photo & text by nacrowe
arguably the defining moment of my life (so far) was when my family moved to NIGERIA from SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA in the mid-1990s. shortly after arriving during this pre-internet era a classmate introduced me to 311 via their breakout self-titled 311 (CAPRICORN, 1995) album and from there i sought out on subsequent overseas trips their previous MUSIC (CAPRICORN, 1993) and GRASSROOTS (CAPRICORN, 1994) albums. needless to say, these three records as well as the subsequent TRANSISTOR (CAPRICORN, 1997) release was an INTEGRAL part of my soundtrack to the TRANSFORMATIONAL experience of living and exploring WEST AFRICA as a teenager.
and for me that UNIQUE interplay between my memories growing up in a foreign culture and the music itself is what makes 311 such an emotionally loaded topic for me, as i am sure it is for all people and the CONSEQUENTIAL ART, LITERATURE, FILM and MUSIC they consumed at a PIVOTAL stage in their life. but i will try. it is evident with even a CURSORY listen of GRASSROOTS tracks like "TAIYED," "LOSE," "GRASSROOTS" and especially "8:16 A.M." that co-vocalist / rhythm guitarist and main songwriter NICK HEXUM seemingly knows his way around EVOCATIVE and SOOTHING JAZZ-based PROGRESSIONS. the sonic juxtaposition of MEMORABLE SINGLE-NOTE FUNK-based GUITAR RIFFS with HIP HOP production and vocal cadence, as well as REGGAE-indebted RHYTHMS and a layering of those SOPHISTICATED JAZZ CHORD INVERSIONS immediately differentiates the MUSICAL STYLINGS of 311 from that of likewise artistically FORMIDABLE, HYBRID ALTERNATIVE ROCK peer groups at the time like the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and later INCUBUS. drummer CHAD SEXTON likewise adroitly fuels this CONTAGIOUS kinetic energy and RHYTHMIC FORWARD MOMENTUM with patterns that are often HARD-DRIVING SHUFFLES, which makes sense given the SOPHISTICATION of the MELODIES and underpinning CHORD PROGRESSIONS at play, especially on COMPLEX showcase tracks such as "SIX," "NUTSYMPTOM," "LUCKY" and "APPLIED SCIENCE". worth mentioning also are the indelibly LYRICAL SOLOS of lead guitarist TIM MAHONEY that are reminiscent of THE GRATEFUL DEAD's JERRY GARCIA's lead work, especially with his IDIOSYNCRATIC penchant for the AUTO-WAH GUITAR EFFECT. STANDOUT moments include the MAHONEY leads on "LOSE" and "TAIYED." for me the highlight of the album (and arguably 311's catalogue) is the BROODING and emotively CHURNING buildup of the last track "1, 2, 3." the way the song EBBS and FLOWS and seemingly FLOATS along a MYSTERIOUS ethereal plane until it CRESCENDOS into a satisfying RESOLVE that gets me every time. its just musically SOPHISTICATED in a way that doesnt necessarily show-off that capacity, but leaves you as a listener SATISFIED and CONTENT. almost like a great PSYCHEDELIC BEACH BOYS or FLAMING LIPS track that takes you along on a LUSH AURAL JOURNEY. its an experience. lyrically the songs seems to be dealing with how to deal with REGRET for the past and the PSYCHIC PAIN and CONFUSION that comes with FORGIVING ONESELF and MOVING FORWARD. letting the past be in the past. life in NIGERIA could be quite BRUTAL at the time, dealing with all that comes with being a foreign child of PRIVILEGE amidst a military dictatorship. WANTON DEATH, POVERTY, INEQUALITY and HUMAN SUFFERING was something i witnessed at an INTIMATE distance as a teenager. it was easy to feel HELPLESS and completely IMPOTENT to effect change in that environment, never mind the social awkwardness of going through puberty. "1, 2, 3" was a song in particular during that period that i relied on to CALM ME DOWN and get me through some truly TERRIBLE days and for that i still feel decades later a SPECIAL affinity for 311 and their music. to me GRASSROOTS is their greatest moment in a career full of highlights, but that is probably more of an assessment based on my personal narrative then theirs. either way, GRASSROOTS is well worth checking out. much like the RICH and ECLECTIC 311 catalogue in general. enjoy.
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photo & text by nacrowe
THE BEATLES' EPIC SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (PARLOPHONE, 1967) record gets perpetually credited for being this LANDMARK CONCEPT album, but to tell you the truth, i dont see it. not that the songs are not TRANSCENDENT, with INNOVATIVE and absolutely SPECTACULAR tracks like "LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS," "BEING FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR. KITE," "SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND" and the STARTLING, GAME-CHANGING, MULTI-SECTION track "A DAY IN THE LIFE," this album is very much worthy of the praise it has received through the generations. but outside of the first song that sets up the LYRICAL CONCEIT of an extended outfit of lonely people in what i presume is a marching band, the whole "CONCEPT" falls apart. which is FINE since, as i said before, the songs stack up and more than hold their weight in their ECLECTIC and INVENTIVE GENIUS.
famously in 1966, THE BEATLES gave up touring after years of being unable to hear themselves play and decided to retreat to the more EMPOWERING and FULFILLING confines of the RECORDING STUDIO. gone was the pretense for creating something that could be recreated or facsimiled live and instead was the artistic gambit to truly utilize the STUDIO as an INSTRUMENT and push it as far as they creatively could. that sense of AMBITION and loss of pretense for REAL-WORLD applications is the actual CULTURAL LEGACY of SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND and set a STANDARD for generations of ROCK N ROLL bands to attempt to follow. everyone from THE BEACH BOYS, ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA, BLUR, THE FLAMING LIPS, RADIOHEAD and KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD have seen the scope and scale of this particular project as a beacon and an open invitation to likewise not limit their own CREATIVITY. that being said, its technically a MIRACLE that it exists given the PRIMITIVE state of the RECORDING TECHNOLOGY back in the late 1960s, as this album was recorded on a four-track ANALOG TAPE MACHINES. that means that all those layers of instruments, percussion and vocals had to be paired down to one of those four tracks with no ability to go back and revise. today with DIGITAL RECORDING TECHNOLOGY there is an ENDLESS amount of TRACKS that can be individually tweaked with near LIMITLESS parameters. SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND in that sense is as much a TECHNICAL feat as it is a CREATIVE one and the work of longtime producer GEORGE MARTIN and engineer GEOFF EMERICK should be duly commended. when i think about THE BEATLES, i always have to remind myself that their artistic partnership and UNPARALLELED EVOLUTION as a creative entity lasted only seven years across thirteen studio albums. it is absolutely MIND-BOGGING the PACE and QUALITY CONTROL of those releases. admittedly the first few releases from PLEASE PLEASE ME (PARLOPHONE, 1963) up through BEATLES FOR SALE (PARLOPHONE, 1964) had a litany of cover songs to pad their track-listings, but from HELP! (PARLOPHONE, 1965) onwards through ABBEY ROAD (APPLE, 1969) they essentially recorded whatever songs they had available. its ASTOUNDING that these records are as COHESIVE as they are, with MODERN bands having numerous finished songs left on the CUTTING ROOM FLOOR as par for course. back in the 1960s there was no sense that this ROCK N ROLL movement or the BRITISH INVASION cohort of bands would be anything but a FLASH-IN-THE-PAN, MOMENTARY CULTURAL PHENOMENON, so PARLOPHONE and other labels likewise pushed their artists for more PRODUCT. meaning at least two full-lengths a year with holiday non-album singles that also had original b-sides. i mean just the b-sides alone of THE BEATLES are amazing. all of this is to say that the POPULAR CONCEPTION of the making of SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND is that it was this huge masterplanned effort, when in reality these were just the next batch of songs. it is INTERESTING that GEORGE HARRISON and RINGO STARR are low on their assessment of such given their lack of creative participation relative to past efforts. i love this record, but from this PSYCHEDELIC, sonically ADVENTUROUS and EXPANSIVE period of the band, i prefer the truly DADA-esque and FREE-ASSOCIATIVE nature of the songs on its LESS-CELEBRATED follow-up MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR (CAPITOL, 1967). regardless, SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND is absolutely ESSENTIAL and worthy of all the hype through the generations. it is most definitely worth checking out. photo & text by nacrowe
i was only ten quickly approaching eleven when the seemingly OMNIPRESENT culturally dominating juggernaut that was the CRAZYSEXYCOOL (ARISTA, 1994) release by LEGENDARY ATLANTA R&B vocal trio TLC was released in the mid-1990s. seemingly everywhere i went as a kid in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, from local skating rinks to friend's birthday parties to theme parks (DISNEYLAND, KNOTT'S BERRY FARM and SIX FLAGS MAGIC MOUNTAIN) and summer camps, played "CREEP" and especially "WATERFALLS." those two songs in particular are part of the INDELIBLE SOUNDTRACK of my childhood and that era of POPULAR MUSIC in general.
the female singing TRIUMVIRATE is a pretty COMPACT and POWERFUL template in R&B (i.e. THE ANDREW SISTERS, THE RONETTES, THE SUPREMES, MARTHA & THE VANDELLAS, DESTINY'S CHILD, THE POINTER SISTERS), much like the VERITABLE power trio in ROCK N ROLL (i.e. NIRVANA, CREAM, RUSH, MOTORHEAD, ZZ TOP, THE POLICE, DINOSAUR JR, GREEN DAY). in essence you have a solo vocalist who is MELODICALLY SUPPORTED by SYMPATHETIC vocalists providing high and low HARMONIES and/or COUNTER-HARMONIES to fill out the SOUND. most of those aforementioned R&B GROUPS had such a prominently FEATURED singer like BEYONCE KNOWLES, DIANA ROSS, MARTHA REEVES and RONNIE SPECTOR with largely INTERCHANGEABLE backup-singers, as was famously the case with THE SUPREMES and DESTINY'S CHILD and their lineup shifts in particular. in contrast, what was COOL and UNIQUE about TLC was that all three members (TIONNE "T-BOZ" WATKINS, ROZONDA "CHILLI" THOMAS and LISA "LEFT EYE" LOPES) functioned as both FEATURED and harmonically SUPPORTING vocalists who provided the particulars of a given song. now it is ARGUABLE that LEFT EYE, with her IDIOSYNCRATIC SINGING / RAPPING STYLE and notoriously UNSTABLE high profile relationship with then-ATLANTA FALCONS wide receiver ANDRE RISON, may have been the member with the highest profile but within the COLLECTIVE, but functionally she was an equal to T-BOZ and CHILLI. i cant think of another three-piece FEMALE singing GROUP that functioned in this manner since these types of arrangements seemed TAILOR MADE to market and provide evidence of a future VIABLE solo career for a featured vocalist. one of the consequences of this MUTUALLY-SUPPORTIVE arrangement is that the GROUP chose to actively promote causes that were IMPORTANT to their COMMUNITY, the most NOTABLE example of such is the promotion of SAFE SEX and the importance of CONDOM USE in the fight against HIV/AIDS transmission during the promotional campaign for their debut album OOOOOOOHHH... ON THE TLC TIP (LAFACE, 1992). fighting the stigma of an inherently TABOO SUBJECT (as HIV/AIDS in a pre-MAGIC JOHNSON era was considered a scourge on the HOMOSEXUAL COMMUNITY) in the BLACK COMMUNITY and specifically the HETEROSEXUAL POPULATION was both NOTEWORTHY and undoubtedly COURAGEOUS. and it is something that id argue would never have happened had TLC just been an industry vehicle for the introduction and promotion of a potential future star, it was just too CONTROVERSIAL and UNMARKETABLE a topic for such a purpose. to me, TLC was all about the personalities and the MUSICAL INTERPLAY of its three members. in an odd way its a similar dynamic, in a different genre, to enjoying the likewise INVENTIVE MUSIC of the WU-TANG CLAN. on CRAZYSEXYCOOL tracks like "RED LIGHT SPECIAL" and "CREEP" you have INFECTIOUS paeans to FEMALE SENSUALITY, not in a COARSE or VULGAR manner, but in SUPPORTIVE, SELF-EMPOWERED mode that is highly UNUSUAL, especially at the time. "DIGGIN' ON YOU" likewise celebrates the INVIGORATING, much SOUGHT-AFTER moment of recognizing mutual ROMANTIC attraction. too often this topic in POPULAR MUSIC, especially from a FEMALE PERSPECTIVE is reduced to the women having to flaunt or DEBASE herself in the process, both explicitly in the presentation or more implicitly in the lyrics. here TLC showcases that moment from a position of EQUAL footing, as if a MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL PARTNERSHIP is in the process of blossoming. and obviously there is also "WATERFALLS," an UPBEAT song about thoughtfully considering ones actions before taking a DANGEROUS shortcut led by AMBITION, i.e. the ALLEGORICAL lyrics surrounding 'chasing waterfalls' instead of sticking to the more calm 'rivers and lakes that you're used to.' as the MUSIC video makes explicit, possible shortcuts include DRUGS and INFIDELITY and the PAIN, DAMAGE and SUFFERING incurred is not just on the individual, but the FAMILY and larger supporting COMMUNITY. its profound stuff and again, indicative of a COHESIVE GROUP in charge of their ARTISTIC and social messaging in a fashion fairly UNSEEN in their peers, past or present. CRAZYSEXYCOOL is undoubtedly an ICONIC 90s R&B album that is well worth revisiting and checking out again. id even argue its an ESSENTIAL release from the era, irrespective of genre. RIP LEFT EYE. photo & text by nacrowe
when HARDCORE hit the AMERICAN musical UNDERGROUND in the 1980s, it effectively served as a CULTURAL YEAR ZERO for many musicians and listeners alike, arguably even more so than its NEW YORK CITY and LONDON-based PUNK ROCK predecessor. the first wave of PUNK provided the DIY template and showed the way for SELF-STARTING artists and songwriters in the UNITED STATES specifically, but HARDCORE actually walked through that door and made it happen on a large scale with the HARD-FOUGHT development of a nationwide NETWORK of enabling venues and community of audiences.
what is interesting about the bands that came after that wave of HARDCORE bands, in-artfully termed POST-HARDCORE, is that much like the previous NO WAVE and POST PUNK scenes they expanded on the sonic blueprint of HARDCORE beyond AGGRESSION and BREVITY into a myriad of directions. in essence the cultural legacy of HARDCORE was as a case study for the effectiveness of truly INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY-BUILDING and DIY ETHICS writ large. it EMPOWERED the next generation to just go out and do it, disregard the past and move forward and believe in yourself and your music. one of those directions is embodied by SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE, a relatively obscure mid-90s SEATTLE POST-HARDCORE outfit that took its sonic and lyrical cue from the likes of 1980s DC EMOTIONAL HARDCORE bands on the DISCHORD label like EMBRACE and RITES OF SPRING. SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE has long been tagged with being a major progenitor of the EMO label, but their sound is a HYBRID sound that includes both the sonic AGGRESSION of POST-HARDCORE (i.e. MINUTEMEN, NAKED RAYGUN, QUICKSAND, FUGAZI and HUSKER DU) with a more EMOTIVE and CONFESSIONAL vocal style and lyrical PERSPECTIVE arguably closely associated with POST PUNK acts (i.e. THE SMITHS or THE CURE). this MUCH-DERIDED EMO thread of POST-HARDCORE went on to influence various PROMINENT and commercially viable groups in the early 2000s, everyone from THURSDAY, THE GET UP KIDS, AFI and THE USED to TAKING BACK SUNDAY, JIMMY EAT WORLD and MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE. arguably the popular introduction to this second-wave EMO sub-genre is the aptly-titled debut SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE release DIARY (SUB POP, 1994). on STANDOUT tracks like "IN CIRCLES," "48," "GRENDEL" and "SEVEN" they provide ample evidence for the EMOTIVE and sonic power of what would become a highly INFLUENTIAL, HYBRID sound. the way i choose to look at EMO and POST-HARDCORE in general is that HARDCORE, albeit an INCREDIBLE vehicle for INDEPENDENCE and COMMUNITY-BUILDING, was a musical dead-end. HARDCORE just seemed like a REDUCTIVE circular descent towards NIHILISTIC AGGRESSION, whereas POST-HARDCORE and its EMO variant were taking real CREATIVE and ARTISTIC risks in expanding such EXPRESSION beyond ANTAGONISTIC CONFRONTATION and turn the focus inward toward real VULNERABILITY and EMOTIONAL SELF-EXPOSURE. being against an outside force (i.e. politically, economically or militarily) is all well and good, but it isnt really intellectually or psychologically HONEST. looking into your own PERSONAL SELF-DOUBT or INSECURITY is arguably a much more AUTHENTIC and RISK-TAKING endeavor and very much lays the RESPONSIBILITY for SELF-STARTING action on the individual, not some vague broader entity. POST-HARDCORE and EMO thus provided a way out from under the STIFLING sonic and lyrical expectations of HARDCORE as it calcified over the 1980s and spilled over into the 1990s. famously the rhythm section of the first incarnation of DAVE GROHL's longstanding post-NIRVANA ALTERNATIVE ROCK project, FOO FIGHTERS, was that of the recently disbanded SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE. in fact, bassist NATE MENDEL has long been in GROHL's stead for the past few decades and various lineup shifts. its not that hard to see those FAMOUS rolling bass lines in the FOO FIGHTERS as indicative of his earlier work in SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE. with all the bad will that EMO brought the world in the early 2000s, it is INTERESTING to look back at DIARY and see how that musical shift happened and the POTENTIAL it brought. also how little those later bands really have to do with SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE's POTENT push-pull blend of CATHARSIS and AGGRESSION. most definitely worth revisiting and checking out. photo & text by nacrowe
in the intervening three year-span that separated the IXNAY ON THE HOMBRE (COLUMBIA, 1997) release from its aptly-titled predecessor SMASH (EPITAPH, 1994), seemingly everything for THE OFFSPRING had completely shifted. no longer were they a JUNIOR PUNK ROCK band (to peer groups like PENNYWISE, NOFX and RANCID) turned 6X platinum SURPRISE CULTURAL PHENOMENON on an INDEPENDENT label, but instead now a significant asset to big CORPORATE players on a STORIED major label. their CAREER NARRATIVE in essence mirrors that of the INTERNAL DYNAMICS of the PUNK ROCK genre in the 1990s, which was in the midst of an UNFORESEEN IDENTITY CRISIS navigating those MURKY waters between SUBCULTURE and MAINSTREAM, DIY operations and LARGE-SCALE DISTRIBUTION, PUNK ROCK elitism and mainstream acceptance. all of these concerns, of course, are now complete anachronisms of a long bygone pre-internet age when gatekeeping of PHYSICAL PRODUCT and GLOBAL PUBLICITY and DISTRIBUTION avenues were a real thing. it all sounds quite SILLY and QUAINT in retrospect.
i moved from SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA to NIGERIA in the fall of 1995 and SMASH was the VERITABLE soundtrack to my previous elementary school years in ORANGE COUNTY, having come out when i was in 4th grade. by the time IXNAY ON THE HOMBRE was released i was now in 7th grade and on another continent and at the time my interest in PUNK ROCK had largely shifted to METAL (i.e. SEPULTURA, TOOL and METALLICA) and ALTERNATIVE ROCK (ALICE IN CHAINS, FAITH NO MORE, SMASHING PUMPKINS and JANE'S ADDICTION). it would be a few years later that i would learn about all the great CALIFORNIA HARDCORE bands from the 1980s (DESCENDENTS, BLACK FLAG, THE VANDALS, DEAD KENNEDYS, T.S.O.L., CIRCLE JERKS) and their later in and out-of-state acolytes in the 1990s (NOFX, RANCID, PENNYWISE, LAGWAGON, PROPAGANDHI) and dive back into the genre permanently. what i remember about my exposure to IXNAY ON THE HOMBRE was that it was very similar to SMASH with tracks that were HIGH ENERGY, MEMORABLE and full of SOCIAL CRITIQUES about STONERS and SLACKER STEREOTYPES. STANDOUT songs include "COOL TO HATE," "MOTA," "I CHOOSE," "ALL I WANT," "THE MEANING OF LIFE" and the decidedly more subdued "GONE AWAY," which anecdotally they played at a BRITISH classmate of mine's memorial service in LAGOS after passing away after sustaining injuries from being hit by a car while on break in LONDON. i hear that song now and i snap right back to the complete shock of that moment, especially at such a tender age. i dont think i was even a teenager yet. such was life in NIGERIA. in retrospect this album represents the last in a lineage of recordings for THE OFFSPRING that goes back to their self-titled NEMESIS debut. singer and main songwriter DEXTER HOLLAND being a gifted student (much later earning a PHD in MOLECULAR BIOLOGY from USC) was always concerned with critiquing SOCIAL, POLITICAL and CULTURAL matters in a distinctly SOPHISTICATED and indirect manner through personal observation and the construction of composite characters in his lyrics. the tone of which was always based on the sonic template of the 80s HARDCORE PUNK he grew up on. somehow after IXNAY ON THE HOMBRE on the follow-up AMERICANA (COLUMBIA, 1998), those same instincts found a new home in consciously TRADITIONAL pop songs in the KNOWING and IRONIC style of "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC. which was UNFORTUNATE at the time and continues to be a reason THE OFFSPRING have diminished their REPUTATION in the years since. yes SMASH is the most commercially SUCCESSFUL independent release of all-time [11 million copies sold to date], but their peers in GREEN DAY and RANCID would never put out LAME POP drivel with SLICK music videos and no edge. it didnt have to be that way and IXNAY ON THE HOMBRE represents to me that last hoorah of a ONCE-PROMISING band that permanently later lost their way. i hear it now and i just think of what could have been. photo & text by nacrowe
when KISS released their fourth album, a live recording appropriately called ALIVE! (CASABLANCA, 1975), it was on the heels of three efforts [KISS (CASABLANCA, 1974), HOTTER THAN HELL (CASABLANCA, 1974) and DRESSED TO KILL (CASABLANCA, 1975)] that were in essence commercial failures. the band was in serious danger of being dropped by CASABLANCA RECORDS so the financial windfall that was this record could not have come at a better time.
with touring maturing into a corporatized industry in the 1970s, the trend to release KEEPSAKE recordings of the experience became quite PROMINENT with the massively SUCCESSFUL releases of most notably PETER FRAMPTON's FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE! (A&M, 1976), THE WHO's LIVE AT LEEDS (DECCA, 1970), CHEAP TRICK's CHEAP TRICK AT BUDOKAN (EPIC, 1979), NEIL YOUNG's RUST NEVER SLEEPS (REPRISE, 1979), THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND's AT FILMORE EAST (CAPRICORN, 1971), BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS' LIVE! (ISLAND, 1975), THIN LIZZY's LIVE AND DANGEROUS (WARNER BROS, 1978), LOU REED's ROCK 'N' ROLL ANIMAL (RCA, 1974), JIMI HENDRIX's BAND OF GYPSYS (CAPITOL, 1970), SLADE's SLADE ALIVE! (POLYDOR, 1972), QUEEN's LIVE KILLERS (PARLOPHONE, 1979) and MARVIN GAYE's MARVIN GAYE LIVE! (TAMLA, 1974) among many other examples. the live album was a bit of a cottage industry and represented a product that was much easier to produce given the fact that old material was being presented and resold anew. for KISS, ALIVE! with its gatefold photography of raised stages, bright lights and plentiful pyrotechnics, translated the experience of the live experience in a PALPABLE and VIVID way that spurred and captured the IMAGINATION of a generation of musicians coming of age in the 1970s from DIMEBAG DARRELL (PANTERA), SCOTT IAN (ANTHRAX), TOM MORELLO (RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE), MIKE MCREADY (PEARL JAM) and KIM THAYIL (SOUNDGARDEN) to RIVERS CUOMO (WEEZER), BUZZ OSBOURNE (MELVINS), JERRY CANTRELL (ALICE IN CHAINS), KIRK HAMMETT (METALLICA) and ADAM JONES (TOOL). for me that lineage is the lasting impact of KISS in general and the ALIVE! album specifically. similar to CHEAP TRICK's LIVE AT BUDOKAN with songs like "SURRENDER" and "I WANT YOU TO WANT ME", live renditions of certain ALIVE! songs are the de facto STANDARD versions in the PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS over the original STUDIO VERSIONS. songs like "STRUTTER," "DEUCE," "BLACK DIAMOND," "COLD GIN" and of course most iconically, "ROCK AND ROLL ALL NITE," all showcase that EPHEMERAL MAGIC of a great live show. the not-so DIRTY SECRET is that much of ALIVE! is a COMPLETE AURAL FABRICATION, with rerecorded parts and imported fan noise making the release an inherently a STUDIO CREATION. but KISS are not alone in doing such, virtually all live recordings to date have some embellishment, MIXING and rerecorded TRICKERY implemented to give the audience an experience that matches their MEMORY of the gig itself. with a band like KISS that is all about the visual, their EDDIE KRAMER-produced ALIVE! album represents the release that finally provided a LISTENING EXPERIENCE that matched their presentation and the building strength of their LEGENDARY live performances from that initial decade. it is the platform from which subsequent SUCCESSFUL releases like DESTROYER (CASABLANCA, 1976) and LOVE GUN (CASABLANCA, 1977) were based on and expanded upon. it remains one of the most INFLUENTIAL live recordings of all-time and is definitely worth checking out.
photo & text by nacrowe
for me personally, BJORK's fourth ALBUM VESPERTINE (ONE LITTLE INDIAN, 2001) was an IMPORTANT ALBUM when it came out shortly before 9/11. in fact, it was the soundtrack for that period and the IMMENSE UPHEAVAL the came to my life. it was my senior year of high school and i was living with my family, who were stationed in KUWAIT at the time. 9/11 happened and i within a few weeks i moved to NORTHERN CALIFORNIA to live with a relative i wasnt particularly close with by any standard. there is a sense of an almost FATALISTIC DETACHMENT to VESPERTINE that very much resonated with the ISOLATION and FRUSTRATION i felt at the time. the emotions BJORK was playing with were DELICATE and EPHEMERAL yet mystically INTIMATE, or so i projected at the time.
BJORK, like DAVID BOWIE before her, has always been on the hunt for NOVEL SOUNDS and INTRIGUING collaborators to weave into her ECLECTIC and EVER-EVOLVING MUSICAL TAPESTRY. seemingly anything an everything is game. earlier recorded efforts saw her explore everything from JAZZ, TRIP HOP, ELECTRONICA and INDUSTRIAL MUSIC to TECHNO, HOUSE, POST-ROCK and even AMBIENT MUSIC. VESPERTINE was a distinct departure in that it witnessed her explore a SONIC PALETTE that split the difference between ICELANDIC CHORAL MUSIC and more CLASSICAL thin-sounding STRINGED INSTRUMENTS such as CELESTAS, HARPS and CLAVICHORDS. to my ears it sounded like the aural equivalent of a MUSIC BOX. DEBUT (ONE LITTLE INDIAN, 1993), POST (ONE LITTLE INDIAN, 1995) and HOMOGENIC (ONE LITTLE INDIAN, 1997) were all massive artistic efforts with big ideas that utilized broad strokes with VIBRANT colors, whereas VESPERTINE is more INTROSPECTIVE, CONTEMPLATIVE and SOMBER with SPARE ARRANGEMENTS of delicate COMPOSITIONS in a MUTED SONIC PALETTE. that paring back as seen on tracks such as "AURORA," "IT'S NOT UP TO YOU," "HIDDEN PLACE" and "PAGAN POETRY" made the album hit me much harder on an EMOTIONAL level. the INCREDIBLE UPHEAVAL, on both a personal and national level, of 9/11 already put me in that EMOTIVE headspace, but the record's DIRECTNESS and adroit use of INTRICATE SONIC TEXTURES very much left an INDELIBLE impact on me. i was lucky enough to see BJORK tour this album later that summer play on a baseball field at CONEY ISLAND with fellow EXPERIMENTAL ICELANDIC musicians SIGUR ROS in tow, complete with collaborators MATMOS and INUIT CHORAL SINGERS. it was a SINGULAR experience. ive also been lucky enough to visit ICELAND and saw firsthand its UNREAL NATURAL BEAUTY, which goes from VERDANT and LUSH with JAW-DROPPING WATERFALLS and VOLCANOES alike to the LIFELESS, BARE AREAS that can only be practically described as LUNAR. the CINEMATIC drama of BJORK's MUSIC to me is very much rooted in the incredibly DRAMATIC LANDSCAPE that is ICELAND. she has made SEMINAL albums before and went on to make other LANDMARK RECORDS thereafter, but for me VESPERTINE will always be the BJORK album i most closely identify with undoubtedly because of its role for me at a CRUCIAL point in my life. it has nothing to do with anything BJORK did specifically. FUNNY how MUSIC is like that. photo & text by nacrowe
MECHANICAL ANIMALS (INTERSCOPE, 1998), the much ANTICIPATED MICHAEL BEINHORN [SOUNDGARDEN, HOLE, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS] produced follow-up to the TRANSGRESSIVE cultural phenomena that was the INDUSTRIAL-tinged, MIDDLE AMERICA-baiting ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR (INTERSCOPE, 1996) was a DRAMATIC stylistic about-face that saw MARILYN MANSON channel his sense of ISOLATION and DETACHMENT from AMERICAN SOCIETY through the prism of 1970s GLAM ROCK and specifically ZIGGY STARDUST / ALADDIN SANE-era DAVID BOWIE. in the scope of his discography, this album very much stands out as an outlier, both in terms of SONICS and PRESENTATION, and represents MANSON at both his most CONTEMPLATIVE and most POTENT as an artist. it is also my FAVORITE record of his bar none.
this album came out my freshman year of high school. i was at a PRESTIGIOUS boarding school in NEW ENGLAND while the rest of my family stayed behind in NIGERIA. i dont want to say being that far from family was a TRAUMATIC event at such a young, barely in my teens, but it was a TRANSFORMATIVE experience that resonated down through the ensuing decades no doubt. in a sense i had to become my own support system as the place was rather BRUTAL with BARBARIC HAZING RITUALS involving underclassmen the staff turned a blind eye towards. to say i felt frustrated, targeted and alone is an understatement. i was the perfect receptor for such a message being transmitted by this JADED, SEXLESS, HUMANOID alien character that MANSON was now inhabiting. for him the prison he was attempting to escape with INTERSTELLAR ambitions was that of a pre-internet tabloid culture and UNREALISTIC press / audience expectations to out-SATAN ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR. for me that prison was quite LITERAL. it was the prison of going through puberty and your most physically AWKWARD phase while being a part of an UNHEALTHY community that i found particularly hazardous to my physical and emotional well-being. in my defense this posture and mindset was well warranted, as that same school year another freshman was assaulted at nearby dormitory and had an ANTI-GAY SLUR carved into his back by a post-graduate student who went on to serve an extended sentence for an assortment of ASSAULT and BATTERY CHARGES. i feel lucky to have survived such an experience with my self-will and self-worth intact, and MECHANICAL ANIMALS was very much the soundtrack to such. and that harsh sense of SELF-LOATHING and DETACHMENT is all over. especially tracks such as "THE SPEED OF PAIN," "COMA WHITE," "MECHANICAL ANIMALS," "DISASSOCIATIVE" and "GREAT BIG WHITE WORLD." for me those particular tracks serve as the EMOTIONAL heart of the record, exposing a PROFOUND sense of PSYCHIC WITHDRAWAL from life itself. that need to just turn off the blinds, shut the door and block out the world. the more UPTEMPO songs like "POSTHUMAN," "ROCK IS DEAD," "NEW MODEL NO. 15" and the single "THE DOPE SHOW" all seem designed to potentially gain airplay while delivering a DEVIOUS message both celebrating and disparaging CELEBRITY CULTURE and the state of ROCK N ROLL writ large. as much as i love the TWIGGY RAMIREZ-conceived SLINKY BASS LINES and ADROIT SONIC EXPERIMENTATIONS with vintage synthesizers, those more HARD-CHARGING tracks are weaker in my opinion. same with the embarrassingly INANE "I DON'T LIKE THE DRUGS BUT THE DRUGS LIKE ME" single which is the lone mistake on the album. for me, those more NUANCED, SOMBER moments are what make this record special, much like "CRYPTORCHID," "MAN THAT YOU FEAR" and "KINDERFELD" did on ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR. post-MECHANICAL ANIMALS, MANSON largely retreated to the more EXPECTED, SAFE GOTH confines of INDUSTRIAL METAL with a slew of records to date that largely retread on the ideas crystallized in ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR. which in my opinion was an artistic mistake, but i am sure it gave him more career longevity. that is more future OZZY OSBOURNE, ROB ZOMBIE, SLAYER, ALICE COOPER co-headlining package tour opportunities that are subject to satiating and drawing out his audience en masse over time. such PRACTICAL, CALCULATING decisions make him subject to not being at the same artistic level as a DAVID BOWIE, BJORK, SUN RA, DAMON ALBARN or a GEORGE CLINTON, all of whom charged ahead with IDIOSYNCRATIC personas that assisted in unlocking a new sound and/or inhabit a new consciousness. the rest of MANSON's DISAPPOINTING career is just one of a series of expected artistic choices with ever PREDICTABLE diminishing returns. but MECHANICAL ANIMALS is a definite highlight of the 1990s ALTERNATIVE ROCK era that is well worth revisiting and checking out again and again. photo & text by nacrowe
covers done well are like a PALIMPSEST in that you get a uniquely INTERACTIVE level of meaning based on two ITERATIONS of the same COMPOSITIONS. the juxtaposition of both is INEVITABLE and kind of the point and that friction is what makes them COMPELLING and MEMORABLE a la DREAD ZEPPELIN's REGGAE INTERPRETATION of the LED ZEPPELIN catalogue, NOUVELLE VAGUE's breezy BOSSA NOVA RE-IMAGININGS of first-wave PUNK ROCK classics or JOHNNY CASH's drawing out a whole new level of depth and range from a long life well-lived via NINE INCH NAIL's "HURT." of course there are also less interesting variations such as the EXPECTED, STRAIGHT-AHEAD covers of obscure NWOBHM and HARDCORE artists by the likes of METALLICA on GARAGE, INC (ELEKTRA, 1998) or GUNS N ROSES on THE SPAGHETTI INCIDENT? (GEFFEN, 1993) which both suffer from a lack of imagination and a TRANSPARENT need for hero worship (although credit due: they did help out said idols financially through these releases).
MATT JOHNSON and his INSPIRED collection of HANK WILLIAMS' covers on THE THE's HANKY PANKY (EPIC, 1995) release falls into the former camp and nowhere near the second. on REVERED tracks like "HONKY TONKIN'" and "I'M A LONG GONE DADDY" he turns paeans to hard-living into downright EXISTENTIAL dirges that flesh out the PATHOS in those FAMOUS lyrics about existing outside of society and one's own control. its THRILLING stuff. i first heard this record through my father as an upperclassman in high school and it served as an introduction to WILLIAMS' OEUVRE and that particular postwar era of COUNTRY MUSIC in general (i.e. ERNEST TUBB, THE LOUVIN BROTHERS and so on). whereas WILLIAMS' music has a BOUNCE and SWING that came from his mastery of the BLUES lexicon, JOHNSON's DECONSTRUCTED POST-PUNK INTERPRETATIONS seemed designed to put the focus on the EMOTIVE impact of the lyrics. case in point are his ITERATIONS of "I SAW THE LIGHT" and "YOUR CHEATIN' HEART," both constructed as standard ROCK N ROLL songs with DRAMATIC sonic dynamics and TEMPO SHIFTS that swell up and crescendo in support of the original MELODY. again, putting the focus on showcasing the lyrical POWER of WILLIAMS' CELEBRATED COMPOSITIONS. in my household growing up i was well-aware of THE THE and specifically their preceding MIND BOMB (EPIC, 1989) and DUSK (SONY, 1993) albums, namely because of the COLLABORATIVE efforts on those releases involving JOHNNY MARR. the idea that JOHNSON dedicated a whole album to covering a COUNTRY artist in a sense validated not only WILLIAMS, but the genre in general to an extent. when i was growing up in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA in the early to mid 1990s the COUNTRY MUSIC i was exposed to was the CORNY radio POP fluff that has little to nothing to do with the more SEVERE BLUES-based FOLK and MURDER BALLAD traditions that fused the MUSICAL HERITAGES of both the DELTA and APPALACHIAN regions of the early 20th century. such is the distinct musical and cultural lineage that WILLIAMS is a NOTABLE acolyte of and embodies still to this day, more than seventy years after his untimely passing at twenty-nine. MUSIC is funny like that, where an artist you respect opens your mind and your heart to another that youd never notice sans the introduction. HANKY PANKY is a reminder to me of the potential benefits of remaining OPEN-MINDED when it comes to music and art, as you never know how perceiving something NOVEL from a DIFFERENT angle, viewpoint or lens will adjust your mental perception and spark an interest that will last a lifetime. that MERCURIAL aspect of appreciating MUSIC is something i have come to love and enjoy again and agin. i cant recommend HANKY PANKY any more forcefully. TRANSCENDENT record by a SINGULAR artist. and WILLIAMS aint half bad either. photo & text by nacrowe
for all the RIGHTEOUS, EMPOWERING and brazenly TRANSGRESSIVE and SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT content currently emanating from MODERN female HIP HOP MCs in CARDI B, MEGAN THEE STALLION and NICKI MINAJ, i think people forget just how REVOLUTIONARY LIL' KIM's HARD CORE (ATLANTIC, 1996) debut album was back in the 1990s. FEMALE SEXUALITY is largely a COMPLEX CULTURAL TABOO, since AMERICAN society for whatever reason has stuck to its INHERITED VICTORIAN PURITANICAL IDEALS. i believe that with millennials and the next generation that such REGRESSIVE BELIEFS have died down considerably and WOMEN are now somewhat EMPOWERED to say publicly what men have boasted about for generations, i.e. their LOVE OF SEX, DESIRING and BEING DESIRED.
back in the 1990s LIL' KIM was largely seen as a paramour of the NOTORIOUS B.I.G. who was married to R&B singer FAITH EVANS until his untimely passing. just on that information alone i believe that she was seen as everything from UNSERIOUS as an artist to a CUTTHROAT opportunist. of course the MISOGYNY in that assessment is pretty TRANSPARENT, as nobody faults BIGGY for his involvement or agency in such a TANGLED love triangle. the fact that EVANS and KIM later did a track together just shows how adults come together and handle their disagreements with DIGNITY and MATURITY. anyway, KIM absolutely faced this MISOGYNY head on with HARD CORE, as she unabashedly leans into ILLICIT perceptions of her and goes down and dirty to the point that i believe even LUTHER CAMPBELL (of 2 LIVE CREW fame) would blush. standout tracks include the single "CRUSH ON YOU" as well as similarly themed tracks in "NOT TONIGHT," "QUEEN BITCH" and "NO TIME." for my part, its interesting for me to notice how angry people get at modern tracks like the CARDI B / MEGAN THEE STALLION collaboration "WAP" or NICKI MINAJ's "ANACONDA," since i want no part of dictating to WOMEN how they should perceive or describe their own BODIES. to me that line of thinking is beyond PATRONIZING and just indicative of an overt PATERNALISM that is OUTMODED in modern society. i dont believe there is a lane that WOMEN, or men, need to stay in due to their GENDER. my belief is that the real test and judgement is going to be on how AUTHENTIC their music is to both themselves and their audience. thats it. everything else is IRRELEVANT. on those terms i believe HARD CORE is one of the more low-key INFLUENTIAL records of that period as it found a female MC that was willing to take on the boys at their own game, OBJECTIFYING them and PROFITING off of her own INTELLECT and celebration of her SEXUALITY. every time i come across a NEW artists like ARMANI CAESAR, FLO MILLI, KENTHEMAN or an ICE SPICE, it all feels like UPDATED versions of the same playbook LIL' KIM did back on HARD CORE. which im all about. definitely worth revisiting and checking out again. photo & text by nacrowe
i was a sophomore in high school when the ALTERNATIVE ROCK band FILTER released their second full-length release in TITLE OF RECORD (REPRISE, 1999), which was a markedly STREAMLINED effort compared to their more INDUSTRIAL-indebted debut. such being the case should not come as a shock since frontman RICHARD PATRICK was famously a former TOURING GUITARIST and COLLABORATOR of TRENT REZNOR in an early iteration of the ever evolving NINE INCH NAILS.
in spite of that comparison, which arguably will follow PATRICK his whole career for better or worse, my personal opinion is that TITLE OF RECORD is the album where PATRICK sheds the AESTHETIC influence of his former employer and comes into his own as a SONGWRITER. on PROPULSIVE, HARD-CHARGING tracks such as "IT'S GONNA KILL ME," "WELCOME TO THE FOLD," "CAPTAIN BLIGH," "I WILL LEAD YOU" and "THE BEST THINGS" there is a sense of play at hand with STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS dealing with DRAMATIC TEMPO SHIFTS and EXTREME LOUD / SOFT SONIC JUXTAPOSITIONS to convey an almost CINEMATIC narrative within a track. i went to boarding school in MASSACHUSETTS at the time and i can recall being swept away in the ENERGY and POWER of those songs while on long cold bus and train rides heading home in NEW JERSEY for the holidays at the time. unlike the more one-dimensional INDUSTRIAL sonic terrain of FILTER's debut SHORT BUS (REPRISE, 1995), PATRICK here, with assistance from TOURING GUITARIST and SONGWRITING COLLABORATOR GENO LENARDO, is palpably and expertly creating SIGNIFICANT TENSION and release within a POP context which is easier said than done effectively. but my FAVORITE tracks on TITLE OF RECORD, and arguably by FILTER end stop, are the more EXPANSIVE yet SOMBER and decidedly CONTEMPLATIVE tracks like "SKINNY," "I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE," "MISS BLUE" and especially "CANCER." all of these SONGS are about establishing a MOOD that builds and CRESCENDOS into a swell of EMOTIONAL RELEASE that was quite AFFECTING when i first heard it. in my opinion there is no better example then "CANCER," which is my preferred FILTER TRACK to date. that build up and release of energy very much mirrors the LYRICAL CONTENT about humanity writ large being a malignant entity that spreads its GREED, CORRUPTION and DEPRAVITY upon the earth and its inhabitants not unlike a CANCEROUS growth draining away the resources and life force of its host. decades later i still return to this record, but it is those later more SPACIOUS, almost FAILURE-esque, tracks that i gravitate towards. to me TITLE OF RECORD is the definitive FILTER record but some might give that title to its predecessor. this sophomore release was IMPORTANT in the catalogue of the band and the EVOLUTION of PATRICK as a SONGWRITER since it laid the MUSICAL FOUNDATION concerning elements that he has pursued in earnest for the remainder of his career. things like MOOD, NARRATIVE and TENSION / RELEASE dynamics. i can hear such implemented and executed at a high level on subsequent releases such as "WHER DO WE GO FROM HERE" off of THE AMALGAMUT (REPRISE, 2002), "NO RE-ENTRY" from THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELS (NUCLEAR BLAST, 2010) and "BURN OUT THE SUN" off THE ALGORITHM (GOLDEN ROBOT, 2023) among other examples. these later more CONTEMPLATIVE and emotionally EXPRESSIVE tracks from throughout his career all bear the said hallmarks and influence of the TITLE OF RECORD era of the band. most definitely worth checking out irrespective of your interest in ALTERNATIVE ROCK or INDUSTRIAL MUSIC. its just GREAT songwriting in my opinion. photo & text by nacrowe
THE WALL (COLUMBIA/CBS, 1979) is one of those records that is so repeatedly CELEBRATED and MYTHOLOGIZED down the generations that it is almost impossible to approach it soberly purely at eye-level. PINK FLOYD had made other massively commercially and artistically successful CONCEPTUAL recordings before, namely THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (CAPITOL, 1973) and WISH YOU WERE HERE (CAPITOL, 1975), which were about the things in life that ALIENATE us from each other and the ISOLATION one feels being used and commoditized by the MUSIC INDUSTRY, respectively. but THE WALL was different in that the source of the DETACHMENT presented was not lifestyle-related or the direct result of business and commerce transactions, instead it was the interaction with the AUDIENCE itself that was the source of said ESTRANGEMENT.
MODERN CELEBRITY CULTURE is something that has come to be more appreciated in recent decades and the phenomena of the PSYCHOLOGICAL TOLL that comes with having to balance the distance between your sense of SELF-PERCEPTION and that of a widely known PUBLIC PERSONA. the collision and collapse of that private/public equilibrium has led to the downfall of countless public figures from the world of SPORTS, POLITICS and ENTERTAINMENT alike. when i listen to the narrative presented in THE WALL, which is a parable / morality play concerned with that process of SELF-ALIENATION, i feel that HUNGER and DESPERATION that comes with battling that INEVITABLE process and sense of IMPENDING SELF-IMMOLATION. its CURIOUS but UNDERSTANDABLE that a band at arguably the peak of their creative powers chose to dissect and disassemble their INTENSE feelings of DISTANCE from EACH OTHER, their AUDIENCE and their CRUMBLING SENSE OF SELF. one can only imagine the pressures and expectations that come with the platform and they created for themselves, especially during an era where ROCK AND ROLL bands where expected (probably because of BOB DYLAN and THE BEATLES before them) to make grand cultural statements that were elevated to level of ART. such is probably why the concurrent PUNK ROCK movement was so effective in scaling back the scope and scale of such to purely PALPABLE, STREET-LEVEL PERSPECTIVES instead of BLOATED treatises on the nature of an artist's relation to themselves and their audience with massive commercial success. bullocks to that! STANDOUT tracks include the legendary ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN (and teacher) anthem "ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL (PART II)," the hazy ode to giving up and giving in to the will of others, "COMFORTABLY NUMB," and other affecting songs such as "RUN LIKE HELL," "MOTHER," "IN THE FLESH?" and "HEY YOU" among others. this album also represents the DISINTEGRATION of the relationship within the band, as keyboardist RICHARD WRIGHT was fired during production but kept on for the subsequent tour as a auxiliary musician. while not the final collaboration between ROGER WATERS and DAVID GILMOUR, THE WALL is their last SIGNIFICANT artistic statement as a CREATIVE PARTNERSHIP. fitting at least that this WATERS-initiated concept was SELF-AWARE enough to presage his own ALIENATION from the group as GILMOUR, once the replacement guitarist for original bandleader and main songwriter SYD BARRETT, with much INTERNAL ACRIMONY took the helm of the group through the 1980s and beyond. my opinion is that some of these songs are UNDENIABLE and that the MYTHOLOGY of PINK FLOYD rests on the sheer MUSICALITY and EMOTION in those songs alone, irrespective of fancy concepts surrounding PERSONAL DETACHMENT. the music is what drew me in as a child, not the lyrics. GILMOUR's guitar leads throughout THE WALL are stuff of legend and very well should be since they are powerful and emotionally affecting in their sense of RESTRAINT and REFINEMENT, rather than masturbatory sonic gymnastics soon to become popular over the next decade. GILMOUR could say more with three notes than later guitarist could with thirty. is THE WALL conceptually a bit PRECIOUS and POMPOUS? no doubt. it is DIFFICULT to make regular people empathize and connect to the INTERNAL PSYCHOLOGICAL HARDSHIPS, which are REAL, of MONEY, STATUS and CELEBRITY CULTURE, but i do feel THE WALL points to a conversation we are still having more than four decades about the toll of losing one's ANONYMITY and sense of SELF-IMAGE in a MASS MEDIA culture. in essence with SOCIAL MEDIA, we are all creating little information silos, i.e. walls, around ourselves to insulate us from feeling attacked for our views and SELF-PERCEPTIONS however WARPED and UNREALISTIC. its an INTRIGUING and RELEVANT question to date and THE WALL helped point the way. definitely an album worthy of revisiting and checking out again. photo & text by nacrowe
not gonna lie. FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK (WE SALUTE YOU) (ATLANTIC, 1981), the follow-up to the LEGENDARY BACK IN BLACK (ATLANTIC, 1980) album by the AUSTRALIAN ROCK N ROLL CULTURAL INSTITUTION known as AC/DC, is all about the title track. with its STEADY buildup and punctuated OPEN CHORDS that rev up the drama and its crescendo with canons blasting is pure CLASSIC ROCK IDIOCY and more than worth the price of admission.
i was LUCKY enough to see AC/DC play MADISON GARDEN back in august of 2000 and by far the highlight was seeing those canons come out and shoot off while ANGUS YOUNG was duckwalking a CRAZY GUITAR SOLO across the stage. it was as RIDICULOUS as it was UNSOPHISTICATED. you can almost imagine the discussion when writing the song about how to really take this track to the next level, with PERCUSSION that sounds like a canon. wait, lets just get the canons and include them on the track! at fifteen none of that mattered to me, all i knew was that the canon schtick was pretty BADASS and the crowd went absolutely MENTAL. fast forward 48 hours and i am back at high school on the other side of the globe for my first day of classes in KUWAIT and my ears were still ringing from those canons. and i wouldnt have it any other way. i think at times ROCK N ROLL gets a bit PRECIOUS and INSULAR, with musicians feeling like they need to make some huge ARTISTIC STATEMENT that will last the test of time and define some HIGHFALUTIN claim of an enduring CULTURAL LEGACY. unless you are LEONARD COHEN, BOB DYLAN, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN or JOHN LENNON then that sort of thing normally falls flat on its face (see everyone from BONO, TOM DELONGE, JARED LETO, GENE SIMMONS, BILLY CORGAN, ROGER WATERS, CHRIS MARTIN, PETE TOWNSEND and that dude from THE KILLERS). there is a certain sense of earned STATURE and AUTHENTICITY that allows those aforementioned artists that sort of platform with GRAND OBSERVATIONS to resonate with large swaths of the record buying public. you either have it or you dont. with AC/DC that was never their deal or modus operandi. they just wanted to level you with their UNRELENTING FORWARD MOMENTUM and KILLER GROOVE. same with ZZ TOP and even MOTORHEAD to an extent (in addition they wanted to blow your face off with volume as well). the track "FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK (WE SALUTE YOU)" is absolutely PERFECT in that regard. you can't help listening to it and not smile and feel charged up afterward. for me that song is the STRAIGHT-UP soundtrack to the UNPRETENTIOUS spirit of CLASSIC ROCK N ROLL. a b-line straight from the lineage of CHUCK BERRY himself. as for the rest of the album. it is pretty MEH. photo & text by nacrowe
along with LIVING COLOUR's VIVID (EPIC, 1988) and R.E.M.'s OUT OF TIME (WARNER BROS, 1991) albums, another INDELIBLE early musical memory and PROMINENT record from my childhood was FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS' THE RAW & THE UNCOOKED (I.R.S., 1989). its funny to me, because in college i became familiar with 2-TONE SKA and got really into THE BEAT, having absolutely no clue that guitarist ANDY COX and bassist DAVID STEELE were later members of FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS. both bands had exquisitely conceived and executed SONGWRITING with BOUNCY, PUNCHY rhythms and immediately MEMORABLE MELODIES and HOOKS. as POP albums go, THE RAW & THE UNCOOKED is nearly FLAWLESS.
ive gone a paragraph now without mentioning vocalist ROLAND GIFT, who is undoubtedly the secret weapon of the band and the absolute first thing i noticed when i heard the band as an IMPRESSIONABLE five year-old in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. its difficult for me to describe his VOCAL AFFECTATION other than to say GIFT was blessed with a RARE, EMOTIVE quality allowed for an ability to express deeply felt wells of EMOTION. as much as more UPBEAT 2-TONE SKA revival numbers like "GOOD THING" and "SHE DRIVES ME CRAZY" are rightfully CELEBRATED, this UNIQUE character of his VOCALS is best experienced on more subdued and highly AFFECTING tracks like "AS HARD AS IT IS," "TELL ME WHAT," and "I'M NOT THE MAN I USED TO BE." i really feel strongly that those last three songs are just total face melters and upon listening to them instantaneously take me back to my early childhood experiencing the EMOTIONAL POWER of music firsthand by a TALENTED outfit that had recently come out and were not inherited from my parents' collection of ELVIS COSTELLO, BEATLES, NICK LOWE, WHO, ANIMALS and STRANGLERS records (all of which i adored). that GNAWING hollow that comes with the DESPAIR and LOSS of FALLING OUT OF LOVE or LEAVING A RELATIONSHIP in "TELL ME WHAT" especially got me as a child as it reminded me of that feeling of ISOLATION when my parents left me with a babysitter. and i guess that is sort of my point, this album for me has qualities that go beyond the LYRICS or PRODUCTION VALUES (all of which are STELLAR). for me it is SINGULAR record that has a DIVERSE array of STRONG EMOTIONS that is brought to bear by the INCREDIBLE COMPOSITIONS themselves. all of the songs are ESSENTIAL in my opinion, even their cover of BUZZCOCKS' "EVER FALLEN IN LOVE," but the STANDOUT tracks outside of those aforementioned include "I'M NOT SATISFIED," "DON'T LOOK BACK," and "IT'S OK (IT'S ALRIGHT)." production-wise it sounds like the late-NEW WAVE era it was conceived in, with SAMPLED DRUM LOOPS and SYNTH PADS all over, but the quality of the SONGWRITING is never in doubt. and it still holds up more than thirty years later. THE RAW & THE UNCOOKED by FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS is definitely worth checking out. photo & text by nacrowe
thinking about a pre-TRAVIS BARKER line-up of BLINK-182 is always INTERESTING because the chemistry that lifted them above the POP PUNK fray to become veritable icons of the genre itself was due to that very specific MUSICAL ALCHEMY that came to fruition immediately after DUDE RANCH (MCA, 1997), their second album and major label debut. not that this recording effort is without GOOD SONGWRITING, as is the case with tracks like "DICK LIPS," "WAGGY," "PATHETIC," "APPLE SHAMPOO," and of course their breakout singles "JOSIE" and "DAMMIT." but rhythmically and stylistically, this album is pretty REPETITIVE and MYOPIC in terms of its SONGWRITING. in essence it is a band coming into its own both in terms of PRODUCTION and navigating the expectations that come with being on a major label.
when i first heard DUDE RANCH it was in the immediate aftermath of its more commercially and artistically SUCCESSFUL follow-up ENEMA OF THE STATE (MCA, 1999) that had both BARKER and LEGENDARY producer JERRY FINN added to the mix. BARKER being the MULTI-TALENTED drummer that he was, could elevate and transcend basic POP PUNK CHORD PROGRESSIONS with both an eye for SONG DYNAMICS and COMPOSITION as well as sheer TECHNICAL PROFICIENCY. listening to ENEMA OF THE STATE you can hear grooves that are based in both JAZZ and LATIN traditions that bring a sense of SWING and BOUNCE to several tracks. its entirely unfair to compare him to original drummer SCOTT RAYNOR who on DUDE RANCH and its predecessor CHESHIRE CAT (CARGO, 1995) provides a perfectly COMPETENT, if DERIVATIVE, sense of drive to his DRUMMING in the style of MELODIC HARDCORE bands like BAD RELIGION, NOFX and PENNYWISE. lyrically DUDE RANCH continues along the same lines of its predecessor by splitting the difference between SOPHOMORIC toilet humor and heartfelt odes to past relationships and teenage youth a la MILO AUKERMAN and the legendary 80s SOUTH BAY PUNK ROCK band DESCENDENTS. this lyrical perspective would continue on subsequent releases but seemed strategically aimed at both presenting the band as willing to laugh at their PUBLIC IMAGE and provided a critical distraction for genuine efforts at tracks that stretched their SONGWRITING ABILITIES and made them VULNERABLE. all the basic elements are their on DUDE RANCH, as well as CHESHIRE CAT, but the right mixture of TRADITIONAL and PROGRESSIVE MUSICAL ELEMENTS are not quite their yet. for me DUDE RANCH is all about my high school experience and hearing it makes me strangely NOSTALGIC for a time i would not in retrospect under any circumstances ever want to revisit again. what makes it an INTRIGUING listen years later is how foretells what was to come as well as provides a key look at an ICONIC band minus a VITAL ELEMENT in BARKER (or maybe two if you also count FINN, which you probably should). as much as i love this record, ENEMA OF THE STATE is the OBVIOUS starting point for anyone getting into BLINK-182 or POP PUNK in general. maybe after consuming GREEN DAY's DOOKIE (REPRISE, 1994), DESCENDENTS' MILO GOES TO COLLEGE (NEW ALLIANCE, 1982), MXPX's LIFE IN GENERAL (TOOTH & NAIL, 1996), FALL OUT BOY's TAKE THIS TO YOUR GRAVE (FUELED BY RAMEN, 2003) and NEW FOUND GLORY's STICKS AND STONES (DRIVE-THRU, 2002), you should revisit DUDE RANCH for comparison and context. NOT ESSENTIAL but definitely worth checking out. photo & text by nacrowe
terms like ALTERNATIVE and EXPERIMENTAL get bandied about a bit, myself included, when describing UNFAMILIAR or EXOTIC recordings with UNIQUE production processes beyond the point of being cliche. but that late songwriter DANIEL JOHNSTON is that RARE, AUTHENTIC OUTSIDER ARTIST that is SINGULAR unto himself and yet absolutely INDELIBLE to the listening public. long suffering from SEVERE BIPOLAR DISORDER that found him in various psychiatric institutions throughout his life, JOHNSTON found SOLACE in his songwriting and the makeshift cassettes he made via a basic consumer boombox. these tapes he famously passed out at his AUSTIN fast food gig back in the 1980s.
famously KURT COBAIN at the peak of the ALTERNATIVE ROCK movement vocally promoted the work of JOHNSTON among other INDEPENDENT artists (KYUSS, THE BOREDOMS, HALF JAPANESE, THE RAINCOATS, FLIPPER and SHONEN KNIFE among others) that virtually removed him from CULTURAL OBSCURITY and even made him the center of a major label bidding war. there is a RIVETING documentary about his life called THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON (SONY PICTURES CLASSICS, 2005) that is well-worth checking out that goes into much more detail about his UNLIKELY CAREER, CULT STATUS and struggles with MENTAL ILLNESS. HI, HOW ARE YOU (SELF-RELEASED, 1983) is arguably his most famous cassette. STANDOUT tracks from this recording in the intervening years have been covered by everyone from EDDIE VEDDER (PEARL JAM), MIKE WATT (MINUTEMEN) and TV ON THE RADIO and songs from his EXTENSIVE catalogue have likewise been covered on record by the likes of THE FLAMING LIPS, TOM WAITS, M. WARD, BRIGHT EYES, MERCURY REV, GUSTER, EELS, NICK ZINNER (THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS), DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, TEENAGE FANCLUB and BECK among others. CELEBRATED songs include "DESPERATE MAN BLUES," "WALKING THE COW," "BIG BUSINESS MONKEY," "POOR YOU," "DESPAIR CAME KNOCKING" and "GET YOURSELF TOGETHER." to my ears JOHNSTON is almost like the aural equivalent of HENRY DARGER in that his songs have a SELF-CONTAINED, INTERIOR LOGIC and WORLDVIEW that is constructed by a creator without a full-set of facts about how the world works. his characterizations about certain types of people may come across as NAIVE, but there is a PALPABLE sense that through much effort and INCREDIBLE CREATIVITY, he has made a substantial stab at CONTEXTUALIZING, UNDERSTANDING and ultimately ENGAGING with the outside world from a SKEWED PERSPECTIVE. to me that is ultimately the CHARM of his records, as well as the decidedly LO-FI AESTHETICS of his recordings. literally all you have are the songs and they stand on their own in this RUDIMENTARY state sans gimmickry or even BASIC production values as his voice trails and guitar/piano trail in and out due one would assume to his body movement from the boom box's INTERNAL microphone. undoubtedly JOHNSTON is a DIY CULT STATUS and a TRUE AMERICAN original. his is the embodiment of the AUTHENTIC alternative to what is often labeled ALTERNATIVE and his work is well worth checking out. RIP DANIEL JOHNSTON. photo & text by nacrowe
arguably the most CELEBRATED release from the much-REVERED GEORGIA INDIE ROCK institution that is R.E.M., AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE (WARNER BROS, 1992) is very much the culmination of the ELEVATED SONGWRITING and LYRICISM explored throughout the entire previous decade. never did the band sound more COGENT and AUTHORITATIVE then on this record.
on the preceding album OUT OF TIME (WARNER BROS, 1991), guitarist PETER BUCK was largely disenchanted with the guitar as a viable means of EXPRESSION, which is not hard to understand given the EMPTY, MASTURBATORY EDDIE VAN HALEN-inspired WANKERY of the 1980s. BUCK was always more of a TEXTURAL player who philosophically employed his instrument not unlike that of JOHNNY MARR (THE SMITHS), DANIEL ASH (BAUHAUS, LOVE AND ROCKETS, TONES ON TAIL) or ROBERT SMITH (THE CURE) in that the emotional evocation of the part superseded the TECHNICAL PROWESS or DEXTERITY utilized to achieve such. in short, the part served the song and not the other way around. on OUT OF TIME BUCK famously put down his guitar and picked up a mandolin in its place, writing some of their most FAMOUS songs, especially "LOSING MY RELIGION." when i listen to AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE i am confronted with a guitarist that has fallen in love with his instrument again. the SOARING pre-chorus LEAD EMBELLISHMENTS on the aptly titled "DRIVE" or the more SUBTLE FOLK-inspired DELICATE PLUCKED LINES of "MONTY GOT A RAW DEAL" and the WISTFUL, SOFT-FOCUS STRUMMING of "MAN ON THE MOON." the album to my ears just sounds like a master class in the EMOTIVE potential of the guitar as a sonic vehicle. in terms of EARNEST POETIC LYRICISM, the always INTUITIVE and REFLECTIVE vocalist MICHAEL STIPE on previous releases always had an INVENTIVE and rather OPAQUE way with WORDS and TURNS-OF-PHRASE that emotively translated where his PSYCHIC and AFFECTIVE headspace was at during the point of creation. AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE in that sense is a slight bit of a departure in that the themes and subjects are bit more TRANSPARENT, but such are seemingly the vehicle for translating deeply-felt EMOTIONAL CONTENT. a track like "EVERYBODY HURTS" is so SOLEMN on the face of it that it could very easily fall prey to UNINTENTIONAL SELF-PARODY or MOCKERY. what sells that line is the SERIOUS-MINDED conviction of STIPE's voice as if he is still in the process of dealing with the consequences of said experience in real-time. it is quite the PERFORMANCE and quite the achievement. "NIGHTSWIMMING" is a NOSTALGIC, PIANO-DRIVEN RUMINATION on lake skinny-dipping at night as a youth and that PROFOUND sense of UNIMPEDED FREEDOM that is as EPHEMERAL and JOYFUL as it is BITTERSWEET. not unlike the FLEETING experience of youth itself and growing older. "MAN ON THE MOON" is an ODE to ANDY KAUFMAN as if the late comedian where still alive, ready to pounce and eviscerate our collective cultural expectations once again with one last gag to end all gags. although the track celebrates his COMEDIC AESTHETIC, there is a MELANCHOLIC vibe that seemingly counteracts the words and insinuates the DISCONNECTION and ISOLATION of a comedian from their audience. its as if KAUFMAN is lost at sea and this song is a siren call to lure him back to shore. my personal FAVORITE track is "DRIVE." it is a COMPELLING MEDITATION over the complexities of being LYRICAL and EMPATHETIC in such a PUBLIC MEDIUM. the video really relates this ODD DYNAMIC visually quite astutely and strikingly with band members individually crowd surfing, literally connecting physically with their audience while being above and separate from such. i continue to find both the song and accompanying promotional video quite POWERFUL. unfortunately it is assumed that KURT COBAIN (NIRVANA) tragically committed suicide to this song, which obviously only further fuses that song with its strong theme of ISOLATION in the public imagination one step further. not unlike U2 post-THE JOSHUA TREE (ISLAND, 1987), R.E.M. post-AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE finds the group more interested in VEILED EXPRESSIONS through ALTERNATE PERSONAS and EXPANDED PRODUCTION with SONIC JUXTAPOSITIONS that hitherto were not previously part of the band's LEXICON OF SOUNDS. i feel like such was an INEVITABLE step away from the EARNESTNESS that was this album in particular, as if STIPE and company did not wish to be so EXPOSED and TRANSPARENT for public consumption again. at least that is my interpretation. i can't say i blame them. AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE is ESSENTIAL and absolutely required listening. most definitely worth checking out to the uninitiated. photo & text by nacrowe
i heard PEARL JAM's early catalogue haphazardly and completely and out of order. it makes sense because i was very young when those first few releases came out and wasn't conscious of music or CULTURE in general at the time. in fact, i was seven when their debut TEN (EPIC, 1991) came out, although i didnt obtain that album until late 1995. i received PEARL JAM's third album VITALOGY (EPIC, 1994) as a gift from my parents, along with SOUNDGARDEN's SUPERUNKNOWN (A&M, 1994), for either christmas or my birthday in late 1994 or early 1995. both of those two records were the first i ever owned and are still PRECIOUS to me. it wasnt until i moved to NIGERIA in and learned in early 1996 from an AMERICAN classmate that there was, in fact, another in-between album called VS. (EPIC, 1993) that i should check out. so my order went VITALOGY, TEN, and the VS. with PEARL JAM.
irrespective of my own IDIOSYNCRATIC exposure to their material, VITALOGY was a pivotal record in their discography as it marked the effective CREATIVE takeover of the band by vocalist EDDIE VEDDER. in comparison, on TEN the outlines of songs were mostly written by the time of his arrival, so his input was purely lyrical. on VS. the band was still very much effectively helmed by guitarist STONE GOSSARD and bassist JEFF AMENT, who started PEARL JAM in the wake the dissolution of MOTHER LOVE BONE due to the TRAGIC passing of frontman ANDEW WOOD from a heroin overdose. what transpired and altered between VS. and VITALOGY was a massive wave of unmitigated commercial success. surreally, VEDDER in october 1993 was even put on the cover of TIME magazine as the poster boy of sorts for his GENERATION, getting the BOB DYLAN / BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN treatment. by the time of production for VITALOGY there was a power shift where VEDDER asserted his songwriting and AESTHETIC INFLUENCES on the product, figuring that if he was going to be selling his likeness to the public he should at least not be PASSIVE in creating the product itself. VITALOGY is sonically and thematically EXPANSIVE and an ARTISTIC departure from the previous two releases. VITALOGY is OBSCURE, SELF-EFFACING and even HUMOROUS whereas the first two albums are more EARNEST, TRANSPARENT and somewhat DOWN-THE-MIDDLE ROCK AND ROLL. there is a through-line though with songs like "CORDUROY" and "BETTER MAN" off of VITALOGY seeming to come from a similar sonic and lyrical place as "DAUGHTER" and "ELDERLY WOMAN BEHIND THE COUNTER IN A SMALL TOWN" off VS. or "BLACK" and "OCEANS" off of TEN. this is all incredibly long prologue to bring up how CONTROVERSIAL PEARL JAM's fourth album NO CODE (EPIC, 1996) was upon release. the record came in the wake of a DISASTROUS tour in support of VITALOGY in which the band boycotted TICKETMASTER for financially exploiting its FANBASE. at this point also the band had long since stop making promotional music videos in the wake of "JEREMY" off of TEN. my impression of it was that it was meant as a palette cleanser a la NIRVANA's IN UTERO (DGC, 1993) or more drastically LOU REED's METAL MACHINE MUSIC (RCA VICTOR, 1975). it felt like a NONCOMMERCIAL album that was purposely OPAQUE to try to wean off the more FICKLE elements of its rabid FANBASE and create something more INSULAR, ARTFUL and entirely SELF-AWARE. its almost as if they made a CHALLENGING album for another fictional band that didnt have this OVERWHELMING corporate apparatus on its back chomping at the bit for more product to satisfy their INSATIABLE shareholders. i remember the only tracks i really took to were the UPTEMPO, HARD-CHARGING "HAIL, HAIL" and the decidedly SUBDUED "THERE HE GOES" both of which were SOLID songs but not ICONIC singles like those from the first three records. my opinion now is that this type of relative retreat from the spotlight was INEVITABLE given the PERSONALITY and ETHOS of VEDDER and his bandmates. there was also this palpable sense with the passing of KURT COBAIN years before that having control over your product and putting out into the public something that is AUTHENTIC is really all that matters. COBAIN years earlier commented on their early work being DERIVATIVE of CLASSIC ROCK cliches, which was somewhat ACCURATE and completely BITING. PEARL JAM took such to heart and their career trajectory since has been a conscious attempt at staying true to themselves and their COMMUNITY come what may. this even means reversing course, as PEARL JAM did with the CELEBRATED follow-up to NO CODE, titled YIELD (EPIC, 1998) which was heralded as largely a return to form (even complete with an AWARD-WINNING TODD MCFARLANE-directed animated music video). but NO CODE lived up to its title, its not really meant to be understood. its an INTERESTING curiosity in their catalogue, but NOT ESSENTIAL in my opinion. i would recommend first-time listeners check any of their first three records with a slight preference to VITALOGY, which is undoubtedly one of my FAVORITE albums from my childhood. photo & text by nacrowe
by the time you get to PANTERA's final album REINVENTING THE STEEL (EAST WEST, 2000), a transition within the band's SOUND and RELATIONSHIP to one another that had been underway since THE GREAT SOUTHERN TRENDKILL (EAST WEST, 1996) had basically come to fruition and fully calcified. namely this album was a band at the END OF THEIR ROPE CREATIVELY and INTERPERSONALLY.
in terms of their sound, the first two records COWBOYS FROM HELL (ATCO, 1990) and VULGAR DISPLAY OF POWER (ATCO, 1992) were the sound of an incredibly tight BROTHERHOOD coalescing together while writing, living and struggling together to create and promote arguably some of the most COHESIVE and EXCITING METAL ever produced. those two records represent an ascent and upward trajectory both commercially and in terms of shared VISION and FOCUS as a CREATIVE UNIT. once they hit FAR BEYOND DRIVEN (EAST WEST, 1994) some INTERNAL SHIFTS had occurred. for one, having been recorded in NASHVILLE it is the only PANTERA record to not be recorded in their home studio as everything before was in PANTEGO SOUND STUDIOS (formerly owned and operated by the ABOTT BROTHERS' father for decades) in ARLINGTON and everything after was done at DIMEBAG's home studio at his DALWORTHINGTON GARDENS residence. as such the record is ODD since it is both EXPANSIVE sonically and lyrically CLAUSTROPHOBIC with themes of DRUG ABUSE and MENTAL DEGRADATION. shortly thereafter its release vocalist PHIL ANSELMO had a HEROIN OVERDOSE on tour which shook the band to its core since for the first time the band's seemingly UNSHAKEABLE UNITY had been COMPROMISED. it was during this period also that ANSELMO pursued a major side project in the SLUDGE METAL supergroup DOWN, which the ABOTT BROTHERS tolerated but quietly chafed at given their allegiance and UNSPARING FOCUS to all things PANTERA. unfortunately, this schism was manifested in THE GREAT SOUTHERN TRENDKILL being conceived and recorded in two separate studios, the band in TEXAS and ANSELMO in LOUISIANA at TRENT REZNOR's NOTHING STUDIOS in NEW ORLEANS. this DETERIORATION continued on REINVENTING THE STEEL which to some listeners is the sound of a band in bad need of a well-deserved hiatus to recharge and regroup. which of course never happened as their world tour was cut short abroad by 9/11 and the band proved to never play live again thereafter as ANSELMO pursued an ever-growing list of side projects (DOWN and SUPERJOINT RITUAL among numerous others) without checking in with DIMEBAG or VINNE PAUL, leaving them in perpetual limbo for a few years. for me the experience of listening to REINVENTING THE STEEL is a bit BITTERSWEET as there are some STANDOUT tracks like "YESTERDAY DON'T MEAN SHIT," "HELLBOUND" and "REVOLUTION IS MY NAME", but overall its LACK OF COHESION and VISION makes it emerge as the LEAST IMPRESSIVE PANTERA album by far. even sonically, at this point everything had DISINTEGRATED into PURE ATTACK and AGGRESSION, whereas before there was a PALPABLE sense of GROOVE involved, like a more TECHNICALLY ADVANCED and HARDER-HITTING ZZ TOP. maybe, like with METALLICA or SLAYER, the standard and expectation level with PANTERA is just so ELEVATED that they were bound to misfire eventually, but the whole effort feels like a WASTED OPPORTUNITY for such an INNOVATIVE and POWERFUL band that basically kept the METAL flag going in the 1990s in the wake of the ALTERNATIVE ROCK explosion. you also can't help but wonder what would have happened if the band just took an extended break, got some side project records out of their system and STAYED IN COMMUNICATION so that when they eventually regrouped theyd be ready to actually fire on all cylinders again having reconvened as a more MATURE and FORGIVING UNIT, both CREATIVELY and INTERPERSONALLY. that of course never happened and the band is permanently a "WHAT IF" scenario only further solidified by the TRAGIC DEATH of DIMEBAG and the subsequent health problems of VINNIE PAUL that led to his PASSING from natural causes a decade later. the modern iteration of the band, nobly carried on with close friends of the ABOTT BROTHERS and METAL all-star recruits in ZAKK WYLDE (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE) and CHARLIE BENANTE (ANTHRAX, S.O.D.), still pales in comparison to the ENERGY, CAMARADERIE and SPIRIT of the original which sadly flamed out at the turn of the millennium with their final released effort. i should also mention that this was the period i saw the band play OZZFEST on one proved to be one of their last national tours of the UNITED STATES. although the band was AMAZING, you could definitely see the divide in retrospect as ANSELMO mumbled his way through his seeming CHARLES MANSON phase while DIMEBAG was in full, VIBRANT flight DAZZLING the audiences with his GUITAR HEROICS. it definitely appeared like an odd couple but a DEGRADED PANTERA was likely better than most bands at the top of their game so INCREDIBLE was this band. i wouldnt recommend REINVENTING THE STEEL as it is my LEAST FAVORITE PANTERA record. for me any of the first three albums is a great starting point for this LEGENDARY and highly INFLUENTIAL METAL band, undoubtedly of the first order right alongside BLACK SABBATH, SLAYER and JUDAS PRIEST. photo & text by nacrowe
in the public imagination, ALTERNATIVE ROCK pioneers JANE'S ADDICTION are universally revered for their two TRANSCENDENT releases NOTHING'S SHOCKING (WARNER BROS, 1988) and RITUAL DE LO HABITUAL (WARNER BROS, 1990) before their first implosion after the LEGENDARY inaugural LOLLAPALOOZA in 1991. but the record that initiated it all was their self-titled first album JANES ADDICTION (TRIPLE X, 1987), which was in essence a live recording from a showcase 1987 gig at the ROXY THEATRE in LOS ANGELES with overdubs and crowd noise added later. the record itself is somewhat of a CURIOSITY, as it was OBSCURE upon release (much like vocalist PERRY FARRELL's previous band, PSI COM) coming from a small INDEPENDENT LABEL during what was the heyday of HAIR METAL at the time. JANES ADDICTION is NOTABLE for having the AFFECTING track "I WOULD FOR YOU," the HARD-CHARGING "WHORES" and "TRIP AWAY" as well as the first released iterations of NOTHING'S SHOCKING tracks "PIGS IN ZEN" and "JANE SAYS." if anything, the album proves what a formidable live band JANE'S ADDICTION was, even at this nascent stage in their ascent.
intriguingly, the strategy of having an initial release through that of an INDEPENDENT LABEL quickly became common INDUSTRY PRACTICE, especially prevalent during the subsequent ALTERNATIVE ROCK era when PUNK ROCK bona fides was deemed especially IMPORTANT. you can see this trajectory pursued by peer bands like SOUNDGARDEN (SST to SUB POP to A&M) and the MELVINS (BONER to ATLANTIC and then back down to IPECAC) as well as later acts like THE SMASHING PUMPKINS (CAROLINE to VIRGIN) and NIRVANA (SUB POP to DGC) among countless other examples. with internet-enabled instant global digital distribution available today, this whole notion of physical GATEKEEPING by RECORD LABELS and the implied PURITY of INTENTION identified with independent releases is an ABSOLUTE CULTURAL ANACHRONISM in today's marketplace. but not back then in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. that PERRY FARRELL recognized this PHENOMENA and had his ear to the underground is REMARKABLE. he's something of SHAMAN in that respect, leading the masses out fo the CULTURAL WILDERNESS. this whole ALTERNATIVE movement was set to boil over with the help of FARRELL and JANE'S ADDICTION as well as that of INNOVATIVE peer bands in FISHBONE, THE BUTTHOLE SURFERS, FAITH MO MORE, LOVE AND ROCKETS, THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, R.E.M. and the then OBSCURE but BURGEONING SEATTLE scene at the time. as a CULTURAL ARTIFACT that is not by any stretch a DEFINITIVE artistic statement by an ICONIC and historically IMPORTANT band, what i take from it is how ahead of the game they were and how they pointed the way for others to follow and basically take over the industry for the better part of a decade. definitely worth checking out. |
NICHOLAS ARCHIVES
March 2024
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