THE MORALS OF METAL

Last night I made my return to The Busted Halo Show on SiriusXM's The Catholic Channel.  It was "Mellow" Matt's one year anniversary as the show's Board Operator, so I was invited to bring some of Matt's favorite music, heavy metal.  No problem.  Except that I had to have some kind of theme, beyond "Matt likes this music." A year and a half ago, I talked about Black Sabbath on Busted Halo, and I felt that went over well.  But I didn't want to repeat myself. 

Here's the thing about (some) heavy metal music.  It has a sense of consciousness, just like folk music, and a sense of outrage just like punk rock, but doesn't get much credit for either.  When I was a kid, though, I didn't really know much about punk rock and folk wasn't really appealing to me.  But there did seem to be a moral code to at least some records by Iron Maiden, Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth. That struck a chord with me back then, and it still does today. I don't mind songs about cars and girls, but I also enjoy and appreciate when a lyric goes deeper. That's what was going through my mind over the past week when I was deciding what songs to use.

So the theme I came up with was war, and the effects of war on the people forced to fight.  When I first talked about Sabbath on Busted Halo, I used "War Pigs," which decried the fact that wealthy people decide that we need to go to war, but it's generally the poor who have to actually go and fight.

This time, I decided to use another Sabbath song, "Hand Of Doom," which, like "War Pigs," is on the 1970 album Paranoid. I've always interpreted the song about guys who came back from Vietnam and the damage they brought with them.  "Hand of doom" is code for heroin; some soldiers either got hooked on smack while in Vietnam, others started using when they got home.  The song doesn't glorify or moralize anything.  Because of Tony Iommi's fearsome guitar playing, you get the message that "hand of doom" is scary and not something you want to mess with. When people accuse Sabbath of being Satanists, I suggest they listen to this song.  Geezer Butler (who wrote the lyrics) wasn't trying to tell you want to think, just presenting a reality, and Ozzy Osbourne sounding as haunted as he ever would, delivered the song perfectly. To me, there's a great sense of moral outrage in this song.  How could we send people to fight for our country, and let them linger as empty shells when they come back, poisoned by heroin?

Next, I used Metallica's "Disposable Heroes" from one of the hugest albums of my high school years, 1986's Master Of Puppets. Metallica are taken for granted a bit now, as they are one of the biggest bands in the world, but back then they were very radical and underground.  This album was about the different things that control people's lives, mainly drugs and war. "Disposable Heroes" was about soldiers, and it struck me that at the time the album came out, America hadn't officially been involved in any wars, and hadn't been for quite a few years. As opposed to now, when you hear stories about soldiers from the various wars in the Middle East having problems re-acclimating to "normal" life. Metallica frontman and lyricist James Hetfield must have known some Vietnam vets, and made his own observations based on what he saw.  I'd love to ask him about this song.  In the lyrics, Hetfield doesn't have to point out that he cares about what these people were going through: the fact that he sings with such rage tells you all you need to know.  It's a subject that Springsteen has sung about, Hetfield and Metallica reaches a different audience. Maybe this song gave some people some ideas about the consequences of war. 

Finally, I used Alice In Chains' "Rooster," which Jerry Cantrell wrote about his father, a Vietnam vet, and all he went through when he returned home after the war.  The lines that resonate are "the bullets scream to me from somewhere" and also "they spit on me in my homeland." Jerry doesn't take a stance on war, but he shows from his first hand experience, what the after-effects are on people returning from war. It's a pretty heavy song.

When I was a kid, I felt that adults proclaimed heavy metal to be a depraved and angry form of music with no redeeming social value.  That was part of the appeal! But if you paid attention to the lyrics as I did (and I was not alone there), there was a lot you could get out of lyrics to songs like Iron Maiden's "Run To The Hills," Anthrax's "Indians" and Megadeth's "Peace Sells." (I'll probably write about those three songs in a later post.) I love the fact that these bands were able to get across ideas without slamming you over the head (lyrically, at least). While getting you to bang your head.

GRAMMY WATCH: ALICE IN CHAINS

Over the next few days, I'm gonna be posting about different Grammy nominees, who I don't think are getting much attention in the press. Obviously everyone knows about all the nominations for Eminem, Bruno Mars and B.o.B. But there are a lot of other artists that are nominated who deserve some shine. This series of posts is inspired by the fact that, when I worked at VH1, I covered the entire ceremony, and had the privilege of interviewing lots of artists who weren't part of the "big story," from Lemmy to Tibetan monks, from Lord Of The Rings score composer Howard Shore to The Blind Boys Of Alabama.  I also interviewed Beyonce, but sometimes the artists who aren't quite as big seem to appreciate it a bit more.

I don't know what awards will be given out on the national broadcast (you can see the pre-telecast at the Grammys website). But Best Hard Rock Performance probably won't be on TV, and if there is one win I'm really hoping for, it's that Alice In Chains wins in that category. "A Looking In View," which opens their comeback album, Black Gives Way To Blue, is nominated.  It is a really intense song.  I remember going to an album preview event, and hearing that song, and being kind of blown away. I hadn't seen the reunited Alice yet (although I had seen William DuVall singing their songs as part of Jerry Cantrell's solo band years earlier, and he was amazing). But I was still skeptical about whether the band could credibly go on, post-Layne Staley. Midway through "A Looking In View," I knew they could. It's a great song.

Also, AIC have never won a Grammy, and while I'm kind of against voting based on that criteria, it would be a shame for them not to win this one. They are up against some great competition: I love Ozzy Osbourne's "Let Me Hear You Scream," and Them Crooked Vultures' "New Fang." Also in the competition is Soundgarden's "Black Rain," which shouldn't even be there, as it is an outtake from about twenty years ago. I love Soundgarden, but that's my opinion. And I'll keep my opinion on STP to myself. I think AIC deserves this one, hands down.

ALICE IN CHAINS AT TERMINAL 5

To be honest, I wasn't sure I wanted to see a band called "Alice In Chains" in 2010. There's no easy way around the fact that replacing original singer, the late Layne Staley, is an impossible task. It's not that Layne was the leader (that would be Jerry Cantrell), but was obviously a really important element of the band. In some bands, some members are irreplacable.

But.  A few years ago, I saw Jerry Cantrell on a solo tour, and William DuVall was playing rhythm guitar in his band, and also singing. When they did Alice songs, it was pretty mind blowing how good it sounded. I remember thinking, wow, Jerry and William sound a lot like Jerry and Layne. The fans loved it and so did Jerry.
Eventually, Jerry got Sean Kinney and Mike Inez back in the fold, and they did a bunch of "Alice In Chains" reunion shows. Then they did the album Black Gives Way To Blue, which is a great addition to their catalog (and better than the group's final effort, 1995's self-titled album). "Check My Brain" from the new album is as good as anything they've ever done.

Still, it was weird seeing a concert by the post-Layne Alice In Chains. William pulled off Layne's songs really well, and of course did a great job on the new ones. I think he is actually a better singer, and in some ways, an even better frontman than Layne. If *I* were in a band, I'd rather be in a band with William than Layne. But that's the problem in a way: William seems to be a stronger man, and a less tortured one. He sings slightly more muscular versions of the songs, and makes them his own, but the problem is that so many of those songs are about drug addiction and Layne's tortued soul was perfect for them.

But the band chemistry was great. William is a true member of the band.  Some songs, he just sings. Others he sings and plays guitar. On some he just plays guitar and Jerry even gave him some of the leads. Sometimes Jerry is at the center mic, but sometimes William is.  He's not a standin, he is a member, and that's a pretty incredible thing, given who he replaced in the band.

It was a great show, and made me optimistic (if such a word applies for Alice In Chains!) that the band have a real future, and I look forward to seeing how they progress. I bet the next album will be even better than Black Gives Way To Blue.

WHO *IS* WILLIAM DUVALL (ALICE IN CHAINS' SINGER)?

When Alice In Chains reactivated with new singer William DuVall, I was a bit familiar with him: he had actually played rhythm guitar in Jerry Cantrell's solo band. When they performed Alice songs, it was pretty intsense, so when I heard he was actually joining AIC, it kind of made sense.  What I didn't know was his history. He used to be in an underground punk band called Neon Christ. And he co-wrote the '90s-era hit "I Know" for former Arrested Development singer Dionne Farris (Alice and AD toured together on Lollapalooza '93, by the way). Read an interesting piece about DuVall at Atlanta's Creative Loafing.

HOLY CRAP: PEARL JAM'S GUEST LIST

Pearl Jam don't really need special guests joining them onstage, they are powerful enough on thier own. That said, they've recently had some pretty awesome special guests. Ben Harper has been opening for them lately, and joining them every night for "Red Mosquito," from No Code. At Austin City Limits, Perry Farrell joined them for Jane's Addiction 's "Mountain Song." Jerry Cantrell has joined them recently for "Alive" and The MC5 's "Kick Out The Jams." But the other night in LA, Chris Cornell joined them for the Temple Of The Dog classic "Hunger Strike." Wow. What's more is that, supposedly, Soundgarden 's Kim Thayil and Ben Shepherd were backstage, and they hung with Chris and Matt Cameron after the show. WOW. Earlier this year, 75% of Soundgarden reunited, but I think this is the first time the four of them have been together since the band broke up. It would be great to see them together again, although I doubt it would be a full-time thing. I wonder if Matt Cameron could balance being in both Pearl Jam and Soundgarden?

ROAD RECOVERY: MAYBE MORE FUN FROM THE STAGE

Last night I went to the Road Recovery benefit concert honoring Wayne Kramer of The MC5 at the Nokia Theater in NYC. It is a great organization "dedicated to helping young people battle addiction and other adversities." It's a great organization, check them out. The lineup was pretty great: Perry Farrell (and his wife, Etty Farrell), Iggy Pop, Tom Morello, Jerry Cantrell and Brother Wayne Kramer, along with Don Was and Billy Bragg, plus a few too many opening acts. It may have been more fun if you were involved in the all-star jams. There were some great moments, and others that weren't as great.

I won't put anyone down. I missed Joan as Police Woman, I wanted to see her. I kind of liked this two man group Middle Class Rut. All the bands played two songs, with emcee Matt Pinfield in between. There was really no momentum, and it's a lot to ask of people to sit through all this stuff at a benefit, when you are selling tickets based on much bigger stars.

Making the night seem a bit surreal was the fact that earlier in the day, Pinfield put out a press release saying that he would be taking a break from his morning DJ job to check into rehab on Monday. Good for him.

In the midst of all of these bands, Billy Bragg came out and did a very NPR-ish two song solo acoustic set, he did a cover of The Verve's "The Drugs Don't Work" and his own "I Keep Faith." So much of the show had the feel of a jam session crumbling under it's own weight, Bragg's solo set seemed more powerful than most of the other stuff I saw. Tom Morello's Street Sweeper Social Club were great, and I look forward to seeing them play a longer set on the NINJA tour. Jerry Cantrell played "Wish You Were Here" with former Guns N Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke and a guitarist named Carl Restivo who was all over the stage all night (he is a former member of Perry Farrell's Satellite Party and is now part of Street Sweeper).

Then, the show really kicked off, but not with a bang. Perry, Etty and Carl did Perry's solo song from the Twilight soundtrack, and it was just corny. Then, Morello, Cantrell, Kramer et al came on stage and it was on. They did two Jane's songs ("Mountain Song" and "Ain't No Right") that seemed to crumble under the weight of everyone on stage. Jerry sang Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak" which was pretty cool (Evan Seinfeld of Biohazard played bass on that), Perry, Evan and Gilby did The Who's "We Won't Get Fooled Again" which was OK. "Special guest" Juliette Lewis did AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" which was OK. Dictators frontman and Underground Garage DJ Handsome Dick Manitoba hit the stage to do The MC5's "Animal," which was a highlight. Then Iggy showed everyone who's boss: he did two songs I didn't know, "Five Foot One" and I forgot the other one. It was great, he runs on stage and starts yelling at the drummer. After the first song he turns around and looks at the drummer and says "Cocksucker! Play it right!" The night ended, appropriately, with "Kick Out The Jams," Kramer taking one verse, Handsome Dick taking one, and Iggy finishing - Iggy came out and tipped his imaginary cap to Dick, which was great. And Little Steven was on stage for that one also (he tweeted the show throughout the night).

All in all: $25 was worth it for the good moments. I'd say to the organizers, if you want to keep doing these and make money for your organization (the show was not sold out) you have to (a) tighten it up - less of the opening bands that most people aren't familar with and (b) more rehearsal time if possible/smaller combos for the all star stuff to make it tighter. Then you can sell recordings of it too. Good luck Matt Pinfield.

TOM MORELLO TAKES AXIS OF JUSTICE ON THE ROAD

The Nightwatchman, a.k.a. Tom Morello, is taking his Axis Of Justice organization (which he co-founded with System Of A Down singer Serj Tankian) on tour. Tom is doing a Nightwatchman set, and also rocking with a band that will include "special guests": in New York, the guests will include Slash, Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains, Wayne Kramer of The MC5, Joseph Arthur and Perry Farrell. I'm hoping to go to the show. Even if I didn't love the lineup, I'm mostly down with Tom's politics and I love that he puts his money and his time where his mouth is.