TRIXTER Guitarist Admits to WSJ: "My Career Has Kind of Gone Backwards"

I've been slow in getting a whole bunch of posts up recently, so let's get back up to speed with something light-hearted. Over at the Wall Street Journal (I think there's an editor or several writers there that are metalheads), Neil Shah features Trixter guitarist Steve Brown in today's quirky A-Hed column, "These Days, Rock Cover Bands Can't Seem to Get It On". Although Steve is featured prominently (even getting the Journal's coveted dot-art rendition), the article is more generally about how brutally tough times are for cover band musicians. Partly to blame, according to the article, is "a glut of middle-aged musicians who just can't quit the scene". Steve's current gigs are summed up this way:

"Despite a brush with fame, Mr. Brown doesn't shy away from even the most cringe-worthy of gigs. One day he'll perform for thousands at a festival with his rock band, Trixter, whose videos briefly topped MTV's charts in the 1990s. The next night he'll be in a yellow, zebra-print vest belting out Whitney Houston's 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)' at a party in the Hamptons, or singing 'Hotel California' as customers examine Buicks at a car dealership in New Jersey.

'Not every show can be Madison Square Garden,' he says.

If you said Steve Brown would be wearing Spandex pants, playing a hot-pink and green guitar and doing Michael Jackson and Madonna songs three years ago, I would have said, "No friggin' way,"' the New Jersey native says. 'My career has kind of gone backwards.'"

The full article is here, behind the Journal's paywall.

FiRock - Muslim Rock Under Investigation

Joe Parkinson of the Wall Street Journal recently reported on FiRock, a Turkish rock band fronted by Muslic cleric Ahmet Tuzer (the full article is behind a paywall, but if you're a subscriber click here):

"By day, the 42-year old Muslim cleric chants the Azan—the Islamic call to prayer—from a small mosque in the coastal village of Pinarbasi, where he preaches to about 150 people. By night, he preaches the gospel of Led Zeppelin, singing about a different stairway to heaven with his four-piece rock band, FiRock, led by Mr. Tuzer and heavily tattooed metal guitarist Dogan Sakin."

"Mr. Tuzer, a third-generation imam who took up religious responsibilities at the age of 19, says the band combines Islamic mysticism with the music of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Queen to spread a message of peace and tolerance. At home, he headbangs to Iron Maiden's "Fear of the Dark" and Metallica's "Wherever I May Roam." He says there is no contradiction between religion and heavy metal, and he is hoping to attract younger people to the faith by carving out a new genre: Muslim rock."

Mr. Tuzer, however, has drawn the ire of his religious elders and received threats online:

"Turkey's religious directorate, the Diyanet, in September began to investigate whether Mr. Tuzer's activities were 'un-Islamic' after he played an August gig in the seaside town of Kas."

This treatment doesn't sound too dissimilar to the criticisms that Christian rock bands like Petra faced in the 70s and 80s. You can watch the video for the band's hit in Turkey, "Come To God", below. Can't say that I'm a fan of this soft rock style, but you have to admire anyone trying to smash boundaries in the name of rock!

WSJ: Heavy Metal Inspires People to Learn Nordic Languages

Juhana Rossi and Ellen Emmerentze Jervell for the Wall Street Journal reported on the June 5 front page about the phenomenon of of black metal and folk metal inspiring fans to learn the obscure Finnish and Norwegian languages in an article titled "To Really Understand Hevibändi, Its Helps to Know the Language":

"A band of young metal heads—spanning Romania to Singapore—have taken up a Northern European language in order to better appreciate or even mimic their favorite metal bands."

Sami Hinkka of Ensiferum performing at Station 4 in St. Paul on April 12, 2013. Click on the picture to see more photos of Ensiferum (20).

Ensiferum, who recently played in St. Paul, is even quoted:

"'Every time someone tells us that our music has inspired them to learn, for example, Nordic languages, it gives me another reason to keep doing music,' Sami Hinkka, the 35-year-old bassist for Finland's Ensiferum, said. Growing up, he read the lyrics of Iron Maiden and Metallica and used a dictionary to help translate the words. 'But it's quite far from studying an internationally rather useless language,' Mr. Hinkka said. Still, he says, 'studying is always good for your brain and it broadens your mental horizon, so if someone has a passion for something, even it it might seem really trivial to others, I say go for it. Follow your heart.'"

The online version of the article (here, but behind a subscriber paywall) helpfully includes an audio player with audio clips of "Viima" by Korpiklaani, "Pohjola" by Ensiferum, and "Ødeleggelse Of Undergang" by Gorgoroth to help the Journal's readers understand the differences between folk metal and black metal.

Watch the accompanying video report below (which includes clips of Satyricon's "Fuel For Hatred" video) where John Stoll, Wall Street Journal Nordic Bureau Chief, is comically asked, "What is Viking metal, and what is it they're singing about?" and "You, yourself, you a bit of a slave to heavy metal are you? Are you a fan of Moonsorrow, the crusaders of epic heathen metal?"

Metal Invades the Ivory Tower

Of all places, the Wall Street Journal, has published a front-page article on the proceedings at the International Conference on Heavy Metal and Popular Culture that took place April 4–7 at Bowling Green State University. The article is behind a pay wall, but here's the link if you're a WSJ subscriber. This congregation of self-described "metallectuals", was a scholarly meeting of "a new generation of academics who grew up on groups like Black Sabbath" that "is raising metal's black flag in an unlikely place: academia's ivory tower."

You can view the agenda for the conference here. Among the talks given were "Metalocalypse as Meta-Discourse", "Nordic Metal Avenger: Jon Mikl Thor's Performances of Superhero Characters", and "The Emergence of Realist Metal Video on MTV, 1983-1983, or Metal in the Pre-Tawny Kitaen Era on MTV". The WSJ continues, "At the conference, musicologists delved into the deep growling of so-called death metal singers, demonstrating the differences between inhaled and exhaled screams, and revealed how some 'speed' metal bands secretly use computers to fake their superfast drumming—despite most metal fans' distaste for artifice."

The rising number of academic papers on heavy metal has even inspired a dedicated journal as the WSJ reports:

"The International Society for Metal Music Studies recently launched a peer-reviewed journal, 'Metal Music Studies,' following a heated debated over what to name it. 'You want to distinguish between toxicology and metal, when you're talking about heavy metal studies. People could think—are they studying metals, or music?' Mr. (Brian) Hickam said."