No Lives Matter

No Lives Matter

1. Black Flag, "Rise Above"
2. Bikini Kill, "Double Dare Ya"
3. Anthrax and Public Enemy, "Bring the Noise"
4. Living Colour, "Cult of Personality"
5. Sepultura, "Refuse/Resist"
6. Suicidal Tendencies, "Send Me Your Money"
7. Ministry, "Thieves"
8. Time Zone, "World Destruction"
9. Nine Inch Nails, "The Hand That Feeds"
10. Saul Williams, "List of Demands (Reparations)"
11. Discharge, "Protest and Survive"
12. Bad Brains, "Banned in D.C."
13.  Faith No More, "War Pigs"
14. Motörhead, "God Save the Queen"
15. Body Count, "No Lives Matter"
16. Revocation, "Pestilence Reigns"
17. A Tribe Called Quest, "We the People..."
18. Rage Against the Machine, "The Ghost of Tom Joad"
19. Sinéad O'Connor, "Black Boys on Mopeds"
20. David Bowie and Trent Reznor, "I'm Afraid of Americans"

For DMS.

The Theme Song Will Not Be Written by Jim Webb or Francis Scott Key

The Theme Song Will Not Be Written by Jim Webb or Francis Scott Key 

1. Metallica, "Blackened"
2. System Of A Down, "B.Y.O.B."
3. Faith No More, "We Care A Lot"
4. Black Sabbath, "War Pigs"
5. Anthrax, "Bring the Noise"
6. Gojira, "Ocean Planet"
7. Testament, "Practice What You Preach"
8.  Living Colour, "Cult of Personality"
9. Suicidal Tendencies, "Send Me Your Money"
10. Lamb of God, "Now You've Got Something to Die For"
11. Revocation, "Pestilence Reigns"
12. Megadeth, "Peace Sells"
13. Ministry, "Thieves"
14. Sepultura, "Refuse/Resist"
15. Rage Against the Machine, "Killing in the Name"
16. Slayer and Ice-T, "Disorder"
17. Misery Index, "Traitors"

A post-elections gift for some of my fellow campaigners, culled from a few of my past political metal mixes.

Ministry, "Just One Fix"

William S. Burroughs would have turned 100 today (or last night, February 5.) His influence on music runs through collaborations with everyone from U2 to Kurt Cobain to Laurie Anderson to R.E.M. to Tom Waits. The band names Steely Dan, The Soft Machine and Clem Snide all come from his novels, as does the term "heavy metal." He appears on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. While he's no one's idea of an easy read (Nick Cave once wonderfully quipped that Edgar Rice Burroughs was "the superior Burroughs,") William Burroughs' inventiveness with language is still unparalleled today. Like a lyrical Jackson Pollock, his works often appear messy and spontaneous, but have inimitable flair and imagination.



My favorite of Burroughs' musical endeavors is his appearance on Ministry's "Just One Fix." For Ministry's full transformation to industrial metal pioneers (hell, inventors,) they enlisted the scariest old man in the world for their single and music video. Al Jourgensen wasn't as poetic about his addiction as Burroughs would have been, but those harsh buzzsaw guitars nail the point as deeply as any passage in Junkie.

30 years earlier, Burroughs wrote about "Uranian Willy the heavy metal Kid" in The Soft Machine, later elaborating in Nova Express, "With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms - Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes - And the Insect People of Minraud with metal music." On "Just One Fix," he lived up to that description.

Jesus Rides Beside Me

Jesus Rides Beside Me

1. Mississippi Fred McDowell, "Jesus is on the Mainline"
2. Kanye West, "Jesus Walks"
3. Depeche Mode, "Personal Jesus"
4. Soundgarden, "Jesus Christ Pose"
5. Big Star, "Jesus Christ"
6. The Vaselines, "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam"
7. Spaceman 3, "Walkin' with Jesus"
8. Violent Femmes, "Jesus Walking on the Water"
9. Stevie Wonder, "Jesus Children of America"
10. Suffocation, "Jesus Wept"
11. Ministry, "Jesus Built My Hotrod"
12. Homer Quincy Smith, "I Want Jesus to Talk with Me"
13. Al Green, "Jesus is Waiting"
14. Tom Waits, "Jesus Gonna Be Here"
15. Minutemen, "Jesus and Tequila"
16. Wilco, "Jesus, Etc."
17. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well"
18. ZZ Top, "Jesus Just Left Chicago"
19. Slayer, "Jesus Saves"
20. King Missile, "Jesus Was Way Cool"
21. The Velvet Underground, "Jesus"
22. Sam Cooke, "Jesus Gave Me Water"

Enough awesomeness to offset an entire month of "The Little Drummer Boy."

Roseland Ballroom

The Roseland Ballroom was like one of those old wooden roller coasters that always looks like it's about to fall apart. It wasn't the safest choice, and it didn't always work, but it could also be counted on for a thrill. Off the top of my head, I can remember three times where the sound blew out, including one where the performer ended the show early. But Roseland Ballroom had as much character as one could expect in a nearly 100-year-old venue. It was either the diviest ballroom or the fanciest dive, one of the only spots that deserved to be in Times Square in 1993 as much as 2013. It's no wonder that Keith Richards, whom it's fair to say has played his share of venues, singled it out as one of his favorites in his autobiography.

Roseland is closing in April, and I'd advise anyone in the New York City area to go before it's too late (Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage and Testament this Friday is currently the best thing on their roster). Until then, here are 10 great metal and alternative moments from the Roseland Ballroom.

1. Ministry, 2003

Straight out of rehab, Al Jourgensen raged back with Ministry's best album in a decade and a show that almost made my ears bleed through my earplugs. As if to prove he could still be crazy without drugs, Jourgensen smashed a guitar early on and brought out Skinny Puppy's Nivek Ogre for an encore of "Burning Inside." Bassist Paul Barker quit shortly after--he had handled two decades of Jourgensen's debauchery, but for some reason this tour was the last straw.

2. Liz Phair, 2004

Touring behind her "sellout" album, Liz turned out to be a cheerful, excited performer whose new songs, when freed from the Matrix's production, sounded fine next to "6'1"" and "Divorce Song." I stood next to a pair of perky kids who brought a homemade sign, sang along to "Why Can't I?" and looked terrified when she played "Fuck and Run."

3. Marilyn Manson, 2004

It was just the Marilyn Manson show that one could hope for. Promoting his first "Best of" album, the former Brian Warner played all the hits and brought out all the old costumes and props. This was also one of those show where the sound blew out, but after the "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" mosh pit, they were lucky the walls were still standing.

4. The Dillinger Escape Plan, 2006

Inexplicably thrown in between A Nightmare of You and AFI, Dillinger proved themselves the only real punk band on the bill with a blisteringly loud set. Greg Puciato, the most violent frontman since Iggy Pop, broke a speaker and a mic stand and was pulled back by security at the height of his presentation. To this day, I've never seen so many people cover their ears for an opening act.

5. Lamb of God with Machine Head and Gojira, 2007

With Gojira on their first American tour, Machine Head on their Blackening comeback and Lamb of God on their biggest headlining tour to date, metal packages did not get much better than this in 2007. After 17 years on the road, LOG were suddenly able to pack a space like Roseland with the heaviest metal to ever reach the Billboard Top Ten. Also, the only show that ever inspired me to start a blog.

6. Mastodon, 2007

Some promoter decided that a co-headlining tour with Mastodon and Against Me! would bring metalheads and punks together into filling out a bigger venue than either band was used to. Instead, the punk kids left before Mastodon came on, and we had a half-empty, 3,200-capacity room to thrash around in under the might of "Circle of Cysquatch" and "March of the Fire Ants."

7. The Pogues, 2009

The Pogues' soon-to-be legendary St. Patrick's Day reunion shows were a testament to the power of mankind, overcoming Shane's physical deterioration and the band's creative downfall to make something special. Like the Ballroom itself, the Pogues were old, wobbly and still capable of magic.

8. Them Crooked Vultures, 2009

Their album hadn't been released yet, and none of us had any idea what a band with Josh Homme, John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl would sound like. It turns out that even pretty good songs can be mind-blowing when they're supported by a fantasy rock rhythm section, and that the ultra-composed Homme was the perfect ringleader.

9. Lamb of God with In Flames and Sylosis, 2012

This was Randy Blythe's last tour before his manslaughter trial, so when I say that Lamb of God played like it might be their last night in New York, I'm not exaggerating. Seeing Lamb of God at their most emotional and political is like seeing Dillinger at their wildest or Andrew W.K. at his partiest.

10. Meshuggah with Animals as Leaders and Intronaut, 2013

Jens Kidman had fallen ill that month and Meshuggah had played their last few shows without their singer when they stopped in New York. Most of us assumed we'd be getting an instrumental show, until a minute into the first song, when Kidman ran out onstage and got a deafening burst of applause. Nothing less than "Swarm" and Kidman's angry samurai face could have prevailed over the noise, so luckily that was next.

1000 Homo DJs, "Supernaut"

When Ministry's Al Jourgensen brought some early demos to Wax Trax! co-founder Jim Nash, Nash allegedly told him "No one's going buy this. It'll take one thousand homo DJs to play this for one person to buy it."



By1990, Ministry was riding on two of the best albums of the '80s (The Land of Rape and Honey and The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste) and laughing all the way back to the Wax Trax! execs, who were happy just to release Jourgensen's outtakes. The result was Supernaut, a four-song EP under the the nom de plume 1000 Homo DJs.

Three of the songs sound like a major talent's outtakes, with even the eight-minute loop of Jello Biafra singing "Hey Asshole" showcasing Jourgensen's deft production. But I'm writing about Supernaut today in honor of its title track, a cover of the underrated Sabbath tune. Other than arguably Faith No More's version of "War Pigs," no tribute to metal's most-covered band has ever come so close to topping the original.

As we've learned through Sabbath's lineup changes, every member of the original band was integral. But even with one of rock music's most iconic frontmen and heaviest rhythm sections, Sabbath was all about the riffs. The onomatopoeia "Supernaut" shifts and shakes until it sounds like it's going to break free from your listening device, especially when emphasized by Jourgensen's tone. The vocalist, uncredited on the album, is one Trent Reznor. For industrial fanatics, it's like hearing John Lennon sing with Keith Richards.

Marilyn Manson, "The Beautiful People"

Like David Bowie and Madonna, Kanye West is a brilliant consumer and interpreter of pop and underground music.  From alt-rap to synthpop, West has earned his stardom in part by re-imagining cutting edge music as something that frat boys and sorority girls could get down to. The industrial-tinged scream-rap on Yeezus has called attention to iconoclastic artists like Death Grips and Saul Williams, both of whom have self-released their music without record labels and rarely get much respect from anyone who has never written for a music blog. Hopefully that will change with the acceptance of Yeezus.

However, one Yeezus influence that people apparently aren't listening to is Marilyn Manson. Last week, a widely-shared mixtape entitled Yeezus: The Samples became internet famous for compiling all of Yeezus' samples, Manson's "The Beautiful People" included, in one stream. The problem being, that had anyone who actually listened to Marilyn Manson had anything to do with Yeezus: The Samples, they could tell that there are no Manson samples anywhere on Yeezus.



Yet it's easy to forgive listeners for assuming that "Black Skinhead" samples Marilyn Manson, who still holds the high standard for the kind of industrial pop that West is dabbling in. Nine Inch Nails is rightfully credited for bringing industrial music to the mainstream, but what Manson did in his prime was both poppier and more metallic. The guitars and choruses are simple, loud and catchy, unable to be disguised by any amount of artsy production and music videos.

Before I had ever heard a note of Manson's music, I was familiar with him through a few interviews and the cover of Smells Like Children. I had never seen a creepier rock star, an image that was enhanced by his deadpan interview delivery--he didn't seem like he was trying to shock people at all. The first song of his that I heard was "The Beautiful People," on a DC-area rock station. Even though I'd missed the DJ's intro, I could tell who the artist was within seconds. The attitude was all there.

Like Kanye, Manson was terrific at adapting underground music for mainstream listeners. Hints of Ministry, Killing Joke and Bauhaus are all in "The Beautiful People", simplified and produced with Interscope Records and MTV in mind. Antichrist Superstar was purposefully written to make Marilyn Manson an iconic outsider, the most controversial rock star on the planet, and somehow it worked. To this day, it sounds audacious--will anything this Satanic ever play the MTV VMAs ever again?



That audacity wouldn't last. Cynics will say that all shock rockers have short shelf lives, but comparing "The Beautiful People" to Manson's subsequent, less popular albums, it sounds like he lost interest in the mainstream long before the mainstream lost interest in him. If his songs were still this infectious, he'd still be selling out arenas. But Manson doesn't need to build on his legacy anymore. Kanye's got that covered.

ZZ Top, "Just Got Paid"

More than any other rock band, ZZ Top has the world figured out. The same three guys for over forty years, setting standards for the perfect amount of chords, styles, dances, cars, girls, fashions, guest appearances and hand motions for a rock band to have. They had the prescience to hop into synth-rock in the '80s, and the sense to stay away from the '90s alternative. There's never too much or too little with Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard. Drama, conflict, excess--the themes that most rock bands count on are nowhere to be found on ZZ Top records.



"Just Got Paid," an album track from 1972's Rio Grande Mud, predated both Aerosmith and AC/DC in inserting the blues into hard rock, and unlike either of those bands' songs (or nearly all Zeppelin, for that matter), "Just Got Paid" could have been released on Chess Records. It's Top'd up with a slide guitar solo and a breakdown, and it rocks hard enough for Mastodon, Steve Albini and Ministry to have all covered it. Each version, even in Ministry's melodramatic hands and Albini's abrasiveness, brings out the tres hombres in its performer, proof that ZZ Top's composure isn't just in the stars, it's in the songs.

Mike Scaccia, 1965-2012

Like Randy Rhoads before him, lead guitarist Mike Scaccia was an expert musician who seemed destined to outlast his infamous, hard-living co-conspirator. But in an affirmation of life's unfairness and unpredictability, Ministry's lead guitarist died onstage this week of a heart attack.

Scaccia first found success Rigor Mortis, a pioneering thrash metal act that almost single-handedly represented the genre in Texas in the early '80s. Their song "Foaming at the Mouth" appeared on the Decline of the Western Civilization Part II soundtrack, where Rigor Mortis' speed and ferocity distanced them from songs like Faster Pussycat's "Bathroom Wall" or the Lizzy Borden version of "Born to Be Wild."



When Scaccia joined Ministry in 1989, he accelerated the band's jump into metal, a move move that divides Ministry fans to this day. Whatever your take is, Scaccia's riffage helped kick off Ministry's most popular and influential era, including their only gold album Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs. College-radio hits like "Just One Fix" and "N.W.O." turned synth-poppers, new wavers, and shoegazers onto metal, and humanized industrial music with guitars that sounded live instead of programmed. That influence can be heard in White Zombie, Nine Inch Nails, Fear Factory, Marilyn Manson and Chinese Democracy.

"Jesus Built My Hotrod," featuring Scaccia's primal riffage and guest star Gibby Haynes' "Surfin' Bird"-on-a-spit scatting, is one of rock music's greatest achievements. How many industrial guitar solos can you think of? How many of them are good?



A moment of cacophony for Mike Scaccia.

PL8LIST

Here's a playlist that I came up with while making my next mix CD. If you can correctly guess the theme, I'll send you a copy.

1. Led Zeppelin, "Trampled Under Foot"

Even with a clavinet in the mix, Led Zeppelin could do no wrong on Physical Graffiti. Lyrically inspired by Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues," this would later become the basis for Mastodon's "Trampled Under Hoof."



2. Rush, "Red Barchetta"

Carenheit 451.



3. Megadeth, "Mechanix"

If classic rock is your bag, imagine that Keith Richards and John Lennon wrote a song together in 1961. Us headbangers have "Mechanix," a Dave Mustaine/James Hetfield composition that predates Killing is My Business and Kill 'Em All. Metallica rewrote it as "The Four Horsemen," and Mustaine is still bitter enough to introduce his version this way.



4. White Zombie, "Black Sunshine"

20 years removed from La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1, "Black Sunshine" sounds like MTV star Rob Zombie doing Punk Godfather Iggy Pop a solid. More so was Jim Osterberg lending his support to a fledgling suzz-metal band that couldn't get much more than a CBGB gig at the time.



5. Ministry, "Jesus Built My Hotrod"

Ministry roasts industrial metal on a spit under the nastiest scatting in recorded history, courtesy of the Butthole Surfers' Gibby Haynes. This should be played at NASCAR events.



6. Deftones, "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)"

Had the Deftones never played Ozzfest or the Family Values tour, "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" could be on Pitchfork "Best of the '90s" lists. Instead, we'll have to wait for metalgaze to become a thing.



7. Metallica, "Fuel"

Please. Give that man his dabajabaza.



8. Rob Zombie, "Dragula"

One out of every six post-1998 action movies includes this song, and one out of every two needs it. Bonus points for the music video's Night at the Roxbury moment.