Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Recommendations, discussions, questions & debates regarding the godly Metal of olde...
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bigfootkit
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by bigfootkit »

It seems my grunge question split the room right down the middle, strong opinions on either side & not much ambivalance.
I've likely said so on here before but the so-called grunge thing always struck me as the 'emperor's new clothes'. The bands were lumped together & marketed as if they were something new & different, but their influences were easy to hear and they made no secret of their love of 70s Heavy Rock & 80s Metal. I think perhaps where there was a slight divergence was that their record collections seemed to contain a bit more more punk than your average Hard Rock/Metal band & that cropped up in some of the bands sounds and perhaps in their attitudes too, but i never felt alienated by that, it just gave them a different set of textures which was really refreshing to hear after far too many years of twiddly guitar players in thrall to their locking Floyd Rose tremmys.
Sales of those things must have hit rock bottom in the 90s.
As someone who had aspirations towards being a singer at the time, it was truly inspiring to me to hear so many great new & very individual voices emerge from that time, it's absolutely tragic that so many of them aren't still with us in the present day.
I also wonder where this strange myth came from that 'Grunge' was some kind of musical conspiracy to kill Metal?
Most of those bands were obviously Metalheads to a greater or lesser degree, they toured with Metal bands & the crowds they attracted weren't completely different audiences by any stretch of the imagination. Whether i was going to see Alice, Soundgarden, Paw or whoever, there were plenty of long haired types in Metal shirts in those crowds, in fact thay were probably in the majority.
Anyway, it's all a matter of personal taste ultimately, and nothing i say on the subject is likely to change anyone's minds on the subject, but it does seem to me like a lot of people were put off by the trappings & marketing and didn't give the music an unbiased listen. There was a huge amount of sonic diversity & some terrific records were made that still sound amazing to me now. Lastly, kudos to Noisenik for mentioning The Afghan Whigs. You have great taste mate.
Returning to the topic at hand, i was looking for something else in my spare room last night, (which i've still yet to find), when i came across this strange pile of discs in a cupboard that left me scratching my head:

Image

I have no recollection of ever owning most of these, with the exception of Strife, Spiritual Beggars & the Heavy Metal soundtrack, all of which i thought i'd traded away years ago. I immediately put on the HM soundtrack in order to listen to the alternative version of 'Mob Rules' & Riggs 'Radar Rider' for old times sake.
I have a sealed 2nd copy of the Brothers Of Conquest album? Where on earth did that come from?
DK's Frankenchrist? I have absolutely no recollection of buying that, The Desert Sessions, Evo/Algy, or Russ Ballard's self titled album.
And Vulvathrone? Who on earth are they?
I've never even heard of them & that's the type of name i would normally remember.
Utterly baffling & slightly worrying. Is this my first 'senior moment'?
I'm beginning to worry about early onset Alzheimers at this point quite frankly.
:?
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wicked keeper
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by wicked keeper »

Once found a Boz Scaggs Greatest Hits cd in my collection....no idea how it got there, particulary as I can't fucking stand Boz Scaggs..... :?


....though I'd still rather listen to "Lido Shuffle" on repeat than have to hear the likes of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" or "Black Hole Sun" even once more ......... :lol:
Last edited by wicked keeper on Tue May 29, 2018 5:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Cochino
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by Cochino »

The thing is that being born in 87, I'm actually a kid of the 90s. Like I said, I started on heavy music through bands like White Zombie and later on Pantera, so it kinda would make sense for me to like Grunge more than 80s Heavy Metal from a generational perspective, but except for the odd song here and there, even as a kid I found Grunge really dull and boring. I remember when I was like 7 or so my sister being into Nirvana and listening to their tapes and they bored the shit out of me after a couple of songs, while I really liked what my brother listened to which was Queen, Marillion and U2 (Yes, U2. Just so you can see it's not me just trying to be the coolest guy in the block or anything like that).
wicked keeper wrote:Once found a Boz Scaggs Greatest Hits cd in my collection....no idea how it got there, particulary as I can't fucking stand Boz Scaggs..... :?
Ha, this reminds me of me finding a Phil Collins Greatest Hits CD a few months ago in my room. I do remember how it got there though. It was a gag gift from a friend because Phil Collins is my go-to guy when I wanna talk about bland, pointless music.
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Noisenik
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by Noisenik »

bigfootkit wrote:
... influences on grunge ...

....The Afghan Whigs ...

And Vulvathrone? Who on earth are they?
I've never even heard of them & that's the type of name i would normally remember.
Utterly baffling & slightly worrying. Is this my first 'senior moment'?


I'm beginning to worry about early onset Alzheimers at this point quite frankly.

:?
Kit, I have to appologize I still owe you an answer/report regarding one other thing, which simply will not come any time soon. Except very first step, I haven't done anything since.

Reg. what influenced grunge:

post-punk and hardcore/ post-hardcore, at least those from Kurt's list.

Reg. Afghan Whigs:

I was quite into Gentlemen around 1994/95, I liked it a lot and still possess it. But I didn't (ab)use the momentum, as I couldn't provide myself their other stuff, and when I finally got to hear some, the train has already departed. Haven't check them in a while.

REg. VT:
Vulvathrone are Slovenian brutal death/grind (fun?) core. You probably got it from someone for free, either when ordering or elsewhere.

Reg Alzheimer:-?:

It has a lot to do with sleeping. If one doesn't get enough of sleep, then this influences memory capacity. I have seen this by other ppl. Unfortunately, I can confirm this first hand also.


Still, the amount of grunge items in my agglomeration is smaller than that of doom metal.
I am ... the One you warned me of
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Cochino
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by Cochino »

Noisenik wrote:I was quite into Gentlemen around 1994/95
Now, this is a good one to quote out of context :mrgreen:
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bigfootkit
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by bigfootkit »

Cochino wrote:
Noisenik wrote:I was quite into Gentlemen around 1994/95
Now, this is a good one to quote out of context :mrgreen:
:lol:
Lol!
With that in mind, i'll choose my words carefully concerning my ongoing obsession with that album & it's follow up, the similarly mis-quotable 'Black Love'.
Noisenik, thanks for the info on Vulvathrone, but having now heard some of it, (i couldn't get through more than a few songs), i'm pretty sure i won't ever play it again. Sounds like someone screaming as they're sucked into a damaged jet engine.
Scratch that actually, it's far too good a review.
Your theory about getting it as a freebie could well be correct, (i cetainly hope i didn't pay good money for it!), but Cochino's story about his friend planting the Phil Collins disc in his collection also has me wondering if that could be a possibile explanation.
I do have a particular friend who likes to do stuff like that, and this fits his M.O. perfectly. I'll need to investigate further, but as he'd be utterly delighted if he found i'd been disturbed by one of his pranks i'll need to be subtle.
I simply can't give him the satisfaction if he is indeed the culprit.
I cannot, I shall not, I will not obey.
Avenger wrote : I'm not a copyright office nor a judicial entity.
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nightsblood
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by nightsblood »

I was a senior in high school when grunge started to break out on the national scene. At our Winter Dance me and another rapscalion convinced the DJ to close the dance with 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' so we could get in a spot of slam dancing to scare the squares a little. Very few people present had heard the song at that point; by the end of the spring semester it was a worldwide hit. I was JUST old enough and set in my metallic ways that I didn't get too interested in grunge. Nirvana was OK and I liked 'Badmotorfinger' a lot (it's one of the only albums of that time I still play), but I fucking detested Pearl Jam. I still don't know what's wrong with that little shit Jeremy but Eddie Vetter can shove that video right up his arse.

I never thought of grunge as an attempt to kill off metal, though it definitely had that affect, as all the glam/hair bands went extinct extremely quickly once 'Nevermind' ruled the charts. It was simply time for the next, younger wave of kids to discover their own style of music and run with it. It happpens semi-regularly, roughly every 5-7 years or so. GNR, Def Leppard, etc had been the soundtrack to my formative years, but the kids just starting high school were gonna find their own thing, and grunge is what they found.

Re: 90s Metal:
Yes, the US became a freaking wasteland when it came to good metal in the early-mid 90. But there were multiple factors besides the rise of grunge that played a more prominent role in the downfall of metal:
--A huge factor was 'The Black ALbum'. Let's not derail into arguing about its merits, but the fact that Metallica managed to conquer the mainstream with a different musical direction had a huge influence on the metal scene as bands fell in line to try and copy their success. As soon as Megadeth followed suit with 'Countdown to Extinction', there was no turning back.
--But let's not forget that a lot of those more underground metal bands had been chugging along for YEARS by 1990. THey were getting older and growing up. Many were realizing there wasn't much future in playing underground metal; they weren't gonna become the next Metallica or Judas Priest. So they had to either change styles or hang it up.
--And people were ready to listen to new styles. The Wave of Thrash and the Wave of GLam had run their course; it was only a matter of time before stuff like Fith No More (eh), Infectios Grooves (yuck), Pantera (fuck that), and Biohazard (barf) got their chance.

Rather than spend lots of time exploring these emerging styles, I started working my way backwards, finding more of the 80s metal that I had missed. So I spent 1992-1998 digging up old NWOBHM, underground thrash, 80s German power metal, and the likes.

I would eventually get that bug to explore outside the bounds of Metal, but that hit me around, hmmmm, the very late 90s and early 00s. Via tape-trading I started to get introduced to more and more different stuff, including some goth, postpunk, 70s hard rock, etc. Strangely, and perhaps hilariously, one of the first things I took a shine to was epeche Mode (I know, I know, I'll show myself the door). But others like Sisters of Mercy, Bolshoi, The Church, the SMiths, etc followed, and soon thereafter forays into early UFO, 70s-era Scorpions, Thin Lizzy, The Chameleons (bloody brilliant stuff on 'Script for the Bridge'), Big Country, The Cure, VNV Nation, Assemblage 23, Behind the Scenes, etc etc etc.

A lot of these became passing fancies; I'd pick up a couple of albums from the $1 bin, play 'em awhile,a nd gradually leave them behind and move on to other stuff. But some albums did stick with me for the long term, even once I switched gears back into Full force Metal by ca 2005.I'll close with a short list of a few favorite albums that came from those explorations:

Chameleons- Script of the Bridge
The Cure- Pornography
The Mission- Children
Assemblage 23- storm
Thin Lizzy- Johnny the Fox
The church- starfish
The Essence- nothing lasts forever
Scorpions- in trance
Big Country- the seer
"I'm sorry Sam, we had real chemistry. But like a monkey on the sun, our love was too hot to live"
-Becky
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Cochino
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by Cochino »

nightsblood wrote:Depeche Mode (I know, I know, I'll show myself the door)
Hey, it's one of my favorite radio-sing-along bands, despite the dumb lyrics. They're no Pet Shop Boys but I rather listen to DM, even if it's "Just Can't Get Enough" instead any Duran Duran song. Never heard anything by them besides the hits, but I've never hated them at all.
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Zanker
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by Zanker »

Cochino wrote:
nightsblood wrote:Depeche Mode (I know, I know, I'll show myself the door)
Hey, it's one of my favorite radio-sing-along bands, despite the dumb lyrics. They're no Pet Shop Boys but I rather listen to DM, even if it's "Just Can't Get Enough" instead any Duran Duran song. Never heard anything by them besides the hits, but I've never hated them at all.
There's nothing wrong with Depeche Mode. My wife has some CD's so I don't have to spend money on them.
When I grew up in the 80's I had friends that were into metal and hardcore and friends into new wave.
The first records of Sisters Of Mercy, Front 242; Neon Judgement, The Klinik are very dear too me aswell.
Even to this day I listen to them now and then.
Infectious Grooves, Ministry and all those 90's i don't listen to it anymore. But for some reason, they stay in the collection and I will not sell them.
On the other hand I sold all my 7 YEAR BITCH, GOD BULLIES, HEAD OF DAVID records. Also BABES IN TOYLAND I don't listen to anymore. I'm not sure if they are categorized as grunge though.
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nightsblood
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by nightsblood »

Oh thank the Gods of Chaos that y'all aren't gonna make me choose between my Metal Archives Ranking and my copy of 'Black Celebration'!

Depeche Mode seems to be a band that a lot of metal fans either like or are at least willing to give a free pass, which always surprises me. It's like my dad's obsession with 'Titanic'; he's this grizzled, tough, old, ornery redneck mountain dude with multiple gun racks in his pickup truck, which is only slightly smaller than your average city bus, and yet I bet he's watched Kate & Dicaprio on that f@#$ing boat more times than an entire slumber party of 14 year-old girls from 1997.
Yes, there are some things in this world that cannot be explained.
"I'm sorry Sam, we had real chemistry. But like a monkey on the sun, our love was too hot to live"
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by DMR »

nightsblood wrote:If anyone remembers BUTT TRUMPET, I'm both impressed and feel sorry for you :)
I remember Butt Trumpet... fondly!
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by DMR »

bigfootkit wrote:The bands were lumped together & marketed as if they were something new & different, but their influences were easy to hear and they made no secret of their love of 70s Heavy Rock & 80s Metal.

...

I also wonder where this strange myth came from that 'Grunge' was some kind of musical conspiracy to kill Metal?
Most of those bands were obviously Metalheads to a greater or lesser degree, they toured with Metal bands & the crowds they attracted weren't completely different audiences by any stretch of the imagination. Whether i was going to see Alice, Soundgarden, Paw or whoever, there were plenty of long haired types in Metal shirts in those crowds, in fact thay were probably in the majority.
There was a great article by Dave Burns (which unfortunately isn't online anymore) detailing how record companies in the early '90s promoted grunge as a sort of metal-lite. There were lots of quotes from band interviews at the time. When Soundgarden was asked what influence metal had on them, they said they weren't into it since they were kids. Kurt Cobain said he kicked out the drummer before Dave Grohl simply for being a metalhead. When asked how he felt about Nirvana being marketed to metalheads, he said "Let them be fooled!" So no, those bands were definitely not metalheads even if they liked the music a little bit.
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bigfootkit
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by bigfootkit »

DMR wrote:
bigfootkit wrote:The bands were lumped together & marketed as if they were something new & different, but their influences were easy to hear and they made no secret of their love of 70s Heavy Rock & 80s Metal.
There was a great article by Dave Burns (which unfortunately isn't online anymore) detailing how record companies in the early '90s promoted grunge as a sort of metal-lite. There were lots of quotes from band interviews at the time. When Soundgarden was asked what influence metal had on them, they said they weren't into it since they were kids. Kurt Cobain said he kicked out the drummer before Dave Grohl simply for being a metalhead. When asked how he felt about Nirvana being marketed to metalheads, he said "Let them be fooled!" So no, those bands were definitely not metalheads even if they liked the music a little bit.
I take your point but remember, it's the business of new upstart bands to usurp the generation that came before them, so talking them down is nothing new. The Pistols did it with prog rock, Metallica frequently said in their early days that young people were looking for something heavier than old-timers like Nugent & Sabbath & the 'grunge' bands were no exception in that respect.
It came as little surprise that John Lydon later outed himself as a Can & Kate Bush fan, Metallica toured extensively with Ozzy & ushered in the new millenium sharing a stage with the Nuge & much of what the grunge bands said at the time was similarly de-bunked later on.
It wasn't that difficult to see to be honest, just look at some of the bands Soundgarden covered. No-one was handing out cool points to them for recording versions of Sabbath, Hendrix, Spinal Tap & Budgie songs at that time. This was after all a band who signed to SST because that was the label Saint Vitus was on & whose guitarist later jumped at the chance to be involved with the Probot project, not because Dave Grohl was behind it, but because he got to play with King Diamond.
For further examples try playing 2 of the biggest songs of that era against a couple of 70s Hard Rock numbers. Pearl Jam's 'Alive' bears more than a passing resemblance to Kiss's 'Love Theme From Kiss', and they've held their hands up to it numerous times & played 'Black Diamond' live with Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley on several occasions . PJ guitarist Mike McCready was formerly with early 80's Seattle Metallers Shadow for gawd's sake.
Try playing Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' followed by Boston's 'More Than A Feeling' and only Helen Keller could fail to hear the similarity. I never liked Nirvana personally, but for the record, they covered Kiss as well. Punk as fuck eh?
Alice In Chains's sound was clearly inluenced by Sabbath & The Beatles, just like Hard Rock bands Kings X, Galactic Cowboys etc were. Their differences were more to do with their lyrical content than anything in their musical DNA, yet AIC are viewed as 'other' whilst Kings & GC put out their records on Megaforce & Metal Blade. Fuck me, Tom Araya guests on Alice's 'Dirt' album, that should be the end of the debate right there.
In conclusion, i don't think you can say that those bands were "definitely not metalheads", it clearly played a part to a greater or lesser degree in what they did. Theyjust had additional influences in the mix & a different perspective on how they presented themselves.
Simply put, nothing comes out of nowhere, it always has roots & origins.
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Cochino
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by Cochino »

I was reading the other day that apparently Billy Corgan is a pretty big Mercyful Fate fan.
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Re: Weird Finds While Cleaning Out Your Collection

Post by wicked keeper »

Dave Burns - now there's a blast from the past...what is old "Boswell" up to these days I wonder?

bigfootkit wrote:
Try playing Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' followed by Boston's 'More Than A Feeling' and only Helen Keller could fail to hear the similarity.
....and then play Wild Thing by The Troggs after that.... :lol:
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