You see, I started playing bass when I was a impressionable 16 year old. At the time it was all about funk metal. You couldn't open a music magazine without seeing a bassist wearing bermuda shorts, a vest/waistcoat combo and a bowler hat. Hair was either pigtailed or kept short and the bass was worn quite low down the knees and held upright. This was a fearsome sight to my young eyes. "They must be so talented" I thought to myself. And more often than not they where. But have you ever tried playing a bass that low down for any length of time? Hell no. Your arms end up hurting, your back aches, you slowly take on a more simian posture. Why do you think Robert Trujillo walks like a crab onstage? Its not a act, he is actually handicapped. Poor him. You see the rest of the band could look like metal knobs but the with a bassist looking like that present they had that important "we-don't-just-own-metal-albums" aura around them. Plus there was doubtless one of them wearing a silly shirt as well. Case in point. LAPD, Korn's pre-nu-metal incarnation....
What a bunch of tools eh?
Now I ain't making out I was cool and only listened to Victory Records stuff or anything. I owned some funk metal. As did nearly everyone. Even as late as 2003 America was producing these bands. By that point most had realised the bottom had dropped out of the funk metal genre and had incorporated other styles like reggae, salsa and dancehall into there mess of a sound. Of course most of these people unbuttoned that plaid shirt, hung up the wallet chains and made a proper living of working for Staples or Home Delivery Network. The bassist generally tend to work in music shops now and impress young kids who want to buy a bass with there sick slap bass skills ( believe me, I have been shown this by many a sales assistant with some ethnic beads visible under his shirt collar and his ear pierced right at the top) until the boss tells them off and sends them out back to finish breaking down all that cardboard for the recycling.
This really came up as I was digging round a cupboard that contained all the CD's I hide away so that people who visit don't think I am such a clueless tool. But what a little treasure chest. Infectious Grooves, The Urge, HedPE ( who's first album was the best example of rap-metal at the time), Insolence. of course Infectious Grooves still stands up, at least in my head and have gone onto providing Metallica with some extra income as they don't ahve to pay Trujillo royalties for the music he hasn't played on.
Just to readress the balance, and to get rid of the sour taste of the 90's in your head I have this video of some Poison Idea. They enver really had much of an interest in funk metal.
Isn't it funny how "metal" some punk bands actually looked?
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