I've made it no secret here that when it comes to the Foo Fighters I'm a fan of their older, simpler, more straight forward stuff - I continue to invest in their output because quite honestly there is a nostalgia factor with this band conceived around the time of their first album that I still rings true in their current output though admittedly way more sporadic and way more muffled in it's impact. That's not to ignore the idea that the music they do now isn't good to me, it's just lost the charm of their early material. Sonic Highways is a good rock record, but for me it's the worst thing they've ever done. Too big, too elaborate, too bombastic, and too epic. No matter how loud you turn up Foo Fighters and Colour and The Shape, they still sound quiet - and though that may seem oppositional to everything a band like this stands for as possibly the last arena rock band of our lifetime, it's in that juxtaposition that I find that aforementioned, and for lack of a better term, charm.
Saint Cecilia is a reckoning back to those days - and although it doesn't mirror the kind of production value that may have been a defining characteristic of their first few albums for me, the song writing and the energy behind the recorded tracks feel like a direct wormhole to the sessions of the mid to late 90's. Turns out, the band has admitted to utilizing riffs, ideas, and old unreleased demos that never saw the light of day (a feat in and of itself in this day and age) that ranged back as far as 20 years ago. The title track manages to palpate the arena-easy dynamics of some of their later work but never dips into becoming too pretentious, and instead harkens back to vibes of "Learning To Fly" and "Generator" - probably because they didn't have the time to throw on a whole bunch of other superfluous instrumentation. "Sean" is a quick and somewhat whimsical pop-punk driver that seriously sounds as though it was ripped directly from the tracklist of Colour and the Shape, and most would slap me for saying so, but it's also quite possibly my favorite thing they've done in some 15 years. "Saviour Breath" is cut from the same cloth as a juiced up "Weenie Beenie", "Iron Rooster" is Nothing Left To Lose era Foo balladry, and closer "The Neverending Sigh" stands alone as what I hope represents a band stepping back as a step forward - as it subtly morphs from a drive to a glide in it's momentum throughout.
In all it's glory Saint Cecilia sounds like the lost stepping stone between Colour and the Shape and Nothing Left To Lose - and while it seems as though that's all I'm dwelling on here, even standing alone from everything else they've done it's a damn fine album - of course I've always been a sucker for the not-wearing-out-your-welcome glory of the Extended Play format. I can't be comfortable in whether or not the album turned out the way it did on purpose or not; I mean, I know some of the ideas were more than two decades old, but how much of it's sound was also the result of the album being a free EP? And possibly a sit down and knock it rush recording before finally getting to take that extended hiatus? Either way, they've earned some of my trust and heart back with this one, and that's saying a lot. Do yourself a favor and download it (it's free!), and while you're add it throw "Empty Handed" from their Songs From The Laundry Room EP onto it as an opener to create a nice little half an album's worth of material that feels like a new them when they were at their best. That song sounds in every way like it should have been on the self-titled debut. Keep it up, stop "evolving" and stop trying to "save" rock 'n roll.
Car Bomb. For those of you unprevy to this two-albumed loogie of hate, know that they are a musical force to be reckoned with. Spawned in the wake of the emergence of the ridiculously pigeon-holed genre-term "Math Metal", this four piece created albums' worth of controlled yet spasmatic ferocity the likes of which raises them above the visionless Calculating Infinity Clones pissing all over the creative original sound. Sure the influence can be heard, but Car Bomb abandons anything even close to resembling a hook or rhythm and instead comes off as a very jagged, very large pill to swallow, arguably more difficult to absorb then even some of the most unhinged Grindcore - arguably. The sound is so sharp, and so combustible, that instead of resembling 11 different tracks it's almost just one long compilation of fits and seizures. A soundtrack to the spewing forth of schizophrenic hate.
How does a band like this survive? Well, seeing as how they hadn't released anything in over 5 years I wasn't sure that they had, until I stumbled upon a documentary titled 'Why You Do This'. Just over an hour long, this short little film (put together by Car Bomb vocalist Michael Dafferner) follows the band on the road as they tread on and continue playing their undigestible brand of music despite what seems to be only a continuing series of disenchanting pit-falls and realizations. It's the usual run-of-the-mill kind of things any underground band has to deal with - playing to crowds of three or four people, automotive difficulties, being ripped off by club owners, continuously losing more money than you make - but for those who've never had the experience it makes for an interesting watch. The narraration throughout the film is mostly pessimistic, as though the whole project itself came to fruition as a result of half a decades worth of being jaded. If you don't take it as tongue-in-cheek halfway thru the doc you may find yourself telling your monitor to "just fuckin' quit then", but by the end you'll see it's not the answer that you're sticking around for but really the search for the answer. The film also uses Lamb of God and Gojira as examples of two groups who were able to claw their way 'tooth and nail' out of the underground to headline their own tour and earn an opening slot playing for Metallica. Poor examples in my opinion as both those bands earn their living on the other side of extreme music's line in the sand due to their sound being so accessible in comparison to a group like Carbomb. Lamb Of God is par for the course with a band like Slipknot, damn good at what they do, but still just a rehash of riffs and ideas that worked years before when Meshuggah, Sepultura and Slayer carved their paths (Phil Anselmo called and said he wants his tough-mumblings-over-tougher-riffs act back Mr. Blythe), but I digress. They were probably the only ones willing or available to contribute interviews and without them there would be an air of hoplessness throughout the film. The doc also includes interviews with members of Bella Morte, The Chariot, and Soilent Green, not to mention a spot-on 'why I do this' summarization about playing extreme music from ex-Death/current Charred Walls of the Damned drummer Richard Christy. The film is an eye opener for anybody that hasn't tried traveling across the country in a shit-box van w/trailer, and makes you thankful that groups like this don't toss their gear into the Ol' Miss while driving over it and call it a day. Can you imagine a world without violent basement shows where the fuse blows every song and Hepatitis C creeps like grave moss through bloody knuckes and abrased skin in mock-jungle temperatures? As I type this from the comfort of the home I own and live in comfortably I tell you that I cannot. So god bless those cursed with the passion for playing extreme music, and sacrificing their own comfort to tread across this country and scrape by with no expectations of ever seeing a light at the end of a tunnel or a multi-million dollar record contract not to mention even a mere 2 minutes on the radio. The film doesn't break any new ground, nor does it necessarily draw you in - but much like the Discordance Axis novella 'Compiling Autumn', the fact that it exists is a bonus. Fans of the scene and the band should consider themselves fortunate that someone was passionate enough about what they do to compile the resources and take the time needed to create it and make it available without profiting. So you should take the time to watch the doc if you're into the scene at all. Check it out below and order yourself a copy here.
I've always been positively fascinated with B-sides, tracks that just didn't make the cut for one reason or another. Either because of time constraints or maybe not fitting in with the theme of an album. Sometimes it's the band trying something experimental they think just won't cut it on an album, or may piss off fans. It kind of feels like you can get away with more with a B-side. A group can try something different or simply not overthink a song; if it gets flack you can shrug your shoulders and say "eh, it's a B-side". Or it's for something more specific. Often I think a one-off in a studio to record a song for a soundtrack or tribute album is just an awesome little snapshot of your art between phases.
In this day and age B-sides are kind of becoming a thing of the past. Casual listeners don't need singles when you can purchase a single song off any album on ITunes. And pretty much anything can be dug up with an ample youtube search. The following is a not-too-thought out list of bands whose B-side track - not available on any of their own regular discography (including Greatest Hits albums and B-side collections) - is arguably one of the best things they've ever done. I tried to stay away from the independent bands ripping up the underground because who can even keep track? Splits, demos, independent compilations, a burnt CD of new material only being circulated at shows... Sure Agoraphobic Nosebleed's 'Assault Rifle' is one of their catchiest and most sonically crippling and can only be found on the vinyl only split with Insect Warfare, but at that point where do you draw the line? For the most part I kept the following list to the more mainstream acts that actually got asked to contribute to something or had a single to sell: In no particular order:
Silverchair - Ramble Album: Without You Single
Diorama is one of the best albums I own. Silverchair ripped themselves from the herd with that one, even with the weight of a couple of really sappy ballads that record is still amazing. 'Ramble' is one of the best pieces from those sessions, and I've always thought it could easily replace either 'Luv Your Life' or 'After All These Years' and only add to that records greatness rather than possibly run your ears down with more symphonic balladry by album's end. And while both 'Hollywood' and 'Pins In My Needles' are other b-sides from those sessions most definitely worth mentioning, Ramble stands above them both with it's uplifting vibage and over-all composition. (The shitty quality version of the song above was the only vid I could find). Unfortunately, as it turns out the label told Johns to write a radio friendly song for Diorama after hearing the finished product. By this time the record as we know it was done and the band's vision was completed, this song remained a B-side due to Johns' resentment of it being forced on him.
Anthrax - Poison My Eyes Album: Last Action Hero Soundtrack
As a huge fan of the Bush-era of Anthrax back in my early twenties this track was king. Sounding like it was recorded during or around the Sound Of White Noise sessions, the slow-burn intro and outro help this 7-minute hard rock-fest reach near epic proportions. While most late-80's thrash dudes who haven't listened to anything outside of the Big Four in the last 20 years pine on about how much better the albums were with Belladonna on vox, I can't help but feel like the group stood out more and better as a hard rock / heavy metal band away from the watered-down thrash rat race their peers were all involved in. The Anthrax of today are nothing more than money-hungry sell-out iconoclasts cashing in on nostalgia tours and shitting down the throats of the fans that lifted them up. Also check out their B-side to the 'Nothing' single from the criminally under-rated Stomp 442 sessions 'Grunt & Click'.
Korn - Proud Album: I Know What You Did Last Summer Soundtrack
Goddamn... What a great example of how awesome these fuckholes used to be. The song speaks for itself, written and recorded before they became the clichéd rock n' roll joke they are now. No! I'll keep it positive! Still speedballing, methed out, and dealing with a whole shitload of childhood abuse issues, 'Proud' is an unplayful, ditch-the-hip hop twinge, straight up purging; bolstering possibly the best build-up to climax they've ever done in a song - and considering that that was kind of their thing back then is saying a lot. There are many complicated questions we may never know the answers to with which this tracks existence only adds to as parabola: What happens after we die? What is Stonehenge? Who really murdered Teresa Halbach, HOW DID THIS SONG NOT MAKE IT ONTO AN ALBUM!?
Bookended by ominously industrial tones that fade in and out, 'Octagonal Stairway' presents itself as truly a stand-alone track amongst a genre whose short controlled bursts of belligerence often depend on the collective momentum and strain of an album's worth of material to deliver it's summed blow. 'Octagonal Stairway' also bolsters a much more visceral production style than it's closest peer session for 2012's Book Burner - whose much cleaner sound was a castigation point for Grindcore elitists. In the grand scheme of the band's discography this song is epic in terms of it's straightforward battery of the senses as well as it's length; at almost four minutes long, it retains it's Grind traits while defying traditional durations by extending itself with thrash like breakdowns and dizzying guitar riffs - basically an all-encompassing stamp of everything PxDx has evolved into and continue to masterfully execute.
Radiohead - True Love Waits Album: Unreleased
This one is kind of interesting because it sort of breaks my own rules for this time around. The original version of 'True Love Waits' to be released was on the live E.P. I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings, which contains a version of Yorke singing the ballad acoustically by himself. This version here is the unreleased studio recording of the same song. It's fairly straightforward considering the late paths into electronica Radiohead have taken in the latter half of their career. Those of you jonesing for more material that harkens back to the days of The Bends may find this off-the-radar song some kind of wonderful.
Foo Fighters - A320 Album: Godzilla Soundtrack
This was released somewhere between TheColour and the Shape and There Is Nothing Left To Lose, and guessing from both the sound, songwriting and most definitely the budget, I can assume it was recorded closer to the former. This was a flash of things to come from the Foo, but at the time it was something so seemingly out of their league that it became one hell of a hidden gem and a half. A gentle monologue that builds to a soaring instrumental latter half, sonically painting it's theme onto our imaginations as our narrator's plane comes gently plummeting to the ground, disappearing into the clouds below during the fade out. A mature and well written number that scoffs at mainstream rock song structures and actually includes, strings? Are those strings I hear from the band in 1998? I typically wave the flag for this band's earlier, simpler efforts, but while this kind of thing is just another spoke in the wheel for Foo Fighters now, back then it was, in their catalogue, a beautiful and epic movement - and remains so for me. This may not be my personal favorite B-side from the Foo, but it is the most agreeable of their non-album works in terms of it's awesomeness.
Chris Cornell - Sunshower Album: Great Expectations Soundtrack
I suppose I can understand how some may roll their eyes at this song, voiding it pretty high on the possible cheese factor - it's inclusion and role in the movie that presents it doesn't help it's case any. A steamy scene where a young adult Ethan Hawke bangs the young adult Gwyneth Paltrow for the first time after longing for her for most of his childhood. For me it's a five star track. The melodies, lyrics, sound and over-all flow of the song just seemed to come along at the right time and add to the perfect storm of self-induced feelings of worthlessness I once got off on and being 20 years old. Having never seen the movie until 2013 may have also helped me enjoy 'Sunshower' for what it is as a stand-alone track and not a relation to the format of it's source. Following the acoustic version of 'Like Suicide' that floated around (another gem found on the S.F.W. soundtrack as well as amongst Soundgarden B-side collections) and 'Seasons', which slept on 1992's Singles soundtrack - 'Sunshower' seemed to be the final and most verifiable promise of a phenomenal solo career for Cornell. Unfortnately nothing that followed on 1999's Euphoria Morning, 2007's Carry On, or the utterly abominable Scream (2009) compared to this or anything he scarcely did before.
Pantera - Avoid The Light Album: Dracula 2000 Soundtrack
Pantera was a band that prided themselves on not having B-sides. Typically, when a song didn't work that shit was flushed or the pieces that did work were worked into another song (see 'Piss' and 'Use My Third Arm'). 'Avoid The Light' is a song that really is it's own animal. Experimental guitar tones and riffing that could pass on a Meathook Seed album teeter over a tripped-out soft to heavy structure reminiscent to the kind of stellar shit that helped lay the foundation for the bandwagon killing The Great Southern Trendkill. More akin to TGSTK's 'Living Through Me (Hell's Wrath)' than anything else they'd done previously or since, 'Avoid The Light' is a very uncommercial effort that remains a sleeper amongst fans today. That being said it's a difficult song to fit on an album without bringing momentum to a damn near halt. The occult-tinged lyrics indicate that the song may have even been recorded specifically for the soundtrack itself. There's not a lot of info out there about this one, except that it's arguably one of the best things they've done.
Nine Inch Nails - The Perfect Drug Album: Lost Highway Soundtrack
I'm not a huge fan of Nine Inch Nails, I dig them alright but I haven't followed so closely the last decade or two - though I will say 2013's Hesitation Marks sort of brought my attention back. That's not to say I don't think that what Reznor does isn't great. I can think of a handful of tunes that are actually better than The Perfect Drug - 'Something I Can Never Have', 'A Warm Place', 'Hurt', and 'The Frail' all come to mind - but they're all also more along the lines of slower, more orchestral, closer to the heart types of movements. A niche' I believe he burns the strongest in. 'The Perfect Drug's frantic energy and pace, however, puts it more akin to his faster, more metal-tinged staples like Wish, and Head Like A Hole - only better - and for me makes this one of the few NIN songs that actually makes me want to move.
Type O Negative - Haunted (Per-Version) Album: Life Is Killing Me (Bonus CD of European Import)
The original version of Haunted had always been my favorite Type O Negative song; the idea that it could be improved upon seemed like an effort in futility to me; the "Per-Version" version showcases the same slow-moving titanic rhythms draped in the soliloquy of a desperate man in love and lust with a ghost. The vocal patterns are different and arguably improved upon with an almost Gregorian Monk-like delivery, and ear-wettingly eerie keyboard effects are sparsely added to the composition amongst other very subtle changes here and there - including a much more appropriate fade-out to the song rather than the abrupt Beatles-esque stoppage in the original. I can only imagine the soul-tearing creative decision making process singer/songwriter Peter Steele must have endured in determining which version would make the October Rust LP... Who am I kidding, it was probably just a flip of the coin.
