we dance to all the wrong songs
One Song: Perfect Songs for an Imperfect World
download: Refused - New Noise
The first two tunes in what's now a regular feature here have been fairly down tempo, morose, little numbers, so I figured I'd change it up a bit and talk about the very loudest of my favourite songs.
You may now know the members of Refused from the (International) Noise Conspiracy and Text. But, before Dennis split to make "garage rock," and the other three guys made do with what they had left, the foursome were the closest thing to some kind of real progress in hardcore that you could find. "New Noise," is without question, their finest moment.
The opening riff is razor sharp, starting alone, and being joined by another guitar and thundering drums, before the drums pull back and everything stops dead, save for a spare keyboard effect. Then Dennis' voice breaks through with, "Can I Scream???" - making you wonder why he asked in the first place. From there it alternates... a sort of subdued half spoken word and then a strained yell. This goes on til about 3:30, when one of my favourite bridges in rock n' roll (which was unfortunately stolen by those hacks in Hoobastank) leads into another call to arms ("here we go!) and a wash of crowd noise and guitar. By the time it gets to the outro, it's enough to concuss you. And to top it all off, it ends with a polite, "thank you."
Crank this one up.
On an entirely unrelated note... anybody been to The Met on a Saturday? Or alternately, have any suggestions for a place to go? I'm looking for a birthday party venue in the next couple of weeks... I wanted to go to the Arch, but apparently they're closed due to a flood.
now playing: Refused - New Noise
5 Comments:
my one complaint about this song is they kill the build up at the start when they kill the instruments. had it run right into can i scream it would be perfect.
By 
, at
12:55 a.m.
I'm currently doing my Top 300 songs of all time list, and this is on it. Great song. Obviously.
By , at
2:46 a.m.
I'm not too much into that hard-core sound, but this song I need to make an exception. I LOVE the quiet/loud dynamics of this song ever since I heard it several years ago. It's a classic.
By , at
8:37 p.m.
apparently the met on saturday nights is the new hot spot. not that it is necessarily a good thing....
By , at
10:37 p.m.
Absolutely bloody classic song. If only it actually had been the shape of punk to come...
That said, I seem to recall reading that Dennis had a lot of trouble with the more rhythmic style of singing necessitated by a lot of the songs on that album, and they had to pro-tools it into the appropriate cadence. I've never really followed the INC...
gavin
By , at
4:11 p.m.
