I have this strange love-hate relationship with Vice’s music site, Noisey. On the one hand, they laboriously shove the same overhyped millennial acts at their readership, tirelessly couched in entirely subjective claptrap about it all being the unanimously acknowledged greatest music on earth. Their pieces can be smug and cloyingly lingo-laden without being informative or entertaining. But, then, I’m a cantankerously opinionated 48-year-old. Ultimately, I am the last person who should be reading Noisey.
But for every Noisey post that makes me foam at the mouth in full-on “Get Off My Lawn” fervor, they’ll publish a cool interview with storied No Wave ensemble Mars or get three members of SWANS to discuss the making of Filth or interview Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke. I mean, I still prefer outlets like The Quietus, but Noisey does occasionally put out some stuff that’s right up my street, so to speak. If that means putting up with endless posts on my Facebook feed from them about indefensible piffle like Drake or Tyler, the Creator then so be it.
In any case, Noisey recently profiled a sorta-newish “stoner rock” band from the UK called Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats. Despite my better judgement, I am not averse to a bit of that stuff. I think the jokey genre tag does the music no small disservice, for whatever that’s worth. But I do like me a bit of Kyuss, Fu Manchu, High on Fire and The Sword, and I am hardly what anyone could ever credibly describe as “a stoner.”
In any case, what caught my eye about this particular band was the fact that they evidently harbor a fervent appreciation for the lore and mythos of Charles Manson. At once, I started to wince with derision. I mean, in 2015, it’s a bit late in the day to be dusting off allusions to the Manson Family, to say nothing of the fact that it’s become something of a ridiculous cliche. Scores of artists — from Sonic Youth to Pussy Galore to Black Flag to Redd Kross to the Lemonheads to Psychic TV to even goddamn Guns ’N’ Roses — have dabbled with the arguable espousal of all things Charles Manson. It’s pretty played out. How about we try something new, kids? Would that be a crime?
The lead singer even professes, at the beginning of the piece, that he regrets not having been able to conduct the interview at the grave of Sharon Tate. I mean, come on.
Perhaps we’re now so far removed for the tumultuous end of the 60’s that stuff like Charles Manson and Altamont and such have become fairer game. It just seems a bit disingenuous for kids who invariably hadn’t been born yet to be talking about all that stuff. But, I guess, by the same token, it’s no different from bands like Zeppelin and Sabbath yapping on about Aleister Crowley.
In any case, I was in the process of chalking Uncle Acid up to being yet another band of dinky millennials who don’t know their place and blah blah blah…
But y’know what? Despite my misgiving, I really like this track….
Be warned. The vid’s predictably ridiculous and not entirely safe for work.
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