A writing riff...I was there...80s Metal

In the not to distant past if you wanted tunes you relied on a network of friends...you needed someone to have "acquired" the album, I say acquired because when you are 14, stoned and broke, running out Sound Warehouse with a copy of Van Halen II doesn't seem all that crazy! If you bought it, so be it, records were what 8 bucks, either way... once the original was available you needed a tape player w/ recorder, or if the "original" was a tape; tape to tape with high speed dubbing was the way to go. You needed blank tapes. You needed someones pad with the gear and cool parents...


It just so happens my old man's love of vinyl is just as intense as mine and his network even more expansive so we had the best gear the pawn shops could acquire, awesome turntables, amps 'n recorders and my parents are cool as shit.  I had/have a few albums, decent amount, but many were my brothers or sisters that I "kept". But borrowing from a buddy or friend of a friend was a right of passage, swapping what you had, something you thought worthy of buying (or stealing) and felt a certain sense of pride in lending out. It was one of your prized possession so you borrowed as you lent, you see by getting an album back, a kind of collateral was established and it was a confirmation of your coolness. 


One condition was, well condition! As long as it came back in the EXACT same condition! Many a friendship was damaged due to new scratches/skips, torn sleeves or heat or water damage! I still have a very warped copy of Back in Black....lent to a buddy, he put it next to the furnace and damned if it didn't warp the shit out of that record. I could play half the album, it was years before I even heard "Have a Drink on Me" all the way through.


A reoccurring theme as of late is the way it is so easy to get music today, for Metalheads is was really tough back-in-da-day! We as kids had to literally wait for M-M-M-Metal Shop every Friday Night to get any fix or info. on who, what, where... I remember the first time I heard Dio's opus Holy Diver on the radio, I freaked out! On the radio RJD solo we were like who the hell is that awesome guitar player! It turns out it was little-known Irish player Vivian Campbell, given his big break by one of the godfathers of Metal only to turn his back on Metal and RJD to join....def leppard.....a band that I actually loved for a brief time...I still remember ditching school going to the mall where my buddy Peanut bought...Pyromania.... after "school" we went back to my house, into my room with a six pack of Schlitz Malt-Tall Boys and proceeded to be really disappointed....we had advanced warning things had pussified since High -n- Dry... but to hear what came out of my speakers was like a kick in the balls! We had all loved these guys, young , tough drunks from the mean streets of Sheffield but what we got was bandannas, hair-color and pop metal! ( in hindsight Pyro is almost Death Metal compared to the fluff that came after Rick Allen's arm got torn off... that shit on the subsequent records is the epitome of SELL OUT...don't even get me started on Van Halen!) I blame Def Lep for the whole 80's Hair Band thing that is so much a part of popular American thinkin' when it comes to Metal.... MTV got a hold of the industry made 'em look like fags and we got shit music in return. 


Proof! Pre-MTV D.L.....note the booze! There was time when I wanted to be Rick Savage...another bad-bromance?

Post MTV d.l...gone are "Steaming" Steve and Willis they partied too hard for little Joey n Rick.,well Clark did die because of drugs n booze but still ...gone too is Allen's left arm.....cool-O! 
                                                        Gay looking but not Gay!?!

Yeah most of us hardcore metal dudes were disappointed but also galvanized! The success of DL or Motley Crue and crap like that created a very distinct line in the sand, it was easy to spot the Posers!! With the more crap that came out disguised as Heavy Metal an underground sound was emerging heavy-louder, aggressive and pissed, it began slowly but all the sudden there were bands with hair down to their waist wearing leather w/spikes and studs and the music was good, tight and fast and much more evil in content and image, it was like an occult version of Judas Priest on meth...with real spikes! 


                                        Halford with Hair n Studs....Gay but not gay looking!?!

                                       King with Hair n Spikes! KICK ASS!

Here's a little tale I want to share, a bit of a tangent but what is ESG if not one big tangent! This tale involves Slayer,Drugs, Alcohol and the Supernatural yep I said it...Supa-Natural... 


It is true. If you care to believe, cool, if not, cool too, I've never told anyone, four of us were there and I bet the other three have not told anyone either so let me be the first.


I first heard Slayer's Show No Mercy had to be early '84 my girlfriend had a friend...


She had starting dating this drummer, I played some still so it was like you guys hang out and get to know each other, I was cool with that, they come pick us up on a Friday night, it's winter cold windy... We hear 'em coming from in the house! Sound system blaring right through the closed doors from a block away. Dude rolls up in a red 1971 Camaro, totally 80s style, jacked up in the back, big fat tires on Cragars 'n everything! Kick Ass! Blaring the fastest heaviest shit I ever heard! Mexican dude with long,long black hair wearing a black leather MC jacket smoking a joint with my girl's girl sitting shotgun...grinning from ear to ear! 


I was a skinny little dude back then but was tough enough, could drink allot could smoke more, but these two were up to some shit! Anyway we give each other the international cool dude head nod and me and my girl we crawl in the back... and he punches it we take off like a rocket we are slammed into the seats and they are laughing their heads off! It didn't take long to realize were in a rocket ship and the capt. and co-pilot are tripping out of their minds! We are not a block away and I got a doobie in one hand a Budweiser in the other and Slayer on the system,( to listen to 'Mercy now it's slow and not scary but trust me I had just turned 17 and Slayer sounded like hell itself and it was sooo heavy!!!!) We rode all night stopping to piss in the bushes and buying more beer he puts in Mercyful Fate, Metallica, Venom just the heaviest most evil shit I had ever heard... and it started to snow... so of course someone says lets go to Trans-Mountain! In retrospect to ascend the steepest grade in town during a snow storm in a supped up Camaro while the driver is tripping and passengers are buzzing hard does not sound like a solid life choice but when you are 17 and you got a girl, beer, smoke, a hot-rod Camaro and Metal you go!


yeah it was kinda like this...

T-Mountain..fun all year round!

As we drove too fast through a heavy west Texas desert snow storm the music never let up this dude could flip tapes in so fast none of us could speak it was all hand gestures....until. In the middle of the empty highway far from everything in a raging snow storm is a person shaped being in camouflage ( nobody wore camo back then except dudes in the army) and we are racing towards this figure at light speed the four of us blasted out of our minds, someone, or all of us gasped or screamed and time stopped.


We drove on... never slowed...never stopped we drove right on through as the snow peppered the windshield... I can still see him, a seemingly solid being  his dead-black eyes staring back at us, he looked familiar like a cashier at the 7-11 you see twice a week but don't  really know.. dark hair, Chicano in a camo Jacket, jeans...he stared back at us, at four kids in the night out having fun, bad fun, the best fun. We got to the top of Trans Mt road, got out, it was really cold we didn't talk about it but it was understood we had seen something that was meant for us! 


The music was off on the way down the mountain... sobriety or something like it had taken over, giggles and stoner smiles had become yawns and nodding off, we got home that night and began to try and forget. I have never told a soul about it but I can't hear Slayer without seeing that dude and thinking about that night...Soon after I borrowed Mr. 666s copy of Show No Mercy and Haunting the Chapel and have been a follower ever since.....


Almost 30 years later and what did it mean? Not sure, and that is how it is, you see something unexplainable, you digest it but never quite get over it.         




"Evil will take your Soul....Evil my wrath unfolds!"   EPIC! 



" The source of evil liiiggggghhhht!" "Source of Satan's might!"


Then....maybe Joe's jacket & Savage's Butt-Pirate shirt are harbingers...of the fag-y-ness to come!


Allen was soo good with two arms....cool-O! Clark n Willis were the shit too! So basically I hate Elliot n Savage n everyone else who ever played in this band afterwards...it makes sense now!



Now...


Teen-Tank post-traumatic-self-medicating-coping....I was flannel-cool or is that a bank-y? If I had a dollar for every time I passed out on that couch...!

Tank-Peanut-Mr.666 mid-80s... we survived the Def Lep deception and free Lite Beer shirts!

Note Mr.666's Metal Up Your Ass shirt ....he would not be caught dead in a Metallica shirt now! But that as they say is a whole other story of deception,Metal-treason and heartbreak of the highest degree!

St. Patrick's Day

My father’s mother...let's see that would make her my..oh yeah... grandmother... was a 1^st generation Irish-American-catholic by the name of Kilkenny..like the Castle & County. She and her family settled in Louisville, KY her brothers working the railroad, as was the employ of many Irish immigrants, there was the brother who was a priest too, of course. This being St. Patrick’s Day and without veering too far from ESG course I want to present a few things about the Irish American experience that interests me and hopefully you.

Castle Kilkenny : Perhaps some of my ancestors hung out here, you know playing Big Ass Chess, eating roasted peacock and chugging ale by the gallon! Probably not, many a real name was lost en route to America, where you were from became your name...Corleone anyone?

To be a freshly migrated Irish Catholic during the 19^th century had to be one of the harsher experiences in history, some of this was self induced. A fanatical, quasi-religious devotion for Eire resulted in utter heartbreak when the Irish arrived in America; in contrast to the Italian or German immigrants most of whom wept with joy at the sight of the shores of New York, Boston, Baltimore or Philadelphia. The Irish wept for they knew they would never see their beloved Ireland again this time is known as “the American Wake”. So you see many were behind the 8 ball before they even got off the boat racked with depression and more then likely ill from the journey which early in the century could take up to 60 days! With the advent of the steamship the journey still took 14 days. This was best case!

Famine Memorial...a bit macabre, but striking in it's context...more detailed photos along with the inscription here...http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=27583

Now take into consideration what were called the “coffin ships” used at the height of the Gorta Mor, the great potato famine, catered to the majority of emigrants dirt poor half-starved families. These illegal ships shoe-horned their desperate cargo (people) in the holdings below deck for 4 to 6 weeks! These cramped, filthy conditions led to many deaths thus exacerbating the arrival to a strange-anti-Irish land. Anti-Irish sentiment was two fold in the big eastern seaports, they were the domain of the English descendants and their bigotry and hate for the Micks much less catholic- micks was inbred. This along with the feeling that the Irish would “take over” led to the “no Irish need apply” phrase, which was actually used to discourage Irish  from even attempting to work. As the shores continued to fill with people from all over Europe they tended to stay where they landed and many a “shanty-town” sprang up. These later became neighborhoods, Irish-town, Little Italy etc.
                                                                       Proof!

The massive influx of people and scarcity of jobs led to tough times in Irish-town. That is why the railroads became the job of choice; no one else would hire a kid with a brogue, but the titan that once was the American railroad industry had no qualms about using the backs of the Irish, Chinese and Black to spread the iron ribbon across the country. Why? Because the work was low paying, hard, dangerous and attrition was high so why not use as many micks, chinks and niggers as possible! And so this was the america my grand-mother first encountered as a girl.

As is the case in our great country as time moves on immigrants move up the ladder and the less desirable occupations are filled by someone else. Early Irish settlers were digging canals and coffins, laying “sleepers”, shoveling shit or begging. As opportunities sprang up so did the all American concept of nepotism and the post civil war big city police forces and fire departments were the blue print. Back in the day police work was not a well paying glamour sport, no driving supped up Chargers & slamming donuts, it was not CSI or even Beretta. No it was walking the beat, thus the expression flat-foot, it was busting up fights (gangs were epidemic in late 19^th century big cities, another by product of anti-Irish sentiment, Gangs of New York anyone?) and violators were tossed into a “paddy-wagon”. No cops did not bust-up eastern-euro white slave trade operations or international terrorist cells, just regular public duty gigs. Same for the fire dept.; fire was a real threat back then fire regulations were unheard of, houses and tenements were wooden and very close together, fire was a constant worry and when a fire broke out people died. Pay was low, hours long and dangerous, but it was better than shoveling shit and pride was found in having a job.

            I loves me some Daniel Day " I drink your Milkshake" Lewis and Leo is rounding out to be really good... I like this film, but "best picture" nomination! Yikes, even Scorsese must have been like "what the..."

Irish-American are now of course seen in a different light, assimulation, Americanization and mostly time have left Irish-Americans as American as everyone else. I think the modern pro-Irish pride displayed by many is ill placed, they are about as Irish as O’bama. Pride in heritage is important, but getting drunk one day out the year, rooting for the Celtics or Sox, listening to the Dropkick Murphys and House of Pain, seeing “The Town” and “The Boondock Saints” does not make you Irish… it makes you American, something my ancestors wanted to be some 120 years ago.  So go easy on the green “beer”, have a Guinness and a shot of Jameson, but don’t let the day pass without thinking about those that came and suffered before you...it’s the Irish way.
                                                  A pint and two jugs! Cheers!

WOW!

Where was I...oh yeah...I found this "celtic warrior" on a white-power page, those fuckers use anything they get their hands on and distort it to fit their narrow, miss-guided dogma on race. The Irish/Celts were seen as lesser people by the Brits and Scandinavians throw the Catholic part in their and it is anything but a white pride image. Oh well the art is cool!

Cernummos was the Celtic Horned-God, info. is rather scarce but he may be the god of fertility and nature. 

Another avatar of the Green-man, early Christianity probably used this horny cat to create the horned Devil we all know and love today.

Slaine is a comic book character by the great Pat Mills, more or less based on Cuchulain

(the famed Hero-Warrior of Irish Myths). Here are some images( not original)....

I guess they had hair gel back in the day! 

Slaine throwing us some "blue-steel"!

I had some nut-hugging-skate-shorts like this back in the 80s!

Pat Mills also edited and co-created... JUDGE DREDD! 

I see there is another movie-version of J.D. in-production with non-other than "Armory" alum Lena Headey...Kick Ass! 

Now for a bit of a tangent, during some surfing for cool Celtic-y stuff I ran across something I was not aware of a musical styling that mangles the best of two world and makes them coexist for the pleasure of the creator and dozens of ardent followers! What happens when you blend, Neo-Pagan practices, bagpipes, pan flutes and B.C. Rich guitars, Tattoos, Lace, Animal pelts and White Face! Folk Metal! Let me reinstate I had no idea so of course I went to the source for all things Metal, Mr.666. Suffice it to say, he is not a fan, I'm not here to pass judgement, hell Ritchie Blackmore plays only traditional English Folk tunes nowadays so....who knows. I let you judge for yourself, but needless to say, there is very little Metal in Folk Metal!

This is the face of Folk Metal! You cannot make this up, it's like a runaway SNL skit!


"Take my hand child and come with me to a world of fantasy, magic, foam swords and frolic..."

                                                 The "sound" of this sub-sub-genre..
                          


                   " I know Metal, Metal is a friend and you are not Metal!!!!"

I usually don't like the video mashups but this is close to brilliant! Note the distinct lack of melodic vocals or bagpipes!
THIS IS METAL, England's Masters of Metal...BOLT THROWER! More Lena too!

Keep your Irish up...I can't wait for my Cinco de Mayo post!!!

Tank "Plenty-O'Tool" Steel

Movie Knight

For a few years now I've been saying that movies are finally being made by dudes and chicks that kinda thinks what I think is cool! Born in the 60's weaned on Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Kung-Fu,Star Trek, Buck Rogers, Star Wars, Battle Star Galactica, Starsky& Hutch or Charlie's Angels.

Charlie Bronson,Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Gator, Caine (Grasshopper), Han Solo,Callahan or Josey Wales ... Heroes...Outlaws...Anti-Heroes; unrealistic, take no prisoners,"turn in your Badge" don't look the other way bad asses who Kicked Ass! Screw your civil rights,your inter-galactic rights, your alien rights!

I was a huge comic book fan as a kid mostly Marvel, Spiderman, The Hulk , Thor, The Avengers, and the recent rash of comic book hero movies is fine with me! Of course technology advancements have helped out tremendously in making these movies really work. But it's the comic book/ graphic novel style Frank Miller stuff that is really in my well house! I love, loved Sin City....their was The Spirit, Watchmen, 300! Super hot babes who can take care of themselves, huge dudes shooting, punching, losing and winning!

Sucker Punch looks killer.
There is a life-action Thor coming soon and one remake that really has me excited Conan the Barbarian!

Here is a trailer for Sucker Punch.....complete with Bonzo and the Boys....they are on the trailer but I don't see them listed on the sound track.

How many great movies has Scott Glenn been in?



Thor! ummmm one word...make that two words....Natalie Portman!


Only bitch I have is that movies are frankly out of reach for poorer kids!  I mean the 3D ones are like 15 Bucks! As a kid we went to The Pershing or The Plaza all day every Saturday and spent 3 bucks for two movies, coke, popcorn and maybe even a Snickers! Damn I'm old!  Oh well save some coin cuz movies are always better in the theater!

March of the Random Thought

So it is March, spring break, mardi-gras, fat tues., ash weds, lent....We grew up catholic so when I was a kid we all "gave up" something for lent,  you know candy or coke. We as a family abstained from meat on Fridays and since my old man doesn't dig fish, we had mushroom pizza on Fridays! I still love a good 'shroom pizza... just 'schroomies, the kind out of a can although fresh ones are kick ass too! 

March also brings wind, I had a real anxiety or phobia ( Anemophobia it's called, totally self-diagnosed. I might add!) of wind as a kid I think it stems from, get this, The Wizard of Oz.  But in Far West Texas it get windy as shit, dust blowing like crazy, trees fall over I mean it can literally knock you over! Where I grew up the houses all sit on a hill or the bottom of the hill the ones on top have steep staircases made of concrete with high walls. Coming home from school one day it was so windy and I was so weirded out that it took me like an hour to walk two blocks! I would run from one set of stairs to the next then when the wind died down a little I'd run to the next stair case, what a little freak! Someone's big brother told me it was ok and walked me home but the damage was done high wind still freaks me out! 

Anyway so, I'm broke (like every spring break), no SXSW  for the locals anyway, but I missed Motorhead again this week ( missed 'em last year too) oh well Lemmy will out live me so I might get another chance. I saw them in Dallas in like 90-91 on one of those multi-band tours, I think it was Priest/Alice Cooper on the Operation Rock Tour at the Starplex? "Me no-know" as Mia-Tank would say! There is a few years between like 87-93 or so where I was obviously not real aware of my surrounding, but I made it through the other side! I do remember thinking all the dudes in AC are on steroids, I wonder if any of those dude are still alive! 


One should recall Motorhead, that reminds me I saw Slayer,Anthrax, Megadeth this summer at the very same Starplex, although now  it is named after some corporation or other. This kid (early 20s) was actually sleeping through SLAYER! I mean what the hell! His girlfriend or chick he was with was so pissed she actually hit on me and my buddy Mike! She was trolling for booze but it was still an ego boost to have a 20 year old metal chick rub on you for a free beer! I told her to fuck off cuz nobody interrupts me whilst thrashing to Kill Again! I was so into it, I bent my ring on the rail pounding out the ride cymbals!


March also makes me think of St. Patty's Day (more on that later) and the Ides of March; Idus Martias was just another way of saying the middle or 15th of the month, then in 44 BC, Brutus and the Liberators took out Julius Caesar ( stabbing him 23 times) talk about "homicidal maniac"! 


Then Shakespeare got his mitts on some old writings adds some dialog popularizing the "Ides" as a day of foreshadow and retribution. So now every year on the 15th of March I think of two things...Iron Maiden and that band that did "Vehicle" they called themselves The Ides of March. 


I also think of Romans and all the shit they invented that we still use.... 
                                
                                                                                                                    hmmmm....oh!


Salad! Salads kick ass! 


and Showers, plates, roads, calendars, Roman Numerals are cool..... lets see... subjugation, genocide, imperialism,ass-sex, yeah some cool shit. 




Not my stub but it's starting to come back to me now....Natural Lite, smoke, Non-pizza 'shrooms, Ms. Patton and a whole lotta vitamin-C. Oh, to be young and stoopid again!

I don't know if the Romans invented pizza but it'd be a lot cooler if they did!

Movie generated Phobia ? Yep isn't everyone afraid of clowns, thanks to "Poltergeist"?!? 
It's a real thing! Midgets weird me out too!   Run Dorothy run!

This is one of the houses I sought refuge at, really this exact house it wasn't quite as err... colorful back in the day but I swear that wall saved my scrawny ass from flying away! 

This is a coin issued by the non-dead after the Tyrannicide! It would seem that regime change has always included a little blood shed and freshly minted coinage... Let freedom ring.

This is not Caesar!  You cannot look at this picture without thinking..toga, toga, toga. 

Maiden, "Ides" w/ "Wrathchild". Spanish subtitles so you can rip some Di'anno en espanol! 




The man-crush/bromance I had for Dave Murray when I was a kid was borderline gay for sure...I mean that golden hair, fist in the air, those vests, spandex, black Stratocaster....oh shit I'm gay! Oh well he was hotter than Joan Jett! 


PROOF!

These dudes were(are) from Chicago. There must have been some happy grade school band teacher in the wind-city back in the 50s/ early 60s, every band out of there had 10 brass players! 


The Ides Of March - Vehicle
Uploaded by DoMinho. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Thanks for hanging in there! Puts some rocks in your pocket and go outside, it's all good!

Well Hello , Mr. Soul

Neil Young.

          Wait...let it sink in.

                    

                                More.... more

                                         

                                                    Ok.

Some have nothing good to say still others worship him as a writing/guitar demi-god. There are a few artists  that initiate such contrasting opinions. Maybe you can't get past his politics or his anti-rock star look or his being (whispered tones) Canadian! I for one really, really like most of Neil Young's stuff…most, though some I hear and wish I could un-hear! His live solos are a bit self-indulgent; his vocals can grate at times but there no denying the talent, passion and soul.

A post about Neil came about like so. As is my usual I grabbed some CDs and jumped in the Foci to drive the 52.5 miles to school. Iron Maiden, ( Powerslave and Piece of Mind) Sabbath-Sabotage, Vol.4 and my burned copy ( guess who burned it, burned copy cuz my brother managed to wonder off with my legit copy) of Young’s Decade Disc.1.  

I slipped in Maiden’s Piece, one of my favorites Harris in all his glory...Dave and Adrian exchanging licks, Bruce's voice, and Niko's mind-bending fills...and I was bored…bored I mean, I guess I know it so well that it was reading a book over and over. I haven’t heard it in while and still remembered word and every note, could it be that my mind was in neutral because I listened to that album literally for 4 months straight back in ’83! Don’t get me wrong I think it is still a masterpiece but I think maybe it is not timeless( Maiden/Maiden Killers and Number still light me up so maybe it's just Nico!!!

So as I stared at the bumper in front of me, and like robo-Tank put in Neil and everything was good. I know Neil just as well but I still found it inspiring, fresh...timeless...and most of it is older than Maiden by 10-20 Years! 

Down to the Wire

“Every time you touch her…sets your hand on fire”

Mr. Soul

“She said, you’re strange, but don't change, and I let her.”

Broken Arrow!  Sugar Mountain! The Loner! Cinnamon “fn’g” Girl! Down by the River! Helpless!

Oh shit it doesn’t let up! "Best of’s" usually suck. But Decade rules if you don’t have it buy it. An epic string of songs, everyone with a lyric that make me think “I wish I had wrote that”!  The other discs are just as loaded, Like a Hurricane, Heart of Gold…. 

Buffalo Springfield and CSN&Y are beyond reproach and Neil’s contribution is obvious. I plead that you revisit these are well.  I won’t launch into a bio, but will say the rock -n-roll landscape would be almost barren without Neil’s contributions. I mean a Les Paul w/ a tremolo!  Come on he was in a band with Rick James Bitch!!  

Here is some stuff I found…there is some Neil with J.P.J., Plant and Page on youtube but I deemed it unworthy of ESG, it's kinds cool, but when Plant picks up a guitar...I think everyone in the joint was like( in a cockney accent)

       "Bobby ummm...,perhaps you could wait on that... Pagey and Neil "bloody" Young have brought their Les Pauls and all..., we know you can play but...ok.... ummm maybe you could do "If I were a Carpenter"... you know a little acoustic thing at the after-party...NOT NOW!"

any-who here is a couple a vids I did deem worthy!

                                                  Best mutton chops ever!

This is iconic, yeah that is the word...iconic. I feel like punching a cop(even more than usual) after this!

"I wanna love you but I'm gettin' blown away"
Neil was flannel before flannel was cool...the first time flannel was cool.



Wow! The gangs all here! So much talent on one stage... a favorite of favorites, this song still blows me away!


The double an-tantra is so subtle that when I was a kid I thought this song was about killing! Now I know it is about dying.

P.s.
I played Number of the Beast front to back and it Kicks ASS!...Clive Burr rules...so it is Nico, not me!

Up the Irons! Up the Neil too!