The Lost Guitar Sound of Funkdafied Metal
I was out last night at the Faith No More reunion show on the Williamsburg waterfront. While not a perfect show (mostly because “Small Victory” and “Falling to Pieces” weren’t played but they did cover Michael Jackson’s “Ben”) it was a great show, amazing sound and a crowd that looked like one gigantic class of 1993 high school reunion. But this post really isn’t about the show as much as it was something I realized while enjoying it… that guitar sound, where the fuck had it gone!?
Faith No More like many 90s alternative bands had this distinct guitar sound that’s just nonexistent in today’s music scene… well the music scene as covered by the blogs and in small scale TV and radio. I’m sure there are dudes out there that live and breathe Guitar Center and whose idea of new music ended with Tool’s Ænima and are probably rocking that shit hard. However, I’m talking about bands & musicians with actual potential to make meaningful music and not just nostalgic revelry. Maybe there’s something to do with the sound itself… no knock on most modern indie bands technical playing abilities, but maybe being able to really rock a funkdafied metal groove just really requires you to have been sitting at your axe 5 hours a day for 10 years. Somehow I think the internet has eaten into that time over the past decade, who knows?
If you don’t know what this “sound” I’m talking about is, it’s that metallic mid-range funk that sometimes has a Wah on it. It’s in Faith No More’s “Falling to Pieces” (video above) and boy is it ever there in Alice in Chains “Man in the Box” (video below).
Faith No More, Alice in Chains, Rage Against the Machine and White Zombie were clearly the masters of funkdafying a metal guitar but to a lesser extant Jane’s Addiction, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers and even Pantera (sometimes) all used “that guitar sound” regularly in their careers. So what the hell is my point? I don’t know if I have one, I just really, really miss that goddamn guitar sound and it’s a shame it’s fallen so out of favor.
The only band worth a shit that I can think of that seems to be sort of bringing it back is Torche. All I’m saying is I want more!
- My Pal the Crook
July 6th, 2010 at 11:44 pm
I think you’re right about the wah, but I’m also hearing a ton of compression and delay (digital?) to that tone, too. Maybe a lot of Mesa Boogie amps? Rocky George used them.
Mordred, Infectious Grooves, and Mind Funk are also worth mentioning in that genre and for that “tone.”
July 7th, 2010 at 12:32 am
You can’t say that Jane’s Addiction and RHCP used it to a ‘lesser extent’! They were doing it in the mid-80s and doing it a lot. They friggin loved da funk! But yea, that sound was good and I loved it back then…but I just can’t see anyone using it to good effect now. It’s been to watered down and ruined by frat boys and really bad bar bands over the years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwI02OHtZTg” rel=”nofollow”>
A fun one
July 7th, 2010 at 12:34 am
RHCP and Jane’s Addiction didn’t embrace metal the way the others did which is why I said to a lesser extent.
July 7th, 2010 at 12:36 am
Recording in live rooms using actual amps onto tape vs. Programming in basements/apartments using pods and plugins with protools?
July 7th, 2010 at 12:56 am
Coupled with an actual recording budget that can afford spending weeks on end tweaking on every amp and head combination out there until they find that perfect tone?
July 7th, 2010 at 2:15 am
Yeah, I really miss this sound too. It’s like the funk gave the metal a fuller body. You felt in in your nuts but maybe that was due to a heavier bass funk.
Another musical reason I survived the hell that is high school.
July 7th, 2010 at 9:56 am
Fuckin a. Great post.
July 7th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Damn I wish I was there.. So many good songs, thats rad they did a second encore with Stripsearch. I <333 that song and the video rules.
July 7th, 2010 at 11:41 am
I think I had always subconsciously assumed that it had to do with the actual ‘funk’ part of the equation: if you substract 10-15 years from the heyday of FNM, Pantera, AIC—any of those bands’ heyday—it puts you smack in the middle of a really funky era in music. Not to say that ALL of those dudes are well-rounded mental giants (tho some of them are) I could always just imagine them really being into some of that back-tier music that is both really rootsy and funky at the same time. Obv. Parilament and that sort of stuff, but, well, more. Today’s bands maybe have less inundation with really ‘good’ or at least defined music as there’s the internet flood plus maybe a lower quality overall to that harder-core, ‘underground’ sound.
Either way, hear hear: great post.