Wow. It feels like on this blog all years go pass like weeks. We've only just started and it's 1993 already (or again, depending how you're going to look at it). And it looks like for me things got a little bit heavier. They actually got far, far heavier than this selection shows as one of my friends at that time was a very dedicated metal fan (a doctor nod to Seba) and I would borrow a lot of music from him to have a try. I got introduced to bands like Samael, Paradise Lost, Cathedral, Moonspell, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Sepultura and god knows what else. Some of them, I go back to now and again but as you can tell, none of them made it to my very top of the 'most important' pile. But fear not, there is still plenty of good music to go round. Now, I don't really want to make anyone upset or cause any metal heart a torrent of rusty tears, but I would probably go as far as to say that there is still plenty of MUCH BETTER music to go round. And the best examples await you just after the jump.
New Model Army - These Words
New Model Army seems to be one of those bands that for many just always slip under the radar. I started to look for them as this name was cropping up every now and again in the context of the gothic scene.
And since it was the time when I'd gobble up absolutely anything with bats on it I was absolutely desperate to
have a try of one of, as it seemed, biggest names from the crypt. And then the Love Of Hopeless Causes got released which confused me a lot. NMA somehow didn't sound to me as gothic as I was expecting them to. Strangely though, I was loving it big time.
The summer of 1993 brought me one of the best summer holidays I remember. With my two best friends we got to spend two weeks together on the cheap in my cottage, outside Warsaw. There was some beer involved, quite a few bonfire evenings, some artistic, creative activities and a lot of pseudo-intellectual teenage gibberish that would keep us going till late morning. But above all, there was music. Lot's of music. In the true Sesame Street fashion, the summer was sponsored by letters C, A and L, standing for Curse (Alien Sex Fiend), Angel Dust (Faith No More) and Love Of Hopeless Causes (New Model Army). And although the opening Here Comes The War is probably a much better track, These Words is definitely, where my heart is. And I think that's the secret to NMA's success. It's not just 'a' rock band playing 'a' music. It's a band build around some genuine passion that plays music written with all the heart and soul an artist can give. I don't listen to New Model Army every day but I will carry on listening to them for the rest of my life. I don't consider New Model Army to be my favourite band, but whichever place they're at, it would never change. In a quiet and unobtrusive way, that band and this song became part of my life for good.
I'm presenting here a live recording as this was the best version YouTube was offering but this song works best in it's subdued, quiet album version.
Primus - Mr. Krinkle
There is a chance, you're sitting there right now thinking 'Primus? Primus? Never heard of...'. Well, chances also are, you have. It's funny to see how some mediocre and OK-ish bands have made it big (you can shake your fists all you like, Grunge, but the simple fact is you couldn't properly play any instruments for the shit of you, back then) while others, bringing so much more to the table, got completely overlooked. Well, maybe not completely as this entry proves, but they definitely don't get all the credit they deserve. There is a vast ocean of undeniable talent within Primus. Apart from Les Claypool (bass, vocal) the line up has been changing over the years but two elements are always there - brilliant musicians and a total lack of seriousness. Which shows best in one of the weirdest videos in the history of rock music. And even if I may not be a great Primus fan myself, I still believe that for the skill, for the sheer lunacy and personality they definitely deserve a place here. And then, of course, it is such a brilliant video as well. Can't see if there's no trickery involved but it really looks like it was made in one, continuous shot. Chapeau bas!
Type O Negative - We Hate Everyone
TON, my little triumph. Not only I got to know them before Beksiński played them on the radio, but I also managed to implement them as a favourite band to one of my friends. What's more, when the Bloody Kisses came out, I played We Hate Everyone to one of my gothic friends and made him believe that what he was listening to was Andrew Eldritch's solo album. Not all was rosy though. Out of all the people I helped to become TON fans, I am the only one who's never seen them live. And for obvious reasons I will not be able to catch up. What Type O Negative was always bringing into the stack up their asses HC and goth metal scenes was sense of humour and distance. Peter also had a fantastic gift of being able to mercilessly mock the band's critics and get away with it. The tragic thing about his death was that it happened when he finally managed to set himself on a way to recovery. On that all-too-familiar highway to hell of a rock life style he was one of those few who actually still had enough sense to stop and hit reverse. Much too late as it turned out and in the end the result was not that much different than putting a shotgun to your face. And I must admit, that the death-reference heavy lyrics of many of his songs were much more fun to listen to when they could be taken as a tongue-in-cheek rather than a dark prophecy, but then again, it's not like I can do anything about it so I'll take what I can get. We Hate Everyone was not always my favourite track from this album, this was definitely Bloody Kisses at first but as I'm not a moody teenager any more, my taste shifted towards more energetic (and probably a bit smarter) song. Which still leaves quite a few really fantastic tracks on this album (if they only were allowed to record Summer Breeze with their own version of the lyrics!) and the most embarrassing (if your mum hears it) intro ever.
Elektryczne Gitary - Czekamy
And again, for those of you who (for any weird and unexplainable reason) are not capable of communicating in world's ninth most difficult language, a short introduction. Elektryczne Gitary is a band that came out of nowhere with their début album in 1992. And the band became instantly an absolute revelation. First, it was formed by fairly matured blokes with established professional careers (the leader and singer is a respected neurologist) but they also offered music that was paradoxically refreshing. I'm calling it a paradox because in the times when grunge and hard rock were all the rage, those not-so-young chaps presented us with a guitar music that was firmly rooted in the sixties, a name that also was referring to Polish early-era rock and roll bands and really funny, nonsensical, surrealistic lyrics. It was such a surprising mix that Elektryczne Gitary became probably the most original band on the Polish rock scene of that time. Alas, they've never managed to recapture the originality and quality of that first album and even though they've continued to release very successful singles, for me they remained a one album wonder.
And that's why I went for a song from the second album...
Jokes aside, My choice here was simple. It's a brilliant song. Unfortunately its brilliance lies in the lyrics, so the linguistically disabled among us will not be able to appreciate it but in a nutshell, it's a song that (for me), like no other, summarizes polishness. Especially the all-so-miserable, so-grey-it-makes-me-sick, filled with apathy, idleness and dirt side of it. It's a mirror lifted to a typical Polish face in which everything's just bleak, limp and fatalistic. It's a finger pointing at some of our most annoying national vices, a list of all those things that make us believe that we, Poles, exist only to suffer for someone else's sins. As the title says, 'we're waiting'. But nobody knows what for. Probably for a miracle, instead of rolling up the sleeves and cracking on. And for that stygmatising message it's one of my favourite Polish songs ever.
Dead Can Dance - How Fortunate The Man With None
The exile from rock continues. And who would have thought... I remember very well when Into The Labyrinth was released. It was a first DCD album I waited for. I must have got to know them quite shortly after the previous one, Aion, which came out in 1990. By the time the Into The Labyrinth arrived I was madly in love. I believe it is quite impossible to escape DCD magic. Maybe not everyone would like to openly admit it, maybe not everything they've done is everyone's cup of tea, but no one who's ever listened to some of their compositions can remain completely untouched by The Music. And I really don't care how pretentious it sounds. But saying all that, I remember just how hard I was trying to remain underwhelmed by this album. Why? Well, arrogance I guess. At that time I was trying my best to appear like a hard core DCD fan and when discussing this album with my friends I'd quite firmly accuse the band of selling out and that the whole album achieved perfection only because of astronomically expensive production while the true spirit has been abandoned. Oh well, we all make complete tits of ourselves sometimes, don't we? One thing I've learned since then though. Where that true spirit actually is. Into The Labyrinth remains to this day my absolutely favourite, never-ageing DCD album and I had serious difficulties choosing that one song to represent it on this list. I mean, there's the oh-so-beautiful The Carnival Is Over with such an incredible video (infused with the brilliance of Cirque du Soleil), there's the Irish, traditional The Wind That Shakes The Barley, there's Yulunga with another spectacular, breathtaking video, there's The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove and Tell Me More About The Forest. The whole album is a masterpiece and it all comes down to the choice made then and there. I've gone for How Fortunate The Man With None because a) I preferred Brendan's songs on this album, and b) it's the final track, which means, everything else is there only to lead to that very moment. I must admit, I don't know Bertold Brecht's original, but I seriously doubt it'd be able to compete with Brendan's rendition. There are very few albums with such endings. It's one of those compositions that after you've listened to the whole record, you arrive at, and then you start praying that time could actually stop. And when it ends you realise that it got late, everything is quiet and you just want to sit there for one more minute. Even now, I'm listening to it and I'm quite gutted that after it finishes I'll have to move on. And the next track has guitars in it, so be prepared. Be very prepared.
Rush - Leave That Thing Alone
Here we go again... Another supa-hiper-dupa-coolissimo understated, underrated, undercovered, overlooked, interrecognised by mot die hard fans only band, that's been around for donkey's years but no one's actually heard about, right?
No, not really. Rush doesn't do supa-dupa. They're just good. They don't do the understated, underrated shit. They're totally adored by millions of fans around the world. And they're not cool. Who needs cool, if you're Rush? To give it a bit of a perspective, let me put it this way: am I a big Rush fan? No. I just like them. Is 'just like them' much more in the case of Rush than being a die-hard-forever-fan-I've-tattooed-the-band's-name-on-my-liver in case of any other band on Earth? Quite possibly. I'm actually scared to think what the real Rush fans must be like... I am also exaggerating when saying that 'no one's actually hear about them'. The bands that admitted to have been influenced bu Rush include Metallica, Primus (somehow I'm not surprised here...), The Smashing Pumpkins or even Rage Against The Machine. Which should be enough to show that whoever doesn't like Rush is wrong. But if suddenly you felt like someone who does not belong, fear not, chances are, you've heard this song without knowing who that was. Again, remember - this were the grunge years, the punk's second coming. I mean, a trio of absolute virtuosi in the era of Nirvanas of the Earth? But then again, when you're Rush, do you really care about the times and musical genres? Exactly.
I've chosen Leave That Thing Alone probably because of that incredible flow this track has. Unfortunately YouTube doesn't seem to offer the album version, where everything sounds just about perfect, but the version above does give the idea of how this song should sound like, but have a look at this version as well, just to see how fantastic Rush is live. And that says me, a man who's found out about the Sheffield concert on the very day.
Fuck.
Die Krupps - To The Hilt
That stage of my school years was quite a funny one. On one hand I was desperately trying to stand on my own, but on the other, deep inside my bats-filled heart, I was nothing more than a little vampire standing in front of the world asking for loving me. Oh, bless... On one hand I was soaking, like a sponge, musical influences from so many people around, but at the same time I was trying to implement certain bands' fixations onto my friends. And as it happened, Die Krupps was a band that was brought to me by one of my minions. I made him like The Sisters, Type O Negative and Nine Inch Nails. But even though he was ugly and by far not as charming as my humble self, he still had something I didn't and what was making me very jealous indeed. He had a cable TV. Yeah, whatevah. What's important is the fact that I got introduced to Die Krupps, one of those countless German industrial and gothic bands that the nineties seemed to have churned out. Well, that's what I thought. Turned out they're not that bog standard at all and at least in Germany Die Krupps were quite an important and popular band. And they surely became one of the more profound heralds of the industrial era for me. And the video for To The Hilt is rather cool as well.
Einstürzende Neubauten - Die Interimsliebenden
I honestly can't remember how long it took me to learn that bloody name properly. Even though I was learning German at that time it would still end up much more like 'eineirzeute' every time I tried to say it. And I would say it many, many times over trying to find anyone who's ever heard of EN and maybe, just maybe had some tapes I could borrow. And it wasn't until 2000 when I actually crossed path with another Neubauten fan (Hubert, if you're reading this, do you remember the first Young office? We came out for a cig, lovely, sunny day in July, and discussed Cave, EN, Tuxedomoon and Siekiera...), so scarce they are in the wild. But coming back to 1993, what was fantastic about that time, was the MTV. Not that bucket of shit it became today, but the real one. The best ever. The MTV that was THE place for music. And for me, nothing could come even close to Toby Amies' 120 Minutes. The best alternative and independent show in the history of music broadcasting. And of course, it wasn't as if I was able to sit down in the evening and just turn the TV on. Only some chosen ones among us could afford a cable or a satellite. And my parents, as I've mentioned already, couldn't (and at that time actually didn't see the appeal either. Weird...) so everything was down to the scraps someone would record on the might VHS tape and let loose among friends. And thanks to one such tape I got face in face with this little beauty. My life changed. It was followed by the video for the Interimsliebenden and a few seconds long fragment of an interview with Blixa before whoever was recording it decided that was probably not appealing to him and cut it short. Nevermind. It was enough for me. And when I found out that aside from his involvement with EN Blixa was also a member of The Bad Seeds, it pretty much felt, like in the music god department, I'm sorted. This love at first sight lasts still and being able to attend one of the last year's 30th Anniversary Tour concerts was not just pleasure. It felt like a privilege. Over those thirty years EN worked hard on their greatness and even though Blixa seems to be bulging ever so slightly these days, there should be still enough steam there to keep that heavy, industrial engine going for some more years. They probably won't be able to hit me right between my eyes as they did in 1993 but it's OK. The memory is still fresh enough.
God is LSD - Girls On Fire
Unfortunately there isn't much I can say about God Is LSD. I think I saw a Wikipedia entry a few years ago but for some bizarre reason it's gone. I know they were German and I think they might have been a one-off side project consisting of members of other bands but it's only what I remember someone told me long, long time ago. Which didn't have to be true in the first place. What I know for sure is that the good uncle Amazon kept a copy of the album for me and I'm waiting for it's arrival any moment now. But regardless of the available information, what's important is the music. And I think, if a band releases only one album ever, and eighteen years later you still not only remember it, but come back to it and still enjoy the music just as much as you did nearly two decades before, it's got to be bloody good. And I really think it was. It was verging on industrial and psychedelic metal with riffs meaty enough to make an Argentinian steak look like a bowl of salad. Fantastic, energetic, with some hints of trance music that thanks to not following the trends too closely still sounds good and relatively fresh. And I don't really care that God Is LSD only released one album. At least it seems fairly easy to get the whole discography. The clip is, obviously, a fan made but at least it shows that I'm not alone in faning here. And why would I be? For the enthusiasts of heavy, guitar based sampling, Spirit Of Suicide is a gem of an album. The track may not be as grand as Vangelis to close the year but it still makes for quite a nice finale.
Quite a long year as it turns out. 1994 will be shorter with only five songs, but boy, will it be eclectic... See you in 1994 then.
SHORTCUTS:
1990s Tracklist
Part One - 1990
Part Two - 1991
Part Three - 1992
Part Five - 1994
Part Six - 1995
Part Seven - 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
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