Dissecting Puscifer

Puscifer is a band created by Maynard James Keenan, the lead singer in bands A Perfect Circle and Tool. Other permanent members besides Keenan are Matt Mitchell and Carina Round. Puscifer debuted in the early 2000s and is still active in making music today, their most recent album being, Existential Reckoning. Puscifer is very different from Keenan's other bands. This music is for more of a personal musing, putting together, blending more self-reflection and "sophomoric humor." One thing I like about Keenan's songwriting is how different the perspective can be. He can flip on you from song to song, forcing you to think about what he is trying to say, sometimes nothing. He can give you a piece about a drunk with hallucinations (Conditions of My Parole). And then, a song is about humanity trying to come to terms with the fact that they can't conquer everything but must come together to truly succeed (The Humbling River). It is definitely not for everyone; if I were to describe them to someone who had no idea who they were, they are significantly outside the box, weird (but in a good way), and entertaining to watch live. Their live presence is terrific. You can tell there is a lot of hard work put into their sets, and the videos prepared between breaks they play are entertaining to watch. Many Tool and A Perfect Circle fans will know this about Keenan. Still, he does not allow any recordings or pictures during his concerts. It is a huge deal; you will be taken out of the facility if caught doing so. As I have said, Puscifer is more of a personal outlet for Keenan which some people may not like since it isn't explicitly made for the people but for himself. And that is why I enjoy the idea of all of it so much, and the music overall is well-made and has unique sounds I haven't heard before.

Conditions Of My Parole follows Billy D. as the main character. Billy D. is portrayed by Keenan in music videos and such. But when it comes to the song itself, it is fascinating. As I was trying to research and see different people's takes on what they think the song's meaning is, there are so many different interpretations. But I do believe that many people are complicating it. It is honestly just a song about a drunk who is out on parole. Getting so drunk, he blacks out and thinks he even committed murder to something truly evil and will come back for him. Because he thinks this, he carries a gun with him and gets arrested. He even admits to the "murder" and tells the police where the body is. Still, they find nothing because he did not do any of that. He is just blackout drunk. As for the instrumentals, I enjoy them a lot, has a great guitar riff at the beginning. And it has some electronic stuff in there that makes it sound unique. The instrumentals are loud and chaotic, fitting what the song is about. Even throughout the music, they have some parts where it's just vocals, and the instruments come back in, which sounds fantastic.

The Remedy is off of the album called Money $hot. This song is about how detached we are from the real issues in our society. Instead, we worry about how many likes we get on our Instagram posts instead of worrying about what it takes to survive. To have food and water, to keep a roof over our heads. Some of my favorite lyrics are, "Haters, isolators. No one misses these. Bitches receive stitches. Trolls receive 86s. Yes, we're being condescending. Yes, that means we're talking down to you. With all that racket that your lips a-flapping. We assumed you didn't notice." This shows that we are too caught up in other things to notice what's happening. I recommend looking at the linked video below. This song is incredibly catchy and well-written.