Vin Venal

Metal. Was a metal kid. Became a punk kid. Disavowed metal in the process. Now I groove to electric wizard.

Sorry, but its still offensive, still harmful, and still homophobic. I'm in a glass house on this one, as I grew up using gay as a pejorative word, and throwing around homophobic abuse excused as "banter". But I was also in the closet, and deeply ashamed, and that kept me from being who I really was for the best part of 40 years. Banter isn't an excuse, and just because you don't think anyone listening will be offended is not a good enough reason to espouse offensive views, even in jest. Not when it's about punching down at marginalised groups.

I feel ANWL are really less shocking, and more standard aged unashamed and unapologetic bigots. Read the lyrics to "The day the world turned gay" for details. Wouldn't share breathing space with them, let alone pay to see them play.

I liked a bit of stoner rock and doom in me youth, but then I kind of went off it and committed hard to punk rock. Now I'm wizened and old, I'm revisiting my love of the phrygian mode. Trying to get a band going even.

So, I now own an ibanez again- took delivery of an SRMD205 in flat black on new years eve. I bought it for downtuned heavy music. I took the pickguard off straight away, cuz the white pearloid one looked cheap and tacky imo. Suggestions? Leave it off? Tortoiseshell? Black on black? Also, the bass sounds VERY bright imo. This will be great for metal tones, but at the moment I'm playing stoner/doom stuff. Considering putting a set of labella flats on it. Is that just completely at odds with the theme here? Flats on a modern looking active 5 string bass feels weird. Once the strings are good and dead, that should take the edge off. First impressions are great - it's not noticeably heavier than my 4 string short scale. Ergonomics are great - never played a 5 before, but the ibanez SR type neck does not feel unmanageably chunky for me. The bridge pick-up is noisy AF, and in the long run, I'd probably replace the pickups, the pre-amp (or just get rid of it and go passive), and the machine heads, but I bought this new for just over 200 quid new, and would have no hesitation recommending it as a first bass. It's completely playable out of the box.

I took delivery recently of a 5 string Mezzo, but that was technically just about in 2021. I'm now GASing for a couple of those EHBs- the 4 string shorty, and the 5 string multi-scale (30-32") in particular. I'd forgotten how much I love the ergonomics of ibanez basses.

Oh yeah, also, the bridge pickup is sooo noisy. That's OK though, I won't be using it for this project. Eventually, the aim will probably be to convert this to passive, with some geezer butlers, or quarter pounders or similar.

Doom broom arrived. First thoughts - flip me, it's bright! Hoping the strings will settle in and take some of the edge off. I'm half tempted to put a set of flats on it, but that would be leaning hard into the stoner/doom thing, if I keep the rounds, this bass will be perfect for other stuff I like playing, like post-rock, math-rock, noise-rock type stuff. I got the fretwrap in case I had a lot of trouble adapting to the 5, but to be honest, I didn't need it on for my 2 hour noodle today. The neck is lovely for the price, feels very ibanezy. Probably not much chunkier than some 4 string P-basses. But yeah, so bright. Had to re-EQ my amp, and turn the highs almost all the way down on the bass to get a sound that wasn't so harsh. Oh also the cheap pearloid pickguard looks well naff. I took it off straight away. Will probably get a tort one. Might leave it off though, as without it it looks almost exactly like my first bass, which I think was an Ibanez SR200 from the late 90s. 😁

It might be me, cuz I'm pretty high rn, ngl, but I think that song is about how boomer punks are Richards, so flip them lets make a new scene, type of sentiment.

Just out of curiosity, have all the punks you've met (and asked to define anarchy for some reason), been really old? Just that I've been in and around the punk scene on and off since the late 90s, and it's always seemed to be filled with wonderfully politically aware, community minded, conscientious people. Except for the fash, but they're in every scene sadly. Like a plague. None less so than metal. It just strikes me that your experiences might have been predominantly with jaded boomer punks, who maybe once had a mohecan in the early 80s, but like you, have no real familiarity with what punk has meant to multiple generations active in the scene over the 4 decades since...

Just my opinion, but I see Grunge as a branch of punk rock, and I think it has in common with punk rock (after 1977) the fact that it is musically diverse. In fact, like punk, I think its a subculture, and a certain grouping of ethics and aesthetics, rather than a genre of music strictly speaking. Thus you end up with post-hardcore/noise rock influenced sounds and sleazy 70s rock n' roll/garage rock sounds getting classified as grunge. In the same way, Madball and The Jam are both punk bands, but couldn't sound much more different.

In the words of D. Boon, punk is whatever we made it to be. IMO, all the best bands think they're punk bands, whatever section they get put in at the record shop.

Me too, but it takes all sorts I spose... 😅

To be fair, if you just call it all Rock n Roll, you might accidentally turn up to see these scumbags, expecting them to sound like Meatloaf or something.

I think Iron Monkey tune to B standard too. Iron Monkey > Eyehategod imo.

Yeah, the Ibanez is ideal because it's reasonably priced, leaving money in the budget for all the denim vests, and drugs I'm going to have to buy.