Tea or death?

I once dated a guy who tried to convince me that Metallica’s One was a great song.

Yeah, I know.

You know, and I know that One is a piece of sentimental hyperbole disguised as rock opera, but bear with me. I was young and in love so I tried to see his point of view. I even allowed him to explain to me how this song was based on a True Story about some poor soldier who lay in bed, paralyzed, unable to communicate; his life an endless suffering in the Hell of Solitude, or whatever. V. tragic.

So I gave it a shot. I sat down and listened to One a couple of times, trying to grasp what it was he found so gripping. And yeah, the lyrics were rather tragic:

hold my breath as I wish for tea
oh please God, wake me

I mean, imagine being that guy. Imagine lying there in bed, totally parched, desperate for a sip of tea and no way to be able to get it. You and me, we can just go out into the kitchen and brew us a nice cuppa, but the bloke in the song, he couldn’t even ask for it. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be touched by his plight, right?

It wasn’t until quite some time later that I dropped these observations to the BF. He smacked me on the head and said: “DEATH! Hold my breath as I wish for DEATH!” Then he added, as an afterthought: “Idiot.”

Yeah, he was quite obviously an asshat in more ways than one, but in this case he was actually right. Of course it’s “death” James Hetfield is bellowing, but no matter what I do, I still hear “tea” every goddamn time I hear that song. And quite frankly, I think it would’ve been a lot more awesome if I’d been right.

The Gutter Twins

About a month ago an album came out that I predict will be one of my most played records of 2008. I’ll even go as far as to say that so far I haven’t heard anything from 2008 that can quite compare to Gutter Twins’ Saturnalia.

It’s definitely a very grown-up record, which may not be very surprising, considering that both Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan are veterans in the music business. Greg Dulli’s past includes The Afghan Whigs and most recently The Twilight Singers. Mark Lanegan has, aside, from his time in Screaming Trees, worked with Queens Of The Stone Age, Soulsavers and Isobel Campbell (of Belle & Sebastian) as well as having a substantial solo career.

It’s not exactly a very cheerful record; more one of those where you have a lot of references to God, sin and absolution, blues and rock. There is bitter desperation mixed with sweet and rather fragile hope both in the music and the lyrics, perfectly interpreted by the smoke-laced, whiskey-drenched voice of Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli’s pained harmonies. Their own description as “the satanic Everly Brothers” is probably as apt a description as any far lengthier that I could come up with. At least assuming that Lucifer is an inhabitant of New Orleans, but hey, I’m willing to go with that.

I was lucky enough to catch them live a while back, and if you have the same chance you should most definitely jump at it. The set started a bit slowly, partly I think because the audience was new to the songs, and partly because, well, they’re not exactly a party band, are they? Mark walked in and grabbed the mic and then he retained the absolute same stance through out the entire set. Not only that, he scowled rather aggressively and since I was right in his line of glare, I have to admit that I felt slightly… well, inhibited. OK, so I’ll be honest. I think Mark Lanegan is most likely the single scariest person in the whole world, and when he threw a couple of dark scowls in my direction I almost peed my pants. Luckily, I had Greg between us. I figured that if he was gonna eat someone, Greg is more of a meal than I am. Far juicier too, I bet.

Anyway, as I remember it, they more or less played the entire album right though, starting with The Stations and God’s Children, and followed by All Misery/Flowers. But it wasn’t until they hit Idle Hands that the audience started to perk up and really feel it. I guess it helped that Greg very sweetly but rather confusingly spoke to us in what I think was Spanish. I didn’t get what he said, but appreciated it all the same. Greg was generally as animated as Mark was immobile and even made us clap and sing along.

After about an hour, they walked off stage, but returned for about an half hour of encores, including the massively dark Hit The City and Metaphetamine Blues from Mark’s Bubblegum-album, as well as a mash-up of Amazing Grace/King Only that gave me goose-pimples all over.

All in all, it was a tremendous show, and my one complaint would be the t-shirts. They were clearly not sized for girls, and as I don’t need yet another nightie, I didn’t get one. Apart from that, it was pretty perfect. Oh, and before I forget, Greg had beautiful shoes. Kudos! Unfortunately my pics came out really shitty so instead here’s the video for All Misery/Flowers:
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