Tag: nu-metal

Sep212013September 21, 2013September 21, 20131Commentby dan

In Defence of Nu-Metal

Posted in music

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I know they’re trying to wind people up. I know I shouldn’t rise to it. i also know that plenty of publications print complete falsehoods on a regular basis, often followed by a minuscule apology when the damage has already been done.

But seriously, have you read this article by Lucy Jones of the NME?

http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/10-reasons-why-nu-metal-was-the-worst-genre-of-all-time

I understand that she doesn’t get ‘nu-metal’. A lot of people don’t. But there’s just so many poorly argued points in this article it beggars belief. To save boring you all to sleep, I’ve narrowed it down to a succinct Top 5.

1. Deftones have ALWAYS been high on festival line-ups, this is not just a recent thing. To claim a band as diverse as this is just ‘nu-metal’ and to discredit their longevity is lazy journalism.

2. The assumption that ‘rap + metal = crap’, by default, implies that Rage Against The Machine are ‘crap’. And I would seriously question any music critic who thinks that.

3. The Strokes did not ‘wash anything away’. I remember vividly Slipknot’s ‘Iowa’ beating The Strokes ‘Is This It’ to Number One in the same week, with 1/10 of their hype.

4. It is accepted by everyone, apart from it seems the NME, that the first rap/rock crossover was Aerosmith/Run DMC’s ‘Walk This Way’, not Anthrax/Public Enemy’s ‘Bring The Noise’ a year later.

5. The article resorts to petty insults about how a band looks to make its point.

However, the point, that REALLY gets my goat deserves a whole separate article. It’s Lucy’s throwaway comment that Limp Bizkit and System Of A Down are ‘sexist claptrap’. Yes, there’s an argument that Limp Bizkit are misogynistic and I accept that. But System Of A Down? Really?!?! I do worry in the wake of ‘Blurred Lines‘ that people can be accused of sexism without being questioned and it’s just taken as fact. But I cannot think of a single lyric, track, album, video, live performance or interview that SOAD have ever done which even has a touch of sexism to it. It is seriously unfair on the band, their fans, or the genre, for the NME to make such a bold statement without backing it up.

Anyway, I’m off to Break Stuff. Keep rollin’ baby, you know what time it is.

N.B I tweeted Lucy Jones last night and asked her to offer an example of System Of A Down’s sexism, at the time of writing I have received no reply.


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Aug172013August 17, 2013August 17, 20131Commentby dan

Cut my life into pieces…

Posted in clubbing, music

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In recent years I’ve really gone off rock clubs. Too often they really do take themselves seriously, and so, so many of them seem to insist on playing the same tracks in the same order every week and making the minimum effort possible. An awful lot are TERRIBLE at online and social media and therefore fail to create any sort of excitement or buzz about their night. This is particularly troublesome with weekly nights, since there are inevitably going to be weeks where it’s extremely difficult to get the punters through the door, and a lazy approach to proceedings is hardly going to help. Many are struggling and/or shutting down up and down the country against a difficult economic backdrop and frankly, I’m not surprised.

However, for a couple of years now I’ve been following the online buzz of semi-regular rock night Last Resort but for one reason or another never made it down until Last Resort 9 in June this year. I quickly concluded that it is by some distance the best rock club I’ve ever been to, for a variety of reasons not limited to the below..

1. It doesn’t even try and take itself seriously.
2. The music is largely rock emo, nu-metal and pop-punk from the early 00’s when most of the crowd were growing up.
3. There are regular social media updates on Facebook and Twitter, not just from the official accounts but from the promoters themselves, creating a buzz from months beforehand.
4. Every night is a separate ‘event’ to be treated as such. It’s only on a few times a year, which means it’s always rammed.
5. The music is amazing. Yes, it’s not to everyone’s tastes, and (bizarrely) not everyone wants to hear 8 Limp Bizkit tracks in a night BUT equally nobody is apparently afraid to drop a Katy Perry, a Rihanna track or even bloody Usher when the moment calls. And why should they be? In this day and age nobody wants to hang around with people who think they’re too good for pop music, especially after a few drinks!
6. There appears to be about 20 DJ’s. Presumably they are only playing a few tracks each, but it means there’s a great buzz around the decks.
7. It’s completely FREE and is bang in the centre of London.
8. Oh and everyone, without exception, is completely battered.

The next one is Last Resort 10 on Saturday 7th September it’s at The Star of Kings in Kings Cross, and it’s completely free!

In the meantime, get involved with the banter on Facebook and Twitter.


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