Get Thrashed

I grew up in the 80s. In the suburbs. Middle class. So I am thrash.

Yeah, I was a little young, but I caught up fast. In 1984, I bought 1984 on vinyl (still have it). In 1989 I bought ...And Justice for All on cassette (it died in the 90s). From 1989 until today, I have spent a great deal of money and time filling in the gaps between 1984 and 1989. That's roughly where thrash comes in. The purpose of Music Movie Night is to expose ourselves to musical artifacts we may not otherwise experience. We enter the evening with receptive ears and an open mind. This is the expectation. From the mellow Pink Floyd to the somber Neil Young to the quirky Talking Heads.

Throughout each individual experience, we follow strict, but understandable rules, most of which have been stated in the introduction to this blog. Unwritten rules also exist. One such rule is resisting the temptation to cross-compare artists and genres. No one spends time criticizing one selection in comparison to another. Regardless of how sublime The Band's performance was, it is not a point of comparison to The Song Remains the Same, except perhaps on a techincal level.

So let it be with Thrash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuj8ABLTZi0

Though I grew on the east coast, I identify most with the musical movement started in California in both the Sunset Strip and San Francisco areas. Bands such as Metallica, Slayer, Testament, DRI, SOD, and Suicidal Tendencies are the standards by which I judge all modern metal.

Rick Earnst's documentary, Get Thrashed, is a hodgepodge of interviews, some seeminly done for the documentary itself, others archival. Interspersed between these snippets of interviews there is enough loud live music to make you all wet and gushy inside. As several us have complained in the past, Get Thrashed often does not include enough music--no full songs, in fact, rarely more than a minute or two of any particular track.

I'm okay with this.

At no point in time does Get Thrashed present itself as an aural history, but rather as an oral history with musical accompan . . . acumpani . . . guitarists.

What's missing? Why did thrash music start? We begin with a tired story of how Metallica started it all. You can't argue with it. They did. But why? What were they revolting against? Unfortunately, not much at all. Thrashers are typically middle-class suburbanites. Not too many devil worshippers, killers, or puppy-kickers. Just kids who have long hair, wear jeans and leather, and want music that is louder, faster, and ruder. We want to hear Megadeth with a better lead singer. We want to find vintage t-shirts from tours we were too young to attend.

We want someone to remaster Metal on Metal, Haunting the Chapel, Show no Mercy, and Killing is My Business (I think someone did that last one, but I heard it was not worth it).

We want new metal but not nu metal. We want Anthrax to rap like dorks, but not Biohazard doing it all serious-like.

We want bands who thrived in the 80s to survive in the 10s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_VfDAFS5n4

We wonder what Metallica would've become if Cliff had not died.