Ask the Admin #007: Slipknot rule mushroomhead drool, reading recommendation, band names, pick up lines, and a question I don't know the answer to

Do you?

the consensus is that mushroomhead suck and slipknot rule but what’s your honest opinion on the almighty ‘shroom?

I once said their lead singer sounds like Mike Patton trying to balance a bucket of water on his head and I, unfortunately, have to stand by that. Hopefully I’ll come around, they have a real die hard contingency of fans many of whom I’m good friends with, but as of now I think they suck. Key word “I” though, if I can figure them out I’ll be happy to change my mind don’t take this as some kind of statement of fact it’s just me.

What’s your favorite book?

I’m gonna go ahead and do like I do to everything these days and add “about nu metal” to the end of that. Brave Nu World by Tommy Udo is the best book I have yet read about nu-metal. Published in 2002, very much inside the heat of the movement, it’s a far seeing and observant work that delves into both the genre’s big names while spotlighting it’s more overlooked acts. It even includes a Beatles comparison that lands without feeling excessive. I’m also sorry to say this, I literally just found out while writing this reply, but he passed away in 2019. Buy his book, enjoy it, and keep his memory alive. Wish I could have spoken to him before he passed but it’s some comfort knowing he was right about it all.

What’s your favorite and least favorite nu-metal band *name*?

I think favorite would be Slipknot, which is a such a catchy and enticing name. Has that dark mysterious quality to it suggestive of suicide but actually isn’t the more commonly used “noose” variant. I’d also like to give some credit to Crazy Town, which is just so funny. That town man. That town is so crazy. What a crazy ass town. Least favorites are Finger Eleven and Mushroomhead, which are both referring to roughly the same thing and I had no idea until someone pointed it out to me. Maybe I resent them more actually.

Can you remember a nu-metal song with cartoon trains in the video. Used to be on kerrang and scuzz all the time (uk) but cant remember band or song name

Ahhhh, I can’t think of it either but I will publish this question in case someone else can.

kanye is the best 😤 change my mind

I have no idea where the Kanyacolypse is going to net out because we have never been here before. Never has an artist of such unbelievable creative stature immolated themselves like this. I have, for a really long time, felt that Kanye’s creative output stretching from approximately 2001 to 2017 put him on a level one shy of only The Beatles in contemporary music history. It is insane to consider how much that just doesn’t matter now. He has completely lost the plot and the consequences that are starting to sink in are going to drive him even deeper into the right wing grift machine because if there’s one thing I know about our internet era it’s that you never ever have to admit you’re wrong, you can always spin everything that’s happening to be some huge conspiracy and there’s always going to be a group of seething media wraiths ready to confirm it for you. This is why nobody should be a billionaire, it just shatters your brain. Being in the mania stage of bipolar disorder with enough money to keep your world spinning in your favor seems impossibly destructive. So, “change your mind.” No, I don’t think I can. If you’d like to go down with that ship it’s your call. I’d rather you didn’t. Not worth it. I’ve spent a lot of time dwelling on what it means to be a “fan” of “problematic” artists and while it’s a topic for another day you don’t have to be an active fan. You can enjoy an artists work on your own terms without conscripting yourself into their army of defenders. Keep it between you and your headphones, it’s not a good fight you’re fighting.

please give me pickup lines that always work

Buddy you are talking to a 30 year old karaoke enthusiast whose entire life now is maintaining a gimmick account about nu-metal, the ultimate in “hoe scaring” music. I got nada. Plus pickup lines are dumb try conversation.