Cody B
Cody B
Follow

Metal Wednesday:Last Exit- Iron Path

Posted almost 4 years ago
I will start off with the instrumental "power ballad", and you'll hear some more pummeling in comments.Last Exit:Bass - Bill Laswell Drums - Ronald Shannon Jackson Guitar - Sonny Sharrock Saxophone [Bass] - Peter Brötzmann Chuck Eddy said this was the 268th best metal album of all time and this:In “Sand Dancer,” Sharrock, the most seismic axmonster on earth, Einsteins on the bitch, makes your head spin in hirstute swirls. “Eye for an Eye” is where Piggy from Voivod goes to church in dimension Hatross and the congregation’s all mammoths with their fat butts stuck in the pews. They’re getting their wool shaved off, Sonny’s making wild electronic noise as if he’s vacuuming up fur left over from the last Ice Age. The album ends with the drummer repeatedly booting you in the teeth with steel-tipped construction-worker shoes. This is “jazz,” by the way.
0

Comments (30)

  1. Cody B
    Cody B says Sonny Sharrock Eye for an Eye ~ygtHoLOfOFT.mp3~ Detonator ~PySSoQuHG0p.mp3~
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  2. contrabandwidth
    contrabandwidth says Always love to hear a Laswell project I'm not familiar with. Makes me want to post some Elliot Sharp or Glenn Branca...
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  3. Cody B
    Cody B says Rawk contra..Of all the 500 listed in Eddy's book..this is one of the few I had, along with Eddie Hazel/Funkadelic and the Hendrix and Zeppelin's of the world. It is one of the funniest music books I've read. Stairway to Hell
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  4. contrabandwidth
    contrabandwidth says Yeah, that little synapses is freaking great. I'm gonna look for this book, for sure.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  5. poebegone
    poebegone says hey, weren't we just talking about Bill Laswell somewhere? (i.e. the collective "we") mannn that Sharrock slays, CB. i absolutely want more. diggin' the Last Exit track as well. my hq (heavymetal quotient) is way low.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  6. RobP
    RobP says Absolutely LOVE Last Exit, although I've never thought of them as metal. Noise, that's for damn sure. So far, I still only have this one on cassette, but I also still have a working cassette deck. And unfortunately, like Sharrock's magnificent "Guitar" album, this seems to be long out of print. I think most of what's available can be found at sonnysharrock.com .
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  7. mullytron
    mullytron says I had a big "downtown" jazz phase, and got this on vinyl way back in the day. If this turns your crank, definitely check out Ronald Shannon Jackson's other band, The Decoding Society, Melvin Gibbs and Harriet Tubman, James Blood Ulmer's stuff (more bluesy but still VERY weird), and some of Vernon Reid's old bands, I forget their names... I haven't listened to it in years, but I remember going back and forth between thinking Last Exit was totally unlistenable crap and pure genius. I guess that's why I kept putting it on...
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  8. Cody B
    Cody B says RobP, I'm using Mr.Eddy's idea of Metal, which, as defined by his selections of the Top 500 is quite wide..sure, I think most would consider Last Exit avant-garde jazz or noise, but Heavy they are.. Ilay, all the tracks are from Iron Path..Bill definitely comes up from time to time, I was on Multi, a-hankerin' for iron Path awhile back. I used to have it on vinyl..I dunno why I was hankerin' for it, but I'm glad I got it back. I did throw it up on the darkside.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  9. Cody B
    Cody B says I have a very similar feeling, M.tron, but Sand Dancer has always blown me away. A little noise is a good thing!
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  10. Cody B
    Cody B says You can't judge a book by its cover- A quote from Sonny- “I go out on stage, and my intention is to make the first four rows bleed from their ears.”–Sonny Sharrock RAWK
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  11. Charley Rogulewski
    Charley Rogulewski says i get Eddy's "This is jazz, by the way" comment. it's like jazz with an electric guitar. Sonny doesn't look very metal.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  12. Hermes
    Hermes says Nice melodic metal. But the reviews on the book on Amazon are totally devastating, the Metallheadz obviously have not much love for Eddies opinion ;).
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  13. Cody B
    Cody B says I can believe that they don't have a good view. Some think of metal as a manner of dress and attitude..to me metal is LOUD. Eddy pokes fun at closed minds and instead of expanding their horizons they put on the spandex and fight. In the 80's I would always try to get metal folks to listen to the guitar pyrotechnics of Zappa or something like this, but they wouldn't have it..they'd run back to their Satriani and Malmsteen..which is fine. We've argued back and forth about genres here on MOG and we all use 'em, but really the genres are divisive things applied in an arbitrary way. As far as I'm concerned it's all good.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  14. timm
    timm says Their live stuff was incendiary
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  15. Cody B
    Cody B says That's what I've heard timm..even noisier,louder,and more agressive. I know a lot of their fans hate this record, or at least the one's who blog about it, but then there's a whole cadre that like it. Bill Laswell gets a ton of guff,too. Whatever..I like it, I like the arguments, and its metal as far as I'm concerned.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  16. timm
    timm says

    Here's a live clip from '86. Face-melting. I would have been all over this stuff if it weren't for the fact that I was 5 years old at the time.

    Is it metal? I don't know, I'm just happy we're not arguing about whether it's jazz.

    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  17. contrabandwidth
    contrabandwidth says I saw the Peter Brotzmann Tentett plus 2 (yes, I believe that was the name of that line up) and I have never been more on edge after a concert in my life. Think of like 6 saxophone's blowing fast free jazz at the same time with a drummer and bassist. I'm not sure how many people were on stage, but it was more un-nerving than any metal or punk show I have ever been too. I'm not saying it was bad, I just like my free jazz, etc. in smaller doses. Man, I think my head was vibrating for like a week.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  18. timm
    timm says Yeah, I saw the Tentet + 2 also... I saw them in Pittsburgh and there were almost as many folks on stage as in the audience. I know what you mean about the dosage though. Just Brotzmann and Mats Gustafsson would be intense, but add in 10 more heavy hitters and, well...
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  19. Cody B
    Cody B says Every once in awhile it good to test yourself Ty..Like going to the dentist aurally. It must be done! How cats who play this type of music do it day in day out is amazing to me, so I guess i don't like noise as much as I think I do.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  20. RobP
    RobP says Cody, I first heard of Sharrock in an issue of Motorbooty that contained that ear bleed quote or something similar to it. And I have no objection to this being called metal, noise always seemed vague, but this album comes about as close to it as anything I've heard (that I like anyway). I've played this for people who are usually open minded and I've nearly cleared the room. In a car. But you know, Ornette Coleman's always been a major act for people to walk out on at the Monterey Jazz Festival, and I love Ornette too. Seems to me pretty much anyone worth a fuck has been hated by a lot of people. Another line from Sharrock in that Motorbooty interview was that he didn't consider himself a guitar player, just a saxman with a bad axe. And there's some Isis and similar material that has more to do with this sound than with anything I'd usually associate with metal either. I've always heard it as rock that I've had to look for in the jazz section - extending aural sensibilities doesn't really have a genre, it's just what a lot of the best stuff does. Sharrock also talked about how loud Coltrane was live; it's not like rock got the copyright on volume. And I don't get the feeling anyone here cares that much about the label, I just wanna know where to look for the music. Thanks for the live stuff, Timm, will get to it later, back to work right now. Where at least I can hear Big Star in the distance.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  21. Cody B
    Cody B says At one point I really got into micro-genre filing..labels,cities,styles,etc. This past year i did something (and I like to be able to find things so genres helped), I had never done before. I put all my discs in pure alpha order..no genres. I like it that way now. Rob, I ain't really sweating what anybody calls this record..I just wanted to have something for Metal Wednesday and I like to argue..thanks for pitching in everybody. I suppose one man's metal is another woman's rock and another man's jazz and Chuck Eddy's Jimmy Castor. Looking through the customer reviews of Eddy's book, there was a quote or 2 that caught my eye- "The ultimate irony of Stairway to Hell is Eddy's repeated implication that metal fans are closed-minded, rigid and elitist. To see someone fitting that description, Chuck Eddy need only look in the mirror. " "Chuck Eddy is an @ss. That he writes for the overated and self important Village Voice should give a clue as to his "Oh aren't I clever!" writing style. The frigging Osmonds are not and never will be metal. " On the plus side: "This book is not about heavy metal music. He says as much in the introductionif you, "read between the lines, Theo. Read between the LINES!" I say it is about rock music. I say it is sometimes about guitars. It is about NOT taking the music you claim to love so seriously that it is no longer about sheer enjoyment, but it's capacity to serve as "intellectual" fodder for debate. By the extremely high number of one star reviews I see here, I see that he was right. Most fans of any subgenre are too STUPID to see outside their own fashionable biases to get to the heart of being moved... It's the best rock book I've ever read in my life. I've been collecting and listening to heavy metal since 1982. My favorite heavy metal band of all time, Iron Maiden, is not included in here. I don't care because that's not the point. I've read this thing cover to cover about twenty-five times. It changed my life. "
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  22. Cody B
    Cody B says Aaarrgh that video is melting my face
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  23. Dzendvokh
    Dzendvokh says I like this album Cody.... don't think I ever mentioned that to ya on the other side. I don't even mind the scronkyness so much..... wouldn't necessarily call it noise... I have heard noise "bands" and they are much much less melodic. Nice thread you got goin' here.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  24. Cody B
    Cody B says The mighty woodsman returns! Good to see ya..
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  25. Dzendvokh
    Dzendvokh says That's right.... I'm STILL chopping wood out here.... well not actually chopping but I ran out again, (it's my main source of heat) and I gotta a get a 6th cord for the year... I've been pretty busy, home projects, plus working on my own music.... but I have been lurking though. Just not too inspired to post. What about you? Did you mention a job prospect? You gonna be finished with school soon? I'll have to see how the turn in the economy effects me, seeing as my job is somewhat tied to the housing market.... you never know though, might turn out to be a good thing.... I'm looking for a change.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  26. RobP
    RobP says Btw, my first Mog post, summer of '06, was about Sharrock. If yr curious, it's here: http://mog.com/RobP/blog_post/6462 . If the numbering here is accurate, that's less than 560,000 Mog posts ago. Just got home a little while ago and got to watch the video above for the first time. Damn, that's visceral. Which was pleasure for me, but I understand not for everyone. Just that yr supposed to have a physical reaction to music first, then you can try to explain it any ol interlekshul way you want. And I can easily understand how something like this gets put in the same category as Funhouse, but if yr gonna call this metal, my disagreement's gonna be with ranking it so low.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  27. Cody B
    Cody B says Dz, School is a long term project..2 years more probably..A job is gonna have to happen soon, I need to get my ass in gear. rob, I'll have to say, I'm the worst person to decide if something is metal or not..every now and again I do like something loud or louder than a bomb, and when the urge hit a few weeks back, i reached for this record, 'cause Sand Dancer hits me just right. I will check out your Sharrock post and see if I can find something more overtly metal for next week..I'm pretty sure no ones gonna argue with Eddie Hazel.. and I will, starting with your post, attempt to expand my noisy jazz collection beyond this sometimes maligned Last Exit record. Cheers.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  28. runobodyii
    runobodyii says Wicked post and conversation. I could hang just fine with the tracks Cody B posted, but the video, now that was pushing things a bit. As long as there's discernible rhthm I feel like I can set up housekeeping; I guess rhythm organizes the noise, makes order out of chaos. Now something rhythmic and funky is going on on the video, and I'm down with it.
    Permalink posted 03/26/2008
  29. RobP
    RobP says I think it's a band where every guy in it has to be capable of doing something that looks like it blows everybody off the stage; Ronald's drumming at the end sure does his share. But there was no way any of these guys was going to be intimidated by what any of the others did. As much as I admire some of the other stuff Laswell has done, hanging with these guys is far and away where I love his work most. I have a Decoding Society album, I have a Brotzmann/Laswell album, I have a bunch of Sharrock's solo work, I'd recommend all of it (the Decoding Society I've heard is the most pop of these, almost Talking Heads dance style at times, the Brotzmann/Laswell probably the most demanding/least accessible, all of it damn good). If you go to the Youtube post, this is an excerpt, and the guy who has it is selling; he had a Sharrock track from Ask The Ages where the excerpt was listed at 6 or 8 minutes, the full video at 33. Don't know, haven't contacted the guy, but there's some amazing material out there. runobodyii: you fooled me. You talked about discernible rhythm, and I really get the feeling that for most people that's something that would be missing in a lot of this music, but maybe not for anyone following this post. Because it's there, and like I said above, I had a visceral reaction when I watched, my body was loving that video. Like I loved this album the first time I heard it, playing it in the cassette deck of a friend's truck. Industrial Pickups, not the best band name but it sounds like one. Last Exit used to do r&b chestnuts live, "Money Honey" with a guest vocalist is on one of their live albums. Or maybe that's one of Sharrock's, but Sonny was an r&b session guy for awhile, he loved that shit, even if his favorites were Coltrane and Miles (he's on the Jack Johnson album uncredited); free jazz dies without a killer drummer. As to rhythm making order out of chaos: sometimes it's the right kind of chaos establishing the order involved, a la Elvin Jones with Coltrane - Elvin's drumming was like a fucking hurricane, but it was the perfect rhythm for what was blowing over it.
    Permalink posted 03/27/2008
  30. Cody B
    Cody B says

    Music to this post restored here...

    Permalink posted 11/28/2010

Comment on this Post

Login using email and password below.

Forgot Password?

OR login using Facebook Connect

Connect

Don't have an account?
Join MOG. It's Free!

Latest Posts on Last Exit

MORE Last Exit POSTS >
 

© 2006-2012 Mog Inc. All Rights Reserved