10 steps to become the next Limp Bizkit.

April 18, 2001 10:28 AM

10 steps to become the next Limp Bizkit. or the next Orgy. Or Papa Roach. Or Staind. Or the current shitty metal band of the week.
posted by JFunk2800 (31 comments total)

Slipknot. Wow. They are fantastic! Almost as good as my other favorite band, Winger.
Oh God, that is a joke. really.
My favorite band of all time was Jackal.
wait, I am kidding. My favorite band of all time was Nelson.
No wait, Faster Pussycat.
Crap. I should just hang myself now.
Hey, more power to these rotten bands. What else do they have going for them? Careers in food service?
posted by bradth27 at 10:56 AM on April 18, 2001

Seriously, the increasing corporatization of so-called 'Metal' music is an interesting topic. Major record labels have codified teenage rebellion...all the top 'nu'-metal artists are on global conglomerate record labels.

Saying that, haven't the record labels been doing that for years?
posted by ecvgi at 11:28 AM on April 18, 2001

I think people who hate this music (myself included) are assuming because one or two of the obnoxious frontmen are so untalented that the rest of the band has to be. However cliche some of tunes they play are, there are quite a few "nu-metal" band members out there that are still pretty damn amazing at their respective instruments. And even if they're not totally amazing, some of them, like Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit (this band being the worst thing since shoe-wedgies), are about a hundred times cooler than dweebs like Fred Durst. We just never get to talk to them.
posted by dopamine at 11:41 AM on April 18, 2001

Hey, take that back. Staind is good, and Papa Roach has a few good songs. Don't just through them all into the same pot and label it shit simply because its not to your liking.
posted by howa2396 at 12:33 PM on April 18, 2001

I agree. Out of Limp Bizkit, Borland's the only guy really worth keeping.
posted by Cavatica at 12:49 PM on April 18, 2001

you can trace limp bizkit and bands of its ilk on a straight line to faith no more's "epic."
posted by judomadonna at 1:07 PM on April 18, 2001

You know, the guys in Faith No More never liked the fact that people said they started some kind of trend with "Epic". The majority of their songs are completely unlike "Epic". I don't think there is a straight line - I think it's a few bands at the start of a trend borrowing/stealing stuff from many different styles to do something different. Then it takes off and a hundred other bands follow. Which isn't necessarily bad in itself. I feel, if a band has the capability of performing the style well enough to be noticed and signed, more power to them. Personally, I like Limp Bizkit and Slipknot and Linkin Park. I also like Slayer and the Indigo Girls and Claude Debussy, so what does that tell you?
posted by starvingartist at 1:16 PM on April 18, 2001

General principle: Whenever something comes along that is marketed as "new" it's always just a warmed over version of something old. Particularly when they make up some alternate spelling of the word "new".
posted by davidgentle at 1:32 PM on April 18, 2001

Slayer, Indigo Girls, AND Debussy?

Damn, I thought MY tastes were eclectic!
posted by SentientAI at 1:42 PM on April 18, 2001

Listen to Wes Borland's side band and you may change your mind about him being the one that is worth keeping. Or maybe not. I think he sees the world just a little differently than most of us.

As for nu metal, most of it is garbage, which is unfortunate, cuz metal and hard rock in general already get such a bad rap (no pun intended). Being over the age of 30 and singing about how life is so baaaad for you (LB, Korn etc.), is just pitiful.

It wouldn't be so bad though if the lyrics weren't all so cliched and trite. (Papa Roach's "Broken Home" comes to mind). Sounds like an after school special, but with no productive ending.
posted by melissa at 1:46 PM on April 18, 2001

Sounds like me. On a good day, I might listen to Johnny Cash, Black Flag, and They Might Be Giants all within the same hour.
posted by bradth27 at 1:48 PM on April 18, 2001

You know, the guys in Faith No More never liked the fact that people said they started some kind of trend with "Epic".

this is true.

fnm is one of my favorite bands along with steely dan and rush. i marvel still today at what they accomplished with "angel dust" -- heck, i probably listen more to the albums *after* "epic" than i do "epic" itself.
posted by judomadonna at 2:47 PM on April 18, 2001

I recently heard snippets of the Big Dumb Face album, and I must say that it's like nothing I've ever heard. Really. It's like what TMBG would sound like if they made a speed metal album. I don't know if I'd buy it, but I will say this: Wes' talents are much better put to use here than they ever could be in Limp Bizkit. Take that for what you will.
posted by lannie628 at 4:13 PM on April 18, 2001

i definitely agree with you there Lannie. Wes' talents are wasted in Limp Bizkit.

Other thoughts:

Does anyone else believe that "real metal" is going to make a comeback? Megadeth has a new album either out or on its way. Sepultura, Soulfly, Pantera, Monster Magnet and more have all had stuff out in the last six months or so.

And before we get discussing semantics of whether the above mentioned are "true metal" versus the tin foil put out by LB et al, I'm curious to know whether people feel that the genre itself is dead, or on it's way to something big again.

Oh, and on a side-note, can someone explain to me why Crazy Town is on Ozzfest? This has been plaguing me for weeks.

Oh, and as for eclectic combinations, how about Spice Girls and Cannibal Corpse on the same mix tape? (not mine, but my boyfriends)
posted by melissa at 6:20 PM on April 18, 2001

Crazy Town is on Ozzfest because their one hit single "Butterfly" is just like Sugar Ray's "Fly", 1 pop song on a hard rock album.
posted by Mark at 6:29 PM on April 18, 2001

After checking out some other tracks (albeit briefly, I couldn't sit through the whole thing), I have a feeling it was more for the tattoo factor :)

Although they sound like they could have a harder sound live. Let's hope so, or things could get really ugly at Ozzfest during their set.
posted by melissa at 7:46 PM on April 18, 2001

3) Recruit a female bassist.

If Limp Bizkit had one, I wonder how she'd feel about this?

I love what Ad-Rock said about it (without naming names) a while later at the Mtv Video Music Awards:

"Why should I just feel mad about it and not do anything about it?" Ad-Rock said, while accepting his award for Best Hip-Hop Video. "I think we can talk to the promoters and make sure that they're doing something about the safety of all the girls and the women that come to our shows. We can talk and work with the security people to make sure they know and understand about sexual harassment and rape and they know how to handle these situations."

Cut and pasted from here.

By the way, word had it (though I don't have the link) that the Limp Bizkit mates egged the testosterone fused crowd on as it happened.

Yet true, bands like these are a dime a dozen.
posted by crasspastor at 8:06 PM on April 18, 2001

Fred Durst is just a short-stocky-baseball cap-wearing version of Axl Rose. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
posted by lannie628 at 8:18 PM on April 18, 2001

I was trying to think of who had a female bassist in an all male band; off the top of my head, I could only come up with White Zombie and Smashing Pumpkins. Neither one of them are nu metal (I know White Zombie is pushing it, but they broke up before nu metal had fully arrived.)
posted by melissa at 5:48 AM on April 19, 2001

When you guys say "nu metal" is that snark, or do people actually use that term?
posted by sonofsamiam at 7:08 AM on April 19, 2001

I've seen it in Chart Magazine (Canada's biggest music mag) on numerous occasions. I think it's a legitimite term, but it's often used snarkily.
posted by melissa at 7:26 AM on April 19, 2001

"Canada's biggest music mag" roughly equals something similar to "Burkina Faso's most popular bowling periodical."

Aw, that's mean. I'm sorry. I just like to say "Burkina Faso."

Anyway, this stuff ("nu metal"? . . . really?) will blow over, as does every half-baked recycling of the latest Big Thing. Limp Bizkit is just the logical dumbed-down extension of Rage Against the Machine and its ilk. Just like when grunge started beautifully, and we ended up with fucking Bush and Seven Mary Three and oh God just kill me now.

And if we're talking gratuitous female band members, give me the Dandy Warhols any day.
posted by Skot at 8:38 AM on April 19, 2001

Isn't she know to occasionally play topless Skot? :)

Good argument though.

As for "Canada's largest music mag", it's actually appallingly small. It's gotten progressively worse since I started reading it. If you read the website regularly, you hardly need the magazine at all, save for a couple non-music columns, and their extensive review sections. (all short, but lots of them)

Where they do get it right is that they cover most areas of popular (read: what the kiddies buy) music.

But this is taking things off topic, isn't it? :)
posted by melissa at 9:00 AM on April 19, 2001

Coal Chamber (No, I'm not going to reveal how I know that their bassist is female, suffice it to say that I've never listened to them.)
posted by Octaviuz at 9:01 AM on April 19, 2001

"I was trying to think of who had a female bassist in an all male band; off the top of my head..."

Sonic Youth! Although I wouldn't call them metal-- nu, new, or otherwise.

I just *heart* Kim Gordon.
posted by jennyb at 9:05 AM on April 19, 2001

Oh, duh, I completely forgot about Coal Chamber.

I think that is why Kim G didn't come up in my head Jenny - I was trying to think of "harder bands". But she does rawk though. :)
posted by melissa at 10:07 AM on April 19, 2001

Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads is the original noteworthy female rock bassist (long article with some discussion of same). And Heidi from The Negro Problem is a girl. And a bassist (and keyboardist, and vocalist, and...).

Funny, I can't think of a "nu-metal" band with a female musician in it. I thought they all consisted of goofy looking boy-men.
posted by artlung at 10:32 AM on April 19, 2001

The original original noteworthy female rock bassist.
posted by rodii at 10:37 AM on April 19, 2001

I was never saying that there were no female bassists in rock music at all, just in the "nu metal" sub genre.

Outside of that sub-genre, there are lots o' fabulous female bassists, guitarists, drummers, singers and multi-instrumentalists.

I wasn't trying to exclude anyone - honest!
posted by melissa at 11:53 AM on April 19, 2001

I've seen the term Nu-metal used. Most obviously above the Metal section in Virgin records. Which was exactly the place where the insight mentioned above occured.
posted by davidgentle at 4:47 PM on April 19, 2001

Sean Yseult of White Zombie comes to mind. Not Nu-metal, but an influence for sure. Re Kim Gordon: I had the good fortune to see Sonic Youth a few times in the early days. The first time I saw them was in a little dive in Richmond, VA called Rockitz. This small blonde woman was lugging some heavy equipment to the stage. I knew she was with the band, but didn't realize she was in the band. I helped her a bit & we talked some about EVOL & how cool Thurston was. She was very nice. I felt like such a buffoon when she took the stage later!
posted by gimli at 9:48 AM on April 21, 2001