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Iowa's metal scene in the late 90s

There is a ton of good hard rock coming out of des moines right now, Superchief put on a killer live show and alot of the time its free.
 
Gunnerclone said:
Ah yes, Sonic Youth, that iconic symbol of Seattle that made it so big. LOLZ
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and yet, without Sonic Youth, no one would have given Nirvana a chance. Sonic Youth doesn't get to the level of success they do, they never would have had the chance to pull Nirvana along as an opening act. Nirvana doesn't get pulled along as an opening act, no record labels that weren't indy local labels get to hear Nirvana. It is possible that Nirvana would have gotten themselves out there anyway, sure, but so much of what Nirvana huge was being the exact right sound at exactly the right time. Would they have hit that right time without Sonic Youth? Probably not.

If Sonic Youth had said "hell yeah, we made it out of Seattle!" and forgot the scene that produced them, we have no Nirvana. Wonder what coulda been if Slipknot had decided to take the same mentality that Sonic Youth did, rather than the exact opposite.
 
Gnomeborg said:
and yet, without Sonic Youth, no one would have given Nirvana a chance. Sonic Youth doesn't get to the level of success they do, they never would have had the chance to pull Nirvana along as an opening act. Nirvana doesn't get pulled along as an opening act, no record labels that weren't indy local labels get to hear Nirvana. It is possible that Nirvana would have gotten themselves out there anyway, sure, but so much of what Nirvana huge was being the exact right sound at exactly the right time. Would they have hit that right time without Sonic Youth? Probably not.

If Sonic Youth had said "hell yeah, we made it out of Seattle!" and forgot the scene that produced them, we have no Nirvana. Wonder what coulda been if Slipknot had decided to take the same mentality that Sonic Youth did, rather than the exact opposite.
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Sonic Youth isn't from Seattle.
 
Gunnerclone said:
Sonic Youth isn't from Seattle.
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You're right, they're out of New York, but they, along with the Pixies, spent a significant amount of time in the Seattle indi/grunge scene that ended up producing all of the bands above. The Northeastern US's Alt/Indi scene adopted Seattle and their bands.

You're right though, when I said "we made it out of Seattle" I was making a dig at Shawn Crayhan's howl of "we made it out of Iowa!" and it was not an accurate representation of Sonic Youth.

In a direct analogy of what could have been, Ross Robinson would be a better example of the role Sonic Youth played.

It's something I and friends have talked about at length for years, having been there for the scene at the time. Sometimes that means I skip important connection information. I apologize for my lack of clarity :)
 
IowaClone said:
There is a ton of good hard rock coming out of des moines right now, Superchief put on a killer live show and alot of the time its free.
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Mindrite out of Indianola is another good one that could break out. There's also a band from the Quad Cities that Rock108 has given a lot of airtime to, and they opened for Sevendust in Waterloo this winter.
 
Gnomeborg said:
A lot of it has to do with a fake benefit concert that Slipknot put on and then took all of the money from to pay for the demo that got them signed, three songs of which were lifted straight from the demo to put on their first album on Roadrunner, without the engineers and producers of those songs getting any credit.

Also, most of Slipknot was put together out of the corpses of other great bands in the area. Corpses that were only corpses because Shawn stole their members to put together Slipknot. Stone Sour predates Slipknot by 3 years.

Additionally, a lot of the animosity towards them comes from the infamous VH1 interview they gave in 2001, when Index Case, Mr. Plow, 38th Parallel, and 35' Mudder were all still trying to make it out of the holding patterns they were in on their label deals, when Corey and Shawn made statements about how there's absolutely nothing in Iowa but Slipknot. Their descriptions of the Iowa Music Scene (which Rolling Stone at one point called the next Seattle) were insulting, not just to the scene they came out of, but the people of the state.

One of the major things that kept Des Moines from becoming the next Seattle was Slipknot. Whenever a band from Seattle made it big (look at like Sonic Youth), they would drag as many of the other bands from the scene with them as they could. Seattle bands always had other Seattle bands open for them. Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, the list goes on, where they were first exposed to the record industry because a band from Seattle took the time to give them a chance. Slipknot, being the first band to make it big out of Iowa, rather than helping the other bands in the scene, they wouldn't even acknowledge there was a scene. They still don't bother to bring bands from the area along with them. There's bands in Central Iowa right now that could hit big if people just got a chance to hear them. Slipknot could be using their (incredible) clout to be helping the local scene, and Corey is the only one who seems to actually try.

Slipknot, love their music or hate it, killed the chance that Des Moines had of producing a huge number of bands.
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Interesting stuff. Good job of you in this thread, Gnome.
 
Gnomeborg said:
A lot of it has to do with a fake benefit concert that Slipknot put on and then took all of the money from to pay for the demo that got them signed, three songs of which were lifted straight from the demo to put on their first album on Roadrunner, without the engineers and producers of those songs getting any credit.

Also, most of Slipknot was put together out of the corpses of other great bands in the area. Corpses that were only corpses because Shawn stole their members to put together Slipknot. Stone Sour predates Slipknot by 3 years.

Additionally, a lot of the animosity towards them comes from the infamous VH1 interview they gave in 2001, when Index Case, Mr. Plow, 38th Parallel, and 35' Mudder were all still trying to make it out of the holding patterns they were in on their label deals, when Corey and Shawn made statements about how there's absolutely nothing in Iowa but Slipknot. Their descriptions of the Iowa Music Scene (which Rolling Stone at one point called the next Seattle) were insulting, not just to the scene they came out of, but the people of the state.

One of the major things that kept Des Moines from becoming the next Seattle was Slipknot. Whenever a band from Seattle made it big (look at like Sonic Youth), they would drag as many of the other bands from the scene with them as they could. Seattle bands always had other Seattle bands open for them. Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, the list goes on, where they were first exposed to the record industry because a band from Seattle took the time to give them a chance. Slipknot, being the first band to make it big out of Iowa, rather than helping the other bands in the scene, they wouldn't even acknowledge there was a scene. They still don't bother to bring bands from the area along with them. There's bands in Central Iowa right now that could hit big if people just got a chance to hear them. Slipknot could be using their (incredible) clout to be helping the local scene, and Corey is the only one who seems to actually try.

Slipknot, love their music or hate it, killed the chance that Des Moines had of producing a huge number of bands.
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I don't believe this is very accurate about the Seattle scene. Early bands like Green River, Mother Love Bone, Malfunkshun, and Melvins only lead to later bands. Rarely did they promote one another. When Andrew Wood left Malfunkshun to form Mother Love Bone there was a lot of animosity between the bands that were being gutted. During the early 90s bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam weren't exactly close either. Now years later, Grohl helps promote new bands, but I don't believe that was the case when Seattle first exploded. Seattle bands may have played together but I doubt it was by design of some earlier promise to each other and more out of label marketing.

Slipknot can not be blamed for destroying the Iowa music scene. If anything they are the success story. They toured almost nonstop in the beginning. I doubt that left much time to make sure their Iowa brethren were being taken care of. And how do you know Slipknot didn't try to help these bands only to find the labels weren't interested?
 
Not hard rock but has anybody listened to "Penni"?

[video=youtube;vAJFd7vzL1U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAJFd7vzL1U[/video]

He is from Polk City, an ISU grad and currently living in Austin.
 
InAWord said:
I don't believe this is very accurate about the Seattle scene. Early bands like Green River, Mother Love Bone, Malfunkshun, and Melvins only lead to later bands. Rarely did they promote one another. When Andrew Wood left Malfunkshun to form Mother Love Bone there was a lot of animosity between the bands that were being gutted. During the early 90s bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam weren't exactly close either. Now years later, Grohl helps promote new bands, but I don't believe that was the case when Seattle first exploded. Seattle bands may have played together but I doubt it was by design of some earlier promise to each other and more out of label marketing.

Slipknot can not be blamed for destroying the Iowa music scene. If anything they are the success story. They toured almost nonstop in the beginning. I doubt that left much time to make sure their Iowa brethren were being taken care of. And how do you know Slipknot didn't try to help these bands only to find the labels weren't interested?
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I think your last paragraph is the most accurate. All members of Slipknot own homes in Iowa, reside there, and when they're in town, you can see them at a lot of local shows and supporting other bands in the area. Just because they exploded, and there are other good bar bands in the area that don't get the big gig doesn't mean they don't try to help them out. Out of the Iowa bands I know of, I think Index Case, Mindrite, and the band from the quad cities (Three Years Hollow) have the most potential to make it big.

EDIT: [video=youtube;x2z1bepbfEM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2z1bepbfEM[/video]
 
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cloneswereall said:
I think your last paragraph is the most accurate. All members of Slipknot own homes in Iowa, reside there, and when they're in town, you can see them at a lot of local shows and supporting other bands in the area. Just because they exploded, and there are other good bar bands in the area that don't get the big gig doesn't mean they don't try to help them out. Out of the Iowa bands I know of, I think Index Case, Mindrite, and the band from the quad cities (Three Years Hollow) have the most potential to make it big.

EDIT: [video=youtube;x2z1bepbfEM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2z1bepbfEM[/video]
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Too bad for these guys Breaking Benjamin is already a band.
 
I used to open mail with the lead singer of Index Case at a temp job. Does that put me in the "scene?"
 
Gnomeborg said:
One of the major things that kept Des Moines from becoming the next Seattle was Slipknot. Whenever a band from Seattle made it big (look at like Sonic Youth), they would drag as many of the other bands from the scene with them as they could. Seattle bands always had other Seattle bands open for them. Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, the list goes on, where they were first exposed to the record industry because a band from Seattle took the time to give them a chance. Slipknot, being the first band to make it big out of Iowa, rather than helping the other bands in the scene, they wouldn't even acknowledge there was a scene. They still don't bother to bring bands from the area along with them. There's bands in Central Iowa right now that could hit big if people just got a chance to hear them. Slipknot could be using their (incredible) clout to be helping the local scene, and Corey is the only one who seems to actually try.

Slipknot, love their music or hate it, killed the chance that Des Moines had of producing a huge number of bands.
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The notion that Sonic Youth was responsible for what happened in Seattle is wrong. They got onto SST records (Glendale, CA) because they respected the company. The fact that Soundgarden was on SST has nothing to do with Sonic Youth. If you're looking for a reason "Seattle" happened it's because the guys who started Sub Pop records (whom most of the Seattle bands ended up on) emulated Greg Ginn and SST when they started, that is, they signed local (Seattle) talent.

Yes, there is a tangential relationship from SY to Seattle through fellow SST mates Soundgarden but the popularity of Seattle "grunge" comes from an outstanding job by Sub Pop Records of finding and promoting local talent.
 
I took in quite a few Mudder/Plow shows at People's as a freshman in '98. Great times. I still occasionally put on a Minneapolis Release Revolution album I picked up at one of the shows they played with Mudder.
 
3 Pill Morning is another QC band that could make it. I think they were the opener for HURT this past year in Waterloo. They were good.
 
Anyone in the DSM area know if Mindrite is calling it quits or not? They announced on Sunday that they were, but I saw that they're scheduled to play a show in July and them saying they aren't done yet. What the hell is going on there?
 
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