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Years ago I was a metal head... not a total metal head, I never had long hair or anything like that, but I listened to a lot of metal, I listened to the metal show on the college radio station at MSU , I watched the Headbangers Ball , I even subscribed to Rip Magazine.. Somewhere along the way I started to listen to more punk and rockabilly, more country and even pop music, and while I found myself going back to metal here and there, It's been a while since I checked in with the scene.
The last couple of weeks I spent reading Sound of the beast : the complete headbanging history of heavy metal by Ian Christe... I even wrote the following review for the aadl.org website
I found this book to be a solid overview of the history and growth of the Heavy Metal Music style and scene. The dominate players, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Slayer, and of course Metallica all received the attention due them, as at the same time smaller lesser known bands, the second and third tier bands and a host of also-rans were given their due. Various sub genres’s of Metal were discussed and fleshed out fairly well. The social elements of Metals history were also addressed and a Varity of viewpoints were provided.
I did have two big problems with this book. First is the almost apologetic free pass given to Al and Tipper Gore for their involvement in the PMRC and the censorship that has followed the wake of their hearings. It’s as if the author didn’t want to take on the fact that Gore is second only to Bill Clinton in the repression of not only heavy metal, but rock and roll in our modern culture. (Clinton sold out the rock world when he signed the telecom act of 1996). The second issue I have with this book is that it looks with almost distain on punk, grunge and Alt Metal music. There is a begrudging mention of these genres included in the book, and the authors obvious hostility to the forms comes through loud and clear. It’s almost like one oppressed minority fighting for their rights, while at the same time dismissing the validity of the rights of other minorities.
Over all I would recommend this book to people who are interested in the history of heavy metal.
The other thing this book did was get me to check out some more recent metal and of course go back and listen to my Black Sabbath, Accused and Metallica records... I haven't had time to distill all of it yet but it's interesting to check back in, it's like visiting a place that you used to live or work...
Each month, since Feb of 2006, I start a playlist in my iTunes of the tunes that catch my ear that month. I started off writing a post to my Mog page with a short review or comments of each track, not only to keep a running diary for myself, but to hopefully point others toward these tunes. In the last several months I have started to cross post this information on other sites where I keep blogs. (If you are reading this somewhere besides Mog, you can find all the old ones at www.mog.com/iren) I want to apologies for any weird formatting stuff right here and now, I type this in MS word and then post it on these various message places, some of which have…w ell formatting issues….
Anyway for this month here is what caught my ear…
Lost Weapons by Dog Company from Songs of Discontent
http://www.myspace.com/dogcompany44
Political street punk from Texas…
Maps of War by Disfear from Live The Storm
www.myspace.com/disfear
Heavy roaring cookie- monster metal punk in the Motorhead/ Hellacopters tradition, filled with energy and passion….
Acid reign by The Hellacopters from In The Sign Of The Octopus 7"
http://www.myspace.com/hellacopters
Speaking of the Hellacopters… they are about to release their last album…. And here is one of the tunes from it… It’s a cover of the Aussie band (the Yes-Men www.myspace.com/yesmenrock) and has just a hint of that Meatloaf operarock sound… but really it’s right back to the sound of the High Visibility era Hellacopters…I assure you that as this album slips into my brain stream there will be more for me to say… as The Hellacopters have been a part of my life for almost 10 years now and have lead me down paths and on adventures that I never dreamed of…
Sunshine by Bang Sugar Bang From Victory Gin
http://www.myspace.com/bangsugarbang
This is one of the poppier numbers from these guys and it’s been stuck in my head for a while…really great stuff..
This month was a little lite on stand out tracks, mostly because I am still trying to catch up on podcasts, and have been working more and listening less… hopefully next month will have more of note, and as I am expecting not only to absorb more tunes from recently gathered albums, but also looking forward to the release of some new stuff that I have been waiting for…
Thoughts, comments, spare change.
Comments
Victory Gin sound most excellent. I didn';t see the song Sunshine on their myspace. But "Follow the Zombies" is pure poppy goodness. Thanks, Iren.
brittanybf- I don't recall where I picked up the Sunshine MP3 .... but Follow the Zombies is another great tune... and you are welcome.
A couple of years back Helsinki's Garage Punk goddesses Thee Ultra Bimboos released the album Bimboo Wizard, which quickly became one of my faves of not only the year but of the decade... of course with out the hippster stamp of approval from places like Pitchfork or Paste no one in the States noticed.... but for those of us who did (hey Pekka) it was yet another solid album from a gravely overlooked group....
so just as I listened to the Stones Exile on Main St. record a couple of nights ago, I think I am going to spin Bimboo Wizard, which I haven't played all the way through and in order for a while and see if it's really the record that I have always thought it was...
Comments
I'm not a huge metal head but Black Sabbath's Paranoid album is one of the best of all time. Track for track that thing delivers. I like to put it in the rotation and rock out for a few weeks working my way through the album.
Some great posts on the album here including one on Planet Caravan which is a super mellow song. Very trippy.
Thanks for reminding me. It's going back in the rotation for the weekend.
Rock on!
This will help:
http://mog.com/music/Black_Sabbath/Paranoid
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"It’s almost like one oppressed minority fighting for their rights, while at the same time dismissing the validity of the rights of other minorities."
'm terribly afraid what you say here is terribly correct...
Cool post here, though i didn't read this book, i'd add that without Black Sabbath there would probably never have been any "metal" at all, they created something big that impressed and influenced generations of rock-hard rock-metal musicians.