Just got a review copy of the upcoming Ministry record, The Last Sucker. The good news is that it's very good -- not the absolute best album they ever produced, but definitely a B+. Solid hooks, heavy guitars and beats, lots of interesting sample montages -- pretty much what you'd expect from the band. It's the third installment of Uncle Al's "Fuck You, W." trilogy, so it's charged full of anger, sarcasm, and righteous indignation... pretty much what Al does best. (As opposed to the introspective angst of -- shudder -- Filth Pig and Dark Side of the Spoon.)

Once again, he recorded this one with Prong's Tommy Victor on guitars and Killing Joke's Paul Raven on bass (drums are programmed -- but programmed well, all things considered). Not a bad lineup, I guess, though I liked the Houses of the Mole lineup more, with Mike Scaccia's guitar playing and Mark Baker's drums.

The bad news, though, is that Jourgensen came through on his earlier promise to wrap up Ministry with this record's release -- this is the band's final studio album. There'll be a covers record in 2008, but after that -- nothing. He's stepping down from behind the mic to run his label and produce full time. No word concerning his other projects, like Revolting Cocks.

The record's out September 18.

Anyway, just thought some people might be interested.

I used to dig them but they got way too political for me. It just turned me off totally, I'm sure the actual music is still ok but I can't get past the content. I mean I get it, you hate Bush Al, who cares? Not me, I don't need 3 albums worth of it.

Though on the other hand, with all the distortion on the vocals, he could be singing the My Little Pony commercial and you'd never really know it...

And yeah, I think I'd pay to hear that, now that I'm thinking about it... though it could just be lack of sleep talking...

Now that's an album I'd buy. Ministry doing all kids cartoon themes, mainly female targeted ones like Rainbow Bright and stuff.

Strawberry Shortcake... Mon Chi Chi... Did the Cabbage Patch Kids have a theme song? I can't remember...

Oh well. Maybe in some alternate universe somewhere...

I liked filth pig....

ministry is awesome...


but the dark side of the spoon was the last album I was into...how does this fare against that?

that was a great tour.

i only saw them on psalm 69...possibly one of the most violent shows i have ever been to

the most violent show i ever saw was NIN/MM/Hole playing a "homecoming" show in cleveland when I was 16

i can see that...the few NIN shows I've been to were pretty bad.

the ministry performance during the second lollapalooza was so nuts i saw people being wheeled away from the pit area in wheelchairs by medical staff with double black eyes and what i think were broken limbs...

that performance was also followed by the chili peppers set which had the audience ripping down the fence in the back and burning it in barrels. the guys up on the field (I was in the 5th row looking back) were all dancing around the barrels a la Lord of the Flies.

I saw genuine fear in Anthony Kiedis' face when he saw that...

Well... I couldn't stand Filth Pig or Dark Side of the Spoon, so in my opinion, this one's much better.

Of the post-Psalm 69 records, I think this one's maybe the second best. I liked Houses of the Mole more. (Order of full studio album releases, for the record: With Sympathy, Twitch, Land of Rape and Honey, The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste, Psalm 69, Filth Pig, Dark Side of the Spoon, Animositisomina, Houses of the Mole, Rio Grande Blood, The Last Sucker... with a couple live, singles, greatest hits, and outtakes records thrown in along the way...)

I don't know how many times I've seen them on tour... I also got to see them do an off the cuff performance of Supernaught at a small bar down in El Paso, TX. I was interviewing the band that weekend, and we were there to see some local band of teenagers play -- both bands were sharing recording space or something. During a break in the set, the kids offered to let Ministry use their instruments to do a song. No real stage, just a PA system set up in the corner of the room. Only about 15 people in the bar at the time. It was just fucking killer -- one of the best music-related experiences of my life.

Great story again Brian. The rest of that story is just as awesome. It made me think of the movie almost famous..only because were a big ministry fan and they pulled some outrageous shit. Even for a season jounalist as yourself...

I love Ministry. Cool to see some fellow Rivetheads here.

A career highlight for me so far as a musician was getting to open up for them on the 'Fornicatour' in 2003. Meeting Al & hanging with him pre-show was a blast, and they killed it that night on stage.

I've read mixed reviews about the new disc but I'll pick it up anyway. Even a crappy Ministry album is still better than most of the shite out there.

I'm not sure I get this. Ministry, even when Al was so coked out of his mind he could barely function, had Political/Social commentary to his work. If anything I found it to be a return to form. This is a guy who grew up with Jello Biafra in Denver, did you think he was conservative?

<digression>I guess this is a question for another thread, but I don't get why musicians who expressed their politics pretty clearly in the 1980's - 1990's get shit for doing it now. The majority of the punk/hardcore scene of the 1980's was clearly leftist and even the first couple Lollapalooza's, as "commercial" as we might view them now, were hotbeds for liberal politics, with booths for NARAL and shit like that. Now that would be considered an aberration.</digression>

Anyway, back to Ministry, I've seen them (and Revolting Cocks) live many, many times from "Land of Rape and Honey" on, and they were always amazing. So many crazy stories, I can barely even remember half of those shows, debauchery seemed to follow them wherever they went, like an adult carnival. I also liked that they were never scared to bring out amazing opening bands; like Sepultura and Helmet, both at their peaks, opening for Ministry, my god that was a fucking crazy show, I caught that tour a couple of times, or The Mentors of all bands opening for RevCo, and while they weren't an "amazing band" per se, it certainly fit the mood perfectly, that was an evil night.

I miss shows like this, they either don't happen anymore, or I am too old to participate

There was a level of subtlety, at least compared to what's being put out now. And I always took it as more SOCIAL than directly politcal. I dunno, it's just me I guess. Also part of me feels like it's this idea of "Hating Bush sells, let's keep that up" not so much "I want everyone to understand why I oppose this president" and that's what bothers me most I guess. It seems more like marketing rather than political commentary.

I see what you're getting at BloodDrinker regarding social vs. overtly political. Certainly up to Psalm 69, at least, that was definitely the case. Psalm 69, though, was very political (consider "N.W.O., which was a direct attack on Bush Mark I). After that, things got kind of weirdly introspective for a few albums before returning to all out politics.

And as far as the politics go... having spoken with Jourgensen at length a few different times, and having spoken to lots of people who've worked with him, I'm confident that his anger's legit, and not a marketing ploy or anything.

Now, if you were to suggest that releasing three anti-Bush albums in a row was the mark of an obsessive compulsive musician, as opposed to a crassly calculating one, then that'd be different.

I happen to consider it devotion to the cause, but there's definitely a FINE line between dedicated and obsessed. Ha ha.

I should probably take a moment to admit that Ministry is one of my three favorite bands... Hell, I probably shouldn't have written the article on them three years ago, though I did go way out of my way to make sure I delivered an unbiased profile of the band (three different editors, a couple outside fans, and two people who HATE Ministry all read it before it went to press...). So much for full disclosure.

In the 80's a lot of bands played "loose" with fascistic imagery despite the fact that the themselves may have been against it. Sector 25 in their Hitler Youth getups, Laibach, ostensibly anti-fascist, attracted Nazi skinheads with their intentionally ambiguous imagery and posturing, and the band didn't seem to mind the seig heil salutes in the audience at all. Early industrial artists like Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Cabaret Voltaire and their various offshoots did this with pointed political intent but also reserved comment if fans "took it the wrong way." Later acts like Ministry and their buddies Revolting Cocks sometimes got decked out in cop outfits, cowboy garb, etc. to address the peculiar American forms of "fascistic" tendencies and didn't seem to mind if any subversive aspect was lost on anyone. I can totally see how someone might be confused about the band's politics, but I can't see holding political posturing or playing with political ideas being held against them. After all Rock and Roll was considered rebellious for its embrace of "black music" at first, political in social context, and condmned for it by the small-minded for it, only fuelling the passion of its fans and artists. Obviously by the mid 1960s bands were practically expected to be anti-"establishment" or be considered wimps. Obviously UK punk was more often than not "political" in its posturing if not directly in its lyrics. Things got a little more confusing with the advent of the artier, brainier, less obvious ideas that fueled the early Industrial scene, and furthermore by subsequent artists who toyed with strong polticial-looking imagery (e.g. New Order, Human League) but actually had very little to say.

Anyway I liked "Twitch" and "Land" and some of the spinoffs like RevCo and 10,000 Homo DJs but I'm the old guy here I guess. I met Al briefly once. He was nice but it was at a nightclub and he was clearly high and just wanted to stand and watch people dance. Weird to see him hanging out alone in a crowd that recognized him, but mostly just ignored him.

If my music is gonna have "social meaning" I'd like it to be relevant still in a few years at least.. not just "I hate x".
I try to keep my music more social or personal than true "political."

Rivetheads lol
There used to be this webpage of how to tell a rivethead...

Exactly my feelings. It's not so much me bashing his views, but the presentation of them. The music, I'm sure, is still killer.

i wish id got to see ministry during the psalm tour that must have been sick!!

i like rio grande blood i havent heard the next one but im interested! i v only heard twitch through psalm then picked up rio, but i never dug twitch so much so never went much furthur back



agreed