Dear Friends,
For one of the first times that I can ever remember, there was a good couple of hours yesterday where the sky was just blue here in Maine and there was barely a cloud in it. Usually, the clouds are everywhere up here and although they move very fast, they seem to be omnipresent. It’s supposed to be a really nice day today, too.
I’m hoping for a few more days of really nice weather before going home to the heat.
I’m just going to leave that there. I am excited, though, to get home and get back to work, as crazy as that sounds. The anticipation of what my class is going to be like and what kind of school year we are going to have has been kind of rattling around in my brain quite a bit lately. It’s a little like the feeling I used to have before a birthday or at Christmas time.
*****
I’ve been thinking a lot about feeling like I’m on a political island these days. I heartily disagree with the idea of Donald Trump being President, but I’m also appalled at the way the Democrats have been behaving. I feel like I’m caught in the middle, and I know I’m not alone here. As I’ve gotten older, I can see how some conservative ideas make sense, but I’m also all for many things that would brand me a liberal, as well.
I’m a teacher. I’m an optimist. I want good things for the generations to come.
I also want my fair share and feel that everyone should get what is equitable and fair, as well. Somehow, though, having the opinion that people should be respectful of each other and responsible for their own shit seems to piss a lot of people off.
I don’t trust any politicians. I don’t think it is healthy to put our trust in them right now because many of them clearly don’t want to be accountable to the law, their constituents, and morality. When I tell people this, they become so offended. It’s sickening and frustrating and ridiculous. Thinking for yourself should be a good thing.
*****
I don’t know what else to say, so I’m shutting up now. I’m going to go look at the lake and be thankful for the beautiful land that is Maine.
See below for the record of the day.
*****
When your friends make a good record, it feels great. I wouldn’t say that I was the best of friends with Max Cavalera at the time Nailbomb’s Point Blank came out, but Alex Newport was certainly about the best friend I had in the world at the time. I was very proud of what he and Max accomplished with this record.
It’s been so long since then, though, I can listen to Point Blank with a pretty objective mind. The insider stuff I knew about the process and some of the stuff that was happening with the label and such, that all is kind of just there in the back of my head. It doesn’t really have any bearing on the fact that I genuinely like the record. I liked it then and I like it still.
One of the things that still stands out to me when I listen to Point Blank is that this crop of songs sprang out of two dudes wanting to have some fun and pay homage to bands they loved. It’s not Fudge Tunnel and Sepultura weren’t doing creative, heavy stuff…they absolutely were, but Nailbomb gave Alex and Max a chance to let their freak flags fly.
They got to just go for it.
That’s what I hear the most when I listen to Point Blank now. They were just going for it. This should be a lesson for all bands everywhere. When you are creating your music, what is the point in holding back? Just go for it. You can always improve stuff along the way and I’m sure there were a lot of improvements to this batch of songs from their first incarnations. If you don’t let it all hang out, though, you will never really be happy with what you make.
The songs on Point Blank also have a genuine punk feel to them, even with the drum machines and sampling. I think this was also a result of Nailbomb just taking the leap and going for it. The energy is there from the start.
“Wasting Away” right into “Vai Toma no Cu” (where I’m pretty sure Max sings “Fuck you in your face”) into “24 Hour Bullshit” just takes no prisoners. It’s not like it lets up after that, either, but those first three songs just suck you in. I’m sure this record was the soundtrack of many a wild party back in the day and probably still is here and there.
Like every record I have mentioned so far this year, it makes me happy that people will continue to discover Point Blank and be inspired by it. There is a lot to take from it. On one hand, it’s pretty impressive that two dudes and some tech were able to make the majority of the record. On the other hand, it is also a testament to knowing when to ask your friends to step in and help with a project.
Igor Cavalera and Andreas Kisser make some pretty strong additions. Max and Igor were still in Sepultura at the time, so it was a natural thing to add those guys in the mix, but it also never sounds like a Sepultura record. Nailbomb was its own thing.
I’m partial to “Blind and Lost” and “For Fuck’s Sake” at this point. The former is just a fast blast of power, and the latter makes me giggle a bit because I think Alex was the first person I knew who said, “For fuck’s sake” a lot. It’s got some Ministry influence to it, too, which was a favorite of mine at that time.
“For fuck’s sake/Leave me alone/Live your life/and I’ll live mine.”
That’s the Alex I knew and loved in a nutshell. Unless you did something to ingratiate yourself to him, that’s what he expected of most people. I should have learned more from that way of thinking back then.
When I listen now, the record sounds way more industrial to my ears than it did back in the day, too. The back half, especially, kind of just grinds you down as you bob your head to the beats. The guitars sound so great on the record, too. I would definitely like to hear another Max project that had Alex’s mix on the guitars.
“Sick Life” has such a great riff, but I’m glad the days of the “hidden track” are long gone.
*****
See you tomorrow.
Cut in half, AI in America.
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