twits and tumbles

So I was doing the twitter thing for a bit, but I checked out tumblr and I like it a lot more for these purposes. Follow me at over there if you're into that sort of thing. I post cool pictures I come across, youtube videos, just whatever.

Injun

Belladonna
Belladonna
1995

As you've no doubt heard by now, Joey Belladonna has joined Anthrax for the third time. On the one hand, I feel like the revolving door lineup this band has is really pathetic and they should really consider hanging it up. On the other hand, I fucking love Belladonna-era Anthrax, so if they're gonna keep chugging along, I'd just assume it be with him up front instead of John Bush (who I never liked with Anthrax or Armored Saint) or Dan Nelson (who sounded a little too Phil Anselmo for my tastes, in the little bit that I heard of his voice). Once, before Nelson joined, there were rumors that former Ugly Kid Joe frontman Whitford Crane was going to join, and I have to admit I was sort of jazzed at that prospect. But that was forever ago.

At any rate, I hope they get some new music out there soon, and I hope it smokes, and I hope Belladonna's voice sounds great, and Charlie writes some crushing riffs, and they cool it with the groovy hard rock bullshit they were doing by the end with Bush. I want a killer return to form from these guys. Bad.

But enough of that shit. Here's Joey's solo debut from 1995, a relatively limp record that is still better than most of the Bush-era Anthrax stuff. When this starts, you're gonna be like, "oh yeah, here we go." The opening drums are big and beefy and sound like shit's gonna be all up in your face. But the guitar tone is oddly hollow, and most of the songs are too slow. It was 1995 after all. But anyway, it's a neat artifact, and some of it's pretty good I guess. Also there are song titles like "Power Trip", "Rob You Blind", "Two Faced" and "Mixed Emotions". I guess you could call this Joey's breakup album.

If nothing else I should get plenty of hits on the ol' blog here for people doing google searches for "Belladonna". You know who I'm talking about.

Belladonna

My Way

Low Pop Suicide
On The Cross of Commerce
1992

Man, what a fucking great record this is. Though they never had much of an impact at all, Low Pop Suicide boasted a few hefty credentials. Bassist Dave Allen was in Gang of Four and Shriekback, while drummer Jeff Ward played with Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Nine Inch Nails, 1000 Homo DJs, and Lard before taking his own life in 1993. (Side note: Ward's brother Jason Ward is the bassist for Flotsam and Jetsam, and on their 2008 live album Once in a Death Time, they cover Lard's "Forkboy" as a sort of tribute to Jeff Ward. It's pretty good. I'll post it some time.) Also, before this full length, they released an ep that was, if memory serves, produced by Trent Reznor.

The album isn't as industrial as you might expect, though. There's some noisy industrial flourishes, but this is all live-band, heavy drumming, and mostly crushing guitars. The production has a 90s chorusy sheen to it that suits the music, and guitarist/vocalist/primary songwriter Rick Boston's warbly, strained vocals are a cut above a lot of the 90s alternative crap. There are a few dreamy, almost shoe-gazey tracks breaking up the heavier ones too.

Some of the stuff I post here has been discovered on the internet, or was stumbled upon in dollar bins over the years and that sort of thing. This is one of the ones I bought when it came out and that has never fallen out of favor. I bought this and The Disengagement ep upon their release and listened to the hell out of both. Great stuff that's sort of hard to categorize.

The final minute of "My Way" will blow your balls off.

On The Cross of Commerce

Crepe Paper Hearts

Hickey
Us Vs. Them
1995

Hickey are legendary, so they probably don't belong on this blog, but here this 7" is anyway. All of their stuff is available for download here, but this 7" was my introduction to the band, so I figured I'd throw it up here. The opening track is my favorite thing they ever did, and it's hands down one of the punkest things I've ever heard.

I won't bother trying to write up a big thing about Hickey or Matty Luv or the bands that came before and after. Look up the Voodoo Glow Skulls prank. It's a good one. But they were are lot more than that, and their status at the time is hard to put into words.

Us Vs. Them