Hump Day Chat: Geeking on Midnight Oil, and The Punk vs. The Godfather

Doo doo, doo doo, doo doo doot.

As has become custom here at First State Rock, Michael Anthony of the rock hall blog Cleveland Does Not Rock joins our very own G.E. Smith for a random chat about rock music, some of which pertains to the Delaware Valley music scene. Or maybe not. Here goes:

G.E. Smith: You into the vid for "Power and the Passion" by Midnight Oil? It came on VH1 Classic's "120 Minutes" the other night. That video and song scares the shit out of me. What the f*ck is wrong with that Peter Garrett guy?

Michael Anthony: Haha yeah man. His moves seem to be a mistake.

G.E. Smith: They're more exaggerated in that tune. Like as if it's great or something. It sounds like dung.

Michael Anthony: Isn't it a little weird how no one cares about them now? Unless you live in AUS. I don't know why but I dig 'em. I'd never listen to 'em but it's pretty good. The singles at least. I bet the album tracks are ass. You into "Dead Heart"?

G.E. Smith: Yea I love "Dead Heart," and I like "Dream World" even better. I'm actually pretty into them. At least I used to be. I saw them in concert during all that Greenpeace shit and I have three of their albums. There's some not so bad deep cuts, like "Stars of Warburton" on "Blue Sky Mining."

Michael Anthony: I thought maybe you started hating them. Like I hate Elvis Costello now.

Gas face: Is it really that hard to play bass?

G.E. Smith: Who do respect more, Costello or Sting?

Michael Anthony: Haha I hate Elvis relative to how much I loved him in the past, but I wouldn't go so far as to compare him to Sting (whose "Back To Bass: 2013" tour comes to the Pier Six Pavillion in Baltimore on June 12, and the Borgata in Atlantic City from June 13-14). You think they're even comparable? Sting has no "Oliver's Army." Not even close. Both racist, both play soft rock now, neither ever played punk rock.

G.E. Smith: Yea definitely. I guess it comes down to who is more of a Fake Punk. Who is more longing to have punk roots and who fails worse in that department.

Michael Anthony: I don't think either tries now. Maybe both were just unwittingly shoehorned into punk/ New Wave but were really just aching to be adult-contemporary losers all along. At least Midnight Oil has the radical politics going on. You ever see how their most recent album cover jacks Wire?

G.E. Smith: Who, Oil? What year did that come out?

Michael Anthony: 2002. Similar cover to "A Bell Is A Cup."

G.E. Smith: You think that bald asshole dresses as Fred Krueger for Halloween?

Michael Anthony: Yeah. Or Slender Man.

G.E. Smith: You think Oil could have gone the Kiss/ Alice Cooper/ Misfits route?

Michael Anthony: You think if Garrett did a reverse Kiss people would like him better with makeup on?

G.E. Smith: You think him and his band ever jam naked in the desert?

Michael Anthony: Just him.

"Happy" Record Store Day? SHIT NO

Main Street Jukebox in Stroudsburg, Pa. Bought "Pleased To Meet Me" here.

Everyone was going around on Saturday, as they do every year, Tweeting and Facebooking and commenting "Happy Record Store Day." Why? What was so happy about it?

According to me, it sucked. It sucked because Rainbow Records, the last record store on Newark's Main Street, is closing down at the end of June. Great. F*cking great. Main Street has 14 pizza places, 65 bars, 10 boutique clothing stores, 24 ice cream joints, and 745 restaurants. And three parking lots. BUT AS OF JULY NO RECORD STORES. This is a college town. What the f*ck?

Smug asshole.

It sucked because of Metallica. Thanks, jackasses, for your Great Stand against Napster and the music pirates of the world. You did justice by millionaire douchebag rockstars, like yourselves, everywhere who didn't want their sex and money train derailed by music fans. The real tragedy is that Lars Ulrich, maybe the dumbest man alive, actually had a point: Free downloading of music DOES hurt recording artists, who can't make money if people aren't buying it. Unfortunately, by vilifying people who just love music, you only emboldened them to find new ways to continue "stealing" it, and at a higher rate. There's a way for this to work, it will just take someone with more smarts than the braintrust that is Metallica.

It sucked because of the record industry, which had a brief glimpse of sanity in the early 1990s before turning inspired alt and indie-rock acts into cash cows, which eventually killed great bands like Superdrag, and then ushered in rap-metal, and then boybands, and then faux-indie rock, and then castrated rock like The Shins, and then The Killers, and so on. The industry controls what's popular like the government controls what party is in power (what?).

It sucked because of fans, who have become too confused or too lazy or both to delve deep into the outer reaches of the Internets to find and discover great new bands. Clearly there's a need for band sites like the Bandcamps, and the Facebook, and the ReverbNations or whatever other MySpace replacements are out there, but there are now TOO MANY options for fans. They can't find what they should be finding. The f*ckfaces at snob clubs like Pitchfork only contribute to the confusion.

It sucked because of MTV, and then MTV2, and then VH1, and then VH1 2, and now VH1 Classic, all of which started out as channels that just played music videos and then started stuffing programming which stuff that had nothing to do with music. That spectrum ranges from "I'm A Pregnant Teen, I Love Evil Clowns, But No One Knows It" on MTV to airings of movies like "Fletch" on VH1 Classic that have NOTHING to do with music at all. You can say, well, anyone can watch whatever video they want on YouTube. Well, they don't. And you can say, well, no one makes videos anymore. And I'd say, well, that's the problem. For all its negatives MTV did some amazing things for music, introducing bands like R.E.M., The Replacements, Jane's Addiction and various acts on "120 Minutes," introducing rap to mainstream society on "Yo! MTV Raps," keeping metal alive on "Headbanger's Ball" and making Mark Mothersbaugh famous. Today, the latter gives parents everywhere joy on a daily basis via "Yo Gabba Gabba," which actually helps promote music through the appearance of cool bands on the show.

Yes, this is the Devo guy. And, yes, he is keeping music alive.

It sucked most of all because it's reality. No one wants to buy CDs or tapes or vinyl anymore. Maybe the labels and artists could contribute to help indie stores stay open. Maybe artists could treat releases like Cracker Jack boxes and put special prizes in each one, like codes to downloads or special artwork or even those little comic book thingys they put in the actual boxes for the caramel popcorn treats with the peanut shit.

And maybe someday it will come back due to the retro factor. Until then, we'll just follow along like little sheep and download the latest Lumineers single on iTunes. Yay. Does the fun ever start?

Diamond Head, Diamond State: Metal greats play Mojo 13

Remember Anvil? Remember how the Canadian metal band's story emerged out of nowhere as something important back in 2008, and how the "rockumentary" "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" - which somehow captured every dramatic and important moment on the band's comeback tour - came out and was on VH1 Classic practically every day?

Clearly, there's video and testimonials to support the fact that Anvil did indeed play a big festival with Metallica back in the early 1980s. But there's little else - the music and crude lyrics were seemingly more of an influence on Nickelback than any future metal band. Something about the whole deal just didn't seem right - did Anvil really still have a following today and that justified the movie, or did the hype of the movie make it so that Anvil had a following?

Anvil: I didn't buy this stupid shit for a second. You?

(Also, are you like me? Did you feel like this was basically a stab at a quote-unquote real-life version of "This is Spinal Tap," only not funny or cool? Just wondering.)

You don't have any of that shit with Diamond Head, a band that emerged from Stourbridge, England in the late 1970s and turned segments of the music world on their asses with a mysterious untitled album in 1980 that merged Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest. Musically, it set the template for bands like Metallica and Megadeth, who both cite them as influences.

But unlike Anvil, these dudes are legit, and the proof is out there. Go ahead and YouTube "Lightning To The Nations," which fans and writers went on to name that first album, and you will be blown away by what you hear if you are into stuff like Sabbath, Led Zep or early metal. Brian Tatler tears it up with wicked solos and razor-like riffs, and singer Sean Harris could pass for Robert Plant in a Zeppelin tribute band. 

 

Is this good or bad? I can't tell.

The chugging "Sucking My Love" is, appropriately enough, 10 minutes of awesome, the title track bangs away like Judas Priests' best cock-rock moments, only with black metal subbing in for some of Priests' more schlocky moments, and there's a reason why Metallica and others later covered the dastardly "Am I Evil?"

And we know Metallica was heavily influenced by them, because drummer Lars Ulrich has said he patterned the band's sound after Diamond Head, and the setlists to their early shows were stuffed with Diamond Head tunes.

Sadly, the band couldn't cash in, and it all fell apart when they signed with MCA, either because they took all kinds of bad advice, couldn't write or record any more decent songs or their contract with the devil ran out. 

Better have a lawyer present.

The band will be at Mojo 13, 1706 Philadelphia Pike, in Holly Oak, on Thursday (April 11).

Coffin Dust, Skeleton Hands, and 9 Crown Monarch open up starting at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $18 in advance, $20 day of show. Go here to buy them now or get them at the door.