For many years, members of the KISS army have cried out at the unjustified dismissing of KISS when the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame (self-titled) selects entrants for its ‘illustrious’ records. Yes, this group of nobodies who have contributed nothing to the world of rock ‘n’ roll (Actually,I should be a member) get to choose bands it deems worthy of taking a chunk of metal (or plastic or something) home and playing a song for their wage paying attendees.
Previous inductees have included Madonna, RUN-DMC, Randy Newman, Public Enemy, ABBA and many more prominent names in the world of rock. Unfortunately for KISS, they just didn’t have what it takes to beat out the aforementioned names to get inducted any sooner than 2014 – a full fifteen years after they first became eligible. Then again, why would they be any different than the less popular acts from rock history, such as Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple and Motorhead?
What’s most unfortunate for KISS is that while they’ve spent many years calling the HOF a joke, they actually agreed to the nomination when it came up and managed to destroy almost everything they stand for (stood for – Ed.) in the months leading up to their induction. The band that once spread a message of love and fun for four full decades have been reduced to bitter, nasty name callers and shameless behaviour. What should have been one united KISS telling the R’N’R HOF to go f*** themselves, as The Sex Pistols did in 2007 – respect; devolved into ridicule, pathetic controversy and petty sniping remarks – mostly from Paul Stanley, the beloved star child.
Paul, Gene – I love you guys. But f*** you and your bad mouthing of Ace and Peter. We all know they were there for the best of the best albums. Yes they are not the be-all and end-all of lead guitarists and drummers in your history and you have your differences, but they are the most prominent in your discography and nothing can change that. You can show them respect and resist resorting to childish, undignified name calling and bitching to the press. You are in your sixties, at least try to act mature.
To Tommy and Eric (and Vinnie, Mark and Bruce) you are all worth much more than this bullsh*t and not having your names on some stupid statue does not make the music you have written, recorded and performed any better, any worse or any less important to the people that love it. You are all part of KISS and it’s important not to let some bunch of over the hill nobodies try to dictate that. But tell Gene and Paul to cop on, they seem to have forgotten the whole point of the band.
The Hall of Fame does not get print on Tickets There anymore and I’m sorry I had to break the rule for this article. It will not happen again – not even when Def Leppard eventually come up for nomination….er, oh yeah – they’ve not been waiting for ten years now. Well thank God Randy fucking Newman is in there or we’d all be in shit. Oops, swears broke out.
Well folks, yet another historic venue is coming close to biting the dust. London’s world famous 100 Club is on the verge of shutting its doors permanently as greedy landlords up the venues rent unrealistically high (uhm, recession people??).
In response to this, fans and friends of the venue have started a campaign to raise £500,000 which will cover immediate debts and increases as well as provide enough capital to invest in the clubs future and once again secure it’s dominance on the London live scene.
As many of you will know, the club was highly instrumental in the early English punk scene, providing bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash a venue to play when others were less willing to allow punk hordes crash through their doors. It has also been a cornerstone for Jazz musicians and played host to some of the biggest names in the world including The Rolling Stones, Muse, Louis Armstrong, B.B. King, Oasis, Metallica, The Kinks, Jeff Beck and literally hundreds more.
Check out the campaigns Official Facebook and Website by clicking the links below,
It’s time to stop letting these clubs close down. Tickets There remembers London eight years ago when we travelled over for a Sex Pistols show at Crystal Palace and top of the list of places to see was The 100 Club. The excitement of seeing the venue almost exactly as it was 35 years ago when the Pistols and Clash graces it’s stage was a real thrill and we know others out there travel for the very same reason, to see a truly historical site that just so happens to double as a fully functioning live venue to this day.
We’ve never gotten to see a show there and it’s still a dream to go back and see it in it’s full splendor and we don’t want fecking landlords closing it down and letting a Mrs. Selfridge or porn shop move in (just look across the street for proof of what dominates that side of Oxford Street).
Half the time, Tickets There is too lazy to write. The other half, we struggle through hordes of rubbish bands to chip out the few amazing ones that deserve all the attention and praise we can pile on them Then there’s days like today when we do all the toiling and checking and searching and can’t find a single band or decent piece of news worth writing about.
Instead of a review, we decided to post a few video’s of bands from music films / documentaries we spent the day watching. Hope you’re all well this lovely Sunday evening and hope you enjoy these (these songs you’ve heard a million times before)
Tickets There is troubled. I read about this earlier today and I thought, why bother?. Why bother writing an article about an establishment that flies in the face of everything its origins are based on? Today, The Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame (in Cleveland, Ohio) voted in favor of accepting Genesis (Fair enough), The Stooges (Fair Enough although they were technically punk if you go by definition), Jimmy Cliff (Ska / Reggae singer…..someone want to explain his presence in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame to me?) and the Dancin’ Queens themselves, ABBA into the hall in 2010. These acts (and a couple more, not keeping this long) were voted in ahead of LL Cool J (Fair Enough), Donna Summer (Damn right fair enough), The Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Hmm…little rocky but technically a funk rock band but if the Stooges can swing it, so can the Chilli’s) and finally, the greatest rock n roll phenomenon America has ever and will ever manage to produce, the mighty KISS.
Now, take one stroll down the main page of Tickets There and you’ll see we’re clearly biased. Obviously there is a great love for KISS on this site (and if you couldn’t tell before, then the constant capitalization of their name should spell it out), but TT would hope that people out there, with little or no love for the band can agree that KISS deserves to be included in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame before ABBA. I would hope that every single band in the world that ever used a distortion pedal would be included in the rock n roll hall of fame before ABBA. What’s next? Are they going to start reserving an annual inductee space for the winner of X-Factor?
The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame has made many, many decision mistakes in the past such as Run DMC and Madonna to name just two, but this is an original one. It’s like passing up Aerosmith in favor of Westlife. ABBA may have some of the catchiest wee pop numbers under the sun and no-ones trying to call them a terrible band or anything but they’re not rock n roll. KISS are and they’re good at it.
We’ll stop this rant before it get’s silly (many, many paragraphs and bracket comments deleted since I started) but I’ll say this, KISS are better off. The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame is out of touch and the last thing KISS needs is to be associated with that un-creditable institution and we urge them to reject their invite to join, when the offer is eventually made. Follow the Sex Pistols and let them know you don’t care.
I think Megadeth are about to become the only band on this site with more albums reviewed than Def Leppard. Feck it, why not. About time fans of the boys got to read some shit about them. It’s just a pity many people aren’t reading them. Ah well, they’re keeping me amused although I haven’t a clue how I’m going to top the last ones. Oh I know, by writing about So Fucking Far, So Fucking Good, So Fucking What!!! And their excellent come back album, 2001’s The World Needs A Hero. Let us begin, let us taste metals divine loveliness.
Megadeth – So Far, So Good, So What
If there is one album that’s underrated, it has to be 1988’s So Far, So Good… So Wha!t. It’s short, loud, obnoxious and a fucking pain killer styled opus. Openaing track, Into the Lungs of Hell is 3 minutes and 29 seconds of screaming guitars, bleeding drums drenched in pain and a bass so heavy it’ll drop kick you into the fourth quarter. Noting bad to say, no way to flaw it.
Although the rolling opening beats of Set The World Afire goes along way in belting it’s point across. Dave’s aggressive youthful manner is still dominant here and the overly loud overdubs during the chorus only help harness the songs dark powers. There’s little melody, there’s little hope. This is a steel cage match for all things metal and Megadeth have no bother crushing every last living thing in site. God its so mouth wateringly good, it even drove away the painful memories of revisiting Cryptic Writings earlier. Next up is a classic Thrash Metal cover track. Megadeth, covering the almighty Sex Pistols’Anarchy in the UK. I wont go into this one in too much detail. It’s a great cover of an all mighty beast of a track.
Mary Jane brings us to the half way mark. A futuristic kind of intro, some savage guitars and a song about a very loving mistress. MJ will always be there to sooth your wows and heal you sadness. Megadeth will always be there to hold Stomp Fest annually on your grave and rob your soul of it’s quintessential essence. Ah, I’m just turning this beats up every five seconds it’s getting ridiculous. This is one of those tunes that shows what girls nu-metal and emo kids are. Korn, PaPa Roach, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance and all those little pussys. Get fucked get Megadeth and hurry your mind to catch up. Sher aggression that only the almighty Slayer can rival. Their guitars are made with the bones of humans, their drum’s are fashioned from the finest moral skin and their power, their power was electrocuted into them when Angus Young and the devil shook hands.
502’s another bloody mentalist track. Fast, aggressive and loud. Car crashes, laws being broken left right and centre and then there’s yer man with all the guitars, it’s mad!. It’s just fucking great. AWWWHHHH, next we have the stand out classic for the top ten songs you need to hear…period!. In My Darkest Hour…….head bangers get ready. The swoops, the spirals, the exploding, fiery demon riffage of the gods. Dave’s growling vocals rasp their way through this power house of an anthem, Written in memory of Metallicas bereaved bass player, Cliff Burton. Poor Cliff was killed in a bus crash while Metallica were touring their incredible Master of Puppets. One of metals most tragic losses, now honoured by Mustaine and Ellefson in one of his finest writing moments.
The hard hitting, metal grinding Liar and Hook in my Mouth finish of one of the Death’s best records. It may be short, it may not be packed with hits but it’s 100% metal. If you’re and a fan and you haven’t heard this one TT advises smacking yourself. If you’re not a fan, stick with Cryptic Writings before attempting this one.
Megadeth – The World Needs a Hero
This is the album that sealed the deal on me being a fan of the Death. After hearing Cryptic Writings and being a little bemused but interested, I got my hands on the greatest hits and record and realized Megadeth had a lot more to offer than slow riffs and violins. When this record came out, it shows Dave and the boys were determined to prove they could still rock the wallet chains and hair dye out of the younger Nu-metal groups. Did they achieve this? Hell yeah they did. The World Needs A Hero saw Vic return to the sleeve and the venom return to Megadeth in blazing glory. Ever since they’ve pushed more and more to get their old sound back and forget the days of Risk. The System Has Failed, United Abominations and Endgame are all direct results of the effort shown on this record.
Disconnect may take a wee while to get your feet moving but once that first guitar solo gets going you’ll be tapping along. It’ not the strongest on the record and it wont convince you Megadeth were on their way back to their old sound but just be patient, it’s a good song. The World Needs A Hero’s title track will however help those worries. Based on that Sweating Bullets / Peace Sells kind of structure. It still doesn’t deliver that full on thrash Megadeth and its riffs are closer to rock n roll than Armageddon but again, it’s a pretty decent track and the solo is fairly wicked.
The albums lead single, Moto Psycho is a belter. A solid, fast, thrash riff and some furious drums to boot. Dave’s voice is back on this one and now you’ll start to see where this record wants to go. Lots of solo’s, riffs n metal up the ass. Now the next one may sound like a ballad but fortunately it’s not. 1,000 Times Goodbye is a god’s honest metal love song…kind of. Intro is a slow, bruising little belter and once that snare hits in you’ll hear the old sound creeping in. Theme is about a total bitch but hey, that’s rock n roll for ya. Burning Bridges is next and this is a little slower and more similar to the bands late nineties sound. Want to move on? Ok, lets do that.
Promises is a ballad kind of track but it’s probably one of the bands best. Great bridge, great chorus and a great use of the string section. This is way up there with songs like A Tout Le Monde and shows they can do ballads properly. Although, these ballad songs look so weak compared to the thrash outputs like So Far, So Good. Really, a band called Megadeth shouldn’t be attempting any of this stuff and should stick to destroying the world with every breath. Ah well, C’est la vie! Recipe For Hate…Warhorse. Now you’re talking, metal, metal, metal. There’s some great building riffs here. Nothing too classic but heavy at least so don’t complain. I’m gonna rush along, I’m suffering from the same thing as yesterday, shouldn’t have listened to So Far first but it ain’t as bad today. Losing Senses is a pretty decent effort. I don’t like the opening but it ain’t the worst.
Dread The Fugitive Mind is finally the Deth back in blazing glory. This is their classic sound clawing it’s way back to the surface. Even the title screams set list and it’s well earned. Very similar to Sweating Bullets in many way and not as good but one of the stand outs on this record. Silent Scorn’s a strange one, strange one indeed. Sounds like an ode to the fallen but it makes way for Return to Hangar…yes, it’s the sequel and one of the albums major tracks. Personally I prefer the live recording from Rude wakening but it’s a cracker. Final song, When is like a Doomsday track. Heavy, slow n thumping!! Nice atmospheric way to finish the record.
So that’s it. Three double reviews of Megadeth at their finest, their fairly decent and there, well I see where you’re going but why don’t ya stick to what your best at. You’ve read about the best, I’ve left out the worst and soon you’ll see Killing is my Business, The System Has Failed, United Abominations and Youthanasia. There you’ll hear about some of Megadeth’s best moments and more about what lead to their latest release, EndGame.
But really you’ll hear about some Irish bands, that’s enough international for awhile, they’ve had their fun. MySpace Review time!!!!!
Richard Hell, that’s the name of the guy I was trying to remember when I started looking through some punk sites this evening. Anyone out there know him? Anyways, doesn’t matter. What got to me was the fact that every time I searched for punk, I was bombarded with article after article and picture after picture of bands like Green Day, The Offspring, NOFX, New Found Glory, Good Charlotte, Sum 41 and the terrible Less Than Jake and I couldn’t help feeling that punk fans and the bands have watered down the music so badly that it’s no wonder people don’t even have respect for The Sex Pistols anymore!
Now, I know the world has a hell of a lot of very, very backward, stupidly stupid people in it but I would try and entertain the idea that even the simplest minded ‘punk rock’ fan does know why the whole thing started in the first place, but I could be wrong. For those of you who don’t know there’s one thing to get straight before you ever mention the bands, before you hear a note of the music, before you even think of shaving all but the middle of your head and tearing your cloths and before you even consider pogoing. That’s the simple fact that ‘Punk’ and ‘Punk rock’ are two very, very separate things. One is about being young, having dreams and ideals with a strength, determination and resolve never to let anyone stand in the way of you achieving them, no matter what the circumstances. Similar to the dreams of hippies from the sixties, Punk’s were about equality, individualism, originality and the notion that we can be anything we want to be. ‘Punk Rock’ is about hair styles, fashion, image, appearance, cliché ideals, un-originality, conforming all backed by a particular driving sound that helps sell the image. Obviously it’s the former idea that excites true fans of music history.
Although Punk music’s origins started in the States with bands like MC5, The New York Dolls, The Stooges and The Ramones, it took four young Londoners to pack all of those ideals and aspirations along with youthful angst and satirical commentary on modern society to make an album that would change the course of music forever. Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols may be the best known and widely loved Punk album of all time but unlike most of the other punk rock albums out there, such as American Idiot and Out Come the Wolves, it’s an honour well deserved. But we’ll talk more about the Pistols and their legacy later.
Now you may think I’m being a little hard on modern punk bands because of the cloths they wear and the image they promote. ‘Why not?’, you ask, ‘who’s it hurting anyway?’. Well there’s a very simple answer to that question. It’s not hurting anyone. What it did was kill one of music’s most original and best efforts at provoking younger people to take pride in themselves, no matter how they looked or what people told them they could amount to. It pushed them to be creative and stand out from a world inhabited by mindless, happy to be controlled sheep. People who had long since given up their attempts at creativity or any hope or longing to just be themselves and not hide behind fashion or popular thought. The kind of people you see everyday that are so competitive and worried about standing out. People who are so worried about other people’s opinion that they cower away with the flock and spend their time sneering and spitting on anyone else that does have that courage to be themselves. You see them everywhere; It starts in school and lasts for the rest of their lives. How many times have you heard people taking endless amounts of crap on subjects like religion, politics, history, the recession, current social and political conflicts and trends? You know those loud mouths who talk and talk about these issues and you can hand pick every comment they make and know full well the film, rumour, hearsay or book they took it from in order to pass it of as their own, without even attempting to look further into the subject, take all points of view into consideration and voice their own, thought out opinion? Well if you can’t remember several times like this it probably just means you’re one of them or you you’re living in Plato’s cave (no philosophical similarity intended).
This may all sound a little off the point when you’re talking about punk music but that’s the point, it’s not off the topic. Those people who do think for themselves were and are punks. ‘Punk Rockers’ you see these days aren’t and I justify that comment with one very simple answer. They’re not punks, because they look like punks. That right there defeats the whole idea punk music started with. The foundation was about being different and not conforming to any system (system not solely meaning government, system refers to any system of control whether it be music, fashion or anything else). So, when the golden punk ideal became watered down with ripped trousers, hair styles and a particular sound, it signalled the end for one of music’s most exacting times.
In the mid-seventies, several punk rock bands of note and influence sprang out of England. Acts like The Jam, The Clash, The Buzzcocks, The Damned and Siouxsie and the Banshees, to name a few, but The Sex Pistols still managed to stand out above all the competition. These days it’s hard to look back and justify why the Pistols had such a strong influence at the time. Peoples minds are clouded with overweight fifty year olds, flogging a dead hoarse every few years for cash, the once scary, sneering Johnny Rotten now dressed in tweed selling butter and taking part in shows like Celebrity Jungle and the cliché of clichés, Mr. Punk Icon himself Sid Vicious’ image over used a billion times by people drinking in cocktail bars who couldn’t name a song the Pistols ever wrote, let alone any of Sid’s solo work. In Tickets There’s opinion there are justifications for all those actions. The Pistols never made any money when they started so why not let them now?, Sid wasn’t being a cliché punk at the time, he was one of the people who invented it, not copied it and Johnny, well Johnny can do what ever the hell he likes because he’s Johnny Rotten. But whether you agree or disagree, none of that can ever hamper their years together as a group and the impact their music and their short time together had on the world.
I say time because the Pistols influence goes deeper than the music. As I mentioned earlier, Punk and Punk Rock are two different things. The Pistols played punk rock in a band but they were punks. At least they started off that way. Their first two years together showed a band going through absolute hell in order to get their point across to the world. They may look like your typical punks and their lyrics, speeches and general attitude may resemble your traditional punk but that’s where it started. They were noting more than kids who had more talent that they were ever given credit for. Four kids angry at society, angry at the world around them who wanted to make a difference or at the very least get laid and have a laugh. They didn’t set out to shock the people at first, they just said what they wanted and that started all the controversy. They may have been naive and miss-lead but they weren’t fake and once they realized what was happening and that they were merely becoming the main attraction in a circus being built up around them they stopped. They simply refused to conform. That’s Punk! You can argue that Jonny leaving and Sid’s death had more to do with it than a general decision but the point is they didn’t carry on after their first album. They didn’t put the head down and deal with the ever growing joke their manager was trying to turn their efforts into and carry on for the sake of massive pay cheques and fame, two of music’s main pitfalls for many iconic artists. The band didn’t want to become manikins or puppets. They were strong willed kids who knew what they had started was too special to kill by opting for an easy life. That is why the Pistols will always be one step above all the other acts from that time, their actual refusal to conform, rather than their musical output. It just helps that Nevermind the Bollocks is the greatest Punk Rock album aswell.
Green Day, Rancid and bands like that? Guys wearing suits and ties with pretty hair trying to sing about their pain while they try and remember if they turned the pool heater of or not. Or guys covered in tattoos except on their hands and face so they can still conform and hide what they pretend to be when needed. Guys decked out in expensive leather, all the wallet chain’s, spikes, bracelets, accessories and quirky necklaces and t-shirts top dollar can buy. That’s not punk, that’s nothing but commercialisms orange parade to celebrate the fact that nothing on this earth can remain special, nothing can be left untouched by the greedy hand of economy and commercialism. Proof that no matter how pure and simple something is, someone out there will always exploit it, make it a product and tap a ‘target market’ and no matter how great the people behind it are and how strong their message is, the ever eager and obeying flock are always waiting to infiltrate, tear apart, burn down and destroy the goodness others have worked and longed for.
Well don’t be upset, there’s much better things you can do with €240, the line-ups crap and lets be honest, it attracts 30,000 of Ireland’s wannabe hippies. The sort of people who love their hemp trousers, their pathetic looking dreadlocks and complaining that socialism is the way our country should go. Even worse is the families which are now being encouraged to go.
Anyways, don’t be upset. Here’s a couple if clips from last years festival to scrape the blues away.
What happened folks? In the mid 50’s, Mr. Elvis A. Presley walked into Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee and became the very first, the best, the symbol, legend, embodiment and icon of rock n roll. Like Sid Vicious to Punk, Frank Sinatra to big band, Johnny Cash to country and western or even Dana to lunatics, Elvis was the total hero, founder and creator of rock n roll. Don’t listen to music nerds, geeks and critics (ahem), Elvis started everything. Forget who influenced him, forget who wrote for him and forget who marketed him, Elvis was it.
Ever since the Kings death, music has flourished through the efforts, talents and hard work, creativity of various people and constant changes in popular culture. From Elvis, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis in the fifties, rock expanded and produced the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and many others throughout the early sixties. Before long Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, The Yardbirds, Jimi Hendrix, Cream and many more appeared. The Doors came out of the west coast.The Who went rock, Led Zeppelin were formed and Jefferson Airplane stayed touring after Woodstock. Just before things could get civilized, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple came out. Queen, Clapton, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Stooges, Alice Cooper, T-Rex, KISS,…the list is endless people. Then came the 80’s, when pop reached a true peak before the ever looming wave of commercialism took it’s firm grip and strangled the genre, until it’s credibility was lower than Gary Glitters. On the other hand you had Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Guns N Roses, Def Leppard, Whitesnake, U2, Judas Priest, OZZY, Slayer, Sepultura, before the end of the decade when Nirvana, The Chilli Peppers, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Blur, Oasis, The Stone Roses, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Smiths, The Pixies, Joy Division, The Happy Mondays, New Order (yes the 24 lot), Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails and then (phew this is a long one) onto Marilyn Manson, The Foo Fighters, Weezer, Korn and so on before the late nineties and boom…nothing happened……funnily enough, fuck all has happened since. How in the hell did almost five decades of amazing, astonishing and diverse creation suddenly grind to an almost complete stop?
Things seemed to fall completely off course. Metal bands suddenly merged rapidly with dance music and rap. Korn had dabbled but so did Aersomith and nothing happened to them. Instead of Angus Young and the D belting out solid, hard hitting blues rock anthems you had fat ugly guys in costumes roaring at you about being bullied and still being virgins living in their mothers houses. Metro sexual, stylish geeks whining on about falling and crying about some girl next door that Lemmy would probably kidnap and turn into a hooker on sun-set before the night’s out. These guys in fitted suits, wearing ties with spiky hair, tattoos and dog collars were mixing Kraftwork with the eighties glam rockers like Twisted Sister, Poison and the likes while wearing their hair like girls. And I don’t mean the old style of hairy bikers drooling over a bar counter girly style, I mean a female hairdresser on a night out style. Like they were trying to keep disobeying the nagging disapproval from generations past and pushing things to some ridiculous limit that nearly goes full circle.
As for Pop music, that fell into the hands of TV companies, dance got old and turned into some demented, hindered state of destruction while indie music became overwhelmed by a horde of Eco-Friendly, Voices of poverty, injustice, animal cruelty and environmentally conscious millennium hippies. Voices that turned away from Indies recreational drug use, love and loss, party image and transformed it into a voice for all the issues in the world rock stars shouldn’t give two shits about, at least not on stage. The likes of Tom Yorke, Chris Martin, Bono, Snow Patrol, Kings of Leon, Kasabian and all that other horse shit. Their songs were so impotent, corpses of tax attorneys could laugh at them. Complaining, moaning and whining about the poverty and cruelty in the world they wouldn’t think of donating their profits to. Bands that appeal to societies total dregs. Bored children, housewife’s, grandparents, indie fans, jocks and just about every member of the heard the western world boasts. Droning brought to extremes of the human soul to a point it becomes so bogged down in ego, insincerity and boredom it would fail to shock a timid kitten.
Metal fell even more of the pits as the old genres piled up with hopeless hack impersonators before bursting at the seems into millions of decaying breakaways. Nu-Metal even buckled (not a bad thing, pile of shite aswell) as Emo broke through their last stand along with nu-punk and metal became even more appealing to the ugly, fat rejects of social society and the fashionable, jock culture more than ever before. After Radiohead’sCreep on the jukebox American Idiot and the Killers would follow and all the trendy’s and Goths alike would bop along. Metal was again infiltrated by main stream culture and unlike before the last ‘icons’ weren’t strong enough to tear it right back for the people of society who used the music as it should be used. Not for pusses crying and ugly nerds to find shelter. Metal is the music for the angry soul (sounds gay I know but hey, I am smoking in case you hadn’t noticed), the serious partiers, the ‘dangerous’ people of society.
Rock N roll lost it’s fight much earlier. After the Guns N Roses era came to a close, few rock bands ever managed to reach those heights again. Don’t even bother with the Killers and The Kings of Leon…or The Strokes bitch. I’m talking about real fucking n roll. The kind of rock n roll that made all the bad things bands these days demonize like drinking, sex, destruction, rebellion and a good hearty message of Fuck You to anyone who bothered them, fun!. Elvis shock things up, the Stones defined it, Aerosmith brought it miles higher while AC/DC put the fucking boots on before Guns N Roses perfected it in every single sense of the word.
The world is losing it’s icons. Right now I can’t think of any that have come out since the early nineties. I mean a true icon of rebellion. Pete Doherty, and Amy Winehouse make a mockery of drug addicted musicians which, throughout the history of music, have written some of the most amazing music ever created. The Beatles, Jim Morrison, The Grateful Dead, Hendrix, Keith Richards, Janis Joplin, Kobain etc. Bono, Yorke and Martin take the places of people like Neil Young with his stories, Springsteen and his zest for life and Bowies ever changing persona, image and style only to replace it with gilt tripping, giver of life wannabe humanitarian ideologist façade while they doge taxes and pontificate to fans what they should do, wear, believe in, live and breath. Forget ‘think for yourself’, the message was spelled out in bold impact lettering and strangely enough, a discontented mass fell for it, hook line and sinker.
That’s pretty much where we are in my eyes. I’ve forgotten many of the previous generation’s true greats but there’s only so much you can write in an hour and keep semi-coherent. I’ve also neglected some of the better talents to emerge on the international scene and some of the worse ones. Arcade Fire and MGMT to name a couple. But that’s how I see things, pretty much that black and white. Most of the old styles got confused, disjointed, lost in translation and overwhelmed in image, style and forced restrictions and beliefs and turned them into uninspired shells of their former selves. I’m not saying charity is bad, I’m not saying there’s no credibility in any of the new bands these days and I’m not saying looking after the environment is wrong, animals should be mistreated, people shouldn’t be nice to each other and drugs are good. I believe the exact opposite of each one and a conscious attitude is essential to the basic fabrication of mankind’s cohabitation together and civilized society. What I’m saying is people should learn this from other sources like parents and a proper education rather than one of mankind’s forms of entertainment. Aren’t we allowed to relax, switch totally off and dream sometimes with the horrors of some societies and the worlds problems being shoved in our face at every fucking turn?
Maybe there was one message spelt out by one of the golden age icons that we should listen to is the words of Jim Morrison.
“When the music’s over, turn out the lights, turn out the lights,”
For many years, members of the KISS army have cried out at the unjustified dismissing of KISS when the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame (self-titled) selects entrants for its ‘illustrious’ records. Yes, this group of nobodies who have contributed nothing to the world of rock ‘n’ roll (Actually, I should be a member) get to choose bands it deems worthy of taking a chunk of metal (or plastic or something) home and playing a song for their wage paying attendees.
'Ticket's There' - Irish and International Music Blog 