This post was part of a series that I called S-Tier Songs. I later decided to abandon the series in favor of a simpler Song of the Week format. I am keeping these posts as I wrote them but removing the old page that linked to the list of S-Tier Songs, so that is why these posts might look a bit odd. Enjoy.
Soundgarden – Burden In My Hand
This tune always stood out to me from the band’s 1996 set Down On The Upside. It’s some kind of twisted murder ballad that also seems to leave something to the imagination. It’s a bit distorted and trippy and it fits well on what would be Soundgarden’s final work for a long time.
Lyrically the song captures the torment of someone who killed his lover and now wanders without her. The words are well-placed and also fit the psychadelic music with a sometimes vague quality. Yeah, it’s clear he offed his old lady and that he’s messed up but this isn’t some Point A-to-Point B story. There is plenty of exposition, or perhaps mystery, to be found in the lyrics. There is no clear-cut resolution for the subject or certainly his victim.
Part of this may be due to how Chris Cornell wrote the song. In a 2012 interview with Artist Direct, Cornell states that he wrote the lyrics while playing on the guitar. It wasn’t a straight lyrical sketch – the riff seemed to dictate what words should go where. I’d imagine that would lend to the song’s lack of straightforward storytelling.
It’s a little hard to say this song has too powerful of a personal meaning – I mean, kinda hard to relate to murder. (At least I would hope…) However, the idea of wandering without direction through a desert, literal or metophorical, just totally lost – that part can hold some meaning.
Though not really important to evaluation of the song I did want to mention the music video. I like a video such as this that simply accents what’s in the song. The entire thing is just the band walking through the desert, just the same as the song’s subject murderer. It’s nice when a video accompanies a song, far too often a video has its own identity that I feel takes away from the song’s meaning. Certinaly not the case here.
Why is this song S-Tier?
It’s the combination of almost post-grunge music along with haunting yet cryptic lyrics sung by one of the best to ever pick up a microphone. Both the imagery conveyed and the space left for the listener to fill in offer a masterful soundscape.
That does it for the first edition of S-Tier songs. Enjoy your weekend and try not to like, stab your significant other or anything.
I outlined before the first part of my journey through life with music a few weeks ago. It’s time to get to the next step in that process. I left off in the mid-1980’s where I was starting to assemble a bit of a cassette collection.
Well, what did people rock out to in the mid- and late-80’s? Come on, you know.
It was the glory days of hair metal.
Yeah, I thought they were girls the first time I saw the cover…
Yes, hair metal. The saccharine love ballads and railed out rockers performed by androgynous men in very tight-fitting clothing and great make-up. They ruled the airwaves back then and there was no escaping it. For a semi-sheltered, naive kid growing up in the Midwest, nothing shouted out to me louder than the bombastic party culture of the 1980’s hair metal rock star. It was the polar opposite of life as I knew it.
Hair metal was everywhere. It was all over MTV, on the radio, on magazine covers all over grocery store media racks. People far and wide adopted styles based on the scene – big hair, acid washed jeans, blinding and garish accessories. It was a fast, loud and eye-catching time.
For me it was what shaped me as I entered double-digit age and approached that all-important mark of adolescence. All the cool kids in grades above me at school were all-in on hair metal and they were setting the stage for what I’d be when I got there. They would move on and pass the torch to me and my crew and we’d live forever in glourious hair metal harmony.
Guess not. Thanks, Kurt.
As for what exactly I got into, well, it was everything. You couldn’t leave your house without tripping over some new hair band’s tape. Every day a new hard rocker or sappy ballad would premeire on MTV. I didn’t really keep track of what was what – I just consumed, as all good ’80’s kids were programmed to do.
I wasn’t really exercising any quality control. I was too young for that, just put in the tape and jam out, you know? Thankfully for all of us, the record labels also weren’t exercising any quality control. Gainful employment in the late ’80’s involved somewhat being able to play an instrument and sing about driving fast or liking girls.
It doesn’t mean that good music didn’t exist back then. I can go back today and check out stuff like Cindarella, Tesla, Ratt and Skid Row and find some great music. I can just as easily find a million copycat bands and less than stellar efforts, but even today there is room for curating high-level hair metal music.
And yes, I realize the very definition of hair metal can be questioned. Who is or who isn’t hair metal? Is Tesla really a hair band? I don’t really think so but in all reality it’s hard to seperate every corner case from the larger scene of that time period.
Everything would culminate in one album purchase, one band who would put a stamp on everything for me at the end of the ’80’s. The very band who started this whole hair metal mess in the first place released their 5th album right as I was turning 12 and getting ready to enter the 1990’s.
Motley Crue were the ultimate bad boys of hair metal. They were the ones who brought this music to life and turned the Sunset Strip into ground zero for ’80’s music. They were larger than life and apparently stronger than death. They put out the songs that defined the era and were the act that most everyone aspired to be.
I wound up getting Dr. Feelgood on tape as a gift for some thing or another and that was the moment when I became completely obsessed with music. I played that damn album over and over and over again. I played it when we vistied relatives out of town, I played it when I was at home, I played it everywhere I could play it.
That was what changed everything for me and sent me into the ’90’s ready to be a complete music junkie. That’s exactly what would happen, but of course that’s another story for another time.
As for hair metal, well, it definitely lefts its impression on me. The goofy, slight kid with some bleached jeans, high-top shoes and a jean jacket with a Poison patch on it really did enjoy his time with that scene. I wasn’t exclusively into it, hell I was already listening to Iron Maiden at this time and was on a crash course to the heavier end of the spectrum. But in that place in that time, I was all about that oft-derided hair metal scene. From now to Ragnarok, make mine hair.
Our album of the week is an old-time cut from the early ’80’s. It’s a cult classic from a band that took on a life of its own after originally breaking up and has now ascended to legendary status.
The Misfits – Walk Among Us
Released March 1982 on Ruby Records
Favorite tracks – Astro Zombies, Mommy Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight, Skulls
Walk Among Us is a record I backed into for fairly obvious reasons – I was 4 years old when it came out. For whatever music I was exposed to in my early upbringing, The Misfits were not going to be counted among it.
About a decade later I was, like many adolescent dudes at the time, into Danzig. The Misfits’ former singer had found success in the early ’90’s with his Evil Elvis brand of metal. He was polarizing and is to this day reviled by some but I still hold up those early Danzig albums as examples of some truly great music.
At some point in that early half of the decade a buddy of mine needed to run to the next town over for something I can’t quite remember. I went along because well, you ain’t got much to do in mid-Missouri as a teen in 1993, or 1994, or 2004, or ever.
We wound up at a pawn shop and I sped straight over to their music section. The quality of music in a Midwest pawn shop was not up to the standards of any living being. It was the literal bottom of the barrel – just rejected tapes and CD’s that frankly should have never been recorded in the first place.
As luck would have it on that day, I spotted Walk Among Us in the pile of cast-off music. I paid $6 for a good used copy of this classic in a day and age where finding stuff like this wasn’t easy at all. The Internet was just barely a thing at the time and was not at all useful for commerce. And rural areas were sorely underserved for music – it was Wal-Mart or nothing.
I got home with my prized find and was instantly in love. I was nothing more than a tourist as it concerns punk but I was a Danzig fan and I was after everything he’d been involved in. And The Misfits were spectacular. The savage attack of unrefined horror punk was absolutely welcome to this young metalhead’s ears. It’s not some huge chasm between their stuff and metal anyway so it was pretty easy to see why so many in metal loved The Misfits.
The years wore on as they do and found both The Misfits and Danzig changing course and adding distance between them and their classic periods. Eventually they would find each other again and, if nothing else, they could count the money on the table and so they launched a few reunion gigs. I myself didn’t get to see them but that’s ok.
So there we have it – one of my all-time favorites and a more than fitting selection for the album of the week. 13 killer songs in 25 lean minutes and sometimes that, and some brains for lunch, is all you really need.
Huh. Wasn’t necessarily expecting to see them on the list. But I guess it makes sense – if Limp Bizkit can pull the number 2 spot, then the originators of the nu-metal movement are probably gonna draw some ire too.
They did shift the sonic landscape of the 90’s pretty hard. Nu-metal is overall a pretty frowned upon subgenre so their place at the head of the table is likely why they generate enough hate to rank here.
Also Korn has the “annoying fan” factor. I haven’t really run into any cringe fans of theirs in a long time but it used to be a thing around the turn of the century.
I’m not really down with Korn but I don’t necessarily mind them. I won’t be camping out at a future Record Store day for a limited press of whatever record of theirs, but I won’t bitch much if I happen to be in a room and one of their tunes comes on.
Overhated? Eh, not sure
#16 – Oasis
Is Damon Albarn the one who programmed this algorithm?
No really, I do get it though. You can’t handle them. It’s the brothers – Noel and Liam. Shit-talking pricks so toxic that they haven’t dealt with each other for over a decade now. They slagged off the entire universe a million times in their heyday, they talked more shit about how great they were than a pro wrestler, and they’re better looking than you.
Also the whole “guy with an acousitc guitar ruining the party with Wonderwall” meme is in full force. What kind of parties do people go to where someone jams out “Wonderwall?” I have yet to encounter such a thing in real life. And if I did I’d be like “hell yeah, bro.”
As for me? I was into them in their heyday. I set them aside through the 2000’s up to their implosion at the end of that decade. A few years later I caught a wave of nostalgia and rode it hard, and it hasn’t let up to this day. Probably a top 10 band for me at this point, if I fucked with that sort of thing. This whole blog is really just a front for my budding career in Liam fanfic.
Overhated? You know you want it, you just can’t handle it
#17 – Pearl Jam
Yeah I’m totally cool with this one. Can’t stand them, never could. Glad you like ’em, glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t. They’re better than Creed, but so is the sound of a lawnmower at 6 AM on a Saturday morning.
Overhated? Not at all
#18 – Rush
Ok I’ll admit I was more than a little shocked when I first read the list. Rush are a beloved, immortal rock institution. Who the fuck hates Rush?
But as talked with people about the list I found out that Rush does, in fact, have a group of detractors. I guess not everyone is down with ’em. I don’t really know why in this case, I genuinely don’t understand what people don’t like about them. But hey, such is life.
Overhated? Completely
#19 – Nirvana
What? I am shocked that they’re here. They had a brief but extremely significant tenure that saw a massive shift in the popular music landscape, one that they were chiefly responsible for ushering in. I figured they were untouchable in that regard.
Maybe it’s age? I mean, it has been nearly 30 years since Kurt Cobain’s death. And while I see the band mentioned in reverent tones, I don’t see a groundswell of nostalgia surrounding them. Maybe everyone moved on and the people who never liked them were the ones left talking about them.
I never was a Nirvana fan but their stuff was cool and I have no problem giving them a spin. This might be the most genuinely shocking entry on the list, at least for me.
Overhated? Yeah, for the same reason as Bob Dylan – too important
#20 – The Spin Doctors
Ok – the only surprising thing about them being on this list is that enough people remember them to give enough of a shit to complain about them. Absolute trash-tier music. I’d consider kissing Dave Matthews on his open mouth before I listen to the goddamn Spin Doctors again.
Overhated? Never
Talking about the Spin Doctors got me a bit aggro, I need to take my chill pill
#21 – Linkin Park
We end on another one that kind of surprises me a little. Huge fan base, broadly popular. Yeah, they were radio rock and caught part of the maligned nu-metal wave. But I figured they’d transcended that and had sort of immortalized their place in music.
But I guess anything popular has its base of haters. I know a few people that like them but the vast majority of my circle isn’t down. I never was but I never really cared about them one way or the other. Hate’s too strong of a word. I guess there are enough people out there to carry them to the final spot on the list.
Overhated? Maybe, hard to say
That concludes the list. Let’s take a second to review a few that I was surprised NOT to find on this list.
Insane Clown Posse – I was pretty chuffed not to see the clowns make it. They catch more shit than a toilet, especially after the whole “fucking magnets, how do they work?” fiasco. But I guess it wasn’t enough to bring it home for them. Maybe I’ll become an important enough blogger to one day get a media pass to the Gathering of the Juggalos. That’s the end game here.
Bruce Springsteen – Every old boomer fuck on Facebook spends all day crying that they don’t like Bruce’s politics. I honestly thought there’d be enough of that kind of crap to get him a spot here. Neil Young and maybe John Mellencamp could have the same argument, but it’s Bruce that really gets the patriotic panties in a bunch.
Weezer – So a lot of the population doesn’t like Weezer, just read social media for 30 seconds and you’ll figure that much out. But you know who really hates Weezer? Weezer fans. Libraries could be filled with the amount of stuff written about how much Weezer fans hate what Weezer did or is doing. And that cover of “Africa” didn’t do shit for anyone besides Steve Luthaker’s accountant.
Tool – You know damn good and well the only reason Tool isn’t here is because they spent 13 years between album releases. The second Fear Inoculum got announced, every too cool for school jerkoff this side of the Equator got on their keyboards to cry endlessly about how much they can’t stand Tool. It’s still happening to this day. Tool is the one who, especially if they drop a new album in the near future, will crack this list if the algorithm updates down the line.
Well, that’s that. What do you think? Anyone you can think of that’d have a case for being here? Any thoughts on this part of the list? Do you wanna go to Tumblr and write Liam fanfic with me?
As a note, the list as originally provided counts down from 21 to 1. I am running the list in reverse order, from 1 to 21. Just a minor mishap with the secondary source I originally used that also ran the list in reverse order.
#8 – Radiohead
Of course Radiohead were gonna show up. I’ve certainly encountered no shortage of vitriol spewed their way in my Internet travels. They evoke strong reactions from both their fans and detractors. And their fans seem to trigger the detractors even more. I personally haven’t run into a lot of that but there’s definitely an “annoying Radiohead fan” vibe that plays into their slot on this list.
I have spun Radiohead a time or two but am by no means a huge fan. I don’t know if I’ll ever actually get into them but if a good act pisses a lot of people off it’s something I totally here for.
Overhated? Probably, but roll with what ya got
#9 – KISS
I would have been disappointed had Kiss not been on the list. They are a rock institution unto themselves, but boy do they get the blood boiling. Their possible lack of talent, their less than graceful aging, the sordid history of ex-members, a 35 year long farewell tour and Gene Simmons being kind of a dick a lot of the time will lead to people talking some shit on you. No way around it.
Do I dig Kiss? Yes, I do. I am a Kiss fan. I’m not the world’s biggest fan but I do enjoy some Cold Gin and Detroit Rock City. Maybe they are marketing and merch whores to a huge degree, but the hell with it, money’s money – go get it. (I mean, my favorite band would never deploy a marketing scheme quite like Kiss, but here we are…….)
Overhated? No, not really
#10 – Dave Matthews Band
If there is any sort of justice or sense of right in the universe, let this be the only time on my blog that I mention Dave Matthews.
I am not a fan. I don’t know what that stuff is, really. I don’t think he drinks, smokes or thinks enough because if he did he wouldn’t have graced us with his awful music.
Overhated? Impossible.
#11 – Coldplay
So I’m at my favorite craft beer brewery awhile back, sitting outside to enjoy a nice, socially-distanced IPA because it was still virus stuff then (just like now!). A song comes on that I hadn’t heard before and I thought it interesting. I used the old Google song identifier thing on my phone to find out that I am, in fact, enjoying Coldplay.
Do I actually like Coldplay? I never fucked with them before. I just rolled my eyes when I saw Chris Martin in the tabloids like any good angsty prick with no life would do. When they were part of the One Love Manchester gig I thought “hey, good on them.” Hell, they even jammed with Liam.
But that’s a league away from actually liking them. I guess I’m gonna have to consult Spotify and maybe professional help and see if I do actually dig Coldplay. I’ll report my findings.
Overhated? Probably, but maybe not.
#12 – Green Day
I don’t know, Green Day never really bothered me. Wouldn’t call myself a fan but I also never really worried about them. I didn’t change a radio station if they came on. I just heard some of their more recent stuff and it sounded like crap, but I don’t think that’s why they’re hated.
Of course they’re hated because they watered down punk and got massive. Punks don’t take kindly to that shit. I’m cool with punk even if I’m not one myself and I get the vibe of not digging Green Day. I just kinda don’t really care one way or the other.
Overhated? No, I get it
#13 – The Doors
Yeah, to be honest I see why they’re hated. The Doors have been worshipped for eons, Jim Morrison was some kind of freaky sex symbol/godhead figure, and their music has been everywhere forever. It probably gets annoying to someone who can’t stand them.
I have friends who like them. I have friends who hate them. I personally fall somewhere inbetween – I don’t mind some of their songs but their overall sound isn’t really my jam.
Overhated? I don’t know
#14 – Metallica
At first I was surprised to see their name on the list. They are one of the biggest bands ever, they defied genre and expectations to conquer the world, they have a gargantuan fanbase and they do unconventional and cool shit sometimes.
But then I realized who hates Metallica. No one hates Metallica more than Metallica fans. No one bitches about shit they like and don’t like more than metalheads. I know, I’ve done this dumb shit for over 30 years now.
Metallica changed tack in 1991 and took over the world with a more accessible, polished sound. They also alienated legions of die-hard supporters who wanted it longer and harder. They continued changing their sound, getting haircuts, suing Napster and doing other shit that caused consternation among the metal community.
There’s also Lars Ulrich. People love to hate Lars. I wonder how much of the band’s placement on this list is affected purely by Lars hate. Personally I have no issue with the dude but that’s just me.
Where do I stand with Metallica? I’ll take the first four albums, a bit of Load, and Hardwired. The other stuff isn’t for me, to varying degrees. I did once look back in anger at the band for their deviant ways but over time I quit giving a shit and agreed with others that a band ought to do what they want at the end of the day. It isn’t for me to tell one of the biggest and most influential acts in the world how to record or how to run their business.
Overhated? Yeah, to what extent I don’t know
I’ll wrap up the final 7 spots on the list tomorrow with Part 3.
Earlier in the year a site called BestLifeOnline.com released a list of the world’s most hated bands, according to science. This list was compiled by the use of algorithms that measured a series of metrics across several platforms. After going through the cesspool of the Internet for long enough they provided a ranked list of the most hated bands.
As an FYI, the list runs from 21 to 1, though my list starts at the top and works its way down. I used a different source to write this but decided to link to the original source for the post. My apologies, and please scroll down to find 1 through 7 and the least surprising thing you’ve probably ever seen in music discussion.
It’s an interesting topic. I read through the list and see a lot of bands that yeah, they’re gonna be on this list. There’s a few that caught me off guard, too. Some of the bands I don’t care about, others I like. And at least a few I join in on the hate campaign. But here we have this definitive, ranked and science-backed list of the bands that people bitch about the most.
There are 21 bands on the list. I’ll split this into 3 parts and tackle 7 bands at a time so I can spread the good vibes and cheer over a greater time span.
#1 – Nickelback
I mean, no shit Nickelback takes the top honors here. Talking trash about Nickelback has been a prime hobby of every disaffected angstwhore for the past 20 years. If you’re bored on Twitter and need something to take a shot at, Nickelback is always there for you.
The truth is that, yeah, Nickelback are overhated. They’re just a damn rock band. Sure, they’re mega-popular and influenced a bunch of soundalikes back all those years ago, but it’s whatever. Yeah, that song about the photographs is ultra shitty, but beyond that I really don’t have time to care about Nickelback.
Overhated? Yeah, but just like Thanos, this was inevitable.
#2 – Limp Bizkit
Good old Limp Bizkit, in at number 2, and not at 1 just because Nickelback exists.
And yet, here we are over halfway through 2021 and Fred Durst and company are in the midst of some rennaissance. A few years of memes about the band created this backdoor into a new appreciation for them and the group seem ready to capitalize on it.
I tried to like them for about 20 minutes when they blew up in ’99. Then I turned my nose up at them for the next few decades. Now? The world is so screwed and everything is so upside-down that honestly, it’s just one of those days. I can set aside any false pretense of intellect and have some fun for a bit.
Overhated? Yes and no, somehow.
#3 – Creed
I can recognize the life of its own quality that Nickelback hate has. I can even find retro appreciation for Limp Bizkit, one of the world’s most derided bands.
But Creed? Please take this Pearl Jam-meets-praise and worship trash somewhere else. I don’t need some ham-fisted warbling about God and guilt when I’m trying to have … well, literally anything else. If any cosmic forces could convene to make sure this group doesn’t re-up for a cash grab reunion tour, that would be great.
Overhated? If every sentient entity in the universe focused their energies on hating Creed it would still not be enough.
#4 – U2
Well, can’t say I’m surprised to see the ol’ U2 on the list. They were bigger than life at more than one point in history. Bono does come off as a douche sometimes but he doesn’t personally bother me.
I really don’t mind the stuff from the 80’s but I don’t necessarily have to hear it again either. Not a whole lot to say, no one is shocked that U2 made the cut.
Overhated? Eh, no.
#5 – Mumford and Sons
I’m a little shocked to see them this high on the list. But after thinking about it, not really. Their shit is pretty weak and I’ve honestly never heard anyone say anything good about them. In fact I’ve heard plenty of people slag them off, so I can at least say I run in the right circles after all these years.
Overhated? No, but a very strong showing for a more recent-ish band
I mean, I’m not gonna post a fucking Mumford and Sons video. Might as well ride the hot hand.
#6 – Bob Dylan
So I guess I shouldn’t register shock that he’s here, but it seems out of place to me. I mean, I won’t cop to being a Dylan fan, just never got into him.
Bob Dylan is one of the most important forces in American music, like, ever. I understand how much he has contributed to the art form even if I don’t personally jam to his stuff. I think that appreciation ought to mean something outside of one’s tastes and fandoms. There is an objective side to music and Dylan clears that bar by leaps and bounds.
Overhated? Yes, he shouldn’t be on the list.
#7 – Phish
I can’t cop to liking the jam band stuff at all, but I’ve had friends that are all about it. It’s definitely its own scene and one I’ll leave them to. I’ve never listened to them, I probably never will, and on we go to other stuff.
Overhated? I don’t care
That’s it for part one. Part 2 drops Thursday and Part 3 wraps things up on Friday. Till then let’s break stuff.
Heartwork was released in late 1993 and served as yet another transition for the British metal act. Their prior effort Necrotism… had shifted them somewhat away from grindcore and into death metal, and Heartwork again moved them into the melodic death metal landscape, which was taking shape across the continent in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The album was perfect at the time for me. I was well into my exploration of extreme metal in ’93 and was absolutely floored when I heard this. What has come to be called the “Gothenburg Sound” is one of my favorite subgenres of all time and this was my introduction to it, pre-dating my discovery of At The Gates, Dark Traniqillity, et al. It moved with precision, sounded great and more sharp than some of the rougher death metal of the day.
The album was part of a major record label’s short but ill-fated foray into extreme metal. The band’s label Earache Records partnered with major Columbia to release this and a few other albums from notable acts like Entombed and Napalm Death. Though the move fell flat on its face, it gave more American youths a chance at hearing the stuff through a widened distribution network in the days just before the Internet became a thing.
In the end, Heartwork remains as a beloved staple in any heavy metal collection and probably Carcass’ magnum opus. It’s remained in my rotation from the day of its release and it’s one I’m spinning ’till I depart this mortal coil.
Oh yeah, check out this “red” and white marble vinyl from a recent reissue. Record colors don’t always come out the way they’re supposed to. This one is pretty amusing.
Ok so this won’t be what anyone would consider “top tier” content. This is scraping the bottom for stuff to post. I didn’t have a Friday post ready for this first week so I went back to this idea I had worked on a bit a few months ago as I was preparing to re-enter the blogosphere.
I sat through the “Best of Rock 1990” playlist on Spotify and checked it out. I wrote what I thought about each song down. I quit doing it a thrid of the way through because there are 60 damn songs on this list and no one cares what anyone thinks about every one of them.
So in desperate need of content to float me through my first few weeks of a new blog, I decided to revisit this and pare it down to where I just discuss a handful of the songs. I left off a few things that I’m going to do more in-depth posts about later and I also left off some that all I have to say is “why did you write that?” It’s also out of order because I think Spotify shuffles stuff around on these sometimes and because this whole thing is kinda boring.
Anyway, let’s get into it.
AC/DC – “Thunderstruck”
Good way to open. I know people are down on AC/DC but I always dug ’em, and Razor’s Edge specifically was a badass record. This always was one of their better songs.
Scorpions – “Wind of Change”
I played the shit out of Crazy World back in the day. Yeah, I know the CIA maybe secretly wrote this song. I gotta check that podcast out someday.
Jon Bon Jovi – “Blaze of Glory”
I actually do dig this song. Sure it’s whatever, but I always jammed out to it when I was young and dumb. Now that I’m older and dumb I’d still play it but I never really do.
The Black Crowes – “Hard To Handle”
The Crowes are all over this playlist and with good reason. The whole album is a monster. One of the best things to come from the year.
INXS – “Suicide Blonde”
The death of Michael Hutschene was to sex what the death of Dale Earnhart Sr. was to auto racing. Advances in auto-erotic asphyxiation devices have kept generations safe in lonely hotel rooms since. I know I feel safer.
Oh yeah, the song totally slays. INXS were badass.
Alice In Chains – “Man In The Box”
I’m all about AIC, I took to them right off the bat when this vid hit MTV back when MTV was MTV. Sure, local cover bands beat this song to death in every dive bar across our great land. But that doesn’t deter my enjoyment of it.
Bad Religion – “21st Century (Digital Boy)”
Here we are with the first thing I’m not familiar with on here. I never did give this band a proper listen and I don’t remember if I’ve ever heard this song. I should definitely throw the band onto the “check out” pile. This song is fine, I don’t know where the band’s fans rank this recording or anything like that.
Jane’s Addiction – “Stop”
Jane’s were a good time back in the day. This song does a bit more for me than the ever-present “Been Caught Stealing” but it’s all good.
Queensryche – “Silent Lucidity”
So yeah, it’s that song that scored big for them and also marked a pretty big shift in their sound. That’s a bit misleading though since they reshaped their sound on every prior record anyway. I’m cool with it and it was my intro to the band. I went to buy this tape but it was sold out and so I settled for their prior album. That changed my fucking life.
Poison – “Unskinny Bop”
Nothing like a Poison track to usher in a new decade. This surely flew the flag for hair metal and ensured it would carry on through the next ten years.
I was into Poison when I was young. Like, I asked for their second album for Christmas and I got the tape. My mom went through and tore out a huge part of the insert that had bunch of pictures of them partying, often with scantily-clad women. Gotta love those good Christian households, always looking out for your welfare.
I don’t really mess with Poison these days but hearing the stuff now and again doesn’t really bother me.
Blues Traveller – “But Anyway”
Oh yeah, this is the song from Kingpin. Love that movie. But anyway, I’m not a huge BT fan though this is a pretty cool song.
Cocteau Twins – “Heaven Or Las Vegas”
Ok so I do like shoegaze but I literally just started listening to it last month so I don’t know jack about it. MBV and Slowdive are like all I really know about, which if the memes are to be believed, means I know all I need to know.
I know that CT predate shoegaze but they were clearly very influential to the movement. That doesn’t mean I really want to listen to much more of this, though.
Depeche Mode – “Enjoy The Silence”
I do really like Depeche Mode. That said, Violator is the only album I’ve ever owned of theirs. But yeah they were/are really good and this happens to be my favorite song of theirs.
I didn’t realize this came out in 1990, I thought it was earlier. Oh well, time is made up anyway.
Midnight Oil – “Blue Sky Mine”
So I only know that song about the burning beds from them that I mistakenly thought Talking Heads did. This song is fine but I don’t really have to have it in my life. 1990 was weird, man.
I think that about covers it. 1990 was the year before I absolutely dove headfirst into music so this was kind of a “before the storm” time for me anyway. What would happen in 1991 would blow apart the music landscape and then by the end of the decade I don’t know what the hell anyone was doing. We’ll call this good and try to post stuff that isn’t as lame. (Next week is a good week for that, by the way)
I suppose it might be wise to offer a bit on how I got into music in the first place. I’ll do these in pieces over time since there’s a lot of ground to cover.
I am getting a bit long in the tooth these days but I think I’ve pinpointed the first memory I have of actually sitting for awhile and listening to music. It would have been in the early ’80’s – I am guessing here but I think it was ’83. I would have turned 6 that year but was probably still 5 at the time.
I was over at my grandparents’ house staying the evening and my uncle’s room there was uninhabited for the night. I sat with his stereo and his – wait for it – 8 track collection.
I don’t remember exactly what all I jammed out to that evening but I very much recall hearing Jimi Hendrix. That would stick with me to this very day and Hendrix is one of my favorite artists of all time.
I wouldn’t get into having my own music until several years later. In the intervening time I would absorb it through the usual mediums of the time – from relatives’ collections on huge old stereo systems that are now retro and worth money, on the radio, and on the up-and-coming music video channel on cable TV. (What was its name?)
I’d hear and like a lot of the big names of the day – The Police, John Mellencamp, Springsteen, and all the various one-hit wonders of the time. But the one that really got me was Van Halen. I’m far from the only one – Van Halen truly rocked the world. They were the ones who, more than anyone, launched me onto the path I’ve been on all these years.
I was 9 when my mom finally relented with my unending demands for my own music and she bought me a record, straight off the shelf of our local Wal-Mart in Cowtown USA. It was one of the most popular records of the year and probably not something a lot of people would do much but sneer at today, but dammit it was mine. It was Bon Jovi – Slippery When Wet.
I’ll be upfront about it – I still dig it to this day. Excellent songwriting and fun stuff to jam out to. I won’t say I’m a huge fan of their whole catalog but this album gets it done for me.
After that my family took the hint and started buying me music as gifts. I’d get the standard fare for the time – hair metal, Michael Jackson, that sort of thing. It’d be a few years until I got into anything off the beaten path, but that’s a whole other story.
The process of discovery was the great thing about the early days. It was easy to do back then, music was massive business and was all over the place. It was also nice to be too young to be into the gatekeeping, elitism and smugness that would come in later years. It was simply a matter of enjoying something that was cool and moving on from stuff that wasn’t.
Alas, the joy and innocence of childhood discovery is long since lost to the ages. But it’s always cool to think back on how a lifetime of musical enjoyment and appreciation began. And somehow there are a series of straight lines to draw from here to extreme metal, and to country, and somehow later curving back to Britrock and shoegaze. But we’ll get there.
I figured every Monday I’d do an Album of the Week. There is no real critera behind it, I just pick an album I’m fond of for whatever reason and talk about it. It could be something with a real story behind it or it could just be something I really like and I just say “jam out to this.”
I’m gonna kick off the series with an absoulte banger and one of my favorite albums of all time.
High On Fire are an institution today and much of that came about with the 2007 release of Death Is This Communion. This band had already set a high bar with their prior efforts and they cleared that bar by leaps and bounds on …Communion.
Released September 18, 2007 via Relapse Records
Favorite Tracks: Death Is This Communion, Turk, Fury Whip
The tunes have always been heavy with High On Fire but the band have also thrown in some melodic embellishments to keep things lively. It’s not stuff that will simply whip your ass, but it will still certianly whip your ass. And it’ll soften the blow with some sweet interludes along the way.
There isn’t any real background story to why I got into this album. The only thing I really needed to know was that there was a new High On Fire album. When we all heard it after release we were pretty well shitting ourselves over it. I recall pretty unanimous praise from my circles for the record, everyone was flipping over how awesome it was.
It’s an album without a single weak note for me. But the title track is the first one that really got its claws in me. Just this long, droning, pounding rhythym and the lyrics speaking of some arisen Eldritch horror consuming all. That’s the kind of stuff I sign up for anywhere, anytime.
This album put High On Fire on a whole new playing field. While they were already known for having a sound their own that didn’t fall too neatly into one of metal’s slog of subgenres, they transcended their own past on …Communion and let the world know they were one of the world’s premeir acts.
In the nearly 14 years since the release, High On Fire have continued to forge a path of their own making in an ever-crowded metal marketplace. This album will probably always be tops for me but they’ve touched the Sun a time or two since on subsequent releases. Our shirtless overlord Matt Pike and his band of hard-pounding doomsters trudge on, pounding us into gleefull submission with the most piss-soaked, metal-hardened riffs to be found.
The Crooked Wanderer 