#amphetamine records

[shintobufo]

Gary Mundy, founder of Ramleh

[gotankgo]

Boss Hog “Hustler” (1993)

«Produced for the Amphetamine Reptile Records Video compilation "Dope, Guns, and Fucking up Your Video Deck III," in 1993. Filmed in Minneapolis, MN at Amrep offices on Nicollet Ave, and live footage of Boss Hog at the 7th St. Entry.»

[scoop16]

[luciana-silentstar]

I decided because I love suffering that everyone gets their own halter.

[thetoxicvault]

SCUMSLAUGHT

Knives And Amphetamines (2022)

Caligari Records

France 🇫🇷

[slrmagazine]

Boris to Release Split w/ Melvins, ‘Twins of Evil’

Boris to Release Split w/ Melvins, ‘Twins of Evil’. #borisheavyrocks

More than 30 years since their inceptions, Melvins and Boris remain at the forefront of heavy music.  Last year, they co-headlined the Twins of Evil tour where they grew close and agreed to release a split with the help of legendary label Amphetamine Reptile Records.  Now, 2024 brings the Melvins / Boris Twins of Evil album. Available on CD and incoming on vinyl on June 30th, the release…

[mrbopst]

[froody]

bands in the late 60s were like “due to record company requirements and amphetamines being available OTC in every drug store, we are releasing 2 of the best albums of all time within the space of a year. maybe 3 albums if we really hate each other.”

[bitangjo]

*oldschool techno plays in the background*

[heartbeat-eras]

Just a little exercise.. right?

TLDR - I’m newly on meds and my heart. Well she doesn’t seem to like them. I did three rounds of 20 squats. After trying to get her to calm down (spoliers she didn’t) I laid down. This caused an immediate extreme drop. I then did a push which brought her into the 60s. I don’t think she threw any pvcs but you be the judge.

————————

If you saw my intro post you would know that I’ve recently been prescribed dexadrine. Dexadrine is an amphetamine that can raise blood pressure and heart rate. In my other post I thought it was high time I tested my Heart’s response to these meds. I know she’s been a lot more poundy and faster than normal but.. I thought I would do some of my own tests.

Firstly was tracking her all night with a chest strap monitor. I followed this up with taking my meds before getting out of bed and waiting for them to kick in. The result was exactly in the small range they said it should be. So my faster rate is clearly the meds and my heart working against gravity.

I’ve been looking into if exercising on meds is safe. There are split opinions if you should do it after / before or if you can do it while medication is in your system. I decided to try a small run. Let me preface this with a couple of years ago I was a runner. My heart always was reactive and fast to exercise but not like what happened here.

So imagine. I’ve put on my workout gear. Taped my Stemoscope to the loudest part of chest and go into the room with the treadmill. I set up my chest strap monitor with the treadmill. Perfect.. she’s beating at 142 and I haven’t done anything. I start the Stemoscope recording. 2 mins standing with her pounding away - not yet exercising. Ok this is gonna be fun. At 2 mins jump on at a brisk walk. She immediately drops to 113 - no there’s not wrong with the monitor. I can hear her. Then she slowly climbs. 117, 124, 131 and back to 142 and beyond. Within 1 1/2 mins we’re at 156. I’m not tired or out of breath but I also know I probably shouldn’t do this for long so I think- ok let’s try max her out. I break into a jog. Nothing like I used to, but a slow recovery run. She’s climbing and fast. Within a short space of time she’s now in the beating at 182 - I usually couldn’t feel beats like this before but I can feel her rocking my chest. I’m oddly out of breath for something I used to be able to sustain for over an hour. I jump off and bend over, trying to catch my breath. My heart thrashing in both my chest and my ears. My head spinning as I try to get her oxygen. I’m watching the number on the treadmill with the little heart next it. It’s not going down. It’s going up. At 187 she peaks and is pounding away. This is 2 mins after ceasing activity. She drop quite quickly.. not this time I guess.

I grab my gear and go back to my room. She’s settled a little bit. She keeps calming down then speeding back up. Down to 151 then up to 176. She’s all over the place like she doesn’t know what she’s meant to do.

Well that’s enough. I need to take some stress off her. I lay down, resulting in an immediate drastic drop to around 100. Finally. The break she needed. I go back to the recording… and we’ll I deleted in my zoned out state.

So this time I’ve recorded some squats. I was only able to get her into the 170s but you can hear just how unconditioned she sounds. This was not what she like pre meds and I will be asking my doctor about this when I see him next (well maybe leave out the constant stething). A part of me is slightly worried about this, whereas another part of me is like…. Oooo well. That’s a fun sound . Damn cardiophile thoughts right?

I hope you enjoy her first try (tech second) at exercise. She would love to hear your thoughts and support. She’s literally pounding in my ears as I share her with you.

[gotankgo]

1991

[scoop16]

Grammys on TV, Melvins on vinyl.

[gotankgo]

released 1990

God Bullies  “Let’s Go To Hell"  / Dog Show 1994

[mythserene]

DRUGS COST MONEY (MARK LEWISOHN, DRUG BUDDY)

I'm late, but I'm here, and this is something I've thought about since I read Tune In the first time.

First of all, Lewisohn's definition and description of what Preludin was is wildly underplayed and misleading, so I have to just get out a few quick Preludin facts. They're helpful.

Lewisohn:

Preludin was an appetite suppressant, an anorectic drug introduced into West German society in 1954, when commercial pressures were making women become more image-conscious. Users maintained an appetite but quickly felt full when eating, and the reduced intake brought about weight loss. Preludin’s primary ingredient, phenmetrazine, was not an amphetamine but an upper, giving the user a euphoric buzz. It was soon sold internationally and used recreationally, and though available in Germany only with a doctor’s prescription...

- “Tune In” - Chapter 19; Piedels on Prellies

(Oh, those women and their obsession with weight.)

I know Lewisohn's not a chemist and I don't expect him to have done extensive study before writing “not an amphetamine but an upper”—which, first of all is just a weird, grade school sounding statement about any stimulant in general that no scientist would ever say or write—but also he makes it sound like it's a fizzy little pill that gives you the sillies.

But definitely not an amphetamine or anything bad like that.

Look, even Wikipedia says right at the top, “[i]ts structure incorporates the backbone of amphetamine,” and although I didn't spend more than a few seconds there, I saw it because it came up first in the search like Wikipedia always does. Just saying it's basically impossible to miss.

And whether he was trying to hide the ball or not, since he wrote so much about them I am going to quickly set the "not amphetamine" record straight before I go on.

“Methamphetamine hydrochloride (Desoxyn) and phenmetrazine hydrochloride (Preludin) are two variants of the amphetamine structure.”

- “Amphetamine Abuse”, Sidney Cohen, MD, JAMA

“The experience in Sweden seems to indicate that phenmetrazine (e.g. Preludin) has the highest potency, and the greatest risk of psycho-toxic, acute and chronic effects (Rylander 1966). Amphetamines and methylphenidate seem to show less dependence-producing and psycho-toxic effects than phenmetrazine.”

- (United Nations Bulletin; Vol XX, No. 2)

Basically, Preludin was synthesized by taking an amphetamine skeleton and boosting tf out of it by adding a very common sort of chemical scaffolding to it called a morpholine ring, allowing them to tweak it by sticking on a nitrogen group. But morpholine rings by themselves also increase potency and usually bioavailability.

So in the narrowest technical sense, Phenmetrazine (Preludin) is classified as a morpholine instead of an amphetamine, but in every way it is an amphetamine on speed. (And every description of it anywhere says so right up front.) It was Amphetamine Plus. The little added synthetic kicker the pharmaceutical company figured out how to attach to the amphetamine made it stronger—gave it the Preludin "kick"—made the high feel better in general (according to all this crap I spent way too much time reading) and also made it way more addictive. It increased dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake, and the compound itself displayed “some entactogen properties more similar to MDMA." It made Preludin far more psychoactive than straight amphetamines. Made smells stronger, sensations more intense, and made you horny and "increased performance." It was taken off the market in 1980 because it was so hyper-addictive and the “psycho-toxicity” was so extreme. People reported doing things they barely remembered, including to a kind of freakish degree, like a lot of users committing crimes for the very first time in their lives. And so the company tried to replace it with a similar drug called Prelu-2, which is apparently still available but also almost never prescribed because even that was excessively addictive compared to non-boosted amphetamines.

And also, it made you feel body odors?

"...perfumes and flowers get a stronger smell, and body odours are felt more strongly than under normal conditions."

- (United Nations Bulletin; Vol XX, No. 2)

What are normal conditions? Maybe my normal conditions are different from everyone else's because I don't normally feel body odors?? But tbh I would literally try this drug just to see if I could.

Okay.

So... John was feeling some serious body odors because my man took a lot of them. Usually with lots of booze.

And apparently they made him more awesome.

George spoke graphically of how they would be “frothing at the mouth … we used to be up there foaming, stomping away.” John, as always, dived straight in, wholeheartedly grabbing another new experience with an open mouth and no thought of tomorrow. The Beatles called them “pep pills”—the commonly used British term of the period—and also “Prellies.”

...Two pills a night were more than enough for most but John frequently took four or five, and in conjunction with hour after hour of booze he became wired, a high-speed gabbling blur of talent, torment and hilarity.

- “Tune In” - Chapter 19; Piedels on Prellies

Yeah, he sounds like a blast. Good thing you got a quote there, my guy. I'm sure the first description that would’ve come to his roommates’ minds would be “hilarity.” Or second, after “hero.” (Sorry, I don't want to be hard on John. I have a lot of bandwidth and patience for drug indulgences, especially in a situation like this, but Lewisohn is unbelievable.)

Ruth Lallemannd, a St. Pauli barmaid who knew the Beatles from 1960, recalls an occasion when “They crushed ten Prellies to powder, put them in a bottle of Cola and shared it between them. They were always wound up.”

Drugs cost money

Amazingly enough though, these prescription-only pills didn't just magically get from people with nice doctors to John’s hands. Someone sold them to someone else and they ended up with “the toilet lady,” Tante Rosa, who sold them.

They looked like little white sweets … but these were no mint drops.

- Chapter 19

So cute!

Preludin small-print advised against its being taken less than six hours before bedtime, in case of sleep disorders.

- Chapter 19

So if Lewisohn is reading the small print of a drug that was discontinued 44 years ago he did not miss the Wikipedia page and must know that “not an amphetamine but an upper” is wildly misleading. Technically true in the chemical classification sense, but not in the medical or pharmacological sense. And true in the same way that “fentanyl isn't morphine” is true.

But that's not my point.

My point is that these “little white sweets” were strong, had wild “psycho-toxic” effects, John took a lot of them, and they weren't free.

Because drugs cost money.

Paul slept fine on just the one pill, John and George didn’t. George would recall “lying in bed, sweating from Preludin, thinking, ‘Why aren’t I sleeping?’ ” John simply took more: “You could work almost endlessly until the pill wore off, then you’d have to have another … You’d have two hours’ sleep and wake up to take a pill and get on stage, and it would go on and on and on. When you didn’t even get a day off you’d begin to go out of your mind with tiredness.”

Or, put another way, John was “a high-speed gabbling blur of talent, torment and hilarity.” And Paul did uncool stuff like sleeping.

Also, what in the...

Tony, George, Paul, John and Pete, along with Rosi and perhaps some stray females, would stagger wearily and noisily up three long flights of wooden stairs...

“Stray females”??? Is he talking about cats? Don't call human beings “strays,” you self-important oddity.

THE GROWNUP

John was never much into paying for stuff. Like rent, for instance. But that's what friends are for.

John was blessed with a particular talent for frittering away his funds (the council grant designed to provide his working materials) and was rarely in a position to pay [rent]. As Rod remembers, “During the week I’d go and have a pint with him and he’d always have money for a beer, but when it came to the day to pay the rent he was always hard up. ‘Could I owe it to you?’ ‘Would you like this jacket?’ One time he paid me with a Mounties-type Canadian jacket he’d probably nicked from someone else.”

- “Tune In” - Chapter 13; “Hi-Yo, Hi-Yo, Silver–Away!”

He paid rent with a jacket? Landlords take those?

I'm not gonna lie, the only real issue I've ever had with Paul—the things I have the most confusion and hesitancy about—are when he seems inexplicably cheap. Like paying the Wings band so little for so long. There's only a few cases that come to mind, but they're my weak point with him.

Still, having done my share of experimenting—as well as dating a guy who became a high-functioning addict before becoming a non-functioning addict before becoming an ex who died of an overdose—I know very well how it feels to see money flow through your hands like water and into someone else's bloodstream. And what happens then is you either both starve or you are the only one eating. In the end, someone has to have money to live, and the more drugs my ex took the more I was forced into being a walking, talking, pissed off safety net.

Stu supposedly got in a fight with Paul because Stu owed Paul money. (Although that doesn't explain attacking Paul out of nowhere on stage half as well as a three-days-awake-Prellie-binge psycho-toxicity does.)

It does, however, mean that at least one guy in the band who was taking Preludin was running out of money between paychecks.

And there's no way that if Stu was running out of funds that John wasn't too. And faster. And according to Lewisohn, George was eating a lot of Preludin, too. Because he was also cool.

That leaves Paul.

John was notoriously bad with money even when he had a lot, and when everyone is living and working together it's almost impossible to be the only guy eating or the only guy smoking. But at the same time if you know you can't do anything to stop your friends from going hard and never thinking at all, it tends to make you more careful. Because you're all you've got and all they've got. You didn't ask for the job, but you drew the short straw. So you hide some cigarettes and share too many, and get increasingly sick of it and resentful, but there's no good answer.

John heaped a ton of spice into the mix by suddenly moving back into Mendips. He’s unlikely to have told Mimi of the Gambier Terrace eviction, but Rod Murray knew little of this hasty departure: John left most of his possessions in the flat and several weeks’ rent unpaid—to the tune of about £15. He just scarpered.

- “Tune In” - Chapter 15; Drive and Bash

“Spice.” Dude really said “spice.” That John, so spicy. And fwiw, that's £300 today.

Maybe John had another jacket to pitch in.

Paul says he's more cautious by nature and I'm sure that's true, but also you know they all relied on him because they knew he wouldn't be as stupid as they were. Who knows what he would've done—whether he would have lived a more libertine life in Hamburg—if he'd felt like that was an option and he didn't have to be the grownup. Who knows what he would have done if anyone else gave a shit whether they ate or smoked.

I'll end by repeating the freakishly weird way Lewisohn told a John psycho-toxicity story that the AKOM ladies pointed out in Ep 8: No Greater Buddy, since it's almost impossible not to talk about John and Prellies without it.

“PAUL AND GEORGE’S HERO-WORSHIP STAYED FULLY INTACT”

George was second only to John in the swallowing of Prellies and knew better than most the sum effect of taking too many for too long, how the combination of pills plus booze plus several sleepless days caused hallucinations and extreme conduct. He’d describe one occasion when he, Paul and Pete were lying in their bunk beds, trying to sleep, only for John to barge into the room in a wild state. “One night John came in and some chick was in bed with Paul and he cut all her clothes up with a pair of scissors, and was stabbing the wardrobe. Everybody was lying in bed thinking, ‘Oh fuck, I hope he doesn’t kill me.’ [He was] a frothing mad person—he knew how to have ‘fun.’ ”

Handling John was something his friends were well used to doing. If he didn’t murder them in their beds there was no greater buddy. They might fear for their lives but they loved him still. No way would they walk out and join another group. John was just John, and Paul and George’s hero-worship stayed fully intact.

- “Tune in” - Chapter 28; You Better Move On

Mark Lewisohn knows nothing about drugs or drug culture. Which is fine. Good. Great, even. But the thing is, it doesn't stop him from knowing everything about it. He has confidently and emphatically stated that John and Yoko weren't doing heroin in the daytime during the Get Back sessions. He even claims that they weren't on heroin during the Two Junkies interview. Even repeating this paraphrase makes me feel ridiculous, but he says that was a hangover from the night before, and that they were too lucid to be high. Which, first of all, is not how heroin fucking works. They were blasted. The aftereffects would be them being antsy and jumpy, not going in extra-slow motion and puking. Blows my mind, the hubris this guy has. To confidently state something he unquestionably pulled out of his ass without even a moment's hesitation. Not only is that not how heroin works, but it is the drug that people wake up to do. Not wake up and do. Wake up to do.

And you can tell from the way he talks about John on Prellies—“a high-speed gabbling blur of talent, torment and hilarity”—that he has never experienced anyone who's been up a few days. And I still have a more daring nature than most of my friends, and am in no way shocked by the drug use. Me and my friends in Houston used to take Fastin and go midnight bowling every Saturday. The memories are good and I regret nothing. But the naive way Lewisohn romanticizes John and low key mocks Paul—as if Lewisohn was the ultimate drug buddy and Paul a total prude—is so weird. It's freakishly, embarrassingly, weird. Like he wants to be the cool guy. Like he thinks he can be the cool guy, and is being the cool guy, but to me it's painfully embarrassing and nothing else makes him look more desperate and delusional.

[bumbumzumzum1996]

Interview With Obehag

Ladies and Gentlemen! Depression is good, depression is great! If you don't have your own depressive black metal band, it's better to create one before the second coming of Jesus. In the meantime, you can read this interview with Obehag, a guitarist and vocalist from Sweden. A new and one of the finest offerings in depressive/drug black metal is Apati.

- Hello! How are you? How is it in Västerås and Fagersta? By the way, these are two different cities?

- Hello, I'm fine, a little hungover at the moment. Westeros and Fagersta are two different cities, yes. Not much going on in these small towns, they are pretty dead.

- Is this your first interview, or have you given them before? Do you read webzines or print fanzines? Which one do you prefer?

- Me and Patient C were interviewed for "Funeral March" a few months ago, other than that - nothing else. Personally, I do not read magazines, it is difficult for me to find time for this. But if I have to choose, I'd prefer print magazines, actually.

- Tell me about the beginning. Why and how was Apati founded and what is its purpose?

- Apati was created by me and C9H13N because we both felt the need to express our feelings, and lack of feelings. We wanted to create very emotional music that could touch the listener. Professor X joined us a few months later, and after a while Patient C also joined us. But for X, there was so much going on around him that we had to let him go. Apati is now a way for us to express our feelings in different ways. It's about trying to break down barriers, musically.

How did you meet Hekan, how did you work out the deal for the album? How important is cooperation with your record company for you? Did you sign the deal just for the debut, or for additional releases?

-I emailed Hekan and asked if he would be interested, he asked for a promo. I sent him a promo and he liked it. Just. Hekan is very easy to work with and we are very grateful that we were able to work with him.

- If I'm right, the band members are very young. When was the first time you picked up an instrument and why did you decide to play in a band?

- I picked up the guitar for the first time when I was about 15, but I still have not been able to become a master in the game. Haha. Patient C, on the other hand, has probably been able to play instruments since the day he was born.

- Did the whole band contribute or is your music made up of individual ideas?

- All members have contributed to Apati. But almost all the songs are written by Patient C, sometimes with my help.

- Some people compare you to "Lifelover". What do you think about it? Lifelover's influence is obvious, I think. But at the end of the day, Lifelover wasn't the epitome of originality, as in terms of music, they also had a lot of influences. How do you feel about criticism in general? Do you read something like this, does it mean anything to you?

- Well, I personally don't care about all this Internet warrior, all sorts of shit is said on the forums. Lifelover is a great band and they have done great things. We are not trying to copy their music or steal their style. We do what we do and don't give a fuck what other people think of us.

- Where do you find inspiration, or what do you think about where people should get inspiration? What are the influences of other bands when it comes to music, concept, image, etc.?

- Inspiration comes from everywhere, especially from within. And besides, inspiration comes from other people, drugs, nature and of course other music. When it comes to other bands that I have to name, "Woods of Infinity" is a great source of inspiration for me, the feeling they deliver in their music is great.

- One of the band members is named C9H13N, which is the chemical formula for amphetamine. Your debut is called Eufori and the lyrics are in Swedish, I have a feeling that the concept is based on drugs or drug abusers. Please tell us about the concept of Eufori, and about the songs in general.

- The lyrics are very personal and I would say for me it represents an escape from reality and a pursuit of happiness and euphoria.

- Apati (apathy) - Eufori (euphoria). This is a sharp contrast between the two words. Was it planned, was it part of the concept, or did it just happen, without any intention?

- It wasn't planned. When we were doing an album that we didn't know what to call, we had a song called Eufori and I thought that would be a great title for the album.

- Your logo is associated with a more classic black metal logo, with trees, branches, roots, while the band's music and image is much more urban. How do you think the logo connects with the music and lyrics?

- When I first saw the logo I didn't care about it at all, it was the idea of C9H13N who asked his friend Etorigan to make a logo for us and he wanted the logo to look creepy like autumn - the time when flowers die and leaves fall to the ground, everything is cold and gray. But the logo has grown on me and I think it's different from most of the other bands' logos.

- The depressive black metal scene has become huge and most of the time the band is looking for someone other than making real art. Apati - agree or not - is part of the scene, although I like to think of you better than the rest. What do you think makes you special in this overgrown and suffocating scene? Why do you think someone should buy your album?

- Well, the scene that we, against our will, have become a part of, is mostly shit. But sometimes a beautiful flower can grow from smelly feces. Haha. No, but seriously, we're not special, we're not just trying to do our thing and trying to do it well. We try to make an opponent to make sure that what we are doing makes some sense.

- I saw a photo of one of the band members wearing a Ronald McDonald mask. Does it matter, or is it just for fun?

- The mask you saw is the mask of Chania. It's a theatrical mask representing a jealous female demon, I think. The reason why C9H13N decided to wear it is unknown to me. He probably just felt the need to stand out from the crowd of uniformed metalheads.

- What is the situation with concerts? I understand that you have not had concerts to this day. Are you getting ready to play live, if so, will there be anything special in your show?

- We haven't played any shows and probably won't do it in the near future. Although, who knows what we will do in the future. But now it is not the most important.

- Eufori was only released on CD. Are you planning a vinyl release? Are you interested in more underground formats like vinyl at all?

- Eufori will be released on vinyl very soon I think. I love vinyl, the feeling when you listen to vinyl is so different from a CD or mp3 on a computer.

- Does it annoy you when people download your album on the Internet instead of buying it?

- I welcome the free download. It's a great way to distribute music. We don't make music to make money. So to answer your question, no, it doesn't annoy us at all.

- Sweden is a beautiful country - I mean, there are hundreds of ugly and dangerous places to live, and your country is quite safe and very beautiful. Cities are good, everything is "almost perfect". Still, a lot of depressing and sometimes strange music from Sweden. How do you explain it? Are the Swedish people more contemplative, more profound?

- Wow, this issue cannot be resolved by me. Maybe we're just losers? I read somewhere that Sweden has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, so something must be wrong with this country.

- What is your goal in life as a creative person and as an ordinary person?

- I don't have big goals as a creative, I want people to react to my music, I want them to feel, whether it's feelings of joy, depression, anxiety, anger, love or anything else. I want the feelings that I'm trying to communicate through my music to be conveyed to you.

- The second album is under development. Tell us what we need to know about him!

- We are almost done with our second album, it is very different from our previous work. I am very happy with the tracks and I hope people will like them too.

- Thank you for your time. If you want to say something, anything, this is your space.

- Thank you. Obehag.

Interview taken and translated from a site

[rhapsodynew]

#Fun facts from the history of rock music

How to spoil people's mood

In 1968, the Rolling Stones - eternal competitors of the Beatles - released the song Street Fighting Man, which became a hit. They considered the song a breakthrough, and threw a party about it, where they came, including John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Paul discreetly handed me the record and said: "Let's see how you like our new record, Tony." I quickly put the CD into the audio system, and the song "Hey Jude" started playing in the club. Then I turned the disc over to the other side and we heard John Lennon's voice singing "Revolution". When we listened to everything, I noticed that Mick looked annoyed. The Beatles were one step ahead again

- says Tony Sanchez in his book "I was a Rolling Stones drag Dealer")

The song was written by Paul McCartney to support John Lennon's son, who was worried about his parents' divorce. "Hey Jude" bypassed the creation of stones and lasted 9 weeks on the American chart, thereby setting a record

Why do you need to know the roots of the symbols that you adopt

On December 3, 1983, Billy Idol released his second studio album Rebel Yell. His first record was relatively successful, but Rebel Yell was an explosion: the album sold 8 million copies, rose to number 6 on Billboard and entered the "100 best rock albums of all time" according to Classic Rock magazine. And there is a catch in the most prominent place of the record

Rebel Yell translates as "Rebel Cry". Billy borrowed the phrase from the Rebel Yell brand of bourbon, which he once drank with musicians from the Rolling Stones. Bourbon, in turn, was named after the battle cry of the Confederates

As it is now customary to say - everything is not so clear, but nevertheless - in popular culture, the image of the Confederates is the image of the southern slave-owning American states, which did not want to abandon this very slavery, and therefore staged a civil war, which they lost. And it is unlikely that Billy Idol, being a punk (although punks accuse him of incorruptibility), would associate himself with such a symbol if he knew its roots)

How to work in the same team for 55 years and not go crazy

The blues-rock band

ZZ Top

is pretty much the face of Texas - men in cowboy hats and old American cars playing masculine, heavy but not too heavy music

By 2014, the band had sold 50 million albums, entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 10 years before, and has existed unchanged since its founding in 1969 (not counting bassist Dusty Hill, who died in 2021). That's what the founder of the band Billy Gibbons said about it:

“God, we don't break up for longer than many marriages last. I'll tell you a secret, and it's very simple, just two words: different (tour) buses”

Rock music is saturated with drugs. But do you know how much?

In 1975, the band Hawkwind with Lemmy Kilmister in the line-up went on tour in the United States in support of their album Warrior On The Edge Of Time, but Lemmy was arrested at customs for drug trafficking and sent to prison. The band's managers managed to release him on bail, but after Lemmy played the concerts, he was fired. Lemmy later repeatedly claimed that the arrest was just a convenient excuse for the rest of the band to finally get rid of him - because by 1975 the line-up had finally split into two drug camps: amphetamine and psychedelic—and Lemmy said that in fact he was fired for "using the wrong drugs")

After his dismissal, Lemmy created his own band - the legendary Motörhead (in slang, an amphetamine addict), which became one of the main hard rock bands in Britain and the world, in which he played until his death in 2015, having completely played a European tour that ended 20 days before his death

Why is there so much noise around the Oasis revival?

Here are a couple of facts for you:

● In 1996, the band gave a concert for 250,000 people. Tickets sold out in less than a day, in total 2.5 million people tried to buy tickets - about 5% of the UK population at that time

● The band entered the Guinness Book of Records for the longest stay in the top ten of the British hit parade in history

● On August 30, 2024, on the occasion of the reunion, Oasis released the anniversary edition of their debut album Definitely Maybe, and a week later it reached number one in the UK chart (30 years after its release, for a moment). Two more albums took 3rd and 4th places and 3 more albums entered the top 100

With all this success, Liam and Noel Gallagher, the founders of Oasis, were normal such limitless people: one day they went to perform in the Netherlands, on the way they caused a row on the ferry, and they were not allowed to enter the Netherlands. And during the American tour, they overdid it with illegal substances, and when at the concert the staff mistakenly put them different set lists, they performed different songs at the same time and did not notice it. After this disastrous performance, Noel went to Melissa Lim, his friend, so that she would morally support him after such a disgrace. They talked all night, after which the song Talk Tonight was born, and later, under its influence, my favorite song of the band - Morning Glory

The brothers also constantly feuded, but this was also their fuel: at some point, Liam began to periodically not go on stage at concerts as a sign of protest. And Noel, in order not to let the audience down, took vocal lessons and began singing instead of Liam)

The reunion of the brothers is a hope for fans to see them at a concert together (which was rare even before their quarrel and breakup in 2009) and hear new material, which, according to them, from the same 2009, they have There's a lot left

Or how the first rock and roll song appeared

One day, in 1951, someone dropped an amplifier belonging to the Kings Of Rhythm band, and the sound from it began to come out with distortion. But the producer of the band did not repair it because he saw a perspective in such a deformed guitar sound, and the song "Rocket 88" was recorded with it

The essence of the effect was a specific compression of the upper part of the sound wave. From 2024, it's hard to believe when listening to the track, but it was the first conscious move towards heavier sound, so "Rocket 88" is considered the first rock and roll song (what the band played before, and from which rock and roll grew, was called "rhythm and rollblues")

Then began the industrial production of devices that give such an effect (and the name of the effect is overdrive), Eric Clapton and other popular musicians began to use it, then there was more aggressive distortion, hard rock, then metal, thrash metal, and then increasing severity, but it all started with a successful fall of the amplifier

Interesting fact: the song is sung about the Oldsmobile 88 car, and the Jimmy Liggins song "Cadillac Boogie" is taken as the basis. Both automakers belong to the same GM concern, and I did not find information that these songs were an advertisement, but it is very similar to it

How Stoner rock was invented

Kyuss (read as 'ˈkaɪ.We started by playing in the California desert. The specifics of such events was that many beginner bands gathered in one place, and if the public did not like the music, they simply went 200 meters away and listened to another team, unlike bars where the public comes to the bar rather than to the group. It required constant work on his work to keep the audience

The two pillars of Kuyss' signature sound were guitarist Josh Homme's specific slow playing style, inspired by psychedelic rock, and the fact that he connected a guitar to a bass guitar amplifier to achieve a heavy sound

Over time, other bands began to adopt this sound, thereby giving rise to stoner rock (stoner - translated - a lover of marijuana. It was believed that slow heavy music was perfect for it), and stoner metal, as its heavier offshoot

After the collapse of the band in 1995, Josh Homme founded the Queens Of The Stone Age band, extremely popular in the West and undeservedly deprived of attention in the post-Soviet space

I recommend getting acquainted with the genre from the band's fourth album, as it is the most complete and brought to mind in their discography