Some kind of monster

[gordonzola]

As noted in yesterday’s post, I watched the Metallica in therapy documentary "Some Kind of Monster". I had heard lots of bad things about it so I had put it off. I shouldn’t have. It was a thoroughly enjoyable movie. In fact, I laughed most of the way through.

I gotta say, I’m buying the hype on this one. In the end I was convinced that they released the movie, despite often not showing our men in a very good light, because they really felt therapy helped them and wanted to send that message out to others. I’m sure there was some recoup the investment cost discussion. But these guys seem to own half of Northern California and they paid a therapist around half a million dollars a year for two years so I imagine they could have buried it if they wanted to.

Most of the reason the movie is fun is because it’s incongruous. Watch the metal band use "I" statements! Look at the macho dudes talk about their feelings! Follow every moment of the creative process and realize the band isn’t handed the lyrics and melodies directly from Satan!

Basically the story is that our boys are on the verge of breaking up. They’re trying to record a new album but they are territorial about their individual contributions and all harboring grudges and slights that go back 15 years or so. Part of the way they try to combat this is by hiring a therapist used to dealing with big ego millionaires who have to work together. They are paying him $40,000 a month! The beginning is fairly painful and you might find yourself wondering why you should care. But then one goes off to rehab, leaving the others rudderless. He comes back looking cute for the first time ever and the band fights and creates, finally releasing another album that makes them all millions.

As a co-op person it was great fun to watch their band meetings and see how they would have been improved with decent facilitation , ground rules, and an agenda. In fact, under the guise of therapy-speak, that is a big part of what happens to get the band cooperating again.

Maybe I’m falling for an intricate ploy to humanize the band after they pissed off their fans, and all good people, with the Napster lawsuit. But I found myself liking them more than I thought I would, especially Kirk. Kirk is my favorite. There is some Spinal Tap to the whole thing except that the decisions they make as a band are cunning and smart. Dumping that horrible song about temptation, choosing a name for the album, hiring the bass player from the Suicidals instead of one of the generic metal dudes, buying Basquiat paintings low and selling high. That’s why unlike Spinal Tap, in the end the joke is not on them.

My favorite moment was when they bring Dave Mustaine to group therapy to let him vent about the way they fired him nearly 20 years before. Oh man, that guy is still living the pain from that. Because I’m mean, I was howling when he talked about metalheads taunting him on the street by yelling "Metallica" at him. He made it sound like they were waiting outside the door at that moment to mock him. He preemptively and defensively brought up the record sales from his band Megadeath* but the best moment was when he talked about the hurt he felt in getting kicked out and says, "What happened to my little Danish friend (Lars). He’s not there anymore."

Watching the therapist "rock out" during the recording sessions and start to use "we" when talking about the band is also a highlight. Metallica has never been one of my favorite bands. I haven’t listened to them since "Master of Puppets" really, but I did wanna go find my tape of that or "Kill ‘Em All" after the movie. I always resented the fact that they encouraged way too many people who shouldn’t have been playing one bass drum to try and play two, but I can’t deny that some of their songs are pretty great.



*I actually saw Megadeath and Overkill at a small club (the Stone in San Francisco) because I won tickets. It was the only metal show I eve went to and I hated it. Megadeath did cover a DOA song which weirded us out and made us flee.

Comments

[kneidlach.livejournal.com]

When I worked at The Sex Toy Warehouse of Doom (tm) we carried a vibrator that was made of metal that we called the Metalica (notice only one L). We got a cease-and-desist from Metallica. This was around the same time as the Napster lawsuit. Guess they just needed some therapy.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Above, I meant to write "I found myself liking them more than I thought I would". I'm sure they'd still sue you.

[rivetpepsquad.livejournal.com]

oh, you HAVE to be kidding.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

No way, dude. Do you have some issues with the therapist in that movie?

[sdn.livejournal.com]

i have to see this.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

well, I don't know about "have to". Were you eve a metalhead?

[lizsybarite.livejournal.com]

I am laughing so hard. I've secretly wanted to see this since I heard James Hetfield extolling on NPR about the whole process and actually using words like "process." It was unreal!

I was something of an unironic Metallica fan early in high school - one of those fans that was late to the party because I actually liked their pre-Black-album stuff more, etc. but got into them around the time it was released. Then I discovered "industrial" music and abandoned metal for many years.

Is Megadeth/Megadeath now spelling their name with the "a"? Do they still exist?

My God I have to rent this videotaped trainwreck ASAP.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Dude, there's no way to be an ironic Metallica fan. the double bass drum destroys irony on contact. and no, I just mispelled Megadeth. I wasn't a rocker, what do I know?

[walktheplank.livejournal.com]

I saw that!!!

Yoonie and I were howling during the comment about "Whatever happened to my little Danish friend?"

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I'm still laughing two days later!

[amarama.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I sang the praises of this film to you when it came out, but did you listen to ME? No, no, no. Sad.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

sorry. I will do everything you say from now on.

It was better than I expected too.

[dairryiere.livejournal.com]

Way more laughs and mmmmmm.....new bassist!

Re: It was better than I expected too.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

the irony of the "Institutionalized" bass player in the most therapized band in rock n roll is delicious.

[masscooper.livejournal.com]

Next up: Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

See, I care nothing for bad pop metal popular when I was in high school. Metallica at least are 1. locals and 2. used to play anyone's garage who would let 'em. I never got the feeling that Def Leppard was of the people. ;)

[anarqueso.livejournal.com]

We laffed our asses off.

What nobody seemed to cop to was that most of the issues seemed to be between Lars' and whatsisname, James' jumbo Alpha I-am-the-biggest-star egos, and the other dudes seemed more bobbing in their wake.

This reminds me, can you burn a copy of A Punk Tribute to Metallica for us? A certain co-worker is demanding presents that start with P for his birthday, and I thought that'd be fun.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I don't have that CD, sorry.

that's true but did you see how upset mellow Kirk got when they wanted to take out his guitar solo?

[ex-motel666812.livejournal.com]

Dude, James Hetfield was one hot motherfucker BEFORE rehab, and he's one hot motherfucker NOW.

Like Nikki Sixx, the dude's just getting better with age.

*sighing*

Wish I could say the same about their albums. "St. Anger" was poorly-mixed, and fairly uninspired. "I'm not in anger with you" my fat ass. Therapy ruined that fucking record.

And that therapist = CREEPY. BAD BOUNDARIES. BAD BAD BAD. He set off all my "bad therapist" alarms, and I've had plenty of experience with people who go into the "helping" professions because they're manipulative control freaks who like to punish women for being sexual, smart and angry.

Off the subject, kind of, but did you see the documentaries "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Lost II"? Soundtrack by Metallica. EXCELLENT movies, about a bunch of little boys who got mutilated and killed, and their small town's attempts to find the killer.

xoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxxo

[rivetpepsquad.livejournal.com]

what did creepy therapist do? DISH YO!

[dcart.livejournal.com]

I've wanted to see this, too, but haven't because I've heard so much bad about it. I'm gonna trust your review and rent it sometime.

I actually really liked Metallica right up until they put out the single(?!) for One. And I actually still even like that album minus that song. I haven't liked anything they've done since. In high school, I liked that they appeared to have genuine respect for punk. I actually really enjoyed their Garage, Inc ep back then. But I have to admit that just about everything I've heard about them or from them since 1990 has been trite and irritating.

(And I've seen both them and megadeth way back in the day.)

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Metallica (and Slayer) certainly spawned punk/metal unity.

[systemerror.livejournal.com]

To me, the most telling moment is when Lars tells the therapist they want to end the sessions, and the therapist says "we still have a lot more work to do..." Lars calls him on his obvious conflict of interest in that statement, but for 40K a month, hanging out with rock stars, and being in a movie, contributing lyrics at one point, to me, it seemed that he wasn't really all that concerned with helping out their problems.

Also, you're dead on about the double bass drum. I draw the line with drummers that use a double bass pedal, so the double bass drum is a dealbreaker. I still remember riding the bus in middle school and the kids asking the one "drummer guy" (with a mullet) if he could do the double bass parts like on "One."

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

yeah, that was a slimey therapist trick. i loved to hate that guy. I can't believe I forgot to mention him suggesting lyrics.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

He had pretty good taste in art and property acquisition though. that surprised me.

[creepingivy.livejournal.com]

Granted, I like Metallica- my formative years were shaped by the metal scene. I've totally outgrown 99% of that music but I still listen to Metallica's 'Black Album'. In terms of composition and structure, I think its a good album for that genre.

Anyway, I really liked 'Some Kind of Monster'. I liked it for the all the reasons your cited and also because I was interested to see what kind of people the band members had turned out to be now they'd been around the block six or seven times, middle age had set in and they had different concerns as being in a different part of their life.

The Dave Mustane thing.. Well, he's all kind's of fucked up but I think the movie kind of lets you in on that fact in a small way. My ex auditioned for Dave Mustane years ago after Megadeath had kicked out their latest guitarist. The audition was held in Mustane's hospital room in a chemical dependency treatment center. He had just od'ed on heroin and was going through detox but so totally loaded the drugs that they give you to make it less painful and horrifying that he was barely awake or aware of his surroundings. My ex was offered the job- he saw the writing on the wall and turned it down.

[chitinous.livejournal.com]

For some reason I always pictured you springing from the womb completely gothed-out....until you revealed that you'd been a cheerleader in high school. Now I just don't know what to think. And I heart you even more.

[slutbunwalla.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me about that movie. I had been told to see it a while ago, and I forgot!

[chitinous.livejournal.com]

Kirk Hammett tripped over my foot while I was working security for the anti-evil landlord Green Day show a few years ago. This was after I'd gotten my Napster account shut down for having downloaded "Dyer's Eve." What is this hell you put me through, indeed. I still want to see this movie, though.

[lizsybarite.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

I keep revisiting this post and am glad for it, to catch comments like this one.

[hillaroon.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes, yes to everything you've said about the doc. I saw it at the Parkside with felicks and other loved ones and we had a grand old time. I was very surprised when she expressed affection for Lars afterward.

What I want to know is who the hell told you bad things about this film? Not that I'd know them, but wha'?!?

An anecdote about The Quiet One: a little over 10 years ago, when he was quite famous, Kirk enrolled in Jazz Improv class (and perhaps some other classes) down at SFSU. My brother was a jazz major at the time and reported that he was quietly friendly and completely unassuming.