4TH GENERATION COWBOY'S "HEAD-TURNING"
(MTV HIVE) NEW ALBUM 'CABIN FEVER' COMING AUGUST 14 ON NEW WEST
We asked New West artist Corb Lund, whose stellar new album
'Cabin Fever' comes out August, for his list of top ten punk and metal albums,
as he used to play heavy music as bassist and songwriter for the Smalls.
"We were a combination of speed metal and punk with country themes,"
he recalls. An eclectic hard rock band, The Smalls sold over 40,000 copies of
the four albums they released and were the subjects of a documentary film
"The Smalls… Er Whatever" before breaking up in 2001.
Check out The Smalls' "Waste and Tragedy" here,
featuring Lund on bass
Early buzz on 'Cabin Fever' is tremendous. MTV The Hive
said, "his songs sometimes seem like the soundtrack to a Western directed
by Quentin Tarantino" continuing that the new album is "stuffed with
its share of head-turning tracks" while My Old Kentucky Blog called it
"a release I'm certain we'll be talking more about as 2012
progresses."
Appropriately, Lund gave us eleven albums (in no particular
order), which ranged from Canadian cult heroes to superstars:
SNFU/...And No One Else Wanted To Play: Western Canadian punk rock heroes.
These guys were our mentors when I was playing with The Smalls. They took us
out on tour a bunch when we were young. Our music wasn't like theirs at all,
but we they taught us to print our own T-shirts and book our own tours and all
things DIY. On good nights they were unbeatable. This is the first record, and
probably the best, although any of the first three are outstanding. Chi Pig
brought some strange to the punk.
Reign In Blood:
Slayer is Slayer. Nobody else is like Slayer. Only Slayer is Slayer.
Grimskunk/Self Titled:
Grimskunk were The Smalls' Montreal counterparts. We were the best of
friends and did tons of touring with them. This is an early record that started
to define their strange and cool mix of punk, world music, and Deep Purple
organ.
Witchery/Witchburner:
This has a bunch of classic metal covers on it, done up with
Scandinavian, church burnin' wickedness.
Black Sabbath/Mob Rules: I know I'm in the minority here, but I much prefer the Dio
Sabbath records; this one and 'Heaven and Hell.' Whole different thing. I saw
them on tour this a couple years ago and it kicked my ass.
Entombed/To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth: 'Like This With The Devil.' This is a
go-to record for me, I always come back to it. Raaawwrrrrr. Swedish metal. My
people.
Judas Priest/Screaming For Vengeance: This is a turning point for heavy, in
my opinion. After a bunch of records, JP moved from their 70s blues rock roots
into a whole new metal sound. If you ask me, if Priest doesn't go down this
road, there's no Slayer.
Voivod/Dimension Hatross: Excellent obscure (French) Canadian industrial metal. I love
this record. I'm pretty sure the language barrier added to the weirdness of the
lyrics. Band members included Snake, Away, Blacky and Piggy. Vive le Quebec!
Metallica/Ride the Lightning: Lots of people prefer 'Kill em All,' and I appreciate that
one too, of course. But I think this record defined the sound of Metallica's
heyday, and made them different than those that came before.
Motley Crue/Too Fast For Love: This early record is badass.
The demo versions are even better. Raw and uncooked. 'Shout at the Devil' is
pretty great too, but more refined. I remember being a little bit scared as a
kid buying that record, with the pentagram on it and everything. I think I hid
it.
Guns n Roses/Appetite For Destruction: They blew apart at the seams later on,
but this record is a classic Polaroid of violent, chaotic awesomeness. One of
the best rock records ever, probably. Kinda glam, kinda metal, kinda bluesy,
pure middle finger.
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