Public / Personal
From Stage Four
Released in 2016
For moment, indulge me: what was the single most frustrating moment of your life? Get it in mind and start to visualize it. Why were you frustrated? A best friend that betrayed you? Your dream broken by stupid meaningless paperwork? Something painful from your childhood? Get it there; revel in it for a moment even if it is painful. Now what do you feel? Do you feel peace? I doubt it. Do you want to laugh? Again, doubt it. I bet you, like most humans, do not want to revel in it for long. You want to mentally run away and get to a more peaceful moment. Maybe you want to scream, releasing all that stupid, angry energy from your throat. Give it a new life through the discord in your neck muscles. Let your voice box give your pain a moment’s release even though it doesn’t fix anything. That right there, that feeling of release, is what punk is all about for many of use. It is weird though, if we all can understand the impetus for this music, why does it seem that many people are quick to disregard it not only as art form but also as a form of human expression?
Screaming and discordance noise is a deterrent for many listeners, but the reality is that aggressive music puts people in the position of being frustrated and angry, but more importantly in the emotional position of the artist. That position can be a dark place that makes the audience think about subjects that are difficult to discuss in human society. Perhaps the most difficult is death; it makes people face their own mortality and engage with difficult memories of losing loved ones or the anxiety associated with the prospect of losing someone.
With that in mind, Touche Amore’s “Flowers and You” is perhaps one of the most difficult song in the past decade. “Flowers and You” follows Jeremy Bolm as he navigates the death of his mother and his perceived personal failings within those last moments. The song starts out calm enough with a few straight ahead chords that echo U2’s Edge, but then when Eliott Babin’s drums kick in so does Jeremy Bolm’s discordant shouts. He moves from self blame (“So prideful I choose/ To live in disguise”) to apologizing for slights to his mother over difficult topics (I apologize for the grief / When you'd talk about belief / I didn't know / Just what to say / While watching you / Wither away”) all while the band keeps up the breakneck pace. That is until we reach the bridge; a small reprieve of slower speed and less discordant playing is met with the most emotionally vulnerable moment. With his band as backup singers, we hear the whisper of “It was time this whole time / We can't undo or rewind.” This punctuating moment allows readers into an intensely personal moment: Jeremy, like many people who lose someone close to them, struggles with the reminder that time is the most important human currency. If you love someone, you spend time with them because it might be your last moments. “Flowers and You” gives listeners a great moment of personal humanity wrapped up in an eternal and abiding truth of being human.
However, it is easy to dismiss this song as “screamed nonsense.” Many people do, but as teachers it is part of our responsibility to teach students not to dismiss things outright. Whether it is a possible solution to a problem, a person’s beliefs, an artistic statement, or a piece of music. In order to get students to better understand alternative perspectives and not dismiss them outright, I use this and other great songs from punk and metal. By first examining the lyrics and understanding the writer’s prospective students are able to absorb the meaning more immediately and without necessarily dismissing the whole piece. Then I ask students to tell me which genre the lyrics would be if it were a piece of music. Usually they are all over the place, but past responses to this song have been country or folk for the most part. Then we listen. It is great to see students’ faces at this point and how they react. Some are angry, some are disappointed, but many understand the song. They start to see form meeting content and they don’t necessarily start to dismiss the song. This can be repeated with any genre, song, or artist, and I have done this activity with hip hop, folk, soul, punk, rock, and metal. The results are always the same: it opens students up to a larger conversation about intent and meaning rather than form only.
At the end of the day, if we can help students to be more empathetic to the human experience and not to dismiss artistic expression outright then we are helping out communities to be more equitable to all people, especially those who are experiencing intense emotional trauma.
“Skyscraper” is another great track from Stage Four featuring Julian Baker.
Listen to the full album: http://bit.ly/2cCr0Un "Skyscraper" (feat. Julien Baker) by Touché Amoré from the album 'Stage Four,' available now Order the limite...
