This month’s Classic Albums Column focuses on Suicidal Tendencies‘ self-titled debut. Mars Attacks Podcast episode 64 features comments from Charlie Benante, Gene Hoglan, Alan Tecchio, author Martin Popoff, Mark Strigl from Talking Metal, and Aaron from Iron City Rocks. As we established with the previous podcast we also discuss why this album was selected. You will find the podcast at the bottom of this post.
This month we kick the comments off in a special way, Keith “Keefy” Chachkes of Metal Army America was nice enough to send us some regarding the album from ST frontman Mike Muir. This actually is part of a series Keefy has started over at Metal Army America called Conversations from the Crypt. Here are the excerpts that were sent along:
Asked about the DIY history of the band and carving out success
MM: “When we put out our first record. We had two labels call us about signing to a major. They both said ‘you have to change your name to sign with us’. They said ‘most of the stores won’t carry your albums because of your name.’ We said ‘forget that, we’re not changing our name!’ Then we put out our second record and we had eight labels call up. When we signed to CBS at the time, which became SONY, we were the first band ever in the history of that label to have it written in our contract that we had complete artistic control of the music, lyrics and artwork and if the label didn’t put our records out, we could leave the contract and still own everything. That’s how we were able to put out a record like (Controlled by Hatred)Feel Like Shit…Déjà Vu at the same time the PMRC was trying to whine and this and that. So we never had to submit any songs (to the label) or do anything like that.”
When asked about the legacy of the band after 30 years since the first record
MM: “When we first started off the punk magazines said ‘first record sucked, it was metal’. The metal magazines said ‘it sucked, it was punk’. Other than the skaters who were the first kind of people to get into us, nobody really like us. We didn’t have a built in audience to cater to, we built our own audience. We were able to get people that were really open minded. Consequently this really helped us out years later being able to play to really diverse crowds. We’re able to do a lot of things that other people haven’t, and it’s because we refused to kind of fit into to other people’s ideas of what success is. That is the most important thing. We did the right things and didn’t listen to the people who ‘knew what was going on.’ We were more concerned about the music than what other people wanted us to do. “
You can find the entire interview with Mike Muir here.
Remember that you can go here index page to find out further details on everyone involved in the column.
Greg Prato – I love punk rock (I’m talking real punk rock from the 1970′s and early 1980′s though – not the crap that MTV played after the fact), and some could say that ST’s debut was the last true classic punk rock release. It’s amazing how many of the melodies in these songs stick in your head INSTANTLY, while it’s still pretty darn vicious. And the video for ‘Institutionalized’ remains one of the best!
Jon Leon – Classic anthems all over this record. I hold it in high regard. Everytime I see them and Mike live-they really bring it. How can you not like ST-like Motorhead they just kill you with anthems and character. First ST like Ace of Spades is as essential as it gets.
Erik Kluiber – Favorite album by far is how can I laugh tomorrow.
Ricky Armellino – I seriously spent a week learning a few of their bass parts. I love Tendencies.
Mitts – Classic debut record from a highly underrated band. This came out during the peak of the “speed race” years. Metallica, D.R.I., S.O.D., and tons of other bands, in a competition to see who can play the fastest.
Scott Middleton – Suicidal Tendencies A Crossover classic that still holds up to this day. Mike Muir and Rocky George produced a record that actually bridged the gap between metal and punk, not to mention skate boarding and street gangs. No band has ever sounded anything like these guys, yet everything about this band has had huge influence on my own band and music.
Jaye Schwarzer – This record rules!! I used to listen to this a lot while my cousin was teaching me to skateboard. Shred!!
Scott LePage – DRI and Suicidal were my two favorite bands at the time this came out. This is my favorite Suicidal album still. Very powerful album with damn good production compared to the first albums of other bands around the same time.
JL – I found out about the band thanks to the skater videos I used to watch, every time I hear them I remember all of the good times I spent skating. Back then it was infinitely more difficult to get your hands on certain albums, when you’d get a hold of an album like this you’d play it like there is no tomorrow.
Jandro Storm – A friend gave me a tape that had Metallica’s 91 performance at Donnington. To “fill out” the tape he added side one of the first ST album. The first thing that came to mind was “this album is perfect to skate to”, I wasn’t all that off. Since then Suicidal Tendencies has become one of my all-time favorite bands. Not only because of their music, but because of what they represent.
Chris Shrum – Some of the best and funniest punk rock ever!
Sean Bryant – God damn this reminds me of skating so much. Getting rad, breaking shit, throwing skateboards through windows and pissing off the cops. We used to wear our tattered clothing and destroy our Chuck Taylors shoes every week. sorry mom. it truly was the music. you did a wonderful job, I swear!!
Will Carroll – This is an album which seems to me if you listen to thrash than you HAVE to like it. Well I’m not one of those people. Its OK but I have a copy of it (which a friend GAVE me) and I NEVER listen to it.
Steve Smyth – Total classic album by the masters of LA hardcore punk/crossover thrash, or whatever “genre” you want to call them. I had friends that were deep into the band at the time, and they got me into them. Institutionalized is of course is a classic, but what about Two Sided Politics, Subliminal, the ever borrowed from I Saw Your Mommy?
Domonic Rini – All I can say about ST in 1983 was: Mike Muir and crew was a genius at putting out the classic hit “Institutionalized”. The punk scene was in high gear and ST was trying to capture both the punk and the metal scene and their debut was able to get them into the mainstream punk scene and movement into the metal world. ST was very well known for their gear. The inverted cap lids with the scribed Suicidal Tendencies were everywhere. A great record for a wondrous period of time.
The podcast portion can be streamed or downloaded from here:
This month’s Classic Albums Column focuses on Pantera‘s Far Beyond Driven. Mars Attacks Podcast episode 60 features comments from Rex Brown formerly of Pantera, and currently in Kill Devil Hill, Gene Hoglan, Alan Tecchio, Dave Reffett, author Martin Popoff, Mitch Lafon from Bravewords, and Aaron from Iron City Rocks. As we established with the previous podcast we also discuss why this album was selected. You will find the podcast at the bottom of this post.
Remember that you can go here index page to find out further details on everyone involved in the column.
Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal – This is the album that made me a total Pantera fan, this, Vulgar, Cowboys, Trendkill, Steel… another band that inspired a thousand more…
Dan Lorenzo – Before I tell you my thoughts on this album I have to interject with one of my highlights of my musical career involving Pantera. Right after ‘Cowboy’s came out, my band NON-FICTION opened up for Pantera in NYC. I don’t even think I even met any of the members of Pantera that night. In all honesty I thought ‘CFH’ was a bit too derivative of Metallica when I first heard it. I fell in love with Pantera when ‘Vulgar’ was released. By that time NON-FICTION had gotten signed and I was in L.A. with Alan Tecchio doing press for the first NON-FICTION cd. At one point I went back to my hotel room and I found myself alone in the hallway. Phil Anselmo was walking towards me. I said, “Phil..I don’t know if you know who I am, I’m Dan from Non-Fiction.” Phil said, “Of course I know who you are.” Then he started singing “The My Way” (the first song off the first NON-FICTION cd ‘Preface’) at the top of his lungs. How cool is that? Anyway, Far Beyond Driven contains the songs, “I’m Broken” and “5 Minutes Alone”. Monstrous riffing. Incredible vocals. Barreling drumming. And they just ripped it up live. ‘Vulgar” is still my favorite Pantera cd, but Far Beyond Driven is “Far Beyond” anything new coming out today for sure.
Peter Ellis – By the time Far Beyond Driven came out Pantera was a beast of a band! Each member had found their place and was comfortable within the spectrum of the band and were comfortable taking their music to uncharted territories. Also this album features one of my all-time favourite covers, Planet Caravan by Black Sabbath. I honestly don’t think any other band on the planet could have done a better job than Pantera did covering this song. Phil Anselmo will always be the best extreme Metal singer in history and the reason no other hardcore singer can sound like him is the fact that HE COULD ACTUALLY SING!!! He didn’t get into screaming because he couldn’t sing well like 99.9% of screamers. One of my favourite albums by one of my favourite bands.
Jon Leon – Dimebag was a hero of 90′s metal guitar. That said….Pantera put out 3 albums that helped save metal in the 90′s, this one being the best of them. RIP Dimebag and Pantera will always be one of the all-time great heavier bands.
Erik Kluiber – must have seen Pantera 10 times between 93 and 95. They hit Detroit every few months. Their scene kinda turned less cool as time went on due to skin heads and jocks.
Phil Rind – Vulgar Display of Power is my favorite. I love the song “Rise”.
Mitts – Pantera’s best album. They were one of a few bands who kept metal alive through the 90′s era of grunge rock.
James J. LaRue – I got into Pantera with Vulgar Display. But I can’t stand phil’s voice or MMA/bro-down attitude. He ushered in a whole bunch of angry bros with thick necks shouting over stuff (“bro-cals”) and trying to be tough instead of learning proper vocal technique, but Dime was so great, and I suffered through the alpha male vocals because of that ultra-heavy guitar tone and wild leads. Once in a while I’ll throw this one on if I’m really really pissed. Anyways, I love Dime and his whole personality on the guitar and as a person. He had a huge effect on how I approach getting heavy tones. Pre-distortion EQ and solid state amps, later the tube Krank heads. He was friends and jam-buddies with another favorite player of mine, Blues Saraceno. I wish there was more recordings of Dime outside of Pantera. He was awesome.
Scott Middleton – Essentially Far Beyond Driven is the bench mark for modern heaviness and true attitude. Anything since has copied, borrowed, or stole something from this band. Straight up, this record is where 90% of metal and hardcore bands have stolen their tones from, whether they realize it or not! This band changed the way things were done, and no one since has put out a true metal record that really eclipses what this band accomplished. For christ’s sake it debuted at number one in ’94 when most metal bands couldn’t give away their records.
Jaye Schwarzer – The song ‘The Badge’ is a shredder of a tune that uses sound clips from the movie Taxi Driver. This record rips!! Dimebag Forever!
Seth Thacker – I personally think Pantera is the greatest metal band ever, always have and always will feel that way. I remember Far Beyond Driven being the first real metal record that I heard. It was so powerful, and it had so much attitude. It really opened me up to metal because up until then I really never cared for music of any kind. Once I discovered Pantera it was no holds barred on looking for other metal bands. Naturally I went backwards and discovered the previous records Pantera released. But Far Beyond Driven is probably one of my favorite records of all time. You just and beat it, the groove, the guitars, and Phil’s vocals just make for the perfect sound.
Scott LePage – Good Lord. This album is far beyond brutal. Especially for 1994 when most of the popular stuff was mid tempo grunge. I think I blew the tweeters in my car to this cassette. The riffs! And that clicky kick drum! My ears are still ringing….. Hold on, I’m gonna go put this on now!
Chris Biermann – Total fucking destruction in every note.
Jim Florentine – The heaviest album I ever heard at the time!
Raul L.R. – This sonic temple was released in ’94, it made clear to me that I would choose Pantera for life, instead of the metal gods like Metallica or Sepultura. I am no ashamed to say this. Phil Anselmo stands out, and is Darrell my favorite guitarist, I love the way his development of riffs and solos, the perfect balance, just perfect, just great, the whole album stands out, but to me tracks like 3 and 4 just shatter my brain, 5 Minutes Alone and I’m Broken, possibly because seeing the videos for this song really resonated and help form how I play guitar.
JL – With the “Vulgar Display of Power” Pantera were gaining considerable notoriety, which made many of us imagine that the next album would take advantage of the notoriety the band was having (with Vulgar Display). What happened was that none of us saw what was coming. As a result, the album is heavier, less polished, sharp as a razor, and powerful as a wrecking ball across the face.
Fer Fukyea – To begin I must say that Pantera is one of the best metal bands of all time, pioneers in this genre (abstain from mentioning Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth and these sort of groups that do not belong to this style) and that have influenced probably 99% of the groups of metal today. What to say about “Far Beyond Driven,” well it is a very impressing, great album, the heaviest album they recorded up until then. It did not shake things up like when “Cowboys From Hell” was release, and won’t be remembered like “Vulgar Display Of Power”, but it is a tremendous album from start to finish. The Abbott brothers put together one hell of a set of song, “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott (guitar) and Vinnie Paul Abbott (drums), they demonstrate strength and incredible skill of the instrument on this album. Vinnie Paul does not need to play hundreds of notes per minute to back up a strong and brutal riff, and Dimebag … How original is the fucking man! Each song is different. I must say, while I am critical of James Hetfield (lead singer/guitarist of Metallica), and Phil Anselmo, lead singer of Pantera, I must say that in the studio he has a voice that varies between lower and higher registries, gravely and melodic, with impressive ease, but live, well, I do not know if he would have performed better sober, but he was drunk, almost always, and left much to be desired.
Jandro Storm – It was the album that we were all anxiously looking forward to hearing, after Vulgar Display Of Power. The truth is that nothing I was not disappointed and definitely put Pantera on my top 5 metal bands of the moment. I have the vinyl edition of this album, which has a different more explicit cover.
David Lozano – With Far Beyond Driven I discovered an energy in music that I had previously never experienced. They are definitely one of my favorite bands, and one that has influenced me a great deal as a musician.
Mikey Pannone – I honestly didn’t believe it was possible for any band to be THIS heavy. This album is the very definition of metal. Every song on this thing is like a natural disaster…tornado, hurricane, earthquake, volcanic eruption…all the above. R.I.P. Dimebag.
Owain Williams – One of the heaviest albums ever! Everything just sounds brutal. Except the bass drums. They sound like a typewriter! Haha. Throes of Rejection has to have one of the best Dime solos ever. I miss Dime.
Steve Smyth – Standout album from the legendary Pantera! You had the amazing chops of Dime and Vinnie, Rex holding it down, and Phil getting across all kinds of crazy sh*t vocally and lyrically! Awesome power on this album, in tracks like Strength Beyond Strength, Becoming, Five Minutes Alone, Shedding Skin, and their cover of Planet Caravan? A hard album to beat by a band on fire at the time, and in my opinion, I think they found it hard to follow as well…
Bat – I loved Vulgar display of Power and it has such great riffs and grooves and hooks. I found this album difficult to get into but I loved the version of “Planet Caravan” I was very lucky to meet and smoke spliff with Dimebag and Phil Anselmo in Dublin 93 just before this album came out
Clay Withrow – When Far Beyond Driven first came out it put Pantera on the map for a lot of metalheads. At a time when Korn and Limp Bizket were mainstream radio acts, most critics had given up on heavy metal thinking the audience had moved on. Thank god Pantera wasn’t led astray and continued to fly that heavy metal flag high. I honestly can’t think of many albums that top this, aside from the band’s later effort The Great Southern Trendkill. It’s a perfect mix of abrasive vocals, groovy rhythms, infectious guitar riffs and precision drumming. My favorite songs on that album would have to be “Hard Lines Sunken Cheeks” for its breathtaking solo and “Shedding Skin” for that insanely awesome opening verse. There’s no doubt in my mind Pantera is the most important metal band to come out of the 90s and one of the most influential heavy bands in history.
Kenny Pierce – Oddly enough by the time that “FBD” was released my interest was waning in Pantera. Having owned and loved “Cowboys From Hell” and “Vulgar Display Of Power” when they were released I was not prepared for the changes in the bands groove as this slightly new sound and direction were not my cup of tea. Back in the day this shift of interest was thanks to my switching over to more melodic Power Metal and believe it or not I sort of embraced the earliest providers of the Grunge Movement who were manifesting on that side of the USA. I felt that the strongest of the Hard Rock and Metal bands would survive that wave of “newness” that many felt was killing Metal, so while the USA moved to the plaid shirts my musical head turned to Europe where Power Metal continued to proliferate and dominate for many years. Looking back on “Far Beyond Driven” I can say that it was a solid album but not one of my favorites. I did enjoy the bands take on Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan” of course and was shocked to see that one pulled out of the idea bank and delivered to fans.
Etan Rosenbloom – Far Beyond Driven was the first Pantera album I bought, and one of the first albums to spark my interest in the more extreme forms of metal. The album meant the world to me when I was a teenager and it still holds up. It’s got some of the band’s all-time grooviest riffs (“5 Minutes Alone,” “I’m Broken,” “Slaughtered,” “Shedding Skin”), and just as important, this was where Pantera embraced the swampy blues vibe that made them unique – “Hard Lines Sunken Cheeks,” “25 Years” and, especially, their cover of Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan” all pointed to a more nuanced, subtle approach to aggression than we’d heard from Pantera before, but also a nastier one – no wonder it was also the first Pantera record where our dear departed Mr. Abbott changed from “Diamond Darrell” to “Dimebag Darrell.” This must count as the heaviest album ever to debut at #1 on the Billboard charts. Man…times have changed!
Grover XIII – When it comes to Pantera, Far Beyond Driven is a distant third behind Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display Of Power, but this album has some great tunes. The drumming on ‘Becoming’ is fantastic, and it took serious balls for these guys to cover a song like ‘Planet Caravan’, just because it’s so different from what they normally played.
Wayne Findlay – Far Beyond Driven is EPIC… Love that album.
Doug Gibson – Far Beyond Driven marked a noisier sound than the previous albums and it took me a while to warm up to it. “Becoming,” “Five Minutes Alone,” and “Becoming” were instant winners, and worth the purchase price alone. The latter half of the album pushed the boundaries a little more into noisier and more extreme sounds. Eventually, the entire album grew on me and is one of my all-time favorites, right behind Vulgar Display Of Power.
Jason Bittner – Great fuxking record by a great band- Becoming has one of the greatest double kick grooves ever by VP- the Bonham of groove metal!! Actually were in Australia now doing a lot of hanging together once again!! I met the Abbott brothers for the first time way back in 2004 when we toured with Damageplan- always straight up good dudes and never rock stars towards us!! Vinnie is the man, my bro-and we all still miss Dime every day! LITE ‘EM UP!!!
Jose Izquierdo – That’s the first album I heard by the band. A friend’s sister bought it for him on vinyl with the original cover. The first time I heard a song by the band was on the show El Pirata (famous metal show in Spain), I was sitting there with my brother, and my other brother and we all looked at one another and sort of said “What is this?” Getting back to my friend, his album is completely scratched, due to all of the times that we listened to the album. It was also the typical what is this reaction where the music just punches you in the face, and you’re trying to figure out exactly what you’re listening to. Planet Caravan winds things up perfectly, you really enjoy all of the other crushing tracks on the album, and then this track winds it all down perfectly.
Davish G. Alvarez I remember listening to Becoming for the first time and things, my god how is doing that. To this day, I don’t think I know exactly what he’s playing during that solo, I can’t play it exactly the same. You also have to look back and realize that with all of the Grunge that was being played at the time, they came out with a crushing album, heavy as anything, and it was the number one album. In reality I probably prefer Vulgar Display of Power, but this album was an evolution of the band, great, strong tracks throughout, even their cover of Black Sabbath’s Planet Caravan was incredible. It worked perfectly with the album, perhaps they put this cover on another album, and you sort of thing to yourself, what have you done? But it works on this album, it’s perfect.
Jorge Salan – Great album, Dimebag Darrell definitely had his own style, the way he played his solos, and in my opinion they created a style that so many others have followed. They have fans everywhere. I was actually invited to a Dimebag Darrell tribute in Madrid where I got to play Shattered, which is my all-time favorite track by the band.
Erun Dagoth – Crystal Moors lead singer Uruksoth brought this album to my attention, he’s a big thrash metal fan. He bought the album, and loved it, so I asked him to let me borrow it, since I was curious to hear what the band was all about. I also found it odd that a lot of people here in Santander (Spain) wore Pantera t-shirts. I listened to the album, and didn’t like it. Years later I asked to borrow the album again, and the same thing, I tried, and tried, but I just can’t get into them. They have songs that I think are really cool, and they’re all great players, but there is something about their style that I just can’t fully get into. They created their own style, which is very admirable, but they unfortunately don’t do anything for me.
The podcast portion can be streamed or downloaded from here:
The latest episode of the Mars Attacks podcast contains an interview with Eric Wagner and Jeff “Oly” Olson of The Skull and Mark Zavon of Kill Devil Hill.
If the names Eric Wagner and Jeff “Oly” Olson sound familiar, they are former member of the legendary band Trouble. Among things discussed with Eric and Oly include why they decided to put The Skull together, the importance of the music they released with their previous band, what it was like to work with Rick Rubin, and if any of the rumor mentioned by others are true regarding his presence in the studio.
Mark discusses how Kill Devil Hill came together, how it evolved from a different project he and Vinny were working on, what pressures he feels (if any) playing with Vinny Appice and Rex Brown, his gear, a possible second album, and more.
During the episode you’ll hear snippets of songs by Trouble, Kill Devil Hill, Blackfinger, Shadows Fall, The Cult, Gypsyhawk, Snail, and The Sword.
The podcast portion can be streamed or downloaded from here:
This month’s Classic Albums Column focuses on Queens Of The Stone Age’s Songs For The Deaf. Mars Attacks Podcast episode 43 features comments from Charlie Benante, Gene Hoglan, Mark Strigl and Alan Tecchio. As we established with the previous podcast we also discuss why this album was selected. You will find the podcast at the bottom of this post.
Click here to go to an index page that gives you details on everyone involved in the column.
Here are comments that have been contributed to us by others regarding this album. Remember to check out the index page if you’re not sure who someone is, or to check out their sites to find out more about what they do. Again, these comments are in the order we’ve received them.
Greg Prato – This was probably the last true CLASSIC hard rock album in my mind (meaning it held its own against such albums as Superunknown, Nevermind, etc.). I was lucky to see the Dave Grohl QOTSA line-up play a small venue shortly before this album came out. WOW! Great stuff. Such a shame that Nick Oliveri left the band after this album, as I feel he was a major reason why QOTSA was so powerful and special during this era. Hopefully one day he will return…
Jon Leon – Solid record. Very unique riffing. Dave Grohl showed his diversity on drums and gained more of my respect. Everyone should own, though not a top 25 of metal.
Erik Kluiber – A few songs are ripping, some are very meh.
Phil Rind – Their greatest record. Great songs and Chris Goss, Dave Grohl and Mark Lanegan to boot.
James J. LaRue – I don’t know much about Kyuss, or Screaming Trees. All of this dusty desert rock seems related when you dig beneath the surface. My introduction to QOTSA was, like with Metallica, a music video. Go with the Flow, by Shynola. At the time, an amazing and ground breaking video. But the rest of the album doesn’t live up to the colorful, digital razzle-dazzle of the video. It’s more of a darker, “stonery” grunge type sound. Similar to what Grohl did on the Probot album. I like Dave though, even though I don’t like Nirvana. I’m fond of the area and geology where QOTSA found their inspiration. I love the deserts of the American southwest. Still I find myself wishing there would be less slop and buzz to their sound.
Scott Middleton – Certainly the pop record Kyuss never made. Josh Homme and co had hinted at this kind of greatness with their first two records, but with SFTD it was as if they had thought “let’s make the catchiest stoner rock ever” and “Why not get Dave Grohl and Mark Lanegan to play on it too?”. Joe Baresi nailed the production on what would essentially be Queens’ last true Stoner Rock album and it fuckin’ rules!
Jaye Schwarzer – This is in my opinion still one of the best sounding records I think I’ve ever heard. Huge, raw guitars. Massive drums. Mark Lanegans eerie baritone smoked out voice and Dave Fucking Grohl on drums. It’s a stone cold groove!
Chris Tsangarides – Of most post Grunge bands these guys really did it for me, I was a fan of Kyuss but I really do prefer QOTSA. I love the power of this band and also the great quirky grooves which are very reminiscent of old Captain Beefheart. If anyone knows me they would tell you what that the good captain and the magic band have had a huge impact on my musical tastes. Watching the band play at Milton Keynes Bowl was a great moment in time.
Jim Florentine – Very overrated band
JL – Having Dave Grohl on the drums is like having life insurance. I’m surprised that you can practically hear the chain on his bass drum pedal at the beginning of “A song for the dead”. Mark Lanegan is brilliant on “The hangin’ tree”. It is obvious that Josh Homme always has the perfect riff in mind, like on “Millionaire” or ”First it giveth”, as well as the intricate tuning of “No one Knows”.
Fer Fukyea – The third album by these ex-members of Kyuss, band that pioneered “stoner” rock/metal. The album is in my opinion the best by the group; it is an unbelievable explosion of creativity. It is a very diverse rock album, with loads of influences, yet sounds uniquely like them. The álbum is filled with hard rocking tracks, although it does have an assortment of mellow tracks, and some others that are somewhat odd. An interesting tidbit surrounding this album is that Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Probot, etc.) recorded all of the drum tracks after the band’s drummer, Gene Trautmann decided to focus on other projects. I have a special admiration for Dave Grohl, and to tell you the truth he did an excellent job with the album.
David Lozano – I never thought that I would enjoy the style of music on this album so much. But, they sucked me in, and so many others. Without a doubt this is a classic, I love this album.
Sean Bryant – Songs for the Deaf brought me back into heavy music. For a few years I was away doing some other fancy electronic shit, but, once I heard the tone, melody, and general badassery of their new album, I knew instantly that the Heavy was going to re appear within my brain!
The podcast portion can be streamed or downloaded from here:
Posted in Radio Show on August 14th, 2011 by marsaries
White Wizzard – High Speed GTO
Vindicator – Raze The Dead
White Wizzard – Over The Top
White Wizzard – Night Train To Tokyo
Overloaded – Feeling Overloaded
Gypsyhawk – Gypsyhawk
White Wizzard – West L.A. Nights
White Wizzard – Out Of Control
Holy Grail – Fast As A Shark
Holy Grail – Crisis In Utopia
Monument – Rock The Night (Demo)
The More I See – The Unholy Feast
White Wizzard – Fight To The Death
White Wizzard – Starchild
White Wizzard – Megalodon
White Wizzard – 40 Deuces
White Wizzard – Celestina
White Wizzard – We Rock
Let the music do the talking! As promised earlier this week, tonight’s Mars Attacks Radio Episode features an hour and a half of nothing but White Wizzard, and other bands that are remotely associated to the band. Such as Vindicator, Holy Grail, Gypsyhawk, Overloaded, Monument, and The More I See.
Tonight’s episode debuts at 8PM EST / 5PM PST only on Stream A of MarkStriglRadio.com
I want to make it abundantly clear, that I am not taking sides on who is wrong, or who is right with any of these accusations. It is not my place to do so. I am in the middle providing a platform for any of the current or former members of White Wizzard to address anything that was mentioned regarding them in any of the interviews I have conducted. I do feel it is just as important for Jon Leon as Erik Kluiber to have a voice.
Jon Leon sent the following regarding Erik Kluiber’s previous comments:
Jesus tap dancing christ…..this is a joke. Complete lie about calling about anything. I found out he rented another place third party from other band members and he left me hanging. I did this as a favor to help him and Wyatt when they arrived in LA and I got burned. Phone call? Right…….tenants did not stay until April 9-total fucking lie. How would he even know? He was only asked for a deposit to go through with allowing the tenants to leave the apt after he agreed to do so after arrival. I lost my place an much more money as I was responsible for the full april rent-way more than 750 dollars. I was even covering part of the monthy rent for them! The tenants were already out when he changed his mind. This place was hardly the suburbs. It is North Hollywood-2 blocks from our former studio. Erik just changed his mind-but after committing. We had an agreement and he blew it off. He wanted to party in his own studio apt in hollywood and that is fine, but he committed and changed his mind after I evicted my tenants. Period. Fuck the spin. It is a joke. That is the bottom line……..and it does not diminish all of the other shit he pulled that is 100 percent truth. Amazing.
He followed up with this:
Let me be very clear about this as well…….Total rent on my place was 1300 dollars. Erik had agreed to pay half of the places rent and I was covering the other half until Wyatt could get some kind of income, so he would have a place as well. I had to pay the entire rent for that following month and give up my lease as I could not get someone in time to rent the place. I lost my place because Erik pulled out and changed his mind. NO OTHER REASON. he fucked me and uses excuses of my being shady-JOKE. You have to ask, what would a guy doing this and even taking up half the rent have in motivation to be “shady” about? I was helping him out and he agreed to it! He then changed his mind and will not accept and never did accept he screwed me and caused me to lose my place. What is shady? Giving him my place so Wyatt would have a spot too when he was broke that was a total rent of 1300 a month for 750 a month when I was going to be paying the rest? Erik found a cheap studio apt after a full commitment with me and did not want to share a place with anyone to have a single party pad and just changed his mind last minute. Wyatt ended up stuck on our other guitar players couch and it hurt his adjustment to LA. He thinks he has no accountability for that. He sees no wrong in agreeing to go forward and just changing his mind after the fact and leaving me and in my opinion the band fucked. We agreed to have me keep some money…….because I was losing hundreds more! It was a compromise agreed on with the whole band present. Erik knew he was in the wrong and it was discussed in full presence of all. This is all a joke and Erik is the only “shady” one in this. I lost an apartment I owned the lease on for 1 reason-Erik Kluiber. Beyond any hearsay-that is an unavoidable fact.
The bottom line is I’m a fan of all of the music that both Erik and Jon have been involved with. If not I would not be willing to give either of them the time of day. This is also why this week’s episode of Mars Attacks Radio will be dedicated to nothing but music from White Wizzard or any other band remotely associated to the band. Regardless of any personal turmoil with the band and its former members I still believe in the music, in all of the music these great musicians have to offer.
****Update****
Additional comments received from Jon Leon:
Another final note in this bullshit. White Wizzard LLC is owned by me under AKA Jon Leon and I have been using this name as an artist for years and there is nothing “shady”about it. The whole point was to keep it simple. I also stated on the show that there was an initial conversation of not charging any deposits. That was more intended for Wyatt as he had ZERO money when he came out to join WW. Erik did, and upon his arrival and my girlfriends suggestion as we both felt he was a bit off , I took a small deposit to cover my ass. We felt it smart to at least get something. Normally I would ask for a full months rents worth for a deposit(1300) to cover 30 days notice and any damages. As such, he was only charged 750. He was given half back even by me. He deserved to not get any back when you consider the simple facts that I was responsible for the following months full 1300 and that I had to negotiate out of my lease. In the end I ended up losing way more money and paying under 2k, so you be the judge of who got fucked. I held up my end of the deal and was foolish to remove my tenants for him. I was just trying to find a happy medium because the guy just joined the band. He was totally disrespectful and screwed me pretty good. Anti WW people will buy the spin and disregard these facts, but they are 100 percent truth. Hopefully any sane person without bias can see that. That is why I told the story, I just did not like the guy after that and did not fully trust him. I should have fired him then, but hind site as well all know is 20/20…….I was trying to put the best line up out there so I forgave it and tried to move on……in the end that was my biggest mistake to date.
When putting the Jon Leon interview together, I knew that I would be susceptible to receiving all types of feedback from those discussed in the interview. I just didn’t know how soon after the interviews were posted that I’d start to receive comments.
