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38- Can Steve Interest You In...Underground Metal?
24 Plays1 day ago
Content Warning: mention of sexual assault, references to violent images and band names
Our guest, Steve Klatt, takes us deep into the world of Underground Metal, including metal clubs, ALL the sub genres, the high school drama of metalheads, and more.
We kick things off with a check-in and learn more about Steve.
At 10:00 we get into Steve’s interest, underground metal--defined as metal music from bands that don’t have a major record deal.
The Inciting Incident: how Steve went from loving hip hop as a teenager to becoming obsessed with metal.
As the former president of a metal club - CODM, Colorado chapter of the New York Death Militia, he gives us the inside scoop on the drama of the metal world.
We learn what a metal club is, plus the three main missions of the CODM/NYDM.
He tells us about the controversy that ultimately led to his decision to leave the club.
We get into the favorite pastimes of metalheads:
Debating sub genres
Dumping on bands they hate (and we learn the band Steve loves to dump on!)
Also:
What even defines metal as a genre? (It's not what you think...unless you know a lot more than Charlotte and Patti about metal)
That time Steve played in a metal band at the Iowa county fair.
And…our very metal homework!
Links/references:
The Charismatic Voice: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCharismaticVoice
Black Sky Brewing (Denver): https://blackskydenver.com/
Logo design by Marielle Martin
Song: Upbeat Drums with Stomps and Claps by music_for_video
BlueSky: @canweinterestyouin.bsky.social
Instagram: @canweinterestyouin
Email us your interests! CanWeInterestYouIn@gmail.com
Website: canweinterestyouin.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Unusual Hobbies
00:00:00
Speaker
You know that thing you love that your friends and family don't want to hear about anymore? Tell it to us, Patty and Charlotte. We want to learn all about your weird and wild obsessions or your perfectly normal hobbies that you've taken just a little too far.
00:00:15
Speaker
We want to dabble in your curious interests. Can we interest you in today's episode?
Guest Introduction: Steve Klatt
00:00:38
Speaker
Hi, Patty. Hey, Charlotte. How are you doing? oh excellent. You ready for our guest? Yes, very. Okay, I'm excited. We have Steve Klatt, who is the husband of Stephanie Klatt, adopter of dogs, dog rescue guest, and lover of an interest we're going to hear about.
00:01:02
Speaker
Oh, yay. Hey, Steve. Hello. I'm so glad that Stephanie reported that it was such a good experience that you wanted to do it, too. oh yeah. that was Why not? Give it a shot.
00:01:16
Speaker
Yeah. Awesome. so you guys know each other through Brian as well, right? Well, I know Brian through her because she works with Brian. So I'm the husband that gets.
00:01:28
Speaker
Yes. I get dragged to the different aims events and so i get to meet all these higher education people so with their elbow pads yeah i imagine it's yep right he's awesome
00:01:48
Speaker
well um we sometimes like to do a little check-in just like how you doing Like for
Patty's Aquarium Adventure
00:01:57
Speaker
reals. Yeah. Let me give you um an update real quick. So my niece and nephew who live upstairs, they got guppies months ago, but one of the guppies kept getting pregnant. So they then had like a ton of guppies. And so I now have five guppies currently. I'm slowly adopting. And so yesterday, big news, I just got a snail. And like, that's the part that I like contributed in myself. And I was like so nervous because I got it from PetSmart. And you know, you're like, it is it going to die by the time it gets home? And I like dropped it in the water after letting it sit. And it just kind of like sank and I was like, shoot. But this morning it's up and moving around the tank and like all the things. so I'm very, I'm pretty excited that my aquarium is now growing. Something I never wanted. i am now like contributing to weekly. So yeah. ya
00:02:57
Speaker
Yeah. Snails are pretty sweet. Yeah. Well, and I asked the guy, I was like, should I get two? Like, do they prefer to be paired? Cause you know, thinking about like dogs and cats and he's like, they don't care. And I was like, Oh, I don't know if you're in the right field.
00:03:18
Speaker
So I started with one. Very nice.
Steve's IT Job Search in Colorado
00:03:22
Speaker
Steve, how about you? how are you doing today? Oh, not too bad. You know, uh, I, uh, I'm on the job search. So any listeners out there in the IT field, I got 20 years of experience doing desktop support. So preferably in higher education. So.
00:03:44
Speaker
All right. Excellent. Yeah. And might have some yeah, right. You're based in Colorado, but you know, hey, yep remote. Hey, remote's remote too. Yeah.
00:03:55
Speaker
Remote is remote. That's such a painful, like, I always say, i wish that when I was in between jobs, I could just like enjoy it and know that it was going to be ah like, know what the outcome was going to be so that I could just fully enjoy the break, you know, because after 20 years in a field,
00:04:16
Speaker
you need a break, right? Like who can't yeah enjoy a break, but it's like, you can't because there's that nervous feeling of like, Ooh, okay. Do enough work and networking and reach out and applying and worrying and things like that. It's like, well, thankfully we're in a good enough position where
The Appeal of State Jobs
00:04:36
Speaker
I'm able to actually look at my job prospects and actually be a little bit more choosy about things.
00:04:44
Speaker
Oh, then that is um, I did, I just did like a three month with a one job that it was not the right fit for me. And it just now, we because we're like, yeah, we we did that. We did it in a rush. And that was not what the situation we wanted to our lives to be in So let's, we're okay.
00:05:11
Speaker
Everything's fine. So let's just go ahead and keep the eye on like the bigger prizes, like, Because worked for the state for so long. I had the state retirement, which they call golden handcuffs.
00:05:25
Speaker
just So I'm kind of locked in to try to find another state job that will contribute to my actual retirement. Retirement.
00:05:37
Speaker
Yeah. And so golden handcuffs, because it's like such a great package, but you're then stuck because you want to keep that. Yep. ha I got it.
00:05:48
Speaker
Good old, uh, yeah. State pensions. It's they're amazing. I mean, you can't argue about getting your normal paycheck for the rest of your life. What? Yeah.
00:06:00
Speaker
yeah So I mean, if I would have, gone through and made it to the actual whatever number it is, it would have been like 100% of what I was making my top three years.
00:06:17
Speaker
That's like
A Concert Experience: Bright Eyes
00:06:18
Speaker
unheard of. And i I remember my grandfather worked for the cemetery in Chicago and he had a pension that my grandmother was on her entire life too. Like that's just so unheard of now, which is a problem. um But how amazing.
00:06:37
Speaker
Yeah. So, you know. Yeah. How many years? Cause, cause I'm rethinking all my life choices right now. this um well i think one quote unquote for the golden parachute 100 you have to get uh it's like 90 years which is age plus your years of service combined wait your age plus your years of service combined so if you're older the years of service don't have to be that high right right your age is higher oh interesting okay
00:07:11
Speaker
nevertheless the door opens over there there's a dog coming in the room so ah closed them out but they might just push through the door so yeah we hope to see yeah and if anybody there's no ghosts yeah i didn't don't say that so many any demons or anything with my topic so but har how are you Oh, yes. OK, I got a dog here who's been snoring. So if you hear anything like that.
00:07:43
Speaker
that's a snoring dog that's not me making weird noises okay probably but um how am i doing oh well i am going to a bright eyes concert tonight with stephanie steve's uh wife so and it's going to be at an outdoor venue right because you said weather was red rocks reason they rescheduled oh yeah and they're then they're doing the the their two albums kind of like um in ah Not in a row. The opener is going to be like in between, but it's. Oh, that's a cool idea. I'm wide awake. It's morning is one of them. And I think digital ash and digital urn is the the second one. So that is the correct order, in my opinion. And those are the two best albums, of course. So it's going to be great.
00:08:34
Speaker
Oh, how fun. What era was, um, it's wide, it's I'm wide awake. It's morning. Like, was that early two thousands? Like it just feels so of a ah time. like So maybe 2010s i mean, i think probably, cause I, it was like my, what twenties probably. ah And, uh, when would that have been?
00:09:00
Speaker
I'm looking it up right now
00:09:04
Speaker
2005, by the way. Yeah. That'll be great. Yeah, I can't wait. It's going to be nice. It was delayed. was supposed to be last Wednesday because of a snowstorm, but that evening was beautiful. da Yeah, they could have had that show.
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. but They listened to the weather people, but they shouldn't have because, don't know, they're never really right here, I feel like.
00:09:33
Speaker
and And noting that, yes, we are recording in May. So it's not like this is a banked episode to be talking about snowstorms. but That's right. Yeah. that's like There's always a weird snowstorm in May here.
00:09:45
Speaker
Gotta have our late winter snowstorm.
00:09:50
Speaker
Yeah. So that's how I am. Cool. That's exciting to look forward to.
Passion for Underground Metal
00:09:56
Speaker
mm-hmm okay so steve you alluded a little bit that it could be a ghost that was being summoned um what is what is the interest that you're going to share with us today underground metal okay oop it's yeah it's kind of a niche area um i mean i was going to kind of my history of metal i mean I've been a metalhead since I was probably... It's a lot later than a lot of metalheads, but like 15, 16 years old.
00:10:30
Speaker
I got into... okay How old are metalheads usually? born oh God. they i got this buddy.
00:10:42
Speaker
i he Everybody calls him Mops. That's just his his nickname. It's Mops. His... older sister used to sing him to sleep with twisted sister and Alice Cooper songs. She was his twisted sister. Yeah. So he was into it like way earlier than me. And there's a lot of other guys that I've talked to. I'm like, Oh yeah. We, I started listening to metal. I was like 10 or 11 and I'm like, man Oh, I guess, I guess I I'm a late bloomer.
00:11:21
Speaker
I was kind of really into hip hop. You got to just in time crank it in the car. You're going to have a new license. You need to play something really cool on it. And who was the first band that you got really, really into?
00:11:36
Speaker
i would have to say like yeah it would be White Zombie. Okay. um Because that was kind of one of the first concerts I ever went to was White Zombie.
00:11:48
Speaker
It was a band. I can't remember their of the band, but I don't know that I know any white zombie songs. And if I did, i don't know. you know like Maybe I do. It's one of those you probably would hear it in the background and you'd be like, oh, I know that that song. Okay, that's who it is. Yeah. And it just kind of... it So yeah kind of how you get into underground debt metal.
00:12:12
Speaker
More human than human. I know that one. Okay. yeah There you go. ah yeah so... they were a little bit more on the radio and that was kind of one of the first concerts I went to.
00:12:24
Speaker
And it really, uh, so I was really big into hip hop, NWA ice cube, iced tea. I still am. Don't get me wrong. I love hip hop, but Wu-Tang. Steve just did the Wu-Tang hand gesture.
00:12:44
Speaker
yeah So, I still really like hip hop, but it really back in the day. So I had this paper route I used to deliver and I joined Columbia house.
00:12:58
Speaker
Oh yes. We tell her, you know, I got my 10 CDs. Yeah. My 10 tapes. It was all tapes back then when I did it. And I ended up getting this tape and it was called nativity in black.
00:13:13
Speaker
It was a tribute album to black Sabbath. which is the all father of all metal.
00:13:23
Speaker
Even I've heard of them. Yes. You know, some people say Deep Purple was the originator. it I'm a Sabbath man myself. So I got that and it was a tribute album. So it had like a lot of newer bands doing covers of Black Sabbath songs. oh And I just, it was their monthly release. And I was like,
00:13:45
Speaker
I need new music to deliver papers. So I put that on and on my little bike with my headset, you know, headphones on and like, wow, this is different than all the hip hop I'd listened to. And, you know, I ended up becoming friends with my buddy Mops back in middle school. And we talking like Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, stuff like that. And then this White Zombie concert came up.
00:14:13
Speaker
And my father drove us to this concert because we were all 15. couldn't drive. yep And then a little bit, a couple moment months down the road, ah Ozzy Osbourne was coming to town.
00:14:28
Speaker
And I say come to town. This is like I'm originally from Iowa, like the Midwestern corner of Iowa. So you don't, that type of music. I mean, you're listening to Merle Haggard or you're, you know,
00:14:42
Speaker
well and they're not coming to your town. so like, Oh, go for going to, uh, we would, it was about two and a half hour drive to Cedar Rapids. Cedar Rapids. Okay. Oh, they came to Cedar Rapids though. are Yeah. they Well, they had a big arena there that they would allow metal acts to.
00:15:00
Speaker
And I kinda, I would go there and, and it really, it wasn't even the, it was, wasn't the main line bands that really got me into a lot of this. It was the opening bands.
00:15:14
Speaker
band like Sepultura and Typo Negative. They are... Oh yeah, I've heard of Typo Negative. These are all the big name bands for what I listen to. ah Yeah, because what qualifies like or what's the definition of underground metal?
00:15:36
Speaker
Basically, if you don't have a record deal or if you have a record deal, it's... some company that's in Europe. Okay. Or it's some guy that's running it out of his basement because he has a passion for it.
00:15:52
Speaker
the The joke is there's no money in metal. Well, and so is there a big feeling? Like I remember my friends who were like really into ska in high school, selling out was the big problem, right? Like, oh, there's such a sellout. So like if they got big,
00:16:10
Speaker
then it kind of like they lost cred with the people, you know, like if they became mainstream hit, then it was like, Oh, any music genre, you run into that problem of, you don't want to piss off, you you know, the underground, you're, you're true fans, ah but at the same time, people like to eat.
00:16:31
Speaker
Yeah. You want success, right? yeah You want a little bit to be out there to be, There's some bands out there and well'll I'll discuss so a few of them later that they don't care.
00:16:42
Speaker
They are making artistic statements and that is their, they don't care if they don't have a dime to their name, they're making an artistic statement or they are representing themselves.
00:16:55
Speaker
And that's more important, the music, and that is more important than anything else. well and And that kind of defines the underground. Yeah. Okay. I was going to say that feels, obviously this is not metal at all, but it does feel like guided by voices, which, um you know, Brian talked about. So it's like, yeah, Pollard was just like, it's just like, I'm making music. I don't care. And I'm making a lot of it. Like, like you could this is not to me. Join the train or you can get off.
00:17:26
Speaker
Yeah. i've I've been to shows where five people showed up. Oh, and these and the And the band traveled like hundreds of miles to play and five people showed up, but they put in every ounce of themselves into that show.
00:17:47
Speaker
So, and it's just like a it's like the Underground Railroad. There's a whole underground network to it.
Leading a Metal Club
00:17:58
Speaker
And one of the things that I feel that qualifies me as kind of a representation. I used to be a president of a metal club. Okay.
00:18:10
Speaker
So I was the president for CODM, which is the Colorado chapter of NYDM, New York death militia.
00:18:21
Speaker
Nice. Wait, so is death militia like just who you guys are? You're the death militia or yeah. Okay. So, so basically, I mean, how it's the name I know you say death metal, New York death metal, it gets kind of glitchy at that. I don't know the the proper term, but it gets a little ye where death militia.
00:18:48
Speaker
It's a little bit more of a force, you know, like an army backing you when you say militia versus just a type of music. Okay. Okay. And is that kind of what your function was? Like your your group, the CODM?
00:19:05
Speaker
Yeah. So our our function was to basically support the underground. um We would go into places that we had three main missions.
00:19:18
Speaker
Number one, if there was no music scene in the area, we would create it. And that is booking bands, finding but shows, or, you know, booking shows, being a full on promoter and doing that job.
00:19:37
Speaker
the The second thing was we were against bad promoters. So anytime, and this goes with all genres of music, there's bad promoters out there. There's a promoter that'll be like, we'll book a band and say, I'll pay you $100 to play this show.
00:19:58
Speaker
The band says, great, we're going to play this show. And at the end of the night, they go, oh well, we didn't get enough people in the door. We can't pay you anything.
00:20:09
Speaker
Even though you can see their wallet is bulging in the back. And that wasn't part of the original agreement. Right. that ah There was no contract involved. It was all verbal, so...
00:20:22
Speaker
the the promoter can just be like, yeah sorry, no milk money. Have fun, man. And then there's also the, they call it pay to play. So let's say um just cause lack of metal knowledge, Metallica is coming to town.
00:20:40
Speaker
Heard of them. The promoter comes up and says, okay, you can open for Metallica, but you have to sell 500 tickets.
00:20:52
Speaker
Whoa. And if you don't sell those 500 tickets, you you either have to buy them or you don't play. Oh, wow.
00:21:04
Speaker
And that's called pay to play. And that is a huge, we were very anti pay to play bad promoters. So it was our job to call out bad promoters and just,
00:21:17
Speaker
tell bands, Hey, don't play for that guy. Cause he's he'll screw you over on money. And cause we want you guys to be successful. And the other third selling point was i called us triple a for metal heads or bands.
00:21:35
Speaker
So basically if you're, if you, you know, you're on tour and you're traveling down the road and your van gets a flat tire and you don't have a spare or you need to get your stuff to the show.
00:21:47
Speaker
if you know someone in the NYDM, you could call them or put a message out to, we have Facebook groups, there all sorts that thing. You can put a message out and be like, Hey, I need help.
00:21:58
Speaker
I'm stuck in the middle of the road in nowhere, Nebraska helped me. And somebody would show up or, and then the other thing is, is we always promised like a NYDM bands or bands that are friends of NYDM that, um,
00:22:16
Speaker
you would we could promise you a place to stay and a hot meal. Wow. and Because the thing was, is you were part of the club. You had somebody that would say, hey, i stick up for this guy.
00:22:31
Speaker
They're good. so have you ever had, like, would you open your home to members to stay? have you done that?
00:22:42
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Um, we had a member that, uh, she came to town for, uh, it was a band called Wardruna. They were playing red rocks and it's a they're not metal.
00:22:57
Speaker
They're like Norse folk music is the best way to term them. And they only play like three times a year.
00:23:08
Speaker
And one of the times they were playing in Colorado and she just send the message out, Hey, Colorado people, where can I, can I crash? Can I, you know, this is last minute. I need somewhere to somebody to take care of me.
00:23:25
Speaker
Wow. And I stepped up. I was like, yeah, no, rock on. I got a spare bedroom. Come on in. That's so cool. Yeah. So, and that was part of, I mean, that was the mission of the club.
Leaving the Metal Club: A Disagreement
00:23:40
Speaker
And unfortunately I am no longer part of the club. So, It's a mission I still believe in fully in my heart of supporting the underground, supporting music. There's a lot of quote unquote garage bands that never get any way, shape or form of success. But if I can provide them a platform to speak their message out, no matter what it is, I'm there.
00:24:10
Speaker
oh I mean, is there a story behind, you said, unfortunately, I'm no longer this happened probably about five, six years ago. I'm going to kind of change names. Cause I don't want, um there was a a member or the founder of the club was playing a show I believe it was Atlanta.
00:24:32
Speaker
And when the founder of the club shows up, everybody shows up. I mean, it's a you go, if you're within a three to five mile rate, you're not our drive radius.
00:24:45
Speaker
you go. is And apparently he got intoxicated and then he was forcing himself onto a female member of the club.
00:25:02
Speaker
And I'm actually, I, I, I met that member and because we would have annuals every year. i had met that member. She was the nicest, sweetest person. And,
00:25:15
Speaker
and to To be like that, I mean, we had other members that physically had to pull him off of her. And that just, that doesn't sit right with me. Yeah.
00:25:30
Speaker
And just, that's not what the club was about. Basically, we had to, the whole club as a whole had to sit back and be like, what are we going to do? this is one of our founding members.
00:25:41
Speaker
I mean, we love the dude, but we can't have this type of shit stand. I mean, it's, that's bad. And it's not the first time something like that had been rumbled through the club.
00:25:55
Speaker
I mean, the whole thing was like staked on like people vouching for other people. So if you can't, eat right. Self, like how can anybody? The biggest thing with the the whole club was respect.
00:26:08
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, you respect me. I respect you. And so. He stepped back. He, he left the club. He took just, he said, I'm a founder, but I'm retired.
00:26:24
Speaker
I'm no longer in association with the running of the day-to-day, the club, the club moved on okay things progressed. I mean, it's, it's all, it's an international organization.
00:26:39
Speaker
I mean, we, we had chapters in Australia, Switzerland, London, all over the world and let alone the 50 States. And it's just, it's a huge beast.
00:26:53
Speaker
And the guy that took it on, he tried the best he could. And eventually the, the founder guy just stepped right back in. And he was like, I'm taking back over.
00:27:06
Speaker
i don't like how things are being ran. And at that point it was well, well Either you're you're on board or you're laying your cut on the floor.
00:27:20
Speaker
That stinks because it feels like any kind of, he was in a position of power and then it's like, oh, so excuse my behavior and I can do whatever I want.
00:27:32
Speaker
And clearly no, because you guys, you know, yeah stepped up. but then But then what do you do in the end? Like if, if yeah, it's like. If he still has a claim. And this is like this kind of,
00:27:45
Speaker
conversation that's happening, i feel like in other areas, too. I've just heard a lot about this in like certain smaller theater communities where there's maybe some person in power, and then they, they try to keep going in spite of these terrible things that somebody's doing. So I respect the fact that it was like, well, no, people are gonna stand up for what they believe in. and and we're not going to let this stand. But then, yeah, how, how, how can you, what can you do when you just, somebody who just comes back in and says, just guess what? It's mine. Yeah. It's my club. I'm in charge again. Oh, okay.
00:28:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's it. And really, I mean, ah there was another large portion of, I mean, leaving the club because there was an opportunity to stay in the club.
00:28:40
Speaker
And to be that voice of reason to be like, we're going to, I know this happened, but, and we're going kind of fight it and be that way. But I saw the writing on the wall of, I mean, all the people that I loved in the club were leaving.
00:29:00
Speaker
and Also, it's no longer the same club. It's not the people I want to be yeah hanging out with and associated with. So I just, I hung my vest. oh I can't even say i hung my vest up. I turned my vest back in.
00:29:15
Speaker
This is a literal vest. Yeah. yeah I wish I had a picture of it or whatever I can show you, but yeah, it was my vest and it was custom made. It had, it was a leather vest.
00:29:30
Speaker
All the stitching was red because the colors of the club was red, black, and silver. So it it was, you know black leather, red stitching. And then in the back, it had like you could reverse it and it was still the club logo.
00:29:49
Speaker
So the inside was the club logo. Very cool. Yeah. And I, I, I was like, these colors need to continue on. i mean, i can't, so I turned my colors back in because I was like, I can, what am I going to do with them?
00:30:06
Speaker
I'm going to hang them on a wall. Nah. So I turned my colors back in and a lot of other people did too, or they held onto them.
00:30:17
Speaker
Is there a subgroup now of former members of the CODM where it's not even CODM because there was a, so we were a group. i mean, ah I say a huge group, but it we were like Colorado was eight or nine people.
00:30:35
Speaker
Okay, so it's like the larger n NYDM. But the larger NYDM, there is a large group that, and we still, we have a Facebook group, but we just kind of, we chat on on occasions. and But it's not the same.
00:30:49
Speaker
Yeah, it's, I mean, I miss the club life, but at the same time, it's a lot easier. There was a lot of drama. Metalheads can be just as high school kids as anybody else.
00:31:04
Speaker
Well, and to be out there creating an underground scene and also booking and ah all, that's a ton of work.
00:31:16
Speaker
hey That's why I was happy when I got, when I finally made it to president, because I was like, I got all these people now. I can just be like, I want to show here. And let's ah let's work on doing a, a veteran benefit for Memorial day weekend. Go.
00:31:33
Speaker
find me ah Find me a venue and find me bands. yeah Plus, you you had to be on call for anybody whose car breaks down or needs a place to stay. or just Yeah, you always kind of had to keep an eye open of what was happening. How long were you in the the club or in the group?
00:31:54
Speaker
I'm trying to think here. It was about 2010 I started, so about 15 years. oh wow. Another nice thing about the club... was we model ourselves over motor, like a motorcycle club.
00:32:09
Speaker
Okay. so you kind of had to become a friend and then you had to prospect about a year to determine this guy's a good person.
00:32:22
Speaker
As I like to say to our prospects, I was like, I want to be able to feel safe that I can leave a hundred dollar bill on the counter work leave the house with nobody else around, and that $100 is still there.
00:32:36
Speaker
And it's so it's so interesting that you're saying that because then the only person who's really... immune from that is the founder. So it, cause everybody else is going to be evaluated based on that. But I guess if you founded it, you can't, you can't get ousted. oh yeah, no one, no one had to, yeah, nobody had to interview for them out.
00:33:01
Speaker
But anyway, um, But so, okay like the motorcycle clubs. um And I do know a little bit about that ah just from what I've heard before. um That's pretty intense though. Like it becomes like your identity, right? Yeah, it does.
00:33:21
Speaker
The club, I mean, I go to shows anymore and I feel naked. Like 100% naked because I don't have my vest. There was a time and I was telling Steph about this.
00:33:33
Speaker
There's a respect factor, even with non-club people. I could go to like some of the quote unquote biggest shows and I could walk directly through the mosh pit like and not get hit.
00:33:51
Speaker
i could I would specifically see people move out of the way to prevent hitting me. And I could walk directly through the pit and not be touched. Mm-hmm.
00:34:02
Speaker
and so do people still recognize you even without the vest a little bit a lot of people i mean there's quite a few people that actually i didn't recognize you without the vest ah and are there other clubs then so n ym is the the biggest um Unfortunately, all the other clubs have sprung from incidents of NYDM.
00:34:31
Speaker
So like in reaction to this is like small religions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So like ah this was almost before my time in the club. There was an issue in Georgia where they splintered off and they became their own thing. And there's a Georgia death militia. They sprung off and did their own thing. And then within my time, probably about six years ago,
00:34:59
Speaker
the regional leader of the California chapter kind of was like, hey, there's some bads there's some bad apple. some you know I see the rot in the apple.
00:35:15
Speaker
We need to
00:35:19
Speaker
get away from NYDM. And he splintered off and created his own club based on his band, Possessed, Jeff Paseya.
00:35:32
Speaker
And they created the church the club of the seven churches.
00:35:38
Speaker
We're both, like I think, making like a mental map, or at least this is what I'm doing in my head. and I mean, you've gone into like metal genres where that you almost definitely need a of whiteboard for it. Oh, sub-genres, yeah.
00:35:56
Speaker
Because that's where a lot of like the underground metal scene comes from, because like you have the top genres, and but then it kind of sprinkles down into different other genres. And that's what it's two things that metalheads love just yammering about. that Any show, anywhere you go to, you'll hear two metalheads talking... oh no, that band isn't death metal. They're more black metal.
00:36:26
Speaker
You know, there's bands hate the genre logos because it feels like they're put in a box. But fans just, they love talking about what genres their favorite bands are and they love just hating on other bands. That's that's the metal head pastime. Let's drink a lot of beer and just complain about or talk about different metal bands.
00:36:57
Speaker
Okay. What would you say is your, are some of the sub genres genres that are your favorites and what's a band that you love to complain about?
Favorite Metal Subgenres
00:37:07
Speaker
So it's almost like pronouns, the modern day pronouns with most people. That's how metalheads been talking like that forever.
00:37:18
Speaker
So I identify as I like grindcore, death metal, sludge, and doom. Wait, those are subgenres?
00:37:29
Speaker
Yes. Grindcore, death metal, sludge? Yep. And then what's the last one? Doom? D-O-O-M? Yep.
00:37:40
Speaker
Like gloom and doom? Okay. okay Basically, that the whole thing with doom metal is like when you listen to it, you just have to have a feel sense of dread, like this overarching, like everything's not going to be okay. it Everything's bad. that That's doom metal.
00:38:04
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. I'm sensing like a, like an opportunity for a personality test here, just like to create one. That's like, which, death which metal sub genre are you? Yeah. Right. Yeah.
00:38:21
Speaker
And it gets even more because there's pirate metal and there's Viking metal. I've heard of Viking metal. Yeah. Yeah. I think that the,
00:38:33
Speaker
my favorite band to dump on. I don't have any hate for them. Sure. I really don't, but I love just dumping on them man of war. Okay.
00:38:44
Speaker
Why does that sound familiar? Like I, it's type of jellyfish. Maybe. Oh, is well, yeah. It's also a, uh, ship.
00:38:55
Speaker
There's a ship called a man of war, but there's also like four dudes that were just like, leather bikinis when you know like every album cover they're just they have the fur leather bikini on and nothing else and they're yeah that's their album covers and it's just everybody's like oh god man of war what's not to like mean yeah for Bikinis. Crushing the enemies of metal. is Yeah. I'm looking at their anniversary tour of 2023. Okay.
00:39:32
Speaker
ah okay So it's man award. I was putting down like man of ah war. Oh, war. Okay.
00:39:45
Speaker
Yeah. They get dumped on a lot just for their album covers. Cause they're quite humorous. Well, and even what they're wearing. I mean, like you said, it's like this is so... it The outfit that I'm looking at, though, looks like it would be something like a child would buy if they wanted to be like Captain America for for Halloween because it's got like fake abs on it. It has fake abs. Yeah. it Manowar reminds me of like, a if you're from the eighty s the Swords and Sorcery movies.
00:40:22
Speaker
like beast master and there's a whole genre called sword and sorcery. I think that is because there's some types of genres that probably are the ones that as mainstream people we think of, right? Like, and I feel like progressive metal because you get bands like tool.
00:40:45
Speaker
um <unk> is metal yeah. I don't progressive metal. Oh, Okay. And then, uh, yeah, see, I tell you metal heads love throwing things in boxes and organize a lot of metal heads are collectors.
00:41:03
Speaker
My CD collection is bigger than your CD collection type situation. i have more albums than you do, but you know, and of course, when you have a large amount of albums, you have to be able to put them on their little boxes and the little spaces,
00:41:21
Speaker
And that's just a way to do it. um Some of the other ones that are more mainstream, Nu Metal, because you get Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, System of the Down.
00:41:37
Speaker
And I know that some metal head out there is going to hear this and then they're going message me to be like, no, bro, they are not. There's no way they are Nu Metal.
00:41:49
Speaker
And then won't you be so excited to have that conversation because that's what you love to do? Oh, yeah. I feel like I feel like I would be into I'm just having like a vision of some sort of European softer metal that might involve Vikings or Nazis.
00:42:13
Speaker
Something like you said, Nordic earlier. That sounds like a vibe that I'd be into. Is there one that's like that? that That is actually folk metal.
00:42:23
Speaker
Oh, yeah. That sounds weird. they great Folk metal, actually, they they do a lot more Nordic tradition and they normally play on a yeah acoustic instruments.
00:42:37
Speaker
Oh, what? So what even defines metal then as a genre? That is a good question. feel I've been told that it's time signature related. Okay.
00:42:54
Speaker
Like the music itself's time signature? Oh. Yeah. like don'tver in a digen different Yeah. So like tool and, uh,
00:43:08
Speaker
Oh, I can't think of their name. There's another band, but they they basically, Dillinger Escape Plan is one of them also, I believe, that they they do math equations in their music.
00:43:25
Speaker
Oh my God, my mom is going to love to hear that. So they'll do like a 416th time signature, and then they will change the time signature the music to... like 132. And then it's like you sit there and you you can do the different time signatures that the band is playing. And it comes out to some math equation with an answer.
00:43:51
Speaker
Oh, that is very cool. I always hope it's 42 because that's always the answer to everything, but it never seems to work out. i can't think of a single thing that the answer 42.
00:44:02
Speaker
What you think?
00:44:06
Speaker
Adam just read this. It's a hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. There you go. Okay. It's the answer to everything. 42. Okay. It's a spoiler alert.
00:44:20
Speaker
the That's a very mathy answer that I was not expecting, but that's, yeah that's a good answer. It's better than. I don't know. I thought it had to do with something about the the ah like the sound of it. So when you said that there's like acoustic instruments, that completely confused me. so but Right? yeah Yeah. The word metal makes me think it has to be like plugged Electrified plugged in. Not always. it's yeah
00:44:52
Speaker
the The genres have but broken out to such an extreme that you don't There's a certain sound to it. When you hear it, you you know.
00:45:03
Speaker
Yeah. it So it goes back to the original the determining of heavy metal, which actually comes from a music review for Deep Purple. This was like the 60s or if not earlier, some English journalist went to a Deep Purple concert And he just he termed the sound that they were creating as just a bunch of heavy metal falling. it was just and that's how heavy metal was born. That term.
00:45:39
Speaker
Oh, that's cool. or at least that's how the story goes. And with everything, it's the story that gets printed. It's never the truth. So right. You print the story.
00:45:53
Speaker
I feel like there is a lot of clunking type sounds, though, from what heard. Yeah, but it's very clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk. I had to see who they were, and I'm like, oh, okay, smoke on the water. Yeah.
00:46:08
Speaker
Would you consider them heavy metal? Yeah. Yeah. They're a classic, um I believe they're classic British wave.
00:46:21
Speaker
One. Hmm. Yeah, there's multiple British waves too with the genre. I mean, they break it down extremely.
00:46:34
Speaker
i like it. Some of it, i yeah, know like i I get down with, but you know it's not...
Political Messaging in Grindcore
00:46:41
Speaker
i like my grindcore because mainly I like like a lot of grindcore is because the political messaging behind it.
00:46:53
Speaker
Because they are very... it's a Grindcore is a mix of hardcore punk and metal. Oh, okay. You'll get bands like Napalm Death.
00:47:06
Speaker
They've been around since the 80s, but they are very, very political. And a lot of the other political names are bands like Cattle Decapitation.
00:47:17
Speaker
Wait, what? yeah I was waiting for that. What? How do we get to cattle decapitation? Cattle decapitation. Okay.
00:47:28
Speaker
Yeah. ah ah Factory farms? Is that how we got there? Factory farming. um Almost ah all the members are vegetarians.
00:47:41
Speaker
Okay. So they are very strict vegans and they just... and that I mean, a lot of their album, like one of their album covers is a human that's been on a beach that's decomposing and inside is just all this plastic.
00:47:59
Speaker
Oh, that's too real. Yeah, no, they get real. Like, uh, my favorite was, uh, I went to their tour, uh, right before COVID hit and they played bring back the plague. Oh, no. no.
00:48:19
Speaker
or They brought this on to us yeah No, they they were saying they just there needs to be a little bit little depopulation. a thinning of the herd. as Yes, yes.
00:48:33
Speaker
they They had an album that was called Served Man. And the album cover was like a guy standing there, but he was drawn out like you see all the at the butcher shop.
00:48:49
Speaker
with a cow. Oh, yeah. How it's drawn out of the different cuts of meat. Yes. It was a person, a guy sit standing there with all the the pieces drawn out of gee how to how to serve man.
00:49:04
Speaker
wow Yeah. So then what is sludge? what How would you describe that kind of metal? Sludge is...
00:49:15
Speaker
It has a lot of like Southern roots to it. So you're adding like a lot of Leonard Skinner into it. So it is like very bluesy.
00:49:30
Speaker
And it kind of like when you listen to it, it feels like you're stuck in the mud. Like you think metal, like this is more like, Oh,
00:49:40
Speaker
this is more like the And we're trying to get our boot out of the mud. oh oh do Oh, you know,
00:49:53
Speaker
the downside with sludge metal, it has a lot of heroin, heroin context to it. Because that is just how like heroin users explain, the feeling of doing heroin is like you're stuck in sludge. Okay. I got a question about yeah things like the militia. um So when you're trying to bring metal to different areas, did you get in fights about like what sub genres or is it like, as long as it's metal, we are promoting it no matter what, even if it's man award.
00:50:30
Speaker
So that that was one of the things that was a little bit of a, controversy in the club. It was more, I mean, for me as my, our region and our area, I was more like, you know, i don't care.
00:50:47
Speaker
You want to throw a punk band on stage. Great. You want to follow that with a polka band. Great. Cause yeah, it's probably genre, probably but yeah,
00:51:04
Speaker
Really, I was more of just, I wanted to support the underground music scene. I wanted to give high school students, you know, that the four dads that are reliving their glory days in their midlife crisis, that opportunity to to hit the stage in front of people.
00:51:25
Speaker
It may be only 10, 15 people, but at least there's somebody can hear them and their message that they're bringing out there into the world.
00:51:36
Speaker
Yeah. Except for war metal. it
00:51:42
Speaker
There's a running joke within, well, there's two long-term metal jokes. The first one is, there isn't a matter of time if you play war metal, you're going to become a Nazi band.
00:51:56
Speaker
Oh, so that is, ah that's basically what it sounds like, that war metal. Yeah. War metal eventually. Yeah. You become a Nazi band. Okay. Slippery slope.
00:52:09
Speaker
Yeah. Your gateway metal. There's only so far you can go with world war two and metal. It kind of. Oh, war metal is specific to world war two. It gets, it gets mainly.
00:52:23
Speaker
That is. i haven't heard of like a lot of Spartan war metal, civil war metal. yeah i don't know I got a band I'm starting now. well So that leads me. Were you in a band at any point? do you I was in high school.
00:52:43
Speaker
Okay. We played one county fair. Oh, damn. That's a good gig. that is We played one one song in this county fair. And I think we heard three people clapping at the end. So parents were there. Like the bleachers were full of, you know, this Midwestern Iowa crowd. And there were like three people like.
00:53:09
Speaker
if You were like that. We we did it right. They don't get it. Yeah. yeah They didn't even thought about us yet, bro. So then after that, did you stop or is that something that you like music playing music?
00:53:26
Speaker
that you keep I enjoy still playing. I have my ah guitar like right here. so i mean it's i still kind of play around on that a little bit. I mainly did vocals just because I was able to...
00:53:43
Speaker
Very impressive. um I'm not trying to detract from your listenership to check out the charismatic voice on YouTube.
00:53:56
Speaker
She's a phenomenal resource. She's an opera singer. The charismatic voice? Yeah. Okay. She is a a classically trained opera singer that basically I'll listen to anything and give vocal critiques to and of course the metalheads eventually are like oh yeah? Yeah.
00:54:24
Speaker
Check these vocals out. And she became super fascinated with people's ability to drop to that register and do that sort of vocal. And like keep it up.
00:54:41
Speaker
Yeah. For like a whole hour long set. She actually has a study with ah but some universities to actually scope metal singers vocal cords.
00:54:53
Speaker
Oh, wow. To see how they fluctuate and do what they do to create those noises. Interesting.
00:55:04
Speaker
And then it would almost be like, okay, so do we do tests on baby's vocal cords to see if there'll be a metal performer because they have the right. Oh, that'd be great. We just getting started early. yeah You know, you are in this bucket of this same genre. Yeah.
00:55:20
Speaker
Singing to them at night and then having them, you know, practice their, they're, they're already crying and screaming. So that's really good practice. No, go lower. Lower. So that that's one of the questions that I always like. So I have an aunt that she listens to more regular music and they just, they can't comprehend the vocals of a lot of it. It's the detracting from a lot of people is the vocals.
00:55:51
Speaker
And i I tell people, i'm like, you can't think of lyrical content because you can't understand the lyrics. Okay. Yeah. I've been listening this shit years and there's bands. I'm like, yeah, I have no idea what he's saying.
00:56:07
Speaker
Okay. See, that's what I was going to ask because I feel like I could see somebody saying like, yeah, I i understand all the words. if you If you get it, you get it.
00:56:18
Speaker
Yeah. But no, i I mean, one of my most favorite bands in the world, um I Hate God. He has no real set lyrics. Oh, it's just like,
00:56:31
Speaker
Noises. A sound. It's it's the sound he's feeling at that moment. Oh. So it's different. He makes it sound really close. Like, ah you listen to the album, you you listen to them live, you'll you'll hear little differences, but he mainly stays... He remembers what word he was just like yelling Vietnam in the middle of a song.
00:56:58
Speaker
so I mean, that's just... He remembers that sort of thing or it's written down and he remembers to say that when, but it's a lot of it's, it's more of the tone that he's going for than the actual lyrical content.
00:57:15
Speaker
Hmm. So what do you love about the music itself? Like, is it, uh, the vibe, the musicality,
00:57:28
Speaker
uh, something else i would say yeah vibe and musicality because there's there's bands out there that uh i've even said that i'm like i should like this band i don't oh a band called white chapel they they hit they hit all the marks they're they're close to like uh another one of my favorite bands uh pig destroyer they're very close yeah the names just get humor more humor as it goes if you really think about it they just don't do it for me a lot of people are into ghost um which i feel they sound like beach boys that sounds good hey everybody's got their own thing man i ain't gonna hate anybody i mean i enjoy slipknot and it's not even as much musical as like hey they're from but iowa
00:58:26
Speaker
They made it out of the cornfields playing that
Admiration for Slipknot
00:58:29
Speaker
style of music. you hit Rock on, man. But that style of music, you got to get out of Iowa. Probably. Yeah. At least not the county fair.
00:58:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. The county fair. No, at least not in Fayette County. they They were very, no, we don't know what you're doing up there. The fun thing was, is we got told like, I think the next year, the previous year that they had canceled all musical acts.
00:58:57
Speaker
from the county fair after that Ouch. Or maybe they're like, chuckled hard because I'm like, oh, that little girl that was going up there to play piano or whatever, she can't play now because of me. ha That's like the ultimate mic drop.
00:59:16
Speaker
yeah right So, Steve, do you have homework
Invitation to Experience Underground Metal Shows
00:59:20
Speaker
for us? A way that we can engage in this this interest of yours? um Yes.
00:59:27
Speaker
Either after this I can send you some shows, probably because you're in St. Louis, right? I am. I know some people in St. Louis. I can probably hook you up with some shows if if you're in a residency. If not, um I can get a can send you some albums.
00:59:47
Speaker
and they just Oh, no, this is great. You want to go to the show. Oh, you want to go actual some real good death metal and whatever weird metal.
00:59:58
Speaker
um Yeah, so afterwards I'll get some shows that are happening locally who on the underground for you. Charlotte, you're you're easy because you can just go to Black Sky.
01:00:11
Speaker
Black Sky, what is that? It's just a... Black Sky Brewing. Let me know you go. Okay. i'll ah I'll head on down. Alright. That's like the the heart of the underground metal scene in Denver.
01:00:26
Speaker
Never heard of it. Probably because I'm not in that scene. yeah Back in the day, it used to be a place called Bar Bar. Like the elephants? Maybe. Bar Bar?
01:00:40
Speaker
baby love Well, no, not that. So basically I think it was, it's the Calypso or something cafe is what it was called in like jazz era.
01:00:55
Speaker
but like there's, there was no name on the venue, just a sign on the corner that said bar bar. Oh,
01:01:08
Speaker
unfortunately, due to land development, um, A lot of us in the underground believe that it was actually taken out for real estate reasons because it's prime real estate downtown Denver.
01:01:23
Speaker
That's a conspiracy theory that checks out. but Yeah. Yeah. yeah great To be fair, it was never that... Safe for human occupation. maybe it did just fall down. It wasn't being well well taken care of I wouldn't drink from the taps there because I've seen the cockroaches. Okay. Yeah. So multiple I'd been to a show there where somebody took it, like one of the tables.
01:01:53
Speaker
That's just those round circular tables on the floor and picked it up and started just smashing it on the floor to break it. And the bartender's just like, yep, that's a normal Saturday night.
01:02:07
Speaker
Wait, and this is where you're telling Charlotte to go? no, This place no longer exists. Yeah, I wish it still was there. I'd be like, yeah, let's go to Bar Bar. It'd be great time. time We're going to have blast.
01:02:20
Speaker
So, yeah okay, then we, you will send me and Patty to places with toilets and urinals. Yes, it'll be a, okay. Any, if not a guide.
01:02:34
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. yeah And if there's not a bathroom, just let me know ahead of time and I will yeah plan. A lot of people aren't doing house parties anymore. Like they used to. So, man.
01:02:47
Speaker
Well, this sounds very fun and like a true immersion in your interest. So I love that. Thank you. I'm ready to get out of my comfort zone.
01:02:59
Speaker
Yes. yeah Yes. to Go from bright eyes to any kind of metal, but hopefully it'll be one of these that you like. People are going to be like, um ma'am, are are you waiting for you? Are you looking for your child? You can wait outside for them. Oh, I'm here to enjoy. one of the most weirdest situations that I'd ever been involved in was i saw Marilyn Manson at the five season center in Iowa. And I was in the pit, the mosh pit and like this, they had to be like 70, 80 years old. Like this gal was in like her Sunday best and the dude was in like shirt and tie and they just came strolling out of the mosh pit. Like they were leaving church. Like Marilyn Monroe. And they like, yeah yeah, I don't know. I was just like, wow, this is all right. Each their own.
01:03:54
Speaker
amazing that's one thing about the the metal underground though it's a very inclusive nobody truly hates anybody for being there you know we'll report back yeah all right sounds good looking forward to the follow-up episode so heck yeah yeah right and in the meantime everybody stay interesting and stay interested bye bye by
01:04:39
Speaker
Thanks for listening to today's episode. Please subscribe, comment, and like the podcast. Follow us on Blue Sky Social at CanWeInterestYouIn. Send us an email at CanWeInterestYouIn at gmail.com. And join us next time.