many adolescent "metalheads" are extremely bright and often use the music to help them deal with the stresses and strains of being gifted social outsiders.

I just have to say it...these logical fallacies are so common in newspaper writing about studies, and so avoidable!

t feels validated in his Tool love anyway

Strangely enough, I think this is probably true of both Rush and Ayn Rand, based on my memories of smart-but-isolated teenagers I knew. To both I now say: Oh, the humanity!

This is where I scuff my shoe and try to hide the decade-long Rush obsession I once held. I never listen to them any more. Not sure I even have any of their stuff, though I once posessed more or less their whole catalog. Don't even miss them, though I think back on them fondly.

Never read Ayn Rand, though. I think I got three pages into Telemachus Sneezed Atlas Shrugged before laying the book aside forever with a hearty "Oh, screw this."

feels validated in his Tool love

Oooookay... Sure you don't want to rephrase that? Tool-love notwithstanding.

OK, here's another band that I've never heard of but downloaded after I saw it recommended on eMusic: El-p, I'll Sleep When You're Dead.

Rather than try to describe it I'll just copy the eMusic blurb.

In the five years since he released the aggro rap classic Fantastic Damage, El-P has become even more paranoid. On this, his second solo LP, the Brooklyn-based beatmaker/MC takes the listener on a bumpy ride through his New York state of mind. It’s a dark journey. Packed with thumping drums, frantic machine gun vocals, cyborg fantasies and synth lines worthy of John Carpenter, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead blends together the best elements of Company Flow's Little Johnny from the Hospital, Cannibal Ox’s The Cold Vein and Fantastic Damage. The album comes with an intriguing guest list, cleverly utilising the distinctly un-hip-hop talents of: Trent Reznor, Tunde Adebimpe from TV on the Radio, members of the Mars Volta, former Chavez frontman Matt Sweeney, Yo La Tengo's James McNew, Head Automatica’s Daryl Palumbo and Cat Power's Chan Marshall. The result is a musically engrossing, if somewhat oppressive, internal war report from one of hip-hop’s most consistently imaginative producers.

It's awesome! And it rocks! And, um... other good stuff!

tr, I've heard nothing but good things about them from the blogosphere. I'm sure I have a track tucked away somewhere, but I've managed to fuck up my ipod (for the fourth time!) so I will just say that I'm pretty sure they rock.

OK, I think Zepp's "Immigrant Song" has been forever ruined for me. I can't listen to it without picturing Viking kittens.

Ha! I know what you mean, but I think it was ruined for me the moment I figured out the words.

I can't listen to it without picturing Viking kittens.

How do you know that wasn't Robert Plant's intention when he wrote the song?