Burning Inside

Man, way back in 1989 Al Jourgensen must have been having the time of his life. Not only was his industrial monster Ministry blowing up stereos around the world, he was involved in like ten other bands outputting EPs, LPs and singles with astonishing speed. One of the better records dropped during that time was the first 12" single from The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste, "Burning Inside." While the titular song gets little more than a minute or so of "remix" treatment (a few extra loops of beats here and there, nothing terribly different - same with Side B's "Thieves"), the real star of the release is an "arrangement" of the Skinny Puppy song "Smothered Hope". Originally found on their 1984 Remission EP, Jourgensen culled and mixed his version from a 1988 live Chicago performance. Ironically, Jourgensen met Skinny Puppy vocalist Nivek Ogre at the Wax Trax Studios while cutting the track which would eventually be PTP's "Show Me Your Spine" single for RoboCop.

"...I was doing a song for the RoboCop soundtrack as PTP, when Ogre walked in. I get pretty psychotic in the studio, and I didn't even know who he was, but somebody said he was some singer from somewhere, so I just said 'hey man, make yourself useful, get in here and sing.'"

And so a friendship was born. Anyways, nice to hear some not-so-common Ministry from the earlier days and longer versions of two of my favorite Taste songs can't be beat. Enjoy.

So What?

We Will Cock You

 

I pretty much gave up on the Revolting Cocks with their banal Linger Ficken' Good which was simply too retarded and disjointed to pretend to like. Coming off like a "worst hits" of everything that was hanging around the studio after Al finished Psalm 69, LFG would have been completely forgotten if not for the lazy Rod Stewart cover and slavishly milking the Nirvana-driven William Burroughs beatnik renaissance the media world was jerking off to. And, to be honest, Beers, Steers + Qveers wasn't that good to begin with as well. OK then. With that bitter ramble off my chest, I only recently discovered RevCo (their hip new-millenium moniker) actually got back together, thankfully sans Chris Connelly whose brit-dancepop influence I have always absolutely hated on any Jourgensen projects. Honestly, Cocked And Loaded sounds way more like a classic Ministry album then anything else out there today. It's still terribly manic and over-programmed but every song fucking rocks and there is a refreshing sense of humor about it all (which is maybe all the 'Cocks were s'posed to be when juxtaposed against the über-political Ministry). Some of the usual suspects show up (Biafra and Haynes) but there are supposedly appearances from ZZ Top and Cheap Trick on this record as well. You'd never be able to tell - for all I know that was legal's way of clearing guitar samples. Even still, a solid 55 minutes of industrial metal from the guy who invented the genre, reinvented a dead side project and is still going strong today. 

Purple Head

Hey, You Like My Boots?

Prolific industrial overlord Alain Jourgensen just couldn't leave Chicago's Wax Trax studios alone after he and his cash cow Ministry signed with Sire Records. During the late 80's, the creative juices (and hallucinogenics) were a-flowin' and Hypo Luxa & Co. were spitting out side projects with serious aplomb. Released as a half-dozen 12" singles (and eventually as maxi-CDs), the material was generally more textbook "industrial" then the stuff Ministry was creating at the time, a decade ago someone finally got around to compiling all the stuff on one amazing record. We start off with Pailhead - a politically-themed side project comprised of circa-1987 Ministry with Minor Threat frontman Ian MacKaye on vocals. The band managed to release 3 singles worth of material - in my opinion the songs are hit or miss. Some ("Man Will Surrender", "Don't Stand In Line") are excellent but others seem to drag on forever. I don't hear the amalgam of industrial vs. hardcore that some claim the material champions. I mean, yeah there's guitar sampled in there but it sounds pretty much like what would end up on Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste as far as I am concerned. Next up is my favorite, 1000 Homo DJs. Created as an outlet for unreleased material from Land Of Rape And Honey, the band (once again) is basically Ministry with a couple friends dropping in to lend some drunken backing vocals. Their first single, "Apathy/Better Ways" is so-so; their 1990 cover of Black Sabbath's "Supernaut" is amazing (and has evolved into a staple of Ministry's live shows). That single's B-side, "Hey Asshole," is an epic 8-minute snapshot of being pulled over by a typical jock cop which I could just listen to forever; whomever did the cop's vocals was fucking on point. Hilarious. PTP's "Show Me Your Spine" is the only unreleased material on this compilation, a song from the RoboCop soundtrack. Programmed by Jourgensen with vocals by Skinny Puppy's Ogre (who evidently just happened to walk into the studio that day), the one-shot was nixed in the final film score. Evidently an abbreviation for "Programming the Psychodrill" (from a J.G. Ballard essay), PTP's other incarnation was as a collaboration between Jourgensen, Paul Barker and Chris Connelly of the Revolting Cocks, they managed to release the band's only other single, the traditionally industrial "Rubber Glove Seduction/My Favorite Things".  Acid Horse wraps up the compilation with a similar electronic house music anthem. Two versions of "No Name No Slogan" are presented, one mixed by Jourgensen and Barker, the other mixed by Cabaret Voltaire's Stephen Mallinder and Richard Kirk. All in all, a great record - solid material throughout. Enjoy.

Tick Tick Tock

What We Need Is.....

 

Back in my industrial days when I was buying up everything that had Al Jourgensen's name attached to it, I picked up this 3-track self-grandiose debut by Lard. I had seen the cover hundreds of times before, that annoying lamprey staring out at me from the Sam Goody CD racks, just never got around to dropping $10 for it. What a mistake. Dead Kennedy's frontman Jello Biafra on vocals, Al and Paul Barker (Ministry's primary honchos) on guitar and bass respectively, and Jeff Ward (NIN, Revolting Cocks, etc.) on drums elevated Lard to true indie supergroup status. While it sounded nothing like what I expected, I can't imagine it sounding any different. Ranging from industrial-ish thrash to strange rockabilly-ish be-bop to acid-laden drudgery (the 32-minute "Time To Melt" is absolutely mesmerizing), the Power Of Lard EP is essential in everyone's collection. They've got a few other albums out there but this is definitely my fave.

R.I.P. Jeff Ward