Never thought of it that way too, but it's true. It's beautiful. Perhaps it's too good to fit into the usual standard and therefore feels unstable, who knows.
AcK! The end caught me by surprise - the album version is longer by another section! First time I heard of Foetus was during the tour for the Gash album. I was working as a bouncer at the Masquerade when they came through. The place was a graveyard - almost completely empty, like 20 people total - and the band still played one of the best shows I had EVER seen working there. They payed a version of 'I Am The Walrus' that I will remember till my dying day. I swear it is the best Beatles live cover I have ever heard, included those by my own band. Though I have looked I have never heard a live recording as good as that version they played that night for like 15-20 people. Anyway, I was an immediate convert and have listened to Thirlwell ever since.
those are sometimes some of the best shows, just nice and intimate and often (if they're smart) the band just goes all out and then chills there after, it works well because the people in attendance tell everyone "dude... you missed the most awesome show ever!". Unfortunately you can't get that sort of thing going as well with more people, but it's cool
If you pause it at 0:01 just right, it looks like some classic french abstract painting of an alley that was painted by some guy who was hailed as a genius but who actually just had bad eyesight and painted what he saw.
This is when alternative music was genuinely disturbing, speaking to demi-monds I didn't particularly want to visit, but, all the same, I was glad to check them out from the safety of my record player. In the 90s the alternative scene became like Halloween - some compartmentalized, over commercialized safe space in which to explore the dark-side of life. Something that the mainstream culture could even celebrate and have fun with, turning the weird and crazy into life affirming expressions of angst and moroseness. Basically the alternative scene became a caricature of itself.
This is so awesome. I had actually lost sight of Thirlwell a bit when Gash came out in 1995, but I'm glad I recently re-discovered him. I remember great albums like Thaw, Hole, Deaf and Butterfly Potion. I remember also one particular memorable moment when I was at a concert of Foetus in Nighttown in Rotterdam with some friends (must have been late eighties or perhaps '90 or '91), when the magic mushrooms I had taken were just kicking in and I was kind of spinning on my feet, when my best friend at the time (who was 2.06 meters tall) gave me a head-butt, which is of course really weird (but it wasn't meant aggressively, because he wasn't an aggressive dude at all), but it didn't hurt at all and instead made me go: woooooooooooooooooow! To this day I still don't know why he gave me a head-butt or why he seemed to have the foresight that that was what I really needed at that moment...
I'm always hearing NIN, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, KMFDM and the like mentioned when people talk about classic industrial. I guess they're more poser-friendly, but the rest of us know that Thirlwell outperforms them all.
@@djdalivah I'm not trying to classify him as he is now, but back then he was definitely a pioneer of the industrial scene and deserves more recognition as such.
@@ariescustom Just saying the truth. How can someone be a pioneer of a genre that was already around 10 years before they started making music? And anybody that actually takes the time to look into other industrial bands beyond nin knows who foetus is. Hes not that special. Since you wanna talk about posers.
If memory serves me correctly, even MTV 120 Minutes actually played this song back in the day-22 years ago! Obviously, this wasn't their most obscure experimental song but it was probably (in my opinion) one of their catchiest for sure! ;-)
Bob Sagert Maybe, Trent Reznor should collaborate with JG Thirlwell in some side project band or have Foetus (or whatever band moniker Mr. Thirlwell chooses to go under) as the opening act for the next NIN tour as kind of a middle finger to corporate record labels.
Saw CopShootCop at Kennel club on Divisadero, (1992?) there was a crazy guy thrash dancing and grinding into me and my friend...we soon figured out it was Jim Thirlwell. Forgotten thing that for some reason your comment made me remember :)
@@PhiloPhilosophyMaximus lol yeah although I think the kicker (or choker in this case) is "it came down from the prophets, derived from dime-store books, in my day I strangled chickens, trapped in my own bad looks", basically it's like when he was a kid the greatest thing was was when some older kids sold him some old porn mags or raunchy detective stories, which he then read and proceeded to polish his doorknob... heheh the rest of the song... eh there's more that sticks with that although some I think is just for imagery, which is a much under-utilized form of lyrics in this time when everybody is trying to keep it real... no thank you, I get enough real from reality, I need some gritty abstracts and insane poetic escapism and sometimes just some straight-up total chaos. cheers!
The thing that I remember most about Foetus is getting my hands on the albums. I made the mistake more than once of passing over them for something else. BAD MOVE! I later learned how much of an underground favorite Thirlwell was. By the end of the 80's I did manage to pick up Wash/Slog, Calamity Crush, the NAIL album (my personal favorite), and a few other 12in singles. I never did get HOLE or THAW. But I'm older and wiser now. I just kill someone and take their stuff...hide da body..
@TheCreepsAreAlright A difference of opinion isn't a shunning, to be fair. Reznor was sweeping up (literally) Wax Trax as a night janitor and sweeping TG, RevCo, Meat Beat, etc, etc's musical droppings as well. So, there is historical fact and there's adolescent drama. *sigh*
@amani358 He refuses to be pigeon-holed into a single genre, like "industrial." JK tho. He is a great musician. And when I call him a "musician," I can't use that term lightly.
@jackkoffin1 The man seems to have infinite patience for the editing process and as far as ingenuity goes, well, the results speak for themselves. I couldn't do it either.
@TheCreepsAreAlright I will never understand Reznor-reverance (especially under a foetus vid, or next to Patton) "Inspired by" and "ripping-off" are 2 very different things. True innovation is truly hard to come by. Reznor is a Wax Trax hack. It's in his bio... :)
@sparkybonehead eBay is your friend. Altho' I didn't pass over the albums the first time round, like you did (d'oh), I've been able to fill in the gaps now I am all grown up and getting paid. Now I just need that box-set without any vinyl box and I am about done ...
@hellchild65 How dare you come here with your "facts" and "knowledge." Seriously, it's refreshing. For the purposes of intellectual debate, Pink Floyd's "Umma Gumma" used similar technology as KJ and TG in the early 60's, that would predate ALL else mentioned. The industrial before the industrial. (just to keep our labels and pidgeonholes alive and well.) ;)
What I love about Foetus is that almost every song feels like it's going fall apart at any second, but it never, ever does.
+System of a Clown like Jerry Lee, Ubu.
This had never occurred to me. You're absolutely right. It's a hidden appeal that I'd missed. It's much like NYC itself. A barely controlled chaos.
Never thought of it that way too, but it's true. It's beautiful. Perhaps it's too good to fit into the usual standard and therefore feels unstable, who knows.
While I agree, this was far more apparent on Deaf and Ache than their later albums.
@@BoognishDisciple you mean 'his' later albums, It's all Thirwell baby :D
God damn it this is the best music video I have ever seen. It never gets old.
Got this CD back in 1995 or 96 , loved it ... wild record !! i gotta hear it all the way through again !!! it's a trip for sure !!!
AcK! The end caught me by surprise - the album version is longer by another section! First time I heard of Foetus was during the tour for the Gash album. I was working as a bouncer at the Masquerade when they came through. The place was a graveyard - almost completely empty, like 20 people total - and the band still played one of the best shows I had EVER seen working there. They payed a version of 'I Am The Walrus' that I will remember till my dying day. I swear it is the best Beatles live cover I have ever heard, included those by my own band. Though I have looked I have never heard a live recording as good as that version they played that night for like 15-20 people. Anyway, I was an immediate convert and have listened to Thirlwell ever since.
those are sometimes some of the best shows, just nice and intimate and often (if they're smart) the band just goes all out and then chills there after, it works well because the people in attendance tell everyone "dude... you missed the most awesome show ever!". Unfortunately you can't get that sort of thing going as well with more people, but it's cool
This is my favorite Ed Sheeran jam!
You did NOT just compare that dork Sheeran with the greatest musician that ever lived. Please say
its a drunk mistake
@@worsethanhitlerpt.2539 come on buddy...
Well, even with the tattoos, Ed Sheeran does look a lot like Thirlwell in some ways, but Jim makes music that is much more awesome and memorable.
So basically Thirlwell is Ed Sheeran that forgot to take his normal pills?
Back when this album came out, it was a hard sell to get my friends into listening to it. But I do have some listening experiences with it.
I have absolutely adored this band since the early 90's when I first heard them. I think Sink, Nail and Gash are my favorites from him.
If you pause it at 0:01 just right, it looks like some classic french abstract painting of an alley that was painted by some guy who was hailed as a genius but who actually just had bad eyesight and painted what he saw.
fantastic chorus
holy shit... comments are full of my peeps!
FOETALMANIACS!
If more musics videos were like this, I would like music videos.
This song is beautiful and so is Thirlwell.
This is when alternative music was genuinely disturbing, speaking to demi-monds I didn't particularly want to visit, but, all the same, I was glad to check them out from the safety of my record player.
In the 90s the alternative scene became like Halloween - some compartmentalized, over commercialized safe space in which to explore the dark-side of life.
Something that the mainstream culture could even celebrate and have fun with, turning the weird and crazy into life affirming expressions of angst and moroseness. Basically the alternative scene became a caricature of itself.
True
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuperation_(politics)
This is so awesome. I had actually lost sight of Thirlwell a bit when Gash came out in 1995, but I'm glad I recently re-discovered him. I remember great albums like Thaw, Hole, Deaf and Butterfly Potion.
I remember also one particular memorable moment when I was at a concert of Foetus in Nighttown in Rotterdam with some friends (must have been late eighties or perhaps '90 or '91), when the magic mushrooms I had taken were just kicking in and I was kind of spinning on my feet, when my best friend at the time (who was 2.06 meters tall) gave me a head-butt, which is of course really weird (but it wasn't meant aggressively, because he wasn't an aggressive dude at all), but it didn't hurt at all and instead made me go: woooooooooooooooooow!
To this day I still don't know why he gave me a head-butt or why he seemed to have the foresight that that was what I really needed at that moment...
JG Thirlwell, coolest ginger in existance.
This is so awesome. He's true industrial chaos!
There is no doubt about that. He's a true pioneer of industrial beats.
God speaks trough Jim's voice.....
I played this song on guitar and its fuckin HARD to keep the parts straight. Ive played like 300 songs without major mistakes but I butchered this one
Man this guy can really kick it. He hits all the notes and nails every harmony, what a genius!
i discovered this album after buying it the same day i did my first solo LSD trip. i listened to it 4 times in a row.
I played primal rage and ren & stimpy on sega genesis for 8 hours straight on acid. they're not good games.
that's fantastic! just one listen and I fell in love with this shit
the Thaw album is one of the best things that I've ever heard
I'm always hearing NIN, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, KMFDM and the like mentioned when people talk about classic industrial. I guess they're more poser-friendly, but the rest of us know that Thirlwell outperforms them all.
I think Jim T. would rather not be classified. He's done tv show soundtracks. Venture Bros, for example. He's an amazing composer.
@@djdalivah I'm not trying to classify him as he is now, but back then he was definitely a pioneer of the industrial scene and deserves more recognition as such.
None of those you mentioned are classic industrial and foetus is baby music and always mentioned
@@RicardoOrellana-o9y There's always a tryhard. 🤣
@@ariescustom Just saying the truth. How can someone be a pioneer of a genre that was already around 10 years before they started making music? And anybody that actually takes the time to look into other industrial bands beyond nin knows who foetus is. Hes not that special. Since you wanna talk about posers.
The original, and best. ❤️
If memory serves me correctly, even MTV 120 Minutes actually played this song back in the day-22 years ago! Obviously, this wasn't their most obscure experimental song but it was probably (in my opinion) one of their catchiest for sure! ;-)
Bob Sagert
Maybe, Trent Reznor should collaborate with JG Thirlwell in some side project band or have Foetus (or whatever band moniker Mr. Thirlwell chooses to go under) as the opening act for the next NIN tour as kind of a middle finger to corporate record labels.
Beautifully executed.
Crazy to realize all of these years later that Alex Winter (of Bill & Ted fame) directed this and took the photo for the album cover.
One of my all time favs
awesome. pure awesome.
hence I LOVE your style
He needs a 'Hall of Fame' for his own...
LITTERALLY one of the Four Horsemen...Red and Black and Grey and White, honey
But he’s OUR horseman, Uncle Jimmy. :)
i used to do Laundry in TL District in SanFran to this song. :)
Saw CopShootCop at Kennel club on Divisadero, (1992?) there was a crazy guy thrash dancing and grinding into me and my friend...we soon figured out it was Jim Thirlwell.
Forgotten thing that for some reason your comment made me remember :)
Still a favourite, in 2019
and in 2020!
2023 too ;)
I'm in love with this song =P Anyone knows what lyrics are about?
I know it's a bit late, lol 7 years so, but here's a hint... the song's name is a phrase that means "choked with passion"...
@@redprince9 heh..
@@PhiloPhilosophyMaximus lol yeah although I think the kicker (or choker in this case) is "it came down from the prophets, derived from dime-store books, in my day I strangled chickens, trapped in my own bad looks", basically it's like when he was a kid the greatest thing was was when some older kids sold him some old porn mags or raunchy detective stories, which he then read and proceeded to polish his doorknob... heheh the rest of the song... eh there's more that sticks with that although some I think is just for imagery, which is a much under-utilized form of lyrics in this time when everybody is trying to keep it real... no thank you, I get enough real from reality, I need some gritty abstracts and insane poetic escapism and sometimes just some straight-up total chaos. cheers!
Crazy graphics bro
Good to you Jim
I wish I had the patience and the ingenuity to do the type of editing this video required.
And think that this was made in '95, it must have been quite the nightmare
this clip is so frgn awesome m8 :)_)
pretty sure this was directed by Alex Winter
Brian Quinn that's quite ironic because I just recently got into J.G. Thirlwell, and also recently watched the Zappa documentary by Alex Winter.
Directed by Alex Winter (Bill & Ted) I believe
did andre nickatina sample this for baking soda in minnesota
"By day, I strangle chickens."
'Nuff said...
I am in Love with media , and you're like RRRRRight therer.
speaking of brains...
How did you squeeze all one videos in here, oh 'FoetusVevo'?
my man.
The arrangement of this song is very complex for a little 3 min. song it takes about 3x the practice to learn I found that out the hard way
The thing that I remember most about Foetus is getting my hands on the albums. I made the mistake more than once of passing over them for something else. BAD MOVE! I later learned how much of an underground favorite Thirlwell was. By the end of the 80's I did manage to pick up Wash/Slog, Calamity Crush, the NAIL album (my personal favorite), and a few other 12in singles. I never did get HOLE or THAW. But I'm older and wiser now. I just kill someone and take their stuff...hide da body..
Hepatitis savez us all!!!
the only thing that could make this better is if he added slowly fading red and yellow into the epilepsy inducing mix
Epileptics have left the chat!
@TheCreepsAreAlright A difference of opinion isn't a shunning, to be fair. Reznor was sweeping up (literally) Wax Trax as a night janitor and sweeping TG, RevCo, Meat Beat, etc, etc's musical droppings as well. So, there is historical fact and there's adolescent drama. *sigh*
Church! Just Church!
@amani358 He refuses to be pigeon-holed into a single genre, like "industrial."
JK tho. He is a great musician. And when I call him a "musician," I can't use that term lightly.
build it and the purple pinkish sparkle MOO cows will COM
@jackkoffin1 The man seems to have infinite patience for the editing process and as far as ingenuity goes, well, the results speak for themselves. I couldn't do it either.
holy epic
get those hands up.
@hellchild65 2 words - Throbbing Gristle
Directed by Alex Winter!
@TheCreepsAreAlright
...you forgot Mike Patton...
it was a mistake to watch this again while high
schýza... I like
@TheCreepsAreAlright I will never understand Reznor-reverance (especially under a foetus vid, or next to Patton) "Inspired by" and "ripping-off" are 2 very different things. True innovation is truly hard to come by. Reznor is a Wax Trax hack. It's in his bio... :)
take your meds.
27350 Funk Canyon
@jackkoffin1
it is really impressive.
Foetus Über Allez!
Foetus Über Frisco
@sparkybonehead
eBay is your friend. Altho' I didn't pass over the albums the first time round, like you did (d'oh), I've been able to fill in the gaps now I am all grown up and getting paid. Now I just need that box-set without any vinyl box and I am about done ...
@amani358
Godfather of Industrial rock/metal, yes (along with Chrome) but....yeah, Industrial Records kind of predates him.
Investigate your chimney -
There's a Chernobyl there.
Apply the strongest sun block
Cuz' it's Mother's day again
@hellchild65 How dare you come here with your "facts" and "knowledge." Seriously, it's refreshing. For the purposes of intellectual debate, Pink Floyd's "Umma Gumma" used similar technology as KJ and TG in the early 60's, that would predate ALL else mentioned. The industrial before the industrial. (just to keep our labels and pidgeonholes alive and well.) ;)
ooparts・・・
Alexander Twin ?
I love all his shit
Hole and nail
Wbu?
wacky af, but decent.
You don't have to be homicidal to enjoy Foetus, but it helps! 😈😜
67 comments so Verklemmt
porno
Beautifully executed.