Fun Stuff > BAND
The "wink wink" Thread 2010: This Time It's Personal
medicatesleep:
--- Quote from: Zombiedude on 08 Aug 2010, 08:42 ---
--- Quote from: KurtMcAllister on 08 Aug 2010, 02:22 ---
--- Quote from: Zombiedude on 07 Aug 2010, 23:41 ---Women - Public Strain[320kb/s]
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I think this is missing track 1.
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I'm getting corrupt on track 9
JD:
--- Quote from: medicatesleep on 08 Aug 2010, 21:06 ---
--- Quote from: Zombiedude on 08 Aug 2010, 08:42 ---
--- Quote from: KurtMcAllister on 08 Aug 2010, 02:22 ---
--- Quote from: Zombiedude on 07 Aug 2010, 23:41 ---Women - Public Strain[320kb/s]
--- End quote ---
I think this is missing track 1.
--- End quote ---
--- Code: ---http://www.mediaf!re.com/?gh74a067d97de4x
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I'm getting corrupt on track 9
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shabam
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KvP:
USSA - The Spoils
tl;wr - It's a goth-rocky collab between Paul Barker (ex-Ministry) and Duane Denison (Jesus Lizard / Tomahawk)
--- Quote ---When you go through high school and you've got any inclination towards music geek territory you inevitably gravitate towards identifying with a certain sort of music that you love and that (you believe, in your heart of hearts) says everything about you, that you cling to and cherish. For most kids it's probably some subset of punk or hardcore, being as they are gut-level pursuits that speak to the restlessness of that age particularly well. For me that music was industrial rock, as it was moody and mopey, like I was, and it had a mechanistic edge and repetitive, aggressive nature that affected me deeply (in that, it was sort of "training wheels" for the electronic nuttery I now favor - it had pop-friendly guitar skronk to offset the alien electronic elements), but it also was a long-dead genre in terms of relevance, which allowed me some distance from any judgments that might have hurt me - it seemed safer at that age to be a scholar of a bygone scene, rather than an ardent fan of a living one.
As most people discovering the music through popular channels did, I started with Nine Inch Nails before getting into weirder and more esoteric stuff (in the split between avant-garde industrial, industro-goth and industrial metal, the avant-garde holds up the best in my estimation). But before the obscure and dangerous likes of Coil and Throbbing Gristle I stopped by the waystation of Ministry and, of course, the wider Wax Trax family. Ministry was made up of two principal members - Al Jourgensen on guitar and Paul Barker on bass, with them both sharing a panoply of different instruments. It started out essentially as a solo Jourgensen venture (in weird and wonderful New Romantic mode) before Barker joined the group and their sound changed rapidly, from Skinny Puppy-esque industrial dub of Twitch to the Big Black-indebted post-punk hammering of The Land of Rape and Honey to the electro-speed metal they were most successful with.
Barker left Ministry in 2003, which unfortunately was about the time I started becoming interested in them, and it soon became apparent how important he was to the "industrial" part of the group's industrial metal sound - Houses of the Mole, Jourgensen's first solo outing as Ministry in nigh-20 years, was something akin to Pantera as covered by Dan Deacon, which is to say it was manic and lightweight but still a lot of dumb fun. The last two records before Ministry "retired" went from bad to worse, losing the dopey humor that had always been Ministry's trademark and becoming rather run-of-the-mill thrash. As if that wasn't enough, the band also suffered the indignity of releasing a trance remix record. I'm not even going to speak of what happened the Revolting Cocks.
Anyway, as the Ministry name crashed and burned, Paul Barker pretty much dropped off the radar, at least for me. He got sued by Jourgensen, though the case was dismissed (it seems like the only long-time collaborator Jourgensen hasn't burned his bridges with is Jello Biafra, who coincidentally or no has the reputation of being a real asshole). He was quiet for quite awhile, but in the last few years since Ministry's demise he's been doing some work, and I just recently had the chance to catch up. In addition to a solo record (coming in the mail, presently), Barker has done some production work for the surprisingly solid post-punk / goth throwback group I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, but he also started up a band, the band I'm reviewing here now. USSA is a collaboration between Barker and Duane Denison, who some of you may know as a founding member and longtime guitarist for the Jesus Lizard, a legendary noise rock / hardcore band from Barker's shared home base of Chicago.
USSA's sound is somewhere between the industrial sturm and drang of Ministry and the propulsive thrust of The Jesus Lizard, and maybe it speaks to how long I've been away from rock music (and in the compartmentalized world of electronica) that I can't quite explain what it is this album can be categorized as, so I'm just going to say "hard rock". The budget was apparently low - just check out that cover art - but Paul Barker has had a long history of making the most out of a little bit. Back in the halcyon days of Ministry, the bulk of their major label advances most likely went towards heroin rather than the music (one of the reasons Wax Trax went under when it did was that of many of the nihilist shitkicker bands on the label used it as a private piggy bank for pharmaceutical pursuits).
Presumably Barker is clean these days, and his production work is likewise much cleaner than it was even on the last Barker-assisted Ministry album (where he took the production moniker Hermes Pan alongside Jourgensen's Hypo Luxa) - play any song off I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness' (dumb name, good band, I swear) Barker-produced album and any off of this album and you'll notice a lot of similarities. Impeccably neat sound, particularly on the drums and the bass, and tasteful use of delay where appropriate. His style is very well-suited to a vaguely gothic rock outfit such as this (or ILUBICD, for that matter) Barker and Denison are old hands and their instrumental work is suitably muscular and precise. I was particularly surprised by Denison's work - I'm not terribly familiar with his work with The Jesus Lizard (something I've always wanted to correct but somehow never got around to doing) but the sounds he elicits from his guitar are almost without exception the highlights of any given track. Barker's bass is a strong backbone for the songs but it never gets too showy, which is not a bad thing by any means, as Denison has more than enough tricks to make things interesting.
The only real drawbrack to the music is the shakiness of the vocals, courtesy of a guy named Gary Call, who I can find exactly no information about. There's nothing technically off about his performance, but the lyrics and delivery sometimes veer too far into what the AV Club memorably dubbed "Hunger Dunger Dang" rock, which is to say, post-grunge angst rock. It makes songs like "Autumn Flowers" and "Peculiar Thing" frustrating to listen to - if only I had instrumentals, I'd be a happier man. Barker also lets a little bit of his past with Ministry into the music here and there - The fuzz of "Middletown" and especially the hammering drums of "Forget Yourself" and the aforementioned "Autumn Flowers" recall the narco-noise of Dark Side of the Spoon as much as anything.
The more I listen to The Spoils, the less I can tell if I like the music because I feel like I owe it to Paul Barker (and enjoy Denison's guitar work so much) and I'm just making excuses, or because I actually do enjoy it. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle - there are songs here, like the loping "Blue Light", and passages like the goth rock-y chorus of "Dead Voices", that grab hold of the off-brand high school goth inside of me. Likewise, there are songs that I could really take or leave. But if there's anyone out there who still remembers the alt-rock of the 90's with some fondness, they'll probably enjoy this with less misgivings than I do.
The band seems to be dormant as of 2008 - their latest blog post indicated that they had planned on recording more material, but Denison injured himself during a concert, cutting their tour short, and then the Jesus Lizard reunited for a few years, to the delight of many. Who can really say if the project is dead? I would hope not, if not just because I want to see Barker work more and perhaps meet him someday. We'll have to see, I suppose.
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ImRonBurgundy?:
--- Quote from: Zombiedude on 04 Aug 2010, 00:35 ---中学生棺桶 - 矛先についたガム[2010]
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Their name apparently translates to "Teen's Coffin".
Cire27:
I think this has probably been uploaded before but I have been listening to it a lot lately and I am sure that someone out there has never heard it.
Indian Summer - Science 1994
--- Code: ---http://www.mediafire.com/?lo41twem4ot
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My favourite 90's emo band.
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