Ok list Ministry’s five worst mistakes from 1-5, 5 being the biggest blunder. Here’s mine:
Not collaborating more with Mr. Reznor
The Bad Blood Video
Allowing “Ty Coon” to sing on any tracks…uggh she ruined every song she sang on with those disastrous vocals.
Allowing personal problems to interfere with releasing a new album after Psalm 69…thereby creating a 4 year gap until Fith Pig and losing a lot of the buzz Psalm had earned them.
Houses of the Mole…hands down their biggest blunder
HAH! interesting thread.
I’m rather excited to see Peligro’s reply…
Anyways…
#1 - DSOTS #2 - Taking so long to remove Paul from the camp #3 - Al getting rid of his dreads #4 - Al’s love of the Blackhawks [:P] #5 - DSOTS (again!)
It’s not like you can much help personal problems, but that’s my big complaint as well. They were pretty big after Psalm (that’s when I got into them, anyway), and stretching it out to only have two more releases in the '90s kind of made a lot of people lose interest. Heroin sucks, and I can tell you that with certainty.
As for the Reznor thing, I don’t know. I really don’t understand Al hating on Trent lately, but it is true that they are TOTALLY different artists. Maybe just one or two more songs would’ve been cool. Then again, we see what an influence Trent had on David Bowie in the mid-'90s, so I could be wrong.
Having “Lay Lady Lay” as the lead single from Filth Pig
Hmm, I think The Fall was actually the lead single, wasn’t it? I seem to recall snagging the digipak as soon as it came out, because I was excited to hear the new stuff.
1-4. Never kidnapped Ian MacKaye and forced him to do a proper full-length Pailhead follow up to Trait. As the only thing that actively bothers me about the Ministry camp this deserves four spaces. There really should have been more Pailhead.
Houses of the Mole (Only Ministry album I’m happy without. I even loved Dark Side of the Spoon. . I don’t even mind the endless anti-Bush ranting, but this album fails to move me at all. It’s not terrible, just leaves me cold.
[reply]3. Having “Lay Lady Lay” as the lead single from Filth Pig
Hmm, I think The Fall was actually the lead single, wasn’t it? I seem to recall snagging the digipak as soon as it came out, because I was excited to hear the new stuff.
1002[/reply]
Warner Bros. wanted to put out Brick Windows - Al wanted to put out Lay Lady Lay. This caused a big argument, I heard, between the two…
[reply][reply]3. Having “Lay Lady Lay” as the lead single from Filth Pig
Hmm, I think The Fall was actually the lead single, wasn’t it? I seem to recall snagging the digipak as soon as it came out, because I was excited to hear the new stuff.
1002[/reply]
Warner Bros. wanted to put out Brick Windows - Al wanted to put out Lay Lady Lay. This caused a big argument, I heard, between the two…[/reply]
Thanks for that, I was actually thinking as I wrote my post that it should have been “Brick Windows”. Interesting, I can’t help but think this was one time when the record company was definitely right.
It’s funny that Lay Lady Lay was the single, without hearing it I don’t think I wouldn’t have discovered Ministry it was the first Ministry track I heard. I was listening to a lot of metal back then and it sounded like a metal that was unique with the great guitar work. I heard a bunch of Revco tracks before I heard Lay Lady Lay but I never made the connection at first. I actually thought some tracks made by the group Diatribe were done by Revco. Keep in mind the station I heard all this was notorious for not telling you what was played on the air.
Even though I enjoy the song, I definitely think Al made a mistake making Lay Lady Lay as the single. Brick Windows sounds as if it could have gone on a Revco album and from the responses I’ve seen from this board, it seems as if Al alienated a lot of the long time fans with the rest of the Filth Pig album.
I thought the Bad Blood video was okay. Lot more production than the earlier videos. But it did end up looking like a made for MTV video, oh wait no wonder why it was nominated…
IMO the bass has gone downhill after Paul left. I mean that album sound only - I’ve yet to see a Ministry show live. And, what’s the new Revco album gonna be like without Paul’s signature bass, make that Revco…
IMO the bass has gone downhill after Paul left. I mean that album sound only - I’ve yet to see a Ministry show live. And, what’s the new Revco album gonna be like without Paul’s signature bass, make that Revco…
true. probably one major thing i can’t deal with. not that paul was super-awesome bassist with uber-complex bass lines (they’re all dead simple actually), they all had something in them. especially for revco ones. although hotm has some nice bass tones, the lines are kinda different and not interesting.
Starring in A.I (crap song and what’s the point of starring in a Spielberg film if it’s gunna do NOTHING for yr career??)
It did, just not in the way they expected. Getting a call from Spielberg to do a major motion picture, I mean wouldn’t you? Even Bruce Campbell was in “Congo”, after all, and there was a lot of hooplah involved in that.
Working on A.I., it made Ministry continue onward. They were barely together at all, and would’ve just ended if it weren’t for that movie. Course, the film tanked, and the blink-and-might-miss cameo did nothing for them. But in the long run, they stayed together to at least complete Animositisomina.
I think someone from my “how did you get into…” thread said it was because of the “What About Us?” video…so it’s not the actual movie, but that song did at least get them some fans. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some 12 or 13 year olds out there just getting into Ministry because of “No W” on the “Rock Against Bush” thing. You never know!
[reply]3. Having “Lay Lady Lay” as the lead single from Filth Pig
Hmm, I think The Fall was actually the lead single, wasn’t it? I seem to recall snagging the digipak as soon as it came out, because I was excited to hear the new stuff.
1002[/reply]
Unless I am totally losing my mind, The Fall was the first single. i remember grabbing it during winter break in college well before Filth Pig came out and it didn’t leave my cd player for a while. I’m thinking really late 95 or really early 96.
[reply][reply]3. Having “Lay Lady Lay” as the lead single from Filth Pig
Hmm, I think The Fall was actually the lead single, wasn’t it? I seem to recall snagging the digipak as soon as it came out, because I was excited to hear the new stuff.
1002[/reply]
Unless I am totally losing my mind, The Fall was the first single. i remember grabbing it during winter break in college well before Filth Pig came out and it didn’t leave my cd player for a while. I’m thinking really late 95 or really early 96.[/reply]
[reply][reply][reply]3. Having “Lay Lady Lay” as the lead single from Filth Pig
Hmm, I think The Fall was actually the lead single, wasn’t it? I seem to recall snagging the digipak as soon as it came out, because I was excited to hear the new stuff.
1002[/reply]
Unless I am totally losing my mind, The Fall was the first single. i remember grabbing it during winter break in college well before Filth Pig came out and it didn’t leave my cd player for a while. I’m thinking really late 95 or really early 96.[/reply]
yeh, i got the fall and then lay lady lay on cd when they were released. I also picked up a copy of the brick windows promo cd along the way sometime… i was wondering what that was about, and now i know.
i don’t think they’ve (he’s) really made many mistakes. Ministry is what ministry is, we like it or we don’t. having said that, the fake english accent between songs was hilarious (awfully bloody hot in here… etc.). that would’ve made me hide my head in shame in retrospect. getting the words wrong to Friend of the Devil might also have had that effect.
Starring in A.I (crap song and what’s the point of starring in a Spielberg film if it’s gunna do NOTHING for yr career??)
Well I can testify that Ministry gained at least one new fan with “What About Us”. I saw that video on Much Music one day and really got into them after that.
I think the song is slightly underrated, although again, it is practically ruined by Ty Coon’s vocals. But honestly I heard enough in that sound to know that this band must be awesome and have much better songs in their catalogue.
I like that little gap between Dark Side snd Animositisomina with songs liike “What About Us” and then “Shove” (an outtake from Dark Side) sounding similar as well,
In retrospect, I think the single deal for Filth Pig should have been:
“Dead Guy”
“Brick Windows”
“Reload”
Come on! “Dead Guy” was fuckin made for K-Rock and is still an awesome song! This should have been the main single. “Reload” is bizarre noise rock that is brilliant but doesn’t come across as accessible enough initially to be part of the single.
And “Brick Windows” rocks!!! It should definately have been a single!! Damn these lists are good. I totally excluded Rantology, although it definately ranks up there. Greatest Fits was good and the tracklisting was very strong, Rantology is almost like a Worst of in comparison. WTF were they thinking?!?!