When The pAper chAse puts out a new album, there is a certain expectation among fans that it will surpass any and all previous attempts to make us clearly and accurately understand the band's manic love affair with misery and all things gleefully gloomy.
And the newest release, "Now You Are One Of Us," unveiled on 06-06-06 (surprise!) is no exception. The band's dark lord John Congleton continues his aggressive yet humorous rants involving throwing "pretty little things" over his boney knee, setting himself on fire, and predicting that "the kids will grow up to be assh*les."
This go-round reveals poetry that feels even more disturbing, literate, and awkwardly funny than anything he's shared before, but is it possible that Congleton got so caught up trying to outdo his own morose theatrics that he failed to notice that his chilling album opener was a blatant retread?
Oversight hardly seems possible, yet there it is under the track title, "It's Out There And It's Gonna Get You": a 51-second sample from Art Bell's "Coast To Coast AM" radio show in which a highly distressed former employee of Area 51 calls in a report of an upcoming alien invasion. And sure, such nods to paranoia would certainly be fine and fitting if, say, Tool hadn't sampled it first -- and frankly, better -- about five years ago as the cryptic album closer "Faaip de Oiad" on "Laturalus."
So, did Congleton just think he could get away with it, or does he just not care? And did The pAper chAse just trivialize an otherwise great album by committing a major musical faux pas? What's standard sample etiquette here?
On both Tool's and The pAper chAse's samples, the man's dialogue is a little hard to decipher, so for those who are as curious as I as to what keeps this guy up at night, here is a transcript of the first minute:
"I, I don't have a whole lot of time. Um, OK, I'm a former employee of Area 51. I, I was let go on a medical discharge about a week ago and, and... [chokes] I've kind of been running across the country. Damn, I don't know where to start, they're, they're gonna, um, they'll triangulate on this position really soon. OK, um, um, OK, what we're thinking of as, as aliens, they're extra-dimensional beings, that, an earlier precursor of the, um, space program they made contact with. They are not what they claim to be. Uh, they've infiltrated a, a lot of aspects of, of, of the military establishment, particularly the Area 51."
And the newest release, "Now You Are One Of Us," unveiled on 06-06-06 (surprise!) is no exception. The band's dark lord John Congleton continues his aggressive yet humorous rants involving throwing "pretty little things" over his boney knee, setting himself on fire, and predicting that "the kids will grow up to be assh*les."
This go-round reveals poetry that feels even more disturbing, literate, and awkwardly funny than anything he's shared before, but is it possible that Congleton got so caught up trying to outdo his own morose theatrics that he failed to notice that his chilling album opener was a blatant retread?
Oversight hardly seems possible, yet there it is under the track title, "It's Out There And It's Gonna Get You": a 51-second sample from Art Bell's "Coast To Coast AM" radio show in which a highly distressed former employee of Area 51 calls in a report of an upcoming alien invasion. And sure, such nods to paranoia would certainly be fine and fitting if, say, Tool hadn't sampled it first -- and frankly, better -- about five years ago as the cryptic album closer "Faaip de Oiad" on "Laturalus."
So, did Congleton just think he could get away with it, or does he just not care? And did The pAper chAse just trivialize an otherwise great album by committing a major musical faux pas? What's standard sample etiquette here?
On both Tool's and The pAper chAse's samples, the man's dialogue is a little hard to decipher, so for those who are as curious as I as to what keeps this guy up at night, here is a transcript of the first minute:
"I, I don't have a whole lot of time. Um, OK, I'm a former employee of Area 51. I, I was let go on a medical discharge about a week ago and, and... [chokes] I've kind of been running across the country. Damn, I don't know where to start, they're, they're gonna, um, they'll triangulate on this position really soon. OK, um, um, OK, what we're thinking of as, as aliens, they're extra-dimensional beings, that, an earlier precursor of the, um, space program they made contact with. They are not what they claim to be. Uh, they've infiltrated a, a lot of aspects of, of, of the military establishment, particularly the Area 51."
OnMilwaukee.com staff writer Julie Lawrence grew up in Wauwatosa and has lived her whole life in the Milwaukee area.
As any “word nerd” can attest, you never know when inspiration will strike, so from a very early age Julie has rarely been seen sans pen and little notebook. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee it seemed only natural that she major in journalism. When OnMilwaukee.com offered her an avenue to combine her writing and the city she knows and loves in late 2004, she knew it was meant to be. Around the office, she answers to a plethora of nicknames, including “Lar,” (short for “Larry,” which is short for “Lawrence”) as well as the mysteriously-sourced “Bill Murray.”
