special introductory
paragraph!
Suicidal Tendencies
Join The Army
How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today
Controlled By Hatred/Feel Like Shit...Deja Vu
Lights...Camera...Revolution!
Still Cyco After All These Years
The Art Of Rebellion
Suicidal For Life
Six the Hard Way EP
Freedumb
Free Your Soul...And Save My Mind
Year Of The Cycos
No Mercy Fool!/The Suicidal Family
Fronted by Venice, CA's shout-singing, bandana-wearing, mustache-enjoying Mike Muir, Suicidal Tendencies began in the early '80s as one of the greatest hardcore bands ever, then replaced a few members to become a muddy metal group, switched out a few more to become a tight thrash outfit, traded away a couple more to become first an MTV alt-metal combo and then a funk metal conglomeration, and finally replaced nearly the entire band to become a punk rock entity --- before suddenly reverting back into a funk metal conglomeration! Then they replaced the rhythm section. I've no idea what the current line-up sounds like, but it's probably safe to say that as long as Venice, CA has musicians, Mike Muir will continue to release Suicidal Tendencies records.
This has always been one of my favorite hardcore albums, and I will now
attempt to tell you why, in outline form. If you'd like to create an
actual review from the outline, please do so. I on the other hand am
suffering from the flu and feel like somebody just kicked a hole in my
spine with a steel-toed jackhammer. Quite frankly, you're lucky I'm
writing even an outline considering that my entire body feels like a
160-pound ballsac being squeezed by a professional wrestler.
I. First Impressions
A. Cool jaggedy skateboardy band logo (as seen at top of this page, but
less squished)
B. Band members being hung upside down on the front cover
C. Cover also features several photos of homemade ST t-shirts, including
the classic 'Suicible Tendancies'
D. First song begins with a sarcastic laugh and evil guitar arpeggio
before turning into a booming, pummelling tuneless pile of destruction
for about 20 seconds before a killer hardcore riff kicks in and two
young male voices begin scream-and-response vocals:
II. Unique Sound
A. Mike Muir has a great, young, charismatic, shouty, hoarse, slightly
overweight-sounding shout-sing voice
B. Guitarist Grant Estes runs his guitar through a chorus pedal as well
as a bright, brash distortion effect, rendering its tone less
appropriate for hardcore punk than... Christ, pop metal maybe? Or
modern surf twang? Luckily, the volume is pumped WAY UP! This strange
tone, as well as Grant's numerous short-but-present solos and a few
slower songs/moments, apparently led many in the punk community to
declare the album 'too metal'! Oh, if they only could have foreseen how
much more metal this band would become even by their second
album.
C. Drummer Amery Smith didn't play like a typical hardcore drummer. I
don't know enough about drums to expand on this; I can only tell you
that he either (a) doesn't play with enough force, (b) is mixed too low,
or (c) performs his speedcore functions with a different drum
combination than that which is usually used. Could a more
drum-knowledgeable person out there please let me know why his drumming
sounds so much looser and less powerful than, say, Minor Threat's
drumming? Amery certainly sounds like he knows how to drum; was he
perhaps trained as a jazz drummer or something?
III. The Riffs
A. The Hardcore Ones - More than half of the 12 songs are predominantly
hardcore-speed, with similar but extremely catchy up-down note or chord
riffs. "Possessed" features probably the most jubilant-sounding guitar
riff in the band's entire catalogue. And inappropriately so!
B. The Slow Ones - Every single one of the slow ones includes at least
one (and usually more than one) hardcore section. The slow songs
display much greater artistic diversity than the fast ones, ranging from
the eerie "Suicidal Failure," warped "You'll Be Sorry" and anxious
"Institutionalized" to the jokey "I Saw Your Mommy" and metallic
"Subliminal."
IV. The Lyrics
A. Suicide: Three songs. One quoted above, re: suicide because life
sucks. The other two discuss (a) planning suicide to avoid nuclear
annihilation and (b) a young man's failure to successfully commit
suicide even after multiple attempts ("I took all my mother's sleeping
pills/I jumped off a freeway bridge/I drank three kinds of poison/And
drove my car off a ridge/I beat myself with a bat/Put a noose around my
head/I overdosed on heroin/But I'm still not dead!").
B. Our Fascist Society: Three songs. Cops are fascists, American
society praises the rich while punishing the poor, and... umm... The CIA
is controlling Mike Muir's mind through his TV. Okay then!
C. The Devil: Three Songs. In the first ("You'll Be Sorry"), Mike
stands up to The Devil, rejecting his riches-for-soul offer and
exclaiming, "I don't care too much about gold/ and I don't really give a
fuck about what you've been told/And I don't really care or need anyone
to look after me/Besides, I'm the meanest son of a bitch anybody could
ever be!" In the second ("I Shot The Devil"), he tells his enemies
(Reagan, Sadat, Lennon and The Pope) to 'rot in Heaven' because he's
murdered Satan. (?) In the third ("Possessed"), he has sold his soul to
the devil and is suffering great mental and emotional anguish. I think
we've all been down this road.
D. Being An Asshole: Two songs. In "Won't Fall In Love Today," Mike
spends all three verses telling a young woman how deeply he cares for
her while admitting in each chorus, "Over a thousand things I can say to
you/Half of which would be untrue/But the one thing for sure I can
say/Is that I won't fall in love today!" And "I Saw Your Mommy" finds
him -- umm, err, well I guess there's no easy way to say this --
laughing heartily because he found your mother dead in the sewer.
And really, I think that's the kind of bully we can all agree is a
nogoodnick. Particularly when he says things like "I'll always remember
her lying dead on the floor/I hope she dies TWENTY TIMES MORE!!!!"
E. The Other Two: Don't worry about "I Want More." Let it be a
surprise. And see section V. for "Institutionalized."
V. "Institutionalized"
A. I realize that there are many different ways to view the world. If
you want to, you can say "Hey, everybody dies anyway so nothing is
important." And you'd probably be right. However, for section V, I'm
going to use the word 'important' as if it actually does have meaning,
because in our everyday lives, it does. And if anything can be
called important, then surely it's the well-being of a living creature.
As such, I hereby declare "Institutionalized" to be one of the most
important songs ever written.
I would never argue that it influenced hundreds of other bands or helped
popularize hardcore punk as a genre - and even if it had, I
wouldn't necessarily consider that 'important'. But what it did
do - to a staggering, heartbreaking degree - is let me, my friends,
others like us around the world, and countless other young people of
preceding and succeeding generations know that (a) we weren't insane,
and (b) we weren't alone.
There is a certain moment in every semi-intelligent young person's life
when his or her facility for higher thinking suddenly kicks in without
warning. For me personally (and probably for you too), this resulted in
a feeling of incredible alienation and confusion as I tried to
understand how everybody I knew could live their thoughtless lives
pursuing commercial goods and fleeting moments of joy instead of
realizing that death is imminent and spending their time trying to
bridge the interpersonal chasms that prevent true communication. In
other words, I was a self-pitying little freaker who thought that nobody
understood me. But that's not my point! Hang on while I get to my
point.
Here's my point. During this difficult teenage period, the alienated
youngster is very likely to develop new interests or behaviors that are
outside the understanding of his or her parents. In my case, it
involved blasting hardcore punk, growing long hair, listening to music
in the dark, covering my walls with (jokey) Satanic posters, and
constantly feeling like I wanted to be dead, because life was just too
emotionally painful. Hey, BLAME MY HORMONES ASSHO, but suicide really
did often seem like a valid solution. And all of these
unforeseen interests and clearly depressed behaviors made my mother fear
that I was going insane. And I know I'm not the only one that this
happened to -- I know because of "Institutionalized." Mike Muir
ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NAILED IT:
"I was in my room and I was just like staring at the wall thinking about
everything. But then again I was thinking about nothing. And then my
mom came in, and I didn't even know she was there. She called my name
and I didn't even hear it, and then she started screaming, "MIKE! MIKE!"
And I go, "What? What's the matter?" And she goes, "WHAT'S THE MATTER
WITH YOU?" And I go, "There's nothing wrong, Mom." And she
goes, "DON'T TELL ME THAT! YOU'RE ON DRUGS!" And I go, "No Mom, I'm
not on drugs. I'm okay. I was just thinking, you know? Why don't you
get me a pepsi?" And she goes, "NO! YOU'RE ON DRUGS!" I go, "Mom, I'm
okay. I'm just thinking!" She goes, "NO, YOU'RE NOT THINKING; YOU'RE
ON DRUGS! NORMAL PEOPLE DON'T ACT THAT WAY!" I go, "Mom, just give me a
Pepsi, please! All I want is a Pepsi!" AND SHE WOULDN'T GIVE IT TO ME!
ALL I WANTED WAS A PEPSI! JUST ONE PEPSI! AND SHE WOULDN'T GIVE IT TO
ME! JUST A PEPSI!!!....
"I was sitting in my room, and my mom and my dad came in and they pulled
up a chair and they sat down. They go, "Mike, we need to talk to you."
And I go, "Okay, what's the matter?" They go, "Me and your mom have
been noticing lately that you've been having a lot of problems. You've
been going off for no reason, and we're afraid you're gonna hurt
somebody, and we're afraid you're gonna hurt yourself. So we decided
that it would be in your interest if we put you somewhere where you
could get the help that you need." And I go, "Wait, what do you mean?
What are you talking about - "we decided"!? MY BEST
INTEREST!? HOW CAN YOU KNOW WHAT MY BEST INTEREST IS?
HOW CAN YOU SAY WHAT MY BEST INTEREST IS!? WHAT ARE YOU
TRYING TO SAY - I'M CRAZY!? WELL, I WENT TO YOUR SCHOOLS,
I WENT TO YOUR CHURCHES, I WENT TO YOUR INSTITUTIONAL
LEARNING FACILITIES, SO HOW CAN YOU SAY I'M CRAZY!??!
They say they're gonna fix my brain
I'M NOT CRAZY! INSTITUTIONALIZED!
They stuck me in an institution
I don't know what things are like for young people now, but back in my
day this was a serious concern. We were all one nervous parent away from being locked in a Youth Crazyland Building, where we
presumably would remain until we agreed to cut our hair, dress preppy
and listen to Phil Collins.
I'm told that Linkin Park's calculated hitmaking angst has saved a lot
of less-discerning kids' lives too, so I don't want to belabor this
point. But seriously, I have never in the annals of musical history
found a song that so perfectly encapsulates the confusion, depression
and terror of the alienated teen years. Every time I hear this song, it
puts me right back in my darkened teenage bedroom, blasting hardcore and
just pouring tears at how painful every aspect of life felt. I was SO
FUCKING EMO.
Did "Institutionalized" save my life? No, but it made me feel
much less alone.
B. That's awesome when it speeds up there.
Loose, washed out drums? Maybe, who knows? I say who cares, because, THAT GUITAR: he plays that motherfucker like he's fucking OUT FOR BLOOD. Fuck the punk rock idiom, "oh, I don't know how to play my instrument, but I'll play it anyway, but fast and pissed off!!!" This fucking guy is on point. It's like he's squeezing off kill shots on an AK-47. Fast guitar riffs, but musically awesome and kickass. And look at that goddamned PICTURE of guitarist Grant Estes on the album sleeve: 'Oh yeah, I have some feathered, metal hair. I look like I might wink at you, or blow you a kiss, but FUCK YOU if you don't like it!!!'
The guitar solos are like nothing heard before or since in punk rock - metal yes, but TIGHT AS A NUN'S ASS. And the lyrics; so good. "THINK OF LIFE?? IT SUCKS!!!!" Umm... yes. And let's not forget the epic struggle between a young boy and his nemesis, his mother, who refuses to get him just... one... Pepsi. Not only is this the best punk album ever (Ever!) I would consider myself a lesser person if I had never heard it. Essential.
I agree that "Institutionalized" served the important purpose of letting troubled teens know they weren't alone, and I agree that mopey Lincoln Park does the same for a different generation. But I think "Institutionalized" is better because it has self-depreciating humor that makes the message far more complex, and ultimately far more useful. Even when I was 14 the message was so much more than "I am alone and no one understands me." The message was also "I am not doing anything to bridge the gap myself" and "when we are all older these thunderous emotions will seem a bit overblown."
"All I want is a Pepsi" indeed.
Everything doesn't have to be funny, and I like plenty of things that avowedly lack humor. But in this case humor is the vehicle for self-awareness. As such, I criticize Lincoln Park more for having no self-awareness than no sense of humor.
So while I did thrash this song angrily out of my teenage room, it also helped me see that my anger was temporary, and that I was to a large degree the cause of my problems. A nice lesson indeed.
Keep up the good work!
Holds up great nowadays too (much better than the decade-later Still Cyco... remakes, ironically), just like Dead Kennedys' best stuff. But this is heavier, more personal and still political too. Cyco Miko knows how to hit a nerve. "Institutionalized" should be blasted into every parent's overprotective ears. Even Jello Biafra referenced this song on the No More Cocoons' speech about the re-education institutions kids are sent too ("see dear, now he even gets his own Pepsi.")
Perfect album. And my copy of it is skipping after over a decade of play, and copies of it are hard to find nowadays (i dont order stuff online) which sucks balls.
Did I mention the second half has "Memories of Tomorrow" "I Saw Your Mommy" and "Suicidal Failure." Really, everyone needs this album, even more than their very good later metal stuff (How Will I Laugh... and Lights Camera Revolution). Too bad they went downhill after L,C,R... but those first 4 albums everyone should have (i realize i like Join the Army more than some people).
S/T - 10
Oh yeah, skip Still Cyco for sure. Damn that Still Cyco... Suicidal for Life i actually kinda like the cussing, but that's about it. Still havent heard those last two, nor do i plan too.
But, all hail the good/great Suicidal ('83 - '90). Worship it in the lonely suburban bedrooom of your choice, before Mom comes in and sticks you in an institution.
There are far, far too many bands in the world. In one sense this is
excellent, because it means that lots of people are having fun and
expressing themselves artistically. But in another sense, most of these
bands are derivative and terrible. A few weeks ago I downloaded all
this popular crap by hot indie acts like Franz Ferdinand, Black Rebel
Motorcycle Club, Arctic Monkeys, The Coral, Black Keys, The Hold Steady,
Bloc Party, The Black Lips, Les Savy Fav and four or five others, and
they ALL STINK TO HIGH HELL! I've especially had it with these jagged
angular dancey bands with the annoying singers - one Gang Of Four was
plenty ASSHOLE. This disappointing experience was nearly enough to make
me go, "Holy smokes, I must be a crinkly old man because my ears can no
longer comprehend the sounds of youth. Pretty soon I'll be just like
those Spin and Rolling Stone people urinating all over
their typewriters because REM finally made an album with a rock song on
it again."
But then it happened. Thanks to an astute and giving reader named "jim
joe," I realized I'd simply been downloading the wrong new bands.
So I tried again, this time with GRINDCORE! Antigama, Excruciating
Terror, Leng Tch'e, Birdflesh, C.S.S.O., Circle of Dead Children,
Benumb, Bathtub Shitter, etc. And Sweet My God Almighty do I love this
music -- not so much the blastbeat parts, which are all pretty much
interchangeable, but the awesome ass-kicking pulverizing DEATH METAL or
HARD ROCK or UTTER STRANGENESS that they play between the
blastbeat parts! The worst of these bands just sound like (as my wife
so eloquently puts it) "a guy vomiting for half an hour." But the best?
Dude (man), Antigama and Excruciating Terror alone kick so much ass that
they've double-handedly restored my faith in the human creative bone.
Plus, this discovery has led me to trying out some other new,
non-grindcore, metal bands -- the dirgey Coffins, the melodic Baroness, the psych-metal Alchemist,
the I haven't listened to them yet Fondlecorpse, Killwhitneydead, See
You Next Tuesday, Rotten Sound and Gadget. And my ears are pricking
with interest left and right! (if you know what I mean by PRI
It's not even that I'm eager for the most vicious, violent music I can
find -- it's that I'm eager for music that isn't derivative and
terrible! These bands (again, the best of them - not
all of them) combine technical dexterity, disparate musical
influences, and absolute insanity in a way that honestly excites
me and makes me want to learn about new bands again. I can't wait to
get home today so I can check out some more! Relapse and Razorback are
my new favorite labels, and Indie Rock can go jump off a hike's tree
until its proponents start coming up with creative material again.
Or at least shave. It's called "rock music," not "the logging
industry," Beardies!!!
All of which has everything at all to do with Suicidal Tendencies'
four-years-in-the-making sophomore release, Join The Army. This
is a metal album -- a muffled, poorly recorded one with far too many
dopey NYHC-style group chants, but a metal album all the way. Although
hardcore punk's popularity had declined by this point anyway, the main
catalyst for the band's thrashy new direction was the replacement of
Grant Estes with African-American guitarist Rocky George, who (with his
ubiquitous Pirates cap) went on to become one of the most recognized and
popular members of the band. Amery Smith also hit the road, with
Asian-looking-but-possibly-Latino drummer R.J. Herrera taking his
position. Mike Muir and bassist Louiche Mayorga stayed right where they
were, looking white and Hispanic respectively.
Join The Armchair, though not a bad record, is a pathetic
follow-up to the landmark Suicidal Tendencies debut. There are
some wonderful and exuberant speed metal passages on here ("Suicidal
Maniac" and "I Feel Your Pain And I Survive" are particularly
fist-pumping), but too much of the material is bogged down with choppy
drumming, lame metal cliche's, and those insistent, tuneless and asinine
group chants I mentioned earlier. "You Got, I Want," for example,
does have a neat twisted little riff buried in the verse, but you
can hardly even hear it under the CLOMP-CLOMP drum emphases,
marine-style group vocal shouts, and corny 'tuff metal' changes at the
end of each line. Similarly, "The Prisoner" boasts a mean driving
headbanger riff in the verse, but then plops into the toilet with a
hybrid of shit-tuff-metal, THUMPA-THUMPA downbeat drums, and
ear-scorchingly stupid "FREE! SEE! BE!" chants that completely derail
the song until the next verse rolls around. Who thought this stuff
sounded good anyway? Producer Lester Claypool? More like "Producer
Lester ClayIN HIS EARS" if you ask a man of big comedic ideas!
Actually, for years, I assumed 'Lester Claypool' was the same Les
Claypool who at the time played for terrible metal band Blind Illusion
and later took over the world with his Primus band, but according to
Wikipedia the Primus guy's full name is "Leslie," not "Lester" so
perhaps I'm mistaken. At any rate, whoever this Lester Claypool fellow
is, he sure didn't know his way around a recording console! This is
sub-indie-level production, all muffled and cushiony. The bass is as
loud as the guitar, and the distortion tone is so soft, thick and easy
on the ears that it feels like a heavy metal pillow. This comes in
handy when you fall asleep around track 8.
Lester might also have given Mike Muir a few more run-throughs on those
lead vocals. Though Mike would eventually learn to carry a tune, he
hadn't quite mastered the skill at this point and his high notes suffer
accordingly. Say! Maybe he should've just had the whole group CHANT
the entire album!
It's not quite accurate to call this album a 'thrash' album. Although
Rocky tries to push it in that direction (his four songwriting
contributions are total mosh-tempo speed metal), Louiche and Mike
interject such influences as rap (the mesmerizing rhythmic title track),
cool bass groove (suave dark "A Little Each Day"), Iron Maideny
rollicking NWOBM (interesting but mediocre "Looking In Your Eyes") and
pop rock (embarrassing sing-songy "Possessed To Skate"; hooky but
awkwardly-arranged pop/thrash "No Name, No Words"). As well as, of
course, group chants. Basically, if you want to know what it sounds
like to join the army, listen to the 'background' vocals on Join The
Army. You'll be all like "Shuddupayouface." But they won't
shuddupademfaces! Herein lies the problem with pre-recorded data.
So let's see what personal, emotional issues Mike is singing about this
time out:
"An army at his command
I see. So he's a powerful man, this man you describe.
"Took it to the street, rap to the people we meet
You tell 'em, Vanilla Muir.
"I'm not sure what I told you
Wait. Didn't we cover this on the first album?
"He shoots the pool like a launching pad
That's actually the first thing they teach you in songwriting class:
always use the words 'rad' and 'radical' within two lines of each
other.
"Cyco! Cyco! Cyco! Cyco!
I don't mean to shock anybody here, but this song is terrible.
"My best friend is Misery
'Hello, Mike? Is that you? It's Grandpa! Grandpa Irritable Bowel
Syndrome!'
Seriously, this wack is just not dope. He comes up with a few startling
passages here or there ("I see destruction as it rages through your
veins/I see depression as it fills your heart with pain/I see the cure
you found, your artificial peace/I see your body rot, your solution now
has it's feast"), but for the most part even the so-called emotional
songs sound contrived and fake ("Sometimes I stare into space/I try to
think about another place/Where happiness I'll see/I'll find a place for
me and find some sanity"). There's no humor either, aside from the
clever title "Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right (But They Make Me Feel A
Whole Lot Better)." For my money, the best lyric on the record is a
throwaway at the end of "The Prisoner": "You say that you're political/I
say 'Screw that, you're just a fool!'" (It sounds better when he sings
it.)
Still, you probably listen to music for the music, not the
lyrics. And on the merits of its music, Join The Army is a good
record -- just not a great one. It's also not one that will necessarily
appeal at all to fans of the first ST album; it sounds like a
completely different band -- and mostly IS!
I don't give two shits about Suicidal Tendencies other than the stuff I've heard from the first album.
But hey, the Arctic Monkeys can go suck some big fat dick.
As far as Suicidal Tendencies go, they were kinda goofy but they had a great run. From the first album to Art of Rebellion, they changed their sound to try to stay relevant but managed to stay putting out good music, which is a pretty rare trick. Like going from "Institutionalized" to "You Can't Bring Me Down" kind of makes sense in the way you're going from being really confused and pissed as a teenager to really confused and pissed as a famous punk/metal band. They kept trying new things (sort of) and stayed interesting. And then they put out "Suicidal For Life" and it's like getting food poisoning from a restaurant you used to go to and it kind of fucks everything up. But it was good while it lasted.
Great reviews too
Just thought I'd chime in on your evaluation of today's indie rock in your Suicidal Tendencies reviews. Although the bands you listed are all indeed terrible (with the exception of Les Savy Fav, as previous commentators have noted), I can assure you that there are still many creative, talented minds within the indie rock scene nowadays. Bands with an experimental bent like Deerhoof, Lightning Bolt, Health, Man Man, Xiu Xiu, Magik Markers, Battles, No Age, and Liars are the ones really keeping the independent spirit alive, not the safe, vanilla indie rock bands you listed. If you have the time, I encourage you to check some of these bands out, especially Liars, who I have a minor obsession with right now (although if you hate "jagged angular dancey bands," you might wanna avoid their first album). I hope your experiences with The Hold Steady and Bloc Party haven't led you to completely dismiss "indie rock" (which, honestly, is a stupid, meaningless term that's quickly becoming the new "alternative"), because there's a lot of great music happening right now that sadly gets lumped in with a lot of shitty music.
Thank you for saying what needed to be said! I have been increasingly wondering these past few years if it was just me or has the rock music field just taken a nose dive? So I've been downloading the wrong bands? There is hope?! I will check out that little list of yours.
As for the rest of the review - I think I need to go back and listen to "Join the army". When I heard it, back in early 88 or so, the first ST album was a favorite in my collection - Grant Estes guitar playing alone is enough to make it a 10. The musical variety on that record was really neat too, they were the first hardcore band I heard that not only had technically proficient playing but creative stylistic variation. When I heard "Join the army" it broke my punk heart - they went metal??! They kicked out half of the band's lineup??? I just wrote 'em off. Now in my old age with nothing else to listen to but Franz Ferdinand, I am forced to dig up "Join the army" and like it!
Incidentally, if you can ever get your hands on a demo "From the c**t of the f**king whore" by the band Lethal Aggression, who hailed from Brick, New Jersey in the mid 80s, they capture some of that early Suicidal Tendencies sound, and mix it with metal RIGHT (think the 1st S/T album mixed with Reign in Blood era Slayer). I think they have a myspace page with some of those tracks.
Hey, I hear the original Suicidal lineup (sans Mike "The Ghost and Mrs" Muir ) is back together as Born AgainST. Has anyone heard them?
I still really like it though, and I'll try to explain why.
As Mark notes, the lyrics on this outing are pretty bad. Very little of the songs are about emotion and most of the lyrics seem to reflect the well-dedicated fanbase the group had accumulated since the band formed and released the debut (when Mike was but 19). All of the inclusive, ST fanbase stuff originates here...the word "cyco" in place of "psycho", the metaphor of ST fans as an "army", and the first reference to skateboarding in the songs (I think...). Muir's vocals are a lot less confident here.
Musically, I think the band is fine here. It doesn't really sound like ST for most of it's length (compare with the album before it and the album after it to see what I mean). Rocky does some great riffs on the album, but strangely his leads all over the thing are completely unmemorable - remarkable considering how stunning his playing was on the next few records. This might have something to do with the production which, unless I'm right about that being the reason the leads aren't memorable, I quite like. In terms of recording, it sounds kinda like "My War" by Black Flag...thick, muddy....but I like that. You have to listen hard to hear anything, but in a strange way I find this kind of recording gives the listener a great sense of "place" and "moment" that a competant recording never could. Like the ambience of the studio seeps into the tapes.
Overall, I can't do much to defend it, no, but it's not as bad as some have said. Stephen Blush in his "American Hardcore" book lists it as the only ST album worth owning after the first, so I guess there are others who like it.
After 1987's Join The (Exploited Barmy) Army fiasco, Mike Muir
jetted off to the Caribbean (not really) to join his friend Mike Clark's
band No Mercy, whom you can read about On The Internet later. For
now, all you need to know is that No Mercy's rhythm section up and quit
one day, so Muir invited Clark to join his Suicidal Tendencies band!
Presumably they then played some shows or something because EPIC RECORDS
of all unlikely people signed them (!!!???). EPIC, I said! Of 'Boston'
fame! A few months later, this wonderful thrash baby popped out of the
band members' collective metaphorical vagina.
The first thing you'll notice is that Mike Muir has been exercising, and
looks mighty mighty good (if you're gay). The second thing you'll
notice is that Louiche Mayorga has been replaced by some buffoon with a
mustache. The third thing you'll notice is that the song title wraps
all the way around the cover it's so goddamned long. But finally, at
long last, the fourth thing you'll notice is that The Two Mikes (or Mike
Squared - ha ha! h fuck you) have forged one hell of a great thrash
album - while apparently forgetting to include the 'thrash'.
Let me explain. As it's usually defined, "thrash metal" involves either
frequent portions or entire songs composed of super-high-speed
'doop-chick-doop-chick' drum tempos and slashing guitar chords. Your
"Metal Militia," your "Whiplash," your "Hit The Lights" - you know, your
THRASH! This album, however -- though it does contain tons of
uptempo headbanging metal to shake your fist to -- really only
thrashes during one song, "The Miracle." All the other songs
'tear' and 'kick ass,' and a few even 'rip,' but I'm not sure they
qualify as 'speed' or 'thrash' metal.
'Crustgrind' or 'zydeco' sure, but 'thrash'? Come on, get your dick out
of the popcorn.
With this album, ST hits the large time. Where Join The Army
floundered, clomped, chanted and muffled, How Will I Laugh Tomorrow
When I Can't Even Smile and so on is a fresh, tight, professional
and mature metal masterwork. In a very intriguing production decision,
the vocals and lead guitar are coated with light echo/delay and placed
within - rather than laid on top of - the rigid slab of heavy rhythm
guitars chugging and jigga-ing along with that mean, sharp Metallica
tone. This gives the record an unexpectedly ethereal feel,
particularly as Muir has abandoned his gruff lower register to become a
higher-pitched singer who actually hits his notes! Where his
Join The Army approach would have left this record sounding just
as sloppy and amateurish, his new style (I have to assume he took
lessons?) gives the band a melodic and slightly feminine new instrument
to work with. So that'd be great if you could tell Mike Muir I called
him a feminine instrument. Or, alternately, a 'girly tool.'
Also, tell him I live in Canada, look exactly like Burton Cummings, and
go by the name 'Burton Cummings.'
But first, I'd like to tell you something about the song "How Will I
Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today." You know how I went on
and on about how Mike Muir NAILED IT in "Institutionalized"?
Well, lightning can apparently strike the same bandanna twice because
this song NAILS IT AGAIN. I was 16 and in love with Matthew
Terrebonne's sister, but blowing our relationship with obsession,
possessiveness, jealousy and immaturity. The key word is 'immaturity';
boys simply aren't very mature at that age, especially if it's their
first girlfriend. So things were going from bad to worse, I still had
never even heard of OCD so I just felt like a stalker who
couldn't stop my brain from frying, and this is what Mike Muir
had to say to me as I drove my car to school that morning with teary
eyes and breaking heart:
"Here I sit and watch my world come crumbling down
The clock keeps ticking but nothing else seems to change
NEVER EVER EVER EVER LISTEN TO THIS SONG IF YOU ARE
IN A FAILING RELATIONSHIP!!!! If the lyrics alone don't kill you, the
bleak, hopeless melody and crushing angry denouement may make you kill
somebody else!
So that song's the emotional highlight, but the record is full of
musical highlights. It's just one super-catchy metallic chord sequence
after another, filled with ultra-fluid solos (that's really the only
word you can use to describe Rocky's playing - "fluid" -- the notes flow
together like water!), hooky vocal melodies and crisp neckcracking
headbang drumbeats. And it's consistent. There are almost
no bum riffs on here as they lead their music from the straight
fist-banging mania of "Trip At The Brain" and "Hearing Voices" through
the trudgey "Pledge Your Allegiance," awkwardly-arranged yet
Sabbath-thrash-tastical "The Miracle," surf-metal hybrid "Surf And
Slam," and emotion-tinged triad "If I Don't Wake Up," "Sorry!?" and "One
Too Many Times" before closing shop with the
angry-as-a-wolverine-filled-with-bees "The Feeling's Back." GRATE
ABLUM. Buy it and listen to how good they were!
One final thought about Suicidal Tendencies and their interesting take
on patriotism. Their last album was called Join The Army and
featured a gritty cartoon of a warrior on the cover, but the title track
had nothing to do with joining the U.S. armed forces -- it was about
joining the Suicidal Tendencies army. Likewise, this album's track
"Pledge Your Allegiance" isn't about the flag of the United States of
America -- it's about pledging your allegiance to Suicidal Tendencies!
Imagine my upsettedness when the next album didn't have a song called
"Baseball, Apple Pie and Mom." I even wrote some lyrics in hope: "Hey
let's play some Suicidal Baseball/Go Cyco if the pitcher balks the guy
over to second base/Then cook an apple pie where all the little apple
pieces spell out "S.T."/And buy Mike Muir a Mother's Day card or WE'LL
BREAK YOUR FACE!" Then there's a guitar solo and a bunch of Pirates caps
flying in the air, worn by eskimos.
That reminds me of something that occurred earlier today that made me
realize, "Say, maybe it's good that I'm not in advertising." My boss is
trying to design an ad for a client of ours - a serious
technical/research organization - and told me she wants to hold a
brainstorming meeting tomorrow for ad concept ideas. My very first
thought - and I mean very first thought - was to come to the
meeting and go, "Okay, I want a gigantic poster of a booger! A big
10-foot booger with an angry look on his face and a little red button on
the side. Then when people push the red button, I want a pair of
gigantic speakers to scream, 'EAT MY BALLS!' But here's the thing --
the speakers will be located so far away from the booger poster that the
person who pushes the button will barely hear them. So he'll keep
pushing it over and over again trying to make out what's being said.
All the while, the people who have offices near the gigantic speakers
will have to listen to 'EAT MY BALLS! EAT MY BALLS! EAT MY BALLS!' over
and over again!"
I know what you're thinking.
But sorry, I'm not available to take on freelance assignments at this
time.
I'm having a terrible, terrible day.
Soon after, I bought the CD and after a good long while where I forgot to listen to it, I fell in love with it. Every song on the CD edition is fantastic and I think the sound the band presents on this disc is astoundingly good, one of the best heavy rock sounds I've ever heard. There's not much to it, but it works very well. It's kind of the album that, along with the slow effect of "Fresh Fruit and Rotting Vegetables", ended up getting me into punk, even though punk on this album ends at Muir's attitude.
It sorta follows the formula of the first disc, but presents a more in dept view of things lyrically, and the music's tighter. It begins with a fast song full of macho kinda lyrics, that turns real slow for it's second half (like "Suicide's An Alternative/You'll Be Sorry") and ends with a slower, more emotive song (like "Suicidal Failure"), with a slow trudger near the end of side one (like "Subliminal").
- "Trip at the Brain" is a great opener. The riff is definetely reminiscent of something like "Master of Puppets" but it's not a total rip off (lord knows metal bands had used the similar part before Metallica), the drums have a nice sound through the choruses, and immediately you will hear the band's new sound. Mike Clark's rhythms are rocksteady and, while double tracked in places (well OK there's gotta be more than 2 guitar's recorded there, but you'll know what I mean when you hear it), he's playing some great riffs. The bassist is throwing in kinda funky parts here and there, but they're brief fills and amount to around 10 secs total of the album - no funk here. It's good and he's not as good a player as Trujillo would be, but he serves the album well. Note the part in this song, right before the slow part. Bouncy! Rocky George's leads are unleashed here, he's doing divebombs and gorgeous, smooth solos all over the place. Unlike most metal bands, the solos are not annoying or distracting - here they add to the sound of the band completely. They're either in the background or between lines while the band plays as normal with Mike singing, or during the final third playing amongst the sound. In places, the sound becomes almost psychedelic as a result...not what George is playing, but the way it plays with and against what is going on the song as it is. Listen to the sliding notes at 3:50...barely noticeable but adds a state of excitement. Mike's vocals are much stronger on this release. No rapping, no talking, just non-showy, tuneful singing. Lyrically, this song seems to deal with either fleeing into the depths of one's mind to escape unpleasant realities, or taking drugs to enhance one's understanding of the world. The latter may seem unlikely due to later ST songs ("Hippie Killer" etc), but I do certainly get that impression when I hear the lyrics (though I was disappointed to learn "I cannot stop this trip, I forgot to pack the brakes" were the actual lyrics to the part I thought was "I gotta gotta smoke this chiff, I forgot to pack the brakes"....which was a stupid thought...). A great opener.
- "Hearing Voices" is a better example of Rocky's brilliant playing. Clark plays a great thrash rhythm line, especially when the fast bit first kicks in, but Rocky takes what could have been a relatively straightforward thrash metal song (a kind of music that is all about building intensity from speed and volume in the moment) and elevates them to peculiar, interesting and, as I said, almost psychdelic songs through his fantastic use of guitars. Sometimes his guitar lines seem to FLOAT over the rest of the song, other times they're pushing your mind in interesting places. While George can definetely play pretty fast solos, he rarely does. His lines move you and force you to follow the progression of the song. Instead of killing the momentum of this song, it actually transforms it completely into something interesting. I guess the song's about schizophrenia, but because conceptually they buried Mike's vocals in the mix (with lots of multitracking and delay), it's hard to grasp anything definete without the booklet, other than the general concept. A good song, but not one of the best. You won't skip it, though.
- "Pledge Your Allegiance" is a much, much slower song. The drums kind of stomp through the verses in a badass way (not in a "badass" way, I mean that sincerely as a decription), but what I love most about this song is the rhythm guitar refrain used to punctuate the slower, thrashier bits. Really cool little hook. Not much to say about this one...very on the chin lyrics and such.
- "How Will I Laugh When I Can't Even Smile Today"...The classic title track basically sums up the entire album. Insurmounting problems, painful loneliness, a complete inability to change your life, but coupled with resiliance and heavy introspection. Contrast this with their follow up album, "Lights...", where the pissed off, critical ST returns. The fast bit is not all it should be, at first (I hate the "you think something's funny? Laugh at this!" part!), but when the melody comes back in, the song works again immediately. The leads are great, but what gets me everytime is the last minute, where two Mikes sing while the rest of the band repeats "seems like no one cares at all" over and over, while Rocky sqeals and whines on the guitar,then suddenly they drop off and it's tight..it doesn't sound like much, but the way it's played, what is played and the stunning production makes it a total winner. Most bands would take a contrast like that and make it a total headbang moment..ST just let it slide. It's like the murk and haze of the different overlayed parts dissipates, leaving a clarity where the title refrain is clearly repeated. Clarity and dreamy murkiness are what this album is all about, as we'll see in....
- "The Miracle"...This great song has two parts. One is a very slow, sludgey part which is kind of slogging and sad and would be totally punishing were it not for the mournful leads over the top. The other is a simple, melodic thrash line that is common on this album. It basically keeps the song moving, but doesn't add much (though the break right before it is great!) The slow part of the song reflects the best of this band's best album....the solo at about 2:50 is probably Rocky's best (most emotive) lead on the album, apart from maybe "The Feeling's Back" and "Sorry?". The song in general is about a big fuck up in your life, regret etc, and the slow riff gives the song a slow, depressive and comtemplative mood. The last minute, the fade, is very effective. I read somewhere in a cheesy book on music production that "the fade out is often used to make it feel like a song goes on forever", and in that case that IS what it feels like...the depression sinking away from us, but never to resolve.
- "Suicyco Mania"...On the vinyl version of this disc, this track is absent so "The Miracle" goes right into "Surf and Slam" which I can imagine works nicely, but I think I prefer it this way. The song starts all fast, fists-pumping and shit, but the slower riff is what this song is all about. Actually, this song is about nothing. But I like it. Simple, thrash....just kinda a celebration of the band's sound on this album.
On the compilation F.N.G., there is an instrumental version of this song (except for the chant of "SUICYCO MANIA") from the b-side of the "Trip at the Brain" single.
- "Surf and Slam"...More or less an instrumental, this is a great song which sounds like no other on it. It's kind of Rocky's star track. Mike (or maybe it's Rocky) does this rhythm picking for the intro and bits throughout, which don't sound like typical surf music but convey the mood from the melody and the airyness of the production. This song is essentially a huge guitar solo, but not like Eruption....It's a fun listen. Along with the previous song, it represents the core of the album...Although the band would deny it, it's stuff like this that makes it feel like a concept album...after "The Miracle" fades out, we spend some time in instrumental land.
- "If I Don't Wake Up" starts with a big rant from Mr Muir as the intro churns on....then the riff begins and Rocky rides a nice lead which pretty much never leaves for the whole song, punctuating riffs and adding emotional flourishes here and there. Pure and simple, this song is about that most lovely of depressive moods, the suicidal mindset when lying in bed knowing your action or inaction will make no difference to anyone else. The riff is a cool one...not much for me to say about it (it is a thrash riff after all), but it's cumulative effect is great. It's one that's best while it's on, because you don't remember it as good as it is. I love Rocky's playing here...sometimes sounding like a smooth radio frequency playing to alien emotions, other times just propelling the song (gotta love the part where it follows the lead tightly at the end).
- "Sorry?!?"...I guess this is the most personal song on the album as no lyrics are printed, just credits. It's about how Mike was with a girl, left her and later can't go back (I think there's mention of her dying..), which I think a lot of us can relate to. There's leads all over the first two verse/choruses, then a more conventional solo comes pretty early in this one...after the second chorus, if I'm not mistaken. After that, the leads completely disappear for a moment and the effect is very noticeable. Some of the best playing on this album is at 3:36 where Rocky races against the verse while the emotion builds from Mike's voice. It's not perfectly clear due to the production on the CD edition, but regardless if you listen out for it, you'll hear it. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. This is a great one.
- "One Too Many Times" is a great song of two parts. The first is a very emotive thrash song with two rhythm lines. The psychedelic element really returns here, with a thrashy, slow riff that's a distant cousin of "Hearing Voices", and the rest of the band talking throughout the song (I don't have much to compare this to...you know the bit in "Paranoid Android" where Johnny Greenwood says "I may be paranoid, but I'm not an android"? It's that kind of thing, but you can't even work out what they're saying...it adds to the depth of the production, not muddying it. Then the song shifts gears into a kind of slow, blues metal thing that isn't as good as the first part..but is really effective.
- "The Feeling's Back" is one of the most effective songs on the album and it's probably my favourite. The opening and the closing are a great, slow emotive riff with fantastic solos from Rocky...no vocals. When the intro builds to it's zenith, the faster (yet still super-emotive) riff begins and Mike sings what has to be my favourite vocals/lyrics combination he ever did. Basically summing up the album, it encompasses acknowledging emotional instability, blaming himself instead of others, and stating a resolution not to quit. Contrast with "I want to start my second life now so shoot me with your gun!" from the first album. The delivery is impecable, especially the third stanza:
I wrote a letter just the other day to nobody in particular
The feeling's back and you just can't stop it
I fought a thousand times-I never knew the meaning of the word fear
The feeling's back and you just can't stop it
I dug my hole too deep-I couldn't admit, I didn't know when to stop
That might not seem too special to some of you. It does to me. And I hope if you're reading a rock record review site, you understand that delivery is about four hundred times more important than the lyrical content.
After that final lyric, the band collapses back into the slower riff, and begins to fade out. But I really wish I had the session of this...some of Rocky's best playing ever comes as the song fades out.
Nothing can follow it to me. When I get racked with depression, a lot of cliches occur to me, a lot of mantras and poetry. But one thing that never fails to make me feel better is this final song. Merely the sentiment of "the feeling's back" reminds me that it's just a feeling...it's real to me, and it can be hell, but feelings can't last forever, even the bad ones.
Even though this album is chock full of good songs, it's cumulative effect is stronger than the sum of it's parts. I really fucking love this piece of work. It feels, like I said, like a concept album. It's broken up three times by songs with long, emotive fade outs... Pledge, Miracle and The Feeling's Back and the whole album comes off rounded and successful. The songs are all related but not the same. The mood of the album will often remind you a golden California beach in the 1980s. I often wonder why, as a British twentysomething in the 2000s I find this particular music from that locale and time period so fucking effective, but it just works. It's not a party album. A quick glance at the Amazon reviews will let you know how important this is to some people.
You know, the last time I took a shit on the floor of love, it o
Hi This is Shoe Tree Bill of Shoe Tree Larry's Pandemonium of Shoe Trees. If you're l
Wait a second! I'm not hear to pen a romantic love sonnet or craft a popular television advertisement; I'm hear to review Suicidal Tendencies' 1989 'double-EP' Controlled By Hats, Ed/Feel Like Shit...Tejas-ZZ! So let's do that, tomorrow.
(*24 hours pass*)
(*pass GAS, that is! Talk about a stinky day!*) (but enough hilarious witticism)
INGREDIENTS:
If you're looking for the thrash they left out of How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile With AIDS, here's your Blarney Stone: five of these nine tracks include full-scale speed metal thrash attack passages. The band also went with a different producer (Paul Winger), who replaces the tight Metallica-influenced tone of the last record with a thicker, muddier and bassier sound. The new band member this time is Latino bassist Robert Trujillo, who plays straightforwardly on this record but would go on to become a funk bass genius before joining Metallica in their uproarious Summer comedy Some Kind Of Monster.
If you've read my No Mercy page, you know that they were a fairly typical, standard thrash band. The same goes for the No Mercy songs re-recorded here, but they're certainly not bad songs by any means! "Waking The Dead" in particular has become a band and fan favorite, its endlessly creeping riff and booming reverbed drums conjuring up gruesome images of zombie armies lurching slowly across cold barren fields. "Just Another Love Song" is a must-own mosh-and-thrasher too; though the lyrics are Muir's third re-write of the misogynistic "Won't Fall In Love Today," the music kiXX aXX and the first verse is pretty funny: "Well, I just had to turn off the radio/But not before I heard thirteen songs about love in a row/Well, I don't know what the next song's gonna be but I know how the words are gonna go/They'll be singing 'oh baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby I love you so!'"
The remaining tracks just aren't as necessary - "Feel Like Shit...Deja Vu" has a memorable chorus and one terrific line ("I feel like shit but you don't really care/except 'My God! He used a four-letter word in there!'") but not much else; Los Cycos' "It's Not Easy" had already been mined for the just-as-awful "Cyco"; nobody requested the last album's title track with a couple minutes gutted out; and the 'Heavy Emotion' version of same starts fine but sounds WAAAAY too much like Bryan Adams' "Run To You" when the fast part rolls around. It also drags on for nine thousand years.
No wait - eight thousand. I forgot Bill was screwing around with my abacus.
Here's an amusing anecdote. Yesterday I was taking Henry The Greatest Animal Companion Ever Born(TM) for a jaunty afternoon stroll when a 50-something woman stopped to pet him and correctly rave about his goodness. At some point in the conversation, I asked her if she had a dog. The following is her response:
"Yeah! I have a little Havelina. I didn't know what kind it was when I got it though. I found it in Spain. Stray dogs there run to the outskirts of town because they don't want all those dirty Spanish children touching them, plus there's all the flares going up in the air because Spanish people are always celebrating something." (at this point, a rickety old black woman with a cane walked by) To the black woman: "It's okay! His tail won't hit you! You're doing great! You're almost there!" To me: "She's so cute. She's probably a hundred years old. They never show their age."
Although impressed by the way she managed to casually stereotype two completely different ethnic groups within 30 seconds of meeting me, I nevertheless have to assume that she's either (a) a racist who assumes that everybody else is a racist too, (b) an anthropologist with an autistic-like inability to view people as anything other than their ethnicity, or (c) on the rag, because women are always on the rag, the whores.
Stray dogs in Spain stay on the outskirts of town because the Guardia Civil will kill them on sight.
A few months ago I was walking with my wife and Henry The Dog to the dog
run when the H-Man suddenly darted out into the street right as a big
truck was careening by. I yanked his leash back and blurted out,
"You're not gonna run in - you're not wanna gonna - you're not gonna
wanna -" At first I thought I'd lost my freedom of speech due to George
W. Bush, but then I realized that I have the most genius brain in the
land. You know what I was trying to say? "You're not gonna wanna run
in front of one of those." Read it out loud to yourself, as you would
say it casually on the street to your dog: "You're not gonna wanna run
in front o' one o' those." That's FIVE internal rhymes in a
single sentence! And you all think I have my head up my ass. Yeah, up
my ASSONANCE, maybe!!!
On another topic, what's up with airline food!? They don't give you any
anymore.
With Lights...Camera...Revolution!, Suicidal Tendencies returned
to HWILTWICEST producer Mark Dodson and the tight, loud, rigid
thrash sound he had perfected through his earlier work with Anthrax.
Perhaps due to increased confidence in Muir's vocals, he discards the
ethereal effects this time and plants Mike above the din like a normal
singer would be. Still, this can definitely be considered a sort of
sequel to to HWILTWICEST, with the same emphasis on mature,
well-produced and hooky uptempo thrash-toned metal. It's also,
interestingly, the only record in the Suicidal Tendencies catalog that
sounds comparable to a previous release.
Having said that, here are a few minor songwriting progressions I
noticed (in easy-to-use list form):
- L...C...R! features speed metal thrash attacks in three songs
instead of one
It's unfortunately not quite as consistent as
HWILTWICESTQZXYXVXS; though it starts very very strong,
this turns out to be frontloading. The last four songs, though not
awful, are simply lesser versions of the six that came before.
But GOD! Those first six! First of all, "You Can't Bring Me Down" is
one of the greatest opening tracks in the history of recorded sound,
following a classic dark arpeggio passage with a shouted "What the hell
is going on around here!?" and possibly THE ass-kickingest metal
riff this band ever came up with. This may be Mike's finest vocal
performance ever, showcasing all his skills as he shouts-and-responds to
his own lyrics (there were simply too many words in too speedy a tempo
for him to sing both parts at once!), then demonstrates his high-pitched
singing abilities during a somber middle section, and wraps things up
with a pissed-off rant that probably earned more bleeps in 15 seconds
than any other rock video ever shown on MTV ("Can you say 'feel like
----?' Yea maybe sometimes I do feel like ----; I ain't happy about it,
but I'd rather feel like ---- than be full of ----. And if I offended
you, oh I'm sorry! But maybe you needed to be offended. So here's my
apology, and one more thing: ---- YOU!"). Summary: I like this
song.
This winning streak continues with the mean trudger "Lost Again,"
excellent single "Alone" (a pop-rock composition played as headbanging
metal!), threatening funk-metal "Lovely" (with emphasis on metal,
thankfully), '80s metal throwback "Give It Revolution," and
neck-spanning note riffer "Get Whacked" before abruptly stopping.
What is the point of "Send Me Your Money"?
No no, hear me out. I understand that it's a satirical attack on
televangelists, but why re-use the music of a pretty goddamned prominent
song from the first album? Did he think that none of the Epic-era
Suicidal Tendencies fans owned the first album and thus wouldn't notice
the "You'll Be Sorry" riff making its second appearance on disc? Or was
he trying to 'cleverly' invite comparisons between televangelists and
Satan, the antagonist of the earlier track? If the latter, the only
people who would get the joke are people who already owned the first
album -- and why would they want to hear the same riff re-used in a
different song!?
Whatever the case, it was a very popular single.
The album continues to (slightly) disappoint after this bizarre retread,
with "Emotion No. 13" and "Disco's Out, Murder's In" serving as decent
but completely disjointed collections of thrashing, plodding and
headbanging passages that sound left over from other projects. Finally
L...S...D! reaches cessation with the throwaway "Go'n Breakdown,"
featuring a riff so similar to that of "Lovely" that they should've
sued THEMSELVES.
See that? I was kind enough to give you a descriptor for every single
song on the record. Now if a cute guy walks up to you at a party and
asks your thoughts about "Give It Revolution," you can flirtatiously
reply, "Oh, the '80s metal throwback? I slightly prefer the
neck-spanning note riffer, but it certainly beats the bizarre retread.
Whoops! All my clothes just fell off."
Helping you find your soulmate - that's the business of Mark D. Prindle,
Online Cupid.
Yeah, more like "Online STUPID," if you ask me!!!!
In retrospect, I probably should've called somebody other than myself 'Online Cupid' if I was so intent on making a rhyming insult out of it.
I really don't think it's all that weak, it's certainly more entertaining than the entirety of "Art of Rebellion".
"Disco's Out, Murder's In" is one of the fastest songs the thrash-era ST ever played. After a brief thrashy, soloy opening demanding your attention, Cyco Miko shouts "EXTRA EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!" The band then launches into a really fast-palm muted thrash riff of the "Damage Inc" /"Dyer's Eve" vein - a nice fast, choppy riffed song to end the album...nearly.
As for "Go'N Breakdown", I'll be first to say it's simplistic, but I can't say I've ever heard any similarity to "Lovely", and it's certainly not Funk-Metal like that song.
On the whole this album succeeds because it takes the three-dimensional sound of the previous album (ST's best, imho) but pushes it into a less-overall-emotional, more aggressive and political area. It's strange, because this album is quite popular among ST fans despite all the aggression (or perhaps because of it), yet aggression seems to be the biggest complaint people have of "Suicidal For Life", though that also has a very strong following among a few ST fans nowadays (I don't mean there's a lot of fans, more than the ones who embrace it often say it's their favourite).
First of all, it's always a great sign when your favorite band names their new album after a Paul Simon record.
Secondly, it's always a great sign when your favorite band records an album during the downtime of their 1990 recording sessions, then suddenly decides to release it three years later.
And thirdly, you know you're in for a great time when a group of technically proficient heavy metal musicians covers an idiosyncratic old hardcore album because their singer wants them to.
Imagine that you have a cuddly puppy. You love this puppy so much; it's so adorable with its big blue eyes and fuzzy little tail, and it always wags at you and holds its paw up to shake hands. Then suddenly some guy comes in, grabs the puppy out of your hands, throws it in a trash bag full of vomit, shakes it around for half an hour, then pours it out onto the floor. You look at it, and... well, it's still that little puppy.... You recognize its big blue eyes and fuzzy little tail, and it's sitting there holding up its paw to shake your hand, but.... it FUCKING STINKS TO HIGH HELL NOW!!!!!
Thus, this album.
I love the s/t ST debut. How could one not, and persist in calling oneself a human being? Or better yet, as I accidentally typed the first time, a "human benig"? But when Mike Muir decided to have his new-fangled heavy metal line-up re-record the entire record (along with two Join The Army songs), he simply didn't have his thinking bandanna on. This is a poor, poor covers album. Here, let me explain.
The first minute or two are great -- the booming cacophony of reverbed bass drums is an excellent addition to the album-opening scream-mess, and the call-response scream vocals of "Suicide's An Alternative" are as pulse-popping as the original version. But then "You'll Be Sorry" shows up, and the album starts going down the commodey toilet as Mike gigglingly changes the word 'man' to 'little red-ass punk'.
The problems in a nutshell are (a) the musical idiosyncracies of the original Suicidal Tendencies line-up have been replaced by sterile, overprocessed, faceless Epitaph-style studio-band genericism, and (b) Mike's vocal delivery is almost uniformly GOD-FUCKING-AWFUL. Look, I understand that the guy isn't a hungry, raw young hardcore shouter anymore, but he JUST PROVED with "You Can't Bring Me Down" that - regardless of his new-found singing abilities - he still possesses a great, threatening anger-shout that would fit this hardcore material perfectly. But he DOESN'T USE IT! Instead he tries to combine his high-register singing style with his original speak-shout style, resulting in a vocal approach that sounds neither musical nor aggressive but simply whiny.
So half the time he sounds like a whiny little pussyboy (which he's not, btw!), and the other half he's just smirking and trying to be funny. This version of "I Saw Your Mommy," for example, isn't just the worst Suicidal Tendencies recording of all time; it is literally one of the single most obnoxious performances I have ever heard in my life. Where the original sounded like a glue-sniffing neighborhood cretin teen gloating psychotically about finding a dead body, this one finds a double-tracked Muir singing the lyrics and toying with an extremely annoying John Lydon mannerism, while a third-tracked Muir responds to the lyrics with such 'witty' asides as "Tell me some more!," "And she don't know how to swim!," and "That's NASTY!" If this description makes you want to hear the song, dip your head in an overflowing public toilet - it's the SAME THING.
Other important points that must be made about this, the worst album ever recorded:
- You do not re-record "Institutionalized." It's not a song, it's an experience. Covering it is like covering your 16th year of life. And sure I could strap on some tighty-whities and holey jeans and show up at my old high school with pimples, but somehow it doesn't seem genuine coming from a 34-year-old.
- The sole new track, "Don't Gimme Your Nothing," is the b-side of "You Can't Bring Me Down." Unsurprisingly, it sounds like a b-side. A funk-metal b-side, to be specific.
- You'd expect the re-recordings of "War Inside My Head" and "A Little Each Day" to improve upon the originals since they were intended as metal songs to begin with. Well, you'd be WRONG! "War Inside My Head" sounds completely processed and sterile with this mix, and "A Little Each Day" has suddenly turned into a funky rap song!
- Three songs are sung straightforwardly enough to remain undestroyed ("Two-Sided Politics," "I Shot The Devil," "Fascist Pig"), and "Subliminal" is honestly IMPROVED by its new surroundings. The slow parts always sounded way too metal for that bright orange guitar tone the first guy used, and now they sound like actual METAL!!!!!
So why a 5 out of 10? Because I love these songs. And this record proves that, no matter how hard you may try, you can't destroy them. Pile on all the characterless playing and whiny vocals you want, but those great hooks are STILL THERE.
Material = 10
Then I heard the new version one day and was thinking "I thought song
sucked" - why does it sound awesome? Then I found out it wasn't the
original. I decided to give the band another chance and listened to a
good part of the discography and that is the ONLY song I like. And oh
yeah, I think the original version of the song still blows.
Your 5/10 on Still Cyco I agree with but my formula is different:
Oh but then Kurt Cobain came along and killed metal and destroyed radio and nyah nyah nyah LOOK RADIO SUCKED BEFORE NIRVANA AND IT SUCKED AFTER NIRVANA AND NIRVANA HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. The only metal that ever got radioplay before Nirvana was sissy pop metal. You think it was FUN hearing "Living On A Prayer" and "Home Sweet Home" on the radio every 15 minutes? All Nirvana did was prove to ClearChannel that there was an audience for 'new music' (meaning about two songs each from the catalogs of Jane's Addiction, the Pixies and the Cure) before everything turned into gigantic boring blocks of nu-metal a few years later. Meanwhile, thrash died out because every sub-genre dies out once the market gets too saturated with mediocre bands. Punk and hardcore died before it; grunge, pop-punk and rap-metal went just as quickly afterwards. It's no one band's fault; people just get sick of shitty bands and move on to newer sounds. I suspect thrash fans moved on to death metal, then maybe later to black metal or goregrind or whatever other stupid names they've come up with. But Suicidal Tendencies by this point were a commercially successful band, so they went the way of the dollar: Alt-Metal!
Although they only lost one member (RJ Herrera, replaced here by temporary drummer Josh Freese), the band made a very notable change in sound here -- nearly as notable as the hardcore-to-metal shift between the first and second albums, but even more striking because these are essentially the same exact guys who wrote Lights...Camera...Revolution!. Were the ears and souls of Mike Muir, Mike Clark, Rocky George and Robert Trujillo all honestly so touched by the gentler, funkier and melodicer sounds of Jane's Addiction, Faith No More, Rollins Band and Blind Melon that they naturally chose to replace their established thrash-metal sound with a radio-friendly hybrid of the four? Or were they just trying to cash in and be picked for the next Lollapalooza? Well, I don't know. But I do know one thing: if you mix up the letters in 'snipe,' you get 'penis.'
Wait, I actually know a second, and more relevant, thing too: their strategy worked, and The Art Of Rebellion became the highest-charting album of their career. Not only did it hit #52 on the Billboard chart (L...C...R! didn't even break the Top 100!); all three of its singles made Casey Kasem's Top 40 (and they had never scored a charting single before -- not even "You Can't Bring Me Down"!). Actual hits!? From a band called "Suicidal Tendencies"!? Christ, why not just give the Crucifucks the key to the City?! Huh!?? Who's with me??? Why not just play Anal Cunt during Church services!??!? Am I wrong here?? Back me up!! Why not just form a new band called 'The People Who Fuck Babies And Then Murder Them' so you'll get picked to perform the National Anthem at the Presidential Swearing-In Ceremony!?!??!?! Our society has become a haven for drug dealers and crack babies! The next thing you know, a NAKED MAN will be put on Mount Rushmore! All wagglin' his DICK around!!
At 58 minutes, The Fart Of Compromise wears itself thin with needlessly overlong material (the choppy, sluggish "Can't Stop" for 6:30? "I Wasn't Meant to Feel This/Asleep At The Wheel" for SEVEN GODDAMNED MINUTES!? It only has like three chords!), but considering the radical stylistic shift they've made, it's actually a pretty solid release. Acoustic guitars, fretless bass, keyboard and cello all make their first appearances on an ST album, and the headbanging uptempo riffing of the past is waylaid in the name of accessible alternative rock and heavy funky metal (not funk-metal as such, but definitely butt-shakier than their previous material), but this is all fine when the melodies are as memorable and emotionally resonant as alt-metal masterpiece "Nobody Hears," wistful strummy single "I'll Hate You Better," and acoustic-and-cello-driven alt-rocky "Monopoly On Sorrow." In fact, that's what I'm going to call their black lead guitarist from now on: "Alt-Rocky". I HOPE YOU LIKE IT "ALT-ROCKY" BECAUSE YOU'VE EARNED IT!!!!
So if there's a problem (and there is; otherwise there wouldn't be so many empty circles at the top of this review), it's not due to the increased accessibility of the material. Nose, the problem runs deeper than that and would only come to its full shitty fruition on the next album: too many parts that don't do ANYTHING. One of the (many) reasons that How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today is so highly revered among metal fans is because it is so full of melody. The vocals, the riffs, the solos -- even though you're banging your head, you're also constantly going, "Dude! What a great, unique set of chord changes they're using there!" and "Dude! I must sing along with this portion, for it is pleasing to me!" But by the time of The Art Of Rebellion, the band's creative well was beginning to run dry. This lack of creative ideas, combined with Mike Muir's newfound love of funk music (as exemplified by his first Infectious Grooves album, released shortly before The Art Of Rebellion was recorded), results in some of the least compelling tracks of the band's career -- particularly the funkee chuggler "Which Way To Free?" (with corny Join The Army group chants and a vocal melody stolen from Jane's Addiction), midtempo metal meanderer "It's Going Down" (featuring the most tired and basic chord sequence in the world -- which we JUST HEARD in "Asleep At The Wheel" four songs earlier!!), and the completely worthless dull-as-dick funk-metal abortion "Tap Into The Power" (which, tragically, represents the sound they would fully embrace on their next CD).
For this important release, Suicidal Tendencies dumped Anthrax's producer to go with Peter Collins, whose ass-kicking hardcore touch has also ripped the sonic walls off of such ear-blasters as Rush's Hold Your Fire, the Indigo Girls' Swamp Ophelia, and the Phillip Bailey/Phil Collins collaboration "Easy Lover," which tore so much raging thrashtrastic metal madness that Musical Youth used him for "Pass The Dutchie." KEEP ON SHREDDIN', PETER COLLINS!!! ONE TIME I WAS FUCKIN THIS GIRL AND I COULDN'T GET A 'HARDY BOY' SO I THOUGHT ABOUT THAT TRACEY ULLMAN ALBUM YOU PRODUCED AND HOW IT TOTALLY RIPS ASS AND I GOT THIS HUGE FUCKIN' BONER THAT GAVE THE GIRL 500 ORGASMS AND THREW HER OUT THE WINDOW
The first song on the album features the word "shit" over a dozen times, and I find this appropriate.
Suicidal Tendencies have here adopted all the weakest elements of their Infectious Grooves side project to concoct a mediocre funk-metal album with more curse words than a sailing truck driver. I know they didn't exactly shy away from the blue word even when they were commercially successful ("You Can't Bring Me Down"?), but you have to wonder what they were thinking when they planted un-airable words in eight of these thirteen tracks, then crammed the first half with songs called "Don't Give A Fuck," "No Fuck'n Problem," "Suicyco Muthafucka," "Fucked Up Just Right" and "No Bullshit." One story suggests that they were mad at Epic Records and wanted the last album of their contract to be a big 'Frig You!' to the label. Another legend has it that Mike regretted the radio-friendly sound of The Art Of Rebellion and wanted to show the old fans that ST were still 'underground' and 'hardcore' and 'will never sell out.' Whatever the reasoning, the CD just doesn't have many good songs on it.
Funk-metal doesn't have to be awful. For example, I quite enjoy those Infectious Grooves! But too many of these songs are comprised of two or three simple chords repeated over and over again over a funky rock beat (by new drummer Jimmy DeGrasso!) as a double-tracked Mike simply shouts over them. Neither melodic nor particularly aggressive, songs like "Fucked Up Just Right," "No Bullshit" and even more energetic tracks like "Don't Give A Fuck" and "Depression And Anguish" just drag along as you wait for a hook - any kind of hook - to pop out of the repetitive three-chord din. Sometimes you luck out ("Fucked Up Just Right" does eventually run across a nicely quirky palm-muted speed-chord chorus), other times you don't ("No Bullshit" is ALL Bullshit). The technical skill is still there; you can hear it in quick little rhythmic blasts and speedy guitar runs -- but the band's smart melodic sense is at an all-time low.
A mere four songs merge creative hooks, interesting concepts and strong playing into a fully satisfying whole -- and two of them were wisely chosen as singles! "What You Need's A Friend" is one of the creepiest, most anxiety-racked songs ever released as a single, hence its lack of impact on the Pop Charts. But "Love Vs. Loneliness" is an excellent alt-metal single from the The Art Of Rebellion mold, so I'm not sure what happened to prevent that one from finding an audience. Maybe its 7-minute length?
FANS OF POPPINESS: "No Fuck'n Problem" is probably the most immediately likable tune on the album, with a great fuzzy chord sequence that could've come from a (better than usual) Boston album. FANS OF AGGRESSION: "I Wouldn't Mind" bolsters a pissed-off little metal riff with verses like "I wouldn't mind seeing you shakin' with fear!/I wouldn't mind seeing you screamin' in pain!/I wouldn't mind hearing you cry like a baby!/I wouldn't mind hearing you beggin' for your life!" FANS OF TERRIBLE MUSIC: "Depression And Anguish" is on here.
After this record tanked, the band broke up. So here are some great jokes for you:
Why did the copy of Suicidal For Life cross the road?
How many copies of Suicidal For Life does it take to change a light bulb?
Knock knock!
What do you get when you cross a copy of Suicidal For Life with the entire Stone Temple Pilots catalog?
On a related note, I drunkenly sent this drunk email to Suicidal Tendencies' MySpace page a few nights ago, while drunk:
"Subject Line: I Demand A Goddamned Explanation
Text: Mike Muir is obviously a very intelligent man. The first and third ST albums are among the greatest albums ever recorded by ANYBODY.
So explain "suicidal for life" and "freedumb." There is NO WAY that somebody that brilliant could consider those albums anything other than mediocre. What the hell happened?
Mark
So if I wind up dead at some point in the next 100 years, you'll know who's to blame!
Hey I don't care if it's pecker cancer; maybe Muir snuck in my window one night when I was 90 and injected some cancer in my pecker. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT SCIENCE OF THE FUTURE!??!
Look, this is getting out of hand. I didn't mind when the first couple emails came in asking what I thought of Suicidal Tendencies' 1998 Six The Hard Way EP, but when this trickle of enquiries turned into such an avalanche of missives that my service provider shut down my email account and sent me a box of dog doo in the mail, that's when I started to say, "Whoa now."
Next it was the phone calls. Night after night, hour after hour, ring after ring -- "Hey Mark, why do you think they put two of these recordings on 1999's Freedumb CD too?"; "Hey Mark, don't you hate that annoying high-pitched back-up shout of 'BE!' in the chorus of the live version of 'Fascist Pig' recorded at Les Eurockéennes de Belfort, France?"; "Hey Mark, wouldn't you agree that the slow funky 'What's The Word?' (a) sounds more like Infectious Grooves than Suicidal Tendencies, and (b) suffers from its excessive length?" Look people, I'm trying to eat dinner here! I'm trying to sleep and eat dinner! I can't answer the phone all night when I have to sleep, eat dinner and take a shower! Stop calling me!
Oh! And don't even get me started on the faxes. Every day, all day long -- Beep! Fwee.... Beep! Fwee.... And it's inevitably some teenager in Poland asking, "Hey Mark, is it true that in America your cops eat donuts, as Mike Muir insists at the beginning of the live version of 'Fascist Pig' recorded at Les Eurockéennes de Belfort, France?" or a lonely housewife in Sweden asking, "Don't you just adore the beginning of the live version of 'I Saw Your Mommy' recorded at Les Eurockéennes de Belfort, France, when Mike Muir says to the crowd, 'Ya'll like disco? You call it techno; we call it disco! Ya'll like techno? You guys keep coming up with these names. What do you call that? Jungle, House, Techno, Bass'n'Shit. You know what they call that shit? Disco! You know what disco's for? Disco's for white people that can't dance! You know that shit? Hippies of the '90s? Fuck that shit! But you know what? Suicidal's a disco band, yeah! Back in '79, me and John Travolta were stayin' alive! Stayin' alive!' and then they play a verse of the song as disco? Because I like that, Mark. I like that a lot." And the worst part is I don't even have a fax machine! These people are sending faxes through my toaster! And they come out all burnt and covered in peanut butter! Stop trying to set my house on fire with your toaster faxes! I insist upon this.
Wait, what's all that smoke outside the window? Is somebody smoking a gigantic cigarette? No! It's a bunch of Native Americans sending me a smoke signal! It says, let's see... "Kemosabe Mark, our tribe loves the dumb but fun funkiness of 'Refuse,' even though it sounds more like Infectious Grooves than Suicidal Tendencies. Please let us know if you feel similarly. Also, thanks for the blankets!" Now see, this is exactly what I'm talking about. I'll review Six The Hard Way as soon as I can; please stop begging, moaning, pleading and asking my thoughts about its various and sundry aspects!
Wait, what's that low-pitched beeping noise? Oh Jesus, it's somebody in a submarine sending a sonar message through my toilet. One sec.... Christ! Why do you care what I think about the comic dice on the cover!? Get back to your job protecting our oceans from the Great Russian Bear!
Wait, what's that clicky noise? What the.... Oh Jesus, it's a goddamned bug tapping his ass on the ground to ask if I can get Six The Hard Way to mate with him. No, bug! I cannot convince an inanimate object to develop feelings for you and sexual organs!
Wait, what's that booming noise accompanied by an angelic light? Oh Jesus, it's God asking if I can post a review of Six The Hard Way in time for his Columbus Day party. Look, I'll TRY, God! Okay?? I've got lots of other shit to review too! And I do mean 'shit' (Linkin Park, Weezer).
Wait, what's that voice coming from inside my head? Oh Jesus, it's fucking schizophrenia! Look, Spiderman -- if the rats keep pulling on my eyelids, I'll never be able to sell the waffles to Jim "Garfield" Davis.
Best,
P.S. Look, I have Borderline Personality Disorder! (*commits suicide; farts*) DOYEEEEEEE!
Yeah, more like FreeDU... oh.
Well, they're just asking for trouble with a title like that.
In the days leading up to my "Listening For Review" date with
Freedumb, I was all excited about the chance to hear "Fubar"
again because it's this super-catchy punk rock song and I really love it
and it's always running through my head so I was really looking forward
to hearing it again for the first time in a while and then finally the
big day came and I pulled out the CD and looked at the track listing and
realized that "Fubar" isn't even on here; it's on Cyco Miko's Lost My
Brain...Once Again! And that pretty much sums up Freedumb:
it sounds just like Lost My Brain...Once Again!, but without
"Fubar."
In other words, it's a collection of generic, polished Epitaph-punk with
a double-tracked Mike Muir shouting on top of it. Like a weak Bad
Religion record, it keeps the tempos speedy but the music has almost no
personality and rarely deviates from basic, uncompelling chord changes
that any punk rock fan has already heard in dozens of other songs.
Also, and this is of secondary interest and I feel silly even mentioning
it, but this band isn't Suicidal Tendencies.
Now I'll admit that Suicidal Tendencies has never had the most stable
line-up in America, but never before have they replaced more than
half the band between albums. Even the initial jump from
hardcore to metal only racked up two casualties - and that early
hardcore line-up was always switching guitarists anyway. But this!?
Rocky George had been a key bandmember since Join The Army,
Robert Trujillo since Controlled By Hatred, and Jimmy DeGrasso
since all the way back to Suicidal For Life!!!! (!!!!) ! "Who
gives a chit" decided the two Mikes. "We'll just plop some shitty
cartoon on the cover so nobody'll know it's a scab line-up. Fuck you,
our long-time metal fans with your hard-earned money!"
Please note that by "scab line-up," I refer only to their identity as
'Suicidal Tendencies' -- not to their instrumental talent. Brooks
Wackerman is a talented as hell punk rock drummer who's played with The
Vandals, Bad Religion, Tenacious D and... umm... well, Infectious
Grooves. Bassist Josh Paul is a lesser-known talent, but his speedy
slap-bass breaks are probably the most interesting passages on the
record. And don't forget Rocky George's replacement Dean Pleasants --
he was in the Infectious Grooves!!!
Unfortunately, most of the Scabicidal Tendenscabs apparently can't write
their way out of a brick paper dart. Dean Pleasants' "Halfway Up My
Head" intriguingly combines elements of punk, funk, hardcore and ska,
but does so in support of a bland, worthless riff - for about 19 hours.
Brooks Wackerman contributes a wonderfully oddball hardcore tune ("Gaigan Go Home"), but nothing else. And Josh Paul, as great a player as he is, did no writing at all for the
record. As for the old-timers, Mike Clark contributes memorable punker
"Cyco Vision" and what is probably the album's strongest track -- the
jazzy, somber Art Of Rebellion-style alt-rocker "Heaven" -- but
he also rubs tainted beef into the sores on your dick with two of the
worst songs the band has ever recorded in its long, aromatic history
(corny, dumb-as-a-doornail funk rap "We Are Family" and ugly nondescript
punk-metal "I'll Buy Myself"). Mike Muir seems to have already included
his best material ("Fubar") on Lost My Brain...Once Again!,
leaving only the blistering hardcore "Built To Survive" to impress this
time out (aside from its lyrics - more on those later).
So if you're in the market for four basic chords played over and over
again while a guy with two voices shouts at you, go for it. It's
certainly not any worse than that mediocre piece of crap the "classic"
line-up bowed out with.
I'm tired of the big elephant in the room, so I'm going to come out and
say it right here, tact be goddamned: you cannot sound intelligent when
you cram your lyrics with self-referential nonsense like "Now you'll
find out about Cyco time!" and "In your soul, I see with my Cyco
vision!" and "We don't need no rules no way anarchy - Suicidal punx!"
and THE ENTIRE SONGS "Built To Survive" and "We Are Family."
Here, read the lyrics to "Built To Survive" and let me know (a) how many
references you catch and (b) how many make you want to retch:
You've heard about the war in my head
Built to survive,
So much time spent alone
Built to survive,
Had my scrapes with the law
Built to survive,
It's 1999 and going cyco's all that's on my mind
Controlled by hatred, lost again
Built to survive,
Christ, I just realized -- in that last verse, he makes a reference to a
song on this album!! That officially out-lames Anderson Bruford
Wakeman Howe!
I'm not going to post "We Are Family" in its entirety, but I will tell
you that it includes such thought-provoking turns of phrase as "Suicidal
and proud!" "Sui Sui Sui - Suicidal!," "S.T. S.T. S.T. S.T. S.T. -
Suicidal!" and "A Cyco like me just straight don't give a fuck/And in
case you might not know -- I'm insane Suicidal!"
In other words, Mike Muir TOTALLY NAILS IT YET AGAIN!!!!!
How about Free MY EARS...And Save YOUR REPUTATION?!?!
Yes, it can be difficult coming up with hilarious insults for every album title in the world, but I'm a hard-thinking man and now's no time to quibble. Featuring the same line-up as Freedumb but with even less scab songwriting input (Muir and Clark wrote 14 of the 15 songs), this CD unexpectedly sounds nothing like its predecessor. There are still two or three straight punkers (including the catchy "Start Your Brain" with its hilarious guitar-effect solo), but for the most part it might as well be called Infectious For Life, with the majority of tracks merging the slap bass/clean wah guitar playfulness of Infectious Grooves with the boring 3-chord funk-metal of the final 'classic ST line-up' release. The result is a set of songs that are dull and lifeless yet simultaneously obnoxious and corny. The best of all possible universes!
Sadly, the first two tracks are great - the punky hard rocker "Self Destruct" and jazz-tinged funk rock "Su Casa Es Mi Casa" give the impression of a band that has learned from the disappointing simplicity of Freedumb and come back smarter and stronger. Then it all goes straight down the commodity as "No More No Less" plagiarizes "Pledge Your Allegiance," the title track goes P-Funk without the hooks, "Bullenium" keeps shouting 'Bring back the beat!' and oh the hell with it this is Suicidal Tendencies trying to be a black soul rap funk metal band but so emphasizing the 'funk' that they neglect the 'riff.'
Remember what I said earlier about none of the new guys being able to write their way out of a brick paper dart? Print up that passage and shove it up my nose because Dean Pleasants wrote what is by a goddamned MILE AND A HALF the greatest song on the record -- the eerie CD-closing epic "Home." A march beat, dark "Love Hurts"-style arpeggios, a ringing echoey lead, frightened vocals, God-seeking lyrics, peaceful hippy ending -- and finally some goddamned EMOTION instead of bad funk-metal! When will Muir and Clark realize that the true strength of this band was its emotional content? There is NO REASON for a Suicidal Tendencies to exist if all it cares about is being funky or punky! "Home" is just the latest in a long line of essential ST tracks, reaching back through "Nobody Hears," "Alone," "How Will I Laugh Tomorrow," "Institutionalized" and many others - songs that mean something to people because they MEAN something, period! What the fuck does "Got Mutation" mean to anybody? For that matter, why does Mike Muir take three minutes out of the CD to just TALK about how stupid people are? Wouldn't a songwriter normally write a song to get this point across? I give up. I no longer understand what is going on in that man's brain.
Perhaps he's just lost it -- ONCE AGAIN!
Or perhaps he's taking a TRIP to it!
Or perhaps he's a Suicidal S.T. Cyco with Sui S.T. SuiCyco Pride!
And them Tendencies? Hell, don't start me TALKIN bout them Tendencies!
Supposedly Suicidal Tendencies is back in 2008 with a new rhythm section. They also send out about 5,000 MySpace bulletins a day. Speaking of which, rumor has it that everybody gets a 'hoot' out of my Drunken Bulletins, so I'll reprint last night's epic for you here, before it is erased and lost forever to the sands of rolling time:
I'll tell you what pisses me off. The fact that I've always believed "Oh I hate this NEW porn with the shot-on-video and hte shaved vaginners and big ol' cement breasts and anal humping and asshole jocks, but old porn had stories and was excellent!" but that I've since learned that 99% of old porn sucks complete worthless ugly shittily-filmed gross boring un-erotic story-less ass too.
Here are all the great porn movies I've seen, that I can remember right now:
All the others, both new and old, have SUCKED SUCKED SUCKED. Actually, "Curse of the Catwoman" or whatever it's called wasn't terrible, but shit like "Behind The Green Door" (boring), "Deep Throat" (goofy and dick-filled), Forced Entry (original: gritty; remake: fucking disgusting and shitty), and all these godawful ugly pieces of shit that After Hours and Alpha Blue Archives have been releasing are just FUCKING GROSS.
I've seen a few other interesting ones: "Unwilling Lovers" was hilariously violent and offensive, "Hardgore" was evil enough to hold my interest, and those sleazy recent ones with 'barely legal' girls are.... err... effective. But my point is that it's simply NOT THAT GODDAMNED INTERESTING to watch shitty footage of people fucking.
How difficult is it to make a naked woman look attractive? What the hell was WRONG with these tards in the 70s who couldn't pull it off? Oh yeah, that's super-hot to have a big gross dick plunging into t disgusting brown (etc). How HOTT!
My second point is this:
OCD is the least fun psychological state since manic depression. I just keep getting stuck in patterns without realizing that I'm stuck in patterns. And I get so depressed and feel trapped, and it takes me FOREVER to realize that OCD cause it - AGAIN.
My third point is this:
Please forgive me.
My fourth point is this:
I honestly do shove a toothbrush into my throat three times in a row (to induce vomiting) after every single time I get drunk and eat dinner now. There's no way that this is healthy.
My fifth point is this:
Dogs live too short. I love animals, and I wish I could make them all realize this.
My sixth point is this:
My biggest fear is being alone in the Universe, because I can't find a reason to live if that's the case.
My seventh point is this:
I hope you like my reviews because it's my diary and creative outlet as well.
My eighth point is this:
I'm ugly. It's astonishing that somebody pretty married me. Don't tell her though.
My ninth point is this:
I am a first-degree black belt. I will kill you.
My tenth point is this:
Nothing matters and what if it did.
Best,
Plus, Ron Jeremy's not in it!
Lost interest in Suicidal before the second record came along, at least in part to those chorus-addled guitars and what generally seemed like overproduction to me; I like records like I like sushi: raw and $3 each.
Except I don't really like sushi too much.
Thank you for all your little music stories. They make a number of smiles go onto the front part of my head, whatever that's called.
You're on the money with all these reviews, though I'd up the ratings for How Will I laugh, Lights...Cameras.. and Suicidal For Life, and lower the rating for Art of Rebellion.
I'm still a little confused as to why there are two Mike Clarks in my cd booklet instead of the drummer in the interior group shot. Weird. Have you seen the Lights...Cameras...Suicidal video? that's some funny shit.
Waking the Dead is one of the best metal songs ever. Disagree and I'll cum in your ear when you sleep.
Mike Muir is back to his tricks, releasing another 'sampler' disc of his various bands (see my Cyco Miko page for info about his last one). This one features seven new Suicidal Tendencies recordings (including a re-recording of Join The Army's "Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right, But They Make Me Feel A Whole Lot Better"), three each by Infectious Grooves and Cyco Miko, and one pulled directly off of No Mercy's old album Widespread Bloodshed Love Runs Red. Why he can't just buckle down and release a full CD by a single entity is beyond me, but presumably finance is an issue. Why does he have four bands in the first place, if he can't even afford one? Does he get a bigger tax refund or something? Somebody get Newt Gingrich on this.
You'll be pleased to learn that only 6 of the 14 songs are 'funk'-oriented, so we actually get to hear some new METAL songs by Suicidal Tendencies. Indeed, the latest ST line-up (Muir, Clark, Pleasants, Steve Brunner and Eric Moore) has cooked us up a big tasty soup bowl of slow metal, thrash, punk, anthemic hard rock and even good old Art Of Rebellion-style alternative metal. In fact, were I to ignore the other bands' material and grade this as a seven-song Suicidal Tendencies EP, I'd raise its grade to a 7! This development is so heartening that I now have two hearts in my chest.
Unfortunately, most of the whiteman funk is just awful. Only one of the Infectious Grooves songs is even listenable (the strange and carnivalesque "Funny Farm"), and even Cyco Miko wastes two of his three contributions on this rank subgenre (though his third track, "Big Man," is an excellent dark brooding rocker). But enough of this "wack" review "dope"; let's have a quiz!
1. Which of the following song titles correspond to tracks on this album?
2. With which band did Mike Muir record the song "No Mercy Fool!"?
3. Which Mike Muir project is distinguished by the stellar axework of former Ugly Kid Joe session guitarist Dean Pleasants?
4. How many copies will this CD sell?
"Welcome to the Year of the Cyco, it's been a long, long wait"
2009 is finally here and the new year is gonna be very good for all the Cycos and Suicidal Maniacs. New Suicidal Tendencies CD! New Cyco Miko CD! New Infectious Grooves CD!
And now you can get a preview before it's in stores.
Suicidal Records presents "Year of the Cyco" to give you a taSTe of what's to come! CD is now only available thru the bands website. Get your copy, pass on the link and hook up your friends and warn your enemies! And blaST it long and loud!
Year of the Cycos featuring Cyco Miko, Infectious Grooves and Suicidal Tendencies...
now "WELCOME to the CYCO side!"
I give up.
No, wait! I give back down! I have something to say here. There was a time when Suicidal Tendencies was an actual force in music -- first as a skater-friendly hardcore band and then as an MTV thrash metal sensation. So what in God's American Fuckball is Mike Muir DOING!? Did his brain simply turn into a waxy mush and dribble out his ear one day in the mid-'90s? After excitedly announcing the imminent release of FOUR Suicidal-related CDs (all-new recordings by ST, Infectious Grooves, Cyco Miko and No Mercy Fool!), all he managed to come up with is a motherfucking re-recording of half of Join The Army paired with a cocksucking re-performing of half of No Mercy's Widespread Bloodshed...Blood Runs Red, along with two tracks you just heard on Year Of The Cyco -- and ONE new song!?!?!?!?!?
Look, I'd understand if he got his dick stuck in the bathtub drain or something, but it takes money, time and effort to record a new CD. WHY WASTE IT ON SHIT YOU'VE ALREADY DONE!?!? Is there something I'm missing here about Mike trying to reclaim royalties from the original '80s recordings? If so, who the shitbird does he think is the potential customer base for this? Does he honestly think there's somebody out there crying because the original version of "No Name, No Words" doesn't take advantage of today's modern recording technology? Because here's something worth noting: it wasn't the raw recording that made Join The Army inferior to its predecessor. It was the SHITTY SONGWRITING. "Possessed To Skate" has always sucked and always will. "The Prisoner" will always have one of the worst choruses I've ever heard in my life. And "Join The Army" sounded just fine before this bunch of scabass dickassers turned it into a clunky grooveless growly pile of butt fucking fuck buttons.
Still, I have to admit it's nice to hear Suicidal playing thrash again, even if it is really old thrash. That sharp tight 'jigga-jigga-jigga' guitar sound is a wonder to behold and is almost nonstop in the No Mercy re-recordings. In other news, new drummer Eric Moore is by far the busiest drummer they've ever had, and bassist Steve 'Thundercat' Bruner seems an odd choice for this material since he's clearly a funk-loving slap bassist, but he doesn't ruin anything so whatevs.
I know what you really care to learn though: how about that single new song, Mr. Mark Prindle of The Internet Fame? What's that on about? Well, it's called "Something Inside Me" and is a decent but unexceptional piece of uptempo metal.
Rumor has it that Suicidal might actually release a CD of all-new studio material this year, but I'll believe it when I illegally download it. In the meantime, I've come up with a swell bunch of album concepts I'd like to run by Mr. Muir. These might include:
- The Suicyco Army Day, Fool!: Re-recording of side one of The Art of Rebellion paired with a live set of Cyco Miko performing Infectious Grooves material.
- The Original Suicidal!/The Decade Of The Original Cyco S.T., Fool!: Re-recording of Freedumb by Rocky George solo.
- The Suicidal Remixes, Fool!/Remixed S.T., Fool!/The Remixing Cycos Remix Suicyco S.T., Muthafucka!: Collaboration with Al Jourgensen.
- Infectious S.T. Fools Going Suicyco! (and S.T.!): Re-recording of How Will I Laugh Tomorrow... When I Can't Even Smile Today? with that Infectious Grooves lizard talking between every song.
- Still Giving You No Mercy Fool! After All These Years: Second re-recording of Suicidal Tendencies LP.
- The Long-Awaited All-New Suicidal Tendencies CD! - Repackaging of Infectious Grooves' It's The Groove That Makes Your Booty Move with new cover art.
- Michael Muir Sings Classic Hits from The Four Seasons Catalog: No Mercy Fool! perform twelve instrumental funk-metal versions of "You Got, I Want."
- Possessed To Skate Up Your Ass! - No Mercy Fool! and Cyco Miko collaborate on a gay pornography film.
- Groove Suicidal Family Year Of The Cycologically Unsound Lead Singer: Recording of Cyco Miko crying and screaming "Y'know what I'm sayin'!?" over and over as the members of Infectious Grooves try to get 911 on the phone.
"SICK OF
TRYING!" "WHAT'S THE POINT?"
"SICK OF TALKING!" "NO ONE
LISTENS!"
"SICK OF LISTENING!" "IT'S ALL LIES!"
"SICK OF
THINKING!" "JUST END UP CONFUSED!"
"SICK OF MOVING!" "NEVER GET
NOWHERE!"
"SICK OF MYSELF!" "DON'T WANNA LIVE!"
"SICK AND
TIRED!" "AND NO ONE CARES!"
"SICK OF LIFE!" "IT SUCKS!"
"AAAAAAAAH SUICIDE'S AN ALTERNATIVE!!!!"
This continues for three
verses before the song suddenly turns into "Send Me Your Money" with
different lyrics 7 years early.
Alleviate my suffering and my
pain
But by the time they fix my head
Mentally I'll be dead!
YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S CRAZY! INSTITUTIONALIZED!
YOU'RE DRIVING ME
CRAZY! INSTITUTIONALIZED!
Said it was the only solution
To give me the needed professional help
To protect me from the enemy
-
Myself."
Its. About. Fucking. Time.
I think what makes "Institutionalized" work so well is not only its
subject matter, but its detail. The lyrics aren't just a bunch of
vague wishy-washy angst cliches (the kind of lyrics Linkin Park uses
every chance they get), they describe a very realistic, well-told
story that gives the angst a direction. It makes the song about a
thousand times more effective than almost any of that other
wannabe-emo bullshit.
Great and personal review for ST/ST. I was more in classic rock at the time, and more into punk as an 30-something. Go figure. As such, I knew this "Institutionalized" from the "Repo Man" soundtrack, but didn't hear the whole album until much later.
A 10 is right. Probably the best punk/hardcore album ever, i think too... everything on here is classic. Though my teens didn't commence till the mid 90s, how much did i connect and spend nights thrashing about my room to the first half of the album alone. From "Suicide's An Alternative" to "Institutionalized", just those 6 songs alone make this a 10. "I Shot the Devil," "Subliminal" and "Two Sided Politics" are beyond great too.
Join the Army - 8
How Will I Laugh... - 9
L,C,R - 9
After that - don't care
Hey Mark, first of all great review, I completely agree about Institutionalized and it was the first hardcore song I ever heard and I loved it. Secondly, I'm not sure about this, but I always thought the line in Suicide's an Alternative was "besides I'm a meaner sonofabitch than that buster ever could be." Now if you check the interweb, most people think he's saying "fuck" or "fucker," but I happen to know that "buster" is gang slang for a person who is not very well-respected (like saying "punk" or "bitch") and one of the weird things about ST was that Mike Muir always dressed like some kind of loco vato hispanic gang member so I just thought it went along with that. I dunno, I could be wrong but that's how I always heard it. Incidentally another gang slang word to describe a person in less-than-flattering terms is "mark." I hope your flu is better, you buster ass mark.
A strength that you can't comprehend
A force unknown can now be told
The power of the world he holds"
Now we're rocking out hard to the Suicidal beat
Tried to deny our right, so we're putting up a fight
Just doing our thang, they tried to call it a gang"
I'm only sure that it wasn't true
You said I told you that I love you
Well there's a thousand others just like you"
If it ain't insane then you can't get rad
Skating is all that's on his mind
He's skating radical all the time"
Cyco! Cyco! Cyco! Cyco!
Born cyco it's the way I was meant to be
Live cyco it's the only life for me
Burning! Burning! Burning! Burning!
Burning! Burning! Burning! Burning!"
My girlfriend is Insanity
My father is Revenge"
you have in fact shocked me, sir. "Cyco" along with "Two Wrongs..." are two of my favorite songs on the album... that is, my second favorite ST album next to the first one. I am shocked that you don't follow your standard pattern of awarding the hard core punk album the 10 and the sophomore crossover the 9. you astound me. This was the first ST album I bought, got me hooked, don't see how you can diss these riffs, nor the amazing "Possessed to Skate", the ultimate skate-thrash anthem.
Gang of Four is one of the greatest bands ever, yet almost all the bands that rip 'em SUCK. I don't get it.
Have you heard Arcade Fire yet, Mark? They pretty much shy away from
the whole angular-guitar business and I've grown quite fond of them.
I'm with you Mark, though I have to say that Les Savy Fav are a fucking great band (check out their "Inches" singles compilation). This modern indie rock shit is making me feel extremely alienated from youth culture, and I'm only 27. Back in the 90s, indie rock was all about smart slackers who grew up on punk rock. Now, it's self-consciously "twee" horseshit played by upper-middle-class kids who listen to soulless inoffensive crap that might as well be folk rock or Matchbox 20. It's weird that you mentioned grindcore, because I've been getting into that stuff a lot more lately ever since I stopped paying attention to modern indie rock. You should listen to Discordance Axis's "The Inalienable Dreamless"... maybe I've listened to it too much while high, but I think it's the "Daydream Nation" of grindcore. That sort of thing and crusty hardcore punk have been my staples lately. Once the 90s revival is in full swing (I'll go on record as saying this will be the big trend in the next five years), maybe we'll see some good indie rock bands again...
Korn and Linkin Park crap because it's loud and it's trying to be angry and it's supposed to piss off your parents but what's up with this "indie rock"(tm) that sounds like bad 80s pop music? Have we really come full circle? Bob Mould is probably rolling over in his grave! (sorry Bob) C'mon kids - drop this pussified bullshit, start smoking weed, drinking some PBR, and get into Sabbath Vol 4 already. Even though any decent parent who hears THAT album blasting from their kid's room should be more proud than pissed.
Hey Mark, I pretty much agree with a lot of what useless_creep@hotmail.com wrote. Les Savy Fav have an awful singer, but everything else about that band is actually amazing. Some straight-up amazing guitar playing. And Discordance Axis are indeed the best band grindcore has ever spawned. Anyway, have you heard Estradasphere? They're like Disco Volante-era Mr. Bungle with more of a middle eastern influence (that they also explore with side projects Fishtank Ensemble, Deserts of Traun, Gods of Shamisen, and Don Salsa -- who are all fucking awesome! Don Salsa especially who start their album with a 31 minute song that explores almost every musical genre ever!). You should get anything you can by the following bands: Farmers Market (every genre of music ever), Unexpect (extreme metal with elements of.. every genre of music ever), Koenjihyakkei (if God made music, it'd sound like this; beyond the technical limits of what prog should be), Cephalic Carnage (completely fucking ridiculous tech-grind weirdos who even have a grind surf song on one of their albums -- you've probably heard them by now; ridiculously weird and talented), Koenkoji ("Red" era King Crimson times 2000), Experimental Dental School (circus noise punk), ... all "recent" bands making truely interesting, unique, GOOD music that none of the popular outlets will bother covering because those band's record labels haven't paid for ad space yet. Well, the new Farmers Market will be on Ipecac soon, so you'll probably be hearing more about them. But yeah. They're great. All those bands are great. I'm rambling.
I bought this on the day it came out (prolly still have the original cassette rotting away somewhere). I remember being confused as hell when I played it: it was so metal! I was expecting to hear some more classic hardcore punk, but instead it had all of these metal riffs and chanted choruses. The production kinda blows too: seems like they didn't really know what to do with their new sound. But, anyway, this album has some pretty good stuff, and I like the hip-hop influence here and there--it was totally radical at the time to mix metal and hip-hop. It's both a fairly decent album and a massive letdown after the debut. The 7 rating is about right. After this, they would evolve into a decent thrashy metal band, and then... I dunno, haven't heard a new album by these guys since the mid 90's, to be honest.
just like those guys said (except the one that said tim harrington is a
bad singer, he should be punished) it is a bit unfair to compare les
savy fav to arctic monkeys or black rebel yawn club. you should
definitely check "inches" i bet that you won't regret. btw i think you'd
like clockcleaner and jay reatard (even though they're trying too hard
to be assholes in real life)
Mark,
Dear Mr Prindle,
"Join the Army" is a total anomaly in the ST catalogue, not just because it's the only one that features Rocky George playing ALL the guitars, but also because the albums sound is NOTHING like the first albums. Whereas the other albums follow the blueprint of the first album (slightly modified via "How Will I laugh"), Join the Army's tracks seem to be thrown together in a rather haphazard order (apart from the final track which really couldn't go anywhere else). Surely songs like "War Inside my Head" and "Human Guinea Pig" should be at the beginning, frontloading or no. And even though it's 10 minutes longer than the debut, it feels four times that and not a quarter as memorable or good.
I cry for help but no one's around
Silently screaming as I bang my head against the wall
It seems like no one cares at all....
Problems never solved, just rearranged
And when I think about all the times that I've had
So few good, so many bad
I search for personality
and I look for things that I can't see
Love and peace flash through my mind
But pain and hate are all I find
Find no hope in nothing new
Never had a dream come true
Lies and hate and agony
Thru my eyes that's all I see
If I'm gonna cry
Will you wipe away my tears?
If I'm gonna die
Lord please take away my fear
Before I drown in sorrow
One last thing that I'll say
How will I laugh tomorrow
If I can't even smile today?"
That "EAT MY BALLS" ad idea was the highlight of my day.
This was it for me. I can't remember exactly how I stumbled upon the title track, but I heard it on the internet after being directed toward ST when asking after "thrash". It was at this time I was into metal, but was sick of chop-changey metal shit (Meshuggah), artsy bullshit (Tool) or black metal (Dimmu Borgir) my friends were listening to, and I kinda liked old Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer. I'm not sure if I really like any of those bands anymore, their lyrics are all bullshit, though I have some respect for Dave Mustaine...Metallica would never risk limiting their audience by expressing opinions (unless it's "war is bad", "death is bad", etc). But after I heard "How Will I laugh...", I was a little impressed at a thrash song that wasn't all that complex but was plenty fast, but extremely emotive.
But if anyone were to read a bit-they'd think I was a bit peculiar
But it matters not what they think of me, it's only what I know is real
And so all that's left that matters now-is that the feeling's back
Till that one day when I stood alone-staring straight into the mirror
It's not a pretty sight-and even worse it's so hard to face
Until I realize I'm the only one that put me in this place
But you can only dig your hole six feet until the dirt comes back on top
I've got a long way left to climb but I'll still look you straight in the
eye
And I can honestly say I'll never quit-not even on the day I die
- 4 re-recordings of songs previously heard on the No Mercy LP Widespread Bloodshed...Love Runs Red
- 2 alternate versions of "How Will I Laugh Tomorrow": a video edit of the original recording and a non-metal 'Heavy Emotion' re-recording
- 2 new songs: Awesome thrasher "Just Another Love Song" and uneventful uptempo choogler "Feel Like Shit...Deja Vu"
- 1 re-recording of a terrible song by an obscure (and terrible) early Mike Muir band called Los Cycos, previously heard on the terrible Welcome To Venice compilation
Stupid woman.
- L...C...R! includes a higher percentage of notey licks compared
to the predominantly chord-focused riffs of its pre-predecessor
- L...C...R! gently introduces a funk influence that would become
much more prominent on later releases
- L...C...R! contains a few chord choices that totally
sound like they're pulled from mid-'80s metal -- early Motley Crue, that
sort of thing
I really think you're crazy to slate "Emotion #13" and "Disco's Out, Murder's In" completely. '13 features a not-cripplingly-weak chorus, but has a great riff at the end of every verse. Muir does some great vocals of this one too, and Rocky's second solo is nice. Even in a lesser track like this, I am still in awe of Rocky's lines - they're so packed with neat little note-combinations that are always either emotive or stunning, and frequently both. His combination of talent and emotion is emblematic of the band as a whole at this stage - it's all well and good to bang your head like a maniac, but ST always gave you something to think about or feel in a song too.
Performance = 0
Average = 5
I pretty much can't stand Suicidal Tendencies and hated their first
album including "Institutionalized" from when it was originally release.
The song has great lyrics but, unfortunately, the song is pure
unlistenable hell to me.
New Institutionalized = 10
Rest of Album = 0
Average = 5
To get to the other dollar bin
Just one, but be advised - it changes it to shit
Who's there?
A copy of Suicidal For Life!
A copy of Suicidal For Life who?
A copy of Suicidal For Life with all the terrible songs removed!
Oh, no wonder I couldn't see you through the peephole.
A context in which Suicidal For Life sounds like the greatest album ever recorded!
Drunken Belligerent Asshole"
Guy Who Thinks It's Hilarious To Make Fun Of A Debilitating Mental Illness
And I've been known to wake the dead
I'm not evil just possessed to skate
And feeling like shit just don't feel great
Built to survive,
Built to survive,
I'm built, I'm built, I'm built to survive
And I'm still searching for my home
Built to survive,
Built to survive,
I'm built, I'm built, I'm built to survive
Is that your mommy that I saw?
They tried to ban us from L.A.
But every dog has his day
Built to survive,
Built to survive,
I'm built, I'm built, I'm built to survive
And we're built to survive
What I don't need is a friend
I want more, you fascist pig
We are family, we live to live
Built to survive,
Built to survive,
I'm built, I'm built, I'm built to survive
- Cafe Flesh (awesomely depressing)
- Waterpower (Jamie Gillis is hilariously creepy!)
- Nightdreams (weird!)
- Debbie Does Dallas (gulp!)
- Memories Inside Miss Aggie (again, awesomely depressing)
- a couple others, give me a break I'm drunk
John Cougar
"Ten Little Maidens" is a total classic - between the over-the-top dinnertable orgy and the antics of comedy duo Jamie ("Creamy Italian? You want creamy Italian, bitch? How 'bout creamy Polish!") Gillis and Nina Hartley, there's plenty of unsex to balance all the ununsex, plus a whodunnit storyline involving MURDER! Plus Lisa fucking DeLeeuw!!! My favorite, and the only lady pornist to have died of AIDS! Maybe from John Holmes! I can't remember!
I added them as friends on myspace and got pissed at how they would send out like 5 bulletins a day so i angrily mailed them back from a bulletin and defriended them. Then the band posted MY message as a bulletin...safe to say i got a rather impressive amount of angry letters for 22 year old nobodys crunkd out on steroids that think every st song is good like fuck everything man
Right I bought the Suicidal Tendencies demos on vinyl...they're not as bad as you say, but they sure ain't up to the lofty standards of ST's S/T.
(a) "Cyco Side Of The Brain"
(b) "Cyco Vision"
(c) "Wait, That's Not How You Spell 'Psycho'"
(d) "Seriously? Crap, Now I Have To Re-Record My Entire Back Catalog"
(a) No Mercy Fool!
(b) Suicidal Tendencies
(c) He thought it was No Mercy Fool!, but after the recording session, he looked again and was dismayed to realize it was Suicidal Tendencies
(a) Suicidal Tendencies
(b) Infectious Grooves
(c) Cyco Miko
(d) No Mercy, Fool!
(e) All of the above
(f) All of the above, but only because Dean kept putting on fake mustaches and wigs and claiming he was "Gene Presence," "Bean Pheasants" and so forth
(a) 1
Not that I'm the biggest Mike Muir fan but if this is what they consider the "year of the cycos" that is truly sad. Especially since they've been giving it such a big boost. This is the post is directly from their myspace page. it's worded a little awkwardly. I can't tell if they mean Year of the Cycos is a new cd from all three bands or if it's supposed to be a sampler of each new album.
