puscifer

In my middle age, I've become either busy or lazy enough (probably some combination of the two) to get out of touch with subjects on which I used to be on the leading edge. One such subject is music. I used to take great pride in discovering unknown bands and doing my best to support those I liked most. I find now that most new bands in the genre of music I listen to sound the same to my ear, and deciding which I prefer is just splitting hairs. I quickly get discouraged and start looking for bands that don't sound the same, but I find them to be generally unlistenable. I then realize that much of the music that I listen to would be viewed the same way to a prospective new listener, but through some course of my past I've managed to find it acceptable. Roger Waters' solo music is a good example. If I were to listen to it today for the first time (The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, for sub-example), I'd likely find it highly objectionable. Because, however, I was introduced to it through the music of Pink Floyd, and because I was introduced to it at an impressionable time in my life, it now sits as a part of my standing music collection.

It had been a number of years since such circumstances lead me to enjoy an otherwise unenjoyable band, until last week when I discovered Puscifer. For those unfamiliar, Puscifer is the latest project of Maynard James Keenan of Tool and A Perfect Circle fame. I'd heard a few years back that Maynard settled in the southwest and began making wine, but I didn't realize that there was music attached to his latest insanity. It is typical Maynard - there is a stream of logic in there somewhere, but it is surrounded by oddity. I find the talk of it across the net highly entertaining, from the "yeah, I GET it, man..." ramblings of teenagers to the "what the hell happened" ramblings of late Tool/APC fans. It's just Maynard, and at the depth of it, I think he's found funding to live on a corner of the grid in which he can continue to make music, travel, and contemplate ways to further confuse his fans.

I also find the idea of a song not being "fixed", as Maynard puts it, but subject to limitless remix, intriguing and slightly disturbing. As much as I like his explanation of why it is, I tend to believe it's an easy way to collect royalties with no addtional work.

In the end, some of the songs (and associated media) are stupid and sophomoric, but there is still heart in much of it. Check him out.