Break Up Your Band

Primus - “Jerry Was a Racecar Driver”
Sailing The Seas of Cheese, 1991
(Guest Editor - Geoff Garlock)

It had to be done. It just had to be done. No way getting around it. There is no way that I could finish up my week of talking about 90’s videos for Break Up Your Band, then with this video. I give you the beginning of what makes Geoff Garlock tick. The video that, sadly, just might explain everything about me and why I am the moron I am. Primus “Jerry Was a Racecar Driver”. Before there was black metal, death metal, grindcore, NWOBHM, NWOSHM, industrial, hardcore, punk, proto metal prog, krautrock, komische or whatever musical phase I am in at this point. Before everything that makes me tick musically…there was one love in my life. And that love was named Primus.

I will never shy away from my musical past. Everything I listened to is fair game. It all got me to where I am today. And as goofball as they are, and antithetical to the angry asshole that is Geoff Garlock today.  I love Primus. Before Primus, I did not listen to music. I almost exclusively listened to Weird Al Yankovic. That is it. I was not the guy listening to Metallica when I was 10. That is my dirt bag best buddy Eric.  No I was a comic book nerd, and I liked watching stand up. And I liked listening to Weird Al. I had the random Young MC or Fat Boys tape from my brother. But I just didn’t open the can of worms yet. Then one fateful day, I saw this video for the first time. And that same week I remember seeing Primus play Jerry live on some late night MTV show where Les shaved off his mustache mid performance. Either way that was it. I was hooked. And I assume that it is the same way crack affects your life (or at least according to New Jack City). You take one hit and boom. Everything revolves around it. I was into it and there was no stopping it. I was like Chris Rock just trying to get one more suck on that glass dick.  It was a real quick slide into only thinking about music all the time. And spending every minute trying to find out about newer and more obscure bands, as well as learning everything about every band you love all at once. An addiction that continues to this day.

But as I said. Primus was my first love. My friend Jay and I were just absorbed by them. I think a big reason was that they were there own universe with their own language.  Everyone in the band and surrounding the band had nicknames. I made it my mission to memorize the nicknames of their tour manager (Trouz) and there sound engineer (Shamblin Bear).  The lyrics were full of weird inside jokes between Les and his friends. And when you yelled out Primus Sucks, only you knew that secretly it meant that Primus was the best band ever. Well a secret that every one of there fans knew. But really it can all be traced back to them. My first real concert of my own choosing was Lollapalooza 93. I was excited about every band, but the main reason we went was to see Primus. Woodstock 94. I was there, again, mostly to see Primus. The love I had for them can be seen in the live broadcast where at one point you can see me moshing around, in the mud, wearing a Cheshire Lacrosse pull over and looking exhausted. (So exhausted that I passed out during Metallica. WHAT?!!).  Hell the reason I started playing bass, which then led me to a lifetime of being in hardcore bands and touring America and Europe countless times, was simply cause I loved Primus. I never, ever played like Les but that is beside the point.

Either way. I love Primus…for what they are. Or at least up to and including Pork soda. And a couple songs off Tales from the Punchbowl. And some new songs. Ah fuck it I love Primus.

Thanks for reading my guest blogs/rants/inane babblings this week. Thanks for having me Break Up Your Band. And go over and join my blog at Garlock.tumblr.com aka Brutality and Chuckles. PRIMUS SUCKS!

Rocket From the Crypt - “Ditch Digger”
Circa Now, 1992
(Guest Editor - Geoff Garlock)

Sometimes I wonder why I even bothered trying to watch 120 Minutes growing up. It just wasn’t for me. It was hard enough watching Headbanger’s Ball sometimes. Depending on what phase they were in, having to wade through piles of Ugly Kid Joe and Stone Temple Pilots videos just to see that one Morbid Angel video during the Triple Thrash Threat at the end of the show. But 120 Minutes had almost NOTHING for me. I had no interest in all of the Wonderstuff and Dramarama and Pavement and Superchunk videos.  Louis Largent was psyched on that Chapterhouse video but it just wasn’t my bag. The videos I would probably care about now, like the random Public Image Limited video, I just wasn’t ready for it. Yet still I would try to tape 120 minutes as often as possible. Try being the key word because I had a VCR without a timer function, so I would put in a tape on Sunday night before I went to bed and just hope that it went long enough to actually tape the show.

End of the day reason I taped it was for videos like Rocket From The Crypt “Ditch Digger”. These rare gems in a sea of indie rock garbage. I was obsessed with this video because I just didn’t get it. I could not put a finger on exactly what the hell kind of music it was and where they were coming from. A bunch of rockabilly looking dudes, all with fake monikers like Speedo and Atom, playing kind of poppy and catchy, but also kind of heavy and intense music that seemed to draw from early rock n’ roll and punk. And they had a horn section. It was confusing as hell, especially to a kid with a narrow scope of music just starting to get into the CT hardcore scene. And when they talked about how Speedo was also in another band called Drive like Jehu all I could think was “man what a weird stupid name.”  Jump five years down the line. I’ve discovered Gravity Records and the whole San Diego sound. And realize that Rocket from The Crypt was from the same world as Clikitat Ikatowi and Antioch Arrow. And that I LOVE Drive Like Jehu and Speedo’s other band Hot Snakes, who were a big reason why Panthers started as a band.

But young me had no idea any of that would happen. I was just really obsessed with this one song.  It was stuck in my head all the time and I was constantly singing the “Leprosy is fun so let the good times begin” verse.  But man, I was obsessed with the energy.  The way they were playing in the video, especially the drummer, informed my mental picture of how I thought every band should play. With reckless abandon and energy, putting your entire being into every note hit and every cymbal struck.  This was before I had seen hundreds of bands live so it was like a revelation.

All said and done I was never an obsessive Rocket fan. Besides this song and “Scream Dracula Scream” I did not listen to them that much. I listened to Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes much more.  And I only got to see them live once at the first Warped Tour and watching them in their sparkly shirts with the full horn section did not send my hardcore heart a flutter. I was much more excited to get my shirt ripped moshing to “Hold Your Ground” during CIV. I remember being shocked when Orchid went on tour with Song of Zarathustra and first night I realized that every member of the band had a Rocket from the Crypt tattoo. Intense. That is devotion. If all of their songs were as good as “Ditch Digger” and “On A Rope” maybe I would have a Rocket tattoo on my face. It would go great with a  Primus “Skeeter” tatter on the side of my shaved head. I’m so glad I didn’t have access to a tattoo gun in junior high.

Therapy? “Nausea”
Nurse, 1992
(Guest Editor - Geoff Garlock)

This is the video for Therapy? “Nausea”. Well what can I tell you about Therapy? Honestly very little. I somehow don’t really know crap about this band. I know that they are from Northern Ireland. I know they were on the Judgment Night soundtrack with that brand new ground breaking mix of rap and rock on a terrible song.  I know that, for some reason, my buddy Nick’s brother had a Therapy? Poster in his room even though he was big into hip-hop and I just didn’t understand why he liked them (maybe cause of Judgment Night).  I know that I was obsessed with this video when I was a kid. That is about it. Even though I loved the video I never got any of there records and don’t even remember them touring in America when we were younger. I don’t know where I heard other songs off this record, but I just wasn’t into them. They seem to be, in retrospect, almost like a poppier Amphetamine Reptile band. Kind of. But not really. Whatever I heard at the time just didn’t really grab me. I remember thinking it wasn’t as heavy as this song. But this song isn’t even that heavy really so who knows. The innocence of a child (self-referential. Way to go me).

What I do know about this video and this song. It kicks ass. They played it now and then on Headbangers Ball (or The Ball to the true fan). But I got it on a weird compilation video that my aunt got me. Remember when they made sampler compilation videos? Those went the way of the Cassingle. It wasn’t a very good video. I think it had Grunt truck and a random Soundgarden song on it. I want to say it had the video for Paw “Jessie” but then it would be a great video, cause that song is great and still makes me hug my dog George when I hear it. Either way. Weird video but that Therapy? song got a lot of play. I loved the chorus a lot. I can remember riding around town on my bike just singing “I don’t want to feel anymore” over and over again. Also, for apparently not having a huge impact on my life besides this one song, I feel like the bass part was really instrumental in changing how I played bass guitar. I got my first bass right around the time I was into this song. Trying to play the higher bass part that ends the song really moved me beyond just keeping a back beat on the E and the A string.  I used to play along with that part a lot, just trying to get it right and really feel like it made me explore more range in the bass guitar and helped me along the path of whatever my playing style is. Yeah. Therapy? did that.  Kind of blows my mind.

Last thing I will say about this video. It is gross. The section with all the fat people gorging themselves. Made me sick every time and still does. Some would say it gives me a sense of….wait for it….Nausea. Wow. Interesting.

Skinny Puppy - “Killing Game”
Last Rights, 1992
(Guest Editor - Geoff Garlock)

Who here likes Skinny Puppy? Oh wait a second. Am I the only one? Yeah well I’m used to that. So here is a video from the last Skinny Puppy record I truly loved “Last Rights”.  This one is for the song “The Killing Game”, one of the best songs of the record. I LOVED Skinny Puppy. Well I still love Skinny Puppy. When I was just getting out of Junior High and just starting high school I was really starting to get into industrial music. Didn’t really have any interest in actually being an “industrial kid”. Didn’t really want to wear giant creeper boots and bondage gear and make my hair into multi colored shit dreads. I had enough problems getting a girlfriend without all that noise. But I loved the music. There was something about the preciseness of it all and the pure focus on dark hatred and self-pity, made my little depressed 15-year-old heart a flutter. All the drugs involved in it kind of sucked but you have to make some concessions here and there.
 
Skinny Puppy were one of my favorite bands and it was simply because they were mine. Truly mine. My friends were kind of into Ministry and kind of into NIN. But even those bands they didn’t care that much about. But Skinny Puppy was a whole different level. Ogre was never even close to singing. This song might be his closest to carrying a tune as opposed to his crazy stream of conscious barking. The music still doesn’t make sense to me sometimes. The live performance, which I would try to force on my buddy Jay a lot through the “Ain’t it Dead Yet” video, was a wild ride.  Weirdo performance art with crazy death imagery behind them, while Ogre covered himself in slime and acted out shooting up junk while fighting a dead baby in a basinet with a cross. Trust me it makes sense. Kind of.
 
When they decide to throw in samples and change up the beat, really has it’s own internal logic in all of their songs. An internal logic that only a bunch of junkies named Nivek Ogre, cEvin Key and D.Wayne Goettel would understand. But I understood it to an extent and it really made it feel special and furthered my “me against the world” outlook. If even my friends didn’t like my music, what the hell hope should I have. That may sound negative but I really think it helped to make me who I am today. And dammit I’m pretty great. Again…probably didn’t help me get a girlfriend but. Live and learn I guess. My lady, Kristi, still gets annoyed when I listen to this bunch of weirdo’s and still loves me all the more.
 
So this is “Killing Game” from “Last Rights”. If it sounds kind of familiar, you might recognize it from the “very special episode” of the Real World, where Tammy talks about having an abortion. This was the soundtrack. Even though the song is about vivisection. IT WASN’T NOT FUNNY. Or was it?

Quicksand - “Fazer”
Slip, 1993
(Guest Editor - Geoff Garlock)

Hello Break Up Your Band Followers. My name is Geoff Garlock and I am guest editing this week sooooo deal with it. The theme for this week will be “Staying Up Late on Saturday and Sunday nights OR How I Learned to Use MTV to my Advantage to Help On My Path of Being A Fucking Weirdo to this Day”. People love to talk about how MTV used to actually play videos and now it is just a bunch of bullshit. Well what about us punk or hardcore kids who never gave much of a crap about the videos they would play anyways? There was little refuge on MTV except for a couple late night shows, aka Headbanger’s Ball and 120 Minutes (and to a lesser extent Superrock). Before I started going to and playing shows in High school, I pretty much spent my Saturday nights sitting in my basement, by myself, bouncing back and forth between the Ball and SNL. And occasionally Howard Stern when he had 80’s hair and wouldn’t shut up about how good Snapple was. Amazingly, at 31, this still sounds like most Saturday nights except now I have my lovely lady sitting next to me.  Progress? You bet.  But I digress.

Either way my first entry is going to be Quicksand “Fazer”. This was one of those rare videos that would show up on both the Ball and 120 minutes. And I hold them directly responsible for me being a hardcore kid. I was obsessed with this video when I first saw it. Heavy music that was also really melodic and catchy being played by a bunch of shorthaired dudes who you could tell knew what was up. Even if I didn’t at all. End of the day 1993, when this video came out, was a huge year for me. Not only did I go to my first real “Concert” aka Lollapalooza 93, but that Christmas my mom was fantastic in her gift buying and I got Fugazi “In On the Killtaker”, Black Flag “Damaged”, and Quicksand “Slip”. Pretty life changing bunch of CD’s. Then my Aunt Nancy, who is my metal aunt/favorite relative/lover of hair metal like Poison, pulled out an article about Quicksand from Rip Magazine that listed off every hardcore band they were in. Thus my buying lists for the next year. Gorilla Biscuits, Youth Of Today, Burn, Bold, Beyond, Absolution, etc, etc.  Which led me to further alienating myself, and declaring myself straight edge. And that was it. I was a hardcore kid. Started a hardcore band, started playing shows at 16. 15 years later hear I am still playing shows. Still clinging to the edge.  Still sitting watching the Ball on Saturday nights. Amazingly in all that, never wanted to actually be in a band that sounded like Quicksand. Then I just would have been in Shift mark II. But I digress. Quicksand “Fazer”. Watch with caution. It may ruin your life and make you a dumb punk.