wherefore art thou, Odin…
June 24th, 2008I recently saw the excellent film by Penelope Spheris, The Decline of Western Civilization Part II. Part I was a documentary about the early LA punk scene, and it was unbelievably good. Hunt it down, the performances are stunning and seeing burnt-up stars like Darby Crash at their zenith is so energizing. Great great film.
Part II takes a look at the 1988 metal scene in LA. It’s a lot funnier than Part I, because hair metal is just naturally more hilarious than raw punk. Poison have become big stars, Ace Frehley of KISS is interviewed on a bed full of girls, everyone talks about how intensely they’re into drinks, drugs and sex, Aerosmith talk like they’re the biggest thing ever. Guns n Roses get a random mention at one point, but it’s in the context of all the bands currently playing LA trying to make it big.
And that’s one of the most poignant aspects of this doc — that there are so many bands profiled or mentioned who are so determined to make it big, and now, with the hindsight of history, we know that they won’t. Where are these folks now? There’s a sadness, and an irony, but also a strange sense of maturity that comes from seeing so many bands play out variations on this conversation:
PENELOPE: So what if you don’t make it?
BAND: That’s not an option. I will make it. There’s no alternative.
Maturity because I think, well, they didn’t make it, so they must have had to change that dream, or realize that the exuberance of youth is sometimes not enough to make the dream come true. You also need a healthy amount of luck. Rock is for the young, as others have been noting.
I wanted to show one of the bands so you could get a sense of what I’m talking about. For a bunch of reasons I chose this band called Odin. They seem to have it all, poised to break big. They’ve got the look, the girls, the Budweisers in the hot tub, the awesome old-school manager in a suit, oh yeah, and the ASSLESS CHAPS. The only problem is that their music is terrible…
…but somehow it’s still fun to watch them.
Penelope Spheeris would go on to direct Wayne’s World, Beverly Hillbillies, Black Sheep and many other weak films.
If anyone has the extreme good fortune to be in Hollywood this weekend they can actually witness Odin in the flesh! http://www.odinmetal.com/index.html Keep on rockin’, boys!
Holy moley I love that! I thought about googling them, but I figured the post was long enough already…that photo is great and a bit sad…do you suppose the singer still rocks the assless chaps?
Also from looking at the left side of their site, it looks like they’ve made all of 4 albums in the roughly ten years? Still, I love that they’re still kickin it.
Wow, good job Odin!
There’s also the incredibly sad, incredibly funny scene with Chris Holmes from WASP pouring vodka on himself in his mother’s swimming pool. Man I remember that really depressing me, but then I must have snapped out of it pretty quickly because I saw WASP play live a few months later. It was weird.
Yeah, I thought about putting that scene up, but it is so crazy intense (as opposed to funny), with his mom watching and with him sooooo down on himself…also I think that scene is better in context, i.e., we see a bunch of seemingly fun-loving guys trying to make it big, and then we see this poor soul who actually made it…
Also what ever happened to WASP? And were they ever that big?
If you have the extreme good fortune to be in Borlange, Sweden this weekend you can see W.A.S.P. live and in the flesh at the ….Peace and Love Festival http://www.waspontour.com/#/festivals2008/4527078179?
Eh? Think they’ll be playing any selections from Kill, Fuck, Die?
ODIN ODIN ODIN ODIN ODIN is this real, am i hanging upside down for knowledge yet its free…….they help ventilate my scrotum…..a million somethings to anyone who can find a jpg of the logo or knows how to photoshop it out or something AND 2 million for one of the shirts you see……holy shit, and to have started my Wodin’s Day off like this…mind boogling