Teach The Children

Post-apocalyptic metal written by two 17-year-olds in 1987. Band name: HAMMERSCHLAG

Yes, 1987... Camaros. Spuds McKenzie. Bon JoviSLAYER! It was the Summer of Metal. I was 17, and at my first (and penultimate) semester at CMU. I'd just met my best friend, also a metalhead. So what do we do? Why, write a song, of course.

In 1988, I finally got a tascam porta05 4-track recorder. So what do we do? Why, record the first song we ever wrote, of course!

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by not_on_display (8 comments total)

My lighter is held aloft. I mean, it would be if I had a lighter.

But hey, somebody tell that tambourine player to stop wandering off-mic. And to put down that beer.

Gloriously stupid and aimless guitar solo. RAAAWWWKS!

All in all, I'd give it a 7, Dick. It's got a beat, you can dance to it. Well, I mean, you'd have to stop dancing for a few seconds around the 3 minute mark... so, uh, maybe a 6, Dick. Yeah I'd give it a 6.

Hey, wait a minute, where'd the drummer go? He explode or something? Oh, but that tambourine guy made it back.

Wait, is it over? Yeah, whoa, that ENDING! OK, this gets a TEN, Dick!! With that ending? This gets a TEN!!!!!

And, can I borrow your lighter?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:42 PM on May 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

Don't pocket this lighter like you do with all my others, man!
posted by not_on_display at 11:25 PM on May 23, 2008

Great.
I had (still have) the exact same Portastudio.
And in 1987 I was doing the same kind of way-too-many-effects on my vocals thing, too.
But those fake drums sound way too good for 1987!
Also, awesome band name.
posted by chococat at 10:49 PM on May 24, 2008

I still have the porta05 too, and it's broken as well. The drums are indeed 1988, if not earlier -- I bought it third-hand, with most of the writing above the buttons wiped off, so that I had to blindly tach myself how to program the sequencer. It was some sort of Roland, white, about the size of a medium-sized hardcover book (like 6x9), 18 or so buttons, etc. It sounded sweet, especially with too many effects. I will post another VERY METAL song from the same period soon.
posted by not_on_display at 6:30 PM on May 26, 2008

Hmm...my brother had a Roland "Human Rhythm Composer" that was about that size, but I think that was in the early '90's. Oh, and I managed to fix my Porta05 (which I got in 88, I don't know why I said 10 years ago in the AskMe) a few months ago and delve back into 80's land with all my old tapes.
Look forward to more stuff.
posted by chococat at 6:46 PM on May 26, 2008

I am not one of those people that believe Rock and Roll is noise and sort of feel you need to work on your jam so it does not seem to be noise and blends more together and upload more songs.
posted by bluefiltration at 8:04 AM on May 30, 2008

^Understood, and thanks for the comments, bluefiltration. Keep in mind that the song is about twenty years old; and I have no intention of going back and cleaning it up. I posted it as sort of a snapshot of teenage exuberance in the Golden Age of pop-metal. Dents and all.

I do agree with you: rock and roll isn't noise, but rock and roll (anod other musics) doesn't preclude noise; and, as a flipside to that, all noise can be interpreted as music if you tilt your head right.

This was (to steal a line from the bible) a joyful noise. You can hear more of my joyful noises via my user profile page, or on anyone's profile page by clicking on the number of posts they've made on MeFiMusic. (For instance, clicking on flapjax's user page, you'll see that he's posted 24 songs; clicking on the "24" leads you here, where you can listen to all of a his songs in a row. And he's good at blending together all the noises to make awesome sound.)

(And welcome to MeFi, by the way! Thanks for using your first comment on my post!)
posted by not_on_display at 11:25 AM on May 30, 2008

Update: The drum machine was (and is) a Roland TR-505 Rhythm Composer. Unearthed during an archaeological dig in my bedroom recently.
posted by not_on_display at 10:58 PM on April 24