So you took care of Al for twenty years?
yup. that includes his family. fielding calls from his momma in boca
yup. that includes watching him cry whilst dopesick. yup. this ain’t pretty, but it’s real. it was a real education. that guy should be grateful that he kept walking and is still alive.i think.i am grateful to be away from that noise. man.perhaps someday al will achieve sobriety.
yup. that includes his family. fielding calls from his momma in boca
yup. that includes watching him cry whilst dopesick. yup. this ain’t pretty, but it’s real. it was a real education. that guy should be grateful that he kept walking and is still alive.i think.i am grateful to be away from that noise. man.perhaps someday al will achieve sobriety.
Yep. Maybe he will. But I’m sure you’ll still be crying about it another 10 years from now.
Get on with your life, Lady. You do realize Paul quit the band over 7 years ago, don’t you?
And if everything was so awful why’d you guys stay anyway? Stockholm syndrome or something?
gunnar, you are STILL an idiot. and say hi to the ange.
[reply]
Dark Side was the most “fully realized”??
As much as I like the album, this statement kind of makes me scratch my head. For the most part it sounds like a band running out of ideas. At times it sounds like the material has potential, but often sounds rather tired and almost bored.
I disagree with your opinion of the album and its production, but regardless I think what he meant was that it really had its own sound, separate from the rest of the Ministry catalog. Like they created an album that really existed independently in its own world.[/reply]
I’m jumpin on voidhead’s bus here… I got nothing other than you are just flat out wrong, amlux.
Late,
grmpysmrf
Well Dark Side may have its own sound, may be diff from the rest of the catalog, but it still sucks.
I’ve tried, and tried, but I just can’t like it. =(
darkside rules.
I like Dark Side Of The Spoon.
It’s just that, in places, it feels incomplete. It feels like a half great album, padded out with some so so ideas. The single, Bad Blood, was lame. The Ty Coon voice overs are stupid. The production does not live up to past efforts. It’s muddy and unfocused at times when Filth Pig and Psalm 69 were slick and full bodied. Al vocals on Dark Side sound sleepy and half arsed. The lyrical themes are jokey and silly. And it really SOUNDS like it was recorded on a budget whereas the previous albums sound like ALOT of time, effort and money was poured into them. Psalm was brutal and precise, Filth was warm, thick and bass heavy, Dark Side was trebly and tinny.
Though it’s still, I REPEAT a worthy enough output. Just don’t go spouting half truths about it being some sort of masterpiece.
i see your point about it being somewhat tinny, but i think it has the most low end out of all their efforts. like, the rumbly furnace of doom almost muddy low end, i would compare to certain godflesh releases. this give me a monumental erection. not all the tracks are golden to me either, but more than a few of my favorite ministry tracks are on that one. Vex & Siolence is glorious as well as 10/10.
and although tycoon vox on bad blood are indeed sub par, as well as this track in general, i thought her small part in whip and chain was good times broheims.
ahh snaps the japanese version had Happy Dust on it? that is cool, that fits pretty well methinks.
darkside was never a record i liked.paul did. there are few records of any kind which i like. pere ubu everything wakes me up, because it’s raw and it’s real, gunnar likes to make fun of my career at wax trax. that career poisons you. and it’s a fucking blessing.those two idiots, jim and dannie, knew who they were dealing with.and you gunnar, are history.
To my ears, ‘Filth Pig’ is definitely tinnier/more overly trebled than ‘Dark Side of the Spoon’.
‘Filth Pig’ was the beginning of the excessive painful treble in the Ministry production, which nearly ruins the otherwise great ‘Animositisomina’.
The first LP I heard was Mind, a tape my cousin gave me. It took a while for me to sink into, but I remember buying the tape (hey, I had a Walkman…so what) of Dark Side the day it dropped. Floored me.
First three songs, then…EUREKA PILE. That was the tip. Nursing Home was the continuance. Really, I’d be lying if I said if Kaif or Vex & Siolence weren’t on it, I’d hate it. They really tie that album together. It’s the rawest Ministry record, and by that it SOUNDS like depression, drug abuse, a longing…I don’t know. It works, and I don’t think it sounds half-finished.
Under-produced, maybe, who knows, but the track record from 1996 onward had that “crispy” mix as Max Brody puts it. Maybe they were going for some sound that they felt worked with that mood, maybe they were tone-deaf. See, that’s why I think Paul should talk more about this…
there’s nothing else to say.
Under-produced, maybe, who knows, but the track record from 1996 onward had that “crispy” mix as Max Brody puts it. Maybe they were going for some sound that they felt worked with that mood, maybe they were tone-deaf. See, that’s why I think Paul should talk more about this…
I think it had more to do with hearing loss on Al’s part.
Either way, as gerda said there is really nothing more to say.
I am amused though that every thread that is about Ministry on this forum eventually becomes a discussion of ‘Dark Side of the Spoon’.
Man, I can just hear Casey Kasem talking about the “feel-good hit of the year” right now. It’s nuts. DSOTS rules.
[laugh]
Sick Barker pic!
The first LP I heard was Mind, a tape my cousin gave me. It took a while for me to sink into, but I remember buying the tape (hey, I had a Walkman…so what) of Dark Side the day it dropped. Floored me.
First three songs, then…EUREKA PILE. That was the tip. Nursing Home was the continuance. Really, I’d be lying if I said if Kaif or Vex & Siolence weren’t on it, I’d hate it. They really tie that album together. It’s the rawest Ministry record, and by that it SOUNDS like depression, drug abuse, a longing…I don’t know. It works, and I don’t think it sounds half-finished.
Under-produced, maybe, who knows, but the track record from 1996 onward had that “crispy” mix as Max Brody puts it. Maybe they were going for some sound that they felt worked with that mood, maybe they were tone-deaf. See, that’s why I think Paul should talk more about this…
I agree with enough of this to say ^ all of that.
Late,
grmpysmrf
When Paul bleached his hair it really tied Dark Side together.
But seriously, I cannot understand how some are saying Dark Side does not have good production values. It has the best! It’s also their most experimental and diverse album they ever did. It absolutely rules. And the low end? Does ‘Vex and Siolence’ not silence that question? Maybe I just don’t understand music on the technical side enough but I wouldn’t hesitate to put forward Dark Side as the best produced. Now Animositisomina has, of the Barker albums, probably has the worst production values. It was a clear step down after Dark Side
gunnar likes to make fun of my career at wax trax.
Career? You sold 8 tracks to burnouts and hippies and collected Paul Barker trading cards (like the rest of us). You weren’t exactly the CEO of Sony.
you gunnar, are history.
I certainly am. That’s why people are actually interested in MY books.
I just love the thought of the stripper complaining about having to take her clothes off. You might have chosen the wrong profession, Doll!