My name is Glenn
fuck you if i dont kno u
if i dont kno u keep it that
way cuz that means i dont want
to kno u
and i am a fuck up
me and lexi are twins
i dont care what people think of me ne more
so fuck you all
GlenTheJuggalo or Xxher dualityxX hit me up on aim..BassThree years and eight months after the release of Toxicity, one of this decades most corrosively powerful, relevant and down-right important albums, System of a Down guitarist/singer Daron Malakian, singer Serj Tankian, bass player Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayanunleashes Mezmerize /Hypnotize Well, actually, what theyre doing is unleashing half of itthe Mezmerize halfwith the understanding that attention spans arent what they used to be in the Too-Much-Information Age.You can count on System, one of rocks most daring and innovative bands, to do things in its own way, and with a level of commitment thatll knock the wind right out of you. This bands what Public Enemy once was and what Rage Against the Machine never quite managed to be: the potent trifecta of credibility, sincerity and real danger, pronounced Esquire on naming them Best Agitators in the magazines 2005 Esky Music Awards. If you were looking for the ultimate one-sentence summation of this extraordinary band, thats pretty good. Malakian has his own take. Were really an honest bandthats why people are listening to us, he asserts. Were not bullshitting ourselves and were not bullshitting them.Tankians take is even more succinct. Our music has always been urgent, critical and questioning, and that still remains, he says.Were artists for the sake of art, Tankian continues. And our expression is pure and natural in terms of where it comes from. I think thats always better with art because, once you have something in mind and you try to achieve it, it becomes less pure in some ways. If you just let whatever expression there is come outit might be socially viable, it might be political, romantic, humorous, a personal narrative, a philosophical thought, whatever it isif its pure and it just comes out and you leave it that way, I think its more potent. I think its more real.Fate chose this group of Armenian Americans, two of whom were born in Lebanon, one in Armenia and another in Hollywood, as unknowing prophets. Toxicity, Systems second album, appeared on Sept. 4, 2001 and was at the top of the charts on Sept. 12, while America and the world were paralyzed with grief, shock and fear. Perhaps because the music of Toxicity was so uncompromising and yet so full of humanity at its extremes, it provided a suitably harrowing soundtrack for that unimaginable moment, striking a deep nerve. The album generated four Top 10 singles, including the ..1 Aerials, and went on to sell 6 million copies, establishing System not as some prefab mainstream commercial entity but rather as an urgent voice in the uncharted wilderness that was heardand believedby a great many human beings.Just over a year later, the band offered up Steal This Album!, made up of tracks that had been started during the Toxicity sessions but didnt fit that albums dedicated confrontational vibetracks that put a greater emphasis on melody and the two-part harmonies of Malakian and Tankian. With Steal!, System, which up to that point had pitched nothing but fastballs (although some were of the split-finger variety), showed that it had a command of all kinds of stuff, and potent stuff at that. Thus, Mezmerize /Hypnotize is both the long-awaited follow-up to Toxicity in big-picture terms and a natural progression from Steal This Album! in a musical sense.People ask, How are you gonna compete with Toxicity? Malakian points out. And the answer is: by not competing with it. By not being afraid to use the new ideas that we have. Some bands are afraid of their fans: Theyre not gonna like this and theyre not gonna like that. We dont have that mindset. Weve gotta impress ourselves before we impress the fansyou gotta love yourself first, you know? Ive gotta feel like we have everything it takes to make a record thats better than anything weve done.I look at everything we do as a continuation because its the same band and the same four individuals, says Dolmayan, So Mezmerize /Hypnotize is still System of a Down, but definitely theres a huge growth. Its more melodic but at the same time more aggressive. Every album captures where you are at that moment, but almost instantly youre in a new place, as soon as its recorded, so its just basically a window into where youre going in the future. And how people want to look at that and understand it is really up to each individual.Malakian not only produced the bands magnum opus with Rick Rubin, as he did with Toxicity and Steal This Album!, but also increased his already considerable song, arrangement and vocal contributions, stepping forward both as a lead vocalist and as one half of Systems distinctive harmonies. Malakians increased foreground presence poses no problems for Tankian. Its not hard for me because weve been working together for over 10 years, Serj points out. I dont necessarily encompass his words when I sing themI approach them from my perspective and what they make me feel. This is the same sort of statement one might expect to hear from Mick Jagger in describing his relationship with Keith Richards, or Robert Plant on Jimmy Page.Likewise, Tankian, who shared production chores on Toxicity, broadened his own contributions in terms of writing music and arranging. In addition to writing more than half of the lyrics for both Mezmerize and Hypnotize, he played acoustic guitars, pianos and synths on the new album, as well as handling the string arrangements, doing most of it in his well-appointed home studio. Theres a great deal of back and forth between them in the creation of material, as Malakian explains: I might have a great chorus but I dont think the verse is that great, so Ill ask Serj, Can you make the verse better? And he does the same thing with me on stuff that he writes. Both artists, then, have stepped up and branched out as their band matures, but their interaction is ongoing. So many great rock & roll bands have been led by tandems, and System of a Down is no exception.System of a Down wrote some 30 tracks for Mezmerize/Hypnotize and recorded them at Rubin's Laurel Canyon studio between June and November of 2004. The new songs are more complex, more progressive, more unorthodox and more experimental than ever, while retaining the idiosyncratic, ironic and schizophrenic qualities that make System of a Down so distinctive. Among the uncompromising songs contained on Mezmerize are Cigaro, Violent Pornography, Sad Statue, Radio/Video and Revenga.According to Malakian, the ramping up of melody and vocal interaction between the two collaborators is part of the bands evolution. His priorities in developing the material for Mezmerize/Hypnotize involved just being honest as a writernot being afraid to express different parts of my life and different parts of what I see around me. Some people kind of censor themselves; I dont and this band doesnt. Its a crazy time in the world, and I just stay focused on being inspired, not only by the crazy times but also by everyday life. It all meshes together. You can look at these songs from the viewpoint of a normal Joe or you can look at it in a broader way, because theres a world going on around this normal Joe.The new albums character is encapsulated by the jaw-dropping first single, B.Y.O.B., with its myriad shifts in tempo, tone and viewpoint. The track starts out with Systems signature teeth-baring ferocity, as Tankian howls like an opera singer on steroids about a world gone mad while his cohorts impersonate the RATATAT of an AK47. Then, just as abruptly, a second protagonist comes into the frame, this one a carefree dude cruising eastward on the San Bernardino Freeway en route to a party in the desert, the scene delivered via a delectable minor-key pop hook. Thereafter, like some chemically amplified fever dream, the settings keep shifting until they begin to overlap, and a voiceMalakiansscreams, Blast off / Its party time / And where the fuck are you?, setting up the bitter incantation, in yet a third distinct time signature, that sends the songand the listenerover the edge: Why dont presidents fight the war? / Why do they always send the poor? / Why do they always send the poor? The song is so epic that it seems much bigger than its 4:17 length, and when its over, the listener is spent, enraged and exhilarated, all at once. And thats just the first track of an album that packs a world of compressed fury into its 37 minutes. But it isnt gratuitous fury.Originally, there was, in my own performanceon the first album, for examplea lot more ferocity and rage and aggression in terms of how I expressed myself, Serj points out. Whereas, now, its almost like a way of shaking things up to raise my voice, to communicate on an intense-energy levelwhich I would say is as powerful as anger and rage, yet more focused and productive.The album endsthis half of Mezmerize/Hypnotize does, at any ratejust as thrillingly as it begins, with Malakians double-cheeseburger reflection on his ugly, beautiful and bizarre hometown, comprising the Spandex-style rocker Old School Hollywood (ironic, maybe, but bitchen for sure), inspired in part by his surreal experience on the field at Dodger Stadium for the 2003 celebrity game, segueing into Lost in Hollywood, a bittersweet journey back to the streets where I grew up, which has to be the most beautiful and haunting song this band has ever recorded.Admittedly, bittersweet, beautiful and haunting havent been used a whole lot in describing System of a Down up to now, but this band is endlessly surprising, and they refuse to be typecast. From moment to moment within any given track, they might be perceived as art rock, hard rock, Floydian prog-rock, psychedelia, politically charged hardcore, nu-metal, old metal or even Gilbert & Sullivan from some parallel universe, but in the end theyre System, periodunpredictable and indescribable.In terms of dichotomy and the dynamics of the songs, it just kind of comes naturally through Darons songwriting and my songwriting, says Tankian. We just go with it. To me, its always been interesting both musically and lyrically to put two things next to each other that dont have a previous relationship and see what kind of relationship I can create out of them, because I think thats creating something new. If you can make it work, its fun.The band has no overriding concept, meaning each of their albums isjust as Dolmayan saysessentially a representation of these particular individuals at a particular moment in time. Simple, right? Right. And also incredibly complexas complex as human beings and the world theyre living in, a world seemingly without absolutes or easy answers.I dont really have a sideIm not red or blue, says Malakian. And since I did write a good part of the lyrics on this record, the songs tend to take a middle ground rather than being one-sided about it. I think thats why my world and Serjs come together so well lyrically, because hes more politically motivated and Im not, but some of his stuff makes mine more serious, and some of my stuff makes his stuff a little bit more human. As I was sequencing the records, I realized that if I went to a shrink and he hypnotized me, I would be singing some of these songs.I dont feel any particular responsibility in discussing social or political things, Tankian explains. Its something thats in my heart. Ive always had a problem with injustice, whether its personal, national, international or universal. Its just always bothered me to the point where I have to say or do something. I think action is worth a million words, though, as far as thats concerned. But ultimately, if theres one thing Id like to do more than anything else, its to not take this life so seriously.Theres not a trace of arrogance in this band, despite the scope of its success. In its place is a disarming humility. I didnt find musicmusic found me, Malakian says, clearly in awe of the part he feels destiny tapped him to play. Odadjian is similarly grateful to be where he is in life. Every day that comes, I thank my Higher Power that Im alive and doing what I do for a living, because I love it, he says. Its something Ive dreamt of doing, and Ive worked my ass off to get where Im at. I dont take any of it for granted.They operate as a democracy, with each band member embracing his own particular role while contributing to Systems unorthodox but remarkably harmonious dynamic, which comprises intricate relationship vectors. Odadjian, for example, handles Systems stage production and is involved with the bands videos as a director (Toxicitys Chop Suey and Aerials) and editor (B.Y.O.B.) We have our arguments, Dolmayan acknowledges, but in the end, if someone has a compelling argument, everyone else will listen, even if that persons in the minority. So its a true democracy in that everyones voice is heard. Dolmayan pauses for the punch line. Some people talk more than others, he quips.And speaking of relationships, System has a deep connection with its audience. The bands fans seem to receive the music precisely in the spirit in which its offered, making it the rarest of situationsparticularly in the context of commercial art formsand certainly the most rewarding. The impact that weve had on people, artistically, socially and politically, is pretty amazing, Tankian marvels. Its a huge compliment, and its a very special thing. I think System of a Down in itself is very special in that sense.Its about the audience finding you, rather than you finding the audience, Tankian offers. A lot of bands are marketed by labels to certain demographics. With us it was just the opposite from Day One. We toured pretty heavily until we built up a certain amount of fans that bought our CDs and saw our shows before we approached radio or video in any way. So that set us apart. Thats the old-fashioned way, and its how bands should be broken. And thats why I thinkluckilyweve had a good long career, and one thats perpetually increasing. Were not an overnight-success kind of band.Remember, Mezmerize is only the first half of this serial double album, so expect another sheaf of surprises when Hypnotize sees the light of day later this year. The end of Hypnotize will tie together Mezmerize, Daron promises, but its really tough to explain until you hear it. Individually, in my opinion, they both stand on their own, but until you hear the second one you wont know how the two records come together as one. Were not leavin you dry.Dont expect these guys to ever follow any script but their ownthey make it up as they go along, and yet it always turns out to be right on the nose.I think you do what youre destined to do, says Tankian, expressing what could serve as his bands credo. If you follow your heart and you follow your path, then youll always be safe with anything that you do, including art... ..
