There is no such thing as objectivity. It does not exist. I don’t care what anyone tells you. I don’t give a rat’s ass what the journalism 101 textbook says. Everything you read, right down to the back of the cereal box, has a slant or an angle.



The reason is simple. It’s impossible for a writer to divorce his personal experiences — biases and preferences — from his work. These are the things that make a person a person, and as sickeningly Hallmark as it sounds, everyone’s different. The only lens anyone has ever seen the world through is his own. Think about that after three herbal jazz cigarettes. A writer can learn to report both sides of the story and play by all of the ridiculous rules of “objective journalism,” but the subtle tones, word choices, style, and even sentence structure always tells the truth. Writers are not robots, and they shouldn’t pretend to be in the name of objectivity.

Because, after all, objectivity doesn’t exist.



This is why I’ve made a habit out of explaining who I am and where I come from. The only way to reveal any truth in this world is through common experience. By understanding who I am, the words I write have a home. When you read this column you know who’s talking to you. We all see the world through different lenses, but we’ve seen many of the same things. When words expose these connections something far greater than objectivity is achieved. This is where truth lives.



Fear Train Caravan is scheduled to officially release their new album, Shadowdancing, on Friday, March 9, at Jazzbones. They’ll be playing a CD release show with Lazy Bones, Never Quiet Never Still, and Neon Wilderness.



This column is about Fear Train Caravan’s new CD and Ben Fuller — the band’s leader. Ben Fuller is my friend. Ben Fuller is friends with Pappi Swarner, the guy who issues my paychecks. I think we both like Ben because of the passion for music he wears on his sleeve and because he has the balls to stand up for his convictions. I think we both like Fear Train Caravan because we share a mutual love of music from the early ’90s — Pearl Jam, U2, and Tom Petty — and feel a little outdated in a world of Fallout Boys and Panics at the Disco.



Ben once sold my fiancée and me two Pearl Jam tickets for the price of one and talked us into driving to the Gorge the day of the show. Ben text messages me every time Fear Train Caravan plays a big show. Hell, my sister took the promo shot that’s running with this article.

There’s no goddamn way this is going to be objective.



Shadowdancing is a political record, and I’m down with Ben’s politics. Ben doesn’t agree with the war, and neither do I. Ben doesn’t like Republicans, and neither do I. Ben is a leftist, and so am I. Ben sees our government as driven by corporate greed, and so do I.

Surprise, surprise, I like Shadowdancing.



Fear Train’s new album sounds out of place in today’s musical landscape. It sounds like The Joshua Tree, Damn the Torpedoes, Highway 61 Revisited, and Born in the USA shoved into Eddie Vedder’s juicer in 1991. What Fear Train Caravan does is not new. Shadowdancing packs an ultra familiar sound — something critics may be tempted to point out as a weakness.

Not me. I like it. I’m also Ben’s friend.



“I could sound completely retarded saying this, but we try to think outside the box. Instead of going for what’s on the radio right now, we want to fit in with the people who’ve been doing it for years. I’d rather fit in with Tom Petty than a lot of these new bands. That’s what we’re going for — something’s that’s true and something that has some longevity,” explains Ben.



“If you look (at the world) you can see what’s going on. It can make you sick, or it can make you try to do something better. I choose to try to do something positive.



“I want a song to last. I want every word to mean something. It’s fun being in a band; it just might not be too much fun being in our band. We feel like the world is riding on it, but that’s the way we want it. That’s the kind of music that really gets me. The Monkeys never did it for me.”

The Monkeys never did it for me either, and it’s one of the reasons Shadowdancing DOES do it for me. Ben and I have a lot in common, and by no coincidence, his band has crafted a record I relate to.



There’s nothing objective about it, but it’s the truth.

Fear Train Caravan CD Release Party

With: Lazy Bones, Never Quiet Never Still and Neon

Where: Friday, March 9, 8 p.m., all ages

Where: Jazzbones, 2803 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.396.9169

Cost: $10, $8 students