Music This Week 008: Stuck in Quicksand?

I know, I've been bad.

I've left something for a long time that I should have gotten to; which is this blog.

After I went to Grady, I planned on doing a double playlist featuring Grady and Big Sugar in ode to Gordy Johnson's amazing guitar playing. Well, that's still coming.

This week is something a little bit different. Right now we're waiting for a new Deftones album. This morning I picked up my Breedlove acoustic, and played a little Johnny Marr in the key of How Soon Is Now. Only, it didn't sound at all right. I've heard something about Marr using an open E tuning to play this song in, and it'll never sound right in standard. So I played the Quicksand version.

Quicksand was cited as a major influential force on a lot of the hard or punk bands currently out there, or that arose throughout the 90's and became famous in the last decade. While not being as 'big' as Page Hamilton and Helmet, their members were certainly responsible (arguably) for a lot more.

They have been reverred by such groups as the Deftones, or AFI, or other groups who have primarily 80's roots to some of their influences.

Quicksand actually started life as a couple of different bands. Lead singer and guitarist Walter Schreifels was the original creative songwriter and founding member of the Gorilla Biscuits. Which, if you remember, was perhaps the original hardcore straightedge band. That made them important in their own wright. Their bass player was Sergio Vega. You'll hear him elsewhere right now; mainly on the new Diamond Eyes album that Deftones released while Chi Cheng continues to be layed up in a hospital bed in a coma from a 2008 near fatal car accident in San Jose, California.

Quicksand were one of the first bands, besides Helmet, to take NY hardcore punk, and sort of smooth it out. When you listen to Steph Carpenter's 8 string Meshugga-type chug in Diamond Eyes you hear metal...but you hear something else from Moreno entirely. That's the Deftones. Now listen to bands like Thrice, Thursday and then a bazillion bands labelled 'emo' flavour of the week kinda stuff. None of that music really existed before Quicksand. It was hardcore, punk, metal, new wave, or nothing. When did they come together? As soon as an ex NY hardcore guitarist decided it was cool to do a cover of The Smiths in the early 90's.

Now can Quicksand take all the credit? No, of course not. But can they take about 50% of it, with the other 50% going to Page Hamilton and Helmet? Yeah, that seems fair. Now, whether or not you think this is a good thing or a bad thing, it's probable that when you go to see live music, the 99% of 'metal' (unless they're slayer-like) or hard rock, or screamo, emo whatever bands are playing on your local stages right now that think they were influenced by something like a combination between Thursday, Slipknot and The Smiths...ladies and gentleman...the chain reaction started here with Quicksand instead. Give it up for them, a little unknown history.

There are some cool vids up on youtube if you care, a few live ones, and a great one of them playing warped tour in Camden, New Jersey from what's probably 1996. For the playlist this week, I thought I'd go all over the place with this to connect the dots.

-How Soon Is Now - Quicksand - Slip 1993
-How Soon Is Now - The Smiths - William, It Was Really Nothing (single - B side) 1984
-Used For Glue - Rival Schools - United By Fate 2001
-Rocket Skates - Deftones - Diamond Eyes 2010
-Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - Deftones - B Sides and Rarities 2005

By the way, Walter formed a band in 2001 called Rival Schools that split after one album in 2001. So if you happen to search for "How Soon Is Now Cover" and you get 'Rival Schools' come up a bunch of times, it's very much essentially the same thing, since Walter is really responsible for both covers. Funny how things should go; since a band that was once influential on the Deftones now has their bass player as part of the lineup. That's where you'll hear Sergio Vega now. Meanwhile Rival Schools, who's second album under Island Def-Jam went unreleased that was scheduled for 2002 is set to apparently release a new album in 2010 after 8 years of not speaking to each other.

I'll believe it when I see it. But if I do see it, I'll probably buy it.