Ah, nu metal. The runt subgenre of metal that swapped fast tempos and guitar solos for heavy syncopation, rapped vocals, turntables and samples, and a greater influence from Faith No More than Led Zeppelin. Few styles of music have inspired such a wide, contrasting swath of both adoration and revulsion. It's been described as the sound that nearly destroyed metal during its late-90s to mid-00s heyday, while jump-starting the careers of seasoned acts like Korn, Slipknot, Disturbed, Linkin Park, a...
Oct 17, 2020•2 hr 16 min
The Washington state-based band Queensryche are revered in the annals of metal history. Not only did they help define the subgenre of progressive metal in its earliest stages, but also gave it two of its most revered records in Operation: Mindcrime (Oft-regarded as one of the greatest concept records of all time) and the mega-selling Empire. (Which featured the massive Billboard hit "Silent Lucidity.") In spite of their esteemed legacy however, the band would reach an incredibly tumultuous splin...
Sep 30, 2020•2 hr 17 min
For the nearly 10 years of their inception, The Clash were responsible for both defining and then expanding the sound of punk rock in the late 70s and early 80s. The songwriting duo of Joe Strummer and Mick Jones were responsible for introducing elements of reggae, hip-hop, new wave, and disco to the genre, as well a recording some of the most beloved punk albums and singles of all time, including albums like London Calling and Sandanista, which are frequently listed as among the greatest rock r...
Sep 08, 2020•1 hr 51 min
Country-pop musician Garth Brooks remains one of the most commercially successful performers of the 90s despite a complete lack of pop chart singles. During the decade he commanded a rabidly devoted legion of fans, hungry for his distinct, then-unheard of blend of country music, which infused the genre with elements of rock and pop music, into a style that is now considered the modern norm. These same fans had to have been utterly perplexed, when in the late-90s he seemed to abruptly abandon his...
Jul 28, 2020•2 hr
The 00s were a rough time for music. New technology revolutionized the way music was listened to, but further severed the gap between the music industry and consumers, controversial subgenres like nu metal, emo, crunk, metalcore, teen pop, and others enjoyed some of their greatest levels of commercial prevalence, and legendary acts like Metallica, Guns N' Roses, and others put out some of their worst material of all time. Should it be any surprise then, that celebutante/reality TV star Paris Hil...
Jul 17, 2020•2 hr 14 min
Aerosmith experienced a major setback in the late 1970s and much of the 1980s, driven largely by their excessive partying lifestyle, but they bounced back in a big way heading into the 1990s. During this time, they experienced a new and unprecedented level of popularity, releasing numerous multi-million selling records, landing multiple singles on the Billboard charts, and earning a plethora of awards along the way. The band's dogged pursuit of sobriety undoubtedly played a major part, but much ...
Jun 25, 2020•1 hr 55 min
1969 to 1970 was an odd time in the career of piano-based soft rock crooner Billy Joel. After the breakup of his first band, the psychedelic outfit the Hassles, Joel and fellow Hassles drummer Jon Small would team up to form Attila, who were an oddity of a band at the time, for their unconventional lineup. The band consisted of Small on drums, and Joel on vocals and organ, which was run through a variety of pedals and effects generators, and ultimately produce a bizarre hybrid of psychedelic, ac...
Jun 09, 2020•1 hr 35 min
Of all the animated franchises to emerge from the doldrums of the 1980s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was among the biggest, and certainly one of the most profitable. Their success came largely on the back of their Saturday morning cartoon show, which begat feature films, video games, action figures, and an endless barrage of children's merchandise. The franchise thrives to this day but in the late 80s and early 90s one couldn't walk two steps without tripping over Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-b...
May 27, 2020•1 hr 37 min
By 2011 there was barely much left of The Misfits, the famed New Jersey band who helped shape the sound of 80s hardcore, and birthed the subgenre of horror punk with their sci-fi and B-movie-themed songs. Longtime frontman Glenn Danzig was long absent, having found greater success as a solo act, and his replacement Michale Graves was also short-lived,. while veteran guitarist Doyle had been fired from the band years ago. The only remaining constant Misfit was longtime bassist Jerry Only, who wre...
May 14, 2020•1 hr 44 min
The band Talking Heads broke up in 1991 largely by the hand of their eccentric frontman and primary songwriter; David Byrne. After several years of mounting turmoil amidst the rest of the group, Byrne decided the legendary new wave act had run it's course, and opted to focus on his own solo career instead. The rest of the band (Tina Weymouth on bass, Chris Frantz on drums, and Jerry Harrison on keys) felt slighted, but ultimately went along with it until the mid-90s, when they expressed a desire...
Apr 28, 2020•1 hr 51 min
By 2001, post-grunge Floridians Creed were at their commercial peak as well as their most loathed by the public at large. Driven by Scott Stapp's stupendous ego, overwrought balladeering, and unsubtly evangelical songwriting, Creed enjoyed a level of hatred and critical disdain that is still felt even to this day, long past the band's relevancy. Then it all came crashing down (Even moreso than usual) with the release of their 3rd record, Weathered, an album that would keep the band afloat commer...
Apr 14, 2020•2 hr 18 min
Upon its release in 2000 "Who Let The Dogs Out?" by Baha Men earned a place in pop culture infamy almost immediately. The single from the Bahamas-based junkanoo-fusion group's album of the same name was a surprise hit in the UK and across many other parts of Europe, and became an immediate staple of children's movie soundtracks, sporting events, and really bad standup comedy bits, subsequently joining the ranks of other blink-and-you'll-miss-it "Worst Of All Time" ranked one-hit wonders as "Craz...
Mar 17, 2020•1 hr 30 min
Hard rock legends Van Halen experienced their biggest commercial and critical successes from the late-1970s to the mid-1980s under the frontmanship of the charismatic, energetic goofball of a lead singer that was David Lee Roth. But interpersonal tensions would lead to Roth's dismissal from the group in 1985. Further success was achieved via his replacement, Sammy Hagar, who would also be ejected from the band in 1996 due to more infighting. After a false start in achieving a reunion with Roth, ...
Feb 26, 2020•1 hr 32 min
On the latest episode of Jukebox Zeroes, Lilz and Patrick get into their critical submarine and embark, James Cameron-like on an aural deep dive. Not a deep dive like one would dive into the discography of a favored artist or band, but a deep dive into the dregs of musical badness. Instead of scouring the bottom of the Marianas Trench like Jacques Cousteau would, they'll be scouring the depths of the internet music database and review site AllMusic.com (A constant critical source for many episod...
Feb 12, 2020•1 hr 30 min
Amidst a cloud of heavy drug usage, media obsession, paranoia, overindulgence, and internal unrest, Britpop icons Oasis released their 3rd studio full-length in 1997. The album, titled Be Here Now, was intended to be even bigger than the album that preceded it, their mega-selling breakthrough (What's The Story?) Morning Glory. For a while it seemed as though Be Here Now would reach those lofty heights, becoming the fastest-selling British record of the year, scoring multiple Top 10 hits, and rav...
Jan 28, 2020•1 hr 38 min
I'm sure we can all agree that the similarities between novelty disco versions of 1970s film theme songs, one of the biggest science fiction film franchises of all time, and the holiday season are obvious and present, right? No? If you said no then you're perhaps more of lucid mind than famed producer Meco Monardo, who with George Lucas' blessing, and the participation of actor Anthony Daniels and sound designer Ben Burtt, foisted Christmas In The Stars: A Star Wars Christmas upon the world in 1...
Jan 08, 2020•1 hr 27 min
What was it that wrecked new wave legends Tears For Fears' winning streak of hit records and singles since their inception in the 1980s? Was it the tension between founders Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith that grew to a fever pitch until their split in the early 90s? Was it the bad energy left behind by their former manager, who mishandled and embezzled finances via the agency that represented Tears For Fears until declaring bankruptcy, and eventually being incarcerated in 2004? Was it general fru...
Nov 27, 2019•1 hr 51 min
After enjoying years of success as a manufactured pop-rock group in the 1960s, eventually earning their independence from their corporate overlords to perform songs as they saw fit, The Monkees broke up around 1970 as their commercial fortunes waned over time. As the 1980s took shape however, an unexpected resurgence in popularity came about for the band who got their start as the subject of a sitcom, finding a new audience through reruns on MTV and Nickelodeon, and translating it into a highly ...
Nov 14, 2019•1 hr 36 min
The events and aftermath of 9/11 undoubtedly inspired a lot of people to begin to question the culture and politics of America. It certainly affected Madonna, who had long shaken off the shock-provocation imagery that was an integral part of her artistry. As her home country found itself on the precipice of war with Iraq she felt that she needed to express her unease and queries with the political climate through her next album. This next album was 2003's "American Life", which saw her collabora...
Oct 29, 2019•1 hr 33 min
Nu-metal veterans Korn were in a bit of a bind as they transitioned from the 00's into the 10's. Their 2010 record "Remember Who You Are", ostensibly meant as a return to form for the group, was tepidly received by fans and critics, and fell well short of sales expectations. They needed something to revitalize them. By this time the aggressive and violent offshoot of dubstep known as brostep was at its commercial peak with artists like Skrillex and Noisia selling many a hit record. The joining t...
Oct 20, 2019•1 hr 49 min
French house duo Daft Punk's place in the annals of music history has long been cemented over the course of their four studio albums. Since bursting onto the scene the pair have revolutionized contemporary electronic music through their distinct-yet-frequently transforming sound, and their experimental visual artistry. (Not even to mention their now-iconic helmets.) In the mid-00s however, their status of unquestionable artistry was briefly thrown into question with the release of their 2005 alb...
Oct 01, 2019•2 hr 5 min
70s cock-rockers KISS were best known for three things during their peak success during the mid-to-late 1970s: songs about partying and hard rocking in varying degrees, the massive spectacle that was their live concerts, and the relentless way in which they licensed their image across a bewildering variety of merchandise. As the band transitioned into the 1980s however, they engaged in a series of album missteps, for which they were accused of selling out to a pop sound, instead of sticking to t...
Sep 09, 2019•2 hr
And so we've arrived at the end of Season Two. We can think of no better way to close out a season filled with some real stinkers of albums than with one of the more infamous albums in recent memory: 2003's St. Anger by Metallica. This was an album recorded amidst intense interpersonal band turmoil at a time when the group's reputation was at a low after their infamous Napster lawsuit. What was intended to be a return-to-roots comeback for Metallica instead rendered one of the most contentious m...
Aug 16, 2019•2 hr 15 min
What kind of world were we living in during the late 90s that would lead the clean-cut, pristine former teen idol-turned-Christian conservative Pat Boone to record an album of heavy metal and hard rock standards from the 1970s and 80s? What began as an in-joke between Boone and his backing band gradually developed into a self-professed interest in Satan's favorite genre of rock music. This would snowball into the production of 1997's "In A Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy", in which songs by Met...
Jul 02, 2019•1 hr 53 min
There's no middle ground with Michigan-based hard rock quartet Greta Van Fleet. You either think they're the savior messiahs of rock & roll music, or you think they're a pale cloying imitation of a bad Led Zeppelin cover band, or you haven't been paying attention. For such a fledgling band to have popped up from out of nowhere and inspire such concentrated amounts of equal parts praise and vitriol is a remarkable feat in these modern times, when rock music is increasingly less relevant. Thei...
Jun 12, 2019•2 hr 4 min
By 1973 very little remained of the influential proto-punk group the Velvet Underground as their final studio album saw release. Long gone were founding members Lou Reed, John Cale, and Sterling Morrison, and backing members Maureen Tucker, Willie Alexander, and Walter Powers had been dismissed by the band's manager. That left only the hapless multi-instrumentalist Doug Yule (Who was originally brought in to replace John Cale's absence) to write and record the album which would bring their contr...
May 10, 2019•1 hr 28 min
Has there been a bigger punchline of a pop rock act in recent years than Smash Mouth? All the San Jose-based band has ever wanted to do was produce sunny, playful, and frequently retro-tinged pop songs, only to face relentless mockery as their careers have developed. This reputation as a pop rock punching bag has only increased since reaching memetic status in the deepest, dankest depths of the internet. This ridicule can surely be traced back to the album which brought them commercial success: ...
Apr 29, 2019•1 hr 59 min
On our 3rd episode of Jukebox Zeroes we reviewed "Results May Vary", the 4th studio release from nu-metal icons Limp Bizkit. The record was notable not just for its troubled production, its overall low quality, and for its critical failure, but also for the position it occupied as the lowest rated album on the entirety of review aggregate site Metacritic. That is until 2006, when an even lower-rated album was released. "Playing With Fire" was such an album, the lone full-length release from Kevi...
Apr 11, 2019•1 hr 50 min
Pink Floyd's success as one of the greatest progressive rock groups of all time is indebted to their former frontman, psychedelic singer/songwriter Syd Barrett. It was Barrett that led the group down the experimental path that produced their acclaimed debut The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, but after the record's release Barrett found himself shut out of the band due to increasingly erratic and unpredictable behavior, and questionable mental health. In spite of this, Syd Barrett maintained enough ...
Mar 25, 2019•2 hr 4 min
In 1991, California funk-rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers released their Warner Bros debut record Blood Sugar Sex Magick to massive commercial and critical acclaim. Though the band flourished, this newfound success took a toll on guitarist John Frusciante, who was uncomfortable with the extra attention, and quit the band mid-tour in a depression. Determined to continue onward, the Chili Peppers recruited Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro to record their next record, but amidst singer Anthony ...
Mar 14, 2019•1 hr 26 min
