Maybe I'm not remembering the story right....

Historically I'd say the bass becoming a lead instrument goes (very) roughly: Jimmy Blanton (Ellington's bassist who revolutionized the instrument before dying at the age of 23) set the stage for Mingus, who as both a virtuoso and composer/bandleader was uniquely positioned to put the bass front and center (cf. Martin Williams' essay on Mingus, "The Pivotal Instrument" in The Jazz Tradition), to Detroit's finest, James Jamerson, who came up as a jazzman, trained on the double bass, before revolutionizing the electric and influencing... basically everyone, and he was followed by Larry Graham of Sly & the Family Stone who completed the cycle of making the bass "the pivotal instrument" in pop as well as jazz. That leaves a lot out of course, but I think it catches the key figures.

Paul McCartney on James Jamerson: "Then I started listening to other bass players - mainly Motown. As time went on, James Jamerson became my hero, although I didn't actually know his name until quite recently Jamerson and later Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys were my two biggest influences: James because he was so good and melodic, and Brian because he went to very unusual places. With the Beach Boys, the band might be playing in C, but the bass might stay on the G just to hold it a back. I started to realize the power the bass player had within the band. Not vengeful power - it was just that you could actually control it. So even though the whole band is going along in A, you could stick in E," he says, and sings an insistent repeated bass note. "And they'd say: 'Let us off the hook!' You're actually in control then - an amazing thing. So I sussed that and got particurlarly interested in playing the bass."

IIRC, they sounded like a small scared child trapped in a room with Michael Gira.

This made me laugh and laugh and laugh. Having seen the Swans, I have an idea what that's like. Amazing show, but there was an undercurrent of violence in the crowd that had me on edge all night. I kept expecting some kind of explosion. The surprising thing was that it didn't happen.

My favorite freak-the-authority-figures T-shirt was a Butthole Surfers T-shirt

Ha! I actually almost wrote "Butthole Surfers", but they didn't start happening until I was in college.

I remember, shortly after I graduated, sitting around with a bunch of other actuaries-in-training. One of them mentioned that he'd heard a band name so disgusting, he could barely say it. I perked up. "What band is that?" I asked. "B-b-b-butthole Surfers," he replied. "Oh yeah! They're great!"

I don't think the group ever looked at me the same way again.

One of them mentioned that he'd heard a band name so disgusting, he could barely say it.

Huh. I can think of far worse than that. (My personal favorite: a local band named Bloody Discharge. Lovely, no?)

Huh. I can think of far worse than that.

Here's another one: Anal Cunt

They did an acoustic country album, I think. Ahhh, the irony.

The other one that really tries too hard is The Crucifux.

This made me laugh and laugh and laugh.

Right there with you.

Though listening to the Cranes makes me want to deafen myself with knitting needles. I hate that woman's voice so much.

Frankenbuddha, were you at the Swans show at the Somerville Theater a few years back? I remember it being like a pressure cooker in there, but I think it was more a result of the music than any actual possibility of violence from the crowd.

There's a band (I think local to Chicago) called Anal Cunt.

There was also an English punk band called The Fucks. For a while they had a group of female backup singers called The Fuckettes.

Has anybody heard the extra tracks on Barenaked Ladies' "Everything to Everybody"? If so, what are they likely to be? The band goofing around between takes, or the demos that were recorded before they went into the studio, or what?

Anal Cunt is from Boston. They have a song called "Everyone In Allston Must Die." (Allston is a neighborhood in Boston very close to Boston University and thus appears to some as a desolate wasteland of bars, vomit, drunken fratboys shouting "woo hoo!" at random intervals as they stagger in front of your car, and vapid girls shrieking, "Ohmigod, I'm soooo drunk!".)

"Ohmigod, I'm soooo drunk!"

Ah, the mating call of the dumb sorority girl....