Jesus built my hotrod. It was a love affair. Mostly Jesus and my hotrod.
I love this damn song. It comes from Ministry’s 1991 record Psalm 69, an perfect example of early 90s electro/metal fusion. It totally rules. Enjoy it.
Tag Archive: Metal
Yesterday, I was blowing up Twitter/Facebook making jokes about music I like. It started with this:
Agoraphobic Nosebleed is my favorite light jazz band. http://t.co/UvwUWVcr
Then to here:
Nasum is my favorite children’s music band. http://t.co/Jq26TglS
And here:
Deicide is my favorite Christian-rock/blues-fusion jam band. http://t.co/pRK6MrOC
And finally here:
Andrew Bird is my favorite black metal artist. http://t.co/FBL6IPod
Just a moment ago, I was going to make another joke with the video above: Steve Austin is my favorite classical music composer.
But then I realized I have a little more to write about Today is the Day than just the one liner above. I first encountered Today is the Day in the late 90s around the release of In The Eyes of God. At the time I had no idea what to do with them. They sounded exactly unlike anything I’d ever heard before. I wasn’t even sure if I liked them, but for some reason I was compelled to stick with the album. What started as a punishing wall of noise became a tautly crafted punishing wall of noise. An enjoyably punishing wall of noise. Even now, 13 years on, I have rarely heard an album quite as heavy as In The Eyes of God or a band as heavy as Today is the Day. There are louder bands, there are faster bands, but very few bands as purely brutal as these guys. If we define heaviness (as I have written about before) as the eschewing of melody for rhythmic force, then Today is the Day is shifted far to the rhythmic end of the scale.
If you are a fan of extreme music and you’ve never sat down with Today is the Day, do yourself a favor and do it. You’ll find a rewarding, difficult musical experience that will be so different than what you are used to from most modern heavy music that you’ll come back here and thank me. If you’re not a fan of extreme music, why are you here? You should listen to Today is the Day too.
Do you guys remember the 90s? Do you remember how awesome they were and how much awesome metal was coming out at the time? Yeah, so do I. It was great. Misery Loves Company is one of those bands that if you weren’t in the scene at the time you probably have never heard of, but who, for me, scream 90s. “My Mind Still Speaks” comes from their 1995 self-titled debut and I still think it is awesome. I can’t even tell you how many times I listened to that album. It is so good, but I don’t think you’ll like it now. It sounds real dated, but nostalgia is strong. God damn, even the music video is super 90s.
Because sometimes this is what it sounds like inside my head. Enjoy this punishing two minutes of fucking grind.
Continuing on their quest to release the best fucking music videos in all of heavy metal, Oregon’s Red Fang have released this video for the song “Hank is Dead” from 2011′s Murder the Mountains.
Not content to allow the wanton destruction of things in their station wagon to remain their peak, the dudes went and threw an air guitar competition. That is pretty fucking bad ass. And then they shot it and made it into a music video. Genius! I’d take 1 of these to a million “band in a warehouse” videos. I don’t care how sweet your song is; if you are a metal band playing in a warehouse I am instantly bored to death of you. I am glad to see Red Fang engaging their creativity to put out videos that are both fucking entertaining as hell and perfect reflections of their music.
And if you haven’t yet listened to Murder the Mountains (and I don’t know why you wouldn’t have since I’ve recommended it like a hundred times), go listen to it. It’s on Spotify. Don’t be a jive ass sucker.
If there’s anything that fans of electronic music and metal like more than the extreme subgenrefication of their beloved music types I don’t know what it is. Take heavy metal for example: we’ve got death metal, black metal, thrash metal, speed metal, doom metal, sludge metal, prog metal, power metal, new wave of British heavy metal, new old school death metal, new wave of American black metal, tech death metal, blackened thrash metal, blackened death metal, nü-metal, metalcore, slamcore, mallcore, deathcore, thrashcore, crabcore, who knows what the fuck else. That’s just off the top of my head. I’m sure I’m missing something.
The same is true of electronic music. House, acid house, tech house, trance, psy-trance, progressive trance, electro house, disco house, minimal tech house, electroclash, gabber, horrorcore, progressive house, Detroit house, Chicago house, Miami house, booty bass, drum & bass, dubstep, brostep, EBM, synthpop, futurepop, ambient house, italodisco, ghettotech, goa, witch house, grave wave. Christ, I could keep going and going and going.
For me this extreme diversification has always seemed totally unnecessary, especially as the differences between genres become smaller and smaller to the point that they are basically indistinguishable. Is this band futurepop or EBM? Or is it EBM with synthpoppy overtones and some dubstep inspiration??? Did this band release a deathcore record and are they straying away from their traditional NOSDM roots by incorporating some slamcore elements?! DID MACHINE HEAD REALLY RELEASE A NÜ-METAL RECORD?!? (They did and it broke my heart.)
See how stupid that all sounds? Not just stupid, but utterly pointless and fruitless?
Then what the hell am I doing proposing yet another subgenre? I have my reasons!
First, for me, House music breaks down into two categories: serious and not serious. I tend not to think of it as it sounds—it’s four on the floor for dancing and was inspired by Disco? it’s house—but whether it is taking itself super seriously or not. No one seems to take that into account, and I think it’s the most important factor defining house producers. Are you going to take this shit seriously (Euro House, I’m looking at you) or are you going to have fun with it and fill it with silly lyrics and idiocy?? I much prefer the latter.
For those of you who grew up on the Moon and have never heard of house music or have some sort of poor understanding of the music, house is a genre of electronic music that came out of Chicago in the early 80s. Specifically, the name comes a club called The Warehouse where the music first really became popular. Or from the fact that DJs made it in their homes. Or from the fact that these records were the DJ’s “house” records, in the way that a restaurant has a “house” wine. Whatever. It is characterized by a four on the floor beat, off-beat hi-hats, drum machines, driving basslines, and a strong Disco influence.
Here are some examples of what I am talking about, all of which have been on the site before.
Le Le’s “Breakfast”
Duck Sauce’s “Big Bad Wolf”
The 2 Bears’ “Bear Hug”
Detroit Grand Pubahs’ “Sandwiches” (CLASSIC!)
See what I mean? These guys are making dancey as hell beats but without a serious face in the mix. I love it.
But then what do I call it? It seems unfair to lump it in with all the other subgenres of house music. The difference between these guys and some coiffed dick head is like the difference between a Gwar show and a 6 year old’s piano recital.
The subgenre needs a name. I originally thought I would call it “Goon House” since to me “Goon” is sort of a good name for that and the words sound nice together. Goon House. Goooooon Houssssse. But Michael said that it reminded him of Jersey Shore douchebags and Charles said he thought of MSTRKRFT, which is, I guess, kind of close, but not exactly right. I went to talk to Steve about it and bounced around Clown, Silly, Goofy, Nonsense, whatever this, whatever that, but nothing was clicking. Panty House? No. Bouncey House? Nope. Light House? That’s actually kind of good and funny, but I am not sure. Fun House? White House? Jack House? Takk House?
What the hell do I call it? What do you all think?
This video makes me want to party like a motherfucker and pretend like I don’t have all sorts of really boring adult responsibilities. But that’s just it, it would only be pretending. Instead, I’ll live vicariously through these dudes and head into work tomorrow (Sunday) sane and sober and annoyed.
The video was directed by Angela Boatwright, who I like to think of as “The Other Metal Angela”.
Enjoy.
