Post by Thorngrub on Dec 1, 2004 16:33:30 GMT -5
The reason I got into rock music was my very first vinyl record album around the tender age of 13: Aerosmith's Get Your Wings.
And boy, did I ever.
Been flying high into rock's stratosphere ever since, and beyond. Aerosmith instructed me in the basics of what defines "ass-kicking" rock'n'roll, and for that, I am forever grateful to them.
It is why I will never join the unruly mob of naysayers and 'Smith-bashers who probably weren't even in diapers when Joe Perry & Steven Tyler were taking the rock world by storm & beatin the shit out of it. I may not like the direction their music took in the last decade or so, but that don't phase me one bit from recognizing they are still the same band - - down to the same original members -- and that they still put on one motherfuck of a kickass live show.
From Aerosmith I went on to bands like Kiss, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Uriah Heep, Yes, Rush, etc. All of them kicked ass, each in their own unique ways.
The artist single-handedly responsible for shaking things up a bit for me and allowing me to expand my obsession from mere "ass kicking" music to more alternative pleasures, would be none other than the Thin White Duke himself, whom I consider privately the uncrowned King of contemporary popular music today. From Bowie (and I obsessed over each and every one of his albums, back in the day) I was led onto darker, more mysterious things, such as Bauhaus, peter murphy, love & rockets, sisters of mercy, fields of the nephilim, roxy music, T-rex, brian eno, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, and by that time, the groundwork was perfectly laid for me to evolve outwards from those basic building blocks into the truly fanatic & hyper-obsessive music afficionado I am today.
Then one day around 12 years ago, came along this new alternative band going by the name of "pearl jam". I seized upon their curious sound as being an amalgamation of various themes I loved from old, and fell immediately in love with them. I look upon pearl jam as the very bridge which allowed me to cross over from being pretty much a 70's-prog-type rocker & Zeppelin worshipper, and on into the land of post 90's alterna/grunge bands which helped feed my growing and insatiable appetite for new rocking material: Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, the Melvins, Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, rage against the machine . . .that was just the beginning of my newfound discovery that the 90's rivalled the 70's for sheer brilliant output of badass music.
And then came KORN. I can honestly say I owe my undying love for Korn to all those bands of yester-year. Korn exemplified the apotheosis of overwhelming originality and over-the-top ballistics of truly kickass rock music infused with its own, peculiar brand of darkness and audial carnival freakshow of wicked cool guitar sounds, not to mention a bass that sounded as if it were being wielded by one of Satan's arch-princes in hell, and an off-kilter drumming style that was totally and positively unique. KORN have become and shall always continue to be, for me, the resurgent kings of this entire breed of music which has affected my life for so many years. They are the new Kings of Kickass, taking that torch from Aerosmith themselves and proudly heraldling a new age of everything badass in popular music. Long may they rage.
And boy, did I ever.
Been flying high into rock's stratosphere ever since, and beyond. Aerosmith instructed me in the basics of what defines "ass-kicking" rock'n'roll, and for that, I am forever grateful to them.
It is why I will never join the unruly mob of naysayers and 'Smith-bashers who probably weren't even in diapers when Joe Perry & Steven Tyler were taking the rock world by storm & beatin the shit out of it. I may not like the direction their music took in the last decade or so, but that don't phase me one bit from recognizing they are still the same band - - down to the same original members -- and that they still put on one motherfuck of a kickass live show.
From Aerosmith I went on to bands like Kiss, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Uriah Heep, Yes, Rush, etc. All of them kicked ass, each in their own unique ways.
The artist single-handedly responsible for shaking things up a bit for me and allowing me to expand my obsession from mere "ass kicking" music to more alternative pleasures, would be none other than the Thin White Duke himself, whom I consider privately the uncrowned King of contemporary popular music today. From Bowie (and I obsessed over each and every one of his albums, back in the day) I was led onto darker, more mysterious things, such as Bauhaus, peter murphy, love & rockets, sisters of mercy, fields of the nephilim, roxy music, T-rex, brian eno, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, and by that time, the groundwork was perfectly laid for me to evolve outwards from those basic building blocks into the truly fanatic & hyper-obsessive music afficionado I am today.
Then one day around 12 years ago, came along this new alternative band going by the name of "pearl jam". I seized upon their curious sound as being an amalgamation of various themes I loved from old, and fell immediately in love with them. I look upon pearl jam as the very bridge which allowed me to cross over from being pretty much a 70's-prog-type rocker & Zeppelin worshipper, and on into the land of post 90's alterna/grunge bands which helped feed my growing and insatiable appetite for new rocking material: Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, the Melvins, Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, rage against the machine . . .that was just the beginning of my newfound discovery that the 90's rivalled the 70's for sheer brilliant output of badass music.
And then came KORN. I can honestly say I owe my undying love for Korn to all those bands of yester-year. Korn exemplified the apotheosis of overwhelming originality and over-the-top ballistics of truly kickass rock music infused with its own, peculiar brand of darkness and audial carnival freakshow of wicked cool guitar sounds, not to mention a bass that sounded as if it were being wielded by one of Satan's arch-princes in hell, and an off-kilter drumming style that was totally and positively unique. KORN have become and shall always continue to be, for me, the resurgent kings of this entire breed of music which has affected my life for so many years. They are the new Kings of Kickass, taking that torch from Aerosmith themselves and proudly heraldling a new age of everything badass in popular music. Long may they rage.
