with the eighth pick in the 16th round of the 2013 Desert Island Music Draft, i select...
dredg - The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion (06/09/09):
01 Pariah
02 Drunk Slide
03 Ireland
04 Stamp of Origin: Pessimistic
05 Lightswitch
06 Gathering Pebbles
07 Information
08 Stamp of Origin: Ocean Meets Bay
09 Saviour
10 R U O K?
11 I Don't Know
12 Mourning this Morning
13 Stamp of Origin: Take a Look Around
14 Long Days and Vague Clues
15 Cartoon Showroom
16 Quotes
17 Down to the Cellar
18 Stamp of Origin: Horizon
Genre: alternative metal, art rock, progressive rock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pariah,_the_Parrot,_the_Delusion
dredg is another band i discovered in high school, and while my freshman and sophomore years were replete with post-punk, new wave, and other 80's alternative discoveries, my junior and senior years were about looking forward. i wanted to find bands of
my era that moved me, that managed to speak to the sensibilities i was forming. like many picks in this draft, i happened upon dredg because of the Deftones. dredg were the opening act during the 'tones '04 fall tour, and i arrived at the Grand in San Francisco just in time to catch their urgent, arresting performance. as a drummer, i was particularly impressed by the man behind the kit, Dino Campanella, who has since slotted himself in second place on my all-time favorite drummers list (headlined by Deftones' Abe Cunningham, and also featuring Helmet/Battles/Tomahawk drummer John Stanier, The Police's Stewart Copeland, and Wintersleep's Loel Campbell, if you're interested in a top-5)...
Campanella is a powerful drummer with a propulsive sense of groove. he's also an adept pianist, and sets up a keyboard left of his snare drum. he's taught himself how to play the drums with his right hand, while playing keys with his left, and it's ****ing awesome to watch (he describes the process in this interview, if you're interested in hearing more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wj75uTmEtY). anyway, immediately after the show, i bought dredg's second album, which was for sale at their merch booth. it blew me away. they're distinctly different from Deftones, but they're a band born from the same desire to craft forward-thinking alternative metal. there were not a lotta bands like them in the first half of the last decade, and dredg were definitely the first band i could recommend in a "you heard it here first" fashion. they weren't on the radio. the internet hadn't made them accessible yet. not a lotta people had heard about this quirky progressive alt metal band from the Bay Area. my friends often looked to me for musical recommendations, and dredg are a special band for me, given that they represent the first
new band about which i could enthusiastically say "check
this **** out"...
now, fast-forward beyond their third album, and the band is in identity crisis, trying to figure out what their next step is. after toiling away in the studio for a couple of years, they ended up with their fourth album, The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion. TPTPTD is a concept piece about seeking information at a time in our history when everybody wants to dupe you, wants to see you pacified and deluded. the message of the album resonates with me, from the sarcasm of "Ireland" to the religious criticism of "Information" to the compassion of "Cartoon Showroom." all told, i think it's dredg's crowning achievement, an ambitious and diverse album crafted at the height of their creative powers. but really, it's a drummer's record above all else, and that's why i've picked it here. if you love an album that grooves, this album's for you...
