That's not noise. That's just my mind blowing off in different directions...

Probably my least favorite release from the ol' Geeg, and that's saying a lot when compared to dreck like the Live Fast Die Fast 7" and the umpteen posthumous live LPs. But it's still essential just, y'know... because. If it was some post mortem cash-grab it would be a lot easier to write off but the fact that there's quite a few interviews out there in which GG freaking extols this record (listen here) demands another listen. M. Physema was the multi-talented lead vocalist/programmer of Pittsburgh, PA lo-fi industrial unit Shrinkwrap (already with a half-dozen indie releases under their belt) who contacted the incarcerated Allin; over mail and phone the two conspired to create the 45-minute opus War In My Head/I'm Your Enemy. So what's it all like? As far as Shrinkwrap goes, listening to their non-GG recordings is a lot like listening to some of Ministry's Wax Trax outtake stuff. Pretty aggressive guitar-heavy industrial, not bad at all, just somewhat redundant at times. With that being said, WIMH/IYE can be a long listen. With most spoken material lifted from the GG/ANTiSEEN Murder Junkies album dubbed over looped music from throughout the scumfuc's career, it just feels too much like you've heard it all before. A trip into GG's mind? Yeah, kind of, I guess, but nothing too shocking for the seasoned fan. War In My Head/I'm Your Enemy would probably have the greatest impact on someone who had no idea what GG was all about - it almost works best as a sampler to the chaotic sociopathy (and discography) of the guy. Highlight is the last 5 or so minutes with an unreleased (by 1993 standards, anyway) spoken word over a bleak-ass noisy maelstrom. I think if anything, because GG and his bands changed sounds and styles so much over the decades it's a little tough to digest WIMH/IYE as a coherent piece. Still a worthy effort though, especially back in a day when it was obvious GG was mid-life crisising what musical direction even he wanted to go in. Ironically, something like this could be pasted together in GarageBand by any amateur mixer with enough time on his hands... a real example of how much technology has changed in the near-quarter century Allin's been dead. For those who are interested, M. Physema resurrected his Toilet Rock Production label in 2006 and re-released over thirty rare and long-lost GG demos, cassettes, live shows, etc on CDr. It's a pretty amazing selection, potential copyright infringements and all. Check it out here.

Highest Power

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?

Industrial Rap Rock Rollins

Here's a quirky oddity from the early 1990's, sounding exactly like something that could only come from that era. Henry Rollins paired up with frequent bandmate bassosaurus Andrew Weiss and cut a strange EP showcasing an amalgam of twanging bass-heavy industrial drum-machine rap rock which can only be described as "unique". Rollins alternates between his best Mike Patton "Epic" imitation and a more typical "Low Self Opinion" forceful snarl. The overly synthetic backbeats are strangely poppy, when overdubbed with Weiss's effect-laden bass it sounds positively surreal. The hypnotic wall of flanging noise at the end of "Right To Life" would seriously fuck up any acidhead's mind if listened to mid-trip. "The Whole Truth" is the closest thing to a single on this one, white-boy pseudo hip-hop that was all the rage back then and I have to imagine Hank and Andrew cracking up in the studio at the silliness of it all. You gotta see the video as well - especially Rollins hamming it up on the beach in a parody of Madonna's "Cherish" video, fucking priceless. It all wraps up with an absolutely unrecognizable Grateful Dead cover to boot.

Check Out The Gap

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

My Name Is Really Mud...

No, this isn't a Pork Soda post, it's instead the then-customary early 90's remix single by NYC crossover legends Prong. Hot off the heels of their so-so Prove You Wrong LP, they grabbed Killing Joke (and future Prong) bassist Paul Raven (then a competent programmer in his own right) and Foetus mastermind J. G. Thirlwell for a better-than-most maxi-CD single. Interestingly, as opposed to the bonus stuff Faith No More was releasing at the time, the remixes aren't that much of a variant - they still basically sound like the original, only much more "industrial" - no doubt an effort to cash in on the up-and-coming genre spearheaded by Ministry at the time. Interestingly, a few of the songs work a lot better in their remix version than on the source record - without a doubt both "Prove You Wrong" cuts are far superior. The dry smile inducer on this one is a "previously unreleased" cover of Music Machine/Alice Cooper's "Talk Talk". Sadly though, it just makes the admittedly subpar originals simply sound soooo much better. Enjoy.

Fuzzbuster Harm Dub Safety Xanax

Miracle

A fucking insane mix of blistering Ministry-esque industrial (Psalm 69-era) with brutally misanthropic Middle Eastern black metal, Ayat's debut full-length absolutely blows away anything Al Jourgensen has created over the last decade and has quite possibly become my favorite black metal album ever. Steering away from the funeral doom influence on the "necro" black metal hailed by Anaal Nathrath and their ilk, Ayat sounds much more like a "real" studio band. Moments of Six Years Of Dormant Hatred are very reminiscent of Lard, Bile and Godflesh, it's interesting to imagine what bands the silly-pseudonymed band members were actually influenced by. Sadly they've never played live and are little more than musical pariahs in their home turf of Lebanon. They announced a follow-up LP in 2010 but since have remained silent...

Reverend Filthy Fuck

You're Too Physical

For what it's worth I liked Pretty Hate Machine. "Head Like A Hole" and "This Is The Only Time" were solid and most of the other other tunes would make a mix here and there throughout the early 90's. Still, I didn't really like NIN that much yet I was one of the shadowy posers lining up with  two dozen proto-goth faithful at Oliver's one chilly Syracuse midnight slapping down $15 for the brand new halo five release. Twenty-five years later, broken remains my favorite NIN release by far. The influence by Ministry, Lard and other guitar-heavy industrial groups notwithstanding, Reznor was explicitly impacted by the sound of his live back-up band during the Lollapalooza I tour and decided to mimic that sound on record. The results are astounding - other than Land Of Rape And Honey, this is probably my favorite industrial LP. Ever. "Last" and the sweetly miserable "Help Me I Am In Hell" are standouts on the primary disc while the cover of Adam Ant's "Physical" on the bonus 3" CD is my all-time favorite NIN track (probably the best heavy industrial track ever recorded as well). And you gotta love the Krull sample in "Happiness Is Slavery". Amazing it was all done buy one guy in a studio. Enjoy an awesome throwback to the days where making a heavy electronic record wa't an app on your iPad.

Pigface

Redline/Whiteline

Probably the coolest industrio-metal song to ever get routinely played on MTV, Ministry's one-shot collaboration with Gibby Haynes is a sick 8-minute blast of adrenaline-laced drum machine backed guitar riffs. I'm sure there's no one reading this who hasn't heard this track a billion times but in case you are only familiar with the truncated ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ version, the original single extended mix is the real deal. I can't imagine the amount of LSD those guys ingested during the recording session. Single also includes a proto/demo (and arguably better) version of "TV Song" that would appear on the aforementioned LP as well. Enjoy.

Ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long

Play More Music

Generally I try to keep politics on the sidelines with this blog. I personally do not give a fuck what people think or do as long as it doesn't get in the way of me or my life. But I especially don't care to have it shoved in my face with the token condescension of you typical activist know-it-all. With that being said, introducing the late-80's activist trio known as Consolidated. While their painfully persistent left-wing diatribes can grind the nerves after a while (I mean really, is there fucking anything they don't complain about?) the music is really fucking good. Mostly hip-hop with a slight industrial/electronic sound - the sampling and beats are absolutely off the hook. They vocals are reminiscent of Chuck D but are so pessimistic they make the Public Enemy frontman look positively pollyanna. It's no surprise the group recruited activist rapper Paris for guest vocals on "Guerillas In The Mist" - he fits perfectly with the group's "let me tell you how rich white men are fucking me over" vibe. Unfortunately that's my one gripe with the album - the vitriol is so interminable that it eventually just sounds like a bunch of pissed off teenagers bitching for the sake of bitching. Life ain't that fucking bad dudes, take a minute to smell the roses. Interestingly, the album is speckled with sound clips from their live shows in which audience members are encouraged to participate in praising or condemning the band (and all end up sounding like idiots). It's a pretty cool listen and was definitely ahead of its time. Enjoy.

White Boys Need Not Apply

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

Reminiscing

Got into a conversation with a college roommate of mine tonight and joked about my idiotic falling asleep in class story. Mind you, thank fuck this was eons before the fucking social media bullshit of today - if it wasn't I'd have probably killed my self ages ago out of sheer embarassment. Regardless - story starts on some random Sunday night, 1992. For some reason our acid dealer only came around late Sunday nights - no real big deal except for the fact that his acid tended to have a ton of fucking speed in it so  you simply had to resign yourself to the fact you weren't going to sleep for about 36 hours after you dropped. Like usual we did drop - a lot - and 20-year old shenanigans commenced. 99% of the time I would fuck off my Monday morning classes but for some reason that morning I was all condescendingly like "fuck it, it's time to learn." I wandered through the snow and the other million miserable students to get to the gigantic fucking stadium where I had a mid-level bio class. I sat directly in the middle of a 250+ auditorium and promptly pulled out my sketch pad. Figured I would just draw and doodle some trippy shit for a bit...

Wow! That fucking class went fast. Looked around and people are filing out. Got my tired ass up and wandered outside - into total fucking darkness. Seems I had passed out for nearly 14 fucking hours in the middle of one of the busiest class auditoriums in the school. Best guess, 6 two-hour classes came and went with my snoring ass sitting in the middle gulping air to live. If it was today there probably would have been hourly webcam updates on my snoozing and bets on whether I would make it through the night. All I remember is being really fucking hungry and having to answer a lot of "where the fuck were you all day" questions. Thank cunt my worst drug habits were before Facebook existed.

Oh yeah, and at that time I was also really fucking into Ministry. Enjoy.

Hard Drive Deadbeats: INDUSTRIAL

Before you get all bent out of shape, no, I am not deleting any tunes by my favorite Japanese sludge band Corrupted. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the legions of benchwarmers that have joined the band on their extensive 7-inch discography. Introducing German industrial trio Infaust. Generic nihilistic industrial in the vein of a poor-man's Godflesh. I'm sure their 1997 self-titled album offers something more then five minutes of the same effects-laden guitar riff over ponderously preachy screaming but I'll never know.

The Blue Sun

 
Currently watching: Murder Set Pieces

Currently listening to: Phobia Serenity Through Pain

U R A FKNG LSR

Per their Myspace page: "Since 1992 Bile has been a festering globule of audio terrorism; A bastardized synthesis of subversive values and deviant sophistication completely devoid of the mainstream pop culture." Fueled by his disillusionment with thrash metal bands, lead singer Krztoff released Suckpump in 1994, the first audial assault from his ultimate "anti-band". It created quite a buzz in the band's hometown of NYC and the band continues to chug along "under the radar and off the grid" over fifteen years later with some significant notoriety under their belt ("banned from major American cities, cancelled tours, hotels ablaze, military smoke bombs, electrocution, tornadoes during NYC S&M block parties, arrests, denied access abroad or re-entry, prescription drug use, wrongly attacked by the ACT UP anti-violence to gays coalition, a Cherry Coke radio commercial, deaths, etc.") Yow. With all that being said, I can't get past considering Bile much more than just a poor-man's Ministry. It's the same socio-political vitriol in front of guitar-heavy industrio-metal, just sounding like it was recorded in a garage. Still, Bile was way ahead of most of the Al Jourgensen clones out there during the 90's and Suckpump holds its own to this day. If you dig it, check out 1996's Teknowhore as well - solid shit.

Get Out

 
Currently watching: Autumn
Currently listening to: Ministry The Land Of Rape And Honey

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

Bizarra Locomotiva

 

Is this album really that great??? No, not these days when any 14-year old Alain Jourgensen wannabe can make a techno/metal album with his iPhone's GarageBand app in English class. But back in '97 when Fatboy Slim was still programming "Gangsta Boogie", Hellsau spewed their KMFDM-ish elecrothrash out of Bern, Switzerland; a conglomeration of ex-Swamp Terrorists STR (vocals and sampling), Ane Hebeisen (vocals), DJ Killroy (programming) and Bruno S (guitars). Yeah, yeah, I know, after 40 or so minutes it gets a bit repetitive but who gives a shit; over a decade later it's still heavy, still mean, and still what Fear Factory was probably trying to live up to when they recorded Demanufacture.

Nachladen