the instrumental music of helmet: 1992-1997

this was a promo released back in 2003.
this brings together musics from:
IN THE MEANTIME
BETTY
AFTERTASTE

this enables you to be the page hamilton you were meant to be.
we've seen you practicing in the mirror.
you might want to get that thing checked out at as well.

1 - in the meantime
2 - ironhead
3 - give it
4 - wilma's rainbow
5 - milquetoast
6 - tic
7 - overrated
8 - pure
9 - like i care
10 - driving nowhere
11 - birth defect
12 - broadcast emotion

DL

Drive Like Jehu - Demo

Label: self released
Year: 1990

If you were to make a list of the "Best Bands of the 1990's" (and honestly...what kind of nerd would have the time to do such a thing?!), Drive Like Jehu would be in the mix, right? I mean, in among Fugazi, and Unwound, and Archers of Loaf, and Craw, and Neurosis, and Sonic Youth, and Sunny Day Real Estate, and Deadguy, and Chavez, and Harvey Milk, and Boilermaker, and Oasis, and Radiohead, and Nirvana, and Quicksand, and Helmet, and Today Is The Day, and Smashing Pumpkins, and....
I should really make a list.

All that aside, here are four songs in demo form that would all end up in album form on Drive Like Jehu's first album. Nothing to really think about. It's Drive Like Jehu, one of the best bands of the 90's (or so they say).

DL

the catalyst - marianas trench +9

label: the perpetual motion machine
released: 2008

i  figured that since they'd gotten brought up in the snack truck albuming down yonder....

this is a collection that combines the band's MARIANAS TRENCH EP with various other songs they'd contributed to splits and whatnot.

at the drive-in and the melvins and nirvana and pageninetynine and hawks....
yep.

DL

snack truck - harpoon

label: the perpetual motion machine
released: 2004

you like hella?
what about lightning bolt?
what about ultra dolphins?
what about brainworms?
what about the catalyst?
what about "y'know. that weird shit comin' outta richmond,man."?

DL

zao - liberate te ex inferis

label: solid state
released: 1999

as a tribute to the french prog rock band from the early 70s....
what?
oh.
as a tribute to the JAMES BOND villain....
what?
stop interrupting me.
fine.
as a tribute to the mountain located in northern japan....

ok.
enough.

i remember the day when i was turned onto this band/album. it sparked my (limited) interest in all of that christian hardcore business (the other bands being: early embodyment...training for utopia...a little norma jean...living sacrifice...and the reaction was always funny when i'd mentioned to the people that would hear me listening to them that the band was signed to a christian record label..."whaaaaaaa?!" was the general consensus). there was a music store that i would frequent. i'd struck up a friendship with the owner. we had some band likings in common. one day i came into the store and the song "skin like winter" was being played over the stereo system. there was one other person in the store at the time. one of those very perturbed teenager looking types that was obviously looking for some original (not re-released - underlined) limp bizkit album. so i walk in and give the owner (who was always there) a nod and headed over to peruse the magazines. i was kinda sorta getting into what was being played. and then i was introduced to the songs "intro" and "savannah" (he'd obviously started the album over...also: those 2 songs should never EVER be split up). i was hearing neurosis (the band). i was hearing EVENT HORIZON samples. i was hearing carcass-like vocals. color me intrigued.

and from that day on i was labeled a zao fan.
and yes.
even the SELF-TITLED album.
admittedly it's a little touch and go after that.
but still a fan.

and not that any of you really care.....
there's more to the music store story.
after going in there multiple times and having multiple conversations with the owner it turned out that we were related.
he was a cousin.
he'd randomly showed me his driver's license for some reason during a visit and viola!
it was nice knowing that i shared a bloodline with someone that had good taste in music.

and that is my zao story,kids.

one last thing: i'm not a fan of the band's first vocalist as he sounded like an angry kid going through puberty while being strangled.
maybe he didn't want to do his homework.
maybe he didn't want to mow the lawn.
something like that.
we'll never know because he doesn't want to talk about it geeeeeeez!

DL

leaders of men - 1.18.11 - high noon saloon - madison,wi

some of you may remember the band the united sons of toil.
and some of you may be aware of who tyranny is tyranny.

what does any of that have to do with this?
a name.
a regal sounding name.
russell emerson hall.
vocals/guitar guy for the united sons of toil.
vocals/guitar guy for tyranny is tyranny.

mr. hall is a fan of the band joy division.
back before the united sons of toil split up in 2012 the band played under the moniker of "leaders of men" a few times.
they played joy division covers.

vocalist/guitarist russell hall was bernard sumner.
drummer jason jensen was stephen morris.
bassist bill borowski was peter hook.

they brought in one time pachinko vocalist chris vance to be ian curtis.

this is them being joy division in front of a group of people.

1 - no love lost
2 - wilderness
3 - walked in line
4 - a means to an end
5 - shadowplay
6 - the kill
7 - colony
8 - disorder
9 - new dawn fades
10 - dead souls
11 - day of the lords
12 - the ice age
13 - she's lost control
14 - sound of music
15 - interzone
16 - warsaw
17 - exercise one
18 - transmission

DL

rabbits - lower forms

label: relapse records
released: 2011

melvins.
buzzov*en.
hawks.
whores.
guitars that sound like a bass because the band doesn't have one.

yeah.

DL

v/a - judgement night

label: epic records
released: 1993

i'm just going to leave this right here.
just know that i've never owned a pair of jncos.


1 - helmet/house of pain - just another victim
2 - teenage fanclub/de la soul - fallin'
3 - living colour/run dmc - me and my microphone
4 - biohazard/onyx - judgement night
5 - slayer/ice t - disorder*
6 - faith no more/boo-ya t.r.i.b.e. - another body murdered
7 - sonic youth/cypress hill - i love you mary jane
8 - mudhoney/sir mix-a-lot - freak momma
9 - dinosaur jr/del tha funky homosapien - missing link
10 - therapy?/fatal - come and die
11 - pearl jam/cypress hill - real thing
*=medley of songs by the band the exploited ("war"/"uk '82"/"disorder")

DL

Batpiss -Nuclear Winter

Label: Every Night Is A Saturday Night
Year: 2013

You'll be excused if your first thoughts upon hearing the band name and album title are that they must be a pretty sweet retro-thrash party band. I get it. Retro-thrash party bands are a dime a dozen these days.
But...
But, shouldn't you have more faith in me (the actual "me", not the royal "we"...Ipecac has posted one too many Judgement Night cassingles for unfettered faith. Gotta earn that shit back) to not subject you to some pedestrian-ass joke metal? Have I ever led you astray? Seriously? Think about it!
No way.
Batpiss aren't retro-thrash party metal. They're not metal in the least. Not "thrashy" at all. They possibly party. Or, probably party. They are Australian, and Australians seem to have the peddle to the metal at most times. So, let's assume they party. You could make an argument they are retro, if the retro in question was more 1992 than 1987. There is no Exodus influence to be found, but you could hear some Guzzard, some Jonestown, some Hammerhead, and some Mudhoney. No disrespect to Exodus, but I'd much rather draw from that scuzzy, free-wheeling rock-n-roll well of Amphetamine Reptile and SubPop than some toxic waltz cheese (was Exodus the "Toxic Waltz" band? I would ask Ricki Rachtman, but, I don't know how to get in touch). That's my opinion anyway. But I tend to favor hazy grunge over heavy metal.
Now, if we could only get Ipecac to promise no more rap-metal...

DL

v/a - kamikaze: music to push you over the edge

label: continuum records
released: 1995

"extreme music for radical sports"
"the ultimate heavy metal exercise tape"

and you know that those above statements just have to true,yeah?
why else would that be stated plainly on the cover for everyone to see if it weren't.
right?

it's got everything to satisfy your extreme needs....
fudge tunnel
into another
skatenigs
kid rock

so press "play" and slam some of that extreme blue and get gnarly,bro.
but you'd better hurry up.
your parents will be home soon.

1 - inch - i'm the cat
2 - heatmiser - stray
3 - stanford prison experiment - super monkey
4 - fear is fatal - rescue me
5 - fudge tunnel - grey
6 - skatenigs - regret
7 - the pleasure elite - media feed
8 - wargasm - wasteland
9 - the beyond - sacred garden
10 - kid rock - i am the bullgod
11 - eleven - crash today
12 - into another - poison fingers

DL