In all the discussion of thrash metal’s first big bands, too little airtime is given to the great Suicidal Tendencies. Launched by a teenaged Mike Muir in Los Angeles, Suicidal took root in punk and hardcore, landed an early MTV hit in the manic, careening “Institutionalized,” and attracted the ire of authorities via rumored gang ties and concert violence. And that was before ST solidified a line-up, one anchored by Muir’s bandmate in No Mercy, riff-god guitarist Mike Clark. The two Mikes rebooted Suicidal with the defiantly thrashy How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can’t Even Smile Today, a major label-powered crossover hit which drew an even bigger target on the band for censorship crusaders and unwittingly helped to fertilize the coming crop of nu-metal self-pity peddlers.

But in the hands of Muir, personal woes weren’t excuses but motivation, and confrontation more often than wallowing; see 1989′s mini-album Controlled By Hatred/Feel Like Shit … Deja Vu, on which Muir continues to document disassociation for a society slow to acknowledge mental health realties. Suicidal’s peak came in 1990 with Lights … Camera … Revolution, an album-length indictment of society’s complicity in its own demise, all cowed by power-mongers, con men, and the self-righteous. This was a different era for metal; no commercial band had yet approached the blunt rage, contrarianism, and pervasive guitar solos of Suicidal Tendencies.

On the phone to MetalSucks last week from California, a typically expansive Muir downplayed his regard for the history of Suicidal, but even he looks back to past days on The Mad Mad Muir Musical Tour (Part 1), his forthcoming collection of new and vault tracks by re-punk era ST, his solo Cyco Miko project, and Infectious Grooves, the funk-metal clan Muir formed with ST bassist Robert Trujillo (now of Metallica). So I had all the license needed to drag Muir down memory lane to tour the land of Suicidal. Join us!

Click to read more…

Whenever it strikes me as humorous that Mike Muir, the frontman of Suicidal Tendencies, suffers from a bad back like some oldie, I hear the hurt, defensive words of John Candy in Planes, Trains, And Automobiles: “Do you have a bad back? Well I do. And it hurts like a bugger.” Sounds painful, actually; the back is connected to like all parts of your body. If I realize that, it ceases to be funny that the guy who represents ST’s pre-Korn non-silly fuck-you power probably groans “Ahh tsssssssssssss ugh my shit hoitz!” every morning. And it’s totally unfunny that his condition has affected ST tours, but Muir and some random ST dudes just wrapped a tour of Australia, during which he no doubt tested his back on stage and I presume in tight tourbus bunks.

So at this point, Muir, his band, and his fans do not need some silly slag to mount him like there were a Danish taped to his neck Saturday in Sydney (above, at :25). I guess the Australian high-five is a headlock. Srsly, I take out my contacts and the clip looks like a cover version of the parking lot fight scene in The Big Lebowski.

-ADF