Aug 222009
The title of this mix pretty much says it all. This Hear Factor excursion is not for the lovers of twee who patrol the Halls of Rock, and for that reason it’s vital that those of you who prefer more melodic, tender sounds man up and deal with this mix!
For this mix, I SUMMON Townsman Northvancoveman!
This is not to say that our Canadian friend is some soft-rock sop – not by any means – but he does go apeshit over that Paul Williams-Brian DePalma flick. The true soft-rock sops among you, whom I’m too kind to call out by name, are implored to live with this mix for a few days and report back. We’ll all be better people for your efforts. Thanks!
Just as I am packing for a vacation! Ok Downloading…
Since I can’t download this to my ipod (don’t ask) before I go away you’ll have to get a running impression blog, like that guy from ESPN who used to be a bartender:
Celtic Frost: They must have really loved this song to change their whole sound and do something approaching melody. The drums fills are terrible..it’s ok, they probably did it as an encore.
Iggy Pop: Better drumming, this song mentions Mexicans too…is this implying that Canada is just the northern peso?! Watch it Mod, our financial system is just fine, unlike your crumbling empire…this sounds a bit more like Living Color than I remember, is that Living Color guy on this song? Vernon Reid, they wore all that Body Glove shit… “Iggy you have got a biggy..” He once whipped it out if front of the billionaires wife from Gilligan’s Island….I think that’s who it was
Queenryche: Everytime I was in a band in the 80’s the guitar player would take me aside and say “You gotta sing like this guy..” Did the guy from Soundgarden rip this band off? This sounds like that Bond Theme…no mention of Mexicans yet…not a bad song. The lead singer looked kinda Mexican, he probably honkified his name.
Screaming Trees: I remember these guys, they weren’t Mexican, they were from Seattle weren’t they? This is good stuff. I like this infinitely more than Pearl Jam…
Sepultura: The beginning reminds me of “Wild Boys” by Duran Duran…here comes that kind of singing..who invented this Lemmy? I like Lemmy, but. Oh I know who invented it..The Fucking Norwegians…you think Canada is bad…try a country that is so fucking commie and freezing and depressing that they sing like this. Fuck Norway, there not even good at hockey. How does that happen?
Monster Magnet: I guess this is like Chick Magnet, but if you are Frankenstein. Good vocals, sounds like Soundgarden. This is the second song that has a huge “pregnant pause” in the middle. I think that works in metal. Thumbs up. Ron Zombie probably loves this guys. Incidently, if Rob Zombie had a blog a good name for it would be “Blogula”.
Judas Priest: My generation went through the same thing with Rob Halford that our parents did with Liberace. He’s gay? How could he be gay? There were no clues, it came straight out of the blue! Are you sure he’s gay? They were a real band, though, and more than once I have heard something that surprised me. “Livin after Midnight was an easy song to learn that was a staple in high school bands. What the fuck are they talking about though? “Beyond the realms of death?” Is a Monster Magnet in this realm too? A lot of people have been high to this song, you can just tell.
Black Sabbath: This has a lot of, what do you call them, harmonics? Texture. Multi-tracking. At about 2:40 the guitars start to sounds exactly like Abbey Road. A lot of people have been high to this song, you can just tell.
Slayer: Yeah, this will get you lotsa chicks…looking for funny metal band names: Bewitched Tranquility…Conscripts of Sorrow. Not a bad song.
PJ Harvey: Boy, was there a lot of hype about PJ Harvey. She was the first and last “next Patti Smith” I can’t tell what the words to this are, but it’s probably about an abortion. No one has ever gotten high to this song, you can just tell.
Nice work, Northvancoveman! Enjoy your vacation. The rest of you are still faced with this HEAVY mix!
The melodrama and cartoonishness of both the music and lyrics of most Metal songs are uniquely suited for teenaged boys. It’s quite possible that I suffer from some sort of on-going testosterone deficiency, but metal never appealed to me, then or now. On the one hand, it seems really stupid. At the same time, musically, it’s often like a giant complicated math problem, and I hate math.
Another problem: Clearly a lot of those guys can play well. So why do they have such consistently horrible tones? Metal has the biggest gap between talent and taste of any genre.
So a big Thumbs Down for Celtic Frost, Sepultura, and Slayer.
Queensryche seems to be in a category by themselves. They strike me as sort of the thinking man’s metal band and they appear to be a metal prog hybrid. Kudos to them for not just following the pack. Unfortunately, I really dislike both prog and metal.
I liked Monster Magnet, Judas Priest, Sabbath, Iggy, and especially PJ Harvey. I’m not sure I ever actually heard PJ Harvey before despite hearing rave reviews about her for years now. I was had my suspicions but I this was the only track that really stood out to me.
I like metal. It’s funny and it’s got to be intentional. The whole, “Oh, God! Bob Halford is GAY?” thing was so funny because the non metalheads knew it all along. It was about as surprising as Nathan Lane coming out, but that was a group of boys that were truly surprised. I think that’s the thing that always kept me from being a huge fan, though. The fans are all guys and the leather is just too much.
That said, this isn’t all metal. I never checked out Screaming Trees, and I think I will now. I like Monster Magnet. I think they’d be perfect for cruising through outer space. I like Judas Priest and Sabbath, and overall I like this.
I’ll pass on Queensryche, Slayer and Sepultura, though. They never did it for me. Queensryche just seemed to mash three songs into one, stop the first song, pregnant pause, start the next one, have weird fade effect and start third song, then stop hard and go back to first song. Give it all one name and add some sci fi political mumbo jumbo over it.
That’s not my favorite Celtic Frost song, but I think they’re cool. To Mega Therion is a much better heavy sci fi blast than anything Queensryche ever did.
This doesn’t bode well. The Celtic Frost sounds like a stiff, clumsy version of Sonic Reducer by the Dead Boys. I’m not a big Vall of Voodoo fan, but I don’t see what this adds.
Vall of Voodoo and Nico?
I’m just glad I didn’t get summoned for this one!
You’ll notice Mod hasn’t summoned himself yet.
Hrrundi, I’ve got a very special mix that was made especially for me. Don’t worry, I will be SUMMONED!