Premier Rock Forum

Krev wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2024 9:22 am Were Therapy? the Irish Helmet?

Therapy were a decent ripoff of some noisy yankie bands.

Always enjoyed them up until Troiblegum. NC

Seems the only reason this guy gets to sing is because the band is his ball and if you don't like it he's taking it home.

twelvepoint wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2024 9:13 am Here's a question: should Strap it On get remixed? I feel like it's their strongest material overall and pretty ground-breaking at the time, but also a very murky mix.

Yes… but there is a charm to it’s impenetrability as well. I can’t remember who said it, maybe Hazelmyer, but Strap It On was the most “New York” sounding album of its time. NYC in 89 was a tough town.

Vibracobra wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2024 9:42 am

Krev wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2024 9:22 am Were Therapy? the Irish Helmet?

Therapy were a decent ripoff of some noisy yankie bands.

Always enjoyed them up until Troiblegum. NC

Hamilton plays on that album. The solo on Unbeliever is him.

Bluegum LaBloat wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2024 10:03 am Seems the only reason this guy gets to sing is because the band is his ball and if you don't like it he's taking it home.

I played in one like that. It wasn't a great time.

Krev wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2024 10:53 am

Bluegum LaBloat wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2024 10:03 am Seems the only reason this guy gets to sing is because the band is his ball and if you don't like it he's taking it home.

I played in one like that. It wasn't a great time.

Either that, or no one else wanted to do it and they didn't want to bring on an extra dude. The 'Unsung' type vocals work ok in moderate doses, the grunting is awful.

To tie a few previous posts together via commentary and simultaneously indulge in a bad creative writing exercise, I think the original mix of Strap It On is fine. (Even though I don't have a vinyl copy to base it on, and I refuse to judge it via YouTube.)

Again, I think I'm coming from a very specific place in my enjoyment of this band—damn straight re: NYC's harshness in 1989; people romanticize the even-rougher '70s and early '80s, but sometimes make it sound like the city was one big yuppie cocktail party after about 1985, and that's way beyond false. So I think polishing the Helmet (sorry) kinda detracts from the music's appeal and gives it this 1990s sell-by date w/a glossy faux-"big" quality.

Metal-leaning downtown underground rock bands like Helmet and Prong suffered artistically (but not financially, obviously) as their budgets got bigger, or at least that's how I hear it. In a way more extreme example, someone like White Zombie was revealed to be a crass, Kiss-leaning joke vs. a cool, shitty-sounding, Birthday Party-ish noise band. But I digress!

For Helmet and Prong, I feel like the murk forced me to project a kind of badass mystery onto the music. Maybe it was sonically frustrating for the band members b/c they could play better than their peers and craved more precise articulation, I dunno? But there was something so cool about the sound of these riff-based, metallic bands being really murky and not-at-all pristine. Again, it sounds like a great band playing live, w/this devil-may-care thing going on. The early recordings by both are live-sounding, hot, and mean, as if the riffs and guitar tracks are struggling and blurring, as opposed to pumped-up and shiny. Never mind those unfortunate trips to Funkytown that all these bands took when they went mersh. "Just Another Victim," indeed.

So, um, leave Strap It On alone, I guess?

As for Live Skull's Snuffer EP, it's not my favorite, but "Step" is incredible. Like this band's attempt at a soaring, uplifting rock song, but w/dissonance aplenty and a tonally weird guitar outro. Love it, one of Thalia's finest. I'm also partial to "Straw," which is so heavy and menacing and features the final vocal by guitarist Tom Paine, as if he's trying to crawl his way out of the murk.

I do realize that I sound like Patrick Bateman here, but going off about late '80s NYC noise rock instead of Toto or whatever. Sorry.

Krev wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2024 9:22 am Were Therapy? the Irish Helmet?

Those early EPs are where Therapy? were best. As soon as the edges were smoothed it was just rock.

True.

LOVED Troublegum 30 years ago, but listening to it today is a bit painful; catch tunes but production sounds so dated. Still, great memories attached to that record.

@OrthodoxEaster
Ha. Not at all man, you’re posting some really interesting stuff. This is definitely the conversation I was interested in when I put up this poll. One of my big disappointments was I never got much time in NYC, let alone in the midst of the late 80s early 90s no wave / noise scene. I got one shitty night at CBGBs before gentrification ended it. But I guess having used the bathroom there has a certain level of cred

I just listened to Strap It On (vinyl reissue on decent system). It’s slaps as is… it’s way more deranged than the rest of their output. I’d say as “Helmet Connoisseur” each of the four albums has a very different feel and sound even though it’s hammering riffs and poly chords with almost no subtlety. I actually like how the sound and writing gets more refined as they go.

I know Aftertaste is mostly ignored but it’s kind of culmination of those first three and David Sardy’s production is really great. There’s some fantastic drum sounds. Especially the bits recorded in a tiled bathroom that sound like revolver shots…. Barkmarket, now that’s a band I don’t listen to enough. L Ron rocks.