Wavves, the late-aughts buzz band turned surprisingly consistent surf-pop-punk lifers, once cleared an afterparty dancefloor by playing Korn from their iPhone. My memory is fuzzy — it was late, I was drunk — but I think it was “Freak on a Leash,” and I think they eventually cut the track off midway through, such was the disdain for their pick.
Just 10 years ago, even a room full of fans of a band who have never shied away from flossing their 90s punk and alt-rock influences drew the line at Korn, arguably the most credible, least cringe band from one of music’s least credible, most cringe genres.
Along with ska and pop-punk, nu-metal was part of a trifecta of late-90s/early 2000s styles that became genres-non-grata in the years following their mainstream heyday. Coincidentally, they’re also three genres that featured prominently on 100 Gecs new album, 10,000 Gecs.
For the uninitiated, 100 Gecs are Dylan Brady and Laura Les, two “genre-bending maniacs” who lit the internet on fire in 2019 with their debut album, 1000 Gecs. They are, paradoxically, the highest-profile example of the still-mutating hyperpop genre, while constantly upending sonic expectations by reevaluating and incorporating, according to Pitchfork’s Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, “the most declassé and dunderheaded rock genres that roiled the 2000s.”
That’s an apt description for nu-metal, or at least the version of nu-metal that remains lodged in most people’s minds. In the late 90s and early 2000s seven-string Ibanez guitars, rock bands with superfluous DJs and goofy reworkings of 80s pop hits briefly held a powerful sway over popular culture. This is the version of nu-metal Brady and Les channel on “Billy Knows Jamie,” 10,000 Gecs most umlaut-friendly banger.
The song itself is a revenge fantasy that manages to reference a track from the duo’s previous EP, Brady’s other hyperpop band Cake Pop and Aerosmith. Musically it captures the creepy groove, knuckle-dragging delivery and superfluous DJ scratches that became synonymous with nu-metal. As the “About” section of the track’s Genius page notes, “Billy Knows Jamie” is “a nu-metal paean right down to the record scratches.”
“Billy Knows Jamie” is having a bit of fun at nu-metal’s expense but I don’t think it’s being done with malice. In the same way that Portlandia could have only come from people who innately understood what it is they’re making fun of, I’d hazard a guess that both Les and Brady went through a Korn phase in their youth.
The song also isn’t the first time 100 Gecs leaned into nu-metal tropes; they’ve been baked into the band’s visual and sonic aesthetic since the beginning. But it’s the duo’s most over nod to this influence and one that suggests that while they recognize the genre’s messy legacy they also find something refreshing in its musical manifestation of the male id.
I’ve already written about the cultural rehabilitation of pop-punk and ska, both genres 100 Gecs have had a hand in rehabilitating. Could a nu-metal renaissance be on the horizon?
The rehabilitation of any type of music (or piece of pop culture in general) almost always follows the same path:
social pariah —> dustbin of history —> ironic embrace —> sincere embrace —> part of the musical lexicon
Nu metal is currently in its “ironic embrace” phase and we can thank/blame 100 Gecs for that. Brady and Les have a particular knack for this sort of thing and 100 Gecs are the living embodiment of the “I am cringe but I am free” meme, embracing all sorts of outmoded sounds and styles. It’s allowed them to dip their toes into any musical current, take what they need and move on with a sense of ironic detachment that allows them to leave the cultural baggage behind. They also seem immune to accusations of culture vulturism since no one else really wants to vulture the cultures they’re borrowing from.
The case against nu-metal (abridged version)
What would eventually become known as nu-metal had its roots in Los Angeles’s late-80s/early-90s funk metal scene that produced bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Living Color, Jane’s Addiction and Faith No More (among many, many others). All good bands!
Korn, Limp Bizkit, Deftones, and many more took inspiration from them and, like Rage Against the Machine, mixed in a healthy dose of hip-hop swagger. Major label deals followed and by the fall of 1998, their aggressive detuned groove was hitting the mainstream in a way metal hadn’t in over a decade. At first, people were calling it rap rock, but given how little rapping there actually was, soon nu-metal took hold.
Featuring Korn and Limp Bizkit as well as Incubus, Orgy, Ice Cube and a then-unknown-in-North-America Rammstein, the 1998 Family Values tour helped to codify nu-metal’s look and sound. A lot of media attention, music video rotation, and radio airplay followed. By the end of the decade when people, or at least most people under the age of 25, talked about metal, they were talking about nu-metal.
I was very into a lot of the big nu-metal bands during their heyday. At one point I even called Korn my favourite band and I’ll cop to the fact that nu-metal was a gateway into hip-hop for me. So I realize that while they’re very much associated with one another there’s a big difference between say Korn’s self-flagellation, Limp Bizkit’s aggressive bro-ness and Slipknot’s nihilistic menace. And then there’s Deftones who really have no business being in this conversation at all outside of their friendship with Korn.
Nevertheless, time and mainstream popularity flattened a lot of those nuances, as they tend to do. Since I’m commenting on widely held perceptions, I’m lumping everything together. Sorry/not sorry.
Yet, almost as soon as it started, things began to unravel. The legacy of Woodstock ‘99 where sets by Rage, Korn, and especially Limp Bizkit were blamed for fuelling the carnage that engulfed the festival, has been explored in two documentaries and at least one paywalled podcast series (I have not listened to the podcast). Both docs strain to draw some line between the event and today’s culture with iffy results. But I think the one thing they nail is that the summer of 1999 was a banner year for straight white male aggression. For better or worse (mostly worse) these bands were the perfect soundtrack for that.
After Woodstock, the shine was off. New bands - Slipknot, Linkin Park, System of a Down, Papa Roach, P.O.D., Mudvayne, etc - rode the wave to various levels of success. Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee cashed in with Methods of Mayhem. Vanilla fucking Ice made a nu-metal record. Some of them were really good! Others, not so much! But as the decade progressed almost all of them tried to distance themselves from the cultural box that nu-metal had become. By the mid-2000s nu-metal’s most potent cultural currency was its function as the underpinning aesthetic of the Gathering of the Jugaloos.
Of course, nothing that reaches these heights can ever really disappear. They wake Any actually popular piece of pop culture leaves a pretty big wake that ensures that something will emerge down the line. The recent emergence of Korn and Slipknot as legacy acts was the first sign that maybe nu-metal’s days as the music most associated with a moment that celebrated the trials and tribulations of the straight, white, American male was fading away. Even Adidas is getting in on the act by (finally) doing an official collab with Korn, whose love of the company’s three-stripe tracksuits has been on display for decades.
But will it stick? A quick Google reveals a multitude of stories and listicles touting a new wave of nu-metal. Bands like Code Orange and Spiritbox have certainly broken out of more niche circles of aggressive music with sounds that nod to nu-metal if not totally embracing it. Meanwhile, Tallah, Tetrarch, Wargasm and more are making waves while directly referencing it.
More telling is the emergence of artists adopting nu-metal sounds and tropes outside the world of aggressive music. Rina Sawayama pulled some tricks from the nu-metal playbook on her 2019 track “STFU!” and last year London noise-pop duo Nova Twins mixed some nu-metal into their guitar-rock stew on their second album Supernova.
It’s notable that the new generation of artists is a lot less white and a lot less male. But will all this activity lead to a full-blown resurgence? As always time will tell, but I think it’s safe to say that the cringe has finally come off nu-metal.
Kool Kids Self-promotion Club
Polaris Music Prize shortlist voting just happened. Three of my five initial picks made the Long List and after digging through the other 37 albums on that list, this was my final ballot:
The 10-album shortlist will be revealed on July 13.
I recently spoke with three members of Toronto’s kulintang gong collective Pantayo for a feature in Exclaim! about their fantastic new album, Ang Pagdaloy. Says Michelle Cruz of the creative process behind the record: "If we love it, if we like it, if we roll with it, it moves us, it rocks us, and makes us feel a certain way — that's the music we want to put out.”
WEHR AHR YEUW? 24 years after first seeing them at Warped Tour ‘99, I got to check out Blink-182’s reunion tour with Tom DeLonge now back in the fold. It was a lot of fun! Turnstile opened! There were many dick jokes!
As I wrote in Exclaim! “It's tempting to say that "this is growing up," but honestly, any gains in maturity made by the band's members since writing that line 26 years ago were buried under a mountain of dick jokes. Their fans wouldn't have it any other way.”
Kool Kids Recommendation Club
Kaytraminé is a collaboration between Montreal producer (and Polaris Music Prize winner) Kaytranada and Portland, OR MC Aminé. The two worked together early in each other’s careers and finally reteamed for this full-length. Some big names make contributions — Pharrell and Snoop Dogg share space with Amaarae and Freddie Gibbs — but never overshadow these two friends having a blast. The record doesn’t really expand either’s sound so much as it capitalizes on their easy chemistry to craft an record of fun, beach-ready jams just in time for the summer.
Back in January when I reviewed Dry Cleaning’s Toronto show, I made special mention of the opening act, Nourished by Time, aka Marcus Brown, noting that he “seamlessly blurr[ed] the lines between indie, R&B, dance and hip-hop.” That streak continues on the Baltimore native’s latest album, Erotic Probiotic 2, which he wrote in his parent’s basement. It’s easily my favourite new discovery of the year so far. Shout out still living with mom and dad!
Speaking of Nourished By Time, Marcus Brown was one of the handful of artists featured on With a Hammer, the second album from electronic music producer Yaeji. The New York artist first gained attention for “Raingurl” and her soft-focus sound back in 2017. There’s still a pillowy aspect at play on her latest, though the songwriting itself feels much sharper. “Done (Let’s Get It)” is a good example of this interplay at work and the video, featuring Yaeji and her grandfather dressed up in dog costumes, is super cute.
Alicia Bognanno has been making music as Bully for over a decade now dropping three records of increasingly slick grunge-pop before this year’s supremely excellent Lucky For You. Bognanno’s coarse howl remains, but the hooks just get bigger and bigger. “Hard to Love” captures this dynamic perfectly — Bognanno was afraid it was too poppy — as she rages against gender stereotypes over a rolling bass line.
Charly Bliss just dropped their first new music in four years. The band, once described as “bubblegrunge,” are moving in a more pop-oriented direction. When I spoke to them about their 2019 album Young Enough, they praised Lorde’s Melodrama and cited it as a profound influence. “You Don’t Even Know Me Anymore” continues that type of self-examination. The protagonist scans a past relationship and realizes that they’ve grown well past their old paramour.
Ian Gormely is a freelance music journalist based in Toronto.
Hit up koolkidsmusicclub@gmail.com for questions, criticisms and submissions.