I’m wondering if there are any Helmet fans out there.
I think this was the best rock band of the 1990s and I’m sad that they are no more.
I think Helmet had an absolutely compelling sound and concept, and it’s hard for me to imagine a stronger exemplar of what was once called, with reference to John Coltrane, a “wall of sound.”
Strap it On is the best recording, followed by the compilation called Born Annoying.
They were even better in concert, very intense.
I saw 'em at Michigan State University. More enjoyable was the fact that Timothy Leary spoke before Helmet came on. Unfortunately, the fucking Philistines in the audience cut Leary short. If only I had a flamethrower that day…
I tried to download “Unsung” from Napster about a million times, and EVERY single time, the copy was bad. It was pretty remarkable – you’d think I’d get lucky after a while.
Great Band. I have Strap it on, Meantime and Betty. I probably like Betty the best out of all of them. I don’t listen to them all that often – but every once in a while, when you need some music to crank while you drive at unsafe speeds…there’s not much better available.
They are a great band. Funny though, I did not like their music during the bands lifetime. I saw them live and did not like it (they played well). It was only later when I had experienced a change in music tastes that I came to love them and regretted not being able to see them live again.
“I will vanquish you with my spear and magic HELmet!”
“Spear and magic helmet?”
“Spear and magic HELmet!”
“Magic helmet?”
“Magic HELmet!”
“Magic helmet?!”
“Magic HELmet!”
[pointing thumb over his shoulder at him] “Magic helmet! :rolleyes:”
One of the guys from Helmet is now in a much different kind of band called the Moonlighters. He is an amazing steel guitar player. I mean, truly incredible.
I did not know about the Moonlighters, with Helmet’s bassist.
Thanks for that info. Gotta check it out.
YES ma-jick hel-MET! And I will give you a SAM-pull.
I dug Helmet’s recordings, and to this day still play my bass in the drop-D tuning they used. But I saw them live and they sucked. I think it was one of those nights where bad sound, a tired band, an what they percieved as an unresponsive crowd* all came together to make a really bad show. I was very disappointed.
*Memphis crowds, as a rule, aren’t as demonstrative as crowds in other cities. As I heard a much more experienced musican than I say once “They’re quiet because they’re listening!” This can be very disconcerting when you aren’t used to it.
Saw 'em in New Orleans at the State Palace on a bill with Rollins Band and Sausage (Les Claypool from Primus). Very, very good show. I recently dug up my ‘Meantime’ cd. It still packs a wallop, but brings back too many memories from the early ninties best left in the past…
Nice to find some people who appreciate helmet, cause most people I know can’t stand em.
I appreciate the musicianship along with the relentless aggressive attack and the fact that their music was so compelling that the didn’t need to resort to any dramatic flourishes, lyrically or otherwise. I saw them live four times, early and mid-career.
Betty is not my favorite recording, but I think they were trying to find a new direction – it’s hard to see how they could have improved on their initial impulse in Strap It On and Meantime. The Born Annoying compilation contains some really intense early (pre-Strap it On) stuff (the title tune and “Geisha to Go”).
I think the last record, Aftertaste, was a falling off. It sounds prophetic in that the band broke up thereafter.
I would like to know what Page Hamilton is up to.
I got to draw a flyer for Helmet when my friend’s band, The Hood, opened for them at Virginia Tech.
It named the bands playing, and in the background was a montage of fetuses with coathangers through their heads, and a far backgound of hundreds of stacked baby skulls. A real attention getter, it was.
It was met with results so decidedly… mixed… that I was, um, replaced as The Hood’s artist in favor of someone who new how to get attention in a slightly less inflammatory way. But I heard the band liked it so much that they took a stack of copies with 'em. I wonder if they ever used them for anything.
How did The Hood perform?
I imagine it would be fairly intimidating to open for Helmet.
Helmet fan checking in.
I went to college in the midwest and became very engulfed in the bands of Amphetamine Reptile and Touch and Go (mostly because they toured endlessly through the midwest)
I saw Helmet in Iowa city open up for the Godbullies in, I think, 1989 or 1990. This was just before the release of Meantime. Their roadie was running aroung the club with a hammer, prying nails out of anyplace he could find them. We were all pretty confused. Then we saw that he was using them to nail down the stands for John Stainer’s kit. Not just in front of the bass drum. He nailed down the WHOLE KIT. Cymbals. Snare. Everything. My friends all exchanged glances. This was definitely a good sign.
The show was a bit choppy because their rigs were so big they kept blowing fuses during warmup, so their set got cut short a bit. I was initially a bit confused because they didn’t look like rockstars, just normal guys (the bassist had cut his dreads off by this time).
Needless to say, they became one of my favorite bands. I think my favorite song was ‘No Nicky No’, an instrumental that was a B-side single. I remember playing them for a friend of mine who was a classical guitarist, and his eyes popped out of his head. I’ve always appreciated Page’s playing but I never studied it too carefully. He did an album of guitar dueling with the great Caspar Broztmann, although, to my ears, Page’s work is no match for Caspar’s wall of sound. Not exactly a level playing field, though.
I think the “Helmet riff” has become a part of our everyday musical language (coughKorncough), and has been ripped off relentlessly ever since. I read a good review that said “Helmet really only has one song. But it’s a GOOD song”.
I managed to see them about ten times during their lifespan. A band I was in opened up for them in Souix City, and Page Hamilton helped us jack up a guy’s car and take all the tires off (we put them under the car and lowered it. A joke of some sort…) Yes, opening for Helmet was kind of an exercise in futility. Luckily, we were the first of four acts, so the humiliation wasn’t too bad.
After their breakup, John Stanier, the drummer, dropped out of the music scene for a bit and then resurfaced doing DJ gigs around New York. Apparently, he was quite good at that, too. He has since picked up the sticks again, playing in the band Tomahawk, featuring Duane Dennison of Jesus Lizard, Kevin Rutmanis of Cows / Melvins, and Mike Patton of Faith No More. Fans of any of these bands would do well to check them out.
Is Caspar Brotzmann any relation to Peter Brotzmann, sax man for Last Exit with Sonny Sharrock?
Last Exit reminds me of Helmet in some ways.
Great post, by the way.
I was really excited for Tomahawk’s release…huge fan of JL and Helmet, and a somewhat lesser fan of Cows and Mr. Bungle. I listened to it about 10x, and while I think it’s decent, I’m not crazy about it. Denison’s influence is easily picked up on in the music, but Patton is pretty annoying on the record. I know, that’s his shtick, but it just doesn’t work for me this time. He was way more annoying on the Mr. Bungle records and I liked those just fine, but Tomahawk kind of fell flat.
Who knows, I’m probably just getting old.
::shakes cane:: Can someone help me with this colostomy bag?
Loved 'em. I saw them at least a couple times in S. Florida. Seems like one of those guys was from Ft. Liquordale, because I remember him announcing his dad was at the show one night at The Edge. I think I saw 'em again on the Rollins/Sausage/Helmet tour. That one was in Miami, circa 1994. (Yeah, it was my 25th birthday!) I thoroughly enjoyed them live, every time I saw 'em.
Speaking of getting old, I just saw Tool a couple months ago. Although they, too, were excellent and the show was great… I can’t go to shows like that any more without earplugs. I could actually FEEL the damage as it occurred to my ears.
Wha?
Helmet was the band that got me into playing guitar. There was not one song by them that I could not play frmo begining to end within a year of the first time I picked up a guitar. I thought Aftertaste was a great album, Betty was by far the worst. If I hear Unsung one more fucking time on the local rock station I am gonna shoot out the radio at work. You would think they only made one album that had one song on it.
I have 2 different versions of born annoying. A 4 song ep and an 8 song lp that was released a while later. The 8 song one has the same songs as the 4 song one, plus a bunch more songs. Its the best album of thiers.
FTR, any of you ever try to play Unsung on your guitar and sing it, or even speak the words, at the same time? It’s WAY harder than it sounds. The guitar is easy and the vocals are easy, but doing them together is really tough. They follow such different beats that I can’t even say the words in time while I play it.
Anyone ever like Cows? Good band there too. Supersuckers? Awsome band.
I’m sure Leary would have agreed with your desire to murder the “Philistines in the audience.”:rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Real nice.
Good eye, Lout. Yes, Caspar is Peter’s son (Sorry for butchering the last name). Thanks for reminding me of Last Exit. I went home and dug their album out (I’m sort of re-discovering my records, since I recently got a new record player after mine died about two years ago. Most of them are still in storage…). Thanks for the compliment, too.
Mouthbreather,
In the past, our musical tastes have been identical, and today is no exception. I’ve mentioned Tomahawk on this board a dozen times, and this was the only time I neglected my disclaimer. By all accounts, this should have been the album of my life. With the exception of Patton, the favorite members of my favorite bands. Not just any guys from my favorite bands, but the pivotal, defining members of those bands. I enjoyed Mike’s work on the first Mr. Bungle album, but was a little nervous about his role in this, as his “baby, opera, old man” voice inflections grate on me in the wrong context. I agree, his voice worked well in the carnival atmosphere of Bungle. Anyway, by all accounts, this album was made for me. I should have been lying on the floor, weeping. As it stands, I listened to it, shrugged, and promptly put Refused back in, who rocked me the way Tomahawk was supposed to. We’re both getting old.
I forgot to mention that I bought two copies of Meantime on vinyl. My friends and I were convinced, CONVINCED, that this was going to be the Beatles Butcher Cover album of our generation, the hot commodity. Needless to say, I think we were wrong.
Stinkpalm;
I’m going to resist derailing Lout’s nice post. Let me say this. After years on this board, it’s apparent that everyone has a specialty, a niche that they fill, some font of knowledge that just pours forth at the slightest beckoning, which other look upon with a bit of awe and a little confusion, for surely this field is so irrelevant, so menial, that one who knows so much about such a thing must be a bit, well, off. For me, Stinkpalm, it is the Cows. They are the center of my universe of knowledge of the bands of Amphetamine Reptile records from the years 1989 to 1994. Maybe I shall start my own post, and fill all with dismay.