Metallica <------> Leo Kottke

Justine_X · Post by **Justine_X** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:16 am

darfking wrote:The funny thing about metal these days is that there are some super-hipster indie metal bands that are really emulating the same exact style musicially as these "dinosaurs", just in a different uniform

You mean like this band?
http://www.myspace.com/thesword

To me the music is well-executed, tight, heavy, but after a couple listens it seems vapid, forced. Maybe I'm being harsh, but it wouldn't stick around in my CD player. I agree, I'd prefer a band of true D'n'D dudes.

For the hipster crowd it seems like it's either something with that oily sheen of hipness, like Interpol or the Strokes or Bloc Party, or a genre that can be co-opted because it's an easy target. Metal at its best is earnest and naive, not trying to be anything except "really metal" (like the corny--but GREAT--lyrics on Kill 'em All), so the ironic crowd can exploit it easily for its innocent authenticity.

Metallica started as a hungry, ambitious band whose goal at first was to make the coolest ass-kicking metal they could envision, but over time, have become bloated Hollywood shipwrecks who live in luxury and try to falsify the anger and lust for life they felt once long ago and expressed successfully in a core of seminal albums.

heheh... that quote is from a bizarre essay I found about metal and life a few weeks ago http://www.anus.com/zine/articles/self/

shedshrine · Post by **shedshrine** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:48 pm

Metallica= 9 letters

Leo Kottke= 9 letters.

Mere coincidence? I think not. Perhaps bookends: ie:

"Hey man, Whatcha got on yer eyepod?"

Oh, I got everything from Mozart to Metallica on this thing, from Leo Kottke to , um, ...( your example from perceived opposite end of music spectrum with alliterative relation to sound of Leo Kottke)

theBlubberRanch · Post by **theBlubberRanch** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 6:32 pm

go see Kottke live, his between songs banter is worth the price of admission.
Get 6 and 12 string guitar, then go get some John Fahey.

;ivlunsdystf · Post by **;ivlunsdystf** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 8:47 pm

Yeah seriously I would sit through two hours of Kottke just telling tales and tuning even if he never settled into a song. Fucking hilarious.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 8:56 pm

theBlubberRanch wrote:go see Kottke live, his between songs banter is worth the price of admission.
Get 6 and 12 string guitar, then go get some John Fahey.

I remember seeing Leo Kottke once years ago and he was playing a 10-string. He said it was because he had to go out on the road and he didn't have a case that his 12-string would fit in, so he cut the end off the headstock. Classic.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

;ivlunsdystf · Post by **;ivlunsdystf** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 6:52 am

How about that guitar that he talks about where the body got crunched in a door or something; he stuffed a pair of pants through the soundhole and took the guitar out onstage; several years elapsed and this was his favorite guitar;

this was all connected by long tale to a story of his great uncle at the thanksgiving dinner table; the old man's hearing aids start feeding back off of one another; the family rushes to remedy the situation by stuffing mashed potatoes in the guy's mouth -

My ex-girlfriend's mom claims to have dated him in the late 1960s for a few months; I met him once and asked him whether he remembered; he mumbled "Well, she may have had the misfortune to have met me at some point, I don't know..."

Fantastic.

I guess funny stories are one area in which Kottke excels over Metallica, Lars rants notwithstanding.

Dubious · Post by **Dubious** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 7:27 am

the ironic appropriation of metal by "hipster" dorks can be directly traced to weezer i think..

but i digress

Master Of Puppets is probably the ONLY record i loved at 13 that i still listen to at 31

trippy!

the thing with alot of these HIPSTER metal acts (who shall remain nameless) is that they tend to act like the metal / technical aspects are shit they can do in their sleep.. they emmit this irritating music school / jazz snob type vibe.. where they are slumming it in the metal world, like its somehow beneath them.

what i love about a record like Puppets, and its something that is SADLY lacking in most modern rock music is the total flat out BALLS TO THE WALL effort that went into the thing... everything is just worked on to the Nth degree... there's an incredible ambitousness to the proceedings, these guys are really WORKING to make a huge statment. Most rock these days is about lack of effort and a phoney simplicity.. nobody wants to appear to be actually trying too hard or anything like that.

;ivlunsdystf · Post by **;ivlunsdystf** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 10:50 am

WORD.

Being I never got to hear Metallica earlier in life, the jury is still out on them, but I will say that I listen to Pantera's 'Vulgar Display of Power' regularly ever since I got my hands on it five years ago -

and I don't even LIKE metal ...

Actually Leo Kottke has been around in my life since about 1992 as well -

Pretty good staying power there

Spark · Post by **Spark** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:29 pm

Justine_X wrote:and metal doesn't get discussed much on this board.

Tis a shame... for sure.

Metal can be fun.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 2:06 pm

i've been listening to kill 'em all a bunch recently and i really do think that's the best one. yeah yeah, i appreciate the ambitiousness of puppets and blabla. but as far as being a band, and believing in yourselves as a band, they really had it on kill 'em all. the spirit, man, i am talking about the spirit! and kirk hammett plays some great lead guitar all over that thing. that was before his psyche was systematically destroyed by james and lars.

and this talk of kill em all reminded me of a musical mistake of sorts...lars having all sorts of trouble towards the end of seek and destroy. not really a mistake per se, but it certainly isn't good either. haha.

John Jeffers · Post by **John Jeffers** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 2:16 pm

Hetfield, Hammett, and Burton were competent musicians. It amazes me that they put up with Lars' shitty drumming, and continue to do so (well, except for Cliff).

Also, how is it that someone who makes his living being a drummer never seems to get any better at it?

;ivlunsdystf · Post by **;ivlunsdystf** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 3:16 pm

Man, drummers have it tough! When was the last time you heard somebody comment on a really lousy bass player in an otherwise good band? (insert contrarian comments about lousy bass players here)

I think the drummer slot is kind of like the goalie slot in hockey or soccer. Everything gets blamed on the drummer/goalie. They even have the same presence: big guy stuck in one spot behind all the other players, with a bunch of heavy gear.

It doesn't surprise me that Lars is stuck at a certain level of drumming. I am a dreadful drummer despite having owned a set for most of the past fifteen years and despite semi-regular practice.

As I settle into my knowledge of Metallica I must agree that killemall is the best one.

Dubious · Post by **Dubious** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:47 am

i wouldnt cal llars a shit drummer.. though it seems alot of other people LOVE too.

to me lars has got an idiosyncratic / unique style of drumming that is probably one of the most unique aspects of the band.. its certainly the hardest aspect to copy / replicate...

and i agree i love kill em all as well.. listen to Anaestisia (fuk that's impossible to spell)... and when lars kicks in .. that's the best part of the track if you ask me.

one of the interestign aspects of metallica is the dynamic of the members.

you have lars the anal retentive who's willign to work 24 / 7 to nail the track

kirk the dude who's just happy if everyone else is happy

and then james who can only perform when the "mood" hits him right

bass playing apres cliff is sadly a moot issue

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Metallica <------> Leo Kottke

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