Big Money, Inc. was a label run by one of the guys in Rifle Sport, and don't let anybody kid you, by the way-- Rifle Sport were a good band ("Box of Dirt" is such an awesome song). As a label, though, Big Money had one or two great bands but mostly awful bands, with Hemi falling somewhere in the middle (I'm being generous). Back then it was easy to take any crappy metal band that didn't bleach their hair and rocked slightly harder than Winger and pass them off as being sorta "indie", which explains most of what Circuit and SST and Sub Pop were putting out in those days.
As it happens, Hemi are no Monster Magnet or Big Chief *cough cough*-- still, if you like big rock then they do have their moments, even though their singer isn't one of them. I'd like to think they could've found a less obvious metaphor for a slow leak than "What the fuck, I need a patch kit momma, guess I'm really shit out of luck", but I realize that Desmond Child isn't within the range of every band's budget.
There was a time when practically every other record I bought had "PLAY LOUD" written on it, just like this one, which really means nothing to me because loud is the only way I play my records, sucka-- so bands, you can stop putting that on your goddamn records. Likewise the "ironic" classroom/yearbook picture, which got boring the second or third time you used it.
Hemi -
"Slow Leak"
(this file is now listen-only)
6 comments:
I thought this was quite good after listening to it a couple of times. Looking at that catalogue Arcwelder are the only band I've heard and remember hearing.
Arcwelder's about the only band on the list that's worth hearing (other than Rifle Sport, of course), so you're on the right track.
The mp3 file on this post is now a listen-only (non-downloadable) file. TOUGH LUCK, CHARLIE! No, actually, for those of you who missed the boat, I will do my best to respond to any e-mailed requests for the original file.
They packed Slow Leak onto Thrasher Mag's Skate Rock Vol. 10. I used to crank it when I was out on my board. I really dug the downtuning, and even the singer sounded like he was pitched down.
I didn't know Hemi were on a Skate Rock comp. That's cool.
We opened for HEMI on a few occasions in SF area. Great guys to hang with and they did rock the house live. I think some of these recordings sold them short (no offense Bart Thurber, you're a good guy!)
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