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Retrospective

THE METALLIFIED-ELECTRO-HARD-POP OF VAST

 Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 12:50pm by

VASTVAST was a pretty big deal for a minute in the late ’90s in the wake of the heavy industrial rock boom. Nine Inch Nails’ bursting popularity in the middle of the decade ushered in a record label feasting-fest on a hundred Sister Machine Guns, Gravity Killses, and Filters. VAST, aka 13-year old Jon Crosby, was the beneficiary of a nice-little major label bidding war after building a name for himself with his guitar chops and home-recorded demos which received some local radio airplay. A band was hastily assembled around Crosby after he decided to sign with Elektra, and his debut album Visual Audio Sensory Theater came out in 1998.

Vast – “Here”
Vast – “I’m Dying”
Vast – “The Nile’s Edge”

Though the ranks of VAST members have rotated quite a bit, Crosby has always found ways to innovate and keep his brand fresh. In 2006 he released the band’s newest album April recorded all in one take; he then spent two months mixing the proper version himself and released that in May of 2007.

VAST may never have reached the label’s expectations and was dropped in 2000 after their second album Music For People, but Crosby carved out a nice little niche for himself (several VAST videos on YouTube are over or approach 100,000 plays) and he continues to consistently record new music and tour.

-VN

Music video for “Free”
[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/VRXW1thQtPM" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

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  • Kye

    Hey, it’s that band that did that one song that was on Buffy the Vampire Slayer..or Angel…one of those shows. Fuck if I remember, I just know my ex made me download one of their songs one time and it wasn’t too bad.

  • http://www.myspace.com/catatonicdisassembly Nick

    wow…forgot about this guy…my friends and I were completely hooked (no pun intended) on that first cd back in 99/00…then Music for People came out and it sounded weak overall…i figured he just chucked the project…

    def have to see if i can find some of their stuff since MFP online somewhere now…one of the few “commercial” acts i’ve ever dug wholeheartedly…

  • http://last.fm/user/cooperaa Aaron Cooper

    I seem to remember “Free” being waaaay better than what I’m hearing right now. Thanks for letting me know I don’t need to re-download their album(s)!

  • Van Arseface

    VAST was almost big in the 90′s. Last year I saw VAST at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor and he was definitely big. Big like to the point that I said to my girlie “Who is this fat guy on stage playing VAST songs?” I here he’s in better health these days though so I look forward to seeing them again next month. IMHO VAST has consistently put out good music. April, while probably the mellowest of his works, is no exception.

    Because I’m a fan though, I have to point out that Sister Machine Gun never got gobbled up by a label, though they came close when TVT bought out the immortal Wax Trax! in the late 90′s. At that point SMG created their own record label (Positron! Records) and continued to put out good music until the project disbandied in 2004 I believe. The label still exists though and recently announced that they would stop producing CDs and go all digital in 2008. This is perhaps a different topic, but I think that’s pretty cool and progressive of them. I’d wager though that the label would have little interest to most MetalSucks readers as it’s mostly of the electronic ilk. VAST has done something similar with his 2Blossoms label. But I digress…

  • TJ

    To Van Areseface-

    Never heard a whole ton of them, but the one Sister Machine Gun album I heard was great. It had Hole in the Ground and Burn on it.

    As a child of that generation, I’ll always have a soft spot for some of the more aggressive industrial/metal that came out- KMFDM, Ministry, SMG, etc.

  • Sammy

    My little insignificant band was set to open for Vast Jan 25…until my new bassist decided to be a douchetard and quit the band suddenly. But I was surprised to hear how acoustically, ambiently mellow they/he are/is. Not sure if hard rock bands would gel that well in a rotation with them.

  • Van Arseface

    TJ, I’m with you. I’ve got a soft spot for shit like that and probably always will. If you like that stuff, go old school and get yourself some Killing Joke. I don’t have a soft spot for them. I have a mean, nasty, disenchanted, pissed off spot for them. One of my favorite bands ever. I wish I could tell you that the rest of SMG’s catalog is as good as Burn, but it’s not. That is probably their/his best album. The rest of it is still worth checking out though.

  • TJ

    Oh trust me man, I am well aware of Killing Joke. The Pandemonium album is great.