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Soundtrack to Your Geekout – Volume #1, Track #3

By | May 21st, 2010
Posted in Columns | % Comments

So, in the ongoing development of this column, I began to ask myself “is there one defining characteristic of a piece of music that would help it specifically synch up with a comic book.” Despite my best efforts (AKA my delusions of grandeur), there really is no way I can admit that EVERY song is capable of working in this particular capacity. Some songs, for better or worse, lack an overall fullness to them and are more of a flash in the pan work, existing for however long its duration is and no longer. In short: for a SONG to become a SOUNDTRACK (for ANY other medium really) it requires DEPTH. For a song to be a soundtrack it can’t go in one ear and out the other…it needs to hit you square in the face. Now, I’m not insinuating that songs without this depth are bad or in any way unlistenable…I’m an unabashed pop-punk fan (the Dillinger Four kind, not so much the Sum 41 kind) and 98.7% of pretty much all pop-punk songs lack any depth whatsoever (this is, after all, the POINT of pop-punk), but unless the scene being tracked is a pizza party or a high school block party, the vast majority of the genre would not work. As much of a borderline bullsh*t characterization it is, a song really needs to be “driving” in order to properly augment an ongoing story…the song needs to actually take your mind on a journey rather than leave it standing still.

It was around this point in my thought process that I received the following text message…”aaaaand Isis breaks up. MTL show is gonna be their last.”

And just like that, one of the most powerful, relevant and creatively superior (minus that one record that sounded a little too much like Tool) metal bands in existence were calling it a day. Bummed I was.

However, good lord talk about fitting right into the point I was making. With lengths AVERAGING around the 7 minute mark, nearly every Isis song can at the very least be considered driving if not downright epic, each track containing an entire story arc in and of itself. Pioneering the genres of post, sludge and progressive metal, Isis fit perfectly into my new “soundtrack” worthy model (if one want to call it that) and it just so happens that the very next day a comic came out that fit the Isis shell almost perfectly.

Joe the Barbarian #5 by Grant Morrison with art by Sean Murphy continued the ongoing adventure of Joe the Dying Boy and his faithful rat companion Jack into even darker areas than the previous four issues. For those not paying attention (and shame on you for that!), Joe the Barbarian is easily the next Morrison super hit in the making. Forget Batman and Robin, forget Final Crisis, hell even forget New X-Men, when this one wraps it’s going to rest up there with Doom Patrol, Animal Man and We3 on the “best things Grant Morrison has ever done” list, I can guarantee that right now (and with three more issues to go, that’s some pretty tall praise.) I’ll admit, I’m not as much a Morrison historian as other members of the staff, but near as I can tell this is one of the first times (at least in recent memory) that we see Morrison go all high-concept fantasy on us, and the result is fantastic. If one were to make an inter-textual comparison, they wouldn’t go wrong by saying the series combines the blunt, classically oriented, widescreen fantasy action of the Lord of the Rings with the almost brutal, childlike reality of Jonathan Saffran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, you’ll come close to the vibe the book is going for…and without detailing too much of the plot, this issues is very much the extreme dark before dawn of this story arc.

Now, to be completely honest, a lot of Isis songs could work for this issue as the characteristics that make the pairing work carry over through many (if not all) of the band’s tracks. So, for the sake of the article and in keeping in line with one of the major story points of the issues, I’m gonna go with “False Light” off the band’s incredible 2002 sophomore full length, Oceanic. So much of Isis’ genius lies in the band’s almost stoic simplicity. As with all Isis songs, the track is characterized by its dense, droney guitar work and the booming, vocal onslaught of frontman Aaron Turner. Clocking in at just under 8 minutes, the track does follow traditional rock song structure but with each verse and bridge about four times longer than more “conventional” songwriters. The song manages to adeptly take the listener on a dark, almost soul crushing journey before ending on an intensely uneasy note. Sound familiar?

Continued below

Joe the Barbarian managed to end on an almost identical, uneasy down note this week, which forms the crux of its pairing with “False Light.” Whereas last week’s pairing synched up based on the structure of the story and the song, this week’s pairing lines up based entirely on the blunt emotional violence put forth by both the comic and the song, specifically the thematic climax of both pieces. Every bit of extended exposition or “traveling” scenes of Joe and Jack physically changing location are backlit perfectly by the more repetitive, atmospheric, bass heavy moments of the song, which contain an almost transitory vibe in and of themselves. In stark contrast, the two major scenes of extreme physical and emotional violence are served perfectly by the song’s multiple vocal and instrumental crescendos, which impact the listener almost as strongly as the scenes in the book take us through the ringer. Since the very beginning of this book, Morrison has sincerely made us feel for this character, and this issue not only continued that, but by bringing him to his lowest point yet, almost makes readers regret the emotional investment developed over the first four issues. Depending on the level of our investment, both pieces leave those taking them in unnerved, skeptical and drained…yet nonetheless cued in completely for what happens next…and that is a sign of excellent storytelling.

RECAP:

Joe the Barbarian #5
By Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy
Vertigo Comics, 2010

“False Light”
Written and Performed by Isis
Originally appearing on Oceanic
Ipecac Recordings, 2002

Joshua Mocle thinks that Grant Morrison is probably the biggest bastard in existence…further proving that he does, occasionally, agree with a majority of the comic book community. To imbibe his thoughts on things not explicitly related to comics (like the virtues of black beans as a primary source of protein and the Boston Red Sox), check out thoughtgrenade.


//TAGS | Soundtrack To Your Geekout

Joshua Mocle

Joshua Mocle is an educator, writer, audio spelunker and general enthusiast of things loud and fast. He is also a devout Canadian. He can often be found thinking about comics too much, pretending to know things about baseball and trying to convince the masses that pop-punk is still a legitimate genre. Stalk him out on twitter and thought grenade.

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    Soundtrack to Your Geekout – Volume #1, Track #6

    By | Jun 12, 2010 | Columns

    This week’s soundtrack as well as this week’s geekout aren’t quite as much of a perfect symbiosis as I’ve claimed the last few week’s pairing’s have been. To be perfectly blunt, these two pieces really don’t work all that well together at all, structurally or otherwise. One is a grandiose, arena ready anthem and another […]

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