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Whenever you hear someone use the phrase “Could anything be stupider than _____?”
(ahem)
Well, now you know, and as I learned this weekend knowledge makes up 50% of the conflict.
Is it Gathering time already? Man, where does the year go? Well, off to Ticketmaster, after a quick stop at Facepaintandflannel.com.
That was awesome! It’s easy to make fun of the Insane Clown Posse and their fans, as I’m sure these comments will demonstrate, but I have to admit that the year Bonnaroo or Coachella advertise that their lineup includes Ice Cube, Scarface, Coolio, Vanilla Ice, Roddy Piper, “dudes on stilts” and free cheeseburgers all day I’m probably gonna be going.
I’m not being ironic.
Well I guess I`m a bit scared… but not because of the psyko-posers, but because of the future of mankind!!
Hum… Not sure how I feel about that… But how do YOU feel about THIS? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIE3dIzypXI
It makes me feel old……
Man , I don’t like ICP , but I used to go to festivals like that all the time here in Italy . The Iesolo Beach Party was just like that , with music and BMX freestyle , camping and shit , then there was the “Teste Vuote Ossa Rotte Festival” ( Broken Heads and Bones Festival ) in Bologna , a more punk-rock n’ roll festival , and the Independent Days also in Bologna , where I was able to see Joe Strummer live. Yes , it looks really retarded , but come on , Ice Cube ALONE is worth it ! The only thing missing is an appearance by the Beastie Boys , but I’ve already seen them in Rome . One thing , your festivals sure look more spectacular , here in Italy , I’ve never seen music+motorbikes+wrestling+comedians+midgets+BBQ+…….ninjas playing with fire in the woods!!!……Damn , I’m a jackass , I missed James Brown when he played here , I will regret that for the rest of my life .
Yeah, I guess it’s easy to mock and ICP sucks, but if some fat kids in clown makeup want to get together to listen to bad music and watch bad wrestling, I don’t see a problem.
The music sucks but it looks like a good time. Although GWAR happens to be one of the best live shows ever, so I guess the music portion isn’t a complete failure.
I could think of much worse ways to spend your time.
As far as cathartic rituals for self-styled outsiders go, this looks pretty tame, even compared to the
rather commercial standards set by mainstream acts like Kiss and Alice Cooper.
Yeah, so there’s a schedule an’ shit up in this bitch, with dates and times! So EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED!!!
Wait, which one’s it gonna be, guys? Scheduled events, or unexpected events?
ICP’s real art is conning people desperate for a sense of belonging and purpose into buying the same CD multiple times to collect all eight album covers or paying 30 bucks a pop for a low-budget DVD that probably only cost 30 bucks to produce. They preach their horror-core anti-comedy like it’s some kind of religion and they’ve marketed themselves into a fortune.
I like how the two hosts had something nice to say about every guest except Vanilla Ice. Man, I’d be afraid to go if I was a girl. Looks dangerous to me… especially with “sex in the air”.
I didn’t post it to mock it necessarily, I was just amazed by it because it’s this whole world I was unaware of. I heard those jokers had their own cottage industry but I didn’t know it was an empire. The infomercial is incredible on many different levels, one being that they keep listing more and more shit for the whole thing. They don’t start repeating themselves. It’s like 5 minutes before they go “Oh yeah, and we have enough money to get Ice Cube out here.” And then Scarface and Rowdy Roddy Piper doing standup and Jimmy JJ Walker and Tank Abbot or somebody and then carnival rides and free burgers for fat kids and wrestling on thumbtacks and stilts and “hypnotists up in this bitch.” If you were into that kind of thing that would be THE GREATEST THING EVER.
And number two, I just love the two hosts and the cursing narrator. I would love to see the interview process for hiring Sugar Shack. I’m convinced she has no clue what she’s saying but does understand it better than I do because I never heard any of that slang before and hopefully never will again.
And then I also thought it was kind of funny because there’s all this mention of fat kids and nerds and you realize okay, that’s what it is, these kids feel like outcasts and they are looking for a substitute for their fucked up families so they put on stupid makeup and listen to fat white heavy metal guys pretending to shock people by trying to rap about ax murderers. And if that makes them feel like part of a community then why not?
And just then the narrator says “there’s sex in the air!” and all goodwill is lost as I briefly picture the sweaty smeared clown makeup and unshowered fat rolling around inside (I hope inside) ten thousand dirty tents out in the woods somewhere.
I don’t know. Looks like fun to me. Here In Germany we got every summer a million of music festivals for every taste, (Like Rock am Ring, Juicy Beats, Wacken, Sonne Mond Sterne, to name a few of the most popular) so this doesn’t look THAT extraordinary for me.
I like ICP, Twiztid and ABK.
To me it’s humor-core. It’s all fun and games to me. I don’t generally mention my affliction. I don’t get along with most ICP fans.
I’m from Michigan and that’s my excuse. Actually I haven’t liked ICP since Hell’s Pit. I think Twiztid are the better “artists” between the two and I don’t even smoke weed! That said if you lived anywhere near this show and didn’t go… GWAR was there!
Also FREE FAYGO AND CHEESEBURGERS? How can you say no?
Say what you want about Joe and Joey they write music specifically for the fans and for their personal gratification and make a helluva living doing it. Reminds me of Metallica before Bob Rock.
tldr: ICP don’t care if you like ’em and are more than happy to make a living giving people who DO like ’em what they want. I give them props. Also, SHOWERS??? I’ve never heard of a festival that featured showers. That kicks ass.
I’ll admit that I enjoy ICP. They’re not exactly talented or anything, but I find a lot of their stuff amusing. Anyway, “The Great Milenko” is pretty enjoyable.
Having said that I wouldn’t be caught dead at this orgy or whatever it is. I only watched a minute of it. The video is just too long.
If you don’t get to the hostess “Sugar Shack” then you can’t understand the power of this infomercial.
This is probably a stupid question, especially coming from a metal-head such as myself, but what the hell does it mean when you add “core” to the end of a music genre?
I’ve heard hardcore, metalcore, and grindcore and as far as I can tell it has something to do with breakdowns. I haven’t heard much of ICP, but I didn’t catch any breakdowns in their songs I did hear. In fact, it didn’t sound like any sort of core I’m familiar with. It just sounded like any other rap band. So what is it about their music that makes it “horror-core” as opposed to just, rap music?
Could it be that this maybe a case of, say, Avril Lavigne calling her music “punk rock” simply because she wore a pair of ripped jeans and a Sex Pistols shirt when she recorded her hit song Complicated? In other words: Did they make up their own genre for something as superficial as crazy face-paint and lyrics about killing people. (which is hardly groundbreaking for the rap or metal genre)
World War IV will be the Juggalos vs. the Scientologists for world domination. The streets will run red with Faygo.
I gotta say that the commercial DOES look extraordinary on second viewing. It was pretty much the first thing I watched after I woke up this morning, somybe that explains my first reaction.
My favourite moments in this commercial:
– Sugar Slam says: “Bouncy boxing”
– The narrator goes: “Late night comedy. MUAHAHAHA!”
– The quick animation to “when worlds collide”
– “Grrr, I hate this motherfucker”
And am I the only one who expected the narrator to suddenly yell: “TWITTER TRACKER TWITTER TRACKER TWITTER TRACKER TWITTER TRACKER TWITTER TRACKER!” I wonder if some of the Conan writers were inspired by this.
I didn’t feel anything about it, I saw it Dr Manhattan Style. No really, that was amazing, sad.
Well, I’ll say this for these guys: They seem to be having more fun than I am, so more power to ’em. I just feel bad for all the poor, unsuspecting girlfriends who are going to be dragged along to this testosteronefest.
Looks more fun than Transformers 2 was.
Showers at festivals with camping is par for the course. There are many things (for better or worse) unique about the Gathering of Juggalos, but showers is not one of them. I bet there was so much meth and baggy pants with useless straps all over them at this thing.
The Gathering of Juggalos: An Instructional Video (cobbled together with the best bits from this infomercial)
http://happyvalleynews.wordpress.com/2009/08/09/i-just-saved-you-14-minutes-of-your-life/
I refuse to go since Fred Durst is nowhere to be found on the bill.
A few thoughts here:
– This festival is located frighteningly close to where I went to college. I’m pleased to say it’s not taking place in Indiana–I have SOME pride for my home state–but I’m not pleased to say that probably more than a few people from my alma mater will be making the trip because “extreme wrestling, dude!” or because “dude, Faygo!” or because (God help them) “dude, chix!” rather than for any musical reason. Perhaps that’s why The Gathering Of The Juggalos is diversifying so much. It’s trying to catch a wide multi-state audience and somebody’s going to like something in that infomercial a hell of a lot better than going to Wal-Mart that weekend. Personally, I’m scrutinizing that infomercial for how much they downplay the Woodstock ’99 rape vibe. Since I’ve never heard of massive waves of sexual assault at a Gathering Of The Juggalos (or, indeed, was aware that they were still going on), I can only conclude that there’s nothing to fear, ladies! So, yes, dude, chix.
– In all fairness, though…(deep breath)….I would rather have the kids go to this and start getting intrigued about real hip-hop from an accidental encounter with Ice Cube or Scarface, or stumble into Jimmie Walker’s set and start watching old episodes of Good Times because that guy was funny, or see Roddy Piper and end up renting They Live, than I would have them spend the weekend seeing NASCAR or Kenny Chesney or something that just reinforces the culture they find themselves surrounded by. This is at least a TINY step out of the box, even if it does have wrestling.
– Favorite caption: HIGHLY TRAINED BBQ CHEFS. Because I can’t stand the non-housebroken ones.
– Second favorite: OUTHOUSES. (Same reason, I guess.)
– Finally, which do you feel Ice Cube will drop quicker from his resumé: this event, or Are We There Yet?
Ice Cube likes to get paid. That’s really all there is to it.
I love it how the announcer calls juggalos “the most misunderstood people in the world”.
I suspect Ice Cube hasn’t updated his resume in years. He’s Ice Cube. Surely the corporate headhunters come to him?
Or do you think that he keeps his resume up-to-date because he knows that in these uncertain economic times even the position of Ice Cube is unsafe? Maybe he is afraid of having his job outsourced to Panjabi MC?
come on gwar you’re better than this
Having “core” at the end of a subgenre of music’s name usually refers to it descending from some form of hardcore punk. However in the case of “horror-core”, it’s just a genre of rap that deals with horrific elements such as cannibalism and serial killers, and the “core” suffix was probably attached by the artists who started it (Esham and Brotha Lynch are probably the most well-known) to accentuate the “hardcore-iness” of the subject matter.
Jake — if Ice Cub lost his job to Panjabi MC, I think I might actually WATCH “Are We There Yet II”. Maybe even another “Friday” movie.
Hamsline / Ian – I believe the suffix “core” actually comes from pop culture theory. There tends to by a cyclical process in genres and subcultures where things oscillate from drifting back towards the mainstream (usually by becoming more digestable, accessible and stylistically similar to accepted mainstream culture) and deepening their antiestablishment tendencies (usually by taking their original antiestablishment aspects and intensifying them). For instance, in the case of hardcore punk, becoming even faster and harder than the genre originally was, just as other aspects of punk (like New Wave) were drifting towards the mainstream. It’s not just music, of course, as this dynamic can be found with virtually any subculture, such as Religion, Sports, and, um, pornography.
When I see “core” in a subgenre name (horrorcore, streetcore, grindcore, etc) it usually suggest to me that an artist wants to suggest that there’s a extreme countercultural elements which safely keep it from the mainstream and may also provide some shock value. I think because making something “core” it is such a statement of intentional and unequivicol isolation from the mainstream, and even other subcultures, it appeals particularly to an outsider element, as seen in the original video (“the most misunderstood group in the world”).
Mr. Subtlety – That sounds reasonable. Unfortunately most bands that employ the term (or just make up their own) without earning it.
It’s like when you ask a band what they sound like and they drop all these different styles of music and end with, “we don’t like to adhere to labels, man.” and you listen to their music and it sounds EXACTLY like every other band in their genre.
BTW – Not that it’s a big deal but it’s hamslime with an “M” or you can just call me hamcore if that’s easier to remember.
Vern,
I will take it for granted that you have never seen Big Money Hustla’s, their ode to 70’s black exploitation?
Yeah…it might be right up your alley. Got a promo copy and watched it as a lark with a few of the fellas one
night after having several drinks. One of the clowns, I cannot tell them apart, is playing a cop (in full makeup).
Inevitably, times get rough, and ghost of Dolemite, Rudy Ray Moore himself, shows up to train him. You even get
the Human Tornado them over the montage. I suspect that the clowns are quite a bit smarter than they look
and are totally in on the joke. Having said that, their fans…not so much. So anyway, check it out. No this is not a trick.
Hamslime – sorry bout the “m” bud. I guess I just pictured a line of hams and couldn’t accept that my brain was blocking out the slimy truth.
But yeah, you’re right, “core” bands rarely have anything particularly interesting to say, at least in this day where people throw the suffix around constantly. They tend to be schlocky, derivative, or gimmicky acts which rely on being extreme rather than being interesting. I think that’s also why they attract outsiders groups and people who associate themselves with extreme cultural identities (even, and maybe especially, if they’re none too bright, as above).
Actually, the band I would blame for starting the trend IS an extremely interesting one… the Dead Kennedys’ “In God We Trust, Inc.” really kind of started the faster/harder arms race, as other, less talented bands vied to one-up them using brawn instead of brains. Flash forward twenty years and now any band who who lacks real imagination or vision will try to grab a “Core” label to try and convince people they’ve got something you haven’t heard before. And like you said, they pretty much all end up sounding the same (although sometimes they’re over-the-top enough that it ends up being kind of charming… looking at you, GWAR).
I used to get Alternative Press magazine, but like you I got tired of reading stories about bands who talked a good game but just sounded exactly like everything else. Punk and Indie bands are particularly guilty of this sort of crap. These days, seems like everyone wants to just sound like old bands which everyone already likes. Which would be OK if they’d just admit it, but they’re sticking to the story about being rugged individualists who won’t be tied down to a certain style.
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August 9th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
The Woodstock for redneck retards. Or maybe Altamonte, if we’re lucky.