[kj] Chug, commercialies, and various repressed gashness

Tue May 9 19:16:03 EDT 2006

I think you have some valid points, but I have to mention that the band itself has said they were going for a commercial audience. 

Personally, to me there's nothing wrong with being a popular band unless you start to alter your music for the purpose of selling. I think that cuts like "Me or You," show that yes killing joke has tried to be friendly toward commercial interests. Even Big Paul has said it was his goal to be big.

It's my personal belief that Killing Jokes music is too odd to be commercially successful. Even BTATS which is the closest Killing Joke has come to making an all out commercial album, still has eccentricities that make it not acceptable to the mainstream. I can't imagine any of the cuts on BTATS as being marketable beyond the first two songs adorations and sanity. Beyond that I can't marketing being able to do much. 

When it comes to night time I don't see it as being commercially friendly at all outside of Love Like Blood. And lets be fair, it's a great song.  

To sum it up, Killing Joke HAS tried to be commercially acceptable, it had mixed results, and I don't think they've tried that again since the late eighties. 

From,
Will 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jiri <unspeakable at sbcglobal.net>
To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!) <gathering at misera.net>
Sent: Tue, 9 May 2006 16:09:35 -0500
Subject: [kj] Chug, commercialies, and various repressed gashness

I'm not persuaded. Killing Joke were accused of going for commercial/accessible hits even as far back as Fire Dances, then again with Night Time, and now too (and then) with BTATS. I don't buy it. Nor with 2003 and "Kerrang fans." They can hardly cobble together a cohesive tour, much less make an album directed toward a young trendy fanbase. It's more like this: Geordie has a bunch of riffs he wants to use (sometimes chuggy, sometimes not), then Jaz starts shouting over them, then a producer or label tries to make commercial sense of it. 

On each of the above albums, there were some elements of commercial leanings--whether from record company pressure or change of sound--, but it was certainly not the primary motivator for any of them, and I think hardly worth mentioning. As someone said, you don't quote the Book of Lies if you're trying to sell out with a commercial hit. 

If anything the evolution toward BTATS appears to be Jaz grabbing more and more control and yanking them toward his orchestral interest--not a big commercial push. It worked on Night Time, which perfectly captured a moment in time, a mood, a reflection of where they recorded it, with some good-to-fantastic lyrics (esp. Darkness Before Dawn), and Geordie's approach was just different -- not like Fire Dances nor Revelations nor WTF, but still effective to me. 

On BTATS, it still worked--though admittedly dangerously close to going too far. But BTATS has some great, beautiful compositions, some great lyrics (one of the few times Jaz really hits the mark with longer lines in his verse), good riffs -- it's merely hurt by the high mix of the keyboards over everything else. As proof, play it very loud (or wait till they release the Kimsey mixes!), or check out some of the better live performances of the material. The drums aren't classic Killing Joke, and Big Paul was apparently frustrated during the recording process, but it says something that his favorite memory in KJ was from a performance during this era (and with this material). 

Most of the elements of strong Killing Joke are there in BTATS (and when really are all of the elements at the top of their game?). Jaz's spiral toward OTG style--not commercialism--just obscured its beauty. 

I guess I like each of their albums too much for whichever side (always different) of the band they happen to highlight, and how each one is different yet retains some elements from the previous one. Because none fall falt for me except OTG. 
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