MacKaye's Samhain or MacKaye's Lard?

I’m pretty ambivalent on both, but Pailhead was just annoying (like anything Al Jourgensen is involved with). embrace was ok - but some of those lyrics now hurt me a bit and haven’t aged well. embrace also with the superior artwork, so they take the chocolates…

If we are doing Ian related tangent bands, what about Egg Hunt? That single is awesome and the story behind it is pretty cool too. There’s a better link somewhere out there with more details I read years ago, but can’t remember it…

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCYZlIZqwQep17piJ2EE15Kg

I dig both. Unique sounds/albums each. Pailhead gets a little fatiguing if you listen to it all, but rules in small doses. Embrace has some accidental comedy undermining its earnestness. I sometimes picture a Bert style Muppet MacKaye whining the lyrics "I don't like parties".

Embrace gets the edge for 'Dance of Days' alone.

Pailhead is a fucking blast; love those songs, some of Barker's greatest bass lines, Ian's final scream on 'Man Should Surrender' is one of the best ever recorded, top tier IMO...

Embrace just isn't fully formed and never got the chance to develop, everyone is reaching outside of their harDCore roots but a little aimlessly... I do like that 'End of the Year' song, I guess. It may be 'interesting' but it isn't really very good; always felt similarly about Rites of Spring. (Dag Nasty did it right, IMO, esp on Wig out at Denko's).

Pailhead for me.

Pailhead's fun for what it is, but the Embrace album is canon for me. In fact my hot take is that it is Ian's best non-Fugazi output.

I'm gonna go with Embrace, though Pailhead (and Lard) were good projects. However, none match the majesty of Samhain.

Not a great era for Ian unfortunately. If the choice is between chorus-y guitar or thin industrial, I (wait for it..) will refuse.

joe_lmr wrote: Fri Jun 21, 2024 1:23 am Pailhead's fun for what it is, but the Embrace album is canon for me. In fact my hot take is that it is Ian's best non-Fugazi output.

We're still in 100% agreement on this point.

No vote at this time, but I always chuckle at the story Ian told in the joint Steve/Ian Kreative Kontrol interview where someone told Ian they had seen him sing the Pailhead songs live with Ministry, and someone actually found footage of what apparently turned out to be a bald Ministry roadie singing the Pailhead songs.

Uncle Al is a joke. I think Embrace might be my favorite Discord album. I also continue to work on my theory that Embrace is heavily influenced by Iron Maiden even after Steve confirmed through Ian that this was not the case.