Nirvassive Attana Nevermind the Mezzanine

Nirvana Nevermind vs. Massive Attack Mezzanine:

Sorry to have taken so long once again. Also damn the taxes.

Let me take you back to high school jazz band. There are only two or three people in my school who actually know how to play guitar but my band teacher is a pretty good jazz guitarist and oboe player and used to teach at a military academy, so there's definitely going to be a guitar in jazz band, sir, yes sir! The first guitar player—who actually liked jazz—graduated from high school so the other guitar player took his place. This guy was a huge Ramones fan and was in a punk-ish band with the drummer in jazz band who, since there aren't that many rock n roll kids to go around, was also kind of a Deadhead. Every day when concert/marching/pep band practice ends and jazz band begins, the Ramones fan guitar player pops over to his guitar, plugs in and goes "dun da dut. cha dut da dut dut dah, dun da dut. chucka chucka chun dut... and the drummer says, "no, man, it's dun da dut cha dut da dut dut DAH dun da dut," and I feel completely out of the loop because I'm still really into Petra. This is my first exposure to "Smells Like Teen Spirit." It might have been two years later in college before I actually heard the song. Yes, it and the rest of Nevermind was pretty important in pop music history and helped to change things in some pretty awesome ways, but the damn drums sound like Rush. Not in the size of the set, but the size of the sound. It's all polished and touched with just the right amount of reverb. It doesn't make sense with this album and I think it's what has kept me from being into it much in the past. If I had been listening to much good music at the time, I think it's likely that I would have really liked this album and then it would have stuck with me and I would defend it to the death. I think I just missed the train on this one.

By the time Massive Attack's Mezzanine came out I was listening to some decent music and this pushed my musical boundaries a little further toward darkness. I kind of appreciate that. I think this decision does come down to history (sorry if there's been too much of that in my decision making here) more than anything else, but also I sometimes think, "I'd like to listen to Mezzanine," and I almost never think that about Nevermind.

Oh, one more thing. The second song on Mezzanine, "Risingson," reminds me of this. Or vice versa.