markm

I didn't think you ever did! Have you turned a new hoof? Haha! I appreciate Whitenoise's photo and I'd like to think I have a certain wild and rugged, even roguish Irish charm, but I'm not quite that, uh, butch. But you know, it's hard paddling class 4 rapids in my blazers and neckties, and the Doc Martins aren't water proof, but I do what I can to maintain my cred with all the kiddos I paddle with.

Haven't been a round as much lately, but check in and read posts regardless. Been revisiting all my Sonic Youth discs I bought a few years ago when I dug into punk, indie and post punk genres. I Went thru the 6 albums I have driving a 10 round trip to the might New River in SW West Virginia and had a great two days on that river with an awesome crew. I used to hate Sonic Youth. They're an acquired taste for a metal fan, but I've grown to appreciate their innovation and contribution to noise and general weirdness that has found its way to other forms of heavy music including metal in the aughts.

KISS/Alive I KISS/Alive II Sonic Youth/Evol the Scorpions/Animal Magmatism

That's where I met Alex and Ferday, but there were some that took the loudness wars thing a little too far.

I think that was this other dude who posted on M-F for a minute. He came and went pretty quick. I think he posted a picture of himself with his shirt off showing off his abs at some point....kind of an odd character. GG, didn't you scare him off...have a vague recollection.

I started on Head-Fi, they have/had a metal thread back in about 2012-so about ten years for me as well.

Slave to the Grind is the one to listen to. I can do slick glam metal. I liked Bach's solo album, Angel Down. Listening to the new one now. 2 songs, guess I've got a short attention span these days. Serviceable, riffy & screechy, forgettable, not a purchase for me.

Daeva/Through Sheer Will And Black Magic...

Listening to a playlist at home: Everything I own by: Sonic Youth Dinosaur Jr. Buzzcoks GBH Bastards Mob 47 Fugazi

I see on a DC/Metal website, MDF is returning in '24 https://dcheavymetal.com/upcoming-concerts/

Yep that's me. My high school years were fall of September '79-June of -84. A lot of the theater kids I hung out with were into punk, Ziggy stardust era Bowie, and New Wave-thinking Rock Lobster era B52s, Blondie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (how can anyone forget the travesty of Meatloaf), Devo, Lou Reed, Oliver's Army era Elvis Costello, the remnants of the hippie era were big in to Grateful Dead. On a google search, Bad Religion, Minor Threat, The Misfits, Dead Kennedy's and Circle Jerks all were big in the 80's. Regarding your beloved Ramones, End of the Century came out in 80-had that album and have enjoyed them ever since. London Calling came out in '79. Alternative rock exploded in the 80's with bands like R.E.M., U2, Violent Femmes, The Replacements. As you alluded, Priest ruled; of course hair metal were quite a thing. We had metal sections in record stores. Quiet Riot, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, Poison, White Snake-all that shit was on the radio. I well remember tee shirts and backpacks with Def Leppard, and in particular Eddie/Maiden backpacks. Even pop rock albums like Foreigner's Double Vision that had a hard rock slant were pretty popular alongside ZZ Top's MTV exposure, . Of course there was pop and soft cock and all the rest, but I would say, that guitar based music was very popular when I was in high school. Then, when I was in college, in 85-90,we had Metallica's mega commercial breakthrough, AJFA in '88.I was there and saw them then right along more aggro alternative like Jane's Addiction. Nothing's Shocking has been a favorite of mine ever since Every kid I knew that had a guitar memorized every riff of Appetite for Destruction. Today, kids have no interest in the blues based guitar rawk of the 80's. Sonic Youth and Dinosaur JR and Pixies brought loud guitar to alternative music which didn't hurt usher in Grunge. How well I remember Man in the Box, Alive, Outshined and of course Smells like Teen Spirit-now we get into early 90's but still...... all of it was played on the radio. I know because I used to listen to DC101 and 98Rock. It was the era of Pour Some Sugar on Me, No One Like You, Living on a Prayer, Welcome to the Jungle, Rock you Like a Hurricane, Money for Nothing, Don't Stop Believing (unfortunately) Panama and Jump, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Dead or Alive, Sweet Child of Mine. A lot of the above is drivel, but it was commercial hard rock and we had rock radio-AOR. Natch, Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, and Whitney Houston had the lions share of attention, but yes I would say hard rock, alterative, punk and related genres were pretty popular between 79-90. I remember hearing lots of Springsteen, CCR and Tom Petty on the radio when I was in high school. Today, there really is no rock radio. It was a totally different time.

I think of Australia and the U.S. having similar cultures but maybe Aus has a greater thirst for heavier rock music? I'm not saying heavy music doesn't exist. DC/Baltimore has a fairly active club circuit. What I'm saying in general, young people in HS/College don't listen to guitar oriented music. It's all pop and hip-hop from what I see in local high schools. In the aughts I used to see kids with a random Slipknot or Avenged Sevenfold tee shirt. Today, not so much. My daughter and her friends listen to what they call indie but anything she's ever played for me sounds like pop music to my ear. Ed Sheeran is the one artist I can actually remember. I wouldn't call his music indie. It's lite pop music. The indie/alternative rock I used to hate and now tolerate and listen to in short bursts would be stuff like Pixies, Sonic Youth, Dino Jr., Jesus and the Mary Chain, early Cult, The Stone Roses-and either had a folk or loud guitar oriented sound. Least that was what I like of that era. Not so much stuff like The Smiths. Or even bands like Radiohead who moved into electronica were obviously a rock band. I also like some bands you could call experimental a la Swans, or left field avant-ambient Juiliana Barwick or chamber/experimental artists like Julie Holter and my daughter wouldn't listen to....no mass appeal there.

I think metal and indeed guitar based rock music is so out of vouge given the public's interest in pop and hip hop that trend hopping is a bit of a misnomer. The rock, hard rock, punk and 80's metal I came up on is so far in the rear view mirror that it's almost anachronistic to the general public.

Yes, I've noticed you've posted quite a bit of some of your old fav's

Great points all around. I found a few years ago, the weekly looking-and I was only looking in pretty obvious places-took all the listening time I had and needed to reassess and reset. And like has been said here, it's not like most of what was great.....a lot of it samey and genres that felt retread without much variation and stagnant. Invariably at years end, I find gems that peak my interest again. Gems, finding gems. It is the sheer quantity that can simply overwhelm the senses to the point where it almost becomes a deterrent like IDK, I'm perseverating over gems.....OK, I'm getting an image of of creeping into the cave and finding Smaug's pile of jewels so massive....I mean it's like the size of Mount Olympus. And you're not sure where to start looking. So many shiny objects. You have five minutes to grab the best jewels before being fire blasted into eternity. Aw fuck it, I'm out, this underground cave is making me all kinds of paranoid.

This thread is far beyond my paygrade. I am not qualified or worthy and lack the time of late, but like a 500 pound basement, balls scratching voyeur enjoying reading the verbal carnage or in the case of GG skimming because i don't have time to read War and Peace and LOTR's but do enjoy your counter culture, give no fucks, avoid the rat race mentality that I have been unsuccessful escaping. Carry on. P.S.-hails and ails and horns and thorns to boujie, middle aged exburbian, suburban metal adjacent normies. You mainstream douche's need an advocate. Suddenly I find my voice.

I started seeing Poke Bowls show up at somewhat trendy high priced stores like Wegman's, maybe Trader Joe's. I'm sure Whole Foods has them, but don't really shop there. Following on F.A. point, I don't mind them for what they are. I like the fresh, basically healthy ingredients and Asian flare, but they tend to be overpriced and wouldn't make a full meal for me.

Iron Maiden/Senjutsu Cult of Luna/The Long Road North Motorhead/Ace of Spades Deafheaven/Infinite Granite-Yeah, fuck off

You deserve a solid buzz and them some! And what's up with all this poke bowl bullshit....that's an appetizer in my book.

Yes all is well other than working more than I would like.

The man of of many names who must not be named has held top posting position at both Metal-fi and here on Metal Forum, but at M-F I was often in the top 5, here I don't rank in the Leaderboard. My power is waning here on Middle Earth.

Autopsy-Morbidity Triumphant-like this also Ken Mode-Null Lord Mantis-Death Mask Siege/Drop Dead-30th Anniversary addition Dystopia/Humans=Garbage Joy Division/Unknown Pleasures-back in college when I was working with a fledgling Shakespeare troupe, my friend fellow Shakespearean cast member, Steve Barney (RIP) who was into alternative rock and punk and such lent me a Joy Division tape he thought I might like knowing I liked metal. I always knew this was an influential album but never really delved into the backstory. The CD I bought a few years ago has a second live CD with the same tracks for the most part and is very good, sonically. It's actually a good live rendering of the studeio tracks. I read the liner notes for the first time and it talks about how raw the band was live and how the producer was difficult to work with and treated the band like children. Some of the members hated the album's production initially even going so far as to say it made them sound like Pink Floyd (which it certainly does not). In retrospect, the the surviving members all seem to agree the production choices were a masterstroke despite him being a control freak. The band felt manipulated but the collaboration resulted in an iconic piece of music. Now, years later, I understand why Steve wanted me to listen to one of his favorite bands. Steve was a very intelligent and interesting character-lanky, quirky, fun loving, compassionate dude with long curly hair-he looked like a rock'n'roll Gollum. He waved his freak flag proud. We maintained our friendship when we both moved to the DC/Baltimore area. He got married, cut his hair and became a civic engineer. He was so creative, often writing scripts and producing theater and continued to perform until the end of his life whereas I moved on with my extra curriculars . He was a kind man who was loved by everyone he knew. Sadly, he passed from cancer a few years ago. Steve was one of of those unique and special individuals who touch your life and pass on through the unknowable looking glass, proving the good often die young. But he must have realized back in the 80's that the dark, slow burn, seething sounds of Unknown Pleasures, teetering on loss of control and madness was metal adjacent. The university of Google informs me it influenced diverse metal artists including Tom Warrior and Neurosis. It must have been an influence on post metal and sludge, metal genres that were years from being born. The companion disc catches the way the band must have sounded live, whereas the producer felt that a studio album shouldn't simply replicate the band in a live setting. One of the great rock albums of all time.

Actually, kind of same for me. My parents in the foreign service in the 60's became strong lefties, somewhat radicalized for the time. After the repression of their upbringing in the bible belt of TN in the 40's and 50's, Sargent Peppers seemed to liberate my Dad in a way that rocked his world and he never really recovered that time and that music-bring back the 60's, man. My Dad and I unfortunately didn't gel as adult men, but we vibed over music. He had a deep love of the delta blues and fight the power and loyalty to the workers movements of the 30's and the tragedy of racial injustice in the culture he was born into. Even though he was white and grew up in a proper Christian background which he later rebuked, I think, in his own way he was emotionally scarred and traumatized by the injustices he saw in rural TN that he described as a kind of lawless wild west in which blacks had zero recourse to the profound tragedy and torture of their lives without any equal justice and today we'd call apartheid. He needed something to set him free. It was his heroine although he was not one to dabble in drugs. Music was a big part of it for so many in the 60's in terms of that culture as we both know. It intoxicated that generation I believe in a way that we, even we as their children-but of the more selfish , indulged "me generation" can't completely grasp. When I was 6 we moved to Northern Virginia and my Dad had these reel to reel tapes with several albums on each tape. Those were magic. Nothing really cool. No Floyd or Zeppelin. But there was shit tons of The Beatles, CCR, The Who's Tommy. I loved the later Beatles period. I guess, I'd have to say I prefer Lennon and Harrison as songwriters to Mr. Silly love songs even though the cute one had an amazing knack for writing pop rock. TBH, with Lennon/McCartney as a songwriting team I wasn't always sure who actually wrote each song. And, then of course, Paul was really dead right? 😛 And my parents also LOVED the Mamas and Papas and Simon and Garfunkel. I can't lie, I bought some Mamas and Paps and S & G on disc a few years ago for nostalgia. Both kind of corny for those uninitiated in 60's flower power (I consider myself sort of a hippie metal fan at heart, certainly not in appearance ) but they both cranked out some irresistible harmonies that have never really been outdone in my book.

In truth, I often make quick snap judgements about bands and then turnaround completely. I'm still digesting. I hear the remnants of 90's grunge, not style so much as in accessibility and by that I mean accessibility relative to heavy music. No my wife was clear Sunday morning with her disenchantment with one TON track or another that was on. For my money, and I know they are oft classified as goth metal progenitors, their sound hits me more or less like a form of doom, I find the Peaceville Three, EW and YOB's entire discography, Pentagram even, and all the bands they spawned more "interesting", certainly more impactful in terms of being metaaaaal. Guess I didn't realize how much you liked the Beatles. Of course, I remember on MF discussing given our age how we have an appreciation for Dylan and The Beatles in way even guys in their late 40's probably don't and I remember debating the relative merits of Abbey Road with you, essentially my regard for that album being higher than years as I consider that one of the cornerstones of great classic rock, but yeah also surprised you still listen to that much of the fab 4 given you generally eschew classic rock. Joy Division/Closer Agalloch/The Serpent and the Spehre-speaking of lush, nearly forgot how elegant their last album was.