NationStates Jolt Archive

No. This is not a thread about steel crates. This is a thread about the Public Image Limited album.

http://tequilasunriserecords.com/db5/00437/tequilasunriserecords.com/_uimages/pil.JPG

I got it some time after Christmas, and every time I play it there are complaints and cries of "this is absolute crap" from all directions. People mostly seem to think that it's awful noised mixed in with confusing or downright depressing lyrics. Personally I quite like it, it beats the crap out of having to listen to the fine works of those geniuses Panic! At The Disco and My Chemical Romance... Poptones is bloody amazing, Jah Wobble really knew how to handle a bass, and weird snorting noises at the start aside, Johnny Rotten's vocals are spooky.

Anyway, I just wondered what the good people of NSG think of it. If you've never heard anything from Metal Box, then you're legally obliged to click this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9O2tsIbKD0

Opinions, plox.

*clicks link*

It would've been better if it didn't have that dialup-modem sound effect going on.
Also I couldn't tell much of what the singer was saying.

On the plus side, the rythm is pretty good.

meh (http://www.thrasherswheat.org/tnfy/rns_album.htm)

For a listening experience not sponsored by AOL, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnBq98uUJE4 might be better.

PiL were a pretty big departure from what the individual members did before PiL... It's not the Sex Pistols, lulz. Metal Box pretty much dragged punk out back and mercilessly shot it up.... In the firearm sense...

PiL's okay. They really aren't my thing. I like a few of their pieces (Rise and Poptones, maybe a few others), but mostly I just don't "get" them. Still, MCR and Panic! are both so bad that almost anything is better, or at least just as bad ("classic" rock, however, being the sole exception as being worse).

I don't think a lot of people do get PiL. It might be telling that I got into PiL after a short stay in a mental hospital. XD

meh (http://www.thrasherswheat.org/tnfy/rns_album.htm)

Meh indeed. If I were to pick a single folk artist deserving of the title, Young would certainly qualify. Give me Phil Ochs or Stan Rogers over him any day.

I don't think a lot of people do get PiL. It might be telling that I got into PiL after a short stay in a mental hospital. XD

PiL is fine, like I said. I just don't really have a taste for it. Far too abstract for my tastes.

It's hypnotic.

Metal Box is fucking fantastic. I'm going to buy it as soon as I have enough money saved up.

I like how they cleaned up the original film and re-recorded it, rather than put it through digital processing, which would flat-out ruin the sound. This way, the original sound is intact, but in a quality that far exceeds the original pressings.

Oh, and the metal box won't rust, either.

It'd be awesome to get an original copy. As it is I got the CD in it's own dinky little version of the metal box, kind of funnily placed in the middle of a bunch of punk stuff.

Well, there's been a re-release of the album, approved and overseen by John Lydon himself. It's in the original format (3 12" 45rpm vinyl records), and it costs around $40 new.

Ahh, I've seen some floating around eBay. Since I've got no way of playing the damn things, I'll content myself with drooling. :D

Ahh, I've seen some floating around eBay. Since I've got no way of playing the damn things, I'll content myself with drooling. :D

A decent turntable only costs you $50 at J&R Computer and Music World. That's where I bought mine...

...Which had a serious problem with the internal wiring and stylus, so Audio-Technica sent me a brand-new AT-PL50, which I use often enough.


Hint hint.

I'm thinking, if I'm going to have to get my hands on a turntable and stuff I might as well go crazy and try and get one of the 1979 copies. There are a metric fuckton floating around the intertubes.

I'm thinking, if I'm going to have to get my hands on a turntable and stuff I might as well go crazy and try and get one of the 1979 copies. There are a metric fuckton floating around the intertubes.

Really? I've only seen a grand total of two original copies of Metal Box, and one of them was in any condition worth a purchase.

Do yourself a favor and get the reissue. It's just like the original, but the tin can won't rust, and the sound is much better (clean film = better sound, duh).

3. 2 of them a ridiculous distance away. XD

I'm most likely just going to content myself with the CD...

And make some enquiries to some friends about turntables.