5. Starless and Bible Black (1974) - King Crimson: Robert Fripp foreshadowed punk by throwing together a prog album with no attention to "concept" or "overarching musical telos". It simply stunk of Fuck You! This is what makes this album great. From the blisteringly raw opening of The Great Deceiver, into the demented rocker known as Lament (where John Wetton screams like a madman with no attention to progressive sensibilities), and from there into the depths of nightmarish prototonic grunge improvs like The Mincer, We'll Let You Know, and Starless and Bible Black, King Crimson's follow up to Lark's Tongues in Aspic said NO to all what was going on in progressive rock in the mid 70s.
The album has progressive smarts like the segue between TGD and Lament, the complex dynamics of Lament, the musical scapes of SAAB, but nothing prepares you for Fracture. Fracture, a cerefully crafted beast of a progressive piece - performed live - that features a quirky Fripp guitar riff that slowly builds until it thrashes around your living room shredding wallpaper. John Wetton beneath the chaos, provides groovy metallic bass work that makes you want to head bang. The climax of the piece, and the album, comes when the band pause from their thrashing and tease the listener FOR EVER before they simultaneously ripp your room to shreds (as well as your progressive sensibilities), and then THEY DO IT AGAIN! What the hell is this? I'll tell you: it's called grunge, and it's here to say, yup, you guessed it... Fuck You Very Much!
4. Freak Out! (1966) - The Mothers of Invention: The mother of all alternative albums, Freak Out! was released in 1966 to a stunned audience, and shortly thererafter a musical revolution began. Pscychedelia, Prog, Punk, Parody rock, Rap, Metal, and the greater world of alternative rock all came out of this seminal album. Frank Zappa is a god!
Here, the first lines of music that would eventually echo across a half century of messed-up-ness-with-kids-sticking-it-to-the-man emerge from the vinyl with the opening words "Mr. America, walk on by, your schools that do not teach!" sung completely flat, against a distorted guitar and a backing orchestra of kazoos. Yup, there goes the planet.
Of course the album has a lot to say, simply musically if one looks beyond the politically infused lyrics. Hungry Freaks, Daddy is the prototypal punk/alternative anthem with it's agressiveness and attacking lyrics. Who Are the Brain Police is THE quintessential alternative/metal song, with it's sludgy, heavy guitar and insanely fucked up vocals that scream and snear, not to mention the bizzarre lyrics and middle section with the weird paranoid voices and screams and utter noise fests. You know, now that I think about it, I think the Melvins based their entire career off this song! This has Buzz Osborne written all over it.
Observing these facts, one can see the lineage of the alternative genre. From Freak Out!, there is a straight line that begins with this album and continues throughout the 70s via the anti-prog stylings of King Crimson and blossoms in the 1990s with bands such as the Melvins, Nirvana, and Primus. Alternative isn't a genre per se, as the media would have you believe, it's a way of doing things - a philosophy. That philosophy is basically to fuck with everybody and challenge and innovate without repeating yourself. This is why shit like My Chemical Romance and Linkin Park IS NOT alternative - it's commercial, Radio friendly garbage that was made in an "alternative" (read: Nirvana) style without the principal philosophy of alternative music. This applies to you too Indie Rock!
Anywhoo, Trouble Every Day IS the first rap song, and it. kicks. ass. Yes, this the ONLY rap song I will headbang to the lyrics! Not even Public Enemy is that visceral.
Of course, the second LP is where the out freakage really begins. Help I'm A Rock, It Can't Happen Here, and The Son of Monster Magnet are curiously hip-hopish with their off kilter drum "beating". Of course these tracks are ALSO bizarre noise fests that delve into the realms of weirdness never-before-put-on-record. Oh, and I'm Not Satisfied is a fucking kick ass song!
3. Incesticide (1992) - Nirvana: A great, great, GREAT album! With Incesticide, Nirvana presented the world with the "real" Nirvana - assorting a collection of old classics and rarities (most from the pre-Bleach era) and finalized, it feels like a real album.
Incesticide progresses like a great record from beginning to end, twisting and turning, surprising the listener, satisfying the listener, and ending majestically with fucking Aneurysm, possibly their best song. And this is after the aural bliss of Aero Zeppelin, and Big Long Now which close of the album with Aneurysm as a power trio. The album is made up of 4 parts - the catchy Nirvana, Nevermind esque songs that begin the album on a bang, the punk covers, which are simply cathartic and fun, the freak out tracks that manage to both totally rock out in glorious metal style and make you laugh your ass off (Hairspray Queen anyone?), and finally, the killer album closers. It's a fucking fun listen ! The album is frenzied and raw, yet smart and even slightly progressive, but with an overall punk attitude of that snears and boasts a who-gives-a-shit-lets-just-throw-these-songs-on-the-fucking-vinyl feel, and yet it surprises and cleverly puts on the listener before ending with 3 power tracks, reminiscent of some of Zeppelin's best, most powerhouse songs (i.e. When the Levee Breaks and Dazed and Confused) and even then it's still freakin' weird! Oh God, how I love Nirvana!
2. Stag (1996) - The Melvins. Holy fuck! This is a true gem. An album that manages to rock and boast some truly catchy songs while totally being downright weird and well... funny. And it works! The album flows from beginning to end seamlessly, twisting and turning like a true prog record. With great metal songs like The Bit with it's weird yet poweful sitar opening, to beautiful ridiculous numbers like Tipping The Lion and Black Bock that feature some hauntingly beautiful harmonies and dynamics to the pure outfreakage of Goggles, Sterilized, and Lacrimosa that somehow, even through their complete musical simplicity, manage to totally entrance the listener. Of course, Skin Horse is good for a laugh as is the obviously deliberate pathetic-ness of Cottonmouth - the Melvins
trying to write a slave song while self-conciously being as stupid as possible. It's totally and utterly an insane listen, and yet it rocks!
1. Red (1974) - King Crimson: This is a monster! No other album has come close to the sheer power, tension, musical consistency, and pure insanity as Red has. Released in 1974 this album must have been a total shock amidst the musical landscape of the era, much as Freak Out! had been at the dawn of the 60's revolution. But Red not only succeeds at innovation, in fact, much like say Nirvana's Nevermind, the album succeeds by perfecting many if not all the qualities that make up a classic work of art.
First of all, Red was the first album to be so darn heavy. But Red's heavyness was not the heaviness the 70s had been accustomed to - through the likes of Sabbath and Zeppelin - dark, blues influenced doom/sludge/stoner metal (as in the case of Sabbath). No, Red was something else altogether - an atonal, gothic prison of sound drenched in paranoia, unease, distress, and cautious, contained rage hiding behind a veil of cold intellect. Gentlemen, welcome to flavor country! (This wasn't in the brochure...)
Red is, in my humble opinion, the birth of grunge. If Black Sabbath was the birth of metal in all it's pretentious, doom and gloom glory, then Red is the birth of alternative metal, grunge, and to a lesser extent punk and thrash. Not only does it innovate, but it manages to have actual songs! How about that kids? King Crimson writing songs? Whoowoodathunk! From the explosion of fury that is the opening title track, to the twisted ballad of Fallen Angel, to the industrial fire of One More Red Nightmare with it's blistering sax solo, to Providence and it's schizoid, grungy vibe-that-makes-me-feel-like-i'm-in-the-back-of-an-alley-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks-at-2:00-in-the-morning-with-no-phone-or-knife, to the complete metal bliss that is Starless.
Note: If you haven't heard Starless, there is no point in continuing reading this blog or life. Seriously though, listen to that song and be ready to have your brain go into total shock (and be prepared to not sleep for a week). It makes Stairway to Heaven look like bubblegum pop!
The truth is, each song is bar none, one of Crimson's best, and totally phenomenal in and of themselves. Also, with the departed David Cross from the band, Fripp invited guest musicians such as old time Crimson members Ian McDonald and Mel Collins on Saxophone. What do we get? The best damn grunge/jazz flavored album ever! Not only do Ian and Mel contribute, but an uncredited cellist plays on the bridge in Red. Gee, does this sound familiar or what? Yup, on both Nevermind and In Utero, cello passages were used in a similar manner - simple enhacements to the albums in minute places (Something In the Way, Dumb) that helped lend a certain dark aura to the final record.
Finally Red succeeds in simply being a great rock record - with catchy songs, tritones galore, distortion a plenty and fucking Starless. It's fitting that the greatest moment on any Crimson record and the final statement of the pre-Discpline band should feature Ian McDonald, the founder of the original band, and the guy who left it for dead in the first place to be tended to by the hands of Maestro Fripp.
