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John Zorn's Naked City

Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
edited September 2006 in Other Music
Anyone heard this seriously screwed up band? Zorn is supposed to be a jazz musician but with Naked City he basically melded jazz, death metal, hardcore punk, blues, funk, a bit more death metal and a seriously sick sense of humour. Often all in one song and in the space of as little as 12 seconds. If anyone is a fan of Mr. Bungle you'll probably like this, and you'll certaily see where Patton got a lot of his ideas from.

I've heard two Naked City albums, one of which, just called Naked City is a pretty eclectic album with all the styles mentioned above and the other, torture garden is almost entirely straight up death/jazz metal. most of the songs are under a minute and will seriously mess your head up if you only listen to nice structured pop or rock songs. Don't listen if you are easily offended... the songs are one thing but the album artwork ranges from pictures of S&M to real photos of torture and death.
"I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
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Comments

  • Todd76Todd76 Posts: 1,469
    Holy Crap.....a John Zorn thread on a Pearl Jam message board - I must have died and entered some alternate musical universe. Impressive, most impressive.

    Naked City and Torture Garden just happen to be the only 2 Naked City CD's I own as well (one of my buddies has the Live From The Knitting Factory album that came out a few years back). This is some truly crazy shit - makes Mr Bungle and Fanotmas etc seem like easy listening (not quite - but ya get the point). Jazz, Grindcore, Surf, Classical, Metal, Country, Punk and tons of other styles all in one tiny (yet HUGE) song.....really amazing stuff (when your in the right mood/frame of mind). I read somewhere that his stuff sounds like randomly turning through your radio dial (quite rapidly - I may add)

    Patton and Zorn have collaborated on 14 (or so) albums

    My favourite Zorn album is The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays The Music of Ennio Morricone...truly mind altering
    In my world everyone is a pony,
    and they all eat rainbows and pooh butterflies!
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    Todd76 wrote:
    Holy Crap.....a John Zorn thread on a Pearl Jam message board - I must have died and entered some alternate musical universe. Impressive, most impressive.

    Naked City and Torture Garden just happen to be the only 2 Naked City CD's I own as well (one of my buddies has the Live From The Knitting Factory album that came out a few years back). This is some truly crazy shit - makes Mr Bungle and Fanotmas etc seem like easy listening (not quite - but ya get the point). Jazz, Grindcore, Surf, Classical, Metal, Country, Punk and tons of other styles all in one tiny (yet HUGE) song.....really amazing stuff (when your in the right mood/frame of mind). I read somewhere that his stuff sounds like randomly turning through your radio dial (quite rapidly - I may add)

    Patton and Zorn have collaborated on 14 (or so) albums

    My favourite Zorn album is The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays The Music of Ennio Morricone...truly mind altering
    Heh, I thought it was time there was a mention of Zorn on here. I need to check out the Ennio Morricone one and thankfully there are about 30 Zorn albums you can stream from http://www.streamstash.com and I think that is one of them. I know what you mean about making Bungle and Fantomas seem easy listening. At least they have tunes for the most part. Torture Garden is probably the most intensely psychotic album I've ever had the "pleasure" to hear. Yamatsuka Eye's vocals are so crazy that its funny and scary at the same time.
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
  • Todd76Todd76 Posts: 1,469
    Through my Mike Patton interest I have discoverd many great bands of the same ilk....checked out any of them:

    Melt Banana
    Estradasphere
    Locust
    Nurse With Wound
    In my world everyone is a pony,
    and they all eat rainbows and pooh butterflies!
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    Todd76 wrote:
    Through my Mike Patton interest I have discoverd many great bands of the same ilk....any checked out any of them:

    Melt Banana
    Estradasphere
    Locust
    Nurse With Wound
    I saw Mike Patton choosing his favourite tracks on MTV2 the other day and he chose a melt banana track. seemed quite cool. I also heard someone recommened Nurse with wound in a revew of Delirium Cordia by Fantomas. I'll check them out.
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
  • Todd76Todd76 Posts: 1,469
    Jeremy1012 wrote:
    I saw Mike Patton choosing his favourite tracks on MTV2 the other day and he chose a melt banana track. seemed quite cool. I also heard someone recommened Nurse with wound in a revew of Delirium Cordia by Fantomas. I'll check them out.


    Do you know/remember any of the other tracks he picked....just curious (I hear he's a big Wolfmother fan)
    In my world everyone is a pony,
    and they all eat rainbows and pooh butterflies!
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    Todd76 wrote:
    Do you know/remember any of the other tracks he picked....just curious (I hear he's a big Wolfmother fan)
    :D hah yeah I hear he loves those guys ;) I only saw a couple of the tracks because someone else kept turning the channel but he played melt banana, aphex twin and a peeping tom video.
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
  • EchoesEchoes Posts: 1,279
    Naked City is such a cool album
    printf("shiver in eternal darkness\n");
  • ramspamramspam Posts: 130
    I've never listened to any John Zorn but I'm really interested as I'm a massive Mr. Bungle and Mike Patton fan
    Only fools have signatures...

    +--+-Official Upcoming Australasian Tour:Member #20-+--+
  • StoneG82StoneG82 Posts: 806
    my guitar teacher introduced me to naked city

    it is indeed a cool record.
    "What’s Orphans? I don’t know. Orphans is a dead end kid driving a coffin with big tires across the Ohio River wearing welding goggles and a wife beater with a lit firecracker in his ear." - Tom Waits
  • burnin-candleburnin-candle Posts: 158
    I fucking love John Zorn, Naked City and anything Patton does, too.

    But Naked City was such a supergroup of musicians (just look at the names) doing the most fucked up thing, it still sounds so fresh and exciting. I want to get that complete box set that has Patton doing Grand Guignol. It would have been cool to have Patton in Naked City, but Eye probably has a more insane scream. lol

    Melt Banana's Charlie has Patton in the credits, but you can hardly hear him, since there's like a handful of other people "guesting" on one track. Seriously, though, early Melt Banana stuff is totally weird hardcore.

    Nurse with Wound is way too creepy to listen with a sane soul, but I enjoy it when I'm in the mood.

    By the way, you guys should pick up "Moonchild", if you haven't already. Composed by Zorn, performed by Patton, Dunn and Baron. No words, just an amazing hardcore/avant-garde experience.

    And you made my day by putting up this thread. Thanks.;)
    "If hope can grow from dirt like me, it can be done"

    If you can't get high on purely music and the sounds that you hear, you're missing out on something.
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    burnin-candle wrote:

    And you made my day by putting up this thread. Thanks.;)
    My pleasure :)
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
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