Thursday, July 12, 2012

CORB LUND REVISITS HIS PUNK- & METAL-PLAYING DAYS WITH PLAYLIST


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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