Track of the Moment: Note to Self by From First to Last

So everyone knows and (probably) hates Skrillex. If not, you should climb out from under that rock you’ve living under, invest in some subwoofers and go to Youtube. But, as I promised last Wednesday (as I’m sure all of you read and remember), I was going to talk about Skrillex, aka Sonny Moore, before he went into “dubstep”.

Now, this would usually be something reserved for NJWB, because it’ll provide some of my amateur controversy-stirring psychology, but I promise I’ll try to keep it short. Prior to “ruining” dubstep and becoming a meme of how much people hate him (each one of those words is a different picture; feel free to click and laugh), he was the lead singer a screamo band called From First to Last.

From First to Last gained a good amount of popularity in the mid-2000’s (at least, as much as a screamo band could) with original and creative song writing, and a lot of interesting guitar solos and bridges. However, towards the end of the decade, the screamo market became a bit over-saturated, and the genre as a whole began to lose popularity. So in 2007, Sonny Moore left the band, of to pursue his own solo career. He stayed in the alt-rock genre for about a year or so, going on the Alternative Press Tour in 2008, playing with Team Sleep (which has Zach Hill from Death Grips, and Chino Moreno from Deftones), and opened for Chiodos. If you know your alt rock/screamo/emo music, that’s some pretty big stuff.

However, in 2008, he also began DJing as Skrillex at some clubs around LA, and eventually released My Name is Skrillex in 2010, and got signed on Deadmau5’s record label. And from there, it was history. Bad history, in my opinion, but history nonetheless.

Now, why would I have an opinion with some pseudo-psychology about this? Simple. Moore first joined From First to Last right as screamo was becoming really popular (2004). The early-to-mid 2000’s saw a huge rise in bands putting out this hard rock instrumentals to gutturally screamed vocals, fueled by the success of acts like Linkin Park. But that success was pretty short lived, and within 10 years of Hybrid Theory’s release, screamo went the way of disco, grudge, and hair metal; mostly reserved to the few hardcore fans from that era. Even Linkin Park went to a different sound with A Thousand Suns, which was worked on 2008 until it’s in release in 2010.

Right around the same time screamo was dying out, dubstep was coming in (as I so eloquently explain in this article). So now we find ourselves with the crux of my argument; Sunny Moore loves riding musical trends. You can claim some similarities between FFtL and dubstep, but it’s hard and most evidence is a tad shaky. Which is why I believe that Sunny Moore is just a fame monger who wants to attach himself to the next big thing in music, regardless of what it is.

I'm apparently not alone in my opinion

Does Moore believe in the music he’s making and has made in the past? I’m sure he does. But that does change the fact that in a few years, once the novelty of, and interest in, dubstep wears down, we may see Moore running to the next big thing, leaving the people who got Skrillex tattooed on their knuckles or carved into their arm wondering what they hell they were thinking (well, they should think that anyway, but moreso).

Anyway, FFtL played a role in my late middle school, early high school years, and it’s just such a nice, nostalgic feeling to revisit some of my favorite songs off the 2 albums with Moore at vocals. It’s still interesting and original, especially given the direction screamo has gone to keep up with the trends. Enjoy “Note to Self”, one of my favorite tracks.

Track of the Moment: Predator by Chrispy

Remember that article I wrote about dubstep? And how I said that I would talk about good “modern” dubsteppers at some point? Well, today is that point.

Thanks to Facebook, I discovered Chrispy via a friend who was testing his car’s subwoofers with a song. I had heard of dubstep and seen this kid post a few other songs like it before, and this groggy Sunday afternoon (I sleep extra late on the weekends, like 12 is kinda early for me) I decided to check it out. With my super-fancy Sennheiser headphones (They were around 80% off, so don’t think I’m some rich dude) pumping ridiculous bass at me, I was sold.

Chrispy is a 19 year old DJ (who looks like a 14 year old girl) from England who’s been making hard-hitting beats for a few years. He started just posting stuff on Youtube and Soundcloud, but has now moved up to a record deal with 2 Much Bass Records. And it’s easy to see why – in a genre where everyone is racing to become the Skrillex or doing stupid stuff like Borgore, he’s doing something fairly unique. A simple, open 2-step beat, very original samples, and dark mind all come together to create some fairly dirty tracks.

See, rather than building a song around cramming as much wobble into a song as possible, he structures his tracks around a sample. And not in the way most dubstep DJs do; he doesn’t just use the sample in the beginning to set the set the tone. Rather, he overlays that sample throughout the song, using it as an anchor for the massive lows he throws at people. I shouldn’t say throw though; he carefully lays each wub in the song to compliment the sample and make the track interesting. Most DJs will just either drop the samples in favor of wobble, or keep the sample prominent and the dubstep in the background. Chrispy effortless mixes the two into just the right combination to keep dubsteppers and people who appreciate music happy. He also gets big ups for keeping the tone and feel of the Requiem for a Dream Theme in his remix (which keeps a film geek like me happy).

While dubstep is easy to do, good dubstep is hard. Bad DJs will just allow their wobble to loop a few times as they set up the next tone, or they pile on a bunch of wobble all over the place to disorientate audiences. However, Chrispy varies his wubs often enough to keep listeners enthralled without making it all a confusing mess. A great example would be his remix of the Inspector Gadget theme song (it’s Elliott’s favorite dubstep song. It doesn’t matter if it’s the only one he likes). However, I decided to share my personal favorite, “Predator”. It’s just a fantastic all around mix that anyone could like, even the stupidest dubheads.