It's raining queens (Mississippi Queens)

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:43:01 -0700

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"--

Black Pete - Mississippi Queen

Black Pete

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?

02 - Laibach - Sympathy For The Devil (Dem Teufel Zugeneigt)

Laibach

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?

Let_it_be3

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It's raining queens (Mississippi Queens)