Rock music - Coheed & Cambria

Cafe Society
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I don’t know if many of you guys have heard of Coheed & Cambria, but if you like good music then you might as well be informed now. Coheed & Cambria play rock music. I have seen it mostly defined as ProgRock/Emo, but it has influences in all categories from punk to metal.

The vocalist Claudio Sanchez, IMHO, has one of the greatest voices in the industry. I used to think Davey Havok(AFI) or Thrice’s vocalist were good, but I hadnt heard of Co&Ca at that time. Your opinion is subject to change, most likely for the reason that he has high vocals and can sound like a girl at times. But the only illistrates partly his vocal range hitting the high notes and getting some screamo lyrics in there (when needed of course).

What makes me love a band, is usually their originality, and the good lyrics and vocals. I don’t want another pop-punk band like blink 182 or sum 41 playing in my stereo, with songs usually consisting of uninventive lyrics and 4 chords per rhythm. I like a band that has some great instrumentals, not limiting that to guitar solos and stuff. Great bass lines and nice drum beats that go along with riffs that are actually hard to play, instead of untalented punk bands just coming up with some stupid easy riff.
But also the lyrics are great, and are very weird. Most of them follow a dark line of evil inside each song or some oddity that makes you think.

But one massively unique (atleast I have not heard of any other band do something of this sort, please correct me if im wrong and tell me what other bands are such geniuses to produce such a great idea) feature about Co&Ca is that all their songs and CD’s follow a story line. Their debut album is the 2nd one in the story, and their latest album (release 10/10/03) is the 3rd. Now, most of the lyrics are hard to follow, and if you listend to the cds and read the lyrics, you would be saying: “This is supposed to be a story?” Well, I dunno, to tell you the truth, I have only read up so much about the band.

But what makes this concept even cooler, is the fact that a novel/comic book are being planned.
The whole story line is a sci-fi love story between 2 characters, Coheed and Cambria. I believe it is set to a post apocalyptic era.

Man, I’ve rambled on and on about Co&Ca, :rolleyes:, and I EXTREMELY doubt there are many people reading this final message, but just check 'em out.
If you like good music (rock/punk/metal/hardcore rock/emo/progrock/indie rock/etc…) Check out a great, original, up and coming band.

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And if you like them, you could listen to even better bands in that genre, such as Thrice, Thursday, and From Autumn To Ashes.

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I’ve listened to those three you stated. Thrice is quite good, I must say, but their latest album is going in to the direction of mainstream pop. I’ve been listening to them for a few years.

Thursday… Well, any band you discover on MTV is usually not going to be too promising. They’re ok… but not that good.

From Autumn to Ashes, I’ve only skimmed the surface. Only listened to a few songs a long time ago when a friend referred them to me. I kinda forgot about em.

There was a Thrice, Thursday, Co&Ca show in Seattle 27th… but its sold out, and I was broke at the time they went on sale. And in my experience in rock shows, they aren’t much fun by yourself. And, surprisingly, none of my friends wished to attend this show… So that ws kind of discouraging.

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I have tickets to the Thrice/Thursday/Coheed show in Oregon on the 28th, and I saw Thrice & Coheed with Hot Water Music last Halloween. It was fun times. I’m not too into Thursday; I bought the tickets for Thrice, but I enjoyed Coheed’s show last time. It should be fun.

The lead singer does have a very, um, unique voice. It’s remarkably high pitched. I’ve heard people call Davey Havok a girl because of his voice–hah, it is to laugh. Nothing compared to this man’s. A lot of people don’t seem to like it, but I think it’s cool and fun to listen to.

I don’t think Thrice’s new album sounds like mainstream pop. Mainstream pop sounds like Thrice. Ultra-Blue (from their first album) is poppier than anything off “The Artist and the Ambulance.” But screamo is in vogue now, what with the Used and Hot Topic and all, and it wasn’t back then.

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I don’t like any of the other bands mentioned in this thread – Thrice, Thursday, The Used and From Autumn To Ashes. Admittedly I haven’t given them much chance; I couldn’t name a Thursday song if you pulled a gun on me. But I’ve been regularly exposed, believe me, and I’m probably not alone in thinking that all of these emo (or whatever you want to call it) bands seem so ridiculously bland and uninspired, they make angst sound sedative. To me they are like one notch above: “save me from this nothing I’ve become” - type nü-metal bands. It’s the music your little sister listens to, it’s mallpunk, little sister rock.

Off course, this is just my opinion.

I’ve never listened to Coheed & Cambria, but you make a great case gyt_fx, I might check them out.

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Um, From Autumn To Ashes is not “mallpunk”. It’s actually some of the hardest, not to mention most inspired music being written today. You should probably check them out, they’re quite different than the other bands mentioned.

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I know it’s fashionable for all the hardcore scenesters to despise the new school screamo type bands, but I still like Thrice three years after I first discovered them. I listen to a pretty large variety of indie-style music–everything from Bane to Cursive–and I don’t find Thrice “bland and uninspiring” at all. They write songs based on e.e. cummings’ poems, for God’s sake. I also really like the guitar work–it’s far more inspired than most punk and fun to listen to, in my opinion. Of course, all music is opinion, so whatever. But I do recommend giving them a chance. You could try "Deadbolt.

My little sister hates Thrice, by the way. But I don’t mind when she likes my music–she digs the Clash.

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Yea Tanaqui… It is more of a factor of, mainstream pop listening like Thrice. Ive listened to Thrice for years… and I am just fearing that their newer music will be more geared to expand their fanbase and create hit songs that will be played on MTV.
Lots of these bands should be casted as actors… because all they are doing is acting and trying create songs that sounds like theyre hardcore and that their songs have meaning. I dont believe a word of it.

Thrice’s lyrics are quite good, and the vocals are just plain great, ranging from highly melodic to screamo, and the instrumentals are great. Thrice is one of my favorite bands, but Co&Ca is just great because, they are original (which Thrice kind of is… just kinda being copied), and there arent any other bands like em.

I listen to lots of music. Lots of shit, lots of crap, some decent stuff, and sometimes some truly great music. Usually great music, for me, has to be original and not sound exactly like this other cd I own by another band. Co&Ca possesses that originality, and I love it.

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Fashionable? I think sensible is a better word. I’m not a hardcore scenester at all; I’m just a music nerd, I haven’t been to a hardcore show in three or four years and I really don’t care about what’s punk and what’s not anymore. On the other hand I do care about good music and these bands do absolutely nothing for me.

I tried ‘Deadbolt’ as you suggested. These lyrics:

“And I’m almost sure
That I’ve been here before,
That this is not the first time I’ve stood in front of this door,
With an overwhelming feeling that I shouldn’t go in,
But it seems this is a battle that I never could win.”

…sounds pretty “bland and uninspired” to me, and some other words comes to mind as well. The guitars sound like Bad Religion (this is not positive) and off course there is a melodic lead singer and a crazy-as-possum-fuck back up singer tearing his larynx, not very convincingly I might add, in the background. To me it just sounds incredibly generic.

I’m not trying to pick a fight or anything; there really isn’t any right or wrong when it comes to music. You’d probably dislike my favorite band.

But I would like to recommend you the song ‘New Noise’ by a great band called Refused, they were probably the last hardcore band I actually cared about, even though they were Swedish and wore funny hats.

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Coheed and Cambria aren’t bad, but I liked their last album better than the new one. The singer’s voice reminds me of Geddy Lee from Rush to some extent. I actually skipped their appearance here in St. Louis because they were with Thrice and Thursday, who can be too emo-ish for me, and also because I wasn’t too impressed with their latest disc.

And Hüsker Düde, you’re right, Refused frickin rule(d).

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I’ve listened to Refused before, thanks, and yeah, they do rule.

But saying those lyrics are uninspired is a little unfair–as they are, in fact, inspired by one of the most important works of literature in the world–namely, the Bible. Specifically Proverbs 9:13-18, which say (in the New International version):

13 The woman Folly is loud;
she is undisciplined and without knowledge.
14 She sits at the door of her house,
on a seat at the highest point of the city,
15 calling out to those who pass by,
who go straight on their way.
16 “Let all who are simple come in here!”
she says to those who lack judgment.
17 “Stolen water is sweet;
food eaten in secret is delicious!”
18 But little do they know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of the grave.

The lyrics echo this in saying:

“And she calls from the doorway ‘Stolen water is so sweet,
so let’s drink in the darkness, if you know what I mean’
…
and you! my true love!
you call from the hilltops, you call through the streets,
“Darling don’t you know, the water is poison.”
and I say “Come on and give me my poison.”
…
What have I done?
Is it too late to save me from this place?
from the depths of the grave?”

Yeah, anyways, I’ve probably dragged this far enough offtopic as it is–sorry. I just dislike it when people dismiss bands for reasons that do not strike me as particularly sensible.

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Refused - New noise is a good song. Lots of screamo stuff in it, but its good.
Quite hardcore.

Suggestions for any other bands? I believe myself to be quite knowledgeable about most bands… However some I find and I’m like, why had I never heard of these guys before? Such as Co&Ca, Billy Talent, or Thrice (a long time ago).

Billy Talent… Anyone heard of them? I can only find one of their CD’s and it says in on of their Bio’s that they had a large underground following… which would usually mean they had CD’s and songs and stuff before moving to a major record. Anyone know about it?
About the lyrics… and Co&Ca. Just listen to some of the them and you will understand that its not just meaningless crap they put in to rhyme (yet most of the time it doesnt rhyme… but it sounds good).

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So what if it’s inspired by the bible? Everybody and their mom are inspired by the bible. The part I quoted, along with most of the song, is still clichéd run of the mill scribbled-on-the-back-of-a-math-book-during-recess generic angsty mush. But come on, I’m judging a band based on only one song here, it’s not like my words carry a lot of weight.

gyt_fx check out Rites of Spring, if you haven’t already, they were the first band to be slapped with the dubious emo moniker, even though front man Guy Picciotto (of Fugazi) doesn’t recognize emo as a genre. The song ‘For Want Of’ is a good place to start.

What’s screamo? That’s the silliest word I have ever heard. Bob Mould and Ian Mackaye screamed a lot, but no one called him screamo.

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K, i will check them out.

Screamo, to my understanding, is pretty muchly screaming emo. Not hardcore devilish metal screaming, but screaming that goes along with emo music.
Tanaqui: Did you figure that out yourself? or check out a site?
If theres a site for meanings of songs by Thrice or others, could ya give a URL here please?

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well favourite bands at the moment are coheed and cambria, thursday, and funeral for a friend (british band). Thats in that genre of emo/screamo/hardcore/emocore or whatever it is.

Ive loved Coheed for about 9 months or so and like gyt_fx i look for music that is original and where every song sounds different on the album.

Te Sci-fi story that you talk about I think is just so so good to have on an album, the songs are just packed with emotion and meaning and thats one of the reasons why I love it.

The story is that the two characters coheed and cambria are male and female and were in some space mission until something happened like some sort of invasion and the male character got possessed by something alien and started killing people I think.

The songs are basically about dealing with the monster that has possessed him and his message to his friends and family and
stuff.

The first time I heard this band I was just gobsmacked at the guys voice, so like nothing i had heard, and had to listen to them all the time and i used to think about the music when i wasn’t listening to it which has never happened before.

I just love how haunting the music is and they are obviously really talented cause the music in the background is so impressive. especially the fast quiet guitar playing in the background of Everything Evil.

What I wouldn’t give to see this band live though I cant wait for them to tour alone. When Thursday came into town with Coheed supporting I’d only found out about it a few weeks before and it was sold out, and when I went along to get a ticket off a tout, they were very sparce and the touts were selling them for £60 (about $90-100) so I was extremely pissed off as I couldnt afford it and neither could my friend. They are getting big over here though I reckon they will definitely be touring alone sometime in the near future.

amy

PS. I was ultra shocked when I saw a thread about Coheed and Cambria on here as I was gonna post on but thought it would just cause a huge debate about new music and might have gotten a bit heated, so come on now guys lets not get out of hand with our view points :wink: