BIG BUSINESS BOYS THINK THEY’RE HOT (WHITE) SHIT
Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 10:00am by Gary Suarez
Despite being such a huge fan of Big Business’ Here Come The Waterworks, 2009’s Mind The Drift honestly doesn’t stand much of a chance of making it into my year-end Top 10 list. The same cannot be said, however, for Sculpted Beef, the brief vinyl (and digital) debut from White Shit, Jared Warren and Coady Willis’ side-project with Andy Coronado of Wrangler Brutes and Monorchid. Contrasting significantly with the slightly proggy art-metal Warren and Willis explore with their other bands, White Shit make brash, lo-fi hardcore in the Black Flag/Minor Threat tradition. Here, sprawling riffage and avant-garde percussion is violently tossed aside and replaced with filth, fury, and snot-nosed wit. And it’s all done pretty fucking well.
Sporting some truly homoerotic cover art bound to alienate some of the intolerant meatheads who use the word “faggot” in a derogatory sense, Sculpted Beef exudes a passion and appreciation for both the golden age of SST and the somehow still thriving underground American punk scene. Most of these songs barely pass the one minute mark, with only a couple venturing beyond a second minute. Backed by one of the most in-demand rhythm sections in heavy music today, Coronado does a great job doling out punk rock riffs fleshed out with deceptive complexity. Vocally, Warren thankfully gives up the whiney bellow that dominates Mind The Drift and instead delivers a back-to-basics punk rock shout that nods to Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye without emulating nor imitating. “Women” is perhaps the most primitive example of this–the song’s title comprises nearly all of the lyrics–but he also manages to cram loads of lyrical content into minute-and-a-half ditties like “Surfing My Life Away.” My favorite cut here is the weirdest one: “Jim Morrison.” Here, Coronado (presumably) takes the mic and tells a reminiscing tale not of the deceased Doors frontman, but rather a portly 60-year old former neighbor with whom he got along with fairly well. At just under fifteen minutes in length, Sculpted Beef, released on Post Present Medium, sounds a hell of a lot more comfortable alongside Mangled Demos From 1983 than any Melvins release on which Warren or Willis have actually played. This is a good thing.
(3 1/2 out of 5 horns)
-GS
[Gary Suarez intends to annihilate this week. He usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]
That is hands down the gayest cover art I’ve ever seen. It is almost too hilarious to NOT buy (like Goblin Cock’s “Bagged and Boarded” though that album kinda sucks).
It is kinda funny. Still I don’t feel in the least bit compelled to get it.
“Sporting some truly homoerotic cover art bound to alienate some of the intolerant meatheads….”
So fucking pretentious. Actually same is true of punk itself. Hey let’s take complex politcal issues and boil them down to a one minute song. It’s like the nightly news done in five seconds. Let’s not forget that these tools are usally the least qualified to have any opinion on anything important whatsoever.
This is why I’d allways prefer pop-punk to the real thing. At least ( in most cases) they realize they are not being taken seriously.
I can think of three reasons they chose the cover.
1.) That’s what they really dig – In which case keep it to yourself. I have no issue with homosexuals as long as they keep it to themselves.
2.) They are making fun of it, in which case they are “intolerant meatheads.”
3.)They are trying to piss of people who have a natural aversion to something like that. In which case they can take their knee-jerk reactionism and shove it.
Isn’t knee-jerk reactionism what most extreme metal is about XP? I mean, look at fucking Cannibal Corpse. They are GODS and all their artwork, song titles, and lyrical content has just punched people in the crotch.
Sure they did, but they were not exactly preachy so I never found them pretentious. Actually
I just never liked them. Back when extreme violence bothered me that music made me sick.
Now that I’m older and desensitized it’s boring. In both scenarios I’m not interested.
Gods? Please that’s like saying SAW was well-written. As far as movies go it was just
an exercise in inventing scenarios so violent it makes people puke and that takes VERY
little effort or creativity. Can Corpse is EXACTLY like that.
The irony to me is that these guys are far left leaning and they employ the same tactics
that make FOX News so hated.
Very little effort or creativity? Have you listened to their last few records (with the exception of Evisceration Plague)? Kill/The Wretched Spawn were very well thought out and technical.
Agree to disagree, I suppose.
The actual music itself is VERY technical although ear-injuring too.
That’s not what I was getting at though. Just the lyrics
and imagery. It’s just senseless hyper violence.
Take Tarantino for another movie analogy. He uses hyper
violence for specific reasons within the context of his story.
To me that’s cool.
Can Corpse….I know lots of people here love them and that’s cool with
me. Just not my cup o’ tea.
And you’ve apparently bought right into it because your comment is all about the cover and has nothing to do with the record itself. Way to go.
Since I’ve never heard the record I can’t fairly comment on anything else.
http://digital.othermusic.com/search/full.php?FULL=434180&ALBUM=1
I’ll give it a shot.
Far too punk for my liking.
Those were just thirty second snippets. I listened to all of them but
I still can’t really fairly judge them on that.
What I heard was basicallywhat I expected though. The riffs seemed
slightly better then a lot of other punk I’ve heard but to me saying they are slightly
better then the status quo for a genre I never much liked isn’t saying
a whole lot.
For guys saying I’m writing them off based on the cover, that’s not
the case. I’m just responding to the assumption made by the
original poster that “anyone who does not like it must be an
intolerant meathead”. I understand how “punk” that cover is and
but I don’t much like punk to begin with. It’s one thing to have a bad
opinion shoved in your face, but it’s even worse when it’s
snide, inarticulate and obnoxious. I think what Kanye did at the
VMA’s was VERY “punk rock” and I hate him for it.
Doesn’t get it.
I get it just fine. I just don’t think it’s all that impressive. Mind trying to qualify that statement
somehow or do you not get it?
Christ man what the fuck are you doing here? Pop-Punk? People just make fun of that shit here. I’m interested to know what bands you do enjoy. Something completely non-offensive right? Like maybe Michael Bolton or Good Charlote or even Genesis. Maybe all of that is too controversial, maybe you listen to little kid records on a Sesame Street record player. I don’t care. You do what you want but you talk about the pretentiousness of the cover art. How pretentious do you look right here in this forum?
I said I liked pop-punk BETTER. That’s not saying I think pop-punk is awesome, just
making a relative comparison. To say that one thing is LESS nauseating then the
other still implies I am at least somewhat nauseated by first.
Of course you are interested in knowing what bands I love. You are so incensed at
the idea that someone does not like something you like you are chomping at the bit
to tear apart what I like not for the sake of discussion but simple spite. I simply read
an article, disagreed with the opinion and gave my own….so chill out fuckhead that’s
not in the least bit pretentious.
For the sake of fairness I’ll list some bands on my player that I listen to:
AC/DC
Beck
Between the Buried and Me
Bob Dylan
Bring Me the Horizon
Clutch
Coldplay
Deftones
God Forbid
Gojira
Incubus
Jay-Z
Kings of Leon
Lamb of God
Led Zeppelin
Lupe Fiasco
MASTODON
Modest Mouse
Muse
TOOL
Protest the Hero
Radiohead
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Strokes
The White Stripes
OK so now I’m waiting for the inevitable “band X on your list is worse then White
Shit” for this reason etc…etc….
You know you seem to be doing everything but actually arguing the points I made. You
just went straight after me and my tastes instead. Go ahead and hate all those bands. Unlike
you it won’t affect my enjoyment of them AT ALL.
i see red hot chili peppers on that list. into the heart of the sun with you….
LOL don’t you think that’s a little extreme? There are far worse
forms of pop music then Red Hot Chilis.
Well, you like lupe fiasco, so I’m not going to hate.
Lupe is sometimes in a little danger of being pretentious too but what
I like is he maintains a sense of being reasonable. Like in the begining
of “The Cool” he goes off on both black and white people alike. That
was a breath of fresh air to me.
No i actually quite love some of the bands you like. The ‘Stripes, Chili Peppers, Tool, Clutch, fucking love Deftones, I even like Jay-Z. I am in no way “chomping at the bit” to hate on any of your tastes in music. However I find you very pretentious. Just in the way you feel the need to blather on the way you do. Instead of making a point, you feel the need to ramble on defending your words. When in reality no one really cares why you think the way you do. All you accomplish is smooth-lobed droning on and on. I guess my point is just declare your statement succinctly and briefly instead of flowery rambling explantions. And btw you chill out fuckhead.
You’re the second person to call me pretentious and like the other
dude can’t seem to provide a reasoning behind it. Beucase I “go on
and on?” That’s rediculus. I think that’s could be more of a statement
about your own attention span then anything.
In any good discussion you provide an opinion and if you are
reasonable you also give some kind of logic to support it and
that is all that I’ve done. It just so happens you don’t like my
opinion so that’s cool. I’m not losing sleep. Not everyone agrees
with me and I really don’t mind as long as I know I make some
kind of sense.
For the record, I have fucking hated punk rock since elementary school. I listened to the Exploited, Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop and the Stooges and shit like that growing up. Once I found bands like Slayer, Testament, Exodus and so on I never looked back. Only looked forward to the next extreme metal band to out do the last.
You know, as a side note, your obviously VERY offended by Good Charlotte. That’s one
thing that I LOVE about pop-punk is the way it reveals the hypocrisy in the tr00 fans.
nope, good charlotte is just fucking awful music created by commitee. when i think of pop punk in the good sense, i think of big drill car or the descendents. catchy as fuck and also good. good charlotte and their ilk are just complete jokes…
Nobody here said they liked Good Charlotte though
My grief is not with a difference of opinion. You just come off like a douche bag full of hot air. Also self-important. Who the fuck are you to talk this way to people? “Blah blah blah look at me and my statements aren’t we sophisticated? Aren’t we cosmopolitan? What an amazing intellect I possess, look at me go! Wow wee aren’t I something!” You are by the very definition of the word pretentious. And by not seeing how right we all are akes you that much more so.
First off homes I have’nt shown any less respect then I’ve been shown
and at least to I tried to stay reasonable when pretty much nobody else
was. Whatever you read into the motivations behind my words is a
little pointless anyways ’cause I’m a random guy over the internet and
whatever you choose to think about me you still don’t know. You’ve
been trying to drag down this discussion further and further and now
actually think it acceptable to make ME look like a jerk. Just fuck off
dude I’m tired of trying with you. It’s pointless.
I’d say considering I’m surrounded by ADD, f@g punk douches I’ve remained
pretty patient up till now fuckstick.
Lol genesis rocks.
But the hard thing is I can’t decided between Phil Collin’s amazing band and
Michael McDonald.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSLR9PVWxg&feature=related
Everything about you pisses me off. Your grammar sucks! It is just bad. Besides that, you inflate what very little you have to say to the point of being absolutely laughable. Actually you brought the discussion down further and further and even stooped to name calling and talking about someones’ mom at one point! You made yourself look like a jerk the moment you typed a reply to this post and clicked submit. You did your best to come off smarter than you are and to that I say, nice try. Pretentious and egotistical is exactly the way you put yourself out there for us all to burn at the stake. This has been a sad, drawn-out meandering to come back to a single infallible point…You are what you most despise. A homosexual. It’s fine really, no one here cares whether or not you love the cock. It’s a choice of personal freedom and I stand by your right to do as you please. Don’t make us out to be homophobes just because you can’t handle what you are. Self loathing and denial are very detrimental to long term happiness and fufillment. Be at peace and be yourself.
This difference between me and someone being pretentious
is that I am putting in no extra effort then I would ussually use. This is
how I’ve allways written. So there is no over-acheiving outward
show like you keep claiming. It’s hard to make a case that I am
putting this on when it’s the way I allways am no matter what.
The truth is for all you know I could be
even MORE intelligent then I appear on the internet. For all you know I
might have toned it down just for you! Of course you’ll chime in about
how you “doubt it” by why the fuck would I care? I know that even
if you think I really am smart you won’t tell me because I piss you off
so much. So you will say exactly what I expect you to say and
obviously I’m not gonna lose sleep when you’re so predictable.
Either way the main point is you DON’T know which makes about
95 percent of your criticisms meaningless. Especially since I do
know who I am.
I don’t know what is more sad. The fact that you clearly changed the
style of YOUR writing to argue with me( which for the record IS
pretentious) or the part where you actually think my feelings will
be hurt because you made fun of my grammar.
I’m not even gonna touch the homophobic paragraph you wrote at the
end. You were either making a failed point about how long my posts
are or just rambling on because you have nothing of substance to say.
Either way, epic FAIL!
Not pretentious at all but I agree I am arrogant. Sorry for that but it’s
really hard to not feel like I’m better then you!
Shut up.
OK no.
You called me fuckstick, how sweet. ; p
I try :)
“That’s what they really dig – In which case keep it to yourself. I have no issue with homosexuals as long as they keep it to themselves.”‘
barring your own issues with homosexuality, i’d like to point out what a hypocritical statement this is.
Goddamn, what a long, pointless argument. Smoke a blunt, please, all of you.
I actually did while I wrote some of that lol.
How so?
I know why they made this cover like this now. They know how shitty they sound and anticipate other people to notice it too. With this cover they can easily write off any detractor as “homophobe” or whatever when the simple fact is punk (not just their brand of it) sucks.
I “get it”. I’m just not impressed at all. Sue me.
I think the best most recent real-life example of “punk rawk” was our boy Kanye at the VMA’s. Basically it entails standing up and presenting a very brief poorly formed opinion for the sake of pissing everyone off.
That’s the one thing that allways annoyed me about punk rock. I understand it’s important influence in getting us where we are and all that, but the simple fact is the music itself is not that enjoyable to me while the opinions and the way they are presented just makes it more annoying.
nope, that was about some poncy spoiled brat grandstanding for the sake of getting much needed TV time. nothing punk about it…
Kanye’s rants are typically anti-establishment (aka white people) and in a vague way he may be
partially right but in each individual circumstance he was clearly being idiotic too
because of the way he presented himself and his complete lack of
respect or understanding for the “other side”. Also few of his opinions or arguments
were factual or well reasoned. To me, I perceive punk rock almost exactly the same.
Childish posturing juxtaposed with adult politcal commentary that is wholly awful in it’s
logic and factual basis. Also pretentious as fuck. I dunno I just feel that way. I know
lots of people love it but I’m not gonna apologize for my opinion. Deal with it.
Kanye West is punk rock.
nobody cares about kanye west. he’s a gay fish.
A motherfukin gayfish!
HaHa I love SouthPark
I would have to agree with you about most punk rock. Some of the only punk I DO enjoy is the type that isn’t so self-important. The early Misfits are fun, because they’re singing about zombies and martians and eating brains. To me that says “Look, we know we’re not exactly geniuses and we don’t know too much about the world and we only know five chords but we can make something fun out of it”. Bad Brains are also great because they actually play thoughtful music. As for the political shit, fuck that. I don’t want any message shoved down my throat over power chords, let alone a hastily formed, poorly written message. Most punks who talked about fighting some power never actually had to face that “power”. They’re just like rappers who grew up middle class and rap about the hard street life when they’ve never spent time in a ghetto.
Thank You! I agree about the Misfits too.
The self-proclaimed importance and immediacy of the punk rockers opinions allow them to bypass all normal standards of reasonable behavior. It also exempts them from making sense. It’s this childish notion
of “This will really piss off that other side, you know the bad guys….of whom IM not one of. Yeah!
Sanctimonious Bullshit. Kanye is punk rock.
I didn’t notice any overtly political tones in the songs. More of a nod to slightly unhinged and dirty early hardcore (as was stated in the post). If you are hearing anything more than a soundtrack for drinking beer and smashing things, you are missing the point. Or projecting your own pretense.
The replies on this thread have gotten convoluted so I won’t flame you for missing
a lot of key things I said to the contrary. In short when I was talking about
pretentious politcal ramblings I was talking about why I didn’t like the punk
scene in general.
Some dude flamed me for judging the album cover and I said I could not fairly judge
anything else since I had not heard the record. I was then provided with a link to
hear 30 second clips of each song which is not exactly the best way to judge them
either. It DID however confirm for me that I had no interest in buying this.
“If you are hearing anything more than a soundtrack for drinking beer and smashing things, you are missing the point.”
If they are all about drinking beer and smashing things then why the hell would
they satire meatheads on the cover who are all about exactly that? Although
un-politcal that is still sanctimonious.
Dude, I don’t think anyone cares whether you buy the album or not…if it’s not for you, then it’s not for you. And to clarify, I wasn’t “flaming” you for making judgments based on the cover. I was simply pointing out that your comments exemplified the type of reaction that you had just outlined in your comment.
The point: This band is a one-off side project by two tremendously talented musicians, probably meant as an homage to the bands they listened to growing up.
All of your conjecture about what is punk and why this band chose the cover they did comes of as…to use your word…sanctimonious and pretentious.
And that’s cool the way you “use my word” but it would be much
more effective to tell me why and how you think that way.
Tell ya what sport. You go back and comb through your multitude of posts here, and try to find one clear or coherent line of thought that isn’t mired in your own uninformed opinion of the subject at hand, write me an essay about it (be sure to double space) and I’ll be happy to give it a look-see and put some red ink in the margin.
You’re mom is double spaced.
God, you really are the worst kind of person.
Sorry you feel that way.
whooooo GG allin!
This cover is way less Ray Pettibon and way more Tom of Finland. At that it doesn’t come close to either artists sense of space. It’s muddled. Gross.
Reminds me of http://singlemansdiary.com/
It sure would be great if someone actually commented on the review.
Sorry. I really wasn’t trying to take away from that. I got lumped into the “intolerant meathead”
category by your review and since I hadn’t heard the album at the time that was the only thing
I had to comment on. Just a defense. Then everyone jumped on my nuts and here we are.
Besides the comments on the cover I think you’re review was really well written with lots of great
backstory about the punk scene in general. It was interesting and described what I did hear of the
music really well.
I guess I would’ve liked a shout out to the Big Boys. I would’ve thought the name of the band, homosexual aesthetic and punk nature all reference them.
I’m sure the kids at Profane would eat this up. :)
That’s fair criticism. I probably should have at least mentioned queercore. Thanks for the feedback!
I want to make one last point about the cover and perceived homophobia. I understand there have been
a few guys here unhappy with my opinions which led to speculation about my sexual orientation, alleged pretense and overall douchebaggery. LOL. All I have to say is this: You guys are all missing something
VERY obvious.
Gary pointed out that homophobes are often known to use “f@got in a derogatory way”. In other words
calling someone g@y as an insult.
Now to the cover. It is clearly SATIRE. In other words it’s making fun of somebody. The implication is that some toughguy, meatheaded gym dweller is a fudge packer. So yeah the cover is actually using
“f@got in a derogatory way.”
This means that anyone who likes it is a homophobe and actually in the closet themselves. Meanwhile, me, the one guy that did NOT like the homophobic cover is actually a champion of civil rights! Woo Hoo!
I want to make one last point about the cover and perceived homophobia. I understand there have been
a few guys here unhappy with my opinions which led to speculation about my sexual orientation, alleged pretense and overall douchebaggery. LOL. All I have to say is this: You guys are all missing something
VERY obvious.
Gary pointed out that homophobes are often known to use “f**** in a derogatory way”. In other words
calling someone homo as an insult.
Now to the cover. It is clearly SATIRE. In other words it’s making fun of somebody. The implication is that some toughguy, meatheaded gym dweller is a fudge packer. So yeah the cover is actually using
“f**** in a derogatory way.”
This means that anyone who likes it is a homophobe and actually in the closet themselves. Meanwhile, me, the one guy that did NOT like the homophobic cover is actually a champion of civil rights! Woo Hoo!
Except for that little part where you called us F@GS, Right you fucking blow up doll? See what I mean about you being an imbecile?
Get the fuck out lol. You spent an entire paragraph calling me a f@g you hypocrite.
Besides that I obviously have to explain to you that I was being a little
facetious although I really thought that would have been a given even for you.
Actually I am calling you stupid but I can see how you wouldn’t catch that. I totally support you being gay. Nothing at all wrong or derogatory about it. Sweetie
Actually no. Here’s the copy-paste of you calling me “stupid”
“You are what you most despise. A homosexual. It’s fine really, no one here cares whether or not you love the cock. It’s a choice of personal freedom and I stand by your right to do as you please. Don’t make us out to be homophobes just because you can’t handle what you are. Self loathing and denial are very detrimental to long term happiness and fufillment. Be at peace and be yourself.
”
uh huh.
You also seem to have an inordinate ammount of what I can only assume to
be first-hand experience regarding the inner-turmoil of a closet-case pillow
muncher LOL.
Sorry about the double post. Computer here was acting up.