1 post tagged “laibach”

I have previously written about my dear friend, the late Mark Harp.  Mark's band Null Set brought postpunk to Baltimore; when another band called Null Set, from another city, put out a record, Mark's Null Set changed their name to Cabal.  The singer for Null Set and Cabal was Bill Dawson; after Cabal broke up, he teamed up with George Hagegeorge to form Black Pete and play guitar-charged industrial music in the vein of Ministry and Skinny Puppy.  They put out one twelve-inch in 1989, recruited an apparently substance-addled young glam-metal dude as their "bassist" (though it was speculated that his real role was to get into fights and thereby gain "cred" for the band), and folded shortly thereafter.  I missed my window for getting a copy of the record back then, but thanks to the Internet and GEMM, the window is open again.  I found a copy and ordered it (from a dealer with multiple copies), and it arrived yesterday.  The A-side is a cover of Mountain's "Mississippi Queen"--

Coincidentally, on the same day, Ministry released their supposedly final album, Cover Up, a collection of covers of classic rock tunes, one of which is... can you guess?  That's right, "Mississippi Queen"--

(Thanks for Jeff for bringing it to my attention.)  Do we need a new album of guitar-charged industrial covers of classic rock tunes?  Isn't it about eighteen years too late?  Another remake of "Get It On (Bang A Gong)", for pete's sake?  Didn't Laibach already write the book on industrial covers (and close it) with their interpretations of the Beatles in 1988, and the Rolling Stones in 1990?

That last part of this version (one of eight they recorded) has the best bass-drum workout since Steam's 1969 hit and perennial stadium favorite "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye"--

I would have loved Cover Up in 1990, perhaps as late as 1995.  Maybe if I pretend it's a reissue, or long-suppressed recordings just released from the vault!!!, I'll like it better.

Finally, wouldn't it be funny to refer to Laibach as Audioslav?