#three fish

...could be two regular koi and one that’s transforming into a golden dragon.

⚠️ Very long post.

After doing a doodle for @royalshinigami, I decided to do some research on fish tattoo designs in China. I quickly hit the effin’ jackpot. (I left out parts that I don’t think apply, so there’s more information on the website.) Here’s what looked pertinent:

First off, it’s convenient that this is a legend shared by the Chinese and the Japanese, so if we ever get a clear look at his tattoo, and if I’m right about the basic, overall design of it, then the Japanese fandom should immediately recognize the reference.

Considering the orientation of the swimming fish, how they travel up his arm, I think they are trying to make it over the waterfall. And the one on top, the one with its head coming up over his shoulder? It finally passed through Dragon’s Gate and is being rewarded by changing into the golden dragon. I believe the one at his shoulder represents himself, overcoming his obstacles and achieving his goals. Lau: A yellow/gold koi becoming a golden dragon.

Lau is highly adaptable, powerful, independent, rose quickly in the ranks of Qīng Bāng, is financially successful. The list could go on. Koi represents him perfectly.

Here’s where I consider the colors of the other two koi, because I think there might be three in total. We could be dealing with a tattoo that’s just in black, and if so, then these colors won’t matter. However, if they are in full color, then the one farthest down his arm (farthest away from Drgaon’s Gate) is black... according to the cover art for Volume IX. (I would include that image here, but I hit the image limit.)

The black koi could represent an earlier version or simply an aspect of himself, having overcome some obstacle. If it’s someone else, it would probably be his father.

If the one in the middle is not himself, it could be his mother. And if it also represents himself, red would be a good color for power and bravery.

The one at the shoulder might be changing into a golden dragon, so visually it would make sense (be aesthetically pleasing) for the fish to start out as gold, too. Perhaps this is a yellow and orange mixed koi, appearing golden, that symbolizes Lau’s fortune and wealth.

That top one would be a “dragon koi”... a powerful and ferocious beast that represents new beginnings. Let’s not forget that Lau suggested to our earl and his servants that they pick up and move to some faraway land to start over. That’s basically what he was doing, too. Even though he was the highest official in Qīng Bāng by the time he was setting sail to England, this was still like a fresh start or clean slate.

So... regardless of whom each koi represents, I now theorize:

The one at his shoulder is golden and transforming into a golden dragon. A golden “dragon koi”. It represents new beginnings, wealth, and good fortune.

The one in the middle (if there really are three) is red, representing things like power, bravery, and intense love.

The one that starts on his forearm, farthest away from the top or Dragon’s Gate, is black, representing strength and obstacles that have been overcome.

If only one represents himself, then it’s the golden one at the top. The red one would likely represent his mother, and the black one would likely represent his father.

Since the Jester archetype is “Self” centric, it’s entirely possible that they all represent him... either at different stages of his life or simply different aspects of himself.

If the tattoo is just black, then all the fish probably represent him, and the color symbolism no longer matters, except for the black. And perhaps gold, simply because the legend of the dragon koi still applies.

And I might as well plop this down here, too, while I’m at it.

What are his ultimate goals? The title page for ch170 strongly suggests that Lau thinks he’s nearing completion of them. What does he hope to accomplish in Wiltshire?

I think I know what would make our earl no longer interesting to Lau: if the kid gave up. Lau might see himself in our earl, just like Soma could relate. But way more so than Soma, who never knew true loss until just recently. He doesn’t want our earl to lose his fighting spirit in the face of so much pain and hardship. It would be sad... and boring.

Fish appearing up and down 7th Ave. South in Birmingham, Alabama in the restaurant/bar district the night of January 30th.

Pearl Jam - Riot Act - Album Review

Riot Act is the seventh record from the alternative rock band and is the first Pearl Jam record I purchased upon release in 2002. It was a few months after the albums release that I saw the band live for the first time, my first major concert. The concert was at the Irvine Medows Amphitheater, the last time the band would play the beautiful outdoor venue and is a venue that sadly was just recently torn down. Riot Act contained the bands most politically driven work and offered a very gloomy and angsty sound. After the release of Binaural the band had played the Roskilde Festival, where nine Pearl Jam fans were trampled to death and 30 others injured during the bands rainy, muddy set. This led to the band questioning continuation as a band and ultimately became the factor for why they quit playing festivals for the next 7 years. Seemed everything the band did from then on had more purpose and meaning especially when it came to social and political issues. Also, republican governor of Texas George W. Bush would be elected for president of the United States who manipulated the country into a war in the middle east after the tragic events that took place in New York on September 11 2001 and finally Dee Dee Ramone, bassis for the Ramones and Layne Staley singer of Alice in Chains and Mad Season both died in 2002 of an overdose to heroin. All of this played a role in the writing and production on Riot Act. The record would mark the first album produced by Adam Kasper, producer for Soundgarden and is also the first record with organist Boom Gasper who gets a big spotlight on the tracks “Love Boat Captain” and “I Am Mine” and was the last record with major label Epic Records.

With the band out of the spotlight completely now and many of the 90s bands disbanded the genres of new metal (Slipknot, Korn, Disturbed, System of a Down, Deftones) emo/pop punk (AFI, Green Day, Taking Back Sunday, My Chemical Romance, The Used) and post grunge (3 Doors Down, Staind, Puddle of Mudd, Seether, Creed, Nickleback) were dominating the radio. Pearl Jam didnt seem to fit the mold anywhere and nor did they want to, but after some time staying away from music videos on MTV, a silence they broke with the release of Yield in 1998, the band made a pretty big return offering 4 music videos from Riot Act that actually featured the band members and this time produced in a similar fashion as the record live raw and seemingly uncut. The videos feature the band paying the respected song live in a room and even the audio was captured in live form rather than the typical conceptual lip sync video you normally see. Pearl Jam would also partake in published interviews for the first time in 10 years with the release of this record. Some background behind the records concept, the name Riot Act comes from an English statute of 1715 which provided that if 12 or more persons assemble unlawfully and riotously, to the disturbance of the public peace, and refuse to disperse upon proclamation would be considered guilty of a felony. Being a very political record that stands against the President and the current policies, in a very tumultuous way, the records title would have likely been named after this Act, however an act that was implemented here domestically in the United States after 9/11 was the Patriot Act an Act of Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush. With its ten-letter abbreviation (USA PATRIOT) expanded, the full title is “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism”. The Act led to a lot of racial profiling and seemed to legally allow the FBI to wrongfully accuse individuals based on these racial profiles, which went against the 14th amendment in the US Constitution. The band may be calling this Act that president Bush signed as riotous or the patRIOT ACT. Either way the band is rioting in protest against the government on this record and for good reason. The records cover art was an artistic photo taken by Jeff Ament which features two skeletons wearing crowns appearing to be a king and prince. Two monarchs who lie dead smoldering in a tomb. A kingdom now just dusted ruins of what was. Based on the records themes Its safe to assume this fallen kingdom depicted had crumbled due to the greed, corruption and deception of its leadership and that tge skeletons may represent presidents Bush senior and Bush Jr.

Like the last couple records from the band each member brought songs to the table and collaboratively contributed to the writing process. The songs again here are more structured like their previous two records. Many times in the past, despite a couple records in the mid 90s, the band would redo parts over again when they feel mistakes were made in the recording of the songs or when they feel they could perform better with a second or third take, with this record many times the band would do one take and not overthink it. The record has a live soundscape and went through very little editing in the production department and written last minute and recorded in a very natural way, much like the bands No Code and Vitalogy records. If errors were made they were left in and would be apart of the final cut. Much of this record experiments with many sounds and styles like folk rock, and art rock. After the turn of the century organ and keyboards were a big instrument in music especially in the alternative rock genre. Bringing Boom Gasper into the band and incorporating him on their old songs in the live setting really opened the band to a much more dynamic sound and new styles. The guitars on the record are very textured. At times Mike McCreadys guitar tremolo effect mimics a Hammond Organ’s Leslie rotary speaker. Other times is soaked in tube driven distortion, delay and reverb. McCready and Stone Gossard really seems to be channeling guitarists Jimi Hendrix, John Fogerty,  Larry Parypa, Joe Strummer, Pete Townshend, Johnny Marr and Jimmy Page.

Riot Act opens up with “Cant Keep” a song that reminds me of Led Zeppelin’s “Poor Tom” with its rumbling drum beat and triad of guitars, slowly building with a gloomy, melodic, atmosphere like an impending storm. The song was originally written on ukulele by Eddie Vedder, but then transposed into the full band version. Many of the songs on Riot Act feature alternate tunnings like on the experimental and rhythmically unique love song “You Are” written by drummer Matt Cameron. The track features a guitar played through a drum machine giving a sound similar to The Smith’s “How Soon Is Now”, “All or None” a bittersweet, somber and folky tune and the dark and moody spoken word of “Bu$hleaguer” all feature varied tunnings. A few of the songs have a live, warm and acoustic rich ambiance to them like the tracks “I Am Mine”, “Bu$hleaguer”, “Cant Keep”, “All or None” and “Thumbing My Way” a song played by Jeff Ament on the upright bass. The track “Save You”, the fuzzy and grungy Mudhoney inspired “Ghost” and “Get Right”, and the blues stomping, bar rocking “1/2 Full” are some of the heavier tracks on the album; in fact “Save You” got so intense in the studio during the recording of the song, drummer Matt Cameron lost his headphones. He was able to finish the recording of the song by watching bassist Jeff Ament’s fingers as he played the bass. Cameron said “It was me watching Jeff’s fingers and hoping I was in time, you know? There’s a breakdown of just me and Jeff. I hit a cymbal, moved my head, and the headphones went flying.”  These songs capture a very Vitalogy era Pearl Jam while the song “Green Disease” has a drum driven pacing that reminds a bit of “Reviewmirror” from VS. and “Cropduster” is a midtempo rocker that contains a pounding tambourine and has a riff and rhythm very similar to Skid Rows “Into Another”, a band that also just so happens to have a song called “Riot Act”. Experimentation with vocals and harmony is more present this time around like on the tracks “Help Help”, and “Bu$hleaguer” as well as the track “Arc” is an experimental track that features layers of Eddies vocal harmony and is a tribute to those who died at Roskilde. Eddie’s vocals for the most part on this record are very subdued and laid back. Hes very much the mumbler hes always been but a bit more calm and centered even on the more energetic songs a sound and vocal style very similar to The Boss Bruce Springsteen especially on one of Eddie Vedders first acoustic written songs, “Thumbing My Way”.

Lyrically, much of the records messages revolve around love, loss and the struggle to stay positive after mournful events such as the September 11 attacks and the accidental death of nine fans during Pearl Jam’s performance at the 2000 Roskilde Festival, with a big emphasis on the theme of love and seeking positive leadership. The track “Love Boat Captain” a song that promotes love as an answer in a time of anger, grief and mourning and mentions those 9 fans who died when Vedder sings “Lost nine friends we’ll never know… two years ago today”. The song “Ghost” is about TV adds and their manipulative agenda and expresses how true love never fails. Vedder said “Love is one resource that the corporations aren’t going to be able to monopolize.” Empirical tracks like these as well as “Cropduster” a song about a self centered egoist, addresses the idea of Darwinism v Creationism and the optimistically determined and inner spirited waltzing “I Am Mine” were born from tragedy and in response to political angst and personal struggles. The words “We’re safe tonight” in “I Am Mine” are a reminder that the band and their audience or America in general will make it through ok, a hopeful notion in response to the Roskilde tragedy and 9/11. Also in the song Eddie writes “And the meaning it gets left behind. All the innocents lost at one time.” could refer to either Roskilde or 9/11. Eddie said “There’s been a lot of mortality…It’s a weird time to be writing. Roskilde changed the shape of us as people, and our filter for seeing the world changed.” Themes of exile, war, peace, friendship, past, greed, politics, changes and love as higher salvation, similar subjects found on their previous record Binaural but are presented with a bit more explicitness and passion here. “You start feeling like, ‘What do I have to say? What is my opinion?’ Then I realized I did have an opinion. Not only did I have one, but I felt like it was formed by processing a lot of information and having good influences.” Vedder said. Bassist Jeff Ament also added “I think the time’s right to turn our voice up a bit… And Ed did it in a great way, with humor and a mystical, magical approach. It isn’t just, ‘We’re pissed off, and fuck you! Riot! Anarchy!’ Cos I don’t think that’s the method. At least at this point.”

Many of the lyrics on Riot Act Eddie wrote last minute before recording and were written raw on a typewriter. Eddies lyrics can be seen in their typewriter form errors and all in the bands liner notes. Riot Act is Pearl Jam’s most politically direct and forward record up to its point. Its a record of protest and at times seems to attempt to change society for the better with songs like “Green Disease”, “Bu$hleaguer” and “1/2 Full,” being politically driven songs about a world lead by disconnected politicians and business men, and point out social classes, big corporate CEO business profits, the destruction of capitalism and President George W Bush’s influence on the country at the time. Vedder said, “I have to admit this record came out a bit one-sided, but I think we as a country need to understand why we’re involved in the Middle East. This hollow patriotism frightens me.” Singer Eddie Vedder said that Riot Act‘s lyrics “represent my state of mind these days. I’m optimistic yet disillusioned, hopeful yet frustrated.” “1/2 Full” reprises some lyrics and themes from their song “Porch” when Eddie sings “There’s ain’t gonna be/No middle anymore/It’s been said before.” The track “Save You” is an angry track that expresses the frustration of watching some one you care about waste their life away. The song may reflect the struggles with drug addictions that led to the fatal overdoses of Dee Dee Ramone, Layne Staley and John Entwistle in 2002. Eddie commented on the song that “One thing I’ve learned about addiction in the last few years is that having seen other folk go through it, and really not having done that, with heroin which can grip you that intensely. I didn’t have a complete understanding and a lot of times it was easy to come to the conclusion that you place blame on the person or accuse them of weakness or ask, “Why couldn’t Kurt [Cobain] keep it together?” There was always that in the back of your mind.” The song “Thumbing My Way” is a song about walking wounded with a broken heart but has hope for something positive down the road. Sometimes you hope for anything to come along and pick you up when you are down.

Finally Riot Act is one of my favorite Pearl Jam records, definitely in my top 5 and maybe from a bias stand point, but i truly think the band was very driven and inspired in a very deep way at the time even if it was being channeled from some dark places, a spark had ignited in the band. Where Eddie faced severe writers block on Binaural, Riot Act came at the perfect time when Eddie had a lot to say because he had a lot he was feeling. I love the diversity on Riot Act from experimentation to the rich folky art rock tunes to angsty moody garage rock vibe. It brings to mind an older more angry Pearl Jam. The record is like Vitalogy meets Yield. The angsty rebellion of Vitalogy meets the maturity and melodic drive of Yield. Its a record with determination for hope, love and positivity during a bleak and hopeless time. With the heavy collaboration in song writing on Riot Act, many songs were cut from the record. Songs like the Social Distortion inspired “Down”, as well as the folky Neil Young meets Phil Ochs “Last Soldier”, “Undone”, “Other Side”, and “4/20/02” a song written in tribute to Alice In Chains lead singer Layne Staley after his tragic heroin overdose. The date reflects the day Eddie Vedder had heard the news of the singers death. A spoken word song “Im Still Here” similar to “Im Open” sounds like it may have been more of the story behind Black or his recent divorce with ex wife Beth. Their cover of Sonics’ “Dont Believe In Christmas was recorded at this time too. If you like Temple of the Dog, Mad Season, The Rockfords, Soundgarden, Skin Yard, Brad, Wellwater Conspiracy, Hater, Candlebox, Three Fish, Mother Love Bone, Neil Young, Our Lady Peace, 3 Doors Down, Pete Yorn, The Doors, The Who, The Walkabouts, The Wallflowers, Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Pilots, Seether, Green River, Mudhoney, Seven Mary Three, Credence Clearwater Revival, Skid Row, Electronic, Sleater Kinney, Bruce Springsteen, The Clash, Led Zeppelin, or John Lennon you will love this record. If you voted for Bush youll probably hate it. My favorite songs are “Love Boat Captain”, “I Am Mine”, “Thumbing My Way”, “You Are”, “1/2 Full”, and “All or None”.

Binaural - Pearl Jam - Album Review

Binaural is the sixth record from respected alternative rock band Pearl Jam. It was around the time, in 2000, that this record was released when many people had forgotten about Pearl Jam and many of the other 90s rock bands from Seattle. Ironically it was actually around the time I discovered Pearl Jam and many of the 90s rock bands. I didnt catch wind of this record till a year after it was released though. I remember buying Binaural from Virgin Records along with Live on Two Legs the bands compilation of live performances from the bands Yield tour. This record was very different from anything Pearl Jam released prior, Yield included. It had a much different energy and really utilized the space in the songs. This record like No Code took me some time to understand. This change in pacing and sound was in part because of the bands switch in producers. This would mark the first record for producer Tchad Blake, who was chosen as the replacement for long time producer for the band Brendan O’Brien and also marked the bands first record with new drummer Matt Cameron who was best known for his work with Soundgarden before their departure. Binaural refers to the recording technique used on the record and literally means to listen with both ears.

Binaural takes a pretty different approach in recording style, which is where the record gets its title. Tchad Blake was chosen to produce the record because he was known for this Binaural style recording. The album was recorded using a technique where two microphones were used to create a 3D stereophonic sound an effect that simulates being in the studio with the band. Regarding producer Tchad Blake guitarist Stone Gossard said “He was just there for us the whole time, wanting us to create different moods.” This record marked some difficulties for the band members, such as Eddie Vedder suffering from writers block, which inspired the hidden track consisting entirely of typewriter noises after the last track “Parting Ways” which features, for the first time, a string arrangement. This frustration of coming up with ideas led to Eddie picking up a ukulele for the first time to inspire him on “Soon Forget” but also it led to heavy influences on the record like on that same track which musically almost completely rips off the Who’s ukulele song “Red, Blue, and Grey” and the track “Breakerfall” sounds like “I Can See For Miles” also by The Who with its Townshend’s style windmill guitar strums while “Nothing As It Seems” guitarist Mike McCready performs a couple vicious solos on a track with a guitar tone, structure and mood similar to “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd. At the time of recording Binaural, McCready had been struggling with Crohn’s disease, which led to an addiction to prescription drugs. McCready had again checked into a rehab center during the recording process.

Also like Yield Binaural included creative input from all member of the band including the newest addition drummer Matt Cameron collaboratively writing both the music and lyrics. Much of the structures here incorporate a lot of experimenting but not in the lo-fi, stripped back kind of way that was present prior to Yield but much more of a mature and professional experimenting with guitar effects like swirling choruses vibratos, phasers and delay. If Pearl Jams previous records were Young, Stones, Zeppelin and Beatles records Binaural is definitely Pearl Jam’s Floyd record. In “Nothing As It Seems”, one of my favorites, the band really creates a very atmospheric sound like on much of the record with the use of the Binaural recording technique but also with the song structures and instrumentation as well. A song written by bassists Jeff Ament who uses a moaning upright bass which contributes to much of the songs atmosphere as well. Mike McCready plays a very eerie, echoing, psychedelic David Gilmour-esque solo and guitar melody, and as I said earlier, similar to “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd, with just a sight more edge in his tone. Other times McCreadys guitar tone also pulls influence from Mick Taylor and Eric Clapton on the bluesy, moody track “Of The Girl” a song similar to clapton’s “After Midnight”. Singer Eddie Vedder said this about the production, “It’s a type of recording that’s called binaural recording. There’s several ways to do it, whether there’s two microphones clipped here [motions to both temples by ear], to not just record the instruments, but record the air around the instruments. You can hear, there’s a song called ‘Of The Girl.’ You know you can hear Mike’s, Mike McCready’s guitar. You can really feel the space of the room. That is something that you kind of miss from modern recordings…” “Insignificance” and “Evacuation” are very rhythmic and drum driven tracks and are arguably the most complex songs up to this point with their layered build, complex, unpredictable timing and beats (thanks to new drummer Matt Cameron) echoing vocals and atmosphere. Many of the songs burn slower though than most of their back catalog.with texture and atmosphere being the focal point like the meditative and experimental “Sleight of Hand”, “Of The Girl”, “Thin Air” and “Parting Ways”. While a couple of the tracks are some of the bands heaviest like “Breakerfall”, “Evacuation” “Grievance” and ”Gods Dice”.

The album artwork features The Hourglass Nebula. The image is a Nasa photo of a planetary nebula, an “expanding, glowing shell of ejected ionized gas” some 8,000 light-years from Earth, apart of a binary system that was taken from the Hubble Space Telescope. Jeff Ament said, “The reason that we went with Tchad [Blake] is because he provides an amazing atmosphere to songs….So, I think we wanted the artwork to represent that….One of the themes that we’ve been exploring…is just realizing that in the big scheme of things, even the music that we make when we come together, no matter how powerful it is, it’s still pretty minuscule. I think for me the whole space theme has a lot to do with scale. You know, you look at some of those pictures, and there are thirteen light years in four inches in that picture.” Much like many planetary nebulae this record is also extremely complex and varies in its morphologies, incorporating my different genres, neopsychadelia, folk rock, garage rock, blues, indie rock and moody post punk undertones. The records title, atmosphere and themes as they are compared to the cover art are phenomenally accurate. About one-fifth of planetary nebulae are roughly spherical, but the majority are not spherically symmetric. The mechanisms that produce such a wide variety of shapes and features are not yet well understood, but binary central stars, stellar winds and magnetic fields may play a role. Each song a bit different from one another but created from the same energy.

Like the music on the record, the lyrics cover much darker and more somber subject matter like war, peace, violence, authority abuse, discomfort in life and love, especially when compared to the bright uplifting mood of their previous record Yield. One of the sadder but most beautiful tracks to ever be written by Pearl Jam is “Sleight of Hand” a song that brings to mind The Great Gatsby or  the character Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman” where the character in the song realizes what he always believed adult life to be was not what he thought or hoped it to be and the dreams he’d had as a child would never be achievable, ultimately tricked by the so called “American Dream”. Some political and social issues regarding civil liberties are stated in songs like “Evacuation” a song about embracing change and “Insignificance” and “Grievance” songs questioning the significance behind the 1999 Seattle WTO protests and speaks of the dehuminization and detachment effects from technology beginning around the turn of the century and the adverse affects of political struggle. The song “Rival” reflects on the 1999 Columbine High School shooting. At the time the deadliest school shooting in American history. The shooting was influenced by their desire to rival the Oklahoma City bombing and other deadly incidents in the United States in the 1990s. Vedder had this to say regarding some of the sadder themes and social criticisms and political themes within the lyricism on Binaural, “I think what everyone’s looking for, y'know, is freedom…That’s part of being comfortable in your own skin. I know I had a problem with being told what to do, and had a problem with being mentally and physically constricted. All of humanity is searching for freedom and I think it’s important to know when you have it, too.”

The album covers some very personal feelings and topics like spiritual beliefs on the track “Gods’ Dice” which is a song that judges anyone with a belief system. “Nothing As It Seems” is about something that appears one way from an outside perspective but is viewed a whole other way when you’ve seen from inside. Other times Eddie is mourning the loss over someone who has past on to a place that is not of this world but might just possibly still be reachable within the cosmic universe somewhere on the Neil Young inspired “Light Years”. Vedder not only suffered from some writers block, but also had some personal turmoil in his love life and marriage which came to an end during the time of this records recording. I feel songs reflect this inner turmoil in songs like “Breakerfall” and “Of The Girl” a song about relying heavily on love as a drug to where when its gone you’re left vulnerable and having withdraws. “Parting Ways” a song about a separation of two lovers. Many songs are very expressive emotionally and send the message of you can define your own life or let your life define you. “Soon Forget” is about a man who lets the material world and the size of his wallet define him and in the end hes like the money he defines himself by, here today gone tomorrow.

I feel Binaural gets overlooked even by the band themselves. Its a record that gets neglected most live and probably the first record to really get neglected by the mainstream radio, bytbreally anything after Vitalogy or even VS never gets airplay. The band still not perusing mainstream marketing in interviews and no music videos came from this record. Any mainstream success present during the early 90s for the band was definitely long gone. With Matt Cameron on board live performances became a primary for the focus at this time for the band. Reaching their 10 year anniversary as a band they were definitely paving their road to the Hall of Fame. Binaural really proved to be a huge progressive step for the band trying and experimenting with new things from production, structure, textures and instrumentation. Its not quite as good of a record as Yield or even their next effort in 2002, but I think its a record that makes sense as a bridge between the two records and at the time was a record youd expect from Pearl Jam being a sort of evolution in progression. Its brash, calming, atmospheric, personally emotive and expressive. Tragedies would soon follow after the release of this record that would play a big role on the bands seventh record that would leave the band questioning their purpose of even existing. Despite Eddies writers block he had been dealing with during the writing of the record a lot of songs were cut from the record such as “Sad”, a song that sounds like something off Sleater Kinney’s Hot Rock album and “Fatal” an acoustic ballad, and theres the grungy “In the Moonlight”, “Education”, “Sweet Lew”, which is a song led sung by Jeff Ament. “Hitchhiker”, the Three Fish inspired “Strangest Tribe”, and the folky acoustic “Drifting”. My favorite songs are “Light Years”, “Nothing As It Seems”, “Sleight of Hand”, “Of The Girl”, “Gods’ Dice”, and “Thin Air”. If you like Matthew Good Band, Temple of the Dog, Candlebox, Soundgarden, Finn Brothers, Wellwater Conspiracy, Supergrass, Stillwater, Mad Season, The Dismemberment Plan, Life House, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Three Fish, Pink Floyd, Neil Finn, The Verve Pipe, Brad,  The Rockfords, Mother Love Bone, Josh Freese, Neil Young, The Who, Seven Mary Three, Skin Yard, Stone Temple Pilots, Hater, Stegosaurus, Smashing Pumpkins, The Doors, Chris Cornell, Foo Fighters, or Red Hot Chili Peppers you will love this record.