Metal is Going to the Dogs

Metalsucks has a great Dogs Playlist this week. Here are a few that I would've added.

1. Primus, "Too Many Puppies" 
2. Fugazi, "Bulldog Front"
3. King's X, "Dogman"
4. Butthole Surfers, "Underdog"
5. The Giraffes, "Dog Sex #1"
6. AC/DC, "Dog Eat Dog" 
7. AC/DC, "Given the Dog a Bone"
8. The Dillinger Escape Plan and Mike Patton, "When Good Dogs Do Bad Things"
9. Dead Kennedys, "Dog Bite"
10. Dead Kennedys, "The Man with the Dogs"
11. Testament, "Dog Faced Gods"
12. The Melvins, "Sky Pup"
13. The Melvins, "Dog Island" 
14. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, "Evelyn, a Modified Dog"
15. Motörhead, "Dogs"
16. Mother Love Bone, "Stardog Champion"
17. Pearl Jam, "Pilate"
18. Head of David, "Dog Day Sunrise"
19. Jimmy Ågren, "Lester Howlin' Dog"
20. Gogol Bordello, "Dogs Were Barking"
21. Stillwater, "Fever Dog"
22. Andrew W.K., "Golden Eyed Dog"

More to come.

Metalheads of the Day: Ween

Weirdoid rock took a hit this week when Ween announced their breakup. My guess is that they'll reunite some day, but it will be at least a few years before Gene and Dean drive anyone crazy with that boogie oogie oogie oogie.

At best, such as on 1994's Chocolate and Cheese, Ween were the rarest kind of experimental band, the kind that gets stuck in your head. They parodied pop, rock, R&B and country as lovingly as Spinal Tap parodied metal, spewing out ingratiating melodies that made you want to dance even when the lyrics made you want to throw up. More cheerful than the Butthole Surfers, more singable than Mr. Bungle and more versatile than Primus, they leave a gaping hole in the alternative universe. 

Ween's performances were even more unpredictable than their albums, but one treat was seeing them cover metal and hard rock standards. By not playing to a metal audience, they gave new life to classics by Motörhead, Van Halen, Nirvana and Black Sabbath.

"Ace of Spades"


 "Hot for Teacher"


"Heart-Shaped Box"


"War Pigs"


There's a hint of silliness in all of these (except for "Heart-Shaped Box," which will always sound unsettling). I'm sure that the band that wrote "Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)" doesn't mind the thought of offending some humorless Sabbath fans. But I like the goofy tinges and the are-they-or-aren't-they-kidding debates that these covers raise. My take is that no one would go out of their way to learn "Hot for Teacher" just to make fun of it.

Lest anyone still doubt Ween's metal credit, they recorded the best Motörhead impression ever performed by anyone not named Lemmy. "It's Gonna Be a Long Night" is an original from 2003's Quebec, but I could hear it next to anything on No Sleep 'til Hammersmith.




Ween are pushing th' little daisies now, and they deserve a break. But if they ever come back, I bet they've got a great metal record in them.

Song of the Day: Fishbone, "Sunless Saturday"

No one still needs to learn that happy music isn't written by happy people. Yet there's something shocking about all the misery in Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone, the Laurence Fishburne-narrated documentary about the world's most transcendent ska band. 



Onstage, Fishbone are a jubilant blast of acrobatics, stage dives and and singalongs, sons of James Brown and fathers of Andrew W.K. Watching peers (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus) and followers (Sublime, No Doubt) find the success that eludes Fishbone is sad, but seeing middle-aged Angelo Moore move back in with his mom, bassist Norwood Fisher charged with kidnapping the band's Rapture-pushing guitarist and nearly-empty record store signings for a band that once performed on SNL is downright disheartening. It's funny to watch no one show up to an Anvil show, but only because Anvil got a second chance.

Before Kendall Jones started believing that his bandmates were demons, he wrote one of Fishbone's best songs, "Sunless Saturday."



Fishbone were on a major label (but not for much longer) and had the budget to get Spike Lee to direct their music video. To Lee's credit, it catches some of the frenzied excitement of a Fishbone show without ever looking like a concert movie.

"Sunless Saturday" is heavy, in the way that something with horns and major key progressions can still sound like helter skelter. The melody's controlled chaos makes me wonder how the band lasted ten years before someone went insane.

It's isn't punk, funk, metal or ska--Wikipedia calls it "alternative," which confirms that no one really knew what to do with Fishbone. Everyday Sunshine interviewees argue that they "were too black," "weren't black enough," "were too ahead of their time" or "should have been less of a democracy," the latter point being the only one that Fishbone's records back up. But everyone seems to agree on "Sunless Saturday."