Social Consumption of Alcohol

I enjoy the occasional alcoholic drink and there are times when I have a few too many, but in general I don't enjoy being drunk.

As with many teenagers who start to become able to purchase alcohol (whether legally or not), I went through the whole drink vast quantities to prove how much I could hold my drink when I was younger. The upshot of which was generally, however much you can take, you drink far more than this, end up losing most of your inhibitions, being very ill, spending far too much and not remembering any of it in the morning making it a utter waste of time.

Saw this advert at the cinema recently, which seems to cover the point quite well:

(Direct Link)

As I've grown up, I've opted to drink less, but move towards spending a bit more for something that actually tastes nice. Whereas, my aim as a teenager was to get drunk, now it's just to enjoy the drink. If I drink too much then it's because I've not being paying attention to how much I've drunk rather than because I've been deliberately aiming to drink that much and even then I don't get near the states I got into as a teenager.

However, even as a grown adult you still get into situations where peer pressure is pushing you to drink more than you really want.

Recently I ended up the pub with some friends, I had a pint and socialised for a bit, but not feeling like I wanted a second I wandered off for a bit, returning about 2 hours later. By that time they'd had a few more pints and were quite merry, which is obviously up to them if they want to.

From what I gathered when I got back, there had been a few of them buying drinks for another member of the group. Nothing wrong with that in itself as it's just friendly. However, what they'd been doing was buying doubles without telling her, which has been bothering me since I found out. If someone chooses to get drunk that's one thing, but if others around them are actively seeking to make them drunk then that's going against their free will.

You hear many horror stories of people who have had things like Rohipnol placed in their drink. While I'm fairly sure that no one here was trying to take advantage in that way, placing extra alcohol in someones drink is still the same abuse of someone's free will even if the result is more socially acceptable.

For all I know they could have all been perfectly happy with the situation. I didn't really stick around very long afterwards to find out.

To me, being drunk isn't a fun state to be in, so actively seeking to get someone else drunk is just seeking to make a fool out of them. How can that possibly be a good thing?

Pumpkin Synthesis

So, the next CD in the pile is the Smashing Pumpkins' Adore from 1998.

The Smashing Pumpkins somehow missed my radar when I was a teenager other than for a general awareness that the band existed. It wasn't until university that I actually really listened to any of their music through this album and it's predecessor Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Even then, although I found it interesting, I never really got into it.

Several years later, I found this copy in a local record shop for £2, so picked it up and gave it another listen... and another... and another and it keeps growing on me.

It was around this time that music fashion appeared to turn back towards synthesisers under the influence of bands such as Aphex Twin and there were several grungy rock bands trying out more synthesised styles to varying degrees of success. The Pumpkins with their art rock sound naturally seem to have the blend these bands were trying for without any effort. In some ways it takes the arena dance rock of the likes of Depeche Mode and angst-ridden playfulness of bands like the Cure and does the unthinkable and attempts to add even more drama to it. Somehow it works, seemlessly moving between orchestral synthesisers, heavy rock guitars and more acoustic stuff.

Adore came out after the dismissal of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin from the band which was taken as an opportunity to update the bands style. It's quite a while since I last heard Melon Collie, so how much of a change it represents I cannot say, but it certainly shows heavy leanings toward drum machines alongside it's multitude of studio drummers.

One of the things that makes this album so interesting, is the huge variety of styles of the tracks. Whatever you could say about the band, you couldn't accuse them of having only one sound on this album.

Of all the tracks the one that really stands out to me is Pug, which wonderfully melts between orchestral synthesisers and rocking guitar making strong use of both the acoustic drum kit and electric drum machine.

The first single from the album Ava Adore also demonstrates the sound quite well and the video also shows off the dramatic eccentricity of the band, so here it is:

(Direct Link)

There are a multitude of artists promoting themselves through the internet on the likes of facebook and twitter, but billycorgan is the first one I've heard of on LJ.