This was the Pumpkins' best album. The previous one, Siamese Dream (1993), is a close second and although it might contain my all time favorite song of theirs (Mayonaise), nothing the Smashing Pumpkins recorded before or since can beat the epic double Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness.
Best known for its many hit singles (Tonight, Tonight, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Thirty-Three, Zero and 1979), Mellon Collie... is possibly the most diverse SP album with songs ranging from angry, screamy noise fests (Jellybelly, Tales Of A Scorched Earth, Fuck You (An Ode to No One)), pretty lullabies (By Starlight, To Forgive), and just plain weirdness (Cupid De Locke).
After this masterpiece the band fired drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, recorded the Depeche Mode-worshipping dung piñata Adore and they have't been listenable since. Apart from the odd track here and there (The Everlasting Gaze is brilliant for example), everything they (read: Billy Corgan) has done since 1995 is useless.
Just as useless as Corgan's solo albums, the Zwan debacle and the abominable Smashing Pumpkins "reunion". What a wanker.
But every wanker gets his one moment in the sun, and for Billy Corgan that moment was Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness.
Tool's second album, an improvement over their great debut Undertow (1993).
On Ænima (not "Aenima") the band took everything one step further and applied the "it's got more of everything" idea. The songs are even longer, even more progressive, even hippier, the heavy parts are even heavier, the soft parts are even softer, the lyrics make even less sense and their sense of humor is even stranger.
I dare the last part is the one that gets lost the most. The most rabid Tool fans always crack me up, they assume everything thing the band does means something huge, because why would a band as deep and profound and fucking hell near druidic joke around? They never seem to realise the band jumps on any opportunity to take the piss out the fans who take Tool too seriously.
My favorite example of Tool fans taking things too far is this discussion over at SongMeanings.com where douchenozzels (who probably wear MC5 shirts and ironic glasses) debate over the meaning of the track Useful Idiot, which consists of 39 seconds of a scratched vinyl record skipping.
Someone who picked the handle "Offatwork" in a failed attempt to convince the rest of us he could ever land a job offered these priceless insights:
Well since the sound is repeating itself, i would think it describes the mundane, thoughtless activities we do in a country to make it run. Or it might also mean that we just blindly go through life, and the only thing that is not stopping us is the beating of our own heart.
Or it could be that thought in the back of your head that you first shrug off as nothing but eventually builds up and festers in your mind. It's like a person saying, "No it can't be, can it?"Nontheless, since it grows louder, it probably means that there is about to be change and it is going to be an epihony.
Or maybe "Progrocker" is on to something:
I think it is about world as of now. There is so much crap, people fighting, people obssessed with material things, there is nothing useful or meaningful in the world anymore.
Someone kill me. Kill me now.
Another example of their cooky sense of humor would be the "other albums available from Tool" exhibited in the booklet of the European version. My favorite is "The Other White Meat" with dolphins on the cover. Click to enlarge:
Well, there's not much else to add. Except that the follow-up Lateralus is even better, but that disqualifies itself from the list by coming out in 2001.
Sugar Ray over Refused? What the hell is wrong with him?
Yeah that's right, I rank this album higher than The Shape Of Punk Come. Whatcha gonna do about it? Huh?
This was Sugar Ray's debut album, I bought it immediately after seeing the Mean Machine video on ZTV. An insane main riff (which still remains one of my all time favorites), unhinged vocals, silly lyrics about a car, an ice hockey rink, a bulldog, a singer who looked worryingly like Ethan Hawke... For a rock-starved 14-year old, this was heaven.
The rest of the album was just as good, and what struck me was the band's ability to rock like maniacs but never lose their sense of humor. Rumor had it they got their record deal when they marched silently into the record boss' office wearing only helmets, jock straps and army boots, threw their demo on the desk and marched back out. Not sure if the story was true or not, but I loved it.
Two years after this album Sugar Ray released Floored, also a heavy slab of party rock 'n' roll except it contained a certain little song called Fly which became a huge hit and the band blew up out of porportions. By the third album they had completely left their hard rockin' roots and went a more mainstream radio-friendly sound to cater to the fans of Fly and singer Mark McGrath became some sort of MTV celebrity and dated Hollywood starlets.
But by then I had long since lost interest and left Sugar Ray behind me. In fact, I only bought Floored a few months ago. But that doesn't change the fact that Lemonade And Brownies rocked my world and for a year straight this was almost all I listened to. I still know every song, every riff, every drumfill by heart. Not to mention I liked staring at the album cover for hours on end... Nicole Eggert rocked my world too. Still does.
This was the third album by Norwegian death punk heroes Turbonegro and their second with one of the finest frontmen the world has seen: Hans Erik Husby aka Hank Von Helvete aka Hank From Hell aka Hertugen aka Hærtis.
A man once described by band mate Happy Tom as the perfect amalgamation of Count Dracula and Fred Astaire. A man who often sings and speaks in a faux German accent for no apparent reason. A man with Alice Cooper make-up and the mightiest gut in punk this side of Pig Champion.
Always looking for new ways to offend people, the band for this album dropped their afros and blackface look and instead adopted a quite aggressive homosexual image for Ass Cobra, as they felt this was one of few taboos left in rock 'n' roll. What could be more uncomfortable to macho rock fans than big burly gay men rocking out and looking like they're in a molesting kind of mood?
Armed with sailor hats (Tom of Finland style), an album cover that mimics the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and lyrics about pedophiles and incest (The Midnight Nambla), taking showers in Auschwitz (Deaththime), getting boners from beating up women (I Got Erection), sucking the toes of a 14 year old boy (Young Boys Feet), masochism (Just Flesh), the wonder of denim (Denim Demon), murderous retarded people (Bad Mongo), and, of course, those desirable sailors (Sailor Man), Turbonegro came crashing out of the gay bar gates with the best album of their career. The ultimate combination of Suicidal Tendencies, Poison Idea and Gary Glitter.
This was Refused's third and last album, and although it was the first of theirs I bought I was well aware of them and had seen them live at the Oslagen I Roslagen festival in Norrtälje in 1997. This was an annual event against violence, racism ect where a bunch of local bands would play, and one or two bigger artists would headline. Refused shared the top billing with Jumper. A bit anticlimactic to say the least.
I actually bought this on the same day I bought Radiohead's OK Computer, another extraordinary, progressive landmark third record. I don't know what that means, but I like it.
Not sure what I can say about this album that hasn't already been said. The band was becoming increasingly detached from their audience, the concept of what punk rock should sound like, and the scene as a whole. A scene they themselves created.
Although the band maintained most of their trademark hardcore fury, many new elements were added to the mix. Charles Mingus and electronic outfits I've never heard of before or since were cited as references, strange samples, jazz beats and soundscapes litter large parts of the album, acoustic instruments were used, as well as violins and cellos, giving the stunning Tannhäuser/Derivè a strong folk music feel.
Despite the increasing detachment the band still seemed worried about the response this new direction would get, so they had a friend explain the whole thing in the liner notes. Liner notes which mention Celtic Frost's glam rock cash-in attempt Cold Lake (1988) as an example of a band going in a direction their fans were unhappy with. If Refused had made an album that sounded like Green Day, then perhaps this would have been a valid parallell. If anything, Into The Pandemonium (1987) would have been a better example of what Refused were doing here.
In terms of ideology this was by far Refused's most focused album, and it can almost be seen as a concept album, a well-structured anarchist manifesto in musical form. Fashion and image wise the band had moved away from their early days of beanies and enormous pants, and adopted a look closer to that of one of their biggest inspirations, Nation Of Ulysses. Luckily the band didn't many musical ques from N.O.U., possibly the worst band I have ever heard.
New Noise became the closest Refused ever came to a hit song and got their name out to a biggest audience, no doubt aided by the great video by Joakim Åhlund (who normally plays with Teddybears and Caesars). But things could have been very different. According an interview with the band on ZTV in 1998 they originally wanted Liberation Frequency to be to video track from the album but Åhlund wouldn't have it. He thought the song was ridiculous and refused (!) to make a video for it, and instead suggested New Noise.
The band split up on the American tour following the release of the album, and frontman Dennis Lyxzén quickly resurfaced with his new band, garage rock outfit The (International) Noise Conspiracy. Drummer David Sandström became a solo artist with five albums under his belt, the most recent one, Pigs Lose, came out last year. Guitarist Kristofer Steen became a film maker and made the documentary Refused Are Fucking Dead in 2006.
Guitarist Jon Brännström recently produced Vital Signs, the second album by TEXT. TEXT's selftitled debut album was released in 2000 and featured all members of Refused apart from Lyxzén. If I understand the story correctly, parts of the material on this album was meant for Refused fourth album. After the band split up, the drummer and the guitarists finished it with some other collaborators and released under a different name.
But I have a feeling whatever the boys of Refused do musically in the future, they will forever be remembered for their crowning achievement: The Shape Of Punk To Come.
Let's kick off the countdown of my favorite albums of the 90s with a GRR (Grumpy Recoil Record).
This is an age old phenomenon which occurs when a band from the underground suddenly makes it big and feels the need to follow up their hit album with a dark, unwelcoming one to scare off those pesky new fans.
Green Day followed up Dookie with Insomniac, Slipknot followed up their selftitled debut with Iowa, Pearl Jam followed up the anthemic Ten with the grouchy Vs. To just mention three examples.
After the success of Nevermind, Nirvana went to Minnesota to record their third album in a short two weeks with noise guru Steve Albini (The Jesus Lizard, Shellac, P.J. Harvey etc). Rumors soon spread about this new "unlistenable" and "unreleasable" album Nirvana was working on. This turned out not to be true, as although In Utero contains punk blow-outs like Very Ape, Scentless Apprentice and Milk It, it also had several pretty, soulful songs such Dumb, Pennyroyal Tea and All Apologies. None of which would have sounded out of place on Nevermind.
But sure, it's a much noisier affair than the record company expected, and for casual fans of Nevermind and its Celine Dion production (courtesy of Butch Vig) I'm sure there were parts that sounded shockingly harsh. To be honest though, if you'd heard their debut album Bleach (1989) or the oddities compilation Incesticide (1992), nothing on In Utero should come as a big surprise as the abrasive side of Nirvana had always been prevalent.
It could have been even harsher though, as before sessions began Kurt Cobain and Albini decided to go for the same kind of sound Albini had given P.J. Harvey's Rid Of Me. Apparently Cobain got cold feet when he heard the result and had Scott Litt remaster the album and completely remix the singles All Apologies and Heart-Shaped Box to increases chances of airplay. Perhaps we're not so rebellious and anti-everything after all, are we, Mr. Cobain?
For whatever reason it's those remixed singles I always skip when I listen to In Utero. Drummer Dave Grohl has said his favorite Nirvana song is Heart-Shaped Box and he must be insane. The video was amazing, the song boring and generic. Can't stand it. Same thing will All Apologies and Rape Me. Whether that's because this remixing took the edge off 'em or simply because they're horribly overplayed, I don't know.
No, for me the heart and soul of In Utero lies in the noisy, experimental tracks. Milk It for example is a complete headfuck that makes no sense, tourette's consists of a minute and a half of the simplest punk riff imaginable with random yelping on top and the Grohl-penned Scentless Apprentice strides forth like Tad Doyle on his way to the toilet after a tex mex buffet.
But the real unsung hero here is the ironically titled Radio Friendly Unit Shifter, a song that ain't gonna shift any units anytime soon. Almost hidden away towards the end of the album it's a true scorcher that is just as likely to melt face your face as it is to make you jump head-first into a wall with excitement.
Tomorrow, dear readers, a countdown of my thirty favorite albums of the 90s will begin on this very blog.
There are three rules to follow in making such a list:
1. Only "real" albums. In other words no live albums, bootlegs, compilations etc. 2. Since this is a blog for heavy music, only punk, rock, various forms of metal etc. are to be included. 3. Only one album per artists. This is a tricky one, but absolutely essential. If this rule is ignored the list runs the risk of consisting of one album after another with one's favorite band. This is disastrous, uninspired and downright lame.
Let me warn you though real quick: There will a healthy serving of grunge. Just sayin'. There will be grunge.
Until my list starts tomorrow you can skip on down to Inside My Brain which is currently counting down the top 30 Ramones songs.
Every Friday I let my mp3 player decide my playlist for the weekend.
Because I'm such a nice guy I upload this mix for ya'll to enjoy. Each mix will only be online for a week, with each new one the last one gets deleted, so grab 'em while you can.
1. Corrosion of Conformity - In the arms of god (2005) 2. Opeth - Dirge for November (2001) 3. Tool feat. Henry Rollins - Bottom (1996) 4. Eyehategod - Non conductive negative reasoning (1996) 5. Watain - The light that burns the sun (2007) 6. Death Breath - Lycanthropy (2007) 7. Sepultura - Slaves of pain (1989) 8. Vulcano - The evil always return (2006) 9. Slayer - Blood red (1990) 10. Celtic Frost - Jewel throne (1985) 11. Metallica - The thing that should not be (1986) 12. Soundgarden - Uncovered (1989)
This is it. Everything we know and love is about to diminish. Sulphur will rain from the sky, all volcanos on earth will erupt in unison, Lucifer will ascend to enslave the universe.
There will be floods, but not a single ark. The Fenriswolf will swallow the moon, Cthulhu will ride the serpents of the underworld as they slither across the wastelands spewing bile and napalm.
Shoggoths will populate the earth, the sun will set forever and the world will be but rubble and dust.
How do I know this? Because the unthinkable has happened.
I've joined Facebook. It's all downhill from here.
It only took 'em twelve years, but Machine Head, those good ol' boys from Oakland, finally played the best song of their career, Blood Of The Zodiac, live.
The song finished off their 1997 masterpiece The More Things Change... and has been a fan favorite ever since. It sure as hell is my favorite Machine Head song. There's been heavy campaigning from the fans to get the song played, especially on their message board, the almighty Frontlines. By far the best message board on the web. I'm a regular there, stop by and say hi.
This is one of many examples:
Finally the band caved in and played it in Luxembourg (of all fucking places) last night. The result? Orgasmic.
Every Friday I let my mp3 player decide my playlist for the weekend.
Because I'm such a nice guy I upload this mix for ya'll to enjoy. Each mix will only be online for a week, with each new one the last one gets deleted, so grab 'em while you can.
1. Kylesa - Left to starve (2007) 2. Arch Enemy - Bury me an angel (1996) 3. 2 Ton Predator - Bone brigade (2003) 4. The Supersuckers - Rock 'n' roll records (ain't sellin' this year) (2003) 5. Tenacious D - The metal (2006) 6. Mastodon - Ol'e Nessie (2002) 7. Converge - Black cloud (2004) 8. The Casualties - Tomorrow belongs to us (2004) 9. Today Is The Day - Possession (1999) 10. Johnny Truant feat. Stuart Lee - Seven days at knife point (2002) 11. Krisiun - Vicious wretch (2006) 12. Venomous Concept - Water cooler (2008) 13. Viking Skull - Skull heaven (2003) 14. Thåström - Ingenting gör mig (1999)
Spiritual Beggars... The name alone hints at greatness beyond the mortal realm, doesn't it?
Formed in Halmstad, Sweden in 1994 after lead guitarist Mike Amott had left English gore/grind/metal/whatever legends Carcass and moved back home to Sweden. Having nurtured a fetish for groovy 70's rock for years, Amott got some random homies together to fulfill his dream, most of which he found at the local rehab centers, just lying around killing time, listening to Slayer, avoiding work and doing hard drugs and roach powder because there was nothing better to do (okay, I made that last part up).
Ludwig Witt on drums, Per Wiberg (now a member of the almighty prog metal gods Opeth) on keyboards, and the true jewel in the crown, the one who made it sound as awesome as it did: Vocalist/bassist Christian Sjöstrand, a.k.a. Spice. Spice's voice was the one thing that sucked me right in when I heard the band for the first time.
After recording four albums with Spiritual Beggars (S/t in 1994, Another Way To Shine in 1996, Mantra III in 1998 and Ad Astra in 2000) he left the band and has since recorded quality stuff with Mushroom River Band, Kayser and most recently Spice And The RJ Band. All worth checking out.
To replace him, Amott hired Grand Magus vocalist Janne "JB" Christoffersson, with whom they have so far recorded two albums (On Fire in 2002 and Demons in 2005). And while he's not a bad singer in any way whatsoever, it's the Spice era that means the most to me. I love JB's voice in Grand Magus, but if I wanna listen to Spiritual Beggars... I want me some sugar and Spice.
Mantra III is, along with Another Way To Shine, my favorite Spiritual Beggars album - just the songtitles alone are awesome (Monster Astronauts, Lack Of Prozac, Mushroom Tea Girl, Cosmic Romance etc etc). Mantra III was my introduction to the band and the majestic Euphoria was the first song of theirs I ever heard, on some Swedish TV show in 1999 in a montage of then-current Swedish metal, spliced inbetween In Flames' Scorn and Tiamat's Cold Seed!
Homage To The Betrayed is another quality track, which for some reason reminds me of Down. There's something slighty Pepper Keenan-ish about the riffs and I can totally hear Phil Anselmo screaming on top of 'em. To finish it off: The oh so hard rockin' Redwood Blues, which was included as a bonus track on the 2007 reissue of Mantra III.
