Deftones: Koi No Yokan - Pop Matters

Koi No Yokan is a record that will forever sit high upon Deftones’ burgeoning list of impressive achievements.

Chino Moreno’s distinctive vocal performance truly elevates the stature of each song: his delivery dripping over the liquid latex grooves of “Graphic Nature”, his calypso phrasing contrasting with the bloody “Gauze”, and his pitched shrieks and glorious croon echoing around the mountainous riffs of “Goon Squad”.

Deftones have built their legacy upon this constant creation of musical/vocal friction, and the kinetic energy that comes from combining grace and aggression has been masterfully harnessed on Koi No Yokan and expelled throughout.

The majority of songs are elaborately layered and contain interesting intros/outros that make Koi No Yokan play out as a continuous piece of music rather than a collection of songs that have no relationship with each other. Koi No Yokan also sees Deftones employ the production skills of Nick Raskulinecz for the second time in a row, and their interactive relationship is beginning to resemble the band’s highly successful past partnership with Terry Date. And Raskulinecz has done enough to make this album sound expansive, especially during more elaborate compositions: “Tempest”, “Rosemary” and “Entombed”.

At times during their existence, Deftones have been their own worst enemy, but the rich vein of form revived on 2010's Diamond Eyes continues with Koi No Yokan and does not show any signs of exhausting itself. When it comes to metal, positivity is not an energy that normally fuels artistic endeavours, with band’s preferring to rely on negativity to fuel their creative fires. But this fit and lean version of Deftones have turned negativity into vibrant positivity and channelled it into their cohesive and textured seventh full-length, Koi No Yokan – a record that will forever sit high upon Deftones’ burgeoning list of impressive achievements.

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Do Armed Civilians Stop Mass Shooters? Actually, No - Mark Follman

In the wake of the unthinkable massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, pro-gun ideologues are once again calling for ordinary citizens to arm themselves as a solution to mass shootings.

This argument isn't just absurd on its face; there is no evidence to support it.  Two people who tried it in recent years were gravely wounded or killed. And law enforcement overwhelmingly hates the idea of armed citizens getting involved.

Those pesky facts haven't stopped the "arm America more!" crowd from pressing the argument with alleged examples of successful armed interventions. The problem is, the few examples they keep using—in which they depict plain old folks acting heroically and with definitive results—fall apart under minimal scrutiny.

The full article is available here

The Actual War on Christmas: The Corrosive Power of Commerce - by John Brueggemann

It is the market that is attacking Christmas. Indeed, the market has all but conquered Christmas.

I personally don’t mind seeing religious symbolism in public places (from any tradition), but I can see why some do, especially those on the wrong side of power. Surely it is fair to protect some public space from evangelism.  Even a cursory reading of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution undermines the Right's annual, manufactured whine-fest.

What I do resent is the perversion of those traditions through commercialization ruthlessly injected into our lives by way of unrelenting corporate advertising, product placement all over the public square, and the consumerism-driven cultural amnesia of our time. I’m certainly not moved by the crocodile tears of the likes of Fox News. Cynically trafficking in fear and resentment in the name of Jesus sounds pretty close to genuine blasphemy.

It is the market that is attacking Christmas. Indeed, the market has all but conquered Christmas.  If Christmas has switched loyalties, it is at the behest of its new master that it has become imperial in its ambitions.

There is not a War on Christmas, it might be said, but a War of Christmas.

Jon Stewart says Christmas has laid siege to other holidays. Black Friday started a day earlier this year (on what used to be known as Thanksgiving) and lasted a week. Christmas trappings now go on sale well before Halloween.  The cultural imperative to find the next cool thing — advanced by many on the Web — becomes focused during this season: find the best trappings (on Thanksgiving Day, if necessary), find the hottest gift (fight for it if it is the last one on the shelf), and find the best price.

There is a war under way. But it is not about whether a Christmas tree can be mounted here or there. It is about whether the market will define the sacred.

Advent invites Christians to do exactly the opposite of what the Christmas shopping season urges: slow down, get ready for something out of the ordinary, look to the most important promises of God and neighbor, and ponder what gifts we have to offer.

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Debtpocalypse, Austerity and the Hollowing Out of America - Steve Fraser

Think of it as the archeology of decline,

Grim as the Debtpocalypse scenarios might seem, there is something confected about the mise-en-scène, like an un-fun Playland.  After all, there is no fiscal cliff, or at least there was none -- until the 2 parties built it.

And yet the pit exists.  It goes by the name of “austerity.” However, it didn’t just appear in time for the last election season or the lame-duck session of Congress to follow.  It was dug more than a generation ago, and has been getting wider and deeper ever since.  Millions of people have long made it their home.  “Debtpocalypse” is merely the latest installment in a tragic, 40-year-old story of the dispossession of American working people.

Think of it as the archeology of decline, or a tale of two worlds. As a long generation of austerity politics hollowed out the heartland, the traders and financial wizards of Wall Street gobbled up ever more of the nation's resources. It was another Great Migration -- instead of people, though, trillions of dollars were being sucked out of industrial America and turned into “financial instruments” and new, exotic forms of wealth.  If blue-collar Americans were the particular victims here, then high finance is what consumed them. 

The full article is available here