Music History

If there's been one identifiable constant in my life, it's music. Although I'm not extremely talented as a musician, I give it a meaningful effort. (See the most successful culmination of effort as East Tennessee's premier industrial/noise group, 'Insect'). Few people can say they don't like music, but for me it is a serious vice. Throughout my adolescence, music was a driving force behind political, sociological, fashion and attitude tendencies.

My earliest inclination for a specific genre of music was in fifth grade. Along with several class-mates, recess provided an opportunity to hone our break-dancing skills. All the rage at the time, I joined the craze and became quite the skillful break-dancer. In order to be breakin', one had to have the right music. As a result, my tape collection consisted of rap artists such as Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five, Run DMC, Nucleus, Grandmaster Flash, Art of Noise, World Class Wreckin' Cru' and Twilight 22. Blasting the old-school rap through 'boom boxes' we raised hell on sheets of linoleum and masonite. It was a great time. Quite possibly the only break-dancing "crew" in the East Tennessee area, we were cordially invited to participate in a ballet recital, representing "modern" dance. We did our thing onstage and had fun hanging out with the ballerinas backstage. At the end of the performance, we had a swarm of admirers, young and old alike, as we enlightened them on the trademark urban dance technique. I had the whole performance captured on videotape but my younger sister accidentally recorded Pee-Wee Herman episodes over top of it.

The next few years brought a dry spell and until my Freshman year in high school, I was not interested in anything on the radio or in the record stores. A new hobby segued into new musical tastes when I was 14 or 15. I picked up my first skateboard, a cheap 'K-Mart' type model. That progressed to the need for something a bit more 'hip' and I purchased a used Sims Staab deck, along with nicer trucks and wheels. With little to no skating crowd in East Tennessee, I managed to pick up on tricks and maneuvers from skateboard magazines and videos. Along with my good friend Sidney Grizzel, we skated back-roads and gullies, cruising through farm country instead of city streets. During an outing to the local mall, Sid and I longed for something we could burn $20 on and wandered into the record store. Contemplating on the musical selections there, I recommended Metallica's '...and Justice for All' album. That started the fire and as much as many of their current and long-time fans may argue about their "selling out", I must attribute the foundation of my deviant musical tastes to this legendary metal group. After snatching up their other albums, I quickly explored the metal scene and became a huge fan. With the likes of Danzig, Megadeth, Death Angel, Obituary, Pantera, Exodus, Testament, Sepultura, Anthrax, and Slayer blaring from my father's stereo, I was the rebellious little skate-rat turned metal-head.

A cross-over period occurred and metal began to bore me. Sacred Reich, S.O.D. (Stormtroopers of Death), the Accused, D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles), Corrosion of Conformity, Suicidal Tendencies (old) and the Crumbsuckers slowly gave way in a blurred mutation to punk rock and hardcore like the Exploited, Black Flag, Minor Threat, the Misfits, Bad Religion, the Parasites, Elvis Hitler and Youth of Today. It wasn't until a trip to the beach with a friend and his family that I met the goth girl responsible for introducing me to the world of electronic music mayhem. Cruising along the beach wearing long hair, an old Slayer shirt and boots, she instantly made me out as a freak and approached. I had a small portable stereo and was listening to some hellish noise, disturbing the beach-goers. Casually offering me a tape, she encouraged that I replace the current noise and give her music a listen. Nitzer Ebb's 'That Total Age' blared out the hit tune 'Murderous' and I was hooked.

Not limiting my enjoyment of music to one specific genre, I still maintained my roots and branched out to sample the "grunge" phenomenon, even before it hit, with bands like Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden, Tad, Screaming Trees, Alice in Chains, Urge Overkill, Smashing Pumpkins and, of course, Nirvana. Rap was still a favorite but by my late high school years had come a long way since the old-school, beat box hits of the eighties. Hip-hop/rap greats such as Naughty By Nature, Digable Planets, Das EFX, Digital Underground, Young MC, House of Pain, Wu-Tang Clan, Marxman, Tribe Called Quest, Cypress Hill, Ice-T, N.W.A./Ice Cube/Dr Dre/Eazy-E and the whole Ruthless/Death Row troupe always found a place in my collection. Enjoying dance music in general, I also got into the techno/rave scene and started to DJ on a limited basis, spinning trance, ambient, high-energy, house and gabber (hey Nux!). That, combined with industrial, noise, experimental, synthcore, and aggro-tech, compose my current collection.

Foundations still include your base industrial gods, and if I had to pin my finger on a 'favorite' or personally popular group from my selections, honors would go to KMFDM. Musicians, entertainers, activists, engineers and all-around freaks, this German collaboration continues to produce amazing work for themselves and, via re-mixing, many other groups. I've seen them four times and have had the lucky opportunity to chat in person on a few occasions. The British brain-bending trip-hop outfit, Meat Beat Manifesto, deserve a lot of credit. They are all-around great people and were extremely gracious to provide me with an interview, a place to hang out on their bus, free tickets and t-shirts and an offer to accompany them for a short part of their tour in the Southern United States. Other live industrial/experimental performances that I've been witness to include Sister Machine Gun, Chemlab, Skrew, Clay People, Machines of Loving Grace, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Skinny Puppy, Thought Industry, God Lives Underwater, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, White Zombie, 808 State, John Zorn/John Oswald and David Bowie. For more information on any or all of these great artists, chop off your finger.