Ask 411 Music 05.18.09: Tigertailz, Censorship, and Beastie Boys
Posted by Joshua George on 05.18.2009
Who had phone sex with Aerosmith? Learn about another lame 90s hair band, and who the hell has the right to censor my music? Find out all of this inside this week's edition of Ask 411 Music!
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Here come the... Ask 411 Music Reader Questions
From Ivan,
What the fuck? I bought 'Ashes of the Wake' the other day by Lamb of God and was flabbergasted to find it censored! No warning, no sticker, no nothing! Goddamn, now I have to look for a proper version of the CD and go back to the store to demand my money back!
Oh yes, my question. What are the most censored songs of all time (album-wise, not MTV clips) and who the fuck decides my ears can't handle such nasty little topics and language?
I have to say I laughed my ass off when I first read your question. I was thinking back to the last time I bought a CD and it was censored without notice. I was completely pissed. The other thing I think back to is when CDs are completely uncensored and then all of a sudden you have a few censored lyrics. It's always some serious shit to deal with censorship, ESPECIALLY in a country where we claim everyone has freedom of speech. Turns out we do -- except when before 1am EST and when on CDs that children could potentially buy because their parents aren't doing their jobs... you may have just given me my rant topic for today, but let's move on to your question and such.
I can't really give you the most censored SONGS of all time because there are just too many out there that have been censored, but I'll do this -- I'll supply you with a list of what I would say is probably the most censored artists and bands in the US and the UK. These artists are (in no particular order):
Eminem Judge Dread - has the Guinness record for the most banned songs on BBC Radio. Kerry Jones Madonna Lilly Allen Lady Gaga Pearl Jam
I realize that there are far more artists that I'm sure have been incredibly censored over the years, but you have to realize that when you look through this list, you can recognize most of them for the controversy that surrounds the reason they're on this list. Pearl Jam was censored during the AT&T censoring fiasco where they started singing "Hey George Bush, leave this world alone" and AT&T claimed it was a "mistake"... pshh. Those are the individual artists that have suffered under the censorship hammer so what about bands?
Marilyn Manson Slayer Cannibal Corpse Sex Pistols The Misfits System of a Down Rage Against the Machine
The funniest thing to me is how most of these bands are either being censored for horribly graphic content and lyrics, or for their political views that the convey in their music. Welcome to America, land of the free (when the government wants you to be), and home of the brave (at least the ones that don't get censored when being brave). Note that I haven't even taken into consideration half of the rap industry. Mainly because I could basically name everyone that works in that particular genre as a censored artist. Fuck censorship I say (I hope Mitch and Larry let me say that lol).
Who censors your music? Usually there's a board that's comprised of people that are appointed by the government. They have a certain set of guidelines to follow. I believe in the US you can look to a very familiar name in the headlines as of late -- The Recording Industry Association of America or RIAA if you prefer has quite a hand in the censorship here considering they were the ones that instituted the Parental Advisory labels on CDs with "explicit content". So make sure you write a letter to them thanking them for making you search for your new and hopefully UNcensored Lamb of God CD. Good luck Ivan!
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From Andy Pleeze,
What can you tell me about a band called TigerTailz? I recently stumbled upon a youtube video from them. I am a big fan of lame 80s hair metal and wondering why I have never heard of these guys, thanks.
The band that you're referring to Tigertailz has been around since 1986. They're what's considered to be a "glam metal" band and have actually made the top 40 charts in the UK with three singles from their 1990 album entitled Bezerk. From 1986 to 2007 Tigertailz managed to release 6 albums, 6 music videos, and 2 VHS tapes (what the hell are those?). This band saw their lineup change 5 times switching every member of the band at least once. The bass player Pepsi Tate was the only member of the band to be with them until the 5th lineup which was created after he died in 2007 of pancreatic cancer.
Tigertailz originally had lead vocalist Steevi Jaimz (which is a really cracked out way to spell your child's name), but soon changed to Kim Hooker (must've been a crazy name requirement) after many alcohol-induced fights led the band to have a meeting where they basically told Steevi that he was out because he was a dick. Turns out, if you're a complete cock-beast to your bandmates, they don't really like you and it makes it harder for you to progress in the music world. Apparently the switch to Kim was a good move because he remained with the band for the rest of the time they were together. Nicely done!
Basically after their release of Bezerk, and the three singles that really brought them succes, that's when the band started to really fall apart. The lineup they had set was starting to part ways and over the course of five years they released Banzai! in Japan which was basically a mish-mash of B-sides and a rehash of old songs. At this point they couldn't really get a record company to be interested in them long enough to show any true success, so what do we do now? Well naturally the thing to do is hang back a little while and then have a REUNION!
Ten full years later, the band replaces their drummer Ace Finchum with Matt Blakout whom you may know from the band The City Kidds. After dealing with some confusion when former lead singer Steevi Jaimz and Ace Finchum tried to start up a new band with the same name, they released Bezerk 2.0 which helped them roll around just a little bit more in what had to be their Scrooge McDuck style money for them to be doing this for this long without too much success. If you're too young to understand what that means search for "Scrooge McDuck" on YouTube and you'll understand much better I'm sure. They received quite a bit of praise from many media outlets, but could never seem to make the right people happy at the right time. It's pretty unfortunate for them, but hey -- it happens. Hope that answers your question John. I'll get to your other questions next week too so make sure you stay tuned :)
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A two-fer From Steve,
My friend insists that there was an early-90's video for Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion", depicting a boy on a phone sex conversation with a woman that ends up looking nothing like he imagined. Was there ever such a video?
Also, my same friend also insists that he owned a Beastie Boys VHS tape, with six videos on it, four from Licensed to Ill, and two from before it. Live concert footage and backstage footage were also on the tape. Have you heard of it?
Was there ever such a video? There sure was. It took only a short search on YouTube to find it in fact, so let's take a second to watch that, shall we?
Now, once you've seen this video as it goes through the entire thin you can really start to get how sexually charged this song really is, but there's nothing that will turn you off more than the ending to this video. Think really carefully if you REALLY want to watch it :)
As far as the Beastie Boys VHS is concerned, your friend is again correct in his insistence. There was a VHS release in 1997 entitled simply Beastie Boys that has the videos of "Rhymin' and Stealin'", "Hold It Now, Hit It," "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn," "She's on It," "She's Crafty," and possibly their biggest single, "Fight for Your Right (to Party)". Along with these six videos you'll be able to see the Beastie Boys during what is perhaps their most obnoxious phase of their lives doing what they do best: clowning around. You can decide if you want to buy it new for about $30.00 or used starting at $3.50 (no brainer if you ask me) -- but you can buy this VHS on Amazon.com by searching Google for "Beastie Boys VHS" and clicking the Amazon link, or you can just love me for including your link directly to the VHS here. It's ok Steve, I love you too buddy.
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It's time for...
Joshua's Rant of the Week
Music Censorship. First of all, you know from reading above how I feel about this, but let's talk for a second about the fact that people try to blame musicians/artists for the stupid actions of their children or loved ones. I don't believe I've ranted about this in this column, before but if I have I'm going to do it again -- so skip this if it bothers you. Also, please be aware that the following rant is going to include some harsh language, so do not allow your children to read this rant if that's an issue.
Now, Let's use Eminem because it's easy; here's a guy that gets blamed when anything goes wrong due to his lyrical prowess. Consider the song "Who Knew" from the album The Marshall Mathers LP. "... but don't blame me when little Eric jumps off of the terrace you should've been watching him. Apparently you ain't parents..." This line is so much more than I could ever hope to hear from an artist. It goes on to say more and more about how you should be spendind time doing the parenting and not letting your children listen to this music if it's that much of a problem.
The question here is where do we draw the line? Is the concept of parents not allowing their children listen to music a kind of censorship within itself? How do we determine what's ok for kids to listen to and what's not ok for kids to listen to. These days, kids are so desensitized to shit that used to be a big deal when I was growing up. I guess I just feel old, but I used to not be able to watch MTV, I couldn't listen to Rap -- Pop was a stretch, and I wasn't even allowed to say "hell" in my house as a kid. Now, I hear kids yelling "fuck you" at their friends at the bus stop. Explain to me when this happened, and now that this HAS happened, how do you know where to draw the line? You don't, do you?
Also, can someone please tell me why people think that the music they listen to is serious? For example, when I was a kid and I heard Eminem talk about "cutting other people open like cantalopes", I never once thought to myself, "Hmmm, I wanna go cut someone open to see what happens." When I heard him rap about slitting Kim's throat I didn't think, "Hey, I should go slit my ex's throat too because that's the fun thing to do." When I heard "Stan" I didn't consider getting drunk and driving off a bridge with a bitch in the trunk... but apparently some people do. What the fuck is wrong with these people?!?! Do they not realize that they are the reason that MTV now can't even play Papa Roach's song "Last Resort" because they have to censor the word "cut", and "suicide". Are you fucking kidding me?! Are we really living in a world where we can't even write music based on anything anymore. Pretty soon the only music you'll be able to hear is classical music and even then, other countries around the world have been known to censor some classical music composers because they're too "progressive." Seriously. Yea... go back and read that again. Seriously. Anyway... I'm just gonna drop it there because I'm getting a huge fucking headache. Take it for what it's worth.
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Who wants to hear something new???
Things You Should Hear
1. Here's one for Andy. It's Tigertailz - "Living Without You":
2. This kid just keeps making me happier and happier. Here's Aher Roth with a cover of Black Eyes Peas - "Boom Boom Pow" on Live Lounge:
3. Here comes my mother fuckin' hero Tech N9ne with "Stamina":
4. Part 1 - Here's Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg singing "Dick in a Box"and is NSFW:
5. Part 2 - 5 Months later -- this is the funniest thing I've ever seen. Our favorite guys are back to sing "Motherlover" and this is alsoNSFW:
6. Here's a good one comin up and I've liked these guys for a while. Here's 3Oh!3 with "Don't Trust Me":
If you'd like me to post your band or a band that you particularly love, all you have to do is Send me the YouTube link NOW! I'd like to start including some of your personal bands clips, or other bands that you think people should be hearing.
So who wants to get pimped? If you have a website that your band hosts, or something that you think the general public would enjoy checking out, please send me a link and a SHORT description and I may include it in the pimping section of next week's column!
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