Slipknot and Macy Gray
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29 June 1999
Slipknot
Slipknot
Slipknot’s sound. Rough detuned guitars; propulsive, skittering dual drummer action; a turntablist producing untutored, screeching noise like an anti-DJ Shadow; and, over it all, competing (and generally winning) in the mix: Corey Taylor’s voice. Guttural screaming to the end of destroying a perfectly decent microphone with acrid spittle is its dominant mode. Yet he sometimes whispers, sometimes moans, sometimes sounds almost tender. In other breakthrough popular music of 1999, Slipknot was closest to Eminem’s more witty articulation of this same outsider’s conflict.
The adolescent energy that pushes Taylor is also behind the band’s eclecticism and quirkiness—they even seem to channel some elements of the Prodigy in the way the programmed and live drums connect on “Eyeless”. Single “Spit It Out” has a jaunty garage-punk bounce despite its apparent angst. The eight-minute closer “Scissors” is percussively dense and seems genuinely, if amateurishly, experimental, while musical linchpin Joey Jordison’s obsessive love of thrash metal underscores the record as a whole. Lyrically, a lot of the album is banal “fuck the world” angst, some psychotic/serial killer-inspired lines, and a reliance on a quiet-to-pulverizing loudness formula that is first draining, ultimately boring. In the midst of this, some great non sequiturs and humour stand out: “You can’t see California without Marlon Brando’s eyes” seems to me as surreal as early ‘80s Mark E. Smith, just as “Fuck me, I’m all out of enemies” reflects funnily on the necessity of conflict for Taylor’s own attitude.
Slipknot’s breakthrough debut spawned imitators like the short lived Mudvayne, but these were few. Slipknot is certainly not an intensely analyzed canonical record, though it is well respected in the metal community. Boilersuits, pig masks, nods to Leatherface, and misogynistic, frat-boy antics were staples of their live shows, and these moves earned them notoriety in popular culture. This filled a void for those (generally teenage) listeners who somehow wished Slayer’s thrash ethic to be removed from historical context and fused with the pantomime metal villainy of Iron Maiden’s Eddie . Will it be talked about in years to come? I think so, for two reasons. Slipknot stands as a culturally significant moment where a strange band broke through, helped by nu-metal’s predominance, and sold a very marketable image. It was also a popular counterpoint, sonically and visually, to the artsy noise-making theatrics of the likes of Lightning Bolt. 
Kieran Curran
5 July 1999
Macy Gray
On How Life Is
“I get high when I smoke.
Try to walk away, but I stumble
Though I try to deny it, it’s clear.
I smoke up when you are not here.”
A petit montage:
In the video, Macy Gray is alone. She wanders around the city, not aimlessly, per se, but generally aimless in life. She pays no real attention to the spaces she inhabits, nor the people with whom she interacts. She’s alone, but not abandoned. Needed, but not loved. Her needs always accompany abandonment. The video reads like addiction, and the protagonist: ‘The Addicted’.
Macy Gray sunk 1999’s groove back into something mellow, and made pop into something smooth, like stout. Fair enough—The haze, craze, and fake lyrics like those above the petit montage served up Macy a Grammy for the tacky love-lost single “I Try”. Yet “Do Something” was the real beat with which hip-hop heads needed to reckon. “You and I got to do for you and I”. It sounds like something Obama would say. Imagine him jamming to Macy’s song on his branded portable digital music and video player, cruising abroad on Air Force One. Swoosh! Turbulence. Don’t drop it! It’s fragile and you won’t want to miss that beat.
Macy Gray’s On How Life Is really had pressing and relevant lyrics. Between the number of negros braggin’ ‘bout dey hoes, let’s not forget to give praise to those soul stars who remained true to the game. The game? Truth telling. Witnessing & Testifying in that ole negro tradition. Witnessing & Testifying on how life is. Now, more and more people are seeing both its global roots & resonance. “Like ole girl growled: Get up. Get out & do something”. Even—and especially—if that means change. It’s all about mutuality and happiness.
Truth is, Barack is the coolest person that I do not know personally. Macy Gray is the second, yet for totally different, though oddly related, reasons in the larger picture. They both are unafraid to speak up and speak out. They both know how to run their mouths and do something. Diepiriye Kuku
