Video Feature: Techno Jeep

This video is hands down the best industrial track that I have heard in years. YEARS people! Nothing is more industrial than making music from banging on metal, scratching metal, burning metal, slamming metal against metal, throwing things at metal, thrashing metal, you get the idea. Sampling metal noises of any kind is pretty damn industrial.  Therefore, this video = full of industrial win, because this was done in ONE TAKE putting all those microKorgs to shame. These guys are so full of rivethead potential that I think it blasphemy that it's titled "Techno Jeep"

CD's in My Car: Family Force 5

Family Force 5's album Business up Front / Party in the Back

One of my favorite cd's to jam out in my car actually doesn't contain any swearing or debaucherous language! It's full of wholesome lyrics?! Whaaaaaaat? Well, they are a Christian rap rock band, and their target audience is from what I've experienced ~14 year olds, but I still derive some strange sort of enjoyment from attending their shows and dancing like a crazy person and being 1 out of 2 people taking bar breaks (the other being my boyfriend, and the kid's parents don't count!)

With stage names like Chapstique, Crouton, and Soul Glow Activatur, these guys are more like action figures on stage rather than people. Besides promoting incorrect spelling, they promote having a good time and dancing.

The lyrics don't get any more R rated than "Dance next to me" and "Start the party now come on put yo hands up" and "Watch what you say around my momma, she raised me in the durrty south." Their straightedge scenester appeal for some reason works, and there's just something about their music that is awesome.

Family Force 5 Myspace

Rammstein Live Aus Berlin

I recently bough a copy of the DVD Rammstein Live Aus Berlin and it is by far one of the most epic things I own. I put it on while unpacking boxes at my new house and nothing got accomplished except for a wide-eyed drool fest. Later I made my roommates watch it on the bigscreen and it was just as beautiful. There are a lot of things that can make me giggle like a little school girl, but there's nothing quite like Rammstein's pyrotechnics and stage presence.

The band interview on the DVD is very nice, giving the fans more insight into their lives, like how after all these years Flea hasn't really confirmed that he is officially in the band, and their music formula which is "repetitive and minimalist."

Many people think of German as being a harsh language, but it's really about perspective. German can be powerful but in regular speech it flows so nicely it's almost flamboyant. Rammstein's music formula is "Soft riff soft lyrics; hard riff hard lyrics" so it makes sense that in their rock-infused music they sound harsh. But when you watch the interview where they are having a regular conversation German sounds completely opposite. 

You can probably watch the entire concert through youtube but it would be an insult. Plus you would miss out on the German subtitles which make it infinitely easier to sing along to.

On Rivetheads.

Written by sexyDEATHparty circa 2006 (I was in high-skewl!)

when I looked like this and fancied myself a rivethead!

The Industrial counterculture, better known amongst its members as Rivethead subculture is like the bastard child of the Punk and Gothic subcultures. Usually, some rivetheads may start out as mopey, depressed, and fragile Goths with white painted faces, but when one decides that the Gothic subculture does not expresses the angry, rebellious, and aggressive feelings a person may have developed, the transition to elite rivethead begins.

Many rivetheads cringe at being called Goths, and there is often a very fine line between being a rivethead or a Goth that unless you are part of the scene and are in the know of who is what, an outsider would not be able to distinguish between the two. There are also some similarities between the two and rave subculture, these are your cyber-Goths. There are similarities between rivetheads and the latter, such as the visual aesthetics, and heavy emphasis on electronic music. However, cyber is to rivethead what post cyberpunk is to cyberpunk.

“In cyberpunk, the alienating effect of new technology is emphasized, whereas in post cyberpunk, "technology is society." – Cyberpunk Article

Industrial leans towards the negative view of technology, while accepting the aesthetic results of technological dystopia, and cyber wholly embraces technology as positive. While rivetheads do also thrive on the technological advances of our age, they are fully aware of its foulness and that it might one day produce evil machines that will overthrow mankind, and they relish it believing they would be the ones to survive an apocalyptic battle of machines.

Rivetheads quite often express express their views in a post apocalyptic style. Considering this view they have on life it would not be surprising to find an assortment of gas masks complete with filters in their closets, self dug out bomb shelters in their backyards, or even that they visit the shooting range weekly to improve their accuracy in hopes that once the Apocalypse arrives the would be well prepared for a survival of the fittest.

The technology factor is not the only thing rivethead subculture is centered around. Like all countercultures, it is based around a music scene. Their scene is industrial music and some electronic music, or EBM. The music they fixate on revolves around an obsession with banging on things and playing with keyboards and computers. A large misconception by other cultures is that all Rivetheads worship Trent Reznor. Sure, he might be a God among many music savants for all of his innovations in music, but most Rivetheads have a love-hate relationship with him. Usually, they prefer the harsh industrial sounds of German-based bands such as Rammstein, KMFDM, Hanzel und Gretyl or Einstürzende Neubauten.

Rammstein would be a perfect example of remotely mainstreaming the subculture with their militant-style clothes, goggles and pyromaniac shows. However not everyone who listens to them is necessarily a rivethead. Many Japanese artists also produce music, or rather, noise or static attracts many rivetheads such as the experimental noises of Merzbow and Massona. Many rivetheads like to justify their hardcoreness by attending many morbid and underground concerts where the dance style consists of stomping around in big boots and kicking and punching the air with evil grimaces on their faces. There has been an explosion of such concerts in the past year, such as the tours by KMFDM, Bile, Ministry, and the reassemblage of Skinny Puppy and many such bands. While these are the biggest names in music controlling the industrial scene, usually the more underground and obscure a band that a rivethead listens to is, the more elite points the rivethead gets.

Fashion is a very large part of the counterculture, just like any other. Rivethead fashion is usually a blend of cyber-Goth and crust-punk. Usually, you will see a rivethead sporting shiny, tight, and black PVC clothes, lots of spikes, pieces of circuitry randomly sticking out of places from their bodies in attempts to look like cyborgs. The goal is to look as futuristic and post apocalyptic as possible. Accessories are spikes, lots of shiny things, big chunky combat boots and goggles to shield their weak human eyes from the radiation of atomic bombs. But the biggest accessory of all is the synthetic hair. Fake neon-colored hair braided like dreads and attached to the scalp. Usually the bigger the better, but some take it to a ridiculous degree to where they have excessive mountains of synthetic falls atop their head weighing it down so much they will most likely experience back problems later in their lives. The difference between Rivetheads and Goths is that Goths tend to wear flowing black clothes, emphasizing a Victorian look, and sad makeup. But sometimes the fashions merge a little too close for comfort and the only distinguishable thing would be one’s attitude. A trend among these two close and intertwining subcultures are shaved eyebrows. They usually use eyeliner to draw on eyebrows for more emphasis.

Rivetheads are quick to respond with violence, mean words or a sub cultural pop quiz of names and bands when opposed by someone of another subculture or someone they suspect to be a fake infiltrating their scene. The largest concentration of rivetheads is in Toronto, Seattle and New York City. Many are also attracted to Germany because of the industrious past of the country and the numerous musical influences that are German-based. Rivetheads would be most happy to work in factories or hardware stores such as Home Depot where they are constantly surrounded with shiny tools to catch their attention.