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?

Hey, can anyone explain "drop-tuning", as in this example:

Guns N' Roses used to drop-tune at least a half step quite frequently, such as Sweet Child O' Mine. Rage Against the Machine would frequently drop a whole step, as in Killing in the Name. That is the kind of depth and power I wanted to infuse into my arrangement of Watchtower, while simultaneously acknowledging Dylan's original choice of key.

I know both of the songs referenced, and I don't get what's being referrenced. I don't think he's talking about a modulation in the song -- does it have something to do with the tuning of the instruments?

I would guess so.

Okay, so having looked at Wikipedia, he means that the instruments are tuned a half step or whole step below standard guitar tuning?

There are many different drop tunings. The most common is where the top E-string, the lowest-note string, is tuned down to a D. So instead of E-A-D-G-B-E, you have D-A-D-G-B-E. This makes it easier to play certain chords.

In this case, it looks like they may be talking about lowering all the strings by a half or whole step, making it easier to transpose a song down a half or whole step. You can use a capo to transpose a song UP, but tuning all the strings down is one way to easily do the opposite.