EARTHSIDE, LOUDWIRE LAUNCH NEW SINGLE “MOB MENTALITY” FEATURING LAJON WITHERSPOON (SEVENDUST), MOSCOW STUDIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Debut album “A Dream in Static” to be released later this year
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – New Haven-based progressive ensemble, Earthside, has teamed up with Loudwire to launch a new track, “Mob Mentality,” the second song to be released from the band’s upcoming debut, A Dream in Static, due out later this year. The nearly 10-minute track features guest vocals from Sevendustfrontman, Lajon Witherspoon, and a full orchestral arrangement composed by guitarist Jamie van Dyck and performed by the Moscow Studio Symphony Orchestra (MSSO). Stream “Mob Mentality” exclusively at: http://loudwire.com/earthside-lajon-witherspoon-mob-mentality-exclusive-song-premiere/.
“‘Mob Mentality’ was a four-year undertaking that became an epic journey that took us all over the world,” van Dyck told Loudwire. “It connected us with all sorts of collaborators and new friends. The song began as my senior composition to complete the undergrad music major at Yale, and has since led my bandmates and me to record the Earthside tracks in Stockholm, the Moscow Studio Symphony Orchestra in Russia, and Lajon’s vocals in Iowa with 3 Years Hollow vocalist Jose Urquiza at the helm engineering the vocals session and performing some of the backing vocals on the song.
“Working with LJ and composing for a full orchestra are each lifelong dreams that have been fulfilled, and I’m very grateful to the contributions from them, my bandmates, and so many others who allowed for such a stupidly ambitious vision to actually be realized.”
An inherently collaborative cross-continental project, A Dream in Static was recorded in Stockholm, Sweden under the watch of renowned producer and mix engineer, David Castillo (Opeth, Katatonia, Bloodbath), and additional mix and mastering engineer, Jens Bogren (Opeth, Soilwork, The Ocean, Devin Townsend).
van Dyck further elaborated on the album recording process: “New surroundings and collaboration are two of the best catalysts for inspiring creative energy. Living in Stockholm and recording with David Castillo was the opportunity of a lifetime for us. We were immersed in such a vibrant musical space and passionate group of people that ultimately made this record what it is. That inclusive spirit in working with David and the guest musicians on the record brought out that energy in each of us.”
Through organic layers of living, breathing orchestra (courtesy of the Moscow Studio Symphony Orchestra), and an eclectic arsenal of world music-influenced instrumentation, Earthside fashions an ever-changing sound that is equally engrossing alongside a work of cinematic art as it is resonating throughout a densely packed concert venue.
A Dream in Static, the group’s conceptual mission statement, is a story of purposeful sacrifice and existential yearning told across sweeping instrumental movements, interwoven with adventurous vocal compositions featuring premier voices from across the rock and metal worlds.
“Our music aims to evoke the full range of human emotions,” van Dyck added. “Having those emotions and themes expressed more directly through the voices of some of our favorite singers and musicians was an unbelievable experience and something we cannot wait to share with everyone.”
The band commented: “This is our first self-produced album, and we’re very excited to share it. We’ve aimed for a dreamy, lofty aesthetic, rich in synthesizer textures, with songs that flow nicely as a cohesive album, but are also able to stand on their own. We’ve drawn inspiration from classic progressive rock (Pink Floyd, Yes) as well as current alternative acts (Blonde Redhead, Mew, Radiohead). Lyrically, we’ve tried to be honest with content that focuses on the peaks and valleys of relationship, and the aftermath. We hope our fans and new listeners will find something here that resonates with them.”
Comprised of brothers Casey (vocals, synths/keyboards, bass) and Jesse Cooper (drums & vocals), the siblings call All Burn their “best material to date which focuses on a dreamier aesthetic than our earlier work.”
All Burn is also the first self-produced Receiver album, with mixing handled by Danny Kalb (Beck, Ben Harper, Foster the People, Karen O) and mastering by Brian Lucey (Sigur Ros, The Shins, The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys).
1. Drift
2. Transit
3. To Battle an Island
4. Collector
5. Dark Matter
6. April Blades
7. The Summit
8. Let It Dry
9. All Burn
10. How to be Young
11. These Days
Formed in 2005 at The Ohio State University, The Receiver released its debut album, Decades, in 2006 on the New York-based, Stunning Models On Display Records. The duo returned with the sophomore offering, Length of Arms, in 2009 through Vital Music Records.
The Receiver is an incredibly active touring partnership, having played throughout North America and sharing the stage with notable acts such as St. Vincent, Midlake, The Album Leaf, Mono, Dawes, Royal Canoe, Maserati, Telefon Tel Aviv, Mr. Gnome and Operators to name a few, as well as performing at 2014’s CMJ Festival in New York.
The brothers have been featured on MTV2’s “Bands on The Rise,” and have songs included on the FX Network’s series, Dirt, as well as a number of independent shorts and films.
Stay tuned for more information on The Receiver and All Burn, out next week on Kscope.
The amazing Terri Nunn of Berlin snags a photo w/the Good Sir Orzabal backstage. We’ve been sharing the thoughts of many different writers and fans of Tears For Fears these past 3 days. Below is a short compilation of thoughts and images on the “Kool Koncert” featuring Berlin plus The B52s and Tears for Fears. The latter being two bands that we have had the pleasure of following closely for many years (especially now). As mentioned, AA now lives not too far from Cindy of the B52s and it’s just exciting to see them and be near. Several fans from the East Coast (NYC, NC, Atlanta, etc) attended this show and boy oh boy were fans overwhelmed at how animated, beautiful and overall outstanding the band performed. Special attention was paid to Curt and Roland’s liveliness on stage as well as Roland’s dancing around. Fans uploaded many videos from various…
I’m really happy to announce (ok, show off) the cover of my Neil Peart biography, NEIL PEART: CULTURAL REPERCUSSIONS (WordFire Press). It will be available this August in tangible and e-book formats.
Hope you love it!
Neil Peart: Cultural Repercussions, forthcoming August 2015 from WordFire Press.
In September, we will be publishing two BRAND NEW 33 1/3s: Bryan C. Parker’s book on Beat Happeningand David Masciotra’s book on Metallica(The Black Album)! September is so far away, but console yourselves with a look at these two beautiful covers. What will it be in the ultimate battle of K Records v. Elektra?
Just kidding. You’re all obviously reading both.
Happy Wednesday!
This is the album that sent a shockwave of empowerment through the nation’s cultural underground. In 1985, Olympia, Washington band Beat Happening released their eponymous debut of lo-fi pop songs on K Records and challenged every conception held about music. At the center of the group was the enigmatic Calvin Johnson and his revolutionary vision of artistic creation. His foresight and industriousness allowed him to recruit to the K Records roster other free-spirited artists like Beck, Modest Mouse, and Built to Spill long before they gained widespread acclaim.
It is rare that I undertake an interview with a band about which I know very little. Normally, I have been fortunate enough to hear the album in advance of the interview or, if it’s an established band, I can do my homework and be prepared. In the case of Earthside, they are a new name in heavy metal circles. As such, they have yet to release their debut album and to date, I have only heard two tracks from the impending release. I say ‘impending’, although as far as I’m aware, no release date has even been divulged.
Shrouded in secrecy they may be but there seems to be a buzz growing on the Internet about the band, a quartet hailing from New Haven, Connecticut, comprised of guitarist Jamie Van Dyck, keyboardist Frank Sacramone, bassist Ryan Griffin and drummer Ben Shanbrom. Hardly…
As I have written ad infinitum within other posts on this very blog, I vividly remember the first time that I was introduced to melodic death metal. It was In Flames’ ‘The Jester Race’, one of the early pioneers of the Swedish ‘Gothenburg sound’ movement, and immediately I fell in love. Here was a style of music that blew my mind thanks to the simple yet ingenious blend of death metal brutality with choruses and melodic refrains that were lifted straight of the traditional, New Wave Of British Heavy Metal rulebook. I never looked back and I used this genre as an important stepping stone into the more extreme and heavy recesses of metal’s underground. That said, I have remained a fan of the genre and, whilst it’s fair to say that it has been tested…
In my post two days ago offering a twenty-year retrospective of RAOUL AND THE KINGS OF SPAIN by Tears for Fears, I made some bald claims:
Orzabal has never embraced the term “progressive,” identifying it with Pink Floyd, but he is certainly the most experimental pop musician alive—rivaled only by Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, Robert Smith, Andy Partridge, and Peter Gabriel. From my perspective, Orzabal is the greatest living pop musician, but I think this would be open to debate. And, of course, the debate would demand a proper definition of pop.
A good friend of mine (a fellow music lover and a fellow Kansan), Derek, properly challenged this assertion of mine while also admitting how much he loves Orzabal.
I did my best to defend my claim. Here’s the conversation:
Derek: “From my perspective, Orzabal is the greatest living pop musician…” Wow! I’m still trying to wrap my head around that statement. Not disagreeing necessarily, but wow. I love Orzabal’s work but also equally love Neil Finn’s work, especially with Crowded House (and double especially on the album “Temple of Low Men”). Oleta Adams with Orzabal on “Me and My Big Ideas” is just sublime. I had forgotten how much she brought to the TFF sound. Hiring her was a stroke of genius on the part of Orzabal and Smith.
Me: Derek–it’s debatable, for sure. But, I think about Orzabal’s willingness to experiment–and his slow but excellent body of work over 30+ years. I’m excluding straight rock and prog musicians in the comment. I must admit, I don’t know Neil Finn’s work beyond a few wonderful songs he wrote in the 80s. But, for example, Michael Stipe is good, but his music sounds dated to me in a way that Orzabal’s doesn’t.
Derek: All compelling points, Bradley. The point about Orzabal’s “slow but excellent body of work over 30+ years” is well taken. If you can, give Crowded House’s “Temple of Low Men” a spin. It is downright criminal that that album wasn’t a smash. The song “When You Come” should have been just as big of a hit as “Don’t Dream It’s Over” or “Something So Strong.” Finn is hands down one of my favorite pop music lyricists, bar none. An example from the aforementioned “When You Come.”
When you come across the sea
Me like a beacon guiding you to safety
The sooner the better now
And when you come the hills
Will breathe like a baby
Pulled up heaving from the bottom of the ocean
The sooner the better now
When you come to cover me with your kisses
Fresh like a daisy chained up in a lion’s den
The sooner the better now
I’ll know you by the thunderclap
Pouring like a rain of blood to my emotions
And that is why
I stumble to my knees
And I haven’t even mentioned the other amazing songs from Temple of Low Men like “I Feel Possessed,” “Into Temptation,” “Sister Madly,” and “Better Be Home Soon.”
Me: The first master was Brian Wilson, in my opinion, but his career, for obvious reasons, faded quickly.
Derek: Agreed 100%.
Me: Andy Partridge is brilliant, but he’s so dark and cynical. It’s hard to take some of his music, especially when he’s not tempered by Dave Gregory. Then, Paul McCartney, but, again, a career that was stunning but relatively short–though some of his best work was with early Wings.
Let me try to defend my claim that Orzabal is the greatest with a bit more gusto and in a larger space. A few caveats, however. Yes, I’m an American. Yes, I’m prone to hyperbole. Yes, I’m an American prone to hyperbole! The kind of hyperbole that makes non-Americans uneasy. Neil Peart is the greatest drummer who ever lived. George Washington is the greatest American ever. SPIRIT OF EDEN is the greatest prog album ever written. KIND OF BLUE is the greatest jazz ever made. The Aeneid is the greatest story ever written. Etc. Etc. Etc. I plead guilty to hyperbole.
I also plead guilty to wielding strong loyalties.
Reunion! Beauty and success, too.
So let me try to explain what I mean about Roland Orzabal.
First, he is experimental, and he’s more than willing to take chances, wherever those chances lead him. He’s willing to embrace high pop (Sgt. Peppers), art rock, soul, gospel, rock, power pop, prog, minimalism, electronica, and dance. His very output and his very life seems to transcend labels in the best way possible, just writing what needs to be written, when and where it needs to be written. And, this is just within his individual songs.
His albums, each taken as a whole, are equally diverse:
THE HURTING: Minimalist New Wave
SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR: Progressive Pop (Art Rock)
SEEDS OF LOVE: Jazz, theatric soul and pop
ELEMENTAL: Atmospheric and moody pop
RAOUL: Autobiographical earnest pop
TOMCATS: Electronica
EVERYBODY LOVES A HAPPY ENDING: High Art Rock/pop; progressive pop
Orzabal’s B-sides: every thing and every genre imaginable.
Second, think about his competition, as I mentioned in the above discussion with my friend, Derek. Brian Wilson was brilliant, but, for sad and obvious reasons, he has not been able to sustain his career. Sir Paul McCartney had an amazing run with the Beatles and with early Wings, but, he too, wasn’t able to sustain it. His pop became more and more bland as the mid 70s became the late 70s. Robert Smith is a master as well, but, frankly, he’s so much better when he’s writing gothic rock than when he writes pop. DISINTEGRATION is The Cure’s best album because it’s not pop in any way. There’s no “Friday, I’m in Love,” to bring the album down. Peter Gabriel is Orzabal’s greatest rival, but even his music has a sameness (relatively speaking), at least over time, that Orzabal has avoided. At this point, Gabriel is simply offering (brilliant, of course) reworked versions of his music from the 70s and 80s. And, as great as Andy Partridge is (my gosh, think about the gorgeousness of a song such as Bungalow), he’s so unremittingly dark and bitter. He desperately needed a Dave Gregory to temper him. Other candidates are out there. Sarah McLachlan? She made three great albums, then descended into blandness. Sixpence None the Richer? Again, wonderful, but lost it after three albums. Michael Stipe? So great at one point, but his music seems dated now.
Third, Orzabal’s lyrics. Whether telling a story, railing against a politician, writing about depression, or simply stringing works together for the love of the words themselves, Orzabals lyrics are always very clever, and so very able to mixed note and/with meaning so perfectly. I don’t always agree with his politics or religious views (I’m probably as libertarian and conservative as he is liberal; and I’m also a practicing (if poor) Roman Catholic, while I understand he is not only a lapsed Catholic but an atheist), but I always take him and his ideas seriously. And, whether he’s writing about love, loss, redemption, physics, or anything else that matters, he’s very, very good! His lyrics mix intelligence with whimsy, but they’re also just so beautifully constructed.
Fourth, his voice. Granted, you always know when Orzabal is singing. But, he can vary it in so many ways, and he can make the strangest, weirdest voices, when the music demands it. For the longest time (well, for thirty years), I thought this was all just studio trickery. I was wrong. After seeing him live, I realize just how capable of goodness and weirdness(!) he is.
Fifth, he’s utterly sincere—whether its in his music, his lyrics, his views, his moods, or his first novel. Whatever it is, it has meaning to him. One of my greatest pet peeves is when an artist tries to mock his own success or mock those who adore him and his art. It’s one thing to be humorous and self-deprecating (both of which are wonderful and necessary in this rather insane world). It’s a completely different thing to mock one’s fans. There’s nothing cynical about Orzabal’s art. What you see is what you get, though, of course, always layered and nuanced.
One major admission. I could not have written this piece a week ago. As I mentioned in my concert review of TFF the other day, I had assumed for thirty years that TFF was at their best in the studio. I’d dismissed their live performances as uninspired. Granted, I did so out of complete ignorance, having never seen them play life until six days ago.
Seeing them perform in Denver last Sunday night made me realize just how wrong I was. A year or so ago, I wrote about SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR as the best pop album ever written. Now that I’ve seen TFF live, I can state with conviction and evidence that Orzabal is our greatly living pop artist.
And, I’ll make this prediction. The forthcoming TFF album will be an unexpected and satisfying work of art that will take the pop and rock world by storm. Orzabal and Smith aren’t living on or in the past. They are at the absolute height of their game right now. And, of course, they’ve earned every single accolade they will receive.
Review retrospective: Tears for Fears, RAOUL AND THE KINGS OF SPAIN (Sony, 1995; Cherry Red, 2009).
Twenty years ago, Roland Orzabal (born Raoul Jaime Orzabal de la Quintana to an English mother and a Basque/Spanish/French father) released the fifth Tears for Fears studio album, RAOUL AND THE KINGS OF SPAIN.
Overall, we should remember, 1995 was a pretty amazing year for music—really the year that saw the full birthing of third-wave prog.
Raoul’s mythic mother.
Not all was prog, of course, but there was so much that was simply interesting. Natalie Merchant, TIGERLILY; Radiohead, THE BENDS; Spock’s Beard, THE LIGHT; The Flower Kings, BACK IN THE WORLD OF ADVENTURES; Marillion, AFRAID OF SUNLIGHT; and Porcupine Tree, THE SKY MOVES SIDEWAYS.
As the time that RAOUL came out, I liked it quite a bit, but I didn’t love it. The first five songs just floored me, but then I thought the album as a whole fizzled in the second half. Or course, when I write “fizzled,” I mean this in the most relative sense. Even Orzabal’s weakest track is far better than most musicians will ever achieve in and with their best.
So, I’m judging one TFF song only with another by TFF.
There’s a bit of interesting history behind the release of the album. This would be the second of only two albums that appear under the name Tears for Fears without Curt Smith. Whereas the first, 1993’s stunning ELEMENTAL dealt with the breakup of the twosome, RAOUL tells a mythical story about himself.
More on this in a bit.
So, not only was this the last album without Smith, it was also the first album on the new label, Sony. Previously, Tears for Fears had shared label space with Rush: on Mercury Records. Mercury had gone so far as to release promo copies of RAOUL, complete with different artwork and a different track listing. I’ve never actually seen a copy of the Mercury promo, but I’d love to get my hands on one at some point. Instead of the tracks “Hum Drum and Humble” and “I Choose You,” the original listing had “Queen of Compromise.”
Since its official release in 1995, there have been three different versions of the album: the Sony 12-track original; a deluxe cigar box edition; and the 2009 Cherry Red edition—the original release remastered, five b-sides, and acoustic versions of the tracks “Raoul and the Kings of Spain” and “Break it Down.”
Not surprisingly, given Orzabal, the b-sides are every bit as good as the full-blown tracks, and the acoustic version of “Break it Down” is quite moving with its additional line: “No more walls of Berlin.” My favorite of the b-sides is “War of Attrition,” a martial exploration of relationships that simply slide out of existence.
Though written and produced in a post-LP/vinyl world, RAOUL has, for all intents and purposes, two sides. Tracks 1 through 5 make up the first side, and the seven remaining tracks, bookended by versions of “Los Reyes Catolicos,” make up the second side. This isn’t surprising either, given that SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR and ELEMENTAL have the same structure. Orzabal has never embraced the term “progressive,” identifying it with Pink Floyd, but he is certainly the most experimental pop musician alive—rivaled only by Paul McCartney, Robert Smith, Andy Partridge, and Peter Gabriel. From my perspective, Orzabal is the greatest living pop musician, but I think this would be open to debate. And, of course, the debate would demand a proper definition of pop.
Side one of Raoul is jaw dropping. The first time I played the second track, “Falling Down,” for fellow progarchist, Kevin McCormick, back in late 1995, he replied, “Wow. It’s just so earnest.” I’ve never read or heard a better description of the song. It is, utterly and essentially, earnest. There exist both revelation and humility in the song, perfectly intertwined.
Some of us are free
Some are bound
Some will swim
Some will drown
Some of us are saints
Some are clowns
Just like me they’re falling down
All five songs of side one—again, as I’ve defined the sides—flow so readily from one to the other. No break in sound. Essentially, these are five parts of a single track. While my favorite track is “Falling Down,” “God’s Mistake” is also a standout.
And, frankly, so is the finale of side one, “Sketches of Pain,” an obvious and intelligent allusion to Miles Davis’s “Sketches of Spain.” As with “Falling Down,” this track is confessional without mere navel-gazing.
Side two, gives the listener snippets of what can really only be described as a mythic autobiography. And, yet, despite the autobiographical nature of the entire album, side two seems to look at the life of the protagonist from a broader perspective than side one. If side one is confessional, side two is almost historical and analytical.
What if, as family history has suggested, Roland had been Raoul, descendent of the Catholic kings of Spain? Naturally, this side begins with a version of “Los Reyes Catolicos”:
When time is like a needle
And night is the longest day
A home is a cathedral
A place where a king can pray
Ghosts all gone
Ghosts all gone
The following track, “Sorry,” explodes into a bitterness that emerges every once in a while in TFF songs. Accusations and questions fly. “Do you love or do you hate? Why do you hesitate?”
“Humdrum and Humble” begins with an experimental loop before transforming into a clever pop song.
“I Choose You,” a piano ballad of emotional depth follows.
Immediately after comes an up-tempo song filled song effects as well as some appropriate absurdities, “Don’t Drink the Water.” This is pure pop sweetness.
The penultimate track, “Me and My Big Ideas,” sees the return of soul diva, Oleta Adams. Much as they had on “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” she and Roland offer a meaningful—if not downright profound—duet, balancing the strengths of each other well.
The album ends with a softly building version of “Los Reyes Catolicos.”
My blurry picture of TFF in Denver, June 2015.
Like all of the music of Tears for Fears, this album holds up very well, even after twenty years. Indeed, the flaws I thought I perceived when this album first came out simply don’t hold up. I don’t think the flaws have disappeared as much as I simply didn’t understand or appreciate what Orzabal was doing in 1995.
In hindsight, I appreciate the art and the choices he made to make this art. Not that he needs my appreciation, but Orzabal certainly has it.
First of all, let’s talk about what this piece is not. It is not a criticism of Neil Peart, the drummer. My belief continues that he is one of the greatest drummers of all time, in any genre of music. As a lyricist, my belief continues that he is still one of the very best at writing thought provoking, philosophical, high-minded lyrics.
Something else this piece is not is one of politics. While it centers around some political criticisms made by Peart, I have no beef with the fact that he disagrees with a certain politician or certain political viewpoint. So any of you readers who do choose to comment here, please do not turn it into a political debate. Comments that attempt to do so will be yanked before they are ever seen.
—————————
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the recent Rolling Stone cover story on Rush, and a statement or two in particular. Like this one:
Peart says that it’s “very obvious” that Paul “hates women and brown people” — and Rush sent a cease-and-desist order to get Paul to stop quoting “The Trees” in his speeches.
Really, Neil? He hates women and brown people? On what do you base this ugly, nasty, ad hominem attack? What facts to you have to back up such an ugly smear. Was it this? Or maybe this? What about this? And this? It seems to me that it’s very obvious that the facts are in diametric opposition to your position that “he hates … brown people.”
Neil, aren’t you the guy who wrote lyrics decrying those “people who judge without a measure of mercy”? If you truly believe that, then why are you tarring someone with ugly, baseless accusations of racism and sexism? That looks like a textbook definition of judging without a measure of mercy.
You also wrote about those people who were “quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand.” And yet here you are joining such a crowd, as evidenced by your failure (or unwillingness) to consider any facts that contradicted your position, such as those linked above. Instead of thoughtful criticism, you go straight for the lowest common denominator. As a somewhat newly minted American citizen, congratulations – you’ll fit right in with the prevailing mode of political discourse in this country (insert slow, sarcastic clap here).
The songs “Wish Them Well” and “Witch Hunt” from which lyrics in the previous two paragraphs were derived would encourage the thoughtful listener to take the high road. Your baseless, race-baiting smear is taking the low road all the way. Honestly, I thought you were better than that. That kind of rhetoric is the type of crap I would expect from the various poo-flinging talking heads if I had the stomach to watch Fox News, MSNBC, or some other televised food fight. If there is one positive, at least you’ve given me another reason to be thankful that I’m a cord-cutter.
I wouldn’t feel any different about this if you had made a preposterous statement that Obama was born in Kenya, or an equally preposterous statement that Hillary hates men. Neither of those two people has a snowball’s chance in hell of making my favorite persons list. And still, I’d think anyone who uttered such things in seriousness would be guilty of the most baseless and ugly smearing as you are in regard to your statements about Paul. Unsubstantiated accusations of racism and sexism are no better than racism and sexism itself.
Look, I’m fine if you don’t like Rand Paul, or any other politician for that matter – after all, 99% of politicians give the rest a bad name. While there are things about him I like, there are others that give me great pause. As for me, my clear frontrunner is SMOD ’16 (Sweet Meteor of Death). But don’t mind me, when it comes to politics I’m one of the most cynical people around. I take exception to Ronald Reagan’s statement that, as the world’s second oldest profession, it bears a remarkable resemblance to the first, as I think such sentiments grossly unfair to oldest profession practicioners.
Still, I can’t help but be disappointed when I think about the example you’ve set and I’ve attempted to follow (poorly, often times, but hey, I try) through your lyrics and through the unshakable artistic integrity of you and your bandmates. As you well know, “The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect, so hard to earn so easily burned.” Reading through the comments section of the Rolling Stone piece online, I can see that I’m not the only one for whom you’ve burned some of that respect.
With regard to the craft of drumming, I know you have a great deal of humility. It’s a necessity for any drummer of your caliber to insist that he still needs to take lessons from others like Freddie Gruber. Perhaps you could let some of that humility bleed over into other spheres. If you do, maybe you’ll realize that there are ways to express political disagreement with those you oppose without descending into mud of ugly, baseless accusations of racism and sexism. Maybe you’ll realize that, whatever you think about Paul’s policy proposals, it’s completely unnecessary and counterproductive to accuse him of hating brown people and women, particularly when there are easily verifiable facts that say the exact opposite. Maybe, even you could get in touch with the man who wrote these words:
A quality of justice
A quantity of light
A particle of mercy
Makes the color of right
Best Regards,
Erik A. Heter
Rush Fan since 1979 and at least until the day I die.
Progarchy 