THOUGHT INDUSTRY – Mods
Carve the Pig: Assassins, Toads, and God’s Flesh
The term “ahead of its time” was conceived with this record
in mind. Everyone from DEP to Sleepytime
Gorilla Museum
pretty much owes their existence to the first 2 Thought Industry records. This
is the 2nd one and holy shit is it all over the place in the most
deliberate of ways. So fucking evil and demented… like a more metal Disco Volante, but this predates that by
about 2 years. There’s a great book called Mean
Deviation (Jeff Wagner, 2011) that covers the history of Progressive Metal.
I mentioned this briefly in the God Machine write-up in ch. 1, but it’s a shame
that Progressive Metal equates to Dream Theater/Fates Warning clones for so
many people, and that they miss out on really cool, interesting bands like
Thought Industry, Disharmonic Orchestra, Maudlin of the Well, Hellwitch, and so
many others. Mind Over Four was kinda dopey, though… and Thought Industry did
cock-out after this album. I guess I understand… they didn’t really take off,
and “alternative” music became the rage (against the machine durhurhur). “Himmler cop sips raisin rum” – from
“Smirk the Godlbender”. Love the lyrics on these first two TI albums. It’s like
what would happen if Captain Beefheart deconstructed a pile of Bay Area Thrash
albums. “Boil” has what those pre-Aenima
Tool albums strived for. And no, I’m not gonna be one of those jerk-offs who
pretends he’s not a Tool fan. I spent age 16-20 being one of those clithoods,
and it was a miserable time indeed. A Perfect Circle
and Puscifer can fuck off, if only because they distract from more Tool albums.
I think what set TI back was not having the foresight to stay the course (so to
speak) and keep getting weirder and heavier with each release. But I guess
everyone can’t be Naked City….
Especially every band that tries to be Naked
City.
Favorite Tracks: “Daterape Cookbook”, “Boil”, “Republicans
in Love”, “To Build a Better Bulldozer”
BAUHAUS – Burning From
the Inside
Yeah yeah point and laugh at the goth kid. Your party
violence 7” is sooo much cooler than me. *mouthfart*. When you get past the heroin-chic
emotionally stunted cat ladyisms of the fan base, you find that most of the
early goth stuff (Bauhaus, Christian Death, Sex Gang Children, the Cure on
their Pornography album) is some the
most transgressively literary, aesthetically deranged music ever conceived.
Before vampiric romance and self-conscious insouciance took over the genre,
albums like In the Flat Field and Only Theatre of Pain wallowed in
murderous surrealism, rib-caving self hatred, and a claustrophobic misanthropy
that would put almost any modern “doom” band to shame. Bauhaus’ In the Flat Field is one of my favorite
albums ever. It was a downhill slide after that; Mask and The Sky’s Gone Out are
pretty weak in comparison, but Burning feels
more like a direct follow-up to Flat
Field. Bouncy, but weird and scary too. Great bass lines. Peter
Murphy’s solo stuff is mostly bunk. It’s a shame he decided to take the easy
way out and ape Bowie for the rest of
his career. Think I’ll take this time to say that I fucking hate Dead Can
Dance. Sorry, but once you realize that the singer dude is just imitating
Sinatra’s “Very Good Year” on every damn song, you sort of lose any sense of
art or drama DCD is trying to convey. And when Lisa Gerad (sp?) dies, she’ll
probably going to be found buried under a bunch of books about crystals, her
toes sticking out of the paper mountain like the Wicked Witch of the East, only
gnawed to viscera by hungry cats. Back to the album. I love how “Slice of Life”
sounds like Barret-era Pink Floyd, only it’s about killing people…. I
think. Maybe I’m attributing it to
Dexter’s boat. Why do I keep watching that show? why do I keep watching
Showtime? Bauhaus really found a pretty good balance of the loathsome
bizarreness of Flat Field with the
infectious diversity of Sky’s Gone Out and
Mask on Burning. Communion should cover the title track. Don’t think anyone
but me would be on board for that.
Favorite Tracks –
“Antonin Artaud” “Slice of Life”, “Kingdom’s Coming”, “Burning
From the Inside”
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