous for his quirky pop-culture writings (Fargo Rock City, Killing Yourself to Live), he was a journalist for Spin Magazine. His column, My Back Pages, was a forum where he explored the conspiracy theories on Kurt Cobain’s death, reviewed albums from A Perfect Circle and Liz Phair and covered Disneyland’s annual “goth day”. Klosterman was always at his best, however, when he was being the cheeky and condescending music snob he would eventually perfect with his book Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, which has even garnered him speaking engagements on university campuses. This is never more apparent than in his 2006 joke-review of Guns N’ Roses’ album Chinese Democracy – a full 2 years before it was actually released.

2. Michael Azerrad –

Much like Chuck Klosterman, Azerrad was also a writer/reviewer for magazines such as Spin, Details and Rolling Stone. It is Azerrad’s biographical writings, however, that make him stand out as the music authority that he is. Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana was published in 1993 and was quickly hailed as the definitive biography of the Seattle grunge band. His second book, Our Band Could Be Your Life, was a collection of profiles of 13 of the most infamous indie rock bands of the ‘80s and ‘90s, including The Minutemen, Fugazi and Sonic Youth. In 2006, Azerrad, using audio clips from the interviews he conducted during his research for Come as You Are, co-produced a documentary about Kurt Cobain entitled “Kurt Cobain About a Son.”
He is currently editing an upcoming biography of Husker Du leader Bob Mould, to be realeased in 2010.

3. Legs McNeil –

McNeil was the co-founder of Punk Magazine and claims to have helped coin the term “punk” (though this is up to much debate). He also is a former senior editor for Spin Magazine and founder/editor of Nerve Magazine. It was his first book, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, which cemented him a place among the bookshelves of true music snobs.

4. Glen E. Friedman –

Friedman began taking photos of his skateboarding friends in the early/mid ‘70s and eventually landed a position with Skateboarder Magazine (he was their youngest staff member). Within the next several years, he was photographing the punk rock concerts he was attending. This was the first real exposure many of these bands had ever had, and only assisted in validating Friedman’s work. His most famous book of photos, Fuck You Heroes, showcased his more well-known work. Published in 1994, it includes amazing images of bands such as Public Enemy, The Misfits, KRS-One, Fugazi and Beastie Boys.

5. Ryan Schreiber –

In 1995, Schreiber was fresh out of high school when he decided that the Internet was missing an updated site strictly for independent music. Influenced by local fanzines and college radio (yet having no writing experience to speak of), he established Turntable in Minnesota to fill that void. Updated monthly, the site focused mainly on album reviews and band interviews. Less than 4 years later, he relocated to Chicago and renamed the site Pitchfork (a nod to the movie Scarface), which now updated daily and included columns and features, along with the requisite album reviews and interviews.
With its in-depth coverage of a musical scene that was originally lacking exposure, Pitchfork quickly became the gauge by which new indie artist’s credibility was measured. Many publications, including the Washington Post, have cited Pitchfork for “breaking” new bands, including: Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Wolf Parade and Tapes ‘n Tapes.
Foregoing usual journalistic standards, Pitchfork is the true music fan’s site. Exhaustingly updated and with a rating system not known for being lenient, hipsters everywhere finally have a place on the Internet for their daily fix of indie music news, reviews and interviews.

Uncle Sam, fighting the good fight for all of us.

The current economic crisis can not be denied. It’s in every newspaper, every news broadcast and on everyone’s lips. It’s getting plenty of coverage.

But in this unsure time, when money is short and futures uncertain, one issue that’s not getting so much coverage is America’s “drug war” and it’s costly and continued failure.

In a recent article in the Huffington Post, Norm Stamper, a retired Seattle police officer and member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, argues that America has spent $1 trillion on this fruitless pursuit since 1971.

We’ve arrested tens of millions of Americans for nonviolent drug offenses, most for simple possession of marijuana,” Stamper says. “We’ve damaged or ruined the lives of countless citizens who’ve lost school loans, publicly subsidized housing, and jobs. And yet, drugs are more readily available.

And amid all this, drug use has never waned – especially marijuana use. A 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse showed that 83 million Americans aged 12 or over had tried marijuana at least once. The same study stated that among 10^th graders, 40 percent had tried the drug and nearly 20 percent were current users. And yet the “war” rages on, wasting dollars that could be spent to much better purpose in other areas.

“The nation’s longest running armed conflict, the drug war, financed to the tune of about $70 billion a year, is an unmitigated economic disaster. Think of the money that could be invested, right now, in “shovel-ready” infrastructure improvements, or in the credit crisis, the home mortgage crisis, the energy crisis, the automobile industry crisis, the banking crisis, the education crisis, the deficit crisis…” Stamper said in his article.

Although a January CBS/NYT poll showed that 51 percent of people are still against legalizing marijuana compared with 41 percent for, that small majority may be shifting – if ever so slightly.

California State Assembly member Tom Ammiano recently introduced a bill to legalize marijuana and earn possibly $1 billion through taxing it.

Ammiano’s press secretary said that the bill “would remove all penalties in California law on cultivation, transportation, sale, purchase, possession, or use of marijuana, natural THC, or paraphernalia for persons over the age of 21.”

Ron Paul, the often-outspoken Republican congressman from Texas, told Bill Maher, “I don’t like pot, but I hate the drug war, so I would repeal all of prohibition.”

Even President Barack Obama, while on the campaign trail, said that the “war on drugs is an utter failure.”

While these are passionate words, they’re unfortunately just that. Ammiano’s bill has yet to pass and Ron Paul lacks the power to repeal any prohibition on his own.

And President Obama has been loathe to tackle the issue since the election. He told students at a Northwestern campus debate, “I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws, but I’m not somebody who believes in legalization of marijuana.”

So there is still a long way to go, it would seem, for any real discussion on America’s drug war, and that seems unfortunate. In a time when money is so important and unnecessary policies and spending are being weeded out, perhaps this is a topic that deserves a little more discussion.

Here is everyone’s favorite soulful singer/songwriter, Jason Mraz, doing his best cover of the Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop.  I told you it was gonna be a weird one.

He does a loooong setup, but eventually gets to the music.  Oh, and check out those fingernails!

Martin Luther, the father of Protestantism, once said, “You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.”

With these words in mind, I settled down to listen to President Obama’s first speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night.

Only 44 percent of Americans anticipated President Obama’s speech to be “good,” according to CNN Opinion Research Corporation survey conducted on the eve of the occasion.

However, in another CNN ORC poll taken just minutes after Tuesday night’s speech, nearly 85 percent of viewers felt “more optimistic about the direction of the country.”

The question remains, though: did our new president say enough?

In his speech, which focused around the $787 billion stimulus bill he recently signed-off on, Obama touched on many topics, including health care reform and a modernization of our educational system.

“This budget creates new teachers, new incentives for teacher performance, pathways for advancement and rewards for success,” he said.

“We’ll invest in innovative programs that are already helping schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps. And we will expand our commitment to charter schools.”

Many claimed a lack of firm details hindered the nearly hour-long oration.

“I agree with the president that we need to address education and energy, housing and health care, but right now the American public is hungry for details,” Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said. “Unfortunately tonight we didn’t get those answers.”

The majority of reactions, though, were favorable — even from the right.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) lauded Obama’s goal for a more transparent government, saying that he was “ready to assist him to that end.”

Even California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was on board.

“President Obama is right to seize our global economic emergency as a time to lay a more solid foundation for our nation’s growth,”he said.

It is still too early to determine whether Obama’s words will make the necessary changes to our country he touted so highly on the campaign trail. For the time being, the American public has no option but to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

In the words of Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., “more important than anything President Obama says tonight is what the budget he unveils will look like.”

(This story first appeared here – Ed.)

A clever cartoon could make this the perfect protest sign. That, and some proper grammar.

Dr. Seuss, the beloved children’s book writer, once said, “be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

These are words that Sean Delonas might need to hear these days.

On February 18, the New York Post ran a cartoon by Delonas which has since caused much uproar all over the Interwebs and, indeed, the country.  In the single-cell cartoon, Delonas depicts two officers standing before a bullet-ridden monkey lying in a pool of blood.  One of the officers, his pistol still smoking, listens on as the other officer remarks, “they’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

Perhaps a little background information is needed.

This cartoon was run directly following a vicious chimpanzee attack on a woman in Stamford, Connecticut, and just days after President Obama signed a highly criticized stimulus bill for nearly $800 billion.  The controversy however, does not lie with Delonas’ statement on the bill, but on the monkey.

Outraged readers are arguing that the cartoon is racist, in that it refers to our newly-elected president as a monkey – an archaic, derogatory term for an African American.  It doesn’t help matters that this was run during Black History Month.

The Post was quick to issue an apology of sorts, with Col Allan, the editor-in-chief,  stating that the cartoon was a “clear parody of a current news event.”

Some, however, aren’t buying that line of reasoning.  Al Sharpton, a man never without a sound bite (and who has often been the butt of Delonas’ cartoons), was quick to the draw with his condemnation of Delonas’ work.

The cartoon in today’s New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys. One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual reference to this when in the cartoon they have police saying after shooting a chimpanzee that “Now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.”

Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?

Allan responded by calling Sharpton, “nothing more than a publicity opportunist.”

Delonas himself called the entire controversy, “absolutely friggin’ ridiculous.”

Quite the verbose debaters, these guys.

Sharpton, however, is not alone in his attack.  Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association for Black Journalists, had this to say,

To think that the cartoonist and the responsible editors at the paper did not see the racist overtones of the finished product should insult their intelligence,” Ciara said in a written statement. “Instead, they celebrate their own lack of perspective and criticize those who call it what it is: tone deaf at best, overtly racist at worst.

So does it matter that the stimulus bill was not, in fact, written by Obama, but by Congress?  Or was this, at best, poor judgement by the Post and Delonas?  I’m inclined to believe that Delonas is just an idiot who didn’t see the terrible connection until too late.  If anything, the man’s a homophobe, not a racist.  Either way, clearly a man with boundary issues.

So what do you think, loyal readers (yes, all six of you)?  Should the artist (and the Post) be vilified or are they just naive?  Is Delonas an insensitive racist or a cutting edge artist?  I suppose only time will tell.

For now, I’m just gonna keep getting my news from The Onion.