the new wave of new wave of broken heavy metal

it's the late 80's.
something's going on in the world of indie and i don't quite understand it or like it.
there's all sorts of talk about dance music and i find it all a bit frightening.
i don't do dancing.
that's not entirely true - i tried to do dancing for a short while but i felt just like what i was, a skinny and pale indie kid trying a bit too hard to not feel too conspicuous.

i just didn't get it.

so instead i headed off through my past.
i rediscovered my metal roots through a subtle blend of bands from north london (and ipswich!) and the USA.



terminal cheesecake were ferocious.
a huge mouldering sonic attack of sheet metal guitars, grinding bass and shouty druggy vocals.
listening back to them they're not a million miles away from the other bands i loved at the time - dog faced hermans, membranes et al - terminal cheesecake were definitely a left field indie metal band. albeit it a badly tripped out psychedelic buttholes inspired version.
if you can them then my advice is buy them.



then there was silverfish's first 12".
dunno what to say about silverfish. you probably already know.
all i want to say is simply that their first 12" was an astonishing blast of filthy rock.
yum.



my favourite of all the UK metal type bands was the stupids.
they were skatecore i suppose, weren't they?
i loved loved loved them - their AC/DC at 200 mph riffs, their geeky singing drummer and their childish humour (just check out "killed by a cripple" or "jesus do what you have to" from their "retard picnic" LP).

that was the UK then.



from the USA i got really into killdozer.
grinding guitar, churning bass, thumpy drums and honest-to-god laugh out loud lyrics.
i never saw them live but was told by a friend who did that the funniest thing in the world was to see a short-arsed singing bass player standing on a box to reach the mic.
that's the kind of band for me.



i'd continued buying big black records right up to the end and so when rapeman was announced i was at the front of the queue for my copy of the 12", "budd".
that was a good record, but "two nuns and a pack mule" was simply astounding.
it continues to be my favourite albini record.
it pisses all over anything by shellac.


i suppose all of this is what made me start making stoogey rockish music with my band rather than the noisy out of tune indie i'd been making previously.
i don't know whether or not that matters.

i think what i'm trying to come to terms with is an inate rockism in my record collection.
does that matter?
is it because i'm from that hotbed of rock that is the midlands?
why am i telling you all this?
more importantly why are you reading it?
and is there any point?

well, i think that if there is a point it is simply this - you should never lie to yourself about what you like, what you love, what you hate.
don't be guided by what is or isn't something you should be into.

if you like that record at number one in the charts then buy it and play it.
if you like the latest eric clapton album, then go for it.

there you are.
sermon over.