You're not alone, it's just my ear, my taste profile, based on the stuff I grew up with. Like I said, Iron Maiden are my favorite band ever, and Entombed were probably my favorite death metal when I discovered that stuff ('89-'90), and At The Gates were/are just like the best parts of Iron Maiden x the best parts of Entombed. And Counterparts are sorta the best parts of At The Gates x the best parts of Converge. Which, for me, fucking rules! It's not to everybody's taste, but because of my taste, it just does exactly what I want this music to do.
The Black Market crew doesn't fuck with metalcore, but readers of this column might dig Counterparts, who just put out a new song on Monday (I woulda wrote about it but Tom beat me to it and of course did an awesome job). The album is called Nothing Left To Love, which I had to check to make sure wasn't already a Converge title (All We Love We Leave Behind ... Unloved And Weeded Out ... nope, we're clear) and the song is called "Wings Of Nightmares," which is inexplicably not already an At The Gates title ("Palace Of Lepers," "Daggers Of Black Haze," “Labyrinth Of Tombs” …) and the new Counterparts cover art is basically a pastiche of several ATG and Converge covers (see below). And you know what? The song is exactly all that too, i.e., it’s basically perfect music, or at least MY perfect music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoWDxUVIHPU
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1191535212_10.jpg
https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/5929ab4b5e6ef9596932171e/1:1/w_600/c887cabc.png
https://static.stereogum.com/uploads/2018/05/At-The-Gates-To-Drink-From-The-Night-Itself-1526392875-640x640.jpg
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3802313488_10.jpg
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2948144636_10.jpg
I just assumed he was on the boat in the first place because of some Moby Dick shit. It never once occurred to me that he was just a seafaring explorer-type! Look, this is probably sacrilege, but it's ... not my favorite Maiden song (and Maiden are my favorite band!) so I probably didn't think as much about the lyrics as I should have before shaming Ian (who loves Maiden as much as I do).
Huh, I always assumed "mariner" meant (to some degree) "fisherman." Seems I've been misusing the word pretty much my whole entire life and never totally understood the song OR the poem OR the baseball team. Well, learn something new every day! Sorry 'bout that Ian!
Told Ian in advance that I was gonna troll (trawl haha?) him with these jpegs, and I do so with the utmost degree of respect and love. But THERE ARE A FEW METAL SONGS ABOUT FISHING IAN.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ee/00/ce/ee00ce5f8aeb68dc3effa2281d55a8d9.jpg
https://proassets.monopile.cloud/31184/181496c55d7a57b3de69fcbc765a1a56_l.jpg
https://pics.me.me/when-i-grow-up-i-want-to-be-one-of-48239508.png
In 1969 — the same year in which Once Upon A Time was set — the real-life Grateful Dead launched their truly ridiculous "Pigpen Lookalike Contest" promotion. And if Rick Dalton (in Tanner costume, on set or in his trailer, between takes) had existed in our real-life universe in 1969, he would have won that shit hands down. (There were a few points there that I wondered if Leo was actually using Pigpen as his model for that version of Rick Dalton, in fact.)
https://lwlies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-leonardo-dicaprio.jpg
https://kirkville.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/19690110_0336.jpg
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BN2M2ZjYzZjctMDQxOC00NzRmLTg4NjItYjU2NmNkYWJiNmNjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjUwNzk3NDc@._V1_.jpg
https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/rs-118311-b541df1dc393e2a893f96fc96f577faf0b735f19.jpg
https://nofilmschool.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_wide/public/leonardo-dicaprio-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-teaser-trailer-780x438.jpg
https://bestclassicbands.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Ron-Pigpen-McKernan.jpg
https://media.port.hu/images/001/157/090.png
https://www.dead.net/sites/g/files/g2000007851/files/dead_site_files/images/19680718_0286.jpg
Man, I watched it straight through like I was watching the goddamn moon landing live, I didn't want to even blink because I didn't want to miss a fraction of a second of what I was watching, and coulda watched it again, straight through, as soon as the credits were done rolling. I think I'm in the minority, but I loved it so much and I ALSO have to see it again, albeit for entirely different reasons than yours.
I love and care about clothing way more than I should, but tbh these days I don't really follow much "streetwear" stuff besides Supreme -- and I only follow Supreme because I'm still into skateboarding, and they're still a skate brand first and foremost, and there's something kinda hilarious/magical about this little NYC dirtbag skate shop becoming a high-fashion powerhouse. It all seems like an absurd prank that accidentally became an actual thing and they're just riding it for as long as it keeps going. But they also feel like the last holdout from the grimy, gnarly NYC where I came up, and it makes me happy to see them reaching these astronomical heights while making virtually no compromises to their aesthetic or integrity. Either way, I don't think I truly qualify as a hypebeast (or a metalhead, for that matter), but if I do, then I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one!
NOPE. Sincerest apologies to all for that one. Ian wrote one of the most beautiful and moving stories I've ever had the good fortune to edit, and what did I do with it? Dog paws art. Crikey.
Coincidentally (and, in fact, totally unrelated to the timing of this article), tonight is the 9th annual Grateful Dead Meet-Up At The Movies, and I have to imagine this otherwise-niche notice will be directly relevant to the interests of every single reader who's actually seeing this comment. The details:
This can’t-miss event - the first to go global - features the previously unreleased complete June 17, 1991 concert from Giants Stadium. Widely considered one of the greatest shows of the band's final decade of performing, 6/17/91 also sounds unlike any Dead show you've ever heard as it was one of only two recorded on 48-track. Mixed by Jeffrey Norman in glorious surround sound with video from the multi-camera live edit, this will be the first time the Bruce Hornsby and Vince Welnick line-up has ever appeared on the big screen.
Hornsby’s animated piano in particular harked back to the work of the late Keith Godchaux in the Seventies but also egged the band on into jazzier, more experimental terrain ... That’s particularly true during the [6/17/91] show-opening “Eyes of the World,” the luminous Wake of the Flood track that has always been a showcase for the band’s various keyboardists ... Hornsby and Welnick newly enliven the song, especially when they and Garcia trade solos midway through its 15 minutes.
As Garcia told Rolling Stone that year, discussing Hornsby, “Well, he’s certainly been pushing me. He’s got great ears. And I also have a hard time losing him. I try, ‘Hey, Bruce, follow this.’ But he’s there all the time. He also has a good sense of when not to play. And he’s got a great rhythmic feeling.”
Very difficult to find a graphic appropriate for this month's TBM subject. I'm pretty happy with the one I ultimately picked, but it was not an easy or clear choice between that one and this one:
https://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/shared/npr/styles/x_large/nprshared/201805/560100055.jpg
I for one am QUITE GLAD that it isn't a fireable offense! And I'm also quite glad you DID mention Marnie Stern, because she is a grade-A SHREDDA who taps like a motherfucker. Zero argument, total agreement.
Incidentally my line in the last graf above — "If you love the sound of guitars like I do" — was in fact an intentional, oblique reference/response to a different Fugazi song conveying a contrary sentiment toward the instrument.
I have no earthly idea why I was 100% CERTAIN that JDB had done Red Fang art, but I was certain! Now, however, I can't find evidence. Maybe I was thinking of Black Tusk? Anywho, here are some Red Fang graphics that were confusingly/inexplicably/impossibly NOT done by JDB. (Unless they were?)
http://www.evileyerockart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Red-Fang-web.jpg
https://proassets.monopile.cloud/12424/95a4ca51ae_l.jpg
http://jimbobisaac.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Poster-Ad-Red-Fang.jpg
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3482625391_10.jpg
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1068/0658/products/redfang_screeprinting_final2_1024x1024.jpg
https://slimspresents.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/colorpole-wpcf_410x531.jpg
Just wanna take a hot sec to hype that Varaha record, which is on this list at #10 but might make my own top 5 for the whole year. Absolutely perfect melodic/atmospheric blackgazey "dark metal" FFO Agalloch, Deafheaven, etc. Do not sleep PLEASE.
Thank you! Nah, truthfully, this is a purely personal labor of love whose entire burden is mine alone, but now that I've actually hunted down and purchased all the old issues, I can't even think of any costs that I'd need to cover? I just have to sit down and scan these things and put 'em online in one form or another, just so people can access them easily for fun or research or procrastination or whatever. Honestly, the whole MM story is truly incredible and the fact that it's basically been wiped from history leaves this huge crater that's been filled in with a bunch of reductive revisionism. Decibel did an oral history of the magazine a few years ago, but for a variety of reasons, that piece really only scratches at the surface. (This short post might actually do a better job of it, honestly.) It's very hard to adequately contextualize the scope of the magazine's significance or even the very miracle of its existence, but it's outrageous that people simply cannot find or read it AT ALL. I've been meaning to start this project for months, I'm just very lazy about scanning! But your encouragement here is so appreciated and awesome, and if/when this happens, it will be in no small part because of your kind words!
Oh believe me, man, I appreciate it! When it comes to tracking down old issues of Metal Maniacs, I will happily take all the assistance I can get! (Also: This is the first/only assistance I have ever gotten!)
I believe Dale Crover is playing drums for Redd Kross, too, a fact I PROBABLY shoulda mentioned. But when I thought about that, I was like, "I could just do a whole article on Redd Kross' DRUMMERS over the years":
Ron ReyesRoy McDonaldVictor IndrizzoBrian ReitzellJack Irons
Insane. Anywho, yeah that's Crover (Melvins, OFF!) on the skins on the new album, and I guess he's doing double duty on the tour, too.
cp: I assure you, I'm QUITE familiar with the Metal Maniacs inventory available on eBay. Thing is (1) what a goddamn headache to have to buy these things one at a time for like $15 apiece (trust me), and (2) probably a microscopic percentage of those issues have Katherine Ludwig on the masthead. (She quit in '96, which is a whole other saga) My guess is, the vast majority of those issues are post-2000, and the vast majority of the pre-2000 ones are '97-'99. I think I built a complete archive of the golden-age stuff though, and one day I'm gonna scan every page and put 'em online for posterity. (Unless somebody beats me to it, which would be preferable!)
I haven't heard the MP3s, but I always assume YouTube embeds sound like 35% shittier than the actual recordings. I'll update my assessment depending on the sound of the album, whenever I get the MP3s.
I mean, the Darkthrone riff is like a half step different than the DC riff, but they're obviously referencing that song. I was actually wondering if the title was a reference to Bon Scott, except (1) the spelling, and (2) that's a Brian Johnson joint. Still think it MIGHT be.
I saw a bunch of people saying it sounds like they're referencing "Revelations" too, but every time I try to listen to both songs back-to-back to compare 'em, I just bail on Darkthrone altogether and listen to Maiden for three hours. Maybe you won't have the same problem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3pF-b1tXR0
OK, just in case you thought I was exaggerating, here's layer #2: Along with doing the soundtrack to Thin Red Line (and getting a co-writing credit on Father Of The Bride), Hans Zimmer also wrote ... this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3wfI8qMT2A
Which, weird coincidence...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2fFS5oL0DM
Seriously tho I gotta cut myself off here. Like coke said, there are 18 songs and that's the FIRST ONE and we haven't even gotten to the "song" part of the song. Also, like, nobody has actually heard the thing yet. ALSO, this isn't even a Vampire Weekend story!
OK look just w/r/t the Thin Red Line sample: I think that one is working on a bunch of different levels, but I don't think Thin Red Line is the primary (or even secondary) reference: I think #1 is this flick, for which the same piece of music is repurposed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu3CSSiIyT4
I'm not even gonna get started on layer #2 and DEFINITELY not gonna get into the multiple POVs, but since you brought it up, yeah, no question, THERE IS A LOT GOING ON.
I think it's a big part of why I fell for Slanted in '92: I had a copy of a copy on cassette without a legible tracklist (with Monster Magnet's Spine Of God on the flip), and I just listened to this hazy cloudy music and heard that melody embedded into "Trigger Cut" but I didn't consciously make the connection to "Operator" (which I heard A LOT growing up on my dad's car stereo, along with all of Croce's Greatest Hits), so immediately it hit me as something deeply intimate but intellectually alien, like dream-state deja-vu subconscious reflecting moments of quiet contentment through this harsh static haze. Super beautiful songs, both of 'em.
UNOFFICIAL BOOTLEG BONUS BONUS BONUS BEATS: The California Gen-X “indie rock” band Pavement openly swiped the hook of their 1992 song “Trigger Cut” from that of Croce’s 1972 song “Operator.” FWIW probably my own single-favorite respective trax from both artists. 10! 10! TENS ACROSS THE BOARD! (Again, very unofficially, and totally unaffiliated with Tom’s metrics.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7Rl65sH8bA
I've got a heavy coat
It's filled with rocks and sand
And if I lose it
I'll be coming back today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RA4MykPm4s
I only wish my words
Could just convince myself
That it just wasn't real
But that's not the way it feels
Comedown Machine is the one I reach for most frequently, by A LOT. "Slow Animals" is one of my favorite Strokes songs and MAYBE Jules' best vocal period. He's doing so much cool shit on every bar and it all just fucking melts me. I really, really love that record.
https://youtu.be/V5FH3o6icWY
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