class albums, atsonicpark edition # 8: deftones - around the fur
 

DEFTONES "AROUND THE FUR"
Maverick Records, 1997
1. "My Own Summer (Shove It)" – 3:35
2. "Lhabia" – 4:11
3. "Mascara" – 3:45
4. "Around the Fur" – 3:31
5. "Rickets" – 2:42
6. "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" – 5:08
7. "Lotion" – 3:57
8. "Dai The Flu" – 4:36
9. "Headup" – 5:12
10."MX" – 37:18

This will either be the point when people stop taking these threads seriously or start thinking I really know what I'm talking about, but I don't really care either way: anybody with ears will realize that this is indeed a classic album. Forget any preconceptions about this band; their "radio hits" or their connections with other, shitty bands. Just open your ears and listen.

Quite frankly, this album has always haunted me since I first got it in 7th grade. Yes, 7th grade, meaning it was one of the first albums I ever got and I've had it .. god .. 7 or 8 years now. I'm not trying to let nostalgia get in the way, because I just listened to this agian yesterday.. and though I hear the album differently than I did 8 years ago, I still hear it as a masterpiece. I originally got it because I was into KoRn (shut up, I was like TWELVE!!!!!! My internet friend JT Martin got me into them) and Chino was on 'Wicked' so I decided to give the new Deftones album a try. I dug it then, and I still dig it!

Basically, what Deftones do is combine intelligent song structure, interesting production, huge guitar walls (almost shoegazey at times), yearning melodies, subtle ambience, and amazingly ambidextrious drumming to create a sound similiar to My Bloody Valentine deciding to form some kind of weird metal band. And indeed, the Deftones have always been kind of... weird... in the scope of "metal". Listen to the second song on this, "Lhabia", bizarre drumming/guitar riffing gives way to vocals that sound like a microphone being chewed up by mosquitos and -- without losing a step -- gives way to a powerful melodic chorus. Meanwhile, "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" is one of the best songs ever made, powerfully emotive, lyrically poignant though vague, and full of tons of textured guitar sounds that only your dog could hear all of: a perfect Deftones song.

Anyway, basically what you have here is so-called "Heavy metal" that isn't very heavy or very metal. And if you don't like the songs (how could you not?), you could at least love the weird lyrics. And say what you will, but I think this is one of those bands like the Pixies and the Misfits who seem to bridge cultural gaps.. "indie" kids, "punk" kids, "metal" kids, whatever reserve a special place in their hearts for these types of bands because it's a unifyingly good sound. So, I hope the people on the Sonic Youth board aren't too snobby to admit that this album's fucking great.

"White Pony" is also really good, but I prefer this one.

i have to disagree this time :o

That's okay.

I still have about 92 other albums to talk about that you will agree with :)

Do one each week :)

Yeah.. I've been trying to do 1 or 2 a week... I'm trying to 1) pick albums no one on here talks about that much, 2) albums I genuinely feel are classic, and 3) trying not to focus on one particular genre in subsequent picks (for example, it's obvious "isn't anything" and "pygmalion" will be on here at some point, but I didn't want to follow up talking about swervedriver by talking about them). Heheh.

yes, amazing album, so unique, they have never matched it...when i got it, i was so obsessed with it. i still really like it.

i let a friend borrow it once and he took shit care of it and now it's a bit scratched but still audible; thanks to that, now the intro to be quiet and drive has glitchy scratches in the background and it sounds awesome.

really great album and i really don't like the deftones, i like white pony ok, adrenaline has like four good songs (this saturday i heard "bored" on the p.a. of the eits show, that song is awesome) and the other two are dross.

ps: the worse song in around the fur is my own summer.

Suar. Although I'd choose the Slowdive EP instead of Pygmalion

(to @sp)

yeah, i agree, i like my own summer, but it's the worst.

you want to hear the most fucked up thing? i've had 3 copies of this album, and my second copy was scratched to hell so i was going to rip it to my computer and burn a copy.. and my version of "be quiet and drive" that i ripped sounds all glitchy too.. (i ended up buying a 3rd copy, letting an ex-girlfriend borrow the cd and not the case and never got it back, so i finally just downloaded it off of soulseek and burnt a copy and stuck it in the case about a year ago; it's nice to have a burnt copy of this, anyway, so you don't hav eto fast forward 30 minutes into mx to hear "damone").

can't go wrong with any slowdive. i think slowdive is what made me start disliking the bass player in my band (not scissor shock) a bit more... one time, i was listening to 'pygmalion' and i was like "yeah, i want to kinda take the band in this direction.. like a darker version of this.." and he was like "yeah, too bad this guy's voice sounds gay." and i said, "you're a fucking idiot." and he laughed. and i said, "No, you're seriously a fucking idiot. 'this guy's voice sounds gay'? i'm sorry that i actually like some music were a dude knows how to sing." (since all Kyle listens to is noise and doom where a guy growls for an hour -- I like that stuff, but jesus). So yeah... but I've also met some wonderful people who love Slowdive as much as me. For example, my girlfriend ("souvlaki space station" is our song).

Anyway, back to Deftones..

woah, that's fucked.

i'm listening to it now, and i see this is one of my worst kept cds in general, i usually take very good care of cds (of course, tapes and vinyl goes without saying) but this one, i think i let someone borrow it before the dude i told you with the case and everything, and the booklet is very wrinkled and the edges where it folds are starting to rip.

speaking of which, i love the cover, i think that sealed the deal...i got into them because i heard "7 words" early on and i thought they were cool, then i read an interview in guitar world before the album was finished and got really intrigued by it, then i saw it on tower records (!) but couldn't buy it for like the next 6 months or something; when i did finally buy it, it was the same copy...i'm talking '97, i remember when korn's life is peachy was released, my mom went to visit my aunt in ny and i ask her to buy it for me because nobody knew who korn was here...anyhoo, that's why i was so surprised to see it here in tower records and, unsurprisingly, i bought the same copy they originally stocked, i mean, it was dusty!!

but yeah, the cover, i love the fish eye perspective, her blue eyes, her smile, those creepy feet, that her bikini's top is black and the bottom is white, her tattoo on her belly, her earrings, the font and the color...and her tits of course.

i can't believe someone who is into 90's "indie rock" can't like a song like "mascara".

also, i can't drum for beans, but i can play the intro to the title track.

my favorite songs are lotion, around the fur and be quiet and drive.

yeah, my favorites are lhabia lotion and be quiet and drive.

I, too, love the cover quite a bit; I read an article about it once that siad the girl had no idea she was going to be on an album cover and she was quite pissed about getting her picture taken.. you can kinda see an awkward smile on her face in that picture. Of course, the photographer tracked her down later and paid her tons of money -- but it was supposedly after the album had already been released ?!

Strangely, this is the only CD I've ever bought multiple copies of.

I also love "Rickets", very underrated, love when the music stops and you hear a SUPER lo fi guitar riff in the right speaker.. that song has a fucking Jesus Lizard rhythm in the verses if I've ever heard one.

The song "dai the flu".. apparently, the feedback parts on it were recorded on a fucked-up broken amp.. love the sick lurching bass..

"mascara" is beautiful, I put it on many mix tapes. I also love "Mx". It's quite repetive, but there's just something about it. The flanger (or whatever) vocals were a nice touch.

I really wished they'd just make a total MBV album. "White Pony" was big on atmospherics, but it seemed to lack the huge guitar sound of this album.

Chino is probably one of the best vocalists ever. Very.. acrobatic.. certainly the best graduate of the Mike Patton school of crooning-to-screaming.. I really like Chino, he's huge into shoegaze and Weezer (like I am) and he also is very very quiet and reserved and seems like he's distant from everything and everybody.. very interesting person.. I always wonder what the fuck he's talking about in some of these songs..

I dig "adrenaline".. "Nosebleed" and "Fist" (ghost track) are surprisingly amazing, and "fireal" is quite good.. actually.. yeah, haven't put that CD on in a while, but I think it's great. Who can forget "Root"? "WITH JESUS IN A BOWL WITH GERMS." One time, I heard this shitty band called Relative Ash, and one of their songs was the main riff from "Nosebleed" backwards. Hilarious.

OH, something else .. Deftones have a severe obsession with water.. at least on this album.. the album cover, obviously.. the water gurgling sound in "Mx".. both videos were filmed in the water or around the water.. (apparently, an unreleased video for "Around the Fur" had shots of water too). Oh, and I guess White Pony had "Digital Bath", another one of the best songs ever.

Fuck, this band's great!

yeah, i read that article...i was surprised she was a groupie/bimbo, she doesn't look that...exagerated, i guess, at least from that perspective.

most songs are amazing, my own summer is very korn-esque but it still it's own shit, i still get excited if i'm out somewhere and they play it over the p.a., headup is basically a roots/soulfly song with the deftones guesting.

i love how the guitars are very metallic (as in traditional metal) but still very effected to mood and atmosphere, the bass is very reggae/dub, without being cliché. but the best musician in the band is probably the drummer, seemless yet complex motherfucker.

and then there's chino, i love him in around the fur, i love the rhythmic whispers he does, i love his screaming, and i love it when he sings something melodic but forceful. after around the fur, he pretty much broke the band for me, because he started to sing more laid back to the point as seeming to be too lazy to sing, without conveying any emotion, if he applied the same anger and contrast on the songs of white pony and beyond, they would be so much better.

adreanline is good too, but not as good as around the fur, i remember sitting down to learn the riff to "root", i wanted to play that motherfucker, as i said on another thread, i heard "bored" thru the p.a. at the explosions in the sky show last saturday and it was awesome...i should give it another listen soon.

i saw them on the white pony tour and they were amazing, chino sang the first four songs from the crowd, he lost both shoes. they closed with "7 words" and just before the "squeal like a pig..." part, launched into weezer's "say it ain't so" it was great.

i once pulled a dark side of the moon/wizard of oz with this album and the movie disturbing behavior, it fucking matched, both sound and lyrics.

my own summer is a hell of a song, reminds me of being at school, that song and Back to School.

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

i prefer this song. YOU THINK WE'RE ON THE SAME PAGE, BUT NO WE'RE NOT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyHBHB6P_Gw

"Back To School" was always my favorite of theirs, from what I heard. The vocals in that song are great- that 'but you don't, so there you go' bit rules.

i always though back to school was an ok-ish song by them. i have the white pony version without it, i was a bit pissed when i found out they rereleased it mere months later with back to school but, to tell you the truth, i think mine is better off without it.

I agree. Great album.

Never got into White Pony. I thought Minerva was a return to form though.

i never really got into them, i remember about 6 or 7 years ago when they were on mtv with some frquency that i found them to be far more interesting than any of the other new-metal shite.
also, i think they are about the only band i can think of off the top of my head who are influenced by nirvana and aren't pure crap.
i'll download this album over the weekend and give it a listen.

have you checked out Velvet Cacoon?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVCtXINRuNU

Wow, I almost forgot this record existed! I haven't listened to it since like 9th grade, but I used to really enjoy it. I should dig this one up and listen to it again. I remember my friend used to always point out that you could see a little bit of the cover girl's nipple. 9th grade indeed...

a few things.

"root" is amazing.. that whole song is one riff, basically..

i hate "back to school", and i also have the version without it.. i have the one that's just a red case.. it was limited to 50,000 copies..

and yeah, i know velvet coccoon.. i have two of their albums.. you know that most of their albums are fake, right? i can't remember, i think it's on the wikipedia, but they admitted to using other people's albums and passing it off as their own or something.. weird.. they were just some joke band.. they are my dex heroes though.