Muse
- Pandemonium
- Posts: 5721
- Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2011 3:18 pm
Muse
Picked up the new album "Drones" today and have been listening to it all afternoon. I like it a *lot* better than the last album (although when I heard "Dead Inside" a while back I was about to write these guys off) and I'm respecially digging "Reapers."
- Pandemonium
- Posts: 5721
- Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2011 3:18 pm
Re: Muse
Yeah, that song is like an Eddie/Tom Morello mashup, probably a bit of a conscious swipe of "Hot For Teacher."Bandit72 wrote:Has a very Van Halen guitar feel to it!Pandemonium wrote:and I'm respecially digging "Reapers."
Re: Muse
I'm digging quite a few of the tunes on this album. I think it'll play well live.
I like Dead Inside. Kinda reminds me a bit of Depeche Mode, Art of Noise, a real 80s sound. Also like Pyscho, Reapers, The Handler
Mercy is very U2,imo.
I like Dead Inside. Kinda reminds me a bit of Depeche Mode, Art of Noise, a real 80s sound. Also like Pyscho, Reapers, The Handler
Mercy is very U2,imo.
- farrellgirl99
- Posts: 1678
- Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:20 pm
- Location: Queens
Re: Muse
I had kind of written Muse off because I found the 2nd Law unlistenable, but i agree there are a few good ones on here. Still think some of the lyrics are distractingly bad. I also just hate when bands put annoying skits in the middle of songs which makes Psycho kind of a whammy for me.
I think Defector is my favorite one on there. But I also am really into the solo on Reapers.
I think Defector is my favorite one on there. But I also am really into the solo on Reapers.
- Pandemonium
- Posts: 5721
- Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2011 3:18 pm
Re: Muse
It didn't even occur to me until I happened to look at the album credits but I thought this album seemed like kind of a throwback to mid 80's hair metal and lo and behold, the producer is Mutt Lang who produced among other things (like AC/DC and Shania Twain) Def Leppard's Pyromania and Hysteria albums which sound a lot like Drones. I thought the guy retired and dropped off the planet about 15 years ago.farrellgirl99 wrote:I had kind of written Muse off because I found the 2nd Law unlistenable, but i agree there are a few good ones on here. Still think some of the lyrics are distractingly bad. I also just hate when bands put annoying skits in the middle of songs which makes Psycho kind of a whammy for me.
I think Defector is my favorite one on there. But I also am really into the solo on Reapers.
- Pandemonium
- Posts: 5721
- Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2011 3:18 pm
Re: Muse
So I saw Muse last night in LA at Staples Arena, the 2nd show of a 2 night stand. Bought a floor GA just 2 days before the show when they did a limited ticket drop in the morning. With almost every major show I see these days, I have the best luck scoring a ticket I want within a day or two before show date instead of panic buying whatever dreck comes out the first day or sale.
So the evening started out a little hairy, right as I walked out the door and got on the freeway, it started raining pretty hard making for a long and dicey drive to downtown LA. Fortunately, as soon as I parked, the rain let up and that was it for the evening. Opening band Phantogram was kind of boring - I liked some of their stuff, but it's the kind of spacey, sample-heavy drone music I'd listen to in the background while I'd read a book or replace the toilet.
Muse has a pretty cool if wildly derivative stage setup "in-the-round" with two large ego ramps extended to either end of the arena floor this tour. It mostly looks like it was cobbled together using ideas from recent U2 tours. The stage set-up and the fact the band *really* work the entire arena makes for there being really no bad spot to stand on the floor to watch the production. Bellamy and the Jimmy Kimmel-looking bass player probably traversed about 5 miles going back and forth, end to end of the ramps for the set. Add to that, the center stage itself slowly rotates so even the drummer is always facing a different part of the arena at any given time. It takes up so much of the floor that those of us *on* the floor were only about 30 feet at worse away from the stage no matter where you stood. One neat idea was during key parts of the show, these large LED-lit, inflated plastic transparent spheres which were rc drones would drop down from the arena ceiling and cruise around above the audience. The sound was good, but Staples Arena is really the worst place for a concert due to it's high walls and shitty acoustics so occasionally you'd hear "slapback" from the drums like they were playing in the Grand Canyon - it must be tough for the band to keep time with each other and whatever samples and click tracks they use even with IEMs in their ears.
The set itself was solid. They opened with "Psycho" and the Def Leppard clone song "Dead Inside" and the set rarely slowed down. Every time there was one kinda dull or unfamiliar tune that would loose the crowd, the next few would pick the audience right back up. I was afraid I wouldn't get to hear "Reapers" as they've been apparently dropping it from a lot of shows this month but they played it late in the set. The band seem to get a *lot* of offstage help (pre-recorded bits, backing vox, ect) including the keyboard/2nd guitar guy who was a little too amped up - even when the dude was just rattling some shakers, he looked like he was more squirrelly then Charlie Sheen on a coke bender.
I have to hand it to these guys - they are far and away along with U2 the best arena level rock band doing their thing these days. I'm not a hardcore fan, I'm actually more into a handful of their key songs, but even when they're going off on some widdly-diddly guitar jam, the whole spectacle is really impressive.
BTW, one funny bit occurred with a group of people behind me late in the show - during one slow song where Bellamy is playing some piano tune, these two young couples start loudly going on about the new Star Wars movie..... it got so annoying this huge guy next to them turned and virtually screamed at them "if I hear another fucking word about Star Wars, I'm going to fucking punch your fucking faces!" They shut up and immediately slinked away to another part of the floor. A bunch of us were high-fiving and thanking the guy afterwords.
Here's a clip(not mine) from the first night at Staples showing the opening song:
So the evening started out a little hairy, right as I walked out the door and got on the freeway, it started raining pretty hard making for a long and dicey drive to downtown LA. Fortunately, as soon as I parked, the rain let up and that was it for the evening. Opening band Phantogram was kind of boring - I liked some of their stuff, but it's the kind of spacey, sample-heavy drone music I'd listen to in the background while I'd read a book or replace the toilet.
Muse has a pretty cool if wildly derivative stage setup "in-the-round" with two large ego ramps extended to either end of the arena floor this tour. It mostly looks like it was cobbled together using ideas from recent U2 tours. The stage set-up and the fact the band *really* work the entire arena makes for there being really no bad spot to stand on the floor to watch the production. Bellamy and the Jimmy Kimmel-looking bass player probably traversed about 5 miles going back and forth, end to end of the ramps for the set. Add to that, the center stage itself slowly rotates so even the drummer is always facing a different part of the arena at any given time. It takes up so much of the floor that those of us *on* the floor were only about 30 feet at worse away from the stage no matter where you stood. One neat idea was during key parts of the show, these large LED-lit, inflated plastic transparent spheres which were rc drones would drop down from the arena ceiling and cruise around above the audience. The sound was good, but Staples Arena is really the worst place for a concert due to it's high walls and shitty acoustics so occasionally you'd hear "slapback" from the drums like they were playing in the Grand Canyon - it must be tough for the band to keep time with each other and whatever samples and click tracks they use even with IEMs in their ears.
The set itself was solid. They opened with "Psycho" and the Def Leppard clone song "Dead Inside" and the set rarely slowed down. Every time there was one kinda dull or unfamiliar tune that would loose the crowd, the next few would pick the audience right back up. I was afraid I wouldn't get to hear "Reapers" as they've been apparently dropping it from a lot of shows this month but they played it late in the set. The band seem to get a *lot* of offstage help (pre-recorded bits, backing vox, ect) including the keyboard/2nd guitar guy who was a little too amped up - even when the dude was just rattling some shakers, he looked like he was more squirrelly then Charlie Sheen on a coke bender.
I have to hand it to these guys - they are far and away along with U2 the best arena level rock band doing their thing these days. I'm not a hardcore fan, I'm actually more into a handful of their key songs, but even when they're going off on some widdly-diddly guitar jam, the whole spectacle is really impressive.
BTW, one funny bit occurred with a group of people behind me late in the show - during one slow song where Bellamy is playing some piano tune, these two young couples start loudly going on about the new Star Wars movie..... it got so annoying this huge guy next to them turned and virtually screamed at them "if I hear another fucking word about Star Wars, I'm going to fucking punch your fucking faces!" They shut up and immediately slinked away to another part of the floor. A bunch of us were high-fiving and thanking the guy afterwords.
Here's a clip(not mine) from the first night at Staples showing the opening song:
- Pandemonium
- Posts: 5721
- Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2011 3:18 pm
Re: Muse
recently, Muse put out a new single which sounds like a uninspired retread of "Madness" ...
In the meantime, I somehow missed out they did this decent cover of a Cramps tune last October with Bellamy even dressing up like Lux Interior:
In the meantime, I somehow missed out they did this decent cover of a Cramps tune last October with Bellamy even dressing up like Lux Interior:
Re: Muse
I really wish this dude would stop playing with the silly electronics on his guitar and actually go back to playing the strings on it.Pandemonium wrote:recently, Muse put out a new single which sounds like a uninspired retread of "Madness" ...
With that said, they are still a force to be reckoned with live, and if I was ever at a festival they were headlining I'd make sure to catch them.
Re: Muse
I argued with a friend of mine about this very matter. About how he just seems to have found this sound that he locked into and it doesn't seem to include his bandmates very much.Matz wrote:Pretty weird that a musical genius like Bellamy didn't stop himself from ripping himself off
And I asked the dude, "How do you think they feel being left out of the creative process?"
And he replies: "Probably thankful that he made them both millionaires"
And he's right. And I think that's the downfall to the creative process for most bands. As soon as they lock into that thing that makes them money, it's less about art and more about keeping the machine running to get everyone paid big and often.
So we get repeats of what worked in the past, but done with a little more glitz and polish. Cash in now, honey.
- Pandemonium
- Posts: 5721
- Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2011 3:18 pm
Re: Muse
I've been really, REALLY trying to get into their newest album but it is pretty damn dire, imo the worst thing they've ever done. "Dig Down" which is not great and was released as a single about 18 months ago is the best song on the album.
- farrellgirl99
- Posts: 1678
- Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:20 pm
- Location: Queens
Re: Muse
i didnt even know they had a new album. it sucks how much they suck now (or have sucked for what like ten years). they used to be great