4B — Thursday, January 14, 2016
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

By DANIELLE IMMERMAN

Daily Arts Writer

We all know To Pimp A Butterfly 

and Currents, but 2015 was a pretty 
impressive year for rock music 
too. However, many musicians 
have shown concern that rock 
music is dying out, arguing that 
rock bands aren’t getting the 
attention 
they 
deserve. 
Just 

this year, Billie Joe Armstrong 
slammed the music industry 
with two tweets in reaction to 
the MTV VMAs. Armstrong, like 
myself, was disappointed that 
the VMAs didn’t feature even 
one rock ‘n’ roll band. He went 
on to argue that there are several 
young rock bands headlining 
music festivals, yet none of those 
bands were featured on one of the 
most televised nights in the music 
industry.

Armstrong has a valid point. 

Most of the music that is 
highly publicized and known 
by the mass public is pop and 
rap; this isn’t to say that pop 
and rap are inherently worse 
than 
rock 
music, 
however 

there is a certain emotion and 
importance to rock music that 
other genres can’t possibly 
emulate. The lack of widespread 
media attention paid to rock 
bands is just one example of 
how they’re not getting the 
homage they deserve. In the 
Daily’s Best Albums of 2015, 
with the exception of Courtney 
Barnett, not one album could be 
considered full-on rock. Sure, 
Tame Impala is “psychedelic 
rock,” but I personally consider 
them 
more 
indie-alternative 

than anything else. Aside from 
maybe Tame Impala, not one 
rock band made our Top 10 list. 
Of course each album on the list 
is great, but why don’t people 
have 
as 
much 
enthusiasm 

about the fucking phenomenal 
rock albums that dropped in 
2015? Is it that, because these 
albums 
aren’t 
mainstream, 

no one picks them as the best 
music of 2015? Are these bands 
not talked about enough to be 
considered the best of the year? 
Truthfully, I don’t know. But 
what I do know is that 2015 saw 
an amazing year for rock music; 
below I have included my own 
Best of 2015 list, but this time 
only rock music is presented 
to you. I hope you take the 
time to listen to each album 
because they’re important and 
marvelous and will get you 
hyped for the resurgence of 
rock ‘n’ roll.

1. Mister Asylum — Highly 

Suspect

I’m guessing that 90 percent 

of you don’t know of Highly 
Suspect — I didn’t, at least, until 
my best friend incessantly went 
on about how she interviewed 
the most bad-ass, talented band 
the other night. She went on 
to play their debut album for 
me, Mister Asylum, on repeat 
until I, too, became addicted 
to Highly Suspect. The Cape 
Cod natives have made quite 
the first impression with their 
debut album seeing that they 
are nominated for Best Rock 

Album and Best Rock Song 
at the 58th Annual Grammy 
Awards. The ten-track album 
is pure rock genius; it’s angsty, 
raw, full of emotion and an all-
around stand out album. My 
personal favorites are “Bath 
Salts” and “Mom.” One piece 
of information that I gathered 
from my friend’s interview 
with the band is that all of their 
songs are literal. “Bath Salts” is 
about the time Johnny Stevens, 
the lead vocalist, tried bath 
salts and “Mom” is about his 
mom. You know what you’re 
listening to is real, and I think 
in a day and age when so much 
of what we hear is warped and 
fake, listening to an honest yet 
complex album is rare. It also 
doesn’t hurt that the Stevens 
wears gold Chanel nail polish; 
any man who rocks nail polish, 
let alone Chanel nailpolish, is 
an ace in my book.

2. Yours, Dreamily — The Arcs

Usually when members of a 

band take on side projects, fans 
get worried that this will be the 
demise of the original band. In 
the case of Dan Auerbach, his 
side project, The Arcs, turned 
out to be a massive success — 
arguably a project that could be 
just as big as The Black Keys. 
The band has been on tour pro-
moting their debut album and 
they’re lined up for Coachella 
this April. Of course The Black 
Keys are alive and well, but hav-
ing not one but two successful 
rock bands is an impressive feat 
for a young guy like Auerbach. 
Yours, Dreamily clearly outlines 
how The Arcs differ from The 
Black Keys — The Arcs contains 
more soul and blues than Auer-
bach’s previous work. My favor-
ite song on Yours, Dreamily is 
easily “Pistol Made of Bones.” 
It’s a smooth, catchy classic 
with a rhythm that stands out 
from the other songs that com-
prise the album. In truth, I love 
every song on the compilation. 
Every song is memorable, and 
to me, that’s a telling sign of a 
truly great album. 

3. Wasted On A Dream — Jeff 

the Brotherhood

When I interviewed my fave 

Cleveland band, The Moxies, 
they made a huge point to lis-
ten to Jeff the Brotherhood, so 
I did. I found their music to be 
mesmerizing; it contains ele-
ments of psychedelic and garage 
rock, making for a unique blend 
of guitar chords and other 
crazy instrumental components 
that would be difficult for any 
other band to replicate. What I 
love most about this Nashville 
duo is their ability to blend dif-
ferent instruments into every 
song. For example, in “Black 
Cherry Pie,” my favorite song 
on the album, the flute makes 
an appearance in the intro and 
has its own solo moment mid-
way through the song. Modern 
music almost never utilizes the 
flute, which makes this band 
and album so unique. They 
aren’t afraid to experiment, and 
the result is an album one could 

never tire of.

4. Tell Me I’m Pretty — Cage 

the Elephant

For some reason, I feel like 

Cage’s 
latest 
album 
hasn’t 

gotten a lot of attention. I don’t 
know why, though, because it’s 
fabulous and Cage is fabulous. 
Tell Me I’m Pretty is infinitely 
more 
sophisticated 
than 

Melophobia 
and 
the 
band’s 

other earlier work; I would go 
so far as to say this album rocks 
even harder. “Sweetie Little 
Jean” is definitely one of the 
best songs off of the album — it 
sounds very Arctic Monkeys-
esque, which is never a bad 
thing. Personally, my favorite 
songs are easily “Too Late To 
Say Goodbye” and “Cold Cold 
Cold.” The former is full of 
sadness and passion while the 
latter is slightly more upbeat 
and heavy on the classic rock 
sound — dare I say reminiscent 
of The Rolling Stones. Actually, 
the more I listen to this album, 
the more I realize that I could 
pick any one of these songs as 
my favorite. That’s just how 
pretty Tell Me I’m Pretty is.

5. That’s The Spirit — Bring 

Me The Horizon

There were many albums I 

considered for the last spot on 
my Top 5 Best Rock Albums of 
2015 list. I considered The Cribs, 
Modest Mouse, or Courtney 
Barnett, but finally, I decided 
to take a risk and include Bring 
Me The Horizon. I’ve seen 
Bring Me The Horizon perform 
live on several occasions, and 
each 
time 
I’ve 
temporarily 

lost my hearing. They are 
first and foremost a hard rock 
band from England. They are 
often lauded by Alternative 
Press and are highly regarded 
as the less-extreme chaps of 
the post-hardcore/hard rock 
community, which is why I was 
surprised when my “Discover 
Weekly” on Spotify featured 
one of their songs. I was 
listening to “Follow You” and 
jamming out — and then was 
shocked when I looked at what 
band I was listening to. Bring 
Me The Horizon didn’t scream 
at all during “Follow You.” It 
sounded nothing like them — 
it was lovely and strange all at 
the same time. I chose That’s 
The Spirit as my last pick for 
2015 because I think Bring Me 
The Horizon has a tremendous 
amount of potential as a rock 
band — they’re already an 
amazing hard rock band, but 
I think there’s a lot to be said 
for a vocalist and artist who 
can easily transition between 
rock and harder, borderline 
metal 
music. 
Additionally, 

the lead vocalist, Oli Sykes, 
has 
important 
messages 
in 

each song given his battle 
with 
addiction. 
His 
words, 

combined 
with 
his 
sound, 

are unparalleled in any other 
modern rock music; I get that 
hard rock isn’t for everyone, but 
I think it’s an underrated genre 
that should get more attention 
than it currently does.

300 ENTERTAINMENT

Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.
The top five rock 
albums of last year

MUSIC NOTEBOOK
Fear and loathing 
at Totoro, alone

By ADAM DEPOLLO

Daily Arts Writer

French 
philosopher 
Michel 

Foucault once said “people know 
what they do; frequently they 
know why they do what they do; 
but what they don’t know is what 
what they do does.”

The final part of that quote — 

about people not knowing what 
what they do does — reveals some-
thing important, I think, about the 
experience of being an American 
person in the 21st century. We tend 
to think of ourselves as more or 
less fully in control of our thoughts 
and actions — that at our best (and 
at our deepest, most fundamental 
level) we are fully self-aware, self-
actualized, 
self-controlled 
and 

self-motivated individuals, wad-
dling around our allotted patch 
of existence and doing things that 
have a limited set of prescribed 
outcomes which are completely 
under our control.

Hence the logic of the Iraq War:
Step 1: Military intervention to 

depose dictator

Step 2: Freedom, Democracy, 

National Self-Determination 

Or the logic of Long John Sil-

ver’s:

Step 1: Make a Super Sampler 

with 4,610 mg of sodium

Step 2: Freedom, Consumer 

Capitalism, Dietary Self-Determi-
nation

This logic assumes, of course, 

that the Waddling Individual 
is humanity’s natural essence, 
and that, after having removed 
whatever obstacle might impede 
their waddle, the Individuals will 
resume their natural course and 
plod onward toward a state of 
sublime self-sufficiency embody-
ing the highest ideals of Liberty, 
Equality and the Pursuit of Hap-
piness. And despite the fact that 
actions we take based on this 
assumption usually leave our Wad-
dling Individuals fleeing from ISIS 
forces until they collapse in the 
dust from a hush puppy-induced 
stroke, we’re reluctant to put an 
asterisk on unfettered individual-
ism because, you know, freedom.

But one of the biggest problems 

with our refusal to question indi-
vidualism can be felt much closer 
to home. Namely, it prevents us 

from seeing that there really is no 
such thing as “freedom” in and of 
itself. It’s a relative term — there’s 
only ever freedom from some-
thing, liberation from some form 
of oppression. The same goes for 
the idea of an “individual” — you 
can only ever be an individual 
when there are a large number of 
people somewhere who aren’t that 
(sheeple, squares, phonies, etc.). 
And since we all like to think of 
ourselves as individuals all the 
time, that leaves us perpetually 
lumping the rest of humanity into 
a sort of incoherent blob which is 
really only there to remind us that 
we aren’t it. 

At this point, a properly self-

aware individual might be asking 
him or herself whether it’s pos-
sible to actually be an individual 
and also believe that everyone 
else on the planet is also an indi-
vidual at the same time. If we’re all 
individuals, after all, then doesn’t 
that mean we’re all just sheeple 
with illusions of grandeur? If you 
do something — anything — that 
might suggest to another person 
that you are, in fact, an individual, 
aren’t you really just telling them 
that they’re part of the herd? And 
if you take this line of thinking to 
its logical conclusion, then, when 
you get right down to it, interact-
ing with another person in any 
way whatsoever is a lot like forc-
ing them to acknowledge that you 
exist, i.e. that you are enough of an 
individual to warrant being differ-
entiated from the physical space 
that you occupy, the implication 
being of course that they are, by 
virtue of your existence, a sheep.

And so, if you’re a real Ameri-

can who believes wholeheartedly 
in the value of individualism as 
a universal ideal, I think it’s safe 
to say that the only truly ethical 
way to practice your individual-
ism is to avoid, as much as possible, 
doing anything that might suggest 
to another person that you are, in 
fact, an individual. 

Now, if you haven’t already 

guessed, I’m a vegetarian for moral 
reasons. I’ve taken the cliché “you 
are what you eat” to heart and real-
ized that the daily choice of what 
and how to consume is really, in 
our consumerist culture, a test of 
faith — an unending trial by fire 

where we see whether our person-
al integrity is able to withstand the 
constant temptations of cost and 
convenience.

And that’s why, when I’m look-

ing to put my patriotism and faith 
in American individualism to the 
test, there’s only one way to eat: 
alone. And the best place to do that 
in Ann Arbor is, without question, 
Totoro on State Street.

Totoro is a bastion of dignified 

solitude, where each meal is per-
fectly choreographed to require 
the least amount of verbal con-
tact with the wait staff, minimiz-
ing the number of times that you 
might be required to suggest to 
another person that you aren’t a 
piece of furniture and maximizing 
your opportunities for silent self-
reflection.

After walking into the res-

taurant, you’ll only be asked two 
questions, which can be answered 
with as few as two words: “How 
many?” (one) and “Anything to 
drink?” (no). Having suffered 
that necessary evil, you can make 
your sushi order by simply plac-
ing unimposing checkmarks next 
to the appropriate selections on 
a piece of laminated paper. The 
meal comes with complimentary 
soup, salad and an Andes after-
dinner mint. But if, like me, you 
order vegetarian, the wait staff 
will, without asking, refrain from 
bringing you the miso soup (made 
with fish broth), saving you from 
the nearly insurmountable moral 
quandary of deciding whether a 
minor breach of your vegetarian-
ism would be a greater or lesser 
evil than bringing the problem up 
to your server.

From then on, your multi-

course meal simply comes to 
your table in regular waves — not 
unlike time itself, which that most 
American individual Henry David 
Thoreau once wrote (anticipating 
the ethical 21st century American 
individualist’s approach to the rest 
of humanity) “is but the stream 
(we) go a-fishing in.” You’re left 
free to eat like the true American 
you are, with the contented silence 
of an unperturbed patriot, staring 
down into your pile of wasabi to 
avoid eye contact with the room 
full of individuals whose freedom 
you’ve done your part to secure. 

Hardcore bands help 
support Toys for Tots

By SELENA AGUILERA

Daily Arts Writer

Six bands were listed on a 

Facebook page for a Dec. 11 
event that was titled “Mosh for 
a Cause.” I pressed the “inter-
ested” button because, honestly, 
who wouldn’t be intrigued by 
that title? “Mosh for a Cause” is 
a hardcore metal show played at 
Simon’s Bar in Allen Park, Mich-
igan. Six bands come to play for 
free and the admission is eight 
dollars. But, there’s a catch; it’s 
only four dollars if you bring a 
toy.

That’s correct, there is a hard-

core metal show / Toys for Tots 
extravaganza held in one of the 
most mundane places in Michi-
gan. Six bands all cram into a 
tiny bar that sits next to a Dollar 
Tree, and they play their music 
loudly as a crowd of people basi-
cally murders each other — and 
they do this all for free. All of the 
money made (and obviously toys 
collected) goes toward the Toys 
for Tots foundation.

Last year, “Mosh for a Cause” 

was presented by a well-known 
local band manager, Kyle Yoder. 
He had a van full of toys to 
donate and made enough money 
to feed 12 families. From that 
point on Yoder has put on two 
benefit shows and said he was 
excited to throw another Toys 
for Tots show. Once the word got 
out, 30 bands contacted Yoder 
to volunteer for the show this 
year, so the selection was rough, 
but Yoder said he was sure he 
picked bands that would please 

the crowd.

The first band, Of Cities, 

apparently lacked a bassist and 
some of their equipment, but 
that didn’t stop the crowd from 
engaging in a collective head 
nod when the music started to 
scream through the speakers.

The next band was The Major 

Minor and they came as a sur-
prise to everyone. Made up of a 
guitarist, bass player and a bad 
ass female drummer, The Major 
Minor was a pop punk band in 
the middle of a hardcore metal 
show. I guess I never got the 
memo about hardcore defenders 
also taking a liking to some pop 
punk, but the band’s set was well 
appreciated amid the heavier 
music that was played that night.

Following the pop punk was 

Amnesty, who came all the way 
from Canada to do the show. 
Screaming, “Everyone’s a fuck-
ing fake,” the singer’s vocals 
were clean and a few people in 
the crowd started to slam dance. 
I saw some guy that dropped off 
a set of Hot Wheels cars in the 
toy box looking pissed off and 
swinging his arms.

Argus and Change Is were 

the next two bands, and both 
put on a great show. Argus had 
five members and their music 
was clean and well performed. 
I think the crowd was the most 
energized during their set. A 
girl with blue hair started hard-
core dancing with the guys, and 
Yoder got in the pit himself. 
Argus covered “Psychosocial” 
by Slipknot, making the crowd 
go wild.

Like Statues was the head-

lining band. Robert Gibbons, 
the guitarist, spoke on behalf 
of the rest of the band, saying 
they wanted to do a benefit show 
because they “want to give back. 
We want kids to have a better 
holiday 
season.” 
Addressing 

the stereotypes associated with 
hardcore culture, Gibbons spoke 
of breaking down the wall peo-
ple put in front of the hardcore 
music scene.

“People look at us and think 

‘Wow, you’re a terrible person’ 
and they don’t even know us. 
We’re out here doing something 
for a good cause and I hope they 
realize we’re not all terrible peo-
ple,” Gibbons said.

With this inspired feeling 

Gibbons placed in my heart, I 
eagerly watched Like Statues kill 
it. The few words Chris Fortuna 
(front man) said exemplified his 
amazing stage presence, which 
engaged the crowd. Plus, he was 
wearing a Michigan windbreak-
er (Go Blue!). They played songs 
with titles like “Psyche” and 
“Insomnia,” tapping into every-
one’s inner demons. The show 
was great and defied all stereo-
types that this certain group of 
people has placed on them.

So, if I was asked to go to 

another hardcore metal Toys 
for Tots show I’d be there in 
a heart beat. Thank you, Kyle 
Yoder, for having the wonderful 
idea of gathering, in his words, 
“the most pissed off people to 
do a Toys for Tots show,” it was 
definitely one of the most metal 
things I have ever witnessed.

MUSIC NOTEBOOK

