I was a whipper-snapper graduate student in Pittsburgh when I first heard this, sometime in the year 2000. The album came out in May of that year (in the U.S.) and it soundtracked that summer for me. An abrasive turn from Primal Scream, XTRMNTR appealed to me first and foremost because the opening track was called "Kill All Hippies," the idea of which seemed cool to me at the time. Not sure if "kill all hippies" means anything remotely interesting in 2025 but it sure meant something in 2000. I also liked that Primal Scream abandoned (well, paused) their sex-and-drugs-and-party thing to pay attention to the real world for a bit:
"You got the money / I got the soul."
Also, special treat, Kevin Shields showed up out of the blue, reminding us exactly why he was the loudest guitar player in the world, even though we had not heard a peep out of him for years. Shields played guitar on "Shoot Speed / Kill Light" (and also produced it), surely the most thunderous metronome-beat song with a wall-of-electric guitars to pummel you into submission in the year 2000.
Also, did you know lead singer Bobby Gillespie played drums on Psychocandy?
No comments:
Post a Comment