My Ten Favorite Songs from the Grunge Era

 Just a bunch of cool dudes hanging out.

Here's the more positive companion to my least favorite songs of the grunge era piece. 

1) Aneurysm by Nirvana. Quite possibly the greatest encapsulation of what Nirvana was about. Aneurysm starts with a dissonant chromatic guitar run that culminates in a hard hitting monster riff before starting it all over again, Helter Skelter-style. The verse transitions to a typical hard-soft dynamic that so many other Nirvana tunes use; Kurt's deceptively simple lyrics, yelled with all the throat-shredding sarcasm he could muster, sound as though they were cribbed from a 50's rocker. Come on over and do the twist. Over do it, and have a fit. The chorus returns to the Sabbathesque riff, only now Cobain is shouting Beat me outta me while his bandmates add Beat it, Beat it! with such faux-machismo that it's hard not to take them seriously. I love this song. Every time Smells Like Teenspirit kicks on the radio, I wish that Aneurysm was playing instead.

2) Jesus Christ Pose by Soundgarden. An almost atonal mess of heavy riffing, Jesus Christ Pose is a dis of people who portray themselves as a persecuted deity, I dunno, maybe like your typical rock star. Regardless of its subject matter, it's an awesome song, with an almost helicopter-like intensity to its guitar riffs, and Cornell could sing the phone book and I'd probably listen to it. Badmotorfinger, the album from which this song was taken, is one of my all time favorites and a great play while you are pumping iron like a madman in your dilapidated basement dungeon.

3) Everlong by the Foo Fighters. One of the great characteristics of Grunge and Alt-rock of the nineties was the frequent mishmash of the dissonant with the melodic. Everlong starts with a major seven chord that transitions to two suspended chords, resulting in a perfect blend of the aforementioned harsh and sweet. Add in some chunky distortion, followed by Grohl's murmured, hushed lyrics, and you have a hypnotic recipe. The bridge and chorus are pure arena rock, erupting from the chugging verse in triumphant intensity. Just a great heavy rock song.

4) You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire by Queens of the Stone Age. Yeah, I know this song was released in 2000, but it's a throwback in the best sense of the word. Similar to how Aneurysm displayed the best of Nirvana, Millionaire defines QOTSA's raison d'etre in its verse. Heavy metal, soft at the core. Sure, the core might be soft and sweet like a tootsie pop, but I'll be damned if this sucker doesn't punch you in the face. 

5) Yuri G by PJ Harvey. A primal cavewoman stomp with lyrics depicting a lovesick figure descending into madness, rape, or perhaps narcotics. Who knows? What I do know is this is what I ask from my rock'n'roll. Steve Albini's stark production gives this song a claustrophobic feel. He was the guy you went to in the nineties if you wanted your record to sound raw.

6) Basket Case by Green Day. Punk-pop in all its infectious glory. I like how Billie Joe sneaks in a reference to visiting a male hooker. Ooh, edgy, Billie boy! Green Day sure could write a great pop song.

7) Jane Says by Jane's Addiction. I can't fucking stand Perry Farrell, but this song is basically a nineties version of Led Zeppelin's Ramble On. Instead of singing about hobbitses, Perry tells a tale of a junkie girl friend that is both sad and stirring. She can hit, man, but she don't mean nothing.

8) I Wanna Be Adored By the Stone Roses. Here's some britpop for you. A wonderfully hypnotic song with a pulsing Merseybeat. I don't have to sell my soul, he's already in me. That's a pretty metal lyric for a band that drew influence from the Beatles and the Byrds. Perfect for a late night drive. (Editor: Okay, so this song actually as released in 1989, and was therefore too old to be consider Britpop.)

9) Closer by Nine Inch Nails. Certainly one of the greatest fucked-up music videos of all time, Closer is a sexy disco/synthpop tour de force. I hope Trent doesn't let his kids watch this one. "Daddy, why is Severus Snape being whipped while blindfold in a haunted house filled with pig's heads and sides of beef?" I would really love to hear the answer.

10) Santeria by Sublime. Just a great guitar song featuring one of my favorite guitar solos. The lyrics are full of violent machismo, but somehow it all feels good.

The Esteemed Critic Reviews Dune

 

Denis Villeneuve's Dune is a beautifully imagined film, full of stunning imagery and excellent special effects. Unfortunately, it's also boring, something the Critic can't say for the Dune novel, which he's in the middle of rereading. Somehow, Frank Herbert's magnum opus continues for hundreds of pages, often discussing the politics, philosophy, and religion of his world without losing the reader's attention. It's almost as though without the internal monologues of its characters such as the Baron Harkonnen or Liet Kynes, Dune is just another sci-fi messiah story. Villenueve certainly gives us the most book-accurate depiction of Dune yet (although the flying Baron seems to be a carryover from the it's-so-bad-it's-good David Lynch flick) but somehow, it's just not enough. The film suffers from a few miscastings and character deviations. Josh Brolin would seem to be a great pick for the warrior poet Gurney Halleck, yet despite a few verbatim quotations from the novel, he lacks the charm of the novel's character. This is a serious movie, overly grim and humorless. The Baron is changed from a gleeful, gluttonous monster to a straight-up mismash of two Marlon Brando characters (Kurtz from Apocalypse Now and Dr. Moreau from The Island of Dr. Moreau). Anyways, the main problem with Dune might be that it suffers from the Seinfeld is Unfunny trope. Would there be Star Wars without Dune? Lucas cribbed a desert planet (Tatooine is Arrakis), stillsuited warriors (Tusken raiders are Fremen), magical powers of compulsion (the Jedi mind trick is the Voice), and the overall story line (a boy hero gains supernatural power to overthrow an evil Empire). So yes, we finally have our big-budget, faithful adaptation of Dune in 2021, over fifty years after it was written. Is it too late? Can you build a new franchise out of something that has influenced science fiction for half a century? Or are the elements that make Dune special restricted to the literary format? The Critic doesn't have a clue, but he must admit that he was ready to leave the theater before the movie was over. 

Weightlifting: Modified 5/3/1

 

I just had the most successful training block I've experienced this year, so I thought I'd share what I did and why I think it works. For most of the year, I've lifted three to four days a week, concentrating on one main lift a day, which is a new approach for me. In the past, the only lift that's moved upward on a once a week schedule was the deadlift. Last Sunday I benched 265 for 4 reps, a five pound PR, as well as deadlifted 425 for 4 reps, a ten pound PR. Today I pressed 165 for 5, which was five pounds off of a PR, and had I known that at the time, I probably would've been able to grind out another rep. So what I've done for the last six weeks is basically 5/3/1 but with custom percentages for the different lifts. Instead of whipping out my calculator and punching in the numbers, I just picked weights that I thought would pyramid nicely. For my fives week on the Bench, I did 185 for 5, 205 for 5, and then 225 for nine, with 200 for 3 sets of 5 as my back off sets. For the threes week, I did 205 for 3, 230 for 3, and then 245 for seven, followed by 205 for three sets of five as my assistance. For the 5/3/1 week, I did 225 for 5, 240 for 3, and 260 for 4, concluding with 215 for 3 sets of five. Assuming a 290 training, those percentage are the following: 64%, 71%, 77%, and 69% for the fives week; 71%, 79%, 84%, and 70% for the threes; and 77%, 83%, 90%, and 74% for the 5/3/1 week. So yeah, those percentages aren't very far removed from regular 5/3/1. However, I went heavier on the press and a bit lighter on the squat and deadlift. Without figuring out every percentage, here are some observations that can hopefully serve as a guide.

Program heavier for the press: Unless you're pressing four-hundred pounds, your press is going to be your lightest lift. Therefore, it makes sense to keep your lifts pretty close together. If you're about a 200 lbs presser like I am, it makes no sense to do reps under 135 lbs. For my back off sets, I used 135 lbs and added five pounds every week, taking a step back after the third week, and ending with 150 for 3 sets of 5.

Go lighter for the deadlift: I'm not a great deadlifter, but I can deadlift over five-hundred pounds. Doing multiple sets of heavy deads makes you dead. For my heaviest back off sets, I did 355 lbs for three sets of five, which is around seventy to seventy-five percent of my training max.

Do assistance work but don't kill yourself. Maybe it's because I'm old, but I don't have the time or energy to do endless workouts any more. I limit myself to about an hour, and I squeeze my accessory work in between sets. I didn't do much besides pressdowns, curls, rows, and pullups.

Percentages are just ballparks. You should have an idea of what is doable. There are no magic formulae.

Shoot for 9/7/5 for the PR sets. Any higher, and you're not training heavy enough. Any heavier, then you won't progress very far.