In My Ears: One Man Army – Our Lady Peace

Today I understand news that a teen shot up his high school, somewhere in Los Angeles*. I also read today that a Vermont teen shot himself in the school washrooms during finals.

. . .

I heard this song today, and it made me think of these boys… wondering how alienated they must have felt to be so fucking tragic at such a young age…

This song reminds me of the song Subdivisions by Rush – a song I love, even though it’s not their best song ever, and it was at a semi-questionable time in their musical lives (read: lots of synthesizers) – but it was about alienation. It made me shiver.

This song “>One Man Army, by Our Lady Peace is intense. It’s intense poetry, about a intense stuff, with an intense dude singing it. (Or at least, he always seems to sing kind of intensely, to me – I’ve never met the guy.) It’s like the more modern day version of what Subdivisions was to me then.

Anyway, the first time I heard the words overlooked, unfit appearance I was rocked. Raine Maida has a way with vocal phrasing I really, really dig. It sounds interesting to me. I like it. It made me feel like I was fifteen years old. Worried. Dreadful. Scared. And at the same time, it’s like a power song to me, strangely. (It’s got a super-groovy bass going too…)

Everyone wants so much to fit. Somewhere.

I love this song.

I worry about young kids sometimes. Look what they do to themselves?

G.G.

NOTE: Raine Maida also reminds me of someone I liked a whole bunch once upon a time, but that’s besides the point.

*Amendment: As it turns out, the shooting in Los Angeles was a result of a gun accidentally going off when a school bag was dropped. But why the teen had a gun at school, I will never know.