Friday - April 02, 2004
Side projects.
"Is your halo slipping down?" - A Perfect Circle,
"The Noose" from Thirteenth Step.
A late 2003 release, Thirteenth Step is the second album from A Perfect Circle, a group which is a side project of the guy who sings for Tool. The thing about side projects, of course, is they're on the side; excursions from the main line, inevitably measured against it, although sometimes excused from class. They are vacations, escape hatches, outlets for experimentation. With a side project, you can fiddle with other personas, or reveal what you previously hid for the sake of the fans.
There are musicians who've turned side projects into entire careers. One man who comes to mind is Mark Lanegan, enshrined in the collective unconscious of millions of grunge fans as the guttural growl of the Screaming Trees, and more recently, Queens of the Stone Age. His 1994 album, Whiskey for the Holy Ghost, was released to much critical praise, after the requisite critical double take. "Huh? Mark Lanegan? Man, who knew he was, um, intellectual? Duh." There are the guys from Jane's Addiction, the (late) October Project, the (kinda late but who knows) Dead Can Dance...
Other side projects are universally vilified, and with good reason. They sound like the artist's just doing scales for the sake of vanity. James Iha, what did you think you were doing?
The corporate world discourages side projects, but one company has made it a vocation - 3M. They build playtime into the schedule, and thanks to that, the rest of the world can strew your desktop with Post-It notes.
I don't know what the critics will have to say about my perennial status as some guy's side project. Maybe I'll get half a star for effort. Or who knows? It could be my ticket to Joey's two favorite things, fame and glory. (Now if only I can figure out how to earn from it the same way 3M rakes it in from Post-Its.)
A late 2003 release, Thirteenth Step is the second album from A Perfect Circle, a group which is a side project of the guy who sings for Tool. The thing about side projects, of course, is they're on the side; excursions from the main line, inevitably measured against it, although sometimes excused from class. They are vacations, escape hatches, outlets for experimentation. With a side project, you can fiddle with other personas, or reveal what you previously hid for the sake of the fans.
There are musicians who've turned side projects into entire careers. One man who comes to mind is Mark Lanegan, enshrined in the collective unconscious of millions of grunge fans as the guttural growl of the Screaming Trees, and more recently, Queens of the Stone Age. His 1994 album, Whiskey for the Holy Ghost, was released to much critical praise, after the requisite critical double take. "Huh? Mark Lanegan? Man, who knew he was, um, intellectual? Duh." There are the guys from Jane's Addiction, the (late) October Project, the (kinda late but who knows) Dead Can Dance...
Other side projects are universally vilified, and with good reason. They sound like the artist's just doing scales for the sake of vanity. James Iha, what did you think you were doing?
The corporate world discourages side projects, but one company has made it a vocation - 3M. They build playtime into the schedule, and thanks to that, the rest of the world can strew your desktop with Post-It notes.
I don't know what the critics will have to say about my perennial status as some guy's side project. Maybe I'll get half a star for effort. Or who knows? It could be my ticket to Joey's two favorite things, fame and glory. (Now if only I can figure out how to earn from it the same way 3M rakes it in from Post-Its.)