I used to love them...jatropheusAugust 22 2006, 20:55:50 UTC
First, my commiserations to Dave... second, you made me forget Mousy's name too... Curr Cameron or Ham-it or something...
Nice rant (sorry to rant back, it's compulsory - I have never despised any band - even boy bands - as much as this one, and have to share it), and the info in it is like pouring raw sewage onto an already icky mess. The whole Napster thing was, too, but it's almost unbelievable how much more pathetic they could get. They're not musicians anymore, but whiney, bitchy businessmen. I can't figure out why people still pay to hear them, let alone the ridiculous amounts people pay to SEE the wrinkly wreck.
I was always into the heaviest music I could find (not only, mind you, I have eclectic tastes, but hard-core is my heart)... in the eighties, Metallica was at least ON that list. When their ealier bassist, Cliff Burton, my idol at the time (being a bassist myself) died, I was afraid that the band had too. It was two albums later that I confirmed that it did. They've been a dancing, prancing corpse ever since.
At first it seemed they'd go on, maybe even use the loss as fuel for their art. They picked up Jason Newstead from Flotsam and Jetsam (one of the maybe dozen big name bands at the time that were actually heavier than Metallica) and while I had no idea how the chemistry would work or if he would even bother trying solos after Cliff, it seemed promising. The entire Idea of a "$5.98 E.P." was beautiful, but turned out to be a gimmick, and Newstead was apparently too intimidated by the Rock Star attitudes of the others to put much of himself into the music.
Then, it became apparent right away that the writing had suffered. They released two albums almost entirely of covers... it was then that I found out that nearly all of their earliest stuff was written by other people, covers of obscure punk bands (like Diamondhead's "Am I Evil?") and stolen material from previous people they worked with. The most blatant example is "The Four Horsemen" (on "Kill 'em All") which is Dave Mustaine's (Megadeth) "Mechanics" (on "Killing is My Business") with different lyrics.
Their more recent stuff that I've had the misfortune to hear on the radio all screams "POSER!" to me. They sum it up themselves with "Gimme fuel, gimme fire..." They've got nothing to draw from, no pains (except maybe those of old age), no brains, and teenage angst is so far forgotten they need consultants to help them follow the trends of younger musicians. (Conversely, Alice Cooper evolved phenomenally into today's scene, so it isn't all about age & fame, it's what one does with it.)
To me, it was always about the music, the expression and evocation of emotion. It wasn't catastrophic to be ripped off & play shows for gas money or less because we got to PLAY (and that feeding frenzy of energy with the audience, the part I miss most), and people got to hear our stuff. We were happy to hear people gave away copies of our songs, surprised to hear of radio play in Milwaukee & completely unconcerned about compensation - it was a good thing!
This is inspiration again, now I'm going to get back to pestering ASC's (Altered State of Consciousness, my main old band) guitarist for digitalized copies of our three albums to share for free on the Internet... As inconceivable as it may seem, I don't even have them anymore, just a t-shirt, a "Chicago Rocker" magazine with us on the cover and a VHS of two early shows. Shit. Maybe I should have been a little more concerned with some of that stuff...
Nice rant (sorry to rant back, it's compulsory - I have never despised any band - even boy bands - as much as this one, and have to share it), and the info in it is like pouring raw sewage onto an already icky mess. The whole Napster thing was, too, but it's almost unbelievable how much more pathetic they could get. They're not musicians anymore, but whiney, bitchy businessmen. I can't figure out why people still pay to hear them, let alone the ridiculous amounts people pay to SEE the wrinkly wreck.
I was always into the heaviest music I could find (not only, mind you, I have eclectic tastes, but hard-core is my heart)... in the eighties, Metallica was at least ON that list. When their ealier bassist, Cliff Burton, my idol at the time (being a bassist myself) died, I was afraid that the band had too. It was two albums later that I confirmed that it did. They've been a dancing, prancing corpse ever since.
At first it seemed they'd go on, maybe even use the loss as fuel for their art. They picked up Jason Newstead from Flotsam and Jetsam (one of the maybe dozen big name bands at the time that were actually heavier than Metallica) and while I had no idea how the chemistry would work or if he would even bother trying solos after Cliff, it seemed promising. The entire Idea of a "$5.98 E.P." was beautiful, but turned out to be a gimmick, and Newstead was apparently too intimidated by the Rock Star attitudes of the others to put much of himself into the music.
Then, it became apparent right away that the writing had suffered. They released two albums almost entirely of covers... it was then that I found out that nearly all of their earliest stuff was written by other people, covers of obscure punk bands (like Diamondhead's "Am I Evil?") and stolen material from previous people they worked with. The most blatant example is "The Four Horsemen" (on "Kill 'em All") which is Dave Mustaine's (Megadeth) "Mechanics" (on "Killing is My Business") with different lyrics.
Their more recent stuff that I've had the misfortune to hear on the radio all screams "POSER!" to me. They sum it up themselves with "Gimme fuel, gimme fire..." They've got nothing to draw from, no pains (except maybe those of old age), no brains, and teenage angst is so far forgotten they need consultants to help them follow the trends of younger musicians. (Conversely, Alice Cooper evolved phenomenally into today's scene, so it isn't all about age & fame, it's what one does with it.)
To me, it was always about the music, the expression and evocation of emotion. It wasn't catastrophic to be ripped off & play shows for gas money or less because we got to PLAY (and that feeding frenzy of energy with the audience, the part I miss most), and people got to hear our stuff. We were happy to hear people gave away copies of our songs, surprised to hear of radio play in Milwaukee & completely unconcerned about compensation - it was a good thing!
This is inspiration again, now I'm going to get back to pestering ASC's (Altered State of Consciousness, my main old band) guitarist for digitalized copies of our three albums to share for free on the Internet... As inconceivable as it may seem, I don't even have them anymore, just a t-shirt, a "Chicago Rocker" magazine with us on the cover and a VHS of two early shows. Shit. Maybe I should have been a little more concerned with some of that stuff...
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