OFF: The Hard & The Heavy Volume One

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Tue, Dec 11, 2001 at 01:32:36PM -0500, K Henderson typed out:
>
> >All the pre-major label MM is quite good.
> >Their first s/t release is more garage/heavy psych. 6 smokin tracks.
>
> I think this was an LP release only, and that at least some of these tracks
> appeared on CD later (like Spine of God maybe), perhaps rerecorded?  Not
> sure. Doug will tell us anyway.

        I have a CD of it, and I'm pretty sure the tracks are the LP ones,
though some of them do appear re-recorded elsewhere, on _25... Tab_ or
_Spine of God_. Only two otherwise unfindable things but both quite
good. Rough as hell mind, but hey.

> >My fav is this and Spine of God, a release that shows them starting to become
> >mainstream, but quite good. closer to the "stoner rock" thing.

        Also as `doom' as they get, on the titel track. Point with this
one, the mastering to CD was awful, so although it's not exactly hi-fi
however you find it the vinyl sounds much fuller.

> >TAB seams to be a big fav of HW fans, there's a super long track, that's
> >heavy and spacey...
>
> This one came out on CD a couple times I believe, and usually (I think)
> includes the two tracks from a 7" single (Murder b/w another song with a
> one-word title that I can't remember at the moment).  And these are not
> credited on the CD booklet/insert, so there's confusion there, compounded by
> the fact that track two is both "25" and "Longhair" (that starts about 8
> minutes in FWIR).  So there's four tracks listed, five tracks indexed, but
> yet six tracks on the actual CD.  Again, the title track "Tab" is over a
> half-hour long, so it's a full length release for sure.

        My version isn't quite like that. There's the 32-minute monster
`Tab... ', then there's `25' which is two tracks as you describe, then
`Longhair', quite separate, indexing and everything, then `Lord 13' which
is in fact `Murder' from the S/T and single. Then `Tractor' which isn't
listed but is definitely there. So the same numbers as you give but not
the same divisions. Top stuff throughout though.

> I think perhaps the most necessary MM thing is 'Viva Las Vegas'.

        What little live MM I have seems the same as the studio stuff only
rawer. But all the live MM there is is either B-sides or bonus disks,
_Viva Las Vegas_ being the second as the Australian issue of _Dopes To
Infinity_ also had a bonus live disc. As with _Powertrip_, this was
offered for sale where I saw it about a month after I'd bought the
domestic version with fanboy fervopur and I got quite sour about it.

> Grakkl (FAA), who saw them just once when they opened for an absolutely
> miserable group called Korn.  I didn't make it through ten minutes of them,
> and even though MM only played 45 minutes, I'm glad it wasn't the other way
> around!  What Doug saw last week doesn't sound so bad now, remembering these
> butchers!

        File Korn exactly with what Doug saw last week, they're the first
nu-metal band that really made it over here, and are filed by the true
metal farternity in the same bucket as Limp Bizkit but with slightly more
respect as people seem to reckon their first album actually plumbed
original depths of hatred and self-loathing. Important qualities for the
youth apparently. Yours,
                         Jon

--
        Jonathan Jarrett                Birkbeck College, London
                 jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
        --------------------------------------------------------
  "The large print giveth and the small print taketh away." (Tom Waits)