Poison – Flesh & Blood

You know how sometimes you’re walking down the street looking for a particular address, and you can’t find it so you stop and ask for directions, and the person tells you you walked past it quite a few blocks ago? And then you walk back feeling ashamed and feeling like a total tool?

That’s how many people should feel, regarding the music of Poison. Yes, that Poison. Don’t leave, hear me out.

Anybody left? Good. See, somehow, there is a lot of bandwagon hate for what is now known as “hair metal”, especially for Poison, one of the most commercially successful bands of said made-up genre. To an extent, I can understand. I know “successful =/= good”, and I know Poison, as musicians, aren’t exactly the epitome of greatness. But for what they are/were, they were all right.

Most of this hatred stems from trolls who love to shout “Poison isn’t metal!”, which I don’t understand, since they never claimed they were. These trolls don’t understand how stupid they look when they say that. That would be like me saying “Diana Ross & The Supremes aren’t metal!” to explain why I don’t like 70’s disco music or Motown.

Anyway, let’s get back to Poison. I’ll admit to not knowing jack shit about Poison by the time their second album was out. I had read in some Circus magazine that yes, they existed, and assumed that because they were on such a publication, I might in fact like them. So I went to the record store, found a copy of Open Up And Say…Aaah, and looking at the band photo felt surprised that they were actually a female band. Honest, that was my first impression of them. Then I found out two of the members were called Bret and Bobby. C.C. and Rikki were still ambiguous though.
A few weeks down, I loved this band. I had obtained a copy of Look What The Cat Dragged In, and I loved both albums, what with their party anthems, and their love songs and their sexually suggestive lyrics.

At the time, I was still a teenager. Living in a remote village in Mexico (ok, it’s a state capital, but culturally, it was a village), my only exposure to american rock n’ roll came through the pages of magazines such as Circus, Hit Parader, and later, Rip. So it was only natural that my music collection included such items as the BulletBoys, Cinderella, and Extreme. And of course, Poison.

Then, there was talk about Poison going in a more serious direction. They dropped the makeup and in a way “matured” (if you can call writing songs like Unskinny Bop “maturing”).
I was working a summer job in Mexico City in 1990, when on pay day, as was usual, I went to my favorite record store, and saw they had the new Poison. Flesh & Blood, it was called, and let me tell you, it took a few listens but it became my favorite album at the time. I read somewhere that the first few prints of the album (it could have been the first 10,000, or 25,000, I honestly can’t remember) became a collector’s item, since they showed blood dripping from the tattoo on the cover. Sure enough, I checked my copy and found the blood.

When summer ended and I returned to my village, I was lucky enough to not return alone. My uncle gave me a puppy, a labrador. Think Marley & Me. Now, why would I mention a dog in the middle of all this? Well, after arguing with my parents about what to name my dog (they had ruled out all the names I had thought of, which were basically characters from horror movies) I went to my room, and played Flesh & Blood. When the intro started playing, I came up with the following train of thought: “The intro is called The Strange Days Of Uncle Jack.  Jack is also the name of a serial killer (as in the Ripper). If I call my dog Jack, I can say it’s because of the Poison song, and my parents will never know I named him after Jack the Ripper. Brilliant!”.
So I named my best friend after a Poison song. Some friend I am.

I realize I’ve typed 710 words so far, and this is not much of a review. Let me change that.

Flesh & Blood is different from what Poison had done before. Sure, there’s a couple of party songs, or a tribute to sex (“What IS an Unskinny Bop?” was one of the most asked questions of 1990), but for the most part, the music sounded bluesier. The lyrics changed to more serious topics. And as I listen to the album in its entirety for the first time in over a decade, I realize there’s not a single song I dislike.

There’s the classics (here’s a grain of salt to go with that term) like “Unskinny Bop”,  “Ride The Wind”, “Life Goes On” and the piano ballad “Something To Believe In”, which used to appear on heavy rotation on MTV.
There’s the rest of the album, many songs which in my opinion would have made great singles. There’s “Valley Of Lost Souls”, “Come Hell Or High Water”, “Don’t Give Up An Inch”, “Ball And Chain”.

Fuck, this is bringing back memories! In any case, this is the address I was referencing in my opening paragraph. By the time their next album came out, the musical landscape had changed, the band was falling apart (C.C. DeVille had left the band), and they decided to “reinvent” themselves, with awful results.
While Look… and Open Up… were straight out juvenile, and Native Tongue took itself too seriously, Flesh & Blood comes out as a perfect middle point, resulting in one hell of a “hard rock” album.
Unless, of course, you’re of the mob mentality that “Poison sucks because they’re not metal”.

Here’s a really, really shitty YouTube video of “(Flesh & Blood) Sacrifice”.

The Iceberg

Disturbed – The Sickness

Every now and again, one feels hopeless about the state of music, particularly one’s own favorite genre. In my case, it was metal. A few years had rolled down, and this “Nü Metal” thing had already gotten old. The Coal Chambers and the Papa Roach’s and the Nickelbacks… there was nothing new under the sun, so to speak. Add to that the catastrophes that were Creed, with their christian agenda, and Puddle of Mudd (although, I have to admit PoM came into their own in later albums).
Yet to the metal fan, there’s always hope. There must be a band somewhere, out there, whose music I can identify with, whose music will definitely rock me.

This, of course, happened way back in the early millenium. At the time, I downloaded, off of Napster, this album, along with System Of A Down, and a couple others. If I recall correctly, even an Insane Clown Posse one.

One day, after my then-wife had abandoned me, I had to take care of housekeeping. I decided to play the album by Disturbed, as opposed to whatever else I had downloaded. As I swept the floor, as I mopped, as I fed the dog and washed the dishes, the album played once. And then, another time. And again. And again, and again.
Soon after, I had a few friends over. I played the album one more time. At least two of my friends went and bought the album (and yet, the follow-up, Believe).

There was something just so “cool” about it. The fact that “Voices” and “Stupify” and “Down With The Sickness” and “Numb” were all memorable. I learned to love all the songs on the album. I had no influence from external media – I didn’t know if they were or not featured on MTV, or radio. I just knew I thought it was a solid album.
Later I found out they were indeed quite popular among the MTV crowd. Yet, not for the same reasons I liked the album. I found meaning in some of the lyrics. I found heaviness in the music. I was captivated.

Moreso by the Tears For Fears cover, “Shout”. I had promised myself that if I ever had enough balls to start my band, I’d cover that song. Disturbed did a much better job then whatever I would have accomplished.
I had downloaded the album, and that turned out, accidentally, into 4 purchases of their albums, thanks to my friends. In a way I helped out the band, but still I felt bad. Until I came upon this:

“This is not rocket science. Instead of spending all this money litigating against kids who are the people they’re trying to sell things to in the first place, they have to learn how to effectively use the Internet. For the artists, my ass…I didn’t ask them to protect me, and I don’t want their protection.

and;

“[I'm] Very positive about the internet, Napster. I think it’s a tremendous tool for reaching many more people than we ever could without it. When you release music you want it to be heard by people. Artists really want to have their music heard. They want to have their creation heard by people. Nothing is going to do that better than Napster. I can’t tell you how many kids have come up to me and said, ‘I downloaded a couple of tunes off Napster and I went out and bought the album.’ Or they say, ‘I want to come see you play.’ I don’t really make money off of record sales anyway”

both quotes from David Draiman, Disturbed’s singer. And well, Napster is no more, but the concept remains.

The album, itself, offers quality music, quality lyrics, and quality EVERYTHING. From “Voices”, for which video shows wishful vengeance, to “Stupify” which deals with relationships gone wrong, to “The Game”, an overlooked amazing song, lyricwise, to “Violence Fetish”, “Conflict”, “Want” and “Numb”… there’s hardly a moment in the album that would make one shrug.
Perhaps “Droppin’ Plates”, Disturbed’s idea of a hip-hop rendition, but yet even that one is so brilliantly executed, it is a strong point rather than a weak one on the album.

The musicianship overall is tight, but the most characteristic element has to be Dave Draiman’s voice. He just has one of those voices you could pick out among a thousand others – like Alice Cooper, Ozzy, or Dave Mustaine.

Here’s the video for “Voices”.

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Green Day – 21st. Century Breakdown

Yes, I know it’s been two months. What can I say? Anyway…

When “Dookie” came out in 1994, I had never heard of Green Day. During that year, I was listening to a lot of Pantera, Megadeth and Anthrax. I was still pissed that grunge and alternative had put a dent in the mental collective of what was my scene – metal. So, when I first heard Green Day, it was very easy for me to jump on the “oh, they’re a shitty band – they’re not even punk” bandwagon.
With time, I corrected the error of my ways and learned to appreciate Green Day’s music for what it was: good, catchy, fun music. I didn’t really care if they were truly punk or not – certainly there was no comparison to Minor Threat or GBH – but then again, exactly how is it “punk” to be worrying about what bands get classified under what genres?
Then, 11 years later, I noticed Green Day were taking themselves too seriously. I mean, seriously, a concept album? And as good/bad as American Idiot was (it has its moments, but for fuck’s sake, nobody’s ever going to convince me “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” or “Wake Me Up When September Ends” are good songs. In said songs, the band is attempting to sound too self-conscious. They try to convey the message “Hey! We can write serious songs, too!”, a little too strongly for my taste.

Four years later, 21st Century Breakdown rolls around, and we are reminded this too is a concept album. It’s divided into three “movements”, but in general the story is about a couple named Christian and Gloria, who try to make it through George Bush’s America. Or so I’m told by Wikipedia.

I first heard “Know Your Enemy” (the first single) on Sirius. Without even looking at the screen, I knew it was Green Day. I liked the song, I liked the simplicity to it. I wondered what the whole album would be like.
Well, wonder no more, I’m listening to it as I type. I wish I could just download all the different bonus tracks they included for different releases. Maybe someday. In the meantime, here’s the “no frills” version I picked up at my local “Zellers”.

After the intro, the title track sounds exactly like Soul Asylum. Not necessarily a bad thing, but if I wanted to listen to Soul Asylum, I wouldn’t have put a Green Day CD on. Well, the second half sounds more like Green Day. Sorry, I’m typing as I listen.

“Know Your Enemy” is, I dunno… I still like this song.

Nothing says “punk” like a piano intro. But “Viva La Gloria!” is also a good song.

Fuck! My memory escapes me, but the intro to “Before The Lobotomy” sounds exactly like the main riff of some 80’s ballad. Cinderella? Skid Row? Notice how many times I’ve had to use the word “intro”? That worries me. Actually, this whole song has a kind of 80’s vibe to it. Which, I have to say, I personally enjoy.

“Christian’s Inferno” sounds like the title for a black metal band. The song on this album, though, has one element that I now realize is part of the whole Green Day act: The infamous “Whooo-ooo”.

I hate comparing sounds, but “Last Night On Earth” sounds so much like Guns N’ Roses, I’m half-expecting Tré Cool to do the TA-POW-TAPATA-POW drum fill Matt Sorum did oh so many times on Use Your Illusion. Fuck, I thought that was just an intro – it’s the whole song! If they do a video for this one and put dolphins in it, I won’t be surprised.

“East Jesus Nowhere”. This song is so fucking awesome. Green Day at its best. They should’ve gone with this one as the first single. Kind of even sounds like Green Day meets Marilyn Manson. And I repeat, I hate comparing sounds. I just need to describe them. If I had listened to this song before doing that “pick your 5 favorite Green Day songs” on Facebook, this would have been on it.

 ”Peacemaker” is all right. Sounds very “green Day-ish”.

Wait, did somebody swith my Green Day CD for John Cougar Mellencamp? Oh, it’s just “Last Of American Girls”. Nevermind.

“Murder City” sounds like typical Green Day. Think “Insomniac” or “Nimrod”.

Yuck. I hate “Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)”. Another piano intro, plus it sounds like a Corn Pops commercial jingle.

Ah, a ballad. “Restless Heart Syndrome”. Did you know you can rhyme “victim” with “symptom”? Me either.

“Horseshoes and Handgrenades” sounds cool, very punk-y. Reminds me of older punk.

I know it might be considered as filler, but I find something I like in “The Static Age”. It has a good vibe.

Oh shit. I had heard this song was one of the “good” ones. Should’ve known it was one of the self-important ones. “21 Guns” reminds me of the ones on American Idiot I mentioned earlier. Besides, who ISN’T anti-war? What makes this so damn special?

“American Eulogy (Mass Hysteria)” is a good enough song. “I don’t want to live in the modern world”, indeed.

Finally, I can see “See The Light” released as a single. Not that there aren’t better songs on the album, but it just screams “single” to me.

So, what do I make of the album, as a whole? I think it’s great. I love the fucking thing. I’d go as far as saying it’s my favorite Green Day album, so far. Even more than Warning. Of course, it’s not a perfect album, what with the ballady-seriousness songs, and the piano intros and the rhyming symptom with victim… And that riff that I still can’t place. Shit, was it Britny Fox? White Lion? Tesla?

NOT AN OFFICIAL VIDEO, BUT THE BEST SONG ON THE ALBUM:

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Sepultura – Beneath The Remains

“I walk these dirty streets with hate in my mind”, sings Max Cavalera at the beginning of “Inner Self”. A common occurence in my personal life, at least in those angsty late teen years.

When I first started listening to Sepultura, it was with this album, released in 1989. I liked it much more than their previous albums, “Schizophrenia” and “Morbid Visions”. To my untrained ears at the time, the first two albums were cacophonious. This one, on the other hand, I liked.
Years later I understand the reason why. It was with “Beneath The Remains” that Sepultura progressed into a more thrash sound than the death metal from their previous efforts. Hey, don’t laugh, 1989 was a defining year for me. While I had Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth on constant rotation, it was only a couple of years before that I used to think INXS was the tits, OK? I was still unprepared to distinguish the nuances between thrash, death, grindcore and black metal. Besides, sub-genres are stupid. “Beneath” just sounded more pleasant to my ears.

Perhaps there is a minor element that made me like (or even begin to like) this new music genre. Perhaps my subconscious mind played a huge trick on me. Perhaps not, but I guess I’ll never know.
In the title track, as well as in “Slaves Of Pain”, Max Cavalera utilizes an element of vocal recording known to me from way back when Falco did “Rock Me Amadeus”: adding sound effects to your vocals. I’ll go on a tangent about that on a later post.

Sepultura, if you’ve followed the band long enough, has always evolved. Each album, to an extent, maintains elements from its predecessor but presents a whole new direction. At least that’s the way it was when Max was in the band. To be honest, I haven’t followed Sepultura’s albums that much since Roots. (I do have them – I just don’t listen to them that often).
While that might seem like an obvious statement to make, and could be applied to almost any band, I think the series of transitions can be best exemplified by Sepultura. There’s not a single song on any of their albums that couldn’t have been on their previous – or following – album. Yet, If one were to hear “Inquisition Symphony”, from Schizophrenia, followed by say “Ratamahatta” off of Roots, it would be hard to comprehend it was, in fact, the same band.

Beneath the Remains is in the middle of it all, along with Arise. The “pure thrash” albums. Yet Arise was kind of a slower album. Beneath is where it’s at. A fucking classic. Despite being full of thrash clichés. In any case, it’s one of those albums that real metal fans will consider a great one, and poseurs will cite in their attempts at sounding knowledgeable on thrash.

But yeah, it’s definitely an awesome album. If you haven’t heard it, I suggest you go do it right away. Unless, of course, you don’t like metal. Or, even if you don’t like metal, it’s not going to kill you to listen to a classic. But since you won’t, here’s a youtube (live) video. I hope you can at least “suffer” through that.

A Personal anecdote: a few years ago, I made a ringtone out of the intro to Mass Hypnosis. Sadly, said phone died a horrible but heroic death. I had it in my pocket when I banged into a particularly sharp corner of a cylinder head at work. While my thigh was saved from an unsightly bruise, the screen of my Nokia wasn’t so lucky.

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They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Ha!

Ah, the marvels of the One Hit Wonder.

I was oblivious to Napoleon XIV’s venturing into the music world until the early 90’s, when some enterprising assbag decided to sell a compilation called “Wacky Favorites” on TV.
That’s right, sometimes while I (not proudly) watched Saved By The Bell, or Family Matters on TBS (one of the few American stations we got on cable back home), the commercial would come on. “Wacky Favorites”, it claimed. And it portrayed the aforementioned song, along with non-classics as “Winchester Cathedral”.
At the time, Skid Row’s VHS tape, “Oh Say Can You Scream!” came out. In it, in one of the clips, Scotti Hill is seen singing along to “They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Ha!”. It could have been Dave “The Snake” Sabo, but fuck, a few thousand drinks since then, who cares.

It’s a song I’ve always liked. I’ts so fucking simple, yet it’s catchy and fun to sing. Plus, despite most of us never having been a guest at a real mental institution, there’s always some girl we can dedicate the lyrics to.

When the Internet began for me, back in the 90’s, I was able to find the song. Metallica’s Lars Ulrich may get pissed at this, but if I’m not misatken I downloaded it off of Napster. And all was good. I had a novelty song which I loved.

And then, all of a sudden…

Picture this: You’re fucking around on Wikipedia. You happen to drunkenly stumble upon the entry for this song. You learn that, of all things, your favorite “music people” (and let’s call them that) have covered the song. Wouldn’t you be extatic?

Turns out, Al Jourgensen (of Ministry fame) did the song while in his side-project, Lard. Look:

And, delving a litle deeper into obscure-land, it turns out Stone Sour covered it in a Demo, brefore breaking big. Except they gave the track another name. Enjoy. Enjoy George Clooney’s quote from “From Dusk Til Dawn”, at the beginning, too.

Now, if Anthrax did the cover, I’d die a peaceful man. In any case, here’s the original:

By the way, up there I meant to say “two of your favorite music people”. But fucking when you make a typo, WordPress eats your text when correcting. Plus, they’re coming to take me away…

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Scott Weiland – Happy In Galoshes

When I first heard “Missing Cleveland”, this album’s first single, I liked it. I thought it rocked, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the rest of the album.
And that’s the thing with lead-in singles. They create expectations for the album as a whole. Sometimes they work. But sometimes they disappoint you. They make you feel, well, cheated.

Such is the case with “Happy In Galoshes”, Scott Weiland’s second solo album. It’s not that it’s a bad album, it contains good music. Just not the kind of music one comes to expect from a single such as “Missing Cleveland”.
It’s experimental, to say the least. It kind of has that Stone Temple Pilots “Tiny Music…” vibe. Hippie at times, poppy at others, and in a couple of songs, the kind of indie music one comes to expect from a mediocre bar act (see “Tangle With Your Mind” and “Killing Me Sweetly”).
“Blind Confusion” sounds a lot like Guns N’ Roses. Must be the influence of hanging out with the rest of Velvet Revolver. In “Fame”, and to an extent in “Big Black Monster”, he tries to sound like, of all people, Prince. Then the next few songs blend into a mash of standard alt-indie fare. It’s even hard to tell when one ends and the next one starts. Then, mercifully, the album ends.

Sad, but true. “Happy In Galoshes” is just basically a James Blunt album soundalike, with one or two good songs thrown in. Or I could be wrong and it’s a great album and I just didn’t see it because I was expecting something more. Either way, I’d much rather go back to listening to STP’s first two albums. “Sex Type Thing” rocked.

Here’s the video for “Missing Cleveland”:

Oh, one more thing…

Ha! Get it? Missing Cleveland? I kill me!

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The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Fruit

Now, I’m perfectly aware that this album isn’t due until April of this year. However, this is the way I roll.

When one makes the statement that he or she is familiar with the band “The Asteroids Galaxy Tour”, one receives odd stares and monosyllabic expressions of surprise, such as “huh?”.

Nothing out of the ordinary, being that the band hasn’t (as of yet) released their debut album. The fact that they hail from Denmark, a country not exactly known for its booming muscial scene, maybe doesn’t help a lot. Until…

Their single “Around The Bend” has been playing on iPod commercials for ages. Their single “The Sun Ain’t Shining No More” has been playing on alternative stations since at least september of last year. But, is the band cut out for more than iPod commercials and alternative radio airplay?

Their website design might say no, but the fact is that for what it’s worth, they’re a mighty good band. I guess I could be happy if Mette Lindberg’s voice was a little less nasal, but still I can find potential in the aforementioned songs, as well as “Satellite” and “Lady Jesus”.
In fact, just as it has happened a couple of times before, when I found out one of the songs I was proud of liking “before everybody else” was being used for large-scale commercial purposes (not that this is entirely bad – see a future reference to Shiny Toy Guns), I felt “meh”.

Don’t consider them the best alternative band out there, yet. But a couple of albums down the road, I’m pretty sure people will stop making their “huh?” faces when they hear the name The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. But for now, they are making some good music (note I didn’t say great). Here’s the video for “Around The Bend”:

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Go figure!

Just this past weekend, I was sitting in my rather uncomfortable wooden chair, doing my morning rounds on the internet. I was listening to music, as is most often the case, and was chatting away with a couple of people.
All of a sudden, among other songs I have on the playlist I was listening to, one started to play. Nothing amazing, since it had been on my playlist for a couple of weeks. But although I had listened to the song a good couple of times, I guess I really hadn’t paid attention to the lyrics. When I heard the chorus, I told one of my friends about it. Something to the effect of “isn’t it sad when you add to your lyrics a reference to the Black Eyed Peas?”. His natural response was a “Huh?”. So, I explained.
In Framing Hanley’s “Lollipop”, a part of the chorus goes something like this: “you know I’d love to touch your lovely lady lumps“.

Later that night (or it very well could have been the next day), I discovered something about that particular song. It turns out, it’s a cover. A Lil’ Wayne cover, of all things.

So, let’s recapitulate. Framing Hanley cover a Lil’ Wayne song in which Black Eyed Peas lyrics are referenced. That’s the state of the music industry for ya. At least the Framing Hanley song sounds all right.

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Anthrax – Sound Of White Noise

What better way to start this blog off, than with one of my all-time favorite albums? Seriously, this album kicks all kinds of ass. Fresh from the departure of Joey Belladonna, and with the addition of John Bush on vocal duties, Anthrax was one of a very few bands who successfully “upgraded” their sound in the early nineties.
Gone were the songs about comic book heroes and Stephen King novels, as well as their rap/metal crossovers (it always pisses me off when people say rap metal appeared in the late 90’s, with Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. “I’m The Man” came out in 1987, people!). This was “serious” Anthrax.

When a friend bought this album and we listened to it, I was blown away. From the white noise fade-in intro to “Potter’s Field” to the white noise fade-out of “This Is Not An Exit”, there is hardly a moment on the album I don’t like. Tracks like “Only”, Room For One More”, Hy Pro Glo” and “Invisible” (as well as the aforementioned “Potter’s Field”) can be easily marked as stand-out tracks, but make no mistake, every song on this album is awesome.

Lyric-wise, there are a few items that have “spoken” to me in different periods of my life (this has also happened with later albums – not so much with “Spreading The Disease”). This maturity is part, I think, of what made Anthrax an even better band than it had been.

This would be the last album with a consistent line-up. When Dan Spitz left the band (to pursue a career in watch-making, of all things), the band became a revolving door of musicians.

“Sound Of White Noise” was the first album in an Anthrax trilogy that will always rank very high in my music collection. Here’s the video for “Hy Pro Glo”.

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A New Blog

So, here we go with yet another iceberglandia spin-off. Made sense, actually, since music is one of the things I love (and hate) the most.

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