With the dawning of a new millenium almost upon us my thoughts are turning to the past 30 years or so and the musical developments that have given me the most joy. Of course, the biggest one is punk rock but that has been amply handled by thousands of other writers and zines. I thought I might talk a little about the stoner rock phenomenon, well maybe phenomenon is too big a word....
how about movement. There seems to be no shortage of bands cranking out that Sab-influenced big beat metal sound which makes me happy to no end cause A. I love that stuff and B. I cant play it for shit!
It all starts with Black Sabbath, period, end of discussion. You can talk yer Blue Cheers, yer B.O.C. (who I love but that' s another story) U.F.O Etc. but Black Sabbath are the undisputed kings of this particular niche. I remember as a kid in the 70's buying "We sold our souls for rock and roll" on a tip from a neighbor kid. I remember sitting down, putting the headphones on and having the shit scared out of me when the song "Black Sabbath" came blasting through the tiny speakers. Needless to say I was hooked.
From that moment on it was a search for more bands that could give me the same heavy kicks as I got from Sabbath. This quest was not particularly fruitful in the late seventies/early eighties, as most metal of the period was the wankorama Led Zep variety. Things started to get better for me when that whole NWOBHM thing happened. There were a couple of bands from that era that moved me but in hindsight, despite what Lars Ulrich thinks, most of it was crap.
The biggest gem of the time was a band called Witchfinder General. These Sab crazed Limeys put out two records on the Heavy Metal Records label. These guys sounded so much like Sabbath that you could almost pick out which Sabbath tune they had changed a note or two of and called their own! They had some great songs, however like the awesome "Soviet Invasion" and "Invisible Hate" which has a chorus that goes "sex, drugs, rock and beer" who could complain about that? They also had some very non-pc record covers. If anyone remembers these guys you will know what I' m talking about! So me and my stoner buddies made due with that for a while, carrying around big ass boom boxes and cranking it whenever possible. A soundtrack for life if you will.
The next big thing (hello Handsome Dick!) was out of Chicago called Trouble, I hear a couple people scoffing out there I know they had a Christian thing going on but since most of the time you couldn' t understand the singer it didn' t matter! Anyway like most bands these guys first two records ruled but later efforts left me limp.
After a while punk rock started taking over my life and I kind of put these metal bands aside (it wasnt "cool"). For about 4 or 5 years I listened to nothing but punk, however something brought me back to the Heavy Side (proposed title of next star wars movie, no kidding)
It was right about the time that grunge started happening. Being from Seattle I was right there and saw all those bands when they were still small time. I couldn' t help but think that most of that stuff was poorly done Sabbath, so I just started to listen to the originals again.
One band from that era that was really good was the early Melvins, especially the "Gluey Porch Treatments" record with crushing guitar from Buzz Melvin and were they slow! To paraphrase Black Adder "They were as slow as a great slow thingy" They got a little weird and experimental for me, but those early days were god! I kept my ears open and started to hear more about bands that dug the Sabbath trip.
Next on my hit parade today is Monster Magnet, again I hear scoffing and a few giggles but their early stuff on Glitterhouse and the "Spine of God" record were as good as it gets.
Later in the nineties I started hearing rumbles out of southern California about this band called Fu Manchu. It took me a while to get with these guys but once I did I was highly satisfied. They got a great fuzzy "Vincebus Eruptum" kind of sound and all the songs seem to be about vans, skateboards and auto racing. Who couldn' t like that I ask? An offshoot of the early Fu Manchu can be found in the band Nebula who have a great album out called "Let it Burn" featuring Eddie Glass from the mighty Olive Lawn on guitar and vocals.
Well there it is. in no way am I claiming to be an expert on this kind of thing and I am sure there are tons of bands in this genre that i skipped but this is about me not you! Anyways thanks for reading and as usual I can be reached at howard_X@hotmail.com for any gripes, bitching, whining etc.(Fall 2000)