Summer Sludge Part 2

Summer Sludge

Part Two

Again I return to this crap for another issue. I have what is known as “Completionist Syndrome”. I must always finish what I start or else I feel sick. It’s kind of like O.C.D. When you suffer from this anal retentive affliction, you always have to have things finished or complete. For example: Say you are a Morrissey fan. You have all of his albums. At some point you realize that his music has become tiresome and you don’t even like him anymore. Yet, as soon as he releases and new album, you feel like you should buy it, just to keep your collection complete. Even if it’s a song you don’t like, or a compilation of songs you already own in their individual albums, you have to buy it. 

Thankfully, my affliction does not run as deep as that. In my case, I feel as if I can’t leave anything uncompleted. If I begin to say something and am interrupted, I must finish what I was saying. If I take off one shoe, I have to take off the other one, or I will feel weird. If I start an article, I must finish it, even if I find the concept a bit tedious. 

Which brings me to my current stage: sitting in my hot bedroom, listening to Laibach and writing this sequel longhand on the back of an old Christmas card given to me by an ex-girlfriend. Unlike other writers, I don’t always have my finger on the pulse of what’s new and popular. Often, a good record or group will elude me for years before I actually “discover” them. At that point, even if a band has been around for a decade, it is a fresh listening experience for me. And as such, I am eager to share new-found obsession with you, dear Summer Session students. 

My favorite record at the moment is Kapital by Slovenian industrial group Laibach. My only prior exposure to Laibach was at the Ritz in NYC. Before every concert I’ve seen there, a screen came down from the ceiling and they played a song video called “Life Is Life”. I was intrigued by this militant anthem. It featured some very Germanic looking guys wandering through the mountains and a topless lady shooting off arrows, while a mustachioed man in a headdress sang “Life is life” over and over again in the deepest, most gravelly voice I had ever heard. While the video played, everyone stood at attention and chanted along. When the video ended, the entire place cheered. It was nuts. The group certainly caught my attention. 

After finding out the group’s name Laibach, I set out to find their records. After checking out my usual record stores (Vintage Vinyl and Cafe Sounds- plug! plug!), I came across a few of their records: Macbeth, Let It Be, Sympathy For The Devil, and the new release, Kapital. None of the records had any track listing, so I decided to get their latest one.

Listening to it, I was surprised to discover that it sounded nothing like “Life Is Life”. The militant tone was there, but it was mixed in with a very danceable feel reminiscent or Frontline Assembly and perhaps even Front 242. The vocals were very minimal, if at all present. The most common verbal communication in the songs were samples of movies, a few screams and even a German choir. And to top it off, there is even a rap song on it. This rap song, although an unexpected surprise was the weakest point of an otherwise intense recording. (Which, along with Ministry’s “Test”, show that for the most part Rap and Industrial don’t mis really well- at least not yet.)

Some of the beats from Kapital are taken from other songs and reworked to reflect and entirely different perspective. They use the beat from “Funky Drummer” by James Brown, the beat from the remix of “Tom’s Diner” by DNA, and even the hypnotic beat from my favorite Pet Shop Boys’ song “Being Boring”. These accessible beats are juxtaposed with Avant-garde elements in such an original way, that they lose their original associations in my mind. 

The themes dealt with on the album are those of totalitarianism an self-reliance, as well as self fulfilling prophecy. This recording urges you to seize control of your own destiny without having to reply on any higher powers to guide you. Oh, and somewhere in there is a song in which, who I am assuming to be the mustachioed man, names different parts of skeleton in a really creepy accent. Yeah, not really sure under which theme that one falls. 

My favorite song is the last song on the album: “Steel Trust (Germania)”. This song has a female vocalist and can be construed as a hate/love song. The addition of the female vocals add an entirely different twist to Laibach’s musical style and might even be foreshadowing of a new direction for their music. The musical arrangement of this song reminds me somewhat of In The Nursery’s “To The Faithful”, which, lyrically would serve as a perfect companion piece on the chaotic nature of love. Or maybe, I am totally reading into it too much. 

Overall, Kapital  by Laibach is a satisfying recording which is certainly full or surprises. It indulges our senses with an overload of dark industrial music mixed with a sprinkling of the Hip-Hop sound which has shaped contemporary dance music into the accessible hybrid it has become. I predict that within the year a number off very successful dance single will be released off this album and onto the alternative clubs. And I will be right there, dancing my ass off. 

In other news, Sweet Convulsions will be performing at The Melody club in New Brunswick on August 9th. They always put on an intense show and are worth checking out. Even if it’s just to see back-up dancer Jules gyrating to the music dressed only in cellophane and black duct tape. 

The Erasure E.P. Abba-Esque turned out to be fantastic! I was wrong about the expected track listing. The songs they cover are “Lay All Your Love On Me”, “S.O.S.”, “Take A Chance On Me” and “Voulez-Vous”. They combine the 70’s pop disco sound of ABBA with the bubbly techno sound of Erasure in a delightful dance extravaganza. The best track is “Take A Chance On Me” which features a reggae-style rap half way through. If this song does not receive major airplay, then there is no justice in this world. Abba-Esque has just been released commercially and is now available on cassette for $4.99, instead of the $9.99 import price I paid for it.

Regarding clubs, if you are under 21 and need a great place to dance check out Club A.D. which is now at Aldo’s club in Lyndhurst on Wednesday nights. The ambiance of the club is unique and the music features some of the best Alternative/Techno/Industrial sounds you will find in New Jersey. The DJ is Bobby from The Pipeline on Saturday nights. Fun for the young!

On Saturday July 11th, “Weird Al” Yankovic had a concert at The Ritz in NYC. Now, I have always liked “Weird Al” but I thought he was mainly a novelty musician who never strayed from the studio into the concert circuit. Boy, was I wrong. “Weird Al” puts on one of the funniest live shows in existence. Combining his great (Yes, I do mean great) musical parodies with the theatrics found in his videos, “Weird Al” entertained The Ritz crowd with a two-hour set consisting of his old favorites as well as tracks off his new album Off The Deep End. Among the best performances were his renditions of the sick ballad “One More Minute”; “Dog Eat Dog” in which he simulates David Byrne’s penchant for over-sized clothing; “Fat”, for which he gained over 350 pounds; And of course “Smells Like Nirvana” complete with cheerleaders and slam dancers. He even got called back to do an encore for his song “Yoda”, which is a re-working of The Kinks’s “Lola”. 

The show was a lot of fun, but I couldn’t relate to the crowd. Mostly everyone was geeky as hell and there were even a few “Weird Al” wannabes in the crowd. Looking around, I realized that I was surrounded by Wayne’s World hat wearing, D.C. comic book loving nerds. But then I stopped and I realized that since I was among these nerdlings, someone on the outside looking in would have seen me as no different from the rest of them. So, I left.

And I went straight to the record store and I bought Ministry’s new tape. I can’t figure out what the album title is, because it is just a bunch of scribbles which look Greek to me. First off, the cover is amazing. It seems to be an angel etched in metal with razor blades. The music within is as aggressive and disturbing as the cover. Continuing the hard-edged sound which they created in The Land Of Rape And Honey and expanded upon in The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste, Ministry  takes this metal sound even further. 

Standout tracks like “N.W.O.”, “Jesus Built My Hotrod” and “Corrosion” thread upon the holy grounds of hardcore and speed metal in sound and themes. Tracks like “Scarecrow” and “Psalm69” explore the darker side of Ministry’s themes and musical approach. The album even contains a reworked version of “TV Mind”, the b-side of the “Jesus Built My Hotrod” single, aptly named “TV II”. 

Apart from Ministry’s core members Al Jourgensen  and  Paul Barker, the new album is filled with great guest performers, including Gibby Haynes of The Butthole Surfers, Michael Balch from Frontline Assembly and William Reiflin from Pigface. 

This recording took so fucking long to come out that I was beginning to lose a bit of interest in it. But I am glad that it finally did and that it is as impressive as I had hoped. Too bad I won’t be able to catch them with Ice Cube at Lollapalooza 92 this Summer. I sure hope Uncle Weege fllls me in on the details.

Well, that’s that for Summer School. I hope it wasn’t as much of a torture for you to be here as it was for me to be in this hot newspaper office, sweating to death while Rob, Luigi and Todd cracked bad jokes and did bad impersonations of the various janitors of the College Center. Oh well, that’s life her at The Independent.