October 18, 201212 yr But it gets better. The album artwork was awesome, then there were the samples. Remember, this is only 5~ years after Paul's Boutique, back when you could pretty much sample whatever you wanted. But the recording of this album was ridiculously high quality, for something that maybe moved 10,000 copies its first year, then became an INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON and sold billlllions. Heheheh, I had to get over the fact that a lot of stuff from that Euro Pop genre is never played live for real. In America, we demand that our pop singers be able to play live (with minimal tape), have hot dance moves, shoot off pyro and all this other stuff. Much of rest the of world doesn't care about that crap. "It's pop, who cares?" '90s rock record production overall was incredible. Brickwalling earned people the death sentence, records were usually not too wet nor too dry and they had access to quality recording gear.
October 18, 201212 yr >'90s rock record production overall was incredible. Brickwalling earned people the death sentence, records were usually not too wet nor too dry and they had access to quality recording gear. Yeah it's amazing how good even the big-time pop recordings were right before digital and pro tools. U2's Achtung Baby sounds good (I don't really like the reocrd though), even Janet Jackson and some of the other manufactured pop. They put so much work into engineering those records it's disgusting. If you want to lose 30 minutes of your life, watch Steve Albini's lecture on mic placement for drum sets. That's how it was up until the mid-90s. La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol 1 is a bit of a cult record. Yeah that one song was played on MTV but I don't think they sold too many copies of the CD, maybe around 500,000. There was just way too much else going on in the rock world circa 1992-94 for this record to get big. The next White Zombie record was way overplayed but wasn't as good. It wasn't recorded as well either. I'd bet it was recorded on digital and Rob Zombie sadly turned away from Danzig-type hard blues metal and went to all that digital drum machine stuff. Everything he's done since has that really harsh-sounding treble that me no likey. Instead of an early 90s Butch Vig-type sheen (Siamese Dream, Nevermind) it sounds one click down from digital clipping.
October 18, 201212 yr From 1995-1998 metal was a complete no-no in the mainstream. It's how we wound up with the Loads. The record label probably really wanted Zombie to incorporate those industrial/dance elements -- the same thing happened with Danzig V. The labels were like "What are we going to do with these metal bands? Tell them that they have to sound more like Enigma." It was a strange time. We'll probably never run into a situation like that where an entire genre gets completely cut off as long as the internet is around since it doesn't make music disappear overnight like radio and MTV did from time to time. Here's a tune off Danzig V as an example: Danzig - Sacrifice (with lyrics) People forget about that record, but it to me typifies the chain-link-fence-burn-barrel-club-Mortal-Kombat-industrial-dance-metal vibe of the time.
October 18, 201212 yr ^Danzig doing his best Trent Reznor impression? White Zombie might be the guiltiest of my guilty pleasures. Who doesn't want to rock out with the craziest kids in the trailer park from time to time?
October 18, 201212 yr When I was a kid I was scared of Glenn Danzig and his band. He was not popular in Cincinnati but elsewhere there was a time when 1 out of 5 people at a punk show was wearing a Danzig shirt. People even had those big Danzig banners hanging in their apartments. Plus, a lot of cool chicks were into Danzig. Like these ones: Danzig - Bodies Rips off Led Zeppelin's 6/8 How Many More Times but we'll give them a pass.
October 18, 201212 yr ^? jmeck frequently talks like he is the final arbiter of musical taste and sophistication. White Zombie is rather base and unsophisticated IMO.
October 20, 201212 yr MGK's album just came out and it's fantastic. I kind of figured Diddy would do right by him, and that's what's happened. Bizarre way to hear about a performer: I heard a story about a kid in Chicago who got killed because he did a rap video that parodied another rapper's track in a way that dissed the gang the latter is affilaited with. I gave it a listen, then heard the original, "Every Day" by Cheef Keef. I like it a lot, though the video is lame and the production is off. This is exactly what I said about "Cleveland" by MGK. If Diddy or Dre got ahold of "Every Day" it would be epic. IMNSHO.
October 20, 201212 yr ^? jmeck frequently talks like he is the final arbiter of musical taste and sophistication. White Zombie is rather base and unsophisticated IMO. From what I've read, Meck DOES know music and base & unsophisticated is just part of the mix. Dunno if anybody is following the BS on the Twins of Evil Tour but Marilyn Manson & Rob Zombie are getting a little PO'd at each other with Mary threatening to kick Rob's ass & Rob cussing out Mary from the stage. Almost makes me want to go to a show.....
October 20, 201212 yr Reminds me of the time I saw the lead singer of the Legendary Pink Dots go on a 10-minute rant about Charleton Heston. I tragically turned down a chance to see Manson right when he broke in 1996, back when everyone went to shows in full makeup. That period of time was hilarious because on one hand you had everyone dressed up one preposterous way for goth/industrial shows and another preposterous way for the ska revival things (and used car salesmen for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones). I doubt there was any overlap between those two groups! I did see Marilyn Manson at Ozzfest 2003 but there's something wrong about seeing a goth/industrial act at an outdoor venue at 4pm with the sun still up. Anyway his band was the best there excepting Ozzy's. A lot of casual observers make the mistake of thinking these kinds of guys can't play.
October 20, 201212 yr There was definitely overlap. I knew punks who were into both bands like Misfits and GWAR as well as third-wave ska. Then there is at least one sort-of cross-over band that I can think of: Mephiskapheles.
October 20, 201212 yr I used to love wearing my old Grateful Dead stuff to punk shows..... I have read that Manson did poorly on this tour, that he and the band were pretty off.
October 20, 201212 yr Reminds me of the time I saw the lead singer of the Legendary Pink Dots go on a 10-minute rant about Charleton Heston. I tragically turned down a chance to see Manson right when he broke in 1996, back when everyone went to shows in full makeup. That period of time was hilarious because on one hand you had everyone dressed up one preposterous way for goth/industrial shows and another preposterous way for the ska revival things (and used car salesmen for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones). I doubt there was any overlap between those two groups! I did see Marilyn Manson at Ozzfest 2003 but there's something wrong about seeing a goth/industrial act at an outdoor venue at 4pm with the sun still up. Anyway his band was the best there excepting Ozzy's. A lot of casual observers make the mistake of thinking these kinds of guys can't play. Jesus, I just went back and looked at the Ozzfest 2003 lineup. What a mountain of turd bands. Manson would be one of the best out of those especially since they had John 5 playing guitar in the band at that time. There were a few decent ones on the second stage such as Voivod and Shadow's Fall, but Jesus there were so many godawful white trash nu-metal bands on there. Thank God Maiden, Priest and Slayer showed up again the next year to sweep that shit away for good. That next Ozzfest is also the one that had Jada Pinkett-Smith's metal band on it. Here's a letter submitted to that sports/culture website Grantland this week: I had a thought recently while watching the video for Alien Ant Farm's "Smooth Criminal" … was the late '90s the greatest time in history to be white trash? Music-wise, you had horrible rap/rock like Limp Bizkit inexplicably popular, Insane Clown Posse doing whatever it is they do, and Eminem becoming the best-selling rapper of all time. Even corporate pop was being fronted by a trashy piece of Louisiana jailbait. The all-time WT form of entertainment, professional wrestling, was at its absolute apex, with dumbass kids even forming those backyard wrestling leagues (I attended more than a few shows). We even had a white trash President cheating on his wife with trailer trash chicks! Those wily hipsters hadn't come along yet to co-opt everything with a sheen of irony. It was a time to be born. It was a time to die. It was a time to funnel Budweiser and punch a stranger in the mosh pit of a Korn show. — Sean D.
October 20, 201212 yr >Mephiskapheles. Yeah I saw these guys twice. First in 1996 then in 1998. Their last album, which nobody except me and about 3,000 other people had, Migh-tay White-ay, was the album where they went from merely mocking satanism to actually worshiping satan:
October 20, 201212 yr ^? jmeck frequently talks like he is the final arbiter of musical taste and sophistication. White Zombie is rather base and unsophisticated IMO. From what I've read, Meck DOES know music and base & unsophisticated is just part of the mix. Dunno if anybody is following the BS on the Twins of Evil Tour but Marilyn Manson & Rob Zombie are getting a little PO'd at each other with Mary threatening to kick Rob's ass & Rob cussing out Mary from the stage. Almost makes me want to go to a show..... Oh, I agree he knows music. It's the proclamations about other people's taste that is the part I was ridiculing. When you accept your love of simplistic, derivative music (which White Zombie most definitely is), then it's hypocritical to judge others for doing the same. WZ is just a logical combination of other sounds from the time, sounds innovated by other contemporary acts. The exact same can be said of Operation Ivy, a band jmeck was just dissing a couple weeks ago. Both bands have unique sounds, but I don't believe you can throw insults at one that can't be lobbed at the other.
October 22, 201212 yr Dunno if anybody is following the BS on the Twins of Evil Tour but Marilyn Manson & Rob Zombie are getting a little PO'd at each other with Mary threatening to kick Rob's ass & Rob cussing out Mary from the stage. Almost makes me want to go to a show..... Might be politics involved. Marilyn's a kind of outspoken Republican, though more of an anti-liberal really.
October 23, 201212 yr >Alien Ant Farm's "Smooth Criminal" … was the late '90s the greatest time in history to be white trash? Question: But does Honey Boo-boo single-handedly trump all of that?
October 23, 201212 yr Nah, people have the reaction to her that they should have had to nu-metal but didn't.
October 24, 201212 yr On to more recent music. The Strokes were really annoying when they appeared since they seemed intent on repeating every cliche of 1970s skinny-dude cocaine rock, especially the rock & roll boots, jacket, and hair over the eyes ala Last Waltz-era The Band (who were fantastic, of course). Then more recently came along The Kills, who I think have some earnest desire to rock, but once again they're repeating all the style tropes and I have a hard time getting past that. Also, the songs tend to sound like they're really about something, but mostly they're genre pieces. The Kills - Goodnight Bad Morning This one in particular is a rather obvious rip-off of The Velvet Underground's Sunday Morning, the first song on their first album from way back in 1966 or so. So rip on nu-metal if you wish, but at least it had a slightly nu aesthetic. The Strokes and The Kills -- two frustratingly annoying bands because there is some real talent there but it's so hard to ignore the forced sloth. A ridiculous amount of post production went into this one: The Strokes - Machu Picchu The question with this sort of track is how much of the song is the band and how much is the producer and/or engineer? That's why I can't trust this band!
October 24, 201212 yr "The question with this sort of track is how much of the song is the band and how much is the producer and/or engineer? That's why I can't trust this band!" Maybe it's my engineering background, but I don't really care. My brother's the musician in the family (indeed he's the one with the talent in general, I'm the one with the perseverance) and his opinion is the opposite. Ardyn's mommy's brother in law dabbles in music, and we're both hip hop fans. He loves rougher edged stuff, I like it better when someone like Diddy or Dre gets ahold of it. If you look at the producer/engineer as part of the band in effect, maybe that makes a difference.
October 24, 201212 yr I suppose now an engineer/producer can "micromanage" a recording in a way they couldn't before, and they can completely rearrange a song after it's been recorded, not just guide the initial recording. Sure, they could do overdubs in the past, but with the way sound bled from mic to mic in a traditional studio and track to track in analog studios there was a limit to what could be done based on the technology and the character of a song. They could of course physically cut the tape as well, but digital is on a whole other level. The issue is if you're going to compare the legacy of musicians, there are some who wrote nearly all of their material and others who wrote hardly any. The general public has never seemed to care and never will one way or the other. But for people who take music seriously people like Brian Wilson and Frank Zappa who not only wrote hundreds of songs but recorded them as well sit in a different category. My personal issue with it all is how can musicians listen to so much recorded music, then not understand what a good recording sounds like? How to arrange a song so that the listener's attention is held? It's kind of like handing a video camera to someone and giving them a TV interview assignment or something like that -- they've watched millions of hours of TV but when it comes time to position a camera and set up lights and script some dialog it's clear they haven't paid close attention to anything during those millions of hours.
October 26, 201212 yr Scored a ticket last minute and saw the Afghan Whigs at Bogart's tonight. Wow, absolutely incredible. Their recordings have always been a hair cheesy but none of that is there live. Definitely get there if they're coming to your town.
October 26, 201212 yr ^I had a chance to go when they were up here at the Beachland last month, but couldn't make it happen. My friend was texting me the whole time with sarcastic comments on how bad it sucked.... They still get my vote for top 3 all time bands from Ohio.
October 26, 201212 yr So they were saying it sucked or it didn't suck? And what is with people fiddling around with their phones during concerts anyway? Again I was really floored by how good this band was. I didn't see them in their 90's heyday but saw Greg Dulli when he was fat with the Twighlight Singers back around 2004 and the show wasn't very good. It's so rare that one of these "you've got to see them live" bands actually meets the hype. So the band has quit drinking and smoking, at least onstage, and everybody appears to have a membership at LA Fitness. It made a big difference because the show ripped from begining to end, with maybe one lull during a ballad. And no stupid banter between songs, political rants, etc. They had a third guitarist and were running all three through what appeared to be identical Mesa amps. They had Greg's set to low, then the hired guy doing mid, and the lead on high. It's pretty rare that you get to hear this live set up by a professional tech but when it's right it sounds HUGE. It really only works with a few styles of music, and seems to only work in small or mid-sized venues. At big places it can't work because of the echo and too much of the sound that reaches your ear is from the PA, not the amps themselves. Also, the ladies absolutely love this band for whatever reason. If the record company had actually promoted them in the 90s they could have gotten truly huge because they have a 50/50 fanbase ala U2 and only a handful of other acts.
October 29, 201212 yr No he thought it was a great show. No idea why they weren't bigger. Probably because of the overall dark music.
October 29, 201212 yr ^I had a chance to go when they were up here at the Beachland last month, but couldn't make it happen. My friend was texting me the whole time with sarcastic comments on how bad it sucked.... They still get my vote for top 3 all time bands from Ohio. now you got me curious -- what are your top all time bands from ohio?
October 29, 201212 yr >No idea why they weren't bigger. Probably because of the overall dark music. I've had this conversation before with people. Generally we agree it's because their videos sucked. I always thought Greg Dulli wa a bit cheesy/annoying. To me it's a little like The Doors -- I don't give a damn about Jim Morrison, I just like the songwriting. >now you got me curious -- what are your top all time bands from ohio? From the 90s: Nine Inch Nails, The Breeders, and The Afghan Whigs. Amongst unsigned but recently defunct bands This Moment in Black History (Cleveland), Gil Mantera's Party Dream (Youngstown), We March (Athens). As for current bands, Skeletonwitch (Athens). I heard "Last Splash" by The Breeders on the radio yesterday for the first time in probably 15 years. It's a really clever song. The video was way better than any Afghan Whigs video. I remember it being played quite a bit throughout the day and night on MTV whereas the Afghan Whigs were in the 120 minutes wilderness.
October 29, 201212 yr One of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs, but by no means Chris Christie's favorite these days: Bruce Springsteen - 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) Live 1978
October 29, 201212 yr ^I had a chance to go when they were up here at the Beachland last month, but couldn't make it happen. My friend was texting me the whole time with sarcastic comments on how bad it sucked.... They still get my vote for top 3 all time bands from Ohio. now you got me curious -- what are your top all time bands from ohio? Personally, from what I listen to in alphabetical order it's Afghan Whigs/ Twilight Singers, The Black Keys and Guided By Voices.
October 30, 201212 yr Cincinnati had a pretty good music scene in the 80s with The Erector Set, The Auburnaires, The Warsaw Falcons, The Raisins, The Wolvertons & a few I forget (The Edge?). The promoter at the Newport club, The Jockey Club, provided a nice venue that brought in large out of town acts & used locals for opening acts. As these bands winded down groups like The Afghan Whigs & The Ass Pony's, etc. came along. Why MTV jumped on the Cincinnati music scene then & not before, baffled me. Was there a tie between The Afghan Whigs & The Black Republicans?
October 30, 201212 yr I think it came down to the Afghan Whigs being signed to Sub Pop Records, which of course signed Soundgarden and Nirvana in the late 80s. So when those bands became huge people paid attention to who else was on that label. Also, Sub Pop made an active effort to promote American music in Europe, especially England, and had the Afghan Whigs playing those huge festivals in England in 93 and 94 while they were a relative unknown in Cincinnati. I was in high school at the time and I don't remember anyone seeing the Afghan Whigs live.
November 18, 201212 yr Top 3 Ohio Bands: GBV/R. Pollard - far and away the best in my biased opinion Pere Ubu/Peter Laughner/Rocket From The Tombs/Mirrors/Electric Eels - pretty much the entire interrelated cleveland punk & art-punk scene. The Breeders There's tons of great Ohio bands! I would say Dayton and Cleveland have all the really top notch ones. Columbus and Cinci never had a band that really did it for me like the three above. Scott Walker also bodes a mention, a Hamilton native to boot. Devo is great. Tin Huey from Akron. Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Gaunt, Scrawl from Columbus. Times New Viking is good. Too many to mention really.
November 18, 201212 yr I've been listening to Why? lately. They came out with a new album recently, so I've been jamming to them on Spotify. GBV is my favorite Ohio band. Followed by Afghan Whigs. ^ Video features Northside 4th of July parade on Hamilton Ave. in Cincy.
November 21, 201212 yr Cincinnati record store, Shake It, releases Cincinnati blues compilation. http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/blog-4191-shake_it_issues_historic_cincy_blues_compilation.html
December 20, 201212 yr just so y'all know, the new big boi record BANGS..like everything else he's ever done.
December 31, 201212 yr Tonight: They have no tour dates announced for 2013 so there is some chance that this is their last show, ever.
January 1, 201312 yr It was a pretty good show. Greg Dulli announced that it's probably their final ever. This clip gets pretty good in the third minute:
February 3, 201312 yr "The Red Feathers", best new band in Ohio: I used to hang out a ton with the singer at OU 10 years ago, we used to sit around listening to Iggy Pop records all the time. Hilarious to see that he has constructed an Iggy Pop stage act and assembled a band around it!
July 17, 201311 yr I wish they had new video up as they have a new bass player....who resembles me only in the respect that we share parents.
July 17, 201311 yr i just got my ticketbasterd tix in the mail for two shows -- for the sword (austin meh-taal) and dirty beaches (hipsta muzak). should be good.
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